The Salvateenies: Playgrounds

On Sunday, we were supposed to go to a Multiples' easter egg hunt in the east bay. Sadly, it was cancelled due to muddy conditions, so we decided to take the day to play with Sam and Junior instead!

After destroying their living room, we all piled in the van to go check out the "new Target". From across the parking lot, Sam spied one of the "big carts" and got super excited. I, being used to more urban shopping, had no idea what she was talking about. It turns out there is a version of cart with an extra two-seat bench attached to it, allowing for multiple children to ride in the cart. Coupling that with the actual cart, there was a spot for all three Salvateenies!

Caroline spent the whole ride through the parking lot yelling "WEEEE!"

The only thing they didn't like was stopping for a picture.

Back in the car, Caroline was in a hurry to get to our next destination:

which was a mini-playground in front of the library. We'd done some online research to find an enclosed play area and came up with this one, which has a three foot high fence around about 85% of the outside - leaving a small open area to guard. The structure itself is sort of an octopus with multiple slides and stair cases leading off a central platform. Caroline LOVED it, climbing up the stairs on her own and sliding down the twisty slide with Sam twice before deciding she could try it by herself - she flipped over mid-way through, but it was all ok in the end. In fact, I didn't get any pictures of her because I was too busy running around hoping she wouldn't tumble off the edge.

Daniel, on the other hand, was a little scared of the heights and was happy holding still in one place on the slide.

You can see he hasn't made much progress as Max passed him up on the other slide:

Coming up the stairs...again!

Max holds onto the railing when he goes up the stairs:

and he made it all the way to the top.

On Monday, the Salvateenies had their 18-month "well baby" check up and vaccinations. We scheduled this round in the morning, figuring we could let them wake up, eat breakfast, and then go straight to the doctor's. We had a brief wait in the check-in area before being ushered into the tiniest of exam rooms. I stripped each baby down to nothing but a diaper and carried them down the hall for weighing and measuring one at a time as Joe tried to manage the craziness of the other two in the room. Weights and measures had not been a challenge before, but this time all three were upset by it - Daniel so much that he didn't stop crying until after the doctor examined him!

The relevant stats: both Max and Daniel stretched out to 2 feet, 8 inches. Caroline was recorded at 2 feet, 7.75 inches, but that CAN'T be accurate, she is much shorter than they are. Max is the heaviest Teenie at 25 pounds 9 ounces with Daniel on his heels just 5 ounces behind. That 5 ounce difference works out to a 5 percentile difference, though, with Max in the 43rd and Daniel in the 38th. Caroline made the case for keeping her position in the Baby Bjorn while the boys are relegated to the stroller by weighing just 21 pounds 9 ounces. See? No way she's only a quarter of an inch shorter than they are!

After weights and measures, we had about twenty more minutes to wait in the tiny room. Last visit we lost a couple of the babies' stacking cups, so this time we refrained from bringing toys, though I did pack snacks. Not to worry - the boys both found the computer keyboard and found that if you held down whichever key you could reach, the resulting error gong was really funny when repeated. The mouse also made for a wonderful toddler phone.

Daniel, as I mentioned, was not in the mood to play. He flailed around so much that he actually cut his cheek right at the edge of his eye and was bleeding (though, to be fair, the fact that he did it in front of the doctor made me feel a little better that she wouldn't judge us for the assorted scrapes and bruises they have). All three got good marks from the doctor, though she's worried that Caroline may be developing a "pacifier hole" in her teeth - even though she only uses it at night and on long car rides. After the check-up portion, it was time for shots. The nurse was swift and each Teenie got four rapid-fire injections, two in each thigh, for a total of twelve needle pricks and three screaming babies.

All the crying seemed to really tire them out, though, because Caroline fell asleep on the fifteen minute ride home and then back to sleep the minute she came inside. They napped for over three hours and then snacked the rest of the night, with only Caroline showing any residual bad mood or discomfort.

Which is good, because Tuesday was a full day! First, we got a new light fixture/ceiling fan in the living room!

Then, we got a brand-new refrigerator! When we first moved in, we tried to buy a larger fridge (the one we had was only 18 cubic feet - not Salvateenie-sized!), but the door to our kitchen is only 27" wide, meaning we need a counter-depth fridge, which was a little out of our price range at the time. But, thanks to a nice IRS refund, we are now the proud owners of this 22.6 cubic foot Frigidaire!

And the best part is that all the installations happened during nap time! After lunch, Jayanthi, Anjali, and Ajay came to visit and we went out to check out Rossi playground, the nearest playground to our house that has an enclosed play area. Even so, it was amazing how many people walked in or out of the area and forgot to close the gate behind them. I became "that mom", calling over to some teenagers to please click the gate closed behind them. But it was uniquely important to me as we had two adults and five children to keep track of.

Max, testing out the boundary

Luckily, Anjali, at just over 5 and a half, was old enough to be "in charge" of Caroline.

"Mommmeeeeee!"

They were safe when they were IN the swings, but both Daniel and Max made it a habit of running directly in front of other children swinging (either on the toddler or the "big kid" swings), nearly getting kicked in the noggin quite a few times and causing near heart attacks in the parents of the kids swinging.