how do i love thee? let me count the ways...

i feel like i am always posting about the difficulties of raising triplets (teething, nap schedules, sleeping, not sleeping, eating woes, etc...) but there is so much to love about it too. so i thought i would share with you a snippet of what makes having triplets so incredible and the things that i just love about my babies. this post is dedicated to few of the things that just melt my heart...

• watching their 3 unique personalities grow and develop as they learn more about the world around them and themselves. they have had the very same basis for their personalities since day one. though clearly it is more complicated than this, simply put: james is very sensitive but easy going, ella is strong willed and fiesty & cameron is determined yet laid back.
  
• with each new milestone, i get to experience it times 3. 3 firsts each and every time. first words, first steps, first foods, first teeth etc...
  
• when we walk into their room in the morning or after a nap to get them out of bed they flash us the biggest grins and almost always erupt into giggles. they pop right up so their little heads are just peeking over the crib rails and jump excitedly (well, cameron and james jump & ella shakes her crib) because they are so happy to see us. when they were smaller and we still swaddled them one of my most favorite things was to watch them stretch as we unwrapped them and they would begin to wake up.
  
• watching them "share" their toys. cameron and james are the best at it, but every once in a while ella will give up not sharing to play fairly too. one will have a toy and shake it, watching the other for a reaction. and then the other grabs the toy out of the first peach's hand and does the same thing, shaking the toy and watching for a reaction. repeat. reapeat. repeat. so, so sweet to watch.
• when lydia walks into a room all 3 of the peaches instantly grin from ear to ear and let out an excited noise...james giggles, ella squeals & cameron laughs.
• the smiles: ella's clenched jaw cheeseball grin, james' what used to be gummy but is now a two tooth smile and cameron's open mouthed almost laughing grin.
  
• james' legendary love for blue (and pink) gorilla is just crazy cute. whenever he sees the little guy or hears the song (blue [or pink] gorilla very strong) he breaks out into laughter and when we take him with us anywhere i swear it is as if james is showing him everything. it is catching on with cameron who now gets just as excited when she sees one of the little guys. ella runs hot and cold towards the gorillas, sometimes she loves them and others she couldn't care less. she did used to have the same kind of love for hip-hop.
• eating is kind of a show in our house. and very, very messy. james stuffs his mouth as full as he can get it and then keeps trying to push more in there. if, he likes the food. and there isn't a lot he does like. if he doesn't like it he gives his highchair tray a disgusted look and questions me for a bob (banana) instead. ella has become a big fan of putting food in her mouth, chewing it up and then taking it back out and dropping it in her bib, in her lap on the floor, etc... and cameron is by far our best eater. she adores (ADORES) blueberries and will eat an entire pint in one sitting. the best part about it is watching the pure joy on her face as the blueberry "pops" in her mouth.
  
• if they really like something they are eating (especially if it is a new flavor or food) they will say mmmmm. when they 1st started eating solid foods (pureeed fruits and veggies) they would scream excitedly for another bite as soon as they had swallowed the first.
  
• all 3 peaches love music and have their own unique style of dancing. james' just developed a new one where he sits almost indian style and rocks his body side to side in a sort of wiggle ( i will have to post a video of it). cameron of course does the roni dance. and ella has a few dances...one she kind of flops her body while on her tummy, often moving backwords and the other she bops her head almost like a chicken.
• cameron loves to give kisses, james loves to give hugs and ella loves to be held.
• they love to go bye-bye...in the stroller for a walk, in the car, anywhere. if you ask them if they want to go bye-bye they get so excited and flap their arms and will often even crawl to the door. sometimes cameron will even say ca (car) or ak (walk).
• their unique styles of crawling...cameron's infamous army crawl (it really would be perfect if she were required to crawl under some barbed wire), james head down, super fast, i gotta get where i need to go determined all fours crawl & ella's almost wobbly, somewhat dainty all fours crooked crawl.
• the chasing...they often love to crawl around the house following each other, stopping to see who is behind them before continuing on. and often giggling.
  
• they love, love, love to look out the window at the birdies. or to check out who is outside; when someone has just gotten here they love to greet them at the window.
• the laughs and giggles...james' is a belly laugh, cameron's is almost a fake ha-ha laugh & ella varies between an ahh-ee-ahh happy sound and a giggle.
• james' pointing and attempts to communicate with words that are still very much jabber and hard to understand.
  
• the girls' ability to quack at the appropriate place in the 5 little duckies song.
• smacking their lips together to blow kisses
• the waving to say hello, goodbye, nigh-night. james' wrist turning wave, ella's entire arm side to side wave & cameron's entire arm up and down wave.
  
• oh my, the clapping! they all have such unique little claps. james gets really excited and hold his arms out in front of him clapping those hands together as hard as he can, ella's is similar but a bit dainter and she just gets the sweetest smile on her face & cameron's is still really timid and is more of a tapping.
• listening to them babble on the monitor as they wake up from their naps...it is recently turning into chatter and conversation that usually ends with lots of giggling and it is just so sweet to listen to.
• random things that i love: their chubby little thighs, those round bellies, the tiny little bare bottoms (especially as they are crawling away to escape a diaper change), the wispy hair, their tiny little hands and tiny little feet, the oh so soft baby skin, the sometimes quizzical looks, the endless and sponge-like learning, the unwavering trust and love that radiates from their faces for john and i, the adoration they hold for lydia
• the joy of having a baby and raising a child is multiplied by 3 with triplets. one of my favorite sayings says something similar to this: your love (or heart) doesn't divide with each child, it grows.