Oh The Different Crayon Flavors!

Last Thursday, my tiny trio were introduced to the wonderful world of coloring.

Now, let me back up a bit and say that my trio, being preemies and such, are a bit more immature than most nearly 2 year olds.

This means that, although they did each receive one of those super cool roly-poly toddler crayons for Christmas, we had yet to actually give them a test run.

However, that was all about to change! I had a doctor's appointment last Thursday morning, and had to take the triplets along for the ride.

It was early, the kids were cranky, and it was raining out and looking positively British out, which did NOT help their mood any.

I managed to find the Doctor's office somehow in the maze of a compound where it was located, but not before Kaiden was done for the morning.

No matter what I gave him, he tossed it at anyone and everyone who walked past us.

Animal crackers, milk cups and even his most favorite toy truck were not immune to such treatment.

It wasn't even a very lengthy wait, really, but that didn't do much for triplet patience which wears quite thin after even the shortest while.

By the time we were called back, Kai was already in fuss-mode and had started wailing.

He stopped only long enough to say, "Hi" to my doctor and the nurses before starting back into his song.

By the time I made it to the lab, all three of them were wailing in unison. The poor nurses and techs were very grateful to discover that I was their subject and not the babies!

The ladies were so very kind. They took the stroller and bravely tried pushing them up and down the maze of corridors.

They all jumped right in to the idea that cookies may be the solution to our wailing problem.

It seemed no matter what they tried using to appease the babies, that nothing worked.

I was in the examination room when it all got very quiet suddenly. The doctor was even very speedy in his work after having met my tiny trio in the hallway initially.

After I was done, I even had time to check-out in peace before going on a tiny trio hunt.

I had figured that I would be able to just follow the noise, but they were STILL quiet.

I came upon them all in one of the back hallways. There was a lady for each baby, and each held a coloring book at an angle so that each of my children could color.

There they all sat, in their little limo, coloring away, each with their own coloring book.

They seemed so proud of themselves, too. Of course it was time to go, so Kaiden and Vivienne relinquished their books and were ready.

Kian just sat in his little seat in back, clutching his book as if it were gold. He just would not fork it over.

Luckily, the ladies didn't mind a bit and they said that he could keep it!

By the time I got everyone outside to the car to load up, I discovered that they had made away with no less than 3 crayons, 2 matchbox cars that apparently had been forgotten in all the noise, and that Shrek coloring book that Kian was STILL clutching.

After we got home and everyone took their nap, I realized that we were going to have a problem.

Kian had napped with his Shrek coloring book, and when he was brought down for lunch, he immediately ran to the sofa, and slid it ever so neatly underneath for safe keeping.

It was stashed SO safely, that he couldn't reach it to get it out. I had to help, but when I got it out, I was surrounded by eager babies, each thinking that they were going to have their turn with that book.

As soon as Husband got home from work, we had a discussion about coloring books and such.

He agreed to go to the grocery store and get us a new set and a new set of colors as well.

It was a good thing that he went, too, because Kaiden got up around 8 that night, and needed a bit of extra time downstairs.

Husband innocently set him up at the dining room table with his new coloring book, 2 crayons, a fresh sippy cup of milk, and a few teddy grahams.

He opened up his little book, picked out a set of pages, and started coloring.

It was a picture of a cat and a dog, so he pointed to each and barked and meowed respectively before going back to his coloring.

He sat like a good boy for a time, coloring, and munching on his teddy grahams, as I worked on my computer on the opposite side of the table.

The I realized that he was gagging. Whatever it was, it tasted very badly, but he very stoically kept on chewing til it went down.

Husband tried to get it out, but to no avail. He quickly discovered that the blue crayon was tip-less.

Not thinking, he replaced it with a nice red crayon and Kaiden took a sip of milk and went back to his coloring as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Maybe not even five minutes later, Kaiden was gagging yet AGAIN. Apparently red crayons do not taste any better than the blue flavored ones.

We missed getting that tip out of Kai, too. Luckily, crayons are non-toxic and apparently not a life-threatening substance as they seemed to taste funny, yet go down easily with a bit of milk.

Husband remarked that he once had a puppy that liked to eat crayons, too, as Kaiden had gone back to pointing at the picture of the doggie and barking again.

So, for the next few diapers, we were all on crayon watch. It only took maybe three diapers later, too, for the technicolor one to arrive.

It was purple swirled since Kaiden had sampled both the red and the blue crayon.

We haven't tried coloring since the incident, but it would appear that the babies now all know that crayons, while they may come in pretty colors, do not come in matching pleasant flavors!