The Week In Pictures ...

Of course now that I have retired the 365 blog, I've been taking a TON of pictures of the boys.

Sigh ...

So, here are some of the fun things we have been doing and trying this week!

Noel and Mommy have been baking cookies!

Hayden and Noel have been learning to slurp spaghetti noddles!


We went to the Newport Aquarium to see the divers!



We rode the carousel at the mall!




We went to Steak 'n Shake, and once again vowed to never return!

We played cars outside while waiting for Tanner to come off the school bus!

Bulls-eye!

Oh ... Target 75% Toy Clearance Sale ... How I Love Thee!!!!!

Twice a year, January and July, Target clears out their store. Everything gets marked WAY down. I have both these bi-annual sales marked on my calendar. This week has been the big sale week in January.

I've scored some good deals on clothes and shoes for the boys for next year:
12 pairs of shoes for $41.00
9 polo shirts for $11.25
15 turtlenecks for $13.50
6 pairs of sweatpants for $5.75
9 sweaters for $34.25
3 winter jackets for $15.75

But, today, TODAY was the big toy sale markdown. I am now done for birthday and Christmas this year for the boys. Plus, I picked up a bunch of great toys to use as gifts for our friend's children and for birthday parties the boys will be going to throughout this year.

How well did I do? Check it out ...

My total bill for all you see? $248.39

The regular price for everything I got? $1176.98

Being done with Christmas and birthdays for the year? Priceless.

Tanner's First Day of Preschool ... Kinda

When the boys turned three this past month, we "graduated" from Help Me Grow services. Help Me Grow is a county based program here in Ohio that provides free early intervention services including occupation therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy at no charge to children 0-3 years old who meet certain guidelines. The boys being 29 week old preemies automatically qualified them for services.

So for three years, we had weekly visits to help the boys meet all the expected milestones. They were wonderful and without them, the boys would definitely not be where they are today.

Right before their third birthday, our local school district came to evaluate the boys to see if they qualified for free preschool under an IEP. An IEP is an Individual Education Plan developed to help any student that might have a disability that interferes with their ability to learn.

The preschool would be at our local school; there are twelve children in each class, four are "typicals" and eight are "IEP based". Students are eligible to ride the bus to school each day as well.

When the school evaluated the boys, they immediately dismissed Hayden as eligible. However, they carried through Noel and Tanner to something called the arena. This is where they would bring the boys into the preschool class one day and evaluate them.

After the arena, Noel was determined not to qualify. This was great news -- my littlest one who is diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy didn't have anything that limited his ability to learn.

However, Tanner did qualify as the school team was worried that some of his behaviors may interfere with his ability to learn. To be exact, they told me either he was brilliant and needed more stimulation, or he needs help learning how to take cues and participate in a learning environment.

Tanner has always been a little quirky in the way he communicates. We had an appointment at Cincinnati Children's Hospital to have him evaluated for behavioral problems, even autism, but the jury is still out on that. After our initial appointment, the doctor stated that some things Tanner does is textbook autism, but other things he does are not ever seen in children with autism. So, we are going through a battery of tests over the next several months, and will hopefully get a final word from the doctors in September.

In the meantime, Tanner will go to preschool at our local public school three days a week. He will also get to ride the bus there and back each day -- something he LOVES.

All three boys attend preschool one day a week at our church's preschool. It is a wonderful program and the boys love their weekly Thursday class. Both Dan and I thought it was very important to have Tanner still go with his brothers to church preschool once a week.

Next year, Tanner will go to our local public preschool four days a week, while Hayden and Noel continue to go to our church preschool three days a week. I will put Hayden and Noel in different classes, so every boy will have their own class, make their own friends, and gain their own independence.

The year after (the year before they start kindergarten), the principal of our local public school would like to have all three boys attending preschool there four days a week. Hayden and Noel would be considered "typical" students. This would be perfect since then Hayden and Noel could ride the bus with Tanner each day, too.

Now, what you have been waiting for -- the pictures of Tanner heading off to preschool all by himself! He was such a brave, big boy!

Snow Day!

Okay, okay ... I know I complained about the snow yesterday, but I'm actually really glad Mother Nature sent us the "White Death" yesterday.

My district let non-essential workers go around 10:00am when the snow started to fall. My drive home was completely uneventful as the roads were fine. Here is a picture from our front porch -- this is what closed schools down. (snicker)

BUT ... because everyone freaked out about the snow, I got to spend the day with my boys! Sure, I worked during their nap, but before and after that ...

We got to eat a fun breakfast.

We had fun painting velvet horses with water using paint brushes.

We fished for gold fish crackers.

We baked pumpkin bread.

We went sledding outside in the snow.

Maybe it's not so bad living in an area where people don't know how to plow or drive.

The Sky is Falling!

Breaking news ... We are about to be buried under 3-6 inches of snow! Everyone run for the hills!!

(dramatic pause for effect)

Yes, you read right. A measly 3-6 inches of snow and our entire region is freaking out. All of my friends from Chicago and family in Pennsylvania and Utah are laughing hysterically right now.

Schools are closed here today. They actually started to announce closures at 5pm yesterday.

The grocery stores are out of eggs, milk, and bread due to the mad rush of people last night. I guess everyone makes French Toast when it snows?

The punchline? There is no snow yet.

They are expecting it to start around 10am and go through the day, but right now, there is not a flake to be found.

Personally, I think it is a little ridiculous coming from Chicago where I had one snow day my whole four years of high school -- and that was actually for an ice storm. I can remember walking the 1/2 mile trek up the hill to the bus stop in at least 8 inches of snow one morning.

But here in Cincinnati, everything shuts down on the very threat of a snow flake.

In a way, I get it. Chicago is flat (think corn fields as far as the eye can see), and Cincinnati has hills that put San Francisco to shame. I know I wouldn't want my kids on a bus going down a rural back road that has a 30% incline hill.

However, I maintain that the main difference is two things:
(1) Cincinnati doesn't know how to plow roads properly
(2) Cincinnati drivers don't know how to drive properly (snow or no snow, but I digress)

Plowing here is a joke. I always chuckle when I see the Cincinnati plows making their first pass down an unplowed road throwing salt ... then on the next pass they plow all the salt right into the ditch. Talk about a waste of city's money and time!

Instead of sending plows in all different directions, they need to put three plows following each other and doing the entire road in one swipe. They way they are doing it, one plow makes a single pass down the road, but by the time that plow makes a loop and gets back to that same place, people have run over the snow that it has moved and thrown the snow back onto what it just plowed!

I will cut the drivers a little slack here. Even the best snow, most experienced drivers have problems on the horribly plowed roads of Cincinnati.

However, the fact that most Cincinnati drivers don't have basic driving skills makes snow driving so much more difficult. If anyone here just used a turn signal, knew how to properly merge onto a highway, didn't tailgate, knew that a yellow light means begin to slow down, and respected the high speed passing lane rules, things would be better on the roads.

However, I blame most of their horrible snow driving skills on their parents. Not one kid I went to school with in Chicago didn't have a parent take them to a snow filled parking lot and made them purposely spin out in the snow. Either you learned how to control your car in the snow -- break properly, recover from a slide, etc -- or you didn't get to drive when it snowed.

So, given the roads and the drivers, I really don't blame the schools for closing down or for everyone stocking up for French Toast right before a big snow storm.

When the snow starts falling, I'm going to pack up my things and head home to bunker down with the rest of Cincinnati.

R.I.P. Project 365 Blog

I tried ... I really, really tried.

I'm sorry to announce the retirement of our 2009 Project 365 Blog. While I promise to finish the 2009 year in pictures, I am not even going to attempt a 2010 series.

It started out so well. How hard could it be to take a picture every day and post it?

AURGH!!!!!

Very hard indeed.

So, faithful readers (and I really am so happy to say that I have 23 followers -- it's like my own little Waco), since there will no longer be a 365 picture blog, expect more posting of pictures on this blog!

I thought about creating another side blog that told the story of how the boys came into our life and the world ... kind of a, "And then God said, 'Let them have triplets -- that will teach them!'", but I'm not sure I could do the whole story justice. Much of the last two months of my pregnancy was spent in a haze of drugs in attempts to keep the little beans cooking for as long as possible.

We'll see ...

Happy New Year Everyone!

Christmas 2009

More pictures to come, but this should get you all a sneak peek!

We started our day with huge, yummy sweet rolls for breakfast ...



Then we got down to opening gifts ...

This was the aftermath of unwrapping gifts with three three year olds ...

Groovy, Baby!

Today we had our 6-month dentist check with the boys.

Most moms I know don't even take their kids to the dentist until they are three or four years old. We started going at one year old, as recommended by our pediatrician. He mainly recommended it because the boys were preemies, and preemies can have enamel issues, but it is also the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentists.

We are lucky that our pediatric dentist has been voted "Best of Cincinnati" too many times to count. He is a rock star -- and if you live anywhere close by, I highly recommend checking out Sea of Smiles.

We have also been lucky that we have always had great news at all of our check-ups. Yes, Noel's got the cross-bite and we will have to start orthodontics for him when he hits six years old. But other than that, no problems!

Until today ...

The dentist told us that Hayden's teeth are "groovy". At first, I was like, "Cool! Far out, man!" Then I realized he did not mean groovy like the way Greg Brady meant it, but he was trying to tell me that Hayden has huge craters in his teeth, especially his back molars.

Well, crap -- that's not "Totally Awesome in a Groovy Far-out Kind of Cool Way".

They laser scanned his teeth to check for decay and his back molars were a "20" -- anything 30 and higher means cavity. So that's pretty close considering all his other teeth were 2s and 3s.

The dentist said there not much we can do about it -- some kids just have more grooves in their teeth than others. For example, Noel and Tanner do not have the grooves that Hayden does. It's just a matter of genetics. (Okay, family, fess up! Who has the groovy teeth?)

Wait, the news gets better ... it really doesn't matter how much or how well you brush. If you've got grooves that deep, you are probably going to get cavities. (Fabulous. So the incentive to get them to brush is what again?)

The one ray of hope and the one thing we can do ... cut out carbs. (Insert slow-clap here.)

No crackers, no chips, no bread, no dry cereal, no raisins = no fun. Seriously? What three year old doesn't love him some Ritz crackers? And you want me to cut that out of his diet completely? Thanks, doc, looking forward to the melt-downs at meal and snack times.

We are very lucky that Hayden is my most diverse eater and will happily snack on apples, carrots, cheese, yogurt, and salad. But he will also not be happy to see his brother chowing down on pretzels while he gets none.

But, we are willing cutting back on the carbs if it helps his groovy teeth.

The dentist agreed to wait on drilling and filling the back molars since Hayden would have to put under general anesthesia since he is still so young. Instead we are putting a high concentration fluoride on his back molars every night after he brushes. We'll go back in three months and hopefully still scan out at a "20" or lower. If it gets worse, then we will have to drill. Ugh ...

My one piece of mind is that since we have been seeing the dentist regularly for so long, we caught any decay early. If we had waited until they were four years old or later, we would have had some serious teeth issues.

Plus, our boys are so used to going to the dentist -- this is our fourth visit -- they all sat very quietly in their chairs as they had their teeth cleaned and counted.

So, to all you moms out there ... get thee children to a pediatric dentist! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! After all, it has been estimated that preventive dentistry can add ten years to a person's lifespan!

O Christmas Tree

Better late than never! We finally got around to decorating our Christmas tree. It was ready to go for almost a week, but we had some train issues. (Don't ask.)

All three boys were very excited to help, and I was very proud that we only broke four ornaments (mostly skis coming off skiers)! I was honestly expecting much worse, and I was glad we kept our breakable ones off the the tree this year.


Noel did a fabulous job and kept us entertained by singing Christmas songs that he would make up about each ornament. We heard about Santas and angels and gingerbread men and cats all.night.long.



Tanner was a superstar and figured out very early on how to hook the ornaments on the tree far enough back on the branch so they won't fall off.



Hayden started out strong, but his interest quickly faded from the whole decorating thing when he found out he could play with the train instead.

Christmas tree decorated? Check!

Now onto wrapping gifts ...

The Long Awaited Birthday Party Post

We had the boys third birthday party at the Cincinnati Fire Museum. About 30 people, including 11 kids, helped Hayden, Tanner, and Noel leave the "Terrible Twos" and enter the "Trying Threes."

Our cake was awesome -- I'm so lucky to have a close friend who designs cakes for one of the best bakeries in town!

The museum has a real front halve of a fire truck in it, so the boys spent most of their time playing with all the lights and sirens!

But nobody could resist a slide down the fire pole ...

... including Neena!

We ended the party with a pinata. I was holding my breath, just waiting for something to go wrong as the kids took turns whacking on it. But, it ended peacefully with all the kids happily collecting the goodies that come out after a few good whacks by the Daddies of the group!

It was a great day and a great party -- I'm already trying to plan out how to top it for next year when we move from the Trying Threes to the 'Effin' Fours.

3 Year Well Visit Stats

The boys had their three year well visit appointment today with their Pediatrician. Such an easy appointment since this year we didn't have to get any immunizations. Next year is brutal -- they get 4 different booster shots! Ugh!

I'm happy to say all the boys are doing really, really well! Our pedi couldn't not have been more pleased with how they are growing and how healthy they are for being 29 week preemies. He said that if he didn't know they were preemies, he would have never guessed it looking at their current stats!

Hayden is 3 ft, 3 inches and weighs 35 pounds. That's the 87th percentile for both height and weight!

Tanner is 3 ft, 5 inches and weighs 34 pounds. That's the 99th percentile for height and the 80th percentile for weight!

Noel is 3 feet, 2 inches and weighs 29 pounds. That's the 70th percentile for height and the 30th percentile for weight!

Just for giggles, I put these new numbers into the online height predictor: It shows Hayden will be 6'1" ... Tanner will be 6'4" ... Noel will be 5'11".

Holy COW for Tanner's height. I mean, I know the kid is tall for his age and already he wears a size 10 shoe, but 6'4"?! Basketball scholarship, here we come!!

No Such Thing as Coincidence

Many thanks to all of you that are patiently awaiting Birthday Party pictures. I am still in the process of gathering them from the many people who were so awesome to help take pictures of our fun event! That post will be coming soon ... I promise!

In the mean time, on the boys actual birthday, we had our first big snowfall of the year. My normal 15-20 minute commute to work turned into a 2.5 hour nightmare.

But, the whole time I was smiling and even giddy. Why? Three years ago, the day the boys were born was our first big snowfall of the year.

Maybe it was a coincidence, but I'd like to think differently. I had plenty of time to reflect on the miracles my boys are while I sat in traffic that morning.

It was an unexpected delivery to say the least. After having a PPROM with Noel at 24 weeks, but then managing to stabilize and hang in there through the haze of magnesium sulfate, I was suddenly diagnosed with asymptomatic HELLP Syndrome at 29 weeks. I was told they were going to deliver me the next day when they could fit me in. They didn't seem that concerned, and honestly I was in zen mode. I was more stressed about quickly deciding on names than I was delivering 11 weeks early.

Dan stayed with me in the hospital that night, and thank goodness he made that choice. At 5am on December 7th, 2006 I woke up in a pool of blood. The nurses came in and the flurry of activity began -- I was going down NOW for an emergency c-section.

I don't remember much, but I do remember in the surgery room as they bent me over for my epidural, I could look out the window and see that it was snowing ... the first snowfall of the year. I remember turning to Dan when he walked in to make sure that he saw that it was snowing, too. He nodded, and we both silently knew that we had finally decided on names -- Hayden, Tanner, & Noel.

Hayden, the name I had secretly thought of since childhood and that Dan thought was strong and deserving ... Tanner, the name Dan had suddenly thought of at 28 weeks and that we both loved ... and Noel, the name we both felt in our hearts that snowy morning.

Of course, Dan had known it was snowing long before I saw it in the surgery room. The calls went out as I was being whisked away and the grandparents started their journey to the hospital, only to be caught in the snarled traffic that exists in Cincinnati when there is even a threat of a snowflake falling. My Mom was caught in the worst of it on the way to hospital -- morning rush hour traffic during a snowstorm!

As I sat in my car this year, I could only imagine what my Mom was feeling as she sat helplessly in a sea of brake lights as far as she could see. Unfortunately, my Mom did not make it to the hospital in time for the birth of the boys, but she was there to meet me in all my drugged out glory in the recovery room where I was bashing pregnant women who smoke and giving shouts out to myself for being a "bumper" (the term the nurses called me since my emergency c-section bumped the elective c-section scheduled).

My boys loved the snowfall this year ...

It's a long way from how they spent their first snowfall ...

Noel Austin ... 2 pounds, 11.5 ounces

Tanner Allen ... 2 pounds, 15 ounces

Hayden Miller ... 3 pounds, 3 ounces

Thanksgiving Weekend Blitz!

Thanksgiving was great at our house this year! The boys are finally starting to "get" holidays!

We all enjoyed our turkey day dinner with Neena and G-Dad.

Then we spent Black Friday at JumpZone, an inflatable play center. It's pretty pricey and it doesn't have the most convenient hours, so we haven't gone before. The boys had a lot of fun -- and it was a great PT work out for Noel! It never ceases to amaze me when I watch them scale a two-story climbing wall to then go down a slide of equal height! I think we will try and get back every other month.




On Saturday, we took all the boys back to EnterTrainment Junction. Hayden kept on talking about the trains since our Mommy Date, and the other boys were wanting to go!

They all loved the train ride.
Hayden was more familiar with the area and spent his time exploring the displays.

Tanner instantly found the exact same train layout Hayden had been captivated with, and played with the "train hospital" that Hayden had also been fascinated by.

Noel was attracted to the much more active play areas and even took time to play a game of hide-n-seek in the coal bin.