The Ecton Family: One year ago today...

Today is a very special Father's Day for me. It's also the first birthday of our triplets, Kaelynn Blake and Brian. I know it's cliche to say such things, but wow... What a year. Time has slowed to a crawl, seeming to run backwards sometimes (especially when someone is fussy at night), other times the time had flown by at incredible speeds.

Blake's been walking more than crawling for the last few weeks. Kaelynn has taken a few tentative steps here and there, and Brian took his first steps today, on his first birthday. (The video is of Blake from a few weeks ago when he was just getting comfortable with this whole walking thing.)

Tarynn's new job is wonderful, but it also means a lot of travel for her. It's going to be tough on all of us, but we'll manage. She just had her first full week out of town this past week. Given time, we'll all fall into a rhythm and help each other out to make sure everything is taken care of. (Related to that, once again HUGE thanks to both my dad and Tarynn's mom for the invaluable help they're both giving us. THANK YA'LL!!!)

Today being a milestone date, we got the camera out and posed (Or tried to pose, as much as you can get a one year old to do anything without tying them down) them with the stuffed animals we'd put them next to in previous updates for an update on their growth.

Kaelynn and her Cow stuffie, one year

Kaelynn and her Llama Stuffie, One Year

Brian and his Frog Stuffie, One Year

Brian and his Llama stuffie, One Year

Blake and his Horse Stuffie, One Year

Blake and his Llama Stuffie, One Year

Before going to dinner today, we thought it's be fun to let them open one birthday present, even though their official birthday party will be next weekend.

Then we had a combination Father's Day/Unofficial Birthday Party family to Babe's Chicken House. They evidently only had 2 birthday chicken hats, so Blake got to wear one,

While Brian wore the other birthday chicken hat,

And Kaelynn had to get by with just a generic colorful birthday hat.

This dinner out was also the first time we put them in high chairs instead of just their car seats, and the first time we let them have some table food. The green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, pot roast and chicken were all MAJOR hits with everyone!

In preparation for today's date, Tarla had procured some mini cupcakes. After dinner, we let them each have a cupcake. Their first sweets ever. Their reactions were quite interesting.

Kaelynn was very dainty about it.