Happy Fall, Y'all!!!

We celebrated Turkey Day on Saturday, and I got some cute pictures of the babies at mom's house! I've come to the conclusion that it is virtually impossible to get a good photo of all three of them together, so I've quit torturing them (and myself) and have resorted to individual photos! You'll see why when you see the last picture!

TYLER


















ELLISON


















HALEY

Mother bear and her cubs

You hear it all the time...how protective a mother is over her children. You see it everywhere in nature - I mean everyone knows not to approach a bear cub for fear the mother is just around the bend. She will rip your face off if she catches you. And she won't apologize afterwards...too bad for you, but you messed with my babies...now you have no eyeballs. Motherhood can take a previously calm, rational woman and turn her into a raging...well, you know.

When the kids were released from the NICU, they scheduled a developmental exam seven months out. Well, that exam was Tuesday morning. And I was secretely freaking out about it. Partly because I was really nervous that they would have some sort of developmental delay, and partly because I couldn't handle the thought that they might fail their first test. I can hear my brother right now saying "God forbid your offspring fail a test", but I can't help it - I had test anxiety for them!

I seriously considered giving them an extra serving of sweet potatoes to boost their carbs the night before, but I restrained myself. I even bought them new outfits to wear. Everyone knows if you look good you will feel better, right?!

Imagine my despair when Tyler spiked a temperature on Sunday evening that lasted well into Tuesday. We were up almost all night Monday night. He maybe got 2 hours of sleep. On the night of his first test. NOT a good start.

When the doctor started the testing on Tyler I knew immediately we weren't going to do well. You see, Tyler is by far the most tactile of the bunch. If there is something in his reach, he's grabbing it. When she held the red block in front of her, he just stared off into space. Uh oh. He eventually grabbed it half-heartedly with this right hand. His left hand never left his side. Uh oh again.

Meanwhile, I could hear Ellison in the next room having a meltdown. Yikes. We're 0 for 2 and we just started. I did, however, hear Haley yelling NANANA DADADA in the background. Check her off for verbal development!

Of course once we got back in the car we compared notes. Jeff was with the girls and I was with Tyler the whole time. In conversation, Jeff mentioned that the doctor said we might be guilty of "over-parenting" and we had delayed their development a bit. What the ???? I immediately went into mother bear mode. Grrrr...can't you hear the rant? "Who does she think she is?", "And what the heck does that mean?", "Does she even know what it takes to parent three babies at the same time?", "She'd better be glad she didn't say that to me", "What - like overparenting is worse than underparenting?", "So are we supposed to cut them off and tell them if they're hungry they'd better just get off their lazy behinds and get their own bottles 'cause mama ain't goin' overboard on this parenting thing anymore?" Deep breath, Jennifer. I'm sure her comment was innocent, but I still wanted to attack. At least I didn't rip her eyeballs out like my mother bear counterpart. I do have some restraint left.

In the end, they all did great! We haven't gotten the final results yet, but they decided we didn't have to bring them back for any further evaluations, so I guess that means we're right on track! They actually ended up testing as we thought they would. Haley scored highest on verbal, Ellison on cognitive, and Tyler on motor. Way to go kids - you passed your first test! Now go get your jammies on.

A weekend of firsts...

To say this weekend was interesting would be an understatement! Let's start with Ellison...

She sits up on her own now, and she has great balance! She can bend over and pick a toy up then sit straight up without even wobbling! Well, Saturday morning, we were playing in the nursery and she was sitting next to the changing table. For some reason she lost her balance and fell head first onto the bottom ledge of the table. She had a huge goose egg on her forehead - I was shocked at how quickly it swelled up! We put ice on it and she calmed down after a few minutes. Now it's just a little purple bruise - nothing permanent...well, at least not for her. Jeff is traumatized since he was the one who was sitting next to her. He feels responsible - I think he cried as much as Elli did! Poor guy!

OK, now for Tyler...

He woke up in a great mood on Sunday - all smiles and giggles! About an hour after they woke up we put them in their highchairs for "brunch" and he freaked out! He wouldn't eat anything and screamed the entire time. Jeff took him and rocked him to sleep - he just didn't act right. Well, he slept the entire day - he was maybe awake for 2 hours. When he got up at 6:00 for dinner he was burning up with a fever. I tried to take his temp with the cheap-piece-of-junk thermometer that came in our first aid kit (note to any new mom reading this - buy a good thermometer). Five minutes later, the temp was still climbing and we were at 102.6 - Jeff promptly ran to Walgreens to get a real themometer and I gave him Tylenol. He was so pitiful. It took a couple hours, but his fever finally broke. I knew it broke because he looked up at me and gave me a big smile!

Now Haley...

Now I know she has absolutely NO idea what she's doing, but humor me here! She said her first words this weekend!!! It started as nana and turned into dada! How cool is that?! She especially likes to say it when she's upset! She was in the exersaucer at grandma's yesterday - just minding her own business - when grandma decided it would be fun to put Elli down in front of her so they could "share". Ha! Grandma got an earful from Haley. I'm pretty sure she said some words I wouldn't approve of, but we'll let it slide this one time! She actually leaned back, looked up at my mom and yelled at the top of her lungs "NANANA NANANA DADADA DADA (4 letters) NANANANANA"!!!!! Ooooh, grandma got chewed out! Guess she won't be making Haley share her toys anymore!

So there you have it...First Boo Boo, First Fever, and First Words. Not bad for a lazy November weekend, huh?!

P.S. Tyler is doing fine now. A snotty nose, but no fever. We think he's teething. Oh joy!

Our Little Goofball...

"Got My Toes!"
















"Playing with daddy, but keeping an eye out for a photo-op!"















"I'm Too Sexy For My Highchair..."














Our funny girl - she has a hilarious laugh that is contagious! The thing that makes her giggle the most is if you lean over her crib and ask her if she's stinky! "Haley, are you stinky?" Not really sure why she finds it so funny, but it gets her cracking up every time! She went to a tennis match with me a couple weeks ago and loved it! She sat there for over an hour just taking it all in! She is still really laid back - and to say we are thankful for that would be the understatement of the year!!!!!

Funny Boy!

Tyler is quickly learning what makes us laugh and is becoming a little clown! We gave him a sippy cup a couple weeks ago and when he tasted the water he got an awful look on his face and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he saw we were cracking up, so he grabbed the sippy cup again and took another big drink...followed by the awful look, then a giggle...and over and over it went! I caught it on video, so I'll try and post it if I can figure it out! :)

He is on the move now! He hasn't figured out how to crawl, so he just rolls around until he gets to whatever he has his eye on! He's actually become quite quick at moving from one point to another, so we have to watch him pretty carefully! We think he will be the first to walk - when we stand him up he gets his legs moving as fast as he can and knows exactly what to do to get where he's going! He hasn't quite figured out how to balance himself yet, but once he does...watch out!!!

STILL LOVIN' THOSE SWEET POTATOES...





















SMILEY BOY...