Bad Habits, Good Burgers

Welcome to the world's greatest hamburgers.

and welcome to the home of bad habits and difficult names.

We went to Fuddrucker's with my dad and Genise a few days ago.

It's typically a good restaurant choice for toddler triplets because the back room is separate from the main dining room. It always seems that other parents have the same idea we do. "Go to the back room and let your kids run and scream in there! You won't be judged in the back room! "

So there we were. Two steps through the door and our tiny people trying to say "Fuddruckers." You KNOW that can't go well!

Ten steps through the door?

Grampa is teaching the grandkids to blow straw wrappers across the table.

Bad habits? Perhaps. But they sure as heck kept the kids' busy and entertained. (And again, in the back room, no one judges you.)

Colton actually did a really good job.

Love me some blue eyed baby boys.

Ethan...well he's darn cute, but he doesn't blow straw wrappers so well. Can you blame him? What do you do with a straw MOST of the time? You suck through it. So that's what he kept doing. I guess we'll have to keep practicing.

Genise gets to be the judge.

Love Hunter's little lips. She's practicing while she watches the boys.

"My turn!"

She's pretty proud of herself!

(And holy cow if this is not a mini me....weird)

"The Boys", as Hunter calls them.

I told you the back room is a little strange...it's a place where random little girls come lie on the floor. And other kids (mine) join in. But to the more important issue, the red carpet. Eeew. Are we in a saloon? Or worse? It's just, eeew. Luckily the burgers are darn good so I'll keep going back!

And you know I'm a sucker for my kids lovin on each other.

Lately, Hunter and Ethan have been so much friendlier with one another. Like yesterday's post, they'll play and play and then I'll walk in to the room and see them hugging each other.

I love these kids!

Anyhoo, it was a nice afternoon!

*Now before I go further in my blog-a-day challenge, I want to be up front and say that I'm pretty much waiting for my sister to have her baby any day now or within the next few weeks. It's anyone's guess. So if one day I forget to blog, that will be why! I'll be at the hospital meeting my niece!

To be or not to be a triplet

Not gonna lie....still weird that I can actually say 'I know what it's like to have triplets.'

I often think back to my high school & even college days when "family planning" was more about choosing which hot celebrity hunk would be 'my future husband' and whose darling children I hoped my own would resemble. It was more about tearing pictures out of Better Homes and Gardens magazines of awesome children's rooms. You know, the kind with bunk beds and great chalkboard walls? Pictures I would recreate in my own children's bedrooms what with the plethora of money I would have earned from my high paying Editor's job.

In my real life, family planning was considerably less glamorous, as it usually involved a sterile room, a few doctors and some tiny little embryos who carried with them every ounce of hope I had in me that even one would become a heartbeat.

There was not one moment in my life that I ever said to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool to have triplets?" I mean really, does anyone utter those words? I DO remember thinking how great it would be to have twins. That I remember. In fact, I'll even go so far as to admit thinking that I should marry some guy who has twins in his family, since they do not run in mine. But never did I imagine triplets. Heck, I'd never even seen triplets in my real life.

But by golly, I have em now.

And I know em.

And darn, if I don't love em with every ounce of my being.

Even on days like today when there's just not enough me to go around. Days when everyone wants a piggy back ride and everyone wants to sit on the counter and do 'their makeup' and everyone wants to stir the pasta, and everyone wants a push on the slide and most importantly, everyone wants to be held. Somedays I just can't be there for everyone at once. It's frustrating for them and even more so for me.

Sometimes it's hard to be a mom.

And just when I'm at my wit's end (which happens very rarely), they do something like this.

They watch Tangl.ed together in a laundry basket

and periodically call out "Hugs! Hugs Etan!"

And they insist on ALL wearing hats at breakfast.

So yeah, I know what it's like to have triplets.

And I wonder if they'll always appreciate what a unique relationship they have.

What a cool life this is. :)

Weeds and Roots

Things to add to the list-the list of interesting facts about me....You know, the one where I proclaimed to love blood and gore and shark attacks (AND fluffy bunnies). Well I'd like to add the degree to which I despise ventriloquism. And I mean DESPISE. I don't know why, really. I simply find it to be one of the most irritating, annoying 'hobbies' ever. My jaw gets all tense just watching people try to do ventriloquism. Yech...

Add to that, number 27: I LOVE to pull weeds. Almost as gratifying as vacuuming, but a little more work. I hate that they grow so rampant here, and I hate how much they love my backyard, but nonetheless, I love pulling them. Particularly after the monsoon rains when the rock hard ground is actually kind of soft.

After a loooong day at work yesterday, with my own classes and getting stuff ready for mine and my sister's classrooms, (yes, we'll get to that, soon). I came home to a slightly overcast sky, shockingly mild seeming temperature and 3 kids who were eager to play outside. So Brian and I pulled weeds while the kids played.

As with most things, before too long, I realize that we are joined by little "helpers." And who I am to deny any human being the pleasure of pulling weeds? Especially when those humans are my offspring whom I fully intend to use for their slave labor in years to come. :)

So we pulled. MOST of us pulled from the roots, OTHERS of us ripped the foliage off the tops leaving the root and stem. But hey, it's a start. The best part is that they adopted my trademark grunt when pulling particularly stubborn weeds. Hunter and Colton actually sit in the rocks to brace themselves and then pull with all their little mights while grunting their best grunts. They are hilarious. (Even funnier is how Hunter grunts for me anytime she sees me try to do anything that looks strenuous, like open a new jar of pickles, lift a new box of cat litter, etc.) She's so smart it's scary sometimes.

But I digress. May I just say how proud I was of how well they followed suit in my "weed pulling strategery" (yes, that's a Bunch Family word, much like "automagically." As in, "Just one day after pulling weeds, they seem to have automagically reappeared.") They began their weed pulling all willy nilly, pulling here and there and everywhere, but realized before long that mom actually had a plan. We pull weeds in grid like fashion. Start in one area and concentrate there until all the weeds in that section of your imaginary grid are gone. Then move on. So to assist them with this, we began counting. Each of us in the same little section counted to 10, (pull one weed for each number) and before we knew it, we had cleared a little section quite nicely! I must say, I was quite impressed with them!

I grabbed the camera to take some pictures of my wee gardeners and should have known that Hunter would want to take some of her own. Cameras are kind of 'her thing' right now, except rarely is she allowed to use a real one! So I let her take some photos. :) Enjoy. I deleted the ones of my butt and my chest and up my nose. You're welcome.

Welcome to Hunter's Photo Gallery

(I obviously took the last 2)

So we dealt with the weeds for a good solid hour and then decided to call it quits and deal with the roots. MY ROOTS. It has been more than 5 months since I'd dyed my hair and it was time. Unfortunately, they discontinued the color I've used for years which left me to purchase a similar color in a different brand. SCARY....Naturally I chose Friday night to do it so that we would have a full weekend to fix it if need be.

Yes, you should be afraid.

I figured if I drank enough wine, it wouldn't matter how it turned out. Right? :) Anyhoo, I do actually like the color, but I would be lying if I said I didn't notice the deep reddish/purple 'shine' you see particularly in bright light or sunlight. So pretty much anywhere. :) I know it'll tone down in a week or so, so in the meantime, it's okay if you look at me funny. I won't be offended.

And I'll leave you with these photos of my 'big' little girl who has mastered the art of wearing a bra. Just like her mommy, she is.

Sigh...they grow so fast.

Happy Saturday Friends!

I never saw it coming...

You people are so good to me! Pretending to tell me last night's blog actually counted AND was funny? Such good liars. That's why we're all friends. :) Then again, there was Charlotte who was mildly and refreshingly honest and agreed with me that it WAS a bit of a stretch. Oh, and there was follower #146 who apparently found last night's blog totally un-funny to the point that I am back to 145 followers. Oops. Oh well, can't please everybody all the time, right? I'll miss you #146 and hope you'll come back when I'm funny again.

So tonight, I am sitting on my comfy couch, amidst a big ol mess in the kitchen, coated in snot. Not mine, but my 3 babies'. They've all got colds and they're all grumpy. I'd say I'd like to know how it always happens that when one gets sick they're immediately ALL sick, but then I watch the toys that get passed from mouth to mouth and alas, the answer is as clear as the snot dripping down their faces.

My dad came to visit tonight and was greeted with 3 crying kids with nasty noses, fighting with each other and fighting for his attention. Good times. We do warm welcomes right, yes we do.

Well aside from his regular visit with the grand-babies, the other reason my dad was coming over was to deliver a present he'd gotten for me on his recent wedding/honeymoon trip. He found this great canvas painting which he said immediately reminded him of my feelings for my Bunchkins, and so, he got it for me. (Yay me!) I just think it's so neat and so well said. Not sure if I'll hang it in their playroom or put it in their soon to be "big kid bedroom". (Again.) Seems like it should go in their bedroom huh? Anyhoo, pictures to come....

So in the meantime, I'm going to go back to my list from last night and am finally going to visit #2 and then 3. (I'm hoping my guardian angel will be blowing me kisses while I sleep)...good night friends. I have sub plans to write...more on that to come.

All right people.

I REALLY want to get to numbers 2 and 3 but I got nothing for number 1, people. For real. I can't think of a darn thing to write about tonight. I've been sitting here for about an hour now, trying to be witty or clever or entertaining and all I can think about is how much I want to get to numbers 2 and 3. Mostly 3, actually. I might even be willing to skip #2. Furthermore, it's like torture watching Brian at the other end of the couch snoring away. TORTURE! So I'll leave you with a few tidbits of my Wednesday Wisdom...and then sign off:

Here are some things I learned today...

1. There are not enough hours in the day.

2. Falling off the slide onto the grass ends better than falling off onto the patio. Just ask Hunter.

3. The greetings I get when I get home from work ALMOST make working Full Time worth it.

4. If you don't duct tape it or put it in footie pajamas, it WILL take its diaper off and fling poop out of the crib.

5. 2 out of 3 kids will always eat a meal. There's always one who screws up your dinner plan. That one goes hungry.

6. Shark Week doesn't get old. Even though half the shows are from last year's season.

7. Sometimes you just have to post lame blogs.

So friends, after the day I've had on

I rounded the corner and found myself at the intersection of

and

So this teacher mama is going to sleep. Sorry for the lameness. Tomorrow will be better. I hope. :)