Our First Trip & A Long Overdue Update!

The munchkins and us just got back from our first family trip to London, England where we got to spend time with Daddi & Dadu (Grandma and Grandpa Gera) and meet Uncle Oliver, Aunty Gouri, and cousin Adrian for the first time. Daddy had a business trip to Turkey in between so the kids got lots of quality time with Mommy and the rest of the family in England.

It’s amazing to witness how much kids learn from travelling and interacting with family. We witnessed a lot of development in them over the course of the trip: i) they were much friendlier with strangers, ii) they were stimulated by new environments, and iii) their vocabulary grew. They bonded with their grandparents and their aunt/uncle/cousin. Mommy and daddy realized how important it is for us to ensure that the kids get plenty of time with their family – there’s no substitute for family love! While we were staying with Daddi & Daddu in central London, the kids developed a new favorite activity – they loved sitting by the window and watching the busy street below. They absolutely enjoyed watching the double decker busses and taxis go by. Seeing a bus go by was often accompanied by words of excitement..’bsss’ ‘bsss’…their attempt at saying ‘bus’. It has been a long while since we last posted an update, so there are tons of new developments to report on.

Ariya: Our little Bella princess has cracked her first two teeth. She’s got a couple of shiners popping out of her bottom gum – finally! She is also standing on her own now and is becoming more and more vocal. She’s smiling a lot these days and has become quite good at posing for the camera with her ‘smile on demand’ technique. She also acts extra cute for daddy and even did so for Daddu – she does this head-tilting smile that just melts your heart.

Jaiden: Jaiden is walking everywhere now – he is starting to choose walking over crawling more and more frequently. It’s really nice hearing the pitter patter of his feet around the house. He has also picked up a few words – his favorite sayings: ‘oh wow’, ‘yes’. He also makes it very clear when he says ‘no’ by shaking his head and arms back and forth.

Kailen: Kailen is also starting to walk and can take a few steps at a time (will post video soon). Kailen is expanding his vocabulary and sound library – his most recent favorite baby talk is ‘ba ba jabba jabba’ or ‘jibbi jibbi’. We have yet to figure out what ‘jabba jabba’ and ‘jibbi jibbi’ mean but he tends to talk about it a lot at sleep time. Kailen is also showing a lot of affectionate characteristics – he loves giving hugs and love bites (he likes biting our toes and even his siblings – it’s not out of aggression but rather affection)….those little shiners tend to be sharp and it’s not uncommon to hear a shriek in the household from mommy, daddy, or his brother/sister.

All the babies love their bath time! Typically you hear of babies that hate bath time, but our little munchkins can’t wait for it. They love the water. Once those diapers come off and they hear the tap running, they are usually trying to climb into the bath and tend to get quite upset with us if we take too long.

Some recent pics and videos below.

We love playing in the kitchen

Our new outifts Our cousin Adrian Gouri Masi (Aunty) Adrian in the backyard Our first restaurant lunch Walking on the boardwalk in Brighton

Daddu & Kailen on the pebble stone beach in Brighton

Picnic on the beach

Ariya Bella

Daddy and JJ

Feedtime

Enjoying the beautiful weather

Family shot in Brighton, England

Family dinner at Daddi & Daddu's

Gouri Masi & KK

Gouri Masi & KK again

We love making a mess..

Some recent videos...

I love my horsey

Brotherly love...

Dinner time fun..

JJ Walking

We're Growing Up So Fast!!!

This is such a fun stage - every week that goes by is bringing new 'firsts'. Kailen took his first steps this week without holding onto anything (although I wouldn't say he is walking yet). Jaiden decided to take a breather from walking and didn't really attempt to try it again this week, while Ariya has learned to hippidy-hop on her knees.

We brought out some new toys this week and retired some others - the kids seemed to really enjoy a change in their 'toyland'. Kailen is addicted to his new rocking horse - he rides it back and forth. Jaiden loves his new truck - he loves climbing on top of it, sit, and then tries to push forward. Ariya loves her new blow up car with all the dozen of balls in it.

This week mommy gave the kiddos some blackberry's ....boy did they ever make a mess of it :) New videos and pics below.

Kailen loves to laugh!

We like to eat off the ground..

Kailen pushing his sister

Ariya the hippidy-hopper

mmm...blackberry's

JJ's Walking!

Jaiden took his first steps this past weekend! We're so proud of him. Hope to post some video soon :)

I love being One!

Still can't believe that the little munchkins are one years old! Time is flying by and they are growing up so fast. We had a small celebration for the babies' first birthday at home - at first the munchkins were a bit overwhelmed with everyone (probably because they didn't sleep much the night before), but they seemed to warm up to their party after a bit of time.

Jaiden and Ariya cried while everyone sang happy birthday, while Kailen enjoyed the attention - he's such a people person!

This stage is so rewarding in so many ways - the kids are learning to do new things every day and we're both really enjoying the interaction with them. They are at such a cute stage. On the flip side, this stage does have its challenges. No doubt the sleep situation is improving - thank God...but one of the newest challenges as a parent of multiples is figuring out how to be fair with splitting attention and giving each child what they need. It has been really tough on me personally given that I have limited time with the kids on the weekdays (with work being so busy). It's quite overwhelming to come home after a long day at the office and have three babies crawling all over you demanding attention - it's even more overwhelming trying to time slice between them knowing that no one is getting what they deserve. I met another triplet dad at work this week (his triplets are 8 years old) and he was telling me how important it is to spend individual time with each kid as they start to get older. I think we're quickly getting to a stage where Geeta and I ought to start doing 1-1 outings and playtime to give them individual time. He was also telling me how his triplets don't get excited about their birthdays because they have to share it and it isn't a special day for them - so they decided to celebrate each child's birthday on a separate day (i.e. the day that each kid got home from the hospital; his kid were three months premature). It was really great talking to someone that has gone through it and really valuable learning a few tips!

What's New?

Kailen loves to play with the indoor plants - in fact if you take your eye off of him for a minute he is likely playing with the plant soil or ripping some leaves off :( He's going through this phase where he needs mommy and daddy to be around him a lot (i.e separation anxiety). He doesn't like sharing mommy and daddy with his siblings and we've had to be extra careful to ensure everyone is getting enough attention. Lately, he's become the more independent one while playing and often prefers to play on his own rather then with Jaiden and Ariya. We really want to encourage team work amongst the triplets and will have to encourage it as they get a bit older so that we don't have a duo forming with one sibling being left out.

Ariya is getting cuter and cuter by the day. She knows how to sucker daddy into doing what she wants :) Lately, she' become quite easy to put to bed and is full of smiles. She's really enjoying being able to crawl and is often exploring the house with her brothers. She's very patient - often waiting her turn to get time with mommy & daddy or waiting for her brothers to finish playing with a toy before going after it. No teeth for Ariya yet, and she's not standing yet but I'm sure she's not far from it as she often kneels and tries to lift herself upward. She also puts everything in her mouth - preffering paper or snow off people's shoes when they come in the door :-)

Jaiden is such a curious little boy. If you take your eye of him for a minute or two and happen to leave the bathroom door open, you can bet that he's in there playing with the toilet water - so gross! He also does not one enjoy sharing mommy & daddy's attention and tends to be a bit more aggressive then Ariya or Kailen when demanding it. These days, changing JJ's diaper is quite the challenge...he does not like to stay in one spot and it's pretty common to see us chasing him around the house while trying to secure his diaper or while trying to button up his sleeper.

Happy birthday!

JJ - who are these people?Kailen Ariya We are just like the Shrek family! Mommy and Ariya

Ariya

JJ
JJ
We love to dance

Ariya Bella being cute

Happy 1st Birthday!!!

Happy 1st birthday to our little angels from mommy and daddy!

A reflection of your first year - what a 'magnificent' year it was.

Mommy and Daddy also feel like celebrating today!
We feel like today marks a big milestone - we survived the year!

~5,500 diaper changes

~4,400 feeds

365 days of crappy sleep

0 days off

...two happy parents that wouldn't trade it for the world :)

I'm almost 1 years old!

Wow - the gaps between these blogs are growing..that just means mommy and daddy are pretty busy. The kids are certainly at a more demanding stage and daddy is also working a lot of hours.

So much going on and the babies are teaching each other something or another everyday. We are astonished at how they learn from each other. For example, Ariya started this thing where she flicks her lips and makes some cool noises, and well the other two now do it too! Jaiden loves to say 'ba-bi' almost like 'baby'. Now Ariya and Kailen say it too...so cute!

What's new?

Ariya really likes drinking her bottle of milk in her little temple - we call it the 'temple of Mr. Octopus' since there's a little octopus figurine that hangs above and that she loves to play with. When we can't get Ariya to drink her milk we bring her to the temple. Unfortunately, the boys have a hard time letting her have her own space and often want to join her in the temple but we try to keep them away. What's funny however is that the boys also now like to drink their milk in the temple.

Kailen is getting more acrobatic! Jaiden was always the acrobatic one in his crib; always finding a way to roll over and stand up and now Kailen is doing the same (minus the standing up). Kailen prefers to kneel and just like Jaiden, he's becoming a bit harder to put to bed. Kailen also recently cracked his first tooth! What else...Kailen loves plant soil! Unfortunately, mommy and daddy are having to a keep a close eye on him and have had to cover the soil with a bag to prevent him from making a mess. He loves getting his hands dirtied and then cleaned...it's his thing.

Jaiden is such a curious little boy - he's always opening up the kitchen drawers and pulling out every utensil in sight. He loves touching and feeling new things! In fact, if we make the mistake of leaving the bathroom door open you can almost certainly bet that he'll find his way in there and will start swishing and swashing the toilet water...ohhh Jaiden.

JJ

JJ running away

Ariya in her temple

KK

Ariya, KK, and Geeta