Comments on The Amazing Trips: size matters

Arggghhhh I have one that is 11 lbs heavier/3 inch...

2009-11-30T00:52:44.516-05:00

Arggghhhh I have one that is 11 lbs heavier/3 inches taller than the other two and my prob is with "strangers". i.e. "Are they twins?" "no, triplets"..."But that one is so much bigger than the other two!" "duh!!! but if you were born at the same time as your siblings you woudn't be the same size either!"....I hate the comparisons. And if you withhold food, it will make them sneak it. Oh, I could go on and on.....I feel ya, girl!

I read this the other day and didn’t have time to ...

2009-11-19T13:21:28.691-05:00

I read this the other day and didn’t have time to comment.

I came back to comment because……..I know something about being Tall and I wanted to give you a “TALL” point of view.

As you know, I grew very quickly and out grew my older sisters…Both of them pretty fast.

I was never made to feel awkward about this…..My height was celebrated. I was told so often by both my parents how striking my height was. How striking I was.

If some one points out how “Big” Gracie is((and I cringe using the word BIG….. NEVER, EVER, EVER use big……It is just that bad.))

Simply say…….Isn’t she striking, she is so tall……I love that about her…..I remember my parents doing that with me ~ I have never wished I was shorter...maybe this is why.

Keep in mind Tall is good ~ Gracie can do more then just reach the highest shelf. Shoes will look better. Skirts will hang better on her…… Tall woman look faboulus in a Gowns...…Her clothing is not limited ~ For the most part she can wear anything she wants. She can go short and show off her long legs or go long ~ It all works…...

Gracie will stand out in a crowd, people will be drawn to her first because of her height, then her pretty face but the thing that will keep them there is her beautiful, loving, warm, kind personality.…

She is a triplet YES but her height makes her different from the other two….She is striking.

Just my humble but Tall opinion.

The bread hidden under the blankets……When I read this I thought three things.

1.) She is missing something….. ((I hate to do this to you but maybe she misses you…..I know… I’m sorry…Your thinking how much more can I do???))

2.) She is trying to take some control…….You know what they say….A parent canNOT control the Table or the POTTY.

3.) Why isn’t she hiding Chocolate under the bed like her name sake??? Now that we would all understand.

Hope this helps...They are all beautiful and wonderful.

Love ya! and I hope you feel better!!!! You have a walk to do.

I had never noticed that the size difference was s...

2009-11-17T14:03:52.374-05:00

I had never noticed that the size difference was so big until this post! In our family, my 5-yo is "average" at 44 inches and 44 lbs but my niece got the tall genes. She's 6 weeks younger than my son and she's 48 inches tall and over 50 lbs-bigger than my 7-year old! We aren't small people either (I'm 5'10" and husband is 6'3") but the genes just seem to have a mind of their own. My girls are shrimps (not even 30 lbs and barely 36 inches at 3,5 years old.) I'm a firm believer that if they are eating good, healthy foods (and barring any medical conditions) they'll grow just the way they are supposed to grow. And you never know, the shorter ones may sprout up and catch up later!

I have to pass along our triplets info as I think ...

2009-11-16T22:37:11.509-05:00

I have to pass along our triplets info as I think your family is more common than you or your Dr. might think. I have a girlfriend with triplets where her daughter is the tallest (by 3-4 inches) and the 2 boys the smallest. I am happy to report that our 6 year old triplets: two boys are the same height and weight (within ounces) and our daughter is about 3-4 inches shorter in height and about 5 or 6 pounds in weight. Our boys were born with 2 inches between them and quickly became a matched pair with two different body styles. Like I said before I am just thankful my boys are the same height.Who wants to be the odd man out. Thanks for sharing your concern. Not sure what to tell you about the weight difference and how to handle it. They are 3 individuals. Good luck.

that's tough. sending positive and healthy vib...

2009-11-16T19:43:08.453-05:00

that's tough. sending positive and healthy vibes your way. all three are beautiful (adorable) and precious. i've watched both of my younger siblings struggle with this. it's so hard to watch my parents try to cope with all of the delicacies of knowing your kids aren't ever going to be bean poles but also trying to balance what could become out of control. i can't even imagine it being my kids.

good luck with everything. they really are beautiful...

Her and my daughter can do the twin thing. Maybe ...

2009-11-16T15:07:19.553-05:00

Her and my daughter can do the twin thing. Maybe I'll send her an atikluk, just for her...for being so TALL! haha.

Kaisa is off the charts too. Completely a head taller than everyone in her class and she is one of the youngest ones in there.

The only thing I'd suggest, is to make sure you still treat her like a 5 year old. Because Kaisa is a singleton and so much taller and outspoken than most, she gets treated like an older child. People always forget that she's JUST six and acts like a six year old. Yes, she can read third grade chapter books and gets 110% on her 2nd grade spelling tests (I mean, can YOU spell COMPANION?!), but she's still only six. That's a mistake I see people doing a lot with her. So...make sure you treat her like she's FIVE!

As for the others...they'll have a great person to "look up" to! :)

And come ON...you get to buy clothes for her, and then hand them down to the sibling!? Two for the price of one! haha.

Great post and i love the punch shot. THey're...

2009-11-16T11:03:51.775-05:00

Great post and i love the punch shot. THey're all so very cute! Just wanted to stop by to say hello too! :)

She is beautiful and that is the only thing you ne...

2009-11-16T10:33:07.980-05:00

She is beautiful and that is the only thing you need to communicate to her. Maybe it is time to stop with the dressing alike and encourage her to find her own style. It is going to be very hard but you must not communicate any type of concern to her. How about tennis lessons just for her? Make her feel special because she is taller and older looking. Offer healthy foods but just as you occasionally pig out on sweets, have a low cal day and let her have an extra bowl of cereal or small chunk of bread as a treat. Serve salad and a chunk of bread once in awhile. I just think this is a slippery slope and your concerns will get transmitted to her as "something is wrong with you and you need to be fixed". Please accept this from one who has been there.

Watch out for the hiding of the food! As a child I...

2009-11-16T09:49:47.754-05:00

Watch out for the hiding of the food! As a child I was always tall and was heavier than all the other girls (and boys) my age. My mom never said a word about my weight, always talked about being healthy and made sure I had choices of healthy foods, but I would still stash boxes of crackers in my dresser drawers, popcorn under my bed and a bag of rolls in my closet. I had major issues with weight and struggled for a long time (and still do) with my cravings for carbs. I always wanted too much of a good thing. As soon as no one was watching I was sneaking food from the kitchen. I played volleyball and rode my bike everywhere as a kid and was VERY active, but I was still overweight. The food hiding would be the most worrisome thing to me becasue if she's already hiding it from you, she may already feel like there is something wrong with her. And as one of the previous comments mentioned....talk to her doctor, especially if diabetes runs in your family, to see if you can get her blood sugar tested. to at least rule that out.

My aunt-in-law could have written this post. She h...

2009-11-15T23:29:37.409-05:00

My aunt-in-law could have written this post. She has G/G/G fraternal triplets who are 13 years old. When they were infants, they looked much more alike (even to their parents!) than my identical twins ever did. Now, the triplets don't look like they're siblings, much less the same age.

Recently, one of them was diagnosed with diabetes, and since starting treatment, she has shot up so she looks about a year younger than her sisters, rather than 4-5 years younger.

She is beautiful. We all come in different sizes, and I've come to not only accept, but enjoy my own tiny stature. My identical daughters have completely different builds. One is built like a gymnast, the other like a soccer player. I hope that I can raise them to be as confident and secure as your kids.

To my mind, the most important thing you can do is...

2009-11-15T22:57:26.945-05:00

To my mind, the most important thing you can do is make sure that all your kids know that you think they are awesome and beautiful no matter what they look like--and, here's the hard part--actually believe it, no matter what size they are naturally. Even if you are feeding your kids excellent, healthy food and keeping them active, there is still a chance that they will end up "overweight" (a dumb term, because over "whose" weight?).

I say this as the daughter of a mom who, in the 1970s, did not allow Wonderbread or any other white bread product in the house, served vegetables at every single meal, insisted on organized physical activity for me and for us as a family, and still ended up with a fat daughter (me). The thing is that I probably would have stayed fat, but not THAT fat, if my parents hadn't been convinced to let me start dieting at the age of seven. Dieting? Screws up your metabolism, big time. Do it for 25 years and you can be almost guaranteed to end up not just fat but really fat, like me now.

Whatever you do, don't diet in front of your kids and don't let them diet if you can help it. Continue to eat well, exercise, and do all those great things you do, but don't fall into the diet trap. See below:

http://www.slate.com/id/2169134/

They are all such beautiful children. That first ...

2009-11-15T21:36:20.670-05:00

They are all such beautiful children. That first photo of them as babies -- oh my gosh! So very sweet.

I was always WHAT??Oh me oh my, my little sister w...

2009-11-15T19:22:00.883-05:00

I was always WHAT??Oh me oh my, my little sister was always prettier than I,curley hair etc, but thinner???NEVER EVER!!
Gracie is just beautiful and so pleasent and happy. You are right to be concerned however, I am so proud of you to be on top of everything, I know you will take the recomendations of anonmous with her suggestions of the Ellyn Satter books. The care and attentions you two give to thoes children is just perfect, Gracie is such a lucky kid.

I wouldn't worry if one is taller than the oth...

2009-11-15T18:30:23.371-05:00

I wouldn't worry if one is taller than the others. God put them together -- dontcha think he can work out their growth patterns, tooh? They are not carbon copies, ya no... People grow differently! :)

~Cindy! :D
..

Sorry my Bad English, I just hope that you underst...

2009-11-15T16:21:42.414-05:00

Sorry my Bad English, I just hope that you understand a little what I'm meaning.
You would not worry! I would love to have my children in "right" size. I have three boys (they are 10 and 7½ years old) who are too skinny. Your kids are so beautiful and there I come from, your daughter would be one of the cutest, I promise. I come from a quite poor country (Macedonia, Europe, So sorry my bad english again)
I'm not so very poor myself so I can feed my boys, but in school there are a lot of children that haven't enough with money to lunch.
So please don't worry, your children are so beautiful, all four.

My eldest daughter (now 9 and a half) was always b...

2009-11-15T05:05:45.701-05:00

My eldest daughter (now 9 and a half) was always born the same weight and height as her sister but their growth has been very different. The older was always tall for her age and "well built" and always hungry. However, she started showing signs of puberty around the age of 6 1/2. I hot footed it to the doctor hoping to get the onset of puberty delayed but she told me it was pretty normal these days for little girls to be showing the first signs at 6 or 7 and for periods to start at 8 or 9. Thankfully, although she now needs a little crop top and is fully developed there has been no sign of the dreaded period just yet. However, it may be that your Carolyn is just one of those girls who is racing for an early puberty.

My younger daughter, who is exactly your triplets age is much smaller and slighter and shows no sign of growing hips or hair, which the elder already was, even at this age.

It is related to percentage of adult weight reached.

we had a chat with the elder daughter about eating and exercise. at 5 the rules were simple - if you are hungry talk to mummy but you will be offered fruit (lots of variety) or veg and hommous or similar.No stealing food. We locked everything but fruit out of her way. We stopped having any shop bought bread in the house and bought a bread maker so we knew what was being eaten and got her active. She hated walking and cycling, in the end we bought a trampoline and that helped hugely.

She is now tall but not excessively and no longer the pudgey one, and also, no longer the only one heading into puberty at school.

Sorry it's such a long reply. My heads a fuzzy after a week in bed with the flu!

That "peanut" picture and caption made m...

2009-11-14T23:49:24.933-05:00

That "peanut" picture and caption made me LAUGH OUT LOUD! Seriously! I needed that! Thanks!

My three girls are all tall, the first two are in ...

2009-11-14T23:48:40.105-05:00

My three girls are all tall, the first two are in the 90% and my youngest (only 14 months) is 98%. I already have trouble with childcare workers with the youngest because they assume she is older and capable of more. But while I sometimes worry that one of them will be extra tall (DH has a female cousin over 6' tall) I worry more about my middle child who seems to have picked up my habit of eating to stave off boredom. This parenting thing is so stupid hard sometimes.

Ohhh.... thanks for checking the BMI, Michele. I d...

2009-11-14T23:29:51.398-05:00

Ohhh.... thanks for checking the BMI, Michele. I didn't even consider that - and it is reassuring that she isn't in the 95% percentile. I really believe that once she gets involved in sports - she is going to slim down and all of this will be a moot point.

Re: the juice and milk > we do serve them a small cup of OJ every morning (fortified with calcium & vitamin D) and 1% milk with dinner - but the rest of the time they drink water. I'll fill up their little water bottles and they carry those things around all day.

That's so interesting about the parallel between our girls. Seriously, the similarities are almost spooky.

I just checked her BMI and she is only "at ri...

2009-11-14T23:19:35.080-05:00

I just checked her BMI and she is only "at risk of becoming overweight". She is still only in the 92.7th percentile. You have to be in the 95th percentile to be "overweight". I know this because Austin was off the charts for awhile. The kids drink water with their meals. Milk and juice is a treat. When I cut out juice, Austin got right back into a better BMI. Just a thought on how to cut out a bunch of empty calories. Not that I freak out over this stuff or anything. Heh.

Wow. It's like you read my mind. You HAVE NO...

2009-11-14T22:44:12.969-05:00

Wow. It's like you read my mind. You HAVE NO IDEA. It is freaking me out.

Sarah is also in a size 6/7. I spent the whole entire morning going through last year's winter clothes and saving just one of our matching sets for Amanda. I had to go out and buy all new jeans for Sarah 2 weeks ago. She is so much taller and bigger than the other two.

Of course the whole thing freaks me out constantly because Greg has been overweight his entire life. I have often wondered why in the hell his mother let him get so big as a child, then he would tell me stories about stealing his father's change and riding his bike to the party store and buying junk food and shoving it in his mouth before anyone saw him.

So, yeah, I am over here trying to balance out the fact two of my children have metabolisms like hummingbirds and two of my children are cavemen and are built to survive famines.

I limit their servings, sizes, and snacks. Greg actually backs me up on it. We don't do it meanly or anything, but the fact is that they can't eat whatever they want and they have to learn that now or they will be plagued with a lifetime of being overweight.

But it's so hard because the other two could eat all day long.

Sigh. I feel your pain on this issue. This is going to be a problem for us, probably forever. Amanda is going to be the "perfect" girl and Sarah is going to be her "dumpy" sister and then I'm going to have to kill people.

They are all such peaches! But I have to say Carol...

2009-11-14T22:15:38.245-05:00

They are all such peaches! But I have to say Carolyn Grace throws the best ideas/parties!!! ;-)

She definately has my Mother and Aunt Carolyn (Martha Stewart wannabe's) in her blood! She's always ready for a birthday, Easter, Christmas - sometimes all within the same day!! :-) The best friend to everyone! My kinda girl indeed! (although I never did get that Easter basket - alas! I forgot to check under her Mother's bed...hmmm);-)

Although I'm not sure of the accuracy; recently, I read some children who have certain cravings for specific foods actually have an allergy to dairy/wheat/gluton/etc. May be worth checking it out.
Marg.

Your children are all beautiful individuals. That...

2009-11-14T21:24:14.575-05:00

Your children are all beautiful individuals.

That hiding food is habit is definitely a genetic trait. I seem to remember Noni hiding Hershey bars {The really big ones} in the freezer under the liver.

Your Mom is in BIG trouble!

I think it is normal to be concerned, but I wouldn...

2009-11-14T20:41:34.533-05:00

I think it is normal to be concerned, but I wouldn't lose TOO MUCH sleep over it. All of your children are beautiful! And I don't think that it's abnormal for Carolyn to miss wearing her old clothes... or rather that her being upset about it has to do with a developing body complex. My Nadi-B is the same age as your triplets and honestly, everytime we have to pass her clothes off to my niece she has fits! "I STILL WEAR THAT!!!!" And everytime my niece shows up in one of B's old outfits she gets all huffy. So it's possible that Carolyn's concerns simply have to do with her age and learning that sometimes, we just outgrow things and that's okay and normal.

P.S. Your pedi was wrong to comment the way he did...

2009-11-14T20:36:52.225-05:00

P.S. Your pedi was wrong to comment the way he did. They are fraternal multiples - no more genetically similar than any other siblings. If they weren't the same age I can guarantee he wouldn't have noticed at all. The fact that they were born at the same time means nothing genetically.