7.20.12: Adventures with Nene

While I was traveling back from Seattle (where I met my nephew Cooper) and Brant was at work, Nene took over watching the girls this morning.  This is the first time since we moved that someone has watched the girls for a couple hours without Brant or me around.  Rumor has it, Nene and the girls (daphne/yellow, stella/pink, fiona/blue) did great.  They adventured to our weekly multiples playgroup where the teacher and other sets of multiples were missing for a majority of the session.  Nene decided to improvise and make up her own circle time and playgroup. The girls sure enjoyed having free reign of all the toys.

7.16.12: Swimming lessons

Totally on a whim, we signed up the girls (left to right: stella, daphne, fiona) for swimming lessons. Another mom at the park told me about the free lessons and I happened to be next door to the registration center (without even knowing it).  Three days later, the girls were in the pool and ready to learn to swim...or maybe float...or maybe just sit on some steps in the pool.

The first lesson was kind of a bust, the lifeguards needed to size up all the kids and group them within their levels.  Since the classes were intended for 6yo +, the girls were in the super beginner class with kids closer to their age.   They spent most of the first class telling the instructor about themselves, their favorite things, etc and did very little swimming.  The girls pretty much dominated the class with chattiness and wouldn't leave the steps (left to right: stella, fiona, daphne) BUT they got in the water all on their own and sometimes listened to the instructors so I consider the lesson a success.

This was the very first time the girls have participated in an activity/class completely on their own.  We took swimming lessons at 2yo, but I was in the pool the whole time with them.  During these lessons, I had to leave the pool deck and stare from behind a chain link fence.  Don't worry, I knew I could jump the fence if needed, I made sure of that first thing.   After the first lesson, the classes were smaller and somewhat more manageable.  I'm not sure the girls are actually going to learn much, but these lessons are a great precursor to preschool and fill up our mornings (which seem to start earlier everyday).

7.13.12: Kaleidoscope

Today at the children's museum, we found a new kid-sized kaledioscope.  Everyone took turns counting themselves in all of the mirrors.  (top to bottom: fiona, daphne, stella) 

7.11.12: Bird houses

We finally set up our hummingbird feeder and have had great success attracting hummingbirds to our backyard.  It only seemed appropriate to have the girls to paint their own bird feeders next.  The girls (left to right: stella, daphne, fiona) took this task very seriously as they were convinced the more color on the bird houses the easier the birds could find it.  After nap when the bird houses were dry, we rushed outside to hang up our bird feeders and stuck them on a branch and then moved them over and over again.  Perhaps the funnest part is finding new places to put the bird houses.

7.6.12: 4th annual Family Day

Today was our fourth annual family day, the day we finally had all of our girls home from the hospital back in 2009.  This year we opted to step up our family photo (left to right: daphne, stella, fiona) and get an actual professional photo done.  The girls did great and had a blast.  This day always reminds us to be very thankfully for our healthy girls and to embrace each and every moment.  We love you girls!

7.4.12: Gelato

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

Today we decided we needed to do something special for the holiday, so we all adventured to get gelato.  The girls haven't had too many sweets so we saved the explanation of gelato vs. ice cream for a later time and called our special treat, ice cream (since they have at least heard of ice cream before).  We let the girls pick out their own flavors.  Daphne picked mango, primarily because the display had a piece of mango with the rind - and she loves green).  Stella picked blackberry, but called it strawberry, as it had the strongest pink color of the available flavors.  Fiona picked banana.  Yes, I agree, I don't have any comments on that selection other than there were no blue flavors.  Daphne enjoyed hers the most eating almost half, Fiona thought hers was pretty good and ate about a third and Stella ate just a couple bites.  This is an exact replica of how all food consumption goes at our house so it wasn't too big of a surprise that it also applied to ice cream.

6.26.12: Water painting

 

The girls (left to right: stella, daphne, fiona) received a wonderful gift of watercolors from Peter for their birthdays.  We haven't done watercolor before, just acrylic.  I figured they'd be super excited for a new medium because they really love to create/color/paint anything.  What I wasn't anticipating was the creative use of the paints.  Even though the process of adding water to the paint and then painting on the paper was described in full (and replicated at the beginning), the girls decided it was much more fun to paint their water.  They all started dipping their brushes in the paint and then putting it in the water to turn the water different colors.  Needless to say, we ended up with very little paint on the paper, some very colorful water, and a whole new art medium.  I love how their minds work. 

Nene came to visit and brought with her some magnifying glasses (color coordinated, of course).  This is a good thing, because the girls (left to right: daphne, stella, fiona) have all be fighting over the one pretend magnifying glass we have (aka the frying pan). Ahhh our imaginations are blooming these days.

6.20.12: Movie fears

The first movie we went to as a family went really well, so I thought I'd take advantage of the bargain kids movie mornings and take the girls to see Rio on my own.  Of course I had several fears about this adventure: 

1.  Potty breaks.  If the movie has started and someone needs to go potty, I have to convince all three girls to leave a dark movie theater and attempt to wrangle them to a public restroom.....cringe.....don't get me started on triplets in a public restroom, I'll just summarize with 'thirty fingers touching everything'. 
2. Scary parts.  Since the girls haven't seen many movies I still don't have a good sense for what they will find 'scary' and what will be tolerable.  Obviously this differs greatly amongst the girls.  If one (or all) find something scary and freaks out, what do I do?
3. Bored, antsy.  This was a kids viewing, so of course it seems acceptable to have some noise, but what if everyone (or just one) wants to leave.  How do I convince everyone it is time to go or that we should stay?

Thankfully the movie went really well and none of the above fears were realized.  I'm not sure how much longer I'll be this lucky. I think the girls are learning quickly that if they all refuse something, I am totally paralized. 

6.11.12: THREE

HAPPY THIRD BIRTHDAY GIRLS!!!

This year has brought a lot of changes and you have embraced every one of them. In the past year you have learned your alphabet (including reading your own name), numbers, developed a sense of humor, learned to sleep in toddler beds, become fully potty trained, eat at a big table, walk everywhere independently, talk and tell stories, recite books, sing songs, and so much more all with a zest for life we admire.  You make your own choices and have your own opinions, you are truly little girls (not toddlers).  You have grown to show compassion and love for each other and really begun to embrace the camaraderie of being triplets. We are so proud to be your parents and love every moment.

love, mama and daddy

(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

***************************************

 

fiona at 7:35am

(exactly three years old)

30.5 lbs and 37.5"

daphne at 7:36am

(exactly three years old)

33.5 lbs and 38.75"

stella at 7:39am

(exactly three years old)

29.5 lbs and 37"

This year the birthday theme was the girls' favorite colors.  I asked repeatedly what type of cake/theme the girls wanted for their birthday and always got the same answer, stella:pink, daphne:green and fiona:blue.  They are obsessed with THEIR colors (cups, plates, clothes, underwear, brant's shirts...everything).  After a solid month of trying to convince them to pick an animal or object, I decided that a pink, blue and green theme would work out perfectly. The decorations around the house were all pink, green and blue.  Each girl had their own 'doorway' of streamers in their own color (see pics above).   In addition we had colored balloons and streamers everywhere.  It was pretty fantastic to go crazy and decorate our whole house for the first time.  The girls awoke with some serious excitement when they saw their favorite color - everywhere.

Thanks to some food dye and white cake, the girls each got their own cake (giant muffin) in their favorite color decorated with color appropriate candy flowers. We haven't done much with sweets, but I am starting to relax a bit.  The girls were very excited to blow out their candles and eat their cake...until they tried it.  Daphne liked the candy flowers but Fiona and Stella took a bite or two and then asked for cheese instead.  They wouldn't even eat the vanilla ice cream.  Does this mean my plan to avoid a severe sweet tooth like my own, worked?  Only time will tell. At least they enjoyed looking at their cakes.

The girls were spoiled once again by endless gifts from family and friends.  Brant and I (clearly during a moment of weakness) decided to cave to their musical interests and get our little 'band' started.  Below the girls are enoying their xylophone, guitar and piano (don't worry the full size drum set is upstairs).  In an effort to stay sane we have decided to have daily music time versus freeform music play hoping to curb the chaos by said 'band'. 

 

It was a wonderful day and the girls loved hearing Happy Birthday sung to them over and over again. This is the first year I think they really understood what having a birthday was all about.

6.10.12: Movie partrons

(left to right: daphne, stella, fiona)

Seems notable that today we went to our first family movie. We borrowed Madagascar from Peter for our airplane ride and the girls really enjoyed it. The girls have only ever seen one full length movie (curious george 2) and that was at home. It seemed too much of a coincidence to have Madagascar 3 coming out in the theaters so close to their birthday. So we HAD to take them. They had a great time. It was cute, during the previews they kept asking when the movie was going to start - seems no one really likes to sit through the previews.