Outtakes.

These boys. So cute I could just melt.

Hey Girl. Nice to meet you.

So this week is VERY special, because TWO of our best friend couples are having baby girls. We have all been friends for years and years, and it is so exciting welcoming all these babies at once! J and E are welcoming Baby Sweetums, and C and K are about to meet Miss Sweetie Pie. 

So, without further ado, a little hello from the boys to the girls. 

"Good Morning To You"

Well, I'm off to work. Just in time. I also would've had that scared-to-death look that Max had if Laura held me up and sang that frighteningly cheerful "Good Morning To You.... All In Our Places with Bright Shiny Faces" song. His expression was clear: so this is purgatory.

lol. what a cutie. off to the insanity of the office, good bye real world....

<< Enter Laura >>

14 weeks, cute as can be.

It's 4am and I'm sitting with Max while he enjoys a room-temperature bottle. YUM.

Andrew asked me last night, "So how are they? I mean, I know how they're sleeping, but what about the other 18 hours of the day?"

I kind of just replied with, "Well, they're good. Very happy, not doing anything new..." which is 100% true.  As babies go, they're super easy. Just like Mo and Claire were at this age, the boys require almost no soothing apart from the "I'm very sorry you had to wait five minutes while Mama was in the bathroom" soothing. They're good nappers and spend most of the day traveling around the house in their little rockers, snoozing and observing the goings-on.

I think they're about 15 pounds each now, and getting very chubby. Our nursing/formula ratio is about 50/50, which is fine, I guess. I'd like to be nursing more, and I suppose it's close to 70/30 on some days, but for the most part it's 50/50. My goal was 12 weeks, so I can't complain too much. Nursing two is a killer, so I'm not being too hard on myself.

They still seem identical, which is...neat? I had no idea how connected two people can be. It's mostly bizarre. We knew that they were super connected from conception, just due to their identical growth, which is rare even for identical twins. Even at 3.5 months they still seem as aware of each other as they do of Mama, and it's really cool to put them on the floor together and watch them turn and grab each other and hang on to one another. They're like little magnets.

At this point it would appear that their eyes are going to be blue, which would make it about a 99% chance that they're truly ID. I only reserve a little hesitation because our babies all look so similar anyway and I see a lot of physical differences being their primary caregiver. This week I've mixed them up three times, but that's actually a LOT for me...

I'm going to come back in a bit and update on each of the girls, but I'd like to get this posted first and snuggle with my sleeping husband for 45 minutes or so!

A New Way to Blog

I can never finish a post these days, am I'm more likely to post to Facebook because it's fast. SO, I'm going to leave my blog post up all day and just add a line here and there as the day progresses, and then post when I have enough. Genius.

Claire is on the cusp of potty training. I'm not terribly thrilled about it, as I'd rather do that around 3, but I can tell she's ready to start using a potty. The thought of listening to the twins yell for me as I sit next to Claire and ask, "Are you going pee-pee?!" makes my brain swell. ugh.

Today I'm just hanging out at home with the four little ones. Andrew took my car, which is fine. Whatever. I have nowhere to go. I don't really want to go to my MOMS meeting tomorrow, either, but t-shirt orders are due tomorrow, so we'll be making the trip in. So I'm enjoying hanging out in my jammies and sorting baby clothes today. So super fun. I also get to research attic insulation. Am I lucky or what?!




Okay, that was yesterday. Clearly this whole blogging thing isn't going to go as planned.

No Chinese buyers for Fisker?

Who the heck cares.

Lucy and I went fishing at the pond and it was a smash hit! 7 yellow-bellied sunfish (big ones! and, well, little ones with big fight in 'em) and three (3) bass! Love my little fisherwoman. She put the worms on the hook, cast, reeled, sunk hooks, yelled "fish on" when the bobber went under and pulled a couple in even w/o bobbers just "feeling it" and "watching the rod bend". She handled the fish, learned about spiky spinal fins and how to handle those and really enjoyed throwing them back (probably, um, a little too much. She has a future in discus).

First of 7 fiesty yellow-bellied fighters!

A house on the lake, er, well, pond :-)

Lucy's first bass from the pond. 

Overcast day, perfect for fishing um, until the rain started and we booked it home. :-P

Best part of fishing on a colder, cloudy day.... cuddling with dad!

Knocked OUT

Max knocked out! Both boys started giggling today! Woohoo! God bless 3 months!

Grandpa's In Town!

This guy...Grandpa flew in last Tuesday and boy are we happy to see him! He's just a bottle-feeding, baby-burping, toddler-wiping, house-cleaning, twin-bathing, light-hanging, table-clearing, Grace-saying, song-singing, kid-walking fella! He swoops in (much like his wife; they're swoopers, those two!) and bounces the kids and fixes things and keeps me sane. We so love having him here, and we only have one week left! Tonight we took the kiddies out for dinner, which was a delight. Tomorrow it sounds like Andrew has a quick meeting followed by a sick day, so he'll be home watching the smoke at the Vatican with us.
Here are a few pics! So many happy things happening around this place.

Who needs fish?

When you have Grandpa and a ton of ducks to feed???

Daddy in the back!

When company comes; we run out of seats and dad sits with the troops! On the way to Lowes o a rainy Saturday morning!

4:16am

Like clockwork, somebody starts to squirm at 4am. One of them is nursing already, but once he hears his brother asking for a bottle, his eyes open, too. If I get to open eyes, I haven't moved fast enough. Now I'm in bed with two babies who are awake aand dressed alike, so it's really anybody's guess as to which one is which. Daddy dressed them before bed and then conveniently departed for the couch around 2am. Hm. What a trickster. Normally I'd call the house phone and let it ring once, signaling my need for an extra set of hands, and he'd pop right over. But today is Saturday, and he graciously allows me to sleep in on Saturdays, knowing that Saturday morning is the only chance I get to sleep longer than an hour and a half at a time. That's fine, really. He and I have very different sleep needs. He has to get out there and provide for this pack and is the type who needs more sleep. I can stumble around in the morning and cancel plans when I'm overtired, and taking one morning a week to recover seems to be adequate. I will say, though, I LIVE for my Saturday morning sleep these days! There are some nights during the week where, while I'm prying my eyes open to care for the boys, I calculate the number of hours left until my special Saturday rest. And now it's almost here!!! And the kids love their Saturday mornings with their Papa, so it's a win all-around. How lucky I am to have such a generous husband. He'd sit up with them every night if I asked that of him, but I like knowing that he's getting a little more rest and heading off to work feeling as good as best he can, under the circumstances. There are definitely nights where I just can't get by with my two hands and have to summon the Daddy, but I try to make it as rare as I can. I do, after all, have the lactational advantage here.

Here's a picture of what's happening right now. I'm about 75% certain that Max is closest to the camera in this one. Look at that little hand under brother's head. So precious. I just love these little fellas.

Well, I'm off to say some prayers and chat with the Lord. An excellent time to visit.

A few little pictures.