Twenty

The girls are twenty months old today. I attempted to get my ritual picture of the month and did the best I could. They are not much into staying still for anything these days.

Anna and Kate

Chasing each other--lots of laughing

Kate said 'doggie' today for the first time! This is her third word (Jack, ut oh). She is by far my strongest toddler. She can climb onto the couch now and is always finding things to climb and stand on. She loves her bink, music, dancing, purses, dolls and her lovie. She has eleven teeth and finally enough hair to put back into a bow. I tried to measure and weigh the girls this week. Kate is about 29.75 inches long and weighs around 17 lbs.

Kate likes to climb on this chair and stand up until I tell her "no". She, then smiles and laughs because she knows she is doing something wrong. She is my little stinker---always looking for ways to stir the pot!

Elizabeth is a mama's girl! Lately she can't get enough of my lap and it seems like I am holding her all the time. She loves her bink, lovie, books, blocks and dolls. She has all her teeth minus her two year molars (16 total). She is by far my pickiest eater so when she throws her food down, Anna or Kate will quickly pick it up. She is definitely built different from the other two, a much smaller frame. I have noticed this more lately because I have to pin her pants because they fall down. She weighs somewhere between 16.5 and 17 lbs and is around 30 inches long.

When Elizabeth sees Kate stand on this chair, she will too. Today, I told her "No." and she looked at me and pointed to her nose :)

Anna recently said her 9th word, "up!" She is starting to talk more and more. She has 14 teeth now. She loves dolls, Carter, magna blocks, cupcakes and her lovie. She is the best at playing by herself and can hold her own when the other two try to take her toys. She also gives great hugs and kisses. She is around 30 inches long and about 17.5 lbs.

All three loves these sunglasses that my niece, Amy left here last weekend.

Jack wanted his picture taken too! He had a great day at swim lessons, jumping in and going under and also floating by himself. He also started Tee ball last Saturday and played one very cold, very wet game. His game on Tuesday was cancelled, but hopefully he will play again this Saturday. He had a great play date today and was the sweetest boy sharing his toys with his friends. He is learning numbers in school and so he has recently asked us to write down cell phone numbers and home numbers and will memorize them. He knows about ten people's numbers. Don't be surprised if you get a phone call from him.

Show-N-Tell

Today, Jack took his sisters to school for show-n-tell. I have the help of my cousin Katharine on Fridays so we thought today was a good day to bring them all to school.  I didn't really know what to expect with a bunch of four and five year-olds, but it was interesting that the children took such interest in the girls. I think it was the age of the girls, rather than the fact that they are triplets that the kids too interest with. Once inside the classroom, the girls scattered. Anna was most interested in sitting (and standing) on the little chairs that she could climb onto by herself. Elizabeth liked eating the glue, opening the cupboards and the cubby containers that she kept taking off the wall. Kate liked the trash (I had to put it away in the bathroom), glue and the preschoolers. Jack got to stand in the center of the circle of kids and call on his classmates to answer questions about his sisters. Some of the questions: "Why do they like to empty the trash?" "Do they sleep in the same crib?" "Why do they eat glue?"

Jack and Mrs. Towsley answering questions

The kids thought Elizabeth was so funny. She liked to touch each one of the kids and they would laugh at her.

Kate surrounded by the children

Jack took this picture of Mrs. Towsley

Jack and Elizabeth in the center of the circle. Somehow, this doesn't surprise me that these two will be the ones in the center of attention.

The kids following Elizabeth

Elizabeth liked the size of the furniture in this classroom :)

Jack showing Kate around his classroom

Elizabeth pulling the cubbies down. Anna is standing in the back.  I realized that I only got a few pictures with Anna in them. She was too busy sitting an standing on chairs so I had to put my camera away.

Anna checking out the chair she can climb on herself.

Jack took these last two pictures.

I found two extra pictures on my camera when I downloaded today's pictures. I love the first picture of my dad, Elizabeth and Anna. This was a few weeks ago. The best part about the picture is it is not staged. He picks up the girls all the time just to hold them. And they love it. The second picture was taken last weekend when John and I took all of our children to Red Robin for lunch. Brave, I guess. This is only the second time we have gone out to eat as a family since the girls were born and the first time the girls were pretty young. Lunch went pretty well. It makes us think we can start to be "normal" again :)

Scatter!

Today, John and I took the girls outside and let them roam. Wow! They all went in different directions and boy are they quick! My nieces came over to help which was great timing. Anna loves being outside. She would make a beeline for the end of the driveway and down the street! Elizabeth loved the neighbor's yard. Kate loved the freedom. The three of them were funny in that they all turned around to go down the smallest steps (we have really been working hard going down the stairs with them!). There is a half an inch step from our garage to driveway and it was quite comical to watch them turn around to get to the driveway :)

I only took four pictures and then had to put my camera away because it was too hard to keep up with them! Aunt Susie kept any eye on them after dinner and when the girls came in, Anna had an "owie" on her finger that she will point to when you ask her where it is.

Anna and Elizabeth (Getting ready to turn around to go down the step)

Anna (Kate is behind her)

Anna trying to get to the street!

Anna turning around to go down the end of the driveway.

Spring Break

Spring break around here was nothing near a break. I think we actually need some spring weather so we can open up our windows and clear the air of germs! It seems we have had strep, vomiting and diarrhea, fevers, rashes and viruses, coughs, colds, back to more vomiting and diarrhea to draining eyes in the last three weeks! It managed to affect both John and I as well. The Druelle family decided to visit us over spring break. Ironically, every time we make plans to visit/see the Druelle family, there seems to be something that gets in the way. Let's see, Abby threw up in the van on the way to our house...turn around and try for another weekend...Kate vomiting on and off all week, think we'll try another weekend...Alexa's baptism, wait, Jack has strep Friday afternoon and we are leaving for Michigan on Saturday...Spring break trip to Indiana...oh, the Druelle van won't start Saturday morning...it's loaded with five days of clothes. But, no one is vomiting (yet). Well, they made it to our house anyway after a quick battery fix and although Jack and I had coughs and colds, they came to visit anyway. Too bad on Monday I went to get Elizabeth from her nap and she had vomited everywhere. What?! We just finished with all the vomiting last week, could we possibly get it all again?! Julie decided to cut the trip short on that note (can you blame her?) and left on Tuesday. Good thing, Anna was vomiting on Wednesday...and so was Julie's youngest, Abby. Julie's older kids, Braden and Ambria, followed the trend and were vomiting the next morning. And my Kate has diarrhea. We can't keep them all healthy at once! Julie and I joke that when we plan a trip to each other's house, it is planning a stomach virus, and sadly, it keeps coming true! Anyway, the visit was nice, even if some of the kids were under the weather some, but unfortunately, I got both Jack's terrible cough/cold virus and what I think was my version of the stomach virus mixed together so I didn't have too much energy for pictures. I stole some from Julie's blog. Sorry for the parting gift, Druelle family.

Elizabeth looking at Alexa

Alexa (no, this is not a doll) and Maria

Alexa

Ambria and Emily

Abby in the midst of the boys watching TV

Abby, Braden, Thomas and Kevin

We finished out the week resting. Today, we took Jack to a Tin Caps game. Jack was good throughout the whole game. He loved the popcorn! He also ran the bases after the game which was really cute. I, again, forgot my camera, darn! The weather was finally cooperative. It was a beautiful afternoon/evening for a baseball game.

Jack's Gymnastics

Jack had a make-up gymnastics class this afternoon and since I had someone to watch the girls, I took him and was able to watch his class. This was my first class I have been able to watch and started thinking about how different it would be if I only had baby #2 instead of #2,3 and 4 all at once. I was a little sad for Jack. He was so excited that I was there and he kept asking me to take pictures of him. Don't get me wrong, it is such a blessing for everyone, Jack included, to have these little girls in our lives. We just have to do things slightly differently. We make it work.