Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Doctor Coraline


We think Coraline is going to be a doctor just like Grandpa Ken. We're also thankful that Betty was a willing patient as she sat still while Coraline took her temperature for 10 minutes (she said we need to get one of those faster digital thermometers....)

Monday, March 30, 2009

New Gym!


We upgraded our tiny play gym in our living room to a very large play gym. The kids love it! They spent all night sliding down the slide, running around to the side, climbing up the ladder, and returning down the slide. There weren't too many traffic jams, and only once bumped heads on the slide. They wore themselves out so much that Arthur slept in an extra hour the next morning.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Echo!


Every now and again the kids notice that if they stand in a certain spot in Nana and Pop Pop's living room, they can hear an echo when they shout. Of course, it gets a bit loud as they try to figure out the best spot to shout.

Tonight was the first time we had dinner in our dining room, after rearranging the furniture. The triplet feeding table is gone, and now we have chairs with booster seats so we all can sit around one table.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Thursday, March 26, 2009

It's Potty Time!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

BLT's


I tried to make BLT's for lunch today, and turned my back on Betty. Before I knew it, she had reached up onto the counter, and ran off with a whole piece of bacon!

Monday, March 23, 2009

New Neighbors


Now that the weather has warmed up, we finally have met our new neighbors. They have a nice fourth-grader, who brought a friend over to play in our backyard. We think that in a few years, they could be our babysitters!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Seed Table


In the past week our play table has been a sand table, a water table, and now a seed table. The kids love pouring from one container into another. (In fact, if Arthur gets to the breakfast bowls first, he usually dumps all of the cereal together into his bowl, to the consternation of his sisters)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Triplet Chase


Sometimes the kids just have to run around and chase each other. Eventually the girls tired, but Arthur kept making circuits around the kitchen island. (That is, until lap 17 when he hit his head on the table)

Friday, March 20, 2009

First Day of Spring!


While Arthur was off getting his second "real" haircut with Erin, the girls went outside to celebrate the first day of Spring by smelling all of Nana's flowers. We're shocked that there are still this many blooming, as the kids love to pull up flowers, buds, and leaves. We've started explaining to them that they were hurting the flowers, and not to give them "owies." Sometimes it works, but every now and again all three of them go on a nature-destroying rampage.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A New Tooth!


Arthur finally got in a new tooth today! It has been a few months since anyone had gotten any new teeth (and the girls have had a full set for even longer). We almost were convinced that Arthur would only have three front teeth on the top, but we became suspicious as Arthur drooled more and more over the past few days. Today, as he was chewing on his dolly, I peeked in, and sure enough his last incisor (on the right) had just cut through his gums. Betty tried to see it using otoscope Aunt Heather sent them in a Fisher Price medical kit (to help the kids practice for their big visit next month to a pediatric urologist in North Carolina), but I don't think Betty was able to see anything.

Tooth count: A-12, B-16, C-16

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Gaga Visits


As Nana and Pop Pop left on a trip, Grandma Toni (Gaga, as the kids pronounce it) stopped by for the day to help out. They love hanging out with her now, and were eager to have her read them stories.

Monday, March 16, 2009

All Of Our Signs


The rain kept us inside for most of the day again. So between art projects, I decided to quiz the kids on what signs they knew. I had a printout of all the signs they've seen in the "Signing Time" videos (from where they have learned most of their signs), and ran down the list. I was shocked by how many they knew. This is probably the last time I'll make a list, as for many of these signs they have a verbal word to go with them. And they are also getting more complex in their usage. Today when Arthur was told Erin was going to take a shower, he signed "Rain Bath." He's a smart kid.

So after the quiz, I tallied up the words. They know well over 150 signs! Here is the list:
eat, milk, water, ball, more, bird, dog, cat, fish, car, airplane, shoes, flower, baby, sleep, train, doll, bear, please, share, book, socks, drink, dirty, potty, bath, hurt, sorry, stop, go, wait, thank you, apple, cereal, banana, bread, cheese, crackers, ice cream, help, hot, cold, wet, sun, moon, stars, happy, laugh, sad, cry, girl, home, tree, wind, grass, rain, snow, hat, surprised, silly, scared, slick, red, orange, grapes, peach, pear, strawberry, chicken, goat, mouse, cow, donkey, pig, cat, goat, fish, bird, squirrel, duck, rabbit, snail, frog, snake, lizard, bear, bug, spider, mosquito, butterfly, rhinoceros, seal, panda, hippopotamus, zebra, tiger, lion, shark, octopus, crab, lobster, shrimp, monkey, kangaroo, camel, gorilla, crocodile, elephant, penguin, giraffe, awake, brush, comb, shirt, pants, sweater, blocks, build, puzzle, fun, clean, bed, light, picnic, swing, slide, sand, helicopter, bus, boat, motorcycle, stamp, library, restaurant, firefighter, police officer, doctor, grow, cook, kitchen, fork, napkin, knife, spoon, bowl, sandwich, popcorn, peas, tomato, draw, quiet, hat, all done, tired, more, fan, and diaper change.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Road Trip (Sort of)


As the dreary weather is still keeping us from playing outside, we took the kids and their choo-choo wagon to the mall. For the first time we let them play on the mechanical cars. The triplets packed into a pink ferrari, and as the car roared to life beneath them, I am sure they were convinced they were headed on a grand trip to sunny California.

However, the trip was soon abandoned once they noticed the car behind them was a school bus! The bus is their favorite vehicle, and they all love signing and shouting "bus" when we see them in the morning. Arthur was literally bouncing with excitement when I put him in the bus - you can sort of see him signing "bus" and "go!" but he was too excited to sign them fully. (Oh, and I apologize for the song - I wanted to use the Signing Time bus song that the kids love, but I couldn't find it)

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Rainy Days


We're in the midst of a rainy week, and the kids are getting a bit stir crazy. We wanted to take them to the Rec Center to wear them out, but it turns out that there's a gardening expo this weekend. So we're stuck at home working on art projects instead.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Great Aunt Lois Visits


Great Aunt Lois arrived for a visit, and immediately Betty ran over to her to give her a big hug and a kiss. I guess the days of "stranger danger" have passed.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Chores


We always try to get the triplets to help out with chores. Today, after a messy snack, we got out the vacuum. On his own, Arthur was able to go around and clean up (we pointed at where the crackers were ground into the carpet, and he pushed the vacuum over to it). Coraline tried to help out with laundry. And yes, that is a (clean) pair of Pop Pop's underwear around her neck...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Colorful Backyard


The backyard is much more vibrant these days, and not just because Spring is coming. Tree trunks are now striped in pink and green. Garden statues are polk-a-dotted. And Pop Pop is hoping that this weekend the rain will clean off his grill cover.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Coraline's Day at the Hospital


It turns out Coraline's UTI last month was abnormal. First, girls her age shouldn't be getting them, and second, the culture showed that she had a very severe infection. After consulting with three different pediatricians at our office, we decided to take Coraline in for further testing. This wasn't a prospect we looked forward to, as the two prior catheterizations caused Coraline to dread the doctor's office.

So today's visit did not go very well at all. She screamed horrendously during her ultrasound, which is a painless procedure. Her kidneys, though, looked fine. We then took her to radiology for a VCUG. This was more uncomfortable, but Coraline had worn herself out for the most part by this time. (Though we noticed her face was covered in "freckles" from bursting capillaries from screaming so hard)

This test revealed that there was indeed a problem. She has a high-grade reflux between her bladder and left kidney, and a low-grade reflux on her right side. This is coupled with the fact that she wasn't voiding her bladder completely, as we experienced after waiting two hours in the radiology lab for her to relieve herself. We don't know what the next step is, but it seems the choices are to prescribe medicine to prevent further infections and hope her body grows out of it, or to surgically correct the angle of her ureters. We were glad to be done with today's tests, and Coraline got a "Hospital Kitty" from the gift shop to comfort her.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

A Hot Winter Day




Saturday, March 07, 2009

Family Visits


Grandma Toni and Aunt Allison stopped by for a visit. Everyone loved playing with them, and Arthur especially was sad to see Grandma leave. He ran to the door crying out pitifully, "Gaga!" Luckily though, his "Alya" will stay through tomorrow.

Grandpa Ken also arrived for a surprise visit tonight as well, but sadly the kids were already asleep. Betty, though, awoke for a bit to see him.

Friday, March 06, 2009

The Big Melt


All of the snow is melting away. Arthur discovered that Nana's shoes work great as "overshoes," and walked all around the porch in them.

Coraline found the scarf from the snowman, and thought it went well with her outfit.

And Betty enjoyed watching Nana and Pop Pop's creek, which was flowing quite rapidly from all the melting snow.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Playing in the Snow


It's warmed up quite a bit here, and the snow is starting to melt. The kids wore their snowsuits, not for the warmth, but as protection from all the wet snow. Arthur and Sophie had fun exploring in the woods, where the daffodils can be seen peeking up from the snowdrifts.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

19-Month Check Up


Since we were late in making our 18-month appointment, our doctor only had a free space to see all of the kids for when they were 19-months old. So we headed in today for another excruciatingly-long doctor's appointment. (Luckily they were only getting one shot a piece). Arthur weighed 23 lbs, 7 oz (16th percentile), and was 31.5" tall (20th percentile).

Betty weighed 26 lbs, 4 oz (73rd percentile), and was 32" tall (58th percentile).

Coraline weighed 23 lbs 10 oz (36th percentile), and was 30 3/4" tall (24th percentile). And since her last two sick visits to the doctor involved catheterizations, she was not a happy camper at all (and evidentially she told Betty about the horrors of the doctor's office as well). Needless to say, we were thankful to be out of the office in just under two hours. But we'll be taking Coraline back again on Monday for further tests related to her previous UTI.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

2nd Snow Day!


We had out second snow day today, but because it was so cold outside we were trapped in the house. It got a bit claustrophobic.

Oh, and last night Coraline was throwing a tantrum for some reason. So to give her moral support, Arthur and Betty came over, and put their heads down on the couch as well, in solidarity.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Snow Day!