Daddy's day off

Today was a fun Daddy day off day! We got some things done around the house that needed to be done. We are having company coming next week and need to get the house in order. We of course got some good play time in! Alan's cousin and her fiance also came over for a bbq. It was a nice day outside and a perfect day for burgers on the grill! I also got their play-room straightened up and we played in it for a while today. We are using our sun-room currently for their playroom so we can only play in it if it is warm/cool enough. So basically in the spring and fall will be perfect times for it to be used. Hopefully once they are actually old enough for it we can heat and air condition it enough for them to play out there. We had a very nice visit from Michele and Joe. They brought the trio their first Phillies outfits! We can't wait to put them in them! :) Other than that not too much else happened. Paige and Nathan are now also grabbing at the toys and bringing them to their mouths! They are getting so big so fast! Pretty soon they will be rolling over. They are getting close. I'm just waiting to see who is going to do it first!

         Nathan and Paige playing with their keys

                                 Daddy playing in their tunnel

Mommy and Paige in our play-room

Where did Nathan go?

My poor Nathan is missing and in his place is a baby I don't know. He isn't eating well...which is very abnormal for him. He is normally no nonsense about eating his bottle. He can down 8oz in 10 minutes flat! Today though he played with his bottle, chewing on it and pulling it out of his mouth. He was also arching his back and at one point started crying! I would think that four and a half months would be a little old to get reflux. Then there was the absolute meltdown that he had today. One minute he was sleeping in his swing the next he was screaming and crying. Now if you know Nathan he is not a screamer unless he is really upset. I think he has done this 2 other times in his short little life! So of course I have no tricks to calm him down since it doesn't really happen. Last but not least is his sleep pattern. He has always been an awesome sleeper. He can go down at 6:30/7:00pm and I don't hear from him till 6:30/7:00am. Well lately he has been waking up 4 to 5 times at night for his bink. Very unlike him. He also hasn't been napping like himself either. *sigh* I hope we figure out what is up with him soon. I want my old Nathan back!!
On another note Paige reached for the keys hanging on the play-gym and brought them to her mouth today!! Of course I didn't get a picture because I was in the middle of our bath routine but I plan on getting one next time!
Levi had of course been his old meltdown self. I refer to him as either Mr. meltdown or wildman. The kid just can't sit still! He moves and kicks his legs so much that I put lotion on them because they get dry from all the friction! I think he is going to be our troublemaker. He can go from screaming his head off to smiling at you all cute in the blink of an eye! What a flirt! Gotta love him!
Our picture today is going to be of Nathan playing in his Johnny jump up!

Lazy Sunday

Today was a rainy, yucky day outside. Inside the Dean household was a different story. The trio took awesome naps today! I even got a shower during the day! (I usually shower at night, after they go to bed, if I have the energy) I don't know if it was the weather or if it was just a much needed nap day but hey I will take it! We spent the evening at Grammy and Pop-pop's. All in all a very nice Sunday. Paige was a little off but she feels better now! The formula the babies are on is high in iron and calories. It's a preemie formula that they want them to stay on till they are at least nine months. Unfortunately that means we have constipation issues. We have been battling this since they came home in December. The boys have evened out but poor Paige, we battle it with her daily. She gets prune juice almost daily and that doesn't even work all the time! Every time we go to the Dr. I hope they say that they have gained enough weight to take them off the formula but no such luck. Maybe at six months! Fingers crossed! :)
I decided with today's picture we were going to go back to the trio's first month. They are so little! :)

Pictures are in!

I went and picked up our pictures today. I got a cd with every picture they took on it that way I am able to put them on the web and print them at home. They took a lot of pictures of Levi. I think it's because he has so many crazy expressions that they just kept clicking away. I'll have to put some of them up another time. Today I am going to display my favorites. Enjoy!

Picture day

Today we decided to get photos done of the trio. I am a big fan of Picture People but I had heard good things about Portrait Innovations. So my Mom and I decided to take the trio to Portrait Innovations to see if they had a spot and give them a try. The people were very nice there and I will say that the photos and packages seemed cheaper than Picture People which is really why we went. They also have the "free" camera so they can get lots of different angles. I'm not a big fan of the photo places that their cameras only go up and down and left and right. Blah. So they took a lot of pictures of the trio together and of course single shots. They turned out great! We got a couple of packages and earned some free stuff. We also got a cd with all the pictures on it that we can print from and put on the web and such. The only problem we ran in to was they had difficulty printing the photos and burning the cd so needless to say I don't have my photos yet. :( As soon as I do have photos I will put them up.
So the trio did ok with their photo shoot. Unfortunately I think they were a little tired and a little hungry when we started. Levi had a meltdown when I was changing his diaper in the bathroom before we even started! Then our first photo was of the three of them together. Paige, who is a great smiler, had lost her smiles! She just wasn't having it! It was nice though that Mr. serious Nathan found his and we got some great photos of his big smile. We eventually found Paige's smile. My Mom actually suggested doing one of their favorite things which is putting their toes to their noses. It worked on all three of them and we got great smiles. Nathan melted down towards the end of the shoot. We then had some bottles and a snooze in our carseats while I looked at the photos.
When we came home they were exhausted! Levi just wanted to be held as he slept! But for what we did today I was ok with giving him a few extra snuggles. I better get them now while they still want them before they get too big for snuggles! Even though I know it will be a while before that happens I hope. :) So I am going to leave you to suffer through more pictures I took instead of the ones we got today. :)
I decided one day to get something new out for them to play with. They love their new tunnel! They love it so much that Paige and Levi had a snooze inside of it after playing for a while!

Lazy day

Today was just another day at home. It was needed since we have had a busy week so far! Tuesday my friend Christy came to visit with her baby Emma. She is only 2 weeks older then my guys. I think Nathan now has a little girlfriend cause they were playing on the playmat together and holding hands! It was too cute! I know they weren't doing it on purpose but it was still pretty cute! :) Yesterday we went shopping at cosco. That was an interesting trip. Normally we get stopped one or two times for someone to see the babies. Well we were stopped it seemed every couple of steps. I don't mind and I understand why people do it but it makes for a long shopping trip. My stroller is long enough and sometimes difficult to maneuver so people stopping us and blocking the way creates even more of a challenge for me. But it was a much needed trip and we got what we needed.
Today we just stayed home. They were up a lot last night so I needed to rest and hang out. Levi decided he was going to be the first to reach and grab his toys! He was sitting in the bouncy seat and I was sitting at my computer. I started hearing the music for that bouncy seat. It then registered that I didn't pull the lion so I look over and he has 2 of the rings in his hands! He kept grabbing and letting go of the rings having a blast! Now we just have to wait for his brother and sister to do it!
I am leaving you with 2 pictures. The first is of the trio on one of our many pajama days and the other is Levi pulling his toys.I love the look of intent on his face! :)

Wordless Wednesday

Levi

Mmmmmmm cereal!

Today we decided to give cereal a try. Paige and Nathan had been sleeping through the night for a least a month if not 2. The last few nights both of them have been getting up during the night. Last night I was up with Paige almost every hour on the hour and Nathan every couple of hours. I'm hoping that the cereal will help them sleep better tonight and go back to sleeping through the night like they had been. Nathan liked the cereal from the start. He ate it well both this morning and this evening. Paige seemed a little iffy on the subject. She made a face each time I put some in her mouth. Levi was not too sure about it this morning. This evening however he did great! I'm excited to be doing something different with them and they seem to like it too. We will have to see how the week goes and see how they continue to do. I am going to attempt to put some pictures in my post this time so fingers crossed! :)

Oh the screaming

Today was rough. Levi is just not content lately unless he is being held. He just goes from smiling to complete meltdown in 2.2 seconds. I really hope this is just a phase and a short one at that. He sleeps fine at night in his crib its just during the day he does this. He used to sleep in his swing just fine. Today I tried him in his crib and he took a half an hour to fall asleep. He then woke up about 45 minutes later. *sigh* Tomorrow Alan is home so hopefully I can get things done. I feel bad leaving my Mom with the kids while I clean even though I'm really not leaving them.
Today amidst all the screaming we took a trip to wal-mart. I needed to get new jammies for the babies. They are getting so big. Nathan has moved up into 6-9month pj's! I thought I had some but not enough with how many my spit monsters can go through! Our shopping trips take a little longer than usual now and not how you would think. It takes longer because we have to stop every couple of feet for people to look and gawk at the trio. I actually had someone follow me to try to see the babies! I think its amusing what people will say and do. It also seems that people think that because I have triplets I must have lost my hearing somewhere along the way because they will just talk about me and my babies as if I can't hear them. Well I can. I just laugh half the time at what people say. I also get a kick out of the fact that people try to guess what they are. Now if you say a stroller with 3 car seats, one had a blue blanket, one had a green blanket, and one had a pink blanket what would you take that to mean? Today it meant I had all girls. :) Gotta love it! :)

Housework oh how I loathe thee....

So every night before I go to bed I make a list of the things I would like to do in the coming day. Well I don't ever really accomplish much of it unfortunately. Some days I just don't have the energy. Other days I just don't have the time. Time was not on my side today. Levi was just beside himself today and just wanted to be held or else! So it was either have a screaming child and get something done or hold him and get nothing done. I actually chose to do both because if I didn't do a load of their laundry I would have no burp clothes or bibs for tomorrow. Seeing as they now go through about 2-3 bibs each a day plus numerous burp clothes this was something that couldn't be ignored. I also needed to do a load of our laundry. I am still unfortunately wearing maternity clothes which I don't have much of and need to change at least once during the day due to baby pukes. So needless to say he got some good screaming in every time I needed to tend to the laundry. We also took a nice long walk today. If anything it was so they would take a nap. For some reason the only one that wanted to sleep today was me! :) Hopefully tomorrow will go better and hopefully they get a good nights sleep tonight! Lets see what of my list will get done tomorrow. I can't tell you the last time I vacuumed! I also need to try to actually unpack the rest of our boxes and maybe actually decorate our house. We only moved in here in September! Of course I was too pregnant to be able to do much then. Oh well some day it will get done. I can see a post years from now all excited that we are finally unpacked! Haha. Or at the very least I will be packed already if we ever move again! :)

Peace Valley Park

Today Alan and I decided to take the trio to Peace Valley Park and go for a walk. It was a good idea at least. Firstly just getting ourselves out the door was a big task. Usually whenever we need to go somewhere with the trio my parents take us in their big van. Alan and I have not had a chance to get something to drive them around in yet. So needless to say I had 2 of the babies in my CRV and Alan had 1 in his Passat. I also didn't realize how warm it actually was out and I left them in their sleepers....bad Mommy. It was warm out! At least they couldn't get burnt by the sun though! :) Whenever we go anywhere with the trio we are always stopped and asked numerous questions about them. Now I don't blame people because I would probably do the same thing seeing as us with our stroller is something you don't see every day. Today was a first though. Someone actually had the nerve to take a picture of us! There was this elderly couple sitting on one of the benches. They asked us the standard "are they triplets?" question. Then there is the "all boys?" question. Seeing as Paige is always in pink or purple this one baffles me. :) Well anyway after the questions we went down a little further to take our own pictures of the babies in front of the lake. When I turned around with the stroller the guy had his camera out pointed at us! I told Alan and he said lets get out of here. So we left. I didn't make a scene......this time. After that the walk was pretty uneventful. I am still in shock though about the whole picture thing....who does that? I guess I should just get used to being the "freak" show for now. I know it will change when they get older and are able to walk themselves.
Lately Levi and Paige have not been themselves. I don't know if I should blame the shots from Tuesday, or something called the 4 month wakeful that I have read about. Nathan has been sleeping through the night for as long as I can remember. He goes to bed between 6:30pm and 7:30pm and I don't usually hear from him till 6:30amish. Paige used to be the same way. She could put herself to sleep and would sleep till the morning. Well so far tonight she has been up twice and its only 10:30pm! I just re-bink her and eventually she will go back to sleep. Last night she decided she wanted to eat at 12:30am which is very unlike her. Now Levi is a whole other story. He has never slept through the night. He is usually up between 2am and 4am to eat. He also takes a lot of work to get him to go down for the night. He was overly cranky today and took even more coaxing to go down tonight. Fingers crossed I don't hear from him till 4am! :) Good night all.

4 months

The trio turned 4 months old on Sunday. We took their pictures on Monday and it is getting harder and harder to take their pictures together. I will set them up on the couch sitting together and one will fall to the left as the other is falling to the right. Or sometimes we create a game of domino's and we all fall down! It has been very funny to do these photo shoots. My Mom was here helping me and we were both laughing hysterically at the three of them. Levi just had big smiled through it all! Yesterday we went to our 4 month check up at the Dr. Of course I dread these visit because I hate when they get shots. I am not a big fan of needles as it is, but then to watch them do it to the babies is horrible. 1 baby would be bad enough but I have to watch them do it to 3 in a row! Not only that but I can't comfort all 3 and that just makes me feel worse! Thankfully my Mom goes with me so we can team up. This time they brought in a nurse who comforted Levi while I had Paige and my Mom had Nathan. Of course Nathan is my sensitive guy and he takes the shots worse than the other 2. He is just not himself for at least a day or so. When we got the 2 month shots he was out of sorts for a week! Thankfully today he seemed to be back to himself so I am glad he recovered quickly this time! :) The Dr. said they are all doing great. Because they were 5 weeks early they are measured at 3 months old instead of 4 months. As preemies they are doing great. Nathan is doing really well. He has just taken off! Here are their weights and heights as of April 13th 2010:

Levi: 11lbs 11oz 2' 0.75"
Nathan: 13lbs 6oz 2' 1.25"
Paige: 11lbs 1oz 2'

I think Nathan is going to be our tall boy. He is very long for his age. Especially with his adjusted age factored in! It will be interesting to see how they grow. As soon as I figure out how to put a picture on here I will. The order here is Levi, Nathan, then Paige. :) 

101 in 1001

For my very first post I thought I would do something fun. I got this from another blog I follow Mommy save money. It is called 101 in 1001. Basically it is a list of 101 things that I would like to do or accomplish in 1001 days. I started on Levi, Nathan, and Paige's 4 month birthday April 11th 2010. 1001 days from then is January 6th 2013. Wish me luck!

1. Get professional pictures taken of the trio

2. Take the trio to the Philadelphia zoo

3. Take the trio to the Camden Aquarium

4. Plan a trip to Disney World
5. Work on my own business
6. Create a family cookbook
7. Build a snowman with the trio

8. Throw a 30th birthday bash for Alan and I

9. Learn how to use my camera in manual mode
10. Write on my blog at least 3 times a week

11. Have a 1 year birthday bash for the trio

12. Take the trio to the Please Touch Museum

13. Paint our bedroom

14. Redo the bar in the basement

15. Get a dog
16. Put away $5 for each goal completed in each of the trio accounts
17. Potty train the trio
18. Redo our backyard
19. Plant a garden
20. Unpack and organize the house
21. Create my craft-room
22. Decorate the house

23. Make baby food from scratch

24. Re-do the landscaping in the front of the house
25. Take the trio to the beach
26. Teach the trio how to swim

27. Buy a mini van

28. Continue to take lots of pictures of the trio
29. Sew an outfit for each of the kids
30. Continue to be a stay at home Mommy
31. Become actively involved in my MoM's group

32. Have a yard sale

33. Do something special for my parents
34. Get the trio "big kids" beds

35. Move Paige to her own room

36. Decorate both kids rooms
37. Do lots of arts and crafts with the trio
38. Lose 40 pounds

39. Buy a choo choo wagon

40. Make a wedding scrapbook
41. Finish honeymoon scrapbook
42. Do baby books
43. Make scrapbooks for each of the trio
44. Take the trio camping
45. Learn to cook well
46. Use coupon websites to save money
47. Get to know our neighbors better

48. Go to church more often

49. Have a spa day
50. Create my own kids craft book

51. Become a Brownie leader again

52. Take each child on a one on one special day with me
53. Scan in all of my negatives into the computer
54. Continue my playground photography
55. Make a playground book
56. Shred all unwanted documents
57. Organize and file all wanted documents
58. Read over 100 books to the trio
59. Take the trio to Erie to see where Alan grew up

60. Go to Sesame place

61. Get the trio baptized

62. Get a part-time job

63. Go skiing

64. Go to Peddler's village and ride the carousel

65. Go to story time at the library with the trio

66. Re-learn how to knit

67. Re-learn how to crochet
68. Pay off Alan's student loan

69. Be able to be home alone all day with the kids

70. Run a 5k

71. Go to the movies with Alan

72. Go hiking
73. Do the crop walk
74. Go to the Mercer Museum

75. Cheer on Alan running his first marathon

76. Do something with Alan that neither of us has done before

77. Build a sandcastle at the beach
78. Go to the Erie zoo
79. Go to the Baltimore Aquarium
80. Walk all the way to Dairy Queen

81. Organize all the trio's clothes

82. Organize unwanted clothes

83. Sell at the Mother's market

84. Baby-proof the house

85. Start keeping a diary

86. Start an exercise program
87. Go to a Mommy and me swim class
88. Take a photoshop class
89. Double our saving account

90. Start the trio on solids at 5 months

91. Go with Alan to the Franklin Institute

92. Buy myself some new clothes

93. Update my Disney Dvd collection
94. Get my hair highlighted

95. Go out to dinner just me and Alan

96. Have the trio meet all 3 great-grandmothers

97. Make money off of my art

98. Draw with chalk on the driveway

99. Teach the trio to ride trikes

100. Sing songs with the kids

101. Get through the trio's first year with my sanity somewhat in tact!