Travel Town USA

I've lived in Southern California all my life, but there are so many things I have no idea about.  Travel Town is one of them.  If it weren't for a birthday party we attended in early 2010, I would never know Travel Town exists in Los Angeles.

We ended up at Travel Town this trip purely because of traffic.  We had intended to go to the L.A. Zoo, but there was an accident that prevented us from getting there.  Instead, I had Daddy turn the opposite direction and we came across a parking spot just in time.

Travel Town is an amazing place designed for anyone who LOVES trains.  Oh, the trains!  Lucas was in heaven and Gracie was not far behind.  There were big trains and little trains.  Trains that had wheels bigger than Gracie and Lucas combined!  There were trains you could climb on and trains that were off limits.  There was even a train you could ride.

Can you see Lucas and Gracie?  I know it is hard because of the ENORMOUS train wheel.

Gracie loved running inside the passenger car.

Ready to be an engineer.

I think if you let them, Gracie and Lucas could spend all day at Travel Town and never get bored.

Isn't 3 1/2 years old fun?

Let's talk about potty

I've come to the conclusion that I am the reason my daughter is stressed out about the potty.  I am forever after her:
"Gracie, do you have to go potty in the toilet?  Where do you go potty?  Do you go potty on your panties?  No, where do you go potty?"

I stress her out.  There's no doubt about it.  I know this because she had a fantastic day with Abue Rosi.  In fact, Gracie and Lukie had a fantastic potty training day.  They both wore underwear (well, Lukie wore Gracie's pajama bottoms as underwear, but don't tell him that) and ran to the bathroom all by themselves.  When they are with me, they pee on the couch, on the carpet, on their clothes.  It sucks and it makes me want to put a Pull-Up on them.

Add to that my determination to teach my son to pee in the toilet sitting down.  He has horrific aim and I am not interested in scrubbing a toilet free of boy urine.  I'm just not.  I've read several opinions and almost all of them agree that boys need to be taught to pee sitting down.  Why?  Because they forget they need to sit to poop.  Can you imagine him standing to pee only to...OOPS...poop on the floor???  Unfortunately, at Abue Rosi's house, all of the males pee standing up and Lukie wants to be like them.  Personally, I think it is incredibly foul to pee standing up.  There.  I said it.  It's totally disgusting.  I can just see the pee spraying all over.  Yuck!

It isn't really a battle, at least, I don't feel like I am engaged in one.  In the end, it will all work out.  No one goes to kindergarten in diapers. 

But with my luck, Gracie and Luke will be the first.

Operation Bye-Bye Binky Commences - Day One

I can honestly say that I do not know how many binkies Gracie and Lukie have had in their short lives. We had a huge stash just in case we lost some. Remember the binky drawer?

Daddy and I decided recently that the time to say goodbye to the binkies had come. We've been planning and planning, but never really got around to ending the binky usage. Last weekend, we agreed that Friday, January 15th was as good a day as any.

Tonight, while Gracie and Luke were eating chicken nuggets, french fries, dip, and chocolate milk, I went into the kitchen and snipped off the ends of all of the binkies and placed them back inside the cupboard. I think I got all of the known binkies in our house. I can never be sure, though. Every time I think we have all of the binkies, one turns up under a bed or in a toy box. We will have to keep our eyes open for rogue binkies.

After bath time, we went through our usual routine of diapers, jammies and binkies. I set one altered binky out for each of the Twinsies and waited for them to ask for one. A few minutes later, I heard:

"My binky. I want my binky," from Luke.
"Here you go, buddy," I replied and handed it to him. I glanced over at Daddy to see his expression and we just raised our eyebrows at each other.
"My binky. I want my binky too," came from Gracie.

They each sucked on their binkies a few times, but Luke was the first to realize that something was amiss.

"Look-it!" he said. "Look-it!" He held his binky out and looked at it.
"What is it, buddy?" Daddy asked.
"Look-it, my binky!"
"Oh, no!" I said, "Your binky is broken! Oh, no!"
Gracie joined in. "Look-it! Look at my binky!"
"Is it broken, too?"
"Yes!"
"Oh, no. If it is broken, we need to throw it away."
"Throw it away?"
"Yep, we need to throw it away." I walked them over to the trash can. "Do you want to throw them away here?"
"Okay, I throw it away." And they did just that. In the next second, they asked for another one.

We went through all of the binkies in the cupboard. Gracie and Luke tested every binky we had, declaring each and every one "broken." Every "broken" binky was tossed in the trash until there were none left.

"All gone. Okay, let's go read some books," I told them.

We read Where the Wild Things Are in Spanish and a Winnie the Pooh book. Occasionally, Lukie or Gracie would say "It's broken, Mommy. My binky is broken." I would tell them they were right and that was why they put them in the trash.

When it was time to turn off the light, we had a moment when Luke refused to go to get into bed without his binky. I reminded him that they were in the trash and he told me he wanted to see them. Gracie and Lukie and I walked back to the kitchen and they opened the trash can to look at their binkies. There was another chorus of "broken" and we went back to the bedroom.

We tucked them in and Daddy settled in to sing the "Elephant Song." Forty minutes later, he came out, telling me that they were both asleep. So far, it has been an hour and a half and no sounds.

The true test will be how tomorrow and tomorrow night go.

Wish us luck!

Gracie Lu Who's Ears

2 posts in one day! What's the world coming to?! But, I couldn't let the day end without coming and making sure to chronicle this day in Gracie's life.

Gracie had her first ear infection at only 4 weeks old. Four weeks old?! Seriously. And that was only the beginning of 2 years of almost monthly ear infections. The first year, you knew when Gracie had an ear infection. She cried and hollered and was generally unhappy. By the beginning of her second year, it was as if she had accepted the fact that she was going to have to live with recurring ear infections. She gave up fighting the doctors who looked in her ears and I was always stunned when they told me she had an ear infection (as if the cloudy green goo coming out of her nose wasn't clue enough). In a way, it made me terribly sad that my little girl had learned to live with pain, of all things.

In March, Dr. A threw in the towel and decided to refer us to an ear, nose, and throat doctor. At that point, Gracie had had 6 ear infections in 6 months and had a double ear infection. Dr. A knew that if we let Gracie go much longer, she might start losing her hearing, much like happened to me when I was a toddler. Gracie's situation was made more frustrating by her allergy to the Cillian Family of antibiotics.

Dr. A referred me to Dr. B (I'm not being alphabetical, his last name really starts with a B) and it took me 3 months to get an appointment. We met him at the end of June. Gracie had just finished a 21 day antibiotic series for an ear and sinus infection. When he looked in her ears, the infection was still there. He immediately recommended ear tubes and sent off a referral.

This morning, I woke Gracie up at 5:45 am and drove her to the out patient surgery at Huntington Hospital. Somehow, having our routine differ confused the little Whoville, who a) forgot she always asks for a cracker before she says "hi" to me in the morning, and b) was giggling every time she looked at me. She was hysterical. She giggled and talked and played as we waited to be called in. She was totally at ease while we waited the 45 minutes before her surgery. She even played with a little boy, named Brandon, who at 6 months older that Gracie, was also there for ear tubes. They were adorable together!

They took Gracie and me into the pre-op room and while I answered the nurse's questions, Gracie pilfered items from the nurse's pockets and used her pen to color all over the surgery paperwork. Luckily, she did not color over anything important and the nurse was very patient with her. Before I knew it, they took my Whoville from me and she went back to have her tubes put in. The only things she had with her to keep her comfortable were her Winnie the Pooh jammies, her binky, and her puppy dog that Nana bought for her.

I went back out to the lobby to wait and, I'm not kidding, less than 15 minutes later, they told me to go back. She was already done. I did not make it to the first door before I heard an all too familiar sound: Gracie Lu Who in full tantrum. The anesthesiologist had warned me that Gracie would be disoriented and would be very angry when she first woke up. I don't think the nurses realized what disorientation would do to Gracie. She screamed and thrashed around, spit out her binky and cried for it to come back. I held her and whispered to her and replaced her binky about 20 times. Dr. B came by and told me that when he went in to do the surgery, Gracie had puss on her ear drums (we just finished our latest round of antibiotics on Friday). He still inserted the ear tubes, but prescribed ear drops to kill the infection. After about 15 minutes, the nurse shoved encouraged us to head out to our car, suggesting that Gracie might be more comfortable in familiar surroundings.

I held her, wrapped in her favorite blanket, and carried her to the car. She continued to cry and thrash around until I was able to get her into her car seat. That part was not fun. I finally got us on the road and turned on her Barney CD. By the time we got on the freeway, all sound from the back seat had ceased. When I looked in my rear view mirror, she was passed out, her head hanging forward.

She stayed asleep for 40 minutes while I drove around. Eventually, we stopped at Target to get her prescription filled (thanks, Target, for not having your pharmacy open at 9:30 am!). When I got her out of the car, she was still asleep, but by the time I put her in her stroller, she was wide awake and giggling again. And who does she ask for? Does she say "Momma!" to me? No! She asks for "Papa" and "Uckie." She then proceeded to giggle through our entire trip in the store!

After we were done, we came home and got her dressed. Because she wasn't supposed to play outside, I kept her with me today instead of letting her go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. She was very hungry, so we went out to breakfast, where she ate exactly 2 pieces of bacon and drank half a cup of chocolate milk. That's it. She kills me!

After that we headed home and kept everything calm. She watched every Barney movie known to mankind and finally passed out around 4:30 for a nap. Two hours later, it was more Barney until Daddy and Lukie arrived home.

Most of this may seem pretty boring, but to me it was a miracle. The nurses kept telling me that she would be crazy all day and she just wasn't. But the biggest miracle was this evening when we had to put the ear drops in her ears. Rather than just hold her down and put them in her ears, I showed her the bottle and demonstrated putting drops in my ears. I told her the drops would make her ears feel better and asked her to lay down. She did it without a fuss and stayed perfectly still while I put the required number of drops in each ear, followed by the requisite cotton ball. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I don't have a single picture of today. Primarily, because I can't find my camera to save my life. But also because today wasn't about pictures. It was about Gracie and helping her recover from a scary experience. She isn't even 2 and handled today beautifully. I'm so proud of my baby girl! She is already proving to be very brave!

We'll just forget how she is afraid to watch the part in Barney's Big Adventure where the boy steps in the poop, and how she crowds up next to me because it scares her.

Yeah. We'll just forget about that.

Stay at home moms RULE (or why I can't hang)

When I was little, I always imagined that when I had children, I would stay at home with them while my husband went to work. Our days would be idyllic and when my husband came home, he would strip off his tie and say, "What's for dinner, honey?" I'd have something amazing ready for him, something with beef. Maybe a pot roast. Or lamb chops. I'm not really sure. It had meat, though. And potatoes. There may have been cake. I'm not certain. That was a long time ago.

Back then, I had Caroline Ingalls as my role model. She always had dinner ready for Pa, so I figured I'd be like her. Imagine my surprise when I realized that was Hollywood and, in many cases, the mommies are the ones who work while the daddies stay at home! I never thought I would be the working Mommy and even up until Gracie and Luke were born, I held out hope that Daddy would find some miraculous career so that I could be at home with them. I would take them places, read to them, fix them yummy and healthy foods. They would do what I said all of the time and it would be Bliss!

I am dumbfounded to report that staying at home with Gracie and Luke is far from bliss. Instead, I've discovered that about once every five minutes, I'm ready to lock myself in the bathroom and cry. We don't go anywhere because neither Gracie nor Luke listen to me when we are out and about. They like to take off and keep going when I am screaming at them to stop. They are terrible listeners unless they are locked in a shopping cart and shopping is no fun (Seriously, Aunt Bec. It isn't.). I read to them sometimes, but they usually end up saying, "All done!" and start throwing toys or having a pillow fight. That, of course, is fun until someone gets hurt. The yummy and healthy foods? Well, they get milk, yogurt, bread, fruits, and green beans. But they get equal doses of crackers, Yogos, fruit snacks, and juice. They simply won't eat the food I put in front of them. More often than not, my offerings are flung at me, at the wall, at each other, or used as paint for their tables.

All of this is wearing me down. It has only been a week since day care ended for them and I'm in a constant state of wanting to run away. How do you stay at home moms do this? Some of my friends have twins the same age as Gracie and Luke and they manage to do fun field trips with fun themed weeks and fun art projects. My son ate the crayons today when I took them outside to color and when I told him that crayons were not for eating, he chucked the crayons out into the street! If I tried to do themed weeks, they would revolt! All they care about right now is cows, elephants and "Bahney." These are three words I hear no less than 100 million times a day.

So, what to do? My blissful existence is turning out to be totally less than blissful. My Twinsies refuse to do anything I tell them to and gleefully do everything I tell them not to. If I have to say "No throwing food!" one more time, I think I'll cry!

I realize I am in a critical time right now and my Making the Terrible Twos Terrific book is only making me crazier. The author is brilliant and wise. He also made me see how I am failing at this. I don't want the evil children who hit and whine and cry and throw things and run into the street. I don't! I also don't want to be the mom who only has the word "No!" as her entire vocabulary.

So, if you are a brilliant mom, one who can give me some insight and ways to keep myself from going batty, bring it on! I sense I only have a few more days left in me.

Have I mentioned we are going on a trip? In the car? Driving hundreds of miles? With almost two year olds?

I think it is time to hide in the bathroom again.

I <3 Schedules!

Schedules have always been my friend. I forget lots of things, but if it is on the schedule, I stick to it like glue.

As much as I hated the fact that Gracie and Luke had to go to day care, it gave them continuity and a SCHEDULE! Now that they are home with me, we are following the same schedule they had at day care (with early morning added for good measure):

6:30 - 7:30: Wake up and have Mommy rescue Twinsies from their room, get ready for the day and watch Barney (only the the Old MacDonald episode will do)

7:45 - 8:15ish: Breakfast

8:30: Play in room with Mommy (bug Mommy about crackers)

10:00: Morning snack and more play

11:30 or noon: Lunch

12:30 or 1:00: nap time (try to get away with asking for crackers)

2:00 - 2:30: Wake up and rock with Mommy for a while until they get bored and decide to hit brother for carrying your babydoll across the room.

2:45: water play outside

3:30: come inside because our outside is no where near as fun as the outside of day care, get out of wet clothes

3:45: chase each other through the house, pull boxes down from where they are carefully stacked, beat each other over the head with the spoons Daddy wants to sell at the yard sale, but hasn't put in a secure location

4:15: start crying for dinner because Mommy can make it and hold you at the same time

4:30: get into household products so that Mommy starts to cry from crazy Twinsies

5:00: Dinner!

5:15: Throw dinner at Mommy because it isn't what you want (Gracie) or gobble your food down so fast that Mommy doesn't have a chance to take one bite before you ask for "Mas!" (Lukie)

5:30: Get cleaned up from dinner/play a bit

6:30 - 7:00ish: Bath time and books with Daddy

7:30: Bed time

See? Schedules are fun!

Oh, there's my morning wake up call! Got to go!

It's like herding cats

The first time I heard the phrase, "It's like herding cats," it took me a few seconds to picture the idea in my head and see how it applied to the situation. Not surprisingly, it made absolute sense. Cats have their own agendas. They do what they want to do, not what you hope they'll do. Cats will sidestep you quickly if you try to direct them where you want them to go. They might even bite or swat at you if they get really annoyed.

Getting my children out the door is like herding cats. First, all they care about is food. See? Cats. I hear the word "cracker" within the first 5 minutes after they wake up. It's like clockwork.

"Good morning, my Lukiloo! How are you this morning?"
kiss. kiss. snuggle. snuggle. kiss.
"Cracka? Cracka? Cracka? Cracka?" This continues until I get up and get the requested cracker.

"Good morning, my Gracie-Lu-Who! How are you this morning?"
kiss. snuggle. kiss. kiss.
"Agua? Agua? Agua? Agua?" This continues until I get up and get the requested water.

We'll watch Barney for as long as they can while I get dressed. It is then that the herding begins.

"Okay! Diaper time. Lukie, let's change your diaper! Do you have potty? Let Mommy change your diaper. Come here! Lukie, come on. Diaper!"

I usually end up going over and picking him up. Raggs the Dog usually keeps him occupied long enough for me to get the diaper changed. Then, the process is repeated with Gracie. If there is poop in her diaper, Oh, Good Gravy! I have to chase her around the house.

"No, no, no, no! No poo poo! No poo poo!" she says as she runs from me.

Diapers changed, we move on to the next task.

"Okay! Everyone get your shoes! Get your shoes. Gracie, where are your shoes? Lukie! Shoes." This one sided conversation continues until I go across the room, sit down on the floor next to the shoe basket and choose their shoes for them. The kicker? They love to put shoes on and will do it for a half an hour while playing. But when I want them to put on the shoes, they won't!

Next, we need to make it to the stroller. The stroller is the safest way to corral wandering cats toddlers.

"Okay, let's get in the stroller."

"Cracka?" says one twin.
"Agua?" says the other twin.
"Papa?" says the first twin.

"If you want to see Papa, let's get in the stroller! Oooh! And Tio Martin and Grandma. Stroller? Stroller, where are you?!"

It starts again.

"Cracka?"

"Agua?"

"Come on, let's go!" I say in a cheerful voice.

"Beeeen? Beeeeen?" A twin falls on the floor. "Beeeeeeeeeeeeen!" the twin wails.

"Where's your binky, Lucas?"

"Beeeeee? Beeeee?" cries the other twin.

"Gracie, where's your binky?"

After 5 minutes of looking and crying, I go to the Binky Drawer. Crisis averted, twins are settled in their seats (with seatbelts...and binkies).

"Okay! Here we go!" And off we go, Twinsies leaning out the side of the stroller trying to reach walls or rip leaves off of plants.

Occasionally, we have to stop for a thrown binky or a dropped shoe, which is amazing because it is 47 steps to our car. I know. I counted. How can they manage to reak so much havoc in such a short distance?

On the days when I bravely choose to leave the stroller in the car, Lukie gets held and Gracie holds my hand (and has to be reminded to keep holding it).

Once we get to the car, I have exactly 2 minutes to get everyone strapped in and get the car turned on so Barney can sing. If not, the crying commences.

"Oh! Truck!" says Gracie, hearing the trash truck coming down the alley.

"Yes, truck," I reply distractedly, trying to strap her in.

"Ooo! Ooo!" exclaims Lukie, trying to turn around in the stroller so that he can catch a glimpse.

"Agua?" says Gracie.

"You can have some water at Grandma's house, Gracie."

"Aaaaagua?" she begins to wail.

"At Grandma's house," I sing.

"Noooooooooooo! Aaaaagua!"

"At Grandma's." I close her door and reach for Lucas.

"Ooo! Uh. Uh."

"What are you looking at Lukie?"

"Uh. Uh."

"Use your words."

"Uh." I look up and see a plane.

"Oh, an airplane. Hi, airplane!" I buckle him in and dodge the books Gracie is now throwing at me.

"Let's go!" I say and climb in. Barney turns on and off we go.

This process is repeated when we arrive at Grandma's house. Only occasionally do I have to chase one of them down the street as they go looking for the lion statues or the dogs.

Cats. It's like herding cats.

Stressed Out Toddlers

I hate Parent Teacher meetings. I hate them when I'm the teacher and I have to share concerns with parents. It is always difficult to share something I am seeing in the classroom with one or two people who aren't in the same environment with us. Some parents want to work with me. Others think I am insane. "Not my Tommy (or Julie)!"

Tuesday, I realized I hate Parent Teacher meetings when I'm the parent, too. No parent wants to hear that their child is a biter, a hitter, or suddenly wakes up crying hysterically from a nap. Imagine getting that times two! Only, for us, it is much worse than just the normal growing pains of being 21 months old.

Teacher Joanne thinks Gracie and Luke are stressed out.

My initial reactions was "What?!" Who's ever heard of toddlers being stressed out? What do they have to be anxious or stressed over? They get hugs and kisses, all the crackers they can eat, bubbles in the bath tub, tons of toys to play with, Mommy to snuggle with at night and to hold them when they are scared, Grandpa, Tio Martin, Tio Freddy, Tio Joey, and Daddy to play with them inside, outside, on the slide, Grandma to make them sopita and teach them fun new words, friends at day care, trips to the park, Barney in the morning, Barney at night, Barney in the car. I'm thinking that sounds pretty stinking fantastic to me! Where are the stressors?

Teacher Joanne went on to tell us about how Lukie wakes up screaming from naps. That never happens at home. I don't know why he does that there. She told us that he is inconsolable and will cry for me "Momma! Momma! Momma!" over and over for 30 minutes or more (Please, stab me in the heart one more time. I don't think you got me the first time). He will fling himself on the floor and cry and cry. There is no stopping him until he is ready to stop.

He's not the only one who she thinks is stressed out.

She is concerned that while Luke's emotions are over the top, Gracie's emotions are suppressed. Teacher Joanne shared with us that Gracie will try to console Lukie, petting his head, saying "Shh, shh" like I do, and when that doesn't work, she will cry out in solidarity, and then walk away when she can't help. She said that she sees Gracie wanting to share her emotions, but will hide them away so that Lukie can get the attention he needs. She worries that Gracie will continue like this and get sick from not letting out her worries/anger/fears.

You have no idea how devastating it is to have someone tell you that your toddlers need professional help. I'm at a loss. I'm not sure how to proceed.

Because here's the kicker: All these behaviors she sees at day care? We NEVER see them at home. Sure, Lukie cries when he doesn't get his way, but it's a fake cry with no tears. Distract him and it goes away. Sure, Gracie will try to console Lukie. We hug her, too and tell her Mommy/Daddy is there and everything will be okay. The waking up screaming? Never happens here. The crying for 30 minutes? Never happens here. Gracie hiding her emotions. Nope. Never happens here. In fact, she usually falls to the ground and cries when she doesn't get what she wants. Sometimes she bites, hits, or runs away, but she always expresses her frustration somehow.

Our family has been through a lot in the past 7 months. When I think of all of it and how stressed out I am from the long, frustrating list, I can understand that my emotions and exhaustion might be too much for Gracie and Luke. In fact, since Tuesday, I've been watching everything I say and do with them. But how can Teacher Joanne be sure that they themselves are "stressed out."

She suggested that I contact a therapist who does "play therapy" with children. She believes that Luke and Gracie need an outlet for their stress and play therapy might be able to help them. She thinks they are in a place where they are definitely showing some normal behaviors, but she is very concerned about the other behaviors she is seeing.

As a Mom, and a free thinking person, I'm stuck.

Honestly, I think she's off her head. I think they are two little kids whose Mommy and Daddy leave them at day care 4 days a week and they'd much rather be at home with people they know and love than at a stinkin' day care (no matter how nice it is). I think they are 21 months old and are learning that their world is bigger than they originally thought and they have little to no control over it. I think there is something else going on there that Lukie doesn't like and that is why he behaves so emotionally at day care and not at home.

But, then again, I'm their Mommy. As their Mommy, I don't want to fail them in any way. If they truly do need help, I want to get it for them. I'd do anything for them. Anything. Even if it means that I have to suck it up and call a therapist for my 21 month olds.

So, sometime next week, I am going to call my medical insurance representative and see how we go about this. How we go about getting mental health appointments for my babies. To see if we can destress them.