9-10 Month Doctor Visit

The 9-10 month appointment is often optional, we're told.  We chose to go for it because the Salvateenies had been a little behind in their gross motor development  (they weren't sitting up supporting themselves on their arms)...and besides, it's preventative care and we have no co-pay for that. :)

So at the 9.5 month mark, we headed into the clinic.  The waiting room was considerably more busy than it had been at our previous visits, including a set of twins who were in the same stroller we have!  How exciting!

The most anticipated part of the visit is always the weigh-in.  Caroline went first this time - she came in at 26.75 inches in length / height and 16 pounds, 12 oz.  This put her in the 18th percentile for height and 12th percentile for weight.    We chose to proceed in backward birth order and bring Max down the hall.  He's the longest of the bunch at 28 inches, and quite heavy at 19 pounds 4 ounces! This is good for 24th percentile in weight and 35th percentile in length.  Daniel was last and was very close to his brother's stats: 26.25" and 19 pounds 6 ounces, putting him in the 26th percentile for weight and 44th percentile for height.  Funny, looking at me and at Joe, you might assume that their height and weight proportions would be reversed, but as of now, they are long, thin babies (relatively speaking).

The other measurement they take is head circumference.  I assume this is because of brain development.  But it is interesting to find out that Caroline's head circumference, if you're interested, was 43.5cm (17.13"), which is around the 32nd percentile. This means her head is, proportionally, twice the size of her body, as compared to other nine-month olds.  Daniel (47.3cm, or 18.62") and Max (47.5cm, or 18.7") are another story - their heads are in the 92.5%ile and the 94.4%ile respectively.  This means their heads are, well, freakin' huge!  They never LOOK that big to me - do they look that big to you?  Their little noggins are bigger, statistically, than all but 6-8% of ALL nine-month olds!  Amazing.

The 'teenies are still a little behind in their gross motor skills - most 10 month olds might be expected to be pulling themselves up to standing at this point and creeping/pre-crawling at the least.  While all of our babies enjoy being held in a standing position, they won't do it on their own, and only Max does the creeping:

She did allow that, since they were born a month early and they appear to be about a month behind, there really is nothing to worry about.  They are all happy and healthy and progressing normally.  (As the doctor entered the room, all three smiled at her and she pointed out they were the first smiles she'd gotten all day, as all her previous appointments had been with teenagers.)

At the end of the appointment, the doctor gave each baby a new book! How exciting!  They have really been getting into their books lately:

Early in the week it was quite hot, accounting for Daniel's "no pants" reading outfit

Caroline and Max fighting over Runaway Bunny (Caroline also reads from "The Baby Sleep Solution" beside her elbow)

Here are the books from the doctors:

Caroline is checking out Baby Faces

and showing off her own Baby Face!

Daniel has a book about Rainforest Colors

And Max's book is about Cars and Trucks!

Studious

And continuing their penchant for selecting the cheapest non-toy with which to play, this week has included paper straw wrappers, plastic hangers, paper shopping bags, and tissue paper:

Random June Updates

As I was loading pictures from my camera and phone, I realized there were a few parts of June I hadn't chronicled yet.  So, guided by the photos, here we go:

The babies now spend more time rolling around on the floor than they do in their standing toys

Which might make them enjoy the time in the exersaucers more

Max is on the verge of crawling - he gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth, but so far all his progress has been in reverse

Caroline still enjoys sticking out her tongue

Fathers Day also happened to be Uncle Kelly's birthday, so we had the whole Kelly clan over for a celebration.  First, Grandpa and Grandma watched a recording of the Tony Awards with us - Max was intrigued by whatever dance number was going on:

and a little in danger of falling off the couch

Later, he got ahold of Grandpa's phone and that held his attention for a while

When Daddy got home from work, the 'teenies helped him open his cards and presents:

After a long and eventful day, Caroline unwound with a little time online:

I love how the design makes it look like these PJs really hug her baby buns

 On Monday morning we got a QUICK visit from Erika and Olivia, who were in town from Arizona and wanted to meet the babies.

As you can see, Max is checking out Olivia and Caroline, but Daniel is totally in love with Erika.

Still staring at Erika

"Finally!" says Daniel, "We get some one-on-one time!" 

Caroline is slowly moving from the newspaper to books:

Speaking of books, Grandma helped me take the babies out to the mall to avoid the heat on Tuesday.  We hit the bookstore and they even let me go get a quick chair massage while they hung out in a cafe!

Caroline still enjoys her hiding place under the jumperoo:

We're not sure who Max was waiting for at the window on Wednesday morning.

Maybe he was just checking to make sure our cars were out of the way of street sweeping.

Uncle Kelly left his birthday present raccoon hat behind, so Caroline sent him a ransom message:

Come play with me, or the hat is MINE!

 Knowing I had my 20th HS reunion coming up, Caroline decided she should consult on my hair style options for the evening.  This is what she came up with:

On Thursday, Sam, Mike, and Junior came over for a visit.  They had come up to go to the zoo, scoping it out ahead of time before we go together next week.  The animals must've really amazed Junior because he hadn't eaten since 10am and was still napping contendedly in his car seat at 4pm!

On Friday we went shopping for sippy cups - the pediatric nutritionist recommended ones with soft silicone mouthpieces and I couldn't decide between the two styles I found so now we have ten or so different sippy cups, all of which the babies shun.  We also stopped in at Best Buy to get a new computer for Joe, as his laptop of 6 years finally bit the dust.  As we packed everyone back in the car we realized it was just about dinner time for the babies, so instead of racing back home and dealing with angry babies (and nothing to eat ourselves), we went to Outback Steakhouse. At 4:45 there were very few people there.  They gave us a half-booth/half-table and Joe and Max (in his car seat) sat on the bench and I sat across the table in a chair, with Caroline and Daniel on either side in these fancy sling-type things they have to hold the car seats up.  So the babies did not get to sit in big-boy (and big-girl) high chairs like they had earlier in the week, but they did get to have their bottles in a restaurant.  We also ordered sweet potato for them, but it came late and too warm, so we took it home for later.  As we were getting our bill, the waitress told us she thought the Salvateenies had been the best-behaved babies she had ever waited on.  I'm sure it was hyperbole - or perhaps it's an indication of just how much havoc infant triplets are expected to wreak. :)

On Saturday Joe and I went to the ballpark early - leaving the babies with Tom for their morning feedings.  Grandma came by for the mid-day feeding, after which Tom had to leave.  Grandpa came to help out with dinner time, and then he and Grandma had a date to get to.  We were going straight from the ballpark to my 20th high school reunion, so the babies' favorite (and only) uncle took the baton at that point, playing with, feeding, and putting the babies to bed.  We got home around 11:30, meaning we'd been gone for a full 15 hours and for the first time since the day they were born, I didn't feed them once all day!

They obviously knew I'd missed all the baby-care on Saturday because all three graced me with FILTHY diapers in the morning - filled with what looked to be very similar in color to the Sweet Potato they'd had for dinner the night before.  Well, filled an overflowing - an emergency load of laundry to clean everyone's PJs, swaddle, and Caroline's blankets was in order!

Highlights this week have included the babies' new favorite game.  They sit up in a circle and steal pacifiers out of  each other's mouths.  Caroline will, at times, steal one of the boys' pacifiers and then attempt to put it in her mouth WHILE she still has hers there!  If I'm watching them, the one who loses the pacifier may try crying to get a little sympathy.  I fell for this when Max was whining and took the paci back from his sister and gave it to him.  No sooner had I put it in his mouth than he popped it back out and held it triumphantly above his head with a snarky little "Ha ha, I got it back" look.  I think there will come a time when we have to make these children settle their differences on their own.

Max's upper tooth has popped out and the second one is threatening to come through any moment now.  I was holding him and he was practicing tapping the lower and upper teeth together, making for a sound I had not heard before...click, click, click.  Both Daniel and Caroline have little white mounds forming in their upper gums, but no teeth yet.  On the food front, they have enjoyed spinach (though nobody sprouted Popeye muscles that I noticed) and broccoli.

And so ends another week in the Salvatore household.

Back at Home

The babies are getting more mobile - not quite crawling yet, but definitely covering ground.  As you saw in their 9month pictures, they are also sitting quite well unassisted.  The funniest part about this is that they can't quite figure out how to get OUT of that sitting position once we've placed them there.  Well, Caroline has - she just flops over backward, smacking her head on the carpet.  Daniel will sometimes fall and smack his head and sometimes just slump.  But not Max.  Max will sit there with perfect posture until he's tired of it and then he'll start wailing at the top of his lungs. :)

Max moves backwards when he crawls.  He is also the only one who has figured out how to push back onto his knees and rock back and forth on all fours - we are aware this means crawling is right around the corner.  Caroline rocks and rolls back and forth to get where she wants to go.  Most recently, where she wanted to go was over to play with Max, who was in the jumperoo:

They are also eating quite well.  In addition to their purees (today was spinach to see if we could turn them into Popeye), they have started in on finger foods.  At least WE'RE calling them finger foods!  The Salvateenies have yet to master the concept of feeding themselves.  The first attempt was waffles - Daniel was a big fan, but his pincer grasp isn't quite there yet and so he just smashed at them on the tray, but he gobbled them up when I fed him.

Caroline was quite adept at picking the pieces up ... and at dumping them over the side of her high chair. And Max did not seem to fully comprehend the joys of waffles - what can I say? Next was cantaloupe - Max literally turned his head away!  We'll try cheese tomorrow and see how that goes.

Today it was a nice, warm day so we decided to go for a walk.  Since the day is nearing that we won't be able to use the infant carriers and snap 'n go strollers anymore, we thought it might be a good tome to try out our "real" strollers.  Remember when we tried them for the babies' 1-week walk in the park?

Well,  here's what it looks like now, at 9 months and 1 week:

Caroline still gets the single stroller

I don't know what's going on with Max's legs -- I'm just glad I put sunscreen on his feet!

The babies refused to believe that the ocean just 5 minutes from our house was the same one they'd seen last week in Laguna Beach.  But then again, we aren't entirely sure the babies could see the beach past the big cement wall - and the strollers, as nice as they are, do not work on sand.

On our way back we passed the Beach Chalet and smelled hamburgers and got hungry.  It was about an hour until the 'teenies were scheduled to eat, so we gave it a go.  Of course, since we were using the new strollers, we didn't have the carriers for the babies to lounge in in the restaurant.  So they got their first experience in real restaurant high chairs:

The kiddos were incredibly well behaved (even if the lady at the next table didn't seem to think so - a pair of older women a few tables away made a point of coming by and telling us how well they'd behaved).  Everyone got kids' menus and crayons to play with (read: to throw on the floor and make Mommy retrieve from under the table).

Daniel, demanding service

Max, dropping his menu

Caroline snagged Max's stolen menu

Now Max is the one calling for service

My photography teacher said you can fake a picture into being more interesting by changing the angle

Yummm!

Twins!

Another attempt at an interesting angle

Max wanted to rearrange the furniture a bit