Triple The Dad

I read an article recently exploring when a child actually starts to form their first actual memories. The article delved into what you actually remember, and what you may recall based on the retelling of stories. Sure, you may remember doing XYZ during your childhood, but do you actually remember it, or is it something that you recall simply because your parents have told that story 1,000 times? Some people reported remembering things from before their first birthday – much earlier I can fathom remembering stuff. My triplets are almost one-year old now, so I started thinking about when and what they would eventually remember.  With that in mind I started thinking about my earliest confirmable memory that wasn’t the result of parental retelling. Placing those memories can be a real problem. Life and time have a way of blurring everything together. I have trouble remembering whether I did something last month or last week, or the month before, let alone something I haven’t thou...

As much as I’m confused by the hatred between formula feeders and breast feeders, the friction between those with children and those without mystifies me even more. Why do we care so much about what another person is doing? I mean, I love my kids, and before I had children of my own I was one of the few adults who could be found playing with the kids at picnics. I’m basically a kid at heart. But I wouldn’t trade mine for yours. And as much as I liked my child-free life at times, I wouldn’t trade it for what I have now with my triplets. That isn’t to say that the child-free life doesn’t hold some advantages over one with children. But pretty much any choice involves pros and cons. Rarely is there any situation in which all the good outcomes fall on one side. That is what makes it a choice. In any case, are there things I miss from my pre-triplet days? Sure. There is the money, the freedom, the ability to lay around on a Sunday morning drinking coffee and watching stupid TV. Oh, an...

According to a study done at the Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center and published in the journal Pediatrics, and reported on by WebMD , breast milk-fed infants showed slightly higher mental development at 6 and 12 months, and slightly improved language skills at the same ages. Breast-fed infants performed higher than milk or soy formula fed babies at psychomotor skills at 6 months. This is all very interesting. And I’m sure, given the battle over breast feeding, that these findings will go to bolster the “breast is best” crowd. But there are a couple of points I’d like to raise in the debate in deference to fairness and completeness. First, the researchers point out the differences between breastfed and formula-fed infants “were quite small after adjusting for other factors, like being small for gestational age, etc.” So, when you factor out stuff that gives infants an advantage anyway, the difference between breastfed and formula fed was “quite small.” The second is anothe...

Triplet tested, Triple The Dad approved! When we first brought our three little ones home getting them to sleep was key.  Not only for our sanity, but to prevent them from waking each other.  If you are reading this then you probably have or had young kids, and if you have, you know the the term "sleep like a baby" refers to some mythical time that may or may not exist.  It certainly does not apply to 3 month olds, unless by "sleep like a baby" the speaker is referring to sleeping somewhat fitfully for 3 hour chunks. We were determined to only feed our babies on our schedule.  Not anything harsh or mean, mind you, but when you have three some sacrifices have to be made.  We couldn't feed one at 2 hours, another at 3 hours and yet another at 3.5 hours. So came to rely heavily on this Fisher Price Aquarium Swing.  When one of the babies woke early or was grumpy, a quick trip into this swing was usually enough to get them right back to sleep....

Hey, head over to Ordinary Parent to check out this Dad's perspective on being a father to triplets!

Well, I just submitted my article for Ordinaryparent.com .  I thought I was about 3 weeks late, but it turns out I sent my "almost done" email April 10, so it was closer to 5 weeks late.  Two weeks per kid isn't too bad, I guess.  And hey, I have triplets, so cut me some slack.  The process of writing it could have been an article unto itself. But its finished and off.  I'll post a link to the article once its up and probably cross post the article here.  For the time being I'm posting a short preview below the break.

It won't surprise many of you that kids can get really into something.  As in really into something.  I'm not talking about a cabinet or a bag of flour.  I'm talking about how a child will pick one particular toy - in a room of 100 toys - that is just absolutely their favorite and that they can't live without. Mine aren't old enough to do this with colors yet, but I'm braced for the inevitable "favorite color" barage that is coming from my triplets. I'm going to try to avoid the mistake this guy made by not letting my daughter and two sons know that the local Home Depot retails about 5,000 shades of color. But I'm not sure I, or anyone, can avoid the inevitable change of heart that come with being a child.  Which is why I'm already readying my defense: the accent wall. In my mind it goes this way: At some point the boys will be spun off into their room and Sadie will have the place to herself.  She will inevitably tire of the nurs...