Halloween

The kids are Ginnea Pig Linny (Eva) Turtle Tuck (Alex) and Ming Ming Duck (Lucy) for Halloween. They were so excited about their costumes this morning (t-shirts with the characters/and capes-from Abby on their Birthday). "I'm gonna be ming ming". So many smiles. And then when the came out to the living room they found their pumpkin buckets from last year and distributed them amongst themselves without any parental mediation. It felt like christmas morning at our house!

While they're previous costumes (peas in a pod, and hungry caterpillar) were totally awesome, this is the first year they seem to getting caught up in the excitement too. Hopefully I will be able to update this post with pictures and stories from trick-or-treating later tonight!

So its a Mad Dash to get home from work and get ready for trick-or-treating. Our friends Jon, Sheila, and Thomas joined us for trick-or-treating and so we felt we need to have the house presentable and snacks on hand. That coupled with making some finishing touches to costumes and Lucy spilling her milk, meant mamma needed a cocktail before we took off.

Trick-or-treating: Our friend Thomas was a champ saying his "trick-or-treat" on cue and nice "thankyous". Alex did pretty well, but the girls were feeling pretty shy. Trick-or-treats were barely audible when they were willing to say them at all. It didn't help that Sheila dressed as the "undead" version oft lherself with dead make-up and teased hair. Thanks alot sheila :) We walked to several houses and the neighbors who know us were very excited to see the crew. Eva got into the idea of putting candy in people's buckets but would take it a little far by putting her own candy into the big buckets people were trying to distribute from. Once we got home she enjoyed helping us distribute our own candy even though some of the costumes were quite scary!

Our neighborhood gets TONS of traffic so we saw a lot of costumes. I think the old-school power ranger was my favorite and I lament the lack of Harry Potters. Maybe we'll have to bring that back one of these years :)

See the Picasa site for pictures of the action https://picasaweb.google.com/earlymiller

Happy Halloween!

Tori's last day

From August 2012

Big changes at Triplet Central. Today is the last day our awesome nanny Tori will be taking care of the kids at home. Monday the kids start going to a home daycare not far from our house. Tori has been an energetic and caring nanny who gets the kids to behave and eat soooo much better than Matt and I ever seem to be able to. The kids adore her and are always very snazzily dressed and groomed on the days she watches them. We got to have lunch with her and the kids today at a local coffee shop. Kids were promised chocolate milk and when we left the ordering counter without any in hand yet, Alex gazed up sadly at the boxes in the case "bye, bye chocolate milk". He was quite relieved when he got to have one after all. As we were handing them out Eva was the last to get hers which was of great concern to Lucy. "Eva's milk Eva's milk." Glad they are looking out for each other.

Day with Dad

Matt had the kids to himself yesterday. I had to work 12 hours so it was a loooong time alone with the kiddos. But beyond just wrangling 3 2-year-olds at home he actually decided to do a grocery run. Grocery shopping has gotten a lot harder now that the kids no longer want to sit in a stroller. Usually if we take the kids we go as a family and have one in charge of kids and one in charge or shopping and even then it can sometimes devolve into chaos. Although the kids are famous and beloved by our friendly neighborhood Hy-Vee staff and patrons. When I asked him how it went, this was his response:

"Well we had a cart with the truck on the front but even as we started in produce they were starting to stand and get out. So then I thought 'I either need to rock this or just abort'. So I went for it and I just kept moving didn't stop the whole time. Sometimes I went down aisles where I didn't need anything just so I could plan for the next one and strategize where things would be. And we made it!"

I also have to say that when I got home, Matt seemed pretty pleased with himself for having gotten through the day. And he even went so far as to say he still really liked our kids (which I'll admit I don't always feel at the end of a long day on my own). Side note: we have been trying to figure out some sort of backup daycare situation since I really can't miss much work during internship and Matt shouldn't miss all that much either. Its just tricky with the 3 because when one gets sick usually another one does as well and we miss a whole week of work staying home with sick kids. We may have found a possible solution but still need to test it out.

Take Care,
Martha

Quick Updates

Mom: Martha will be starting a year long internship position starting Monday, October 15 in the Department of Health Psychology at the University of Missouri. I will primarily be working at the Thompson Center which specializes in Autism and other developmental disorders. I will be doing a combination of assessment, therapy, and research. I have been working at the center for a year and love it. I am really excited to be moving on with internship and the rest of my career!

Dad: Matt is still doing the same old thing except his department has merged a couple times recently. He went from CDIS to Mizzou Online to now ET@MO. Now if he could only find time to for home-brewing...

Matt and I have had visits from the grandparents the past couple weeks which was really nice. Its finally not super hot (its actually quite cold) and the past month has seen us actually venturing out and keeping up with the house, etc. I made a lot of fall recipes this weekend (chili, cornbread casserole, apple cake). Its been a long time since I have felt like cooking/baking. Thanks to our nanny Abby we have been observing a weekly date night which involves baking soda volcanoes for the kids and dinner/movies for us (win, win, win, win, win).

Kids: Alex is a perfect combination of charming, silly, and sweet. He is talking in full sentences (though its not always easy to understand what he's saying), and narrates life pretty much nonstop. Mommy sit in this chair. I see a blue car. Eva play red car. (after he steals it) Eva crying. He takes his affection for his sisters a little too far for their comfort especially when his affection takes the form of tackling them or stealing their toys. He is also the one that serenades us in the morning with calls of Mommy Daddy Good Morning! We rely way too much on this (rather than our alarms) to wake us up. He hates to have his face washed.

Lucy is into her stuff. I recently got her a 100 or so miniature animals that she loves to move from bag to table to floor to bag. She gets very upset when one of her siblings tries to play with one unless a parent steps in to more evenly distribute the toys. She also likes: stickers, legos, puzzles, dolls, and anything that belongs to her parents. She is talking in perfect sentences with pronouns and frequently explains things to the other kids for us "No Alex, we'll have water when we get home." "No Alex, we don't stand on the table." She doesn't sleep as soundly as the others but does better when Matt or I sit in their room while she falls back asleep. She hates it when some one takes something that is "hers".

Eva is still our cuddler. She gives lots of hugs and loves to be tickled. She is best buds with Alex unless he is interrupting her play (which is all the time). She reads books and sings. She also has some very impressive expressions when she gives the stink eye just before she smiles.She's getting really good a pouring things in the tub. She "opens" her PB&J sandwiches before the eats them like some one eating the filling of an Oreo. She hates to have her hair combed.

The kids started at a full time home daycare back in August. They love it and we love it. They've gotten sick twice which has involved a total of 2 weeks where Matt and I had to juggle at least one kid at home while we tried to get our work done. Don't love that part. As far as potty training I'd say we are in the pre-training phase right now. They need a little more time to figure things out or I need a little more time to work up the energy before we push the issue. For now watching 3 toddlers sit on potties while reading various books is really, really cute. They also still sleep in cribs and with pacifiers. May need to make some adjustments before they go off to college.

In September they participated in a 3-week gymnastics class. See our picasa site for pictures :)

https://picasaweb.google.com/earlymiller/2012September

That's it for now. Really hope everyone is having a great fall!
Martha