Technical Difficulties

I'm not too sure exactly what's been going on here, but the photos in the last post have vanished on two separate ocassions. Each time it's happened I've gone back and corrected the problem by reinserting the photos. As of this writing and post, they should be back up now.

I don't want to let this opportunity go by without posting a few new pictures for the holiday weekend. This one to the left is one I believe that Meva took of the babies waiting for me to come home from work on the weekend. I guess it's pretty sad when Meva and I are taking so many pictures that I can't remember who shot which one. Regardless of who shot this photo, the babies were standing and waiting for one of us to come home through the door. They are sitting on our loveseat and looking out the picture window. I have selfishly titled this picture, Where's Daddy? Remember, double click on it if you'd like to see a bigger version of this picture. (It should make it easier to see also.)

This other picture here on the right is of just Sarah and Ryan from behind. Pay particular attention to Ryan's little butt. No, he didn't have an "accident," at least not in the traditional sense. This is a something Meva and I call "Milkbutt." Milkbutt happens when the babies are drinking from their podee and for whatever reason, they decide to just play around with the nipple end and eventually come to sit on it, forcing the milk inside to leak. With only one place to go, the event actually self names. Of the three of them, Perrin is the worst offender of self-milkbutting. He often plays with his podee while he should be eating and then spends the next hour or so crawling around with a wet tushy. From time to time it happens to Ryan, and Sarah--------- well let's just say that she takes her eating seriously! In fact, if she gets a chance she will go around and finish whatever is left over in her brother's bottles if I don't get the podees picked up in enough time.

This last picture is an old one, but I think it needs to be shared any way because it makes his mommy happy. Meva is right in that we don't have as many photos of Ryan. The simple fact of the matter is that he won't sit still well for pictures. He smiles and laughs just like any baby, but once it's time to take a photo, he clams up and just stares into the camera like a sad little thing. We've cuaght some pictures of him smiling, but they are rare indeed. This is him eating and wearing my Bears hat. I know that all the kids are much more comfortable with me than anyone else since they see me the most, but I think they all go a step further in their fascination with my things. They don't go after Meva's shoes, or her pants, or anything like that. Same thing holds true with my baseball caps. Currently they like to chew on the brims of the hat, but they've always just like to play with them even when they weren't teething. This particular day in Feburary Ryan was just really digging my hat, so I let him wear it. I personally can't wait until next year when I can actually start buying them little youth baseball hats! It will be great.

That's it for now. If you notice anything weird about the photos on this post and the last one, please send me an email by clicking this link EL CONQUISTADOR. Sometime this weekend we'll try and get up some more photos we took of the kids out on the lawn with us, it was pretty cool.

The Month of May

This has been an incredibly busy month for everyone around here. We finally put the house in order and listed it with an agent, so the house is now on the market. That in and of itself has been a monumental task to complete with the triplets since it's been almost entirely by ourselves. Thought we did have some friends and family contribute more than we can ever repay them. In addition to this, we've been keeping the house in tip top condition as we get appointments to show the house to the various people who are interested. Lots of work right there even without a pack of wild babies.

This month has also seen us spending lots of time with our relatives, both far and not quite near. We recently took the babies out to Ohio to see their Grandma Muriel. We discovered that Ryan isn't always a nice baby to travel with. We left during the middle of the day and he proceeded to cry for about 5 of the 7 hours it took to get there. The last two of which I spent with my finger in his mouth to give him something to chew on and to lessen the sound of his bawling. Big surprise that we left near his bedtime to come home!

As you can see above, we've started feeding the babies out of their high chairs. We started out with a mixed set of three different chairs, but one of them broke while Sarah was in it and she ended up falling completely out of the thing, so out and bought a set of matching chairs from a triplet family that was done with theirs. The kids are so tiny in them, especially when they slouch down.......half the time I feel like I'm feeding Kilroy. All being told though, they are adapting to the new feeding style and I think they are enjoying themselves, which you can see from the second picture there of Sarah and Perrin.

Speaking of high chairs brings us to eating, and we can't talking about eating without mentioning Sarah! As you can see above, nothing is safe from here. It doesn't matter if she can actually eat it or not, but as soon as she sees Meva or myself eating something, she often races over to us looking like a resident of a Hooverville in need of a handout. You can see Sarah sharing Meva's potato chips and french onion dip. The other thing about Sarah is that she's not too particular with who she eats with. You can see her trying to share the remnants of a meal with Gus. He's used to it because given any chance she'll make a play for his food dish as soon an opening appears.

Meva and I both really wish that we could post more updates. I'm always surprised to hear how many people stop by and read this consistently. In fact, if it wasn't for dear old Louise at the Paradise Valley Police Department impatiently nagging my sister Teri about our lack of updates, I probably wouldn't have even gotten to this today. But she's a big fan, so how can I not take sometime out for our fans and give them what they ask for. So everyone who knows Louise, and even those of us who don't, lets give her special recognition for being such a strong supporter over the past year! That however does bring us to the end of this update, so for Louise and everyone else out there, let me leave you with a wonderful image of my daughter as we bring this to the end!

Professor Perrin Kennedy, Doctor of Babyology

Last week Perrin had another follow-up visit with his eye doctor, Dr. Ticho. In case you forgot, Perrin has a bit of a "floating eye" that crosses from time to time. Although my niece Amanda seems to think he is a mutant and will eventually go all X-Men on us as a result of this (although it would be cool if he turned into Cyclops with the whole heat vision thing!), this isn't a big deal at all. It's actually very common in premature babies and babies with hydrocephalus. He also has the fact that his father had crossed eyes as a child and needed surgery to correct them. I don't even wear glasses anymore, so even if he needed surgery, it wouldn't be a big deal.

As you can see here in the photo above, he is now sporting a cool pair of specs! Dr. Ticho says that he is a bit far-sighted and a bit lazy with focusing his left eye. The glasses should help to correct this over time---the tricky part will be in keeping him from taking them off. The secret is to keep him distracted so that he isn't thinking of them on his face. We've been home an hour and I've had them on him for most of that time, ironically the only time he was pulling at them was when I was holding him. He's been playing on the floor on his own for 20 minutes now and hasn't made one move for them. I hope this is a sign that this won't be an issue. As long as we can keep paper off of them, he shouldn't try to grab it I guess. (Perrin will find any paper anywhere and immediately put it in his mouth........doesn't matter what kind of paper it is, he will put it in his mouth)

As soon as I saw him with these on during his fitting, I immediately though of him as a professor, hence the name in the title. The second photo was taken when I startled him about to begin studying for his next lecture. We've often known that he was extremely smart, almost a genius, but we never knew the secret to his vast intelligence. Here in this last picture you can see Perrin demonstrating how he became so smart. His philosophy is that you "are what you eat," so he has become a ferocious reader, devouring all knowledge he comes in contact with. I guess this explains why he's always been attracted to eating paper........he was just after what's printed on it. Who knew?

Fangs For Coming Back

Sorry it's been so long since the last update here. We've been very busy with sick kids, buying and selling a house, and making a trip to Ohio to see the grandparents. I know I promised a big announcement last time, but I think I'll let the pictures do most of the talking!











SARAH PERRIN RYAN


In case you're having trouble making out those photos, those are teeth! Let me tell you that it is no easy feet to get those photos. Not one of the kids thought it would be nice to cooperate and sit still either. I must have gone through about 75 shots just to get those three.

The kids are still moving around all over the place, and one of their favorite places to play is right under my desk. Often as I am typing or working at the computer I will have one or more babies underneath me playing and tugging at my shoelaces. Meva was lucky enough to have cought them in action.

Despite the hectic pace of our life, we have managed to rise above all the chais and spend some quality moments together and share in some good times and laughs. I have to say it's pretty easy when we've got such good-natured and well behaved babies. Although Sarah has been acting more and more like a bully and was the first baby to ever receive a spanking from daddy the other day. Now that she has that one tooth, she's a real threat. I caught her on top of Ryan just biting away and not letting up. The poor little guy just layed there and took it........crying all the time of course since he doesn't normally get bitten. Sarah received two quick but well placed swats on the diaper padded behind. Judging from the terrible noise she made, you'd think I would have broken her! It took quite a bit of hugging and kissing to console her afterwards.

Time is short right now as we have an open house scheduled for this Sunday and there is still quite a bit of work for us to complete before then. I'll try and update this again in a few days, but I'm not promising anything just yet. Although I'm sure there will be even more big news with the next update (hint hint). In the meantime, here's a nice picture of the four of us hanging out together in my recliner and having a good time. Remember, double click on any picture to see a larger version of it.

Snot Fun Again

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

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

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

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

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

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

Update #2

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

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

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

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

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

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

Update #1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Table for One

Today Perrin had an appointment for a kidney ultrasound way over at Christ Hospital (where he was born). Rather than drag everyone to the big petrie dish, just Perrin and I went. He did just great. He was in such a great mood and charmed the socks of of everyone, but it was a whole different experience with one baby.

After I packed the diaper bag I kept feeling like I'd forgotten something, it took me no time to pack it and there was all this extra space in there. Although people smiled and adored the little guy, there was never a time where there were swarms of people surrounding us, preventing us from going about our business. It was a nice change of pace.

His ultrasound went well, and his kidney has shown remarkable improvement. It isn't 100% normal just yet, but may still come around... so for now it's a watch and wait thing.

It was nice to spend the morning being able to focus all my attention on just one kid. Perrin was such a joy to hang out with. On that note I will leave you with his recent picture after he "helped" his dad with dinner and smeared a big streak on his face. Chuck then thought it would be fun to finish the picture that Perrin started with his face painting. So here's our little warrior...

Spring has Sprung

We had a really nice treat with a 76 degree day on Tuesday and went for our first family trip to the park. <--(Check out the video). The babies rode in the stroller outside for the second time now and enjoyed seeing a little more of the world. Sarah especially was thrilled to watch Gus (the dog) walking along with us and she would squeal with joy watching him trotting alongside her. At our little local park they have swings for babies, unfortunately there are only two of them, so we took turns with each kid. They absolutely loved it. We've got a bunch of videos to share, most of them of Sarah this time as she tends to be doing new and exciting things first, although the boys are now catching up. Anyway, here is a video of Sarah swinging. Chuck is particularly proud of how he does her hair to stick up like a Gerber baby, which you can see in this video.

So, our new exciting developmental step is this...
They have learned to sit on their own. The pictures seen here shows a chronological depiction. Sarah has mastered sitting the longest, so she sits straight up and can do it indefinately. Perrin was the next to really try so he also can sit on his own, but he's still developing the strength to sit straight up for any length of time. Ryan likes to do weeble imitations, so in this picture you see him holding onto Perrin for balance and Perrin eventually flopping forward, still in sitting position as he fatigues having to hold himself and Ryan up. Here's a video of Sarah learning to sit.

Chuck and I are really enjoying how interactive and aware the babies have become. They all belly laugh, and though you may not believe it from all the stoic pictures, Ryan loves to laugh and does it most of all. This is a video of Sarah belly laughing with dad, then spinning which she absolutely loves.

Lastly, little Ryan has been in a little fight as he forgot his favorite toy at a friends house. It is being held ransom right now. He's been enjoying sending threatening letters back and forth, so for those holding the toy in ransom. This is what Ryan said after he opened the mail the other day.

In the company of greatness

I'd just like to give a shout out to Chuck, who is a great dad and husband. He manages this household with three babies, cranky lately at that... with an amazing grace. Granted, when I am at home with the babies on the weekend, it is a rough start from work early on Friday through the weekend primarily on my own as Chuck is gone working 20ish hours in two days + running errands after work. Nonetheless, it is all too clear to me that while I do a right out respectable job being home with the babies, Chuck takes it to another level.


The moment he walks in the door he brings such a light to the place. Just yesterday he walked in and said, do you want to clean or hang out with the babies. I opted to clean, and he just sang the most ridiculous songs and played with the babies and they all just giggled and loved it. He's really a great dad... and today I came home to home baked cookies and dinner made, despite him running short on sleep and feeling kind of sick himself. Not many people could do what he does, and he deserves a great big pat on the back and a few hip, hip, hoorahs.

The babies are getting more and more interactive every day. Today Sarah figured out the phone, she was mad when the phone stopped talking to her (Auntie Grandma), so Chuck called me at work on my break and I talked to her. Chuck says she was baffled by it, and knew my voice, but couldn't figure out where I was.

We had a great time when Ellie, Brian, and Heather came out the other weekend. I'd been feeling too punk to comment on it until just lately, so I'm happy to catch y'all up. For starters, it was terrific to see some of my oldest and dearest friends, not to mention FINALLY getting to meet their baby!

Ellie moves so well, it was neat to see her walking all around with support from the couch, chairs, etc. while our babies just wriggled on the floor. We aren't too far from that, and we've decided not to baby proof the place before we move so baby jail, here we come.

When they were out visiting, we all went to Ikea. It was the first time I'd put the triplet stroller together myself, and we picked a good store to venture into... we need big wide eisles and doors, and they have that. Normally we are something to point and stare at, but at Ikea, it kept happening in various languages. Tres?, no Quatro! and about 3-4 other languages I didn't recognize. The babies did well, except little Ryan had been constipated, so I pushed the prune juice and apparently pushed a little too hard. It worked a little too well. In retrospect, I'm not so sure they didn't have a tiny bout of the stomach flu round two as later Sarah and then Perrin had a few puking / diarrhea bouts... but regardless, that was my first experience with a diaper changing area in a public place.

Lastly, I'd just like to share some pictures Heather got of Perrin, Ellie, and Ryan that I think are absolutely adorable. And finally, a video of the napping car (in reference to the napping house) and of Sarah being kissed by Ellie.

I Am, Therefore I Crank

The title says it all, we have cranky babies. A nasty little cold has made its way into the house and taken a hold of all three babies. Fevers, stuffy noses, runny noses, congestion, and coughs have become sites over the last few days, with yesterday being the worse. Just how bad was it? It's now about 6am on Friday and I finally got all three kids sleeping at the same time. Ryan was the most difficult throughout the night, running a fever, crying, and for reasons I don't understand he kept poking me in the throat.

We've got them on a couple of different medicines that Meva has prescribed for them and they go through periods of discomfort and crankiness. There wasn't a point yesterday that I didn't have to hold at least one kid because they couldn't be consoled otherwise, even then I was only successful about 75% of the time.

I'm about to move Ryan from the jumperoo and back into the crib so that I can finally catch some type of sleep. Perrin has an urologist appointment today, so I will be needing to drag all three kids out to this and I will need my strength and my wits about me for that. Wish me luck.

Photo Parade

There's really not too much to report on here, everything is going along pretty well. Other than the everyone in the house being sick with what looks like a weaker version of the stomach flu, we can't complain much at all.

Over the last week we were able to snap a few interesting photos of the kids. Our friends Brian and Heather came out for the weekend to visit. It was a great time because neither they or us had gotten to see the the new babies. They have a 10 month old daughter named Eleanor, or Ellie for short. Ellie is quite different than our three kids, she can crawl and stand on her own while holding on to something, she eats much more solid food, and she can really manipulate her toys. The funny thing is that she is really tiny, I think she weighs less than any of our three porkers! She's quite a charmer though and very active.

The first picture is of all four of the babies in onsies that say "Born in 2006" to commemorate the year all of them were born. Ellie was a bit difficult during the taking of this picture; she just wanted to explore and play, no time for sitting around thank you very much! There is so much for her to see and do in a new place. She especially enjoyed taking Gus' toys and playing with them herself. You can see her to the left chewing on his yellow rubber duck! Luckily we were able to clean it off and sanitize it so that she could play with it without the adults worrying that it was dirty. Although she just kinda looks like her parents never feed her, I can honestly say that's not the case. She doesn't eat a lot, but she is feed regularly despite what this picture might say!!

Speaking of hungry babies, we often joke about Sarah being hungry all the time. I know its just the age she is, but of the three babies she is always tasting things and putting things in her mouth with much more frequency. We've already got pictures of her trying to eat my shoes and my toes, but this was a new one. You can see on the right that she is so hungry she can't wait for her daddy to finish making the bottles and had to chew on something, it may as well be the jumperoo legs! If you double click on the picture you can actually see her tongue out and licking the blue leg of the jumperoo! She is insane and we always find her in the most unusual spots looking for food. That's how we came upon her for the next picture.

To the left is what we found the other morning when we got out of bed. We heard some scurrying and rummaging in the pantry and when we opened the doors, look at what we found trying to get into the baby biter biscuits!! If she's able to get out of her crib and climb up a couple of shelves in search of food now, what's going to be happening when she's 2 or 3 years old? I think I'm going to have to start locking the cabinets or caging her at night so she doesn't get out. Too bad she doesn't get up and vacuum! Not to be outdone, Sarah isn't the only one with issues when it comes to eating. Perrin is quite a handful in his own way.

Always active and wondering about what's going on around him, he is a challenge to feed even with the Podee. Not only do I try to restrain his arms and pin them down, I have gone one step further. It seems Perrin just gets real excited when he's eating and ends up pulling the nipple out of his mouth and then can't get it back in. He then proceeds to cry and yell because he's hungry and not eating. We go over and put the nipple back in for him, only to have him do it again, sometimes only 2 seconds after we help him out. The other trick I've developed? I take the caps from the podees and put them over his hands so he can't grab the nipple with his fingers! Sadly, it's not a long term fix as he can get out of them quicker than you can blink.

That's all for now, if you want to see a bigger image, click on the photo. And don't forget to visit Meva's video gallery on iTube by clicking it at the beginning of each post!