The Soccer Player

For the past few days, Coraline has been showing off her soccer skills. I tried to tell her that she wasn't supposed to use her hands, but she told me she was the goalie so it was ok.

1 Year Appointment

Today we took the kids in for their 1 year appointment. We were surprised to find another round of shots awaited us, as did blood tests for lead and hemoglobin counts. The pediatrician was again shocked to see how well the triplets were doing, and the toddlers were equally shocked to see the four needles.

Arthur weighed the least, at 21 lbs, 6 oz (29th percentile), and was 30.75" tall (80th). His head was 48.5" around (95th?)

Betty weighed 23 lbs, 12 oz (88th ), and was 31.5" tall (95th plus). She's by far the biggest and the tallest of the three. Her head also measured 49.5" around. The pediatrician said that her head was over the 100th percentile, but we can't quite figure out that math. We do see that her height is off the chart as well, but what terminology is accurate?

Coraline weighed 22 lbs, 2 oz (70th), and was shortest at 30.5" tall (94th). Her head measured 47.5" around. Our next visit is in three months, for more shots.

I Scream, You Scream

We all scream for ice cream!
Well, there actually wasn't much screaming at all. Following upon our success at Red Robin, we hit Cold Stone Creamery today with our four free ice cream certificates. We couldn't believe that they would give large ice cream bowls to one-year olds, so while Arthur, Betty, and Coraline enjoyed a few spoonfuls, we were happy to help them finish the rest.

Eating Out

Since we had four birthdays on August 2nd, we had received in the mail four "free birthday meals" from Red Robin. So we decided to take the kids out to a restaurant for the very first time. (I had to talk to the manager to let us us all of them at one meal).

It went amazingly well, and the kids loved the free balloons that were given them. Before the food came, we let them walk around the restaurant, and Arthur immediately made a bee-line for the arcade games.

They loved the meal and they ate mac and cheese and grilled cheese. The only incident was when Arthur grabbed my full ice water glass and dumped it on my lap. But we can't wait to do it again next year!

Happy Birthday, Part II

So we were having a great time at the party until Coraline found a Doritos chip on the ground. She walked into the kitchen coughing, as the sharp object had lodged in her throat. Erin had to pick her up, turn her upside down, and hit her back until Coraline threw up a few times and dislodged the chip.

Arthur playing with the drink bucket followed this incident. It had been a hit with the kids, and they had all gathered around it for a while, and Betty picked out a beer for herself. Arthur wanted to see how much trouble he could actually get into, having already figured out how to open the latch on the deck’s gate. So he tried to climb up the side of the bucket. Within moments, he flipped inside the bucket head first, immersing himself in the icy water. Erin leapt up, and pulled him out by his feet. Though cold and soaked, this didn’t faze Arthur in the least.

So all in all, Erin, Arthur, Betty, and Coraline had a wonderful birthday, and we had a great time at the party. Oh, and Coraline got her fourth upper tooth on her birthday as well.

Tooth count: A-3, B-8, C-8

Happy Birthday, Part I

Only a parent of multiples would consider a party a great success in which the party itself was rained out, one child almost choked to death, and the other tried to drown himself. (Though we’re not saying that there isn’t room for improvement for next year...)
Last night Aunt Allison arrived, as well as second cousin Deb and Kim. We went over to Nana and Pop Pop’s house first thing in the morning to help prepare for the big day. We put all the decorations outside, arranged tents, chairs, and food stations, and then watched the sky begin to darken. Grandma Toni, Grandpa Carter, and Uncle Matt arrived, followed by a thunderstorm, and it proceeded to rain during the whole three hours of the party.

We relocated indoors, and were soon met by family friends Mike and Kay. Arthur, meanwhile, decided to take the longest nap of his life, and missed out on the opening festivities. Neighbors came over bearing gifts, including a wonderful pencil portrait of the trio.

The birthday cakes went quite well; Arthur of course dug into his immediately and had a grand time making as large a mess as he could.

Betty was much more reserved, tasting the whipped cream frosting delicately with one finger, and then pointing at the cake and talking about it. We told her it was a no-sugar banana and raisin cake, and eventually she did end up eating some.

Coraline enjoyed it as well, digging in and eating most of the cake. And after the three birthday presents I gave Erin last year turned out to be so much work, this year I decided to give her a book. Tomorrow I’ll post a video of the day.

Party Planning

Great Aunt Shirley arrived last night. She's the Martha Stewart of Vermont, and has been a great assistance in the party planning for the great quadruple birthday blast. (Here she's teaching Arthur to say "tick tock").

To give Nana a break from the kids while she prepared the house for the party, we took everyone to Steppin' Out, Blacksburg's "large" town fair. We had a lot of fun, but it was quite hot outside. Betty showed off her high IQ by unscrewing her water bottle, and dumping it over herself to get cool. The idea backfired, though, when we later put her in the air-conditioned car for the ride home.

Upon arriving home, we found a huge birthday package from Aunt Heather, Uncle Tristan, and their cousins. The kids loved opening up the gifts, and had a fun time playing with the finger puppets, the push toy, the farm animals, and the magnetic truck.