TWO x 3

Welcome to the insane asylum. It is absolute bedlam here. The triplets have officially turned TWO. We celebrated in style at Goofy's Kitchen where Mitch and Caden danced the "twist" with Pluto, while Riley and Austin practically hid under the table with the limited character visits that we did have. Dinner that night consisted of a small pizza party with a yummy Mickey and Minnie Mouse chocolate cake from the Torrance Bakery for dessert! Small and relatively "low key"- relatively speaking :).
I can hardly believe how fast the time goes, as Halloween has come and gone we are eagerly looking forward to and worrying about Christmas. For example, where to put the tree that will get tipped over at least once. "Why does everyone seem to get sicker at Christmas?- Riley". "Does Santa fly, mom?" "No Riley, Santa cannot fly but his sleigh does." "How?" "The reindeer." "The reindeer fly? That's just crazy!" Yep we are 5 going on 50 here. Trying to incorporate the importance of Jesus' birthday is also a bit of a concern as Caden was convinced that the pumpkin patch scarecrow was Jesus. I can hardly keep up.
Take today for example:
Multiple children up during the night (3 of 4). Two asking for bottles (yea, I know) and one with a stomachache. Long night, long morning. I am alone now with all four kids- wiping butts and doling out cereal, etc.  Caden reaching out to pull Micheala's hair gets reprimanded, "Caden, we do not pull hair in this house." Caden says "timeout" and walks into Austin's room and closes the door. Awesome :) self disciplining children.  Fast forward a few minutes later and Caden is handing out Frosted Mini Wheats- not exactly the best choice and here is why: Austin has a very sensitive gag reflex. Before I know it I am trying to fish out pieces of chewed up cereal in order to prevent the inevitable- he pukes. Austin throws up everywhere. A tiny bit hits Michaela's foot and she too leans over to throw up. Riley runs heaving out of the room while Caden just stands there munching from the box of his Frosted Mini Wheats. Oh, man! It just went down hill from there. The bus didn't come to pick Riley up for class. Caden fell asleep in the van and had to be woken up to walk Riley to class. Austin kept up with the verbal reminders not to barf in the van. Even going so far as to say "No barfin, yet!" Gee, the "yet" part makes me feel so confident . . . Michaela is is well, Mitch.
The day before last she instructed the pediatrician- "Dr. Wilkinson. Dr. Wilkinson. Nurse. Shot. Caden." Yep. Caden needed a shot of decadron for our second round of croup in 2.5 weeks. Mitch and Austin had their shots the day before and Caden, sounding not to worse for the wear stayed home. Until of course the next morning where it was clear that he needed to be seen. Upon leaving the office, Michaela spots a gentleman leaving Starbucks where she says, "Man. How ya doin, man?" He keeps walking past so she repeats herself a little more loudly, "Man. How ya doin, man?" He glances up and apologizes for "being rude," tells her he is "doing well thanks," gets into his SUV and proceeds to back into another truck. Crap. I passed my van and kept walking. Um, distraction much? Oh, man. My Michaela is just too much. A couple days after Caden knocked out his front tooth (the day before his birthday-long story), Michaela climbed onto the top of Papa's BIG red truck- on the HOOD. "Mitch, what are you doing up there?! Get down!" Hands above her head she starts singing, "Up above the world so high . . ." Right. So now you get a little gist of where I am coming from . . . and all we can do to keep from crying is to LAUGH.