Thursday Threes: My Triplet Nursery (on a budget)

Earlier I had written a post about our nursery; which you can view here if you wish, but I wanted to post about the amount that we actually spent.  I think we did a great job, without spending too much money.  With a little imagination, you can have a great nursery for little doe.

$300- The other two cribs and mattresses.  These were actually bought for me from my mother.  She got them at Walmart.

$150- One crib, one mattress, one dresser, and one small bookshelf (its actually a kitchen cabinet without a door).  I bought all of these at Ikea (before I was pregnant) from the as is section all in perfect condition.

$145- Handmade (by a neighbor) bumper pads, bed skirt, curtain, and blanket.  (I made two other bed skirts with left over material).

$50- Behr paint in gray and yellow from Hone Depot.

$20- Crown molding, again from Home Depot.

$12- Vinyl bird wall decal.  I bought this on Etsy.

$6- Blue baskets from the Dollar Store for the bookshelf.

$5- Paper stork origami hanging from the ceiling (I made these).

$2- Clothe wall decor.  I made this by printing a nursery rhyme with a gray, yellow, and blue bird themed background onto some spare white fabric.  I then hung the fabric from a ribbon clothes line with clothes pins.


Everything else was given to me as gifts and I just fluffed it up a bit.  So in all the total was $697 and since we got the two cribs and mattresses as a gift, it actually cost us $397...Not too bad.

Wordless Wednesday: Wishful Thinking

Teaching Triplets Tuesday: Week Two

  This week we focused on feet.  We pretty much kept the same bones of our original lesson, but repeated it with feet (repetition is key for teaching babies).  So here is how are lessons went:
Prayer:

Lord I give you today

All I think and do and say

All my work and all my play

This I give to you today

Calendar Time:

(Tune to Farajaka)

Today is Tuesday, Today is Tuesday

All day long, All day long

Yesterday was Monday,

Tomorrow will be Wednesday,

Oh what fun, Oh what fun

(Tune to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

When we do the calendar

We learn the month, date and year

Every week day has a name

And there's lots of numbers to count the days

So let's begin to show you how

We'll learn the calendar right now

Weather:

For this I cut out different icons to represent the weather.

I then allow the kids to stick the icon to a large desk calendar for the corresponding day.

I talk to them about what the weather will be like.

Phonics:

This week I showed and taught the kids the word 'feet', repeatedly

I then did the same with the Russian version 'nooka'

I also taught them the signed version

Songs (we watch these on YouTube):

Our Chapter Song is "Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes"

For our feet chapter we used "The Clap Song" (it was hard to find a song related to feet, without clapping, but they loved this song)

Video (again we used YouTube):

Kermit Talks About Feet

Story:

This week we read The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, I Wish I had Duck Feet by Theo L.Sieg and B. Tobey, and Dancing Feet! by Lindsey Craig and Marc Brown

Activities:

Activity One- We traced our feet on paper.  Later we used these as flash cards for phonics

Activity Two- Musical Feet....I printed some foot prints and stuck them to the floor.  The real activity is to like musical chairs only the kids have to stop on a pair of feet when the music stops.  I just played their lesson songs and let them crawl around collecting all the feet.  They had a blast. 

Activity Three- Putting on and taking off socks.  I also retrieved the gloves from last week and I would ask the kids, "Which goes on your hand?  Which goes on your feet?"

My Family Mondays: Everyday Life with Triplets

  This has been a bittersweet week.  On Friday evening, my grandmother died after a grueling bought with cancer.  It has been some comfort to know that she did die peacefully and that now she no longer has to suffer, but it has been sorrowful at times, especially when I see my kids playing with the balls Granny got them for their birthday.  Her memory will definitely live on in this family and I will tell my children stories of her carefree humor, like the time she walked around a cruise ship with a thong on the outside of her clothes or how she always had the right humorous line to ease an uncomfortable situation.  Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers, as it is most difficult on the ones that get left behind.
  On a lighter note, we took the kids on their first trip to the zoo.  On Sunday, we skipped church and headed over to Waco to visit the Cameron Park Zoo.  It had been years since I had been and I've got to admit, they have done some great improvements.  At times it was hard to tell whether the kids could understand that we were there to see animals, but then we came across the giraffes and, oh my gosh, was Tali excited!  She kept pointing and saying, "There! Right there!"  They were by far her favorite.  The reptile house was also a big hit.  All three of the kids loved this huge catfish that was sporadically swimming right up next to the glass in his tank and Charli Kate got a big huge kick out of the milk snake (sorry no picture).  My favorite was this orangatan!  He was lazily hanging out by the fence.  I think the kids just thought he was a moving blanket or something.  Jenya read about him and I realized why I liked him so much; apparently he likes to watch football (according to the sign), so I just figure he reminded me of Jenya; he's lazy and likes football (hehe).  Anyway, I really think the kids had a great time.  And boy, let me tell you,  I think our crew was just as exciting for the other guests to see as the animals!  As always, we got plenty of stares, points, and comments.
  Well, that's what's going here.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Sunday Saying: In Memory

"Unable are the loved to die.  For love is immortality."  ~Emily Dickinson
Granny, you will always be loved and greatly missed.  

So Crafty Saturday: Mother's Day Crafts

  For the triplets' grandmothers we made presents for Mother's Day.  It was so much fun and pretty easy.  For Babushka we made lavender bath fizzies and for GeeGee we made a lavender (flame less) candle. The candle was the funnest for the kids to make; they just rolled an adhesive sprayed candle in lavender, but it didn't turn out as great as I was hoping.  The lavender kept falling off. For the fizzies, we left out the essential oils (Babushka likes settle, natural scents) and added the dried organic lavender.  Despite the problems with the candle, both grandmothers loved their gifts.  Here are the instructions:

Martha Stewart's Bath Fizzies-
Tools and Materials

• 1/2 cup citric acid
• 1 cup baking soda
• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 cup organic cane sugar
• About 6 drops food coloring
• 10 to 15 drops essential oil(s)
• Special equipment: 2-ounce travel-size spray bottle, plastic pipette, silicone ice-cube tray, storage jars

Directions

1. Stir together citric acid, baking soda, and cornstarch in a glass measuring cup. 
2. Pass mixture through a fine sieve or a flour sifter into a mixing bowl. Stir in sugar. 
3. Fill spray bottle with water, and add food coloring. Spritz mixture lightly (it should become damp but not fizzy) until you can pack mixture with your hands. 
4. Using pipette, add oil, 1 drop at a time, until strength of scent is to your liking. Using a metal spoon or your hands, mix ingredients until color is even throughout (mixture will begin to dry out; when this happens, spritz until packable again). 
5. Spoon into ice-cube tray, pressing firmly. Let dry at room temperature overnight. Pop out of tray gently. Transfer to jars.

How to Make Lavender covered Candles

     An easy and decorative way to use dried Lavender flower buds is to cover the outside of large pillar candles with them.

     You will need a large three wick pillar candle in a color complimentary to that of your dried Lavender flower buds.

    You will also require 1-2 cups of dried Lavender flower buds or enough to cover the outside of your pillar candle. You will apply the dried flower buds using a spray adhesive available a most crafts stores and also in the craft department at Walmart.

    Cover the candle by spraying an outside section with adhesive and then patting on the dried flower buds pressing them on gently covering the entire outside as evenly as possible. Continue working your way around the entire outside until it is entirely covered. 

Freeday Friday: Perspective

I've got to admit, I stole this from angusandthetriplets.com, but it is so true.  Anytime I feel like I've had horrible day, I remember those three years that I couldn't have children and then my life doesn't seem that bad at all.

A new mom, awake every three hours at night with her first baby, thought she had her hands full - and she did.  Then she met...

A new mom of twins,  exhausted from being awake doing double duty while trying to master the art of feeding two at the same time, thought she had her hands full - and she did. Then she met...

A new mom of triplets, learning to juggle three babies with only two arms, while dealing with intense sleep-deprivation, thought she had her hands full - and she did.  Then she met...

A mom of a new set of triplets who had a toddler still in diapers and several school aged children, spreading herself in many different directions at once, while dealing with intense sleep deprivation, thought she had her hands full - and she did.  Then she learned of...

A mom of who just gave birth to her second set of triplets within two years, still changing diapers of a trio of toddlers, while dealing with sleep-deprivation, with a bigger life change than she could ever have imagined, thought she had her hands full - and she did.  Then she saw the program about...

A mom who just gave birth to her 16th child, adding to her 15 children all under the age of 18, juggling so many different tasks to keep her busy family cared for, thought she had her hands full - and she did....

Each of the moms thought they had their hands full, and then they met... a woman who would never know the joy of carrying, giving birth to and nurturing her very own baby, and each of those moms were glad they had their hands full.

Perspective is everything.

Wordless Wednesday: The Kids and Me

Teaching Triplets Tuesdays: Week One

  Last week I started some of my own lessons for the kids.  I had been having troubles finding lesson plans that cater to one year olds so I'm doing my own.  The purposes of these lessons are to help my children develop and learn, but mainly they give me the opportunity to bond with my kids and they also give me something to do with them.  I don't claim to know what it would be like to have a singleton, but I feel like these lessons are ways that I can focus their attention all at the same time.  I've devised my lessons into 'chapters' and this chapter is on body parts.  This week our focus was on hands and I used the basis of the Littlest Learners concept; morning prayer, calendar time, weather (something I added), phonics about the topic, songs about the topic, a short video on the topic (again something I added), a short story about the topic, and then a topic related activity.  I'm pulling my activities from "Slow and Steady Get Me Ready" and I'll probably use some that my sister suggested; theletteroftheweek.com, abcjesuslovesme.com, and DLTK kids.  So here is what our week looked like:

Prayer:

Lord I give you today

All I think and do and say

All my work and all my play

This I give to you today

Calendar Time:

(Tune to Farajaka)

Today is Tuesday, Today is Tuesday

All day long, All day long

Yesterday was Monday,

Tomorrow will be Wednesday,

Oh what fun, Oh what fun

(Tune to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

When we do the calendar

We learn the month, date and year

Every week day has a name

And there's lots of numbers to count the days

So let's begin to show you how

We'll learn the calendar right now

Weather:

For this I cut out different icons to represent the weather.

I then allow the kids to stick the icon to a large desk calendar for the corresponding day.

I talk to them about what the weather will be like.

Phonics:

This week I showed and taught the kids the word 'hand', repeatedly

I then did the same with the Russian version 'rooka'

I also taught them the signed version

Songs (we watch these on YouTube):

Our Chapter Song is "Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes"

For hands we used "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"

Video (again we used YouTube):

Kermit Talks About Hands

Story (if they haven't gotten too restless):

This week we did the story of Doubting Thomas from the Bible.  I really don't have time to go to the library, so our story selections are limited to what I can find on the internet.  I broke the story up into sections for each day.  

Activities(we didn't have time to do many this week):

Day One- We traced our hands on paper.  Later we used these as flash cards for phonics

Day Two- Hand prints. They were too young for the kit I was going to use, but you can also use the play dough hand prints I previously posted about

Day Three- Putting on and taking off gloves

We repeat everything except for the activities and the story every day.  The activities change daily depending on how much time we have.  It seems to be working out great!  The kids especially love calendar time.

My Family Mondays: Every Day Life With Triplets

I think this is the first time in awhile there hasn't been very much going on.  The kids continue to get one step closer to walking.  Tali is now pulling up on the furniture.  Adrik not only pulls up on things, but also pushes things around while he is on his knees.  Charli Kate is walking along the furniture and she actually pulled herself up to standing while holding onto my shoulder, let go of me, and stood for a few seconds on her own.  They are still teething; Tali is the worse...She's been so grumpy.
With everything that was going on last week, I forgot to mention, I did get volunteer position as an Environmental Educator Docent for the Colorado River Foundation.  I will be teaching groups of kids on field trips about the history and the environmental impact of the Colorado River.  Its an amazing opportunity and the foundation works very closely with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA).  Not only will it look good on my resume, but it is such a good cause!  I observed a field trip on Friday and after a bit of training, I will be leading groups of girl scouts and boy scouts this summer.
Right now, Jenya and I are having landscaping put in our front yard.  Today has been the first day and they'll either be finished tomorrow or Monday, but so far so good.  I plan on doing a Freeday Friday post all about it soon.
Well, that's about it at our house.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Sunday Saying: The Duck

Be like a duck.  Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath. ~Michael Caine

So Crafty Saturdays: Bags of Color

We did this craft a couple of weeks ago and I thought it would be nice and easy for the kids.  This wasn't really worth it.  It was kind of time consuming to make the bags and it was a BIG MESS!  After everything I went through, the kids poked at the things for all of five minutes.  Needless to say, we'll never do it again, but in case anybody out there would like to attempt (hopefully with greater success) here are the instructions:

Color in a Bag:

 "For the youngest kids, art is really about the tactility of the materials, what they feel like," says Abbey Hendrickson, a former educator at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Massachusetts. We can't think of a more tactile experience than squeezing and pressing designs into these sealed bags of colored cornstarch. For an interesting light-table effect, tape a bag to a low window and let your child use his fingers to draw patterns while the sun shines through.

Materials

• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 cups cold water

• Food coloring
• 2 gallon-size ziplock bags
• Duct tape

Instructions

1. Over medium heat, combine the cornstarch, sugar, and water in a saucepan, stirring continuously.
2. Once the mixture begins to thicken, remove the pan from the heat and stir for another minute or so until it thickens to a pudding like consistency. Let it cool for 30 minutes.
3. Spoon the mixture into two bowls, stir a few drops of food coloring into each (we used red and yellow), then divide the colors between the ziplock bags. Seal the bags with duct tape and let your child mix and mash the colors (they'll keep for up to a week).

Freeday Friday: Knotted Hanging Lanterns

I'm well into the first craft for my porch make-over!  Last night I knotted away making these cute hanging lanterns.  I've only completed one, but they are actually pretty easy to make.  Just a couple of pointers.....You need A LOT of twine.  I bought about 65 feet from Walmart for $9.00 and with that I could only make two lanterns.  I did find 394 feet of twine on Amazon for about $5.48(click on picture for link).  Also this is a lot thinner than the twine I used and I think it will look better for this craft:

I left my the ends of my rope unfinished instead of using the cow hitch knot.  This allowed for me to use less rope and I think it will be easier to just attach to my backyard gazebo.  I am going to fill mine with climbing fig from our front yard.  When you hang climbing fig, it becomes a beautiful cascading vine.  When I was pumping breast milk, I would store the milk in large Ball mason jars.  So since I already have the jars and the plants, this craft will cost me $15.00 for the twine (wish I found the Amazon twine first) and $5.00 for the potting soil.  I plan to make about 12 hanging lanterns.  Ready to get to making your own?  Well, here are the instructions and you can find the templates here.

The Martha Stewart Show, April 2012

Tools and Materials

• Glass jar (we used a Ball jar, but a fishbowl, vase, or glass hurricane would also work)
• Strong twine such as jute or hemp
• Scissors
• Pins and/or tape
• Lanyard Knot diagram
• Corkboard for work surface (optional)
• Ruler
• Rubber bands
• Metal O-ring (optional)
• Cow Hitch diagram (optional)
• Wrapped knot diagram (optional)
• Pebbles, candles, plants, etc. for filling jar

Knotted Hanging Lantern How-To

1. Turn jar upside-down. Wrap twine around jar vertically (starting at mouth, going over the bottom and back down to the mouth). Multiply this length by 10. Cut eight lengths of twine to that measurement.
2. Divide lengths of twine into two bunches of four. Cross these bunches in the center and pin or tape to the work surface to form an "X." Treat each bunch of four as one strand and follow the diagram for the Lanyard Knot to make the starting knot.
3. Measure the diameter of the bottom of the jar, and divide that measurement in half. Tie an overhand knot to secure two adjacent strands together, and repeat all the way around (you will end up with 8 knots).  
4. Drape knotted twine over inverted jar, lining up center knot with center of jar bottom. Tape center knot in place. Place rubber band over ball jar and twine to secure. Space twine strands equally around jar, using rubber band to hold in place.
5. Tie one strand from each adjacent knot together, creating a row of overhand knots. Use the rubber band as reference to keep knots at the same height on the jar. Do the same to create another row of knots, and repeat until you reach the mouth of the jar.
6. Flip the jar right side up. With the remaining lengths of twine, tie the netted lantern to a tree branch or beam. Optionally, gather twine strands, thread through a metal O-ring and secure using a cow hitch knot. Finish withwrapped knot directly below the cow hitch and trim extra twine. The jar can be filled with candles, LED lights, pebbles, and/or plants.

Safety Tip: If using a real candle in the lantern, tie or add hardware to the twine at least one yard from where the wick of the candle will be positioned. Light the candle first, then lift the twine and hang the lantern, being careful to never let the flame come in contact with the twine.

Thursday Threes: The Triplets NICU Stay

  When I first realized I was pregnant with triplets, my number one goal was to educate myself about my unique pregnancy and ultimately what would happen during delivery.  I quickly found out that the average length of pregnancy for triplets is 32 weeks (as opposed to the singleton 40 weeks).  The longest amount of time that any doctor will allow a triplet pregnancy to advance is 34 weeks, so I knew that my babies would not escape some length of Neonatal  Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay.  With this in mind, I researched and prepared myself for this difficult period of time.  I decided which hospital had the best level three NICU (level three is the highest level care that a hospital can provide and is usually only available at large hospitals).  If the babies were to come before 32 weeks, a level 2 NICU would not be able to provide the amount of care my kids would need and if I delivered at a hospital that did not have a level 3 NICU, the babies would have been transported to a different hospital while I stayed at the hospital I delivered.  I did not want that to happen.  The hospital I choose not only had a great NICU, but also provided a 'nesting room' for the parents of NICU patients.  These are rooms located on the maternity floor in which the parents can stay free of charge while their little one is treated.  This was quintessential for me since we lived forty minutes away from the hospital (and that's without traffic).  Once I found my hospital I toured both the NICU and the maternity floor.  I made sure I had as much information as possible before the big day came.  The other big thing I did to prepare was read a book called "The Preemie Primer".  Not only was this book written by an OB/GYN, but she also went through the NICU system when she had triplets.  It really helped me to prepare for my stay and it was a great resource for when the kids were in the NICU.
  I was grateful for the preparation when the triplets arrived after only 29 weeks and 5 days of being pregnant.  They were, of course, tiny, but they were actually relatively good weights for being so premature.  Charli Kate weighed 2 pounds 13 ounces, Adrik weighed 3 pounds 3 ounces, and Tali weighed 2 pounds 11 ounces.  They hadn't developed the ability to suck, so they had feeding tubes and they needed help breathing, so they were on a machine called a C-pap.  They were never given oxygen, but only given room air through the C-pap.  Later, when they had developed more, they were given nasal canulas.  They were in incubators and they had all of their vitals monitored.  Sometimes, especially with Tali, the monitors would go off, mainly for a drop in heart rate (which is called brady cardia or brady for short).  For the first week or so, they did have an IV and they were under lamps for jaundice.  The hardest part, was that I couldn't hold them for the first week (I couldn't even see them for around 26 hours after they were born because I was on magnesium).  Slowly, they started developing the skills that they needed to survive.  First they were taken out of the incubators, then the breathing machines were gone, after that they came to a point were they didn't have any brady episodes, and very slowly, they learned to eat from a bottle.  Once these things were accomplished, they were ready to come home.  Charli Kate was the first home on May 30th, and then Tali was next on June 6th, and finally Adrik on June 8th. They roughly spent about two months in the NICU.
  So what did I do when they were in hospital?  I was right by their side, everyday, all day.  I fell into a three hour repeated routine:  I would take Charli Kate's temperature, change her diaper, and then either hold her (kangaroo care or skin to skin) or attempt to feed her (when she was old enough).  Next I would do the same for Adrik and then for Tali.  After all of that was done, I would pump breast milk for 30 minutes.  Then go clean my breast pump and after all that I would have about 30 minutes of down time before I would start it all over again.
  It was a long two months, but I definitely felt like I had prepared myself well.

Wordless Wednesday: Teething Times Three

My family (Mondays?): Every Day Life with Triplets

What a busy week!  So here's why I haven't been posting.
On Saturday, my good friend got married to her long time boyfriend, Brad.  I spent a lot of the week putting together a wedding day emergency kit for the big day (I'll post more about that on a 'Freeday Friday' post).  On Friday night we had a lovely rehearsal and then the next day the main event was held at Casa Blanca in Round Rock.  It was a beautiful wedding and below are some of the pics that I snagged.
Also on Saturday, I woke up to a great surprise...The sun.  For the first time in, I don't know when, the sun was up and shining before I woke.  At first I panicked; had I missed my alarm?  And why weren't the kids screaming to be fed?  And then I realized that not only was my alarm (my phone) missing, but so was the monitor and my husband.  I found the latter in the nursery with my three  laughing babies.  He woke up early and took my alarm so I could have a chance to sleep in.  How sweet!
On Sunday, we spent Mother's Day with my family up in Belton.  We had brunch with my mom and dad and grandma and grandpa and then played with the kids for awhile.  From Jenya and the kids I got a really great hand painting kit.  It contains four square, colored canvases, a tray, and five colors of paint for me to make prints of the kids' hands.
On Monday, I found out the hard way that the lessons I had just started with the kids last week are no longer available.  So I've decided to come up with my own lessons.  We will keep calendar time, morning prayer, and weather (not in that order) and then we will follow with phonics and word identification, songs related to a certain topic and then a story also about the same topic.  Later in the afternoon, we will work  on an activity also relating to the topic of the week.  Inspired by my Mother's Day present, we are starting off with hands as a topic.  This morning, I held up a picture of a hand and repeated hand over and over.  Then we learned it in Russian, 'Rooka', again over and over.  Next we learned the sign for hands.  We then sang 'Head and Shoulders' (we are doing an entire 'chapter' on body parts and this is our theme song) and then we sang and watched a You Tube video on 'He's got the Whole World in His Hands'.  Next we read a story about 'Helping Hands'.  We ran out of time for our activity, but it would have been the Mother's Day canvases.  Anyway, with my lessons up and running, I've decided to change Tasty Tuesdays to Teaching Tuesdays.

Monday night I didn't post, because we had ECI out (here is my previous post on ECI).  When the kids left the NICU, they recommended we had Early Childhood Intervention do a follow-up on Charli Kate and Adrik since they were born so prematurely, and they recommended two follow-up sessions for Tali since she was the smallest and she had the most difficulties.  So Tali's second follow-up was yesterday and I've got to take a couple of moments to brag on her.  For her fine motor skills, she is testing at a 19 month level.  Now remember that they go by their age adjusted for prematurity, so even though she is 13 months, they were looking at her as a 10 month old.  For cognitive skills, she tested at a 16 month level.  The only thing that she did not test excessively high at was grand motor skills, which we already knew to begin with.  They were slightly concerned about her 'Tali crawl' just because it could lead to bad habits in walking that could ultimately be bad for her joints. So they gave us the option to have her go through six months of therapy to correct it before it becomes a problem.  We went ahead and decided to go with the therapy...What could it hurt?
So that's what's been keeping me away from posting.  I wish you all a great week!