Back in the Saddle Again!

After getting hooked on blogs written by some of my friends, I've rediscovered my motivation.  I didn't realize it had been 7 months since I'd been on here. In my defence, it has been an incredibly busy 7 months.  Daddy came home just before Christmas and about a month later saw the addition of the twins... and everything just kept spinning from there.  I figured today was a good day to start back up considering that my little bundles are 4 months old today.

They just keep getting so big.  Between them and Gwen, I'm in a constant transition of clothing from storage to closet and back to storage.  Gwen is already in 3Ts and I'm crossing my fingers that they last for a while.  She's finally decided that using her words is fun.  Between Daddy coming home and getting 2 baby sisters, we'd had a hard time getting her to use her words.  Now she's having fun saying the name of whatever it is that she's using at the moment.  I hear a lot of block, ball, shoe, etc. throughout the day.  Her favorite is 'CAR!'.  Last time we made a trip out of the house, she spent the entire car ride pointing out ev-er-y sing-le car we passed... which was especially fun as we drove by a series of parking lots.  The more cars she saw, the louder and more shrilly we heard about it.

She no longer allows us to rock her to sleep at night.  Instead, we read her a couple stories, put her in bed, and then sit and shake our heads as she gets back out of bed to rock herself.  Most of the time she'll go crawl back in bed as she's dozing off, but there are times where we've looked in and she's asleep in the chair looking like a giant rag doll.

So far, the twins have been sharing a crib.  They won't sleep at night without the other one there and they still scootch closer so they can sleep with their foreheads touching.  This would be cute except for the fact that if it wasn't for the swaddling, I'd be breaking up cat fights all night.  They don't like to sleep apart, but when they're together, they won't leave each other alone either.  If one is awake, they don't understand why the other isn't awake and entertaining them.  While Tabitha can now sleep with Alice screaming at full volume just inches from her ear, Alice has not learned to sleep while Tabitha uses her as the obstacle in her own private obstacle course.  Yesterday they got separated for the afternoon after I found Alice desperately trying to roll away (and yes, they're both rolling) from Tabitha while Tabitha was desperately tried to keep her from doing so... by grabbing onto both of her ears.  Unfortunately, it wasn't long before Alice realized that ear-pulling aside, it was kinda lonely by herself.

That's about all the time I have at the moment, but hopefully this burst of inspiration will last and there will be more soon.

Tickle, Tickle?

It doesn't happen often which is why it takes me by surprise every time she does it.  Yesterday, I was sitting in my chair and all the sudden I start to feel a little hand pinching the soft bits around my hips.  I look down and ask her what in the world she is doing... and she looks up at me with an adorable little grin and says "Tickle tickle!"

It just amazes me how fast time flies and how quickly things can change.  In the  past couple of weeks Gwen has decided that she likes her shoes... well, not just likes them, but likes to wear them.  Originally it was a battle to get her to let me put shoes on.  It didn't help that every time I turned around it looked like her shoes were too tight and I'd have to go get new ones.  Finally I broke down and went to a real children's shoe store and had them measure her foot.  Well, no wonder the Wal-Mart shoes weren't working... it appears that someone has inherited her daddy's wide feet.  Honestly though, I can't say that it would have been any better for her to have gotten my narrow ones.  Anyhow, once she started walking she disliked the shoes even more.  I think it was just too different for her.  Even the weekend of her birthday she wasn't too sure about them.  Out in my aunt and uncle's backyard I made her wear them, but she wouldn't walk unless she was holding my hand for support.  She'd go out in the grass and just sit... not move from that spot... not go chase the ball even though she obviously wanted it.  Now its a complete 180.  When we get ready to leave the house and she sees that I have her shoes and socks, she comes running.  She sits there nice and still while I get them on and everything... and then she won't take them off.  Usually once we get home she just stays in her shoes til bed time when I have to take them off to do bath/jammies.

I can't believe how early it is... its just now past 6am and I've been up for a while already.  The little critter is cutting more teeth so she started fussing at about 430 this morning and by the time I got her back to sleep I was wide awake.  I just don't seem to be getting a break at all between teeth.  So far she has the 4 up top center, 4 on bottom center, and is starting to finally cut some of the back teeth she's been working on.  She won't let me see exactly which ones they are and considering the 8 rather sharp little consequences of my trying to do some unwanted prodding, I figure its good enough to know that she's cutting some at all.  I did catch a glimpse of white where one is finally breaking the surface up top, but I didn't get more than a split second.

Speaking of a little pain... not sure if it counts as a black eye, but my little wrestler in training has her first big bruise... well... bigger is a relative term.  She has taken to playing a very cute little version of hide and seek.  She tries to hide behind the sofa, the coffee table, the end of her crib or pretty much anywhere else she thinks I won't be able to see her.  She even seems to have caught on to the fact that she needs to hide her whole body, not just her face.  Whenever she thinks I'm not looking, she'll run to one of her hiding spots and duck down low so that she thinks I can't see where she is.  Then, if I don't start looking for her right away, she'll peek her head up top or around the side of her chosen piece of furniture to check on me and then dart back into hiding while giggling wildly.  She thinks this whole process is hilarious.  Well, her favorite spot to run and hide is on the far side of my bed.  Anytime she catches my bedroom door open, its not long before I hear her giggles coming from in there.  Well, the other day she was doing this and I went to go "find" her and as I come in the door way, she's just stood up to peek over the top of the bed...  and as she sees me, she goes to drop down low out of sight... and wham!  She hits her face on the edge of the bed frame... no more giggling, cue the screams.  She managed to give herself a pretty good bruise just below her right eye brow that has since turned a lovely shade of purple.  She was fine in a matter of seconds once I distracted her with a toy, but I have gotten some funny looks while running errands since then... oh well!  Bumps, bruises, and scrapes are all part of the territory of being a toddler and I have plenty more of them ahead of me. 

Well, I hear a critter stirring for real now so I'd better wrap this up.  Until the next adventure!

Adventures in Vacuuming!

Just seeing Gwen's reaction to the vacuum gives me motivation some days.  She won't go in another room while I'm vacuuming but she's obviously not sure that its something I should be doing.  The entire time its running she runs up towards it, but not too close, then turns and runs aways.  All of this is done with lots of shrieks and squeaks.  Last time, as soon as I was done and had turned the vacuum off, she went up and started yelling at it.  She had her hands going and everything.

Gwen has really taken off with the walking.  I was all prepared after her first steps that it would be a while before she tried again, but that next day she was working hard at it.  Even when she stumbled, she'd get right back up and keep trying.  She was very determined to walk.  Now, only about 6wks later she walks everywhere.  The only time she reverts to crawling is when going over rough terrain.

This picture was taken right after she got up on the morning of her birthday.  I love her goofy, cheesy grin... especially with all that wild, curly hair.

Gwen was fascinated by the flame on the candle so Mama had to jump in and help blow it out.

My neat and tidy child who refused to make a mess.  Before she would eat the cake, I had to cut it into bite size pieces and even then she wasn't sure she was supposed to eat it until I fed her the first bite.  She only got in a few bites before she decided she was done with it and that her toys looked like more fun.  The cake was delicious though.  My aunt made it... chocolate with cream cheese frosting... mmmm.

This is me with my cousin, but I had to throw it in here too since it was a good belly shot.  In this one I'm at about 21wks.

I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going.  It just dawned on me yesterday that at the outside I've only got about 3 months left before I go from 1 baby to 3.  I guess its a good thing I finally got my baby registry done.  Not much longer before my life gets really crazy!

Just in the past week I've gone from barely being able to feel the twins from the outside to being able to sit and watch my belly hop around.  They are amazingly active.  I have doctor's appointments every week at this point and all the doctors and sonographers have commented on how much they move around.  The poor sonographers really have to work when I come in.  I usually end up taking the full appointment time, sometimes more, just because they're having a hard time taking all the measurements they need due to the twins being so active.  I love getting to watch them move around on the screen.  Its neat to be able to feel them kicking and see it at the same time.  I love being able to feel them all the time.  Its very reassuring not to need to do kick counts or worry about them so much.

I think I've started hitting that whole nesting thing too.  The past week has been spent organizing closets and getting baby clothes washed and folded and ready.  Baby stuff has been a lot less stressful this time.  Last time I just kept looking at what all was out there without really knowing which was stuff I needed and which was stuff I would be fine without.  I had a much better idea in my head of what was needed this time which has made things easier.  This time too I've had much better resources available to me.  Out in California I didn't really have anywhere other than a Babies R Us to go to.  This time, even though I did my registry through them, I was able to collect most of the bigger items elsewhere.  There's a new baby resale shop that opened a couple months ago that has been absolutely wonderful.  I've gotten some great deals there on stuff for the twins as well as stuff for Gwen.  Also, there's an organization called Just Between Friends that sponsors giant baby garage sale type things nation wide.  I've been able to get stuff from the sales in Austin and Houston and my mom has been able to hit the sales in the Kansas City area (she's finishing up a temporary assignment there).  I just feel so much more prepared this time.  The only thing that would make it better is if Kurt were here too.

Anyhow, the critter is down for her nap so I think I'll go catch me one too while there's still time!

Blowing off the dust...

Okay, yeah, I know.  Its been way too long since I updated.  At least I have a good excuse.  It would seem that incubating a litter of critters takes a lot of energy, especially when having to run around after a mobile critter at the same time.  In an effort to save time and a little sanity, no pics this post... sorry.  I posted some on Facebook so you can just look there :P

At not quite 11 months old we've come a long way.  She's not walking yet, but getting close.  She's recently started standing up on her own, as in no longer needing to pull up on furniture... of course then she stands there looking around as she realizes she doesn't know what's next.  At this point one of two things usually happens... she squats back down and crawls off, or she lets her self fall back and lands with a plop on her rear-end.  Last night marked a new solution as to what to do once shes standing.  One of the back cushions from the sofa was on the floor and she decided that falling straight foward to dive bomb the cushion was lots of fun... particularly when this was combined with wildly rolling off the side of the cushion.

In addition to the usual baby noises that can only be interpreted by a parent, we have now added "up" and "good" to the vocabulary.  "Up" is used pretty regularly now that she's realized that it results in getting put in Mama's lap.  "Good" is still a recent addition so she's still trying it out.  Cantelope is 'good', Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is 'good', and an empty plastic water bottle was deemed 'good'.

Which, incidentally, brings up a rather interesting developement.  I think the critter is a hoarder.  She likes to steal my plastic water bottles from me when I'm done drinking from them.  I didn't think anything of this at first.  I'd just wait til she was napping or had gone to bed and throw away the ones I found on the floor... but then I started noticing that they were appearing on their own even if I hadn't just finished with one.  I knew she was getting them from somewhere, I just couldn't find that where... until the day I caught her digging around under the sofa.  Turns out she's been stashing them under the sofa when I'm not looking.  Unfortunately, I'm not entirely able to get down there myself to remove them.  The only reason I'm not more worried is that they are just water bottles... no soda, no juice.  Since making this discovery I've been trying to convince her that the bottles go in her plastic panda pail.  I figure that way I can at least monitor how many she's got stashed.  Its still a work in progress, but I think she's catching on.

I'm sure she's done other noteworthy things since my last post but those are more recent.  I will try to make more frequent posts in the coming weeks, but someone is needing some Mama time so more stuff next time.

Overview of May

Wow, this month went by fast!  This month we've conquered straws, which makes going out to eat easier except for he fact that now whatever Mama is drinking is fair game.  She's also figured out that with her sippy cup she can blow into the straw to make the liquid shoot back up.

She's also now pulling up on all the furniture and has started coasting as well.  Everything has now been raised an aditional 2 feet to keep it out of the way of critter paws.










No more teeth yet though she definately uses the ones she has very well.  She's figured out that she no longer has to sit in one place in the bath tub.  Bath time is even more fun when you can crawl and scoot and flip over.  We've moved on from Kung Fu Panda to The Backyardagins.  She loves all the singing and dancing.  I've been trying other kids shows from the Netflix menu to see what else she likes but she's pretty picky.  As far as toys go she's pretty stuck on the .99 lime green bouncy ball.  I think I could take away everything but that and her wood blocks and she wouldn't notice.  This month we're working on being nice while playing.  Patting is gentle and shouldn't make noise.  So far we've been practicing with pictures in magazines.  There's no hope for the stuffed animals.  In her mind they are for squeezing and chewing and shaking around.  Also, I'm hoping to get her in a swimming pool this month.  She has so much fun in the bath, I can't wait to see what she does in the pool.

Found It!

Found what?  Critter's hair clip that miraculously disappeared sometime in the 3min between putting her in the car and arriving at our destination.  Where did I find it, you ask?  Let's just say you're better off not thinking about it... I wish I didn't have to.

I'm just gonna do a quick run down since its been a while since I posted last.  Critter is still chewing on anything she can get her mouth around though I haven't been able to find new teeth yet.

Anyone looking?

Nope! Om nom nom nom

With any luck I have now posted my first pics on this thing...

The critter is getting closer to being mobile.  She has progressed from rocking back and forth on her hands and knees to scooting her knees one at a time further up and then launching her self foward.  Not terribly efficent, but its a start.

More later perhaps... maybe when I've gotten more caught up on my chores.

Dishwasher Safe... Check! Dishwasher Size... Not So Much...

Totally loving having a highchair even if the dishawasher safe tray is too long for my dishwasher.  Best part about feeding in the high-chair?  It puts me out of sneeze range.  I've managed to keep myself much cleaner by using the high-chair.

Gwen is loving the bath whale.  Most kids I know don't like getting water in their face, but Gwen keeps grabbing the top of the whale so it squirts her.  She loves bath time way too much.  She manages to soak everything including me.  I've talked to other moms who give their babies bathes before bed to calm and soothe them... not me.  I bathe her before bed to wear her out to the point of complete exhaustion.  Hey, whatever works.

More on the dental front.  First tooth is almost all the way out and is being quickly followed by the other bottom front tooth.  No more finger chewing... well not my fingers anyhow.  She can chew on her on form now on.

Now that she's rolling and scooting everywhere I've started baby proofing the house.  The first thing I did was to put foam bumpers on the edges of the hearth.  Gwen was very pleased by this.  She's convinced I just installed a giant mouth level teether for her.

So we ended up getting cable for the first time in years because it was bundled with the internet and phone.  I gotta say... I'm finding today's childrens' programing to be rather disturbing.  Yo Gabba Gabba is currently more than I can take.  I may have to work my way up to it slowly.  On an up note though, I now have a new favorite Wonder Pets episode.  My favorite was the one with the baby chimp who was lost in space.  Not much beats 'baby chimp, take the banana out of your ear!'.  My new favorite episode is now Wonder Pets Save the Rat Pack.  There's 3 singing, dancing rats.  One white rat named Blue Eyes, one white rat named Dino, and one brown rat named Sammy.  I love childrens programming that recognizes that adults are being subjected to these shows and decide to include little things for our amuzement as well... though the rat pack may be a little obscure.  The mom-to-be I was watching it with had no idea what the episode was based on.

And now to chase down the critter... again.