Aren't Families Great?

I grew up with lots of aunts and uncles and I love that I have memories of them all! My mom comes from a family of 5 girls and my dad is the oldest of 6 (3 boys and 3 girls). So seriously, I had lots of aunts and uncles! Most of them live about as far away from us as you can get! (Vermont and now Georgia). I'm lucky that two of them live right here in Tucson so we get to see them pretty regularly!

This past weekend, my Auntie Donna came to visit from Vermont, (a trip which excitedly ended with the birth of another 2nd cousin of mine, but which also meant that my other Aunt who was living in Tucson was off to make a new home in Georgia where she could be the gramma to her newest granddaughter!) We miss you already Auntie Diane! (You see, Auntie Diane was often a regular Bunchkin babysitter with my mom on days I go to work.)

I know my mom enjoyed having them both here as much as we did! (All we needed was our Auntie Darlene!) But here's the best part...one night they offered to babysit-OVERNIGHT! How exciting! Brian and I got to have a date night and then sleep in the next day!

Having a babysitter can be great, but having 3 babysitters for 3 babies is about as good as it gets! So I gave them my camera to document some of their adventures while Brian and I went and saw the movie "Valentine's Day!" It was a great date and we sure appreciated our babysitters!

Gramma Debi and Ethan
Colton playing his favorite game with Auntie Donna

Auntie Diane and Hunter

Auntie Donna and Colton

Auntie Diane and Hunter

Gramma and Ethan

Look how fun to have 3 babysitters for 3 babies! This is the most individual attention they've gotten in a long time, probably!

Colton's cleft palate mixed with Chicken and Stars soup gives new meaning to the term "Shooting Stars." You see, because his palate is open, anything he eats can come right out his nose! So at pretty much every meal, we prepare for that tickle in his nose which signals that a food-filled sneeze is imminent. In this case...stars. If you look closely, or click on the picture below to make it bigger, you will see a star just below each nostril. Yes, those went in the mouth and came back out the nose. :) Oh how I look forward to his surgery...

Colton is practicing his advertisements for Gerber Puffs

Auntie Diane and Ethan

Go ahead boys. Envision whirled peas.

And bottle time for Hunter and Auntie Donna

And gramma and Colton

And Auntie Diane and Ethan

Thank you Aunties! We miss you both so much and can't wait to see you again!

(Now read the post below about haircuts...it's a new one too!)

Salon de Nana

This past weekend, (11 months old) the babies got their first official hair cuts! They went to Nana's Salon (aka the bathroom counter.) Now, I say they all needed hair cuts, but what I really mean is, Colton really needed a hair cut and the other two just needed to be included in the occasion! So when Brian's parents came to visit last weekend, with them came brand new hair cutting scissors!

Much like everything about them, their reactions to the whole "salon experience" was quite different. First born Colton went first (as he usually does) and I'm not kidding you, not only did he tolerate it, I actually think he enjoyed it! He sat perfectly still on the bathroom counter for a good 15 minutes probably while Nana snipped and snipped away! He really only started to get wiggly when the camera came out! Go figure! He looked so cute when she was done! Though it must be said-he looked so much more like a little boy than a baby! :(

Below is his "after". Isn't he handsome? Thanks Nana!
Now on to little lady Hunter. I'm gathering you'll see from this first picture just what her reaction to getting her hair cut was. (And in Hunter's case, because I didn't really want her hair cut since we want hers to grow long, she basically got just that-a hair cut. Basically one hair. ) She didn't love it, but she didn't hate it! She just wanted to be the monkey she usually is! And let's be honest here, those of you who have been following this blog for some time know that Hunter really just wanted to play with the scissors herself! :) So even though she only got a trim, she looked really cute!

What a ham! She knows she cute!

So one child loved it. One was fairly indifferent about the whole thing, which leaves just one more child and one more reaction. Poor, poor Ethan. Yup. He hated it. The minute the comb hit him and the scissors came out, he knew something unusual was going on, and he wanted no part of it.

"Maybe if I'm sad enough, they'll stop."

Midway hug from Nana...maybe that will make it better?

Like my spike?

Yeah...not so much! (And yes, I know what you're thinking...my bathroom mirror is a sight to behold! Between water splashing, little fingerprints and toothpaste spatters, it's a lost cause. It really only gets clean when we have parties or company!) :) I've become okay with this.

He does sad very well doesn't he?

Hugs make everything better! That's about as far as we got with him!

So that concludes our trip to Nana's Salon! Till next month...

Standing room only. Apparently.

Today was a remarkably big day, I must admit. For starters, instead of my mom, Brian watched the babies today from 7:30 until 1:00! All three, by himself, with a bottle feeding, solid feeding and the kids were even dressed when I got home and NOT one of them was crying! Not even Brian! I'm sure many of you are thinking, "What's the big deal? (I, My husband, fill-in-the-blank, etc.) watch our kid(s) all the time. And while I take nothing away from all you other great men, watching three babies, feeding 3 babies, dressing 3 babies, changing 6 diapers, etc. is exponentially more difficult than watching one kid or even 3 kids who are different ages.

Brian scoffed at the "sub plans" I left for him, but I'll continue thinking they were completely necessary no matter what he or anyone tells me. (I realize I went from being freakishly strong to being freakishly strong and freakishly controlling!) And for the record, even though he'll say it was no big deal, I want say "Good Job Honey" because I know it was. A big deal. That WAS the longest you've ever been left with all three babies and I thank you!

So anyway, on my way home, I call Brian to tell him I'm almost there, and before we hang up he says as casually as he would if he were telling me we're out of milk, "Oh, by the way, Colton was crawling today." "WHAT??" I mean, I knew he was close. I've been watching the engine rev for weeks now. So it would figure, the ONE flippin' day his dad watches him, he decides to finally crawl. To compound the matter, I ask "What was he crawling towards?" (A toy? The cat? Piper? A picture of me? ) "Me. He was crawling towards me" he says, ever so proud. "Riiighht"....I say. "But what was he going AFTER?" Again, he says, "Me. He was coming after me!" Okay. I give up. So anyway, sure enough the little bugger can crawl. He still has moments where he relapses and either forgets he can crawl or he's just too tired, and therefore decides to just resort to the good ol' on-the-belly-army-man-crawl. (Which is just as cute.) So that was my day. I hardly had time to watch him practice his new skills though because it was bottle and then naptime when I got home.

(This is clearly an abbreviated attempt at crawling. At this point, he is frankly quite sick of me trying to MAKE him crawl.)

Flash forward 2 1/2 hours later, I'm on the phone with Anabelle, as I hear the babies talking (babbling) to each other from their cribs, which tells me nap time has ended. So I walk into the nursery to get them and I find this- something Anabelle has warned me will FREAK ME OUT THE FIRST TIME I SEE IT, AND SHE WAS RIGHT....

Yep. I walk into the darkened room, deciding who I'll peek in on first, and BAM! There is Colton, STANDING in his crib, smiling right at me. HOLY CRAPI! didn't know whether to laugh, freak out or grab him before he threw a chubby leg over the railing and helped himself to the floor. So I did both. (laugh and grab him, that is. Not freak out. I rarely freak out. (For the picture, I actually went downstairs WITH him, grabbed my camera, then came back up and put him back in the crib to pose for me.)

So that's all fine and good. First crawling, now pulling himself up to stand and ALL on the night Brian has to work until at least 11:00 pm. which means I HAVE to lower the mattress in Colton's crib myself because I'm sure as you-know-what not letting Colton stay up until 11:00 pm. Thus, it cannot wait until morning. I thought maybe it could until I watched him actually throw that leg over the railing and lean forward... Then I KNEW it was not an option. Luckily, Mary came over later in the evening, so she entertained the Bunchkins while I unscrewed and then re-screwed 4 screws. Pain.In.The.Butt. And this is just the first...there are still 2 more cribs to do... So here I am being a good mommy....

So Colton sat and watched as I lowered his crib mattress...all the while I can't help but think that with every inch I lower that mattress I lose a bit of my first born son's babyhood....How did they ever get this big? How is it that they are wearing 18 month clothes when they're not even a year old, and that they were preemies, Colton weighing just a few ounces over 4 pounds at birth, born a triplet to a mom just over 5 feet tall and not quite 100 pounds. How are they so happy and healthy and big? But as Mary said, "Because they are miracle babies." And I thought about it, and she was right. They really are my miracles.

So though you can't quite see the tippy toes, I'm sure you can see that this is the "after" picture. Colton is trying to figure out why he's suddenly so short.

Ha Ha little boy! Mommy wins!

"Aunt Mary, will you put my mattress back up?

So now he likes to stand in his crib, grab the top rail and shake it violently as you can see in the next video. Awesome.


What a day...I'm exhausted! Congrats Baby Boy Colton! Mommy really is proud of you.