Q&A – The Answers

Thanks for playing along with the Q&A I posted last Friday! Here are the questions that were asked, along with each answer. I so appreciate you all – thanks for being such loyal readers! Sprinkled in between the questions are some pictures I took this weekend with my new camera – a whole post about the camera and my photography journey in general will come soon. For now, I thought you’d enjoy some new pictures!

I don’t have children yet (I’m only 17!), but I do find myself thinking ahead and picturing my future children. When you were younger, did you ever fantasize about your future offspring, and did you ever have a feeling that you’d have triplets? If not, what did you think you would have? – Allie

 

Allie, I can vividly remember playing house and pretending I had twin girls! Twin girls was my “go-to” family fantasy. Now, as I got older and was in Junior High and High School (so beyond the whole “playing house” thing) I can definitely remember thinking how awesome it would be to have twins. Nick and I also had talked about how fun twins would be, but we didn’t think we had a shot at that! And by the way, I wouldn’t trade my triplet boys for the twin girls of my childhood any day 🙂

I love photography, so here’s a photography question! How do you get your clients’ children to warm up to you and get into the photoshoot? – Allie

I have a slew of tricks up my sleeve! Everything from “guessing” the kids names completely and obviously wrong (and silly) at the very beginning of the session, or asking the child to sing a song (works really well with 2 and 3 year old girls) or using bubbles, to downright bribing them with jelly beans. I ask them lots of questions about them and that usually opens them up. If a child is really apprehensive, I show them my big camera, and how it works, then I ask if they’ll help me test it and then I show them the picture. Kids get a big kick out of that! Nothing is completely fool proof though!

Would love to see how you live. The boys room etc.
btw, I love your blog  – Kat

Kat, you’re in luck! We’re going to be doing quite a few home improvements and changes here in the next month or two and I plan on posting lots of before and after pictures! Watch for those!

What one piece of advice would you give a girl expecting triplets? I’m curious. And also what one thing do you love and hate about having triplets, and about having a singleton- comparing the two. – Shelly

Listen to your doctor, focus on the positive, except help when it’s offered, and after the babies are born… schedule, schedule, schedule! Oh wait. That was more  than 1. If I had to pick just one, and she was still expecting – listen to your doctor! If your doctor says “off your feet” then get off your feet!

Love about having triplets – watching them play and interact with each other. When they’re not trying to beat each other, they have so much fun and are so darn cute! I hate not getting more one on one time with them. I can tell by the way they talk a mile a minute when we are alone, that they crave that time and undivided attention. That’s hard.

Lily obviously gets some one on one time with me when the boys are in school, and that will continue for her for the next several years. I have looked at her several times and felt badly for her that she doesn’t have a sibling the same age!

What are some of the favorite tv shows in the house, both with you and with the boys. Do they have a screen time limit with things like that? – Julia

The boys favorites – Curious George is by far tops right now, they also enjoy Kipper (on Netflix Instant Watch), The Cat in the Hat and Super Why. Their TV watching is typically limited to first thing in the morning (when they watch Curious George and sometimes one other show) and then for 90 minutes of Quiet Time in the afternoon.

Mine and Nick’s favorites – I feel like we watch a lot online (because the show is on too early in the evening) or on Netflix because the show is on cable and we don’t have cable. We like a nice mix of drama and comedy though, as evident by this list: The Office, The Good Wife, Modern Family, Law & Order SVU, Mad Men, The King of Queens (reruns) and How I Met Your Mother. There are others that we watch if they’re on and we don’t have other stuff going on, like The Amazing Race, Undercover Boss, The Voice, etc.

Can Chase, Tyler, and Jackson answer this question? If they were to live on an island, what item would they bring? (Or another question would be where is their favorite spot to vacation?) – Jenna

Jackson –  My bed!

Ty – whispers: I want you to tell me! No, you answer! {long pause} Mario Kart and Wii Sports Resort (which we don’t even own.)

Chase – My blankets, and my kitty, and my comforter, and my bed, and my toys and a computer, and McKenna, and Lily, and the tissues. Actually, I want to bring everything!

Just out of curiosity, why don’t you want to reveal the boys’ middle names? I understand not wanting your last name known, but I’m thrown as to why the middle names?

And now for my real question! Haha

I’ve noticed that the boys seem to wear whatever they (or you) want. Did you ever dress them identically, and did you feel pressure from family etc. to either dress them alike or completely different from each other? – Tiffany

The middle names is just one more way I can help to protect the kids from identity theft. I figure by keeping middle names and even the middle initial off the web it might help. I might also just be crazy – who knows!

As for the dressing identically, we used to do that for pictures, but that was it. The rest of the time we purposefully dressed them differently. They were hard enough to tell apart, and if they’re all dressed the same and running away from me, how do I know which name to yell!  There are times now (like just the other day) that the boys will purposefully wear the same shirt, so that they can match, but it doesn’t happen often. We never one felt any pressure or even heard comments from family or friends about how we dressed them.

If you see an item of clothing you like for the boys, do you automatically buy three of the same or similar items?

What have you most enjoyed about having a little lady in the house?

Do the boys ever feel any negative effects of being triplets?

How do you think Lily has been influenced by her brothers while she’s been growing up?

Thanks  – Charlotte

Thanks to some seriously awesome hand me downs, I haven’t really had to buy clothes very often for the boys. The handful of times that I have though, I do usually buy 3 of something similar (same style, but different colors). There have been a time or two when I’ve only bought one of something and it’s caused problems with the boys. Now, all that does not go for shoes – shoes are now bought on an as-needed basis.

Oh goodness – I love everything about having Lily here! I love the dresses and hair bows. I love the way her brothers adore and dote on her. I love watching Nick with her. I love the way she giggles at anything and as such makes us all laugh! She has definitely completed the family in such a fabulous way!

I think the boys are still young enough that I haven’t seen anything really negative about their tripletness. They think it’s a cool novelty themselves, so don’t mind when people talk to them or refer to them as “the triplets”.

And I’m not sure the boys have influenced Lily! Yet. I’m sure it’ll come. I won’t be surprised at all if she becomes a little tomboy, but on the other hand she sure loves my shoes and purse!

Do they always know who’s who? Or are they sometimes struggling with “which brother is it” (Read something like this on another triplet blog: “mom, is this X or Y”?) – K

It is so funny you ask this! Just last week the boys brought home a “Family Book” from school and inside are three pictures of each kid, at school. Well, on Ty’s page of pictures one of the pictures is actually of Chase, and on Chase’s page one of the pictures is actually Ty. Nick pointed it out and Ty and Chase were (and still are) adamant that the pictures are correct! There have been a handful of other times when looking at pictures (even when the picture was only from a few weeks earlier) that they thought it wasn’t of them, but it was.

How did you decide which boy is going to be named Chase/Jackson/Tyler? – Liz

When we were coming up with names for the boys, Jackson was the first name that Nick and I agreed on, so it went on the top of the “final” list. The next time we could agree on was Tyler so that went next and then Chase. When they were born, we named them that as they came out! Oddly enough, the names seem to fit them each perfectly 😉

What all does the kid of the day get to choose? How did you decide who got to be the first kid of the day? Will you intergrate Lily in the mix when she is 2 1/2?

How did you transition from cribs to toddler beds? Was it easy or a constant struggle to keep them in bed? – Monica

Kid of the Day gets to choose: what everyone eats for breakfast, lunch and snacks, what to watch for Quiet time, what games (Wii or board) are played, what bedtime story is read, who sits where in the car, what’s listened to in the car, they eat off special plates and they also get to go on one-on-one errands when possible.

When we set the rotation, I just randomly picked one of the boys to “start” and then when I wrote their initials on the calendar we just used birth order. When Lily is around 2.5 (about the age I think kids “get” the concept” she’ll be worked into the rotation, and fall right after Chase!

As for toddler beds…. you don’t want to know. It was horrendous. We’re talking a good 6 months of horrendous, horrible, terrible, bedtimes. Did I mention it was terrible? Gah! The memories! Here’s what I think would have helped from day 1 – separate rooms! They were completely feeding off each other and it was not good. Another thing that might have helped, would be skipping toddler beds and going straight to twin beds. I think the height might have deterred them somewhat, but their room isn’t big enough for 3 twin sized beds and they weren’t ready for bunk beds at 2.5.

What really finally helped was when we got the star charts right around the 5 month mark and we had “staying in bed” as one of the ways to earn stars. So bottom line – if you have the room, separate them. If you don’t, get bigger beds. When all else fails, get a star charts! Helpful, aren’t I? 😉