Dinner Time Antics

Guess what? Last night I posted my 400th post here! I told Nick and he said he wasn't sure if he should be impressed or disturbed...

Last night we also had some dinner time antics and silliness here! The meal was pasta (as requested by Tyler) and towards the end of the meal, fun was had by all.

Tyler

 

Chase

 

Jackson

 

 

 

 

 

Jackson cracking himself up

Watermelon

As a child I was often called "Helen, Helen, Watermelon". Ahhh childhood! As sad as it is, that nickname is often the first thing I think of when I see watermelon. Perhaps the boys will change that though...

The other day I gave the boys giant slices of watermelon (instead of chunks like usual). They were too cute trying to eat it! Chase was such a fan that he polished his piece off, asked for a second which he also polished off and then he proceeded to work on his brothers' pieces!

No Boosters?

Earlier this week Jackson cracked the plastic on his booster seat. I was ticked. These boosters had been holding up so well and I had great plans of selling all three seats to another triplet mama in a year or so. The boys have always (well, at least since the age of 14 months I'd say) tried to push our buttons (that's code for annoy) at the dinner table. They like to give Nick and I mini-heart attacks when they tip their chairs back from the table. Or when they rock wildly in their chairs. Anyway, it was Jackson's wild rocking (even after I told him to stop repeatedly) that finally cracked the plastic. The booster is still usable for sure, but I didn't want to press my luck so I tried something....

I fed the boys lunch at the table but had them sit on the regular chairs.


Jackson was so excited/confused he sat there like this for quite some time before finally eating!


The boys did remarkably well and Nick and I have continued to give them their meals this way. I have to remind them a lot to not wiggle too much and to stay facing forward "like big boys" but all in all they do well. We did have one mishap yesterday at lunch where Jackson suddenly fell backwards. I'm not sure how it happened as I had just turned to the fridge to get him more milk when I heard his chair go crashing down. It scared him a bit but I'm hopeful it was a lesson to him to not tip, or rock or whatever he was doing.

For now we'll keep training them on how to eat like this. For the most part we eat meals outside now so they'll probably only eat at the table for breakfast and maybe by fall (when we have to eat inside) they'll be little pros at sitting at the table!

Big Boy Week

I'm declaring this week to be "Big Boy Week" on Three Times the Giggles. In the last week or so I've noticed the little things that the boys are doing that make them seem like "big boys". Just wait until you see the Video Clip of the Week this week!

First up is eating cereal...

I know I'm likely behind on this one, but up until yesterday we've never dared to pour some cereal and milk into a bowl and give it to the boys. Letting them self feed oatmeal has been messy enough in the past so we didn't want to take our chances with bowls of milk. Yesterday I got brave (and lazy - I didn't feel like making eggs) and gave the boys some Rice Krispies. I'm pleased to say they did GREAT with it! They kept asking for more and they made very little mess.

Top-Bottom: Jackson, Tyler & Chase

A Day of Family Fun

Friday was a full day of fun for our family! We started the day by meeting up with some other moms from Building Better Moms at Deanna Rose Farmstead. Nick was a bit self-conscience attending a moms group playdate, but he got over it quickly. The boys had a ball as always! (For reference, Jackson is in blue, Tyler is in green and Chase is in stripes.)







We then came home where the boys crashed for some nice long naps. When they woke up we had the pool in the backyard filled for them! As the boys were playing in the water and eating their popsicles I threw an idea out to Nick... "Let's take some of that birthday money from my grandparents and go out to eat as a family tonight!" He was all for it, and I was pumped at the thought of not having to cook or clean up! (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!)

Bob Evans has become our restaurant of choice when venturing out with the boys. They're laid back, always have plenty of high chairs, have cheap food and it didn't hurt that I had a free kids meal coupon. This particular dining out experience was a liberating one for me! Normally I bring bibs, sippy cups, anti-bacterial wipes and a huge diaper bag when we eat out (we've eaten out with the boys a whopping 4 times now). This time I thought "you know what, my boys are almost two (*gasp!*) and they are capable of eating without bibs as long as we don't give them too much ketchup. And really the boys are great at using cups with straws now, so we don't really need the sippy cups... and they're old enough now that I don't need to go crazy with wiping the table and chairs."

I walked out of the house with a diaper bag with just diapers in it, which I left in the car at the restaurant. That means I was able to walk into the restaurant with nothing but my purse! WOW! What a feeling :)

Anyway, we bought the boys each a cup of chocolate milk. They've had chocolate milk here at home but I suspect Bob Evans uses a bit more chocolate in theirs. The boys were literally trembling while drinking it!









All in all it was a wonderful day! The boys were well behaved throughout the whole day (but really, I expect nothing less from them) and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Why Picnics Are Great

I love that the weather is now warm enough to eat the bulk of our meals outside on the deck. I can think of several reasons why eating outside is ideal and am wondering how deep into the fall I'll be able to push it. Picnic in a parka anyone? Ok, so why is it so great?

Reason #1 - Nick and I don't have to have 5 mini heart attacks at each meal. When eating inside the boys like to push back from the table (thus tipping their chairs almost to the point of falling backwards, and we have a counter height table so it's a long drop!) and if we opt to not push them up to the table, they like to see how much they can get their chairs rocking. At this rate my dining set won't last us to their 3rd birthday!

Reason #2 - If they drop their cups and milk goes everywhere it's not a big deal. Same with the plate of spaghetti, or piece of chocolate cake.

Reason #3 - Clean up is a snap compared to inside. Deck extra dirty? Just hose it off! Table extra sticky? Just hose it off! Lots of crumbs? Let the squirrels eat them!

Random Bits of Life

It's been a fun filled few days here and there's still more fun to come! I could have broken each "event" into it's own blog post but then you would have been hearing about this stuff still late into next week. Instead this blog will contain a mini (emphasis on mini) blog about each of 3 "events".

Forward Facing!

This week, at just shy of 20 months old, we finally switched the boys car seats to the forward facing position. Legally speaking we could have switched them when they turned 1 as they were all over 20 pounds by then, but after reading up on some research and watching a frightening YouTube Clip that shows crash tests for kids who are RF vs those who are FF we decided to keep them RF a bit longer than "the norm".

It's been a cramped 20 months for Nick and myself, as in order to fit the three seats, rear facing in the back of our Jeep we had to have our own seats pulled almost as far forward as they could go. This wasn't as big of a deal to me as it was to my 6'3" husband. Now that the seats are forward facing our Jeep seems huge and I'm not as desperate to get a mini-van (although don't get me wrong, if someone offered me one I'd take it)!

The boys are loving their new view! They are so mesmerized by all that is going on around them that they forget to eat whatever snack I just handed them. I also hear "Ba!" (Bus) and "Cah!" (Car) a lot from the back seat.



Mr. Potato Head

Yesterday morning I noticed the Mr. Potato Head set in one of our closets. The boys hadn't had the chance to play with it yet, so I decided to give it a shot. First lesson of Mr. Potato Head play: only keep it out for short amounts of time and then place the set up out of reach. The pieces were EVERYWHERE last night!



Picnic on the Deck

I love this warmer weather and the freedom to eat on the deck that comes with it! Yesterday I was impressed with how quickly the boys were eating their PB&J sandwiches. That is until I noticed this...

Video Clip of the Week - Family Dinner Fun

There's nothing quite like a nice, quiet family dinner. At least I think those would probably be nice. I can't say for sure though as our family dinners are anything but quiet...

L-R is Jackson, Chase and Tyler

Burritos!

We've found a new favorite food of the monkeys! Burritos!

What? You don't believe a 19 month old can eat a burrito? Just look!

Tyler

Jackson

Chase

I promise he's not choking here... this is just his oh-so-strange way of showing his excitement!


So there you have it. The boys and their burritos! We tried this a couple of weeks ago when Nick and I were eating bean and rice burritos and the boys were just eating bowls of beans and rice. The boys kept wanting pieces of tortilla so Nick decided to try wrapping small burritos for them. They loved it! Last night the three of them mowed through 3 whole burritos and they wanted more!

I finally looked at Jackson and said "No more! You've eaten as much as Mommy and your stomach is much smaller than mine!"

Thanks to all who nominated me for the MomLogic Mother of All Bloggers contest! I'm on to the next round now. You'll notice the badge now says "vote for me". It's a little misleading as you can't actually vote for me yet, but MomLogic said to put it up as soon as I got my 10 nominations and who am I to argue with the judges of the next round?

Forks!

In the unbelievable excitement of my husband returning home last Thursday night (he had been gone since Monday morning), I completely forgot to blog on Friday! I'm sure any mom of young kids who has been left to fend for herself for 4 days can understand my excitement. At any rate, I apologize for leaving you hanging!

While Nick was gone, we had a break through at the dinner table. One night I gave the boys mac 'n cheese with peas. I ambitiously decided to stick a fork in each bowl and see what would happen. Generally the boys like to just chew on the forks while shoveling food into their mouths with their other hand. Not tonight though!

The first thing Mr. Chase did was pick up that fork and put it in this mouth... with food on the fork! I couldn't believe my eyes. I cheered him on and told him to do it again while signing "more". He giggled and did it again. My child actually scooped some food onto that fork and put the fork in his mouth before the food could fall off again! I just kept cheering him on and before I knew it dinner was over and he had eaten probably 3/4 of his dinner using a fork.

Here are a few pictures I snapped of Chase using his fork. Now to teach his brothers how to use theirs!

Food from the Floor

Apparently food that falls onto the floor tastes better. Or maybe it's just fun to crawl around under the table looking for scraps to nibble on (much like a dog, which is ironic considering we don't have a dog and the boys have never been around one).

The boys eat pretty well while they're at the table, but they make a MESS! It's not usually on purpose (although we have those moments too) though. They just shovel food into their mouths so fast that half of it falls out of their hands before it makes it to the mouth. Generally we pick up the food off the floor before letting the boys out of their chair or we put them right into The Pit so that they can't get into the food on the floor. The other day though I let them down without cleaning up first and noticed an interesting thing.... Even though they had appeared "all done" at the table, they were picking up food and eating it like they hadn't been fed all day!

Now when I see a lot of food on the floor (especially if they're of the vegetable variety) I will intentionally not clean up before letting them down because I figure they'll eat some more! When I told Nick what I was blogging about today he confessed to doing the same thing lately too. Maybe we should just serving all meals on the floor... Jackson would be happy about that!