Home and Back to the Grind....

Just a quick update with some pictures from my cousin's wedding in Virginia. It was a beautiful setting and great to see all the family together for a great occasion. We missed Jeremy (the bride's brother) since he is overseas serving our country in the Marines, but we made sure that he was included in as many of the pictures as possible (see examples below!). My brother was also missing for other reasons.

The babies had a great time with Grammy & Grampy and actually slept for them 2 out of 3 nights! These couple of times that we've left them, it is both nerve-wracking and relieving. We know that it will be less stressful, but all we do is think about them! We talk about things we miss and brag to others about things that they're doing and funny stories : ) As soon as we got home, we spent the next several hours playing with them and talking with them before bed. We know one thing - Grammy & Grampy were tired! Those three can do a good job of wearing people out : )

Flu shots tomorrow! So that means a trip to University Heights and maybe a trip to Target!

Travel again...

I hesitate to write this as Christi and I are here in Williamsburg, VA for my cousin's wedding (congrats tomorrow, Janis and Joseph!) and I look to see when the last blog post was - and it was when we were in Florida! For a triplet family blog, the last few posts have been more about time away from home - trust me, it doesn't happen often - just a lot of things happening at once, I guess : )

I've posted some new pictures and video on PaulandChristi.com so feel free to check those out. But most of all, I wanted to update everyone on things that are going on with Ella, Logan and Paul!

The walking has turned to running. And the playing interaction is getting to be a comedy show to watch! They love taking turns going in and out of their "fort" laughing hysterically. Paulie loses it if someone chases him into the tent. Ella sits in there and waits until someone pops their head in and yells "boo"! Logan likes to chase and scream as he makes his way into the tent. It's amazing how different they are....

Fights are starting to break out - usually for little reason....and usually just because someone looked at them funny. We have a video of Ella bullying Paulie in a Pampers box (by far, our favorite diapers, btw!) while daring Christi to break up the fight : ) The most physical fights are when one of the three is on Christi or my lap and someone else wants to join. The incumbent sitter does not treat the challenger with kid gloves - usually some pushing and yelling ensues....

Christi and I think that words are going to be coming soon as Logan has really started to make some new sounds that are not distinguishable, but sound different than the "bahs" and "dahs"....who knows, maybe we're crazy but this vocabulary is definitely new!

I'll keep you all updated on how they do while we're away (they're having fun with Grampy & Grammy's house)....
Paul

We're back from Florida....no delays : )

We made it out of Florida with no weather delays from Gustav!
I wanted to post again to attach some pictures of the storm. We'll have pics of our visit with Uncle Lance, Aunt Lindi and Tanner on our website asap (www.paulandchristi.com).

The storm that SW Florida got was just outer band rain,
but you could certainly see the effects of Hurricane Gustav!
Here you can see one of the storms coming in
(it only lasted about 15 minutes, but dumped lots of water!)











And this one is from the Ft.Meyers Beach fishing pier. Normally, this water is relatively calm and very little waves. But the effects of the hurricane gave people of SW Florida the rare chance to surf!
All in all, it was a great trip for us and we loved meeting Tanner for the first time! He's such a good baby and we can't wait for him to come up and meet his cousins.....

Paul
www.paulandchristi.com

Vacationing with Hurricane Gustav

So, we're in Ft. Meyers, Florida visiting Lindi and Lance ( http://web.mac.com/feazelnation/iWeb/Feazelnation/welcome.html ) and Hurricane Gustav happened to be barrelling toward the gulf coast. We're in no danger from the hurricane, but it is throwing some heavy rains and winds our way. Nowhere near the amount that New Orleans and others will feel in the coming hours, but it's here nonetheless.

I'll post some pictures as soon as we get home. The big news for us is that we're here without the triplets! We miss them a lot, but they're in good hands with our parents watching them for us....from what we hear, they don't miss us a bit!

Paul

Out to Eat !!!

We've finally done it !
14 months and our first dinner out as a family. Granted, we cheated a little bit by asking Christi's parents to come along to help out - but it definitely was needed! We're glad they came along b/c they are still just a little bit too restless in the highchairs to give us the time to eat....but we made it and they were incredibly good. They are always absolute angels in public and then when we get home can be terrors when they want to be : )
Anyway - the experience was worth it and we're going to try and do it every now and then just to give us some time out as a family.

Everyone is mostly over their colds and we're thankful for that - it should lead to some better sleeping at night!

Paul

2 More Walkers...

Ella has been close to walking for a couple weeks now, but all of the sudden Paul caught up to her! They are both putting together 3, 4 and 5 steps at a time walking. Neither of them are as confident with it as Logan was when he started. He just took off and started walking everywhere. Paulie and Ella are more cautious with it and are still doing 90% crawling! But they both get soooo excited to take those steps (arms raised) and walk to anyone willing to catch them if they fall : )

Unfortunately as I'm writing this, everyone except Christi is sick (including me!). Luckily, the Benadryl kept them sleeping last night (and hopefully tonight) because Thursday night was brutal. Both Ella and Paul were up for good from 3am on. We took them to the doctor Friday morning to check for ear infections, etc and they were good to go. They just have a summer cold - complete with coughing, runny noses and lots and lots of sneezing. The sneezing usually gets a good laugh out of them when anyone does it though - so that keeps the mood light!

I'm planning on locking myself in the office for a few hours to try and complete (or at least get close to completing) the babies "one-year slideshow". There's sooo many pictures and thoughts on music selection, etc! It's hard work : ) Not to mention that some of those NICU pictures bring back the memories of those months in the hospital. It's obviously a story with a happy ending, but remembering all the worry and stress gets difficult sometimes as many parents (if not all) can relate to.

By the way - the picture above....those are built-in bookshelves that Logan found a way to climb into. He's definitely the trouble maker! I was torn b/n telling him "NO!" and "GET DOWN!" and taking the picture. Well, as you see the picture won out : )

Anyway, I'm going to work on the slideshow now so I'm signing off until next time.
PAUL
www.paulandchristi.com

Blogging hiatus......and our triumphant return

Wow...it's been almost 3 months since my last comments!


Well, what's happened? We've had a triplet birthday party, Logan has been walking for over a month now and Ella still has no teeth! The nights are getting better - Paulie sleeps through the night most of the time (since switching to soy milk), Logan sleeps through ANYTHING and Ella makes it through most nights unless she loses her bink or gets her leg caught in the slats of her crib!

These guys are eating everything in sight : )
And from what we hear, they won't stop anytime soon! Gallons of milk per week and they haven't even started eating cereal with milk yet! (and for anyone that knows my cereal eating habits, you'll recognize the sheer volume of food about to be consumed!)

The daily grind is still adventurous with naps (or lack thereof) and feedings and newfound temper-tantrums! Christi does an amazing job with everything keeping these guys on a pretty steady schedule:
8am: wake-up call and breakfast started
8:30 - 9:30am: morning playtime
9:30am: snack (usually breakfast bar or oatmeal or fruit)
10:30-12pm: naptime (hopefully)
12pm: wake-up call and lunch
12:30-2pm: afternoon playtime
2pm: snacktime (cookies or crackers or fruit)
2:30-4pm: naptime (again - hopefully)
5pm: dinner
5:30pm: dad comes home for playtime!
5:30-7pm: some or all of the following [playing, outside playtime, bathtime, crying, mom & dad dinner (hopefully)]
7pm: snacktime
7:30pm: nightime bottles
7:30-8pm: pjs and bedtime

so a couple quick comments in my first post in awhile:

• thank you to everyone for the help and generosity for the babies' birthday party! it was a great day and we're very grateful for everyone and for the babies to have been so well behaved! we're still in shock at how much they've grown and changed and how much they amaze us everyday, but i think we're enjoying it as much as possible and trying to remember all of the crazy things they do : )
• people sometimes say the strangest things to multiples parents....it's just crazy. we'd read about some of the comments, but nothing can prepare you for those situations. we've ventured out a little more lately and heard many questions and comments....here are some of the common ones and some strange ones:
• "oh!!! were you on fertility???".....okay - first of all, none of your business; second of all, why is that not only okay to ask but to use it as your "icebreaker" question right out of the gate? just ridiculous.
• "they don't look alike" AND "oh my gosh, they look so much alike"....i think either one of these comments are ones that you blurt out without meaning - you're just searching for something to say. on the other hand, the three of them do have distinctive looks while keeping the brother/sister resemblance - so i guess i could understand where it comes from.
• "her [Ella's] feet are really big".....really? in comparison to what? have i judged the size of your feet, buddy? uggghhh
• "he [Paulie] looks so serious".....this one's just funny b/c he is so serious. he can't "pretend" to be jolly around strangers - he looks you up and down and does a background check before he lets his guard down!
• "this one [Logan] has a TON of hair"....again, funny b/c it's true. Logan has had two haircuts and still looks like a hippie, while Paul and Ella are still rocking original locks!

Ok, that's all for now.....I'll try and stay on top of this thing a little more b/c I know that I've been getting questions about what's going on!
Take care,
PAUL
www.paulandchristi.com