Newsworthy to some, Monumental to me

Lately, I've been the "one" that gets to rotate the public toilet paper dispenser to a fresh roll all over town.  I've been denied this privilege entire life.  

Now I'm ...

(You know I can't help myself)

On a roll. 

Top ten things I've grown to love since having babies

1.  Push up bras
2.  Push up bras
3.  Push up bras
4.  Push up bras
5.  Push up bras
6.  Push up bras
7.  Push up bras
8.  Push up bras
9.  Push up bras
10. Naptime

A wink to let you know I'm alive

We have had crazy madness at the house lately, I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged.  Sick babies is some craziness like I've never dreamed (because I'm not a masochist) and I'm glad we are through it.  
Today is my day off.  
I've had so many things go right today that I'm glowing like an idiot, without a care in the world and getting a pedicure while reading twilight (well, right now I'm blogging).  I got to have lunch with a friend that I never get to spend the time with that I wish I could.  Seconded by my impromptu shopping spree wherein I scored an amazing dress for $15 and a dressy top for $11 (sorry dr. J!) 

So here I am, blogging, in the dark, with only my left thumb

Truly dr j is amazing because he did most of the work last night. Lucas has his first bad cold and he can't breathe, which apparently also means he can't sleep in his bed, or a bouncy seat, nowhere except in mom or dads arms. (you will kindly remember I'm thumbing this post and be forgiving about grammar.)

So Lucas has continually been held since about 7pm yesterday and I was hoping once I got hisnose clear that he'd sleep on his own. Wrong! And now the rodeo clown (Benjamins new call sign - video of new found love of jumping soon to follow) is now a part of the picture. Thank god papaw is in town!!! Seeriously we look like a circus over here.

So wish us well this weekend, because dr j and papaw leave town Sunday night and Monday morning. I'm literally trembling with fear.

I just sent this text to the eldest of my valentines.

"When u get home I'd like to go get white wine and baby formula, in that order."

Tonight is gonna rock.

Aspirations

When I worked at a middle school once upon a time, there was this kid whose parents were called in because he was farting in class. Good people, gassey boy. How embarrassing for those parents.

I see this as my future.

The boys gassy-ness is so out of control that they fart every time they sneeze. A couple of my friends find it their duty to tell me every time they fart. I'm not sure what they want me to do about it. I mean, I totally outgrew the sneeze-fart thing like way back in college.

If they were girls, I'm sure this would right itself in it's own. I have a feeling my guys are gonna be dueling gassey violins on Letterman someday.

Everyday Heroes

B: I eat schmucks like you for breakfast. And if you take candy from babies, I'm your worst nightmare.


L: What are you lookin at? It's a cape, not a bib. And if you're smart, you'll keep your mouth shut. That is if you ever want me to save your daughter from a runaway train while she's tied down and gagged between rail ties. Which I will totally do, if she's hot.

Things I don't understand

In no particular order. And this is no where near a complete list.

1.  Socks with sandals (this includes pantyhose with open toed shoes)
2.  People that put syrup, peanut butter and ketchup in the fridge (exception: all natural pb should be in fridge)
3.  The world's fascination with aliens that are slimy/green/have tentacles/one eye in the center of their head. 
4.  Leaving toilet lids open. Yuck. Seriously. 
5.  Tomatoes.  I really love them.  But you gotta admit they are strange when you really look at them. 
6.  Tomato sauce.  How on earth is that formed from tomatoes (see #5)
7.  Old Man and the Sea. I don't really want to either. 
8.  Freckles. 
9.  Why brown bubbling beverages look appetizing and thirst quenching.  I'm on board but it makes no sense. 
10.  People still sporting poofy bangs from the 80s. Is there another decade that a handful of people are clinging to?  How do you walk through target, not see anyone else sporting hair several inches above their frontal lobe, and not wonder if perhaps you've missed a decade?  Or three.  

Score!

The guys like prunes. Major turning point in their lives, I am hoping. An upside of both my guys having seriously clogged pipes is that if, in the future, any of you need a suppository, I can provide you with Level 5 expert instructions. If any of you have your little ones spend the afternoon at my place and if such a festive fruit were to ... err ... overdominate ... just give me a heads up so I don't .... mmm .. liquidate their afternoons.


Alright! Let's get these guys lubed up.

Close Your Eyes ...

And imagine.

A tranquil ocean. Just the quiet whisper of a breeze passing over the water. whhhhhhhhhhhhh. Just part your lips and blow. You can just hear it.

Then you see a magnificent animal break the surface. A tail of a great blue whale flips up into the air and comes crashing back down. Shattering the crystal waters. Maybe it's not a whale, but it's heavy enough and big enough to crash the waters. It's a fish, a big fish, about 17 pounds.

Wait. The tail has something on it ... it's covered by a a pale green fleece blanket. Nonetheless, it's rising and falling back down and the water is ...

No.

The house is vibrating?

Dang it.

Benjamin is flipping his bottom half up into the air, and crashing down onto the bed, signifying he is done napping.

And so ends nap time.

Foodies

We've spent the last 6 weeks-ish exploring the ins and outs of the baby food world. Personally, I'm loving it. My guys are night and day in personality, with eating and with pretty much everything else that life has thrown at them thus far.

Benjamin was closer to the surface in the womb and Lucas was behind him ... plotting. B pretty much sees life like an untrained, loved family dog. He loves life. Loves to laugh, loves to play, loves to eat, loves to poop, loves to sleep, loves to spit up, he's even been known to vomit and laugh. B loves sweet potatoes and avocados and squash- oh! how he loves squash! and oatmeal. mmmm .. sweet nectar of life, oatmeal. Everything that has had too strong of a taste is now surrounded by oatmeal initially. He still can't do a straight banana, but we are working it out. Green beans come saturated with Quaker's favorite, too.

Lucas. Dear, sweet boy, Lucas. As irony would have it, Lucas may have pulled his stubbornness from his namesake, my darling father. Lucas got tired of the womb and broke my water. He has screamed during tummy time, had/has record breaking constipation, battled and battled us to go to sleep at night, I have no idea how many times he has vomited - that wasn't worth keeping up with. I have said many times so far, God gave us Lucas to let us know we weren't hot shot parents, and gave us Benjamin to let us know it wasn't our fault.

Wanna know what the sweetest thing you've ever seen is? When I sing to them they beam from ear to ear. It got us through green beans today. It took Lucas 2 days of gagging and vomiting, but today, day 3, he loved green beans.

I'm determined to keep these boys from being picky eaters and teach them to cook from an EARLY age. There will be some amount I have no control over, but where I can, I'm gonna help!

Did I mention that we flew to Dallas with 5 month old twins??

And furthermore, did we talk about how the airlines had this sinister fella remove his shoes when going through security??

The one in green. That's the threat to national security. Code red, people.

My other little man we just sent through the x-ray machine to keep things simple.


I did, truthfully, smack his head against the cabin ceiling. In my defense the airline didn't let us board early and it was hysterical madness trying to get adjusted when we were both holding babies. They were troopers though.

Not sure if I'm ready for round 2, but it awaits us this Saturday!!

Living with a Colombian Part 99

He is packing a bag for a week long conference and says to himself (I'm just lucky enough to be within earshot)

"now for the toilet treats"

It's Your Turn to Decide

How long do you think this had been sitting in the shower in my old bathroom?


There was pretty much an unspoken rule that we were only allowed to use yellow dial soap and one-ply Scott toilet paper when I was growing up. And no, we didn't have lotion. In case I haven't mentioned, every one that knew me when I was little knows that we never went out to eat, except Sunday nights on occasion when Whoppers were $1 at Burger King ... but we couldn't get cheese because we had cheese at the house.

So when we found this, we couldn't throw it away ... just too many memories wrapped up in that dehydrated shadow of its former self.

Happy New Year!!

I can't imagine having a more eventful year than 2010. I'm not sure it's possible to pack more than home sale, home purchase, tenure, twin pregnancy, preterm twin birth, twin NICU* and an 8 week old's surgery and braces and casts**. We've endured some unremarkable times in our past but 2010 overflows with moments that I pray I'll never forget.

As we are excited about this new year and all the fun it will bring, we kicked it off with a little paparazzi action courtesy of my friend Karolina who took some amazing shots of the boys today. Check out some snippets of our photo shoot. She is a Dallas area photographer, by the way, and yes, she is always this good.

I don't plan to have any weight loss resolutions, but I did have this dream the other night that I was back to my pre-pre-pre-pregnancy weight. Like back in grad school when all I ate was generic apple jacks and an occasional overstuffed taquito in the civil (engineer) diner. I don't suppose there is anyone that reads this that would do anything but stare blankly if I used TAMU civil engineering jargon, REGARDLESS ... those were rockin' taquitos.

Where was I?? .... oh yes, Back to 2011. Bring it.


* Yes, we are taking donations to pay down the medical expenses.
** And diapers.

Farfel Kugel

I pretty much giggle myself into hysterics sometimes. Which is what happened when I saw a recipe for Wild Leek and Wild Mushroom Farfel Kugel.

The thought of leeking my farfel was simply too much for 9 a.m.

Ahhh, the holidays.

Blink Blink

That was my initial response yesterday when Dr. J asked me "what's a thang?"

Then I saw we were in front of this store.

and I remembered he's ColOmbian. So cute.

At this point it's kinda like a challenge

Friends, I'm about one toe nail clip away from having grown off my toe nailpolish.

Another victim of winter.

I have really gassey babies

I live under the assumption that everything about my babies is normal so I was relatively certain that everyone's house was consumed by putrid fumes, like mine. And I thought the nursery workers were nuts for changing them 2 or 3 or 4 times in the span of an hour and a half.

But when grandma comes to town, and tells you that you have gassy babies, well son, you've got gassy babies.

There is no end to the circle of electronic life at our house

I married a geek, albeit an adorable one who is a wonderful husband, but a straight up computer geek. The major plus side to this is that the electronics in our house work seamlessly. He has seizures when the dishwasher breaks, takes 4+ hours to hang a curtain rod (PERFECTLY - I dare you to find a flaw), but wow ... we have some fancy pants electronics.

We also have a 30 digit passkey to secure our wireless, full of alphanumeric, upper and lower case, and crazy symbols that most people don't know exist on keyboards.

Dr. J gave me Apple TV for Christmas (we have it early since we won't be here on the big day) a tool I didn't even know I needed. I can now stream anything from my phone to the television and control it with my iPhone (Ivanka) ... or use Ivanka to control the computer and stream from the computer to the TV using Ivanka as a remote. And play games. Modern couch potatoes are so savvy.

If you know how to install tile or refinish floors, your head is probably spinning and you didn't even finish reading the previous paragraph. But I'm sipping coffee, listening to Christmas music on the TV, and posting to my blog ... all from Ivanka. Ok, so Ivanka can't make coffee ... yet.