Got a New Camera

I was looking for an excuse to buy a new camera. Well, I thought taking daily pictures of the kids seemed like a good one. Here's some to share.

Jameson after his first snow adventure. He's freezing and boogery, but he had a blast making snow angels and throwing snowballs with dad.

Unfortunately, I have spent a lot of time doing this for the last 2 weeks. Poor kids picked up 2 viruses back-to-back. We're still getting over the last one.

My cousin came in to town for a few days and begged me to take pictures of her with Amelia. She already has a favorite, and sadly, she was not afraid to admit it.

My sleepy bunny - if only all babies were as easy as Truman . . .

Here's JJ in one of his many pictures with his babies. As he puts it, he "loves them too, too much".

Couple of close ups

JJ exhibiting his nightly routine of gathering ALL his books and piling them on the bed for me to read.

Amelia being a "big girl", looking so proud

Abuela con Amelia

Abuelo con Truman

JJ showing off his "mad face" for the camera.

Kids Say . . .

yes, the darndest things. . .

Just a quick post because he made me laugh tonight (not that he doesn't every night).

Jameson likes to watch cartoons in bed with me at night and/or have me read him books before bedtime. Well, tonight I had been doing some work on the computer, so he had not seen much of me in the evening. Whenever I do this, when I finally do go downstairs, he always acts really clingy.

Well, tonight when I finished my work, I went downstairs to tell James I was getting in the shower and taking Truman with me. Jameson immediately comes over to me and grabs my hand. He starts walking up the stairs, and I tell him that I need him to wait with his dad because I'm going to take a shower. He says, "I want to take a shower with you." He's already had his shower at this point, so I say, "No, JJ you've already had your shower. You don't want to take another shower." He persists and while pulling me by the hand says, "No, I want to take my clothes off with you and take a shower together."

I know. He's only 2, but I had to laugh. I am sure he'll enjoy hearing this story when he's older.

Bad Day

Today, I was a bad mother . . . well, not really today, but yesterday. It was just a bad enough day that I didn't get to post about it.

After a long hiatus from blogging, I decided that if I didn't get a post up already, I might as well just quit altogether.

We're going on two weeks now with at least 1 or more sick babies. I'm not sure if they're picking up different viruses or if the course of this one is just really long. Jameson keeps pulling out mile long boogers (I know, TMI) despite my efforts to stop him. Nonetheless, I think we're on the tailend of it.

Ordinarily, my mother comes out during the day to help me keep my sanity and make sure at least JJ's needs are met. Well, as luck would have it, she got sick too. As much as I would have liked her to come out anyway, I told her to stay home until she was totally healthy. Today, I paid for it.

The morning started out innocently enough with JJ and mom curled up watching some cartoons. I had gotten up earlier to feed the babies, so they slept until 10:30. Then, all hell broke loose. Truman woke up crying, and I thought I would feed him and he'd likely go back to sleep. I fed him, but he didn't go back to sleep. At this point, I needed to get JJ some breakfast, so I set Truman in his swing to make JJ some eggs and oatmeal. Breakfast was the usual struggle with Jameson, but Truman cried in the background the whole time.

After I finished with Jameson, I tried feeding Truman again, but I could tell I was out of milk. Instead, I made him a bottle. He refused it even though he was hungry. I was starving at this point, and I knew I would not have any milk unless I ate. I made myself breakfast, and, again, Truman cried all the way through my breakfast.

I thought since he had a chance to get pretty hungry, he would take some formula. Wrong again. He still refused it, and continued to cry. Now, Amelia wakes up and wants to eat. So, again, I set Truman down to feed Amelia, and he continues crying. She fusses most of the way through her meal (as usual), but seems happy by the time she is finished. I set her down to try to deal with Truman. I feed him some more, and he finally falls asleep. I breathe a sigh of relief, and take a moment to change JJ.

No sooner do I get JJ cleaned up, then Truman is crying again. I try some formula again, but he continues to refuse it. So I bite the bullet, and just let him sit there and nurse as much as he can. He is content for a short while and dozes off to sleep again. In all this commotion, JJ asks me, "Can I get something to eat?" (no joke - those were his exact words) . I apologize to him, and tell him I am doing my best but Truman is not really cooperating today. I set Truman down expecting him to start crying shortly. He does, but I continue with JJ's lunch.

It's about 1 pm at this point when I finish Jameson's lunch, and I sit down with him to make sure he eats. Truman continues crying in the background. We are finished by about 1:30, and I return to Truman. I try a bottle again, but he still refuses. I nurse him as much as I can, but I haven't eaten much so I have not produced much milk. While feeding Truman, I decide I want the doctor to look at JJ's eye since he has been picking at it since he's been sick. I was worried about pink eye or some type of infection, so I wanted to say on top of it. They give me an appointment at 4.

I called James at work, and told him to come home as soon as possible because I have an appointment for JJ, and Truman has spent the entire day crying. Somehow he understands that I need him home by 3:30 pm. I continue to struggle with a fussy Truman, a tired JJ, and a hungry Amelia. James gets to the house at about 3:25, and I run upstairs to change out of my PJ's sadly enough. JJ and I rush to get ready and head out the door.

I have a few moments of peace from 3:30 until 5:30, when we return home. James feels bad about the stressful day I've had and sends me to the bookstore with Jameson to get away. Yet, I'm tired, so an outting to the bookstore was not really in my plans. I need to fill JJ's prescription, so I decide to go to Target, and see if he forgets about the bookstore. (JJ likes to go to Barnes & Noble because in the Kids' section they have a Thomas the Train trainset that all the kids like).

We get to Target, and I take his prescription to the counter. She tells me it will be ready in 10 minutes, but I didn't give it much thought since I figured I would just pick it up once we finished. JJ and I go on to look at the toys and anything else we can to pass the time. By the time I decide we're ready to go, I head back to the pharmacy window to pick up the prescription. However, it's closed at this point. I was pretty ticked, but I guess I only had myself to blame. I didn't realize they closed the pharmacy before the rest of the store.

We headed back home and get home to find that dinner's not ready. We settle on hot dogs and mac-n-cheese (not the healthiest choice, but definitely one of the quickest). I don't care at all at this point and just eat whatever is in front of me. The night cannot end soon enough.

JJ eats. I feed the babies, who continued fussing on and off. James takes JJ to shower, then I take him up to hang out for a while. I passed out at some point, and James took care of everything else. Thank God! I needed it. It doesn't sound like much, but listening to babies cry ALL DAY LONG makes for a pretty stressful day.

I was short on hands, time, and patience. I hope my children forgive me.

Just for Kicks

I am in the middle of putting together year end documents and projections for my company's new fiscal year. I thought I would post some pictures while I wait on my reports to load just for fun since I came across so many funny ones in My Documents today. I hope they're not just funny to me.

No idea???

Shortly after this picture was taken, my canoe capsized. For a split second, I feared for my life (no, not from drowning but by impalement by another canoe). Yes, I'm short, but they're also really tall.

No idea what Curt is supposed to be in this picture.

One of the more creative Halloween costumes I remember

Are you surprised?

I have a lot more, but it's time to run for now and get to sleep. If I have time later, I'll post some more.

Warning: Bad Parenting Skills Ahead

In 15 years, Jameson will probably look back and blame us for the bad sleeping and eating habits we have given him (although we did our best initially to avoid them). Lately, it's all too much that we choose our battles, and junk food and bedtime are two we often lose. Only time will tell how much damage we have done. We do our best to be the best parents we know how to be, but lack of sleep, newborn twins, and a persistent toddler REALLY make that difficult.

Here is some evidence:

There is one thing I find really hypocritical about most parents (including us). We all want the best for our children, and we try to shelter them from making the same bad choices we make. Here is JJ eating an ice cream sandwich (one of my favorite guilty pleasures). Poor kid has his mom and dad's nasty sweet tooth. Yes, we could have made a healthier food choice, but is it really fair to treat yourself then tell your kid he can't have it? I am sure I will hear about this one from James.

Here's more evidence of what many would consider a bad habit, but it's one of my favorite nighttime activities. JJ likes to curl up in bed with me and watch Justice League Unlimited, Batman, and/or Superfriends. Here he is tonight waiting on me to get him some milk and come watch his shows with him. Maybe once our schedules normalize here, he'll get to bed at a decent hour again. If and when that happens, I will miss our little ritual. I am sure his dad will be happy to see it go.

The Stay-At-Home Mom

Here I am with a 2-year-old and 9 week old twins, and I am wondering where the time has gone.  Thinking back on how our lives have changed over the last year, I realized that having my first child was great.  Nonetheless, it was like the honeymoon of motherhood.  That is to say that motherhood is really a completely different experience once you have more than one child.

Some of the things I don't get to do anymore . . .

1. Nap when the babies nap.  However, there is the rare occasion when they ALL sleep, and I thank God for those moments.
2. Eat breakfast before 10 a.m.  There are days when I am up between 4 and 6 a.m., and I just go ahead and eat simply because I know I might not have the opportunity again until noon.
3. Go out anywhere with just me and the kids.  How exactly do you carry 2 infants and still supervise your 2-year-old in any type of store?  Yeah, that's what I'm still trying to figure out.
4. Stay out anywhere past 10 p.m., and THAT's pushing it.  James and I have done that once to celebrate his birthday, but I don't think my mom is going to fall for that one again anytime soon.
5. Drive a car smaller than a mini-van.
6. Feel caught up on my chores.
7. Change less than 10 diapers a day.  It's time to potty train JJ.

I could go on, but I won't because I take far more joy in the whole new set of things that I DO get to do now.

1. I get to sleep with my kids.  There is nothing more peaceful in life than sleeping with your children.
2. I get to help shape three little lives.
3. See how much JJ loves "my babies", as he calls them.  I love to hear JJ walk out of his bedroom to come wake me up and ask to see his babies every morning.
4. Gain a renewed sense of appreciation for all parents.  No matter what your approach may be, it's not easy, but it's extremely rewarding.
5. I have 3 great excuses for not getting everything done.  I hate to have a huge list of to-do's, but I would hate far more to look back and wish I had spent more time with my kids.
6. Learn something new from or about my children every day.  Each day there is something new with children, as anyone who is a parent will tell you.
7. I get to be "Mom".  There's something really comforting about feeling needed.

I suppose what I am getting at is that life is harder now in many ways, but I would not trade it for simpler days.  Simplicity has it merits, but when it comes to family life, I prefer it be complicated and crazy, but full.

A New Life . . . So Much Promise

Often when I look at my kids, I think about all the opportunity that lies ahead of them. They start with a clean slate. Their young, new lives hold so much promise. I suppose that's why I always think it's heartbreaking when I hear about the loss of a young life. It's sad to think of all the life they had yet to live . . . so many things left undone. Every day I pray to God that I never have to live through the loss of one of my own. I cannot imagine how devastating this must be.

Anyway . . . the loss of a child . . . that's NOT what this blog is supposed to be about, but it's a thought I had as I was composing this post.

I wanted to post about my 3 little ones and my predictions of what I think they might do with their lives. Maybe in 20 years they'll look back at this post (if they look at it at all) and wonder how I knew or laugh at how wrong I was. Either way, it's still kind of fun to speculate.

JAMESON

Tonight, I was watching Jameson play with his Legos, and some time in the last few months I have noticed his play and concentration has developed a bit. He's very focused and methodical when he plans to put something together. Tonight, he was "building a tower" as he told me - " a big one". He laid out all his Lego pieces on the floor and sorted them by size and color. He then proceeded to build several towers with pieces of like colors and sizes. Then, he put those smaller towers together to make larger towers. Every time his towers would fall over he would get very frustrated, but he kept trying.

I see the artistic inclination in him that he gets from his dad, and I wonder if he'll be an architect. He loves to ask us to "build horks" (forts), and he likes to sort and line things up like his dad.

AMELIA

She is full of attitude and not afraid to speak her mind. No, she's not talking yet, but I swear she is screaming (not just crying) and doing a lot of it. She is short on patience and wants what she wants. She is an impatient nurser, and she makes faces when we give her formula. She even spits it out sometimes. She cries or screams through most diaper changes. If I'm up late at night for several hours, I'm probably tending to her. It's early to make predictions for the twins, but I could definitely see her becoming a litigator or an entrepreneur. She likes to have things her way, and she's willing to fight for it.

TRUMAN

Nothing phases Truman. He is going to be my calm, laid-back baby. He's content to just sit in his crib. He cries when he's hungry, but he'll wait if I carry him. He often sleeps through his diaper changes. He loves it when I wash his hair. He's happy if I nurse him, but he'll take the formula just the same. His demeanor in itself is calming to be around him. He reminds me of some of the better professors I remember having in college.

Who knows what they'll do, but I hope they're NOT the next Hugh Heffner. We'll leave that one to their cuz.