HE SPEAKS...

Since I realized it's about time for the babies to utter their first word, I've been trying to drill "mama" into their heads. A few times when I said mama really slow, I swear Will looked at me and said "Daddy" in the same rthym. Weweren't sure he knew what he was doing so didn't count it as his first word. Last night, we had some one-on-one time since Will was awake until 11:00. We had him laying on our bed, and Jon was talking to him. He got him to say "DaDa" several times. I went over and over "Mama". Will looked really hard at me like he was studying me. Then he moved his lips really slow and said "MaMa", but no sound came out! He was concentrating so hard to move his lips that he didn't make any sound, but we are counting it! Both in one night-yeah!

Will and Wesley's Double Dining

Will: This is Will here with my bigger little brother, Wesley, to write our food review of Maison de Mommy.

Wesley: That's right, we have started eating there 3 times a day now! Let's start with breakfast.

Will: Oh, I love breakfast! Rice cereal with bananas- yum!

Wesley: I am not a fan of breakfast. In fact, I have decided to stop eating it. Every time she puts it in my mouth I like to gag and even throw up sometimes.

Will: OK, let's move on to lunch. They served carrots today for the first time. I liked them. It was really funny when Mommy dropped my bowl today, and the carrots went all over the floor and chairs.

Wesley: Yeah, I thought it was really smart of her to bring that big, hairy, yellow thing in to lick it all up, and then trick Brother and Sister into mopping the floor because they love to use the Swiffer. Anyway, I do really enjoy lunch and dinner. My favorite is bananas. It's pretty cool that they introduce a new food every three days at Maison de Mommy.

Will: Yes, let's take a moment to talk about the propreitor and chef, Mommy. Believe it or not, she serves us all three meals! She is single-handedly the hostess, waitress, chef, bus boy, and laundress. How does she do it all?

Wesley: She is great. Sometimes that Daddy person comes for the night shift, but I think he just creates more work for the mommy person because she has to clean up after the mess he makes!

Will: Mommy's more fun to mess with though. Let's tell them about the joke we played on her.

Wesley: That was so funny. We like to confuse her, to keep her guessing. The first time she fed us green beans I acted like I hated them and even gagged and threw them up everywhere!

Will: Yeah, and I ate them all and even yours. Just when she was bragging that I loved them, I gagged on the and have refused to eat them since.

Wesley: I like to mix it up. Sometimes I eat them and sometimes I gag. It's fun to confuse her!

Will: You know what else is fun, singing into your spoon like a microphone:

Wesley: Cool, I'll play mine like a tamborine!

Wesley: Anyway, back to business. We both give Maison de Mommy 2 thumbs up. I mean where else can you get service like that. Do you know anywhere else that you get fed, cleaned, diaper changed, and even rocked to sleep!

Will: Definately 2 thumbs up, love that Mommy girl, but please watch out for this crazy patron!

Dear Pediatrician...

I like you; I really do. You have always been compassionate and knowledgeable taking wonderful care of my children. I even think we could be friends and hang out together if we met in different circumstances. However, the hour we spent together as you saw 3 of my children totally stressed me out.

Yes, I know my 4 old is borderline anemic (though thanks to iron fortified Flintstone vitamins, she's better than she was last visit). I know she should be eating green vegetables and red meat, but could you try to explain to her that goldfish are not a food group?

Thank you for looking at her tonsils that I have been concerned about for over a year. I'm glad you agree with me that they are "gargantuan" (sp?) and probably choking her at night which results in her talking in her sleep and waking me up, but couldn't you pull some strings with your Vanderbilt ear, nose, and throat collegue to get us seen before July???

Can you tell me if there is a medical reason why kids like to prove their mothers wrong? As soon as I marked on your little "normal developement" form that Wesley can't roll over I got very nervous that he wasn't normal. You walk in, and I tell you he can't and wait for you to express concern. We look at him lying on the table, and he rolls over for the first time ever! You tell me that happens lots of times making me wonder, why do kids always want to prove their moms wrong?

I know you have to tell everyone the same thing, but did you happen to notice I have TWO babies? I know I shouldn't rock them both to sleep, but how do I let them "cry it out" when there are TWO of them, and one will wake the other up?

Finally, your most stressful bit of advice: I should already be feeding them baby food THREE times a day???? First off, let me clarify: I'm all about the baby food for 2 reasons: 1. formula is costing us about $90 a week! Obviously, I'm all about 50 cent baby food. 2. I realize this is a step which will lead into them being able to feed themselves, and I couldn't be more on board with that.

However, I'm pretty sure you cover multiplication in medical school and I really hate to bring this up again, but did you happen to notice I have TWO babies, and last time I checked 2 times 3 is 6 times a day you want me to feed messy baby food, wash them off, probably change their clothes, stainwash 6 bibs, etc. My entire day will be preparing for or cleaning up after feedings. I knew this day was coming, but I'm stressed out!

How about this solution, you refer me to a collegue who has had twins and you and I can go to the mall together, if you don't mind hanging out with someone covered in sweet potatoes and bananas!

What Does It Say About My Life...

that the one place Jon chose to hide my Valentine's card where he knew I would find it this morning was...in the wipes case?! He knew if I did nothing else today, I would be changing a poopy diaper! I don't know whether to laugh or cry! At least I got a card this year- way to go J! It was pretty funny too, though I won't write the punch line because his mom reads my blog :)

He also even got the kids to make me a card which is what I want on every occasion. Both of these are more than I've done for him, so I guess I shouldn't complain about him so much!

Through the wonders of the excellent Williamson County Schools education, Jackson was introduced to the "Roses are Red" poem. The Valentine he made Jon and I at school said, "Roses are red, violets are blue, your feet stink, but I love you." I can just imagine a bunch of first grade boys giggling as they made that up.

So, in honor of first grade humor and for my husband who actually got me a card and because I don't have him one bc/ I'm not brave enough to take the twins to the store by myself:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
This diaper stinks,
But I still love you!

Wow, this entry came full circle: what does it say about my life that I went to college as an English major who prided herself on her poetry writing, and now that is the poem I'm writing! I guess there is a season in life for everything, even "roses are red" poems!

This Too Shall Pass? Part 2...

Actually, I doubt this one will pass as grown men seem to retain their 6 year old sense of humor (as evidenced by my husband's latest blog entry). A couple of hours after my moving love fest with my son that inspired my last deep post, this happened...

I was washing dishes when Jackson walked up and put his arms around me. He was hugging me from behind, so I just let my self-satisfied smile shine. Then he starting singing and laughing, "I like big butts, and I cannot lie." Smile quickly faded...

We obviously did not teach him this song. He learned it when he was 3 because at the end of Shrek Donkey sings it to Dragon. We let him sing it at the tender age of 3 because we found it hilarious when he sang his version, "I like big butatanicanwupmenunapie." Unfortunately, we set the precident of letting him sing the song and very recently he learned the real words!

Oh well, my hug high was nice while it lasted!

This Too Shall Pass...

When you are the mother of a son you have a very difficult mission. To successfully bring up any child, but particularly a son, your job is to endow them with confidence to stand on their own 2 feet. With a son you see them take these tentative steps away from the nest way too frequently. It comes with little things such as calling you mom instead of mommy (a REALLY hard one for me), not wanting to be kissed in public, or valuing their friends' opinions where once mine was the most important. I accept these things and want them to be strong men who are successful on their own, but still hug on their mommy! It just seems to be going too fast.

When the storms came through we let the kids fall asleep on the couch. When Jon was carrying a sleeping Jackson to his bed he came in the bedroom and told me, "Look at our baby!" Jackson's feet almost dragged the floor when Jon was holding him. We just stood there looking at him wondering how this happened so fast! In 18 days he will be 7. That sounds so old!

With these things ever in my mind, I try to appreciate every loving thing he does. I saw a scrapbook page in a magazine that said, "We always seem to take pictures of their firsts, but I wish we could know to take pictures of their lasts."

In the last few weeks, my son will just come up and wrap his arms around my waist and stand there. He never says anything and I don't either for feer of embarassing him. I just kiss his head and hold on. I close my eyes and try to use all my senses to remember the exact feel of these moments, to "treasure them in my heart" to pull out decades from now and relive. His head rests much higher now when he hugs me and I don't have to bend down far to kiss the top of his head. The days of wrapping his arms around my leg are gone. He wraps his arms around my waist now, and I just hold on knowing the day is coming when I will wrap my arms around his waist and praying that I raise a son who will, even then as a grown man, hold on and bend his head down to kiss the top of his mine.

Just now as he hugged me like this he said, "I just can't seem to stop hugging you."

I looked into his sweet little face and said, "Promise me you'll never stop, even when you're as big as daddy."

He just smiled, nodded, and lay his head against me. Now I have his promise and look forward to experiencing our relationship as it evolves over the years. I will be so proud when he does finally leave the nest and know he will soar, so proud in fact I'll have to give him lots of hugs to celebrate! After all, he promised...

If Only I Lived In Word World...

Our new favorite show around here is Word World. If you haven't seen it, it's a cute show where everything is made out of the letters that spell that thing, like dog's body is made out of a d, o, and g. My favorite thing about the show (besides the fact that it teaches my daughter how to sound out and spell words- timeout for some bragging: She has read her first couple of books! She's on the third book in the Bob series and is SO proud of herself and so am I!) is that they call the little kids lowercase and the adults are uppercase!

Today as we watched it I got to thinking what would I do if I lived in Word World? If they need something, like bear needed an instrument for the concert she just got the letters h-o-r-n and tada: it became a horn. So, what would I spell? M-A-I-D! Of course, I already have M-O-M, but she only comes every other week and my M-A-I-D would live with me!


Or, I might spell

C-O-O-K!

I could just keep spelling C-A-S-H over and over and that would take care of all of them!

Catchin' Up on the Pics

So many pictures, so little time! The boys are at such a fun age. They are apparently beginning to forgive each other for whatever went on in the womb (for those of you who don't know, they wouldn't look at each other-ever, but now they are finally starting to not only look but-gasp-even smile at each other!). Here they are chillin' out with their pals Winnie and Tigger in their bumbo seats (a wonderful invention). Doesn't that look like so much fun? Another great invention, the exosaucer and bouncy exosaucer. I faced them toward each other hoping they would entertain each other so I could get something done (hope that works for a while). Instead, since they were facing each other when one started crying it set the other one off, backfire!

One of Jon's daddy duties is giving the big kids baths. He heates it and ends up being wetter than they are!

To celebrate the 100th day of school, Jackson had to make something out of 100 pieces of anything they wanted. I let daddy work on this project with him telling him the teacher stressed it had to be his own work. Do you think he listened or did he get into the first grade project and do most of it himself? Yes, we are those parents. Watch out science fairs of the future! I give you SpongeBob Legopants...

Two cute boys with one cute daddy!

How blessed am I? There was a time when we worried that Wesley wasn't smiling. Now we can't get him to stop as he is the happiest baby I've ever seen!

Last week was a big week at our house. On the same day two big events occurred. The first one was when Jackson lost his 2nd front tooth. It was just a few weeks too late to hear the song at Christmas! He looks and sounds so different now!

The other big event was both babies sat up by themselves. I was so excited and had cameras and video cameras going. Jon wasn't glowing like me, so I said, "Why aren't you more excited?" Jackson answered, "because we're boys mom! We don't get excited over stuff like that." He's learning early.

What's so great about being a twin? You always have someone to lean on! Awww.....

Blog Slacker Here!

I feel like such a slacker because I haven't posted lately. I mean Heather had the flu and, much worse, 2 kids with the flu, and she blogged more than me! I know it's not a competition, but for those of you that know me, know my personality is to totally be competitive! Of course, I've composed several posts in my head. Another fun fact about me, I often practice conversations in my head before saying them and now constantly compose my blogs when good blog moments are happening in life. We must do it a lot now, espcially since Jon started his own blog (talk about a slacker- he hasn't posted in 2 weeks!). Now when we're taking funny pics of the kids or they do something funny we compete (there I go again) to be the first to say, "I'm going to use that on my blog!" Even Jackson is getting on the action. He did something that made us laugh and said, "Put that on your blog!" So, here's a funny thing he did today:
(Belmont will probably ask for my English major diploma back after this blog because it is going to be all over the place!)
He was VOLUNTARILY changing Will's diaper (I think he was trying to impress Donnie who was here!). Will was wiggling and trying to turn over (more about that later!) so, Jackson was having a hard time getting his diaper on. Jackson said, "He's wiggling more than a chicken with his butt on fire!" Funny, but very riskee (riskay?) humor for a first grader. About the "butt" word, let me take this opportunity to apologize to those of you whose kids hear my kids say it. Yes, I know it's not a nice word, and we try very hard not to say it and not let the kids say it. It seemed to be a constant struggle until I finally realized everyone in my extended family says it. Apparently, it is a relatively new no-no word! There's no way I can retrain them, so again I'm sorry in advance for when your kids say, "But Jackson says it!"
One reason I haven't blogged lately is I was sick for a couple of days, and I've been battling 2 twins with really bad colds. Luckily, they haven't been terribly sick because I honestly don't know if I could survive 2-yikes! I have learned 2 fun facts about the twins with their colds.

1. Will HATES, HATES having his nose wiped! He throws his head from side to side and screams. Which is really bad because I have become OCD in regards to baby's noses! It's like my sad-need-to-get-out-of-the-house new hobby! I know, YUCK!

2. After Wesley coughs he growls in his already low, made extra low with cold voice. I wish I could show you a video because every time he coughs he makes that little grunt like "What was that all about?"

Rambling blog slacker signing off now because it's time to go convince Jackson to get his shoes on, try to make Ashton's wind-swept hair reasonably presentable, wake up a loudly snoring daddy to take care of 2 babies, grab my Bible and head to my new Bible study, this non-bedrester is so excited about being able to go to women's Bible study that she's doing 2!

When God Causes You to Remember...

Sometimes out of the blue a memory can come upon you for no reason at all, or maybe for the best reason of all...
I was standing in my kitchen last week when I had this overwhelming memory. I remembered the day that the ultrasound technician found a problem with Baby A's heart. It was the most vivid memory, and I remembered the fear I felt as I hid in the doctor's office talking to Jon who was hundreds of miles away. I don't know if I've ever felt so alone since no one was at the doctor's with me and Jon was so far away. I remember praying and trying so hard not to panic. I made it through without completely loosing it (my mom and Aunt Joan filling in for Jon), and Jon broke every speed record in the book getting to the hospital. When we got home I heard my children pray for God to fix Baby A's heart and knew that those sweet voices had a direct line to heaven.
So, why did I relive this so vividly out of nowhere 8 months later? I think God was speaking to me (He's actually been talking to me a lot lately, it's pretty cool when you take the time to listen!). He wants me to know that I wasn't alone. I'm never alone. When I am scared and helpless, feeling abandoned and frantic, desperate and vulnerable, close my eyes and remember. Remember there was a time that I faced every mother's worse nightmare of illness of a child, no that WE faced it, He and I and He daily and faithfully answers prayers. Why does God let bad things happen to good people? I can't fully answer that question. I can't tell you why my sweet baby's heart was healed the same day 10 others weren't, but I know we can learn from all situations, good and bad and that all prayers are answered though not always necessarily how we think they should be.
So, I am so sorry I forgot. I live my life day to day without thinking of what could have been. That's ok, I don't believe God wants us to dwell on the negative, but I do think He wants us to remember that He is faithful. He does answer prayers for the good of His people. God is good, all the time...SEE...
"I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him." 1st Samuel 1:27