2.18.10: Trying to escape

Fiona has surpassed normal crawling and now begun trying to escape from our sunken living room. She can push up on the first stair into an almost standing position. Most importantly, she doesn't seem to might the countless times she falls down when trying to conquer this step. It is adorable to watch and fascinating to see her persistence. First thing she does when she wakes up in the morning is to go to the steps and try to climb them. I guess we will be in need of some more baby proofing very soon.

Since the girls are still in their six month day clothes, I started getting worked up about there tiny size. I think it is fairly normal when you have preemie babies to always be worked up about their weights and whether or not they are growing appropriately. (Of course it probably doesn't help that some of my friends have gigantic - but ridiculously adorable - babies very similar in age :) After weighing them earlier this week and consulting their growth charts I was pretty concerned. Our girls will always be on the smaller size, but according to our scale Fiona and Stella had gained less than a pound in two and a half months. So I emailed our pediatrician and we went in three weeks early for our nine month checkup. Turns out the girls are doing great and tracking wonderfully to their original trajectories on the growth chart. Our scale on the other hand, is not fairing so well these days as it was off by more than one pound. Now my goal is to not worry about their weight until their one year appointment - we will see how that goes :)

Fiona: 27.5 inches (65%), 15lbs 14oz (15%)
Daphne: 27.5 inches (65%), 17lbs 8oz (40%)
Stella: 27 inches (50%), 15lbs 6oz (7%)

2.16.10: Sitting???

(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

While the girls are more than willing to crawl, for some reason sitting isn't of interest. Daphne can sit on her own and will do so for up to ten minutes now. Fiona loves to sit in her leaning tripod position but is typically less interested in sitting upright - she can do it for about two minutes or so before toppling over. Stella is still struggling with balance a bit and needs a little more assistance (and fewer distractions) to sit on her own. I thought this picture was cute because it captured all the girls at their various stages of sitting. Daphne - on her own, Fiona - with mild assistance, and Stella - with more support.

2.14.10: Valentine's day

(left to right: stella, fiona, daphne)

This weekend was amazing. Saturday was in the mid-70's and Sunday was even warmer. We escaped for two walks each day and even went to the botanic gardens. The girls wore their new sunhats (their heads got too big for the others) on our midday walks.

Note: the blankets were removed promptly upon actually getting outside. I just had a really hard time believing the weather would be SO warm in mid-February no matter what the forecasters said.

2.11.10: Eight months old

(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

This has been an exciting month. While we are still wearing our six month day clothes, we have finally broken into the nine month sleepers (our little ladies are long and lean). The girls have learned to army and bear crawl - they are still working on 'traditional' crawling but they can definitely get anywhere they want to - and fast. They love to steal binkies from each other and are beginning to really interact with one another (most commonly to steal a toy they are interested in).

The girls have been hard at work learning to eat and have indulged in the following foods:
12.12.09: Carrots
12.19.09: Rice cereal
1.16.10: Sweet Potatoes
1.19.10: Peas
1.22.10: Pears
1.25.10: Squash
1.28.10: Prunes
2.1.10: Bananas
2.4.10: Apples
2.7.10: Peaches
2.10.10: Green beans
2.13.10: Oatmeal
Thankfully, no allergies so far :)

Everyone now has two bottom teeth making their grins even more adorable. Fiona and Stella are working on some top teeth, but nothing showing just yet. Daphne is still pushing up her bottom teeth but they are definitely showing.

So I guess that sums up our big month. Learning to eat, crawl and getting six teeth (two each). I guess they do grow up fast.

2.9.10: Teeth

Stella's two bottom teeth are now in full view whenever she smiles. She even has some white spots of teeth-to-come on the top of her mouth.


Fiona's two bottom teeth are sticking out the most of all the girls. In this picture, you can even see her teeth-to-come in the top of her mouth...I would give it one week (at the most) until these new arrivals break through her gums.


Daphne has one good solid tooth in the bottom of her mouth and one on the way. However, Daphne also LOVES to stick out her tongue so getting a picture of the tooth is nearly impossible. So instead of a tooth picture, you get the face that I get whenever I try to take a tooth picture :)


The girls are fully mobile now. They can get anywhere they want and can do so rather quickly. They use a variety of methods: crawling, army crawling, bear crawling, rolling and very creative wiggling. The girls have been less interested in sitting up. Daphne can sit up on her own and only tips over occasionally. Fiona can sit up on her own sometimes but usually is protected by some pillowy surrounding as she will inevitably fall over within a couple minutes (primarily due to distractions). Stella will sit for a minute or so and then fall over. I think the girls seem to be more interested in crawling. I suppose, I too, would rather explore all of my surroundings than sit still. Regardless, Fiona has begun getting herself into this tripod position (usually with just one arm). She is getting so close to sitting herself up - but has not successfully gotten into the sitting position on her own. (yet!)

2.6.10: Mama's day off

(left to right: daphne, stella, fiona)

Due to her short visit, Nicole and I needed to make the most of her time here before she went to 'earn' her trip by attending a conference nearby. In order to do so, my fantastically wonderful husband took the day off of work to watch the girls yesterday so Nicole and I could out. I have finally retired my maternity clothes (those remaining t-shirts I was wearing were primarily due to the shirt length and laziness). In order to retire said clothes, I clearly needed to go shopping. Of course while out shopping we needed to have a yummy breakfast and lunch...and what is a day off without some pampering (we had to get our nails done too). It was wonderful to have some serious girlieness and we definitely made the most of our time together.


(left to right: daphne, stella, fiona)

Brant had a wonderful time with the girls too. For some reason, he got them to eat at least six more ounces of food than they eat with me. Hmmm, the girls and I are going to have to talk about this - no fair eating more with daddy than me.

2.4.10: Mesmerized

(daphne/headband, stella/hearts, fiona/pink)

Within about three minutes upon arrival, the girls all gravitated towards Nicole. While we may not be specifically crawling; they can army crawl, bear crawl and wiggle their way to their desired destination with ease....and clearly Nicole was that destination. I don't know if it was her or her bright red sweater, but she was a hit. I'm so glad the girls warm up to new people quickly, it makes it so much easier to have visitors.


(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

Shortly after her arrival, it was time to feed the girls. As with all willing company, we put her to work right away feeding the girls apples. After some more playtime, we continued with our routine and went for a walk, picked up Brant from work and then returned home in time for another feeding and baths.

2.2.10: Playground

(left to right: stella, daphne, fiona)

Another triplet mom suggested we meet at an indoor playground to get all the kids together for a playdate. I was hesitant but decided to give it a try. I figured if anyone would understand if I had to cancel at the last minute or leave five minutes after arriving, she would. I spent a good week thinking (and rehearsing in my head) how the day would go.

Here is a breakdown of our adventure:

Wake up from afternoon nap 15 minutes early
Feed everyone
Change everyone
Bring everyone downstairs
Put shoes and socks on (six feet takes time)
Put daphne and fiona into stroller
Put stella into bjorn (she is the smallest and therefore easiest to carry)
Get downstairs into the garage with stroller and kids
Load stella into her car seat
Remove bjorn
Load daphne and fiona into their car seats
Collapse stroller and load into trunk
Get me into the car and prepared to drive
Drive (get slightly lost, maybe)
Arrive at destination
Find perfect street parking right in front of playground
Parellel park
Avoid traffic and get out of car
Put on bjorn
Get stroller out of the trunk
Load daphne and fiona into the stroller
Strategically load stella into the bjorn when there was a break in traffic
Go inside the playground
Take off shoes
Push stroller into the play area
Unload stella, daphne and fiona into play castle (yes total time in stroller upon arrival was less than the time it took to get them all into place)
Attempt to play
Attempt to chat with other parents and kids
Attempt to chat with other triplet mom

After about an hour, I decided we were done. I confirmed this was a reasonable first showing for the girls with the other triplet mom. The girls did pretty well. There was a little bit of whimpering but you could tell they were just in an unfamiliar environment. Of course, many of the kids/parents were leaning over the castle watching the girls. I think all of the new faces were a little much for them. But we did it and that was the important part.

Now it was time to prepare to go home:

Find everything I took out of the diaper bag
Put daphne and fiona into stroller
Put stella into bjorn
Push stroller into play area entrance
Put on shoes (this is a tough one with bjorn on - mental note, need slip-on shoes)
Load daphne and fiona into car seats
Load stella into car seat (again avoiding traffic)
Collapse stroller and load into trunk
Remove bjorn
Get me into the car and prepared to drive
Drive (take scenic route as kids were pretty calm)
Arrive at home
Put on bjorn
Get stroller out of the trunk
Load daphne and fiona into the stroller
Load stella into the bjorn
Get from the garage into the house
Unload kids from stroller
Pass out!

This was the first time I took the girls out in the car to a location, spent time at a location and then took them home all on my own. A seemingly simple task for most, but for me - a huge accomplishment. I have conquered the daily walks, next up - adventures in the car. Man, I am glad we live where we do and I have plenty of places to walk to, I was exhausted!

1.29.10: My little artist

(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

As you can see from this picture, Stella has become a little artist. She has decided that she likes to stick her hands in her mouth when eating her food and then use those same hands to paint on the wall. Of course she decided to have her first artistic creation using prunes as the contrast to the white wall is the greatest. Perhaps we need to move the table further from the wall :) I intend to use this table for arts/crafts as well as eating but for now, it is for eating only. At least until we can eat a bit better and distinguish food from paint, although I'm sure both are equally yummy.

1.25.10: Peas and squash

Perhaps I need to work a little more on my aim when feeding the kids. Regardless the girls enjoyed peas, pears and squash lately (see up to date list in the right panel). Oddly enough, they weren't really into pears (too sweet? is it possible as my child to find something too sweet?) Squash seems to be the favorite so far.

I am a sucker for adorable food-on-face photos. Here is a fix, if you are too:

Peas (Fiona/left, Daphne/middle, Stella/right):


Squash (Fiona/left, Daphne/middle, Stella/right):