If you like Cinco de Mayo...

...then get your margarita on...

Sam-Ben-Nate
passed out after enjoying some delicious bevies

Makin' Squash

Because I've clearly got nothing better to do, I decided I should make the boys' baby food.  It's obviously not a boredom issue as much as it is a money issue.  I can feed the three of them for a week for what it would cost to feed them for a day.  Hmmm...is that a tough choice?

They've done a super job with their green beans, peas, and sweet potatoes so now we're moving onto squash.  Because of Dave's food allergies, I'm a bit of a freak with introducing foods.  I go slow...really slow.  I don't want to see any reactions.  This is why everybody else's 8 month olds have had filet mignon and mine are just getting to squash.  We'll start fruit next week.

Here's what I did to make their squash:

Step 1:  Buy frozen squash.  I get 2 bags to make a double batch.

Step 2:  Steam the squash to death.  It needs to be mushy so don't be
afraid to let it go for a long time.

Step 3:  Drain squash in sink.

Step 4:  Transfer to a big bowl.

Step 5:  Refrigerate overnight.  This step may be unnecessary,

but I get a little nervous about adding cold formula to

hot squash.

Step 6:  Use emersion blender to mix.  Add formula for a

liquid.  Keep adding & mixing until you get a consistency you like.

Step 7:  Spoon into ice cube trays.

Step 8:  Cover with plasic wrap.  This step may also be unnecessary

but when I stack the trays, I don't want the bottoms to

get goopy.

Step 9:  Stack trays.

Step 10:  Freeze.

I typically freeze mine until hard.  Then I transfer all the cubes to a bowl.  I takeout 6 cubes every night for to thaw for the next day's dinner.  We heat up the meal in a crock pot full of water (we keep a crockpot filled with water warming all day to warm up their bottles).

Bon Apetit!  The boys seem to like it...

Nebulize Me

Over the weekend, we noticed that Ben was wheezing.  Really wheezing.  He sounded like an old man with emphysema.  It was noticeable on Saturday (when his pedi has office hours), but got really bad on Sunday.  I called the doctor and he told me to wait until Monday to bring him in.  Since he wasn't having retractions and wasn't in distress, he didn't want Ben to be exposed to all the germs in the ER.  It was nerve wracking though, listening to his lungs crackle like Rice Krispies.

Dave brought him in on Monday and he was given a nebulizer treatment.  Luckily, his O2 sats were at 100 so we didn't have the same issue that put us in the hospital 2 weeks ago.  The doctor then prescribed him a nebulizer with steroids and the whole sha-bang.  We have to torture him 4x/day.  Here's what my poor little monkey looks like with his pathetic little machine...

The mask is supposed to resemble a fish. 

We think he just looks like he has 4 eyes.

We're supposed to bring him back in a week to check his lungs again.  We're crossing our fingers that this isn't a chronic thing...

Photo Shoot

We finally got to go to our favorite photo studio to get some pix taken.  If you love them, tell them we sent you!  We were there over 3 hours.  The boys all did a super job.  Ben was the biggest ham of the day.  We got 100's of pix.  Here are just a few...

B-N-S-E

B-N-S

Sammy

Nate

Benji

Ben-Nate-Sam

0-7 Month Montage

I just made this goofy montage...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hippity Hoppity

We started Easter Sunday off with the boys' Easter baskets.

Sammy doesn't know what to think.

Ben's digging in looking for some goodies.

Nate doesn't look too excited.

Eli can't wait to see what he got.

So cool, they've gotta wear shades.
Ben-Sam-Nate

 Then we got dressed for church.  We figured the boys should make their big debut on Easter Sunday.  For their first time at church, the babies did a really super job.  It helped that they mostly slept through the mass & stayed in their carseats.  We ended up needing 2 pews for the 6 of us!  So many people were excited to finally see them in real life.

Eli
Ben-Nate-Sam

 Then we headed out to our favorite Easter Brunch where we saw the "big guy".  Ben did the best job at brunch.  Sam & Nate were a bit fussy and wanted to see the sights.  The staff was super.  We rolled the Triple Decker up right next to our table and took out 3 chairs to make it fit.  We were at a long table by a wall so it worked out well, we tucked the boys in between the table & the wall.

EB & Eli
Sam-Nate-Ben

More April Vacation Field Trips

Today's plan was to head down to Children's Hospital to get our little flatty-heads checked out.  Since we were going to be in town, we thought we'd head over to the Public Garden and get our Swan Boats on!  For additional adult support we kidnapped one of my former students, Allie, and brought her with us.

We arrived in the Children's garage at 9:05 for our 10:00 appointments!  Yay for being super crazy and getting out of the house at 7:30!!!  We were greeted by a bunch of semi-ignorant people who don't know how to get out of the way when there is a tractor trailer sized stroller coming their way.  Also there were tons of people who didn't know how to skooch out of the way when said tractor trailer sized stroller gets into an elevator.  We took a total of 3 elevators to get to the appointment and of course 3 to get back to the van.  We had a SUPER tight squeeze with the glass elevator at the main entrance of the hospital.  The Triple Decker literally got scraped by the elevator doors as they closed.  YIKES!!!

Other than that, I have nothing but nice things to say about that hospital.  Everybody was great and what was even better is that the boys don't need helmets!!!  The doctor thinks they're getting better every day and will be all set in no time.  He said their issues aren't severe enough for helmet therapy...WOOT!!!

Now onto the Public Garden.  We started this tradition last year with Eli & the babies.  They don't remember much as they were still in utero at the time.

I was a little bummed this year that the tulips hadn't bloomed yet...boo to cold weather!!!  I loved them so much last year.  I think I took more pictures of them than of Eli.

Oh, well.  Maybe next year, right?  The line was a bit long, but we made it.  The babies were pretty well behaved.  There were a few occasions were Eli almost swam with the duckies though.

Sammy-Benji-Eli-Nate

Because we had a single and a double stroller, nobody even noticed they were triplets.  They only thought we had twins.  Good trick!

We're on the boat!
Renee & Ben
Eli
Allie & Nate
Dave & Sam
See why we needed an extra lap???  No siderails or anything!!!

Renee-Ben-Eli-Nate-Sam-Dave

I think we need to get the babies some shoes.  They did not want to keep their socks on. We had a near miss on the swan boat.  Oy!  I've been procrastinating the shoe purchase because it's going to be expensive and I just can't do it!  I think I may have to cave and take care of it soon...

Here's Eli's picture with the "Make Way for Ducklings" duckies last year.

Here's everybody this year...

Nate & Sam
Ben
Eli

 Then we were hungry & I had a hankering for PF Changs...so we did it!!!  The manager was very accommodating and even said he used to babysit his friends' identical quads.  We told him he was welcome at our house whenever (as long as he brought us some Lettuce Wraps too). 

Nate-Sam-Ben

Overall, we had a great day & I can't believe we survived our first trip to Boston (not in the NICU!!!).  Can't wait to do it again next year!!!