Helpless - not the Metallica song

I'm typing with my left hand only. My surgery went well. I'm doped up on meds. Luckily I have babysitters to watch me AND the kids. I can't change diapers or dress the kids.
Happy Halloween!

Santa, a Kitty, Blue and a Monkey

Sometimes its hard to tell who is who or what they are. John was really good about keeping his monkey costume on. I think he felt comfortable in his own skin. :)

Brooke was a white kitty with a tail (which is really cute). I think she should have had little horns on her instead of ears.

Matthew is Blue from Blues Clues. He is so adorable, just like Blue.

Jacob wanted to be Santa Claus. Maybe he'll turn out to be a very generous and giving child.

A busy week

So, I have hand surgery in two days. Scott is no where to be found. He got called in to work at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning on a homicide and well, he won't be home until they catch the bad guys. So I'm looking at plan B for my surgery. Relying on family and friends to take care of me and the kids until he can come home.

Luckily my mom and mother-in-law can help out. And there are friends that come over regularly (Luann and Mark and Shell). It just seems like timing always stinks when it comes to homicides. Oh well, if they thought about their actions before they committed murder, it probably wouldn't happen.

Here's some more pics of the park.

Halloween pictures

Trying to get six, seven, eight or nine people to look at the camera, not cry, not make funny faces, blink or poke someone is like trying to catch water with your hands.

More pictures

I'm sure that a few of you have noticed how cute and photogenic my children are. They get that from me - being photogenic. The cute part is just pure luck or maybe Gods grace.

I get some of the kids clothes from my friend Angela. I'm sure she recognizes the boys shirts and Brooke's jumper.

And you can see the kids personalities.

Whatdoyathink?

We took the kids to the park today to get that good ol' Christmas card picture. So whatdoyathink? Which one would you "vote" for?

Wordless Wednesday - my version

My artist using different venues to show his artistic talents off.

Catching Matthew in a sad moment. (John kept tyring to take off his bib)

Johnny being spunky.

My little Brooke showing off her new outfit. (My favorite)

Smack!

So, I've been busy sewing lately. I like to sew. Its relaxing. In the early days of my sewing projects, I cursed and got frustrated very easily. Now, after tons of practice, its actually nice. And I'm glad I'm not jinxing a baby blanket anymore. I can probably be blamed for many a plenty fussy baby in the early 2000s. I've also been making baby burp cloths and barrettes. Although the barrettes are for FVMOM, but they are still relaxing to do. I rarely burn myself on the glue anymore. :)

Today was a busy day in our house. While Jacob was at school, I took the "toddlers" as Jacob calls them to a Birth to Three playgroup. It was a lot of fun. They even got to paint a pumpkin, something they'll never do at home. Paint , three inventive toddlers and only one mom? Nope, not on my watch. Luckily one of the teachers helped out watching over the kids. Another reason why we'll never do it is because its messy and it can go down hill quite quickly. Look what happened when I gave them pencils for the first time.

So then tonight, Shell Dinter came over and we took the kids to Wild Air. We had a blast. The "toddlers" weren't so thrilled about the slide. You could tell by the look on their face that they were surprised and a little scared. But we went into this circular inflatable, there was a middle pedestal that we could balance on and jump on and then there were a whole lot of soft balls to throw around or at someone. We all giggled and jumped and played. The kids did not want to leave.

As a matter of fact, they were all still running around when Shell and I were trying to get their shoes and coats on. And then Brooke ran right into a floor to ceiling glass window that she apparently didn't see. As Michelle and I rolled on the ground trying not to pee our pants, she looked at us with surprise in her eyes and she wasn't sure if she should laugh with us. It was such a classic Jean move. It could have been a Windex commercial that we see on television.

Nicknames

I feel so bad. I haven't posted in, like, weeks! Each day I'd think about it, but by the time I was done with all my stuff, I was beat and just went to bed. I think we've all been there.

So anyway, Jacob has nicknames for all the babies.

Matthew is raggiemilkcarman.

Brooke is dollymilkblankieman.

John is carmonsterman.

Oh rotorooter man!

So, today at 4 a.m. the cat is banging on the gate to get upstairs. I go to open the gate and then she comes to sleep with me. Or bother me. She walks all over me and wants to keep licking my face. I know that this usually means shes hungry or thirsty. But I don't budge.

Finally at 6 a.m. Brooke wakes up and so I get out of bed. I get her some milk and go downstairs to feed Cosmo. As I normally do, I pour her water out in the toilet and fill up the container in the bathroom. And I usually do not turn on the light in the bathroom because the light from the laundry room is enough. And I just got up. I need to wake up gradually.

Well, of course I was surprised when the toilet started overflowing. I flipped the light on and saw the toilet overflowing and well, the smell I thought came from Cosmos litter box is actually coming from the bathroom. So, to spare everyone the gory icky details, the plunger doesn't work. I go out to the garage to find that "rotorooter" thing that is steel and flexible to clear out the plug. I can't find it.

I wake up Scott at 6:20 a.m. I ask him where it is. He finds it in the garage and I go back to work amongst the flooded bathroom. It probably took me 10 minutes to clear the plugged toilet. And then I had to clean and sanitize and clean up the other mess.

The culprit was the 5 year old in our house. He likes to use those wet wipes that are supposed to be degradable. But I guess when you use the whole package, it does tend to clog up things.

Much needed sleep

First, the important stuff. There was a news story today that really touched me. It was about a girl that was elected homecoming queen at her school. The special thing about this story is how her school embraces her - she has down syndrome. It brang tears to my eyes because kids can be cruel. When someone is different, whether it is because the color of your hair, your skin, your looks, etc.. kids pick up on that and well, you know... they can be mean.

Now, Matthew slept 5 hours at a time for the first time in five days. So I got five hours of sleep! Yipee! And Luann was nice enough to come over and let me sleep this morning and then Kathy picked Jacob up from school for me and then my mom came over and let me sleep this afternoon. I so needed that. I wasn't functioning very well. Brings me back to the first week or two of the triplets being at home.

Jacob made a book today for his teacher. It says "I love you" and has some other random words he knows how to spell. Then he made more pages to go in the book with hearts on them. How sweet is that?

prognosis

Scott and I took the triplets to the doctors today. Matthew has a double ear infection and John has one in his left ear. Explains why they don't want to lay down. I'm hoping the medicine helps tomorrow and they can sleep better.

House of gunk

The last few days have been very hectic here. The babies are sick. They are taking turns though as to who has fevers and who needs mom the most. But I have only been getting 2 or 3 hours of sleep at night. And not all at once either.

I've had to hold them a lot - either one or two of them and even sometimes just so that they sleep during the day. So I'm not getting a lot done.

This is the time where I feel guilty about not having enough of me to go around that I can cuddle and be with them when they are sick. I know it can happen with someone who has 3 or 4 children too. But a 5 year olds needs when they are sick are different than three, THREE, two year olds.

Our growing family

This is an older picture of Jacob coloring. He now tells everyone he's going to be an artist when he grows up.
Jacob loves Halloween. He and Scott have carved two pumpkins.
The pumpkins have multiplied. Jacob carved the little pumpkin all by himself. He wants to get a bunch more pumpkins to carve and light up. Also, Scott got him some orange lights to put on our dinky little plants in the front yard.
Our biker gang.
Matthew was coloring himself with markers today. I'm hoping it comes out in his clothing.

Brooke's first haircut

Jacob's first day of school

You can tell Jacobs allergies are bothering him in these pictures. For about two weeks the allergies were really bad.

His desk is the front with the yellow folder and blue box. He thought that meant he and his teacher were in charge of the rest of the class.

Johnny

Johnny is unique. Johnny is special. You can tell by these pictures what I deal with every day.

Closed for repairs

So today I get the kids ready to go to the Birth to Three playgroup and we get there and walk in the classroom and start playing and the room is different and there are different teachers there.

No, I didn't walk into the wrong classroom. But thats really likely.

They are having evals this week and have no playgroups or classes.

So, I packed up the kids and we went over to my mom and dads.

The kids destroyed the house. I went to get McDonalds and pick up Jacob from school.

We went to Grandmas and ate. We came home.

John cried and cried. Matthew cried because John was crying. Brooke cried herself to sleep. And so it was a miserable naptime.

And then Shell Dinter came over and we went to the mall to play in the mall play area. We ate (or I should say the adults did) and then we went to the play area, which is closed. For repairs.

So I'm 0-2.

Motherly instincts

Brooke and her dolly. She's got really great instincts when she's "playing".

Headlock? Not really hard to interpret this hold of love.

So, she hurts her dolly and then gives it kisses? A little sadistic?
At first glance it looks like she's nursing, but looking at the above pictures I'd have to say shes trying to smother the dolly.

Its a good thing she has "practice" time with her dolly before she gets the real thing in 20+ years.

Driving for mommies

O.k. I went to bed at 10:20 p.m. last night instead of blogging. I think it was the responsible thing to do since I had to work at 8 a.m. this morning.

Good thing I did since Brooke had me up at midnightish and then again at 4 a.m. I had her in bed with me for awhile and since she was moving around so much, I put her back in her bed.

So I'm living on about 6 cups of soda. Or something like that. I'd like to say I'll go to bed early tonight, but I"m just not sure. All depends on what "mom" stuff I have to do.

One thing I wish was out there and should just write myself is a book entitled, "Driving safety"

It would go something like this.

Mommy buckles up all her children in the car in their carseats. As she pulls onto the freeway/highway, her oldest child starts yelling, "Mommy look at me! Look what I'm doing!" And mommy, not taking her eyes off of the road, "Not now son, I'm trying to drive." And it gets louder, "MOM!!! Look! What is that?" And on and on... thats how my car drive goes and I'm surprised I don't get into an accident.

Hell froze over

Today we had our FVMOM fall rummage sale. Jacob helped me last night set up everything and today he woke up early, at 6 a.m., because he was so excited to go to the rummage sale.

When he got there, he colored, he played with a toy castle I bought for Jordan, he snacked, he drank and he ran around. I think his favorite thing is just running through the aisles. Now normally I wouldn't let him run around in a crowded place, but he just loves to do it and is pretty good about watching for people.

Then when we got home I gave him some cough medicine for his nasty cough. It helped a lot. Scott took him to the hunting land and they set up a blind so they could prepare to shoot turkeys. They actually did see a few and even a stray cat.

I spent the time home with the babies. I could tell they missed me because I had one or two on my lap most of the time.

I asked my parents to come over and we ate pizza and watched the Brewer game. Hell froze over and I watched the entire Brewer game from beginning to end. Actually hell would freeze over IF Scott watched the entire Brewer game from beginning to end. I like baseball/softball and even played for about 15 years of my life. But its not interesting until the 8th inning. I think I gave the Brewers some good luck by watching the game because they did win.

On a side note, I cut up the babies pizza to eat. John grabbed a big (pie shaped) piece of pizza and started gobbling it down. He didn't eat it from the tip or anything like that. He just put the pizza up to his face and attacked the cheese. Kind of like the way Animal from the Muppets would eat his food. Brooke was more dignified in eating her slice.

Fire safety week

So, yesterday I told Jacob not to interrupt me unless he was on fire. So as I'm watching "The Doctors" show portion of how to potty train your children, I saw him rolling on the ground.

Then he says to me, "See mom? I stopped, dropped and rolled."

I guess its fire safety week at school and I guess he took me literally.

Looking back

Yep. We have a Christmas tree up. In October. My son Jacob really likes to celebrate holidays which I think he gets from Grandma Callaway. He always comes home from her house and then will ask me if we have Halloween lights or Easter bunny and egg decorations.

I decorate for one holiday - Christmas. And I barely do that with three active little ones around.

Tomorrow the triplets will be 2 1/2 years old. Really, the time went by so fast. Its sometimes hard to think of my babies being toddlers and seeing them grow so fast. I must admit that there are times when I think the clock actually went backward, but that's due to lack of sleep or crying.

I was reading someonelses blog about how they now get comments about their triplets and I totally hear where they are coming from. I think there are times when we are so proud to show our children off and have them admired, but there are times when we just want to be ourselves and try to live a private life.

I think as the kids get older, we'll get less comments about them being twins/triplets. Matthew is already taller and about 5 lbs heavier than Johnny. I'm sure as they enter school people will think I was just crazy and had one on top of the other. (Well, I actually did)

I think one of the interesting things is how the kids develop. They hear and see the same thing, are in the exact same environment, but react to things differently. Its a very cool thing to see.

I think parenting is tough - period. Leading by example, being consistent, keeping them safe, etc... its multitasking to the next level.

National Down Syndrome Awareness month

October is a pretty special month. It will be 14 years ago on October 4th that I met Scott... and as they say, the rest is history.

Also, Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on a church door in the 1600s creating the beginning of Lutheranism. Same time as we pagans celebrate Halloween.

Also, this month is Down Syndrome awareness month. I'd like to say something everyday that's creative and introspective about people who have DS. But I don't think I can do them or their uniqueness justice.

However, I work at the YMCA (You can always stay at the the Y M C A... doesn't that song play in your head too?) and there is a girl named Carol that has been a volunteer for 10 years and is so nice. She helps out with housekeeping and laundry. And there is a lot of laundry at the Y. People - you don't need to use four towels at a time - com' on! She always got a smile on her face and saying hello to everyone. I asked her one day how old she was and she said 37. She doesn't look a day over 25 and I told her that. But maybe when you like what you do and who you work with, it doesn't age you... :)

Its approximately 2 1/2 months until Christmas. And we have a Christmas tree up and decorated in our house already. Scott bought Jacob a 4 1/2 foot tree and he put on lights and the decorations all by himself. Its going to be a very interesting Christmas if he's ALREADY excited about it. (Picture me holding my head in my hands)