Category: things

Toys

If you know me, you know I love presents. Looove them. But my favorite childhood memories of the holidays revolve around the giving of presents, not the receiving (yeah, yeah, what a goody-goody.) Especially when my mom and I would go to the mall and pick an ornament off that huge tree. You know the one they have in the center of the mall? The ornament would have a family’s information on it, like the ages and genders of the kids, what sizes they wore, what they liked. And my mom and I would wander around the mall, buying toys and presents for these kids who otherwise might not get anything for Christmas. It was so fun to imagine a little girl getting a doll just like the one I played with, or wearing the cute outfit we picked out.

One year, in college, I had the idea that instead of buying presents for family and friends, I was going to to go a toy store, and spend a bunch of money on toys, and then I was going to bring them to the Toys for Tots drive that the Marines did. (Unfortunately, I did this too late in the season, and those toys ended up sitting in my trunk until about April, at which time I was able to find a place to donate them. Maybe I shouldn’t have included that touching memory in this. Hmmm.)

So what I’m saying here is that I love toy drives. And instead of asking me what the boys want for their birthday, or what they want for Christmas, let’s remember all the kids out there who might not be able to have the gift-filled holiday seasons we had in our youth.

And in doing so, let’s honor the memory of little Jack. Jack is a triplet, born just a few months before my boys. But sadly, he didn’t make it home with his sisters. He passed away on January 2. And in his memory, a toy drive is being organized for the kids who have to spend their holidays at the Children’s Hospital of New Jersey. The details are here, or you can just go to this wishlist and have the toys sent directly to the address on the wishlist.

And have fun picking out the toys!

3 years!

Today is our three year anniversary. My, how much has changed in those three short years. The time, it has gone by SO fast. Some wedding pictures, for fun…

And for fun…on our first anniversary(-ish – we were travelling back from my friend Anne’s wedding in Mexico on the actual day)

And last year. Heh. Boy, THAT was a fun anniversary! 30 weeks pregnant. Ouch.

On the other hand, I did get some cute ultrasound pictures that day…

Miles, I think:

Linus, I think:

Oliver, I think:

I don’t think we’re doing much today to celebrate, but on Friday, we’re going to dinner with some friends at our favorite steak restaurant, which only recently reopened after Katrina. Wooo!

Ow.

My back is killing me. I must’ve slept funny on it. Just took two Motrin. Hope they kick in fast. Ow.

Looked, I changed the blog header! New pics from their pro session last month. Do you want to see a few more? Okay!

I steal your toy!

Grass sucks!

Okay, maybe some more another day. Gotta run!

New post

Okay, okay, here’s a new post. I know I haven’t been posting much lately. Maybe I’ll make it a goal to post every day this week. Hmm. We’ll see.

So, what have we been up to? Not a whole lot. This weekend was pretty fun, though. George and I had a night away from the boys, and went to the pub (surprise!), and then on Saturday, I took the boys to a baby shower and then we crossed the lake to go to Ren’s house for a slumber party. It was a lot of fun!

One of my future daughters-in-law:

I never get tired of this sight…holding their own bottles! (In Chloe’s crib)

Chloe chasing Miles (big surprise there, remember this?)

Four nakey babies!

Oh wait, this is a funny picture from the weekend before last…
“You told me you were Miles, you meanie!” Oliver tries to fool Chloe…

Oh yeah, and look…it’s Jimmy!

So after our fun time with Ren, we headed back to New Orleans for a photo shoot. The boys seemed more interested in eating the leaves and grass than getting their picture taken (well, except for Miles, who is a complete ham) but I’m sure that the pro pictures came out better than mine.

And then, at my cousin’s house, Oliver played with the weiner dog. And, see, he had a weiner dog on his sweater! Cute, eh?

This week should be pretty calm. Wednesday is our third anniversary, which we are going to celebrate on Friday at a yummy steak restaurant that we haven’t eaten at since before Katrina (because it only just reopened.) Ohhh, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. Must go to gym several times this week so I can eat without too much guilt. Hmm.

Speaking of eating, I’ve lost a whopping 5.8 lbs in the, oh, six weeks since Kristina and I started our weight loss challenge? Must get better about that. Want to look nice for my mom’s wedding in January. That will be easy with the holidays coming up…ack!

11 months old!

In honor of Election Day falling on the same day as the boys’ 11 month birthday, we put them in red, white, and blue for their picture. Aw!

I don’t have stats on all of them this month, just Miles since I had to take him to the ped yesterday for an ear infection. He weighs 19 lbs, 3 oz (up 2 lbs since last month, thank God.) So I am guessing the other two are around 20 lbs. Wow!

11 months old!

Let’s see, what are they up to right now?

– They are all crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything.
– They babble all the time. “Dadadadada” is v popular, but fortunately, so is “mmmmaaaamamamama” too. Not that they’re talking to us, but it’s still sweet to hear. “Ga” and “ba” are also popular.
– Teeth! Lots of teeth. They all have their two bottom teeth, and I think they are all getting in four top teeth too. None of those are completely in yet, though. But they’re getting there.
– They’re eating well. Since last month’s weight loss, we added back another bottle to make sure they were getting enough calories. That worked! So in addition to four bottles a day, they’re eating three good solid meals and a ton of Cheerios. What is it with babies and Cheerios, for real?
– They have also demonstrated their love for cake, chicken, pasta, macaroni and cheese, pulled pork, blueberry muffins, and yogurt. Actually, pretty much anything. I want to continue giving them new and different foods, and so far, they don’t seem to be too picky. Yet.
– I don’t think they’re going to be walking by their birthday (whew!) but I do think they probably will be by their adjusted birthday (January 20th). Miles was standing the other day, and let go of what he was holding on to (me) and wobbled for a few seconds. Ack!
– We had some sickies this month. A week of diarrhea (blech) and Miles had a bad ear infection this past weekend. If I recall, we had them at the beginning of the month too. Ugh. All these EIs just run together…

Happy 11 months, boys, I cannot believe you’re going to be one in a month.

And Happy Birthday to Chloe! She is one today! Hurrah!

Yuck.

The boys are sick. This is not fun. And all those stay at home moms of triplets (well, all SAHMs, but right now I have to give special props to SAHMs of triplets, because right now, that’s what I know) are freaking amazing. Man. The boys are napping now, thank goodness. It’s such a gorgeous day outside, too. I wish we could go for a walk. Oh well.

(And in case you’re curious, it’s the really yucky kind of sick, ifyouknowwhatimeanandithinkyoudo.)

Had a good weekend, though. I need to post some pics. The boys stayed with their grandparents (who dealt with the worst of the sickness, so they are saints) and George and I hung out with friends. I brought some stationary to a little art market in the neighborhood, but only sold one set of notecards. To another one of the artists there. Ha ha! It just needs more foot traffic, that’s all.

Speaking of ways to make extra money…if you’re interested in buying designer stuff at a good price, register for this website, Regent’s Secret. Right now, they have really nice diaper bags on sale, but most of the time, the goods are designer clothes. You may be wondering what this has to do with making money. Well, if you buy stuff, I make a few cents. So here’s what you should do. Go register, using that link. Then buy a bunch of stuff. Then tell your other friends to sign up, and make money off of them. Heh. If it asks you for my email, it’s pam.mather@gmail.com.)

But seriously. I bought a diaper bag from there several months back, for about 1/3 of the normal price. I love it!  And Christmas is right around the corner.

In other news, Oliver waved! And so did Linus! Well, they did that “open and close fingers” thing. So cute! I got Oliver on video doing it…I need to upload that so you can see.

Uh oh, I think I hear babies waking up…ack!

Random tidbits

– We had a CODE BROWN the other night. Yes, poop in the tub! (Sorry to start the post like this, but I have to get it out of the way.) And it was when all three boys were in the tub. Ack! Not fun. I won’t say who it was *coughcoughmilescough* but I hope he got it out of his system, as it were. Ahem. Yuck.

– Took the boys for a walk to the pub the other day. Got some really cute pictures….Oliver’s in blue with a green ring around the neck, Linus has the collared shirt on, and Miles is in the blue/dark blue t-shirt.

Linus’s new face:

baby belly!

Back at the homestead…um, Miles, there’s something on your nose…

Weekend

Busy weekend we had! Let me see if I can remember everything…

Friday
The boys had a doctor’s appointment on Friday to check on their ears (all good!) and afterwards, I took them to George’s school so everyone could ooh and ahh over them. They also got their pictures taken by one of George’s very talented colleagues, Christie. Look how cute my boys are!

Miles is in green “argh”, Linus is in the yellow lion, and Oliver is in the stripes.

(doesn’t Miles look like his cousin Emily here? aww!)

Okay, moving on…

Saturday
Yet another day of picture-taking of the boys! My wedding photographer, Sandra, came by to take pictures of the boys. I can’t wait to see how they come out!

After the photo shoot, I took the boys to Target and to my friend Mandy’s daughter’s first birthday party. The boys had so much fun playing with Annabel. Mandy made the babies blueberry muffins, and oh my gosh, they went crazy for them! I wish I’d brought my camera, because it was so funny. There were blueberry muffin crumbs EVERYWHERE after that. They were just shoving them into their mouths.

Sunday
More picture-related goings on. The boys are going to have their picture taken next weekend by another local photographer, and she wanted to meet them ahead of time to get an idea of their personality. She’s clearly made of tough stuff (or the boys were being particularly charming) because she didn’t run screaming from the park, AND she still wants to photograph them next weekend. Fun!

After a walk around the park, (my friend Erin came with us) we headed to the mall. Sephora is open! Heaven. Bought a few things (not for me) and did some more browsing. The boys ate their first pretzel. They seemed to enjoy them.

Meanwhile, while I was taking the boys on their adventures, George and his dad were building the door that’s going to create our new bedroom, so that the boys can take over our room as their playroom. Very exciting stuff!

Yes, another one

Gee, you’d think I have a lot of strollers or something. Yes, it’s possible I came home the other day with another stroller (I mean, total strangers were coming up to us and saying, “ANOTHER one?”) (okay, not total strangers. But people who shouldn’t have noticed the number of strollers we have.) but it’s for my mom. Happy birthday mom! In two months! Won’t it be fun to take this on walks around your new neighborhood? I think so.

Some pics…
The new behemoth stroller

At the lakefront on Sunday

That Millie! Flirting with my Linus! Hussy!

Who wants a house?

Please buy my mom’s house. If you do, the boys will get lots of presents for Christmas. And their birthday. And I’ll send you a present too. Isn’t it cute? And so reasonably priced. I helped design it, actually. See picture 13 of 17? That’s my room. I picked the color. And requested the picture rail and the built in bookcase. Nice, eh?

Cute, isn't it?
Cute, isn't it?

Kind of fuzzy picture, it’s true. But a lovely room nonetheless.

So please, buy this house. Woo!

10 month stats

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days. Have been v v busy with work stuff, and so I just haven’t had time. But now it’s 7:30 on a Saturday morning, and before I go back into meetings, I thought I’d post a little bit.

The boys had their 10 month well baby visit on Wednesday and they all lost weight. I freaked out for a little while about it, but was pretty reassured when I found out it was common due to all of the crawling that’s been taking place. Whew!

Last month’s stats:
Linus: 18#8oz (20th); 28″ long (45th)
Oliver: 18#6oz (19th); 28″ long (45th)
Miles: 17#10oz (10th); 28″ long (45th)

This month’s stats:
Linus: 18#5.5oz (6th); 28.5″ long (32nd)
Oliver: 18#2.5oz (5th); 28.75″ long (41st)
Miles: 17#3oz (<3rd); 28″ long (17th)

Now we just need to make sure they all drink their formula and then we can give them solids. Especially my little Miles-peanut!

In other news, am v excited because a week from today is our photo session with our wedding photographer. Hopefully the boys will cooperate and be cute!

Videos! and other stuff

Bathtime!

(oops, are the links not working? I can’t fix right now, but if you go to YouTube and search for “pyjammy”, maybe you can find them. dang.)

New jammies!

(yeah, another cute video here.)

We had a lovely weekend at my aunt Mary Beth’s house. I don’t call her Aunt Mary Beth, that would be very weird. She’s always been Mary Beth to me. Probably because she lived with us when I was little, so she is more like a big sister than an aunt. A cool big sister that would take us to the mall and honk at the speed bumps.

The boys and I had a lot of fun hanging out with Mary and Grady and Daisy and Sara and her fiance. Daisy’s a dog, by the way. The boys enjoyed getting licked by her. Really! At first, I think they were a little freaked out by the sheer size of her, but I’m glad they got used to her. I was beyond terrified of dogs when I was little, and I really don’t want them to be.

Mary and I took the boys to lunch. They were very good, eating their sweet potato fries and flirting with a two year old girl who would run her fingers through her hair whenever you praised her flaxen locks.

Here are two of my children pulling themselves up on the coffee table so they can read Southern Living and Cabela’s catalogs: (note they are naked, and therefore harder to identify. Am pretty sure Linus is on the left, and I’d bet a few dollars that Miles is on the right.)

Grady, my uncle, is a huge outdoorsman. When I put the boys in their camo sleepsacks, I was half afraid he might spirit them away in the middle of the night and take them hunting. While he didn’t do that, we did get to see some deer frolicking in their backyard.

Playing with a jug of water (best toy ever!) at Mary’s feet:

Oliver and Linus at the restaurant:

Miles eating a sweet potato fry:

Oliver eating one: