Archive for the ‘parenting’ Category

Okay, after sitting here eyeballing my keyboard for the last 3 minutes, I’m finally going to make some keystrokes. Writers block sucks. I could once again sit here and type about how much of a horrible blogger I am. I could apologize again for not posting more often. And I could promise, again, that I will get better at this.I.promise.

The time I find to blog is, most often, after the rest of the house is deep in slumber. I’ll sit on the couch after having watched my tv shows I DVR’d, glance at the clock and think, to blog or not to blog. I’m so tired at that point that all I really want to do is just sink deep into my pillow and drift off. I’ll tell myself, I’ve got nothing interesting to write about. How do other moms find the time or even the leftover brain energy to get creative with what they post?

While I’m on that subject, lets go further. Moms that scrapbook, sew, quilt, you know the ones.. those crafty moms. Where the heck do they drum up the time or energy for such extra curricular activities? My boys, including twin toddlers I might add, keep me going all day long. Not to mention the laundry, the cleaning, the cooking, hell.. I can’t even remember the last time I picked up my toilet brush and put it to it’s intended use. Will that time come? Will I ever be able to even think of organizing my 1st floor bathroom linen closet? Or even catch up on the twins baby books?

I get so frustrated lately. I’m, well I used to be anyway, a perfectionist. I like things just so. No wonder I can’t get my 6yr old to do any chores, I can barely do them myself. How the heck are my children going to learn to appreciate the comfort of a well maintained home if I can’t find the time to make it that way. For pete’s sake, my 6yr old will open a snack and just literally throw the wrapper on his bedroom floor. Then he’ll take the scissors and cut it up into tiny little pieces and toss them on his floor. I can’t get him to respect his toys. It’s as if he doesn’t care. And I blame myself, because I can’t teach him. I just don’t have the fricken time!!!

In other news.. I met this woman at the last mom of twins meeting. Her art I’m dying to learn. She is amazing! Can’t wait to take one of her classes.

It’s been awhile and I’ve been a bad blogger again.  We’re just getting over our 3rd round this year of the stomach flu in our house. We just can’t seem to get rid of it. As I knock on wood, I have to mention that so far, I’ve been spared. Probably because I’m washing my hands so many times a day. I’m proof in the fact that hand-washing is the greatest defense.

I’ve been twittering a lot lately. My older son gave me a wireless router and I’ve been wi-fi’ing it with my iTouch iPod. I love that I can check my email, facebook, twitter, etc from anywhere in the house.  If you have a Twitter account, there’s a link to follow me under the “Things To Do” list on my left sidebar.  Be sure and let me know and I’ll follow you back.

I’ll leave you with a funny story that happened since my last post.  So often I find myself way behind on housework. Laundry piling up, toilets looking pretty disgusting, etc. I like it when I have reinforcements here, like my mom or aunt, that way I can get some things done and not have to worry about what the boys are up to.  So with the pile of laundry touching the ceiling in my laundry room, I decided to bite the bullet, run downstairs and spend 5 mintues to throw a load in. I started the twins Elmo video and knew I’d only be downstairs for a few minutes. And I that’s all it was. A few minutes.

As I got back upstairs and headed toward the living room where they were playing, Brady greeted me in the hallway. His diaper was missing. No diaper. Bare-ass naked. Suddenly he holds up his hands saying “uh-oh”  Upon closer inspection I realize his hands are covered in poop. I let out this loud.. “Noooooooo!!!” with a desperate “why me” tone to it.  At the end of the hallway, in the doorway of the spare bedroom, there on the floor lies a small pile of poop. Then another pile, and another pile. Apparently they had fun while mommy threw a load of laundry in. The bottom of both their feet was covered in it. Surprisingly, Brady’s bumm was completely clean. He must have lost the diaper before taking a crap on my wood floors. I’m trying to clean it up and it’s mushed in the cracks of the wood flooring. I’m forced to use a tooth pic to get it all. The two of them were immediately placed in the empty tub while I cleaned. Then they got a bath.

I tell you, I hear horror stories of the brown fish found in bath tubs.  What would you call it on dry land? A brown frog?

During the past week I’d been getting ready for a big Mom-to-Mom sale. Since the twins are the last children I’ll have, as they grow out of things I can get rid of them not thinking “I should probably keep this in case we have another baby.” I tend to be a hoarder with stuff like that. I come about it honestly. My mother was always one of those “we might need that one day” kind of people. But since becoming a mom of multiples, it means multiples of stuff. Stuff everywhere. We still have boxes of stuff from our move 19 months ago that haven’t even been opened. I often wonder, if I haven’t missed it in 19 months, would I ever miss it at all?

One thing I do miss, that I can never have back, is my babies. Today, while packing up for the sale, I picked up a tiny tiny pair of little baby booties. One of them could literally just fit over my thumb. I actually began to well up inside. My babies are gone. Those little tiny beings that use to curl up in a little ball on my chest are now running through the house and talking and trying to escape every saftey obstacle I put in their way.

I knew the twins would be my last. And I swear I’ve tried to cherrish every single moment. I try hard to not miss a thing. I’ve relished every milestone. And even though I know there’s so much more of them yet to come. I still miss their infancy. And oh.. oh.. oh.. that smell!!!!

They’re on-the-constant-go toddlers now. Forever investigating every little thing. They’re imitating real life things now. One of their favorite things is to help me clean. They won’t let me craddle them anymore. But they will sit on a lap for a story couple pages from a book.

I can’t help remembering how tiny and helpless they were just 19 months ago. And as I sold their baby stuff in the sale today, every article that exchanged hands, I relived the memories that went with it.

The boys are feeling much better and back to themselves. Gavin did end up coming down with it. He was sick Thursday night and missed school on Friday. He was back to school today. He threw up so hard that he ended up with lots of petechiae (peh-TEH-kee-a) all over his face.

This “spring forward” thing is a whole ‘nother ballgame though. Who would have thought an hour lost would completely mess with my world. The twins are still on Standard Time. So everything about their day is an hour behind. And that’s screws with my day like nobody’s business. Gavin starts kindergarten at 12:25pm. It’s during his 3 hour day at school that the twins are suppose to be napping. Today they didn’t go down until after 1:30pm. Even then they were talking and playing in their cribs for a good hour before finally boring each other to sleep. I had to wake them up at 4:15pm. I don’t know how I’m going to get them back to their 8:30am – 8:30pm schedule. It’s going to take at least a week to adjust.

Friday I paid to rent some space for a Mom-to-Mom sale at a nearby Trade Center/Flea Market. Hoping to get rid of a lot of baby stuff. I’ve been going through it little by little since Friday. Tonight I was sorting and pricing until 2am.

Here’s what my sorting looked like. See that tiny little bare spot on the center of the couch? That’s where I was sitting. Surrounded by a year and a half worth of twin baby clothes. If anyone was due to have twin boys in July, they could have all the clothes they’d need for at least the entire first year.

I have done it. I’ve crossed that line. The one I swore I wouldn’t cross until the twins were at least 3 years old. I gave them french fries from McD’s. And from the moment the fry passed through their lips, they were hooked. Brady looked at me and with eagerness in his eyes, he said, “mo, mo, mo” all the while frantically making the sign for ‘more.’  Blake, he’s a little more nonchalant about it all. He’s so happy go lucky about everything. He’ll take the fry and walk away with this little happy swagger of his.  Then the other day, Brady is in his high chair with a fry in his hand and he kept motioning toward my plate. I couldn’t figure out what he wanted. I offered him a bite of what I had but he insisted it was something else he wanted. So I picked up my plate and had him show me. And what did the child do? He dipped his fry in my ketchup.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween.

The November issue of W Magazine shows Anjelina Jolie on the cover, breastfeeding one of her new born twins. Apparently this is inappropriate to some readers. Inappropriate? I think it’s wonderful. First I think it’s amazing and fantastic that she is breastfeeding her twins. Having breastfed my own twins, I know the struggles, the challenges and the reward of nursing two newborns.

I just can’t understand why breastfeeding in public creates such controversy. Why some mothers have to hide in shame and feed their babies in public bathrooms or any where else unclean and disgusting. I’ve been fortunate in that I never recieved any grief for nursing any of my children in public. No one finds it disgusting when they see a baby calf nursing from it’s mother cow. Still women can walk around in public wearing barely any clothing, and yet the mother, off in a corner somewhere, discreetly feeding her baby the way nature intended is the one asked to ‘cover up.’

I think Anjelina posing while breastfeeding can influence a lot of young mothers to come out of the filthy bathroom and feed her baby more comfortably. I used to be bothered by Anjelina. She was just “too much” in my book. But this new, motherly Anjelina is my hero.

In other news, I’ve been tagged by Rachael with this fun little note. So to follow suit, I’ll now tag some of my favs.

1. Laura
2. Karen
3. Georgette
4. Kim
5. Another Laura

Thanks Rachael, for the blog ‘sticker’!

On a side note, I can’t believe no one commented on my Stanley Cup post. I had the Stanley Cup at MY house and no one even admits a smidgen of jealousy? 😉

I always tell people the best thing about co-sleeping is those morning smiles. Well, the best thing about co-sleeping with twins?? You guessed it.. double the smiles. Here is what I wake to each morning around 8:30am:

After morning time at the breast in bed.. it’s time to get up and start the day. Every morning the boys hang out in their bouncy seats or on the dining room floor and keep me company while I wash baby bottles and load the dishwasher. Mind you I’m usually standing on the other side, I just thought this was a cute angle.

After our morning chores, it’s time for breakfast. Some cereal and fruit.

Then it’s play time. A baby blanket on the floor just wasn’t cutting it for the boys to play on. The pak-n-play just seems so small for these two to play together and I needed to protect my expensive floor rug, so here you have it.. I threw a queen size blanket on the floor, and now my living room is one big play pen.

After playtime, it’s time for the first nap usually around 10:30ish. This is when they get one on one breast time. While I’m nursing one, the other is in his bouncy at my feet patiently waiting his turn.

About an hour and a half later, this is usually how I find them. I sometimes wonder what they talk about.

I’ll nurse them both again, then it’s playtime again.

or maybe even some nakey-butt time.

This is when they get their first supplement bottle, usually about 6 ounces of formula, and recently I’ve started adding the mid-day solid meal. Late lunch/afternoon snack of veggies and fruit.

Then it’s time for 2nd nap, usually around 4pm. This nap usually lasts till about 5:30ish.

Afterward, it’s the one time I usually tandem nurse.

Although, this particular day, they were more interested in grandma and what she was doing with the camera.

They get another supp bottle around 6:30pm, then dinner of some cereal, veg, & maybe fruit.

More evening playtime and breast time.

At around 8:30pm the lights in the living room are dimmed. We put their jammies and overnight diaper on, maybe a few minutes of laptime to settle into a sleepy mode and then a bedtime bottle around 9pm.

Then breast all night. If either wakes before midnight, that’s Dave’s tour of duty to parent them back to sleep. The first feed waking is around 12:30am(ish). Then quite often, each child is up every two hours, but alternating hours. Which means I’m up every hour. If they wake at the same time, Dave will come in and comfort one while I nurse the other.

So that’s our day in a nutshell.. it took about 6 months for that routine to emerge and it still isn’t quite consistant but I’m flexible. They still call all the shots. I think that’s what keeps them so happy.

My In-Laws were in town from Florida last week. They stopped by this morning to say good-bye before heading to airport to go home. They snapped a shot of me and the boys in “our spot” This is where I’ve been for the past 3 months, this is where I’ve slept sitting up, eaten and pretty much lived since the twins were born. On the right side there is a tray-table on which contains my personal supplies, water bottle, phone, tv remote, pen, nail clippers & nail file, lip balm, and other odds and ends. Underneath that tray-table is my twin nursing pillow and a package of wipes to refill the wipes container. On the end table in the corner is baby supplies; diapers, wipes, change of baby clothes, fresh cloth diapers for burp clothes, washclothes, baby nail clippers, baby lotion, cradle cap ointment, a clock, some reading material (twins book, baby book), and my address book because I’ve been trying for over a month now to get out my new address announcements. What you don’t see in the picture, at my feet, are 2 bouncy seats and on the other end of the couch is my boppy and the babys’ activity mat. Excuse the plain walls.. someday I’ll get to decorate my new house. I’m wearing my leopard print jammies that I’m still wearing as I type this some 13 hours later. It’s after 1am, the boys have been asleep since 10pm. I’ll go join them in bed shortly, and around 8am I’ll be back in that spot when the cycle starts again.

Other twin moms say this shall pass.. I have to say it is a lot easier now than it was when they were new-newborn. I’ve advanced from taking it one day at a time to now one week at a time. But in all honesty, I’m glad this photo was taken. It’ll remind me of these days later on.. and I can show it to them. All I gotta say is they better appreciate.