It's Snowing!!!!!

Just wanted to include two fun pictures we took today outside. Can you believe this weather? It's been coming down for hours.

February 22nd

Daniel, Nathan, and Emily are almost 16 months old, and the children keep me so busy. This month has been a lot of fun with both sets of grandparents visiting. The kids had a great time with all of them! We went in for their 15 month doctor's appointment. Daniel's stats are: ht 29 3/4 - 10%ile, wt 20 lbs. 9 1/2 oz - 5-10%ile, and head 47.2 cm - 50%ile. Nathan's stats are: ht 30 1/4 - 25-50%ile, wt 21 lbs. 15 3/4 oz - 10-25%ile, and head 47 cm - 50%ile. Emily's stats are: ht 29 1/4 - 10-25%ile, wt 18#11 1/2 oz - 5%ile, and head 44.5 cm - 10%ile. They actually haven't grown much since their one year, but they are so active it isn't surprising.

Daniel and Emily are walking (sometimes) running all over the place. We took them to the mall

with my inlaws and Emily walked holding hands and Daniel wanted to wander on his own. Hmmm, how do I do that with two adults when all three are wanting to wander. Life will be interesting. Emily still loves flipping upside down. I think she is in training for gymnastics or the top of a pyramid. She and Daniel love rolling on the roller coaster my sister got them. They both can climb up on their own.

Nathan loves to cruise - his favorite thing is to walk Emily around the room when she is on one of the push toys. He gets so upset when she wants to get off. He still crawls faster than anyone walks, and he runs across the room with the push toy. One day, he'll get interested in walking.

They all are speaking a few words and doing a couple of signs. Nathan probably has the most sounds (he pretends to say mama sometimes), but all say ball and book and stuff like that that sounds the same. Nathan also waves and says, "Buh Bye" and it is so cute. Daniel did a double sign yesterday morning, he did more and then food. I took Nathan to the store and put a box of graham crackers in the cart (he's never had this specific type before). He put his hands to the box and then to his mouth 3 times in a row - so of course I had to be one of those moms who opened a box in the store and gave him some. I was so proud of communication.

Daniel and Emily are getting tubes in their ears on Tuesday. Emily is getting them for her first time - and one of Daniel's tubes is not in correctly, so they are going to fix that and clean the blood from the first surgery in December in the other ear. We are not excited to have to go through this process again, but we hope it is the last time.

They love to eat - different foods of course (Daniel - chicken, Nathan - carbs, Emily - cheese) and hate to nap. We love having play group and going to their gym to play. Hopefully, the clinginess phase will end soon, as there are so many things to play with. Emily loves the trampoline. All love balls and books, and Nathan and Emily love to take the toy Daniel is playing with.

I was sick a little this month and learned the hard way that my parents can take care of the kids when I'm not home. Therefore, Will and I are planning a long vacation (just kidding). Thank goodness, we had help when I wasn't feeling well. The kids had fun at the park and My Gym, and the mall. Hopefully, the weather will stay nice. We'd like to take the kids to the park and outside more often. We want to set up the sand and water table Meme and PopPop gave us soon. They'll love it!

Pictures - I am missing the ones from Joan and Joel's visit. I'll add those shortly. Attached you see Nathan on the swing, the boys on the fireplace, and Daniel playing in the basement. Then, there is the picture at the zoo, and the pictures at My Gym. You can see Emily playing on the trampoline. Grandpa closes out the pictures by reading a story to all three. They really love their books and having Grandpa read to them!

14 Months

This is such an exciting time for us. I feel like in the past week, everything is starting to change again. I don't have many pictures this month - it has been a relaxing time. Will had almost 2 weeks off, and we spent a lot of that as just the 5 of us. It was really nice having him home and spending time with the kids. We spent the holidays Skyping with both sides of the family. It's nice to have a way for the children to better communicate with family in a live format. I posted a picture of them at their spot near the computer (but not able to reach they keys).

Right before the holidays, both boys got tubes in their ears. It was not as easy as I thought it would be, and both boys had blood and needed drops. Nathan just got his tube suctioned and was cleared, Daniel still has a scab we are trying to get off with lubrication drops. Hopefully, we'll get a full clean bill of health on that in a couple of weeks. We also had respiratory viruses and one high fever, but all seem healthy now - and boy are they busy.

Emily is now walking all over the place. She started with slow, hesitant steps and simply standing. Slowly, she moved more and more and is now almost running. She still goes to a crawl if she is in a real hurry, but she is so cute as she walks around. She also loves to play with clothing and sometimes wears hats. Daniel started standing last night on his own and took a couple of steps toward me a few times. He seemed to be watching Emily all day yesterday and made the decision to walk - I can't wait to see what will happen in the next week. He also told me where his foot and head were yesterday when I asked. It was a really neat day for him. I wonder how much more they know that they haven't told me yet! We work on these all the time! Nathan started doing what I call people tricks in the past week. He never seemed interested. All of a sudden, he can clap, loves to clap things together to make noise, blow kisses, and a bunch of other tricks. He stopped doing the military crawl this month and runs across the room pushing the walkers. He gets the biggest kick of doing songs with hand motions now (like Itsy Bitsy Spider). Nathan also had his first haircut this month. He had sooo much hair, and he did a much better job than I expected sitting through it with veggie stick reinforcement!

All of them do a lot of imitating now. "Uh oh" is a favorite. I can tell they are listening to the vocabulary I am teaching and imitating inflection and tones often. They also always check the child safety at our house. They love to climb on things, try to get the computer, climb through on and on furniture or over toys. It is a very exciting time for us. As they start identifying things and answering and copying, we know this month is going to be amazing.

13 Months

It has been a whirlwind time. After the children's birthday, we went for our family portrait and to the doctor for the children's one year appointment. All went well. Nathan is still the biggest at 21 pounds, Daniel is 1 1/2 pounds less, and Emily is another 1 1/2 pounds less. All are thriving and doing well.

We went to San Diego for Thanksgiving and had a blast. Except for a small stomach virus, we were able to do everything from attending Jack's birthday party, eat with Shamu at SeaWorld, go to the zoo, wander around Balboa Park and her neighborhood. Nadine and Dean are incredible hosts, having everything at their house waiting for us - from cribs to high chairs to car seats, etc. We didn't need anything as they had stocked all of our children's favorite foods. Wow.

Being there for Jack's birthday meant so much for us. It is so hard being on separate coasts that this trip was really special. Even taking the family picture was special - although very difficult to get a good shot.

The children continue to thrive. Emily stands all the time and has accidentally taken 1-2 steps. All of them walk on the walkers. They are experimenting with sounds - mama, dada, barking like our dog, etc. They love to knock down blocks, throw or roll things, and read (or eat) books. They are quite fun! I love every second of being with them.

Wish us luck. Tomorrow, we are meeting with an ENT to discuss the boys' chronic ear infections that won't go away.

I'm attaching a few pics of our family picture and San Diego pictures.

1 year!!!

We had such a fun time for their birthday and birthday party. Thank you for all who came and celebrated with us. For those who couldn't come, you were missed. We feel completely blessed to have so many people in our lives who care about us and our children. Thank you.

We had our party on 11/9/08 (two days after their birthday) in Newtown Park near our home. It was about 10 degrees cooler than ideal, but most of the children were on the playground or the field and didn't notice it. Luckily, we had coffee for the parents.

We had about 110 come to the party, 25 children under 2, and 30 children over 2. Guests included both sets of grandparents who travelled from Florida to see them. Aunt Gail and Uncle Bob came in town for a conference and surprised us! Another triplet family joined us, as well as half of our playgroup who brighten up our Fridays every week. Our two favorite NICU nurses who helped us survive leaving them at night came and both mentioned leaving with at least one of them. They really loved our children in the hospital. So many of our close friends and neighbors came to enjoy the day. If only our children's aunts and families could have made the trip.

Nathan absolutely loved the cake, perhaps this is why he is a little heavier than the others. Daniel was a little tired by the end of the party - he actually fell asleep in the swing. Emily (who normally loves sweets) wasn't as interested this time. She's actually our best food eater - so maybe she ate too much food before cake.

I'm including a few pictures of the party. Enjoy.

Have to share some cute pictures!

Daniel and Nathan

Emily is sharing a story with you.

Watch me walk!

Daniel, Emily, and Nathan

Emily, Daniel, and Nathan

Although I wasn't going to write until they turned 1, I have some cute pictures I have to show you. The children love to smile - but these were the first pics I had where they almost all smiled together. You can see Daniel clapping in one picture and Emily's two teeth. I am excited to announce that Daniel cut his first tooth this morning and Nathan is soooo close.

New activities - let's see. Nathan loves to climb up the fireplace and stand up. Daniel loves to change the controls on the television. Both Daniel and Emily love walking using the walker, and Emily likes to stand without holding on for short amounts of time. All three love to make noise, and sometimes I think they are saying dog or mama or dada - but not always at the right time.

They turn one a week from today, and we have a busy week planned. We went to a Playgroup Halloween party today where our football players and cheerleader got to play with four bumblebees, a puppy, a tiger, and two deliciously cute M&Ms. The kids were adorable but wouldn't sit still for a group picture. We'll post some pictures next blog. We did miss Leila and her boys at playgroup today. Tonight, we are going to a neighborhood Halloween party. Next week, we are going shopping, getting ready to turn one, and have all four grandparents coming at the end of the week to celebrate with us!

Enjoy the pics and have a Happy Halloween.

11 Months on Tuesday

Can they really be this old? I look at them every day and sometimes think they are growing before my eyes. Other times, I think they are so little - after all they are my babies!

It has been a hard couple of weeks. After much anticipation, we left to go to Florida for Will's business trip. As we left the neighborhood Nathan vomited all over himself and the car seat - leading us to begin an exciting adventure with the stomach virus. Nathan's lasted over a week and Daniel's lasted 3 days. I won't go into the gross details, but at least we were able to see my grandmother twice, hang out with Will's family and my family. Will's sister, Jen, was even able to introduce the children to her colleagues.

We returned with my parents who stayed with us another week when Will went away on his business trip. Emily came down with the stomach virus then. It was another rough week. The boys were still irritable and sleep was very minimal - actually still is. We are excited Will came home last night but sad that my parents are leaving today. I like having one or more adults per child at night. We're wishing for more sleep soon.

The children are continuing to grow through all this and were able to smile even when feeling awful. It's fun to watch them cruise around. They are all getting more sturdy on their feet. Daniel has had a few fun conversations with the dog. She barks and he talks back. This can go on for minutes or until I get my camera. Then it ends. It is such fun to watch. He also is cruising Nathan used a push toy for the first time yesterday at play group. He went a few feet forwards twice. He doesn't want to get in the correct position behind it as he wants to play with the gadgets on the front, too. Emily is cruising everywhere, likes to shake her head and can stand not holding on for up to 30 seconds. She and Nathan have had a couple of great laughing conversations. I am including a video of one at the bottom, albeit a little fuzzy. How can you not laugh at babies laughing together? I was thinking that maybe they haven't changed as much this month. Then I read last month's blog again. The children love to stand up and look out the window (or eat the window). They are standing more than anything else (which leads to a few bumps and bruises now and then). Their favorite toy now is the toy that someone else is playing with. They love their race car and steering wheel. They're in the process of learning how to roll a car. It is cute!

Someone asked me what I do with the comments. Each blog and comment gets saved on a Microsoft Word document. When the children are older, they'll be able to read their blog and the comments people make. Thanks, Rachel - you have been a comment queen!