Buy One Get Two Free!: Everyone's got something to say

The highlight of this month is talking, talking, talking. The kids are babbling all day, which is helping their word formation. It's crazy to me how they can go on and on with nonsense chatter and suddenly a complete, and very articulate word pops in there. The other day, Sammy was hubbubbing along with random sounds and syllables telling me some story, and he pointed to Elsie and said 'sister' clear as day before carrying on with his random sounds. She didn't look too happy, so I'm guessing this was a story ratting Elsie out. I was surprised to hear him say that, but I guess I do refer to them a lot as 'go give it to your sister', or 'can your brother play with that?'. I am also surprised that no one says their names, or each other's names. We practice their names all the time, but Elsie is the only one that tries to say 'Dee' for Danny and 'SSSS' for Sammy. Hey it's a start I guess. Some words (or partial words) we've heard this month are water, please, help, shoes, again, bike, go, open, bye, up, out. We are getting excited about animal sounds, and have done quack, baa, moo, meow, gobble, and woof. Some other favorite sounds are 'kkkkkk' when I vacuum, 'vroom' with the cars, and 'pssht' which Danny says all the time and I'm not sure why. And we have some phrases like 'i do it', 'oh boy', 'all done', 'help me', 'what's that?', 'knock knock', and 'more please'.

The kids are really starting to imitate moves too. Touching our toes, sticking out our tongues, knocking on doors, giving high fives, waving goodbye and blowing kisses, throwing and kicking the ball, trying different dance moves. The kids love the Despicable me, and they imitate the dancing in the movie, which is hysterical. They copy the disco pointing, arm pumping, and Elsie even slaps her bum. We are in some serious trouble with that one.

Sammy can officially climb over the gates now. He hasn't left the room, but uses this new skill to penetrate the TV area. At first he used to drag toys over to the gate to stand on and climb over. But now he has advanced to standing on one tippy toe, doing the most limber cheerleading split I've ever seen to get his other foot above his head and to the top of the gate, wraps his little toes around the top as an anchor and hurls his body up and over. How resourceful. It's like his own little fort inside the TV gates. And this fort comes equipped with lots of wires and buttons that do magical things like shut off the tv and turn on the DVD player. He is in love with the green power button on the cable box, and will sit and push it on and off saying 'uh oh' every time the tv turns off.

The kids are really into blocks, puzzles, shape sorting, fitting tools into the peg board, playing with cars, reading books, and playing music. All 3 of the babies are rocking swim lessons now, wiggling away in the water with their little bubbles. I can't tell you how exciting it is watching them every week in the pool, and I'm so glad they are cultivating a love of water like I had growing up.

We had a great month, celebrating Halloween at Lana and Joey's birthday party and handing out candy to trick or treaters, enjoying the mild November going for walks and playing at the playground, and spending a nice Thanksgiving with our family.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears! Oh My!

one of my faves of the day

1st failed attempt at group photo

This one says it all about how Danny's day was spent trying to keep the mane out of his face

At the park with Sue and Amelia

look at Elsie pretending she doesn't know they just pulled all the tissues out of the box

These two.

Play date with Ki

Wearing Daddy's sweatshirt

She LOVES these slippers. The girl who never keeps her socks on. Go figure.

just a boy and his dog

so serious

love.

play time on Uncle Joe's lawnmower!

and on his golf cart!

what?

riding in the machine with Daddy

the boys waiting for their turn

always up to something

it's kind of cold for this walk mom

love her face here. she does love him.

up to no good

looks like a good place to sit

snuggling his momma

the best smile

snack time

watching a movie with her dog

not happy about being woken up from nap

I took these next photos at the triplet table after Danny and Elsie were finished and cleaned up and taken out. Here Sam sits, so patiently, just waiting his turn (which is always last because he is the only patient one), and when he sees me taking pictures he gives up the most innocent shy smile.

He is my heart.