Happy Halloween!

Last year, since the babies were still tiny, we opted not to take them trick-or-treating. Instead, they had Halloween hats that they wore all season to celebrate baby style.

This year, I wasn't really planning on taking them, either. But, as it turns out, it was a matter of Bregon getting to trick-or-treat, so I gave in and decided to go ahead and try it.

In anticipation of Halloween, I began planning a few days ahead. I would take the babies Easter baskets and zip-tie them to the side of the stroller so that they didn't feel left out.

I made two jugs of juice (half juice/half water) and made sure that I had extra bags of Goldfish crackers and Teddy Grahams ready to go.

We made a test run on Monday by taking the babies along for the ride so we could check out the Pumpkin Shine that is only a few blocks away from our house.

Everyone did okay until Vivienne managed to get her lady-baby foot caught under her stroller seat when I hit one of those cracks in the pavement at the park.

When we got home, I realized that she was also stinky which had given her another reason to practice her banshee wail.

They lasted until about 7:15 Monday night. Tuesday, I let them go to bed at the usual hour (I know I am supposed to be keeping them up an hour later, but they were just so incredibly cranky I couldn't help myself!)

Last night, Bregon and I gathered the babies Halloween clothing and put it on the buffet in the dining room in anticipation of getting ready for the big day.

We spent the rest of the evening planning, and carving our pumpkins. Bregon ended up giving his pumpkin an evil clown face to match this year's costume.

I decided just to see what happened and ended up with a rather nice looking overjoyed and smiling pumpkin.

It was so nice and peaceful sitting on our new front porch and hollowing out our pumpkins and planning and carving together.

My little kitty even came up and crawled into my lap at one point as if to tell me, "Happy Halloween!"

Wednesday morning, I hit the ground running, because I had quite forgotten to buy any Halloween candy in anticipation of trick-or-treaters. Oops!

I frantically went through my pantry trying to find something suitable. Usually, I have plenty of candy amassed in there because of Bregon and I didn't have the car to be able to run go pick some up!

Being that we had recently moved, though, meant that I had ended up weeding through everything and I had actually gotten rid of the excess. Eek!

I was able to locate about a butter carton full of flavored bubble gum, three quarters of a case of long-forgotten ding-dongs, some mini Halloween bags of popcorn and a few rice crispy treats that were some flavor Bregon didn't seem to like. I figured that should about do it!

I stuck my butter carton by the front door so that I wouldn't forget to put it out, along with a bag of tea-lights, a lighter, and some coasters for the pumpkins.

About noon, I decided that I should probably make use of my new bay window and decided to dig out my Halloween decorations.

Normally, I wouldn't have been able to use them for fear of having them stolen off of the porch by pranksters.

But, I have this lovely bay window that is screaming for some decorations, so I took down the unused curtain rod, and started hanging things from it.

I ended up with a flying skeleton critter on one end, my famine skeleton guy in the center, and baby bat on the other end.

I hung the head collection from the window latches, with my new vampire one in the center, the bride to his left and the clown to his right.

My flutter creatures gave me a bit of a problem as I was out of ways to hang them. It finally dawned on me that I could just use the suction cups from the failed attempt at hanging the shower caddy. It worked like a charm!

I was so happy, I changed my Myspace mood to read, "The heads were all hung from the window with care, in hopes that trick-or-treaters, soon would be scared" so that all of my friends would know about my antics.

The next thing I knew, it was time to try and get the babies dressed for the evening in their little Halloween outfits so that I could get them ready for dinner.

Luckily for me, Husband walked in about that time from collecting Bregon from the Halloween dance at school and they were able to help me catch the babies!

While the babies had dinner, Bregon moved all of my planters off of the front porch (to avoid pranksters) and helped me get the final few items ready to go.

I was even able to light the tea candles and get the coaster with the candles into the pumpkin without anything blowing out or even burning me!

Together, we lashed the Easter baskets to the side of the stroller (2 triceratops ones and a
Dora head) and added a glam-rock gargoyle doll to the other side for fun.

We loaded the triplets into the stroller as our friends drove up to join us for the evening.

Somehow, we managed to walk both sides of about 5 blocks, and doubled back to the far end of Ockley to make a loop back past the church.

To keep the babies from getting too tired, I fed them M&M's that they had trick-or-treated from my neighbor.

I know that I probably sound like a horrible Mum, but the sugar really seemed to keep them awake and from getting cranky somehow!

We had walked so far, that the kids were begging us to go home. I suppose over all, we did really well.

Both of the big-kids had bags full of candy, and the babies each had their little baskets with a few things in them as well.

Vivienne started to cry about a half a block from home. Then wind blew my direction and I quickly realized why.

That was the only melt-down of the evening and I thought it was justified. After all, it was 8 o'clock by this time. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself...And I do!

We had a wonderful time, and our pumpkins even survived the night! For once, there was even still some candy in the butter carton on the front porch.

I was in shock that not only was it still there, it had something in it! I had grown accustomed to coming home to find the candy & the container totally gone and usually the pumpkins smashed.

What a nice surprise! Then, to top it all off, my babies actually went to sleep gracefully. We said good-night and Happy Halloween to our friends as they drove away.

Then, we had a candy crisis. Bregon had been bombarded with trick-or-treaters as he came inside from unloading our stroller.

We were out of candy and stuff with folks still coming up the drive!

I frantically ran back into the pantry to see what I could come up with. I managed to find a few more bags of popcorn, some snack-sized bags of Sun-chips and Doritos, and some honey buns.

I even forked over the rest of the bubble-gum. Bregon wouldn't let me give them the brown jellybeans that are the ammunition for his wind-up bunny and moose, though...I tried!

Luckily, that would do it for us. We were able to turn the porch light off and snuff out the candles in the pumpkins without getting caught by anymore trick-or-treaters!

So, as I put away my heads, my bats, and critters of flight, a Happy Halloween to all & to all a good night!

Triplet's First Play-date

It finally has happened! I found a friend who is brave enough to bring their kids over to my house for a play-date.

I worried and worried that my triplets would somehow treat their new friends like they treat each other.

After all, who wants to invite a friend over only to have your kids try and maul their kids?

What if Kian decided to pull his little friends hair, or step on his baby sister like he steps all over his own?

Lucky for us, my fears went unfounded. Nobody came away with dental imprint souvenirs, and everyone still has all of their hair.

I think a good time was had by all. My kids even shared their toys with everyone and even "Taught" their friend how to play piano!

As it turns out, my children are actually nicer to other children than they are to each other. What a relief!

I was so excited to actually have adults over to talk to and have a bit of Mommie conversation with as well!

We did it! We finally had a play-date. More importantly, I think everyone actually enjoyed it. Maybe, just maybe, we can do this again and soon!

Daylight Savings Time Approaches!

Daylight savings time approaches. Since the new laws have gone into effect, the date has been moved a few weeks later than it used to be.

We should all set our clocks backward on Saturday night in anticipation of that pesky time change slated to occur in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday.

How will this affect your family? I know that I have been plotting and planning about how to combat the time change and the effect that it will have on my kids.

I used to never worry about time change. When my eldest was little, it never seemed to affect him all that much.

Then again, he wasn't really one of those kids who had to have a schedule, either. Boy have things changed around here!

We first ran into time change problems last year, when the babies were about seven months old. I know, it seems silly, but it really did upset the little ones quite a bit.

An hour to an adult doesn't mean all that much, but when you are internally hard-wired from birth to wake up at a certain time, expect feedings every four hours, and like to know EXACTLY when you will get to take naps, go to bed, and get up each morning, it can get confusing.

To my babies, time change can really rock their world and turn it upside down!

No longer will feedings be predictable, and take place exactly when your tiny bodies are conditioned to be hungry.

And you can forget about being able to be comforted in the idea that bedtime comes conveniently when your body tells you that you are sleepy and that meals always seem to happen just when your tummy is beginning to let you know that it is empty.

Oh no, time change happens, and all of the sudden lunch happens an hour earlier and you really aren't feeling hungry yet (and you just cannot figure out the reason why!)

Then bedtime rolls around, and Mumsy just will NOT allow you to put on your upstairs feet to head to the nursery for beddie-bye time.

You are tired and cranky because in your world, it's 6 o'clock and bedtime. In Mumsy's world, it is really only 5 o'clock and it's dinner time and she honestly expects you to stay nice and AWAKE and agreeable which can really be too much for a baby to understand!

Some children thrive on predictability and become dependant upon it in their little world and the schedule that seems to drive it so well.

When the adults spring time change on them, their world can quickly become confusing and to a baby or a toddler, it can be truly upsetting.

So this year, in an attempt to be on top of things, I tried to plan ahead and start conditioning them to "Stay up later" in some attempt to keep my tiny trio's world a little more sane and organized for them.

I am hoping to avoid some meltdowns by keeping them up about an hour later each night the entire week prior to the BIG DAY when we roll those clocks back an hour.

Unfortunately, trying to organize time-change and prepare for it, has been leading to some major meltdowns at my house!

Tonight, to try and distract the babies from it, we all put on our pajama's, donned our new, very cool peter pan denim jackets over our pajama's and a pair of socks, and loaded everybody up into the stroller for a trip to the Pumpkin Shine at the park.

The distraction actually worked, for a time. They made it until about half past six before Vivienne and Kian figured out that it was getting dark out, and that usually they are in bed before this happens.

In typical toddler fashion, some screeching ensued. I had sort of half expected this to happen at some point, and had basically figured on the noise from the masses being loud enough to actually drown out the screeching, wailing babies.

It almost worked, too. But of course everyone within a few feet of us could hear them make their presence known. EVERYONE soon was quite aware of the injustice that I had imposed upon my kids!

We did manage to make it home in one piece, and without too much fan-fare. They were loud, but the people and the traffic were quite a bit louder!

Bregon and I managed to get everyone inside, changed and up to the nursery fairly quickly. The babies even had quieted down once we were home and seemed to be comforted somewhat by the idea that bedtime was imminent!

I had thought that they were really all settling down and going to sleep, until we sat down to have a bit of dinner.

Then, Vivienne let loose her "Banshee howl" that she has mastered over the past few days. It's so high pitched, that I marvel that she has yet to break glass with it yet!

I have just now gotten her calmed down enough to get her back to bed without waking her brothers up, and it's almost ten o'clock.

We have five more days of this new routine before time change takes affect. Hopefully, by then, the babies will all be used to it and won't really notice anything all that different this year!

SLEEP!

What's sleep? I suppose I am very very super fortunate to just now be having to ask that question of myself!

After all, I managed to somehow get enough to survive triplet-infant-hood and the every four hour feedings that could take up to an hour from start to finish in themselves, if I wasn't careful and was flying solo!

We somehow muddled through the ex-neighbors being more than noisy with their home-made mini bikes revving up and down the street at all hours of the night, and the nutty ones that sometimes forgot and played their music loud enough to shake objects off of shelves!

I had even almost gotten used to two of the babies waking up for midnight tea-time that consisted of teddy grahams and milk, then snuggles and back to bed.

Then it happened. Well, it had already been happening, technically. Two of the babies had managed to cut all of their molars (even Kai who had managed to cut only half of one tooth, the other half giving him fits for what seemed like forever!)

Kian, on the other hand, to date, still has NONE. Not one molar in his little boy mouth, poor dear. But they are coming, don't fret any longer!

Nope, he will not be molar-less forever. All the signs are there. He can no longer sleep through anything and his room is all nice and quiet now, after our recent move.

Somehow, he is the baby who is waking up in tears for the last few days. Not only is he waking up, but he is sharing his pain with his siblings, who really did try to muddle through his sadness by ignoring him.

I suppose it is hard to ignore your brother when he is busy tossing every stuffed animal and blanket that he has in his bed towards the other unsuspecting sibling.

If unloading his stuffed animal friends in your general direction doesn't phase them, his very loudly screaming, "HEY DUDE" or "HEY DOODLE DOODLE DUDE" seems to do the trick.

In fact, he scared his sister so badly one night, that she just stood in the middle of her bed screeching like a banshee scorned, as loudly as her little lungs would allow.

It was so bad, that I couldn't even calm her down. I had to stand there and watch her scream and it was soo sad that it made me want to cry (the crying, not the fact that it happened to be 3 o'clock in the morning!)

I had all three babies awake and upset for one reason or another in their upstairs nursery in the middle of the night, and none showed signs of calming down or going back to sleep!

I was in a bind and didn't know quite what to do. If I took them all downstairs, which I could do in shifts, taking two and once, then going back for the other, I could let them play it out.

But earlier that night, I had ended up pretty much stuck downstairs with Kian zoning on my shoulder like he used to when he was first born (basically dead-weight) and Vivienne wanting to go back to her bed NOW (she couldn't get comfy.)

In that situation, I could please one baby, but by doing so, upset the other and run the chance of waking up the third.

I didn't want a repeat of that, so I was a bad Mummy, and left them all three in their beds, brought them their milk in bed (something I NEVER ever have done nor do I plan on doing again,) and then gave each of them a round of Motrin to sooth the various teething pain.

Every time I tried leaving the room, Vivie started her screeching, and the boys started volleying toys at each other.

Kai actually threw his teddy at her and hit her in the face square on, in what appeared to be a "Shut up" message of sorts.

I finally ended up making sure everyone had their toys and milk and binkie if they wanted it, and left the room.

I stopped at the upstairs thermostat and turned it til the heat came on so that they would have some nice whooshing white noise to listen to if they stopped screaming long enough!

That bought me a tiny bit of quiet time. Of course, I still couldn't go to sleep knowing that they were awake up there, so I lay in my bed listening to them play 'til they finally got quiet, which was about 5-ish.

I figured that they would be exhausted the next day. They were up at the usual crack of dawn, but were fussy all through-out the day.

We figured that they would sleep well that night after pulling the all-nighter the night before and shorting themselves on much in the way of a nap during the day.

Boy were we wrong! I put them to bed at the usual hour, and they went fairly gracefully. The problem was, they just never would go to sleep.

Kaiden was the first out of bed, with a particularly foul and stinky diaper which really was warranted.

Then Vivienne had to have her turn and was even able to justify her trip downstairs with a dirty diaper of her own.

The trouble came when everyone was back upstairs in their beddy-bye's. They chattered, jumped up and down like their beds were some sort of trampolines, threw all of their toys about at each other and the rug in the center of the room, and just would not sleep.

I brought them downstairs about 10 o'clock that night, thinking that maybe they would like an early tea. I made sure everyone had cookies and milk, and a good run about the living room.

The next thing I knew, it was after midnight, and my tiny trio were STILL going full speed. Well, full speed for little insomniac babies who really hadn't even napped much in the past few days.

They had started rolling around on the floor, thumb sucking, hair pulling and slipping all over the place, so we took pity and we twinkled up the stairs and the boys put on their upstairs feet to head to the nursery for another shot at bedtime.

This time, they actually did sleep-for a time. They made it 'til about 6 before Kian was back awake and chattering, trying his best to wake everyone else up.

I went up to get them for waffles about 8-ish, thinking that they would be more pleasant if they could have them over a nice episode of "The Backyardigans" which is their favorite show.

They were all sorts of fussy again all day long, and refused to even eat much in the way of dinner. Corn and carrots were flying all over the place, it seemed.

But, after several days of not really sleeping, I can finally say that they are asleep...for a time!

Now if Kian would only CUT THOSE MOLARS we might all could catch a few zzzz's!

A Christmas Wish

One of the most common questions that I get asked when out and about with my children is, “How did you end up having triplets?”

I have been asked this so many times, that I have actually come up with quite a few different answers to give people, based on my mood and the time of year.

My favorite reply comes from something my son did at Christmas-time for many a year.

When Bregon was little, the time came when he decided that all he really wanted in life was a baby brother or a sister.

He was probably about four, and was an aspiring little inventor/scientist much like his favorite cartoon hero, “Dexter,” which was an admirable choice for his age, or so I had thought!

We had this cat that had decided to have her litter of kittens in a box smack dab in the middle of our living room, right under our Christmas tree during cartoon time one Saturday morning before Christmas.

Of course there wasn’t any way to keep my 4 year old from watching the ENTIRE process from start to finish, short of leaving the house entirely.

He stuck it out for the entire process- all 5 kittens worth, and didn’t seem bothered by it a bit…or so it would seem.

Little did I know, what my son had wanted more than anything in the world at this time, was a baby brother or sister.

In his tiny 4 year old mind, he had very analytically decided that if the cat could have kittens seemingly single handedly, and they had come out of her nether regions, that the same must be true of humans and their reproductive systems as well.

He didn’t ask any questions about any of it, so I figured he was okay with everything.

Fast forward a few days later, and I discovered him coming out of the bathroom in tears, bawling his little boy eyes out.

I hugged him and comforted him in typical mumsy fashion and asked him what was wrong.

He very tearfully said that he was in the bathroom trying to make a baby brother or sister like the cat had made kittens.

He was upset because his every attempt had kept coming out brown and he was trying to figure out how to make his come to match his own skin color.

The poor little dear actually had come to the conclusion that was how babies were made…via the potty.

I had a LOT of explaining to do, but he finally understood that he was not going to be able to “Create” his own baby brother or sister.

He went back to his drawing board, and I really didn’t hear too much more about the subject until it came time for our annual visit to Santa Claus.

We put on our Christmas outfits, and made our way up to the mall with Bregon in his little Christmas t-shirt and Santa Hat complete with beard, wish-list letter in tow.

It was almost Bregon’s turn to sit on Santa’s lap, when it dawned on me that I had no idea what it was that he was going to ask Santa for this year for Christmas.

He handed me his little letter which was done in picture form as he was only 4 and really wasn’t up to writing much more than some semblance of his name.

Then he began to translate for me. He was asking for a Nintendo 64, and a baby brother and sister. This last part was called out to me as he was led by the elf up to sit on Santa’s lap.

Over the next few years, Bregon continued to ask Santa quite in earnest for a baby brother and sister.

Some years it was one, or the other, and sometimes both. But he always remembered to include them on his list.

The way he figured, Santa was the best way to finally get what he wanted, someone to share his toys with!

Every year, it seemed that Santa would just smile that knowing smile at me as Bregon hopped down off of his lap.

Well, it took a little while, but Santa finally did manage to deliver. I found out that I was pregnant in August a few years ago.

By mid-September, we knew that we were having not one baby, but THREE!

By Christmas-time, we were able to find out that Bregon was going to have 2 baby brothers and a baby sister.

So, it might take a while, but we now know that Santa really can come through with even the most difficult of requests.

And if you ask me how it was that I ended up having triplets, I just may tell you to be very careful what your children wish for at Christmas-time!

I think Stephen Sondheim may have said it best in “Into The Woods” when he wrote, “Careful the wish you make, Wishes are children…Careful the path they take, Wishes come true.”

Bregon used to ask Santa every year for a little brother or sister or both. It would appear that Santa interpreted it as that we needed triplets. Santa may just have actually delivered!

It's Halloween Time At Our House!!!!

It’s Halloween time at my house, which means I have been a very busy lady!

Bregon had to have a clown suit this year after having seen a few scary clowns in action at a haunted house in Terrell called Thrillvania.

We tried purchasing a clown suit locally, but alas, nobody seemed to have one in his size.

In fact, only one place we went even came close to having a clown suit. Most places had none, which I found sort of, well, odd, actually.

I had always thought that clown costumes would be a staple every year for Halloween.

It wasn’t like last year, when he decided to be something more obscure like Ash from the “Evil Dead” movies.

We searched Wal-mart, Target and even Party City to no avail. Finally, after running an Internet search, we made the decision to go ahead and just make one for him.

Lucky for Bregon, Mumsy can sew a little. After all, a clown costume should be nothing compared to throwing together a full-fledged court dress for a Renaissance Festival, or outfitting the entire King’s Guard in Yeomen attire!

We went ahead and looked at our pattern options on-line before heading out to our local fabric stores to choose the fabric.

I figured if we could knock out some choices at home, we would at least have some idea of what we were looking for and would spend less time on making decisions in the store!

After picking out the pattern, we headed to Hancock’s over on King’s Highway to look for the perfect fabric.

Lucky for us, they were having a sale and we lucked into several bargains!

Our pattern ended up only being .99 cents, so I was able to pick up one for husband too (he is doing some work with a local haunted house and wanted to try on a clown for size!)

We found three different fabrics that we liked for the base material. There just wasn’t enough of 2 of them to even consider making it half of the costume, so the decision was basically made for us!

We settled on primary colored diamond shaped pattern for the overall costume and Bregon found some really awful neon polka dotted fabric that makes my eyes swim for the other half of his.

The only satin we could find that really drew the two fabric selections together was a yellow color, so we went with that for the ruff.

Together, we decided on orange rick-a-rack for the trim and huge red pom-pom buttons for the front.

We finally had a starting point and it was looking fairly positive! We headed home with our selections and couldn’t wait to get started.

Well, he couldn’t wait to get started. I am just not so fond of clown costumes in the first place, so some part of me tried procrastinating, but after the babies went to bed I was a good Mum and started on it.

I managed to get both husband’s and Bregon’s done in about three nights. Not too shabby, considering I can only work after I am sure that the babies will not wake up (which is easier said than done!)

Husband took Bregon out and together they found the perfect clown mask and horn to go with the awful suit. Husband found a rather troll-like wig for his outfit.

The babies are fascinated with both wearing the mask and the wig. They all fight over who is going to get to wear the wig next!

The other night, while waiting for Bregon’s prescription to be filled by the pharmacist, we killed some time by playing in the Halloween department at Target.

I hadn’t planned on getting the babies any costumes for this year because I didn’t think that they could stay up late enough to actually get to go trick or treating.

We had already found them some Halloween outfits to wear for the month of October, but it is just now getting cool enough to wear them!

Each of the baby boys has a little matching jolly roger t-shirt and Vivienne has a “Who needs a costume when I’m already a Princess?” shirt and black-cat skirt and leggings to match.

But when Bregon and I ran across a set of beautiful super-huge iridescent fairy wings, we knew we just HAD to get them for Vivienne.

We did try to find the boys something else, too, but couldn’t find anything appropriate for them.

But anyways, now Vivienne has her first pair of fairy wings and can finally wear them as she goes, “Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle” and flies upstairs to the nursery for bedtime!

Each night the boys put on their “Upstairs feet” to make the upstairs journey to the nursery as Vivie puts on her fairy wings so she can “Fly” upstairs and go to sleep, too.

This way they learn about up & down and get to have fun, too. They are catching on pretty well with it, too. But now Vivie has a pair of real wings to help her “Fly!”

Lucky for her, we were able to find her a pair on the Halloween aisle! I suppose I shall have to take them all trick-or-treating this year after all.

How else can Bregon go if his Dad has to work the Haunted House that night?

I suppose we shall just have to go as soon as the babies finish their dinner, in hopes that they will be pleasant for a time!

I haven’t gone by myself in years, but I suppose with a scary clown wearing a super-headache-inducing suit escorting the trio-laden limo, we should all be quite safe!

STUCK!!!!!!

As of late, it seems that my kids are always getting STUCK somehow, someplace.

I just do not know how they manage some of it, actually. I mean, it's not that we haven't been stuck before.

It isn't the first rash of STUCK that we have experienced, either. Used to, they only got stuck in their bed-slats which can be scary enough.

But who knew that a toddler could manage to find a wide variety of interesting yet odd places to get stuck?

I know, we have all heard horror stories about a friend of a friend's child getting stuck somewhere horrible.

I for one, had a little girl that I used to baby sit for, who actually managed to get stuck inside the very tiny space in the middle of the rounded, swirly part of the banister at the bottom of her staircase.

Lucky for me, I wasn't on duty when it happened, her mother was. Unfortunately, I suppose the time comes for every mother when she has to take her turn amongst those who have STUCK children.

I just do not know how to handle it sometimes. I mean, it's so hard not to outright laugh at the babies and their predicaments, yet they are so incredibly sad at their plight.

How do you manage to keep a straight face? Let me share my plight with you so that you can fully understand the extent of our woes!

Kaiden, the little dare-devil, future circus performer extraordinaire that he is shaping up to be, has managed to get stuck TO the fireplace.

Thankfully, he has yet to get stuck IN the fireplace...yet. But he has discovered that several pair of his pajamas actually stick to the brick much like Velcro.

It's not enough that he couldn't get loose if he pulled hard enough, but it's enough that he feels stuck enough to go into hysterics and need Mummy to save him from it!

It's much to funny of a a sight, though, seeing your little one crouched on the hearth curled into this little ball thinking that he cannot move anymore. I suppose I should be thankful that he has such a learning deterrent to teach him to stay off of the fireplace!

Then there was the day that Kai decided to look into his kitchen cabinet. You know, the one you are supposed to leave for the baby to play with?

As it would turn out, he had been keeping a set of favorite cars in his cabinet. And, as luck would have it, they had managed to roll to the far back corner of that cabinet (which happens to be one of those super deep ones that is next to the fridge.)

Well, since it's not unusual for him to be in that cabinet, I didn't think much of it at first. Then I noticed that he was hanging off of the top shelf a bit with his torso and legs dangling a few inches off of the floor.

I had wondered why his siblings were sitting there, staring at him in wonder, as if he was doing the greatest trick EVER.

Then I noticed that there were only feet hanging out of the cabinet, and that he had managed to crawl fully into the top shelf of the cabinet, and had been belly crawling towards the back of it.

I suppose I was too shocked at first to stop him from going all the way back, I don't know.

All I do know, is that I literally had to drag him out of it by his ankles because he was nearly to the back corner of that super deep cabinet.

At least he did manage to get his cars though, even if he was crying at the end over being stuck in the deep, dark, cavernous cabinet!

One morning, I realized that the babies were crying quite loudly. It was THAT cry, too. The one that says, "Timmie's stuck in the well" and all.

I ran into the living room, only to find that I had 2 stuck babies staring wistfully at me with tears running down their little faces.

Both Vivienne and Kai had managed to crawl underneath the upright piano, stand fully up (all the way,) and they had tried to squeeze themselves up through the tiny crevice between the piano bench and the keyboard of the piano and had managed to get only their heads into the space before finding themselves STUCK.

So, there they stood, heads laying sideways on the bench, sandwiched between the bottom of that keyboard and the piano bench, and as they were in tight confines, they had taken to hitting at each other in their frustration, and each were crying over being stuck AND fighting one another!

I managed to free them both fairly easily, by moving the piano bench forward (something that was too heavy for their tiny bodies to do even together!)

Then I realized that someone was missing and that I could still hear whimpering in the living room.

I finally managed to find Kian. He had decided to try and crawl into his feeding chair for a snack or something and hadn't quite made it all of the way in.

He was sitting with his behind and one leg fully in the seat of it, using his hands to try and push up on the tray to keep himself comfortable because his other leg was sticking straight up in the air and refused to comply with his wishes.

I was nice, and didn't laugh at him, even though it was pretty funny and all. I set him free, and we all 4 had a nice cuddle on the couch to try and sooth away all the tears from being STUCK!

Yesterday, Kaiden managed to get stuck on one of my end tables. It's a 2-tiered one and he had decided that climbing up the back of it would be a good idea, so that he could roll his elephant car down the front of it from behind (a seemingly better vantage point for him or so he thought!)

He climbed up alright, but couldn't figure out how to back down from it, so he cried and cried until I plucked him up off of it.

I wonder if they will be embarrassed about all of the ways they get stuck when they hear about it when they get older.

I worry about them getting stuck someplace much worse than what they have already figured out!

Introducing A New Food!

Finally, I have run across something that the babies will eat that isn't a hot dog or macaroni and cheese made from a packet!

I happened upon it on accident, actually. Brookeshires had eggplant on sale for a $1 each, and I wanted to make some eggplant parmigiana just for fun.

I ran an Internet search, and ran across one of those copy-cat recipe's for Olive Garden's version of the dish.

The ingredients list looked okay, until I noticed that it included Prego meat sauce from the jar and grape jelly.

All I could think of at the time was why anyone in their right mind would want to put grape jelly in their spaghetti sauce. I have put sugar in it to sweeten it before, but never grape jelly!

But, I decided to give it a try, and hit the grocery store armed with the short list from the recipe.

I even managed to snag some eggplant that was in one piece and looked decent for once, too!

I made the dish on Sunday afternoon. By Monday, we had realized that the babies kept hanging out around the table any time anyone tried to have any left-overs.

For dinner that night, I very cautiously made them their own little bowl of it, chopping everything up very tiny to try and do damage control before a mess could happen!

Kai didn't even scream at me. He didn't toss his carrots at us in protest of the new food. He actually smiled and took every bit offered.

Vivie tried shaking her head at first at the new food, but when she accidentally got a tiny bit on her lip, and licked it off, she decided that it was good and wanted her bites too.

Of course Kian, our little goldfish who will eat ANYTHING, ate it without any questions asked.

They liked it! There was no retaliation, no food fight, and no closed, clinched little lips this night!

I had finally found something that they liked! Here is the recipe should you like to give it a try for your own family!

Eggplant Parmigiana

Ingredients:
1 Eggplant, peeled, sliced 1/4"
Flour
Oil
Seasoned salt
1 pound Spaghetti sauce, meat flavored
1/4 cup Grape jelly
1 14 ounces Can Stewed tomatoes, sliced
4 slices mozzarella cheese

Directions:1. Moisten eggplant and coat lightly in flour. Quickly brown slices in hot oil, dusting each side generously with seasoned salt. When fork tender and golden brown transfer to jelly roll pan. Cover loosely with foil and bake at 375~ about 20 to 25 minutes or until tender. Use 8 slices for this amount of sauce.

2. SAUCE-Combine sauce, jelly and tomatoes that have been broken up with a fork. Heat on medium until piping hot. Do not boil Be sure jelly is melted. Arrange 2 slices eggplant on each of 4 plates. Cover each with 1 slices of mozzarella. Ladle sauce over all, not to cover completely. Place plates in 375~ oven just to melt cheese and serve promptly.

Upon Hearing of A Triplet Loss...

This morning, I read the breaking news on our newspaper website about a lady who had lost one of her triplets during the night.

There is a pending investigation into that baby's death as is the procedure for occurrences of this type.

I don't have all of the facts on the situation, but my heart does go out to this lady. Most people just do not have any idea what all mother's of multiples go through each day, even before our babies are born, even.

When you first find out that you are carrying triplets, one of the very first lessons that you learn is that you will never know from day to day if you will have three babies, or none at all.

At any given point something can happen to one, some or all of the babies during pregnancy. This is part of what makes carrying triplets to term such a battle.

We are each advised by our doctors that the chances aren't good for us to actually carry each and every baby to term, and that to give them a fighting chance, we must do things such as eliminate all sources of stress from our lives (whatever that might entail-it does NOT come with suggestion, however!)

Most of us are advised that we must take maternity leave if working, and go on mandatory bed rest by at least 5 months, should we make it that far.

The specialist will not even see a triplet pregnancy until the mother is at least 3 months along, to ensure that the pregnancy is going to be viable.

This is a very frightening thought to someone who is supposed to be eliminating all sources of stress from their lives!

We live each day during our pregnancy never knowing what the new day will bring. We learn to micro-manage our bodies, our lives and the lives of our families.

If we are lucky, we get the honor of actually choosing our babies birthdays and maybe, just maybe we will even make it to that date.

However, there are a vast number of us who will never get that far due to the dreaded complications or even the idea that once the babies reach a combined weight of a full term singleton, that our bodies actually will decide that they must be ready for birth and contractions begin, often unannounced.

Once we are wheeled into that delivery room, our lives change forever, and we lose that control over our babies that we had during our pregnancy. Life become super scary, as if it hadn't been before.

Our babies rarely go to the regular nursery (tis a rarity that they actually do) and will most likely be whisked away to the NICU as they are delivered by their own team of nurses and doctors to try and get them stabilized and breathing well enough to survive.

While the Mum is in recovery from the massive c-section and whatever complications she may be experiencing, her babies are usually fighting for the lives in another part of the hospital.

It may be a few days before the Mum can even visit her babies to meet them for the first time (if she had to be totally under for the birth,) and often we must rely on our husbands or signifigant others if we have them, to act as our children's advocates while we are recuperating.

That is one of the most scariest sensations, not knowing what is happening to your children and knowing you may never get to meet them at all.

I know that I had to lie there in my recovery room bed for over a day staring at those little pictures from the NICU and worrying about what was happening to my babies.

Then you have your journey through the ups and downs and the roller coaster that is the NICU. It's very confusing, and very hard to prepare yourself for prior to just having to jump in and take care of your unusually tiny newborns.

With any luck, the day will come when you are allowed to hold, bathe, and feed your babies.

Your overall goal is to get them to the point where they can finally go home and live free of all the cords and machines that they have spent so much time hooked up to.

However when that day comes, and you finally do get them all home for the first time, you are hit with the overwhelming tasks of taking care of such tiny and fragile babies all by yourself, without the aid of those NICU nurses.

Each time I put mine down for a nap after a feeding, I found myself peeping in to make sure everyone was doing okay.

This habit resulted in my husband and eye literally sleeping with one eye/ear open for months for fear something would happen to one or all of the babies. We just were not happy unelss we could hear all three little babies breathing through that monitor.

We as Mums are warned of the higher risk of things such as SIDS and RSV (if it's RSV season) and a multitude of other issues that basically make us overly vigilant Mums.

We know that our babies are happier co-bedded together at first, yet the experts warn us to remove all stuffed animals and even the baby bumpers and blankets from our babies beds to try and lower the risk of SIDS and suffocation.

There were days when I was actually comforted when I would hear Kai grunting and making his reflux induced noises because at least I could hear him and I knew that he was really okay.

Once the doctor found the right combination of medications and his grunting stopped, I found that I just could not sleep because I wondered if he was still breathing and alright in there.

I also worried that he and his commando cuddling ways might accidentally smother one or both of his siblings in their sleep, but they did alright, somehow!

Until, one day, when Vivienne finally let us know that she had enough of his cuddling and wanted to move into her own bed!

She just rolled over after being changed (we had been using her bed as a changing table until she was ready) and she went right to sleep, never to go back to co-bedding again!

We are often criticized for being too overprotective by the unknowing and uninitiated. But today's incident with that poor mum who lost one of her babies is proof positive that we are more than justified in our actions.

Even to this very day, I find myself peeping in on my tiny trio to ensure that everyone is alright and doing well and they are a whopping 19 months old.

My heart goes out to that poor Mum who has lost one of her tiny trio. I know that many just will not understand how hard we as triplet Mums have worked to even give our babies a fighting chance at life.

I really hope that she can find peace knowing that as a Mum, she has worked harder for her babies than anyone could have possibly imagined and that sometimes there just isn't anything that we as Mums can do to avoid the inevitable. My heart goes out to you and yours.

Saturday...The Night Trip!

By the time we pulled out of the parking lot of The Cutting Edge, it was almost midnight. I found that my directions home were fairly decent this time around, but vowed that we would not stop for dinner until we hit I-20.

I decided that it would be best to call home and check in with husband and let him know that we were super late leaving. He was okay with everything, in fact he sort of already figured that we would hit a few haunts before heading home.

I finally made it to I-20 officially (as luck would have it, the road we had been on for about thirty minutes turned INTO I-20.) I decided that it would be safe enough to search for dinner for the Breglet, and a gas station for me because we were almost on empty.

At this point, I began to watch for signs listing possible stopping points along the highway, when low & behold, I saw the pretty glow of flashing lights in my rear-view mirror.

I was puzzled at this point, because I had the cruise set on 65 and it had been so for the past 30 minutes or so. I slowed down and pulled off of the highway to see what the matter was.

Bregon, who had long since fallen asleep with his head on the passenger side door, didn't even flinch when I rolled down his window to speak with the policeman.

As luck would have it, apparently my headlight had shorted out again, and this officer was more than happy to let me know all about it. Lucky for me, he sent me on my way with nothing but a nice friendly warning.

I am not sure if it was because I was pleasant and very surprised about the headlight, or the fact that Bregon had managed to keep on snoring quite loudly throughout the entire ordeal.

I rolled the window back up, and headed back out into traffic. Three minutes later, with no signs of civilization or a gas station, we were pulled over AGAIN for the same reasons (well, this police officer decided that I was going a smidge over 65 AND I had a headlight out.)

Apparently even a fraction of a mile over the speed limit will give a Texas police officer reason to pull ya over...who knew?

I just handed him my license and insurance card along with the copy of the written warning that I had received not 3 minutes before. He seemed sort of sheepish as he told us good bye...Bregon was STILL snoring and had yet to figure out what was going on.

As it so happens, just about every officer between Dallas & Shreveport wanted to let me know that my head light was out.

The first time was okay-I was thankful for the warning and the officer was a very nice guy. The second time, the joke was starting to get a bit old. Come on folks, a ticket for a piece of a mile over 65?

Then it happened AGAIN- and still no gas station in site and I was getting a bit worried about running out of gas, I was feeling anxious and just wanted to GO HOME!!!!

I finally decided that I just was NOT getting anywhere like this, so, I decided to try driving with my brights on the WHOLE way home.

I know it's technically not legal, and really not all that nice, but I was getting dangerously low on gas, and figured that it just might help me avoid getting pulled over.

I did get a good giggle, though. I thought of a good friend of mine who used to travel with us down to Houston for Fair who always used to make me put my brights on so that I would at least see that deer before I hit it...ha ha ha.

Lucky for me there weren't any deer that wanted to decorate my bumper this night. Something for which I was very thankful of.

I did eventually find a gas station, and not a moment too soon, either! We ended up at a Circle K in Canton just across the street from the Cow Palace (Dairy Palace officially, but affectionately called the Cow Palace none-the-less.) So dinner was served.

Over all, I suppose it could have been a worse night. After all, we met a lot of Texas's finest, which, thankfully, were all very nice and understanding.

And we still got to have dinner at the Cow Palace, as tradition mandates each time we head to Dallas. Even if we did have to get it at the drive-thru this time.

And we did manage to finally blind our way home. My apologies to all the poor souls in the other lanes! But at least we didn't run out of gas and we did finally get home safe and in one piece after a very long day!

Saturday Day-Trip part 3...the REST of the Story!

Some things just keep going on & on & on. That Saturday day trip was just one of those days that seemed to NEVER end!

Bregon and I had decided before we left home that Friday night, that we would do a bit of research for our latest project/endeavor and hit a few haunted houses Saturday night after the fair if we were up to it.

Of COURSE we were feeling up to it! In spite of being soaked to the skin repeatedly, traipsing around the Texas State Fair for hours on end in the rain and hoards of football fans (I have a friend who, upon moving to the Dallas area, has taken to actually leaving town every time there is a football game like that,) and not being able to find any decent un-fried, non-artery clogging food, we still felt up to another adventure!

After all, what could top riding the scary SCARY rides for Bregon but the fear of the unknown? He had conquered his fear of clowns a few weeks before by going through Cassandra's Labyrinth at Thrillvania, and was ready to take on something new!

I even managed to find the right set of directions that should (yes I really mean SHOULD) get us to Drew Hunter's old stomping grounds.

I was even feeling adventurous (as I have a severe phobia of traffic after a wreck a few years back) and had left the map that showed exactly where it was at home...

Well, after about an hour in post-game traffic outside the fair-grounds, I managed to get to 30 and we were on our way.

I didn't realize at first, but the directions were leading me into my most unfavorite part of downtown Dallas...the part where it's easy to take the wrong exit (if you can call it that) and end up on the WRONG highway altogether.

My directions weren't all that specific, as luck would have it. I kept ending up on 30W and not the highway I was aiming for.

Finally, we just decided that since I could SEE the exit I was shooting for, but not actually GET to it, that we would just hop off and double back around in hopes of running across the right street...After all, it was a major street that we were looking for, and how bad can the design district be?

About 30 minutes later, and after ending up on the WRONG side of the very pretty bridge over a very pretty river thingy, we finally found the right street, the right END of that street, and ended up in a parking lot for a very closed diner affectionately called, "Mom's."

We were very excited to finally be there. This meant that I didn't have to call my friend, who happened be in the height of his job's rush hour at the time, and try and explain to him where I was and have him try and get us un-lost!

We managed to cross the very large road, and enter the Dallas Scare Grounds. I was very excited, because I wanted to see what the newest occupants of the maze were doing with it since Drew had sold it so many years ago.

The building is a very large trucking warehouse that has been split into three haunted attractions with a sort of carnival with a band playing out front. We grabbed our tickets and jumped into the line.

A zombie-guy on scaffolding was our line-entertainment. He did try desperatly to unsettle us, but alas to no avail. One can only rattle scaffolding so much before you get used to the noise!

The music, however, was very cute. A jazz version of "The Adam's Family" theme song was playing and Bregon and I had enthusiastically taken up the audience participation part!

We also met this little boy in line, who was with just his Daddy. The little boy was getting unsettled by the zombie-guy and was trying to chicken out, so we decided to try and make friends with him and convince him it was really okay inside.

I don't think he really was relieved by Bregon telling him that he was raised around these sort of things and that there were basically people like you and me inside, only in costume and make-up and who we had paid to actually try and frighten us.

We quickly got up to the front of the line, and before we knew it, it was our turn to go inside. We decided that it would be more fun to go in as a larger group, so we invited that little boy and his Dad to join us, which Bregon quickly regretted.

Apparently, the little boy found Bregon very comforting, and had decided to latch onto him as well as his Dad and had Bregon by the death grip no matter what happened.

This actually made Bregon uneasy as he is used to being able to control where he goes and what he does in these sort of situations. As soon as the first critter jumped out at us, that little boy was all about LEAVING the scene!

This of course was easier said than done as I was going slowly and checking out all of the pretties because I wanted to see how everything was designed and what everything really was inside!

Overall, the whole thing left me with a sad feeling. Almost everything was as Drew had left it (or so I gathered from following pictures of the attraction over the years.)

Apparently, these folks didn't know how to maintain what they had and much of the latex was hardening from neglect.

It was very pretty, and a lot of fun, however it was very familiar to me (from all of those years working Terror Show) and I kept automatically wanting to duck into every nook and cranny...but that wouldn't have been very nice to the little boy attached to Bregon, so I didn't!

We managed to clear the 3 inside haunts very quickly, even with me taking it slow. We went ahead and payed a little extra to go through the new addition outside.

The big attraction in there seemed to be the real semi that was positioned in the middle of it as part of the maze. Of course the horn still worked!

Unfortunately for us, that was pretty much the ONLY scare/jump that they got out of us all night. There was this one cute little skeleton critter in there, though.

I don't know how, or why (I don't remember egging this one on,) but he kept telling me I was pretty all throughout the house!

When we got to the parking lot, we were feeling very un-frightened and just had not had our fill of haunted houses yet.

We decided that instead of dinner, we would try and find the other haunt that had been our alternative choice for the evening.

We headed out, guessing on the correct way to go (I had only ran the directions from the music hall to the haunt, not from haunt to haunt) and somehow I managed to find 30W as the new directions had warranted.

Oddly enough, this was the SAME highway that we had kept ending up on before, when we had kept getting lost and missing that exit that we could see but not get to!

Stranger still, we found it with little or no trouble, and it only took about 15 minutes as opposed to the near 45 that the directions had promised! We even got a great parking spot!

As we made the trek down the street to the crosswalk, we marvelled at the line that wound all the way around the warehouse where The Cutting Edge was located. This long line did NOT include the queue line, either!

We made the executive decision to hit the port-a-potties first (who wants to go through a very big haunted house with a full bladder?) We didn't see the parking lot entertainment, yet.

Bregon got a HUGE jump when someone...actually SOMETHING came and banged on his port-a-potty door! At this point he pretty much knew to brace himself for when he opened the door to come out! He was polite, and thanked the creature for the help!

We managed to get our tickets and find our way to the end of the VERY long line. This time, we made some older friends by meeting four older ladies who were on a work-buddy night out. One of them was even from New Orleans!

We chatted our way through the line, talking about other haunts that we had all been to this past year. At some points, you could hear the goings-on inside the haunt from through the boarded up windows. We could hear lots of loud music and air guns going off!

Surprisingly enough, it only took us about 15 minutes to get through the entire queue line. Of course it seemed shorter because of the pleasant conversation and the line entertainment which consisted of the granny creatures roaming the lot with canes and wheel chairs, harassing the unsuspected!

This time, we decided to go through with the four ladies, thinking that they would be less likely to bolt like the little boy had done earlier! Boy was I wrong!

Almost right off, we hit a Vortex tunnel. It was set on super high and spun so fast that even I was dizzy from it (& I am used to them!)

It was meant to simulate time travel, because one of the first scenes we ran into, was a thick-misted room with water dripping from the ceiling and the plants that were hanging from it.

Somehow, I managed to miss the 14 foot T-Rex that was in that room-he came out and had himself some dinner out of some poor critter on the floor level.

As we were walking on a sort of bridge, we were at his midsection, basically (or so Bregon would tell me later!) After his dinner, that dinosaur spat water all over us- well he managed to miss me because I was first in line...but he got Bregon and our lady-friends dead on!

There was much loud music, and much drippage of water! Well, twice you could say it was a deluge of water! We were soaked about 5 minutes into the whole thing.

We did pretty well through all of the first set of scenes. There were several fire simulation rooms, a girl who could levitate, the time travel scenes, and then there was the chainsaw maze.

It was what appeared to be an entire room filled with mist. I could just barely make out the ceiling support structures that appeared to divide everything into corridors, when the noise started.

Chainsaws don't bother me, so I just stopped, trying to see what they had done that was pretty in the room. Chainsaws REALLY bothered the ladies attached to Bregon at the hip (conga-style) and they basically put the pedal to the metal and ran!

They ended up splitting Bregon and I up. I wasn't so sure what to do at this point as I knew this was going to be SUPER HUGE AND LONG haunted house. Lucky for us, this room fed out into a sort of holding tank of a queue line that served to keep the groups evenly separated!

I was able to find Bregon easily AND regroup with our new very frightened friends. They seemed to depend on me for some reason, to get them out of there- it's as if they thought I knew the way (which of course I didn't!)

We bravely forged on through laser lit rooms dazzled with green lit images that danced across the room and reflected in huge mirrors on the wall. We wound our way through the haunted home part, making our way through the kitchen, bedroom, even the coat closet where I noticed Freddy's sweater was hanging...

You'll never guess what the last rooms were in this part of the maze....MORE CHAINSAWS!!! This time Bregon was NOT letting go of me...but we lost the ladies AGAIN! We regrouped in the next queue line, not to worry!

Round three ended up being this never ending maze of a cemetery and circus theme which actually seemed to have (and I confirmed later to be true) multiple ways to go through it. It was super dark, and I was STILL trying to see the pretties, but we got through it all okay.

The next part fed into yet another queue line in what appeared to be the basement of the building. About 200 of us (or so it seemed) were stuffed into this tiny room full of 8 doors that lined one wall.

We were each given a glo-stick and told to pick a door once a buzzer sounded. We would have 5 minutes and 5 minutes only, to navigate our way through the totally darkened maze called, "The Pit" to look for the door that says, "This is it."

If after 5 minutes we have not found the way out through the correct door (the wrong doors all fed back into the maze,) the lights would come back up and we would be led out by the creatures.

Bregon and I decided to ditch our lady friends at this point due to the pitch black part and their tendency to freak out easily, and when the buzzer went off, we dove into the nearest door and tried our best to head to the BACK of the maze.

I'll admit, they do not make it easy. But, after having worked in this sort of venue since I was 16, I knew how to figure out which way it was we came from and which way we should head towards (the back would be the obvious place!)

There were several doors across the back of the maze, and the builders of that maze did their best to twist and turn everyone around. Every time someone would turn around and say that it was the wrong direction, Bregon and I would take their place, following the twisters deeper into the Pit.

We actually found the door labeled, "This is it!" I don't know if it was luck, or what, but we did. As a prize, we could get on the list to be called back in November for the grand rat-race which would give us a chance to win a trip for 2 to Cancun, but knowing we probably wouldn't make it back to Dallas, we opted out.

Later, I would find out that people who had been trying that maze for years had never found that door, and some even think that it doesn't exist. We have the honor of knowing better!

It had been over an hour since we had walked through their back-lit skull doorway. Yet, there was even more haunted house fun to come! The last part involved the bubbles.

It was basically a few rooms that were filled with bubbles from a bubble machine- not the kind you play with as a kid, but the kind you get when you fill the dishwasher too full and it overflows (you've probably seen it on t.v.)

Many people were taking the alternate exit at this point. Bregon refused to chicken out, and we took each other by the hand (tightly) and plunged into the red tinged bubbles. At least we had the foresight to cover our mouths and noses with our shirts, otherwise we would have been inhaling bubbles.

We could hear people bumping into each other and into walls. Someone accidentally plowed right through Bregon and I, separating us AGAIN. I kept talking to him, and he quickly found my hand again.

We emerged out of the room covered from head to toe with bubbles. I jumped up and down to get most of them off of me. Bregon just had to go back for more! He made angels in the bubbles...He made bubble snow-men...He basically frolicked in the bubbles!

As I took their exit survey, I heard the ladies behind the table giggling, saying nobody had ever done that before to their knowledge. I told them that why waste the opportunity? Ya just never know when you will get the chance to frolic in bubbles like that!

Our haunted house experience was over for the night, but we were still far from home!

Saturday Day-Trip part 2

Bregon and I made it to the Music Hall on time, in spite of all the hoards of football fans that clogged our path, as we usually like to get there at least 30 minutes before curtain.

We felt waterlogged and that we must resemble drowned rats, so we ran downstairs to the privies to try and salvage what we could and make ourselves more presentable.

Somehow, my makeup had stayed put and even though I felt icky, I did not resemble Tammy Faye, as I had originally feared!

My hair was another story entirely. I had tried to keep it scrunched while it was wet in some effort to keep it from drying into a crunchy hard mass.

I was partially successful in that it was at least still curly, however the top part was rather flat where it shouldn't have been.

I was able to partway pick out most of the long part, and since I didn't have anything to dry the top with, I opted for a bit of water to try and re-shape or coax it back into place (in hopes that it would gum the hairspray a bit and be pliable!)

Bregon had better luck in his endeavors and looked fairly decent for a 12 year old little boy who had spent the better part of his morning traipsing through the boiling rain!

We hit the souvenir stands next, hoping to try and avoid most of the crowds that tend to throng the area once it gets closer to curtain.

They had some really super nifty things for sale. I had already done my research online and had some notion of what we were going to end up with.

I made a deal with Bregon that he could have both the Scar and Simba dolls if he agreed not to play any more midway games. His eyes lit up, because he had been having a tough time choosing between the two.

With our purchases in hand, we headed upstairs to see if they had opened the house up yet. Because the fair was going on, I knew to expect them to hold the curtain due to parking problems for their patrons.

We had hopes of getting some decent, un-fried food from the Bistro upstairs, however as we ascended the final flight to the balcony, we were able to see that the patrons who did make it in on time were ALL upstairs thinking the same thing that we were!

That line appeared about three people thick and wound through the usual queue line all the way back past the middle of the house. Bregon took one look at it and said that he could live without his usual drink and candy!

By the time we were able to find a way through and across that line, the house had been opened, so we headed up to our seats.

It was definitely shaping up to be quite a full house! Bregon had an interesting notion that perhaps the lower floor kiosks weren't as backed up as the upstairs Bistro line, so he headed back downstairs in search of refreshments for us.

He made it back just in time for curtain. As Rafiki came out and took her diva stance, she began the call to the other animals, just as the movie had.

We hadn't any idea what to expect, so when her call was answered from the boxes from either side of the stage, we just thought that was going to be it.

Then I noticed movement in the house aisles below. I nudged Bregon so he could see what I was noticing.

They had super huge animal puppets and were bringing them down the center aisles to represent the calling of the animals to pride rock!

It looked like they had elephants and zebras and cheetahs and gazelles. The scene was truly spectacular and beautiful to behold!

The entire show was fabulous. It was the first time all season that nobody stared at us funny when we stood up for the ovation. In fact, the crowd was actually cheering for once, even in the balconies!

As we headed downstairs, Bregon and I noticed that there were a few curtained off places in the lobby that usually aren't.

It dawned on me that it might be where they were keeping the puppets for the opening scenes, so I had Bregon go and peek behind them and see what he could see!

There weren't any signs saying, "Don't peek behind that curtain" so I thought we should be okay just taking a quick peek!

I am glad that we did, too. He got to see the bird puppets and what appeared to be the cheetah's as well. It was super neat!

Before heading back out into the fair, we decided to hit the privies once more. We met back at the downstairs fountain and sat a bit to let the crowds thin out before heading back outside.

There was a little girl standing with us while her mum tried to make a phone call (there isn't any reception downstairs because of all of the concrete.)

The little girl was wistfully looking at all of the wishes in the fountain, so I dug out some change for she and Bregon to have a few wishes of their own.

Everyone should have wishes! I showed her that she had 10 whole wishes with the dime I handed her, and told Bregon he had 5 with his nickel.

I tried to pick out my hair one last time while they stood there making their wishes (which is a very solemn and important task!) I ended up accidentally dropping my pick into the fountain as well...I wonder how many wishes that was worth?

As luck would have it, apparently the sun had come out while we were inside for the musical. However, the rain appeared to be heading back into the picture according to the clouds!

We decided to hit as many rides as we could before leaving for the day. Bregon decided that he wanted to ride the Ferris wheel. He hasn't ever ridden one like that before, so I knew that I had better make sure that I rode with him!

He did okay in the line. We made some friends with a family who had a little girl and they ended up in the same gondola as we were. We were locked into our cart and advised not to make it sway!

Bregon thought that it was funny at first, until we were stopped about half way up and the cart began to sway all by itself. He turned several shades of green and decided that we were all going to die and plummet to our death!

He does that, sometimes! I convinced him that he was going to be okay and distracted him with the different rides that we could see from high up. He did okay after that, planning his next riding experience with the little girl that we shared the gondola with!

It had started getting rather dark while we were taking our spin on the Ferris wheel. We optimistically headed over towards the spinning, rotating, upside down hydraulic rides.

Bregon very bravely had chosen the most scariest of them all and headed up to the ticket taker only to be told that they were having to shut down because of the lightening storm headed our way.

He was very sad over all of this. I noticed that there was a group of people going from ride to ride giving the shut-down orders.

We managed to make our way down the row ahead of them and Bregon ran ahead and managed to board a similar yet smaller ride further down.

As soon as he was done with that ride, the huge rain drops came and the lightening. Fortunately, we were right by the gate where we had parked, so we opted to head out to the car.

We grabbed our change of shoes and socks and made it inside just as the bottom dropped out of the sky. We were both feeling pretty good, so we decided that we would go catch a few haunted houses for the evening.

Saturday Day Trip part 1

Saturday morning happened to be the date for our long awaited trip to Dallas to see the Dallas Summer Musical presentation of "The Lion King."

Lucky for me, the babies were all tuckered out from their jaunt to the Revel and they slept all night long.

Bregon and I planned to wake up at the crack-o-dawn and leave by 7a.m. to try and land one of those coveted valet parking spots at the Texas State Fair.

I woke up at 6a.m. as planned, however Bregon wasn't quite as attentive to his alarm clock as I had been.

I must have gone upstairs three times before he FINALLY was able to drag himself out of bed at 6:45. Somehow, the babies stayed asleep.

Somehow I managed to get us both out of the house with everything we could possibly need for our day trip- directions to the fair (just in case,) show tickets, opera glasses, several changes of clothes each, spare socks and shoes, plenty of money in anticipation of fair prices, and even directions and coupons for several area haunted houses that we might hit if we had the time after the fair.

We hit the road as dawn was breaking and found that we were making fabulous time considering the traffic!

I didn't even flinch as this super-huge deer (really more of a stag) bounded across the highway just before Longview.

We actually made it to Dallas in fairly good time, only for it to start raining on the outskirts of town. It looked awfully grey in spite of weather men who had promised that it was going to stay sunny out!

As we pulled off of the interstate and headed towards the fair grounds, I realized that there was more than just the usual fair traffic.

Apparently, it was football game day and EVERYONE had come wearing their orange and white and were wearing their cowboy boots with their skirts and shorts to show their game-day spirit.

It took us about 30 minutes to even get near a gated entrance and when it was our turn to pay for parking, we were advised that the valet parking had sold out an hour ago (they weren't even supposed to open up until 10 which was the odd part.)

We ended up having to park on the entire opposite end of the site from the Music Hall back along the fence-line.

It turned out to be okay, though, because the gondola entrance happened to be right in front of the entry-gate so it was easy to find and remember!

As the rain started to pick up, we jumped in line to buy food and ride tickets (no pay-one-price option, either!)

We were able to catch a few rides before the heavy rains came and the lightening shut them down.

Because of the heavy rains, we opted for the indoor exhibits where we sampled chocolates and candied nuts and looked at the butter sculptures and sand sculptures.

When lunch time came, we started trying to find something to eat, only to discover that Texas has taken that whole "Throw it into the fryer" fad a little too far!

There were fried broccoli bites, fried avocado, fried strawberries, fried mash potato, fried ribs, fried peach cobbler (on a stick,) fried oreos & nutter butters, the usual fried snickers & milky way, fried cappuccino, and fried cookie dough.

There really wasn't much that wasn't fried. We somehow ended up inside the air conditioned food pavilion along with what seemed like hundreds of crazed football fans all singing fight songs and cheering and such.

We found it awfully hard to move around and even harder to find somewhere to eat our food (once we found something that wasn't all that fried!)

Somehow we survived lunch time with the football fans, even though Bregon was a bit intimidated by the sheer number of them and their over-zealousness!

It was finally time to head to the Music Hall for the show. We did at least TRY to make ourselves presentable, but it isn't all that easy when one is soaked from head to toe!

Revel Yell!

This past Friday, a couple of friends and I decided to take the triplets and head downtown for a lunch date and to hear Trout Fishing in America play.

My friends are VERY brave for agreeing to an outing with the likes of us! I did try and be somewhat prepared for the outing, promise!

I went ahead and put my tiny trio down for their morning nap even though everyone had agreed to meet at my house at 11 to head downtown.

The babies didn't feel the need to actually sleep, however. They did anything but sleep up there.

I heard singing, jumping and even had to peep upstairs to make sure that nobody had decided to jump out of bed when I heard an awfully loud noise of something hitting the floor.

As luck would have it, it wasn't a baby that had hit the floor, but the original version of the Tickle Me Elmo toy which probably weighs about the same as one of my kids (or sounds like it does when hitting the hardwood floor, that is!)

Once my friends arrived, we each headed upstairs to grab a baby and start getting them ready for our day.

I managed to assembly-line diaper and dress each baby while their chicken strips heated in the microwave.

I made a 32 ounce container of apple juice and water to take with us while the babies munched on their lunch and my friends looked on in amazement at the silliness of my tiny trio.

We actually did make it out of the house on time, believe it or not. There was just a slight delay as we stopped to meet and visit with my new neighbor from next door.

Because nobody else really could fit into my tiny car once we had the tiny trio loaded, we ended up taking two cars.

It was decided that I would lead the way downtown and once there, my friend Deneena would take the lead and find us a parking spot (she had been having pretty decent luck on Commerce and I tend to just park in the casino garage.)

We tag-teamed our way downtown and wound our way around the parking areas. EVERYTHING was packed (we had quite forgotten about it being Friday!)

As luck would have it, we ended up in the parking garage after all. At least we could park side by side that way!

I think my friends had a good giggle at the huge ordeal that it appears I go through just to get the babies unloaded into their stroller and everything squared away before we can go anywhere in it.

Mat even offered to push the very heavy, over 100 pound load of a limo that I call a stroller. He was awfully sweet about it, but I thought that I should at least give it a go at least at first!

We actually made it to the right stage and managed to find a place to seat all three of us and the mondo-limo laden with the babies under the crowded tent. It was even up front where the babies could see the band, too!

My friends had quite an introduction as to what it's like being out with my triplets. Lots of folks stopped to say, "Hi" and meet the babies.

All sorts of things were said, the funniest being, "What did you do, go to Kinko's and make copies?"

Then there was this one man who stopped and gave the babies a sort of baby stand-up routine of jokes, which was really cute of him.

Once the band started to play, the babies started boogieing in their stroller. Every time the band called for audience participation, Kai would clap his little hands, the babies all did the wave, and even had their little bunny foo-foo ears ready for the "Window" song.

Kian was the first to start to whimper (I think it was because he was getting hot sitting in the middle.) Of course Mummy is a sucker and just had to get him out!

We really started boogieing then! Kian likes to be spun around in circles, too, as it turns out!

Deneena and Mat couldn't stand it any longer and just had to grab the remaining two babies and dance with them, too.

We boogied the afternoon away and sang a bit too. We found out that Kian adores chocolate ice cream and that Kai and Vivie adore funnel cake.

In fact, Kai likes funnel cake so much, that every time Mat tried to take a bite, he found Kai redirecting it into his own tiny mouth!

The babies got a bit squirmy, so we finally let them get down and dance by themselves in front of the stage.

When it came time to go, each had tiny, black and very dirty little dancing feet to show for it. The babies didn't seem to want to leave, and let out little cries to prove it when we tried to load the stroller back up!

On the way back to the car, Mat got to push the limo for a bit. Everyone helped me load the babies and the limo back into the car and we had to go our separate ways.

My friends are so very brave to go out with us like that! I am really lucky to have such good and understanding friends.

I think we all had a great time. I know the babies were tuckered out! I had to put them directly into their beds for a tiny nap once we got home.

Over baby dinner, I let them watch their new DVD of the children's show that the band had released. They babies loved boogieing over their dinner, too!

They had such a great time at the Revel on Friday, that they all managed to sleep through the night without waking up for midnight tea!

Couch Cuddling

It's funny. I never realized what all I had been missing until we moved into a larger home.

Before, at our old house, my tiny trio had to stay in their play-yard only and could not get out and roam about the living room for fear of them getting into something that might hurt them.

Once we moved, the play-yard was retired to a corner of the new living room, never to be assembled again, really.

Our new living room is arranged to where the kids can have their play area in their own little corner and still have run of the entire living room and dining and even the kitchen.

The babies all developed new behavior and skills from having so much room to roam and play.

They no longer are sporting as many dental imprints as before, and rarely does anyone get their hair pulled (unless of course Vivienne and Kian decide to play Rapunzel, which they did the other day!)

Everybody can walk and walk well. The boys can even run, if you can call it that!

Vivienne can join them if she wanted to, but she is overly cautious and afraid of being caught in the fray when the boys get wound up and going!

I learned that Kaiden adores playing with his cars and trucks. He even has this little form developed that he uses when pushing them along the floor. It rivals the Olympic curlers, even!

I even have a new habit. I never even realized what I had been missing while living in the old house.

That play-yard had kept my kids from being able to cruise along the couch and the coffee table like other kids, which meant that they didn't even know how to crawl up onto it.

I found out the other day, that if I sit on the couch, the babies will all eventually head over my way for a quick cuddle.

They also will come to me if I have their diapers ready for changing and each crawl up in turn and assume the diaper changing position.

They even can patiently wait their turn while either sitting at the other end of the couch, or by standing at my knee while their sibling gets changed.

Afterwards, Vivie will crawl into my lap and perch on my right knee with her arm around my shoulder.

Kaiden will usually then hop onto my other knee and sit with his head against my chest.

Kian will either stand at my knee and put his head into my lap or sit beside his brother with his head on his brother's back.

It's very relaxing just to sit there, with all three of my babies in my lap while they watch their little t.v. shows or just daydream.

It's funny the things I never even realized that I had been missing while living in that tiny old house.

Couch cuddling really is the best way to pass an afternoon!

Get Me To The Sale On Time!

Last night, it dawned on me that Thursday is the first day of the Growing Pains Consignment Sale!

I had almost forgotten the sale completely, but luckily, I ran across my flyer with the information on it (actually I accidentally knocked if off of the top of the computer monitor while baby swapping the non-sleeping babies last night!)

Okay, so I needed to be there for 10 a.m. which was when the doors open. If I get everyone up by 8, I thought that I could certainly make it there on time with everyone pretty happy, too.

Never make plans while 2 of the babies are around. They tend to plot and plan against any plans that Mummy is making!

Both Vivienne and Kai managed to arrange it to where, when taken upstairs to the nursery, they woke up Kian who did NOT want to go back to sleep.

Lucky me, he was quite content to hang out upstairs in his crib and play with his toys and talk and sing to his siblings, but he did this for about two or three hours!

We went ahead and went to sleep, or at least went through the motions of it, anyways. I just couldn't go to sleep knowing that Kian was awake.

I mean, he has never had the notion or the inclination to try and escape his crib, but there is always a potential first time for EVERYTHING and being that the nursery is UPSTAIRS I didn't want to take any chances.

This meant that I tried to sleep with one ear tuned into the monitor. Of course I didn't go to sleep until I was certain that he did.

I actually stayed up about an hour afterwards because I wanted to make certain that he wasn't just being quiet and playing 'possum!

Needless to say, we all overslept this morning which meant that at 9, I sprang up out of bed like a madwoman and hit the ground running!

The babies were still all playing in bed and not unhappy YET, so I had time to start working on getting my hair do-able, wash my face, and grab my make-up bag and head for the kitchen to make blueberry waffles!

I had the fore-thought to lay out the babies clothes for the day while waiting for them to fall asleep, so all I had to do was grab three diapers and the wipes and put them on the back of the sofa while waiting for the toaster oven to ding it's ready ring!

I quickly tossed some butter on the waffles (not burned for once) and pulled out the feeding chairs and placed everyones juice cups next to them on the floor.

I managed to get everyone diapered, dressed for the day, and into their chairs for breakfast and happily watching Dora somehow!

They even let me put on a bit of make-up and finish sticking my hair up (literally with a stick through my pony-tail to hold it in place!)

I let myself check the time once only to find out that I was on time! I could slow down and pack the juice bag & this even allowed me to remember the teddy grahams for just in case!

We were all loaded into the car, stroller, juice bag, diapers, and I even remembered to grab a screwdriver in case I found something that needed dismantling!

We were on the road and it was barely 9:30! I had time to leisurely head over towards the Jimmie Davis Bridge and marvel over how it could possibly be that I had managed to sleep late and STILL get out of the house with time to spare and STILL make it to the sale on time.

After all, I am the lady who can leave the house an hour early and end up fifteen minutes late- how could this be? I am not supposed to be on time!

I had just had that thought when I discovered that there was a reason nobody was in the right-hand lane on 70th street at Youree drive.

It would appear that someone managed to hit a person who had the misfortune to be pulling what appeared to be some sort of larger camping trailer (of the near motor home variety!)

Okay, I could do this. It was now 9:42 a.m. and I had to figure out how to get over into the other lane so that I could turn onto Youree and make a detour through the shopping center across from Target.

There were 3 of us who had to figure this one out. The car in front of me decided to just cut off the poor soul who was in the left hand lane and just cut over and gunned it. That just wasn't me.

So, I decided to suck it up and just turn from the lane I was already in when I knew the other lane had the arrow.

IT WORKED!!!!! And there was no interrupted traffic or honking bonanza and everyone was happy and we ALL got where we were going without any problem! And, most importantly, officer friendly looked the other way while I did it!

I was STILL somehow on time and getting there! I made it to the sale without anymore excitement.

There was a small line at the door and of course EVERYONE turned to stare at me unload my little cargo! As it would turn out, the opening people were running late and I got to actually stand in line and talk to people!

As luck would have it, I met another Mummy who has triplets. She also has two little boys and a little girl just like I do! The best part is, the babies are just a few months older than my babies!

The sale was awesome. I managed to find EXACTLY what I was looking for to complete my baby Christmas shopping spree.

We all had a good giggle because the ladies working the sale remembered my purchases at LAST years sale and how I had to work to get everything packed into my tiny car!

They thought it was funny that I had remembered my screw driver just in case I had to dismantle something to get everything to fit into the trunk!

I know they had to think I am a bit off my rocker as I had started my purchase pile in the corner with some very large and bulky choices! I really do want to thank the ladies for all of their help with everything, too!

I came away with a rocking-spring-horse, a sit and spin that makes noise and lights up, a Dora & Diego pillow set, a new arm chair with tigger on it (we love furniture,) an area rug for the nursery, a new baby monitor set with 2 receiver sets for people with huge houses like me, 2 smocked dressies for the Beautiful Baby Vivienne, an extra set of reversible Christmas overalls for the boys, and the phone number of our new triplet play-date friends!

I also got to meet one of our Red River Mom's that I had been talking to on the forums and I was so very happy to finally meet her!

All in all, it was a beautiful morning and very industrious shopping excursion! And, I learned something as well.

I never would have managed to make it to the sale on time while I was living in the old house. I know it isn't the location as the new house is only a couple of blocks away from the old one.

I really think that it was because that house was soo very small and full of all of our baby stuffs and soo many people that it made it very difficult to do much of anything, much less think enough ahead to be able to properly plan my day and set things out to get ready for the next day.

I really think that having a much bigger house with room to breathe and stop and think without being distracted from worrying about bumping into something or tripping over someone or something has really helped me be more organized.

I am still in awe of actually getting up late, yet making it somewhere with all three babies in tow on time and in one piece. It's amazing what can be done if you have room enough to think!