12.11.11: Two and a half years old

(left to right: daphne, stella, fiona)

Today the girls turned two and a half. There is a common theory that doubling the child's height at two and a half years old is a good indicator of how tall that child will be in adulthood. If this is in fact the case (reinforced by their current shoe size), we are going to have some very tall girls.

Fiona: 28lbs 6oz, 35.75", shoe size 9
Daphne: 32lbs 2oz, 36.75", shoe size 10
Stella: 28lbs, 35.5", shoe size 9


(left to right: fiona, stella, daphne)

Given the girls' weights above we have finally reached a break even point with my total pregnancy weight gain. That's right given their current weights, together we (fiona, daphne, stella, and I) weigh the same that I weighed during the final days of my pregnancy. Hard to imagine that something so cute can come from this. Too bad I can't carry them all at the same time anymore (perhaps if I duct taped them to my body....nah, probably not even then).

12.9.11: Arizona snow

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

In an effort to attempt all things Arizona, we adventured to the outdoor mall which provides weekend 'snowfall' in the courtyard. We thought the girls would be excited to have snow (albeit human made) falling from the sky (albeit second story) into a courtyard (albeit containing patches of AstroTurf)....oh, it is very different here. Turns out Fiona was a little scared of the snow while Daphne and Stella seemed to embrace it.

Then the band started playing music, picture this:
A decent high school band playing music in a courtyard. A semi-circle of people around said band enjoying the music. Daphne jumping in the corner behind the crowd to the music, Stella joins in jumping to the rhythm. Then I squeeze our way up to the front of the semi-circle so Daphne and Stella can see the musicians and instruments (Fiona was cuddling with Brant). Sure enough, turn on the super charm and Daphne starts jumping to the music in front of the crowd. It was ridiculous and I wished more than anything I had a video, but she insisted that I hold her hand while she jumped. We asked the girls what their favorite part of the whole evening was and got a unanimous answer.....music!

12.5.11: First snow

(left to right: stella, fiona, daphne)

Okay, let's not be overly critical here. We live in Arizona there is 0% chance we will ever have real snow falling at our house. I define real by our previous Boston/Chicago standards (no Seattle and LA - your 'snowfall' doesn't qualify either). Given our locale, this may be the closest thing to snow that we get at our house and therefore I dub it the girls' first snow....at least until we make a trip to the mountains.

12.3.11: Llama Llama

(left to right: fiona, brant, daphne, stella, and peter - trying to run away)

Instead of our normal Saturday story time we opted to go to a story time that promised Llama Llama would make an appearance. After three books and too many songs, he finally did. Daphne and Peter were more than happy to give Llama Llama a hug while Fiona and Stella needed their daddy with them to say hi.

11.23.11: Playing with Kelly and Jen

(left to right: kelly/fiona, jen/stella, kari/daphne) Stella is proudly displaying the welcome sign they made for Kelly and Jen

Thanks to a well planned visit to see family, Kelly and Jen were able to visit us during their brief vacation. The girls immediately began asking Kelly and Jen to read them books and our new visitors obliged very patiently. I think Kelly read the same book four times in under five minutes. In an attempt to save our visitors their sanity, we spent some time in the sunshine coloring the driveway with sidewalk chalk. Jen taught the girls all about shoes. Previously everything (animate or inanimate) had to have a hat and now, thanks to Jen, everything must also have shoes. After our fill of coloring, we moved inside for a tea party.


Above Jen and Kelly are toasting their wonderful teacup cupcakes, that's right the cupcakes go inside the teacups. We like to think outside of the box here.

11.19.11: Singing books

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

I think the morning went something like this: Hi Nana (hug, hug, hug)....now read us a book, please.

Nana was a very good sport during her recent visit and even 'sang' books to the girls as requested/demanded so they could jump to the rhythm of the song. They sure love jumping, reading and their Nana - combine all three and we had some very happy girls.

11.18.11: Just like daddy

(left to right: fiona, stella, daphne)

The girls really enjoyed playing drums at our multiples playgroup this week. They even continued drumming long after the music stopped. I wonder when they'll discover Brant's drum set setup in our guest room? Hopefully not for a very long time....or at least until we meet all of our neighbors.


(left to right: daphne, fiona, stella)

The girls have magnadoodles that we keep in the car for those special times when I need some help entertaining during longer car rides. Somehow these magnadoodles made it into the house one day and the girls got really excited. They all rushed over to the chair to 'email daddy'. I'm not even kidding. I drew on a < send > button so they could make sure their emails made it to daddy at work.

11.11.11: Game on!

(left to right: stella, daphne, fiona)

That's right - we started potty training. We think they are ready, they think they are ready, and we have been talking about it for weeks. Bracing ourselves to be home bound for the three day weekend. Game on!

11.9.11: Lions, groceries, and toes...oh my

Stella found this lion costume at a new playarea and asked me to help her put it on. She even played in it for a few minutes and then decided she was done. I was amazed she tolerated it at all. Perhaps her new nickname should be StellaLion...


Fiona filled up her grocery cart as full as she could and drove it all around the room. Good thing she isn't in charge of our food budget or we'd be broke.


Daphne....ahh Daphne...somethings never change.

11.5.11: Books

The girls love books. They love books more than any toy, food, or activity. I actually found myself taking away books as a consequence once. (Who am I? What kind of mother takes away books???)

The girls still have quiet time in the morning and one day when going into their room I saw the following:
- Stella and her dog were reading to Fiona from across the room
- Fiona told me 'Alligator likes to look at pictures. I am reading to alligator."
- Daphne set up all of her animals to read to them as a group.
The girls have most of their board books memorized, so I even hear the correct words on some of the pages. (I suppose they could just be super geniuses and actually reading, but given the amount of times we have read the same books to them - I am assuming it is memorization.)




So when our library held their yearly event downtown, how could we resist. The librarians from various branches acted out popular books, played music, and there were more books than a little one could dream. There was an opportunity to play dress up - which was tolerated just for the picture (stella/postal worker, daphne/cop, fiona/astronaut). Please also notice that we finally had to break out the long sleeves...I suppose it is November. The girls had a great time and even got to take home two books each. Another benefit to having triplets...coming home with six new books! Don't worry, they'll have them memorized within a week.