Will

Will is my little man. He's sometimes Willers or Mr. Willers or Wheel (that's what Carley calls him). He is just the goofiest little guy in the world.

He is quick to smile at us, but if you are a stranger, especially a male stranger, he will stare you down. It's like he's sizing men up to fight. You wouldn't believe how hysterical it is, and how many times people say, "My, he sure is serious," or "He sure can stare." He is the ultimate winner of all staring contests. It's really funny to see him do it.

It's funny to me how he's all boy already. How does that happen so fast? He whacks on everything, is super rough, beats on the girls, and just acts differently than they do. He just doesn't have all that girl drama. I think he's going to be the most easy-going.

Lately, he's gotten into this thing where he has to carry something around with him everywhere. It's like a security blanket, but it's not a blanket...it's usually his hair brush. If you take it away, he freaks out. Sometimes, he'll carry around a ball instead, but whatever it is, he has a death grip on it. He will hold it through meals, bottles, playing, etc. He does everything with only one hand so that he can hold on to his little item with the other. He even falls asleep with whatever it is at night, and I have to go in and fish it out of his crib. If I don't go get it, he'll grab it first thing in the morning, and when I go get him, he's sitting up, grinning, holding the ball, brush, whatever in his hand already.

Will is a total brat when it comes to falling asleep at night and at nap time. He just doesn't want to rest. He will cry until he gags, and if I didn't go get him then, he would barf his guts out. His preference is that I put him in the big bed and sleep next to him, but I can't go to sleep at 7:30...there is too much to do after they go down. Therefore, I have to slip him back into his crib after he falls asleep and hope that he doesn't wake up. It's hit or miss.

The boy is obsessed with cabinets, doors, drawers, and anything else you can open and close. He could spend all day opening and closing cabinets, but he also enjoys climbing into them and making a mess.

The latest thing he's been working on trying to open and shut is the gate in the playroom. He's been successful in his efforts to open that a couple of times. That is not good. I don't know how we will keep the little animals caged in if he figures out an escape plan. How can a 22 lb person who barely knows a few words already outsmart us? We are definitely in trouble in the future.

He loves to eat. He shovels handfuls of food in his mouth, and he does this funny thing where he holds his hand over his mouth while he chews to keep food from falling out. I think cheese is probably his favorite food, but he also loves vegetables and banana bread a lot.

When he wants to give you a kiss, he opens his mouth huge and comes running across the room at you. You have to prepare yourself because he's going to slobber all over you. Plus, you can never be sure if he's just going to kiss you, or if he's going to bite.

Here are some sweet pics of my little man:

In Marmie's big bed-just the way he likes to sleep, with his head on the pillow.

My silly man showing off his grin.

My cabinet man-playing peek-a-boo in the tupperware cabinet.

This is how big he opens his mouth when he comes to give you a kiss. As you can imagine, it's pretty sloppy.

Typical boy--playing with his weiner.

Marie

Look at this little smiley face!
Playing with the basketball post after knocking it down. Apparently, they think it's a see-saw.
She's in her big girl seat with a yellow bow in her hair. She only tolerates the bow for a little while, though. Then, she tries to eat it.

She has gotten into accessories lately. Marmie must be teaching her all about it. In this picture she has a faux purse-it's actually a bib on her arm.

These two pictures were taken in the morning when the light was coming in the family room. They make her look so serene...don't be fooled.

Oh, little Marie! She is so adorable...I just want to eat her up sometimes. We call her Bear and Oso/Osito (Bear/Little Bear in Spanish). Sometimes, it's Ree-ree or Reezers. I often call her Tiny because she was the tiniest one of the bunch at birth (in length and weight). She's still the shortest. What she lacks in height, however, she makes up for in personality.

She got the name Bear because of her sleeping habits. We always kid that she is like a little hibernating bear. She sleeps 12 hours a night, and she does not skip a nap. She's a thumb sucker, and as you take her up to her room for a nap or at night, you can gage how tired she is by when the thumb goes in the mouth. Some days, we are only on the second stair going up, and the thumb is in the mouth. If it's not in there by the time you get in the room, she'll definitely get it in once you put her in her crib. The girl is all about her beauty rest, and we are so grateful to have one baby who is a good sleeper!

Marie also has a secret obsession/eating disorder with paper and/or cardboard products. She likes to eat her books, little scraps of paper she finds, really anything that's made out of some sort of paper. She's incredibly sneaky about it. She'll confiscate her little piece of whatever, crawl (or lately walk) away to a corner, turn her back to the adult in the room, and munch away. Typically, whoever is with her thinks that she's being such a good baby playing in the corner alone. Then, when she is approached, and you say "Marie!," she quickly throws the item to the floor and moves away from it as quickly as possible. She obviously knows that paper eating is off limits, but it doesn't stop her from trying to get in little here and there.

Bear is quite the mama's girl. If I'm in the room, I have to be holding her or giving her attention. If someone else tries to hold her, she's reaching for me and crying bloody murder. However, if I'm out of sight, she'll tolerate others. The minute she sees me, though, her mommy-itis starts up.

Miss Ree is our best eater. The child gobbles down adult-sized mouthfuls of food. She shovels handfuls of food into her mouth, and I swear she doesn't chew some of it. In fact, I know she doesn't, because sometimes there are whole pieces of vegetables in her poop when I change her diaper.

Marie is knows how to play the innocent victim. She'll often start a fight with Will by stealing one of his toys. Then, he'll come over and hit or bite her, and she'll scream and cry and look at me like she has no idea what she did to deserve this. At first, I didn't notice that she was instigating the violence. I mentioned to my dad that Will was always torturing her, and he said, "Don't let her fool you-that little girl is sneaky. She's probably doing something to him before he does something to her." I started watching more closely, and I realized that he was right...Marie usually gets Will worked up.

I would have to say that out of all of them, Marie has the worst cry. It is so sad and heart-wrenching. It makes you just want to go pick her up and squeeze her.

That child got a mouth full of teeth before Abby had 2. It was crazy. She now has her molars. She's like a little shark with those teeth, too. When she bites down on something, she shakes her head back and forth viciously and giggles. It hurts!

Marie was the last to take steps, but once she got it, she got it. She quickly had a good sense of balance and was walking around taking tiny little steps, while holding her arms up in the air. She now walks 100% of the time-no crawling at all.

She is hilarious with her signs. Her favorite sign is "more," and she does it all the time. She'll just look at you and sign more, but most of the time, I have no clue what she wants more of. If I just start singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider when she signs more for no reason, that usually makes her happy.

Abby

Here is my tribute to my sweet Dabbers. We call her so many things....Abber-Dabbers, Daberoo, Daberoni, Dabs, and Abs. I think I'm leaving out a few, but you get the picture. I'm not sure why the "d" got added to her name, but it did, and her nicknames all became variations of that.

Abs is the most outgoing of all the babies. She smiles at strangers when Marie frowns, and Will stares and sometimes even cries. Abby is always showing off her four little teeth with her huge grin.

Abby is also the snuggliest of them all. She loves to hug and kiss. When I'm holding her, and I give her something she wants, she'll put her head down on my shoulder to give me a little thank you hug. When I ask her for a "besito" (little kiss), she opens her mouth wide and mauls me.

Dabbers is also the dog whisperer. She's amazing with Winnie. She points to her whenever she comes in the room and says, "Dog." She pets her, and she does this thing where she'll walk over to Winnie, sit in front of her, and then rest her head on Winnie's head. I do this to Winnie a lot so I'm sure she learned from seeing me, but she's just so gentle about it, and Winnie just licks her, or sits there quietly and lets Abby do whatever she wants. When Will or Marie even come close to Winnie, she growls. They have abused her enough. She knows that Abby is gentle and sweet, but the other two are somewhat unpredictable. Winnie never bites, but the growl is her warning to them to stay away. For Abby, though, she'll roll over on to her back, and let Abs love her.

Abby is our fastest learner. We practice a "trick" a few times, and she's got it, in 3 languages (sign, Spanish, and English). She was also the first to walk, and she was first to say "dog," which was pretty much everyone's first word. What can I say, the girl got her momma's brains!

Maybe she learns quickly because of her love of reading. When given a pile of her toys, she'll grab a few books, sit in the corner, and turn through the pages. She points at the pictures on each page and asks, "Dat?" I have to identify everything for her. She prefers to sit in my lap and have me read to her. Once the other two see this, they also fight for a spot on mommy's lap.

On the other hand, she's daring, like her daddy. She will do anything, and she's never scared. At Marmie's house, if we turn our backs for one second, she's at the top of the stairs looking down at us and laughing. She walks up to her baby pool, which is full of balls, and does belly flops straight into it. I'm afraid she's going to do this one day when the pool is empty. That's going to hurt. She always wants to be up on the couch and tries to jump off over the sides. This girl is going to have some injuries. I foresee many emergency room visits in her future.

She usually stays out of the major fights between the kids. I don't know if she is necessarily a peacemaker or if because she's bigger than the others, they simply don't engage her figuring they'll lose. Don't get me wrong, she'll fight for what she wants, but usually it's more in self-defense, whereas Will just bites or hits Marie because she's there.

Abby is our worst sleeper. Her naps are usually the shortest, and at night, she fights falling asleep for a long time. Typically, she wakes up at least a couple of times at night. Most of the time, it will only go on a few minutes, and she'll go back to sleep, but some nights, after hearing her scream for 30 minutes, I have to go in and rescue her. I don't know if she has ever slept more than 6 hours straight.

Abby is also our worst eater. She's super-picky. All she likes are carbs, much like her daddy. She loves crackers, cereal, bread, cereal bars, and cookies (especially Nilla Wafers). However, she does love cheese and veggie meatballs, which are not on her daddy's "faves" list...in fact, he despises both. I'm constantly trying to come up with different things to feed her, but if she doesn't want it, she carefully picks up each piece, and tosses it over the side of her tray.

The little animal lover-this is a bunny statue at Marmie's house. Of course, Abby doesn't know it's a statue. To her, it's just another animal to love.

Here's her silly grin.

Staying out of a fight-check out Will and Marie.

Covered in cheese after a meal and making one her silly faces.

Reading with mommy and sister (and Winnie).

Okay, I have to work on Marie and Will's tributes next. Look for those in the next few days....

Signing Time

We are teaching the babies sign language, and a couple of times a day, they watch videos to learn their signs. I don't know what kinds of subliminal messages they put in these videos, and I don't care because it keeps all 3 of them entertained for a few minutes. These pictures illustrate the trance-like state they slip into when "Signing Time" is on the screen. It's a little scary.

Last few August Pics

These are just a few random pictures from the end of August.

My dad arrived after they sat down to eat snacks. When they heard his voice in the kitchen, they all had to poke around the corner to see what the commotion was about. How cute is this? They love their Papa!

Marie's milk beard.

Abby makes a funny face every time she sees the camera, but it's not always the same face. She has so many silly expressions.

Another one-she's sporting a black bean goatee in this pic. Yes, they are all over her face. Do you now understand why most of the pictures with them in their high chairs they are topless? After too many food stains, we learned our lesson.

Here is Will getting all jacked up for the Dawgs game. He's saying, "Yeah, bitches, we're #1!"

Here he is after the game. Not so happy. I have a picture of Billy with the exact same expression. Ha!

Marie and Abby sported adorable game day outfits, compliments of Marmie!
The static electricity from the plastic pool had the girls experiencing a bad hair day!

Triplet Q&A

So there is a whole series of questions that are typically asked when I say have triplets or when people see me with the trio. Here is the list of FAQ, along with my responses (well, some are embellishments of what I actually say. I wish I said all of this sometimes)....

Q: How do you do it?
A: I just do. What's the alternative? Ignore them? Hope they figure things out on their own? You take one day at a time, and you just figure it the eff out. That's it.

Q: Do you have help?
A: Yes, tons. That's part of how I "do it." My family, Billy's family, our friends, etc....everyone pitches in. I don't know how people do it without the support that we have.

Q: Do you sleep?
A: Not much. I'm not a very pleasant person some days after a particularly bad night, but I've adjusted to having very little sleep. I'm hoping that when they are teenagers and sleep a lot, I'll have my turn to catch up also. Until then, I suck it up....and I drink a lot of coffee.

Q: Do multiples run in your family?
A: Do you think I don't realize this is your sneaky way of asking me if I did some sort of medical intervention? I've got you figured out. I may be sleep-deprived, but I'm not stupid. No, they don't run in my family. In fact, here's the story. My eggs had issues so I had to opt for egg donation, and not just from a stranger, but from my sister! Yes, these babies are actually from donated eggs from my sister plus sperm from my husband! I did in-vitro to have them. We went through 2 failed cycles, and on the third we put in 3, and holy shit, they all took. Blah, blah, blah...I continue on and on with details about in-vitro, how it differs from insemination, etc. I put it all out there until they are bored to death so that maybe, the questions will not continue. However, that rarely happens. It usually goes on.

Q: Were you shocked when you found out?
A: Again, this is a sneaky way of asking if I had in-vitro because people know that if you do some sort of infertility treatment, you have an idea that multiples are a possibility. Anyway, I say, "well we knew it was a possibility because," and I start at "here's the story" from the previous Q&A.

Q: My sister's cousin's best-friend's 3rd grade teacher has triplets. Do you know her?
A: Shit yeah I do. I know pretty much everyone with triplets. There's a secret society, and we get together all the time. Her name is Anne, right? WTF?

Q: Sometimes, it's more like my sister's cousin's best-friend's 3rd grade teacher has triplets, and they are 4 now. Then, they stare blankly at me.
A: What am I supposed to say? Awesome for your sister's cousin's best-friend's 3rd grade teacher!

The most common comment we get is, "You sure have your hands full." Yeah, we have both our hands full, and there's still a baby left over! Our hands, our hearts, our home, everything is full...except our wallets-those are empty.

I'm not writing any of this to make you feel bad if you have asked this before. I just find it humorous that we hear these questions again and again. I don't mind answering these questions most of the time, but sometimes, I just want to run my errand, mind my business, have a conversation with my husband, etc....not talk to a stranger about his/her sister's cousin's best-friend's 3rd grade teacher.

However, close friends and family always want the good info! The questions I get asked most often from them are "What are they doing now?" and "Tell me about their personalities." Therefore, I need to devote a few posts to those, more important and interesting issues! They are all so different and becoming such little people. I have to work on a post for each baby to give individual updates, praise, and attention.

More sleep talking

The last few nights have been a little rough with sleep. There's just so much to do, and I find myself staying up late to get everything done. Then, I have to wake up early and work. This full-time schedule is getting to me.

Anyway, a couple of nights ago, I feel asleep in bed with Will around 8. He was being fussy and wouldn't fall asleep. I think he was just jacked up because the evening had been action packed, and he was having a hard time winding down. Hurricane York (Cooper, Carley, and Chloe) had blown through our house that night, and they had brought along all the madness that accompanies their visits.

Liane and Jason brought over some pizzas, and the babies were going nuts eating it. I was chasing them around in the family room while eating a slice, and then, they all came up to me with their mouths open begging for some. Before I knew it, I was being attacked by all three of them, and they had eaten their way through 2 or 3 slices of my pizza! This was after they had already had their regular dinner. What a bunch of little piggies.

I was holding out a slice for Will to take a bite when all of the sudden, a black figure moved through, and the slice was gone. Winnie was back in action. She ate 3/4 of a slice without even chewing it. Everyone in the room was in awe of her ability to suck down food. Unfortunately, once she got a taste for Papa John's, she wanted more, and Carley was the next victim. Poor Carley was walking around, eating a slice, and trying her damnedest to avoid Winnie because Winnie scares the crap out of her, but Winnie was stalking her, and when she got her opportunity, she chased her down and stole her slice of pizza. Carley was pissed! She got another slice, but after that, she refused to put her feet down on the floor at our house. She had to be held.

Back to later that night....I fell asleep while putting Will to sleep, and I was passed out until 11:30 when Billy came to see where I was. Yes, it took him 3 1/2 hours to realize I was missing. He was very busy drafting his fantasy football players. I then got up and got ready for bed, but I wasn't able to go back to sleep for about an hour.

Then, the next night, Billy's dad came by, and he locked his keys in his car. He didn't realize it until late, and he had to call AAA to come out. By the time they arrived, it was 11:30. I was already in bed, and of course, so were the babies. However, when they popped the lock, his alarm went off, and I woke up, along with Will. He went back to sleep a few minutes later, but it took me a little bit.

I was working from home the next day so I knew I could sleep a little later than usual, and I was looking forward to a solid night of sleep. However, Billy decided he was going to wake me up not once, but twice with his stupid sleep talking episodes. It's been a while since he's done it, so I guess he was due.

The first time, he grabbed my leg, and said, "Who is this?" I was like, "It's my leg." He said, "No, it's Abby. Are you sure it's not Abby?" I said, "No, I can feel it, and it's my leg. You have your hand on my leg." He said, "Okay," and was back off to sleep.

A few hours later, he said, "What's with all this juice?" I asked, "What juice?" He then tried to explain that there was juice all over his side of the bed. I told him there was no juice, and he asked, "Are you sure?" Of course I was sure. It was 4 a.m., and who the hell would have put juice in our bed? When I asked him about it in the morning, he said he vaguely remembered the juice thing, and he thought he was asking about beef juice? What is beef juice? That makes even less sense now. He's so weird.

I hope that he got that out of his system and that I can get some uninterrupted sleep soon!