A photo update

A big thank you to Micko for coming by last weekend and taking some great photos of the kids. Here's one photo of Tighe, but you can see the entire slideshow on his flickr page here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/irishmick/sets/72157623868669917/

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Michael, Tighe and Cian (nearly 20 months old)

Do you know how difficult it is to get these 3 guys to pose for a photo? In this photo, I am holding 2 balls in my hand to get them to look at me. You can see that they are all reaching or pointing for the ball. Worked for a couple seconds. Later on, I tried putting Cheerios on the hand rail. They would just gobble them up and then run away down the bench.

This is pretty typical these days, the boys wanting the same toy and trying to pry it out of each other's hands. This is always followed by a scream and some crying.

In this photo, I thought I'd let them get away with standing on their train table without being reprimanded. This worked for a few seconds, but couldn't get them all to look and smile. Usually, they try endlessly to climb up on the table, while I tell them No and lift them back down to the floor. It's quite a fun game when you are 19 months old but not so fun when you are 30 something and trying to get the kitchen cleaned up.

Here they are playing in the side 'junk' yard. Michael was enjoying putting rocks in the watering can while Cian enjoyed looking through a whole in the fence and Tighe played with a white tube that usually covers some unused electrical wiring yard.

Going solo

Gigi, Clara and Marge left for Disneyland yesterday afternoon. I took the day off work today to look after the boys. I had planned on stocking up on food yesterday on my way home from work but wasn't able to. So, I loaded the boys up and off we went grocery shopping this morning. It went far better than I could have hoped for. They were very well behaved and the staff at Lunardis were very helpful as well.

The boys are taking their afternoon nap right now. We are heading over to Doug and Ann-Marie's for dinner this evening.

Five is a great age...

Some pics of Tighe above. He's wearing some NYC duds he got from Dino. He's got a mischievous smile and snotty nose in that last photo.

Clara with her friend Ryan at the park.

Michael

Michael chillin'

Cian

Cian is a very loveable lad altogether.

Above are some photos from a trip to the local park last weekend.

Gigi has been reading a book about 5 year olds, and one thing it mentioned is that it is a really great age, and one we should be sure to enjoy. And I couldn't agree more. Clara is really fantastic these days. She always wants to be doing things with us, our conversations with her are enlightening and enjoyable. I really hope we never reach that stage where our little girl is too cool to want to hang out and do things with us. For now though, things are great and I hope they don't change.

Clara has a special trip coming up this week. On Thursday she is driving to Southern Cal with Gigi and Grandma Marge for a visit to Disney Land, where she will be meeting up with seven of her cousins. We decided the boys are not quite old enough yet, so I'll be staying home with them. They'll be with their Nanny on Thursday and I'm going to take Friday off work to hang out with them.

We drove up to Windsor, CA yesterday to see Gigi's Dad and Peggy. We had a very nice visit. Michael added a little excitement to the afternoon by calling 911 on his Grandad's phone. Gigi caught him just after he'd done it and hung up the phone, but it was too late. 30 minutes later there was a knock on the door and sure enough it was a City of Windsor police officer. Once that call goes through, they come out no matter what. I'm not sure his Chief of Police will have believed him when he called in and reported that it was a false alarm call from an 18 month old triplet...

Linda and Genna came by and joined us for dinner. It was great to see them also.

Tighe had his monthly check-up at the hospital last month and all was well. He goes in for his next MRI in early March, so fingers are crossed for that to go well too.

The three boys are starting to use a few more words these days. Tighe just started saying "Clara" yesterday and it was very cute. He's certainly in the lead when it comes to talking. He's been stringing a few words together too, unfortuneately we're just not too sure what those words are yet. It's quite funny to see him earnestly attempt to communicate with what I'm sure he feels are perfectly well constructed sentences, but for now we can just smile, ruffle his hair and say "good work Tigho."

Michael has gone from independent explorer to mother hugger this last week or two. He really likes to be held by Gigi. His exploring and inquisitive nature are still there, he's just decided to only spend half his time doing such things now, the other half is devoted to his mommy.

Cian continues to be a pleaser. As an example, if I say to Gigi (not even directly to the boys) "I'm going to change their diapers", Cian will run to the changing table and be ready there with his hands up in the air to be lifted on and changed. On the other hand, Michael and Tighe interpret this sentence to mean we are going to play a game of chasing or hide-and-seek, and they quickly head in the other direction.

Christmas

Here's a photo update of our Christmas activities during the month of December:

Clara, Tighe, Cian and Michael (16 months old)

Thanks to Tracey for helping to make this photo happen.

Cian, Clara, Michael and Gramma at the Holy Spirit School Christmas in the Courtyard (otherwise known as the gym, not sure why they call it the courtyard). Fun-filled evening filled with crafts, pizza and cookies. Not really suitable for 16 month old kids. Thanks to Gramma for keeping the boys occupied so I could take Clara around to the craft tables. Tighe and Bryan were at the hospital for Tighe's tests (MRI and MIBG scan).

Strolled down to Lucky to pick up a Christmas tree.

Michael, Tighe and Cian in the Runabout triplet stroller. Good for walks around the neighborhood but not transportable in the van.

Meeting Santa at San Jose's Downtown Christmas in the Park. Clara asked for ballet clothes.

M, T & C at their 15 month checkup in early December (they were actually 16 months at the time).

Clara posing in front of our Christmas tree. She's started working the camera after going through a long period of not wanting her photo taken. The boys did great with the tree. They definately explored pulling ornaments off the tree and tugging at the strings of lights. But to my surprise the tree was never knocked over and we managed without a gate around it. Hopefully next year we can leave some ornaments on the bottom half of the tree.

Gigi, Tighe and Clara on our luxury bus ride with police escort over to the Christmas Fantasy Flight. Cops Care Cancer Foundation puts on a Christmas party every year for children with cancer. There were approximately 50 San Jose Police and Firemen in attendance. The event was held in the San Jose Police hangar at NASA. Santa Claus arrived in a helicopter and distributed presents to all the kids. Sharky, Tigger and Winnie the Pooh were there. Clara loved the Dora bouncy house. The SF 49ers head coach, Mike Singletary, was there with 2 other NFL players, Isaac Bruce and Sean Dawkins. We had a great time and felt very spoiled.

Santa arriving in the San Jose Police helicopter.

Tighe opening his presents from Santa. It was unbelievable!

Tighe with Michael Singletary, head coach for the San Francisco 49ers. Mike took a very keen interest in Tighe. He asked what Tighe had been through and spent a lot of time just intently focused on Tighe. Poor Tighe was completely exhausted, finding it difficult to hold his eyelids up. He fell asleep in his stroller about 10 minutes after this photo.

Tighe with Sean Dawkins, retired NFL player.

Tighe with the Assistant Chief of Police for the City of San Jose. What a great guy! My camera's flash was off and I took a couple unfocused photos before realizing it. He acted like it was no bother to him as I apologetically asked to take one more photo.

Opa Christmas at Jay & Rachel's house. Christmas party with the entire Becker family.

Cian, Tighe and Michael ready to be set free by Uncle Jay, after having their dinner in their high chairs out in the garage, where all the kids were hanging out.

Clara's turn at the kid's gift exchange.

The kids retired to Jay & Rachel's bed in their jammies to watch a movie. Back Row: Nick and Genna. Front row: Joe, Lucas, Clara, Lily and Maddie.

Lily, Clara and Maddie

Uncle James came to visit for a couple days after working in New Mexico.

Christmas Eve before heading up to Novato. The boys' outfits were a gift from James and Julia. Thank you very much. They looked quite dapper in them.

Cian

Michael

Tighe

Clara

Michael and Tighe

Michael cracking up. Love it!!

Michael, Tighe and Cian

Tighe, Cian, Michael and Clara with Mom & Dad at Gramma's on Christmas Eve

Clara getting the carrots ready for the reindeer. Note the antlers on her head. We baked cookies for Santa and sprinkled glitter on the lawn so that the reindeer could find our house.

Christmas morning. Tighe and Cian opening their gifts from Mom & Dad.

Michael with his gift from Mom & Dad. Clara loved the "I love you" singing Barney when she was their age. Like his hands-free bottle holding technique?

Clara changed into her ballet gear from Santa.

Christmas Dinner with Mom and Don. Bryan prepared a delicious Prime Rib. Clara even set a chair up for Sheepy, her hot-water-bottle-filled plush animal, sent over from Auntie Christina. Thanks Christina. Clara sleeps with Sheepy every night and the boys have their puppies in their cribs, using them as pillows.

Clara and Annie (Clara's classmate) hanging with Jesus after Christmas mass.

Tighe, Michael, Cian, Clara and Sienna at Gilroy Gardens Festival of Lights.