How many does it take…?

Prior to our expanded family, we accomplished all sorts of house projects after work each night or over long weekends. Craig and I are generally quite productive when given a big tasks to tackle, and we can look back and say we’ve installed all new windows on two houses, all new doors and trim, new flooring and several completely gutted bathrooms, and even accidentally flipped our first house (we weren’t planning on redoing everything and moving but it worked out that way). We both like to work on projects, with Craig tackling all kinds of tasks and solving issues. I especially like to see how much I can change a space from an “old” look to a new and updated one, even if that is simply repainting a room or changing up the trim style.

Fast forward to one year post triplets; obviously the fun and productive house projects are now at a minimum as day to day survival does not include extra projects. While I would love to complete something new, there just isn’t time in the day! Raising babies in the new, high priority in our lives, but that doesn’t mean we can’t attempt to accomplish other things, right? Refinishing the bottom kitchen cabinets took us close to six months to complete and that happened before the girls were mobile. I still need to start (and finish) the upper ones at some point. The new back deck turned out to be an impromptu (required) project earlier this summer because Craig put a foot through one of the rotten boards. Thankfully we had friends come help with that one.

This past weekend we attempted to construct a new shed in the backyard, having torn the old, rickety one down the summer we moved in. So the question is…how many people does it take to build a shed while keeping track of three high energy, mobile toddlers?

How many people does it take to build a shed?! A LOT.

Watching them work
Cousin Jaren getting it done!
Ready to start the project!
Busy days
Reagan helping Papa Cliff
Cousin Chatum supervising

The answer? A LOT. With two grandpas, a grandma and aunt, three cousins and a couple local friends and visiting ones in tow, we still don’t have a completed product yet…but are much farther than we were a week ago! Time is definitely limited when you must account for a midday nap time, have to keep to daily eating schedules for the girls in addition to keeping an eye on them the whole time, and can’t work late into the night because you must also account for bedtime and routine.

The Douglet household was definitely hopping this weekend; the girls greatly enjoyed seeing their older cousins and getting to play. It was fun to have family visit and get out and go to breakfast and also dinner with everyone- the girls are great in restaurants. We also made time for some backyard fun, climbing and sliding on the play set, running around and “flying” on the airplane teeter totter that is now quite the hit. We even had a dance party on the back deck.

With the bustle of daytime activity, you would think they would sleep well at night this past week, right? That’s what we thought too but unfortunately not…maybe we are just destined to not sleep for a while longer. It’s anybody’s guess! At least we have extra hands this week to help accommodate the grumpiness that comes with less sleep.

One other cute little game that Emerie started, now Harper and Reagan have joined in, is with three Costco vanilla coffee creamer bottles (empty) and Tylenol syringes. Who needs actual toys right…Emerie discovered she can take the medicine syringes apart and plop them into the plastic container, dump them back out, and do it again. And repeat. We ended up trying to drink the last fridge creamer faster so that three empty bottles were available for use…otherwise everyone continued to fight over just two of them. Now it is quite the entertaining game. I often look over and see Emerie sitting in the lawn chair, quietly playing her game on the deck, fully entertained. It is so darn cute.

Oh and before I forget…maybe I should show a photo of the shed progress I’ve discussed this whole blog…here is it! I can’t wait to paint it next year to match the house. It’s going to look so great.

There are definitely more adventures to be had this weekend. Hopefully that includes a few finishing touches on the shed in preparation for winter and some other play dates…but we will see. There is so much to do before the weather starts cooling off!

Cousin time…Tyler can still hold all three at once…for the moment.
Everyone smiling for Cousin Jaren, who helped soooo much on the shed this week!

Aug 23

I find myself angry…

It is a struggle to accurately convey my feelings over the past month into words on a page (or screen). I’ve never been great at displaying emotion, especially extremely fresh ones, but find myself wanting to get my thoughts out in an attempt to understand and comprehend those feelings.

Craig’s older brother Chris passed away in a motorcycle accident the night as Emerie’s eye surgery. This prompted an unplanned family trip to Juneau, an emotional week for all of us, our first plane ride with the kids, and a big shift in our strict daily routine. Not a lot of time was left for processing it all once we decided to make the trip south, but we are glad we could celebrate Chris’ life and spend time with family.

Quick visit when the girls were about 7 months old and still fit in one lap!

I find myself angry at this turn of events, because life can be really unfair sometimes. While this is not the first time I’ve felt angry with death, with someone being taken away from this world much sooner than they should have, it still provides a similar sting and ache in my heart. There’s never a good explanation for why these things happen, and I think that makes it even harder to process. I also know that if I’m feeling this way, there are many more family members and close friends that feel this ache even more deeply, and I try to stay mindful of that.

My anger is a little different since having the girls. I feel like so many amazing, future stories and memories were stolen from us in one, terrible moment. The girls absolutely adored their uncle; it was plain as day each time he visited or even through a Face Time call. He could get them to giggle and laugh and smile, crossing the bridge from “that uncle that lives out of town” into “the favorite uncle” in a matter of seconds. In fact, when he visit last March, about a week before the girls’ first birthday, he won over all three so quickly that they refused to let him get up off the floor and insisted on immediate baby wrestling and playtime, for a good hour!

Not everyone is a baby whisperer, but I can confidently say both Douglas boys certainly maintain the skill. It is always wonderful to witness, whether it is with my kiddos or someone else’s!

Hawaiian dresses from Uncle Chris’ trip to Hawaii earlier that year. He found three matching ones in their colors ❤

I find myself angry that the girls won’t get to know their Uncle Chris, see their Dad and Uncle’s playful banter when working on a house project, won’t get to ride four wheelers or dirt bikes and get into (monitored) shenanigans with him as they grow older. It surprised me how much impact this thought had on me, because I always counted on the fact it would happen. It never crossed my mind that it wouldn’t, and so much has changed the past month.

What can we do about it? While the ache remains and will for a while for everyone, we can remind the girls as they grow about their uncle, and how much he loved them as well as his family, friends and community. I see how strong my husband is each day, dealing with his sadness while continuing to get up and go to work, raise three growing babies, and make a positive daily impact on all our lives, even when it’s really hard and you just want to give up.

We can tell the girls stories, and boy, there are so many stories! I like to think if you compared the girls’ personalities to Chris and Craig’s childhood shenanigans (the ones that I know about anyway), Emerie would be the troublemaker (Chris!) and Reagan the behaved kiddo (Craig), with Harper more-or-less a combination of the two- willing to get into trouble but also willing to let her sister(s) go down for it (hehe).

While our trip caused a major disrupt in our daily routine, it was great to see everyone as well as extended family I hadn’t met yet! We packed up (a LOT of stuff) and made the trek down to Juneau with the girls and my Mom in tow, knowing the trip would be equally as hard as it would be emotional; both which proved true. Craig’s parents were right- babies do help heal wounds, especially ones wide open, deep, fresh and heartfelt. Hugging on a cuddly Harper, a tiny Emerie or a giggling Reagan certainly helped me heal a bit, and I know I’m not the only one.

We had a couple of fun adventures during the visit, but otherwise laid pretty low (if anything with three toddlers can be considered “laying low”). With Aunt Tami’s and Papa Cliff’s help we explored the local indoor water park, with a short walk over from our residence for the week, and played in the warm water with the girls and their cousins Gabe and Chatum. It was a nice break to have a little fun for an hour.

It was also entertaining to see the boys trying to push the triple stroller down the sidewalk. It is pretty big, especially when full of three wiggling toddlers, and that caused a little problem driving straight, but the boys figured it out!

The girls greatly enjoyed the water and it was the perfect setting for them to do a little walking around as well as floating with us around the lazy river. Because the adults outnumbered the kids for once, we didn’t put life jackets on anyone: having two arms per kid is pretty useful! Everyone thought the slide was exciting, even though they sometimes looked less than thrilled about it, as well as the small kid-sized water works and fountains. This experience also taught me my phone is waterproof, as I went down the slide with it in my shorts. Even fully submerged, it came out okay. Whew!

In true kid style, we made it all the way through the water park without any mishaps or incidences, until of course, we rinsed them off without their swim diapers on…I will leave that one up to your imaginations (refer to a couple blogs back if you are unclear…).

We also took the girls to a cute park, that wasn’t completely toddler friendly, but still workable with three adults to herd them around. The whole trip was so hot, in Alaska standards anyway, so we kept the midday outings for the fair skinned kiddos to a minimum. Realistically, I think the adults were just as hot!

We barbecued at Papa Cliff’s house a couple times, with the girls (and myself!) meeting extended family up visiting from down south, the kids and their friends, a big group! We also made it out to dinner with the family as well and they behaved perfectly, other than the major mess of rice left on the restaurant floor. They certainly enjoyed being passed around and mingling with everyone.

The girls especially loved Papa Cliff’s entryway closet doors. Who knew mirrors could be so very fun and bring some smiles to the room. Here’s a video to bring a smile to your face too 🙂

Giving kisses to the mirrors

Chris’ celebration of life was our last night in town and held at the beach. I’d never visited Auke Rec in Juneau before, and it was a great place to reminisce. What a beautiful view, even with the forest fire smoke in the distance. So many people showed up and it was really a testimony to how many lives Chris touched. He certainly impacted ours! Craig and I handed the kids off to many different people to say hello. It was their first visit to the beach and first time trying Rhonda’s delicious scones.I’m pretty sure they were mostly excited about eating the seashells- not so much the cold water, although Emerie didn’t seem to mind it so much.

As the days continue to pass, I am constantly reminded of Chris’ impact on our lives; in fact, it is all over my house! The windows, my beautiful, rounded third story loft window that the boys gave me so much grief over, the new pantry he installed on his spring visit to Anchorage, even all the tools used by the boys in the garage over the years. It still makes me smile that he shot a hole in one of the heater pipes, putting up trim in the family room, and yet when we discovered it and called and told him later that week, he blamed it on me because I wanted to paint and have new trim! Fair enough. While the reminders bring a sense of sadness with them, they also bring good memories. Chris and I became friends through these projects, as they often brought him up to visit us, and I remember the brothers hard at work for a weekend, arguing about trim cutting and decor…and just being brothers.

In closing, a quote I heard that seems appropriate:

A family is a circle of love, not broken by a loss, but made stronger by the memories.
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So please, I ask all of you reading this that knew Chris- please continue to tell us, and the girls as they get older, stories of all the shenanigans the Douglas boys got themselves into! I only know a drop in the bucket of all the good ones…and sharing these memories will help the girls know their uncle.

Chris teaching Harper to hold her bottle with a great photo of him and Craig on the table next to him.

❤

Aug 14

Emerie Eye Update: Glasses

The big day is here. Miss Emerie’s glasses are in; now the real fun begins…trying to get her to actually WEAR them.

We went to Cook Inlet Eyewear, down on 2nd Avenue, a couple weeks back and ordered two pairs of kid glasses. If you haven’t shopped around for pediatric eye wear before, the glasses made nowadays are really cool. They are bendable, some sides snap on and off easily instead of breaking off, and there are a ton of cute colors and styles. Not to mention…they are SO tiny and adorable!!

I was really impressed with the ladies at Cook Inlet. They are very prepared to assist with young kiddos and had a toy box out and ready for tiny tot entertainment. While she explained what type of glasses and lenses would be best for a one-year old, Emerie played with toy dinosaurs and Star Wars figurines; throwing them on the floor and wreaking the usual havoc while making a mess. We also discussed her prescription, which contains a left bifocal in it to help with focusing. Never thought my kiddo would have bifocal before me!

We anticipate a bit of sibling rivalry will occur with Emerie’s new look, so we opted for a second set as a backup. Impressively enough, there were several purple options to choose from, so she now has two different types of purples to keep her fashion trend going!

Getting her face measured.
Still patching…
The tester was a little big, but shows one of the styles we ordered.

The past week she has not been thrilled that another thing is on her face in addition to the two hours of daily patching. She’s become much more cranky about the daily patching too; we are unsure why as things were going pretty well with it in July. Nanny Chris greatly helps us with this routine everyday, with “patch time” usually before lunch, around 9:30 or 10 to noon (when she cooperates!). It removes some stress on us later in the day having it done already.

Harper and Reagan now come to their sister’s rescue and help peel it off. It’s a full team effort if you aren’t paying attention every second. Not sure if that’s a good thing for sister bonding, or bad since we have to put on another one!

So far the longest Em has worn the glasses continuously is about 40 minutes. She either remembers they are still on her face and pulls them down, or one of her sisters pries them off. Similarly to the patch, you just have to find distractions so she forgets they are on. Several times I’ve caught Harper pulling Emerie around by the glasses around her neck. Still working on that…

Patching but not thrilled about it
Big smiles
Emerie rocking her glasses and eating a fresh pea pod from the you-pick farm!

We gave Harper and Reagan strawberry styled sunglasses (thanks Megan!) to wear in lieu of glasses, hoping that they will stop bugging Emerie when she has them on. They like to wear the sunglasses and put them on and off their faces. It’s pretty cute. When I tried this a couple months back, they immediately pulled them off. Now they like to look around while wearing them, at least for a couple minutes at a time.

Reagan
Emerie
Harper

Emerie’s eye redness continues to slowly vanish and she isn’t rubbing it in irritation nearly as often as right after surgery. The eye still trails a good amount of the time, but hopefully once she wears them more frequently it will improve. We have another appointment in September to evaluate her progress and see what else, if anything, needs to be done. There is potential that a second surgery will be necessary to realign the eye muscles and fix the trailing, but we won’t know that for a little while longer and are hopefully it will resolve itself.

So for now, we continue to put glasses on, she takes them off, we put them on again, and the cycle continues! We are not making a big deal out of her wearing them or pulling them off, hoping eventually she’ll just get used to it. Craig also ordered another back piece to see if it will be more comfortable, and we are still waiting for the second, backup pair to get here. If anyone has any parental advice to getting her to cooperate better, we are all ears (or eyes?)! If you want to come over and have baby time and play and entertain her during patch time, we’d be up for that too!!

We also greatly appreciate all of you that are still praying for her healing and success. ❤ ❤ ❤

Emerie made it most of the bike ride with them on! Reagan happily chewed on her binkie the whole time.
Harper hanging out solo for the ride

Aug 08

Trust Fall

Our little climbers have been both grumpy and adventurous the past week. No matter where we are in the house, everyone climbs on everything! In the family room, they climb up the couch and into the window; in the living room onto the armchairs, end tables, and hearth; in their bedroom onto the armchair and ottoman. It is a crazy time!

Turn around for one second and they are on the furniture. Also, look at those baby blues!!

As the girls were climbing into the family room window, we tested who trusts us the most by seeing who would jump off into our arms (and the couch below):

Reagan? Craig told her to jump and she just thought about it…and no.

Emerie? Craig told her to jump and she looked at him, swayed a little…and no.

Harper? Craig asked her to jump and what did she do? Total trust fall forward, straight ahead. Good to know who trusts us at this moment in time. I also watched Harper do a full trust fall to no one on the bed other night…arms out, dead ahead!

This week marks my one year anniversary back at work, post babies. It’s crazy to think how quickly that passed, even with crazy busy days and many sleepless nights. As I write this, I revel in the fact that Craig and I are still functioning adults with full time jobs and three little ones, especially after nights like this one, where I might have a total of 3 or 4 hours of sleep, broken up into many tiny chunks, and now have another 8.5 hour work day to stay awake for!

Last year I remember thinking how difficult it would be to leave the girls and go back to the office, that I would miss them and not see every change that occurs throughout the day. There was definitely some stress my last couple of weeks home- a different kind of stress than being home alone all day with three infants. Looking back now, that adjustment period went much smoother than I had anticipated, and it wasn’t nearly as difficult to get back into the work routine as my mind had suggested it would be. It also helps that I get to enjoy breakfast and a hot cup of coffee at my desk each morning, with the knowledge that the girls are still safely sleeping in their cribs for another couple of hours.

Fast forward a year, and our work day routines haven’t changed that much. We still do an early morning feed and put the girls back to bed; we still do dinner time but now it’s with food and bottles before bed; we still have play time…it is just waaaay more rambunctious than last fall. It is easier in some ways and harder in others. The morning feed is much quicker now, taking about 10-15 minutes tops compared to 40 minutes. On days like today, that early feeding provides the opportunity to put everyone back into their own cribs (and out of our bed) for a couple more hours of sleep (for them and us on the weekends!).

I still pump at the crack of dawn every morning, while at work, and right after the girls go down at night. After 16 months, I am nearing the end of this part of my mom journey. Just imagine the free time I will get back (funny joke I know…)! This will occur once bottle weaning is a little farther along; we are progressing on sippy cup use now and are getting there.

I still enjoying getting off work in the middle of the afternoon instead of early evening (3:30 is a big difference from 5:00!). This was wonderful in the winter when I could drive home in the light instead of going to and from work in the darkness for much of the winter. Instead of hurrying home for the afternoon feed (which is no longer), I now head home for playtime before dinner. It was in the 70s and sunny yesterday, with the house overly hot, so we opted for pool time on the deck. This was the longest the girls actually stayed in the pool and played, mostly getting along! It is nice to be able to do fun activities and enjoy the nice weather. They really enjoyed putting the kitchen utensils to use- the measuring cups, spoons, and old yogurt cups…anything that could pour water. Reagan was really interested in drinking the delicious pool water straight from the measuring cup!

It is wonderful creating new and exciting activities for the girls. They now giggle at each other (not quite talk yet) and interact with you and each other. The bubble machine is quite the hit. Harper looked up at me at one point and said “bubba!” Another word for the Harper dictionary- check! In addition, anytime the dog, or especially the cats, go by, we hear little “kitty!” exclamations from all three. The dog and cat now have this title, whether they like it or not.

Just when I think we are cruising along great on this #tripletlife, I have a hilarious mom moment. Earlier this week we had a night that involved the triple wagon and watching it slide backwards down a driveway as I was handing Emerie off to someone, carrying Harper and Reagan with it. Yes, they were still strapped in (thankfully). For the record, I am quite impressed that it didn’t tip over AND neither kiddo shed a tear over their unintentional, backwards roller coaster ride. I’m sure I entertained the neighbors as I went crazy mom running after it. These are the beautiful memories to build your life on right?? Now if only the wagon had a brake on it…that would be helpful…

And I will leave you with this. Everyone has figured out the word “no”, and Harper wags her finger at us when she says it. Enjoy.

Emerie letting us “no” what’s up

Jul 31

Busy little bees

Toddler time continues to become more interesting! There’s certainly never a dull moment. I think I am overdue for another hour time lapse to prove that no one ever sits still!

Last night I could tell Emerie was chewing something that she wasn’t supposed to. I looked at her with a “come here” and hand motioned. She immediately came over and pulled air out of her mouth and handed it to me with a big smile on her face, all the while chewing! I then told her to give it to me again and she put her hand in her mouth, motioned, and dropped air in my hand again. Silly baby! Is she already learning sarcasm?? This repeated several times and she smiled so big while handing me nothing. The last time, she pulled out a tiny piece of plastic and placed it into the palm of my hand. One point for Mom (this time anyway!)

We are trying to teach the girls as much coordination as possible, even at this young age. Who knows if this will backfire on us later when they are coordinated and wreaking even more havoc, but for now their progression continues to move forward at a fast pace! The fine line is trying to determine what to learn and how to keep from injury while doing it. Sometimes that works out, other times it prompts a nice head bonk/goose egg (Harper) or slipping off a toy (Emerie) or baby to baby collision (everyone!). So far nothing is too significant except my anxiety about it! In another year or so they can safely use their new skills during gymnastics, dance, and ballet classes. And, of course, soccer too…counting down the days until we are old enough to break into the sport hobbies!!

Miss Harper
Fort time with Dad
Em guarding her phone
Playtime on the deck

At first we were skeptical about stair climbing, even after PIC clearly suggested we start it. The girls proved us wrong and mastered it not only quickly, but really well; they are already pros at it. The next logical “step” (haha) is to master going back down (safely), and while I’ve been a bit more apprehensive about it, Craig is proven right that they are ready for it. Ready for it, other than the occasional I will learn forward with my full body weight and forget I’m on the stairs…. The girls now climb up the eight stairs to the bathroom for bath time, and we are starting to add to the cycle by going back down afterwards. Craig will holler at them to come up once stripped down from their post dinner, full-of-food clothes (still with diapers on mind you-I learned that lesson!!). They will run across the living room and up the stairs, then full sprint down the hallway and into the bathroom. Most of the time they don’t divert into a different room or try to climb up to the loft; every once in a while it becomes an impromptu game of tag, 3 versus 1…

They all have different methods to climbing down stairs and all do it surprisingly well when they aren’t distracted by all the cool railings, or the dog, or the thought of running back upstairs. Harper tries to go down like an adult, on her feet, without holding on! She’s given me several mild heart attacks, but luckily an adult is always close by to catch her. Emerie scoots on her butt now and I’ve seen Reagan try both ways. We are working on railing safety and so far no one has fallen forward, even with the dogs “helping”. While the stair baby gates are not leaving anytime soon, it is good to know that they are starting to understand how to safely climb down. This is especially the case when the dog door is accidentally left open and Miss Harper goes through it like a heat seeking missile, running straight for the three unblocked deck stairs…

In case anyone was wondering, because it has been a while…yes, Craig can still carry all three at once, although he doesn’t test this out too often. For some reason they are starting to get heavier! Instead of immediate baby rage like prior months (insert the “stop touching me” kid voice), they all think it is just so funny! Nothing like carrying 65 pounds of wiggly baby at once and not letting anyone leap off, fall, or collide. Enjoyment ensued in the triple baby bedtime laundry basket ride, as Craig dragged them down the hallway in the midst of many goofy giggles. With the growth since December’s earthquake, I’m not entirely sure I could load everyone into a laundry basket and carry them to safety during an earthquake; they are much bigger now!

Other daily activities include climbing on anything available, running maniacally around the house, speed running while pushing their walkers (into each other or anything in front of them), pulling all food utensils and cookware out of kitchen cabinets, and playing out on the back porch. Cardboard boxes are also popular; who needs toys when you can play with the Amazon box, or the macaroni and cheese box, or the huge goldfish box from Costco?! The girls also push each other on toys now, whether it is with one sitting on the lawn mower and one pushing or one sitting in the mini airplane and two pushing. It brings many giggles and hasn’t resulted in too many crashes so far. We’ve also started building blanket forts. That is a hit literally, as they run full blast at the fort only to hit their forehead on the table under the blanket. We are still working on that…

Emerie
Harper
Reagan

For the most part we have the danger zones blocked off on the main floor. They can’t climb into windowsills because it’s blocked by a baby wall, the couch and diaper changing area also behind it. Every once in a while someone will discover they can squeeze behind the armchair and make it to the windows, but this typically results in minor baby fights and enough yelling that we intervene and reset the blockade.

One new sport now invented in our household, the “how-to-catch-the-kitty” game. Now that everyone can pronounce kitty (sounds like “ki-eee”), they become unbelievably excited anytime either cat is within view. For the past year both cats have been fine with the random toddler petting, even purring from it, but now it’s progressed to a new level, with three babies running full blast across the room, after the cat, and yelling kitty! Apparently this is less fun for the animals, because they make every attempt possible to escape now.

Here is a nice collage of this week’s at-home baby adventures. We are loving the continued summertime shorts weather!