Fall Has Arrived in Doha

A taste of what our lives are like now - everyone in different directions at once . . .

Well, our lives have picked up quite a bit since Aidan finally got independently mobile. Everyone is on the move and has their own ideas about how and when and what they want to do. a few recent stories:

Gavin goes for a ride in the toy box!

We had taken a walk over to the clinic that has opened for our compound to get the boys their followup flu shot. There is a HUGE open space outside of the clinic (there will be a medium sized grocery there soon) and curt was goign to let the boys walk around while we were waiting. Some of the ladies in the reception were entertaining Aidan and Brady and Gavin were having a blast running around. All of a sudden Curt sees Gavin walking toward the side of the GLASS doors. he began to slow down as he approached them as though he saw them and then apparently sped up and BONK! walked right into the glass. OF course he got lots of cuddles, but we couldn't help but laugh a little bit too. poor kid . . .

Brady Boy!

OK, we need some help on this one . .. Brady seems to have some "self-injurious" behavior. In the last month or two he has begun banging his head on the floor when he doesn't get something he wants or when he is upset that something was taken from him. in the last week or so he has escalated things. now, if there something he wants but doesn't get (full water glass, remote control, book, to climb something dangerous, etc) he will hit is head or face several times in a row on something, or he will PUNCH himself in the head while he stares at you. I was changing his diaper the other day (he was upset b/c he had to stop playing to get changed) and he hit himself in the head so hard i could HEAR it - 2 or 3 times. WHERE DOES THIS COME FROM?! The only reference i have seen on self-injurious behavior was around Autism Spectrum Disorders and 1) it didn't define it and 2) he doesn't have any of the other symptoms they discuss associated with ASD, so we just aren't sure what to do. we thought maybe it was for attention because we will see Tess and MArie freak out a little bit when he does it, but we have been with him all week and we try not to react when it happens and it almost seems like it is getting worse. There was one part i read about having to do with self-soothing and head banging - it said 6% of kids do this (the top 6%?:) ) , but this punching himself in the head seems to be 1) not very self soothing and 2) just plain weird. should we be stopping him? ignoring him (what we are doing now)? giving him whatever he wants even if it is dangerous?! any advice will be taken lovingly . . . :)

Brady likes reading!

Brady also is in need of a haircut - he has a SERIOUS mullet going on - business in front, party in back. Curt calls him Billy Ray. but we don't want to get a haircut now since they will be having pictures in a week and a half - not enough time for it to grow out if something happens! The funny thing is we stopped at a place that supposedly focuses on kids cuts and when I tell the woman that they are really wriggly, she says "Oh, no problem. I have a Sri Lanken boy who is very fast. cuts VERY fast!" i just didn't know what to say . . .

Aidan and Gavin enjoy reading in their new easy chairs!

And Aidan. people here say the craziest stuff that is totally rude when they mean it to be nice. This is the second time someone has said to us about the boys that "he [Aidan] is the most handsome/cutest [of the three]". why would you say that even if you thought it?! do you actually expect a parent to agree with you - publicly or privately??? "Why yes, he is the most handsome - the other two had better deveop killer personalities or they will have no chance at finding mates in life . . . " i mean COME ON. at least it is equal opportunity rudeness - i had a woman tell me as a pregnant woman i needed to now wear dresses as pants were unattractive on pregnant women. i was wearing my favorite pregnancy pants at the time. Or they will ask you in the middle of the hallway (or at the pediatrician's office): "My, it looks like you have gained weight - how much?!" umm, none of your frigging business, thank you very much . . .

Aidan the baby rapper . . .

It's finally cool enough for hoodies and socks and shoes! We thought this picture was emblematic of our family - parent trying to get them together while they are trying their darndest to do whatever the hell they want.

one month until vacation . . .

Curt and Belle enjoy the Brazil-England Football match - a night out without the kids!

Aidan is COOL!

Life has been relatively good these last few weeks. About 2 weeks ago, everyone came down with the snots - no fever (thankfully), just snots. Then it began to turn into a cough for brady and gavin. then it was labored breathing for gavin and no one was getting better, so we took them to the dr. THe treatment was at home breathing treatments. and then 3 nights later the poor kid did not stop coughing for more than a half hour at a time. after a 2:45 AM breathing treatment, we decided that we couldn't wait until the dr that morning, so I took him in.

His oxygen saturation was fine, but basically he had 1) so much snot that was irritating his airway that 2) he had to cough a lot which in turn 3) irritated his airway. VICIOUS cycle. so we were admitted around 5 AM , but they spent nearly 45 mins trying to take blood from the kid but couldn't find straight veins. he was poked 3 times and they then called nurses from the NICU (who remembered us from when they were born) to do the IV (since they deal with difficult IV insertions more often). They stuck him 2 more times and i finally asked if he really NEEDED the IV, or if we could just get blood work from a heel prick. so he was stuck a 6th time on the heel and they sent us to get a chest x-ray and to our room.

Gavin is a pacifier salesman - he knows his merchandise!

When we got to our room there was ONLY a crib - no bed for the parent. there was the long couch on the wall of the room - but no pillows, blanket, etc for me. i asked for them to bring in a bed for me since a month prior when we had been there (same room if you can believe that) i had been given a bed. they said it was a 2 week old policy that they no longer gave beds to parents and that i could talk with the head (Qatari) nurse if I wanted to. They said it was a "safety" reason - they didn't want people to put their infants/toddlers on the adult beds. I told them I would be HAPPY to talk with the head nurse, and they needed to go ahead and send one of the guest relations people to talk with me as well - they would hear about how ridiculous this new policy was. And another thing - if this was about safety, i wanted to talk with them about their crib. In the first two minutes I put Gavin in it, he had slipped one leg between the mattress and the side of the crib, which was about a 4 inch GAP. We had had this same situation when he was admitted with the seizure, and we had used all of the blankets and sheets they had given us to fill the gaps. I said that I had done my best with the blankets and sheets they had in the room, but this crib was unsafe by design. It also did not seem to have a mattress that could be lowered. as the crib was about chest height on him (maybe lower now) all he had to do was drop something over the edge and then look down to see where it went (you know, like 14 month olds do) to then topple over with his giant head. so if they were concerned about safety - they needed to get a new crib for toddlers. they didn't know quite what to say. i got a bed a couple of hours later after i had gotten in the crib with him to calm him and try to get him to sleep (and try for shut eye myself).

he ended up staying overnight with curt and came home after lunch the next day. he and brady are still having breathing treatments with their at home nebulizer and aidan treated us with getting a fever thursday afternoon. and passing it on to brady friday night and gavin woke up with one this morning (sigh). Gavin was also diagnosed with our first ear infection. like my friend tracy said, "i'm actually kind of glad there was a medical reason for his behavior", otherwise i would go hide in a closet until he was 8 years old . ..

Happy Birthday Daddy!

otherwise, aidan's light turned on last weekend with walking. we were at the Education City (EC) soccer league games and our friend's daughter Leila is 2 days younger than the boys and has been walking for over a month now. I think Aidan saw her being able to be so independent (and wanting to follow her around?) that he decided to get with it. Being sick he has slowed his efforts a little bit, but he is definitely making it happen for himself - it's very cute!

Halloween 2009 - we dressed as a Hawkeye Family! OR each of the boys dressed up as each other . . .

there is a little girl in the park named Johanna whose family is from the chicago area. mom was a former german HS teacher and speaks german to her kids. it's AWESOME to see. Anyway, brady and aidan have a CRUSH on this little 10 month old. Brady leaned over and kissed her forehead the other day (a big open mouthed slobbery kiss) and she leaned her head into his stomach really gently. Then Aidan toddled over and leaned down and gave her a big open mouthed kiss on the cheek and stood up again. She GRABBED his t-shirt and pulled him down to her and she gae him a big kiss on the cheek. it was SOOOOOOO adorable! Gavin has made a friend with an older boy who he just thinks is the bomb. The boy will try to hug him and talk with him and Gavin just shrieks with delight and falls on him. so funny. i'm sure he will have lots of fun with cousins when we are back in the states!

THe boys are also really beginning to give us some animal sounds. Gavin's favorite is a bear sound - he does it over and over again with a book grandma and grandpa V sent about how these three bears are "all my favorites" - it's so sweet. Brady likes to quack like a duck - only it sounds more like "Caa! Caa!". And Aidan likes to roar like a lion. it takes a few tries to get him going, but then he will just keep doing it. too funny. :) Aidan also likes to talk on the cell phone. He will be blathering away with the cell phone held . . . about 4 inches behind his head. he gets the general area it is supposed to go, but not quite . .. :) Aidan has also begun picking up on the basic signs we have been using for everything from "more" to "food" to "thank you". that last one was a shocker because we have only been using it for a couple of weeks and I know Tess and Marie aren't using it at all. guess he is ready to communicate!

Today curt and i decided we ALL deserved some time watching a Baby Einstein video. I have no qualms about this. I also have no ill-conceived notions it will make me or my kids smarter. though curt and I think they are magic. there are certain parts of the DVDs we both SWEAR we have never seen before. i mean, this is a 22 minute video and there were at least three 30 second scenes today that both of us were like "have you seen that monkey before? me neither" so anyway, the happy family was cuddled up on the couch coughing and breathing heavily through our snotty noses (yes, curt and I are sick too) while we watched Vicent Van Goat do some Van Gogh paintings, and some orangutang stuffed animals play the drums, etc. i think it was my best 22 minutes all day . . . :)

4 minutes of joy . . .

Who doesn't have 4 minutes for some joy in their life? Enjoy :)

Gavin gets tickled . .

Brady gets tickled . . .

Aidan gets tickled . . .

Brady begins to walk and Gavin pushes . . .

The day to day . . .

Gavin likes spinning his wheels . . .

The boys are appraoching 14 months old and are BUSY. Gavin is on fire with his walking. He has begun to stand up by himself without using anything for leverage. It usually takes a few tries (and he's usually whistling while he does it - really) but he is able to steady himself and then off he goes!

Brady must have decided that even though he was last to sit up by himself, crawl and pull up, he was NOT going to be shown up by Aidan and Gavin AGAIN. It's like his light went on this week and he is a walking FOOL. Where Gavin would steady himself and slowly take one step after another in a very deliberate way, Brady has adopted a different approach. He will steady himself, and then make fists out of his hands as he laughs LIKE CRAZY at what he is about to do. He will then walk for 8-10 steps giggling and laughing the whole time. You can't help but laugh - it's just too sweet! Aidan is happy holding a finger as he toddles about. He has begun to get more brave himself and you can see him deciding if he will try to walk to the coffee table from the loveseat, or crawl. Most of the time he will walk toward a soft object (i.e. coffee table to loveseat) and crawl toward a harder object (loveseat to coffee table). Smart kid. He is our climber though. As you can see from the photo below, it is the end of the swing. Curt was showering and I left the boys in the living room as I went in the kitchen for approximately 2 minutes. I come back to find Aidan having climbed into the swing and standing upright. I HAD to take the photo before I got him down. Is that awful of me??? To compromise his safety for a funny photo?

The beginning of the end of the swing . . . Aidan climbs . . .

Tonight after dinner the boys were playing together. It was so fun to watch i didn't even bother to get the video camera. Curt had tossed a blanket over Aidan's head after he climbed on the couch, then anotehr on Brady as Gavin and Brady played peek-a-boo with each other burrowing their heads into blankets and then popping up and laughing at each other. Aidan then threw all of the burb cloths off of the back of the couch one by one, because, hey, that's pretty fun to see them fly!

This morning we came into their room to see that Brady had thrown ALL of the items in his crib onto the floor. His blanket, his small blanket i made for him, his stuffed dog, his stuffed giraffe, his snuggle frog. . . and his pants. Yes, he had taken off his PJ pants and tossed them on the floor. I SO wish we had a camera in there to have seen that little display. Tess reports that during nap time she will peek in and see Gavin and Brady holding hands and laughing (their cribs are closest) and talking while Aidan lays in his cribs and moans about wanting more sleep. We moved Gavin out for about a week since he likes performing for his brothers so much (i.e. waking them up) but he was also beginning to be upset he was by himself. Maybe we will move Aidan this weekend so the kid can get some more sleep since Brady and Gavin don't seem to be bothered by earlier wake up calls . . .

Cute Photos . . .

WHO likes blueberry pancakes? BRADY likes blueberry pancakes!!!

Aidan the day after we got back from Dubai - "Don't LEAVE me Daddy!"

Gavin is happy daddy is home too . ..

Gavin can shove his pancakes in without chewing!

Dad and the boys . . .G, B, A

Tess & Marie taught Brady to do a "stinky face" - can you tell we have lots of dirty diapers for him to practice with?! :)

Aidan digs playing with clothes . . . and wearing mom's scarf as a hijab. Adorable. :)

6 Years of Wedded Bliss!

Swim Time! (G, B, A)

Well, curt and I just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary by abandoning our kids and going to Dubai for 1 night/2 days. It was GREAT! here's how it went down:

we woke up earlier than we wanted on sunday to hearing our kids talking and bouncing and jumping in their cribs. By the time curt had showered and i had put breakfast together for them it was about 645 AM before I went in. I was struck by the OVERPOWERING smell of dirty diapers when I entered the room and just figured all three had given us anniversary gifts. boy was I wrong. I give Aidan, then Brady kisses and then i head over to Gavin and put his head in between my hands as I give him a kiss on the forehead to then see over his shoulder POOP all over his sheets. ALL OVER. I then realize he also has poop in his hair, which I just touched. He isn't upset at all, just poopy. i couldn't stop laughing at his going away present for us.

Curt comes in and I have determined that the only way to come close to cleaning this kid will be with a full bath (luckily he LOVES bath time). we do our best on a towel to get his shirt off, and wipe him down, get the diaper off and wipe him down and then i take him to the tub. He is completely confused since this is NOT his normal routine - baths in the a.m.??? he then decides to not look a gift horse in the mouth and go all out enjoying it. Curt cleans up the crib area (uggh) and gets the other two changed. we are still laughing at this mess of a child. he sure knows when we are going to leave him and how to send us a message!

we proceed to have a normal family breakfast, and some playtime (with clean up intermixed - i mean it was REALLY dirty - take the mattress top off and do some serious cloroxing dirty) before Tess and Marie get here. We put the boys down for their morning nap before we jet off to Dubai. The funny thing is while it was hard to leave them, it also felt really good knowing they were being left in good hands and curt and i could spend some quality time together.

We are now "silver" members with Qatar Airways which means we can check in at the business class lines AND we can use the business class lounges, even though we decidedly fly economy. As their tagline says - "Privilege has its priveleges". Ridiculous. and yet, i will not ignore a free lunch. We stayed at a LOVELY resort with beach access, several pools and CAMELS being walked up and down the beach! We had late afternoon tea at the Burj Al Arab (the 6 star hotel that looks like a sail), shopped for a friend's child's b-day and then enjoyed the SUITE we were upgraded to when we told them it was our anniversary!!! (since we almost never get anything for having triplets, we were HAPPY to take this!) Today we slept in (7 AM doha time/8AM dubai time), had REAL bacon for breakfast at the outdoor cafe downstairs and then spent the rest of the morning by the pool. There was plenty of people watching for me and the water was refreshing (which means it is chilled) for Curt (it's still in the high 90s people). We splurged and each had a massage and then caught our 7PM flight home to Doha. We missed putting the boys down, but went in to see their sweet sleeping bodies flung about the crib. Tess and Marie of course, took great care of them and reported the boys were just delightful while we were gone. Let's hope they will be as happy to see us in the morning!

In other news, Gavin is our first active walker. It's only a few steps at a time, but he is the only one who is REALLY into it. Let's hope the others catch on that this is a cool thing . . . He is also into wearing a hijab . . .:) enjoy!

Gavin wears hijab . . .

Seizures are Scary

I will start this post with letting you know EVERYONE IS OK.

Maybe Gavin will go into EMT or rescue work

On Saturday, the last day of our Eid break, Gavin decided to scare the living crap out of us. He had been having an up and down (but pretty high) fever since Friday and we were just treating him with Tylenol/Motrin for the fever. He also had some lower GI stuff (let's just say LOTS of dirty diapers. LOTS.) but when his fever was down he was playign and happy. When it was up he was fussy and felt crummy.

They had been woken up from their afternoon nap about 3:40PM and he was due for his next dose at 4:30PM. Curt was changing Aidan , Brady was crawling around and I was holding Gavin. I had just said, "Man, this kid feels like he is burning up! I need to take his temp" When suddenly he sort of threw his body back (like he does when he is fussy) but he didn't come back up to my shoulder. I looked at him and in a voice that now seems like it came from someone else said "He's having a seizure." Curt looks at me and says "What?!"and as I put him on the floor and proceed to cry and say, "He's having a seizure! Oh my God!". Then it was chaos. Aidan and Brady were both crawling around and crying, but not coming over to us on the carpet. Curt ran to get our chart for tracking meds doses, then the baby book so I could look up about febrile seizures (since I had read about it and was CERTAIN it would never happen to us, i had skimmed this section) and what the F*%@ we were supposed to do. I don't know if you have ever tried to look something up while you are 1)crying 2) freaking and 3) trying to comfort your baby who is STILL SEIZING - it's not productive. at all. It ended up lasting about 2 or 3 minutes and seemed like a lifetime.

Curt called our life safer Jen S. and asked her to come and stay with the other two since we were going to need to go to the hospital. Curt then picked Gavin up as I went to call the ambulance. When Gavin stopped seizing he went completely limp. Curt says this was scarier than the seizure - i have to beleive him since he was holding Gavin. It looked really scary from where i was. We then had Gavin on the couch in his diaper with cold wet towels on him, a bag of frozen cauliflower (he may never eat that again) on the towels and me kissing his head and tryign to calm him and give him his tylenol dose early as he cried and curt got stuff togther for what we would need for the hospital.

Basically, he had a febrile seizure which can happen as a temp rises VERY quickly. By the time he had vitals at the hospital 30 min after his tylenol dose his temp was 40.6 C (105F). i can't even tell you how wired curt and I were. Luckily Jen and her husband are AMAZING - he called other friends of ours to help her out while we were gone and they came over right away (stanfield's and aunt coco) for moral and physical support. By the time I came home to get stuff for my overnight stay with Gavin, the boys were ready for bed and GLAD to see mom with all of the commotion. They did NOT want me to leave and fought going to bed. They knew something was wrong.

Gavin and I stayed overnight at the hospital and he was checked pretty much around the clock to control his fever and try to ensure he had no more seizures (which he didn't). we now know that his brothers could be prone to this and he is most definitely prone to this until he is about 6 years old, so if we sound paranoid about any fevers in our house, you know why. If I never relive that afternoon, it will be too soon.

Gavin was released the next day and while he still had a fever it was lower and we have some strategies now with meds to treat it more effectively. On tuesday, his fever broke and he woke up with a nice RASH all over his torso and face. Can you guess this common childhood disease? That's right folks, Roseola! Exactly what Aidan had this summer, only with more drama. Had we just had the 4 days of fever i think we would have recognized it as roseola right away, but since saturday and sunday felt like ETERNITIES, i said "kids don't "just get rashes" after fevers like this" and took him in. The Dr. was great for both examining Gavin and reassuring me (and yes, I did cry a little in her office going through our recent history).

It wasn't until Monday night Curt and I were both able to put the boys down and unwind a bit - and have ourselves a good cry together. We were both OBVIOUSLY scared. And so thankful that he was going to be fine. It just reminds you of the paper thin edge we live on between life being excellent and then feeling like you are careening out of control. We have definitely been counting our blessings - the small, medium and large ones. :)

When one boy swings, everyone wants in on the action - B, G, A

Aidan looks like he has tanning cream on the lower half of his face!

Brady likes Star Wars

The Joys of Post-Ramadan

Brady and Dad on the swings


This is my favorite week to live in Qatar. The week after Ramadan (the month of fasting and shorter workdays which gets OLD, my friends) we get a week off from work. All of our colleagues travel, but I am on duty 1) b/c someone has to be and 2) so I can add this on to my vacation in the states in December! I don't know if you have ever taken a week off of work but stayed home, but it is actually REALLY relaxing. even with three rugrats who are into EVERYTHING. :)

The first night of our break we fell asleep on the couch by 8:15 PM and were in bed by 9PM. awesome. there is nothing like 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep to do a body good. since then we have been in a nice little routine - occasional walk to the park (still pretty much too hot and humid to be outside very long), some playing in the sand (and yes, both Aidan and Gavin decided to try to eat ROCKS), occasional trip to an "illegal" neighborhood pool, a lunch out, etc. it's been great.

Gavin shows a little skin in mid-tantrum

The boys are eating up a storm. We had our first meal "out" with them since we were in Des Moines this summer where the highchairs straps didn't work and the boys were either climbing out or throwing rice on the floor. not fun. OUr friend Kevin foolishly called to meet us for lunch yesterday and said he would be happy to help with the kids. I have known for awhile we needed to start doing this with the boys, if only to get them used to being out in public and just to have something different to do. I got these great kiddopotomus placemats that stick down and have a pocket and then just roll up when you are done (thanks Lindsay W for the recommendation!) even though after our lunch in des moines curt said he would never go anywhere with the boys until they were about 6 years old. HA! anyway, we took them to Applebees (your friendly neighborhod restaurant, even in the middle east!) and they were SOOOOO good. the key is of course to keep them busy. They are too young for coloring, but since they LOVE food, that was our ticket in. they were also jazzed to get all of the attention from teh staff, to look at the different environment and all of the people coming in and out. it was pure heaven for them. Now, I have never really paid much attention to kid's menus until now. MAN do they suck for any decent healthy menus - at least here. They boys split chicken fingers and a grilled cheese and fries and broccoli. there was an option to ask about their "healthy" options instead of fries. I think i was the first parent to ever ask for this. the waitress literally did not understand my question, even after showing her where we were reading on the menu. she then tells us the healthy options are mashed potatoes (for 1 year olds, not in public thanks), or a baked potato. we finally got her to share they could give us steamed broccoli, but it really did seem like it was completely out of their day to day requests. On our way home the boys seemed like they were SPENT. they didn't sleep, but they did look like the guy who did the Supersize Me movie - like they had just ingested enough fat and salt for a week. Luckily they still were HAPPY to eat the tofu and acorn squash for their dinner that day. I think all of the fried food was jsut a little much for them all at once.

We also had friends offer to be our third adults and go swimming at a local pool with us. It's not in our compound (that is supposed to open "in shallah" - i'm thinking god is NOT going to "will it" before the end of the calendar year :( ) but a colleague who has the authority to, told me to go ahead and use it since we had small kids with little options to get them outside right now. it was AWESOME. Gavin had a perma-grin on his face the entire time we were there. I think he drank half of the pool water, but he didn't care. Aidan was much more reserved and Brady was just taking it all in while he clung to curt or me.

Some last bottles for Aidan and Gavin

And of course, what are the boys up to these days? well for starters, Aidan is our little climber. he first used a pillow to climb on the couch, but has since been able to haul himself up by grabbing on to us, cushions, putting his little knee on the couch, etc. it's really cute, but also a little nervewracking since it's his new favorite activity. He of course now wants to climb EVERYTHING - coffee table, entertainment stand, etc. He is really pushing the envelope with what he can get away with, but has also entered a really snuggly and cuddly stage that is so nice. i'm really reticent to end the bottles when we are out of formula in a couple of days, but if we still get snuggles like this, it will be easier for me.

Super Aidan

And Brady is asserting his independence. It's not that he doesn't like the food we serve, he sometimes just doesn't feel like eating it at that time. He has started a nasty habit of throwing food on the floor which has resulted in standoffs that resemble this: He picks up the egg/pepper/fruit/toast/whatever and puts his hand out over the floor when he doesn't feel like eating it. We will see him do this and will say "Brady, do NOT throw that on the floor." He will then sit there with this shit-eating grin on his face for 10-30 seconds and then PLOP! drop the food on the floor. SO UNFURIATING. this means he loses his tray and is done eating whatever we are currently feeding them (but if there is another course, like the fruit, he can have some of that), or he may be done for the meal. This has involved him sitting in his highchair without his tray and watching his brothers eat quite a bit lately. He will cry for the first minute and then sit there just taking it all in until we bring out the next course. He also thinks "no" is funny. like HILARIOUS. also, infuriating. he is our little fire marshall though. his new favorite trick is closing doors. the big ones. he will see his bedroom door is open, crawl purposefully down the hall and then slam the door, only realizing later that he is now locked inside. it drives him CRAZY if he didn't shut the door hard enough and it stays just kind of propped. This is funny to watch, but also a little scary since he has now caught his fingers in a door more than once as he tried to make it shut.

And Gavin. He is our rough and tumble boy. He does not yet get that he may be hurting or annoying his brothers as he "plays" with them. Gavin and Aidan have this great game where they will steal each others pacifiers back and forth ( see video below). Sometimes this results in sadness (see end of video) but it can usually go for quite awhile with them giggling and squealing at each other. The other morning he had his pacifier and was trying to take aidan's while they were standing in between two cribs. Aidan is behind him against the wall and Gavin is holding on to the pacifier in Aidan's hand with ALL HIS MIGHT and turning bright red and screeching. Aidan has begun to cry and complain about the situation when Gavin loses his balance and lands his nearly 24 lbs on aidan's 20 lbs. This is reminiscent of much of how Gavin plays with his brothers when he gets over excited. We only had some bruised egos on this one (everyone lost their pacifiers after this little incident) but we are constantly worried he will accidentally take them down and acutally hurt them as they hit a table or something. He doesn't do this stuff to hurt them, he just gets wrapped up in the toy or game and can NOT let it go. we had to take a mom/gavin time out this afternoon after he was SO excited about the ball toy (plays music, shoots balls in the air) that he kept falling over on it and subsequently making the toy hit one of his brotehrs in the head/face/hand/etc. It took him a solid minute to get his breathing slowed down and to be able to focus on a different toy with me, out of sight of the original toy. He is also actively trying to walk - he will stand with one hand on something and you can see him set his concentration to try to walk to one of us or another piece of furniture JUST out of reach. It's so exciting to watch - and maybe it will mean his lazy brothers will bother trying too. :)

Stealing Pacifier Game - Aidan and Gavin

Happy Birthday to Us!

Happy Family - Mom and Dad, Aidan, Gavin and Brady

We can hardly believe it's been an entire year since the boys burst onto the scene (no c-section pun intended)! We started off the big birthday week with their one year appointment and vaccinations - FUN! Here are the stats:

Aidan - 20.24# and 28.58 inches long

Brady - 21.66# and 28.54 inches long

Gavin - 23.7# and 28.85 inches long

Truly, Small, Medium and Large. :) Funny story with their vaccines. After meeting with our Dr. and getting them signed off for vaccination, the nurse comes and asks if we can come back in 3 days (on their b-day) to get the shots. She says they aren't supposed to give the vaccines before they turn one year old and that if they give them prior to their birthday, we may have to get them re-done. Curt asks (somewhat sarcastically) if the vaccines won't work prior to 365 days passing from birth and she says we can insist on the vaccination, but we should really talk with the dr. We of course think she has taken crazy pills, since the dr. just signed off and said they were ready for vaccination, but i went back to the dr's office to check in with him and see what the hell she was talking about. He seemed surprised to see me and when i shared what she shared with us (about not having them prior to one year and needing to have them re-done) he gives her a LOOK, looks at me and says - "3 days?" I laughed and said, "if you are OK with it, we are DEFINITELY OK with it" and he says "the nurses have a different protocol". So I looked at the nurse and said "we are going to go with the Dr's protocol". Can you IMAGINE asking parents of multiples to not only miss another day of work but to get their squirmy children BACK to the dr. because they are 3 days ahead of their birthday?! That is the difference between teaching critical thinking skills and using rote memorization when training people. I don't say this to be sarcastic or mean, but only to be truthful about the sometimes challenging decisions people make in their jobs because the exact situation isn't outlined in the manual. All three boys were VERY good abotu their shots and only cried at the prick and surprise. Within moments they were back to their sweet selves (thanks in part to the tylenol mom gave them before we went to the dr.).

We had a small birthday gathering with some friends, but due to the SNA (snotty nose alert) we had to put out the morning of the party (aidan and gavin were SNOT machines and Brady got it that night) only one child came - who then got sick 2 days later on HER birthday. hey, we warned everyone and gave them an easy out. :)

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to - Brady

Anyway, Aidan and Gavin seemed to roll through the additional people in the apartment, but Brady had his shy hat on most of the afternoon. By the time we did cupcakes for the boys (about a half hour in) he had HAD it. He basically cried the entire time his brothers ate and watched him freak out. At least we got some good pics. :)

Once people weren't focused on him, he was able to calm down and play with some new toys and crawl near Leila (born two days after them) and watch her while she was fussy. It was very cute. Curt and I were just happy everyone got through year one without any major trauma - the boys OR us. :)

All three of the boys seem to be on the edge of a skill exposion. Of course they still will only say dada/gaga (Gavin is now babbling and fully responds to us talking to him - it's like he turned his switch on the week before his first birthday!) - but they are DEFINITELY communicating with each other and are understanding what we tell/ask them. Gavin is still standing the longest and the steadiest, but he hasn't really tried to make any steps. You can see him thinking about it as he wants to go from one place to another, but he inevitably plops on his bottom and crawls. Aidan on the other hand has taken a no holds barred approach with trying to walk. The other night he was standing by one end table and decided, seemingly on a whim, to walk over to the coffee table - about 3 feet away. He just basically THREW his body in that direction and hoped for the best. Kind of like drivers in Doha's roundabouts. :) Brady on the otehr hand is still mastering standing without support. He likes to climb up Curt or I as we are sitting/laying on the ground and then push himself to fully standing while he sticks out his tongue. and then crashes on us and laughs as he gets up to do it again.

And yes, I'm VERY mushy about the first year already passing. I can't BELIEVE how fast it has gone by for me. My parents had a pastor who talked about time and the speed with which it passes in a way that made a lot of sense to me. He said at your first birthday you have lived 100% of your life in that year - so it can seem like a long time. At your second birthday, you have lived 1/2 of your life in that year, so it may seem to pass more quickly. And so on. So in my 32nd year (when they were born) i lived 1/32nd of my life - in comparison with my life as a kid, it really has passed more quickly. Think how much longer summers seemed when you were in grade school. They were like whole years in and of themselves as a kid. And now it's a blink of an eye before it's almost fall and then winter again. (sigh). well, unless you live a mile from the sun like we do, then it seems like forever since you went outside without sweating profusely, but you know what i mean.

Brady gets his swim hair on!

Gavin has a good hair day

No photos please - Aidan

Someone has a drinking problem . . . - Gavin, Dad, Aidan

Brady Recovers

Our floors are really clean now . . .

Tonight was a doozy. I may or may not have mentioned this in the past, but diaper rash is a pain in the butt, and yes, i did mean the pun. We have been battling diaper rashES (yes, X3) for over a month now. it's BRUTAL. we have been to the dr 3 different times, had naked time, gotten a special wash that we use twice a day on everyone, have about 10 creams and lubes we use, and while we can ALMOST heal them on the weekend, after a few days with us at work, they are coming back. We are doing some investigative work about diapers and bums while we are gone for the day, but this at least gives you backdrop as to HOW annoyed we are with our current routine.

Usually we get everyone ready for bed in the living room. Plenty of room to climb on all kinds of stuff, fairly safe, not too much tile floor for people to conk themselves on and i will admit, we often play scooby doo for them to zone out to while we are doing our butt wash, then butt ready-ing routine. TOnight we decided to lock them in their bedroom with us since the bathroom is closer and we have to bring everything away from the diaper changing station and then bring it back in the morning - also annoying. We also decided to do more naked time in between the washing and the cream-ing to help dry these butts OUT! usually we put the diaper on for our safety and to avoid any clean up, but we were feeling daring i guess. fools.

I was washing baby #3 and Curt looks over to see Aidan standing in between 2 of the cribs completely still. that kid doesn't sit still FOR ANYTHING. except when he is pooping apparently. on the floor no less. Curt immediately goes to make sure he won't sit in it, play with it, etc and i look to see the ginormous puddle under Gavin's crib - courtesy of Aidan. Of course, I am LAUGHING my head off while i'm trying to wash Gavin and hand Curt a towel to clean aidan on, some wipes for the floor clean up, etc. Brady and Aidan are now interested in whatever Curt does NOT want them to do - mainly crawl near the poop or under the crib. it's pandemonium (i love that word).

we have then moved on to the second part of the routine - the creams. Keep in mind we have to wash our hands thoroughly in between each diaper area contact - so i am washing my hands 6 TIMES in the span of about 20 minutes. I come back from the bathroom (we had the door to their room closed) and Curt says, "is there something by the door?" I just see a couple of damp spots and assume it is from their soapy little behinds and say, "no, i think . . . (gasp) oh NO!" yes, someone else had peed (Aidan was diapered by now, so this is an accusatory look directed at Brady and Gavin!) and then proceeded to crawl through it and all over the general area. It looked like marks from a monster truck derby - only with pee on the wood floor. Out come the clorox wipes again, then of course keeping everyone away from the area - the ONLY place they want to be now. then wiping away the clorox so they don't eat that . . . it was EXHAUSTING.

We have now dubbed our long hallway the "Trail of Tears". Nightly it seems the boys cry their way down the hallway as we are bringing them from baths to eating, or just as they cry up and down the hallway before they eat their last bottle.

Gavin has begun whistleing. It is adorable. He will be concentrating on a toy, or standing while holding something and you will see him purse his lips and whistle for a little bit. It's almost like he doesn't know he does it, but it is happening more and more often, so maybe he is putting on a show for us. He is also doing the BEST at standing unassisted! Tonight he pulled up on the side of the loveseat and grabbed a small blanket sitting on the arm. He then let go of the couch as he examines the blanket for about 15 seconds! It wasn't until I said "Good boy Gavin!" that he then looked at me and plopped on his bottom. Aidan and Brady will play the game where they will stand between our legs and then when we let go of them they will fall in a direction and we will catch them. They LOVE it (Aidan has adopted the Austin Powers style of falling - "It's turbulance baby!" with his arms up by his head and falling on his tummy) but I think they love the being caught more than the standing for the 3 seconds.

Things I Thought Would Digest . . .

Gavin, Aidan, Brady

Grapes.

Strawberries.

Squash.

But, no. they come out almost like they went in. For those of you who are parents, I do not need to go into any more details about how i know this. For those of you with more sensitive natures, you do not WANT me to go into any more details about how I know this. :)

Tonight was a complete meltdown night. It started off innocently enough - bath time with a few spats of crying from Gavin when he was not in the tub and as he was being taken out. Otherwise, even Aidan was pretty chill. Then as I was finishing lubing Aidan up and getting him into PJs, all hell broke loose as Curt made bottles. It sounded like Gavin was being tortured. Apparently sitting in the kitchen and watching dad make bottles is akin to torture when you are a hungry boy. Brady can hear Gavin shreiking from the kitchen and he decides he will now show empathy and he begins to cry - and of course Aidan joins in. Aidan and Brady are crying all the way down the hall (did I mention tile has a low co-efficient for sound absorption - i.e. it magnifies rather than silences?) like I just told them we weren't going to feed them tonight.

Until tonight we have still needed to feed two while one waits (usually Brady - his brothers better appreciate his patience!). Sometimes they will hold their bottles, but it has been hit and miss. After the spectacle down the hall i told curt i would feed two. He said, "Nope - if they are hungry they can hold their own damn bottle tonight!" and sure enough ALL THREE DID! I guess when you are hungry/distressed enough you will make it happen for yourself. :)

In case you are wondering what parents of triplets do for fun, I will tell you. We impersonate our kids. Yes, every once in awhile one of us will turn to the other and say, "hey, who am I?" and proceed to ham it up for the other person. It pretty much leaves us both in stitches since 1) our kids are pretty funny and 2) we have a low threshold for humor with our current lives. The good news is it's almost always their more endearing qualities we are impersonating - no one wants to relive nights like tonight. :)

Aidan says, "How YOU doin'?"

Today Aidan discovered the drapes and the sheers (one is a black out shade and one allows light in but so it's not so bright/hot). He was LOVING swishing them around himself and playing "Where's Aidan?". He actually had wrapped one of the drapes all the way around himself so you could only see part of his little bottom and then would unveil himself with a SWOOSH. too cute. He then of course lost his balance briefly and fell straight back from the drape, landing on the rug under the dining room table. Not the softest of spots, but better than the tile floor lurking underneath. He kept his eyes on me while I talked him through it - but he never cried. it was a breakthrough for him! He pretty much always lets you know when he has fallen/hurts himself, however mild.

Dad and Gavin

GAVIN UPDATE: We had more extensive hearing tests for Gavin on Thursday and he passed all of them with flying colors. He was SUCH a good boy - in some ways I love taking the boys to the Dr. because they are usually pretty chill (Gavin just hung out in my lap in the waiting room for 20 minutes and watched people - no toy or anything!) and it's a chance to see what it's like for singleton parents (seriously - ONE to chase? heaven).

Anyway, the Dr. recommended we do another hearing test to test the brain stem response (basically, he is hearing, but to make sure it is sending the correct signals to the brain - or something like that). We are waiting to see if a speech pathologist friend thinks we should do this test (it will involve him missing a nap AND a meal, and then an hour and a half long test where he is supposed to be put into a deep sleep - not sure if we want to put him OR us through this), or if we should just keep using his name 100X more than anyone would in ordinary conversation . . . and wait for his development to kick in. More later . . .

Bye, Bye Baby Bottles

Brady looks for his brothers

Now that the boys are 11 months old (TODAY!) we have dropped down to just one bottle at night. That means they are eating loads of solid food at least 3 times a day and whatever they can beg from Curt or I as we snack. :) They had their first all finger-food meal this weekend with some chicken, green beans and shredded apples. It took them at least 30 FULL minutes to eat, but they were happy and content the whole time and were willing to eat whatever strays we helped get into their mouths.

Gavin and Aidan are little beggars for my apple

Pretty much everyone is now standing to greet us when we come in their room in the morning which is pretty fun. The down side is without 2 bottles a day, it's going to be hard to get the snuggles I need since they no one likes sitting still for very long! Aidan has started a very loving game where he will sit on your lap with his back to you and then bob back and forth and bounce off of your body. Every once in awhile he will look back at you to make sure you are paying attention and he'll giggle as he continues to bounce off of you. This morning I was reading a couple of books to Gavin and had a leg stretched out on either side of him. Aidan crawled right over and took a book we weren't reading (surprise surprise!) and proceeded to lay with his head on my thigh and leaf through the book himself. Pretty adorable. It's so funny to see "adult" behaviors from these little ones.

Mom reads to Gavin and Aidan

I can't believe a year ago today I was 1) pregnant and hot as hell and 2) Curt and I still had so much freedom! One year later I am 1) NOT pregnant, but it's still hot as hell and 2) Curt and I have much less freedom. We went to a friend's pool party this weekend with the boys and in order to enjoy ourelves a little bit, we pushed their bedtime back. I don't know how often we will do that (we do pay for it with a pound of flesh), but it was good to get in a pool and to hang out with some friends, even if we were a little distracted the whole time. All 3 decided they did NOT want to be held by anyone else while we were in the pool. At least they don't weigh as much in the water, but it was still kind of a pain - and WAY too hot for any one to be out of the water. Hopefully that was just due to lots of new people and a new place, otherwise, i don't know if I can handle that clinginess for too long! :)

Sleepy time Brady . . .

Speaking of weight we have Aidan weighing in at 20+ lbs, Brady at 21.5 lbs and Gavin at 23 lbs! Gavin is 75% for his head size (giant head, like sputnik), between 50 and 75% for his weight and (don't laugh) 25% for his height! No wonder the PJs for 12 - 18 months are so long on him! We will get everyone's 411 in a month, but i think it's funny we have so much variation in one kid!

Brady and Daddy snuggle

They have also begun playing together more. Sometimes this results in giggles and good photo opportunities and sometimes this results in tears. Gavin and Aidan pretty much try to run Brady over if he is standing somewhere they would like to go, resulting in tears. However yesterday Curt watched Gavin repeatedly push on Brady while they were both on the floor and the two of them got to giggling at themselves like crazy. Gavin also went in for Aidan's pacifier, lost his balance and landed on top of the kid! yep, you guessed it - tears.

The boys love their toy from Grandma and Grandpa V!