I’m so sorry for those who have missed my lovely stories.  Thank you to those of you who checked in to make sure I was still around.  We have all been so sick for the past week or so.  It started with Taylor and a very nasty stomach bug and spread through the rest of the house in various other forms.  I am the last one to get sick, and when Mamma gets sick, the whole system crumbles. I am lucky that Todd is so amazing and even though he had the dreadful man cold (I’m kidding, I’m kidding) he still helped me out with as much as he could.  I am so thankful for that man and I think I’ll keep him around. Luckily, we are all on the mend.  It has been a long week of staying in and watching movies.  I am pretty sure I have single handedly brought up the stock of the Lysol and Clorox Bleach companies significantly by sanitizing the entire house, multiple times! I, unfortunately, got used to functioning on one to two hours of sleep, getting up for the day at 5:30 am (not our usual wake up time) and filling my travel cup with ginger ale instead of coffee. Did I mention how happy I am that we are finally getting back to normal?

The past few days, it has been so much nicer and less humid out – a wonderful feeling but a sad sign that summer is actually on its way out. I made sure to get the kids out of the house as much as possible because we all  desperately needed some fresh air.  We went for many walks, played in the yard, and had lots of Popsicle Pajama Parties, as Taylor likes to call them. The kids have a new found love of popsicles, and this summer, Jackson doesn’t even cry because they are too cold! Progress. In an effort to further build their immune systems, they all shared their popsicles with each other, the dog and literally licked the pieces that fell off of the front steps.  They were happy, and that’s all that mattered.

Last night, Taylor and I made a container of water beads.  For those not familiar with them, they begin smaller than a grain of rice.  We dumped them into a large vase and added water to them, and they transformed into water filled beads overnight. I put them in three separate tupperware containers and set them up at the table for each of the kids to play with.  They used toy cups, spoons, and frying pans and played with them so happily.  They played for two hours straight. As I am sure you’ve all realized by now, that is unheard of for my children.  They had such a wonderful time, and were marveling about the feel of the beads in their little hands. They were excited to sort them into color groups.  Also, in full disclosure, they smashed a fair amount into the carpet.  Thankfully, they were able to easily clean them up.  They are a wonderful sensory toy, and I was so pleased to get so much happy, uninterrupted time from them. I even had time to finish both laundry and an incredible book a friend of mine wrote.  I bought the beads I have from a co-op I am in, but similar ones can be found here. We have even played with them in the bath tub before. I highly recommend them!

The kids were so happy to be feeling well and had so much fun playing outside.  Taylor proved that boys aren’t the only ones to enjoy digging in the dirt.  She is such a girly girly when she wants to be, but she will dig in the dirt and play in the mud just as much as her brothers do. I love that about her and also love that playing in the dirt was free entertainment.

Since we were outside for a while and everything was going well, Jackson decided to mix it up. He decided he couldn’t let too much time pass without causing some sort of mess, so he ripped the doorbell off of our house.  Maybe he wanted to put an end to the pesky alarm companies, lawn companies, and people trying to get us to vote for them in the upcoming election.  I can’t say I was too thrilled, but I do like his thinking. He stood there with the doorbell in his hand, pushing the button and saying “ding dong ding dong – We’re not home!” In all fairness, he also carried around one of the state senator candidate’s cards telling me that she was a princess, so I am not really sure where is mind is.

Even though it wasn’t on my agenda for tonight, I had to give the kids baths.  The bath water immediately turned brown once they all plunged their bodies into the water, but I took that as a sign of a good day.  Ranger was so pleased with the new Blueberry Crumble body butter I got the kids and excitedly licked it off of Taylor’s clean skin.

 

Last night, we had an insanely loud thunder storm, which of course, was at its worst for the hours closest to bedtime. Taylor requested extra cuddles, and only felt better after I sang “You are my Sunshine,” followed by just about every Disney song we could think of. When she was happy and had calmed down, I went to check on the boys, who are not too fond of the thunder either. Instead of finding them screaming and crying, they were cuddled up in one bed, together with heaps of blankets over their entire bodies. They were holding on to each other for dear life; their little arms each entwined in his twin’s arms. It really made me nostalgic for all of the ultrasound images I saw of them positioned similarly. They are twins. They are each other’s biggest source of comfort, and it is truly amazing to watch their bond. Last night, I was so proud of them for literally leaning on each other when they needed comfort.

Today, was different. Much different. Today, they acted like gang rivals who were having an epic turf war about nothing in particular. Every single thing bothered the other, all fricken morning long. They tried to take off each other’s shirts because they thought it was their own (they chose identical shirts this morning). They needed the exact same Lincoln Log and Lego piece at the same time, despite the fact that there were hundreds of others that were just as spectacular in the nearby bin. They fought about who sat where, which milk cup belonged to which gang (although their cup colors had been determined long ago), and who got to use the bathroom first, even though they both have no interest in toilet training. I separated them into different areas of the house, encouraging one to play with Taylor while the other played with me, but they kept longing for their twin and meeting back up with each other with an embrace that would make you think they hadn’t seen each other in years. But the fighting would soon begin again. The boys apparently study wrestling in their spare time because the amount of hair pulling, body slamming, neck standing, and leg pulling I saw today was unreal. I actually learned a few new moves from them, so there’s that. They locked each other in closets, gave each other rug burn, threw toys at each other’s head and slammed doors. Since the eighty five thousand time outs, warnings, talking-tos, etc. didn’t work, I decided it was time for crafts. I quickly wrote on this shirt and explained to them what I was writing and what kinds of things they have been doing that make both Mommy and each other sad. I had seen a similar shirt in meme form on a twin page a while ago and it just flashed back in my mind today, and I figured, why not.

I warned them about the shirt and told them they were brothers and needed to be nice to each other, or at least not kill each other before Dad gets home. They said their apologies, and went to play. As soon as the next round of wrestling started, I put that shirt right on both of them. They didn’t know what to think. They were silent (which never happens) and trying to figure out why they were in the same shirt. They are used to having to share, but this was shocking. They had to stand still wearing it while I told them about all the things they did that were not such good choices, and discussed what they could do to be better friends. By the end, they were cracking up, kissing each other, and waddling around the house (picture a three legged race) saying “I love you, brudder.” I highly doubt this will work for every fight they have, but for today, it’s an extra weapon in my arsenal that I’m so pleased to have.

This is not something I have shared on the blog before, but Jackson has some vision / eye problems. In addition to an astigmatism, which is what I also have glasses for, he has strabismus and accommodative estropia, which basically means his eyes don’t align on their own because of very weak muscle control in one eye. Although he will always wear glasses for the astigmatism, there is a very real chance that he will have to have surgery at some point to help fix the eye muscles. The thought of this is beyond terrifying for us. Of course, we want what is the absolute best for our kids, but the idea of his tiny body being under anesthesia, even for what would be a “simple” surgery, is enough to make me go insane. Luckily, the eye doctor we have been working with for the past year, has come very highly recommended and specializes in pediatric cases. He has performed tons of these surgeries before and said he’s never had an issue with a child dealing with the anesthesia. It is still a scary thought though, but something we are really trying not to worry about too much until (and if) we get there. One of the things I love about this doctor is that he has not been pushy at all. He takes the time to listen to our concerns, he’s amazing with Jackson, and he really thoroughly examines the eyes at every appointment to monitor progress, or lack thereof, so we are not just jumping right into unnecessary surgery. I honestly feel like a lot of doctors would not have invested this much time and would have initially suggested the surgery at the beginning. I am so glad we are all on the same page with this; we wouldn’t have it any other way. Should the time come that he needs surgery, we are very comfortable with this man being the one who performs it.

Throughout everything, Jackson has been such a trooper. He has had to wear funny goggles on his face, look at silly images on screens while sitting still, and have his eyes dilated to a very uncomfortable level. The doctor has been very impressed with his willingness to comply. We even got prescription drops that we had to use for a full 24 hours before his appointment so the doctor could get an even better look inside his eyes. He commented on how interesting it was because he never gets that much visibility inside the eyes at that level of dilation because toddlers are mostly unwilling to cooperate.

At our last appointment, the doctor suggested trying patching for a while to see how much it would help. Basically, we put a patch over Jackson’s strong eye, so he cannot see anything out of it. This makes the weaker eye focus more and forces him to use those eye muscles. He said, having a toddler himself, he knows how crazy it might be, but it was so important to use the patch regularly. He said that two hours was recommended, if Jackson could even handle that, but four hours of patching per day would be ideal for him. He explained to us that people notice that their kids are uncomfortable with the patch so they just discontinue use. He wanted us to think of it as medication. He said something that stuck with me, which was “If Jackson has an ear infection, you are going to treat him with antibiotics so he heals, right? Think of the patch as medication for him.” This was all I needed to hear to get it to truly sink in and to vow to myself that we would use the patch as directed.

I have to say, I am so incredibly proud of this little man. We left the doctor’s office that day with sample patches, and put the first one on right after nap time. I made such a big deal about how special it was for Jackson and how it was going to help him. I explained to Taylor and Joseph that they were not to touch it at all, and they needed to remind Jack about how cool he looked while wearing a patch. From that day forward, he has been patching for four hours per day! He made the transition so easy for himself and for us, that I honestly still can’t believe it. The one thing that was an issue for the first week or so was that Jackson had a semi reaction to the glue used on the patch. It hurt his face, irritated his skin, and left his eye red and swollen. Even though it went away quickly, I could tell how uncomfortable he was and knew I needed a different solution. I could easily see how parents would become discouraged with patching and stop it altogether. I remembered that the doctor had told us that they make such a thing as cloth patches, so I looked into a few companies who offered them. I found one small company called FrameHuggers, and read all the info on their website and was amazed with what I saw. There website can be found here.  They offered patches in nylon (which is quite breathable and light weight; perfect for the hot summer we are having). These patches slide over the frame of his glasses, so no glue or anything touches his face. I was incredibly skeptical and figured it would not work. Since the boys are so aptly nicknamed “the tornado twins,” I figured it would be something that one of them would constantly be pulling off. I assumed that the product wouldn’t work because he would be able to see out of the side of it. After watching videos and reading reviews, I was hooked. I was even more excited that they offered free customization. I, of course, ordered the New York Rangers logo on the patch, and it was here in less than a week. The woman who owns the small business, Camille, was a pleasure to work with and is a true professional. Jackson was so incredibly excited to open the package and see his “hockey patch.” He wanted to put it on right away and has been excited to wear it ever since. It’s lightweight, easy to put on and take off, and adorable. It does what it supposed to and blocks his vision all around, including his peripheral vision. He affectionately calls it his ‘hockey’ and says “See you tomorrow, hockey!” every time we take it off. I am so glad that I found this business and am so happy to share the information with other parents, because as I said, we had no idea that this was an option! My baby is so much more comfortable and confident with this cloth patch, and I can honestly 100% say that I have noticed a difference in his eye already, which is so encouraging.

As always, I am more than happy to answer any questions, so please feel free to email me at twinsandtiaras@gmail.com.

Happy National Twin Day! Apparently, this is a weekend long celebration, according to whoever decides these types of things, but we will go with it! We are usually up for any excuse to celebrate, and these boys are definitely celebration worthy!

After the night time and nap time debacles we had the past few days, we were hoping for an easy night but that did not happen. At all. Even a little bit. The boys destroyed their mattress and each blamed the other for doing it. They knew I was livid with them and they wouldn’t even look me in the eyes. They now lost their mattresses too and will probably blame me for their back pain from sleeping on the floor when they are older, but they need to learn.

We spent the morning at a farm and had so much fun! The kids played, ran around having races with each other, and were only slightly terrified of the animals, so that was a win. They also loved sitting on an old tractor and pretending to drive.

Jackson and Joseph, I never planned on, or expected to have twins. You were the best surprise to Mommy and Daddy. I will always remember the day that we found out there were TWO of you in there, and not just one! It was incredible, scary, and exciting all rolled in to one. You make me crazy at least some point of each day, and you outsmart us with your twin powers, but you give me just as much love and just as many laughs. Daddy and I look at you sometimes when you sleep (on the rare occasions that happens) and say “can you believe we have twins?!” Almost three years later, and it is still unbelievable to us. We really do know and appreciate how fortunate we are to have you two silly bananas. We love you with all our hearts and are so proud of the little people you are becoming. We mostly love the bond that you share with each other. You are so in tune with each other and love each other in such a real, beautiful way. You also love your sister so much, and watching the three of you together is nothing short of spectacular. It really is amazing. We can’t wait to watch you grow up all together. So, Happy Twin Day, my sweet boys. May you always have each other and may you always celebrate this day!

By the way, we got you a “Happy Twin Day” cake but the guy at the bakery must have been new. He was so proud of his work, that I didn’t want to burst his bubble. I even had to spell twin for him… At least it was delicious. Happy Twin!

Last night, Taylor got up to use the bathroom around 11:30 pm. She was happy and played with Ranger for a bit telling him that his new haircut was “as soft as a kitten at a play date.” I’m not where sure she got that phrase from, but it was hilarious.

She stayed up for “a while” to read books in her bed and play with her ponies. Two hours later, she went back to sleep. As if on cue, these two monsters I call my sons got up and stayed awake from about 2 am until a bit after 4am. They got back up for the day around 6. I, of course, was up with them the whole time. It wasn’t like they were playing quietly either. They climbed on the frames of their beds, tore back their shade (which I knew they would do as soon as we moved them there after the hole in the wall incident) and they repeatedly banged on the window while yelling “Come in! Come in!” I went in countless times and yelled at them, tucked them back into bed, gave them fresh diapers, etc. They still kept going back to banging on the window. I’m honestly surprised that neighbors didn’t call the cops. I guess nobody was out at that hour, but if I heard banging on a dark window at 2am, I sure would have called for help. It took me a while to fall back to sleep after they did, so my night was pretty much shot.

They were so tired and dragging this morning, but we pushed through, played, and had lunch. At one point, Jacks actually looked at me and said “Mama, can I please go in my bed now?” I figured this was a great sign for wonderful naps to come. I was overjoyed at the thought of my head hitting the pillow. The boys decided they weren’t napping though. They took turns climbing up to the window, pulling the shade, kicking the wall, ripping the door locks, and climbing on the furniture. I removed their favorite blankets and the two stuffed animals they are each allowed to have in bed (one thing at a time). After almost two hours, figuring they had to go to sleep at some point, they continued their antics and lost their comforter too. They weren’t using it to sleep anyway and instead were wrapping each other up in it and tossing each other into the walls. Since they now had nothing in their room, I was really sure they’d sleep. I looked into the monitor and found this set up. They took the sheets of their beds to cover themselves up. They are so damn smart, but so fresh.

We ended up quitting nap time and they are now watching a movie and playing with their big sister. It’s going to be a long night and an even longer weekend if they keep up with these shenanigans. There isn’t enough coffee in existence.

Happy Birthday to:

• the girl who sat next to me in science class in 6^th grade and got much more of a Catholic school education than her parents paid for
• the girl who learned about basket weaving
• the girl who allowed me to break up with her boyfriend for her, only for me to date him the next day
• the girl who shared her first concert experience ever with me
• showed me what a true best friend was
• the girl who knew all the words to the “Steps Song” and would sing with me after volley ball practice
• the girl whose parents always treated me as one of their own (and their favorite)
• the girl who I went on many Lake George vacations with
• the girl who always made it a Blockbuster night, knows every single Olsen Twin movie, and knows where Blockbuster Tom lives
• the girl who fell inside a glass box at Dunkin Donuts
• the girl who spent every summer day during the Little League World Series with me making friends with guys from Alabama and a boy named Harvard
• the girl who kind of threw me out of a boat to prove that I had no upper body strength
• the girl who taught me that some middle-schoolers really didn’t know that cats peed

 

• the woman who taught me that friendship was not hindered by distance and would only get stronger throughout the years
• the woman who is probably still saving up to buy a window in our dream house
• the woman who held my wedding gown up while I went to the bathroom before walking down the aisle
• the woman who helped me pick out my forever puppy on a whim
• the woman who made the best Maid of Honor speech at my wedding, making me both laugh and cry at the same time
• the woman who loves my husband and welcomed him into the family and buys him Harry Potter themed socks for Christmas
• the woman who came in the delivery room after my first child was born, kissed my forehead, and then said “I was wondering what was taking so long.”
• the woman who loves my children like they are her own and would do anything for them
• the woman who I can text a random song lyric or movie line to and have a response back without her skipping a beat
• the woman who I don’t have to worry about TMI with, because no such thing exists between us
• the woman who knows all about penguins
• the woman who I can text when I’m having the worst day ever, and she will support me, make me feel better and remind me that I’m doing a good job
• the woman who literally knows every single thing about me (which is kind of frightening) but she loves me anyway

Diane, you said it best; our friendship can legally drink! I can’t believe that you have been my best friend and by my side every step of the way for 21 years. I honestly could not imagine my life without you in it. You are my best friend, my sister from another mister, and the best Auntie my kids could have. Happy Birthday! We love you and wish you the best day ever, and another fabulous year!

 

 

I think these kids are going to make me go to therapy one day soon. It’s either that, or AA because they are soon going to drive me to drink, a lot. For those of you who follow my blog on Facebook, you already got to see Jackson practicing for a lifetime of fighting crime by being Spiderman. He climbed up to the top of the bookshelf part of their bureau and was just hanging out there. This was during naptime and thankfully, I happened to look into the monitor and saw his face. I couldn’t quite figure out why I was seeing it upside down, but now I know. I quickly ran into their room to make sure they were okay. Once I was assured that he was safe and just sitting there, I snapped a quick picture because, really, who would believe me? I got him safely down and threatened both of them within an inch of their lives. I told them that I would take their bureau and give it to kids who listened or that I would just throw it in the garbage. I told them how it was very dangerous and they would get bad boo boos if they climbed up there again. They seemed very upset and promised they wouldn’t do it again. I won’t bank on promises from two year olds, but they haven’t climbed up since then (that I’m aware of).

When I was pregnant with Taylor, I stumbled across an article where one child in a set of twins died when a piece of furniture fell on her. She was crushed and her little body wasn’t able to recover from the trauma. Her twin, and their parents were never the same, and they made it their mission to educate parents about these deaths. It is not something I was even thinking about at all when planning on having my first child, but we went right out and bought furniture straps and everything was secured to the wall before Taylor even arrived. We did the same thing for the boys’ room. I actually found their bureau / bookshelf combo on a tag sale site when they were around 18 months old and a good friend came over and helped secure the bookshelf portion to the bureau itself with sturdy L-Brackets, so it was solid and very secure. Thank you, Tommy! I am very thankful that I stumbled upon that article and honestly feel like it has already saved my kids ten times over. I am not one to give unsolicited parenting advice because we all do things differently, and that’s okay, but please anchor your furniture to the wall. You never know what kids can do in a matter of seconds. The straps are relatively inexpensive and easy to install. The ones we have can be found here.

Some nights, like tonight, the kids eat dinner so well. They sit in their chairs, eat a ton of food and even ask for more. Other nights, it’s a battle to get them to eat at all. Last night was one of those nights. I hate those nights. I want to say “Eat dinner or you don’t get anything until the next meal” but I worry about the boys, especially being preemies and underweight as is. Although their doctors say they are healthy and growing on their own preemie curve, they are still on the small side and I like to give them all the additional calories they can manage. Anyway, Joseph was sitting at the table an hour after his siblings were already finished and downstairs playing. He was messing around and playing with his food. Todd told him to cut it out, or he would go in time out. He looked right at Todd and said (with a straight face) “bull” We had to quickly put him in time out and go to another part of the house because we were laughing so much and didn’t want him to see us. We group texted my parents to tell them that story because “bull” is my dad’s response to everything I tell him involving the kids. “The boys did XYZ today.”//“Bull! I don’t believe that!” We are very conscious to not swear in front of the kids, but we were not expecting this to come out of his little mouth. Kids are hilarious. I guess Joseph wants to be just like his Brampy.

On a not so hilarious note, this morning, the boys woke me up with banging sounds. They pulled off their radiator cover and were hitting each other with it, banging it against the wall and their beds, and scraping it against the floor. As always, I quickly snapped a picture and then reprimanded them. I told them it wasn’t safe and it was not something to play with. I reattached it and thought all was said and done. Wrong. Nap time came around, and they again pulled it off and Joseph somehow got his little toe stuck inside the nasty, rusty radiator insides and then pulled his foot back out. He cut himself badly, and I went in the room to find blood everywhere. He was pretty calm about it and simply held his foot up to me saying “Oh no! Foot has a boo boo! I touched that thing!” I quickly cleaned him up and examined the wound. It looked like a massive paper cut, but much deeper. He had two separate flaps of skin that were just hanging around the wound. I applied some Neosporin and band-aids and called the pediatrician’s office because I wasn’t sure if he’d need to go to the ER for stitches and a tetanus shot. Thankfully, Nurse Dineen (hello again!) told me that he should be okay since the bleeding stopped and he didn’t need a tetanus shot because he was up to date on his vaccinations. She said to keep it clean and covered, and watch for infection. The boys took turns ripping the band-aids off today, but medical tape did the trick to keep it clean and covered. The poor pickle was walking around the house limping and saying that his foot hurt. He seemingly felt much better when Daddy walked in the house with dinosaur band-aids and donuts though!

One of our neighbors, who is an electrician (I think I’ve even written about him helping us before) came over and disconnected the entire radiator unit from the wall. Apparently, it was original to the house and there was just basically unpainted sheetrock behind it. He attached a wooden board to cover up where the electricity ran (so Houdini x2 wouldn’t electrocute themselves) and we knew we’d need to fix everything at some point and make it look pretty. We put the kids to bed and were relieved to be done with this day, but Todd went back into their room because he heard something. Within two minutes, they had punched a hole through the damn wall. They quickly blamed each other, and were not happy getting yelled at.  Jackson wouldn’t even make eye contact with me. We fixed what we could for the night, and then moved the beds to cover that portion of the wall so they couldn’t access it at all. I guarantee you, they will climb on the back of their beds to pull the shade down (which is why the beds were moved in the first place) but what else can we do?

 

I think the notion of being “caught up” on laundry is one of those mythical tales that they tell kids when they are young. You have the hope that it will happen one day, but it never does. I thought that today was the day that I was finally caught up. Finally done for a while, after busting my butt all day. Since we have five people in the house (people who usually wear clothing) all it takes is us getting changed for bed to fill up the laundry basket. Anyway, here I was, mid-day, feeling on top of the world since there was no laundry left to do. And then I got the boys up from nap. I found a package of diapers in the boys’ size leftover from when Taylor still used them. They were not the brand we currently use for the boys, but I figured we’d use them up during naps / awake time and save the “good ones” for overnight. As it turns out, I now have laundry in my washer and in my dryer. The diaper couldn’t handle the lemonade Joseph consumed today. He was soaked. His brother’s bedding was soaked (they share / switch sleeping arrangements). I had to wash the carpet along with their clothing and all of the sheets, comforters, blankets, and stuffed animals they have in there. I’m no longer caught up on laundry. I should have known it was going to be that kind of day because when I went to make coffee this morning, I put the cup next to the coffee machine instead of underneath and it brewed all over my counters and floor. Oops.

We’ve been trying to stay cool this week between being outside in the sprinklers (making mud puddles out of the lawn) or being in the air conditioning. I bought the kids some new stamp markers and notebooks, and they have been having a blast with those. Word of warning though, “washable” is a relative term. My kids are so fair skinned that even the washable stuff stays on them for a day or two, after scrubbing. I wonder who they got that from.

One of Taylor’s chores is feeding Ranger. This weekend was particularly hot. She fed him his food while I changed his water and put the bowl back down. I told T since it was so hot, Ranger might like a few ice cubes in his bowl to keep it cool. She gladly took some out of the freezer and put it in the bowl. She went to play and as Todd and I were putting away groceries, we heard Ranger barking and whining, two things he normally doesn’t do unless something is wrong. I look over and found out that the reason for his upset was because that Taylor put the ice on top of his food and not in his water bowl. He’s too darn precious to move the ice himself, so he barked until we fixed it. Taylor apologized to him all evening, but it was so cute.

We went to Target this weekend, and T picked out a new lunch box for school. As she was looking, Todd and I noticed one that really caught our eye. We showed it to Taylor and asked if she knew what it was all over the lunch box. Without missing a beat she said “I sure do! Those are little school busses!” I guess my kid will never know what a cassette tape is! She’ll never know the excitement of hearing a new song on the radio and hitting the record buttons just in time. Her generation won’t realize that a pencil eraser was most useful for winding up the tape inside the cassette. This is one of the first times we felt super old as parents! School busses…

Taylor’s new favorite word is “haywire.” I overheard her talking to her brothers yesterday morning while they were playing with blocks. I heard her saying “Let’s do this gently. We don’t want to go all haywire with this!” I asked her where she heard it from (because I thought it was hilarious) and she said she didn’t know. I assured her that it wasn’t a bad word and I was just curious as to where she had heard it and she said “I know it’s not a bad word, mom. It means to go all crazy like the boys do every day.”

Aside from digging in their diapers to pull out a handful of poop when I asked “who stinks”, the kids have all been pretty well behaved so far this week. {Knock on wood.} The only true meltdown we had was when we were in the playroom yesterday. The boys found a fly on the windowsill and they didn’t understand why he was “sleeping.” They were very upset that they couldn’t wake the sleeping fly up, and even more upset when I disposed of it. I was sorry to disappoint them, but I wasn’t about to sit around and watch them attempt insect CPR.

Today is Todd’s birthday! The kids were so excited, and sang Happy Birthday all day, even though Todd was at work. Taylor has been counting down the days for about two weeks. She insisted on wearing a fancy dress today to celebrate her Daddy, and she got lots of compliments while we were out doing errands.

This morning, I had the kids take a picture, while Taylor held a picture of Todd as a kid. It was kind of fun to see. Todd does so much for our family. He is an incredible father and husband and we are so lucky to have him!

We went to the bakery this morning to pick out a special cake for Daddy; something the kids could not wait to do. I let Taylor choose the writing on the cake. I had previously told the woman at the bakery counter that the cake was for my husband, so she was really confused. I’m pretty sure she actually thought I was married to a 100 year old man. I know we have an age difference, but that’s pushing it!

 

Happy Birthday, my love. Here’s to many more decades of celebrations together!

 

This was one of the hottest weekends we’ve had in a long time, but we still managed to make the best of it, and we ended up having a great time!

We went to a “Touch a Truck” event at a local school on Saturday. The kids had so much fun climbing up on all of the vehicles and interacting with everyone. One of my best friends was representing the paramedics and was talking to all of the kids about the ambulance and what they do on it. My kids weren’t quite sure why they had to wait in a long line to see Ann, who they know and love, but they did a great job. They played on fire trucks and learned about some of the equipment. Taylor even got to pull the air horn multiple times, which was a huge hit!

The biggest highlight of the day for them (and us adults) was interacting with some of the police officers. One of the police officers showed us a vehicle and was very sweet with the kids. I ended up having a very nice conversation with him about police morale and things going on in this crazy world. We all made sure to tell him how much we appreciated him and everything his fellow officers do for our community on a daily basis. He seemed very appreciative and said days like that and events such as those were “good days” for them.

The other two police officers we met were an awesome human / K-9 team. The human officer explained the many things the dog did as a member of the police force. The intelligence level and determination of police dogs is remarkable and we learned so much! The dog was gorgeous and happy to give us lots of kisses and let us pet him too. It was the kids’ favorite part of the day! Considering we went out for ice cream twice yesterday, that says a lot about the dog and officers!

I found a huge basket of Lincoln Logs for sale on a local tag sale site and picked them up on Friday. The kids have spent almost every waking moment (while at home) playing with them. They love building things, and I love watching their creativity. We’ve had a lot of farms, houses, flags, and big buildings. Todd and I both remember Lincoln Logs from our childhoods, so watching our kids play with the same toys is so much fun for us. We might also be getting in lots of Lincoln Log time ourselves. Naturally, the boys really enjoyed the basket that the toys came in.

Behavior wise, we were really impressed with the kids this weekend. Taylor is almost always well behaved, so that’s no surprise. The boys were pretty darn good with eating all of their meals (instead of throwing or wearing it), listening to instructions, and not getting into too much mischief in general. Apparently, they had enough of the nice act, because as soon as they were left alone for two seconds, they found a piece of chalk (that they had to climb to get to) and drew on our wood-burning stove, tables, and chairs. They cleaned it up when asked, so that’s something I suppose. They also immediately started stripping when we put them to bed. They wanted to start the week off on their terms.