Trick or Treat Triplets

We are lame parents. The kids were dressed up as monkeys last year for Halloween. We started talking about what they would be for Halloween this year. We said, why not try last year's outfits. Well, since William is the biggest of the triumphret his costume was bigger and since Addison is the smallest it fit her this year. Then the CFO went to multiples consignment sale and found two matching costumes in the sizes we needed for the boys. I call it divine intervention:) Last weekend we went to a Fall Festival and had a great time. I know, they also look like bears or Ewoks.

I actually wanted the CFO to dress up like Princess Leah and I could be Hans to complete the "Star Wars" look but she was not going for it:)

Now we are torn between both of us trick or treating with the kids or staying home for trick or treaters. BTW I really do not like the first year of Halloween in a new home. You never know how much candy to buy.

Proof of our society's decline is that Halloween has become a broad daylight event for many.
Robert Kirby

I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.
Author Unknown

Al

Keeping an eye on the Triplets

Yes, we are some of those paranoid parents that like to keep and eye on their kids at almost all times. Chalk it up to being first time parents and having Triplets, among other things:) The kids and I usually go to the YMCA 1-2 days a week. The Triplets get to play with other kids and I get to stay in "stay at home spouse shape." I always said that if I had a stay at home wife I would not want her sitting on the couch eating bon-bons all day. I figure what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

The YMCA has closed circuit TV cameras in the child watch area. I frequently look at the monitor to check out what the kids are doing. The other day I was watching the monitor and saw this girl (around 10 years old or so) bouncing a ball off of Addison's head and not letting her go through a doorway. OK, I know kids can be mean... I watched for a minute and the girl then took Addison's hat and ran off with it. I took off to the childwatch area. I went in and said I am not here to pick up the kids but there is a girl hitting Addison in the head with a ball and she took her hat. They said they had just handled it. Of course the kids saw me and were not too pleased when I left the childwatch area without them. So I went back to the monitor only to see the same BRAT (the language was very different in my head) knock Addison's hat off again. Off to the showers I went to get ready to leave.

When I picked them up after showering the BRAT was at the counter "helping" check the kids out. I got down on her level and said "I saw you knock her hat off." She said "I might have bumped into her." To which I said "No, I saw everything on the cameras. You knocked her hat off and also hit her in the head with the ball. No one likes bullies." No more comments from the BRAT. She walked off looking back at me with a look I have seen before.... from employees when you bust them lying and you call them on the carpet.

What will I say if I see the BRAT again you ask? Not sure.... what I am VERY temped to say is "Remember both God and I will be watching but only God has Grace:)"

Two Dads and five kids under three years old? This would strike fear into the heart of most Mothers:)

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996)


Al

The dogged determination of a Triplet Toddler

Snow globes and toddlers are a bad combination

I had previously seen this cute snow globe around the house. It was about 2" in diameter and we usually didn't let the kids play with it as we did not want anyone getting hit with it:) So when William wandered into the kitchen with it yesterday morning I thought nothing of it. I showed him how it worked and he LOVED it! Then I turned to finish cleaning up from breakfast.... not sure it if slipped or it was "discarded" by William but it went down on the hardwoods. BAM! It blew like it was designed by Stark Industries (we just watched Iron Man). That little snow globe had a blast radius of about six feet. Not bad for glitter, water and what turned out to be thin glass. Who would have thought it was glass?

Just as I turned William goes down in the puddle of water, glitter and glass shards. I, while sock footed, stepped in and scooped him up. Not sure what you should do in these cases but I pulled his PJ bottoms off and rinsed him under the faucet to get the glass off. Of course the other 2/3rds of our Triplets came running. To which I said "Stop, go back in the living room." To my amazement they did. Luckily William escaped with only two minor nicks on the bottom of his feet.

So for the next 45 minutes I worked on cleaning up glass. To add insult to injury I had to try and get up all the glitter. Glitter and I don't get along:) So after about 1/2 a roll of paper towels that I would wet down and wipe the floor with, scanning the floor with the flash light and running Roomba I felt safe.

Just another day with toddlers:)

Addison with her face painting from the weekend.

My way of joking is to tell the truth. It is the funniest joke in the world.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)


Al

Busy busy weekend!

My Brother-in-law and his family visited for the weekend. Nothing like having twins and triplets all under two in the same house for the weekend:) Everyone had a great time. We went to Aldridge Gardens for a pumpkin festival. There was a band, face painting, scarecrows, a plant sale and of course pumpkins! There were a few crying spats, a few tense moments with some geese but we got some great pictures.

The boys really liked "helping" Daddy pull the wagon.

The BEST quote so far.......

Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful
Warren Buffett

Al

I knew it would happen eventually...

I knew it would happen eventually. I was greeted by Jackson the other morning when I opened the Triplet's bedroom door. Yes, he had gotten out of the crib. It seems that he "practiced" all weekend at the In-Laws getting in and out of his pack-n-play. Don't worry, I will soon have this under control. I believe I have some rabbit traps in the basement that I can place around his bed:) Just kidding:)

So now we have some decisions to make. Do we embrace this and change the cribs to toddler beds? Do we put him in "baby supermax" with a crib tent? Do we just "teach" him not to get out of his crib? Next thing I know my insurance rates will be going up because of teenage drivers:)

Addison looks like she is saying "Yes, I got into the blue chalk also. You want to make a big deal out of it?"

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
Peter Drucker (1909 - 2005)

Al

I need more doors and more door locks for that matter....

I am dealing with two VERY different issues but they both involve doors.

1. Now that Fall is here the CFO's weekly laundry output seems to have an inverse relationship to the the Stock Market. In short... I have A LOT of laundry to do:) Normally that is no big deal but being as she is a woman, most if not all of her clothes would be ruined by the dryer. Not sure what it is about women's clothes but the dryer seems to make her clothes shrink to Smurf sizes. So yesterday I did a couple of loads and I ran out of doors to hang clothes on. I mean I even used the towel rods in the guest bathroom. I know, I know, a drying rack! But that would make too much sense. Remember, I am a man:)

2. Jackson can open doors. So I must now lock the ones I don't want him to open. Like the exterior doors and the one to the basement. Next he will learn to unlock them so I will have to figure out something for that:)

The CFO brought this white tiger home from work and the kids LOVE it! I do not ask where such things come from:)

There is not any memory with greater satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted.
CFO - she corrected the previous one:)


Al

What makes you think I played with the blue chalk?

After the romantic weekend

I know, I know, we are just hopeless romantics. The kids are away for the weekend and we blissfully stain the fence and plant a tree:) OK, well, we start to plant a tree. I when I say "we" plant a tree, I mean the CFO does. She wants a tree... she digs the hole, well, most of the hole. We ran out of time and we had to go meet the in-laws to pick up the kids. Gotta love equal rights! I stay at home with the kids and she digs the holes.

She found the perfect spot for the tree in the front yard. Guess what? It was such a perfect spot that when she was digging she found the stump of a tree that had been in that perfect spot:) It was a small stump so she dug around it. That is when I got to get out one of my power tools and use it for a purpose for which it was not intended... EVERY GUY'S DREAM! I used my reciprocating saw to cut the stump up into pieces. No, I do not have a chainsaw. But I did give some serious thought to pitching the idea to the CFO. But with our Dave Ramsey budget in effect there was little hope for a new power tool:(

Before and after of the fence in the same picture.




Boy, oh boy, can the CFO dig a hole or what?

People need trouble -- a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy.
William Faulkner

Al

Sleeping in....

The In-Laws had the Triplets this weekend so we had a "couples weekend." We even got to sleep in till 8:30am! So what did we do with all of our "free time" you ask? We stained our fence! I know, I know we are so sweet, just like newlyweds:)

The kids now LOVE getting their picture taken. I said "sit down and Daddy will take your picture."

I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.
Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 - 1965)

Al

Houdini Pee

I have seen some crazy things in the two years we have been parents of Triplets. And I have seen some REAL crazy things during the last seven months as a stay at home Dad of Triplets. But I have a real conundrum. I went up to wake the kids from their nap earlier this week (OK, they had been awake for a while talking, wiping spit on the walls and throwing things out of their cribs) when I discovered that Jackson was soaked on one side of his body from his groin to his underarm. No biggie I thought, he just overloaded the diaper. But the diaper was not very wet. Believe me, I have seen some that I thought would explode (OK, some actually did explode.)

Aha, you think he pulled his diaper down... But he was in a jumper with the crotch buttoned. And yes, his manhood was pointing down in the diaper:) Oh well, it is better than the time he pulled off the dirty diaper and then screamed at it:)

The CFO is the crazy one that puts them all in the tub together:) Jackson sporting a bubble beard.

I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them. Jane Austen (1775 - 1817)

Al

The song is gone, finally:)

Well, it took till yesterday morning but it is finally gone. I am sure it will soon be replaced but I will enjoy talking to myself until another song fills the gap:) BTW, is that something that all stay at home parents do? I mean talk to yourself, sometimes out loud. Or it may be that I am A.D.D. and I am busy jumping from one thing to the next. For instance while the kids were napping yesterday I was doing laundry, writing this post, cooking lunch, looking for good stock deals on Etrade, getting my gym bag ready, getting their diaper bag ready for Wednesday night Church, and finishing up announcements for Church on Sunday. OK, it is just me, but I can live with that.

One thing this crazy economy (or the lack there of) and the stock not-so-market is reinforcing is that time with the kids is #1 and pays off in spades!

Is it me or does William look upset? :)

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.
Lily Tomlin

Al

Triplet bed-head

Get this song out of my head.... PLEASE!

You know the game.... to get rid of a song that is in your head you just need to give it to someone else. Sorry about this but I need you:)

The Backyardigans song "Please and Thank You" is stuck in my head. If you don't know it I found a video of kids performing the song on Utube. As we got rid of cable we watch videos when we watch TV so I am stuck with the same episodes for a while.

Addison is already "shopping".... I am in real trouble:)

The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006)

Al

Just another "normal" weekend for the Triplets

Nothing too exciting to report from the weekend. We did however have some "couple" time Saturday night. The YMCA we go to had a promotion when we joined and we earned a $50 coupon each month for four months. We used the first one Saturday night for a "date night" they have once a month. Seeing as it was Saturday they were all in their Auburn University gear and looking good. The CFO and I went to a friend's house for dinner and to watch football. Of course the Auburn game was blacked out. But we listened to it on the radio. Needless to say Auburn lost. Oh well, I guess it will be called a "building year":)

The CFO takes WAY better pictures than I do. Here is one from the weekend.

The whole financial structure of Wall Street seems to rise or fall on the mere fact that the Federal Reserve Bank raises or lowers the amount of interest. Any business that can't survive a one percent change must be skating on thin ice.Why even the poor farmer took a raise of another ten percent just to get a loan from the bank, and nobody from the government paid any attention. But you let Wall Street have a nightmare and the whole country has to help to get them back into bed again.
Will Rogers, August 12, 1929

Al

Pavlov's Triplets...

As anyone with kids already knows, they learn even when you are not "teaching" them. We, like any red-blooded americans, spend much of our time in the kitchen. Our kitchen table is for playing and eating. So they are often in the kitchen while I am preparing food. OK, if they are awake they better be in there or I need to go see what they are getting into:)

Here are the two most frequent senarios...

1. I usually cook waffles, french toast or blueberry pancakes for breakfast but I always make more than I need and freeze the rest. That way I can just pop some in the toaster when I need them. So when the toaster "dings" when it is done the Triplets yell "Waffle!"

2. Another one of their favorites and a staple at the lunch/dinner table is mac and cheese. Of course I have doctored it up with one of The Sneaky Chef's pures and added chopped spinach:) I just reheat some in the microwave when they need it. So when the microwave beeps the Triplets all yell "cheese!"

Now I need to start having fun with this... I am trying to get them to sing "The phone, the phone is ringing" ala the Wonder Pets whenever they hear a phone ring....

I'm a model you know what I mean

And I do my little turn on the catwalk

Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)

Al

Who needs high tech toys for Triplets?

First time parents are a gold mine for toy companies! As anyone knows, kids like the simple things in life. Like say, a table and chairs... Who knew a toy could also be funtional:)



"Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they find laughable."
Anon.

Al

You gotta problem with the way I eat yogurt?

Staying thin staying at home....

I have always been a bit thin but I actually lost six pounds when I started staying at home with our Triplets seven months ago. There are several reasons for this:

1. If I eat with them all I hear is "bite please, bite please, bite please"

2. If I wait to eat when they take a nap, they don't and I don't.

3. If I wait and eat what is left this is what I get......

I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
Robert McCloskey, State Department spokesman (attributed)

Al

The Triplet cleaning crew....

I have no doubt that they will soon enough figure out the difference between work and play. But until then I am taking full advantage of the blurry line:)









Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
Kurt Vonnegut



Al

Potty training is at hand for the Triplets...

Jackson actually went pee-pee in the potty at their day out program the other day. I just picked up three training pottys yesterday from Wal-Mart. We spent about 30 minutes taking turns on one of the pottys. They LOVE sitting on it, now we just need to get them to actually use it. On a side note, how in the world do you clean the cup that catches everything out? I know you dump the contents in the toilet but then what? I am not sure I would feel comfortable washing it out in the sink or running it through the dishwasher. I know you "clean" it but... I mean even after I clean a toilet I don't let the dog drink from it:) If anyone has a solution, please let me know:)

Addison got pigtails the other day at school - VERY cute!

Are two hats better than one? She actually did this not me.

Karate Kid

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), In Stobaeus, Florilegium

Al

San Francisco is off it's rocker.....

First, I am not sure if San Francisco was ever on a rocker or for that matter ever owned one:) Depending on what numbers you look at you can come up with different numbers. But most people believe that smoking and obesity are the #1 and #2 contributing factors to death respectively. So San Francisco is banning pharmacies from selling cigarettes. What is next? Will they ban them from selling potato chips and other fattening foods? Wait a minute, products heavy in sugar also lead to becoming fat.... out goes the candy. If government really wants to help people make better choices they will stop pandering to idiots and would start actually teaching people common sense. I mean it is nice that we can all do algebra and have an appreciation for Shakespeare but it would be better if we had more common sense:)

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972), Lecture at Columbia University, 28 Apr. 1959

Al

Triplets at the Aquarium