Merry Christmas

Baking With Triplets

I recently found a recipe for these really cute melted snowman cookies and thought it would be fun to try to bake some as a family. Sunday morning Gretch got everything together and started working with the kids. They had a lot of fun, and swiped a few cookies early, too.

Beautiful Holiday Moment

I wanted to share this beautiful Holiday moment with you that took place while we were decorating the house for Christmas. Note the dog at the bottom of the picture.

Elisha the Cylon Cheerleader

Juli's Mustache

Hamburger

Taking Triplets To The Dentist

Nobody likes going to the dentist. That’s a pretty well known fact. So when it came time to take our three-year-old triplets to the dentist, I was a bit more than apprehensive. I imagined it ending up something like this:

We’re pretty good about taking care of our kids’ teeth. We brush their teeth at least once a day. We try for two, but it doesn’t always happen. We brush for them because they haven’t developed the dexterity to do a good enough job yet, and that’s okay. We do let them practice, but only after we have done it for them. We don’t feed them a lot of sugary snacks, we don’t give them a lot of sugary drinks, etc., etc., you get the idea.

We made the appointment weeks ago, so we had plenty of time to prepare for it. Still, somehow, I was surprised that the day had arrived. We woke the kids up, got them dressed, fed, brushed their teeth, and loaded into the van for the 15 minute ride to the dentist’s office. We arrived only a few minutes late (small victories) and got the kids settled in the waiting room. They had a huge Lego table there for the kids to play with, which was a pretty good distraction.

After just a few minutes of Lego time, we were called back into a room where the dentist was waiting for us. Juli, with her Tinkerbell doll, Elisha, with her Jessie doll, KJ, who opted not to bring a toy, Gretch and I all piled into the room. Gretch sat in the chair while the dentist sat next to her, and we opted to start with Juli. I got to watch the other two and keep them out of trouble, which wasn’t too difficult since there was an Etch-a-Sketch and two Waterfuls toys in the room for them to play with. These are quiet, simple toys that are great for diverting little ones’ attention from what’s actually going on without disturbing anyone else in the room.

Gretch had Juli sit on her lap, and the dentist began by examining Tinkerbell’s teeth. We didn’t plan it, but having the girls bring dolls was genius. Letting her see the dentist “examine” Tinkerbell’s teeth seemed to help calm her nerves quite a bit. She then had Juli lay down across Gretch’s lap with her head in the dentist’s lap. Again, genius. Keeping her in both eye and physical contact with their mama, I think, helped keep her calm. The Dr. quickly examined her teeth, said everything looked fine, and it was over. One down, two to go.

Elisha’s and KJ’s exams were very similar to Juli’s. I was absolutely astounded. We had made it through the triplets’ first dentist appointment and no one was screaming or crying! I thought for sure all five of us would be in tears by the end of it. Instead we all had a great experience and were in and out of the office in about 30 minutes.

The moral of this story, folks, is to find a good pediatric dentist who knows how to work with children. If you can find one, they are worth their weight in gold.

My First Post On CleveDads.com

My first post is up over at CleveDads.com. It's not much, but at least I'm contributing now!

Follow the link to check it out: http://j.mp/gsbBVC

The Triplets Get Advent Calendars

We got each of the triplets advent calendars with a little piece of chocolate behind each "door", because, you know, we need to remind the kids every day that Christmas is coming by raising their sugar level! Seriously tho, it is pretty cute to see them all excited.

New Nativity Set for the Triplets

Shortly after we put up our Christmas Tree one of the trips decapitated one of the Wise Men from our Nativity. While we were not very happy, we saw it coming, as the figurines in our Nativity are quite fragile. We thought the kids were ready, obviously they're not quite there yet. So we decided to get them a Nativity that was more age appropriate. They love it, and we get to use it to teach them the true meaning of Christmas.

Giggles

Triplets Decorating for Christmas - Video

Last weekend we let the trips help us decorate for Christmas, and we were able to catch some video of the action. Here are a few highlights we'd like to share with you.

Triplets Decorating for Christmas

Last weekend we decided that we were going to put our Christmas tree and other decorations out, mostly because we wouldn't have the time to do it again until after New Year's. And this year, we had three little helpers!!

Triplets Eating Candy

We finally decided to let the kids get into their Halloween candy. Here are a few video highlights of the action.

The Daddy of all Cleveland Blogs

Today I'd like to announce the launch of CleveDads.com, the Daddy of all Cleveland Blogs. Right now there are seven contributing dads from the Cleveland area who will be sharing stories, tips and insights into just what it's like to be a dad in Cleveland.

Head on over to check out the site, bookmark it, subscribe to the RSS feed, and tell your friends!

Published?

Yesterday I found out (from someone at Step2) that one of my tweets was printed in the December issue of Parents Magazine. While it's pretty cool that they picked one of my pointless musings to print in their magazine, I do have a couple of issues with it. First, why me? Of all of the probably millions of tweets out there, why mine? Second, no one from the magazine told me, in any way, that something of mine was going to be printed in the issue. A simple @ reply on twitter letting me know would have been nice.

Trapped

I know I've posted this before, but it's just too funny. I had to post it again.

Triplets and iPods

Here's a video of the triplets playing games on my old iPhone 3G, Gretchen's iPhone 3Gs, and my iPhone 4. They have a pretty good selection of kids games that are fun and educational. Of course, there are some silly games, too. Some of their favorites are Toy Story 3 Memory Match, Wheels On The Bus, iPlay Phone, Balloonimals, and Peekaboo Barn.

KJ has really done the best so far with playing the games on his own. He'll sit on the couch for a pretty good amount of time and play without any help. He even knows how to switch from one app to another. The girls still need a little help from time to time, but they're getting better.

It occurred to me while watching the kids play, that, when it comes to using a computer, they may not even want to use a normal desktop computer. They may all want iPads, iPod Touches, or iPhones, or whatever the newest thing out is at the time. Even now, they show little interest in out desktop computer, but when we bring out the iPhones or iPad, they're really interested. I guess it's all about what you learn on, right?

Bandit

Before the triplets even got blankets in their cribs, Elisha formed this habit of covering her mouth and nose with a piece of something. In the beginning it was her sleepsack, now it's her blanket, or her stuffed puppy's ear. It seems to bring her comfort. We've always found it extremely cute. Ever since she started it, when ever we noticed it we would refer to her as "our little bandit" because she looks like she's hiding her face from view.

Yesterday I caught a great picture with my iPhone of her using the ear of her favorite stuffed puppy as she sat on the couch. It was just so cute I had to share it with you.

These Toys Stay At Grandma's House

It is very cute, for short periods of time.

Where's TinkerBell?

Since Halloween Elisha and Juli have become obsessed with anything that represents the characters that they dressed up as. With Elisha, it's anything Jessie from Toy Story. She has Jessie dolls, Jessie window clings, Jessie coloring pages. It's all about Jessie. With Juli it's Tinkerbell. We have Tinkerbell sheets, pillowcases, blankets, we watch the Tinkerbell movies over and over and over and over...

Recently tho, the girls have started to take the respective dolls to bed with them. I was not too comfortable with this, since the dolls are not the usual soft and cuddly stuffed animals, they're plastic and have some rigid and pointy parts like the hands and feet. I decided to give in and let them continue to take the dolls to bed.

I'm regretting that decision. Elisha is fine with hers. Completely fine. She falls asleep and stays asleep no matter where her Jessie doll ends up. Juli on the other hand, is waking up no less than three times a night whining "Where's Tinkerbell? Where's Tinkerbell?" So Gretch or I have to run upstairs, go through KJ and Elisha's room to get to Juli's room and bumble around in the dark and find this little fairy hidden somewhere in the three blankets, one pillow, two stuffed animals and one very wiggly three year old that are in Juli's crib. No less than three times a night.

I'm really thinking that I need to put a stop to this.

I'm really glad that KJ is not this obsessed with Thomas the Train!

Triplets Singing ABCs

This might be the cutest video I've taken of the kids so far.

Cleveland MomsLikeMe.com Feature

Today my blog is being featured on momslikeme.com's "Meet the Blogger". If you haven't been there, its a great site where local moms (and dads) can go to discuss anything from parenting issues to where to get the latest deals. It's a great resource for all parents.

You can check out my interview by clicking here. When you're done reading the interview, check out the rest of their site. There's lots of great advice and information there.

Halloween with the Triplets

This year the triplets all picked out their own costumes for Halloween. KJ chose Thomas the Train, Elisha chose Jessie the cowgirl from Toy Story, and Juli chose TinkerBell.

We got the chance to practice Trick-or-Treating at Mommy's office on Friday, so the kids were ready to go on Sunday night. They even wanted to take candy out of our bowl of candy!! Everyone had a good time and the kids looked adorable in their costumes.

At Mommy's Office

Some of Mommy's coworkers dressed up as all of the Toy Story Characters and decorated their cubicles accordingly. Elisha really liked this one, although you can't tell by the picture because she was being shy. The young lady who dressed up as Jessie was in her cubicle and Elisha is going through her shy stage right now.

The girls making their way down the aisle.

Ready to take on the neighborhood and get some candy!

Enjoying their loot after a hard night's work. The girls didn't want to take their costumes off. Even to go to bed. We convinced them otherwise.

Snuggle time with Mommy.

Pumpkin Carving

Last night we carved pumpkins, with the trips! I know, crazy, right? While they were very interested in what we were doing, they really don't like to get dirty. So once they felt the the gunk inside the pumpkin, they were pretty much done with it. It didn't help that the girls didn't take their nap, so they were freaking out more than normal anyways. I did capture a few pictures of the action.