This weeks adult lesson is patience. The girls’ shenanigans appear to be an attempt to drive the parentals crazy. It’s almost as if the witching hour from infant hood has returned and lasts a couple hours every evening this week. If that isn’t it, then I blame the four incisors slowly pushing through the girls’ gums, making them very grumpy, short tempered, anti-food and soooo whiny.

In addition to the grumpiness, they are on a path to testing the limits on EVERYTHING.

On Friday I walked out of the living room to grab a towel out of the closet upstairs. In that twenty seconds, Emerie pulled the singleton high chair into the middle of the room, climbed it (tray and all), and was standing and jumping on it when I walked back in. Thank goodness she didn’t knock it over (and yes, I’m hollering and running at her as I took the picture).

That same morning the triple escape plan went into effect. On my solo Friday, I usually leave the girls in the playpen for twenty minutes or so while I get breakfast going and the kitchen cleaned up. They typically play and wake up while watching Little Baby Bum music, generally staying happy enough and not yet starting the MMA portion of their day. It was quiet for a moment, quiet enough to be out of the ordinary, and peeking out confirmed my suspicion. One of them moved their sofa chair over, used the back the hoist their leg up onto the hearth, and off they went, one at a time. Reagan made it up the stairs before I noticed, meaning she was probably the instigator, Emerie was going through the diaper changing station stuff, and Harper was in the process of climbing. It’s only a matter of time before their playpen is going to be completely empty so they can’t climb anything and get out. We are close to opening up the whole room, but not quite ready to commit to that level of freedom yet!

Rooms with confined walls and doors, like our family room, leave opportunity. Reagan started it, but now Emerie and Harper both follow in suit, to climb one of the kitchen sets (already anchored to the wall) and stand up in the sink. They are attempting to reach the wall thermometer that is quite a ways up from the floor! We almost had a repeat of my water before I realized that was again reachable. Funny thing is, they are willing to climb up but all three insist they cannot get back down themselves…

A little more icing on the cake for this week’s toddler life- Harper managed to grab my water container off the counter last night. You know, the big one the hospital gives new moms to encourage more water intake post baby. I rounded the corner into the kitchen to see her causing a rainstorm, furiously shaking it and thrilled to see water flowing out in every direction. Emerie and Reagan managed to pull their prepped bedtime bottles off the counter too; Reagan was drinking hers and watching the chaos approvingly while Emerie added hers to the growing water puddle.

As Craig grabbed towels and new pajamas upstairs, everyone tried to lay down and “swim” in the mess. Awesome.

So yes, this is what #realtime looks like with triplet toddlers. Life is not calm, relaxed or rosy. It’s been a long week; teeth still aren’t completely in and NO ONE wants to sleep, especially last night.

If you need me, I’ll be over here chugging down another cup of coffee.