So my really long week is really finally over.

Eric’s plane from California has landed at Port Columbus, and he should be rapidly moving toward home now. I am so excited…I really missed him!

And I am so looking forward to having help with the twins again full-time. And to a fancy dinner tonight with my handsome man. And to a weekend of just hanging out together.

Happy Friday!

(PS – I realize most of you probably didn’t know Eric was gone, but I had decided not to mention that fact on FB and my blog. You know, it seemed a bit unwise to tell the world I was alone with two babies for a week!)

So much for the end of the long haul (see last post).

After that one good night’s sleep, we’ve been downhill since. They aren’t sleeping. I’m not sleeping. I have no idea why.

And I hit a wall. Actually more than one.

One was at 4:30 am last night, when I was pleading with God to make my babies sleep and get me through the night.

There was another one about 4:30 this afternoon, when my nerves had finally had all of Alex’s shrieking that they could take. I left him and Erin in their high chairs in the kitchen and went to a different place and cried.

I hate hitting those walls. But I need Friday to get here fast.

And I’d appreciate any/all prayers that I’d survive this week with some level of sanity intact. Right now, that’s starting to look questionable.

Thanks.

In some ways, it’s over.

We had three nights of very little sleep and very busy days, colds and fevers and cutting teeth, and lots of crankiness (from me and the twins! ).

But last night, we had a good night’s sleep, and our colds are easing, and the fevers are down (or gone).

So glad that long haul is over (or ending anyway)!

Unfortunately, this week is going to be a long haul in itself.

I will definitely be glad when Friday comes.

And I am looking forward to some fun things this week (like spending time with grandmas, cleaning up my house after the weekend of sickness, and going to a banquet with Eric on Friday night), so maybe the long haul won’t be so bad overall!

Happy Monday!

So I expected to have a bad night on Wednesday, given how high Erin’s fever was that evening. But she slept pretty well…then.

Last night, not so much.

I think I was up 6-8 times through the night with one or the other. Erin had trouble settling down. Alex had trouble staying down after midnight. I think he’s developing our little virus friend, though he’s not got a fever yet.

But with all of that…Mommy did not sleep so well either.

So we’re going to be getting good, on-time naps today. And maybe I’ll even break down and go back to bed for a bit. (I usually don’t nap in the day because I don’t sleep at night when I do.) Either way, though, I don’t see that a lot of energy is going to be expended at my house today.

At least it’s Friday…

So it’s been something of a busy week. We had a fairly normal day on Monday and Bible study on Tuesday.

Yesterday we met some friends in the Mother of Twins Club at the zoo for an Earth Day activity. Well, my kids were too little for the activity (a scavenger hunt), but we had a good time seeing animals and having lunch with friends.

Alex definitely loved the zoo. He thinks all animals are fantastic. He gasps, points, and says, “Pretty!” every time he gets a good look at one. At least, we think that word is, in fact, “pretty.” It’s our best guess, but whatever it is, it is a high praise (and too cute)!

Erin, on the other hand, loves looking at animals. But if they get too close…well, not so much. A duck waddled over to the bench we were using during snack time to see if we might drop anything (we didn’t), and apparently, the 2-3 feet between him and the stroller was NOT far enough for Erin. She cried and cried until I shooed him away (he pooped before leaving, dumb bird). Apparently, ducks are rabid, biting creatures in Erin’s world.

So we had a good time at the zoo, though it was a quick tour and I didn’t have the camera.

Unfortunately, the day sort of tanked after that.

After we got home, Erin’s slightly runny nose turned into a real illness. I realized, picking her up from a (very short) nap, that she was really hot. And since then, she’s had a fever (running 101-102), had a nose like a faucet, and was pretty fussy all evening. So, it appears we’ve developed a virus of some sort. She still had the fever this morning, but didn’t seem to feel quite so bad. We shall see how the rest of the day goes…

So while we were planning to go back to the zoo this morning to meet another friend, that was cancelled in favor of staying home and taking naps and cuddling and encouraging drinks and alternating every few hours between Tylenol and Motrin. Hopefully that will keep her fever in a mild range. Though if her fever goes much higher, I’m planning to call the doctor. But for now, I think it’s just a plain old virus and there’s nothing special to do until it leaves.

So anyway, that is our saga for this week. Hope your day is an un-virus-y one! Happy Thursday!

I am tired today. Alex had a rough night.

Of course, the movie we thought was 2 hours long, was more like 2 1/2 hours long. So we stayed up WAY too late on that count.

And then Alex had a rough night, too.

So I’m tired.

But Bible study was good this morning.

And both babies are napping.

And we’re going to the zoo tomorrow (and maybe Thursday, too).

And the sun is out (sort of).

And I got 15 free songs for my iTunes collection yesterday.

And I don’t have much to do today.

And I can go to bed super early tonight if I want to.

So, really, I would say that a little bit of tired isn’t too terribly bad.

Happy Tuesday!

I was productive today.  I guess I am finally past the 1st trimester for good!

Besides normal baby stuff, I made a meal plan (for April), lost and found my coupon holder, cleaned my desk, cleaned all the bathrooms (I won’t tell you how long it’s been since that happened last! Yikes!), uploaded a bunch of music to iTunes for Eric, made dinner for friends with a new baby, went grocery shopping, and cleaned the kitchen when I got back. 

Needless to say, I’m tired.

Odd thing at the grocery store: I actually bought enough of the right items to get one of their promotions.  I was supposed to get, at checkout, a redemption code for free iTunes music (15 songs).  Instead, the receipt printer ran out of paper in the middle of that printout.  So I have half a code.  I’m not normally like this, but this time, I actually stopped at the Customer Service desk and asked what they could do for me.  Supposedly, someone is going to call me tomorrow.  We shall see.  We shall see.

Fun thing: I record Dancing with the Stars and watch it the next day because I can’t stand to watch it live (it takes too long).  So today I was watching last night’s results show while I ate my lunch, and I realized that Erin was dancing along, spinning and twirling exactly in time to the music.  Too cute!  And when a hip hop song was on, Alex started clapping along, as if his little hands just had to keep time.  I guess they have some musicality in them after all!

Tomorrow, I’m planning to visit my parents’ workplaces in the morning.  I’ll drive to C-ville, see my mom, drive to my dad’s office and have lunch with him with the twins.  Hope it goes well!

And, now…finally…some “recent” pics of the twins!

So this is from Christmas, obviously, but I  had to show you the adorable outfits my MIL made!

First Snow

Cute outfits and a family photo shoot (and actually, my hair is a bit different now, just fyi)

Random cute shots of the babies…

Happy Wednesday (or Thursday, depending on when you read this)!

I promised myself I wasn’t going to post until I could do a picture and/or video post. But dang it, I’m still working on that. So here’s a quick update until I can do the really good post…

– Alex has been waking up between 5:30 and 6:00 am. Sometimes he just gurgles to himself until he goes back to sleep. Sometimes he “needs” me before he’ll sleep again. It’s getting old, though. I am tired of being awake 30-45 minutes before I need to be up.

– I don’t know where you stand on disciplining children. But yesterday I saw an article about a recent study that “proves even more” that spanking is horrible and results in violent children. Personally, I don’t buy it. But even funnier (and ironic), about 45 minutes after reading the article, I finally convinced my children to stay lying down so they could nap by popping them both lightly on the behind. They wouldn’t take me seriously until then. And neither have been more violent so far, though both got decent naps once they laid still! Hmmm…

– Alex had a couple of days of constipation over the weekend. He filled a lot of diapers on Monday. He’s feeling much better now.

– I’m very excited that Karen and I are going to a play on Friday. It’s a local high school, so it won’t be great. But it’s been a long time since I’ve seen any theatre at all. Can’t wait!

– I need a new book to read. Any suggestions?

Okay, enough about me. I promise a picture and/or video post before the end of this week. Happy Tuesday!

So I think we might be moving towards days of one naps. But I’m not exactly sure.

Last week, Erin decided that she didn’t need to sleep in the afternoons. Alex would still crash for 2 or more hours both morning and afternoon. But not Erin. She’d sleep in the morning, and then, come afternoon, she’d play happily in her crib for hours. But not sleep. And then she’d be super-crabby by dinner time.

And honestly, I’m not ready to be a one-nap family if only one of them is really there. My days would be crazy complicated if Alex naps twice, but Erin only once. Yikes!

So this week, I decided to try doing only afternoon naps. Tuesday, we hung out all morning with friends. Yesterday, we ran errands. Both were very tired by lunch time. So after lunch, down they both went.

Both days, Alex woke up after an hour and a half, screaming. I think he had gas, but honestly, I have no real idea. Both days, I got him back down after a little bit and he’d sleep another hour and a half. But that 30-45 minute interlude was not fun.

And Erin slept for almost 4 hours on Tuesday (right through Alex’s fit). But yesterday, he woke her up. So she slept for 1.5-2 hours, was up for a bit with Alex, and then played in her crib for another hour without sleeping. And got crabby after dinner.

Anyway, today we didn’t go anywhere, so I decided to try a 2-nap day again to see what happens. Both are down now. And I’ll try again after lunch and see how they do.

But please, please, please, if you have a second, I’d love to hear how your kids transitioned to one-nap days. And how old they were when they did. Some perspective would be much appreciated!

AND in other news:

– The babies are 16-months old today.

– They love to play with “toys” with buttons (remotes, cell phones, calculators). So I bought them $1 calculators at Target yesterday so they don’t destroy our good ones. And they have spent the last day holding them to their ears like cell phones. And they giggle hysterically if I see them and act like it’s a real call, “Hello? Is this Erin? Hello?” So funny!

– We hung up swings for them in our back yard. HUGE hit. HUGE!

– While at our friends’ house on Tuesday, we discovered Erin’s love of dress-up clothes. She wore a tutu, multiple strands of beads and a hair band for most of our time there. And both of them LOVED the sunglasses. So I bought them their own pairs at Meijer yesterday. I’m working on getting pics…

– Our friends also donated a Cozy Coupe to our cause. The babies have been playing in it/fighting over it/loving on it for the last two days. They haven’t figured out how to move it (though Erin will push Alex in it). But they love the steering wheel and the working door. So fun.

SO obviously, I owe you a ton of pictures…I will work on that…but until then, Happy Thursday!

…why my son has started getting awake between 5:30 and 6:00 am for a week or so.

…how to teach toddlers (16 months old) to come when they are called.

…why I can’t seem to get back into reading the way I used to be.

…when it’s going to stop getting cold altogether.

…why my husband still loves me even when he knows the real me.

…or, why, for that matter, God loves me as much as He does, too.

…whether or not those belt extenders for pregnant chicks really work.

…how to really start teaching my kids about God.

…why programs “for women” are not really helpful to me.

…why people put vague comments on other people’s FB pages that make those who “don’t know” wonder what’s going on in the lives of their friends.

…what is going on in your lives this week. Please post and let us all know!

I think that’s a good start on my wondering mind…happy Tuesday!