Thank Goodness for the Cat!

My two issues for this blog are containment and socks.... how do you keep either of them?

The other day I had to go and change both babies and put them down for a nap.  Since Alex is the clever fellow that learned how to open our makeshift gate I decided to take him down first.  I got him downstairs only to discover a massive poopy diaper that was going to take a little time cleaning up.  No worries, Calista was safe upstairs in the living room, all gated off, and I could hear her playing.  I began my duty of cleaning up Alex's dooty and at the end I happened to notice that it was quiet upstairs.  Then I heard a strange noise.  I grabbed up Alex and ran the bottom of the stairs half expecting to see Calista peering down at me, but she wasn't there.  So I ran back to put Alex back in his crib for safe keeping and hurried upstairs to get Calista.  Imagine my panic when I got to the top of the stairs and found the gate open and no sign of Calista!  I raced through the upstairs looking for her when I heard a squeal of delight from the bathroom.  She had chased Leo into the bathroom and had him cornered.  When I got there Leo just gave me a terrified look as if to say, "Nobody told me those things were going to be mobile!".

Lucky for me Leo lured her into the bathroom and not down the stairs.  Our current protocol for taking care of one baby and leaving the other one upstairs is to put the remaining baby into the jump-a-roo for safe keeping.  That is until our new gates arrive.

After their nap and some lunch I took them on a quick adventure to the bank and then they both got haircuts at Lollilocks.  I just love that place, they are so good with kids.  Both babies did good getting the haircuts, although the stylist attempted to use the shaver on Alex to shape up his hair a bit.... I'm afraid she might have pushed her luck on that one.  He bawled for about 2 minutes until I picked him up out of the chair.  Then he was all smiles and making his new sound Grandma taught him, (running his finger over his lips making a bbbbbbbbb sound).

My other issue I'd like to touch on for this blog is socks.  How in the world do you keep them on their feet?  If they aren't taking their own socks off then they are pulling each other's socks until they pop off.  I bet I spend a good 1/3 of my day just putting socks back on little feet.  You know the commercial with the guy that is dipping his son's feet in the plaster so they are form fitting socks?  Well I'm beginning to think he's actually on to something.

Today was a fairly low key day.  I'm trying them out on more and more solid foods.  This morning they got a tray full of Cheerio's and a jar of baby food bananas.  For a snack they shared a yogurt before nap time and I learned the lesson of not trying to feed them something like yogurt without them being in a high chair.  Calista's hair was plastered to her head with yogurt, not to mention the yogurt bath I was taking with them smearing their mouths all over mommy's sweats and shirt.

When they got up from their nap and we finished up lunch I decided that a bath was in order.  So I turned on Dinosaur Train for Alex to watch in his highchair while I whisked Calista away for a bath.  I think I might have caught her off guard since she wasn't quite as squirmy as usual.  Most of the time it's like trying to dress a grizzly bear in pajama's with feet.  Once she was done I put her in the jump-a-roo and got Alex all bathed.

I did notice today that Alex's rash from the Petechiae is starting to look really bad again.  I've got a phone call into the Dr. to see if they want to do a blood draw sooner to see where his platelet count is.  Judging by the rash I'd be really surprised if it was above 25,000 right now.

After bath time I waited for their hair to dry and then packed them up for a trip to Target.  I bought them some new shoes and returned a toy they got for their birthday that was really cute, but quite working within 5 minutes of use.

The only other eventful thing that happened was yet another baby containment issue this evening.  We have the downstairs set up with the play pen being used as a gate between the couch and the utility room closet.  However the closet doors are not flush with the carpet so Calista has found that she can dig her little fingers into a seam in the cement and get out dirt to eat.  So we took the vacuum to it and got it all cleaned out.  Well tonight I found a little piece of cement in her mouth that had broken off from that seam, it was about half the size of a dime... plenty big enough to choke on.  So we devised another barrier with my crafting table.  I was able to slide it into the side of the utility closet so we can slide it back and forth to the couch.  Now she can't even get to the utility closet.... for a while at least.

Every time we see her pushing on a gate or just staring at it we joke that she's like the raptors in Jurrasic Park.  "You can see she's working the problem"... then when she breaks through the gate... "Clever Girl".

Ok... best and worst.

The worst part of motherhood for this blog is constantly putting socks back on their little feet.  I want to give up and just let them play with the socks, but then they crawl over to me and their little feet are so cold.  The sock battle must continue.

The best part of motherhood for this blog is a tray full of Cheerio's that they can feed themselves.  Their independence is going to be a double edge sword I'm sure.  How will it be when they don't need me anymore?  However, them doing things on their own is really a wonderful thing.

Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes... How Do You Measure A Year?

For the Edwards household we measured a Year with a great birthday party for the cubs.  Our little house was busting at the seams with friends and family.  And one thing is for sure, those kids will not go without clothing or toys!  Everyone must really love them as much as we do.

So it's been quite a while since I've written my blog.  Life just got so busy I couldn't keep up with the blogging, caring for twins and running the bead and jewelry store.  But tonight my parents have graciously taken the cubs overnight, so I'm burning the midnight oil and figured I'd try to catch everyone up.

I think the last time I wrote in here was July and so much has happened since then.  Most recently Calista has started walking... or should I say running.  I don't think that girl is going to wait to learn how to walk.  Tonight Ed and I spent a good deal of time looking at even MORE baby gates, (we already have 2), and trying to figure out how to gate off part of the house with stairs, kitty food and litter boxes, yet still make it accessible to the cats.  I think we may have to buy these gates online with the pet doors because no where in Fort Collins did these exist!

Alex is walking with some assistance and he is a mad man crawling now.  And that clever boy has learned how to open up the gate we have in the living room.  Friday I ran downstairs for a moment to throw in a load of laundry and empty the diaper pail.  As I came back to the foot of the stairs I heard a 'pat pat pat'... the sound of little hands on the hardwood floors.  Half way up the stairs I saw Alex staring back at my like, "Whatchya doin Mom?".  Needless to say I dropped the bag of diapers and ran to get him from the top of the stairs!

Each of them have gotten in quite a few teeth, Alex currently has 6 and we think Calista is working on her 5th.  We had a problem for a little while with biting, but I think we now have that under control.  Although one day I was nothing more than a chew toy for every creature in this house I think.  I was on the floor with a baby leaning on each side of me and biting me.  Then when I went to bed our little cat Leo wasn't getting enough attention so he tried to give me a little nibble.  I'd had enough by then and Leo went to the floor.  (Not for long though, he is a cat after all and they do go where they please).

Overall they are very happy little babies, and why wouldn't they be?  They have every toy known to man, Mommy and Grandparents see to that, and they are absolutely loved by everyone in their life.

Medically we have been having a scare with Alex, but I hope (fingers and toes crossed), that he is on the mend.  He has a blood disorder called Petechiae.  It started as a rash back in June/July and I assumed he just had an allergy to the new laundry soap I had bought.  But after much research and the help of a wonderful Dr. from the Youth Clinic we found out it is this disorder of low platelet count.  Our goal was to keep his count above 50,000 (it's generally supposed to be above 100,000 I think).  At the worst time he was getting spontaneous nose bleeds and his count dropped to 13,000.  This finally resulted in a trip to a world renown hematologist at Children's Hospital in Denver where they finally put him on a steroid and his numbers came up a little.  We're still battling this one and will have more results next week when he is completely weened off the steroid and another blood draw is done.  The absolute scariest part of this was when the Dr. told me that he wanted to rule out Leukemia.  He said that it was only a 5% chance, but no mother wants to hear the word Cancer in any form when talking about her child.  I remember that I found it hard to catch my breath after he said it and feeling like I could throw up right there in the office.  However, the tests they ran on Alex at Children's Hospital came back that it is absolutely NOT cancer.... so WHEW!!!!

The cubs are sleeping through the night really well and on a good day they sleep in until almost 9 a.m.  Every once in a while Calista will have a bad dream and wake up crying and I have to cuddle her back to sleep.  I'm usually still awake anyway so it's actually a sweet time.  Last night I heard her start to cry at around 10:30 so I shut down the TV and set my beading project aside.  I don't know what scares that little girl in her bad dreams, but her face is soaked with tears and her arms go up as soon as she sees me for me to pick her up.  So I pick her up and we go over to the rocking chair in their bedroom.  I rock her back and forth and rub her back and stroke her hair.  She in turn lays her head on my shoulder and started to snuggle in, but then pulled herself back for a moment to look me in the face and smile at me.  I don't know if that smile is a 'Mom I'm glad you're here to hold me' or a 'Ha Ha... Made you come in and hold me'.  Either way it's sweet.  I rocked her for about a half an hour until I felt her go limp and I knew she fell back to sleep, all the while listening Alex's steady breathing rhythm.  It was one of those nights that I just could have stayed in there forever holding her, but I knew sooner or later I'd fall asleep and probably drop the little girl.  So I put her in her crib and went off to bed myself.

Alright!  Time for the best and worst of motherhood.

The worst part of motherhood for this blog would have to be hearing the word cancer when a Dr. is talking about your child.  Ever since this day I really take to heart those St. Jude commercials to give thanks for the healthy children in your life.  Even with Alex's illness, we are still so extremely lucky our kids are relatively healthy and my heart just aches for those strong parents that have a child with a terminal illness.

The best part of motherhood for this blog would have to be the silent nights.  And that doesn't mean the nights they sleep all the way through without waking us up (although don't get me wrong, those are nice too).  These are the nights when I can sit in the nursery with them when they are both asleep and I can just watch them.  They'll never know until they have kids of their own how happy it makes me to just watch them sleep.