Birthday Eve

Three year's ago from right now we were in a hospital room watching a football game, and trying very hard to play it cool when in fact I'm pretty sure both of us (I know I was) were freaking out! To back this up - even Travis couldn't remember (he's currently looking it up as I write this!)... How our lives have changed since that night. Our three little miracles - how have three years passed so quickly and where are our babies?

Thinking back to January 1st, 2011 - I'm pretty sure that I've never felt so many emotions in such a short amount of time (update: Florida State vs. South Carolina in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl - FSU won). Seeing my babies for the first time was - if I'm completely honest - a relief, I had been so scared since that day we were diagnosed with Twin-Twin-Transfusion Syndrome, that seeing all three of them alive and kicking relief then gave way to pure happiness (the overwhelmed feeling didn't hit until the day they put all three in the same crib!). While I only got to touch and kiss baby A (Ryann) before they were all whisked to the NICU, the amazing nurses and doctors at Plano Presbyterian made sure I got a good look at babies B & C (Bryn and Hads) as they left the room. I don't remember too much of the rest of that day - in fact, the first year was pretty much a blur (both at the time and even more so looking back)!

Ryann Gale, 3 lbs 10 oz

Brynley Cade, 2 lbs 14 oz - she still likes to sleep with her lovey over her head!

Hadley Marie, 3 lbs

Fast forward three years - my "babies" are definitely NOT babies! Though they most certainly LOVE babies (if you have a baby - stop on over, they provide hours of entertainment for my children!). My most favorite quotes: "Frosty come inside wid us?" (Hadley, after we decided to head in - took a little convincing that he wouldn't like to be inside). "What you talkin' about?" (Hads to me at dinner tonight when I was attempting (don't ask me why) to explain how her birthday is January 1st... apparently we've never discussed months with them.. then "You silly"! "Maugs wait for me" (when Hadley is in a hurry she'll sometimes shorten Manga to Maug - maybe because we call her Hads?). "Papa Kim Papa Kim (or anyone else in the vicinity), who buy dis (holding up a bean in the soup we're eating)? who buy dis (holding up the corn in the soup)?" (Ryann, who insists on knowing who buys every item in a house), "Mama buys lots of stuff" (Ryann - yes, I know). "Stop doin' that!" (Mama Brynley who repeats EVERYTHING we say) and "WHAT?!" (in an exasperated snarky voice that makes me work on my poker face every time) or "I be right back honey" (they all add "honey" or "hon" to everything - think I overuse that word?!). I need to make better note of all their expressions - which change far too frequently.

Ryann, Brynley, & Hadley... our girls.

 Each of them is amazing in their own right - and each of them can drive me crazy in their own way... Not sure I can handle their new-found independence... if the last few months is a preview of what the age of 3 will be like, all that comes to mind is "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Happy 2014 from our family to yours...

Girls' weekend

30 Nails painted (twice), pumpkin-chocolate chip cupcakes baked and eaten, spoons licked, movies watched, photo-shoot in grown-up clothes complete, birthday party attended, Target trip, 30+ stickers handed out for peein' in the potty, and nap-time skipped... twice.

What does this mean for this mama - exhaustion. Utter exhaustion. I love my girls, they're hilarious and smart and nuts and I love them. But boy can they wear me out! That whole single-parent thing? How do you do it?! Thankfully neither of us have to very often... and I think both Travis and I are better parents for it!

Some weekend hits, in no particular order:

"Tomorrow, tomorrow, I WUV YA, tomorrow..." (with each verse getting louder). Solos and in unison by each of the girls. Followed by: "Mom, mom, I sing like Annie." (Have I mentioned that they LOVE that movie?)

Both Tomorrow and Jesus Loves Me renditions were sung during our Target trip - I'm sure my fellow consumers appreciated the atmosphere the girls created (insert blush here).

Ryann: "That's a BIG ball". 
Mom: "No, that's a pumpkin" (passed by a Halloween store with a huge pumpkin on the roof).
Girls: "Thas a BIG punkin". (we continue to have a conversation about Halloween - in it we discuss what the girls are going to be for Halloween... princess fairies).
Hadley: "I gonna be a princess"
Ryann: "No I gonna be a princess" (apparently only one can be a princess?)
Brynley: "I be a dinosaur" (WHAT THE...?!) "A pink dinosaur"... I give up.

On nails. "My paint come off, Mommy paint it"... on repeat. The stupid paint I bought freaking PEELS off like nobody's business... that's not annoying. I 'got' to paint Brynley's nails twice in about an hour time span. Fun time.

Nap time (you know, the ones that DIDN'T happen). Ryann launched everything out of her crip - almost got it into her sisters' cribs across the room. "Mommy no talk on the 'peaker" (read: speaker). Nope - I talked on it a bunch, not that it mattered, little stinkers wouldn't settle down and GO TO SLEEP! Stupid constipation-issues...

On pottying. They run and fight over potties... if Brynley says she wants to use the blue one, Hadley or Ryann will SPRINT over and sit on the blue potty. Similarly, if Hadley says she wants to sit on the 'big' red potty (we also have a smaller red potty), Brynley and/or Ryann will SPRINT over to sit on that one. Ryann has gotten smart, she doesn't tell anyone which one she's going to sit on. Sure does make potty-training that much more fun. Oh, and don't get me started on flushing... "I fush my pee?" followed by crying because Hadley flushed Brynley's pee or vice versa. I can't wait to get our water bill.

On sticker-charts. They're full. Super full. So we've started new ones. However, I never thought I'd have to be on sticker-patrol! They STEAL each others stickers.

Favorite comments. "Choices?" to each other and to their baby dolls (I guess we use this term a little too often). "Eat time, wash hands?" (again to each other and to their baby dolls). "Knock it off!" (whoops - that would be my bad... the dogs wouldn't stop barking and did I mention no naps?). "I sit in middle?" (always a debate). "No, I poopin in my panties" (always delightful to hear).

I wish I could remember everything they say... I know this age is fleeting and I'm amazed by the conversations they're able to have with me and with each other. After looking at the pictures I took the other day - I'm terrified at how quickly they're growing up!

Brynley & Ryann - Ryann really isn't THAT much taller... angle and hill.

That hat... and boots. My cuties.

Hads wasn't really in the mood. Dogs barking = entertainment.

The "Twins" - Brynley & Hadley

Brynley loves having her picture taken these days...

My Ryann - such an independent and sweet little girl.

Yep, about right.

A version of peek-a-boo... entertained me for awhile as well!

RYANN - SO TALL as she informed me!

Brynley told Ryann it was "Eat time" and then pretended to buckle her in. They were serving flowers they'd sneakily picked...

Hadley... her tummy hurt, but she still managed to look so sweet here.

Ryann wanted her hat. Those boots - I want a pair!

And Hadley's hat...

Back inside they wanted their pretty skirts on. I LOVE this picture for some reason. Bryn & Hadley

ETEWT: Estimated Time of Exhaustion with Triplets... 45 minutes.

Why having an odd number is a good thing you ask? No ties... However, in our household, it also means that Ryann typically (as in almost always) gets the deciding vote.

Tuesday and Thursday mornings are my mornings with the girls - well, for an hour or so anyway! Mollie comes in after breakfast on those two days, so I usually try to do something kind of fun for breakfast (also for leftovers the other days of the week). Anyway, mornings have become especially tiresome since commencing potty training... Between pottying and getting breakfast on the table - these girls don't eat until 9 or so! Anyway, this morning I asked them what they wanted for breakfast... what follows is fairly typical of how most conversations go in our house:
Bryn: "Pancakes"
Hadley: "No, Eggs"
Bryn: "No, I no want eggs. Pancakes"
Hadley: "No. Eggs. I wan eggs."
Bryn: (beginning to cry - typical) "NO! I no want eggs"
Hadley: "Both? Eggs and pancakes"
Bryn: (crying), "NO! I no want eggs",
Me: "Let's see what Ryann wants. Ryann, what do you want? Ryann? Ryann?" (she was watching TV and despite sitting RIGHT NEXT TO ME, continued to tune me out).
Meanwhile, Brynley is chanting "I no want eggs, I no want eggs"
Finally... Ryann: "Eggs." at which point Brynley started bawling.

I'm a sucker - I've been gone the last two nights, and won't be home again tonight, so I made both - whatever. As I made the eggs, Brynley reminded me several more times that she didn't want eggs (I promised her she didn't have to have any), while Hadley told me she wanted "bof".

While making breakfast, we had three successful potty trips - they refuse to wear pants as soon as they have undies on in the morning, so they can actually go by themselves (we have the potties sitting in the hall outside our bathroom... don't judge us). However, I am pretty sure our water bill will be going UP instead of DOWN - despite not laundering our cloth diapers nearly as often any more. They all like to flush the dang toilet and I cannot convince them that we don't have to flush every time (seriously people - I swear Hadley and Ryann will squeeze out three drops of pee to get a sticker... or marshmallow).

Back to breakfast. Finally ready at about 8:45 (pretty good considering they got up a little after 8). True to her word, Hadley did eat both, two scrambled eggs and two pancakes. Also, to Bryn's creidt, she didn't eat any eggs - only pancakes... as for Ryann, little stinker didn't eat any eggs, just pancakes... go figure.

I was exhausted within 45 minutes of them waking up! However, I can't complain one iota - after looking at the potty chart from yesterday that Mollie keeps... Hadley and Ryann had each peed 11 (ELEVEN) times BEFORE their nap... no wonder I feel like I live in the bathroom when I'm at home these days, I might need to start keeping tabs too... at least I'd be able to explain my time!

Ryann - training pants!

Hadley - training pants (too big, but whatever)

Bryn - such a poser... training pants (3T - too big)

Goofs.

Late night travels with the trio...

I love this age, I hate this age, I love this age... and oh my goodness are these girls hilarious! Never did I think my patience would be tried as much as it is on a daily basis - exasperating as they may be, I also never realized how honestly funny 2 1/2 year olds are! I'll post more about our month-long travels, but had to share a few stories from our drive home last night...

Backstory. Travis drove home Sunday night after our family Christmas while the girls and I stayed an extra day and drove home yesterday (Monday) evening. The thought process was that they would be exhausted from their week-long adventures in Rolla, Clear Lake, and the cabin - however, considering Hadley finally fell asleep around 11, I don't think my assumptions held. In all honesty, they did great in the car - although they had to be reminded (often) that I could not climb back there whenever they needed.

Story 1. Hadley and Brynley having finished their milk. (In unison) "Bounce bounce bounce" Brynly "AHHHHHHH" - Hadley (matching pitch) "AHHHHHHHH". Over and over and over again. It was somewhat impressive because Brynley kept climbing up the scale with her "AHHs" - however, it was also quite loud. We have discovered that Hadley has inherited the Pleggenkuhle volume - LOUD. That girls has no indoor voice whatsoever. During this time, Ryann was quietly watching her princess movie (Tangled).

Story 2. Ryann: "Mama, it's nighttime". Me: "That's right, what happens at nighttime?" (I thought they would answer, sleep of some variety). Ryann: "See the moon?" I have to admit, I was kind of impressed yet again, because that is true. So Brynley and Hadley begin chiming in from the back - "I see the moon?" "It's nighttime." Over and over and over... Ryann: "I don't see da moon?" Me: "It's behind the clouds" Brynley: "Where is da moon?" Ryann: "Behind the clouds" Brynley: "No, moon is sleeping" Hadley: "No, behind the clouds" Brynley: "No sleeping on the couch".... they had a conversation about the moon amongst themselves - letting me know that it's still nighttime in the meantime - for about 25 minutes.

Story 3. Situation: Brynley wanting me to come rescue her lovie while going through Des Moines - screaming/crying and pretty pissed off. Me: "Bryn, see the lights? Mama can't pull over, too many cars." Hadley: "Binley, cars? too many. stop. too bad." Ryann: "Mo police?" (she really liked the police lights that we passed). Brynley still mad, Hadley continues to repeat my explanation... hilarious.

Story 4. After getting gas. "Bye gas" (trio of voices that went on for another 10 minutes).

They did finally all fall asleep - but boy were they cranky and tired when we pulled into the drive... of course it didn't help that Daddy had fallen asleep and we'd had to circle the block a few times while I called trying to wake him up (the Escape was parked in the garage). So much for my great idea to travel at night again...

Better late than never...

Ever since the trio was born "late" seems to be our mantra. I have the best of intentions of updating our blog, yet days, weeks, and (yelp) months have passed. For that I am sorry - horribly sorry because there are so many funny stories that will not only go undocumented, but that I will and have already forgotten. Since this blog is really a journal for the girls - my utter failure at keeping it updated is quite public. Perhaps I can turn over a new leaf - it's worth a shot. So, instead of going way back to my last post, we'll start with recent events and maybe as I remember some stories from the last few months I'll try to update... it may not be chronological, but I'm thinking it's better than nothing!

THE WEDDING

We traveled down to Hermann, Missouri last weekend for Aunt Hilary and Uncle Henney's wedding (gonna have to figure out the spelling there). The trip down was pretty uneventful... aside from Travis forgetting their milk and water cups in our refrigerator at home (he/we realized it about 90 minutes down the road). So I got to add another eight or so sippy cups to our vast collection - but considering that's ALL we forgot, I'm thinking we did pretty good. We drove to St. Louis on Thursday and stayed with Aunt Mary Jo and Uncle Jim - along with the Askews and Lopers! What a pleasant and unexpected surprise... it was nice having some extra time before the wedding to chat with Travis' family! I was happy that they got to spend some extra time with the girls since we don't see them often enough. Friday we planned on going to the St. Louis zoo and wearing out the girls before driving over to Hermann... things didn't quite go as planned. We drove around (literally AROUND) the zoo for almost an hour before calling it quits -- we later found out that it was the first day baby elephant was making an appearance! I'm guessing that that, along with it being the beginning of Memorial Day weekend coupled with the fact that schools had let out that week made the zoo, a zoo. So, we headed to the Science Center instead - what a fantastic place! We definitely will be making a trip back to St. Louis - so much fun stuff to do with kids! The girls got to play with Aunt Bre at the Science Center and have lunch out - a very good day despite the zoo fiasco. We headed over to Hermann to begin the festivities that afternoon--Ryann chose not to nap on the way over, but somehow remained in good spirits. Thankfully the other two crazy ladies got some sleep - Bryn had had a rough night and definitely needed the sleep! Ryann managed to entertain us most of the way there "Hi Daddy!" "Hi Mommy" "Silly Daddy" - the commentary was nonstop. We arrived in Hermann and the girls got to play with Manga (Grandma Phyllis) and Papa Gary for awhile before the other Manga (Gama Sue) and Papa Kim arrived - as well as Aunt Bre! They managed to entertain everyone for quite awhile before it was time to head over to the rehearsal... did I mention that the trio were IN the wedding?! They had great fun at the rehearsal... well, BEFORE it started that is - running around, going up and down the steps about a thousand times, and playing peek-a-boo in the chairs. Once it started - let's just say we spent the rehearsal watching them run around outside - the do NOT know how to stay quiet! "More Sing?!" "More Sing?" "Hi Papa" "Uncle Henney"... ahhh - the commentary!

Brynley and her goofy self...

Yep - you can see why we had to remove them from the rehearsal - I asked her to smile...

Not sure what this was about, but Hadley thought going down the steps push-up style sounded fun?

Ryann - Peek-a-boo through the chairs

Miss Hadley peeking through

The girls actually did pretty good at the rehearsal dinner - they enjoyed playing with "kid" Lucy.. their 6-year old cousin. Considering it was pretty late I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did! I think it was after 9 when Manga Sue and Papa Kim took them home. Travis and I got to spend some time with his family, sitting around a fire overlooking the Missouri river - beautiful!

Wedding Day. Saturday started off pretty good. The weather forecast was spot on for a change - down pour until 2 and then cleared off. We spent time over at the cousin-house, the girls got to play with all the "kids" which they loved. We headed back to our place after lunch so the girls could take a bath and a nap before getting ready for the wedding... they had other plans. Only Ryann enjoyed the big tub - the other two stood there and screamed at me while I gave them a shower-bath.

I'm pretty sure they ate a [big] box of Kix over the weekend...

The tub was awesome - the three in the bathtub, not so much.

The girls decided that playing in their pack-n-plays for an hour and a half would be much more fun than actually napping. We all tried at one time or another to go in and get them to sleep - to no avail. In fact, one time Travis went in to to cajole them into taking a nap he found Ryann IN WITH BRYN! Still not sure how that one happened! We finally gave up and got them up a little after three to start getting ready for the wedding (at which time Ryann fell asleep on Papa Kim - ugh). The girls LOVED their dresses - not only did they twirl, they swished, AND they got to wear sparkle shoes... every 2-year old's dream! They even cooperated getting their hair done! Shocking to tell you the truth. When we got down to the chapel the photographer worked some kind of magic and got them to listen and sit still long enough to get a picture!

WHAT?! Hadley, Ryann, & Brynley - Cutest Flower Girls in the entire world

The actual ceremony was beautiful and the girls made it down the aisle! Brynley did not stay to see Aunt Hilary get married (she had some issue with a "leggy" and got to spend some one-on-one time with Maga Sue). The other two managed fairly well - Ryann made us giggle as she yelled out "Uncle Henney" several times! It was actually extremely cute. They also asked for more music every time it stopped... but other than that we made it through!

The reception was gorgeous... we did make one error - we should have taken the girls up to the cabin to burn off some energy during the interlude. Brynley hit a wall and did not get to stay very long at the reception - I actually asked her if she wanted to go for a swim in the river, lucky for her she told me no! She was close to being disowned... major tantrum. Hadley and Ryann powered through and had an AWESOME time. They danced with cousins Margaret and Katie for I don't know how long... in fact, I think I saw Hadley chase down Katie three different times as she tried to leave the dance floor. A HUGE THANK YOU to both of them! Overall, it was a wonderful day/night - and we're so happy to have Uncle Henney as an official part of our family! I'm going to leave off there - Sunday was not a day I want to relive... 'slight' (as in huge) hangover for this mama! We made it home Sunday evening and all of us got a much needed night of sleep in our own beds!

Ryann LOVED the reception!

Closest family photo we got - one of these days maybe Travis and I will both be in it!

Running and swishing... did I mention it was BEAUTIFUL!

And running....

and running... complete joy: Hadley and Brynley

Hadley Marie

and running... Ryann & Hadley

This kid was smiles all night

With Papa Kim!

They clean up pretty good!

I wanted a picture with my girls - this is as close as I got.

Bryn - this might be the last time we saw her smile.

Dancing with Katie - the girls are still talking about it!

Gangum Style - this girl was in HEAVEN!

Gangum Style with Manga = AWESOME

Ryann & Aunt Hilary -the  beautiful bride

Ryann with her buddy Margaret... who we owe a huge thanks to!