Outside! Outside!

Outside! Outside!  It is the first words out of their mouth when they come downstairs in the morning.  Miguel finished the swing set at the beginning of the month and are days are full of swinging, climbing and sliding.  Elsie doesn't just throw caution to the wind on this playset, she hurls it over the fence.  She is flat out reckless, hanging over the edge, hanging one handed, I'm counting the minutes till she falls off.  Miguel also built a sand box on the side of it, and the kids like to go back and forth between the two playing.  Elsie calls this area the parky.  In the past, I would say who wants to go to the park, which would consist of a walk in the stroller and then playing on the playground at some of the local parks in town.  So as Miguel was installing the playset she kept pointing and calling it the parky.  Because we are still working on the backyard, there has been a gate at the stairs of the deck that lead to the parky, so Elsie makes it clear every day by saying 'outside to parky'.  If the gate was up there were major meltdowns, so I put up some temporary fencing that allows them to freely go from the deck to the playset without being able to wander to the street.  It has been a lifesaver as there is nothing more determined than a 2 year old repeating themselves 500 times that they want to go to the parky.

Sammy started potty training this month. I tried in March with him, but his vocabulary just wasn't quite there and I found I was really struggling and getting nowhere.  I also found a big part of the problem was Elsie.  She was potty trained but only when cued, so I would ask and she would say yes she had to go, but would sit on the potty for up to 20 minutes sometimes before she made it happen.  She wasn't at the point to tell me when she had to go.  So between Elsie and starting Sammy I was in the potty all day and it wasn't working.  I decided to table it.  Then about a month ago, she started telling me, and I would bring her and she would go right away.  Also, Sammy's been using a lot more words, including wet and potty, so I jumped on the wagon.  We are having much more success.  I don't feel he is picking it up as quickly as Elsie, but I was able to solely focus on her to jumpstart with the 3 day naked.  I can't do that with Sam because I leave the room to bring her a lot.  So we've just gone with routine and consistency, and we are about 3 weeks in and he has a little over 50% success rate.  He has progressed enough to tell me right away if he pees his pants, which is great.  My hope is it will click soon so I can start Danny by the end of the month.  

Danny and Elsie are now sleeping together every night.  This really melts my heart.  I don't know if it is because I am an only child, but I just love that he entertains her coming to snuggle every night.  The first week or 2 he wasn't super receptive, so she has figured it out that if she waits till he falls asleep than he snuggles all night without complaints.  So every night she lays in her bed for 20 minutes or so, reading books sometimes, getting up to check every so often to see if he is out.  No lie, the minute he is asleep she is over there crawling in.  I've taken a bunch of pictures of this showing all the different sleeping positions they've figured out in a small toddler bed.  

Nap time has been crazy. I think Danny is at a point where he doesn't really need a nap anymore.  Elsie could go either way, and Sammy still loves his nap.  I don't want to separate them, but nap time has been absolute chaos for almost a month now.  All the blankets out of the bed, moving the furniture around the room, playing tag, looking out the window, unplugging all the monitors, etc....

I'm working hard on the triplets holding each other's hands.  Some days this works, other days it doesn't.  If they did we could do a little more out of the house without the stroller or wagon.  So gonna keep trying.  

This summer has been a lot about the water so far.  We have a kiddie pool, water table, and giant sprinkler here on the deck, and we do water play everyday.  The kids love it.  Sammy gets so excited it is unreal.  Water is his thing.  We also have been going swimming in Grammie's pool.  We got the water temp pretty warm, so the kids love going in.  Hoping to really improve their swimming skills by the end of the summer.  Right now they all swim on their own with the bubble.  Hoping to lose the bubbles soon.

We went to the road race in Fairhaven on Fathers' day morning to watch some friends run.  Kids had a blast hanging out and clapping and watching.  Then we had Uncle Pete, Auntie Char, Lana, and Joey, Vovo and Vova, and Grammie over for lunch.  Love watching the cousins play.  

Elsie has started with a new phrase...'what are you doing?'  I've captured it on a few videos below.  She asks everyone 'what are you doing'....Danny, Sammy, Daddy, Mommy, Emmie and Yoshi, Deema and the rest of the bubble guppies...she wants to know what everyone is doing.  Danny has a new obsession with string.  Miguel was running string lines outside for guides on the patio, and Danny went crazy.  He carries string with him everywhere now to add to his stick and rock obsessions.  He started coming to me with the string saying something that I didn't understand.  Now Danny gets very passionate about what he's saying, especially if he isn't making himself clear.  He says it louder and repeats himself endlessly until you repeat it back.  Let me say this was the longest 2 days of figuring out he was saying 'I knit'.  I mean it sounded like I knit right away but I was didn't make the connection he was thinking string was like my yarn.  And when I am knitting, I never say don't touch my yarn, I say leave my knitting alone, or Mommy's knitting.  As soon as I said 'oh you knit like Mommy?'  it was like a wave of relief came over this kid...he was like finally she gets it.  So now when his string gets gross, I go to my yarn stash and cut him off a piece of string.  He ties it to everything.  Yesterday he found my craft closet which has shelves stocked full of yarn, I thought he was going to have a stroke he was so overwhelmed.  

Lots of pics and tons of videos this month.  I've been doing videos because all this new talking is really cool to catch on video to save.  Enjoy!

This is what naptime ends with.  Sammy in a bare bed and Elsie and Danny passed out on the floor with all the blankets and snuggies and stuffed animals and books.

one tired boy

loves to snuggle.  he puts his hand on mine

grammie with elsie

a semi successful holding hands.  

We got new bubble mowers.  Epic success.  They love to push them around in a parade.  And every few laps they stop and line up at the corner of the deck like this. 

Everything is about these purple shoes.  She wants to wear them with everything

watching Daddy do yard work

on the big kid's play ground at buttonwood

with Joey on their tire swing

first time on the big kid swing.  I have video of the end of the month when he is already an expert

ok here are all the sleeping pics.  I usually take one almost every night because she gets closer and closer to him.  

this was a rare Danny and Sammy sleeping together at naptime.  Danny on the right.

reading a book in the pitch black room with her foot up waiting for Danny to fall asleep

30 min later in Danny's bed, laying her head on his belly.  awww.

At David and Anthea's wedding wearing her rain boots

puddle jumping

Sharing some fruit with Sammy

Emmie laying on the chair watching the kids play

Sammy telling Daddy a great story

he loves water

water play time

Danny had goosebumps he played in the water so long

snack on the deck.  This is her typical face so glad I got a picture of it

my sweet Sammy

Emmie likes to be where the kids are.  She will lay there while they pour sand on her

Grammie tied Danny's string to the stick and he's fishing

trying to finish up the back yard

at the road race taking a banana break

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sitting on the curb with our cousins Erin, Liam and Abigail

unsuccessful selfie with the 3

a girl and her Daddy on Father's Day

trying to get a group shot 

this is how Sammy really feels about taking a group photo

my makeshift temporary fence connecting the deck to the parky

Sammy helping me put it up

eating english muffin pizzas at grammie's after swimming

at the Fairhaven Homecoming

swing experts

looking at the plane

after Erin's shower I went home and grabbed the kids so she could see them

Danny wearing Mommy's flip flops

I love this picture.  This beach ball sprinkler SOAKS everything in a 10 foot radius.  Danny was drenched and laid down on the chair face down to escape from the water

she says Danny what are you doing about 5 seconds into this one

this is a great video to show how 'passionate' Danny is when he says something.  He is asking 'Help me' to tie his string to his stick, and I don't answer in a nanosecond and he goes crazy

love this one because Elsie yells 'you can do it' to Sammy