KJ and Buster

Last night I captured some video of KJ and Buster playing around the house. It's very similar to this video that I caught not long after we brought Buster home:

It's amazing how much they have both grown. Here's the new video:

Imitation

Yesterday I caught KJ imitating Elisha's "Bandit", something she's done as long as she's had control of her hands. Luckily I was able to take a picture of it with my phone.

Triplets and Insects

Spring is right around the corner. We can all feel it. Any time the weather is just nice enough to take the kids outside, I'm taking them outside. Unfortunately, with more warmer weather, we also get more insects. KJ is fascinated with bugs, and wants to squish them all. I've tried to discourage him from squishing them, especially with his hands. One day he's going to try to squish something that stings. That should be fun. 

The girls are much less interested in the bugs, until the bugs invade their personal space. That's when the screeching begins.  The other day, as we were all happily playing outside, Elisha started to Freak Out. She was screaming and crying and running towards me trying to tell me what had happened. Once I got her calmed down I was able to understand her a little better and figured out that a bug had flown into her ear. I don't know what it was, but she didn't like it at all. I convinced her that it was just a gentle butterfly that was trying to tell her a secret. I don't think she bought it. Now any time we go outside, she has to have her hood up to cover her ears.

Another New Toy

I added another camera lens to my kit. This one's a big one, the 70-200mm f/2.8. Here are some test shots that I took while the kids were playing outside:

Near and Far

Yesterday we got our first real taste of spring. The temps were in the sixties and the snow was almost all melted. I took the trips out to play, and at one point, Juli just started running up and down the driveway. It reminded me of one of my favorite Sesame Street bits from when I was little.

Nesting

Over the past few months I've been purging all of our "baby" stuff by selling it on eBay and Craigslist. Consequently, there are piles of stuff all over the house waiting to be bought and shipped. One such pile is made up of Boppies, to which the girls have been adding pillows and blankets. They love to sit in the middle of it and just talk and play with their dolls. Until this morning, I thought it was just a cute way for them to cuddle.

As Juli was climbing into the pile of pillows and Boppies this morning, I heard her say "I get into my nest." Then it dawned on me, she's imitating the characters on her favorite TV show, Dinosaur Train, which airs on our local PBS station. It's a cute show about a family of Pteranodons who've adopted a T-Rex. They travel around on a train and learn about all kinds of other dinosaurs and other species that lived during the time of the dinosaurs.

Well, the Pteranodon family lives in a nest (they're bird-like). All three of the trips like the show, but Juli has really gotten into it lately. She's even learning the names of the dinosaurs. She regularly brings me her toy dinosaurs and tells me what kind they are, and most of the time she's right.

It's really amazing how quickly their little brains sponge things up, no matter how complicated they are.

Snow Days with Triplets

Last Friday I took the kids down to see my family for the day and we got the chance to play outside in the snow for a while. The triplets loved every minute of it. Grandma and Aunt Katie had a good time, too.

Triplets and Timeout

When it comes to punishing the triplets, we subscribe to the timeout method. We put them in a corner for three minutes - one minute for each year of age. To keep track of the time they spend in timeout, and so we don't forget to let someone out of timeout, we usually use the timers on our iPhones. It's been working out pretty well for us and the kids really seem to have picked up on the idea.

This morning after breakfast they got out their toy phones and were telling each other to go to timeout. They were even instructing each other on which button to press on their phones to start the timer. It was very cute to watch.

Triplets Around the House

Over the weekend I was able to capture a few photos of the kids and Gretchen. And one of KJ pushing his trains around in a very pink stroller.

Looking Back

The triplets were about six months old when I took these. I just love their expressions. Can you guess who is who?

Triplets and Candy

We took the triplets to a local candy store over the weekend. As we were walking around I thought their heads were going to spin off. They wanted to try everything. As we were leaving I let them each pick out a PEZ dispenser. Of course, Juli picked out Tinkerbell, Elisha picked out Belle from Beauty and the Beast (they didn't have Jessie from Toy Story), and KJ picked out Thomas the Tank Engine. After dinner, we introduced them to the joy that is PEZ. They all Loved it!