21 Month Update!

That's right, the trio turned 21 months over the weekend!  So we're already that close to the big 2nd birthday!! Though they didn't have to get any vaccinations or see the doctor at 21 months (not until 2 years) I thought I would do an update anyways.  I don't have any weights or lengths but I do have a lot to say about their big personalities!

Gavin:

His official nickname, which I'm sure will carry over into adulthood is "Dennis the Menace".  It's so funny when I try to explain to people what his personality is like because they don't really get it until they spend five minutes with him.  Then I get the reaction of "holy cow Gayla, I don't know how you do it...I would be a nervous wreck with him all the time"!  He is certainly ALL BOY!  Forget your typical kids toys, all Gavin needs is a table to climb on, a floor vent to stuff his body in or a couch to jump off of!  Even though he is a tiny little guy he has absolutely no fear of ANYTHING! He has recently been "taught" to sit in time out by himself with a timer set for one minute and while he sits there you will hear him saying the word "bad" over and over to himself! It's hard not to laugh.  But when Gavin is in that sweet moment he sure does love to cuddle up to you and stroke your face and hair!  He loves to read books, "cook" stuff up in their kitchen for you to taste and sit in front of the refrigerator playing with magnets...when he's not crawling inside of or on top of furniture. 

Gavin into his book...

Ava:

Don't let Ava's sweetness fool you!  She sure can be the instigator as well, especially recently with the transition to toddler beds.  She'll give a little push or bite here and there to start the fight with the boys...just her way of letting them know that just because she's the girl doesn't mean they can mess with her!  I've been feeling bad for her lately though because the boys are really into wrestling with each other and when she tries to throw herself in the mix they tend to "not allow her" to be one of the boys...maybe that will change come September if some more pink joins our family!  Ava MUST have the attention on her and if she doesn't she will find a way to fix that.  She is all about copying us both verbally and physically and has been showing that "nurturing" side of herself lately.  Hopefully this means she'll be Mommy's little helper.  She's one tough cookie and has a very high tolerance of pain.  In fact, we recently found out she has a double ear infection but the only sign she was showing was a 103 temperature that wouldn't break for three days!  She wasn't pulling on the ears or fussy!  Then she had an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin by breaking out in a rash all over so we had to put her on a different medicine.  Here's a video of Ava...listen closely in the beginning as she recently learned how to say "ABC" and "itsy bitsy spider"!

Brayden:

Brayden is still the sweet, quiet one.  He recently recovered from a pretty bad cold though and was a miserable patient that wouldn't stop crying for what seemed like days!  Future wife...beware!  He loves to just run up and snuggle with everyone even if he just met you.  And he definitely prefers ladies over men!  He cannot get enough of any moving vehicle whether it's a firetruck, car, train, helicopter or school bus.  He'll stop everything he's doing and run to the nearest window when he hears one coming down the road.  And any book that has a car in it needs to be read to him at least twenty times a day!  Brayden loves to go for walks in the stroller for some fresh air and points to everything spouting out "that" for you to tell him what it is.  He loves to tell everyone "bye bye" even if you're just walking into the next room...makes you feel wanted!  Brayden is just a lovable, kind child that is so content reading books or playing with cars...unless he's hungry!

Mr. Serious into the Dr. OZ show!

The toddler bed transition is going well...better than expected actually.  They do really well at night, although Gavin and Ava enjoy sleeping in one bed together or on the floor!  Nap time takes a little longer to get them down and settled long enough for a solid nap but I know that will come with time.  Here are a few funny pictures of them cuddled up together:

Ava snuggled up in Gavin's bed

Nap time conference

Gavin snuggled in Ava's bed

Ava wandered over into Brayden's bed

Check out the position of Gavin and Ava...looks comfy!

 They're pretty much eating everything that we have for dinner with the exception of steak and other tough meats since they still don't have all of their teeth.  Some typical things they eat daily/weekly:

Oatmeal
Bananas
Greek Yogurt
Blueberry Pancakes
Eggs (Hard boiled or Scrambled)
Vege Straws
Cereal Bars
Sammy Grammy's (great snack I found at Babies R Us)
Crackers
Fruit (apples, peaches, pears, mango, grapes, mandarin oranges, applesauce)
Raisins
Yogurt Drops
Graham Crackers
Vegetables (broccoli, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots)
Vege Burgers
Deli Meat
Amy's Organic Meals
Pasta
Chicken Sausage
Chicken Nuggets (love the ones from BJ's that are shaped like dinosaurs and all white/organic)
Fish (grilled or baked)
Pudding
Laughing Cow Cheese Triangles

Just a few ideas for others out there!  Other than that, we've just been trying to stay warm lately with the cold weather up here...hoping it will get warm come March.  We're also gearing up for our big "spring break" trip to Disney in two weeks!  We're flying there with the trio along with Joe's sisters.  My parents are driving down and meeting us there.  We also get to enjoy the vacation with our amazing friends from Ft. Bragg, Eric and Chelsea Brumfield along with their sweet Addison who is just a few months younger than ours.  They are flying all the way from Washington state to spend the week in Disney with us!  We're so excited for this opportunity to spend with friends and family and I'll be sure to do a few posts on our experiences while there! 

I had an ultrasound last week along with the first trimester screening for Bonus Baby and everything looks great according to the doctors!  My next ultrasound will be at the beginning of April in which hopefully we'll get to find out gender! 

Toddler Beds: Day 3

10 HOURS!  Can you believe it?! They slept in their beds last night for ten straight hours without getting up and wandering around the room!  Of course I woke up throughout the night checking the camera because I could hardly believe it!  It felt like they were 4 months old again when they started sleeping longer stretches and we would wake up worried that something was wrong!  They were probably so exhausted from the lack of sleep they have gotten the past two days that they crashed!  I was just happy because Brayden especially needed the uninterrupted sleep...there was no way I could handle another entire day of his crankiness (like his father when he doesn't get enough sleep)! 

They did wake up at 5:30 but we let them stay in their room until 7 playing.  We did this when they were in their cribs too because I had heard many a stories from other fellow moms who would go in as soon as their child cried/woke up so the child figured that out and would wake up earlier and earlier knowing that they would get to come out of their crib/bed.  A lot of times when we let them "play" if they woke up early they would end up going back to sleep! So for now, we're going to do the same thing with their beds!  

So far things I would have done differently with this process:
1. Waited until none of them were sick and already tired from that!
2. Waited until a weekend for mine and Joe's sake with the lack of sleep!
3. Not be so hard on myself or the kids in perfecting this the first night (they are only 20 months old)!

Things that I think helped us:
1. Totally baby proofed the room first (locks on closets, blinds secured, no toys to play with).
2. Bought toddler beds that are low to the ground without any space underneath for them to crawl under.
3. Invested in the surveillance camera so that we can view the entire room!

I hope that some of these things help others when going through this process! Unfortunately, since they slept all the way through I don't have any humorous pictures to post! But I do have a picture of the cute gift that the trio made for Daddy for Valentine's Day (courtesy of Pinterest for the idea)!

I used their thumb prints to form the hearts!

Stay tuned this week to the blog for a really cool post I'm working on!

Toddler Beds: Day 2

Thank goodness for Supernanny! Seriously, her tactics are literally lifesavers for us right now! So night two wasn't as bad as the first night.  It took some stern voices and putting Gavin and Ava back in bed a few times but within ten minutes they were all asleep!  However, not in their own beds! Ava is quite the snuggler so she crawled into Gavin's bed and fell asleep for the majority of the night!

I ended up waking up a couple hours later and all three of them had at some point gotten out of their beds and couldn't quite make it back up! So they had all passed out on the floor.  Note: you cannot see Brayden because he is in between his bed and the window!

Ava is drawn to Brayden's bed for some reason so she took her blanket and elephant and went and sat next to him in the middle of the night!

This morning while Gavin and Ava were running around they decided to take a rest on the built in bench on Ava's bed!

Nap time went pretty well (I was on my own since Joe couldn't make it home for lunch).  Of course Brayden went right to sleep but Gavin and Ava wanted to test the system again!  I found myself getting pretty frustrated when they would get out of bed so I thought to try Supernanny's tactic of turning my back and ignoring them.  If they got up and walked over to me I would put them back in their bed without saying anything or making eye contact.  It took me one time with Gavin until I turned around and realized he was passed out snoring!  And it took twice with Ava until she fell asleep! 

The hardest part is probably getting Ava and Gavin to settle down in the beginning and leave Brayden alone.  Brayden is getting over a cold and definitely requires more sleep than most so he's going on 72 hours of straight "fussiness/crankiness" right now!  We have to be patient though as we're only on our third day of boot camp!  I know it takes a while to adjust with this new found freedom! 

Wish us luck tonight and that the trio get some decent sleep resulting in happy babies tomorrow!!

Toddler Beds: Day 1

The day was finally here...transitioning to Toddler Beds for the trio!  We waited until after the weekend to start because my parents were visiting and we knew that it was going to entail long nights and nap times.  So Monday was the first day of "Toddler Bed Boot Camp".  I've been trying to catch up on Supernanny reruns and write down some pointers on this topic but it was still much harder than I thought it would be!  We were probably crazy for starting the transition while Brayden is recovering from a pretty bad cold and the other two are starting their colds but really, when is a good time for this kind of stuff? 

The cribs that we had did convert to day beds but we were really nervous about the big space underneath and our kids hiding/playing with guaranteed injuries!  So we went ahead and invested in three toddler beds that sit on the ground.  My fellow triplet friend, Carrie, has the same beds and I really liked them so we went with those from Babies R Us (KidKraft). 

Arrival Day

The boys' beds

Ava's

Joe had to "baby proof" the wires for the camera and CD player

Surprisingly, Brayden did great!  As soon as we got him in his bed with his blanket on he didn't try to get up at all.  Joe pat his back for a little bit to make him feel comfortable and that was it.  He rolled out of the bed once during the night and then got woken up by his lovely sister another time so he walked over to the door (which we locked) and then walked right back to his bed and fell back asleep. 

Ava kindly waking Brayden up

Gavin had a hard time falling asleep (his sister didn't help though) but once he was down he did pretty well.  It was pretty humorous when he would wake up in the night.  It was as if he was sleep walking as he would walk over to the door, stare at it for a minute and then turn around and walk back to his bed and crawl back in. 

Walking around

Staring at the door

Finally asleep...butt in the air!

Ava was by far the worst!  She had no desire to stay in her bed and would constantly get up and walk over to her brothers' beds trying to wake them up or crawl into their bed.  At one point, she gathered her stuffed animals and blankets and went and sat in between Gavin and Brayden's beds.  It was sweet until she tried waking them up! She also kept rolling out of her bed so after a while I just let her fall asleep on the floor.  She eventually woke up and crawled back into bed. 

Blanket in hand...

Ava wanted to be by her brothers

Passed out on the floor

After an hour and a half she finally fell asleep (but not for the night)

You would think that after being up all night, Gavin and Ava would want to sleep in...nope, not these two, they were up at 6am back at Brayden's bed trying to get him up to party too!

So we survived the first night, barely, but we did it!  They're napping right now and are doing pretty well (they're probably exhausted from last night).  I think the hardest part is trying to get Gavin and Ava to not disturb Brayden.  We found that when we would put them back in their beds they thought that was funny so they would keep getting out and stare at us to get attention.  So unless they were bothering Brayden we started letting them walk around the room and eventually they found their way back to bed and would fall asleep.  We'll see what night two has in store for us.  I would love suggestions from anyone that has been in this situation though especially with siblings sharing the same room!