Huge Prayers are Needed

I wish these posts were not necessary. I wish that God did not bring heartache to families or illness to children.

Tonight, my friend, Caryn, called me to say that her brother's baby girl was born this morning at 8 am. This should be a joyous time for Brian and his wife, Jennifer, but Abigail Marie, their baby girl, was born with spina bifida, a cleft palette, and a bump on her head that contains cerebral fluid. Within minutes of being born, the doctor informed Caryn's brother that his new baby girl would never walk and that she needed to be flown to Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles for emergency surgery to close the lesion in her back.

I cannot imagine the pain and terror that Brian and Jennifer are feeling right now. They had no indication that Abigail had any of these conditions prior to her birth this morning. Abigail will be undergoing surgery tomorrow morning at 8 am. She will be only 24 hours old.

PLEASE, PLEASE keep her in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow and say a special prayer for Abigail's mommy who is still in Lompoc and cannot travel because she had a c-section this morning. Again, I cannot imagine being so far away from my brand new baby and feeling so very helpless when all I would want to do is hold her and love her.

Please pray for Abigail Marie and her family.

Free Range Twinsies

You would think that feeding growing toddlers is easy. They will eat anything you put in front of them. That used to be my kids and it still is my kids when they are with anyone other than me.

Recently, meal time has been incredibly stressful and marked with projectile apples and lots of "No, no, no!" I dread mealtimes, because nothing I make seems to entice Gracie and Luke to eat. Aunt Bec has a running theory that it isn't my food, but their chairs that have them pretty much sitting on the floor. Since they won't eat at restaurants either, I don't know if this theory holds water, but I'm willing to consider anything.

This morning, after a frustrating weekend of making french toast and having it thrown at me, grilled cheese and having it thrown at me, pasta and having it thrown at me, and peeling tangerines and having them thrown at me, I made pancakes. Pancakes were one of the first foods Gracie and Luke ate by themselves.

Remember these:



They started tugging on my nightgown almost immediately after I put the mix into the pan. So, instead of putting them in their chairs, I handed each of them a freshly made pancake and they toddled away chattering excitedly. A few minutes later, they came back asking for more pancakes. I took advantage of their hunger and handed them each another pancake. They came back one more time. Three whole pancakes!

I wonder if this means that I need to let them roam while they eat? Does being mobile while eating make the food taste better? Does it make the whole eating thing more exciting?

Help! I need some kind of hope.

Don't kid yourself. Sleep is important.

There are some children on this planet who purportedly do not have any problem taking a nap. These same mythical children can survive on little sleep and still behave as angels.

My children do not fall in this category of beings. Oh, no. They are nap-requiring, fussy-when-tired, crazy-when-exhausted, toy-throwing, food-throwing, Mommy-and-sibling-biting children. In essence, your typical almost 20 month old.

On Friday, the day care lady asked me if Gracie had been going to sleep earlier than usual. This is impossible because of her brother, but she was getting tired much earlier. Apparently, her nap time has been out of whack this week and she has hardly been sleeping. Well, no wonder! That explains some of the craziness we have had this week. This morning, she was up at 5 am and taking a hard nap by 9 am. She was out for almost 2 hours.

Luke, on the other hand, was not going to take a nap this morning, no matter what! I tried cuddling with him, giving him his binky, everything, and nothing...no nap. I managed to fall asleep (a total accident, but to be expected when you are up chasing twins at 5 am) and Luke played quietly around me. When he woke me about 20 minutes after I dozed off, I found that he had scaled the kitchen table and dumped all my papers to the floor in an effort to get to the fruit snacks. I also discovered that he had somehow unscrewed the cap on the jumbo bubble container, pulled off the heretofore untouched seal, and pulled out the massive bubble wand. All, I might add, without knocking over the container or spilling any bubble solution. When I discovered this, I had a moment of panic, but then Lukie walked over to me and handed me the bubble wand. He just wanted some bubbles!

These days, when they will not nap like they are used to, are very difficult. They don't want any of the food I make them, they don't want to play nicely, they don't want to do much of anything except all the things I don't want them to do. Add to this Luke throwing up his lunch because he was coughing too hard and you have a pretty fantastically awful day. It is days like today that I am reminded how critical their proper sleep is. When they have their naps, their full night of sleep, they are kinder, gentler Twinsies. They don't throw things nearly as often and I am much less likely to have an imprint of toddler teeth on my outer thigh.

Now, the mommies out there who have my category of toddlers are reading this and nodding in agreement. They know how awful this can be. They've had the days when they would like wine before 10:30 am or would love to have a padded room where they can leave their children for 15 minutes of peace and quiet (or maybe the padded room is really the haven they would like to seach refuge in - to each her own). The mommies of the "perfect" sleepers and non-sleepers are shaking their heads at me right now. "Clearly, Gracie and Luke's Mommy just doesn't have proper discipline of her children. If that were me, my Little Perfect Angel Jim-Bob would know I mean business!"

Seriously, those perfect mommies can take a flying leap! I want a day of peace and quiet. A day when Twinsies take their predictable nap at the predictable time. A day when I can take a shower and not feel like everyone is looking at me and wondering why I look like death warmed over. A day when my children eat the food I put in front of them and signal me when they are all done instead of chucking their apples, french toast, tangerines, etc. across the room to be found weeks later behind the television.

There is something like a month and a half left until summer vacation. I'm wondering if we will be able to have a better schedule then. Oooo! Maybe we will be back in our house so that I will indeed have that padded room for their playing pleasure instead of a teensy one bedroom apartment with no privacy and leaking bathtubs and cockroaches (yes, I found one the other day trying to crawl into our apartment).

Hey, a girl can dream!

Stacy's Dinner

I've mentioned before about my amazing colleagues making us dinner each night. This week has been amazing: spicy beef chili and cornbread, swiss steak and mashed potatoes with baby carrots, chicken noodle soup. Tonight, Stacy made dinner for us. We had lemon chicken and cous cous.

As I suspected, Gracie and Luke loved the chicken! They each ate a drumstick and a thigh all by themselves. They were a little more conservative about the cous cous. I tried to convince them it was rice, but they knew better. It may have been that the cous cous was smaller than grains of rice. Or, it may have been that it stuck to their fingers. Gracie and Luke are weird about things sticking to their fingers.

Lukie doing his Happy Food Dance

To finish off the meal, I gave Gracie and Luke their newest favorite thing ever...Danimals yogurt smoothies. I found one that has the special bacteria to help with digestion. They are both on antibiotics, so this yogurt is very important. Gracie's stomach does not do well with antibiotics. The good news is that they LOVE the yogurt.

Gracie was very upset that she was finished with her yogurt. She decided to put her extra chicken in the yogurt container.

Stacy, thank you for the very yummy dinner. We have leftovers. I can't wait for lunch tomorrow!

Angel or Devil?

This morning, Gracie's hair hinted at her true nature.

I'm seriously in love with my new design!

Normally, I wouldn't comment on this, but I am so excited about the new layout I designed that I have to say something. I've been working hard learning how to customize Gracie and Luke's blog so that it will look fun and happy. Some of my designs have been a little off, but this one is so wonderful!

I used a digital scrapbooking kit by a designer named Ellie Lash. All of her designs are so adorable and when I saw this kit, I had to have it. Gracie and Luke are in love with anything that vrooooms, whirs, or honks. All I hear in the car is "Oh, ruck!" when they see a truck. So you can see why I love this one.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Twinsies for Sale! A Poem

Twinsies for Sale
A Poem by Mommy

Twinsies for Sale! Oh, Twinsies for Sale!
Two crying and crying young Twinsies for Sale!
You may think I'm joking, but really I'm not.
They're driving me crazy, my stomach's in knots!

From morning to night,
They cry and they pout,
They throw toys, food and shoes.
Heck, sometimes, they shout!

I don't know what's happening,
They used to be fine.
If this continues much longer,
I'll have to drink some wine.

They hit and they scratch,
They hang from my clothes.
They walk around screaming
With snot streaming from their nose!

Who will buy the young Twinsies?
I'll make you a deal.
Five dollars? One?
I promise, they're a steal!

They're really a bargain.
It's like two for one.
Toddlers without being pregnant,
You could be done!

I guess I might miss them.
I, mean, heck, who would wake me up early?
Who else would make me so crazy
My hair goes curly?

Wait.........Yes, I mean it!

Twinsies for Sale! Oh, Twinsies for Sale!
Two crying and crying young Twinsies for Sale!



(apologies to Shel Silverstein for the mutilation of his poem)

Pigtails

Monday, Grandma cut Gracie's hair. It had grown to be a crazy nest and needed some shaping. It is super cute, although, her bangs are really crooked. She just would not sit still.

Today, when I picked them up from day care, I found that one of the day care ladies had created this special hairstyle for Gracie.

Who can resist that hair?

Too Cute for Words!

I'll let these pictures speak for themselves.

opening my own bag of fruit snacks



I love my brother!

A Life without Air Conditioning

Back in olden times...

Okay, that's just too hokey!

But seriously, back when I was little, we rarely had the air conditioning on. In fact, when I think of drives in my mom's cars, it wasn't until she bought the Ford Tempo that we actually had air conditioning. In the house, she had us open windows and use fans, rather than turn on the central A/C that she spent an arm and a leg for when our house was built.

With the recent heatwave (yes, it really is a heatwave in April), everywhere I go, there is air conditioning on. My classroom has it, although it sends most of the cool air to my coworker's room. My car has it. Yay! Our house has it, if we ever get to go back. Technically, our apartment has it too. However, I can't use it.

You see, we had Daddy's new TV placed on a tall dresser in the corner of the living room so that it could be seen in the kitchen. The same corner that houses the air conditioning unit. I'm pretty sure it is not a good thing to run an A/C that close to the back of a television. So, we are making due with a sliding glass door, a fan, and the door to our apartment propped open with a baby gate to keep Gracie and Luke from taking a trip outside. We are wearing fewer layers of clothes and Gracie and Luke have been wearing t-shirts and shorts to bed.

If things get really bad, I guess I will have to figure out how to move the dresser and the TV without damaging the cable connection. Then again, if pioneer women could survive wearing those awful skirts and long sleeve shirts, I can bust out the summer jammies.

Dreaming of my house with my own air conditioning,

Now I get the Twitter thing...

I won't be starting a Twitter account. I don't need anything else to obsess over and I don't have that much to say every 29 minutes.

It is, however, a good thing when you are waiting with bated breath for an update: