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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Birth order trends

The Multiples and More question of the week is about birth order trends.


Multiples come in all shapes and sizes, and each is their own person. It's hard sometimes to not label them or put them in certain categories based on their attitude, temperament or how they interact. I find my self saying "the hot tempered one" when referring to Hayden or "the clingy one" when talking about Lily...and we all know Xander is "the trouble maker" LOL. The truth is they are each these things at one time or another.

Describe your childrens' personalities, in birth order. Xander- is very busy and physical, he wants to climb on everything, move everything, and push stuff over. He is very tenacious and doesn't give up on getting to something he wants. He is a bit more of a loner but does get in on some play time with his sisters, whom he steals from or tackles to the ground at any second. He loves to run around screaming wildly, and he has the best big smiles. He is not a man of many words but is a smart boy, you can see this by all the trouble he finds himself in LOL. Hayden- is a girl on the go, she is very funny and personable, our little entertainer. She smiles all the time...though her fuse is short and she will get mad in the blink of an eye and lash out. She loves to run and dance...she has happy feet. The girl never sits still, she will come up to love on you for about 10 seconds then she is off. She makes great faces and loves to make Lily laugh, she is a total goof. Lily- is a lot more mellow, she won't usually fight over things or lash out...but the little red head has a line and if you cross the line she will come at you. Most of the time she is a cuddle bug and is full of cute little grins and laughs. She is very watchful, and seems to think about things before she acts....sometimes LOL. She craves more attention from adults than her brother or sister do. The girls are both more vocal than their brother, they seem to be forming a strong little sister bond and are often playing together.

Do you think your kids personalities are related to their birth order? No, I really don't think the order they got pulled out during my C-Section has anything to do with their personalities.


Is your baby A any bolder or more dominant than B, C, D? A-Xander and B- Hayden are both very bold and dominant, C- Lily is more passive, but you can only push her so far.

Does your last-born reach milestones last as well? Lily did reach all of the gross motor skills milestones last, but she reached a number of the fine motor skills milestones first.

Are there any characteristics that you feel are somehow related to birth order? I don't think the birth order had much to do with it, I think their inherent personalities dictate who they are and how they act. Xander and Hayden were born only seconds apart and there was a mere 3 oz of weight difference, so it seems as though competition started early with them....and they are both me first kind of kids. Lily was last out by about 2 min and was 8 oz smaller than our biggest baby, she was smaller, weaker and had a rougher start...she is a bit clingy and more chill than her brother and sister.

Do you find that a lot of people like to "classify" your kids? How do you feel about it? Yes, I do think a lot
of people classify them, and to some degree that may be our fault because we do it a little ourselves. However, as the parents with unconditional love and all I haven't been too worried about it, but I think it's time to change that. I am upset a bit when others do it, they don't know the babies as well as we do and I think not only can kids grow into peoples opinions of them...for better and worse, but people can get stuck on their impressions of others as well. I would hate for Xander to be everyones 'Dennis the Menace' simply because he is an active, curious, growing little boy. Labels can hurt and stick with people...I don't want that for the trio...they all have their good points and a few challenges, just like any other kid.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Xander, put the cat down.

First let me say O.J. was not harmed, and the dumb kitty could have ran away at any time, in fact I grabbed him and moved him away twice but he kept coming back for more. Xander really wants to pick O.J. up and walk around with him, the cat is almost as big as Xan...it did not go as he hoped. I will not say O.J. had any fun but to his credit he did not meow, hiss or try to bite even once....he is such a sweet cat.




Our new bedroom is coming along, I don't think we will be finished tomorrow but should be done by Wednesday! It's looking so good, Hayden got to peek in today...this was the look on my face the first time I saw it too LOL.





We got a kitty door put into the laundry room door, the trio thought it was lots of fun :)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

How that BUMP made us jump.

I knew it was coming, and today it happened...we have had an escape. I put the trio down for their nap today and about 5 min later heard a huge thump. I went to their room and peaked in the door, this is what I saw....


Xander had climbed out of his crib and was rummaging through the stuff in their room. The girls were screaming and cheering him on...they were probably asking him to pass them stuff LOL.

Thankfully, the trio got crib tents from Grandpa for Christmas. No more escaping for Xander, he didn't know what to think when the tent was up at bed time tonight, but it didn't seem to bother him. Hayden and Lily stared at the contraption on top of Xan's crib with wide 'I wish we could get our hands on that eyes.' We will put theirs up when needed, they are not climbers yet.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

It seems too early to be starting party planning again.

Trying to get a jump start on the trios 2nd Bday party planning we decided to go scope some local parks today. Being mid July we will probably have to book early to get a good spot. I have found it's a lot harder than I thought to pick a park for a bunch of 2 year olds. I don't want anything right by a road, I don't want a place where the tables are too far from the play area, I don't want a pond or any open water, I do want nicer play structures and lots of parking for guests, plus we will need at least 10 tables...picky, me?!? LOL
It was a decent day earlier but by the time we got out at the last park it was cold and windy, and the sun was trying to hide on us. I was hoping the kiddos would get a little time to play, but we had to pack it up about 10 min after getting there. Hayden was too cold to even move, Xan and Lily were having fun running around but they had little blocks of ice for hands. There was a set of 2 year old twins there, their mom said she doesn't know how we do it LOL. As we were walking back to the car one of the twins wanted a ride in the Choo Choo, but Hayden was buckled in the middle car and that's the only one he wanted a ride in. His mom told him he could pick a different seat or he would not get to ride, 2 years olds are not good with compromise so the poor little fella didn't get to ride. If it wasn't so cold we would have gotten Hayden out so he could ride, they were adorable little boys. We looked at 6 parks and one of them may be it but we want to check out a few more. Good news though, while we were gone our new bedroom was getting floors...YAY one step closer!!!

A couple pics of some cold babies :)

Lily got a little blast of cool wind LOL
Poor little popsicle.
Look at Xander and Lily go :)
Woohoo floors!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Took a little stroll out of the cave today.

You know you have been cooped up in the house too long when you take your kids out for a walk and they do nothing but squint, blink and try to keep their eyes facing downward....and it's totally overcasty outside LOL. It's still pretty chilly here so we were only walking about 20 min, but it was really nice to get out. The trio screamed and smiled and laughed the whole time. We did have one little paparazzi issue, a lady actually took a picture of us with her phone from inside her car.

Lily Bug was the only one that kept her hat on.
Oh so happy to be out and about!



Jason's sister was in town for a couple of days so the trio got to spend some time with their Auntie Stacie, they have a great time playing with her. Auntie if you are reading...Hayden wants you to bring your guitar next time and sing for them :) We got to see Gangster and Sakari's pup Oakley...she is such a cute girl, thank goodness the mix didn't turn out ugly like some feared :)

Some new pics of the remodel, we have paint in the bedroom and doors on both rooms!!! It is so close to being done!!! Being a little former garage room we felt we should go bright and sunny on the paint.

Monday, January 25, 2010

What's in a name?


The Multiples and More question of the week is,
How did you choose your multiples' names?


Did you stick with family names? Nope, not at all. Honestly I am not a fan of giving babies someone else's name to honor them...just not my thing. This may stem from me and my mother sharing first names...I have always HATED it, I haven't gone by my legal name since I was old enough to ask people to call me by my nickname. I actually went to a baby name website and went through each letter page by page, I wrote down any name that peaked my interest. It took like a week to get through the whole site, I then went back through my list and crossed off any that I wouldn't really use. Next it was Jason's turn, I gave him my list and watched as he massacred it with a big black pen. He crossed off so many I had to interrupt and make sure he was actually reading the names LOL From there we picked first and middle names, we had come up with 3 full boy names and 3 full girl names, since we didn't know yet what we were having.

How do you feel about "matchy" names? We wouldn't have been against similar names but wanted to avoid too matchy or rhyming names at all costs.

Did you worry about their names "coordinating?" No, we didn't worry about that at all, being triplets they coordinate enough. This is probably why we hardly ever dress the girls alike too...they need to be their own people :)

Did you name your babies before you met them, or wait until you saw them to assign names? We picked their names as soon as we learned their genders, at 15 weeks. Xander was easy he was our only boy, for the girls it wasn't much harder. Hayden was Baby B and on my right side, Lily was Baby C and on my left, Xander was laying across the bottom of my belly so they were sort of in a 'U' shape. Hayden was bigger and very very active, always beating up on me, Lily was smaller and way more mellow. So Hayden got the name that too us was more tomboyish perhaps and Lily got the little princess name. The names totally fit them too, Hayden is very much the busy, active, physical girl and Lily Bug is our little princess, hates getting dirty and loves snuggling in laps.

What were your second choices? Xander was almost Julian...it was very close, when deciding on Hayden's name we also liked Hannah very much, and 2nd to Lily was maybe Katelyn.

Did you consider the popularity of a name as a deciding factor? No we never did research popularity at all. If we had Lily Isabella may not have been what we went with for Lily, poor girl both her names are in the top 10, but we do love the names and they totally fit her. Xander Dominic and Hayden Cheyenne were not too popular at all.


In other news....
Xander almost broke his leg today...then he almost broke Lily's leg. He has found yet another thing to mess with. The vent cover in our living room floor has become a new toy, it was something they messed with a lot when the baby jail was up but then Jason glued it down...well Xander found out that the glue is no longer holding it. So he keeps removing it and of course his little accomplice Lily is right by his side, they both fell in the hole. I guess they don't have the whole cause and effect thing down quite yet. Xander has also taken to throwing the silverware out of the drawer when he is perched up on the baby gate. He can just reach that drawer, as we have secured the others near the gate...with duct tape. We have a whole bunch of baby locks but Jason is taking his sweet time putting them on. I asked him AGAIN last night and he said to me "I've been looking for them so I can put them on" HA I said "Yeah our house is so big they could be anywhere." Those that haven't been over, this is dripping with sarcasm as our house is pretty small and it's hard to lose anything LOL. Hopefully he will find them soon so the trashy duct tape can be retired. Hayden has figured out she needs help when she accidently hits a button on the remote and it pauses their cartoon or changes the channel, she rushes the remote to me so I can fix the situation.

Lots of pics from this morning...



My cute little PITA's...

My girlies. Hayden actually let me get a little pony in her hair this morning. By let me I mean her kicking, fighting, biting, screaming and crying was held to a minimum LMAO.


A little behind the kitchen fun.


Hayden playing with the remote...she is about to bring it to me because she hit pause.


Serious Bug.

Xan thinks a sneaky round about way to the kitchen gate is going to fool me.