Did you check out my post on the New Orleans Moms Blog yet?

Last night, George wasn’t feeling well, and I had a gift card to Applebee’s, so I decided to take the boys to dinner. I’ve taken them to restaurants by myself lots of times, but it just gets easier and easier. They were so good, and we had a great time. Makes my heart happy.

They had a little game like Mad Libs on the kids’ menu, which they thought was hilarious. Maybe not as hilarious as Kiki and I found it when we’d play dirty Mad Libs on road trips (every word had to be obscene or filthy) but pretty funny nonetheless.

After they ate their dinner (nothing groundbreaking, but the fries DID have pepper on them, which at one time would have been a dealbreaker), I got them dessert to share. Molten chocolate cake. I’m such a good mom, and so proud they loved it. I think my heart would have broken a little if they hadn’t. Or I would have gotten them DNA tested to make sure they were actually mine.

I only had a bite, because I started Weight Watchers again last week. It’s been a while since I’ve done WW, and it didn’t really work too well for me, but hopefully this time it will. I’m already down a couple of pounds, so I can’t complain!

Did you check out my post on the New Orleans Moms Blog yet?

I am proud to say the boys have now tried a few vegetables! They each have two Lego minifigures, thanks to a can of green beans last night. Oh, I tried fresh green beans, but they were a no-go. Canned, however, go the thumbs up. Weird, but whatever. I assume there are still some nutrients in canned green beans, right?

Sorry to say, no photos of it from last night. But here’s one of Linus Oliver Miles someone eating one in January 2010.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, they also got t-ball trophies Friday night. Here they are receiving them. So cute. They were so proud.

Goooo Sharks!

We had a fun playdate with their twin friends Anders and Lewis on Sunday, which was much fun for all. And then we went swimming later that afternoon. Low-key, but nice weekend. I got a couple of plants for the back door. Nice. Let’s hope I don’t kill them too quickly.

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This fuzzy picture might be my favorite from Friday night’s t-ball game. That’s the coach, looking SO PROUD for getting all three boys’ names right as he was handing out trophies.

Hilarious.

Last night, for the first time in possibly literally years, the boys ate vegetables!

Miles ate baby carrots, and Oliver and Linus ate corn.

(Some will say corn is not a vegetable. In my house, anything that grew in the ground and purchased in the produce department and isn’t processed is a vegetable. Or a fruit.)

I am not ashamed to say there was bribery involved here. But you know, whatever works. I have been able to get them to eat new proteins, but vegetables (and fresh foods in general) were my real goal. And I did it! And they each got a new(ish, bought on eBay) Lego minifigure!

Tonight, they’re already looking forward to green beans. Heh.

Have you read my post “Are three kids easier than one?” If not, check it out. It’s good for a laugh. If you’re a triplet mom. If not, you might find yourself wanting triplets.

What a great weekend we had! Lemme tell you about it.

Friday night, we had pizza for dinner. Okay, not an exciting night, but pizza is always a good thing, right?

Saturday, I got to sleep in because I was exhausted from a lack of sleep Thursday night. Once I gave the boys breakfast and did some laundry, etc, etc, I took the boys to the pool. I hadn’t joined yet for the summer, and I was a little nervous about dropping money on something the boys might refuse to do. Last summer, we joined, but I probably went by myself more often than with the boys. They just weren’t really into swimming all that much.

But Saturday was a revelation! I put their Puddle Jumpers on, and to my delight, Oliver and Miles got right in the pool and “swam” off. Linus, however, was content to sit on the steps. But within the first hour, I was able to get him to at least hold on to me. And once we were out in the pool, I was able to let go of him, and from then on out, he was as fearless as his brothers! (Well, almost. He still wouldn’t let me throw him like Miles or put his face in the water like Oliver.)

So we spent a few hours at the pool on Saturday and later on Sunday. The boys didn’t want to leave, but I was pretty exhausted. I was trying to stay as active in the pool as possible, you know, burn some calories, so both Saturday and Sunday nights, I was beat.

Saturday afternoon I went and photographed my friend’s daughters who are 3 and 8 months. The 3 year old was…tough. But such a beautiful child! Ah well, I’ll try again when she’s four. Ha!

Sunday was of course Father’s Day, so we went and had brunch and then took the boys to the pub, as I mentioned yesterday. Usually, the boys hate going to the pub (much to George’s sorrow) because there are often dogs in there. But they had a great time. Especially since Daddy will buy them as many bags of crisps as they want.

 

And so we spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool, and then I made a yummy dinner (that the boys didn’t eat, but that’s okay, I didn’t really expect them to) that I accidentally added an extra cup of wine to. Oooops! Just as well the boys didn’t eat it!

Not only are the boys getting into Star Wars, but we all went to the pub yesterday and they watched Daddy play darts.

I brought my camera to another t-ball game, and therefore am going to torment you with more adorable photographs of the boys playing. For the last three games of the season, the coaches pitch the ball (unless the kid really just can’t manage to hit it, then they bring out the tee.) I am proud to say that in the two innings of the game (an inning = each kid up to bat once) each of my boys hit the ball that was pitched to him at least once. It almost seemed like it was easier for some of the kids to hit a moving target rather than the stationary tee. Who knows.

The light is so gorgeous at this time of evening, I can’t help but take a ton of pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trickiest part of taking pictures is that I have to shoot through the chain-link fence, and my lens likes to grab focus on the fence. Or else you get the weird chain linky haze. But I did my best. I used my 85mm for these, but I’d love to rent a nice 200mm or something fancy like that for one game.

Now I’ve got them eating fruit! Homemade cherry and blueberry popsicles.

Because I am now a parenting expert. I have figured out how to get the boys to try new things! Wait, I should probably not write this post now, because I know as soon as I do, they will stop trying new things. Maybe I should wait. Hmmm.

Let me just say that twice this week, I’ve tested out my new method, and twice, (most of) the boys have eaten new foods. After the salmon burgers Monday night, it was fried fish last night. Homemade fried fish. Even Miles tried it this time! Can’t blame them, it was delicious. Mostly because our oven seems to be broken, so instead of oven-fried fish like I was planning, they got real fried fish. Oh man, was it good.

 

Why is bowling so expensive? The boys want to go bowling, and so I did some research on local bowling alleys. Uh, $80 to go bowling with my family? I think I’ll just go buy one of these.

Yeesh.

What kind of chores can you make a 5 year old do to earn video game time? The boys have been playing wayyy too much Wii. In fact, the reason they want to go bowling is because they played it on the Wii. So I think it’s time we make them earn some time to play. I’m hesitant to put things like “get your own damn socks on” because that’s something they should be doing anyway, not just as a way to earn a reward. Maybe it should be stuff I wouldn’t otherwise expect them to do, like “clean up your pee puddles from the bathroom floor.”

What races should I do this year? I’m getting back into running, post-surgery, and I am starting to consider what races I want to do in the fall and winter. (I do not run outside in the summer as a rule.) I definitely want to do the Jazz Half Marathon that I PR’ed last year, and the Woman’s Half-Marathon in Baton Rouge. And then my sister was talking about maybe coming for the Louisiana (half) Marathon in January. But while I seem to do a lot of half-marathons, I really prefer doing shorter races. I’d love to get a new PR in the 5k. Maybe even, gasp, try to break the 30 minute barrier? My current PR is 32:xx, so that won’t be easy. But if I do lots of speed work on the treadmill over the summer, maybe in the fall I can do it. Hmm.

A friend of mine has been having a challenging time getting one of her twin daughters potty trained. I suggested that she try backing off any kind of pressure (or even any mention of potty training) to said daughter, but to keep her out of diapers and pull-ups and just go with the flow (HA HA HA). (Yeah, like I’m some kind of potty training expert. I failed once and then let daycare do it for me.) Anyway, it started me thinking about how potty training and eating are the two things you just can’t force kids to do (someone told me that once and MAN is it true) so I thought, I need to apply that to the boys’ pickiness.

So last night at dinner, I made salmon burgers for the first time. I gave the boys a hot dog, a piece of bread, milk and that’s it. And I put a salmon burger, cut into quarters (easier than thirds) in the middle of the table. George and I sat and ate our burgers with some brussels sprouts (I wasn’t even going to try to get them to eat those) and when the boys were done with their hot dogs, I told them they could have some of the salmon burger.

To my never ending surprise, Linus took a piece (sans bun) and ate it! The other two watched him intently and asked, “do you like it?” When he answered in the affirmative, Oliver took a piece. He nibbled a bit and looked unsure. He said, “I’m not sure if I like it.” I suggested he try another bite, after which he declared, “you know what? I do like it.” And he and Linus proceeded to finish the burger.

!!!!

I was stunned. And giddy. Miles wouldn’t taste it, and somehow he’s turned into the picky one, but whatever. I’m going to lay off the pressure. Not even talk about it. And wouldn’t you know, it worked. Time will tell, of course, if this is a one-off. Fingers crossed it’s not!

I’ve had two great weekends in the past few weeks. How lucky am I? And I still haven’t blogged about my 20 year reunion, which I really want to, if only for my memories.

This weekend was a trip to a house on a lake in Mississippi. I don’t know the story of this lake, I wonder if it’s manmade (at least partially) because, let’s face it, Mississippi isn’t known for its lakes or anything. I don’t think so. But my friend Heather found this house and suggested a getaway, so seven of us went for the weekend.

It was basically heavenly. We ate, drank, and soaked our way through the days.

My friend Teresa and I left after work on Friday. It was only a little over an hour away, which was nice. As soon as we got there, we changed into our bathing suits and hit the hot tub. Ahhhh, good stuff.

I didn’t take a ton of pics because most of the time I was in the hot tub, and I didn’t want to give my phone or camera a bath, but I took a few…

Heather and Teresa in the hot tub:

and in the lake (shudder)

I can’t say it was a particularly restful weekend, since we went to bed at 2am and were woken by the sun at 8:30 each morning. But it was relaxing.

Clouds rolling in before the storm!

Saturday was just spent hot-tub-side, and Heather and I went for a jaunt around the lake in the little pedal-boat thingy. It rained here and there, and the evening was spent largely playing Cards Against Humanity and laughing hysterically.

Good times!