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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Get Ready...


Everyone,

November is days away. Join me, my Dad and my friend Laura writing 30 days straight. Any other takers?

Safire

PS- There are prizes involved!  And even though I will probably not win one, I like the chance to win one.  And I have the past 2 Novembers written down.  That's a big prize itself!  Last year, Butterfly read the book, we were sick with Ed and I was pregnant with the boys and not saying anything.  The year before, Butterfly was just turning 18 months old, still sleeping in the crib the boys are currently in, and just starting to talk in sentances.  It's really fun for me to go back and read all of these things and try and remember what it was like.  I can't wait to do it this year and get the boys' first November recorded.  :)

Monday, October 27, 2008

Busy Busy Busy

Everyone,

Sorry for the small amount of posts lately. We've been really busy and with the boys getting older, they are demanding more attention. At night, when I normally do post, we've been trying to de-clutter and clean our house. We've cleaned half of our room and the corner in front of pantry so far and thrown away 2 big garbage bags of junk (pack rats should never live in a small house) and made about 20 trips to the attic with stuff. Our goal is to de-junk by mid-November so that we can start inviting people over to play games. Juice is feeling social (weird, I know! I was shocked too) and this is the activity he chose. I told him that was fine as long as we cleaned the house really good. So here we are.

Every night we seem to have something going on.
Monday: FHE
Tuesday: Cleaning night
Wednesday: Game night/book club
Thursday: Church activity night
Friday: Date night
Saturday: Crash and Burn night
Sunday: Go to bed early night

This week along with all the above stuff, I think I have a mom's night out and Halloween to do.

No worries, though. November is coming. Remember November? The month I post every single day? Yeah, it starts Saturday! I have a lot of things that we've been doing out of the house to talk about. And a bunch of pictures to post. This year I'd like my Nablopomo to be a little more organized so I'm saving a few things to do.

Plus, I'm trying to get Christmas all set. I seem to have lost my little address book (Butterfly loves to look at it because it's small and 'just my size mommy!' Sadly, it's also just the size to be lost and I can't find it anywhere). So I'm trying to gather addresses and figuring out who wants cards this year and who doesn't. If you'd like a card, email me at safirecat [at] gmail [dot] com with your address.

I hear the boys crying so I better go.

Safire

Monday, October 20, 2008

6 Months Old!

Everyone,

Really? The boys are a whole half a year? Wow. I just can't believe that we are now closer to their first birthday than their actual birth day. I tried to take their 6 month old shots today but they turned out pretty bad. The light was low and they were moving. Laura, help! I did get a few choice ones. Like this. Maybe I should do pictures before bedtime. And then there is this one.Every time I pointed the camera at Pirate, he grabbed for it. So almost every shot of him has his blurred hands in front of his face. I did manage to get a few cute ones. And here's an update on their stats.


What cute boys we have! They are so happy. Easy going. I guess they have to be with 2 other kids in the house, one of whom is the exact same age (plus or minus 6 minutes). They are on a good sleeping schedule, which helps me actually get through the day. They also go to bed around 6pm, are up only once or twice, and are up for the day around 7:30am. They also have a cute puppy. They have just gotten interested in her and Pirate especially will laugh when she walks past. Of course, he laughs at pretty much anything so I don't know how good of an indicator that is. You decide. They have discovered toys this past month or so. Juice pulled all of our infant toys from the attic the other day and now our house is covered in them. Who knew that they would also be entertainment for the 3 year old as well? She thinks up these elaborate games with them. They are drowning in the pool and someone has to save them. They can't find their parents and are on a quest to search for them. They are in the jungle and need to get home. The boys so far just bat, grab, mash, maul their toys. You know, play with them like they are supposed to be played with.

Professor continues to be my little sweetheart. If someone else is holding him, he will lean in my direction. Not lunge, just lean slow and steady. If he is unhappy and sees me not holding him, he flings back his head and arms and shuts his eyes and cries red faced. This instantly stops as soon as I pick him up and he almost always wants to eat at that time. He is a comfort nurser. He is just starting to be wary of strangers. He recognizes Juice and gives him huge smiles when he comes home from work. On Friday the 17th (day before they were 6 months old), he weighed 15 lbs, 1.5 oz and was 26.5 inches long. His head was 17 inches. This puts him solidly in the 50th percentile for height and weight. He gained exactly 2 lbs which I find interesting. They got 4 shots plus a oral vaccine on Friday. Poor kids. He also has one tooth (the bottom left) all the way through and the bottom right one just barely coming up. He still does not sit up on his own, but has been on his elbows and knees a lot. I have found him on his hands and knees a handful of times. He tries to move his legs when he is up and ends up belly flopping. He rolls like a mad man and prefers to be on his belly. He is still the loud one and chats on long car rides. Or any car rides for that matter. He loves his binkie. You can tell he is smiling because of his really really cute dimples that appear around his binkie. And you can tell he's really happy when he smiles so big his binkie falls out of his mouth. He still wakes up at night to eat (Pirate does not) but I don't mind it too much. I feel like it's our little special alone time and he is just so sweet.

Pirate laughs. He laughs when you pick him up. He laughs when you change his diaper. He laughed at Juice when he shaved his goatee down to a mustache for the Ren Faire. (Juice says to be concise Pirate did a double take and then BELLY laughed when saw that Juice had shaved.) He laughs when you take him out of the car in his car seat. He has this enormous Muppet smile to go along with the laughing. He also opens his eyes really big when he sees something that interests him. His focus and concentration are amazing! He is not easily distracted when he decides he wants something.


On the 17th, he was 15 lbs, 15 oz. Up exactly 2 lbs from last check up. Guess they are getting the same amount of food, huh? His head is also 17 inches around. And he is a whopping 27 and 3/4 inches long. Which means he grew almost 3 inches from his last check. The nurse measured him three times because it's a huge jump for him. (From the 25th percentile to the 80th.) Already he is growing out of the length in the 6-9 month old clothes, but the 12 month old clothes swamp him. Sounds like he got my dad's long torso and our long legs. He is long and skinny already! He doesn't have any teeth, and he really does not sit up on his own. He prefers to be on his belly doing the superman rock. He lifts arms and legs off the ground and kicks his legs to rock forward on his belly. He can push himself up straight armed and often travels backwards this way. He hates it but can't figure out how to change it. He reaches for EVERYTHING. (See above picture.) He is fascinated by food and we will be starting them both on solids soon.

Safire

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Pictures....arg!

Everyone,

I think something is wrong with blogger because it will not let me load any pictures up. So I thought, hey, I'll just make myself a little slide show of my pictures! It'll be cute!

So I did. Most of the afternoon was dedicated to making this slide show in between feeding, changing, burping, dodging spit up, playing farm, cutting apples, making dinner, throwing a ball, answering the phone, trying to look at Juice's benefits for next year, dancing with babies, feeding, napping the children, and joining facebook. (Where my slide show came to a screeching halt because facebook is too addicting already. Look me up if you want to be friends.)

Anyway, I finally got the boys down for bed and dinner eaten and cleaned up so I sat down to do the slide show. I finished it, and discovered if I wanted to publish it it would cost me over 50 dollars! Sheesh...these slide show things suck you in with a free account and then don't let you do anything with it. So now instead of 12 of my most favorite photos from this past week in PA, you get 3.

Hey, be happy with 3!
Safire

PS- Professor has a tooth! No wonder he refuses to sleep on his own, hates to be put down, and has a toned down sunny disposition.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Drive Home

Everyone,

The drive home was somewhat eventful. We didn't leave until around 12:30...maybe 1pm. We enjoyed the swimming pool for a good 45 minutes and ran around the hotel room shoving things into every nook and cranny. How is it that I got all of my stuff there in 4 bags, and had to come home with 6? Stuff explodes with kids. It's weird.

Juice took my parents to the airport and drove around through Delaware (small wonder!) and I took the short way home with all of the kids. We talked about maybe switching rolls, and I would drive my parents back to the airport but then what would he do with the kids for hours at home by himself? Especially since 2 of the kids kind of need me every few hours. And I kind of need them too. Anyway, it worked out the best and Juice came home cross and tired.

I came home by way of Gettysburg. It was a beautiful fall day. Both the boys are screaming in the back and Butterfly is complaining that she can't hear her movie. ("They too loud! Make the movie louder!") I saw the sign for Gettysburg: 6 miles and figured I could make it there and find a nice monument to park next to and feed these boys. One mile away, Butterfly starts yelling, "I need to go potty!" Perfect. We were stopping anyway, right?

I am amazed at how long she can hold it because it took me probably half an hour to find parking. Parking that was not 6 lots out in the boonies. It was far enough away from the new visitor's center that I had to pull out my stroller and strap everyone into it and walk about 7 rows of cars up. Everyone is so excited to see the twins and frankly, I've had enough of being the show. It was fun for awhile. Now stop your "aww...twins!" and just move on.

Wow, that came out harsher than I wanted. Apparently it has been bugging me. Will rant later.

As I was waiting in the ladies room for the big stall, several people came up to me and told me they would watch my kids if I had to go. No no no. I will not let strangers watch my children!! I know they were being nice but seriously, do you think anyone would take you up on your offer? In the end, an attendant showed me where the family room is. Whoever invented this with it's baby changer, potty, chair, sink, kid friendly seats is a genius. I changed both boys (both poopy), had Butterfly potty, fed the boys and never even had to leave the room. It was awesome!

I figured since I had gone to all that trouble to get everyone out of the car, I may as well walk around some. The only path I could find was leading to the bus parking lot so we toured that and got back into the car. We then drove around Gettysburg looking for "statues" as Butterfly called them. They aren't hard to find. I took a few pictures, enjoyed the fields of black eyed susans they have there and headed home.

We got here in one piece, although Fern is a little more worse for the wear. Never give your 3 year old a can of chips and expect the back seat to resemble anything like a back seat for awhile. Thankfully, FHE tonight was clean the car so she's back to being her crumb free self. Until we ride in her again.

It took me all day to go grocery shopping and plan my week out. Looks like I've got a lot going on!

Safire

PS- Tried to upload pictures...stupid internet is too slow. Will try again tomorrow.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Pennsylvania Ren Faire

Everyone,

We had a great time (as usual) at the Pennsylvania Ren Faire. This was our second year going. There were a few things that we wanted to see from last year, and a few things that we missed last year. I still don't think we saw everything again this year. We'll try again next year!

The reason why we started going to the PA Ren Faire and not the Maryland one was that it seemed cleaner. More family friendly. The biggest reason is probably so that Juice can wear his sword. They don't allow weapons at the MD Faire. Anyway, we like it. And I'm completely bushed so this will be short.

Juice played with Butterfly's hair, and mine too. We all got dressed up in our costumes. Butterfly was Arwen and got to wear my evenstar necklace. Juice was his Dread Pirate Roberts costume. The boys were little pirates too. And I had a shirt on that said, "Who are you calling a princess?" with a skull and crossbones on it. It was pirate weekend, after all.

My Dad threw some Chinese stars, which he got to do for free because he found a star in the road and took it back to the guy. We waited in a long line at the potty and went to find ourselves some lunch. After lunch, I fed the boys and my mom took Butterfly to the potty again. She was in the stall and started to cry. She did not want to go without me. Ugh. Please someone tell me the whole can't-potty-unless-you-are-there phase will go quickly. I'm so tired of it.

I had just sat down to finish my lunch when my mom called so I had to go help Butterfly and then go finish. By this time, the boys had had it. They had not had really good naps in a few days and they were not happy little boys. We walked towards the "flying chicken", otherwise known as the hippogriff swing. Juice and Butterfly took a ride. I tried to feed the boys again and listened to them cough horribly. Guess who caught colds? Me, and them, and Butterfly. I imagine Juice will probably not be far off.

My dad and Juice fought in the the fencing ring. They pad you up really well, give you a sword and some balloons connected to you and let you whack each other until the balloons are popped. My dad won. They had so much fun and came back to us all smiles.

We then had to go to the potty AGAIN, and this time Butterfly refused to go at all. So I thought I would go. Well she was mad and didn't want me ("Daaaaddyyyyy! I want Daaaaaaddyyyyy!") and opened the door to run out while I was still indisposed. I was NOT happy with her and after I got her back in, got myself put back together I marched her right out to her daddy who she immediately didn't want. Of course. ARG!

We wandered around to look at the shops but they are hard to go into with our big stroller. By this time I had Pirate strapped to me and Professor was whining in the stroller. Butterfly's head kept falling over so she sat in Pirate's seat and fell asleep. All day long we had been doing a scavenger hunt and we didn't want her to miss getting her prize that she worked for. So Juice stood in line with her asleep in the stroller. She got a skull necklace. I fed the boys again and we decided we were done.

We spent all day at the Faire and had a great time! The queen blew the kids all a kiss and Butterfly got several trinkets. We were beat by the end of the day and came back to the hotel early for bed.

We love the Ren Faire!

Safire

Friday, October 10, 2008

Oh the Chocolate!

Everyone,

Guess where we went today? HERSHEY!! Yum yum. I bought a case of 1 lb chocolate bars. Normally I'm not a huge chocolate fan but lately (okay, ever since I couldn't have it!) I've been interested in it. Chocolate world was cool. This was my second time here but Butterfly's first. She was entranced by the little ride with the singing cows. My dad was trying hard not to puke out the side for the corniness of it. She had a great time and now our little fridge is packed with chocolate. Yum!

Butterfly also "made" a little box of kisses which she loved doing. I have pictures, but they are on my camera still.

We also stopped by my mom's old house that she lived in when she was a few months old till she was about 2. We've been here before (last year actually) and so I just sat in the car and fed boys. Mom remembers nothing of the house, except maybe a vague impression of the little alley way next to the house.

We then went back to the hotel to say hello to Juice. Welcome to PA Juice! Butterfly was so excited to see her daddy that she just wanted to stay with him. Since he was not interested in our next outing, she stayed at the hotel with him. And since she was staying, I fed the boys and left them with him too. My dad decided to take a little break too so they all stayed home and my Mom and I drove to Bird-in-Hand, PA.

This is kind of a big Amish community. It was very cool! We didn't have enough time here (a phone call about 10 minutes into the town with a screaming boy in the back ground) but we did stop at a farm and bought home made root beer and saw them driving buggies up and down the main street. That part was cool because the side of the road was rutted from all of the buggies up and down the street. I want to go back and stay in the little inn that was on the main street with chairs in the front lawn so I can sit and watch them go back and forth all day. I'm not all that interested in the Amish, but their HORSES! :)

Safire

Thursday, October 09, 2008

SIghtseeing!

Everyone,

My feet are sore. My kids are knocked out. My head hurts just a little bit. I must have been sightseeing today! We were off to Philly today. What an interesting city! Our first stop was the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We had to stop and get food for us and the boys right when we got there. Butterfly dropped most of her lunch on the ground and we were asked about 3 times about the boys.

We toured Independence Hall. Which meant that my mom listened to the lecture and my dad and I and the kids wandered around and tried to keep Butterfly out of trouble. That girl has boundless energy! We took some kind of cool pictures (still no pictures at the moment...too tired) and enjoyed the square outside some.

By the time we got to the Liberty Bell, Butterfly had had enough. She was just so busy. Maybe I had had enough. I'm not sure. In any case, my dad took some pictures of us in front of the bell and we moved on to another nursing session while Butterfly and my dad ran and ran and ran.

We then decided to walk to to Penn's Landing (where Lord Penn landed, and why Pennsylvania is named what it is) and that was probably not the best choice. It was a long walk for a look at the river. We saw New Jersey. We were also stopped by one very large, very drunk women who tried to touch my boys! I don't mind people looking at them and asking questions, but touching is a no no.

We then walked the long walk back towards our car to find dinner. Dad wanted a cheese steak but did you know that most things close at 5pm downtown? No? Neither did we. So we wandered around trying to find something. And then we were looking for anything but could not find anything.

We lost our car. We couldn't remember where we parked it. We had to ask a police woman if she knew where One Independence Hall was because that's what the building said. She didn't, but suggested we look on our parking ticket for the address. Duh...we had it! She pointed us in the right direction.

One car later, we tried to look for a cheese steak place beyond the Independence Hall area. We found Broad Street, and drove down the Avenue of the Arts in Philly. Cool to see all sorts of art things while we were on the look out for a cheese steak. No such luck. Market Street maybe? Nope. Sigh...we gave up and headed back to the hotel.

We stopped off to feed the boys about 10 minutes later and eat. They screamed when we put them back in their car seats. Maybe too much time in them? We made it back to the hotel in one piece and were in bed a little earlier today than yesterday.

Juice comes up tomorrow. Yay!

Safire

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Hello, I'm A State Away

Everyone,

Tell me why I had to drive through Delaware to get to Pennsylvania? And why did it cost me about 12 dollars in tolls? Either way, here we are. I don't know what I was worried about but about 3/4th of the trip I have actually driven it before. I think I was nervous because this was the first road trip I've really done by myself and the kids. I've always had someone else over the age of 12 in the car with me.

Really, I think I was most nervous about the ez pass that was new. I got it to take care of all the tolls. I noticed after I went through the first toll, I was noticeably relaxed. Needless to say, the trip went very smooth.

The boys slept the whole way to the Philly airport, and Butterfly watched the same movie 2 times. We drove through Delaware (small wonder) and through south Philly which was a little scary. I don't know why I was afraid on 1-95 but I was. I got to the airport early and fed the boys in the cell phone lot and when my parents landed, my mom took Butterfly to the bathroom and we were off. It's nice to see my parents again!

We stopped at a mall to eat dinner and buy some straps to put the bags on the roof. My van is not terribly big and after I got ALL of the baby/preschooler (is she really old enough to be a preschooler?!) junk in the car there was no room left for anything else. We barely got my parents in and they decided it wasn't worth it to hold their luggage on their laps for an hour and a half to the hotel so off to the mall for straps and food.

Now, here we are in an awesome hotel room. It has 2 separate rooms, a living room with a pull out couch, a bathroom, and kitchen. We are on the bottom floor, right in the corner so I don't even feel like we are bothering anyone with the crying.

Every one's schedule is off. The boys were ready to sleep at 6pm as always, and I don't think we got them into bed until about 10:30. Mostly because it took us awhile to get to the hotel. And then we had to unload everything, get into pjs, wrangle Butterfly who was bouncing off the walls and people, and fight with the stupid pack and play. Seriously, who thought those things up? They are great, but a pain to put up.

Now I'm off to bed. Sight seeing tomorrow!

Safire

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

It's late and I'm tired.

Everyone,

Tomorrow I am crazy and driving with all the kids to Pennsylvania to meet up with my parents and have a mini-vaca with them. Every year they always come out in October and do something with us. Last year we went to Chincoteague. This year, Philadelphia. We're all about being tourists here.

Anyway, Fern the Van is packed to the gills already and I only have my stroller, the potty and the pack and play for the boys. Yeah. Why do I think I can do these things?

I'm excited to see my parents again and show off the boys and how much they've grown. And boy have they changed this week! I have pictures, but I can't find my camera cord so you'll have to do with some milestones.

Pirate: He's getting teeth! Or at least, I can see the craters where the two front teeth will be. They are sometimes sharp and sometimes not so he's into peekaboo teeth like Butterfly. Yay horray. He's really not interested in sitting up but refuses to nurse if Butterfly is in the room. She is just so interesting! He laughs all the time. Laughs when you pick him up. Change his diaper, roll him over, walk by, talk to him, smile, tickle, wave, anything. He sucks his thumb and I have to say it's one of the cutest things. I love how he hooks his pointer finger over his nose when he does it. And his eyes are so bright and wondering all the time. He gets me to just stare at things sometimes and wonder what he sees.

Professor: Help me now but this boy is up and rocking on his hands and knees. Yes, you read it right. Oh he doesn't stay up for very long. But he's definitely up. He also stands on his toes and his head and makes his body into an inverted V. And he wiggles. I put him down in the living room and come back to find him in the entry way. I see baby gates in our future. And you should see the looks of loving adoration this kid gives me. It's amazing I get anything done with the amount of time he and I spend loving on each other. Oh Pirate loves me too and loves to put his head on my shoulder and suck his thumb and play with my hair, but Professor's eyes! And his sweet dimpled smile! And his deep chested chuckle! Can't get enough lately.

Butterfly is beginning to resent the fact that I can't play with her as much. I think she is feeling a little lonely. I do try and spend 20 minutes here and there playing and reading with her, but there is only so much I can do. The babies need me so much. I know she does too. And that's why I'm feeling torn these days. It's also why I'm not sleeping great because I stay up and do all the things I put off to be with her. Like laundry or computer time or showering. Or cleaning. Right now we've been running all over to get things ready for this trip and she is not a happy camper. She is also refusing to take her nap and not going to sleep until 11pm (5 nights in a row!!) so she is one cross cookie. She is sweet though and says things like, "Only girls can use this bathroom. Boys can't. We should call Nana and tell her she can come and use this bathroom because only girls can use it." So we did. She will also tell anyone who comes up to us and asks if they are twins "These are my twin brothers, Pirate and Professor. They are babies. I'm Butterfly. I'm 3 years old and I'm NOT the helper." She also said, "Hi, I'm Butterfly. I'm 3 years old and I'm wearing a dress," to our friends who invited us over to watch some tv. He was a good sport and responded, "Hi, I'm B and I'm 37 (???) and I'm wearing pants." It was funny.

I hope the hotel has free wifi so I can blog about our amazing PA adventures. This is our last trip for awhile. I'm feeling a little relieved that we may be able to put away the suitcases for a few months.

Safire

OH! If you're interested in going to another sale, the Norther Virginia Moms of Multiples is having their huge sale on Saturday. See here for information. And if you go, look for a fisher price aquarium high chair or rainforest one in good condition with the little tray toys attached for 50 dollars of less. Pick it up for me and I'll give you 50 plus a little extra for your time. We are going to need that soon.