Potty Training and other Updates

The potty training is going well--or as well as can be expected. After a rough first week, we have had very good days since Monday. I think it finally clicked. Starting last week, Elizabeth was the first of the three to go on the potty, actually first thing Monday morning, with Kate closely following once she saw the jelly bean that Elizabeth got. Since that day, Kate and Elizabeth really understood the reward part of the potty and they would go constantly...when one goes, it would trigger the other one to go. Anna, despite what I initially thought, was not motivated by the candy. The first few days with her were full of "wet unders" and a few of the other on the carpet. It wasn't until I baked cookies on Wednesday that she started to "get it." Tuesday, Elizabeth was brave enough for a pooh-dog and the others followed the next day. Each day has gotten better and better, and a week into this process, we had accident-free days, back to back. Yesterday and today were not perfect, but with only minor episodes. Most of the time it is realizing too late and not making it to the potty earlier enough. Potty training triplets has good things, i.e. the motivation factor is huge. I am finding myself reminding the girls fewer and fewer times during the day to go potty and when one goes to the potty, it triggers the other two to go as well. Potty training triplets has the hard parts too, the clean-up, hand washing and inability to feel like we can go outside the home. I am happy with the girls and the progress we have made. I think by next week, I will switch out the jelly beans (we are on bag three!) for stickers, but keep the fruit snacks for those pooh-dogs.

So, in the past two weeks, we have been playing outside and staying home except for a quick trip to the mall and church last Sunday, neither which were complete successes, but neither were failures either.

Other than potty training, I have been meaning to write some other thoughts here:

Some of the words and the way the girls say things is so funny right now.

"All gum" = all gone
"dolly bean" = jelly bean
"Zizzie" = Lizzie
"p-school" = preschool
There are more, I can't think of them right now. I'll start a list tomorrow and update it on here in a few days.

They can also tell me things about each other, i.e. "Annie upstairs" and I can understand them. Weird to think they are becoming so independent. I found a pacifier in my purse the other day while I was switching over to my summer purse and it made me slightly sad. It seems forever ago that they used these night and day and it was only three months ago when we got rid of them. The girls found it the next day and they didn't remember it or miss it in any way. They did know it was for the "babies."

I have given up on the naps. I still think they could use them, but it was too exhausting trying to get them to lay down each afternoon. I realize how that sounds (the girls are "out of control" as John puts it) but believe me, if there was any way I could get them to nap, I tried it. I also thought that once summer hits, napping them in the afternoon and spending all that time in their rooms to get them to sleep (over the weekend, it was two hours of me in the room telling them to lay down before only two of them finally slept) wasn't that fair to Jack. Again, I realize that it sounds like we should be able to get them to stay in their beds, but we couldn't figure out a way to do it. I took EVERYTHING out of their room except their beds and empty dressers and they found the floor registers to pull up and in one of them they found a few matches they played with, they found a tiny pencil lead that they drew all over the wall, I found them sitting in the empty dresser drawers, climbing the dresser, pulling clothes out of their closet, jumping on the bed, you name it, they did it. I also found the few days of napping with potty training was confusing to put them back in a diaper when they didn't fall asleep. I tried putting all three in my bed and I laid down with them in the afternoon and put on Micky Mouse, but that ended with jumping, and fighting. Currently, I put a movie on and I sit with them on the couch, cover them up and they will sit and watch for ten minutes before they are up. They have yet to fall asleep during the day. They are sure giving us a run with the toddler beds at bedtime for sure. John seems to be better at getting them to stay in bed so the nights he is home, bedtime is much smoother. John and I have been back and forth on other things we could do, like put them back in cribs with tents, separate them, or remove their dressers, but I think ultimately, we have to learn to control them. And being the age they are, it doesn't make much sense to put the cribs up again. So...I am down to three diapers a day (at night) and Jack is still dry each night so we are going to get rid of his pull-ups...no cribs...no pacifiers...

I organized the summer schedule this week. Jack will start off the summer with two weeks of swim lessons, take two weeks off and then have two more weeks of swimming in July. He is also doing a golf camp in July and T-ball in June and July. I have tried to keep our August open for some travel to Indiana and Illinois. The girls are going to summer camp too. After the fiasco with the bedtime, not to mention their behavior in mass, we decided we are going to put them in a Mini Preschool this summer. It is only two hours, two days a week and they will go the entire month of June, skip the first week in July and then go two more weeks in July. John was a big advocate of this and I think it will be good for the girls to get some exposure to structure and hopefully it will help at home. Plus it will get them ready for their preschool in the fall. I don't think I mentioned this, but we did sign them up for two-day preschool in the fall. Doesn't that make them sound old? I struggled with three days vs. two and finally decided two days was better since they are young three year-olds--and maybe part of my motherhood guilt came into play I didn't want them gone from me that extra day.

I am planning on having some quality time with Jack this summer during the girls' mini-preschool. I was reflecting the other day and realized that the girls--in exactly two days-- were the exact same age as Jack was when the girls were born--a few months shy of three. I think about how he was really a baby then and how old he is now. He was forced to grow up very quickly and I think we expected a lot from him (and still do). What a big deal for a little boy to have his mama and daddy all to himself, only to have his world flipped upside-down with THREE sisters taking up space in the house, and time with his parents. A mom that was tired and short with him, a nanny in the house most of his waking time, volunteers coming to help with the girls, a new preschool, a "no we can't do that Jack, because the girls." What a huge shift in life for him and adjustment. I still think about this a lot and as I am writing this, it makes me sad...then I think about conservations with other moms of multiples when I was pregnant and I get some comfort, "Remember you are giving him the best gift: siblings." We tried to pay extra attention to him during those first few months and it helped tremendously that John was home for a month--he and Jack were little buddies. I still took him to his same playgroup each Monday, just he and I, and we left the girls at home with Madeleine. He loves his sisters, he really does, and I hope he is always close to them. They adore him. The squeals and screams I head when he steps off the bus each day is heartwarming.

Finally, here are a few picture of the kids before church last Sunday. The dresses are from their Great Aunt Anne and they are adorable. I had to snap a few pictures of the kids.