Sunday, July 27, 2014

I'm a mom now, I get it...

Those are the words that came out of my friend's mouth this weekend as we were frantically trying to pack up our triplet island (that's what I've now decided to call the huge area we take over anywhere we go) as the boys were TIRED and needed a nap NOW!  She looked at me in the eyes and said "I'm so sorry I was a terrible friend to you... I get it now, I'm a mom".  It's funny how things start to change the minute you hold your tiny little person in your arms for the first time.   Going from being a non-mother to being a mother is probably the most drastic change a woman can go through in her life.  There's a whole chasm of difference between the two worlds.  We were at my friend Alicia's son Alfie's birthday party and all around us were families with toddlers or younger and where we used to socialize as adults, that becomes pretty difficult.  I know once the kids are a little older, it'll get easier to socialize again but for now, being a mom is what I do, what I am.  My friend Hilary was saying she had to go and I was like "Ok, we'll see you later!".  It hit me right there that when most of us were "non-moms", the first thing we would say would not have been "Ok!", it would have been: "Oh no! But why do you have to leave?"  "Don't go! Aren't you having fun?".  Now, we get it, we don't question... a simple look is all it takes.  I had hoped to stay a little longer as I had thought the boys may have been ready to skip their third nap but that was NOT the case... The moment I said we had to go, it was "Ok, what can I do to help?".  It's nice to know my friends are where I am and they understand my life as I understand theirs.  It's a pretty special feeling to know I'm in this very special MOM club that only people who are part of will ever truly get it.    One day, when my boys are teenagers and have no longer "use" for me, I'll be able to socialize with my friends once again and the talk will most likely still be about our children, but at least we'll be able to drink wine while we bitch about them ;)  haha...

Gabe had his first misstep as a dad last week... it wasn't a huge one but he told me he thinks it should be in the blog so here goes... this all actually happened while I was writing last week's blog so I didn't have my mom goggles fully on... My in-laws take the boys for a walk after their supper pretty much every night now which is nice because it gives Gabe and I about 45 minutes to be able to enjoy sitting down to supper together.  Anyhow... as they were about to leave for their walk last week, Zachary spit up all over himself (babies!) so Gabe came in to change him.  He asked if he should just put his pyjamas on since it was getting close to bedtime and I said that it was fine.  So away they go for their walk and on Sundays nobody gets a bath, so they got back almost just in time for their bottle.  They were hanging out outside while waiting for the time to come to have their bottle and I told Gab that it was probably time for them all to get changed.  Now normally, when the boys put on their pj's, we also change them into their overnight diapers.  Some of you probably already called what happened... Zachary, already in his pj's, never got his nighttime diaper on.  The next morning when I go get him, he was soaked... poor little fella!  He had been in the SAME diaper since about 4pm the day before!!!  Thankfully he wasn't chaffed and wasn't too unhappy.  Oh daddy!!

This week, we spent time with Mamie, taking some 8 months pics photos, we also went to my Aunt Marie's pool.  As much as Sam hated the ocean, he LOVED the pool.  I was really apprehensive before we put him in, but he didn't even bat an eye.  He immediately started bam bam-ing the water splashing everywhere!  Jacob was in heaven!  I'm sure I could have taught him to swim right then and there the way his little legs and arms were moving!  Zachary was just being my chill guy as always.  Although for some odd reason, he loved dipping his face right into the water... little silly goose!

We also went to mommy group on Wednesday morning.  I thought I would attempt it one more time since the last time I went it had gone fairly well.  Not this time!  My little guys didn't fall asleep on the ride over so their morning nap was messed up.  By 10 o'clock, they were all cranky so I left mommy group and they were dead asleep in their car seats within 2 minutes of driving.  We were also supposed to go see my friend Véro and her son Sébastien after their 11 o'clock feeding but that visit got delayed a little bit because I didn't wake them up until 11:15... anyways, we still go to go and they had a good time! They had mum-mums for the time and they loved it!  If you don't know what those are, they are rice type cakes that dissolve very easily in the mouths of babies.  I've added a few videos on their YouTube Channel, one of which shows them eating the mum-mums for the first time.  (https://www.youtube.com/user/tripletadventures)

I think mommy groups will have to wait until they're a little older... it was more for me than for them anyways... sometimes mommy needs to see adults her own age!!  hehe...  I guess it just has to be at the perfect time to fit into the babies schedule and that's hard to match!

It's been a while since I've updated their daily routine so just in case you're curious, here goes:

(I'll do it in Jacob's voice... just for fun)

5:45 to 6:15 : wake up mommy while chit chatting/crying in our cribs
6:45 - 7:00 mommy deems it an appropriate time to actually get up and gets us up
7:00 - Morning bottle (my favorite!!)
7:15-7:30 : digesting time in our vibrating chairs while "reading" our chewable books and "talking" to mommy
7:30 - 8:00 - play time while mommy loads the dishwasher and prepares our breakfast
8:00:  FOOD!! Normally consisting of gooey stuff that is pretty sweet tasting (cereal and fruit mommy tells us).  It actually looks like the slop they serve on Big Brother (oh yeah, I watch that with my mommy)
8:20 - 8:30 - Singing play time in our high chairs with mommy while we digest our food
8:30 - 8:45 - We play while mommy cleans us up one at a time and puts on our day clothes
8:45 - Nap time!  We love our cribs!! (Most of the time anyway)
10:00 - 10:30 - Wake up and play on the floor and try to learn new things like crawling (I already do that), sitting, grasping, etc...
11:00 - Bottle!!!
11:20 - 11:50 - MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I think Mommy eats during this time... I sure wish she'd give me some of what she puts in her mouth, it looks much better than the gooey stuff she gives us...
12:00 - FOOD!!!  Normally we have some veggies and sometimes meat and sometimes we even get fruit and yogourt!!! When mommy wants to be nice... maybe if I smile more...
12:20 - 12:30 - More high chair play digesting time with mommy
12:30 - 12:45 or 1:00 - We play for a little bit but we're getting tired again
12:45 to 1:30ish - We wake up and wake each other up... some of us would like to sleep more but Samuel really doesn't like to sleep in the afternoon so he wakes us all up!!  Mommy would sure like for us to sleep more... I think she may start letting Sam cry... THAT will be annoying!!
1:30 to 3:00 - Play time, sometimes we go for a walk, sometimes we go to Costco (that's fun, there are so many people to look at!!), sometimes we go to Wal-Mart.
3:00 - Time for us to have another bottle! Sometimes we're a little cranky at this time because we didn't get enough sleep and we're hungry. After the bottle, you guessed it, more time to sit and digest with the vibrating chairs. It's like a massage for us and it's soooo relaxing.
3:45ish - Time for another nap! Me, Sam and Zachary talked it over and we're not a huge fan of this nap so we decided we give it 20-30 minutes tops, then we boycott by crying our little hearts out until someone comes and gets us.
4:15ish - Yay!!! Daddy's home from work we have lots of smiles for him and lots of things to tell him about our day but I'm not sure how much he really understands of what I'm saying because it mostly comes out as bla bla bla booo booo ba ba bla bla bah.
4:15-5:00 - Lots of time to play with daddy while mommy tries to get a little break from being our sole entertainer for the day. We play lots of fun games like daddy pretends to bite our tummy and it makes us laugh. Or daddy throws a blanket up over us like a parachute and it makes us laugh. And our new favorite game...daddy bounces us on the couch cushions as we lie on our backs and makes us bouce like popcorn and we laugh! This is also the time where mémère and pépère come and visit us and play games with us also.
5:00 - Time for some more gooey food.  I LOVE TO EAT!!!
5:30 - This is something new that started about two weeks ago and I have to say that this is one of our favorite times. Pépère (and mémère when she is around) takes us out for a walk for about 30-45 minutes. We get to go outside and relax after our meal and cruise around looking for cute little baby girls! I'm not sure what mommy and daddy do while we're gone and I don't want to know.
6:15 - Back from our walk, time for a quick bath in our GIANT YELLOW RUBBER DUCKY!  I only get to play in it twice a week but when I do, all I want to do is eat the giant yellow head!!
6:30 - We get into our pj's so we know it's time for our last bottle before we go to sleep. We like to give a hard time to mommy, daddy, pépère, mémère, mamie, matante and whoever at this time because we know they'll put us to bed after this... so we fight them!  I like to take a few drinks and have a chit chat to kill some time, and I like to throw in some crying in there for good measure... so does Zachary... Sam just likes to chew on the nipple...
6:45 - 7:00 - Bed time... I normally go down pretty quietly and then ten minutes later... BAM!! I hit them with a crying fest!  I DON'T WANT TO GO TO SLEEP BUT I AM SO TIRED THAT I WILL CRY BUT I WILL KEEP MY EYES CLOSED WHILE I DO IT...

Jacob eventually falls asleep and we start over again the next day... Of course, every day is a variation of this same thing but as far as the schedule goes, I pretty much try to stick to the same one daily because if not, this triplet mom would have cranky babies on her hands (like it happened Wednesday when the routine was messed around with...).

The boys are developing so fast that we decided to lower the cribs this week.  Knowing Jacob, he liable to climb out of his crib and onto the bathroom counter and proceed to brush his teeth... all within a week!  He actually almost sat up on his own this week... he's the littlest but he's developing so quickly! He's so eager to get everywhere and into everything that I can't even put him in a Bumbo on the floor anymore... he fell out of it yesterday trying to reach for something!  Pish posh to the physiotherapist who said Samuel was the furthest advanced... Jacob just wouldn't show his stuff that day! haha... We also added gates to our living room situation so that the boys (Jacob really for now) don't get in to the printer or mess up my PVR somehow.  I can't have them deleting my Kardashians now!!!

A little snippet to finish off... I've been trying to teach the boys basic sign language so that they'll be able to show me what they need in the future when they still can't talk and I think my little Zachary did the sign for milk this week!!! It's so exciting!!  I think if I'm consistent, they'll get it!

Ok friends... here are some pics of the week

Hanging out in Seb's play room... They love it there! So many new toys!! 




New security measure


Ummm... mum-mums! 



Seb looks GIANT compared to the boys!! He's still just a 13 month old baby!!  He loved playing with the boys and he's such a good sharer. 



Can we eat it?



Zachary is holding on to Jacob who just wants to crawl away somewhere and Samuel is in the midst of trying to get on all fours to rock

I love this picture!  It almost looks like it could be the cover of a music album or something






Can I go crawl now?


Zachary looks extremely happy in this shot!

All lowered beds!!! 

New play area!! 

We have so much more room!! 



Because Zachary can't defend himself...

...the boys have a tendency to take advantage of the situation....
...maybe even abuse the situation a little.

No prison bars can hold me I tell you!!!!!

Silly parents! You think this will hold me back!

Ok...maybe these will hold me. Well played mommy and daddy. 

Enjoying the parachute game with a blanket.

Moments before the blanket touches down on their faces

Hiding under the exersaucer playing with one of his favorite toys
Oh hello!  I did not see you there! 

That's all folks! 






Sunday, July 20, 2014

Jacob learns to crawl!

So since Samuel decided that he was going to learn to get on all fours and rock back and forth, Jacob wanted to one up him and decided to learn to crawl... I wasn't in the living room at the time and all I heard was Gabe exclaim: "Good job Jacob!!!" so I come rushing into the living room yelling "What What What?!?" to which he replied: "Jacob just crawled!  He went from the TV to the couch to get his book!".  I watched in tears as my "youngest" was crawling across the floor... they're growing up so quick!  They'll be 8 months tomorrow and I can't believe that in 4 short months, they'll be turning a year old!! I'll have to start thinking of their birthday party soon! Crazy stuff!  Now that he's started, there is no stopping him!  He seems to forget sometimes and pushes himself backwards instead of forwards but then his little legs start going and he figures it out!  Here's a video of him doing this amazing feat (I know it's not amazing and we all did it but it's pretty cool to me mmmm k?).  I have also uploaded it to their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/tripletadventures) along with a few other videos that are cool to me :)



We decided to go for a drive with the boys to a beach on Saturday and see if we could get Samuel in the water without him crying.  Well I guess we still live in a "Cash Only" world because when we got to l'Aboiteau Beach (where I really wanted to go because they have an amazing boardwalk), we didn't realize until we got to the booth that there was a 7$ entry fee and it was cash only... we didn't have cash so we had to turn around (sad face).  I told Gabe that the next beach over, Sandy Beach, used to be free so we decided to give it a try.  Of course we get there and there's a 5$ cash only entry fee... man oh man, we can't catch a break!  I see an ATM in the booth and ask the lady if we can use that.  She says yes so we go park and get money and finally we can go to a beach.  By this point, our allotted time for a drive was shortening by the minute (duh right?).  As we had first missed the entrance to the beach and had trouble at both beach booths, we were on a tight timeline to come back home for the next feeding.  We therefore didn't have time to put the boys in their swim diapers or their water gear so we decided to just go dip their feet into the surf.  Jacob LOVED it!  He was so excited.  Zachary is such a chill guy that we don't know exactly HOW he felt but he didn't hate it.  Samuel on the other hand is NOT a water guy... once again freaking out the moment his feet hit the water poor little buddy.  One day he'll learn to like it as I can't have a little boy afraid of water!!!  

Jacob loving the water

Chill guy Zach... I think he likes the beach

Get me out get me out!!!!

Two very distinct thoughts... Sam: "Don't let her put me back in there" and Jacob: "How can I get back down there?"


First family beach picture


I got so excited that my pants got wet so I had to take them off

 Gabe and I had a lovely night out on Saturday as our friends Louise and Brian were getting married.  As their reception wasn't until 8, we decided to start our night out a little early and go to supper.  First I had to get shoes, of course, to go with my new dress as my feet went from a size 7.5 to an 8.5 or 9 since my pregnancy so I have no more shoes :(  After I found my shoes, we went to Mooser's Pub for supper as we wanted pub food and remembered being young and foolish and being there all the time for wing nights.  Well, now that we're older and not as foolish and sober, we weren't particularly thrilled with either of our suppers but at least the ice cream dessert we had after made up for it!  It was nice to go out without a worry knowing our boys were well taken care of by my amazing in laws who were nice enough to come handle the supper, the bed time feed, the bed time and stay as long as we wanted to stay out.  Of course, Gabe and I are normally in bed by 9 and asleep by 9:30 so we were exhausted by 10 o'clock.  The drive home was about 30 minutes so we decided to leave around 10:30 after having danced and laughed as much as we could handle. This morning's early wake up was rough so as soon as the boys went down for their first nap, we also went down for a nap.  We can't party like we used to!!   I've been trying to clean up my eating and I finally succeeded last week to pretty much eat clean all week (yeah me!)  When Cheat Day Saturday rolled around and there was a candy/cookie bar at the wedding, I didn't hesitate to dive in... well let me tell you, when you haven't eaten sugar for a week, sugar hits you hard when you have it again.  I felt as sick as if I was hungover!  Goes to show how bad sugar can be for your body huh?  I'm still tired and I'm glad this blog is going to be short and sweet because the bed is calling my name!

Date night selfie

I'm so happy my hair is growing!  I actually really like it this length! 

Opposites much?

The boys at the wedding.  Love these boys!! Last one on the right is single ladies... any takers??
My new dress!  Julien forgot to tell me that my boob flap was showing before taking the picture... oh well!  


Aside from our date night, Jacob crawling, the beach and hanging out with my family on Friday night while Gabe went to a diaper party, the rest of our week was pretty bland (as bland as a week with 8 month old triplets can be!!)

Here are some pics of our week:

Silly Jacob, the book doesn't go on your head!! 

Hi brother!

Oh hi brother! 

Just hanging out with each other fighting over a book none of them can read

Hi MAMA!!! 


NOM NOM NOM
 



Zachary has been giving us the best smiles this week!  



What? What?  What do you want? 

Go away, nothing to see here! 

Let me eat my foot in peace! 

I SAID GO AWAY!!!
(I think my little Zach is going blond!!)

I love Mickey mom!  Where has he been all my life??

Peek-a-boo time with Daddy


More awesome smiles

Sam has been more grumpy this week but he still manages to look friggen adorable in his overall! 

I don't think that's how it works Mamie! 

Physio didn't want Jacob spending too much time in exercausers.... this is ok right?  haha

Cousin Gabrielle reading the boys a bedtime story

While cousin Alexie plays background harmonica music... I don't think Zachary likes it much...

Drinking out of a straw


Jacob would drink a litre if I let him!! 




We took a few walks in the rain this week... boys all covered up :) 

Have a good week friends!