Guest Post: "The Good (and Busy) Life"

Good morning and happy Friday!
Today's Guest Post is a little different, for three reasons.
Reason 1: Janae, author of today's post, is a Pitcher like me! She's actually Travis' cousin.
Reason 2: Her blog is private, so you don't get to read it. But you do get to read today's post, which is quite a treat in itself.
and Reason 3: She doesn't have twins. She has triplets!
But I figured that if you get twice the love and rewards from having two babies at a time, you probably get thrice the love and rewards from having three at a time, and asked Janae to write about mothering multiples.
So here goes, hope you enjoy! (And remember, leave her lots of nice comments so that she knows what awesome readers you are.)

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I am the mother of 5 year old triplet girls, Abbi, Brianna and Cadence and a 2 year old boy, DJ. Life is good but very busy! Ever since Becky asked me to do a guest post I've been thinking of what I would write. I love being a mom of multiples and would never change it. Of course I've gotten ALL the questions from people and strangers about being a mom to triplets. Most of the time I shrug it off but sometimes it really bothers me. People like to clump my girls together which we never have done. I don't refer to them as "the triplets", and don't want anyone else to refer to them as "the triplets". I've always put a stop to it right away and point out that my girls have names. They are 3 separate people. So that's what I've decided to post on how different my girls are and how good they get along with each other.

When I was big and pregnant with the girls I always knew who was who in my tummy (since I had a bazillion ultra sounds). I thought that it'd be interesting for me to write in my journal what I thought each baby's personality would be like. The funny thing is I was pretty accurate with it. Baby A - who is Abbi was on the right and then ended up at the bottom, with Baby B - Brianna, on the left and then on top of Abbi. Then there was Baby C - Cadence, who was right up top. She had all the room in the world compared to her sisters and loved to move around and kick me in the ribs all day long! This is what I wrote in my journal "I think baby A will be very mellow and easy going. Baby B makes sure I know she is there, by doing the occasional kick or having the hiccups, but other than that she seems to be a very content baby. Then there is baby C, she is EVERYWHERE, in my ribs, on my sides and she just doesn't stop moving! The nurses and I have named her trouble!"

The big day arrived and we got to meet our three little angels. They were six weeks early and were tiny and perfect. Abbi weighed 5lbs 0oz, Brianna weighed 4lbs 12oz, and Cadence weighed 3lbs 130z. We were able to take them home 19 days later. It was a very exciting day. We quickly got to know our three little girls. Abbi was our "easy" baby, a very mellow girl that loved to eat and sleep! Brianna was also pretty content, but once in a while she'd make sure we knew she was there by screaming. Cadence was the smallest and was a fighter. She would only let me feed her and was a pretty fussy baby, but was always quick to smile at us. She was also our little red head!

Fast forward a few years to when they were two. I loved to see how they played together and did things together. These girls are best friends and were always concerned about one another if someone got hurt or was not in the room. So cute to watch. This was the year that they started figuring things out together. I was cleaning the house one day with the back door open while the girls were playing in the backyard. We had the perfect set up where the girls could play in the backyard and I could keep an eye on them easily. Well on that day the 3 of them decided to find a way to escape the backyard. I kept checking on them, then ran upstairs to put a load in the washer. I came back down to check on them when the door bell rang. There was my neighbour with my girls standing there. I was so shocked. I took them back outside to see how they escaped. I couldn't see a hole or anything. So I told them to go play and pretended to go back in the house. Then I watched them without them seeing me. The cute little girls went running to the gate where Cadence and Brianna proceeded to push the gate, which made it go past the post a little bit. Abbi then squeezed through then grabbed the edge of the gate and kept pulling, while Brianna squeezed through and helped Abbi hold the gate while Cadence escaped. They were quite proud of themselves. Smart little monkeys! We quickly fixed that problem.

They did get into a lot of mischief together during their 2nd year. It didn't help that this was when I was pregnant with DJ. Something was always happening. I think what they did was collaborate with each other and then would come up with something to do. Their favorite thing to do was open the fridge door and break every egg in there. This happened many times. We even had a child proof fridge lock. But I bet that company didn't plan on having 3 two year olds hanging and pulling on the fridge door together. They'd break it every time! The way I knew things were happening was by Cadence's "evil" laugh! She had this funny laugh that she'd do every time they were doing something they shouldn't of been. Abbi was usually the bossy one, telling her sisters what to do ,where her sisters usually listened to her. Brianna usually followed along but once in a while I'd hear her yelling, "Uh oh" or "no". We always had a good laugh over our crazy girls!

One of the huge advantages of having multiples is that they have their friends right there. My girls are best of friends and I love to listen to them play. They have the best imaginations ever! They've played for hours and hours pretending different things. From driving the school bus (a rug they all sat on), feeding the sharks, which is a whole other post of itself (they broke up ALL our play-dough into tiny pieces and threw it all over the carpet, to swimming everywhere (in their life jackets and they'd swim all over the house). Their favorite is playing house. They do it all the time and Brianna is always the mom, Cadence is usually the puppy or baby and Abbi is a kid or dad. They play great together.

Now that they are older they LOVE to surprise me! They've gone downstairs and have totally cleaned up everything. Then they will come up and grab my hands and tell me to close my eyes. They lead me downstairs and yell SURPRISE! They've done this many times and I am always amazed. It's usually a HUGE mess and they do such a great job. Another favorite is cleaning the kitchen and unloading the dishwasher. I've walked in with Abbi on top of the cupboard putting plates and cups away. I love opening the dishwasher and finding it empty, so nice! They are great at keeping their room cleaned and their beds made. They will also help their little brother, DJ, to clean his room and make his bed. He loves to play with his sisters and do what they do.

Now that they are 5 we just believe that having triplets in our family is the norm! To me they are 3 separate little girls that are totally different from each other. Abbi is my shy one around people but with her sisters she is the one in charge. She loves to play with her siblings and usually is the one to get everyone downstairs playing pretend with her. She is also very good to her little brother and is a big help to me when she takes DJ and plays with him. Brianna is my bubbly outgoing one and is our little mother! If anyone is sick or hurt she`ll cover them up with her blanket and give them hugs and kisses! Cadence is my little fireball! She always has lots of energy, and when directed in the right way, she`ll clean anything I ask her. She loves to help me. She also has a very contagious laugh and we love to hear it!

Well I could go on forever. But I`ll end here. I love being a mom to triplets. They are such a joy! They are wonderful girls and couldn`t imagine our family without them.

**Oh! Here are a few pictures:
1. Me in the hospital on bed rest.


2. Brianna, Abbi and Cadence at about 4 weeks old. We always layed them down with lots of space in between them and I would come back to them all cuddled together!


3. Richard and I with Brianna, Cadence and Abbi on the day they were blessed in church, they were about 2 months old.


4. Brianna, Cadence and Abbi with shorts on their heads, they loved to copy each other! They were about 20 months old here.


5. My cute little mess makers, Brianna, Cadence and Abbi, at about two and a half years old. We got them ready for church and ran up to get ready ourselves and came back to this big mess. It was cake mixes and muffin mixes that they opened up and were trying to bake! Crazy girls!


6. Our family picture in 2010.