March 14, 2012
1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks, 4 days old
Two and a half weeks ago, Mackenzie, Abigail and Sydney turned 20-months old, and that day was an adventure to say the least.
We had a fun day, including playing out in the snow.
Seeing snow or rain outside always makes Mackenzie burst out singing, "Rain, rain, go away!"
The trip outside was relatively short, but it was good to use the girls'
winter boots and snow pants a second time before this mild winter's over!
That night, we worked on an experimental project in the nursery.
While we worked, Mackenzie told Mommy not to stand on the couch, "No. No. No."
The girls learned that sometimes you need to clear a whole shelf before finding the right book to read.
The triplets are very effective at creating a mess - VERY quickly.
While the girls read their books, Mommy and Daddy took one side off of each girl's crib,
hoping the girls were ready for a step toward big-girl beds
They had SO much fun running into each other's beds, shouting each other's names
"Abby-Dabby! Kenzie-Wenzie! Syddy-Diddy!"
Everyone wanted to help Sydney redecorate her space
Three-sided cribs seemed like a great idea...
...until we put each girl in her own bed and left the room...
The girls cried and cried and cried - no longer enjoying the side-less cribs. Eventually, we decided to try just putting their mattresses on the floor. But that pretty much was a disaster.
All three girls stood at their closed bedroom door, scream-crying. They have learned from books that a door gets opened after someone knocks on it. It broke my heart when we heard one of the girls knocking on the door, hoping the we'd open it and rescue them. So, we began the process of fully assembling three cribs all over again. Two hours after their initial bed time, we put the girls to bed for the night - quiet at last.
Sydney, who tends to like change the least, had the hardest time of all. She's still the mother-hen most of the time (like yesterday when she went and found Mackenzie's and Abby's favorite toys - a plush cow named "Wisco" and a baby doll, respectively - and gave them to each sister - so sweet!), but some days she is the biggest aggressor, pushing and hitting her sisters. This cool cat finally has started having mini tantrums and doesn't know what to do with herself when she's frustrated. She wrings her hands and arms, flailing them around and sometimes rolls around on the ground. It's so extreme that it's hard not to laugh sometimes.
Syd is a big-time talker. She repeats almost everything she hears. We like to teach them goofy things to say while they eat dinner. A recent favorite is "Peace - out, DOG!" Another favorite is Mackenzie's "Awesome!" - so cute in her little pipsqueak voice. It's also fun to teach them funny ways to say things like, "Av-O-CA-DO" in a really deep voice. Sydney knows her A-B-Cs, but only Jason can get her to recite them. They take turns each singing four of the letters at a time. J sings "A-B-C-D" and Syd chimes in with "E-F-G." But Syd's favorite letter string by far is "H-I-J-K." She randomly sings it throughout the day.
Abby is just starting to talk a lot. I was a little worried about her slower start (it's impossible not to compare!), so we started writing down all of her words. After just one day, we're already at 30 words, so I'm feeling better. Actually, Abigail's much more soft spoken than her sisters, so there's a chance she's been talking for a few weeks and just not heard over her more boisterous sisters.
Abigail also has us a little at a loss because she's started biting her own arms and legs - HARD. She has red rings of bite marks all over, and we don't know how to make her stop. Sometimes it's out of frustration and sometimes just for fun - with a laugh. Let us know if you have any tips! Abby is the biggest animal lover of the triplets, and she also is going through a big baby doll phase. She loves trying to feed them and wraps them up in blankets. When she's entertaining herself, there's just no distracting her from the task at hand!
Mackenzie loves pointing out objects by name in books and looking at a picture of her cousins, trying to figure out who's who. She regularly uses baby sign language signs for "eat" and "more" and she says the words along with the signs. Every few days, Kenzie decides she only wants to play with whatever toys her sisters are enjoying, and she throws a tantrum if she can't pry the toy away. She's getting her top "fang" teeth in, so that could be contributing to her fussiness.
She also likes to steal food and milk off of Sydney's tray during meals and gobbles it up before we can redirect her to her own tray full of food. We taught the girls to hold their baby dolls in their arms and rock them, singing, "Rock, Rock, Rock. Rock-a-bye, Baby!" Mackenzie extends the rocking and singing to other objects too. This morning, it was "...Rock-a-bye, Milk Cup!"
The girls are as cute and fun as ever!
