We tried out a few new activities this week and some things went better than others; you just never know until you try! I am so excited to try out new things, especially related to food and arts and crafts. My saved Facebook videos are filling up with exciting new ideas to try as they get bigger. Now I just need them to, you know, BE bigger so we can try them.
The girls are big fans of the freeze dried yogurt bites (heck they are pretty good), so Craig made some test ones. He put dabs of blackberry yogurt on a cookie sheet and froze it, and they turned out pretty good. They definitely passed the toddler test. The main difference? Because they aren’t freeze dried, they melt immediately in your hand, so just eat them quickly!
The weekend’s windstorm (and now the intense forest fire smoke) prevented us from playing outside as much as the past two months. While the sun was out and it was gorgeous, the high winds certainly cooled it off and for the first time in a bit the girls wore pants and long sleeves! Now that fall is coming (triple yay!!), we will have to start coming up with more fun, indoor play activities before winter settles in.
First new activity? Coloring. It’s been a few months since we attempted it. Since the first unsuccessful time, I ordered the toddler “egg” crayons that are easier for little ones to hold. With everyone in the triplet table, we tried to do some coloring with wax paper. I was a huge fan of coloring as a good, and I am sure this household will be filled with many future hours of it, especially now that so many cool, colorable things are now available for purchase!
Will that be soon? Unfortunately, no. Harper immediately ripped the taped down wax paper, enjoying the crinkle sounds and teasing Reagan to help her out. Reagan took a huge bite out of the purple one (not sure if that is aimed at Emerie or not…) while Emerie attempted it a little and was quite interested in holding all of them. Needless to say, we are not yet into our coloring days, but they will someday be upon us. We will have to wait a couple more months before trying this again. The only visible improvement related to better hand grasping, but they don’t yet correlate the color can go down on the paper or that they can have control of that. Or maybe they just taste THAT delicious?
Another fun, indoor activity- I found a set of alphabet food letters in the Target dollar section a while back that are a hit! They don’t have any small magnets that can be swallowed (which are incredibly hard to find I’ve looked!) and are so cute. I’ve overcome the fact that the “f” doesn’t stand for French Fry (so disappointed…it is french toast) and the “r” is for radishes (yuck). The girls love that they can play at the fridge and not be in the way. Surprisingly the letters have stayed in that general area and not wandered all over the room, although I’m sure a few are missing by now. We are still working on pushing them onto the magnetic part, i.e. the fridge, and not on top of an already placed magnet, since that doesn’t hold as well. The girls will walk by and grab a letter, stick it to a different spot, and then continue to whatever toy they originally intended to get. This process occurred all weekend.
Now that toddler climbing is a central issue taking over our lives, we once again rearranged the playroom to better suit this developmental stage. By separating the sectional and putting half of it in the garage, no one can climb into the windowsill (temporarily anyway). The girls scramble up on the remaining couch piece and ottoman and climb over the side, flopping onto pillows below. Once again, for brief moments we can sit and relax downstairs without any impending injuries and they believe they’ve succeeded in being allowed to climb on things.
Back in the living room, baby jail has been reinstated for brief periods in the morning. They aren’t too concerned about their captivity for the first hour after waking up, and it gives us time to make breakfast, pop in some laundry, and clean. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish when the kids are safely contained and playing nicely. It’s also amazing how quickly mundane but necessary tasks can be accomplished when you know the clock is ticking toward hungry toddlers.
Sunday morning they woke up at 6:52 AM, all three of them, and so their day started about 90 minutes earlier than normal. I really enjoy a silent house for that hour on the weekends, having “me” time is better than getting an extra hour of sleep, and I was snuggling with the cat and some Netflix when they decided the day needed to start. After the typical morning sleep feed (at about 6:00), Harper would not settle back down and woke everyone up with her. Once they committed to being awake this early, they nicely played in the playpen for long enough that I finished all dishes, de-cluttered the entire kitchen counter, started breakfast and laundry, AND cleaned out a few of the upper cabinets (tiny baby bottles are secretly trying to take over my house while I’m not looking).
After breakfast we normally open the playpen and block off the front of the living room so no one can climb on the furniture, but leave the rest of the room open for activities. If it is nice out, we open the backdoor to the deck too. This particular morning we finished breakfast, got everyone dressed, and headed on a Costco run. The girls sat in the carts for the first time (instead of their infant seats) and were so cute. The only random, stranger comment the entire shopping trip occurred as we grabbed diapers. An older gentleman smiled at us and said “this must be your favorite aisle.” Yes…so many diapers…
The Douglets “team” is continuing to learn together. It is now a team effort to push each other around on the walkers, especially on their little Minnie Mouse airplane (thanks Kimber!) and puppy dog (thanks Luke!). They help each other climb up on chairs, try to corner the cat together (they love the “kitties”), and full speed chase each other around the room. The endless energy is quite impressive.
Another new development involves the refrigerator. Harper now cries when I open the freezer door, because she knows there are fun things to hold within reach and we are preventing her from them. As you can see from the ice cream photo above, she quite enjoyed carting that around for a few minutes, proudly showing it off to her sisters…you know…until we put it back in the freezer.
In that same evening Reagan discovered the fridge produces water in the door. And she can just reach it. So there’s that…and no off button for toddler proofing. We will have to get creative; for now we just keep blocking her when she thinks about pushing the lever and that might work for a few more days. Nothing is easy!
This weekend Reagan discovered ball throwing. She figured out she can throw the plush soccer balls and thinks it is amazing when you throw them back to her. I still maintain that Harper will be my little soccer player; she’s the only one showing any interest in that area, and will kick them and giggle. Emerie joined in on the throwing fun too. The girls finally use the soccer/basketball/hockey toy gifted at their birthday, dunking the soccer ball in the hoop (Koda ate the basketball already) and tossing the plush soccer balls around. I can’t wait to be old enough for sports!!!
Another baby milestone? Everyone finally graduated from the infant car seats, meaning they will no longer fit in my car three across. We’ve actually stalled on this for a while because they are so much more convenient, portable, and we aren’t in the car that much. Their weight still isn’t even close to requiring the upgrade, but their height is the issue. How grown up do they look here??
I will leave you with the irony of Emerie’s glasses wearing. She will not keep them on for more than a few seconds at a time- we’ve tried all kinds of things and short of holding down her arms, she will not wear them. We have a follow up appointment with the eye doctor this week and will see what suggestions he has.
Another triplet dad suggested removing the bifocal and seeing if that improves her wearing time, and I think we might need to try it and will talk to the doctor about it in September. So what is the irony of it all? I turned around yesterday so find Emerie sans glasses and Reagan doing her very best to wear them. Sigh.
The Douglets 