Growing up....

People always ask us what new things the kids are doing now. We've definitely noticed changes and new things that they've started doing. Just the other day I had Kayla sitting on my lap and starting playing "Baby Einstein" on my iphone and she started rocking back and forth! It was so cute. I was so mad though that I didn't get a chance to video it as Darren wasn't home to see it. Hopefully I'll get her to do it again!

They've all started grabbing things and managing to hold onto soft toys and keeping themselves busy with it. I have to start investing on new toys for them to help develop their "motor" skills, etc. I have some ideas, its just a matter of getting to doing it!

They've recently started enjoying their playgym, more so now. We could put all 3 under it and they'd enjoy it, provided Kayla doesn't grab either of her brothers nose, arms, lips or bib. She's quite the bully! Jerry the giraffe and Tim the caterpillar definitely keep them well entertained!

Their grandaunt Barbara and granduncle Joey have helping to decorate their nursery at the office by buying pictures, etc. They bought these soft rubbery bouncy toys that look like porcupines, and when you bounce them they light up. The kids get so excited when they see it.

Story books with lots of pictures is my next project! Will see how that goes!

16th July, Friday - Missing you.....

Today serves the 3rd anniversary since my Mom tragically passed away. For all of us, its been an emotional few weeks leading to today. Some people say it gets easier as the years go by, but for us its started getting harder. I think with so many exciting things happening to us, that the one person we want around us the most is Mom.

Recently I've had this empty space in my heart just thinking of her. Its my first time being a Mom without my Mom, something she would have looked forward to as a Grandmother. We speak of her everyday, how she would have loved and spoilt the kids but deep down inside, I know she's watching them. Sometimes I wonder if they can "secretly" see her and we can't......

I constantly talk of her to the kids so they'll know who she is as they grow up and I'll constantly remind them of her too. Lots of wonderful memories of her.

Just recently we've noticed how Kayla reminds us of her :)

The past 3 years have definitely gone by so quickly, it just seems like yesterday.

We love you Mom, always and forever!

We miss you........

10th July, Saturday - Haircut time!

Since the boys got their first haircut two weeks, I decided that I would try cutting Kayla's hair. Not so much cutting more trimming. I must admit it was difficult as she's so fidgety, so I only managed to cut her sides and front. Her hair on the top is still quite long, so when I get a chance again, I'll trim the top. As you can see by the pics, I'm clearly not a hairstylist!

09th July 2010, Friday - 26 weeks and counting!

The kids are exactly 26 weeks today, and if you take their "corrected" age, they're now 5 months! Wow! Its been amazing to see them grow! We've already forgotten how tiny they were when they were born. Last week when we took them for their 6 month check up, we saw a newborn baby and Darren asked whether our kids were that small, where in actual fact, they were even smaller!

The kids are now on 3 solid feeds a day. I've been starting them off with rice cereal in the mornings, then fruit as lunch and veggies for dinner. On some days its been difficult trying to figure out what meals to make for them no matter how "simple and basic"the meals actually are. I'll be honest to say that I'd like for them to try as much different things as possible as they're growing up, which just means more work for me! I guess its more practise for me when they get bigger :)

So far they've had avocado's, bananas, butternut, baby marrows, carrots, gem squash, pumpkin and sweet potato. Just recently I've started adding chicken in the veggies for dinner. It didn't go down so well with the sweet potato because I added in too much chicken that instead of it tasting like sweet potato, it tasted more like chicken! They've already started their "fussiness" on foods - they didn't really like my fresh homemade carrots, but the minute I gave them carrot purity, they couldn't get enough! I've now resorted to a few bottles of purity in my cupboard as well as fresh veggies for the few lazy days where I don't feel like cooking dinner!

Earlier this afternoon our neighbour came to visit the kids as it would have been the first time she'd see them since they came home. She brought along her 1.5year old daughter, Petra who is so adorable! Petra's first target.....Kayla! As Petra's the smallest and youngest in her group of friends, Kayla was her first playmate whose smaller than her. Needless to say, she got a bit rough with Kayla and she didn't like it! Petra was really sweet though, sharing her toys and books with Kayla, and trying to give her as much love as possible, but it looked more like a rugby tackle! Cute though! Poor Yvonne, Petra's Mom, felt so bad!

26th June 2010, Saturday

Noah and Evan had their first haircut! Their hair has been growing so unevenly that we decided to shave their heads in the hope that it will grow evenly! They were pretty good when it came to using the electric hair razor. They did although start geting niggly towards the end of the cut, but with their Dad chatting away to them, they soon stopped.

There's a possbility of cutting Kayla's hair too and the front part of her hair is quite thick, but with minimal hair at the back :) I think I'll have to accept that my little girl may look like a little boy for awhile! I pray that her hair will grow back quickly! But I'm still deciding......its pretty cold for a little girl to be bald right now! Will keep you posted once I've made a decision!

25th June 2010, Friday

Can you believe that Noah, Kayla and Evan are 24 weeks! Just to think that it was just over a year ago that we announced the exciting news that we were pregnant with not just one baby, but three! Its been an amazing year so far and just to think how far we've come after month's of fertility treatment. Thinking back on those busy mornings of going for scans to see how we were progressing, blood tests and all the procedures involved with in-vitro. If there's anybody else out there whose been through what we went through, you'll know the amazing feeling when everything works out.

The babies have been doing well otherwise. I started their solids again with rice/maize cereal in the morning and a portion of veggies in the evenings. I've decided to alternate giving them fresh veggies and purity. Evan for some reason seems to have gotten an allergic reaction and I'm not really too sure if its from the purity or the rice cereal? I've bought "gluten free" cereals which should give low allergic reactions, so the only thing that I can't think of is the purity together with all the preservatives that's in the making. So I've opted for fresh veggies! They've already had butternut and carrots - next up, gem squash! Will see how that goes during the week.

Its such an overwhelming experience seeing our babies progress and how strong they're getting day by day. It was just the other day that Evan struggled to lift his head when it was tummy time, but now he's able to do it without any hassles. Kayla is managing to lift herself up now and Noah is getting to that too. Their hands have been really busy, touching and pulling anything their hands can get hold of. Kayla has developed this new thing of grabbing her spoon during feed time too! It was quite cool watching Noah hold a toy rattle on his own too! Kayla and Noah are definitely happy and content babies - they've started laughing now and you just want to continue making them laugh because its so cute! We're just waiting for Evan to make his laughter debut!

Noah's developed this new sleeping routine - when his really tired and at the stage of crying and moaning (like when babies are overtired), the only thing that makes him quiet and fall asleep is to play music! Mary, one of our day nannies, started this and its been working so far, although it seems that its just not any music, its Ronan Keating's "Tomorrow will never come"! I've tried the likes of Chris Brown, to Mary J Blige, Michael Buble even Baby Mozart, but they're only temporary relievers! Ronan is the man! Here's the link to show you what we mean: www.youtube.com/watch?/v=8yRPOsYJgAE

More to come................

Father's day, 20th June 2010

Today was Darren's first Father's day. Not much of a start when he was awaken by the cries of Evan! We decided on going to our favourite roadhouse in Edenvale and opted for the "Sunday Lunch" meal which was great! I think Darren enjoyed the last bit of the meal with a small portion of jelly and custard! For a winters day, the weather was perfect and it was great taking the kids out for a drive out since they've been indoors for two weeks due to the cold winter that we've been experiencing.

We're not too sure what's been happening with the kids though. They've been having quite a few restless nights and I'm not too sure if teething has anything to do with it. Kayla unusually has been restless too - she usually doesn't have any problems sleeping, but recently has been waking up in between her sleeps so the only thing that I can think of is teething especially since they've been drooling so much recently.

Today, I stopped giving them any forms of solid foods to see if it affected their sleeping habits. I was very anxious in starting them with solids which they seemed to have taken to quite easily, but with them being so restless, I thought that maybe they aren't ready for solids and was affecting them in some way or another. It didn't seem to make much of a difference, although their appetites have definitely increased, but that's probably because we stopped the solids! Noah's been finishing his bottles, so with that in mind and them eating well, I'm not too sure if its teething? I dunno.....so much to think about when you have three babies in mind! So I'm going to try giving them a portion of solids for dinner tonight and see if it makes any difference. Since they've increased their feeds, they've dropped from 6 feeds to 5, making it 5 hourly in between feeds. Their eating routine is way out of sync, so have to find a new way to get everything back to normal. I'm also not too sure if this has anything to do with them not been able to sleep through the night? Any suggestions?

Anyway, it was a nice relaxing day. We also spent the evening with our families having everyone's favourite home meal, braai and watched a few soccer games to end the evening off.