Megan was on vacation Monday through Wednesday this past week. This time of year it’s very difficult us to take vacation days so Nana and Grandma Sunshine did tag team care duty for us!

Getting the day started

Waiting to eat. Thank goodness for our baby jail!

Happy babies, eating ravioli served with love

Nana played photographer before I left for work one morning

Busy, happy babies at play

Nana even found a fun toy that was waiting for us in the basement. We are so excited to play piano like our daddy!

Busy babies in the bath

Steven, Sammy and Amaya say, “Thank you for taking such good care of us, Nana and Grandma Sunshine!!”

This week, these awesome stools arrive in the mail from our forever friends, Mary and Dave Hartley. We can’t wait to use them. They’re sure going to come in handy when little people need to reach big places!

Megan returned on Thursday and baby development continued on it’s rapid pace.

Steven is still working on transitioning from army crawling to crawling regularly. It’s good to see him on his hands and knees. (Sammy, too!)

And he really wants to stand, but he’s not quite there yet.

Amaya, on the other hand, is pulling up on anything and everything! And she’s very proud of herself. As she should be! 🙂

In fact, we had to do an emergency night in the pack & play when we realized that Amaya was pulling to standing in her crib. My little girl is a big girl with her crib lowered to the lowest level. I only shed a few tears.

It was a BIG week for Steven! After his last orthotist check in we started wearing his helmet only at night but, on Thursday, he was released from the craniofacial surgeon. As Uncle Bob would say, Rocket J Squirrel is free!

We had lot of fun this weekend. These kids are starting to get into everything and nothing gets in their way, not even each other.

I was able to catch Amaya pulling up. Every day, she’s getting more and more steady.

Amaya wore a fun, fancy dress for a lazy Saturday.

Steven was adorable in these superhero overalls passed down from Chase

Here is trying to escape the playroom. I wonder who’s going to be first to try to scale the gate. (Kidding. We all know it will be Amaya.)

And the Sam Man wearing his Farmer Phil button down, also passed on from Chase.

See?

On Saturday evening, Jason shot a short video of me feeding SSA chicken in cream of mushroom sauce. They eat it best when I shred it, though this wasn’t necessarily the most efficient way to serve it. The chicken was followed by broccoli but, right now, I serve their protein before their veggie.

Finally, to the point of nothing stopping these babies. Amaya climbed clear over Jason. It was pretty amazing to watch.

What a week!! On Wednesday, Steven, Sammy, Amaya and I headed to NY for a long Thanksgiving weekend. We hated leaving Jason behind but were so excited to get back to NY to see friends and family.

Anna, who helps us on weekend nights, traveled with me. I’m ambitious but definitely not ambitious enough to try to fly with three 10 month olds by myself.

After some morning drama when I was upgraded to first class without the rest of our party (including Steven who was sitting in his own seat next to me), we got new seat assignments in the last row of the plane.

Steven didn’t mind, though. He was happy to have his own space in his own seat.

We had an unexpected in air adventure on the trip. About 30 minutes into our flight, the pilot announced that we were turning around due to a problem with the altimeter. We got so, so lucky on a tough travel day. Despite the detour back to MI, we were only 3 hours late getting into NY because there happened to be a new plane waiting for us just 2 gates over. Our flight attendant was awesome and carried 2 diaper bags and a backpack onto the new plane for us. A passenger helped carry Steven’s car seat off the plane. And they called us to board before they even announced it for the rest of the flight. It all worked out. A Thanksgiving miracle!

Next thing we knew, we were all playing at my mom’s house.

Everything was ready to go at the house. We had a baby jail all ready!

And 3 high chairs ready to go!

And it was Thanksgving day! Soooooooo much fun with family at Aunt Dale and Uncle Arnie’s house, dressed in our Thanksgiving finest.

Uncle Bob and the Sam Man

Aunt Dale and Miss Amaya

Steven, holding court

Sammy, with Uncle Dave and Chase

More family fun!

Uncle Arnie playing the exact same game I play with the kiddos.

And it was time for Thanksgiving dinner! I’d been waiting for this meal from the time Steven, Sammy and Amaya started eating solids. They did GREAT. They ate turkey, stuffing, broccoli and sweet potato. My amazing little eaters.

And we opened Hannukah presents – our Thanksgiving tradition with the Goldstein clan.

At the end of a long, wonderful day, we got even more excitement when we locked the car keys in the car with the engine running. Fortunately, we had jammies and bottles and Uncle Arnie and Aunt Dale ran out to get us some extra formula. Steven, Sammy and Amaya did great. Turns out, they don’t care where they are. They just want to eat and sleep on time. 🙂

On Friday, we had our first ever meal at a restaurant. A diner, in fact! Jason and I have eaten out with the babies in tow but this was the first time that Steven, Sammy and Amaya got to sit at the table and eat with us. Pancakes and eggs for everyone!! They were so cute sitting at the table eating their breakfast. <3

Later that day, we had a small group over for bagels and baby time.

Steven, with Papa Gene, Uncle Josh and Nana & Charlie.

Amaya, with Savta, Uncle Josh and Rachel.

Sammy, getting some mommy time, Chase time and Rachel time.

And a little old school camp fun with Bobo.

Steven, Sammy and Amaya got their first taste of bagel with cream cheese and lox! YAY!!

Amaya, of course, at it really well. She eats everything really well.

Saturday!

THIS FACE.

Happy Steven

With Auntie, who was a huge help all week. Along with Savta and Aunt Sara, Aunt Anita spent almost all day, every day at my mom’s house helping out.

Lots of time for family photos.

And suddenly it was Sunday…time to go home. This time the flight was a breeze. We got through security relatively easily and our flight was on time. Early, even!

Nana and Sammy on the plane (taken over my shoulder to the row behind me).

Sleepy Amaya! And a glimpse of the guy who sat down next to me, looked at Amaya in my lap and Steven in the window seat and said, “Looks like I got the worst seat on the plane.” Funny how he doesn’t seemed so bothered.

More Nana and Sammy time.

When we landed, we stopped to get lunch in the airport… for all of us.

Sammy tried his first pickle. Hahahaha. He wasn’t sure at first but then he dove in and finished most of the pickle. A boy after my own heart!

Amaya got in on the pickle action, too!!

Definitely my kids! We’ll have to give Steven a chance to try one soon, too.

And next thing you knew, we were home with Daddy where we all belong. <3 <3 <3

Megan is on vacation through Wednesday so Nana and Grandma Sunshine are taking care of Steven, Sammy and Amaya while Jason and I work this week. Just one more thing in a long list of things to be thankful for. (But come home soon, Megan! We all miss you!!)

Sometimes, on Sunday when I write the blog, the events of earlier in the week seem like a lifetime ago!

This week, Steven, Sammy and Amaya had a big adventure with Megan. Steven had a helmet adjustment as he winds down wearing his helmet so Megan packed everyone up on a cold, cold day and off they went!

Getting ready to head out!

All bundled up!

We made it inside!

Since we’re almost done with the helmet, we got an overlay of Steven’s original scan and where he is now. I’m so pleased with the results and glad that we did this for him! Not everyone was as aware of his head shape as Jason and I were but I would have kicked myself if it didn’t adjust on it’s own and he was stuck with a lopsided noggin for the rest of his life. The plight of the baby A. Stuck in utero at the bottom of a triplet pyramid.

Check out the improvement!

Some photos from the week.

Mommy and Steven

Determined to get his toys!

And very proud of himself.

Someone likes his reflection. It’s no wonder, when he sees such a cute face staring back at him!

Cuddling with Megan

His infectious smile

The Sam Man

Always a charmer

Plank master

Which apparently expended all of his energy

Chilling in the bathtub

And some signature Whammy

Sammy is sooooooo close to crawling. In the meantime, this week he’s mastered the worm.

Amaya is into EVERYTHING these days

And under everything

Very sad that she had to wait for her food

But never for long

Visiting with sister cat Sally

And with Steven!

And Miss Amaya is now starting to pull herself up to standing. Just one step closer to getting an apartment of her own. 😉

Big kids playing together

Piling on daddy

And rushing to see him on the other side of the baby gate while he was in Sick Man’s Purgatory.

Today we tried a new twist on ground beef. We mixed it with creamed spinach. Yum!

Last but not least, a quick photo before I left for a fancy night out. Thanks to Megan for babysitting!

This week, we’re off to NY for Thanksgiving. It won’t be the same without daddy but we’re so lucky that he’s supportive of us going to see our NY family for the holiday.

Where does time go? Seriously. SLOW DOWN TIME.

We’re have lots of Thanksgiving spirit for our 10 month photos.

Amaya is resigned to her brothers’ shenanigans with her hat.

This is what happens when daddy walks into the room. <3

Shenanigans.

Steven!

Sammy!

Amaya!

It’s World Prematurity Day today. Here are our 33 weekers who are amazing and thriving and bring us more joy than we could have imagined.

If you’re so moved, it’s a great day to donate to the March of Dimes. It’s because of all of the research that predated Steven, Sammy and Amaya that the amazing team of doctors and nurses at St. Joe’s knew how to get them healthy and home as quickly as possible. <3 <3 <3

Happy Sunday! To start this week, let’s go back in time to September 28th. I finally got some of the photos from my mini-NICU reunion. I mentioned this in the blog at the time but, oh, this was a tough afternoon. By the time we started photos, Steven, Sammy and Amaya were all getting cranky and, for most of the afternoon, if I held one baby the other two started to cry. On top of that, we were taking photos with our babies but one momma can’t hold three babies so easily so my kiddos had to stay in their stroller while all of the other babies were held. That was hard for me. My kids will have a lot of unique experience because they’re triplets but they also have to give up a lot of the one on one attention a singleton gets. BUT! We did it! And, honestly, sometimes surviving the harder outings feels almost as good as enjoying the easier ones.

Back to the present… We had our first official early intervention appointment on Monday. At this point, we’re getting once a month visits from an child development specialist, Dawn. The most immediate goal is help getting Steven and Sammy to crawl. Most specifically, Steven army crawls but we’re trying to get him to crawl the regular way.

Dawn left this pillow with us to use with Steven and Sammy. The idea is to help them get comfortable with pressure on their knees.

Maybe it’s working!

He isn’t doing it often but we’ll take it! And, in the meantime, we’ll keep working on his knee exercises.

On Monday afternoon, Megan packed up Steven, Sammy and Amaya and took them for their 2nd flu shot. (Infants get 2 doses their first year.) Megan is brave! 🙂

She had the smart idea to dress them in leggings for easy thigh access at the doctor’s office. Check out their coordinating socks!

Morning time fun with Megan.

Here are some photos of Steven. This is probably the LAST time you’ll see photos of him in his helmet. It’s been 4 months, the helmet (or just time) has made a huge difference, and we decided we’re done. He’s gone from 11mm of asymmetry to no more than 3mm, which is considered normal. At this point, the only reason to wear it is to avoid regression and he rarely lies on the side of his head anymore so we’re graduating him from his helmet program. Yay!!

Steven loves his books.

The Sam Man (aka the baby with the most nicknames)

Brothers!

Amaya! On Monday I saw her pull herself to standing by herself! She’s not doing it often yet but, if you do stand her up, she can holder herself really well. She’s even held on one handed and switched supporting hands.

Oh, Amaya. 🙂 Jason bought her these amazing tights and Megan pulled together the perfect outfit to show them off. She’s one stylish girl!

But not always in the mood for photos.

The whole gang!

This week, we introduced ravioli! Megan found it at costco for us. It’s fresh and stuffed with spinach and cheese. The past is thin enough that it’s really easy to eat. Steven started off eating it well but didn’t want any for the past 2 days. He seems to be shaping up to be out pickiest eater.

And today we had LASAGNA. Lasagna and sweet potato. Everyone looooooved it! It’s a great meal to highlight the kids’ personalities. You can tell so much by how they all eat. <3

Also, this week, Steven figured out how to drink from a straw! Now everyone’s on board. Hooray!

And here’s a quick video of bathtime. Steven’s happy. Amaya’s busy eating her duck. Sammy’s channeling the godfather.

A few more photos.

We rounded out the crib parties in Sammy’s crib.

Daddy got down and dirty in the playroom.

And I had a few photo ops with Steven, Sammy and Amaya.

I’m sending this out earlier than usual because, tonight, I’m going out for dinner with another local triplet mom. Hooray!!

We’re so lucky that Steven, Sammy and Amaya have the best grandmothers and even luckier that Grandma Sunshine and Nana paid visits the same week. We count on them in more ways than you can imagine and the best part is that they take care of us, too, not just their grandbabies.

Here, Grandma Sunshine gives Steven and then Sammy a hand. Happy boys!!

Nana managed to wrangle all 3 babies into a photo, mostly because Amaya and Steven crawled right into her lap.

Reading to Steven

And bedtime storytime, courtesy of “Are You a Cow.” We looooooove Sandra Boynton.

We love our Grandma Sunshin and Nana visits!!

Today, in preparation for winter, we tried on winter hats that Aunt Bonnie made us last spring. They fit perfectly!

We’re meeting more and more milestones with each passing week. Amaya crawls, Steven army crawls and Sammy finally started rocking back and forth on his knees. He’ll be on the move soon!

To help Steven try to transition from army crawling to regular crawling, it was suggested that we put him on his knees with a toy on a couch pillow in front of him. He has some work to do to steady himself but he certainly had fun!

Amaya and Sammy got in on the action, too. Sammy did great on his knees. Amaya just wants to stand already.

So we’re helping her stand! New toys came up from the basement today.

Soon enough she’ll be pulling herself up. For now, we help her out. (PS. Check out her adorable new jeans!)

While we’re in the playroom, here are two pictures of the whole room in action! We’re so lucky to have this playroom space.

With 3 meals a day, there’s a ton of opportunity to try new food.

Every other morning starts with pancakes and eggs. Everyone looooooves pancakes!

Today, we tried salmon. It was a huge hit! It’s also really easy for them to eat because it’s so soft. Hooray! I’m hoping salmon will be a regular item on our menu.

Steven was very excited about his chicken and sweet potato.

And I’m pretty sure these photos were of cheese and avocado, breakfast of choice on non eggs/pancakes days.

We tried hamburger this week and it was a little difficult to eat so we called an audible and made cheesy beefy noodles instead. Success!

Megan, Steven, Sammy and Amaya did me a favor and picked up my mom at the airport on Friday afternoon. It was a huge help and was our first run in the new car seats. Here’s the gang in baby jail waiting to get loaded into the car.

Everyone still loves Big Sister Sally Cat and she’s getting bolder, too. We’re still very careful when she’s around the babies. All it takes is one tail grab for things to go south quickly.

With more mobility comes more interaction. First Sammy went for Steven’s helmet. Then he went over Steven.

But don’t worry. Sammy got his.

Here are some individual photos from the week.

Sweet Steven

He notices all the details.

Watching Sally

I put this end table here to keep Steven from going for the wires and plugs. Kid was determined!

Fortunately, Lion caught his attention.

A happy boy with this pancake.

And in his new underarmour warm up pants from Daddy.

Sammy has a pair, too!

While we’re on brothers, her is Steven really noticing Sammy for the first time. It was pretty incredible. He was enthralled by his brother.

Now it’s Sammy’s turn. This kid.

Morning love from Jason. He couldn’t let Jason go to work without more hugs.

And Miss Amaya

She makes the funniest growly noise that we’ll have to try to record. Here’s what it looks like. 🙂

Mommy & Amaya <3

And I’ll leave you with a photo from Friday morning when we had a party in Amaya’s crib. The hostess with the mostess.

It’s been an eventful week for Steven, Sammy and Amaya. New foods, new car seats, a new stroller and daylight savings time!

But we’ll start with some downtime. After our doctor appointment on Tuesday we had a “rainy day, stay in PJs” day! Everyone was very happy about it.

There were real adventures in eating! We introduced chicken, cheese and lamb! I’m still figuring out the best way to serve meat but, overall, it was a success!

Chicken

Cheese

Lamb

Steven also made a run for Jason’s beer but we told him he needs to wait a bit longer.

Starting this week, we’re going to move to solids 3x/day instead of 2. We’re also going to work to eliminate the late afternoon cat nap. Feeding 3 babies 3 times/day is a lot to think about so I’m going to start trying to meal plan. Jason does our grocery shopping (THANK YOU, JASON!) so the meal plan will help me put together a shopping list each week. It’s also helping me make sure I know when I need to prep food and see the variety they’re eating during the week. Hopefully it’s helpful for Megan, as well! I’m not sure what we’ll do if there’s a meal one baby doesn’t like but, for now, solids are just for practice and they’re getting the majority of their nutrition from their formula bottles. By the time that changes I’ll hopefully have a better sense of what they do and don’t like.

Here’s this week’s meal plan.

And here are some peppers I roasted. Never did that before! Of course, earlier today I looked at Jason and said, “what are we going to eat for dinner tonight?” Someday I’ll cook for all of us but, for now, cooking for Steven, Sammy and Amaya is about all I can manage. (Please don’t tell me to just make more. I’ll do that when I can.)

We had shenanigans this week. Sammy found his way under his crib.

And can you spy Amaya?

It’s amazing how much fun everyone has with a bucket full of toys.

And a room full of toys. Though, here, Steven is off in the corner entranced by the tray that came with their Mamas & Papas seat.

And they’re already thrilled with cardboard! These will be the kids who discard the gift and play with the box. 🙂

A few pictures of sassy Amaya.

Funny face, but you sure can see her tooth!

Steven, hard at play.

And happy, happy, happy.

Sammy is happy, too.

 Especially when he’s jumping.

Big kids need big car seats. Today, Jason installed our convertible car seats in our minivan. No more infant carriers. Sammy was half an inch away from the seat limit so it was time. This is a whole new ball game when it comes to getting kids in and out of the car! No more staging them in their seats before heading out.

We’re also preparing for winter. It’s not safe to wear winter coats in car seats but it’s cooooooooold in MI so we got these amazing car seat ponchos from an etsy shop. They go on after the kids are bucked in so they’re safe and the kids will look adorable in their super winter wear.

Eliminating the infant seats also meant we needed a new indoor stroller that can fit all 3 babies. Meet our Valco Zee with Joey seat. Hopefully this is the last stroller I buy. It’s our 7th in 9 months and rounds out our assortment. We’re now set with a single, double, outdoor triple and the Valco. (The previous single, double and triple used infant carriers.) It’s so, so light. I can maneuver it with one hand! If you knew how difficult it is to maneuver the Triple Decker and triple jogger you’d appreciate what this means. The only downside is that the joey seat doesn’t recline so the baby in the captain’s chair can’t nap easily but, fortunately, we’re moving out of the stage where they really need to nap in their strollers while we’re out.

See! Maneuvering a triple with ONE HAND!

Some woman’s son wanted to see the babies while I was in J Crew so I used that as an opportunity to have my picture taken with my (cranky) babies.

When it was time to leave the mall, I got a bit tripped up over the amount of work it was going to be to load the babies back into their infant seats in the cold. It’s a lot of work. I may have called Jason to ask if we could just stay at the mall overnight. I compromised with myself and put their sweatshirts on backwards so I didn’t have to undo everyone twice. I’m pretty sure they didn’t notice the difference and Sammy got to chew his hood which was a big bonus for him.

Finally, here’s a family photo from the week! Jason and I got a lot of time together with Steven, Sammy and Amaya after work this week. We started moving their schedule up in 15 minute increments in preparation for daylight savings time so they were going to bed progressively later. Score! We woke up this morning and the kiddos were already on the new schedule.

Enjoy the week!

It’s here! Our first Halloween!

I would be lying if I said I haven’t been thinking about their first Halloween since I found out I was carrying triplets. Three babies to dress up in coordinating costumes!

Please meet R2D2, Princess Leia and Chewbacca!

R2D2 – formerly known as Steven

Chewy – formerly known as Sammy

Princess Leia – formerly known as Amaya

Peeking behind the curtains of those standing babies… It’s Nana magic!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

We turned 9 months on 10/20 but had our well visit today. It went great! Our super eater, Amaya, officially outweighs both of her brothers. Here are their stats on the full term charts.

Steven – 3lbs 9oz at birth
Weight: 17lbs 7oz (12th percentile, up from 4th percentile at 6 months)
Height: 27 3/4″ long (21st percentile, down from 22nd percentile at 6 months but I’ll call it a wash)

Sammy – 3lbs 14oz at birth
Weight: 18lbs 4oz (23rd percentile, up from 14th percentile at 6 months)
Height: 29 1/2″ (87th percentile, same as 6 months)

Amaya – 3lbs 14oz at birth
Weight: 18lbs 12oz (58th percentile, up from 34th percentile at 6 months)
Height: 28 1/2″ (78th percentile, up from 65th percentile at 6 months)

They only had the Hep B vaccine this visit. I am eagerly awaiting their MMR at 12 months. Developmentally, they’re still a bit behind average for 9 months but we knew that and it’s nothing to worry about. We can start weaning the boys off Neosure and onto regular infant formula. Whoo hoo! In celebration, today we’re trying chicken. Yay babies!

Also of note, Sammy is only a 1/2 inch from the height max on our infant carrier/car seat so it’s officially time to change over to the convertibles. Yikes! I’m excited but not looking forward to installing SIX car seats!

Here we are arriving at the dr in our pjs.

We had to adjust our schedule a bit so morning bottles were at the pediatrician’s office with Megan doing more than her share while my back is still not at 100%.

And back at home after a busy, busy morning!

We had a lazy “stay in PJs” day today!

Steven came to visit me while I worked and got a bonus visit with Big Sister Cat Sally.

And then we tried chicken! Yay! Meat! Everyone did really well with it. I just cooked up some chicken strips in the nu-wave oven without any seasoning. Steven wasn’t sure at first but Amaya and Sammy dove right in. Sammy ate so much, in fact, that he had a big ol’ spit up in his bib and on his tray and on the floor. And, eventually, Steven got it, too. It’s so exciting to think about everything they’ll be able to eat now that they’re eating meat and eggs. It’s time to fire up Chef Daddy’s omelette station!

9 months old and we couldn’t ask for more!