When a week seems like a lifetime!

Griffin posting his first blog.

Does he look like a baby recovering from surgery?

"we didn't just escape from our beds, mom...we swear!"

Maxim escaping Griffin's crib.

Maxim and Emerson discussing how to get in and out of Griffin's crib.

Emerson says..."I didn't do it Mom!", MONSTER!

Alex after getting busted playing with the baby cream!

When a week seems like a lifetime!

We all knew this day was coming, but who knew it would be like a light switch when the boys turned 2. This last week was, well, ADVENTUROUS! I could be really specific and say on Friday afternoon 12:17pm, shortly after putting the triplets down for their nap, I heard a {{{THUNK}}}. David just so happened to be home for lunch. I asked him to go upstairs and check on the boys to make sure they weren't throwing things and that they where sleeping. Sometimes they will throw their bottle when they are done. Much to David's surprise, when he opened the door...Emerson and Alex came running out. Upon investigation into their room, he discovered their beds where intact. The only explanation is they had gone up and over. We put them back in and went back down stairs. Only to immediately hear the same familiar {{{THUNK}}}. This time I went up, put them back in and stood behind the almost closed door to evaluate the situation. Within seconds these two amazingly creative little boys stacked their blankets on the bumper pad and VIOLA...up and over. It was all like a graceful ballet. Very elegant. No flopping, just a soft transition from standing to an almost pole vaulting move that propelled my barely 2 year olds from captives in their prison barred cribs to absolute FREEDOM! This dance continued through the weekend. Maxim of course joined in eventually and in the mornings we open the door to 3 two year olds running out like Christmas morning. We even removed their "baby paraphernalia" , bumper pads, mobiles etc... from their cribs and replaced them with "big boy" bedding sets to encourage them to stay put. Well, that worked for around 15 minutes than not even Disney's Cars or Buzz Lightyear & Woody from Toy Story could keep them contained. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

Last night was a little different. Maxim went down like normal, Alex too. Sleeping within minutes. However, Emerson decided he wasn't having it. He jumped out of his crib and immediately climbed Alex's and jumped in with him. Alex let out a {{YELP}} so I came running. I put everyone back in their respective beds than just 5 minutes later I hear another {{YELP}} this time followed by screaming. When I opened the door a sleepy eyed Alex was trying to get out of his crib while Emerson was laying on Alex's pillow, bottle in mouth and looking awful sleepy. My poor baby Alex had a visitor, an unwanted visitor. I put Emerson back and took Alex down with me. All seemed quiet for a while so David was sent upstairs to return Alex to bed. Within a minute David came downstairs laughing. He said he tried to open the triplets door only to meet with resistance. Apparently Emerson gained freedom again. Only to fall asleep on the floor behind the door. Toddler beds, here we come! It's a little sad. The end of a chapter, my babies are all grown up.

Side rails down and new bedding for my big boys!

Speaking of babies. On Monday, my littlest love Griffin underwent surgery. It was to correct a minor birth defect. The procedure turned out to be a little more severe than the doctor had originally hoped but my baby came through great. He is a fighter! He is sore but we keep praying he will heal fast. Little boys are resilient. It is a little hard to take care of the three escape artists and him but my exceptional Nanny, Deb is helping out. Keep him and us in your prayers please.

The summer is coming to an end and Austin is getting to head back to school, Thank God! I know the poor kid is bored. We have had some really awful weather lately and he has been confined to the house. We do have our "mommy" days. That we go out and do fun stuff but those are sometimes replaced with doctors appointments or school shopping. He is looking so forward to school and so am I. He had a wonderful summer and I am proud of my big boy who has really grown up. He is a joy, when he listens. We have our moments but I couldn't ask for a better son.

Vacation!

Emerson in the pool

Max chomping on fresh veggies from mommy's garden.

Alex just being a cutie

Maxim and Emerson playing in the fort.

Max, making my heart leap! Daredevil!

So big. Maxim climbing the rock wall with no shoes on!

Griffin swimming

looking like his daddy!

David and Alex.
Aunt Ella and Griffin

Austin eating his ice cream at the zoo...it was 90 degrees!

My boys at the zoo. David on vacation...on the phone with his employees!

Alex enjoyed his ice cream while Griffin drank some water.

Emerson obviously doesn't understand the concept of the ice cream cone. Neither did Max since he had just bit the bottom of the cone off and watched the melting ice cream drip onto his lap.

Vacation!

I finally convinced my husband after 2 years to take a vacation. Most people don't realize that when you own a business a vacation is never really that. There are always calls to make, employee issues and 1 or 2 meetings that will interfere with your so called "vacation". Since the children are still very young, we decided to stay home. This may not sound like an awesome vacation to some, heck it doesn't sound that great to me but I will take what I can get.

We decided to stay home to get things done around the house, go to the zoo, enjoy the yard, swim and spend some time at America's Fair. Well, the week started out great. The weather was, well...HOT! On the triplets actual birthday(Monday) we went to the zoo. It would have been a great day but the heat rose to an awful 90 degrees and with the humidity peaking at 90% it was unbearable. We left after a couple of hours and headed home for a swim. The boys LOVE the pool. It takes some coaxing but eventually Max and Emerson joined Griffin, Austin and Alexander in the pool with David, myself, Adrianne, Jose and Christian. We spent the day swimming and playing in the pool. Than with my mom and her husband joining us we had an impromptu birthday party, complete with cake and other desserts. I think the boys loved it!

Most of the days where spent in the pool or yard. We did some shopping which the boys hate but tolerate. I always bring plenty of snacks and toys to keep them occupied. On Wednesday we headed to America's Fair. Well, the weather was again just sweltering. There is a reason we live in Buffalo...we don't like the heat. The boys lasted about 4 hours before just freaking out. They where tired, hot and sticky. We looked at very few things and realized the boys are just way to young to truly enjoy that kind of outing. The rest of the week we hung out at home. The weather had turned rainy so in between rain drops we would play outside. We enjoyed movies and family time. We even went out to lunch. It wasn't uneventful but the boys ate well and seemed to like it. David and I even got a date night thanks to our Nanny Deb! Real adult time away from the house. We shopped for ourselves and had a lovely dinner, and NO chicken nuggets where involved.

All in all we had some good bonding moments on our vacation. Nothing too eventful, just some good quality time. Now if I can only convince him to take another one before the snow flies!

The Littlest Love of My Life

Cutie Boy!

Sitting up all by myself.

He loves to party.

Relaxin'

I love the eyes!

The Littlest Love of My Life

When I found out I was pregnant with Griffin, I was shocked. I couldn't believe after struggling with fertility issues, adopting and multiples(through fertility drugs not IVF), that I was pregnant and on my own. The triplets where only 7 months old. I was just getting into a routine and than I was pregnant. I had no idea how I was going to do it. I know I have David and he has always been a huge support for me. But let's face it our family support is limited on many levels. We where going to have to do it on our own! I have never in my life had to face such a challenge but I knew in my heart that God would never have blessed us with this baby if we couldn't handle it.

When Griffin was born with a Pnumothorax(collapsed lung)I was devestated and confused. How could a full term 8.5lb baby boy be born sick? Several times in the first few days of his life we almost lost my little baby. I was told upon checkout that it was "touch and go a few times."...WHAT??????? I was never told that when I was in the hospital with him. Within 2 weeks he completely healed and we where home. His brothers showed no interest in our new addition. Austin wanted to hold him a bit but the than 17 month old triplets barely knew he was there. Aside from me nursing and him being on my lap they showed no concern with what he was doing here.

Fast forward 7 months. My little baby boy is now huge. 19lbs. 3 teeth. Sitting. Standing(with help). Trying desperately to crawl, but efficiently rolling to the toys he wants. Saying "mamamaamamamamama". Saying "dadadadadadadaddadada". A full head of spikey blond hair and curiously exploring the world around him. He loves to go on adventures. He will shop all day, he loves the zoo and is starting to play actively with his big brothers. The triplets now love him. They give him toys and food...even when they shouldn't. I find myself saying "don't feed the baby peanut butter and jelly sandwiches", "who gave the baby pie?", "how did Griffin get a pop tart?". This can be a little nerve wrecking but I have learned to watch them like a hawk! It's a little tough because Griffin is in his walker and can seriously cruise in that thing. He can run from me when I am trying to get something away from him. I think the other kids actually block for him. It's like a football game in my home and the offense is unbelievable.

I never thought of myself as lucky. That was until recently. I looked at my 5 children playing on the floor, together. I realized at that moment that they where all meant to be our children. I can't imagine my life without any one of them. There in the middle was my littlest love. He was rolling around grabbing toys and laughing at his brothers. The baby days are almost behind us. We have a first grader, 3 toddlers and 1 up and coming. It's going so fast. I've said before, I 'm afraid to blink. I don't want to miss a moment.

Happy 2nd Birthday Boys!

The amazing Sesame Street Birthday CakeEmerson...

Maxim...
Alexander

Us and the birthday boys...ok they where unwilling to sit!

Austin...hanging out!

A boy and his Nanny! Poor Max had a belly ache and Deb was the only one who could help! We LOVE her!

Emerson and his Uncle Mike
Tio Jose aka Elmo and Alexander

The #2 birthday cookies I made that disappeared so fast!

Papa and Griffin

Best Friends Austin and Zach!

I just loved this picture of Max.

Elmo and the boys...ok it got better

Owen, Griffin, Austin and Poocho with Elmo

Happy 2nd Birthday Boys!

I know it's been a while since I blogged but it has been a busy few weeks. Preparing for the triplets birthday was actually not bad this year. We owned all party accessories...tables, chairs, tents etc..So that was a no brainer. We had the meat(fried chicken and pizza's) catered, everyone brought salads and other goodies. I made homemade zucchini bread, cutout cookies and I ordered an amazing cake! The decorations where a mix of everything Sesame Street I could find and left over decorations from Austin's 2nd birthday. He thought it was so cool that I still had everything from his second birthday and I again saved it so I will have it for Griffin's! We purchased the commercial bounce house and man was that a God send! We hired a photographer and that was a huge load off my mind. So like I said it was pretty easy to execute. The day before my brother-in-law Jose and my sister Adrianne helped us set up tables and chairs. That morning I had my sister Gabrielle show up early and help me set up the rest and decorate. It was not stressful at all! I wish all my parties could go that smoothly.

The triplets woke up from their nap about an hour before everyone was supposed to show up. It was actually perfect timing since I was completely done setting up. I got them dressed in their new Sesame Street shirts. Emerson was Elmo, Alexander was Cookie Monster and Maxim was Oscar the Grouch. Now if you know my kids these three characters are perfectly suitable for my boys. I took them outside to show them their decorations and they where just blown away! They where so excited! They ran from one end of the yard to the other looking at all the cool Elmo and other Sesame character stuff. Alexander(the talker) ran around saying "Elmo... look Mommy ...Elmo, Cookie, Bee Bird...see it???????". Emerson climbed up onto a row of tables and ran back and forth grabbing the centerpieces, hats and noise makers. He had such a big smile on his face. Maxim was in shock. I don't think he knew what to think since his yard was transformed into Sesame Street. He just kept running to the next decoration and pointing.

It started out such a bad day for me. Like I said in my previous post my Grandmother passed away early in the morning the day of the party. To loose her that morning was almost surreal. The night before the party I was at the hospital with her and she said "the party will great, don't be sad for me". I knew she wanted the party to go on and for the boys to be happy. She didn't want us to be sad or to cry for her. It was hard but we did as she wanted. She was on our minds the whole day though.

David is a kid at heart!
Pinata fun!

What a blessing to have so many people in our lives that love our children. We had almost 90 people show up throughout the day. It's hard to even comprehend. All these people came to celebrate with us. The day was misty. It threatened to rain continuously but amazingly enough the heavy rain held off until only a few guests remained. Elmo showed up and made several appearances. The boys at first where leery but within minutes they where chasing Elmo all over the yard. Once Elmo went into the house , Maxim chased him screaming and crying while banging on the door. He wanted Elmo back so of course he did. The cake was beautiful. We ordered from a local bakery since our dear friend Jenn(who usually makes our cakes) had just had a baby. It was a wonderful cake with Elmo, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch along with the boys names in the Sesame Street, street signs. We had a pinata and all the kids ran and played and ate. Aside from a small belly ache that sidelined Maxim for a while the day went off perfectly. Not even the rain could stop us. They all seemed to love the attention they went from person to person, eating, talking and playing. It seems as if they smiled all day long. Every time I looked around to do a head count they where with someone else. Everyone with big smiles. We ate our meal, than brought out the cake. The rain kicked up for a minute but it almost didn't matter. Everyone was content. No one went running or left. They all came to celebrate, so they did. We sang to the boys ate cake and partied some more. The kids did the pinata in an orderly fashion and everyone got candy and toys. We took a group photo with most of the people from the party. I could have never done that had I been taking the pictures. Some people had already left and others came after but we got most of the crew in the picture. I know we will look back at this party and see all the faces of those we love and that love us. Everyone that was important to us was there. However we did miss my Dad and Sue and Grandpa. We know it was a hard day for them so I just wanted to tell them that they where missed dearly.

Michael, Lisa, Dee and Steve
Willie and Barrond, we love them!
My cousin Molly and her girls Julie and Katie
Best friends, Aunt Kathy and Lena

My Godmother Pam, Aunt Debby and Mom

When the party was coming to a close, I looked around for the first time. I saw the remnants of a great party. Cups and plates with small bits of food leftover. Balloons still flying high in the air. Those few family members still hanging behind to clean up( Thank you so much Mom, Willie, Barrond, Renee and Grandma Linda). I realized for the first time that my life was complete. We have 5 of the most amazing children anyone could ever ask for, our family and friends are without a doubt the best on every level and God continues to bless us every single day. What more could any person want? We surely are a blessed family.

Most of the birthday Party! Thank you EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!