Backyard Fun

We've started taking the kids to our backyard to play each afternoon, while I do some yard work around the house (our town's fall pickup starts in October).

We're slowly showing them how to climb on the playscapes, and use the slides, without hurting themselves.

Everyone has a lot of fun playing in the yard, spending some time at each of the stations, though the playhouse and the swing are some of their favorites.

Trouble

Last night Arthur found out how to stand on top of his toy basket, which had overturned. He hung out for a while standing tall on it, while leaning over the top of our coffee table. At that point Coraline wanted to get into another small basket, and so I turned my back on Arthur in order to help squeeze her into the basket. When I turned around again, Arthur was standing on top of the coffee table. *Sigh*

The Word "No"

This week Arthur has finally managed to defeat the childproofing on the kitchen drawers at Nana and Pop Pop's house. He carefully opens the drawers a bit, deliberately puts one finger on the safety latch, and disengages it. He then proceeds to empty the drawers so that he can climbs into them. Already he has almost broken the bottom drawer (we managed to bend the track back into shape). Efforts to prop the latch are also unsuccessful. So instead we've decided that we're going to teach Arthur the word "No." At the moment, all Arthur has learned is to point at the drawers and mimic us saying "Ah-Ah-Ah," before smiling and opening the drawer anyways.

Zoo Day

We took the kids to the zoo today, and they seemed to finally make some connections between the exhibits and what they've been learning at home. They made the sign for "bird" at the red-tailed hawk exhibit and again at the aviary, they made monkey noises for the macaques, and started panting (for dogs) for the fox exhibit. Coraline especially seemed excited to see an actual monkey (in a tire swing no less!), and also screamed in excitement when the wolverine jumped up against his enclosure in front of her. We can't wait to go back next month!

Basket Case

Arthur decided to be crazy again, put a small basket on his head, and stumbled around the house. It didn't take too long for Coraline to give it a try, and then for Betty too. It's great to see how their playtime flows from one kid to the next.

Oh, and Coraline is fed up with telemarketers calling late at night. I think we'll have her answer the phone from now on. (And she's now picked up Arthur's word "boom")

So Hungry...

Arthur loves biting. And putting on a show. He'll grab the craziest object he can find, hold it with his teeth, and walk around the house growling. Today it was time to put the horse in its place.

Shrinking Arthur

Since its been so cold at nights (occasionally going lower than 50 degrees), we've had to break out the cold-weather PJs for the kids. However, when we put Arthur in his outfit, it looked like we had given him a bath in hot water by accident, and he had shrank! So he is too big for the 12-month PJs we have, but evidentially too small for these 18-month outfits. Either we'll have to find someone who makes 14-month PJs, or we'll have to find some smaller 18-month ones.

First Colds of the Season

While Coraline looks happy in this picture, it was a rare moment tonight. All four of us are sick and the kids noses' have been running non-stop, and they've been begging to be carried around all day. We can't wait for this bug to pass.

In other news, we finally got around the checking Cora's teeth (we had not done it the past few days because she wasn't feeling well), and were pleased to find her bottom left molar had come in.

Tooth count: A-4, B-12, C-11

First Day of Fall

On this first day of fall, the kids helped us make a big pot of stew for dinner. We even used all of their old pureed vegetables that we had left over in the freezer, which turned out to be quite a nice soup base.

Though Betty was the official soup taster today, Coraline thought Sophie should see if the carrots were fresh enough.

Pop Pop's Birthday

Today we all celebrated Pop Pop's birthday. We even stayed over at their house so we could wish him an extra early "happy birthday!" (Arthur slipped past Erin this morning, and banged Nana and Pop Pop's bedroom door open at 5am!) And everyone loved the carrot cake that Erin made for him.

And Betty got in her fourth molar last night, the bottom left one. Now she officially has three times as many teeth as Arthur, who seeing his disadvantage, has taken to kissing people instead of biting them.

Tooth count: A-4, B-12, C-10

Garage Sale

We finally got around to having a yard sale, as we had four giant tubs full of baby clothes we've out grown, plus various exersaucers, boppys, strollers, carseats, changing table, and basically anything else around the house we felt was more baby-like and less toddler-like. We made a bit of room in the basement, and sold about $600 worth of stuff! The girls helped try out the items for potential customers. Arthur learned how to walk on the leash/backpack on the sidewalk in front of our house, and he also learned how to walk in dog poo.

Reading Time!

Nana caught the triplets during a quiet reading period today.

Blanket Tent!

While we had fun today creating a blanket tent, we also learned that the girls' cribs have been recalled. So our fun was tempered by long visits to Walmart and Target, trying to figure out how to exchange them for something safer.

No Spitting!

As you can see from this video, teach your children not to spit, or there may be unintended consequences...

Twins in Baskets

Pool Day

On one of the last 90-degree days of the summer, we decided to have the girls play in the pool while Arthur napped. Naturally, the brooms had to be involved in their pool play.

Stroller Fun

For fun we got out a baby stroller that we had purchased a while back. The kids enjoyed pushing the doll all around the house. Betty decided it was hungry, and took over a mound of chex pieces (one at a time) to his lap. Arthur decided the doll had had enough time in the stroller, yanked him out, and instead put in a small stuffed eagle.

Grandma Toni came over today to watch the kids while we cleaned the house, but we were so busy working that we forgot to take pictures. Betty also finally got in her bottom left molar, taking her to a total of 11 teeth now. And we're pretty sure Arthur is working on another top tooth, but we know it will be an agonizing weeks-long process.

Tooth count: A-4, B-11, C-10

Cranky Kids

Well, this is the third day of having three cranky kids. When they wake up, until they go to sleep (and for some, even that is a big issue now), they are very needy, grabby, and fussy. They cry at the drop of a hat, and have little patience for each other (plus they have started to learn how to slap/hit).

We think it might be because of teething. Today we found out that Coraline got her upper right molar in.

Tooth count: A-4, B-10, C-10

Shave and a Haircut

Well, just the haircut. We finally decided that Arthur's crazy long and curly hair needed a trim ("Before" is on the left, "After" is on the right). The girls still have a ways to go before their first haircut, as their bangs aren't yet in their eyes.

So for Arthur, we just trimmed his bangs, the curls that were hanging over his ears, and the longest curls at the back of his neck. We're still not sure if he'd still have curly hair if we trimmed everything, but for now we think his curly mop is too cute to cut much further. Afterwards, the girls went to work cleaning up.

New Perspectives

Our kids are growing up! Today we tried having them eat at the table, together for their meals. Arthur had a bit more practice eating with a spoon. Though he did end up licking his bowl clean, it is evident that he still needs practice.

In addition, I spent a few hours at the police station today getting the car seats switched to forward-facing. Arthur and Betty are still back-seat buddies, and they seem to be enjoying the new view.

In other news, Betty got her 10th tooth last night, her bottom right molar. We wondered why she wasn't eating well yesterday.

Tooth count: A-4, B-10, C-9

Bound Blog

Yesterday I finally got in the mail my bound copy of the first year of this blog. I had cut-and-pasted each day of the blog into a giant word document, and printed it out in color at Kinkos (luckily I now have a color printer, which should be cheaper to print out the next year's worth).

I then sent the stack of printouts to the Library Binding Company. There I picked out the color of the cover, the color of the text, a bookmark, and what I wanted on the cover. I also decided to splurge and have them make a die to stamp on the front of the book - I'll be able to reuse this next year. The book cost $30, and the die was just under $40 to make. I'd recommend it for any other bloggers out there!

13 Month Portrait (Part 2...)

Well, we tried again to take a group photo of the three for their 13-month portrait. Even though it was a different time of day (in the morning), with a different photographer, Coraline still would have nothing to do with it.

So instead we had a few individual portraits done, while Coraline clung to me.

Repairman's Helpers

Today the repairman came, yet again, to work on Nana and Pop Pop's refrigerator. As always, his helpers were eager to watch the show.

Betty's Babbles

Of the three kids, Betty is the one who babbles the most. She doesn't do it the way Arthur does, taking a single word or sound and repeating it over and over again. Instead, Betty has whole conversations in baby babble. She'll answer your questions, talk to herself, talk to the tv, and basically provides a non-stop narration of the day's activities. Her babbling has intonation, pauses, stresses, and inflections. The trouble is that we can't understand a single word. If you tell her you're confused, she'll repeat the exact same "sentence" as if it should be perfectly obvious to us what she is saying. It's like living with a foreign exchange student. Here are a few videos I thought I'd share (though they don't do her language skills justice).

13 Month Portrait (Part 1...)

This afternoon we tried to take the kids in for their thirteen-month-old portrait. But either because the photographer man was a little scarry, or because it was in the afternoon, Coraline was not in the mood at all. She started crying, and became excessively clingy, so we only ended up with a single shot of Arthur. We've rescheduled for Friday morning, and we'll see how it goes...

Free Chick-Fil-A

When we heard Chick-Fil-A was giving away free chicken strips for people dressed in collegiate attire today, we didn't shy away from decking out the girls in their Virginia Tech cheerleader outfits to get a few more orders. Sadly for them, though, Chick-Fil-A uses peanut oil for all of their cooking. The grownups didn't mind though. :)