Hi everyone, I can't believe that it is already March. So much has happened in the past couple of months. Let me see if I can keep this short and sweet. We are all doing well. The babies just got over a cold, always a scare due to their (premies) being vulnerable to a sometimes fatal respiratory virus. Other than an occasional cold, everyone else in the family is doing fine. My mom had a little scare in February, details are below, but she is doing well now. Sharon and I went on a 3 week vacation last month and just returned this past weekend. We flew to Auckland, New Zealand where, after staying a couple of days in order to do some sightseeing, we boarded the Celebrity Millenium cruise ship and began a two week cruise down the eastern side of New Zealand, cruised several fjords (sounds) in South Island, New Zealand, and then crossed over to Australia, where we visited Melbourne and Sydney. We stayed a few extra days in
Sydney to enjoy the city and then flew to Hawaii, where we visited Sharon's aunt in Kuaui. After three days of getting rained on in Hawaii we came home. It was a grand time, we danced a lot, ate a lot and saw a lot, but after three weeks we were both ready to come back home.
Around the first of February my mom, who is 92 and has been living with us, fell and broke her pelvic bone in two places, as well as cracking her head pretty hard. We took her to the emergency and after x-rays and body scans it was determined that she could come home, but had to stay off of her feet until the bones healed. So, it was time to find a Board and Care place for her. Fortunately Sharon found a real nice place, a private home that has been converted, and only has 6 people living in it. There are two caregivers/nurses there 24 hours a day to take care of the ladies. Mom is doing OK even though her dementia has progressed to a point where sometimes she really doesn;t know where she is or what is happening. We hope that she can stay there, as she is close enough for us to visit her often. All the ladies in the home really love it when we bring the babies over. I think they are disappointed when we arrive without them.
When we arrived home we found that the babies had started crawling, and now are quite a challenge to keep track of. If you watch one, then you had better be ready for one of the other two getting out of sight real quick. Grace is the best crawler, moving about pretty quickly. Madeline sits up the best. She sits tall and straight, and really loves to look around. Nicklaus scoots more than he crawls, but he gets around pretty darn good. The other night he managed to crawl under our coffee table, where he bonked his head trying to get back out. He also has decided that whatever his sisters are playing with, he wants it, and takes it, even though he might already have the same toy in his hands. At the moment his sisters aren't putting up much of a fight when he takes their toys away, but I suspect that won't last long. They are progressing so fast that everyday brings some new experiences.
Breanna, Hannah and Rachel are growing up so fast. They love to take care of their baby cousins, especially Rachel, who wants to hold and mother them constantly. It is sure fun to watch the older girls grow up. Breanna has the typical junior high school boy situations. She was disappointed when at the first dance she went to this school year only 5 boys asked her to dance, but then this last dance I think the number was somewere between 15 and 20, and of course that made her feel real good. Hannah is not quite at the boy interest stage, but she does come up with some interesting things to say every now and then. She sometimes acts a little like a tom-boy, but at other times like a real young lady. Rachel is still working on some anger issues every now and then. She is so active and loving, and sometimes doesn't realize that in her effort to show her love she sometimes hurts people, and when they reject her, she feels the emotional pain.
So there you have an update. Sorry it has been so long, will try to do better. Attached is a picture of the triplets taken around the first of March. Gracie is on the left, Nicklaus in the middle and Madeline on the right. Enjoy and God Bless. Bernd
