We were able to go visit my parents this weekend. God blessed us all with good health so we were able to be around my mom without worrying about getting her sick. The girls had so much fun. They really enjoyed sitting in their "Pop's" lap and reading lots, and lots of books...and watching college football on TV all day Saturday. My aunt and cousin came to visit that weekend as well, so it was nice to see her. The girls played with my cousin, who is an 8th grader now, but he's so good with kids. They were really interested in his ipod. Grammie and Pop have my old piano in their living room and the girls love to "play" songs and sing. It is so cute when they do that--usually it's ABC song or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but this weekend they sang Oh Susanna. I have it on video, so I hope their singing is audible once we play it back.
My mom is scheduled for another chemo treatment tomorrow. Her hair started falling out last week, and over the weekend, I shaved the remaining hair off so she wouldn't have to go have it done in public at a salon. She was really emotional about it, I knew she would be. I think she was also worrying that it would be really hard for me to do it (emotionally). I was fine until she started crying after the first few snips of hair. I had to just focus on getting the hair off so I wouldn't start crying. My aunt was there with us and so that was really good. I took a picture of my mom totally bald, and one with her wearing one of her wigs. She does look quite a bit different without any hair. It does change the way your face appears too. One day we will look back on this and can hopefully laugh. I know my mom will go through a rough adjustment to having no hair. She already said she felt ugly. I told her she was still pretty and that everyone would feel the same. My Dad is being so good about the whole thing. He is what will keep her feeling good until her hair comes back in.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Getting Back On Track
For the last month or so I just haven't felt like writing. Just too many things going on and I'm finding it just hard to sit down and actually get my thoughts out. Things are looking up since my last post. My mom's pathology reports came back with good news, no cancer cells in the lymphnodes and her recurrence scores were low so with the chemo treatments and possibly radiation she most likely will not have to worry about the cancer coming back, God willing. She just had her first chemo treatment on September 9th. So far she's handling it well, no major nausea (thanks to all the meds they gave her) and after a week the pain from her Nulasta (not sure if that is spelled correctly) injection has subsided. The purpose of that is to boost her bone marrow production to keep her blood count up and the side effect of it gives her achy feeling in her bones--not too fun to endure I can imagine. She's feeling better this week, so we may go visit her soon as long as we are all healthy.
Update on the twins. Emily and Savannah turned 2 years old a couple weeks ago. They are talking like crazy now, and singing all the time. Emily sings 2/3rds of the day, with her favorite songs being "Make New Friends", "ABC's", "I Know A Chicken" by the Laurie Burkner Band, and a few others I can't think of right now. Savannah likes to sing "We Are The Dinosaurs" also by the Laurie Burkner Band, "ABC's", "The Goldfish" by Laurie Burkner, and a few others. They are starting to play with each other quite a bit now, although the fighting seems to occur often and makes my days difficult at times. They like to play with the Lego Duplo blocks together, and run up and down the hall. Every now and then I'll hear one of them yell "Ready, Go!" and then they both go running by. Jumping is also high on their list--usually on the floor, thank goodness and not off of something high. In fact it's the most common way they both choose to move around the house when I need them to go from point A to point B. I usually give them a choice of walking, running, jumping, crawling, or dancing...and 9 times out of 10 they jump. As long as it gets them going in the direction I need them to go that's fine with me.
Challenging things at this time in our lives is the "Terrible Two's" behavior. I'm seeing more tantrums these days and they are both just very defiant. I'm having a hard time with it...so hard I've just been angry for the last 2 months. I've started yelling at the girls way more than I ever dreamed I would. It's gotten to a level that is not healthy. I just met with a family therapist through the parents as teachers organization in Olathe. It did help to be able to talk about my frustrations and to get a handle on what I need to do to change my interactions with the girls when they are being really resistant. I know not all of my anger is from the girls' behavior, part of it is stress of my mom's cancer situation, part of it is lack of time to myself, lack of quality time with Seth, and other little things that have just added up over time. I can say the past few days have been much happier than I can remember in the past few months.
On another note--I am stressing over separating the girls into two different bedrooms. We have been separating them for naps for the last 6-8 months and I've really noticed a difference in Emily's need for sleep vs. Savannah's need for sleep. Savannah just doesn't seem to need as much as Emily and poor Emily is suffering because of it. I talked with our pediatrician about it and described her behavior the last two months (laying on the floor sucking her thumb all morning long, very grouchy, telling me she's sleepy), and he strongly recommended separating them during all sleep situations. When they are older they can probably share a room again if they choose, but for now it will be better for Emily to have her own room. So, this weekend we get to clean out our guest/storage room and move Emily's bed in. I've been fixated on the whole decorating problem--all I have is for one room...and I don't want to do a lot to the 2nd room because we will probably re-decorate once we move them into big-kid beds in the next year. Silly thing to become obsessed over, I know, but my mind just does that sometimes. I guess I want to make sure we find coordinating bedding that could work well in the same room later on if they decide to share a room again. It's not so easy to find as you might think, especially if you don't want to spend a lot of money on it. Oh well, I guess I should just find something cute and then put it on their Christmas list for the rest of our family.
Okay, it's late. I need sleep.
Update on the twins. Emily and Savannah turned 2 years old a couple weeks ago. They are talking like crazy now, and singing all the time. Emily sings 2/3rds of the day, with her favorite songs being "Make New Friends", "ABC's", "I Know A Chicken" by the Laurie Burkner Band, and a few others I can't think of right now. Savannah likes to sing "We Are The Dinosaurs" also by the Laurie Burkner Band, "ABC's", "The Goldfish" by Laurie Burkner, and a few others. They are starting to play with each other quite a bit now, although the fighting seems to occur often and makes my days difficult at times. They like to play with the Lego Duplo blocks together, and run up and down the hall. Every now and then I'll hear one of them yell "Ready, Go!" and then they both go running by. Jumping is also high on their list--usually on the floor, thank goodness and not off of something high. In fact it's the most common way they both choose to move around the house when I need them to go from point A to point B. I usually give them a choice of walking, running, jumping, crawling, or dancing...and 9 times out of 10 they jump. As long as it gets them going in the direction I need them to go that's fine with me.
Challenging things at this time in our lives is the "Terrible Two's" behavior. I'm seeing more tantrums these days and they are both just very defiant. I'm having a hard time with it...so hard I've just been angry for the last 2 months. I've started yelling at the girls way more than I ever dreamed I would. It's gotten to a level that is not healthy. I just met with a family therapist through the parents as teachers organization in Olathe. It did help to be able to talk about my frustrations and to get a handle on what I need to do to change my interactions with the girls when they are being really resistant. I know not all of my anger is from the girls' behavior, part of it is stress of my mom's cancer situation, part of it is lack of time to myself, lack of quality time with Seth, and other little things that have just added up over time. I can say the past few days have been much happier than I can remember in the past few months.
On another note--I am stressing over separating the girls into two different bedrooms. We have been separating them for naps for the last 6-8 months and I've really noticed a difference in Emily's need for sleep vs. Savannah's need for sleep. Savannah just doesn't seem to need as much as Emily and poor Emily is suffering because of it. I talked with our pediatrician about it and described her behavior the last two months (laying on the floor sucking her thumb all morning long, very grouchy, telling me she's sleepy), and he strongly recommended separating them during all sleep situations. When they are older they can probably share a room again if they choose, but for now it will be better for Emily to have her own room. So, this weekend we get to clean out our guest/storage room and move Emily's bed in. I've been fixated on the whole decorating problem--all I have is for one room...and I don't want to do a lot to the 2nd room because we will probably re-decorate once we move them into big-kid beds in the next year. Silly thing to become obsessed over, I know, but my mind just does that sometimes. I guess I want to make sure we find coordinating bedding that could work well in the same room later on if they decide to share a room again. It's not so easy to find as you might think, especially if you don't want to spend a lot of money on it. Oh well, I guess I should just find something cute and then put it on their Christmas list for the rest of our family.
Okay, it's late. I need sleep.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Tough news
Recently my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and just underwent a bilateral mastectomy. She will begin chemotherapy in about a month. I went to Joplin to be with her and my dad during her surgery and to help around the house afterward. I came Saturday afternoon because Savannah was running a fever. It was very hard to leave my mom. All I want to do right now is help take care of her and help her to feel better about all the scary things going on right now. I too am scared and I am finding it's hard to focus on caring for Emily and Savannah when all I feel like doing is crying. I've noticed my patience level is really short when I am sad...so hopefully the girls will be on good behavior or I'll finally get over the sad part of this whole thing and move forward. It's a lot to take in right now. I want to pray for my mom and my family but right now I just don't know what to pray. Sounds strange, huh? I think I just have so many thoughts going through my head at once that I just can't slow down to focus on prayer. I'm really hoping to change that soon. It's the best think I can do for my mom when I am 3 hours away from her.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Diapers on...Diapers off...AAAHHHH!!!
Well, today has been rough for me. Can't remember if I told you Savannah suddenly wanted to use the toilet for going potty and poop. About a week ago she out of the blue said "Sanna need go potty and poop-poop on toilet". So I set her on the toilet and then the next time on a potty chair and she has pooped in it several times and potty a few times. Then she got scared after she pooped on the floor and so she wasn't as interested in it for a few days. I thought maybe we weren't really going to do this after that, but yesterday she seemed to have a very strong renewal of interest in using the potty chair. Emily is not as purposeful about using the potty chair--she seems interested only when Savannah is using the potty chair (we have two or that would be another fight to deal with).
Today, they both have been taking off their pants and diapers and then go running around the house. Once I get one in a diaper and pants back on, then the other has taken hers off again. I was getting really frustrated with that. Then they kept trying to jump on the couch--pantless and diaperless. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! I think Savannah would actually tell me if she was going to potty, but Emily is not yet ready for that--she just lets it go whenever. So, my stress level was growing by the minute after all that. I called Seth and cried, then I called my mom and cried. No one has any real good answers for this problem, other than gate them in the kitchen. Problem is we only have one gate, and two doorways to the kitchen. Finally I got mad after yet another self-depantsing episode with the girls. I just put then in their cribs naked from the waist down and then left the room. I proceeded to cook their lunch, wondering how big of a mess I was going to have to clean up. 20 minutes later I go to their room and find Emily has pooped and peed in her bed and she seemed a little frightened by it--she was standing on the opposite end of the crib sucking her thumb. At least I can throw the sheets and matress pad in the washer--much easier than trying to keep our carpet clean. I did put new diapers and onesies on both of them. Hopefully they won't try to take off their diapers while wearing the onesies...we'll see.
I'm exhausted after our long morning. Going to take a nap.
Today, they both have been taking off their pants and diapers and then go running around the house. Once I get one in a diaper and pants back on, then the other has taken hers off again. I was getting really frustrated with that. Then they kept trying to jump on the couch--pantless and diaperless. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! I think Savannah would actually tell me if she was going to potty, but Emily is not yet ready for that--she just lets it go whenever. So, my stress level was growing by the minute after all that. I called Seth and cried, then I called my mom and cried. No one has any real good answers for this problem, other than gate them in the kitchen. Problem is we only have one gate, and two doorways to the kitchen. Finally I got mad after yet another self-depantsing episode with the girls. I just put then in their cribs naked from the waist down and then left the room. I proceeded to cook their lunch, wondering how big of a mess I was going to have to clean up. 20 minutes later I go to their room and find Emily has pooped and peed in her bed and she seemed a little frightened by it--she was standing on the opposite end of the crib sucking her thumb. At least I can throw the sheets and matress pad in the washer--much easier than trying to keep our carpet clean. I did put new diapers and onesies on both of them. Hopefully they won't try to take off their diapers while wearing the onesies...we'll see.
I'm exhausted after our long morning. Going to take a nap.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Potty Training, Already??
Yesterday Savannah asked to go potty and poop-poop in the toilet. What? Did I hear that right? Yep. She repeatedly asked to go potty in the toilet. So, I took off her diaper, and held her on the toilet seat. She wasn't too happy about it because she was afraid she'd fall in the hole...but she insisted she needed to potty in the toilet. So after 10 minutes I told her it was time to be done. I put her in the bathtub and then she went potty. So later, I brought out 2 potty chairs and we practiced sitting on them. Then Savannah again asked me to help take her pants and diaper off, "Sanna need potty and poop-poop- in potty chair". So, after 10-15 minutes she actually did go potty and poop-poop. Today, she did the same thing twice. I think Savannah is going to potty-train herself.
Emily, on the other hand, is more interested in playing on the potty chair, although she has actually gone potty twice in the potty chair. It's become a family event at least for 3 out of the 4 of us.
This whole situation caught me by surprise. I had not originally planned on attempting any potty training until after the girls' 2nd birthday. They are 22 months old now. Maybe they are ready? I really think Savannah is ready. Not sure how Emily will do once the newness of the potty chair wears off. She likes to sit for 30 seconds, then stand up, turn around look at the potty chair, close the lid, open the lid, sit down, repeat, and then occassionally try to stand/squat on the potty chair. I am so afraid she's going to let loose on the floor while she's doing her little ritual. I guess it's bound to happen...I'm just not ready to tackle this double training thing yet. I haven't even read anything about potty training. Better get to work on my research or I may go crazy! Until then, I'll just keep waiting for Savannah or Emily to ask to use the potty chair...and the rest of the time I'm sticking with diapers for the next few months unless something miraculous happens.
Emily, on the other hand, is more interested in playing on the potty chair, although she has actually gone potty twice in the potty chair. It's become a family event at least for 3 out of the 4 of us.
This whole situation caught me by surprise. I had not originally planned on attempting any potty training until after the girls' 2nd birthday. They are 22 months old now. Maybe they are ready? I really think Savannah is ready. Not sure how Emily will do once the newness of the potty chair wears off. She likes to sit for 30 seconds, then stand up, turn around look at the potty chair, close the lid, open the lid, sit down, repeat, and then occassionally try to stand/squat on the potty chair. I am so afraid she's going to let loose on the floor while she's doing her little ritual. I guess it's bound to happen...I'm just not ready to tackle this double training thing yet. I haven't even read anything about potty training. Better get to work on my research or I may go crazy! Until then, I'll just keep waiting for Savannah or Emily to ask to use the potty chair...and the rest of the time I'm sticking with diapers for the next few months unless something miraculous happens.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Funny sayings from little girls...
So the other day I went into Emily and Savannah's room to get them out of bed and Emily happily greets me with "Heh-wo Miss Mommy!". So cute! They both have been saying some silly things lately. One of their favorite games right now is to say "Mommy. mommy, mommy, mommy"...and then they want you to say their name back to them the same number of times they said yours (i.e. Emily, Emily, Emily, Emily) and then Savannah will usually join in...and it goes on and on...back and forth, back and forth. Silly girls. Another funny thing lately is their realization that poo-poo should not be eaten. This first started out with Savannah speaking a question to me while changing her diaper..."No eat poo-poo?" To which I replied, "That's right, No eat poo-poo--YUCK! That would make us sick. We eat food. Poo-poo goes in your diaper or in the toilet". And now a few weeks later we still get the same inquiry occassionally, only now they are making a statement about it "No eat poo-poo, yucky". Now they will ask if Seth and I eat poo-poo or if our dog Billy eats poo-poo...which is a tricky question to answer, because sometimes the dog has been known to eat frozen doggy poo-poo (yet another gross story...). So to that I say, "Billy should not eat poo-poo, it will make him sick...yuck". That seems to satisfy them for now. I don't actually think either one of them has ever tried to eat any poop...so I'm not really sure where the whole conversation came from...hopefully they aren't thoughtfully considering trying to eat it sometime--GROSS!
Monday, June 16, 2008
The good times, the bad times, and nowhere in between.
Since my last post I can't say much has changed with the girls' behavior issues. We did go through a round of hand, foot, mouth disease and I think that just made their tantrums worse because they already felt horrible. Luckily they are both finally well again and back to the normal tantrums...which isn't much better. I will say that we do have some good times in between the bad. Yesterday, Seth and I were playing with Emily and Savannah in the kitchen and they kept laying on the floor and pulling up their shirts and saying "daddy tickle belly?". Then Seth would tickle them and we all would laugh and laugh. Emily got tired of the tickling and came over to me and climbed into my lap. She likes to stand on my legs or hip bones and give me hugs. This time she buried her face in my cheek and was shaking her head back and forth--kind of like a little baby nuzzle. It tickled a little so I laughed and then Emily laughed and did it again, and again, and again. It was cute.
We have come across a new challenge to our days with the girls. Yesterday in an effort to get Emily to actually go into her room so we could get her dressed I offered her the opportunity to dress her self. She loved it! However, Seth and I are not loving it because it takes forever for her to put her clothes on. Actually I don't think she has yet to successfully put on any piece of clothing, so when we offer to help her it makes her mad. She'll pull the shirt over her head and then take it off in order to put her arms into the sleeves, then she takes it off and tries for the head again...sometimes the shirt is backwards, upsidedown, inside out...at any rate it never gets completely put on. The pants are the same. After waiting over 15 minutes we end up in a huge struggle with both of them in order to get them dressed--Savannah is more accepting of help right now, but it still makes her mad. Emily, just gets almost rageful (is that a word?). I know being able to dress themselves is a skill they need to learn...but did I attempt it to early and create frustrated, uncooperative little girls? We'll see...
We have come across a new challenge to our days with the girls. Yesterday in an effort to get Emily to actually go into her room so we could get her dressed I offered her the opportunity to dress her self. She loved it! However, Seth and I are not loving it because it takes forever for her to put her clothes on. Actually I don't think she has yet to successfully put on any piece of clothing, so when we offer to help her it makes her mad. She'll pull the shirt over her head and then take it off in order to put her arms into the sleeves, then she takes it off and tries for the head again...sometimes the shirt is backwards, upsidedown, inside out...at any rate it never gets completely put on. The pants are the same. After waiting over 15 minutes we end up in a huge struggle with both of them in order to get them dressed--Savannah is more accepting of help right now, but it still makes her mad. Emily, just gets almost rageful (is that a word?). I know being able to dress themselves is a skill they need to learn...but did I attempt it to early and create frustrated, uncooperative little girls? We'll see...
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