double trouble mom

 

The 4 days off were GREAT.  Who doesn’t love 4 days with no work?
We headed up to the Great North on Friday after work.  The girls slept a good chunk of the way which made the trip somewhat relaxing.  That was until it started to rain then sleet.  The last part of the trip was slow going but we made it in decent time.  All I have to say is THANK YOU to who ever invented the portable DVD player.
Before the kids we always said no DVD player in the car.  Well we learned one thing, never say never until you have experienced 2 restless kids & ice glazed roads.
We spent the better part of the 4 days with my family.  Nothing overly exciting and it was a tad bit cold out for the girls so we didn’t get much outside time in.  They are fighting colds so I wanted to limit outside time.  Erika loves the snow and winter, Emily not so much.  You spend the 10min getting her ready to go out and all she wants to do is be held and go inside.  She did like the four-wheeler ride though. 
Time with family was so nice and relaxing.  I actually was able to get in 2 naps so that was awesome.  The girls made out like bandits in the gift, and candy departments.  Emily is a sugar hound so I had to hide things from her. 
We did find out that my brother and his wife are expecting #2 and that is great news.  Come Aug (not sure when) we will have yet another little baby to add to the family. 
The girls stayed with grandma and grandpa this week.  This is the 1st time we really have been away from this long, and they have been away without us.  Its hard to come home to a quite house and I think it will be hard not coming home to 2 little girls yelling mommy mommy.  It will be nice to get some things done we have had on our list.  And I’m very excited about my relaxing lazy mornings.
I hope you all had a great Christmas with Family and Friends

to grandmas house we go.  Well in 2 days anyways we will head to north to see grandparents and such.  The girls are so excited.  We pretty much had to hide their cots so they would stop taking them apart.  Emily spent part of last night packing all of her toys she wanted and books.  The bag was so heavy when she was done she couldn’t move it.  I’ll empty it tonight and ask her to do it all over, takes her about 30 min to pack so that gives me 30 min to get my things done.  Erika saw that I had their swim suits out and had a fit that I wouldn’t let her put it on.  
Try to tell 2 excited toddlers that we have to wait 2 days to see grandma and grandpa.  They had mittens and shoes on last night at 7:30 ready to go.  So we called grandma instead and that was fun. 
We will be leaving the girls with grandparents for a few days after Christmas.  I’m not sure how Ryan and I will fare.  We each have a list of things to get done so I’m thinking we will be exhausted when its time for the girls to come home.  I will try to leave one night open to do NOTHING.  I am looking very forward to not having 2 girls wake me up at 6:30 though, that will be SOOOO nice.  Considering I don’t have to be to work until 9, I get to sleep in. 
 

Not much new on the mommy front.  Lastnight was a pretty normal evening.  I got home and made dinner of left over meatballs into Spagetti.  All the while my husband complained that he doesn’t like Spagetti.  I told him thats fine make your own dinner then becuase I have Spagetti planned.  I’m sure others out there go through the same thing with their husbands or significant others.
We spent the nigth watching the Kids Songs DVD which is Emilys FAVORITE.  Luckily I found some more at WalMart the other day so we have a little variety now.  We did a little playing with the train.  This is tough at times when teh word share comes up.  They have a hard time giving up control of the trian. 
Today I had to visit the dentist.  Which I acutally don’t mind since I leave with a clean mouth and free tooth bruch, tooth paste and floss.  The girls will have to maybe see the Dentist towards their 3yr birthday.  I’m not sure how that will go over.  They like to brush their teeth, well they like to suck the toothpast off the brush.

 

We took the girls to see Santa this weekend at Cabalas.  Great Santa (I will try to copy and post photo) and the best part was the line was short and the girls actually sat on his lap.  Granted Emily ignored him and looked straight ahead with no expression the entire time.  Erika on the other hand had a nice conversation with Santa.  Though they both don’t have an answer when you ask what they want from Santa.  They did enjoy the candy cane treat at the end.  I think at this age it’s more for mommy & daddy then anyone else.
The shoppers at Cabalas were crazy.  I really think we waited longer in line at the check out then we did for Santa.  Which is acutally OK!  My brother and his family have hit the Ridgedale Santa two years in a row now and that line is crazy.  I don’t think they have a line anymore they give you those little buzzer thingies you get a restaurants.  Mande said last year they got the buzzer went to Applebee’s for dinner and the buzzer went off right when they were finished eating.  Now that is Santa dedication or craziness.  Keep in mind Jackson is 2 1/2 and both years has not wanted anything to do with Santa.  I do have to say the Santa looks pretty real. 
The rest of the Saturday went OK.  The girls refused to take a nap and instead played in their room and made a mess.  You could tell they were tired when we got in the car at 3 to head over to my brothers for our Christmas get together and they were both asleep before the first turn.  The short nap was not enough and Emily was a little testy the rest of the evening.  We had a good time at Todd & Mandes opening gifts and eating good food.
Sunday we had another nap less day.  That was until I made the girls hop into bed with me and I put in Sherk.  They both slept with me for a while and that was nice. I was in between them (this was planned) so when they fell asleep there was no escape for mommy.  Darn if I didn’t have to stay there with them for 2 hrs.  It was great.
Then we go into trying to make meat loaf with no over.  Our over took a dump and I was stuck with 2lbs of meat.  So I made meat balls on the stove.  The girls LOVED them so that was nice, and tonight I will make spaghetti. 

 

So here is by double trouble girls. Right is Erika and Left is Emily. They are 2 and a hand full most times of the day. Erika was known as baby A and Emily as baby B for the first 38 weeks of their existence. We found out pretty much as soon as we knew we were expecting that it was twins. The first ultra sound was in April and the Ultra Sound Tech asked us if we knew what the two small dots were. Nope not a clue we said. I think for the first 24hrs we were in shock. We went home and I watched some TV while Ryan made a stiff drink and mowed the lawn.
I did go the full 38 weeks, which is full term for twins. No complications during and a csection at the end only because they were both breach. My Dr. insisted I have a perfect uterus for twins and wanted to do it all over. I turned her down on that and said NO THANKS. Though I did realize after the fact that I had Broxton hicks contractions the entire pregnancy and had no clue that’s what they were.
We then joined the local multiples club. What a great help that was. It was nice to hear from people who went through it that in the end multiples are a lot of work but well worth it. Like I was once told by a friend. I get to see 2 new smiles and hear 2 new giggles. I get twice the joy. The multiples club really helped us figure out what was needed for baby supplies, where to get it cheap and most importantly what to steal from the hospital. Not only that they really just where there to listen and give advice.
I think there is a miss conception out there that twins are such hard work. Granted we had nights were I woke up burping my pillow and trying to remember if we fed the girls or not. But really with a great partner and family that helped we made it.
People always ask if raising twins is hard. Well I don’t know what its like not to have twins so I have nothing to compare it to. I tell them the good things are we go through stages at the same time. I don’t have one kid ending diapers and one kid just starting. Each stage of life brings new challenges and like with one kid you go with the flow.

I would say the hardest parts about 2 toddlers is:
1) one week one kid is sick and keeping us up at night then next week its the other
2) sharing - toddlers don’t share well and it gets old hearing whinning from both of them. I do have to say I think my kids do pretty good for the most part on this.
3) getting anything done with 2 kids who need your constant attention is hard
4) we just got into the why and what’s that stage, this might be a long one.

So the morning started out OK. I like to at least sleep until 7 and I did wake up to the clock saying 7:05am. BUT I also woke up to the sound of Emily pounding on her bedroom door and yelling at me to let her out. Needless to say normally she is yelling at Erika to get up and open the door for her. Emily has yet to master the door knob where Erika has that down.
I roll out of bed and sneak Emily out of the bedroom hoping to not wake Erika. Nope that didn’t work. Erika was crying in her bed for me to get her out. We hop back into our bed for a little cartoon action and time to really wake up. Erika at this point is ticked she was woken up and not in the mood for anything. Emily on the other hand is in great form and ready to get started with the day.
Luckily one of us is awake and I ask Emily to go back to their room for diapers and wipes. She gladly follows orders and comes back with both. I can tell Erika is awake at this point because she is repeatedly asking for Sponge Bob.
We get out of bed and dressed with no major meltdowns. Besides Emily’s begging for powder on her lower region it all goes pretty good.
Now comes the mess.
I get the oatmeal all ready for the girls and as I’m walking across the kitchen I drop the bowl and oatmeal splatters all over the floor. Luckily Cody (the dog) is in the house and comes to my rescue. I hear over and over from Emily how mommy broke the bowl. When I say over and over a I mean over and over and over and over. So we move on and get the food on the table and the kids in their seats. Next thing I know they had decided to feed each other Cheerios. Well 1/2 of them end up on the floor. Again. Cody to the rescue.
They girls at a great breakfast and we were on a good roll getting shocks and shoes in order to head out the door. So I think.
As I’m sitting on the stairs with Emily putting on her socks and shoes she lays back and I see her put her finger in her mouth and then gage. I tell her not to do that and go back to the socks and shoes. I see it happen again. Again I tell her not to do that. Well this time she sits up and is still gagging and then blows cheerio chunks all over her jacket and shirt. I pick her up and run to the bathroom and she does it another 2 times. I know she isn’t sick because she was just laughing, at a good breakfast and I saw her gage herself.
I get her all cleaned up and decided to skip a shower because it smelled like cheerios not barf. Erika in the meantime ahs realized her pants are wet and starts to insist on changing them. I don’t’ have time for this I think. Luckily a bottle of lotion distracts her from the pants and we can continue to get dressed to leave the house.
As I start walking back down the steps I slip and pretty much end up sliding the entire way down on my butt. This was the last straw and a few choice words came out. Luckily for me the girls were more mesmerized by my falling then my words.
In the end we made it to daycare with no other major incidences and I made it to work in one piece.
Now the clock hits 5pm and I’m out of here for the weekend.
My next blog will be to introduce you to the kidos.