Triplet Games

 Life with triplets can be really funny. After all, instead of one bouncing baby, I happen to have three. I know there are all sorts of myths out there about multiples.

The funny thing is, a lot of them which seem preposterous are really true. I have found out that they do develop their own language. Yes, I believe that might have been the first thing they ever did…and I have a strong suspicion it occurred in-utero. 'Tis scary, yet true.

Their communication skills in-utero became apparent when it came time for the advanced ultrasounds.

The babies were required to be monitored as breathing so many times for the lab-tech in a given time-frame. It almost seemed as if they knew exactly what it was we were looking for and exactly what the tech wanted them to do...however they soon proved mischievous!

You see, they actually appeared to team up against us on the outside. There were weeks when they were all sorts of moving around inside for the people in the waiting room of the doctor’s office putting on a show for anybody who stared wondering how far past my due date I was inspite of having several more months to go, lol.

But once I got into that huge recliner and they were on “TV” they would clam up and not breathe a bit. I know they had been doing it because they had just gotten over a huge case of the hiccups- yes they can all three have them at the same time- fun to watch, hard to handle for me.

It seemed that they would unanimously agree to either breathe as they were supposed to, or agree not to do it at all. It was usually an all or none situation with them.

Then one day, apparently they forgot to tell Kai that they were going to be good and that the plan was to behave THAT day. Kian & Vivienne both performed their breathing tasks VERY obediently, suspiciously so, even.

HOWEVER, when they got to Kai, he held it and held it and held it. They even hooked me up to the contraction contraption and monitored me for a while then went in and re-checked him.

It was then that we witnessed the funniest thing. They located each of the babies so that they could be sure which was which, then went over to Kai to watch him and waited for him to do his expected baby tricks.

All of the sudden, you could see these two arms come out and hit Kai in the side which made him gasp and start breathing for the tech:  those arms belonged to Vivienne & Kian as if they had planned to get their brother into trouble! We all had a good laugh about that one.

Then there was the night that my husband had been poking my tummy, playing with the boys. He tapped on my tummy three times over Kai. Then we both froze, because Kai tapped back somehow three times to match his daddy. This became a game with him that we would play nightly.

Once they were born, we quickly found out that they had developed a form of sign-language to communicate with the outside world.

Kai seemed to take the lead on this. He seemed to act as their “Spokesperson” of sorts. He showed us their universal sign for bottle which meant that they were hungry. It involved basically a thumbs-up hitch-hiker sort of sign that he would make with his hand and move to it to his mouth.

They also had a sign that would let us know when they were going to spit up so that we could have a towel ready. It was an open hand that they would first place next to their neck at ear level and sort of wave it up in an arc up and over their ear.

I quickly learned that when they made this sign, they meant it. Other people must have found us a bit crazy, but it really helped us communicate with them early on. Kian & Baby Vivienne have since moved on to words like “Hungry” and “Bottle.”

After I got them all home and into their own beddy-bye, I started noticing little things here and there like the uncanny way that Kai seemed to always have three pacifiers.

One day, I caught him crying as I walked into the room. The next thing I know, there are two pacifiers flying through the air only to land right next to his head.

Apparently my children had decided amongst themselves that, since their pacifiers made them happy when they were sad, they would share theirs with whomever needed it the most.

Being that Kai is the greedy one, he had figured out that appearing “Sad” would cause his siblings to share their things with him. He almost always has three of everything.

Another oddity in my house, is that I will find the babies laying in their own beds(they now have one for each baby) with one sock off and one sock on. They are able to communicate enough to agree to remove the same sock each off the same foot or take the same arm out of their pajama’s armhole each. I guess they are getting a head start on setting the latest fashion!

One of their new favorite games is to pick a place in the nursery as a target, and throw the same toy from each bed out and try to hit that target.

I will go in their room and find a pile of Disney World souvenirs in the middle of the floor, or their valentines bears tossed over near the diaper pale.

This game has carried over to their play-yard in a way. Only now, it has evolved into a sort of “Let’s tidy up the Play-yard.” Today, they decided to remove all of the blocks from the play-yard and proceeded to toss them out on all sides.

Only the blocks were tossed today. Yesterday, they sorted out all of the Backyardigan toys. I always marvel at the way they can communicate and carry out their ideas together.

Originally published THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007 BY MIMI RANKIN WEBB

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