What are we up to...

I finally have my arms back around my life again - phew. Things just caught up with me and I had to slow it down and get things back on track. You know how it is. We've had a fun few weeks around here. The kids have been on fire and keeping me laughing and busy. I have completed the daunting task of switching the kids summer & fall/winter clothes, only to have it reach back into the 70's all week when I thought the cool weather was here. Figures. Into the bins I went to drag the shorts back out. I guess I was a little premature on packing things away...*mental note to self - don't try to do the clothes swap with the kids hanging around - totally counterproductive and takes 10 x's longer.

We've had a language explosion around here which is so much fun to watch. I feel like I live with 2 parrots - they repeat EVERYTHING, and at least a hundred times until I acknowledge that they are speaking. Remember when you were a kid and you used to mimic your brothers and sisters by repeating everything too many times to count until they lost it? I feel like that some days. Only those little voices hardly make me mad...here's JD's latest rendition of Happy Birthday. We were on our way to a friends birthday party and he was practicing.



At that particular birthday party there was a real live firetruck. Each of the kids got to squirt water with the fire hose - both boys gave it their best try. Sadly, I was helping them wait in line so I didn't get any photos of it (update, someone sent me photos of the kids with the fire hose). We also had cousin Emily's 3rd Birthday party last weekend. We had a great time and had another rocket cake - we've got a family full of Little Einsteins fans.

This week the kids finally are big enough to stand on stools in the bathroom to brush their teeth. We've been waiting for this day for a while now - previously when they would try to stand up, their chins were hitting the vanity and they couldn't reach the sink. Well, we're there! I snapped a few photos of them admiring themselves in the mirror. JD is a total ham! He thinks he's pretty handsome - and he reminds us of this while staring at himself in the mirror.

Each night when we do the bedtime routine, we're now into the 'stalling' techniques to stave off bedtime as long as possible. It's always entertaining to see what they will think of next. We read MANY books before bed, and always the same ones. For posterity's sake, I want to post the favorites here so I have them to refer to later. I'm sure they are all of the same ones that other 2 year olds love to read. Isn't it amazing how they can read the same book 10 times a day and still want to read it again and again and again and again? Even though they recite the words to me when I turn to the next page, they still find it entertaining - not at all boring. Here I am ready to poke my eyes out and they read it like it's the first time they've ever read it. Ah, to be 2 again. Here are the fav's - in no particular order (but we have to read every single one before lights out):

And there are MANY things required in the crib in order to go night night. Cole has 2 hand knitted blankets (by Mimi), Diego, baby Jag, water, 2 books and bear. JD has his 3 small blankets, 1 large blanket, Diego, baby Jag and his water. Now he screams about 5 minutes after I close the door and wants me to hold him in the rocking chair. The sap that I am, I actually love this and savor every last second of it - it won't be long before he will have no part of me snuggling and holding him in the rocking chair.

We have a fun weekend coming up. We're taking the kids to Jellystone Park - yes, the home of Yogi Bear! It's about an hour and a half from here and we'll be pseudo-camping (luxury cabin). No doubt it will be an interesting adventure. Stay tuned for updates after the weekend. We'll make sure it's well documented!

Graduation Day

We are officially graduated from the Infant & Toddler program with the county. Our physical therapist had her last visit today, which was bittersweet. We will miss Janice so much. The developmental therapist visited on Monday and will not be back until December to do our discharge officially. That said, we couldn't be happier that the boys are all caught up and don't need these services any longer.

We were so incredibly fortunate to have access to this wonderful program - and especially to have the therapists that we had. It's an amazing resource and it's hard to believe that such excellent care is a free service for families. Not everyone has access to such programs so we certainly are lucky. Everyone was wonderful and I owe them so much for bringing my kids along to where they are today. It was a happy milestone day at our house!

Football season is here!

Last week kicked me in the rear - so the weekend was a welcome respite. Between work, other obligations and play, I had a hard time keeping it all together. This life balance can be so tricky at times and sometimes it's all I can do to keep treading my head just above the surface. With a gazillion things on my to do list this weekend, I did NONE of them. That's what I get for over committing myself I guess. The highlight of the week was a our visit with Aunt Kathy and our trip to the zoo on Monday. We visited the National Zoo in DC and the kids really enjoyed seeing the live animals for the first time.

Football season has started with a vengeance around our house. Between fantasy football and a mere avid sports fan, my boys are saturated with FOOTBALL already! And they love every minute of it, especially Cole. He will sit and watch football like he knows what is going on in the game. We broke out the Redskins attire yesterday...perhaps they were the little good luck charms since the skins had a good showing.


and the hats were a big hit while running around in jammies. JD does his daily cleaning, hat and all, of the cat litter - at least this vacuum really works and he's helping while he's at it.





We took a late afternoon boat ride with Grampy & Mimi - it was a beautiful afternoon and the kids loved driving the boat.





We are loving this cool, crisp, fall weather. This is one of my favorite times of the year - with Halloween and the holidays approaching, it's a fun busy time.

Just in case you're wondering....

Gus is still living here...the 'kitty prozac' seems to be working again, at least 50% of the time. His odds of staying have just increased a bit.

He's on his 9th life

The cat. They say cats have 9 lives? Gus is on his last one. And I'm freaking out because I'm the one who is finally considering sending him to life #10, which is not here on earth. Kitty heaven can't be all that bad, can it?

Some of you know of about my cat. And some of you only know him as my bedrest companion. Before kids, he suffered from some separation anxiety, for many years. We were never home during the day and as a result, he would "act out" to let us know he was ticked off about it. He was peeing in the house for a while before we noticed, then we caught on and it got suddenly worse. We ended up replacing the floors (carpets to hardwood), which temporarily took care of the problem. But he started again, leaving us no choice but to put him on Prozac. It worked like a charm and he started going back to his litter box. For any of you cat lovers, rest assured, I had a full blood screen run on him to be sure he didn't have some physical problem - it turned out to be 100% behavioral. The kicker was, he would go #2 in the box, but always did #1 somewhere else - oh, you know, like on my clean folded laundry, or on the rug right at the bottom of the stairs.

For the last 2 years, things were smooth sailing. I even stopped his medication and since someone is home all day, every day, the anxiety had not returned to the point where it pushed him to act out any longer.

THEN.....when we went away to NOLA in May, he started peeing in the house again. Obviously a few days alone pushed him over the edge again. It's been off and on since that time and it's finally so bad that I had some blood work done again last week to be sure it wasn't a physical problem. It's not. He's just a belligerent, psycho and has severe behavioral problems. He's back on Prozac. Only this time, he won't even take the meds - he turns his nose up to his food, in which the medicine is mixed in. It's even tuna flavored liquid! He's on to me and tastes it in his grub.

I am so incredibly frustrated - yet torn because I cannot imagine getting rid of him over this. Nobody is going to take a cat that knowingly does not use a litter box. Therefore, if I get rid of him, he'll be going to kitty heaven. Can I even take him to a vet to be euthanized over this? I'll never get over the guilt I don't think...I have no idea what to do.

Every day, when I'm searching around to see if he went somewhere in the house, when I find it, I'm INFURIATED. It smells, it's dirty and I have toddlers running/crawling/slithering all over the place. Not to mention, he's ruining the carpet (again) and it's going to cost a fortune to replace it. I can't have this. I'm on the fence and I can't get down....anyone want an 11 year old non-litter trained cat that needs a LOT of attention? Ugh.

Small World

I'm finally catching up with the times - and boy has my age caught up with me! A friend recently sent me an "invitation link" to join Facebook. After a few weeks of hearing facebook tales from some of my girls, I went ahead and clicked on the link. Make no mistake, it was with reservation that I did this but nonetheless, curiosity got the best of me.

Within literally a few hours, I was connected with people I had forgotten existed - and some who I never knew how we would ever get in touch with again. My email box was FULL when I checked it, with 'invitations to accept friends' & confirmations that other people had accepted mine. It is NUTS! It took so much discipline to go to bed last night and not sit and search and play for hours. What a GREAT time waster; and since I have so much spare time, it's great that I've now added this to my list - ugh. It's a whole new world out there that I really had no idea was as broad as it is. The older I get, the smaller the world gets, it seems. And with the internet technology these days, it's incredibly smaller.

We have our 20 year high school reunion coming up in about a month (somehow I got tagged as the head of this endeavor, again because I have so much 'extra' time?) and after spending months trying to get in touch with lost classmates, I wish I had done this sooner for that purpose. So, I'm really feeling old now that our 20 year reunion is upon us. I have no idea how this snuck up so quickly.

On another note, we survived Hanna this weekend. In fact, 5 of my MOM (mothers of multiples) friends and I headed to a long awaited girls weekend in Dewey Beach. Between the 6 of us, we left 18 children and 6 husbands behind. When Hanna started heading toward the coast, do you think for a second we thought about canceling our trip? Come hell or highwater, we were going. And we did. As usual, the weather peeps hyped it up to be something it absolutely was not - and it turned out to be only a few hours of driving wind and rain and then the sun was out again. The weekend was awesome - so many laughs and good times. We all came back rejuvinated and relaxed. The trip was bumped up a day (we left a day sooner) due to the storm so as it turned out, thank you Hanna!

Prior to leaving for our trip on Friday, the kids had their 2 year well check. Both are doing fine and growing like they should be. Cole seems to be closing the gap a bit, although he's still a bit underweight, despite that he eats more than JD & I do combined. The doc was happy with their progress and as I was leaving said that they don't have another well check until they are THREE!

Last week we also had their 2 year photos taken. I got a sneak peek at them last night and love how they turned out. I can't wait to see the rest. If you want to take a quick look, check out Stevie T's blog. She's been photographing my boys since they came home from the hospital at 5 pounds. She's captured some of our proudest memories - and is quite an amazing photographer. Click HERE to see them.

P.S. - If you're a facebook addict, send me a note and we can be 'friends'. And if you're not, I hope I peaked your curiosity enough and you fall into this trap like I did - I can see why it's an addiction for some!

P.S.S. - Aunt Kathy, we can't wait to see you in 4 more days!

Birthday Weekend

WOW, I wish I was 2 again! Our kids live right! The boys had a fantastic, fun filled weekend. Suffice to say, this will be short and sweet because we too are exhausted, in a good way, of course.

We started with birthday dinner on Friday night at Chevy's, complete with the birthday hats, ice cream and loud singing by the staff. We celebrated Gramma's birthday too since the boys share a birthday with her which was extra fun.

Saturday we took the kids to their first ever Navy tailgate and football game. We were with some dear friends and their almost 3 year old twin girls and all of the kids did really well. They lasted until half time which was beyond my expectations!

Sunday was the birthday party for the boys - with family and a few friends. I think all of the kids had a great time, especially since Grampy surprised us all with a mini moonbounce! It was loads of fun for all and I think it made for great sleeping for all of the little ones by the time the sun went down. Lots of fun was had by all - which continued today...

Today was filled with lots of R&R and some more gift opening, jumping in the moonbounce and extra napping. All in all, it was a wonderful Birthday celebration.

The boys got so many wonderful gifts - including their first bikes, almost real vacuum cleaners, lots of Diego and little einsteins things, and their first 'kid computers'. We feel so blessed & lucky. Thank you to everyone who was part of our special celebration weekend!

The slide show below sums it all up....

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY BOYS!

We made it. Here's to another fun, adventurous, tiring, challenging and AMAZING year ahead! I love you both so very much.

BABY

Well, we have a new resident baby with us. During a trip to the dollar store the other day, I came across little baby dolls (which are about the size of my boys when they were born) and I bought 2 of them as little favors for the girls that are coming to the birthday party this weekend. Needless to say, before we even got out of the store, these babies were in the hands of the boys. Little did I know, they would become theirs in a short time. So much for the party favors.

In any case, JD has taken a particular liking to 'baby' and insists on taking it everywhere and sleeping with it. He changes it's diaper and shares his water with baby.



*Note Cole swinging the bat through the entire video...

Cole likes it only because JD likes it - so he really could give or take baby. He even hid baby from JD yesterday - in the silverware drawer. Thank goodness he's not as attached because one of the babies heads fell off yesterday and that was the end of that baby's short life with us. We're down to 1 and they are sharing fairly well. Until bedtime, of course.

Nonetheless, I realized that this fascination came shortly after our visit last weekend with my nephew, Baby Connor. My boys are enthralled with him; and really enjoyed helping Aunt E feed him.
We're not sure how long this baby thing will last. We're guessing it will be short lived since they will be getting so many new things to play with this weekend. But maybe it's here to stay for a while. I personally enjoy seeing how they treat baby - for the most part, they are so loving and caring for it - which is heartwarming (yet funny) to see.

The day before...

On the day before the boys 2nd birthday, I am finding myself really excited for their big day. I know that many people have mixed emotions about birthdays, especially #2 since that means we're officially in the 'terrible twos'. And many people feel like it went much too fast. But like the kids, I'm really excited. They have an inkling of what a birthday means. Last year, I bought these fun birthday banners for their doors. They are reusable every year and have turned out to be quite fun for them this week. I put them out on Monday this week, with the thought that we could have a little countdown. Tomorrow morning, I will put 2 candles on each of their banners to make it official. We've received a few gifts in the mail already and they have come running to open the boxes, knowing there were presents in them. Watching their anticipation, excitement and wonder has been awesome.



We're planning to take them out for dinner for their birthday (with Gramma who shares their birthday) and then we're having a family party on Sunday this weekend. They will share their party with their big cousin Ronny too who turned 6 this week. It's a 'Little Einsteins' theme party, complete with a rocket cake (which hopefully will turn out ok with my attempt at creativity).


A friend asked me yesterday how I was doing with this approaching birthday. I of course told her 'great' but knew that what she really was asking was relating to my thoughts about Calvin. Something has happened over the last few weeks and I'm in a much better place with things now. I have turned a corner, of sorts, and now find myself smiling whenever I think of him or hear his name, instead of being sad. There is a strange comfort surrounding me now and I know that he's ok and so are we. I have a charm necklace that C. gave to me for Mothers Day that only had 2 charms for JD & Cole. I bought a 3rd one for Calvin last week, as a birthday gift for him from me. It came this week and I'm proudly wearing it and it really has warmed my heart. It's just a symbol, I know. But for some reason, it helped me over that hump. When I received the necklace back in the spring, it never dawned on me to have a 3rd charm. But recently when it did dawn on me that it was incomplete, I ordered another one immediately. It's strange when these small things make such a BIG difference.


As I mentioned before, the kids are starting to say his name and bring him into their lives. That's huge for me. They now say that Calvin is their brother when asked. And they know how much we love and miss him. On their level, it's strictly repeating what we tell them. But it's becoming slowly part of their being and I can see their wheels turning when we talk about him.


It's hard to believe that it's been 2 years since they were born. At the same time, I do feel like I have been able to savor so much of this time and I don't feel jipped by time going too quickly. They have changed so much during this time - it's absolutely amazing. As a wonderful coincidence, we learned this week that Cole is being discharged from physical therapy. We dropped down to twice a month about 2 months ago and he's come so far so quickly during this time period that he's ready for discharge. This is such an incredible milestone, considering how far he's come. And just in time for his 2nd birthday. Mommy cried crocodile tears for the first time ever this week - I'm so proud and elated - but will say, we'll miss his therapist so much. She's like part of the family and the kids have grown to love her too. She's coming back one last time and we're going to have a little party - another chapter of his life is coming to a close. Ah, what a relief.


I'll do my best to get a photo montage put together tonight...surely tomorrow will be 'just another day' for the boys since they aren't really understanding the birthday concept completely. Little do they know what a special day it is in the heart and mind of their Mommy & Daddy...and baby brother Calvin.