The pudding post

These pictures were actually taken back in October. I've just been so busy that I forgot to post about our "adventures with pudding." During their therapy, the girls get to explore all sorts of textures and such. During one of our sessions, they played with pudding. It was so easy that I decided to do it again by myself.....during the girls' dinner. HAHAHAHA... What was I thinking? During their therapy, we had one adult per child and kept the mess under control. My bright idea of doing this alone....Well, you can see from the pictures why I won't be doing this again any time soon. These pictures don't even show half of the pudding damage. 

I gave each of the girls a couple of tablespoons of pudding and a spoon to play with. They are all learning how to get the food to their mouths using spoons and forks. Sophia and Morgan are a little better at this than Rachel is right now, but she's going to catch up soon. 

Here is Rachel. I was surprised she actually ate some of the pudding. 

Sophia getting nice and messy for me.

And Morgan chewing on the spoon. The girl loves to chew on anything. 

 My three little mess makers!

Since this was only their second time "playing" with pudding....OH MY GOSH did they make a mess. I was on my own with them and really didn't think it would be that big of a deal. They ended up getting it all over their hands. Then they touched their hair, their ears, their eyes, the tray, the chairs....... Then they all started clapping their hands. YES, clapping their hands which were COVERED in pudding. Pudding went flying all over the room. It was all over the floor, on the cabinets, and even on my dining area light fixture.  It was crazy. At first, I started crying because I was so overwhelmed like a big fat sissy! Then I just went into clean up mode. I ran straight up the stairs to start a bath for them. I stripped them down in the kitchen and cleaned them up the best I could before getting them all upstairs to the tub. 

By that time, I was laughing. I couldn't believe how messy it got! Once I got them all cleaned up, I plopped them in front of Elmo while I cleaned the kitchen. Lesson learned people!!!!

ANd since this picture was taken about 6 weeks ago.... they have gotten much better with a spoon. This activity was mostly just to explore texture. Needless to say, I haven't tried to do this one alone again!

Our little hoarder

If you're looking for Sophia, you can usually find her sitting in this chair surrounded by toys. We call her our little hoarder because she loves to pile clothes or toys with her in that chair. She's too funny. 

What a difference a day makes

It's funny to me that one day I will literally be crying my eyes out from being overwhelmed and stressed out, and the the next day, I'm happy as can be. What an emotional roller coaster this motherhood thing is.

I knew today would be better. I looked forward to today all day yesterday because I knew I'd have help. I sometimes jog with a friend in the morning. We take the girls in the triple jogger. So I jogged with her from 9-10am. When we got home, I had about 20 minutes until my sister came home to help me for the morning. I'm so lucky to have a sister that helps me so much. Just having an extra set of hands during lunch makes a huge difference around here.  She left when the girls went down for nap.

My mom came an hour after that and folded my laundry. See what happens when I call my mom crying? She comes over the next day and folds my laundry. I'm a lucky girl! When the girls woke up from nap, we took them to the mall. I needed to get out of the house. The girls did great. We walked around, bought some fun stacking cups at the Learning Express store, then had an early dinner in the food court. The girls had cheese quesadillas from Rubios. Mmmmm Rubios!

Oh how I love the days when I have help. On the days when I am alone for over 10 hours, I get so stressed out that I end up sweating the small stuff. I'm so thankful for today. I've got another 10 hour day on my own with the girls tomorrow, but at least I feel refreshed after having such a good day today!

Thanks mom and sis! You made a world of difference for me today! Love you!

Just another day......

Today was one of those days that I thought I wasn't going to make it.

 Every third Wednesday, my multiples group has a coffee chat/play date. I haven't been able to go lately because the girls have therapy Wednesday mornings. I really wanted to go today. The girls therapy isn't until 10:30 and the coffee chat starts at 9:30. I had the brilliant idea to go from 9:30-10am. I'd have plenty of time to get the girls home and ready for their 2 hours of therapy.

I should know better than to try and pull this off. My husband even looked at me like I was an insane person for even discussing the idea. I didn't listen.

I started getting us ready at 8:30. And by that, I mean getting them dressed, their hair brushed and pony tailed, and their shoes on and then trying to find a spare 5 minutes to put make up on and get dressed myself. You'd think this would only take a few minutes, but when I bring their clothes out they take them and run. Same with socks and shoes. Then usually when I'm done putting the third kid's shoes on, the first one already has them off.

You can see where this is going.

I needed to leave by 9:15. At about 9:20, I was putting Sophia's shoes on her. Well, I should really say...wrestling with Sophia to get her shoes on. She was fighting me every step of the way and ended up kicking me in the nose. That's what I get for trying to put her shoes on her when I'm sitting on the floor and she was on the couch. And to make it even more fun, I got a bloody nose. So I called my friend and told her that I wasn't going. She enticed with me with my favorite Starbucks drink and suddenly I was loading the girls into the van. Of course I had the wrong stroller in the van so I had to change that out as well.

I got there at about 9:45, which meant I had about 15 minutes to stay and chat. It felt like 5 minutes and I was leaving. Oh well.... better luck next time right?  Nope!... I learned my lesson. No trying to be supermom on a day the girls have therapy.

As I was getting the girls out of the van in the garage, Sophia decided it would be a good time to touch the dirty/black dusty tire rims. She got it all over her cute tan pants and pink shirt and her hands. At this point, I had about 10 minutes to have the girls ready and relaxed for their 2 hour therapy session. I almost pulled it off. I had Rachel and Morgan ready, and Sophia was in just a diaper when Amy and Trish (our OT's) arrived. I had even gotten Sophia's clothes in the wash machine just didn't get new ones on her yet.

 I have to admit I was crying when Amy and Trish showed up. It was...woe is me, this is so hard, my husband has been working 6 days a week, I'm exhausted, I need more help, I don't know how I'm doing this tears! It was just a day when I was so overwhelmed with everything.

Therapy went really good. We read books, we drew with chalk, played with the parachute, the activity balls and tunnel. The girls are so cute because they get so excited. The only part I am uncomfortable with is that Amy is keeping an eye on Rachel and watching her for signs of autism. Today was the second time she mentioned that some of the things Rachel does is similar to what autistic children do. She's 98% sure Rachel just has some sensory type issues and not autism. She just wants to be 100% sure. It's just once in a while, Rachel goes off into la la land and doesn't participate. She also doesn't warm up to the equipment and activities that we do in therapy. I know the possibility of Rachel being autistic is very slim to none, but it's still hard for me to hear what I am hearing. I'm focusing on the fact that she has shown amazing improvement in the past month or so.

They ended up taking a pretty good nap. I took a little cat nap myself. I was determined to have a better rest of the day. It's crazy how the morning sets the tone for the day. We had an "off" morning, which lead to a pretty fussy afternoon. As soon as the girls woke up, they started fighting over books, toys...you name it. They always want the same thing at the same time. Doesn't matter if I have three of something! So I turned to my trusty red monster friend, Elmo.

Then my mom called.... and the tears started flowing again as I told her about how stressed I was. Bet she LOVED that phone call!

When Elmo was over, I decided that Starbucks would make everything better. I loaded the girls up and we headed out. As we were driving, Sophia started to say, "light....light." When I got to a red light, I turned around to look at her and see what she was pointing at. She was pointing at the sun and squinting her eyes....saying "light light light." Only it sounds more like "ly-yeet" So precious pointing at the sun and saying that. She totally warmed my heart and made everything better............ until dinner time, but that's a whole other entry.

I think the reason I was so emotional today was because I've just been on my own with the girls so much lately and I need to get a little break. I'm behind in school, behind on housework..... and just can't seem to get my act together.  Bob has been working way too much. The game he is creating for Facebook is really starting to wear me down. 6 days a week mostly alone with the girls is just difficult and this has been going on for months now. He's almost done so I know things will get better soon. It's just getting there that is the hard part.

I've rambled on way too long.... Time to get some sleep. Here's to a better tomorrow!

Halloween 2010

Yes, I know Halloween was two weeks ago. But here goes anyway.........

I had the best idea for Halloween this year. (okay, it wasn't my idea....I think every triplet mom I know has done this.) I was going to dress the girls up as the three little pigs. I bought the CUTEST costumes from another triplet mom I know online. I was even planning on decorating the choo choo wagon as a house made of straw, a house made of sticks, and of course one of brick. Bob was going to be the big bad wolf. It was supposed to be really cool. 

As you can see, it didn't work out. Here are my excuses! 

1. Bob was camping the weekend of the Halloween party (hosted by my multiples club) that we were going to go to. My mom was sick and I would have had to take them alone. At 5pm. (that's their dinner time!) So I didn't go....

2. Morgan wouldn't keep that piggy hat on anyway. 

3. Our friend's daughter got married the weekend that they normally host the coolest Halloween party in the history of Halloween parties. So their party was a wedding. Except we had to wear nice clothes instead of costumes. It was a fabulous wedding by the way. 

4. On Halloween, I had planned to take them to the church carnival. However, my mom was leaving the very next day for a week in Texas to visit my step-siblings so she couldn't go with me. (Bob would rather chew on his hand than take 3 almost two year olds anywhere.) Then I found out they were having a helicopter drop candy for all the kids. Mine would have been screaming holy terror from the noise of a helicopter and we would have had meltdowns times three! And no, I didn't take them trick or treating in our neighborhood either. I just didn't see the point in trying to take 3 toddlers out who can't say trick or treat or eat the candy. We'll go next year for sure. 

So now that my excuses are out there... Here is as far as we got with putting their costumes on.

Here's silly Sophia

Rachel was the only one who would leave the piggy hat on for longer than 30 seconds. She actually wore it for over 30 minutes.

Here's Morgan. As you probably can guess, that hand was pulling the hat off. I was lucky to get this picture when I did. 

I've decided that since I spent the money on the costumes, I'll just save them for next year. The piggy suits are pretty big anyway and I can always add length to them if I need to. (Okay I don't sew, but my mom can, so I guess I should say she will add to them.) (Note to my mom: You know you want to. Oh and thanks in advance. hehehe)

 So yeah, look for the three little piggies making their appearance in 2011!

And just for fun.... Here they are last year on Halloween. I can't believe how much they have grown. 

Time sure flies!

No wonder I drink wine at night....

Okay, so I don't drink wine every night. But let me tell you, there are days when I absolutely do open a bottle!

Over the past month or so, Bob and I noticed that Rachel seems to soak her diaper up about two times faster than Sophia and Morgan. She also drinks more juice and milk than they do. It's not unusual for her to finish her sippy of juice and then go looking to steal one of her sister's. She will often finish theirs once they've put it down for a moment. 

I didn't really think anything of this until a friend of mine was talking about the symptoms of type 1 diabetes because her daughter has it. Frequent urination and thirst were just a couple of the symptoms that caught my attention. Bob's brother has diabetes and was diagnosed when he was 3 years old. So knowing that it's in our family and then learning some of the early signs, we decided to have Rachel screened for it. Her pediatrician agreed, but also wasn't very worried about it since children with diabetes tend to have a big appetite, and we all know Rachel does not! 

So yesterday was the day for the test. It was supposed to be a simple urine test. It turned out to be anything but simple. Imagine collecting a urine sample from an active toddler still in diapers! They have these toddler urine collection bags that stick onto them under their diaper. It's supposed to catch all the pee pee!

I decided that since my sister was coming over to help me yesterday morning, I'd go ahead and attach a bag to Rachel and take it in while my sister watched the girls. That plan failed because when I went to remove the bag, it had leaked out all over her diaper. I decided to put another bag on her and then load everyone up in the van while giving them juice sippy cups to drink. I figured Rachel would pee again by the time we got to the lab. My plan was to have my sister sit in the van with the girls while I ran the um, sample, inside. I didn't want to just take Rachel alone with me because I didn't want to have to deal with strollers or carrying them and such.

Rachel downed about 10 ounces of juice by the time we took the ten minute drive to the lab, but she still hadn't gone pee. I decided to make a Starbucks run while we waited, so off we went. At least another 20 minutes went by.......and Rachel was still dry. I picked up more juice while I was at Starbucks, so the girls were drinking a lot. Sophia and Morgan both needed their diapers changed....but not Rachel! We sat around in the parking lot at the lab just waiting, and waiting.....and waiting. 11:30 starts to roll around and the girls were getting hungry. I didn't plan the morning well at all. I thought we'd for sure be home in time for lunch. I didn't have any food for the girls other than some bunny graham crackers. So off we went to the nearest drive thru and picked up some very healthy nuggets and fries. Oh and milk. At least milk is healthy! Rachel only ate the crackers. I felt bad, but she loves those crackers and was a happy camper.

I can't say the same for me. I tend to get all freaked out when we are off schedule, and we were certainly off schedule. I was winging it for sure. I couldn't believe that it had turned into such an ordeal just to get a urine sample. Rachel simply would not pee!

I knew the lab closed at 1pm for lunch. By about 12:15, I got into desperate mode. We had made it so far, and I wasn't about to give up. I was out of juice and almost out of my sanity.......We took one last little trip to a grocery store to get some more to drink and to pick up some "Rachel approved" food. It was all pretty much pointless though. We got back over to the lab about 10 minutes before 1pm and Rachel still was dry as can be. She probably drank over 18 ounces of juice and water too. I decided to just give up. I went into the lab and picked up a couple more urine bags so that I could keep trying.  I figured that if I actually got anything that day, I'd just run it back over to the lab after the girls' nap. They were all in serious meltdown mode anyway since they are usually in bed by 12:30 every afternoon. It was so frustrating.

Wouldn't you know that Rachel peed on the way home, but most of that leaked out too! UGH! I ended up putting yet another bag on her  (this time attached it WAY too far up her poor little behind) and sending her to bed like that. I was determined for it not to leak. When she woke up from nap, I finally got a good enough sample to take in. I learned a good lesson. Only put one of these things on an active toddler when they are going to be SLEEPING! My sister had gone home when the girls went down for nap, so I was on my own getting this sample back to the lab.

It was just one of those crazy days where I felt so stressed out just trying to get this done. When you add three toddlers to the mix, it's never simple! At least the lab techs got a good laugh at/with me. I came in pushing this giant stroller, three toddlers, and holding a bag of pee! The girls looked like hot little messes too. I was in such a hurry to get out of the house that I didn't bother to brush their bed head hair and none of them had shoes. We looked a little bit ghetto. lol.....

It was all worth it. About an hour after we got back home, I got an email from Rachel's doctor. The test for diabetes came back negative! She's as healthy as can be! I'm glad we went through the trouble of getting her tested though. Now I can breathe a little easier and I don't have to worry about why she soaks her diapers so quickly. I think she drinks a lot because the girl doesn't like food!

So yeah..... It was a definitely a wine day!

Letting go....

Almost 3 years ago, I received an email one morning from a long time friend. K was my best friend from the age of about 14 on.

When I read the email, I was in shock. She said we had grown apart and that she thought we should part ways as friends. 

I had known that things weren't the same with us anymore. We were both newlyweds and starting new chapters of our lives. I knew something was off, but just figured that because our lives were changing, we'd get through whatever rocky time it was. She was like a sister to me. I truly considered her family. Even if we did grow apart, the thought of not being in each other's lives never crossed my mind.  

I thought it would be temporary. Maybe she'd change her mind and I'd hear from her. News of my triplet pregnancy even went her way, but I still heard nothing. A couple of months after the girls were born, I tried to reconnect. I got no response. I've tried to connect with her several times over the past couple of years, but again, no response. 

It's been really difficult for me to let go. Wondering why K did this has made me doubt myself and doubt the kind of friend I am. It's actually killed some of the confidence I once had. It made me question if the friendship I had with her was even real. It has made me weary about building new friendships. It's crazy how much I have let this affect who I am over the past few years.

I'm finally at the point of being tired of feeling this way. Why have I let this affect me so much? Why have I given this one person control like this? I miss her, but it's just not worth it to me anymore.

It's time to move on. Starting right now.