Deer Crossing

Several minutes before I took this photo, we were all happily sitting down to dine out as a family. But then Hayden noticed something...

... the deer. She was perfectly fine with him (and his nearby brother) joining us for dinner but Payson was not. It wasn't immediate but soon after seeing it, he broke down into tears, sobbing hysterically. It took us a minute to realize why he was so upset, and it wasn't long before Madison decided she didn't like the deer either. Here's what followed: Keith took Payson outside, our hot meals arrived, I held and soothed Madison, Keith returned and Payson got upset again, Keith left with Payson and Madison, I packed up our cold food to go, paid our tab, and a happy Hayden and I met Keith at the car.

Enjoying popsicles at the pool. This was before Hayden and Payson found their first ant bed and got a dozen bites on their hands. I was wondering what they were up to on the other side of a lawn chair but then I heard and saw them screaming in unison. Madison was snuggling with daddy and missed the action.

Madison continues to crack us up. Here you can see how she put her sippy cup inside a tupperware container and drank from it, over and over and over.

Hayden feeds beggars, Payson and Madison, as she finishes up her snack.

Paper party! Oh, that's just when the babies play with, tear and crumple paper. Don't you love when a simple household item keeps your kids busy, and more importantly, happy, even for just 10 minutes?

Madison gives a funny expression as she struggles to hold all of her Little People farm animals at one time.

I was cooking dinner when I hear Hayden coming towards me saying, "Noo, noo, noo, noo, noo" which she says when either she or her siblings are doing something that is a "no, no." When I turned around, I saw her dragging a long piece of toilet paper from the bathroom. She hasn't yet learned how to dispose of the evidence so she had no choice but to fess up to mommy!

Hayden playing Peek-a-boo. "Where's Hayden? There she is!"

Madison playing Peek-a-boo too.

The babies are still transitioning to one nap and they still get very sleepy in the car in the late morning hours. Here they are crashed out in the car despite my best efforts to keep them awake from the front seat.

One day Payson even fell asleep in the middle of lunch! Poor baby!

Hayden carrying as many stuffed animals as possible at one time.

Madison and Hayden giving kisses.

I Love It

Wow. What a fun age this is - and I am talking about 18 months old, not 29 years old, though that is just fine too. I am overflowing with joy and humbleness from God's blessings on our lives. Each night, after a full day of motherhood, wifehood and hopefully a little selfhood, I feel like I am going to either melt or explode from exhaustion. But it is so worth it. There is something so precious about knowing your child more than anything or anyone in the world. Babies aren't self-conscious, they have nothing to hide and they tell it like it is. For that reason, it is easy for a mother of a young child to know him or her fully.

Spending every day and nearly every waking hour with Hayden, Payson and Madison gives me the ultimate front row seat to their lives, to their development and to their ever-evolving personalities. Keith and I love going into their nursery first thing in the morning ("Wait for me" we often tell each other as one of us heads up the stairs). We just can't wait to greet them and see what they have in store for us that day. There are so many things I love about our babies that are hard to capture in photographs. Here's a sampling:

I love how Payson spontaneously hugs and kisses his sisters throughout the day.

I love it when the girls giggle hysterically in their cribs at bedtime as they play games such as shaking their heads back and forth, running towards and away from each other, peekaboo, etc. totally oblivious to the rest of us in the room.

I love when Hayden says, "Noo, noo, noo, noo, noo, noo" at the exact same time that she is doing something that she knows she isn't supposed to.

I love when Madison squeals and giggles when she is in timeout, playing with her reflection in the mirror.

I love when Payson claps for himself after closing a door, putting away a toy or following any given simple command. (Clearly we do a lot of praising around here.)

I love when either Hayden or Madison's bottom lip quivers as they try to hold it together and be big girls when a stranger gets too close too soon.

I love how Payson starts scratching his head when I reach for the spray bottle because he is anticipating me "scratching" his head, unaware that the reason I do it is to spike his hair.

I love when one of the babies voluntarily and spontaneously picks up another babies' favorite toy and walks it over to them.

I love how the girls communicate in their own screaming language from across the house while in separate rooms.

I love when a sleepy Madison melts in your arms when you first get her up from a nap.

I love how desperate Payson is for you to read him a book.

I love when Hayden stomps, dances, twirls and twists all over the house.

I love how Madison gets giggly after she is well fed.

I love the feeling I get while watching the babies' master a new development or skill right in front of my very eyes.

I love it. God is so good.

Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

This weekend we had a lot to celebrate. Sunday was the big day: Keith's birthday, Father's Day and the first day of summer (yee-haw!).

Since I wanted to treat Keith to a movie and dinner, I decided to make Saturday his birthday and Sunday more about Father's Day. I mean, it just didn't feel right taking Keith away from the kids on Father's Day. So on Saturday, I cooked a big breakfast that we all ate outside on the patio. Then we were off to the park to meet other families in our multiples group for some playtime followed by some true entertainment at my 4-year-old niece's t-ball game (too cute!). Just after the babies went down for their afternoon nap, I had a sitter show up at the house, unbeknownst to Keith, so I could take him to a matinee. A good movie, sitting still for several hours uninterrupted, popcorn and a large DP... it felt strangely familiar, like something we used to enjoy years ago. Then after some playtime with the babies, we put them to bed and went to a fondue restaurant for dinner. Happy birthday, babe!

Eating breakfast on the patio as a family.

After breakfast the babies watched daddy mow the back lawn. They loved it and surprisingly weren't the least bit scared.

Rolling up to our local Moms of Multiples group playdate at the park the right way.

Tummy-swinging is all the rage for 18-month-olds.

Payson and Madison give it a go.

This is only a handful of the dads and kids at our multiples event. Imagine the onslaught we had on the playground. One man with his young child came up to Keith and asked, "Triplets? I just saw a set of twins... well, two sets actually." Pause. "You guys must have some kind of event going on!" We do seem to takeover places when we have group events.

Madison with Nunie at cousin Avery's t-ball game.

Sunday was more relaxed with more home cooked meals, church and a dip at our neighborhood pool which, by the way, the babies are loving more and more. The only way I was able to bake a cake (which was amazing, might I add) and cook so much this weekend was because I had prepared the dry ingredients for five recipes on Friday afternoon while the babies napped. Good idea? Yes. The way I want to spend every Friday afternoon? No. But, hey, it worked well for Keith's special weekend.

Keith opening one of his Father's Day presents...

...bronzed baby shoes! I had the babies' very first pair of shoes bronzed. Now they sit on the babies' little shelves in their nursery next to their tooshie castings that I gave Keith last year. The babies also colored their first homemade cards for daddy for Father's Day and gave him a book about how happy he makes them.

Playing in the kiddie pool.

Mommy, Hayden and Madison in coordinating swimsuit cover ups. So posh.

Hayden drinking water from their spray mat we broke out on Friday.

Payson gives it a taste too.

In typical fashion, Hayden loved the spray mat, Payson liked it okay and Madison wanted nothing to do with it. In fact, she wanted it completely off even if she wasn't near it. When she wants something, or doesn't want something, she shoos her hand at it and fusses "ma, ma, ma, ma, ma...".

Monkey-see, monkey-do. Hayden was leaning and banging against the fence and Madison and Payson quickly followed suit making for a darn cute picture!

Happy Father's Day, babe! Payson will sure have some big shoes to fill one day! This picture shows that he's got a loooong way to G(r)O(w)!

The Silence of Sleep

For several months now I have had to wake the babies up from their morning nap after no longer than 75-90 minutes to "preserve" their second nap as discussed in the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." Slowly I have had to push their afternoon nap later and later or else they aren't tired enough to take it. Eventually it got to the point where Madison wouldn't take a second nap, and Hayden would only take it half of the time. So, with one and a half babies ready to drop a nap and the afternoon nap being pushed too close to bedtime, we decided it was time to change to one early afternoon nap.

After a week of short naps (1.5 hours instead of the usual 3-4) the babies finally all got the one nap thing down today. As I type they have been asleep 2 hours and 45 minutes... ahh, the silence that comes with sleeping babies. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my time with them during the day but a little "break" is always welcomed. But, no idiot here, I do realize that this is today's treat and tomorrow may bring another short nap, but hey, you take what you can get.

The babies (I'm not sure how much longer I can call them that) had their 18 month doctor appointment last week, and their weights were right on track with what they have been for a while now:
Hayden: 23 lb, 14 oz.
Payson: 23 lb, 12 oz.
Madison: 21 lb, 6 oz.

Hayden is still in the 75th percentile for height while Payson and Madison are 50th. Developmentally they are all doing great! Their vocabulary is really expanding quickly as they can each say dozens of words without prompting and repeat several dozen more. Hayden's favorite words right now are "dir dir" (dirty) and "shhoos" (shoes), Madison loves to say "cracker", "car" and "cheese" when you ask her to smile, and Payson loves "b" words such as "bubble", "bird" and "ball." "Uh-oh" continues to be a favorite word for all three and now "weeee" and "whoa" are used often when on wagon rides or going down the slide. Hayden likes to sing "E-I-E-I-O" from "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and Madison loves to sing "Rock-A-Bye Baby." So cute. And if you new moms are considering doing baby sign language, I highly recommend it. It helps so much to have them sign words such as milk, more, eat, help, please, etc. and it's really cute when they sign words such as thank you and sorry too.

A week after returning home from our big trip to Denver and Phoenix, we hit the road to visit Grammy and GP in Oklahoma. Aunt Chelsey and crew joined us for the weekend and the cousins all had a great time playing and swimming together. Halfway through our 4-hour road trip we stopped to let the babies run around on a nice plot of land... but, apparently the grass was greener on the other side.

We were thrilled to be in town for Harrison's first birthday party thrown by parents Joey and Cristin.


Madison gives Keith a little nuzzle.


Our niece, Emma, is just a few months older than the triplets and they had fun sharing toys, food and high chairs.


The four of them were a perfect fit on Grammy and GP's little bench.


The little kids had lots of fun swimming in their new kiddie pool with cousin Chloe and playing with cousin Mikayla during the weekend.

Hayden peeking up after blowing bubbles.

Precious little Madison taking a swimming break.

Payson inspecting the water hose.


Mommy playing with Hayden.

Our little ballerinas playing on the chairs...

And our little diver in his Speedo.

Back at home it's monkey-see, monkey-do, and it's a good thing we have three bar stools so the babies can each have their own to climb under.

At our neighborhood festival the babies had their first face (i.e. hand) painting. Payson wasn't a big fan but look how delicately Madison is holding her hand out so that she doesn't mess up her pretty butterfly.

I heard someone playing with the blinds while I was preparing dinner one day and found Payson and Hayden standing together on the Incrediblock. Silly kids.

Our playgroup had a picnic at our neighborhood park and Madison loved going for a spin in one of the older boys' Jeep ride on. At one point she even leaned over and helped steer the wheel.

We took the babies to feed ducks for the first time, but I'm pretty sure the babies ended up with more bread in their bellies than the ducks did.

Since the babies love water it was hard keeping them away from the edge of the lake so the bridge made a better hangout spot.

Madison's hair is long enough for full pigtails now. They're just so adorable on her!

And here's the cute back view.

Hayden was thrilled to wear mommy's hat around the house.

Hayden loves her little Pony and nearly flipped it with her crazy riding skills (play video below). She likes to rock to the music, and she gives him hugs and kisses throughout the day.

And now play the video below to enjoy a little "dance, dance time" with Brobee: