Congrats, Nikko!!

I feel old. My baby brother Nick, soon-to-be Godfather of my kids, the one who married Billy and me, is graduating from college. Soon enough, he'll get a real job and a real apartment (well, a nicer one, I hope...) and get up before noon on weekdays. Maybe play less beer pong. He's not making any promises.

FavAuntie, Jenn., Yours Truly, Auntie Kim and Amanda dressed for the occassion, back at Nick's HS graduation.

*On a side note, when telling my mother about this T-shirt idea, she asked, "Where are you going to find white T-shirts??" Really, Mom? Are you sure you don't drink when no one is looking?

The graduation is in dowtown Boston at noon, otherwise known as nap time. Awesome. Thankfully, I will have FavAuntie and Auntie Kim to help me wrangle the twins and of course Grammy and Grampa will be there, too. FavAuntie is coming in from San Diego for the big event and will be watching the kiddos while I escape motherhood for a couple days. Still working on the list of "how to get through two days with 5 month olds infants and not commit any major crimes" - as you can imagine, the list is rather long. I'm on page three and going strong. Good luck, FavAuntie. You're in for a treat.

***

In baby news, Collette slept unswaddled for the first time last night. I have talked about ditching the swaddle for so long that when it happened, I thought it would be a much bigger deal. But it happened so randomly. First off, she hardly fits in the uberswaddle sack and actually has chafing on her pinky toes where they rub up against the sack. And I can barely get the velcro part wrapped around her and that's how she broke free, undisturbed, Tuesday morning. So, I figured we should ditch it - it obviously wasn't working and she slept even after she escaped it. I put her to bed in the same sack we use for naps and that was that. No issues, no waking in the middle of the night. One little nugget of success to get me through what has been kind of a rough (half of a) week. I'll take what I can get!

Sebastian - you're next!!

I had a dream...

I dreamt that there was a group of people, like a social action group, that was trying to get the government to ban lactation rooms. I was, of course, against this idea being that I am a lactating person and like the idea of a room dedicated to me and other lactators. Not that I need one since I don't go to an office every day. My whole house is one giant, unapologetic lactation room. But still, I'm pro-lactation rooms, for those working moms.

Anyway, in the dream, one of the anti-lactation room activists said the only reason women breastfeed is so they can have big boobs. I countered with "I breastfeed and I already had big boobs! Now they are too big and I hate it - so there!!" I even had a witness to verify my pre-lactating, pre-pregnancy chest size. Not sure who this person was - you know how dreams are...

So, what do you think? Is this some sort of Freudian dream? Does it mean I want to keep "lactating" or stop? Or is it just a pile of subconscious crap?

Makes My Monday: Week Ahead...

While it was BEAUTIFUL weekend in New England, that isn't making my Monday. However, my upcoming week IS. It has been a trying 5 months (duh, right?? Infant twins, and all) and I am in desperate need of a break. This Friday, I will be leaving Beantown for the Big Easy. One of my nearest and dearest friends is getting married and the hubs and I will be in attendance, SANS twins. This will be my first time away from them for more than a few hours since they have been home. And honestly, I'm really, really, really looking forward to it. The babies have been my pushing my every last button lately and as much as I love them, I think a little time away will make me a better, more patient mom.

Also, this will be my first time in New Orleans and its Jazz Festival - awesome! They have been playing ads for it and apparently Bon Jovi will be there. Not sure what Bon Jovi has to do with jazz but who cares - it's Bon Jovi!! (Ya...I'm a huge Bon Jovi fan. I touched him once. But that's another post for another day)

Here I am with Lena, the bride-to-be. Yes, we were drunk. And at a club. A small part of me misses those single days...a very small part.

Monday, Monday, Monday...what's getting your week off to a good start? Join in at Twinfatuation!

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta: Baby Tails

Auntie Kim has transformed my twins - now I have a little lamb and a puppy.




Why is everything ridiculously cute on a baby?? It's so not fair.





Find some other fun fotos for Friday at Candid Carrie's!

5 Months and counting (with Thursday Theater)

So, we have successfully hit the 5-month mark. Not that 5 months is some huge milestone but its another month down. Babies are still alive and well and I guess that's all that matters. And I'm alive and well. Does that matter??

So, I really thought that by this point, we would have ditched the nighttime feeding but, alas, we have not. Billy and I decided we will give them until after our vacation to correct this on their own or else they get Ferberized. Actually, I'm not sure if Billy know about the whole plan but I'll fill him in. Eventually. Or I guess he could just read it here with the rest of you. What a considerate wife I am.

Anyway, the fact that they haven't dropped the night feeding has led us to think that maybe they are just really hungry. According to the good Dr. Ferber this is probably not the case. Oh well. It was worth a shot. So, we figured we would give them a bit more milk in each of their daytime bottles (4 a day) and add in 1-2 *solid* food meals. And I have to say, so far, so good. As far as favorites go, its a toss up between bananas and sweet potatoes. Avocados were fine, they just don't seem to really love like they sometimes do with the others. Not sure what we will try next...In the meantime, here is a video of our first attempt at baby feeding. This video will of course be burned onto a DVD and stored next to their first bath videos so that we can easily embarrass them in front of their prom dates.

The challenge for this week was to add a soundtrack. I did this but it just sounds like we are listening to music in the background. Not sure yet how to get the music to play INSTEAD of hearing us on camera...

In other 5 month news, Sebastian is rolling and Collette is almost sitting (although I'm sure real sitting is still a long way off) and kinda/sorta standing with assistance. I have already shared a video of my rolling boy but here is Collette, "standing up", during our chair picture photo shoot.

So, some good gross motor stuff going on. In the fine motor department, the babies are definitely getting more grabby. I can no longer wear my hair down near Collette and Sebastian love rattles. He doesn't actually know to rattle them but he likes to hold them and try and get them in his mouth, albeit unsuccessfully. Practice makes perfect, Buddy. We're rootin' for ya.

And now, for posterity, here are their chair pictures. 5 months and counting.

This is also Collette's "First Jeans" Picture. I like to kill two birds with one stone.

I wonder what was going through her mind in this one. "Pose for a pretty picture" was definitely NOT it. Although she still looks cute. Naturally.

Sebastian hamming it up. Atta boy!

To find some other fun videos, head over to Goddess in Progress. I'm sure you will find much better editing than you did here.

Wordful Wednesday: The Mommy Brain

Everyone knows (or at least every mom knows) about the massive loss of brain cells that women experience during pregnancy. This leads to "Mommy Brain" - it's not that we get dumb, not by a long shot, but we become FORGETFUL! Ok, I do - I guess I can't speak for every other mom out there but I know I'm not the only one.

In my opinion, this has been a mixed bag - blessing and curse. It's hard when I feel like I am constantly leaving something upstairs or downstairs or in the car or in the house. This was already an annoying part of my life and now it's a million times worse. I also forget conversations I've had with people even though that used to be one of the things I was good at remembering. It's as if my brain is only letting certain things in and everything else just gets flushed out.

However, it's nice to not always remember everything. I didn't go into labor (and therefore did not deliver my babies the old fashioned way), so I can't say that I forget the pain of childbirth having not gone through it. But a lot of women say that they know it was bad but they can't really remember just how bad it was. I can say that I have easily forgotten how uncomfortable I was during my pregnancy. I guess this helps ensure that we will all keep having babies - most days I'm ready for number 3! (I know, crazy. Lock me up, please)

A couple weeks ago, I had one of those days where things just were not going well and it all culminated in a total twin meltdown. I couldn't calm them both at once so I had to choose. It was the worst feeling, leaving one baby crying like that for so long, for so hard, just because I had another baby to deal with. I was so upset and I was thinking, "I gotta write about this because I feel so awful and it'll be all cathartic, and yadda yadda, blah..." By the time I got to my computer, later that night, babies in bed, I couldn't even remember what I was so upset about. It was as if my brain had purged the memory of the event and the feelings that went along with it.

Thank God. Those aren't exactly the memories I want to hold on to. So, while I usually complain about Mommy Brain, it serves it purposes. Otherwise, there would be a lot of only-children out there...

Check out Seven Clown Circus to see who else is sharing this Wednesday!

Makes My Monday: Bananas, Avocados, Sweet Potatoes, OH MY!

We finally did it! We gave the babies their first taste of *solid* food. Billy and I decided to skip baby cereal and go straight to real food. I ran out to the grocery store and got the baby spoons, very ripe bananas and avocados and one small sweet potato. Billy brought the high chairs up from the cellar and got us all set up at the dining room table.

Our first try at it was Saturday morning and we made some banana puree.

Sebastian looks like he is spitting it out but he actually liked it a lot.

Miss Collette is laughing because she thinks we're crazy for trying to get her to eat this. "Where's my milk?!!" She had a little and then was ready for her bottle.

I have a very cute video of them as well but it's a bit long so I need to edit it. This is a skill that still needs some honing, so I hope to have it ready for Thursday Theater. We'll see...

In the meantime, hop on over to Twinfatuation to check out everyone else's Mondays.

Vacation Practice: Take 1

As all things with the twins require a bit of practice, we did our first trial run of outdoor playtime/feeding time yesterday. It was so nice and warm, I simply couldn't resist. And we leave for the Cayman Islands in just a couple of weeks so we definitely need to practice! I set up the sun dome with boppies and toys for tummy time and their car seats for feeding. They were starving so I fed them first. They had no problem eating outside and were ready to play once their tummies were full.

Collette, rocking the Gilligan look - she refused to wear the elastic band hat. She always has her tongue out, a habit she must have picked up from Lola.

Sebastian didn't mind his elastic band hat. They are so geeky, they're cute! He's spying a toy in front of Collette. And so begins twin toy envy...

Lola had to mark her territory and get in on the photo action. After all, the backyard is her turf!

I was diligent about keeping the babies out of the sun. That was smart because once I got inside, I realized I had quite the sunburn on my arms and shoulders. Never expected that from April in New England...

Hope everyone else is enjoying the weekend. We are going to try solid food today so I'll be sure to post about that tomorrow!!

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta: Sisterly Love

It has come to my attention that my sisters are competing over who gets more "exposure" on my blog. Honestly, I never thought they would care about this silly thing I do, short of the pictures I put up of the twins. But they can see them on Facebook, so why bother coming over here?? Well, now they have a reason to - to see if they got a mention. So, to appease them, here is a shout out to them both.

Stacey is my first little sister. Little in the sense that she is younger than me, by 13 months. She outgrew me when she was about 4 and I have been wearing her hand-me-downs ever since. I remember when she was in Kindergarten, she told me that someone asked her if she was in the 3rd grade. This gave her a big ego and gave me a short-complex. I'm 5'4" which I just recently learned is average height. My family didn't get that memo - I'm the shortest by at least 4 inches. Hence, my collection of 4-inch heels.

Stacey lives out in San Diego now which sucks because that's way too far away. She claims to have moved out there for a great job but we all know its for the year-round tanning season and the rooftop pool. But even from 3000 miles away, she sends the twins oodles of love. And she is always ready to be on twin duty when she comes home. She will be here for my first weekend away from the babies and I know they'll be in good hands.

Kim is my second little sister. Again, just little in the younger sense. She lives nearby and helps out every week with the twins. She also has fun criticizing my homemaking skills and reminding me of all the items my kitchen lacks. I can't wait until she has kids - she will learn how fast housekeeping takes a backseat to a screaming baby(ies!). Well, in all fairness, housekeeping already had a backseat in this house... To keep things fair, I criticize her for not knowing common trivia and key SAT words. We are working on it - 7-8pm is designated for Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. Gotta keep the mind sharp. She usually beats me at Wheel but I kick her ass at Jeopardy. Lots of useless knowledge up in here.

So, in honor of these two, here is the only photo I could find of just the 3 of us. Yes, that's me with the day-glow skin, pulling on Kim's top (in my defense, I was drunk) and my lovely sisters, looking like they just got back from 2 weeks in the Caribbean - they hadn't. I'm pretty sure it was winter when this photo was taken...So.Not.Fair.

L to R: Stacey, Kim, Yours Truly

Hop on over to Candid Carrie's to find other bloggers' photo-stories. Always a nice way to start off the weekend.

Theater Thursday: Lola's First Halloween

Goddess in Progress is encouraging us all to break free from still photography and hop on the vlog-train. That's video blogging. Or so I'm told. Here's mine - an old video I dusted off, but a video nonetheless. Complete with furry friend to go along with this week's optional theme.


Halloween is probably my favorite holiday - it might even beat out Christmas. I love making my own costume, trick-or-treating for as many Reese's Peanut Butter Cups as humanly possible (well, not anymore. I'm too old for that...) and doing the Thriller dance. This will be my first year with kids to celebrate and I am already thinking of costume ideas for us. In the meantime, though, I have had to torture my dog, who hates wearing clothes, and make her dress up with me. This video is of her very first Halloween, when she was just 5 months old. Please excuse my costume - this was just the costume I had for giving out candy.



PS: Please click on the Thriller link. Hee.