Family Baseball Time

Family Baseball Time

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Pictures with the Camera

I use to take pictures of the babies almost every week. Since they have become more mobile and active, it's been harder to sit and take pictures of them because they want to get close to the camera and touch it. The past few days, I have been able to get some really good pictures of them.









Love for Elmo

The babies LOVE Elmo!! We have a little routine in the morning of watching cartoons. We usually watch Strawberry Shortcake from 9:00 to 10:00 then The Adventures of Chuck and Friends until 10:30, then we turn on Sesame Street until 11:00. Around 10:45am, Elmo's World comes on. Now, don't think the babies sit and watch TV for 2 straight hours! They TV is on those shows, but half the time they are in the playroom playing with their toys. They will come in the room with the beginning of Chuck and Friends comes on because they like the opening song, then they will go back into the playroom and play. When I turned it to Sesame Street, they don't notice until Elmo's World comes on. Want to see how they act when it comes on? Take a look at the video... (Sorry about the rotation, I don't know how to rotate it!)


As you can see, the girls love to dance! After the theme song to Elmo's World is over, they usually go back into their playroom again. They seem to only like the music parts to shows!

We have about 5 Elmo stuffed animals and they still fight over them! If you ask them to go get you Elmo, they will go and find the larger Elmo (which is about the size of them)! Here are a few pictures of them with the 3 different Elmo's that we have.

Caitlyn with the small Elmo

Brittany with the medium Elmo (Tickle Me Elmo)

Ashton with the large Elmo

Growing up

The past few days the babies have been growing up so fast. I went outside to put the diaper bag in the car and when I came back inside, the babies were in the kitchen! We have a playard gate around the living room so they cannot get out of the living room. I was puzzled on how they got into the kitchen because the playard was not moved and the couch cushions didn't look they have been touched. Well today I saw just exactly how they were getting over on the other side.

(Sorry, I could not figure out how to rotate the video)

Ashton is the shortest so it takes him a little longer to get up onto the couch than it does the girls. He was so excited to get over to the other side! Usually when he gets over to the other side, he goes into the kitchen. I was surprised to see where he ended up! I have been working with them with potty training, but it's just them sitting on the potty not doing anything.

Since they have been escaping and getting over to the other side of the gate, we did a little rearranging tonight. We moved the gates around so they could get behind the couch, but put a gate up so they couldn't get into the kitchen. We left the gate up into our bedroom and the bathroom, but took down the gate that led to their bedroom because Brittany decided to climb over that gate. She did this very gracefully, just like Ashton climbed over the couch. When we were cleaning the babies room up, Ashton decided to climb over the gate that went into the bathroom. He didn't do this very gracefully! We heard a thump, then a scream! He landed right on his forward, so now he has a nice bruise and bump! I guess that's all about being a boy! Im sure the gate going into the bathroom will be taken down soon and we will just have to keep the door shut.

Now the babies have full access to their room, I wondered how long it would take them to get into the dresser drawers. It took them a good hour at least to get into it. I don't think they would have even gotten into the dresser if I didn't have to get their clothes out to spend the night at my parents house. After I got their clothes out, they figured out the drawers open! They would open the drawers and take the clothes out and throw them on the floor. I came back into the room 5 minutes later and the clothes weren't on the floor anymore. They put the clothes back in the dresser. I would see a arm of a shirt hanging out of drawer and a pair of pants hanging out of another. I was very surprised that they did that! Of course they weren't in the same drawer as they were originally, but hey, they were back in the dresser!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Art Work

A few months ago, I bought the babies a floor coloring pad and big crayons so they can start coloring. It is very difficult to sit on the floor with all 3 of them and try to color. One will run around with crayons in the hands, one will actually sit down to try to color and one will sit on the paper! Can you guess who does what?! Ashton sits on the paper, Caitlyn runs around with the crayons in her hand and Brittany will sit down to color!

This morning after breakfast, I decided to get 3 sheets of paper and while they were still at the table, let them color. It was still hard because when they went to doodle, the paper would move around. I helped them each and held the paper as they doodled. Here is their artwork!

Caitlyn's art work

Brittany's art work


Ashton's art work


Monday, February 20, 2012

Forward facing...

We decided to change the car seats in my car from rear facing to forward facing. We looked up the laws in Virginia to make sure we weren't breaking any laws before we changed them around. The law states that a child must be 1 year AND 20 pounds. They all 3 are over 20 pounds and over a year old. The all are tall and they looked so uncomfortable rear facing because there legs were scrunched up. Ashton wasn't feeling very good so he fell asleep on the way home, but the girls loved facing forward and seeing all of the traffic lights and street lights.

We are going to keep the car seats in the truck rear facing until winter is completely over, in case we get a good snow fall (which is unlikely). But the truck would be safer to travel in if we had to go out somewhere.

One thing we can't do anymore is sneak in a bite to eat if we go through a drive-thru.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Valentine's Day

This was our second Valentine's Day as a family. Last year we went to Olive Garden for dinner. The babies were only 6 months old so they just ate formula. This year, we decided to stay home and make dinner. I made marinated tuna steaks, Caesar salad and loaded baked potatoes. The babies ate ravioli and corn. We all sat at the dinner table together and had a nice family dinner.

After dinner, we went to Bass Pro to see the fish get fed. Every time we go to Bass Pro the babies love looking at the fish and we always seem to miss the feeding. This time, we didn't! The babies loved watching the fish swim everywhere and fight for food.

It was a great night spending it with my family!



Dancing queen



Moving my truck around

Love my Elmo


Waiting for Daddy to get home

18 Months... Getting into EVERYTHING!!

Wow... 18 months old already!! Where as the time gone?! We just had their 18 month check up at the doctors office and everything went very well. She had no concerns with anything. They are saying words and doing everything that an 18 month old should be. (This was a big change from their 15 month appointment when she felt they were developmentally behind)! Brittany was weighing in at 22lbs, Ashton was 21lbs and Caitlyn was 20lbs. They feel so much heavier than that! We didn't have to get any shots because they were already up to date.

In the past month, we had our first illnesses. Going 17 months without being sick is amazing! Especially since they were preemies! It first started off in the beginning of January. Kevin had an upper respiratory infection and I had a sinus infection. The babies each had a stuffy nose and a fever. Then a few weeks after that, we got that nasty stomach bug. Luckily it was on the weekend and we all got it at the same time. Trying to take care of sick babies while you are sick is hard. But we did it!

Right now, the babies are getting into anything and everything they can! Climbing on the couch, picnic table and the toys in the playroom. I know it's all about being a kid and they are exploring everything, but I'm scared they are going to fall and hurt themselves.

The babies are starting to say more words. New words they learned this month are: more, milk, yellow, orange, night night.



E.P.I.C

When we took the babies for their 15 month check up at the doctors office, she felt that they were lacking behind in development. She felt at 15 months, they should have a 4-5 word vocabulary and be almost running or walking backwards. We felt that they were still technically only 13 months old, not 15. The doctor's office made an appointment with E.P.I.C (Early Prevention and Intervention for Children). E.P.I.C program basically evaluates the development and physical skills of a child. They check to see if the child is behind on speech, hearing, coordination, etc. Our appointment was set up for December 1, 2011. Before we go to our appointment, I had to fill out 10 pages of information for each child... my hand was killing me by the time I was done. Most of them were all the same answers, but there were some that were different.

When we got to the appointment, we were assigned a Temporary Service Coordinator along with another Assistant. We went into a room that had a table for the adults and toys on the floor for the kids to play with.  One coordinator sat on the floor and played with the kids, while one stayed at the table and went over the information that I filled out before hand.

They worked with each child individually so they had 100% attention on one child. They would ask how many words they say, see if they could stack blocks, throw a ball, etc... Kevin and I didn't feel that they were developmentally behind and we told the coordinators that. They were kind of shocked that we were there if we didn't have any concerns. But we did tell them that the doctor felt that they were behind and that's why we were here.

After about an hour and half, we were finally finished. They scored a perfect score on motor skills and scored fairly high on everything else. When we left, Kevin and I thought to ourselves that they didn't need any help.

We got a phone call a week later saying that all 3 babies do not qualify and they do not need any help! What a relief that was!

If you need any information on the E.P.I.C program, please visit http://nichcy.org/babies/overview