Okay, it’s now finally time for me to recap last weekend. Let’s see…

Well, we had Friday off work, so that was awesome. In the morning, I got the boys started on their future as a boy band…

And then later, my friend Mary Catherine and I took her daughter, Millie, and the boys to the Children’s Museum here. They have a great huge area for toddlers with slides and a play kitchen and climbing stuff and a train table and all sorts of goodness.

Unfortunately, it seems I have not uploaded those photos to Flickr yet, so I can’t show a lot of pictures from that day. I can, however, share this cute video of Millie calling for Miles, and then the boys all squeezed together in a little cubicle thingy. Better than nothing, I suppose.

After playing, we dropped Linus and Oliver off at my in-laws to stay the weekend. I kept Miles and commenced pretending like I was a normal mom with one kid. We went to Target and the grocery store, and it was SO EASY!

The next day, Miles and I packed our stuff and headed across the lake to spend the day with my friend Ren. She was child-free for most of the weekend, so Miles got a lot of attention. We went grocery shopping again for stuff to bring to her mom’s house that night, and just hung around her house. It was v relaxing, particularly when the little dude went down for a nice, long, nap.

That evening, we went to her mom’s house and swam and ate yummy food and watched some fireworks that they set off. It was really nice. There was even some singing of patriotic-type sounds. Miles liked that.

We stayed up way past our bedtime that night, Miles didn’t get to bed until 10! Thankfully, he slept until 10 the next morning, so I was able to get a full night’s sleep. And so then we went home the next day and later went to pick up his brothers.

We went to hang out at the Gulf Station (our friends’ pizza place) where the boys proved that they really should have their own band. Except I think they all want to play the guitar…

I guess their friend Liam could be the lead singer. And I guess it’ll be a punk band. Hmm.

Finally, we worked on getting their monthly picture done, but Linus was more interested in learning how electricity works.

Nice, relaxing weekend. Ahhhh….

How cute is this shirt? A friend sent it to me for Linus. Now if only there was an Oliver shirt (Kristina and I imagine that it would be the body of an orphan, holding an empty bowl of porridge) and a Miles shirt (a jazz dude holding a trumpet?) then we’d really be set.

Rachael, over at Little Bites of Heaven is having a ton of giveaways in honor of her triplets’ second birthday. Go check ’em out!

Since I hate pictureless posts so much, I got out my camera last night and took a few pictures of the boys. I should have gotten out my DSLR instead of my point and shoot, because the P&S pictures are a bit hazy. Why, do you ask? Oh, perhaps because of some tiny fingerprints that are all over the lens? (My own fault, btw. Sometimes the only thing that will keep them calm is my camera. Which must be on. Sigh.)

So, not very exciting pictures, except that I realized I put them in matching jammies. Which isn’t exciting, but is sorta a rare occurance.

I think Oliver (far right) looks like my sister in this picture. Hmm.

Attempting a binky-less picture, but Miles wasn’t having it.

Oh well!

And now for today’s answer…
Tena asks:

What was your initial reaction when you found out that you had 3 babies growing instead of just one?

Well, complete and utter shock. I think my mind just went blank (because I can’t really remember what I thought.) I remember thinking immediately that I wouldn’t be able to nurse them or have a natural childbirth or a really cool stroller. And we’d need a minivan. You can read all about that day here….

One more! marisue asked:

Do the boys have their own language at all? What do they call each other?

You know, I’m not sure if they do. In the mornings, before I go in their room, I can hear them babbling and giggling, so maybe they do. Clearly they’re communicating in some way! It really is the cutest thing ever.

And they don’t call each other anything yet. They actually are a bit delayed in their speech, but are receiving speech therapy for it. I don’t even think they can tell each other apart yet! I’ll ask Linus “where’s Oliver?” and half the time he’ll point to Miles, and half the time to Oliver. So we’re still working on that. Heh.

Just a post of random stuff…

– I think we’re going to try to be parents of a singleton this weekend. George’s parents want the boys for the weekend, but I want to have them around, so my compromise is to keep one, and spoil him mercilessly while the other two are being spoiled by their grandparents. Perfect! Now, who to pick? I’m thinking Miles because of the whole “I’ve travelled with Linus and Oliver and I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford a trip somewhere with Miles before he turns two and therefore needs his own seat” thingy. Or I’ll pick a name out of a hat.

– I’m going to visit some tiny new triplets at the hospital today! I can’t wait. I imagine they’re about the same size the boys were when they were born. It’ll be weird to hold them and realize that the boys actually were that small once upon a time.

– Went grocery shopping yesterday. I was armed with coupons and some cold hard cash, and did okay, I guess. I tried to buy only things that were on sale that I also had coupons for. And that I needed. And that were cheaper than the store brand. I spent about $43, saved $15. Not anything huge, and since I went to Winn-Dixie, a lot of the staples I wanted were v expensive. So tonight or tomorrow or sometime, I’m going to hit up Walmart for things like ground turkey, yogurt, that kind of thing.

– I took Oliver and Miles to Target with me to *quickly* pick up a prescription for Linus. Yeah, right. Took us an hour and a half, and I left without any medicine. And the boys fought over toothpaste. So I had to buy two tubes. Does this count towards my grocery budget? Let’s say no. But at least I won’t be buying toothpaste for a while.

– FYI, the new Pampers Extra Protection diapers suck. That is all. Huggies Overnight FTW!

– I hate having pictureless posts, it seems like they must be so boring! So here’s a random picture of Miles from the other day. Double-binky-ing it.

Oh yeah, and a question!

Stephanie asks:

Do you want more children? Does George?

I wouldn’t mind one more. But not anytime soon. Not until the boys are in school, at least. No way could we afford to send one more to daycare. And I have no idea where we’d put one more kid. Logistics, shmogistics.

Really, I’d love to experience a singleton pregnancy and infancy. I’d love to have a baby that I could rock to sleep and snuggle with and spoil rotten.

Whenever the boys are acting up, George asks me, jokingly, “Hey! Let’s have another one!” And I always say, “Okay!” and then he looks at me like I’m insane. Or he tells me I’m insane. But I’m not. Hmmph.

How did you decide to take Linus to CA and not Oliver or Miles?

Well, I took Oliver to Virginia with me back in July (you can see how I picked him here) and so when I decided to go to California, the decision to pick Linus was easy – he’s my brother and sister-in-law’s godson. And since that’s who we were visiting, it seemed obvious.

Last night I gave the boys fish for the first time. I was expecting some pursed lips and an “uh-uh” from Oliver and Linus, and a taste, at least, by Miles, but I was pleasantly surprised that they ate it all up! I have to thank my friend Alicia for that idea. And the ginormous box of corn flakes on the counter that I used for the breading. I oven-fried the fish (catfish) and oh man, is this turning out to be the most boring post ever?

But the boys are really liking looking at fish in tanks, and how confusing is that? Fish are entertainment and food! Hmm.

Tomorrow is July 1 (thank goodness I remembered yesterday that June only has 30 days, not 31 because today is the last day of the month which means I have to go to the gym today to renew my membership and take advantage of the special they’re having right now) and I’m going to try something new in July. Grocery budgeting. Definitely inspired by Helen‘s Saturday Savings posts. Also, a desire to get a handle on what we’re spending on food. Fortunately, it’s not very much, since we get WIC which provides us with milk, cheese, eggs, cereal, juice, and for some mysterious reason, evaporated milk.

So yesterday I went and bought a Sunday paper, and I clipped out the coupons. Then I went and looked at the Winn-Dixie sale ad to see what is what, and then I got really confused and went and ate a popsicle instead.

But I’m going to try. And since diapers won’t be in the food budget (I think household supplies will be, but not diapers, because $250 a month including diapers will mean a lot of beans and rice for dinner, and I’m not really a fan) I want to make a budget for them, too. Thank goodness Target diapers are good. And cheap.

Question time! What’s left? Hmm…
shoo shoo asks…

how did you choose the boys’ names? they are great individually and together. do you feel they’re appropriate for their personalities?

I think I addressed how we chose the names here, but here’s something I didn’t mention. I named them wrong. See, we picked which name would go with which baby based on their “in utero” personalities. At least, that was my criteria. But after they were named, I discovered that A in utero was not A on the outside. And same with B and C. So in utero, they were:
A = Miles
B = Linus
C = Oliver

and we named them
A = Linus
B = Oliver
C = Miles

which means that Miles should be Linus and Oliver should be Miles and Linus should be Oliver. Or something like that.

But now, I think their names fit. So no biggie, really.

how big is your home and do you plan to have the boys continue to share a room?

Our house is 1700 square feet. Not huge, not tiny. But it’s two-story so there’s some wasted space there. It has three bedrooms now – we recently walled off a room to make a new bedroom for us so the boys could have our bedroom as a playroom. Ah, the sacrifices we make! So yeah, the boys will be sharing forever. When we found out all the babies were the same sex, my first thought was relief that they could share a room forever. Heh.

what was the best reaction you received when announcing the news you were expecting triplets?

Probably either from my mom, who just laughed, or my best friends Kristina and Ren, who thought I was playing a trick on them. I called Ren to tell her, and she didn’t believe me. So she called Kristina, who I hadn’t told yet (I was going to email her the u/s pic and tell her that way) and said, “Is Pam really having triplets?” and Kristina said, “no, just one!” and Ren said, “Ha! I knew she was joking!” and then Kristina called me and asked if I was having triplets and I said…okay, I forget what was said at this point, but whatever the case was, they didn’t believe me. And I showed them! Ha!

Wow, lots of questions! Here’s another round…

Hope asks:

Is there any one thing in particular that each of the boys do that drive you crazy?

Hmm. Well….yes. They all whine, and that really grates on my nerves, but you asked about them individually. Linus is very single-minded when he wants something, and will not give up until he gets it (or we can successfully distract him.) While I admire his, um, tenacity, it also drives me nuts. Oliver is Mr. Picky when he eats, and that drives me batty. And Miles will toss his food off his tray if he’s not in the mood to eat it. (Okay, they all do that, but I couldn’t think of anything Miles does more than the other two to make me crazy.) Minor things, though, right?

Is there something that they work together on to accomplish? (i.e. my boys are always working together to “escape” their gated play area)

I wouldn’t say they “work together” just yet, but they will do things at the same time, if that makes sense. Like push all the buttons on the TV (or try to.) Or shake the gate to the playroom to get out. That kind of thing. God help me when they figure out they can work together to do things!

Do any two of them “gravitate” towards another or do they play together equally?

Nah, they all play together (or not) equally.

What are the odds of have Identical triplets?

As I said yesterday, there are lots of statistics out there, from 1:60,000 births to 1:250,000,000 births. I know it’s not the latter, I’d say closer to the former.

Mandy asks:

How do you manage to stay so sweet and upbeat? I just have one so far and am soooo worn out all the time.

Ha ha ha! I’m just going to move on to the next question. I’m blushing! Ha ha ha! Also, Mandy, you get worn out because you’re about to have another baby! Silly girl.

Do you get nervous doing all the stuff you do alone with them. Again, just Annabel but I always prefer a second adult to help me. How did you learn (get the courage) to take them out on your own?

I do get nervous sometimes, but I get really stir-crazy when we’re stuck at home. So I’d rather deal with the nervousness than the cabin fever. I just do it, you know? Of course, I vastly prefer it when I have another adult to help, but that’s not always possible. And I have to admit, I like the feeling of accomplishment when I do bring them somewhere by myself. It’s just getting a lot harder now that they’re older.

And I don’t think it’s courage. Just stubbornness.

Do they affect each others sleep or do they seem to prefer the company?

They don’t affect each other’s sleep at all. One can cry/scream/wail/pitch a fit and the other two will sleep right through it. We are incredibly lucky in that respect. And they sleep fine without the other two around, too. Sometimes at my mom’s house, we have to split up the pack n plays because of space issues, and whoever is alone sleeps just fine. He’s probably lonely in the morning, though, with no one to babble to.

Jamie Cz (and Clare) ask:

Their names are adorable; are they family names or are they named after famous people?

Their names are mainly just names we liked. Linus has always been at the top of our list. If we’d had just one, that probably would have been his name. I just like it – I went to college with a Linus, and it’s just one that’s always stuck with me. But George likes it for a different reason. He’s a Linux fanatic, and Linux was invented by Linus Torvalds.

Oliver is another name we just really like, but I think my mom actually planted the idea in my head. Oliver was thisclose to being Ian, but at the last minute, we decided on Oliver.

Miles was another of our top choices from the beginning, too. George likes to think he’s named after Miles Davis, but really, I just like the name.

When we were thinking of names, I got the book The Baby Name Wizard, which only has about 1000 names in it, not 100,000 like you’ll find in other books. A manageable number. I looked at every name in the book and marked the ones I liked. Then I’d give it to George to mark the ones we liked. The ones we both liked went on our list. (And remember, we didn’t know what we were having, so we had to have at least 3 boy names and 3 girl names.)

Their middle names are the maiden names of my mom, my mother-in-law, and me.

Ren wants to know:

who was your favorite? jimmy stewart or michael hutchence?

Well. Let’s see. Tough question, Ren. Now? Jimmy Stewart. When I was 17? Michael Hutchence.

(Okay, so I went through some slightly obsessed phases with both Michael Hutchence (of INXS) and Jimmy Stewart. What can I say?

Sadly, they both died in 1997. That was a rough year.

Amber asks:

Do your boys ever escape from the wagon when you take them out?

Nope…they have seatbelts! Whew!

Who else can tell them apart, besides you?

George can (well, I hope he can!) and their teacher at daycare can. And my in-laws can. I think that might be it.

What is their favorite game or toy to play together?

They don’t play together just yet, but they have been known to tackle each other. I guess that counts, right? Ha ha!

Jennifer asks:

Do you want the boys to be in the same class when the get in elementary school?

That’s a tough one. Mostly because it’s unlikely there will be three classes for them to be split between. But I would want them to be split up. Maybe when they hit 1st grade. Maybe two in one class, and one in another, and then rotating every year who is “alone”. But I’m not sure. At least we have plenty of time to figure that one out!

Alright, one more for today:

kdliberty asks

Is it me or are does it seem that there are more identical triplet boys then there are girls? I know of only 2 blogs featuring girls (ages 7 and 2) but 4+ featuring boys (all under 3)…

It’s not just you. I had always heard that boy IDs were rarer, but it doesn’t seem that way! Maybe moms of identical girl triplets just don’t blog as much. Hmmm…

I’ve seen other people do it, and by golly, I like to talk about myself, so I’m going to try it. Just for fun.

Question time!

Do you have any questions you’ve always wanted to ask? Well go for it (in the comments) and I’ll answer them in an upcoming post.