When You Say Milwaukee, You've Said it All

We got these shirts from a friend when the kiddos were born. They crack me up.
We got a replacement piece for our camera and realized another piece is broken, so it's still not fixed. My video camera takes pictures in a weird format. I have limited photo editing skills and can't figure out how to flip the photos and save them in a format that I can re-open.

There's No Place Like Home

Some days I lay the kids down for a nap, look at my family room, and wonder what the hell happened. They aren't even mobile yet. I know it's just going to get worse, but we're having fun while it happens.

Here's Lookin' at You, Kid

There is entirely too much cuteness looking up at me here.

Wild Turkey

No, I haven't resorted to the bottle yet. We had turkeys moseying through our backyard this morning when we were leaving for church. These are one of the animals we don't see often in our yard. In fact, I've only seen them one other time. It's too bad Arya and Eiley were in their car seats already because they are really into animals right now. I would have loved to see their reaction to the turkeys.I was holding both girls this afternoon. As I picked them up I thought I smelled poop. I walked over to Cork and started to ask him if he could sniff Eiley's butt and tell me if she'd pooped. Half way through I started to crack up since I couldn't believe that I was seriously asking him to sniff her butt for me. The kid had four massive poops today, so I shouldn't have needed him to smell her. I should have just assumed she was pooping again. Our conversations have really changed around here. A year ago I don't think I could have gotten away with asking him to sniff someone's butt because the butt in question would have been mine.

Bohemian Like Me

The kiddos cousins came for a short visit yesterday. The three year old decorated Eiley. The bib, hat, wrist rattles and the bow she's holding were all her cousins idea. I'll be the first to admit that I can put the kids in odd outfits, but I took everything off of her once her cousin had left.
My parents watched the kiddos today and Cork and I took off for lunch. We had a great time. We spent a small portion of our meal listening to the train wreck of a family next to us spout off empty threats to their children. After one "I'm going to take you out and leave you in the car," I laughed and told Cork I'd like to see her actually do it. Even though they were offering us some entertainment, I would have been really happy if the lady had taken the kid out and stayed out with her as the parents behavior was just as bad as the kids.

We Wear Short Shorts

Ok, so they aren't shorts, but their shirts today are actually dresses. I love the dresses and they are way too short to wear as a dress. The kids fit them when we got them at Christmas and had grown out of them within a week or two when they hit a huge growth spurt. The arm length is still good and their skinny bodies fit well, so I figured we could throw some pants underneath and they would be just fine as long shirts. I like the thought of recycling clothes since we go through so many.When we left for the gym Arya was wearing white socks with pink and Eiley was wearing pink socks with white. I usually wouldn't remember what socks they were wearing except for the fact that they were opposites today. I picked them up from the gym day care and the workers were laughing at me because Eiley was wearing one pink sock with white and one white sock with green. I was sure she had left the house with matching socks. I promised them we'd left the house with matching socks. They didn't believe me. I got to the car and found the missing pink sock laying next to where Eiley had sat on the way to the gym. I figure the white sock with green had been left in her car seat yesterday and someone at the gym found it, put it on, and assumed I had dressed her like that this morning. It was nice to find out that I actually am not losing my mind yet.

Big Gulp

I bought these straw cups for the kiddos this week. They have to bite down on the straw too open it up to drink out of it. Eiley figured it out right away. Arya is still working on it. She gets it some times and other times just gets mad and yells at it. They both think drinking water is great fun. If they are getting bored and I'm in the middle of something I just have to give them these cups and they are occupied for a little longer.

Sugar and Spice and Things Not So Nice

I know some people love bows on their bald little girls. Around here the girls won't wear bows, head bands or anything like that until they actually have the hair to hold them in. The way I see it, the girls look just as ridiculous with this on their heads as I do.

On a side note, my camera broke last night. I have to take pics with my video camera until we get it fixed.

Bonus: Caddyshack

Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

Take a closer look!

My first born gave us our first bath time Baby Ruth tonight. So sweet of her.

Black Eyed Pea

I gave Arya a mini-shiner yesterday. Poor kid. I picked her up from her crib after a nap. I'm not sure what happened, but she went flying out of my hands. She was barely off the crib mattress and sort of spun out of my hands. She would have been fine except she hit her jungle music thing on the way down. She's a tough little girl and barely cried. I felt horrible and still do, but I've been calling her Shiner since it happened. I kind of like the nickname and it may stick. I couldn't get a good picture of the bruise. She has one on her right eyelid that's covered by her lashes here and one on her right cheek.

Twinfinity and Beyond

A boy at my gym, who is probably about 4, looked at me today and said, "You have too much babies." After chuckling, I told him that I am okay and have the right amount of babies. "No," he said, "you can't carry them." He said this as I'm holding both car seats. I tell him that I'm carrying them both right now and his response was "But you can't hold them over your head." While he is right and I can't hold both kids over my head in their car seats at the same time, I don't think that means I have "too much babies". I do get all sorts of odd comments from people in public.

I got the following from a website I periodically go to. I have personally heard more than one of the things on this list.

The Top 15 Stupid Things People Say to Parents of Twins:
15. "I could never do that."
14. "Do they have different personalities?"
13. Said by a stranger, "They're identical, right?" Mom answers, "No. They're fraternal." Stranger response, "They are NOT!"
12. "Are they 'paternal' twins?"
11. "Just wait till they are older. It only gets harder."
10. "When on cries, does he wake the other?"
9. From a perfect stranger: "Were they in the same sac?"
8. "Are they developmentally behind?"
7. "How do you do it?"
6. Said by a dentist: "I was shocked they didn't have the same bite patterns."
5. "You must be SO busy."
4. Said to a mom of fraternal twins are are different sizes, have different eye color and different face structure: "How do you tell them apart?"
3. "What do you do when they both cry at the same time?"
2. Said to a mom of boy/girl twins: "Are they identical?"
1. After a stranger had been informed that toddler boys were twins, she asked a simple questions: "Are they brothers?"

Adult Proof Toys

We went to a baptism today that was at a service an hour later than the one we usually attend. That gave us some extra time to kill this morning. Cork and I were playing with this toy and quickly found out that it had been adult proofed. There is a setting where each leg will make the sound of a different letter. The toy will not play A and S right in a row. It will not play F and then C or F and then K. There are a few words it shouldn't do that it sort of pronounces, but basically the manufacturer took all the adult fun out of this child's toy. All they left was the repetition a parent has to listen to. If a parent has to listen to the same thing over and over and over again, the toy should at least have a parent setting in which we can make it swear if we want.

A Successful Failure

As a parent, sometimes you fail at things. I fed the kids peas and carrots at lunch. I cleaned them up and moved them into the family room to play. Shortly after, I saw Arya's face and my epic failure.

Boobs of Steel

Arya and Eiley went from 10:00 pm until 4:30 am last night without eating. They started sleeping well like this within the past week. I'm not up every hour re-swaddling or plugging pacers and they aren't demanding to eat every 3-4 hours.

Their new sleep habit is giving me boobs of steel by the time they eat. My boobs go from normal sized to looking like I've had a bad implant job overnight. I've got boobs up to my throat and in my arm pits. I'm tempted to buy a push up bra, dress up like Pamela Anderson and take a picture. I was thinking yesterday morning that it's too bad milk doesn't fill up my abs. It would be nice to go to the gym in the morning with abs of steel.

My left side tends to produce more milk. Usually, the kids switch the side they eat from every day. I try to do this switch during the first night feeding. Of course, there are nights when I get all confused and can't remember who should be where. Arya just spent two days on my left side. She eats less than Eiley and it produces more. The end result was a really bad looking flat tire on one side. One of my former neighbors had a boob job about 20 years ago. One of them popped last year and she now has a flat tire. She can't afford to fix the thing and hasn't had any luck convincing a doctor to do the surgery for free. I think she must stuff her bra as the flat tire isn't as noticeable, when she comes around, as it once was. Luckily I can even myself out by pumping or usually just by putting Eiley on that side, so I don't have to stuff my bra to not walk around lopsided.

Heaven Has One More Angel Tonight

Today I was going to post something entirely different. I wrote a draft while the kids napped and just needed to take a picture to go along with it.

At 5:04 this afternoon I called one of my really good friends as she'd called but had not left a message. She answered the phone and I immediately knew something was wrong. She is 20 weeks pregnant and found out at her ultrasound today that her daughter's heart is no longer beating. Anything else I could post seems so insignificant compared to the loss of her daughter.

Tonight I held my little girls tighter and gave them an extra kiss before bed.

Galway Girls

Today was absolutely gorgeous! The three of us hung out in the back yard with our two cats. The kids were giggling watching the cats rub against my legs and rolling on the cement patio.

Arya celebrated St. Patricks Day by drinking too much and throwing up on Sikozu (the cat). It's too bad I didn't get a shot of that. I wonder how many other people celebrated St. Patricks Day the same way.

Bonus: Choppin' Broccoli

I cooked up some broccoli yesterday and gave it to the kids today. I have to admit that I did it more for myself than for them. I wanted to see their reaction. They both hated it! It was pretty funny to watch. We'll be trying it again and again to see if they really don't like it or if they just don't like that it's new.

It's 3:00 am, Do You Know Where Your Kids Are

I know where my kids were at 3:00 am and it wasn't asleep in their cribs. They are sleeping so much better in the past week than they ever have before. Even so, nights can still be rough.

Anyone else see the similarity between my 3:00 am picture and Eiley's broccoli picture. LOL!

Young Einstein

So, we left the tag on the Baby Einstein jumper. At first I didn't even realize it was there. After a while, Arya and Eiley would reach toward it, so we left it. Today, I was doing laundry and left Eiley in the jumper. I came back into the room, picked her up and noticed blue stuff all over her face. I looked down at the tag to see that she could now reach it and had gnawed on it. Yum! The tag has now been removed...If you click on her picture, you can see the flecks of blue much better.

What Time is it Mr. Fox?

I've heard from other parents that it's hard for kids to adjust to time changes. This may be true for some kids, but Arya and Eiley have had no problems with the two changes they've experienced in their short lives. They went to bed at 7:00 old time last night and were up at 7:00 new time this morning, which is their usual time. Arya was so tired by the end of the day that she was passed out in her highchair by 6:50.

I think Cork may have worn her out this afternoon. I had a great day! I was out with a friend for 3.5 hours this afternoon. I think that may be the longest I've been without the kids since they were born. I got home and both kids were both happy and alive, so he must have done an amazing job. They slept some while I was gone, so he got some things done around the house. To top it off, Cork made dinner while I bathed the kids and cleaned up while I nursed them before bed. All in all, a great day!

Love Actually

These two little ones love each other so much. They are seven months today and spend most of their waking hours playing and taking each other in. It's so much fun to watch them giggle at each other and have conversations back and forth. Arya will make a bunch of noises, pause, and then Eiley takes her turn. They are beginning to entertain each other enough that they don't always notice when I walk away. They still have their rough days. Two days ago I wore Eiley on my back and Arya on my front to try to calm them down. All in all, we're having a lot of fun. Cork and I love watching our two little miracles and all the things they can do.

Today they are sporting their tie-dye shirts from their Aunt Misti. I thought the shirts were appropriate as we're in Madison with all the hippies.

X Marks the Spot

Arya and Eiley were born seven months ago tomorrow. Arya was 18" and Eiley was 18.5" long. The X in each picture marks that length. They've grown so much! Someone I know had twins recently. I was looking at pictures she posted this morning on Facebook and I couldn't believe that both of her boys are bigger than the girls were. I barely remember them that small.

The Proof is in the Pathology Report

I finally got my hands on the pathology report from the girls' placenta. The report states that the kiddos are monochorionic diamniotic. Monochorionic means that there is one placenta. Diamniotic means there were two gestational sacs. Usually this is abbreviated as mono/di. Almost all mono/di twins are identical. There are times when two placentas can be close enough to fuse. If two placentas had fused, this would not tell us if the kiddos were identical as both identical and fraternal twins can have fused placentas. The report would say the placenta was actually di/di if it was obvious two placentas had fused.

The girls appeared to be in one large gestational sac with a very thin divider. This alone made us pretty sure that they were identical as fraternal twins are more likely to have two distinct sacs. One doctor put doubt in our minds during an ultrasound because he was not convinced they were identical. I should not have let him influence me as neither Cork nor I were happy with the care he provided. After our one and only appointment with him, I called the hospital to ensure that I would never have another appointment with him. Even so, it was hard to ignore some of the things he said during the ultrasound. This pathology report proves him wrong, especially because it also states that the "specimen" may actually be monochorionic, monoamniotic. Mono/mono twins are always identical. Mono/mono twins share both a placenta and an amniotic sac.

We had so many ultrasounds during the pregnancy. By the end we were having an ultrasound once per week. We were traveling all over the city going to different locations since the ultrasounds had to be on a certain day and we didn't have much of a choice in availability. More than one ultrasound tech told us the girls were probably identical. When one of them was looking at where the umbilical cords inserted into the placenta, she stated that if they'd separated a day later they probably would be mono/mono. Identical twins can separate at three different stages of early development. If they separate from day one to three, they will have two sacs and two placentas. Days four through eight they will share a placenta, but have separate sacs. Days eight through twelve they will share a placenta and a sac (mono/mono). I'm so glad the girls were not mono/mono as they brings a whole other set of hazards, including cord accidents. The rate of complications with mono/mono twins is much higher than mono/di or di/di. Hospitalization prior to delivery of mono/mono twins is almost mandatory.

Poop Capades

How do you ensure that your child, who hasn't pooped in days, will finally empty her bowels? There are a few ways, each ensuring she will also shoot the poop out of her diaper and onto her clothes.
1) Put her in a new cute outfit
2) Throw a load of baby laundry into the wash

Today was scenario one. Eiley was wearing this purple outfit for the first time. I picked her up after a nap and smelled her because I thought their room smelled a little like poo. I really need to learn to not take a huge whiff when trying to determine if they've pooped. Wow! They really can stink. She was immediately put in the tub. I think I need to buy a spatula to keep in the tub so I can scrape poop off of their backs when they do this. I hate scooping it off with my hands.

Applesauce Applesauce

Arya and Eiley were super tired today, so I figured I'd try laying them down awake and unswaddled. I was so happy to see them a few minutes later completely knocked out and even more impressed to see they didn't have their pacifiers. My victory was short lived as they only slept about 30 minutes and were not willing to nap again. I tried and tried, but by the end of the day they were super grouchy. I swaddled them and laid them in the play mat (jail) so I could start cooking dinner. They thought it was fun at first, but quickly were yelling to be let out.


When my youngest siblings and I were little, we had a Wheel of Fortune computer game. We loved to get the dos boot up disks out and get the game going. During the game, a red headed Vanna would clap and the word "applause" would flash on the screen. My little brother would always says "applesauce applesauce" and we would all clap along with Vanna. I didn't realize it at the time, but he was misreading applause and just went along with his version. To this day I still think "applesauce applesauce" as I clap.

We usually try to eat dinner all together, but some nights are more challenging than others. Tonight was one of those nights. I fed the kids some peaches as we ate. When they were done they wanted out, but we weren't done yet so we started clapping for them. They are enthralled with clapping right now. Our applesauce applesauce kept them entertained enough that we could finish dinner. Cork and I took turns eating and clapping.

Tour De Food

The amount of food I eat in a day is incredible. I eat way more now than I did when I was pregnant. I know my intake will go down soon when the girls eat more solids and less milk. Until then, I'm happily eating anything and everything I want because I'm hungry all the time. Below is what I ate today so far. I'm sure I'll snack on some grapes or something similar before I turn in for the night.
-2 bowls of cold cereal with 2% milk....I rarely eat cold cereal for breakfast and this is the first time I've had real milk on it since the kids were born.
-Slice of whole wheat banana bread
-Home made applesauce with plain yogurt and coconut
-Chicken, ham, salami and cheese sandwich on grainy bread with a disgusting amount of mayo
-Thin mint cookie
-Cup of decaf coffee with half and half
-Roasted sweet potato
-Strawberries
-Hunk of cheddar cheese
-Hard boiled egg
-Slice of whole wheat banana bread with butter
-Handful of almonds
-Apple
-Kavli cracker with peanut butter
-Chicken leg
-Mashed celery root, potatoes and carrots with green chilies
-Asparagus
-3 slices of whole wheat banana bread, one with butter

Have Your Cake and Eat it Too

I made my mom a Red Velvet cake for her birthday. This was all that was left after lunch today. The girls didn't have any, but everyone else enjoyed it. It wasn't quite as florescent as the picture makes it look.

Big Shoes to Fill

Arya has a long way to go before her feet are as big as mine. I'm sure the time will go incredibly fast. If you enlarge the picture, you can see that her second and third toes are pushed into the ground so it looks like the tips point up. I'm doing the same with my toes and didn't notice until I uploaded the pics from my camera. While she may have my weird toe flex, she definitely does not have my toes. Her toes and toe nails look like Corky's. Her toe nails also grow like Corky's, or I guess I should say that they don't grow like Corky's. I've trimmed a couple of their toe nails since the girls were born, but not all of them and none have been trimmed more than once.

This is the kind of picture a kid hates her parents taking. She filled her pants and my reward for taking this was to clean her up. That should teach me.

To Grandmother's House We Go

It's my mom's birthday today, so we loaded into the car once Cork was done with work and headed to Nana and Papa's. I kept the kids awake most of the afternoon, only allowing a quick nap, in hopes that they'd sleep instead of cry during the 80 or so minutes it takes to do the drive. My plan worked pretty well. Eiley slept most of the way, only being hysterical the last 10 minutes. Arya slept well too. She woke up and whined, but didn't do a full out tempter tantrum scream like Eiley. They went to bed much later than normal, but that was much better than the alternative of them crying for 80 minutes and me cramming myself between their car seats in the back of my Civic. Thankfully my hips didn't get too big during pregnancy and I can squeeze myself in there when I need to.

Little People, Big World

I realized today that when the Arya and Eiley look from one crib to the other, they see a lot of bars. They probably feel like they're in some sort of jail. Based on how often they yell for escape during the night, they must not enjoy their jail.They do have some fun things to look at as well. Everything looks very different from their point of view.

Mensa

Remember my brilliant children who stopped taking bottles at 3 months?

They are so smart! They know that a bottle with water is very different than a bottle with milk. A bottle with milk is something to scream about. A bottle with water is something to play with. They have a huge dilemma when they have the option between a bottle and a sippy cup with water.Okay, maybe they aren't ready for Mensa quite yet.