Why is the step mother mean?
What is a stepmother?
Where is her dad?
Why is her dress ripped?
Why is she running ffrom the prince?
Why is she embarrassed?
Is THAT guy mean?
Why is that guy telling her to run?
Mom does this part scare you?
Mom, hide under the table.
Mom look at the animal Moms and their babies.
Mom look at the house.

This is 1/3 (no exaggeration) of the questions that the boys just fired at me in a matter of 3 minutes watching Snow White.  I thought a video might give me a few minutes to relax with my coffee and possibly blog.  :)  Ahh, life at home with little ones.  I love it.  Mama also needs quiet though.  I know I'll get it in about 18 years or so and then I'll beg them to stay at home and make some noise.

Week one is OVER!  They have not complained at all.  I am so glad that it is going well. I thought they'd be more uncomfortable than they are.

They each chose their colors and have plans to choose red tomorrow when they are taken off and replaced.   They are pretty much getting around like they normally would.

Legos have saved the day!  They sit at the table with Jared and play for hours.  My nephew Colin gave them some and then we bought a couple more little sets.  Saturday and Sunday they pretty much played all day.  Yay.

Sunday they played outside for about an hour which was SO necessary.  They haven't been falling asleep until almost 10 because they aren't burning as much energy.  Still though it is going unbelievable well and we were even able to go to church Saturday night and hang out with Tanner and Stephanie at their house yesterday.

 

New Family Member(s)!!

I am still not real sure how this came about but I got on board and we are the proud parents to Mocha and Buttercup, our guinea pigs.

I still don't have a good pic of Mocha because he is a bit nervous. Needless to say, nerves, a 19 month old and 4 year old twin boys DON'T go well together therefore I don't want to stress her further with photos.

Here is Buttercup.


The boys love them. They sing them bed time songs. Eli was holding buttercup the other day and said "Hey, I am like a Dad!" So cute. Alex is yet to hold them but does pet them and is great at changing their water daily. It is a little more work then we initially thought it would be but part of that is because we are neurotic and don't want our house to smell like we have guinea pigs which requires a LOT of cage cleaning.

(Ignore the jammies.  Sometimes on days we have nowhere to go "getting dressed" means go throw on a fleece over your pj's so you are not cold.  Are we the only ones like this?)

Since I started this post yesterday the boys have decided that Mocha is now "chippy". Poor thing is going to have a complex. She was originally named "Oreo" by her previous family but she was brown and white. I couldn't keep up the charade because alas she was NOT the color of an Oreo and so she became Mocha b/c she is more the color of my morning coffee. :)


In other news the casts are being put on on Wednesday and as of last night Eli is sporting an eye patch in order to strengthen an ever weakening eye. My sometimes less than coordinated child will be hobbling around  and only able to see out of one eye for 6 hours/day.  Not sure how THAT is going to work out.  I was kind of surprised by the amount of time.  Everyone else I talked to about patches said it was usually about 2 hours a day.

I have to kind of laugh about all this.  It is a crazy "preemie" life I continue to lead.  We haven't had much preemie drama regarding the boys for a couple of years and now it abounds complete with the breathing treatments that they haven't required in forever.  Oh well.  I am so happy to get all of this done before kindergarten.

By the way in case anyone is feeling bad for my boys Eli LOVES his patch and we talked to them about casts last night and they are both excited!  I am sure that will all change once the casts are on but at least they are not worrying about it.

RANDOM

Hola!  I am home.  Jared is at church with the boys.  Addie is asleep.  My usual weekly break.  I was actually going to church this week but Addie woke up this morning with a cold so instead I am home and still plugging away at the picture project.

I thought I'd lost about a year and a half of pictures but found them on our external hard drive because my AWESOME husband had already backed them up and we just forgot.  YAY!

I also FORGOT my age this past month.  Jared and I were on a date a couple of weeks ago and we discussed my upcoming birthday (JUNE) and he said I'd be 37.  I was like "weird, I REALLY thought I was 35 and turning 36 this year, silly me".  This has been messing with my head since then.  I felt SO much closer to 40.  I have been convinced that my hair is thinning.  If you know me you are cracking up because I have a mane of hair, tons!  I also am seeing extra wrinkles and bought night cream.  Fast forward to 2 nights ago.  The boys kept waking for various reasons and as usual I couldn't get back to sleep.  I was lying there contemplating my life and FINALLY did the math and realized that I AM 35.  I really wanted to jab Jared and tell him he was a jerk for lying to me.  When I texted him later that day he couldn't believe it either.  He thought we were both 36.  Yep, we are LOSING it.  But at least we are losing it together.  Isn't that what marriage and parenting is all about??  :)

Speaking of catching up with pictures.  I am printing some from January 2010 and watching videos from then and I am pretty sure that I feel PHYSICAL PAIN when I look at and listen to my sweet wittle bubbies.  Sorry, about the baby talk but really such wittle bitty sweeties. Ugh, melt my heart.

Speaking of my little boys.  We went to Physical Therapy today and the plan is to cast their legs (foot to just below the knee) for 4-6 weeks.  CASTS.  BOTH LEGS.  BOTH 4 year old boys.  I am still in a bit of shock.  We have known it was a possibility but now I am thinking of day to day life with 2 boys with both legs casted.  Yikes.  Deep breaths.

I do know that this is SO minor compared to what we could be facing with twin 27 weekers though.  I HAVE to say that because I sit in the waiting room at their rehab office and see exhausted parents (often single & doing it ALL by themselves) and their beautiful children with severe disabilities.  I don't know why that is not us but I do know that I will try and not complain about casts.  Perspective.  It is a beautiful thing.

Well that's what is going on here.  No pics on this post.  I am too busy trying to cash in on penny prints from Snapfish.  It ends tonight.  Yes, I am the procrastination queen.

Destruction!

Is five the age when boys just start to destroy things?  We are just a few months away and yesterday, the boys knocked a frame off the wall, broke another frames glass (at two completely different times of the day), broke the knob off our lamp and lost it, AND broke a library CD in two.  It was a $15 disc from 1990 that I thought would be great for night time listening however it was completely cheesy and we listened to 1/2 a song before Eli declared he "hated that one".  I had to agree.  Well, anyways now we paid for it and it is completely unusable (not that we would have used it).  YAY!

Winter weather is here and they are cooped up more so I am guessing the destruction from their play is going to increase. I am going to look into getting them into swimming and try and wear there little bodies out.  I am also thankful for the basement because there is not much other than our TV that they can destroy down there.

I am off to OT with Eli today.  He qualified.  I am planning to get ideas from the session and do them at home with Alex to develop his fine motor also.  We are doing this 2x/wk for the next  weeks.  It is about an hour away so it is quite a commitment, especially at Christmas time.  I am excited though to see what they are able to do and to have some one on one time with my boy.  We also have hair cuts tonight which I am SO excited about, Jared not so much.  He likes it long and shaggy.  I am hoping that we will find a good compromise today.

So that's my day, how bout yours??

A Glimpse into Motherhood

One on one time with the boys. Since the boys were babies I try to make the limited time that I have alone with them special. As babies it was during diaper changes. I added lots of rhymes and tickles and hugs and attempted to make them feel like the only baby in the world with ALL of Mommy's attention.

Now, I'd like to say that we take them out individually on a regular basis but we do not. It does happen here and there. Alex is always asking "Am I going with Daddy? Not you and Eli and Addie?" He LOVES his alone time (with other people). Eli doesn't seem to mind being with the whole crew, however.

I try and continue to make each of the moments I have with them individually, special. On this particular night it was 10 o'clock (2 hours past his bedtime) and he was scared of "the shadows". I was cleaning the kitchen and said he could come and sit with me while I finished chopping a pineapple and cleaning.

He thoroughly enjoyed it. And I could tell he thought it was really special.

Jared came home during our snuggle time and I asked him to snap a picture.

You gotta love a 4 year old boy. He told me "Mom, I love pineapple. It is so sweet. Just like you."

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. :)

Another small glimpse: Alex is in bed right now singing "though no one join me still I will follow, no turning back, no turning back". So sweet.

Moths to a flame

I have to laugh at the boys and their reaction to Jared's phone. He has had it for almost a year now and they have their favorite "apps". They are big fans of angry birds and cut the rope. They BEG Jared to play games on it. Poor guy. :)

After a year he is definitely still loving it, although I haven't had to refer to it as his mistress in a while which means some of the newness has wore off. Thank goodness.

I love Alex's eyes in the pic below.

I also love that I caught an example of what it is like to read a book to twins. You have to constantly remind them that you cannot see through their heads. :)

And while these picture are really cute we have MUCH bigger news in our household.

Bigger than the iphone you ask.........

YES

Addie is sitting for long periods of time with control ALL BY HERSELF! Yay!

Still no hair but the girl ROCKS the bald look. In her Mom's opinion anyway. :)