Blinded by the White

Yes, again it's been awhile and it seems that I only get to my blog these days when something out of the ordinary happens.  That is not to say that something out of the ordinary doesn't happen everyday, after all, I have twins.

So a quick run down of what has happened since my last blog is in order.  Calista is so ready to crawl!  She has that butt up in the air and almost made it today.  Yesterday she managed to crawl backwards for her daddy.  It's time to baby proof the house, we have our baby gates all ready to cage them in.  Now we just have to go after things like light sockets, power cords and other delightful objects at floor level.

Calista has also gotten very grabby.  If it's within her reach she has it in her hands, and what a grip that little girl has!  Jessica found out the hard way last week when she left a container of baby food within Calista's reach on the highchair table.  All I heard in the office was an "OH NO Calista!".  Later I found out that Calista had grabbed the container and dumped it all over the tray.  Lucky for me I was able to learn from Jessica's mistake and I don't let any baby food close to Calista's reach.

Now Alex wants to crawl just as bad, but he always manages to get himself over onto his back instead.  He's got the pushing down with one of his legs, he just needs to get that other one coordinated and he'll be on his way too.

And when it comes to food, my Alex doesn't mess around.  There's no way he'd risk spilling his food by grabbing it.

Friday we took a trip to Costco for our monthly supply of 424 diapers.  (Yes, that is the amount of diapers that we go through in a month.  However it does not count the diapers that they use when they visit Grandma and Grandpaw, so it's probably a little higher).  Walking through Costco Calista had a fascination with my Starbucks and was very grabby about the cup.  Just like her momma... brought a little tear to my eye.  By the time we left she had chocolate all over her face.

Other events that happened this week was an overnight stay at Grandma and Grandpaw's house on Saturday so that Ed and I could go out for our anniversary.  We had a couple of massages and went out to dinner.  We were going to see a movie, but neither of us were very enthused about what was playing so we just came home and watched our Netflix.

It's so bittersweet when they go to their grandparents house for the night.  On one hand we love the sleep and time to ourselves.  On the other hand, I found myself looking at empty cribs and missing my cubs.

Sunday they came home and mommy and daddy were thrilled to see them.  We got them changed and went directly to the park to swing for a little while.  They were both pretty tired so we didn't stay too long.

And that brings us to today and the story behind the title of this particular blog.  We had a great day today.  Calista woke up around 7 a.m., had some breakfast.  Then Alex woke up at around 8 a.m. and I found again that he had pee'd through everything.  The whole front of him was soaked and he smelled of urine.  So I striped him down, wiped him off with a wipe and put him in a onsie for the time being.  Then he had some breakfast.  After breakfast I was downstairs stripping down his bed, mattress pad included, and throwing it into the wash.  This is the 2nd time he's done this and I'd had enough.  So after bath time we were on our way to Target for 2 back up mattress pads and some night time diapers.  Back home they had a little lunch, a bottle and then took a nice nap for me.

When they woke up they had a bottle and we played on the floor with some new books I bought them at Target.  Calista can grab it and turn the pages by herself... Alex just tries to eat them.

When Ed got home we had our dinner and he went in to clean up the kitchen and make formula while I played with the cubs.  They just love it when I lay down in between their play mats, they can grab at my face and I can tickle them.  But I just had to take it a step further today.  I got a hold of Calista and laid her on my tummy so we were tummy to tummy.  She smiled and giggled, raised herself up on her arms as if to crawl and then BLAM!  A white flood covered my face.  Puke in my eyes, up my nose and all over my mouth.  I'm attempting to yell at Ed without opening my mouth, which ended up sounding a bit like a person yelling with a mouthful of peanut butter.  Ed came running in thinking someone was hurt and all I could say was 'Get me a rag'.  He got Calista off of me, (who by the way was all grins after this), and proceeded to blow mass amounts of baby puke out of my nose.

Yeah, I let him play with the babies after that while I cleaned up the kitchen.

Kitchen now cleaned and time to go downstairs for the night.  I decided to take Alex... (can you blame me?).  Once downstairs Alex and I are in the big blue chair sitting face to face practicing our A's and O's along with our new game, 'Nose/Toes' where I point to his nose and then his toes repeating Nose and Toes.  We are both very low key, but out of no where he pukes all over my.  Yep, Ed is on the couch with Calista laughing at me.

We got them both changed into pj's for the night, this time I took Calista back with me.  Ed had Alex on the couch tickling him and making him giggle so loud I was cracking up at it.  Then Alex puked on the couch, then proceeded to laugh immediately afterwards.

Bet you can't guess what my worst of motherhood for today is?  Baby puke in your orifices!!!

However the best part of motherhood for today is no matter how much they both puke, both of my babies are very happy babies.

A Busy Day That Ended with a Very Tired Little Girl

This morning started out with Calista waking up first.  They both wake up so happy these days, when they lift their heads up from the crib and spot you, you get the most wonderful toothless smile.  I changed Calista and gathered her bath items, bibs and clean burp cloths and headed upstairs for our breakfast.  This morning I decided to try the Peaches and Rice Cereal on them.  For the life of me I don't understand it, while I was pregnant me big craving was peaches.  We couldn't keep enough of them in the house!  But this little girl wants nothing to do with them.  She took a little taste and wrinkled her nose right up at those peaches.  Before I could decide what to feed her next I heard Alex on the monitor, so I went downstairs and gathered him up with bath items as well.

Now Alex ate his peaches and rice cereal.  He wasn't his usual 'shark' about eating them, but he ate them.  I dug out a jar of banana's for Calista and she gobbled them right up.

After breakfast it was bath time.  Since Calista is rolling all over the place these days the only way I can do bath time by myself is to leave her in her highchair or put her in the play pen downstairs while I bath Alex.  I gave Alex a quick bath and got him dressed in his shark shirt.  But before I could get a picture snapped of him in it he puked peaches up all over it.  Then he went down on his play mat in the living room while I grabbed Calista, striped her down and gave her a bath which she really enjoyed.

Then we were all off and running.  First stop was mother's little helper, my friend Starbucks for a nice big cup of 'Go Juice'.  Then off to Grandma and Grandpa's to say good bye to their English friends Mac and Nicol, pick up some patterns that I had left there and see if we could get one of them to go with us to the grocery store to pick up baby food.

At Grandma and Grandpa's they had a quick lunch of green beans on the patio outside.  I'm not sure how it happened, but I think Calista got a little sunburn on her face, just on one side of course.  She's not screaming about it, so it must not be too bad.

After lunch we loaded the kids up in the car and I followed Mom and Nicol the King Soopers in Loveland, where they apparently have an IQ requirement of below 50 to work there.  I was already in a rush since it was 12:30 and Jessica was supposed to be at the house by 1 p.m. to work in at DJBeads.  I left a message on her cell phone that I would be late and started on the power shop.  We had three carts for this little adventure.  Mom had one with no one in it, Nicol had one with Calista in it and I had one with Alex in it and mountains of baby food.  Once up at the checkout stand though I noticed that my carton of milk was leaking all over my bags.  So when I reached the cashier I told her I needed a new milk, she then handed it to the bag boy, Micah who proceeded to argue with me that the milk was not leaking.  I told him that my bags where the milk was sitting were all wet with a white liquid so it must be the milk.  And off he went with the leaking milk.  About this time I find out that Calista is throwing a fit on the other side of the store with Mom and Nicol, so I tell the checker that I'm in a hurry and to just forget the milk.  She says Micah will be back in a minute with it, so we wait.  I tell her again after a few minutes that I really have to go and to forget the milk and she says, 'Oh wait there he is'.  I looked over and if this guy was moving any slower he would've been walking backwards!  And to top it off, he has no carton of milk in his hands.  ARGH!!!  I just want to give this woman my money and walk out the door with my groceries, is that too much to ask?

Finally rung out I get to the parking lot with the three carts, Mom and Nicol and my groceries.  We get Calista in the car and when I go to the other side to put Alex in the jerk parked next to me parked so close that I can't even get my car door open.  So I have to back my car up into the middle of the isle, park it and go and put Alex in.  I don't know what I would've done if Mom and Nicol hadn't been there to watch Alex while I moved the car.

For all you childless people out there, or those that have children older and don't remember, this is my plea.  If you're parking next to a car and you see the car seat bases in the back seat... please remember to give us enough room to get that huge car seat in through our door.  If you don't I can't promise you won't come back to a vehicle side full of dents.

Finally done with our adventure and heading home.  I get in the door and Jessica is back in the office working away on 6,000 4mm Aqua Pearls... bless her nimble little fingers!  I raced through the house changing diapers and getting 2 bottles ready.  Alex got fed first and I figured he would be really tired, but I put him in his crib and he just talked to the walls all afternoon.  Calista got fed and you could see she was really drowsy, so she moaned a little in her sleep, but ended up sleeping almost 4 hours!

Alex on the other hand just wouldn't go to sleep.  I came upstairs to put our new Variety Packs together to ship out and just kept hearing the talking mixed with fussing.  I ended up going downstairs and got on my knees next to Alex's crib and just patted him on his behind and rubbed his back for at least a 1/2 hour.  Only when I heard snoring did I feel ok to leave and go back to work.  But he only slept for about an hour.  Once he was up I gathered him up to go to the post office, Ed got home and took over listening for Calista and Jessica finished up the pearls.  Everyone had a job to do.

At the post office Kari got to see Alex for the first time in about 3 months.  She came out from behind the counter to hold him.  He sent her home with a little reminder of himself with some slobber on her postal uniform.

Back home after that, Ed fed Alex while I wrapped things up in the office with Jessica.  We made our dinner and ate all while Calista slept away.  When she did finally wake up we fed her and made it downstairs by 8 p.m.  I had Calista tonight and she thought it was a ton of fun to yank at my hair.  She was standing up on my lap facing me and proceeded to grab at my hair and pull back as if she were throwing handfuls of confetti.

I was worried that because she slept so long she wouldn't go down at 9 p.m.  But she started dosing in my arms and went right to sleep for me.

After they were both down Ed promised me he'd give me 15 full minutes of folding laundry.  He gave me 3 minutes then started playing with his phone and complained asking how much longer he had.

Once he went to bed I have the house to myself and worked on a little bit of sewing.  I'm making a romper outfit for Calista that is pink with butterfly's all over it.  At this point I have the piece all put together, it's just the finishing touches, (i.e. hemming that I really suck at by the way), that is left to do.

So the worst part of motherhood today was having an idiot park too close to my car so that I can't get a car seat through my back seat door.

The best part of motherhood today is those big toothless grins when the cubs see me first thing in the morning.

First Day at the Park

The past few weeks have been so busy that I've really let my blogging go, so I'm going to do my best to just start fresh with today.

Jessica came to babysit today which meant that I got to get some work done in the office as well as get out for a little while this afternoon.  I spent a luxurious day getting a mani/pedi then went to see the latest Shrek movie.  (Which I can say still wasn't as good and 1 or 2, but better than 3 by a long shot!).

I still made it home by 1 p.m. and walked into a quiet house with the cubs sleeping and Jessica sitting quietly on the couch with her laptop.  Such a pleasant day, yet I knew that I was about ready to go into battle over Alex's medicine.

On their 6 month well baby check up Dr. Hansen bumped Alex's Previcid up to 5 ml's per day.  His current prescription is for 3 ml's per day and had no refills on it.  To top that off, for some reason all of a sudden the insurance company decided they don't want to pay for it anymore.  No reason, just denied.  My mission was to first yell at the Dr.'s office since for two weeks I've been calling them asking to call in the new prescription for 5 ml's which they still haven't done.  Next was to do battle with the insurance company on why they aren't paying for it anymore.  I never made it to the insurance company phone call.  I spent probably an hour between the pharmacy and the pediatricians office just trying to get the new prescription of 5 ml's in place.  Turns out our Dr. Hansen dropped the ball on this one.  He wrote on the sheet he gave us with Alex's height, weight, etc. that he was to take 5 ml's per day, but never changed it on Alex's chart from 3 to 5.

So the Dr.'s office told me to go to the pharmacy and have them call the Dr.'s office and then they could get it straightened out.  Of course it didn't dawn on me until after I hung up that I would have to then fight this battle in a public arena at my local King Soopers with two babies in tow.  Not to mention what a pain it will be to get them all packed up in the stroller just to go in there and do someone elses job so my son can have the medicine he needs.  Also, at this point we are just going to pay for it out of pocket, (which I'm sure is exactly what insurance company's hope for).  So there will be more on this topic and whether I've won or lost my battle.

Now for the rest of the day.....

I did get a large shipment of beads in today for the upcoming Mellow Yellow Variety Pack.  Realizing that I probably should have stayed home and worked on that instead of going out and playing I decided to ask Jessica if she wanted to do some work in the bead store for me tomorrow.  Once she said yes I once again felt a big weight off of me and sat down for 20 minutes to make some earrings.  Ahhhhh, that time is just the best!

Ed got home at 4:30 and Jessica took off.  Ed and I ate a quick dinner and fed the cubs, who by the way are now on stage 2 baby foods and LOVING IT!  The past 3 days or so Alex has started making a weird sound when we feed him and he lunges for the spoon of food.  We say it's like feeding a baby shark...lol.

Once dinner was done Ed got the stroller out of the trunk, we put on our walking shoes and went for their first trip to the park.  The Main Park in Windsor is really well kept with a lot of outdoor toys for kids, and when I drove by it yesterday I saw that it had those swings for babies with the holes for the legs to come through.  Our walk was only about 20 minutes to get there and it was a little on the warm side, but not blistering hot.

Calista was the first one out and her and daddy found a nice piece of grass to chill on.

Alex was a little on the sleepy side so I took him directly to the swing to see how he liked it.  Turns out the swing didn't wake him up too much.  He just swung back and forth looking at the ground the entire time.

I shot some video of him in the swing then it was time to switch so I could get some video of Calista's first ride in a swing as well.

Calista on the other hand loved her swing ride.  Every time she came at me I'd grab her swing and hold her for a second, then let her swing backwards.  The result was adorable baby giggles.  Alex had enough by now though so him and daddy sat in the swing next to us for a little while, then went to that nice patch of grass he had found earlier.

We only stayed for about 20 minutes, but it was such a nice time.  On the way home Alex fell asleep in the stroller, so once we got home Ed took him directly to bed for a quick cat nap.

They got into their jammies and both babies practiced some crawling for a while.  I think Alex is going to be out of here sooner than later, where as Calista is really great at standing on her own and loves to do that.

Calista began to get fussy so Ed laid her down in her crib for a bit and then we both played with Alex for a while, giving him hugs, neck sugars and playing cow attach with the toy moo cow.

We gave them their final bottle at 8:30 at which time Alex fell right to sleep on me.  He was so snugly, I really didn't want to put him in his crib tonight.  Calista was awake, but she seems to be easier than Alex to get to sleep when it's bed time.  You can lay her in her crib and she'll talk for a little while, but then she goes to sleep within 15 minutes I'd say.

With both babies asleep it was time to tackle that mountain of laundry that needed folding, (another thing I probably should have done today instead of playing).  Knowing that Ed would want to go to bed at 9 pm sharp, I asked him to help fold clothes for the next 10 minutes until he went to bed.  We both started working on the laundry basket when he decided to move all the clothing over to one side so he could sit down.  When I asked him what he was doing he told me why stand up when I can do it sitting down.  We were almost to the bottom of the laundry basket and I told him that there was still another load in the dryer and could he please go get that out, which he did.  About 7 minutes had gone by since we started our laundry adventure when Ed says, "Isn't it time we take a break?".  What could I do but stare at him in disbelief and say, "I am always amazed that you have held a job for as long as you have".  He was kidding of course and so was I.  I just thought it was a funny story I would share.

Ok, now for the best and worst.

The worst part of motherhood for today is trying to get medication for your baby that you know they need and running into brick walls left and right.  Makes me just want to scream, "He's a baby and he won't feel good unless he has this! Why are you not making this a high priority that he get his medicine!!!".

The best part of motherhood for today... well I have two actually, one for each baby.  The first was our trip to the park and listening to Calista giggle on the swing.  There is nothing more healing than a babies giggle in my book.  The second is a warm snugly Alex asleep on my shoulder.  I didn't even mind the snoring in my ear, (which I'm just sure he gets from his daddy...lol).

Where Did That Day Go?

Saturday morning Ed and I were attempting to finish up the things that didn't get done on Friday.  We did get a nice breakfast out at the new Perkins by the Budweiser Event Center.  After that it was a race to get home and ready for our day.

Mom was supposed to bring the twins back to our house by 11 a.m.  Then we also had Lizbeth coming to clean the house at 11 a.m. since I wasn't home for the cleaning the day before.  We had to get the cubs ready to go to a graduation party in Fort Collins, and it is never easy to get out the door with two babies.

Lizbeth arrived right on time and her and her daughter started cleaning.  Then Mom arrived with the cubs and Ed and I got them dressed and fed.  Of course Alex gave Ed a triple P play.... poop, pee and puke, so he was changed again before we left.  We took a big chance and left Lizbeth alone in our house.  She's cleaned for us a couple times before and my gut told me she'd be okay leaving alone here.  We were then off to Fort Collins.

We arrived at Joe and Julie's and didn't even make it up the drive way before Julie was taking one of the babies from us.  From there on the two of them were just passed around by the young and old.  I hope they didn't take too much of the focus off of Jessica and her big moment of graduating.

We only stayed for about an hour.  Experience has taught me that if we don't get the cubs down for a nap close to their scheduled time they tend to get extra fussy.  We also needed to get back to pay Lizbeth.

My gut was right and we arrived home to a spotless house, Lizbeth was just finishing up.  The cubs went down for their nap and Ed and I finally got a little relaxing time after all.  I spent a good chunk of my time in the office getting ready for our craft day that would take place on Sunday.

The worst part of motherhood for this blog is racing through a day so much that you don't get to enjoy your babies as much as you'd like to.

The best part of motherhood for this blog is hiring a housekeeper, leaving a dirty house and coming home to a clean house.

Too Far Gone

I'm so far behind on my blogging I'm just going to have to pick up from where I can remember, which isn't far these days.

Last Thursday I took the cubs to go meet Ed for lunch at the Olive Garden, where they were very good little babies. I brought along Calista's unfinished bottle and Ed just had to feed her that right before our food came out. Toward the end of our meal Alex started in with his new sound, which is sort of like if you suck a bunch of air in and make a noise doing it... only really loudly. We both have to laugh at it, and luckily the other patrons didn't give us dirty stares.

The time had finally arrived to go find some high chairs, and where else would I start looking than the used baby store. We found two brand new, in the box, Graco high chairs for $80 there. (Later my dad would tell me that they were $140 at Target for the exact same one). Ed loaded those up in his car and headed back to work. And as most of you can probably guess, I just had to do a little baby clothes shopping. I was pretty good this time though and only bought 2-3 outfits per child.

By now it was past nap time and the kids were getting fussy so we went home and I got about an hour of work done at the bead store before they woke up. By evening we got both babies down without too much trouble and started anticipating our day off tomorrow. Mom and Dad were taking the cubs overnight on Friday and I had a full day planned with Coit coming out to clean our air ducts and our cleaning lady coming out as well.

At this point Calista is the only one that seems to wake up in the middle of the night. She's usually chewing on her hand. We give her some teething medicine, replace her hand with her pacifier and back off to dreamland she goes. I want to add here how lucky we are that neither of our kids like the pacifier. This is the only time of day when Calista will take it. I'm grateful that I won't have to break them of that habit later.

Finally Friday has arrived! Ed and I are both looking forward to a relaxing night out to dinner then a quiet evening in front of the TV and I can get some beading done! However this entire plan goes out the window quickly when Coit calls at 7 a.m. to tell me that they need to reschedule our cleaning from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Alright, I can adjust to this, I'll just go get a mani/pedi before noon when Lizbeth gets here to clean the house at 12:30. Mom and Dad arrive to pick up the cubs around 10 a.m., we give them a quick something to eat and I get a bag all packed up for them, then they are out the door by around 11 a.m.

Now I know I'm cutting it close, but I think I can still get my mani/pedi done. After all this spa has gotten a mani/pedi done for me before in under an hour. This time however the girl is much more thorough, and all though it feels wonderful, I'm getting nervous because time is ticking away. They asked if I wanted a flower painted on my big toe, which I always get. But the guy that was doing them must have been new to it. He kept messing up and then having to clean the nail polish off and repaint my toe nail. ARGH! I'm going to be late for Lizbeth. I tried to call her but soon find I have her number in my phone incorrectly. Finally I tell the guy I'm just going to have to come back for the flower because it's now 12:30.

I race home to find a million messages from Lizbeth and a note on the front door that they were here at noon and have since left. Since I now have the correct number I gave her a call and we were working out a new time for them to come over. We get that all set up for Saturday instead and I have the silly notion that I can now go back to the spa and get my flower and manicure done. That's when the doorbell rings and it's Coit, an hour early!

By the time they get done it's almost 4 p.m. and I can finally go back and get my flower and manicure finished.

Meanwhile Ed's mom has called him and he has to drive her to the hospital to get a chest x-ray. That trip turns into a mess quickly with no one at the hospital knowing who ordered what and where they should go, etc.

Now it's 5 p.m. and we are both on our way to Outback to meet for dinner. We have a great dinner there and get home by around 7 p.m. By the time we get home though we are both pretty tired, neither of us feel relaxed at all and the only glimmer is that we get to sleep through the night. Which we did and did well!

The worst part of motherhood for this blog is planning too many things for a day that the kids are gone.

The best part of motherhood for this blog is those crazy baby noises. Who knows where they come from, just all of a sudden some sort of screechy, squealing sound will pop out of your child.

Leaving Our Mark Across Colorado

Tuesday morning found the Edwards clan up early feeding babies and getting ready for the drive back home.  First things first, of course our little Calista had to get her poopy mess out of the way.  After Ed changed that diaper he held it up and said, "We should hide this in this room somewhere".  He is quite the character isn't he?  But without hiding it, that room was pretty ripe.  I went down to get a little of the free breakfast, biscuits and gravy, and when I walked back into the room I was just about knocked over from the smell.

We got ourselves put together and Ed loaded up the car.  Each time he walked back into the room he would make a face about the smell and then chuckle a little.  I found a way to entertain the cubs while we got ready with pillows and cartoons.

Ed didn't want the freebie breakfast from Holiday Inn, so we took the cubs over to Denny's.  They were just the hit of Canon City... as if no one in that town had ever seen twins before!  Everyone stared at them and one older lady actually came over to the table and asked to hold Calista so I could eat.  I'm a little leery of strangers holding my babies, so I thanked her and told her we were fine.  Ed ate his breakfast and I picked at a breakfast burrito, I wasn't that hungry since I had the biscuits and gravy at the hotel.  But while we were eating Calista all of a sudden discovered her tongue.  I had her in some little overalls with a kitty on them and she kept putting her tongue out to taste the overall and the buckles that held them up.  So I took a dab of sour cream on my finger and put it on that protruding tongue.  She seemed to like that so I tried the same with some ketchup.  Alex just fell asleep in his car seat.

Done with breakfast it was time to hit the open road again.  About the time we were hitting the winding road between Canon City and Colorado Springs I started not feeling so well.  At first I thought it was a bladder or kidney infection because I was having so much pain all up the right side of my back (and I had a small sign of blood in my urine the week before... I know, TMI).  So I told Ed that when we got back I was going to see if I could get into a Dr.  By the time we passed the military base I was in sad shape.  I pulled into the first gas station I could find and headed for the bathroom.  When I came back out I just wasn't up to driving anymore and handed the keys to Ed, very unusual for me... I always do the driving.

As we pulled away I told Ed that I smelled poop and figured it must be Alex's turn for a poopy diaper.  But by now we were back on the highway so we figured we'd just get it next stop.  We didn't make it too far before we had to pull over again, but it wasn't at a gas station.  Ed had to pull over on the side of I-25 so I could puke out the door.  He merged back onto the freeway and this time we made it to Castle Rock when I had him pull over again.  This time we made it to a gas station, well kind of.  We stopped at a Conoco station and I made a bee line for the bathroom while he put Alex in the driver's seat and got his diaper changed.  There were no changing stations in the bathrooms so this was our only option.  I was in the bathroom forever, not really queasy, but just not feeling good.  I heard someone trying the door and knew I couldn't stay in there forever so I left there.  I got sat down in the car again, shut my door and immediately opened it back up again and threw up all over their parking lot.  The only thing I can figure is that it was some kind of food poisoning either from the Holiday Inn or Denny's in Canon City.  After that I started to improve.

Back on the road again!  Ed informed me that Alex wasn't poopy, but I still smelled it.  A little ways up the road again we're looking for a place to pull over and check diapers and feed babies.  We found Larkspur and drove through the town to find the one gas station they had.  Yet another Conoco with no changing station.  We got out the bottles and Ed started feeding Alex while I put Calista on the passenger's seat to get her changed.  Alas I found the poopy baby.  It had leaked out the side of her overall outfit and gotten on the car seat.  So I'm attempting to get her outfit completely changed, looking at the temperature it's 40 degrees out and my poor girl is butt naked.  Which means I need to move quickly, however I'm hunched over trying to get her changed in the passenger seat of our car.  Ed and I were both so frustrated that these places don't have a changing station we decide to teach them a lesson and throw the poopy diaper away inside their establishment.  I walked in, there were about 3 tables there for people to sit down and eat and at the first table was a family of 4 eating lunch.  Right by the door was a waste basket and that's where I threw that smelly poopy diaper!  I walked back out to the car and Ed and I had a knowing laugh between us.

Back in the car I started feeding Calista who is now in her jammies and without thinking about the consequences the poopy overalls are now in the diaper bag.  Ed has finished feeding Alex and we have the heat going full blast trying to warm up the car.  That's when we heard Alex grunt then Frrrpttttt and we knew.  So Ed went and got the diaper bag back out and Alex got changed in the driver's seat of the car and into his jammies he went.  And where did that smelly poopy diaper go?  Yep same place and another satisfied chuckle between mommy and daddy.

Finally everyone is fed, changed and ready to go home.  We made it the rest of the way home without having to stop again for peeing, pooping or puking.

I think the twins would've slept all the way through had I not had to stop so often to get sick.  In the end though between the four of us, three of us left our mark on most of Colorado this day.  And Ed, who is usually so proud to do these disgusting things, didn't do anything but drive and stop at every exit along the way.

The worst part of motherhood for this blog is idiots that own gas stations that don't put a changing station into their bathrooms.

The best part of motherhood for this blog is getting revenge on those gas stations by throwing out the poopy diapers in waste baskets that are next to where they are feeding people.  If they had any sense they'd realize that if I was able to change my child in a bathroom with a changing station I would throw the smelly diaper away in the bathroom.  But apparently common sense aludes them.

May 1st, Alex Day

Saturday morning found Mommy and Daddy in very good moods!  Alex slept through the night for the first time.  Ed went around telling everyone... Eight Hours and Fifteen minutes.  We have declared May 1st Alex Day and were just overjoyed with our additional sleep.  Now if we can only get Calista to do the same we'd get a night's sleep around here.

Saturday was Mommy's Day Off, I thought the day would never get here!  I went to go see the movie The Back Up Plan.  I didn't have high expectations for it and it was a little bit better than I expected, but none the less, a nice diversion.  After that I did a little shopping at Bath and Body Works.  I just love this store!  They have a decent selection of aromatherapy products, and if you get the chance try the sugar scrubs.  My skin has never felt so soft.  After that I wandered over to the kitchen store and treated myself to an electric tea pot.  On the way home I realized that we should've bought one of these 5 months ago to warm the cubs bottles up in.

Saturday was another full night of sleep for Alex.  Calista however is waking up with her teeth hurting her, so our plan is to give her a shot of teething medicine, a shot of infant tylenol (the generic kind not the recalled kind), and then she ends up in bed with us while I nurse her a little to get her back to sleep.  This is the only time I'm nursing anymore so I can't imagine she's getting too much off of me.  Once she's asleep then we transport her back to her own little bed where she sleeps until morning (sometimes).

Sunday I told Ed he could go hit a bucket of balls since he watched the cubs on Saturday.  We had quite a few chores to do around the house, but managed to get most of them done so he could take off.  In the afternoon Alex was asleep on the floor while Calista was talking in my ear while I tried to watch a movie I had borrowed from Mom over a month ago.  Not being able to hear yet another movie/TV Show, when Ed got home I told him I wanted to go and buy a sound system for our upstairs TV.  So we packed up the cubs and headed to Best Buy where we actually ended up with a home theater system with a blu-ray.  It was cheaper than buying the amp and speakers.  I can finally hear the TV but Ed is not happy because I won't let him blast the sound on it and deafen the children.

A couple of other things happened this weekend too.  One, we got a call at 5 a.m. from the assisted living facility that Ed's mom is living at now that she fell getting out of bed.  She didn't break anything thank God.  That's the 2nd time I know of she's fallen and hasn't broken anything... amazing and very luck for her.

The other is that Alex started having diarrhea.  Poor little guy's bottom is just all red and he has some sort of stomach bug.

The worst part of motherhood this weekend is baby diarrhea.  You're afraid to turn the diaper even a smidge because it will just flow out.

The best part of motherhood this weekend is that first night that baby sleeps all the way through the night. 

Attempting To Catch Up

The past several days have been so busy, I know I've neglected my blog so I'll do what I can here to catch everyone up.

This past Saturday we threw a party for my parents 40th anniversary.  This meant trying to get the house ready, cleaned, decorated all while taking care of the cubs.  Luckily mom and dad took them for their first overnight visit on Friday so we could accomplish this task.

Friday I ended up in a very melancholy mood.  Some of the people that came over here Friday to help decorate were friends of friends so I didn't really know them.  The woman was 5 months pregnant and her and her husband were really very helpful in decorating.  They were so helpful that I started to feel bad that they were doing all this and hadn't been invited to the party.  So I asked my folks if they would have a problem with inviting them, (since it was after all, their party).  They said no problem so I went ahead and asked them.  Almost immediately after doing so I regretted it.  This pregnant woman started to open up to me.  When the guys went outside she really opened up telling me that her husband was an alcoholic and abusive.  That she had just gone back to him and told him that if she did come back to him he had to quit drinking and smoking, and she meant smoking everything.  Foolish me I'm thinking this guy must dabble in smoking pot, but no she then tells me that he's smoking 'rock' which I believe means he's smoking crack???  She tells me that she thinks he's smoking rock again because he is hanging out with the person that brought them, (which really made me sad).  Then she goes on to tell me how she had social services breathing down her back and that she's already lost her son when social services took him away from her.  And this she tells me is because she choose to stay with her husband the crack smoking wife beater.

As I walked around my kitchen wiping counters and trying to take all of this in all I could keep repeating to her was, 'You need to think about that baby you have inside of you and do what is best for him'.

All night long all I could think about was that poor little baby boy that will be born into that mess.  What a rough way to start out life.  It also made me think of how lucky Calista and Alex are.  Their father and I may not have much of a clue most of the time, but one thing is for sure, they are so so very loved!  They have a stable home life and even though there are two of them and it's hard sometimes when I'm alone, I think I give them the attention and love they need and deserve.

So the worst part of motherhood for this blog is that more than ever I now feel for those poor little babies that are born into drug addiction, abusive homes and questionable parents.

The best part of motherhood for this blog is that I appreciate all of my family even more for how much they love and care for my children.  And because of that this unfortunate circumstance will never happen to my kids.

A Night At Our House

Last night the cubs finally slept a decent stretch of time.  I took the cereal out of their formula to see if that would make a difference, and it did.  My instinct tells me that since they are preemies, perhaps their digestive systems just aren't ready for it yet.

We also started a new ritual at night, a nice big feeding, then a nice warm bath followed with some baby lavender lotion.  The first night we did this we did the bath first and Calista fell asleep with bottle in mouth and I could not wake that child!  Of course that was at 8:30 so she was up at 9:30 wanting to be fed.  Then she was up again at midnight and 3 a.m.  As I heard her screaming through the monitor I told Ed, 'This is where you remind me not to shake the baby'.... so he said, 'Don't shake the baby', and I didn't.  How could I?  I could barely find her with my one eye open and stumbling like a sailor on shore leave through the nursery.  When you're that tired changing a baby's diaper becomes an act of shear will.  Thank God by the time you get to this point you've changed so many that you can change them in your sleep... because that is just what you do, change them in your sleep!  If I can find the butt, I can get that diaper slid under it somewhat straight.  However getting the pj's snapped back up is like reading Braille.  I'm searching for the inny snap that goes with that outy snap and half way up find I have an extra inny snap.  Then goes the hunt for the outy snap that got snapped to the wrong inny snap, all with one eye open (and that eyeball feels like it should be taken out of your head and rinsed off in the sink).

I know I'm not the only one that has problems with this.  Come morning I've found babies with pj's snapped up all wrong from their father and sometimes I have to laugh when I find a onsie up around their chest because daddy didn't even snap that back up.  It's all very humorous in the morning, but in the middle of the night it's more mentally challenging to me than Calculus.

Tuesday Mom came over to help out and we took the cubs on a little adventure.  First to the store, then to Michael's to find some kid poster things to put on their wall.  I did find a doggy and kitty picture, but I have to say the selection was slim pickings.  After that we spotted a new Sprouts market that had opened where the old Circuit City used to be in Greeley.  Since the twins were already in the stroller we just wandered over there.  We loved the produce there!  Both of us were expecting high prices since it seemed like a specialty store.  Instead we found beautiful produce for some really good prices.  But Calista was having nothing more to do with the stroller so I had to carry her and she was happy with that.  Hard to believe how carrying just 13 pounds for a 1/2 hour to an hour can kill your arm.  What will I do when they get bigger?

Weds. me and the cubs stuck around the house for most of the day.  We had 2 new low flow toilets installed this morning so I knew we'd be home bodies for that.  This afternoon as I started to hit my 3 p.m. wall, as I call it, I packed up the kids and headed to Starbucks.  That's two days in a row I've had Starbucks now and if they don't let me get some sleep this could turn into an expensive habit.  Both yesterday and today I was so exhausted I almost looked at the barista in shock to ask, "What do you mean Venti is the biggest one you've got?"  They should have one the size of a big gulp for new moms I think.

However today Calista did do quite a bit of talking and started to really laugh.  She made a cry sound and I copied her, that made her giggle, which made me giggle and we just went back and forth laughing at each other.  Alex also had some fun today, we broke out a little play station that Mom and Dad's friend had given us.  The baby sits in the center of it and all the way around there are toys, activities and musical things.  At first he didn't like it, but then he found a plastic pig on it that made him just giggle away every time it moved.

The worst part of motherhood is trying to match up all those snaps at 3 in the morning.

The best part of motherhood is starting to interact with your babies.  The laughing at each other and babbling back and forth to one another are just precious moments.

Instituting Family Nap Time

Since we started the cereal into their diet it has somehow messed up their sleeping habits, and I use the term habit very loosely.  Lately they've been up every 3 hours and mommy and daddy are really dragging!

Sunday was Ed's day to play so he was out of here early to go play 9 holes with his friend Scott.  The cubs were pretty good for me while he was gone.  I had bought this Snail Toy by Fisher Price that they both just seem to love, so the three of us played with that.

When Ed got home we had to make a quick trip to the store and some much needed Starbucks coffee just to get through the evening.  I told Ed on the way to the store that I was going to impliment a little thing called 'Family Nap Time'.  When we got home I wanted to see if the cubs would lay down in our bed between us and everyone could get a little shut eye.  However when we did get home they were both fast asleep in their car seats.  So as quick as we could, we unloaded the perishables and took them downstairs in the car seats, placed them in their nursery, flipped on the monitor and settled in for a nap.  Ed went right to sleep, snoring away, but I had some things on my mind and just couldn't sleep.  And the more I couldn't sleep the madder I became.  These moments are such golden rare opportunities, and I was letting mine pass me by.

Sure enough, about 30 minutes into it I heard Alex start to cry.  Up I went to free him from his car seat before he woke up Calista.... too late.. she's awake now too.  I'm yelling at Ed through the monitor to come get his daughter, but he doesn't hear me, (an effect I'm sure from time spent at the 19th hole).  I finally had to go and poke at him to wake up and come help.

Once we got all babies changed and settled down we went back to the bed.  I nursed Calista for a little while and it seemed like she was falling asleep.  However, Ed decided this would be the best time to teach Alex more of his O's.  So the two of them are on the other side of the bed and all I hear is, "Oooooo Oooooo Oooooo".  Finally I suggested that the two hound dogs could practice their howling in another room where people weren't trying to sleep.

It didn't really matter after all because at this point Calista is awake and practicing her own way of talking.  So the entire family ended up back in our bed jabbering away.  Even though I was really tired, it turned out to be a fun time listening to them and talking to them.

After dinner it was time to try out our newest bath buddy.  It's a seat that hangs off the side of the tub.  It's time to face facts that they have just gotten too big to fit in the baby bath anymore.  So I took a bath with Alex and Ed took a bath with Calista, they seemed to like it although Calista wasn't too sure about it at first.

We also had a new cabinet to build for Blu Ray storage.  Before building it I wanted to vacuum the spot where it would be going.  Well I turned on that vacuum and is sucked up some kind of string and made a funny, loud noise and it looked like someone zapped my little girl with a cattle prod!  I've never seen a baby startle like Calista does.  If you sneeze or cough too loud her arms jut out and she starts screaming.  Maybe she's just used to being really calm so loud noises scare her more.  Who knows, but it took me quite a while to get her calmed down.

The night brough unsettled babies for us.  I'd get Calista calmed and put to bed and Alex would wake up.  I'd just get him settled and start to lay him down and Calista would be up again.  This went on for an hour and a half before we finally got both babies down. And after that they went to the waking up every three hours all through the night.

The worst part of Motherhood on Sunday was the absolute lack of sleep.  I swear I could've fallen asleep on the toilet!

The best part of Motherhood on Sunday was communicating with the babies in our bed.

Oh The Dreaded Dr. Visit

Time is just flying by and it's already time for the cubs 4 month check up.  Ed met me at the Doctor's office and we hauled the twins, in their car seats along with a diaper bag and my gigantic purse up to the office.

They weighed in at 13 pounds each, roughly, and measured out to about 25" each.  Believe it or not, Alex is a 1/4" shorter than his sister.  He seems taller than her.  They are both in good health and the Dr. said you couldn't even tell they were preemie babies anymore.

We got all our questions answered and some new instructions, like putting a little bit of Rice Cereal in their food now.  Then it was time for the dreaded shots.  Oh I just hate it when my babies are hurt!  The needles they use are so big I swear you'd almost think they would go completely through their legs and come out the other side.  The each got 3 shots and one that was some kind of liquid that they had to swallow.  I think that Alex had the hardest time with his shots.  Calista let out some screams with hers but then calmed down a bit.  Alex kept screaming for a while.  That is a tough thing for a parent to have to endure, their children getting shots.  I'm sure it's a case of it hurting us more than them.

Once done at the Dr. we were off to Grandma and Grandpa Hildahl's house where they would later meet their Great Aunt Peggy and Great Uncle Jim.

Calista with her Great Uncle Jim... what a comfy shoulder huh?

They were sleeping really good, as long as there was a comfy shoulder around to rest their heads on.  All in all they were passed around quite a bit, but finally landed back in their car seats to go home at around 8:30 p.m.

It was a busy day for them, so when we got them home we fed them and they went right down to sleep.  However Calista started a new habit of waking back up after about 3 hours.  She was up at midnight and then again at 3 a.m. when she ended up in bed with us.  She's not hungry, we think it's just her teeth bothering her.  The Dr. said it's probably like an itch that you just can't scratch.  But boy does she love to eat her hand... must be made of chocolate.

The worst part of motherhood on this day was having to watch the twins get shots and knowing it would be wrong to bitch slap the nurse that gave them the shots.

The best part of motherhood on this day was finding out how much the twins have grown and how healthy they are.  Made me really happy to know they are both really healthy.

Picture Day

Tuesday was our picture day.  I had a coupon for JCPenny's Portraits so I scheduled an appointment for the cubs to get their pictures taken.  I wanted to get some professional picture of them in their Easter outfits before they outgrew them.

I made the mistake of stacking the day with too many events, so I was pretty frazzled.  They woke up, had a little food and I managed to get their baths all done so they would be clean babies for pictures.  They settled in for their morning nap while I got things ready, changes of clothes, bottles etc. just to make sure we had happy babies for pictures as well.

We were supposed to have our air ducts cleaned between 9-11 a.m. with a company called American Air Duct Cleaning.  Then I had to drop Hank off at the groomers, (it's that time of year again and he is just shedding like crazy), before noon.  And the picture appointment was at 12:40 p.m.  By 11 a.m. the air duct company still had not shown up.  So I had to call and reschedule them to Thursday between 2-4 pm so I could make it out the door on time to everything else.

I got Hank dropped off then headed out to meet Ed for pictures.  Alex just didn't want to smile at all, but Calista was her usual giggles.  In fact there were quite a few pictures with her just cracking up.  Half way through we did an outfit change and Alex turned pretty sour.  So I gave him some food and he at least stopped crying.  They did an outstanding job and we're really happy with the pictures.

It took forever to get the pictures ordered, so by the time we left it was almost 2 p.m. and I was starving for lunch.  It got to that time when you question, should I eat some lunch or just hold out for dinner?  I opted for a little chicken sandwich from Arby's for $1.49, (the price should tell you how big it was).

Now my friends that come over and craft with me know how I like to 'fire' companies for poor service.  This week was a week for firing! First company on the chopping block was the groomers, Hot Rod Dog Grooming in Windsor CO.  We've been taking our cats here for a couple of years now.  When I made this appointment I did ask if they would come out to the car to get Hank since I had the cubs with me, which they did and that was very nice of them.  However, when we got home on Tues. they left a message that Hank was ready to be picked up and just a note that they no longer accept credit or debit cards, only cash or check.  Well that would've been nice to know before we made the appointment.  Ed had to pick Hank up on his way home from work and had no check book or cash on him.  I called the groomer back and she basically told me that they could take a card from us, but they would tack on an additional 15% because of their credit card processing fee's.  Now as most of you know, I own a bead store, DJBeads.com, and I have a credit card processing bank and there is NO way it is costing them an additional 15%.  Then she tells me that their processing company wants $800 to get out of their contract.  Even Chase Bank, the worst bank in the world, only charged $250 to get out their contract.

So I have fired this company.  I don't know how you stay in busines in this day and age without taking cards.

The worst part of motherhood on this day was trying to find some place in a store that I could warm a bottle up for Alex.

The best part of motherhood on this day was getting to look at those pictures of my beautiful babies.

Still Hating That Formula

Saturday Ed had to go into work for a half day so the twins and I were on our own again.  It wasn't too bad, since mornings they usually sleep and are calm, it's the evening that they get the fussies.  Well this Saturday we were still battling the remnants of that awful formula for nighttime feedings.  I finally read the label on it and apparently this stuff is suppose to expand in their tummy's so they feel more full and sleep longer.  Whatever it does it doesn't agree with Alex.  I had him all dressed for the day and that poor kid threw up chunks at least 6 times in the span of about an hour and a half.  What could I do other than just wait for it to all get out of his system.  By the second outfit change I vowed that Alex would never have one more drop of that formula given to him, EVER!  My solution for the constant outfit changes was to get a shirt on him and immediately put a bib on him to save the shirt.  It's so much easier to change out a bib than a onsie or a shirt.

In the meantime though, I was in the midst of changing Alex, got a onsie over his head and he puked again.  So I pulled it back over his head and threw that one in the wash with the other 20 million he'd gone through that morning.  Of course now is when Calista decides to wake up and is screaming bloody murder.  So I put Alex in his crib with just his diaper on him and went to get Calista.  I got her all changed and dressed, put her in her crib (which she wasn't very happy about), and went back to get Alex from his crib and put some clothes on him.  Then I discovered yet another puddle of chunky puke on his crib sheets... looks like I'm changing bedding today as well now.  I got Alex dressed and put him upstairs on a blanket in the living room and thankfully he fell asleep and Calista was a calm baby in her crib by now. 

Things were now under control, just in time for their daddy to come home.  But it's so much easier when there are two of us because Ed was able to help me get the other crib changed out while I started up the laundry and we both worked on getting the nursery in order again.

By afternoon both of them were asleep on the floor so I took this chance to get out for a little while.  I needed to go and get some party supplies for my Mom and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary party we're having here.  This ended up being a trip from one end of Loveland to the other.  The first place I went to was out of business, the second turned out to be someones home.  By this time Ed was calling me asking when I was going to come home, mind you the twins weren't awake or fussing for him, he just didn't want to be the only one there when they did wake up and started fussing.  So I did a quick stop at Target and at least got the paper plates and napkins along with a couple of large jugs to mix formula in, picked up dinner and headed home.

Saturday night went pretty smoothly once they had all that icky formula out of their systems and Sunday morning found them both in bed with us.  It doesn't seem to matter what side of the bed I'm on, the whole family migrates to me.  Ed kept pulling Calista closer to him because she was hitting her brother with her flailing arms in her sleep... but she just kept heading South.

We got them up and fed, Ed and I had our breakfast and the cubs slept in the living room on the floor.  We were under a bit of a time crunch since Ed wanted to be home in time to watch the Masters and I had to get to a party supply store in Fort Collins.  Plus they both still needed baths and to be fed.  Alex woke up first and we got him squared away and just waited for Calista to wake.  I think we made it out the door by 11:30, not too bad for babies that didn't wake up until 10 a.m.

So I got my party supply store shopping done, hit the grocery store and grabbed some lunch and made it home by 2.  The evening went really well for us, I couldn't believe how calm they both were.  Or maybe they were always this calm and I just never appreciated it as much after seeing how fussy they were on that formula.  But they were so calm that I put Calista in her crib at 9:30 and stayed up to watch Brothers and Sisters and even picked up my beading!  I stayed up until 11, which I paid for dearly at 2 a.m. when they woke up.  But those few hours alone beading at night did my mental health a world of good, so it was a good trade off.

The worst part of motherhood is changing the sheets on a crib mattress!  I think they make the sheets 3 sizes too small.  I know they have to fit snug to prevent SIDS, but some of those are ridiculous!

The best part of motherhood is Sunday morning in bed with the whole family all snuggled up together.

If It Ain't The Kids, It's The Cats!

Thursday when Ed and I went to the store one of the items we needed to pick up was formula.  In fact it's rare we go to the store and don't pick up formula.  On this occasion I happened to spot a different can that stated it was for Night Time Feedings.  Well sign me up!!  We bought a small can of it to try and it's been a disaster ever since.  Alex has had the roughest time with this stuff and Calista has been fussy ever since.  It took us forever to get the kids to go down.  The middle of the night feeding was just as bad with Alex crying out like someone was stabbing him in the gut.  So product review on that... Don't Do It!

But before the formula nightmare we decided to try going out to eat again with the kids.  This time we asked Mom and Dad to join us at where, you guessed it, Chili's.  Chili's seems to be the only place that comes to mind when I think of a place easy to take the little ones to.  They were all dressed up and ready for their evening on the town and were relatively good, that is until the food came.  Alex was the first to start his fussing, so Ed got the waiter to bring us a nice hot container of water to warm up his bottle in while I took him to the bathroom to change his diaper.  The bathroom at Chili's was like ice and Alex was none too keen on that and pitched quite a fit in the bathroom.  Once he was back in the warmth though he calmed down and Ed fed him.  Right about that time Calista started her fussing, so I repeated this with her.  She had the same reaction to the cold bathroom and let out some screams.

Grandpa with a well behaved Alex, before our dinner came.

We got back to the table and Mom and Dad ate their food while Calista and Alex ate their food and Ed and I stared at our delicious hamburgers just sitting there waiting for us to take a bite.  Calista decided that she really didn't want to eat after all so Mom and I took turns rocking her in her car seat while we ate.  Alex calmed right down and just sat in his car seat while Ed and Dad took turns talking to him.

We had two more missions to complete before we headed home.  Go to Target to get more diapers and teething pills for Calista and then off to Carters to buy some new pajama's for Calista.  Target went well, Calista fell asleep half way through the store and Alex was quiet.  At Carters they were both really good too, until we got towards the end.  Calista had had enough of this shopping thing, so I wrapped up my shopping and we high taled it out of there.

I then took a ride home on the Screaming Express.  That little girl cried all the way home!  In fact at one point I called Ed who was driving behind me with no screaming children in his car so he could share my driving experience with me.  He didn't care to and the phone call was a short one.

The plan was once we got in the door I'd take Calista downstairs and nurse her while he got Alex set up with a bottle and we'd just unload the car later.  The plan went off smoothly and they were both down by 9:30.  We forgot about the car and just went to bed ourselves.  Good thing because they were back up again at 1 a.m. still very fussy and screaming from that awful formula we gave them.  It took us over an hour to get them settled and back into bed.  At around 2:15 I think it was we were trying to get back to sleep ourselves when the cats started in.  Lucy and Leo were scratching on boxes, doors, cabinets, anything they could find.  I think our kitties have had enough of not being the center of our universe anymore.  Mental note: Must find some time to pet a cat or two each day.

The worst part of motherhood is having a crying hungry child in your car and no way to take care of him or her until you get to your destination.  Not only is it deafening, it also makes you feel like a bad mother for having a hungry child in the first place.

The best part of motherhood is getting to dress up your children.  I'm just going to hate it when they decide what they want to wear and I can't dress up my little dolls anymore.

Misbehaving Children... not my little angels of course!

Friday the cubs woke up in such a good mood I decided it was time to introduce them to a restaurant. I called Ed and offered for him to take us out to lunch and he accepted. By 11:30 we made it out the door and were on our way to pick up daddy from work, then off to Chili's for lunch. We had a nice big booth and put the cubs on the inside of the booth and they were just little angels. Nice and quiet, no fussing, Alex did a little flirting with our waitress; (it starts already!).

Now our children were very well behaved, but the clan that was sitting behind me were little monsters! Directly behind me was the mother, and little boy around 4 or so whose name was Bobby and a girl around 7 or 8 I'd say. Well Bobby just had to keep turning around and checking out Alex in his car seat hovering over my child with his snotty nose and sticky fingers. When they were hovering over Alex they must have been doing acrobatics in the booth because my seat was being jolted constantly. After about 4 times of Bobby turning around in his seat to hover over Alex the mother joined him and said with a laugh, "Sorry, he just loves babies". I gave her a look of not being amused then turned to Ed and said out loud, "I don't care what age our children are Ed, they will not behave that way in a restaurant". Later on Bobby realized that Calista was with us too and exclaimed, "Look Mom, they have two babies!”

After lunch I went into the bathroom to wash my hands and get ready to leave and there they all were. But what struck me is that the mother had Bobby, the child that looked to be about 4 years old, on the changing table and putting a diaper on him. I was wondering if the child was mentally challenged or something, but then I thought back to the comment of 'Look Mom, they have two babies'. Sorry, but I think this was just laziness on the part of the parents and potty training. So in the end I guess I feel sorry for Bobby.

Saturday brought Ed's relief day since he watched the cubs with my Dad last week so I could have a craft day. Alex decided he didn't care for what I was wearing and proceeded spit up a huge glob, which because of how I was holding him landed squarely on my crotch, thus making it look like I had pee'd myself. So I had to change myself and him. Amazingly though, he had hardly any of it on him. The cubs were pretty good for most of the day, Alex and I watched the movie Bolt on our Netflix account while Calista slept. Then I watched The Proposal with Calista while Alex slept. By the time Ed got home though my nerves were fried! Ed ended up being a little grumpy because as he put it, 'For the last two days when I walk through the door you give me a look like I killed your cat'. I had to explain to him that it's not him, my nerves are just raw. It seems like Calista has turned her screaming volume up a notch or two lately and I just don't know what to do for her. Along with that, I think most parents get a little bit of a break when their kids take a nap or fall asleep. My kids however don't ever seem to sleep at the same time, so I perpetually have a baby in my arms. This means of course that I can't get a dishwasher loaded, load of laundry done or folded, or any work done at the bead store. These are the things that make me frazzled I guess.

Time for the best and worst of motherhood.

The worst part of motherhood is trying to get the sleep timing just right with twins. On one hand you want them to sleep at the same time, but on the other hand, if they do that means they'll wake up at the same time and both will be screaming for food at the same time. It's a no win situation.

The best part of motherhood is when your babies wake up in a smiling happy mood.

ACK! So Far Behind

Ok, so I'm very far behind in getting my blog updated. I'll do what I can to catch everyone up on the last few days.

Thursday brought both Mom and Dad over to help out, but it still ended up being a crazy day. I was attempting to get my hair colored, Mom had a Dr. Appointment for her back and it ended up that I didn't get my shower taken until after 1 p.m. After that I did get a couple hours of work in, (not nearly enough), a quick run to the post office, put gas in the car and the grocery store and before I knew it it was 4 o'clock and Mom and Dad had to leave.

Friday I was just bound and determined that I was going to find a way to get some work done at the DJBeads bead store. Of course my twins had other ideas. If only I could somehow find a way for the cats to entertain the twins and vice versa. That didn't pan out so my plan then became to find a way to wear them out so I could come and work while they slept. You guessed it, adventure time! This was a trip to Target again. Our mission, find some sort of organization for the accumulating toys. I found a storage cube system with 9 cubby holes and bought 4 material drawers in pink and blue. They now have a place for all their toys and books. That is until Grandma and Grandpa spoil them some more with more toys and books.

While at Target though Mom and Dad did find these adorable bunny ears to try on Calista. Isn't that hysterical?

Friday was also a day that I started working on vowel sounds with the kids. When they are on the changing table I'll go through the vowels with them.... Aaaaaaa Oooooooo. I can see Alex really studying my lip movements and attempting to copy me. While Calista has no patience for one sound at a time, she wants to say them all right away. However by the next day Alex is really doing well making his Ooooo sound.
Saturday, oh sweet Saturday. In exchange for the long hours that Ed is having to work his boss got the entire department $100 gift cards for Outback Steakhouse. So again Mom and Dad came over to watch the cubs so we could go out. (And we do realize how very lucky we are that they watch the kids for us as often as they do so we can get out). We went to see Hot Tub Time Machine and loved it! Definitely a play on Back to the Future, it even had George McFly in it... but it was the kind of stupid humor that was right up our ally... 'Whisper' Great White Buffalo' Great White Buffalo'....lol

Outback was fantastic as usual and we ate like pigs, in fact worse than pigs, we ate like hogs! And I paid for it by having a case of gut rot all night long. Remember those days in high school and college when you could eat Tupperware, stay up all night and still feel good the next day? Gone are those days.

Sunday was one of my favorite days, Craft Day. Once a month I try to have a craft day with several of my friends here at the house. Everyone brings a project to work on; we have snacks and lots of laughter. I'm very close to being finished with a Christmas Ornament that I started back in Nov. Once I do get it done I'll put up a picture of it here.

I was amazed at how quickly the cubs calmed down last night. Calista was a good girl and went right to sleep in her own crib at around 9 p.m. Alex went to sleep for a few minutes then started fussing, then the fussing grew louder and louder until we were ready for it to turn to crying. I'm pretty sure his reflux is acting up again and I need to call the Dr. to find out if we need to increase his prevecid medicine. So he ended up sleeping with us last night. However, they both slept until 4:30 this morning!

Now for the best and worst of Motherhood.

The worst part of Motherhood is the unbelievable amount of time it takes to do the simplest of tasks, like run the vacuum or scrub a toilet.

The best part of Motherhood is watching your baby try to mimic you and work on talking.

An Ordinary Day

Yesterday was a very ordinary day.  The cubs ended up in our bed in the morning where I nursed them back to sleep and then was able to get my shower taken and a few things around the house done.  They did sleep until almost 10 a.m. in our bed, so I got a lot done at the DJBeads Store.

Mom came over to help out and when she got here the cubs were still sleeping.  Once they woke up we got them changed and fed then took off for a grocery store adventure.  I was out of formula and close to being out of diapers.... two things that should NEVER run low in this house!

The grocery store adventure went pretty good; both cubs fell asleep in the store.  Alex got a little fussy once we got back in the car, but the entire adventure was pretty quiet.

Of course I had to play with the camera on my new phone some more and got this picture of Alex and his Grandma.  And being the little ham that she is, you can see Calista's feet kicking away down at the side there.

The evening brought a snow storm and it just felt like a good night to hunker down and cuddle up with some cubs.  Alex fell asleep hard on me.  We gave them both their night time feeding and started the process of putting them to bed.  ARGH!  This is such a battle!  They were both crashed out, snoring away, but the minute you lay them in the crib the eyes pop wide open and after just a couple of minutes the crying starts.

So in an attempt to get them used to sleeping in their own beds I tried this approach.  I nursed them both to sleep in our bed, then slipped out and folded some laundry for about a 1/2 hour.  Once I thought they were good and asleep I put Calista in her bed where she fussed for a minute or two then fell asleep (against her will I think, she was trying to keep those eyes open).  Then I waited 15 minutes and got Alex out of our bed and put him in his crib.  He fussed for a couple of minutes as well then drifted off.  And low and behold, I went to my Baby Free Bed!

Time for the best and the worst of Motherhood....

The worst part of Motherhood yesterday was the never ending battle of getting the baby to sleep in the crib.

The best part of Motherhood yesterday was succeeding at this finally and sleeping in a baby free bed.

A Sunny Day

It was a beautiful day in Northern Colorado so I set my sights on a nice walk to the post office with the cubs. The morning had gone really smooth, so I anticipated that the rest of the day would go as well right? Obviously the thinking of a new mom.

I had two very fussy cubs on my hands, and how do you fix that? Go through the check list of needs... diapers changed, food given out, etc. etc. Still Calista was fussy. I put her in her chair so I could get Alex fed and changed and after a while she got really quiet. I just figured it was her chair occupying her, (yet another Rookie Mom mistake). I got Alex changed to find a huge poopy mess. Once he was cleaned up he was all grins. You've never met a baby that loves a clean diaper like Alex! Just look at those grins.

So Alex is now all changed and a happy camper. I get him in the stroller and it's time to fetch Calista. I start to pull her from her chair, "sniff sniff", "Is that residual from Alex or did she make a present for me as well? I check and yes, she has a massive poopy diaper now too. The light bulb goes on and I realize that's why she was so content.


Anyway, I got her all changed, packed up in the stroller and we were on our way.

I just love strolling my little babies through the town. Everyone just has to stop and look at them. Windsor is a friendly town anyway, but when you have a stroller wheeling in front of you they just seem extra friendly. The cars all stop and let you go through the crosswalks, people hold the doors open for you, and everyone is just really helpful and nice.

The cubs of course missed out on all this attention because two blocks down the road they conked out and didn't wake up until we got home.

Alex was a little angel for the rest of the evening, but his sister just had to be held. So when her daddy got home he got a baby shoved into his arms immediately. Especially since she had just deposited a large portion of her last feeding on my shoulder. So Ed changed her and I got myself into the shower and cleaned up.

We had a rather late dinner because we were trying to feed them and once again had the nerve to say out loud... 'Let's see if we can get them to bed a little earlier tonight.' They were having none of that. We gave Alex a bath since he had puke in his hair, and again he screamed bloody murder. I'm not sure why all of a sudden he doesn't like his baths, he used to love them. He was really sleepy after his bath, but once again it was 10pm before the last child was asleep. We started with both babies in our bed and I managed to get Calista asleep in her own bed. I tried that with Alex, but it didn't work. He kept fussing so much that I was afraid he was going to wake up his sister. So he ended up back in our bed. I figure his sister was claiming so much of my time that he just needed some Mommy time.

Alright, I can't believe I got this done while they are still sleeping. Hurray for me!

The best and worst now...I always like to end on an up note so that's why I put the worst first.

The worst part of Motherhood yesterday was being paranoid on our walk. Will the cars stop, what if a car comes speeding so fast that I don’t' see them in time. What if a vicious dog that isn't on a leash comes after us? Etc. etc. The worry wart mother I am.
The best part of Motherhood yesterday was parading my little ones through the town.