Like the space shuttle

I came to compare our family with a launch of a space shuttle today...

I understand that space launch is a delicate and complex matter even though it has been done hundreds of times. The space craft needs to take off within a very narrow time frame, the launch window, in order to be able to get to the space station or wherever it is intended to go. Then the craft needs to be fueled, and that takes some time but the craft can't stay fueled more than a couple of hours - or it needs to be unfueled. And the astronauts need to be dressed and in the space craft in time. And a gazillion other things needs to be prepped in order to launch. 

This is a little bit like getting all seven of us on a field trip somewhere. Now in the summertime we try to go somewhere almost every other day, but the launching sequence is rather complex and we never seem to get away in time, or with the right stuff, or...

Our launch window is defined by the time someone needs to eat. If we feed EOF their lunch at 11.30 and the rest of us didn't have our lunch ready at the same time, we then know that we need to eat, pack, get off and arrive within three hours, otherwise we'll have three not so happy kids, at least one screaming for food. Packing the car is like the refueling part. First it is complex to do in a ever changing environment where someone always is calling for help. Things you were trying to pack never stay in one place but is moved whenever you turn your back to them. If we get the stuff together we start getting the kids in the car, all in the right clothes and shoes, all strait from the bathroom or with a new diaper. If we aren't quick enough, we'll soon need to redo it all when kids need to go to the bathroom or have diapers changed again...

But we do manage to take off quite often - and leave some trace of our activities on Facebook or here on the blog. 

So if NASA needs some space launch coordinators, or a training environment, they now know where to look! 

Terrorists...?

I've come to call Elin, Oscar and Filip "the terrorists" (Swe: "terroristerna") now and then. It's of course a joke, but here's the reason:

It's not laundry on the floor. Elin and Filip have just found it interesting to go through all pyjamases... I need to remember to close that door next time. 

No milk today?

For about eight months milk (breast milk or formula) was the sole thing Elin, Oscar and Filip ate. Most of the time it has been formula. I did a quick calculation the other day and came to the conclusion that we have mixed more than a cubic meter (a metric ton or something like 300 US gallons) of formula during this period.

A few months ago we started "training" with solid food as well. For some time none of the kids ate very much and they still drank as much formula as they used to. But suddenly this changed. Over the last two months or so first Elin refused the milk bottle during the days, and then all three started accepting food in much larger quantities. We now serve them breakfast oatmeal, fruit purée snack, some lunch, another fruit purée snack, dinner and more oatmeal every day. They get milk (formula) during the night and at bedtime. 

And the formula consumption has drastically changed. A box that used to last one day now last three or four days. We used to mix formula a liter at the time and keep in the fridge - now this is waste of space!

So we are approaching a milestone; the day we can say "No milk today!". We'll have a bottle of sparkling wine ready for the day we finally get rid of the milk bottles. :)

Ordväxling / Conversation

This is about a conversation that took place in Swedish, hence is it hard to write about in English. We've tried to make a translation further down. 

Ordväxling invid vår stora trillingvagn "Pansarkryssaren Potemkin", utanför den lokala jourbutiken, dit jag och alla barn gått för att köpa lördagsgodis:

Frun till sin man: -Har du sett, trillingar! 

Mannen tittar ner i vagnen, konstaterar faktum och tittar sedan på mig. 

Mannen svarar sin fru: -Det kunde man väl räkna ut. Se på honom - så smal! Han är ju helt slut!

Han gör en paus och brister ut i ett härligt leende för att bekräfta sin ironi, och säger till mig: -Bra jobbat!

English translation:

Conversation around our big triplet pram "Potemkin, the pansar cruiser", outside the local mini-mart, where I and all the kids had gone to buy Saturday candy. 

The wife to her husband: "Have you seen, triplets!" The husband looks down into the pram, notice the fact and looks at me. The husband responds to his wife: "You could figure it out - Look at him - so skinny! He is totally worn out!" He pauses and a big smile breaks out in his face to confirm his irony, and tells me: "Well done!"

First few words

All three babies have start forming words during the last month or so.

Elin is definitely trying to say "Titta där" (Eng: "Look there"). She does it whenever she has set her eyes on something new and is heading (crawling) that way. (This is a bit special since Anna said exactly the same words when she was the same age.)

Oscar is playing around with many different sounds, but he is clearly trying to say "Mamma" ("Mom"), "Pappa" ("Dad") and "Äta" ("Eat"). Mom and dad is clearly linked to who is heading his way or is in his sights. Eat is something he says all the time, except when he has just finished eating. 

Filip is also playing around with sounds but it was just the other day that we realized what might be his first word. He says "Gaaga" over and over again at times. We now think he's trying to say "Kaka" ("cookie", "biscuit" or "cracker"), since he has started saying his word right when he's about to be served a cracker. (He definitely knows what the word means when we say it, since it makes him immediately look at the cabinet above the fridge, where we keep crackers and cookies...)  

Separate beds

Since about two weeks Elin, Oscar and Filip sleep in separate beds. They shared one bed for almost ten months (they had separate beds for a week or so at the hospital), but it had to end now. They move to much when they sleep and wake each other up in the process.

Their beds take up approximately half the master bedroom. We haven't done much decorating for the babies yet, but at least they now can sleep with their own stuffed animals they got for Christmas. 

The daily strolls

We currently have two kids that have a hard time going to sleep anywhere but in a moving stroller or pram. So quite often when we have one, two or three grumpy babies we push them into a pram and go for a walk.

This happens at least twice a day these days. The walks don't need to be long. 15 minutes usually do the trick, but adding a little bit more is quite nice - getting away from the noise and mess at home... ;)