Yes, it's hard!

 Walking through the mall today, a lady said "it must be a lot of work" and for the first time I answered "Yes, yes it is!"...  The boys are almost 1.5 years old and they are full blown toddler stage.  They know the meaning of no and they don't like it.  It takes Jacob at minimum 15 minutes to get over it when we tell him he can't have the remote, our phone, our light clicker or the iPad (yes, for some reason he's obsessed with electronics even though we let him have our phone like once a month).  He cries like it's the end of the world and this can happen 5-6 times in the run of a morning.  We've discovered that if we're not out of the house by 9am on the weekends, it's a gong show of toddler tears in our house (and maybe a little of mom and dad too).  It's hard when all they want to do is be on you, and then be off you, and then be on you and then be off you again while you're trying to prevent the other two from biting one another.  Every object has become a weapon and every piece of furniture has become a "oooo let's climb on this, this looks safe!".  It's hard on the brain and the heart and it's hard on a relationship.  I tell you, if Gabe and I survive the first 5 years of raising triplets together without killing each other, we'll be together forever.  I'm not sure there's a truer test of a relationship than what we're going through now.  I'm more of a go with the flow, everything will be ok kind of gal where Gab is more anxious about the boys and all their crying.  Trust me, it gets to me too but maybe the maternity leave made me tougher of their tears and tantrums...  So Jacob is a crying machine lately, doesn't even want to be in the wagon or his car seat, like EVER.  It takes us 5 minutes to put him in his car seat and he's crying to get out of the wagon he use to love within 5 minutes of being in it.  Samuel is super sensitive to everything.  He's always been sensitive but lately, it's been intensified.  He'll cry if he falls on his bum, he'll cry if he trips over a toy, he'll cry if he bumps into the couch, he'll cry if his brothers take something from him (and bites now too), he'll cry if we scold him for biting his brothers and he'll cry if we scold his brothers.  Zachary is ok for the most part but now he no longer wants to go to bed... Remember our days when we use to just lay them down in their crib without a sound even after an hour or two of play?  Well Zachary sure doesn't... we've had to begin the sleep training all over again with him!  He was crying so much and with such sadness tonight that I broke down and went to get him poor little dude but of course, as soon as I left the room with him, his brothers woke up and noticed and also started crying... Of course they had to pick the night that Gabe had decided to go change our van tires at his parents' house...  Well, I did what I always did, I sang Zachary a sweet lullaby (well a Pearl Jam song but still), put him to bed with loving words and left him in his crib.  He and his brothers were still crying when I sat down to write this blog but what do you know?  They self soothed and are now peacefully sleeping...  So yes, it's getting quite difficult which makes me worry about my summer coming up... will I be able to care for them alone two or three times a week?  I'll still be sending them to daycare as we'll lose our spot if we don't continue to pay but I was planning on keeping them with me a few days a week since I'll be home anyway but now I'm thinking: "Man, if Gabe and I have a hard time with them when we're together, how will I manage alone?".  I know I have done it before but they're much busier now...  I'm sure I'll figure it out... people keep telling me it gets easier but what about those terrible twos and threes and what about those f-ing fours??

I don't want to be sound like a nag nag nag, we do have our good times.  This morning was actually quite fun, we played a lot outside and we brought them in the backyard this afternoon and they had a blast and we all laughed.  We have our beautiful moments and I love those so so much, they make my heart smile.  I think the key is to keep them occupied with different activities so now that the weather is nicer, we'll be able to do just that, we just need to find spots where we can let them loose and let them explore.  Them discovering the backyard this afternoon was wonderful to see.  Zachary even fell face first in the mud and turned around and laughed! He had a brown nose for hours... so cute.  I'm sure these feelings that I have aren't helped by the fact that I was sick as a dog all weekend and could barely move on Saturday afternoon, evening and night.  We went to our NICU reunion and I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.  Gabe really stepped up for me yesterday, he took the boys for an hour walk so that I could rest by myself all alone on the couch, he then took them to Costco so I could nap without feeling that I needed to be up and helpful.  His parents came over early so that all I had to do was make grilled cheese and lay back on the couch for the rest of the evening... I was in bed an hour after the boys.  I am so thankful to have such a caring husband and supportive family.  Sadly, I couldn't see my side of the family because I didn't know what I had and I didn't want to infect my sister and my mom couldn't see me because she was going on a trip with my sister today.  I was also supposed to go spend a lunch with parents in the NICU because today is World Prematurity Day and I wanted to go show my support but I didn't want to take the chance of infecting those little itty babies... I know if I were a NICU parent, I wouldn't have wanted me there.  Hopefully soon I can become a NICU veteran and go help the parents navigate the scary halls of NICU hell... 

We had a great evening Wednesday to celebrate my sister's 38th birthday and my parents' anniversary which fall on the same day.  The whole clan invited themselves over, which works perfectly for us and we had a great time.  The boys had their first taste of KFC and my sister made the most delicious chocolate cake I've ever tasted... from scratch y'all!  The boys loved it too of course!  People may think it's odd that my sister made her own birthday cake but here's my thoughts on this... It's her own damn birthday so she should have the cake SHE wants and she knows the cake she makes is her favorite so why would she settle for store bought?  I know that if I want my favorite food, I'm not going to let anyone but me choose what it is, lol!  Anyways, we had a great time and it was my sister's last days with her beautiful hair.  She had already cut it to shoulder length but by Friday, her hair was falling out pretty badly that she decided to shave it off (see pics below).  She looks amazing!  Her next treatment is on Thursday so please cross your fingers or say a little prayer if that's your thing that this one will go as smoothly as the last one.  She only had a few bad days last time so we're hoping for the same this time around... 

I also had a moms of multiples night out this week, it was needed!!  We do this every month and it makes us multiple mammas feel normal in a world filled with singleton parents.  There was three new ladies there, one who is actually a sister of an old high school friend a young mamma of young 2 year old boys and another mom to be (she was 20 weeks along).  Caroline, the first one, was 38 weeks pregnant at the time (she may have delivered by now lol) and looked fabulous.  We did a round circle of introduction and I'm sure we scared them crapless!  I hope they come back and become as crazy as us!

The boys went to speech pathologists this week and they're doing great!  They're having a hard time with pointing (to their body parts, to images in a book, to anything in general) but as far as their words go, they're pretty good.  Sam has the biggest vocabulary and Zachary has the smallest but they're not even worried about Zachary so one more preemie worry out of the way!  It's great that our prematurity hasn't led us to any setbacks so far and I hope to see that continue.  I think the real test will be when the boys start school... which is far away... we still have to get through these Wonderful Ones (right?!?), terrible twos and threes and the f-ing fours before we get to school age... should be fun!!!  

Alright, have a good week y'all!!  Here are some pics :)

My multiple mammas Alicia and Mel and two of my closest friends... <3

Boys doing some hallway shopping cart demolition derby

The boys loving their play kitchen

First official spring walk... notice their sun hats and socked feet :)

Photos out of order... oh well

We had installed a mosquito magnet door net and the boys had a great time getting in and out of it

See?  It's not as bad as I make it seem, they still have their happy moments! 

Look at those smiles!! 

My sister and her dog Mia who is wearing her pink Peyton Manning shirt that her husband's co-workers bought her :)

Samuel loving my sister's cake

Happy Birthday sis!! 

Do we like bananas you think?  Smoothies galore!  Oh yeah... and THAT CAKE!!! Yummy! 

<3

My sister and my mom are visiting my beautiful Mémère in Campbellton.  Wish I could be there... xox

And my beautiful aunt... she was our #1 babysitter as kids :) 

This was taken 10 mins ago... my second little dude who didn't want to sleep without cuddles... I love the cuddles as this is the only time they give them to me now but this is sleep time little buddy...  

Have a good week y'all...