Our first party to go to!!

Today we were invited to another triplet's first birthday. I met Adrianne thru the mothers of multiples here in VA before our kids were born. Hers arrived on time at 35ish weeks and today was the day we celebrated them turning one! The girls had a great time. It was at a gym/play place for kids and there was lots of tumbling equipment and mats. They were totally worn out but did really good going up and down large objects and hanging from the bars. We were definitely sweaty after tag teaming and chasing them around. Quinn would go in one direction while the other two took off in another.

Quinn warming up to the place.

Checking out all the friends at the party

Quinn growing braver by the minute

Holli watching the parachute

Happy Birthday to our friends!!

Keller watching the parachute

Holli in a sea of triplet boys (2 sets!!)

Holli hanging all by herself!!! Quinn refued this activity,

Quinn doing laps around the room.

Keller hanging all by herself!! These girls have amazing upper body strength. Maybe they'll be swimmers!!

Valentines

We aren't big Valentines Day people so the day kind of came and went like most days. I did get the girls some cute little outfits to wear that said "I love kisses" and had a little fish on the butt. Here are some pics:

Quinn

Holli facing front, Keller behind

Holli

Keller playing peek a boo

trying to be better

I know, we haven't posted in forever and I am sorry. I could try and catch you all up on what we've been doing the last 5 months but, I think I'd run out of steam before getting y'all up to date. I will just pick up, press forward, and I will try to do better.

The girls will be 15 months on the 11th of February. Time is going by quickly but we are enjoying all the little moments and love seeing them grow and learn. All 3 are crawling everywhere and nearly there with walking, a few more weeks and I think they wil have it. They are learning signs and speak a few words like hi, momma, and dadda. Holli can say "up" and she is working really hard on "baby." Quinn can sign all sorts of things, she knows cat, daddy, bye, hi, more, all done, help, milk, and I love you. Holli knows cat, more, all done, hi, and bye. Keller has mastered all done, more, hi and bye.

At their 12 month high risk/ NICU follow up appointment the doctors assessed the girls development. They are catching up to thier adjusted age quite nicely and all tested really well. They still receive PT, OT, and developmental help in our home and we've now added speech therapy. We don't anticipate the OT or the PT lasting much longer and the developmental educator only comes once a month. We love our therapists tho and it will be hard to say good bye when the time comes. Especially for me as they are an adult to talk to during the day and someone for me to get sound mommy-type advice from since we don't really have very many friends close by. (ALTHOUGH, I do love and appreciate the ones that are. :))

Here are some silly pics from today that I took. It was finally ward enough to have the front door open again and my little window lickers loved it! HA.

from left to right: Hollister, Quinn, and Keller

Keller

Quinn

Hollister (not tired at all)

Keller

NICU reunion

Yesterday we loaded up the girls and went to Bethesda to the NICU reunion. It is hard to believe that the girls are nearing their first birthday already and have been home with us for the last 7 of those 10 months. Nov.3 is the weekend we picked to celebrate the girl's birthday. If you are in the area that day please come by around 1pm and say Happy Birthday to them :). Being that the 11th is a holiday weekend, we figured the 3rd would be best.

 

Back to the great time we had at the reunion. We got to see all but 2 or 3 of our favorite nurses and 2 of our favorite docs. Everyone is so pleased with how they are doing and shocked that we have them on such a good schedule. The girls have fallen into a daily schedule that is pretty amazing. They get up around 7-730, nap at 10 and 2-2:30 then, are in bed for the night by 8 or 9pm depending on when they ate their last bottle. 2 of our doctors have young ones themselves and have asked if they can come over to see how we do it. I'm not sure they even believed us 100%. On top of getting to see our nurses and doctors, we got to see our friend Ellie who shares our brithday and was in the NICU Pod we were in. The Malachowski's were also there, they are Air Force friends of ours with twins who  went thru hospital bed rest and the NICU a year or so before us. Nicole and Paul (FiFi and Eeyore) were a huge support to both Jer and I throughout the pregnancy and time in the hospital and really have been just fabulous friends along the way. We took a group photo working hard to wrangle their busy 2 year olds in for the pic (see below).

Us with some of the nurses and Ellie and her mommy.

The girls checking out the grass and leaves.

Chatting with FiFi

Aunt Aly comes to visit

Katie's sister Alyson is here for a visit at the moment. She goes home on Thursday. We are having a great time and, now that the girls are getting older, we can be out of the house a bit more. We went to tour DC on Friday and today we did Mount Vernon. Friday was too hot for the girls so they stayed home with a sitter, but today wasn't too bad aside from a little rain so off we went.



Martin Luther King Jr Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Korean War Memorial

A view from the Lincoln Memorial of the Washington Memorial and Captiol Hill

Abe

Gardens at Mount Vernon

The new Renken abode. Kidding.:)

Jer and Alyson behind George Washington's home

Katie, Alyson, and the girls with the Washingtons

The end of the tour. Quinn was unimpressed.

We've been busy

What can I say? With packing out the small house and moving to the big one July was over before we knew it. Sorry we haven't updated, but busy is an understatement. We are pretty much all moved into the new house. We aren't totally organized yet, but I will post pics of the actual house soon. The girls are settling in well here. Their bedroom is really big and we have lots of space to play. Quinn is totally mobile now so a child gate is up to keep her contained. She escaped from daddy more than once when mommy was out running errands. Once she was found in the cat food (not eating it thankfully...we won't talk about what mommy did as a kid ok?), and once admiring herself in our bedroom mirror. There actually isn't much that could get her into trouble, she just doesn't need that much freedom yet in my opinion. Gotta keep up those boundries...all my years as a behavioralist are paying off I guess. All 3 girls are babbling up a storm, they squeal, scream, and screech but also say mom and momma. This is not them calling me "momma" tho, they are just practicing repetetive sound. We also get bababa, eeeeeeee, yay, ya, and an occasional ay or i. Keller and Holli "talk" to each other a lot, Quinn will "talk" to anyone who's listening, even if you don't want to. They've also been doing a lot better on solid food in the last week. They've had a big variety of veggies and fruits and I'm going to try a little protien soon. Quinn really loves solid food, she can hardly wait her turn when eating and I've actually considered feeding her separate from her sisters but, I want her to learn patience and turn taking so, together they remain! Naps are falling into a couple short morning naps and one long afternoon nap. Sometimes I can get them to sleep at the same time (like now) and others, not so much.

We match our bumbos, and it's hot! Soon we will be in our new house!!

The dresses Mrs.Merkel gave us finally fit, and we can keep little barettes in our hair. Aren't we cute!?

Quinn won't even stay put for a picture. She is either crawling away or mad that I am trying to keep her still.

Keller, still happy to stay exactly where you put her.

Holli too!! Other than turning over on occasion these two like watching the world from one place.

Quinn....busy, busy, busy.

Swimming for the first time

Yesterday we were invited to go over to our friends the Liberty's house to swim for the first time. We started in the pool but mommy was worried it was too cold so we moved to the hot tub that Mrs. Liberty lowered to 96 degrees for us. We thought that was perfect and once we were comfy, splashing and moving around was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, daddy had to work and we missed having him there but, Mrs. Liberty's daughters, Megan and Callie were big helps. It also enabled Mrs. Libery (mommy calls her Amy) to take lots of pictures. It was really hard to chose which ones to upload but here's a few, or ten.

Quinn enjoying the warm water.


Keller being cute as always.


Quinn doing a back float, with help and a hug.

Holli showing us her really good tummy skills in the water.

Holli doing a great back float.

Where we started in the pool. Megan is holding Quinn.

Holli not too sure about the pool. She didn't want to go past her belly, it was just too chilly (at 90 degrees :)).

Preswim cuteness. All sunblocked up and ready to go! This is Quinn.

Keller.

Holli