It doesn't take much

One of the blessings of triplets is that they aren't (for the most part) very needy when it comes to attention.  Okay, that wasn't very clear.  Let's try again: Cole, Eli & Ava all play very nicely.  Together.  With toys.  Still not so clear, sorry.

Ava's the best.  She is a toy maker's dream.  She plays with toys...get this...THE WAY THEY ARE MEANT TO BE PLAYED WITH!  She'll sit with a toy and actually push the buttons.

Cole's so focused on perfecting his Frankenstein walk, that he doesn't really notice the toys in the playpen these days.  Sure, he eventually realizes they're there...after he FALLS on them.

Eli doesn't like to be PUT in the playpen...but once he warms up to the toys, he's good.  Of course, his preference is not so much the toys, but the toy baskets themselves...

America's Next Top Models

In a few short days, Cole, Eli & Ava will celebrate their first birthday.

CRAZY!

I'll refrain from the usual "where'd the time go" comments and save it for their actual "One Year Old" post.

For now, I thought you'd like a glimpse of their photo shoot:

A Visit to Ruth's House

For any of you that AREN'T baseball fans, this is the last year that the Yankees are playing in their stadium.  The team is building a new ballpark across the street (they're really branching out into the unknown).  Both Shane and I were RAISED as Yankee fans (even when I lived in California, 15 minutes away from the Angels). 
Since this year has been so crazy, I thought it would be "special" (I really dislike that word...but I can't think of another one) if we (Shane and I) took our Dads to a Yankee game.  With two Pastor Dad's, scheduling can get tricky, but we were able to plan a Friday night trip to the Bronx on Friday, 7/18.  The Yanks were playing the Oakland A's.  It was the first game back after the All-Star Game (which also happened to be at Yankee Stadium).

Around here, last week was "The 3 H's", as the weather guys love to say: Hazy, Hot & oh so crazy Humid.  As we were heading out the door, Shane suggested I grab a jacket.  A what?  Um, Shane...it's 90+ degrees outside and the humidity is like 85%.  "Oh, but it could get chilly, Amy."  So, I grabbed one, just in case.  There was NO WAY I wanted to hear about it, if, and that was a BIG IF, suddenly, the hole in the Ozone ripped wide open and New York became one giant Iceberg.  Of course, the jacket never actually made it out of my bag.

Sorry...I digress...back to the Yankee game.

We made it there in record time and had a blast.  Parking was nutty, but Shane knew what he was doing and went straight to a lot that had plenty of room.  We walked a good 15 minutes to the stadium, but it wasn't too bad.

Mussina pitched.

(That's Moose coming in from the bullpen for the start of the game.)

Our seats were great.

The game was great.

The Yanks won 7-1!

I had my favorite Stadium treat: a Frozen Lemonade!

A WONDERFUL time was had by all.

(From Left: Shane, my Dad, Shane's Dad)

Right before the game, the Yankees signed Richie Sexon.  This was also the first Yankee game after the death of longtime Yankee, Bobby Murcer.  There was a moment of silence and a great tribute of Murcer clips.

But I think my favorite part of the night (aside from just hanging out with my Dad, my FIL, and my hubby) was listening to the Dads share their memories of going to the stadium as kids.

There's so much history in that stadium...and not just Babe Ruth's homeruns.  When Shane and I first started dating, my Dad & I met his younger sister and him at the Stadium for a game.  Half way through the game, Bethany (11 at the time) announced that the center field wall "didn't look 408 feet tall!"

How many other people have similar stories?  How many fathers took kids to their first ball game there?  How many guys proposed there?  How many boys swore they'd be the next Ruth, DiMaggio, Mattingly, Jeter, after watching the Yankees play at the Stadium?

I'm sad it's going away.  But I have to tell you, I'm excited to visit the new stadium and make new memories there, too!

Future Ansel Adam?

Zoe loves taking pictures.  She is constantly "borrowing" our cell phones to take pictures and has already killed my original Sony Cybershot.  For future reference: a 4 year-old little girl, a tile floor, and a digital camera do not make a good combination!  But that's in the past.

For Zoe's 5th birthday, we got her a digital camera.  It's perfect.  She loves it.  She's been taking pictures for close to a year.  I've never actually "uploaded" any of her pictures onto my laptop.  She's never asked me to...until recently.

She sees me upload my shots all the time, and this week, she asked me to "do it to my camera too, Mom."  So I did.

Some of her favorite subjects are...well...anything and everything.  She'll take pictures of anyone who may be asleep next to her...

...and then she'll document what time she's NOT sleeping...

(No, they don't generally share a bed.  This was a "special" night that they got to fall asleep in Mommy & Daddy's bed.  Then when we went to bed, we put them in their own rooms)

I wish I had saved the pictures from a few weeks ago.  We were on our way to a friend's house to swim in their pool.  I stopped at Dunkin Donuts first, for an iced coffee.  Once we got to the pool, I checked out Zoe's camera.  There were dozens of shots of nearly every building from DD all the way to the pool.  Maybe she has a future in photo journalism?

Bare Bellies

When Shane's brother was younger, he asked his mom if he could "put on his bare belly" (or some variation of that story).  I've fallen in love with that phrase.  Ty will "keep his bare belly on" or "wear his bare belly outside".  Like it's a shirt!

What's better than one baby wearing a bare belly?  THREE!

A First for Ty

So often, I'm focused on the triplet's firsts: teeth, steps, words, etc.  But there's other "firsts" going on around here.

Last Wednesday (7/16/08), Ty travelled up the mountain to hang out with his favorite boy cousins: Sam, Noah (& I suppose Micah, too).  This was his very first sleepover.  Sure, he'd stayed at other houses while Mom & Dad were away, but he was teeny tiny.  This was for fun.

As soon as the plans were made, Ty was packed!

(Yes, I know, I'm a mean mom...it's a flowered bag.  I wasn't thinking!)

When I dropped my big boy off, Ty jumped out and I never made it 5 feet from my van.  He was off running into the backyard looking for Sam.  I didn't see him again until we met up the next day at a friend's pool.

Apparently, there was little sleep and lots'o fun.  The perfect sleepover recipe.

July = Cara

Many of you have asked how we're coping without Lindsay.

One word.

Cara.

She's great with the kids.  They love her.  But the end of the July is the end of Cara.  She's off on Family vacation and then back to school.  We've thoroughly enjoyed having her.