Sunday, October 26, 2014

What do I do with 11 month old triplets?

So since the boys are quickly (too quickly!!) approaching their one year birthday, I thought it would be fun to update you on our current schedule with the boys with some running commentary from yours truly!  ENJOY!

- Wake up is still at 7am (they usually start babbling at around 6:30)
- They have a bottle upon waking up (FULL COW'S MILK SINCE YESTERDAY!!! BYE BYE FORMULA Y'ALL!!!!!)  Although I caved and I am warming their milk... Only for their morning and night bottles because they'll completely refuse and cry if I offer it to them cold.  I really didn't want to do it but then I don't have time to fight with my babies.  Besides, like my mom said, who doesn't like a hot beverage in the morning and perhaps even a hot chocolate at night?  I will cave to my little buddies and give them a warm bottle, what's a minute and a half in the microwave?  Yes, I warm it in the microwave, yes I shake it to ensure there are no hot spots, so no, I will not burn my sons' mouth... chill you judgy judgy people!  haha...  The rest of the day, they'll take their milk cold in sippies.  They're still not the biggest fans but they're getting some in.  I was getting worried that they weren't taking in enough milk but my pediatrician called me to assure me that they were doing fine.
- After their morning bottle, I'll change their bums.  I used to do it before bottles but now the moment they're down on the floor, they cry for their bottles so bums stay wet for an extra 15 minutes.

Here is an attempted time lapse video of how the bottle routine is done... Jacob ruined it when he realized he was on video...haha



- After bottles and bum changes, it's play time until breakfast.  During this 45 minutes of play time, I'll start loading the dishwasher, come back in the living room to change a poopy bum, go back and finish loading, come back to the living room because my trio is at the baby gate crying their eyes out, change yet another poopy bum, notice that one of them spit up, clean the spit up off their pyjamas, search for the mystery spit up spot in the living room, find the spot because another baby is playing with it, I'll soothe a baby who tried to get into their toy car without opening the door and smacked his head on the floor, then I sneak away to go make breakfast.
- Breakfast at 8, mostly baby cereal with fruit still.  Sometimes I'll make them a bagel with peanut butter and a cut up banana or sometimes they'll get lucky and I'll make them French Toast or pancakes (that's normally on the weekends as Gabe is home and I can spend more time in the kitchen doing the more fancy stuff).
- After breakfast, we have singing time where they sit in their high chairs and I sing all sorts of nursery rhymes.  Their current favorites?  Itsy Bitsy Spider (with my weird exaggerated animations), Little Green Frog, Un éléphant qui se balançait, Au clair de la lune & Frère Jacques.  I don't know that many but with the activity at the library I'm learning more.  I then put on Toc Toc Toc (a French show) and put them in their play pen while I clean up breakfast and get their clothes ready for the day.  One at a time, I'll give them a quick sponge bath before dressing them for the day.  I'll probably have to change another poopy bum (that's 6 diapers changes by 8:30am for those who are counting).   I'll brush their teeth (which feels like pulling teeth with Jacob... man he hates that!  It's like trying to get a dog to swallow a pill...  have you ever tried that?  Impossible!  Maybe I'll start putting peanut butter on the toothbrush! haha... defeat the purpose much?)  I'll dress them, play for another 15 minutes and then off to nap #1!  Tired yet??  It's only 8:45am... haha...
- They'll nap anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour during which I do a load of laundry and either watch one of my shows or do some cleaning.
- They get up at around 10 and we'll play for a bit and have a snack.  Then, if my mom is over, we'll go to Wal-Mart, Costco or run some other errand.  If she's not here, if it's nice out, I'll load the boys in the wagon and go for a little walk.  They love their wagon walks and it's been really crappy out this week so they haven't had their wagon walk at all this week due to this stupid rain that just won't stop!  Hopefully it'll get somewhat better this week and we'll be able to resume our regular activities.
- Lunch is at noon and they have a variety of food, normally a protein with some grain and then fruit.  I try to give them milk and we're working on that but they'll maybe drink one or two ounces at max.  So that's annoying because they just love dropping their sippy cups on the floor.  I must pick them up off the floor at least 15 times until I give up.
- After lunch, it's back into the playpen while I clean up all the mess on the floor and on their tray.  We play for 15 - 30 minutes, depending on how tired they are and then down for nap #2!  Another blissful hour of to 1.5 hours of silence.  This is when I'll put the laundry in the dryer, unload the dishwasher and check emails, Facebook, etc.  Just have some ME time.  I've always followed the EASY method and I take the Y (you) part very seriously!  That is one thing that I think saved my sanity, taking time to just chill and not be "on" all the time because if I were, I'd have gone totally bonkers!!  Besides, my sons will not keep me away from Parenthood, Grey's Anatomy or Scandal! No siree!! haha...
- They'll stay in their crib until 2:30pm and it's play time again!  The living room looks like I run a daycare now!  The boys love playing with bigger toys now so the living room is getting crowded!  We had to remove the baby jail since Jacob was becoming a danger to himself by trying to climb over it.  We got scared that he would fall over and hurt himself bad.  We're trying to baby proof the whole living room and since it's an enclosed space, with the baby gate, it's just become its own big baby containment center.  Gabe is currently changing our tv stand as the one we currently have is completely open.  Our new one has doors that should keep the boys at bay from our tv stuff.
- At around 3 we have another snack time, usually a banana and some Mum Mums with peanut butter or hummus (which I hate but I'm trying to not transfer my dislikes to my children... other things I hate but they seem to like: peas & green beans).  While they snack, I try to clean up more around the kitchen and unload the dishwasher if I didn’t have time yet.  This is nice because they can normally feed themselves and that liberates me tackle other tasks. 
- After snack time, we either play, watch some “Baby Babble” (which has saved my sanity at times... thanks YouTube!), or go for a wagon walk if we haven’t gone in the morning.  I sometimes take a longer walk at this time if I feel like being healthy but that doesn’t often happen.  I know I know... I should but give me a break; most of the time, I’m just trying to get through the day. 
- We get home and play some more.  I try to incorporate some learning playtime but it’s hard when there are three of them.  I try to read but there are at least two eating the book or swatting at it.  I try to teach them motor skills but while I work with one, the other two are either getting in trouble or trying to climb on top of me.  Mostly, we just play on the floor and laugh or I’ll let them play independently.  It doesn’t seem to slow them down in their development so I don’t feel that bad.  As an educator, I wish I could do more, but I do what I can and hope for the best.  So what if my children won’t read by the time they’re two?  So what if they still can’t point at their nose as the development email I got says they should now be able to do by now?  They’ll do it at their own pace and that’s ok with me. 
- Daddy gets home between 4 and 4:15 (yeah!!! Relief!!!) and he takes over while I start preparing supper.  He sometimes feels bad that I’m always the one making supper but it’s another “Y” time for me that I really enjoy. 
- Supper is at 5 and unless we’re eating something they can’t handle yet (Chicken Quesadillas, Pita Pizza, etc.) they’re eating a version of what we eat. 
- After supper, Pépère Arsenault takes them for about a 45 minute walk.  This gives Gabe and I time to clean up supper and the boys’ mess, watch Ellen, and have our own supper.  The boys normally take a small nap on the walk depending on how well they slept during their afternoon nap.  Yesterday, they gave us a whole TWO HOURS of afternoon nap time!  This never happens!  Samuel had woken up about 45 minutes in and was babbling away and I knew that if I went to get him, within an hour, he’d be pretty fussy so I let him babble and whatdoyouknow he fell back asleep and they all slept until THREE! Man I was excited… but that was a fluke that didn’t happen today.  It was ok today though because one of my BFFs Ainslie (who just got her PhD by the way, GO AINS!!! xx) came to visit and she got a chance to visit with the boys before she had to head back to Halifax.  Send some positive vibes that they start giving me some two hours naps when I’m alone!!

This is the longest schedule update eh?  Sorry, almost done!

- When Pépère gets back, it’s bath time for one of the boys.  Since they still don’t get really dirty during the day, I alternate their bathing nights.  I tried bathing them all at once the other day, alone, as they had peanut butter from head to toe and it didn’t go so well.  Who do you leave in the bathtub while getting the other ones?  Your least favorite? Haha?  That changes day to day… I figured it out but I felt like I had run a half marathon after it was all over (which I’ve never done so I don’t really know but I imagine that’s how it feels like). 
- After bath time, it’s bum changes, pyjamas and bottles.  We try to time pyjamas and bottles very closely because they associate the pyjama with bottle and if the bottles aren’t ready to go, they are not happy campers! 
- Are you ready for this day to finally end??  After bottles, we play for about 20 minutes and then it’s at long last… BED TIME!!! We hardly ever hear them cry, so when they do, it’s super surprising and we know there’s something up but we let them cry for about 10 minutes and 95% of the time, they fall asleep within that time frame. 
- After bed time, we chat with my in laws for a bit and then we are both done from exhaustion.  Unless one of us has an outing or an errand to run, we veg on the couch browsing the internet or watch a sitcom and sadly, we often forget, in our haze, that one another exists.  We’re trying harder now to make time for discussion but we like our routine, and we are still married after almost a full year of raising triplets so that says a lot about us I think.  We very seldom fight, unless you count eye rolling or heavy sighing as fighting…lol. 
- Bed time for me is about 10pm and then we start all over the next day. 

It sounds draining I know, but when my mom is here, it makes it easier, and weekends are great because Gabe is with me.  I am lucky to have, for the most part, very content little boys so that’s another plus.  My life is filled with exhaustion for sure, but mostly, it’s filled with joy, laughter and so much love I can’t even handle it.  Don’t ever feel an ounce of pity for me because I wouldn’t change my life for anything in the world.  More money would be nice though… haha! 

Here are some pictures of the week… 

This is my new version of secure baby jail when I feel they can't be trusted to be left alone

They seem to like it well enough but are often found to be piling one on top of another.  Jacob almost got his face smooshed in the other day by Zachary walking on his face poor little buddy...

Jacob is still being a monkey and trying to climb out! 

Zachary has discovered his new favorite thing to do... play with the door stopper


Another "new to them" favorite toy



I think Zachary spent about 45 minutes playing with it, exploring every side very carefully.  

Mamie brought some cereal boxes to play with.  They didn't realize they had to eat what was inside and not the actual box! 



Yum! Fruit Loop Box! 

How cute is Zach in his little vest?? 

Jacob too!  We only have two so Samuel had to go without... we're looking for a third. 

Jacob thought it would be funny to flip my whole basket of clean laundry over his head... thanks bud! 

They are loving their new open space! 

Jacob looking sweet as ever

This is the upgraded play area (sans baby jail)

Zachary thought it would be fun to stop Jacob by pulling on his necklace to get at the water bottle... Jacob looks pleased eh?

They quickly learned how to empty the organization bins




Samuel looking solemn

With their new Cars couch!  First birthday gift from Matante Cindy & family


One of their favorite toys right now are those lotion bottles.  Samuel had a half hour long conversation with it last night.  Oh, and he started singing... mostly La La La but still cute as ever! 

Jacob showing off his Costco penguin PJ's.  7.99$ y'all!! Carter's too!! It's a steal!  Especially when my mother paid for them! haha... thanks mom!

Zachary seeing what this whole soother thing Jacob loves so much is all about

Jacob's bum hurt today and this is the only position he liked to be in.  

Watching Despicable Me 2 with Daddy



Don't they look so big!!



Gabe and I had a night out on Friday courtesy of our friends MC & Serge who went off gallivanting in Paris and left us tickets to a show they had won... Well these girls blew me away... Les Soeurs Boulay... Even if you're not French, you should have a listen because they are great.  I bought their album today and although they are ten times better live, I'm amazed by their talent.  If you have the chance, have a listen... Les Soeurs Boulay - Mappemonde.
Thanks for following my crazy life everyone!  Have a great week!  



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