MoreThanWeExpected.com

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, even though we had to shift our usual visitations a bit.  It used to be that we would go to Tony’s parents’ house for an early afternoon dinner and then head to my mom’s house for an evening supper.  Unfortunately, after we found out we were having triplets we knew the logistics and time constraints of lugging around 4 little kids to two houses that aren’t baby-proofed just wouldn’t work anymore.  We decided to do Thanksgiving with just my family, and Easter with just Tony’s family, and that way we feel like we are meeting everyone half way.

So in planning my first Thanksgiving feast at my own home, I realized I was in way over my head.  Besides, I would miss all my mom’s perfect Thanksgiving food!  She is the best cook ever, unless she burns something, LOL.  After a lot of discussion, she decided to sleep at our house on Wednesday night and help me prepare, clean, cook and share her secrets.  Wednesday night she made the stuffing (my favorite!) and we brined the turkey and made our pies.  The next morning she woke up at the crack of dawn with us to feed the babies and we got to work, cleaning and stuffing the bird, which mostly she did alone because I can’t stand touching meat.  Most of the time when I make suppers I have to listen to the radio or gaze out the window and let my mind wander so I don’t gag while cleaning up regular chicken or pork chops.  After we got the turkey in, we worked on squash, mashed potatoes, carrots, and of course, the green bean casserole.  My dad came early and then my brothers and we sat down around 4 o’clock (which, believe it or not, is early for my family).  We had a great time, eating and visiting (two things my family does best) and Tony and I had everything cleaned up and packed away by 8 o’clock.  It was a great day and we all had a wonderful time.

On another note, a lot has been going on, even though my last post was only 3 weeks ago.  We have a new tooth count: Tess is still in the lead with 6 (!), Nora has 4, and Holden is holding steady with just his 2 bottom front teeth.  All of the kids are standing and cruising the furniture, and Nora can even stand herself up in the middle of the room – without holding onto anything!  In fact, today she tried taking her first step, but of course, she fell.  The important part is that she tried; A for effort, kiddo!  A step in the right direction… bad-da bum!  LOL   Holden has let go of the furniture a few times after he’s pulled himself up, but can’t stand unassisted for minutes the way Nora can.  But just this evening Tony did find him 3 steps from the top of the staircase, that little s.  Who knew he could scale the stairs?  We do now!  I have been saying for months that they’ll be walking by Christmas and I’m sure they will.

Gwen is doing great, using whole sentences and developing her imagination and feisty little personality.  She doesn’t throw tantrums because we don’t pay any attention when she does, but she has learned how to whine and make herself cry instead.  I find myself thinking the same thing my father used to day to me, “I’ll give you something to cry about!” but remember I never understood what it meant and I was like 10 at the time, so how could Gwen know at 2 years old?  LOL  She’s also taken to constantly getting in the way, I mean trying to help, which really pushes my buttons since I don’t have the time in my day to placate her and let her help.  I’ve tried getting imaginative with it, saying things like, “Honey, you know you’re not supposed to touch the dishwasher.  Put that knife down.  I know you want to help.  You know what would really help Mommy?  I said ‘put it down’!  Go play with the babies while I load the dishwasher.  That would be a great big help.”  But she sees right through me.  Or maybe because she doesn’t want to play with the little kids in the asking her to play with the babies while I load the dishwasher otherwise she would have been playing with them already.  She’s so smart and already quite manipulative, which we are trying to figure out how to break her of.

The big deal I had to pass along though, is that she used the potty!!  was going to go poop she said, "Me poop in me potty too." We've had the potty out for about a year now for her to get used to it and familiarize herself with it, but she's never truly attempted to use it. So when she said that I jumped right on board. "Okay, you can try too," I said, thinking there was no way. She asked me to take her diaper off and then went and got her potty out of the corner and put it directly across from the toilet. She sat on it and farted twice. She was so excited she thought poop came out but I had to break it to her that while something came out of her bum, it wasn't poop. She tried again on the potty a couple of other times during the day, always when I was going too. At 5 o'clock I had to go out to physical therapy and Tony was feeding her dinner. Immediately after dinner she said, "Daddy, me go poop." His reply was the same one I would have made, "Did you already go poop or do you have to poop?" She said, ON HER OWN, "Me go poop in me potty." So off they went to the bathroom. She demanded Tony sit on the can too, and she wanted a magazine - LOL, that's my girl!! She was quiet for a few minutes and then looked in between her legs, jumped off her potty and proclaimed, "Me poop come out! My poop come out in me potty!" And sure enough, there it was. Of course, even though I had laid the ground work, I was not present for this exciting event, so Tony took pictures. LOL Gross, I know... but you moms hear me, I'm sure. She was excited and proud and got herself a ton of praise and hugs. And, of course, 5 M&Ms for her first poop in the potty.

Then the very next day I decided to keep a good thing going and asked her if she needed to pee as soon as she got up in the morning. She said she had to use the potty so we put her on it, only half expecting anything to happen. Well, wouldn't you know it, she peed. Right then and there in the potty. Like a good little angel of potty training. We shouted and cheered and gave knuckles and she was so happy and proud. We even let her dump it into the toilet to flush it away. What a good girl!! And of course, she got her 2 M&M's for a pee in the potty.

She's only used the potty to pee twice since then, but a good amount of that is my own fault, not having the time, especially over Thanksgiving, to ask her every hour if she had to go and why don't we go try just in case. We have been trying, when I think of it, but that isn't reliable. I don't think she's totally ready since she calls her pee "poopie" and doesn't recognize when she has to pee, only when she has to poop, but we are getting there. Every little bit is progress and it was my intention to work on potty training over the winter when we're not going out anywhere anyway, so hopefully it will be easy. I say this now but we all know how it will play out... LOL