Hello faithful Instantly Outnumbered readers! I think that sufficient time has passed since the last entry to warrant an update don't you? Well not much has happened here over the past 6 months other than the triplets birthday, three major holidays, visits from all sides of both families, a baby shower (no not for us...we're not insane), several snowstorms, the first attempt at potty training and the completion of a few child development milestones. For this post I decided to switch things up a bit and intersperse (how do you like that SAT word) some of the pictures throughout the post so that they are in a little bit more context.
In November we celebrated the triplets 3rd birthday with a party at our house with my family and some friends. Given that the party was the week before Thanksgiving it basically felt like an early celebration of the holiday. We even got a little creative this year with the cake:
Not bad for an amateur but maybe next year we'll let the local bakery handle the cake...
The true meaning of a birthday is still lost on our kids but they do understand that birthday parties mean cake and presents. They have definitely turned the corner this year on the whole present unwrapping thing which made their birthday a foreshadowing of Christmas to come. The week after their party we had Julie's family up for Thanksgiving which made this the first year that we've been able to truly host Thanksgiving (yeah new house!) with us even roasting the turkey. Jul's family also gave us the awesome housewarming gift of a leaf blower which I desperately needed and quickly put to good use. Who would have thought that living in the woods would be so so much work?
Answer: This much Question: How much cake can Andrew stuff in his face at once?
If only we had the picture from the camera that we were all actually looking at...
Let's hope Ryan didn't get those beads in the traditional way...
Birthday party in the living room, karate in the kitchen...seems logical
Grandma Smith assures us that she will pay for the therapy after dressing Ryan like Tinkerbell
You see three kids staring at the camera, I see three kids staring at the fruit snacks that Mommy is holding next to the camera
We continued our annual tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree but this year we took the kids out to the Christmas tree farm on the Saturday after Halloween to pick out the tree. This was the first year since moving to Williamsburg that we could actually get a normal sized tree and it looked great in our new living room. While the kids enjoyed the tree, the big hit this year was an advent calendar. My mom found the advent calendar that we had used as kids and brought it down for our kids to use and man was it a hit. Both Ryan and Andrew could tell you each day whose turn it was to do the calendar and when it would be their turn next. Needless to say the hopeless nostalgic in me was overjoyed at this new development. Unfortunately our whole family got very sick the week before Christmas so we missed a few holiday events, including our Christmas Eve service. It was very strange not going to church on Christmas Eve but we enjoyed a quiet evening at home with our own recreation of the Nativity story.
Our local adopted grandma "Gigi" came over for Christmas morning and got to enjoy seeing the kids truly have fun opening presents. Andrew got a little too into it and kept asking for more presents long after everything was opened and scattered around the downstairs rooms. It was a great inaugural Christmas at our new house and we look forward to many more to come. The day after Christmas we headed up to my folks for yet even more presents and a great time hanging out with everyone for a few days.
Finally! We don't have to settle for "vertically challenged" Christmas trees anymore!!!
There is something special about your kids using the same advent calendar that you did when you were their age
Shirts? We don't need no stinkin' shirts!
Andrew tries out his new look. He calls it "introspection".
Foam letters and numbers...what else could a little boy want? Apparently nothing because those are all that Andrew wanted to play with even though we already had two full sets at home.
Ahhh...the beauty of a toddler Christmas
WARNING! CLICHE IN PROGRESS!!
The kids have been continuing to grow and amaze us with the things that they absorb and learn. Ryan has started reading and sometimes sits at the base of Nadia's crib and reads to her at night. The boys (and Nadia to some degree) have become obsessed with a few new TV shows including Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi and Blues Clues. They still don't have much interest in things like Veggie Tales or Disney movies but at least we skipped over Barney. They are starting to use their imaginations more too and can regularly be heard discussing how they are going to assist the Team Umizoomi characters with some crazy plan. The boys have yet to develop their "inside voices" so it feels like they are yelling at us and each other all the time but I know that some day when the house is quiet we will miss their unfiltered volume.
Nadia has started pronouncing a lot more words and can often be heard talking in a sort of "stream of consciousness" way that indicates that she has A LOT to say but she is saying it in her own language. Nadia has continued to excel at preschool and we are concerned that she is going to be bored over the summer. Hopefully being around her brothers will continue to help her improve her language and social skills. One cool development concerns Nadia's learning plan for next year...after meeting with her "team" at school they have agreed to have her spend one hour a day in a regular classroom starting in November. We are very excited to see how she does in that environment since it will somewhat determine how much regular class time she gets in the future.
Currently Nadia's favorite activity is singing and she has memorized a lot of songs, including some of the more complicated worship songs that I play. For a couple of weeks whenever I came home, Nadia greeted me by singing the first lines from the chorus of one of her favorite worship songs that I had been practicing.
We attempted to potty train Andrew back in January but it was a colossal failure. After about the 20th time of him lying to us when asked if his pants were still dry we decided to let it go and fight another day. Since that time Andrew has become much more aware of his ability to go potty so we will be starting up round 2 shortly.
Unfortunately we recently broke our "number of days without an emergency room visit" streak when I had to take Andrew in for severe stomach pains and dehydration as a result of a stomach virus that we all had. Thankfully Andrew's main recollection of the evening was the orange popsicle that he got right before we left the hospital which contrasts greatly with my main recollection of three nurses holding down a screaming toddler while another nurse attempted to put an IV in his arm.
Is this sad? or adorable? Either way I think maybe he is getting an early start on Marine Recon training.
Andrew potty training attempt #1. Progress: program terminated. Next attempt: 5 years.
The electronic device addiction is strong in these three...
Ryan takes a break from the terrible three's to be cute for five seconds (seriously that is how long it lasted)
Mmmmmm....the breakfast of champions
We had a couple of good snowstorms this year but we were wholly unprepared for taking the kids out to play. First they were not feeling the best both times that we had big snows and second they were kind of still afraid of the snow. Eventually we got them outside and "we" even built a snowman. I imagine that next year it will be hard to keep them inside if we get a big snowstorm.
As you can imagine our lives have stayed pretty busy and there is always something to do, a child to comfort/praise/discipline, or sleep to catch up on. We are extremely thankful for all of the help that we get from our family and friends and we are glad that our kids are being raised by more than just the two of us.
Ju...st...o...ne...mo....re....
The boys prepare to go on stage and not sing the song that they had been practicing all week and which they sang NUMEROUS times at the dinner table every night
I guess we need to start saving if he is going to go to UVA
Well, at least they both have their eyes open
"I'm cute...give me candy...ooohhh...or a cookie!"
"I say dear Watson, that was quite a yummy snack!"
One of the activities that Julie does is a weekly Bible Study. While Julie is in the meeting the boys go to a kids program which includes learning songs which they then "sing" for the whole Bible Study every couple of weeks. I got to go one week and watch...
Most of you know how obsessed our children are with letters and numbers but this is a bit ridiculous...
As mentioned, Nadia LOVES to sing...here are a few of her favorites...
Nadia learned this at school and we think it is extremely adorable!
