Almost 18 months

This next one is a video - click on the play arrow on the left bottom corner.

It has been a very exciting and busy month. Dionne and Alicia organized a little egg hunt at a tennis match. That was fun - though the kids didn't understand the egg thing. They did love playing on the tennis courts. Will's sister's family came to visit. Uncle Joe and Daniel became fast friends, and all three loved playing with cousin Isy. We went to the aquarium and the jumpy place. Both families had a great time eating at Johnny Rockets. Then, Meme came to visit. We went back to the bounce house, shopped, went to the park, and ate at Sweet Tomatoes. I have never seen the children eat so much! It was a blast. They also got hair cuts - a first for Daniel and Emily and the second for Nathan. Thank goodness for lollipops to help keep them still and happy. They loved their visit with Meme and her bracelets! She bought them a few to play with when she left! Finally, the children participated in their first March of Dimes Walk. I plan to have them participate every year in this event. I think March of Dimes is a big reason our children were born healthy and stayed healthy at the NICU. Thanks to Karen, Veroniuq, and Kim, Alex, and Owen for joining us. We hope to have an even larger group next year!

We had our 17 month doctor's appointment. Emily weighs the same as she did six months ago. We were sent to a nutritionist to find ways to help her gain weight. The nutritionist said we were doing everything right and that she was getting enough calories. That just proves she is a very active little girl! Daniel is still congested (since the NICU we think). We were referred to a pulmonologist and will go in mid-May. We are unsure if it is asthma or allergies causing his congestion, but the blood test does show he has some type of allergies. Due to his bleeding a little out of his ear, they are going to remove his right tube sometime at the end of May or the beginning of June. It is something that both our pediatrician and the ear doctor have never seen before in their 20+ years in practice. Daniel is unique! Nathan did fine at the doctors. All of them dropped a little in their weight percentages, so we are trying a little more fatty foods. Stats: Daniel - ht. 30"(5 %ile), wt 21 lbs. 7 1/4 oz (5 %ile), head 47.8cm (50 %ile) Nathan - ht. 30 1/8"(10-25 %ile), wt 22 lbs. 10 oz (10-25 %ile), head 48.3cm (50-75 %ile) Emily ht. 29 1/2"(10 %ile), wt 18 lbs. 13 1/2 oz (<3>

They are such fun, active little individuals. They love to go outside, and Daniel especially hates to be cooped up in one room. He likes having freedom and running from room to room. The new background matches their personalities. They are little monkeys that try to climb on everything! They love bubbles, and all of them say "bubble" when we turn on the bubble maker. They do a little bubble chasing. They are all doing a better job of telling us what they want. "All done" and "more" are very clear, as are "up" and "down". They have a blast at the jumpy place and slide down a big slide on their own (you can see in the video I attached).

Nathan loves to close doors and gates. He also loves to say all of his animal sounds. He can probably do 8-10 animal sounds. His favorite toy is still the one that his brother or sister is playing with. When it is time to go to bed, it is so sweet, he reads his book aloud in the crib. I love listening to him on the monitor. Nathan and Emily love the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and do hand motions. They all love "If you're happy and you know it" and do a good 5-6 hand motions with it. They are learning a few other songs right now, too.

Emily likes to dance and give toys hugs and kisses. She loves to walk her play dog on a string that Kim lent us and I saw her once lying down on the floor with Dicey talking to her. Her favorite toys are the two ducks, Huey and Dewey. She also enjoys sitting on our lap with a book. But if someone tries to take her book, watch out!!!

Daniel loves to come over and give adults hugs and kisses and is very curious. He constantly says "Dat" meaning what is that. His throwing arm is incredible - if we could only keep it to throwing balls. He is a definite leftie but can throw with both. He loves electronics and remote controls. he also knows that it controls the videos. He and Nathan will bring me the remote control when they want to watch a video and get upset if I don't turn one on. Daniel had a funny evening when Meme was here. Will took off his diaper like he always does so he can run to the tub. On this day, the tub wasn't quite ready, so he decided to continue running while peeing - a little stream followed him down the hall of the kitchen. It was hysterical.

Daniel and Emily often shake their head when asked a question. If I ask Daniel if he is stinky, he shakes his head and runs to the other side of the room with a grin. He can also nod, though it almost looks like a parrot. They all surprise me with how much they understand. I told Daniel tonight to ride the cow and he went to the rocking cow and climbed on (and looked at me for approval). They can all put the ball in the basketball hoop when asked, and then they like to put everything else they can find in there too.. They all love water in their own way. Daniel and Emily like the hose, and Nathan loved the spigot. They can all tickle each other, tackle each other, pat each other on the head, help each other down the slide whether they want the help or not, and laugh a gazillion times a day. They are so much fun and I love being with them!!!

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring! (Hopefully, more visitors).

16 months

We are 16 months and counting. The weather has been a lot nicer and we have gone out more. We have taken the kids to play with our neighbors. We have wheeled them in their Choo Choo wagon. They loved sitting in it the first day, rolling around everywhere. By day two, they figured out they were not buckled in and wanted to climb in and out.

Exciting news – Nathan is now a walker. He took a few tentative steps outside after walking holding my hand. Now he is taking some steps on his own. His balance is perfect, but he forgets to see if anything is in his way. He still crawls a lot – but I think as he speeds up, he will give up crawling. I just love that he will hold my hand and walk. Daniel and Emily are independent walkers – which will make walking in public a little more difficult.

I also tried to see what words they are saying. Daniel can say the word “more” – and he does the sign with it. Emily does the sign. They love animal sounds. Emily makes a great cow sound, all can do the dog sound, and Nathan likes the lion sound. I think Emily can make a snake sound, too. Daniel says ball, book, and a few others. Nathan clearly says up and down as well as ball and a few others. I think I counted seven words for him. Emily is still working on the b sound – and she says a few more words but with a d sound instead. Luckily, I know what she is trying to say. They all will read a book and make sounds like they are reading out loud. It is sooo cute!

Daniel and Emily like to kiss me (or Will or Veroniuq), and all are huge cuddlers. Nathan loves holding a stuffed animal when he plays (Mickey is a favorite – as well as a dog). They are now huge climbers. Nathan climbed a wall at the gym and left the circle yesterday to climb the steps into the ball pool. He then showed his ambidextrous skills and threw balls to me with both hands at the same time. Emily loved the swing yesterday and ran over as soon as they were getting hung to be the first one in. She also loves to do somersaults. Daniel loves playing with balls, throwing them (left handed mostly) and is learning to kick them. He liked the trampoline yesterday, but he hasn’t learned how to jump on it yet. They also love books and Emily or Daniel will bring one over to me to read. Often, Nathan takes it out of my hands to keep. He still loves the toy that someone else is playing with most.

They love our new slide and climb up the steps to slide down in all sorts of ways. Nathan is so helpful on the slide, he’ll push anyone down! Right now he is riding the rocking cow that Leah gave us.
They also know a lot of their body parts. Nathan just walked over to tickle my back. They know about 8-10 body parts and Emily lifts her shirt to show her belly button. It is so cute. It’s not as cute when she lifts my shirt to play with my belly button! I do love being with them. They make me smile all the time. It does get difficult at times, though. As they learn how to play with each other, they learn how to fight with each other. They sometimes want the same toys at the same time. They are all showing their independence, as they fight for things in different ways.
We plan to take them out more and more as the weather gets nicer. We want to go to the park often and teach them to play in the field. My kids aren’t a huge fan of grass – and this will be an obstacle to overcome as there is a lot of grass around in the summer!

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.