4.28.10: Friendly competition

We have been 'cruising' for weeks and only crawl when there is no furniture to hold onto when trying to walk. Stella (above) and Fiona have been doing a quick walking half-step and turn (without hanging onto anything) since Brant's birthday last week. I realized that many of these milestones (walking, talking, crawling) are very subjective. Anyway I digress....

I walked in the nursery to get the girls up from their afternoon nap. As usual, they were all awake and just playing in their cribs. Fiona was standing up in her crib poking at the wall through the backside. Just as I begin to greet everyone, Fiona turns around and smiles facing the center of the room and walks (yes, walks!) across the short width of her crib, a good two steps on a springy mattress. I immediately toss her in the air and cheer her on for this huge accomplishment. Then I call Brant to determine if we will declare this quick two-step official walking. We decided that it has to be at least three steps so while Fiona's accomplishment was fantastic, we decided not to declare her walking.

Then while the girls are playing around in their bedroom (no more than ten minutes later) I see Stella hanging onto the side of Daphne's crib. All the sudden she lets go of the crib and walks to the middle of the room. A good three or four steps. I couldn't believe it. What did I feed these girls for lunch? Repeat routine from above of cheering and tossing baby into the air. I called Brant again and yes, this time we declare that Stella is officially walking. Now who knows if she will continue walking or take her time and just try a little each day. I am not going to pretend that there are any marathons in her future, but you have to start somewhere.

After eating our snack and playing a bit before our walk, we went to go and pick up Brant per our nightly routine. Upon returning home, feeding the girls and bringing them all upstairs for bed ANOTHER exciting thing happened. The girls have recently begun displaying a burst of energy before bedtime. Daphne jumps like crazy, Stella and Fiona cruise around and try to avoid finishing their bottles - perhaps realizing that it is almost bedtime. During this procrastination, Brant and I were cheering Fiona on, trying to get her to walk. and....she did. She took a good three steps. Most adorably, she would try to walk to us and then fall down and get up to 'restart' at the ottoman and try again. That girl has persistence!

So what started off as a normal day with our big adventure to the botanic gardens, turned into a very exciting day with both Stella and Fiona officially walking! For now, Daphne seems to have no interest in walking. She is way more interested in jumping, cruising and super-speed crawling when necessary. I don't know how she has SO much energy, but she can bounce in the jumper for a good fifteen minutes at an intense rhythm. We have joked about sending a video of her jumping to the manufacturer. 'If your jumper can survive our child, it can survive any!'

4.26.10: Where's Peter?

Somehow we really lucked out this weekend. Nicole was going to a wedding near LA and needed a date. Kari to the rescue! Okay, so maybe it didn't work quite like that - but somehow Nicole ended up coming to LA for less than 48 hours this weekend. We sure crammed in all that we could. Getting some serious girlie time, baby time and of course the wedding. Again my super wonderful husband took over watching the girls for a majority of the weekend (even a solo bedtime, something we try to avoid at all costs).


This was the greeting Nicole got from Stella in the morning - snaggletooth and all.


Nicole and I at the wedding overlooking the ocean in an area neither of us has been, but is too beautiful not to find an excuse to revisit.

Of course saying goodbye was hard, it always is - but this time we knew we had another surprise on Monday. Dan was coming to visit. Not actually coming to vacation, but a visit nonetheless. He had to fly into LA for work and was able to stop by on his way up to the telescope. For some reason, I forgot to take pictures the whole weekend (those above are from Nicole's phone). I think I was too excited to see our fellow Chicagoans. After seeing both Dan and Nicole (a huge treat) it left us wondering, where's the remaining third of the Marrones? Soon enough (for now we will settle for the picture below). We can't wait for September!

4.22.10: Decorators

The girls were helping me to decorate for Brant's birthday. They loved chasing after the balloons and (of course) trying to chew on them. This was our first time playing with balloons. We learned pretty quickly that you can not use balloons to help you stand up - there were several falls to learn this lesson.


(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

Once Brant got home from work, the girls attacked him with birthday hugs, kisses, and drool (as you can see from his sweatshirt).

(left to right: stella, brant, daphne, fiona)

4.21.10: Homemade food

So I did it, I attempted to make my own baby food. I made a ton of peas and sweet potatoes and froze the extras. You can see just by the color that the homemade food looks much more appetizing than the store bought.


However, the girls decided to take on this new thicker food and try to feed themselves. I think they ate some of it, I know they had a good time trying to eat it, but mostly I know that our floor, wall, and table were covered in green and orange for days.


(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

4.18.10: Family play date

Today was our first family play date at the park just down the street. Five babies and four adults - somehow it seemed SO much easier than the usual play date baby:adult ratio. The girls even wore their personalized onesies so everyone could tell them apart. Just before the other family arrived, Daphne decided to stand for 5+ seconds (for the first time) and we were able to capture it in a photo.

4.16.08: Defense

(front to back: stella, daphne, fiona)


(stella/stripes, fiona/solid)

We adventured to the children's museum today. There are several age appropriate rooms, but during our quick hour long trip we only made it to one very padded room. It was great, there were several different areas to play, climb and explore....all relatively padded and safe. Of course, Stella was most interested in the wall sockets (she gravitated to two separate sockets on different walls) instead of the gazillion toys available. The only challenge with the children's museum comes when all the girls want to go in different directions. I find myself constantly chasing after the child most likely to hurt themselves...in a way, playing defense.

4.14.10: Coordinated looks

(left to right: ewan, stella, fiona, liam, daphne)

We arrived at our play date with our new hoodie/pant 9 month sized outfits. Our play dates also arrived in new outfits, so how could we not take a picture? It is such a rare occurrence that the girls all look at the camera at the same time, but somehow Heather managed to capture all five kids looking at the camera at the same time. Just wanted to share this picture since it will probably never happen again. Notice we are all teething (anything and everything goes in their mouths).

This is the one time both Heather and I forgot our park blankets, thereby leading to the piecemeal blanket below. Don't worry the ground was dry and there was zero damage to the amazing handmade blankets that Nicole made us...I made sure of it!

4.13:10: Real food

Yesterday I fed the girls REAL banana, not mashed banana or watered down banana, real banana. I peeled a banana and took a couple bites myself. Then broke off a small piece and fed it to the girls and.....they ate it! I repeated this several times, it was amazing. I think together they ate at least half of a banana. I repeated this at each feeding the remainder of the day and Brant was able to enjoy this new milestone as well during the evening feeding. They are becoming such little people. I see many, many half eaten bananas in my future. Today I decided to branch out even more and I fed the girls real avocado. It went ok, but I'm not sure they are super into avocados - especially when compared to bananas.

I also decided it was time for the transition to nine month sized clothes. We have been in nine month sized sleepers for a while now, but the day clothes have been six month sized since late fall. The clothes are a little big, but it is nice to finally be wearing the next size. Who knows, maybe after eating all the 'real food' the nine month sized clothes will only last a couple weeks :)

4.11.10: Ten months old

(left to right: daphne, fiona, stella)

Ten months, wow! This past month has been pretty exciting. The girls are pulling up and 'cruising' along furniture, walls, swings, pretty much everything. This occasionally leads to some falling upon selection of a minimally stable toy. They are babbling indiscrimantely still saying dadddddadddd (all the time) and mmmmmmma (only when upset). We still need to work on saying mmmmmmma when we are happy. We also think the girls have started saying 'hi' but we may be reading into this one a bit.

In the consumption area, the girls have done great eating level two foods. They have pretty much mastered eating anything mushy and room temperature (not into the cold foods just yet). They have even started to feed themselves if I the food is large enough. I know some gets in their mouth, although definitely not a majority. I know, I know, eventually I will have to start cooking/preparing real food for them. I have anxiety about this as it just seems so overwhelming, but hopefully we can make it work (sorry I have been watching project runway lately). If you have advice on simple first meals, please leave some comments below. I bought a book of recipes, but have yet to try any...again it just makes me anxious. Also, I have stopped pumping which has lead to some new found energy and several more hours during the day. Here is a summary of their level two foods consumed thus far:

level two:
2.27.10: Banana mixed berries
3.2.10: Apple vanilla mixed grain
3.5.10: Pear strawberry granola
3.8.10: Pear blueberry oat
3.11.10: Apple blueberry
3.14.10: Banana peach granola
3.17.10: Apple strawberry banana
3.20.10: Apricot with mixed fruit
3.23.10: Mangos
3.26.10: Vanilla custard pudding with bananas
3.29.10: Sweet potatoes and corn
4.6.10: Garden vegetables
4.9.10: Apples and cherries
4.12.10: Mixed vegetables
4.13.10: Avocados
4.16.10: Banana plum grape

This month was our first major family vacation. Our trip up to Seattle went really well and the girls handled all the 'new' activities like champs. They were able to meet SO many new people and had minimal spazzing. We have also started going to play dates several days each week resulting in at least one weekly car ride. The girls are very patient with me as I load/unload everyone which has thankfully increased my confidence to drive the girls places by myself. Watch out world, we are leaving the house regularly!

As a side note: These monkeys are from Daniel who also sent the girls a postcard from Sri Lanka. I will add the postcard to the baby memorabilia - first piece of mail from abroad goes to Daniel also, but this one is super special because it is from SO far away. Thanks for thinking of us while traveling.

4.09.10: Missed opportunity

Stella is now standing on her own for five+ seconds, but I can't seem to get a picture of her doing so. It is as though she sees the camera and falls over. Daphne is still just standing for a second or two, then she gets too excited that she is standing and starts trying to jump - thereby falling. It cracks me up every time.

This picture was taken a week later, but it was as soon as I could capture Stella standing.

4.7.10: Astronomers unite

(left to right: jenny, daphne, fiona, stella)

One of the great things about astronomy is that the community is rather small. Due to conferences, invited talks, and collaborations we somehow get to see our astronomer friends regardless of where we (and they) live. Jenny (who we met at Harvard) was in town for work and thankfully she had time to come over and visit the girls. We were able to take this adorable picture just before putting the girls to bed.

4.6.10: Eating on their own

(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

Today I was able to put a wagon wheel in front of each girl and they picked it up and fed themselves. I'm not claiming the entire wheel was consumed or that the floor didn't have remnants of this milestone, but we are well on our way to feeding ourselves.

4.5.10: Exhaustion

Our trip home went well but it was much more exhausting than our flight to Seattle. Perhaps because Brant and I were worn out from the week or just because the girls had a rougher start in the morning. No one would sleep on the plane, regardless of the fact that we were flying during nap time. This time Brant and Daphne were in the row in front of us, so that was a nice change. However, neither Fiona nor Stella wanted to sit in the car seat and those airplane seats are not wide enough to fit two babies on my lap. I kept having to rotate the two of them in and out of the car seat. Here was my tactic: Take baby in my lap, get them to stand up and pin them to the back of my seat using my ribs. Then pull out baby in car seat and put onto lap (keeping first baby pinned). Then using my back, I nudged the standing girl to the side and catch them with my one free arm. Once the standing baby was in my arm, I began the challenging task of getting said baby into the car seat with one arm. It was a spectacle nonetheless, but it worked. There was no hysterical screaming only a bit of fussing, but nothing too bad. After a quick drive, we were home. Brant and I were exhausted but it was in between nap times so we had to keep the girls awake - got to keep on the schedule at all times.

Apparently the girls were not tired despite their missing the morning nap. During this time, Fiona decided to stand on her own (for the first time) for at least five seconds - we were so proud. She stood long enough that despite our exhaustion we were able to get the camera and take this picture.

4.4.10: Easter

It seems that the girls knew it was Easter as they escaped from their room and went straight for their Easter eggs. Stella led the pack, then Fiona and finally Daphne. Inside the Easter eggs my sister hid some wagon wheels - a yummy treat that the girls just started enjoying this week. They each found their one Easter egg, but I must confess they were brightly colored and in the middle of a blanket. Still a very successful first Easter in my book.


During the morning nap time, the Easter bunny also hid eggs for Brant, Rob and me. I can't even remember the last time I participated in an Easter egg hunt, but we had a blast. Brant and I were much slower at finding out eggs compared to Rob, but we think Rob had an advantage due to prior egg hunting in his home. Then the evil Easter bunny appeared and hid eggs for my sister. This evil Easter bunny hid them out of sight and throughout the house, it provided me a lot more entertainment than my sister who found it less amusing to rummage through her house. No word yet if all the eggs have been found - but at least they were void of candy.


(left to right: brant/daphne, sean/stella, fiona, tamara/piper)

Thankfully on our very last day in Seattle, Brant's friends Sean and Tamara were able to come over. All four of us went to high school together and their little girl (Piper) was born in late July, around my original due date. It is crazy to think back in high school we had no idea we would be having babies at the same time. Piper is adorable and waves hello/goodbye - I am SO jealous.

Another great day in Seattle, our final day. It was a wonderful trip, too short of course, but thankfully we were able to see (and introduce our girls to) so many friends and family.

4.3.10: Relatives

(left to right: brant, daphne, fiona, stella)

We started off the morning skyping with nana, great nana, Evan and Melissa who were all in Kentucky for Easter weekend. It was the first time great nana skyped and you could tell the girls were excited to see her. They even figured out that pulling on the towel the computer was on, brought their relatives closer.


(left to right: kelly, daphne, rob, stella, fiona)

Here is a picture of the Kochmans before the chaos of more visitors began. They were really good sports. Not once did they complain of anything and trust me there were plenty of opportunities as we consumed their entire home.

Our next visitor was Brant's friend from college Matt. Unfortunately, the girls got a little cranky in between their naps so we didn't get any pictures of Matt with the girls. It was wonderful to see Matt and I think he was excited to see the girls in person even though they were having a tough day.

Thankfully after the afternoon nap, the girls seem to have recovered from their moodiness in time to meet their Aunt Michelle and Great Aunt Janet. We also got to see and play with Michelle's kids Stephen (4) and Paige (2). I am often asked how hard it is to handle triplets and honestly, I just wonder how hard it is to keep up and entertain kids of different ages. Michelle does a great job but I have to wonder which is harder....I suppose it really just depends on the kids.


(left to right: kelly/paige, kari/fiona, michelle/stella, stephen, janet/daphne)


(left to right: kelly, daphne, stephen)

Stephen really likes babies. Let me repeat, Stephen REALLY likes babies. Now imagine how happy he was to have three babies appear. He desperately wanted to hold the babies but I am still a little nervous to have kids hold the girls, so Auntie Kelly came up with the idea to have a 'group hold'. You can see that Stephen was pretty excited about it and Daphne took the opportunity to lick him.

After all the wonderful company, the girls were pretty exhausted. Brant and I desperately wanted to go out to our favorite restaurant (Bamboo Garden) while we were in town. Last time we were in Seattle, there was a huge snowstorm so we weren't able to go. This is a special place to us. We frequented the restaurant so much while in high school and college that we held our rehearsal dinner there - subjecting our family to an entirely vegetarian cuisine accented by tons of fake meat! We had two willing babysitters (thanks again Kelly and Rob) and decided to make a date night out of it. After putting the girls down for bed, Brant and I escaped and enjoyed our big night out. It was wonderful and extremely yummy.

4.2.10: Kim and Alyssa!

(left to right: stella, kari, daphne, fiona, kim, alyssa)

wondering what those shiny things are behind us in the picture? well they are airplane wings. yes, seriously airplane wings. Kelly and Rob are building a four seater airplane in their garage and have various completed airplane parts around the house. It is amazing (and a little scary) to see the airplane actually take shape.

Today was another exciting day for the girls and me. While Brant was busy working (earning his ticket to Seattle), we had a play date with Kim and Alyssa. It was wonderful! Last time I saw Alyssa she was just a couple months old and had a pretty tough start........but not now. Now she is walking everywhere, eating normal food and thriving. It was fantastic to see how loving parents and a persevering child can get through almost anything. She played nice with the girls and even allowed Kim and me to talk a bit. They were able to stay and play the whole day. It gave me a good vision of what my life *might* be like in another 9 months which is both wonderful and scary at the same time (especially when multiplying by three). It was sad to have them go home, but in our house we definitely appreciate a routine and wouldn't want to interfere with bedtime.

Brant arrived back at Kelly and Rob's in the late afternoon. The girls were clearly excited to see their dad after two days. Somehow, Debbie was able to escape for the evening kid-free. She came over to help with bed and bath time and then her and I went out to a late dinner. I'm not sure how everything aligned but thanks to Andy and Brant (and of course Kelly and Rob), Debbie and I were able to go out for a couple hours and catch up - it was great. At some point, the waiter told us to cash out but assured us we could stay until the restaurant closed - I think he could tell we had a lot of catching up to do :)

4.1.10: Play date with Debbie's family

(left to right: Sammy, Debbie, Fiona, Daphne, Kari, Joey, Stella)
I know, I know, not everyone is looking at the camera - this is the reality of five kids in the same picture.

Today I (FINALLY) got to meet Sammy, the newest addition to Debbie's family - and oh boy is he adorable. Joey, now four, was amazing (as always) and read me books shortly after my arrival - I was in awe. I can't wait until my little ladies are as communicative as Joey - the house will be a chatter all day. It is crazy to think that the last time I saw Debbie there was only one kid between the two of us, and now there are five!


Debbie and I were originally due just days apart, but Sammy was born at full gestation while my ladies were born almost six weeks early. This would lead you to believe that my ladies would be bigger than Sammy, but that is SO not the case. I thought this picture of Daphne (~18lbs) and Sammy (~24lbs) was a good example of the difference in size.


(left to right: daphne, stella, fiona)

I think when Kelly and Debbie were trying to feed the girls, the girls were a little distracted by the other kids and adults around them. Needless to say, feeding was a bit more of a challenge than either anticipated when graciously volunteering to feed these ladies. This is why we wear bibs. Regardless, I found it hilarious that all the girls ended up leaning to the right after eating lunch.


(left to right: stella, daphne, fiona)

My sister made these adorable onesies for the girls. They came in very helpful when meeting new people as Fiona and Stella look so very similar. Of course, instead of preserving these adorable onesies, they managed to get very dirty when wearing them for the first time. Once they were marked by the solid food, we decided to have the girls try a bitter bar which enhanced the mess beyond belief. At least the girls enjoyed the bars and feeding themselves!

What a great day, I got to see the entire family! Thank you Debbie, Andy, Joey and Sammy for sharing your day with us!

3.31.10: First vacation

After months of preparation, we finally embarked on our first vacation. We knew it wouldn't be an easy task to travel with triplets, but we also know that we have a wedding to go to in Indiana this fall and needed a practice run. Brant had to go to Seattle for work, so it seemed to make sense to piggyback on his trip and stay at (I mean takeover) my sister and Rob's house.

So we did it. We flew with triplets. It went pretty well. Brant kept Daphne entertained while Fiona and Stella hung out with me a couple rows back. Besides some irritability while on the tarmac (don't we all feel that way), the flight went ok. We were relieved to arrive safely in Seattle to the smiling faces of Kelly and Rob and two automobiles. Yes, it takes two automobiles to get our family of five + Kelly and Rob home. We arrived at the Kochman's where they had acquired countless baby necessities from a variety of friends. In this normally kid-free home, there were three jumpers, a swing, four playpens, two changing stations, three booster seats for eating, diapers, food, formula and countless toys acquired from at least seven different people. I actually think they had a better set up than we have in our own home. Immediately we took to changing and feeding the girls - gotta keep on the schedule even when traveling. The girls missed a majority of their morning nap, but took to their afternoon nap without a problem.

Once the girls woke from their afternoon nap, we adventured over to meet up with another triplet family (two weeks younger) for a play date. It was crazy to see so many little ladies together.


(left to right: Brelynn, Stella, Fiona, Daphne, Avery, Camille)