What's Better Than Slides and Grandpa?

Right before Christmas, my dad came to visit for a few days.  He still lives in Raleigh, NC, but I'm thinking there's a good chance he'll be living near us within the next few years (hint, hint dad if you're reading this). How could you stay away from these girls after all?

My dad unknowingly assumed the brave responsibility of helping me with the girls for the weekend before Christmas.  Meg had to leave town for a couple of days to begin packing up her mom's house since we found a buyer!  Of course, her leaving coincided with all three girls getting sick...again (it's amazing how the timing of that works out).  Now, I pride myself on being able to take care of these girls myself, sometimes.  However, this time around, I was no match for three sick toddlers.  Personally, I don't think it was all me.  Even with my dad here, we just couldn't keep these girls happy.  I knew exactly what they needed. 

I wish I could tell you that I found a way to get through it.  That I'm the type of dad who can handle anything.  Instead, I called my wife, frustrated and in somewhat of a panic and, basically, pleaded for her to come home a day early.  To my surprise, she had already left a couple of hours earlier and had planned on surprising me with her early arrival.  Needless to say, I was ecstatic when she walked through the door.  It wasn't just me though, the girls turned in to these completely different little ladies when they saw her.  There's just something about mom.

All in all, it wasn't a total failure.  It's always good for me to get a fresh reminder of what Meg goes through on a daily basis.  It reminds me that she's her own backup and reinforcements.  Obviously, I play my part when I'm home during some of the evenings and on the weekend, but in our girls' eyes, she's always numero uno.

After a few days, my dad got, what I'm sure was, a well-deserved break from the babies and some time with his own mom.  This time around, I remembered to break out the camera and I'm so glad I did.  I love looking back at pictures of me with my grandma and I'm so glad our girls will have a chance to do the same when they get older.

By the way, one of the girls' presents this year was a medium HUGE slide.  It was supposed to be the next step up from the one that's about 10 inches off of the ground.  Apparently, there is no such thing as a medium slide.  It's either they can touch the ground and the top of the slide with their feet at the same time or they appear to be climbing Mt. Everest, ready to jump from the top.  Fortunately, they're all having fun with it, except that time when two of them bonked heads at the bottom.  Besides that, it's great.

Sophie, ready for the morning's first slide trip


Sure looks like fun to me!


Maddy, questioning her decision to let us help her climb the steps to the top






You probably can't tell, but Izzy actually had a blast, especially when the ride was over


Maddy got more daring each time down


Not sure what he said, but it sure was funny




Even happy babies get tired




Izzy and Grandpa, sharing some cuddle time on Christmas Eve morning






If I recall, this crying had absolutely nothing to do with the slide, but started just because she wanted to

Visiting Is Only For The Brave

No long post tonight, just wanted to share some memories of recent visitors.  It takes a lot of courage to come in to a house full of triplets, but for the few that do, the memories are oh so rewarding, with the biggest reward being that you'll probably end up on this blog :)

Felicia (left), our friend Melissa's daughter, is heading back to school, but not before having helped us out for almost the entire summer!  Corrine, her friend, is stepping up to help.



My mom (aka "nana"), came to see us when Meg was away for the weekend.  She lives in Oregon, so every minute with the girls is special.





A few weeks earlier, my dad was in town.  He's not much of "facetimer" or "skyper," so he thoroughly enjoyed spending time with his granddaughters.



Grandpa and Sophie, deep in conversation


"Who is this guy?"


"Oh wait, it's grandpa.  Life is good."


Sophie, figuring out how to get in to the bins.  She does this regularly now, but this was a couple of months ago.










Our friend, Kristi, stopped by for a few days.  She left her husband and her own girls back in VA to come meet our little ladies.

Typically, I only show the "best" images when I post, which usually come as the result of whittling down a large amount of photos to just a few.  Every once in a while, the discards are just as good as the winners and it's worth showing how many "bad" images you have to take sometimes to get one "good" one.















Let's go way back to last summer.  When Meg wrapped up school and moved to Illinois, we took a "Marvelous Multiples" class at the hospital to help prepare for our girls.  While taking the class, we met Rachael and her husband, Gib.  A few weeks after our girls were born, we ran in to them in the NICU, as they gave birth to their two girls, Brynn and Anya.  Well, after waiting out RSV season, another surgery, and just overall busyness, Rachael brought her girls over for a playdate.

Brynn was loving the camera.  I think she would've eaten it if I would have let her.




Brynn and Sophie


Maddy, Brynn, Izzy, and Sophie


After Anya woke up from her catnap, we took all of the girls for a walk.

Anya and Brynn


That's a lot of ladies!