Friday, January 30, 2009

Kindergarten

Some news just ends up rocking our world. Even though I had a sneaking suspicion about this, Jacob's teacher and I had a conference yesterday. She suggested thinking about keeping Jacob back. His birthday is in May.

This was one of my fears all along. I knew that he was the youngest in his class of 15 (well, second youngest). He doesn't ever want to go to school and I almost have to drag him there everyday. Once hes there he seems to be fine. But he wants to stay at home with me and the babies.

He also has not been listening when his teacher gives out directions. His mind wanders easily. Even when they are singing or doing an activity he seems to have his head in the clouds.

She suggested making sure he has a proper diet and is getting enough sleep. But otherwise this really is an emotional development that we may not be able to control.

I just hate thinking of holding him back now that hes had two years with the same kids. I don't want Jacob to think that hes done anything wrong or isn't smart enough because that isn't that case. Academically hes doing great. I don't want him socially ostracized because hes not fitting in with the others or hasn't made friends (as is the case now - he really doesn't have any close friends). And maybe he would be better off with the class below him emotionally.

I think I'm rambling...

But the worst feeling is that I haven't done enough to help him succeed. It tears me up. I knew as soon as I found out that I was having triplets that Jacob would get the short end of the stick. And he has. I don't know if I could have helped him be more emotionally mature. I don't know if I can help him like school more. It just sucks because I have this guilt trip that I haven't done enough and I wonder what I can do to change that.

At least its a long way to next August when school starts. I can wait to make a decision until the week before school anyway.

It seems to be the trend to hold your child back if they have a summer birthday. Two of Jacobs classmates are born in July and their parents just delayed sending them to school until they were 5. I think that makes children like Jacob who were born in May look more emotionally and physically immature because they have classmates that are 9 months older then them.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Is it summer yet?






Well, two posts in one day? Whats with that???
This is what the Callaways have been up to.
I've been sewing.
Matthew has been eating paper plates and starting Lego fights.
John has been tearing wall paper off his bedroom walls. You know, the wallpaper that I bought over the Internet and spent days painting his room so that it would match that wallpaper?
Brooke has been tearing apart Kleenex's to very very small pieces.
Jacob has been building boats with his Lego's. Which he doesn't have as many boats because Matthew used them in the Lego fight.
I spent two hours cleaning up the Legos while the kids had "quiet" time in their cribs. "Quiet" time is defined, by me, as time to reflect, read, play quietly or sleep.
"Quiet" time by the little boys is defined as throwing everything out of their cribs, yelling, jumping, banging and everything but sleeping.

Lego fight











So, I went to make a three minute phone call. This is what I found. I'm going to get a drink.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

January humdrums

What to say, what to say...

Well, John has a cold. I'm surprised at this, but he lets me use the nose sucker on him to clean out his nose. And then Brooke doesn't want to be left out of the whole thing and says, "me too!"


Jacob is obsessed with building boat legos. Its all he wants to do. And guess what? John wants to build boats too. But Jacob doesn't want to share his boat bases.

Matthew is the same old happy self. Hes one kid I'd like to duplicate.

I had some good news today that a store in this area wanted to carry my burp clothes that I make and my taggie blankets. I'm going to make some monster taggie blankets for them too. And another store asked me to make boys belts. I'm hoping that the law that comes in effect in february doesn't affect me. :) Its probably wishful thinking, I'm going to do some more research and write my letters to my congressmen.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

You show me yours ...

Certain names have been changed to protect the identities. Story is real, but may not be remembered as how really happened.

And so yesterday Jacob was asking daddy to show "MVD" his belly button. Jacob says, "Daddy show "MVD" your belly button!" And as we all chuckled Jacob added, "Cause its so big!"

At least it was just the belly button he was talking about. These privacy issues and private parts discussion have been taken to a whole new level.

And I had my Dodge Grand Caravan SXT in this week. My radio started working that day, but a new one is $600 and my tie rods aren't covered. And then the technician found three other things that total $1608 that are under warranty that needed to be fixed. Seriously, anyone out there considering a Dodge, this should be a warning to you. Stay away. Although I few people I talked to have the Chrysler model of my van and they have not had these problems.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Dodge Smodge

I have a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. The SXT costs extra but I'm able to get the triple stroller in the back.

I have this love/hate relationship with Dodge vehicles.

My first Dodge was a 1999 Dodge Stratus with a sunroof. That was the only thing I liked about that vehicle. I was a few days short of the lemon law. It had several recalls that year and on top of it, it had its transmission replaced at 6,000 miles. There were several problems with that thing. I sold it to some unsuspecting suckers a year or two later.

Fast-forward to December 8/9th 2005. Ultrasound shows 3 babies. &$@*! This now means I need a 6 plus passenger vehicle that can safely handle four car seats. Four car seats. We do research and decide we REALLY like the stow and go seating. It came out in 2004/2005 so getting a used vehicle with this option would be slim.

Of course Dodge has stow and go seating and the local yahoos here had a 2005 SXT (which we needed for the stroller) with only 6,000 miles on it. We bought it at the end of January 2006.

I think there have been a couple of recalls. I've had numerous problems with the air condition not working. Its probably been in 3-4 times for that.

There have been other minor things too.

At 35,000 miles I got my tires replaced and the techs at a independent shop told me the tie rod is going bad and my brake pads only have 10% left. So this week I went in to get my front brake pads replaced and guess what? The calipers are sticking and yadayadayada $450 later I have new parts in my van. Still have not gotten the tie rods fixed.

Then Saturday I went over to the in-laws to use their heated garage to clean my prize possession. As I'm doing errands the radio stops working. The channels jump around, seek doesn't work any more and there is no volume.

Come on! I'm going to write a letter (or e-mail) dodge letting them know what crap this is.

Oh, and sometimes my seat belt won't click. I have to wiggle it and try several times before it works.

Lovely. Lovely. And society wonders why these "American made" car companies are struggling.

Stop importing your parts from CHINA!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Delurking and triplet thoughts

Its delurking day, week, month? Leave a comment please and introduce yourself.

If you don't leave a comment and still read the blog, 7 bad things will happen to you within 7 days of reading this blog. (I hate those stupid e-mails)

I can't get the stupid "Delurking Day" cute banner, button, image. I've become electronically impaired since turning 30 AND having triplets in the same year.


I want to leave a list of surprising things I learned about after having children/triplets.

  • You need to buy a bunch of batteries for all the swings, mobiles, bouncy seats, crib toys and those invasion of privacy listening devices that parents put in their children's room to hear their every move (I can't think of the name).
  • You do more laundry than you'd ever think possible.
  • Burp cloths - if you think you need only a pack, triple that thought. Kids are messy and go through a lot.
  • You and your husband/friends talk about the unthinkable. Poop, pee, breasts, episotimies, puke, vomit, your five year olds conversations about e r e c t i o n s.
  • Find a friend or family member that you admire their parenting techniques and ask them a bunch of questions. Then, modify it to fit your children.



Sunday, January 11, 2009

Chlorine hangovers

This was a busy weekend.

Saturday my church had a "Winter Flurry", which was a big carnival for the kids. I took the kids and we had fun. The babies didn't exactly like to play the games by the rules set out, but hey, they are 2. Matthew found Jim and Amy by the bowling game and stayed with them to "help" set the pins up and also throw balls at them.

Jacob didn't want to wander far from me and it was hard going from game to game without the other two monkeys getting into trouble. Grabbing at the prize boxes, getting in the way of the game and just other general mayhem.

But we survived and even had ice cream sundaes and John won mini-cupcakes, Jacob won Doritos and a Gatorade and Matthew won a matchbox car.

Then I took my niece and nephew Katie and Sam back to our house and picked up Scott along the way to go swimming at the YMCA. We got into the pool and the babies just wanted to stand at the edge or splash their hands and feet. Finally after a half hour John was the first to really want to start swimming and he used my arm as a floatation device. Then Matthew joined in. I was so lucky not to get kicked or punched anywhere. I took those two in to get showered. Brooke stayed back by Katie and Scott where she finally got into swimming.

Hilarity ensued getting all the kids showered and dressed. There was a family in the locker room with us with three kids (they were in the pool at the same time as us too). She finally asked at the end, "do you have four or five children?" I said "Six, but only four are mine." She said that she was so impressed at how I handled all the kids and everything. Which made me laugh. I told her it was my husbands first time swimming with all the kids and I don't know if he'd think it was so fun and easy.

But we do what we have to do as parents to give our kids the best start in life. They need to learn to swim just from a safety standpoint. But they also need to learn to get out and hold hands, listen to mom, and how to act in public. These are great childhood memories that I hope they will remember and appreciate. Or, since I blogged about it, they can read it down the road.

So then Scott took the triplets home because they had not had a nap and were tired. I took Jacob, Katie and Sam to Culvers to eat and then we headed back to the YMCA for "Family Night". They had inflatables set up and a bunch of other stuff. Sam and I played basketball, which he swears he beat me by two points. The game is formally contested and will be disputed this week.

THEN, we went home, set up cots in the living room and they watched the Transformers movie and fell asleep while I went to see Twilight with a couple of friends.

A few things I'd like to get off my chest.
The book is ALWAYS better than the movie. The movie is good but the book explored the characters more deeply, set up situations for later scenes.

I didn't like some of the special effects of movie. In the book, the vampires "shimmer" in sunlight. The "shimmer" stunk in the movie. There were some very important lines that were dropped between Edward and Bella that really solidified their relationship and defined who they were as characters.

And, I cannot believe that a movie costs $9.00. And the popcorn combos were all like, $10.00 to $15.00. So if I went with a date, the movie and concessions would have cost me $30-35.00. Wow. I can't believe that cinemas are still doing well in this economy.

Nursery rhymes

I sometimes feel like that old lady who lived in a shoe...

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The day in the life of triplets






















Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Pictures of happier days























Playing with a little Dokedo... and John is so nicely pointing out the Dokedo Jacob put in his belly button.

Mayhem

God bless me. God give me patience. Is the day over yet? Did I give birth to this? God bless me! God bless me! GOD BLESS ME! Just wait until they have kids.

This is what I've said to myself the last three days.

Matthew has the stomach flu. I got it a few hours later. And the other two spawns of satan have gotten the best of me and every child proof lock and every other thing they can find.



Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Dovalicious

So, I was on the phone with a friend (you know who you are!) making plans to go to Twilight this weekend.

I'm putting away clothes as I'm doing this in effort to make good use of my time.

I go downstairs to get some more clothes and in the living room are...

all the babies with chocolate on their faces and hands with a whole bag of Dove dark chocolate miniatures opened. All of the Dove dark chocolate miniatures opened. All. They all had unwrapped the candy and had fistfuls of chocolate.

I actually froze for probably 20 seconds just taking it in. They had pushed a chair over to the pantry and opened the childproof lock. Got up to the third shelf and taken the candy down. Took it into the living room and unwrapped them all (without reading the sayings inside because the wrappings were shredded).

I actually thought for a minute that they could die from chocolate poisoning and then remembered that was for dogs. But really, whats the difference?

Monday, January 5, 2009

Happy New Year

  1. I've made it to 2009
  2. I didn't quite meet my expectations for 2008
  3. I decided to lower my standards this year
  4. Potty training three 2 year and 9 month old children is like sticking needles in my eye
  5. Potty training will be put off until a) I get more sedatives b) I mutate and there are two more of me c) the preschool teacher does it for me d) when the state takes my children away from me
  6. PJs are now loosely defined as comfortable clothing that I can sleep in and also wear around the house and shopping.
  7. Showering everyday is not always an option due to the ineffectiveness of child proof locks on doors and drawers.
  8. Three heads are better than one
  9. I think I saw Brooke's head spin all the way around from its axis and her eyes glowed red.
  10. John now has a Mohawk (pictures coming when I get to it)
  11. Jacob just killed me today with annoying me constantly and misbehaving badly in public.
  12. I actually asked a person at the Y if there were cameras in the area of the building so I could drag them down the stairs
  13. And that comment got some curious stares from members of the Y, in which I'm sure that child services will be getting a call.
  14. I HATE this weather. Our driveway is an ice rink.