Sickness be gone

We've all been sick. I had no idea how hard it would be to have three sick babies at once. I mean NO IDEA. These poor kids just had colds, but it was the first time and my God were we worn out. Grandpa also broke his ankle so we're really a complete mess!! He's getting his cast put on today hopefully and has been a real trooper. What's next, right?

If someone told me that you had to hold babies while sitting up all night to get them to sleep when they are sick, I might have at least been prepared for what was to come. It started with me, then Braddock, then Julia, then Griffin, then Gram, then Daddy. Grandpa was spared but he got the ankle so we'll call him affected, too. Oh, it was so sad to watch them unable to breathe from their noses but unaware that it was easy to breathe from their mouths. And the tears seemed endless. And let's face it, it was just a cold. I do NOT look forward to our next ailment. Griffin has had a more difficult time getting better, and he now has a nebulizer that he uses every four hours to help his lungs out. They aren't calling it asthma just yet but we were told it is pretty common for preemies who had oxygen for the time he did, so we're ready for it. Poor little dude was wheezing. Awful... the whole sick thing is awful and I'm glad it took a year to find out how awful.

But we all seem to be recovering now. My cough is finally gone away for the most part. Summer seems just about over here. We missed the last week at the pool and had to cancel two play dates with the same friend. So we're ready for a new season. I LOVE the fall and I am really excited for the leaves to change and the crisp air to come in. We'll have to decide what cute things they can be for Halloween very soon. If only I could sew!

Our First Photographs

Since they were turning one, we decided it was time to have the kids photographed. We did a search and found http://www.heathermosher.com/. After just a quick look, we knew we had to have her shoot them! She does such beautiful work and we couldn't be more thrilled with the results. The experience was wonderful and really easy -- not a word we use too often with three babies doing anything together. It was very hot that day and it had just rained so you don't see all the mud they were sitting in! We'd pick them up to change them and they were covered so between changes, we were using all the wipes to remove mud. They'd never even seen candy before and here they were holding lollipops -- I was cringing worrying about all those artificial dyes and flavors touching their lips! And I kept thinking what if they are allergic -- what a Mom I am, when push comes to shove, I was willing for look the other way just for the perfect shot. The biggest danger wasn't the high fructose corn syrup but the fact that they kept trying to chew on the sticks -- well, not really chew, shove them down their throats. All turned out fine in the end and besides needing a good bath, they seemed to really enjoyed it. I thought for sure they would be fussy but that wasn't the case at all. There are too many beautiful pics to post right now but here are some of my favorites. Notice how Griffin is holding up three fingers in the last one. It was too perfect!

Birthday Pictures

This is our friend Angela blowing out the candles for her favorite triplets! It was her birthday, too, and she chose to spend the day with us celebrating the kids. Admittedly the pictures here are out of order but I'm just throwing them on to share. It's dinner time so I really need to run downstairs. Our one-year-olds are enjoying as the celebration continues. We've been to the pool four times in the last week. They can't get enough of the water and it is so hot, so it's perfect for us! Okay, more later. We had a nice time celebrating, and it was a Royal Celebration just as we'd hoped!

A Letter to my Babies as They Turn One

My little dears, all three, no one first, no one last:

Today you turned one. I've avoided writing this letter to you all day because as I type it, I can barely see through the tears pouring out of my eyes, and I can't swallow past the lump in my throat. Interestingly, your Mommy isn't sad at all. I'm so filled with love and gratitude to all three of you. If babies can be heroes -- and I truly believe they can-- you three are mine. At this time last year, your father and I watched you struggle, your tiny chests fighting for every single breath. It scared us in ways we could never have imagined until we laid our eyes on you. From those early, frightening moments, you have done nothing but fill us with pride every minute since. And let me tell you, there is no gift in this world more precious than being your parents.

This year has passed faster than any year I've ever had. I feel like it was only moments ago that you were less than three pounds, your faces half the size of the palm of my hand. We had to learn to care for preemies so small, but little by little you grew, got stronger. Those days in the NICU are burned into my memory as if they just happened. In the blink of an eye, we were taking you home. First Julia, then Braddock two days after Julia, and finally Griffin two weeks later (just exactly the order in which you were born). We were up every three hours day and night to feed you, change you, soothe you -- tired beyond anything I had ever experienced before. In another blink, you slept through the night. However tired I was, there was a peacefulness in those moments in the middle of the night that I will cherish the memory of for the rest of my life. You were so little I could hold you all at once. The almost inaudible sighs you made as you were falling back asleep, I still hear sometimes and I smile. Yet another blink and you were rolling over, eating cereal, sitting up, crawling, standing. Bit by bit you have turned into these big, healthy babies who aren't really babies any more. That fills me with pride and breaks my heart all at the same time.

This year with you, I can say unequivocally, has been the very best year of my whole life. It was not nearly as overwhelming or as difficult as I'd imagined while I waited for you to be born. (that's not to say I didn't have difficult moments where I was overwhelmed -- every Mommy has felt that way. Luckily, those moments pass.) You have filled my days with wonder and excitement. For a woman who is always ready to move on to the next thing, you've made it very easy to stay right here with you all day every day, and I know how lucky I am to be able to do that. Not only did I get to spend this year caring for you, I also got to spend it with my Mom and Dad, and that has been the main reason I haven't felt overwhelmed. It had been a long time since I got to see them on a daily basis, and I've truly loved having them here helping us. (I think they've loved being with you, too.)

My children, thank you simply for being you. As you continue to grow, learn and explore this great big world, my only wish for you is a simple one: Buddha says, (and I'm not quoting exactly here)Love the whole world as a Mother loves her child. If you can do that -- knowing what I've learned this year, the love I feel for you three children -- I promise you can never lose!

Happy 1st Birthday.
I love you,

Mommy

A Birthday Gift to Unwrap

Here are the pictures of the kids opening their first birthday gift that arrived last week from Bob and Linda. Their first gift was really received early last week, fantastic Tripp Trapp highchairs from their very generous Granny, but those couldn't be unwrapped so we photographed this first unwrapping session. I wasn't sure what would happen but they just went after it ripping and trying to eat the paper. It's the coolest truck with farm animals and the farm sings "old McDonald." Is it Mc or Mac? I don't know. They LOVE it. Julia, the fastest crawler in New Jersey, just runs it down and tips it over. The boys prefer to push on all the animals to hear their sounds. Braddock squeals with delight when we gets ahold of it. So far they seem to share. They haven't quite figured out they should be upset when one of them takes the toy from another. That will come.

They seem to learn so much every day now. Julia pulled herself up to standing for the first time this morning. The boys just keep progressing and it's so nice to see. We're eating a few more solids. The biscuits are a favorite but I worry so much about choking!

We also had our first bout of an illness. Julia had a fever for about four days but it wasn't ever too high and other than seeming a little lethargic, she was fine. So the doctor didn't want to see her. I was hoping to get to one year without fevers. I guess since nothing came of it, maybe we're still in the running.

We're having a photographer shoot them for the first time next Monday at a park. I CANNOT wait to see how it turns out. I wish we had done it when they were tiny but I know we needed to keep the germs out of the house so now it seems like the perfect time. We're hoping the weather holds out.

It's been a rough week for me because I have some kind of tendonitis/bursitis and I haven't been able to lift my left arm for eight days. The pain that comes along with that is indescribable unless you've had bursitis before. As it is, with three infants, I'm short an arm so to only have one was really difficult. I seem to be on the mend now -- and not a moment too soon. It was a very LONG week but we're over the worst of it.

Griffin rocking out to the beat

So this video isn't very good but it is so cute. Griffin is our dancing man. Whatever he is doing, if music comes on, he just starts dancing. It may look to you like he is trying to balance himself, but really he's just feeling the music. He gets a bit camera shy when he notices I'm capturing this adorable-ness, but then he gives in and dances some more. You may notice he's sitting up all by himself. That started last week. He knew that the follow-up clinic -- that I've mentioned before where they follow the development of these preemies -- said if he wasn't sitting up by July 27, we'd need to get some help. So as if he knew the deadline was approaching, he figured he'd show us what he's probably been able to do for a while and chose not to. Griffin is really laid back. We know not to rush him because he'll get there when he's ready. Braddock is starting to move around now, mostly rolling with some commando crawling mixed in, so I assume Griffin will follow suit pretty quick. And then all bets are off. We will need eyes in the back of our head.... What I know for sure is that it's time to baby proof the life out of this house!

Julia on the move

This is our little lady dragging herself wherever she wants to go. She is so determined all the time. She sees the toy. She crawls to the boys, takes their toys, tries to eat the toys, moves on. They're left dumbfounded. Soon they'll start to protest and probably decide they better start crawling just to get their stuff back. And that, friends, is when the games will really begin.

Braddock speaks

Here he is saying "da da" in his very high pitched voice. He has many variations of this but the one is so cute. I will post Julia in her army crawl later today. Griffin just started to make his sounds this weekend and interestingly -- and I have several witnesses -- while trying to get my attention, he said, "Mom." It may have been an accident but he has said it more than once, so I'm saying he said it. Braddock only likes Da Da. He is making that very clear. See for yourself.

Our trip to the beach was great fun and relatively easy. As we packed everything up, it became very clear that a minivan isn't really big enough. I guess we'll start looking at busses or a limo would be nice.

More soon,

Babies on the move

Liam teaching his friends to play nice

The best I'm gonna look next to these kids!

Bill Sheehan and Julia
The Gorgeous Bride and Handsome Groom

Cristina enjoying Liam's fantastic sense of humor

all the babies rockin' out

It's July already. July....like in the month before we celebrate a first birthday. It's becoming more and more obvious that if I can't lobby Congress to get an extra hour or two tacked on to every day, I'm just going to run out of time. We still haven't planned the party. What kind of parents are we? We've been throwing ideas around but nothing seems to fit the enormity of the FIRST birthday. I am usually one to believe things should be understated, but OH MY GOD OUR KIDS WILL BE TURNING ONE and I'm freakin' out!! On the Fourth of July last year, I had too many contractions -- way too many like one every four minutes and I was only 22 weeks. The fear that I felt then and all those days where we just didn't know how this would turn out... well, that has earned us a celebration fit for royalty. Maybe I just came up with our theme... stay tuned. (I started this post so long ago that that now is the theme -- A Royal Celebration -- and the party plans are in the works)

This post is about our very first trip to Wrentham. For those of you reading this saying What the....they were in Wrentham and didn't visit, let me apologize right now. I'll go back to needing more hours in a day than I've got to work with. We came in very late Friday night to Bill, Cristina and Liam's house. They had to stay up past their bedtime just to be bombarded with armfuls of kids and all the stuff that comes with them. I am sure I spent more time getting everything ready to go than we actually spent in Wrentham. Cristina had many of the things we needed so we only had to bring one set of some of the bigger items instead of three. This made it almost easy. Well, the week leading up to this, I made lists; I checked them twice. I remade the lists I lost. I kept repeating my mantra, of "food, diapers, clothes and they'll be fine." So Friday comes and I insist we should leave around four because by the time get to a major city, rush hour is over, so, of course we should get on the road. Of course....well, i didn't consider the weather report of thunderstorms. We got underneath one that so kindly hovered over us from NJ to Milford, MA. Thank you, Mr. Thunderstorm. Very nice to spend the six and a half hours with you. What was supposed to be a four-hour drive came close to being seven. lucky us. The good news is that Julia, Braddock and Griffin didn't seem too bothered by it. They slept early and then I sat in the back and entertained for a solid four hours. They seemed to have a lot of fun. When we arrived, we fed them an extra bottle and amazingly they slept well despite being in a different environment.

Now, the purpose of our trip was a wedding on Saturday night but we'll get to that. First, I really did have some kind of allergic reaction -- possibly to a bug bite -- that called for a prescription of steroids to get the ginormous hives covering my body to go away. Cristina is not only superMom, she's a doctor, so this was very handy at 6:00 a.m. I can't imagine if I had to go sit in an emergency room somewhere. So with that little obstacle out of the way, we had a great day. We even went for a walk to Brian's new house. There we were like Make Way for Ducklings -- a little stroller parade -- right down South Street. The kids loved seeing all the new faces (which we really worried about since they've been having some stranger anxiety lately) and they all seemed to adore Liam. He can crawl and dance and he's very vocal. The babies were in awe of his skills. Some day soon, they'll be there. We had a jam session and that was awesome! Liam can really rock! So we were able to scoot out and go to Erin and Mike's beautiful wedding. Apparently the kids never even noticed we were gone which is all we could have hoped for. All their babysitters said they were very good and they even went to bed on time. We were really worried it would be a total nightmare, but we were so wrong. (and very happily wrong, I might add)

We really can't say thank you to The Sheehans/Cataldos enough. What a treat to be able to go out and not worry for one second that everybody was fine. It was also so special for me to watch my children with Cristina's child. I wasn't much older than they were when we all met on Stoney Brook Lane and began our lifelong friendship. To see our offspring forming their own bonds was the sweetest thing. We've got Liam taking Julia to the prom. If I keep the blog up until then, I'll happily post the pictures.

We have two more trips coming up this weekend and next. Hopefully, the organizing and packing gets to be second nature and we'll sail through the prep phase.

As for updated news -- and there's a lot of it. Braddock started with baby babble. He started with ba-ba-ba and now he's a complete da-da man. Julia is crawling commando-style but it's only a matter of days before she's up and about. She heads for the exit at all times so the running after babies stages has officially begun for us. Now all bets are off. Griffin, interestingly, crawls on his back. He is very quick, too. I'm sure this is not the preferred method of travel for him but I give his kudos for the ingenuity. He's core gets stronger every day and he's nearly sitting. Braddock in the last week is just about sitting, too. Julia's been there, done that. Eating is becoming much easier now and all three seem to love the food I make them. As Julia starts to crawl, we're working in the cookies and cereal puffs. She started using the ma-ma and ba-ba sounds just yesterday. Griffin has his own language that is a complete riot. He was very excited for the fourth of July and told us all about it for a really long time. It's so cute to see them "talk" to each other.

Okay, I'll save more info for a later post. Today we're lunching with Gram's dearest friend Patti and her mother about an hour from here. It will be exciting to see Patti's mom's reaction to them.

Off I go. More soon.

The Red, White and Blue....

Happy Fourth of July to all!