We hate Santa!

It is official...my kids hate Santa! They have had two encounters with him, and neither went very well. The first was at Shawn's company Christmas party. He was a rental Santa, and pretty authentic looking....the babies had quivery lips right when they saw him walking up to us....we weren't sure how they would react, so of course we handed them both over to sit on his lap. First the staring at him, then the reaching for us, and finally the bloodcurdling scream. We laughed, and took pictures. I sort of understand their horror...every time I walked in the hall, Santa was getting a fresh drink at the bar. Not only was he scary looking, he probably smelled like a booze hound. Not to mention the teeth stained red from all the wine. Not that I wouldn't be a big drinker if I had kids crawling all over me....I'm just saying.
The second time they saw a Santa was at our friends the Zunkers Christmas party. Again, the minute of inspection before the meltdown...we had to physically remove them from the room this time to make the crying stop. Taking them away from Santa wasn't good enough this time...Oh well. At least we got some hilarious pictures!!
We decided early on that we weren't going to go crazy for the babies first Christmas, since they have no idea what is going on....so we bought them a few tiny toys like a miniature sports ball set for Cale and a glow worm that sings for Hayden. But every time we get in a store around baby toys, I can't help myself! The babies just love anything that makes a noise or has flashing lights...Today in WalMart they were fascinated by the dancing hip hop lizard (dressed in a green sweatsuit and iced out with chains.....an odd toy if you ask me) that sang Usher. When I put it back on the shelf, Cale cried....It is funny what they want to play with! Even with all the baby toys they have, they want to play with the trim on the couch pillows, the tags on blankets, and a big plastic strap that held three makeup bags together. I might as well save my money...
Yesterday we started putting them in the bathtub without their bath slings...I bought a non slip mat for the bottom of the tub, and dumped a bunch of tub toys in there....They LOVE bathing this way...no more baby bathtubs for these two...they splash and scream and grab at all the toys. We stayed in so long tonight that Hayden's feet were pruney. They are really good at sitting up by themselves...even catching themselves before they fall back into the water...Even so, I put only about an inch of water in the tub so I could control them better....I cannot believe I have babies that are big enough to sit in a tub alone! It feels like yesterday that I was still 52 months pregnant with them, waiting and waiting for their birthday!

Christmas season ALREADY???????

So much has changed in the last few weeks...the babies are big, but not at the top of the charts anymore. At their six month check up, they were both pretty average in weight, but at the higher end of the scale in length. Apparently, these measurements have virtually no bearing on how big/tall they will be as adults, so who cares? I am more interested in how brilliant they are! I am positively certain I am the parent of two future rocket scientists, nuclear physicists, or at the very least two kids who will continually be placed in the "blue bird" reading group! They are so observant and surprise me every day with the connections they make. Cale wakes up before the rest of us (usually) so I reach for anything on the bedside table to hand him to keep him entertained until we all wake up. One morning, he played with the ceiling fan remote for about thirty minutes; staring at the ceiling as he turned the fan and lights on and off. This morning, I handed him the remote for the T.V., and he was pushing the buttons and staring at the fan, wondering why he couldn't get it on and off this time! How about that? I think that is pretty smart for a six month old!!! Hayden is copying sounds we make, and we are borderline positive she is saying "Dada". (which goes to figure!) With all the new things they have learned, we have noticed one new thing we aren't so excited about....stranger anxiety! I knew it was going to happen, but I hate that it has! I love that the babies are comforted by me, but I am embarassed when they scream in the faces of well intentioned strangers. (They do this much more frequently to old ladies. I think they are "ageists".) I have had to leave bible study because Cale was laying on the floor clutching a toy, SCREAMING at the top of his lungs at anyone who tried to hold him, feed him, look at him, talk to him, etc. Hayden has had a virtual anxiety attack several times when there are lots of people around, especially if they are laughing and talking loud. (This is MY child??) We have learned how to avoid the situations a little bit, but I am looking forward to getting through this phase.
Our house is all decorated for Christmas, which the babies love. We have the lights on the tree set to "flashing" which is a little eighties for me, but seems to entertain the babies too much to change it. My husband, who is an amazing sport, spent the last week crawling up and down the ladder to the attic, getting out all the decorations and following lots and lots of directions. He even helped do a little decorating, too, with little to no complaining. This year, because of the babies, I am so excited about Christmas! I know they are too little to enjoy or understand, but it just seems more significant somehow!
I have been working my tail off, in addition to the decorating, cleaning, general daily parenting. I have started doing a little work at my old elementary school, helping out my principal with a variety of stuff she needs done. So far, I have only gone once, but I am scheduled to go again this week. I really enjoyed being with my friends at work again, but seven hours felt SO long to be away from the babies! It made me even more grateful that I have a husband who wants me to stay home with them, and who works so hard for us to make it possible!
In addition, I purchased a new embroidery machine with my mom, and we are starting a little at home business. So far, we have had lots of orders....with Christmas coming up, we hope to get some more to help defray the cost of this fantasmagorically expensive machine!!
I am so, so, so excited about tomorrow....my dear friend Kelly is being induced and I get to watch baby Logan being born!! I am honored she even wants me in the room, and glad I will get to see how most people have babies....since I will never do it that way! Lots of love and prayers to Kelly and Ronny that tomorrow is a wonderful, happy, easy day! Can't wait!!!
With Thanksgiving behind us, I have spent a little time thinking about all the things I am grateful for. Of course, I am hugely grateful for all the big things...an amazing family, healthy babies, wonderful friends....but also on a daily basis I am reminded of the tiny little things I have to be grateful for....Hayden crinkling her nose up when she smiles, and bouncing up and down when we hum the tune to "Sanford and Son". Cale screaming with glee when he sees his daddy walk in the door at the end of the day, and every time he smiles big at me and I can see his two tiny little teeth! Carrying warm sleepy babies to bed at night, hearing them in their cribs in the morning, having them pat my face and "talk" to me...the list goes on and on!!! I know I have always had lots to be grateful for, but this year I have so, SO much more!!!

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.

When it rains....

Let me tell you, things have been hectic around our house this week. First, the air conditioner decided to stick at a balmy 88 degrees for two days, letting us know that something horrible was wrong....we had to spend last night at my parents house because it was literally unbearable heat. It was actually cooler outside our house than in it. Then, Shawn's truck started smoking and making hissing noises. Finally, my brakes sound like two pieces of bare metal scraping together every time I even think of tapping the brake pedal. On top of all of that, a few months ago we treated the weeds in our yard, and lo and behold, we murdered the grass. All of it. (one good thing: no need to mow!) We have been waiting for the temperatures to go down to lay down a completely new yard...in the meanwhile, we get a nice little note from the homeowners association instructing us to "please water our lawn". I had to laugh at that one, since this has literally been the rainiest summer in San Antonio in the twenty something years I have lived here. I am not sure too many people would come to the conclusion that the brown of our grass equals lack of water. The funny thing is, the only green in our yard now are the weeds!! So embarassing as it is, WE are the biggest white trash in our neighborhood; which mortifies me and amuses Shawn. (Not really, the translation of that sentence is: I have lost control of myself over the mortification of being contacted by the homeowners association, and Shawn thinks that is funny.) I almost want to put a huge poster in our yard that issues a public apology to everyone who is forced to look at our crispy brown grass. Then again, the neighborhood association probably has some rule about posters in your yard!
All of this in the days leading up to our coast trip, which is stressful enough in itself. I tried to start packing today (before the AC repairman showed up) and was dripping with sweat in about two minutes flat. The only way I could stand to wait for him was to sit really, really still on the couch with two fans pointed at me. I contemplated sitting out in my car until he got there, but didn't. So now there is a huge pile of junk on the bed in the babies' room, and nothing packed. (Did I mention we are leaving tomorrow morning???????) The magnitude of stuff necessary to travel with two five month olds is mind boggling. Two sets of clean clothes for every day, double the amount of jammies necessary, washcloths, baby bath products, a can of formula, a box of cereal, baby spoons, baby swimwear, swim diapers, sunscreen (or "sunscream" as my students used to call it! :) blankets, burp cloths, two packs of diapers, about fifteen bottles, the "Bumbo" chair (since Cale likes to sit up "by himself") pacifiers, two (count em-TWO) pack-n-plays, and the list goes on and on and on.....I am starting to think I am going to have room for a toothbrush and one clean pair of underwear. :)
All that aside, I am so excited to get away!! We are going to have lots of fun in the pool and at the beach, or at least as much fun is tolerated by five month old babies. Hopefully they will enjoy these new "firsts"...they are starting to tolerate rice cereal, which is still hilarious to feed to them. They are both making SO much noise, squealing and screaming all the time. The other day I could hear Hayden on the opposite side of TJMaxx with my mom. It was so funny!! Cale has discovered how to take his pacifier out of his mouth and throw it on the floor. I am sure this begins a long road of discovery involving "What can I throw on the floor next?" He is also trying to hold his bottle, which doesn't help much, because he isn't really helping, but won't move his hands....I have to have a veritable slap fight with him to get the bottle in his mouth, since his little hands are waving all over the place. (Note to everyone: I do not "slap" my child....this was my attempt at funny...) The babies have been doing so well at the church nursery....there is a little boy who is a little over a year old in their class that LOVES Hayden. The other day when I went in there to pick them up, he was about to crawl in her carrier with her. He had piled up toys in her lap, and was so interested in her. They said they tried to put a blanket over her carrier so she would sleep, and he kept lifting up the blanket to talk to her. It was pretty cute!
Well, the AC guy has finally left, and I can actually feel cold air circulating!! Gonna try to get everything together before we have to leave tomorrow!

Nineteen weeks old already!

Tonight we tried/failed at eating rice cereal. I had been warned by other mommies that the first time isn't all that successful, but I was pretty sure Cale (at least) would LOVE the idea of eating something that looked more like food. Clearly, I was wrong, wrong, WRONG. They did not like it at all. They were both interested at the spoon heading towards them, but looked very disappointed when the cereal actually went in their mouths. Most of it got squirted back out at me while we all laughed and took pictures. Of course, I had made an adult sized portion of it (you live and learn!) and had to wash that down the drain. I think the biggest problem was that they had already had their night time bottle and were full...we will try again tomorrow night on an empty stomach. Our one success of the evening was that they both love sitting in their new high chairs. They look so big sitting straight up!!
The whole reason we even tried cereal to begin with is because my amazing night time sleepers have decided they are going to wake up and cry four or five times a night, causing either Shawn or I to have to walk across the house just to put a pacifier back in their mouths. We decided last night that we are probably catering to some bad habits by helping them back to sleep...I am sure they need to have better "self soothing" skills at this point...but when you have two, you are scared that the crying one will wake up the sleeping one and then you'll have two crying babies so you run and get the first one back to sleep before all heck breaks loose. I think we might have to put them in different rooms for a few nights so that we can let them cry it out....it will be hard to listen to, but they are getting way too used to us coming in and replacing the pacifier!!
Today we talked to my dad online with the online camera...he installed a whole camera system on our laptop so that he can see the babies from wherever he is at in the world. It was pretty cool!! There is a little delay in the sound and audio, so you are constantly interrupting the other person unintentionally, but it is still fun. My mom and I kept swinging the babies this way and that way trying to position them in front of the camera. They both cried at Popo, and then Hayden threw up all over me while we were talking to him. Not too much cooperation from them...
The babies have been to the church nursery about four times now....they are getting better and better at it! The ladies are so sweet to them...they changed their diapers about six times today (in two and a half hours)...my mom jokes that they are getting their diaper changed more during childcare than they do at home....
Some of our very best friends the Zunkers welcomed a new addition last Friday night....Davis Moody Zunker was born at 9:46 p.m. after (literally) ONE PUSH! I told his mommy that she could be my surrogate for any other possible additions to our family since she is apparently the biggest baby having stud ever created. He was 7 pounds 10 ounces and 19 and half inches long. He is so, so precious....it is funny to see a tiny baby with hair...mine are SO bald compared to him. When Shawn and I went to see them in the hospital, I was already feeling nostalgic about having a tiny baby. I know, I am INSANE! They were on the same floor we had been on with our babies, and it brought back such fun memories. I actually loved being in the hospital, holed up in our little room with nothing to worry about except the babies. We didn't have to worry about food, or cleaning or anything else...just them! And no one expects you to even get out of bed. That is my kind of living!!
Anyway, seeing new baby Davis was so sweet...I can hardly remember when they were that light...and he was a full pound bigger than my biggest baby! After all the chaos surrounding these twins, it is funny that I can already think about adding to our family. Both my mom and Shawn look at me like I have lost my mind when I make comments about it, so for now I will keep those ideas to myself!

"If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle."

Vincent Van Gogh