Bedtime crazies

Last night (well, every night), the kids were nutty before bedtime! Billy captured part of the insanity with his phone. Yes, he has the fancy new iPhone. Watch Marie boss around the other two, and tell them, "GO! Back up!" It's so funny. It took a while for them to calm down and go to sleep.

Day 3 at preschool

This morning only Abby cried. Two out of three were happy to go to school! Yay! Maybe by next week Abby will stop the tears.

Here they are....


Will went on an adventure with Marmie, and he loved it!


This isn't a great picture, but Abby looks so big-like a little girl, not toddler.


Here is Marie playing happily at Marmie's house.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Preschool: Day 2

We talked up preschool all weekend long, and the kids seemed to be super excited about going back to "scuela." It's escuela in Spanish, but they call it "scuela" or "cool." We talked about Ms. Donna, aka Madonna to them, and Ms. Jenn a bunch. Marie even tried to grab her school bag when we were going to the dentist last week, but I had to tell her we were not going to school. They found their lunch bags in the pantry on Saturday and started asking, "scuela?" Again, I had to tell them they would have to wait.

Anyway, we pull up in the carpool line this morning, and we are still talking about what a great day it's going to be. When I get to the front of the line for drop-off, I make eye contact with the preschool director, who is helping with the line and hold up 3 fingers to signal I have 3 of them that need help to their classroom. That was enough. The lady yells to the other drop-off volunteers, "It's the triplets," and our car is surrounded by people fighting to get them out. Will screams, "Bye," jumps out of the car, and runs for the door of the preschool. I guess we know how he feels about it. Abby looks around, panicked. She looks at me and screams, "Mama" while she is being yanked from the car. Marie is sitting calmly until Abby's meltdown, and she then realizes she should fight too. She screams. People grab them. Away they go. I drive off. That was it.

At noon, I headed back over to get them, and they were all happy as could be. Abby again broke out in tears when she saw me, but I had seen her just a second before when she was smiling and playing in the classroom. What a faker. Ms. Donna said that was the first tear she had shed all day. We got a great report on them again. Great children. So sweet. Fun day.

I'm thinking that after another couple of weeks, everyone will jump out of the car and yell, "Bye!" without looking back, just like Will.

On a funny note, because I have 3 kids in the class, I have to volunteer for everything 3 times. I have to make play-dough for the class 3 months, I have to help with 3 class parties, I have to bring various supplies 3 different months, etc. This is going to be a busy year!

YouTrips

It's video time! Here are a few to get you caught up on what they are up to these days....


Ring around the Rosies is tons of fun for all!


The hugging is bordering on being violent here.


The babies enjoy being used as bowling balls!



Here's Abby doing her little dance. Sorry, I can't figure out how to flip the image.

My 3 Preschoolers

It's official--they are preschoolers! They had their first day today, and it went great. Abby and Will were a bit confused in the carpool line when a couple of teachers came and snatched them out of their seats. They were okay, but Marie had a bit of a meltdown--screaming for me and looking very hurt that we would leave her with complete strangers. I just sucked it up and pressed on.

I didn't want to just leave them, but the preschool prefers parents not walk their kids to the classrooms because of the fits that then occur in the rooms. The crying becomes contagious, and the teacher is left with a room full of hysterical 2 year olds. Not fun. So, the crying happened at the car and that was it. I teared up a bit but was fine.

The school hosted a parent coffee, and Billy and I went to that for a little while after the drop off. We figured we should stay close in case they needed to call us to pick up 1, 2, or 3 kids. But, a miracle happened, and they all decided "cool" was fine and stayed all day.

I picked them up at noon. At pickup, parents do go to the classrooms, and when I got to theirs, I found Will peering out the door up and down the halls. When he saw me, he screamed, "MAMA!" It was really sweet. The teachers said they were all great--well-behaved, polite, calm, etc. Wow...they were talking about my kids??!! Amazing. Abby broke out in tears at the sight of me. I guess she thought she was never going to see me again after the crazy drop off experience. Marie just ran up and hugged my legs. One of the teachers helped me escort my crew out to my car. She said that they would walk up to her and ask for "agua, please" whenever they wanted water, and they really enjoyed having their hands traced at coloring time. Michele does that with them.

We'll see how things go next week. Their class is Monday/Wednesday. I hope they don't forget all about school by then.

These pictures illustrate that they are obviously mature enough for school.....

Outside Fun in the Sun

Since I had a post about how we keep them occupied inside, I figured I should post a few pictures of our outdoor fun as well. They love playing outside. Usually, we set up in the front yard because it's flatter, but we have swings in the back, and we have a slide we use back there also.
This sink keeps them occupied forever. They fill up their cups, dump the water, and do it over and over and over again. I have no idea why that's fun, but it is.

We took the easel Titi gave them outside and broke out the finger paints. What a messy disaster! Abby loved it and got messy for quite a while. She had paint all over her face by the time we finished. One of our neighbors drove by and commented how much she liked our outdoor studio.

Here's Will at the sink. Filling a cup...how unusual.

Abby...still painting.

Because the sink wasn't enough water, we also pulled out the little baby pool. Again, they just would fill up cups and dump out the water.

That baby pool just didn't provide the right level of excitement so Alice bought them this crazy thing for their birthday. It's a 2 level pool with a slide at the top. They had a blast in it. Here's Abby cruising down the slide.

Marie went up and down a million times and managed to keep on her sunglasses the whole time. She's very into her accessories.

Here they are cheering Marie on as she speeds down the slide!

Here is Abby making her landing. Thanks, Alice! This thing is fun. Baby Jake needs to come down the slide next summer. Get ready!!

2 Year Well-Child Visit

We had our doctor's office visit this week, and my babies are so grown up! I can't even believe it.

Abby: 28 lbs (70th percentile) and 36 inches (95th percentile)
Will: 26 lbs (20th percentile) and 35 1/2 inches (70th percentile)
Marie: 26 lbs (45th percentile) and 35 inches (50th percentile)

Don't tell them they aren't still babies.

Aunt Titi gave them this easel for their bday. Michele bought some enormous chalk for them to play with!
Abby has enough hair for a pony tail! Can you see it in the picture above? It's so cute!!
They all now eat at the "big table" with their booster seats scooted up to it. They look so big this way! We've also been weaning...finally! We'll be done with sippy cups just in time for preschool. Yes, they are starting school next week! They got a little postcard in the mail from the teachers telling them they'll be eating goldfish, nilla wafers, and pretzels for snacks. Hmm, what else will they be doing? I'm paying a lot of money for a bunch of snacks. We get to meet the teacher next week. I'll let you know how that goes.

We figure after a couple of months in school, we will begin the potty training adventures. That should be fun. Then, we'll almost be ready for big girl and boy beds! Time is going by way too fast.

This one is funny of Will hamming it up for the camera.

Chuck E. Cheese Visit

We met Liane and her troop of crazy kids at Chuck E. Cheese. Liane takes those children places for like 6 hours at a time. We reached our limit at Chuck E. Cheese in about 45 minutes. Trying to keep up with 3 two-year olds in that place was a nightmare. My dad was there to help me thankfully. They liked dancing up a storm while Chuck E. played his music.

Will only liked this one ride, and as soon as it would stop moving, he would sign more and say "mas." I think I fed that machine 10 tokens in a row.

The girls, on the other hand, were not fond of any of the rides. As soon as any of them would start up, they would say, "no," and put their arms out to be held. Not fans of that stuff just yet. I have lots of leftover tokens. I guess we'll get back there someday and try again. Not looking forward to that....

Crazy Fun at Home

Just figured you might like to see how we try to keep the kids entertained and how they like to entertain themselves these days....

The bounce house! Yes, we blow it up in the middle of our living room. Why not? It's too hot outside anyway.

Hanging out in our Dora pajamas, which they pronounce, "Doy-ra." The red chairs are new with their names on them. Marie gets pissed if anyone sits in hers, and Will and Abby know this so what do they do? Torture her by constantly sitting in her chair!!!

This is hide 'n seek. Abby actually thinks she's hiding. The other two scream, "Where are you?"

Princess Abby prefers to eat sitting on the big table while the peasants sit at their chairs.

When they have snacks in the family room, they sit in the big chair to avoid Winnie. They have quickly learned that if they walk around with their snacks, Winnie will steal everything. As soon as I give them a snack, they run to the chair and climb up and start yelling, "No, Winnie!"

Abby had a tragic accident which resulted in black eye. She took a head first dive off the chair in the picture above this one and hit a plastic piece of a gate that was there. We swear that she has a magnetic in her head that causes all of the head trauma.

Here they are in the bounce house again...in Doy-ra pajamas again. Different Doy-ra jammies...and we need even more. That's all they want to wear. They would wear them all day if we let them. Okay, some days we do let them.

So, we have like a million toys around this house, but what do they want to play with? The freakin' sippy cup pieces. They sit on the kitchen floor, grab cup pieces off the counter, utensils out of drawers, and tupperware out of the cabinet. The end result is a very messy kitchen...just like the rest of our house. Oh well.

Look at the love here! You wouldn't guess that Marie is the most picked on child in the bunch. She gets so much abuse because all she does is yell and scream. The other two will kick, punch, and bite the hell out of each other so they know not to mess with each other.

Girls' Sunday Morning

Will spent the night at Papa's house Saturday because Marmie is in Germany on a business trip. She usually takes someone at least one night of the weekend, amd without her around, we looked elsewhere for some relief!! Papa got suckered in.

Sunday morning, Billy worked in the yard a few hours so the girls and I had some quality girl time. First, they mowed the lawn like daddy with their bubble mowers. However, they got hot and decided just to swing instead.



Marie is looking pretty relaxed here. Btw-she insisted on the hat and sunglasses, not my idea!



Here's sweet abby in her swing.



They got to meet their new cousin, Jake, on Saturday, and so they wanted to pretend to be swaddled babies like him.



Abby was too tall for a proper swaddle. I probably needed to use a king sized sheet to get her in there securely. Their old baby blankets weren't cutting it.

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone