Thursday, May 30, 2013

Memorial Day!

This past weekend we celebrated Memorial Day by having a little get together with some friends and family.  We planned to head down to the parade downtown.  This year marked the 130th parade and is the one of the oldest Memorial Day parades in New Jersey.  http://eb.gmnews.com/news/2013-05-23/Front_Page/Jamesburg_to_hold_130th_Memorial_Day_parade.html
Well, as with any holiday or anything event that has been planned out, there's always a hitch!  This time, not unlike the babies baptism, the dog decided that he wanted to be part of the festivities and ran out the front door and down the street.  As always, Tony took off down the road after him and I ran back in the house to grab the dog's leash and headed with the babies in tow buckled into the triple decker.  I wasn't able to keep up, but I could see the general direction from about three blocks back up until a certain point when I made the decision to head toward the parade route - thinking that the dog would head toward people.  I was wrong.  As I walked up and down the parade route, I saw everyone looking at the kids and the stroller, but I wasn't stopping to talk about them.  I asked everyone if they had seen a guy chasing a black dog on the loose, but of course no one had.  After a while I decided to head back home - hoping for the best and encountered a guy and his elderly father getting out of their car.  They made a comment on the kids and the stroller and I decided to say something about the missing dog and learned that this guy actually helped corner the dog so Tony could get a hold of him and were on their way back home.  Good news!  I continued home and met up with Tony one block from our house.

During the parade the kids were given a few little things - a few bracelets, lollipops and some festive pinwheels.  They had a good time and by the end, were waving back at the people who were marching in the parade.  We got home and then dug in to get ready for the party.  Luckily the kids napped and we were able to get everything ready in time.  What was really nice is for a fellow triplet mom and her family were able to come and I was finally able to meet her girls.  A great time was had by all!  I didn't take too many pictures of the afternoon, but she was able to get a great picture of the two sets of triplets. 
Little Tony with Theresa :)

Trying to get the picture...

Everyone in place - not quite looking though...


Perfect!  (left-right- Olivia, Aven, Bria, Stevie, Amelia &Tony)      


Tony with Amelia

Melanie with Aven



I had to end this with a little video that I took this past weekend.  Not necessarily on Memorial Day, but so cute I had to share.


Thursday, May 16, 2013

The scare at 4am!

Last night I went to bed pretty late - like 2am.  I finished my blog post, took the garbage out, loaded and ran the dishwasher and finally went to bed (after checking in on my loves).  When I went to get the garbage out of the babies room, I turned around and saw Amelia standing in her crib smiling at me from ear to ear.  Within a few seconds she got back down, rolled over and went back to sleep.

So I was in bed asleep for a few hours when I heard Olivia starting to cry and other noises coming from their room over the monitor.  We have a video monitor so I smacked Tony and asked him to give me the monitor.  I think I thought that either Amelia had climbed over into her crib and woke her up or she went into Amelia crib.  I was so not prepared for what I saw on that monitor.

Olivia was running around in the room crying and screaming.  I jumped up only to hear and see their room door close completely.  We normally leave it open a few inches and the only thing that would close it, would either be the wind, or one of them.  Indeed, my eyes had not failed me and Olivia had gotten out of her cirb - I'm guessing, she woke up, and likely tried to climb into Amelia's crib, but somehow missed and fell out onto the floor.  She was crying and screaming and shaking once I got to their door and opened it.  I held her for a few minutes and laid her back in her crib where she rolled over and fell asleep.

Unfortunately, during this ordeal, little T had woken up and was standing in his crib and as soon as he saw me put Olivia back down, he started crying!  Lately he's been very attached to me and cries when I'm leaving for work every day.  So I went over, picked him up and held him for a minute or so.  After I put him down again, I went back to sleep.

I don't have any pictures from today, but I'll add a video of Amelia talking on the phone.  It's so cute!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my 38th birthday and it was a pretty good day.  I hate to say it was nothing that special, but admittedly, it wasn't.  I got up, took a shower, got dressed and then went into the babies room to get them up and changed.  Today was also the day that we were getting our new windows put in.  The installers came bright and early - 8:15am!  They quickly got to work up in the babies room and as they looked around they let us know that we 'had alot of work to do'.  This is a normal comment that we hear regarding having triplets, but that's not what they meant.  They meant that we had alot of stuff/furniture too close to the windows that needed to be moved and essentially meant that they weren't going to be doing the moving.  As I finished getting ready for work and cleaning/moving stuff away from the windows, I had to check on the babies who were in the living room as we were all upstairs.  They were being quiet.  really quiet... too quiet.  Usually, when they're being quiet, they're usually getting into trouble.  The biggest 'trouble' they get into usually is climbing up on the back of the couch and 'going fishing' in the tank.  I wouldn't care too much ususally, but all I can think of is them falling into the water or getting electrocuted or both because the top of the fish tank that houses the lights and filter will give way (it's not all that sturdy).  Another thing they'd possibly get into is the dog/cat food and water.  Tony told me the other day that little Tony dumped over the dog food and it was all over the place.  I've already had that happen with the cat food after being left unattended for a few minutes. 
The great news is that, after checking in on them, they were all being good.  really good.  They were all standing around the ottoman in the living room playing... harmoniously.  It was really a nice moment - one that I'll likely remember for a little while. 
I remember reading a blog post a while back from someone else that wrote about the phrase 'cherish every moment' and how ridiculous that statement really is.  I guess I'll choose to cherish the moments that make me smile and not the ones that make me want to tear my hair out.  I have several of each of these moments daily - and not just related to having kids.  For example, I'd prefer to forget that the first thing my husband said to me this morning was some not-so-nice comment about the fact that I left the kids dirty clothes (including a used cloth diaper) on the floor of the bathroom that apparently he didn't see and possibly stepped on. {oops!} and not Happy Birthday!  I'd also like to forget the phone call that I fielded at work today from someone that thought she should get something for nothing and when I said 'no', all I got was a nasty attitude in return.  I'll choose to remember all of the people that recognized my birthday and the comment made by one of my fellow MoM's who, when she saw Amelia said, Wow, she's a little mini-you! and the scene of my three little ones playing together so nicely.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this - well only a mental one and that will have to do.
I have a few other moments that I'd like to remember like when we were out at breakfast this past weekend and were seated next to an older couple who once they saw us (all) sort of cringed.  I hadn't experienced this before - most people that see us coming in to a restaurant see all the babies and are in awe that we're out and about, but I understood their uncertainty about being seated next to a bunch of little kids.  The best (and memorable part) is when the woman came over to us and said how beautiful and well behaved our children were.  That's one comment that makes me beam with pride.  Now that I'm reminiscing about things I want to remember, I'll add the comment I overheard the waiter/waitress said about us regarding how well we manage getting in, eating and getting out efficiently and how we keep getting better and better.  Once again, I'm pretty proud hearing this because for all times that I feel like I'm in over my head and doing a crappy job at work and at home, this makes it much better to at least have the appearance of having it together.

One final memorable moment that occurred over the past few days is when I went in to the babies room to get the dirty laundry and noticed that Amelia had climbed into Olivia's crib and fallen asleep.  It was so sweet and I actually did get a picture of it... and here it is.
...and now have to take the garbage out.  Ahhh... this is the life!

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Taking time to smell the flowers

I'm not exactly sure when I started having Olivia smelling flowers, but I know it started with the fake orange gerber daisies in our bathroom.  Now, they all like smelling flowers and plants.  This past weekend we drove up to Trenton to the farmer's market/Halo Farm for the weekly milk and meats/cheese.  Many of the places are currently selling flowers and plants as well and as we strolled around we took the time to smell many of the items available including lavender, basil and mint along with roses and other flowers. 

Once we got home and after nap time, we went outside to play and couldn't help but smell the fragrant aroma or the lilacs that are in the back yard.  I pulled a few branches off and let them run around with them.  Olivia was so funny - she kept going up to Amelia and me to have us smell the flowers.  Here's a few pictures from our afternoon outside and a video (if it works) of the girls playing on our "new-to-us" Kangaroo Climber that we were lucky enough to get from a fellow triplet mom near Princeton, NJ.  She posted it while we were on vacation and I happened to see the posting and Tony went to pick it up the day after we got back.  So now we have an indoor and outdoor slide!

Olivia letting Amelia smell her flowers

Amelia peeking out

Amelia - Queen of the Castle!

where did daddy go?

de plane de plane!

what a sweetie...

Tony playing with the dog's Jolly Ball

smelling her flowers

another little sweet lady...

Momma's little man!


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Picture time

A few weeks ago we headed over to JC Penney's to get some pictures taken.  My sister had planned that we (me, her and my other sister) would get portraits done of our kids and put them in a frame for my parents anniversary.
After work I met Tony and the kids at the JCP at the East Brunswick mall.  Luckily we were the only ones at the portrait studio so it wasn't too difficult to wrangle them and the photographer was able to take as much time as we needed to get some good pictures (or at least as much time as they'd allow).  They started off pretty well - Olivia and Tony were all smiles, but Amelia took a little bit longer to warm up. After a few minutes and a change of the background, she was smiling, but all three were getting a bit restless and not wanting to sit still for any more group shots.  We were lucky enough to get a few really nice pictures of them individually and together.  Which is not always an easy feat.







 It's this last picture that really shows the size difference between the three of them.  Olivia is so much bigger than Amelia and Tony and has blonde hair... According to my mom and dad, Olivia resembles my dad's cousin Doranne when she was younger.  I've yet to see pictures, but I'm pretty sure there wasn't a switch at the hospital.  Overall, I was pretty happy with how the pictures turned out and can't believe how big they are all getting.  Crazy what time does!