Happy Turkey

Thanksgiving this year found us once again in Laurel, MD at my aunt and uncle's house. The drive down was a dream. No traffic and no crying. Woohoo!

As you can see, the triplets are getting big.


Elizabeth giving a sense of scale.


They were so big, in fact, that they couldn't sleep side by side in the portacrib.


It was wonderful to have so many helping hands.


Hannah, Adam's sister who is staying with us for a while, was gracious enough to come with us and help out. First and foremost amongst her duties was passing on her legendary Guitar Hero skills. It is the stuff of legend.


She also accompanied me on my first ever Black Friday Crack-o-Dawn Shopping Excursion. There were a few door busters I'd had my eye on and so, after the 3 AM feeding, we threw on some clothes and jumped in the van and made our way to Target. After scoring our new camera for half the price, we went to the nearby mega mall, Arundel Mills.

This place is a mile around and can be seen from space! Okay, so maybe not from space, but definitely from the secret spy cameras in the unmarked helicopters that fly over my uncle's work. (the NSA.) Here is photographic proof that this mall is a BEAST:


And Hannah and I tamed that beast. Oh yes we did. We didn't quit until 11 AM. That's seven straight hours of shopping. By the end of it, my feet were sore, my mind was numb, and I found myself wandering lost and alone in the back of an Old Navy carrying a blouse that I didn't even like to the dressing room. Time to go home. But the savings were insane. I bought stuff from stores I would never be able to afford otherwise. Like the super-cute shirt from Esprit that was originally $80 that I got for $14!!! I've decided the crowds are worth it and that from now on I will be doing ALL my clothes shopping on Black Friday.

Of course, no trip out of NYC would be complete w/out going to see the latest blockbuster. This time it was the much-anticipated Harry Potter 7.0


One word: AWESOME.

The weekend had to end sometime and Sunday found me pretty heavyhearted. Back to Brooklyn. Back to reality. The drive home was almost twice as long and full of babies crying inconsolably. But we made it home in one piece (except my sanity which has been spotty at best lately.) And that was our Thanksgiving! Who's ready for Christmas?

Did She Really Just Say That?

"It's mine! I share with me."

"I need attention!"

An exchange:
"Who do you want to give you your bath? Mommy or Daddy?
Daddy!
Why not mommy?
You burn it!
I burn it?
Yeah. You burn the bath."

Another exchange:
"How was nursery?
Good.
What did you do?
I play, sing songs, eat fishes and crackers.
Who was there? Were your friends there?
Yeah! Garrett and Tommy and London and London was crying and Tommy was crying and . . .
Were you crying?
No. I'm happy."

As we are eating dinner, we hear Adam arriving home from work.
To me: "Daddy's home!"
Shouting over her shoulder: "Daddy! Wash your hands!!"
Ever since the Swine Flu scare, I'm always reminding him to wash his hands after he's ridden on the subway.

"Elizabeth," I say as I sit on the floor, "let's clean up these toys." I start to sing the clean-up song. "Okay," she says, climbing onto the couch. "I watch."

I'm having a rough day and I've burst into tears.
"Mommy! It's okay! Be happy!"

Elizabeth's Blessing of Dinner

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for lunch.
Thank you for mac and cheese.
Thank you for [unintelligible.]
Please bink [?] Mommy and Daddy and Charles and Lucy and Charles . . .

[Mom whispers "and Eddie."]

And Eddie.

[With prompting] In Jesus name,

AMEN!!

Two Months

Can you believe it?

So what have we been up to?

Some of this.

Eddie

Not enough of this.

Charles

And mostly feeling like doing this.

Lucy

We've had a lot of help.

Super Pumpa

Aunt Amy

The Beautiful Soletas

And sometimes it's just me.

We've even managed to get out of the house.


Aren't we the happy family? (Notice the babies are quiet.)


But don't let the smiles fool you. Most days end with us wanting to do this. Is she sleeping or screaming?

Megan, Adam's little sister. What a trooper!

The babies are all chunking up nicely, especially Lucy. They are still eating every three hours and they sleep a lot, though they tend to wake up during naps way too much. It can be rather maddening, playing the binky game.

Lucy has pretty bad reflux and is on a modified formula as well as medicine. And she recently developed thrush, which we're afraid she may have passed to Eddie. So the poor thing gets medicine four times a day. But they're all thriving and for that we're grateful. Charlie is the best eater and sleeper. Eddie is totally caught up with feedings and they all get 4 ounces each time. Best of all, we've started getting smiles out of Lucy and Charles. Since they're 8 1/2 weeks, I figure they're only a few weeks "behind." Tomorrow is their doctor appointment (shots!) so we'll post their stats later. Wish us luck!