Back in the Saddle Again

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

Hello blog.  Long time, no post.  I am quite torn about what to do with you, I must say. But, the fact is I need you.  I have been needing you.  Now here I am, begging for you to take me back.  In reality, you have no choice in the matter, you will publish what I write, but I enjoyed the little dramatic moment there.

You see, you are a therapist of sorts, only much much cheaper.  In case you didn't know, however, I must tell you that the interwebz can be a very scary place.  I have hidden you, exposed you, and hidden you again.  And yet now I have the urge to expose you once more.  I do so with much trepidation, however.  There are some sickos out there.  I have encountered some for sure.  But the truth is that I really enjoy blogging, and not secret, behind closed doors blogging, but laying it all out there for the world to see blogging.  By the "world" I mean the four or five people who might actually read this thing, including my mother and my sister and other relatives forced into indentured blog-reading servitude.

So here we are.  I release you from your bonds of privacy.  I hope to update you often.  I may even try to write some posts filling in the gaps between my last post and today, other than to say that lots of stuff happened, and the triplets are now five.

Teeth, Onesies, and Closure

The trio have just started losing their baby teeth, and I feel like this one activity has become such a rite of passage, maybe more for me than for them.  You see I have saved the preemie clothes they wore in the NICU for all of these years.  I have not been able to part with them.  They have been a reminder of how tiny they were when they were born, what little fighters they were, how far they have come, and of how lucky and blessed I am to have them at all.

But now I feel ready to give the clothes away, just like that.  I feel at peace with it.  I took three little tiny hats from the bag of clothes and made them into pillows then cut little tooth shapes out of a white onesie and sewed the tooth shapes on the front of the pillows to make a pocket they can put their teeth in for for the tooth fairy.  Making the tooth fairy pillows for them gave me such a sense of closure.  They are not babies anymore.  They will always be my babies, of course, but that chapter of their lives is over.  That chapter of my life is over. They will start kindergarten in the fall.  They are not babies anymore.  They made it.  I made it.

I am going to donate the rest of the preemie clothes to the NICU of a local hospital here in town for families who are just starting this chapter of their lives along with many prayers that they make it too.

Moms of multiples are freaks of nature

I cannot think of enough places to post this video. It is genius.

Picking Apples and Pumpkins

This weekend we drove out to Chiles Peach Orchard to pick apples and pumpkins.  This place is the best!  It is not overly crowded, the people who work there are so nice, and we always come home with tons of goodies!  Here are some pics from our trip!

The trio excited to get started.



Ian showing us the way to the apples.



LOTS of apples!  We picked Fujis and Granny Smiths.

After we picked apples, we headed over to the pumpkin patch.

Maddie and her pumpkin.



Emma and her pumpkin.



Ian and his pumpkin.



Three kids...check.  Three pumpkins....check.  Success!



After we paid, I crammed piled the kids into this chair.



Here they are last year in the same chair.  It is amazing how much bigger they look this year!



We had a such fun a day!  I think, however, I went a wee bit overboard with the apples this year.  Today I made apple crisp, and tomorrow I'm making apple pie.  I plan to make apple cake, apple muffins and apple pancakes.  Any other suggestions for how to use them up?  I have no idea how to can them, but I may need to find out.  Any tips would be great!

I Made Debacle Bread Today

How do you make debacle bread, you ask?

Start with a banana bread recipe.  Then go to store to buy the sour cream  you need, but don't have.

Next, begin assembling the ingredients and realize you are short on sugar and have no baking soda.  Make substitutions as you desire and continue with the recipe.  You're not going to the store again!





Then, when combining the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, spill half of the dry ingredients on the floor.  Continue mixing anyway, bake, and viola, debacle bread!

Sometimes it is a burden to be this smart all the time.

Other Quick Updates

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was awesome!  It far exceeded my expectations.  I just finished it and have already downloaded The Girl Who Played with Fire to my Kindle.

2.  Sauce Chronicles:  The sauce is getting better every week!  I messed up last week by buying the wrong tomatoes....again!  This week we did a taste test between Mike's Dad's sauce and mine, but because of an ingredient discrepancy (one of us used dried and the other used fresh), we couldn't make a fair comparison.  I have a pic that I hope to upload here later of the two sauces, side by side.  In the end, we mixed them together with quite excellent results.  Updated with the pic!


3. I made a roasted chicken with root vegetables and homemade bread for dinner tonight.  It was YUM!  There is a second loaf of bread waiting to be sliced, toasted and covered with butter in the morning for breakfast.  Cannot wait!

4.  I have been reading back through the blog tonight, and I am so very glad I wrote all of this stuff down!  Blogging Mamas, I highly recommend taking an evening and reading back through your blog!  I am amazed at how far we have come since I started this thing.

Rebels With A Cause...Maybe?

It appears that Maddie is entering some sort of rebellious phase herself.  I have the feeling this is the same type of rebellion that Ian has been exerting for some weeks now.   He has been refusing to eat when everyone else is eating, get dressed when everyone else gets dressed, leave when we are all going somewhere, and go to bed when everyone else is going to bed.  It is exasperating to say the least!  Now Maddie is refusing to bathe when everyone else is bathing.

Aside from the Mommy-guilt sucker punch that tells me I'm doing something wrong, I've come up with two plausible reasons for this behavior.   Either they are plotting against me to snap the few thin threads that keep me tethered to the sane world, or this is might just be typical four year old behavior.  I guess I'll break out my copy of The Happiest Toddler on the Block to see what Dr. Karp has to say.  As an aside, I cannot say enough that Dr. Karp's The Happiest Baby on the Block was a LIFE SAVER for me when the triplets were infants.  I very highly recommend it!  That is all.

Now on one level, I love that my littles are exerting some independence.  I am even proud!  On a much more more practical level, I have no idea what to do about it!  I want to foster their independence while avoiding chaos and maintaining my aforementioned weak grasp on sanity.  The easy stuff, right?

You know, I'm not sure if I prefer the constant screaming and crying that we encountered during age three or the screaming and crying at age four that occurs only when we REALLY have something else we need to be doing or some place we need to be going.

I really love these little rebels and want them to learn how to handle their emotions in a constructive way.  I mean, it cannot be fun to want to cry that much!  If you have a minute, please send this Mama some prayers, or thoughts, or strength, or love, or hugs, or advice, or something....anything (wine works too)!

p.s.  It would be great if someone could explain why at least one of my children always has to poop DURING dinner.  Thanks!

Vacation 2010, Installment Three, With Pics!

Firstly, please forgive me for double or triple posting these pictures.  Most are duplicates of those on Flickr, which I think are also linked to Facebook.

Despite the challenges of the week, our vacation this year was pretty darn good.  It was really nice to have a break from our usual routine.  I was thrilled to just be out of the house!  I work from home, and sometimes feel like I never leave the house.  I swear I'm nearly a shut-in.  

Anywhoo, back to the pictures.  :)

My trio tearing up the beach.

Maddie and Ian playing in the ocean with Daddy.

Emma not playing in the ocean.

Emma being baby wolf pup.

Emma and Mommy.

A whole lot of Ian.

My sweet Maddie.





Maddie Sand Monster!



Ian and Maddie conspired against the sea gulls.  Maddie would throw food at them, and Ian would chase them away at the same time.



Here is Emma helping too, or walking like an Egyptian.  I'm not sure, ask the Bangles.



I love this picture of Maddie.  She was so happy feeding the gulls.



The Gnome Game

These creepy gnomes were in the bedroom we stayed in at the beach house.  I was just not having them in there with me, so I moved them to another bedroom, where they look quite happy, no?



The creepy little fellas found their way all over the house and in our cars during the gnome game.  I had so much fun finding and hiding them that I decided to make friends with them before we left.



Igor

I took a couple of pictures with my phone the first day we were there, when Igor was still on his way.  He was way offshore, though.  We had red flag (no swimming) warnings the first two days we were there.





I really wish I had gotten a picture of the water coming all the way up to the dunes.  That was just freaky.  This is how calm the ocean was on the last day we were there.  I took these pictures in the morning, just before the sun came up.





Then I watched the sun rise.









Watching the sun rise was such a peaceful ending to our hectic vacation trip!