I Get Yettuce (says 3 year old using chop sticks)

Happy Birthdays go out to our favorite teen and pre-teen girls, Kaiti (13 today) and Cassie (10, 10 days ago). We went out with the girls and Frances and Steve (their mom and dad) to celebrate tonight. It was the first time that the babies had gone to a Japanese steak house and the first time Austin remembered going to one. They were all scared to death mesmerised.

Every time we go to a restaurant, the staff is amazed that we need three high chairs and a booster. Tonight people probably thought we were a little crazy bringing that many little ones to a restaurant like this. And we got to hear the confusion in Japanese to boot! The kids did really well, except for when the chef lit the fire. They freaked a little the first time. Out of the whole bunch, Tyler was the only one that didn't have that natural fear. He was amazed!

Austin had his first experience with chop sticks. He was so cute. He even used them for his salad. "I get yettuce," he exclaimed to everyone. He was his usual sweet, polite self. We are so lucky. Before we left for the restaurant, he wasn't so sweet and polite. A nap would have done him a world of good today, but he didn't take one. He typically needs one a couple of times per week these days. Today was one of those days. In the middle of an all out fit, he did a 180 when I told him that it was Kaiti's birthday and if he was good, we'd go out to dinner with her. "Oh, yes!!! It's Kaiti's birthday! Where are my shoes?"

The restaurant we went to is owned by an older gentleman pictured above. He enjoys doing magic for the kids and singing Happy Birthday to the celebrating patrons. Once Austin warmed up to him, he really enjoyed the attention and the magic. His rendition of Happy Birthday on the accordion left a little to be desired, but all in good fun.

We followed up with cake at our house afterwords and a rousing round of Happy Birthday. Believe it or not Tyler and John are trying to sing. We have video to prove it (at least of Tyler). I don't think I've ever encountered an 18 month old that tried to sing happy birthday. I'm sure they're out there, I just haven't seen it.

Here's the video, but first the story.

Last Saturday we were getting the crew ready to get out of the house. Spring has sprung here and we needed to escape for a while. I was cooking breakfast, the triplets were in their seats, Austin was at the table and Clif was somewhere in between. A triplet mom's brain is, well, like spaghetti sometimes. This was one of those times. As I stirred scrambled eggs, my scrambled brain heard a soft, almost unintelligible version of Happy Birthday.

Now my scrambled brain was trying to process this and here's how it went in my head....

That sounds like Tyler. NO.... It has to be Austin...Why is he singing Happy Birthday?....He can sing it better than that....But it really sounds like Tyler....NO...It has to be Austin. About the time this whole thing looped again in my head Clif said, "Hey, Tyler is singing Happy Birthday!" (Venus vs. Mars)

Frances brought Kaiti over to join us on our outing, so we had to get out the video camera. The video is Frances getting Tyler to do an encore. It's really neat to see our little guy get so strong. He was weakest of our three, weighed only 2lb. 3oz., born at 29 weeks, and couldn't even breathe without a ventilator for the first 2 1/2 weeks of his life. You go TyTy!