6 Months!

Oh, I'm so far behind!!  In many things, but the most fun thing on my list of things to get caught up on is posting a blog!  There's no reason for the behind-ness.  Sometimes it just goes that way...

The babes' 6 month anniversary was Sunday!!  (Is it a birthday?  An anniversary?  Just another day?)  In honor of this HALF A YEAR mark, here's some lists...

Things I LOVE about my 6 month olds:
1.  They are awake so much more!  They take 2 naps a day now, not 14. 

2.  When they are awake they PLAY!!  They play with each other, they play with us, they play with toys, they play with their toes - prescious.

3.  They ingest more than breast milk!  This has been fun and also made it to the un-posted list of things I spend too much time talking to other moms about and googling.  Food is hard, people.  Spoons are hard, gag reflexes are hard, clean-up is hard...but mostly, it's fun.

4.  When I snuggle them, they snuggle back.  This is impossible to describe, and I of course don't have a picture of it, but you know exactly what I mean.  They put their chubby little hands on my neck, they rest their chubby little cheeks on my shoulder.  Sigh.  Maybe this on should have been #1.  Love.

Lack of chubbiness                                                               Chubbiness

5.  They "know" us.  I'm the love of their lives (as my friend Daisy says), their best friend, basically their fave.  I know this will change.  I know it's partly because I'm with them 24/7.  I know it's mostly because I am their food source.  Don't care.  I love it.

Things I miss about their younger selves:

1.  They used to nap more.

2.  They used to stay right where I put them and only lay still.

That's all.  Each milestone is awesome!  Everyday I think 2 things in crazy person succession.  "Never change", then "I can't wait to see who you become".  You can't have it both ways.  I can't wait to see who they become.

***Most pictures today were of Kate, don't love her more, that's just how it worked out.***

See you soon,

The Fave

Sporty Spice

If I were one of the Spice Girls, I would not have been Sporty Spice.  I would like to think I was Posh Spice.  In all reality, I probably would have been called Bossy Spice, or another B-word Spice.  Whatever, I digress...Sporty Spice.

I'm not athletic.  Not even kinda.  I was the girl who, in Jr. High sports, told the coach, "Don't worry, it won't hurt my feelings if you don't play me.  My parents won't be mad, they know.  I'm happy to sit on the bench."  And sit on the bench I did.  I kept score, I started chants, I supplied the gum and sunflower seeds.  I was the best bench sitter you ever did see.  If anything, you could KINDA say that I golfed.  But, already, this is one of those things that I think I remember me being better than I actually was.  I'm not coordinated.  I'm not fast.  I'm kinda strong, but weight lifting never appealed to me as an actual sport.  Most importantly...I hate to sweat.  And, I'm a sweat-er.  Like the kind of sweat-er who can stand in an air conditioned room, look at the sun, think about exercise, and start to sweat.  I come from a long line of sweat-ers.  I can't help it.  Some people come from a line of athletes, of jumpers or runners or throwers...I come from sweat-ers.

In my adult years I have tried.  I have been on a few intramural teams.  I have joined gyms.  I have jogged.  I've even entered a few races.  Still, it just does not appeal.  Enter Dan.  Dan is not particularly athletic (sorry, love), but he does enjoy working out.  (Gag.)  He remembers the long-term, over-all health benefits of exercise and wants that for himself, and (woe is me) me.  Recently he has started a referral relationship with a trainer at a gym.  He really enjoys the approach this guy takes, and has had good results for some patients.  Well, my sweet Dan is a fast learner.  He knows that if he non-chalantly mentions the gym, I won't go.  If he suggests we "go together sometime", I'll put it off 'til the next blue moon.  Even if he offers to babysit and heavily pushes me to go, I'll just push back and stay in close proximity to my couch.  BUT, (again, woe is me) he knows that if there is an appointment made with my name on it, not only will I not miss it, but I won't be late.  This brings us to last Tuesday, 10:00am.  I went to a gym. 

It was torture.  As the initial appointment with a trainer often begins with assessments, this one did too.  I'm telling you, ladies, you cannot suck in and change your body fat percentage.  You can't take back last night's dessert as you step onto the scale.  And if your legs are going to quiver doing squats, there is little you can do to tell them to stop it!  The only saving grace was that the dear trainer didn't tell me any numbers, didn't make any faces or noises, and when I asked "Did score better than Dan on anything?" with so much hope in my eyes, he kindly said "On some things...".  I like him.  After all, if I'm going to play, I'm going to win, even if it's just due to someone else's charity.

Since, I've been back twice.  We spent some money, and therefore, I'll go.  (Yet another thing my crafty husband has picked up about me.)  I am still uncoordinated.  I still hate to sweat.  I still miss my couch while I'm there, but (shhhhhh, don't tell him) I feel pretty good about going.

Dan already thinks are girls are probably going to be athletic.  I don't even know how to make the emoticon for the face I'm making at that thought.  I'll let him hope.  Maybe it will be so.  What do I know?  I do know this...my Kate has the sweating gene.  I'm going to try my hardest to act like it's cool and fun to sweat...maybe she'll never know how I truly feel.

Oh so sporty...

So sore, I probably won't be able to type tomorrow,

E

Friday Feast

I just made the most tasty dinner ever, and I thought of you.  Isn't that nice?  The main reason I sat down to type this blog is because I'm so full I can't do chores and if I sit on the couch, I'll be out like a light...and it's only 7.  But let's go with "Isn't that nice?".  I wish I was a little more Pioneer Woman-ish, but I didn't think to take any pics.  Until now.  And now it's all half eaten (ok, all gone) and there are dirty dishes and shiny, full faces.  It'd be gross.  Besides, if you read the Twilight series first, then watched the movies, you'll agree that sometimes your imagination is WAY better than 'real' life.

Roast.  Roast Beef.  Roast Beast.  Roast and Taters.  Call it what you want, everytime I have it, I think to self "Why, oh why don't you make this more often?".  Then my rear-end answers, but we won't get into that.  Can't claim that I invented this concoction, but my momma might have, and I paid attention...get ready, it's super complicated.

I make mine in a crock pot.  Start with a roast.  Salt and pepper every visible side.  Plop it in the pot.  Next, half some potatoes (today I used fingerlings).  Then quarter an onion or shallot or whatever you have.  Open a bag of already peeled and clean tiny carrots.  Throw all that in there around the hunk of meat.  Salt and pepper the veggies.  Put it on low, cover it, and WALK AWAY.  That part is the nicest and, in about 5 hours, the hardest part of this recipe!  The end.  I heart beef.

Baklava.  I know.  Pretty fancy.  Worth every stinking minute.  I had some phyllo dough in the freezer from one of our cooking/freezer days and the recipe on the back of the box was for baklava.  If you haven't had this, I'm sorry.  If you have, loved it, and didn't know you could make it at home.  I'm sorry again.  I'm sorry because, it's almost swimsuit season, and I may not be around the same pool you are with my baklava backside to make yours look better.  Be careful.  Don't be like me.  Have a normal person size serving.  It's ok if the remaining isn't "squared off".  If your hubs wants some, make him get it himself - you can't be trusted.  Oh my.  Worth.  Every.  Calorie.

Drifting off into my diabetic coma...
Peace out,
E

Tie Ball Game!

Thursday morning I was defeated.  DEFEATED, I tell you.  I'm not a very competitive person until it's a competition, and I have made the quest to sleep through the night a competition - me vs. the babes.  *Disclaimer: they're good sleepers.  We get up 1-2 a night still but usually they nurse or just need their pacifier and go right back down.*  I had VERY high hopes that starting solid food would make them sleep through the night.  Immediately.  Not so.  We had reason to hope at first...we've even had a couple 6-7 hour stetches of sleep.  But here's a little tale of Wednesday and Thursday night.

Wednesday night.
I would say we went into this night on a fairly even playing field.  There'd been a few nights of status quo, a few days of routine naps and outtings, and decent amounts of solids actually making it "down the hole".  Wednesday evening I had the bright idea to try carrots.  So far they'd only had sweet potatoes and while they had done well and seemed happy, I was broadening their foodie horizons.  They no-likey carrots.  We had gags, terrible faces, that all over body shake that if Dan would have been home and I could have gotten on video would be viral by now.  I don't think ANY of it made it "down the hole".  At this point, I was not discouraged at all.  It was new, they had done so well with the sweet potatoes, I had high hopes and no fears about one night of no solids in their little bellies.  WRONG.  I guess my babes had grown accustomed to that full feeling.  They needed it, they missed it.  No amount of milk could take it's place.  But they spent the night nursing every 1.5-2 hours trying to fill the hole.  Mommas surviving those first few months when this is normal and to be expected - God bless you.  You will move past it, it will get better, ugh.  So.  Thursday morning: Babies 1, Momma 0.

Thursday night.
I don't have it all figured out, but I'm no dummy and I NEED MY SLEEP!  My plot to out-smart the little monsters started early.  I decided to add a morning "meal" of solids and try the new food then.  It still got introduced, they still hopefully won't eat only sweet potatoes for the rest of their lives, but we would sleep.  Carrots on day 2 went better (per Dan, I was at work, exhausted).  They had their new food, then milk the rest of the day, and sweet potatoes for supper.  Those girls LOVE sweet potatoes.  I was doing supper time alone.  Both girls in Bumbos on the counter, one Momma, one bowl, one spoon.  (Judge if you must, I'm sure there are too many food safety violations to even count.  I don't care.  They suck on each others toes and fingers, slobber on the same toys, and I can't handle 2 bowls and 2 spoons!  So THERE.)  Anywho...I could not shovel it in fast enough.  It was a mess, but they had their tummies full.  And we got up ONCE last night!!  Momma 1, Babies 0 (figuratively, I think they think they're still winning!)

Maybe everyone in the world already knows this.  Maybe it shouldn't have felt like such a victory.  Maybe I shouldn't feel like I should call GMA to be a guest to introduce my new way of WINNING, but I do.  Deal.

Clean, full babies.  My new favorite kind.

Love.

The Winner

P.S. I received my first-ever blog "shout-out"!!  I'm on a list of favorites posted by my friend Tracy.  Read her blog, I love it.  Read the other favorites.  Read, read, read...comment, comment, comment.  It makes us feel good.  The Blessed Life - Five Things Friday (or if that doesn't work, 'cause I have no faith in my "link" skills, go to http://theblessedlife-tracy.blogspot.com/2011/04/five-things-friday-blog-edition-part-1.html)

Home

If you were just learning English and had to be around me the word "home" would be one of the most confusing.  You'd think it would be the THEIR, THEY'RE, THERE fiasco, or the ACCEPT, EXCEPT problem, or, most troublesome for me the LAY, LIE, LAIN, LAID, LYING, LAYING - AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!  But nope, if you were hanging out with me, especially this past weekend you would need ole Webster to help you with the word "home". 

While in ABQ preparing to go HOME for Easter I kept having to think of things we would need from HOME.  The girls' sweet Easter dresses, 49 diapers, my Spanx (teehee, a girl will never learn!), camera, phone, etc...Mom and Dad were here (from HOME, visiting our HOME in ABQ) and it made the trip HOME so nice.  We had 2 cars, 4 adults, 2 babes, 2 car seats, and 1 smelly dog.  We divided and conquered.  It took us longer than usual, but we had no schedule, and since Mom and Dad weren't at HOME waiting on us, but enjoying Lauren's screaming in the backseat right along with us, we took our time!  It's a long road no matter how you look at it, but I'm thinking looking at it rear facing in Lauren's chair must be the worst.  Bless her little heart!

We had such a nice time at HOME.  We got to see all the aunts and uncles, grandmas and papas, and cousins galore.  We met the soon to be newest member of the family (Congrats, Haley and Blake!!!).  We saw our church family.  We ate entirely too much.  Entirely.  Oh my.  It was awesome!

Easter is a strange holiday.  As a Christian, it is one of the most emotional, hard to wrap my mind around, awesome holidays.  As a consumer, it is such a sweet time for kids - the pastels, the bunnies, the eggs, the chocolate.  Our girls are, of course, too small to appreciate the consumer part, so I spent most of Holy Week with a frog in my throat.  The sacrifice God made for us...it became even more powerful now that I have children.  I cannot imagine.  I am so grateful.  What a wonderful Savior!

So glad to have spent it at HOME with our family.  So glad to be HOME to rest and recover from all of the fun.  So glad I don't have to teach anyone mastery of the English language.

Love.

Keepin' It Real

While my aunt and cousin were in town last weekend they called me on the carpet about a few things.  I'd be "confessing" to some less than mother of the year award behavior and they would say "Now THAT is the stuff you need to be blogging about!".  So, here it goes - the real stuff.

1.  The girls are now almost 6 months old.  I started this blog when they were around 4 months old.  From birth to 4 months not only did I not blog, I didn't "do" much of anything!  Newborns are WORK!  They have always been good babies.  But there have always been 2 of them!  There were days that I didn't get dressed.  Days when I called Dan 14 times between 5:00pm and 6:30pm checking to see what time exactly he would be home.  Days when it seems I ONLY fed, changed, or walked the floor with my two little swaddled bundles.  I cried.  A lot for a girl who never cries.  I would cry when they cried, I would cry when they were both quiet for a while, I cried when Dan prayed at supper, I cried when he left, I cried when I saw his car pull in the drive.  Looking back now it was a very short time.  We survived.  I'll do it again.  BUT, if you are a new momma or expecting momma and you read this blog, please remember that each month gets easier.  And, it's ok if the first few are tough.  You're the only Momma your baby has ever known, you can't "mess up" in their eyes, and really that's all that matters.

2.  I'm obsessed with Monopoly at Albertson's.  Albertson's is running a scam (I'm pretty sure).  For certain purchases you get Monopoly game pieces.  You can win anything from $5 to $5000 worth of groceries.  Obsessed!  Now, I haven't bought something I don't need just to get a game piece, but I have definitely bought a different brand of a usual item to get one.  And, here's the confession - I sometimes (ok, everytime) bring the girls in the house, leave them in their car seats, and open all the little tickets and put them on my gameboard before I get them out of their seats...EVEN IF THEY ARE CRYING.  Yip, I said it.  There.

3.  Almost everytime I'm out running errands, park, and get ready to go in I have a moment of pause when I actually consider if it would be ok if I leave the babes in the car and run really fast.  I'm talking about running in for a bag of ice, or to drop off some mail...things that if I lived in Laverne I would probably do without pause.  The what-if's always stop me.  I never actually do.  But, I do have that thought occasionally.  Don't report me.

4.  I let Kate fall off the couch.  Then, later, I let Lauren fall too.  I really try to not play favorites.

5.  The first month, I always, I mean everynight, always thought that I had a baby in my arms while sleeping.  "Is this a baby?" became something Dan just said in passing to me.  It was never a baby, but I always thought maybe...??  I also got very confused about how many babies we had in the first few weeks.  Middle of the night, up to feed them, and I'd ask Dan "Are there 2 or 3 of them?".  I think I just always felt outnumbered.

6.  Kate makes this adorable pouty face when she first starts crying.  Sometimes I let her cry longer than needed 'cause I just like to look at her sweet lips.

There.  I'm sure there's more.  I'm sure there's worse.  But for today it's all I have in me.  Just keepin' it real...

Mother of the Year,
E.P.

April 16!!!

I know...it's the 19th...but, when you are the daughter of a Tax Man, today's April 16th!!!!  My dad is a CPA in Laverne, America.  He is so good at what he does.  He cares about his clients, he works hard, he is a good boss, he puts up with some things I would have nipped in the bud years ago, and through it all he genuinely enjoys it.  (This all from the prospective of spectator, but I still think it's pretty accurate.)  BUT, April 16 has always been a big day for our family!  Dad works A LOT from January 1 - April 15.  Like, a lot, a lot. 

When we were little, I would have ranked April 16 right up there with Thanksgiving, 4th of July, etc.  It was a holiday!  Maybe not birthday or Christmas style, but big.  Our holiday started on April 15 at about 5 pm.  Darin and I would get home from school and know it was going to be a fun evening!  We would play in the backyard with one ear trained on the alley.  Dad always walked to work (and still does), and we could hear his coins or keys jingling in his pocket.  It was so exciting!  We would usually then pack up and head to the farm so that he could "smell around".  He and Mom were so tired, but we still in someway celebrated that Tax Season was OVER!

Then, for the rest of the year, Dad would usually be around in the evenings and weekends.  It was a big day.  It still is a big day!  Mom and Dad are headed this way.  We are going to play and eat and I've told the girls many times over the last few weeks that they can nap all they want with Pop!  So, Happy April (16th)!!!!  Get outside and "smell around!"