We are ONE!

Well, it's official...the kids have turned the corner from infancy to toddler hood in just one single day. *Sigh*, what a year! This signifies yet another era coming to an end...one door closing, another opening. The emotions we have experienced over the last 12 months have ranged from exhilaration, to terror, to exhaustion, to placidity and finally to pride! More emotions than I have ever felt in a lifetime; packed into only one year. The memories have been amazing and the journey has been incredible. To see these children change into little people has been the most rewarding experience of my life! This is why I am here on this Earth, why we have (almost grudgingly!) become parents...and I cannot thank you enough for enabling us to be all we can be.

The help we received from our family and friends - with TWO unrivaled baby showers full of incredible gifts of love; borrowed, beautifully made and bought cribs and changing tables, donated clothes, diapers, formula...meals made for us and driven all the way from across WNY! Cards of encouragement at just the right time when we felt broken, even from total "strangers" (who aren't strangers anymore!)... Baby paraphernalia filled our house to resemble a daycare, helpers filtered through our revolving doors during feeding times - which were 8 times a day! Whatever we needed, it was there...we felt watched over in the best sense of the phrase.

Throughout the colic and reflux throes, we had friends there to weather us through the screaming, if only to keep us sane. "Family" enduring the difficulties of caring for all three so we could go on a date night. Calls of offered help came daily, the support was breathtaking. I can only say, "thank you"...we owe so many people a debt of gratitude; I only hope we can repay your kindness someday. Thank you for being there, for being a part of our journey, for expressing your love in tangible ways to us, and we hope you continue to share in the joys of toddler hood!

Getting Ready for the Big Day

I can't believe I am getting emotional about this....but I am. :( We are getting ready for the babies' first birthday on April 20th...and it is making me so sad! I guess nostalgic would be a better word, but it feels sad nonetheless. Where has the time gone?

It's a good sad, though...moving on to bigger and better things! Walking, talking, eating pizza! Oh, the joys that are to come... It's a bittersweet time, but the new experiences and discoveries around the corner are what keeps me going.

I have been taking pictures of the kids every month of this first year to document just how much they have changed, so here is a slide show of just that.

It's amazing to see how much they have grown. You can almost see their personalities come through the pictures toward the end. What an evolution! It has been an incredible, amazing, difficult, terrifying, tiring, emotional, proud, engaging, draining, humbling, exciting, challenging, educational, and satisfying year. And I wouldn't change a thing. We are proud to have made it through this year, and proud of the kids for what they have accomplished! So, enjoy...here are the first 11 months and also a few of their firsts thrown in.

By the way...the "Zero Day" picture was to celebrate the day they turned "zero". Since they were preemies, they were born 7 weeks before their due date...so developmentally, the experts tell you you can't start "counting" their adjusted age until their original due date (the date they "should" have been born), which for us was June 10th. So, June 10th was...Zero day! The day they turned zero. :) Hopefully we will have party pics and details very soon...next Sunday is the big day!

Yes, you CAN wash a disposable diaper!

Not to worry, dear readers - I have performed the mother of all experiments just for your reading pleasure - and because I know that you have been waiting with bated breath to find out just what happens to a disposable diaper when run through the washing machine.

Well??? I opened the washer the other day to change over the load...usually I scoop and throw, scoop and throw...from the washer to the dryer...as fast as humanly possible. Luckily, for me that is, something caught my eye. I think my brain was trying to tell me something and thank God I took a second look!

There, at the top of the pile of clothes, lie a very soaked diaper! I had one bad moment when I thought just how messy that situation could have been if I had blindly scooped into the load...the next moment I was recoiling, trying to figure out exactly how one cleans this kind of mess if it turned out to be the worst-case scenario! Imagine the horror of the contents of a poopy diaper swirled in with the rest of your laundry. I shudder to think.

Again, God was looking out for me as it turned out to be a clean diaper - go figure?! When do I ever get that lucky?! Incidentally, I won $20 on a gifted scratch-off lottery ticket the same day! Woo hoo! So, I must have accidentally knocked one into the hamper and just never noticed it going into the machine. It was actually quite funny after the dread of cleaning up the mother of all messes abated! I was absolutely mesmerized by the end state of this diaper - it could have been a Luvs commercial; completely loaded with water, but totally dry on the inside and outside - I was amazed at just how absorbent this little bugger was. It must have weighed ten pounds - not kidding! I might even write to them to let them know how impressed I was with the accidental experiment.

So...now you know - that little kid inside of you that always wondered what would happen is free to move on to bigger and better wonders...like what happens when you stick your tongue to a frozen flagpole...wait? Didn't I already see that done somewhere...?

The Crawling Little Bugger

Well, the time has come...we have a mobile child on our hands! Cole officially started crawling recently and while we are thrilled and proud and excited...there is also a wee bit of trepidation in there as well. He is an absolute explorer...and with him, it's quantity, not quality, with the area he is exploring! He is moving, moving, moving, every second of the day. What's that over there? Let's go see! That's COOL! Hey...what's that over there? You see where this is going.



He is so driven to climb, crawl, explore, touch...he is our moving miracle, I guess! He needs to be where all the stuff is. And he will find it all too! Cords, paper, pictures, video tapes, pieces of the carpet that Jinx has shred up for him! Absolutely anything is fair game. And he is FAST! I have to really start looking at the house to not just baby-proof it, but "Cole"-proof it. We have put up half a "baby jail" to deter him from pulling up on the slate and wood coffee table (smacked his gums on that a few times already), pulling down the fireplace screen and turning the tv on and off! He has already figured out that he likes to push buttons...mom and dad's included. ;)

Wrecking the place!


Braden is rocking up on hands and knees, so it will be any day now for him...though I suspect we will get off a little easier with him. He is the exact opposite of Cole where he likes to tap/feel/mouth the living daylights out of something before he moves on to something new! So, we may have a little buffer time with him to leave the room for a second. Phew!

Alex is pulling up to stand...well, trying to anyway! Her upper body strength needs to be improved before she can be eye to eye with Cole...but that doesn't stop her from trying! She is so dang stubborn that she will probably succeed despite her gaps in muscle tone. I wouldn't doubt it!

I think we are in for it!

My space and blogger...the new craze

I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be blogging from this page in the future. Don't worry! Our MySpace Page will still be up for pictures and other goofy stuff. Blogger will also have a few pictures or an occasional slideshow, but I find this site easier for the stories - it's much nicer to update! Plus, anyone can post a comment on here, not just members as on Myspace. So, please make sure to post a comment to let us know how we are doing! We need the encouragement now more than ever... ;)

Visit us also at our myspace address: http://www.myspace.com/theerteltriplets

Me and My Big Ideas

It was their first Christmas, and since I am somewhat shutter-happy on a normal day, you can imagine how many new pictures were taken this holiday. Picture after picture...fix Alex's hat, "click!", move Braden over a smidge, "click!", rearrange the backdrop after Cole pulls it down, "click!"...really only slight differences; hoping to get that perfect first Christmas card picture. It's one-in-a-million, of course, but I was determined. I took enough that if you had all of the actual prints, you could flip them through your hands and it would resemble a stop-animation mini-movie...It was a busy week of photo shoots!

The problem arose in getting all three kids happy, smiling, somewhat still, looking my way, not crying...oh, who am I kidding? Looking in my general direction and not making a face as if they were just pinched is all I really want! Smiles are a bonus! I guess my expectations have lowered a bit as they have gotten more expressive and mobile. See, I have been taking monthly pictures of them all together to see how they grow in the first year. Mostly, I try to pick a time when odds are in my favor. That is, just after napping - about an hour before lunch. Between "no longer sleepy" and "not quite hungry" is the window I am aiming for! It usually works quite well and the kids seemed to be warming up to my demanding picture taking adventures...I think Braden even mock-"model"-posed for one, and it makes me laugh every time I see it.


Goofy, hilarious Braden

Well, Christmas was coming! And that meant no lunch until these pictures were perfect! Ok, so maybe that's a little harsh for 7-month olds, but they had to learn that we had a deadline! Of course, I am kidding...I think the kids reached their breaking point after the third day of pictures and started protesting my "adventures". I decided to set up the living room for their Christmas picture -elaborate sets, tweak the lighting, get the Christmas strand lights just right under the tulle, crumple a little green and red tissue paper and dot accordingly....it looked homemade, but oh, well...good enough! I was in a hurry because my window was closing fast. So, we lost a few background embellishments - but the kids are the most important part...so they were ready!

Me and my Big Ideas...What was imagined in my head was not exactly what happened...but I was ok with this first "shoot" not producing a perfect picture...we had a few more weeks left until Christmas, so I didn't panic just yet. I pictured a white background, white tulle puffed around them like clouds...oh - and Grandma Ertel got them all these super-cute little Santa Hats that say "Lil Angel" (Alex) and "Tiny Elf" (Boys). SO cute...and I pictured them all on their tummies with the hats on and nothing else! Just a few bare bums peeking out from behind the tulle "clouds". Oh, it looked so cute and perfect in my head... If only! At the time, it didn't seem like any of the pictures I was taking were even close to the imagined scene.

I have to accept that I need help in some areas, and that is really hard for me to do...I usually try to do things alone because I am so gosh-darn stubborn! This is one of those times I really needed help, but never asked...I am such a dummy sometimes. Anyway, the scene is set....the kids are angelically happy, compliant with my de-diapering of them, placing them here and there, plunking the hats on their heads - they were so good - it was play time, right??

Cole is great with being on his tummy and lifting his chest and head off the ground...looking around like a little groundhog popping up from its hole. So, I set him up first...beautiful! Braden is next. He's good at it, but likes to roll over immediately whenever placed on his tummy. It's basically lay him down...roll. Lay him down...roll. You get the idea! But I was so ready for him! Ha! I placed a rolled up blanket beside him to prevent or just delay the inevitable. He's on his tummy...tries to roll...no good! I win! I felt a rush of accomplishment over this small miracle. Ok, boys are up, get Alex's diaper off and flip her over...Face plant. She has a hard time with bringing her head up, but she usually has a minute or two in her! Oh, come on Alex! Everything else is good to go! You're the last piece of the puzzle that is my sanity today! Nope. I actually think she felt this was just a silly waste of her time...the diva was not going to perform today. :( I kept trying to get her head up, making all sorts of silly noises I would never make in public...even those only had a temporary effect...not long enough to snap a picture. Meanwhile, the one or two pictures I could take, Braden had found a way to roll past the blanket and into his sister...my fleeting rush of accomplishment had turned to defeat oh so quickly. Alex was already having a hard time concentrating on battling gravity with her little head...now she had her brother steamrolling her! Poor thing!

Well, I ended up giving in and letting them run the show - I put Alex into a chair between the two prone boys and snapped a few pics - this will have to do! I was bummed, but little did I know that the girl knows her stuff! Alex proved to me that her way was better and it's the picture we finally used in the end. I smell a design career for her! ;)


The winner!

After a few more days of shooting, different outfits and poses...I looked back at the beginning and ended up choosing one of their first pictures. It will always be a great memory for me; fun, challenging and completely endearing. I look back now and all I remember is the good stuff. I hope the rest of their childhood is the same!

So, they didn't turn out like I imagined, but I am so much happier with the end result...who knew?!

Thank God it's over!

Christmas, I mean! It has been hectic, but pretty productive this year, ironically. But, thank God it's over. Too much to do! I forced alot on myself this year...something about feeling productive and finishing something other than taking care of babies all day kept me motivated. I actually even baked a cookie or two! That didn't happen last year...and since the monkeys will be mobile next year, it most likely won't happen then either! On the subject, I was having this discussion with someone the other day about Christmas cookies...why do we make them? It's funny, because we all must like the ones we make...and then we trade them all away for someone else's favorites! We sometimes get a few new favorites in the swap, but if we like them that much, we may even add them to our own list for the following year! I say, give the good wishes, still make the cookies, and in the spirit of the holiday...keep them all to yourself! ;)

The kids were cute on Christmas Day; just learning how to rip paper, we had them unwrap a few gifts. Just like the dogs, at the moment they are more mesmerized with the paper than the present. Oh, well! That will change soon enough as they learn to collect and hoard toys. We headed to both in-laws for both days and snuck out before the chaos of the evening began! (We always have to be home every night for the scheduled solids/bath/bottle/bed routine by 6:30 no matter what day it is!) So, it made for a bummer of an evening (same old, same old) considering it was Christmas Eve and Christmas night! We keep telling ourselves that we just have to get through this first year and we will be able to reclaim our nights again. Here's to next Christmas!

New Year's was uneventful as well, but I have to give kudos here to Mike's parents, who have been exceptionally attuned to providing us with "normal moments" whenever they can. They always do little things for us here and there and provide us with creature comforts...like fresh baked cookies or other comfort foods - vitamins to keep us strong, stories to keep our life in perspective! Having them around is like getting a nice big hug right when we need it the most. So, they brought over an amazing prime rib dinner for all of us to share after the kids were down for the night...we had nice placemats, candlelight, great conversation and it made the holiday special...especially considering that we might have just shared a box of mac and cheese and called it an early night! ;) Thanks Mom and Dad Ertel...you guys are the best and an oasis in our desert right now.


Mom and Dad Ertel (Grandma and Papa)

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!