Things I Love

Now that I have emerged from the haze of postpartum depression and anxiety, I'm enjoying my life so much more.  Here are some of the things I love these days.

Freshly painted toenails.  Nicely lacquered nails make me feel like a grownup, and these days I love expensive nail polish.  Okay, so it's still from Target, but it's still nice polish.  And I love that my daughter is old enough to request matching toes!

Gently stroking the backs of my babies heads as a walk by them.  This is Little Man's head, his hair is so soft and just a bit fuzzy and curly in the back.  I call him my fuzzy duck, which I suppose will bring him endless humiliation later in life.

Crayons!  I have a huge crayon tower, which my kids are not allowed to share.  I bought them a box of big, fat crayons for our art project times.  Little Man mostly tries to eat the crayons, but Honeybun colors a bit.

My new bed.  We got a new bed a few weeks ago and it is divine.  We're both sleeping so much better, it's ridiculous that we suffered with our old mattress so long.  It was saggy and unfortunate and had survived many years and the months of giant twin pregnancy.  

The "nummy jar."  It is actually an elephant shaped cookie jar, but it does not contain cookies.  It sits on our table and holds all of the kids' favorite treats/snacks.  Freeze-dried fruits, bunny grahams, fruit leather, yogurt melts, etc.  They get so excited when I lift the lid.

And my babies... They were once this tiny.

And my husband.

Retro baby cuteness!

Here are a few retro baby photos.  Cuteness ahead!

Cake!

We live in a tiny home with a poorly insulated oven.  This is great in the winter.  You put a turkey in the oven and the heater doesn't run much for a few hours.  In the summer, it's not so nice.  Try to bake something in July and the whole house turns into a sauna.  The only reason I turn on the oven in the summer is to make pie or the occasional emergency frozen pizza.

This means our summer is mostly devoid of cakes, muffins, brownies or cookies, since I don't stock much in the way or store bought baked goods.  Not that it's such a terrible thing, but every so often you want a little baked good.

Finally I have discovered the solution!  Making cake in the electric skillet.  I don't know why it took me so long to think of it, my grandmother made pineapple upside down cakes in her electric skillet.  It was one of my favorite cakes as a child, sweet buttery pineapple with maraschino cherries under golden sponge cake.

This weekend I made a berry cake, frozen mixed berries under a yellow cake.  I cooked it on medium low for about 20 minutes and it was delicious.  It had the texture of an English pudding since it was a little bit more steamed than baked, but it was yummy.  This weekend I'll try something chocolate.  

The kiddos enjoyed a little cake, as well.

Unexpected statements of parenting

There were some statements I anticipated uttering as a parent.  Things like: "No hitting!", "We don't throw our food," and "Yep, they're twins."  These days I find myself uttering more and more statements that I never expected to utter.  Here are a few...

To Little Man, while he 'helps' me do kitchen chores: "We don't sit on the dishwasher, buddy."

To Honeybun, at dinner: "Honey, pasta goes in our mouth, not our ears."

To my husband, after Honeybun bumped her head: "Which table did she hit... Oh she'll be fine."

To the helpful Target employee, while looking for a cart: "Thanks for looking, but this is a shop along cart.  I was looking for a shop along v2 cart."

To Little Man, while I am trying to prepare dinner: "Please don't shut your sister in the fridge."

To Honeybun, while she and Little Man are wrestling: "Don't tackle him too hard."

My husband to Honeybun, while Little Man was tickling her: "Be careful how you kick your brother."

To many curious people in public places: "Yes, one boy and one girl... No they're not identical twins."

And today's statement: "The blue crayon is not food, either." To Little Man, after he had sampled the purple and yellow crayons.

Babies making artwork for Daddy.

Did you know...

It is possible to carry two large ten month old babies in one ring sling wrap carrier.

It is possible for a one year old to get a cheerio inside their overalls, onesie and diaper without eating it.

It is possible to suck bath water out of a squirter bath toy.

Eggo waffles taste better when eaten off the floor (according to my children).

I can walk twice as far as I think I can while pushing my sixty pound stroller.

Whatever toy your sibling has is better than any other toy in the whole world!

One can communicate perfectly well through grunts.

Whipped cream in a spray can is terrifying to sixteen month old girls.

New baby happenings

As we wrap up our summer, Little Man and Honeybun are showing some new (and frankly adorable) personality traits.  It's so much fun to watch them turn into little people of their own.  I know they've always been people, but lets be honest, babies are just bundles of needs and complaints for quite awhile.  Even after they got past the 'bundle of needs' phase, their personalities were just beginning to emerge.

Now they are doing new and exciting things all the time.  Honeybun loves to copy mommy, so she steals my purse and drags shopping bags around the house.  Her favorite one is a red Coach bag, my baby girl has good taste.  She has also started adopting stuffed animals.  She snuggles with the Piglet taggie blanket that my mom made for her and she likes to carry her Elmo with her when she travels.  Standing over the air vents is by far her funniest new trait.  We have some cute Marilyn Monroe photos of her with her little dress blowing around.

Little Man wants to help with everything.  He is constantly looking for a door to close, even the doors we want to leave open.  He has come close to shutting his sister in the fridge a couple times.  He also helps us clean.  He steals paper towels, washcloths, wet wipes, etc. and 'wipes up' messes.  This usually makes a bigger mess, but it's adorable.  His new favorite place to hang out is my husband's favorite recliner.  He hauls his little body up in the chair, then sprawls out to relax.

It's become so much fun to be their mommy.  I'm so glad I got help dealing with my postpartum issues.  Being myself again has allowed me to enjoy my little family and pay better attention to the perfect little individuals my children are becoming.  It's a much better way to live.

Caution...adorable baby photos below!

June and July... Part 3

So after our departure from Nashville, the cherubs and I took up residence in Pensacola for two weeks.  At my parents' new home... the one with the enormous open floor plan, view of the bay, large backyard pool, dishwasher that magically unloads itself, washer and dryer that fold clothes, kitchen that prepares dinner and on call baby entertainers.  Okay, so the appliances don't actually do any work.  It just seems like they do because my parents and siblings do so many of the mind numbing chores that suck up my time.  

The other stuff is true, though.  When my parents moved from Michigan to Florida, they did it with gusto.  Their house is beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed my extended stay.  Little Man and Honeybun were in heaven, too.  They had so much space to toddle around and new toys to explore, including the pool.  Plus my mom has two huge cabinets filled with Tupperware. And there is a dog.  Lucy, my parents retriever mix, was a very patient playmate and did funny things like tickling their toes at dinner.

We did one beach day when my husband came down for the weekend.  It was fun for an hour or so and then we got rained off the beach and stuck in a giant thunderstorm.  Honeybun enjoyed all aspects of the beach.  She sat right down and dug into the sand, then giggled while the surf splashed around her knees.  Little Man enjoyed his picnic lunch and splashing in a bucket of water, but wasn't so enthused about the actual gulf.

All in all it was a great trip.  My eighteen year old brother gets a world's best uncle award for making the two day drive home with us, stopping at Cracker Barrel for four meals, and listening to The Lumineers cd too many times to count.  Little Man and Honeybun are seasoned little travelers, but they were excited to get home and see their daddy and all their own things.

That's our summer adventure.  Here's some baby cuteness...

June and July... Part 2.

Now on to the exciting (good exciting, I guess the postpartum depression was exciting in its own way) parts of June and July.

First, our epic journey.  At the end of June we loaded up the minivan with our family and most of our portable worldly possessions and headed south.  Our first stop was Nashville, Tennessee to visit my husband's side of the family.  We've made the drive many times.  Before babies we could power through it in less than eight hours if we really wanted to get there fast.  Now there is no such thing as "powering through."  It's a solid eleven hour journey, now.  On a good run it involves two meal stops (at Cracker Barrel, exclusively) and at least one snack break at a rest area.

The kiddos did really well in the car, all things considered.  On a normal day they spend most of their time toddling purposefully around the house, moving objects from one room to another and trying to steal my phone and iPad.  On a travel day they spend most of their time sitting in a car seat, kicking their legs and chucking all of my toy and book offerings out of reach.  As a consolation we let them have pacifiers and we try to stop for long stretch breaks.

We made it to Nashville with our sanity intact and had a great week.  We saw old friends, went to a wedding, played in the creek behind Nana and Grandpa's house, played in the baby pool in the backyard and saw lots of family.  The only unpleasant parts were Honeybun's new tooth and the cold my husband caught.  Both interrupted my sleep and made us all a little cranky, except Little Man, he stayed cheerful.

After a week of play and fun, we moved on to the next stage of our journey.  Two of my siblings joined us for the drive south and we said goodbye to my husband for a week. 

To be continued...

I'll add pictures soon.