The Countdown

The Countdown

I have begun the final countdown in my second pregnancy in two years! Think about it...24 months, two pregnancies....5 kids! I think I deserve some kind of reward! I am really feeling this pregnancy now! Everyday that passes I feel more and more tired. My legs have begun to swell and my hips are spreading so they ACHE so bad! There are some days I think, "this is it! I'm pushing him out right now". I won't of course, but I want to.

We have begun to prepare the boys for the arrival of the new baby. They all seem so interested in my growing belly. Alex climbs up, kisses and rubs my belly. He so sweetly says "baby"! Emerson is interested when he hears the babies cry on the videos. We show them the videos of when they where little. He says "ut oh" every time he hears the little peeps they used to make. Max is pretty much unenthused about the whole thing. As long as he has food, baba's and his blankie he is good to go. I really do think they are going to be horribly jealous when he comes. I hope I hold up well, for them. I won't be able to pick them up for a couple of weeks because of the c-section. I have absolutely no idea how that is going to go over.

Austin is handling the whole idea of a new baby very well. I think in his head it doesn't matter if their are three little brothers running around or 4. I just wonder if he realizes that the baby will be small and unimpressed by him. Not like the triplets that light up every time he walks in the room. Well, it will be eventful that's for sure!

We also got some great news this week. Emerson and Alex are being discharged from physical therapy. This is a huge deal. It means that our little teeny preemies are now considered completely age appropriate. I am so proud of them. All three of them have caught up and than some. Max was discharged way back in August but we all know he is super baby. But to have all three discharged in such a short amount of time is amazing! That's the power of prayer people!!!!!!

Happy Halloween

Alex-Monkey

Tigger-son

Austin Vador

Halloween Pow Wow

Daddy and Max

I have pictures of the three of them nesteled on this chair. Now there is no way! They are so Big!

Happy Halloween

Halloween is what you make of it. You can either go the goring, ghouly, blood and guts route or you can take it as an excuse to dress up, be silly and get treats. The ladder is what we chose. The kids had a blast. David came home early, we dressed the kids in their costumes and than we where off. We don't trick or treat, so along with our outing last week at the Zoo we went to show the boys off to family. We first stopped at Grandma Linda's house. She cracked us up by answering the door dressed as a black widow spider. We had just enough time to say "hi", take some pictures and grab some candy before heading to Grandma and Papa's houses (they live next door to one another). Of course the babies fell asleep in the car and where freaked out when they woke up in a strange place. Especially dressed the way they where. Grandma and her husband as well as Aunt Ella, Papa and Robin where all there to greet the boys. We hung out, handed out candy and played. The boys tried M&M's for the first time and LOVED them. They couldn't get enough. Titi came and played for a while and than the sugar high wore off so it was time to go. The boys slept the entire night...and so did Mommy and Daddy!

We have been trying to ween the boys off formula. This has proven to be more difficult than I had thought. Because Max and Emerson have reflux it has been a series of what milk can they digest and how does it react with the reflux. We have had some screaming fits, puking and sleepless nights trying to find the right combination. We where hoping all the boys would be either on Soy milk or whole milk but that's not exactly what happened. Now we have all the boys on half their amount of formula and Alex and Emerson are on half soy and Max is on half whole milk! I guess nothing is easy when you have triplets!

Austin is doing amazing in school. After talking to his teacher last week he seems so confident. He is reading better and his writing is improving immensely! We are so proud of him. Even his behavior is improving.

Pregnancy Update: Well we are in our third trimester. It looks like we have about 8 weeks left. The baby is extremely active. In fact he often wakes me up in the middle of the night with his kicks! I have the occasional Braxton Hicks contractions, usually at night. I think they happen more when I finally sit down and relax as opposed to when I am busy. Maybe I just feel them because I am sitting idle. I feel like I am huge. The doctor estimates he weighs around 3lbs right now. I personally think he is around 23lbs since that's how much weight I've gained! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Another Day in the Neighborhood

Another Day in the Neighborhood

Did you ever look at your child and think..."why am I so lucky?". With all the negativity that usually surrounds my children, I never think "poor me". I mostly just think, "why am I so lucky?". I still get such obnoxious comments when we go out. I wish people would just keep their negativity to themselves. I know I've said it a million times but, how could a child ever prompt such negative comments? I think people just don't know what to say, so they spew negativity!

I watched the kids for over an hour today. Don't get me wrong, I watch them everyday but today I really watched them. They played so nice. Alex took a toy out of the toy box and handed it to Max. Than Alex took another toy and handed it to Emerson. When everyone had toys he stood back and smiled. He was so proud of himself. He took a toy himself, sat on the floor and they all played. They would swap between these three toys. They did this for almost an hour. There was no crying, no fighting, just three little boys playing so nice on the floor. They are interacting finally and it just makes me smile. They love certain shows, Playhouse Disney in the morning, Baby Einstein and of course Nemo. They really love to dance. The second the music goes on, they laugh and dance up a storm. They most definitely get their rhythm from me. No offence to my husband, but he has absolutely NO rhythm.

My babies, getting their groove on!

On Thursday we had a parent teacher conference with Austins teacher. I shouldn't be surprised that she said Austin is doing very well. He is interacting well and his cognitive skills are right where they should be. I was mostly worried about his behavior but she said he has no issues with behavior. He listens and follows direction. I'm so proud of him. I'm glad he is doing well! I am rather shocked though at the amount of homework a 5 year old receives. I don't remember doing that much.

On Friday night we dressed the kids up and took them to the Halloween Hayride at the Buffalo Zoo. Austin was Darth Vador, of course. Star Wars is the "flavor of the month" with him. Maxim was Lion, Emerson was Tigger and Alex was a Monkey! When I got them dressed, I laughed so hard. They where so cute. We don't usually go along with the whole "Halloween" thing. We never allow the kids to dress up as any demonic or inappropriate. We just like for them to be able to dress up and receive some goodies. We are trying to do more contained projects or outings with the kids. Ones we can control what they see. If we take them trick or treating the chances of them seeing something too scary are beyond our control. Kids are innocent for only so long. We like to keep them that way as long as possible! Anyway, the Zoo was great. We got to walk around after hours see some animals and get treats from different stations around the park. It was great. Nothing scary, nothing jumping out freaking them out. After about an hour they where tired and sick of being contained in their wagon so we gathered our treat bags and left. It was a lot of fun. I can't wait to do it again next year!

Off to the Zoo!

Uneventful

Uneventful

This week was just that...uneventful. It's so nice to have a week of no stress and no drama! We played, hung out and just enjoyed are children. On Thursday the triplets went to the eye doctor for their 1 year wellness visit. I'm happy to say their are no problems at all with their vision. We where worried at first because preemies tend to have vision problems and so do multiples. So with two strikes against them, I thought for sure someone would need glasses, but NO! Just a little medical lesson here, when babies are "in-utero"at around 32-34 weeks gestation is when the eyes are fully formed. My babies where born at 31 week 6 days so they where at increased risk for premature blindness, astigmatism, near sightedness and other eye deformities. I was glad we went to the eye doctor, all my worries where put at ease!

Sunday was a day filled with friends and family. We had some friends come over for the Bills game. It was fun to interact with friends on such a nice day. The kids seem to enjoy it since our friends have a one year old boy and a 5 year old boy. (They also have a 11 year old who went to a school function)The babies enjoyed playing with Tyler and I don't think we saw Austin and Ethan but maybe 2 or 3 times for food refills. Uncle Michael and Aunt Kelly joined us to. It's always so much fun to be with them. They love our kids and you can tell they love to be around them. After all our guests left Oma and Opa came over for their Sunday visit. All in all it was a great week and weekend.

I am trying something new this week. I have decided to upload some videos of the kids. Now for all those friends and family who can't physically see our kids, they can view videos! VIVA Technology!!!!!

They Grow Up So Fast!

Morning play session.
Brotherly love!

Max needed to fix his lawn mower.
Doesn't Max look like a big kid?
The lawn mower was fixed, so Max moved on to the Elmo bike!
Emerson dug up the yard.
Daddy made Alex's boo boo all better.
Austin picked up all the chestnuts.
Emerson ate leaves.
Austin tickled Emerson until he couldn't stand it!
Alex was very serious about the yard work!

They Grow Up So Fast

It seems like yesterday that I brought my little babies into this world. They where so small and helpless. Now all that has changed. They are these 20lb, running, growling, wrestling little creatures that every time I turn around they are jumping on top of one another screaming like banshees. I have had to break up no less than 10 fights this week between my 1 year olds. Can you even imagine. Where did my sweet babies go? OK, their still here. Most times they play so nicely. Max will gladly give up a toy for another baby who wants it desperately. Emerson will go onto another toy if one gets grabbed from his hands and Alex, well, Alex will grab whatever toy he wants and run like hell! I can't believe how quickly they turned into toddlers. They are into absolutely everything. If you open up their "little gated community", our living room, they run for the front door, the basement steeps or the stairs going to the bedrooms. Max is now Houdini! He can disappear so quickly and get into something before you blink an eye. Don't get me wrong, the boys seem to love each other. They play so nice sometime. I catch them all rolling the ball back and forth or playing with their Fisher Price Kitchen. I can't wait until my 5th little angel joins the crew. Can you imagine the fights!

Speaking of baby #5. When I found out I was pregnant again I was a little shocked. OK, really shocked. I will never say I was unhappy because to me a baby is always a blessing. But I was absolutely shocked. The last 7 months I have pretty much put the pregnancy out of my mind. The terrible morning sickness is gone and aside from the occasional kick in the ribs and the increasingly expanding waist band, I forget this little man is growing inside of me. That is until I hear the comments. You know what I'm talking about..."OMG! They have triplets and she's pregnant AGAIN!" Or the "I wanted to kill myself with 2 kids, how are you going to do it?" Or my newest one "Those POOR people!" That one pissed me off, so of course I told the woman she was an awful and rude person! I think she was kind of shocked that I was pissed about her comment. I know I can be a little bit of a joker when it comes to my life, but I wouldn't change a thing. My children are my biggest accomplishment and I look at everyday as a gift from God and not a prison sentence. Who I truly feel sorry for is the people that dislike their children and their life so much that they can look at my kids and think they are anything less than a miracle!

Austin is doing better in school. He seems to be holding his own when it comes to the other children. Not that I had any doubts. I mean my son is "Mr. Personality". He's been wanting to play outside more which makes me really happy. He seemed to become a little bit of a couch potato over the summer. Maybe he's like his Mom and prefers the Fall air to the hotness of Summer. We all spent the day outside this week. Enjoying the warmer Fall days. It was nice to see all three of the babies running around the yard instead of having to be contained. The ran around and picked up leaves, most of the time trying to eat them but so what! Emerson has acquired a taste for rocks. Strange I know but it could be worse. Alex was just content to play on all the bikes and trucks. They are growing up so fast. The next few seasons should be a riot. I can't wait to put them all in their snow suits and throw them in a snow bank.

Fall!

Max helped Mommy pick out Mums for the porch!
Max loves the fresh picked apples!
Emerson is one pumpkin tall!
WEEEEEEE! Daddy making Alex fly!

Emerson wanted that one!
Alex "What's that?"
Austin wanted this one, but....too heavy
Max thought this pumpkin was a ride.
Alex, showing how BIG this pumpkin was.

Max really loved this pony.
Austin found a good one!
My kids are so cute!
Look what I found!
Happy Family!

Mike and Kelly, so cute!
Tyler, the birthday boy!
Alex says "what's that?"
Emerson didn't get it.
Max was a little freaked out by the Llama.

Austin Chowing down.
Yum!
How's your carrot? Mines great!
Max
Daddy and his boys

I can't get enough of these eating pictures!
Poor Austin, so tired!
Mike with Maxim
Mike and Kelly with Alex.

Fall!

Here we go again! Just when you think the last runny nose has been wiped. The last cough, coughed. The last fever contained...It's back! Emerson ended up with a terrible fever on Sunday and it scared me to death. This poor baby who just got over a terrible cold and there he sits on his dad, so lethargic and miserable. I was just heart broken. You just feel so helpless when your child is sick and no matter what you do, you just can't make him feel better. My poor baby! Than the rashes started. All 3 babies ended up with diaper rashes. All the moms out there know that when the antibiotics end, then the rashes begin. There is nothing worse than having your child scream in pain when you change his diaper. Thank God they are all getting better and the rashes are clearing up quickly. Hopefully this is the end of the sickness, for now. Last year my children qualified for the Synagize shots. This is a flu vaccination given to children who are immuno-suppressed or in my children's case premature. They got the shot once a month for 4 months and it helped. My babies didn't get any flu like symptoms at all. With Austin now in school it's so important for my children to continue to get these shots this winter flu season. Me and their doctors are lobbying hard to get these shots for them. It's a long drawn out process that includes approvals from the insurance companies and the makers of the drug, since it is extremely costly and only a certain number of children qualify each year. Anyway, this could be detrimental since my children's immune system is still considered premature. So keep us in your prayers that we get approved.

Just a random parenting moment...Austin came home from school on Tuesday, exhausted. He never does this! He went in his playroom and fell asleep. I go down to check on him and he is out like a light. He even got out his sleeping bag. I shut off the light and let him sleep for a while. After an hour or so I couldn't let him sleep any longer. So I got him up to eat dinner. He was still so exhausted that he fell asleep mid bite and was actually snoring at the kitchen table! I laughed so hard! Kindergarten is killer! I had no idea.

The weekend was wonderful. A perfect fall weekend. The weather was mild. Not hot, not cold. My kind of weather! Saturday we went to a friends house for her sons fist birthday party. I have to say it is wonderful to go to go to home that is completely baby proofed like at my own hose. I didn't have to worry about fingers in the light socket, staircases or getting into cupboards. I didn't have to freak out about nick knacks or glass tables. It was wonderful. I'm usually freaking out about every little thing they touch and I get so concerned now that they're walking that they will fall down stairs or smash someones expensive family heirloom. Thank God for friends with kids. Austin had a great time playing with kids his own age. He jumped on the trampoline and was playing the WII. He almost didn't want to leave. Only at school does he get to play with kids his own age. He's usually playing baby games with his brothers so this was a special treat.

Sunday was an adventure. We decided to take the kids to get Pumpkins at The Great Pumpkin Festival. It was a lot of fun. The boys loved looking at the animals, Alex called every animal a "kitty". He would look so sweetly and say "oh hi kitty". Or he would look and point and say "what's that?" He seemed impressed but confused. They really loved this little pony that came up to the gate and seemed just as interested to see them as they did to see him. It was actually funny to see this animal looking impressed that their where triplets. It was great. We than set the boys free to range amongst the hundreds of pumpkins. They seemed a little confused. At one point Max tried to bite one. They laughed and ran as fast as they could, running up to pumpkins and slapping them. They loved the whole experience and where glad to spend the day outdoors with us, their Grandma, her husband and Uncle Scoob! We all got large pumpkins and Mums for the porch, it was what October is all about. I know my children won't necessarily remember them running around slapping pumpkins but i will and this will be definitely one of those days I file in my memory and a wonderful fall day spent with my kids.

What will they be?

Against my better judgement I allowed Austin to play cowboy! He did make a cute cowboy though, but hate the gun!
The boys playing soccer.
My nephew James pulling the boys in the wagon!

Alex says..."look mom, I'm running!".
"mmmmm" Max is tasting his block.
Emerson can finally get on the Zebra all by himself now.

What will they be?

I have a question for all the mothers of small children out there. When you look at your kids do you see them as these cute little adventurous creatures that smile and babble at you or do you see them as what they will be in the future. I've found myself contemplating my children's future...a lot! I look at Austin and think "this kid will either be something amazing, like a doctor or a lawyer.Or he will be one of those kids that grows up and at 30+ is still sleeping in his old room with me doing his laundry and cooking his meals."He just has that personality that if he puts his mind to it, he can run the world. However, he gets frustrated easily so I can see him giving up if he can't do something right the first time. I hope he grows out of the frustration aspect. He is such an incredible kid. At 5 he says things that only an adult should say and his ability to comprehend is uncanny for his age. I really do think if he wasn't "foreign born" he could be the President someday. Hopefully DEMOCRATIC!!!! OK, sorry all you Republicans out there. Just wishful thinking on my part! He really does that personality that would be great for politics. Let's just hope he's not as shady and slimy as most politicians. As far as the triplets go, they are all so different. And their personalities change so quickly. What they where at 6 months old is completely different than what they are at 13 months. Emerson is my cautious baby. He walks, but is afraid to fall so he holds on as long as possible. He sits and plays for hours, so contently. He will analyse everything in his path. But he is also my biggest Mommy's boy at this point. He's shy and reserved and prefers his mama. So as far as I can predict he will be a scientist of some sort. Maybe a research analyst. Or he will be the one on my couch at 40 eating a bag of chips calling for me to get the remote for him. Alexander is Mr. Personality. This kid is bound for greatness. I can see him being an airline pilot , meeting and greeting all the passengers with a smile and a hand shake. He is so adventurous. He will try anything and go to anyone. He flashes those big blue eyes and everyone melts. So I think "yeah, maybe a Pilot or a male model!". Max is a hard one to peg. He is my dare devil. Doing first than thinking about it. He is easily adaptable. He will go anywhere but is leery of people he doesn't know. He's not really a social kid. He could care less about strange people and mostly is just happy doing his own thing. I would think he might be a writer. More like a Novelist rather than a script writer. Something he doesn't need to be that social for. Either way I think he will be my first to go of on his own. He will climb mountains in Nepal. He will sky the slopes in Switzerland and he will admire the Sistine chapel in Italy. And our new baby? I'll have to wait to analyze him until he's here, but so far I think he will be a bongo player in a Cuban band. At least that's what it feels like from the inside. I just can't wait to meet him. It's amazing how we think of our kids. I am in complete aww of my kids. They amaze me every day with the different things they say and do. I never thought I could love any one or anything they way I love them. It's truly unbelievable how far they all come in the little time they've been on this earth. Only time will tell what they will be, but like any mother, I will love and support them irregardless!

This weekend was fun. On Friday we all went to my Dad's house for my brother, Christians 20th birthday! I can't believe he's 20. Where does the time go? It just makes me want to savor every moment with my kids! Anyway, the boys had a great time running around and exploring the new environment. They chased the cats and where quite content to be passed from family member to family member eating cake. On Saturday we went to Davids Aunt's annual Bratwurst and beer party. It's always nice to see those of his family that we don't see often. The food is so amazing and the boys had a blast running around their huge yard in Grand Island. Austin ran with all his cousins. He dressed like a cowboy and played soccer and football. He was upset to leave but the boys where exhausted because they refused to nap the whole day. They where just so busy. Max was hysterical. I really don't think he knows he's just a little boy still. He tries his hardest to run with the big boys and grab the ball. He was running from one side of the yard to the next just laughing and playing. Emerson and Alex spent the whole day in the arms of the Aunts and their Oma. They loved the attention. I brought lots of toys and they played and loved to be pulled in their wagon. All in all it was a fun filled weekend. I was glad we got out since it looks like Fall is finally arriving. Not that I have any problem with that. In fact I welcome Fall with open arms. Being pregnant, I enjoy the crisp air for better sleeping and I would much rather be curled up on the couch watching my boys play on the floor than be outside in the heat and humidity. Next weekend will be a nice fall weekend. A friends baby turns 1 so we have a party and we are going pumpkin picking on Sunday. I can't wait. Fall is my favorite time of year!!!!!!