Sleep!!

It's too early to get excited, but I think we're on the verge of some sleep-breakthroughs...I slept last night.

On Thursday night, I woke at 2:30am to crying. I figured it was my feeding (I typically do the second feeding during the night) so I got up and went to the bathroom and saw the boppy pillows in the hallway....which meant they hadn't yet been brought into the babies' room for feeding. OMG!! So I went back into our room and told Andy it was his feeding to which he replied, "It's after 2? I really prefer to feed them at 11, 12, or 1!" which I found pretty funny. After the feeding they went back to sleep until 5 when I fed them and then brought them into our bed for morning snuggling.

Last night they woke up at 2:45am...Andy fed them and then I got up with them at 6:30am.

Two nights does not a pattern make...but could this be the beginning of once-nightly wakings?!

Lots of pictures...

Owen: "All this head-shaving is so exhausting"


3-month old Dylan: "I have cheeks just like my older brother had"...see below

3-month old Ethan



Dylan is totally amused by the Rainforest bouncy chair


Every kid should have a bean table...hours and hours of fun for them...and vacuuming for you


Every kid should also have a Learning Tower and car basket...seriously...they rock.

Owen fell victim to the electric razor...he is bald. I wasn't a fan of Andy shaving baby Ethan at first, but after viewing the results, I realized it had to be done. So when I finally admitted the ridiculousness of Owen's do, I participated in his shaving...I made faces to distract him and held his head in place when Andy shaved the nape of his neck. Ethan watched nearby and I joked, "You're next!"...I don't believe I helped his fear of home haircuts...have you seen the results of Andy's latest attempt at cutting E's hair?! There are signs of a struggle.

Ethan summed up Minnesota with astonishing insight the other day when he looked out our patio door and said, "I see winter...and more winter...and more winter..."

The following exchange happened one evening between me and Ethan which reminded me of the scene in When Harry Met Sally when Meg Ryan says, "And I'm going to be 40!" and Billy Crystal asks, "When?" and she replies "SOMEDAY!"...I don't know, it just made me laugh...We were in the babies' room and Ethan said, "They will take baths" and I said, "Not right now"...and he looked at me and with toddler authority said, "BUT SOMETIME!!"

Ethan is very into family hugs. We always have a family hug when daddy gets home from work. I am usually at the sink washing dishes and Ethan is at the window watching for Andy. When Andy comes in he scoops up Ethan and comes over to me to give me a kiss. Ethan grabs around our necks and pulls us all together for a family hug. If this weren't to happen one day, I think it would throw off his entire evening...maybe mine too!

We've been quite musical lately and have each had songs stuck in our heads this week. Mine has been "Rock me, sexy Jesus" from Hamlet 2...it's catchy. Andy's has been the Filet o Fish commercial from McD's. Tonight he pulled it up on YouTube and watched it with Ethan. Now Ethan has been singing "Give me back that Filet o Fish, give me that fish"...and demanding we sing it too. It's probably better he sing that than "Rock me, sexy Jesus" though.

Mar 9

I became an auntie today. Congrats, Emma and Josh! And welcome, Linnea Rose!!

Ethan is being his funny little self as usual...cracking us up and driving us crazy simultaneously.

He announces his waking each morning with shouting "I have too many softy blankets!!" at the top of his lungs (I think he means "so many" not "too many" as he also says this about his cars, but strongly opposes my taking any of them away). Every so often, he will throw in a "OPEN DOOR, MOM-MAAAAY!"

He is really in to telling secrets...sometimes this is how I trick him in to being quiet while I'm putting babies to sleep....Like "talk quietly like you are telling a secret"...which typically lasts for one or two words of what he is saying before the volume increases dramatically. Shhh...don't tell him I told you the secret....it's "soccer"....I know, it's very scandalous...make sure not to tell a soul.

Ethan was playing Superman with Daddy last night and he came running over to me to tell me "daddy has fur" on his arms...I still can't type/say that without laughing.

A month or so ago, I taught Ethan to say "That's refreshing" after taking a sip of a beverage. Now I think he takes sips out of my water glass just to say that to me...he is so proud of himself when he says it too...."Ahhhh, refreshing" he says. I admit, sometimes I teach him to say things because it amuses me. If you have a toddler, you know you do it too. Everything is cuter and funnier in those little voices.

3 months

My babies are 3 months old today! How can this be?! The realization that my babies are growing up is sinking in...don't grow up too fast!! Happy "Birthday" Dylan and Owen...I love you!!

Dylan: "How you doin'?"

Owen: "Got Rogaine?"


The scene at our house this afternoon. Minutes earlier, Mommy was under Dylan and everyone was napping (Ethan napped in his room for 3 hours today and I had to wake him up at 5pm!!...Daylights Saving Time totally threw us off on timing of everything)

March: Week One

I haven't had much time to write...we've been busy. Seems like a dumb thing to write, I mean, duh...we have 3 kids 2 and under...of course we're busy.

This past week was my first back at work. I survived...and more importantly, Gamma survived. We both agreed that it was the build-up of anticipation to the beginning of our new endeavors that was more nerve-wracking than the actual doing it. It was pretty much like riding a bike for me...things are coming back slowly but surely.

Coffee. I crave it. I want it. I need it. I fantasize about it in the middle of the night when I'm up with the babies...like, "I can't wait until it's morning and I can have a cup of coffee" I never thought I'd be a daily coffee drinker, but here I am. It's not just the caffeine either...I love it.

Dylan and Owen are smiling a ton and cooing and giggling. It's so cute. Of course, I haven't really caught much of it on camera yet. I attached my closest attempt at catching Owen's smile at the top of this post. I am so amazed all the time about just how different these two look from each other, yet at the same time how much they look like brothers, and like Ethan and Andy.

Dylan is wearing 3-6 month clothes and 6-month sleepers (he's too long for 3-6 sleepers) and size 2 diapers. He is large and in charge. He is still pretty mellow most of the time, but when he is alert he really wants to be paid attention to...if he is crying, an easy way to comfort him is just to get in his face and make goofy faces at him...he really thinks that is funny and just really likes looking at people. He is a big boy and is really strong.

Owen is in 3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. He is small by comparison to Dylan, but he is super strong as well. He has serious neck control and a firm grip on anything he can get his hands on. He is less cranky than I thought he would be from his first couple weeks...he has a great temperament and is a smiley boy. He is losing his hair and looks ridiculous. I can't turn my back on Andy for one minute because I know he will shave it off just like he did to Ethan! Last night I gave Owen his bedtime bottle in Ethan's room because D was asleep in the babies' room...I had serious flashbacks to baby Ethan...rocking a petite, dark-hair and balding baby in the plush green rocker in that room. It doesn't seem like that long ago.

We are super lucky to have really good babies!! Knock on wood, but neither one of them cries inconsolably and they are pretty good with sleeping. I say that after a night of 11pm, 2am, and 5am wakings!! But really, they go to bed with minimal, if any, crying and wake as often as normal 3-month-olds do to eat. They typically go back to sleep when they are placed back in their crib.

We are completely done with the inclined sleep positioners...I even gave one away...so no turning back now. We are still swaddling...even though they always wiggle their ways out no matter how snug they start out. We started trying the fast-flow nipples again today. One feeding down and no problems so far. It is amazing how quickly the feedings go. Owen even finished the whole bottle...which might prove our theory that he eats less because he gets tired from all the effort on the slow nipples. Stay tuned...I hope this one works out.

Ethan is really talking about the potty a lot. A few nights ago, he was running across the room to hug me goodnight, stopped halfway and announced "I'm peeing...I'll go pee on the potty!"...and ran to the bathroom, but decided not to sit on the potty. He also seems to be motivated by the realization that mommy and daddy don't wear diapers. He seemed to think that we did! He wants to be just like Andy, so maybe the idea of big boy pants will be helpful. And our best effort so far happened this morning before bathtime...Ethan got undressed and sat on the potty. He said "I want the poop to come out!" (we tried REALLY hard not to laugh at this announcement)...and sat there for a couple minutes. Nothing happened, but it was a start!!

When he's 3, I think I can no longer document things like what I'm about to write...Ethan is such a boy and all about his pee-pee. When he's getting his diaper changed he'll say "I see my pee-pee...I want some powder on it" or "There's my pee-pee...I love it!"...or during D & O's bathtime..."I see his pee-pee...it's little"...I try not to laugh...he is just making observations. I think it's probably ok for him to talk about it at home...at some point we'll have to nix the pee-pee talk.

We got a letter from the County yesterday which confirmed Crazy's guilty plea and affirmed that a probation officer will meet with us prior to April 6th's sentencing. She will evaluate the defendant and meet with us to evaluate the impact of the crime on the victim (in this case, more
the impact on the victim's family) and make a recommendation on sentencing to the judge. At the sentencing we'll be able to make victim's statements or have our victim's advocate read it for us if we lose our shizz (a likely possibility for me, I have yet to NOT lose my shizz at any court-related appearances!). I haven't written about this whole thing much as it's legal and probably not a good idea to disclose much, but it's still going on FYI. April 6th is ironically 2 years to the day of Ethan's last day at daycare and the day we were admitted to Children's and our nightmare began.

Ethan is at the "radio store" with daddy this morning. We're not sure what the "radio store" is...but last night he was insisting they go there today. My guess is Best Buy since Ethan told me he was going to buy "movies and radios" at the "radio store." Then they are going to go to the "Orange store" (Home Depot) and get wood on the "wood cart"...not a regular cart, it's got to be a "wood cart." They are also headed to Costco to activate our new membership we received as a gift from Suta and Scott...thanks!! I'm chilling at home right now with babies that are in and out of sleep in the living room. We have no plans this weekend which is really exciting, albeit boring. I have massive amounts of laundry to do again, but that's about it. I'm hoping to catch some zzz's at some point.

I've taken my archived posts off the site...from now on, it's all about the kids. Face it, they are more interesting than me. If you want to know what's up with me...email or call, but you may be bored to tears!

Destruction

What happens when your 2 1/2-year old gets sick of naptime?...he breaks stuff. I noticed a bit of the blinds missing this morning, but after naptime today it was totally destroyed (pictured above, looking oh so proud of himself...we made sure he knew this was a no-no after we laughed a bit). He also squeezed a tube of his toothpaste all over his glider (the expensive one) and turned the humidifier on to high when it had no water in it.

In other news, Dylan likes to do push-ups.

Back to makeup, real clothes and drying my hair.

Owen and Dylan had their monthly RSV shot yesterday. I was excited for the weigh-in. Last month (Jan 29) they were 8lbs 10oz and 10lbs 8oz...then 9lbs 8oz and 11lbs 7oz at their 2-month well-baby (Feb 11) and D was 13lbs 6oz last week when I took him to the ped (Feb 23)...Yesterday they were 10lbs 10oz (Owen) and 13lbs 10oz (Dylan)! D has 3lbs on his older bro (by a minute!). The nurse said both of their growth rates were great...Dylan is just progressing like a term baby, not a preemie...guess someone forgot to tell him he was over 5 weeks early! Owen is progressing more like the typical preemie, but is still right on track. They were meeting all the developmental checkpoints too.

I can' t believe how much fun they have become in the last week...still lots of hard work, but fun too! Smiling and cooing...and pushing up with their legs and arms. They are like real interactive people now, instead of just sacks of potatoes!

I'm heading back to work tomorrow. I still don't want to talk about it. Three kids need two paychecks. I will really miss my boys...I will really miss my time with Ethan. I've been around the house...working/bed-rest/maternity leave...for over 5 months now. I've been talking to him about how on Monday I will go to work like daddy. He seems to understand by saying I will go in my car and affirming that he will miss me when I ask. I am thankful to have a great job that I like, especially during this economic downturn...but I'm doubtful I get through tomorrow without crying. Back to reality.

And my mommy leaves today too...boo.