This week started with a surprise. On Monday, Mr. Steven decided to strip naked at the end of his nap! We lucked out because it was not a clean diaper and it managed to land open side up when he tossed it on the floor. Ack! He was so proud of himself, too!

We’re trying out some new activities at home. It turns out that dry beans are a great time suck. The kids can play with them for ages, especially Amaya who loves to sort the beans by color and also pick them up and put them in containers. It’s made me think we should start doing more with color sorting.

Still at it. I think Amaya played with the beans for a good 45 minute stretch.

I saw this one at our EI school and also in my triplet group. It’s just a colander and pipe cleaners. The idea is to put the pipe cleaners in the colander to help with fine motor skills but the pipe cleaners are all sorts of unrelated fun.

Best new toy of the season first seen at our twin friends, Ben and Sam’s, house. A Home Depot Power Tool Kit! Now Steven, Sammy and Amaya can be like Daddy! The tool set comes with removable battery packs just like the real deal. They love it!

Amaya was ready to dive in immediately. I’m surprised she ever removed the goggles.

Sammy was nervous at first but Jason worked him through it and he was a champ!

It took Steven a few minutes on his own to get the hang of it and then he was go-go-go Construction Bobes.

You have to try to saw your arm off.

And drill Daddy’s face off.

Sammy had lots of fun with the safety goggles.

Even this morning, the tools were the first activity of the morning!

At music this week, Miss Amaya insisted on wearing  her hat. As toddlers do. She was consistent, though, and didn’t remove it for the entire class.

Tuesday to Wednesday, Amaya had an adventure sleeping at Grandma Sunshine’s house. They’re old enough now that we can talk about it in advance. On Tuesday she came over shortly before they left and said, “Ready!” When she got home, Sammy said, “Bobo go to Grandma Sunshine’s house now.” They all know that it’s Steven’s turn next. I had to explain that he’s not going right now so Sammy corrected to, “Bobo go to Grandma Sunshine’s house soon.”

On Wednesday morning, the boys got to enjoy the zoo along with Anna, Ben and Sam. They’ve come to expect hot pretzels as a zoo treat!

Wednesday afternoon fun with Grandma Sunshine after Amaya came back home to us.

We only have a few weeks left for early intervention school and then the kids will have officially graduated. We can go to some summer play classes but there’s no more formal weekly program. It was a great opportunity for them to grow and socialize. This week Steven actually played with another little boy spending some time rolling a big exercise ball back and forth to each other.

Sammy fell asleep on the way home from school which is always exciting to Steven and Amaya. “See Bubba sleeping!”

You can’t really tell but this is Amaya going in for a kiss.

Last weekend at Comic Con I saw some cool Star Wars t-shirts but they didn’t have them in the right sizes so I ordered the online. So cute! Though getting them all to stand still for a photo isn’t as easy as it used to be.

Amaya is using the force to get Moo, her cow puppet.

We had lots and lots of time outside this week. The weather has been all over the place but always nice enough to get out.

Someone has decided to start climbing into the water table.

Sammy, refusing to come inside. He thought it was hysterical that we were all back in the house and he was still outside.

On Thursday, Ben and Sam came for a play date.

Early Saturday morning we tried out our new bubble machine.

Bubbles on bellies, just like at music class.

Today, our friends Liam, Kayla and Makenzie came over for a play date. We pulled out our climber, which SSA are getting more used to and starting to explore more. It helps when your friends can climb to the top!

Amaya made it all the way to the top but wasn’t sure what to do next and wanted to swing over. It’s really cool to see her exploring and pushing her limits. When we first got this, she didn’t even want to touch it.

This afternoon, for the first time, I went out in the yard with the kids by myself. Without fences I wasn’t sure how it would go but it was great. Everyone seemed to understand I was serious when I said we were a team and stuck together. No one tried to run off anywhere that concerned me. It’s really exciting because I wasn’t sure it was possible. I accept that there are some things we just can’t do with triplet toddlers but it’s nice to discover something is safely doable. Amaya also wanted to get on the climber again. Even the boys joined it. They still have to figure out what they’re doing but it’s cool to see them take an interest.

I took a million selfies with the kids.

Steven has learned to smile so he’s the “deranged toddler smile” phase.

Funny faces!

Jail break into the library!

Proud girl!

Years ago, Jason got me this giraffe from Borders. It’s been in the nursery closet for the past 2.5 years and today I finally thought to take it out and let the kids play with it. It’s been determined by my children that she’s a girl and her name is Julia Big Giraffe.

Amaya stole her nose.

The boys wanted to steal her nose, too.

One last random group photo of play doh time with Megan.

Steven, this week!

In Mommy’s sweater.

Showing me his food. (Sorry folks. I think it’s adorable.)

Holding hands with Baby Doll while he eats. (Amaya was a Grandma Sunshine’s house.)

A MESS. Such a mess.

Deranged toddler smile.

Sammy, this week!

Deranged toddler smile.

After nap, Sammy didn’t want to get up. He wanted Steven to rub his back. Related, tonight Sammy tripped and fell in the nursery. (“What hurts?” “My face.” lol) Both Steven and Amaya rushed to comfort him with hugs, back rubs and his water cup. It was so sweet.

Baby Doll is a sack of ‘tatoes.

I have a Sammy story to share. At nap time I was trying to get everyone to go upstairs and Sammy wasn’t having it. I let him know it was time to come upstairs for naps but he wanted to play. I brought Amaya up and fully expected to have to bring Sammy upstairs kicking and screaming. Instead, I found Sammy and Steven climbing up the stairs. When I praised them, Sammy put his finger in his ear and said, “listening!” I was so proud. Practically proud to tears! It’s Megan who’s been working with the kids on using their “listening ears” and it’s amazing to see him put it all together like that.

Amaya, this week!

Reading intently with some crazy bed head.

A pipe cleaner flower bouquet, compliments of Megan.

Crazy child. Amaya climbed up into Sammy’s seat and buckled herself into his booster seat. It was pretty impressive.

Finally, this week, a look at what it takes to brush teeth every night.

No blog until Tuesday. Next weekend I’ll be off in Portland with some of the best girlfriends a girl can have. Nine years running. LNVE to the ladies I’ll see next weekend.

This weekend was another great visit from Nana and Savta. They came in Thursday night and stayed through dinner on Sunday. It’s so much fun that we can prep the kids in advance so they know to expect Nana and “Fa Faf” after naps. Our 3 bees were very excited to see two of their favorite visitors.

On Friday we all went back to the zoo. Three trips in 8 days!

Amazing how geese can be as exciting as a tiger.

Almost as exciting! We aw a tiger! That’s a benefit of showing up early on a cool day. The animals aren’t hiding from the heat.

Amaya was checking out the zoo map, trying to decide our next move.

Sammy smiles for the camera.

The highlight of the zoo trip was this. FEEDING GIRAFFES. I love giraffes. They have knobby knees and long eyelashes and long prehensile tongues and they ware awesome. I bought a $5 ticket to feed a giraffe and was near-tears excited about it. The ticket allowed two adults up on the platform, plus kids. You got 2 leaves to feed to the giraffes. Steven is the only one I knew would be calm with the feeding and I was pretty certain that Amaya wouldn’t want to get very close. The plan was that Steven and I would do the feeding with one leaf each and my mom would take pictures. Sammy wanted to see everything so Savta walked with him up the line to the platform while Steven and I fed the (amazing) giraffe. Which was as cool as I anticipated. Steven did great! He was calm and fed this leaf to the giraffe like such a big kid.

When we were done, Sammy started crying that he wanted to feed a giraffe with mommy, too!! Uh oh!! We used up our turn and you can’t buy the experience right there.  Plus, it was sold out. I took my chances and explained to the zoo staff that I had a son who was crying to feed the giraffe like his brother. She took pity on me and let me jump back at the front of the line with one leaf so Sammy could have a chance, too. He did great!! it was so much fun!

Proud Sammy.

After the giraffes we had lunch at the zoo and called it a day!

The next BIG excitement of the weekend was Motor City Comic Con. This year, the main draw for us was Brent Spiner who played Commander Data on Star Trek: TNG. The kids did great while we waited on a looooooooong line to get inside.

The family that cons together, stays together!

Just the weekend activity Nana and Savta were hoping for.

Amaya loved sparkly, pink costumes.

We had a slow moving line for autographs and decided to ask Savta to watch the wagon while Jason, Nana and I managed the kids. All things considered, I was really impressed with how they did during the wait.

It was our turn! I told Spiner that the kids were exited to meet him and he said, “No, they’re not.” Which is true. But Jason and I were excited for them to meet him! They’re going to grow up with all of these personalized autographs from actors their mom and dad loved, haha. Spiner was incredibly gracious and recommends we check out an Indian restaurant in London called, Amaya. 🙂

Nana and Savta set up a grocery store in the house. Food was in different sections. Sammy had a grocery list. Amaya had the money. Savta was the cashier.

It was a fun, easy weekend with lots of together time.

Brunch out, where my kids ate at TON.

Besides the weekend events, we were jam packed with activities during the week.

Tuesday was music. Getting them in is easy. Getting them to leave is a little more challenging.

On Wednesday we went to the Ann Arbor Hands On museum. So much fun and considerably easier than on a weekend. Steven was so cute in the fireman’s uniform. I think he’d live in it if he could.

Holding hands!

A “picnic” lunch outside the museum.

Mr. Jelly Face. And hands.

On Thursday we went to Funtastic for some climbing fun. Sammy was a brave guy and conquered his fear of climbing through the mesh netting to go down the big slide. Amaya was completely fascinated by two older boys, maybe 6 yo, and their activities. She stood right next to them watching them play.

Steven really likes to organize chairs.

We loooooooove books. Book, books and more books. Right now our favorites are The Snowy Day, Go Dog Go and the Jewish holiday books from PJ library.

This week our big kids tried their first real sandwiches other than PB&J – turkey and cheese. Someday I’m sure they’ll tease me for celebrating “first sandwiches” but it’s a big deal when they can eat convenient, healthy, easy to make foods like sandwiches.

An even bigger deal… new seats at the table. We got ride of our high top bar-style table and went back to our regular kitchen table with booster seats. It’s really nice to have a table that fits us all and this feels like another step forward toward big-kid status.

Amaya approves!

Steven, this week!

He loves to buckle and unbuckle the straps on their booster seats.

Moving chairs again. Strong Steven!

Of course I’m not sure about his end goal with that one. 🙂

Sammy, this week!

Sammy is so funny. He picked up his baby doll and used her hand to hit himself in his head.  He then said, “Baby doll hit Bubba” and proceeded to put her in a time out in our time out chair.

Sammy, getting hugs from his sister.

Amaya, this week!

I love when she’ll let us do her hair with one ponytail in the back. She far prefers pigtails these days, though.

Amaya’s pirate smile.

Cuddles on the deck.

This week we are going to REST. Until Grandpa Homey and Grandma Betsy come to visit this weekend, that is!

Happy Mother’s Day!

It still brings me to tears to think that I’m a member of this club. I wanted it so badly, for so long, and I’m beyond grateful that this is my journey. Even when the kids are near impossible and I could cry tears of frustration, I’m always, always grateful.

To celebrate the day, Steven, Sammy, Amaya, Jason, Grandma Sunshine and I headed to the zoo. We have our annual passes again (thanks Nana and Papa!) and, while the kids went to the zoo with Megan on Friday, this was our first family trip of the year.

As she does, Amaya made a point not to look at the camera once she realized we were taking pictures.

Hot pretzels! They’re seriously delicious. Doughy, buttery and salty. Pretzel perfection.

We visited the new penguinarium. It’s a timed entrance and fairly crowded. You also have to walk down a long winding ramp to get to some underground tunnels. The boys did great but Amaya was pretty nervous throughout the experience. I think Steven could have spent all day watching the penguins.

Checking out two red koala bears. (Two ones!) It’s really cool that the kids are finally old enough to get out of the wagon to look at animals. It’s also tough because they don’t always want to go in the same direction as the group.

Amaya, reminding me who’s really in charge. Hint: It’s not me.

My loot. Sammy picked out the ball cards. I will keep them new-in-pack forever. Thanks Bubba!

Thanks for spending Mother’s Day with us, Grandma Sunshine!

On Friday, Megan joined some other nannies on an outing to the zoo. We were ready to go early in our cool spring hats, all compliments of big cousin Chase.

For solo trips to places where you’re walking a lot, the Valco is still a good transportation choice. It’s a lot easier to push the stroller than to pull the wagon. It’s been months since the kids were in it with the joey seat but, by all accounts, they did great and it was a non-issue. The stroller still gets a lot of attention, though.

Lunch at the zoo, trying out the grown-up chairs.

Earlier in the week, we went back to the Kensignton Farm Center for a meet-up with three other local triplet families including my friend Carrie and her family who were in MI visiting from Texas. It was a gorgeous day and everyone did great. It’s nice that it’s such a small, enclosed environment because you can easily let the kids roam.

Steven, checking out the ducks.

Triplets everywhere!

Carrie’s husband, Chris, took some great photos of Steven and Amaya. Sammy said, “man no take pictures.”

We’re now able to eat lunch without our wagon tray. Whoo hoo! The kids used these to go cartons really well. (See Amaya intentionally looking away from the camera?)

Both Steven and Sammy touched a baby goat!

The whole gang!

On Wednesday, Julie (who was at the farm) came by for a play date with her boys. It was nice enough to spend time outside and we let everyone explore the backyard. Really explore it. The good news is that all of the neighbors to our left confirmed that it’s okay if our kids end up in their yards. Good thing because our development has a “no fences” rule. No fences is a tough setup when you have 3 two year olds let alone a play date that includes 2 eighteen month olds!

During the week we had more opportunities to get outside. These kids crack me up!

Steven, this week!

Lining up his cars.

He asked me to take a picture of him with this magazine.

Ruf is a ‘sack of tatoes’ on Steven’s shoulder.

Weight check at the pediatrician! From 18 months to 2 years Steven’s weight dropped from the 26th percentile to the 6th. That was a big enough change for them to want us to come back in 3 months to see his progress. He’s now at the 7th percentile which is still small but, since he hasn’t dropped further off his curve, there’s no real need for immediate concern. We just need to keep trying to push healthy fats and we’ll see where he is at his 30 month checkup in July. Poor kid was a wreck at the appointment, though. The minute we went into the room he started sobbing. “Go home now! Go home now!” Not a fun outing for either of us, but good news which is what mattered.

Steven pointed out the reflection of the tv in his ball. I honestly can’t believe he correctly uses the word “reflection”.

Mommy & Bobo

He took this clip from a balloon and was using it to pretend to cut his nails and to cut Monkey’s nails.

We’re making some changes to our kitchen table and Steven was Daddy’s helper, helping him carry the chairs into the kitchen and decide where to put them.

See Steven in the background under the table with Daddy?

Sammy, this week!

I don’t have a lot of solo Sammy photos this week but I do have some great videos of him singing.

Amaya, this week!

I don’t have many photos of Amaya this week, either, but I do love these two of us together. Amaya is testing limits and exerting control all the time now. I get it and I respect it but it is exhausting. Totally worth it, though.

Just a few more!

Megan and the kids!

Daddy, swarmed by toddlers who want to share his food.

And a few more of Mommy and her lovies. <3 <3 <3

Luckiest mom there is, except for mine! 😉 Have a great week!

Oh, baby! We had a quiet start to the week which ended with Mommy in Vegas. But we’ll get to that…

Steven, Sammy and Amaya are quite the cooks! The make a mean soup and they’ll even feed it to you.

At music this week it was the first time I pushed Sammy on the see-saw. I love how much he’s exploring and how much more he pushes himself. “Up and down, Mommy. Going up and down.”

Monkey needed a ride, too.

This was so cute. Steven was pushing Amaya and Big Monkey around and around and around.

Then they tag teamed.

Steven took Big Monkey in the swing with him.

The way the class works, the kids play for 20 minutes, then they have 20 minutes of music followed by another 15 minutes of play and 5 minutes of goodbye songs. When it’s time for music it’s sometimes hard to drag them away from playing. Amaya, in particular, has not wanted to come to the music circle when it’s time. I think it’s more a control issue than anything else so I’ve stopped forcing the issue. I turns out, if everyone else is in the music circle, she’ll follow on her own almost immediately.

Earlier in the year, Savta gave the kids money for a hannukah gift and birthday gift. I wanted to save it to use for outdoor activities and it’s time! On Thursday, Megan and I put together this outdoor climber. Steven, Sammy and Amaya don’t climb much, which has served us well, but I’m hoping they’ll get comfortable with this climber over the course of the summer. Right now, though, they’re not quite sure what to do with it. Good thing it’s only May 2nd! We have all summer to play.

Some photos from school on Thursday…

Steven – shaking his pom poms!

Sammy bouncing.

Sammy, working on putting pipe cleaners in a colander.

Steven and his cars.

Amaya, with popsicles and play-doh.

Megan reading to the kids.

SSA call their vitamins “vitaminutes”. Here they are looking carefully at my sour skittles which they are convinced are mommy’s vitaminutes. Works for me!

Thursday night, life continued as usual for the kids while their mommy jetted off to VEGAS for a triplet mom getaway. It was 24 triplet moms from my 2014 triplet group coming from all over the US plus a mom from Mexico!

See? Not missing a beat!

Friday fun times with Grandma Sunshine.

On Saturday morning, Stephanie came to take care of the kids.

Saturday afternoon, it was all Daddy time! Says Daddy, “Is this heaven? No, it’s Saturday afternoon snacks on the couch watching the Tigers.”

Dinner time with Daddy!

Super Amaya, sleeping.

Sunday, Anna came by to help hold down the fort.

Says Anna, “They were making a game of taking turns laying on my arm and saying, ‘Head stuck on Anna’s arm.’ and cracking up.”

To keep everyone happy when Daddy left to run some errands, Anna busted out our first ever snap chat filters. So much fun!

I know this blog is about the kids but the week recap wouldn’t be complete without some photos from my amazing Vegas getaway. It was so much fun! Just 72 hours of relaxation and laughter.

The front of our shirts say “Tearing up the strip without the trips” and the back says #freefromthree.

With three of my January mamas.

My roomie, and one of my due date buddies, Cecilia. <3

I’ll never stop saying how lucky I am to have such an incredible group of women to share this journey with.

Just a few more photos from the week.

Amaya has taken to removing her clothing after naps. Sometimes, like she did in these photos, she tries to redress.

Pants back on inside out.

Shirt back on. Sort of.

Turns out a bulk delivery of paper towels are great for stacking. Until the kids learn how to tear open the packages!

And, finally, I just received a quilt I had made with clothing from SSA’s first year. I absolutely love it. It’s an amazing keepsake.

Have a great week!