Sunday, September 29, 2013

Who swopped kids?

Okey, our smallest ones eat reasonable most days. But today someone must have swopped them for some else's kids.

Anna made omelette for lunch; four eggs, diced potatoes and peas - supposed to last for EOF and Anna. Anna got nothing at all - she called the rest of us (out doing errands) and ordered hamburgers.

For afternoon snack I first made one sandwich, then another one, then a third and then a fourth. They have by now each eaten twice as much as L an S had for their snack.

We have really had a hard time the last two weeks calibrating the amount of food we need to buy and cook. We never have leftovers any more and add sandwiches after the meals just too often.

Friday, September 27, 2013

At the end of the day

Having five kids in the house make lots if things more complicated than before.

Putting them all to bed is quite a maneuver (as I have written previously). But when they all are asleep the work still isn't finished. This is the sight that we meet most days when we come down the stairs to the living room sometime between 8 and 9 PM:
 So before we can crash on the couch we need to find it and get to it...

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

No rain in the afternoons, please!

The first two weeks of September had the best weather ever in! I wore shorts and t-shirt every day! But two days ago the autumn rains inevitable came. And with them came loads of extra work every time I need to go out with the kids.

Yesterday it took me a good forty minutes to dress the three smallest kids, put them in "Potemkin", put rain covers on and then dress my self in goretex - just to be able to walk to school and daycare to pick up L and S. I will get more efficient with time and training, but to get out the door in three minutes (like last week) won't happen again any time soon... I can't wait for spring! ;)
And, I need to teach EOF to stay inside the stroller's rain covers. When I got back yesterday, the kids had quite wet hair, due to them peeking out all the time. That might work in September but in November they will catch a cold before I know it!

Can't do it without support

I made a short appearance as a university teacher yesterday. I held a seminar for for pharmacists-to-be about what a pharmacist might do if you work at an agency.

Such a thing wouldn't be possible without support from friends or relatives. 

Yesterday it was made possible by a good friend who had worked an extra hour the night before just to be able to take care of EOF for an hour. Not only did she take the stroller for "any walk"; she took EOF for a walk in the woods* and to meet the sheep that are kept close by. She had also managed to gather three baby chairs and brought a few toys from her home to her workplace (at the university), to be used after the walk, at lunch. 

This made it possible for me to fully focus on something else for ninety minutes (and in the process relax quite a bit!). Afterwords I found three happy kids ready to have lunch in my friend's workplace's lunch room. My friend had even managed to eat her lunch first, so she fed the kids while I ate my lunch without much need of multitasking (eating AND feeding). (That's rare these days!)

THAT'S a good friend! Thank you!!!

*) Yes, the university is literally next to the woods and to a field where sheep are kept!


Friday, September 13, 2013

Shoes, shoes, shoes...

We're quite certain that we will have loads of shoes here before we know it. Another triplet family suggested making a shoe storage cabinet using left over CD shelves. 

We bought two shelves for 100 SEK ($16) and got one from some friends. (We use the shelf "Benno" from IKEA.) I sawed them to match the exact height underneath our staircase, put them there and screwed them to the wall. Done!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Just an ordinary weekend

We didn't do anything particular this weekend. My mother-in-law Margareta visited and we only...
- picked (Anna, Margareta, Ludvig and Siri) and boiled (Johan) 23 corn cobs
- took two kids to their swim classes (Anna)
- joined some friends for a wine tasting (Johan)
- made two kilograms of strawberry jam
- made a kilogram of rhubarb marmalade 
- took a car for a test drive
- defrosted two freezers
- (almost) learnt how to ride a bicycle (Siri)
- changed and washed the small kids all bed sheets
- gave the triplets their bath
- learnt how to climb up into a small arm chair (Elin and Filip)

Other than that we didn't do much. I guess we have built up quite a tempo in our daily life - we hardly notice the things we do around here. :-/

Saturday, September 7, 2013

One year check-up

I took EOF to a check-up at the health care center last Monday. My mom came along to provide a pair of extra hands - well needed since the kids were to have two shots each.
All kids grow steadily, each following their "curve". Elin hit the 10 kg mark this time.

Transportation

Moving the three smallest kids in the family around, perhaps only to get them to sleep, is a continues problem.

To handle the problems we have no less than three prams/strollers. 

The obvious one is the one we often refer to as "the panzer cruiser Potemkin" due to its size and weight - that makes people move out of the way when we walk down the street. 
With this pram we can walk around in and to things in our neighborhood and each kid can sit or lay down as we/they choose.
But Potemkin come with a number of new problems, and they are mostly due to its size. First: It won't fold together very well and we haven't even tried to get it into the car. Second: It's to wide and long to get into many places, like the doctor's office or the local bus. 

So we needed another "vehicle": Our Baby Travel Dublin.
This is really a stroller for two kids, but you can attach an extra seat in the front. Only two kids can lay down and sleep in it, and that is its biggest limitation for us. 

But quite often we do find that two is enough; perhaps only two kids need to sleep at a given time, one kid can be carried or ride in another stroller. When we take the bus downtown the extra seat is convenient; three seats but the stroller is still just the size of a two-kid stroller and we no problem getting on the bus. But the kids need to take turns sleeping. 
Pros with the Dublin is that it folds really well and is easy to put in the car and still have room for bags - or another stroller. The swivel weels also makes the stroller easy to maneuver - very unlike "the Potemkin"...

When we are two people that can push strollers, and all three small kids are coming along we usually use the Dublin along with our third vehicle, a Teutonia Timmy.

This is a basic stroller that folds well, allow a kid to lay down compleaty to sleep. We're happy that we realised that both the Dublin and the Timmy can be squized into our Ford Galaxy while all seven seats are in use!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Some kind of pillow

Elin is in an "off" mood today. Nothing happens the way she likes them to be, everything is off.

On such a day, it's not a surprise to me that when she finally decides to sleep she choose a milk bottle as a pillow...

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Taking turns

Last Thursday Anna went back to work, on the day one year after EOF was born. It is now my turn to be a solo parent at home with triplets. 

I got me a slow start. Since Anna started of with a job conference abroad I called in my mom as additional support. 72 hours alone with five kids was a bit to heavy to start of with, was my thinking. 

But now, on Tuesday when mom has left, I'm on my own. EOF decided on showing their "appreciation" of "the changing of the guard" by taking turns in their own way; sleeping. 

At least one has always been awake, while the sibling(s) has been a sleep. And when more than one has been awake someone has done his or her best in being as tired and grumpy as possible. The obvious solution, to put the tired one in the pram to sleep, has failed over and over again. 

I hope this act of appreciation won't last very long! ;)