I'm in trouble....

check out L's new skill... soon she'll figure out how to MOVE!!! AHH! She did this all by herself w/ no help from me.... Okay gotta go..

New running outfit... a site to behold!

I can't remember who was there.. surely Jennie, but I'm not sure who else... Julie? Karen? Colleen?? I was running late for one of our weekly Glake runs (as usual). I was so late that I decided to just go straight there from wherever I had been. I got there in my jeans and whatever w/ clogs and everyone was ready to go. I was so in need of a run, but only had running shoes in the car... no clothes. I decided to just wear my jeans and get my shoes. I ran around the lake in jeans... felt like a dork, but was so happy to get the run in.

Well today Tom was supposed to come home for lunch, but had a meeting and was unable to. He's got the car... w/ the walking stroller. The babies were cranky... as was I and it's nice out so I decided to just take the jogger and get us all out of the house. I got Phoebe all sacked up w/ her back pack and put on my old running shoes w/ jeans, a sweater and a fleece baby sling in case someone blew up and off we went. As I took off walking (far enough from the house to not turn around) I thought, 'hmm I wonder what it's like to run w/ this thing." So I ran a block and it was so easy to push... so I took off in my jeans, sweater, baby sling and all. We ran... just like that.

I'm not sure if this makes me super mom taking advantage of whatever opportunity I have no matter how silly it looks, or if it makes me the uncoolest of all uncool runner. I'm the one that laughs (sorry) at weirdos out there running in jeans.. seriously people sweatpants might chaffe a bit less.... but then there I am.. even wearing my sun glasses (not intended for running) and my colored chapstick (trying to look like I give a crap about what I look like when I leave the house).

All told I felt pretty accomplished for 1. being so flexible and 2. actually running w/ the jogger AND the dog. We didn't go far at all.. only about 20 mins worth..w / a HUGE (Seattle huge, not Wisconsin huge) hill that I had to walk up.

Thought you guys might get a kick out of that... just wish I would have gotten a photo!
Signed,

Your pal super mom, the ULTIMATE uncool runner

He's all better!

Thank goodness.. Tom is out of bed and feeling better today. He's at work so that's a good sign that he's all fixed! :)

Please please please say a prayer that these babies sleep on Friday night!!!! They were back to their old tricks and up every two hours last night.. man how that pisses me off when I've actually been getting a bit of sleep! ha I stumbled downstairs somewhere around the 3am hour last night to get some water after a feeding and thought... oh geez, I'll only have another hour before I actually have to get up to get this bus moving toward the airport on Saturday. I felt like SH&*. I think I'm going to need copious amounts of caffeine to get me through that day! I was wishing they had something I could take to give me amazing amounts of patience, but I think the eye of the discerning public will probably be enough for me to at least keep it together externally! ha ha

My next concern is the whole breastfeeding on the plane thing! I do not want to deal w/ anyone giving me hassle about it.. we all know I'm sleep deprived and I just don't want to have to cope w/ attitude from anyone.. or w/ trying to put a blanket over a baby's head. I KNOW that would not go over well. HA! But geez... cramped quarters.. if I sit in the middle my one boob is practically in the lap of my neighbor - think baby popping off A LOT to look around - and if I sit in the aisle my other boob is all out willy nilly for the world to see. It's not that I care. And if I sit at the window and Tom in the middle... well two babies are going to want to get up and walk around during a 4 hour flight... EXCUSE me a million times may be more annoying than a boob in the face! ha ha

It will be an experience not w/o trials I'm sure... I'll try to stay light hearted about it and remember that all the foibles are creating future laughs... maybe as soon as when I wake up from my NAP when I get to Lynda's!

Bumper update

So i couldn't do it.. I couldn't leave poor J w/o his bumper. It went back in the very next day. The good news is that though he still plays w/ it some while falling asleep he is not sleeping on his tummy w/o his face in the bumper! YEAH!

So Tom is up in bed ILL! He was up all night puking and we had NOTHING in the house that he could take for relief. J and I made an a.m. run to Walgreens to get him some pepto while he layed on the couch and watched L play in the exersaucer. Ugh poor guy... just off a trip to Asia and now sick in bed 5 short days before we are to get on a plane at the ass crack of dawn to head to Seattle. Hopefully this a 24 hour bug and he'll be up and at em in plenty of time to recover for our trip.

As I was sitting in the parking lot just before 7am waiting for Walgreens to open it occured to me that at that same time on Sat we will be on a plane headed for Minneapolis... That's just craziness!!!

As a result of the crazy weather in Seattle my in laws are sitting in the dark hovering around their gas fire place as many trees are down ... and power lines/poles ... in their neighborhood. We are hopeful that the power will be back up and running before we get there... otherwise we will be all crowded around the gas fire place... us in our sweats and babies in buntings... a nice cozy holiday! :) So long as I can eat and the babies are warm I'll be happy! Can't wait to see everyone!

Get Clean...

For those of you that keep up w/ Karen's blog and have seen her posts regarding out garbage situation... ours the nation, not ours mine and tom's... I thought you might want to check out the Shaklee cleaning products... I say this b/c they are concentrated and 108 lbs of packaging waste stays out of landfills and 248 lbs of greenhouse gas are eliminated when you buy the Get Clean Starter Kit versus conventional ready-to-use cleaners.

I'm not a big cleaner and was hesitant to make the commitment to buying these products... I was into going to the store and just buying the seventh generation stuff, but my mom convinced me and I'm so pleased w/ them so far! :) I bought them in mid October and have only used mere drops of the stuff to do all of my cleaning since then... of which I do much more now that I have two munchins to worry about! :)

Anyway... here's a link to their Get Clean Starter kit if you want to check it out, read for yourself and start doing your small part to save our environment! Click HERE! (You just order online... this is my mom's site. Let me know if you have Q's about any of it and I'll get her in touch w/ you!)

Lazy mom's guide to feeding your baby....

so I boiled the crap out of some sweet potatoes the other day and instead of using a food processor or baby mill I just mashed them up w/ a spoon and added them to some oatmeal cereal and breast milk.. There were some small chucks, but J and L didn't seem to mind. And they GOBBLED that stuff up! I tasted a bit... whatever they say about "feed your kids veggies first or they'll never eat them if you try after you start fruit b/c it's so sweet!" Whoever said that obviously never tasted breastmilk... that stuff is SWEET!! Dessert Sweet!

Anyway.. didn't get any pics... it was nothing out of the ordinary. Mom tried letting them eat chunks of it last night, but it was so cooked and stringy that it wasn't really working! When we return from Seattle we'll try some other things like cooked broccoli "trees". Then we're on to meats I guess.

Big Night Out!

So mom stayed a bit longer on this last visit so that she could watch the kids while Tom and I ventured out on our first night out w/o kids. We went to the Pacific Holiday party then headed over to a more "adult" (ready don't bring you freakin' kids in here) coffee / wine shop to have some one on one time.

It was great to get out ... though I found that all we did was talk about the kids.. I guess this is our new life. I think we talked/were asked about some non-kid stuff, but not much. We were trying to think of what the hell we filled the air w/ before bringing two little lives into the world. Surely it was quite profound, but our sleep deprivation prevents us from remembering anything smart/interesting we ever said.

New stats!

Our appt went well... J and L were so tired when we left.. they napped from 10:30 - 11:30AM and our appt was at 1:30pm. They were both fussy starting around 1pm, but out the door we had to go. The appts seem to take so long.. about 2 hours b/c there are two babies. They hung in there like CHAMPS! Toward the end ... while we were waiting for their vaccinations they started to get fussy. I nursed J and he seemed fine then was nursing L when the lady came in. By the time J was done L had fallen asleep. Poor little girl was woken up taken from the breast to be given her shots.... they fell asleep in the car on the way home and J napped when we got home.

On a sad note for mr. man.. we told the doc how cute it was that J would go to bed by rolling on his side grabbing his bumper and sucking his thumb. She told us the bumper had to go because he pulls it down on his face. Poor baby now has NOTHING in his crib to soothe himself other than his thumb... so after a LONG day and getting shots he was put down for a nap w/o his beloved bumper. He didn't go down easy for the nap or at bed time. I feel so sad for him... we finally had this sleeping thing going relatively well and then BLAM! we had to change it up. Better safe than sorry... God forbid something happen after I was 'warned'! He still gets his "lovey"... which he's never used as such, but maybe now that he gets no bumper he'll snuggle up to the lovey..... ????

Stats;
JASON:
26 inches (30th%)
16lbs (24th%)

I thought he would weigh in closer to 20lbs just by his size and weight holding him. He went from teh 50th % in weight down to the 24th... doc said it's nothing to worry about. I do think they just had a growth spurt so I suspect he's switch back to packing on the lbs! He went from (I think) 23.5-ish inches to 26... not bad for 2 months.

LILY:
24 3/4 inches (18th %)
13lbs 6oz (8th %)

Lily's percentiles are pretty close to her last ones so all's well there.

Other than that eveything checked out just fine. We got he schpeel about baby proofing and I guess what we are doing regarding eating/nursing is spot on... go us! ha They suggested that we start giving them meet by 7 months of age... and to give them some variety in flavoring/spices... meaning if we like spicy food to not be afraid to share our love w/ them... like if we have curry chicken to mash some up and share.. they might like it! Their diets don't have to be bland. I didn't get into the whole babylead weaning thing that I plan to do... don't know why. I figure they are getting the food... what does she care.. and part of me didn't want the idea poo pood .. geez, J already lost his bumper! ha

We also opted not to do the flu vaccine and she didn't go balistic on us or anything. She just said okay. :) YEAH!

Happy Half Birthday peanuts!

I can't believe it's been 1/2 a year already!!!!! We have a pediatrician appt today at 1:30pm so I'll come back and update this post w/ their stats after that, but wanted to share their 6 month pic for those of you that are jonesing for it!! ha ha I'm sure you've been checking in frantically today waiting for it! haha



Yes Lily is sitting up all by herself here!!! She sat there and played for a bit.. I'll load more pics onto the photo site later today!

On another note... wow stinky poo is in full affect here!!! YIKES!

Thanks for a whole 1/2 year of wonder and amazement.

Brain food....

so the babies are just watching us eat SO much and try to grab at the spoon (and what we eat) when we feed them.... so I got some avocados (good brain food) and let them feed themselves. Well, J would hold it himself, L wasn't interested in holding it, but she sure enjoyed eating it!!!!





And here's one more photo.. when I looked at it I couldnt' believe how big Lily is.. she looks like a little girl here.. Not a baby. They are growing up so fast!!! We can now add jumping, grabbing everything, laughing out loud, getting the pacifier in their mouths the right way, baby push ups (Lily is getting her tummy off the ground) and sticking out their tongues to their list of tricks!

12/9/06 Jingle Bell run!

damn.. I forgot to get a picture of Kelly and I before our big run! We had such a great time! Kelly was (as she should be) so proud of herself for finishing.. and setting a PR! GO Kelly! I'm so proud of you for training for and sticking to it and getting through the 5k.. w/ not one complaint I might add... she kicked ass!

We were running a bit tight on the start time as we headed down.. for those that may think that was Kelly's fault... it wasn't.. it was me!! ha Nursed babies... tucked my shirt in and we headed out the door. The good news is that we walked right up to the back of the pack as everyone was moving and didn't have to spend even one SECOND standing there waiting in the 29 degree weather.

All told I enjoyed the race... cold weather included. It was so nice to run w/ someone again! To run again.. to be in a race... all of it. It was great! Kelly thank you so much for making the trek up from Evanston to run w/ me. I look forward to our next one!

wow.. I can't believe that there are only a few weeks left in the year 2006! J and L will be a WHOLE 1/2 A YEAR old on Thursday... we've lived in Madison for over a year now! Will time keep cruising by this fast... the first three months of J and L's life went REALLY slow, but the last 3 have really gone fast.

I'm finding myself bored already and it's only December... it's going to be a LOOOONNNNNGGGG winter! UGH! Hopefully I'll have good turn out for my Thursday play group... it's just that much harder to get babies out of the house when it's this cold out.

Mom and dad bought a condo!!!! YEAH! It's about 10 mins away, close to the mall and it has a pool! YIPPEE! They are now all set w/ a place to stay when they come out for the summer.. they just need to furnish it now! I'm so excited! They are now committed to spending time here and there will be a place for all the other folks that visit us throughout the year to stay... b/c I'm sure the amount of visitors we had this past year wasn't just a one time shot b/c the babies were born.. ha ha ha Okay... maybe it was! I'm jazzed to use the pool this summer w/ the kiddos.. MOM, you best be ready to bust out a bathing suit b/c I won't be able to take them both in at the same time! :) hee hee

Tom and I are already starting to talk about when our next trip out to the NW will be ... for 2007 we'll need to make a trip other than Xmas.. we are pretty sure we will be staying put for Xmas next year (think two 1.5 year olds.. )... anyone that wants to join us for a white xmas is invited and welcome!!!

Sorry this is so disjointed... I was up a lot w/ babies last night.. am really tired right now..and though they are both sleeping and I should/could take a nap I'm afraid to lay down b/c as soon as I do ... and as soon as I start to drift off to sleep I KNOW they will wake up.. happens 9 times out of 10.. so I wait.. maybe I'll be hitting the sack at 7pm tonight! ha

I miss everyone!!!! Can't wait to see our Seattle peeps soon!

We went for it...

I was going to wait until we got back from Seattle, but the babies had other ideas.. they've been tracking us when we eat and have started to grab at stuff so we (I - tom's out of town) decided to just try some rice cereal... J loved it, L thought it was okay. Today I decided to do it again.. I don't know.. they just seem ready and I feel bad denying them some food... so we did Oatmeal today b/c I heard rice cereal is constipating, J needs no help in that department....

They LOVED it! Both of them wanted more more more... so tomorrow mom and I are going to go get high chairs (tried to by them on craigslist, but no luck) and some bibs and feeding 'stuff'... the denial is over.. it's time. Lynda, glad you rented that highchair.. turns out we'll need it. You know a thing or two about this kid thing, huh? haha

Here are some pics:




My little babies are growing up SO fast!!!

WTH!

I guess even after the babies get into a sleeping routine they will have bad spurts... L wouldnonly nap for 30 mins yesterday.. twice. Other than that she would just cry.. she had a HORRENDOUS night last nigth then popped up awake and ready to go at 5am. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? It's now 8:15am and I rocked her to sleep.. put her down, she woke up and she's been crying for 5 or 10 mins now.. what a set back. I'm not sure why. She was just SCREAMING last night. As soon as I picked her up she stopped... I brougth her down to check her diaper.. when I put her down she started screaming again.. I had to calm her down to change her.. then I fed her. Is there a growth spurt at 5.5 months... they are both nursing A lOT!

One step forward, two steps back. Hopefully we'll have a better night tonight.

sleep and snow!

It's a whole new world at the Mount household! Jason seems to have gotten the idea on this whole sleep thing... 1. when he gets tired and fussy he goes right to sleep when you put him in the crib.. almost as if that's what he wants now. He rolls over grabs the bumper to hug, pops his thumb in his mouth and he's out. It's amazing! 2. it's 9am and he's still asleep. He took a late nap yesterday (sometime around 4ish), went to bed around 7pm, woke w/ Lily at 11pm to nurse and hasn't made a peep since then!!! YIPPEE!!! We're making progress. Hopefully it won't all get blown to shit when we go to Seattle!

Lily is getting better. She is less frantic when she cries when she's been put in the crib. She still doesn't nap as long as Jason, but I have to remember that they are different babies and maybe she will never be a great napper (apparently I wasn't so this small fact about Lily probably brings mom great joy!! ha ha) She did a decent job on the sleep front last night. She went down w/ no protest at 6pm (she was EXHAUSTED from not napping so well and having some friends over), woke at 11pm to nurse then slept until around 6:30am. We lingered in bed nursing until almost 7:30am and she was back down around 8:30am.

I'm getting some longer stretches of sleep now and it's really helping. And they aren't waking up at 9pm anymore.. they were still waking and crying a bit at 9pm (coincidentally, or not, when I went to bed)

So we have both babies in a crib in their room.. they come to my bed for feedings and have both woken together the last two nights so they get nursed and go right back to their crib! Tom is elated to be baby free in the bed! We have the crib, mattress and sheets etc for Lily's crib now and hope to get it all set up today so they can have their own space in there!

We've got a space heater and humidifier in there too.. they are all snuggly warm and love it! We are all sleeping better!

So happy Dec. 1st... it's snowing here! Hopefully mom and dad's trip from Ohare won't be too bad and hopefully mom's flight into O'hare won't be delayed, or GOD FORBID, cancelled! Tom heads to Taiwan tomorrow. ("hopefully" the weather won't keep him from going.. ha ha)

gotta get some laundry done before J wakes up any minute now!

It takes a village!

We had such a wonderful time at Todd and Julie's this past weekend! I think I could have stayed forever. It was great to hang out and raise kids ... ha ha

Leads me to the thinking that raising kids in the "village" environment really is best for all involved. I felt the same when Karen and Andy and their clan was here. It was much more fun for me to have everyone around... different adults approaching kids in different ways... gives the kids different perspectives and learning experiences and mixes it up a bit for the parents! I wish we all lived close and could get together all the time... I mean even when we live in the same area we do our own things and the "village" isn't as tight as I wish it could be... I'm talking all the way back to the days when families all lived in the same little area... the kids all ran around together and the parents all watched out for all of them.. not living across town from one another and not living in different states for sure!

Anyway.. not the way our lives are, but just thought I would share my ponderings. I love the chaos of having everyone around! :) Sharing responsibilities and what not.

Here is a link to Todd's pics: (which are quite a bit better than mine!) http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmsweet/tags/madisonmounts/

I miss them already!!! :( It's so quiet around here today w/o Cooper running around and chatting up a storm!!! Tom! Phoebe! Baby! Ball! Outside! Some of his favorites from this weekend! :) Never once said my name w/o prompting, but loved to say Tom! ha ha And then the new learned word from my new favorite children's book Skippy John Jones: AAAACHOOOO PICHU! :)

Love ya kiddo.. can't wait to meet your baby sister!

Babywearing

So this pic isn't great, but it's the best I can do on my own...



I discovered this great group called NINO - Nine Months in Nine Months Out. It's centered around babywearing and I am so lucky to be able to go to a meeting once a month and to meet other like minded women.. get help w/ using different types of baby carriers and borrow from the library (which is where the pretty little purple number J is in came from in the pic above)...

this is the latest carry they have helped me w/... it's so fun to be able to wear them both. I just walked to the bank and got a coffee. I got a lot of "oh so cute"s and a couple of "your a freak" stares, but it was fun... I always thought.. well if I had just ONE baby I could just wear it around.. well now I can. Granted this won't last long as they get bigger, but hey.. hands free baby wearing for right now.

one of the women from NINO is going to sell me two mei tei (sp?) type carriers that she makes. I'm SO excited. :) Her site: www.madisonbabywearing.com

Karen, I tried the ergo.. I liked it for back carry, but wasn't crazy about it for front carry.. I like the mei tei much better. :)

New name, fresh look

Okay... I was sick of "authentic living" and liked Karen's pdxmounts so I followed her lead and gave us a regionally appropriate update... along w/ a fresh new look! :) The address is still the same.. I'm glad I was able to change the name w/o changing the address!! Hope you enjoy!

So the sleep thing... ugh! We're still in the "hard" part. The days are going okay, but the nights.. damn. I'm so disoriented (ah sleep deprivation) at night when I am woken that I can't remember times.. we put J back in his crib last night to cry when he woke up only a couple hours after nursing.. (he wants to suckle to fall back to sleep) and he finally calmed down, but then I don't know/can't remember how long it's been since he ate and whether or not he starts crying b/c he wakes up hungry or just b/c he wakes up... so confusing. Poor baby, I feel like he spent a good part of the night crying.. I guess we're going to have to work through this to get him used to the idea of not waking up w/ a boob in his face... probably harder on mommy than it is on J.

They are starting to talk to one another

Yesterday L and J started to talk to each other!!! :) It's so cute. And J loves to grab at L's head. :) They will look at each other and smile and babble a bit. I'm so excited!



And here is a cute pic of L that I couldn't resist posting... try to keep it even w/ L and J, but this is just too cute. She's having a 'bite' of monkey's banana.

unsuccessful???

So I received my Clemson Alumni magazine yesterday and was reading through it last night.. 1. Clemson is now ranked #30 in schools.. that something ( I can't remember what the exact criteria was for the ranking )... okay.. good thing it was a school for "dummies" back in my day! I'm pretty positive I couldn't get in now.. and 2. what the hell was I doing back then? What the hell am I doing now.

As I read through and saw all the cool developments going on there - academically, not in regard to the number of keggers (which is where I spent a lot of my time) - and read about what the kids (did I just call them kids?) are doing and accomplishing I felt that all too familiar feeling of dread and emptiness. What have I done in the last 30 years? Where is my life headed? What do I WANT to be doing? What do I want to have done w/ my life when it's all said and done? Why have I wasted so much time? I feel like I've done everything in life kind of half assed... why? I guess half-assed isn't the way of putting it, but I've been passionless about most of it. What was my motivation in it all?? What kept me going on certain paths and what caused me to say ENOUGH.. this is not it!

There was a bit about two students from my major that were getting some award for developing a metallic ink that will print on corrogated board and my first response was to laugh. (No offense guys.. good work!) I lauged b/c I thought Who gives a rip, then I thought, wow, there are people out there that really get jazzed about that stuff. I'm not one of them.. yet I dedicated 4 years of my life to learning about that crap. (Again boys, crap to me.. not to you.. one man's trash is another man's treasure! ha) How could I get through something like that if I cared so little about it. Thinking back there were things I enjoyed about it I guess. Working w/ my hands and having a product or something to show for it at the end of the day. Working in the lab late at night w/ my friends and w/ someone in the same boat. I, for some reason, enjoy some amount of "pain".. not physical.. I guess more of a challenge and being the one that has it the "worst".. why I have NO idea. We worked our butts off in that major, but it wasn't always just late nights looking at some dumb text book and notes. It was doing WORK. Work that produced something.. a project. I wish I could figure out what all of this means in regards to finding meaningful work for myself some day. Work that I can get excited about instead of work I do to pay the bills.

For those that have known me for a number of years you know this is not a new struggle for me... since the start of the pregnancy my brain kind of shut off these worries... well, here they are back again. YIPPEE!

I'm happy and satisfied w/ being a mother for the time being, but I know that as the kids get older and start to have their own things leaving me to sit idle these thoughts will overwhelm me again. I guess in the meantime all I can do is keep my ears, eyes and heart open to new people and ideas and hope that along the way I stumble upon my "thing". And maybe one day I will look back on this post and these feelings and smile at myself as I do when I look back at all the pain, worry and heartache over being able to have children. :) All that struggle and now here I am.. w/ TWO beautiful wee ones......

Thank you!!

Saw this quote today:

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss

Wanted to say THANK YOU to all my friends out there that allow me to be myself.. to say what I feel.. to be comfortable enough to know that you are my friends and love me for who I am and allow me the freedom to be that person w/o fear of judgement and ridicule!

I love you guys!!!

There were no babies in my butt!

Okay.. so I've noticed of late that my butt is um... flatter then before. Mom says it just "fell" .. what the hell .. I'm only 30!!!! Okay almost 31... why would my butt change post pregnancy??? There were no babies in there... boobs being saggy, I get that... belly jiggling a bit, i get that... BUT my butt being flatter/lower.. I DO NOT get that. Now I thought that I would enjoy having a flatter butt as it popped out and FELT huge pre-preg... hmm.. not lovin' it! Oh well. Guess I'll have to start doing lots of lunges along w/ the many crunches my abs are in desparate need of!

This walking the dog every day seems to be helping on the weight loss front ... again. I'm down a few more lbs.. of course who knows if a few lbs are just water loss over the EXTREMELY dry night... damn furnace!

Slowly but surely the body comes back... certainly not it's former self, but getting better anyway. It will never be the SAME, but that's okay.. I like change. hee hee And not being the same doesn't mean it's worse... it's just different.. shaped different overall... see butt comments above.. my hips are different as well... not bad.. just different. (don't want to freak the current preggos out!... and you know I will be honest about what's going on.. I mean I really don't love the look of my belly right now.. but hey!! THERE WERE TWO BABIES IN THERE 5 SHORT MONTHS AGO!)

Happy 5 months babies!

I think they grew...



and 4 months for reference:


Notice how J is sitting up better.. a result of his chiropractic care... gotta run. L needs a nap!

A bit better

It went a bit better last night.. it didn't take so long for them to fall asleep. L slept in the co sleeper until midnight.. then went back in until 4am. J came into the bed around midnight as well and woke up at 2am for whatever reason.. he went into his crib at that point.. cried for about 20 mins then fell asleep until 5am. We were baby free for much of the night last night. I still enjoy waking up in the a.m. to 2 sweet dreaming faces... well I guess it's usually one crying one and one dreaming one. :) But all is well after the crying one is fed. This a.m. L slept in till 7:45 am - she had been waking at 6:30am. I went to wake J after changing L's diaper and he wouldn't budge.. I didn't try REAL hard.

L was back down for a nap an hour after waking and J just went down 45mins after waking... so we are making some progress I think. And so far they don't seem to hate me for letting them cry! ha ha Now that they are older and I know they don't feel abandoned and I know they aren't hungry I feel much more confident in the sleep "training" (hate that word).. how about sleep TEACHING. I know they are just fussy b/c they want to spend time w/ me and not sleep.

The one thing I'm unsure of is the swaddling thing. They are still swaddled and when I've tried to put them down unswaddled they flail about and can't seem to settle down enough to sleep - I think it's the developmental stage they are in... they are learning to grab things and put them in their mouths and they just can't stop doing it to go to sleep. The problem is that if the pacifier falls out of their mouth they can't get their hands in their mouth (though L is so pissed she won't even try) and they can't grab at anything for comfort... same ordeal when they wake up. I'll keep trying the unswaddle off and on until it works I guess, or I suppose they will let me know when they are done w/ it by not being able to calm down when they are swaddled.

I'm just LOVING this stage. I love to watch them play w/ their pacifiers, or whatever, trying to grab them then trying to get them in their mouth. It's so cute. After a while J will get so frustrated! He also gets frustrated w/the keys/beads on the exersaucer. I think he's trying to pull them off to put them in his mouth, but they only slide back and forth.

L is trying SO hard to scoot on the floor... they'll be moving in no time. I've slowly started to child proof the place!

The new drill - the babies and the willis

So it's time.. the babies are old enough and I need to do the hard work of parenting. We have decided to fight the sleep battle. It's what the babies need and it seems we are starting to be controlled instead of us taking the helm and setting the ground work. So thank you Meghan for your great advice.. we started last night.

I put J down after nursing... he was asleep around 6:30pm. While Idid that L fell asleep in Tom's arms. We put her down. As usual they woke up w/i the hour.. I think around 6:45pm. We started the "program" (haha) ... we let them cry, but went up to put the pacifier back in for them every so often (around 2 to 5min) and to soothe them if they were really over the top. After they settled down to just some whimpering we left them be to figure it out. J in the crib and L in the co-sleeper in our room. They cried on and off for about 2 hours or so, but were still awake in their perspective sleeping locations. L just laying loooking around and J babbling away. We went to bed around 9:30pm and left both babies to figure it out. L woke around midnight for her first feeding, J around 2 am, then L around 4am and J around 6:30am. It's now 7:30am, L is up for the day and as soon as I'm done here I'll wake J. Today I'll do the same for naps, but will only allow the crying to last an hour and we'll do it all again tonight. It was nice to get a little sleep by myself. I even put L back in the co-sleeper after her midnight feeding.. she was there till 4am.

It was really hard to hear them cry, but I know now that this is best for them.

Phoebe has a new drill too!! Poor willis is getting so stir crazy lately.. she really needs more exercise. So thank you Mom and Cesar Milan - Dog Whisperer. While mom was here she was reading through his book and on his suggestion bought Phoebe a lovely doggie back pack....





It works like a charm!!! It was tough getting it on her the first couple of times, but this a.m. was much easier.. she's starting to get that she gets to go for a walk when this thing comes out. The new drill is that I feed the babies and get up and take Phoebe for a walk before Tom leaves for work. :) This helps her to be more relaxed during the day and gets her (and I) some much needed exercise... and me some alone time as well.

This a.m. during our walk we walked RIGHT BY this big black dog that is chained in his front yard. In the past I would avoid the street entirely.. then when we first started "whispering" (training) her I would walk by the dog on the other side of the street to correct her when she got worked up. Today I walked right in front of the dog. He jumped up and barked at Phoebe as we walked by and she only needed ONE - O.N.E. - small correction as we went by.

So that's the new drill at the Mount household. Please wish me luck that this sleep thing works. It's going to be tough on me... Meghan said it took her's two weeks to get it.. Julie and Todd.. I hope my kids get it in a week so we aren't going through this at your place. I know we are running the risk of having to start all over when we get back from Tday then again at Xmas, but I've got to stop w/the excuses as to why I need to wait.. these kids NEED TO SLEEP!

totscicles!

So.. we got our bill for our two little totscicle.. when I first opened it I thought.. gosh, we should decide now what we want to do about this... we could save some money not paying for the storage of these things if we are D-O-N-E... but I'm just not ready to say I'm done... Tom seems to be, but is willing to humor me and allow me to keep these little babies on ice. I know I won't be ready any time soon.. like not for the next couple of years... but I MAY want to do this again.. see what it's like to have one baby at a time. :)

It's only Nov. 10th

Well, Yesterday it was in the mid 60s... TODAY it is in the mid 30s and SNOWING!! Ah the midwest! Hopefully this isn't starting the trend for it to snow every time Tom is out of town!



Julie and Todd are sad to miss this while are in Seattle I'm sure!!! ha

Congratulations to Jennie and Brian on their baby BOY!!!!

A good quote!

Just wanted to share this quote that I saw today...

The purpose of life is not to be happy. The purpose of life is to matter, to be productive, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.

-Arthur H. Prince

My name is Laura....

... and I'm an internet-aholic. SERIOUSLY I need to move this computer into the office and only allow myself to be on it when the kids are napping. I find myself pushing them to play on their own while I check email, check up on friend's blogs, search the web and post here.. (they are napping right now.. just for the record!).

this thing is making me a bad parent... I need a 12 step program!!! AHHH!

He's trying so hard.

Jason is working so hard at picking things up and getting them to his mouth. Last nigth we were sitting at the table and J's pacifier was on the table. He actually picked it up and got it in his mouth FACING THE RIGHT DIRECTION on one try! Ah So proud of my little man. It's so cute to watch him concentrating so hard and slapping his hand on the table trying to grab stuff... get it and put it in his mouth. Oh the things we think are so cute when they are done by OUR kids. I'm sure the novelty will wear off when he is grabbing at EVERYTHING! ha

Here's a pic of his handy work.



L is working hard at it in her exersaucer, but hasn't figured out she can grab stuff off the table.

Every now and then I offer them little bits of food.. like a small piece of mashed banana or avocado on my finger... so far, not interested. I'm planning to wait until they are showing interest... here's hoping it's not till we get back from Seattle in December.

Car Seats...

Thank you all who chimed into my 'which car seats' emails! I went and looked at them and have done some research.. I was dragging my feet on it until I saw this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azgBhZfcqaQ&NR

We got our car seats for free from my SIL (thanks K and A) ... they don't have the latch belts so we use the seat belts and now I'm all freaked out ... so I ordered to convertable car seats.. which I will replace when the kids reach 40 lbs.. then I will buy a booster seat that still uses the latch system.. neither Cosco or Britax offered this. Britax got to 65lbs w/ the Latch system, but I would still have to replace them w/ another booster so I went w/ the Eddie Bauer Alpha Omega Elite and got TWO for the price of one Britax from this website: http://www.specialtybaby.com/eddiebauer.html (Thank you Allyson for the link) Free shipping and no tax!! YIPPEE!!!

Please please please secure your children w/ the latch system. Learn from this woman's loss.. do not let her son's death be in vain..

love and hugs to all you!

A running buddy!!!

Looks like I found myself a running buddy! YIPPEE!!!! We may run tonight, but we are definitely running on Wed. She ran a marathon about 6 years ago and is now trying to get back into running more often. She has two boys.. one 4 and one 2.5 (I think that's right) She's commited to running the Crazy Legs 5k in May (I think it's in may) and I told her about the Mad City half.. she said she might be able to be talked into it! I'm so excited! We're going to try this evening running thing to see if it works for our scheduled... at least the weather is going to cooperate this week! It's going to be in the high 60s.. woo hoo!

I'm still on the hook for the Jingle Bell run on Dec. 9th... even though I haven't been running at all. I promised Kelly that I would do it even if I have to suffer through! ha

Seeing all the coverage of the NYC marathon has got me jonesin' for a long run!! Jennie, what year was it that we were there when you ran?? I can't remember.. 2002? I'd love to do that race sometime too... what are the odds that we would both get in for the same year? Guess you aren't thinking too much about running your next marathon huh? :)

Okay... gotta run.. mom's still here.. J is napping and mom is working on getting L to nap. Just finished some sushi from Trader Joes.. God I love my neighborhood!

Am I really that sensitive

So I woke up to this comment today regarding my post titled "Holy Crap":
Anonymous said...
Geez, that is so rude to compare yourself to a now pregnant lady. Get over it and for once, stop thinking about yourself.


So now I can't stop thinking about it.. am I really so sensitive as to let a comment by an unidentified person get to me so much? Somewhere deep down inside I must really think that I need to get over myself or I wouldn't be letting this comment bother me so... part of me feels that this person should keep their comments to theirself if they have nothing nice to say... and part of me feels like maybe I needed to hear it?? I just don't know. I mean this person is entitled to their opinion... to send their negative words into my home, my heart and my head.. right? I thought about not publishing it to the site then decided what the hell.. Maybe others feel this way???

Julie.. and other preggos out there.. I'm sorry if I offended you by showing my belly 'compared' to Julie's. Seeing Julie's belly caused me to look mine up and I was floored by what I saw and thought I would share my amazement... now that I had something to 'compare' my 26 week belly to.

Anyway.. not making excuses b/c I don't really think I did anything wrong, but wanted all to know I meant no harm. I know each pregnancy is different and each has it's own struggles... :)

So now I'm left wondering.. am I self centered?? I must think I am to a degree or, like I said, I wouldn't give two craps what ANONYMOUS had to say about me. I suppose I'll get over it. :) HEE HEE

Much love and hugs to my preggo friends .... non-preggos too!

HOLY CRAP!!!

So my friend Julie is pregnant... her pregnancies have gone like this.. first part: Sick as a dog, lose weight, middle part: getting the nausea under control.. last part: gain some weight. She sent an email saying she popped and felt HUGE... and commented saying "am I having twins?" ha I decided to go through my pics and find my 26 weeks shot to assure her she is not... WOW! Then I started thinking.. how could I get any bigger so I looked up one of my last shots! OH MY GOD i was huge! I look at that and it looks painful. It wasn't great, but wasn't as bad as it looks. I can't believe I was that big. Here are some pics for your amusement. :) Not trying to make Julie feel like she's got it easy.. just can't believe how big I was. :)

36 weeks:


26 weeks:


Julie at 26 weeks:

All snot all the time!

L, J and I have been fighting a cold since Monday. I think I got the brunt of it and I think it's finally starting to clear up. Poor L and J are congested... I'm not sure if that's why they are being so difficult or if they are just tired. They didn't sleep as well as they usually do (naps) while the girls were here.. had some people to see and hang out w/ and they are not ones to miss out on a good time!

Then there was the cold.. then Tom left. This morning they were finally back on a nice morning nap schedule and seemed to sleep well. L even nursed really well today - we've been struggling w/ that a bit lately. J took a 2.5 hour nap this afternoon (a rarity) so I thought things were going well. L didn't nap this afternoon, but that's not unusual for her. We went to Sam's after nursing / changing when J woke up from his long nap. I figured L would nap while I wore her around the store. They were great on the way there.. J cried a bit, but not too bad. In the store they were fantastic.. looking around and getting lots of compliments on their cuteness and questions "are they twins?" L fell asleep after the sample of apple pie (5 mins before we checked out so about 15 min before we had to get in the car)... she went quietly on her own. I had to wake her up - or drive home w/ her in the sling and risk getting arrested!!! She SCREAMED bloody murder the ENTIRE way home. J chimed in here and there just for kicks! We got home and nursed and thought they would take another little nap. Well, we were WRONG! We got home around 5:30pm and spent the next 3 hours w/ them back and forth asleep then up crying. They are doing this really neat thing now where they want their mommy! They won't calm down for Gma...they just look at me and scream as I am working w/ the other baby.. so we go back and forth. Gma tries to calm one.. I get the one I have calm/sleeping then take the other while hoping and praying that the first stays down. Poor Gma has spent much of her trip w/ a baby screaming in her face/ear! :) We appreciate you gma!

It's so amazing how we go out and about and the babies are happy and looking around (for the most part) everyone comments on how adorable they are.. I'm all proud of myself and them.. we get home and BAM! They are devil children! ha I guess they are entertained / distracted by everything when they are out and about that they forget they are so tired they can hardly stand themselves.

So right now J is asleep in my bed after having caved and given him the boob.. and L is asleep in the co-sleeper w/ a cloth diaper on.. I put her in cloth at 6pm thinking she might snooze for 30mins or so then nurse then change dipe.. then bed, but no.. three hours later... she's finally asleep and I'll be damned if I'm waking her to change her diaper. Two things mom has to remember w/ her foggy head cold in the middle of the night.. change baby girl's diaper and give baby boy his medicine!We'll see what happens!

All I really want to do right now is go finish off an entire pumpkin pie (stress), but I won't.. I had a piece (okay and an extra not so little sliver) and will save the rest for the stress case I'm sure I'll have at some point tomorrow! Did I mention that I haven't run in weeks and it was 20 degrees here (w/ the wind chill.. w/o it was a balmy 27)..... how many years till the kids might go ONE WHOLE day w/o crying???

Calgon take my children away.. I mean take me away! ha So if I continue nursing after the 1 year mark do I get to go on vacation sans kids then, or do I have to wait until they are completely weaned?? Do I let that be a factor in what I decide around that issue??? ha ha I'm SO tired right now.. maybe I should have just gone to be w/ J at 7:30pm.. stop laughing.. I do that!

Look who's talking too!

J has been babbling for a while, and L started to really babble a lot yesterday and hasn't stopped since. :)

Tom's heading off to work right now and I've got L and J will be up soon so I'm just going to post a few cute pics for now..

Here's a new thing J is doing.. making funny faces and raspberries:


We were trying to get a shot of L sitting up.. and she got tired of it..


Here is a shot of only the girls on the couch.

Kelly, Jen, Kendall, Laura and Lily (and Phoebe too!/)

Thank you guys for coming!!! It was so great to see you and for you to meet the `kiddos.

One year later...

Tomorrow is our one year anniversary of finding out that we were pregnant! I won't have time to post tomorrow so I wanted to post today! I can't believe it's been a year... a year since I was staying at Lynda and Larry's, a year since I was sitting wondering all day every day if I was indeed going to be pregnant, did it work?, is this journey finally over/just beginning? A year ago this very moment I'm sure I was anxiety ridden and nervous about going in the next day for my blood test. I believe that the morning after I dropped off my blood sample I went and had coffee or hung out w/ Julie hoping to kill some time. Lynda and I headed to Fred Meyer to pick up some things for our trip out west... things like gloves, a hat and down coat. I think we picked up some shoes too.

While we were shopping Tom called and I remember looking at my phone and thinking ... "oh shit, I'm in Fred Meyer, is this really where I want to find out whether it worked or not? Crying if it didn't and elated if it did. Is this where I want this to happen? It's too soon to know isn't it, what does he want?" I decided to answer it and he said, "geez, when are they going to call already?" I said, "don't do that to me!!!!!!! it will probably be a couple hours!" We hung up and I kept shopping. 10 mins later he called and I thought, "what the hell does he want now??? He can't keep calling me all day." I answered and he had heard from the clinic. I couldn't believe it.. that was quick. And here I was... going to find out while I was standing in the middle of Fred Meyer of all places. I couldn't wait! Wow!!! Lynda and I both cried. In Fred Meyer. Then we couldn't decide if we should keep shopping (going about business as if I hadn't just gotten the biggest news of my life!!!) we decided to at least purchase the items we had in our cart and headed out. I got on the phone immediately to share the news w/ everyone that was waiting to hear!

God, A WHOLE year ago that was. I just can't believe it!

I'm not sure if it's the nostalgia of all of that, but just the other day I was kinda missing my preggo belly and the baby kicks.. not the freakishly large preggo belly... the about half way there preggo belly where I was still easily mobile and looking all cute and pregnant not all "oh shit she could have a baby any moment" pregnant (which lasted a good three months)!!! Don't worry (mom and dad) there are no babies coming.. ha ha I would die I think.

All this being said things w/ the babies have gotten so much better over the last couple of weeks. It's amazing how much they have changed in that short time. I'm so glad Tom wasn't on a trip these last couple weeks (though who knows what the upcoming weeks have to offer). They have started to reach out and grab things, Jason is practicing rolling front-to-back and back-to-front. He's only done front-to-back on his own a couple times, but it's coming. He's also really trying to get his knees under him... but that usually results in a face plant. Lily has become a smiling fool!!! And it just melts my heart every time. I've loved them from that day on Oct 28th when I found out I was preggo... and really thought they were both in there.. I talked to them both just in case... as to not hurt anyone's feelings by leaving them out! ha But now.. God now.. I feel like I love them even more.. just in the last couple of weeks. Must have to do w/ them giving so much back.

Jason has started to hold onto me when I hold him and they are both burrowing in and putting their heads on my shoulder. It's the sweetest thing.

For those I've talked to about how much we DID NOT like the 0-3 months... 4 months is pretty darn cool so far! There were times during the first 3 months where I felt overwhelmed and wondered if I had known what I now know if I would have just put one back, but now... now I know I WOULD definitely still put two back ... I love them so much.. w/ all my heart... every second of torture in the beginning is worth every smile I get today! NOW I get why people do this again!! I haven't totally forgotten the pain of the "fourth trimester", but I get why you would put yourself through it again... AGAIN, no more babies here! ha

Much love to everyone.. and again a big HUGE thanks to you for going through the long journey w/ me... and for continuing w/ me on my new journey as parent! Wow.. PARENT.. MOTHER... MOM!! I'm a MOM... so many days I thought I would never get to say those words.. Son, Daughter.... MOTHER! Brings tears to my eyes. I truly am blessed!

Happy 4th Birthday Liam!

Wow, I can't believe you are four years old already!!! I remember when you were just an itty bitty little peanut of a thing. I used to hold you w/ one arm!!! then you just loved to bounce bounce bounce!!! You were the first baby to bless our little coffee group... and now look at us... four years later we have not one, not two, not three, but a whopping five babies w/ TWO more on the way!!! We'll be seven babies large soon... w/ more to come I suspect! (though not from me! ha)

Liam I miss you SO SO much and wish I could be there for your 4th birthday! We'll see you soon though in December at Grandma Lynda and Grandpa Larry's house! We'll have to party then! :) hee hee And now we get to go to see Santa w/ SIX kids! YIPPEE! Bring on the lattes!

Much love and hugs to you and Riley!

"Moby" - best I can do.

So I figured out how to use my "moby" (in quotes b/c it's not a true Moby brand) to front carry the babies so they can see.. kind of like a bjorne. I have L all tucked in for warmth in this pic. I had to take it myself in the mirror. By the time Tom got home last night the babies were READY for bed so no "playing" w/them. Tom reminds me they aren't toys. ha I used this carry to get J into the chiro while I carried L in her car seat. Was able to open the doors much easier than trying to wield both car seats. :) They are getting heavy. We were thinking about buying a bjorne (I have to return Julie's next month), but I'm good w/ this.. and it has the built in "blanket" ha. I'm working on learning other ways to use it. It's a bit cumbersome and you can't just "slip" the sleeping baby off like you can the sling.... anyway... better get the pic posted... babies waking .. gotta go.

comments

don't know what I was doing wrong before.. I was wondering why no one ever commented on my blog, but did on everyone else's.. um. Just found all of your comments. Thank you and sorry I never responded to them. Comments are now showing up in my email box so I know when they come.

Thanks to everyone for all of your support over this time.. :)

I'm really starting to enjoy the babies. I know that sounds just terrible, but now we are having whole good DAYS instead of just good moments mostly overshadowed by the bad ones. :( I'm so excited to be a mom for the last couple of days...

Probably has to do w/ Jason sleeping better and therefore being in a better mood! :)

Gotta run!

Big News for the Mad City Mounts!

We are so pleased to announce the grand opening of Trader Joe's.... just TWO blocks from our front door. I'm so happy that I feel like I died and went to heaven! We walked over for the grand opening on Friday and I am just so HAPPY! It's like a little piece of home in my own backyard! Being able to walk to the grocery store is SO huge. We feel much more urban now! No way could we afford a house two blocks from TJ's in Seattle! :) Propery value just went way up... for US anyway! ha Guess we'll have to figure out how to add onto this house when the time comes for a bigger one.. surely when these kids are older this place is going to get smaller and smaller!

Oh my God!

So Jman went to bed around 5:30 or 6 last night.. up once or twice, before I went to bed at 8pm (shh don't tell anyone how lame I am, but I knew he'd be up early and I was zonked) He got up at 6am. We played a bit and Tom brought Lily down... she got tired faster so I wrapped Jason and put him in the pack n play while I fed Lily. J was in the PNP babbling while I nursed L. L fell asleep so I took her upstairs, and when I came back down to put J to sleep he had fallen asleep on his own. That was about 45 mins ago and he's still asleep... all by himself in the PNP like a big boy! I just can't believe it! I'm so proud of him. :)

She smiles...

and I finally caught it on camera.... I'll post more of an update later, but here's pictures in the meantime... before the babies melt down on me. :)



and another.. this a.m.

Chiropractor

I had a chiropractor appt yesterday and I took the kids w/ me. The doc asked how they were doing and how Jason's back arching was doing .. I told her not great. He still arches all the time. When we lay him down on his back, when we put him in the sling, when we try to make him sit up, when he's mad. (Notice the 4 month pic below.. Lily is sitting up so you can see her face and Jason is kind of arching back... he's like that in most of the weekly/monthly shots) She had just gotten back from a seminar about babies and explained a whole bunch of stuff to me that I won't even attempt to really repeat here... cranial bones, covering around your spine or brain and down your spine being tight. Basically he's all tense and tight and his cranial bones are out of alinment (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). I guess being all cramped in my tummy sharing space w/ his sister than having a c section birth and not going through the birth canal can cause problems w/ the alignment (okay I think that spelling is right) of the cranial bones and the spine. Anyway. She adjusted him yesterday and said he's really tight - for a baby - so we are going to take him in a couple times a week for the next couple of weeks. She said babies respond really quickly so we should start to see changes quickly. Hopefully this will help him settle down. Oh she also said the cranial bone that is out of wack houses the pituitary which controls your hormones (and can affect sleep) and then your hypothalamus which controls your hunger...

I'll let you know how things progress... hopefully we will have a charming little boy soon. Okay, sometimes he's charming as is, but when he acts like (Okay turns out maybe he's not acting) he's in pain it's horrible. Poor little man may really have some issues. :(

UGH! Feeling like a bad mom today.

Jason and Lily are both SCREAMING right now and I am sitting here w/ ear plugs in. They will NOT sleep on their own. They wake up - most of the time - every 30 mins and I just feel it's taking a toll on them.. especially Jason. I don't know what else to do. Jason SCREAMS in agony (though he's not in agony).... the books say they should do this (cry in protest).. right?? UGH and at the last ped appt the doc said that by 6 months they should be able to fall asleep and stay asleep on their own.. that's only 2 months from now. The doc said it's an important skill for them to have... to be able to self sooth and go to sleep on their own.. but his CIO thing has yet to work on either of them. They scream for a while.. then calm down a bit...then get a second wind and go all out again. It stresses me out and pisses me off. Why do they have to do this? It's just sleep... I mean shit.. I would LOVE to sleep right now!

Then I feel guilty b/c I'm pissed off at my babies for, uh, being babies. I'm angry.. angry?? REALLY? How sad. I wish it didn't get to me so much. Why can't I be more zen... but damn they are both SCREAMING.. I know not at me, but in my ear while I hold them and Jason squirms so much that I just want to throw him. (don't worry I won't)

I love them so much and want to do what's best for them. And some suggest that this is what's best... giving them the gift of sleep. "they" say that if I continually go to them that they won't get the sleep they need and they will just get more and more tired.

If they were just one baby I would just lay w/ the baby and let it sleep, but laying w/ two just doesn't work. One is usually so upset and crying that we can't relax and fall asleep.

Will this go on forever.. I mean the - if it was one we could do this and this and this - w/ each stage I'm sure there will be the problem of it being two at the same stage going through the same things.. this works for one, but not the other so forth and so on. I'm so sick of the books saying "do this" and I think.. okay that totally won't work for two so now what?

Okay... there's my bitch for today. Sounds like Jman calmed down, but Lily is still fighting it. Need to go fold some laundry. Please PRAY that these kids work this sleeping thing out!

FYI.. there are days that this morning nap happens w/o all this screaming.. Lily generally goes down and stays down. Poor peanuts!

IRONY!!!

build it and they will come! Or dream it / see it and they will come!

Last year before we even started the IVF I made a collage of things I wanted to happen/do in my life and I just remembered this picture last night:



And look at me now. Not only did I get parenthood (which was really the objective) I got exactly what was in the photo... and they even resemble my own babies. The power of positive/suggestive thinking! ha

4 months and Julie's visit

Happy 4 months to us!!



Yeah Auntie Julie came to see us for our 4 month bday!



It was so great to see Julie though the trip was short!! We went down to state street for some lunch and walked for coffee and just walked around.. it was great to get out of the house ... especially w/ the great fall weather.

I must report that Julie's belly is growing, but still seems pretty small.. of course, my perspective is a bit skewed! She's definitely carrying higher w/ this one.. the girl thing?

Okay.. Jason is in my lap and doesn't appear to enjoy the typing process so I must run.. one more pic.

check out our new gizmo

Just got an exersaucer for the kiddos.. jason is currently enjoying new adventures:

4 month well baby visit

Jason and Lily had their well baby visit today. Tom had a meeting so he couldn't join us... and wow did it SUCK! We got out the door okay.. some crying, but not too bad. (certainly not their vbest effort!() The beginning of the appointment was okay.. then we took their clothes off and weighed them and all hell broke loose. They would not settle down. The doc came in and was having a hard time talking to me b/c they were so out of sorts.. it seemes to be stressing her out, but maybe she was just talking fast and acting panicked to get me out of there??? She has twins, but they are 18 or so now - she probably doesn't remember what this staage is like. the most interesting thing was that while she checked Lily out i WAS HOLDING jASON AND WHEN SHE WAS DONE SHE TURNED AROUND AND HANDED lILY TO ME SO i WAS HOLDING BOTH BABIES. i'M THINKING "I'M SURE I READ SOMEWHERE TO never CARRY TWO BABIES AT ONCE." tHEY WERFE BOTH STILL FUSSING AND i SAT DOWN AND TRIED TO GET THEM TO SIT ON MY LAP.. OF COURSE THEY BOTH WANTED TO STAND. aND SHE JUST KEPT TALKING TO ME WHILE i STRUGGLED UNTIL i ASKED HER TO TAKE ONE.. wHAT THE HELL???

I didn't realize that the babies got shots at 4 months too.. For some reason I thought it was 6 months for the next shots.. ugh. That just sucks!!! I hate holding their hands and looking into their eyes while they poke them. :(

Here are their stats. All loooks well. Jason is being treated for Reflux again.. we'll see if it helps w/ his back arching and what not.

Jason:
height 24 inches (18th percentile)
weight 14lbs14oz. (50th percentile) Holy Moly.. I think he's getting pleny of milk!!!

Lily:
height 23 inces (10th percentile)
weight 11lbs9oz. (15th percentile)

Here are some cute pics!!!

Lily apparently didn't like somethign here

Not getting any younger

Okay.. so I sent a plee to the girls regarding skin care! Let's face it, I'm not getting any younger and I should have been taking better care of my skin for the last 20 years... but I'm just SO DAMN CHEAP!

I decided it was time to really find something that worked for my skin. Unfortunately the girls have about as much "skin care regimine/routine" as I do.. whatever's on sale and looks like it will do the trick.

After having the babies my skin doesn't break out as much, but it gets really dry patches.. and I mean REALLY dry. BAD dry! I tried putting all kinds of crap on my face. I drink TONS of water and eat reasonably well... nothing worked.

Jennie mentioned that her SIL had used Philosophy with some success so I ordered a sampler pack to try it out. The first day I just LOVED it. The scents were nice - I don't usually like scented things - and it seemed to make my skin feel softer... then after a few days it got WORSE.. way worse. I looked like I had rosacia (shit I have no idea how to spell that and time doesn't permit me to look it up).. and my skind was so dry it felt lumpy. It was UGLY.. I mean UGLY!!! I'm thinking what the hell.. I spend all this money on this stuff and it's not working. Damn!

My mom came up shortly after that, and for those of you that don't know, she uses/sells Shaklee products. I didn't want to talk to her about it and I didn't want to use Shaklee (sorry mom, read on) I'm not srue if it was my stubborn pride or what. mom's been selling/using the stuff for years and telling me how great it is and I guess I just didn't want mom to be RIGHT, AGAIN. So I struggled on and it just wasn't getting better. So I asked her about it and she told me to use her stuff while she was here and see what happened. I'll be damned if it didn't start to clear up in a day.. overnight! I'm NOT kidding. I was amazed! So I used it all week.. and I've got to tell you my skin is SO much better.. it's on it's way to feeling like a baby butt! SERIOUSLY. I'm the biggest doubting Thomas when it comes to this stuff, but I'll be damned if this shit doesn't work!

For those of you that are interested you can check out the "system" I just ordered .. I got the anti-aging package for normal to dry skin... LOVE THIS STUFF! Here's a link: http://www.shaklee.net/naturally/product/AntiAgingSystem

It looks expensive, but when compared to buying other products piece meal it really isn't that bad.. and the stuff lasts a really long time! I can't say enough good things about it.. and believe me I REALLY DIDN'T want mom to be right!!! I wanted it to NOT work... and it did!

Anyway.. the stuff is only sold through distributors so if you are interested in more info or want to order some the link above is to my mom's site!!! They also sell many SAFE cleaning products. Mom said when some lady called poison control b/c her kid drank some cleaning product they told her that the kid would be fine... to just give him/her lots of water to flush out his/her system.

Anyway.. I told the girls I would share any findings.. and there you have it. I didn't try a lot of different products, but why continue when you found the one that works. i just wish I had a before and after photo for you.. it truely is amazing!

Babies' first road trip!

We're back from our road trip to Pennsylvania to visit my Grandmother!

All things considered it went pretty well... not that we didn't have plenty of these moments:




It's hard to see Lily's pic, but she's crying - neh SCREAMING - too! They liked to take turns. As soon as one stopped the other would start. My mom drove the whole way and I spent a good deal of time w/ my arm back w/ my finger or holding a soothie in someone's mouth. The rhythm went something like this.. First crack out of the box they would sit and stare or play w/ their hands, fall asleep for 30 mins (just 30 no more), wake up and play /stare a bit, then cry when they were hungry again. It usually went 2 hours from the beginning of one feeding to the next.. just like at home. We took a day and a half to get there and back. Strangely I really liked stying in a hotel w/ them. Probably b/c my mom would lay down w/ Lily and I would lay down w/ Jason and when they fell asleep that was it.. no trying to move them to the bedroom.

We stayed at my grandma's while we were there. She has two twin beds... that's it. So we borrowed a blow up mattress from my Aunt and intended to have both babies sleep w/ me, but that just didn't pan out so poor mom slept with Lily in a twin bed and I stayed w/ Jason in the blow up mattress. The good news is that Lily slept for almost 8 hours each night so mom and I could just switch places in the a.m. for the morning feeding.

We were so lucky to be able to spend time w/ my Aunt and Uncle, my cousin Denise and my cousin Deanne and her husband Chuck and their two kids Jackson and Carly. I hadn't Deanne and her family for two years... come to think of it I don't think I had seen any of them for two year. SAD! And I had never met Carly. It was a fun trip... though I felt pretty distracted dealing w/ babies.

I'm so glad we made the trip ... even though there were certainly moments of stress during the drive.

Here's a pic of four generations. My mom's mom, mom, me and the two wee ones.



Now we are home until our adventure to Seattle for Christmas. At least I will be able to nurse them when they get hungry... instead of trying to hold them off till the next rest stop.

Julie is coming this weekend... I can't wait to see her.. and her belly! I'll be sure to get some pics! After that my dad will be back.. and the next weekend my friends Kelly, Jen and Kendall (from College) are coming to visit! I'm so lucky to have such great friends!

Tom's headed out of town again on Oct. 30th... and Mom is headed back up to help me. Part of me feels like I should really just bite the bullet and do this on my own.. but WHY!? if I don't have to?? And it can't hurt for mom or the babies for them to spend some time together! :) Dad will be here over the weekends while he is doing some consulting in Kenosha!

Okay... gotta run. Mom and Dad are taking off today ... another day alone w/ the babies for me.

Nothing new really...

Tom's out of town again and my mom is here helping. I was able to get through the first night on my own unassisted. Mom helped get Lily to sleep by wearing her in a sling before bed, and they got up more than usual, but all in all it went pretty well. I'll have to figure out how to do this all by myself by the end of October b/c Tom is off to Asia from Oct 29th - Nov. 11th.. this will be my first 24/7 time w/ the babies. Dad will be here for the weekend, but the rest of the time I'm on my own.. wish me luck. We'll be pushing hard on the napping thing when we get back from PA!

Lily has grown out of her newborn diapers and I'm working on selling them online (see advantages to cloth diapers.. you get some money back!!!) I've already purchased some new medium diapers for Jason on www.diaperswappers.com and am anxiously awaiting their arrival.. I now see how people can get addicted to buying new diapers... there are so many types out there! I was tempted, but am still sticking to my "keep it simple" plan. I really like using the cloth!!! I dont' mind washing them at all... we'll see if that changes when they start eating solids and their poops get nasty! We use disposables at night b/c 1. I'm too damn lazy to get up in the middle of the night to change them and 2. I'm too damn lazy to experiment w/ cloth to find some that work overnight. :) HA! YES.. I'm lazy..as if that comes as a surprise to any of you!!!

Mom and I are excited and nervous about the trip to PA. I'm excited to be there.. it's the getting there that I'm not so excited about. Driving that far w/ two 3 month olds has the potential to REALLY suck! Hopefully they will get some much needed sleep on the trip!

Still running my 2 to 3 times a week and loving it! :) Only a few more lbs to be at my pre-preg weight! YEAH!

A shout out to my girls!

When I got home from my run last night all sweaty and feeling the blood pumping.. I looked in the mirror at my sweaty self and really missed the girls! I so miss our runs together... getting done and being all sweaty and going across the street to Starbucks.. or Revolutions later in the progression of our runs together.

So much of my life in Seattle revolved around those runs... even the 5am (God help me) runs w/ Julie and the gang when we lived over in Bellevue... I still think back fondly on those.. though there was no fondness at the moment! ha (5am is just too damn early).

Running gives me so much energy and so much of myself back to me after a long day of baby care, but it also makes me nostalgic and kinda sad. Like a part of me is lost forever, or a chapter of life has closed it's door. I miss you guys so much and miss our runs terribly. Running alone (well w/ the burrito) just isn't the same, and when I think that I need to meet other running women here in Madison my heart aches a bit b/c I certainly do not want to replace you guys. I know I can't, and wouldn't be, replace you guys... but it's like the runs should be reserved to be shared w/ you all.. ya know?

Can't wait till we can all run together again. I know we will.. some day!

Could having twins have improved my figure????

Or is it the breastfeeding?? Most likely my perspective and attitude! I'm still 10 lbs away from pre-preg weight, but lately I'm feeling really good about where I'm at w/ my "shape". :) I went for a run tonight (a SHORT one) and wore prepreg running garb.. a tank and a pair of shorts! I wanted to wear a sign that said, "I had twins THREE months ago!" Not as an excuse for my appearance, but to brag about my appearance!! WOW! That is the FIRST time in my ENTIRE life I've ever felt like bragging about my appearance! I'm just so amazed to have my waist back already.. I'm sure having boobs doesn't hurt my attitude! :0 Sure makes my waist look small.

So to you preggos out there that are worried about your body going to shit after this... fear not.. there is a chance you will feel even better afterward. Don't get me wrong.. things w/ my body are certainly different.. when I sit down my once flat belly now kinda rolls over the tops of my pants.. these days more b/c of skin than fat, but hey.. I look good when I stand up .. oh, and hold my tummy in.

All in all I feel good! AMAZINGLY good. And running is going well. I dont' feel like I'm starting ALL over again... my body remembers. I'm trying to take it really easy b/c I don't want to be really wiped out at night or the next day when I have to do baby duty all day... being physically exausted really isn't an option at this point. I run walk, but when I'm running I feel great and like I could run longer, but like I said, i don't want to push it. I feel there may actually be another half marathon in my future... or dare I say another marathon somewhere down the road. Maybe I'll even do that triathlon I keep saying I'm going to do.

The best news is that "I still got it".. and I don't mean my shape... I mean my ability/desire to keep on running and being active. I saw a guy on the trail running along side his kid on his bike.. some day Jason, Lily and I can do that.. w/ Phoebe too!

Okay... enough rambling... damn... getting out on my own has turned my attitude around.

Cousin IT no longer!!

Yeah! I got my hair cut!!! It was nice to get out of the house too.. :) Oh my GOD look how horrible my hair looked:





(also great how lopsided my boobs are! haha)

And the after:


okay tom took this sitting down while I was standing so it's not great, but you get the idea. :)


and the back:


The ponytail off to Locks of Love

Happy 3 months babies!!!

Can you believe it!? They are three months old today (Karen kindly pointed out that 12 weeks did not equal 3 months in this case so I waited to take their 3 month picture.) Here it is.. how cute - and huge - are they???



And for reference the last age pic I took at 8 weeks:


They are both napping right now.. we are trying so hard to get them to sleep more during the day. I'm so excited that they are both sleeping right now.. in their pnp. Well, on in the co-sleeper and one in the pnp! ;) As always I expect no repeats. After this nap and their next feeding/changing I'm going to try to venture out on a walk w/ the kids and the burrito. :) Shhh don't tell Phoebe until it's time to go or she'll get all excited. The rigamarole to get the clan out the door almost makes my head spin.. first I have to get them ready.. then one out the door in the stroller in front of the house.. then leave that one in the yard (great) and go get the other... then leave them both in the yard to go back in to get Phoebe... I'm sure no one will baby snatch them.. ugh!

Babies, running and a hair cut!

Oh my goodness watching two babies is all consuming! On Tuesday I was dressed and ready when Tom got home. I said, "the babies have been fed and changed. I'm going to Borders for a quiet cup of coffee." and off I went! I just needed some quiet time where no one needed me, I didn't have to hold a baby and no one was barfing on me. I hadn't yet showered in two days and looked HORRIBLE.... HORRIBLE!!! It was GREAT to get out and have a nice slow quiet cup of coffee.. even if it was from Seattle's Best. And it wasn't that hard to get out of the house!

I'm going to start going for a run when Tom gets home three days a week. I need some way to blow off steam! Phoebe and I went last night.. it was fantastic. I felt like there is some bit of my former self still in there. I'm suffering from motherhood's "loss of identity". I'm hoping to run the Jingle Bell run here on Dec. 9th... hopefully it's as family friendly here as it is in Seattle.

I'm also going to get my annual haircut tomorrow. I measured it and I have enough to donate to Locks of Love - figure I should do it now before the post-partum hair loss takes it all!! No more cousin it for me... Yeah!

The babies craning their necks to watch TV... oops


and to cute to not share. We were going to go for a`walk, but they blew up on me right after this photo.

Fall is here!

Looks like Fall is finally here to stay. We had some of our last hot days while Karen and Andy are here and starting yesterday it looks like we are in the 70s till winter. :)

We walked over to Suzanne's for dinner on Saturday and got the kids dressed in some warm clothes.. even though we carried them in slings! :) Look how ADORABLE they are!





Dinner went pretty well. We wore the babies until they wanted to eat then fed them right before our dinner was ready. We tried to put them back in the slings to eat (poor things they live in there) and they were not having it.. especially Jason. So we tried just laying a blanket on the floor by the table and laying them down. They laid there through a good part of dinner then Jason got worn out and had to go back in. Thankfully Suzanne and Mike don't mind some baby crying.. this is Jason's newest trick. He cries whenever he gets tired and really wails when we try to put him down! Good times. :)