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!