The Debut

I was going to call this "The Debutantes" because we made our first official venture into society this weekend but since that usually refers to females, I didn't want little Beckett to have to get the short end of the stick just because he has two sisters.

We are officially off of RSV restrictions. Have Triple Decker Stroller, Will Travel should be our new official motto. We got the go ahead to venture out and be normal people a few weeks ago but to take it slow as to not assault them to billions of germs immediately.

Last week I walked to the pharmacy with the babies to pick up their prescription of Prevacid. I had to take a big breath when I walked in the store with them the first time. It was like a big breath welcoming us to a new world of freedom (at least until October) but also a new world of scary germy unknown world. I was talking to a woman at the pharmacy and she was just Lady Gaga over the babies. I told her it was our first outing at 10 months old. She asked how many weeks gestation they were when they were born. She then introduced me to her teenage daughter who was born at 24 weeks, spent 5 months on a ventilator and told me the story of her first outing at the age of 1. She asked me if I had a camera and then took a picture.

It's not the best picture but what a huge step for us. Things could have gone terribly wrong because I don't know if you can see it but for some reason I chose to walk through the floral department. I was like an bull in a china store with that long stroller.

The pharmacy and 3 walks to the local frozen yogurt store were the trial runs for the big weekend. My frappacino addiction has been replaced with an addiction to avocado frozen yogurt. I know, sounds gaggy but it is delish. My brother Isaac was here for our big first event at a local Tex-Mex restaurant. I had a whole bag of sippy cups, snacks, 15 diapers, toys and disinfecting wipes. We had to pick a place that was kid-friendly, likely to have 3 high chairs, no wait and spacious enough for all of our stuff.

This is what cracked me up the most.


At first Beckett and Eloise were a little freaked out by all of the people. Beckett was clinging to Isaac's shirt and Eloise was not going to get put down for the life of her.

The Grip of Death.


But between the combination of playing with real spoons, the music to dance to, snacks and the ducks swimming in the lake, they eventually relaxed.
Of course Addy just hopped into a highchair and immediately started sucking on the table. The spoons were a good diversion that I have to remember to use again.


I never give them utensils in their feeding table for fear of poking out their neighbors' eyeball because they are so close.

The ducks or maybe the water fountain was also a big hit. I'm not sure why Rich has to hang Eloise over the edge- a little too Michael Jackson for my taste.


Eventually we got both Eloise and Beckett to sit in the highchairs. I think for them the music was a huge help; they both like to chair dance which is done better in the highchair than on a lap.


I tried to give them a little rice but I was sure everything else there had all of the evil ingredients I'm trying to keep them away from until they turn 1 so no chips and salsa for Eloise; she's packing dried apples.


This is it- another first. First time eating Tex-Mex without margaritas. Just kidding. First meal in a restaurant.


The next day I took Beckett to my favorite place. No, not Neiman Marcus (yet) but to Central Market grocery shopping. I wiped down the cart until it shined, strapped him in and he rode around wide-eyed for an hour. This kid is a natural; he even read his book in the check out line faking boredom from waiting.


He's a great little shopper and the bell I had hanging from the cart was a big hit with the other shoppers as well. Maybe I'll take both girls with me next time.


That's not the end of the Newman Debut or the news from this weekend but I'm exhausted thinking about the upcoming week so I'm breaking this up into two parts.
Here's a hint about the going ons this weekend- how many teeth do you think a pug has? Rich and I know for sure it is at least 22 and pugs can still eat with no or very few teeth.

Big Girl and Big Boy Pajamas

I was soooo tired of fighting with the babies about their sleepers each night. The snaps were killing me and Beckett is such a wily little character it was a squealing wild pig wrestling match each night. So when Beckett and Addy moved to 12 month pajamas I decided that was it- big people 2 pieces pajamas- in a little size.

Eloise is still in sleepers because she doesn't fight me about getting dressed and she still fits into all of the 9 months.
A rare moment of the girls sharing one of their favorite books.You can see that Beckett was fighting me about putting his bottoms on later and won that battle.


Shortly after this picture I heard a loud ruckus from downstairs and the pugs were going berserk. I went outside and this is what I found...

I let Bella out to scare away the duck because I didn't want it drinking pool water or pooping in the pool. Bella was not too scary and poor little blind Pickles didn't even see the duck so it just kept swimming around.

It finally left after about 30 minutes, not without leaving a few presents for us.

We have new living room furniture! We moved the coffee table out and put down colored foam squares....

Then put up a cage around the entire thing. It's stunning, a real eye pleaser.
But it gives us another place for the babies to play. At this point, we are needing more room because Addy is crawling all over the place, pulling herself up and then toppling down and Beckett is rolling all over and rocking back on forth on all fours- thinking about crawling. It can get a little hairy with the two of them.

"Don't think that I won't fall down with my full diaper and sit on you Beckett." -Addy


And if you really want to hear screaming, let one rest their legs (or actually kick) the other one in passing.


Beckett is really into kicking and bicycling while on his back. He can lay and kick things forever, in this case it looked like he was trying to kick down the gate with those skinny legs. Usually he has a rattle or bell in one hand making all kinds of commotion.

Speaking of the gate, if I am downstairs too long making bottles, this is where I find Addy when I come back up. Either standing against the gate or sitting like this screaming and licking the gate.


Eloise pretty much stays out of the fray with the other two. Probably because she wants nothing to do with moving around too much. She CAN roll from front to back and back to front but she doesn't WANT to. She prefers to sit and play with toys, giving an occasional holler when one of the other two steals something she can't get back because they roll or crawl away. I realized that I haven't posted that many pictures of her. Most likely because she is usually not doing something naughty. Also because she is just the most adorable little thing and most of the pictures I have of her I don't post because she has her eyes closed or eating a toy and don't do her justice.

Like I said, she likes to sit and read- well actually she has been working on trying to pull the rings off this book for about a month now. Very determined.

She is also my most tactile eater- this is a normal meal which is why I'm dreading moving to 3 meals of solid food a day.


This is a new favorite game and toy. Pretending to get a phone call from Grandma in WI.
Also a good shot of my new living room decor.

"Hmmm, that's funny. She said she would call. I'll just catch up on my reading while I'm waiting." -Eloise


"No wonder the phone never rang, it's not even plugged in!" -Eloise


I don't think I have to go into too much detail with this. Addy loves to climb. I have to remove everything that can be used to stand on.

She was biting the top of the gate and then tried to hang from the top when I attempted to get the little monkey off the wipes container. I'm sure she will use her brother or sister next.

10 Months

I promise, I'm only doing the month by month birthday up until the age of 1!

I bought the very coveted by multiple moms and no longer in production "Choo Choo Wagon" from another triplet family that no longer used it with their beautiful 4 year olds. Thanks Uma! I tried to put Addy in it and she just wanted to stand up and crawl out so we will have to wait another couple months. In the meantime, I found another use for it.


No, I didn't plant flowers in the wagon- that would have been a very expensive pot- but used it to haul flowers from the front to the back.

I went to a garage sale for the local multiples mom group that I belong to and I found a toy that may have to be hidden when there is not an adult around because it caused fights to break out. Eloise threw a good old fashioned temper tantrum when I took her off of it and then Addy tried to pull Eloise off by her diaper. Since Beckett wasn't involved in the catfight, he got to be the first rider at the picnic our friends Ed and Deborah hosted this afternoon.


He rode over to check out the bubble machine- with a little help from Daddy.


Rich was pushing him so fast he looked like he couldn't hold his head up. The faster the better.


"Umm, a little help here." -Addy


I guess I couldn't push as fast as Rich because it didn't look like her head was about to snap backwards and she wasn't catching wind in her cheeks. In fact she looks like she is trying to get me to go faster. I think we ended up bringing in the big guns- Daddy.


Eloise being distracted by Cari while waiting her turn for the most dangerous ride on earth.


You have to blow this picture up to see it but Eloise is barely hanging on and looks like she is about to tip backwards she was going so fast, on cement. Of course screaming the whole time.


The hosts of our first real picnic- Little Man(Eddie)and Deborah- where's Ed? I think Ed was busy flying the kite with the twirly-whirl tail and missed the picture opportunity.


Thanks so much for inviting us to the picnic; this is what we have been waiting for all winter long!


I've heard that the quotes from Rich are a favorite so here is one from today- and I happen to get a picture of it because it was so ridiculously hysterical.

"Hey Kate, did you know that Beckett really likes potato chips." -Rich

How could I be so silly as to not try potato chips yet. But this just proves that Rich really does listen to me, at least with one ear. No cow's milk, no wheat, no nuts, no eggs, no citrus, no honey, no berries, no meat- check. It technically fits into the current diet (if you skip the whole organic, homemade, whole grain thing). Maybe breakfast tomorrow?

GOT GOAT?

It seems that each day the feeding ritual becomes more and more difficult. Some days Eloise won't eat and will just shake her head at me, other days Beckett cries the whole time he is in the feeding table and then there are days where Addy just wants to blow bubbles and practice spitting with everything she puts in her mouth.

I'm trying to give them a good variety of fruits (they hate fruit now), vegetables and grains but the only thing that seems to be a universal favorite are various dairy products- cheese, yogurt, keifer and milk. I don't give them any cow's milk products so everything is either soy, rice or goat.

There was about a week that they only wanted to drink things from regular glasses. Once they started refusing their regular food like green beans, lentils and avocado, I would just mix it with rice milk or goat keifer with ground flax seed and they would have a green bean lentil smoothie for breakfast. For a while the spinach and pea smoothies were very popular.

This morning I was just not up for the fight so I decided to give them a treat and give them all of their favorite foods- dairy products. This is what we eat for a treat at the Newman house for breakfast:

Seaweed sesame rice balls- a new finger food- they love it! Thanks Bambi!
Quinoa noodles with melted goat cheese- finger food
Celery spread with tofu cream cheese- finger food
Goat keifer, flax and herbed goat cheese smoothie- out of a regular grown-up glass.

Surprise- everyone ate this morning with no crying or fussing. They pretty much fed themselves with occasional drinks of the smoothie. It was blissful. They looked like a "Got Milk?" commercial by the end.

Check out the bottom chompers.


Shot of the top two chompers that caused so much trouble this weekend.


"Celery is simply a vehicle to eat cream cheese."- Eloise


This is the face halfway between laughing and crying- it could go either way.


Both pounding on the ball at that same time which works really well because it doesn't roll away.


"Like I said, celery is just a vehicle to eat cream cheese." -Eloise


Addy is now sitting up on her knees playing. She can pull herself to standing in the crib and likes to use me as a climbing gym.


"Look Mom- two hands!"- Beckett


Think I have my hands full?

Rabbit Teeth and Bunny Ears

This post is going to be short on words but long on pictures. I wanted to get these pictures up while it was still Easter but I'm exhausted from a long weekend. The teething has taken a toll on all of us. Actually, it is not the teething but the whining due to the teething. Beckett's top front teeth are poking through and I think Eloise is starting to get her top teeth as well. Addy is still technically toothless but not for long. She woke up every 45 minutes last night.

I didn't give the babies their Easter baskets until this afternoon when we took the babies to White Rock Lake. Right now they are really into emptying things out of containers so a basked full of plastic eggs can keep them entertained for about 25 minutes.

There was nothing in the eggs because the only thing I could think to put in that would make noise and not be a choking hazard was Rice Chex and the humidity would have ruined all of the cereal and we waste enough food as it is with the new favorite game of feeding the pugs.

For some reason, I didn't think through the fact that setting up the blanket on the hill would make they roll down.

It was the worst for Addy because she kept trying to crawl and couldn't figure out what was going on.

Eloise took a tumble at one point as well.

This picture reminds me of the movie March of the Penguins. Look at Beckett's feet. He looks like he is about to transfer that pink egg with his feet.

Notice his perfectly round head? No more helmet as of last week. I'm not kidding you, his head is PERFECTLY round according to the measurements. It is also PERFECTLY bald.

He was so busy chewing on his hand he didn't even notice he was wearing bunny ears.

And now on to the girls...

HAPPY EASTER!