Well. Let’s just say that taking a trip with three three year olds is never going to be considered relaxing. But in spite of the difficulties we faced, we had a good time overall.

Let’s just hit the highs and lows, shall we?

Thursday:
The boys were pretty good at the airport. I wasn’t expecting much, and we made it through security without being frisked, so that’s a success. But Miles wasn’t feeling well. And neither was I. We got on the plane, with Oliver sitting next to Grandee, Linus with Larry, and Miles with me. I’d put some snacks and new toys in their backpacks, so I was hoping the 2.5 hour flight would pass without too much whining.

Sadly, the snacks were gone in about 30 seconds, and the boys hadn’t eaten lunch at school. So I was begging the flight attendant for more pretzels or cookies. They were happy to oblige. Miles fell asleep on me and took a sweet nap for a while.

Until…until….he woke up, coughing. And that coughing turned into an entire box of animal crackers, partially digested all over himself, me, and the seat next to me.

Don’t do it! Don’t eat the animal crackers!!!!

Oh. That was fun. Thankfully, the flight was almost over, so I only had to sit in my child’s vomit for about half an hour. I had a change of clothes for Miles in my carry-on, so my mom took him to the lavatory and cleaned him up, while I tried to mop the puke off myself with paper towels and club soda.

So yeah. Good stuff.

Eventually, we got to Kiki’s house, where she’d prepared a massive dinner for everyone. We’re talking homemade macaroni and cheese, roasted potato salad, corn salad, grilled meats, cookies, homemade crisp, even HOMEMADE ICE CREAM, people. It was insane, but as you can imagine, neither I nor the boys were in much of a state to eat much. Not to worry, we got to feast on that for days. Yum.

Friday:
We were all trying to recover, so the day was pretty low-key. We went to a park near Kiki’s house where they happily played in the gravel.

Saturday:
I had plans to meet a friend at a fountain the kids could play in, but of course my boys were having none of it. Sigh. While her kids played cutely in the fountain, mine sat there, glaring. At least we got a group shot.

Afterwards, I took the boys to the mall to get Andrew a christening gift. And we ate cupcakes and played. That was a more successful outing.

That evening, my brother and sister in law and neice arrived from California. I spent half the time in the bathroom with my children, while everyone else ate all the food. That was fun. And then my siblings, despite the fact that they are 38 and 41 years old, switched the boys’ shirts around to give me a hard time. Ha ha ha. Yeah, I was not in the mood.

Sunday
Kiki and I took the boys swimming. Boy, am I glad I spent many hundreds of dollars on swimming lessons. And that I lugged their pool floaties a thousand miles in my suitcase. Because only Oliver would swim. Just like before they had lessons, Miles and Linus would only sit on the edge with their feet in. Ugh. I am sick about it. If only I could have taken them swimming sooner, after their lessons ended. But now it’s like they never had them. Ugh.

Then I got the boys dressed and we headed to my sister’s house for Andrew’s christening. There were some photos taken…

The godparents:

The grandparents:

My brother makes a Miles face:

Andrew is the sweetest baby on earth:

Ellie jumps:

My brother bribes the boys to take a picture with him:

And after the party, we went back to Kiki’s house, where the boys were endlessly amused by Mike laying on the floor. They poked him and asked “ARE YOU OKAY!???!” and giggled like loons.

Monday:
Monday was the day of the BIG concert! Woo hoo! But that wasn’t until the night. That day, we…uh….hmmm. I can’t remember. I know we took the boys to ride on a train. That was fun.

And then we dropped the boys off at my sister’s, where my mom and Larry were going to watch all the kids. We packed up a picnic and headed to the outdoor concert venue and saw INXS!!! Woo hoo! Even though my beloved Michael Hutchence was obviously not there, it was still an awesome show. You have to know that as a teenager, I was obsessed with INXS. I mean, crazy obsessed. Like a little scary. I won’t even go into it here, it’s a little frightening. But the show was great, and hearing all those songs again made me surprisingly emotional. Sigh.

Picnic!

INXS! Okay, not the greatest pic.

Funnily enough, I’ve been to one other concert there, and it was for my other musical obsession of my younger years, Morrissey. That was almost exactly four years ago, when I was about 11 weeks pregnant with the boys. I think maybe that’s why they whine so much. Hmm.

Oh wait, I remember what we did that morning. We went to IKEA! Yay! The boys got to play in the play area for a whopping 30 minutes. What’s the point of a thirty minute time limit at the IKEA play area? You can’t even walk through an IKEA in 30 minutes. Sigh. But I got a little shopping done. Oliver wanted to get an ice cream cone in the cafe afterwards, so I made a huge mistake and bought five, one for each of us. Oliver ate his happily, but Miles freaked out when the ice cream dripped on his shirt. Ugh, it was horrible. And then Linus was unhappy about the stickiness involved. Sigh. But we survived. Barely.

Tuesday:
Last day! Sad, but I’m pretty sure Kiki was ready for us to go so she could hose down her bathrooms. But she’d never tell us that. We took the boys back to the mall in Fairfax so they could play and burn some energy. And then we just kind of ran some errands and relaxed for the rest of the day. I put the boys to bed early and got packed up.

Wednesday:
Home again! Thank god, the plane ride home was uneventful. I needed that.

Today, I went back to work. Ahh, it’s so quiet. And restful. But the day started off with some stress. I dropped the boys off at daycare, only to find out tomorrow is the last day! Ack! Thank god school starts next Thursday, but now I need to figure out what we’re going to do early next week. Sigh.

I haven’t written a “real” post in a while, so it’s time to do some catch up.

Well, I started boot camp at the gym last week. It’s hard! Especially because I’m the only person in the class who’s never done it before. Seriously, the only person. But the instructor is not quite as tough as Jillian from Biggest Loser, so he kind of cuts me some slack. Not too much, mind you. I was hardly able to move last week at all. It’s three times a week, after work, and the boys play in the (free) daycare at the gym. I love my gym!

I’ve also been using my new Fitbit and counting calories, so I’m hoping I see some results soon.

Speaking of diet/weightloss, I got a follow-up email Monday night from a production company for a show that’s looking for people who need to lose lots of weight. They wanted a video by Wednesday night! Ack! I briefly considered not doing it, but then I figured I’d regret it if I didn’t try. So I spent Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and night working on that, with some help from friends. I’m pleased with how it came out. I certainly look disgusting in it, which can only be good in these circumstances. Fingers crossed they like my video! Tim Gunn will be one of the hosts of the show…I get giddy just thinking of it!

I’ve also decided to try giving up artificial sweeteners. Just to see. So far, it seems to be keeping my post-meal sweet cravings under control. I find this amazing, because before, I’d have some serious jonesing after a meal for sugar. But today, I got these cocoa-covered almonds at the store, and after I ate them (and wondered what the funky taste in my mouth was), I discovered they had sucralose in the coating. Argh!!!

Enough about me.

My friend and I took our kids to the aquarium on Saturday. Before we left, Oliver read everyone a Cars story:

Man, these kids are cute sometimes!

On Sunday we went to a birthday party, but to be honest, we haven’t been up to much lately. I’m really sad that I haven’t had the chance to take the boys swimming since their lessons. I’m afraid they’re going to be terrified again, and all that will be for nothing. I’m going to have to start bugging my local friends with pools to let us come over this weekend.

Next week is exciting – the boys and I are going to Virginia! My nephew is getting baptized so the whole family is meeting up for that. I can’t wait to see everyone. The downside, of course, is travelling with three 3 year olds. It’s kind of a logistical nightmare, what with flying and renting a van and bringing beds and car seats and all that. But better 3 year olds than babies, I guess! We’re staying with Kristina, which will be fun.

And oh man. We’re going to see INXS in concert one night! It’s at this outdoor concert spot (where, coincidentally, I saw Morrissey four years ago – my other musical obsession from my younger years) so we’re going to bring wine and picnic food and all that fun stuff. Even though Michael Hutchence (RIP) will of course not be there, I’m pretty excited. If you knew me in middle school and high school, you’d understand what a big deal this is.

Okay, so let’s close with another cute video of the boys, dancing like chickens:

 

Man, that was a long weekend. I can’t even remember what we did Friday. What did we do? Hmmm…

Oh yeah. Daycare had a Fourth of July cookout at lunch, so I went for that. Of course, when I left to go back to work, the boys freaked out. Lovely.

Early Saturday morning, we loaded up the van and went to take pictures of some baby triplets from my triplet group. They were so cute and they were talking to me, and smiling, and cooing. Love it. I got some cute shots of them, but I’ve only edited one so far:

We left her house and drove directly to my mom’s, where the boys played outside and I attempted to relax. My kids are maniacs.

The next morning, we went to my aunt and uncle’s house for a little family party. My cousin, an artist, is in town for a show. I’d never met his son, who’s a year younger than the boys. I had fun photographing him, and the boys had fun fighting over toys.

My other cousin’s daughter, who is beyond adorable. She calls her grandpa “Bob”. I mean, that’s his name and all, but it sounds really cute coming from a toddler.

Also, we discovered Linus is quite adept at baseball. One of my uncles brought the boys a plastic baseball bat and some whiffle balls, and Linus was actually hitting balls my uncle was pitching! Okay, fine, he was about three feet away, but STILL!

That afternoon, a family who is expecting identical (they think) triplet boys came over to see mine “in the wild”. That was really fun, they’re good people.

We tried to get a group picture of the boys with their girls, but of course my kids had to act like goons.

We went back to New Orleans shortly after. I dropped the boys off at Granny and Grandpa’s, and George and I went to a party at the pub. He dressed like a monk. At least I got to shave his head in an amusing manner.

Monday was the fourth (in case you forgot), and after picking up the boys, we went to my friend’s house to swim. As usual, only Oliver enjoyed himself, so didn’t stay as long as I would have liked. Ah well. I was exhausted from swimming and being a shark and doing flips in the pool, so we just spent the rest of the day relaxing at home. And bribing the boys with some iPad time to take their monthly picture.

Enough holidays! They’re exhausting.

Just for fun, and because I’m feeling nostalgic, I wanted to go back and look at pictures from one…two…three…four (how far back can I go?) years ago.

June 29, 2010: Oliver cries on the stairs.

June 28, 2009: They eat Cookie Crisp at Aunt Renny’s house. 18 months old. Look at that blond hair!

June 29, 2008: A trip to the aquarium. Awww, babies!

June 29, 2007: I’m about 12 weeks pregnant, and we were in Virginia for my niece’s christening. Here are both of my sweet nieces. They’re now 4 and 6. Crazy!

June 2006: My older niece, age 1. I was visiting them in California. Awww!

That’s fun!

You know Oliver, right? Mr. Cautious? (Remember the video I did last year? Yeah, he’s still that way most of the time.)

Well, when it comes to being in the pool, Oliver is completely the opposite. He loves being in the pool, paddling around with his Puddle Jumpers on. He blows bubbles and spins in circles and is a fearless explorer. His brothers, meanwhile, might venture onto a step, but that’s about it.

Today, at my uncle’s house, Oliver and Larry were having fun in the pool. So sweet! (Of course, every time he went under, I had a mini heart attack, but that’s my prerogative as his mother, right?)

So proud of my guy! I signed them up for swimming lessons starting in July. Six days in a row for 40 minutes a day. I joked on Facebook that I only signed one kid up, and they’d each get two lessons, but I hope everyone knows I was joking. I got a few questions about that over the weekend. Heh.

We had such a nice weekend, I feel like I should recap it. The best part was that the weather was just gorgeous. Unseasonably cool for a New Orleans May, the temperature stayed in the 70s most of the time. Nice!

Friday afternoon, I picked up the boys and headed to our neighborhood pub. Yeah, only in New Orleans. There were lots of kids there, drawing on the floor, having mocktails, and just goofing around.

After we left the pub, we stopped at the neighborhood pizza place and ate dinner outside. It was so relaxing! (But someone asked me if I was an artist when they saw the chalk all over my pants. Ha ha, yeah right!)

The boys went to bed late that night, but we had a nice time together as a family, so who cares?

Saturday was George’s birthday, so I made hockey pucks biscuits and eggs for breakfast. (Note to self: Don’t use whole-wheat mix for biscuits. Life’s too short.) The boys went to Granny & Grandpa’s for the night, and I spent the next several hours shopping for and baking the cake you saw in a previous post. That thing was hardcore, man. But worth it. I also got some fancy steaks from a local meat market to grill. Mmmm.

So after we stuffed ourselves with steak and potatoes and salad, we headed to the pub, cake in hand.

Sunday, we recovered for most of the day, and I went to get the boys in the afternoon. It was still beautiful outside, so I took them to a park to run around for a while. Afterwards, we dined on a gourmet meal at the place Oliver calls “Old McDonald had a farm.”

And that was about it. Just a nice, relaxing weekend.

Christmas morning came bright and early…but thankfully not TOO early. I got up, put the egg casserole in the oven, made some coffee, and waited for the boys to wake up. We’d decided we wouldn’t open presents until after breakfast, but Santa did bring something to them in their playroom that they got to see right when they woke up…

I got a picture of each of them when they first caught a glimpse of their “new” (thanks Ren) train table. Miles:

Oliver:

Linus:

After breakfast (mostly cereal, though Miles ate a little of the eggs…shocking!) we opened presents. The boys got tool sets and nerf footballs and lots of parts for their dollhouse gender-neutral miniature playhouse. They also got tiny slinkies and some clothes and other toys.

I got a new wedding band, yay! My old one (which I adore and is gorgeous, but sadly unresizable) doesn’t exactly fit right now, but after a little finger liposuction, it should be fine. Then I’ll have two pretty wedding bands!

We headed to my mom and Larry’s house after all the presents, and there, the boys got MORE presents! Cameras and train tracks for their new table. Flashlights and watches and all sorts of goodies! We ate an awesomely delicious meal and then went for a walk to feed the ducks.

To round out the night, the kids decorated a premade gingerbread house. That was cute.

And then the kids were in bed, thank goodness…I was so sleepy!

Today, I took the boys to see my lovely friend Kristie and her parents. I have been friends with Kristie since we were 12, so it was really weird/surreal to introduce my children to her parents. Love them! I’ll have to get pictures from Kristie of the boys’ shenanigans. After that, I dropped the boys off at Granny & Grandpa’s, where they got yet more presents. Tons of stuff! They were in heaven.

The end!

What a great Christmas we are having! I say “are having” because it’s not over ’til I go back to work on the 3rd. Or maybe til New Year’s Eve. Anyway, it’s still happening, in my opinion.

Let’s see…our Christmas….

We spent Friday with friends and family. First we went to our friend’s house for gumbo. My mom used to make gumbo on Christmas eve (at least until she started making oyster & artichoke soup, yum) so it felt right to have it that day. Yum. The boys, being picky, only ate plain rice. But they ate a lot of it, so whatever.

Then they went and played with the other kids, which was awesome. A nice contrast to holidays past, where they spent them glued to my side.

We then went to George’s grandpa’s house so he could see the boys. They got their first Christmas presents from Granny & Grandpa, some laptops that made the ones I got them look lame. (So those will stay in the closet til next Christmas, I guess.)

After everyone ate some pizza (or threw it on the floor, thus earning himself a time out) we went outside to run around and jump in the leaves.

(or all over Grandpa)

and they said hi to Great-Grandpa Sam

Oliver got some flying practice in

And then we went home and put on jammies

and put out cookies and milk for Santa

and then went to sleep…zzzz….