The Kennedy Triplets

All About Sarah

2009-09-15T14:27:00.004-05:00

We've got some catching up to do later, but for right now this post is all about Sarah and her first field trip. Her class is learning about Trees, so they took a field trip to one of our local forest preserves along the Des Plaines River at the Isle A La Cache museum. Meva and I have taken the kids there before, so it was a return trip for the two of us.

Yesterday was a tough evening around the house because the boys didn't want to listen to daddy and wouldn't clean up their toys, but Sarah was very helpful and worked really hard despite "those boys aren't helping Daddy!" so I let the cat out of the bag early. I shared a special secret with her and told her that I would be coming to school with her and riding the bus with her on the field trip, but it was a secret and she couldn't tell "those boys." She never did, which was pretty cool. She was a little upset that I didn't ride the bus with her from the house in the morning, but I whispered to her that I would drive our van to school and see her there and she seemed to be OK with that.

So once I got to her classroom, I walked through the doorway and one of the greatest moments in my life happened. Sarah saw that I was there and everything else in the world was completely unimportant---her face just lit up and she yelled, "My Daddy!" over and over as she opened her little arms out as wide as possible and ran up to me. I got great big hugs and I was plastered with a barrage of kisses! There are few moments that will top that I'm sure.

So I met her teachers and her and she showed me her room a little before we sat down and played puzzles while we waited to go. Once on the bus, we sat together and practiced signing colors and common words until we got to the Forest Preserve and walked the trails learning about trees and seeing frogs, a turtle, fish, and a few cranes. Sarah loved climbing over the logs and collecting leaves. She also learned that water can work like a mirror and we both waved to "Water Sarah & Water Daddy" from the top of a walkway bridge. Then we had a mini picnic (sorry Nana, we didn't make it to a cemetery for this one) and ate our snacks next to the river before playing Duck Duck Goose and going back to school. We both had a really nice time and a great adventure! Double click the pictures below to see bigger images.

Sarah on a Rock in front of the river trying to keep the sun out of her eyes AND smile for Daddy. If you look behind her you can see the bridge were we saw our "Water" counterparts.

A big part of their learning is touching things, so what better way to learn about trees than to become a tree hugger? She even has a "big" leaf that she found and carried around with her.

Always the leader, she motivated the other kids to follow her example.

Further along the way the path narrowed through some tall prairie grass. We named it tickle grass since it tickles little kids when they walk by.

Finally, here is a bit of video of Sarah learning to play Duck Duck Goose. They say that the chase is the best part and I think Sarah agrees with them.

Quick Update

2009-08-28T19:06:00.002-05:00

Now that the kids are in school, they are getting exposed to a greater level of socialization. One of the aspects of that is seeing their peers using a "potty." This has motivated Meva and I to step up our efforts at home since this is being modeled and pushed at school as well.

Surprisingly, it is hazardous.

How? Today one of the boys had an "accident" in the kitchen. Unfortunately I wasn't informed of it and ended up walking into the puddle, slipped, and twisted my knee. Yep, I now have a potty training injury! I'm guessing that only a parent can fully appreciate this.

First Day of School!!!

2009-08-25T08:54:00.006-05:00

Out of fear for my life, I have shoved all ideas of domestic productivity aside so that I could include this special first day of school update!! Mostly this prevents an angry visit from Nana & Papa to personally kick me in the tookus!

Wow, what a first day!! After going to a special "Meet & Greet" day yesterday, the triplets all had a chance to meet their teachers and see their classrooms. It was such a great help for them to get used to the idea of school and seeing who they would be spending time with away from Mom and Dad. The kids all enjoyed their time there and cried when we told them it was time to go back home, but once they left we spent the rest of the day going over what to expect and what their teacher's names are.

So this morning I got the kids up at 7am so that they could catch the bus in front of our house at 7:56am according to the bus company. I was a bit concerned about them sitting on the bus for almost an hour (they are scheduled to arrive at school at 9am) but as we were already outside waiting, the bus driver called us and said she wouldn't be picking them up until 8:16 or so. Meva and I were very happy about this.

We started the kids day off with a special breakfast of apple juice, pumpkin pancakes, and brain food (vitamins and fish oil) and had them dressed, fed and ready 10 minutes early for the original time. That's absolutely unheard of for us! It was awesome. But they ate and we waited again for the bus and when it arrived we loaded them up and got them in their seats. They were eager to go and there wasn't one tear or breakdown out of any of them. In fact, Sarah got tired of me taking pictures and told me "Go down the stairs Daddy!" I guess it was time to go!

The quiet of the house was weird, a little scary, and surreal once the kids left. There was even this strange and attractive women here that said she was my wife. It was bizarre for both of us, but we handled it as well as the kids. Deep down I know they are good kids and when it came right down to it, I trust them to behave and handle the situation. It's strange to say that at 3 years, but it's true.

When they got home, it was more of the same confident faces greeting me. They all told me they had a good time at school and the only one who had any meltdown was Perrin, but that wasn't until I told him Mommy was at work.

Sarah has a first year teacher, Mrs. Tawny and is in the Deer class. She is very nice, but did not send home any note to describe how Sarah's first day went. Apparently this will be a year of growth for both teacher and student, but that's fine.I took the absence of news as an indication that she was fine today, which I expected. She has 8 kids in her class and there are three adults, so she has plenty of socializing opportunities.

Perrin is in the Owl class and his teacher is Ms. Diane. I believe there are only 6 kids in Perrin's class. She sends home a daily sheet that chronicles what he did and what he played with. I included today's copy at the bottom of this post. He read a book, went to the playground, played with blocks, did math games, and participated in music.

Ryan is in Ladybug class with Mrs. Nancy. His class has 4 kids and 3 adults, which will allow for him to be attended to very easily. I think that will be a huge benefit for him more than the other two. Ms. Nancy reported that Ryan had a good day as well. He also went to the playground and came back with a photo of him on a big kid swing all by himself! That was a wonderful surprise. Ryan also received a certificate for successfully completing his first day in the Ladybug Class, the first of many awards I am sure!

And that has been their first day of school! It's getting to be nap time for them and they are starting to show they've had an early and busy day. Below are the pictures, and even a video, from today. Click on any photo to enlarge it!

Holding hands and waiting for the bus

Hey, Mom's Taking Pictures. GET HER!!!

Is that Our Bus Coming? Where Are Our Backpacks?

Here's Ryan & His Monkey.

Sarah Has Her Pig.

Perrin Hides Behind His Dog.

Off To Catch The Bus.

The Bus Pulled Right Up To The Driveway & The Triplets Got On Board

Ryan Was Buckled In And Ready To Go

Perrin Waves Goodbye

Daddy, Go Down The Stairs!!!

This Is A Weird Picture. I Caught A Reflection Off The Buss Window, But If You Look Closely You Can See Each Kid Smiling And Me Too!

This Is Perrin's First Day Report

Ryan's Certificate

And Finally, Little Ryan On A Big Kid Swing!!

Daddy's Not Ready

2009-08-21T15:49:00.005-05:00

Well, as I write this it is only 4 days until the triplets start preschool!! I can hardly believe it, especially when I think about everything that Perrin has gone through since he was born just 3 short years ago. It's just amazing.

On Tuesday the school district had a "getting to know your bus" orientation for preschool and kindergarten students. The district put on a pretty big event that had a carnival atmosphere to it, complete with Moon Jumps, Clowns, Balloon Animals, Caricature Artists, Face Painting, and Train Rides. They also had free snacks and juice for the kids. The idea was to give kids some experience with a school bus and what to expect for their first day.

This is where I found out that I am not really ready for this. Why? Well at the risk of coming off as pretentious and conceited, it was that I got to meet and see other parents and their kids. A bunch of ill-mannered, poorly behaved, and anti-social people modeling behaviors that will eventually lead to long parent conferences and discipline actions were in abundance. And the kids, while not to blame, were worse. I shudder at the habits that will rub off onto the triplets.

The best example I can give is when I had to take the kids to get their individual bus ID's. I had them in their train and I took them out one at a time for their ID's. Sarah sat in the back and when I took her out, there were parents actually telling their kids to climb into the train and play!!! You know it takes a lot for me to be stunned, but I was speechless for a few seconds. My anger must have been apparent because the mother (most parents were mothers) grabbed her kid quickly and said, "Let's Go," to which I was quick to reply, "Yeah, we aren't part of the festivities." or something very close. Sadly, I think the mom didn't know what festivities meant.

The other thing which appalled me was seeing other parents views on how they react to the word FREE. I know that many of the preschool families consist of the most economically challenged percentage of any school district, but there was more than one mother who brought shopping bags with them and filled them with the "free" bags of gold fish crackers, popcorn, and juice boxes. It was definitely an eye opener for me!

Despite there being close to 300 people there, the main focus of introducing your child to the whole bus experience was not being taken advantage of. The line I thought was for the bus, was not moving at all and packed with horrible people, kids, and strollers, all acting in ways that made me want to take off my belt for the lot of them. I turned away rather than stand in that line and walked around a little more. I chose not to give up and went back about 20 minutes later and the line was practically the same. Luckily I asked a worker about it and she told me that it was the line for the sketch artist!! She pointed to the buses and said no one is in line, so you can just go!!

I couldn't believe it. The whole point of that event was for the bus and these people were more concerned with getting balloons and sketches for their kids!! I still considered not going through with it because I knew I'd have to leave our train behind while on the bus and I really feared someone might take it. When I explained my concerns the helper offered to watch the train for me, so we all went for a bus ride.

The kids did great walking up the stairs and getting in their seats. It's a big change from 35 years ago when I was in kindergarten, mostly noticeably the seat belts. The bus driver was wonderful. He was a bit Santa-like in appearance but he was patient, slow, and talked softly and comfortably to the kids. That helped them quite a bit. We only went a couple of blocks, but it was enough for them to get a good feel for a bus ride. The boys were fine and very happy about being in their "seat belts," but Sarah was almost terrified at everything. I had to sit with her for awhile and talk her through the whole process before she accepted it and started to have fun.

They all commented on how the bus was Loud and as Ryan said, "It's Berry Bumpy Daddy." When we got done we got off the bus and the kids did very good on the big steps getting down. With everything Perrin deals with, I thought he did exceptional!

So, I despite going I'm still not convinced they will do well the first couple of days on the bus. I sincerely hope I can go with them on the bus rides the first day, but I am betting that's a no-no.

Monday is the official "Meet & Greet" day for them. We'll get to go and see their classrooms and meet their teachers so that they have at least some small idea about what to expect. We will let you know all about that afterwards.

Until then, here are some more pictures of the bus and some more that I found. Click for enlargements.

Ryan experimenting with the camera.

Photo By Sarah. That's a bow on her head. Perrin wasn't interested in doing this.

Waiting for the big kids to get out of the Moon Jump

Getting Ready For Their First School Bus Ride

Sarah sitting in the bus with her seat belt.

Ryan, happy to be on a "Berry Bumpy Bus"

Perrin almost being strangled by his seat belt. I didn't like that one so I am hoping not to put him in a seat like that on Tuesday.

That's it for now. I'll try and get their ID picture scanned---Those are hilarious!!

Grandma Brings The Thunder

2009-08-13T14:18:00.022-05:00

My mother-in-law recently threatened me over the lack of updates to this blog. Since she is due to come and spend this weekend at the house, I figure it best for my health to appease and push back her wrath!!

It's been an incredibly busy summer and posting here hasn't been even close to any kind of priority, but we have been taking some pictures and Meva has chipped in with stories from my emails to let everyone know how things are going, at least to a degree.

The big news is that the kids will all be going to pre-school this year through the local Head Start program. Perrin and Ryan qualified based on their current diagnosis with Early Childhood Development and Sarah qualified on the basis of being born premature and not wanting to "break up the band." I will give more insight to that at a later date after we know a bit more.

So far this summer we've been to Ohio twice I believe, once for a visit with Grandma and Grandpa, and the other for Meva's sister Missy's wedding. Unfortunately we were planning on a vacation just prior to the wedding, but our mini-van coughed it's last breath and we decided to spend our vacation at a car dealership! In the long run this is a much better fit because this van (another Dodge Grand Caravan, but 2005 model) is in all around better condition, has more room, stow and go seats, and a drop down DVD player for the kids. Let me tell you that I would kiss the person who made my long distance trips so much more bearable!

Anyways, here's the first batch of pictures. They go from Missy's wedding, the birthday party, and just some other fun stuff. As always, double click the photo to see a bigger image.

We were the first ones at the rehearsal dinner. Can you believe they stood together like this long enough for a photo?

This might be one of the nicest photo's Ryan has ever taken.

Of course isn't one of Sarah's best, but she gets points for being a ham.

And what's ham without a little "Cheeeeeeeese" to go with it?

Due to holidays, weddings, car troubles, and a crowded birthday season, we didn't celebrate with an actual big party until the middle of July. Luckily the triplets have yet to master a Calendar and they were none the wiser for the delay. This year it was Meva's turn to make the cakes, and she really outdid herself!! A while ago our good friend Colleen bought the kids some hats that she thought were cute, almost as a second thought I'm sure. Anyways, its always something like that which turns out to be one of the more prized items a kid has. They LOVE, and I mean LOVE those hats to the point they will only take them off to sleep and shower. So in honor of their hats, Meva made them each a hat cake!

There they are, lined up in a row-- Monkey, Dog, & Pig

Sarah posing with her pig cake.

Ryan Monkey follows suit!

Followed by the Perrin Dog. Notice his dog hat has one less eye than the cake?

I stepped up and took care of that, so now the cake and hat match!!

Newlyweds Missy and Corey were on hand. Afterwards they quit their jobs and ran away to the mountains of Vermont!! Hippies!

The triplets were blessed with so many wonderful gifts, but these Medieval outfits from Uncle Gooey (Louie) and Aunt Sharon were big hits!

Grandma Muriel helps Princess Sarah get dressed while Mommy helps Sir Fudd with his armor. Sarah's princess robes are almost as bright as Nana's socks!!
(Threaten me will you????)

Sir Ryan has discovered his outfit comes with an inflatable Excalibur.

By The Power Of Grey Skull!!!

It's always the Knight with the shunt that takes the inflatable sword to the noggin!!

I'm getting old as you can see. I don't remember why we had them in pajama's to bust open their Batman Pinata. Here I'm helping Perrin work on his swing.

Ryan is still in a zone from the sword and is taking it to Batman!!

Sarah keeps her eye on the Batman and gets ready to swing.

If you checked my Facebook status today, you'll already know I got poop in my eye. Potty training is still going on sparodicly. They really enjoy some breakfast yogurt and a few episodes of Word World while trying.

Ryan had a great time! He is wearing his Peanut Butter & Jelly Time Banana shirt he got from his Aunt Colleen for his birthday. They all have there own and they are the "new" hats!!

You can tell Sarah is really trying!!!

But with just a little notice, she'll smile for the camera!

Not Perrin though, he's too concerned about the misadventures of Word World to pay attention to his father.

Hopefully this will appease my mother-in-law and I will be able to live past the weekend. I know that somewhere we have more pictures, so I will try and find them soon and put them up there as well. Enjoy the photo's while I go and clean my stinky eye.

April

2009-07-11T09:53:00.003-05:00

We're quite a bit behind in posting things on the blog here, but we've been having a lot of fun.
Here'a a video of the kids swinging in the park when they visited Nana and Papa during Easter.
There will be more coming soon.

Another Fine Mess

2009-05-14T16:59:00.002-05:00

Just got this e-mail from Chuck, and I thought I'd share...

Baby……

Just thought I’d share a few things with you. The first is that I plan to shampoo the rugs this weekend, most likely Saturday night. The second is that Ryan decided it was more comfortable to sit all the way against the potty and then bounce up and down like he was riding a horse!!! Third, there are wires running from the back of the training potty to the front and they are very easy to get wet, so in the future you need to be aware of that if you ever have to go back there.

Yeah, what you’re thinking right now, that’s what happened!!!

Of course Ryan being the uptight little guy that he is, wasn’t happy about crapping all over the back of the potty. So he immediately started freaking out and yelling about the poop. He then stood up and walked around a bit before plopping onto the floor. Did I mention poop? At this point it was all over the potty, Ryan’s lower body, and now the carpeting that I just spot washed last night because of Fudd pooping. Somehow Ryan then got it all over his hand, which caused even more cries and whines, this time to the sound of “Mess” and “Mess Daddy” and “hand messy.” So as I tried to take off his shirt (which also got poop-sided in the initial run from the potty) he either fought me or tried to help me (I can never tell for sure what his motivation is when he does this) and proceeded to get it on his stomach and chest and my hands and arms.

We never made it to the store before nap time, Ryan got two pieces of candy because he did poop after all, and I had to take the potty into the tub and give it a shower, much to the delight of the children.

I’m not going to ask or wish it, but I will tell you to enjoy the fact that your day is better than mine!!

LOL……..we asked for kids right????

Milk table smackdown

2009-05-06T15:23:00.000-05:00

I got this e-mail today from Chuck.

Baby….

Dinner tonight will consist of chicken stir-fry. If you want anything beyond that, you’re on your own! The kids just pretty much turned on me at about 11:30---- it was all fighting, all crying, all meltdown special here at the triplet ranch and at one point Sarah’s sippy cup that still had Milk in it had the rubber insert come loose. Milk was everywhere!! She started spilling/pouring it all over and before I could figure out what was actually happening, she did it to Ryan. This was worse than a crying thing in the bathtub because it was Milk and it WAS a mess. He tried to use his words to tell her to stop it, in between cries of anger, but she refused to listen and did it again. Next thing I know (and I got to see this all in slow motion as (was trying to get there before this happened) Sarah got pushed off her feet and on to the kids little table on her back. This caused her to kick and Ryan then went ……… well you’ve seen it........all Hulk and he ripped Sarah’s pig hat off and pulled her hair until she fell off the table. That caused the sippy cup to go flying into the wall and it then opened and the milk was all over the floor I got to them at this point and got everything stopped, cleaned up, and then put to bed.

I tell you this because it’s kind of funny and as a result of what I am calling the great Milk Table Attack, they are in need of a bath today. I am waiting for you to come home tonight so you can help me as I get them into the tub.

Here’s to hoping that the naps are a help!!!

Secret Triplet Language

2009-04-07T14:52:00.002-05:00

We get asked on occasion if our kids speak any secret language.
To my knowledge there are two things.

Nunga Nunga Nunga (said very fast with exuberance) This is said when excited about something, and mixing it up with your hands. For example you might put your hands in a container of blocks, stir them up quickly and say, "nunga nunga nunga". They all say this while doing this.

Enonon. or something like that. This is something that Ryan will say to Perrin, that causes Perrin to stop what he's doing, drop to his knees and cry. Chuck thinks that maybe Ryan is telling Perrin, "enough".

Spelling List

2009-03-25T10:58:00.011-05:00

These are the words I can remember that the kids are spelling most of the time. A few of them they are a little shaky on, but I'd bet Ryan and Perrin would get better than 85% on these... Sarah isn't into spelling like the boys, but she still knows a heck of a lot of them. Does anyone know where there's a spelling bee for 2-1/2 year olds?

1. of
2. play
3. it
4. he
5. you
6. in
7. I
8. to
9. have
10. and
11. a
12. said
13. is
14. the
15. for
16. that
17. are
18. as
19. but
20. go
21. had
22. here
23. his
24. like
25. my
26. on
27. see
28. she
29. they
30. was
31. we
32. with
33. frog
34. pig
35. sheep
36. bug
37. dog
38. duck
39. robot
40. rocket
41. banana
42. bed
43. pie
44. pizza
45. can
46. pot
47. pan
48. cake
49. cookie
50. bus
51. boy
52. box
53. fox
54. rug
55. jug
56. star
57. all
58. at
59. be
60. by
61. from
62. her
63. him
64. look
65. one
66. on
67. some
68. there
69. this
70. up
71. word
72. stage
73. slide
74. stairs
75. clock
76. nest
77. net
78. canoe
79. heart
80. jet
81. hat
82. ball
83. doll
84. Ryan
85. Sarah
86. Perrin
87. mom
88. dad
89. Gus
90. goat
91. Bears
92. bus
93. doll
94. no
95. yes
96. horn
97. drum
98. Elmo
99. cap
100. map

* On another exciting note, my college friend has a daughter with hydrocephalus, like Perrin. She was told while her child was a baby that her brain was injured in the speech area, and her daughter may never speak. This girl, now around 9 years old just got 6th in the Iowa state spelling bee. Way to go Maria. Setting the bar for us all, and showing that hydro doesn't put you in a box.

Attack of the Potato Babies!

2009-03-08T01:52:00.008-06:00

It's not the photo update I talked about, but I couldn't wait to put these up any longer, they are just frickin hilarious! I hope you enjoy them. Only two of the triplets are hams enough for this kind of project, Ryan was too serious doing Ryan-type things somewhere. Double Click to see a better image!

I was at the store when Meva got these pics. Who knew Mr. Potato Head was so fun?

Seriously, he's my boy and I love him, but that is just creepy!!

He must have heard me because now he's giving me "The Look!"

Not to bee outdone, Sarah is assimilated!

Even she knows it's silly!

These pictures are going to come in handy at graduations, birthdays, before high school functions, and weddings!! I can't wait to pay them back for all the sleepless nights lost and to come.

Just Stories

2009-03-06T00:22:00.003-06:00

I have some nice picture that I'll hopefully get to putting up here soon, but it takes a bit more time to take care of than I have at the moment. That's because for each photo I put up, there is probably 4-8 that I don't and I go through them and resize them for faster loading and when necessary I crop them or fix the red eyes. I will post more later though. In the mean time here are some observations and stories that I always mean to include but often forget:

Prior to becoming a parent, I wasn't aware that there is a "Daddy Costume" that all kids require a father to wear. As such, I may have to spend the rest of my life wearing shirts without sleeves, a baseball cap, and my gym shoes. Anytime I am without any of them, the triplets get....... well, the get a bit weirded out and worried. It's pretty sad when at the age of two they are already concerned with my appearance! If I am not wearing my hat, they usually find it (or a suitable replacement) and tell me to put it on. If I tell them I don't want to, they cry. Sometimes they just ask me about why I don't have the hat on and if they don't like the answer, they go and get it for me. And they are quick about it. If I take off my shoes, or put on a regular shirt, or God forbid take off my hat, within 30-60 seconds they point it out and the entire process of getting me back in "costume" begins all over again. Perrin is the most observant, but Sarah is the most dedicated and most tenacious about what she considers my "proper attire."

For those not in the know my mother-in-law is a fantastic music teacher. She teaches music and/or band to her entire town via the elementary and middle schools (I believe this is right) in addition to her church's choir, their bell group, tons of weddings, private music lessons, and she also "chips" in and fills in when neighboring towns, districts, choirs, and the occasional heavy metal violin band needs her. She got cancer almost two years ago and begrudgingly agreed to cut back----but only giving up the private lessons. She's also a former teacher of the year for the state of Ohio. So when I say she is involved with music and that it is a big part of her life, it's not an exaggeration. I've never said this out loud (or in print) before, but my impression of her is that she is honestly the "beat" of her town. Despite that, I am still me and one of the ways I often tease her is by calling a violin (her instrument of choice) a fiddle. She humors me when I do that by not choking me. Same thing when I tease her about destroying the kids desire to enjoy music. But the other day I tried to talk Sarah into helping me tease Muriel by teaching her to call a violin a fiddle. Sarah will often do anything daddy tells her (accept the first item above), especially if I am persistent. But in this instance she absolutely refused! No matter what I said or did, no matter what I threatened or bribed her with, she would not call it a fiddle! I thought Nana should know this.

Perrin has picked up using a "deep" voice for affect. It is most notable when I get him to say, "How Dare You!" It is hilarious, especially combined with the faces that he makes as he's using it. It is precious and wonderful and I hope to get it on video very soon.

Sarah has made the switch to a toddler bed. I think it's been successful. For the first week everyone talked about the "new bed." The boys initially felt left out since they are all still in the same room and in cribs, but we've bought each child a new pillow with satin pillow cases and made a big deal out of everyone having "soft pillows" to use. It's been less than two weeks now and the focus is off of Sarah's bed and more focused on the pillows. Sarah has also very dedicated to staying in her bed and not getting out and playing by herself or with the boys. She's not perfect, but I thought it would be more of a fight. Pictures of everything will follow.

Slowly but surely I believe I see Perrin walking better and better. Thesey are small improvements and they don't come quickly, but I see these "small steps" and it makes me want to break down and cry when I think about what he's overcome, what he's currently facing, and what is/may be in store for him in the future.

They all know who Batman is!! They like him and ask to watch him. It's like Rush Limbaugh's kids asking for their first vicodane!

They are getting very good at cleaning up their toys at the end of the morning and night! They are far from perfect and need consistent and firm reinforcement to stay on task most of the time, but they aren't throwing a fit (for the most part) and at times they are awesome at this.

Just last night Sarah was having nightmares or teething pain (she's late with her 2yr molars) or something unknown, so I brought her to bed with me. As I qwnt down with her, I told her that we needed to get into "cuddle position" and as I held her to get her to sleep, we spent about 5 minutes cooing back and forth with each other! She'll never remember it, but I'll never forget it.

Ryan is getting better with his fear/anxiety of water. Still trepidatious and unsure at times, he's now pouring water on his head! He'll never be Aquaman, but he might actually enjoy time at the pool.

A big treat for the triplets is "nap time with Daddy" when we all lay down in our bed. Aside for the novelty of it, I think they enjoy the fact that I sing for them. Bless their lack of scrutiny and critical ability, but they really like my versions of songs that are often adlibbed, out of synch, and almost always out of tune. It is the only time in my life I have ever enjoyed singing (with the exception of a weird dream I had that Meva still laughs about).

Of all things that are odd and different for a little girl to like, Sarah is obsessed with a black octopus grandma Muriel gave the triplets. As the boys are reminded on a daily basis, this is Sarah's!! Woe to those who try to even touch it! It is covered with pink hearts and is holding a Valentines heart and a red rose. She will not take a nap or go to sleep without her "occa puss."

I had fun just thinking about all the above and sharing them here, so I might start doing this on a regular basis so I don't forget all the great little stories and events that are small, but tell mountains about them.

Frozen Veggies To The Rescue!

2009-02-20T01:57:00.003-06:00

Today has been a rough day. The fact that all three children are still alive and not strung up from their toes is testament to my patience........and injuries! They're still running little colds and leaking snot all over. They're crabby and selfish and want what they want when they want it, which is often 5 minutes ago. Today was like that, but worse.

I brought Ryan into bed with me around 5am because he wouldn't stop crying. He was upset because his blanket fell down. Keep in mind it was still in the crib with him covering his legs, so I don't know what he was truly upset about, but I was really tired and just wanted to go back to sleep, so I dragged him with me and we fell back to sleep pretty quickly.

When we did wake up, I went directly into the bedroom to get Perrin and Sarah. Poo biscuits filled the room with a strong stench that almost knocked me down when I opened the door. Meva said she wanted to experiment and try putting Perrin down with his pajamas on normally---the experiment failed! Maybe it's just me, but Meva seems to like to conduct these experiments when she isn't around to see the results the next morning. From now on we hold off experiments until she is here for the results, that's for sure!!

Anyways, Perrin had taken off all his clothes and his diaper. He then pooped all over the bed---on his pillow, all his dolls, his towel, his tent, and as I later found out, all around the outside of the crib! And the best part is that he did it a few hours previous so everything that he got on himself, and did I mention it was on his legs, arms, ribs, back, chin, ear, neck, cheeks, forehead, the one sock he left on for reasons only he knows, and in his nose---well that was already hard and caked.

So, I immediately set out to clean him up. It takes awhile and the boy was red from all the scrubbing, but I got him depooped and he had a clean diaper on. I deserved some coffee at this point. so I went and grabbed a cup and clean clothes for the triplets and went back to getting them dressed. Perrin went first without any further trouble. Sarah followed Perrin and was excited to wear a skirt that I had picked out for her, so she went quickly and without incident.

Then came Ryan.

He was excited because I told him that when he was done we'd all have waffles and sausage, which all the kids love. So Ryan starts giggling and laughing, half-running and jumping, and isn't watching where he's going at all, which leads to his almost 40 poundsdoing a little hop, skip, walk right onto my left testicle!

So I do what comes natural and I groan loudly and give a little yelp. This being Ryan, it of course startles him and he stops standing on my groin just long enough to fall to his knees. Guess where 40 pounds of upset toddler landed, knee first? Yep, second hit in about as many seconds!

I had to take hydrocodone and ice down "the boys" with a bag of frozen veggies because it hurt so bad. And, I hadn't made it back yet to clean Perrin's mess. I thought that would take 20 minutes, but it took almost an hour and a half with all the crap I had to clean.

Did all that with a limp, a groan, and many a mumbled curses!

Then the colds took over and they got crabby, and it wasn't even nap time yet!

So on a day like today, since doing much else hurts, I figure I'll post some photos and remind myself of how cute they are. Plus I'll have this story that can be entered into evidence in any criminal trial from stringing them all up!! But seriously, here are some photos of the little monsters in better moments.

This is definitely cuter than the face I saw early this morning.

Our little musicians jamming at the piano.

We recently had a visit from our friends Michelle and Erik and their gorgeous daughter Sadie. She had a good time crawling around and putting foam on her head.

This is Sadie again with her mother Michelle. I just love Sadie's cheeks. I could pinch them all day long.

Ryan did some fingerpainting as part of his sensory therapy.

Of course we wouldn't have him just do it while the other two watched.

This became a family event with all the kids trying out their inner Picasso.

Meva thought Perrin would have problems with it. I told her she was nuts. Perrin agreed with me.

Sarah liked it alot. Especially when I gave her a duck tatoo on her chest.

Ryan got a matching tatoo and a goatee. He didn't get as messy as the other two, but had fun regardless.

With a little help from Daddy, Sarah was ready for Braveheart!

Towards the end Perrin became almost completely blue. I didn't have to help him at all. Unfortunately we had to get them ready for a bath, so this was probably the best example we have of him digging in.

Now it's time for the end of this picture session. I was fixing something on Meva's computer when Perrin started a Daddy Pile. The also actively tried to pull my pants down too. The must get that from Meva, she's another one who is weird too!

That's it for now. Remember to double click on any picture to see it bigger. Hopefully seeing these makes you feel better too!

Massive

2009-02-17T12:15:00.030-06:00

That's a word that can be used to describe the amount of catching up we have to do here AND how poorly we've been in posting here. There's so much to show and say that I don't know where to really begin. I know Meva wants to talk about some things, so I'll just sort of sum up how things are standing with the kids and then it will be on to posting pictures (some will be from Christmas, how pathetic is that? Honestly, we are proud of the kids.)

We've started potty training. At this point the kids are more ready than the parents. Doing all three at once is more work than I would have ever realized. They're all pretty good about it and they like trying (and the candy rewards) but as we tell them, accidents happen. Of course, accidents also require cleaning--cleaning of the floor, underpants, and said child! Doing that in triplicate is just about a full time affair in itself, so that has been the biggest challenge.

Ryan is no longer in speech therapy! It's wonderful that he has progressed that well, but it's sad in that his speech therapist Jean, was absolutely wonderful and the kids all miss her and her toys! They still occasionally ask for her. Ryan is now working with an Occupational Therapist to help him with his sensory issues. The biggest part of this is brushing therapy. We try to do it every 2-2½ hours. I'll let Meva explain more about that later since she'll undoubtedly have a better understanding and ability to thus explain it.

Sarah is Sarah. She still wants to be a good girl and is the least disciplined of the three. She genuinely gets upset when she's even scolded, let alone given a timeout or the rare spanking. She's currently very into having a bow or ribbon in her hair (although it's still a thistle of curls that are almost untameable) and wearing different shoes (Sarah Marcos?). She also loves to play dinosaurs! Grandma Muriel & Grandpa Fred got the kids tubes of little plastic dinosaurs for their Christmas stockings. Nana and Papa (as they are called) thought they would just be cheap throw-away toys that they wouldn't be too interested in, but Sarah blew that projection. Everyday she plays with her dinosaurs and often wants me to help her. We have them dance on their plastic rocks and then they get in a school bus and go for rides (They always leave that part out of the academic books). She's just a blast.

Perrin, is quite possibly insane! He has decided that the word "Boundaries" should not apply to him. He is both curiosity and drama personified! He has also currently become the most cuddly and loving of the three. He will routinely come to us and just want to give us a kiss and a hug. He's also the only one who will tell us "I love you" when we tell them that. It's quite adorable and even melts this curmudgeon instantly.

Perrin is still receiving weekly physical therapy. We had a visit with a neurologist and Perrin has been officially diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, but a mild form. This wasn't a shock to us and we took this as a welcome development because it will allow Perrin to have access to help and assistance when he needs it in the future. Of course despite this he is insane, did I mention that? My son with these physical disabilities is now climbing onto the kitchen counters (via the drawers) to get anything he wants. Like I said earlier, no boundaries! Just the other day I found him in the dinning room, standing on the middle of the table jumping up and down trying to catch the ceiling fan!! When I tried to explain that he could easily fall off and "break his Perrin" he wanted to hear nothing of it! When I have a heart attack, it will undoubtedly be due to him!

Wow, so much for a summary huh? Anyways, let's get to the pictures!! Remember to double click on an image to see a bigger view!

The triplets have started to enjoy making "Little Beds" on the sofas.

Of course sofas are also a great place for some quality Daddy Time! Almost every time I lay on the sofa, they do this.

This is one of Sarah's self-made Superhero disguises. Although it is a mixed message, those are supposed to be snowmobile goggles and pink helmet. She is the Christmas Avenger!

The Christmas Avenger gets very serious and warns you to be good or you'll get Candycaned!

Once the Christmas Avenger was elsewhere, Perrin decided to do his own version of the Naked Chef.

As Christmas got closer, being good and staying out of trouble got harder. Sometimes we had to wash all the bad off.

Sarah waiting in "The Duck" clothes hamper for her turn in the wash.

Perrin didn't like waiting through the spin cycle.

Sarah wanted to show you that she knows what a uvula is.

Perrin is once again pushing the fashion boundaries.

As Christmas got closer, Sarah got excited.

Even Ryan busted out half a smile!

Of course, if you promise him some candy with an advent calendar you get an even better smile.

We had an early Christmas at home because we knew Santa and Nana and Papa would give us more than enough gifts to bring home with us. This was the aftermath once we got home.

But Christmas was spent with the grandparents. Nana provided a nice big box to keep the toys in, but sometimes if you dig too far you can fall in.

Perrin shows you exactly what we mean. It sounds mean that I left him like that crying and screaming while I grabbed the camera and took the picture, but the shot was worth it!

Later on Wolfgang and Ludwig got started on some toddler Carols.

Sarah and her Christmas outfit having a snack with Nana.

Of course going to Ohio means they get to see their great-grandma Dixie. They love spending time with their GG.

Then it was off to visit more relatives at Uncle Harvey and Aunt Skip's (Somehow short for Charlotte) house.

Here's Perrin with his cousin Elyse and Aunt Karen.

Elyse is big enough to still kinda, almost, somewhat, hold the triplets!

This is all the cousins together in one picture. It's very hard to get them all still for even this long, especially the boys Trey and Matt. They were literally climbing the walls.

Once we got back home, they were too tired to do anything but sit nicely with their babies.

Speaking of babies, we had a late Christmas get together with Grandma Vera, Uncle Louie & Aunt Sharon and cousin Sylvia!

It's very rare that Sarah even notices a baby, let alone wants to hold one. We had to get this picture before the moment passed. I didn't even have time to put on sleeves.

Mommy put on a great spread for dinner. Ryan gave up his chair for Sylvia; he's such a little gentlemen.

It's been another great year for snow in Chicago, and the triplets took advantage of it out in the yard with me and their tobaggon.

Perrin and his first snow angel.

Sarah liked going down the slide into all the snow.

The whole snow angel concept was very confusing to Sarah. Why would she want to lay down when she could be DOING something??

Although he was cold, Perrin enjoyed himself.

So did Ryan, but he refused to make a snow angel. I think it creeped him out.

I still have more photo's from this month, but this post is long enough. I will post the other stuff tomorrow.

Spelling Bee

2009-02-17T08:10:00.007-06:00

I want to preface this entry with an explanation of our perspective. It has come to my attention that other parents have issues with parents that brag on their kids. I would hope that Chuck and I don't come across as my kid is better than your kid to others, rather than just sharing our excitement... because that's our motivation. Our excitement runs a little deeper too. It was about 2-1/2 years ago that we were living through this...

where Perrin was doing so poorly that he was intubated with 100% oxygen (which they try to avoid in preemies because it can cause blindness) and then put in a medically induced coma and shaken on this machine to cause his little diaphram to shake and breathe better for simple survival's sake...

it was shortly after this that we were told that Perrin had a grade III (out of 4) bleed in his brain that in itself could cause retardation followed by the news that he had hydrocephalus which could also cause retardation as well all the other complications of hydro.
Anyway, my point in pointing this out is so those of you out there seeing this have a better understanding of our excitement when we see him doing this. There is no my kid is better than your kid going on here... this is just look at what he can do, in light of where he's been...

Here's our little spelling bee champ...

Help - my mom will use this to black mail me later

2009-01-13T08:40:00.006-06:00

Here's two videos of Ryan.
The first is to capture how cute he is when he asks for help, aka "Hep".

The second is his own doing. He wanted to wear the tap shoes Sarah was given and were laying around...

Leaf throwing

2009-01-13T07:58:00.002-06:00

We are behind in posting as Chuck recently mentioned.
So today, in the midst of what is called to be a blizzard here in Chicago,
is a video of the kids welcoming in fall.
You gotta love the diversity of the seasons and little Sarah's joyful laughter.

Apologies and announcements.

2009-01-07T05:49:00.003-06:00

We're closing in on almost two months since we've made any updates here. In a nutshell, the kids are doing fine and I intend to share pictures and stories here shortly.

I did however want to take this time to let everyone know that the triplets lost one of their grandparents on the day before Thanksgiving. My mother Cheryl died very early that morning from complications of COPD at the early age of 59. She lived with my sister Teri in Arizona and due to the distance and her health, she wasn't able to spend as much time with the triplets as she would have liked to. Although she won't be here for them as they get older Meva and I will be looking forward to sharing her love with them as they grow older.

Hopefully within this next week, we can go through all the wonderful photos we have from the holidays and begin sharing and updating everyone with their exploits. Until then, let me just share a nice photo of their first visit with Santa.

Feeling Isolated and all alone.

2008-11-11T04:25:00.006-06:00

I've not made any effort to to hide how hard life can get here at times, usually during the all too common surgeries or when the cold or flue runs through the house a few times before it leaves. This is one of those times.

Each of the kids, as well as Meva and I have all had head and chest colds a few times recently, and poor Ryan is fighting constipation. When they're feeling better we try and get them out, like we did with the leaf photos, but those times are few and far between now that the weather is getting more of a bite. Usually we result to indoor adventures, like Triplets in Diapers riding a magic bear to Christmas!! I don't care who else it sound lame to, my kids think it is awesome, which instantly means that 's true and everyone needs to adjust their tastes!!

It only takes a few days of playing this way and then the old familiar gang of hoodlums start showing up again--Little Frankie Fever, Mikey Mucos, Hairy Headache, Cathy Cough, Tonya Tired, and Connie Cranky. They've all come to visit at the house today and Ryan got a special visit from Bobby BM and Paulie the Plug to discuss a work stoppage. As is usually the case, we called security after them; she can be very tough and extremely brutal in the way she dispenses health care.

It didn't take her long to clean house and send those little snots packing (No pun intenderd.........ok, maybe just a little but) She then ordered everyone, herself included, to start taking their meds again and to get some rest. That's always easier said than don, at least the resting part. Our kids are great medicine takers (at least for us), Getting them, especially the boys, to rest is the biggest challenge. I don't think Fudd ever wants to sleep. So here I am at 3am attending to both boys who are wide awake and screaming.

It took me the better part of almost three hours to get them calmed down with the help of their own little blankets and pillows, but after Perrin talked Ryan in to sharing a spot with the Fudd, things got better. Ryan was out first, but poor little Perrin held out indefinitely, complaining about how he hurts and can't sleep.

All this means that I may very well die tomorrow. It really sucks for us that the both of our families are out of state and unable to help out, and these are the types of impositions you only ask family. So, tomorrow I ma just die as I am already shakey and throwing up and I can feel my migraines already starting,

Double click anything you want to see bigger versions. Otherwise wish me luck getting Ryan in his bed still sleep so I can take Perrin in with me, which will be a challenge for sure..

And for give any errors or typos as I was under pain medicine and some anti-anxiety to help me sleep.

By everyone and goodnight.morning.

Hydrocephalus Walk

2008-11-09T13:24:00.014-06:00

I guess we've had an incredibly busy few months, being that we are still posting pictures from mid September. In any case, we wanted to thank those of you who supported us in our hydrocephalus walk this year. It was a record breaking year in terms of the amount of rain we got. It was kind of ironic that the walk for the people with "water on the brain" was soaking us all with water. We laughed at the sopping wet signs we posted advertising free (bottled) water for the walkers. The few days prior to the walk the weather had been forecasting for downpours. We had no rain slickers for the kids, as we figured, if it was raining, we wouldn't be out in it with the kids at their age. So, the hunt for the raincoats in itself was something. FYI no one sells raincoats for two year olds in September. I had taken Sarah coat shopping with me in an effort to get her out of the house some. 7 stores and many a cookie bribes later, I stumbled across the pool clearance section at walmart and found buried in it 3 bug like rain coats for 5 year olds+. Bought 'em and rolled up their sleeves and it worked like a charm.

We got to the walk very early to help with the set up, and since it was a downpour we canceled almost all the activities and there was nothing to do but dance on the back deck. At first Ryan was scared by the rain, but after a few songs with mommy and some time with his daddy, he learned to love it.

The walk was held at Lake Arlington in Arlington Heights, which is about an hour North of us. The rain set a weather record that day as a full ten inches fell, not to mention the 4 inches from the previous day. In addition to making traffic a real bear and flooding many people's homes, the rain also took it's toll on Lake Arlington itself. Many of the docks and piers were washed out and flooded over and there were even parts of our trail that were completely underwater, so much that at one point we had an Otter swimming and playing alongside of us. Most of the photos we took just failed to capture the splendor if the moment. We did get one though. It's a playground that is normally about 20 feet from the water. As you can see, things were a bit different that day, remember to double click it to get its full majesty.

So we walked around the lake for our hydro walk with an impressive amount of dedicated walkers, and we remembered what it was like to be a kid playing in the rain. We had been kind of dreading the walk with the weather like it was, but it was actually a blast.

After our walk we found a big puddle away from the traffic, and we all played in it. Sarah would repeatedly bend over and dunk her head in the water and stand back up like she was in Flashdance, but because it was a mud puddle, she had mud water all over her face and it gave her a little Charlie Chaplin mustache. Unfortunately, at this point our camera gave up the good fight and we didn't get a picture of it... but we do have this for your viewing pleasure.

So, we as a family had a blast, as did most of the people braving the weather that day. As a group we raised nearly 30,000 dollars toward hydrocephalus research. Money that is very much needed. I hate to say it, but one of the families pictured in the group picture above lost their child to hydrocephalus about two weeks ago. I cannot really wrap my head around that idea, it is so heartbreaking. Hydrocephalus has a fatality rate of 10%. I like to think of that more in terms of there is a 90% chance that Perrin will be okay, and that the more verbal he becomes and can communicate how he feels, the less likely it will be an issue for him. That being said, it is a concern, and it remains a concern for the greater hydro community, not to mention those who aren't so lucky to have access to health care. Our Chicago Hydrocephalus Group is hoping to start making a difference in the lives of these kids, and our support to places such as the Holy Angels Hospice and Orphanage is just one example.

If there is anyone out there still interested in contributing, you can click on the link at the top left side of the blog under Team Fudd Fundraising. So, thank you to all of you who helped get us one step closer to a cure. I can't tell you how much it means to us.

Leaf Me Alone, I'm Playing!!

2008-11-05T17:24:00.018-06:00

Halloween has come and gone and all that's left over are spoiled kids that are getting more candy and cookies than they ever have before. They've also now become a tad bit.....indignant at times, especially when it comes to cookies! Sarah is the worst of the three and she gets very mad when I tell her she can't have any more. I thought I could easily hold them down to 1 or 2 cookies a day, but their incessant demands got the best of me.

I didn't give in though, I just ate them myself!! Ha! ha! Triplets!! No more cookies. I just hope I don't have to eat all that Halloween candy next.

Ryan sure does love his chocolate.

We're very lucky in that the kids often sleep until 9:30-10am each morning, with the occasional 11am or 8:30 am thrown in now and again. What this does is causes them to take their naps a bit later in the day. When most kids are getting up from their naps at around 2 pm or 3 pm, our kids are going down for theirs. We've had some incredibly beautiful weather lately and unfortunately the kids have had some head & chest colds that have kept them inside.

With the temperature hovering nicely above 70 degrees today, I wanted to get them out at least once before the weather turns back to normal. So today when they got up from their nap, I immediately marched them outside to the front lawn, each with a ball, for some autumn fun. Despite what the pictures may show, these weren't taken at night, but between 4 pm and 4:45 pm today. It was definitely dusky towards the end, but our camera isn't the best at low lights, so any photos that look odd or dark have been doctored by me just a bit to tell there story today.

The kids brought their balls out to kick, but were more interested in daddy and what he was raking. Normally I use the leaf blower, but they don't like it and I wanted them to play in the leaves anyways.

As you can see, it was a big hit, especially after I made them a big pile. What would you do?

If you're Sarah, you run and jump into the pile! Perrin and her were so happy and giggling while they jumped and sat in the leaves. They especially liked it when I used the rake to cover them up with the leaves.

It was so much fun that even though they just woke up, they had to pretend to go to sleep in their new "leaf bed"

Sarah and Perrin liked it much more and tried to make "leaf angels," but I think their horns and tails got in the way.

In the end they decided it was just fun to sit in the pile buried to their chin and throw the leaves at each other.

The smiles may be a little "cheesy" but the fun is 100% genuine!

It took some time, but I even got Ryan in on the act. This is no simple feat since the kid absolutely HATES it when anything gets on him or his hand. He had a great time too.

Sarah and Perrin welcomed him with a 21 leaf salute. He even laughed at this and threw some back.

All Hail the Queen and her Crown of Leaves!!!

It started to get dark and we had to clean up our pile after it spread out. They all wanted to be like daddy and try out raking for themselves. Perrin surprisingly had the best form.

It took him awhile, but Ryan eventually got the hang of it. Too bad he wanted to rake them in the wrong direction!!

Sarah just wanted to walk around with the rake and hit the balls. I think she has a future in Lacross.

Once we had the leaves in a manageable pile, it was time to say goodbye and get back in the house to have our 2 cookie limit. I had to eat 6 of them to make them go away and have the madness stop!!

I have a couple of video clips I want to post here in the next few days, but I need to clean them up a bit. As soon as I get them finished, I'll put them up. Remeber to click on a picture if you want to see a bigger version.

Grandma & The Zoo

2008-11-04T00:27:00.020-06:00

In the middle of October, just before the kids got head colds (which means Meva and I now have them) the week before Halloween. Since I don't feel very good right now, I'm just going to put out some pictures:

Grandma came all by herself to visit, which worried Ryan who always asks "Papa, Are you?" A lot of the time Papa means both Grandma and Grandpa, but we're trying to work in the term Nana for Grandma, But either way, Grandpa Fred was sorely missed.

Meva and Grandma took the kids to a nearby pumpkin farm for some fun autumn adventures. Apparently they all took a tiny school bus to get there.

Although there were some farm animals to see, it wasn't as exciting as playing in the pumpkins. The triplets are really into pumpkins this year, so much so that this was the only photo of Sarah we could get here with her facing the camera.

Ryan had no problem stopping and saying "Cheese" for his photo

Perrin felt the same way and gave a nice big "Cheese"

It was getting late and you can see that Perrin was ready for a nap, but Sarah and Ryan caught their second wind.

The following Tuesday Meva took a day off and we went to the zoo with the kids. It was very exciting to see the Elephants, which is one of their favorite animals. The Elephant didn't want to come close, so Daddy did his scary elephant call and got one to come as close as it was possible. There were three very excited triplets after that.

Ryan was almost as excited as Sarah was.

While Perrin liked the elephant, he was more concerned with Daddy's scary elephant call. It often makes him cry, but today he was brave and focused on the elephants.

In the childrens petting zoo Sarah loved to feed the goats leaves. She thinks leaves are soo cool. The kids were much more interested this year, but when we came it was after feeding time and all the food they eat was put away. Sarah really wasn't supposed to give them leaves.

Then they went inside and pretended to be little monkeys, fresh with tails and a tree to climb.

As with most monkey's, there was a mess that needed cleaning. Our monkeys are very well begaved and clean up after themselves...........except when they're at home of course.

The kids were tired so we headed to the van to head home. On the way we stopped and painted their faces. Sarah is showing off her inner clown.

Ryan liked his clown face since I told him he looked like a lion. He kept saying "Raaaaah"

Poor little Fudd was too tired and fell right asleep with his baby. We got snores instead of smiles.

Of course it was only a matter of minutes before Sarah joined him.

Ryan and his duck held out last and made it out of the parking lot awake,

We've come a long way in catching up here in just a few days. Of course the next two months will be insanely busy with the holiday season upon us and I am sure the kids will get sick again. Hopefully things are winding down around here and we'll all be able to return to normal---well, normal for us at least.

Remember, if you want to see a picture larger, just double click on it!!

Halloween 2008

2008-10-31T18:42:00.015-05:00

We're finally back from a very successful candy haul. We really did not go to many houses, maybe 15 total, but the kids got more candy tonight than Meva and I have ever gotten for them before. If only the economy was doing as well as my kid's candy sugar fortunes!

The kids were very excited about getting their costumes on. They'd all worn them at least once before and tried them on in addition to that, so they were very familiar with what they were. The boys were especially excited to get dressed up and if it weren't for the promise of candy afterwards, they would have thrown a bit of a fit I'm sure.

The warmer than usual weather was nice, especially with the kids all having head colds. We once again received more looks and comments about the train than anything else. I guess I'm going to have to get used to that, I just never thought it was that uncommon.

The kids enjoyed getting in their train and being pulled to each house so that they could get out and walk to the door. I'm very proud of them for saying "Thank You" as much as they did, many times without prompting. Overall though, they were very confused about the whole "Trick or Treat" process. Ryan wouldn't open his bag for anyone unless I held both of his hands, instead he just took the candy from their hands directly and either said Thank You or just Goodbye! Sarah and Perrin just didn't seem to understand what was going on, but they knew they were getting good things to eat. Ryan kept saying "Papa," thinking he was going to see his grandpa everywhere.

Well that's enough of my yammering, here are the pics! Remember to double click on them to see a larger version with more detail.

Look in the back of the train, it's Bat Ryan! He was usually first to the door and would yell "Open" much of the time before the door was answered.

Next as our Supergirl Sarah. She's too young for a Wonder Woman Bustier, so she went with this super alternative. Along the way she tripped on some Kryptonite and cried for a bit, but otherwise she was a trooper.

Perrin was the worlds happiest superhero dressed up as the Flash. He absolutely loves this costume. I really thought he'd have a problem wearing the mask, but he loves it!

I dubbed the train The Justice League Express during our Halloween trick-or-treating. This was one of our first stops.

I would supply the muscle and pull the train while Mommie often took the kids to the door for their treats. They especially liked the fact that their bags had pumpkins on them (They can't easily say Jack-O-Lantern yet, so every gourd is a pumpkin)

Here the kids are holding up their favorite treats from the night. Ryan has a sucker, Perrin has a candybar, and Sarah has a stick and a leaf. Yeah, that's ones trouble for sure!

Here is most of their haul from Trick-Or-Treating. By the last houses they were having trouble holding their bags due to the weight of what was inside. This should hopefully last until the New Year. Too bad it's not accpetable to give out fruit any more.

One of the houses in our subdivision goes all out every year with their Halloween decorations. There is no way to possibly get everything into one picture, but the kids were excited to see all the pumpkins lit up and hanging from trees and all over the lawn. Meva and I think this will be the last year they won't be scared of the display. Next year should be pretty interesting.

Here's the middle of his front yard. If you click the photo to enlarge it, you'll see he has almost 20 small kid figures who have jack-o-lanterns for heads standing in some kind of witching circle. Behind them is a cauldren with a fog machine in it to add to the mood.

This is a shot from the house's driveway. I think you can see the cauldren here. This house has so much all over the roof, trees, and side. He even has a small museum like room in front of the house that you can look at from the inside.

One of first things they got to eat were M & M's. They kept expecting to find a different letter on the candy and they called out the color of each piece before they put it in their mouth. Meva was in charge of feeding them this while I made dinner. She said they ate about 5 little bags of them together in addition to 4 or 5 candy bars each and some other assorted stuff. They may never sleep again.

Bat Ryan enjoys his chocolate, even while hiding in the shadows.

All the kids wore a onsie under their costume even though it was warm. When we took Sarah's off, she looked like a Mexican Le Libre wrestler in her red onsie and Supergirl boots!

If Halloween is any indication of how they are so much older and aware of things, Christmas is going to be a month of fun.............and stress!!

Long Overdue

2008-10-31T14:51:00.014-05:00

Since Meva has said I am the one who needs to update and post on this blog, I will take the author's liberty and blame her for the lengthy delay in posting!!

I can't believe how long its been, and how much we've been up to, since our last post. The kids have gotten to meet their new cousin, go to Grandma and Grandpa's House, Have Grandma come visit them, go to the pumpkin farm, and even the zoo. And those are just what I have pictures from.

I know everyone's here for pictures of the kids and not to hear me mumbling away, so let's get right to the photos.

The kids have shown enough interest that we've begun the early stages of toilet training. So far Sarah is the only one who has really gone (#2), but Ryan sorta did one, but it was hit and miss (mostly miss).

My niece Ashley had a baby girl named Sylvia in September. After she was home a few days, we went down to meet her. Sarah wasn't too interested, but the boys were (as was their Daddy). Perrin thought she was one of his "babies" and just wanted to kiss her (and he even spanked her once! That was embarrassing and forced me to change some of the "pretend parenting" games the kids play with their toys).

Ryan absolutely Loved Sylvia and just wanted to hold her and kiss her. He was very gentle and very cute about the entire thing. He cried when he had to stop.

Let's hope Perrin develops a little more fashion sense in the next few years. That whole gloveon one hand thing is sooooooooo 80's!

We then took the kids to Ohio for the weekend. I had a comic book convention I wanted to go to and Meva and the kids hung out with her parents. Grandpa thought it was time to give his grandkids a ride in the tractor!!

Grandpa then told them that apples actually grow on trees and that they were going to go looking for some.

Each kid got to pull their own apple off the tree and have a fresh snack! Grandma says the only thing better than fresh Ohio apples is eating fresh Ohio apples dressed in Ohio State outfits!

Perrin says that sometimes his mommy takes too many !@#*(&% pictures and won't let them be! Can't a kid just eat his apple?

Perrin got upset when she wouldn't stop and warned her that he would eat the camera if she didn't leave him alone.

Ryan thought that was funny and he said he would eat the camera too!! And we're not sure how it happened, but Sarah got out of the tractor and left her legs and feet behind.

Well it is Halloween, so that means we need to get our candy ready and our costumes because as soon as Meva comes home, it's Trick or Treat Time. And yes, I promise to have costume pictures up tonight!!

E-mails from home

2008-09-22T18:54:00.003-05:00

Every now and then Chuck sends me an e-mail that paints a picture as to how things have been when I am at work for 14 hours on Mondays. This was just such a day.

Meva…..

Here’s a little math for you to explain what you’re coming home to:

[(3 toddlers x 1 dog x diarrhea) + (3 loads of baby clothes x 2 rounds of baby baths x 2 crib bedding changes) + (1 tent x 1 snake x 1 snake bite) + (100 mosquito bites x 1 wasp sting) + house chores/ zero patience] + 1 sore back = ordering pizza for dinner!!!!!

I’m going to have you pick it up at Aurelio’s in Lockport. It’s in the Jewel shopping center near Quiznos.

I sincerely hope you haven’t had half the day I did!

Ellie and Maggie

2008-09-07T21:42:00.010-05:00

I can't believe how behind we are in getting info posted. I think it was about a month ago, our good friends the Shively's came to visit. Little Ellie is also two and such a sweet kid. Her verbal skills are just amazing, and I think she inspired a little verbal spark in our kids. Little Maggie is 6 months old, and was fascinating to our kids, especially Ryan.

Ryan LOVES babies. He spent a lot of time cooing and holding and attending to Ms. Maggie. You can see in this picture, just how seriously he took his responsibility, and ever since then he's been into baby dolls a lot more.

We all took a trip to the Children's Museum and wet and wild fun was had by all.

Camping

2008-09-07T21:13:00.019-05:00

Last weekend we went for our first overnight camping trip. We didn't go far. Just a local forest preserve about 5 miles away. We figured, that way if things weren't going well, we could pack it up pretty easily. To the left is Sarah, who is taking better pictures now that she can say the word, "cheese".

Here is Perrin peaking out of the tent's vent. Peak a boo is still a ton of fun with these guys.

The kids had such a great time, and were real good campers. Evidently, no one knows you can camp at this forest preserve because we had the entire place to ourselves. So, we let the dog roam free, and the kids really enjoyed themselves. They liked eating their little half sized s'mores. They loved running around with the balls we brought. We sang little bunny foo foo and their favorite songs around the campfire, which I was please to see they respected by saying, "Hot." every time they came near it.

We kind of did this by the seat of our pants, and so packed for the warm 90+ degree weather the next day... not being prepared for the 60 something degree weather in the morning. So, the kids just wore their footy pajamas with tennis shoes over them.

They ended up looking so cute going on their first hike in their PJs.

They came to a bridge, and loved the sound it made by stomping on it.

Here's a hollowed out tree that was very interesting and scary. It took a lot of attempts to just get them to put their hand near it but once mastered, you can see Perrin had no fear.

Sounds from the monitor at 4 am

2008-08-20T16:40:00.001-05:00

I have to share with you what I regularly hear in the middle of the night on the baby monitor.
Perrin, who has learned his colors and loves to tell you what colors he is seeing... in the middle of the night says, "Blaaaaaaaack."

He kills me.

Two year old pictures

2008-08-13T21:07:00.014-05:00

A while back we had the opportunity to get the babies' pictures taken at Dellwood Park, where we were married. The photographer is a fellow triplet mother, and she did a fantastic job. Here's a bit of her work.

Perrin Update

2008-07-31T20:11:00.011-05:00

We've had a few inquiries from lots of different people about how Perrin is doing and whether he is doing well. I went straight to the source and asked Perrin if he felt bad.

As you can see, he is feeling fine and in good spirits. You can also see the very very early stages of actual communication developing with him. Both he and Ryan are very good at using the word "NO" when you ask them questions. At this point it hasn't gotten to be the aggravating bratty version that you see in many toddlers, and hopefully it doesn't get that far. Luckily all three of the kids are working real hard on developing a larger vocabulary and Meva and I are encouraging them to use many words by asking them the appropriate questions.

As of right now, I feel safe in saying that each on of the kids can consistently identify all the letters of the alphabet, basic shapes, basic colors, and the sounds of each letter. I think I spend half of my day affirming them as they bring different objects to me and tell me what it is, what color it is, or what shape it is; it's actually all very cool. But what I think is probably the coolest thing that they are doing now is trying to say the ABC's in order with me. They are no where close, but I think I am getting about 20% accuracy overall as I lead them and try and get them to either say the letter along with me, or immediately follow my letter with the correct letter (an often it's sound). The fact that they all really enjoy this and get excited about it is just icing on the cake.

Back to Perrin, he had his follow-up appointment with his neurosurgeon yesterday and he was given a very good bill of health. He should be able to resume his physical therapy within two weeks and get back to full normal activities, which means taking a regular bath and going swimming (which the boy absolutely loves!!) For now, that's all we have to say. I am way behind on photo's of the kids, so I am just going to put a bunch on here for everyone.

Yummmy, Bananas!!

Ryan is so funny he even has a Jester's Hat

Sarah with pigtails running from bedtime!

The triplets at a water exhibit at the local Children's Museum

Sometimes you just don't want to wear pants, no matter how embarrassing it's going to be when your Dad show's this to your friends and prom date!

We'll post more as we have time, but if you want to see bigger images, just click on the pictures.

Normalcy

2008-07-28T07:39:00.003-05:00

It has been a while since we last posted. Perrin came home last Monday. We were really just so happy to have him here, blogging took a back seat. He was let home a little early as he was suppossed to get an MRI before discharge, but because that meant just sitting in the hospital for a few more days, we asked the doctor if he could just come home and we would come back for the MRI as an outpatient. So we were all thrilled to have him come home earlier than expected. When he saw the van pull up at the hospital, he was so excited. After arriving at home, Ryan and Sarah ran up and hugged him. He was still a little sore at first, crawling more than walking, but he's pretty much back to normal now, and it's a nice feeling.

This video is actually from the week before Perrin's surgery, but it captures a lot of what they do these days. I'll update more soon.

Perrin Update

2008-07-19T22:53:00.006-05:00

It is amazing to me how well Chuck can function and write despite sheer exhaustion. I am not gifted in this way. Chuck is spending the night in the hospital tonight with Perrin, and has stressed how important it is to him that I update the blog today. So bear with me that this is short and sweet, as I have already turned into a pumpkin today.

Perrin is doing amazingly well. His pain seems to be much less, and as a result he is more mobile. We were able to hold him for the first time since the surgery today. He had been crawling around in his crib, and giving his Perrin bursts of joy jibberish today, so we were thrilled to see him doing so much better. He still is very leary of any nurse or doctor who walks in the room, and shoots them this look that says, "I'm watching you. You cannot be trusted." The staff I have come across have been nothing short of wonderful. They even gave Perrin's baby an IV.

He is now out of the Pediatric ICU (PICU) and in a regular room, off all wires and tubes except his IV which isn't hooked up anymore. This move is good in so many ways. There is a phone in the room, rather than having to leave the room and scared child to go a considerable distance to talk to anyone. There is a fridge in the new room, which is also nice as the PICU has a no eating in the room policy. There is a reclining chair and second bed in the room, as opposed to the chair with a leg lift in the PICU, and a great improvement over the tile floor I slept on last night. And Perrin, as you saw from the last post is our escape artist, so imagine how he feels with a pulse ox on his toe, blood pressure cuff on his leg, three leads for cardiac and respiratory monitoring, an IV with tubing, and hospital gown with multiple ties to work with. I think he is thrilled to be untethered in multiple ways now. Though you can see in the picture below with the little tear in his eye, he is ready to go home - despite him doing so well, he cannot be released until the MRI is read, and he won't be getting his MRI 'till sometime Monday.

Our Hero Without Pants

2008-07-19T02:34:00.007-05:00

I just wanted to take a little bit of time out to let everyone know that Perrin has pulled through his surgery very well. For those of you who weren't in the know, Perrin's medical team (which consists of his pediatrician, 2 neurosurgeons, physical therapist, and one orthodist) began to suspect that he had tethered cord syndrome and a series of tests were started.

I think it is important to note here that nothing was ever able to clearly indicate that Perrin was suffering from TCS, but there were indicators from different areas and different people that lead us to believe that surgery was the best option for him. Meva and I both trusted Perrin's medical team, especially his neurosurgeons, that after talking it over we agreed to go through with the procedure.

Medical jargon isn't my strongest language, but I feel I can speak it passably if I am forced to. As it is 3am and I still have work to do, I'll leave the technical aspects for Meva to use as she bedazzles and illuminates you with $75 words, I will talk like an actor who's played a doctor on TV.

Basically Perrin's spinal cord should be free at the bottom, hanging inside the vertebrae and ending before they curve into the tail bone. His wasn't. There was some type of fatty fiber connected to it and pulling it down and stretching it. Think on how it might feel to have your spinal cord continually stretched everyday. That's what he went through. It became much more problematic once he began walking (which in retrospect is amazing) and contributed to his unusual "gait."

So, the medical team only suspects it and wants to cut open his spine and check it out. On Thursday afternoon they made an almost 4 inch incision in his back, removed that pesky "back bone" that was in the way and then opened a flap to reveal the spinal cord and a mass of nerve endings. Using some type of electrical system that is much more complicated than I am smart they identified the "live" nerves and created path to this tethering fiber. Basically they turned my little boy into a living game of operation, DON'T TOUCH THE SIDES!!

Once they cut the fiber, they were able to see an immediate release on tension, similar to pulling your shirt out in front of you and then leaving go. This was confirmation that he did indeed have tethered spinal cord syndrome.

Right now we've spent the last two days with Perrin laying on his stomach and he might have one more such day to go or less. To his credit he hasn't tried to wriggle around or move too much because it causes quite a bit of pain to him. Even picking him up to hold him on my chest gives him discomfort. I believe the plan is for him to begin working on sitting and then walking. For me the hardest part was just watching him lay there and not want to move with a tired and kind of sad look in his eyes. But he's such a tough kid that it didn't last long and he was laughing and giggling, playing peek-a-boo, and trying to punch my head off. He was also very interactive and talkative, which I think shows how strong he really is and that poking around in his head and his spine aren't enough to keep him down!

As of Friday night there was no definitive word on when he might be coming home. Current thinking is anywhere between Sunday and Tuesday, so I would imagine that alot has to due with how he responds tomorrow.

I just want to say that I am floored with all the kind and wonderful words that so many people kept Perrin and us in their thoughts and prayers. That meant a great deal to both Meva and I.
Hopefully tomorrow I or Sunday Meva and I will bring in another update and some photos from the hospital. But for now, enjoy the shots I have put throughout this post of our Man of the Hour. He doesn't know it yet, but he is already my hero, even if he doesn't always wear pants.

The most recent morning I was greeted by the Au Natural Club. This one didn't end as nicely as the previous ones. This time it got dirty!

That's not Chocolate!!

Of course this is usually what I get from him, so I guess the adventures of Naked Hippy Cowboy are worth it!

2 Down & Infinity To Go

2008-07-12T10:56:00.021-05:00

Well the kids have finally made it to 2 years! I say this because the way they've been behaving lately I wasn't sure if they were going to make it this far. These days I truly feel outnumbered and mostly overwhelmed. If I were to be honest, I'm loving every minute of it while I try to hold on for dear life. And if this alone wasn't enough of a challenge, we've taken down the gates and given the triplets access to the rest of the house!! What it really means is that they can now get a running start when they attack! Let me start with some birthday pictures. We didn't do too much with taking pictures of the actual day as we had a full house and Meva and I were very busy, as were the kids.

This year we decided on much simpler and smaller cakes for each kid.

Sarah enjoyed her cupcake.

As did Perrin

Ryan really liked his

The nicest part was that the cleanup was less than last year even though they all tried to make a mess.

Sarah ACC (After the Cupcake!)

Perrin ACC

Ryan ACC!!! How did he get THAT messy?

It starts by being too lazy to use your hands

Then it ends with your head face down in a cupcake of course!!

The birthday party was much fun and it was nice getting to see everyone, which seems to get harder with everyone leading such full and busy lives these days. And like everyone else, we've been keeping busy with all sorts of activities.

There's Coloring

Eating our Puzzles!

Visiting museums to try on hats

Going out to the river.

And even getting our hair done all pretty! Thanks Daddy!

Well that's about all for today. I have a lot of pictures still to post here, so I'll try to be back again tomorrow.

Almost 2

2008-06-22T08:06:00.011-05:00

The babies are fast approaching 2 years old, I can't believe it. Perrin would like to show you, despite a concern that preemies have issues with all their teeth coming in correctly due to all the intubations that occur when they had been in the NICU... we have no such concerns and all our teeth are coming in nicely.

This picture of Perrin is typical of how we find him in the morning as you saw from the last post. He has learned how to take his shirt off, and for the most part put it back on on his own... Sarah has mastered her socks, and somewhat her slip on slippers. Ryan's head is too big for him to get his shirt off on his own, and though he's "tried" to get his socks on, most of the time he just gets frustrated with it.

I've tried to capture a few of the things the babies are doing these days.

The boys have been into reading a whole lot lately. Perrin and Ryan have their colors down, and most of their basic shapes. They are working on talking more now, but are still slightly behind. We should be getting a speech therapist out on Thursday, after being waitlisted for the last 6 months. Sarah, is too busy to sit and learn her colors. She has organizing to do, as you can see from the wipees she delicately hung up on the baby gate here. This picture was taken after Perrin had come by and destroyed most of her handiwork, but she is always organizing her stuffed animals and bringing you things she finds on the floor and saying, "Uch-ee". She reminds me of my mother with all this.

Sarah is very much into girly things, despite frequently being dressed in football themed outfits, she LOVES to have her hair done. This particular day, we put in all the barretes we had. She was voguging all day long.

The babies have mastered Ryan's favorite thing in the world.... NA NA NAAS! When Ryan is sitting and "reading" one of his picture books, he says, "na na naa" every time he turns the page, and when he really finds a picture of one, he gets very excited about it and says it so loudly while giggling. Here is how they get their snack of na na nas on the leather couch so if they get in to messy mode, it's an easy clean up.

One of their other favorite things to do is to drag all the pillows and blankets to the end of the hall for a fake nap fest. Sarah usually starts this by the organizing of the blanket and pillows, as you can see her doing here, and the boys join in. Of course, Perrin has taken his shirt off as its pretend nap time. Ryan is modeling how well they've done with their teething with the drool on his shirt.

We recently bought some basic puzzles for the kids. They all love them. After they played with them for about a week, learning their colors and their shapes and how to manipulate them, they figured out another really cool thing you can do with puzzles. Use the handles to put them in your mouth and walk around like that for hours. It is a huge thing with Ryan and Perrin to do this. They think it is hilarious.

The other toy items they have very much been into are the characters of Sesame Street. Everyone loves, "Melmo". But surprisingly, the character they love even more, is Ernie. Sesame Street is very much like you may have remembered it, with a strong focus on letters and counting and basic social skills. What is new is a focus on eating smart. In fact there is a song with cookie monster that, "Cookies are a sometimes food." not to mention the broccoli that raps.

Disappearing Babies

2008-06-01T12:14:00.013-05:00

Although it's happening right before our eyes, I want to deny that the kids aren't babies anymore. I suppose they haven't been babies for months now, but it doesn't mean that I am ready to acknowledge they are really toddlers and not the tiny little things that Meva and I brought home from the hospital almost two years ago.

I plan on giving a more detailed update later this week--- lots of words, me rambling on, just like normal---- but for now I'm just going to show you the results of an experiment I've done with Perrin. I call this, What Does That Boy Do In Bed??? Keep in mind whenever we put him down for a nap or for bed he is always clothed properly and completely dressed like his brother and sister.....

Ryan was nice enough to pose for you so you could see an example of how the kids are dressed when they are put in their cribs.

It's not just the boys, are wild haired little girl also is dressed accordingly. And yet when I open the door and turn on the lights......

Sometimes Perrin's shirt has been turned around.

Sometimes he takes off half the shirt.

As you can see, overalls do not impede this ritual!

Of course there is the ever popular "Skins" look too!

Sometimes we can't quite get the shirt all the way off, so we stuff our pillow against the wall!

I'm not sure how this happened, but the other morning he had somehow found another shirt and put it on UNDER the one he was wearing the night before!!

There is of course quite a bit of activity prior to falling asleep. It includes banging, slamming, singling, and yelling along with the usual crying and laughing. Sometimes I think he is fighting some imaginary, mythical monster inside his crib because it looks like a war zone in the morning.

The outside floor of the crib. Blankets, pillows, and even his companion duck have all been ejected in some type of violent upheaval.

He also likes to play a game with me called, "Can Daddy find my shirt?" I often have to pull the crib from the wall and pick it up off the floor.

To prove that I wasn't joking or exaggerating, here if what prompted Meva and I to start this experiment. At some point in the night he managed to dismantle the spindle and he's holding it in his hand for me. I particularly like the Tarzan look of his shirt.

The funniest part of this for Meva and I is that he's doing all of this in the dark. Some how he not only takes the shirt off, but he finds it and then puts it back on, albeit with varying degrees of success! The other night we learned a valuable lesson with Perrin when Meva put him to bed wearing a shirt that had a hood on it. He had been in his bed for almost two hours when he began screaming urgently. By the sound of his crying I knew something was wrong, so I went to get him. When I pulled him out of his crib, his face was completely covered by the hood! He had taken the shirt and put it on backwards, covered his face with the hood and then couldn't get it off in the dark! He was very scared, but I couldn't help laughing at the predicament he had created for himself!

If you want to see larger images of the pictures, please click on them for enlargements.

Catching Up

2008-05-10T06:04:00.015-05:00

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.

Facelifts & The Easter Bunny

2008-04-09T00:46:00.014-05:00

As you can see I've been playing around with the look of the blog. I really like the crisp and clean layout of everything because I think it makes it easier to read. I expect to tweak it a little bit if my coding skills will allow it, but for the most part it is going to look like this.

If you haven't noticed, the upper left hand corner now has a small slide show of images for you to see. It's a new feature and so far I really like it. I'd love to hear some feedback from people about it. You can either leave a comment or email me directly by EMAIL just by clicking the link. Also let me know if this looked distorted or weird on your computer because it's annoying and I want everyone to enjoy their time here.

I don't have too much to report because I'm tired, so I will talk more in the next few days. Perrin however has quite a bit to say and some pictures to share, so enjoy him and his little comments.

Did you know that after you dump your toys all over the floor you can sit in the toy basket?

Sometimes Ryan takes 10 minute naps on our stuffed bear!

We all agree that it's more fun to sit on our stools this way!!

Have you heard about this Easter Holiday? Mommy says it's a religious thing. I don't know what that means, but Daddy said he caught a rabbit in the house at night and made it give him some candy for us. We also had to wear these ridiculous things on our heads.

Have you ever had a Peep? Daddy said I was going to like it but I wasn't sure.

That daddy is very smart, Peeps are awesome!! And you can fit them easily in your mouth.

If you have more than two though, you could get sick!

Then we all got to eat bunnies made out of chocolate. Sarah was confused at first.

Ryan was a big fan of his chocolate bunny!

Mommy said I would like it better than the Peeps!! I wasn't sure about that.

Did I tell you how smart mommy is? I tried to put it all in my mouth just like the Peeps, but it was too big and I got it all over my face. Daddy said it was time for a bath now.

I grabbed Daddy and told him he needed a bath now too!! Haha Daddy, now you have bunny all over you too!

That's all for now. Daddy wanted me to remind you all that if you click on the pictures, you can see a bigger version and even MORE chocolate on my face!!

Hooray For Speech Therapy

2008-02-16T05:09:00.011-06:00

That title is one of my favorite punchlines from a joke by comedian Emo Phillips. Meva can't stand him and hates that I quote him (and do a fair imitation of him too) from time to time. I think he's funny, Meva thinks he's the comedic equivalent of rubbing a cheese grater on your face. Anyways, one of his jokes goes something like this:

"My Brother says 'Hello'---- So Hooray for Speech Therapy!!

Anyways, it always made me laugh despite being a bit off color.

So why do I mention it? Well Friday was a busy day for us as we had 4 child services therapists come out and evaluate the kids for speech development and give Perrin his weekly Physical Therapy workout. Our main concern for initiating this was that we felt the boys weren't talking as well as they should be. They communicate and understand talking just fine, maybe even ahead of were another baby their age should be, but they really don't talk. They have a repertoire of maybe 3 words each, which isn't where they should be.

So, despite the fact that I slept in late (thanks goes out to the triplets for letting daddy sleep and not getting up themselves) and totally forgot all about this happening until I woke up in a panic. Long story short, I get up and start to put the house together (meaning shoveling the walk and putting away some stray dishes) and the specialists were already there. Luckily I had traded the monstrous triplets from earlier in the week for a nice, calm, and well-behaved set for today (I think I have to give them back on Monday again) and they cooperated very well so that their evaluations could be done. As it turns out, the boys need to have someone come out once a week for speech therapy. The speech therapist saud she doesn't think they are that far off, and they really just need a push to get them yapping up a storm. As much as I'll miss the "almost quiet" for the mad chattering that will result afterwards, it will be nice to hear them talk to each other and to us. So once again:

Hooray For Speech Therapy!!!

The pictures you see are of the kids on our ride last week to see Grandpa Lou and Grandma Vera. Grandpa Lou broke his leg and isn't doing as well as we'd like, so the kids came down to try and lift some spirits and see everyone. The ride down was uneventful with the kids spending much of it in nap time, all bundled up in their winter hats. Well, that's not really true. Ryan couldn't wear any of the hats for kids his age because he's a monster and has the head of a giant kodiak bear. The hat you see him wearing, in a very fitting manner I might point out, is one of mine!! The kid is not even two years old and he's already wearing my clothes. I will have to be nice to him very soon because he will be a giant.

Anyways, it was a nice visit to the nursing home where Grandpa Lou is recuperating and the kids got a fair share of looks and gawks from both the staff and the other residents. I think Grandma enjoyed seeing them the most though as she's had an awful stressed time with everything of late. Uncle Louie showed up and he was his usual fun punching bag for the kids, so they enjoyed that.

Then it was time to go home. We left late (almost 7PM) and it takes 2+ hours to get home. I think the temperature was only in the single digits that night, with a strong winter wind and shortly after we started home, the heater started acting up and was basically useless. To top it off, the kids were hungry and Meva and I lost out minds and gave Perrin a second bottle of milk to drink in the moving van.

Yeah, he puked all over everything. So we pulled into a McDonalds and Meva took him in to clean him up and change clothes while I listened to the other to kids cry because even they knew Perrin shouldn't get two bottles in a car!! A short while later we get our newly cleaned baby back in his smelly chair and finish the drive home with Sarah screaming most of the way because she was tired and wet (peed her pants good), cold, and restrained in her chair. But we got them home and in bed at just around 10:30 that night, which all things considered wasn't too bad.

Despite the cold, the puking, and the crying, we had a good time. Below are three more pictures from the visit and the trip home. Remember to click on a photo to see a larger version.

Perrin trying to see what Grandpa keeps in his closet. He did some walking there.

This is Sarah beating up Uncle Louie!!

On the trip home my hat slide down over Ryan's eyes and he couldn't see and couldn't fix it on his own. He was MAD--- until he fell asleep.

And this is Sarah just getting home. She's soooo tired and ready for bed!

This weekend it's a visit from Grandma Muriel and Grandpa Fred, which is always fun and always filled with MORE TOYS!! ( I think Grandma Murial has been going to garage sales for the past 25 years in anticipation of grandkids!!!). With any luck, we're going to go out in the snow for some sledding and have more snow photos for everyone real soon.

Notes from Home.

2008-02-13T10:18:00.006-06:00

Mondays are hard for me as I am away at work
typically 13 hours that day... after the full
immersion treatment on the weekend.  Chuck is
sweet enough to send me e-mails to update me on
how things are at home.  Yesterday's made me laugh
and so I am posting it here for y'all......

Meva...

I'm ready to rip my hair out of my head! Perrin
is fine, he is into everything today, I'm not
exaggerating when I say that if I take my eyes off
of him he is immediately into stuff he shouldn't
be-your desk, my desk, the phone, the garbage, the
chair side table, both our desks again, tipping over
your chair, taking toys from the other two, tipping
over my chair, back to your desk, etc.. I am quite
sure he is feeling up to par. His puke-o-meter isn't
up---two isolated, food(and stupid parent) related
incidents. Besides, when he's throwing up and it's
related to Hydro, his puke isn't usually curdled
like it was today, it's just a sign that he didn't
handle breakfast well-----it could be the addition
of the Zinc in it.

Ryan has been the biggest crybaby today. He's
getting pissed off at almost every toy, crying
almost hysterically because it won't work the way
he wants it to---even when holding one little lego
block!! What the hell he wanted one to do, I can't
say, but he just breaks down and cries. His ears look
fine, no fever or anything, just a kid that needs
to nap for about 29734682736 hours is all.

Baby girl has been UP and DOWN. By that I mean
that's all she's saying today. Back and forth with
me in her cute little sing-song voice--Up Down,Up
Down, Up Down!! She started that this morning while
playing with that Doorway the Shively's got them.
Very cool and very cute.

Today's mess is worse than yesterdays! My God I am
going to die.

We can talk septic when you get home, it would be
wordy to talk about it here and there isn't really
much to tell.

Please come home.

Chuck

The Storm

2008-02-12T01:00:00.000-06:00

We've been busy, busy, busy over the last week and I don't know if I have time to share all of our adventures, but I thought I would take you through a small sample of what I face on a daily basis with these babies. To start off, let me show you some pictures of what the house looks like, most mornings, before the babies wake up. Remember to click on the photo to get a better look and larger experience.

Peace and tranquility. It's not much, but it's home and it's clean.

And here's the magic area itself, Toys all in their place!

Here's a bit of a closer look. See all the books on the shelf and the toys in their baskets. Can you see the baskets lined nicely with linen?

Meva's desk is right next to the danger zone. When the zone is active, her desk makes for a great bunker to hide from Dad when the triplets have gotten into trouble!

Here's the gate to the kitchen. The Stools are all lined up and the area is clean.

So that's the basic area that the kids play in throughout the day. Normally I get them up and we immediately break into a pattern of changing clothes and diapers and then getting fed breakfast and a nice big bottle of milk to start the day off with. That generally takes between 30-45 minutes depending on how well they cooperate. Once that's complete, I clean up the breakfast dishes and turn them loose. I'm generally only away between 5 and 10 minutes cleaning up and getting myself some coffee and breakfast. That's all, 5-10 minutes right? What could possibly go wrong?

And yet when I come back, this is often the scene!

I've actually seen it happen; first they start off by standing on the baskets so they can start with the shelves, pulling everything down and onto the floor with the methodical passion of a zealot searching for the right book to quote a passage from the book of their leader.

With everything off the shelves, now the real work begins. Digging into the toys, rooting everything out and fighting among themselves over trinkets both trivial and vital to their happiness. From the Chicken Dance Elmo, to a plastic red star that holds mystical powers of attraction to infant boys, classic battles often take place with the loser in tears and the large, stocky baby wobbly running down the hallway to hide with his victorious prize clutched in his fat little fingers.

The Fallout, from a wider angle.

Remember the stools? You don't think they actually sit on them do you? Of course not, we turn them over instantly and then ignore them the rest of the day. Also, notice the two empty baskets, Sarah left them there.

Here's the gate that keeps them out of the kitchen. This was a good day, there wasn't too much thrown over it (although I had to stop Sarah from sending over the two baskets!!). I think that's because they took the other toys they usually throw over the gate and threw them over the cedar chest and at the dog.! Poor Gus, it just wasn't his day.

And that's part of my typical day. Every day. Sick or well, happy or cranky, this happens in one form or the other. But the funny thing is that while it looks horrible, the true sadness is that it happens twice a day! Once in the morning and once after their naps. When I die at an early age, part of the coroner's report will probably list this as a contributing cause of death.

The Daddy Update

2008-02-04T23:52:00.000-06:00

Triplet house, as I am now referring to our house and our life, has seen so much activity of late that Meva and I have really struggled to update the blog, let alone take photographs for everyone. The snow excursion of the other day was priceless fun. I wish we would have has better mittens for the kids, so that their hands would stay warmer longer, but I don't think any of them had a problem with that aspect of the excursion.

So aside from their first outing in the snow, there have been several other little milestones that they've unfortunately passed. The biggest one is they've outgrown their boundaries. What this means is; If I can move it, I will; if I can climb it, it will be climbed; If I can shove this bottle of milk behind the TV and hide it until it stinks, I will do that twice!; if I can reach something, it is now mine; and if daddy has told me no to any of the above, I will double my efforts to do it!!

What does that all mean? Lots of teamwork and lots of messes and broken items. Within the past two weeks they've rendered the supergate useless since they can move it at will, the stereo speakers are now toys to take off the covers and poke things that look like bubbles, we turn off the TV whenever we want to and then cry afterwards because we really wanted to still watch our show, if something is too heavy to move, we get Ryan. If something is too heavy for Ryan to move it, we work together and make loud noises. Most of those loud noises we make come from Daddy. We don't know what he's saying, but he seems pretty serious about it.

On the positive side, Perrin has been working with a physical therapist to help him in his walking, and it has shown some immediate and dramatic dividends. Within two sessions, he has been walking on his own for bursts of anywhere between 2 ft and 10+ ft. His PT was really impressed with him. We're currently in the process of trying to build up the strength in his leg muscles, so Perrin has cute little 1lb. ankle weights that he wears through out the day. In the few short days of doing this we can already see him moving his legs with more authority and standing better.
Slowly but surely the babies are starting to communicate in many different ways. Sarah continues to be the most talkative, but she's less than I think she should be. While Ryan can say things, I just don't think its in his personality to be that talkative. He has said yeah, banana, milk, mommy, dada, and he barks at Gus. Sarah says all of that and more, like shoes, crackers, "Is it good?", No, go away, and once I swear I heard her say "Barack The Vote on Super Tuesday." And Perrin, while he really doesn't say much other than to speak in tongues, he is out most consistent signer. He will tell you he wants to eat, wear a hat, have milk, and sign daddy. In fact all of the kids were signing daddy for me today, and Sarah is signing more, and crackers. It's pretty cool having bilingual kids. Hopefully soon we'll get some video or pictures of them in action, but it's hard to get them to sit still.

Enjoy these other treats from our snow day out. Click the picture to get a larger image that's easier to see:

All three babies taking a Snowball break.

Ryan & Sarah still playing with their snowballs

Winter Fun

2008-02-02T23:51:00.000-06:00

This past week has been a weather-o-rama around here. It went from 52 degrees to -1 in a matter of about 2 hours, and left us with nearly a foot of snow. We packed up the babies and went on our first real snow adventure.

This is Sarah in her glam snow suit waiting to play in the park. She squealed with delight that we were going, and crawled around in the snow, played with these really cool balls that daddy fashioned right out of the snow, she was loving it the whole time, and kicked and cried in her car seat when we had to go.

Ryan took a little more convincing. He wasn't so sure about this outfit and all this white stuff, especially after he tripped in the snow and face planted in it. That stuff is cold.
He did like the balls too, and brought one for Perrin.

Perrin wasn't such a big fan of the snow. Part of that is that we couldn't find his snow boots, so we had him wear his insulated Pooh slippers with double socks. He had difficulty maneuvering and got frustrated, so he spent most of the time in the sled or mommy's lap.

Here's some videos of the fun....

Babies on a tobaggan...

Sarah Snow Queen (she did this for 30+ minutes)...

Ryan at 19 months old and you'd still better not cross him...

Ryan the hoarder.

2008-02-02T23:43:00.002-06:00

Our little Ry guy loves his food. He's quite possessive of it. We use these brilliant snacky cups called snack traps. They hold the food in, yet the toddler can still reach in and help themselves. Ryan is not content unless he has one in both hands, so Perrin and Sarah beware.

Here is a picture with Ryan exhibiting this behavior with the bottles. He's got all three and is a state of bliss.

Christmas

2008-01-06T08:42:00.000-06:00

We had a great Christmas here at the Kennedy Household. We will post more pictures and tell you all about it a little later. In the meantime, here's a reindeer to tide you over.

Cloverfield - spoiler alert

2008-01-06T08:39:00.000-06:00

Anyone seen the trailers for Cloverfield?

Things That Go Bump In the Night

2008-01-05T22:44:00.000-06:00

We've recently had a nice visit from Grandma Muriel and Grandpa Fred. We all enjoyed spending some good QT with them and the babies were thrilled to have all this extra attention. Sarah continues to bring me the book she and Grandma read a lot and now knows where her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth are as a result. Perrin has these body parts as somewhere in the general vicinity of his head, so he smacks his head when you ask him where is your (eyes, ears, nose, and mouth). Ryan's too tough to play these kinds of baby games.

Anyway, for this visit we have rearranged the superyard set up so that you can access the back bedrooms without having to jump the fence each time, and we have maintained this set up since. The babies love having access to the back hallway and are adorable when you tell them it's time for nigh' nigh'. They squeal with delight and follow you to their room all excited about it. Grandpa says Chuck looks like the pied piper. I think the real reason for this is the party is about to start.

Yes, we have a baby monitor in the room, but sometimes you still wonder what has gone on in here the next day. For example, the nursery overhead light sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Chuck and I tried switching the switch out and would be just about to switch out the light fixture when it would start working again. Later, it's on the fritz and as we check it, we inadvertently forget to turn the switch back off, the next morning the babies wake first and I go into get them and the light is back on. We were going through this process when Grandpa realized our little Perrin is an electrician. He takes his crib and rocks it, hard so that it bangs against the wall and it knocks a loose connection to turn the light on and off. So, when Perrin decided it was time to get up, he would rock his crib to flip on the light and all the babies would get up and play. :-)

You gotta wonder what it is that he's doing in there sometimes. The other day, I went in to get the babies and Ryan who had gone to bed with pants, was there in his shirt and diaper (look closely to your left and you can see Ry's outfit) and Perrin was wagging Ryan's pants around like a flag of victory.

Happy Birthday Finn

2007-12-24T09:33:00.000-06:00

The babies went to their friend Finn's birthday party this weekend. He's a whopping one year old now. I stole these pics that Finn's mom Colleen took.

Finn had a monster themed party, and his monster cake was made with a red velvet interior. Very Clever, and very bloody looking as he tore through it.

Sarah thought Finn made that cake look good and went up and stelthly stole some while Finn was distracted by his grandma. She didn't realize that the bloody cake on her face would give her away though.

Living In A Box

2007-12-23T02:31:00.000-06:00

We've been busy preparing for the holidays and fighting off the flu bug that we really haven't had the time to celebrate the Christmas season. Throw in our regular hectic schedule and the fact that I have only one really good hand and you have a perfect recipe for not getting everything done. Meva and I have tried taking pictures along they way, and here a little sampling of what's been happening.

Ryan Needs A Haircut

Ryan Gets A Haircut

Ryan After The Haircut

Perrin Looks Cute With A Hoodie

Sarah Does Too! Ryan Wouldn't Sit Still For His Hoodie Picture

Corporations spend countless resources developing new items and technology to create toys to enthrall and mesmerize kids in ways that were thought to be science fiction by their parents or grandparents. Research, development, marketing, and advertising go into making these incredible widgets that people buy and send across the country to their loved ones and what is it ultimately happens? The kids become obsessed with the box it came in!!

Sarah In A Box $19.99

No Room For Perrin! Sarah Has Taken Over!

Smiling Ryan, What's He Up To??

As of now we plan on working on their Christmas pictures tomorrow, which means Christmas cards will be late, but we will have them sent out. Please forgive our tardiness because as parents we operate with one workable brain (almost all of which is Meva), low sleep levels, and 3 out of 4 working hands. We do our best, but like to think we have fun along the way!

Time is Flying

2007-12-19T11:04:00.000-06:00

It seems like it was just the other day I uploaded this video to youtube with the idea that I would link it to the blog... now it's been roughly six months and instead of babies crawling over each other they are running around the room. While I am excited for their accomplishments I am also mourning the loss of their babyhood...

Click here for the movie of Ryan and Sarah crawling and kissing each other.

Best Christmas Picture Ever

2007-12-09T09:30:00.000-06:00

Last year we took some pics of the babies for Christmas with the idea that we would make a calender for everyone for Christmas this year. The problem with that idea is that it involves having the time to make it happen, so instead I will just share with you The Best Christmas Picture Ever...

Baby Elves

2007-12-09T08:18:00.000-06:00

The babies heard about Fred Claus needing to help out at the north pole this year, and confusing Fred Clause for Grandpa Fred, went on up to the north pole to help out Grandpa. Click here to see their cheery elfness.

Giving Thanks

2007-11-28T10:46:00.000-06:00

This past weekend was a very special Thanksgiving as we celebrated Grandma Muriel's health. Unfortunately the babies health was not so great. They came down with bouts of bronchitis, and though they are doing better now, it made for a rough visit in terms of baby neediness. One special treat was that my Grandmother, Dixie also came. This meant four generations were together for the first time in our family. Grandma Dixie (GG) has Alzheimer's and rarely leaves the house these days. One of my favorite moments of the weekend I was able to catch on video, where GG was singing what she could remember of Rockabye Baby to Sarah.

A Pile Of Leaves

2007-11-19T01:44:00.000-06:00

We've got some nice old trees in our neighborhood that are just huge and full of vibrant colors this time of year. Their are so many of them on our block that I end up racking and blowing the yard at least three times a season and collecting enough leaves to fill approximately 40 garbage bags. It's not an exaggeration my any means. We recently had a nice warm evening That I thought would be perfect to for the triplets to experience their first time in a pile of leaves. Judge for yourself how well that went:

First one in was Perrin, He definitely wasn't sure about this.

Sarah however was very curious.

The it was time to throw them all in together.

By this point they all decided how they felt about the whole experience, it was kinda scary.

Daddy came to try and tell us its fun. Daddy is a weirdo sometimes, but we believed him that it was safe.

We were really ready to go back in the house and play with our toys.

Although Ryan was amazed at Daddy and his hat, Perrin sad it was over and time to come in. He was mad at daddy for this.

Well, we've got a big thanks giving weekend coming up this week and we hope to have plenty of pictures to share, maybe even while we're there. Stay tuned!!

Changes Are Here

2007-11-13T12:17:00.000-06:00

You're noticing the changes I've made as you read this. They're totally seasonal and will change after the Holidays, but I'd love some feedback from people. Please send me your thoughts via email at Triplet Dad.

Sharon The Destruction

2007-11-13T01:56:00.000-06:00

In the past we've talked about the destructive prowess of our resident Baby Huey, Ryan "BammBamm" Kennedy, but I fear we've been a bit unfair in our coverage. All of our children are destructive. Period. This is a fact of the stubborn nature they've inherited from both Meva and I, as well as my unique gift of freakish strength that they all possess to a degree. After months of collecting and a few more months of procrastinating, I'm finally getting around to posting the proof. I think the most interesting aspect of these photos is that each destructive act reflects a portion of their personalities, but please judge for yourself:

We don't call Ryan Bamm Bamm for nothing! No Rattle is ever safe!!

For over 6 months I've had the remains of this block waiting for a photo. This occurred at the height of Perrin's paper cravings.

Sarah has always had a love for food, and I think this photo just kinda sums it up perfectly.

Here's an extra little photo of Ryan and his Aunt Sharon during his first exposure to the Arts!

The picture of Ryan and Sharon was taken at my niece Ashley's final high school play. Uncle Louie was the chef in charge of the meals for the dinner theater performance. Ashley's final play was a really a Shakespeare sampler that was a lot of fun to watch. The babies were very awake and curious about everything. Ryan was the most interested in the play, he was actively watching and following along to the best of his little baby abilities. They were laughing and clapping and unfortunately they also got talkative too. Luckily uncle Louie had extra cookies from dinner and that helped to keep them quiet.............for awhile at least. All things considered, they were very well behaved and we both enjoyed exposing the kids to the Theater, even high school drama, at an early age.

Lastly, I wanted to tell everyone about a very annoying little habit Ryan has developed of late. It doesn't matter how much he has ate, how recently he ate, or even if he's currently eating, if he sees Mommy or Daddy eating, he absolutely must have some of what we are eating because even if it's the exact same thing they are eating. If we refuse, he gets mad and cries and sometimes throws a little fit and drops to the floor and kicks his feet. Obviously we must have chocolate forks or glazed plates!

That's it for now. I have some photos of the babies first exposure to a large pile of leaves, so check back in a few days!!

Halloween Picture Parade

2007-11-08T00:15:00.001-06:00

My hand is still hurting and I'm not going to be too wordy again, so I apologize for going lite on information. There are a few things Meva and I would like to share.

First thing is that Perrin had his one year follow-up visit with Dr. Hahn, his neurologist, for his hydrocephalus. Dr. Hahn said Perrin was doing fine and he gave him a clean bill of health in regards to all things hydrocephalus. We actually suspected this would be the case and continue to count our blessings that he continues to do well. We were lucky that Perrin had such a great medical team behind his diagnosis and treatment. That's why we appreciate everyone who supported us on our charity walk. On behalf of the parents and people who aren't as fortunate as Perrin, thank you.

Milestone-wise, the kids have started to do some cool and fun things. All three kids are now playing "Sooooo Big", but sometimes Perrin only uses one hand and looks like he's giving a Nazi salute. Meva's also really worked hard with getting the kids to start pointing to body parts and we're seeing some small success, with Sarah of course leading the way. I think all of them will occasionally point to their nose, but Sarah will also point out her eyes and her belly and belly button. (We call them her "Buddha Belly" and "Buddha Belly Button"!)

Next thing that's cool is each of the kids are using some sign language, specifically using the sign for milk and Sarah has said "shoes!" That's just fricking cool.

The most exciting news is that Sarah is now really talking, but not saying much. She will however call me Da-da when she wants my attention and she's been saying "Hi" to me when I say it to her first. Ryan is occasionally saying "Milk" and his trying to say some heated, crazy, passionate things that escape his mouth in a throaty, baby-deep, garbled stream. We're trying to get it on video so every can see it.

Finally, here are the photos:

Sarah was Dorothy, but she couldn't find Toto anywhere.

Ryan was the Cowardly Lion and Perrin was the Scarecrow.

We loaded the kids into their train and went trick-or-treating around the block.

The Scarecrow never met a chocolate teddy graham he didn't like.

The Same thing can be said for Dorothy!

Then we stopped at a neighbor's haunted house before returning home.

Next year I think this place will actually be scary for the kids, but it's really cool.

Back home again, we put the monsters back in their cages.

But the Lion got out and said he was going to Arizona to eat his cousin Joey.

That's everything for tonight. I've got some more cute stories to tell and hopefully a few more pictures to show or even a video as well. Also, if you're interested in making a donation to the hydrocephalus research fund, it's not too late. Just click on the link at the top left hand side and follow the links to donate. Anything you can contribute is greatly appreciated.

Lastly, I'm looking to change the blog's look in the next week, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them, so send them to me at Triplet Dad. I can't promise I'll use it, but I will look it over. See ya in a few days

A Trip To Oz

2007-11-01T18:07:00.000-05:00

October was a very busy month and it came and went before we even realized it was here. I had reconstructive surgery on my hand, my mother spent a weekend on life support, Sarah got stitches in her face, we went to a pumpkin farm, and of course we finished with our first official Trick or Treating! I'm no fool though, no one's coming here to listen to me prattle on, you all just want some pictures of the triplets! Well, I aim to please, so let's get started:

Perrin has started to like wearing daddy's hats!! He'll actually wear them for a minute or two as he crawls away into the land of toys.

Lately when we try to take her picture she always tries to touch the lens, but Sarah wants everyone to know that she's #1!!

Of course, that also meant she was the first baby to get stitches! She got these from getting bitten by our dog Gus. We didn't see exactly what happened, but got ended up biting her in the face. Gus is on his way out as a result---anyone want a dog??

I wonder what was in that last bottle?

Then we all went to the pumpkin farm and got to see a bunch of neat things. Everyone sat on a tractor, but it's hard to see real well because we forgot our regular camera and had to buy a disposable camera instead. Here's Perrin on the tractor.

And here's Ryan

And the baby girl farmer!

We also saw some goats, one of them was named Fred. Sarah thought they were funny.

Ryan thought they were too.

Perrin, well he wasn't so happy.

Little Fudd liked the pumpkins much better!

Sarah, Ryan, and I even crawled around in the pumpkin patch too!

The triplets really enjoyed the pumpkins.

But eventually we had to go, so it was over the bridge and home for us.

That's it for today. My hand is starting to really hurt, so I'll post the Halloween pictures tomorrow!

Old pics of the Balloon Fest

2007-10-27T08:57:00.000-05:00

Chuck had mentioned our trip to the balloon fest a few posts back and said we didn't get any good pictures. I disagree. I just think it's where baby pictures in a crowd meet art house. Judge for yourself.

Fun Picture

2007-10-25T11:33:00.001-05:00

He's a little cupie doll.
or Superman
but even if it doesn't look the same he reminds me of Edward Grimley.

A Miracle

2007-10-25T11:18:00.000-05:00

This picture is Perrin eating the wipee box at his kidney doctor's office. We'd forgotten to pack toys so we entertained ourselves with the wipee box and camera.
Earlier this month Perrin had some tests for his kidneys. If you remember when he was born his kidney had water on it and he had a backward reflux from his bladder to his kidney rated a 5/5. 99% of the time this requires surgery. Our nephrologist, Dr. Nold, had Perrin watched and taking an antibiotic for a year. We went for imaging studies late last month, and I commented to the radiologist how he'd previously had a grade 5 reflux. The radiologist didn't seem to believe me, so he pulled his films. He came back saying, you are right, he did have a grade 5 and it is now completely normal. This is really a miracle. I smiled politely and thanked him but I had asked Dr. Nold about the chances for Perrins to revert to normal previously, and Dr. Nold said something like while most grade 5's have a 99% chance of surgery, preemies, have a slightly better chance for resolution, or at the very least to ratchet down the level of severity, so I'd taken this with a grain of salt. When we went to see Dr. Nold he looked at the films and was thrilled. He also called it a miracle and says while he expected things to improve, that they improved this quickly was truly a miracle, and we have run out of reasons to keep meeting like this.

We are very happy that Perrin is doing so well.

Walking for Perrin and Hydrocephalus

2007-09-29T13:47:00.000-05:00

Well, we've had a lot go on in the last week. Grandma Cheri is hospitalized due to complications of COPD and on life support right now. She's doing better, but it's taken its toll on her loved ones, and we are all hoping for the best. In the meantime, Grandma Muriel was released from the hospital Saturday after a long hard fight against Burkitt's Lymphoma/Leukemia. She is going home now after being hospitalized since spring. It's been a long 6 months, but we are glad to see her beginning her road to recovery. We haven't mentioned this much in this blog as we want to keep the focus on the babies... but the health and wellbeing of their grandmothers is a part of their lives, and so it has been a bipolar week in terms of their grandmother's wellbeings.

Sarah also had a rough week. She loves her dog Gus, but she doesn't understand about cornering a dog and warning signs, and she ended up being bit in the face. She had a cut under her eye that warranted some stitches. This all went down at the same time as Grandma Cheri being rushed to the hospital. We opted to stitch Sarah ourselves rather than take her to the ER where the wait would've been problematic in regards to coordinating things regarding Grandma Cheri. [For those of you who don't recall, I work in the medical profession.] Bless that baby girls heart... after her dog bit her, her mom and dad swaddled her so she couldn't move, then held her head and gave her numbing shots and stitched her. She was so mad. She threw up in the process of the whole thing, and I was a nervous wreck doing it. I was so nervous about working so close to her eye and doing a good job as to keeping the scarring to a minimum at the same time it was quite distressing doing this to our little 15 month old baby girl and I wanted to be swift about things so as to not continue to break her heart about mom and dad ganging up on her and doing that to her. I'm sorry Sarah. But, I think the stitching job looks okay and I'm hoping for minimal scarring for you.
After it was all over, we held her a lot and she then finally calmed down and all that adrenaline was converted into a very manic little baby running around the living room squealing with joy, well into the night.

I'm totally going to switch gears here as really this post was to be about Perrin, I started writing this post over a week ago, but it's taken me this long to finish it.

Let me just start by saying how proud we are of our little guy, how much of a joy he is and how lucky we are to have him around. If you don't remember, Perrin has hydrocephalus. This means the spinal fluid formed in his brain becomes trapped and causes lots of pressure on his brain, and as a baby, for his head to swell. This is what he had surgery for last October where a shunt was placed to drain the fluid off his brain and allow him a pretty normal life. The picture to the left here is prior to the surgery. You can see how puffy his head is and the look of discomfort which was there most of the time prior to the surgery. To the right is Perrin that same month while he was still in the hospital, just after the shunt. You can see how much less "puffy" he looked already. The shunt he had put in will need to be there for the rest of his life, or the hydrocephalus will flare again. You can also see how his eyes look downward here, that is due to the pressure on his brain affecting his ability to look up.

We are lucky that there is the option of the shunt to allow him this pretty normal life. Before the development of shunts, this problem was always fatal. That isn't to say that we are in a really great place just yet. Shunts fail. Shunts require replacement if they fail, which means repeat brain surgery. If we are lucky, Perrin will never have to go through this, but most patients with hydrocephalus will. Some need repeated shunts some ridiculous number of times. There is a girl in our parent support group who had developed hydrocephalus at birth, like Perrin, and this year when she was fourteen years old her shunt failed. Then the replacement did and so on and so on. She's had 22 surgeries since December and she's having another one next week. She has developed a thing called slit ventrical syndrome, where the spinal fluid is overdrained which causes the brain to expand and she lives with a horrible chronic headache, which worsens if she stands up and gravity drains the fluid anymore. So, here she is a 14 year old honor student who'd been living a normal life more or less and all of a sudden things took this turn. Another young girl was doing fine and then needed her shunt replaced, and lost her ablility to speak.

There are a number of people out there who go through life with hydrocephalus and minimal implications in there life, but there are also a great deal of them who aren't so lucky.

We walked this past Saturday to help support research to figure out what can be done to make sure people are living with minimal implications. If any of you out there who follow this blog and are fans of Perrin and would like to help him to avoid these scary stories, please feel free to support us at Team Fudd. You can click on the link here and also in the left column called Team Fudd Fundrasing to donate, and you can count this as a tax deduction.

Better Form

2007-09-22T21:45:00.001-05:00

Here's a better video of Sarah Walking

And here's a video showing how much better Ryan is walking!

And Then There Were Two

2007-09-17T10:59:00.000-05:00

First and foremost, Perrin had his eye surgery today and he is doing fine! He and Meva should be home shortly, they had to stop and get him new glasses on the way home. When things settle down a bit more today, I will update with more details about the surgery. Anyways, here's some pics from the past weekend.

Meva took the kids in their wagon to a Balloon festival. She said it was hard to keep them together and not run all over, so this was the only real good picture we could get.

Sarah loves to sit in my recliner and play the drum!

She's Not The Only One Either! Perrin Is a Big Fan

Ryan used to be the baby that hardly smiled when we took out the camera for pictures! That sure has changed, he's now the biggest ham and smiles like crazy for the camera.

And Speaking of Ryan!

What's Going On!

2007-09-11T11:49:00.000-05:00

It goes without saying that we're busy, busy, busy. I feel bad about not updating this more, so I'll try to be more productive here in the future. That will probably mean less writing and more posts that are just photo's---which depending on how funny you think I am is a good thing or a bad thing.

IF I've done this correctly, you can start the video here above this will show you what has been the biggest news and development so far. I'm new to using this feature on blogger, so it may look odd or out of place on your screen. Please let me know as I'd like this to look nice. Anyways, for those of you not able to view this video, Sarah is walking!! She started little by little taking steps here and there away from mommy and daddy's support, and then a few days later she was off and running! She's been going ever since. She still walks like a little drunk, but her form is much much better, as is her balance. While it's great and all, it also increases the amount of trouble she can get into!

The boys are not yet walking. Perrin really doesn't show much interest in it yet, but he can easily cruise, or walk along an object (sofa, table, daddy laying on the floor) when he so chooses. Ryan on the other hand is almost there. First and foremost, his biggest challenge remains controlling his super-strong baby muscles. What Ryan does isn't really walking, he gets excited and tries to run-- his powerful little legs just start pumping and leave the top part of his body behind! He also does this thing which, the best way to describe it is, walking with one leg or as Meva has named it "Half of the Russian Step Dance." I've been trying to get that on video, and as soon as I can I will share it with everyone here. But the cool thing is that he keeps trying to stand straight up on his own without help, and then he takes anywhere between 2 and 5 steps on his own before crashing. I think by Halloween he'll be walking also!

Like the walking, I've mentioned before that Perrin has something called Strabismus, which in layman's terms means his eye cross. I had it as a child and had to have surgery, and that's what Perrin will be doing this Monday morning. He has an early morning surgery scheduled for 7:45am and should be home later that morning/early afternoon. It's a more common and minor procedure as far as surgeries go, so we aren't overly concerned about this other than the anesthesia's effects on such a young baby. He should be fine and I will post an update here on Monday as soon as I get time.

This weekend they are going to see a Balloon festival with Meva and our friend Colleen and her son Finnigan. I of course will be working and I have to miss this unfortunately, but Meva will take plenty of pictures for me, which I will share sense she hasn't posted anything here in months. Maybe me and the kids are just working her too hard, the poor thing. Speaking of little Finn, I am now watching him on Thursdays from approximately 9:30am until 6PM. Yesterday was his first day and it was a lot of fun....for me. I think he was just in awe of the three giant babies that moved real fast and kept taking his pacifier! I think he did really well though and being with other babies for extended times will be good for him!

That's about it right now. Below are some of the pictures from the kids trip to the zoo. It was kind of fun, but mostly boring as they are really a bit too young to understand it, but we're glad we went.

Perrin actually enjoyed petting the goats!

Sarah, who loves Gus, was terrified of the goats!

Father and Daughter! Can you see the resemblance??

Sarah fell asleep after seeing the monkeys!

Ryan joined his sleepy sister and it was time to go home!

I Laugh When I Pee

2007-08-30T18:36:00.001-05:00

That's a statement that's worthy of a good story. Most people who have small kids no how fast they can get into something they shouldn't and having triplets obviously intensifies this. As a result, it's important to do everything you can to monitor them visually, but what's a parent to do when nature calls and your home alone? Since we have a bathroom right off of the living room, when I need to go, I just go with the door opened so I can listen for trouble.

Yes, I know this is gross, but some time ago Sarah figured out that when her daddy goes in that strange room, something is going on. So she follows me as far as our gate will allow her to and she stands on her tip toes trying to see what I'm doing. She can just barely see me standing as I take care of my business. So as I'm standing in front of the toilet trying to quickly take care of business, Sarah begins to giggle and grin, waiting in anticipation for the "Tinkle Music" of the bathroom orchestra that her daddy conducts! As soon as the tinkling begins, she starts belly laughing as though I was doing the funniest thing in the world. The laughter is contagious, and for me it's dangerous, as laughing can cause control problems.

So as a result of Sarah's continue wonderment at all things daddy, I now usually laugh when I pee. Meva says that Sarah is going to be very disappointed when she learns she can't pee like her daddy does, but I guess we'll tackle that problem when we come to it.

Speaking of Sarah, she is walking all over the place! Many people already know this, but we've been too busy to post lately, so consider this the official announcement. She still walks like she just left a toddler tavern, but she goes from one end of our living room to the other without a problem. Ryan is a bit behind her, standing up and taking a step or two on his own, but then falling down because he hasn't yet mastered control of his big baby muscles. Perrin could care less and is more than happy to crawl around on his hands and knees. He can stand and walk along the sofa, so we know it's just a matter of time for him.

The other day Meva took all three kids to get their picture taken, completely on her own. It didn't go well. The kids were cranky and the photographer really sucked at his pictures and didn't get how difficult it is to shoot three babies at once. As a result, some of the pictures of Ryan are just classic! In the second picture he looks like he's eating rocks.

I think the biggest surprise of this outing for Meva was that Perrin actually was the least crabby and as you can see from the left, he took a pretty good picture. I think that's all him and Meva and just some open luck on the part of the photographer. Meva has said that this is really a two person job and that the next time they get them taken, we're going to double team them!

I won't promise I'll post anything else this weekend, but I will try to get another post up soon as tomorrow the kids are going on their first visit to the zoo! There is a special exhibit that lets you pet sting rays, so with any luck we'll get some interesting pictures of the kids with wildlife to share!