Sickness - Then, and Now

It was much easier being sick before Gracie and Luke. We could sleep for hours on end and heal. We could be lame and selfish while we were getting better. Now, we have Twinsies who get sick too and they don't sleep! They wake up when they are sick and they cry until someone holds them or fixes their sickie-poo-ness.

Both Gracie and Luke have ear infections. This is Gracie's second ear infection in 4 weeks. They wake up multiple times during the night crying and not knowing what they want to help them feel better. They are both on antibiotics and are sick and tired of taking medicine.

At the same time, Ed and I are sick too. Ed coughs most of the night (maybe why the Twinsies wake up as much as they do) and I can't sleep because I keep waiting for Gracie and Luke to start crying. I'm exhausted and I can feel myself getting sicker by the second. I am really worried about what will happen if I get really sick. I can't imagine what will happen then!

Halloween...Maybe Next Year

I think the sickness and the teething were too much for Gracie and Luke. They did not want to be dressed up, they did not want to be in their wagon. All they wanted (sorry, Nana) was chicken nuggets and to go home.

As a result, we were back at home by 7 pm. Gracie was asleep and Lukie tried to stay awake as long as he could. He lasted until 7:30 pm. Now, everyone's asleep and I am sitting here watching television. No trick or treaters (where are they, by the way?). Just me, my lap top, and the blog. Can you tell I've been busy?

The good news in all of this is that their costumes are size 12 - 24 months. Most likely, they'll still fit next year. Thank goodness! I spent good money on them!

I'll post the 2 whole pictures I have of the Twinsies in their costumes tomorrow. I'm off to bed. I might as well take advantage!

Teething - The Follow Up

Turns out it isn't just Lukie's teeth bothering him. He has an ear infection.

Thanks, Gracie. Thanks a lot.

Well, No Wonder!

Crankiness, crying, screaming, waking up every few hours...

It's been our life for the past few weeks. I knew the babies would be going through some sleep changes about this time, but it has been so extreme that there have been nights when I have only had 3.5 hours of sleep. When you have to go to work in the morning, that's not good.

Well, a couple of days ago, I had Luke on my lap and was giving him his Tylenol (a.k.a. baby candy - but that's another post). I noticed a strange white thing in the back of his mouth. I convinced him (I use the term loosely) to let me stick a finger into his mouth and feel around his gums. Lo and behold, I felt one, then two, then three bumps! Luke has 3 new molars coming in! No wonder he has been so sad and cranky.

Since I figured out why Luke was so upset, I decided to check Gracie's mouth. This is easier said than done. She has an iron jaw. I did manage to see one new tooth next to her existing bottom teeth and (yep!) a molar.

So our official tooth count has gone from Luke - 8 and Gracie - 7 to Luke - 11 and Gracie - 9. That's a ton of teeth! Our friend, Jackson D. only has 2 teeth. Personally, I think he's planning to grow them all at once so that his Mommy only has to go through teething once.

I don't know if I am jealous about that or not.

Our first incident report

Gracie has a permanent record.

It isn't her fault! Apparently, a little boy at Day Care decided to take a swat at her. She now has a mark on her face. No biggie! She doesn't even notice it is there. I only notice it because, hey, I'm her Mommy.

(see, it's there under her left eye - her left, not yours!)

The nice thing is that when Ed arrived to pick up the babies yesterday, the head teacher had a Boo-boo report for him to read and sign. Not only did he sign that he read it, but the parents of the little boy who hurt Gracie have to sign that he did it. I love accountability!

Well, I will until we have to sign a report about something Gracie or Luke did. Grrrrr.

Way Back When-sday!

There are several Mommy Blogs out there that participate in Way Back When-sday. They select a picture from the year or several years before to share on that particular date. I have decided to participate!

I know I posted a few of these pics on the Pumpkin Patch slide show, but they are so cute, I can't resist.

Date: October 2007

Another Halloween outfit...(these are 0-3 months and they were still in Newborn and smaller sizes)

Gracie hardly fit in the 0-3 months onesie!

I love this look on Lukie's face!

Nutty Auntie Ten Ten

I was deleting emails from my inbox and came across an email Auntie Ten Ten sent me a few weeks ago. She's pregnant right now, so it explains some of her nuttiness. Here's what she wrote:

When I can't sleep I usually think of numbers. So last night I was lying in bed waiting to go to sleep and I thought of this.

If you add up the ages of the youngest grandchildren you'll get Hailey's age (sorry Nate just touched the Italic button)! Of course, this only works if you count the twins once. And since they share the same birthday I guess it all works out.

Bianca - 5
Brandon - 3
Nathan - 2
Gracie & Luke - 1
= Hailey - 11

Oh, that nutty Auntie Ten Ten! What will she come up with next! Hey! I wonder if this means the baby is trying to do math? Maybe it will be a Super Mathy Genius!

Faster than a speeding bullet!

As the Twinsies get older, I am stunned by how quickly they develop new skills. Their powers of deduction are really starting to worry me. Any day now, they are going to figure out how to drive a car and then we will really be in trouble!

They've figured out how to get on top of their table, how to use their Kangaroo Climber to get up high enough to reach over the baby gate. They've reasoned out how to set boxes on top of one another so that they could reach some things they wanted up high. Today, they figured out how to stand on their tippy toes and reach the door handle to the front door. Eddie was stunned to see that they could not only reach it, but they figured out how to move the handle so that they could open the door!

More things they have figured out:

1) how to squeeze under the jogging stroller to get down the front stairs

2) how to lift the Super Gate so that they can get into "No Man's Land" a.k.a. my work area.

3) how to knock over their bear friend and release the Cheerios in the morning.

4) how to escape from highchairs

5) how to escape from their carseats

6) how to plug up the drain so that their bath water will stay in the tub

For crying out loud! They are not even 14 months old yet!

See? I really need to get a new Club for the steering wheel.

Hitting, biting, and stealing...Oh, My!

According to Baby Center, a 13 month - 4 week old toddler is due for some pretty strange behavior. "Due?" We've been experiencing the behaviors for the past two weeks or so!

Suddenly, Gracie and Luke are hitting each other, hitting us, biting one another, biting their toys (I'll admit, that makes me laugh!). They've been steeling toys from one another more and more often, just about as often as they steal binkies from one another. It is truly frustrating. They used to play together so well and now-a-days 50% of the time they are stealing things from each other and crying. Often, we end up with one or more babies falling into our laps crying hysterically because a sibling has stolen a toy and/or hit them.

According to the article I read, this is all normal for their age. They don't see the other as a person with feelings, rather as an object to explore. They don't mean to hurt another person, they just want the toy or binky right now! The article recommends pillow fights, PlayDough, and splashing in puddles to get some of that craziness out. I'm going shopping for baby pillows tomorrow! I wonder if I should buy some PlayDough, too? Wait, Aunt Becca ate PlayDough when she was little.

Uh, maybe not. I do not want to see the diaper surprises after that. Yuck. Fun times!

Twinsie Twister

I am up every morning at 5:10 am...that is, if the Twinsies don't wake me up first!

Each night, we go to bed with Gracie and Luke in their Pack-N-Plays in our bedroom. By 2 or 3 am, they have made their way into bed with us. One baby is not that big of a deal. Our bed is pretty big now so one baby has a lot of room to migrate across. Two babies are a little more complicated logistically. Usually, we are okay. Then again, there are mornings when we are not. One baby, usually Gracie, will wake up and start crawling around. She'll crawl over her brother, sit on his face, hit his head to wake him up. All this is done in a pitch black room. How she finds him is a mystery to us all!

During the last few days, Luke has been waking up first. I have no idea what is triggering it, but he is awake and ready to go by 5:30 am at the latest. This morning, he woke up and started moving around a bit. I, unsuccessfully, tried to get my clothes and get out of the room before he woke up completely. The next thing I knew, Gracie started screaming at the top of her lungs. When I turned on the light, I saw their version of Twinsie Twister: Luke laying on top of Gracie, her arms tangled in his legs. It was pretty funny and I wished I had a camera! Unfortunately, when the light went on, Luke sat up (on Gracie's head) and started bouncing up and down because I was awake.

Gosh, I wish I had my camera!

Pumpkins!

All day, I have been remembering how different this day was last year. When we went to the Pumpkin Patch at Cal Poly, the babies were just a month and a half old. Their newborn size clothes were so big that Gracie's pants fell off when I picked her up off the bed! We held them and they were the least of our worries in pictures.

Flash forward today. Gracie and Luke are wearing size 12 months Halloween shirts that are a little big, but not too big. They wear tennis shoes. They rode to the Pumpkin Patch in their new Radio Flyer wagon and waited excitedly as I detached their lap belts so I could put them on the ground. They had a grand time getting filthy dirty in the Pumpkin Patch.

Pumpkins, it seems, are wonderful substitutes for drums. Luke loved using the pumpkins as a bongo. Gracie enjoyed picking up dirt and rocks for a mid-day snack. (Luckily, I caught her before she tried to swallow any.) The rotten pumpkins apparently have magnets in them that draw little children to them. Luke managed to get rotten pumpkin all over his clothes and onto mine.

For some reason, they don't like having their pictures taken lately. I can't seem to get both of them to look at the camera at the same time. Anyone have any suggestions?