5.8.10: Giggles

Having a tough day? Surely these adorable giggling videos (Fiona, Daphne, Stella) will make you smile.








Here is an impromptu attempt from fiona to push daphne on the car. Now, if we can just get them to change each other's diapers then we will really be set.

5.5.10: Spontaneity

Feeding three little ones is a big task, so we have been on a very strict schedule for the past five months. In early December (with our pediatricians ok) we dropped the 3am feeding. We continued to put the girls down for bed around 7:30pm and then woke them up at 11pm for a final feeding before the long stretch of sleep through the night. Brant and I usually go to bed just after 11pm, so we didn't mind feeding the girls since we were still up. More importantly, we really valued the eight hours of sleep we got each night when the girls were well fed. Sleep training was not a fun time and it was not something we were looking forward to doing again. With some coaxing from our play date friends, we decided it was time to drop the 11pm feeding and have the girls sleep from 7:30pm-7am. For the past week we have been reducing their food at the 11pm feeding by an ounce each night and finally, last night, we didn't feed them at all. Of course there was a tiny bit of noise, but nothing substantial. The transitioning went really well and now our little ladies are sleeping almost twelve straight hours. Of course you'd think we go to bed earlier now that we can, but that hasn't occurred just yet.

On a whim, Brant's cousin Mette invited us over to Joan and Doug's house for a night of tacos and drinks (nicely coordinated with cinco de mayo). Normally we would never attempt such a spontaneous adventure especially in the middle of the week - but we did it. Less than an hour after the invitation, we were on our way. We had the girls take half their afternoon nap at home and then threw them in the car for the remainder (nicely timed with our arrival at our destination). We stayed, played and visited until bedtime and then began driving the girls home. The car rides went really well. The girls got pretty fussy during their normal 'strolling' time 5:30-6:30 but thankfully we had many willing hands to distract them. Here are some cute photos from our adventure. Who says a family with ten month old triplets can't be spontaneous?


daphne and great aunt joan (who is trying to steer daphne away from the newly found garbage can)


daphne and aunt mette (who is trying to increase daphne's palate to include limes)


(left to right: fiona, stella, daphne)

When no other toy will do, playing on 'jungle gym daddy' does the trick. It is always interesting to see who gives in first, the girls wanting to explore something else or brant needing a break from the drool, gnawing, and climbing.

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 :)