Seven Months!

Well, my plans of posting at least once a month, and often twice a month have been largely unfulfilled. It is again over a month since my last post. Although it is difficult to find the time, I really have to say I have no real excuse. That being said, the girls are just doing fantastic! Viv started crawling last week and Evy has just now started. Lia, isn't quite there, she gets up on her hands and knees and rocks, but physically she is smaller and she is a little more timid. She will get there soon enough though. The girls personalities are really starting to come out. Viv is incredibly curious and in to everything, she is go, go, go. Evy loves to scream when she is happy and talk about everything. Lia is more quiet, she talks in a sing-song voice and I feel like she is going to be the creative-introspective one. They are changing so fast and developmentally are at their actual age or older, which is wonderful. Basically they were already caught up at six months when we took them back to Theda for their developmental check-up. Some of the things they tested on, like thinking, they were at 8+ months, so needless to say we are pretty proud. I really have to give a lot of credit to our nanny Bel, she really works with them a lot on their development and has been doing a wonderful job. Thanks Bel!!! Size-wise, Evy and Viv are caught up as well, as they are in the 40-60th percentile. Lia is the tiny one she is more around the 4-10th percentile. Not bad for being born eight weeks early though.

We have been taking some small trips with the girls which have been great. A few weeks ago, we all stayed over at Grandma and Grandpa Rattray's, so that Graeme and I could go out and have some fun. We have been to Milwaukee to see my mom and step-dad a couple of times and are going again this week. Two weeks ago, the girls went to their first birthday party at my dad and step-mom's house, their cousin Fonde turned one. We are lucky that at this point they are good travelers. They sleep well in their pack-n-plays and enjoy the changes of scenary. This past weekend we went to Elkhart Lake with the girls and they had their first beach experience. They liked the sand, but Evy was a little afraid of the water, Viv got a little afraid too, but Lia sat right in the sand and water and loved it. A weekend away is definitely a lot of work with these three, but to see them experience different things for the first time is amazing.

They are also really getting into their baby food. I am trying to make the majority of the baby food by buying organic and farmer's market veggies and pureeing and freezing the food. It doesn't take too much time and they really love their vegetables. Avocado is one of their favorites, along with zuchini and peas.

All in all, life with triplets is pretty amazing. It is a ton of work, but so worth it.

Father's Day at the Paper Valley with

Grandma and Grandpa Rattray and Auntie Erica

First high chair experience

Where is the time going?

Well, I guess it has been over a month and a half since I last posted and so much is happening. The girls are growing, growing, growing. Eating solid food, although I think that is such a funny name for the runny gruel we are feeding them. They are all such little individuals right now and love to talk and sometimes scream at us. Lia is our little roller, we have to be careful because she will roll off the blanket on to the hard floor. She would love to be able to crawl or scoot, but she doesn't realize that by lifting her arms and legs into lotus position isn't going to get her there anytime soon. Viv is scooting short distances to get toys and she is probably the best eater. Evy is our biggest talker, she can tell you a story that lasts an hour. They are all getting close to sitting up and love their excersaucers and all of their toys. They are the sweetest, cuddliest girls, but there is no doubt they are Graeme's and my children as they have no problem letting you know when they are not happy! Here are a bunch of new photos (ignore the spit-up stains on the furniture and the absolute chaos, I know we do (:

Four Months Already?

I can't believe it, the girls are four months old already and are close to catching up to what full-term four month olds are doing. They are babbling a ton and are interactive with us all the time, it is so amazing to see them turn from tiny little babies who just eat and sleep. The best is that they are laughing out loud. Graeme is the best at getting them to laugh, that must be a daddy thing. We had our four month checkup with the pediatrician and she has given the green light on solid foods. We haven't tried it yet, but will in the next few weeks. In the last week we had our first bout with illness, Lia had a little cold, it was so difficult to see her so uncomfortable. I just wish babies knew how to blow their little noses.

One more super exciting thing that happened recently was that my grandparents got to meet the girls. In fact, my grandmother, my mom, the girls and I all went on a walk together, four generations out and about, it was fantastic. Here is a picture of my grandparents, Doris and Gene Mann with the girls.


One other recent event is that I went back to work on Friday, May 1st. As much as I miss the girls during the day-which I do every minute-I really enjoy getting back into my legal practice. I really love my job, so going back is definitely the right thing for me. Of course, what makes it easier is that we have opted to hire a nanny. Our nanny's name is Bel and she has been doing a fantastic job, we are so happy to have her. All I can say at this time is that life is really good and we are enjoying every moment of our new family.

Things are moving along beautifully. All of the girls are talking and interacting with us and really are pretty easy babies. One week after Viv and two weeks after Lia, Evy turned over, which was really exciting for us. They can all pull themselves up on their forearms and look around. They even move their legs acting as if they want to start crawling. Of course we have not baby-proofed the house and therefore, I hope we have a couple of months before they are mobile.

We have been continuing to go on long walks which saves Mommy from going insane being in the house all day. This will soon come to an end though as I am going back to work on the first of May. We have a wondeful nanny starting at the end of April. Her name is Bel and she is wonderful with babies. Although I am looking forward to getting back to the lawyer game, I know it will really be hard to leave these little ones.

I have posted some pictures of last weekend with Mimi and Grandpa Don.

Oh my! I can't believe it has been a month since my last post. So much has happened in that time, the girls are of course a ton bigger and are now playing and cooing. Lia turned over a week ago last Saturday and Viv did this past Saturday. We are still waiting on Evy, but she is the biggest so it may take her a little longer. Just about two weeks ago they seemed to be focusing more and now they really look at us and their toys. The girls are still quite a handful at night and I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out how to tweak their schedule to give us a little more sleep, most of the time it is unsuccessful. They are beautiful though and super healthy which is wonderful. We also went for our first stroller ride a couple of weeks ago, and although the girls are mostly asleep during the ride, I secretly think they love it. I just can't wait for the weather to get better so we can go every day.

Here are some recent photos:

It has been some time since I last posted. The past 5 weeks have gone by so quickily. Lia and Evy came home from the hospital after 28 days in the NICU and then Viv came home 10 days later. Since they have been home it has been amazing to see them grow. They came home at around five pounds and now Evy and Viv are over 8 pounds and Lia is a little under.

They are also just this week, starting to focus on our faces and they continue to strengthen their necks and keeping their heads up. Of course, the sleepless nights and 3 hour feeding schedules are difficult to swallow, but that is what makes memories and besides, I think the whole thing will be a blur in less than a year. In fact, the girls are each such good babies, it is just when you have three of them taking turns being up at night, we just don't get that much sleep. Luckily our parents have been so helpful taking early morning feedings and there is an amazing group of women organized as "Team Triplet" who come over during the day and give me some relief and help feed these girls. I simply don't know what we would do without all of this help.