Tripletville Adventures : And on it goes...

And the bedtime saga continues... we go through epic fails and small wins. Yet again, just when we think we've got it figured out, they throw in a curve ball. They are so freaking wired tonight that we've been at it for 20 minutes now non stop in and out of the room and it's like someone lit a fire under their little bums. Plain out refusing to go to bed, 5 time outs have already been issued and a few tears have been shed. At this moment, Gab is trying to convince them to stay in bed but as I look over in the monitor, Zachary is throwing his pillow on the ground and Jacob is getting out of his bed and so is Samuel and they are convincing each other to go get Mommy or Daddy... This cycle is never ending. I know that this is simply another phase and that this too shall pass but man, this is one of the hardest ones... but maybe all the other ones were this hard and you just forget how hard they are once you get through them. I remember at times how difficult of a baby Zachary was between the hours of 3pm and 9pm... We had to walk around with him, face away from our body until he fell asleep. It was a terrible time trying to figure out just what was wrong with our little dude. He was a pretty unhappy little guy until he learned to walk at 15 months so it was a long haul... But again, as I look back, it didn't seem that bad. I hope that after this phase is over, we'll look back and tell ourselves that it wasn't that bad but trust me, right now, it's pretty freaking bad. We are simply EXHAUSTED even if it's not "OUR" turn. Unless we leave the house, we're still in it. It may be Gab's turn tonight as I write this but I had to take some time out to go tap in because it was just getting too much. They really are wired tonight. I blame the chocolate milk they had a supper (just kidding C & C ;) ). They had such a good morning playing outside for 4 hours this morning with their friends that they had an extra long nap so that is most likely playing a role in tonight's shananigans. We are now 33 mins in and they might be (might) finally settling down a bit. I had to pretend I would close the door if they didn't stay in bed. When I actually closed the door, it truly terrified them, this was not my intent, poor little dudes. They are actually quiet right now... this may be it. As difficult as it was, if 36 mins is all it took, I'd say it's still a small win! I'm now knocking on virtual wood hoping that I didn't jinx it all!

I won't bore you with all the daily struggles of bed time but just know there have been ups and downs.

Dammit... now they banging on the wall... and now Sam is out of bed... Here we go again... Damn you worthless virtual wood! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I am so loving this new weather!!! We get home from daycare, straight to the backyard we go and play until after supper. Since we unfortunately don't have a patio door to lead from the house to the backyard I was finding it quite annoying to bring the boys in for supper only to bring them right back out so I decided to bring supper out to them pretty much every night. On Wednesday night it was just me and the boys for a little while and that's when I decided to start having supper outside. I made three different kinds of sandwich. Of course, they weren't as overjoyed about them as I was but I was pretty pleased that I managed all by myself! I actually enjoyed it a lot. I'm not sure they were good because they knew it was just me or they were just having a good day but they were such good listeners! We were alone until Gab came home and we had a nice family night playing outside. They are loving spending so much time outside and I am loving how little TV they are now watching. We are trying to limit the TV for the summer so that they DO spend as much time outside as possible. I read an article the other day that was talking about a study about children and the screen. They claimed that most children were able to identify up to 50 brand logos but only about 10 outdoor nature elements. This stayed with me. As a outdoor survival instructor, I used to be able to identify many different plants, flowers, trees and bugs but now I can hardly tell one tree from the next. I have two red maple trees in my front lawn and I had to ask my mother what kind of trees they were. It was pretty obvious as they had maple leaves that were red... did I feel stupid or what? I really want my children to love the outdoors as much as I do and appreciate it as much as I used to. I want to relearn all I've lost so that I can pass on that knowledge to them. I'd love to teach them how to build lean to's and fires and water collectors... when they're older of course but the love of nature needs to start young. I hope we can get them out for a few hikes at least sometime this summer. Gab and I need to get back into shape but first our children need to go the f*** to sleep! lol!

Aside from the bedtime mayhem, and the occasional tamper tantrum (mostly from Sam these days), the boys are so much fun! We had an amazing weekend! We were up bright and early on Saturday, chilled out for a few hours and drove up to Shediac to spend the morning with my family. We drove the golf cart, we played in the park and even helped (watched) Pappy build his shed. We came home for a nice nap and then went to crash a BBQ at Charline's house where they played in the sand box, jumped on the trampoline, played with an electrical tractor and all of Rémi's other toys. We came home a little later than normal (like 30 mins lol) and went to bed fairly quickly actually. Today we got up and watched a little TV as we waited for our friends. Kelly Ho and my friend Jillian were coming over to play in our amazing fenced in backyard. We played out there for a long time. They had a nice long nap and then my in laws came over and took them to the park giving Gab and I some much needed time to catch up on chores and food prep.

Here's the week in pics:

Then : 3lbs 1oz, Now : Around 24 lbs

Then : 3lbs 8 1/2 oz Now: About 24 lbs

Then: 3lbs 5lbs Now: About 25 lbs

Backyard fun!

Their new favorite thing... hanging on the half built gazebo

The boys are saying goodbye to their little friend in the next car

Asking Samuel to smile... pretty good!

Asking Jacob to smile... well...

Can you say CHANDLER BING??

Zachary's smile looks like he's in pain!

Picnic!

Racing on their balance bikes! Samuel is getting sooooo good at them!

Coucou!

Family in red to support our fallen RCMP officers for the 2nd year anniversary of their deaths...

Riverview High School's Royal Road for Kids! So much fun and for such a good cause!

Alfie and Alicia! I didn't bring the boys this year as it cut into their nap time and they are still a little too young to truly enjoy. In a few years they'll be ready!