The Jones Girls

Lately Amanda has been picking up these really cute statements.   She says “No Way” for the word “no”.  She also says “right” for yes and also “alright” for good or yes.    Her laugh is truly joyous, loud and deep within her belly and so hilarious it is contagious and you can’t help but crack up with her.   It just melts my heart and gives me a giggle.   What a precious little girl she is.   I love you Amanda.

While I was pregnant with the triplets, I was in contact with a wonderful lady who is a mother to triplets that were born in 2004 and an older sibling 2 years older than the triplets.    Today I re-visited her website and I decided to e-mail her.   I was compelled to tell Lesa Rhoton how much I appreciated her friendship and I gave her an update on all of us.  I also shared a common experience we had with our Baby Amanda and her Baby Nadia with our triplet pregnancies.  

It just amazes me how much I understand this wonderful woman.   I can really relate and identify with everything she describes with her experiences with triplets and an older sibling.    For any of my friends in my multiple mom’s club that would be interested in checking out her website it is http://www.angusandthetriplets.com/   What a brilliant website!!

This is the COOLEST water slide!!   I am planning the triplets and Cliff’s birthday party which will be held in August.   It is the HOTTEST month of summertime here.  So I thought I would get a fun water slide for the kids to play on for the birthday party.   I also have a bounce house that we bought for Savvy’s 2nd birthday party a couple of years ago that we will be using for the triplets birthday party.    We also have a Jumpolene which is like a trampoline for the kids to play on.  

The Little Tikes Waterslide is $349 – $400 everywhere I searched online.   Then I went to www.Craigslist.com and found a brand new one in the box for $200 and it was only 1 mile from our house.  How lucky was I !!   I have not had a babysitter for almost a month so I saved my babysitting money to purchase the water slide.    Turns out, yesterday we attended a play date with my mom’s club and they had the same water slide!   It was so cool.  The kids were having a blast in it.  So, I think this will be a hit for the birthday party.  

We flew out from John Wayne Orange County airport and transferred planes through Atlanta and arrived in Albany at 9:30pm on Monday June 30th.    Last year we flew non-stop flights from LAX to either JFK or Boston because the triplets were too small and couldn’t walk on the plane.  This time was so much easier for Cliff and I.  

When we arrived in our home in Granville, we had to undo all of our baby proofing we had done back in November 8 months ago.   We also took down the cribs and put mattresses on the floor for the triplets to sleep on.    It was so nice to have the girls sit in booster chairs and eat with us around the kitchen table.  The high chairs are no long taking up all of the kitchen space anymore!!   The house is beginning to look more like a house rather than a daycare center at our vacation home.   

On July 3rd my sister Rosanne and her boyfriend Zane came to stay with us for a few days.  We had so much fun attending the July 4th Parade in Poultney.  It was a blast to see the triplets running out for candy thrown by the people in the fire trucks!!   We had a fun bbq at our house afterwards.   We took Rosanne and Zane to our favorite restaurant where we had our Wedding Reception.   We all enjoyed a wonderful dinner then we went on a nice drive to Lake Bomozene to see the starts.    

We had a birthday party on Sunday July13th to celebrate Cliff turning 50 and the triplets turning 2.   Some dear friends of mine, Tracey who lives in Maryland, Dawn, who lives in Long Island, and Joyce who lives in New Jersey came up to spend time with us for a couple of days and they were also at the birthday party.   The next day we went to the most adorable amusement park just for little kids.   This place is appropriately named the Magic Forest and it is in Lake George.    It was just precious to see the triplets ride with their big sister Savannah on the rides.  I remember last year we took them and they were too little.  The couldn’t even crawl last summer and here they were climbing into the rides!!   Just amazing to me.   Savannah loved being with her sisters.   

I took Savannah strawberry picking with my dear friend Wendy.    We also took the girls to their first circus with Wendy.   What an amazing and memorable trip it was.  In the past year and a half, this by far has been the best trip and vacation amongst the 4 other trips we made from April 2007, July 2007 and November 2007.    

Yesterday, June 18th, at 4:00pm, our dear neighbor, Sally Simmons, died.   She was loved by us as though she was the grandmother to our children.   What a huge loss.  We miss her and it just aches so much.

Her memorial service will be on Monday, June 23rd at 3:00pm at a chapel located near St. Jude in Fullerton, CA    Follow the memorial service will be a reception at Sid & Sally’s house.    Sid is deeply sad and grieving quite extensively.    My heart just aches for him.    He told me she was the love of his life and they were married for 62 years.   Sally was 84 and Sid is 83.

I have known this dynamo couple for 10 years, as long as I have been married to Cliff.  They have lived in their house since 1969.  Cliff has lived next to them for 20 years.    God Bless you Dear, Sweet and Lovely Sally.    You are loved so much.   God Rest Your Soul in Heaven.

Ok, so do you want to know when it is ready to move your triplets onto big girl chairs at the table?  When you see all 3 of them sitting on top of their trays with their butts sitting on their plates of food.   Can I just say…. eeewwwweeeeee.      I tell you it is enough to give Cliff and me heart attackes.   Those chairs can tip over if the baby is sitting on top of the tray.    Thankfully the chairs can be made shorter so we did that and that helped keep the girls contained in their high chairs for let’s say…. a couple of blissful weeks.  Then we were back to heart attack causing scarey tray sitting girls.  So that is when it was time to ditch the high chairs and begin the ugly and messy process of booster chairs with plates and spoons and bowls and forks.    No way am I ditching the sippy cups yet.     I just don’t think I could take that change quite yet.

So for the past couple of weeks I have been transitioning the triplets from their high chairs to booster chairs and eating at the dining room table.   Can I just scream now please!!    They climb out of them and onto the table.    I am also teaching them to eat with forks and spoons for toddlers and eat on plastic bowls and plates.    Can I just tell you how painfully messy this is!!   Picture this, bowls and plates floating in the air at mutliple speed and you can’t get there fast enough to catch them all.   Oh, and the mess on their pretty little faces and precious little hands.   I tell you, it is enough to make me want to just let them feed by the bottle only!   I need to repeat my mantra… “IT IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT”.   Sarah Grove wrote that song, she is a Christian singer and that is her song and my NATIONAL ANTHEM for my family.  

A couple of days ago I saw Miranda jumping from her crib right into Maryssa’s crib.  She fell right on Maryssa.  So I put her back in her crib.   I then went to Savvy and Amanda’s room to put Amanda in her crib.  In less than 2.2 minutes, Miranda had climbed out of her crib and met me in Amanda’s room.    It was time to take the cribs down.    When I started taking them down over the weekend, I started crying.   It made me so sad.  My babies are growing up.  (sigh).  Savannah was equally sad and probably more upset because she loved seeing her baby sisters in the cribs.  She would like to climb in the cribs and lie next to the babies or play with them in their cribs.    That made it just that much harder for this change to happen.    I plan on donating the cribs to someone in need.   

 Crib tents are not a good option.   Can I just say the work RIP!!   

 I have been dreading this but at the same time I have been kind of wanting to get it over with.    I was starting to get flash backs from when I was transitioning their older sister Savvy from a crib to a twin bed.  That was difficult.  But to transition TRIPLETS from cribs into beds….eek!!    Can I make a suggestion to all of you moms, especially MOMS OF MULTIPLES…   use your crib mattress on the floor when you are first transitioning them from the crib to the bed.    That way if they roll off their “bed” it is only a few inches from the floor.  I have a camera monitor in the room and I always see at least one of the babies sleeping on the floor.  

It has been a tough few days teaching them to stay in bed, keep the door closed, it is time to go to sleep…etc.   Amanda sometimes sleeps with Savvy in her twin bed or will sleep with her triplet sisters.  It just depends on if Savvy is already sleeping and Amanda is wide awake then I will put Amanda with her triplet sisters to fall asleep with them so it doesn’t wake up Savvy.