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Saturday, April 1, 2017

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.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

WHY?

We have entered the WHY? stage. Sammy started it about a month ago, and now every conversation leads to a dozen new topics explaining the previous topic. Elsie and Danny quickly jumped on this train and now my day is spent explaining

why we put money in the bank
how gas makes the car run
why some dogs are white and others are brown, or black, or grey
why we don't take an ambulance to the doctors every time we go
how come every school bus we see isn't dropping kids off at their preschool
why we can't go in an airplane every day
why the dog catcher truck in the movie 'Life of Pets' looks like a mail truck
where are we going in the car? Why are we going there? (repeat 10 times in the 5 min car ride)
why we can't go to the grocery store everyday
why adults go to work
how come our outside toys are wet after it rains
why hitting our siblings gets us a timeout
why their large construction excavator does not fit on the Thomas the Train play tracks
why Danny gets to pick a show to watch on TV too
why we can't make Daddy a birthday cake everyday
follow up: why it's not their birthday everyday so they can have cake
follow up: why does Elsie have the same birthday as me
follow up: why were we in your belly

You get the idea. It's torturous. A small part of me is happy they are curious and wanting to learn new things, but it's a very small part. The large part of me that has to repeat the same answers to the same questions over and over and over again all day is exhausted. There have been a few car rides where I say 'ok everybody let's just watch bubble guppies till we get there'.

We've also amped up time outs. Not feeling the sitting on the couch is effective anymore. So now the 3 count gets you up in your bedroom. It's like the apocalypse for them. The crying that they have to walk all the way upstairs and sit in the room alone is excruciating. So Danny's new offense is defense in these matters. When he gets in trouble (like for hitting Sammy with a toy) I say 1 and he runs to Sam and says 'sorry sammy' and gives a fake quick hug and then looks at me as if this will erase 1. It does not. And 5 min later when he pushes Elsie, he gawks at me incredulously when I say 2. That's right 2 Danny. Then he is behaves for a solid hour hoping that is enough lead time to start the count back down to 1. Sometimes it does, depending on the infractions. Other times it does because I've just thoroughly enjoyed an hour of no trouble Danny.

We had another hospital visit for Elsie this month. Mommy and Daddy tried to escape on a no kid vacation to St. Maarten for a week, and Elsie put a halt to that. We left on a Saturday and by that afternoon Miguel's mom called to tell us Elsie had what she thought was the stomach flu. By Sunday she had the cough to go with it and by Tuesday evening she was dipping below 90 for oxygen saturation. So my mom took her to the ER Tuesday night and they were able to do a respiratory protocol and give a liquid steroid that boosted her lung function up and her O2 sat bumped up to 95 so they sent her home saying to follow up with our pedi in 2 days. On Thursday when my mom picks her up to go to the pediatrician at 1:30 she texts me she doesn't look good. I am sitting on the beach and Miguel is up in the room eating some lunch. Knowing my Mom wouldn't say that lightly, I check my phone to see the last flight to the states is at 3:36 pm. Considering you need to be to the airport 2 hours before an International flight, I didn't think it was likely. It's 2:15 island time when my mom texts me they are in an exam room at pedi with an 82 sat, and the doctor went to go get her some oxygen. I knew this meant a hospital stay, so I throw our beach stuff in a bag and high tail it up to the room, we pack and vacate the room in 5 minutes and head to the airport 15 min away. We get there and I run in while Miguel waits at the curb in the rental car, it's already 2:50. The American Airlines rep is great, she says she can get us on the flight to Miami and connect us to Boston by 1 AM. We'll take it, Miguel returns the rental, we go through security and get to the gate at 3:20, leaving the island at 3:36. Things happened so quickly that I flew in my bathing suit and flip flops. We land at Logan at 1 AM and my Aunt Cathy picks us up and drives us all the way to Hasbro to see our girl. She had full on laryngitis the poor thing and didn't speak for a whole week. She stayed for 2 days and we went for our pedi follow up and decided to put her on a daily nebulizer treatment with a low dose corticosteroid to keep her lungs clear through the winter months. Seems to be working so far. The good news is they continue to agree there is no wheezing or signs of asthma or chronic lung disease. They still just feel that the lung tissue is regenerating from the initial ventilator damage and therefore struggling to hold oxygen when she has a cough with fluid in her lungs. So still holding out hope she will outgrow this.

And hoping we are done with sickness for the winter since this last flu went through the whole house. Ugh.

We've been using a lot of essential oils with the kids for a variety of reasons. We are using some for sleep since the fall was full of little ones waking up in the middle of the night and staying up for hours. We've been able to transition Danny off Miralax since they've had some recent news that it affects little kids neural development. We diffuse oils daily that help with the afternoon 'crazies' of having 3 three year olds. Danny seems to really respond to them. He is our 0 to 100 meltdown kid. He gets so worked up over small issues, the other day he cried so much his eyes were almost swollen shut because we were out of bananas. I put some lavender and calming oils on his wrists and within minutes he was settling. I never realized how many ways you can use these oils, and I love that we are using chemical free ways to do things. I made an awesome face moisturizer and my skin is looking and feeling great and it cost me a few dollars.

The kids have had a massive growth spurt since the summertime. We went to the pedi here are the current weights and heights:

Sammy is 30 lbs and 37 inches.

He was 14% last check up and is now 30% in the weight category

He was 13% in height and how is 34%

Danny weighed 31.8 lbs and 37.25 inches

He was 33% weight and is now 48%

He was 40% height and is now 54%

Elsie is 26,8 lbs and 35.75 inches

She was 3% weight and is now 10%

She was 5% weight and is now 17%

WOW! What a growth spurt. Even though she is still small for her age, she went up 4 shoe sizes this year and 3 clothing sizes. We'll take it.