Sometimes with triplets it can seem a little like that game - wack a mole. You know the one where you have to scan a table with holes in it and then quickly react to the mole's head popping up. Bam! Then just as you see you have conquered it, you notice another mole had been up in the far corner watching you the entire time,and is now on its way back down....quick! Bam... Ugh, missed that one.

I think you can walk into my house and guess the height of my kids by the line that has seemed to form on the walls, the shelves, and the refrigerator. Magnets holding information on upcoming school schedules and pictures made by small, not yet known artists, are slowily moving to near the very last 12" of space. Magnets are a particular item of fear. This is further reinforced by the recall made by Magnetix over the deaths and injuries caused by children who have swallowed the magnet peices.

Wack a mole. I wonder if this shouldn't be part of the training? Perhaps the next generation will be better at raising multiples because they grow up with video games that demand quick thinking and short attentions. Pac Man and Wack a Mole certainly didn't prepare me.

List of our current vocab:
Duck, Ball, Bear, Duice (Juice) and A (for big sister Allison)
Turtle, Apple, and Bubble

Last night I was putting Sammy's PJs on and he had a little bear on the right chest of his Pjs. I pointed to it and said, Bear. He looked at me, looked at it, and in a Jersey accent - Bear. Yes Yes, that is right Sammy, Bear! I was so excited.

However, today Sammy had a t-shirt on and I was retelling the story to a friend of his first word. He was listening and as I said Bear, he pointed to the dog on his shirt and said.......Bear.

Bear is anything on a shirt............well we are close.

Our 14 month old triplets, our nine years old daughter and the two of us took off on Dec. 27th from Florida to Minnesota to see our family. We had two infants in arms and four seats - Sammy got his own.

A few days prior to the flight, all four were struck with a cold and had a stuffy noses. I was pretty worried about the effect this might take on their ears for the trip and up until the last day we waited to see if we should cancel. In the end, we decided to make the trip.

We took the luxery of conveinance at the airport and used the valet parking. I would suggest either this or having someone drop you off. We also brought one bag with the baby essentials and then another with some toys and other time wasters. The essentials included gas medicine, benedryl, wippees, diapers, finger foods (lots of variety) bottles, and sippe cups. I know there were a few other things in the mix, but this was primarily the list.

Less is more is probably the best rule. The more you have, the more there is to manage.

As far as security goes, I really don't understand why everyone is so concerned with the amount of liquid you are now able to take on a plane. If we were using breast milk, I guess I could understand. Although, even then you are allowed some exceptions and could certainly use formula in this case. We simply asked the flight attendant when we boarded for some water to mix formula and we were given a full bottle both times. Everyone was very accomidating.

We were most worried about the climb and decent for their ears. As the flight went up we were all prepared and holding bottles to babies mouths with our breath held. No reaction from them. It was almost as if they were wondering what all the fuss was about.

All three slept at least an hour of the journey. The rest of it was spent eating and looking at the magazines stuffed in the back of our seats.

On the return flight we had a few minutes of crying and fussing due to the long periods of sitting. For the most part, it went better than we expected. What it was was a lot of work. Time spent entertaining and shuffling things around left us exhausted upon arrival.

Would I do it again? Yes I would. It was worth the time to see our parents and family. It is also important to get out, even if it is more difficult to do. Will I be doing it again anytime soon? Probably not. : )

This week I was listening to NPR and there was a blog they mentioned call Zooglobble.com. It has some great stuff and I was surprised by some of the great music available. I myself have always been a fan of Jack Johnson and of course he is featured on the Curious George soundtrack, which is worth a purchase. The music is soothing and easy to listen to, even for adults.

On the side of fun, I really enjoyed the Jellybots. They do wonderful songs about things that hit close to home with kids, such as a day spent riding a bike. The sound is truely unique to children's music and provides a little funk and punk to the little ones style.

I had my sales class today and we discussed our financial and professional goals. Mine now revolve around the kids and gone are the trips to Europe, etc. Well, at least on the serious back burner. But it occurs to me this. All of those things I can choose to obtain. We ultimately decide what we want in life, even if life throws us curves. How we react to those curve balls is up to us.

So I thought about my response to having triplets and I am going to equate it to this. If someone came up to me and said, you are now going to be a player on a professional basketball team and you start in one week. I would think, no I am not. I can't. I am not ready to play on a professional basketball team. I am not good enough. In fact, I never even remotely considered that I would ever be a professional basketball player.

But what if I really was given the opportunity and had to play. How good could I be? How many people get an opportunity like that? Think of how many people would love to have someone offer them such an opportunity. What an amazing experience.

So guess what. You are going to be parents of triplets. You can do it. You should and will feel extremely gratefull that you get this opportunity. It will be hard. It will stretch you to perform on levels both professionally and at home that you never imagine you would do. Perhaps never even thought of doing. Somedays it won't feel like you should be there and lots of days you are going to be dog tired. But you remember, you have been selected. It is amazing what you can do once you are selected.

The boys never have many issues with new faces. Benjamin is more hesitant once he is outside of our home, but Sammy is Mr. Social. Now Livi, that is a different subject. She needs a little warming time. Our oldest was home from school and

We went to bed an hour or so later, quickly trying to take advantage of the early to bed opportunity only to settle in and hear Benjamin. I pulled myself out of bed with hesitation and went to his crib. He was still laying down and crying out. Now Sammy, he will cry out before even thinking about opening his lids, but Benjamin... he is usually standing in the crib and has taken a good look around before expressing his disappointment in the current situation. I had a hunch this might not be good.

I picked him up and went to the living room where he fell back to sleep within five minutes on my chest. I then carefully placed him back into the crib and walked back to our room feeling sleep already set in. I hadn't even found the warm space I had made for my feet under the covers when I heard Benjamin cry out again.....

This began an up and down process of gas pains, unhappy babies waking each other up, three bottles administered, and finally one awake happy baby with no immediate need for sleep. At 4:00 AM I gave in and stopped struggling with getting Livi comfortable and down. The boys were finally settled in.

So off to the playroom we went. Livi wasn't a bit fussy, she just sat down and started to play while I settled into my pillow on the floor with a blanket. I watched her pull toys out of the bins. The next think I knew I woke up and Livi was stretched horizonally across my throat, sleeping soundly. After a slight panic from me for the welfare of both of us, I moved her slightly and closed my eyes again. I am sure we were a sight to be seen, calapsed in a tiny dog pile in the middle of all those toys.

The alarm clock went off and A came to find us just a couple hours later. She didn't ask any questions. I didn't offer an explanation. I just walked past her to our room where I layed down on the bed with newly awoken Benjamin while she recovered Livi to her crib.

On to another day!

It isn't an easy decision. In fact, we kind of feel we just drove off the lot with a Porshe when our budget originally indicated a Ford. But here it is, at least for us. I am working and making now, just enough to cover our expenses and we need to dip into savings monthly to cover extras. The birth of the babies transformed us from a family that didn't need to think about money, but was fairly careful in our investments and expenses. We had a nice savings and were able to do what we wanted when we wanted, although we were careful in exercising this. When we purchased our last home we did so not by what we were able to comfortably borrow, but by what we knew we could support with a single income, just in case.

A is going back to work and her income will translate into the cost of our Nanny. She will truely be working for childcare. Our decision will make us take nearly twice from savings than daycare and will have us do so at a fairly fast pace. So why do it? Well for us at least, it was a tradeoff. Daycare would be more cost effective, but we weren't sure it was worth the race. The tradeoff list included an increased occurance for them to be sick, less one-on-one attention for the kids, and much more management from us.

Some days are still very long and tiresome. What used to be occassional laundry has become daily. The dishwasher is run twice a day, the kitchen floor swept 3-4 times a day and the garbage is taken out daily. This is on top of the care and attention that one nine year old and three one years olds need.

So we have purchased ourselves some peace of mind. Instead of coming home from work and carrying in three kids and unloading their stuff, then jumping into a quick snack for all, homework detail for the older, and dinner prep..... and so on and so forth. We have instead decided to come home to three babies that have been fed their snack and are ready for dinner and an evening just a bit less ciaotic.

We have, for the first time in our lives together, purchased a luxery for ourselves and now have to work to afford that choice. We will. We know it will be hard and of course, it is scary. But we believe that things will work out and that people tend to rise to the occasion, as will we. I don't know that it will work out just as we plan, because so many things in life are out of our control. I do know that we understand what it will take and want to make it work. I also know that we are very happy with our choice. We feel a little more pressure financially, but a lot less stress and worry in our lives.

As anyone who reads this blog, you know up until now we have had a nanny in our home and when A found a job and made arrangements to go back to work, we planned on a nanny as well. To be honest, we just didn't even consider that Day Care facilities would be that much less and therefore we hadn't thought of the option. Granted, it wasn't our preferred option either, but I also don't drive the car I would like to. Of course, when it comes to your kids you do not compromise.

It will cost us $800 more a month to have a nanny in our home. We are going to have to spend the weekend looking at additional facilities and putting together a plan. Stay tuned....

When A left her last job she was making a strong commission, but that position was unduely stressful and provided no flexibility or growth. Neither of these elements were something either one of us were looking for in a career. A then took the LSAT and scored well, but Law School expense on top of the day care was more than we were willing to do. She took at job at a financial firm as a financial assistant. She will start the job on Nov. 6.

Meanwhile we have two nannies that we have had in place for the last 8 weeks. We went through a nanny service that specializes in part time or fill in, but felt if we find a good candidate that we would try and get a couple of people so they could cover each other when they had to be out.

We have decided that going back to work will keep the momentum, but it is a difficult decision and a lot to juggle.

A made a strawberry bannna split cake and it was excellent. The babies were a little timid with the commotion. Sammy, Mr Social, seemed to be less affected. I think he must have thought, well it is about time we get some people over, lets party! They received learning toys and walk & ride ons.

We decided to make the babies their favorite food, or at least one of, which was mac n cheese and ribs. Yes I said it, ribs...

On the fourth of July we had made ribs and A gave a rib bone with a no meat on it to Sammy. He loved to chew on the bone. I know, it seems like we are treating them as our favorite pet....One other time we had ribs and we handed out a bone with a little meat on them and they loved it. So, although ribs don't show up on most babies menu item ideas, they loved it. They now have enough chompers that we could leave little peices of meat on the bone and they gobbled them right up.

We started the party at 5:30 and everyone was pretty much on their way by 8:30. A was so busy serving cake to everyone, she missed a lot of the birthday cake mess. They were still a little young to get into the unwrapping, but it sure was fun to have them at a level where they can interact with the events around them.

Happy Birthday to ..... Sammy, Olivia, and Benjamin..... Happy Birthday to You!

In response, we have moved Livi into her big sisters room, she is nine. We did that on Friday night and so far about half that time has been spent in bed with us. Although, I think it will be a good thing for both the girls once they get used to it. The oldest one has already baby-proofed her room and added some baby toys to her shelves.

The boys are sharing a room, but more often that not one of the two will spend the night in our room in a playpen. We are trying to get them to sleep through the night, and moving them into seperate areas had helped us allow them to fall back to sleep on their own when they wake through the night. Before they were in seperate areas, upon a cry there would be a half sprint down the hall to intercept before another wakes. Now we can give them a little time to russle and cry out a bit and then get used to going back to sleep on their own.

As it turns out, A Hat Trick is easier acheived in darts. (and I am not good at darts). We are now at 11 months and Sammy, who was our usual through the night sleeper is up 2-3 times. Of course, with 3 your chances of a full night is not good. Oh yes, and you will hear all these cute stories about how twins and triplets want to be next to each other and sleep well in the same room. Ours perhaps forgot to get the memo. When one wakes up and then wakes up another, it is full circle to get everyone back down.

So stay tuned for what seems like our tenth change in process. This weekend we are working to once again"Take Back the House". That is what I call it every time we re-work things to try and get a different outcome. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not.....

So Sammy, get ready because we are working on getting real good at darts. Benjamin and Olivia, pay attention because you will need to know this too.