It's the little things . . .

Life in the fast lane has been going well for the VuKenoyer's these days. Curt and I have been appreciating the small wins in our lives as the boys grow bigger such as:

When we already have a babysitter for a work thing and that work thing runs short - we take advantage and go for a walk before we head up to the apartment.

When we are exhausted, we thank the good lord the boys still take a third nap in the evening - even if it's only for an hour.

When we don't think we could change ANOTHER dirty diaper, we are happy that at least this means their bodies are doing what they should with all the yummy solids they are now eating. :)

And of course - their smiles and giggles and laughter - I don't think I know ANYONE who is as happy as they are when they wake up. We are always excited to go in and get them because from the moment they realize they are awake, they get this big, goofy grin on their face and start wriggling and giggling when they see us. how great is that?!

Yesterday the boys were playing on the mat we got for them (big foam puzzle pieces that fit together and have the alphabet on them). they have an orgy of toys spread out before them and Gavin and Aidan are beginning to scootch around for more interesting pastures. Curt looks up to see Gavin whining - he had backed him self up to the couch and had gotten his chubby little legs STUCK under the couch! Curt had to move it up and back to get Gavin out from under it. HILARIOUS! Aidan is like a whirling dervish with all of his rolling tummy to back, back to tummy. he loves to stand up, but practically refuses to sit up on his own. he's going to be walking around the house, but need a bumbo to sit up with the rest of the family!

I accidentally played a little too rough with sweet Brady this week. :( Usually when i come home from work, i take whichever boy is done eating and take them back to our room while i change and bounce them on the bed, etc for a few minutes of mom time. Brady was giggling and wriggling around as I was bouncing him with my hands. Then i began bouncing up and down on me knees and (gasp!) got his little arm under one of my knees. He had the saddest most surprised face (and as soon as i felt it i stopped bouncing) and then of course he started to cry. I felt SOOOOOOO bad. he recovered pretty quickly and i checked to make sure there was no permanent damage once we was giggling again, but MAN did that have me sweating . . . no more monkies bouncing on the bed . . .

And last night I realized Curt was basically a saint. I don't know if any of you had dreams that your baby was sleeping in bed with you (and of course concerns you would smother it with blankets or pillows) but i was having them for MONTHS! I have taken pillow cases off of pillows belieivng I was unwrapping babies from swaddles. I would wake curt up (sometimes to yell at him for not helping me with putting the babies back in their cribs - oops) in a panic only to have him waken me and help me realize there was no baby in bed with us, never had been, never will be. Lucky for curt those dreams had gone away for me. Until last night.

Lately the boys are really into watching us drink water and trying to drink from a cup themselves. You can see where this is going. Last night I dreamt that Aidan was in bed with us and that he wanted to try some water from my glass. I had taken the water glass I keep at my bed side and proceeded to POUR A FULL GLASS IN OUR BED (I'm not making this up). I of course wake up soaked and say to Curt "Will you pelase take Aidan?!" to which he calmly replies "what are you talking about? there is no baby in bed with us. what on earth were you doing?" I then try to take the sheets off (still in darkness) and curt encourages me to turn the light on (to prove there is no baby, to see what i'm doing, to see who has kidnapped his wife and replaced her with a raving lunatic?). I am SOAKED with ice cold water, the bed is SOAKED with ice cold water - but at least only on my side - that's probably what saved me from curt getting angry. :) So I just pull the sheets aside, snuggle up to curt leaving him a few spare inches of mattress and fall back asleep. All of this occurs before midnight. (sigh). Now that you have caught your breath from laughing at me - here are some cute pics.

Aidan is FINALLY catching on to this whole sitting up thing

Brady loves to stick his tongue out these days - i think it helps him concentrate

We had a fountain installed in Gavin's bath :)

Gavin can nearly sit verticle!

The Boys Take DC by Storm . . .

As always, business class flights make life easier. much easier. The boys were just as good (maybe better since they are now in to more stuff) as they were on the flights they took at 3 and 4 months, only we had more room. aaah. someone even said to us in the immigration line that they were the "best babies they have ever flown with" - and no, i'm not making that up. i think we owe that all to parenting . . . RIIIIIIIGHT.

You think they'd be more excited to fly biz class

Aidan Flies Biz Class

we had a great time introducing the boys to some old friends at the conference, seeing grandparents (theirs, not ours) and just being in america. DC was BEAUTIFUL - the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and we got a little bit of every kind of weather. They handled the jet lag better than curt and I did (of course they got a few naps during the day!) - so when you see how curt and I now watch tv in the picture below, you can understand why we tend to stick to reruns these days - we already know how they end!

Even though our trip was GREAT, it's good to be back in our own space. As you can see, bath time in a new place can be interesting. . . Aidan probably had flashbacks to his shower in the park last week. :) It also makes life a little easier when you aren't trying to do basic things in hotel rooms (like boil water - hard to do unless you pay for it - $3 for delivery, 4 times/day, or buy an electric teakettle) that aren't quite equipped for triplets. They did have GREAT closet space though - so good that's where we put all 3 cribs . . . yes, we made our boys sleep in the closet. and i would do it again. :)

New uses for the Bumbo - Aidan looks confused

Cap'n Crunch Gavin

Aidan likes apples

Beautiful DC

Grandma K and Brady Boy

7 days . . .

Well, we survived (maybe even thrived?!) this week even though Curt was gone. The boys have been SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good to mom and even though i'm pretty beat, it feels good knowing I can handle them (relatively) on my own. We can't thank our wonderful friends enough for their time as they came to come and help feed the boys in the evenings or Tess who came in over her weekend to help me out.

So what else has been new? Well, on Friday morning Tess and I decided to take the boys to the park and set out a blanket for some tummy time/practice sitting up. We brought the bumbo for the third boy and were just enjoying the nice weather while i took some photos when all of a sudden (dum da dumdum DUMMMMMMMMMM - scary music inserted here) THE SPRINKLERS WENT ON! Tess was holding Brady and she hopped up, I had the digital SLR so I hopped out of the way and moved the stroller - also in the line of water - leaving Gavin laying on the blanket looking around like "hey, what's happening?". Aidan was in the bumbo just getting A SHOWER and looking very confused. Gavin never got upset, even after i ran back in to get him, but Aidan did once he was OUT of the water. I think it took awhile to register. :) They were WET. good thign it was hot out. . . Is it bad I was more concerned about the digital camera than the boys?

A&G Chillin' @ the parkBrady sits tri-pod style!Brady post showerAidan post-shower

Gavin post-shower

They have also been getting their groove on with EATING! Sweet potatoes are YUMMY! so is BROCCOLI (i'm not lying - all three eat it up and no weird faces!). We have three styles of eating:

Brady: a little bit around his mouth, but he likes to actually swallow his food. and bang on the highchair with his hands.

Gavin: almost as much comes out as goes in. It takes about 3 tries to scoop up everything you had on the original spoonful from his chin to put back in his mouth. and he still grunts for more.

Aidan: he opens wide, takes all of the food and then proceeds to either grab the spoon and wipe any excess off with his fingers, or he sticks his whole hand in his mouth to feel the textures and then wipe it all over his face, eyes, hair, nose, whatever. He is a work of art by the end.

And one cute video - Brady does the running man - Go Brady, it's your birthday, go Brady, it's your birthday!

Mom and the Boys

Brady & Aidan sacked out before their bedtime!

Well, Curt has left for a week in Cambodia with a student group. To answer all of your questions, YES - he let me make the final decision about going; YES - he has lined up help for me in the evenings and weekend; YES - it was hard for him to leave me and the boys; YES - he is going to bring me back something nice from Cambodia; and YES - I'm a little scared about the week, but i know we will be fine. :)

Strong Mommy (Brady & Aidan)

Curt gave the boys a pep talk about what they needed to do this week. He told Gavin no "Baby Kong", he told Brady to take his naps, and he told Aidan no whining. Whatever he told them must have worked because I didn't hear a PEEP out of them when they went down for their evening nap. I'm going to knock on wood right now so I don't jinx myself for the next week. :) The hard thing is Brady has also gotten two teeth on the bottom. Now, Gavin has two teeth, but they really didn't seem to bother him. Unfortunately, Brady is having a rough time of it as they come in. He's much fussier, but it generally manifests itself by him saying "dadadadadadadadadadadadadadada" over and over and over. Of course Curt is convinced he is saying "Da Da/Daddy" so he always goes "Yes?!" and points at himself when Brady does this. To which Brady replies with a confused look, or a giggle. either way, pretty freaking cute. :) With Curt gone for the week, we will be working on "Mama". (insert evil laugh here)

Gavin & Daddy having some snuggle time!

In other news for the last 3 nights I have slept about 8 hours in a row. i feel like a new person. it is amazing - blues are blue-er, greens are greener - the sun shines brighter. This means that this is the first time since probably early July I have been able to sleep through the night. yes, that's eight and a half months of interrupted sleep. i'm kind of in shock just reading that myself. I've reduced my pumping breast milk to just twice a day and plan to be done by this Wednesday. In many ways I'm mourning this. Even though actually i nursed somewhat infrequently with the boys, i really liked being able to provide them with breast milk since it's so good for them. I know this will be the only time i get to do this, so I've been feeling a little emotional (yes, that does include random tears at weird things). Tomorrow is the first day they won't all wake up to a bottle of mom's milk - i'm going to have to get up to make them FORMULA! bleh! Don't get me wrong - I'm really enjoying sleeping through the night, I'm really proud I made it as long as I did, and I will be happy to get my body back. This is just a really difficult time for me to let go of.

Brady sees Daddy!

Aidan seeking a way out . . .

Aidan LOVES his satin rabbit - thanks Claireballs!

I Fart In Your General Direction

During our feeding this evening, while Aidan was taking his requisite 15 minute break, I had begun to feed Brady while Curt fed Gavin. Aidan was laying on the couch in between us and was BUSY. Playing with toys, throwing burp cloths around, whining for his pacifier, spitting it out - the usual. He was also putting his feet up on my leg as he grabbed at my t-shirt. Then he decided to kick at Brady's legs dangling over my thigh. I gently moved him away and Curt distracted him. Aidan then began touching Gavin's face and head while he ate - also not cool when he eventually will latch on with his freakishly strong hands (have you ever had an infant grab your lip? painful) and make Gavin cry, so we tried another re-direct.


He goes back to kicking at Brady and I said "stop messing with your brother while he's eating!" To which Brady sends Aidan a message and rips a HUGE fart - in his general direction. Aidan's eyes got really big - and he quit messing with Brady. Curt and I proceeded to laugh our heads off. . .


In other non-bodily function news - i used Baby Einstein as a baby watcher for the first time. I must say, it's weird. Like stuff the stoner's who lived across the hall from me in college would have watched after a few hits, weird. Curt had gone to take the car in Saturday morning and the boys are all sick - nice snotty sick! We had fed Brady and Gavin and I got Aidan up after Curt left. To make sure I wouldn't have to entertain the other two too much, i made a little slumber party on the floor and gave them pillows and other toys and then popped in BE. at least it was Mozart in the background! Brady seemed to really dig it - kicking his legs as the train went around the track, and when the water/ink things did their thing. Gavin on the other hand, was not so impressed. He did end up watching it once I had put him on his jungle gym - upside down. Apparently watching it the way you and I would was just too dang mundane, but looking at it upside down is the bomb . . . whatever kid. :)


Gavin is a big boy and has two teeth! He had pulled my finger in to his mouth the other day and proceeded to chomp right down on it! He doesn't seem much fussier than usual, nor does he seem to be drooling much more than usual, so hopefully this will be as bad as it gets! :) Gavin has also shown he is learning to use tools - as it relates to food. As the eat they get a lot of food on their bibs, of course (Curt thinks it's my feeding style - whatever:)). In the middle of the afternoon snack today, Gavin needed a big and bad diaper change. As he is laying on the changing table with his bib on, he realizes there is still rice cereal and bananas all over his bib so he brings the bib to his mouth and begins to suck it off!!! He also did this again after we were done and cleaning everybody up! HILARIOUS! He's like our little monkey with his new tool!

Some Yummy Pictures

Gavin hamming it up for the camera


Aidan being cute

Brady - it took about 6 tries to get this - I kept missing his super cute smile - i swear, it's about 10X better than this folks . . .


Hawkeye fans! (A, G, B)

Food, Glorious Food

So the boys have been given the green light to begin solid foods. Over the weekend we tried our first attempts at rice cereal and the results were all along the spectrum. Gavin (our biggest and best eater) definitely had the hang of "open mouth for spoon, close mouth and get the goodies off the spoon, swallow, open mouth again". Aidan, our smallest and arguably pickiest eater, tried it and preferred to put it on his fingers then to take it off the spoon. the look on his face was more "what is this stuff?" than yummy! And then dear Brady is already taking the initiative. While he was still getting the basics down to get the cereal off the spoon, he decided he wanted to do it HIMSELF. On day 1 he shoved the spoon so far down his throat he began gagging himself. On day 2 as he was attempting to get it in his mouth, the spoon made a detour and he was hitting himself in the eye with a spoonful of cereal. Needless to say, his was the biggest clean up.

While i'm excited about this new stage, I'm also a little sad. They are growing up so quickly that before long they will be walking and talking and making their own decisions even more forcefully than they do now. It also emphasizes how much more work three is than one. While we might have been more willing to try food more than once a day, it takes so darn long to clean up all three of them, and everyone is on their own pace for eating (or not) that at this point it really is too hard to try the new hobby of eating solids more than once a day. I'm also going to have to accept that our nannies will be getting into the fun as well - that is hard for me since part of me really feels like this privilege is OURS to do (but MAN is rice cereal a pain in the ass to clean up from clothing!).

Gavin - Up and . . .

. . .Over!!!