The Magic of Little Girl Shoes

Shoes are a very important facet of my Beautiful Baby Vivienne's life at the moment.

We made this discovery with the changing of the season and the fact that the Beautiful Baby Vivienne had managed to actually GROW somewhere along the way!

I have to back a up a tad bit and explain myself really quick. Vivienne has this pair of pretty pale pink leather shoes that she has had all winter long.

She has adored this one pair of shoes since the very moment she laid her little girl eyes on them.

This means that, along with her fuzzy pink blanket, her fuzzy very clean version of a Teddy Bear, and Baby, these shoes are classified in her baby girl mind as one of her most valued possessions.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this means that SHE SLEEPS IN THEM! Eeeewwwwww!

She doesn't even need socks in her mind, which means if she is sleeping in them and doesn't want anything in between her tiny baby girl feet and her most beloved shoes, she removes the socks, and puts the shoes back on!

This has resulted in some very, VERY stinky little girl shoes. I really did think we were going to, but I was able to get them off for bath time at least!

Then, a few weeks ago, a great tragedy occurred. Vivienne had BLISTERS on the bottom of her baby girl toes.

Her favorite shoes had managed to shrink in her mind, and no longer fit! No worries, she thought, she will just wear them ANYWAYS!

The day came when we were off to the park, and I had deviously switched them out for last years sandals which didn't exactly fit, but if you put them on her with her heel set really far back, they served their function temporarily.

I had hidden the coveted favorite pair of tiny pink shoes in the laundry room, away from prying baby girl eyes, too!

We came back from the park, and got ready for our bath, only to open the laundry room door to this overwhelming STENCH emanating from it.

The source of this stench were the tiny baby girl shoes innocently stashed in the corner. It was soo bad, that I decided to slip some dryer sheets inside just to try and quell the bad smell until I could dispose of them AFTER the kids went to bed.

Dryer sheets work for most things, but not this task! I did manage to get rid of the stinky pink shoes, but then I was left with a huge dilemma.

The only replacement shoes I had for baby girls were those one size too small sandals that she now REFUSED to take off!

I tried shopping at Target, and Wal-mart for tiny Vivienne sized shoes. I could not find any that weren't stiff or too large for her tiny toes.

When we went to the Boardwalk, to see a movie, we tried Carter's and The Children's Place too. We would have tried the Stride-Right, but couldn't figure out how to get inside with our limo.

I just could not find any shoes for my Beautiful Baby Vivienne. What was a Mum to do?

That night, Husband very sweetly dug out her pair of ruby slippers that Santa had left for her.

They are a bit too big, and meant for winter, so they are a bit rubbery, but they might fit for the moment.

She had an upsetting diaper that night, very late, and we decided to try and make the switch from the icky, much too small sandals to her ruby slippers in some attempt at getting something closer to the right size on her foot.

She begin to howl and wail when he took off the sandals, only to stop the moment she caught sight of the pretty, shiny, sparkly, ruby slippers.

She curled her little foot in a circle, then stuck them prettily into her ruby slipper, oohing and ahhing the entire time.

When husband took her back upstairs to the nursery, she did not complain, but lay in her bed with her feet straight up in the air, admiring her pretty ruby slippers.

She kept them on until this past Saturday, when Bregon and I took her out shoe-hunting again.

At first, she was sad when we took her slippers off so that she could try on a pair of sandals.

Once she realized that she could admire new pairs of shoes, she was fine, though!

We even found one pair that mostly fit so that our Beautiful Baby Vivienne could have new shoes at last!

Of course, once we arrived home, and placed the new shoes on our tiny Cinderella's feet, she refused to remove them as usual.

She had to be taken upstairs with them, and is sleeping with them still, even though she has yet to figure out how to keep them on her actual feet.

It's amazing how little girls become attached to their shoes at such a young age. I suppose there must be some magic in little girl shoes after all, not just in a ruby slipper!

A Spring Break Outing

Since Bregon has been cooped up all Spring Break inside, helping me with our little people, I decided that he needed an outing.

The weather promised to be beautiful and spring-like, so we decided that a movie at the Boardwalk might be in order.

It's amazing how compliant, efficient and helpful a 13 year old can become when an outing seems imminent!

He was very speedy in helping me get the babies lunch together and served, and even in helping me get everyone dressed for the day.

We managed to get out of the house a whole fifteen minutes earlier than I had planned, even!

The babies were okay with the car ride because "Cars" are the order of the day now in trio-land, making the interstate a fun place for them to be.

Exiting the interstate was another matter entirely, however. That is when the waterworks kicked in.

Bregon very smoothly popped in the Beatles CD with "Hey Dude" on it and magically everyone started "La-la-ing" along to the Beatles.

I even found a parking spot without having to go all commando and defensive for once!

We had a few minutes, so Bregon and I thought we would give Vivie-shoe shopping a try.

It was much easier said than done. Today, I don't know what it is, but the crowds were just not as nice as they usually are.

I had trouble getting into The Children's Place, even, and it is a big store. I ended up having to park my limo to keep the kids from getting mowed over by shoppers.

Next, we tried Carters. the wind held the door open for everyone but me for some reason.

Thank you's were in order to the nice gentleman who found the irony as funny as I did and helped me get my limo inside the store.

Bregon had a brain-fart and realized that he had quite forgotten to feed himself during lunch-time at the house.

I sent him on to the Pretzel shop for his lunch while I tried Vivie-shoe-shopping some more.

We never did find any shoes that would work for her. I was going to pop into the Stride-Right shop, but we just did NOT fit inside logistically, so we passed on that one.

But, we did manage to get to the movie theater in time for leisurely ticket and popcorn acquisition!

By this time, I had managed to acquire a few new toys from a quick swing through the toy store, and was trying to open and distribute the toys while standing in the popcorn line.

We ended up having to trade out duties, and Bregon did popcorn duty for me successfully.

We finally found the right theater (Horton was showing on no less than 3 screens this day) and landed our seats in the handicapped section.

Thankfully, I had remembered to bring the little cups so that I could distribute popcorn to the hungry little people in there limo.

Everyone really enjoyed the Speed Racer trailer, but Vivie fell asleep about mid-way through Horton Hears A Who.

The boys did okay until Horton ran into trouble with the vulture, so Kian had to be set free on his leash to make him feel better.

Of course, Kaiden wasn't too far behind his brother in that respect! Soon, Bregon and I were trading leashes back and forth in some effort to keep the kids from tying themselves into knots!

Then, Kian got smart, and decided that he wanted to check out the stairs going down to the front of the screen.

He knew that his leash didn't reach far enough to allow him to check out the territory, so his faithful sidekick, Ted, had to go where no little people were allowed to go.

Yep, Ted took one for the team today, and was tossed down the stairway repeatedly in some effort to bring back information on what was beyond to his buddy, Kian.

This only resulted in Bregon having to play the age-old game of "Step&Fetch-It" pioneered by toddlers of years gone by.

We must have retrieve Ted a zillion times in the 15 minutes or so left of the movie.

Meanwhile, we also learned that Kaiden can drink from a straw. He had some Icee and some Dr. Pepper while Bregon and I weren't looking.

Luckily, Vivienne had long since tired of everything, and had decided to snooze the rest of the way through the movie.

It was when the credits began to roll that we REALLY had a bit of trouble, though. You would think that the presence of my very large, very cumbersome stroller would alert the general populace of the presence of little people, but not so.

There are just some folks out there who hold their heads up high, and do not recognize that there is a whole other world out there, living under their line of site.

This one lady was one of those people, apparently. I found it sort of ironic, actually, given the nature of the movie that we had all just seen.

But, she either wasn't looking or just did not care to notice that there was a tiny boy standing next to his stroller on his little toddler leash, because she knocked Kian straight back into the stroller.

He was okay, he only whimpered a little, but that lady didn't even break stride or even seem to take notice of what she did to him.

I am guessing that this lady must have missed the point of the movie and was more on the side of the Kangaroo than anything. Ah well, no real harm done.

The ushers were super nice and offered to turn the lights up for Bregon and I so that we could make sure that we had everything that we had come in with.

I thought that was really nice of them to do so! We managed to find all of our sippy cups, all of our popcorn cups, and even the black police matchbox car that we had just gotten at the toy store!

Over all, it was a successful outing. We still need some Vivie-shoes, but we will just have to try somewhere else!

After we got everyone loaded into the van, and were headed towards the interstate, Bregon put on "Hey Dude" and the babies slept the rest of the way home.

Our Second Birthday Party

Because I have a rather large downstairs area in my home, I opted to host my 2 year old's birthday party at our house.

This meant that we could use our trampoline and finally have guests over to play with us on it!

My Daddy took care of the cakes, ice cream, and drinks. He ordered a cars and trucks cake for the baby boys, and a Dora cake for Vivienne.

I had this idea that it would be fun to fill the trampoline full of balloons for the kids to play with, so we ended up blowing up four garbage bags full of multi-colored balloons.

We took care not to use the red or pink balloons in case any popped from someone trying to bite it!

This way we could make sure that if someone was choking, we could see to get the balloon bits out!

Luckily, nobody decided to taste any of the balloons during the party!

For extra fun, I found punch ball balloons like we used to get when we were little at Toy Fair when we bought new shoes!

The big day came, and a bunch of our friends came over to wish the babies a "Happy Birthday."

Everyone played nicely on the trampoline, making sure that the little people didn't get bounced about too much or frightened by the big kids.

The punch balloons turned out super neat because the little kids could use them like the big earth balls and literally roll on top of them and bounce off of them while jumping around!

Everyone had a great time, and went home with balloon and bubble party favors, and blue mouths from their cake!

It ended up working so well, that I might even try doing this again next year for their third birthday party!

A New Play Place!

Today, I was not able to work because my Internet has been down. Instead, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather, and go for a walk!

Bregon and I loaded up the babies into the limo, grabbed their leashes just in case we might need them, and headed out into the neighborhood.

We live about a block away from Betty Virginia Park, but the last time we were there, Kaiden kept trying to investigate the drainage ditch.

I decided that we would go and check out the First Baptist Church School Playground instead.

It would make for a nice walk for Bregon and me, and the babies might get a chance to play a little and run around.

I haven't been to the playground at the church in literally years. I showed Bregon the easy way to get to the playground by going the back way.

We managed to avoid all of the major hills by going back around by the old high school and taking the path through the middle of the buildings.

The smaller of the two playgrounds was locked up tight, so we headed over to the far side of the parking lot, behind the gym.

We were pleasantly surprised to find the other playground open, and with a family also there to play with us!

We met up with a set of four year old twins and their big sisters. The play area was so much nicer than the usual park, too.

The entire playground is surrounded by a fence so I could let all of the babies down to run around and play without much worry of anyone ending up someplace that they shouldn't.

Kian ran around the open part a few times. He learned to climb up the bricked area, and even chased a lizard!

Kaiden and Bregon practiced flight simulation by checking out the wavy slides together.

Vivienne really enjoyed the playhouse that she discovered on the far side of the playground.

Bregon even had enough room to give our new dragon kite a test-run. All of the babies ran behind him trying to catch the tail of the kite while he flew it!

We had such a nice time today. The walk to and from the playground was very pleasant and fairly traffic-free, which is great for our cumbersome limo!

The babies were all tired out from playing hard and exploring new things that they discovered within the playground.

I think we have a new favorite place to take a walk to each afternoon! Even my eldest enjoyed himself.

While Mummie Is Away

Funny things happen to children while their Mummie is away for the day.

Poor Husband learned this the hard way last week. Really, I had thought everything would be just fine.

I had a 5:30 a.m. appointment, and had Husband drop me off for it as the babies slept with Bregon's ever watchful eye on duty.

Nothing happened, then, thankfully! It was once the babies got up and rolling that Murphy's Law must have kicked in.

You can never see it coming, either, no matter how much you plan and watch for things to come up.

First, it would be Kaiden who would get into some trouble. Of course, when is Kaiden NOT getting into some sort of trouble?

With the oven locked, the chandelier raised, and the piano and sand box (fire place) long forgotten, he just had to search and search for the perfect trouble.

Since they had just received a lot of new toys, the possibilities seemed endless. He found his first bit among his new toys.

Husband caught him munching on the bumper of what had seemed an innocent enough present.

Apparently the brightly colored stickers that adorned the little Herbie car proved too tempting for words, and he had just settled his teeth around the plastic part of its bumper and commenced to chewing it off systematically.

It wasn't easy, but he managed to gnaw off a good part of the tail light and a rather large part of the bumper to try and choke upon.

Luckily Husband was watching for any and all signs of trouble and had been able to confiscate the yummy bug of a car before Kaiden consumed any more of it.

No choking occurred, thankfully, but Kaiden's trouble radar was not turned off just yet!

Husband only thought that he had headed off disaster as he decided it must be safe to run to the bathroom for a short bit.

When he came back, he found poor Baby Kai in hysterics, with his hand seemingly stuck in the back window of his Tonka Dump Truck.

It took about thirty minutes for him to free Kai from that tiny back window of the cab of that truck.

When he finally did free him, Kai immediately stopped crying, and decided to stick his hand BACK into that window to try and retrieve the tiny figure that he had placed in there prior to the FIRST incident.

Thankfully, he was more careful this time and did NOT get his hand stuck again. But poor husband was frazzled.

Next it was nap time, and he had noticed that Ted (who's adventures we have already covered in a previous blog) was missing and AWOL.

In searching for Ted, poor Husband realized that he was being followed by three tiny people all with their hands up, calling for "TED?"

He did finally get them all down for the nap, and managed to locate the elusive Ted to make Kian a happy guy.

After lunch, while innocently trying to talk to me on his cell phone, Husband again found himself in a quandary.

He realized that while we were talking, Kai had climbed up and settled next to him on the sofa, and was sitting directly beside him, with his ear to the other side of the cell phone.

Kaiden was trying to hear me through the phone and have a conversation, too! Apparently he really missed me.

Next, Vivienne decided to climb up onto Husband's lap under the guise of "Cuddling." She does this often, so he didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary to happen.

Apparently children really do start early on interrupting their parents when they are trying to talk on the phone. My daughter proved this.

She did NOT want a cuddle. She looked at poor Husband, and demanded that he give her his cell phone.

He said, "No!" Vivienne very demurely looked at him, and asked for the phone AGAIN.

Of course, poor, unsuspecting Husband, said, "No!" Vivienne politely warned him, saying, "I bite!"

Husband just smiled and said, "No!" Then, I heard him say, "OWWWW" through the phone. He actually had to drop it.

She really did follow through with her little girl threat, and had bitten him because he had refused to let her talk to me on the telephone.

I think she was trying to tell me that she missed me, what do you think?

Then he tried to go outside after the telephone incident, and have a nice calming cigarette. He really probably did deserve it, too.

While he was outside, he watched the babies play through the very large, room length window from the patio.

He thought they were being so cute, playing house together, until Vivienne whacked Kian in the head with her muffin pan.

Kian turned around, and bopped Kaiden up side his head in return. This made Kai wind up his little arm and punch Kian.

The entire cycle must have lasted less than a minute, but they were all out brawling, "Three Stooges" style in my living room.

Husband knew that he was basically powerless to stop it. He went inside and scooped up whichever baby was in the middle to try and stop the fight.

Of course, getting in the middle of it means getting a tiny bit hit, too. But, he managed to stop the brawl, put on a nice soothing video for the kids to watch, and calm them all down somehow.

Poor Husband. He had such a trying day. Over all, the babies were angels. They stuck to their routine, pretty much listened, and did their little baby things.

But, oh my goodness, the things children will do when their Mummie is away!

The Adventures of Ted the Bear

Ted is a very important member of our family. He is one of three tiny teddy bears that reside upstairs in my trio's nursery.

Ted belongs to Kian and is his bestest friend ever besides his brother of course!

He first came to live with us Valentine's day of last year, when Kian was 11 months old.

It was love at first sight, and Ted has slept with Kian each and every day since that fateful Valentine's day.

Poor Ted! Sometimes, he accidentally will be mistaken for his brother, Teddy, who lives in Kaiden's bed and will often times get put to bed with the wrong baby.

It is easier to tell them all apart now-a-days, however. Ted still looks fairly normal, where his brother Teddy has a sort of duck-bill look from where Kaiden has loved on his nose a little too much.

Kaiden is very rough on his babies, which is why we try and make sure that Ted doesn't get accidentally mixed in with the wrong babies in the wrong crib!

Yesterday, poor Ted turned up missing for a few hours. Everybody searched the entire house for him.

He was not in any of the toy bins. He was not inside any of the car-carrier trucks. He was not sitting in any of the feeding chairs having a snack.

Husband even checked inside the small doll house to make sure that he was not stuffed inside it. Ted was not there!

Nobody could find Ted! Poor Husband was walking all around the living and dining room, calling for Ted to no avail.

He soon realized that as he walked around searching, he was being followed by three tiny little people who were also calling, "Ted!"

Poor Kian had to go down for his nap without his Ted. Husband made sure that he did have Charlie, his sailor baby, to keep him company, though.

Meanwhile, Husband called me to see if I had any insight as to the location of poor, missing Ted.

Together, we went over each and every crevice that we could think of as a potential hiding place for Ted.

I had Husband check under the changing table inside Vivienne's doll house. He even checked inside the chimney on top of it.

He reluctantly checked the real fireplace as well, hoping that Ted wasn't inside it. Thankfully, he was not.

Ted was finally found after about three hours of searching every drawer, nook and cranny of the baby toys and our living room.

As it turns out, he was stuffed inside the new shape sorter cookie jar, and the shapes and been piled in on top of him, concealing his little bear self from the outside world.

As a precaution, Kian made sure to haul that cookie jar upstairs to the nursery so that Ted would not meet the same fate again!

Unfortunately for Ted, however, there were many tears yet to be shed on his behalf. As they were getting ready for bed last night, Kian was in hysterics, AGAIN.

Apparently, Kaiden had been playing "Hansel and Gretal" and had stuffed poor Ted into the doll house oven and he was now stuck in there among the pots, pans, and muffin set that Vivienne had been cooking for her babies for dinner.

Husband reported having a heck of a time freeing Ted from that oven, too!

Poor Ted, he really does have a rough life. No matter how hard Kian tries to take good care of him, Kaiden always seems to find ways intervene and hide him away from his brother!

Can You Hear Me Now?

My daughter is taking the art of pretend play to a new level at my house.

Lately, she loves to talk on her pretend telephones. Sometimes she just gabs away in tripletese.

Other times, she will talk where those around her can understand what is being said.

Because of her penchant for the telephone, my kids have a wide variety of toy cell phones.

I even dug out my old wooden Fisher Price rolling Telephone with the rotary dial and moving eyes for the kids to play with.

For some reason or another, my daughter feels compelled to improvise whenever she has an immediate need for a telephone.

She will just use anything that remotely resembles a phone, cellular or otherwise.

Vivienne has been seen talking on the remote control to the television, talking on a stuffed banana from her picnic set, and even using a wooden spoon from her kitchenette.

Today's improvisation takes the cake, though. It came early this morning, as we were preparing for our 2 year check-up at the doctor's office.

I heard her say, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" She was getting super loud, too, so it really caught my attention.

Otherwise, I may have missed the whole incident! I looked over, only to find that she was NOT using any of her makeshift usual telephones for this call.

Nope, she was using a Mr. Potato Head arm this go-round. She had the knobby part in her ear, and was using the cup of the hand as the mouthpiece.

Today, Vivienne has given the phrase, "Talk to the hand" a whole new meaning!

Vivienne's Birthday Baby

When I first found out that one of my trio was going to be a baby girl, I wanted to find all of my baby dolls from when I was little, clean them up, and get them ready for her arrival.

There was just one tiny problem. My favorite, and most beloved baby, had gone to live with one of my nieces to help get her through a rough time.

My baby doll still lives there, and from what I understand, is still needed and very much a part of everyday life!

My baby doll is named Rosey Posey, and is probably one of the only Madame Alexander dolls around that sports a mohawk.

The hairstyle isn't intentional, but it was very cutting edge for the time. You see, I was given Rosey Posey for my second birthday by my grandmother, which would have been in August of 1975.

Sometime just after my birthday, my mother and I flew to New Orleans to visit my aunt.

My grandmother was mortified when I returned home, and toddled off of the plane carrying Rosey with her new hair-do.

You see, my dollie was big and cumbersome for me to carry, so I just had taken to carrying her around by her hair, which quickly resulted in her new hairstyle.

In spite of her appearance, Rosey would go everywhere that I did over the next few years.

Somewhere along the way, I lost her clothes. When I was in highschool, Mum found her a new dress which she still wears today.

But now, since my Rosey was busy helping another little girl out, I needed to search for a Rosey for my baby girl.

I hadn't any clue if her name was really the one from her tag or not, so I started with a search on Madame Alexander dolls on Ebay.

I actually have run accross several of them over the past few years, but only one that was the right size, in good condition and the same year as mine.

I actually somehow managed to win her off of Ebay! She arrived this past summer, and has been sleeping patiently in my linen closet, waiting for her big day.

That day came this past Thursday, when Vivienne turned 2 finally!

I was worried that Vivie would be overwhelmed, after our Christmas experience where she basically was frustrated with so many babies to take care of and literally appeared to be running an orphanage of sorts!

To combat this, I made sure that Rosey was the only dollie among her little present pile.

I was pleasantly surprised, too. When she opened that box, and removed the pink tissue paper, her eyes lit up and she started "OOOOoohing" and such.

She picked her baby up out of the tissue, and gave her little kissie on the hand, then began to smooth down her hair.

Rosey now travels back and forth with Baby whenever Vivienne must go upstairs or downstairs.

I haven't a clue how she manages to carry both babies around with her, but she manages somehow!

Vivienne insists upon having them both before going to sleep, and has deemed both her Rosey Posey and Baby as equally important as her pink fuzzy blanket that has become her fashion accessory!

Narcisistic Baby Boy

It's safe to say, that Kaiden has always been full of himself, even before birth.

We all knew exactly what his personality was going to be like from our experience with him during all of those ultra-sounds.

Apparently, he had been used to being looked at FIRST each week, until it came time to see what sort of gender my trio was going to be.

For whatever reason, the tech looked at Kian first and found that he was DEFINATELY a boy.

Then, when Vivienne bumped into Kian while we were busy oggling his little boy parts, the tech moved on to try and check her out.

By the time it was Kai's turn, he was very upset, and was pouting. We know, because he literally had turned himself all the way around to where his back was to us and he REFUSED to turn back around or let us see his little parts.

He pouted like this for the next two ultra-sounds, too. Of course, vanity did get the better of him, and he probably was jealous because he had yet to get his name, so he did finally do the winkie wave for us!

Once he was born, we knew that we were in trouble. I spent a lot of time in the NICU, just holding all of my babies.

I would sit there for hours rotating between them, singing and rocking them and just being with them.

They were born in March, and Easter was approaching, so we had our Easter music out and playing in our car.

I had been listening to Jesus Christ Superstar on the way over to the nursery that morning, and the last song that I heard had been, "Herod's song" so of course it was stuck in my head.

I wasn't thinking about it, and I inadvertantly started to sing it to Kai. He had the funniest reaction, too.

He stretched himself out all tall and proud, and became all smiley and smug, as I sang, "You are the Christ, You're the great Jesus Christ..."

Yep, he actually had decided that my song was about him. Ever since, he adores that song.

And even more funny, there are a few more that have that affect on him as well.

There is a lullaby that used to play on the lullaby channel that I had piped into their nursery called, "Rock-a-by Sweet Baby James."

Of course, my vain baby appears to have decided that the man is singing, "Rock-a-by Sweet Baby Kai."

He does this sort of thing even now that he is 2. I have a Beatles compilation in my car right now.
Kaiden has decided that Paul must be singing to him, and will actually calm down and stop crying if you put the track on "Hey Jude."

Kaiden is quite convinced that he is actually singing "Hey Dude" and of course this song must have been written for him, hence that nice calming affect it has on him when he is upset and sad!
I don't know what caused this narcisistic complex that Kaiden has. Maybe its just all a part in the building blocks of good self esteem, who knows!

Happy Birthday Babies!

Today, my tiny trio turn 2. I know, I know, we are headed into the terrible two's.


But, as long as I remember to stop and understand that most fits come from lack of communication ability and frustration stemming from that, we should be fine. Right?


I know that you are all probably laughing at me about now over that one, but I have hopes and am going to remain very optimistic about the whole situation.


I mean, I somehow managed to carry them to triplet term, never really knowing from one day to the next if I would have three healthy babies or none, so it shouldn't be hard staying positive about the whole situation, should it?


Well, one of you did get to see Kaiden in his fine form at the ReRunsRFun sale on Tuesday after he thought he was never going to see that fire truck again...


But he really didn't understand, and I really hadn't any means of explaining it to him.


It's the thought of all three of them having fits like that at once that should probably frighten me to no end.


Maybe it will be like trying to feed them when they were babies. Maybe they will be patient and only one or two of them will have problems at the same time.


I mean, after all, my chances are good that only one will throw a fit at any given time, or so one would think.


Right now, they are all in the living room, acting like little perfect angels.


They do not really understand that it's their birthday, or even know what a birthday is, but they are happy.


It probably has something to do with the fact that their two biggest presents were soo large that they could not be wrapped and had to be set out last night.


Vivienne discovered her new Rose Petal Cottage almost immediately after being put down in the living room this morning.


She let out a tiny Vivie squeal and ran to check it out. By the time I got over there to her, she had already rearranged her furniture to her liking, and was setting about straightening things.


She insisted upon wearing her new pink apron, her oven mit, and her pink sun hat to match, while going through the motions of cooking Baby some muffins for breakfast.


When I brought the boys downstairs, neither wasted any time. They both noticed their new train table and ran to check out what it was all about.


Since then, they have been very busy learning about magnets and how they attract and repel the train cars that they are attached to!


Kaiden, of course, had to have breakfast with his train cars. Kian disassembled the train track, and put it into the drawer under the table.


He did that so that Kaiden could climb up and play with the train on the flat part of the table.


Kian then went to check out the cool playhouse in the corner where his sister was still hiding.


He even knocked on the little door before giving it a whirl. When she let him inside, he began to help her cook her muffins and dole them out to her dollies.

Looking at them playing, and walking and running, and climbing, it is so very hard to remember that they were so very tiny and fragile when they were born.


Their personalities haven't changed any at all, but their little bodies have grown by leaps and bounds in the two years that they have been here.

It's funny, my nurse (who also has a set of triplets) once told me that after a while, I would sit there and try and remember what life was like before having my triplets.


She was right. I really don't remember what it was like without them. I really don't want to, either.


It's been a whirlwind, and sometimes we've had our bad days, but the good ones outweigh the bad by far.


It's really neat watching them all together, talking to each other in their own little language, caring for each other when one is hurt or sad.


It has only been two years, but to them, each day has brought new things to do and learn.

I know that they will grow and change so much over the next year, but right now, I just want to watch them learn to be 2!

Happy Birthday Kaiden, Kian and Beautiful Baby Vivienne!

There's Something About CARS

I am just not sure what it is, but there is something about a car that makes it quite a novelty to a very nearly 2 year old.

Let me first define "Car" as he does, as something with wheels that can be driven. This means that to my boys, a truck is now "A Car!"

I already knew that Kai adored our cars because each time we pass the upstairs window, he says, "Look! A CAR!"

He does this even though there isn't any possible way that he can see outside of it because that window is way up high!

Every night before bed, he runs to the front door, checks to make sure that it is locked, and says night-night to the cars.

In fact, where some kids sleep with stuffed animals, Kaiden sleeps with a bulky fire truck that makes noise and can "Go."

Yesterday, I discovered exactly how serious of an obsession the babies have with cars.

I was on my way to Bossier, to make the high noon opening of the big big consignment sale.

Of course I had to take the interstate to get there. They weren't impressed with I-49, but when I got up over downtown on I-20, all three of my little people started squealing, squeaking and outright shrieking with delight.

They were bouncing up and down and pointing and chattering about all of the cars that were very close to us driving in the other lanes.

You would have thought that they were at an amusement park, riding some sort of thrill-ride or something!

Then, once we were at the sale, I found a wonderful super big, almost ride-on sized fire truck.

Kaiden and Kian were of course infatuated with it. Of course it was going to come home with us, but it was so big, and I already had a few other things, so it was nearly impossible to push the limo and carry everything at the same time.

So, to remedy my problem, I checked our purchases with the ladies to have them taken back to the holding room until I was ready to leave for the day.

Kaiden, who didn't understand what was happening, launched into this hour long wailing over the horrors of how the ladies took his fire truck away from him.

He stopped for a tiny moment when we got it back as we were leaving the sale, only to start up again because it was too big to ride in his lap on the edge of the stroller.

It had to ride home on the seat in front of his carseat so that he could keep an eagle eye on it and make sure that it was safe as safe can be.

After a failed nap attempt, we brought the babies downstairs, and gave them their fire truck.

They spent the entire afternoon playing with it and the little people that came with it.

Of course Kaiden wanted to try hauling it up the stairs to bed with him, but it was simply too big, so he had to give it hugs and kisses and go upstairs alone for the night.

Don't worry, he would be back down in a few hours just to make sure that it was still there, and to love on it some more.

He spent a few more hours driving his truck around the living room and dining room in huge circles.

We finally got him back upstairs to bed about eleven for the night, but not without a lot of letting him love on his fire truck.

This morning, he greeted his fire truck with the same affection, and after breakfast spent the next few hours playing with it.

I think they are finally convinced that the fire truck really is here to stay, but I am not positive!

He has spent the rest of his time, standing at the baby gate in the hallway where he can just barely see into my bedroom, staring longingly at his present pile.

He is quite certain that he noticed another car set in among the purchases on yesterday, but has yet to figure out where exactly I have stashed it.

I am really not sure what it is, but there is definitely something about cars that make little boys very very happy!

Reruns CAN Be Fun...

Okay, ladies, if you were in line at noon for Rerunsrfun, you probably saw us out there today.

I had a master plan, unfortunately it didn't quite involve anything nap-related.

The babies got up a tad late, and had their breakfast, and would have just stayed up were it not for Kai crashing & rolling his trike somehow.

He is alright, save for this bee-sting shaped bump on his right temple, and a bruised ego.

But, the incident made them realize that it was ten and nap time, so they all three ran for the baby gate in the hallway, expecting to go upstairs.

I calmed Kaiden, and let them go on upstairs. It's so cute, each of them sing their "Upstairs Feet" song on the way up and wave night-night to the picture of my grandfather and I as they pass it.

They had about 45 minutes to power nap. Only Vivienne tried taking advantage of her time, however.

I ran up about a quarter 'til eleven and got everyone dressed and ready to go.

Somehow, the car was magically loaded up and we pulled out of the driveway on time.

I made my rounds to the bank for a spot of money, Wendy's for some chicken nuggets for baby lunch, and ran by my father's house to pick up a case of diapers.

Then I made a startling discovery. Little boys obsessed with cars find the interstate to be more fun than an amusement park!

I had all sorts of happy baby noises coming from my backseat. There were even squeals and squeaks to go along with all the giggles interspersed with the phrase, "Look! A CAR!"

We made it to the parking lot of the sale with fifteen minutes to spare, only to find a very long line had already formed around the building.

Since I don't do lines, I decided to divvy up the babies lunch and put it into the spare sippy cups so that they could eat in the limo.

By the time I sectioned and doled out lunch, and loaded everyone and everything into the limo, it was high noon, and that line had started to move inside!

We strolled right up to the front door as the last of the line filtered through. We even made sure to get our limo tagged because you JUST never know!

Since we weren't looking for anything in particular, we headed for the toys first. All of the outdoor gym sort of equipment had sold, so we started browsing the real toys.

I managed to pick up a wooden train set to supplement our birthday train table, a Little People construction set (a small version of the mondo one the boys will be getting for Christmas-it was Bregon's when he was little,) and a Mega Blocks Fire Truck.

I looked pretty silly trying to push the limo and carry all of that since the Fire Truck is almost as big as a ride-on.

The ladies took pity on us, and let me check my purchases to make life a bit easier, something for which I was very grateful!

There was only one small problem. Kaiden, who had bonded with that Mega Fire Truck almost instantly, felt like the ladies were taking his truck away so that he would never see it again...

This made him very sad, and since he is very expressive, he felt that he needed to let EVERYBODY know about his tragedy.

He began to cry, as loudly as he can (which really isn't all that loud,) but it got everyone's attention.

When that felt like it wasn't enough, he started tossing his sippy cup at people so that he could meet them, and spread his story via wailing at them.

He quickly resorted to taking off his shoes, one at a time, and hurling them as well after his cups both were confiscated by the evil Mumsy who allowed such tragedy and separation to occur.

I really do not know how he did it, but he managed to scream nearly the entire hour we were inside the shop.

He stopped only once we were at the doorway and the lady brought him his wondrous fire truck.

I put it on his tray (he rides in front) thinking that he would hold it while I rolled us to the car.

He was too exhausted from screaming to hold his beloved fire truck (that or it was just too big) and he dropped it.

So, I had to basically balance everything all sorts of funny ways, and put a few things under my arm to try and get to the car.

In the parking lot, we said a quick, "Hello" to our fellow triplet set & their Mum, Michelle.

I really do wish we could have stopped to talk, but I was busy trying to navigate around traffic and NOT drop my purchases, so a quick "Hi" was all I could muster.

It was funny, though. There we both were, triplet Mums, each of us disassembling our limo's in the parking lot so that we can get them into our respective vans.

Ah well, over all it was a successful trip. I managed to find Vivienne some nicer play clothes to go with her dressy wardrobe for summer.

I found the much needed train set and even a little people set to supplement the birthday present pile that spans the length of my bedroom currently!

I love these consignment sales. We always do so very well at them. Unfortunately, my kids almost always are crying for some reason or another!

Currently, the wronged Kai is upstairs, asleep in his crib, safe in the thought that his much loved fire truck is safely downstairs waiting for him when he wakes up.

For the moment, everything is even quiet!

Oh Boy, Am I In Trouble Now!

It has finally happened. One of those top things on the Mumsy-dread-list has come to pass!

Kaiden has mastered the art of door-knob maneuvering. Yep, you guessed it, he can now OPEN DOORS!

I know that my days are numbered, that nothing is safe any longer!

Hopefully, I will get the chance to run by Target or Wal-mart tomorrow while I am out and pick up some of those door-knob thingie's.

In the meantime, my pantry is the door-knob of choice at the moment, with specific targeting aimed at the trashcan.

I know that snacks are the next discovery, it is only a matter of time.

In preparation of him realizing that there are door-knobs that open the bathroom door, I have made sure to put all of the toilet lids down, and make sure the counters are free of stuff.

Tonight, husband must install more cabinet locks in there, as well.

Then, there is the small matter of the door to the back patio. I must remember to keep the top lock key on the pass-through so that we can come and go as we please without having to worry about the babies all going out to play.

Thankfully, the front door is blocked from them by the baby gate in the hallway.

But, a whole knew world is at his fingertips. All he has to do is recognize that there is a door-knob someplace else in the house!

There is a whole other world out there for Kai and his siblings to explore. Oh boy, am I in trouble now!

What Is It About The Wet Sponge?

Okay, so somebody tell me, what is the deal about the babies and their fascination with the wet sponge?

Just now, I had to intercept, and remove the wet sponge from the very sticky fingers of one Kaiden Ashe.

It's ashamed, too, because from the looks of my kitchen, he had to go to quite a bit of work just to get the darn thing.

Apparently, he stood at the very edge of the counter top, on his tippy toes, with his nose as far up in the air as possible so that he could very nearly see where the sponge was innocently nesting in its spot in between the two sink basins.

He couldn't possibly have reached it on his own, as he is much too short of a munchkin.

Being small never thwarted any plan of Kai's, though. He apparently decided to use his most favorite of possessions to get to that sponge.

That's right, he used HIS CARS! He has a habit of sliding them up onto the counter, and ramming them mercilessly into anything and everything that he would like to have access too.

Sadly, his method is often successful, as it proved to be today as well.

He very patiently stood there on his tiny tippy toes, and managed to knock the sponge across the sink ledge until it was close enough to be knocked onto the floor by his little race cars.

I know, because there are a fleet of his cars in the sink right now, as I write this. On the floor in front of the sink, are a few extra's that he apparently did not need.

He is very sneaky, too. He didn't stop and play with that sponge in the kitchen at the scene of the crime, oh no.

He very carefully and gingerly took it all the way into the living room, and was caught red handed trying to clean his red firetruck in the far window sill with it.

I suppose I have to give him that much. He wasn't trying to damage anything, really. He just wanted to clean his fire truck and his "Mater" and his other cars.

I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. In a few years, I will probably be caught bribing the boys in some attempt to get them to wash my cars.

But seriously folks, what is the fascination with that wet sponge that makes the babies go to such lengths to get a hold of it?

"E PLURIBUS UNUM"

Today, I had one of those moments that gives most Mum's the shivers and an eerie feeling that there so much more to come.

The incident really wasn't all that grand, really, considering the circumstance.

That's not to say that it wasn't truly terrifying, however!

After yesterday's catastrophe with the lap-top, I had moved my work back into my bedroom where at least the computer would be safe.

I had figured that the kids would also be safe as they have managed to only get into a tiny bit of trouble playing by themselves in my overly baby-proofed living room, to date.

Of course, trouble came stamped across their foreheads when my tiny trio were born, or so it would seem.

My day went better than usual, for the most part. We made it to nap time without anyone taking a spin in the sandbox (fireplace to you and me.)

We even made it through lunch without much mishap, in spite of Vivienne deciding to sleep late and have a late lunch by herself.

I even managed to get Bregon home and settled for the most part. My day was going well, or so I had allowed myself to believe.

Then came the horrific wailing emanating from my living room. At first, I couldn't hear it because of the source of the crying.

Kaiden, when super upset, or seriously hurt, will open his mouth so wide, and scream so loudly, that it quite literally, no noise comes out until he decides to take a breath.

Let me tell you, after that breath came, the scream that followed was enough to make everyone's hair stand on end!

Bregon started calling for me as I stumbled down the hallway in some attempt to get down it a bit faster than usual.

When I finally made it into the living room, Bregon was holding Kai, screaming that he was bleeding everywhere.

Thankfully, I already am used to the exaggeration factor in young teens, so I knew better than to panic outright.

I scooped Kai up from his brother, and took him to sit on the sofa with me.

I tried calming his beet red little baby boy self down as I questioned Bregon as to where Kai was playing when he got hurt.

As it turns out, he was allegedly standing on the end table, looking out of the window so that he could peer in between the houses and watch the traffic on Creswell as it flowed.

From what I can gather, he must have either pinched his finger in the window locks, or in the hinge of the little table he had used to climb up into the window.

I will probably never really know for certain which was the culprit, but I do know that he did in fact, pinch is tiny baby boy finger and it was bleeding A LOT!

I had Bregon bring me some paper towels to try and stop the bleeding so that I could assess the extent of the damage.

While he was fetching band-aids, I managed to get a good look at Kai's finger.

It appears that he managed to tear the top layers of skin off of the tip of his finger, and it was bleeding profusely.

It was bad enough that I could not stop the bleeding with the paper towels, so I had to go ahead and try to put the band-aids on to stop the flow and hopefully let it scab over some.

I did manage to get him to leave it on long enough for it to dry out a bit, somehow.

However, I really do think that the band-aids made him even angrier, as he seemed to have almost stopped crying before I applied them to his wound!

He spent the next two hours trying to get the darn things off! We went through two more sets of them before everything dried out enough to leave them off.

Kaiden will be just fine, but the whole incident was just plain scary for both me and for Bregon.

Maybe I should have checked the babies' warranty and read the small print somewhere down the line.

I'm sure that it must have been mentioned somewhere that Kaiden would end up accident prone.

After all, he is my little escape artist, my "Houdini," and also my own pint-sized "Errol Flynn" who aspires to swing from my chandelier without any harm.

I should have suspected that this day would come when he would finally get hurt from his antics.

But, as a Mum, I wanted to prevent as much of the bad things from happening as possible, which is why I have boarded up the china cabinet, raised the chandelier, and managed to latch the lower oven shut.

As I sat on my sofa, trying to calm the screeching very sad baby boy, I realized that this injury is just the very tiny start of what will probably be many, bigger and much worse wounds to come.

That's not a very soothing thought for a frazzled Mumsy, but all that runs through my head right now is, "E PLURIBUS UNUM..." One wound, out of the many yet to come.

Time To Walk The Babies

In case you missed it, a few weeks ago, I found and purchased what I like to call, "Freedom in a box."

It is really a set of three tiny backpacks with harnesses attached masqueraded as cute little monkeys and bears that peep over the child's shoulder when they wear them.

Attached to the backpack is a tail for each critter, so that you can safely "Walk" your baby...in theory.

The other day, the weather and the temperature were all in agreement, so my eldest and I broke out the "Freedom in a box" and managed to wrangle all three of the babies into their harnesses.

Vivienne was quite upset with us, because she wanted to love on hers, not wear it. She eventually allowed us to strap her in, though, after seeing her brothers sporting their new look.

They were all three very cute. Then I realized that there wasn't any way to tighten the front harness, really.

I worried that it might be too loose and my escape artist, Kai, might make a run for it if he figured this out.

Bregon promised to help keep a keen eye on everyone, so we headed outside anyways.

Somehow, we managed to get down to the sidewalk in front of the house. Kian wanted to stop and put the leaves on the porch into the flower pots along the way.

Kaiden wanted to try his hand at scaling the bushes that line our front walk.

Vivienne was taking tiny baby girl steps, trying to be as cautious as possible of every crack and seam in the concrete.

Finally, they were all three lined up on the sidewalk, somehow. Bregon took Vivienne's tail, and I had both of the boy's.

The leashes do not come equipped with a start button, however, as we soon discovered.

The kids just stood there, watching Bregon and I expectantly, waiting for us to do SOMETHING.

So, I started walking to see what would happen. Kaiden figured it out pretty quickly.

Kian, however, didn't take to it as well. Part of his problem is that pesky "Agador syndrome" thing that happens whenever he is wearing shoes.

He always takes a few steps, then trips and falls down. This walk was to be no different than his attempts at running around the house in his shoes.

Kian must have fallen a zillion times. He did take it well, and did enjoy playing in every pile of leaves that we ran across.

Kaiden decided to give tree-hugging a try. No, I didn't teach him this at all, he just took it upon himself to give it a whirl.

Suddenly, I found ourselves at the end of the street. I looked back, only to find that Vivienne and Bregon were not fairing quite as well as we were.

She was still baby-stepping her way down the street, taking her very sweet little time. They were about a half block behind us!

Bregon finally just plucked her up, and carried her so that they could catch up.

We bravely turned on to Line avenue. I wrapped the tails of the leashes around my hand to shorten the lee-way, and encouraged the babies to walk on the grass away from the street as my Granddaddy had done for me so many years ago.

I needn't have worried much, because they weren't going ANYWHERE! Both of the boys were mesmerized by the traffic.

Kaiden just stood there saying, "OOOOhhh, a CAR!!!!" He did this each time a car would pass us, which was about three every second!

Kian saw a red truck parked at the end of the street, and decided that he wanted a closer look, and took off.

I found myself in the middle of a knot involving a little traffic watching boy, and a little boy who only wanted to check out a red truck and was huffing it to get there!

I did the untangle dance, and Kaiden realized that Kian was headed towards a really super cool truck, so he finally relented and began to trot as well to keep up.

Amazingly, Vivienne and Bregon did better and were keeping up as well!

Along the way, we met a few neighbors, including the lady with whom we share custody of my kitty.

We had a short visit with her, and I just KNOW that she had to have been thinking, "Gee, I know why your kitty moved into my house," with all my babies tying knots with their tails around me while we chatted.

I unknotted my babies, and headed towards Kian's big red truck destination.

We literally had to stop so that both of the boys could ooh and aaahh over all of its big red truck glory.

That was when the dog walker passed us on the other side of the street. There really isn't much difference between us, really.

Well, I do think that the doggies were acting better, and much more agreeable as to which direction their dog walker should lead them.

I had to shrug off my comparison, though, as Kaiden decided to ford this oversized concrete gutter and Kian managed to trip and fall and scrape his chin on completely flat concrete.

I helped Kaiden over his hurdle, and scooped Kian up off of the ground. Everyone was okay, it's just that Kian didn't know it yet!

We somehow made it home. It was weird, though. People driving by would stop, and tell me how adorable my children are in the middle of traffic.

I worried about someone having a wreck from doing this. That would be positively awful!

Once we made it to our own yard, the babies began to cry because they didn't want to go inside.

Unfortunately, we had to go in and have some dinner and get ready for bedtime! I had managed to wear out the babies walking them like that!

Overall, I suppose my "Freedom in a box" does work to a point. It's kind of scary, though, walking your babies as if they were puppies!

Keyboarding 101

Okay, so I got my first crash course in laptop assembly today. No, it was not fun and it was not planned!

Forgive me, but this post is brought to you by a newly reassembled keyboard that has yet to have all its kinks ironed out of it just yet!

It all started with a trip to the bathroom. That seems innocent enough, now doesn't it?

Silly me. In some vain attempt at keeping my sons out of their new-found sandbox (we like to call it a fireplace,) I had decided to try working in the living room today.

Bregon had managed to spend most of yesterday in the living room with the kids and he was on the computer for most of the day as well.

I figured that it would be safe since he did okay. Of course, being Mommie, everything is different for me.

I innocently set up the laptop at the homework table in the living room.

I decided to try checking my mail and the forum as a test-run to see how successful I was going to be before logging into the work site.

Right off the bat, Kaiden was all over me. He brought me a car as a peace offering, but was immediately trying to help me type.

I pryed him off of me somehow, and went back to trying to read the paper.

This only sent him into a different mode. The one that requires that a kid function in the "If they won't acknowledge me, then I shall just force them to notice me" mode.

I looked up to find that he had climbed up onto a table, and was car watching from the window.

He was also gnawing on the window sill part where the locks are. Yummy, I hope there wasn't anything gross on it, but I will never know now!

I managed to get him off of the table, out of the window, and me back to my laptop.

Now, I had Kian crawling underneath me to try and use the cord as a telephone of sorts.

I could live with that, but now I had to go to the bathroom. I sat them all in a row on the sofa, and thought that they were engaged fully in watching their favorite television show.

My thinking is way off today, as you have probably noticed by this point! I did close up the computer, thinking that would be enough deterrent should someones interest be peaked.

I was so very wrong. By the time I had returned from the potty, I was met with a horrifying site.

Both of the baby boys were squatting on top of the homework table.

There was a pile of keys and pieces at their feet, and they were busily trying to systematically pry off the rest of the keys from the keyboard.

I felt seriously stupid as I plucked them both from the mess and set them on the floor safely.

When Bregon got home, he helped me assemble all of the spare parts and sort them out.

I then set out to conquer learning how to assemble a keyboard. It's a lot easier that one would think, actually.

There was just one, tiny, little problem. The plastic piece that holds the "ENTER" key in place was broken into two pieces.

There just isn't any other key the same size with the same sort of piece to replace it with, either.

I am currently awaiting the results of my handiwork with super glue. I don't have much hope for it, though.

The piece is awfully small, and awfully bent. I have even already found and ordered a new keyboard as a replacement.

I suppose it's over due for a new keyboard, anyways. I do not know what the world would be like without Ebay!

Thankfully the part is only about $30 after shipping, and it popped right up when I searched it, so I am hopeful.

So, today I have learned my lesson well. Maybe there is nothing really wrong with letting the baby boys play in the fireplace with their cars.

Maybe it is better to keep my work in the bedroom instead of trying to multi-task and watch the babies closer while I try to work.

They do have to learn to play by themselves, which they already really do well.

I suppose they will continue to be fine if I revert back to my usual practice of working in the bedroom.

And most of all, I have learned how to reassemble a keyboard. It didn't take a genius, but it would have helped if the babies had disassembled it a bit more carefully!