Dreaming

Everyone,

This morning I was sitting on the edge of the bath tub brushing my teeth and my mind wandered over to our bathroom vanity. I had 2 minutes to kill so I started dreaming about actually re-doing the bathroom and getting rid of the crappy vanity.

Our house was built in 1974. How do I know this? Because there is a very old piece of paper from the original inspector shellacked to the inside of that vanity. So if the vanity was new in 1974, you can only imagine what it looks like. It’s dark brown. The cupboard door does not stay shut by itself. It’s held shut by a baby lock. (Double duty! Keeps kids out and stuff in!) The counter top (the tiny amount we have) is creamy tan with flecks of shiny stuff generously sprinkled through out. The sink is starting to rust (slightly) and we’ve already replaced the faucet and hardware because it was squirting straight up.

After I was done with my teeth, I thought I’d search different bathroom vanities and see what I came up with. Just dreaming, since we’re done improving this house. But I can dream at least! Here’s what I found:

I really like this one. I love the old fashion pump look and the raised bowl. Although it would take some getting used to to have the water coming out of the side than the front!

I like this one too. I may have a thing for raised bowls in the bathroom. Juice thinks I’m crazy, but I just love the look! Sadly, I see a few things wrong with this one for us again. It would be too hard to child lock and under those legs would be a trap for toys and hair and whatnot.

This is the one I would buy if we were swimming in money. It would probably fit into the alcove that the sink sits in our bathroom now. It’s all the way to the floor and looks like it has a generous cupboard under the sink. Plus, the sink sticks out a little and I like that! There is even a good amount of counter space which is what Juice wants in the bathroom.

Of course, if I was swimming in money, we’d have a whole new house with a proper yard and a basement and a large playroom and my own horses and barn near the well stocked pond. Good dreams…

What are you dreaming about?

Safire

PS- Reposted from my new site: www.waterfalling-up.com

Moving Day!

Everyone,

I am pleased to announce the Grand (re) Opening of my blog!  You can check out our new permanent home on the we:

Waterfalling Up

Please please please stop on by.  This week will be a week full of giveaways and fun stuff for you.  It's also kind of a learning curve week for me as I fix the bugs that are there and get it running smoothly. 

I will no longer be updating this blog as of today.  So please, change your book marks, change your feeds, and join me on the other side!

Safire

PS- This site will still be up for awhile, but eventually will fade away.  You'll want to join me on the new blog if not for the giveaways, but for Butterfly's 5th birthday tomorrow!

Baby Reunion

Everyone,

I don't talk a lot about our infertility struggles (hardly at all) because I choose not to talk about them here. Needless to say, we've had struggles, and we've had successes. Three of them!

My infertility clinic has a huge party every Saturday before Mother's Day to celebrate these successes. We always love to go see our friends and show off the kids.
Today had all the regular fare (love Marriott ham and muffin sandwiches!) and all the regular fun for the kids. This was the first year that Pirate and Professor participated in the face painting. They got balloons on their arms. Butterfly had 2 butterflies painted...one on her hand which got washed off during a potty trip, and one on her arm.

We left with very tired kids and 3 teddy bears to add to our collection.

We had a great time at this year's reunion!

Safire

Blueberry Bushes, a Stitch, Throw Up, Oh My!

Everyone,

Where to begin? Well, let's start with Lolli's picture meme. No, let's start with an announcement! My new blog is almost almost finished. Sunday is the day I will unveil it in a grand (re) opening. And what is a grand (re) opening without prizes?! I have a whole week's worth lined up for you guys. Be excited. I have some AWESOME things to win too.



Now, on to Lolli's picture meme:



See what we bought today? I am SO excited to try and grow blueberries. We've got the pots and now we have the plants. Hopefully we'll have blueberries through the summer. I'm a little nervous because I haven't had a great track record growing things. Hopefully these will thrive and we'll be enjoying a few freshly grown berries from our own back yard.

Earlier in the day, I decided to cut up some avocado. While I was cutting, with my new awesome knives, Professor came running into the kitchen and slammed into my legs. Which made me loose my grip on the avocado. So instead of cutting the avocado, I cut my finger. Deeply.

Juice was on his way home (I love early Fridays) and my neighbor Lala came over to watch the kids while they napped. Juice drove me (bleeding) to the urgent clinic. The doctor was very nice, cleaned me up, and looked at the finger. Because of the pressure I had been putting on it, the wound was very neat looking. He cleaned it up, wrapped it up, and sent us on our way.

We bought the bushes, went to the store, and got some more gauze for my finger. In the course of these errands, my finger bled off and on. So much so that I soaked through the gauze (hence the new gauze at the store).

Once we pulled off the soaked gauze, the wound looked terrible. It had opened and was all jagged. It also moved funny when I moved my finger. Rats. I went back to the doctor. He took one look at it, poked it more, and declared it needed a stitch. Cleaned, numbed (by a cream), and sewn together once. He then put some wound closure tape on it and told me to come back if it bleeds a lot.

That adventure over, I came home and helped put the kids to bed. About half an hour later, we hear, "Mommy Daddy! Pirate threw up!"

Uh-oh. Wow I didn't know how much stuff his stomach could hold. One clean bed, one clean boy and one long snuggle later, and one sleeping boy. Poor kid.

I am beat. My finger hurts. And hopefully those blueberry bushes will be still green tomorrow!

Safire

Gift Giving From Twins

Everyone,

The boys were invited to a birthday party.  It's their first birthday party for a "friend" (they are newly 2, how friendly can they be?)  We ran to the store to get presents and suddenly I was confronted with a huge dilemma.  One gift or two?!  So I left the store without getting anything and asked the lovely people of twitter what they thought I should do.  I had 6 people respond...3 for one present from both boys and 3 for 2 presents from each boy. 

So what's the right thing to do?

There are a few things you should consider when giving gifts from twins:

1. The age of birthday child.
2. Your budget.
3. The nature of the invitation.

Now both boys and Butterfly were invited to this party.  It's a joint birthday for a friend of Butterfly's and the friend's baby brother.  Who happens to be a week younger than my boys.  We are going to a bounce house play place and they are giving us dinner.

In the end, I decided to get the birthday boy 2 presents, one from each of my boys.  What brought me to this decision?  Really it came down to this:

• If I want people to view my twins as two separate people (and I do), I also need to treat them as two separate people.  

I thought about it from a singleton mom's point of view inviting twins to a party.  If I needed to have a head count of the party goers, I would count the twins as 2 separate people.  Not one.  I would have a gift bag and treats for 2 people, not just one.  The only thing I would probably do for them singularly would be to send the invitation. 

So we'll be headed off to the party this afternoon with 2 gifts for the birthday boy.

What would you do?

Safire

Thankfulness

Everyone,

At the park yesterday there was a pair of toddlers wearing matching shirts. I went hunting down their mom because here was another twin mommy! I first approached her friend (who was watching a toddler of her own on the slide) who pointed me in the direction of their mom. Their mom was sitting on the side with her iphone out. The friend informed me that the twins and her boy were 21 months old. Twin Mommy had brought their nanny along to the park. When I saw Twin Mommy again (kids pulled me away), she was on the playground talking. After saying hello and pointing out my boys, I made some kind of light hearted joke about how fun it was to be at the park with twins. (Being slightly sarcastic, of course. Being at the park with twins is tough work.)

She looked at me over her sunglasses and made this noise in her throat. Then she said, "Well I have help." She walked away from me pulling out her phone. My mouth hanging open.

I'm not sure why I was shocked. I mean, I had seen them there with their nanny. She probably had a job and was taking time out of working to spend time at the park with her sons. I just don't know why she didn't spend that time WITH her sons and let the nanny do all the work.

Yes having twins is hard work. Yes going to the park with them at this age gives me a huge headache. Yes I've watched them climb up ladders and get stuck. I've had to climb into small slides to rescue them. I'm frequently running across the park to save someone from certain death. I think I end up being more tired than they are after a park trip.

But I don't get it when people aren't mentally checked in to their kids. Is it too hard to put the phone away for an hour and be with them? She missed her boys waving at my boys and a super cute twin moment. I hope she doesn't miss other things.

I am grateful to her, however. This reminded me to be more checked in with my own kids. I watched Pirate sit quietly and watch the older boys playing with their back hoe toys and nicely ask to play. I watched them welcome him in and his face light up. I watched Professor climb all the way to the top of the play structure and look back at me and say, "Hi Mommy! Look me!" I watched Butterfly learning to make new friends by telling them, "Hi, I'm 4! I'm Butterfly! Want to play?" and how much fun she had ordering these kids around (the little empress). I listened as she proudly said that she had 2 brothers the exact same age and the happy glow she got when the kids were suitably awed. I watched Professor wave good bye to everything...tree, slide, tunnel, flowers, grass, port-a-potty, etc. I watched Pirate's little legs pumping as fast as they would let him go to try and catch up to the big kids.

They sure are amazing. I am so lucky.

Safire

Today Was an Outside Day

Everyone,

This morning was horrible. The kids were NOT listening, not being good, and trying to break things again. The boys had 4 or 5 time outs before 9am. I wanted to put them back into their beds and just call it a day after they put all their cereal in the dog water and then smeared it all over the walls.

There was no mommy time this morning. Meaning I didn't get my exercise in for the day. I barely got into the shower when I heard screaming from the other side of the door. I actually like the screaming because then I know where they are. They are standing right outside the door, unhappy, but not getting into mischief.

Trouble makers.

When I had a moment to look at my email, I saw my friends from church were meeting at a park to play. I wrestled all three kids into clothes (Butterfly didn't want to go. She was having "too much fun at hooommme!") and shoved them in the car with water and snacks.

We stayed at the park for almost 3 hours. Butterfly cried when we got in the car to leave. She really wanted to go back to that park and play with her new friends. We had chicken nuggets for lunch with a friend. Butterfly spent most of the boys' nap time outside running in the front yard with Soot. Then dinner. After, we spent another hour outside.

They stopped ruining the house. They stopped driving me crazy. They picked me wild flowers and discovered ants. Butterfly tried to climb trees and ran back and forth with Soot. It's so much less stressful outside.

It would be good to remember sunscreen for me though. My nose is burned.

Safire

Screaming and an Ouch

Everyone,

This morning we had to take the boys to the blood draw lab. I set up appointments for them online (love that I can do that at 10pm on a Saturday night) around the time I thought we could make it and Juice could still make his 10am meeting this morning. Because there is no way I'm taking all 3 kids to the lab by myself.

It was raining. The kids slept in because it was dark. I ended up having to WAKE them up and throw them in the car to make it on time. Luckily, because they were sleeping, I was able to make up our super healthy "chocolate" shake (with no chocolate in it) for them to drink in the car.

We had the whole waiting room to ourselves when we got there. Pirate needed 2 tests, and Professor needed 6. They told me they may not be able to draw all the blood they need because he's so tiny. So we decided to start with him. I brought in a few cars for him to play with. He was very happy to drive them over the arm rest bar while the tech prepped for his test. He was great with the arm band restriction. And then she stuck him. He started screaming. The tech had to almost lay on his arm while I held him down so she could get 3 tubes from him. Hopefully that will be enough blood. I heard Pirate in the waiting room saying "Uh oh! Uh oh!" while Professor was screaming. He stop screaming the moment she offered him a sticker. He was very happy to leave the room and go sit in the waiting room with Daddy and sister, cradling his "owchie!"

Pirate also drove his cars across the arm rest and helped the tech poke his arm to find a vein in his arm. She stuck him and all he said was, "ow." No screaming, no trying to pull away. Just "ow." He was also pleased with his sticker.

Juice said that Butterfly told the waiting room that she wanted to have her blood drawn too and it was not fair that the boys got their arms poked and she didn't.

But what was fair was the trip to Krispy Kreme right after. Both boys would not straighten their arms and only wanted to scrape the chocolate glaze off their doughnuts. But I thought it was a great treat after being poked.

Once we got home, I asked them to show their owies to the camera and this is what we got:
I don't think Professor has a very high pain tolerance. Poor guy. But aren't their pjs so cute?!

Safire

Question of the Week: Splurge!

Everyone,

This week's question of the week at Moms of Multiples site is about splurging.





What item do you splurge on?  Why this item?

I've been sitting on the couch pondering this question while the kids spin each other on the computer chair.  So what exactly is "splurge?"  The dictionary says that it means to "to indulge oneself in some luxury or pleasure, esp. a costly one" or "to spend (money) lavishly or ostentatiously."  Honestly, I rarely indulge in something for myself.  I will buy expensive stuff when it comes to my kids.

And the one place that I really spend money on?  Travel.  We travel 2000 miles every year to see our family that lives in Utah.  That's a lot of miles to go with very small kids!  So I make sure that I have all the right equipment to make the travel go as smooth as possible.  Head rests for the kids in the car?  Yep.  A special cool travel tray for Butterfly to be able to draw in the car?  Yep.  Toys and books and games to keep them occupied?  Oh yeah.

Right now the thing I've been thinking of splurging on are these ride on suitcases.  There are 2 things stopping me from splurging.  1- My kids will fight over them for sure and I don't think I want to buy 3 of them, let alone handling 3 through the airport!  2- Butterfly is very tall and I don't think she would be able to use it.  Then she would cry.  But it's an interesting idea.  I'll have to think about it some more.

After distance traveling, we love to do day trips.  Washington DC is an amazing place for day trips.  There is so much to see and do here!  And I try to make sure that we are able to do all those amazing things.  We joined the aquarium so we can go whenever we want.  That was a big splurge for us.  Most things in DC are free.  And in order to make those awesome day trips, I splurged on our amazing stroller.  This is the best stroller I could have ever imagined for our family.  It's so easy to push, so easy to pile things on, and so easy for Butterfly and friends to hop on and off the front.  A great splurge for us!

I like splurging on this kind of stuff because it allows me to travel comfortably.  And I love to travel!

Safire

Busy HOT Day

Everyone,

I don't know what happened to the weather but it got HOT all of a sudden. The morning was beautiful, but the rest of the day kept getting hotter and hotter. By tonight, we're all roasting and enjoying our first taste of mugginess. Which makes Juice rather cranky. Okay, everyone is rather cranky.

Butterfly has had one busy day. First off, she went to the Home Depot with Daddy and built a planter box. (They do free clinics the first Saturday of every month.) She was beyond thrilled that I actually had seeds and potting soil to put into her new platter. I even had enough for the boys to make their own little pots of growing stuff (although no cool planter). They were happy.

Then, Butterfly and I went off to a birthday party. This is one of many this month, as Butterfly has many many friends born in May! We went to a paint your own pottery place which was lots of fun. Butterfly and her friends made some pretty cute stuff. She painted a turtle brown and green and black.

We had to stop by a grocery store on the way home, and then had dinner. Everyone went to bed (the boys yelling "Buzz!" "Woody!" for their new cute pjs from Nana). Now I'm ready to spend my first night at home in about a week! Yay for movies!

Safire