Yes, they are seriously 1 already

Its true. They're 1. We survived the first year. Not only did we survive, it was a lot of fun. I'm lucky and blessed. And not nearly as tired as I expected to be, so that's a plus too.





Of course, then I post this family photo from their birthday party and we look exhausted in it.




We're not that exhausted, I promise. Hmm...or maybe we are and I've just gotten so used to it that I don't notice it anymore??

On to cake pictures, because come on, isn't that what everyone really wants to see from first birthdays anyway?



I can't be sure, but I think a certain little boy liked the cake....

His sister took a bit longer to warm up to it, she licked the frosting off for a while at first. But then she dug in too. Don't you just love that smile? These two are the happiest kids ever. Love it.

Things here are going well. Busy with just the day-to-day activities of life, but its a good busy.

They're turning into kids...toddlers almost (not technically yet because they're only cruising not yet walking) and not so much babies. I'm liking it but its hard to believe too.

Its spring and almost planting time so I'm hoping I'll use my evenings alone (which there will be a lot of them to come with busy-ness of planting) to get on here more. We'll see. Famous last words, right??

:)

Mixed Feelings

Babies growing up is a wonderful thing. I love seeing my kids mastering new skills, becoming more independent and growing into such amazing little people. But I think every mom gets just a little sad realizing her babies aren't really babies anymore. My Littles are going to be ONE YEAR OLD in just over two weeks. Where has the year gone? Its been a busy, whirlwind, wonderful year. I know that much for sure. I also know that it has been so much better and more amazing than I ever thought it could be. Have I mentioned that twins are awesome? They are. Just thought I'd mention it.

Anyway. So we're hitting a year and of course its time to move to sippy cups and cow's milk and such. They're already eating everything you put in front of them and are so independent. I introduced straw cups a few weeks ago and they figured them out so fast. I couldn't even believe it. They love them and are pros at it. They look like they've been doing it their whole lives. I'm so proud of them and they look so big holding their cups in their chubby little hands and drinking just like big kids. But to be honest, it makes me a little sad. Its funny....a year ago I wasn't even sure that I'd be able to breastfeed two babies, and even when they were a couple months old I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to do it because it just seemed so hard. And now here I am, they're almost a year old and I'm dreading weaning them. It was easier with Bug because I couldn't wait to wean the daytime nursings and get rid of pumping at work. But its so easy to nurse these two when I'm with them all day long and its such a quiet, sweet few moments, just the 3 of us. They have these sweet little interactions when I'm nursing them...its the only time of the day when they're still (relatively speaking) and they will just look at each other, exchange little smiles and giggles, play with each others' hands or faces and its just special. It makes me sad to know these special moments will be ending. Like every new milestone and new phase, there's advantages to weaning. Being able to give them a cup of milk and a snack anywhere, anytime. Being able to leave them with someone else for a longer period of time (though that still means I have to be willing to let go and allow someone else to take care of them). Just another one of those "my babies are growing up" things. I'm totally keeping up the bedtime and early morning feedings though. I'm just not ready to give up those quiet moments with my babies. Oh yeah, plus...I kind of like them being my personal alarm clocks to get me out of bed in the morning...then I can slowly wake up as I feed them in the queit darkness, get them to fall back to sleep and quietly put them back in their own beds so I can get up at 6 am while the rest of the house sleeps. Then there is an hour to an hour and a half of ME time in my quiet, sleeping house. Coffee, computer work and quiet before the chaos of the day begins. Did I mention the quiet? Oh yeah, I think I did. I'm not giving that up anytime soon. :)

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! Ok...now that we're all caught up. Maybe I should throw a Happy Valentines Day in there just in case I don't get back here again for a while. Christmas was great. Took me a while to get into the spirit, which is unusual for me because I love, love, love Christmas but it helped once we got our tree (yes, 4 days before Christmas, but hey, we got one). Bug loved it and it was so fun that he was able to get into it this year. The babies just tried to eat the wrapping paper and their big brother was thrilled that he got to open extra presents because he opened all of theirs. All in all, fun times.

My babies are 11 months old. How is this possible? They're my BABIES, they can't be that big! But they're standing and cruising and babbling and playing peekaboo with each other (as in, they don't need me to play, Little Mister hides himself behind a toy and then pulls it away and they both laugh). They eat everything and are bottomless pits and we're working on transitioning to straw cups. I need to switch one feeding of the day over to a straw cup to start the slow weaning process, but its so ridiculously easy to just nurse them that I keep putting it off. I intend to continue nursing them at bedtime and first thing in the morning for who knows how long, but I want to start switching over daytime nursings one at a time so that they're on cow's milk during the day. Easier for going out and about and such, you know? It makes me sad to think about weaning my babies though :( They're getting so big!!


Now for something fun. Assorted things I've learned lately. In no particular order.


-If you plan to have 3 kids under the age of 3, be sure to get an indoor dog that likes people food. It will save you a lot of sweeping. No one wants to do that much sweeping.


-When you have a girl, you will find sparklies in your lint trap. No one told me this and therefore I stood in my laundry room looking at my lint trap, thinking "Now, how in the heck did I get sparklies in my lint trap??" I finally realized I had washed her new clothes from Christmas, and they were sparkly. And of course "sparklies" is a word.


-Do not seat the 2 1/2 year old where he can see his reflection in the window, unless you want him making faces and exaggerated chewing motions at himself throughout dinner.

-Twins really do have their own language.

-Cleaning up after 3 children while they're still awake is an exercise in futility. Go ahead and try it if you want to drive yourself crazy.

-Makeup and coffee do wonders for making yourself appear more awake than you actually are.

-No matter how many times I try to convince myself I'll have/make more time to blog...I don't. I need about 4 more hours in each day to accomplish everything. Since I don't think that's happening...we'll just continue with random posts here and there and I won't even pretend anymore that I'm going to attempt to keep up regularly. It works for now!

And before anyone else wakes up, I'm going to go...otherwise it'll take me another 2 weeks just to get this posted :)

Rainy Days

Its rainy day number 2 here. What a difference between yesterday and today though. Its dreary and dark outside, and yesterday the weather fit my mood. Today I'm like a whole different person. I like today better. Yesterday, nobody had slept well and all the children woke up too early. And when I say too early, I don't just mean too early for me. I mean too early for them. Waking up too early = cranky, tired kids way too early in the day. Add to that a messy house because I was sooo tired the night before that I barely cleaned up at the end of the day and just little things here and there and you get me in a bad mood. On top of that, some more bad news came for a good friend of ours yesterday. I'm not going to go into detail on here, other than to ask for prayers for her. She's going through a really difficult time right now and I'm really worried about how this is all going to affect her and her family in the long term. Its a sad and complicated situation and there's nothing we can do other than to offer our support and prayers. :(

On the bright side. I used part of naptime today to look up Christmas cookie recipes. Yummmmm. I love baking Christmas cookies and this year I'm going to my parents for a few days after Thanksgiving so that Mom and I can bake together. Because lets face it, I'm not going to have the time to make more than one batch on my own this year! But hey, I did make chocolate chip cookies with my Bug the other day. Its a funny story actually. See, before I started dating my hubby I used to make him chocolate chip cookies all the time. It was really just an excuse to go visit him and put a smile on his face. I used to say I was making the cookies for him and all of his roommates...but really, it was just him. He had to know, but then again, neither one of us was very good at seeing how OBVIOUS it was that we liked each other :) Anyway, I continued making chocolate chip cookies for him for a few years after we got together but for whatever reason my batter started turning out thin and the cookies would fall apart. So I gave up on that particular cookie and stopped making them. Apparently he's been pining for chocolate chip cookies ever since. Haha! He guilted me into making them again (it was good-natured guilting) and for whatever reason, they turned out really good this time! And now I have to keep myself from making them too often because oh man, are they good. And addicting!

Ok...baby up. Make that two babies. And another abruptly ended post. But I figure hey, its better than no posting at all, right?? Happy rainy Wednesday!

Too fast

I lowered their cribs. They are standing all the time and I am pretty sure they could have fallen out if I'd left them the way they were. I actually lowered Punkin's crib last week, but I just did Peanut's this afternoon. They're growing up. Too fast. Why do babies always grow up so fast? I love watching them grow and change but at the same time...these are my babies!! Sniff, sniff.

And now I have to go tend to the little girl that just fell. Again. She's okay, just scared herself. But she needs her momma to tell her she's okay :)

Friday Night Excitement

Ok, I have to admit that this is a bit ridiculous. August. August was the last time I blogged. Its November. Wow. I have no good excuse, other than everytime I have some "downtime" I always feel like I should be "productive" instead of indulging my own little hobbies. So I do truly exciting things like dishes and laundry and pay bills. Ah, the life I lead. Oh yeah, plus my babies have had a cold for like a month or more, and therefore have been sleeping like crap. My formerly awesome sleepers disappeared. To the point that we've had to resort to sleep training. Which I always hate. But I have to admit, at least for bedtime, these two have been a lot easier than their big brother was. So far anyway. Of course we haven't tackled naps yet. Which have become like 25 minutes most times. On a good day I might get an hour out of one of them. If I'm lucky. Yep, these are the babies that used to take a reliable 2-3 hour nap every single day. I miss those good nappers...

But back to the point. Its Friday night and the hubby is out harvesting. Oh yes, we're still harvesting. When you don't start until, oh heck, I don't even know when we started...late anyway...then its not so surprising to not be finished in early November. But it seems most other people aren't finished either so there's that at least. But I don't even want to think about how long this harvest will go. Lets not talk about that and the thought of barely seeing my husband until sometime in December. Sigh. So, here I am and luckily all the kids were asleep by 7:30. Which never happens. But the big one didn't take a nap today so if I hadn't been in the middle of feeding the little two their dinner, he honestly would have been willing to go to bed at about 5:30 if I'd let him. I'm halfheartedly folding laundry and I really should be working on a grocery list. But I'm not. Because I miss you all! I miss blogging, I miss putting my random thoughts out there, documenting my little ones' achievements, especially the little things that wouldn't go in a babybook necessarily but that I want to remember. I miss reading what's going on in all my bloggy friends' lives and I miss updating you all on my mundane little life. Having an outlet both for the funny little things in life and the frustrating things. I wish I could find the time to write more often but I have yet to figure out how. There's a lot I have yet to figure out how to fit into my "new" life. I have a decent handle on everyday life and I will say that I still think twins are not as hard as people think they are. In my opinion, they seem a lot harder when they're someone else's. Of course I may think differently at some point in the future, but for now, that's the way I see it. I think a lot of it is, as I've told so many people...I don't know any different. Sure, I know what its like to have only 1 kid but I don't know what it would be like to have multiple singletons. I know how to have 1 kid and I know how to have 3 kids, that's all. I honestly look at my friends who have 3 kids the "normal" way, you know, all different ages? And I think that would be so much harder! Weird, right? But as I told a friend today, with twins you can sort of "miniature assembly line" them. Change one, change the other. Feed one, feed the other. Two babies, one bowl of food. They share a lot of things. Ok, basically everything. Except for Peanut's pink clothes. But she's dressed like a boy pretty often because, well, we have a ton of boy clothes and well, why not??? But back to the feeding. Did I mention they're awesome eaters? Anyone remember what a horrible eater Bug was? HORRIBLE. I had to trick him to get any purees of any sort in him. And even then, it wasn't anywhere near enough. To this day, he refuses to eat anything that resembles a puree. Looking back, I say he had to have had silent reflux. Poor kid. But these two are medicated for their reflux, lucky for them and lucky for me. And they LOVE them some food. Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm. Its awesome.

Ok....this is pathetic. But its 9:45 and I'm nodding off. So in an effort to at least get something, anything, posted...I'll call this good enough and say we'll see if I find a way to get back here more often!!

Assorted Twinisms

Tap-tap. Hello? Anybody out there? :)

After 5 1/2 months of being a twin-mama, I have to say, twins are awesome. Seriously...I would not trade this for anything. And to think, just under a year ago I was absolutely terrified of having twins. I had no idea it would be so amazing. They have so many funny and sweet little "twinisms". What, that's not a word?

-Because I nurse them at the same time, I usually burp them at the same time. When I am patting Little Man's back, then Little Miss will burp. So I pat Little Miss and Little Man burps. Its too funny.

-They often hold hands when they're nursing, it's the sweetest thing. I've often thought of taking a picture but I'm afraid I'd get a bit "too much" in the picture, haha. So its a little mental picture I'll just have to tuck away for myself.

-They are always interacting and they just love each other. They study each other's faces and then break into big smiles. They randomly hold hands if they're next to each other. I can't wait to see how their relationship continues as they grow.

-Their fingers are interchangeable in their minds. "Oh look, a hand, I will chew on it. What do you mean its not my hand, of course it is, its right here." They're constantly sucking on each other's fingers when they are within reach. Little Man has also recently discovered faces and he likes to grab Little Miss's face. You know, stick his fingers in her eyes, whatever. She thinks its funny. He also rolls on top of her, or sticks his feet in her face when they are playing on the floor. This, she also thinks is funny. He doesn't think its as funny when she does it to him. But other than that, he thinks EVERYTHING is funny. All you have to do is look at him and he smiles or laughs. Oh, is that boy a charmer. The smiles! Everyone who ever meets him, just melts as soon as he breaks out his smile. It lights up his entire face and you can't help but laugh. It is the most infectious smile you'll ever see. And his laugh! Oh how I love it! Little Miss, she just has these sweet little smiles that she flashes now and then. Her beautiful little eyes just sparkle, and she seems almost like she's being a little shy with her smile. Its just so sweet. She's going to have everyone wrapped around her little finger in no time. God, I love these kids.

And of course, not to leave out my big boy. He is talking all the time and is SO smart. And he listens to everything you say, even when you think he's not listening. He'll repeat something two days later that you didn't even know he heard. He knows his farm equipment well, can identify a lot of it. Tractor, combine, skidsteer, baler, sprayer, disk, semi, grain bin...I'm sure they're more. Yep, even soybean head and corn head for the combine. He knows John Deeres are green and Fords are blue. He can flip through a farm magazine and identify the machinery. He's 2 1/2, that's for sure. Stubborn as a mule, but he gets that from his mommy and daddy so what can ya do? And as soon as you get so frustrated with him that you can't stand it, he does something so sweet that you just can't be mad. Like giving random kisses. Right now he kisses like a little European. One cheek, the other cheek and then on the mouth. No clue where he got it from, but its too cute. Then he tells you where he kissed you. "This one, this one, that one" Hahaha. I love that kid!

Ok, speaking of...one, two or all three should be waking up momentarily so if I ever want to get this posted...I better finish up! I'd love to say I'll post more often but realistically...probably not. Maybe someday I'll get back to it again!! Thanks to anyone who might still be reading! :)

In their matching tractor shirts!