Time flies

Has it really been 6 months since I've posted here? I guess so. I have the best of intentions and I "blog" in my head all the time. I always think about whatever it is that is happening with our family and whatever my thoughts are on it, and then I remember that my laptop is a dog and it would likely take me an hour to post two paragraphs, two if I added pictures. So I put it off another day, another week, another month. I've become a bit of a Facebook junkie so I do post there several times a week, along with pictures, but....the grandparents (wisely) don't do FB and that is really who should be seeing the pictures.



I don't do resolutions (because well, frankly, I never do them), but I am going to try to keep this up again. Sorry!



Happy New Year!

Yet another birthday...Grandpa Bob!

Sorry, I didn't forget this one, I just forgot to mention it in the last entry! Last year we gave Grandpa Bob (Mike's dad) the best gift we could think of...twins! Our babies were born on Grandpa Bob's birthday and he was thrilled! This year we were able to celebrate his birthday with him in person - I slaved all day on this exquistite birthday dessert for him (ok, Mike may have got cupcakes at the grocery store!)

The picture below shows the first time the babies met Grandpa and his wife, Grandma Minta. They live about 4 hours from us and they managed to come over to see us just days after the babies were born. I couldn't even begin to tell you which baby is which here - they were baby burritos much of the time!



Once again, Grandma and Grandpa made the trek this year. What a difference a year makes!! (Rachael is on the left, Jilly on the right. There's not really that big of a height difference between them - I think Jilly was just bouncing up and down at the time!)




Grandpa is always good at giving Ellie a hard time - she's just as good at giving it back (and check out that new sassy doo of hers!).

One thing I really have to hand to Bob is the fact that he ALWAYS gets down on the floor and plays with our kids. He has a bad back, has had hip replacements and is currently fighting a little bout of prostate cancer and even on this trip, he was down on the ground with the kids (of course I don't have a picture of that, but you'll just have to take my word for it!). It kills my knees to do it and I'm a tad younger than he is. Thank you Grandpa Bob for going that extra mile. We love and miss you and wish you and look forward to seeing you again soon!

Happy Birthday(s)!!!

So getting back to our crazy busy month. May and June are busy months in our family, well ok and March too. May and June mark the birthdays of both of my nieces, all three of my kids as well as my mom. My mom, AKA Grandma, Gramcracker, or now Grammy as Ellie calls her, turned 65 this May. This is unbelievable to me. Grandma looks fantastic, is very hip and is somehow able to keep up with all of her grandchildren and their likes/dislikes, shows, concerts, swimming lessons, etc. PLUS, she showed up at our house the day of her party wearing a black "skort" and this very fun zebra print shirt. I hope I can wear short skirts when I'm 65!! Mom, you look great and I love you very, very much.

A LOT, and I do mean A LOT, of people helped me those first few months after the babies were born. After I cried on the phone and begged my mom for some regular help, she was here two days a week for about about 3 months-ish. I never got anything more accomplished, only occasionally actually left the house, but just having those extra hands during my day to day was SO helpful!! Poor Ellie, she was not even on the back burner - she had fallen behind the whole stove! Grammy somehow always managed to feed a baby and still play with Ellie while I trudged around the house with the other baby, literally barely able to keep my eyes open. On several occasions my mom and my sister would come over from about 7:00pm to 11:00pm so Mike and I could get a few hours of sleep before the l-o-n-g night ahead. I am eternally grateful for every bit of help that we received, but my mom and my sister really got us through it. Thank you. More on this later - I'm just so far behind on my blogging!

Somewhere in between our Disneyland trip and my mom's birthday party, my oldest niece turned 12. How does this happen? When Mike and I met, Cailey was about 10 months old and now she is all cute and hip and grown up and athletic and smart and funny and dare I say...responsible?! Unfortunately, I missed her birthday party and the cute shirt we brought back from Disneyland for her was too small. I feel like I owe her a re-do on her birthday wishes so in the words of the talent agent in "Bolt" (one of Ellie's current favorite flicks), "let's put a pin in it". But we'll do it for real. Cailey - I love you and will come up with something fun to commemorate your 12th birthday!

I think Ellie took this picture. As big and tall as my nieces are, I don't think they're looking down at me quite yet! That is another entry that I should do sometime. Ellie gets a hold of my camera and I never know what she has been up to until I dump them onto my computer. Excellent job, Ellieo!


Did I mention that twins run in our family? Ha - actually they do not but check out this pic of my mom and her sister. Again, I hope I am as hot as these two when I'm a grandma! Whoo!

Ellie and her Grammy...

Where the heck have I been?!!

I know, I know. What is the point of having a blog if you never update it? As my husband so nicely reminds me all the time, I cannot walk and chew gum at the same time. I hate to admit it but it is true. You know how they say having a baby sucks your brain from your head? Well I'm sorry but having two at a time has given me a complete lobotomy. We have been very busy the last month and I just couldn't quite ever seem to get to this. I also managed to put my 3-Day training on hold for an entire month. Well, I'm back, on both counts so here I go...it could take me a couple of entries!

One month ago today Mike, Ellie and I left for Disneyland! Just before the babies were born we told Ellie that when she was 4 we would take her to Disneyland. Ok, she was a month shy of 4 but she didn't seem to mind. We left the babies for part of the time with my sister (THANK YOU!!!) and for the other part my mom (THANK YOU!!!). Though we missed them, I have to be honest, we (especially me) did not miss the rigid routine that comes with having an infant or two around. It was SO great to rarely look at a clock and to just be able to do what we wanted, we wanted.

We had a fantastic time in good ole SoCal. Our weather was perfect, we were able to see some friends (Hello King Family - and congrats on the new bun in the oven!!). We did Disneyland and California Adventure for 3 full days. We did most everything we wanted to do - I guess we missed a few things but we'll just have to hit them the next time! Ellie really enjoyed having us to herself for 5 days. She loves her sisters but boy do they take up an enormous amount of our time!

Ellie loves a good thrill and luckily she hit that magic 42" mark so she was able to go on a remarkable number of rides! There were really only a few things she couldn't do. But for her, the more scared she was, the more she wanted to do it again! The biggest surprise to us was that after the white knuckled ride on the Tower of Terror - she immediately said she wanted to do it again! Are you kidding me?? So we waited in line and did it again. Here are some of our favorite pics - we had a great time and can't wait to go back with the babies when they are old enough:

Cowabunga!!

Ellie started swimming lessons again a month or so a go. Its amazing to me how much she loses in 6 months and equally amazing how fast she can get it back. As it happened this week, she ended up having a solo lesson. She had 30 straight minutes of solid progress and boy were we proud of her! Just two or three weeks ago she wouldn't jump into the pool without holding the instructor's hand (even though she would jump in by herself 6 months ago!). This picture was taken yesterday and she had so much fun doing this, she wanted to do it again and again. It must be the goggles. She just got new goggles and she promised me she would do her very best at her lesson - and she did!

Baby tricks. Jilly has become quite the little performer. She claps (which she has been doing for a month, actually) and it is so funny because it is her default reaction to most things. Of course if we say "Yay!", she drops whatever she's doing and claps. If she is upset about something, she also drops whatever she's doing and claps. If she is really tired and starting to melt...well, you get the picture.

Daddy has also been teaching her other tricks. She can pretty much say "uh-oh" if you say it to her or if she hears it anywhere. Very cute. If you say to her, "how big is Jilly?" She will throw her arms up in the air like she's signalling a touchdown. Oh, and she waves. She does this whole arm motion thing and actually waves to you, not to herself. Cute, cute, cute. Of course when she does any of these baby tricks and you say "Yay!", she stops and claps. Tooth count on this baby: 2.

Rachael. Rachael is a bull in a china shop. The bigger the mess she can make the happier she is. We try to teach her all of the same baby tricks that Jilly does but Rachael would rather stand up and get down, stand up and get down. She can now stand up against anything (or anyone) and is getting more and more brave - barely holding on with one hand and reaching for something with the other. She loves the remotes and will work very hard to get to them! And the phones, and Ellie's Leapster and anything else we don't want her to have. She has discovered the stairs, the cat's hiding places and Ellie's special drawer that has her art supplies. She is our little explorer and it is fun to watch how determined she is. Rachael's tooth count: 1!!

Mommy. Tracy and I have been training for the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk - in which we have the pleasure of walking 60 miles over the course of 3 days all in the name of breast cancer research. The walk is not until September which is good because it is going to take me forever to work up to that. Today we walked 8 miles and somewhere between the 6 and 7 mile mark I realized that my little Sketchers are definitely not meant for this kind of walking!! OOOO, my dawgs are barking tonight!! Guess its time to step up and buy some real walking shoes!

Daddy. Mike has been working hard to get our yard back into shape. It suffered terribly last year when the babies were newborns. He went out and bought a bunch of plants today and now we just need to figure out where to put everything. I'll post some pictures as we start to make some progress. Slowly, we are trying to get back to something resembling normal!

I am...a mommy

This is not a flattering picture of any of us, but it is a glimpse into my life at about 6:30 most every morning.

This may sound bad, but most days I feel more like a caretaker than a mommy. My days are jam-packed with providing meals, baths, clean clothes, clean diapers and band-aids. I clean up mess after mess after mess. I try to work some play time in there somewhere and on a really good day, I get a shower myself. This is not unlike any other parent, of course. It's a very tough job, at least for me, but I truly believe that any competent adult could perform these tasks if need be.

This week both babies came down with Roseola. I had never heard of this but basically it consists of 3 days of an up and down fever, lots of crankiness and then a head to toe rash that is supposed to last 4-7 days. Pretty much harmless, but tough on everyone. Thankfully, they didn't get this at exactly the same time. Rachael got us started on Monday and Jilly's fever didn't kick in until Thursday.

In the middle of the night, when your child is crying, cranky and clingy, NOBODY will do except Mommy. Very rarely do I get to snuggle with and comfort just one baby, but this week I've had the pleasure (and I do truly mean pleasure) of getting up and comforting both babies at one point or another. As I sit with them in the dark, softly singing, rubbing their backs, and letting them sleep on my chest - I am in bliss. I am the one they want. I am the one. Not any old competent adult. ME.

With your first baby, you have all the time in the world to snuggle with them and comfort them when needed. Since we went from 1 to 3, it's very hard and very rare that one kid can get my undivided attention for any length of time. All three of them had had to wait, to cry, to whine and to fuss as I desperately try to finish up with one before I can get to the other. When both babies are crying and fussing, all I can do is drop to my knees and snuggle with both of them. I don't wish them to get sick (because trust me - dealing with two sick babies is no walk in the park and we've had to do it a lot) but the time I have spent with both of them this week has been priceless and rare and it has reminded me that I am not just an unshowered, out of shape caretaker, I am a mommy and the luckiest woman in the world.

Spring sprung..for about 3 days!

April in Seattle is, well, wet. But occasionally we get a burst of beautiful spring weather and it is like the whole city has taken a happy pill! This week we had a few really nice days and it was great! We go outside pretty much every day of the year...but the nice days really do help to make up for the rest of them!

Exhibit A: All the 40-ish dads playing basketball on a beautiful spring day (yes, Mike was sore for days after this!).

Exhibit B: Marble size hail 6 days later - are you kidding me?

Exhibit C: Back to spring - 8 days later.

A few nice days scattered in here and there help us to bridge the gap until summer, which starts every year on July 5!

From the mouths of babes

I'm sure this will not be my first post in this area, but here you go:

1. Jilly has started making a "sssss" sound so we've been asking her what a snake says and trying to get her to do it on cue. Today while we were watching Ellie's gymnastics class I was trying to get her to do it for my sister. "Jilly - what does a snake say?" Out comes this enormous BURP! Of course all the other moms heard it too and we just cracked up!

2. Today as I'm changing one of the babies (when am I not?) Ellie is sitting next to me on the floor (where I spend my entire day) observing and she says, "Mommy, Rachael's buns and your boobies both jiggle like jello". Thank you for that, my sweet daughter!! Ugh.

Sorry, no pictures will be posted for anything that jiggles like jello today.

The cat's me-OW!!

Cats are a big part of our lives. Last night my sister and I went to see CATS at the Paramount Theater. We had a yummy dinner before and had a great time together, as always. It was her birthday present to me, and I loved it!! Thank you big sister!

In the world of real cats, we have two. Two babies, two cats. Hmm. One of the cats, who we have always thought is not the sharpest knife, apparently has more brains than we thought. He stays upstairs ALL day and graces us with his presence promptly at 8:00pm once everyone is tucked away in bed. That's Morton and he avoids the babies at all costs.



Molly, on the other hand has always been downstairs and hangs out with us, kids or not. We have always thought she was the brains of the operation but now I'm starting to wonder. This picture depicts Molly's apparent desperate need for attention as she constantly plunks herself right down in front of the babies - for better or for worse. Note the firm grasp that Rachael has on the cat's tail and the look of determination on Jillian's face as she can hardly wait to get in on the action. Note also Mike's look of "Oh no!", yet he makes no move to stop the attack.

Molly does this to them multiple times a day. They pound on her and really want to SQUEEZE her as hard as they can! The more fur that comes out, the better. They squeal in delight every time they see either of the cats -Morton heads upstairs, Molly heads for them. It's weird but if you have a cat you know that they can be a bit odd.

Ellie has finally figured out that if you are nice to the cats, they are nice to you. Molly LOVES to sit with Ellie when she has her snugly blanket out. Of course that could be because Ellie also gives the cats 10 treats at a time...

In other baby news, Jillian sprouted her first tooth today (or at least I first noticed it today) and Rachael is not far behind. Rachael figured out how to stand up this week which great since she used to just sit on her knees in front of the couch and grunt and scream and get frustrated because she couldn't figure out how to stand up. Yay for Rachael! Jillybean on the other hand can do it too but not as consistently and frankly doesn't seem to care as much at this point. Besides, she has a tooth - take that big sister!!

Easter...and a good place to start!

Hello and welcome to my new blog! This is something I have wanted to do for the better part of a year. There is so much I've wanted to journal about since the babies have been born but as my free time is very low and my exhaustion level is often very high, it has taken me 10 months to come up with a way to do it. Even though I could just journal for myself, I wanted to go this route so that I could share with friends and family as well. Being shy on free time, I also have been terrible about keeping in touch with people. For that, I sincerely apologize. So, for all of those people that I owe a phone call to, owe an email or a thank you note to, or have just flat out neglected over the last year and a half...this blog is for you.

We hope everyone had a nice Easter! Our Easter was very low key. Mike has been pretty sick for the last several days and my parents are out of town. As is usually the case when they are gone, my sister and I tend to stage a more casual holiday affair. My sister hosted a small and wonderful brunch complete with stuffed french toast, "pork products", as we joked about, and yes even a splash of champagne! Between Ellie and my nieces, I think they may have emptied an entire can of whipped cream! How can you go wrong?

On Saturday we attended an egg hunt, again with my sister and her family. We live 5 minutes apart - to say we do a lot of things together would be an understatement. The clouds teased us a lot but I think we escaped with just a drop or two of rain. April in Seattle - gotta love it. The babies, as always, were happy to get out of the house and even happier to make the Easter bunny just a little uncomfortable as she tried to juggle two babies and still strike an appropriate Easter bunny-ish like pose. Ellie had such a crash from her sugar high that she fell asleep on the couch watching TV with Mike. This is something that has only happened twice in her entire life - a good time was had by all!