Full Grown Babies

It's been awhile since I posted about Little Man and Honeybun, but here's an update. We are six months old now and things are changing constantly.

Little Man is 19 pounds and has two teeth. He's trying really hard at crawling and could sit up on his own if he would just hold still for a few minutes.

Honeybun is 15 1/2 pounds and has one tooth. She sits up pretty well, but isn't really trying to crawl yet. She's more than happy to let us carry her everywhere.

We are eating solid foods twice each day. Honeybun loves her veggies and fruits and cereal, but Little Man is not interested. Life is much more interesting these days. We're hoping to sleep through the night soon.

Here's a picture of Little Man and Honeybun after dinner.

Before and after children...

Time change:
Before children - "Hey, let's stay up late doing something fun, we get an extra hour to sleep!"
After children - "Oh crap, the danger zone right before bedtime is an hour longer."

Someone you care about is vomiting:
Before children - "I'm so sorry. Can I get you some Gatorade or saltines?"
After children - "Ahhhh... Other child is in the splash zone and just had a bath! Must use own body as shield to keep non-puking child, carpet, bed, etc. clean!"

Long relaxing shower:
Before children - "I'm feeling stressed, I think I'll take a long relaxing shower. I'll be back in 20 minutes."
After children - "My head is about to explode from stress, I think I'll take a long relaxing shower. I'll be back in 5 minutes."

Beach Babies

We're at the beach this week! One thing I have learned about going on a beach vacation with babies: you see a lot more sunrises!

My sister and I are at the beach with Little Man and Honeybun. The rest of the family will be joining us later in the week. For now it's just the two of us.

We took the babies down to see the ocean for the first time. Little Man liked it from a distance, but was not a fan of dipping his toes. Honeybun was more open to the whole experience, but still not really sure. Maybe they'll warm up to it later in the week.

We did it!

Total hours of mommy sleep last night = 8.

Granted, it was still in two blocks, but I feel really good this morning.

Gifted babies

My babies are gifted. I don't mean academically or athletically (although I'm sure they will be both :-)

My babies have burgeoning super senses and ESP. They have the uncanny ability to know exactly when I am doing something for myself and the exact worst moment in that process to interrupt me. If I am having breakfast, someone will start crying the moment the milk hits the cereal. If I forego cold cereal in an attempt to thwart them and avoid soggy cinnamon Life, they start to cry the moment I crack an egg into a sauté pan. Turning on the shower and stepping in is fine, but try putting shampoo in my hair and they know it. They also have an amazing ability to detect the second my foot hits the bottom stair and the instant I sit down on the couch.

Perhaps someday these talents will mature and expand to include Superbowl picks, lottery numbers, and the stock market. Until then I'll stick to bagels for breakfast.

Weekend madness!

Yes, it's Wednesday and I'm just now writing a post about the weekend. No judging. Monday I had to make a Costco run and Tuesday was a fussy day, so here we are.

This weekend was a bit crazy. Although really any weekend is crazy when you have twins. This particular weekend kicked off with the parents staying up WAY too late, like 10:45 at night. I guess we decided to be rebels by, gasp, making frozen pizza for dinner and watching reruns of the Daily Show! It was a rollicking Friday in our house.

Then we had our front door painted and the main floor smelled like paint, so the four of us spent most of Saturday in the grown-up's bed. That included our first experiments with eating cereal.

Honeybun took to it right away, but Little Man needed some serious convincing. He kept looking at me like I had gone crazy and if he just waited long enough I would come to my senses and let him eat the right way. Finally I gave up and he proceeded to lick the spilled oatmeal off his bib. I think it may take him awhile to warm up to the idea of eating from a spoon.

Finally, I wrapped up the weekend by discovering an unsorted box of baby clothes in the garage. Yay for hand-me-downs, boo for sorting them. I sometimes wish I could ignore the money-saving potential and just go on a spending spree at the Carter's store. It would certainly save me a few hours of work and it would keep my living room from looking like a baby dresser exploded everywhere. I know it's worth the time and mess, though, and it will get more and more important as they get older and the clothes get more expensive.

That's my crazy weekend. If my 19 year old self could see me now, ten years later, she would be both shocked and excited for the future. She might stay up a little later and sleep in even more while she could, though.

Here's our cereal adventure...

Tastes like...

Plastic and baby drool. We are well into the chewing phase of babyhood. We are also well into the drooling phase. These are some gooey babies, just one more bodily fluid to find on my sweaters. They certainly are cute, though!

Exhaustion

Honeybun going through a growth spurt and wanting to eat every 2.5 hours around the clock = me nearly driving to Target without shoes.

It's a good thing it's getting cooler so I noticed when my foot hit the cold concrete. If it hadn't been for the temperature difference I might have made it all the way to the store sans footwear. This moment in motherhood brought to you by sleep deprivation!

Flying Babies!

This past weekend we embarked on an epic journey. Well, epic for us. Little Man, Honeybun, my husband and I flew down to Nashville for a friend's wedding and a visit with family.

Flying with two babies is exhausting, especially since we did it strollerless. I hate my current stroller, but that's another post. We checked three bags, but one of them was mostly devoted to safely transporting the car seat bases. The other two held clothes and such for all three of us (it was a master feat of packing on my part). As we walked through the airport my husband and I each had a baby strapped to our chest and a diaper bag over our shoulder. In addition, I was carrying a really heavy laptop bag and my husband was hauling both car seats. I was totally beat by the time we made to the gate.

Luckily, both babies were little flying angels on both flights. We dressed them in matching boy/girl pajamas to get the maximum cuteness allowance from our fellow travelers. They nursed cooperatively on the plane and barely fussed at all. We had one diaper issue, but with two infants that's almost guaranteed to happen. It was nice to know that we can do it, but flying is a lot harder than driving. It's only worth it if the drive is more than 6-8 hours.

It was a great weekend, though. We saw a really good friend get married and had a really good visit with lots of family. Plus my husband's aunt did some amazing photos of Little Man and Honeybun. I'll try to post some later. I did spend a whole day recovering when we got home, but it didn't hurt anyone to have the three of us spend a day at home in pajamas so that Mommy could decompress. Overall a successful trip! We'll probably be flying again to visit family in Pensacola next month.

Truths, pt 2

There is a causal relationship between my babies' cuteness and interactivity while running errands and the amount of time I will spend holding and comforting screaming versions of the same babies when we arrive home.

No words, just cute

Nap Fail

Over the past week I've gotten overconfident in my nap time schedule. Little Man and Honeybun have been taking a beautiful 90 minute morning nap in their cribs. I have been taking advantage of this to do all sorts of interesting and exciting things. I have taken showers, cleaned the kitchen, put dinner in the slow cooker, folded laundry and so forth. It's been lovely.

This morning was shaping up to go the same way. They were both sleeping peacefully, and had been for 35 minutes, when I heard a car horn honk across the street. This happens a couple times a week. Someone is getting a ride somewhere and the person picking them up is impatient. They honked the flipping horn ever 30 seconds for 4 minutes straight. Finally, the person came out and they drove away. And at that moment Little Man woke up. By the time I got upstairs to give him his pacifier, Honeybun was awake as well.

For anyone who doesn't have four month olds, let me tell you that napping in the crib for extended periods of time is a tricky and tenuous situation. Just because a baby is tired, doesn't mean they will sleep on their own. Unfortunately, a 35 minute nap is just long enough to keep them from falling back to sleep, but not long enough for them to be fully rested.

Long story short... instead of getting a bunch of stuff done while my cherubs slept, I got to soothe cranky babies for two hours. Plus, they will most likely be a little off for the rest of the day. Luckily they look super cute while sleeping next to me in their boppy pillows. It makes up for being stuck on the couch during nap time.

Homemade Sauce

While I was in Michigan with my family last week, my mom and brother and I made and canned marinara sauce. My sister and my other brother helped take care of Honeybun and Little Man while we turned two bushels of Roma tomatoes into 16 quarts of sauce.

It's the most delicious marinara ever, but this is actually the first year that I've made it. In past years I've just canned the whole ripe tomatoes that we grew in our garden. Last year I canned roughly 75 pounds of tomatoes in the month of August.

This year is a different story. We still planted our garden, but I was completely unable to tend it and my husband has only been able to harvest and water a little. It's amazing how different the garden looks. Last year it was a rather orderly and weedless plot. This year it's a full on thicket. Turns out I had been spending 10+ hours each week watering, weeding, harvesting, and tying up plants.

It seems that we only have so much life force to send out. Last year we gave a large chunk to the garden and were rewarded with fresh veggies all summer and homegrown canned tomatoes all winter. This year we're channeling all of it into Little Man and Honeybun and we have two adorable and healthy babies, but only some zucchini, a few peppers, and a small harvest of tomatoes. I'll gladly take the trade. Besides, the home canned tomatoes might not have come from our garden this year, but my mama makes a mean marinara!

Truths pt 1

Motherhood means that you are the last person to get your needs met, always.

This is not necessarily anyone's fault. Some of it happens out of necessity. Babies needs are automatically prioritized. Some of it we do to ourselves. "No I'm not really that tired, dear. You go take a nap." I have definitely said this to my husband when I was probably more tired than him.

Regardless of why it's happening, it's a truth of motherhood. I will nearly always put my babies and my husband ahead of myself. Moms everywhere do it,too. Your needs come last. Unless you are with your own mother or your sisters. In those moments, relish the fact that you can shower, wear clean-ish clothes, and eat real meals at real meal times without guilt. Because if you mother is like mine, she makes sure your needs are met. Now why does that sound familiar ;)

Success!!!!!!

Yes, I know that's a lot of exclamation points, but I have accomplished something truly awesome.  Well I think it's truly awesome, anyway.  Here's the story...

My wonderful husband has a business trip this week and I do not feel up to handling the twins on my own for that long.  I'm sure I could do it, but it's entirely likely that I'd be reduced to talking to myself and eating cold cereal for every meal.  Instead I am at my parents' house for the week.  I think it was the wise choice.

In order to get here, though, I had to make the four hour drive alone with Little Man and Honeybun.  Normally we would drive up all together on the weekend, but Little Man had a doctor's appointment that couldn't be rescheduled.  

The drive went just fine, as long as you're cool with an hour of constant fussing and ten minutes of full-on screaming at the end.  I was so glad to have my sister's help when we arrived.  She unloaded the car while I fed babies and then made the two of us a delicious grilled pizza dinner.  I should have taken pictures, but I was too tired to think of that at the time.

I'm inordinately proud of this little accomplishment.  I feel it bodes well for my future freedom and our future adventures.

P.S.  It it possible to put a pacifier back in the mouth of the screaming baby in the rear facing car seat situated behind your seat while driving.  It's just not comfortable. 

The Most Stressful Thing I Do

I never thought that my most stressful regular activity would involve a tiny pair of nail clippers.  The two times a week that I trim Little Man and Honeybun's nails are the most stressful 30-40 minutes of my week.  They aren't too bad about it, but when you're trying to cut the world's tiniest fingernails any movement throws you off.

I used to stress out about everything, and if I didn't have a legitimate cause for stress I would worry that I had forgotten one.  Now I stress out about fingernails.  Oh how the world has changed!

Little Man

So the last post established that my daughter will henceforth be known as Honeybun.  My son will now be referred to as Little Man.  I'm not sure why or when I started referring to him as Little Man, but I've been doing it most of his existence.

He is an adorably chubby and happy child.  He started out pretty clingy and averse to sleeping on his own, but he's outgrown that.  He desperately wants to suck his thumb, but can't quite get it yet.  He rolled over for the first time at two months.  He's much more even tempered than Honeybun, but he will typically start crying if she goes on long enough.  We think he gets concerned for his sister.  He's such a joy of a baby and I'm  excited to see how he grows and develops.

Honeybun

So I have infant twins, one boy and one girl.  Henceforth I'll be referring to my little girl as Honeybun and this post is just about her.  She's sitting in my lap helping me write this post, which really means that she's occasionally kicking her foot at the iPad and creating interesting words for me to correct.

Honeybun is an adorable little girl, when she wants to be.  When she's in a good mood she smiles, coos, plays, and snuggles so sweetly.  When she is not in a good mood she screams.  Honeybun can produce unbelievable shrieking screams for an unbelievable length of time.  Luckily, she's becoming happier and happier as she gets older.  She's truly the best and most beautiful daughter I could ever ask for, and I'm so excited to watch her grow and get to know her better.

Beach volleyball

Why do the female beach volleyball players have to wear such tiny uniforms?  I understand that it's a sport that began on the beach where the women playing it were wearing bathing suits, but really.  These women are Olympic athletes and they should be able to play in a pair or shorts if they prefer.  There are literally regulations about how large a beach volleyball uniform can be.  It seems to be a rule that half of your butt has to hang out, and these athletes don't even have big butts.  Plus, the tops aren't that big either.  I don't think I could be a beach volleyball player because my top would not fit in the uniform top.

The whole thing seems ridiculous.  The men don't have to play beach volleyball in speedos, they get to wear shorts and sleeveless jerseys.  Even on a sunny day in August, London can't possibly be a comfortable place to wear a bikini.  I wish the powers that be in beach volleyball would let the athletes have more choice in their uniforms.  If they want to play in a tiny bikini with their cheeks hanging out in the breeze that's fine, but if they want to don some under armor or a pair of shorts, let them.

Colds

Before I had babies I almost never caught a cold.  I've been known to skip the colds my husband brought home.  I worked with school-aged kids for two years and only got sick once.  Since I got pregnant I've had 4 colds in less than one year, two of them in the past month.  Nine months of pregnancy plus recovering from a c-section and the exhaustion of taking care of newborn twins has destroyed my immune system.

The real problem with these last two colds is that I can't take my usual medicines because I am nursing and I need to be alert enough to take care of my sniffly babies.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Little Man and Honeybun are also on their second colds in the past month.  My poor babies are waking up every hour or so because they cough and sneeze and snore and lose their pacifiers.  This means that mommy is up every hour or so.  My husband offered to help, but the best way to keep him healthy is to let him get as much rest as possible so I'm trying to do as much of the waking up as I can.

Here's hoping this cold is over soon and that it doesn't infect the only healthy person left in our home.  One sick mommy and two sick babies should be enough for one family.  I just have to hold out until the weekend when Daddy takes care of his babies from 5am until 10am and Mommy has a nice, long, uninterrupted sleep.

Fifteen minutes I didn't want

I almost wrote this post at 3am this morning because I was very awake. It's the fifteen minutes to herself that no mother wants. Baby Boy decided that he only wanted to sleep 45 minutes at a time last night. Unfortunately this means that Mommy and Baby Girl also only slept 45 minutes at a time. Both of the women in this equation were super irritated by this turn of events. BG gets to express her unhappiness by crying all morning, but Mommy doesn't have that luxury.


One of the hard things about a sleep deprived night is that it makes me fuzzy all day and I am a lackluster parent. For example, rested Mommy knows that BG sleeps really well on her own, in her bassinet, with the sleep sheep. Fuzzy-brained Mommy forgets this and BG gets held instead of put to bed. My apologies to my little honeybun, Mommy will try to tune in better and meet your needs on the first try.


BB is hanging out with his uncles and I am contemplating whether I should eat lunch or take a nap. I'd like to sleep, but if I don't eat now, I might not get lunch at all today. Here's hoping for a better sleep tonight. On a related and redeeming note, Baby Girl makes the most adorable noises in her sleep, a cross between snoring and purring. Baby Boy makes me feel loved when he curls up on my chest.

The inaugural entry

As I write this, the twins are sleeping upstairs in my brother's room. He has kindly given me his room and his king-sized bed for the week (he even changed the sheets first). My mom and sister and I are watching "Dan in Real Life" and I am doing the math and realizing that my angelic tyrants will want me to wake up in less than 4 hours. I'm visiting my parents and siblings for the week while my husband is at a conference blissfully sleeping 8 hours in a row every night. I suppose he's working, as well, but it's the uninterrupted sleep that interests me.


We just had twins twelve weeks ago and this blog is an attempt to put things in writing to share with friends and family and help me remember these early days of parenthood. I talk to people who have had twins and I hear that the first year quickly fades into a blur. While I'd be happy to forget about some of the painful and unpleasant moments, I desperately want to remember many, many more.


So here's the plan... At least once a week(hopefully more often) I will take at least 15 minutes to write a blog post. Time's up for today, hopefully there's more to come soon.