Jackson and Joseph, Happy third birthday! I can barely believe that you are actually three years old today. Our little family grew so quickly with the addition of you guys. It has been an incredibly wild ride, starting with the day we found out we were going to have twins. I still can’t wrap my head around it some days, and you’ve been here for three whole years! Every single day with you two is an adventure, but it is the most fun I have ever had. You and your sister are the lights of my life and I am so privileged to be your Mommy.

Jackson:

• I used to call you my “Gentle Giant” but you learned to fight back. Hard.
• You love sleeping in the same bed with your brother, usually snuggled against him.
• You love dogs, especially our Ranger (Di Di as you guys call him).
• You are obsessed with your big sister Taylor. You mimic everything she does.
• Your favorite color is green on most days. Other days, it’s yellow.
• You HATE the cows at Stew’s.
• You give the best, tightest hugs.
• You suck two of your fingers when you are tired.
• You giggle in your sleep and occasionally talk too. It is nothing short of adorable.
• When we tell you something you don’t like, you squint your eyes at us.
• You love to help me with laundry.
• You make the best siren sounds, to the point where we think there are emergency vehicles outside.
• You love cake.
• You constantly ask Daddy “are you home?” even when he’s standing in front of you.
• You call your blanket your “key” (a word your brother has picked up on too).

Joseph:

• You love donuts. You’d eat them all day if I let you.
• You make funny, inquisitive faces as you “read” books, like you are really studying the material.
• You have to see how everything works and love taking things apart.
• You love trains.
• You love Mickey Mouse.
• Your favorite color is blue and you point out blue things wherever we go.
• You love giving me kisses and you pucker your lips up to look like a fish when you do so.
• You suck your thumb upside down and rub your back at the same time.
• You rub the tag of your blanket between your fingers over and over again, just like your sister used to do.
• You flare your nostrils when you are angry.
• You chew on your own feet a lot.
• You are fearless.
• Nemo has to go everywhere you go in the past few months. You love him so much. You even stuff him down your shirt when you eat.
• When you don’t get your way, you say “Aw man!”
• You often talk with a British accent. We don’t know where it came from!

You two have such a special twin bond. I love the love you have for each other and I am honored to get to witness it every day. You guys love giving me what we call “Twin Kisses” where you each simultaneously kiss one of my cheeks. It’s one of my favorite things ever. Happy Birthday, my sweet little guys. You two have come such a long way from the tiny preemies I met three years ago. I can’t wait to continue to watch you grow, learn, and explore.

All my love, always and forever,

Mommy

xoxo

And just beacaue I always keep things real around here, here are a few pictures from this morning. After I wrote all of these kind words about you, you hoodlums decided to show me that two was nothing, and three is where the real fun starts. Please notice that you were literally hanging from the lighting fixture and you destroyed the 1,000 piece puzzle Daddy and I painstakingly put together. You were just supposed to be finishing your waffles while I got dressed…

I feel like it is only fair to share some of the wisdom I’ve acquired as a parent over the years, so here is another Pro-Tip of mine.  If your daughter is stalling to get ready in the morning, stopping to ask 528,901 questions about everything (including counting the individual bristles on all five of our toothbrushes), and ensuring that you will be late to school, just say these words:

If you don’t hurry up and get dressed right now, I’m going to have to go to school drop off without pants on!

Works like a charm. The hilarious shrieks that follow are enough to scare her straight and listen for the remainder of the morning. Finally, an instance where she’s happy I own so many pairs of yoga pants. She might incur a really high therapy bill in the future, but she’ll look so cute doing so. Happy Thursday, folks. The week is almost finished!

It is now technically autumn. The air is crisp and cool. The trees are changing colors ever so slightly. Uggs are back, and everything is pumpkin flavored. I figured it would be fun to dress the kids in their Halloween pajamas tonight, since they are excited for the upcoming sugar-crazed holiday. The kids had another idea of a “cute” picture in mind.

Jackson held on to his own candy corn for dear life with his hands down his pants, Taylor looks like she’s putting a curse on me, and Joseph is just so darn excited that he couldn’t even control himself. It may not be the perfect picture, but this is real life and these are my crazies!

Taylor came home from school today all excited to tell me that she had “dog food” for a snack. Clearly, I was perturbed, but since I know my daughter and her crazy mind (and I know what I packed her for snack), I dug a little deeper.  She explained that she had dog muffins, which still didn’t make much sense to me until she told me that the muffins apparently have a dog’s face on the large Costco box they originally came in. She remembers everything.  She says she told all of her friends and teachers that she had dog food for a snack, so at this point, I am just sitting back and waiting for an email… For reference, these are the muffins she had. She was absolutely correct about that dog.

They briefly discussed something having to do with baseball at school today, and in true Taylor form, she put her own spin on it.  All afternoon, she has been saying “You hit the ball and run around the basement!” I questioned her and asked if she instead meant bases, but she assured me that basement was correct baseball terminology. Who knows. Maybe she is on to something. This girl is changing daily, and growing up so quickly and although she loves giving me a run for my money and has been keeping us up all night for the past week or so, she makes us laugh. We have been talking about birthdays lately and she informed us that she wants OxiClean for her birthday.  Yes, the stain remover.  She would like it to have for her room in case anything gets dirty because “it takes stains out of everything!” She’s obsessed with the commercials and thinks it is pure magic. She most definitely will not be getting that as a gift, but I still find it funny.

When we walked in the door after school, I turned off the alarm and we started putting school stuff away.  I kept hearing an alarm sounding and couldn’t figure out what was going on.  I double checked to make sure the house alarm was properly turned off. I made sure it wasn’t my phone ringing or my car alarm blaring from outside. I even checked to make sure Jackson, who is famous for his alarm sounds, wasn’t playing a trick on me.  As it turns out, two of the toys in the playroom hit against each other and the toy firehouse alarm was blaring away!  The kids found it hilarious, while I was just happy that it wasn’t all just in my head.

This afternoon, all three of my loves had a dentist appointment.  It was the first time for the boys, and even though they are usually wonderful in public, I was nervous for how the appointment would go.  They were wonderful! All three kids were so good. They were incredible and both the hygienist and dentist complimented them on their behavior and said the little kids were never that well behaved.  It helped that there was so much fun stuff in the room for them to look at.  I was seriously so proud.  Everything checked out well, but the dentist again reminded us that we needed to start a braces fund because Taylor will definitely need them in the future. 1 out of 3 isn’t bad I guess.  We will see what happens as they get older. My favorite part of the entire trip was when Jackson was getting his teeth polished.  Joseph reached up to him on the big chair, touched him and said “I love you Jacksie, so much.” He didn’t take his eyes off of his brother the entire time; he was making sure that he was okay. Melt my heart.

Anyone who has been to our house knows that our playroom looks like a toy store exploded.  There are toys everywhere.  I try to keep things organized, but despite my best efforts, things end up getting shoved in bins or closets and not played with for quite some time.  I clean out constantly and sell, donate, or throw away toys that are no longer age appropriate, toys that broke, or toys that the kids have lost interest in.  Unfortunately, toys are expensive, and kids (mine at least) tend to have short attention spans.  Even toys that were once their favorites, often get tossed aside.

I was contacted by a woman named Diane (a fellow twin mom) at a company called Pley to write a blog post about my experience with using their company.  I had no idea something like this existed, but let me tell you – I wish it had been my idea to start this company!  Pley is a company that allows your to rent toys!  Children get to choose their toy (with the help of a parent) and have it sent to them to borrow for as long as they would like.  The idea behind it is that kids can get new toys monthly without you shelling out a ton of money.

You can choose and customize your own plan and find toys that suit your child’s interests. You can keep the toy for as short or as long of a period as you would like.  The plan we took advantage of was $12.99 plus shipping.  It was much cheaper than buying a new toy that would soon be tossed aside and my kids loved the idea of a surprise coming in the mail.  I was skeptical at first because my former preemies tend to pick up germs and get sick quite easily, but Pley makes sure that all toys are sanitized before coming to you. We clean and sanitize each toy after every use with eco-friendly and kid-friendly solutions. We use commercial grade high temperature washers to clean the toys thoroughly inside and out.  Our proven cleaning and sanitation process ensures that 99% of residuals, germs, and bacteria have been killed and removed from the toys. – from the Pley.com website. This made me feel more comfortable about the process, and we jumped right in to order our first toy.

We got a toy called Squigz and my kids had a blast! Taylor was immediately excited that the package was addressed to her.  She felt so special.  I loved that the toys came to us inside a mesh, zipper bag so we did not have to worry about boxes getting lost, smashed, or eaten (knowing my boys).  The Squigz were textured, silicone toys that suctioned together to make things.

My kids made unique buildings, necklaces and more.  They even suctioned them to each other’s heads.  Their favorite aspect, and probably mine too, is that they made a really fun suction cup sound when pulled apart.  I am not a fan of noisy toys, but this was fun and actually a kind of soothing sound. They came in different colors, which made “school time” with the boys fun and different for a few weeks.  They loved sorting them into different color groups.

I will definitely be getting more toys in the future, but will probably get toys that are at a higher price point, like Legos.  I feel like we would get much more bang for our buck when the kids are into them.  Taylor is actually starting to show interest in them now.  Legos specifically can be so expensive to build and then disassemble and leave sitting in a box, so I love the idea of borrowing them for a while.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me at twinsandtiaras@gmail.com. You can also check our Pley’s website and look around. Feel free to use my referral link if you end up signing up! One of my favorite things I learned about this company is that they donate a toy to an underprivileged child for each new account set up.

We are ready for our next phase of life. I am hoping to say goodbye to diapers for good, in the near future. I’ll have to work on Todd. 😉

We added Pull-Ups to our Costco haul today, so we will see what happens. Please let me know any tips or tricks for twins! As of now, I think I will be working with both of them as they show interest, but will probably do more of a one at a time approach for consistency. Who knows. They will pee on the walls anyway.

As you can tell, Joseph is ready, although he thinks this journey requires a helmet. Jackson apparently needs some convincing. Wish me luck!

My lovely sons might have a bit of wise-ass in their genes. Taylor had finished breakfast and was dressed already, so she got to go downstairs and watch a few minutes of tv before we headed off to school. Frick and Frack wanted to join her, but I told them they needed to eat their breakfast. They weren’t happy about it, but sat down and took a few bites anyway. I went to attempt to dry my hair, and they followed me down the hall saying “We be done now? We go watch tv?” I told them they were not done, and their bowls needed to be empty. I came out to this scene. I’ll let you imagine what was on the floor and on Ranger’s back. Their bowls were empty though…

I think the few days Taylor has spent in pre-K have made her smarter already. When I picked her up today, I showed her a picture of a cat, who visited our house while she was at school. She thought it was awesome and looked at the picture longingly. She said to me “Mom, I know Dad doesn’t want a cat, but what if we go to the vet and get one while he’s at work late? We can let the kitty have a good home and then when Daddy finds it, he will pet it and love it and keep it because he will like how soft he is!” Genius. Sorry Todd. If you are sneezing and itchy later, it’s not from a secret feline in the house.

I had a good morning with the boys. They were way more excited to help me hang curtains than I had anticipated. They were even more excited, however, to be able to choose what they wanted to watch on tv without big sister vetoing it. They couldn’t wait to pick her up though!

Apparently, Pre-K is exhausting because T felt the need to take a rest with Ranger when she got home. I asked her to look at me to take a quick picture and she said “Mom, can you stop talking so us two can sleep now?” She wasn’t too tired to eat the double chocolate cookie I offered her though! As she helped me put away some laundry this afternoon, she said “Why does Daddy have all of these socks if his feet stink anyway?”

My big girl is off to school! First of all, I would like to point out that I did not cry at all. Okay, that’s a lie. But I didn’t cry until she was happily inside school and I was back in the seclusion of my vehicle. With dark sunglasses on. Boy, was my girl happy!

Taylor woke up feeling perfect and was in such a good mood. She ate breakfast (actually consumed food instead of complaining that she didn’t feel well and only nibbling), and got dressed in record time. She was excited to accessorize her outfit this morning with a watch and a hair bow. She was also excited to spend some time outside, taking pictures with her back to school sign (another hilarious one, by the way), and pleaded for a picture with her “very own twins” when she was done. She said she’d miss her brothers today but that they would be okay because they had toys and Ranger. She’s so wise. We had to rock out to Elton John’s Crocodile Rock and Old Dominion’s Song for Another Time (her two favorites) while driving in the “party car.”

When we got to school, she said hello to her teachers and friends, put her folder and snack away, and found her cubby for her backpack. I had to remind her to come give me and Daddy a kiss goodbye, and even then, she went to hug and kiss her brothers first. Priorities. We went on our way, and she was already, very happily, deep into some coloring and letter writing. Jackson, however, was dragged out kicking and screaming – literally. He was screaming through the parking lot and telling everyone that would listen that he wanted Tay Tay back!

We went to a local bakery for a special treat for the boys. They enjoyed baseball cookies and chose a special lady bug cookie for their big sister, which she loved! She lit up and thanked them profusely for choosing that one for her. They were so eager to return to school and pick her up (as was I) and the teachers said she had a wonderful first day! Her favorite parts were the sandbox and music class.

After a quick nap, at her request, (pre-K is tough business!) we spent some time playing outside and getting everyone good and tired out. I am so proud of Taylor and hope she has another wonderful year. It’s amazing to watch her grow.

At this point, I don’t even know what day of the week it is.  The past few weeks have been a blur of illness and chaos around here. I also lost a friend to ovarian cancer last week, and I have been having a difficult time wrapping my head around how unfair life can be. She had two small children. Its just not fair. Everyone around here was finally feeling better, as I believe I said in my last post, and we even spent some time at a local fair.  This fair always signifies the end of summer around here.  Even though we were bummed about summer being over, we were excited for school to start back up and we were looking forward to having everyone get back in a new routine.

Taylor and I had an at-home spa day where we washed and conditioned her long curly hair and put the perfect purple sparkly nail polish on her fingers and toes.  We spent a lot of time enjoying the beautiful weather and having some outdoor playtime.

Todd decided to take a few days off from work so he could do all of the fun dad stuff and go to orientation with us and meet Taylor’s teachers and new friends.  He was also planning on coming with us to drop her off for her long-anticipated first day of school.  Orientation went very well.  Taylor loved her teachers, classroom, and new friends. As luck, or crazy-ass summer germs would have it though, Taylor had a fever of 104 and missed her first day of school today!  She will be out at least for tomorrow as well. This poor girl was so bummed out, but her teachers said she wasn’t the only one out, and that they would be sure to make her first day special, whenever it was! Thankfully, Tylenol and Motrin have kept her comfortable for most of the day, but we are still really upset that she is even sick to begin with. She is enjoying extra cuddle time and long bubble baths until she is back in action.  Our real back to school sign will have to wait, but this sign with her in bed is pretty great.  My poor girl.

Also, even though a bunch of you have read this part already, I need to share it here so my boys and their future spouses can one day read it. During a diaper change today, Jackson grabbed a handful of his testicles and said “Catch, Mama!” as he tried to throw them to me.  I guess I am still not used to being a boy-mom too and my fellow boy mom friends tell me it only gets crazier from here on out.

It happened again.  I opened my mouth too soon and said that we were all feeling healthy and doing well.  On Wednesday night, Joseph was just not himself.  He was helping Todd and Jackson clean the playroom and was sent upstairs for dinner since he did more than his fair share and was getting off on good behavior while brother finished the job.  He went up the stairs and screamed for his brother.  I thought it was some twin-purgatory thing and he just wanted his brother to stop cleaning too, but as it turns out, he was sick and the boys truly find comfort in each other.  He cried through dinner, didn’t eat, and clung to me all night.  Just as we were getting ready for pajamas and bed, he vomitted all over me. Thankfully, my clothing and blanket suffered the brunt of the trauma.  Nothing a little (or a lot) of bleach can’t handle.  My poor guy was really not himself today.  It was a long-ish night and he was exhausted.  After a long nap, he seemed to be in a much better mood and even had an appetite.  I am not sure how he woke up happy, especially since his twin woke him up twice during nap time.  The first time, Jackson took Joseph’s blanket and steam rolled him out of bed yelling “Wake up, brother!” Thankfully, this was only about ten minutes into nap time, so he was able to go back to sleep.  When they had taken about a two and a half hour nap (unheard of), Jackson again stood over Joseph and in the sweetest voice said “Wake up, Joseph. Wake up baby boy!” I wasn’t even mad because I wanted them up so they would sleep tonight anyway.  Jackson has been so sweet and accommodating to his brother since he has been ill.  He mimics my words and actions and covers Joseph with the blanket, encourages him to take sips of water, and rubs his hair all the while saying “It’s okay baby.” It really is adorable.

Taylor has been keeping spirits up around here with some more of her amazing humor.  Jackson was literally in her face trying to get her to look at the watch he had on, and she really couldn’t care less. I encouraged her to pay attention to him for a moment, and this is the conversation that ensued: