The reading public is getting restless....

Q: Have you blogged?
A: No, I haven't blogged.

Q: Are you going to blog?
A: Yes, I'm going to blog.

Q: When are you going to blog?
A: UGH!!!!

I have so much to blog about, some things I know I've already forgotten, but I can't stop sneezing long enough to get anything posted.

We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Bears' last weekend but then we came home to begin a pretty crummy week. Most of our activities were cancelled due to the invasion of some nasty germ-monsters. Zach was sick and then Mommy got sick. Details to come later. Maybe tomorrow....maybe Sunday....but I promise I will blog soon. I hate to disappoint my reading public.

Slam dunk

Emily is an expert eater. She loves almost everything...except her veggies. She has finally decided that she now likes ketchup. She wouldn't eat anything with ketchup before. I made her some fish sticks this week and put a little dab of ketchup on one and she actually ate it. Then she started sticking her finger in the ketchup and rubbing it on her fish stick. It was hilarious watching her do this. I finally convinced her that it would be easier to "dunk" the fish stick rather than to "dunk" her finger. So now she is a skilled fish stick dunker. Way to go Emily!

Zach's eating evaluation

Zach had an eating evaluation yesterday. The therapist watched him eat things he normally eats, and how he reacts to several things which he always refuses. He obviously has an aversion to crunchy things...cheerios, puffs, goldfish, etc. My favorite moment was when the therapist asked Zach if he could kiss the cheerio. She held hers to her lips and kissed it. I was sitting right in front of Zach and he leaned over and gave ME a kiss! AAAWWWWW, such a sweet little guy!! He later put the cheerio to his lips but that was as far as that cheerio was going to go. She said that he had some good skills, but he needs to work on his lateral chewing, so we will be going once a week until I decide if it is helping or not. She sees toddlers with aversions far worse than Zach's...some children gag at just having the food put on their tray or having their face washed. Thank goodness Zach's is not that severe. He's been doing really well lately. He's now eating the #3 Gerber's food with the soft chunks. He'll eat small pieces of french fries and even tried a small piece of onion ring, although he didn't like it. He eats Kraft Mac and Cheese and LOVES LOVES LOVES the refried beans from Taco Bueno (he's my cub after all)! He'll eat mashed potato and very small pieces of shaved ham. So although it is slow progress, at least it is progress!

Stopping a roller coaster with your face is not recommended.

Last Thursday I bravely took the cubs back to Paradise Pond. I find this task simply exhausting but well worth it to get the cubs out of the house so they can burn off some of their endless energy. It is impossible to keep my eye on them every second since they absolutely refuse to hang out together in public. So while I was tending to Emily, my friend (who also has twins) was bringing a bawling Zach to me. The flood of guilt overwhelmed me because I knew my little man had gotten hurt and I wasn't there. Apparently he had been playing by the little roller coaster. It is similar to the picture below.

It's large enough for toddlers to ride on and has a little ramp. According to my friend, a little girl was playing on it and Zach decided to lie down on the track. Of course there was no way for the little girl to stop and she ended up running into Zach's head. Poor Zach had a nice little red spot on his face for several hours. We're very thankful that Zach wasn't seriously hurt and hopeful that he has learned a very important lesson. Don't try to stop a roller coaster with your face...the roller coaster will always win. Now there's a phrase I never imagined I would ever say.

We think Emily picked up a little bug at Paradise Pond. During lunch she was so tired she could hardly hold her head up. I just figured that she was exhausted from all the playing, that was the whole point of going. When she woke up from her nap she was burning up. I took her temperature and it was 103.1 so I called the Doctor and her nurse gave me some instructions to try to relieve her fever. She asked me if Em had any other symptoms and she did not. At least not until I hung up the phone. Then she threw up all over me and her Husky. This is alarming. I am very accustomed to throw up...Zach has made me an expert on this...but when it's Emily, that is different. Other than the normal baby formula spit up, Emily has never thrown up. So I called the nurse back and got a different set of instructions. We alternated between Infant Tylenol and Infant Motrin every three hours and then tried to get her to drink and keep down 2 teaspoons of Pedialyte every twenty minutes. This was going to be a long night. Luckily we managed to get her fever down and by the next morning she seemed perfectly fine, so I guess she just had a 6 hour stomach bug. Which she gave to her Daddy. Just great. Thank goodness Daddy can take care of himself.

On Monday I received a phone call from Baylor to schedule Zach's feeding evaluation for this Thursday. After explaining Zach's behavior to the therapist I am optimistic that they may be able to help us. At least she said that there was something else going on other than reflux, wich I had tried unsuccessfully to convince the other therapist of. Hopefully our new Doctors and new therapists will be able to help.

I went to my LCMOMs meeting on Tuesday. We elected the new board so I am looking forward to passing on my position to one of the newer moms. I didn't run for a position this year. With Steve working so much it is impossible to make any commitments. Especially since he works most weekends and we never know his weekend schedule until the Thursday before. It makes it so difficult to plan anything.

Emily has been very fussy yesterday and today. She has refused to take her naps even though she is obviously tired. I finally just let her cry herself to sleep since nothing I did was calming her down. She would take a short nap and wake up in the same mood. Then she would cry and fuss some more. It makes the afternoon drag on forever and I literally count the seconds until Daddy gets home, and then she's fine. Daddy thinks she's an angel. He sees her at her best, I see her during the time she has her halo off.

Potty training has also been put on hold. She did awesome the first two days. She was successful three times and I was so very proud of her. On the third day she started crying each time I took her in to the bathroom. I don't know why this was suddenly different but I decided to put off potty training for now. Maybe we'll try again after we get back from Grandma and Grandpa Bear's this weekend.

Tonight was my monthly dinner with the girls from THC. Patti was able to join us for the first time and she always makes me laugh. Mom loves the adult conversation and the absence of temper tantrums.

The mother-load of all temper tantrums

One of my friends was in town on Sunday and I agreed to meet her at the mall. Steve was working, so I strategically planned to meet her after lunch. My plan was to put the cubs in their stroller and they would take their nap while we did some window shopping. Of course, Heather's Law (similar to Murphy's Law) intervened. Nothing went as planned. I arrived at the mall a little early, strapped the cubs in, and off I went. I managed to find a few shirts (I hope they fit because I sure didn't get a chance to try them on) and was still shopping when IT happened. The mother-load of all temper tantrums. I was THAT mother with THAT screaming child. Emily did not want to be in her stoller. She did not want to be carried. She wanted to walk, but she didn't want to hold my hand. Can you picture me trying to keep track of a very mobile Emily while trying to push Zach in a double stoller in between clothing racks that are shoved way too close together? This was not happening. I picked Emily up, put her in her stoller, and tried to get her strapped in as she was squirming and screaming at the top of her lungs. All the while as people stopped to look and shake their heads with sympathy and whisper to each other that thank goodness they weren't me. I have been that person. I have often shaken my head (especially in grocery stores) and wondered why the parent wouldn't do something to get their kid quiet. Now I was THAT mother with THAT child. The madness. So I grab my purchase, go to the cashier (thank goodness there was not a wait) and proceeded to check out. Then the guy asks "Would you like to apply for our credit card?". My jaw dropped as I asked him "Are you kidding me?". I should have asked for his longest application so I could fill it out right there at his counter while my daughter was having an out of body experience.

They giveth back....update to 'they taketh away'

All fenced in...


Housing update! The garage doors have been installed and the gutters are being hung. I'm not sure I like the garage doors, but I guess I can live with them. It looks like a great big asterisk, but that's what happens when you pick something from a black and white, one-dimensional, pencil drawing. The fence is up. The light fixtures are in and cabinets are in place. The whirlpool tub has been delivered but not yet installed. (Can't wait for my first soak!) The Travertine has been laid and the ceramic tile for the shower and tub surrounds have all been installed too. As for the Travertine, we did get the free upgrade after I sent a nice little email to them. So kudos for that! It's been very busy at the house and there really isn't too much left to do. We still need the cabinets stained and the granite and carpet installed. We are now looking at a completion date at the end of March. YIKES! We are going to paint some of the rooms after closing, so we aren't planning on officially moving in until mid-April. We have the lease on the apartment until June, so we don't have to rush. For once we can take our time moving in and for the first time ever we can actually unpack our things. Since we got married we have never really unpacked since we knew everything was temporary. Our home in New Mexico - temporary, our first apartment - temporary, our first home - temporary (we anticipated being there only 5 years and we actually made it last a little longer), our next home - permanent (or so we hope) and I am UNPACKING!

Going Bonkers!

Daddy was off on Saturday and we went Bonkers! Wait, I meant we went to Going Bonkers! What a cool place! There are two huge jungle gyms, one for toddlers ages 3 and under, and one for ages 4 to 104, so even Mom and Dad could play. Our over-achievers tackled both. There is a second floor that we didn't even get to, so we'll have to check that out on another visit. I definitely see us having a birthday party here! Dad even managed to get some pictures of us having fun!

If you are looking for the cubs in these first two pictures, please stop wasting your time. These are just to give you an idea of how BIG this place is.





Now to the cub photos! The cubs having fun at Going Bonkers:

Spring cleaning

It's that time to update our blog photo. Say goodbye to our Christmas 2007 photo! Of course it is way too cute to delete, so here it is:

Mommy's little helper!

Emily is becoming Mommy's little helper. Not only does she like to help load the dishwasher, she also likes to push the clothes into the dryer (I set them on the door and she pushes them in.) If we could just work on folding clothes, cooking, and scrubbing the floors...

Rewind one week....

I am so far behind that I need to track back to January 28....Girl's night with some of the other moms from my moms of multiples club. No one needs a drink more than we do...and my raspberry margarita did not disappoint. YUM! I could have used a triple!

We had a big party to attend on Saturday (the same day we had to trek up to Plano to reselect our tile and granite) for Izzy and Maddie's first birthday. I think the cubs had a lot of fun. I didn't even manage to get any good pictures of the birthday girls...they were buried in presents most of the time. Because I was chasing Z-man around most of the time I didn't get many pics of the cubs either. Here are the few I managed to get:

Zach trying his hardest to be the center of attention:


Zach caught red handed with someone else's water. Thief:


Emily caught red handed running off with my cell phone (she even managed to call Kelli with it). The other thief:


Outside playing with bubbles:


We drove by the house on our way home and snapped a few more pics of the monsters cubs.

Zach screaming in delight. He loves hearing his echo!


Emily on the run:


Who's there, Emily?


The cubs are fascinated by something:


Checking out the stairs:


Zach working his way upstairs:


We did our very best that day to wear the cubs out and they were exhausted by bedtime. We all welcomed a good night's sleep.

The next Monday was another night out with the girls. It almost sounds like mom has a social life, doesn't it? It also came with another raspberry margarita...those things are yummy!

On Wednesday Emily had a Doctor appointment with her new pediatrician. We just wanted to get her established and meet the Doctor. I love our new Doctor and wish we would have switched a long time ago. She listened to all of my questions, she played with Emily, and actually answered all of my questions. Amazing!

On Thursday I took the cubs to a place called Paradise Pond. It is a little play area at one of the churches in Grapevine. It had a big jungle gym, a bounce house, and lots of little "stations" for the cubs to play. Emily had a great time in the "grocery store". She looked at every item before she decided it was good enough to go into her shopping cart. She took that shopping cart everywhere with her. They had a "dress up" station and an area full of Legos. I tried my hardest to get Zach to play in the jungle gym or the bounce house but he was perfectly content running around the place. He must have ran 100 laps around that place. I was exhausted chasing after him. This is also an activity that requires an extra person to help keep an eye on both cubs. Luckily Emily was content in the grocery store area so I had time to run after Zach. If I go back I am going to dress them in bright neon yellow T-shirts so they will be easier to spot. Or maybe I will just get them implanted with a homing device.

They giveth and they taketh away.

Who said building a house was fun? Sure, it was a little fun to pick out all the things that would go in it (except for the part where you doubt every decision you make) but the fun comes to a screeching halt when there is a problem.

First the Travertine:
I received an email late Friday afternoon notifying us that there is a problem with our Travertine -- the batch they received was defective. We were given three options: 1) Wait for a month for the new shipment, 2) Upgrade to the next class of travertine tile at no charge, or 3) Pick a completely new tile. So on Saturday we drove out to Plano to see if we liked the upgraded travertine. Steve and I both decided that it would be fine. It had a little more gray color in it than our original tile selection, but it would work better that the other two options we were given.

Now to the Granite:
Not even 10 minutes after I got the email about the tile I received another email about the granite: "One more thing…our granite rep has brought to our attention that currently the Golden Pearl granite is coming out slightly different than our show room sample. I have a sample of it here for you and I wanted to bring this to your attention so that there are no “surprises” when it is installed". Apparently there are now random splotches of rust color throughout the granite. Steve and I looked at the "new" sample and we both hated it...instantly. There is no way the rust color was going to go with the mahogany cabinets. Steve and I informed them that we would rather select a different granite than be stuck with one we didn't like, so we selected another color. Now all we had to do was wait until Monday to find out if they were going to let us change it. It was a good thing that I received an email on Monday letting us know that they were going to let us change the granite. GOOD THING!! There is nothing worse than a redhead spinning off into outer space over ugly granite countertops. Somebody must have warned them.

And back to the travertine:
Then, yesterday I received an email about the upgraded tile: "Hi again…it looks like the tile that you came in to look at on Saturday is now on back order. I apologize for this…but I do have good news…the original selection will now be available by Friday, so we can have that installed for you." WHAT??? Not only did we drive all the way out to Plano (with the cubs) but now we aren't even getting our free upgrade. UGH!! They giveth and then they taketh away. What will it be next?

Missing sock alert

With Zach being sick last week and the days just running together I am admitting that I did not fold last week's cub laundry. I know my Mom just gasped. Sorry Mom! Luckily the cubs have enough clothes that it wasn't really an issue. After washing a second full load of cub laundry yesterday it was time to get them folded and put away. Hanging and folding two full loads of cub laundry is a lot of work. When I was finished I discovered that I had 16 socks without a match. SIXTEEN! How is that even possible?? So now we are on high alert for sock thieves. Must be the same guy that stole all of our baby clothes hangers.

Human jungle gym

Today while I was on the floor playing with the cubs I learned one thing. If I were to collapse to the floor and become unresponsive (heaven forbid), my cubs would not be alarmed in any way, and would instead climb all over me (with the cat) as if I were a jungle gym. Now I can't get that "Your Body is a Wonderland" song out of my head. Just great!

March of Dimes

On April 18, 2009, we will be participating in the "March for Babies" walk at Farrington Field in Fort Worth, in support of the March of Dimes. We encourage you to join us, in honor of all the little miracles that are brought into this world too soon. For those of you who can walk with us, we look so forward to seeing you there!

Please link to my page at http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?w=161013381&u=pairoflittlemiracles (or cut and paste) to join us in supporting the March of Dimes. There is no fee to walk with us but they do appreciate donations.