It’s Friday? Already? NO WAY.

Here’s where I get all cliche on you and say something like, “Holy crap, life happens incredibly fast lately. I blink, and a week has passed.”

No joke, though. That’s honestly what it feels like.

All week, I’ve had plans to write. I have what seems like a thousand ideas floating in my head, but these ideas flit in and out while I do Life Things, and by the end of the day, when I’m lying in bed, thankful for silence and time to rest, I think, “OH CRAP. I was going to write about _______. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Then tomorrow comes, Life Things happen, and I find myself back in bed, exhausted and thinking the same thing.

Things I want to tell you about:

• Thebabiestoddlerskids (what am I supposed to call them now that they aren’t technically babies?) Eleanor, Toby and Callista finally had their one-year well-child checkups (delayed because we switched pediatrician practices) on Tuesday. The doctor exclaimed, “I can’t find anything wrong with them!” at one point, giving us verbal high fives for maintaining healthy, happy, well-developing premature triplets. Eleanor weighs 16 lb 15.5 oz & is 28.5″ long; Toby weighs 17 lb 12 oz and is 29″ long; and Callista weighs 19 lb .5 oz and is 29.5″ long. They’ve multiplied their birth weights by close to nine times, and they’re close to twice as long as they were at birth.
• Doctor’s offices need to allow patients to control the temperature in exam rooms. I don’t know about kids you know, but mine turn into little furnaces when they get upset. The room was already warm, but then you add in all the contained activity needed to control three thrashing toddlers keep three toddlers happy – Rob, my mom and I could have all used showers after that checkup.
• Yes, that’s right. We visited the doctor in a six-person posse. I normally bring just my mom, but I wanted man-to-man defense for this multi-vaccination visit – one lap per child. It’s just so much easier.
• Yes, I’m still breastfeeding and pumping. My immediate goal is to close out cold/flu/RSV season to give my preemies the best chance at avoiding illness and hospitalization. Beyond that, I just don’t know. They’ve grown and developed so well – far above anyone’s expectations – and without knowing how much credit can be given to the components of breast milk … well, I hesitate to take away something that has done so well for them. So, we’ll see.
• I made this really awesome, really easy cake: http://getcrocked.com/2011/08/18/crock-pot-hot-fudge-cake/
• Peanut Butter Jelly Time, our March for Babies team is starting to grind squeaky gears and get ready to crank up the speed. I really need to find time to get organized.
• Speaking of time, I started a new thing this week. I constantly chase my tail on just about everything – it’s part of any busy life – but one thing I struggle with is keeping on top of housecleaning before it’s on top of me. I much prefer to clean a little more frequently than clean a lot less frequently, but … you know. So I’m trying a schedule. I separated my house into five parts, one for each weekday: living room (including our foyer), kitchen (I picked the most-lived-in-aka-dirtiest spots for the beginning of the week, (allegedly) before I’m burned out), guest bath/hall/laundry room, babies’ room/office, master bed/bath. My plan is to tidy and dust each room/group on its scheduled day and rotate a woodwork/floor washing schedule every other week so I don’t have to wash floors every day of the week. One week in, and it’s working out, including a necessary day swap because I didn’t have time for the kitchen on the Doctor Visit Day. There’s a bit more to the schedule, but you that’s the quick-and-dirty rundown.
• Speaking of dirty, I have a confession. Rob thinks it’s gross, and is probably gagging reading this confession. I’ve been washing my hair for more than a month now with nothing more than baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Short story: Something has changed my hair – be it pregnancy, postpartum whatnot, breastfeeding, I don’t know what, but – it’s different now. I’ve got a double whammy of thick hair – I have a lot of it, and the strands are all thick and mostly textured. I have never been able to wash it every day, but for a while now, it’s needed it. Except washing it every day didn’t help the gross feeling, the greasy feeling, the general ick. I tried a bunch of different shampoos and conditioners and had fancier stuff on my Christmas list, but I got frustrated and threw up my hands one day, desperate for a fix. I ran across the baking soda/vinegar suggestion again (I’ve seen this several places), and figured, “Why the hell not?” I mean, what did I have to lose? I’d have to wash my hair again if it didn’t work. Big deal, right? IT WORKED. It works. My hair is back to its regular self, if not better. It’s clean, it’s not overly dried, it’s not overly greasy. It’s lovely. And guess what: I spend maybe $2 a month on my hair products. WIN.
• We’re in nap limbo. The kiddos have been napping twice a day under the 2-3-4 school of thought since October-ish. Now, they sometimes skip their afternoon nap or have one really short nap, but when I tried keeping them up for one mid-day nap, they melted down and got that sleep-killing second wind before they could eat lunch, then all naps for the day got blown to pieces. They just aren’t ready to give up their morning nap, and they can’t make it to the end of the day on that one alone, so we are doing the Marla Hooch, dancing in and out of the batter’s box while I scratch my head. Oh, well, right? AT LEAST THEY SLEEP.
• One month after Eleanor, Toby and Callista are now walking more and more. They’re finally getting more balanced and brave. Toby is about even on his walking and crawling time. Callista is definitely walking more than crawling, though she still breaks out her trusty slithering crawl if she wants some speed. Eleanor? Well, she’s working on running now.
• I’m trying to get more use from my iPad apps. Paprika is my new favorite, an awesome app used to search for and store popular-site recipes. My kiddos freak their freak over a Bubbles app, complete with mimicking the popping-bubbles noise when they spot my iPad. I love Camera+ and diptic for photography stuff, and my Nook/iBooks/Kindle apps are all itching to be filled with books. What are some of your favorites/must haves?
• KINDLE. Speaking of that, I read an AMAZING book this week. It’s my first non-picture-book read since giving birth, and I couldn’t have chosen a better book to reignite my passion for reading. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was released last week. John Green is easily one of my favorite authors. His characters always have such a familiar dry wit to them that makes me want to snatch them from the pages so we can hang out and be smart and funny and awesome together. I realize I sound like a drooling fangirl fool over here, but I literally hug books I love, and this one got a big hug, even if it was an eBook. I can’t yet put together a good review or recommendation that isn’t so full of bias, so I recommend you look at Amazon’s description if your interest is at all piqued.

Right! On that note, I’m off to stuff food down my gullet before my three mooches wake and demand I share my food with them.

(Seriously, it’s Friday? Are you sure?)