June 15, 2009....2 years

It's been 2 years and her hand feels just as tiny in mine as it did on their birth day.

I remember the first night after they were born in the NICU...I made a trip down in the middle of the night while Christi was sleeping. I just sat with them. I didn't know what to do. They seemed fragile...even the slightest pressure would break them. But I held their hands and sat. I don't know how much time I spent down there, but I'll never forget it.

To finish my thought from my first statement...
I put Ella to bed tonight and the meaning of her embrace is unmistakable. She rests her head in the crook of my neck and then grips my hand or my shirt. She doesn't let go until you make her lie down and the disappointment in her eyes as you walk out her bedroom door is such a hard visual. I just want to lie on the floor next to her and let her fall asleep without a peep :) Before I left tonight, I held onto her hand...for a while. In so many ways, she feels so much bigger and all the things she does a reminder that she's not a baby anymore...but her hand feels so small. I know she's grown since the days of the NICU, but it feels the same as it did then. Both hands accepting comfort - her from me, and me from her.

As they try and replace crying & fits with words (English or otherwise), the triplet "infant stages" become a further and further reality. I don't want to forget those experiences (although I'm more than glad to be through them!). That's why I'm writing. That's why I stay with Ella a little bit longer some nights then others. It's why I manage the website (although I've been slacking lately!).

Happy Birthday, Paulie, Ella and Logan : )
pk

Vacation...Day 3 - Out Shopping and at the Pool

After our busy days out and to the zoo, Christi and I thought we would take Sunday to relax and just do whatever we felt like. I just wanted to make sure that we got down to the pool b/c I'd been telling them that we'd go swimming forever (their only "swimming" experience comes in the crowded bathtub by putting their head back....lol).

We ALL slept in until 9:00! We almost missed the buffet breakfast that ended at 9:30....
After breakfast, we got everyone into their swim trunks and swim vests to go down to the pool! I couldn't wait to get them down there....I just wanted to see how they'd react and if they'd attempt to kick and blow bubbles, etc. Well, I have to say that overall they loved it....Ella was the most clingy, doing very little away from Christi or I. Logan liked bouncing and kicking, but was mostly cautious. Surprisingly, Paulie was the most active - trying to put his face in the water (unsuccessfully trying to blow bubbles!) and trying to kick out his legs to splash!


The rest of the day was relatively low-key as we decided that we couldn't hang out in the room for the rest of the day till dinner, so we took off to the Ikea shopping area to get out. The only real story from shopping is the elevator rides in the hotel. I taught the kids to jump in the elevator to see if they hit the ceiling and they loved it! It was really funny to watch them b/c the movement made them fall over and over and over : )

Dinner at Big Jim's (seen on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives) was disappointing overall. The food was good, but the place was not clean and the service was slow. I guess that place qualifies as a "dive" :) Here is a video from when we returned from dinner that night...the kids were still in the mood to burn off some energy with sneak attacks on each other!


Anyway, the day turned out well and virtually ended our vacation. Monday was Christi and my 7-year anniversary and we celebrated by spending time with the kids (obviously) and driving home....then I did some yardwork/landscaping as my gift to Christi : ) I know, I know....how romantic! lol

Vacation....day 2 at the Zoo!

To start off by following up on yesterday's post, the kids slept very well...Paulie did wake up a little early (5am), but fell back asleep with us for an hour or two.

We didn't really have a schedule for the day as far as when we wanted to get to the zoo (which is insane if you know Christi!), so we took the morning pretty relaxed. Everyone had breakfast from the buffet downstairs (Christi and I took turns bringing up plates) and we eventually got dressed and headed out for the zoo. The kids were excited to see some baby bears and Christi and I were excited to see the Pittsburgh zoo because a few people had told us it was better than Cleveland's. Seriously, after the first couple exhibits through Asia, we agreed : )


The PB zoo just seems to have more of a natural feel throughout the park and the exhibits seemed to get you closer "inside the habitat" as opposed to a viewing station. One of our favorite exhibits was the elephants with two babies that were wrestling while we were there! The kids loved it and showed their approval by impersonating them : ) At the back side of the elephant exhibit, there was a sign that said you could get your picture with an elephant for a small donation to the zoo. It started at 12 and it was somewhere around 11:45, so we decided that we'd come back. Well, we got nervous that we might miss the opportunity so we hurried back to the sign....sure enough, we started a line of dozens of people wanting to get their shot with Victoria, the 10 year old elephant. We're so thankful that we went back:


You can't tell in the picture, but Ella was screaming about 2 seconds before this. I think the sheer size of it scared her. Another funny thing was that when we walked over to her, Victoria put her trunk on Christi's leg to "say hello". Got a little laugh out of Christi, that's for sure!

The penguin exhibit was our next favorite b/c there were some show-off penguins that swam right up to the glass and did their thing! The last comment I'll make about the PB Zoo was the new underwater viewing of the Polar Bear exhibit and the Sand Shark exhibit. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the polar bears from underneath, but the sharks were amazing. It's a surreal feeling to look up and see the sharks swimming over you like you're in Jaws : )


After the long day at the zoo (without napping), we tried to come back to the hotel to get a nap in...no way! This time it was Ella that was the one that kept everyone else awake and we decided to just move on to dinner instead of fighting it.

We took the hotel shuttle to a nearby recommended restaurant, Union Grill and it was a great choice! The service was fast and friendly and the food was really good. It's really funny to see the different reactions that people have when we're in public - some are "awe, how cute", some are "wow, that's a handful", some are whispers overheard "I think those are triplets", and some are complimentary "your kids were amazing". We are both extremely proud of the way these guys have handled the trip and the break from routine, etc. They are extremely well-behaved in public, so that's definitely a plus. Sometimes I wish that would carryover to home, but I'll take the lack of fits in public as a positive!


Since we saw the entire zoo, we're using Sunday as a pool day and relax day. I'm looking forward to it!
Paul

Vacation?

So I haven't posted anything in forever ! But I thought since we're on our first family vacation, I should share some of the first day experiences : )

First of all, as a reminder - they're almost two ! (6/15 is their birthday) I say that to remind you (or warn you) of their current "stage" in life - some would argue not the #1 time to take a vacation : ) Not if you know me - some call it stubborn.....I call it "recklessly foolish"!

We decided to just go to Pittsburgh. It's "only" 2.5 hrs away, has a great zoo, lots of things to see and do, etc. Well, so far we're at 1am on the first night away with us and they're sleeping (for now) and Christi and I are both living (although she's curled up asleep and I'm like a kid on Christmas waiting for tomorrow's trip to the zoo!). The day sort of went like this....

We all got up normal time and ate breakfast and got ready. For the most part, everything was packed and ready to go out the door. We left the house about 10ish and assumed to be in Pittsburgh around 1:30 (with a lunch stop....12:30 if not). The road here was not as bad as I worried. We did have to bust out the portable DVD player (thanks J&L!), but this much was expected. They got antsy after about an hour and a half so we decided to take our opportunity to get lunch at 11:45. We ate at Chik-Fil-A (one of ours/their fav places) and got some curious stares/conversations from the lunch crowd. I admit, it had to look pretty funny with me going in and out of there 3 times with a different kid going into the bathroom to change diapers! We sat down for lunch with them - no excitement other than the constant moving of the table....then back on the road to PB.

We got to the hotel with few other incidents and they reacted "normally" to walking into a strange environment that we'd call "home" for the next few nights. The in-room safe was a big hit....constantly pushing buttons and getting "error code" for the wrong security password : ) Our place has a kitchen and living suite, separate bedroom and bath. We had to unplug the TV b/c of all the off/on button-pushing, I thought it was going to blow up! (it's a tube TV).

Our trip to Ikea didn't go nearly as smoothly. This was supposed to be a leisurely visit to a store Christi liked and then go to a decent restaurant (decent = not fast food).....oops! Our trip started with poor directions. It took us to a rougher area of PB and out the wrong way from downtown! I made a bunch of calls and asked for directions and we got further and further in the wrong direction. I'll spare the directions details.....it was supposed to be a 30 min drive - it was 1 hour, 45 mins.....not traffic-related. Now, in the meantime, the kids were sick of being in the car and behaving horribly. At one point, Christi got Logan and Ella asleep, but Paul was having a MELTDOWN fit nearly the entire way there! You could imagine that we were already frustrated with the directions-issue, but to add the cranky/loud kid in the back was threatening to cancel the entire trip.....seriously.

After taking that long to get there, it was already dinner time and we couldn't really skip/postpone b/c the kids were hungry. We decided to go somewhere familiar to make menu choices easy - the Olive Garden. I have to say that this was one of the best experiences for us as a family so far! The kids were wonderful - cooperative, eating, laughing, everything (pics to come). Additionally, OG was great - service and food was excellent!


This experience got us through the aisles of Ikea eventually and we made our way "home" with better directions (32 mins!). A re-arrangement of the living suite to fit 3 pack-n-plays, PJs and a quick snack and the kids were in "bed". Slight problem is that they are used to fussing/crying themselves to sleep for 10-15 mins at home. Well, it turns out hotel neighbors don't appreciate that method of bedtime! Long story short, I decided to just sleep with them on the couch until they fell asleep so they would be quiet. I just woke up about 30 mins ago and by that time Christi was asleep and I felt like writing : )

Let's hope the rest of the night goes alright.....I hear someone rustling around now.
Paul

BA-BAHS, DA-DA, and BEE-AAHHHRRS

I've been trying to wait it out to write this blog about the kids' current speech and vocabulary! But I felt like I had to share some of their words and what we hear from day to day....

Logan is definitely the biggest talker with English words....he has some semblance of many words like: da-da, ma-ma, ball, dog ("gog"), deer, brush (ba-baaaaash), shower (aaawashh), purple, baby, green, go, Ella, hippo ("bippo"), turtle and all of our favorite - bear (bee-ahhhr). To describe the way he says bear, think of someone with a really thick Boston accent saying 'beer'. And he draws it out, which makes it even cuter : )

Paulie is getting extremely interested in communication, but as of yet has not really put a lot of words out there. He points, and gestures and mimics, but the only words we've made out so far are: da-da, ma-ma, turtle, baby, ball, go and Ella. He uses the "word" bah-bah with different inflection or length to describe EVERYTHING. It is a constant tip-toe dance on the fine line between frustrating and incredibly cute. But like I said, I feel like he's more interested in communication than he was just a few weeks ago, but we'll see how long he can get along with bah-bah-ing his way through job interviews : )



Ella is extremely verbose and sure of her communication. The only problem is, we have no idea what those words are! She barks out orders and talks to her dolls and makes gestures to discuss everything from fashion to politics without a single English word : ) In all seriousness, she does have some words - da-da, ma-ma, jakey (our dog...and it's more like "jayjee"), baby and go. When she talks, she gets so serious and speaks in a deeper tone than her normal laugh or other sounds - similar to some of the videos that we posted when she gets her deep, baritone laugh! We're not sure where she picked that up, but it's really cute when she does it.

Overall, the last few weeks & months have been really good. We of course have our times (the boys are getting molars and some other teeth now), but they're really learning how to keep busy and playing. We're getting anxious to get outside and play because of the sunny days we've been having, but the weather is still just freezing : ( We'll make it soon though! Lots of yardwork for them to do!

The boys have a girlfriend....

and her name is Reese Witherspoon.

We've never been able to bring them in the living room and sit with us during a movie or TV or anything b/c their attention span is impossibly short. They're immediately off trying to push buttons on the TV or jump on the recliners...

Tonight we decided to bring them in the living room while Reese Witherspoon's Sweet Home Alabama was on and the boys were hooked. They must've sat and stared at the movie for 15-20 minutes while she was on : ) We even got away with a little bit later snack-time then normal!

We're going to test the theory again sometime in the future....God-willing (for me) it's not Legally Blonde!

Here are a couple new random pictures....

We had three....what is our carbon footprint?

Just a quick post about an article that I saw about a crazy environmental study. It argues that families with more than 2 kids will create too large of a carbon footprint and therefore should be "capped" at 2!....hmmmm, so what does that mean for our family and other higher-order multiples families?

Having More Than 2 Kids Will Destroy Planet, Environmentalist Says

Sorry, but this just bugged me and I thought I'd share its ridiculousness. I'm not arguing for careless disregard for the environment - actually, the opposite. I'm suggesting that the solution is not "capping" family counts but rather being socially and environmentally conscious as a lifestyle. Us triplet families have to watch out for these types of suggestions : )

PAUL

Christmas and a new computer and Lost!

I'm watching the season premier of Lost with Christi and thought I'd do an update to talk about the babies and our family's Christmas....

First of all, I'm typing this on our new laptop that we got for Christmas (since our old PC crashed!).

Next - we were added to the "Got Your Hands Full" Blog Roll : ) It's the best sorted link list of multiples blogs that I've found so far! Becky, the author, gives a lot of insightful posts about current events and topics relevant to multiples families.

About Christmas - the babies were incredibly good! They missed naps and were a little off schedule for a few days, but loved every minute of the visiting and presents. It was great to see our family and see the kids play with their cousins : ) We got the kids a kitchen/diner set by Step2. For what it's worth, we highly recommend their products - well made, easy assemble and relatively inexpensive (and local for us). They love it and play with it everyday. It's perfect for multiples b/c there is a kitchen side and a diner booth side. They LOVE puzzles. They received a variety of cool different ones for Christmas that they play with when they're not cooking in the diner. They also got little four-wheelers from Grammy & Grampy that they drive around the dining room and kitchen! Grandma got them little gadgets and papasan chairs to watch movies in : )

Other things - the talking/babbling is getting funny. They only have a few words each, but their language b/n each other is hilarious. Ella is the most bossy with her "no, no, no"s and Logan is the most vocal with his "actual" words. Paulie really sticks with the caveman speak for now, but is going to start picking it up any day : )

That's all for now....post pictures with my next post!
Paul

Christmas at the Farm

A couple of our friends told us about Christmas activities at the Lake FarmParks in Kirtland, OH (Santa, toy workshop, dancing elves, lights, etc.) so we went down to see what it was all about. Unfortunately, the activities required tickets and they were sold out, but we were still able to visit the farm and see all of the baby animals that have been born recently. Logan liked petting the lambs and baby calf and Ella like petting the Clydesdale horses best! They had tons of Christmas characters and decorations for the kids to check out.
We can't wait for Christmas to be here - good times with the family and new toys to play with are in their future : )


By the way, our computer has taken a nose dive so that's why I've not updated the website in awhile. I'm going to transfer all the pics and web-tools to this computer so I can do an update for Christmas!

Visitors!!!

It's been awhile (again), but I thought I'd write since we're getting back into the groove after a great weekend of visits from friends (including kids!).

We had plans to get out to the Lake MetroParks FarmPark, but the weather was just too chilly (especially for the Okies) to go out and see animals in the freezing cold! Instead we got all the kids bundled up in snowsuits and gloves and hats and played out in the front yard and driveway. The kids loved it and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Ella had a few face-first topples into snow piles that she didn't like and Noah had a couple of ice slips that hampered his running momentarily : )





We were able to have a great time with friends all the while the kids slept upstairs (at least for part of the night!) and everyone lived to tell the tale. It's something that we have to try and plan to do more often with the locals - having triplets doesn't mean that we have to be strapped down by the house or schedules! (now I have to try convincing Christi of that...)

There are a few new things going on with the babies.
Logan has a few words: "ball", "go", "bay-bay" ( = belly! )

Paul finally goes down the slide on his butt (rather than cautiously turning around and going down on his stomach) and he hugs constantly - he loves the affection!


Ella is a laugher - she belts out some laughs that are loud and intended to get your attention : ) She rolls her eyes at random moments. We're not sure exactly what she's trying to convey, but it's extremely cute!

The Masculinity of Ducks

Am I wrong in thinking that a duck Halloween costume is not nearly as cool and hip as a monkey? Or even a hippo? Christi and I had a debate over the masculinity of one of the triplets' costumes (Paulie's - see pictures) for their trick-or-treat adventure tonight.
**In all actuality, looking at the pictures again - the costume may not be a duck, but in fact be a baby chick....but the point remains.**
All that I'm saying is that 17 years from now, we may be dealing with some child-parent resentment issues over Paulie seeing these pictures posted at his graduation party (not to mention the fact that I'm attaching them to this widely-read blog!). Don't get me wrong, I think he's incredibly cute in it and I will put him back in it next week when we go back out : ) But that being said, I can see the argument coming from him several years from now!

We had a great time trick-or-treating with my mom and Aunt Julie helping walk the babies around. The retail plaza that my mom's personal training studio (www.bfit4less.net) is in held a Halloween event to hand out candy for local families. There was a pretty good turn-out and the triplets were a popular diversion from the ghosts and draculas : )

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

Finally getting teeth!

So everyone is doing well - coming up on the 11 month mark! Both of our boys have broken through their 2 bottom teeth and are working on their upper ones now....it makes for interesting nights (meaning no sleep)! Ella still has no teeth, but we think that they're coming soon (but then again, we've thought that for months!)

Some new things that they are doing:

• Furniture walking (shuffling along everything) and occasionally letting go to stand for a few seconds!
• Ella claps and is super proud of it :)
• Everyone is actually enjoying playing together now....they do a lot of smiling and laughing at different things that everyone does
• Exploring the great outdoors....we have a couple of cute videos of Logan and Ella being timid about touching the grass!
  

I'm posting some new pics online tonight b/c I'll be in class all week this week.....then I'm finally done!