19 months, wow!

They boys are GREAT! They are healthy and happy and running around all day long. They are all talking to each other and they are even starting to include us in on the secret since we are starting to be able to understand them. Konrad has expanded his word list to include: night (as in nigh, nigh momma), apple, oval, purple, more, bottle, juice (aka water), milk, grandpa, grandma, baby, and book...he may have some more but these are the newest and clearest. Mikey says: more, all done, dog, banana, and "mmmm" after every bite and "ahhh" after taking sips of milk or water. maybe a few others...but not too many yet. He sure does chatter and babble alot to his brothers though so at least someone knows what he is saying. Mikey is probably our cutest and most precise sign language baby, his sign language more, please, and all done are about the cutest friggin things ever. Zachary is starting to really speed up his language since he started walking. He says banana, more, all done, night night, daddy, "A, B, C", and circle. They all love flash cards and we are working on letters, numbers, colors and shapes. 

All of the boys love to sing and dance, we put in the nursery rhymes and rock out!

Mikey is a reader, he loves to read to us, look at the pictures and tell us what he sees (at least we think that's what he's saying).  Konrad likes to steal Mikey's books and read them...I am not sure how interested he would be without Mikey to motivate him. Zachary likes animals, especially ducks. He will read patiently if there are ducks involved :)  All of the boys love the texture books right now. It is pretty funny to watch them turn the pages so excitedly and then touch and feel the velcro or sand paper or fuzz. 

We are transitioning to milk and sippy cups from bottles and formula...so far so good. I am not getting too worried or exact about how we do it, as long as we make it there by two years old. Mikey is very attached to his blanket and Zachary is starting to get attached to a puppy that we have. This is good since we will eventually have to take away the pacifiers and if he has some sort of replacement for his paci-animals I think it will be better. Konrad doesn't seem to need or attach to anything specific yet. He likes his brother's things, but nothing that he absolutely has to have. 

All in all things are great right now. The boys are growing and learning so fast and another month has passed...19 Months have come and gone and 2 years old here we come, I cannot believe it.

Zachary is always smiling!

...when he isn't "teething" on the furniture

and he loves his puppy!

Mikey loves his flashcards

and reading!

sometimes he reads to his brother.

Konrad is practicing his juggling skills

and he likes the flash cards too. He is saying "obal" for oval.

18 months

I can't believe how fast (and some days how slow) time goes by. My boys are 18 months old, walking, signing to us, singing, dancing, starting to talk, and getting smarter every second it seems.  They are at the age where everything seems to be fast forwarding and every time I look they seem to have grown or changed....sometimes many times a day! We are truly blessed to have them. The first several months were rough but 18 months is a good age for triplets if you are ever planning on having any :) 

Mikey

Konrad

Zachary

Walking Mikey - ready to bolt

Running Zachary - always on the go

Excited Konrad - cheering and clapping

All better :)

Phew! We are all better. The sickness has passed. It took almost three weeks for all signs of runny noses, coughs and whining to pass but finally the boys are cured!  We have an interesting left over side effect with Mikey in that he still wants to sit on our lap all the time, not a bad one. The boys are all completely walking now, crawling is rare.  They are even running at times and it seems like they can't decide whether to run or try to crawl when they want to get somewhere fast. They are all singing their ABC's and Old MacDonald and a bit of Twinkle Twinkle Little Start which is really funny to watch. They touch noses and say nose and sometimes they can figure our eye or ear. They are starting to recognize their ABC's on flashcards, but so far no fluent words or clear talking yet.  We are waiting patiently for them to figure it out! One major milestone every few months is enough I suppose. We are starting to encourage them to use spoons and cups by themselves...it is going okay. They are so smart and so funny right now. They run around in their cribs and laugh at each other before bed at night. Mikey and Zach even mimic each others arm movements and then laugh and laugh when they get it right. Konrad will wheel his crib (his is the only one on wheels) across the room so that he can touch his brother's hands and then the giggling really starts.  We put them to bed and then watch "baby TV" for a good hour every evening, they are so entertaining in there! They continue to grow so quickly.  We haven't taken many pictures lately, but here are a few.

Mikey trying to get the camera

Konrad wrestling for a try to get the camera

Zachary watching it all

We paid in spades for our weeks of healthy babies

It has been a very rough few weeks at the Huber house. Mike and I went to New York City for a wedding a couple of weekends ago. It was our first time away from the boys and it was a nice break. We returned home to three "starting to get sick" babies. And then they did. By Thursday night we were in the ER with Zachary and another croup flare up. This one was scary and  he was really working hard to get air in and out. They gave him steroids and breathing treatments and sent us home with the whole "there is nothing else we can do" speech. We went home with our wheezy, stridorous baby and we had a rough night...that turned into a rough 8 days and counting...the other boys got sick too and we had 5 or 6 days of high fevers 104's and 103's and coughs and runny noses. Zachary and Konrad ended up with ear infections as well. Our babysitter got sick as well, so they must have all gotten it together while we were gone. Mike and I did some creative work scheduling and we rallied our troops of extra babysitters and family to cover the days we absolutely had to work. We are starting to come out of a very, very long 7-10 days and I don't think that Mike and I will be going our of town again too soon...we paid way too dearly to the parent gods this time, lol. 

On a positive note, all of the boys are walking as their primary mode of transportation. They are so cute toddling around the living room. They are even starting to run a bit when they get excited. They legs and heads are bumped and bruised from all of their furniture and floor tackles, but they don't seem to mind at all. Their molars are almost in and they are starting to talk and sing and interact with each other and with us much more. When they are sick and clinging to us with snotty noses and whiney voices, they really are quite amazing...of course they are amazing then too but not the good king of amazing...We are blessed to have them, we know this, but sometimes we get little reminders of how really, really good the good times are and how challenging the bad times are. I will update with a good photo update soon...but they have been just too pitiful to photograph lately and we have been to wrapped up in them, to even think about it, lol.

blankies, binkies and lots of teeth

My poor babies are cutting their molars. I don't know why or how but their back, big teeth are coming in as their next set instead of more little ones. Mikey is cutting all four, top and bottom at the same time and Konrad is cutting the top set. Zachy won't let my hands in their to feel but my guess is that he is too...their bums are red, their moods are grumpy and they are drooling all over the place and eating anything that will fit in their mouth.  Mikey is walking pretty much all of the time now, he is so steady on his feet. Zach is still half and half and Konrad is walking primarily upright on his knees and sometimes on his feet...we don't know why, but its cute.  They are all starting to talk so much more, they are so amazing right now its like you can see their brains expanding and connecting the pieces of the world around them. They are all getting so aware of each other, us and how we all fit in with each other and they are learning to manipulate and test their environments. We are starting to feel the winds of the terrible twos blow our way as they begin to test boundaries and each other, but we are truly in a wonderfully pleasant period of time right now. The past few months has most definitely been the most "easy" so far in our triplet experience...we are told that it gets harder again when they are fully talking, wrestling, fighting and walking, but in the mean time we are thankful and loving this stage. They are reading books and pointing and signing words and saying words and singing and stacking blocks and dancing with each other and clapping for each other's accomplishments and saying "no no no" when one of them does something that the adults usually say no to. They are just incredible at this age. They are becoming truly attached to their pacifiers/binkies in Zach and Konrad's case and blanky in Mikey (aka Linus)'s case. We haven't quite gotten rid of the bottles, but we are closer than we were a few weeks ago. The boys can drink out of the sippy cuos and we could probably cut the cord as it were but...bottles are so much easier for us than sippy cups that right now I think it is more a matter of mommy and daddy not figuring it out than babies not figuring it out any more (she says sheepishly out loud for the first time)...something has to be easy, right?  We are definitely appreciating this time as a good time in our lives and we love watching our boys discover the world around them. They find such joy in the little things.

Mikey reading a book

Konrad reading (and eating) his book

Zachy stacking blocks

All of their lovies (blankies and binkies all around!)

playing in the pool!

Here they are playing in their pool. Summer is so fun!

we have walkers!

All of the boys started walking over Memorial day weekend. They are truly amazing. Although they all crawled and stood and sat at different times, they all took their first real, independent (not falling forward into parents arms) steps within 24 hours of each other. Mikey and Konrad started talking multiple steps on Saturday. They had been standing and taking one or two steps over the week so we kind of hoped they would start walking over the weekend, but then Zachary surprised us and not only took his first steps but started really walking on Sunday morning.

Konrad is the most daring and he is a definite show off. He has to pull himself up on something but then he walks all the way across the room by himself. He is so proud and his face lights up with such joy when he accomplishes a long walk. Mikey is the steadiest on his feet, but also the most cautious. He can stand up in the middle of the room and then he takes some steps, but he lowers himself to a crawl if he has to go far to get what he wants. Zachary hasn't really committed to the walking yet. That first day it was definitely on purpose because we were doing it so much with his brothers getting them to walk and then clapping. Now he kind of gets distracted and then accidently starts walking around, but he is not doing it with the level of intention or for attention and praise like the other two are.  They are all teething again, and its the mean ones, the big ones. Konrad is still working on tooth number eight, but Mikey and Zachary are cutting nine and ten and it looks like it hurts. They are all starting to chatter and make baby conversation. Sometimes they just talk and talk and who knows what they are saying but it is really funny. Konrad especially has all of the body language and talks with his hands and shrugs as he talks. It is really funny. Sometimes I think that he is saying real things and he just can't articulate well yet because I will repeat what I think he says and he nods sometimes...other times he repeats what we say and then I know he meant to say it. All three of them sing the ABC's in some form or another and also all three say "ee ii ee ii oh" from Old MacDonald which is pretty darn funny. Mikey is the best with animal sounds and he barks and meows or clucks like a chicken when he sees the animals. They other things that Mikey has started doing is clapping and saying "yaaay" in this low "crowd roar" voice, its pretty funny...Mike and I sometimes look at each other and say "do we sound like that when we say yay", maybe we do. The boys are so interested in each other and they are always playing with each other and of course fighting with each other over toys. They share sometimes, but sometimes they do not. Konrad has started biting to mark his territory with toys...not good. We have considered covering his brothers with vinegar or soap, but we haven't done it yet, lol.  So far we just yell "no bite" across the room and that gets him to stop, but his brothers have gotten some real bad bite marks. Other than that, the boys are doing so great and they are simply amazing and growing up so fast!

Helping with laundry

Hanging out in the pool