The Jones Girls

Lately the triplets have been climbing on the bar stools in the kitchen wanting to sit down on them.  So I have been allowing them to practice sitting on them and they would sit on them for longer and longer periods of time.    I then started letting them do their drawing, coloring and artwork on the kitchen peninsula on their bar stools.  

Than last week I sat all of them down and fed them breakfast for the first time while they were sitting on the bar stools at the peninsula in the kitchen.  We have a flat screen TV in the kitchen that has satellite and a DVD player.   So I let them watch Sesame Street in the morning and they eat their breakfast while I am drinking my coffee, making Savvy’s lunch for preschool and load/unload the dishwasher and clean up.   

This has been such a huge and wonderful change for me and for them.   I can prepare their meals in the kitchen while they all sit down at the counter.   Previously, I would have to prepare their meals in the kitchen, then load them all up in booster seats at the dining room table, put bibs on, then bring all of their meals out one by one.  Then after they ate I would have to clean them, unload them from the booster chairs, clean the booster chairs, dining room table and floor.   Talk about time consuming.   So now there is no booster seats and I help them climb up and I prepare their food and had it to them right there at the counter/peninsula table.

I do have to do a little sweep up under the bar stools and tidying up, but it is so much easier than cleaning up all around and underneath the dining room table, chairs,  hardwood, and booster seats.

I have also got them trained to eat their snacks at a little picnic table I have in the den for them.  All 4 girls will eat their snacks and watch TV.  Sometimes I will let them have little cups of dry cereal in the morning if I am straightening up the den and I will let them eat at the picnic table in the den and watch TV.

When I was driving the triplets home from Amanda’s Occupational Therapy appointment yesterday, someone hit us.   I was on Euclid and Chapman in Fullerton and stopped at a red light.   I always look in my rear view mirror when I stop to see if the person behind me is stopping.   This is a reflex action after I got rear ended back in 1990 – what a bad accident that was!! 

Anyway, as I was looking in the rear view mirror, this black Toyota car kept on driving and not stopping.   I got nervous.  I assessed my surroundings to see if I could get out of her way but there were cars all around me.  So I prayed to God for protection, pressed my foot hard on the break, and I held on tight to the steering wheel with anticipation that we were being hit.   I focused my vision on my triplets in the back seat praying…   Wham!!  We were hit pretty bad in the rear.  She must have been going 30 mph.    I jolted forward even in my seat belt, but I was ok.  The girls jolted forward but were ok.  Thank God.  Savannah was in preschool safe and sound.  Again, thank God.

Then she got out of her car to assess the damage to her car.  She didn’t ask if I was ok or say sorry.   I told her I had triplet babies in car seats in my car.  I was so mad that she didn’t even ask if they were ok or check on any of us.  This girls was 18-20 years old.   I bet she was talking on the phone or text messaging.

I called Cliff to see if he was home.  I told him to get here and bring a camera and told him we were ok and what happened.  Then I called 911 to have the police come and the paramedics to check all of us out.   They were there in a few minutes and checked us all out.  My neck and lower back were sore.  The triplets all check out fine.  The paramedics told me a baby in a car seat is safer in a accident than an adult in a seat belt.   Very interesting…

The police took a report.  I didn’t even want to talk to get the girl, she was acting like the victim.  She stated she had a head concussion 2 days before the accident.   She called someone on her phone, probably her boyfriend and I heard her say that she wasn’t paying attention and hit us.  I should have gotten her insurance and driver’s license info but my girls needed me in the car.   I figured all of this would be noted on the police report.   it was a new car so I am sure she had insurance.  If not, we have uninsured motorist coverage on my insurance policy to protect us. 

Cliff arrived and immediately check on the triplets.  He then took pictures of both of our cars, the street, etc.   He assessed my car and said my tail pipe was destroyed but I could drive home slowly and carefully not going over 35-40mph.   So the police officer stopped traffic so I could get out of there.  I drove home carefully and I noticed when it was approaching 40mph the car would shimmy. 

I called the insurance agent and then picked up a minivan car rental from Enterprise.  Today I am taking our minivan into our mechanic who also a body shop as well.

Thank God we are all ok.  I am sore but will be alright.

Amanda is now receiving Occupational Therapy for her new thumb.   She had her first therapy session with her therapist, Michelle, on November 5th.  We take Amanda every Wednesday for 45 minutes for occupational therapy.  She does really well.    The drive is almost 30 minutes away but I will drive anywhere to help my kids!!

Halloween was so much fun this year.  The week before Halloween I took her down to Children’s Museum of La Habra and we carved a pumpkin and then we did a wind sock in the shape of a bat.  Our friends,  Victoria and her daughter, Sophia, joined us.   The museum offers this every year.  It is free.   They have really cool stensiles, all of the carving tools and the tables are covered to keep things cleaned.  Their craft room where we made the bat had all free materials so we could make the windsocks.   We are so lucky to have this place in our community!!

The weather in the last 2 weeks of October has been HOT.   We are talking mid to upper 90’s every day.  It certainly didn’t feel like autumn weather here!!  I didn’t want to get the girls costumes that made them too hot but when they trick or treated at night I wanted them to be warm.  So we decided to do 2 different costumes.   All 4 girls were ballerinas.  They looked so precious in their pink tutus and matching ballet slippers.   Their costumes for the evening of Halloween for trick or treating were Minnie Mouses.

In the morning I took the girls to the La habra Heights 30th anniversary celebration at the LHH park.   They had pony rides, bouncy houses, petting zoos, hay rides and fun activities.   Everything was complimentary.   We had so much fun.  The girls rode the ponies twice!! 

In the afternoon, we attended a Halloween party at Presbyterian Hospital in Whittier (PIH) for the annual NICU party.   They had a really fun bubble mania where the kids could make life size bubbles.   They looked so cute…4 ballerinas making all of these bubbles.

In the evening we attended our La Habra Mom’s Club annual Halloween party at my friend Fay’s house.   We had a costume parade, played games, ate yummy appetizers and enjoyed every one’s company.  It was a lot of fun.

I was supposed to take thre triplets to Savannah’s Halloween party at preschool but I was sick.  Savannah was a ballerina at school.  I ate some tamales my neighbor brought over and got really sick.  I think it was food poisoning.  So I was out of commission and couldn’t do anything.  I felt much better the day of Halloween thank goodness.    So mommy and daddy took our 4 adorable Minnnie mouses out for trick or treating in their choo choo wagon.   They filled their pumpkins with candy!!   The neighborhood was the busiest with bustling trick or treating that I can remember in the 10 years that I have lived here.   I came home to give out candy and Cliff continued on with the girls to trick or treat.  It was so much fun!!

Maryssa doesn’t seem to come to me when I call her name.    Her verbal communication and receptive language seem to be delayed. than her sisters Amanda and Miranda.  She only speaks barely 1 word sentences.   There are only about 10-15 words she will say.    Interestingly though, she knows the whole alphabet by sight and numbers 1-5 by sight too.    I have been working with her speech, language and communication through books.    She loves books.    I spoke to Dr. Sylvia Gonzalez, our pediatrician about it.   She ordered a hearing and speech evaluation.

Maryssa had a hearing test and evaluation at Providence at CHOC in Orange.    The results are her hearing is fine.   They are recommending a speech evaluation.  I will receive an authorization from them in a month or two.

I contacted Regional Center about Maryssa’s delay.   I met with a case worker, Paulette Diaz, and she ordered a speech evaluation.   Maryssa had the evaluation just a few days after her adenoid surgery, on Thursday October 2nd.   The report said she was 49% delayed in receptive language, close to a 13 month old.  They are recommending speech therapy for her.  They recommended a group setting 3 times a week for 2 hours each.  I told them I want an in-home speech therapist because Maryssa is already in a group setting here at home and that really hasn’t helped her that much.   I believe she would benefit from one-on-one sessions with a speech therapist.   So they recommended that.  I have an appointment this Friday October 17th to meet with Maryssa;s new case worker, Melanie Barkken.  She was Amanda’s case worker when Amanda was receiving Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy.

I am so glad that I looked into this.  I have been really keeping an eye on Maryssa’s communication skills when she turned 18 months old.   I want early intervention for her so she can start communicating and close the gap on the delay.

Savannah was showing the same signs at the same age and I started doing all of the same evaluations for Savannah too but Savannah didn’t get the evaluations done till she was 2 -1/2 years old, 6 months older than Maryssa.  Savannah’s hearing came out fine, just like Maryssa’s.    Savannah had a speech evaluation and it came back about the same as Maryssa’s.   By the time all of the evaluations were done, Savvy was turning 3.   I contacted the school district and we had a few  evaluations with the school psycholigist and the speech therapist, Ronita Van Vliet, who teaches and offers speech therapy at the preschool.    Her “IEP” reported she was delayed.  Savvy started preschool at Meadowgreen Preschool for the s4 week ummerschool session for the month of mid-June through mid-July of 2007 when she was 3.  Then she went back in the fall, September 2007 through June and then again she did the summer school session.   She is now in PreK at the preschool.   She will not be dong summer school session there.    Savvy gets picked up and dropped off by a ittle school bus.  It has been so helpful.  She loves her little school bus.

More than likely Maryssa will be going to the same preschool to help her with her speech, communication and language delays.   Thank goodness they have such wonderful programs in place to catch these things early on for our kids.   I really do think very highly of our school district, Lowell Joint School District.

Yesterday we took the girls to Knotts Berry Farm.   Knotts Berry Farm was hosting a Halloween event in Camp Snoopy.   We spent the afternoon at Camp Snoopy.  They were giving away pirate hats for all of the kids to wear and cute pirate bandannas.    Creepy Halloween characters were walking around providing great photo opportunities with the kids.   

The triplets rode their first ride all by themselves at Knotts Berry Farm today.  They rode on the airplanes.  They had so much fun.    I tell you , it just put tears in my eyes.  My baby girls are all growing up!!   Then they drove in a race car with Daddy.  Each child had to ride with daddy because it had a height requirement to be with an adult.   That ride took us over half an hour for all 4 of the girls.    Savvy rode on a kiddie roller coaster with daddy.    We got some great pictures.  At the end of the day we got to get a great family shot with Snoopy.   

On Wednesday, Sept. 17th, I took all 4 girls to Chuck E. Cheese  in La Miranda for their first time.     I signed up for Chuck E. Cheese coupons and they e-mailed me a couple of great coupons which I used that night.    My friend, Victoria, brought her 3 year old daughter, Sophia and her 1-1/2 year old daughter, Juliana with her.   We all had a blast.  What a great place for kids. 

The triplets loved to ride on the cars.  Savannah enjoyed those too, but she really enjoyed some of the games there.  There was a cute Duckie Game and a cute Bumble Bee where she got to earn tickets for making good points on the games. 

Cliff joined us and played with the girls and then we had dinner together.   It was so neat seeing how much fun my girls were having with their daddy!!   We order pizza and drinks.  Their pizza was very good. 

I am thinking we might have Savannah’s 5th birthday party here.