Let's Go Giants

Tonight the Giants play in their first game of the 2010 post-season.  This will mark the first time in my life that I have watched the Giants in the playoffs from home, rather than at the ballpark - in 1987 my dad and I had tickets in the next to the last row of section 58 in centerfield at Candlestick (beneath the "REE" in OOO-REE-BAY), and since 1989 I have worked every postseason series.  But not this year - this year the Salvateenies take precedence.

Joe's streak is also ending.  He has covered every bay area baseball post-season since 1987 and attended as a fan in 1981.

I will point out that only one of those previous post-seasons, when one or both of us was in attendance, ended in a Bay Area World Series victory - and that one, in 1989, also included a major earthquake and a loss for the other Bay Area team.  So perhaps our absence this year will be good luck for the team.

And maybe the babies' good luck will continue, starting as it did with Matt Cain's victory on their birthday and continuing the next day as they were announced on the big screen as the team moved into first place:

(Click on the picture to open it up larger and read the message!)

Max, cheering for the Giants

Daniel, taking it all in stride

Caroline clapping

Three weeks old!

It's birthday time again around here.  A lot has happened since the 'teenies had their first baths last week.

Thursday they went to the doctor's for their two-week check-up.  Their pediatrician wasn't available, but they were seen by her associate, Dr. Kennedy.  The appointment was set for 2pm, but we were asked to get their at 1:30 so that everyone could be weighed and measured.  The office is closed from 12:30-1:30 so we were all alone in the waiting room.  Promptly at 1:30 we were called back into a tiny room (thank goodness we hadn't brought the strollers!) and asked to strip the babies down to their diapers.  Then one of us took a baby at a time down the hall to be weighed (naked) and measured on a contraption sort of like those sliders at the shoe store.  Daniel measured 18.6" and 5lbs. 2oz., Max was 18" and 4lbs. 12oz., but Caroline must've curled up as she measured smaller than she had at Day 5 - 17" and 5lbs. 2oz.  The doctor said they're beautiful and right on target.  When we asked about "adjusted age" (which would essentially consider them -1 weeks old now, instead of 3 weeks), she said we might worry about it for the first few months  but after that we shouldn't be concerned, as they were "late pre-term" babies at 36 weeks and should catch up to their milestones soon enough.

Daniel and Caroline at the Doctor's Office

Max at the Doctor's Office

Friday was set for their first serious car trip - Livermore here we come!  Getting everybody (Mommy and Daddy included) ready to leave the house was a bit of a challenge, and at one point we even considered cancelling the trip and re-scheduling for Monday when we wouldn't have to worry about losing our parking space to devotees of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival across the street.  It's a good thing we didn't cancel, though, as we were met at the door in Livermore by not just Grandma and Grandpa Salvatore but also the babies Great Aunts Jo Ann and Kathy!  Everyone had a great time visiting with the babies, who were incredibly well-behaved, hanging out in their car seats and flirting with everyone who offered to hold them.

Caroline with Grandpa

Aunt Kathy and Daniel

Aunt JoAnn and Caroline

Grandpa and Caroline, joined by Grandma and Max

Over the weekend everyone got to enjoy the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, without even leaving the house!  Hanging out on the couch we could hear the louder music wafting across the street from the Park.

Monday was Mommy's birthday and the babies surprised with birthday cards - I hadn't even seen them slip out to the store ~ amazing!  And even better, they were perfectly behaved all day, eating every 3 hours on the dot.  After our dinner, they got to be fed by their grandparents and uncle, which was a treat for them.

Thanks to the Linerts for bringing cake for Mommy's birthday!

There have been lots of visitors in the past few weeks:

Melissa and Kim visited - notice the babies they're holding are NOT crying...

Max loves playing with his uncle's beard...

...and he puts Grandma right to sleep.

Caroline got a special meal from Kate.

Auntie Jayanthi hangs onto two babies at once (while Chris holds the other one in the background there)

Feeding time with triplets often means multi-tasking:

And sometimes the babies don't want to hang out in their cribs, but want to be cuddled (sometimes by each other!):

During one of Max's feedings, he decided to hang onto that bottle himself again:

And then he decided to hang onto something else!

We always catch ourselves giggling at Caroline's expressions - she opens her eyes up super wide and makes a perfect little "O" with her mouth when she's ready to eat:

Joe tried to get her to make that "O" face for the camera, but she wouldn't do it!

And they are so cute when they yawn:

Caroline

Daniel

Finally, here is their three-week old picture, posing with Myrtle the Teddy Bear, who's still just a little bigger than they are:

Their little onesies say "Baby A", "Baby B", and "Baby C" and have their names on the back...but it wasn't worth having them lie on their bellies to take a picture of the backs.

Bath Time!

Wednesday was the Salvateenies' two-week birthday (just as an aside - I'm pretty sure we'll stop counting weeks as birthdays sometime before the 52-week mark, but don't hold me to it).  Rather than repeat the stroller and walk fiasco of last week, we chose to mark this week's milestone with ... drumroll, please ... BATHS!

The bathtub stuff we have is too big to fit in our stupid split kitchen sink, so we set everything up in the tub and I challenged my still water retaining knees to squat down next to it.

Max was the first for his bath:

Screaming in the bath!

In his hoody towel!

All clean!!!

And then it was Daniel's turn:

Screaming!

Quite the pose!

Check me out, I'm clean!

And finally Caroline:

Getting ready for the bath.

I'm braver than my brothers - no crying for me in the bathtub!

But, OK, maybe the towel is a little scary...

And now look at how pretty I am all clean!

Adorable, no?

Daniel, holding his own pacifier

Caroline, holding my hand during a feeding

Caroline, sleeping in her crib for the first time

The boys, the first night in their crib

Daniel, stretching after a nap

Super Max!

Max, returning to his secret identity

Birthday Outing & Pictures

I thought it would be nice to take the babies out for a stroll to celebrate their birthday.  Just across the street and around Spreckels Lake - nothing too adventurous.  Or so I thought.

They are a little too tiny still for our fancy strollers and we couldn't figure out the snap n go versions we have.  So we worked hard at getting them strapped into the fancy ones and away we went, being a fascination to everyone who saw us walk by.

Of course, it backfired.  The babies were thrown off by it and screamed half the time.  It made them agitated and their schedule (such as it is this early in life) was off.  And it was the first night without the doula.  And we weren't set up for them in their nursery yet, so I spent the night on the couch so they could stay in their bassinets in the living room.  It was a rough night.

Oh, and it apparently aggravated my already swollen legs.  Doctor says no more walking for a while!

While at home, we set up an activity mat for them to play on:

Daniel and Caroline used their activity time to start fighting - she grabbed his hat, he tried to pummel her,you know how it goes.  Max was not that interested in the activities.

Max, resting on the couch, and looking just the teensiest like a Star Wars enemy rubbing his hands together with evil glee

Daniel, also resting, with slightly less evil glee.

Caroline, resting on the couch with a slightly different "boppy cushion" (boy...I'm still not sporting that nice ruddy glow the babies have...)

Not wanting to be outdone by her brothers, Caroline decides to hold her own bottle and give me a brief rest.

Reflections at the one week mark

A week into mommy-hood, here are some things I've noticed about the babies, in no particular order:

Just a few reasons our babies are brilliant:

• At just two days old, Daniel was already lifting his head up when he was in a "tummy time", face-down position.
• Caroline has already discovered that she has nearly complete control over her uncle with just a little wink of her eye
• On their sixth day of life both Max and Daniel reached up to hold their own bottles while mommy (or Aunt Laya) was fumbling trying to feed them

Major events this week:

• 9/15 - Birthday! First bath, first bottle, first time meeting both sets of Grandparents, Aunt Lee Ann, Uncle Kelly, and both Great Aunts! Got radio "shout outs" from KCBS and from the A's Radio Network during the broadcast of the A's/Royals game.
• 9/16 - Graduation from the Intensive Care Nursery to the "step-down nursery", first non-family visitors (Linda, Matt & Chelsea, Tom & Carla).  Message on the big screen at AT&T Park.
• 9/17 - Graduation from nursery care - move into Mommy's room at the hospital, Daniel spits up on Grandpa for the first time
• 9/18 - Passed their first hearing tests, visit from Anjali & Ajay (and their parents), watched first baseball game on TV (Yankees/Orioles), got their Hepatitis-B vaccinations
• 9/19 - Watched their first football game on TV (Bears/Cowboys), visits from Mary Farquhar and Diana, discharged from the hospital, first car ride, first night at home
• 9/20 - First doctor's appointment (with a very pretty pediatrician, according to Max, Daniel, and Daddy), last blood draw to check for jaundice (whew!), watched first 49ers game on TV (loss to Saints, 25-22)
• 9/21 - First time spent away from Mommy (she had a doctor's appointment), Grandma, Aunt Laya, and Diane came to visit

People to thank this week:

• Grandpa and Uncle Kelly, for moving things and fixing things and bringing things to the hospital and babysitting while Mommy and Daddy took their first nap at home on Sunday night
• Uncle Kelly for fixing the toilet that broke the first night home
• Grandpa for driving Mommy to her doctor's appointment
• Grandma and Aunt Laya for visiting and holding/feeding us and bringing cute clothes and fancy presents
• Aunt Lee Ann for grocery shopping and visiting and feeding us and taking Daddy out to dinner
• Linda, Chelsea, Matt, Tom, Carla, Jayanthi, Chris, Anjali, Ajay, Mary, and Diana for visiting in the hospital
• Grandma for bringing milk and yogurt to the house!
• Kate for bringing dinner for Mommy & Daddy
• Laura & Uncle Kelly for coming to hang out with us during Mommy's doctor's appointment