Static Hair

I was backing up some photos of the triplets and came across a bunch that I took at the playground a few weeks ago. I totally forgot about these. I love how the slides make the girls' hair stand up, it cracks me up every time. Until they run over and shock me, then it's not so funny.

This is the only slide Elisha will go down at this playground.

It's the one KJ helped her go down.

Juli's climbing skills are crazy! She conquered this thing in no time. She zips right up it with no problems. The girl has no fear. 

Tweetup!

Last night Cleveland.com and the Cleveland Indians hosted a tweetup at Lincoln Park Pub in Tremont. There was a lot of food, drinks, prizes and good conversation.

Triplet Photo Shoot

So, the other day when Elisha woke up with a little tooth issue, I wanted to take a picture of it. I wanted it to be good quality, so I brought out the DSLR and started to take a few pics. Of course, KJ and Juli saw that Elisha was getting her picture taken, and wanted in on the action, so it turned into an impromptu portrait session of the triplets, with our bathroom and my recliner as the backdrop!

Elisha did a pretty good job standing still and showing me her teeth. Not a great job, but a pretty good job.

KJ does a great job standing still and smiling. He loves getting his picture taken.

Juli... well, she never stands still. She's also a bit of a comedienne, so she likes to exaggerate what I tell her to do or make funny faces for the camera. I realized a few months ago that I have many more pictures of Juli than I do of KJ or Elisha, just because it's really difficult to get a good picture of her where she has a nice smile and is looking at the camera.

Elisha's Tooth

Yesterday Elisha woke up and immediately started telling me that her tooth fell out and was gone. My first instinct was to completely freak out, but when I checked her mouth I found all of her teeth were still there. Whew!

For as long as she's had her right front tooth, it's been slightly discolored at the bottom. We've never made that big of a deal about it since it didn't seem to bother her and it didn't seem to be getting any bigger. Her dentist didn't even seem too concerned by it. She asked us if it bothered Elisha, and we said no. She asked us if it bothered us, and we said as long as it doesn't bother her, it doesn't bother us. She was cool with that.

Well, it's bothering her now. When I inspected it I noticed that it had gotten bigger and even looked like there was a chip missing. On closer inspection, I noticed that there was also a new spot on her other front tooth. Much smaller, but definitely the same as the other one. She mentioned that it hurt a little, so, of course, I ran my fingernail over it, she immediately jumped back and brought her hands to her mouth. I'd say it's bothering her. It's weird, tho, since eating and drinking don't seem to bother her at all. She downed an entire glass of cold milk just minutes after I ran my fingernail over the spot.

So, we're taking her into the dentist on Friday. Hopefully she'll be able to do something to keep the tooth from bothering Elisha. At least it's a baby tooth and will fall out on it's own eventually!

Update

Early last Friday morning Elisha awoke crying saying that there was something on her hands. After a long couple of days, we are finally sleeping through the night again.

It took a mixture of reassurance and tough love to get her to the point where she would stay in bed by herself without crying out. Friday evening Gretchen took the kids to her parents' for the weekend. My mother-in-law assured Elisha at bed time that there were no monsters in her house or back at our house. Elisha seemed to be okay with this, but still slept with her gloves on.

Back at home Sunday night Elisha began crying again. After several trips to her room to give her hugs and let her know that there were no monsters, I got frustrated. I was getting the feeling that what she was doing was more of a stalling tactic than it was actual fear. It started out as fear on Friday, but now, it was a stalling tactic. How could I tell? On Friday she would grab onto us when we hugged her, and wouldn't let go. I had to pry her off of me at one point. She's not even grabbing onto us now.

So, after several trips up on Sunday night, I let her know that there were no monsters but that she wasn't getting any more hugs. She needed to go to sleep and mommy and daddy would not be coming back up to her room. She seemed to be okay with that, and snuggled down into her bed.

She still sleeps with the gloves on, but we haven't had to go back up to reassure her.

In other triplet news, KJ has been mimicking anything that the girls do that get them attention. So through all of this little drama with Elisha, he's been telling us that there's something on his hands and that he's seeing shadows in their room. And when Elisha fell and got a bad scrape on her elbow, he kept telling us his elbow hurt and that he needed a band-aid. And this morning, when Elisha woke up saying that her tooth hurt, KJ immediately started saying his tooth hurt. I think he might want some attention.

Juli, on the other hand, seems oblivious to what is going on. She just keeps on doing her own thing regardless of what her siblings are doing.

On the potty training front, Elisha remains the lone trained triplet. She's doing so well, that we started letting her go to bed without a pull-up last night. She's been dry every morning since she "got it" and started using the potty.

KJ and Juli are showing minor interest in using the potty, but not enough to actually do anything. Hopefully we'll get one of them to start using the potty soon.

Rough Night

Last night was a tough one. We think Elisha had a nightmare. She woke up around 3:30 calling for Mommy. Gretchen went up and was trying to reassure her that everything was okay. After about 10 or 15 minutes I went up to see what was taking so long (I didn't know at this point that she had had a nightmare).

The nightmare had something to do with her hands from what we can tell. She kept telling us that there was something dripping on her hands or that her hands needed wiped off. She was shaking like a leaf and was wide awake. We finally brought her downstairs so that we could turn on a light and show her that her hands were okay. We even put "magic soap" (purell) on them to keep everything off of them.

Shortly after Gretch put her back to bed, she was up again. Then Gretch came up with the idea to put gloves on her hands to give her a tangible reminder that her hands were okay. Still no luck. She just wouldn't calm down. Long story short, she ended up sleeping downstairs with Gretch. I know I was up for at least an hour, Gretch was probably up longer, and had to contend with a toddler curled up next to her half of the night.

As of right now she's sleeping in our bed, hopefully comfortably, with gloves on.

The Three Year Old and Reverse Psychology

If you've been following the blog or my facebook feed recently, you know that we have successfully potty trained Elisha. We used a variety of bribes, including candy, toys, money, and ice cream to get her to go on the potty. As time has gone on, and she has continued to use the potty without any major accidents, we've taken away some of the bribes. She now only gets one thing per successful attempt, and since she has emptied her bag of toys, she now either gets a quarter or some m&m's.

Up until this morning, I'd been giving her five m&m's each time she went on the potty. Today I decided that three was enough for each time. When she saw the three m&m's I put in front of her, she looked at me and said she wanted more. I said something to the effect of that's what she was getting. She then said "I have too many" to which I promptly replied "No, You don't have enough." As soon as the words escaped my mouth I knew that I had been the victim of reverse psychology from a three year old, and I reached into the bag of m&m's and gave her two more.

Video: Triplets at Sesame Place

Last weekend we took the triplets to Sesame Place, you can see some pictures here. Below is a little video we took of the kids dancing along with the parade. Our kids really like to boogie!