Miscellaneous

This was so funny, I had to post it. Yesterday (Tuesday) Mary asked about going to church and I said we would go tomorrow (Wednesday). Well this morning, she announced that tomorrow was over, and asked about going to church. She is so smart!!!

Also, unless sister helped, Chris rolled over onto his tummy this morning for the first time, and was the first of the trio to do this. No surprise, he seems the most agile.

Last week (on the 14th) we started feeding the boys cereal. Chris and Daniel are keeping most of it in their mouth. Nathan is slobbering a lot out...

From stepping on the scale, with and without baby, I think the boys weigh about 16 pounds now, each. They are doing fantastic. I'm looking forward to the official numbers at the pediatrician's office, the end of next week. Sometime over the weekend I will be able to pick up my sister and nephew from her in-laws in Greenville, to spend the first week of August before she returns to California. :)

Before that though, I will need to get through 4 days of CPE in Greenville. I've got sitters arranged for each day, all wonderful trustworthy people...but I'm still not anticipating leaving the boys, or sitting in a classroom four days straight. However, it's better than the alternatives of giving up my CPA licence or doing home based study a couple hours every day (while the kids sleep) for several weeks.

Updates and News

"You've got yer hands full!" We hear this everywhere.

Mary reading to the boys

It is not possible to get three boys to smile at the same time!

Helping Daddy assemble a tricycle for big sister

Poor kid! Big sister has been busy.

Happy Birthday!

Life is relatively day to day normal busy these days. Although nothing extremely "exciting" is going on, that is not a bad thing.

We almost had a court date (would have been last week) to finalize the boys' adoption. We were hoping to get in before the end of June, related to the timing of Jeff's employee adoption assistance from Clemson. That became impossible because of the back log of the Anderson County family court. The day after we got our court date scheduled, it became apparent that there was one additional paperwork detail that would prevent that date from being feasible. We have been told we may be able to finalize the adoptions in August...we will see. We anticipate the finalization, however, there is a blessing in not being able to finalize the adoptions yet...

I have had a surprising, but great blessing this month. As my free formula from the manufacturers was running out, we were anticipating the need to start purchasing formula. On a whim, and partly due to the fact the boys are on Medicaid (because of their technical status as foster children), I called up our local WIC office. Sure enough, Medicaid recipients automatically qualify for WIC!! So, until the boys' adoption finalizes in court, we will qualify for WIC. We also anticipate our pediatrician taking the boys off the high calorie (read high dollar) formula at their six month check up the beginning of August. The WIC appointment took about 2 1/2 hours. We met with two different nurses as well as a nutritionist. The boys were weighed and measured (they were up to 13-7, 13-13, and 14-4). I especially thought the discussion with the nutritionist was quite valuable (especially with regard to the timing of starting baby cereal).

We were encouraged at the last visit with the doctor to start cereal soon. But, based on the boys prematurity, and their excellent weight gain, and good sleep, (not to mention the extra effort of spoon feeding)...I have yet to begin that journey. Probably before too long, we'll give it a try, as the boys are almost 6 months old now!

At times, I've noticed Chris especially (and possibly the other two) sucking his thumb. The boys all love to giggle and smile. Just the other day, Mary got into a giggling contest with one of the boys. They have also begun to notice each other and at times, just stare at each other. We recently pulled a Jumperoo down from the attic, and all the boys seem to have figured it out (although Nathan I think has to work a little harder to hold up his head--he being our chunk!) We also have a walker which will be more useful in coming months (their feet don't reach the floor on it yet!). However, Mary has enjoyed pushing her brothers around--yes, already! :)

Finally, even though this is a triplet blog, I need to mention the boys' sister...Mary is a big girl now. She turned 3 on "Juwy ferd"...translated July 3. :) Mary very much enjoyed her "swimming party". She had over 5 boys from the 2-3 Sunday school class at church (she's the only girl), along with her cousin Emily and the kids all enjoyed the octopus sprinkler, slip n slide and wading pool.

We are beginning what appears to be shaping up to be a busy month with friends coming over, a couple trips up to Greenville, and four days of CPE for Rebecca (and babysitters for all four days). At least I can get most of my 40 hours knocked out at one time. The highlight though, will be a visit from Aunt Liz and Cousin Noah at the beginning of August!!!

More pictures and videos from June are posted here.