Happy birthday. You're eight years old now.

Allie's class has a Student of the Week program that coincides with the student's birthday, so Allie was the student of the week last week.  So what does one do when one is the student of the week?  The kids share posters with pictures of family, friends and anything else they want to share.  Parents are invited to join the class and talk about their jobs or something interesting specific to the student.  I didn't think that second graders would be too interested in tax returns - hey kids, the government's gonna take some of the money you make - so I decided to talk about triplets and what it was like when Allie and her sisters were babies.  Allie had told me that sometimes kids at school say to her, "I saw your twin," and she was hoping that I would be able to clear that up.  Hmmmmm, not sure that I did.

Allie's teacher asked me what's the best part of having triplets.  I didn't really think about the question before responding, which I hope is a good thing.  I said that that the best part is being to watch them grow up together and seeing the special bond that they share.  It's a bond that they don't even realize exists because they don't know any different.  (Now, the funny part is that they sure can press each other's buttons but they do so because they are so close and they know each other so well.  I'm just going to keep telling myself that.)

Saturday night after the girls' birthday party with friends, we attended a birthday party for Rich's brother.  Allie had been upstairs with me and when we returned to the dining room, she discovered that Auntie P had asked Anna and Emily to help place the 6 and the 0 candles on the cake.  Allie exclaimed, "But there's nothing for me to do!"  Anna immediately handed Allie her candle and said, "Here, Allie.  You can put it on the cake."  I hugged Anna and told her that she had done a very nice thing.  She started weeping and said, "I don't even know why I'm crying."  (Auntie P is super awesome and she had a job for Anna making sure the candles were both lined up.)

When the girls were younger, and even sometimes today, most strangers seem to focus on the difficulties of raising triplets.  How do you do it?  But every once a while, someone comes along and says, "Wow, what a miracle.  You are blessed." And I really am.



















Emily asked for breakfast in bed on her birthday.  Anna followed suit.  I have no clue where she came up with the idea but hey, you're only eight once.