family
My sister posted a picture of my niece, Emily, on Facebook this morning, wearing a dress that my mom’s cousin made for me. She used to make me so many awesome dresses. My favorite was the replica of the red Annie dress. Man, I loved that dress.
Anyway, Emily was rocking my vintage dress this morning, and it just so happens that I had a photo of me wearing the same dress. In 1983. With my awesome Dorothy Hamill ‘do (I felt a special kinship with D.H., since my middle name is Dorothea. Never mind I’d never been near an ice skating rink in my life. I was pretty sure because of our similarities I’d end up an ice skating star too.) Oh, and check out those teeth. We had a babysitter who had buck teeth, and I thought it was so cute that they stuck out when she smiled. So I emulated that grin in my school picture.
Behold:
I think it’s safe to say that Emily wins this round.
The boys and I went to my mom’s this weekend, and while I was there, I needed to look for a photo of my mom and I to use for a blog post. Specifically, a photo from when I was a baby. As the third child, there just aren’t nearly as many of me as there are of my brother and sister. (Do you see me taking fewer pictures of Miles? Noooooooo.)
But I did find one album that had lots of photos of me, including one of me and my mom. Jackpot! So I borrowed the album so I could scan some of the pictures and aren’t you lucky, I’m going to share them here.
Starting with me as a tiny infant. I’m impressed with the level of tolerance my siblings (especially my sister) are showing here:
And she’s not shoving me off my dad’s lap here, but it looks imminent.
One of my earliest childhood memories is of my first birthday party. I have this really distinct memory of sitting in my little rocking chair with a crown on. But then I realize that surely I can’t possibly remember my first birthday party, right? Of course not. I just internalized this photo a bit too much.
Mmm, cake! If I was going to truly remember something, surely it’d be this…
My cousin Rob was born about four months before me. We were best buddies growing up. (Truthfully, I still have a hard time not calling him Robby, just as I’m sure he still thinks of me as Pammy.)
I noticed I was wearing the same outfit in these two Christmas pictures. I gotta get to the bottom of this. Surely these are a year apart, judging by my hair, right?
Maybe I was wearing my sister’s dress in the second one?
I definitely see the boys in this picture. Mostly just the expression on my face. I know I’ve seen Oliver make that face.
Love these of me and my daddy:
And a bunch of my cousins:
Just when I’m convinced I was the most hideous child ever (I actually felt sorry for my mom when I found all these class pictures…)
…I came across this, and I think, I wasn’t too bad!
But this…now THIS is the photo I love the best. I do definitely remember this moment. Those poor King Dons never stood a chance.
(nice mullet, kid.)
Okay, that’s all I’ll subject you to for now…
A bit more eventful than even I need…
Saturday started with a meeting at a restaurant about a local blog I’m going to be writing for. I had a post on it at the beginning of the month, and now I’m an official contributor. Exciting!
After I got home from that, I gathered up the boys and we took off for my mom’s house. They did a little fishing…
…a little Chuck E Cheesing with me and Grandee…
…and some Transformers-watching with Larry.
The next day, I got a call from George saying he hurt his ankle the night before. Uh oh. The picture he sent me didn’t look pretty, but I figured it was probably a sprain.
I went to Target to get an ankle brace for him, and remembered it was time for the massive toy sale. Only got one toy for an upcoming birthday party, but what a bargain!
However, by the time we got back home, his ankle had assumed extremely unnatural proportions. He was reluctant to get it checked out, based on his consultation with Dr. Google. But I pulled the wife card (especially after he noted the interesting “crunching feelings” it was creating when he put weight on it) and insisted we go to the ER.
Aunt Tee came and hung out with the boys while George and I went to the hospital. He got photographed
and then the verdict was in. A break. A pretty bad one, too. So it was wrapped up and he was handed some crutches. Good times.
Yesterday was a holiday for everyone, so while George hung out on the sofa or in his cave, I “supervised” while our friends Chris and Tony (nearly) finished off the bunk beds. I have to say, they’re truly impressive. And tall.
Meanwhile, the boys and Liam (Chris’s 8 year old son) played together, which was a really sweet sight. I’ve dreamed about Liam and the boys playing together ever since I was pregnant. It was pretty adorable.
After Chris and Tony left, I did a little painting. It’s going to take some maneuvering to get paint on the top bunk, but I’ll figure something out.
George has an appointment with an orthopedist today, either for a cast or something else. Please cross your fingers that he won’t need surgery!
(A few more random cute pics.)
We spent Thanksgiving with a large group from my mom’s side of the family. Aunts and uncles, cousins and their children. My aunt lives in a beautiful house on a beautiful lot with so many picturesque spots that I swear, if I lived there, I would open a photography studio on site and make my fortune thanks to the little pond, grassy hill, bricked patio and colorful flowerbeds which are bathed in a gorgeous golden glow in the late afternoon. So be warned, tons of pictures will follow.
My cousin Molly with our cousin’s daughter.
My baby cousin Sara and aunt Mary. (Since she lived with us when I was little, she was never “Aunt” Mary to me, just Mary Beth.)
Ellison crafting with her mom, Lottie, looking on.
The “quads”. Cute how my cousin’s son, Asa, was coordinating perfectly with the boys.
Aunt Caroline and Uncle Greg.
I took this picture of Lottie’s delicious cheese ball so she could post the recipe on Pinterest.
Right before they all fell in. Just kidding.
Campbell getting passed around. Such a sweet little peanut!
This is after Miles got a fat lip on the swing.
Love this shot of my cousin Clark swinging with Asa. (He’s my cousin who painted the mural I took the boys’ Christmas photos in front of.)
And here’s everyone that was there. Thanks to the magic of Photoshop, my cousin Matthew is in it twice. No, identical twins do not run in our family.
I am not one to get too gushy, but I am thankful for such a large and loving family.
I haven’t been able to post much because my camera cord is at home, so I can’t upload many pictures, blah blah blah. But we’re still here at my mom’s. I’m so very very grateful we are able to be here, but I think I speak for her and Larry when I say, we need our power back at home, stat. The boys are getting restless. I’m sure my mom wants her house back (my brother and niece were staying here for a week before we got here, so she and Larry haven’t been alone in their house for a long, long time.) and I just wanna go home. To my stinky house. Rain, humidity, and no power for this long takes its toll. Poor George has been there the whole time, pretty much. I think he stayed with friends for a night or two, just to get a decent night’s sleep.
School starts back up on Tuesday. Not sure what we’re going to do if the power isn’t back by then. I have to go back to work. The boys have to go to school. Ugh. Cross your fingers for us.
I shall leave you with some pictures from the other day. (from my iPad)
Miles:
Oliver:
Linus:
For funsies, here are pictures from this day (or thereabouts) for the past few years…
August 9, 2012:
Camp play!
August 10, 2011:
The boys modeling their Tiny TOMs for school. Too bad they only lasted about a month before they were ripped to shreds. Yeesh.
August 8, 2010:
Linus sneaking a chip. They can still wear these bathing suits, but they’re not that long anymore!
August 7, 2009:
I don’t have this picture marked, but I know it’s Oliver. Love.
August 10, 2008:
Miles is PISSED.
August 11, 2007:
I was about 17 weeks pregnant. Painting the nursery a color I agonized over.
There’s a small pond behind my mom and Larry’s house that’s stocked with fish. The boys love it when Larry takes them fishing, and this weekend, they each caught a fish! Legit! Dinner was good that night! (Only kidding – of course we threw them back.)
Linus says “HI FISHY!”
Oliver doesn’t want to get too close.
Miles says, “Go back to your Mommy, fishy!”
I really need to work on my post titles, eh? I am not so good at coming up with original ones. Anyway. We had a really fun weekend at Grandee and Larry’s house. I took lots of pictures. As usual.
Linus was excited about doing a project.
My mom’s backyard is a good place for taking photos. Glass of wine in one hand, camera in the other, relaxing on the patio while the boys paint.
Our plan for Saturday was to go to the Baton Rouge Zoo. I hadn’t been since I was a kid, probably 30 years ago. I just remember concrete and hot. Fortunately, they seem to have updated it somewhat in the intervening years, and I was pleasantly surprised. Our usual zoo is the Audubon Zoo, which is huge and great and usually crowded, and the BR zoo was a lot smaller, very shady, and not packed with people. The train is also a lot better there.
Oh wait, but before the zoo, I took my car to be vacuumed out. It was…disgusting. No other way to put it.
Before:
After!
So, the zoo. The smartest thing we did was rent two double strollers for the boys (and our bags.) They haven’t ridden in anything for well over a year, but there’s no way they would have lasted as long as they did if they’d been walking. Plus, my mom and I would race them, and the boys loved that.
This one’s for George. Pooping tiger!
Triplets!
Oliver was super-excited to be on the train.
We all were. Woo! Train!
That’s a real swamp right there. Yes indeed. This is Louisiana.
After the zoo, we hit Wal-mart, where we got the coveted triple cart!
And then it was back to my mom’s for dinner. And back home on Sunday. No exciting pictures there, sorry. This morning I started a fitness boot camp with a friend, so my arms aren’t cooperating fully. So I should probably stop typing now.
Want to share a post about your multiples? Do it here!
Yet another busy and fun weekend for us. It started Saturday with a trip to Lowe’s for a free workshop for the kids. It was really fun, and I think George had fun bonding with his boys over hammers and nails.
The boys were quite proud of their projects, two of which went to Granny and Grandee for Mother’s Day, complete with pictures in the “flowers” and plants in the planter.
Later, we went to a birthday party for a friend’s triplets, where there was an inflatable water slide. Linus and Miles went on it once, and Oliver got to the top but refused to slide down. Ah well.
I got to sleep in on Sunday (you know, until 7:15) and then I took myself to see The Artist. After the movie, we all went to have Mother’s Day dinner at PF Chang’s with Granny & Grandpa and Grandee & Larry. After the obligatory picture with my boys (why do I look heavier in this picture than the one last year, when I weigh at least 30 pounds less? Boo.)…
…we got gelato and the boys made a mess.
Miles looks like Daddy!
I also spent some time on Sunday re-editing the video from when the boys were born. There’s a little bit before, so I can remember just how gigantic my belly was, and then the c-section (not too gory, I promise), and then when Daddy first saw the boys, and then when I first held them. Awww, sweet!
And today is George’s birthday. Happy birthday, old man!
It was a very fun weekend, but it was also exhausting. So yeah, I’m kind of glad it’s Monday so I can be at work and in the relative peace and quiet of my office.
Saturday was my friend Maura’s wedding. I was very excited, mostly to see my friend get married, but also for the boys to wear the cute outfits I got for them. (I’m so shallow.) The wedding was about an hour from our house, and I still needed shoes, so Saturday morning, I ran to the mall to get some appropriate shoes. I thought it was amusing that I found the perfect pair at JC Penney. Amusing because Maura is a hot-shot lawyer in the corporate headquarters of JC Penney. She usually lives in Dallas, but she’s in Hong Kong for a couple of years working in their offices over there. Pretty cool! (But pretty sucky, seeing as her new husband lives in Texas still.)
Anyhoo, we got to the ceremony and the boys were pretty good. A bit restless, but understandably so. I had George take them out to the car a little while into it, so they could talk as loudly as they wanted, and so I could enjoy watching my beautiful friend.
After the ceremony, we headed to the reception, where my brilliant friend had gift bags full of crayons and wind up toys for the kids. This kept them pretty occupied, though all they really wanted to do was put the wind-up toys on the cake table, which caused me no small amount of anxiety.
In the end, they just raided all the leftover bags.
It was a lovely afternoon.
This is from when my friend Ren was trying to take a picture of me with the boys. They were not cooperating.
So that was Saturday. On Sunday, we chilled out in the morning (though why the boys felt the need to wake up at 6:45 is beyond me) until it was time to meet Grandee and Larry for lunch. My mom brought them little baseball mitts and balls and a t-ball set as their belated Easter gift, and my Uncle Doug (who is bound and determined to get our kids interested in sports) brought them a metal bat (!!) and instructed George on how to coach them.
After lunch, we had a photoshoot in the French Quarter with a photographer that another triplet mom had recommended to me. She was in town for the weekend from Dallas, and I wanted to have pictures that someone else took of my kids. It was kind of stressful getting to the FQ, due to Navy Week (it hadn’t occurred to me that this might be an issue until that morning) but we eventually made it. And the boys were so cute posing for pictures. Oh man. I mean, really. They were following the photographer’s direction so well, and they were being so cute. Loved it.
When we got home later, the boys were dying to play with their new baseballs and everything. So we carefully avoided the caterpillars in the yard (blech) and we tossed the ball around a bit, and they even hit the ball with the bat a little. (I hadn’t set the tee up yet, so I had to pitch to them.) They were still in their outfits from the pictures, so they looked like little old timey baseball players. Gaah!
Ahhh! Love it. Maybe they will be into sports after all!
My name is Pam, and I live in New Orleans with my husband George and my identical triplet boys Linus, Oliver, and Miles, born in December 2007.
