Snot Fun Again

Well, after a ridiculous extension of winter, the weather around here has finally turned the corner and is starting to warm up and allow for outdoor activities. Wouldn't you know it that all three of the kids have now gotten a cold.

Ryan started first and is the worst of the three. The poor little guy has lost his appetite, is running a fever, and all he really wants to do is be held. Perrin is the same and you know Sarah is ill when she doesn't want to eat! I think this is the first time she's ever declined a meal. And of course, they all have runny noses! Sarah is the slimiest, but they're all pretty bad and disgusting.

Speaking of meals, earlier in the day I was busy around the house and the kids were all playing on the floor with their toys, having a good time despite being sick. I went to the bathroom and when I came out, Sarah and Perrin had taken a bag of Pretzel Chips I left next to my computer desk and they spilled them all over the carpet and they had their little faces buried in the piles of pretzel chips, gnawing away like we never feed them. They didn't just knock the bag over either, they completely emptied it out----little bits of crumbs and salt crystals all over the floor.

Once I got them out of the area to clean it up, Sarah kept crawling back to try and grab a few more handfuls for her and Perrin! I had to put her in her jumperoo so that I could vacuum in peace. Yes, they've almost become as active as free range chickens. We've had to wall off so many places because they would run all over the house if we let them. The picture to the left is from the hallway between the kitchen and the living room. No matter what we're doing, they like to follow us through out the day as we clean the kitchen or go there to make them bottles. Now that they are much faster, we had no choice but to install the gate. It cracks me up when they do this, almost like they're demanding to see their lawyer or get their one phone call. If you click on the photo and look in the background, you'll see Ryan hanging out as he makes his way to join the other two.

The other pictures are of Ryan at Easter. I was holding him while I ate dessert and he just decided to help himself. He put his face down on my pound cake (with chocolate syrup) and just went to town gnawing on it. The end result was a baby Hitler mustache! The second one was taken recently first thing in the morning. Generally they wake up in great moods and when I get them up I pick up all three at once (That's almost 60 pounds of baby if you're doing the math) and I then make my way to the front room to change them and we all start off with a big group hug. They usually like it and smile a lot, but it also usually ends up with one of them hitting me or each other and then Ryan gets his hair pulled and the good will falls apart at that point.

My next post will have a pretty big announcement, so stay tuned!

Update #2

When I updated earlier this week, the last photo I posted was of Ryan in full super-ultimate flexing mode! The picture to the left is the result of his dedication to working out and being the most powerful beast he can be. He just got too excited one day and took this rattle and destroyed it in a happy fit against his jumperoo! If you look closely he's actually cracked the rattle ball in half. I fear this will be a common event for him as he grows, but luckily he's a gentle soul and I'm hoping he won't do it often.

The babies had another doctor visit that was pretty eventful on a few fronts. First and foremost, they are all still doing very very well. They're bigger, heavier, and faster and I've posted their new weights and heights on the left side. They are doing so well that we won't have to see him again until they are one year old! That's pretty cool when you think about it. Dr. Klipfel then shocked us by saying we should stop the formula and give them a try on whole milk! They handled it well without any serious throwing up, but they just weren't digesting it well and their poo was getting lighter and lighter in color and had started to glow in the dark. So, after a week on Milk, we've switched back to formula and we'll try milk again at the beginning of May.

The most jarring development has been their mobility! I thought they were moving around a lot before, but that was nothing. We all know what it's like when there is one baby learning to crawl, but try and imagine three of them? It's exhausting. Sarah has definitely taken the lead in crawling all over----not just army crawling, but regular crawling most of the time., but Perrin is very close behind her. Little Ryan doesn't seem to be that concerned at the time, but he has his moments.

The babies are all getting into every nook and crany that they can find. We've had to put up the gates and block off all exits because they just want to go and explore! We even had to put up a clear plastic panel over the TV components because they have become very interested in punching the VCR or stereo. Because it's clear, they don't understand it and often run into it with their head, similar to a bird flying into your picture window. But the point is that the kids are everywhere and once before we had the gates up, we even had to dig Perrin out of the dryer!!

Now that the babies are older we are taking them out more and more often with us because they are usually so well behaved. It's too the point that they now have friends of their own. Living closest to us is their friend Finnegan Danger Curry who is our friend Tom and Colleen's son, and Ellie Shively from Ohio who is our friend's Brian and Heather's daughter. They're both extremely cute and they each have their own blogs! If you have a few moments take a visit to their blogs and see for yourself. You can find them by clicking on their names on the left hand side.

I'll close this out with a nice little closeup of the boys sleeping on Meva! As always, click on the images to see a bigger and better picture!

Update #1

As the babies get older, we spend more time just keeping up with them and playing. More and more they crave interaction and love to have Meva or myself sing and play with them. In that regard March has probably been the busiest month we've had since Perrin had his surgery. So, what have we been up to? Lots!

Our friends Tom and Colleen had a St. Patrick's Day birthday bash for Tom and we brought the kids along with us. In typical fashion we spent more time holding the babies and talking and forgot to take some photo's of the evening, but the following day I got some pictures of them in their St. Patrick's hats. Sarah was sick around this time with a cold and was unnormally crabby. You can tell by looking at her eyes that she's tired and a bit under the weather.

Perrin took some hilarious photo's during this session. I swear the kid perpetually looks like he is startled or has hiccups in many of his pictures, he's going to be our ham, I can just tell. Ryan on the other hand thinks that photos are stupid; he must hate them because he rarely smiles during them. I get the feeling looking at his serious scowls in some of these pictures that he's going to be shaking down kids on the playground for their lunch money!! Well, I was lucky enough to get a quick pic of him almost smiling. Looking at them together I imagine them as a before and after of getting someone else's lunch money.

Sarah of course just wanted to eat things when I was taking these pictures, it's her way! I must have tried to take about 15 different pictures trying to get one in which she didn't look like she was a zombie. This was the best we could do with her.

The rest of the month saw many visitors and outing for the kids. They went out to eat three times and were so wonderful during each meal. They just smiled and played and especially in Perrin's case, they looked all over at all the activity happening around them.

With that period of about 2-3 weeks in which Sarah was sick with a little cold. That meant she was a bit cranky and wanted to sleep quite a bit. Even when she was up and awake, she still looked run down and tired. That didn't mean she couldn't begin training for the 2020 Olympics, which she intends to compete in the gymnastic events and has started doing the splits!

Not to be outdone, our resident tough guy Ryan has also gotten into the whole exercise and health thing by working out. We won't goo too much into his regimen right now, but when he is done with his workouts, he often likes to check on his progress and does some flexing to show off his massive fisher price muscles.

As always, click on the photo for a larger image. I hope to post again in the next day or two to show even more photo's of what's been going on.