Tuesday, July 29, 2008

It doesn't take much

One of the blessings of triplets is that they aren't (for the most part) very needy when it comes to attention.  Okay, that wasn't very clear.  Let's try again: Cole, Eli & Ava all play very nicely.  Together.  With toys.  Still not so clear, sorry.

Ava's the best.  She is a toy maker's dream.  She plays with toys...get this...THE WAY THEY ARE MEANT TO BE PLAYED WITH!  She'll sit with a toy and actually push the buttons.

Cole's so focused on perfecting his Frankenstein walk, that he doesn't really notice the toys in the playpen these days.  Sure, he eventually realizes they're there...after he FALLS on them.

Eli doesn't like to be PUT in the playpen...but once he warms up to the toys, he's good.  Of course, his preference is not so much the toys, but the toy baskets themselves...

Sunday, July 27, 2008

America's Next Top Models

In a few short days, Cole, Eli & Ava will celebrate their first birthday.

CRAZY!

I'll refrain from the usual "where'd the time go" comments and save it for their actual "One Year Old" post.

For now, I thought you'd like a glimpse of their photo shoot:

Saturday, July 26, 2008

A Visit to Ruth's House

For any of you that AREN'T baseball fans, this is the last year that the Yankees are playing in their stadium.  The team is building a new ballpark across the street (they're really branching out into the unknown).  Both Shane and I were RAISED as Yankee fans (even when I lived in California, 15 minutes away from the Angels). 
Since this year has been so crazy, I thought it would be "special" (I really dislike that word...but I can't think of another one) if we (Shane and I) took our Dads to a Yankee game.  With two Pastor Dad's, scheduling can get tricky, but we were able to plan a Friday night trip to the Bronx on Friday, 7/18.  The Yanks were playing the Oakland A's.  It was the first game back after the All-Star Game (which also happened to be at Yankee Stadium).

Around here, last week was "The 3 H's", as the weather guys love to say: Hazy, Hot & oh so crazy Humid.  As we were heading out the door, Shane suggested I grab a jacket.  A what?  Um, Shane...it's 90+ degrees outside and the humidity is like 85%.  "Oh, but it could get chilly, Amy."  So, I grabbed one, just in case.  There was NO WAY I wanted to hear about it, if, and that was a BIG IF, suddenly, the hole in the Ozone ripped wide open and New York became one giant Iceberg.  Of course, the jacket never actually made it out of my bag.

Sorry...I digress...back to the Yankee game.

We made it there in record time and had a blast.  Parking was nutty, but Shane knew what he was doing and went straight to a lot that had plenty of room.  We walked a good 15 minutes to the stadium, but it wasn't too bad.

Mussina pitched.

(That's Moose coming in from the bullpen for the start of the game.)

Our seats were great.


The game was great.

The Yanks won 7-1!

I had my favorite Stadium treat: a Frozen Lemonade!

A WONDERFUL time was had by all.

(From Left: Shane, my Dad, Shane's Dad)

Right before the game, the Yankees signed Richie Sexon.  This was also the first Yankee game after the death of longtime Yankee, Bobby Murcer.  There was a moment of silence and a great tribute of Murcer clips.

But I think my favorite part of the night (aside from just hanging out with my Dad, my FIL, and my hubby) was listening to the Dads share their memories of going to the stadium as kids.

There's so much history in that stadium...and not just Babe Ruth's homeruns.  When Shane and I first started dating, my Dad & I met his younger sister and him at the Stadium for a game.  Half way through the game, Bethany (11 at the time) announced that the center field wall "didn't look 408 feet tall!"

How many other people have similar stories?  How many fathers took kids to their first ball game there?  How many guys proposed there?  How many boys swore they'd be the next Ruth, DiMaggio, Mattingly, Jeter, after watching the Yankees play at the Stadium?

I'm sad it's going away.  But I have to tell you, I'm excited to visit the new stadium and make new memories there, too!

Friday, July 25, 2008

Future Ansel Adam?

Zoe loves taking pictures.  She is constantly "borrowing" our cell phones to take pictures and has already killed my original Sony Cybershot.  For future reference: a 4 year-old little girl, a tile floor, and a digital camera do not make a good combination!  But that's in the past.

For Zoe's 5th birthday, we got her a digital camera.  It's perfect.  She loves it.  She's been taking pictures for close to a year.  I've never actually "uploaded" any of her pictures onto my laptop.  She's never asked me to...until recently.

She sees me upload my shots all the time, and this week, she asked me to "do it to my camera too, Mom."  So I did.
Some of her favorite subjects are...well...anything and everything.  She'll take pictures of anyone who may be asleep next to her...
...and then she'll document what time she's NOT sleeping...
(No, they don't generally share a bed.  This was a "special" night that they got to fall asleep in Mommy & Daddy's bed.  Then when we went to bed, we put them in their own rooms)

I wish I had saved the pictures from a few weeks ago.  We were on our way to a friend's house to swim in their pool.  I stopped at Dunkin Donuts first, for an iced coffee.  Once we got to the pool, I checked out Zoe's camera.  There were dozens of shots of nearly every building from DD all the way to the pool.  Maybe she has a future in photo journalism?

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Bare Bellies

When Shane's brother was younger, he asked his mom if he could "put on his bare belly" (or some variation of that story).  I've fallen in love with that phrase.  Ty will "keep his bare belly on" or "wear his bare belly outside".  Like it's a shirt!

What's better than one baby wearing a bare belly?  THREE!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A First for Ty

So often, I'm focused on the triplet's firsts: teeth, steps, words, etc.  But there's other "firsts" going on around here.

Last Wednesday (7/16/08), Ty travelled up the mountain to hang out with his favorite boy cousins: Sam, Noah (& I suppose Micah, too).  This was his very first sleepover.  Sure, he'd stayed at other houses while Mom & Dad were away, but he was teeny tiny.  This was for fun.

As soon as the plans were made, Ty was packed!
(Yes, I know, I'm a mean mom...it's a flowered bag.  I wasn't thinking!)

When I dropped my big boy off, Ty jumped out and I never made it 5 feet from my van.  He was off running into the backyard looking for Sam.  I didn't see him again until we met up the next day at a friend's pool.

Apparently, there was little sleep and lots'o fun.  The perfect sleepover recipe.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

July = Cara

Many of you have asked how we're coping without Lindsay.

One word.

Cara.


She's great with the kids.  They love her.  But the end of the July is the end of Cara.  She's off on Family vacation and then back to school.  We've thoroughly enjoyed having her.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Organizational Excitement

One of my least favorite "jobs" as a mom is tracking down toys at a moment's notice. You know the drill: Child is in the middle of a massive meltdown and said child can't find the one thing that will stop the impending doom. It's two hours after bedtime and said child's been out in the sun swimming ALL DAY and is ridiculously overtired. So are you. All you (okay...I) really want to do is sit on the couch with my laptop and watch some mindless television. But, no. We're in the middle of a meltdown of epic proportions. "Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut (sniff..sniff...sniff) Mooooooooooooom (sob...confulse...sob) I knooooooooooow I left my DS right here (sob...sob...sniff...shutter) I don't know WHERE (uninteligible mumbling) and now I can't sleep!"
My days of tracking down toys are OVER!

Last weekend, Shane and the "Big Kids" headed over to IKEA and found some book shelves with bins.

Before: 
(Sorry...Zoe was in charge of the "Before" pictures so this is really the only one there is)

During:
(Yes, Zoe's posing! But she really was a big help.)
(Each of the kids had to "sort" their toys into the bins)

After:
(No...I didn't take a picture of the huge smile on my face)

And y'all should know that the top green bin, all the way on the right, in BOTH shelves, is the "Electronics Bin".  That's where you'll find all DS's, Leapsters, MP3 players, Chargers, Cameras, Games, etc.  So should you ever be over during an ugly meltdown, THAT's where you'll find the peace maker!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

I know...it's been too long!

One of the most frequent questions I get, being the mom of triplets plus two, is "How do you do it?" Usually, my answer is, "We laugh a lot" or "One day at a time." 

Most days, I'm surprised at how smooth life has gone with five kids.  But then there are days like the past few weeks.  It's been tiring.  Very tiring.  There's nothing specific I can put my finger on as to why.  It's just been draining.  Maybe it's the heat.

Anyway, that's just a long-winded excuse as to why I haven't posted in forever.

But stay tuned.  There are posts on the way.  We're talkin' everything from Toy Organization to Yankee Stadium to New Sneakers and more. 

Aren't you just on the edge of your seat?  I know...I'm such a tease...

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

One Small Step for Man

Yesterday (July 8, 2008), Cole took his first unassisted steps!  Yikes!

After Cara got here, she was sitting in "the pen" playing with the babies and I was demonstrating how much my children love getting their picture taken.  (Sure, when I am TRYING to get an official picture they aren't interested...)  With my Cybershot camera, when you turn it on, it makes a nice little chime sound.  Whatever the triplets are doing, when they hear it, they turn and smile.


And Cole didn't disappoint.  Sure enough, I turn on the camera, he looks up, smiles, I snap a picture.  And then...then he decides to take his very first step from the little play table over to the side of "the pen".  So, I may not have captured his first step, but I caught the moment he thought about it! 

After our little celebration, I attempted to find the video camera and failed.  I finally settled on using my cellphone. (So I apologize from the graininess.)  To coax Cole to walk, I put his little airplane just out of reach.  And again, he performed...



It may not look like much to you.  But it's definitely a step...and he did it multiple times!

Oh boy!

By the way, this also marks a first for me - I figured out how to post a video!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Fourth of July

There have been numerous requests for cute, patriotic, July 4th pictures of The Higby Gang.  Well...I have good news...and I have bad news.

The good news is...
...Ty & Zoe were VERY cooperative.  Actually, they were a bit TOO cooperative.  They insisted on NUMEROUS cheesy individual shots (which I will spare you from having to see)

As for the bad news...
...this is the best I could do of the triplets.  I did get some individual shots that were pretty cute, but as a whole, they were just not into the whole pose for the camera thing.  I sure hope they outgrow this by the time I take them for their one year-old pictures.

The day was very relaxing.  Shane's family came over (5 Ringwood Higby's & 3 Midland Park Higby's) for some burgers and dogs.  Various versions of kickball and baseball were played.  Tons of fun was had on the trampoline (& I didn't dislocate Noah's elbow...PTL).  Of course, there was watermelon...
And would it be a good old-fashioned American BBQ if someone didn't end up in their underwear?
Shane & Corey took the "big kids" (by "big", I mean 4, 5 & 6 years-olds) with Pop Pop & Uncle Dave to the town fireworks.  A few raindrops fell before the actual fireworks started...
...but the crew hung in there for the big sha-bang and had a great time.  Zoe (& Shane) were a little scared that it might be too loud for our sensitive girl, so she had a backup plan just in case...
Brave girl that she is, Zoe ended up not needing Daddy's "Leaf-blower-protective-ear-wear".

Come to think of it, I actually could have used them when our neighbor was setting off his OWN fireworks.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

July Already?

How in the world did it get to be July already?  We're a month away from the triplet's 1st birthday.  Unbelievable!

I realize I've slacked on the blogging, but bear with me...I'm in transition!

Life without Lindsay isn't a complete disaster.  Although, not blogging for a week should give you a clue on how the rest of my life is going.  Laundry's piled to the ceiling.  Running's been non-existent.  Groceries are scarce.  The babies are wondering where all their "outside time" has gone, and so am I! 

Cara's good.  She's catching on quickly...definitely more confident each day.

Like I said...we're in transition.