Big Toad!

The kids love exploring the woods around Nana and Pop Pop's house. Today Betty found a large toad (usually we only see tiny toads). We convinced her to not touch it and let it be (especially since she was working on eating her bowl of crackers).

Betty's New Tooth

While we were playing outside today, we decided to check for new teeth, and found that Betty got in a new 2nd molar (top right).

Tooth count: A-16, B-19, C-17

Reading Time With Nana

Hungry?

This video is from the other day, and catches the tail end of a prolonged banging session. Evidently if dinner is not served on time, the natives get restless.

Thirsty?

Today was a very hot day. Arthur loves playing with the hose, and luckily Betty loves being sprayed. Coraline, of course, sat the whole thing out. And on a hot day, there's nothing like a drink from the hose (or sucking up cold water off the asphalt...)

Braids

We're just staring to regularly put the girls' hair up in a pony tail or braids. Usually it lasts between half and hour and an hour before they start complaining and pulling it out. One day, though, we hope they'll get used to it. (Oh, and this is Coraline)

Aunt Allison, Uncle Matt, Grandma and Grandpa Visit

Erin's family drove over from Richmond today to help watch the kids, as Erin frantically prepared lesson plans for the first full week of school. Everyone had a great time, and afterwards they were quite sad to see Grandma and Grandpa leave. They weren't as upset about Aunt Allison's and Uncle Matt's departure, but they did keep talking about how they were running up and down the hill with them.

Hand Holding

I had to take this cute picture with my cell phone - for a brief time, the kids were walking through the mall, all holding hands with Erin and each other. Of course, once the novelty wore off, they wanted to run as fast as they could down the mall. Hand-holding has become popular recently, with Coraline often grabbing Arthur's hand, and leading him around outside.

Building with Bricks

Every now and then the triplets all get involved in some massive project. Today it was building train tracks out of a stack of Nana and Pop Pop's extra bricks. These had been in a stack for over a year now, and for the first time the kids decided to do something with them. Perhaps it was because they recently figured out how to build with their wooden train tracks. Oh, and of course Arthur's dump truck needed to be used to carry each brick to its proper location.

Pandapas Pond Hike

The ABC Kids

Aunt Heather and Uncle Tristan (who are currently en route, moving from the West Coast to the East Coast) gave the kids a new set of ABC shirts for their birthday. It really helps these days, as Betty and Coraline have started looking more and more like each other.

Our Collections

All of the kids have their own collections, that they focus on when they are playing. Now they've even gotten to the point where they know what each other likes, and will bring finds to the appropriate sibling. Coraline loves collecting small balls. On walks, she picks up colorful B-B pellets, and in the backyard she collects spent galls that have fallen off the oak trees around us.

Arthur loves collecting toadstools (we don't call them mushrooms, because you can eat mushrooms - we don't know how poisonous these ones are). At Nana and Pop Pop's house there is an amazing variety of toadstools. Arthur fills up his collecting cups, or the back of his dump truck every single day, and by the next morning, there's a whole new batch for him to find.

Both of the girls love collecting rocks, especially Betty. Usually Betty will hold a rock or two in her hands when she goes places, or even when she naps!

A Shared Seat

2 Year Check Up

We took the kids in today for their two-year checkup, and were pleased to find that there were not any shots waiting for them. Arthur weighed 25 lbs (16th percentile), was 35 in tall (69th percentile), and his head was in the 93rd percentile.

Betty weighed 28 lbs (68th percentile), was 35.5 in tall (93rd percentile), and her head was in the 99th percentile. We also learned that she had an ear infection.

Coraline weighed 26 lbs (45th percentile), was 34.5 in tall (79th percentile), and her head was in the 97th percentile.

First Nap on Mats

A Hot Day

Fun at Steppin' Out

Is There a Doctor in the House?

Playground Fun

We finally too the triplets to the church playground that is literally across the street from us. We hadn't gotten around to it earlier, in part because it was not fenced, and because we thought the playground equipment was a bit advanced for our kids. But now that they are two (and listen better), we felt safe taking them across the street. It turns out they are completely ready for most of the stuff on the playground, including the giant slide. For now though, we'll have to work on teaching them that the giant jungle-gym is only for the big kids!

Triplet Portraits

Nana and Pop Pop's neighbor loves drawing our kids, so every now and then I send her some of the best photos of the triplets for her to draw. Today she dropped off a few sample prints that she had made for her booth at the upcoming Steppin' Out Festival in Blacksburg.

Birthday Video

Here's a cute video from their birthday party in Richmond that I forgot to share.

Hot Day at the Children's Museum

2nd Birthday Party in Richmond