Thursday, July 26, 2012

Why is it so much harder to push?

Melanie and I were our for a quick walk this afternoon after I got home from work and before the rain started.  By the way, Melanie is our babysitter/helper that we have come over a few times a week.  She is great with the babies and genuinely loves being around them despite the challenge of there being three of them and the frustration it can bring.  I was pushing our Triple Decker stroller down the street and I remarked to her how much harder it was to push than I remember from even a few days ago.  I know the babies are getting bigger every day, but this was ridiculous.  Throughout the walk we started to notice that the back left wheel was rubbing against the metal frame of the stroller and wearing away the rubber of the tire.  I figured something was loose making the tire tip in at an angle.  I told Tony once we got back home - right before the sky opened up pouring rain and he noticed that one of the welds holding the tire to the frame is broken :(  This thing is less than a year old and from what I understand these things are generally bought new and then sold and sold and sold again... Why isn't mine lasting???  I've already sent an email off to the "Triple Decker" people, and anxiously awaiting their reply.  I took a few pictures of the broken weld, but it's not real obvious - difficult to see.  I don't have a picture of them in the stroller today, but here's the most recent one that we have...
Here are a few other pictures from the past few days... new jammies compliments of Grandma Cz



Sunday, July 22, 2012

Here's the video that should have been in the previous post of Olivia walking.  I've been having difficulty posting videos lately...but better late than never!

These shoes were made...

We went out today to pick up some clothes for T's friend's baby who's first birthday party is tomorrow.  We decided to go to the outlet mall - in Jackson NJ because they have a Carter's, Osh Kosh and many other stores to choose baby/kids clothes.  We started out the day a bit late - well the babies let us sleep in early - until 8am, but the night was not without it's interruptions.  Little T woke up around 1:30am and drank 5 oz. and then woke up again a few hours later.  He shared our bed for sometime and then retired again to his crib.  I know T's mom goes there all the time - and would likely have a coupon so we stopped at her house to pick one up before we started our trek.  There was one comment she made to Tony on phone when he asked her if she had any coupons - she said "Jennifer shops at Carter's?" (not sure why she would say this, but I was told to 'let it go'.  Ok, whatever.  gone.  We left the house around 10am, went to Gus's Diner for breakfast and ran into a fellow Siemens employee at the next table over.  We got all of the the usual questions, stares and comments and each of the babies got to eat a second breakfast of hash brown potatoes, strawberries, bananas and french toast.  They all loved the food, but they were eating right through their nap!  We got to the outlets after breakfast and went into Osh Kosh and then to Carter's.  I asked a salesperson if they had any multiples program because I thought they did - I was rudely told no by Marisa and that if they did, it would be discrimination.  She then proceeded to recite her lines about the sale they were having and moved along.  While finalizing our purchase, she asked me if I received their coupons in the mail and I said I did not, but I had a 20% off from my MIL.  She then said, well I'll let you use it - this time. She then took down my information and indicated that I'd start receiving them.  I asked her what she meant by 'letting me use the coupon' and she told me that normally coupons can only be used by their 'preferred customers' and since I just got signed up... blah blah blah.  I had all I could do, to not say to her, well I don't think that I want to be a customer if this is the way you treat them!
We ended up going to Skechers to see if I could find anything - and we ended up buying the babies their first shoes.  They have hand-me-downs, but they've actually never worn shoes.  Is that strange?  They're almost a year old and never worn them.  They've rarely even had socks on.  Here are the shoes we got - so cute!


 We've been told that it's better for babies to stay barefoot when learning to walk, but figured they'll have to get used to something on their feet at some point.  Speaking of walking, Miss Olivia took her first few steps the other day, but I still have not captured it in video.  She usually takes only 3-4 small steps unassisted.  We did put together a hand-me-down walker and took this video today.





On a side note, we had our first act of baby violence the other day.  Aunt Beth and I were feeding the trio their dinner and noticed something on Amelia's arm.  It was teeth marks!!!  There were clearly teeth impressions - top and bottom on her forearm.  At first we thought maybe she did it herself but then quickly noticed that there were 4 marks on the top and 4 on the bottom and we only have one baby that matches those dental profile.  Olivia.  I didn't think to take a picture of Amelia's arm until the next morning, but by then, it was nearly gone.  I guess I'm not that dedicated of a blogger yet.  Tony said that the bite mark should be something I take a picture of - like I shouldn't want to remember this, but everything is a memory to have and share!

Monday, July 16, 2012

I lost it, but hopefully found it again.

Most people look forward to the weekend and I do too, but lately my Saturdays have been memorable, but not in a good way.  It started out like most days - wake up, change diapers, feed babies, play with them for a while, start some laundry, empty the dishwasher and then put the trio up for their naps.  After lunch we decided to run some errands around town so we walked.  One of our stops was to the local consignment shop "Little Rascals Consignment Shop".  I was looking to get a particular toy, but Tony said no - it was rather large, and I'm still trying to talk him into getting a single stroller and then a double - used of course - for when we go out together.  The triple stroller is great, but not the easiest to maneuver.  I think I still have some convincing to do.  Afterwards, we stopped for lunch at our favorite local place Cafe Napoli's.  The babies got to sample some of the vanilla frozen yogurt and some unseasoned garlic knots.  Olivia is the only one that likes the cold ice cream.  Both Amelia and Tony will only eat it if it's basically liquid and room temperature.  We also had our first incident with the stroller tipping over.  Olivia was in the first seat, Amelia in the middle and Tony in the back.  Olivia was getting annoyed so I took her out and within a few moments, little Tony was on the floor.  Still in his seat and fine, but a little surprised by the ride!  We then went to the bank and CVS and then finally home.  Along the way, we of course got some comments from others walking/driving by.  One woman came up, looked at each of the babies and then said - "oh well, they're not all the same age".  I said, "yes, they are".  She then said "well, how did you do that?"  I wasn't quite sure how to answer that, but I wanted to say, "we did it three times in a row!"  We got a peace sign out a car window and another woman asked Tony if they were all ours. 
Once we arrived home, we gave them their bottles, Olivia was still boycotting her bottle.  The really bad part of the afternoon/evening didn't start until later, when the official 'unhappy hour' began.  Amelia was screaming at the top of her lungs activating my acoustic reflex muscle - that one's for all my audiologist friends, Olivia was crying constantly and little Tony - well, to tell you the truth, I can't recall, but do know that there was alot of noise.  At one point I just couldn't take it anymore, threw the bottle (that Olivia was refusing to eat), put her down, and went outside and just screamed!  Of course the neighbors and a bunch of his friends were outside and witnessed my breakdown, but they didn't say much.   I recall mumbling something about the babies and how they wouldn't stop screaming.  We finally finished their dinner, gave them baths and got them to bed.  I ended up going outside again later and the neighbor asked me if the babies were in bed and if everything was ok... I responded with a tired yes and started to think about people with one baby and how they couldn't possibly understand what this is like.  Tony says that I don't even really know what it's like, because I'm not with them all day long - which is partially true, but I'd like to think that I've spent with them to 'understand' what he goes through.  I usually take them on a walk when I get home from work - to get them through the 'unhappy hour' and that seems to help. 
So I think that I've re-gained my sanity, but I feel it's always on the edge.
In other news, Olivia took her first un-assisted steps over the weekend - it was only about 2-3 small steps, but I'm sure in no time, she'll be running around.
Here are a few pictures from the weekend.
This picture is actually from the previous week, but it may be one of the last time she's actually drank her bottle!

Me and Olivia - my drool queen!

My girls can clap :)

This was at the end of the very bad night - fell asleep eating his dinner.

Amelia fell asleep pretty quickly too. 

Olivia taking her bath.

Tony playing with a little bit of water in the bowl.  I'm thinking he'll be a chef like his daddy!

Pool time fun - The girls are watching the dog.  Amelia looks really mad, but that's actually a really excited face that I captured.

Everyone getting along in the pool.

Amelia looking cute in her 4th of July outfit - yes only 10 days late!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Happy 11 months!

I know I haven't really done anything for the other months, but I thought yesterday that maybe I could put them in some cute outfit and at least take a picture.  I'm starting to realize that I may never get a good picture of the three of them where they're all looking, smiling, etc..  Olivia was the best at sitting and staying put today,  Tony was good at staying put, but was not the happiest.   (We later discovered that he has a 100 degree temperature and was basically miserable throughout the rest of the day/evening until he went to bed.)
Amelia was the happiest, but kept trying to crawl off the couch.  We kept putting her back but then it became a game to her - crawling forward for us to push her back.  She was really giving us some good smiles/laughs.  Too bad the others weren't smiling.  Here's how the photo shoot went.
This was probably the best one - but the shot was only gotten because Tony was playing a song on his phone to distract them.

Amelia on the move...

Amelia about to go again after being put back...

Nice smiles, but no one's looking at the camera!

Amelia about to take off!

Tony falling over - Amelia ready to go again and Olivia just wondering what's going on.

The end of the session.  I love Amelia's look - what's wrong Tony?
 The rest of the afternoon/evening was terrible.  I thought that by taking them for a dip in the kiddie pool, it would calm them down or at least burn off some energy, or cool little Tony down despite the 100 degree weather we've been having, but it did none of those things.  After we came back inside, it was just all crying screaming and yelling  - and that was just all from Tony and I.  Well no, but we did do some yelling because we had to try and talk over the crying and screaming of the babies!  Amelia has such a high pitched scream - I swear she could break glass!  I won't go into any details, but I'm just glad their in bed and sleeping (who knows for how long, but for now they are!)  I will share the laugh I did have for the evening amongst all the chaos.  After they finished eating, I brought each baby upstairs and put them in their cribs.  I had to give Olivia and Amelia baths because Olivia had given herself an oatmeal facial and hair treatment and Amelia choked on a multi-grain Cheerio and threw up a little.  I removed Amelia's onesie when I put her into her crib and then went to give Olivia her bath.  When I returned, Amelia was standing in her crib totally nude!  She had pulled her diaper completely off and all I could do at that point was laugh - and right after look around for any poop in her crib!  All clear (thankfully), but after I finished with her, I heard the sound of ripping velcro again, but this time from little Tony's crib!  He got his off too, but his wasn't off for very long, thankfully!
On a side note, we were able to figure out how much little Tony weighs.  We had called the pediatrician's office and spoke with Dr. Booker - the ped on call.  He suggested that we give him a higher dose of the medication to help reduce the fever, but only if he's more than 18 lbs.  Now I know that trying to weigh a baby shouldn't be that difficult - but our digital scale's batteries were shot and I don't normally keep extras of these small round flat batteries around.  We thought about using the food scale, but it only goes up to 15 lbs so we eventually used the Wii balance board.  He was too light to register on his own, but we basically had to weigh one of ourselves and then again holding him.  By the way, he weighs exactly 20lbs.  On another side note, Amelia weighs 17.1 lbs as of last week.  I guess we'll have to weigh Olivia - just so we have all of their weights around this time.
One last picture - of Olivia with her sippy cup.  She's a pro with it at this point.  Basically, she's only drinking from the sippy cup (apple juice highly watered down) because she doesn't want her bottle!
Well, I'm off to bed before someone wakes up!

Friday, July 6, 2012

Mutiny!

For about the past week, the trio has started boycotting their bottles.  I'm not sure if it's the hot humid weather or just a natural change that was bound to happen, but we actually had all three of them not wanting their bottles starting on the 4th! Normally they each drink about 24 oz each day - broken up into 4 feedings, but lately Olivia and Tony have only been drinking 2/4 bottles.  Amelia has been drinking her bottles really well and eating her solids as well, but not sure what's going on with the other two.  They eat their solids easily, but worried about them getting dehydrated.  The past two days, Olivia's diaper smells so badly of ammonia, I know she's not getting enough water.  She's been getting her sippy cup with some apple juice and water.  Actually, they've all been getting sippy cups, because if they don't all get one, they fight over them.  Who am I kidding, I saw Amelia try to take Olivia's from her, even though she had her own!  Olivia and Tony are the best with the sippy cups - Amelia still needs to work at it. 

We had a nice 4th of July - we spent the afternoon with Beth, her husband Jay and Melanie - their daughter and our three day a week baby sitter/helper.  We had some hot dogs and hamburgers that they brought and Tony grilled.  The trio had some great pool time and the rest of us didn't even mind getting splashed because it was pretty hot outside.  We didn't go to see any fireworks - it was after their bedtime and figured they'd be scared by the noise if we did keep them up.  I was worried that they'd wake up because of the noise, but they didn't and all was well.  I'm thinking for the years to come I might as well purchase hearing protection for them - for occasions such as this that I want to protect their little ears. 
We didn't actually have 'matching' outfits for the 4th, so no real photo op, but we did receive a cute little outfit for little Tony from Uncle Kevin and Aunt Natalie.
                                                           check out that pose!!! Mr. Independent!

Just a few pictures of the other 'mutiny' that I witnessed this morning as I entered their room to get started for the day.  All three of them work up early this morning, but neither Tony or I was ready to get up at 6:30 when they awoke, so they just played (mostly quietly) in their cribs until I went in their room at 7am. 


So basically what I saw is all of their stuffed animals and pacifiers on the floor in  front of each of their cribs.  I just started laughing out loud and then eventually picked everything up and tossed it back into their crib. 

Not much else this week - that I can remember but here are a few other pictures from the week.
                                                          Olivia in a really pretty dress we got from Nancy in my MoM's club.
                                                           Little Tony inside baby jail
Figuring out ways to escape baby jail - hopefully not very soon!
Olivia standing on the bowl to get a little higher and closer to getting out!
       
Amelia playing nicely - her cuts and scrapes from the incident with the dog are healing nicely.
                                         

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Another weekend ends...

I notice that the video from the last post never loaded so I'm working on that now, but wanted to jot down some updates on the trio.
Everyone is able to feed themselves - puffs, cheerios, etc.  and it's so cute to watch them do it.  Tony stuffs a bunch into his palm and just smushes his hand to his face.  Amelia seems to prefer eating O's and puffs over anything else sometimes and Olivia seems to swallow the foods whole - she's so fast eating.  Tony now, along with Olivia is starting to hold his own bottle, but he still likes us to hold him sometimes.  Olivia can now stand on her own!  She can have something in each hand and just stand in the middle of her crib or the play yard - and she can stand for quite a while before getting back down.  Amelia is just starting to stand on her own, but can only do it for a second or two, while Olivia can stand for probably at least 30 seconds. They all can maneuver in the walkers pretty well now and create a traffic jam in the kitchen almost every day.  Tony is tarting to get the baby gates ready to be installed or at least they're out of the box - it's a start!  They've been going in the pool alot lately too - Amelia seems to be the one that likes it the most - she's the one that splashes around most.  She loves her bath too - I'm thinking she's going to be my swimmer! 
Speaking of Amelia - something unfortunate happened this weekend that I debated on even posting about, but decided to do it.  Tony set her down on the floor and she of course went crawling over to the dog.  We heard him growl and then the next thing we know she's crying and the dog is scurrying away.  I didn't even know what exactly happened, but we're thinking that she got scratched on her face in several spots from the dogs paw/claws because he was trying to protect his bone.  He thought she was a threat because she was on all fours crawling toward him.  I felt and still feel terrible that this happened and that I wasn't able to protect her better.  I'm ready to get rid of the dog, but Tony says no.  I'm not understanding why he won't even consider it - the dog obviously has some issues with food aggression - not necessarily with me or Tony but with other animals - we've seen it before with him and I don't want this to happen again.  We did take her to the pediatrician and he said that all the scratches are superficial and will heal up, but my poor baby looks terrible.  I feel horrible and like the worst parent around because this happened with both of us sitting right there.  I asked the doctor if he would consider getting rid of the dog and he stayed neutral and didn't really give his opinion other than saying it's your decision and this scenario is not black and white.  If the situation was different - like she got mauled by the dog or we couldn't separate the two of them, it would be different - there wouldn't be any question about not keeping the dog.  I just don't know - and not sure if I'll be able to trust the dog again - especially with food in the equation.  The dog was fine today - no problems whatsoever, but again, I keep thinking he could snap at any time.