The Triplets 1st Birthday

J with Great-Grandpa
The boys enjoying their cake

Notice the tarp under their high chairs- easy clean up!

Getting some Grandpa love!

Chris's cousin Cathleen had triplets over a year ago, and we spent Sat. of Memorial Day w/e celebrating out east with a party. It was a great time to see family, and the 3 of us spent the night with Chris's Grandparents, enjoying having the time to catch up. It's truly amazing to see how well organized Cathleen is with the boys, and makes Chris and I realize how "easy" we have it!

sitting on mommys lap

This child of ours cracks me up. The last 2 weeks or so the only place she will spend an extended amount of time is cuddling on our laps. J has no interest in the exisaucer, play mat, toys or anything else we put in front of her.... she just wants to sit on your lap. Cute..... adorable..... but makes it tough to get anything done!

Swim Fest

J went swimming for the first time at her friend Avery's pool. She seemed to like it and even reacted well when dunked under the water. We hope this love of water extends to all bodies of water, esp the beach!

Daddy is proud

This was a proud day for Daddy, as Jocelyn reacted to a situation just as he has always taught her to.

The day began innocently enough, with a play group out on the lawn of Battery Park. A group of 4 babies were hanging out, J being one of them, when the Mommies decided to put them belly down so they could look / play with each other. J was innocently drooling and staring at the other kids, when a little one, Alberto rolled over to her. He turned his head towards her, and dropped a kiss on her cheek ( at 6 months, a kiss is really an open mouthed drool fest). J looked at him, paused for a second and then gave out an earth shattering shriek.

Daddy was proud.

6 months!

At 6months she is 17lbs 3oz and 27 inches





The 1/2 year mark! We just can't believe how quickly this time has gone. J has begun to develop as such a little person these past few weeks, and her personality begins to show it self more and more daily.

Interaction: Her smiles come with ease now, especially when she is rough-housing. She is most content sitting either in someones arms or on their lap, and does not always appreciate being alone in her exisaucer (or any other place).

Moving: She isn't turning over yet, but sleeps on her side, so it will happen in good time. As of 6 mos and 1 week, so began to sit up on her own though!

Newest Trick: J's favorite trick right now is getting her Binky back in her mouth. Chris and I watched her one night (from the safety of the monitor) search around her crib for the binky, and while rubbing her PJ's with one hand, place the binky back in her mouth with the other (all with her eyes closed!).

Eating: She's at 4 bottles of about 8oz each. We continue to try food daily, but she's still negotiating with her tongue to get the food down.

Sleeping: She is a great sleeper. She takes 3 naps a day (1st is about 1.5-2 hours after she wakes up for 45min, the second is 2-3 hours after that and usually a bit longer- around 1.5-2 hours and the 3rd is about 3-4 hours after that for 45min) She sleeps for 12 hours each night, from about 6:30-6:30

Talking: J loves to talk! She has moved away from the really high pitches (thank goodness!) and is now starting to say Dadadada (but much to Chris's chagrin, it's not at anyone specific). J also growls a lot- when being put to sleep, as well as at various items. It's pretty amusing to hear her growling herself to sleep.

Solids!

Our little set up- notice Burton's positioning

As the 6 month mark got closer, we started J on solids. For the first week, we did just rice cereal, and during the 2nd week we added in some Banana, then pears, and then last week, we tried sweet potatoes. As excited as J is to see the food, that tongue of hers just keeps getting in the way! She has yet to get a full mouthful of food, as most of it gets pushed right out. The Doc. said to just keep on practicing, because after all, no child goes to college still sucking on their bottle!

Lots of food on her face, but not in her mouth!

Take me out the Ballgame

J went to her first ballgame this past weekend and seemed to find the people around us quite interesting! She rooted for her team with enthusasium and broke out the Yankee colors for the event (although Daddy is still hoping that she'll turn into a Met's fan.... but he dosen't dress her, so I"m not sure what type of shot he has at it right now)

Go Yankees!

At the Trenton Thunder Stadium (Yankee Farm team)

The Dramatics

I have Jocelyn on my lap as I type this because I wanted to document this little bit of Ms. J's personality before it slips my mind.

Over the last few weeks, J has found her voice with more and more assurance. She is testing out various ranges, sounds and pitches, like most babies do. However, she reserves this one pitch and volume for when she is pissed... and I mean really pissed. It's the scream of "you had better drop whatever pot of hot water you are handling right now and get your butt over here before my head pops off my body" pissed.

Little Ms. J just woke up from a nap and was playing contentedly in her crib. I left her for about 10 min as I finished up dinner when I started to hear the beginnings of "the scream". She hadn't eaten well all day, but I thought "hey, that was her choice, I'm not going to shove a bottle down her throat. When she's hungry, she'll let me know." Well, the scream came out in a matter of 3 seconds. J went from a happy, toe grabbing baby, to a screaming lunatic.

Now one would think that since she had obviously been starved and malnourished all day (notice the sarcasm coming from her mother now) , she would gulp down an entire bottle (8ozs) and possibly even want more.

2.5 ounces later, Ms. J decided she was finished.... and don't you dare put that bottle back in her mouth, because she has already told you she was finished and has moved back to toe exploration, thank you very much.

Ahhh...... you have to love little personalities!

Newfound respect for child photographers

A new found respect for photographers that deal with children has risen. This past week I thought it would be fun to get Logan and Jocelyn dressed up and take some pictures of them together. It will be great, I'll have them laughing, giggling, playing together- these will be frame-able photographs!

What I got instead was crying, drooling, snotting, pushing, some more crying, a small giggle... quickly followed by a whine, some more drool.... you get the picture. I will no longer take for granted those beautiful pictures that some parents are able to get of their children. No, I will praise you, and think you are wonderful... and then ask what photo shop program you use to cut and paste your children into these photos.

Logan was a very good helper, and excelled at getting the binky back into J's mouth. J would just stare at her with wonder and awe.

Out of 92 shots this was the best one. No drool, runny noses, tears or pushing = Golden Picture!

A close second, but the fear in J's eye's makes me laugh. Logan had just decided that J shouldn't be up on the cube with her and had tried to "remove" her


Fannie Mae in her summer bonnet

Picnic Time!

We had a family picnic with the Maslowsky's (Craig, Lil D & Karter) on Saturday in Central Park. The weather was beautiful and it was fun to just relax a bit with good friends. It's amazing to see how big Karter is getting too. He'll be 2 in July, and it seems like only yesterday he was J's size... J is getting a bit more use to the Sun and hot weather as well. Being a winter baby, it's all new to her, this feeling of warmth!

!

Our little Scarlette O'Hara!

"Date" day

The start of the race... looking very fresh and chipper!

Chris and I have always talked about doing the NYC 5 Borough Bike Tour together. It's a 42 mile bike tour, that takes you through all 5 boroughs of NYC (beginning in Manhattan to the Bronx, back to Manhattan, cross the 59th street bridge to Queens, over to Brooklyn and finally over the Verizano Bridge to Staten Island. Once in Staten Island you end at a park, feel great, think you're finshed.... and then find out it's another 4 mile ride to the Staten Island Ferry to get home). Chris and some buddies did it last year, but I had to back out at the last minute because I had just found out I was prego.

We signed up months ago, but as the race neared, I began getting a bit nervous. My bike was still collecting dust in the closet and my opportunities to ride it were very slim (J loves adventure, but hanging from the handle bars is a big advanced for her at this time). I began to count on bad weather keeping us home (OK, not quite counting on it, more like praying for it), but as the forecast came out, it called for 80 degrees and bright blue skies.... yikes!

Chris convinced me to purchase some bike shorts ( my bottom side will forever be thankful to him for this) and I resided myself to being a bit stiff and walking with a limp for a few days.

Chris's parents came in the night before so they could watch J, as line up was at 6:30am. We were joined by Christian the night before and race day bloomed, bright, blue and warm.

The long and short of the race- it was a lot of fun seeing all the different areas of the city (although the 3 minutes we were actually in the Bronx was a bit surprising, but for those of you that know the Bronx, it was prob. good it was only 3 mins) and I felt pretty strong.... at mile 10. Christian had a pedometer on his bike, so as we were sailing down the FDR (possibly one of my favorite parts), I yelled out to him "so, this is about 1/2 way right?!" Nope, 32 more miles to go.... yikes!

The most challenging parts were the BQE (it was an 8 mile stretch that we hit right around 2pm, so the sun was pounding, we had already completed 29 miles and my legs were yelling...) and the Verizono Bridge. The only thing that really kept me going up that bridge (and yes, that is up, you have to ride up the steep incline in order to get across that sucker) was the bet we made that who ever walked their bike would have to by the first round of drinks. Being the broke mother I am, I knew that couldn't be me.

We crossed the finish line 6.5 hours after we started, tired, thirsty, but very happy. Christian got some great pictures as well as video because he has a death wish and likes to hang off his bike backwards in order to "get the good shots".

It's something that I'd love to do again, but at this point I'm just happy that Chris and I were able to do it together. It's the special moments, like us biking down the FDR, when we looked at each other and just smiled because we knew we were checking this off our list, that I treasure so much.

Right at the starting line - ready to ride!

In Queens at Astoria Park

Finshed!! Ready to get on that ferry and head home!