Runny noses and coughing and crying, oh my!

We are about four days into to our first cold. My mom, Cale and Hayden have it the worst, and I feel like it might kick in for me any minute now. Cale started first, coughing and acting like he didn't feel good....then my mom and then Hayden this morning. It is so sad...lots of coughing and congestion. The nurse said to give decongestants, but if they were eating and sleeping, it was okay and they didn't have to come in for an appointment. I am sure they will be just fine...but the first time mommy I am means I want to run them over there and make sure. We are still debating whether or not we got our cold from Mimi, or we picked the cold up in childcare at church and gave it TO Mimi. Oh well!
We ate at my parents tonight, and the babies were so funny! Cale has been reaching for things on the table (fun!) so we gave him a big plastic ladle to play with. It is so fun to watch him look at something with such determination and reach his little hand out for it. He is so serious when he wants to get at something. When he did finally get to the spoon, he banged and banged it on the table and smiled so big! It made us all laugh....better than any other entertainment for me!!
After dinner we put Hayden on the floor, and she scooted and kicked all over the place. She sings so loud the whole time she is wiggling...if I had to guess, I would say she is going to crawl first. Who knows? I may be wrong...they keep surprising me with who does what first.
This week I bought two journals with the intention of journaling my prayers for the babies. At my MOPS group this month (mothers of preschoolers) we listened to an amazing woman named Martie Leavitt who is such an inspiration to stay at home mommies. She made me feel really good about doing what I am doing. (Not that I wouldn't have kept doing it without the encouragement) She stressed that raising our babies is our service to God, and that it is the most important job we can do. Her talk was so, so, so, good! Her husband is a Christian counselor, and they are the most amazing family. One of her suggestions was to keep a prayer journal for each of your kids, and give it to them when they are grown. I thought it was such a sweet idea....that someday my babies will know they were prayed for from the very beginning....and also, what an amazing testament it will be to look back and read the prayers and see how good God is. I am looking forward to writing in them, and to making sure I keep this one up!

I guess it is going to start to get harder to find time to update this blog. My tiny people are wanting to socialize a lot more now, and aren't nearly as happy alone as they used to be! I can't believe how different they are than they were a few weeks ago...Cale has two tiny teeth, which means slobber all over the place, and some crying in the middle of the night. Last night he woke up every hour and a half, which was SO trying for us, because they have NEVER done that, not even when they were newborns!! Cale had rolled over in the middle of month four, and never did it again...Hayden; on the other hand, didn't start rolling over until weeks later, but once she started, she hasn't stopped! She tries to roll over right when you lay her down to change her diaper. I am starting to understand moms who say they have to plant a knee in their kids' chest to get the diaper on. One bad thing about her rolling over....she is not used to sleeping on her tummy, so it wakes her up when she rolls over at night....we have gone in a few times to find her screaming her head off, waving her arms around at her sides...rubbing her face on the sheet. All last week, she had a red scab on her nose that I had to keep explaining to strangers. It was so sad!!! I was really starting to get impressed by how mobile the babies are getting...scooting themselves all over the floor and turning around in their cribs. Until I met these people Saturday night, whose baby is only three weeks older and can CRAWL and sit up all by himself. The sitting up isn't that amazing, since my babies are doing it for a few minutes at a time, but CRAWLING??? Are you kidding me? I felt a little like I had lost some race or something. Mine are just barely getting to where you can hold them on your hip...I stressed out a little about it, then remembered that the pediatrician said you can't compare babies....I know it isn't a big deal, but it didn't stop me from thinking (for just a second) that I needed to go home and set up some kind of baby bootcamp.
The babies had the best time at the beach during our vacation....even though it rained a bunch. The resort we stayed at would be so great for bigger kids, because the pool is SO amazing....they will definitely enjoy that more later. Last week, we took the babies to the pumpkin patch for pictures and to buy pumpkins...they were so cute! We had a great time propping them up agains pumpkins and bales of hay, until Hayden started frantically scratching her nose and face...which her mommy started doing not that long after! I hate it, but she is probably going to have allergies like me. It is things like that I don't think about until I already have my kid sitting in a pile of hay...then it dawns on me that it might not have been the best idea! We got some good pictures, though, and Shawn had a good time. He loves, loves, loves the fall for lots of reasons....cooler weather, Halloween (his favorite holiday, if that is what you can call it) and FOOTBALL!!! It is not my favorite season, but I enjoy his enthusiasm...plus, we are getting excited talking about their first Halloween costumes....we are much more interested in "funny" than "cute", so it will be interesting to see what we come up with.