Catching Up

It's been a while, huh? We've been pretty busy, so here's a little pictorial guide as to what we've been up to.

In late April, we went home to visit family and friends in Ohio. The babies got to hang out with Ellie Shively and meet the newest Shively member, Maggie. Maggie worked her charms on Chuck and had him reconsidering his visit to the urologist a few years back. No such baby mojo coming my way.

Miss Ellie was a real charmer and so sweet. She is only 2 months older than our kids, but she's so much more verbal and active and kind to her books. She has a little baby magazine subscription that is paperback that she generously shared. Our kids got out their board books that have been duct taped several times over and still barely hanging on and probably weren't that good at sharing them. We all went down to the park with Grandma and had fun feeding ducks and swinging. Chuck went down a huge spiral slide with Perrin. Too bad Chuck's heart is young but his butt isn't - he hardly fit in the diameter of the thing and it took forever to reach the bottom. We are normally a sight to see when we travel via triplet train, but with Ellie making up the caboose, even more so. Ellie and Sarah were fast friends, and later Ellie's mom sent me this picture with an update.

"I bought some little rag dolls for Ellie at a garage sale last weekend, four for $1.oo. She loved them instantly and then I heard her talking to them. Guess what she named them all on her own???? Ryan, Sarah,Perrin and Maggie!! All babies have been Maggie up unto this point but not anymore! Ryan is a naked black-haired girl, Sarah is a blond-haired girl and Perrin in a little black baby! We took them with us to Brian's first base ball game last weekend and she pulled them in her doll wagon and carried them around all day calling them by name."


Here's a video of the babies playing outside...


And our future soccer player....




The weather is finally starting to turn and we are trying to get the babies outside a little more, which they just love. These are some pics of a good time outside with daddy a few weeks back. Dad had lots of fun with the sidewalk chalk Michelle sent our way at Christmas. I'm glad he left the chalk outlines for the feet, if it had been baby body chalk outlines when I got home, I'd be worried. Here's a little tail end to wrap up the chalk pictures...


Uncle Louie came up and visited. He made the babies ham rolls and they beat him up for it. The babies love watching this & kiss the camera if you show it to them through the viewvinder.
Click to see the video.



One of my oldest friends, Rachel, was passing through and stayed over for a very nice visit. Chuck and I hold Rachel in very high regard, as it was after a long waivering discussion about whether there should be a second date at all, that she gave us a thumbs up... so we credit Rachel with a large role in Sarah, Perrin, and Ryan being here at all. Here's the babies swarming her to thank her for this.


The babies' best friend Finn has been over a fair amount this month, which we've all enjoyed, except maybe Finn. He is so much a part of the family that he is played with and bullied as if her were the fourth sibling. I'd say this is a perfect example of that, but the credit for this one all goes to Finn alone. It makes me think of the days during the end of my pregnancy where I'd be laying down and Chuck would taunt his "turtle" before helping me up. I'm feeling your pain, Finn.


"Who Leaked on the Carpet?"
Speaking of pain, have I mentioned there are two things I dread about having three babies at once. 1) Potty Training. 2) Drivers Ed with a 100 hour supervised driving per child requirement for licensure. So, the babies are just shy of turning two. I figured I should educate myself about how to best get through the potty training stage. Turns out, they aren't quite ready for it... but they are ready to get ready. So, we are talking a lot about pee and poop lately. This is really nothing new for Chuck, but now we are signing it a lot.

Well, it's taken me a while and an early morning rise before babies to get this blog posted... but Grandma Muriel did say she hadn't seen any new pictures of Sarah in a long time. So, for Grandma Muriel and for Sarah to hate me later...here's a good one.