Saturday, March 29, 2008

Let Them Eat Cake!


Well, rice cakes at least. We've decided to start working on finger foods with the triplets, and today was rice cake day. They enjoyed it immensely, and they all figured out that they were supposed to pick up the rice cake, and put it in their mouths. The dogs circled underneath them for the chance to finish off anything the kids didn't finish. I think Sophie and Sabine are about to enter the best stage of their canine lives...

Friday, March 28, 2008

Jumpin' Fools

Our kids love to jump. Even from the beginning, when we held them they would constantly use their legs to spring off our lap. They never could stand still. So we tried them in the johnny-jump-up, which they enjoyed, but it was in an inconvenient location. (There are no doorways near the living room to hang it on). So today we went out and got a jumperoo, which has turned into the triplets' favorite toy. Arthur holds onto the front like he's riding a horse, and goes crazy with jumping. Here's a brief clip of Betty's turn on it.

In other news, Coraline has started making a new sound. It all began when she was waving a rattle, and Arthur tried to take it. Cora quickly pulled it to her chest, emitting a very high shriek. She now does it all the time. We think we may have gotten ourselves a baby pterodactyl by accident.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Sitting Up and Taking Notice

The night after Nana and Pop Pop returned from their California trip, Arthur showed off to Pop Pop by learning how to move from a crawling position to a sitting position, and back again. It was a very slow process, but he was deliberate and careful with his movements so that he wouldn't topple over. And then this morning, when Arthur woke up crying at 5am, when I went over to check on him, he was sitting upright in his crib. Evidently he mastered this skill in short time, and we are quite glad we lowered his crib mattress the other day. Now it seems he is considering pulling himself upwards on the living room furniture. No progress yet, but it is definately on his mind.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Our Schroeder

You may have wondered what the girls had been doing while Arthur worked so long on learning how to crawl. Well, it seems that they have used their spare time to pick up a few hobbies. Here is Cora, who is teaching herself how to play the piano.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Becoming Mobile

Arthur has been training long and hard over these past few weeks in an effort to become mobile. He starts each day rocking on his hands and knees, building up muscle tone. He would then strengthen his arms by pushing himself backwards across the room. Recently he has started doing lifts, raising up his right arm, and then his left arm. In order to crawl, one has to get in shape. At least that's what his trainer, Sophie the dog, tells him to do. Sophie keeps Arthur on track, and displays for him the proper way to walk on all fours. You can see the strain and effort Arthur puts into his training, as he grunts and whines through his exercises. Not even teething gets in his way, pausing only briefly to gnaw on his hand, before pushing through the pain. And finally, after all of his hard work, Arthur became mobile on Easter evening! He can now crawl purposefully in a line towards his goal (often a book or the tv remote). Here's a montage of all his efforts:

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Happy Easter!


Today we celebrated our first Easter as a family. We miss Nana and Pop Pop, who attended Adam's baptism last night in California.

And the Easter Bunny did arrive at our house this morning, bringing three cute dark chocolate rabbits, handmade at our local chocolate shop. Though the triplets fought over the bunnies wrapped in their crinkly plastic casings, it will be their parents who will actually get to enjoy eating them.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

A Blustery Day


On a beautiful (but windy) day we took everyone to Virginia Tech. While I stopped at the library to get some more research materials for a book I'm writing, the rest of the family enjoyed a picnic on the wind-swept drill field. However, I think Erin spent most of her time chasing down the triplets' sun hats. Though the breeze threatened to take Arthur's breath away, the three enjoyed the outing. Afterwards we had to clean their hands, as they evidently took pleasure in grasping the short grass with their fingers.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Spring Break

Today is the first day of Erin's week off from teaching. She was quite excited to stay at home with the kids today, and we're also excited to be taking care of them over the next few days by ourselves, as Nana and Pop Pop flew to California to see the triplets' cousins. Erin also celebrated the day by going to get a massage - it was an extremely rare outing for a mother of triplets!

In more exciting news, though, Arthur *finally* got his first tooth last night! The girls have already had their teeth for two months now, and it's been three months since we mistakenly thought Arthur had gotten a tooth. We had been fearful that he had inherited not only his great-grandfather's name, but also his dentition. So we are thrilled for Arthur to finally join the tooth team.

Tooth count: 5

Thursday, March 20, 2008

First Day of Spring


The triplets are excited about Winter being over and Spring finally starting, because it means that they can spend more and more time outdoors. We also hope that this means flu season is about over, because we are eager to take them places without fear of contagion. Besides it being the first day of Spring, there was also a full moon out tonight.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Stranger Danger


Grandma Toni and Grandpa Carter came to visit for the afternoon, and we ran into another incident of "stranger danger." This is the second time that one of the triplets has gotten frightened by an outside visitor (the first time sadly was when Nana and Pop Pop came back from a trip to Florida, and their forgotten appearance made Betty cry). This time though, it was Coraline who went into stranger mode. She was upset most of the time Grandma and Grandpa were here, but luckily, by the end of the visit, she began to remember them again. On Thursday Nana and Pop Pop head out to California to spend some time with cousins Adam and Nathan. We'll have to wait and see if they, too, will become strangers.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Farmer's Market


Today we took the kids into Blacksburg to visit the Farmer's Market. They liked looking around at the booths, and enjoyed getting outside the house in the morning. The girls liked being able to ride together in their new double jogging stroller. They then drank their bottles, and stopped in a local chocolate shop before heading home. Arthur, especially, loved the sights and smells of the chocolate store. Both he (and his mom) had to be dragged out the door to go home.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Raking Leaves


As the weather has been in the high 60's all week, we've been taking the triplets outside for a few hours in the afternoon in order to start spring cleaning. Since the triplets had occupied our time last fall, there were still mounds of leaves left to be raked up. We decided that this was the time to finally clean up the leaves, as there were daffodils and tulips struggling to see daylight. Betty decided to do her share as well.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Talking Up a Storm


After a relatively quiet past few weeks (except for an overly loquacious Betty), the triplets have started again on constant babbling. Coraline has now picked up the motorboat sound Arthur loved a while back - lots of spitty B's. Betty continues constantly narrating all aspects of her life (including during meals), and Arthur is working on twisting his tongue sideways in anticipation of learning some tribal language.

One interesting thing is that it seems as if each of the three are working on different sets of syllables. Arthur keeps repeating "Mamamamama," Betty is focused on "Nanananana," and I've heard Coraline occasionally work on "Dadadada." Obviously, there are now three happy grownups in the house. Each time the triplets hit upon a set of syllables that makes a word, it stops Erin and me in our tracks, and we glance at each other to make sure we heard what we thought we heard. While we know it will still be quite a while before these words are used in context, it is nice to know they are in the triplets' repetoire.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Spring Forward


Daylight Savings Time resumes this weekend, and we are eager for our clocks to spring forward an hour. You see, the triplets have been waking up around 6am, instead of their scheduled 7am wakeup. Perhaps the change in time will fix this. Until then, I have been taking the loud ones out of their cribs and into our bed, in an effort to keep them calm (and prolong my rest) until at least 6:30. For the past few days, this meant that Arthur and Coraline were in bed together, but this morning, Betty woke up early as well. While in bed together, they calmly hold each other's hands, pat each other's faces, or plot on how to steal Arthur's pacifier (the other morning Coraline deftly plucked it from his mouth, and shoved it into hers).

We've also noticed that the girls' hair has grown longer, and because they have baths right before bed, they now wake up with bed hair. Once we stop laughing, we'll try to figure out a solution to this.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Pear Lollipops

Today we put some peeled pear slices into these mesh, hand-held lollipop containers we got at a garage sale a while back. They were a huge hit! We had tried apple slices earlier, to no avail. But the pears were soft and juicy enough to hold the kids' attention for quite a while. Betty, though, decided she was having too much fun in her excersaucer, and chose not to have this snack. But for Coraline and Arthur, this was great fun. They quickly realized that besides chewing on the pear, they could chew on the plastic handle (Arthur liked rubbing it back and forth across his sore gums), and that the juice made their bibs and burp clothes quite tasty. Between the two of them, they finished off half of a pear. Hopefully Betty will join in next time.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Spring Cleaning


With temperatures reaching 70 degrees today, and the threat of high winds tomorrow, we decided to take everyone outside to rake up the leaves in the backyard. The kids liked being outside in the sun, and were fascinated by the sounds we were making with the rakes. Arthur, especially, enjoyed riding in the Ergo while I cleaned up the yard. We also found out that their sun hats did not fit, so we had to make do with the hats that did fit...

Sunday, March 02, 2008

7 Months


Today Great-Aunt Lois flew in to meet the triplets for the first time. Since she came from a state that still has shoulder-height mounds of snow, we celebrated the great weather here by taking everyone for a walk on the Huckleberry Trail. The kids all enjoyed the hike, and were fascinated by all the bikes and dogs that passed us by.