19 On The 19th (Happy Birthday to My Triplets!)

Happy 19th Birthday to my triplets!

Senior Prom Pic of Baby A, B and C, 2012

My Plus One, also known as “Tween Daughter” says it’s a magical birthday when your birthday falls on the date you were born. Guess what? Baby A was born at 11:19 am! Baby B followed at 11:20 and Baby C showed up at 11:24. Quite a productive five minutes, wouldn’t you say hon?

Sonogram at 9 weeks.

Baby A

Baby B

Baby C

In honor of my “babies” turning 19, here’s a list of 19 fun facts about their childhood.

1.  When I was pregnant, Baby A was so squished she punched and kicked like crazy.  Baby B sat up and hung out, and Baby C frequently got the hiccups.

2.  Baby A weighed 2 lbs, 9 oz and came home after 6 1/2 weeks in the NICU.  Baby B was the biggest at 4 lbs, 12 oz and came home after 10 days.  Baby C weighed 4 lbs, 4 oz and came home on day 12.

3.   Our 2 year-old son climbed out of his crib and by the next day, his sisters did, too.

4.  All three woke up at the 6 am every morning no matter what time they went to sleep.

5. When the kids were toddlers, if one child came in our bed, all three would end up in our bed by the end of the night.  We called it “Triplet Radar!”

6.  During the week, as soon as the kids heard Daddy’s car in the driveway, they’d line up.  When he walked in the door, they’d take turns running towards him so he could pick them up and swing them high.

7.  I once entered the kids’ bedroom and it seemed, well, shiny!  Vaseline had been smeared across dressers and in hair.

8.  Another time, two of the three kids had stepped in a giant tub of diaper rash ointment and created white, gooey footprints on their bedroom rug.

9.  The kids knocked a tall dresser down so we bolted it to the wall.  We got rid of standing lamps.

10.  Baby gates didn’t stop the little monkeys from coming out of their bedroom so we put one on top of the other.

11.  I came in the kids’ bedroom to find ALL of the audio tapes with recordings of their first words shredded like confetti.  Stacking boxes, they reached the top dresser drawer where they found the tapes.

12.  After exploring the fireplace, they jumped up and down on they couches until they were covered in soot.

13.  Two siblings always ganged up on the third sibling–it didn’t matter which two.

14.  There was so much fighting about car seats and bath time, I created car and bath charts to determine who sat where and who took the dreaded “first bath.”

15.  When the kids melted down in restaurants, I called it live “Dinner Theatre.”

16.  They lasted about 1/2 hour in their first movie (101 Dalmations) and were more interested in the candy counter.

17.  The kids had combined boy/girl birthday parties through third grade when one boy playfully stabbed a girl with a foam noodle and broke her finger.

18.  There were only two classes in each grade of elementary school so the kids were in the same class until 5th grade when two were in one class and one was in another.

19.  In evenings and on car trips, we read books out loud together.  I started reading the Harry Potter series to them when they were in 2nd grade and we read all of the books, in addition to classic literature, together until senior year of high school.

Bonus Fun Fact:  When the kids were toddlers, some people insisted that the redheads were identical even though one’s a girl and one’s a boy! My response:  “They can’t be identical if one has something the other one doesn’t have!!!”

Dressing up in grocery bags but one is windowless!