March of Dimes / March for Babies 2009
Thank you everyone who donated, we made our goal of $500, we raised $510!! Hooray!!
We did get up & did some of the walk in CR this morning. It wasn't the best weather, but it never rained on us & it was warm (really not too hot or too cold) The CR walk is an 8.5 mile walk that starts at 7:30am! Anyway, we got there right about 7:30 and headed out. We started pulling all 3 kiddos in the wagon and then they took turns walking. The kiddos did great & we probably walked about 2.5 miles. Then we went back to the start and let the kiddos play in the jump house for a bit and headed home. I'm a little bummed, I didn't take any pics of the kids, I'll try to remember next year. Thank you again everyone who donated, this is a cause close to our hearts & we appreciate it!

Hi everyone!! It's that time of year again. We are hoping to walk in two 2009 March of Dimes "March for Babies" this year. We plan on doing the Cedar Rapids walk on April 26th & then maybe the Des Moines walk on May 2nd. The walk in Des Moines will be our 3rd year with team H.O.P.E. (Helping Other Preemies Excel). If anyone is interested in walking with us in either walk, let me know and I can get the information for you.

For anyone who does not know, March of Dimes funds research to help prevent premature births and help premature babies. This is such an important cause for us since our babies were born prematurely. When I was pregnant with the triplets I went into the hospital for preterm labor and an incompetent cervix at 23 weeks (it was three years ago, April 10th. Oh gosh, just thinking back that was such a very scary time for us! Yes, I'm crying right now just thinking about it), at that time I had an emergency cerclage and was given the Surfactant steroid shot to help the babies lungs develop (the research that was done to make the Surfactant steroid shot was funded by the March of Dimes) I was then in & out (mostly in) of the hospital for the next 3 weeks and then home on strict bedrest with a monitoring system for almost 3 months to give our babies time to grow and develop. The end result of all that hard work are our 3 beautiful and healthy toddlers that were born at 33 weeks gestation (7 weeks early, on June 18th) and only needed about 2 weeks+ in the NICU to learn to eat and grow. If the physicians and medical community had not had the knowledge and skills that they did, I don't know that we would have been so lucky.

Please come walk with us or give a donation to help other families have happy endings too!

http://www.marchforbabies.org/Ernbergertriplets

Come see our blog for pictures of the kiddos and see what they are up to and into!
http://www.ernbergerfamily.blogspot.com/
Thank you!
Kristi, D.J., Austen, Caitlen & Brooklen

Potty Training
ok.... here we go... I'm going to give this a shot! I'm all prepared, I'm all ready- now, let's hope the girls are ready to potty train! I'm tired of changing diapers!!
I bought the book- How to Potty Train in a Day (my friend Wendy had good luck with it, so I thought I'd give it a try!), I got the girls some new underpants & I've got a plan. I'm going to start with C & it'll be just me & C for the day. DJ is taking B to my mom's & A to Nanna's house, then he's going to run some errands so Mom & C can have some dedicated potty time. Then C gets mom & dad for the wknd to herself! How fun! Then next wknd it's B's turn. Then I'll add A when I think the girls have the potty stuff down a bit! This is going to work!! This is going to work!!
The hard part for me is......if you notice a certain letter a lot in the above paragraph-- the letter I..... the hard part is-- I really have no control over this! It is up to the girls.... so, I'm ready & I sure hope they are!!! Wish us LUCK!!

Hot Chocolate Incident :)

To start, we went outside to play in the snow this morning. We ran all over the back yard- fence to fence. Threw snow at each other. It was a lot of fun, but then we got chilly and it was time to come inside & time for Hot Chocolate & a snack!
We ventured out a bit more and had the Hot Chocolate in an open cup..... as you can see, we need to work a little more on the open cup idea :)

Playing Dress Up....

Above we have Prince Austen Charming (yes, in the spiderman outfit! I gotta get him something to "dress up" in so he has something to choose from other than dresses!!)

Princess Caitlen Jasmine and Princess Brooklen Aurora. Those are the names they have given each other =) check out the cute princess shoes!

Merry Christmas~

Santa came!!Here are a few picture of the kiddos Christmas morning opening gifts. Yes, they love their Santa & Mrs. Santa hats and just had to wear them =)The girls enjoying their trikes and princess shoes.

Our backyard Winter Wonderland & Hot Chocolate!!
All bundled up and ready to head outside.

I was trying to wait for it to warm up a bit, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen, so we'll just take what we get and bundle up! (boy, does it take a long time to bundle 3 kiddos up!!)
The snow wasn't too deep, but we did do a lot of falling and tried to make some snow angels.

Austen struggling to get up in the snow, it's hard bundled up! "I can't put my arms down"
Caitlen, oh so cute
Brooklen enjoying herself! She LOVES it outside!! She would have stayed out all day- no matter the temp. Austen isn't a fan of the cold weather and snow, he was the first to want to come in. So, me & Austen headed inside to make some Hot Chocolate for everyone to enjoy. We've been watching The Polar Express (oh, the kiddos LOVE it!!), so while we were enjoying Hot Chocolate we sang the song "Hot, Hot, Hot Chocolate"

Visiting Santa

DJ is off work this week so, we headed to the mall to visit Santa. This was the 3rd visit to Santa for the kiddos this year and I was very please with this visit! Yes, me & DJ had to be in the photo to help the girls, who did a great job- standing that close to Santa is super. Austen did a super, super great job by walking up & sitting on Santa's lap! I was in shock! All morning Austen kept saying he was going to sit on Santa's lap. I didn't really believe him seeing this would be the 3rd visit to the man in the big red suit & both other times he would barely get close to him without crying, but then once we were home he'd say "I sat on Santa's lap" when he surely didn't.

The kiddos don't quite understand to tell Santa what they want for Christmas. When we ask them what they'd like Santa to bring they say "Presents". When we ask what they'd like the presents to be, they say "Toys". Sometimes Austen will say "Lightning McQueen" or they will all start asking for "chewies", that is what we call fruit snacks. So, I hope Santa can handle that this year, pretty easy requests.

Our other visits to Santa didn't go so well....

The first was at DJ's work Christmas party for kids. They were all excited to see Santa, saying they were going to sit on his lap, telling us what they wanted Santa to bring and all excited..... but the line was horribly, horribly long. I think we were in line for over an hour!! That was too long for me, much less when you are 2 1/2! We stood in line singing Christmas songs, eating cookies and anything else I could think of to distract them! Once we were inside the room where they could see Santa, they got even more excited, but when it was actually our turn.... different story! We had 3 crying, screaming 2 year olds on our hands!The 2nd trip to see Santa was at the MAMOM (Marion area mother's of multiples) Christmas party which was at the Playstation (the kids had a blast there!) Santa & Mrs. Claus were both there, but the kids wouldn't get close enough for a picture. They barely got close enough to grab a candy cane from Mrs. Claus. This was a fun visit though because we had more time in the room with the Claus' and we chatted with them for a few minutes from about 3 feet away.

Christmas outfits
Here are some of the pictures from a photo shoot I did at home with the kiddos in their Christmas outfits.
Singing "Frosty the Snowman"
Brooklen wanting Caitlen to let go of her hand so she could "tap dance on the sidewalk." The sidewalk is what they call the tile in the basement.
Brooklen dancing away!
Posing on the slide. Brooklen ready for this photo shoot to be done!
Austen & Caitlen

2 1/2 years old
I can't believe my babies.... toddlers are 2 1/2!! Oh, the time is really flying by and I just wanted to take some time and write down a few things that go on in a day in the life with my three 2.5 year olds.
Here is our schedule and no, it's not followed daily, but we try. It is getting harder with everyone wanting to "do it by themself"!! Everything is taking a LOT longer, but they are doing great ;)
The kiddos usually wake up around 7:30/8:00ish and stay in their beds & chatter until 8:00am. Then I go in & get them (one of my favorite parts of the day!) I love their greetings... "I awake" "Good morning Momma" "I ready to get up" and all other sorts of things... you never know what Brooklen is going to say, she has all sorts of off the wall sayings. I get their diapers changed & it's off for breakfast at the table in booster seats. Everyone has to climb up themselves & snap their straps- yes, themself! Their favorite breakfast is pancakes & they can usually eat almost 6 pancakes between the 3 of them. They also have a can of fruit (pears, peaches or oranges).
After breakfast we brush teeth and comb hair. I try to get their hair combed while they practice brushing their teeth & getting a drink of water, by themself. Then I try to pick out some clothes & we head downstairs to get dressed & play. Right now we either watch a little Sesame Street, but they are starting to lose interest. They are preferring Mickey Mouse & Handy Manny, so we try to watch a little something while we try to get dressed. Caitlen is doing the best at getting dressed by herself (she's had more practice w/ the stripping at nap & bedtimes) but they are all trying.
After everyone is dressed we have a little craft time. We usually color with crayons. We may be trying markers after Christmas... washable markers! It's pretty funny watching them choose what color of crayon they want: Austen always wants blue and just blue, Caitlen wants purple and sometimes green and Brooklen likes pink, orange or red. We have also played with playdoh and I'm trying to come up with other fun crafts to do. We play with cars, our baby dolls or blocks.
Lunchtime is between 11:30 / noon. So, we head up stairs for usually a sandwich or noodles and a veggie. Then fresh fruit and maybe yogurt covered raisins, a few M&M's or something for dessert.
After lunch & clean up we've been watching a show, either Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny or Backyardigans. Then it's time to change diapers and read a few books before nap time usually between 1:30 & 2:00pm. **Caitlen still needs a reminder to keep her clothes ON! She goes for a few weeks w/o taking them off & then out of the blue I'll find her stripped down, little stinker.
They usually nap for a couple of hours. Caitlen is the biggest stinker when it comes to napping, some days she skips nap & we enjoy some one on one time. But I'd prefer she still nap a couple hours, I'm not ready to give up "my" time for me in the afternoon, that is usually when I try to walk some on the treadmill, catch up on a soap, read or just listen to the quiet! The girls have each crawled out of the cribs, but really only a couple of times. I'm sure big kid beds are in our near future.
After nap we either play upstairs while I fix dinner or head back downstairs (where most of the toys are) to play until daddy gets home or it's time for dinner.
Dinner is around 5:30pm which is again a sandwich, noodles, nuggets or something me & DJ are eating and a veggie. Then fresh fruit as a “closer”.
Then is their time to play with daddy since he's been gone all day. We run around playing hide & seek, run & have daddy throw them up in the air & horsey rides.
Then around 7:00pm it's time to brush teeth, change diapers, get on p.j.'s & read a few books before bedtime between 7:30-8:00pm.
We still have the gates at the top & the bottom of the stairs, but they are all doing great on the stairs. We'll probably keep the one at the top of the stairs on for a while just so no one falls down and gets hurt.
Their little arms are just getting longer each day & we have to keep moving stuff higher & higher & watching where we leave our beverages or they get split with little adventurers trying to get them!

Austen: Almost always goes to sleep without any problems. Just hug & kiss, lay in bed, cover up, sometimes sing the ABC’s, Rock a Bye or Lullaby w/ him and he is good to go, great sleeper! He can walk up the stairs alternating feet. He likes to play with his cars, blocks & read books. Loves the books where he has to find the item in the picture.
Caitlen: Is our ornery sleeper. She just isn't as tired as the other 2, but I still make her lay down at nap & bedtime at the same time (for now) If she is awake during naptime for too long I'll give her a book to read & after about an hour of quiet time, if she is still awake I'll get her up. Caitlen doesn’t like to go to sleep mad, if she is crying give her an extra hug & kiss, cover her up & she'll be good. Caitlen likes to sing Lullaby and Twinkle Twinkle before she goes to bed. Caitlen wants to do EVERYTHING by herself "I do it" is her most frequent saying. She is getting really good at getting dressed and getting most of the stuff she needs (wants)
Brooklen: Usually goes to sleep pretty good, but is the one that wakes up in the night the most. Not sure if she has nightmares, vivid dreams or what, but she doesn't like it when something wakes her up & she sometimes struggles to fall back asleep. We just go & rub her back for a bit and that usually helps.
They all love to tell knock knock jokes & I think they know 4 or 5 jokes. I love it when they tell them to each other, it's just too cute. Here are their 3 favorite knock, knock jokes to tell:
Knock, Knock Who's there? Justin Justin who? Justin the neighborhood
Knock, Knock Who's there? Banana Banana who? Knock, Knock Who's there? Banana Banana who? Knock, Knock Who's there? Orange Orange who? Orange you glad I didn't say banana.
Knock, Knock.. Who's there? Tank.... Tank who?... You're Welcome
They also all love to read, which I just love because I'm not a big reader, but I wish I was & want my kids to like to read. They love the look & find books and there are a few books that they can read to us!
Most of the time they play great together and try really hard to take turns with each other. I love to watch them with each other. Taking each other their toys, making them pretend pancakes, helping them up when they fall.
One of my hopes for them is that they stay the best of friends and always help each when needed, especially when they fall. I think being a triplet is such an awesome gift they were given . They get to enjoy everything with each other. Yes, I do think they miss out on some one on one with mommy & daddy and other things, but having each other, always having each other, is such a great gift!
Oh, sniff... sniff... my babies are growing so fast. It's hard to believe they are 2. It's hard to believe just how much they have learned and how much they have grown. I do try to sit back each day and enjoy them for who they are & how great they are doing. Yes, they do stress me out and send me close to the edge, but everyday they always make me smile. Happy 2 1/2 birthday my babies!