Shortly after my last post Little Miss Q decided enough was enough and started walking on her own! She was so proud of herself.
And with three walkers this summer has been a bit of a challenge, as I sort of expected it to be and have been slightly dreading since last winter. Three toddlers who want to constantly explore and move and experience new things get mighty stir-crazy in a teeny (some may say cozy) tiny little house all day.
The temperatures are consistently at or near 100 degrees from sun-up to sun-down, so walks in our wagon are not really an option, and those were our saving grace many days this spring. We’ve met up with friends at a couple of different public places like mall play areas and things, but unfortunately for us it’s been over-crowded and super stressful for me to try and keep track of all three kiddos, so I’m counting those out for awhile until the kids get bigger. We do LOVE to have friends come over or go visit them at their houses, so if you’re reading this and you’re a friend, well…hint hint. 
The babies’ cousin Emily came to play with us last week and though she may have suffered a few blows to the head from Oliver and his soccer ball, she seemed to like us pretty well. She and Oliver even kissed! It was completely adorable and I actually got video!
And this summer we’ve actually made it to church two times. Baby steps! Both times the kids have done great in the church nursery. The first time we went I expected to have to stay to help them get used to the idea but they just jumped right in to playing with all of the toys and didn’t really even look at me so Justin and I went to the service together, which was great. Today was our second visit and right as we got everyone loaded in the car to make it there on time we realized that the dog had gotten out of the backyard and I got a call from a neighbor who found her one block over. So, we had to circle around and pick up the four-legged brat who has made escaping our backyard her summer past-time, drop her off at the house and head to church where we were about 10 minutes late. Just enough late that the ratios had been filled in the nursery so if the triplets were going to get to stay then I had to stay too. I was a little disappointed about missing the service but it was neat to see them around a bunch of other kids and observe their reactions to this new environment.
Of course they loved starting off with a snack, and then they enjoyed checking out the toys. Oliver basically staked out a spot and stayed there with a chosen toy, Quinn slowly moved around the room, very carefully checking things out, and Zoey was my child who I constantly had to look all over for every few minutes to figure out where she had gone. Near the end of the hour we brought all the kids (yes, about 30+ one and two year olds walking down the hall to a different room and sitting down to watch someone sing. ha.) to a larger room to sing songs all together. Sort of training them for what it will be like to be in the older Sunday school classes. Oliver already seems to be great at getting strangers to love on him, so he was in the teacher’s lap, Quinn was standing next to me and not moving her feet an inch from her spot (she wouldn’t sit down and settle in, she was on alert), and Zoey took it upon herself to join the volunteers who were singing on the little stage. These kids could not be more different! I love seeing how their individual personalities come out in new situations like this. Justin and I talk often about how we can best encourage each of them as they grow, something that all parents of more than one child do, but it is really interesting seeing them all grow at once.
