Friday, December 28, 2012

Holding Hands

Raising triplets is not easy.  There are a lot of hiccups and there's a lot of logistics and there is definitely never a dull moment.  I recently perused the table of contents of a humorous parenting manual called Sh*tty Mom (an Xmas gift from my parents - thanks so much) and found an entry titled "It only takes half a village if you only have one kid".  Which is probably true.  With triplets, it takes more of a medium-sized town than a village. 

But all of the headaches and mess seem to melt away when three toddlers learn to call each other by name, to make up new games, to hold hands, and to have fun together.


Who says they're the terrible twos?

And now for your viewing pleasure...

Let's catch up with some of the latest video submissions:

Caroline enjoys trying to walk in Mommy's shoes.  Thank goodness I don't wear heels!


Daniel races back and forth from the dining room to bring Daddy items he needs for a little "snack"


We're not entirely sure what kind of ducks Caroline has been hanging out with.


Max set up a tea party for his puppy and Daniel's monkey, but he found they prefer coffee.  (You can hear Caroline at the end begging for Mommy's phone)


Max is a master at the forward roll these days (and at doing headstands in the corner of his crib), and Daniel is practicing to catch up with him.


One of the kids' favorite games is "chase"


Caroline really likes hanging out in the rocking chair.


Max and Caroline tag teamed on the slide.


Xmas 2012

We started things out on Xmas Eve with Boppy and Grandma and Uncle Kelly at our house.  The children were amazingly bratty during dinner and then insisted on running throughout the house to all the places they aren't allowed to go after dinner.  When present time came around, they were pleased with their new gifts, though Caroline seemed to prefer her new found Chanukah gelt chocolate coins!

"See, Mommy? Room for more chocolate!"



For Xmas day, we headed to Livermore to see Grandpa and Grandma Salvatore, Auntie Lee Ann, Gr.Auntie Jo Ann, and Cousin John.  

Watching Caillou's Holiday Movie for the twenty-seventh time


Cookie tin = improvised percussion instrument!


"Ho hum...what to do next?"


Mommy is sneaking up on Max!

Auntie Jo Ann and Caroline give Grandma a present



Goof ball!


Hanging out with "Papa"

Cousin John got Caroline and Max involved in a game of paper towel roll baseball while dinner was being prepared.



Daniel didn't bat, but he cheered them along on his vuvuzela.





After the game, the kids decided it was time to settle in for dinner.





Daniel enjoyed his sopa, and tried to steal some from Auntie Lee Ann, too!

"Nope, not me! I was good"

Practicing with her spoon

Learning how to entertain himself while the food makes its way to the table




After dinner, Daniel pointed out that he'd spilled water all over his pants and was in need of a change.  Caroline announced that she wanted what sounded like "strawberry juice", but we deduced she was really saying "diaper change" - her code for wanting to go play in the bedroom.  So off we went to change Daniel into his Xmas PJs and let Caroline play.  When she saw Daniel's costume change, she insisted on changing her clothes, too.  Max held out until after dessert.

The first gift opened was Caroline's new baby doll, which meant she was out of the loop for the rest of the evening as she shuttled the baby back and forth to the bedroom in the back to "go nap time".


Caroline missed out on most of these gifts.

Max finally submitted to his PJs at the end of the day





We came home and unpacked the tons of toys the kids got and while they did enjoy playing with the new things, Caroline and Max invited Daddy for a tea party.



Daniel created a crossover game of sorts - he used the railroad station agent from his new Thomas the Tank Engine play set to check tickets for all nine of his Sesame Street characters.


Then the station agent moved across toward the little "Tommy" trains

and each character followed with a quick "boom boom" jump

until they were all waiting together for their ride

Caroline and Max both really like the baby doll, though she only gets to sleep in Caroline's crib.




And with that, Merry Christmas to all, and to all (and their baby dolls) a good night.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Santa Pictures

Our friend Sam had a "Santa Photo Party", which meant that she set up an amazing Christmas scene in her office where her photographer, Tanya Mally, set up to take holiday pictures of all sorts of Sam's friends who had made appointments.  We had the last appointment of the night, at 7pm.  When we arrived, we could see someone's photo shoot in progress through the window on the porch and the kids were very excited to see Santa and kept calling to him through the window - especially Max.  It took quite a bit of coaxing, in fact, to get them to go inside the house.

We got there a little before 6:30 to be able to visit a bit, but the kids aren't very well versed in actually playing WITH other kids (especially not on their own turf), so they clumped together in the kitchen a bunch.  Sam's son, Junior, ran down the hall to his room at one point, and our kids saw that and thought it looked like a great idea.  Junior's room has a big open floor of hard wood - which our kids LOVE because they can dance around and make noise, unlike on the cushy carpet at home.  Between shoots, Santa was hiding out in Sam's bedroom across the hall from Junior's and the kids kept running to the door to wave and say hi to him.  They didn't seem spooked at all.

Of course, that's not when we were taking pictures.

When it was our turn, they absolutely refused to sit still together.  Caroline found Santa's fake glass of milk and decided it was the most wonderful thing she'd ever seen.  Max and Daniel started pulling ornaments off the tree and moving wrapped presents around.  Have I mentioned I'm having second thoughts about putting up a tree at our house this year?

Finally, Tanya asked Sam if she had a bench or chair we could put the kids on to get them to sit for pictures, and she gave them a great little easy chair to relax in for individual pics in front of the tree.  Note that each of them insisted on holding Santa's milk glass.











And then Santa came in and these smiling little cherubs went into full on panic mode.  It was amazing.  Santa grabbed them all into one big embrace and Tanya got as many pictures as her rapid-fire shutter could capture before they broke free.