Annual Christmas Blog/Letter

I debated whether to write a letter this year, or even send out cards. Not sure if I'll continue past this year. Note the lateness this time around...guess it's been busy!

Mary is in kindergarten now at Oakwood, and loving it. I'm repeatedly surprised by the words she picks out written on random advertising, etc. I've enjoyed accompanying her on a few field trips/events and watching her perform in the Christmas program. If the pace of the first semester of kindergarten is any indication, I'm going to blink, and she'll be out of high school. She still has her red hair, and I'm crossing my fingers that it will stay.

The boys are almost to their third birthday. They have just "exploded" in their talking and interaction over the past year. The boys are in the process of potty training...and what a process it is! I was warned by many wiser and more experienced friends to hold the boys off for a while...but did I listen...nooo. :) Oh well. We will either get "over the hump" in the next couple weeks, or they will go back into pullups for awhile, until tax season is over.

Yes, I will be working part time from mid January to mid April. I have some wonderful friends and babysitters who are going to "cover" for me two days per week, just as I did last spring. It will be a nice change of pace and help me catch up my skills a bit.

Jeff has been hard at work on the outside of our home over the last year. We finally have a nice stand of fescue grass, as well as some basic landscaping set up. The kids have a playground out back now, and we have some outdoor furnishings on the porch and back deck. We are still slowly organizing and unpacking some of our "storage" and office. It takes a while when you have 3 two year olds. Oh, and don't even ask about the basement. :)

All things considered, we thank God for His goodness to us. Merry Christmas!

November 2010 Pictures
October 2010 Pictures

Merry Christmas

Fall Festival




Packing to Move




Donut Time!




(Mommy was standing close by ready to catch any falling boys...)










Playing with Christmas Lights






Playing "Ashes"


Hi All...

Welcome to my "Christmas letter" blog. I had written last in August with firm resolve to blog more often this fall, and then we moved. :) Oh, well. I am certainly not without excuse for not updating more frequently.

We started packing with gusto in mid to late September. I walked into the kitchen one day from a shopping outing to find that Jeff had emptied out my pantry, and all the voluminous free/10cent ketchup and salad dressing bottles (from couponing/sales) were piled 10 deep on my countertop. The fun begins. For the next month, everything that wasn't nailed down (or living and breathing) went in a box. The week leading up to Halloween we spent starting to bring things in, and moving day, Oct 31, went fairly smoothly. Once everything was in, we spent the following two weeks plus cleaning up/cleaning out the old house, painting, and having tile put in. Now we wait (patiently) for God's timing to sell the old house. (Anyone looking for a house in Anderson???) Little by little we are settling in here, and are so excited about our new home, and all the opportunities the new space allows. We are overwhelmed by God's blessing in this regard.

The kids are doing well. Mary (hard to believe) is 4 1/2 now, and will be starting kindergarten next fall (kinda scary!). She's enjoying playing outside, with a bit more freedom where we live now than before. And, she loves to color and do any kind of crafty projects. The boys are nearly two, and it's amazing to think where we were with regard to them this time two years ago. They are starting to imitate words more and more, and their speech is slowly growing. Chris has a new game he likes to play. Ask him a question, any question...say, "Do you want some candy?" The answer invariably is "No!" The boys have also gotten into playing ring around the rosies...on their own. The call it playing "Ashes." One will say "Ashes!" and they all three jump up and join hands and going around in a circle "Ashes, ashes, ashes, ashes!" So cute!

We are overwhelmed by God's many wonderful gifts to us this year. Merry Christmas!!!

No rest for the weary Mommy...

The boys went for a checkup this past week...all is well! They are moving along on their own slow growth curve. Their weight is slowing finally...due to incredible busyness!! The boys are becoming very busy. The are climbing everything now. As short as they are, they have quickly learned that ride on toys make wonderful stepping stones for getting on furniture. From there, they can get past the gate to the disallowed side of the gate in the living room where there's all kind of cool things like computer wires. They like to pull dish cloths and towels out and strew them around the living room. They like to open the a/c return vent (thankfully no one tried to dive down it). Since that incident, it has been taped shut. The dining room table is a wonderful thing to climb onto, especially during meal preparations, when there are clean dishes and utensils just waiting for some toddler to play with. All this adds up to a very tired Mommy. But, the toddler phase is so fun, too...and over far too quickly.

We were just looking at a video of Mary from two years ago...the changes are phenomenal. Mary is growing up into quite a big girl. Mary goes outside with us while we do yard work in the evening, and she enjoys her bike and can be trusted to stay nearby on the driveway/sidewalk (while the boys may go to bed a few minutes earlier). Mary loves to help with meal preparations. Mary is starting to learn to write...Mary writes her own name! Mary decided she wanted her new room to be pink and purple...so it is! Pink walls and purple carpet!

Speaking of...things are coming along nicely. The painters are hard at work, and probably have a few more weeks. (I still need to decide about the master bedroom/bath!) Then I suppose the remainder would be things like tile and carpet to be put in, wood floor to be sanded/stained, and miscellaneous finishes. We should be fairly close...hoping to be in before the end of September.

Pictures of the kids from June/July are here:

June

July


New pictures from the house are here:

New House

Summertime procrastinations...

I've been thinking of posting a new blog entry for some time. I could say I don't have time and have been busy, but I'm always busy, and I need to make time. All that aside, here's what's going on in our household.

The boys are walking quite well...and climbing. Most people keep their piano benches up by their pianos. Not us. If we kept it there, I'd have boys walking down the keyboard "plink-plink". The boys do climb on anything and everything. The week it started, I came home from being out for a few hours to find the babysitter had put all the ride on toys behind a latched door. They were using them to climb everything in the living area. One evening after supper, I found that Chris had shoved the learning chair up against the recliner and had used it climb up. So I removed him from the recliner, and put the learning chair back against the wall. 5 minutes later everything was returned to the previous state (the learning chair to the recliner, and Chris to the recliner chair). I returned everything again...and quickly learned how intelligent my first born triplet is. He was very methodical about retrieving his tool of choice (the learning chair), positioning it appropriately, and climbing into the recliner. We've since given up the fight to keep them off the furniture...we only require that they sit (which is not easy) of course to prevent falls.

Oh, and at the end of that week, I came home and another sitter told me that one of the boys had climbed on top of the high chair tray. (why does everything happen while I'm out?)

It's been a couple months since the boys have been to the doctor. We go back in a few weeks, and I'll try to update you then. Anyway, as of May, the boys weighed about 23 pounds each and were around 28 inches tall. Essentially, they're substantial, stocky, healthy but short little boys. Mary recently had her 4 year check up and shots. She's doing great...25% for weight & height (means her weight is perfect for her genetic height). Her shots did not go so well. I'm not looking forward to that for the boys 4 year checkup. Baby shots are one thing...they don't know it's coming. Four year old shots...that's something entirely different.

The boys are starting to talk a little more, though not quite taking off yet. Their vocabulary includes words such as:

ma ma
da da
me me (Mary)
Kede (just heard that from Chris this morning, in reference to Nimrod the cat)
Hi
Bye
Ni-niye
ball

They are also understanding (and sometimes following) "no no", "close it", "clean up", sit and come.

We've been teaching the boys to point to themselves when I say "Where's Chris" (or Nathan, or Daniel). Unfortunately, they still sometimes point to themselves in reference to another baby. Chris has learned to point to his nose if you ask him, too. So communication is coming. It will become very interesting, I'm sure.

Mary's enjoying her brothers (likes to feed them or "mother" them when she gets a chance). Mary has some interesting things to say sometimes...

"He falled me down!"
"kristies" --Rice Crispies
"Mommy ate too many M&M's and got a boo boo in her tummy" --in reference to my minor surgery last spring.
"Dear Jesus, thank you for my..dinner from last night. In Jesus name, Amen" (occasionally upon not eating much for supper, the veggie or whatever "revisits" Mary for breakfast).

Mary very much enjoys her play dough, her Leap Pad, books, coloring...

We have all enjoyed going swimming this summer at a friend's pool, as an occasional respite from the busyness of the summer. We're not taking any vacations this summer (can you imagine 3 18 month olds and a 4 year old at the beach???) I'd need a vacation afterward! Instead, we're busy on the finishes to our new home. It is projected to be done sometime in September. I recently finalized my selections for tile, and lighting fixtures. As I am not an interior designer, I've needed some help and still struggled through some of my choices.

Here's pictures of the house:

House Pictures 1

House Pictures 2

Here's the latest pictures I have posted of the kids:

Pictures from May - More to come soon!

Enjoy!!

New Happenings (written 5/15/09)

I know this is a triplets blog, but other things are happening too...

First the boys...all three are standing up alone with regularity, and Chris and Nathan are really starting to walk. Nathan took 10 steps alone on the 9th, and Chris just took off repeatedly taking lots of steps on the 13th (the boys 16 month birthday). Meanwhile, Daniel is getting better at standing. His greater talents lie elsewhere. Daniel is starting to say ni-niy from his crib when Mommy says good night to the boys. He also is starting to imitate "bah-bye" when people wave and say good bye and leave. Chris and Daniel in particular say ma-ma-mah frequently, but it still seems somewhat indiscriminate.

Today we attended the NightLight Christian Adoptions (FKA Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency) 1st Annual 5K for Adoption Awareness. It went pretty well. Jeff & his Dad pushed the kids in double strollers, since I'm not allowed to do much right now due to a recent minor surgery. His Dad came in first in his age category!

At the boys' recent check up Chris (still the lightest) weighed 21 lb 9 oz, Daniel weighed 22 lb 2 oz, and Nathan weighed 22 lb 9 oz. This puts the boys between the 10th and 25th percentile for weight, and between the 0th and 10th for height. We still have little bitty boys! The dr was quite pleased with the boys' development.

Recently, I've started reading blogs about how to save money on groceries and household consumables. My most recent find has been on diapers. Here's a tip. Periodically Walgreens puts their pack of diapers on sale, 2 pkg for $9. They also have a coupon out for $2 off a package of diapers. That works out to $2.50/pack, or $.08/ diaper! That's about half of what I had been paying for diapers! Yay!!! So, we stocked...and we stocked! 5 months worth. Over 2000 diapers...LOL.

And some of those diapers will have to be moved to the new house. The house is really starting to take shape. Monday we met with the cabinet maker, and looked at cabinet wood finishes and countertops for the kitchen and baths. Plumbing and electrical are going in right now. Lots of decisions yet to be made...we hope to be in before the summer is out.

So, if you can't tell, a lot is going on at the Bate household...what else is new? :)

Long overdue...

I know its been a long time since I've updated how the boys (and us) are doing. I will try to not leave out too many details, but try to condense somewhat the last two months.

The holidays were a whirlwind. For several days, we enjoyed the company (and craziness) of 11 people in the house. I think we will appreciate the new house that much more. My parents flew in Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas Day with Jeff's family, in Greenville. Then, just before New Years' Day, Liz, Brett & Noah joined us in Anderson. We celebrated our own Christmas that week. We also celebrated the boys' first birthday that weekend. Poor Nathan inexplicably decided he wasn't too interested in his smash cake! That's highly unlike Nathan, and we soon determined that he started some kind of fever virus, at his birthday party, of all places. Sunday (despite Nathan's illness) we were able to have a baby dedication at church for the boys, while all the family was in town. As a little outing, earlier in the week, we went over to the mall and introduced the boys to the meaning of "ice cream cone". Noah and Mary were old pros of course, and showed the boys how to do it. Nathan wasn't too sure about the idea at first, but from the pictures you will be able to see that he came around fairly well. Chris and Daniel never did decide they really wanted something quite so cold...even if it was fairly sweet and creamy.

The boys are continuing to grow, though more slowly. They are all 20 lb and some ounces, and about 27 1/2 inches each, approximately. This leaves them in the 20th percentile for weight, and 0th for height! Yep, 99% of children their age are taller than them! :) The babbling is increasing. We hear ma-ma, kuh-kuh, ga-ga, and buh-buh with regularity. And all three are cruising these days, and just since around the beginning of February, Chris will stand for about 3-4 seconds at a time (sometimes).

Even up until mid December, we relied fairly heavily on formula for the boys' diet. Especially when Noah visited, we continually experimented more and more with table food. By early January the purees were gone, and the next transition was from bottles to sippies. I delayed that until late January. One weekend I decided that was it. Chris and Daniel didn't seem to care too much how they got their formula. Nathan however had other ideas. With the backing of medical advice, Nathan held out and had no milk to drink for over 2 days, until his hunger (and we) won out, and Nathan surprisingly has no problems taking a sippy cup now. The switch from formula to milk went much more smoothly. These days at the grocery store, I pick up 6-7 gallons of milk per week!

Our new home is in the process of being framed up at this point. We've probably lost 3-4 weeks due to weather (either freezing temps or rain). The first floor is about framed up. We hope to be moving in some time this summer (July-August?) We're looking forward to the expanded space.

We've finally posted all the pictures from December and January.

2008 Christmas Letter

Ordinarily this is where I rehash the last 12 months...but you could read the entire year's worth of blog entries for that.

I will make just a few comments, however, as I have been reflecting on the past year.

I had always thought in the back of my mind that multiples would be fun. Back in the "fertility" days, I even said cool when the doctors warned that some of their treatments could lead to a multiple pregnancy. Wow...how the Lord meets the desires of our hearts...or plants those desires in our hearts, with triplets in His plan all along. Jeff will tell you I was bouncing of the walls when our attorney's office called us to say they had a birth mom expecting triplets.

I had an inkling that a triplet pregnancy was high risk, but really had no idea what all "could" have gone wrong. As I have "met" other triplet Moms in the virtual world and heard their stories, it has been more and more clear to me that the Lord protected our birth mother, and the babies she was carrying at the time. In spite of everything, our birth mom carried the boys to a very healthy gestation of 32 1/2 weeks.

Beyond that, some 32 week delivered babies have much more in the way of issues after delivery. The nurses joked in the NICU that they never had to give the boys more in the way of drugs than a suppository. They grew and developed quickly to the point of release (though it seemed long at the time), and remained healthy throughout the critical Spring season.

Of course, in regard to the adoption, there are the inherent risks as you wait for the delivery and final decision by the birth mother. I do occasionally hear of other "expectant" adoptive parents whose situations fall through. I can't imagine going through that, and am thankful that He has protected us from that twice.

As I reflect, I am overwhelmed by God's goodness to us over the last year. Little more than a year ago we were waiting/praying for a new baby. Most aptly, I had a good friend write me back early last December in reply to our news. Eph 3:20 "He...is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think..."

This season, especially, we are praising the Lord for our 4 healthy happy children.

"Pre Christmas" Mini-Blog

The boys are all pulling up now, though Chris only does it most regularly. They are eating lots of "mashed" foods, and even some regular table food (bits of chicken, hot dog, and fruit coctail, to name a few). And they are completely underfoot in the kitchen, especially during meal prep.

Unfortunately, with 4 under 4, the colds and other illness are unavoidable. Lets see...by my memory, I believe we're on our 5th illness since August. Yikes. Hoping to be healthy for Christmas. Three colds, strep, and a diahrrea bug. Lovely. At least one benefit of going to the doctor is getting the boys' weights. Nathan weighs 20 lb 9 oz, Daniel weighs 20 lb 5 oz, and Chris is still lagging behind at 19 lb 13 oz.

Mary loves her babies. She's becoming very entertaining to talk to. She loves to color, and draw, including on the walls. :) And her favorite question is "why?" Mary gave us our first call to poison control tonight, too! Quite entertaining. Toward the end of supper, Mary excused herself to go potty. She came back and just a few minutes after started screaming about her eye. Jeff picked her up and tried to calm her enough to find out what was up. But she could not give us any explanation. He did notice an odor about her, however. I shortly identified that as having come from the glade plug in gel. We surmised that since there was a punctured gel refill on the floor and the scent all over Mary...that it must have gotten in her eye. The poison center had us shower her for 15 minutes, blinking under the stream frequently (better than what SC Johnson said to do--hold her eye open and flush it directly for 15 minutes--yuck!) Apparently the stuffs not really that poisonous, but it is quite irritating. I'm still not sure she understood what happened to her eye or how she got the stuff in her eye.

Probably with three boys this is just the first of excitement to come...

Pictures from November are posted here.

It's Official!

Baby Race



Well, Friday we had the boys' finalizing adoption hearing at the Anderson County Courthouse. It went quite smoothly, but took a bit longer than Mary's. We did have the same judge that finalized Mary's adoption for us almost three years ago. I was a bit surprised, however, as we were approaching the door to the courtroom, that the bailiff suddenly told us no children and no guests at this time. We were surprised, since at Mary's hearing, Mary and all our family members/friends were present throughout. So anyway, Jeff and I quickly handed over all three of the boys we were carrying to the Grandparents and entered the courtroom with our attorney, Ray Godwin and the Guardian ad Litem, only. The judge then proceeded to swear us in, review the court filings and paperwork, and take our testimony. About 2/3 of the way through the hearing he called for our guests and children to be permitted in the court room. The whole thing seemed a bit odd, and left me a tad nervous (the Guardian Ad Litem must have noticed because she kept giving me reassuring looks). Then those who were with us were admitted. At that point the Guardian Ad Litem made her statement, and the judge made his comments...and we were official. After some photos and conversation we left the court room. Apparently, according to our attorney, this particular judge had had a hearing go up the the appeals level a year ago or so, and his decision was affirmed...but still picked apart. So, since then he's been a bit more methodical, and preferred not to have the distraction of children and spectators in the court room. Anyway, it's done!!! We are so thankful to God for the three new children He has given us!!!

Last week the boys had their 9 month check up, and they are doing fantastic. They are up to between 19 and 20 pounds now...and between 26 and 26 1/2 inches. If that means nothing to you, they basically are pretty short and pudgy! But so cute, and so healthy. For their weight they are in the 20-35th percentile, but for their height they are in the 0th percentile! But, as the dr. said, height is all in their genes and they are perfectly normal, short little boys.

The boys are all getting around quite well these days, crawling all over the house. We shut the hallway doors so they basically only have access to the hallway itself and the living/dining/kitchen areas. One funny thing happened earlier this week. Mary had come out of her room (she knows to shut her door when she comes out these days) and come out to the living area...past all 3 boys in the hall. I noticed a minute later that her door was wide open and the boys were no longer in the hallway. Since she had not gotten her door quite latched (it sometimes doesn't close real easy...especially for a 3 year old), they shoved it open and all three went in there. So silly me, I picked one up and carried him about half way down the hall and put him back down, turning around to go get another one. Well no sooner did I pick up the second baby and start down the hall, but I passed his brother heading right back toward Mary's door. I could have been doing that all evening and never gotten all three of them out of her room! Needless to say, I carried the second child all the way out to the living area, and successfully retrieved his brothers from Mary's room before he got back to her room again.

The boys are slowly working in the direction of a transition to solids. They gum cheerios (with occasional bites of soft meat or other table food in between) at the dinner table, practicing picking up food from their trays. We also do spoon fed meals a couple times a day in addition (usually a cereal and a fruit or vegetable). We haven't dropped off on the formula consumption too much, but are slowly working in that direction.

We have posted new pictures from October here.

Loving the Fall

Nathan

Daniel

Chris

I always enjoy the fall with the somewhat slower pace, and cooler temperatures. I don't enjoy the beginning of sick season...

Well, sick season has begun around here this week with the diagnosis all 3 boys of Strep. All three spiked a nasty fever, and a good look by our pediatrician determined it. So...how long does it take for two adults to give three babies each two syringes full of medicine (Tylenol and antibiotic)? Try 15 minutes. :) We'll get better at it...and once the infection is under control, they shouldn't need the Tylenol. While we were in, we got new official weights for the boys. Chris weighs just over 18 pounds, Daniel weighs 18 lb 15 oz., and Nathan weighs a whopping 19 lb 10 oz. Is it really possible they were just three pound preemies back in January???

Otherwise, the boys are doing fantastic. Chris is crawling (but that doesn't stop the other two from scooting everywhere!) He's rather methodical about it still, but improving every day. Daniel had his first tooth show up about a week ago. And Nathan...well he's Nathan. He's big. :)

One last note...Mary also got Strep from the boys. She insisted yesterday, that with a temp of 102.6 she was not sick!

Pictures from September are here.
Pictures from our last portrait session with Anita Goodman are here.

Quick Note

We got word today from our attorney that we have a final adoption hearing for the boys on Nov. 14th at 11:00 am!!! We fully expect this to not change and to go smoothly through. Please pray!

Starting to move...

Practicing their skydiving positioning

At the Angels in Adoption Gala at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center

The boys are 8 months old now. They are up to around 18-19 pounds. The boys do not stay in one place anymore, though they are not crawling, or sitting up yet. They have figured out how to get from one end of the room to the other. They purposefully pivot around (as you might see a spinner on a child's game). The also roll around frequently and with ease. They are frequently on their hands and knees now, rocking back and forth though and even scooting around a bit in that position.

For those who haven't heard, we had quite the adventure last week. Back in August, I was around the house, minding my and the boys' business, and the phone rang. I answered it and the person on the other end of the line said he was Jim DeMint (a US Senator from our state of South Carolina). I was quite taken aback, not sure what to think, but he went on to say we were selected as an "Angel in Adoption" for South Carolina. Now I'm thinking, what is this? I was so caught off guard, I was almost suspicious of the call. But after I got off the phone, a friend of ours who knows the Senator called me to explain that he had nominated us and we were selected by the Senator. So what that means is each member of the Senate and House gets to select one couple, person, or organization from his home state or district to recognize in Washington for their unusual, special, or extraordinary work in adoption. I guess we qualify as unusual, at least!

So last week we drove up to DC. On Monday we attended a reception which was to be a White House Lawn Celebration. Unfortunately, the President of Ghana decided to show up the same day for a state visit, so we ended up in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door for a reception instead. Tuesday, we had an award ceremony in the morning. Later, we broke up into groups (ours had 4 couples) and met with three congressional staffers from different states to share our experiences with adoption and what could be different/better in the law. That evening we attended a gala program with a nice dinner. (Jeff thought the food should have been better at $350 a plate. We got in free...) One of Senator DeMint's staffers accompanied us for the evening. Among those present, and speaking, was Senator Clinton. Wednesday morning, for me at least, was the highlight of our trip. We had the opportunity to sit down with Senator DeMint in his office and share more details of our adoption story and situation. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Washington. By the way, no, we did not take the kids with us. Many thanks to the friends and family who took a "shift" of babysitting the kids for us while we were in Washington.

The boys are now eating solids twice a day: cereal with formula at breakfast and veggies at dinner at 4 pm. They steadily got better across the board this week. They ate green beans Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I started on sweet potatoes Thursday and will continue until tomorrow. We have to stick with something new for a few days just to be sure there's no reactions to those foods. The boys absolutely love sweet potatoes, and "advanced" very quickly in their cereal feeding skills when we started on those yesterday. I have learned how easy it is to make my own baby food, with a few pointers from my sister. Thanks Liz! This has been a real budget saver. Can you imagine jars of baby food for three!?! According to Liz, she made her own baby food for a 1/3 of the cost of jars. I would love to teach anyone to do this...it is sooo simple!

One more thing...I communicated with our attorney's office last week and we are nearing the final stages before we can go to court to finalize the adoptions. We have to wait a month after the legal notice finishes in the paper this week. So we are eligible to go to court any time after October 26th!!! It's just a matter of time, waiting to get a hearing with the very busy Anderson county family court!!!

Pictures of the kids from August are here.

Pictures from our trip to Washington are here.

Seven Months...

Noah tries to eat Chris




Can you find Noah amongst all the babies in this picture?


Seven months...yes another month has passed in the two weeks since I last posted. Ha Ha :) The boys are exactly seven months though now. The last few weeks have been a bit nutty, but this week has been somewhat quieter.

After some consultation with my sister Liz, she decided to bring baby Noah down to what was then the sick house (all six of us with colds!). And yes, before the week was out, Noah had a runny nose. From what I hear he took it home to his Daddy too. Sorry, Brett. Liz learned that yes there really are three. It's one thing to see pictures, but its a whole new thing to actually see all three of them together. We took some outings together. Yes, me, Liz, and 5 children, 4 of whom are under the age of 1. It was quite a sight at Chic-Fil-A, Publix, and Lowe's (not all in the same outing). Liz quickly decided that she hated the attention that triplets gather being out in public.

We all enjoyed Noah's company. I think Jeff is looking forward to when the boys are mobile like Noah is now. Mary heard the word share more times last week than she had heard it in her entire short three years of life.

Six Months Old!!!

Before I get to the nitty gritty, I've got to say I'm so thankful for my happy boys. They are such content babies, I don't know what to do when I'm in the nursery with a fussy baby!

Well, yesterday the boys had their six month checkup (about 2 weeks after the date). They're doing fantastic, as usual. Nathan weighs 16 lb 11 oz (2 oz short of his 9 month old cousin Noah!), Chris weighs 15 1b 11 oz and Daniel weighs 16 lb 1 oz. That puts Chris in the 20%, Dan 25%, and Nate 35% But they all are off the charts (0%) in the height percentiles at between 24 and 24 1/2 inches.

The boys all started rolling from back to tummy this week on Sunday. They refuse to sleep on their backs now...I put them down, and by morning all three have migrated to their tummies.

Oh, and Poor Daniel...the pediatrician wants him to be seen about possible inguinal hernias...similar to his brothers'. One good thing this time around is that he's old enough his surgery, if necessary, will be 100% outpatient. We'll see if this happens...

We just barely started cereal in the last few weeks. Chris and Dan are doing the best. Nathan likes to "slobber" it back out. :) Needless to say, I haven't tried it this past week at all since I've been in Greenville every day.

I am glad to have 32 hours of CPE for the year behind me...I just have one more 8 hour course scheduled in November.

We can't wait to see Aunt Liz and Baby Noah this weekend. We can only hope we (all 6 of us!) are healthy and over our colds by the time we are supposed to pick them up this weekend on Sunday.

We have posted new pictures for July here

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.

5%, 12%, 20%

Chris

Daniel

Nathan

Wow Wow Wow! That was everyone's assessment at the pediatrician's check up visit last week. The boys are doing great. They are starting to catch up to their peers at their actual age!!! The above percentiles refer to the boys' ACTUAL percentiles for weight compared to all their peers born on time in January. Chris weighed 12 lb 8 oz, Dan weighed 12 lb 13 oz, and Nate weighed 13 lb 4 oz. They are getting to be such chunks! I started moving up the boys bedtime this week to feeding them at 8pm, then bed. The boys took to it great. That means one less bottle per day (now at 4, where we will remain the rest of the year). Nathan just compensated by requesting 7 1/2 ounces at one time last night! The other two are already starting to pick up some steam as well, eating nearly the same amount of formula per day as before. All three are somewhat consistently eating about 6 ounces at a time. The other feeding excitement to come is spoon feeding. The pediatrician wants us to start on time based on the boys actual age with cereal and a few veggies over the next few months. The boys are now just shy of 5 months old.

The boys have all rolled over at least once now. Recently, we had Chris and Daniel in a seeming roll-a-thon. We would set them on their tummies and they'd both flip, then we'd set them back and the process would continue to repeat. The boys are smiling constantly, and I occasionally hear something that almost sounds like a giggle!

The boys' hernia surgery results look great as well. The fevers left them about the time we went home from the hospital and did not return. The post-op checkup showed the surgery results to be perfect. And, the boys are all off the apnea monitors (we discarded those a few weeks ago). More recently, Mary picked up a cold somewhere a few weeks ago, that just seemed to drag. The night of the boys' check up and immunizations, all were running fevers, but Daniel's was 103...and he had a runny nose. So the next day, Saturday I got him in to the doctor again, and he was diagnosed with an ear infection. Since Mary's symptoms were hanging on, I took her in Monday morning, and she had a sinus infection. At least we know what's up and have everyone on antibiotics now.

Life is starting to settle in and slow down a bit. We have returned to our monthly Rook game tournaments, and are teetering on the edge of starting to build a new home to accommodate our growing family.

We have posted pictures and videos from May here