New playroom

The best part of the room, a kitchen area and table and chairs.



Window wall, before



Window wall, after

South wall, before

South wall, after

Closet, before

Closet, after

North wall, before

North wall, after

Well, the playroom is done and the kids like it very much. We didn't show it to them until the day of their party, Sunday. We played down there for quite a while on Sunday morning. When Will walked in, he looked around and said "Mommy make it all pretty!" That was the best reaction I could have hoped for! They are enjoying their kitchen area and table and chairs. I also put new magnetic letters on the easel, so they have been having fun playing with those. It will be neat in the next few months to let them explore all parts of the room and do whatever they want in it. We have yet to unpack all their new presents (which I will talk about in a different post), so those will also fill up the room. Brian and I gave them new kitchen things, play food and dishes. Those are quite a hit. Thanks to Dale and Ellen who helped with painting and watching kids during this project. This was phase 1 of a 3-phase thing we're doing in our house. This part of the project got the toys out of the main part of the basement, because we are moving our office from upstairs to the basement. Then that bedroom where the office was, will shortly become the boys' room. So, phase 2 (which is cleaning out the office and transferring everything to the basement)begins soon. It may take longer than I think. I'm shooting for September for it all to be done.

New things

Here are some pictures of their newest fun thing to do. They say "time for night-night" and run and get their blankets and pillows off my bed. They lay on the couch or chairs, or even floor and pretend to sleep. If only they would pretend to sleep when it's actually time to sleep.........

Since we don't have a lot of new to tell about where we have gone, or what we have done, I thought I would fill this entry with a couple of stories about what they are doing and saying lately.

Will loves to talk! The child talks non-stop. He is definitely related to me, and those genes don't come from Brian. He will repeat things over and over until you acknowledge what he's talking about "daddy car in garage, daddy car in garage?" "Yes Will, daddy's car is in the garage." Then he moves on to something else. Since he has a great memory, he talks about things he saw or things that happened weeks ago. He still is rather shy in social situations, though. It does take him a little while to warm up to new things (swimming lessons). Will has been asking to go potty so it won't be too long until we start, I think.

Xander is still a lot like Brian. Dale commented on it the other day, too. Xander was sitting by himself in the garage while I was working and the others were inside playing. Dale observed that Brian used to do the same thing, just sit around in his own little world, near another person, but not necessarily interacting with them. His latest thing is pushing/pinching/pulling hair. He's in time out for it a lot. I'm also going to try and post some video of him singing. He loves to sing and does it all the time. He even tries to sing songs with complicated words like "Baby Beluga". It's pretty cute. He bobs his head while he sings in his little low monotone voice. He's also been called cute so much that now he asks us if he's cute. Brian got his pajamas on him the other day, brushed his hair and said "You're all done." And Xander said "Cute?" He flirts already, too. He was making cute faces and smiling at a lady from the multiples club who was here one night. I think he's already learning how to be a ladies' man.

Grace is still miss Sassypants. She has a very low frustration level. If she is carrying her tower of legos around and part of it falls down, she screams. If she is trying to carry 8 things in her arms and she can only get 7 to stay in, she screams. She's getting a little better and calmly asking me for help, but sometimes she forgets and gets mad. Grace likes everything, we think. She'll announce every once in a while if she likes something. It usually is so cute we can't stand it. Brian took them to a lake and fed baby ducks and she told him "I like baby duckies daddy." She also announced to me yesterday "I like stripes, mommy." She is definitely a girl. She likes girly colors and loves to play with her babies and carry purses (although the boys carry an occasional purse, it drives Brian nuts.)

We have a huge weekend planned. Lots of 4th of july celebrations on Friday and Saturday, then their birthday party on Sunday. So, there will be lots of pictures and news early next week. Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

Indoor playground fun!

Indoor Playground

Since it was raining this morning and the kids needed to get out of the house, I decided to take them to the indoor playground. We don't go there a lot, it's a little expensive, but it's great fun. They have a ton of different things to play with, even though kids under 3 can't play on everything they have. The kids love to ride the cozy coupe cars, play on the slides and they have a gigantic firetruck and camper which are also fun. You have to "fred flintstone" the cozy coupes, and they are getting pretty good at doing that and steering around the indoor track. Today they had fun driving the cars through this little tunnel and sticking their heads up through a hole in the middle of it.

Will is getting better from his bout with the croup. Xander also cought some sort of virus, but it wasn't croup. He had a couple of feverish days with some coughing, but after a couple of long nights sleep (he slept until 8:30 this morning!) and long naps, he is mending. Grace hasn't caught anything yet. They spent Friday night with Dale and Ellen and got spoiled. They ate dinner at McDonald's, played at the Children's museum and played outside. Sunday, we had church, then Kara and Wes came over for a picnic, complete with homemade ice cream. Yummy!

They've started using two new words that I think are funny. They say "probably" and "already" and usually in the right context. Grace has started saying things like "It's probably mine, mommy." I heard Will say "I already did it." and "Mommy take shower already." They sound so grown up when they say things like that! Will has a little bag my mom must have gotten from ladies golf, because it has the word "swing" on it. Will looked it and said "S-W-I-N-G swing!" this morning. I know I had told him what it said, but he spelled it on his own.

Swimming is going well. Tomorrow is our last lesson. They are all great at jumping off the sides and floating. They all allow themselves to float with a life belt in deeper water with just someone holding their hands. Yesterday, we were sticking heads under the water. Grace did it twice and was MAD about it both times. Will wouldn't do it (he was really cold in the water that day, and spent most of the lesson shivering). Xander's toy was on the bottom of the pool and he held on to the side, stuck his head under water and picked it up. So, that was a good step forward. I'm hoping we can go swimming a lot more this summer and they will get more comfortable in the water. I don't know when we'll do lessons again, but it is definitely worth repeating this class.

We are currently in the middle of fixing the basement bedroom to be a playroom for the kids. It is part of their (half) birthday present from Brian and I. We are commencing painting this week with the goal of being done by their (half) birthday party on the 6th. I'll post some "after" pictures of it when we're done. I think it will turn out neat! More next week, thanks for looking!

Something odd

As you can see from these pictures, there is a baby bird in a nest. What you can't really tell from these pictures, is that the nest is built between my wreath and my front door! For several days I had seen a little red/greyish bird fly around my front door and every time someone opened the door, it would fly to the roof and chirp like crazy, well, this is why. It's baby is on the front door that was getting moved around. The kids are fascinated by the baby bird, and can hear it chirp when the door is shut. Several times a day they ask to see the "baby birdie on mommy's wreath". The wreath can't stay on that door forever, so I hope the baby bird learns to fly soon! In the meantime, let's hope the mama bird doesn't accidentally fly into the house when someone opens the door.

What's been happening...

First of all, let me apologize for no new pictures other's than the Father's Day ones. I do have some pictures from swimming lessons that we took with an underwater camera, but I have to actually take those in to get developed, so it may be a little bit until those are posted.

And speaking of swimming lessons, they are going well. They're starting to get comfortable in the water and with the YMCA. They are letting us doing things with them, like float them on their backs and tummies, put life belts around them and float them. They all are jumping from the side into the water with someone cathing them and putting their face in to blow bubbles. No heads underwater yet. I don't even know if they do that during this particular phase of lessons.

Our other big news this week is about poor Will, again. He seems to get the short end of the straw when it comes to health related issues. He went for a check-up at the asthma doctor on Tues and all looked good. We are continuing on his low dose of Pulmicort (steroids) for now, upping the dose when cold season comes back. He said his lungs sounded good. However, Tues night he started coughing and by Wed morning had a really nasty, barking kind of cough. It wasn't like any asthma cough I recognized. It started getting really bad around noon, so I called the doctor. They had me bring him in later that afternoon (he missed swimming lessons) and it turns out that he has croup. So, now he's on oral steroids and he sounds pretty bad. He isn't super sick otherwise, just a small runny nose and small fever. But you could tell when we were at the doctor that he was having trouble breathing. His tummy was going in and out just to breathe, and he was sucking air audibly through his throat (he sounded like Darth Vader). His oxygen levels were a little low (94/100). So, they're being aggressive with his treatment, considering his history of breathing troubles. The poor kid never seems to catch a break, but he's an angel at the doctor's offices. I hope a good night's sleep and a low key day tomorrow will help him mend.

The other two are doing well. They all 3 are still talking up a storm, being very conversational with adults and with each other. It's funny to hear them talk to each other. Their conversations are very simple, but real. They just say things like, Will: "Here you go, Xander." "Thank you, Will." "OK, Xander." "My tower!" "Xander tower!" (Will is the one who usually uses names that frequently.) Grace gives us a play by play of everything that she does during the day. The other day she was eating a fruit salad and she announced the fruit she was going to eat. "I eat watermelon!" "I eat cantaloupe!" "I found blueberry!" You get the idea. (She did this EVERY BITE!!!) They have always enjoyed building towers with Legos, but this has become a particularly fascinating activity lately. It seems almost all they do at home is build lego towers.
We've been enjoying the mild June weather with several trips to the park this week. Brian and I took them swimming at Star City Shores on Saturday night. I think they had fun, even though the water was cool.

I think that is about all. I'll try and get some swimming pictures up soon. Later!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Happy Father's Day to the best daddy ever! We love you Daddy!
Love, Will, Xander and Grace

Our week

Well, it has been a nice week. We're glad for the nice weather. We had a good weekend of lots of outside playing time. On Thursday, Curt went with us to the zoo. A good time was had by all! The zoo wasn't very crowded, so we were able to go wherever we wanted at our own pace. We spent a long time in the butterfly pavilion and got to touch butterflies. We also spent a while in the bug room, where Xander touched a Madagascar hissing cockroach and a hermit crab. Interesting! The kids were very interested in the animals and I think learned a lot.

On Friday, we spent a lot of time playing outside in the beautiful weather. We met daddy at McDonalds for dinner, then went to the park. It's nice to have park playing time with daddy there. Saturday we did lot of housework during the day, and ate dinner with Aunt Kara at home. Sunday was church all morning and a picnic and trip to another park for dinner.

Monday was an interesting day. It was the first day of swimming lessons. The time of day of the lessons isn't great. They start at 4:00, which is a little early. I had to wake them up from their nap to get there on time. I had a feeling that would cause some problems from being tired, and I was right. We got off to a rocky start during the first half hour of the lesson. A lot of screaming and scared kids. But, by the end, they all three had warmed up to the pool and people and were playing, blowing bubbles and letting us float them. I hope the lessons tomorrow start smoother and they will warm up more quickly so they can actually learn something.

A few funny stories about Will and Xander. Will constantly amazes us with his ability to extrapolate and put knowledge he has learned to work in new situations. They were at my mom's house and Grace was opening a baggie and accidentally ripped it. My mom said "Well, I think we'll have to go and get a new one." and will announced "Super Target!" He knew that you could get new baggies at SuperTarget. Also the other day, he sat down on the lego bucket, said "I go potty. pssssssss. All done!" And got up and walked away. I just about died laughing. (Brian says they were pretending to make the people go potty in the little people doll house.)

The other funny story is about Xander. We had gone to Blockbuster on Saturday night. When we left the store, Will was carrying my receipt and Xander was carrying the movie. When we were walking into the house Brian said "Will, put the receipt in the trash. Xander, put the movie on the counter." So, after they had gone to bed, we went to watch the movie and we couldn't find it. We were turning the kitchen and living room upside down to find it and couldn't. Brian went into their room and asked Xander "Where did you put the movie?" Xander said "Movie all gone." Brian yells to me, "look in the trash." And sure enough, the movie was in the trash. He must have just followed Will's actions. But, we were amazed that he remembered what he did with it!

I think that's about it for now. We have another sort of busy week planned, but it should be fun if the weather doesn't turn hot or rainy. Today is a gorgeous day and we played outside all morning and had another picnic. They love eating outside, something new I guess!

Future virtuosos

The kids got out their instruments they got for Christmas and formed a little trio. I grabbed the camera in time to get a couple of cute action shots. The funniest is Grace holding the guitar like a violin and calling it a "vi-lin". Aunt Kara thinks she's the perfect candidate of the three for the diva violin virtuoso. They're becoming pretty good singers too, lately. They know about a dozen songs from beginning to end and love to sing. Twinkle, ABC's, Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm a Little Teapot and Wheels on the Bus are most requested. They all have shown some pitch matching potential, so I think it won't be long until we have a little Niebuhr family choir.

Tag - I guess I'm it!

I was "tagged" by Brian's sister Lisa the other day, so I'll go ahead and play the game. Pretty much you answer these questions about yourself and "tag" several other bloggers to answer the same questions. It's just a cyberspace game that tells people about you and sends traffic to other people with blogs. So, here goes....

Favorite person (outside of your family)? As some of you know, Brian and I have had a core group of friends since high school and these people are still very important to us. Some have moved away, gotten married or divorced or have drifted away a little, but all of them will always have a special place in our hearts. We don't see them as much as we would like, but I hope that will change!

Favorite food? I can't narrow it down to just one. I can narrow it down to three, though. Anything crispy chicken, (sandwiches, salads, wraps, on pasta , alone, whatever, it doesn't matter. It's all good), mocha torte (a cake from Brian's aunt's store in Shenandoah, IA) and Easy Cheese (the kind that comes out of a can).


Quirks about you? I like things symmetrical, mostly when it comes to decorating and scrapbooking. Very rarely will you find something asymmetrical in my house. A couple of other small quirky things about me, I hate having my hair pulled up, because it gives me a headache. I will only pull my hair back if I'm really hot or it's really bothering me, and then I don't leave it up for long and mostly around the house. I don't like sweating, I have the air conditioning on as much as Brian will let me and I hate wearing sandals or having bare feet. I also have a love/hate relationship with reading books. I love reading books, and I read very fast and enjoy reading. But, I enjoy it too much. When I'm reading a good book, all I want to do is read because I have to find out what is going to happen next. So, everything else (housework, chores, etc.) suffers. So, that makes me hate reading. Plus, if I start reading a book that doesn't grab me, I don't ever read it. So, pretty much is all or nothing when it comes to reading.

How would the person who loves you most describe you in ten words or less? Well, I will answer this one for Brian in two ways. One way which he thinks about me when he's irritated at me, and the other that (I think) he thinks the rest of the time. When he's mad at me he would say I "strive for mediocrity" because he thinks I'm lazy and don't care about making things as good as they can be, and I'm stubborn. On a good day, he would (probably) say that I'm conscientious, loving, a good mom and I don't know what else. That's a hard one to answer.


Any regrets in life? I can answer this almost truly and say no, I don't think so. Sometimes I wish I had done something a little different or said something a little nicer the first time around, but those things have always gotten resolved in the end and I don't regret the way they turned out. I am very happy with all the choices I have made in my life and the path that I'm on.


Favorite Charity/Cause? Since the triplets were born premature, I really admire and appreciate all the work the March of Dimes does. Their research and advancements with babies has made a world of difference for some families and I think that's wonderful. I know how scary it is to see your little tiny babies lying there in the hospital, although I am thankful ours were so healthy.


Favorite blog right now? My friend Susan Otte (art teacher at my old school, Zeman) has a daughter, Quinn, with a congenital heart defect. She had some complications with her first heart surgery last year that has led to some developmental delays. Susan has been keeping up a blog/online journal since then to keep everyone updated on her progress with doctors, surgeries and therapy. As it also happens, Susan's husband had a heart attack on Christmas day last year and has undergone several surgeries himself, so she also posts info about him. (Glad to report he is doing better). Susan is a wonderful person, whom I really admire. She is getting through some tough times and keeping a very positive attitude. I don't get to see her as much as I would like to (during cold and flu season, Quinn couldn't be around other kids for fear of infections) but I keep updated by reading her entries. Please take a look at her blog by clicking here and keep them in your prayers.


Something you can't get enough of? FREE TIME! There is precious little of it in our house. Now, I know I shouldn't complain, because we have 4 fantastic grandparents who take the kids several evenings a week and an occasional weekend evening, but it always seems I spend that time doing work instead of playing. I wish I had more scrapbooking time and I would love to start playing the piano and organ again.


Worst job you ever had? Hands down, the worst job I ever had was at Nantucket Child, a daycare I worked at in Maryland when we first moved there. I only stayed from mid-February until I left for New York in September, but those were the longest months of my life. My boss (the owner) was a nutjob who didn't know how to run a daycare. I didn't have anything in common with the people I worked with and didn't get along with some of them and we had some crazy parents. I was glad to leave for Albany when I did.


What job would you pay NOT to have? A high school or middle school principal. I wouldn't want to deal with all the delinquents and other problems, plus I think I would be horrible at it.

If you could be a fly on a wall, where would it be? The White House. I would love to hear what actually goes on behind closed doors that no one ever gets to hear.


Favorite bible verse right now: Philippians 4:6-7. "Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."


Guilty pleasure? Watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC. It is always good to see someone with multiples who is crazier that I am. I also enjoy the occasional game of spider solitaire on the computer.


If you HAD to spend $1000 on yourself, what would you do? Travel. With three kids only one income, we will never get to go anywhere. I would go on a cruise, or perhaps to Hawaii or Europe. Those are the three places I really want to go.


Favorite thing about your house? The location. We're close to great shopping (hello, Super Target!), restaurants and great schools. The library, YMCA, parks and grandparents' house are relatively close, too. The only drawback is being so far from Brian's work and Sam's Club.


Least favorite thing about your house? How dirty it is. The kids have destroyed the wood floor and carpet. We need to have them refinished and cleaned, respectively. Plus, no matter how often I clean (which isn't that often) it never seems clean enough or stays clean.


One thing you are bad at? Confrontations. Telling people exactly how I feel in a constructive, non-accusatory manor.


Who would you like to meet someday? This is a hard one, and I confess, I can't think of anyone that intrigues me so much that I would really want to meet them.


Who is your real life hero? Any mom or dad of multiples who has raised those kids to adulthood relatively unscathed. By far raising triplets is the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life and I completely admire anyone who has successfully done it.


What is the hardest part of your job? I don't think this one needs explanation. Most or all of you reading this have been around my kids at some point in time and know how crazy and hard it can be. Every part about being a stay at home mom is hard.


When are you the most relaxed? I'd say when all the cleaning, laundry and chores are done, the kids are in bed and I am free to watch TV, scrapbook or read a book (but only when the right one comes along).


What stresses you out? Screaming kids and tantrums, running late, bad drivers and extreme hot or cold weather.

What can you not live without? Music. I don't play much piano anymore, and most of the music I listen to these days is sung by a furry red monster, but I know my life would be a lot less meaningful without music. I enjoying singing in choirs, and wish I did it more. And, as I said before, I wish I had more time to restart playing piano or organ. Doing music at church has been good for me to keep that part of my life going and Kara, Brian and I do an occasional wedding where I'll get to play some.

Why do you blog? At first I started blogging to make it easier to give updates on the kids when they were small. Then as time went on, I started to realize that this is giving me a great record of things they did, when they did them and funny stories about our lives. So, now my reasons are two-fold, I blog for all of you, as well as us. I hope the triplets can look back on this when they're older and read about everything they did growing up.


Who am I tagging?


New/newer bloggers: Denise Alexander (I'll give you a link when she's up and running) and my cousin Stefanie Hoefs.


Bloggers you would like to get to know more: Michelle Moser (her husband works with Brian and their son Drew is the triplets' age).


Bloggers you don't think will respond, but hope will: Khara (a brilliant photographer, and friend of Kara's and by extension, mine. She keeps a blog for her photography studio, Kabloom Studios. She's the one responsible for the great professional pictures of the triplets.)


Bloggy friends: Susan, Becky


Rules
1. Answer the questions
2. Link back to whoever tagged you
3. Tag eight bloggers to do the same, 2 from each category:
New/ newer bloggers (since we want to share the love and send them traffic)
Bloggers you'd like to get to know better
Bloggers you don't think will respond, but you hope will
Bloggy friends

A fun day at Kara's house

The rest of our week was not much to speak of, we just did the regular things. But, we did have a fun Sunday evening at Kara's house. Their neighbor has chickens, so we went over to see the new chicks. They also have a new litter of kittens, so we got to pet the new little kitties. Boy were they cute. The kids were fascinated by all the animals, as you can see from the pictures. They were even pretty good around Kara and Wes' dog, Jack. He's a gigantic black lab, but is very nice. They even got close to pet him and no one cried. We're making progress in the dog department, I think. Also, you can see from the pictures that they ate corn on the cob for the first time. At first, they weren't sure what to think of it, but they figured it out and I think they liked it. They do like corn, so I think they will always enjoy it on the cob, too.

Since the weather has been pretty stormy lately, we haven't done much or gone a lot of places. We did hit the park once this week, had some outside time, went to church a couple of times and lots of time at grandparents house. Brian and I got a nice evening out on Saturday, we even saw a movie!!! I'm glad to report sleeping without pacifiers is getting better. They have had several good nights in a row, and even if they do wake up crying, they figure it out and stop crying in only a few seconds. Naptimes are getting a little better, although they are still taking a while to fall asleep. Grace and Xander have woken up screaming during nap the last couple of days, I think they really relied on their pacficiers during naps and the change is hard. They still love their "night-night" toys so that is good.

Not much else to report this week, as I said before, it was a non-eventful week. We hope everyone is surviving the crazy stormy weather and we'll post more stories next week. Take care.

Memorial Day Weekend - full of stories!

Memorial Day Weekend 2008

What a crazy weekend it was!!

Brian had the day off on Friday, so we got to spend an extra day with him. We took the kids to the museum on Friday morning, then to church for lunch with grandman. (Indoor activities since it's been very rainy lately). Then Friday night, we decided it was time! If you've looked at the pictures, you know what I'm talking about. We took the kids to Target and they got to pick out new "night-night" toy to have in place of their pacifiers. Then, we took the sides off their beds and made the cribs into toddler beds. NO plugs and toddler beds all at once! They were really excited. We made a big deal about throwing the plugs in the trash can and getting to sleep with the new animals. However, the sleep that night didn't go so well. Both Will and Grace fell out of bed and no one slept very well minus the plugs, especially Grace. I had predicted earlier that day that no plugs would be hardest on her, because she is so dependant on them. I still go in there at night if she wakes up and can't find her plug and cries about it. And, I was right, she didn't do very well. Lots of crying in the middle of the night when she woke up and couldn't find her plug. Mostly we've just let her cry it out, although last night, I yelled at her from the doorway to lay down and go back to sleep after about 15 minutes of screaming.

We also made a big deal about staying in the toddler beds once they were in, and that worked for 2 days, but by Sunday nap time it was a nightmare! They played for 2 hours, in and out of bed, climbing into one bed and playing together. It was a disaster. We had to leave at 3:30 that afternoon to go to Shenandoah for Brian's cousin's graduation. They ended up sleeping a little in the car, but not very much. So, after some thinking, we decided to backtrack a little bit that night. We put the sides back on the crib and decided we would try again on the toddler beds when they were used to sleeping without plugs. So far, the nights have been better, but they are still taking a long time to fall asleep. I am hoping they will get better pretty fast so we can try the toddler beds again. Every nap time, Grace still asks for her plug. I say "Where are your plugs?" and one of the boys will answer "trash". She doesn't ask again after that.

In other weekend news, we did some fun things, although the weather didn't cooperate much. As I said before, we went to Shenandoah on Sunday, we went out to dinner (a rare treat for the kids) on Saturday with Lisa, Chad and Carter. We just got a lot of fun playing time with the kids. I got out some board games they got for Christmas and we've been teaching them how to play. They're a bit under the age suggestion for them, but with some help and a little modification they are enjoying them quite a bit. In fact, they ask to play Lucky Ducks a lot. It's just a little matching game and they do a great job matching the shapes. We know how much they enjoy rubber ducks!

They have finally started using personal pronouns. More specifically "I". They have started saying things like "I see church" and "I go into garage" (the garage, by the way, is under the kitchen table.) It is nice to hear full correctly formed sentences. Xander's new thing is to say "I got you ____" and fill in the blanks to whatever or whomever he is "getting". It's really funny how he emphsizes the last syllable "I got you mom-MY" or "I got you Gra-CIE" then he grabs you and hugs you. Sometimes he'll say "I got you wa-TER" and grab his juice glass. It is also funny if you say "No, I got you first" before he finishes getting you. He laughs and laughs at that.

I have them enrolled in swimming lessons starting in 2 weeks, so that will be a fun development. That's about all for now. More next week. Have a great week everyone!

Some cute pictures

Just a couple of cute pictures I snapped last night around dinner time. They have little red cheeks because their bad mommy forgot to put sunscreen on them before they went out in the hot sun. Oops!

We are doing well here. No illness to speak of and everyone is fine. We've been enjoying the nice days to get outside and around town, everyone is eating and sleeping well and is generally in pretty good moods. (I say generally because Will is still having some Pulmicort related attitude problems, hopefully those will go away now that we are dropped down to once a day.)

We didn't do anything huge or noteworthy last week or on the weekend. Although they did spend the night at the Niebuhrs on Saturday night. Dale and Ellen took the triplets and Carter to Memorial Stadium for a party given by the University to thank Ameritas (where Dale works) for their sponsorship of Husker athletics. So, they got to play football on the turf, eat hamburgers and popcorn, run around and go down big inflatable slides. Ellen said they enjoyed walking the yard lines and sitting inside of the zeros on the field. They came home pretty tired on Sunday, and took a good nap after a long morning at church.

They are becoming quite interactive with each other lately and it's fun to watch or listen to their exchanges. The other night they were in bed (supposed to be asleep) and I heard Grace say "More donuts, please, Will." He said, "OK, here you go." She said "thank you. More coffee please." He said "OK Gracie." They kept on going like this for a while. I just stood out in the hall and listened and laughed. They have great imaginations. Another great develpment (for me anyway) is that they can climb into the car and into their car seats by themselves now. So, all I have to do is open the garage door and remotely open the van doors and say "get in the car." They do, and I just have to buckle them in before we drive away. Huge time saver for me and now when we're out in public in parking lots, I can let them get into the car and don't have to worry about them standing around on the sidewalk by themselves. A small development, but very helpful, nonetheless.

A funny story from Xander. He was identifying letters on the side of the oatmeal box the other morning, so Brian said " O-A-T-M-E-A-L, oatmeal" Xander said "A-B-C oatmeal." We thought that was funny. Everytime they see a word they say "ABC". They understand there are words there, but don't quite get the idea of spelling with the letters they know. Will is great at his letters, he is always pointing them out. Xander sees "X for Xander" everywhere he goes.

I think that's all for now. More next week, so check back. Take care.

Lots to share, but no pictures yet

We had quite a busy week last week, with lots of Kodak moments. Unfortunately, I was bad with the camera. My friend Denise was a shutter bug and took lots of pictures, so as soon as I can get some of them from her, I will post them.

As I mentioned, my friend Denise from Chicago and her 3 year old son Caden were here last week from Sunday to Thursday. It was a fun week, we did so many things. Museum, park, mall, visited friends and had our usual outings to grandparents houses. It's amazing how much more energy one child adds to the house. All 4 of the kids were just go-go-go all week. It was quite tiring! They enjoyed a lot of playing outside time, as the weather cooperated! They ate picnics, played on the new swingset and had lots of fun together. Caden enjoyed the children's museum with the triplets and they did things together they had never done before, like climb into the big airplane. By the time Denise and Caden left on Thursday, everyone was very tired, but it was a great visit and we're so glad it worked out for them to come!

Unfortunately, right after they left is when illness chose to strike. Chad and Carter had the stomach flu on Sunday and Monday, Lisa wasn't sick but had been around the sick people. She came over here on Tuesday and the triplets were around Carter on Wednesday. Well, they picked that flu up one of those times, because they all started throwing up on Thursday night. Xander was first around 11 pm. He was sick until around 3, when he finally fell asleep. Then Grace started in around 3:30, for the rest of the night. Will waited until Friday afternoon. By then I was so good at knowing the sounds they made before they threw up, that I was able to catch it all, and Will never even had to change his clothes. They were pretty miserable on Friday, but more back to normal Saturday. By Mother's Day, they were fine and we ended up having a pretty nice mother's day. Brunch at Firethorn with the Hoefs, then a light dinner with the Niebuhrs here in the evening. Today was storytime at the library, other errands and they went with me to vote. That was the highlight of their day, apparently, because they got stickers. Lucky! And speaking of lucky, Brian and I never got that flu. It was our reward having it a few months ago when the kids were healthy.

All three of the kids are being so vocal lately and are very good at pretending and make-believe playing. Every toy car belongs to someone else (grandma's car, daddy's car) and Grace likes to talk to her animals and dolls. I caught her bossing around the ducks in the bath the other night. She would put it on the ledge and say "sit here peep" (it is one of those Peeps like the Easter candy, only it's made for the bath). Then she would say "Go this way" or "no, sit here". I'm afraid the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in the bossy department. I was fertilizing the rose bushes yesterday and she was watching. I explained to her that I was feeding it, kind of like giving the rose bush lunch. She looked at the rose and said "here, eat it rose bush." Priceless.

Xander is obsessed with "owies". Everyone has an "owie knee" or "owie arm" or "owie head". Grandma Pam's "owie knee" (the one she had surgery on) is a constant source of conversation. Finally we have been telling him that her knee is better. So, now everytime he looks at a knee he says "Grandma owie knee all gone." He is also still loving to be tickled. Once, Brian was tickling him and he said "all done" (wanting to be finished), but Brian said "No all done" and kept tickling him. Now that's his ploy to get more tickles. He'll come sit on our lap and say "all done". Then laughs and giggles when we say "no all done" and tickle him.

Will has some new crocs, well, imitation crocs from Payless, that he just LOVES. He is able to put them on by himself and I think they are pretty comfortable. It's the only shoes he will wear now. Luckily, they stay on pretty well. He is doing well on the asthma front, the steroids are doing their job. He is tolerating them pretty well, the behaviors aren't as severe as they used to be (either that or we're just used to it). The likelyhood of him getting colds will decrease this summer and we are hoping that that will enable us to decrease his dosage. He sits like an angel during his treatments, and most of the time, just looks at books or plays quietly with a car. He's even taken to holding on his mask and taking off the strap. He dilligently leaves it there until I tell him to turn it off. What a good boy! He is still pretty possessive of his things, usually of the big red car. Which is odd to Brian and I, since they've had that car forever. We've noticed with Will, though, if you warn him of what is expected of him, he handles the transition really well. Example: "Will, I am going to count to 5. When I'm done, it is going to be Grace's turn to play with the red car." After I count, he's fine and gives it up willingly. Grace will usually play for 30 seconds and goes to do something else, so he gets it back and he's fine. We think that is a strategy we will always have to do with all of them.

So, that's all for now. I will post pictures from Denise as soon as I can, otherwise check back next week for more updates and some pictures from this week. Thanks for checking on us!

A nice visit in nice weather!

1st weekend of May 2008

(Click on the picture and you will be redirected to the site where all 41 pictures from the weekend are and you can see them all!!)

Here are the pictures from our big family weekend this last weekend. It was a busy weekend, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves. Dale's brother and his wife from California were here for the first time in almost five years. They hadn't ever met the triplets or Carter, so we spent most of the day on Saturday with them. It was nice to visit and watch the kids play. Most of the pictures are from Saturday night and Dale and Ellen's house. The triplets are still fighting runny noses, so that's why they have funny faces in some pictures. Sunday was also a big day. We had an early morning breakfast at with some friends from church, then we went to cheer on our friend Clay as he ran the Lincoln Marathon that morning. We made it to church later that morning, and after a HUGE afternoon nap (4 hours for Will) we played outside. We didn't want to drag them inside for dinner and miss the gorgeous weather, so we ate outside. They didn't eat much that night, but sure enjoyed sitting outside. So much so, that they ate lunch out there again today.

We're in the middle of anther busy week. My friend Denise from Chicago is here now with her 3 year old son Caden. We went to the park this morning and spent most of the day outside. There will be many more adventures this coming week, I'm sure. I'll post about that next week. I'm afraid there's not much else to report, mostly doing our same old and playing outside. I'll try to post more pictures and stories next week. Enjoy the nice weather.

I have finally figured out how to capture and post our video. Hopefully you will be seeing a lot more of it. This is just a quick, easy clip I took yesterday to show them singing and counting and for me to practice getting the video off the camera. Luckily, they were in a good mood this day and mostly cooperated (sorry about my loud singing, though.) Enjoy!

Feel the love!

A kind of ironic title, since they haven't really been loving to each other lately. We've kind of had a lot of fighting, and it's mostly territorial. "My red car", "my chair", "my hat" etc. If the object was ever theirs, it is still theirs and they are extremely angry if someone else tries to play with it. I haven't decided if this is a 2 year old thing or a triplet thing. They have precious little that belongs to ONLY them, so I am kind of wondering if they get territorial about some toys because they need to have things that belong only to them. I'm not quite sure, but it sure is a struggle.

Another thing I noticed about this picture is that they're dressed in the blue, green, pink motif that we do so often. A funny story about that. I bought them little blue, green and pink plastic cups at the store the other day. They crawled up to the counter while I was making dinner and their cups were sitting there. Will got them out and passed them out and automatically he gave Xander green and pink to Grace and kept blue for himself. I didn't tell him which one belonged to him or the other, they just knew. I thought that was amazing.

Will has been really funny lately. He has such a great imagination and a wonderful memory (which I haven't decided is good or dangerous). The other day as I was putting them to bed I said "Maybe we can go to the playground tomorrow morning." Then I said goodnight and left. The first thing Will said to me when he saw me in the morning was "playground?" I couldn't believe he remembered that. I have to be careful what I say we might be able to do, because he'll for sure remember. He has also been pretending a lot lately and it is so funny to watch. He pretends to eat things, or give us things. The other day at a playgroup I had a cup of coffee. They were running around playing and would come up to me every once in a while and I would say "be careful, this coffee is hot". Well, that night in the bathtub, Will had a cup and he looked at me and said "coffee, hot". The others picked up on that and soon Will was passing out "coffee, hot" to the other in their cups. It was funny to watch. He's been a little sick this week and the awful asthma cough is back. We've been doing a lot of albuterol in addition to the steroids. I can't decide if it's getting better or not, it seems to be pretty bad this time, even though he hasn't been that sick. Brian and I kind of wonder if he has allergies, too. We may get those tested sometime soon.

Grace has been enjoying singing songs lately. She can make it through most of the ABC song as I'm singing, if I go slow. She also likes Old MacDonald and Wheels on the Bus. Everyone likes Itsy Bitsy Spider and we sing that a lot, too. She is getting pretty coordinated these days. She is very close to riding a tricycle, if she would just learn to steer. She was climbing up ladders and stairs at the park today with no problem. (I was actually thinking how neat it was today to watch how much better they've gotten on the playground equipment, compared to last fall). She can jump off of something onto the ground. She was jumping off the bottom of the slides onto the ground, never once falling.

Xander, on the other hand, had a rough day today. He is still uncoordinated at times. He fell down at the park off the steps, flat onto the ground. He was pretty upset about that. When we got home, he fell going up the garage steps into the house and banged his chin. Later that afternoon he slipped on the slide in the backyard and scratched his back. Then after dinner, Brian was opening the top drawer of the dishwasher and hit him in the head. He was pretty banged up by the end of the day. He has also been sick this week, some fever, a terribly runny nose and lots of coughing. So, he's been getting some albuterol, too. He has been pretty imaginative, too, lately. He will walk up to you, pretend to grab something off of your shirt or hair and pretend to eat it (like a monkey). It is a little weird, but funny. He'll also pretend to grab your nose and say "my nose" or another body part and put it on himself.

One other little funny thing about Xander is he might say to you "door up" and if you say "no, door down" he'll say "no, door up". You can go back and forth like this for a while. But, if you would say "no door down" after he just said it, he'll switch and say "no, door up". You can constantly say the same thing he just said and he'll switch and say the opposite. I watched Will do this with him during dinner tonight. It was crazy. It's like he loves arguing, just for the argument's sake. A lawyer perhaps?????

Sorry this got a little long. I have some video I took of the kids singing and counting that I am going to try and figure out how to post later this week when I get some time. We are seeing a lot of family this weekend and next week some friends from Chicago are staying with us. No doubt we will have lots of pictures and news to post after that. More later!

Nice weather

Here are the triplets enjoying a book with grandma Pam last Friday. The weather was kind of icky, so we stayed inside and tried to occupy them. The weather has been great this weekend and week, so far, so we are enjoying plenty of quality outside time and with that, good naps (that makes me very happy). They have also been enjoying quality time on their swingset, and while they are doing that, I've been able to get some yardwork done. So, it's a win win situation as far as I can see.

I had thought over the weekend that our bad attitude from last week was gone, until Grace's attitude reared it's ugly head this morning in the form of a 45 minute tantrum over who knows what. She sat in time out and screamed for exactly 45 minutes and then was done. Of course, that made us late for our playgroup this morning, but we finally got there and they had a good time. They're to the point where I can let them play around all the older kids and not worry about the getting trampled, the hold their own pretty well. They're coordinated enough to play on the swingsets and not get hurt and they know pretty well not to walk in front or back of moving swings. They had a good time this morning, it was a nice outing on a nice morning. We've also been to the library, museum, mall and lots of church time in the last week. They love going to the mall lately. There's a big carousel in the middle that Xander calls is "up and down" (for the horses that go up and down) and Grace calls it the "round and round". Last time they rode it Xander spent 5 minutes after it was over saying "up and down all done". He also calls the ceiling fan a "round and round." and calls jeans "blue jeans". I don't know who taught him those.

We've found a new way to combat the picky eater syndrome that was sweeping our house. We first tried it with green beans. Brian will get a spoonful of the food and pretend to eat it saying "that's my green bean (for example)." They will laugh and say "no, my green bean." Brian then says "you'd better not eat my green bean" and then they laugh and eat the bean. It then becomes a huge game to eat food that isn't theirs. And this works almost 100% of the time. They are now eating broccoli, green beans, avocado, meat loaf (grace and will) and many other things they weren't eating before, just because it's funny to eat mommy or daddy's food. So, kudos to daddy for solving our problem. Hope you are all enjoying the spring weather, more updates next week!

Other news

Here are some pictures from the last several weeks I haven't posted. They're just of everyday things around the house, but I think some of them are funny. The pictures are:

Top: A rare moment of nice, quiet playing together.

2nd - Xander and Brian.

3rd - Will and Grace climbing on Will's crib.

4th - Sitting on the counter watching American Idol.

5th - They were supposed to be napping, this is what Brian and I walked in and found. Three naked, jumping children with empty cribs (they had thrown everything onto the floor, including their clothes. Don't laugh, it wasn't funny to us at the time. We just wanted them to sleep!!)

6th - Xander in his plaid shirt and camoflauge hat, he looked like a farm boy that day.

7 and 8 - Will and Grace playing in containers in the kitchen. Please note, those containers house the legos and Mr. Potato Head pieces. That means, those pieces were strewn about the entire upstairs.

We had an interesting weekend. There was lots of attitude around, and it was mostly Will's. They hadn't been anywhere all day Saturday, it was a cold and dreary day. So, we decided to take them to McDonald's for dinner and some play. Will was in a terrible mood, and after a short nap and not eating much dinner, we tried to get him to play in the play place. Well, there were a handful of older kids there and once they started running around him, he lost it. Brian had to actually climb up into the play thing to get him down (he was screaming the whole time). Then, he wouldn't calm down, so Brian took him to the car to stop his screaming fit. That cut short our playtime. He did the same thing again on Sunday at church, he ended up in time out during lunch. We're not entirely sure what the problems were, but by Sunday night, we had had it. He was better today, but his attitude had better improve. Luckily, the weather will be nice this week, and we can get outside. He also climbed out of his crib on Sunday. He hit the floor with a thud and a huge scream. Brian went in and calmed him down, but he was mad! We're hoping it hurt enough that he won't try it again (and he didn't today).

Xander is doing much better these days. He still was coughing and had a nasty green runny nose on Friday, so I took him to the doctor. He had a sinus infection and lots of lung congestion (reactive airway disease, they call it). So, he's on antibiotics and it makes such a difference. He was so good today and entirely pleasant. He must not have felt good these last several weeks, because he hasn't been this well behaved in a while.

They're all talking up a storm all the time, now. I can't even tell you how fun it is to hear complete sentences coming out of their mouths. They even do and say funny things. This morning right after breakfast, I was changing Will's poopy diaper. It was pretty stinky, and as more of a rhetorical question I said "Whew, what did you eat?" He replied "cereal, strawberries, bananas, milk." (all of the things they had for breakfast). I had to laugh, because he answered exactly what I asked. Grace and Xander are counting to ten flawlessly, and Xander can get to fourteen by himself, to twenty with help. Will does pretty good, but needs some help around 5. They are saying/singing the alphabet some, but not all of it and they need help. For some reason, Xander doesn't really like that song and everytime I start to sing it says "no ABC, no ABC". He prefers itsy bitsy spider. Books that are now in favor are the Clifford the Big Red Dog books that I've been checking out at the library. They also like all the Iza Trapani books that are songs (Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm a Little Teapot, Row Your Boat). I've been singing those a lot lately. So, that's about it. I hope you enjoy the little slide show of the swing set pictures. They really do like it and we're grateful to grandma and grandpa Niebuhr for that gift and the gift of helping put it together! Have a great week, everyone!

A new swing set!!!!

Well, the new swing set is not quite done, but operational. The kids were very excited about it, and even though it was pretty chilly on Sunday played on it for quite some time. It's not fully put together, there are still monkey rings and a rock wall to install, but the best parts, slides and swings are done. Grandpa and Brian worked some of the afternoon on Sunday to get it usable and the kids very much enjoyed themselves. I think this will be a source of much pleasure this summer!

Henry Doorly Zoo

We took the kids for the first time to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha on Saturday. They were pretty good all day. It was a long day, with a messed up schedule, but they were good. We left first thing in the morning and spend 2 1/2 hours or so walking around the zoo. I think Will was fascinated by the animals he saw, he talked and waved to them the whole time. Grace and Xander I think were less interested, but it could have been because they were in the double stroller and it was hard to maneuver right in front of the animals and Xander was in the back. But, they had plenty of opportunities to walk around and look at things and they had fun. We ate lunch in Omaha, then drove home (they slept all the way home and could/should have slept longer, but they didn't). We put them to bed early on Saturday night and Xander slept for almost 12 hours, then they took a fantastic nap Sunday. Must have had to catch up.

The pictures are:

1st - Our attempt at a family picture in the Aquarium. Will wanted down and Xander and Grace were distracted by the sharks and rays swimming over their heads.

2nd - Will in front of the fountain/globe thing.

3rd - Trying to get a closer look at the tigers.

4th - Grace on a gorilla statue

5th - Xander and Grace getting a closer look at a real gorilla.

6th - Xander on the Gorilla statue.

7th - Will pointing at a tropical bird in the rain forest.

Not much else to report here, besides minor illnesses. Everyone in the house has had a touch of something, including Brian and I. The kids still have runny noses and coughs, but no high fevers, only small ones. Not much seems to get getting rid of it, just time, I guess. Dale and Brian started putting up the new swing set on Saturday. It is about halfway done, and will stay that way until the weather cooperates again. They may work a little more this weekend. The kids are so excited for it to be up. They walk around looking at it and saying "slide, swing, slide". I will post pictures when it's done of their inaugural play time on it. More next week!