End of May Pictures

Marie is such a mess in this picture, but she looks so darn cute! They are all great eaters, but we are still only doing baby food and some homemade purees. We tried Cheerios once and almost choked them to death. We'll give it another couple of weeks and try finger foods again.

Here are Abby and Will swinging away at the park. They love the swings! I have videos that I'm uploading to YouTube right now to show the swinging in action.

They all love to pull up on the windowsill and look out at the world...well, just our front yard. Our mail lady loves to see them there. Sometimes when neighbors walk by our house and look over, I can see the total surprise in their faces when they notice the 3 little faces staring back at them.

How cute is this? You wouldn't know that Abby and Marie fight like crazy if you saw this picture. Typically, they want whatever toy the other one has. Abby will give a warning scream and then bite Marie to get what she wants. Marie screams, slaps, and pulls tight on what she wants. Girl fights!

Will likes to show off his teeth, but he also likes to grind them. The grinding is so gross. It sounds like he's chewing gravel. It drives us all crazy!

Abby and Will pull up on the gates we have everywhere. They also grab their crib railings and stand up in there. Will had to be quarantined because he liked to stand in his crib and scream to the girls to wake them up. He's now in a pack and play in another bedroom. Abby likes to stand in her crib, but she doesn't know how to get back down and has a meltdown whenever she is tired. Then, one of us has to go in there, put her down and pat her to sleep.

This is the classic Marie face. She lifts her top lip to expose her top teeth with the big gap in front. I'm not sure why she makes this face, but it's so funny. This was taken from the outside of our house looking in the play room window.

A couple more videos

I got lots of hits on the blog post with the videos so I guess they are popular. As Alice said, they are "YouTube Sensations." Here are a couple more. The first one is older...Teri requested I post it because Marie sounds hilarious laughing. The second one is more recent.

I have some additional ones I'll post later. We've taken them to the park a few times, and they love the swings. We have some good footage of them swinging.

Mother's Day Pics & Others - A bit late

We borrowed this plastic play-yard from a friend...thanks, Shawnna! She called it the "circle of neglect" so we use the same term. They hate all the gates we have around the house now. Will always eyes the gates and when there is ever an opening, he hauls baby butt to it to break out. Fortunately, we've figured him out, and we are always on the lookout for his escapes.

Abby crawls into and over everything. She especially likes to get in the bottom part of the exersaucers. She gets very angry when her brother or sister is in it, and she can't get in.

Marie has gotten into pulling all the clothes off the shelves of the changing table that's in the play room. You can see the mess behind her. She gets out the clothes, covers herself in them, and laughs and laughs. She's easy to please, but I hate folding everything several times a day.

Take a look at the picture below. Now, try to match the children with the appropriate mothers. This isn't even the whole crew...Alice and Drew are missing. Can you believe this crowd?

Will had too much wine the Saturday before Mother's Day. He stayed up late with the grown ups. He's been doing that lately. He likes to stay up later than the girls. I guess he figures it's the only one-on-one time he gets with us.

Chloe's Obscene Bottle

So Chloe is a boobie milk addict. She wants a lot, and she wants it all the time. That child won't even eat cereal, and she's 8 months old. She just wants boobie milk from the source; she's not happy with a bottle.

Well, Liane needed to have my dad and Alice watch Chloe for a day and night so Chloe had to take a bottle or starve. Liane decided to invest in a bottle that's shaped like a breast (pictured above).

She said my dad was very confused by the thing. It's all soft, and you have to fill it from underneath with a cover on the nipple. If you don't, the boobie shoots out all over you.

Alice later reported to me that the bottle was obscene. She said it was a little creepy, but that Kibby asked if he could get a couple of them in a double D to drink his diet cokes out of. Too funny!

May Photos

Billy decided we needed new "professional" photos of the kids, and to save some cash, he decided he would be our photographer. I don't think he'll ever do that again...it takes a lot of patience. He got some really good shots, and he retouched a bunch of them, but he did them on Picasa so the ones with special effects aren't here. Sorry, but you get the idea. The babies are adorable with or without airbrushing. Mom, on the other hand, really likes those effects and plans to use them the next time she has her picture taken.


Here's topless Will screaming and laughing at the same time.

We thought that getting a good picture of all of them together was difficult when they were only 3 months old, but it's even harder now. Since they are mobile, they simply crawl away whenever they don't feel like being our little clowns. When they can walk, it will be insanity!

Marie looks hilarious. The smile on her face is too cute. Abby is showing off her clapping skills. Will is just staring...typical Will.

This was the morning after the photo shoot. It appears that Abby is very concerned that this day is not going to go well.

I had to get in a picture of poor, pitiful Winnie. I like how she has her head on a boppy pillow. She's such a spoiled dog that she even has to put her head on a pillow to sleep! Anyway, check out her new half-shaved looked. We have to keep her on leash a lot so that we can keep her under control...well, at least somewhat. Winnie is never really "under control."

Lots of celebrating!

We've had a busy couple of weeks between all of the celebrating we've been doing. First, our 5 year anniversary was on April 30th! I can't believe it's been 5 years. Billy said 5 "blissful" years, and I said, 4 and then the babies were born. Ha! Really, we are blessed to have 3 healthy, amazing, adorable kids, but it's been one rough (almost) year!

Anyway, we celebrated our anniversary by going to Callaway Gardens for 2 nights. We needed sleep and some "us" time. We hadn't had a "real" conversation in so long. We tried not to talk too much about the kids, but it's so hard. They are the center of our lives now.

While there, we had some good dinners, took a boat ride, golfed (Billy), ran (me), and hit the spa (me). We also slept...a lot! I miss sleeping in so much. Abby is my earliest riser, and she's usually up just before 6 a.m. That kills me. I'm still getting up at least once a night with someone so it would be nice if they would let me sleep until 6:30. That's all I ask.

We returned on Sunday to reality. We picked up the girls at my dad's house, where Viv had ditched them. Alice kept them on Friday night, and Vivian took over on Saturday night. Apparently, Drew and Rose were excellent entertainment for the babies when the girls were at their respective homes. Mems had Will all weekend, and she brought him over to our house as soon as we walked in. They were all reunited!

The next celebration was this past week. Billy's birthday was on Wednesday. Then, his dad's birthday was the next day. Now, we have Mother's Day coming up tomorrow. It's too much craziness! We are doing a joint celebration of all events with Billy's family tonight, and we'll do a Mother's Day event with my family tomorrow. We are ALL planning to gather at a nearby park. This includes my three sisters, four step-sisters, all husbands and offspring, and my dad and Maureen. These events are typically total chaos and insanity. The babies will be able to join in on the cousin fun pretty soon. For now, they will be spectating from the comfort and safety of their triplet stroller. However, they may get a chance to swing and go down some slides. Don't fret, I'll take pictures and post them.

By the way, they have outgrown the triple decker stroller, and I plan to sell it to another triplet mom on my listserv. That happened so quickly! Their legs are so long that they kick each other in it now. Pretty soon, they'll be out of their infant car seats and into the big convertible ones. At that point, we'll need the mini-van.

Last Tuesday, I was able to hit my monthly book club. I always love going and catching up with everyone, even if I haven't read the book. The book is only a fraction of what we discuss. We also talk about child rearing, our husbands, jobs, sex, moving, gossip, etc. It's never dull. It's also a great place to get wonderful advice. This month I brought up my problems with Will not sleeping through the night. He will cry for 2 solid hours if I let him, and he will only go back to sleep if he's had a bottle. He drinks 8 ounces in the middle of the night some times! My wise book club moms said that he probably wasn't crying to cry...he must be hungry. It may also be a sign of a strong-willed child. Uh-oh. I am a "bit" stubborn so I see where these tendencies may come from, although I prefer to think of it as being really committed. "Stubborn" sounds so negative.

I have new pictures of the babies and of pitiful Winnie for the next post. I'll work on getting those downloaded on to the computer later.

Mems' Pics from April

Here's Abby sporting a hat at Marmie's house. Marmie loves hats. This one is Will's, but it seems to be making Abby happy. Her smile cracks me up.

The kids now fight like crazy. They steal toys from each other, and when they get super irritated, they scream at each other. Abby's signature move is to scream in her brother or sister's face as a distraction and then, she bites him or her. She's only got 2 bottom teeth, but they are sharp.

Will really doesn't know what to do with himself in this swing. He looks utterly baffled by the situation.

Will and Abby are all in to clapping. Abby brings both hands together to clap, but Will has one stiff arm and just bangs the other hand against the stationary one. Whatever works, I guess. Marie just watches them when they clap. She doesn't even attempt it. I guess she figures that twisting her wrists is enough of a hand workout.

Speaking of Marie, she's Miss Priss with this little bow in her hair. Vivian and Rose made it to match this outfit.

Here's my terrific trio. They are getting close to outgrowing their car seats. I can't believe that just a few months ago they barely filled out these seats.

Puppy Love

So Winnie was at the UGA Vet School for a week after her surgery. She was supposed to only be there a couple of nights, and after the third night that they wanted to keep her, I started to worry. In fact, when she didn't come home after the forth night, I had a meltdown and started crying. I was convinced that they were trying to hide something from us. I thought there was something seriously wrong with her. Billy told me that my "Nata" side was coming out.

For those who didn't have the pleasure of knowing my grandmother, Nata, here is a brief explanation. The woman was a crazy worrier. She had to find things to worry about constantly. When there was nothing to worry about, she just made things up. I had to call her EVERY evening to assure her that I was home, alive, had locked my doors, and turned on all the outside lights. We had to go through that checklist every evening. Then, she would go on and on about why I didn't live at home. This was when I was in my twenties, living on my own. She thought I should still be at home because there was no way I could possibly take care of myself.

Nata would start calling me at about 3 every afternoon, even though she knew I worked and/or went to school. Her messages would get progressively more desperate. First, it was all nice.."give me a call when you get home." Then, she would get agitated..."you should be home by now. Why haven't you called me?" After that, she would start losing her mind..."I know you are dead. I'm going to have your dad drive me to your house to check on you." She would be crying at that point. I would have to call her immediately and calm her down.

Apparently, some of that crazy worrying is genetically programmed in me. If I'm this bad about Winnie, can you imagine my worry level when the kids are older? I'm absolutely going to lose my mind worrying about 3 children constantly.

Back to Winnie...she was fine. She had some drainage from around her wound site, and they wanted to make sure it didn't get infected. They monitored her, and a week after her surgery, she was released. The day she came home, I sent Billy a text asking how she was, and his response was, "effing crazy and retarded." She was back to her old tricks! I love this crazy dog.

We have to keep her as calm as possible, which is nearly impossible. She's always on leash, and if we can't monitor her, she has to go in her crate. She also has a huge cone she has to wear on her head, and half her pitiful body was shaved. My poor Winners.

The first night she was home, Billy and I felt sorry for her so we decided we would snuggle with her. She can't go up and down the stairs which meant that we had to stay downstairs with her. Therefore, we all slept on the family room floor together. Are we crazy or what? We never get to sleep because of our children, and on top of that, we decided to spend the few hours of sleep we actually got on the floor! Alice just about laughed so hard she cried when I told her we did that.