Monsters Are Eating My Brain

Over the coarse of the past 5 years, I have been awoken from my sleep more times than I could ever count. I thought I had heard them all:

“I have to go potty!”
“I need a drink!”
“Mom, I had a dream!”
“Mommy, I peed in my bed.”
“My skin is itchy.”
“I’m cold/hot/tangled.”
“I can’t find my blanket.”

and the dreaded
“Mom! I threw up on my bed/self/floor.”

This morning, at about 1:45am, I was awakened by the familiar little tap on my arm that is always Lidia when I open my eyes. What did she have to say?

“Mom, my tooth is out.”

The Queen of missing teeth lost her 7th tooth while she was sleeping. How on earth she did not just lose it or swallow it is beyond me, but there she was at my bed side, already asking if the tooth fairy would come tonight. I told it was more likely she’d come the next night, put her tooth somewhere safe and sent her back to bed.

Her tiny little teeth are all falling out and her tiny little mouth is suddenly sprouting these huge teeth. I cannot imagine all those adult teeth are going to fit in there. Her baby teeth are so small that the Tooth Fairy has a hard time finding them. Uh, I know because she told me.

Adam didn’t really appreciate the humor in being woken up by a toothless daughter as much as I did. He kind of rolled over and grumbled something while I giggled. Oh well.

I am off to arrange things with the Tooth Fairy. She and I are tight now, you know, after 7 teeth in 1 1/3 years.

Dear February,

It has been 3 weeks since I flipped my calendar and said good riddance to you. As Februaries go, I must say you were truly craptastic. Perhaps that is not a proper word, but it is the only word that can describe the rottenness you brought to 2010.

You started off with a bang by sending the boys and myself a stomach virus–mild as stomach viruses go. Little did I know, this was only a glimpse of what lay ahead for the month. Meanwhile, the husband was stricken with an abscess in such a sensitive place that he could barely move or function, leading to weeks of antibiotic treatments (much to the displeasure of his digestive system) and a procedure for removing said abscess. Consequently, my Nurse Mom title expanded to include a Nurse Wife title and some crash training on the treatment (and packing) of abscesses. Unpleasant, yes, however I dove in and got the job done because that is just what I needed to do.

Throughout this abscess ordeal, I became, for all practical purposes, a single mom doing most of the Mom, Dad and Nurse Wife duties on my own. For some reason, February, you also brought with you a new kind of fun in the form of bed wetting from the usually night trained boy and pull up leakings from the non night trained boy. Thus, many precious nights of sleep were interrupted. All of this then added up into one exhausted Mama.

To make things even more wonderful, at some point during your last week, Liam found a little germ that helped March come in with fresh explosion of stomach virus (far worse than the one we began the month with). This virus knocked out Gavin next, followed by Lidia (who, incidently came to my bed at 12:45am on a Monday morning, leading me to her room to see a kind of mess I hope to never witness again in my life time), then Adam, then myself-thankfully, none of us simultaneously. March, in feeling sorry for us, helped us get healthy after that first week with a nice bout of beautiful weather. We are finally all better, abscess and all, and are hoping the fresh air keeps us healthy for Spring.

In the mean time, I am seriously considering ripping you, February, out of my 2011 calendar.

Grumpily,

One Exhausted Mother

So I (Adam) took Gavin out shopping with me the other day and one of our stops was by one of our favorite chocolate shops. With Valentines upon us the girls of our family were sure to appreciate some extra yummy chocolate treats. After we had made our purchase (he helped make the final decision) and were back in the van on our way to the grocery store he started asking about why we had gotten the chocolates. I had sort of explained valentines but simplified it to most girls like chocolate and like to get it as a gift. To which he responded:

“Lidia’s not a girl.. (short pause) she’s a kind of sister” with this extra funny sort of confused look on his face.

It’s a good thing we had not started moving yet and then I had to explain to him why I was laughing. And yes he has seen Aristocats but I doubt he knew he was pretty much quoting it. The boys did end up with gummy worms which ended any concern over Lidia getting chocolates.

It’s that time of year again. Time for the annual Plague. This time we managed to make it all the way until the end of January before we got the dreaded stomach virus. Liam was the first man down, but thankfully had it only mildly (and managed to hit the bucket most of the time). We almost began to believe it was going to stop with him when 4 days later (Wednesday night), somewhere close to 3am I hear a whining call of “Mom, I throat on my bed.” Translation: I threw up on my bed.

Lucky, by mid morning, Gavin was done “throating”. Unluckily for him, this particular virus had a nasty stage 2: diarrhea. I suppose it’s good that he didn’t have both at the same time. However, this being his first experience (in his memory) with this malady, he really had no words to describe it. I really didn’t think to give him the words, either. He had enough control to make it to the bathroom every time (thank you, son), but did have to endure the problem for a few days. Yes. Real life is gross. Quite.

Fast forward to this morning. After a day of rest, he finally visited the throne again to do his thing. He soon after summoned me to the bathroom with an excited voice, “Mom! I no poop throw anymore! I pooped in a circle!”

Not knowing what to call this new bodily process, he took what he knew to form his own conclusion: If I was throwing up from my mouth, it only stands to reason that is what was happening at the other end, too.

I congratulated him on reentering the realm of round poo, wandered off to have my laugh out of his hearing and of course shared the story with Dad. This kid is so observational. He cracks us up.

But, back to the plague, thus far I am the only other person to have been afflicted. Lidia and Adam have thus far escaped its grasp. Hopefully that continues! I’m ready to leave this particular gross in the past.

In the past long while I have let this blog slide and now I am kicking myself for it. I didn’t start this for other people. I started it for me. I don’t even care if anyone reads it, honestly. For me, this is a place to put down my thoughts, random as they may be and most importantly to chronicle the life of myself and my family. In the past couple of years I have let so many great stories slide by because I’ve become so wrapped up in being Mom. I now have a ton of great stories from Lidia’s 1-4 year old stage—–and few of the boys. I feel really bad about this now. I need to make it a priority from now on. I won’t lie, having twins has been a huge challenge for me. I love my boys with all my heart. I would not change it for a thing…but change my life, they did! Adding everything up, it has been for the better. I do, however, feel sad at times that they aren’t getting the same experience Lidia had for her first 2 years with us. There will never be that undivided attention for them. Now I am split into many pieces and all 3 of my children are noticeably resentful of that at times. I am working toward giving each their time with me. We will find a happy medium some day!

Meanwhile, perhaps I should call it my belated resolution to keep back up with this thing….

I never realized what a transformation there would be when my first child started school.

Lidia is on her third week of Kindergarten and our life has changed so much in these 3 weeks. Her bed time has had to be moved up as Kindergarten is leaving her wrecked. She simply needed more sleep. I, on the other hand, am sleeping less it seems. It’s so difficult to get to bed at a decent hour! The boys are having many days where naps just cannot be fit in because we need to meet their sister at the bus. Evenings can be a bit sketchy right now, but we are working our way through it.

I am still struggling with getting used to this schedule but I (we) will in time. Soon it will just flow each day.

Lidia is thoroughly enjoying Kindergarten and I am glad. I will admit there are days my patience is not what I want it to be. I was having a difficult time juggling her brothers and helping her stay busy. Teaching is not my strong point. I did, however, manage to teach her to tie her shoes before school started. She also learned to ride her bike without training wheels (she really did that herself, though.)

Today, the day was full of a playgroup for the boys (well, and me), dragging them through a couple craft stores with me, then girl to her very first dance class after school and PTA meeting at the school in the evening. I feel like I’ve moved to a different stage of Mom. It’s so strange doing elementary age things instead of toddler/preschool. I forget often how old she is getting. I think, just now I am missing that year that we lost. It seems too soon, in many respects to be at this stage. However, I know she is ready and I am proud of her. I am impressed by her school and teacher. It will be a great year.

On another note, we have planned a vacation. We are headed to Florida in November. We are all excited, even the boys. I think we will enjoy ourselves. We are even taking my mom! This is exciting as my mom as never really had a vacation and it will be fun for her to have the Disney experience once in her life (and I am excited to spend extra time with my mommy, whom I do not get to see nearly as often as I would like).

That’s all for now, I have to crash.

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….