Snow Much Fun!

In honor of the upcoming Olympic Winter Games, I wanted to offer my suggestion for a new Olympic event. I think I will call it the Quad Winter Challenge. It involves digging through piles of winter items to find 4 winter coats, 4 pairs of snow pants, 4 winter hats, 4 pairs of boots, and 4 pairs of mittens. The next part of the event involves wrangling 4 small children into their snow pants, coats, hats, mittens, and boots all the while dealing with impatience, frustration, and the overall feeling of being hot. Matt definitely takes the gold in this event, and myself? A distant silver…

Once we conquered the getting ready part, we had a great time outside. If Allie could talk I think she would tell you that she had an okay time. It is hard to be a baby with tiny legs and many layers of puffy outwear.

Nobody is cuter in a winter hat than Eli!

Cara headed right for the playground!

Just like the groundhog, Cara’s shadow was clearly seen!

Poor Allie looked like this most of the time!

Even when she was tipping over…

What a crew!

One year ago today…

How can I forget this day?

Fine, We Did It

Rather than risk another potentially serious head injury, we bought toddler beds tonight.

I didn't want to.

I don't like new stages when it comes to the kids.

They are safe in their cribs (other than the falling out on their heads part). They look cute in their cribs. They have been in those cribs since the day we brought them home from the NICU. And most importantly...

They can't get out of their cribs (okay, so they *could* get out, but I mean not easily and without a considerable amount of risk-taking).

Those cribs represent a safe haven for my sweet little babies and taking them down makes it perfectly clear to this momma that my babies are growing up. Errrrrr....I don't like it one bit!

I was telling my mother in law of the numerous horror stories I've heard about the triplet-transition into toddler beds. Most of the triplet parents I read about online have to remove EVERYTHING from their kids' rooms other than the toddler beds. As you can imagine, giving three toddler-monsters the ability to get out of their beds while they are alone in their room is a sure-fire recipe for disaster!!?!?! Errrrrr....I don't like it one bit!

I will of course update you all as we make this transition. It won't be for a few days as we had to order Cara's bed online. So, I have a few more days to get used to this idea :)

An area for prayer: I have been doing a lot of reading about other NB kids like Brady (Stage III, intermediate risk) in the message forum I belong to. The topic of scanning schedules came up and I am surprised to learn that kids just like Brady have a more intense and thorough post-treatment scanning schedule than he does. For example, many kids are getting a MIBG scan done quarterly. If you remember, Brady had this test done diagnostically in those first few days. It involves being injected with a slightly radioactive substance that is taken up by areas active with NB. In some of the cases I've been reading about, urine levels have been normal despite a relapse being present. And in other cases, a relapse was only detected on the MIBG, not with MRI. So, you can imagine my uneasiness about only relying on MRI and urine tests. On one hand, I want to limit Brady's exposure to radiation, especially given how often he will need XRAYs because of his spinal deformity. But, I also want to make sure that we aren't missing something. Matt and I have been discussing this and trying to decide if we want to push the issue with our doctor and get more in depth testing done at Brady's next scan date (April.) Thank you for your prayers as we continue to deal with many post-treatment issues.

A New Tradition

I've realized in talking with many other moms who have kids the same age as ours, that many toddlers enjoy watching movies. Now my kids have a handful of favorite TV shows (Caillou, Super Why, Imagination Movers, and Little Einsteins) but haven't ever watched a movie. Growing up I just loved getting lost in a movie, especially the Disney ones!

My mom gave us a few of our old VHS Disney tapes (gasp! A tape! I can just hear us now, "Back in our day kids, you had to watch a whole movie, and then rewind it if you wanted to watch it again!") So tonight after dinner we headed down to the basement playroom and Matt hooked up an old VHS player to the TV. I popped some popcorn and we all snuggled up and watched Cinderella. I LOVE the idea of us spending time together doing something I enjoyed as a child. Talk about coming full circle! We only got about halfway through before bedtime, but I think they would have watched the whole thing!

Matt volunteered to go back down to the basement tonight and vacuum up all the popcorn:)

What We Were up to Today

The Williams family fire squad was hard at work…

Everybody HUG!

This one makes mommy’s heart melt!

No more pictures mom!

Our old house has some interesting architecture. I loved the way the kids looked sitting against the front door framed by the archway…

And I just had to snap a picture of this today. Something about the sight of four kids’ plates lined up makes me the happiest momma around!

If you want to read something inspiring today, click here to read what the Liz and Jay Scott of Alex’s Lemonade Stand have been up to.

Where we were one year ago today…

A Hairy Day All Around

 Wednesday is sometimes our adventure day, and today did not disappoint. Now keep in mind that what we consider an adventure would probably be a simple outing for some people. Mom and I keep our ambitions small and things usually go pretty smoothly.

Today we were headed to Ridge Road Station which is giant store selling train collectibles, toys, and holiday items. It wasn’t exactly the perfect place for a herd of 2 year olds with eager hands, but they did quite well with a few dozen reminders to “look with your eyes!” The real adventure happened on the way there…

Dear Allie hasn’t been on a long car ride since before Christmas. I had this great hope that perhaps she had outgrown the carsick thing. Just to be safe, I put the towel, washcloth, and bib on her in the car for the 35 minute ride. About 20 minutes in she started to get the all-too-familiar look on her face. She looks as though she is in a trance and has no color in her face. All of a sudden I looked  back and she was asleep. VICTORY!!!

Or so I thought…

About 3 minutes later, she woke up, started crying, and then threw up. It was the worst yet…it was everywhere. The bib system backfired, literally, and all that came out of her ended up all around her neck, the back of her head, and down her back somehow. We pulled over and I climbed in the back of the van, kneeling on the wet, slush-covered floor. I attempted to “wash” her hair with mom’s left over water in her water bottle. Now I had a stinky baby with wet stinky hair!

I got her washed up as best I could and off we went to the train store. Once we were there I took her in the bathroom and had a great idea to try and wash her up again, this time with soap! As I had her sitting there in the bathroom, her head “sudsed” up with hand soap, an employee of the store walked in. I was laughing inside, thinking that she probably thought I was probably some woman whose water had been shut off, so I decided to come and bathe my kids at the train store! Ha!

Here are the kids shaking hands with the police officer.

My little Barfing Betty!

Eli, Cara, and Brady checking out the great train sets!

 

Headed back to the van! I’m about 15 feet back trying to push the stroller through the slush! Hey Cara…whose hand are YOU holding?

After our adventure at the store, we headed to McDonald’s for lunch. Then it was home for baths, laundry, then haircuts! We are blessed to have a friend that comes to the house to cut the kids’ hair.

I’m pleased to report that Mr. Brady did not cry at all today for his haircut! This is the first time EVER that he didn’t cry throughout the process. He did keep this very concerned and skeptical about the whole thing throughout!

Cara with her hair all clipped up! She LOVES to get her haircut. She is so excited that she has a hard time sitting still!

Mr. Brave, but Skeptical! I love the way his little eyebrows scrunch up!

   

That was our day! Tomorrow is a stay-at- home-and-snuggle-up kind of day…

Making Friends

Today we had a great morning playtime with the kids’ friend Jessica. She is just a few months younger than the triplets (although she is, ahem…potty trained). Jess is about the cutest thing ever and we are so lucky to have her just down the street!

Here the 4 big kids are having snack time at the dining room table.

Even the boys had fun! (haircuts scheduled for tomorrow by they way!)

We are off on an adventure with grandma tomorrow too! Hopefully I’ll get some great pictures:)

One year ago today we were here. Brady was having his Broviac catheter placed in the morning and chemo would be started that afternoon. Oh, how far my sweet boy has come!

Beating the Winter Boredom

Even though I'm not much of an outdoor person, I'm really starting to feel like we are all trapped in this house and will never get out! I don't mind winter, I truly don't, but I feel myself longing for an afternoon spent playing on the driveway with the kids' cars, or going for a walk to the park, or anything outside in the fresh air!!!

Grandma Kathy brought over some supplies last week to make snowmen out of plates, buttons, and forks. Here are a few pictures! I should also add that the first picture makes a great case for why you should NEVER choose stainless steel appliances in your kitchen when you have many small children living in your home. We bought this lovely fridge back in the B.T. days (before triplets). I've been at war with fingerprints ever since they came along:)

Nothing says classy decor like Styrofoam and plastic ware hanging from your mantel!


Cutie boy Eli


Brady boy up close

I do have to say that I get many more snuggles in the wintertime. Nothing is better than cuddling with one, two, three, or even four of my cuties and reading a book or watching a show. I guess winter can hang around a few weeks longer...