Hello, my name is Elizabeth...

I have a serious problem. An addiction. Really. Its beyond my control. I can't help myself. Last night we had to go to Babies 'R Us to get some Desitin (exciting... butt cream!) and I saw these adorable jumpers that would make wonderful Easter outfits, if we actually needed Easter outfits. So when I buy the Desitin, they give me the handy-dandy 20% off one item for the rest of the week coupon. I totally blame those coupons for my problem. Every time you buy something (Carter's too), they give you a coupon for your next purchase, which means I have come back for a next purchase even though I don't really need anything because it would be a shame to waste the coupon! Anyways, so I decide that its a sign from God that I do indeed NEED these Easter outfits. I go back to the store with the boys this morning but I find another set of outfits that are also irresistable. I can't decide which ones I want, and though I know, I absolutely know I cannot buy both... what do I do?! I buy both! I told myself that it was only so I could bring them all home and let Jon pick which ones he wants to keep and that I will take back the other ones. But I know deep down in my heart that I will not be able to return any of them. I get home and decide to try each of them on the boys to see which ones I like the most, but then I see them both on the boys and now I know for CERTAIN that I cannot return any of them! I had the remainder of the afternoon to hatch a plan to convince Jon to let me keep all of the outfits. Ah-ha! If I offer to let him go fishing, he will let me keep all of the outfits in return for being such a wonderfully generous wife. I baited my hook, casted my line perfectly, and he bit... hook line and sinker :) Little did he know I was going to let him go fishing anyways, and when I shared that with him, he said little did I know that he was going to let me keep all the outfits anyways :)

Accomplished

I think we're finally getting the hang of this twin thing! Yesterday we had Jon's brother and his almost wife over for dinner... made steaks, potatoes, zuchinni, strawberry shortcake with homemade sugar biscuits and even made it to the store to buy a bottle of wine. The boys sat in their chairs at the table with us the whole time and let us all enjoy a really nice dinner together. Aside from a 30 minute midnight screaming spell from Caleb (wasn't really his fault, damn toothers are coming in), the boys slept through the night again. Today I had lunch with my sister, nephew and a friend while Jon had a morning out to run errands and get husband-like stuff done (the toilet has been running, he had to catch it). This afternoon I made all sorts of baby food (avocado, green beans, pears) and stocked the freezer for at least another two weeks. Caleb was on my back and was more than happy to taste test everything! Washed and folded two loads of laundry. Three if you count the carseat covers and bouncers but I didn't have to fold those and that is the hardest part, for me anyways! Now we're making another dinner because my parents are on their way over... some new pasta recipe that Jon found. Get this. It has spinich in it! I've found that if I let him choose what to cook, he's more likely to try it. Hey, whatever works. And to top it all off, we also managed (curtosey of the boys' record breaking nap this afternoon... 90 minutes and counting thankyouverymuch!!!) to bake three pecan pies! One for dessert this evening and two for the women who watched the boys last week. YUM! Jon has four days of work this week and then he's off for ten whole days. I can't believe we made it to his spring break already... If I do say so myself, I think we're doing just fine :)

Sleepers!

They did it! The boys slept through the night! Both of them! Did I, you ask? Did mommy sleep through the night?? Not a chance. I woke up at 4:00am and got so damn excited that the boys were still asleep that I couldn't fall back to sleep. Oh well. Maybe a mommy never sleeps!

I did get a few hours away today to coach. Its getting a little easier to leave them for a little bit on Saturdays. Hard to get out the door but once I get to the gym I love being there. I do worry a great deal about what shenanigans Jon will get into while I am gone though! The first day I went back to coaching, I came home to find that he had wanted to weigh the boys while I was gone so he hung them from his fish scale! To his credit, he at least put them in a tote bag and hung that from the fish scale... he didn't just hang them from their diapers! A few weeks later he staged a kickboxing fight, video taped it, set it to the Rocky theme, and posted it on youtube for his friends to see! Last week he hung the boys from the rafters. Literally. I came home and my kids were swinging from the rafters! Jon couldn't wait any longer to get their baby swings out and since it was still too cold outside, he hung them from the rafters in the basement. Again, to his credit, he did put the dog bed under the swings just in case the screws didn't hold and the boys came crashing down on to the floor! But no major shenanigans today. It did look like the tupperwear and bottle aisles of Babies 'R Us had thrown up in my kitchen sink, but the boys were fed, rested, and happy as pigs in mud :)

Adventures in Babysitting

When will I ever be able to relax?! Last night was our second night out without the boys and the first time we left them with a babysitter. Jon teaches with a woman who has five year old twins and she has been begging for us to let her watch the boys. Apparently when your twins grow up you miss them being crying, fussing, spitting, pooping babies... seriously?! So I drove the boys up to Jon's school yesterday afternoon. We watched about a half an hour of the dress rehearsal for the school play, and then drove them over to her house. I only had a mild panic attack on the way. Mind you, I don't even know who this woman is! But for some reason I figured if she lived through twins (and the kids lived too)... she could probably handle ours for an hour or two, right?? Jon had to shove me out the door, but we left and went to dinner downtown. It was so nice to be out with Jon, but so hard to be away from the boys. For the first 3/4 of dinner I was a nervous wreck. Then for the last 1/4 I started to feel all proud, like I had done something amazing by leaving my kids for two hours! When will I be able to leave them and TRULY enjoy my time away? I know I need breaks every now and then or I'll really go nuts (I know, I know) but its not like I can even enjoy myself when I get the chance. I am bound and determined to figure this out before I have to go back to Houston in July... this time I will enjoy every minute of it and not cry myself to sleep at night. I've got some serious practicing to do.

Don't pee on your brother!

Sleepytime update- The boys are taking naps on their own... they are great at falling asleep, not so great at staying asleep. Aside from conking them on the head to knock them out for a few hours, not sure how else to keep them down longer than a half hour. Bed time is going well too. They are only waking up for one feeding and we're giving them mostly water, so hopefully they'll soon realize that its not worth waking up for at all! Its amazing to sleep for more than two hours at a time, but I sure do miss them by morning.


Matthew is growing by leaps and bounds. Yesterday he started to cover is eyes to play peek-a-boo! Last night, he also peed on his brothers head. On second thought, that is probably not a milestone. On third thought, he's done it a few times before so its not even that monumental... just funny! Caleb is adorable as usual, but apparently he is content to do nothing new but lay there and get peed on.

We finally got an icky face with a new food... bananas! Honestly, they may not be Jon's kids after all. They LOVE their vegetables and made the icky face for fruit. It took me 9 years to get Jon to eat a vegetable. Yeah, 9 years. Now they like their bananas (it took about three days) but I'm really wondering if they belong to someone else...

I think my poor Matthew got bit by a tsi-tsi fly!!! Last night he crashed at 6:45 for what was supposed to be a very, very poorly time late afternoon nap. He slept until 12:30am when he woke up for his bedtime bottle (again, very poorly timed!) and promptly went back to sleep. It is now 8:15am and he is still conked out. He's alive, I think. I saw him move about a half hour ago. But it has been 13 1/2 hours since he fell asleep! Maybe he is just resting up for his big day... Uncle Kevin is taking the boys to the mall while mommy and daddy have lunch. He's not allowed to bring them back until the boys get him a date!

Switcheroo

So the boys pulled their first official switcheroo on me last night. Our sleep training was going amazingly well for the first two nights. Too good to be true actually. They must have overheard us talking about not feeding them and letting them cry all night (wow, we sound like awesome parents!) and decided that it wasn't worth waking up for. But we knew it was going too well and sure enough last night Matthew woke up at 1:30am wanting to eat. I gave him watered-down 2 ounces, during which he started to fall back to sleep, so I put him back in the crib. He started to cry and, being the amazing mother that I am, I left him there and went back to bed!!! Now I know we are allowed to check on them every 10 minutes or so, but if they see us it usually makes them cry harder so I waited... and waited... and waited... and the kid wouldn't stop crying. So I finally went in to see if he had gotten a leg stuck in the crib, or if his ear had fallen off, or there was a giant silverfish in his bed and low and behold, Matthew was fast asleep and Caleb was wailing his head off! OOOPS!

Legal Troubles in Lullabyland

So our nightime adventures the night before last were apparently so comical that everyone urged me to start writing things down. Personally, I find it comical that my friends and family think I have time to sit and write (have you seen my house lately?!) but writing has always been relaxing for me and God knows I could use a moment to relax every now and then so here goes...

The boys have been little sleep monsters. After a three week stretch at four months old where Caleb slept straight through the night and Matty only woke up once, they now feel the need to wake up every two hours. Its exhusting, really. Up until now, they boys haven't really bothered each other in their crib. But all that changed too!

Two nights ago we put them down at 8:30pm. Caleb woke up at midnight wanting to eat. Matthew woke up to file assault charges. Caleb woke up again at 2:45am. Matthew woke up again to file for a restraining order. The restraining order was granted and next thing he knew, Caleby McGubby woke up in the pack 'n play in the living room screaming out "How in the heck did I get here?!" And how, you ask, did we know it was Caleb?? Poor Matty was laying innocently on his side of the crib, trying to sleep through the night in the exact spot where we had laid him down at 8:30pm. Both times, Caleb had attempted to plow his way to the other side, seemingly annoyed that his efforts were thwarted by a roadblock that happened to be his sleeping brother. By the time they were both screaming (Caleb from the hunger and Matthew from the assault), Caleb was precariously perched on TOP of his brother, wailing and thrashing and kicking Matthew. When he was finally rescued from the brutal attack, poor Matty looked up at me as if to say "And tonight was the night I was going to sleep all night for you mommy!"

Anyways, the restraining order will remain in place until further notice and the pack 'n play will be moved into the nursery tonight!!!