Massive

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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!!

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

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!!