Our Three Blessings

The babies had their first jar of store bought baby food today. We tried the Gerber Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce with Beef. They loved it! Even Leah had her mouth open for another bite before I made it back around to her. She is our picky eater. I probably won't do it all the time, but for something easy it wasn't bad. The only problem is that the tomato sauce stains. Logan has never really stopped spitting up, some days are better than others. The tomato sauce on the light colored carpet only emphasized that today wasn't one of the good days. Three happy and full babies. ...maybe mommy is the messy one getting the food all over their faces.

Yesterday was Mozart's Birthday. He would have turned 254. On the way home from Grandma's house I just happened to change the radio to the classical station and learned of Mozart's Birthday. It got me thinking about when the babies were little (a few months back). They loved laying on the play mat looking up at the toys and listening to music. They were completely content to lay there 30+ minutes. They still love listening to music and the play mat , but they don't sit still for very long and the play mat is usually tossed all over the room.

That is the question... When picking clothes out for the boys I always have to decide how matchy I'm feeling. Quite often I end up picking out matching outfits for the boys. Sometimes it's just easier to grab two of the same thing, while other times it's just random. The other day the boys had random outfits on and I found myself having to do a double take to tell who was who. Instead of just a quick glance and easily seeing who was causing the trouble. I tried to remember which outfit they had on, instead of glancing at their faces. Some how on consecutive days I had one of them in a red shirt and not matching, so Ethan got blamed for a few things that weren't his fault. Ethan & Logan (matching) Missy, Ethan & Logan (not matching) Ethan in the red shirt causing trouble.

8 pm is not what it used to be. The night used to just get started around 8, after dinner when all the good shows were on tv. Now 8 is when the babies are usually all in bed and we hurry to finish up a few things so we can crash. The other night I was getting the babies down to bed. I took Ethan up first and the other two followed me to the gate. I headed back down to work on getting them to bed and found them happy to find me.

Typically the babies will wake up from their afternoon nap one at a time. They will fuss a bit and I usually like to grab them right away so they don't wake each other up. Last weekend after the babies nap I could hear them laughing so I took my camera with me when I checked on them. This is what I found... All three babies standing in their cribs giggling at each other.

Last weekend we took the babies 11 month photos. It's getting harder to get photos of all the babies sitting together, but there are a lot more "posing" options. Logan, Leah, & Ethan We had to have Ethan sit, he kept walking away pushing the toys. Ethan Leah Logan

I always liked the photo in my baby book of me standing next to my changing table pulling out clothes. I had a good laugh when I found Logan sitting next to the changing table pulling out diapers.

At the begining of the month Eric and I made a bet regarding when Ethan would take his first 3 steps. The looser had to set up a date...so no one really looses on this deal. Eric guessed the 15th and I guessed the 30th. For the last few weeks Ethan has been able to stand for a few seconds by himself and was showing signs that he was about to walk on his own any minute. On the 16th Ethan took three wobbly steps towards me. We were so excited. Then later that evening we tried to get him to walk towards me again and that time he took 6-7 steps. We are enjoying his accomplishments now, but I'm sure in a month or two we will look back on the less mobile days with fondness. Now I get to set up a date...

Our bedtime routine for the babies has included reading them to sleep in their rocking chairs. The chairs have been a great way for one of us to get all 3 down alone. Unfortunately the babies are getting bigger and are not as comfortable falling asleep in the chairs. For a while now we have been taking Logan up just before he goes out and just recently we started that with Ethan. It's nice that we can put the boys down awake/drowsy and they will go to sleep. Now we just have to transition Leah.

The babies are 11 months today...wow. It's getting harder to get them all to sit for a photo.

The babies are really starting to understand things we say. We can say come here or follow us and they will. They have definitely gotten used to the word NO, and respond appropriately. I had to laugh the other day when Eric was telling Leah to not stick her finger in her brother's mouth. I'm sure their first words will be "but they started it".

Last summer we had a good routine of taking one baby with us when we went some where. Some how we got busy and weren't taking them as often. The other week we started off the order again and Ethan went to the store with me. He had a blast riding in the seat of the cart, looking at everything, and swinging his legs. Today was Lean's turn. Out of all the babies she is the most hesitant around people she doesn't know. So the trip today was great for her. She missed her afternoon nap, which probably didn't help the situation, but she didn't fuss at all in the store and just looked around at everything, taking it all in. I took a picture of her just as we were leaving...Her face pretty much had the same expression the whole trip, not her usual smile...

With added mobility comes new tricks. Now that Ethan can pull up on ANYTHING/EVERYTHING and cruise around he has discovered that he can get into all sorts of things. A week or so ago Ethan discovered that he can turn on and off Grandma's TV. So the other morning after getting dropped off, Grandma was in the kitchen and heard something in the tv room. She went back in to find the TV on and the babies happily playing with their toys. Ethan decided they need a little background noise while they were playing and turned on the morning news for everyone. It's times like these I really appreciate that Ethan is a little ahead of the other two. We can see all the things he gets into and secure them before we have all three of them quickly going in different directions. For now, they all seem to go in the same direction and want the same toys. The best toy is always the one that someone else is playing with and wiggling around.

For Christmas the babies received several push and ride toys. The new push toy works great even for entertaining two babies at the same time. It's a bit tough for Ethan to push Leah by himself but he has no problems walking across the house pushing the toys when they don't have a rider. Leah and Logan still need a bit more help pushing the toys, but they do a great job crawling all over the place and getting in front of Ethan.

Logan & Mommy Taken with my new fancy phone. Eric and I spent our Christmas money on new phones.  We both went with the new Sprint Hero.  The phones are a lot of fun (toys) and to just call them phones is a little silly.  We can browse the web, take photos, take video, listen to music, get updates when we receieve new email, get constant weather updates, play games, text, track events on the calendar, and of course call people.

The Babies had a fun bath day the other day. Instead of giving them baths separately, we gave them all a bath in our large tub together. The babies loved splashing around together and playing with their toys.

Not to be confused with this crack...which oddly enough is usually hanging out. Cheerios and Piffs are like crack to the babies. They will eat them by the hand full. Ethan managed to pull up on a chair in the kitchen and pull the puffs off the table that were on a place mat. Fortunate for Ethan and the other two, the lid was not on the container. So they (the babies and Missy) ended up with an extra snack...

We had such a great year last year and were blessed with three big and healthy babies. We did have our few bumps in the road, but I can only hope that this year will be as great. Ethan Leah Logan Stats Update Ethan - 6 teeth, 24lb 11 oz Leah - 8 teeth, 25lb 12oz Logan - 4 teeth, 24 lb I hope everyone has a great year!!