Busted!

We have just had one of those weekends when no matter what diet one is following; you end up putting on weight. Only because the adults in this mad house were both in desperate need of comfort food. First, the relentless pace at work continued last week with the average conference call finishing at midnight. Thursday night a colleague and I were still exchanging e-mails at 1 AM while completing a report for the US. The frenzy should alleviate in a few weeks as we put second half planning to bed. Regardless, I went into the weekend quite tired. Second, we are down one helper. Lita is home in the Philippines on a much-deserved holiday. She will be back in Canada with Tess and the kids for nine weeks during the summer where she will have downtime, of course, but no friends to spend it with. Therefore, the least we could do was give her some time off prior to The Big Canadian Adventure.

Third, the kids were just nuts this weekend. Friday night was relatively easy once Sebastian got to bed a bit late. Tess and I also watched an episode of Super Nanny thus our philosophy on discipline tightened up considerably while The Kids slept. Olivia must have forewarned them because they spent the rest of the weekend rebelling in some form or another. Can you imagine a tubby tabby sitting on the bedroom floor with paws crossed, tapping the dark varnished wood tiles with her claws as Sela awoke?

“Meooow… Good morning, Sela. I think you should know your mom and dad watched Super Nanny while you innocent beings catnapped. Then Sir read The Bible… you know They talk about ‘The Rod’ in The Great Book?”

“He would never discipline me, I am too young,” Sela would reply.

“Meow… maybe so, Sweet Pea, but your day will come, your day will come. They use time outs and revoke privileges. Just wait, Sweet Pea, your day will come.”

“Whatever, Olivia,” Sela would say patronisingly, “come on you guys wake-up, wake-up, CARYS! JASPER! SEBASTIAN! TWINS DOWNSTAIRS! WAKE-UP! EVERYONE WAKE-UP! WAAAAAAH!!!”

It all started Saturday morning when the triplets awoke with a roar, taking Sebastian with them. That meant Seb was trotting into our room at 7 AM asking for “Breakfast on the Balcony” – specifically French toast. Knowing that Mila and De were hard at work looking after the Terrific Trio, I chose to take care of Sebastian. It was a gorgeous, cool morning, so we sat on the balcony eating French toast. We ate slowly upon Sebastian’s request. Since he wasn’t going to school and I wasn’t going to work, Sebastian insisted we have a long leisurely breakfast. He didn’t use those words, but he certainly got the message across that we should eat slowly. Breakfast was easy and fun. The triplets often come to the window to watch Sebastian and I. If I finish early I’ll have one sit on my lap. This Saturday Jasper was distraught and shocked that our food on the other side of the window looked much tastier than his!

Round about the middle of the day the vomiting started. Other than Jasper, who spent the weekend throwing up and crying, I have no recollection of who vomited. I do recall that Carys spent the weekend threatening. As a little kid did you ever stick your tongue out and make a “banana split?” A “banana split” is when you stick your tongue out like a tube. That’s what Carys does right before throwing up. Her tongue extends out of her mouth in a half moon shape, as if the she is about to slide a small bowling ball, or her last meal, down the trough. We have various distraction tricks – clapping hands, loud noises, singing etc – to thwart these rebellious antics.

Sebastian’s rebellion for the weekend was to forget he had ears. In other words, he would not listen and after Mom and Dad watched Super Nanny, this was the wrong weekend for THAT trick. We were handing out time outs to Sebastian like free prizes at a circus. Fortunately by the end of the weekend the timeouts had an effect. But, on Saturday at the Playground poor Sebastian was in quite the foul mood at a friend’s birthday party. We didn’t manage his juice intake and wee wee output adequately. At 1 AM Sunday when Tess finally got sleepy enough to retire, she found three juice boxes worth of wee wee distributed all over Seb’s bed… and another three waiting in his bladder as he sleepily teetered on the toilet pumping the bilge. Tess spent another half an hour cleaning up while I comforted very tired and unhappy Sebastian in our bed.

Jasper was truly forlorn all weekend. At first we thought he had another cold coming on, after his drool output increased tenfold and he started tugging at his ears, we concluded the old racehorse is giving birth to another alien tooth. After Sebastian’s 1 AM racehorse performance, Jasper joined the team at 5 AM, screaming at the top of his lungs. I hauled myself out of bed. First I gave him some medicine to reduce his fever. I then attempted to give him a bottle, which he resisted. By this point, with Jasper wailing non-stop, Mila came into the flat from her room in the back. We tried to give him some cool yoghurt. No joy. Jasper loves water. He reluctantly accepted a taste. Tess appeared and suggested she take Jasper. I said I would hold him a few minutes longer and Tess is probably glad I did that! I stood up with Jasper in my arms, his chin resting on my shoulder, and suggested to Mila some cereal. (Jasper is on the cusp and in the near future will likely give up the bottle altogether.) Mila disappeared into the kitchen but returned as she heard The Sound.

The Sound was the unmistakeable gurgle of the previous night’s half digested dinner, cherry flavoured ibuprofen, a few mouthfuls of soy formula, a taste of soy yoghurt, a few sips of cool water, all on their way up. Mila ran toward me as the first thrust spread itself across my chest. Mila caught the second thrust in a towel she’d grabbed on her way out of the kitchen but the ever practical Tess (and had she not done this I would have told her to) grabbed the back of my already soiled baggy, t-shirt to collect the third, fourth and fifth thrusts.

From wake-up to this point Jasper had barely opened his eyes, telling me that maybe he just needed to go back to bed. I thought to myself, “Empty stomach + Ibuprofen = sleep.”

“You know what? Let’s just give him a fresh shot of Ibu and put him down,” I suggested to Tess and Mila. So we did and he did after comfortably settling himself on Tess’ torso. I went back to bed. Tess followed in a few minutes. (We found out much later that Jasper never went to sleep… he merely stopped crying and dozed in and out of sleep in Mila’s loving arms.)

The above pretty much sums up our weekend. Though we did manage to get a few fun moments in (as seen in the attached pictures) when the girls modelled their new swim suits and made themselves available for pictures with Tess and Sebastian. I should also mention that during snack time in our Church creche, The Terrific Trio enjoyed cheerios and were able to keep them down for the first time ever. Sure, they'll do this for Mila but not for their parents? More fuel for my rebellion theory! Carys threatened to throw-up all weekend. Sela did at breakfast Sunday. Jasper was sick non-stop until we became very strategic about when to administer drugs (20 minutes before food to settle in) and then a slow feed. In all cases we throttled back the amount given to each baby and by Sunday evening just a few hours before starting this blog we were getting back on an even keel. Even Sebastian tried to be as good-natured as possible at Sunday dinner. The poor little guy was so tired halfway through his supper he confessed he wanted to go to bed, allowed me to brush his teeth for him, and then after PTB almost immediately fell asleep.

“Ah, quiet at last,” I thought as I stood up from Sebastian’s bed. Both Jasper and Carys were deep in dreamland. I walked by Sela’s crib. There she sat, quietly chattering to herself and looking up at me as I approached. “Good night, Sela,” I whispered, “time to go to sleep... no more rebelling!” Sela keeled over onto her side, snuggling into her blanket.”

The big news, folks, is that this weekend Sela’s time did come, just as Olivia would have predicted. It was sometime on Saturday afternoon, shortly after Sebastian served several two-minute sentences on the Thinking Chair for a variety of back-to-back misdemeanours. Jasper sat on Mila’s lap crying when Sela and Carys had an altercation.

I was sitting on a sofa next to a table that both Sela and Carys had used to pull themselves to a standing position. Sebastian lurked nearby, seeking approval after his latest time-out. Carys stood staring at wailing Jasper. Suddenly I saw Sela reach over, grab Carys hand, pull it into her mouth and bite. Carys exploded in pain – huge tears welled down her face. Mila put down Jasper to comfort Carys. Meanwhile I pounced on Sela, taking her away from the scene. I sat her on my knee and calmly explained that she needed to learn not to bite. Sela rebutted with a cute, diva-like smile.

Sebastian leaned in toward Sela and I. Then he said with a very innocent and endearing voice, “Daddy, Sela bit Carys’ hand. Is Sela going to get a time-out?” Very quickly it occurred to me the gravity of what Sebastian asked.

The last month we’ve tried to give Sebastian more space around the triplets. The Terrific Trio are moving quickly these days. They are in that zone where everyday they accomplish cuter and cuter things, each one a little developmental milestone unto itself. They are also in that place where it’s hard for them to intentionally do anything wrong – except in Sebastian’s world. Regularly, Sebastian will find the Terrific Trio chewing on a favourite toy or trying to pull apart his Geo Trax train set.  As a household, we have agreed that certain toys are off limits to the triplets and make a point of explaining to them, in front of Sebastian, that they need to leave certain toys alone unless Sebastian agrees to share the toy. All this is to impress upon Sebastian that life in our home is fair and there is no double standard. Meanwhile Sebastian watches, as he was doing when he asked if Sela would get a time-out. So… I made the call…

“You know what Sebastian?” I said quietly, “That is a very good idea.”

With Sela still sitting on my knee, staring at me cutely, I went through the routine. I explained that she was getting a thirty-second timeout for biting. “We’ve had a few other biting incidents this week, Sela, so biting has been previously explained to everyone as inappropriate.” (Jasper bit Carys much harder a few days earlier, but in that incident Carys stuck her hand in Jasper’s mouth to feel his horse teeth. Jasper pleaded self-defense.) “I love you Sela and I know Carys forgives you. My job as your dad is to teach you that there are boundaries and biting is crossing a boundary.” I carried Sela over to the Thinking Chair, where Sela served her first timeout.

Olivia walked by, rubbed herself against the chair and meowed, “Busted!”

Comments

[Auntie Pammie]

REading your blog this morning was so much better than my normal Sunday routine ... Wow I cannot believe how much those babies and (Seb) are growing. Kudos to Olives for giving those babes a heads up!
Looking forward to seeing you all soon !
Love Auntie P
xoxo

[Amber]

LOL! I just love reading your blog. Makes my heart happy. Great pictures!

[Mum aka Mo aka Maureen]

What fabulous reading, Charles! Definitely give up your day job and stay at home and write non-stop about the goings-on in your families' life. We all enjoy it so much - I am with Amber :-)

Again, I commend you and Tess for your parenting. Trusting the throwing up will settle down and those little tummies will mature.

The pictures are so wonderful. Please keep them coming.

Much love,
M xox

[karyn]

Ah, yes. Time outs. My one year old has himself been known to get banished to the 'naughty mat' now and then. Mainly to keep some sort of harmony with his 3 year old sister, who is herself a repeat visitor.

Sorry to hear your weekend was so um, messy. Hope everyone is feeling better soon.

[maia]

Ahh the joy of parenting wee ones :) Just remember "little children little problems.." Just you wait! (Or so my 'evil' parents of 6 remind me). Enjoy what you can of these early years, they are so fleeting! (And yes, if you fly me out there I will happily eat my words ;)

[Tertia]

I LOVE the pic of the babes looking out at S on the balcony, it is so so sweet.

And HOW hot is Tess!!! You are one lucky man.

xxoo

[anne]

You have to read "Jerome K. Jerome's Three men on a Bummel" - there's a fantastic chapter on why parents should always have padded rooms for those weekend mornings! Also - why fathers sometimes need to be bachelors!