Here’s the randomness of my world today:

• I just finished a note to some people from my church that I’ve never met, but they had twins last week.  And both of them were over SEVEN pounds!  Yikes!!!
• Alex sort of gave up sleeping this weekend.  Between our running around and his own issues, he hardly napped…which meant he did a lot more waking up at night than normal. 
• So that makes for a tired Mommy today.  
• So that means naps are the highest priority today!
• Except of course that my MIL called last night to see if it’d be okay if she, her sister and her mom stopped by for a bit this afternoon while they were out shopping.  Um…I guess so.  But I’m still putting the babies down for naps even if they’re here!
• And Eric’s grandmother has shingles right now.  Please pray that the babies don’t get chickenpox.  It should be fine as long as they don’t come in contact with the shingles rash.  But I think I’m going to ask that she not hold them today, which will be hard for her.  But understandable, I hope…
• I got a ton of housekeeping done on Saturday morning.  I have no idea where the energy/motivation came from. 
• We bought a used double stroller on Friday evening for $100.  We took a walk with it yesterday afternoon, and it’s fantastic!  Yay!
• We went out to eat twice this weekend (Friday night – Chinese, Saturday night – BBQ) and then to a small group picnic last night.  I hardly had to cook all weekend. Nice!
• I woke up last night, in the middle of the night, suddenly very ill.  I literally woke up from a dream realizing that I might be sick.  Thankfully, I wasn’t (at least not that way), but I did spend 15 minutes or so in the bathroom taking care of “other” business.  And this morning I was fine.  Weird…
• This week is already shaping up to be super-busy.  Good thing I don’t have much cleaning or laundry to do (since I got it all done on the weekend)!

Okay, I think that’s all my randomness for now…I may have pictures to share later…if I get them taken! Happy Monday!

We had to tear apart the living room this morning before Eric left so that we could have a small portion of the ceiling painted.  The roof had leaked just enough to create a water mark in one small place.  So now that the roof is done, a painter is coming sometime today to repaint that section of the ceiling.  Of course, it will probably take him longer to set up and tear down than actually to paint the ceiling.  But, that’s how it goes, I guess.

And until he comes (he had another job first thing this morning, and then us), we’re displaced.  Three sections of the sectional are sitting in front of the other two sections, and the television can’t be easily viewed, and my open floor space where the babies play is covered with couches, and the rest of our furniture and baby stuff is just piled places. 

So the babies are in the loft with me, and I guess we’ll just be hanging out upstairs for most of the day.  Could be a little boring, to be honest.  At least we can watch some full episodes or movies online if it gets really bad. 

And on that note, I’d better go.  Alex is rubbing his face like he’s getting tired, and Erin is starting to make a lot of noise (a cue that she’s getting tired, too).  Later!

Yesterday evening, my BIL came over.  He’s a pharmacist for CVS, and he took Eric shopping.  See, he has a  flex spending account for health purchases and overestimated how much he’d need for the year.  So he let me look through their FSA eligible things (they’re all on the website), make a list of stuff, and he and Eric went and bought them!  I guess they spent like $200.  Crazy, huh?  But also incredibly generous!

Here’s a look at all they came back with:

And just for fun…here are some pics of my babies sleeping.  These are their normal sleep positions…aren’t they too cute!?!

In bullets

• The roofers finished about 1:30 yesterday, but the dumpster is still in our driveway.  So we’re parking behind it or on the street until it’s picked up.
• Usually I can just load up the babies in the garage when we go out.  It’s a lot farther to carry two car seats out of the garage, past the dumpster, and to the Jeep.
• We ran to Meijer this morning.  I’ve been needing to get out of the house again (for more than just a quick run to the mailbox).  It felt good.
• The babies are gurgling on their blanket with their toys.
• Erin has started to roll over now. She pretty much refuses to stay on her belly these days.  Even though Alex has been able to roll for almost 2 weeks, I’m pretty sure she’s already done it more than he has.  I guess he just likes being on his belly!
• The babies did pretty well with all the noise yesterday.  We got little naps in the morning, but much better ones in the afternoon.  Good for them…great for me!
• Sadly, I can’t think of much else to say. 

Happy Tuesday!

Today there are roofers on our roof.  They are very loud.

On Friday, I ignored a phone call from our contractors.  It turns out I should have picked up.  I found out later (from Eric) that they were calling to let us know they could do the roof on Saturday and someone would be dropping off the roofing supplies that afternoon.  So suddenly a large truck was in my driveway, and I had no idea why!  Oops!

Anyway, we were glad they could do Saturday because that would mean Eric would be home.  The dumpster was delivered at 7:30 am.  Eric was at bible study, so I got up when they knocked to let us know it was here.  Then I worked around the house and (when he got home) Eric hung out waiting, having found a great excuse not to mow the lawn (ie, the roofers would be throwing things in the grass).  9:00 am – no roofers.  Noon – no roofers.  At 2:00, Eric finally called our contractor.  He checked on it and called us back. 

Um…he was very sorry but the rain on Friday put the crews behind schedule and they wouldn’t be here until Monday.  Would that be okay?

Um…sure.  So this morning at 7:00 am, the roofers arrived.  Eric was just finishing getting dressed, so he answered the door when they rang the bell.  Of course, I figured I’d better just get up, too, so I did.  But I’m hoping that such an early start means they’ll finish very quickly.  I mean, we don’t have that big of a roof.  And until they’re done, it just sounds like a major thunderstorm is camped directly above our house.  Good times!

Other than that, the weekend was good.  I cleaned and did chores around the house.  My family came up for Mothers Day and had a good visit, I think.  And that’s about all that I have for today…Happy Monday!

My sweet little babies:

Today you are five months old.  It hardly seems like days, much less months, have gone by since I walked (slowly) down that hallway to the operating room.  I cannot believe that, by this time, five months ago, I was waiting alone in the recovery room while your Daddy and the nurses took you both to the nursery so your grandparents could see you.  You were so tiny and wrinkly and healthy and perfect.  And already, at only hours old, you were already displaying the personalities we’ve come to love so much.

Alex, my big guy, our Mister Buddy, you are such a jolly little guy.  Your smile just lights up a room and you love to laugh.  At anything!  In fact, if Mommy or Daddy laughs at something, you laugh right along with us.  You have started to roll over now, though you still don’t do it very often.  I guess it’s just easier to let Mommy flip you over when you start getting cranky…easier for you, anyway!  But you love to be on your tummy and you are super-strong.  You love to reach for the rattles and try to chew on them (or anything else you have handy), and you drool and blow bubbles all the time.  I’m hoping we aren’t heading for teeth too soon, but it might be in the near future.  You love your evening bowl of oatmeal, especially if Daddy feeds it to you, and while you’re still waking up some at night, we’re finally doing much better than we were!  But above all of what you do, I want you to know that you just fill up my heart, little man.  I love your first-thing-in-the-morning smile.  I love your little voice and infectious laugh.  I love to see you try something new and finally succeed.  And I am so very glad you joined our family at 7:52 in the morning, five months ago.

And of course, my little Erin, my Lady Baby, Daddy’s Sweet Nugglin, you are not less loved.  You have the biggest blue eyes and the cutest round cheeks.  In fact, five months ago, your cheeks were the most noticeable thing about you!  Now they are just one of the wonderful parts of you!  You are shyer than your brother is, but not less friendly.  You just like things a little quieter, a little calmer.  You talk a lot, especially to your toys and Mommy’s hand.  But when people talk to you, you get very focused, trying to mimic what we do with our mouths so that you can do it, too.  And when you get tired, you get louder.  A lot louder!  You have not rolled over yet, but you are very accomplished with your fingers.  You can grab anything and pull it towards yourself.  And you just love to pull the ring on the frog on your bouncy seat…we’ve heard the song he plays a thousand times already, I’m sure!  You just started cereal this week, so we’re just learning how to use the spoon together.  But I’m so glad I get to be the one to teach you such important lessons.  I’ll do my best to keep you up on all the lessons you need to grow up to be a lovely young woman.  Yes, little Erin, I love you more than I can say.  You are sweet and snuggly, and I love watching you be so different from your brother (and so alike at the same time!).  I love your facial expressions and your focus when you want to figure something out.  And I’m very glad that you joined our family exactly 72 seconds after your brother, five months ago today!

Yes, dear babies, Mommy and Daddy love you.  Having you has been wonderful and difficult and crazy and enjoyable and full of challenges and marvelous moments of grace.  We are committed to teaching you to love God and to be independent, capable human beings someday.  But for today, for just this moment, I think I’m just going to squeeze you, pray over you, love you, laugh with you, and be thankful that you are still small enough to be my babies.

Love, Mommy

That’s the best word I can find to describe yesterday: off.

It wasn’t a bad day by any stretch, but it just felt like we were a step or two away from normal. 

I think the weekend caught up with me, so I was really tired.  And we had company, so nap schedules and my normal routine were missing.  Erin hardly napped all day…still don’t know why.  Then Eric came home exhausted from an all-day meeting.  And our night was not as completely sleep-ful as I would have liked. 

But like I said, it wasn’t a bad day.  My MIL and Eric’s grandma came to visit.  They brought lunch, and hung out for a few hours.  I’m finding that spending most days alone with babies has caused my socializing skills to go rusty (and they weren’t that great to begin with!).  So I was glad they headed home sooner than I thought they would. 

The primary reason for their visit, however, was so my MIL could finally bring over the wall hangings she made for the nursery.  She designed and made them herself on her new sewing/embroidery machine. I think they turned out incredibly cute.   Now I just hope I manage to get them hung up in a shorter amount of time than it took her to make them!

Anyway – here are some pics of them.

Alex’s blanket
 

Erin’s blanket
   

Last night, Alex did not wake up to eat!!!!

of course, i still heard him a few times, but he went right back to sleep on his own.  Whoopeee!  now we’ll just try to keep this up!

And i wonder how long it will be before i’m not super-full before 3 am…

today my mil is coming to visit and bringing eric’s grandma, too, i believe. Should be fun, I think.

I’ve got Erin on my lap right now so this is mostly one-handed…and it’s too hard to type this way, so i’m done!  Later!

So what was Friday’s post about, you ask?  Well…my annual spring ant infestation (I HATE ants in my kitchen) appeared about 45 minutes before Eric had to leave for his men’s retreat.  And Eric was leaving really early (9:30 am for a retreat that started at 6 that evening), which I was struggling not to be bitter about.  And then to discover that I had to clean my kitchen top to bottom before doing anything else and while Eric was trying to get out of the house…well, it was just more than I deal with at that moment.   Thankfully, the Spirit helped me get over it, and we all survived.  And I haven’t seen any more ants since then…I guess my foul attitude scared them away!

While Eric was gone, I went to my parents’ house.  Of course, since it was graduation weekend, and my parents were super busy, I still spent most of that time totally alone with two babies, which was pretty tiring.  But at least my parents provided regular interruptions (which I would not have gotten at home), and they got to spend about 4 hours on Saturday afternoon just lovin’ on the babies which was great for all of them!

Sunday was church, of course.  Eric mowed, and I ran to the grocery store since I hadn’t been able to do that during the rest of the weekend.  And I made it to bible study for the last lesson of this session.  So Eric watched the babies most of yesterday, but all went well, really.

This morning, I found Erin lying in a mess of her own making.  Since she hadn’t really pooped since Friday, I’d been waiting for that diaper-filling, but it was worse than I thought it would be!  So now I have a major load of laundry to do this morning so Erin can nap in her crib again…good times, huh?

Anyway, I should get on to that, I guess.  Later!

It has not been a happy Friday so far.  I hope it gets better quickly.  Or that I can get a hold on my attitude quickly.