Kids are just too darn smart

Tonight at dinner, I glanced over at Dylan and I saw him stuffing his chicken and corn down his shirt to avoid eating it! After I laughed out loud, I thought - "what a little smartie pants!" All he wanted to eat was the grilled pineapple so I guess he decided to "hide" his chicken and corn. It was hilarious! I looked down his shirt and he must have had 10 pieces of chicken down there! So funny and cute!

I've come to the conclusion that life is moving too fast. Today I was holding Megan and rocking her saying "oh, my little baby" in a playful way. But it hit me - they aren't "babies" anymore. Jon said the same thing this morning. I feel weird calling them "the babies" like we have been since the day we found out I was pregnant with triplets. I tend to call them "the little kids", but that even seems weird because it's not like Jacob is a "big kid"... he's only 3! It seems like in this day and age kids are growing up faster and look and do things differently than when I was a kid. (Gosh, that didn't make me sound old or anything!) It's crazy to think that it's been almost 2 years since I went on bedrest. It was March 25, 2007. Jacob was the same age as the babies are now. That is crazy to me. He seemed so much older to me then, than they do now. I remember that first week laying on the couch ALL DAY LONG thinking - there is NO WAY I'm going to make it one week, let alone eleven weeks. But I did. The babies came out so tiny and fragile and now they are strong and healthy and independent. The last 21 months have been the fastest 21 months of my life. It is such a blessing to stay home with them and see them grow and change. It truly is the best gift I've ever been given.

Tricky little devils!

I believe my children have a secret language to tell each other to gang up on me all at the same time. Here are just a few funny stories from the last 2 days ... Ok, they are funny now, but at the time they weren't so funny...

Last night, Megan wanted to poop on the potty. So I take her in the bathroom and I have to lock the door otherwise she has an audience of 3 little boys. She proceeds to take care of business and outside the door I can hear all 3 boys messing around in the laundry room. The laundry basket full of dirty laundry hits the floor. Then I hear Jacob say, "come on Dylan, climb up here" - which means Jacob is on top of the washer. He is spinning the dial around and around. This puts me in an instant outrage because this is a daily event with him and I've told him a thousand times to stop getting on top of the washing machine. But, of course, do 3 1/2 year old boys ever listen? Nope. My voice is still only about 50% so my yell of "JACOB!" comes out in such a high squeal I think only dogs can hear it. And I can't leave Megan alone, because by this point, she's got a potty chair full of poop. Needless to say, whenever I go into the bathroom either alone or with another kid, instant chaos happens in the rest of the household...

The second story just happened about 15 minutes ago. I open the computer, hoping to get at least 5 minutes to check a few emails, but the kids have other plans for me... I'm right in the middle of responding to an email and again, I hear Jacob say "I'm up here Dylan, look at me". Jacob's 2nd favorite climbing spot is the changing table in the kids room. I figure, oh well, it's just Jacob up there, I'll wait it out until I finish my email. Wrong! About 5 seconds goes by and I hear Jacob, Megan and Ryan screaming in delight about something. I go in to the babies room and all 3 of them are on the changing table pulling out about 100 wipes and cleaning the window! I guess I should have been excited that someone was actually cleaning around here! By the time I get the 3 of them down, Megan has bolted into the kitchen and now she's punching away at the keyboard on my laptop that is set up at the kitchen table. Man, how did she get up there so fast??

Oh, the joys of children! I love them dearly, but some days I could very well loose my mind! I know one day I'll look back at all these "funny" stories and laugh ... at least, I hope so!

I selected 3 books from the online library catalog today:

1. Scream-free Parenting
2. How to Keep Your Kids From Driving you Crazy: A proven program in improving your childs behavior and regaining control of your family
3. The Loving Parent's Guide to Discipline

Is is obvious what kind of week I've had? Praise God that Jon is on VACATION all next week!! For 10 whole days!! Woo-Hoo!

Jon and I took Megan, Ryan and Dylan to go pick-up Jacob from school today and then we took all the kids out to lunch! We've only eaten out 2 times since the triplets were born and both times were when the babies were very small and slept the entire time. This time, we all walked in to the pizza place together and actually sat at the table like a normal family! It was great! We pre-ordered the pizza, which was a life-saver. We rounded up 3 high chairs and got pizza cut up for the kids. Jon and I both managed to go through the salad bar and eat hot pizza! It seems silly ... just a simple lunch out, but this is a big deal for us. When the babies were born, I thought this day would never come. It's hard to take 4 kids out, let alone 4 kids ages 3 1/2 and under! The kids did great. They all ate off of a regular ceramic plate with a fork and there was no major catastrophes. I looked around at one point and thought "wow, this is going pretty good!" We all finished our pizza and got cleaned up. The funniest part of the lunch was when all the kids got down from their high chairs, Dylan spotted a little piece of pizza on the floor. He dropped to the ground and crawled under the table to get it. Before I could put Megan down and get down to Dylan, the pizza was already in his mouth! I told Jon, "I hope that was our pizza and not someone else's"! Oh well!

I'm still here!

It's been a little while since I've posted anything... Heather introduced me to Facebook and I'm hooked! It's great! I've connected with a lot of old and new friends. It's been fun to find friends from high school and chat with them again.

The kids are all finally feeling better. All the kids came down with hand-foot-mouth disease (which sounds worse than it actually is), but Dylan got it the worst. He got some soars in his mouth which made it very hard for him to eat, sleep and he didn't even want his binky! And for him, that is shocking! That's how I knew he really was in pain. I kept him on Motrin for about 4 days and that seemed to help. I think we are finally on the road to recovery!

We spent Monday morning at the park with the kids. We have had beautiful weather here lately, so being outside felt awesome. The kids had a blast at the park and playing with other kids. We packed a lunch and enjoyed a picnic together. Ryan feel asleep on the car ride home and the little ones went straight to naptime as soon as we got back. It was the best nap they've taken in a month! Even though taking 4 kids to the park is a little stressful and crazy, it truly is fun to see them growing and experiencing new things. We have always said that if we'd do it with 2 kids, we will at least try to do it with 4 kids! Overall, it was a fabulous day! I have a few photos that I'll post later tonight. :o)

Sick again...

4 out of the 5 of us are sick ... again! Jacob so graciously started this cold epidemic right around Christmas. Then he passed it to me, then I passed it to the babies, now Jacob and I have it again! We are sharing the love around here! I just got my voice back and I woke up yesterday with a scratchy throat and voice. When I picked up Jacob from preschool on Tuesday, I think every kid there was either coughing or had a runny nose. Between church and school, we are doomed to be sick! I've never been a big fan of the flu shot, but I'm going to seriously consider it for next flu season. Overall, the kids handle being sick pretty good. Megan takes after her mommy and is not a good sick person. She gets the worst snotty nose and has a lot of trouble sleeping. When I'm sick, I want to curl up in bed and blow my nose a thousand times while watching garbage daytime TV. However, those days are over. I think that's been one of the toughest things about being a mom - having sick kids and you being sick too. I don't know how Jon does it... he seems to skip getting sick and even if he does get it, it's gone in a day or two. Lucky guy! Anyway, I'm off to wipe more runny noses!!