Catching Hobo-toe Fever

Pajama's at my house have been coming down with an unsightly affliction as of late. I have dubbed it, "Hobo-toe."

"Hobo-toe" occurs when your big toe has managed to wear its way through the tip of your footed pajama's and create an ever-growing hole that soon allows your other toes to peep through into the outside world.

At first, I had thought that this ailment was isolated only to Vivienne's pajama's because she does the cripple-baby crawl where she ends up dragging that one foot underneath her body as she walks along on the other foot.

I have discovered that "Hobo-toe" is catchy, however! It has since spread to both of the baby boys' pajama's as well, and rapidly so! We have only a few pairs of quarantined and whole pajama's.

In my quest to discover how such an affliction spreads, I started asking the parental units of other like-aged children if they had ever run into this problem since my eldest hadn't when he was little.

The cause appears to remain mostly unknown, however I have been exploring many theories.

My father offerred up the most reasonable cause for such a problem. He has experienced the same thing happening to my nephew's pajama's as well, and attributes it to the babies growing to long for that particular size.

This seemed logical in theory, so I set out to obtain a set of pajama's in the next size up, thinking with much relief that maybe my babies really were growing up and into a normal size for their age.

Bregon and I headed down to the Boardwalk to the mega-versions of Carter's and The Children's Place, the only 2 places that I know of that carry footed pajama's in larger baby sizes.

We bought two different sets, one at each store, and it ended up with basically 2 sets per baby.
Since the currently afflicted sets at home were size 12 months, we purchased them in size 18 months as that's the next size up.

We were very excited and rushed home in time for bedtime so that we could try the new pajama's on the babies so that their tiny toes would be all cozy and snuggled in their new, whole footed pajama's.

For Kian, we had found red pajama's with little fire trucks and police cars on them, his favorite! Kaiden had a green camouflaged set with triceratops dinosaurs in the camo to match his favorite Easter basket. Vivienne had a pretty pink set with hearts all over them.

Everyone seemed pleased with their new duds. Then, I made a startling discovery. The new size was about 5-7 inches too long, depending on which baby we measured.

I was very confused as usually the sizes and lengths only vary by an inch, or maybe two...never as much as five. After all, these were the same brands we always buy.

The boy's seemed to be able to keep theirs from sliding down while they walked, so I had hopes that Vivienne would do okay in hers.

Unfortunately, as soon as she assumed her cripple-baby-crawl position, her tiny, baby girl foot came up out of its foot place and she was soon dragging around the excess leg and foot behind her as she crawled.

When she ended up where she was going and decided to stand up, her foot didn't go back into the foot part of her pajama's, either.

She was walking on what should have been about the mid-calf area of the leg of her new pretty pink pajama's.

All three babies tried the new size for two days before I ended up switching them back to their size 12 month's. They all slid around the floor quite a bit, and they all took turns falling all over the place from slipping on the excess material.

Even the little skid-cloth on the bottoms of the feet didn't keep them upright for long. I suppose it had something to do with the way the excess fabric slid down as soon as they started really walking around.

I don't know if it's just because my babies are multiples and are just that much smaller than the average 18 month old, or if there really is a need for an in-between size between the 12 & 18 month sizes.

I know we have always had trouble with clothes not fitting because they just do not grow at the same rate or in the same way as other children their age do. Things that fit length wise usually are much too wide for them and their diapers usually overlap tabs at the waste because they have such tiny hiney's.

If only they were regular pajama's I could roll them up. I even have hopes of washing them in hot water and shrinking them a bit. I just don't think that much material will shrink up that much, though.

So for now, if you come over and the kids are in their pajama's, please understand that they do have whole pajama's without holes in them. It's just that they cannot wear them yet because they make them fall down too much!

In the meantime, I am going to have a LOT of darning to do so that they can have pajama's!

It's Not Easy Being Beautiful...

It's not easy being the most beautiful Baby Vivienne in all the land, but somebody has to do it!

Everyone that she meets is always telling her how difficult it must be to be the only baby girl in a house full of icky, yucky boys!

I always smile and tell them that she has it all under control, but sometimes I really worry.

When I look at her, I see this very petite, very tiny little baby girl with the HUGE baby blues that twinkle and sparkle with that mischievous little gleam that any Mum would marvel over.

You can practically see the little fairy wings and hear the tinkerbell chimes go off every time I go to pick her up, she is so very sprite-like.

But I know better than to be fooled! There are times when I've caught her hauling one of her brother's around by the ear over him having taken HER dollie, so I know that she can hold her own.

It's just that lately, she has become awfully, well, soft. Not that she isn't girly, I don't mean that by any means. It's that I've found her in several precarious situations as of late that make me wonder.

On our first night in our new house, I could hear her crying. She and her brothers had been quietly playing in their new play area in the living room. They had been playing WAY too quietly for their own good, actually.

I should have realized that something was up. Our new house is considerably larger than the old one, and the babies had been confined in their play-yard up until now, so I had been spoiled into not having to corral them like most mum's do.

I found myself basically playing "Marco, Polo" trying to listen for the origin of my Beautiful Baby Vivienne's crying to try and locate her.

I tried the laundry room, thinking maybe she had figured out the sliding door, somehow. She wasn't there.

I looked in the kitchen, turning 'round in a circle to make sure that she wasn't following behind me (even if the sound was muffled, I still had to wonder!) No Beautiful Baby Vivienne there!

For a moment, I wondered if she had somehow figured out the kitchen door and managed to crawl out into the garage. This had me worrying about her falling down the stairs until I realized that the door was still locked from the inside.

I should have known, really. I found her in my pantry. It was bound to happen one of these days. Apparently, Kaiden had lured her from their play area by taunting her with a newly discovered old toy of theirs.

He had found the pantry door cracked, opened it wide, and tossed in the toy that Baby Vivienne had been chasing after him for.

He either got very lucky, or is much to smart for his own good, because she cripple-baby-crawled into the dark pantry right after that darn toy.

You can guess what comes next...Kaiden shut the door on her, leaving her in the pantry, in the dark, to her own devices with that toy.

I really wondered if he figured that she would be alright because that particular toy lights up when you push the button to set it off. It just seems like something he would realize.

Anyways, that's where I found her, in the dark, in the pantry, crying her tiny eyes out over having been shut in (or maybe duped.) She wasn't so upset that she had dropped her toy, though.

Then there was this incident yesterday. I had been in my bedroom in the front of the house, blogging of all things, when I heard a crash from the living room.

I had been letting the babies learn to play on their own without me in some attempt to get them a bit more independent (that whole separation anxiety thing.)

I listened for the cry, to see who it was that was upset, and if they were hurt or just fighting (yes I can usually tell the difference believe it or not!)

This time the cry was Baby Vivienne's, but it wasn't really a hurt cry, and no other cry accompanied hers so I guessed it wasn't a fighting cry either...and she wasn't moo-ing (which she inadvertantly does when very upset which ended up in her getting dubbed affectionatly "Moo-baby.")

I had wondered if she had decided to try and put herself into her feeding chair again as is her habit of late (she usually likes the idea until she figures out that once she is in, she cannot get out again without help!)

Then that cry turned to the whole, "Timmie's stuck in the well" cry that is usually reserved for matters such as getting one's appendage (or sometimes 2) stuck in the slats of one's crib, or when brother(s) steal your most coveted toy by biting something of yours that happened to stick out a bit too far.

I ran into the living room to see what was the matter, and I couldn't see her AGAIN. I counted little heads and came up one baby girl short.

I checked the feeding chairs and they were empty. I checked around the sofa to make sure that she hadn't rolled off of it. She wasn't there.

I checked the fire place just in case, she wasn't there either.

Then I saw it...two tiny little feet sticking up in the air attached to 2 very small legs that were somehow trying to walk as if that would get her out of her very sticky situation...

Something just didn't register at this point that she shouldn't have been upside down!

She was somehow laying diagonally across this little foot-wide, foot tall Lucite bin that the babies used as a toy-bin, with her head at one end, facing downwards, and her legs and feet at an angle sticking up out of the other side.

Both of the baby boys were ignoring her, trying to look cool, and innocent which made them look all the more GUILTY!

As I ran up to get her out of the bin, I realized that she was covered in toys with a little BLUE pillow that belongs to KAI (and only Kai,) on top.

I tossed the pillow aside, pulled off the Fisher Price corded telephone set, then removed several blocks before I finally was able to pull poor Baby Vivienne out of that toy-bin.

Poor baby girl, she was all sweaty from the toy pile and crying, but she was okay. She came away with a few tiny dots of a bruise on her temple, but that was all.

I didn't know what to think. We had always kidded about Kai acting like he wanted to be an only child.

Now I wonder if that might not be more true than we had originally joked about (they had sent him home a week earlier than his siblings after he was born and he had gotten used to having the bed and toys and parents all to himself at night and we always giggled about the way he seemed to prefer it.)

I like to think that maybe the boys were trying to put their toys away and mistook sister for a dollie, but that's being a bit optimistic. I know boys will be boys, but they are only 18 months old!

Poor Beautiful Baby Vivienne has the misfortune to be the only baby girl in a sea of little boys. I would be more worried about her, but then today, she seems to have started evening the score a bit.

Kian mysteriously has teeth marks on his hands from where he was mauled by his sister yet again for the attempted theft of her pretty green little mermaid sippy cup full of nice cold milk.

Kai tried to take away her ball only to find himself head-butted in the stomach, full force, by his very beautiful and very tiny baby sister.

Her statement? "I'm BAAAAABEEEEEEE!" (I'm Baby!) in a very deliberate, slow and very loud voice!

Yep, she knows that birth order is very important in the rank of siblings. I am not sure what the official story is on that one, but according to her it is best to be the baby of the bunch!

I don't honestly know if I should worry for Vivie, or for her brothers. I just know that the next time that someone says something about her being the only girl, that maybe, just maybe, she should be given the benefit of the doubt!

Thanksgiving Cancelled Due To Lack Of Interest!

Every couple of years, my eldest son’s birthday falls on Thanksgiving. There is nothing he hates more in the world than to have a birthday cake with a Thanksgiving turkey on it.

Because of that preference, every time his birthday falls on Thanksgiving, we give him a choice of what he would like to do to celebrate.

What do YOU think he is going to choose? He habitually cancels Thanksgiving due to lack of interest and opts to celebrate his birthday of course!

The last time this happened was when he turned 7. We had wanted to take him to New York to see the Macy’s parade, but the World Trade Center had just fallen down so we decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea to go.

Instead, we opted to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Houston at the lake home of some of our very best friends.

Lucky for us, they are very like minded, and didn’t have any problem canceling Thanksgiving to celebrate Bregon’s birthday.

In fact, we were all so excited, we through all of our energy into the party plans. We decided to go ahead and celebrate his birthday that Thursday, and Thanksgiving would be celebrated on that Friday.

Our friends lived in a rural area, and had this tradition of having birthday bon-fires for each of their children’s birthday’s so Bregon would finally get to have a bon-fire of his own.

He was very excited at the prospect of getting to tend his own birthday bonfire!

As an added plus, one of the Harry Potter movies had just opened and we planned on hauling everyone into the Woodlands to see the movie as part of the celebration!

Both our family, and our friends and their family threw all of their energy into planning the parties. I think we all over-bought in the present department!

We decided to go ahead and plan on hot dogs and s’mores and other camp-fire type foods for the birthday, and we went crazy on the Thanksgiving food preparation as well!

When the big day came, we managed to pile about 15 of us into 2 vehicles and get everyone to the movie on time.

Because we were going for the early movie, we ended up getting the early-bird special on the tickets and somehow ended up getting let in early ahead of the line.

I am still not sure if it was because Kat had called ahead and told them that we were coming with a birthday boy in tow, or if it was the fact that Bregon had received a complete Harry Potter outfit along with some home-made accessories in the form of a cape and real wood wand and had been wearing the entire lot of it at the time, but we managed to get VIP treatment at the theater.

Later that afternoon, we set out all of the party food, invited all of our friends in the area over for the party, and let Bregon tend to his very own bon-fire.

He danced around his bon-fire wearing his new Darth Maul underwear on his head and parts of his Harry Potter costume…namely his cape and wand!

Of course we just had to take those condemning blackmail photo’s for when he was older. Oddly enough, we have the second wave of those pictures nearly 5 years later… but I digress!

The birthday party went over smashingly and was a success. That night, we geared up to celebrate Thanksgiving for the next day.

We prepared everything from the traditional turkey and even a ham, to foods such as home-made salsa and tabouli that we just decided were necessary for whatever reason or anther!

It was funny, really. Nobody seemed to mind making the changes to allocate for Bregon’s birthday. It seemed almost natural, really.

As it turned out, we ended up having a rather large turnout of party-goers in spite of it being Thanksgiving. Many even either stayed the night or came over the next day to join us for our belated Thanksgiving celebration.

This year Bregon’s birthday will fall on Thanksgiving again. We are currently out of Harry Potter movies to go and see at the theater, so we shall have to come up with something else to do that day.

We do have a fireplace now, so I suppose we could have everyone over for a weenie roast and S'mores!

I am not sure what my father or the rest of my family thought about our of canceling Thanksgiving in lieu of celebrating Bregon’s birthday that year, but that was the way it went.

That was the plan, however, and we were sticking to it! After all, how dreary it would it have been to have to had a turkey with a candle stuck in it for your birthday!

Dining Dilemma Round 2

It's really funny. My kids appear to be eating less at meals now than they did a few months ago. Used to, they would eat a plate of food that would feed the average person, portion-wise.

Now, I am lucky if they eat much of anything at all. I don't think it's the food. They even sometimes pick out what it is that they want for dinner or even lunch.

Odder still, it seems to be different for every meal. Each day brings something new. Yesterday, macaroni and cheese and hot dogs were the way to go.

Today, they may toss those beloved hot dogs clear across the floor into the living room. Then there is Kai.

Kai who would like to try new foods, but will cry if you do not include the usual fare along with the new stuff.

He acts as if you are causing him a serious injustice by trying to feed him ham for lunch instead of the usual chicken tenders.

Don't misunderstand him, though. It's not that he doesn't like ham, it's just that he feels that ham is a DINNER food and not suitable for lunchtime devourment.

Now ham is acceptable when served alongside chicken tenders for lunch, according to Kai. Just don't try and give him ham all by itself for lunch. That really upsets him to no end.

Have you any idea how messy meals can get now a days at my house? Instead of letting us know that they are "All done" (a phrase each of my toddlers knows and understands and can say clearly,) they often choose the easier, much more entertaining method of alerting us.

When they are full, my babies tend to grab handfuls of whatever is left on their trays and toss it well, where-ever.

Sometimes Kian will toss his bits over handed and towards the sofa. He also has a rather nasty habit of wearing much of his meal.

Vivie has a habit of just picking up her pieces and throwing them over her shoulder to land where it may. At least she is very dainty in her method, keeping her little finger curled and up as if she is taking tea while using her thumb and index finger to very gingerly select and carefully launch her next missile.

Kai will do one of several things with his left-overs. He likes to swipe his tray clean by wiping all of his food into his lap sometimes.

Other times, Kai will carefully and meticulously slide chosen pieces over the front edge of his tray as if you can't possibly see what it is he is doing (he is very smooth!)

Then there is the "I'm done get me out of here NOW" toss that involves a circular tossing motion that results in the most fallout. In fact, he has managed to pepper his sibling's hair before even though their chairs are kept apart for obvious reasons (pilfering sibling's food is only one of them!)

At first, I thought that there was something wrong with the food I was giving them. Why else would they be tossing it around instead of eating it?

Then, they just stopped eating anything that they weren't feeding themselves by hand. I could no longer feed them from a spoon assembly line style. This was their way of saying that they weren't babies anymore!

After we moved and had a reliable fridge, I no longer faulted the food. I KNEW nothing icky was sliding by my eagle eye! I had really worried that I might have accidentally given them something that wasn't quite as fresh as it should have been...

We also went through a phase where we thought it was because the babies wanted to eat with tiny plastic utensils instead of their fingers. As it turns out, the colored spoons and forks ended up getting tossed as much as the food bits!

Then I thought that maybe they were tired of the food that I was giving them. Instead of the ham that they had insisted on eating every dinner for over a month, I tried buying them a bit of turkey breast.

Kai still resents the change to turkey breast. So much so, that he refused to let a morsel pass his lips regardless of how much he seemed to like it at that first dinner.

I tried buying bigger chicken strips and changing to another brand (they had only preferred this one type at first.) Kian let us know that, "It's dry" which was quickly followed by all three babies looking up at us and coughing as if they were eating sand, and that was the end of that.

I did discover that they adore Smart One's Lasagna Florentine...but only when I am eating it! They also adore green bean casserole...if it's off of Daddy's plate, served with HIS fork only.

Sillier still, if I don't have Kai's lunch ready for him when I bring him down from his nap, he will run into the dining room to check out his chair, and actually cry and go into hysterics.

Now, I do understand that he is most likely seriously hungry as nap time comes in between snack time and lunch, but he makes me feel as if I am slighting him somehow.

I am trying to find the humor in all of this, but it's really difficult. I know that Kai is barely on the weight chart for his age and size. Kian is so much bigger than his siblings that everyone thinks that he is older. Vivie is just, well, unusually small.

The doctor says just keep feeding Kai more food when he is finished with his normal portions. I really can't figure out for the life of me how that's supposed to work if all he is going to do is toss it at one of us when he decides that he is done.

I have even tried the baby buffet. This entails letting them up out of their chairs and replacing their trays, food available for grazing, and seeing if they will stop by for a snack after they get over being "Done" with just sitting there.

I really do not know what to try any more. I even tried giving them jello-it made Kai cry and all Kian and Vivie did was make faces at it when I tried to feed it to them.

Basically, I spend a LOT of time sweeping, swiffer-vac-ing and swiffer-mopping. I do this after EVERY meal.

It's not just the immediate feeding chair area, either. I usually have to do the entire dining room and part of our living room, too. I even have to watch the hallway to make sure that nothing flies down it, too!

I know that they will not let themselves starve (at least according to the doctor and everything that I have read about picky eater toddlers,) but I feel as if there is something more that I could do. I just wish I knew what that was!

Something Worth Biting For!

Recently, as part of the adjustment to our new move, my trio have taken to new eating habits. Usually, they will sit in their little feeding chairs and eat whatever it is that I serve them.

As of late, it has become my habit to sit at our tiny table and have my lunch while they have theirs in the feeding chairs.

Today, they finished earlier than I did. I very innocently let them out of their chairs and moved them out of the way to the cubby-hole next to the buffet.

I sat back down to finish my lunch, only to find myself mobbed by my tiny trio. Kian looked at me with his very huge baby blue's and said in his sweetest little voice, "May I try?"

Vivie just stood there with her hand on my knee, looking up at me with her baby blue's saying, "Mmmm."

Kai figured out that they were basically begging for food and being that he preferred to know what it was that he was eating BEFORE actually tasting it, he wandered off in search of his truck.

I very gingerly began doling out tiny fork-fulls of Lasagna Florentine. Vivie got her bite first because she was closer to the table at the time. This made Kian take offense when she made her second, "Mmm..." noise.

He took his fork-full, smiled, and very sweetly hit his sister on the for-head (as if she could have had a V-8.) He did not want to share his bites with sister today.

In retaliation for being hit, Vivie ever so sweetly bent her head over as if to place it on my knee, meanwhile grabbing Kian's hand and pulling it to her mouth so that she could take a rather large bite out of him.

Of course, this made Kian cry. They are still a bit too little to understand anything but their basic needs and immediate wants.

The next thing I know, Vivie is standing there saying, "Oooooh," and has started smoothing down his hair in some attempt to comfort him.

How exactly do you explain to the babies that while the thought is very sweet, it really doesn't help to try to soothe the very person that you just tried to MAUL!

Nobody really got hurt. I gave Kian another bite and he quieted down.

Vivie continued to stand there at my knee in her very angelic state, trying to sweetly smooth down her brother's hair even AFTER he had stopped crying.

He was very sceptical of her every move. It is his experience that tells him that she could very well run her hands through his very thick blond locks under the guise of calming him down only to grab a huge handfuls of his hair and yank with all her tiny might.

All of this happened just so they could share mumsy's Lasagna Florentine. I am very glad that they are starting to branch out and try new foods.

I am not sure what to do with the rivalry and jealousy that comes from vying for bites. But I suppose that I have finally found a food that they have decided is something worth biting for!"

Love The Doctor, Hate The Staff!

I love our Doctor, but I just cannot stand the office staff at the location where we see him. So far, my son's new ADHD doctor's office has managed to get us started into their program pretty quickly (or so I had thought at first.)

But the office staff has managed to actually "Lose" two of our appointments and has detrimentally rescheduled a key appointment that my son really truly needed to keep at the time, delaying our official entry into the program itself.

I really do not know what to think about the whole thing. I have tried to keep a positive attitude about everything for my son's sake, but he has even noticed the many problems that they are having about getting him scheduled and actually seen by his doctor.

Today, we had an appointment scheduled for 3:15. I had to argue with the receptionist at the end of our last appointment because she keeps wanting to schedule us at about lunch-time during a school day every time.

She does offer to write us excuses saying that it will make everything alright, which I do appreciate the offer.

Each time she does this, I nicely try and explain to her that my son attends a school that places an emphasis on attendance as part of the criteria for continuation in their program. I know that we will be seeing the doctor at least once a month which will count as an absense each time, which will amount to too many absenses to stay in that school.

Each time I have the feeling that I am "Pulling teeth" just to get an after-school appointment at a time that I know that I can actually get us there, punctually.

I should have become suspicious when I didn't receive a reminder call from the office reminding me of the appointment today. I usually get these calls on the business day prior to the actual appointment.

That reminder call never came. I just shrugged it off and planned to make our appointment as our little business card reminder stated.

My son even made a point to write his reminder on his arm where he couldn't help but read it as he grabbed his books at the end of his school day.

My husband surprised me today and came home early from work so that he could watch our babies while I took Bregon to his appointment (a rare but special treat.)

I picked him up at school with very little fan-fare and we headed over the office. Traffic even went in our favor for once and we arrived about five minutes early for the appointment.

Things were going really well, or so I had thought. I had my copies of progress reports and standardized test scores that would give the doctor an idea of how Bregon js doing in school. I even had my little notebook with a page devoted to notes about his progress on the new medication.

When we checked in with the receptionist, the counselor was very happy to see us and immediately struck up a conversation with us. The receptionist, however, appeared very surprised to see us.

She disappeared into the backroom (seemingly to pull our file) while the counselor and I discussed the lack of availability of diet grape soda in grocery stores today, newspaper routes as good jobs for youths today, and the ironies of philanthropic Americans who gladly fund the rebuilding of bridges destroyed as acts of war in other countries yet will not pay to maintain our rather delapidated bridges here at home.

When she came back she seemed even more confused. At first, I had thought that she might just be confused over the topics of conversation that she had walked in on, but I was soon to find that was NOT the case.

She outright asked me why we were here. I showed her our appointment card for her inspection while she asked us who made the appointment for today and why.

As it turns out, the handwriting on the card was HERS. She then told us that we shouldn't be seeing the doctor yet because there is a PROCESS.

I told her as nicely as I could muster that we had been coming here since early July and I had thought that we were going THROUGH and complying with some sort of process.

The counselor had to intervene and begin translating for me because the receptionist seemed very VERY confused. She finally said that she had called someone and that they had verified that we were not "In-service" whatever that meant.

I asked her nicely to explain to me what that meant and please let me know what we needed to do to get classified as "In-service."

This really confused her even more. She told me that we appeared to already have done everything as she had just glanced down at our file and were just waiting for classification which could take months. Until then, we were not "Authorized" to see the doctor.

She then asked me who had told me to come in for this appointment. I tried to suppress a case of the giggles that kept trying to slip out because at this point, the counselor was still trying to simplify whatever I was telling her so that she could understand everything. (As it turned out, it was HER handwriting on that card!)

Keep in mind, we do NOT have a language barrier here, either! I tried to keep my poker face on as best as I could, telling her that the Doctor had told us to come back in 4 weeks so that he could monitor my son's NEW medication.

Her eyes got HUGE over this as she told me that we shouldn't have even seen that doctor yet (something that I had thought we had already covered under the "Process" heading!)

Apparently, classification doesn't really matter if the DOCTOR says that he wants to see you. She managed to get us in on the list for the day, though she remained confused.

I was so very glad that I didn't have the babies with us. They would have really made it a three-ringed circus in there! Thank goodness for sweet and caring and thoughtful husband!

Almost immediately, the Doctor called us back to his office as he had the receptionist take Bregon's height and weight. Poor Bregon had been taking the whole conversation in, as it turns out.

Once in our doctor's office, we started discussing Bregon things like grades, progress reports, and the effects of the new medication and its dosage. The doctor went over the print-outs that I had made for him and asked Bregon some questions.

Bregon was very sceptical at this point after what had happened in the office waiting room with the receptionist and yet another lost appointment and he answered the doctor's questions very half-heartedly.

I think the doctor must have understood and had seen some of what had gone on because he was very helpful and tolerant of him in spite of his lack of enthusiasm.

All in all, the actual appointment went well (or anti-appointment!) We were advised to come back in month to re-assess everything and Bregon's progress. I groaned because I would have to talk to the receptionist AGAIN.

This time, the counselor was NOT there to translate as he was with a patient. I let her know that we needed to come back in a month in an after school appointment, please!

She nodded and turned around from the computer to hand me an appointment card. The date really doesn't matter, but the time she put down was for 1p.m. in the afternoon. She smiled and offered to write us an excuse for it.

I apologized, and asked for something after 3p.m. AGAIN, and remembered to say "Please!" I was really feeling the need for my translator...the giggles had gone away for good this time, too~.

She very reluctantly moved the appointment to 3:30 after I making me go through the whole school-attendance-being-very-important-for-my-son-getting-to-STAY-at-that-particular-school spiel.

We left with an increase in dosage for the new medication and our appointment slated for AFTER school. I also left with a huge sense of dread that the appointment will again be "Lost" and struck from the books for whatever reason AGAIN.

Don't get me wrong, Bregon and I adore this Doctor and the Counselor is really cute, too. I just cannot develop any affection for the office staff.

I had thought that we had something going there after our last appointment, but I was so very wrong about that!

It was really funny to watch the look on the receptionist's face when the Counselor told me how the state hires the staff for this particular office and how they didn't have any say over any of it (implying competency issues.)

My biggest worry, though, is that this time, my son really noticed and felt the whole "Lost appointment" issue. It was reflected in his rapore with the Doctor and his session.

The only thing that helps remind Bregon that the Doctor is an okay kind of guy is the fact that he is a classmate's father and volunteers at the school festivals with me. It really did help a little that he told him that he would see him on Friday at the 7th grade festival.

As a Mum, I am torn on this issue. What do you do when you love the Doctor, hate the staff?

A Bigger House Means Big Changes!

My tiny trio has grown so much over the past two weeks. What a huge difference a move can make in their little lives!

Recently, we moved into a much larger house in hopes that some of our problems would iron themselves out. It's probably much too early to tell if it has worked, yet, however the kids have really grown by leaps and bounds which is a really good sign.

Our old house was only 2 bedrooms with a little sun porch off of my bedroom which we turned into the babies' nursery. It was big enough for the three baby beds and their wardrobe and dresser too, but just barely.

Our sleeping arrangement meant that if one baby woke up, they had a HUGE chance of waking up their sibling(s) either through sheer noise level or by tossing toys at them or shouting, "Up! Up! Up!" which was not all that uncommon either.

This also meant that one or more babies often ended up sleeping in MY bed just so the rest of us could get SOME sleep, which is a really bad habit to get into (I despise co-bedding for a myriad of reasons, but necessity called for it sometimes.)

Our new house has much larger rooms. All three babies still share a room, but the beds are spaced much further apart and each basically has its own wall which cuts down on the noise problem (sounds odd yet tis so true!)

Even though they have been sick for the past week or so, they have managed to pretty much not wake each other up if one has a problem late at night.

They have also learned new words such as "Upstairs" and "Downstairs" from having an upstairs room.

I have been able to fold up their much to tiny play-yard and let them just run around rampant in our new living room and dining area, too.

Having this much space for the babies to play in has resulted in less incidences of biting and hair pulling, too! Before, when they were confined to the play-yard, everyone sported their sibling's dental imprints on their little arms and legs.

Another interesting perk is that within only a few hours of being in the new house, Kian took off and started walking, never to stop!

I really was excited for a few hours until I realized that this meant that I now had 2 walking babies and that they each often would walk opposite directions of each other! This has also made their games of chase REALLY interesting.

On a funny note, the boy's tag games may have made Vivienne a bit more cautious about learning to walk. I have caught her taking a few steps here and there, but never for very long and never consistently.

I don't know if I should be worried about this, or if I should just be glad that only 2 out of 3 can walk so far!

The babies have learned what a "Kitchen" is and that pyrex dishes make the most interesting clanking noise when moved about. Mumsy has learned that cabinet closures will soon become HER friend!

Kai has figured out that there are many fun cabinets and doors in the new house and that each one should contain at least one object belonging to him.

I have run across sorting shapes in the pyrex cabinet, clean diapers stashed in the pots & pans cabinet, and even found Vivienne shut into the dark pantry with a little light-up tape measure toy that Kai had use to lure her into it so that he could practice shutting the door!

Lucky for me, they really haven't mastered the art of using a door knob just yet. That time is coming faster than I realize, I do fear.

The babies have come such a long way in such a short time. It's amazing that such a small change as moving into a new house can have such a profound affect on their development.

Good Shopping Trip Versus Bad Shopping Trip!

Our day went unusually well today. I managed to get all three babies up from their naps. They had lunch fairly quickly, and let me get them dressed and loaded into the car with little fanfare.

I would find out later from the tell-tale bumps on Kai's lower lip that he is allergic to his lunch which had been pesto with chicken and vegetable noodles. He didn't cry, though. He didn't swell up, luckily for me, and he was nice and sweet and good ALL DAY LONG!

All three babies were nice and chatted and sang along with my new Cyndi Lauper C.D. on the way to the big consignment sale. Nobody even fussed while they waited for me to load them into their limo-sized stroller.

I was in shock. I was able leisurely shop the sale without the babies doing any major vocal contribution. All I did was talk to them along the way about the things that they said and what we were looking at on the racks.

We only had one case of tears and it was very short-lived. Kai became very sad when Kian accidentally pulled his hair while trying to play with the long tag attached to the back of Kai's stroller seat. I gave him a quick kiss on his forehead and the tears went away magically!

I managed to spend about $100 all in all. That's not bad considering they have everything from furniture and strollers to clothes and toys (indoor & out) in there. I mostly bought Vivie some fall/winter outfits because the boys always get their cousin's hand-me-downs (everyone seems to buy for him to the point where a bunch of the clothes are actually still sporting their original price-tags!)

I found each of the babies a Christmas outfit, too. It's hard to find boy Christmas outfits for some reason.

Kai's outfit is a pair of green over-all's with a reindeer head on the front that has Christmas lights strung through-out its antlers. Kian's outfit is a pair of red plaid over-all's and has a jar of several gingerbread-men cookies on the front.

I found Vivie a blue dressie with Christmas bears embroidered on the front and smocked into the bodice. She also ended up with a few other smocked outfits as well, some are dressies, some are the long bubble suits.

We even shopped the toy department. I had hoped to run across a spring horse for the boys for Christmas, or even a ride-on truck of some sort, but alas they didn't have any this time.

We did find a sort of Tigger-in-a-box that is really supposed to be a Christmas decoration, but will serve just fine as a jack-in-the-box substitute. It also has a motion sensor on it so you don't have to push the button for him to go off. It basically will play peek-a-boo with you!

Kian made friends with a rock-star Elmo doll, so it had to come home with us as well. He is quite an Elmo connoisseur. We have a family of Elmo's at our house!

Overall, I really enjoyed shopping the consignment sale today. My kids were as quiet as I could have hoped for, and I found some really nifty clothes for them, too.

When I finally got home, husband had just pulled in the drive as well, and he offered to take the babies inside so Bregon and I could run to the grocery store for a bit, which is quite a luxury.

Bregon and I had tried shopping at Wal-mart on Sunday with the trio and didn't get so lucky as I did today! My babies had started out happy that day,. But we got stopped or rather blocked in several times early on by people who wanted to stare (not talk to us) at the kids.

A few of these people felt that they needed to BLOCK us from being able to go down the aisle or turn onto another one.

One guy parked his motorized cart in front of my stroller and blocked the whole main aisle by doing so. He finally said something to us after about three of the longest minutes ever!

I really don't normally mind meeting new people while out shopping, but Sunday a few select actions by some onlookers really caused some problems for us.

The babies got bored pretty quickly. Even Kian and his, "How-D-do's" soon tired of waving and saying, "Hi" to everyone.

This ended up in the babies resorting to OTHER ways to amuse themselves, mostly at their sibling's expense.

There was more hair-pulling, attempted maulings (biting,) and eye-poking and kicking than in a high school fight. Tears ran freely, and they got very loud very fast.

I quickly forgot whatever it was that I was there to buy in the first place, even though I had a shopping list to try and follow (which I swear I couldn't follow for whatever reason, I tried!)

I did manage to remember the blue-berry waffles which the babies have decided is their second new favorite food besides macaroni & cheese.

Unfortunately, I missed meeting one of the people from our forum by being so focused on not forgetting them. I really do wish I had gotten to meet her, too. I hope I wasn't rude or anything!

Bregon and I both finally ended up giving up trying to find what we needed when we had both tried looking at two different parts of the same produce aisle only to look up and find some lady trying to make small talk with my screaming and fighting trio.

I know she probably meant well, but she was asking them things such as, "What's the matter? Why are you crying?" And some of the people who had tried talking to them had succeeded in getting them to respond positively back to them WITHOUT tears.

This lady was NOT one of those people. What she had failed to see or notice, was the reason that they had started crying harder.

She and her buggy had been parked directly IN BETWEEN the stroller (my babies) and their MUMSY, blocking me and their brother from their sight entirely, hence the deluge of tears and increase in volume.

My babies thought that they were ALL BY THEMSELVES and had reacted in turn. They couldn't even hear me trying to talk to them because of the things she was saying to them. I know that she probably had meant well, but oh my goodness!

She was not very nice about my trying to get to them once she took notice of me, either. I tried to nicely excuse their behavior and all, but she was no longer interested and apparently was offended by my talking to her. Ah well, I can't win them all over.

I felt really bad about our shopping trip that didn't go so well. Today's experience gave me hope that maybe, just maybe it was an isolated experience.

There really wasn't much difference in the procedure or the day for the babies. So I am not sure if it was just the atmosphere and the way people treated them that made them upset that day as opposed to being happy and nice today or what.

Everyone we ran into today was really friendly and nice and nobody did anything odd like try and block us physically from going anywhere. Then again, most of these people shopping today were Mumsies and Grandmumsies and people who either had children or grandchildren.

Who knows what the difference really was! I understand that kids have their good days and bad days as well as adults too, but Sunday was pretty upsetting.

I am very hopeful that it was just an isolated incident! I suppose only time will really tell! In the meantime, if you see us out and about, do say hi (just please do not be offended if my kids decide to be cranky!)

This Post Is Brought To You By...

Yesterday, I sat down at my dining room table in my new dining room with my son's laptop, all ready to blog. I was definitely in the mood and feeling it and ready to go.

Then it happened, the unthinkable. I had everything all set up and began pulling up my browser when THE ERROR SCREEN popped up!

I couldn't believe it. We have lived here a little over a week, had our Internet transferred for almost two weeks, and it ALREADY wasn't working consistently AGAIN!

I had given my service the benefit of the doubt in staying with our current provider. I had been on their platform for quite a few years until the cable company changed over to Comcast.

That was when the real trouble started. I had wanted to blame the bad wiring and connections at our old house. I had even thought about changing over to DSL during our move, but had decided to see if the new house would be any different than our old.

I was very optimistic, too. When I went to hook up all of our television sets and our computers in anticipation of the cable guy coming to officially connect everything, I found our services already on and working.

All the cable guy had to do was verify that, yes, in fact, we did have service and it was good. That is exactly what he did.

Everything seemed find, too, for a time. When I went to blog that Saturday that we moved in, I found that my Internet was down.

I hadn't used it for a few days, so I just went through the whole "Unplug and reset" steps that they advise you to do when you call in for tech support.

It just didn't do the trick. After about thirty minutes of trying to reboot, unplug, reset and repair, I gave up and went and worked on the more pressing aspects of getting moved in and settled.

I just did not have the time to sit there and fuss with it for that long of a time. When I moved my son's big television upstairs (he had been using an extra little one that we had,) I discovered that he only had partial cable upstairs as well.

I was really mad at this point. I know he had all of his channels when the initial install guy had come out. I sat there with the man as he checked and went over everything.

It would appear that when they disconnected our old address and account, they somehow undid the transfer work that had been done at our new house.

I called and tried explaining all of this to the customer service representative, but they didn't want to listen. They refused to resend that signal to my modem as they had done in the past, to get it back up and running.

All the customer service department wanted to do was send out a technician. Of course, the first "Available" tech visit was going to be a minimum of 5 days away.

Later that afternoon, I realized that my modem was back up and running, much to my delight. I then figured out that it would go spontaneously off-line every few hours for no apparent reason.

I called the Internet support people at Comcast, and explained to them what was happening, and they reported that it was totally off-line and that it couldn't possibly come back up by itself, and that yet another tech visit must be scheduled.

This visit turned out to be earlier than the cable visit that I had been offered, so they went on and moved the date up for that Saturday.

Once that tech showed up, he took one look at my currently online modem, shook his head, and said that he just didn't work with that type. He also said that I would be better off using just a regular modem.

I just stared at him for a very very long time in disbelief. I finally got over my shock and asked him how he expected me to use my laptop without a wireless modem? All he could do was say, "Oh."

This was not turning out very reassuring. This guy was able to get the errant cable box back up and running upstairs for my son, but he left without being able to do anything about my Internet service, which coincidentally was running at that particular moment.

Of course the moment the techs truck pulled away from the curb out front, my Internet went down. He had decided that if he left the ticket open, that the customer service people would call me in a few days and schedule someone to come out and change out my incompatible modem.

It's Tuesday, and I still haven't heard from Comcast about my new modem. I am very confused as to how they expect me to stay with their service if they cannot figure out how to get it working.

I understood the initial change-over issue that they were having when they changed over from Time-Warner to Comcast. It's been a while since that took place, and they STILL haven't mastered the connectivity of their wireless modems yet.

I went to post this yesterday, and couldn't because my modem had spontaneously taken itself off-line AGAIN. It didn't come back up until about 9 p.m. last night, either. I frantically raced against the clock to post last night before it threw me off again.

In the meantime, I have a hot date with a huge and potentially fun consignment sale as soon as my trio wakes up from their nap. If I am super lucky, I will even get this posted before the Internet goes back down again.

I am waiting for Comcast to call as they said they would and schedule a time for yet another tech to come out and change out my modem and hopefully conquer my Internet woes! This blog has been intermittently brought to you by Comcast wireless Internet service...if I am lucky, that is!

Tomorrow Is Sale Day!!!!

Tomorrow is the day that one of my favorite bi-annual sales takes place. It's a children's consignment sale called "Reruns R Fun" and it recently has been taking place in the old Service Merchandise building in Pierre Bossier Mall.

The sale will start at noon tomorrow, according to their website, HERE. I'm not feeling crazy, so I do not plan on being on that line of people waiting to rush inside the minute they try and open their doors!

I have been going to these sales since my triplets were 6 months old. I remember the dates, because each time it always falls around one of their well-baby appointments. Each time we go, they are always fussy because they just received their immunizations.

Oddly enough, this season, we will not go to the doctor until this Friday, so the people at the sale should be in luck! We won't be crying because we are feeling icky over just having had our shots.

Don't get me wrong, we probably will be crying, however. It seems that we cannot go anywhere without one of my kids doing something to the other sibling sitting in front of them in their stroller that results in tears of some sort.

Sometimes, the tears aren't even caused by their siblings. Yesterday, one of mine actually cried because he couldn't REACH his sister to harass her anymore. So there will probably be tears.

But I really have to go tomorrow. Each time the sale rolls around, I always find something wonderful. One sale, I managed to get all of Vivienne's clothes for the next two seasons. All of what I bought here was either smocked or appliqued like the old "Chocolate Soup" clothes my aunt and mum used to buy for me when I was little.

Sometimes, I am even able to do my Christmas shopping there. The first time I went, I ended up finding a lot of the toys that I had wanted to buy the babies while I was pregnant (and the toys were new at that point) but couldn't because I had been on bed rest.

I hope I don't sound awful, buying my kids their Christmas presents at a consignment sale, but other than EBay, I probably wouldn't have been able to find that specific toy at all! I am very picky and always buy things that are in top-notch shape!

I really have high hopes for the sale tomorrow. This time, I don't need anything in particular, so I won't be scrambling to find another baby bed or a car seat or anything. I should be able to just browse, leisurely (I can hope, can't I?)

I haven't any idea what I want to buy, but I do know that Kian and Kai have a new-found love of dump trucks and cars. Vivienne doesn't need any dollies (Ebay has nicely provided me with enough special dollies for the next two Christmases and her birthday as well!)

Look for us tomorrow in all the throngs of people! You will probably hear us before you see us, as the trio's manners are anything but good at nearly 18 months.

Please forgive us if we aren't as social as we would like to be. But if you listen carefully, you just might get one of Kian's new phrases as a greeting.

My favorite of the bunch is when he says, "How-Dee-Do?" He will also call out, "How doin?" If you are lucky, they even might wave at you, if they aren't too busy pulling each other's hair or trying to kick each other!

Hope to see you all at the sale tomorrow! Try to be as close to opening as you can to get the best selection! There isn't any way to guess what they might have in stock, but you just never know when you will stumble across something wonderful!

There Is Trash On My Trash Pile, Oh My!

I had an interesting revelation last week while going through the final motions of packing up my house and moving everything over to my new one.

When one has lived somewhere for a while, you find that you have accumulated much stuff. Much of this stuff isn’t needed, so one becomes inclined to THROW IT OUT!

I find this inclination to be refreshing and really a wonderful cathartic process. I would soon find out that others feel quite differently.

I was in the throw-everything-out stage last week and had been doing quite a good job of doing just that when the Weed & Seed program came back to our street for a visit.

This program is SUPPOSED to be out walking the neighborhoods to “Clean” them up. It is supposed to help eliminate crime and enforce property standards.

My question is, why then are they walking the streets of South Highlands? There are a few houses that aren’t well kept, but these belong mostly to the very elderly who are unable to do the work themselves (or so it would appear.)

There is a lot of crime in our area as well, however it mostly stems from people coming from other neighborhoods to commit them. The rest appears to be from teen-aged kids with nothing more to do than roll other people’s houses and sometimes do things that prove a bit more damaging.

This day, I was busily hauling out my garbage bags full of old clothes (mostly things that had been over-altered and things that really should have been thrown out many years ago.)

That was when I noticed that the police were back in our area. It was the same Officer who had banged on our door and had scared my babies and upset my little doggie by calling her “Cujo.” The same lady was with him who had been handing out the little pencil and magnet baggies, too.

They were parked in front of my neighbor’s house and I was worried that maybe something had happened to her because she is very, very, VERY pregnant right now.

So, I watched from my front window to make sure that she didn’t need my help (they do not have a running vehicle right now as it needs a new battery & she was due any day now.)

What I would see would surprise me. Instead of knocking on her door, this officer proceeded to look inside her trashcans which were on the street in anticipation of trash day the next day.

He accidentally over turned one (or so it appeared,) and instead of picking up the empty trashcan, he let it roll to the center of the yard.

That one was empty, so he moved on to the next one. It apparently had some stinky garbage in it by the look on his face!

I honestly do not know what they expected to find in that trashcan other than GARBAGE! Next, this guy moved on to MY trash pile.

Of course, I knew that mine would prove much more interesting than that of my neighbor’s. If he thought her trash was stinky, what would he do when he got a whiff of mine full of all those diapers???

Both he and his assistant started poking at my garbage bags and checking out my trashcans too (which were still up by my house because I was still busily filling them at the time!) Next, the assistant made a call on her cell phone.

After a few minutes, a tow-truck pulled up and the Officer had my neighbor’s truck towed from its usual parking spot. I had thought that must have been the nature of that phone call until my phone rang.

It was a call from 1-800 JUNK at my number for the lady outside. She had referred me to them to have me pay to have my garbage hauled away and had given them her name and my phone number.

I just do not know what to think of this. The next day was garbage day, hence my very large and growing trash pile in its usual spot near the street and the corner of my driveway.

I had always thought that the garbage men were the ones who were supposed to take it all away. After all, it’s not like I had large appliances or paint or anything out of the ordinary down there. It was just plain garbage sitting where I had always put it for the regular collection.

I felt like I had done something wrong by having to place my garbage on my trash pile. My yard isn’t the prettiest on the block as I prefer to let my beds run wild with everything I have planted there.

But I am not the sort to use old toilets as planters or tires as flower beds and I do not have one of those yards decorated with old broken down cars instead of yard gnomes. We even have a yard man who comes every so often to mow our grass and place the residual lawn trash on the trash pile.

I ended up telling the lady on the phone that there wasn’t anyone at this address by that name, which is true. I am not sure why this lady felt that I needed to pay someone a minimum of $80 (I looked up the website just to see what the prices were for this company to haul away my garbage) when the regular trash collection would run the very next day.

While I was pondering that little tidbit of information, I heard that dreaded knocking that the Officer does so love to use on social calls, coming from my neighbor’s front porch.

I waited by my baby monitor, holding my breath, to see if the babies noticed or heard from their nursery as they were napping at the time. Luckily, they did not hear him this time.

Meanwhile, I could here him actually tell her that they were hauling away her truck and that would she please pick up her garbage can out of her front yard?

Now this was the very same empty trashcan that this officer had knocked over earlier while trying to see what was in her garbage! My poor little overly pregnant neighbor actually waddled outside to try and pick the darn thing up, too.

I waited for my turn, thinking that they would come and visit my house next. My little doggie was already bouncing off of my front door barking over all of the hullabaloo going on outside and next door.

Thankfully, my turn never came. After the tow-truck left, they seemed a bit more excited over something else at the other end of the street. I still haven’t any idea what it was that got their attention down there, but I am glad that I didn’t have to try and talk to them again!

Don’t get me wrong, I think that this program is a wonderful thing when implemented in the neighborhoods that really need it.

Cleaning up our neighborhoods could really help lower the crime rate in some areas, theoretically. I just do not know why they selected South Highlands to try and “Clean up” when there are actual problem areas other places in our city.

Triplet Baby Blues (A Mumsy’s of Multiples Best Friend part 3)

I had never ever needed baby gates before because my trio had been confined to that wonderful yet ever shrinking play-yard. Now, I needed that baby- gate to keep the babies contained for my sanity’s sake after moving into our new house.

Because we were in the middle of moving (the final stages actually,) it would be Monday before anyone could get anywhere to buy the actual gate.

Sunday was probably the scariest day of my life, short of triplet delivery day (where I pretty much flunked anesthesia 101 and nearly died from it alone.)

I had very innocently sent my baby-sitter (my 12-year old) to Six Flags, so this left my husband to clean the other house and get to the bottom of that barrel basically.

This meant that I was alone most of the day with the babies. Silly me had still yet to learn exactly how bad of a situation this really was. So far, I had managed to get everyone up for their nap, down from their nap and fed lunch and dinner without any problems.

I even managed to get them into bed, somehow. I headed off baby trouble pretty well, too, considering the new expansive house. Then it happened.

The babies were crying. All three of them were hysterical and not drifting off to sleep as they usually do. I very stupidly decided to go up and get them and let them play off their energy.

I don’t know what I was thinking, but I picked up Kai first. Maybe it was because he seemed the most upset. I just do not know. He was very happy to see me, as were they all.

I got him downstairs without any problem. He was happily playing with his toys in the living room as I ran back upstairs to get his siblings. This time, I went for “Double trouble” and picked up both Kian and Vivie, putting one on each hip, and headed for the stairs.

At the top of the landing, I knew I was in trouble. I could hear the tiny pitter-patter of Kai’s running feet coming down the hall. We had been reading “The Foot Book” by Dr. Seuss earlier that evening after dinner.

We had just put on our “Down-stairs feet” and both Vivie and Kian were chattering away about going down-stairs. I started down while they chanted away.

Meanwhile, Kai had made it all the way to the stairway. He stopped and did his funny little stairway posture where he arcs his back and throws his head waaaay back to see up the stairs.

Then he started laughing, and began to climb. He only made it up to the landing which is the second step up, technically. He was all smiling and laughing and calling to Kian.

I had just made it down to the landing and was trying not to scare him or startle him. I was trying to decide if I should try and put the other babies down on the landing and set him onto the first floor or if I should try something else.

He was laughing, thinking it was all some sort of game (as he does most everything in life) when he started to walk backwards (yet another new accomplishment the new house has brought us.)

I thought he was going to be okay at this point, because he was backing into the wall behind him. I had forgotten that he likes to walk sideways, too.

He somehow side-stepped off of the landing and missed that next step. He tumbled onto the hard-wood floor and there wasn’t anything I could do about it at all.

It was as if everything had come to a standstill as I watched it all happen. I didn’t know what to do. It had all happened in a matter of seconds.

Normally, I would have reached out and grabbed him to keep him from falling, but of course I couldn’t because I was holding both of his siblings.

I had to actually walk down the rest of the way and sit down so that I could sit the other 2 babies onto the floor safely (after this, I didn't want to sit them on the landing and risk the others tumbling off.)

Vivie did all right, but Kian didn’t want to sit, and in retaliation slumped thinking that I wouldn’t sit him all the way down.

I did manage to keep one arm around Kian as I scooped up a crying Kai. Kian ended up turning around to look up at me and slipped backwards and hit his head on the wall, but not very hard. I think he was more upset with me holding Kai instead of picking him back up instead of actually hurt.

I finally got to check Kai and found that he was shaken, but all right. He has a small bump on his head, but it’s not his first one and it won’t be his last (he is my dare-devil baby.)

Kian finally got over his baby ego and patted his brother on the back and looked up at me and said, “Kai hoit. Used downstairs feet to go up!” In retrospect, it is kind of funny that he actually comprehended"The Foot Book" and was able to correlate it with the accident.

The very next morning, I sent my very tired husband to Lowe’s to get the baby-gate for the hallway. He wasn't even allowed to stop and eat breakfast first!

Together, Kian and husband put the gate up across the hallway leading to the stairs. Kian was very glad to help put it up. But, when he figured out what it actually did, he cried and cried.

Kai seems rather indifferent to the baby gate. This worries me a bit really, after all, he is the baby who could walk on the rail of his play-yard and tried to play superman by balancing on the same said rail. He also learned to climb on that play-yard gate. I really hope that this gate is Kai-proofed.

Vivie just stood there, leaning up against it. When I walked past her coming out of the kitchen, she looked up at me, crossed her arms, and let out a very loud and defiant, “Humph!”

I later caught her with one leg actually through the gate slats, her foot on floor of the other side, trying to get her body all the way through it. Lucky for us, her head is too big to fit through all the way!

This weekend, I finally feel like a real triplet mum. I suppose I am very fortunate, really. The babies are nearly 18 months old (on the 13th) and this is one of only a few scary or frustrating incidences.

I had mastered NICU, bringing them all home for the first time and keeping their schedules. I could make and CARRY 15 bottles all at the same time without dropping any of them, and could even bottle feed all three simultaneously if I had to.

I even got them moved over to the new house and asleep in their beds (safely or so I had thought) in just a few hours.

They only woke up once and it was because Kian’s teeth “Hoit” (he had cut a new one) and his crying over it had woken everyone up at 3a.m.

I can’t believe I had forgotten that one tiny, important, tid-bit of advice that my nurse had given me that day while in recovery from the triplet-mondo-c-section.

It was very simple, and very necessary. Baby gates are, in fact, my very best friend!

Saved By the "Goldfish" (or part 2 of A Mumsy's of Multiples Best Friend

Now, both Kian and Kai can walk. Today, I learned exactly what other people meant when they talk about triplets being a handful.

It’s easy to chase one baby. However, throw in another walker, and you start to wonder exactly how one is supposed to go about keeping them all out of harm’s way.

Add in the third baby who does what we call the “Cripple” crawl where she sort of walks on one leg while dragging the other one underneath her body. She knows how to crawl the “Normal” way, but this way is FASTER!

Now, you have to understand that the new house is MUCH larger than the last one. It’s also very open and has a fireplace and an upstairs.

For the first time every, the babies have been allowed to just BE. There isn’t any need for the tiny play-yard here. This arrangement seemed fine at first, too.

Then Kian decided to go mobile and my world changed FOREVER! This meant that both he and Kai could both walk in different directions, with different motivations and get into trouble equally and with great distance, sometimes rooms, between them.

Kaiden discovered that there are Pyrex dishes in the other cabinet that has yet to get its baby-latches installed. Meanwhile, in the hallway, Kian has discovered that there is more to the house than the first floor. He found the staircase.

At first, I was lucky. Because Kian had only been walking for a few hours at best, he couldn’t yet fathom taking on the task of mastering the art of stairs.

Then Vivie decided she, too, could go exploring. While Kai was busy placing his blocks carefully into the Pyrex bowls under the counter, and Kian was eye-balling the stairs with the eye of a mountain-climber, Vivie had jumped right in and managed to climb up onto the hearth of the fireplace.

Meanwhile, the oxygen deprived mummy was trying to figure out who was more apt to be in immediate harm’s way. These decisions are NOT fun and are not anywhere near easy to make.

I somehow managed to get Kian’s attention from the end of the hallway, giving him the urge to have a gold-fish cracker RIGHT THEN AND NOW!

The very idea that Kian might get something that Kai would miss out on was NOT sitting well with Kai who suddenly decided that his blocks could just sit on the floor for the moment while he too went into the hallway, following the sound of Kian’s voice saying fishie, goal-fishie.

The new-found “Pied-piper” syndrome that I had acquired from possessing that much needed bag of gold-fish crackers gave me enough time to head for the fire-place to try and convince Vivie NOT to try and get down by herself (she cannot walk yet but apparently can climb very well) or just scoop her up away from the brick.

Nobody got hurt that time, but this was about the point that Debbie’s (my nurse from the hospital) advice popped into my head. “Gates are my friend,” she had said. Gates. That was the key here. What we need are gates!

A Mumsy's of Multiples Best Friend

One of the very first people to give me actual triplet baby advice was one of my nurses from the labor and delivery floor at Schumpert where I delivered.

At the time, the advice seemed a bit, well, dated. After all, I had just given birth and had yet to even meet my tiny trio…Very tiny trio, actually.

I suppose that’s why I filed it in the furthest most depths of my very oxygen deprived mind, never to surface again until one day…

As you all know, we have been in the process of moving for the past three weeks. I know what you’re probably thinking. How can it possibly take anyone that long to move?

Well, as it just so happens, husband is working full-time and has two different shows that he is also working on in his spare time. Oh, and did I mention that I have triplets?

I also have a twelve-year-old too, but he spent this past weekend at Six Flags with his best friend. (What sort of mum would I be if I had said no?)

Basically, knowing all of this (save for the Six Flags trip which was nearly spontaneous,) I had started packing up the old house as soon as I knew we were moving into the new one.

I packed up EVERYTHING that wasn’t being used and some things that were. For the past three weeks we have had a lot of fast-food and eaten off of many a paper plate!

Everyday, once my eldest got home from school, I would start taking things over to the new house.

Every night after the babies were fed and put to bed and all was quiet, I would run over and unpack what I had moved earlier that day. When my husband would get home from rehearsal, he would also take loads over, too.

As you can see, this went very, very VERY slowly as necessity dictated that I attempt to clean and pack while quieting fighting babies who had become much to big to share one extra-huge, much- extended play-yard.

When the weekend came for my sisters-in-law to help us move the big stuff (furniture and such,) they were actually very surprised at just how much we had managed to move already.

At this point, I was still keeping the babies at the old house, safe in their play-yard so that they wouldn’t be accidentally trampled by everyone trying to move the large furniture.

Then the day came, our official moving day, our first day in the new house. This meant that the babies would no longer be confined to their play-yard in the living room.

I had very artfully placed the pots and pans in the huge bottom cabinet just so they could discover them and get to play with them, and all of the downstairs electrical sockets had been covered in anticipation of tiny scientists trying to discover electricity.

What I didn’t count on, was that within only a few hours of us being over in the new house, that Kian would decide it was time to get mobile like the big kids and WALK. Yep, Kian walked, A LOT!!!!

This meant that I now had 2 very mobile babies. I had been spoiled by only having one baby which meant that I hadn’t any clue that once I had 2 or more walkers, I would be in TROUBLE!

To Be Continued.....