Changes on the horizon

OK, I know complete blogger fail. I'm sorry... It's been busy. I'll attempt to update on the madness.

So yes, these 3 kids turned 3. We celebrated at Chuck-e-Cheese, and they came home, ate cake... and opened their presents of plenty. They got their first bikes. Owen got a cars bike, Grey a Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Lilly of course, a princess bike. She was the first to be determined enough to ride, and the boys to follow in the next few weeks. They love their bikes. They love their helmets. This quickly turned into having to duct-tape a "race track" on our driveway/garage so they wouldn't run each other over and/or cut each other off. It has kept them quite busy this summer.

They have also taken to many new cartoons. Dora is the latest and greatest ... and everything on Disney Jr. It is quite funny to watch them now watch the shows, and laugh appropriately, and answer the questions that the characters ask. They truly do learn from these shows, which is likely more than I can say about the smurfs. But I survived.

Grey is doing great. He continues to eat everything you put in front of him, and he is gaining weight just as he should. We had a scare of his liver numbers that took a large jump, but... there was no real reason for it, they are all now normal. He continues to surprise me how manipulative he is, and how smart he is. It's not uncommon for him to stand behind his gate in his room, and torment Lilly or Owen when they want a parent to come upstairs at bedtime. He will tell them (as he leans over his own gate) to go to bed, "You gonna be tired in the morning". He will mock them, and laugh when they get upset. He was upset one day when he didn't make it to the truck in time to sit in the 3rd row. He cried until he got to school, and told me his tummy hurt, he needed to go home, and come back to school sitting in the 3rd row. uh huh.... He's very silly, the clown of all of them. He loves to entertain, and his giggle is infectious. He's fought ear infections again this summer. Several fungal infections again, but... we've kept them under control. He loves to color, and draw. We've started swim lessons. He absolutely loves to swim. He loves to jump in, and he loves to take big gulps of the water constantly. He also likes to pay attention to the next class more than what he is supposed to be doing, but, nonetheless. He's Grey. I look at pictures of 3 years ago. July 23, and Sept 15. Days we almost lost Grey. I think of those days praying he had no lasting issues, or hypoxia. Prayed his liver would return to normal, and that we didn't take too much of his intestine out for him to live a normal life. Then I think of trying to get him interested in potty training, and giving up his pacifier... and that seems so silly compared to what the kid went through. I know this can't be an excuse for the rest of his life. But, I'm allowing him a few more months with his paci. A lot of people told me to cut holes in his paci, and he would lose interest. They are all slowly getting holes in them, since I've NEVER bought one of these, they are all from the NICU. They are OLD! He gave a paci to me tonight that had a hole in the nipple at the base, and he couldn't get a good suck on it. He said, "Mom, this one has a hole in it, you can throw it away, or give it to the babies. I don't want this one." (we always tell him the babies need his pacifier) So... he will not be allowed to make the move with his pacifier(more to come with the move)... but for now, that orange thing can hang out of his mouth when he goes to bed.

Lillian also is quite the character. The mother of the group, the caretaker, the fashionista. She has been potty trained for a few months now. She put panties on one day, and I can count on one hand how many accidents she has had since then. Usually if an accident occurs, it's an adult error. She likes to pick out her own clothes, pj's, panties, hair accessories, shoes, socks. shew.... I hope she isn't high maintenance when she grows up. She finally is letting me do things with her hair. Pig tails and barrets she enjoys. She loves riding her bike, playing with legos, and her baby dolls. She sings, and dances, and will tell you her favorite color is PINK. She has had a barrage of ear infections, therefore, she is getting tubes on Oct 21st. She also LOVES to swim. She kicks, and floats, and loves her little kitty swim cap. She is very imaginative. She often is going with her dad in a rocket ship. She told me when we were at the zoo this weekend, it looked like UMI-City, from UMIZoomies on Nick Jr. But, for that matter, they are all very imaginative, and play pretend all the time. All 3 of them. That is a trait they get from their father. I, have very little skills in that department, never really have. I like concrete things.

Owen is definitely the first born. By 1 minute, I know... but he is your stereotypical first born. He is the leader of the pack, the bossy one, the serious one, the emotional one, the one that gets his feelings hurt easiest, cautious, craves structure, and the list goes on. It's just him. He remains very large for his age. Last check he was 44lbs, and 43inches tall. He too is potty trained. My bathroom floor might disagree, and his aim is terrible, but he doesn't have accidents... let's put it that way. He picks things up very quickly, and knows many letters when he sees them. He too loves his bike, and likes to draw. He sings and dances less than Lilly and Grey, but... he loves to watch the TV and answer the character questions. He is a very active child. He is on the move constantly. They all would rather be outside, which will pose issues this winter... but, we will make it. He is a terrible sleeper. He refuses to sleep in his bed all night, and demands Todd to sleep with him. He is a daddy's boy thru and thru. That child loves his daddy. I'm second best the his daddy, that is for sure. He and Grey still beat each other up, run around, tackle each other, act like they have swords, act like they are kicking or karate chopping each other. Boys... thru and thru. One of our neighbors is a state trooper. He was in plain clothes and I told Owen that he was a police man. Owen looked at him, put his hands on both hips, then pointed to our neighbor and said, "you aren't a powice man... where yo gun if yo a powice man?"
"Is dat yo powice car?" Oh my GOSH, I could have crawled under a rock, seriously. He was telling this man, he was not a trooper, because he didn't have his gun, and he wasn't really sure if it was his car either. There was a lot going on that night, and I believe he laughed... but.... nonetheless, that is my Owen.

The kids are also attending preschool/daycare 3 days a week now(instead of 2). Todd's dad had a hip replacement, so this will be in place until he is all healed and ready to come back one day a week. Likely they will stay 3 days a week until the first of the year. This week was the first week. They were not happy, but they will get used to it. We miss them, and wish him a speedy recovery!

Well, on the job front. Both Todd and I have changed jobs. Todd is now a Director of Finance at Anthem. He got a promotion. I changed departments, and accepted a promotion in Anthem's Patient Centered Primary Care division. My title is Provider Clinical Liaison. This is only my 3rd week, so it's still very hard to tell what the role will include.. but, will be the nurse Liaison between the primary care doctors offices that have agreed to contract with Anthem to change the way they prioritize and follow their highest risk, and most chronic patients. It's Anthem's push to a more quality of care, versus of quantity of care in the pcp offices. I will cover the whole state of Indiana. There will be some travel, perhaps some overnight, but not often, and most will just be day trips. So, I will be at home still working most of the time. I needed to get out of the house. I welcome the change. Change is good. I will miss my old coworkers, but those that I want to stay in contact with, I will... just as I have with transplant.

We are building a house. yea.... building a house. We've been looking at houses on and off for a year or so. Just browsing. Our neighborhood houses have been selling quickly when priced appropriately. The house we are building is in a neighborhood just north of here, maybe 2 miles. It's not much bigger than what we have now, just structured differently for having 3 kids of the same age. Simple things that were important to us. 3 car garage that has the 3rd door. Our garage now, is a courthouse garage, and has a lot of area, but, it is awkwardly situated for what we need it for. We need a 5th bedroom in the basement, which we will have. I really wanted a bathroom for Lillian upstairs so, when she is a teenager, she won't have to share with the boys. We did not want the 2 story living room anymore. I think it's great esthetically, but... terrible for heating and cooling. I'm just waiting for a truth/dare session when one of my boys dives off of it, and it's wasted valuable space we need. The cons of moving... we actually love our house, and our neighbors. We have everything really the way we need it, and we've put work into this house. We wanted though to be in a house from kindergarten to graduation for the kids, and the house we are building will be it. It is amazing the amount of work we have put into starting this new house out. Picking out stuff... positioning lights, and windows, and blah, blah, blah. Todd and I have a great deal that we agree on though, so it wasn't a negative experience, you just hope that you like it when it goes in. I will blog on this as we go along.

 

Getting bigger quickly!

April went so fast, and May is following suit, and before you know it the Maurer triplets will be 3 years old.

Owen had his tonsils and adenoids out at the end of April. That was a rough 10-12 days... let me tell ya. Todd stayed with him the first night at the hospital, and he was home after that. It really was a game of staying ahead of the pain with medicine, but... Owen doesn't like to take any medicine, let alone medicine that does not taste good. I discovered Dr. Sear's cheek traction technique, that can defeat any veteran medicine spitter. However, he decided quickly that momma's way wasn't fun. He would take the medicine with some coaxing. Usually the coaxing lasted from 2-10 minutes (every 3 hours for 7 days). By the end of it, he was having a paradoxical drug reaction to his pain medicine, and up every hour or so at night. That got better once we stopped that. He ran a fever for about 5 days. He does not snore any more, but he is still not sleeping super. I think it's an age thing.... oy! Not only is he a veteran medicine spitter, he also is an Indiana First Steps graduate. He no longer needs speech therapy. That was short lived, but he is talking great. Very happy with his progress. Owen is definitely ready to be potty trained, but time has not allowed it. He has not pooped in his diaper for almost a week, he will say he needs to use the potty. Next weekend we are going to work with him, and hope that Lilly and Grey are influenced by peer pressure and cute big boy, or girl panties.

Grey is doing okay. He is having some severe reflux right now. I am not sure what has changed. I know that he has had a large hernia that the doctors have been aware of, and wondering if it is a hiatal hernia. He will have an upper endoscopy on Friday. I'm not worried about this, it's just odd that his reflux has popped back up. Medicine is not yet helping his reflux, or if it is, it's not doing the trick completely. He is growing, and gaining weight, but only time will tell what next months weight will be. He had a run of about 3 weeks that he vomited weekly. He had our terrible flu that was going around. More later on that. He was just evaluated for speech therapy through our local elementary school because once they turn 3, they are no longer eligible for First Steps. He did  not qualify either. I was so proud of him. He talked and talked in the evaluation. He has certainly come a long way! I think he is the most stubborn child there is around however. He still loves "lightning keen" and cars.

Lilly is just Lilly. She is a chatter box. She is the mother hen of the boys. She said to me the other day as I was getting her out of the truck for the playground, and Owen and Grey had already ran into the fence, and started climbing... she said, "Momma, look at my boys, they sure are silly." Indeed she thinks they are "HER boys". Sometimes she refers to them as her "bruders", but usually it's her "boys". She loves Sofia the first, the new Disney princess show. She is infatuated with princesses. Everything is princess, and I have no idea where that came from, must be complete innate.

 

 

Mother hen, allowing Owen to push, while she makes sure Grey has proper communication equipment in the stroller. Grey does like to be the baby..... no matter what he says!


We have transitioned to big kid beds. Lilly princesses, Grey Cars, and Owen Toy Story. What a journey that has been. Grey used to be the BEST of them all, and the last week, he has been absolutely terrible. I tried the supernanny technique with him on Wednesday night, and i put him back in bed 53 times in 22 minutes. My knees hurt so bad from getting up off the floor, I gave up. Do you realize how frustrating that is when you barely get sat back down, trying to ignore that child, and he is already out of bed again. More that 2x a minute!!! He won. That night he won. Todd managed to tame him on Saturday night, and he was just plain tired, so we will see what next week brings. Owen is ok... just ok. It depends on the night, and Lilly is about the same, but tends to be better than "Her boys". We did buy baby gates to put on their room doors, which they scaled in about 2 minutes after them being on. It definitely is better with them out of it, and I feel like we are moving towards a positive place... just not there yet. Their pics are above, but I'll post the final pictures of their room when I actually take them!

I had a garage sale on May 3-4, which was good, we got rid of a lot of stuff. BUT, I got the horrible virus going around. Later to find out, it was the norovirus, that is like the cruiseship viruses that they dock early for, and.... I know why. It was the worst flu-like symptoms that I have ever experienced I think. AND, my sister got married May 11... in which-case, I was in the wedding. Thank goodness I was able to make it through, and then resumed my symptoms after that weekend, and all the medicines like immodium that I knew I should not had taken, I stopped. It was ugly. Not only that, but all my kids slowly go it as well. Grey had it for the wedding, so they were unable to come... and true to form, Lilly and Owen followed. The bath pic of Grey was between puking episodes while I was at the wedding.The bad thing, Todd went away that next week for 3 nights and 4 days, and I was solo. Not only that, but my inlaws had to cancel a trip to FL because they got it as well. I was truly solo, with 3 puking kids, and pooping out of their diapers atleast 3x daily. All of them! Fevers, puking, and pooping, and I didn't feel the best either. BUT, I did it. I won't lie. I doubted myself. I really doubted myself. That's 3 kids in their new big beds, 3 kids sick.... yikes. But we did it. They were truly good. I kept them moving when they felt good. We visited playground after playground. We went to get a cookie one day that they were keeping food down, we went for walks daily several times, we played an overabundance of play-dough, and ... that is how we did it. I will also be truthful, I was happy to see Todd home. That was a relief!

Even though we've had sick kids, and had a lot going on.... lots of transitions... We've made the best of it.

Grey thinks his bed is great for "NASTICS".

Owen did not want his pic taken at Paradise Cafe, this one of our adventures while Todd was gone.

We got new mowers, and we enjoy making Daddy's mowing take about 5x longer each time!

This was them at the 500 parade. The boys were glued to Daddy, and Lilly couldn't let them all hold hands without her!!!!

 

 

Ode to my sister Tyann

I wanted to get this done before the wedding on May 11, but I did not get a chance. I thought I could incorporate this in my matron of honor speech... but, I really didn't think I could get through it.. and we'd both had enough stress... but here it goes.

So, I probably was ELATED when mom and dad said that I was going to have a little brother or sister, but nobody prepared a 6 yr old for that little sister to arrive on their birthday. So seriously, only child for 6 years and then SHE comes. I do remember no understanding fully why my mom was not there for my birthday, and knowing she was in the hospital, but thinking I didn't like it.

I think I was a good big sister for a period of time. I think I remember Tyann being a challenging infant, and since I have had my own kids, my mom will say.... "Oh yeah, Tyann did this that or the other..." And, I think I remember that.

And, then let me not bore you and skip to our teenage-ish years, and we DID NOT get along. That child stole everything from me, and either gave it to her friends, she wore it, or she just flat out hid it from me, such as clothes, and other things that were important to me. I feel like now, that a lot of siblings have this kind of relationship that are this far apart, but, we just did not click.

As time moved on, and probably notably when I moved to Indy, we did get closer, but never closer than we are right now. I have seen my sister turn into a lady that has her head on straight, compassionate, empathetic, passionate, and an over all good person. I have seen her turn into a blooming step mom, and she will be a spectacular wife I feel. Mike is someone that excepts my sister for who she is, and the good and the bad, as we all have... I have seen my sister mature in ways I didn't think was possible in the last few years with Mike, and I couldnt' be happier for that. I love my sister, I love who she has become, and even the relationship we had before... it is, what it is.
I wish her and Mike, and her stepson Logan the best that life can bring. I love that she has found a huge passion for animal rescue, and I love that I think she will be another positive role model for Logan. Cheers to many great years Millers!

Better late than never....

January and February AND MARCH!!! blog FAIL!!!  It's been busy of course.

Christmas was good. The kids got a lot of presents. They really enjoyed the idea of Santa this year, although didn't completely grasp the concept. We did spend night after night driving around finding yard blow-ups, and went through Reynolds display a few dozen times... YES, DOZEN times. Each time, they would mention the same items in the display. Lilly got to the point of sounding like a tour-guide, "Santa Claus out Lilly's window, comin up." Each time she knew we were about to see something, it was always.... "cooominnnn uppppp". Quite funny. We had a very nice time spending the holidays with our families. Of course, it was so nice to take the decorations down, since the kids would not leave the tree alone. I'm hoping next year they are a little better about it. We did take the kids to see Santa again this year. Owen screamed, and Lilly and Grey sat there, looking terrified. But, we got the picture and the memory!

It's winter, so we have spent a lot of time back and forth to the doctor. Luckily the man reason is NOT Grey's ears. It's been ugly colds, bronchitis, fevers, etc for all three here and there. I will be so glad when this phase passes. As a whole we are having sleep issues with Lilly and Owen mostly. Owen insists on sleeping with Todd and I. It's something we get bad at when he is sick, and then it's hard to talk him into sleeping in his own bed when he is not. He had an appointment with a new ENT to check on his tubes, and he has an appointment to have his tonsils and adenoids out April 22nd. I think this will also help his sleep. He snores a lot, and also is very jerky, and jumpy when he sleeps. I have noticed when I hold him sometimes in the night that he does stop breathing, or breaths very shallow for periods of time, so I'm guessing he has significant apnea. The ENT said that he has very large tonsils, and therefore, we can do a sleep study, but may end up again back there with little to no answers. So, we opted to just do it. I think it will help him all the way around. Lilly just doesn't think she needs sleep. She doesn't like to nap, and she definitely doesn't want to go to bed at night. ugh... I could go on and on, I will spare you. Nonetheless, there is not a lot of sleeping going on around here.

We just discovered that Grey has some return of reflux. So, we will attempt to change up his diet and we saw his GI diet, and he is on some medicine... will keep him there for a few months, and try to wean him off. But Grey is doing great. He is talking super. Can't all the times make out every word, but no doubt he has a message, and knows what he wants to say.

Todd and I had the opportunity to get away late February. We took a trip to Los Cabos, Mexico. We stayed at an all inclusive, adult only resort called Pueblo Bonito Pacifica. I will spare you those details as well, and actually typing them makes me long to return quickly... but we had an excellent time. The kids did well with the grandparents. I think both the grandparents and the kids were happy we returned! Here are some pics to get you updated. I will try to be better.
OH. and my sister is getting married May 11th. I am Matron of Honor. That has kept us busy. Last weekend was the shower, this weekend is the bachelorette party. sheww.... BREAK.... HERE WE GO!