And The Winner Is....

Drew

Drew is the first one to get stitches! Unfortunately he must have inherited some of my clumsiness because the poor guy tripped and and hit his lip just right on the kids table at Grandma and Papa's house. I wasn't there when it happened so I had the luxury of being reassured by my mom that it wasn't too bad and that Drew was ok. Once I picked him up we headed to the doctor's office and along the way he would tell me "Drew sad", poor little thing!

Because the cut happened right at the border between his lip and skin his doctor recommended taking him to the hospital so he could be sedated to ensure a really good stitch job and reduce scarring. After throwing out words like plastic surgeon and Children's Hospital and scaring the crap out of me Drew's doctor (who is awesome) made some calls and determined that we could get it done at the local hospital, so off we went.

After checking in at the ER we had to wait in a room for almost 2 hours. Keep in mind that the accident happened before lunch so not only was poor Drew hungry, it was his nap time too. Now imagine entertaining a hungry and tired 2 year old in a hospital room for 2 hours who also happens to have a gaping wound on his face. Considering all of, that Drew did great and was such a trooper! I had to keep telling Drew that we had to wait because mommy needed to talk to a doctor so I few times he opened the door to the hallway and yelled "DOCTOR!"

Other than messing up the first IV, things went really smoothly. The procedure was awful...for me, but the doctors did a wonderful job stitching him up. I'm really glad we did the conscious sedation instead of the "burrito wrap" the PA suggested. I think after staring at him with a "you've got to be kidding me" expression for an uncomfortable amount of time, he said, "let's talk to the doctor." You think!

After 4 hours at the hospital we were finally out of there! I knew Drew was super hungry but I wasn't sure what to feed him so we headed to Fred Meyer so I could get some groceries AND a toy for my little trooper. By the time we got to the store you wouldn't have guessed that Drew had been sedated an hour earlier. He was his usual self except for the stitches and blood that was still on his face. As I started putting items in our shopping cart he starting yelling "Drew eat" so I started feeding him strawberries, watermelon, and cheese. Imagine what we looked like. I looked like a mess and was feeding a small child with a bloody face right off of the shelves at a grocery store! Some of the other shoppers faces and double takes were pretty funny.

Little Drew Bear (or Drewbie as his brothers like to call him) is completely unfazed by his accident and owie and didn't mention it at all today. I, on the other hand, did not fare as well. I have already made my way through the entire box of cookies I bought myself as a reward for not losing it at the hospital. I need to come up with a different reward for the next time something like this happens...because with 3 little boys something like this is bound to happen again.

Barber Shop Babies

Evan, Isaac and Drew recently got "real" haircuts. "Real", meaning I didn't cut their hair. I figured with the holidays coming up that they should nice looking haircuts instead of adorable little versions of Jim Carrey's character from the movie Dumb and Dumber. I made a few calls and found a place that specializes in kids hair so we recruited Grandma and Papa and headed to the barber shop!

Drew was up first and did not like the squirt bottle or the clippers. For as miserable as he looks he barely cried. He just made lots of sad faces.

Every time the lady cutting his hair would stop to change positions or sides, Drew would throw his arms up and say "Yay, Drew all done."

Now Drew is all done, and boy is he handsome!

Next up was Isaac. He started out a little scared...

...but quickly got distracted by a Thomas video and a bin full of toys!

Cheeeeeeese! I'm pretty sure he said, "Dang I look good."

Last one to get his hair cut was Evan. Who knew E-Man would be completely oblivious to the fact that someone was cutting his hair. He had a bin full of toys to check out. Look, he found Tigger!

Looking good!

Oh, man. Done already.

The picture I forgot to take was of the hair stylist's face when we walked in the door!

Birthday Weekend Jamboree!

Evan, Isaac, & Drew are 2!!!

We decided to celebrate the boys' birthday over several days this year and to make it a birthday weekend extravaganza (i.e., Casey and I are poor party planners) and just let them go wild! On Saturday we went shopping and let them walk into a store. In case you didn't get the significance of that, I said WALK. No strollers, no shopping carts, and no wagon. We let them pick out a couple Thomas trains before they had to clean up after themselves. I caught Isaac running into himself in a full length mirror and he said "hello" and them kissed himself! After the shopping we ate dinner at a restaurant where the boys enjoyed people watching, coloring, and playing with stickers. Drew also appointed himself the official greeter and said hello and bye to everyone who could hear him...which was everyone!

On Sunday we took the boys to Jungle Playland to burn off some serious energy. There are ball pits, slides, and bouncers at Jungle Playland and we did them all. WE ALL did them all. After chasing the boys around, taking them down the FASTEST tube slide ever (you should see the tube burn on Casey's elbows), a minor split lip on Evan, and ball pit jumping Casey and I were sweaty and tired! The boys loved it though so I think we will be going back.

Here are Evan and Isaac climbing in the little kid area.

Isaac and Evan in the big kid ball pit. Drew was off and running and impossible to get a non-blurry picture of.

Casey and his boys!

On Monday since the boys were still coughing from a little cold we skipped preschool and went to the pumpkin patch. The boys loved this because "picking" or choosing things is really exciting to them. They all got to choose their own pumpkin, ride a train, look at some animals, and ride in a wheel barrow!

Drew having a seat on a pumpkin.

Evan pointing to a pumpkin he liked.

Tough man Ike picking up a big pumpkin!

Look how big we are on our 2nd birthday!

No room for pumpkins in this wheelbarrow. Sometimes I wonder if other parents think we are crazy:)

Drew, Isaac, and Evan. I cannot get Isaac to take his finger out of his nose!

We are three wild and crazy guys!

Me and my big boys!

Preschool Week 4

I skipped week 3 because I forgot to take a picture - oops! I have to tell you how much I enjoy taking the boys to school. It is so much fun to watch them play with other kids and to see what they choose to do with total freedom.

Drew is a social butterfly. He likes to say hi to the other kids and their parents and roam around doing whatever he runs into. Isaac and Evan have a tendency to stick together but that is starting to diminish a little more each week. Surprisingly, Evan is the one who is the most concerned about where I am...after playing for awhile. He always comes to find me and tries to get me to do whatever it is he is doing. Isaac is pretty independent and also a people watcher. Once he gets started on something though he tunes out the world around him.

Last week during our outside playtime there was a small mud puddle which the boys found and had a blast playing in. Drew even sat in it! By the time we left the puddle was gone because it had all be soaked up by all of the kids! The boys' pants were so wet that I had to take them home in just their diapers! Of course, the week I don't bring a change of clothes!

I was able to get one picture inside of Isaac reading. He looked at this book for about 20 seconds.

Here comes trouble! The water fun is just about to begin!

Time to head home for lunch and a much needed nap!

Preschool Week 2

We made it through another day of preschool! The boys did great today. We only painted on each other and only Drew spilled his water at snack time. The best part of preschool is the 2.5 hour nap that follows when we get home!!!

How many tries does it take to get a good picture?

A lot! These were taken when we got home, paint and all! Also, you may have noticed Drew's serious face in the pictures - he thought he was being really sneaky by slowly sliding off of the window sill. He thought he was pretty funny when his feet finally hit the floor!

First Day of Pre-Preschool!

Evan, Isaac, and Drew had their first day of preschool today!

We are attending a wonderful co-operative preschool in Stanwood once a week but after today I wish it were twice a week! The boys had so much fun but I think I enjoyed watching them play and interact with other kids their own age even more!

It's a little difficult to get my 3 little night owls up and out the door early in the morning. However, I would like the world to know that I got TRIPLETS to preschool before it was even open (first one in the parking lot) AND got a coffee! Take that singleton parents! OK, that's more than a little immature of me but I just have to enjoy the moment because I'm sure it will never happen again!

What is the breakfast of brainiac champs? Eggs (with meat as Drew would say), toast (per Isaac's request), and milk of course (in a blue cup per Evan's request)! On a side note, that is a huge foam cougar head in the bottom left of the picture. It surprisingly is a great reward for good eaters! They get to wear it and have the WSU fight song sang to them (by daddy)!

Sorry Grandma's and my future self, but this was the best picture I could get this morning. It was like they were as excited as I was and found it impossible to sit still. I have been talking about going to school with the boys for the last few days and watching an episode of Blue's Clues where they go to school just to get them ready for it. I was so happy that they weren't devastated that Elmo wasn't at their school this morning just like in one of their books. Phew!



Drew

Isaac and Evan insisting they have their hats (hoods) on.

Although Isaac did pull his pants down almost immediately upon getting his coat off at school, conveniently while my hands were occupied pinning a name tag on Evan, the rest of the 55 minutes went pretty dang well.

The boys are used to standing around toys and taking turns so they did just fine and did good at sharing the best 23 month olds can. I did discover the things that set us, the triplets, apart from the other kids though.

The first being drinking from cups. Snack time included cups with water which each of my boys all immediately dumped down the front of them. We still use sippy cups so they can help themselves when they want a drink and we work with regular cups one on one randomly. Needless to say the boys were pretty excited and I can't blame them especially since the only time they get to have a regular cup is in the bathtub!

The second difference is sitting in chairs. We still use our highchairs so I can keep them wrangled and focused on their meal. They have their own table at Grandma and Papa's but we're still working on "sitting" down. Drew especially wants to just grab a bite and start walking around. Insert prayer for second set of arms to sprout from my body at this point.

And the third applies mostly to Drew. Group activities are overrated. He wasn't down with circle time. He was probably thinking that his entire day is a group activity so he was going to make the most of some alone time with the toys.

So far so good. Then I find Evan. Finger painting on a classmates t-shirt. Yikes! Paint!!! My kids are just starting to get to have more than one crayon at once! After I wash all of the white paint off of Evan I set him loose just to find him 1 minute later eating the blue paint! I'm sweaty and a little anxious now so yes, we will play outside even if it is raining. Big mistake. Let's just say that my guys helped lead the wild boys puddle running. They were laughing and having a great time and since they were already soaked from snack time why not a little mud to boot?

We got in the car completely dripping wet and it was worth it! Can't wait for the next class!!!

Road Trip...lets - Day 7

Day 7 and Casey and I have decided that we want to live in an apartment again thanks to our wonderful stay at Rivertide Suites. We don't need all of the "stuff", we just need bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen, and a DVD player! Seriously though, no more yard work or home repairs is really...really enticing!

Here are the boys watching a DVD and patiently waiting for mom to finish getting ready.

Here is what one of the bedrooms looked like with all 3 portable cribs set up.

The boys really enjoyed running around our room and doing things they can't normally do at home, like open doors and play in closets. They also figured out how to turn the dishwasher on...ugh!

Finding secret hiding places is so fun Evan just had to take his pants off!

Have I mentioned that Casey and I aren't the best planners when it comes to more specific details? By deciding we would stay in Seaside we felt like we had a plan. Little did we know that we would be there at the same time the Hood To Coast Relay was finishing. You know, Hood To Coast - the biggest relay in the WORLD! There is a cap of 1000 teams each year so imagine how many people were in Seaside at the finish line!

Here is a picture of the thousands of people and tents set up for the relay finish. Just a few people to try to get around with 3 toddlers - no big deal.

Pulling this through super soft sand was a workout!

But we finally made it to the beach! Hooray!

Drew was not as excited as his brothers. He decided that he just wanted to be held by daddy.

Isaac and Evan were off and running!

Issac

Daddy playing soccer with Isaac and Evan.

Drew finally warmed up to being on the beach and decided that digging by himself was a perfect way to spend the afternoon.

And when mom isn't looking, I'll just sneak a bite....

After making our way through the massive crowd we found a picnic table where we could do a quick change out of wet and sandy clothes and then went looking for some horses!

We found them on the carousel. The boys mostly looked petrified but they loved it! We rode twice they liked it so much!

Isaac
Drew

This is Evan at the end of the first ride asking for "one more". His number one finger is a little cut off in the picture but his face his priceless!

The boys were so excited when we were done they were jumping and dancing and telling daddy all about it...even though he was right there with them:)

We ended the day with some pizza and a movie for Casey and I. It was the perfect end to our little vacation. We rested up and headed home the next day. Thank goodness day 7 was so nice because day 8 brought terrible traffic and an in-car diaper explosion!