I was hoping to do a picture post this week, but sickness has made that unlikely…here’s the scoop…

Alex’s new meds seem to be doing the trick for his ears, though I’m wondering if he’s starting to teethe again.

Erin was fine for a whole 4-5 days, and this morning, she has a runny nose again.  Great.

We found out on Tuesday/Wednesday that the families who were also at Monday’s picnic all had the stomach flu.  So I was just waiting for the babies to come down with it.  So far they haven’t.

But I did.

I started to feel yucky on Wednesday evening.  I woke up about 11:30 and, for the next hour, laid in bed wondering how much longer it would take for the end to come.  It did, at about 12:30, with my first session of vomiting since high school.  Boy have I not missed that activity.

I felt really crummy all day yesterday, mostly from lack of sleep, I think.  Thankfully, Eric was home all day (see next paragraph), so he helped some.  I got a 2-hour nap.  I felt better for a bit.  Started to feel worse in the evening again.  But no more throwing up.  And I got a really good night’s sleep last night.  So this morning, I’m doing much better.  Not normal, but better.

And finally, Eric.  He had been fighting a sinus-y headache that started last Saturday.  Then came home early on Tuesday (3:30).  Then he came home at lunch on Wednesday.  He didn’t go to work yesterday.  He intended to go in today, but woke up with what I had yesterday (no vomiting yet, though).  So he’s home again today. 

So that is our sick, sick household.

Thankfully, the babies haven’t been sick to their stomachs.  Praying that continues.  And now that I’m a little better, I can deal more effectively with everyone else not feeling well.  It’s really hard to take care of people when you feel like crap!

Anyway, hopefully, I’ll get a picture post done…maybe Monday.  Happy weekend to you all!

Like me!  (and my family can stop snickering now… )

The babies turned 9 months old yesterday.  We have our next well-visit next week.

Alex does still have a pretty bad ear infection.  The doctor prescribed him the next level of antibiotic.  Good side: it only has to be given once a day.   Bad side: He hates it as much as he did the pink stuff (and it stinks).   Odd side: it may turn his poop maroon. 

Erin is starting to push up into a bear-crawl position.  She doesn’t move yet, but it’s funny to see her standing there with her little butt in the air.

Alex is getting pretty good at rolling and spinning to get where he wants to go.  And I think he can crawl sideways a bit.  Or that might be an accident.  Who knows…

Erin dances to any music that is playing.  If she’s sitting on the floor, it looks like rocking.  If you’re holding her, she bounces.  It’s too cute!

I finally saw Alex take a toy back from Erin when she took it away.  Go Buddy!

We are trying to get back into eating with our fingers again (it was all I could do to get them to nurse and eat off the spoon while they were sick).  Alex loves his puffs.  Erin apparently prefers crackers that she can hold and nibble off of. 

Erin has the cutest new smile she’s started doing.  I think it has to do with teething.  I haven’t gotten a good picture of it yet, but I’ll post one when I do.

During a recent nap, I found Alex on his tummy with both the stuffed animals that are currently in his crib on top of him, like they had wrestled him to the ground and pinned him there.  I would have loved to see how that one happened…

I’ve been trying to upload some pics to Shutterfly, but it’s not working well.  I think it’s my husband’s Linux system that’s causing me issues, even though it should work just fine.  We really do need to get some pictures printed soon…

And that’s where we stand for this morning.  Happy Wednesday!

We’re now entering our third straight week of sickness.

And I think we’re headed back to the pediatrician’s office this morning.  After almost a week on antibiotics, Alex is not really better.  We’re still getting up at least 2 times a night, most nights, to a shrieking little boy.  The only thing that helps are the ear drops we got for Erin.  And they only last a couple of hours.  So when he starts to wake back up…more screaming. 

Someone told me last night that it could just be drainage from the ears which sometimes hurts worse than the actual infections.  And it could be that.  But I’m not sure enough to wait another day (and night) or two and see.  I think I’m going to make sure that things are getting better (or not), and that means another trip to the doctor.

In other news…

We had a very busy weekend, but it was pretty good.

• Saturday was a birthday party for my dad in C-ville.  Family gatherings with all the babies are getting very LOUD!
• Sunday was church, grilled chicken for dinner, a bridal shower for Kimberly, and a relaxed evening with Eric.
• Yesterday was spent making pies (apple and chocolate meringue) and then heading to a Labor Day party hosted by a friend from church.  We knew no one, other than the hosts, and it was actually really nice to meet new people and do something different for a change!

And I think that’s all I’ve got for this morning.  Happy Tuesday!

• Erin is feeling MUCH better.  She is almost entirely back to her normal jolly self.  I didn’t realize how low she was for a few days there.  So glad she’s on the upswing now…I missed her happiness!

• Alex doesn’t seem to like the taste of amoxicillan (sp?).  Can’t wait to wrestle that into him for the next 10 days.

• The day was pretty long yesterday.  The babies were okay, but I was just tired enough that I was mentally fogged-up.  At least some.  So it’s possible that at least one baby got a dose of medicine sooner than they should have, at least once yesterday.  Maybe that’s why they slept so well last night…

• We all slept pretty well last night.  Lovely.

• I have no plans for the day. Lovely.

• I am scheduled for a haircut tomorrow. Lovely.

• I spent much of yesterday working through the (almost 1,000) pictures we’d taken of the babies that had yet to be processed and posted.  I loved doing it, too (have I mentioned how cute my babies are!) Once they’re turned into jpeg format, I can post some.  And then I’m going to do a caption contest or something.  Some of the faces they make are just too funny…

• I still have to get my dad a b-day present for Saturday’s party (his actual birthday, too).  I’m sort of leaning towards framed pictures of the babies for his office.  Is that a copout?

• Okay, that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.  Happy Thursday!

Alex called a family meeting at midnight last night. 

Well, actually, he called for me (the acting chair-woman) at 11:30. 

I went in to get him since he was screaming and obviously having issues.  And, after all, the only appropriate thing to do is to rouse the family to discuss the situation.  I’m glad he’s figured this out so early.

I held him in the glider for about 20 minutes.  I saw a lamb waving about in Erin’s crib.  Alex had settled a bit, so I put him down and looked into Erin’s crib.  Yep.  She was up.  Happy, but wide awake.  She had, apparently, been asked to attend the meeting as secretary or something.

I went back to bed, hoping that both of them would settle on their own.  No such luck.  I let Alex cry for 10 minutes to see if he’d settle.  Nope.  Back to the meeting I went. 

I moved our meeting to the loft, hoping that a change of scenery might help.  It didn’t.  Alex would scream continuously (ie, in an unbroken stream) when laid down.  But only continually (ie, with breaks) when I was holding him (every 5 or 10 minutes, he’d start again).  And then he thrash around trying to find a comfortable, and new, position in my arms.  (clue #1)

It was like a weird game of Greco-Roman wrestling.  With an angry, miniature competitor.  Who refused to be pinned.

Finally, I carried him back to the nursery and sat with him for a while longer.  And then I gave up.  I asked Eric to please come help me.  Apparently, I was not a good enough acting-chairwoman.  Alex wanted the chairman himself.  And at 12:30, that’s what he got.

So, I picked up Erin, tried to settle her, laid her back down and went to lay down myself, trying for all I was worth to figure out what else I could do.

• Vaporizer is on (check)
• Baby Motrin (check…just passed the 4 hour mark, so no more for 2 hours)
• Vicks BabyRub (check)
• Comforting Parental Presence (check)

Finally, as a last resort, I got a sippy cup of water and the numbing ear drops the doctor prescribed for Erin’s double infections.  Think Orajel for the ears, I guess.  Anyway, I put a couple drops in each of his ears, which sent him back to screaming (clue #2) for a bit.  But then he settled.  And went to sleep.  I took Erin into our room to get her back to sleep (didn’t take long).  And I climbed back into bed a bit after 1:00 am.

Eric joined me about 1:30 a.m.  And thus ended our first family meeting.

(Oh, and my clues led me to the correct conclusion: Alex has an ear infection in the right ear. We went to the pediatrician this morning, thus my late post.  Hopefully, a day or two of amoxicillian will have him back to normal (and sleeping) again!)

Sometimes I feel (okay, I know) that I am far too judgmental.  I am critical of everything, which can sometimes be a good thing, but usually isn’t.  This is especially true when I’m being negative about people (which is a lot of the time). 

I mean, I do have an ability to critique ideas, stories, people, movies, you-name-it to see their good points, flaws, and how to make them stronger.  So sometimes, a critical eye can be positive.  But mostly…I’m just critical.

I’m super critical of myself, for starters.  I’m not good enough.  In my own mind, I’m not funny enough, popular enough, kind enough, godly enough, productive enough, good-mommy enough, good-wifey enough…in other words, I’m just not _______ enough, ever.  (You can fill in that blank with just about anything and it would probably be true.)

But even worse, I’m incredibly judgmental of others, too.  Though most of my criticism doesn’t leave my mouth (which is scary considering how much of it does leave my mouth!), I’m just far too easily annoyed by the “stupid” people out there and the “stupid” things they do.  And of course, this usually just means that they got in my way, messed up my schedule or my plans, aren’t making me #1 in their lives, or generally aren’t doing things the way I wanted them done. 

I’m definitely sensing the Spirit wanting to address my critical nature more these days.  Not just all the nastiness that comes out (ie, complaining about family members to other family members, whining to my sister about my husband, griping to my husband about church or moms groups or friends or life in general), but the heart issue that results in all the judgment and (negative) criticism.

And that heart issue, in case you were wondering, is a lack of love.  God’s kind of love.  The one that makes people whole and holy and able to see beyond themselves so that God’s love can flow through them into others.

This morning, I read, in a book by Madeleine L’Engle, a quote from Coleridge:

And she quotes a French priest:

Such a love is what I need.  I won’t go so far as to say that I want it yet.  Because, honestly, I really still want my way, my life to go easily, my self to be most important.  But that is the love that Jesus wants for me, in me, to send out to others through me.  And so that is the love that I want to want, that I hope to have, that I desperately need. 

Jesus, forgive my heart and critical heart.  Teach me to love as you love.

Front Page (above the fold)
Headline: Family Survives Weekend…Barely
Photo: Twins in meltdown mode, complete with ginormous tears and runny noses (photo courtesy of elhogue photography)
Story Synopsis: The weekend was one of the most difficult in recent memory.  The babies were not sleeping, which meant that Mommy and Daddy (but particularly Mommy) weren’t sleeping.  And with the colds and other physical ailments of the weekend, the twins were pretty needy and whiny.  We were, it seemed, about a half second from a meltdown for 48 hours straight.  If these two days had happened during the week, I would have been hard-pressed to make it through.  Thankfully, our parents both came unexpectedly and helped out.  My in-laws came on Friday night so that we could have a date night, and my parents came up on Saturday just to hang out and hold babies.  Those breaks were exactly what I needed!  And on Sunday, since we didn’t make it to church, I got a nap, and Eric and I could focus on babies on their schedule.  That worked out better, too.  

Front Page (Right-hand column)
Headline: First Ear Infections
Story Synopsis:  Because Alex had a miserable night’s sleep on Friday night, I decided (while awake in the early morning hours) to have both checked for ear infections.  I figured Alex had one for sure, but it wouldn’t hurt to check Erin, too.  So off we went to the pediatrician’s office for an appointment at 11:15 (which, of course, they were running behind for, so it turned into an 11:45 appointment).  Still, when it was done, it turned out that Alex’s ears are fine, and Erin has a double ear infection.  Poor girl!  So now we’re on antibiotics and Baby Motrin and watching to make sure Alex doesn’t start showing signs, too. 

Headline: Date Night
Story Synopsis:  Friday night, Eric and I went out.  It was last minute (as my MIL called on Friday morning to see if they could come out), so we hadn’t really gotten time to plan.  And then because of a really bad accident on the East side of the city, they were later getting here than they had planned.  So we still had to feed the babies their dinner.  But c’est la vie!  We were out of the house by 6:30 and headed to Grandview. We ate at Noodles & Co., browsed in a camera store, and went to Target (where we bought a rice cooker and a new game for my Nintendo DS).  We got caught in a downpour in the Target parking lot (on the way out to our car) and stopped at the Steak N Shake drive-thru for milkshakes to end the day.  Then we headed home to chat with the in-laws for a bit.  For being off-the-cuff (and despite my bad head cold), we had a very nice time!

Heath Section: Q & A
Headline: Treating Colds in Babies
Story Synopsis: While the recent removal of all baby cold remedies may have been in the best interest of babies, it was not very helpful for parents!  So this weekend was a case study in alleviating discomfort in babies with a meager arsenal of Tylenol/Motrin, tissues, saline spray and aspirators, three of which the babies hate with a passion.  Of course, we’ve added a vaporizer and inclined mattresses, which has helped some with sleeping.  But the daytime hours have been much more difficult to manage.  What remedies or methods have you tried that have worked when dealing with colds (and mild fevers) in your infants and small children?

Life and Arts Section
Headline: Engagement Pictures Taken
Story Synopsis: Eric spent Saturday morning with Kimberly and Kevin to take some engagement pictures for them.  They went to a small park near us for some lovely outside shots (thankfully, the sun decided to shine despite the meteorological predictions of the newscasters for the last week) and then came back to our house for some more formal shots.  I, sadly, missed the whole thing because of a trip to the pediatrician (see front page), but I was told it was a good time for all.  And the pictures did turn out pretty cute.  Maybe Kimberly will post some at a later date…

Headline: Found…A Small Fortune
Story Synopsis: Late last week, when pulling a box of diapers out from under one of the cribs, I discovered that I had already opened it (which I remembered) and tossed a card into it (which I had not remembered).  I opened the card to see who it was from and found that it still had two $20 gift cards to WalMart in it, one for each baby. I’m sure the cards are about 6 months old.  But yay for finding free money in a box of diapers!

Headine: Fun/Funny Things of the Week
Bulleted List

• Erin just discovered today that she could reach the baby monitor that has rested on the side-by-side ends of their cribs.  She pulled it down, unplugged it, and was upset when I took it away.  I guess we’re done with baby monitors now for good!
• If you haven’t seen it…go look at this blog about bad cake designs.  Some of them are too funny!
• Erin sneezed this morning and blew a ginormous snot bubble which then just hung there without breaking.  Gross, I know, but also very funny!
• Alex is starting to get much more mobile.  And we introduced him to rubber balls a few days ago.  The boy was in heaven.  Absolute heaven. 

So last night at 7:00, I was fine.

By 8:30, my nose was running and my throat was starting to hurt.  And I had a rough night as a result (as well as checking on Erin who was whimpering in her sleep).  So yeah…I’ve caught Erin’s cold.  Alex hasn’t yet, but I suppose it’s just a matter of time now…with both of us breathing on him!

Other than that, the day was actually quite productive.  Eric came home at 1:30 in the afternoon.  He’d worked his 80 hours (pay periods end on Thursday) and doesn’t get overtime.  So he decided to just take the rest of the day off! And it was fun to hang out with him for a bit.  And I got to run a bunch of little errands that are just easier to do without babies.  So nice!

We grilled out for dinner.  And then played with babies, put them to bed, and watched clips from Tim Hawkins, a very funny, clean comedian.  If you have a minute, watch his clips on Chick-fil-A and Fast Foods in the “Videos” section.  We laughed a lot!

Our weekend is looking pretty good, too.  My MIL just called and asked if they could come out tonight to watch babies while we have a date night.  Um…YES!  So they’ll be out later in the afternoon.  And Eric is taking engagement pictures for Kimberly tomorrow morning.  That should be fun, too.

And in some sad news…Reading Rainbow is ending its 26-year run on PBS.  Honestly, I didn’t realize it was still being made, but it was outlasted only by Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers.  And I used to like hearing about all the different books.  Apparently, shows about books that kids might love to read are giving way to shows that try to teach phonics skills because, and this is even more sad, too many kids don’t have the basic skills to be able to read the books that RR recommended to them.  I’m so glad my sister is teaching little kids how to read!!

Other than that, I don’t have much to say, I guess.  I’ll be doing some baby laundry today.  Nothing too exciting.  But it’s Friday.  Yay!  So…Happy weekend!

My little Lady Baby (ie, Erin) has a really bad cold, poor thing!

She’s had a couple of colds already, but they were mostly drainage/congestion types that didn’t really impact her activity levels or anything.

This one, though, is a whole new ball game.  She was just a wet little monster yesterday: runny nose, drooly mouth, watery eyes.  And of course she hates to have her face wiped off.  And she hates when I use the saline spray.  And she hates the aspirator (don’t all kids?). 

Also, by the afternoon, she was also running a low-grade fever and was content to just hang out on my lap and lean on me (she’s usually too busy for that during the day).  She was better after some medicine and the afternoon nursing.  But still wanted to be near us.  And she was about half an inch from a meltdown all day.  The littlest things would set her into a full red-faced crying fit.  And that is totally not like her at all. 

And I think Alex was responding to Erin’s unusual neediness by being needier than usual, too.  That meant pretty much staying close to them, trying to avoid germ-sharing (as much as possible) and managing the neediness.

Anyway, today, Erin’s nose isn’t running so much and no fever, but she has a bit more of a cough.  Hopefully, it’s not a virus thing that will get worse as the day goes on.  And hopefully, we aren’t dealing with our first ear infection.  But I am keeping a pretty close eye on her and getting done whatever else I can do. 

Sick babies = not much fun!

I’m working very hard at not having one of those days.  My attitude is teetering on the precipice, and I’m longing to fling myself headlong into the chasm of crankiness. 

After all, since yesterday, I’ve had to deal with things like:

• still itchy hands because I haven’t had time to actually go to the pharmacy to get my Rx filled
• a weird bottle from the pharmacy out of which it is nearly impossible to get the proper dose for my infant daughter’s Zantac
• ants crawling up the wall to ransack my spice cupboard
• my son who had trouble settling to sleep in the evening
• my daughter who had trouble staying asleep last night
• my husband’s new morning schedule which is not the best for me
• my daughter being at the tail end of a new tooth coming in AND the beginning of a cold/runny nose
• having to run to the basement multiple times this morning for things I should have brought up in one trip
• needing to take a meal to friends who’ve had a new baby, but who live 30 minutes away, and now I can’t take the twins because of a runny nose (thankfully, Eric is coming home a bit early so I can take the meal)

But I’m also trying to keep a bigger (and more godly) perspective, too.  Because after all, none of these things are truly problematic.  And God is so much bigger.  And my babies are so rarely difficult.  And my husband is so great with the babies and with me. 

And really, now that I’ve written all these things down, I can stop running down the list of them in my head which will help tremendously with getting over it, even though I’m tired and Erin is already up from her nap. 

So maybe (hopefully) it won’t turn out to be one of those days after all…