8 months old and mommy and daddy's anniversary!

The boys are 8 months old today, unbelievable. As of today, Michael weighs 18lb 15oz and is 26.25" long, Konrad weighs 16lb 14oz and is 25.25" long, and Zachary weighs 19lb 11oz and is 26.25 inches long. So obviously they are growing and thriving, laugh. The doctor's office makes sure to remind us not to expect too much of them and that they are only 5 months old adjusted age, but sometimes it is hard to believe because they look and seem more like the 8 month olds they are.  In some ways I know that they are behind and closer to the 5 month old mark, but they are so alert, curious and very interactive. They are jumping in their exersaucer and moving around in their walkers and they are definitely trying to crawl. All three of them are racing to have the first tooth through any day now (which of course they would definitely have if they were actually 8 months old). I am just so proud of them and in awe of how fast they are growing. It really is true that the days go by slowly but the months and years go by so fast. They are just amazing and the light of our lives. 

On a personal note, Mike and I have been married three years today and we have one beautiful boy for each year to show for it...my, weren't we efficient. We always get all sorts of "instant family" comments but today it feels like it, in a good way. I do love my boys, all four of them :)

    Here are the boys playing today- 8 months old (5 months my foot!)

Here is a pic for those of you who can't view the video

the flogging will continue until morale improves

We took the boys to the renaissance festival today. We took them last year in my belly and i was oh so ill and already felt so pregnant...the smells, oh god, the smells...i was literally green...

...but enough about me...our friends were going and Grandpa Tom was going and we have been feeling so isolated lately that we thought, what the heck. Plus, Jeff and Christina had free tickets and free food vouchers...all those freebies are just too darn good to pass up. So we packed up the boys and ventured into the crowds of drunken, dressed up, dog toting, sword waving, bad accent spewing people.

The boys were on their best behavior, barely a peep out of them all day. I wish I could have said the same for the adults, laugh. Going anywhere in public gives us the risk of instant celebrity...going to a veritable freakfest like the renaissance festival was just beggin for it...we were just gluttons for punishment. We had double takes and stares, we heard people counting "one two three" under their breath, we heard "look honey, triplets" ripple through the crowds...

...i used to be a pretty under the radar kind of gal...the kind of person who wished for a personal cloaking device most of the time...have i mentioned that having triplets apparently gives total strangers permission to comment at you and touch you...my space, your space people...truly delightful...

We got lots of the usual comments, mostly from people passing by:
"are they triplets"
"are they all yours"
"god bless you"
"you've got your hands full"
"who's the oldest"

then we got the slightly more nosey, brief stop n' stare comments:
"are they all boys"
"how old are they"
"who was born first"
"do twins run in your family"
"why does that one get to go in front" (of the stroller)

but then we got some truly spectacular comments, some real eyebrow raisers...laugh
"ooooh, eenie, meenie and miney" ...?...
"what did you do to get those" ...too many answers for this one, lol
"are they all triplets"...ummm no just two of them...
"look, three twins" ...heh, heh
"wow, look, three- that's different" ...thanks i guess
"where they all born at the same time...(i say yes)...so they are twins?" ...uh yes, they are twins...
"are they all brothers" ...i already told him they were triplets
"are they maternal" ...yes, very...and fraternal too
"look honey, real life triplets" ...verses the fake ones

and my favorite...
"were those them frozen babies...you know, where they put 'em in you frozen"...i'm not kidding...IVF?...and no, they aren't...

then there were the kind of mean ones...
"better you than me"
"did you dye the red head's hair"
"i would hate that"
"holy *@$#"
"that would suck"

and the topper...not said directly to me but from a passer by...
"i would never have had that many, i would have gotten rid of some"...charming...

One lady just snuck up on me and took a picture and three other people asked to take pictures of them...i mean really people, they are not giraffes, they are babies...

and then we had to fend off the grabby baby toucher ladies and the small children that run over to look and grab the side of the carseats and try to reach in before their parent can get them...and of course my favorite are the ones who get right down and put their face right by the babies...I mean really, who does this...why don't you lick one to see if they are flavored while you are at it...

ah me, i couldn't make this stuff up, lol...anyway, we did not get too see all that much of "ye old renaissance festival" like we have in years past, what with all of the baby wrangling...but it was not a total bust...we got to see a movie being made and we met Anne-margaret (from Bye Bye Birdy and Grumpier old men) who told us our babies were very cute (Mike was thrilled).
It was free, woot, and we enjoyed spending time in the real world with our friends... what an adventure.

Mike, Grandpa Tom and the boys at the Renaissance Festival

Mike and Zachary taking a relaxing stroll
(I love how both their feet are sticking up, lol)

Lila came to visit!

We had a mini visitor this week!!! Our cousin Lila came to play for the day on Monday because her mommy and daddy had to go to work and she had no babysitter. She is delightful and a very good baby so we could hardly tell she was here! It was quite a sight and sound spectacle in our living room though with four babies staring at each other and making noises. They were all very intrigued by each other, the boys definitely noticed and I think poor Lila was a bit overwhelmed with all of the baby filled commotion around her. It was actually very fun to watch...Zachary and Lila make the very same noises and so between the two of them it was a spit fest full of squeals and raspberries. Mike and Konrad make similar noises to each other but different than Zach and Lila and so we had quite the noisy competition. It was a good but very busy day. Adding one baby did not make too much of a difference, but it made some with extra diapers and different bottles and a different schedule. We were a rotating door of babies, but we definitely did not lack for entertainment. I have at times wondered what quads would have been like...it would have been pretty much the same, just a bit busier...it was nice to have a little girl around for a change though :)

as far as the boys go...Konrad is racing Mike for the first to crawl. It is definitely a close competition so far. Mike is stronger but he has more bulk to lift. Konrad is a wirey little guy and although he isn't as strong, he can definitely fling his own little body around. Konrad has pulled himself up on his knees and arms and then flopped down back onto his belly. Mike has army crawled ans scooted but not actually gotten up on his knees. Both babies easily push themselves up on their arms...when they figure out how to coordinate all of the things they are doing we are in trouble because we will have mobile babies! We are soooo close it is scarey. Zachary wants nothing to do with crawling...I think he might just stand up and walk one day, laugh.

Konrad is teething like mad, he is frantically grabbing anything he can get his hands on and shoving it in his mouth and then crying because his gums hurt. They are all red and I can feel the teeth underneath, poor guy. Little Mike is teething too and he is on a bottle boycott because of it. We are having some very creative feeding sessions with him. Zachary is taking his time in the teeth category as well, but his laugh is to die for. He has the most contagious laughter in the world and he can make the other boys laugh with him...so he can't crawl and he has no teeth...at least he's cute and funny.

Our full house!

Hello God, its me "Michael" "Konrad" "Zachary"

The Baptism was yesterday and everything went surprisingly well. We woke up, got ready and were out of the house by 9:20am and at the church by 9:30am, miraculous. The boys did not puke all over themselves until after mass, wonderful. And best of all, the boys were little angels and very well behaved during church and during the ceremony itself. They were very cute when they got splashed with their "God water" and we were very proud parents. God was definitely looking down on us. We have felt so blessed since the day we found out we were pregnant with not one but THREE babies. Our boys all survived and they have grown and thrived and now they are big and strong and so handsome. Mike and I are so proud of our boys, we look at them with such awe and happiness that these little creatures could have come from us, somehow we made these...it really is amazing. Everyone kept saying "You're boys are so well behaved, they are little angels"...I can't say that my boys are always little angels...look through my living room window at 6pm...but they were little angels on Sunday, alttough I am pretty sure that they were so good because they were being passed around like hot potatoes and everyone wanted to hold them...needless to say they were in baby heaven. It really was a beautiful day...as promised here are some pictures.

The boys in their Baptism suits
(don't they look like little Hugh Hefners in their leisure suits?)

Zachary in his Baptism suit

Konrad in his Baptism suit

Mikey in his Baptism suit

Baptism pictures

Michael, Konrad, & Zachary, Mommy and Daddy, and The Grandparents!

Michael, Konrad & Zachary and the Godparents!

Michael, Konrad & Zachary with Great-Grandpa Huber

Michael, Konrad & Zachary with Great-Grandpa Roberts

doctor, doctor

We finally got little Mike into the Cardiologist this week for his arm and back mottling. They said that his heart is healthy. So, they don't know why he is getting the discoloration, they assume it is circulatory, but it isn't his heart...so that's a relief and I figure as long as it won't hurt him, its fine with me that its there. The boys had their eye exams this week as well and everyone checked out "A okay" except that Zach has a small astigmatism that we will have to monitor in later years. The eye doctor seemed to believe that my boys will keep their beautiful blue eyes as well, so that is lovely news since they are SOOOO handsome with their blue eyes. Our helmet appointment was somewhat uneventful this week, Konrad and Mike are making great progress, Zach's head doesn't really want to conform...but his isnt too bad in my opinion anyway...so he has a Charlie Brown head...there are worse things...

on to more interesting things

Little Mike is starting to army crawl...terrifying and so exciting. Konrad can make some progress across the floor on his belly as well but I think it is due more to his flailing like a beached seal then to some skill at "almost crawling" like Mike. Zachary is still not a huge fan of his belly. He pushes himself up on his stomach but has no interest in moving...he is still too worried about holding up that Charlie Brown head of his, laugh. In sticking with his lead, Mikey also sat up without help last night. He did eventually fall over, but it was impressive to us all the same. Zachary can almost sit as well, but he needs a bit more support. Konrad has no abdominal muscle strength whatsoever and so he just slumps right over when you try to sit him up. All of them are still teething like crazy and its a race to see whose teeth come through first.

We are excited for the baptism this weekend and I am excited to post the pictures of our little men in their baptism suits...hilarious.

Mikey's arm mottling...hmmm

Zachary looking so cute and cherubic

Mommy, he's touching meeeee!

so serious

babes in snotland

We have had colds and coughs for the past two weeks. Oh the joys of looking around at a sea of lethargic, snotty, drooley, teething, crabby babies...mmmm, now those are good times, good times. Since they are feeling so crappy, they all just want to be held and when you pick them up all they want to do is rub their snotty noses on your shoulder and then puke or drool on you...want to come over? They actually look quite pitiful all snotty, feverish and wilty...I just want to bundle them all up and put them in my bed and snuggle them all and make it better. Thats pretty much what they want too.

The cold by itself is a bit of a pain in the behind, but the teething on top of it is a real treat. Teething is exciting and yet not so exciting all at once. Its great to see them advancing and hitting milestones, but this particular milestone times three babies is a bit daunting. They are trying to shove anything they can get their hands on in their mouths and when they can't get anything in their hands, they are just shoving their hands in their mouths...they are like hungry, hungry hippos...they come at you with their mouths open in hopes of eating your nose or chin off. Pretty much when they don't have a bottle in their mouths they have their fingers or hands or some toy in their mouths and so everything, and I mean everything is wet and slimey....like I said, good times. They are drooling so much that this morning I looked at Zachary and though, hmm I didn't know that shirt had two colors...and then I realized that it didn't, one was dry shirt and one was wet shirt...eeewwww. Triplets are not for the faint of heart...Konrad is so grabby with his little hands and he is fast, really fast. This morning I was changing him and I set his dirty diaper aside so I could quickly wipe his bum before he got his hands in it and before I know it his dirty, nasty diaper was flying through the air because he'd gotten his hands on it and was flailing at it. Needless to say it was a mess and he was laughing and talking and squealing, I know he knew what he'd done, I just know it.
Mikey has started doing this funny thing with his tongue, I think he is feeling his gums but whenever you look at him, his little tongue is out and pointy and he is blowing raspberries and making a mess of himself, but he looks so darn funny that you can't help but find it endearing. Zachary is just hilarious with his talking, he screams and squeals and he loves to talk past his bottle and pacifier. It seems like the second you put something in his mouth he starts talking away. He looks up at you with his beautiful blue eyes and long lashes and smiles this special grin of a smile and starts talking and cooing and really I think he is just practicing for future wooing of the ladies because he is adorable. Really, snotty or not, they are all just amazing.

Despite their sicky icky selves, we took them to the State Fair this past weekend to celebrate Grandma Debbie's birthday. It was probably too hot for such an adventure, but it is a tradition so we went. It actually wasn't too bad and we didn't stay that long anyway. Of course we got the usual comments and stares and a few people pointed...I always like the pointers, I mean really, you are gonna point at us, I am pretty sure your kid will see us with the verbal directions you gave them "Look triplets, triplets honey, triplets. See THREE babies." Do you really have to point as well? We mostly get the "Are those triplets?" "You've got your hands full" with a few "Holy crap"s and "Better you than me"s thrown in for good measure...nice. I do like going out in public, really I do...

We celebrated cousin Finley's 2nd birthday this weekend too. He is so cute and smart and he is getting so big, he definitely isn't a baby anymore. I can't even imagine our boys looking like such little boys, but it will be here soon enough, they grow too fast. It is really funny to see the babies watch their cousins and other little kids, they are enthralled. They did a lot of staring and interacting this weekend, it was great. They got to play with their cousin Lila, she was born in April and is "Konrad size" and they mostly got held and pleasantly spoiled by all of their Grandmas and Grandpas and relatives this weekend. They love the attention.

My three sickos...still very cute!

Grandma's Birthday Cake!

Daddy and the boys eating their birthday dinner

Birthday Presents!

Mikey needed to watch EVERYTHING

Mommy's Aunt Mary with Konrad and Finley

Aunt Sarah with Mikey and Zachary