Two Year Stats **Updated**

**Update**
**I got the results from Tyler's blood work this morning and it all came back normal. She referred me to a dermatologist next so we will see what they say. **


We had the triplets two year well visit appointment scheduled a couple of weeks ago but due to a confusion between me and the office as to when the appointment time actually was, we had to reschedule. Their appointment was rescheduled for today and unfortunately Craig couldn't get off work today and I was a little anxious about taking this on by myself. The nurses move very quickly asking questions to one person on development etc. while the other person is busy removing clothes and helping the nurse take measurements, weights, temperatures etc. to get them ready to see the doctor. To add to that, vaccines are to be given which means three upset babies needing to be consoled. Even when Craig is with me, it still feels like we are one parent short. Last minute yesterday I mentioned the situation to my MIL, Jami and thankfully she was able to meet me there. I am so glad she was able to meet me because we had some unexpected things happen which would have been so difficult for me to do on my own. She is a lifesaver, that woman, in so many ways!!

Tyler's stats:
30.2 pounds (73%)
36 1/2" long (91%)
19. 1/4" head (53%)

My concern with Tyler involved his hair. Tyler's hair is very brittle, like an animal's hair. It hasn't always been that way, but I just thought he would grow out of it or maybe his hair would just be that way...either way, I wasn't very concerned at first. Seems like a silly thing to ask your doctor about and I honestly wasn't too concerned with it until the person who cut his hair said he had never seen a baby with hair as coarse and brittle as Tyler's. My doctor said these symptoms can be associated with anemia or a thyroid problem. So, after the appointment, we had to go across the hall to the lab to have his blood drawn. I was so dreading this as we sat there in the waiting room. I was so upset just thinking about what was to come. When it came time to take his blood, I started to cry - the lab techs knew but Tyler didn't. I just tried to comfort him until it was over. I told them I didn't know who this was harder for, him or me. Then I thanked her for getting his vein successfully the first time. I have had them miss my veins before and had to be re-stuck and I know how painful and frustrating I was. I hoped that didn't happen to my baby. When we left, and headed out to meet my MIL, Whitney and Hannah, I immediately started crying....hard! It is so hard to see our babies in pain. We have been so blessed our kids have always been so healthy and this was the first time I have had to take them for blood work outside of the NICU days when they were born. Please pray for my little guy that there will be no medical issues and that his hair is just naturally coarse.
Hannah's stats:
23.4 pounds (8%) her highest percentile yet
35" long (75%)
19" head (68%)

Hannah has had recurring yeast infections so I mentioned that to my doctor and she thought it was just because of the diaper and when she gets potty trained, this will stop happening. She wanted to do a finger prick anyway just to make sure she wasn't diabetic. So we did that and Hannah didn't even cry. She cried more when she could suck her fingers because there was a bandaid covering one of them. We got those results right away and she isn't diabetic so that was a huge blessing!

P.S. This is a pic of Hannah actually riding the new battery-powered four wheeler yesterday when we went outside to play. She was the first one brave enough to ride it.

Whitney's stats:

25 pounds (24%)

35 1/2" long (85%)

18 1/2" head (33%)

There were really no concerns with Whitney so she endured the least amount of pain this go around.

Whitney is the only child of mine that will wear sunglasses. She sure loves her car - she is so sensitive and scared of every little noise outside, she feels safer in something, a car, stroller, lap etc. :)

Just a couple of group pics of them enjoying a snack at their new table.

Enjoying a choo choo train set-up with their new lounge chairs.

Record breaking snowfall

I know the majority of you that read this blog are full aware of how much snow we've gotten but I have several readers who live out of state and they may not be aware so I just have to share. We have had such a rare winter around North Texas this winter. Not only has it been much colder than usual, we have had several (3 or 4 I think) rounds of snow this winter. Christmas Eve and February 11th were the most significant of all. Yesterday it began snowing around 4 a.m. and continued a little past midnight on Friday (today). North Texas made history breaking several records.
*Yesterday's snow made it the snowiest day in North Texas history with 12.5 inches of snowfall in a 24 hour period.
*Yesterday currently sits at the second most snowiest February and the second snowiest winter in history for the DFW area.
The last time it snowed this much was in February 1978, when I was 6 months old. It was such a fun day for us to watch outside the window as the snow fell in what felt like bucket loads all day and night long. Such a rare occurrence for Texas. We ventured out in the snow, not once but twice yesterday to fully experience this beautiful day.

We first went out in the morning and I wasn't sure how the kids would like the snow because they weren't super fond of it at Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised when they were all excited about putting on their coats and letting me put their hoods on them to venture out in the cold and wet snow.

I tried getting them to look up at the sky and stick out their tongues to catch some snow in their mouths. They did it a few times but not enough for me to get a picture. I did get a pic of Tyler looking up at least.

Whitney did well for a little while but then eventually started getting cold and had had enough.

Hannah was the wettest of all because she actually stepped out into the deep snowy grass a few times. She still had the most fun.

We didn't stay out too long - maybe 15 or 20 minutes because they don't have mittens and were really cold.

Then when Craig got home from work, we went back out in the snow to make a snow man. The kids were a little better dressed as Whitney let me put a toboggan on her and Hannah and Tyler let me put my gloves on them. Whitney was having nothing to do with the gloves. I put jeans on the girls and they both had on tennis shoes this time.

Craig starting the snow man...

Hannah had enough of the gloves and was still having a good time but I feared she would wear down sooner because of it. Notice Whitney is holding a ruler? I measured the snow throughout the day. I measured about 4" yesterday and then this morning after it was all over, I measured again and it was around 7" but I am sure the wind blew some of it off and/or some melted because I think we got more than some of the southern counties like Dallas and the official recorded number counted at DFW was 12.5".

Tyler never once tried to take off his gloves and he didn't cry once.

Hannah's hood is getting a little wet. We were out there for a good while, playing and watching Craig make the snow man.

Whitney was very happy and having a good ole time and then all the sudden she was done.

Craig said he thought Frosty's body weighed about 50 pounds.

By the time we finished, the girls had been fussing and crying for probably 10 minutes. I got the strollers out and put them in it until Craig finished, in hopes it would help keep them happy until then but it didn't really help.

Our snowman's arms blend in with the plant in the back ground so its kinda hard to tell he has arms.

Craig took this shot just before we went inside. It was only about 6 or so... It wasn't as dark as it appears in the pic.

Frosty by himself... Notice the matching plants (in the background) on both sides of the snowman? They are being flattened by the snow. I was surprised they didn't get more covered and squished by the snow.

Whitney was so fussy and upset after we came in so I held her and Craig held Hannah for a while to warm them up.

One street over from ours, there is a treeline backing up to the houses and I just had to take this shot this morning.

Notice my plant this morning after getting probably double the snow dumped on it than the pic above?

I guess Craig must have taken this shot of the house this morning before he headed off to work.

A great end to a fun and memorable day.

Christmas party with ECI

My ECI girl that comes twice a month to work with the kiddo's speech convinced me to bring them to ECI's annual Christmas party they have for their families who have children with developmental delays. She offered to help me and with the event being held at my church, I felt a little more comfortable so I decided to give it a whirl. When I got there, the kids were all too scared to get out of the stroller but eventually all warmed up and got out. Lindsay, my ECI speech therapist, came over to say hi to the kids and help me out some. When she got pulled away to talk to other families at the party, my service coordinator would come help me.

They had all sorts of activities for children younger than three - a cake walk, bounce house, Santa, hat-making table, cookie decorating table, a wagon ride. They had a pretty good time despite how it looks in these pictures. After about an hour or so, they were done and this wagon ride was closer to the end of our visit.
They really enjoyed eating their cookie they decorated. What a mess that was!

Lindsay and I helped them decorate of course. (Out of order again...)

The reindeer hat making table. Tyler didn't want to wear his hat.

Neither did Hannah...

Whitney didn't mind her hat, surprisingly but when we tried to take off the random hat from the table and put on the hat she actually made, she was mad and wouldn't wear it.

It can be quite challenging and intimidating to take the three of them out by myself to places like this but I bet if I did it more often, they would be less scared and more comfortable. I am going to attempt a Valentine's house party with a playgroup from my church in a couple weeks. I know there will be a housefull so I hope the kids don't have a melt down.

Christmas 2009

Just when I think I am getting the hang of making sure my pictures are in order, I forget how to do it again so some of these are out of order.

Our Christmas was good - we had our first Christmas with Craig's extended family at his brother's house a few weeks before Christmas. Then we had Christmas with his immediate family a week later at our house. Then we had Christmas with my family the Sunday after Christmas at our house. It was busy as always but not too busy and we enjoyed having less busyness on Christmas day.

We put up the Christmas tree and the kids enjoyed helping. They were admiring all the ornaments and they did very well following instructions when told to stay out of the tree.

This was the family Christmas at our house with Craig's family. All the little cousins were sitting on the bottom step of our stairs but by the time we all grabbed our cameras, the moment was over and we couldn't get them to all sit back down together. I got four of the five sitting, which isn't bad but only one is looking.

Daddy helping the kids open the presents Christmas morning.

Some of you wanted to see pictures of the house after we moved and I never got around to it. Craig took a pic of it Christmas morning after all the snow fall we had.

The girls wouldn't wear hats or hoods and we didn't have any gloves for them so we didn't stay outside but a few minutes. Just enough for them to see and experience the snow. They weren't big fans of it.

Christmas evening Craig's parents stopped by to see us for a little while. They made the rounds Christmas day visiting their grandkids. Papaw reading to Whitney.

The Sunday after Christmas when we had Christmas with my family, we first all met up at our church then came home for lunch and gift exchanges. Here's Whitney taking control of her cousin's purse.

Hannah in Daddy's lap - her favorite seat in the house.

Tyler loves his pockets.

Another blast from the past

I had gotten this bumble bee costume from somebody when the babies were very very small and forgot about it when I bought the girls their costumes. I figured it was too girly but wanted to try it on him anyway to see how it looked with jeans because I wasn't going to put him in tights. Obviously when I got it on him, I could tell this costume just wouldn't work. It was also a little small and I had a hard time getting it over his head.
Whitney loved her costume.

Hannah loved trying on her costume.

I then put Tyler in the manly costume I bought him. He was still pretty upset about the other one. I think Whitney is starting to join in with Tyler.

Seriously, a huge melt down.

Halloween night and ready to go... Whitney is not happy this time and pretty much had to be held all night.

Out the door. Tyler would not let go of Whitney's fairy wand.

We even took Piglet with us but it didn't really help our sensitive girl.

They were getting tired of walking so we went back home, got strollers and headed back out again. We had to make a longer trip across the neighborhood to see Ms. Debbie.

We are home now after a long but exciting night of trick or treating. I think she is tired.

"No Mommy, you can't have my candy."

Scoping out all the candy they got.

**There are two new posts below this, so be sure to scroll down.