Adventures in Sleeplessness

Today, I showed the 2 year olds that I cannot be out stubborned. They were very unhappy to learn this.

Two hours before dinner last night, I told the small ones that they would need to clean up the bucket of Duplos and the bucket of Thomas Trains that they had dumped out on the living room floor before dinner. One hour before dinner, I reminded them. Dinner came, plates were made up, the rest of us sat down…and two little boys had the nerve to look shocked and distraught that their plates were not among those on the table.

“I will be glad to get your plates as soon as you finish cleaning up your mess in the living room,” I told them….and told them…and told them many times over the next few hours.

My words were always met with a loud/angry/whiney “Noooo” or “Don’t want to”.

No problem :)

Unfortunately, they thought it was better to go to bed hungry than clean up their mess. Fine by me, the choice was in their hands: Do 3 minutes of clean up and eat or go to sleep hungry. They made their choice and stood strong by each other.

What they did not anticipate is that my stubbornness would carry through to breakfast.

Once again they were met with the dreaded words “I will be glad to get your breakfast as soon as you clean up your mess in the living room.”

They lasted about 2 hours with the occasional sad little whine of “Hungry…” here and there. Finally they made a different choice and the living room floor is once again free of Duplo booby traps.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, they are asking for their third! helping of cereal.

So what’s new with us? Plenty!

We managed to continue on from December 1st until February 11th with no illnesses! Then the carrier (also known as the preschool attending Princess) brought home something that began as coughing and ended as a nasty cold virus. She didn’t get much more than a cough and a day of low energy. Liam got the whole line-up, including fever. Gavin, also, but not so much fever. Mom, of course, got it last and today I’m finally feeling mostly back to normal. The Dad got only a slight brush with it.

At any rate, other than the illness we have a few more exciting things happen.

December 23rd, The Princess lost her first tooth! She was not even 5 yet…I was very surprised to find the loose tooth a few weeks before that. She was quite excited! Her teeth are so very tiny that you could barely even tell she had lost a tooth! The new one was already growing in. Her second lower front tooth followed suit and it came out a couple of weeks ago. She new has 2 new grown up teeth growing up on the bottom. She also turned 5 on December 25th!!! December 24th marked 4 years since she officially joined our family, and January 15th marked 4 years home. I cannot believe it has been that long…and I cannot believe it has only been 4 years! I can no longer remember life before her … and I don’t mind a bit.

The boys, in their 2-year-oldness have been into everything and causing plenty of trouble. January consisted of the new game “Let’s take off our pants and diapers, jump under the covers on our bed and see how long it takes mom to find us and get frustrated putting our clothes back on us again.” Mom didn’t care for this game much. If I trusted them not to pee on my floor, hey it would not have been a big deal. This little game got one into some trouble that he probably won’t soon forget, though. I was talking to my mom on the phone when I turned to find both Peanut Butter and Jelly in the nude …again. I sighed, grabbed PB (Gavin) and started putting his diaper and pants back on. Meanwhile, behind me, Jelly starts crying. I turned around and he’s over by the toy box, grabbing at his rear. I wasn’t sure what exactly had happened… did he fall? Bump his rear on something? I couldn’t figure it out, but it obviously hurt. I kept examining, trying to figure out what the problem was because he was not settling down. Then it dawned on me. The fireplace was on.

Now before you start shaking your head at me in that “what a stupid thing for a parent to do” way, yes I did have the fireplace on with 2 year old children in the room. They have been very good about it. They understand hot and generally use much caution and never touch the thing. Not to mention, I am right there in the room with them, to remind them and such when they start getting too close.The part that got him in to trouble is partially his sister’s fault (though I didn’t tell her that ). She has this very silly nature about her. Basically she’s a total goof ball most of the time. Sometimes it’s funny, other times it gets her into trouble. She has taught them to run up to the fireplace, turn around, stick their bum out toward it and laugh (presumably warming their rears). Usually they are far enough from it that it doesn’t matter… and they are also clothed, so one touch against the glass won’t do any damage. However, on this day Liam must have been closer than he thought and pressed those little cheeks right up on the glass. Don’t touch?… oh, that applies to butts, too. He learned the very hard way that all of your skin can feel hot, not just your hands.

He got a decent sized burn out of it. It must have hurt, I pity the poor little guy! While I wish he had not been burned, I have moved beyond the blaming myself stage because to be honest, he knew better. He knew it was hot, but now he knows to be more careful about how close he is. That is one of those life lessons, and I’m glad he learned it with an easily healed burn rather than something more severe. All it takes is one reminder of the owie he got on his butt and he books it far away from the fireplace now. The burn itself was almost heart shaped in nature, and I took a picture for our family history because I am sure this will go down as one of those funny family stories (it already is…). I know the doctors/nurses got a good chuckle out of it once they saw he was okay. To be honest, I laugh when I think about it, too. He is now my little Hot Cheeks.

As a spin off to this event, however, potty training has begun. I had to make sure he stayed diapered as kind of a dressing/protection for the burn (which was a constant struggle as he kept removing the diaper). After all was healed, I threw up my hands and let them run naked I am done chasing them down to put clothes on them. Why not? That is exactly how I potty trained Lidia. To my surprise, they actually caught on quite quickly and we’ve really only had 1 or less accidents a day in the past couple of weeks! I haven’t ventured taking them out of the house yet (we’ve all been sick, anyway), but I think it’s safe to say we are on our way to becoming completely day trained. (Hooray!!!) Already we’ve saved 2 weeks worth of diapers–great for our wallet and the landfill. I honestly though it would be much harder, training twins. I really think it’s just the naked method that makes it so easy. I have no issues letting them run nude if that is what it takes to teach them. I did the same with Lidia and she was in undies on her 2nd birthday. While the boys weren’t quite ready at that time, it seems they are now, because they are doing great! I don’t even have to remind them to go. They tell me, or in Liam’s case he just goes in and goes on his own already!! I couldn’t be happier. The thought of summer time and no diapers and diaper bags…. Wow!! It’s been so long. With twins, I always felt like I was bringing the entire house with me when I went out… I’m not going to know what to do with so many free hands! Wait, who am I kidding, I’ll be chasing down and grabbing 2 year olds with those free hands lol…

On a not so great note, we found that Adam’s office will be closing in June. This could be a negative or positive thing. Positive in the hopes that he can find something that pays him more what he is worth. Because of his position in IT and the things that need to be done to transition the office to another already existing office (not local), his actual position will not be terminated in June, but months later. So he has lots of time to find what he is looking for in a job.

At any rate, those are the highlights from the past couple of months! I’m hoping to keep on top of this a bit more, it’s nice to have this record and release of thoughts and things that happen in the family…

Okay, so maybe not the plague, but can we be done with sick already?

Not quite 2 weeks ago, on the 19th, I took the the boys for their 2 year checkup. All were healthy and happy. Gavin weighed in at 27.6 lbs and Liam at 26.2 lbs. Both are 35 1/4 inches tall. My little guys are getting big! At any rate, all was good, they got their last vaccination for a while and we headed home to continue our day.

Fast forward to late afternoon, Liam was looking a little green and whining. My mother’s instinct told me this child is about to throw up. As I picked him up (aimed outward, of course) and headed toward the bathroom with him, I was unfortunately proved correct as he lost his lunch. The good news was, that yucky part of the virus only lasted a few hours. By bedtime he was done with the heaving and was able to lay down and get some sleep. The bad news is, about 2 hours after going to bed, Gavin awoke and showed me that this was a virus at work, and not just a tummy upset over a vaccination. So everyone was awakened (except the Princess, sleeping blissfully in her loft) as bedding was changed, little guys were cleaned up and bedtime was re-booted. I ended up sleeping in the boys room, then, in case quick action was needed. Thankfully it was not. Gavin, too, only needed the bucket a few times and then it was done with.

However, sometime in the middle of the night, Liam spiked a fever–so the next day Gavin followed suit. At this point, I blame the initial fever on the vaccination. They usually fever for a couple days after that. It was just their unfortunate luck that they were loaded up with this vaccine right as this stomach virus got going.

At any rate, 2 days of fever and Liam was feeling better again, however, Gavin’s fever lasted for nearly a week and spiked up pretty high for a few days. Another trip to the doctor showed–it’s just a virus. Which is what I thought in the first place, as there were no other signs or symptoms, but wanted to check anyhow after a fever for that long. So, lucky Gavin, not only did he get a stomach virus and a vaccine with a fever side effect, he got another fever virus on top of it. Not to be outdone by his brother, Liam (who had been feeling well and cool for a few days) contracted said fever virus and fevered from this past Wednesday until today. He still has a low fever today, but it is not the 103+ that it has been for days. Meanwhile, Adam contracted a form of the first nasty virus and wasn’t feeling so well last week. Then, Wednesday night, I managed to get it in its full form and spent the evening with my friend the bucket. I am feeling better, but having been sick and taking care of all of the sick people, I am pretty worn down.

I suppose this is to be our new Thanksgiving tradition. If you recall, on Thanksgiving night last year, the boys started puking and began the virus that knocked the family off their feet for November and much of December.

Oh, and meanwhile, the princess has been perfectly healthy.

Something tells me she was the unaffected carrier–but time will tell. Don’t get me wrong, I am not wishing for her to get sick. I would much rather she be the unaffected carrier.

But enough with the plague already…

Anyhow, despite the illnesses, we did make it to Thanksgiving at the in-laws. We had a nice visit and Liam was a trooper despite his fever. He just got lots of snuggling and meds. There really wasn’t anything else that could be done.

Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving! We’ll try again next year (for the illness free Thanksgiving, I mean).

The Princess has taken an interest in starting to read little words, asking me to write words so she can copy them and such, so I was sitting at the table with her this afternoon working on that. She asked a question, and I began to answer her. She immediately looked distracted and I could see she was tuning out (not uncommon) and no longer listening to what I was saying. All the sudden, out of the blue (in the middle of my answer, too) she says, “I’ve got mashed potatoes in my ears!”

Oh. Well, that explains a lot….

We’ve found out, when bathing our sons
Two parents work better than one
As they dodge and they flee
All too often there’ll be
Two naked behinds on the run

One year ago:

Now:

One year ago:

Now:

One year ago:

Now:

So much fun to look back at us one year ago at the pumpkin patch and see how much the kiddos have changed! Time is going way too fast… This year the boys had a blast at the pumpkin patch and none of the kids wanted to go home, even though it was cool and very windy.

Can’t believe I will soon be the Mom of a 5 year old and two 2 year olds!!!

Oh that wonderful time in a toddlers life when they make the transition from crib to toddler bed. So much freedom, so much fun.

Unless you are the parents.

And have twins.

With one child it’s put them back in bed a few times and make the room dark and they’ll generally sleep. Playing with things too much to sleep? put them away. With twins in the same room it all changes. Who can sneak out of bed the most? Who can find something to play with? It all becomes an exciting new game and competition. “I bet I can get on top of the dresser faster than you can!” “Oh look the monitor has a light, let’s go get it!” and so on. Getting them to sleep which use to be a story, hugs and kisses and placing them in their cribs with their favorite blanket and maybe having to check on once more before they’d be out is now an ongoing ordeal of continuously placing one or both boys back into bed, pillows back on bed, covers back on bodies, rinse and repeat till you basically wear them out. Did I mention they are stubborn?

Oh and with a toddler bed comes that other fun new thing, falling out of bed. We are looking to add something to prevent this but until we do it means during the night one or both boys will fall out of bed one more more times and then cry pitifully until Mom or Dad come to rescue them. Oh and one of those falls will of course come about an hour before any sane person should be waking up at which point they of course decide it’s time to get up since they are out of bed anyway. And since one is up he might as well wake his brother up too.

And so the morning starts with two cranky boys who didn’t get enough sleep being looked after by parents who also didn’t get enough sleep.

And then there is the daughter blissfully sleeping away through it all till her princessness decides to awaken at her normal time.

In time they’ll learn to sleep in more and we’ll deal with or they’ll learn to not fall out of bed and things will be better but for now it’s an experiment in sleep deprivation.

Often times, Lidia likes to shower with me. I don’t mind because this is time that I get to spend with just her–no boys to step on her attention. We have great conversations in the shower (and plus it is much easier to wash all that hair of hers).

This morning, she joined me in the shower and we were talking about this and that. Suddenly she points to me and the following conversation happens:

L: What is those, mom?

M: You know what that is.

L: Breasts!

M: Yes, those are breasts.

L: I don’t have breasts.

M: Yes you do, they are just small. They will get bigger when you get older.

L: Yes. But your breasts aren’t up, they’re down.

*mom stands in awkward silence for a moment, wanting to laugh but also lamenting the truth in that statement*

M: Yes…You are right about that.

So yesterday, I was observing the boys in the living room and I saw Gavin walk away from Liam. Around his neck he was wearing a pair of toy binoculars.

When I saw Liam get up and high tail it after him, I no doubt expected a squabble to ensue over said binoculars.

When Liam caught up to Gavin, he put his hands on his shoulders, whipped around in front of him (hands now on the front of his shoulders) leaned forward and planted a big loud wet one (accompanied by a “MWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” sound) right on his face.

I about died. It was the cutest thing. I was grinning, laughing and getting misty-eyed all in the same moment.

The best part was the look on Gavin’s face after this transpired. He turned around with the cutest smile on his face that totally said, “Aww, my brother loves me!”

I will try to remember this moment the next time I see Gavin dragging Liam down by the hair because he wants to sit where Liam is sitting….

Well, the Princess made a new milestone in little-girldom last night. She had her very first friend stay “all night long!” She was quite excited to invite her friend Naomi for a sleep over.

First let me re-cap our day. We were pretty busy for the most part. I got up and got everyone fed and ready so we could meet some friends on the East side of town to play at a park. The kids had fun, it was a beautiful day–warm and sunny, but still a nice breeze.

We came home and jumped on our usual routine–lunch, and then nap for the boys. (Or rather, the nap that wasn’t really a nap as both boys had slept the last 10 minutes of the ride home–thus re-energizing themselves enough that they would not sleep again). While the boys napped (er… hung out in their cribs making noise, playing and intermittently fussing), the girls and I had some fun dying play silks with Kool-Aid. (Playsilks: think silk scarves used in play–they are really quite fun and can be anything from dress up clothes, baby blankets, dancing props, picnic blankets…whatever). The girls had a blast with that project and even more fun playing with them once they were dry. They are still playing with them this morning and are very proud that they put the color on themselves (they were white to begin with). Once we got the boys up, and snack was eaten, we sunblocked up again and sat by the pool. That sound so much more glorious than it really was (well, for me anyway). The kids had a fabulous time in the kiddie pool. I had fun playing lifeguard :) After a couple hours, it was time to go in, get dry and start dinner.

Dinner was delicious–we made one of my favorite dishes: Apricot-Ginger Glazed Salmon. So simple, yet so yummy. Even the kids will eat this one–and all of them are very fussy about which meats they will eat, and how they are prepared.

After dinner we split into teams. There was much sunblock and sand to be washed off of the 4 small people in our charge. It was boys against girls- Adam bathed the boys in one bathroom, I bathed the girls in the other. The boys were done first (they don’t have all that hair to wash! Nor all the pretend play that seems to happen whenever these 2 girls get together). Once everyone had hair combed and were properly jammified, the 2 teenies went to bed, and we set the girls up with popcorn and a movie. Finally, the man and I got to relax for a while. The girls really didn’t need us much while their movie was on, but once bed time hit, I knew any relaxation would be over. The teeth were brushed, the tucking was done. A slipped out with a goodnight and wandered back downstairs (with monitor in hand because I knew they would need a little bit of “supervision”). I sat down in my chair, with a sigh, and flipped on the monitor.

Yes… Let the giggling begin.

There were no less than 10 treks made up the stairs by us (mostly me) in the next hour. There were tiffs to mediate, shushing to be done (Lidia’s room borders the boys room on one wall, and they were getting loud enough that they were waking the boys), and drinks of water to be gotten.

There was much giggling to be done, in proper little girl fashion. Of course, I expected this, and it did make me smile, fondly remembering my own sleepover days. After that hour, suddenly things became quiet and we knew that the exhaustion of the day had finally caught up with them. So they were asleep by 10:30–earlier than I had expected, really. Lidia is a master at keeping herself awake, no matter how tired she may (should) be.

I was hoping after this late night, they would sleep in–not so much luck, on Lidia’s part anyway. Lidia was up watching t.v. when I got up at 7:30 to get Liam up. Gavin slept til almost 8–Naomi, until at least 8:30 (I believe Lidia may have suck in and woke her up when I wasn’t looking).

All in all, however, it was a successful sleep over. Lidia had her usual melt down once or twice, but she is 4. What can I expect, really? She isn’t all that used to someone being here full time, getting into all her stuff (the stuff in her room that the boys aren’t allowed to touch).

Today, I’m hoping to take it a little easy and get some things done in the house (though that will be hard with the weather being so nice outside!)

I’ll leave you with a couple pictures from yesterday.

3 of the 4, enjoying the pool–Liam really preferred to splash from outside the pool…

Gavin loved being in the pool with the girls…

Liam stayed in the shade, a lot, too, so it made it hard to get any good shots of him…I guess he’s all about sun protection ;)

Awwww… BFF?