three buns: January 2012

This date sounded familiar to me, January 20th, and though I have been thinking about it for a few days up til now I kind of forgot until about an hour ago. At this time, exactly one year ago, on January 20th, I had just landed on the roof of North Memorial Hospital and was in the process of being checked over by a never ending stream of doctors and nurses and residents and passersby. I flew in wearing a hospital gown, had my purse but not my phone, and I didn't leave for almost six weeks. What seemed like a normal Thursday turned into what will probably/hopefully be one of the craziest and scariest days of my life!

I would never have guessed that I'd be living in the hospital. I'd bought and read a book about expecting multiples, which had quotes from mothers who had been through it. One woman talked about spending bedrest in the hospital, and I remember telling Jesse about it and we both said, "that would suck." The first few days, it did. But I kind of got used to it, and though I don't miss having a giant belly and proportionate back pain, or the incessant IV ports in my arms, I do miss having time to myself, my own bathroom, control of the remote, and three meals and snacks delivered to my bedside daily.

And here we are, a year later, preparing for Axel's 4th birthday party and chasing three little crawlers around. Three little boys crawlers - never would have guessed that either. Our house is a disaster most of the time, and we get half as much sleep as everybody else. I'm only about 12 pounds off of my pre- triplet pregnancy weight, fitting back into my old jeans (okay, with a bit of a muffin top, but they zip). Overall, we're happy and blessed.

I don't have much else to say right now. If you're wondering what happened a year ago, check out the post from that time. Must have been about January 22, if you're looking back through the old ones.

A couple pictures, because it seems these posts just aren't as interesting without them.

Magnus is the little explorer. He doesn't sit still long, and he's not afraid to go off where no one is and check stuff out. Here he climbed under the changing table, and is always ready with a smile for the camera.

All three of the little boys get their turns, and this time Axel decided to focus on Eero. They are playing under a blanket on the floor.

This picture just makes us laugh, because Rex is so sedentary. He's starting to crawl now (last one), and maybe he'll tone up, though I hope not. All the other boys are so skinny.

Shout out to my cousin Cole who is on Facebook when he should be listening to a lecture. You kids these days.

Hello. You may remember me, I used to have a blog about having and raising triplets. You know how when you have triplets and another kid and you don't have time for very much else? Oh, it's just me? Okay.

I'm a little slow to get started on this goal, but a resolution is to be better at my blog. I've felt kind of bad about it actually, because I thought Oh, people are reading my column in the paper and know what's happening. But I started writing this for the people I don't see or talk to very much, so I've let them down. Sorry. Had I not dropped off on this before Thanksgiving I could say it's been a year now since I started doing blogging, but I don't know if I can say that now since I haven't done it for two months. Doh.

There have been some big things happening since last I blogged. I started working again, that is, "working outside the home." I can't say for sure it was the right time to return to work, but the opportunity may not have been there in the future. I am the Community Ed Director for the school district here in Kerkhoven, and I am loving it. It's a busy part-time position, two minutes from home, where I make my own hours and have my own office. I even have a secretary. It kind of rules.

I am only one class and student teaching away from my license, and I intend to finish it, but for now this might be the right thing for our family. If I have to be gone one day, it's not the end of the world, and I can't very well run home and get something in the middle of teaching, but I can at this job. It is a little crazy, though - last week I had four meetings in three days, and at least once a week I work for ten hours straight without eating lunch. I finally got smart and stuck some pretzel rods in my desk, but this might be the answer to dropping those last 15 pounds.

Also, on the day before Thanksgiving, the Escalade and I had a small incident with a post. I will not go into the details, but we had to have some work done on it and it was gone for four weeks. Tonight it finally returned to us - it pulled in the driveway and I swear it was the best day of 2012. It was totally my fault that it was gone, and I missed it terribly. We were driving around Jesse's 20 year old Suburban, which is dirty and smells and the radio doesn't work. I think I will give the Escalade a hug in the morning.

Jesse and I were able to take a short but wonderful mini vacation in December - to NYC. We had planned to go there last year to celebrate our five year anniversary, but I wasn't supposed to be walking or flying, so it wouldn't have been much of a trip. We were there on our honeymoon and had so much fun, we couldn't wait to go back. The same thing happened this time. I was so sad to leave! We love visiting there, and decided on the plane ride home that we will save and travel more often. I suggested it, and Jesse had been drinking so he agreed, but I'm still going to hold him to it. FYI, there is a B-Dubs at JFK Airport, and people eat wings and drink beer at all times of the day, even 8:30 a.m., which is when we were there.

Oh yeah, the kids. Eero had tubes put in his ears, and seems to be hearing much better. He also has not had any more ear troubles since then, so hopefully that solves his problem. We also got to visit the good-looking ENT doctor, who did the procedure, and will see him again for a follow-up next week. Yay.

In other news, the flu has been running wild in our house since Christmas. Axel started it, was throwing up for a week, visited the urgent care on New Year's Eve and the pediatrician a couple days later, as he was getting dehydrated. It was a long week, and we're glad it's over, except that then Jesse kind of got it, and now the babies seem to have it. You know how when you have triplets and they all get the flu at the same time, and how exhausting that is? Oh, that's just me again. Babies puke for real, and I didn't know that. And we have some serious bowel troubles here. Our house smells pretty bad right now. I have yet to succumb to the dreaded flu, but I think I have just decided not to get it and somehow that worked. There is no time to be sick!

I don't know that I will be able to do this weekly, but if there is something newsworthy in our family I will be more diligent at sharing. I hope you're still out there! Now some pictures. . .

Our first self portrait in NYC - we went to the Late Show our last night there. It was so cool to be there in person, even though the guest was Barbara Walters.

You would think as an art major I would know more about this sculpture, but I don't. Like it though.

Across from The Plaza there is a very cool Apple store (exterior below) where on the street all you see is a transparent cube, then you go down an elevator or stairs and the whole store is below the street. The above photo is looking up into the stairs. What a cool place. That Steve Jobs was so clever.

Fifth Avenue has some amazing Christmas decorations - the big bow is on Tommy Hilfiger, and the buckles are across the Fendi store.

Another self-portrait, so not quality, but you get the point. The tree in Rockefeller Center. Navigating this area is similar to the food building at the State Fair, in terms of the amount of people. Like that comparison? I'm from Minnesota.

The first time we were in New York, people were getting yelled at for photography during the show. This did not apply at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, so I took a picture. The Rockettes were incredible.

We went to The Chew (twice) and actually got on the show - if you missed it, you can watch the episode online on the ABC website - December 23rd. It was actually like the last ten minutes, but still fun to watch - I got to brush up against Clinton Kelly and he called me "sweetie." It was a good trip.

This picture was from my phone, but I had to take it - we ate at the Carnegie Deli because the Food Network told us to, and it was delicious. I had to try the pastrami there, which I did not know was beef bacon. We shared this sandwich and we still couldn't finish it. I highly recommend.

These next ones are some more recent photos of the boys - our Christmas card photo shoot. That was quite an ordeal, but personalities were definitely captured!