Rainy day surprise

Yesterday was our first "free" summer day. We always had Monday and Tuesday mornings open but yesterday we would have normally been at gymnastics. We've been playing outside a lot lately, especially with our neighbor and her nanny.  They are moving away today (sniff, sniff) but it's been fun having a playmate right outside our door every morning.  Anyway, we joined them on a walk downtown to meet up with a bunch of other kids and their nannies.  I felt a bit out of place, almost like a spy, being the only mom but no one seemed to mind. 

The kids had loads of fun even when it started raining.  We all gathered under an enormous tree and stayed relatively dry.  The walk home was another story.  The twins were in the jogging stroller which has excellent rain coverage.  Matteo was in the Ergo which has a head cover.  And me, I was just getting soaked.  Its about a 20 minute walk (uphill...) so by the end, I looked pretty awful.  We were just a couple blocks from our house when we passed a few high schoolers, just hanging out on a bench.  On of the girls said, jokingly, "she looks like she needs a babysitter!" to which I immediately answered, "yes, I do!"  She was surprised that I answered but excitedly so.  She jumped off and asked me if I was serious.  Yes, I most definitely was serious!  She talked about some other babysitting jobs she has had (or still has, not sure).  In my head I was thinking, why is she telling me this??  Then I realized, oh ya - she probably thinks I want someone with experience.  I'm so desperate, I forgot to consider that!  Not that I would just leave my kids with her.  I would have her come and "watch" them while I was home, let her get her feet wet.  But for me, anyone who sees my brood and still wants the job, chances are they have experience.  Caring for 3 under 3 is not usually how people want to get their start in the babysitting world, I would imagine.

I took down her number and asked her where she lived and how old she was.  She lives about 5 blocks from me (score!) and will be a junior in the fall (double score!).  That means I get two years before she is off to college, if she works out.  And since she is young, she will come a bit cheaper which is OK with me since she will mostly be a mother's helper to start - I'm looking for one afternoon per week as a set schedule, plus nighttime sitting as needed for me to go to meetings or out with Billy.

Are you all proud of me?  I'm totally going out of my comfort zone here.  Sad, though, that this is out of my comfort zone...

This is my least favorite part about being a SAHM

I used to think that I had a pretty good immune system. I was one of those people that never took a sick day from work (well, I did but I wasn't sick. I was either at the beach or hungover...). I never had to see my doctor. I never took medicine. That was before I had kids.

Now, whenever the kids get sick, I get sick. They don't get sick often, for which I am very grateful. But this past weekend was one of the few times they got sick. Not the worst I've seen (like both winter bugs last year) but pretty bad nonetheless. This time I wasn't pregnant so I think I fared better. They had full-on vomiting and diarrhea while I was mostly just nauseous and unable to eat much for a couple days. But even that is almost too much to deal with when your kids are covered in vomit and crap and you still have to nurse a baby. It's so hard to get better when you can't get your rest. No sick days for Mommy.

Also, I was lucky this time because it happened mostly over the weekend (yesterday was a bit rough and Billy left in the afternoon but I managed). Having a travelling spouse when you're a SAHM really sucks when you get sick. It's not like I can simply ask him to take a day off. And my family is more than willing to help but they all have full time jobs so there isn't always much they can do.

I know a lot of you will say this is why I need a regular babysitter but that's actually a post for another day. Let's just say we're working on it. Although, I'd have to be really comfortable with someone to let them be in my house while I'm tossing my cookies upstairs. Just sayin'.

We're better today, though, and the temperatures are above zero (Fahrenheit, that is...) so things are looking up for this SAHM. Hope all of you are feeling well!

Craftiness: Silhouette Portraits

Every so often, my crafty side makes its way to the surface. Lately, it came around to help with Christmas. It knows I need it.

Specifically, I needed help getting a cute gift for the grandparents that wasn't a typical picture of the kids is some picture frame that says "LOVE" or "FAMILY" on top. Luckily, a week or so ago, I saw on the Zimmer Zoo a post about silhouette portraits. There is a very talented local artists who does them free-hand (ya, amazing, I know). She was in town but I didn't have my act together to make an appointment. Shocking, right? But I still loved the idea as something a little different but just as nice to give to as a gift. So, I was on a quest to do it myself.

My Google search for how to do it resulted in a lot of professionals, which would require time and money, two things I don't have lots of. But, I found another blog (I would link but for the life of me, I can't find it now...) that showed how to do it yourself. She used Photoshop. I don't have Photoshop so I had to improvise. If you, like me, are short on time, money and Photoshop, here is how you can still do your very own silhouette portraits:

Step 1

Take a picture of your child in profile. Catch them while they are watching TV or something else interesting. You may already have a photo that works - check your albums.

Step 2

Using whatever software you have (I use Picasa), crop your picture so that you can zoom in just on the head. Then, to save on color ink, switch it to black and white or grayscale.


Step 3

Using MS Powerpoint (or MS Word, but I prefer PP), insert your photo onto the page and adjust it (keeping the ratio intact) to your desired size. The first ones I did were as big as possible and now will barely fit into an 8X10 frame. Learn from my mistakes and do them a bit smaller. You could also fit two on one Powerpoint slide and that will give you portraits appropriate for a 5X7 frame.

Step 4

Print out the slide. With a pen or pencil, trace along the outline of the head and face. Then cut out very careful along your line. Be especially careful around the nose and mouth as those areas will really tell you whose portrait it is.

Step 5

Take your cut out and trace it onto very nice black paper. I found this paper at a craft store. Its much heavier than regular card stock but regular card stock would work just fine. Just don't use construction paper - it's not a very dark black and won't look as nice in the end. Cut out along your lines, again very carefully, especially on the face.

Step 6

Now you can mount your portrait. I sued the same kind of paper for my mount (not shown in the picture below) in an off-white color to give it an antique-y look.


Step 7

Place in your frame of choice, wrap and give to Grandma.

Appreciating the cuteness

Lately, I have been feeling the SAHM blues some more, what with the toddler whining, eating strikes, toy fights and infant juggling. To be brutally honest, there are lots of times where my kids kind of annoy me. My threshold for whining is so just so low. I've been having a hard time enjoying this age. I keep fantasizing about them as older, more rational, agreeable beings. All the things we'll be able to do, the things they'll be able to tell me and understand.

But the other day, I had a neighbor/friend/fellow twin momma over for a playdate since we were both flying solo over the weekend. She had 3 kids, too, but did hers the other way around - one first, then twins. Her oldest is nearly 4 and her twins are just 6 months old (and crazy adorable!). Anyway, her son is a typical preschooler. He always wanted to be talking to the grownups, asked a million questions, needed us to explain everything to him, wanted us to watch everything he did, etc. He is a very sweet boy, but it was exhausting, too.

Later, when it was just me and my twins again, I realized, after gaining some perspective, that this age is actually quite cute. They run up to me with unabashed glee and throw their arms around my neck. They run around saying my name because they're so excited to tell me something really important like, "my shoes!!!" or "B!" They still like to play peekaboo. And they are just so tender and sweet at this age. I need to keep all this in mind those times when they start to press all my buttons with the epic whining...

Anniversary Celebration

Yesterday, Billy and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. Fun that it fell on a Friday and we were able to see each other and go out. I made reservations at an all-too fancy and all-too pricey French restaurant in Boston but it was totally worth it. We used to go out to somewhat fancy dinners a few times a month back in our DINK days. I guess once a year is OK now. :)

Naturally, we had no one to take our picture and I felt weird asking someone at the restaurant to do it - not that kind of place, IMO. Anyway, we got a decent shot of ourselves and a preggo picture of me in my slightly scandalous, no bra (yikes!) dress.

So proud of myself for rocking the stilettos at 34 weeks!

PS - I forgot to mention I had a glass of wine. My first this pregnancy, haha!

Babies (the movie) - One Mom's Take

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I won tickets to go see the new movie, Babies. I actually did get to go see it with Billy, thanks to Tanya for offering to babysit!

I wasn't sure what I would take away from this movie before seeing it. Part of me thought I would learn some new ways to do mommy things after seeing how other women in other cultures do it. However, I ended up coming away with something very different, something I almost didn't realize until I read another, completely unrelated blog post, about work-life balance.

I don't talk a lot about work-life balance in the "traditional" sense because I don't have a job outside the home. However, that doesn't mean that I don't understand what it might be like for those parents that do or even have similar struggles myself. Either way, I have come to realize that our lives (here in this corner of the world) do not easily accommodate babies. Think about all of the things we need when we have a baby: crib, bottles, safety gates, diapers, exersaucers, strollers, a gazillion toys. And we think all of this stuff makes our lives easier. And in a sense, it does. But we only need all of these things because our lives pre-baby are so ill-suited to infants and toddlers that we have to acquire all this stuff to make it work.

The example in the movie that most drove this point home for me was the boy in Namibia. His family was, from what I could tell, the least "western" of all the families (US, Japan, Mongolia were the others). He had no "toys" - he played with rocks and sticks and cups and other things that were already around him. He wore no diaper - not even a cloth one. His garment looked the same to me as those of the older boys in his family.

But more importantly, he just hung out with his mom and his aunt and his siblings and cousins while the grown-ups continued to do what the did everyday before he came. They did their work while they loved him and fed him and taught him and cared for him. There was no need for "work-life" balance. Work was life and life was work. The babies seemed to just fit right in. Their lives were not completely uprooted by having a baby. That's something I wish we could experience. Unfortunately, the lifestyle we live here is just not designed with babies in mind. They cost us a fortune in childcare, whether we pay for it or forgo our own paid work to do it ourselves. They ruin our nice furniture. They are constantly breaking our nice things. They nearly kill themselves falling off all our hazards. They isolate us from the world we once knew.

Now, its not like I'm ready to ship up and move to Namibia. I'm too accustomed to all my stuff. And I would fry under that sun all day. But, I do envy how motherhood works over there, at least from what I saw.

Has anyone else seen the movie? What did you think?

Hello Third Trimester!

I have passed the 26 week mark with Tater Tot and am officially in my third trimester. I haven't written much about this pregnancy because there has been so little to report. My belly gets bigger, as it should. Matteo moves around a lot, as he should. I was up 18 lbs. as of my last appointment, so all is normal there. Only change now is that I have to see my OB every 2 weeks (seems like so much now!) instead of every 4. At least there are no more scheduled ultrasounds - I hated those last time.

Part of what makes this pregnancy seemingly uneventful is that it's my second pregnancy. I'm sure most women feel this way, to a certain extent, the second (and third, fourth...!) go around. But I know that this pregnancy seems easier because it's just one. I'm just much more comfortable overall. And I keep waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop - like one day I will have awful sciatic nerve pain or my back will hurt so much I won't be able to lift up my kids. Only time will tell, I guess. In the meantime, I can be thankful for two pretty easy trimesters.

Also, I can't shake the feeling that I will delivery early. The idea of NOT going to 40 weeks is so burned in my brain that I just can't get it out. Whenever I think about my due date, it's always hypothetical, like "well, I'm due on July 24th but really, it could be any time in July, maybe even June." We are finally putting together Matteo's nursery next week (Billy is on vacation, woot woot!) so perhaps that will put my mind at ease.

Sitter Worthy?

The other night, a MoT friend of mine (and next door neighbor, go figure!) invited me out to dinner with some women from her other moms group, one for working mommas. It was at the Melting Pot so I got my ass into gear and found a sitter. Nothing motivates me more than melted cheese and melted chocolate.

The dinner was great, albeit LOOONG. 6 mommies at one table leads to lots and lots and lots of talking. Which was great and a needed change of pace. As we are sharing war stories (read: poop, vomit, and pumping stories) one of the women asked us if we remembered that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is buying up all the sponges because they are being discontinued - she used the term "sponge-worthy" as in, "do I want to use one of my remaining sponges on this guy??" Anyway, our mommy friend said that she and her husband use the same thought process, only applied to having a night out and hiring a sitter. Would this "event" be worth finding and paying a sitter? Maybe. Maybe not.

Of course, that night was sitter-worthy. Again, melted cheese and chocolate - what more do I have to say? But there are some things that don't make the cut so easily, at least not for me.

• running errands alone: NEVER sitter-worthy
• doctor appointment: NOT sitter-worthy
• emergency doctor visit: sitter-worthy
• shopping: NOT sitter-worthy
• date night with the hubs: sitter-worthy
• club meeting (mom's group, book club, etc.): NOT sitter-worthy
• gym/exercising: NOT sitter-worthy

What do you think is sitter-worthy?

Social Media is kind of like my part time job

Sometimes I think I spend too much time blogging and Facebooking and not enough time doing "real" things like reading books, cooking, cleaning, talking to friends and family on the phone, etc. There are nights where I have a laundry list of things to do but I squander away two hours on the computer, to-do list untouched.

However, I know that I get a lot of value from my social media addiction. I learn A LOT about being a better mom - from other moms and MoTs, from sites and blogs geared towards teaching parents about nutrition and development, where to find the best parks, great deals on baby/kid stuff and other product recommendations, etc. I make connections with people I never would have otherwise through FB and blogging and that helps keep me sane and somewhat fulfilled as being a SAHM can be very isolating.

Today, I had a serious windfall from my addiction/part-time gig. A few days ago, I entered a contest. How did I hear about this contest? On Facebook. I am a "fan" of Isis Maternity and they were giving away an Ergo baby carrier with infant insert. How did I enter? I had to go leave a comment on their blog. So I did. And today I got the email that said I won! By my estimates, I just saved us $137.00!

So that totally justifies everything, IMO. :)

Question of the Week: Advice

Multiples and More hosts Question of the Week and this week, it's all about advice - or assvice, as the case may be :)

I think any mom out there could write a book about all this question encompasses - unsolicited advice, advice from your parents, advice that's good, advice that's not so good, advice you would like to give, etc. Since one blog post could not do them all justice, I will try and stay focused.

This doesn't exactly fall under "worst piece of advice ever given" but for me, it's more of a pet peeve and I think a lot of you reading this will understand. I hate it when people give me advice that is basically: you need help/you can't do this on your own.

It comes in lots of different forms. Sometimes my mom will say a I need a cleaning lady (thanks, Mom!). My sister will tell me I need to hire a babysitter. Every single person in my husband's home country will tell me taking care of 3 kids under 2 is not possible on one's on. The thing is, it's not that I don't believe in help. My MIL came for 3 weeks when the twins were 6 weeks old and Billy had to go back to work. She will come again for a week when Billy's paternity leave ends for Tater Tot. My sister and my mom both help me out regularly. We have someone to mow the lawn and shovel snow as part of our condo association. And it's not even that I don't ask for advice regarding help and such. I do. It's the unsolicited part that really gets me. Maybe there is an insecure part of me that worries about not doing a good enough job and when someone tells me I need help, it's their polite way of saying I'm failing. Or perhaps its my pride - always a possibility.

Moral of the story: if you know someone like me and they ask for advice, give it (I love asking for advice, in case you haven't noticed) but randomly telling someone like me that they need to bring in reinforcements might be a slap in the face, from their point of view.

Will Absence Make My Heart Grow Fonder?

This weekend will be my second ever time away from my kids. I'm headed to Richmond, VA, to visit a dear friend who is expecting her first baby at the end of March. I'm so looking forward to catching up with her, helping her get the nursery ready, gabbing about life - all the things close girlfriends do in these situations. It will really be lovely, in that relaxing, do nothing, kind of way.

When I tell people about the upcoming trip, they immediately try to assuage my guilt, saying things like, "Oh, it will be so hard to leave them but you'll have such a good time" or "Don't feel guilty - you deserve it!" Then I try not to make a rude face because all I can think is, "are you on crack?" I never have the chance to miss my children. If anything, I get an overdose! I know they are my children and I love more than words can say, but time apart is a good thing. And I'm being completely honest when I say every last little fiber of me feels that way. There is no little voice making me feel bad for going away. No pangs of guilt. No 1%.

I'm a bit surprised at the reactions I got. Am I the only mom who feels this way? Surely there are other people who don't feel guilty leaving their kids 4 nights (or more, if you're lucky) in 15 months. I understand mommy guilt, especially when you don't spend as much time with your kids as you'd like. I don't think anyone should have to feel guilty for the choices they make when their family's best interest is at heart, but I understand it happens anyway. In this case though, I don't understand why someone would feel guilty. Then again, I'm not winning any awards for sentimentality, so...

Would you feel guilty? Or would you just blow a kiss and be on your merry way?

Toddling Times Two

I now officially have two toddlers. Sebastian has been walking way more than crawling (although he still stumbles a lot) and Collette hasn't crawled for a couple of weeks now. Funny how this changes how I view them but really, not much else. At least not immediately. I know this is just the beginning of their toddlerhood and walking is a huge jumping off point for other toddler milestones but, in our day to day lives, not much has changed. I don't have to babyproof anything new. I know once spring arrives and we are out at parks, I will understand what all the other twin moms talk about when they say, "wait 'til they're walking!" For now though, it's just pretty cute to see my no-longer-babies toddle around the house.

***

Thanks to everyone for your advice on my post yesterday. Obviously, a lot of it was just venting, like we all need to do from time to time. As for the SAHM vs. working mom thing, I know there is no right or wrong answer. And regardless of how I feel sometimes, I know that being a SAHM is the best for our family right now. It will always be isolating, I think. That's just life. Playdates and the like help, but it's not the same as going to your job everyday and interacting with other like-minded adults. On the flip side, working outside of the home will always mean missing time with your kids. There's no perfect solution. If there were one, everyone would do it. So, thanks for listening and commiserating.

I'm Back, Biatch!

Yes, I'm back. Back to reality and freezing temperatures and a painful 1:2 adult:child ratio. 15 days in El Salvador truly spoiled all of us. After 2 days there, I was almost in tears at the thought of coming home - sorry Mom!! Life down there is just so much easier. No cooking or cleaning or laundry. All the beans and rice a pregnant girl could want. Beautiful weather. But when the 15 days were up, most of me was ready to come home. I missed Lola. I missed my family. I missed speaking 100% in English. And now that we are back, I realize it's not so bad. We all fell right back into our lovely routine as if we had never left and things just feel right.

I have so much to write about the trip and plenty of pictures to go with it. My new camera is great and I will be able to upload all my photos tonight when I install all the software. Without any pictures for this post, I will just share with some quick highlights/interesting things from our vacation:

• Collette learned to walk. I know I said she has been taking steps but by Christmas, she was walking full time. Sebastian is just now showing signs that he is ready, taking more steps by himself to get to his favorite toys.
• In Spanish, they have a special word for "to hold" when you are talking about holding a baby/person. I think it's because they do it so often. Seriously, it's amazing Collette learned to walk considering how much time she spent in someone's arms.
• I found out that kids in El Salvador start preschool (they call it "kinder") at about 18 months old, some even younger! And its 5 days a week, 8-12!! I won't even tell you how little it costs. Lucky bastards.
• In El Salvador, it seems that they don't know what ear infections are. I was quite worried Collette had an ear infection because she had a very bad runny nose, fever and was just so cranky - very unlike her. When I mentioned my hypothesis to Billy, he thought it was his fault because she dunked her head underwater in the bath while he was washing her. When I mentioned it to someone else, they looked at me strangely and asked when Collette had gone swimming. The only ear infection they are familiar with is "swimmers ear", not the inner ear infection I was referring to. Weird, right?
• The beach was a complete disaster. Well, the sand, anyway. How do people take their kids to the beach at this age? The sand-eating and sand-in-the-eyes caused a complete meltdown for poor Sebastian. Collette didn't seemed to mind as she just kept eating the sand, non-stop. She also eats dirt. Is it considered pica when it's a baby doing it?
• My kids are totally bilingual!! Well, you know, in receptive language. They're not talking just yet. But they understand so much in both languages, I was so amazed. I think it really helped to have so many people around them talking and interacting. Another reason I was scared to come home - they are all alone here.

All in all, we had a wonderful time and will probably go back at that time each year. Which means next year we will have 2 two-year olds and a 5 month old. Yikes!

They're Definitely Mine

Over the weekend, Billy noticed a peculiar way in which both Sebastian and Collette take after me: they both have an oversized labial frenum. It sounds gross but what it means is that the little piece of skin that connects your top lip to your top gums is too big and grows between the two front teeth. This is why I have a gap and why that gap never closed. I have some very mixed feelings about my gap - I have been teased plenty because of it but, almost as often, I get complimented on it. People seem to think it gives me character. So, I'm not sure what we will do if their labial frenums don't shrink. There is a pretty simply surgery they could undergo, one I may have had if I had known about it at a younger age. I think they do it on kids once they hit 10 years old. But, in a way, I kind of like that they have this little physical quirk of mine. I was almost positive they wouldn't get my red hair, so the gap is next best thing.

So, readers, what do you think? My guess is that, when the time comes, I will probably let them decide. Do you think cosmetic surgery for children is never ok?

Month in Review

Dear NaBloPoMo,

I am sorry that I was not able to rise to the challenge and post 30 times in 30 days. I talked a big game of posting lots of pics and interesting stories about first birthday parties but the absent minded professor in me took over and these things did not happen.

In total, I ended up posting 23 times. I guess that translates to about a C average. Disappointing, I know.

Here are my goals for this next month, although it's not NaBloPoMo any more:

Post 20 times
Buy a new cord to connect to my camera OR
Buy a new camera
Figure out how to upload videos from the camcorder
Take better pictures of the kids despite their increasing mobility/decreasing attention span

So, NaBloPoMo, you have bested me in 2009. But I will be back in 2010. And I'll be ready :)

My New Diet

And so it begins. If you need me, I'll be in the bathroom.

Way Back Whenesday: Belly Pictures

Cheryl at Twinfatuation hosts Way Back Whenesday! Hop on over to see lots of other fun stories from way back when...

When I was pregnant with the twins, I bought one of those pregnancy record-keeper books called the Belly Book. Among other things, it has pages for you to paste a belly picture every week. With a twin pregnancy, the growth happens pretty fast so you can see changes in just a week. With this pregnancy, I don't think I will see such big differences from week to week so I may just do month to month photos. This weekend I will take my first one. I am already *showing* - I have been for about 1 year. The abdominal separation the twins left me with makes me look perpetually 3 months pregnant. So, stay tuned for some shameless half-nakedness.



In the meantime, here is a picture from WAY back, my last twin belly picture. I was 34 weeks pregnant when this picture was taken and, although I didn't know it at the time, my babies were just a few days away.

November 17th, 2008

I think this will be fun as a comparison shot as I grow with baby #3. I wonder if/when I will get this big!

Will History Repeat Itself?

This seems to the question on many a commenter's mind as of late: Will it be twins, again? Of course, I won't know for sure until we see an ultrasound but all signs point to NO! Thank the sweet Lord. Strangely, many of my MOT friends have secret fantasies about having another set. I think they are crazy. I mean, don't get me wrong - if I find out its twins, I'll love them just as I would one baby. But there is not even one little piece of me that wishes it were twins. I'm really looking forward to a "normal" singleton pregnancy. And hopefully one baby won't take the same toll on my body that two did.

So, how do I know it's not twins? Well for those of you who don't know, we have used IVF for both pregnancies, this last one a single FET. We know there is just one embie in there - if it does end up being twins, they will definitely be identical. And run the risk of sharing a placenta and/or sac, both higher risk situations than my fraternal twin pregnancy. Also, the hormone levels (HCG, to be exact) does not indicate twins. Just hints at a very healthy, singleton pregnancy. Of course, I will sleep sounder once we see the nugget on the screen and see the heartbeat. Hopefully that will happen sometime next week.

In the meantime, thank you all for your well wishes. We are so thrilled to be adding another baby to our family.



PS - we are due July 25th! Now I have to wrap my brain around the concept of being pregnant for the whole 40 weeks. Hrm...

O.N.E. = O.M.G.

I couldn't even post yesterday there was so much going on. Sebastian and Collette turned one!! I can't even believe it. I won't say all those cliche things about how fast they are growing up or how it felt like just yesterday we were holding them in the hospital. Mostly because I don't find those things to be true. It has been an amazing year, to be sure, but at the same time it has been a lot of work - the kind that certainly feels like 12 months.

Very first picture of Sebastian

Very first picture of Collette

I wasn't sure if I would get really emotional on their birthday. Leading up to it, I was sure I wouldn't. I didn't get choked up at the thought or start to reminisce about their newborn days. But, at a MOT meeting, someone was passing on a twin breast feeding pillow. The same one that I had. The one I had given to another MOT. And she gave to another. And now that MOT was the one with it tonight, already passing it on to the next lucky mommy. And I had to blink back the tears. It was like seeing a little piece of our history that seemed so far away but there it was, staring me in the face. We have come so far since then; it feels like remembering something you saw in a movie, not something you actually lived.

And then yesterday (their birthday), it was Billy's turn to "sleep in" while I got the babies up. As usual, they stood up in their cribs as soon as they heard the door open, all smiles and squinty eyes. I started to sing "Happy Birthday" to them but couldn't finish it, I was so overwhelmed. With excitement. With joy. With pride. My babies had made it to one year and we were all happy and healthy and enjoying life as it is. What more could a mom ask for?

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for the party, having the party, cleaning up the mess from the party and recovering from the party. I know it's no excuse (especially during NaBloPoMo!!) but blogging was just not part of my recovery plan. My house is still a disaster from the amazing generosity of friends and family. We will have to give away some old toys that will be replaced by all the awesome new stuff we got. Of course, with another nugget on the way, I am nervous to get rid of anything because for all I know, it could be #3's favorite. But, my toy/stroller/clothes hoarding is a topic for another post.

So, we made it. 1 year. 12 months. 365 days. 525,600 minutes. In that time we have learned:

To drink
To nap
To sleep through the night
To eat
To babble
To splash
To roll
To crawl
To stand
To clap
To play
To laugh
To love

And a million more. I can't even imagine how amazing this next year will be. Happy First Birthday Sebastian! Happy First Birthday Collette!

Wordless Wednesday: Bring It On!

Easiest blog post ever :) For more (mostly) wordless fun, check out Wordless Wednesday!