Big Girls and Their Big Beds

Unbelievably, the twins are 3!

What a difference three years make! It's fair to say that, for most of their short life, we've had plenty of "double trouble," our hands have been very full, and we've trudged through twice the challenges at every stage along the way with these two. We made it through alive after the terrible twos and survived the potty training that dragged on forever. I think we're done paying our dues, though, for a bit, and we're now enjoying the absolute pleasure and ease (yes, ease!) of having twins. As I type this, the older girls are at school, and Mary is asleep. I could be fooled into thinking there are no children in this house, as Tessa and Annie are quiet as little mice in their own world, probably playing with their "doo-dads," a combination of princesses, ponies and other tiny creatures, all transported in little baskets and purses. I have had zero interaction with them for at least an hour (I'm not neglecting them. I just know when I'm the third wheel!) and I'm loving it! The value of a built-in best friend is not to be underestimated, and in honor of their third birthday, here are some cute pictures of Tessa and Annie together. It's pretty cool to be a twin!

Lest I paint a picture of twin bliss over here, though, we are still struggling with a few things with these girls. Okay, maybe just one major thing: bedtime! As convenient as cribs are for containment purposes, we couldn't keep them in there forever, and when Tessa and Annie turned three, it was high time for toddler beds. So, we said goodbye to our 2-crib nursery (and we couldn't do that without some crib shots, now could we?)

and hello to a 2-toddler-bed, 1-crib room. Their room is not palatial, so we put the two beds side-by-side at first,

and that arrangement was a little close for these wild animals. But, it did allow for some kisses before bedtime!

Ah, those little beds next to each other were quite the source of jealousy for two big girls who never had toddler beds (oh, the injustice!) and skipped right to bunk beds. Those big girls are pretty persuasive and talked mommy into a sleepover nap to break these beds in. I really didn't think this set-up was going to last longer than five minutes, but I was shocked when all four fell asleep like this, and stayed asleep for two hours! It's moments like this that I love love love having these girls so close together in age :)

(left to right: Tessa, Megan, Annie, Bridget)

But, not everything with this shift to big girl beds has been so smooth and cute. The thing about toddler beds is that toddlers can get out of them on their own....like Annie did here.

We've also found Tessa apparently sleep-walking, and discovered her asleep in various non-sleeping areas of the room, including their closet!

Our bigger problem is that we have to sit in their room (in a very conveniently located rocking chair) and wait them out until they fall asleep. I am a strict warden in there, barking orders for them to go to sleep, to stop singing the unicorn song, not to touch their doo-dads, put Snow White down....this is all normal, right? ;) Bringing innocent little Mary to sleep in that crazy den of theirs seems like some kind of infant abuse. So, we keep up this system in the hopes that things will get better....Mary may just stay in her pack and play in our room until she is 3!

 

Good Evening

It's a good, good night when we can get out for a nice summer walk after dinner. Usually, the fog has rolled in by then (or never left!), and a family walk in drippy fog is no fun for anyone. But tonight was beautiful and warm!! And even though Matt was working late, I was feeling ambitious after our girls' pizza night and I decided to take the girls out to play at the school around the corner from our house. They were beyond excited for a bike ride/scooter ride, and I had this view on the way there:

Four independent girls! I could not have imagined this three years ago! (I guess it would have been appropriate for them to wear helmets. Oops!!)

And, of course, I had Mary to keep me company bringing up the rear.

The girls had a blast getting some energy out and perfecting their technique with their respective vehicles.

Yep, those are (still) training wheels on those bikes above. Obviously, this bike-riding doesn't happen often enough around here! I'll add that to the list of things to feel guilty about.

No outing is ever perfect, though, especially when there is only one parent along, and no day would be complete for us without a little drama. Although I warned everyone that bathrooms would not be available at the school, and to go before we left, we had to make a sudden departure because Megan had to go now. While she miraculously got herself and her bike all the way back to our house on her own, others slowly started losing momentum. The last five minutes of the walk found me schlepping Mary in the baby carrier, and balancing two scooters, and one bike in my two arms, while practically kicking three kids along the sidewalk. It was quite the scene as we made our way back up the street, and one friendly neighbor observed in a thick Chinese accent, "Wow. You have lot of kids to babysit." (Ah, wouldn't that be nice? No such luck.) When we finally arrived to our driveway, we found Megan...and a puddle. And, worse yet, she was wearing her favorite silver Toms. I think both of us were more concerned about her shoes than anything else, especially after one of us said that we needed to throw them away because they were ruined. (Bad mom, bad mom!)

So, our "good evening" ended with me googling just how to wash Toms, and questioning exactly what I was thinking taking them out like that. We did have fun for a little while, though. I think I earned some mom points in their eyes for the effort. I felt like a rock star for a moment at the beginning of the walk, and all's well that begins well, right? Something like that!


- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress

Little Borrowers

It's spring break! There's no place we need to be, and lots of things we want to do, all at our own pace. With nothing more exotic on our itinerary, our girls were more than satisfied with a much-anticipated trip to the library for story time. (See what happens when you set the standards so low...it doesn't take much to impress this bunch!)

Megan and Bridget usually miss this Tuesday tradition when they're at school. So, it was exciting to see all of my girls enjoying this today. The older girls didn't miss a beat, literally, with all of the same old songs.


And, of course, we colored...




Our lovely librarian has been reading stories and singing songs to these girls since Megan was old enough to appreciate good literature :) Today, we got a picture with her!


Mary was an angel, as always.


But, by far, the most exciting activity was getting library cards for Bridget,


and Megan! What big girls! I'm hoping these cards get abused and cherished for many years.


Hopefully, the massive pile of new books and ancient videos we checked out will keep these girls occupied a little. I'm on my own this week while Matt is away on business (read: baseball tournament), and I'm left to my own devices for four days. Yikes! Yes, I'm very spoiled that this happens very rarely.) I'm also lucky that this solo time coincides with spring break, too! No rushed mornings or harried evenings for these girls.

Now, on to our next leisurely mommy-time activity. Snuggly reading, painting everyone's fingernails and toenails, and watching a straight-to-VHS Princess Jasmine relic from the 90's. Good times :)

- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress

She's 8 Months!

I've been lax in updating details about poor little Mary. Admittedly, her baby book has not even been purchased, never mind filled in. So, this blog is the place her life is captured for eternity...or until I buy that baby book...yeah, probably eternity. Sorry, Mary!




Aw, just look at that smile. This picture was taken just now, while three big sisters are sleeping, and she doesn't seem too bothered by the fact that she doesn't have a baby book, or that I'm blogging and not giving her my undivided attention. What neglect!

And here's a few more from my "real" camera:

Actually, her babysitter just showed up, so she's not being neglected now. Her babysitter is six, after all (that's another post that requires pictures, which are trapped in my camera), so I could probably just run off on a few errands and they'd be fine ;)





Or, I could stay here and say just a few things about Mary, before someone wakes up!

Mary is sitting up now, rolling all over the place, but not crawling. Her two little bottom teeth are getting bigger, and she's putting them to work on everything in sight. She also seems a little perturbed to be dished out purees while everyone else enjoys real food. I don't feel too badly for her at the table, though. She has a show with every meal as she watches the antics of her four sisters.

Mary's biggest news is her lodging upgrade. While she isn't Tessa and Annie aren't ready to sleep three to a room as they make the adjustment to their toddler beds, Mary does have a bigger bed now. Unbelievably, she was still pretty content in her bassinet until a week ago. But, it was time for more space, so she's now a happy sleeper in the pack-n-play, which is still in our room. When Tessa and Annie are less squirrelly at bedtime, we'll add Mary to that room. For now, we're loving having her close to us...and safe from two little monkeys upstairs.


Speaking of those monkeys, I can't believe we ever had any reservations about adding a fifth child to this family. As crazy as it gets here, the girls have never once shown jealousy towards Mary. In fact, she's the very center of their world, especially as she's becoming more mobile, and interesting :).

Tessa and Annie love to play with her during the day while the girls are at school, and Mary's seat in the van is a prime spot to witness twin antics while out and about all of the time. I think she's more content in the car than anywhere else, and that's got to be because she's always entertained in there.

I didn't have to dig very far back on my cell phone to find these glimpses of sisterly love.








As for Bridget, she's Mary's other very responsible babysitter at a crucial time of day for me. While I sit like a warden in the room with Tessa and Annie while they drift off to sleep for naptime, my four-year-old is in charge of the baby in the older girls' bedroom. Down the hall, I can hear sweet baby talk and loving assurances that "Mommy will be right back. Don't worry, baby Mary." There is nothing that lifts Bridget's self-confidence more, or reaffirms her "big girl" status as much as being trusted with this baby-watch. She "reads" books to her and showers Mary with attention, sometimes while "orzagizing" her room and her bed --- she's perfected multi-tasking very young! When I return to the room, she proudly updates me on what I've missed.





I guess this became more about your sisters than you, Mary.

Suffice to say, you are loved.




- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress

Days of Our Lives

Boy, have I been a blogging procrastinator lately.  I blog a lot in my head, like while I'm doing the dishes.  I come up with great posts then.  But, by the time the dishes are done and my hands are dry, I've completely lost my train of thought.  I'm going to go with baby brain on this.  The same little people I want to write about have compromised my coherent thinking so much that this post will have to be mainly pictures, and not much of my drivel. 

Of course, a lot of these pictures are at least a month old.  I think it's been that long since I was last able to wrestle photos from my camera on to the computer.  More recent photos will hopefully be coming soon.  In the meantime, this blog has been patiently waiting for a new post.  So, old photos it is...

Sometimes we pretend we're fun parents and attempt big slumber parties for the girls.  It starts out wonderfully enough -- cozy girls giggling like they're getting one over on Mommy and Daddy.  More giggling, poking, needing to pee, moving blankets, asking for water, and (did I mention?) giggling ensues.  And then it gets late and  it's really time to go to sleep.  No, really time to go sleep.  NO! REALLY TIME TO GO TO SLEEP!!  Yeah, it's not so fun anymore when Mommy and Daddy start yelling and carting girls back upstairs to slightly more controlled quarters.  Two to a room is marginally easier to manage.  Luckily, this picture was taken when one such slumber party was still in full swing.  Personally, I love that the set-up here on the pull-out couch in the living room is like Charlie's grandparents' bed in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  (Yeah, we've seen that one a few times.)

Bedtime isn't all bad, though.

We renewed our zoo membership, so you can expect a lot more pictures like this one -- more girls with their zoo sheets, courtesy of Daddy.  (Surprisingly, a google search for similar zoo sheets turned up nothing!  I hesitate to say that Matt may be on to something with this idea.)

And, sometimes, it's just fun to play in the cabinet.





Legos have found their way in to our home.  Now that they make "girly" Legos, we had to test them out!  Our house gives them eight thumbs up.




We're stepping into uncharted territory with something else, too.  We currently have two little girls growing out their bangs!  Up until now, I've loved bangs on all of the girls, but we're giving foreheads a chance. We'll see how it goes, and older girls may follow.  For now, Tessa and Annie are frequent victims to clippies and headbands, which means that they also pull those out and look pretty disheveled most of the time. 

In a rare "clippied" moment, a bangless Tessa:

and a bangless (and studious looking) Annie at the library:

When I'm feeling very ambitious, we get out the paints.





Mary continues to be loved on, especially by Megan and Bridget, and is sporting two teeth now at 7.5 months!  She's also eating a few square meals a day, which is contributing to her heftiness. 

And occasionally, even these two are smiling at the same time.

Life is good.

My Funny Valentines

On this Valentine's Day, I'm reminded of how much love we have in this life. These five girls (and their daddy) are my heart, and make the hard days worth it. And, to be honest, the hard days happen often. I'm overwhelmed a lot, barely seem to have the time for the basics when it comes to the house and the kids, my van sports the not-so-faint smell of pee, and most of my "me" time is spent with a nursing baby. Our days begin with a routine that resembles a timed obstacle course (I am a fan of obstacle courses...but every morning?), and end with me wondering how I didn't manage to check anything off my to-do list, like doing something about that pee smell, for starters.

I'm too often stressed by the small things that threaten to keep me from enjoying the big stuff.

The big stuff = my five little valentines who are growing bigger every day, and showing me what's really important.

Like today...

While the other four were napping, this one asked to cuddle with me as she delicately opened each of her valentines, in awe of every scrawled classmate's name, and related every detail of her class party. I'm relishing the extra cuddles from her these days!

This one spent way too long "orzagizing" her valentines, and generously sharing candy with her little sisters. Later, she declared, "Valentine's Day is my favorite day ever! Can tomorrow be Valentine's Day, too?"

This one gave me a kiss on the lips every time I asked for one today. Ever the cuddlebug, she's also the best little kisser. I like that in my valentines!

This one gave me more than her share of frowns, hands on hips and tantrums today, but she made up for it by just being her spunky self. And by, for the 100th time, getting right in her baby sister's face, throwing her voice and saying, "You're the squishiest baby in the whole wide world." (The baby is always amused by this, so I'm inclined to think she hasn't actually been squished for testing of this.). I'm also inclined to believe blanket statements like these from her, since I'm also the "best Mommy in the whole wide world." Somehow, she just knows these things, despite her lack of world travel.

And, last but not least, this one just makes me smile, no matter what is happening. Everyone needs a little baby to love on when things get crazy. I highly recommend it. Definitely pick out a cute, happy, easy one like this one!

Our little valentines enjoyed a candle-lit "Taco Tuesday" dinner, and presents galore from grandparents, aunties and neighbors.

Now, as laundry needs to be folded, taxes need to be filed and a lunch needs to be made, I'm trying hard to focus on the big stuff!