MoreThanWeExpected.com

So we decided that it wasn't in anyone's best interest to take a three month old out trick or treating so we went with a cute onesie instead of a full blown costume.  Don't worry, next October we'll post her "First Trick or Treat" which will be 100 times cuter as she'll be walking around and being adorable.

~ GWEN RHIANNA ~

Born July 1st, 2006 at 7:46 pm, she weighed 9 lbs., 1 oz. and was 21.5" long.

Her APGAR scores were 8/9.

Gwen was always a big baby, which was evident even before she was born.

THE TRIPLETS

~ TESS OLIVIA (aka Baby A) ~

Born February 25th, 2008 at 12:55 am, she weighed 4 lbs., 14 oz. and was 17.9" long.  Her APGAR scores were 6/7.

Tess was the lead baby, at the bottom of the uterus, and therefore was the weakest because she bore the weight of her sister and brother for 8 months.  Tess began her life in the real world on a C-Pap machine for apnea in the Elliot Hospital's NICU where she gained weight and got strong enough to come home just 2 days after her little brother and sister, on March 13th, 2008.

~ NORA PAIGE (aka Baby B) ~

Born February 25th, 2008 at 12:56 am, she weighed 5 lbs., 8 oz. and was 18.5" long.  Her APGAR scores were 7/8.

Nora is Tess' identical twin but spent most of her time in utero hanging out with Holden.  She was the biggest and strongest baby but also needed help breathing and was on an C-Pap machine for apnea and needed some photo-therapy for jaundice a few days after she was born.  She did great in the Elliot's NICU and came home March 10th, 2008, exactly two weeks after being born.

~ HOLDEN ANTHONY (aka Baby C) ~

Born February 25th, 2008 at 12:57 am, he weighed 4 lbs., 13 oz. and was 17.9" long.  His APGAR scores were 7/8.

Holden was the most active in utero and was no exception after being born.  He was the only one I heard cry in the delivery room and needed the least amount of oxygen supplementation and help breathing as his apnea episodes were infrequent and often self corrected.  Holden did have jaundice and needed to spend several days under the UV lamps while it improved.  Holden spent his time with his sisters in the NICU but overcame his jaundice and his apnea to come home on March 10th, 2008.

My belly stretched to planetary proportions; believe it or not I was actually all belly, not much fat (well, not much fatter than when I started anyway, LOL).  Here is what I looked like, at around 33 - 34 weeks, about 1 week before going into labor.  I would never have shared this picture with the world as I think it's a little personal but since my mother has shown pictures of my belly progressing to gigantism to everyone she's come in contact with since I got pregnant it's a moot point.  Oddly enough she thinks breast pumps and nipple shields should be kept private but my naked belly is good enough to share with strangers at the grocery store.

Like all new parents, and many people with cute families do annually, we wanted to find the best dress for our little girl's first "professional" pictures which we were having taken at Target.  We found the cutest little plaid Christmas party dress from the Gap and made our appointment.  Unfortunately, when the time came Gwen was having an unusually rough weekend (especially having started her day off by scratching her face) and did not want to participate...

To make Gwen's mood even better, we arrived just before lunch and nap time and our appointment got pushed back 20 minutes because the Target Portrait Studio couldn't handle the heat of the Christmas rush.  The seventeen year old photographer we got was virtually useless giving us a total of 10 minutes behind the camera and a whopping 6 poses to choose from, none of which Gwen was smiling in.  I was livid and frustrated and decided to give Target a run for their money.  "Screw this," I thought.  "We'll dress her up again next weekend and take our own pictures."

SO much better!  Take that, Target!  HA!

We got our first (and only) big snow storm on Valentine's Day and everyone got out of work early.  It gave us a great opportunity to hang out in the middle of the day, not like on weekends when we're all being lazy and hanging out in our jammies until 4 p.m. (if not indefinitely), where everyone was alert from having been out of the house already.  It was a lovely Family's First Valentine's Day and we got some great pictorial memories of it.

Mommy and Gwen played all afternoon while Daddy snowblowed.

After playing, Mommy did some chores while Daddy got in a little Daddy-Daughter quality time.  Gwen likes to rock Daddy's recliner all by herself.

The TV quickly tore her attention away from Daddy (besides breastmilk it might be the only other thing that can do that).  No wonder, it looks shocking and hilarious.  What a show!

Gwen awoke to a chocolate-free surprise from the Easter Bunny!!

We had about an hour enjoying our first Easter as a family before we had to head out.  We spent the remainder of the day visiting of course, starting at Grandma and Grandpa M's house with Grandpa's special Easter Egg Hunt.  After dinner at their house, we ventured over to Grandma and Grandpa J's house for another dinner where Gwen didn't enjoy eating tiny bits of table-food-turkey and banana.  Good thing she did like the garden toys in her third Easter Basket so much.  After another long holiday day out visiting we made our way home.  Phew!

I know I've been bad about updating the website as of late so here's a montage of the pictures we've taken in the last four months since March.  Of course, there were thousands of applicants but we had to whittle it down to these semi-finalist-favorites.

3/11

Rub-a-dub-dub; Gwen's out of the tub!

3/20

West-sieed! She'll learn which coast we're on soon enough...

3/22

This is the last picture I have of my baby girl passed out drunk on breastmilk, taken about one week before she was weaned onto formula, per the doctor's orders.

3/25

Just playing at home... This was the first time she stacked blocks and emptied out her toy box in toy excitement!

3/26

                                                                A good reward for a hard day at work.

3/30

Note the adorable play on words that changes the band name AC/DC to a more age-appropriate AB/CD tee-shirt.

4/22

Daddy/Daughter TV time??  Who would have guessed...

4/26

Passed out after her pre-bed bottle.

5/9

(Daddy's home!)

Within three weeks of learning to crawl she was pulling up to stand!  Now we're really in trouble...

5/12

"Wow!"  Happy First Mother's Day!

5/25

I love you, Nina and Star!

                                                               Hey, where'd that birdie go?

It seemed like a wedding; a giant whirlwind with only the pictures left to piece together the stuff we had already forgotten.  Tony and I invited 50 or so people over for a low-key BBQ to help us celebrate Gwen's big day.  We had lots of yummy food to share with lots of great friends and family who gathered in our back yard for the celebration, sand box unveiling, present opening, and the coolest cake I have ever seen (thank you, Jacques)!

Thank goodness we had some of our very good friends, Keath & Ceridwen, come over early as they proved to be a tremendous help in properly setting up tents, filling three dozen balloons with helium, and aesthetically placing the remaining assorted decorations.  Because of their rigorous travel schedule we were happy to put them up for the night, getting to enjoy some grown-up quality time drinking and being rowdy once Gwen had gone to bed.

Gwen, who woke up from her nap just past noon to Mommy shoving a bottle at her and dressing her as quickly as possible (almost simultaneously), was understandably a tad cranky as the festivities started, but quickly settled into her role as "center-of-attention-birthday-girl" and was in an excellent mood the rest of the day.  She was such a good girl and was in perfect form for all her pictures.

Here's a giant pictorial extrodanaire, in case you missed the party, or forgot about it already, too.   :-)

Gwen in her new sandbox, a special "Yea!  You survived your first year in our care so we must be doing a decent job so now eat some dirt" first birthday present from Mommy & Daddy.

Opening presents!!!

She had her cake, and ate it too!  And boy did she love it, even though it was a smaller, less expensive version than the real show-stopper...

A couple of close-ups of the amazing, buttercream frosting laden, Cupcake-Cake provided by Jacques Pastries, conveniently located right up the road...,

And, as a special parting gift, the cutest pictures that needed to be seen but didn't fit into the "party story line":

Our first family vacation, a trip to my family’s summer home in Greenport, NY (specifically on the North Fork of Long Island) that we've always referred to as The Bungalow.  We used to spend a good portion of our summer vacations in Greenport visiting family as we lived in NH and pretty much the rest of my family still lived on Long Island.  It was always fun and Tony and I decided to expose Gwen to the long, muggy days spent out by the bay sea-shell hunting early.  A great time was had by all.  Here are some maps:

Now that you have an inkling as to where we are, here are some pictures (unfortunately we didn't take many still photos and only took a couple videos so there isn't much to share):

7/9 - Gwen ate her first real peach ("real" meaning non-pureed) and loved it!  There are more pictures in the "YUM! ~ First Foods" section

7/10 - We went down to the village to do some shopping and wanted to take Gwen for a spin on the carousel, which she instantly hated.  As soon as I attempted to sit her on a horse she started crying and then the not-so-nice woman running the show started yelling at me, "Hurry up and sit down, Mom.  We're waiting on you!"  So I paid my $2 to sit in the sleigh; nice and boring and safe.  When the ride was over we opted to give Gwen a second opportunity to sit on the pretty horsie (we needed the photo op after all!).  And what a photo op it was...

7/13 - Just hanging out on the porch, and she was in rare form.  I couldn't help but post a dozen pictures; she's just too damn cute.

Mommy and Gwen had the afternoon to ourselves so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went outside to play in the sandbox, which we had only used once since her birthday.  Not only have we been too busy to squeeze in some quality play time, not to mention that she hates the feeling of both grass and sand, it's only been three weeks since her birthday, after all...

And as we can see, not only is she learning to enjoy playing in the sand, she's learning to enjoy eating the sand!

We had given Gwen the opportunity to play with a spoon and bowl with a little food in it only a couple of times before.  She didn't have very good control and really wasn't interested in doing much more than chewing on the spoon and finger-painting with whatever made it onto her highchair tray.  At the time she clearly wasn't ready, so we put the idea on the back shelf for a while.

A few weeks ago Gwen stopped eating any kind of food for us (besides a bottle).  No matter what I tried she wouldn't take food off a spoon, complete with flailing arms, tight lips, and violent shaking head protests.  She generally goes through an "I'm not going to eat" phase when she's cutting a tooth but this was going on for a few weeks and I just couldn't figure it out.  So I thought we'd give the "self-feeding" thing another go, immediately followed by a bath.  Here are the highlights:

Act I

Act II - Clearly a much messier experience

The sweet potato aftermath:

Awesome!

By the way - It turns out Gwen wasn't getting just one tooth, but more like seven; about a week ago she was in to the doctor for a virus and he informed me that she had her next two top incisors, as well as two or three molars, and her canines, all coming down at once.  No wonder she wouldn't eat.  We're still letting her toy around with feeding herself, but only on bath night!   :-) 

Gwen had a little trouble getting used to the idea of swimming but settled in once Mommy started blowing bubbles in the water, making the obligatory motor-boat noises.  She didn't so much enjoy floating as much as clinging tightly to Mommy's neck, whining any time we tried to switch hips.  She had more fun being a cling-on than floating but quickly became bored and whiny, making her first trip into the water short-lived.

Now that Daddy is done with baseball we have a little extra time to do fun family activities.  The first day we had available to go out and spend some quality time together we decided to go to White's Park in Concord.  Gwen had a lot of fun on the playground, but mostly on the swing.  I think she enjoyed the ducks even more, running around along the pond's edge with her regular duck imitation, hand opening and closing like a beak and yelling "duck, duck!" (to her that's what the duck says, I figure it's a derivative of "quack, quack").  Next time we'll be sure to remember bread to feed them and entice them to come closer to us.

Over the weekend we went to the Deerfield Fair, which was Gwen's second excursion to the fair even though she was too little to remember the first one.  She had so much fun sightseeing and got to try new junk food like fried dough and french fries in a dog bowl.  Of course, we brought her to see all the animals (well, all that I could stand after walking around for 6 hours pregnant with triplets, my sciatic nerve killing me the entire time) including the cows, chickens, ducks, sheep, pigs and horses.  The funniest part was that after she'd pet an animal, she would turn straight around and grope for our necks with a death grip.  She seemed to settle in after a while but didn't get to pet many animals since most of them were in pens with high sides and she was scared to get too close or hang over the edge (not Michael Jackson over the edge but bending at the waist).

At the end of a very long day she was ready to go home (as was Mommy) and so for being such a good girl she got to bring an Elmo ("Emma") balloon with her.  It was an awesome family day, which we, sadly, do not get enough of.

Beef

We came upon our first cow while she was getting a break from the stables, drinking not-so-fresh water and getting brushed down in the sunshine.  Gwen was curious so we stopped to watch and pointed out that it was a cow and asked repeatedly, "What sound does the cow make?" to no avail.  We went into the stables after that and had better luck with those cows and with getting an "MMMMM" answer to the "What does the cow say?" question, even though she was still a little timid.  We got to see Nature in it's full glory a few times and pointed out to Gwen how wonderful Nature is allowing the cows to poop and fertilize the Earth.  The people behind us thought we were nuts.  Even better!!

Poultry

Gwen loves ducks.  She loves them in books, she loves them in real life, it's been the animal sound she's been able to say the longest (close anyway, instead of "Quack, quack", she says "Duck, duck" while opening and closing her hand in a beak-like fashion - it's quite adorable).  So it was an obvious choice to visit the poultry exhibit, a first for me too.  It was noisy and hot but Gwen was so excited if I wasn't pregnant I probably never would have noticed.  While we were down on the ground to take a close look at the geese, one of the geese she was talking to jumped against the side of the crate, making her actually scared; she turned around clutching for me, crying and yelling, "Up!  Up!"  It was sad and funny at the same time and she quickly forgot about it as we moved on to see some of the roosters and what we assumed were pheasants.

Miscellaneous pictures from throughout the day

We went to the Columbus Day weekend festivities at our favorite PYO apple orchard and had a great time!  We took the tractor ride out to the orchard and Daddy picked most of the apples as I pointed them out.  Gwen mostly enjoyed eating them, not picking them.  She didn't enjoy getting under the trees to pick an apple straight off the branch for some reason, we were both puzzled.  She did however, enjoy plucking them off the ground to eat, mostly with other people's two-day-old bites taken out of them, which we had to wrestle away from her.  Gross.

After the tractor ride back to the barn, we went inside for some of the delicious freshly homemade apple & cinnamon doughnuts and farm-fresh chocolate milk (though I was quite disappointed that I couldn't drink the apple cider as it was unpasteurized).  Yum!!

9/15/07 - After grocery shopping Gwen decided she was going to help sort and put them all away.  She especially liked the cereal boxes, instinctively I'm sure.  What a great help she was!

10/28/07 - As the nesting instinct starts to intensify I've found that just like when I was pregnant with Gwen, I am getting more of an urge to cook than clean.  Saturday after our nap, I woke up with the urge.  To cook.  A lot.  Immediately.  So right around noon I started with a delicious lattice-top cherry pie (canned cherry pie filling and refrigerated Pillsbury crusts, of course) and followed that up with a double batch of chocolate chip cookies (actually homemade).  Everything was wonderful and fun even though the house hasn't been cleaned in months (literally) so I probably should have been redirecting my nesting urges elsewhere.  As I was baking the cookies, Gwen became quite interested and curious.  Since I'm the farthest thing from a domestic goddess and Gwen doesn't have much prior experience with hanging out with mom in the kitchen, I'm not surprised that she went to the oven, not realizing it might burn her.  But the fact that she imitated using the oven mitt and knew to put it on to go to the stove was hilarious and amazing.  Of course, Elmo took her attention back shortly after her own urge to cook but it took a while for her to tire of the novelty of a giant oven mitt.  I took lots of pictures as it was very cute and very funny.

Gwen loved going out for Trick or Treating with Daddy, both of them in costume, Gwen as an elephant and Daddy as Cal Ripken, Jr., his favorite ball player who allowed him a free costume.  She had a ball collecting candy door-to-door and riding in her wagon while Mommy stayed home to hand out the candy.  Next year I'll take the kids out, as I'll no longer be pregnant and probably much more agile.  Here are some pictures of Gwen in her costume, some taken before and some taken after Trick or Treating.  She started out cranky, not wanting to get into her costume, but quickly settled into the routine of begging for candy.  Maybe she was just antsy to get out and get on the job.

Gwen had a great "first" Christmas, in the sense that this year she was able to understand, participate, and open her own presents.  We started on Christmas Eve with Tony's family joining us for the holiday festivities.  Gwen got a new snowsuit and winter coat, galoshes and hat and mittens from Grandma & Grandpa, and lots of fun bath toys and crayons and markers from Uncle Joe & Aunt Maureen and Meagan.  Being the fashionista that she is, she immediately wanted to wear her coat and galoshes and we had a hard time getting them off her to wash.

On Christmas Morning Gwen woke up to lots of presents and a full stocking from Santa!  She had an awesome time opening her presents and taking a little time playing before we headed out to my parents' house for Christmas dinner (and a ton more presents!).  Santa brought Gwen her first baby doll, who seems to be her favorite, along with all her new books, and the Fisher Price Little People SUV, which plays a "catchy" little tune.

Later at Grandma & Grandpa J's house...  Lots more fun and presents!!

We had record breaking snowfall in NH this past December but Gwen wasn't very fond of the snow, probably because she didn't have a snow suit or a sled to really get out and experience the fun that snow can be (when you're a kid, anyway).  All of that was taken care of at Christmas when she got a snowsuit and boots from Grandma and Grandpa Michniewicz and Santa brought her a sled!

On New Year's Day, Tony took the opportunity to bring Gwen outside to play in the snow and try out her new sled during yet another snow storm.  I got to stay inside and take pictures and videos, which was both depressing because I couldn't have outdoor winter fun with the family, but also nice because I can't stand up for more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time so the pressure to participate was off.

Gwen started off her adventure crying hysterically as we, being dumb new parents, dressed her up in all her gear and then asked her to turn around to show Mommy so she could take a picture.  Not being able to move as she was bundled up from head to toe (think "A Christmas Story"), and not being used to having restrictive footwear on, she turned around to show Mommy and instantly fell headfirst into the bed-rail with her forehead and not being able to use her hands to brace herself, her face hit the floor immediately after.  We checked her for blood and tried to calm her, to no avail.  Since it was clear she was starting to overheat indoors in her snowsuit I told Tony that he should take her outside and give it a shot... either it would distract her and she'd forget about getting hurt or she wouldn't want to play at all since she was already upset, at which point he should just bring her back in.  It worked!  Once she got used to moving in boots and a snowsuit she had a ball!  Daddy pulled her through the walkways and all around the cars and even put her up on one of the snowbanks to help her sled down the hill and she loved all of it, saying "Whee!" the whole time.  They spent about 45 minutes outside, knocking snow off the cars, making snow angels, and throwing snowballs that they almost hit Mommy with.  When she came inside she was ecstatic and rejuvenated by the fun and fresh air.

(Updated with new pictures and stories on 2/9/08)

I will never deny my dorkiness and here is a prime example.  I managed to sustain Gwen on breastmilk alone for a full six months before finally caving to her increasingly ravenous appetite.  Food allergies are prevalent in my family (in myself and both my brothers ranging from milk and wheat to nuts and fruit) and because of that we took the whole starting solids thing slowly.  Studies have shown that children who have one parent with a particular allergy are 60% more likely to have that allergy themselves (if both parents have the same allergy the chance of their children having that allergy jumps to 90%).  So I've taken my anxiety and hypochondria to a new level making spreadsheets, food journals and giving everyone around me strict instructions ("No you can not give her Cool Whip!"  "Yes, one little taste can hurt her!") but still somehow managed to get pictures.  We start a new food each Saturday and that half hour usually turns out to be my favorite part of the weekend.

P.S.  For what it's worth, now at 19 months old, Gwen has eaten just about everything (no nuts until she's at least 2, 3 if we can help it, per the pediatrician's instructions) and has never had a reaction.  I can't prove it scientifically but I like to think our taking it slow with food introduction and using common sense helped to keep her from developing a food allergy.

Week 1 - Rice Cereal: We quickly learned that she actually didn't like it running down her face and started making it thicker.  Don't pay attention when the books all tell you to make it runny like thick milk; this is what you end up with:

Week 2 - Bananas: Who doesn't love bananas?  If they didn't bind her up so much I'd let her eat more of them.

Week 4 - Squash: At first bite it seemed like she would like it after a few more tries; it was evident by the end of this single feeding that wasn't the case at all!  My favorite part was watching her gag on it.  These pictures still make me laugh. 

To this day squash remains in rotation; I want her to still try and eat it even though she still hates it.  At least she doesn't have to sit there until she finishes it... yet.

Week 5 - Prunes: Starting prunes was a necessary evil prompted by the addition of cereal and bananas to her diet.  To my relief she loved them.

Week 10 - Carrots: You might not be able to tell but she actually loved the carrots.  She ate them up and they're a great additive to chicken or turkey to get her to eat her meats.

3/26/07: First finger food - Rice Cakes!  "Hello? Taste?!"

And what baby album wouldn't be complete without a few "first pickle" pictures??

5/25/07: The first time Gwen fed herself!

7/9/07: Gwen's first real peach!  She was such a good sharer that every time she took a bite, she'd ask Mommy to take a bite, too!  Yum!!  She clearly enjoyed that peach!!

12/31/07: She loves that toast and jam!

1/1/08: I guess we really are the definition of couch potatoes seeing as how the first time Gwen enjoyed a Cool Ranch Dorito she took it right to her chair to watch Caillou.  One can only wonder where she picked up this behavior from...  It's still adorable, it looks like all she's missing is a Bud Light.

2/2/08: If you've never had a Sal's pizza you're missing out.  To date, I don't think Gwen's ever had a slice of a Sal's and with good reason; their large pizza is a 19" 3 pound monstrosity of deliciousness (and that's just the cheese pie!).  Even though pizza has long been one of Gwen's favorites, it's something we get only rarely and when we do we usually give Gwen a half slice.  She's enjoyed the flavors of Pizza Hut, Papa Gino's, and various frozen brands so we decided to let her have some of our Sal's Meat Lovers.  As you can see she loved it, and ate so much of the comedically giant slice we gave her that we had to pry it away from her as we were fearful she ate too much and would end up throwing it up a half hour later.  Just for the record, she actually kept it all down...

2/4/08: Grilled cheese day is always a good day!  She'll only eat a half of a sandwich at a time (and sometimes not even that much) and since we don't want her to become one of those "I only eat hot dogs and grilled cheese" kids we only make it for her once a week, usually on the weekends so she can bring the other half for lunch on Monday.  Here she is, loving the heck out of one of her favorite foods.  You'll note that she was actually stacking the two quarters together, trying to cram them in her mouth at the same time.  LOL!!!

2/9/08: We've given Gwen dry cereal before, and she's tried some cereal with milk when either Mom or Dad give her a taste of their breakfast but she's never had her own.  Last weekend she had some of Tony's Honeycombs and loved them so much (she was begging, saying "More" while also using the sign for "more" and pointing to his cereal bowl) we decided to try giving her her own bowl of Honeycombs.  She did really well, even with the drippiness of the milk, devouring every single Honeycomb in the bowl.  She's getting so good with her dexterity and control of eating utensils that I think we're going to try to let her have more cereals with milk for breakfast.

Not to be outdone, here are a few pictures of Little Miss, coming into her Terrible Twos but still making us laugh and keeping us in awe every day.  She uses a multitude of words, her vocabulary is expanding every day, and she's started putting together simple sentences and commands us all over the house to see what she's done, what she needs help with or to show her what we're doing.  She almost knows her ABC's, can count to 15 (occasionally), and knows all the characters in Dragon Tales, Super Why! and Curious George by name.  She loves to read and will sit down with a grown up book and make up her own story to it based on the cover illustration.  She's so smart and funny and is growing up so fast.  She cracks us up...

Gwen welcomed her second birthday with her typical gusto!  We had a party (nothing like her first birthday party, which is more of a celebration for the parents, and was more party than I wanted to tackle at this point) with just family, and Gwen was, of course, in rare form. There was a Carvel cake, Elmo mylar balloons and lots of presents!  Tony's parents gave her a swing set and my parents gave her a play house to add to the endless outdoor play-land adventures; but of course, she'll have to share with her brother and sisters next year.  Her aunts, uncles and cousins bought her numerous toys which she needed, believe it or not; since she loves books so much she has more books than toys and the toys she does have are mostly for babies.  She is having a blast playing with her new dolls, tea party set (she mistakenly got three but we kept two, one for outdoors and one for indoors) and My Little Ponies.  I'm sure we'll look like a daycare center in no time, seeing as how that's practically what we're running here, LOL.  Gwen also got a big girl bed and pretty new mermaid bedding from Mommy and Daddy but isn't quite ready for it yet.  She climbed out of her crib once, prompting us to get her a bed for safety's sake (not to mention that we need her crib for other babies), but she hasn't been a very good girl about going to sleep at bedtime and we fear there would be shenanigans going on all night if she didn't have those boundaries; we'll hold off for now and come back to it when it becomes an issue again.

Other than growing up and being adorable, Gwen has developed quite the bratty streak, um, I mean strong personality.  I’ve heard that girls are nothing at two years old compared to how they are at four years old so I’m starting to think I’m screwed.  (My payback for my own childhood?  No way, I was a sweetheart!)  We’ve been trying to set some boundaries (with tantrums as a result almost every time) but are also careful about picking and choosing our battles.  She’s very independent and strong willed (gee, I wonder where she gets that from? he-he) so we are trying not to crush her spirit but without caving in on our parenting duties.  When she wants to bring a toy to the dinner table we let her otherwise she wouldn’t eat; however, if playing takes president over eating the toys are gone; if she continues to throw a crying/screaming fit and not eat she gets down and goes hungry.  No wonder she’s so thin…  She’s learning to lie and manipulate (crucial social developments they say, but even at two years old??) to get what she wants or to get around our rules, such as pretending the lamp she’s not supposed to touch is a sugar bowl (pretend sugar she sprinkles into her pretend coffee) just so she can touch it without getting yelled at.  While it cracks me up and is wicked cute, we’ve had to become increasingly strict in order to combat her quasi-naughtiness.  I never wanted to be, but am becoming one of those “No!”/“Don’t touch that!” parents.  SIGH…

She loves her brother and sisters and is always playing with them and helping them (giving them toys or pacifiers or talking to them when they cry).  A couple of times now she has brought one of them a toy and demands, “Baby, play, me, now.”  One time she brought the girls blocks and said “Nor (Nora), Teh (Tess), play block?”  Adorable!  She’s going to be quite the control freak/leader of the pack.  (I wonder where she gets that from too?  LOL)

Gwen had her check-up at the doctor and is very healthy.  She is tall and thin, she only weighs 26.5 pounds but is 36" tall, putting her in the 50th percentile for weight and the 94th percentile for height.  She hates going to the doctor now since she remembers the shots but she'll get used to it and the less of a deal we make it out to be the more quickly she'll come to think it's no big deal.  She only got one shot today and won’t have any more until she’s 4 so that’ll help too.

I’m not typically one of those parents that brags about how “advanced” their child is but our pediatrician told us that Gwen is very smart and is understanding and applying complex reading and mathematical skills for her age.  Apparently, it’s not typical for a two year old to not only count to 15, but to understand that each item she’s counting has a separate value (I didn’t realize there was a difference?!  LOL).  Also, Gwen not only knows her ABC’s but also the phonetic sound each letter makes (with a few exceptions), which is also very advanced.  We were a little worried about her speech (while she knows and uses hundreds of words she tends to shorten longer ones down so that she only has to say them in one syllable – ie banana becomes “nan” and monkey becomes “mon”) but were reassured that her vocabulary is also advanced and that she probably wouldn’t know so many words if she spent time learning how to correctly pronounce each one.  The pediatrician said at this point it’s more just habit for her and gave us some tips on breaking her of it; by next year she expects Gwen to be able to carry on a conversation like two adults would.  I’m so proud that she’s so smart and self-sufficient already.  I am a little surprised at it all because I have the mind-set that kids should be kids while they can, and while we point out learning opportunities we never make them our priority or focus our time together on them.  This kid is just a sponge!

Enough bragging, right?  LOL  Here are some pictures showcasing her birthday and highlighting the last few months.  She’s such a big girl now…

Birthday Party Pictures!:

The next morning Gwen went straight for her new dolls, Gisselle and Nadia (aka Fairy), and commanded me to take pictures of them.  She got quite a kick out of seeing the pictures afterward and talked about Nadia’s pretty hair.  They now do everything with her (there’s even pasta mashed into Nadia’s hair from where Gwen was making her “eat” dinner off her plate).  She loves those dolls!  Good job, Aunt Maureen, Uncle Joe and Meagan!

From a lot of these pictures it’s easy to see that Gwen desperately needed a haircut.  In an effort to avoid the “baby mullet” I’ve been trimming the back all along while it fills out, while trying not to cut in bangs.  I figured at some point I’d just be able to pin the front out of her eyes with a barrette.  HAHAHA!  Gwen is more me than I expected and barrettes make it a mere 10 minutes before being ripped out and thrown to the floor.  I admitted defeat and after trimming up the length I cut in some bangs.  It’s not too shabby.

The kids are doing great, already 5 months old (4 months old corrected) now!  Tony and I have been talking about how neat it is to see their personalities as they start to develop because each one is so different.  They are all reaching exciting milestones, just all at different times, so it’s fun to see who can do what first.  For instance, Nora and Holden both jibber-jabber A LOT but Tess does not; Tess and Nora can grab their toes but Holden can not (his limbs are short and stocky); Tess has developed severe stranger anxiety but Nora and Holden could go either way; Tess can blow raspberries and spit bubbles all day while Nora can only do it once in a while and Holden can’t at all; all three of them are laughing, passing toys from hand to hand, reaching, grasping, and trying to crawl (they inch themselves halfway across the room and I don’t even see them do it), but no one can sit up yet.  I have been testing their bottle holding abilities but since we use glass they’re a little heavier and it may be a while longer.  Damn; I’m still waiting for that one!   :-)

I’ve been trying to get them on a napping schedule as they had been cat-napping throughout the day up until last week.  Knowing that Gwen will be staying home with me starting in September, I thought it best to make all major changes to the kids’ schedules prior to.  We are trying a 2 hour nap after breakfast, a 2 hour nap after brunch and a 30-minute to 1 hour nap after lunch (which they are still taking while hanging out in swings after eating).  This will allow me many opportunities: private time for Gwen and I to play, setting up the day’s bottles, working out, showering, eating lunch, feeding Gwen, etc.  Most importantly, it will get the kids used to napping in their cribs for longer periods of time which will result in them napping better now and as they grow up. We’re still in the early stages so the kinks are being worked out (and Tess isn’t taking as well to it as Nora and Holden are) but like everything else, I will stick it out and hopefully it will all fall into place soon.

Another big change we’re working on is switching their formula.  They have been on special preemie formula since birth (which has 22 calories per ounce; standard formula only has 20 calories per ounce) but once they turn 6 months old our insurance will no longer cover it so we have to transition them onto a standard formula.  Also, I have been dying to get them onto Nestle Good Start Supreme Natural Cultures formula before starting solids.  (Recent research has shown that babies who are breast fed are less likely to develop food allergies due to the fact that it is easy to digest and protects the intestinal lining as it matures.  The Nestle Good Start Natural Cultures incorporates probiotics, which we all know have been shown to increase intestinal health and appear naturally in breast milk.  Yes, I sound like a commercial but I swear it works.  Gwen was on the Good Start Supreme after weaning and she never had a problem transitioning.  The Good Start is the closest thing to breast milk, hands down.  The proof is in the diaper: since we started transitioning the triplets onto the Good Start their poops have changed, becoming more like that of a breast fed baby.  Also, since the Good Start is made with partially broken down proteins, it does not stain or stink like other formulas.  I should buy stock in Nestle; I don’t know why more companies don’t take advantage of these scientific advances in their formulas.)  Our pediatrician gave us the OK to start transitioning them as long as we mixed the Good Start rich to incorporate the extra 2 calories per ounce that were being lost by not using the preemie formula.  The mathematical equation I was given was 1 and 3/4 scoops for every 2 ounces of water (typically you would only put one scoop into 2 ounces of water) which I have been using for the last three weeks, but have questioned more than once as it was almost doubling the amount of formula you’re supposed to use.  When I weighed the kids, as I do every few weeks, I found that each of them had gained approximately 2 pounds in 3 weeks, which is a lot!  As I thought it through, all the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place… the kids have decreased their individual formula intake from 30-32 ounces to 21-24 ounces, their poops had become harder and they were peeing less, and they had gained a lot of weight in a small period of time.  I had my mathematician husband do the math and he found that instead of getting 22 calories per ounce they were getting 35!!!  (The equation should have been written as 1 scoop of formula to 1 and 3/4 ounces of water, an honest mistake when you’re seeing four kids in the same room in an hour.)  I quickly called the doctor who said it wouldn’t hurt them that they were getting so many extra calories and that I could just decrease the amount we were mixing in back to 22 calories or, at this point, mix the formula regularly as their weight is no longer a health issue.  So I am spending this week with three very hungry, confused kids as I take their caloric intake down a few pegs each day.  Once they consistently consume 28-32 ounces again we will have to start cereal so I’m hoping I can have them on the Good Start a little while longer before going down that road.  For crying out loud they can’t even sit up, how are they going to eat off a spoon?  LOL  By the way, for those who were curious, Holden weighed 14.14, Nora 14.13, and Tess 14.10.

Here are some new pictures!  Again, I gave a description to each picture to identify who is who.  Enjoy!!!   :-)

For you Gwen groupies…

And a rare glimpse into what our lives have become: