23 Months

This last month the boys had yet another growth spurt, like they needed it! I don't have details on their weight or heights, we will just have to be surprised at their 2 year check-up. I do know Caden is an obvious bit taller than both Kellan & Garren. Garren has finally gotten too heavy to tote around for too long. And Kellan is busting out of his pj's.
The boys ate non stop for 2 days, literally standing at the kitchen gate begging for food a half hour after the meal they just ate double portions of. It still cracks me up how that happens.

Caden, Garren & Kellan

 

Garren

 

The boys are basically in all 24 month or 2T clothes, poor Garren is so thin though, he has to have adjustable waist pants in order to keep them up. Depending on the brand Caden & Kellan sometimes need 3T shirts & they are wearing 3T pajamas.

Caden

 

They are little sponges lately, repeating just about any word you say or sign. I had to text a friend & ask for a couple of signs that aren't on their videos & that I didn't know because they were looking for a sign to pair up with what they had (dried fruit & cookie.) Getting them to slow down & use words to tell you what they want is a little bit of a challenge but we are getting there. Signing helps A LOT!

 

Kellan

 

They have started to sing a little bit of the alphabet song & identify shapes. Kellan's favorite shape to say is oval. Caden loves to point to parts of our faces & repeat what they are, his favorite is teeth. Garren is very very busy bossing his brothers around. He is quick to tell them to "get down" or "no no." They all are starting to sing the tune to songs they hear in their videos. It's amazing to me the things they pick up!

Garren

 

Garren is very much Donna's mama's boy, he's mine when she isn't home but when she is hear they are attached at the hip. Kellan is my mama's boy, he is still very sensitive & wants my comforting or reassurance when he gets hurt or disciplined. He is also back to crying when we go into someplace unfamiliar but only if someone comes right up to him. He's fine in stores. Going into offices or houses where people want to come right up & talk to him sends him into tears. Caden is having some of these same reactions too, where he use to just hide his face in my leg. Caden has been pretty independent lately. He does love to snuggle & will run over for a hug every so often but he's happy playing on his own, especially if one of his brothers is not trying to take what he has.

Caden & Kellan

 

It is hard to believe the boys will be 2 years old in less than a month now. Really, where does the time go?

Furniture-3, Kellan-O

This poor boy can't catch a break when it comes to hitting his head on the furniture.

Big boy wanted to hold his own ice

This time he was getting down off the couch & slipped, whacking his head on a wooden chair close by.

Wrong side though :)

We did not make a run to the ER this time as he didn't appear to need stitches.
His little head was quick to react though, he had a bright blue, grape sized goose egg within seconds & then blood came just to the surface of the cut he won himself.
Since we have practice at this now we went straight for some ice in a wash cloth & a dose of ibuprofen. Some cuddles & kisses & he seemed fine. Of course these thing ALWAYS happen right before bed or nap time so he earned himself & his brothers a little extra time before naps.

 

He woke up from his nap screaming after only an hour and a half so I did go ahead & call the on call nurse. She ok'd us to give him a dose of Tylenol in addition to the ibuprofen given earlier & that seemed to do the trick.

Feels better when mama holds it on the right spot

Happy Early Birthday...

I haven't decided if its my early birthday gift or the boys'?
Really it's for my convenience, to get out of the house on my own with the boys, to the gym, shopping, or just walks. But of course it's the boys that ride in it & they love it too!!!

We got the new Radio Flyer triplet wagon. While we love love love our Choo Choo Wagon, the boys are getting heavier & the length of the choo choo was making it difficult to get he wagon going. It is also difficult to turn around & of course I always have to take it apart to get it in the van & put it together before putting the boys back in it again. The new wagon is basically the size of a regular wagon, just a little wider in the back (kind of tear drop shaped) it also came with a HUGE storage bag on the back & a canopy for our hot & sunny summers.

We debated getting the wagon, we weren't sure it would be worth the investment at this age of the boys. How much longer are we going to be able to keep them in a wagon? Well after last weekend, we decided to go ahead & get it.

We were at an outlet mall last weekend, we had the boys in their choo choo walking around, checking out sales. Nothing really different than anything we do normally. For whatever reason people were gawking, not speaking to us, not asking if they were triplets, just staring & making strange comments. It was so obvious & so obnoxious that the boys started getting upset & we had to leave. The choo choo wagon does stand out, it attracts attention on its own without having a set of triplets in it, so we decided that the new wagon would appear to be a regular wagon on first glance & probably not call so much attention to the boys. When using the canopy no one will probably notice it seats 3 at all :) What will we do in public if not answering 100 questions from random strangers? Lol...

So our new wagon arrived today & we LOVE it!!! It maneuvers very easily & we only got 2 comments about having "3 babies" while we were out this afternoon. Donna loves that the handle is a little longer than the one on the choo choo & it is a little taller. No more catching her heels when she is pulling :) I love that it is the length of a normal wagon & I don't have to stop & go to the back to push it the rest of the way through a door. The boys seem to like sitting side by side & facing each other & it has plenty of space for our oversized boys :)

So, my early birthday gift or the boys'? You tell me :)

Who Am I?

I got a GA drivers license!!!

It wasn't without a little more drama though, lol...

I loaded up the boys and headed to the DMV Thursday morning, I was hoping that because I was given instructions to ask for the manager by name that I would be in & out quickly. Because I was there last week I knew the office was big enough to get the boys in & out in their wagon. I really didn't know how they would act though if people stared at them but that's a topic for another post :)

Anyways, so I went in got the manager right off the bat & apparently she didn't realize that our marriage license was a civil union when I was there last week. Now she says she can't accept it because its not valid in this state. For real?!? Now what?!? She had to call her boss & we had to wait for him to call her back to tell her what to do...

It was about a half hour later when she called me back up. She could still process the license using an "alias" but it would be my maiden name not my married name. I said fine, honesty it didn't matter since the drivers license was only used for driving & purchasing alcohol. She looked puzzled & I just said when I register in school they use my SS# & that name, when we bought our house, same thing. The bank uses the SS card & so on, anything legal uses my SS# & name from my SS card. So I told her I didn't care at this point as long as I got a license & it has my photo on it. She chuckled & said hopefully soon every state will accept our marriage.

And just for the record in case you are still confused what the issue was, our marriage license was filled out with each of our maiden names...

I went to the SS office & had my name changed, hyphenated actually...

And the DMV can't/won't use my legal name on my SS card, so my new license just has my maiden name and they are calling it an alias...

 

So who am I really???

Drivers License Drama!!!

I will just start by saying I have lived in 4 different states in the past 13 or 14 years, yet I have only ever held a FL drivers license.

The first time I left FL & moved to GA it was temporary so I never bothered changing it.

When we lived in CT I "applied" for a drivers license there but had not changed my name yet so I was told to go to the Social Security Office first so that they could put my married name on my license. I did go to the SS office & change my name but I never went back for my license & we eventually moved back to FL.

When it was time to renew my license in FL I took our marriage license & of course SS card in in hopes that I could get my married name on my license. Well FL refused to recognize our marriage license & therefore would not change my name on my license, so it was renewed with my maiden name.

Then we moved NC. Rather than wasting hours sitting in line only to be turned away I had Donna check out the situation when she changed her license. The nice people of the Winston-Salem DMV gave her a number to have me call to verify that would take our marriage license & issue a license with my correct legal name on it. It took a couple calls & a lot of hold time but I got the answer I wanted & gathered all my documents to go...
Then I woke up in the middle of night with terrible pain in my very pregnant belly. I was admitted to the hospital that night & didn't see the outside of it for 3 weeks. The rest probably really doesn't need explained but just in case you might not know, we were consumed with our 3 precious boys living the NICU. I was also consumed by my own healing belly & by pumping breast milk around the clock.
I never made it back o the DMV.

Then came our move to GA. We've been here a tad bit longer than the state really allows for obtaining a drivers license but whatever, lol...
You try to coordinate a FedEx manager to watch the kids while you go sit in the DMV for an unknown amount of time! It never fails that the day we plan for, a courier has an accident or someone has an emergency & Donna has to stay at work :(
So finally this past Saturday I decide to just go, on the busiest day at the DMV!
I got there early, filled out my paper work, was issued a number & waited... ... ...
3 hours later my number was called. I had my FL license, my SS card, marriage license & 3 pieces of mail to verify our address. The lady says she can't hyphenate my name on my license because its not hyphenated on my marriage license but she will put my maiden name as my middle name & my married name as my last. I was fine with that even though it didn't make sense. My name on my SS card is hyphenated. Well long story short the computer would not accept the name she was using because it didn't match when she put my SS number in. Duh!!! Because my name is hyphenated!!! She tried both last names & it kept kicking it back. She finally tells me I'll have to goto the SS office & have them drop the hyphen from my name.
Monday morning I go to the SS office, they can't just change my name! The nice lady even got her supervisor to make sure because of what the DMV is saying. He tells me my name is what is on my SS card. It is legal & I was entitled to change my name to a hyphenated name through marriage. I spent Monday afternoon trying to get the DMV on the phone which never happened. I sat on hold for over 40 minutes before giving up & hanging up. I did find an email address during my time on hold so I emailed in my problem.

Yesterday I got a couple of calls from the DMV. The first was a woman who said they would have to over ride the policy & use the name on my SS card. The next call was a man who said they would have to issue me a license using an "alias." Basically they will use my name the way the woman tried to on Saturday. He said I may hear from the SS administration though because my name won't match. It's a chance ill have to take at this point as I need a new license & cannot renew in FL this time since I don't have the 6 bagillion pieces of mail verifying I live there.

Anyone else have any name changing issues?
I plan on going back tomorrow to wrap this up once & for all.
I'll let you know how it goes...

Parents of Preemies Day

Who knew there was a day to celebrate the strength & courage of parents of preemies?! Yesterday was the second annual Parents of Preemies Day. Of course as the parents of 3 preemies, the day is pretty special to us! Reading other parent's stories reminded me of the fears we faced almost 2 years ago now & just how far our boys have come. We are very very fortunate that none of the boys have had any kind of delays & don't seem to have any long term effects of being born 11 weeks premature. We count our blessings EVERYDAY!!!

For more info on Parents of Preemies Day click here :)

Here are just some of the highlights of the NICU journey...

Lucky Thirteen

Donna & I met, fell in love & decided to plan a life together thirteen years ago.
It's been a crazy ride with a lot of bumps along the way & many great adventures.
In our 13 years together we have lived in 4 states, I'm afraid to even count the cities & towns we've lived in!
We've had 3 dogs (still currently have 2 of them) & 2 cats.
We've built a house (& sold a house)
I've gone back to school 3 times... going on 4!
And best of all we've grown our family with 3 beautiful sons!!!
I look forward to many more adventures in the coming years with my best friend & our amazing family.

Spaghetti Night

When I make spaghetti & meatballs I usually make another type of noodle for the boys. Something easier to pick up with a fork or their fingers. I'm all about less mess!

Well tonight I made the boys bow tie pasta, who doesn't love bow tie noodles?! The boys! They wouldn't even try them. I wasn't going to cook more pasta so I just decided to give them some of our spaghetti noodles. This is how it went...

Caden

Garren

Kellan

Garren

Kellan

Caden

Haddie Mae

Today is our sweet Haddie Mae's 6th Birthday!

Triplets, Triplets, & One More Set of Triplets!!!

This past Saturday we had a play date with our other favorite set of BBB triplets. Our local gymnastics place started "open gym" on Saturday mornings a couple weeks ago so we decided to give it try.

It was so much fun for the boys!!! They of course had the whole gym open, trampolines, balance beems, those foam wedge things along with other shapes, rings & bars to swing from & foam pits to jump or climb in. They also had a few bounce houses set up although our boys had no interest in them.

We got there right when they opened & had about a half hour of just all 6 boys playing. It was very entertaining to watch them all figure out what everything was & just what to do. Luckily Bryce, Riley & Tyson are a little older than our boys & were able to lead by example as far as climbing & jumping.

I didn't think Garren would ever come off the trampoline. Each of the boys ran across it & slipped, then looked up with crazy looks trying figure out what just happened & why the floor was so bouncy. They all like to jump though so once they figured it out they loved it. As other kids arrived & some of the moms sat in bean bags around that particular trampoline Garren started flirting & showing off. He really likes an audience & loved bouncing with the other kids.

ALL 6 boys in one shot, plus a few extra kids :)

It didn't take long for Caden & Kellan to start exploring other areas & running back & forth through the place. Donna had to go to work for an hour or so  (one of her employees mom died & the service was Saturday, so she covered the front dest so the other employees could go pay their respects.) So things became interesting trying to keep up with the boys as they each wanted to go in different directions. Thank goodness for Randee & Adam, but it was still a lot of work keeping up with 6 kids!

Riley, Bryce & Tyson had a great time too! They played on pretty much everything. They even swing on the bar out into the foam pit. They showed the boys how to climb up on the foam shapes & how to really jump on the trampolines.

Once we had our fill of chasing the boys & everyone got hungry we went across the street for lunch.
While I sat in the van texting Donna to see if she was on her way yet, another triplet mom & her triplets pulled in. I had met Karen once before & have talked to her on fb a little. Randee had come out to get the portable high chairs & thank goodness they were bother there! They helped me get the boys inside without having to use their wagon. So we had 3 sets of triplets ranging in age from 22 months to 4 years old at our very large lunch table! Donna arrived as soon as I got our food & we all had a great lunch date.

 It hard to find the boys in their chairs

but count 'em, 3 sets of triplets!!!

I'd love to say the boys napped for hours afterward but it didnt happen. They took a shorter than usual nap & woke ravenous!!! Tyson, Bryce & Riley however took good naps for their parents even after falling asleep in the car on the way home.

We had a fantastic time & can't wait to go again!!!
Thank you Randee & Adam for helping me keep track of my boys too :o)