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!

Crawling with Bob

I can’t believe it’s been this long since updating on how the babies are doing! I guess there’s enough going on that it gets put to the back of the line, but wow! It’s been like 3 months A lot happens in three months!
We have 3 crawlers….or should I say explorers? It only took a few days for Paulie to figure out how to do it (he started with the rocking on hands and knees, then took off). Logan was only about a week after that and Ella about another week later. It’s funny though b/c they each have their own different crawling personality. Paul likes to explore - he wants to do anything and everything EXCEPT play with his toys. He goes for the TV cable, the step to the living room, the floor heating vents or lamps….and don’t think he’s deprived either - the triplets have taken over an entire room in the house and there are about 50 toys in there! All in all though he does pretty well….a few falls, but he’s learned to navigate the one step to get into our living room - where he likes to bang on the foot pedals of the piano! Logan is the lazy crawler - he gets to where he wants to go and then lounges with whatever toy he had the energy to crawl for. It’s really the funniest looking thing b/c he rests on the floor on his side and lifts his leg up and down - like he’s posing for a swimsuit shot in SI or something! I’ll post a picture of it b/c it’s worth the look : ) Ella is our mischevious mobile little angel. She reminds us of John Turturro’s character in Mr. Deeds b/c you’ll put her down on the floor, turn around and get something and then she reappears somewhere entirely too far away for her to have crawled there. It’s “very, very sneaky” like he says in the movie.
Some other activities that we’re going through - cereal puffs and baby food (lots of puffs and baby food!) To give you an idea, as of right now they’re eating the following every day (per kid): breakfast = cereal mixed with 3.5 oz of fruit (one-2nd foods container) + real fruit (usually banana) + 7 oz bottle of formula, lunch = 3.5oz vegetable + 3.5oz fruit + sippy cup of water/juice + puffs + 7 oz bottle of formula, dinner = 3.5oz veg, 3.5oz fruit + sippy cups + puffs + 7oz bottle of formula….So, needless to say - Christi is busy all day and I’m busy with her when I get home! They usually eat pretty well unless they’re tired/cranky or if it’s a vegetable they don’t like - they like all fruits, but are unfriendly with peas & carrots!
The reason why I titled this “Crawling with Bob” was to convey the crawling update, but to also explain that our boys have really tried to verbalize and vocalize over the last few weeks, but mostly all that is distinguishable is “Bob”. And it’s really more like “Bawwwb”! I realize that most babies do this and might even be common in their vocabularies, but the way Logan and especially Paulie say it with such conviction - it’s hilarious. We have a video that will be posted asap of Paulie doing it - he makes this face that is just crazy and yells “Bawwwb”. It looks like he has bitter beer face while he’s saying it - and yet I laugh so hard : )
I hope this finds you all well - we appreciate the interest in the babies and we can’t wait for their last round of RSV shots Tuesday so that we can make our way out of the house a little more! If you ever want to drop us an email, send it to paul@paulandchristi.com or christi@paulandchristi.com - we’d love to hear from you.

PAUL