Who are YOU?

I've been keeping this blog for nearly a year now, and every now and then I run into someone, a co-worker of The One Who Works, a long lost relative or and old friend I've not spoken to in years, who says "I read your blog". My first reaction is usually embarrassment because I realize they now know how domestic my life has become. But after a while I find satisfaction in the fact that on some level I get to connect with another adult on a daily basis. I have a hard time believing anyone would find anything other than simple amusement from my writings, but for the most part the feedback has been positive. It's these comments that keep me writing. The problem is, I have no idea who's reading, so it's with this in mind that I post this latest blog. Who are YOU? By now, you all know who I am, in fact you probably know far more about me and my little brood that you ever wanted to. So now, I'd like to know you. If you are reading this, please post a comment. If you've never done it before, I'll tell you how, it's really easy. At the bottom of this post, in the green bar, click on comments. A comment screen will pull up, choose an identity, you can either register with a name of your choice or you can post anonymously. You don't have to write anything if you don't want, and you don't even have to put your real name just leave enough information so I can figure out who you are (initials, work buddy, cousin, place you live, a nickname I'd know). To those of you out there who are regularly commenting, THANK YOU! It's you who are keeping me connected to the real world, in this crazy life of mine.

The Evidence

Word of advice, if you want to play with something that belongs to your Dad, and your Mom has told you repeatedly not to touch, don't leave evidence. Just because you happen to love expensive "gadgets" does not mean that you can sneak up on the shelf and push every button until something happens. And despite the fact that you happened to leave everything just as you found it (this time), snapping the camera back into it's charging cradle and escaping before your Mom caught you, does not mean you got away with anything. Like my Mom always told me, "Mom's know everything", and in this case it's true....thanks to a little incriminating evidence.

Peanut lessons

About four weeks ago Peanut started swim lessons, he went twice a week in the evenings with his Dad. I think he enjoyed it most of the time, but as the lessons neared the end he became less and less excited to go, it probably had something to do with the fact that they switched teachers on him 3 times. Whatever the reason by the last swim lesson he was in no mood to go. We told him that it was his last lesson and that he was going to graduate today and get his report card! We tried to make it sound exciting, I think he bought it, because he sucked it up and went to lessons with his Dad. An hour later a sobbing, red faced Peanut returned from swim lessons, a soggy yellow report card in his hands. "They didn't give me a report CAR, they only gave me this paper!" I guess we should have been a little more clear.

Pretty in Pink

OK, I don't want anyone out there to think I'm playing favorites or anything, it's just I've never had a daughter before and I'm loving it! I can't believe how much I love dressing this little girl up. As you can see Princess is growing and thriving. She weighs over 10 lbs and is nearly the same weight as her twin brother (he was born weighing a pound more). Her temperament is much calmer than her brother, but don't think for one minute she doesn't get heard if she wants to. I take it from the fact that she gazes at me peacefully while I change her repeatedly from one outfit to the next, that she likes to look as good as I like her to look. Rarely will you catch her without a bow glued to her bald little head or a bracelet on her wrist. I have drawn the line at earrings (sorry Grandma R) I don't need to be responsible for the care and cleaning of one more thing!

I wish I could have captured her smile in these pictures, but her smile is elusive, we've up to now only seen it on rare occasions, it is a winner though, every time I see her smile it makes me want to cry at how much I love this little daughter of mine.

Day in the life...

A day in the life of Little Red and Princess usually begins early, far too early if you ask me...but nobody ever does, so on we go. Princess usually starts screaming first, strange, because Little Red is the fussier one, but Princess has the bigger appetite and loves to eat, evident by those chubby cheeks she's sporting lately.

If I'm awake enough to balance two babies on the twin nursing pillow that's the route we take, if not, I listen to one scream while I feed the other, by the end I AM awake. Peanut and Walnut have usually woken up by now and have learned that I'm attached to babies at this hour so they skip me altogether and head straight downstairs to scrounge their own breakfast. Usually they do alright, a breakfast bar, yogurt, occasionally a cookie or bag of chips I left out, whatever, chips are made of a vegetable aren't they? If I'm lucky they only spill the milk on the kitchen tile instead of on the carpet. By the time I do make my way downstairs, I spot a problem right away, Walnut's discarded diaper at the top of the stairs. Yep, sure enough a bare bottomed Walnut greats me, dirt in both hands from my plant (a habit I thought he'd outgrown). I mop up the milk, vacuum the dirt, put a clean diaper on Walnut, backwards this time so he can't get it off so easily, and shove something in my mouth for breakfast, yesterday it was gummy bears and leftover meatloaf. I try to empty the dishwasher while tuning out Little Red's screams, my mind is successful, my body is not, I'm leaking milk all over! I stop to pump, side note here: Did you know I can pump two 8oz bottles in under five minutes? I hear that's pretty good, it's definitely good for me because Walnut is naked again. This time I secure his diaper with duct tape, man is that stuff sticky. I finally have the boys dressed, a load of laundry going and the babies fed. I try to entertain the boys by putting on our latest DVD purchase Shrek 2, but they seem far more interested in the babies in their swing and bouncer. It's all I can do to keep Peanut from bouncing his little sister right out of the bucket. Little Red doesn't fair much better in his swing, if Walnut gets his way Red will be flung somewhere into next week!


Poor Little Red, his beautiful red hair all slimy from repeated kisses from his slobbering brothers. A knock at the front door quickly reminds me that I have forgotten to dress myself, I run upstairs and throw something on while Peanut announces to whoever at the door that his "mommy is putting some clothes on, since she only had her underwear on" thanks Peanut, just what I want the neighbors to know at one o'clock in the afternoon! It's only my neighbor, she's a regular visitor and so, used to my chaos. I consider it a successful visit, Little Red only threw up on her once. I'm upstairs nursing again, when Walnut makes his grand entrance, naked once again, only this time he's screaming because the duct tape is stuck in his hair, it's this scene that distracts me momentarily to the fact that Walnut's diaper was not empty this time...AAGH!...were is it? I jump up ignorant to the fact that I have two babies attached and run to Walnut before he does any more damage. It's not too bad, nothing an hour of so of scrubbing won't fix. Somewhere around 3pm Peanut complains that he's hungry, whoops I forgot to feed them again. "What do you want?" I ask, "peanut butter and jelly" he answers. At least it's fast. I try to squeeze in some carrot sticks and a little applesauce but, hey they had potato chips for breakfast, anything is an improvement, right? Little Red is screaming again, I can almost tune it out, it's kind of like obnoxious background music.

It's at this point I make my daily call to the One Who Works, "exactly how many minutes until you'll be home?" The rest of the evening is a whirlwind of fixing dinner, nursing, baths, and stories. If I'm lucky I'll get 30 minutes of peace and quiet before Princess wakes up to be topped off, Little Red quickly follows, never one to miss an opportunity to scream. It's not so bad, I don't have to do it again for another five to six hours at least....I hope.

Blessed

On Sunday we blessed our twins. It was a wonderful experience, The One Who Works did a great job, blessing our little babies with all our hopes and dreams for their lives. The babies were so good, I'm always a little nervous on blessing day, the combination of white blessing outfits and mustard colored baby poop always keeps me on my toes, but no worries this year, the babies and the clothes came out beautifully. Little Red wore a simple little white outfit that his brothers had been blessed in. Princess on the other hand had an elaborate dress, a giant bow and all the matching jewelry I could find...I probably went a little over the top but I don't care, I think she looked beautiful.
After church we had a get together here at our house, it wasn't small, I think all of our family came. Thank you to all who attended, especially those of you who traveled so far, it meant the world to us to have you here to celebrate. I know it was a little cramped especially during the rain storm, nothing like cramming 45 adults and 29 kids into the kitchen, but we did it. Lastly, a huge THANK YOU to my parents who stayed late and cleaned my house to pre-party perfection. My dad actually vacuumed all my floors while I sat and nursed, can you believe it? I didn't even know he knew how to operate a vacuum!