We love vacation!

We love vacation!  Had a great trip to Orlando this month with the kids.  This was their first road trip in the motorhome.  When they were in rear facing car seats, there was no where to fit all 3 of them, but now that they are forward facing, we hit the road!  Mommy and Grammie drove down with them. We stopped in DC to visit family on the way down and the way back.  It was great seeing all our cousins.  We picked up Daddy at the airport the day we got into Orlando, and he stayed for 4 days enjoying the sunshine.  Auntie Cathy came down on the Sunday and hung out for half the week as well.  We did a few days at the beach which was a huge hit, and most days by the pool at the condo.  We did a day at Magic Kingdom and another at Sea World.  Both were big winners, as the kids are at the perfect age, big enough to meet height requirements for some rides, but little enough to still LOVE the magic.  A big shout out to Lorrie Fernandes, my coworker from Fairhaven High School who came to visit and offered to get us into the park now that she is a Disney cast member.  It was totally unexpected and so appreciated!  It was great to see her and meet her granddaugter :)

All in all our trip was 11 days between driving down and back, and Grammie did great entertaining the kids on the drive.  She had them playing I spy and looking for letters on signs to practice their preschool stuff.  The kids loved hanging out with Daddy and Auntie Cathy as well, and enjoying the warm days riding their bikes and swimming, swimming, swimming.  We came home to 50 degrees and Elsie said it was too cold to play outside and Sammy said 'yea, I want to go to the beach'.  I'm with them.  Hoping for some nice warm weather soon.

We had our second trip to the dentist this month, and again, Sammy was all about it, letting them do a full exam with tools AND use the electric toothbrush.  Meanwhile, Danny tolerated it, and Elsie completely disliked it, and so they both had 10 min checkups with a regular toothbrush.  Let's see how they do in 6 months.

Easter was great, smaller crowd this year, only 17 of us.  We did a color coded easter egg hunt, and that was a huge hit.  So much easier to just have everyone assigned to a color so the littles and the bigger kids can all enjoy the hunt!  And it was a beautiful day to boot, so the afternoon was spent outside enjoying family time.

The day after Easter we got to go cheer on our cousin Erin as she ran the Boston Marathon.  So exciting to see her!  We are so proud of her! We went up to Framingham and put the kids in the triplet stroller to keep them contained.  Glad we could share in her day.

We got some new bikes this month.  We upgraded our old balance bikes to new bigger ones.  Still no pedals but boy do they fly on them.  The idea is to use your feet to make you go, then lift them up to coast and balance.  It's so awesome to see them on the bikes.

Some of this month's tidbits:
We got the movie SING.  Kids love it and watch it all day and night.  They really love Johnny the singing gorilla. They are always singing his song 'I'm still standing' and playing a fake piano. In the movie Mike the mouse escapes from some bears and yells 'can't catch me suckers'.  Well the kids were riding their bikes in the yard the other day and Miguel comes over to tell me Elsie said it to her brothers.  Ay yi yi.
Danny says 'I miss you all the times'.  If I come home from work, pick him up from school, even when I wake him in the morning.  Sometimes he follows it up with 'I love you all the times'. Super sweet.  I suck up these moments knowing they won't last forever.
The kids all have favorite songs.  Sammy loves Justin Timberlake 'Can't stop the feeling', Danny loves Bruno Mars '24K', and Elsie can't decide which song is her favorite, but definitely leans to country.  She says all the time 'we need to find me a song'.  When someone's song comes on they say 'this is Sammy's song'.  So in the car last week I had the radio on and they were telling me to change it and I said 'how are you going to know what music you like if you don't listen to new songs?'.  So 20 min later Bruno Mars 'that's what I like' comes on and Danny says 'I like this song, this is my new music!' and now when 24K comes on he says 'this is my OLD music!'.  I'm looking forward to the label the next Bruno Mars gets since he has apparently narrowed down his music taste to one artist.

And last but not least, I brought over my Scooby-Doo waffle maker from my mom's house.  MEGA HIT!  Daddy has been making them for the kids every weekend, and they love them. Danny calls it scooby dooby pancakes.

My loves

His new spiderman shirt.  HE LOVES SPIDERMAN.  Everything is spiderman. When I saw this shirt on clearance, I bought 2 knowing how big of a hit it would be.  Now every morning he asks to wear his spiderman shirt.  As long as I do laundry every other night I'm safe. :)

look at her looking at her brother

Sammy got tired out chasing all the bubbles

watching Daddy work in the yard

little helpers

she dropped her fruit and Emmie swooped in to clean it up

their favorite snack, pretzels and hummus

scooby dooby pancakes

he loves the dentist

cool kids hanging at Grammie's

rocking her new sunglasses

Easter bags

Easter dinner with our cousin Abigail

egg hunt

Danny and Mommy

look at these long legged boys

Erin at 6.5 miles

waiting for Erin

All packed and ready to go

stopped in Georgia for some playground time and to stretch our legs

Holding hands in the parking lot

This was a great find in St. Augustine.  So much fun at the beach!

my beach baby

LOVE

we saw a big turtle and Sammy said he was 'going home to his Mommy for dinner'. For pizza he clarified.

playing in the tide pools

we had to keep Sammy's bubble on because he kept going deeper and deeper

time to unload.  trip 17 of 143

let's hit the pool!

check out this bathtub!  the kids loved having a bath together

Mommy can I listen to your headphones?

my little Marvin the Martian

so focused

Danny standing outside the bedroom door dying to go in and wake Elsie

the greatest helper

sticker head

he was so excited

making friends

Lorrie and Elsie on the tram.  We can't thank her enough!

he loves that girl

Danny and Mommy 2017

Danny and Mommy 2016

train ride

watching Mickey and Minnie in the parade

she loved the tinkerbell bathingsuit

the resort had 14 pools and many of them had kiddie pools.  They loved it

it was a little sunny

she was sooooo excited to get her face painted.  picked a unicorn 

Sammy picked a shark.  Danny didn't want his face painted

sucessful day at Sea World, everyone is sleeping

got in our annual visit with the Rosenbaums!  Miss these guys :)

of course Sammy snuggled their dogs

A final stop in Virginia to hang out with our cousins

A great day with River and Remy

keeping busy on the drive back

eating pizza

sleeping

being silly

this boy hates to sleep in his chair so any small nap was a victory

tablet time

reading

snacking 

stickers

Binkie Free!

The biggest news of the month is we are binkie free!  At around 18 months when we moved our naps up to the nursery we left the binkies in the nursery as well, and last summer when they stopped naps, it narrowed down having their binkies only for bed at night.  Sam has never used a binkie and is still my thumb sucker, but to the other two their binkies were the center of their universe.  I didn't really want to do a cold turkey at the time for night as well, because it definitely soothed them for sure.  If they woke in the night, they would roll over, find it and go right back to sleep.  In late January I noticed they weren't relying on them all night anymore, and I was ready to lose them.  The day we moved them into twin beds I decided to just bite the bullet and endure a week of hell.  I was hoping the excitement of new beds would work in my favor.  I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how it went.  There was a lot of asking the first night (first 40 min they went to bed) but not crying or screaming for them, just asking over and over.  The second night she asked 3 or 4 times, Danny only once.  By the third night they were a distant memory.  I'm not sure if I timed it just right, but I was kind of kicking myself for not doing it earlier thinking it was going to be a disaster.  Sometimes the anticipation is worse than the actual event.  

Some other updates, we enjoyed a sickness free March.  Super happy about that.  The low dose of steroid we give Elsie in the nebulizer every night seems to be keeping everything at bay.  And since I find her to be the sickness starter in the house, everyone else is also benefiting from it!  '

The kids watched Scooby Doo and loved it.  They call it Scooby Dooby.  I loved Scooby Doo as a kid, and my mom used to say she had to threaten to shut it off so I would get ready for school in the morning.  I have a Scooby Doo waffle maker and so I took it out to make Scooby Doo waffles next weekend.  Stay tuned for the pics!

We went and watched Erin run the New Bedford half marathon.  It was soooo cold.  I had hats and mittens for them but the wind was really kicking making it for a tough 20 minutes waiting for her to run by.  We felt so bad for her, running in the cold wind, but she rocked it!  Can't wait to go watch her in the Boston Marathon next month.

Sammy and Elsie are all about holding hands.  This used to be the toughest part of bringing them places, that they flat out refused to hold each other's hands.  Everyone wanted to hold Mommy's and they totally resisted holding each others.  Then one day, I told them to hold hands and they did.  Then I noticed when they were playing outside they would hold each other's hands and play and run.  It's really cute to watch.  Danny is still not having it, but hopefully he'll join in soon. 

When they are not holding hands, they are pushing each other.  Or kicking, or hitting, or biting.  Lots of fighting going on.  So much fighting.  Everyone wants the other one's toys, or to go first, or to pick which movie we watch, ay yi yi. It makes for challenging days.  Mommy does a lot of yelling and time outs.  I feel like every conversation has the same sentences.  

1.  "(Insert name of triplet A, B, or C), let's sit down and eat our lunch (or any other request)"

2.   "Are you listening? "

3.  "That's 1.  I want you to sit down and eat your lunch please"

4.  "That's 2.  If you are not sitting and eating your lunch you are going to time out upstairs"

5.  I only get to this sentence with Elsie mostly.  "Ok let's go upstairs"

The boys definitely stop at 2.  It's unusual when I threaten time out for them to continue.  Danny sometimes, Sammy almost never.  The only time outs Sammy has if it is in an instant one, like hitting or biting.  But Elsie.  Oh Elsie.  That girl is something else.  She is relentless.  Doesn't quit.  And then tries to cry and say no when the sentence is delivered.  It's the same thing EVERY TIME.  There are some days she goes upstairs half a dozen times.  She comes downstairs and picks up right where she left off.  I was joking with my cousin that I don't understand why she isn't picking it up like the boys, because I NEVER give in or change the rules.  I follow through every time, so she knows if I threaten she is going upstairs.  But she pushes anyway.  I told her, she's got nothing on me.  She will lose this battle of wills every time.  It's exhausting for sure, but I figure she's gonna get it eventually.  And if not she'll be 18 in just a short 14.5 years.  

Enjoy the pictures and videos!

My leprechauns!

Queen Elsa

Enjoying Cold Stone with Sandy

He can sit all by himself in the chair now

Just a girl and her Daddy, in their jammies, on their phones

Danny wants to join in that snuggle

leaving Ikea with new beds

I was looking for bed sets, and the kids picked out these blankets, so this works for now.  They love it

Auntie Tracey let Danny borrow this night light from Jazzy and he loves it

loves his Snoopy shirt

love that smile

of course we have to have a Star Wars shirt

off to Friendly's with Grammie for a St. Patty's Day treat

She loves her grilled cheese

in Mommy's glasses

getting so big

bought these stick ons for $1 on clearance the week after Valentines.  Best $1 I ever spent

He loves me

Playing together happily (doesn't happen often)

Waiting for Erin to run by.  We are FREEZING!

holding our signs

Sammy realized if he held it up in front of his face it blocked the wind a little

 

Erin and Nick came to visit after the race and Elsie was soaking up some reading time with them

watching Spiderman on the TT (TV)

holding hands

practicing for summer

she doesn't like when he takes off her bubble, but she's getting better!

Elsie was taking a nap and the boys were all about a snuggle with Mommy

We went and watched Jimmy at UMass playing Rugby, another COLD day, where is spring?

The kids were just as excited to play on the rock as watching Jimmy.  Every few minutes Danny would yell GOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!

Mommy doesn't allow tablets all day, so when she does they soak it up. 

Daddy taped the light switch to keep her from waking her brothers with the big light. And yet the light is on and the tape is on her shirt.  And she is so proud.