The Up Side of Things!

I am not going to pretend that it's been glamorous. I won't sugar coat, but there have been some sweeter moments. On the not-so-sweet side of things: My hands are cracked because I have washed them a bazillion times. My swiffer mop and washing machine currently HATE me due to their overuse and the disgusting things I have been having them clean. Seeing your babies miserable is not a fun part of parenting.

I have enjoyed, however, the extra snuggle time that it has allowed. My boys are a.c.t.i.v.e. When other people are around us they always comment on how busy the boys are. "They NEVER stop" is something I hear on a regular basis so to have them slow down and want to snuggle and watch their shows feels like a stolen moment. This morning I had Alex on my chest and Eli leaning against me holding my hand. It was so nice to be snuggled up under a blanket on a cold morning with two of my 3 favorite guys.

Because I have a little time to kill I find myself taking pics and videos of the boys. Here is one from this morning.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It's Ba-ACK!

The stomach flu was feeling generous toward our family this year and has decided to pay an extra visit. I am not even going to complain because this is Michigan and if you aren't currently sick you were last week or you will be tomorrow. This time of year is a bit rough in our neck of the woods. The boys have been sleeping for 3 and a half hours and I am playing the game of: Do I go in? Do I let them sleep? Are they O.K.? Hmm I'll choose let them sleep. The affected laundry is washed and the house is disinfected. I should be sleeping because who knows what tonight will bring but unfortunately I am not a good napper. I have to say so far (day 1) this time around hasn't been as bad as November. I am sure a huge part of that is that I am not as sick as I was then but I also think it helps that I have some type of reference point. I was a rookie to this mess in November and as I said then I now have the "I survived" badge. :)

Alex has been doing really well the past couple of months and has just been using his binky for naps and night time but today he "fell off the wagon". Notice he has one in each hand also. I am pretty sure the poor kid hasn't even uttered a word the entire day and he only got off the couch twice the entire morning.

Eli is just really enjoying the fact that he has been able to watch PBS all morning. I think he believes he is in some type of TV heaven and keeps waiting for Mommy to say "Bye-bye Barney" or "Bye-bye Elmo". Little does he know he will have a free pass today.

So that is the state of my Mommy World currently. Here's to hoping Spring hurries along :)

22 Months Old!

3 days ago! Yes, I apparently blogged about my bloggiversary and not their 22 month accomplishments. What does that say about me? Ahh, whatever!

I seriously cannot believe it. My babies are going to be two ! This time has flown by. It is going to feel even sooner when we have their party at then end of March because my in-laws are going away for the month of April. I need to start party planning. We are going to do something small at our house so the planning will be minimal. I am not sure how I drifted into party planning but my point is TWO they are going to be TWO! Wooo, I need to take deep breaths. How weird am I that this affects me? I don't know if it is because Jared and I (barring a miracle) are finished having babies or what, but each stage I look forward to watching them grow, of course, but there is always this part of me that struggles with the fact that they aren't babies anymore. I always tell Jared I feel that we missed those first months with them when they were in the NICU. He always reminds me that we actually gained 3 months of time to spend with them because they shouldn't have been here yet. I love his perspective. Thank God he keeps me from going off the deep end with my crazy thinking.

So the boys are doing a lot of funny new things. They are obsessed with Bawneee (aka Barney), ooh possible B-day theme. I am not a big fan of "character" b-days but now I know why parents do it. The boys would FLIP OUT if we had Bawnee decorations. Sorry, need to focus on posting, not party planning. They climb on everything. They help clean by putting their cups and bowls in the sink. Now if I could just teach them to do the dishes. They are so proud of themselves for their daily accomplishments. They enjoy coloring although I think Eli enjoys it most. They love to strum Daddy's guitar but Alex is the king of this one. He actually drug it out recently and sang jibberish songs while strumming for Nana, Papa and myself. Eli prefers drumming. They melt my heart with "I love you's" and kisses that involve slime and spit(glamorous I know). They love their Daddy and today when he pulled into the driveway and I told them "Daddy's home" they clapped their hands and yelled "yay"!!! They play hard like little boys should and I flinch at it but will let them be boys. During their wrestling they usually are annoyed at first with one another and then start to laugh as the other pushes them around. Weird??!! Boys??!!

Anyways here is there 22 month "couch pic". I, as mentioned last month, gave up on the "chair pics" but happened to snag this one when they were a bit under the weather and watching everyone's favorite purple dinosaur. Caus' he is special, special everyone is... oops, that is seriously how my brain works nowadays. I was singing "mac n' cheese, mac n' cheese, 3 times daily pretty please" earlier. Ugh! For those of you lucky enough not to have a TV this post probably won't make a lot of sense. :)

Right now couch=blanket. This morning I sat on the couch with my coffee and Eli brought me a blanket. When they sit on the couch to watch TV or read a book they yell "Blanket!" A bit demanding, yes, but so cute.

By the way thanks for all of the kind comments on my bloggiversary!

It's my bloggiversary!

I cannot believe that it hast been a year of blogging. I am not one to stay with a hobby. Ask Jared, I've tried knitting, sewing, scrapbooking (very briefly) and the list goes on. In my defense I do believe that you have to try a lot of different things to find what you enjoy. So here I am I guess I like blogging and taking pictures. Here is a link back to the beginning of my blogging journey.

Since you all asked what you could possibly get me for my bloggiversary (I know you meant to ask). I would like some comment love. I see on sitemeter that I DO have visitors and I greatly appreciate my "regulars" but I am curious who are all of these other people who don't comment. So that's what I'd like to have. Tell me who you are! I want to "meet" you. Have a great day and I look forward to your comments!

The boys the first day of the blogging!



And the little stinkers now! I think it is so funny how they mirror each other sometimes. I am assuming it is a twin thing?? What do you think?


AND last but not least. I took down the changing pad yesterday! I cannot believe my babies outgrew their dresser top. Ugh it is all going too fast for me!!! Don't even get me started on the fact that they will be two in less than 2 months AND we may have to pack up the cribs. Yep, they are attempting to climb out!

Don't forget about my bloggiversary gift! Yes, I am shameless but if you don't like it leave a comment and TELL ME! Ha, ha! :)

Like Mother, Like Son!

I walked into the office today and found Alex doing this. I love that he not only understands the keyboard but the mouse. So funny! I didn't think they'd seen me using it much because I am usually on during their nap or after they go to bed but I guess I was wrong. :)

I'm the "healthy" one!

Yep, unfortunately I am the one. The healthy one. I know this sounds crazy but sometimes it seems a bit glamorous to be the only sick one in the house and not the aforementioned. I rarely get sick. I do unfortunately get nasty headaches as do the rest of the ladies in my family but for the most part (minus the plague of 2008) I am a healthy girl. In my fantasy though I am just lying around reading or flipping mindlessly through channels all day without a responsibility or care in the world. I leave out the fact that when you are actually sick you feel, SICK.

This week Jared is sick, Alex is sick and Eli is sick. This means Mommy is exhausted. I am feeling the weight of it that is for sure. When praying with the boys at dinner last night I thanked God that most of the time Daddy is healthy and we didn't usually feel this crappy. I don't think I used that word exactly but it put things into perspective. Life has difficult moments but let's face it having colds is not really one to spend to much time complaining about. I caught myself twice this week complaining to my sister about how tired I was. Unfortunately I chose the sister with a 2 week old to complain to. First of all WHAT WAS I THINKING and secondly I didn't get much sympathy. :) I am getting a break tomorrow and going to work out while Nana and Papa come over and stay with the boys and then Thursday night I am doing another work out led by my Pastor while Jared stays with the boys. Yep, I did say my Pastor. How cool is that? I may not be saying it was cool Thursday evening but for now it "seems" cool.


Other than this I had a funny moment with Eli last night. The boys ate rice and quesadillas for dinner and I let them feed it to themselves. Needless to say the floor was a mess and then when one of them "accidentally" knocked their plate off the table it became worse. As I was getting Eli out of his booster seat he kept saying "oh sosh, OH Sosh, Oh sosh!" I was laughing and couldn't figure out what he was saying until moments later I looked at the floor and said "Oh my Gosh". Apparently Mommy had been unconsciously saying this while looking at the mess I had to tackle after they went to bed! He's a funny one. I am just thankful he doesn't repeat EVERY word he hears, although recently he said one of those too.

Picures of the reason that I was saying "oh my gosh". The top one cracks me up. My weird son is trying to get rice stuck to his face. The night before it was his hair that he was purposely putting food in. Eli calls out for peace!

They are very excited to be able to climb up into the kitchen chairs. It's the little things in life, they say!

4 am

Well it is now 6am and I have:

• Given Eli a breathing treatment while watching Barney (Barney is not appropriate for a tired Mommy at 4 a.m. There should be a warning that all of the songs will stick in your head. I am currently singing "cause you are special, special, everyone is special")
• Baked muffins
• Ate a muffin
• Laundry
• Read blogs
• Drank tea
• Blogged this amazingly poignant post :) O.k. but I did blog.

I am just slightly annoyed at my inability to fall back to sleep and thought I would "share the love". I would be excited if I thought I could catch up on sleep during the boys nap but I will be at the after care clinic with my sickies. Here are a couple of recent pics of the boys that reminds me how much I love this Mom stuff even at 4a.m.

This is how I usually find them after "nap" acting silly and one of them is usually half dressed. Ahh, toddlers!

Lovely!

Happy Valentines Day! I am having a good day thus far. We are being pretty low-key around here. We spent the morning hanging out with the boys. I made rice krispy chocolate covered heart treats (that was a mouthful and mine weren't half as pretty as Joy's) that I saw on Joy the Baker's blog (New blog I found and LOVE however it will not be helpful in the weight loss department. Check out my personal faves thus far here and here. BTW when I say favorites I don't mean to imply that I have actually made them but don't they look like they should be favorites.) Ok sorry about the rabbit trail but unfortunately baked goods make me a bit giddy, hence my unfortunate need for weight loss. I sort of enjoy Valentines Day I must say despite it being a bit of a controversial holiday. On the news this morning they took a poll asking how many people thought it was just a "hallmark" holiday? Here is my theory. Even if it is 1) it often involves chocolate 2) it often involves gifts 3) it often involves a holiday from cooking 4) it always involves flowers and a card from Jared! Why in the world would I fight it??? HELLO!

Jared and I plan to watch part of the 1st season of Lost (His Valentines Day gift from me) tonight and eat good take out while the boys sleep. I think as Valentine's Days go it looks different for everyone. For some it involves over the top romance and that is great and for others it looks like nothing of the sort or something in between the two. Whatever, all in all I have to say I vote for many more Valentine's Days to come. I like the chance it gives you to spoil the ones you love (and to be spoiled of course).

Our Week

The Good, The Bad and The Random

My beautiful niece, Kayla Morgan, was born last Wednesday. Seriously isn't she precious?

The boys discovered that our bookshelf was for a lot more than holding books. This of course got ugly when they both wanted to climb through at the same time.

The boys discovered "dipping". Anything dipped in ketchup or chocolate sauce tastes better. The first pic displays their reaction when Daddy and I decided that they had had enough ketchup. The second pic is Eli sporting a "stache". Very "Tom Selleck" don't you think?

We took the boys to the museum and let them walk around (rather than be in the stroller). They were in toddler heaven. They also raced cars down the track but soon discovered that is worked better as a slide. Jared enjoyed watching the boys run around because he and his older brother used to go to this museum and one of his favorite memories is of his brother and him taking off their shoes, running as fast as they could and sliding down the empty corridors in their socks. I plan to let Jared re-live this with the boys when they get older. I will be NOWHERE in sight :)

And last but not least...Sunday Morning while getting ready for church Alex decided why take off your clothes before you get into the tub??

It's only Tuesday but it has been a great week. The weather here in Michigan is so nice. Today is actually supposed to reach 60 degrees and I have been able to walk outside the past 2 days. It really does a lot to lift the spirits. My window is open as I type and a lovely breeze is drifting in while the boys sleep. I love my life!! This is definitely one of those days that I feel spoiled.

Beloved Story Time

I decided to give the boys a little bit of independence today. It is story day at the library so I thought that I would leave the stroller behind and let them walk in "like big boys" with me. I should have abandoned this mission when the first thing Eli did when he got out of the car was sit down on the wet, muddy pavement. I, against better judgement, pressed on. He proceeded to fall again in another puddle and by the time we got into the library I was "that Mom" who doesn't clean her child's clothes EVER! It was bad. I tried to use a wipe to clean him up a bit but that was to no avail so I just decided to go with it. I loudly explained to my sister that he had fallen so that others would hear because due to the mud it looked like he also may have had some potty problems. The boys played nicely in the children's section and then we headed to the story time room. At this point I realized that I had a stinky child and had to go and deal with that. Once settled in for story time the boys decided that they would show mommy what she could do with her "independence". I should mention that typically Alex sits with me and we listen to the story and sing the songs while Eli stays in my vicinity but at the same time crawls under tables or whatever else may make him happy and somewhat quiet at that particular moment. NOT THIS WEEK. Alex had and "aha moment" and realized what his brother was doing looked like more fun so why sit here with this Mommy lady. They pulled books out of the story tellers basket, pulled the letter of the day off of the board, removed the felt shapes we were learning about from the felt board, insisted on coloring while she was telling stories (and threw a HUGE fit when I made him wait for everyone else). I was EXHAUSTED and, I gotta be honest, SWEATING. Eli was apparently in a coloring mood today because he colored long after all of the other kids were playing with all of the cool toys. I eventually had to shift my attention to Alex leaving Eli with Mindy (My sister who is about to give birth at any moment. I am pretty sure a sneeze would put her in labor at this point much less keeping Eli in check. ) so that I could defend Alex from a crazy 3 year old who didn't want to share his blocks. We survived and then it was time to check out books. I at this point could have left the books there and called it a day but we are working on colors and I found a couple of books about colors so again I "pressed on". Having the boys stand while I checked out books was interesting but getting each of them bundled and ready to go was another whole experience in itself. We made it out the doors and at this point I had to pick up Eli while holding Alex's hand and carrying my library bag and of course we lost a shoe. Thankfully, some kind woman noticed and gave it back to me, because I didn't even know I'd lost it. Alex collapsed into a fit in the car and Eli followed suit. Apparently playing in the parking lot was way more appealing than what I had planned for them.

They have been in bed for over an hour and I am just starting to be able to relax. One of the librarians commented on them not being in their stroller this week and how that is great because they are learning independence and the library is a pretty safe place to try it out. I agree and that was the point BUT next time I will use the stroller to get them in and THEN let them roam and be free. I believe this will be more safe and it will also help when it is time to bundle one because the other will be strapped in and not running around the joint. It was an experience! On a side note I also let them walk from the house to the car which went well and I will try and continue doing. This means that I no longer have to carry one out and leave them in the car while I grab the other one and lock the door. I did learn, however, that when given a choice of a carefully cleared and salted sidewalk or a snow pile, as a "way to get from here to there", toddlers choose the snow pile. DUH.

The funniest part of all of this is that in the past 2 days I have told 4 different people how much easier things have gotten and how spoiled I feel being able to get out with the boys. I still feel blessed that I can take them out from time to time this winter as opposed to their first "preemie" winter but I have to admit that toddlers bring with them a whole new kind of challenge. Just when you think you have got the "stay at home mom", "parenting toddlers" thing down they throw you for a loop. Ya gotta' love 'em!