We Got Rhythm

One of the fun things we did on the Big Trek was stop for the night at my brother Paul's house. It was a full-scale invasion, but Uncle Paul, Aunt Stacie and their two kids were good sports about it.

And their house was Nirvana for the kids. They have a snake, a gecko and a tortoise. The kiddos thought it was a zoo.

Then the boys went into the garage and found this:

Sam, Alex and Isaac check out the motorcycle.

Isaac, especially, was in awe. Later he fell and got hurt and when I asked him if he needed a kiss or a Band-Aid to feel better he sniffed and said, "I want to sit on the motorcycle."

*sigh* What's a mama to do?

The icing on the cake was the drum set that my brother has already threatened to send to us. Sam told us it was "too loud" and went elsewhere to play, but Alex and Isaac loved it. Check them out!

Next stop, the fire station!

© Trippin' Mama 2011

Amelia's New Favorite

While visiting Aunt Susie and Uncle Andy, Amelia discovered a new food that she LOVED.

Now, if you know Amelia, you know that food is not her thing. She'll even take a bite or two of a treat and walk away without finishing it.

But this, this was a big hit.

Cereal. With chocolate.

Amelia: The new poster child for Special K's chocolatey delight.

Courtesy of Aunt Susie, Amelia fell for Special K's Chocolatey Delight.

Left to her own devices, Amelia would have eaten only the chocolate chunks (of course), but with some persuasion, she ate the flakes, too, and found she liked them.

Up until this point we've avoided chocolatey cereals in our house, but I may have to give in on this one once in a while.

At least it isn't Cocoa Puffs.

"Vestigating"

Amelia called today. She was at the zoo and had to tell me that they heard a noise while they were there and, "had to 'vestigate."

The noise was "rahring," according to Amelia.

Turns out they were feeding the lions, and they were all roaring for their food. Amazingly, Amelia was thrilled by this instead of terrified.

She rushed through what she wanted to say to me so she could get back to having fun. Clearly, she's having a great time!

Tomorrow Amelia and Daddy are coming home. I can't wait to see them and hear all about the trip and share pictures with all of you.

Off to Visit Aunt Susie & Uncle Andy

Amelia and Jeff left this afternoon for a visit with Aunt Susie and Uncle Andy in Denver.

Amelia is ready to go!

While this won't be the first time Amelia has flown, it will be the first time that's she's old enough to realize what's going on.


So far, she's been very excited about it, and couldn't get out of here fast enough after she woke up from her nap. I hope that excitement doesn't turn into a major freak out.

I armed Jeff with a bag full of treats and some new toys for the trip, along with a million pieces of advice that he didn't need.

"Be sure she uses the potty before you get on the plane."

"Don't let her touch anything in the airplane bathroom."

"Gum makes a good bribe. Or calling Aunt Susie to tell her you are getting on the plane. Or taking a picture to show Mom when she gets home."

"Make sure she still has rules. She needs to try all the foods on her plate and eat all her vegetables."

"There's sunscreen and hand sanitizer in your backpack."

"Take lots of pictures."

I know, I know. Give it a rest! It's not like he's new at this dad gig or didn't handle the whole crew by himself when I went to my brother's wedding in California when the boys were just 7 months old.

Fortunately, Jeff handled my rapid-fire "help" with his usual grace and good humor. It's just one of the things that has earned him the title of WBH (World's Best Husband).

Amelia offered me her trademark advice, "Bye, Mom. Don't bite the brothers."

So now they are off and the boys and I will be hanging out together for the next five days. Since I only have to feed myself, I am planning to cook some things for the freezer and see if I can get Amelia's closet turned over from summer to fall. (That will certainly guarantee the summer weather will last an extra couple weeks.)

And maybe, just maybe, I will be able to achieve the state of Laundry Nirvana while they are gone.

I know, you're on the edge of your seat over that one. Stay tuned.

Quite A Trip

Ever since we got back, everyone has wanted to know, "How was your vacation?" But as anyone who has traveled with small children and four tons of equipment knows, it's not really a vacation...but it was still quite a trip!

In my previous post, I offered video evidence that you can travel with 9-month-old triplets and a three-year-old and get a little quiet time along the way. Honestly, everyone traveled great. We fed bottles as we drove and played a lot of peek-a-boo from the back seat to the middle seat to entertain the little ones. But they were all real champs about the 2,000-miles of driving.

I'm realistic enough not to expect a repeat of that, but just glad to have survived this first venture relatively unscathed.

I made a few adjustments to my seven-page packing list when I got home. Some things I wished we'd had and a few that we shouldn't have bothered to pack. Next time I'll cut the amount that we pack by a third and get MY golf clubs in along with Jeff's.

At the top of my new list is: SHERPA.

Seriously, it would have been worth every dime to get someone to help schlep all our stuff! Every time we arrived at a new destination -- something we did FIVE times in the course of ten days -- we hauled three high chairs, two pack-n-plays, one child's tent, blankets, pacifiers, diapers, a suitcase, toys and more out of the van. Then we unpacked and assembled for the night. A day or two later we reversed the whole process. More than once I thought a Sherpa would have been a good investment.

On the plus side, we certainly didn't need to count any calories while we were traveling!

Here are a few more pics of the family.

Jeff and his siblings show off the twins and triplets: Jeff with Alex, Susie with Sam, Amy with Clare, Allie with Isaac, and Jacob with Isabel.

Amelia and her godparents, Dave and Amy.

My Uncle Virgil and Aunt Illa with the boys: Alex, Sam and Isaac.

The Saga of the Seven Car Seats

Note: For those of you not facing the problem of seating triplets in a vehicle, there's way more detail here than you want, but I know it will be helpful to other parents of multiples. If you head to the bottom of the post you'll learn how we came to be toting seven car seats at once.

A couple weeks before our big trek to the north country, Jeff and I realized that the boys were getting too long for their little pumpkin seats. It was time for an upgrade. I surveyed the local multiples group for their suggestions on car seats that would fit three across in our sexy Toyota Sienna.

Several moms suggested the Sunshine Kids Radian car seats. We loved the fact that they are FAA approved for use on airplanes, that they fold for easy carrying, and that they get a great safety rating because of their steel frame. We didn't love the idea of them weighing 25 lbs., because we knew we'd continually be pulling one out to allow access to the back seat.

With four kids, at least one child has to sit in the back seat. And with the triplets still facing backwards, it makes sense to put them three across the middle and for me to join Amelia in the back row so I can see the boys and tend to them. In order for me to get back there, we have to flip up a seat in the middle row, which means pulling a heavy car seat out every time.

Still, we thought we'd try them since everyone who has them seems to love them.

(By the way, Diapers.com has the best return policy around. They pay return shipping, make the arrangements for UPS pickup, AND there's no restocking fee.)

The verdict? The Radian 80s we tried were very nice seats, and they were narrow enough to fit well three across the middle row. But, they are very tall. A tall car seat, when placed in a rear-facing position translates to LOOOONG.

Jeff had the driver's seat farther forward than he would like, and the middle row was pushed back farther than I would like in order to accommodate the length. I found myself saying, "I wish our van was six inches longer."

Hmmm...how about shorter car seats instead?

So, we ordered three Cosco Alpha Sport car seats. We already have one of these for Amelia, and it's a nice compact, lightweight, FAA-approved and safe seat. It also is three inches shorter than the Radian, which means it gives us a little more wiggle room since we have to use the back seat.

Unfortunately, while we were getting a seven-page list of stuff together for vacation, we didn't take care of the car seats as soon as we should have. And the selection online is so much better than in the stores. That means shipping. And shipping time. (Almost every place I looked offered free shipping for an order as big as three car seats, and most that I called offered us some kind of multiples discount, too.)

By the time we had assessed the Radians and realized they wouldn't work for us, we were on a tight timeline to get seats here. I talked to the sales rep and he said they would arrive here on Wednesday, but we were leaving Thursday morning, and what if they didn't arrive? We could make do with the seats we had, but we really felt that Sam, Isaac and Alex would be safer and more comfortable in bigger seats.

So, we had the new seats shipped to my brother's house, which was about 500 miles into the trip. They were to arrive there on Thursday, and we stayed there until Saturday, so we had a little leeway. And we decided we'd rather have them for part of the trip than none of the trip.

We could have left the baby seats behind, but they are preemie seats, which are good for babies as small as three pounds. A fellow triplet mom gave them to us and we would like to return the favor by passing them along to another family. So, we picked them up when we passed back by my brother's house, shoe-horned them in and continued on our merry way, laughing about having SEVEN car seats in the car at once.

Here's a little video of the car seats in action. (Notice that there's a baby seat in the front passenger seat. Don't worry. There was never a baby in it.)



And there you have it. Proof positive that it IS possible to road trip with four kids, including three babies, and even get a little silence along the way!

Home Again, Home Again

We are home.

We are tired.

We got home about 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. We got everyone to bed at 11 p.m. Amelia slept for 12 hours straight without waking up. The boys slept all night until 7 a.m. And then they napped for 6 hours and still went to bed at a decent time.

Exhausted!

The trip was a lot of fun, even if it was tiring for everyone. I have lots to tell you including how we ended up travling with 7 car seats (not all of them occupied, thank heavens!), but it will have to wait just a little longer.

Right now I need to deal with the 4 tons of stuff that we scooped out of the van and deposited in the garage.

And, I need to make peach crisp with some yummy, but slightly bruised peaches I got at the farmers' market this morning.

The one activity is an antidote for the other.

Destination Vacation

Three almost-nine-month-old babies.

One three-year-old.

One THOUSAND miles. One way.

And we arrived with all of the children and most of our sanity.

Everyone traveled very well, even on the first day when we went nine hours with only one stop.

Alex, Sam and Isaac take to the road like seasoned pros.

Amelia crashes out.

Of course, we attracted a lot of attention along the way with our triple stroller strapped to the back of the van. I wish I had a nickel for every person who passed us and tried to peer into the van to see what, exactly, we were carrying. We'd make a nice dent in the kids' future college costs!

Isaac, Alex and Sam dine al fresco at a rest area.

Amelia is enjoying vacation immensely. She's all about McDonald's on the road and has had lots of fun playing with her cousins. The morning after we arrived at Jeff's parents (our final destination) after three days of driving, she woke up and the first thing she said was, "Where we going next?"

Now THAT'S a real trooper for you!