The Lion has been replaced

The riding lion USED to be the coveted toy. I love sending Rich to buy formula because I never know what he will come home with. Their daddy sure know how to pick the toys because they just adore the new DUMP TRUCK!

Playtime is pretty much centered around this new toy.

They play with it...

Play hovering around it...

Dump it over...

Sit in it...

Pose with it...

(Masculine toy with a not so masculine outfit. Rich picked out both.)

Push each other in it...

Cry when they have to eat dinner and leave the dump truck in the playroom...

Eloise loves it the best. Now she has the lion all to herself.

What are Oreos made of?

This afternoon Rich and I walked with the babies to my favorite local frozen yogurt place. They now eat regular yogurt, not goat yogurt, so I thought it would be fun to give them a few bites of frozen yogurt in preparation for eating ice cream or frozen treats on their birthday. I had avocado frozen yogurt and since avocado is one of their favorite foods they were loving every bite after the initial surprise and cold shock. I looked into Rich's cup before he started feeding them and saw some brown frozen yogurt. This is what followed.

"They can't have chocolate." - ME

"Yes they can; they are not dogs. Anyway, this isn't chocolate, it's cookies and cream." -RICH

On your marks, get set, GO!

Our house is not very kid-friendly. We really have only 2 spaces that the babies can safely play. We have a den upstairs that has been turned into a playroom, which is the only carpet in the house, and then our beautiful remodel job of the the living room below.


The other day Rich decided it was time to let them loose in the rest of the house. At first they were a little pouty because they kept slipping on the tile and couldn't crawl very well. Then they figured it out and took off.


Then we lined them up for a race to the living room. Nothing like fostering a little sibling competition before 1 year.


Neck and neck rounding the corner to the home stretch.


Addy forgot to look at the race map before starting and got detoured by the front door mat.
(Check out the white tile floors which are a just PERFECT way to send an OCD mom with 3 kids and 2 dogs straight to the looney bin.)

Since Eloise doesn't crawl and is not very interested in moving I'd thought I'd post a picture of what she does best- eat.

"What happened to my dried mango?" -Eloise

Sweet Tooth Count

Only one small change from the last official tooth count.

Eloise
2 Bottom Teeth

Beckett
2 Bottom Teeth

4 Top Teeth

Addy
2 Bottom Teeth, AND 1 Tooth on Top.
I love this look. I'm hoping she only has one on top for a while.

I think it looks hysterical. The tights on the head make it even better.

I guess they take after me in the sweet tooth department. One of my, umm I mean, their favorite places is the pastry department at Central Market. Actually, this is usually about the time I'm rifling through the "kid cookie" bin. I can take 3- can't you see I have 3 kids?

Tired Little Girl

Mealtime is hectic and I'm so busy making their food, putting small quantities in front of them at a time, picking up food off the floor, discouraging food and sippy cup stealing, trying to keep us on schedule and interpreting the various whining, screaming, laughing and shrieking that I sometimes miss the small things.

Like these pictures my mom took of Eloise. I was so busy fluttering around the kitchen I don't even remember her being tired at the table.






These pictures just melted my heart. What a beautiful reminder to slow down and savor these moments of this crazy life.

This would be better in video

This would be much better in video, but I'm still working on few kinks on how to get video onto my computer since the video is on a little tiny disk and if I try to put that little tiny disk in my computer I have to pull it out with a tweezers or call Dell Support (I'm not cool enough to have a Mac.) Anyway, good thing quick-draw-Logghe , aka Mom, is here with her awesome camera to capture some of the action shots.

This is what Eloise discovered in the past week.

Where is Eloise?

Peek-a-boo!

Where is Eloise?

Peek-a-boo!

Beckett on the other hand has figured out a few games of his own this week.

1. Spoon up the nose, no big deal.


2. Crawling up to his sisters and sitting back to back with them. I think it is just adorable but I can see where they are going to get annoyed pretty soon.
Yes, he is wearing leggings. I thought he looked like a little athletic gymnast but Rich thought otherwise.

3. Touching his sister's ear. How do you think that went over?



Eloise is worried she might be the next victim. This also answers the question that many people ask and that is, "If one starts crying, do the others cry as well?" And the answer is that it depends. In this case, Eloise is obviously worried but usually they will only start to cry if they are scared or they get startled by shrieking of the others.

My fearless baby girl.


She's fearless as long as her brother is not touching her, or near her, or touching her toys, or thinking about touching her toys, or looking at the toy she thinks is hers...

Triplet using china for the first time

I have white tile floors in the kitchen. Yes, white tile with triplets and two dogs. It's a nightmare. At one point I bought a paint drop cloth to put under the feeding table so I wouldn't have to scrub the floor 3 times a day but I haven't been able to bring myself to use it. I get on my hands and knees and hand scrub under the table 3 times, well maybe 2 times a day. It's getting old and I'm getting old so there has to be a better solution.
I'm trying to figure out ways to prevent so much food ending up on the floor and one solution was to put the food on plates or in bowls. I'm not sure why I think this would eliminate some of the mess but I think it is working towards the goal of civilized eating.
The title may be misleading. They are not using MY fine china, although I'm sure Rich would be happy to give them a shot at it hopefully eliminating a few sets, but their own set of china Target-style.
At first I bought the boon stay-put-divided plate. It is supposed to be slip-resistant and edgeless so little fingers can't pick it up. I guess they didn't count on more than 10 fingers trying to manipulate it because it ended up on the floor in about 30 seconds. They have a bowl with suction cups that I just found online that I'm going to try. I only buy one at a time to test it out before investing in one for each baby because with multiples, this is the kind of stuff that really adds up and is very hard to budget for.
Then yesterday was at Target and I found these Munchkin suction bowls that were sooooo much cheaper than the boon products, although not nearly as cool looking. Being the practical shopper, I bought one set hoping I found the solution.
So far so good but it looks like Beckett is testing the waters.


The whole plan is starting to unravel...


And after 30 seconds, it is over...

I don't have a picture of it but after another 30 seconds they figured out that the person next to them had a different bowl so then there was fights, screaming and tears over the inequity of their neighbor having a bowl as well that they couldn't have.

But I'll tell you what, it sure was entertaining to watch.



I guess I forgot to explain to Beckett the different between a finger bowl and a food bowl.

Game Over on Day 149

The Newman Food Challenge is officially over. I gave it my all but yesterday, on Day 149, as I was headed out the door for work I figured out that Eloise was constipated. The only thing I could do was break into my emergency stash of prepackaged baby food for the prunes. Actually, my emergency stash only consists of 4 containers, now 3 containers, of prunes.
That's it. Game over. I must of have subconsciously felt incredibly guilty or disappointed because today I went a little wacko and made coconut curried red lentil soup, split pea soup, applesauce and pear sauce for the babies.
Now I just need to figure out a new challenge to keep me occupied...

11 Months

So it took 11 months but FINALLY look what they can all do...

No, not zip their pants because it looks like Eloise must have missed that class but they all will hold their bottles. Beckett could do it before but he was too lazy, now I guess he is big boy and wants to do it himself. Just in time, next month we take away the bottles and give them sippy cups. Hope that doesn't take 11 months to figure out.

The coveted riding lion. Beckett had him flipped over earlier doing some maintenance work on the under chassis but looks like he got him all fixed up and ready to ride.

Eloise is an expert sitter but she forgets to keep herself upright when is filling her diapers so I put the gorilla behind her to catch her when she tips. That's nice, bite the hand that protects you.

This is why large containers are banned from the bathtub. They try to drink from everything or put it on their head.

My mom is coming to visit at the end of the week so Boss Hog and the natural leader (Addy) is helping get ready for my mom's visit. The first order of business is to get rid of all of the Pampers and restock with Huggies.

"Here Beckett, you work on this basket." Addy

"You call this clean? Look at what is at the bottom." -Addy

She had to enlist the help of Eloise who gladly helped out since it was similar to sorting socks.

"Hairbrush? What is hair? Looks like a really big toothbrush." -Beckett

Now that they all have teeth, brushing their teeth each night is the new game, or fight, depending on your point of view.

I'm working on posting video from Mother's Day. I know, it shouldn't be that hard but since my IT support, or Geek-on-Call, (brother Isaac) lives 200 miles away, things take a little longer. I'm determined to figure it out this week.