This past weekend Gretch and I took the triplets on a mini-vacation with my family to Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA. It's a nice little amusement park designed for young children. It's half water park and half amusement park, and everything is designed with the kids in mind.
The triplets had a blast, and the adults had a pretty good time, too. If you get the chance, I definitely recommend going before your kids are too old.
Juli jumped right in, climbing up one of the biggest nets there!
One of the other parents on the net started calling her spider-girl.
After we conquered the nets, we stopped to get pictures with Elmo and Big Bird.
KJ just about forced me to go on the teacups with him.
The kids love the carousel. The adults loved the fact that the horses were Sesame Street horses.
Look! I got a picture of all three together!!
In the afternoon we hit the water side of the park.
Juli immediately found something to climb.
KJ found a slide.
Elisha found a spot in the pool without sprinklers.
KJ found a button to push on the flying fishies ride.
Not much better than a big ice cream cone after a long day of playing.
Juli found a way to amuse herself while waiting for the parade.
Last Friday I started potty training the triplets with a vengeance. I was a dad possessed. My efforts paid off, somewhat. After just a few minor, but expected, accidents over the past week, I'm about ready to declare Elisha officially potty trained.
In fact, just this morning she stopped playing and went on the potty all by herself, with no help from anyone.
Now if only I could get the other two to cooperate...
Last night I became a dad possessed. I was going to get one of these kids to do something on the potty if it killed me. I decided to focus on Elisha since she seems to have the most control. She will wait until we walk out of her bedroom at night to go so that she can call us back in to change her. We know she can hold it, and we know she can let it go. We just can't get her to do it on the potty.
We've been promising them things for months if they go. We have pounds of m&m's, we have little gift bags filled with little toys and do-dads individually wrapped for them to pick from. We have bags full of quarters for their piggy-banks. I've promised them extra time with their iPods if they go. Last night I even took Elisha's puppy from her and told her she could have it back if she went pee in the potty. I got no response. They didn't even want to sit on the thing.
Then I got really desperate. I told them I would take them for ice cream if they did something on the potty. All three immediately stripped and sat on their potties. Who knew?!?! Ice Cream!!
After sitting on the potty for about 20 minutes, Juli was the first to give up. I put her diaper back on, and two minutes later she wanted changed. Gretch made her change herself, which I thought was pretty funny. KJ was next to give up. Gretch put his diaper on and he went on his way.
Then it happened. Elisha peed!!! In the potty!! Of course, KJ immediately started crying because he wanted to go in the potty and get all of the really cool things Elisha was getting. She got everything we promised her. A toy from the goody bag, m&m's, she got her puppy back, she even got to go with Mommy to get ice cream after dinner while KJ and Juli stayed behind with me. KJ was pretty upset and wanted to keep trying. Juli could care less.
It was a small victory, but at this point, I'll take it.
Elisha spent the rest of the evening in big girl underwear (and stayed dry) and went to bed in a pull-up. We told her she wasn't allowed to go in her pull-up, just like the underwear. So far, so good.
The triplets and I have been hitting a lot of the local playgrounds lately. They've become bored with the toys we have at home, so they want something new. I'm not complaining, the playgrounds tire them out a lot better than the stuff we have here, but they do pose some other issues.
Elisha is apparently afraid of heights. I know exactly how she feels, I'm the same way. I have a hard time getting up on a six foot ladder. My legs get wobbly and I feel like I'm constantly off balance.
The other day I took the kids to this playground:
I call it the Mother of all Playgrounds. Juli and KJ made it to the top in no time at all and were having a blast going down the two big tube slides. Elisha was in tears almost the whole time. In order to get to the top, you have to go up a ladder. Steps she can do, the ladders, not so much. I even tried to help her up, but she didn't like that either. She basically wanted me to carry her up, which I was not about to do.
After several tries to coax her up the ladders I gave up and told her to stay on the first and second level and go on those slides (there are normal stairs up to the second level). She wouldn't even do that for me. She was screaming and crying because she wanted to go on the big tube slides. At this point I decided it was time for lunch and we headed home.
Yesterday I took them to the same playground in hopes of getting Elisha to try the ladders again. Before I even got the chance to put away the apples we were eating when we got there, I noticed that KJ was holding Elisha's hand, taking her up the steps to the second level of the playground. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but there was a lot of conversation going on. Then KJ sat down on one of the bigger slides and moved all the way to one side. He looked back at Elisha and patted the space next to him on the slide. He was going to go down with her. There was more conversation, and then KJ went down the slide by himself. At this point I was ready to go up the stairs to retrieve a crying Elisha. To my surprise, she sat down on the slide and went down right behind KJ.
The smile on her face was so big it gave new meaning to "ear to ear smile". After that first time down the slide, she was off and running to go again, and again, and again, and again. It may have been the only slide she would go down, but she was having fun and playing with her brother and sister.
We were at a playground this morning and I captured a little video of the kids pointing out letters on a panel that showed the alphabet. They did pretty well picking out the letters.
