Nine Months ?!?!

We can't believe it--the boys are nine months old (actually, at the time of this posting, nine months, 1 week). That birthday is coming up--and the summer seems to be flying by, too. Each day is a very full day, with its routines and surprises. In one respect, each day seems ordinary--wake up, eat, play, nap, wake up, eat, play, nap, wake up, eat, play, eat, and down for the night. But in other respects no two days are the same, and each one is magical as these little guys explore the world. And it's such fun to see them!!

We've had a wonderful June so far; the weather has been very good much of the time, and we've all been getting out in the neighborhood, on local walking trails, and to the stores and restaurants together. The boys are so well behaved that we can pretty much take them anywhere for a couple of hours or so. And whenever we do go out, we inevitably are asked, "Are those triplets?" and told, "You must have your hands full!" Of course we do, but we wouldn't have it any other way. At this point, it' s as hard for us to imagine not having triplets as it is for most people to contemplate their lives with three babies. And the most appropriate phrase, we've found, is that the worst day with the triplets is better than the best day without them. That pretty much sums it up!

That said, we've seen and done so much in the past couple of weeks...here's a few shots!

One day we were sauntering up the driveway on a walk around the neighborhood when we saw a butterfly with injured wings on the concrete with a hungry-looking bird looming over it. We rescued the butterfly and took several pictures with it, and then took it inside and gave it some fruit to eat. It died two days later, but it must have had a feast beforehand.

The pictures of the butterfly are so clear!

Alex studies it carefully...

Will it eat me, Dad?

Don't let it bite me, Mom!!

Ty plays peek-a-boo with the towel...

We're starting to try to teach the boys how to hold their bottles. The problem is that they just don't tip it up high enough. Alex has got the general idea, though...

Work while you eat, sleep while you play...

We're ready to go swimming (yes, you read that right, read on). Note the "Little Mermaid" swim diapers. Mom accidentally got the wrong ones for us, but we're too little to know the difference, thank goodness!

Here's our new pool...it's 30 inches deep, and 12 feet wide. And (for those of you who will worry--you know who you are!) we only take the boys in when both of us are home and we keep a hand on the baby floats at all times, and we slather the boys up with sunscreen beforehand. We're actually quite happy with it. Ty and Alex seem to really like it and kick their legs. Jacen on the other hand doesn't seem really into it.

Can we get out yet?

Alex loves hanging out in his float...

Ty is tuckered out by his swimming experience...

Family hug!

Ty is now sitting up very well, just like Jacen...

Alex is part bat!

Jody with the boys...

A happy Jacen!

Now it's Ty's turn to hang from Mom...

Alex with Ty's foot in his mouth...toe jam has extra protein!

Hot, hot, hot little men!

It's been forever since we've updated the blog. Jody accomplished some conference travel to Chicago and Montreal in May, and has been meaning to add the latest news and pictures for some time now, but somehow it seems that this summer has been inordinately busy so far. We have embarked on home improvements, replacing most of the lighting upstairs and repainting, and are pretty happy with the results. Grandpa and Grandma Madeira visited for a week in late May, which was so much fun for everyone--lots of good times with the grandkids, and of course lots of food and games at night. It was wonderful to see them again...of course, it's hard not living close to family.

The boys are doing very well--Jacen has two teeth now, and we're predicting that Jacen or Alex will crawl any day now!

Here are the latest photos!

When carrots attack...



Pffft to you too! (When Jacen's first tooth appeared, he loved to run his tongue over it, and so he would stick his tongue out over and over again.)




Alex sniffs Orc...




...and suffers the consequences!






Someone just couldn't wait for his bottle...




Grandma Madeira and Jacen...



Alex standing up...so big!!



Grandpa Madeira and Jacen in the Exersaucer...Orc's in the picture too!

Ty and Jacen showing off the very cool flag outfits that their Great Aunt Sue got them...

Grandma Burkett is ready to take the boys out for a walk...one, two, three, yep--they're all there!

Matt giving Ty a hug...

For Matt's birthday, we went out to eat at the Scholar's Inn, reputed to be one of the best restaurants in Bloomington. The triplets came with us and were perfectly behaved. Unbeknownst to anyone, however, Alex had an explosive poo blowout, which we discovered when we got back to the van. We cleaned him up, but we hadn't changed the spare outfits in the diaper bag for a while. Needless to say, Alex didn't really fit into his bottoms!

Springtime and seven months!

Alex, Jacen and Ty turned 7 months this past Tuesday. We didn't have a big photo session like we did last month, but we still have some cute shots that we've accumulated this month. This has been a pretty uneventful spring thus far. We've been able to get the babies out for several walks around the neighborhood. Now that Jody's finished teaching for the spring semester, we're looking forward to taking them out during the week when the stores/sidewalks are a bit emptier.
We had been feeding the boys at 9:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 8:30 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. and then putting them to bed. Last night we decided to cut out the 11:00 p.m. feeding and to put them to bed around 9 after they finished their 8:30 p.m. bottles. Ty woke up around 10:00 p.m. and roused Jacen as well, but after a while those two went back to sleep and all three slept until 9:15 a.m. this morning. We were surprised! We expected them to get up around 7 a.m. hungry and crying to be fed. This has the effect of allowing them to play right after they eat, and then they take a nap after they get exhausted before they are ready to eat again.

We do have some cute pictures from this last month as well...

Ty asleep on Matt...

Jacen sitting up...

Alex sitting up...

Alex ready for a luau !

Ty's ready for the beach...

Jacen says "Mmm, sunshine!"

The Easter Bunny found Ty...

Alex in a silly Easter hat...

Alex snuggling with the Easter Bunny...

Some bunny loves Jacen...

The boys together after their egg hunt...

Here's Ty pesting Alex!

And Jacen likes his mom's feet...

Six Months! No, Really!

Wow...on Saturday, the boys turned six months old. We can't believe it. We had a very fun day. We dressed the boys up in groovy orange outfits that their Great Aunt Sue thought they would look adorable in. And they did!

But first, we captured two of the boys on film performing an amazing stunt:





Jacen and Ty can hold their bottles for (very) short periods of time! But genius has to start somewhere, right?

Here's some other cute photos of the boys...

Here's Ty playing. He's very deliberate now in his hand movements.



King Ty...



And here's a boatload of photos from Saturday. Here's Matt and Ty...



And with Jacen...



Jody with Alex...



Jody with all three (left to right, Ty, Alex, and Jacen)...



The boys propped up against each other...



And with Matt!