Busy or Calm Times?

So, I just realized that I have not posted very much lately. Is it because I've just been really busy, or has the chaos with the girls seemed to have calmed down to the point that I'm not always needing to vent via blog? Not sure yet...

Anyway, the girls have been playing together almost all day, everyday since Christmas. Most of the time it's good, minimal fighting, and I'm finding that they don't really want me to be involved in their play time. That makes me a little sad, and worried because I feel like I'm not being a good mom if I'm not playing with them for the better part of the day. Literally from their first day of life, most of my time has been devoted to them--mostly due to actual need for feeding, changing diapers, comforting, protecting, mediating, and entertaining. Now, it seems I have flexibility in my time, although I don't really know what to do with that. Crazy, huh? I guess I have the PAT activities and advice circulating in my head and I feel like I should be engaging Emily and Savannah in the 30 minutes of structured time vs. 10 hrs of free play per day. When I try to do any structured activity, the girls get mad, tell me to go away, or say in a whiny voice "I don't want to...". Even if it's something they normally love to do. If I suggest it, then immediately they don't want to do it. I guess that's just 2 year old behavior.

So, fun moments to mention. I have a feeling Emily will grow up to be a performer in many musical shows. She seems to narrate her daily life through song. It's hilarious sometimes. Savannah will sing, but usually not to the extent of Emily's singing. Emily recently went through a "snorting" phase. She would talk, then end each sentence with a loud snort, then laugh...trailed by a happy sigh. She did that for 2 straight weeks. This week it just seems to happen randomly now. Savannah and Emily have both been very into playing with their baby dolls, their new cabbage patch dolls specifically. Savannah's doll has brown hair with little curls around the face and then longer pigtails. She calls this doll her "curly baby". Emily's doll is basically the same, but with yellow hair instead and she did refer to her doll as "Baby Ann", but has followed after Savannah and started call her doll her "curly baby" as well. For the longest time any baby doll they played with were named "Baby Grace" (Savannah's) or "Baby Ann" (Emily's).

Savannah is still very snuggly after naps, but her snuggle time is slowly getting shorter and shorter. Emily has taken a more recent interest in snuggling. Both girls have taken a huge interest in play-doh and will play with it for almost an hour together. They like to pretend to make cakes and cookies and then pretend to feed their stuffed animals. Once time during a snack, Emily actually tried to feed her stuffed dog hummus and crackers. That was fun to try to clean off. I tried to explain about pretending and not really using real food to feed their dolls and animals. We'll see how many toys end up with food on them.

So Much Fun

Tonight, a friend of ours was kind enough to offer to babysit for us so we could go out on a date, a real date. Seth and I's 7th wedding anniversary was Monday and to celebrate we went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory on The Plaza and then went to see the Dancing With The Stars 2009 Tour. Talk about fun, it was a blast! Literally--my ears were blasted out for 2 1/2 hours...why do the sound guys at arena's think the music has to be so loud your ears hurt and then your hearing goes a little fuzzy after awhile? Seriously--is it really necessary for it to be so loud? Aside from the overly loud music, it was a good show. Toni Braxton was one of the stars and we got to see her sing twice during the show. Pretty cool, as I used to be a huge fan of hers back in the 90's. I must say, I like her recorded music much better than the live version--her singing mannerism are a bit annoying to me. The dancing was AWESOME!!! Totally cool music, a lot pop and hip hop beats with ballroom routines, so cool! I loved the Latin segment of the show and the hip hop routine with Lacy, Matt, and Derek. The Tango was really good too. Ahh...what a life? Those dancers have the dream job. I'm sure they are tired at the end of a performance, but what fun to get paid to dance like that! I want to do that so bad! I have for a long time...funny that's how I hurt my back. It's so frustrating to be so passionate about something that physically would be really hard on me. I do try to participate in some type of dance when I can, just to get it out of my system. Ideally I'd love to find a place locally that does a really good job of teaching dance of all styles to adults, that allows for periodic performance opportunities, not just as a form of exercise. Hey--if anyone knows of such a place, and it is reasonably affordable, please let me know. Oh yeah, for those of you who don't already know, I live in the KC Metro, so it has to be within driving distance on a week night.

Okay, I'd better go for now. It's late and I'll need my energy for tomorrow so I can teach my girls some fun dance moves. Already today the girls were pretending to be "dancing with the stars, Mommy". They made a pretty good effort for no one showing them how to dance. I think they've seen the actual Dancing With The Stars TV show maybe 3 times. They learn fast!

Ahh...The Good Times and The Bad times

Today it is totally freezing out side...9 degrees to be exact. It is snowing and our neighborhood looks so pretty and peaceful with all the snow. The girls have been asking me if they can go outside and play in the snow. My answer is that is has to get warmer before we can go outside. They want to build a snowman so much they can hardly stand it! Unfortunately because it is so cold outside, it makes for a rather light and powdery snow, not really good for snowmen building. We'll see, maybe we can get outside and make a small one.

The girls were so cute after lunch today. They brought about 10-12 stuffed animals out of their rooms, lined them up across the couch and then pretended to be leading them in singing time. My guess is they are imitating music time at their mother's day out program. I was able to discreetly video tape them while I was sitting at the kitchen table. If I'm holding the camera, all they want to do is see themselves on the video screen, so I had to be sly and set up the camera on the table. It worked! I caught them singing several songs, loudly, and they were totally unaware that they were being videoed. I'll have to put that footage on DVD and send it out to our family, they'll love it!

After all the singing and happily playing together, it was time for a nap. That's when the good behavior went straight to bad. I don't know what goes through their minds, but Savannah especially seems to have a strong willed streak. When I was changing her diaper she decided to kick the decorative letters on the wall above the changing table. She's done this before and knocked a few off the wall, and one broke (it's wood, so I have no idea what happened). This time she took off about 3 letters. I had warned her to stop or we would take the letters off the wall for awhile. About 2 minutes later, she looks at me and kicks the letters again--this time really hard. I got mad, gave her a couple of swats and now all of the letters in her name have come down from the wall. Makes the room look really blah, but I don't know what else to do. Her behavior is so frustrating sometimes. It's really hard to deal with when she gets that way.

I realized something over the weekend. Our girls are a total delight to be with when we get to spend individual time with each girl (it happens so rarely). I had such a great time with Emily on Saturday. Seth took Savannah grocery shopping with him and I stayed home with Emily. We didn't do anything special, all she wanted to do was hang out in the kitchen with me, drawing, while I cooked lunch. It was so different than when both girls are together. I can see why other couples pursue more children once their first child hits 2 years old. It makes me sad that our girls are so competitive for my attention, and often so mean to each other on a daily basis. I can only hope that will change as they get older and are a little more mature. It scares me to think what their behavior might be like if we added another child to our family. So, for now, 2 is all I can handle, unless God suddenly has other plans for me.

Funny Statements From Little Girls

So today I was talking to Emily and she told me her bottom hurt. I asked her if it was her diaper rash and she said yes. Then she yells "My butt hurts!". I then say to her, "Emily, in our house we say bottom". To which she replied, "At Grandma's house we say butt!". That pretty much sent me into a laughing fit. Now I know where she's been hearing the word butt used. Seth and I have been trying to figure it out, and the girls, especially Emily, seems to have great fun saying the word. Neither he or I use that word when we change their diapers, so my next guess was the Mother's Day Out program...but I really didn't think that would be the word of choice with the teachers. So, Grandma's to blame for this one--now we just have to figure out which Grandma says it. We're really not upset about it, it's really funny actually, we just couldn't figure out where they had heard the word butt.

Being A Mom Is Really Hard Sometimes

Since Saturday, both girls have been sick with the yucky stomach virus that's been going around. I have changed diapers more times in the past few days than I have in an entire week! The poor girls tummies hurt and their little bottoms are red with diaper rash, no matter how much diaper cream I put on them. To make things worse, they are grouchy and totally uncooperative. Not sure if all of that is due to being sick, or if they are just having one of those days. They are not getting along at all today. Savannah has wanted me all to herself and she gets mad when I attend to Emily. It's so frustrating! I've been noticing that lately Savannah has been exhibiting some bully-type behavior toward Emily. I don't know how to get that to stop. I think it may be because in the past several weeks, Emily has had a little more attention due to her allergic reactions and illness. It's hard to make a 2 year old understand that you love her just as much as her sister, but sometimes you need to help the other one more than the other. I know eventually this will get easier, but when?

So, I've cried twice today, lost my temper with Savannah after she continued to bite Emily after I repeatedly told her no and to stop. I don't spank my girls very often, but Savannah got a spanking today... and now I feel like a horrible mom. It was a harder spanking than probably needed, and I was mad at the time. I know that's when it's best not to spank, but my fuse was short and it happened. I did try to talk to her and tell her I still love her even if I get mad. I don't really know if a 2 year old really gets that kind of thinking yet or not.

And to top off my really hard day, I'm dealing with a sprained left wrist. A few days ago I was lifting Emily into her highchair and I felt my wrist give out under her weight and it bent in an odd manner...and then the pain and swelling--OUCH!!! I iced it and put an ace bandage on it until the next day. It was feeling a little better, but yesterday I tried to lift Savannah and I think I aggravated the injury. So, mommy is grouchy today too--and hurting. The girls don't understand, nor accept the fact that I cannot lift them and hold them a lot today. They say "Mommy up" and I say, sorry I can't lift you today, please climb into my lap, or please use the step stool...then a major tantrum usually follows.

So, my theme for today is that being a mom is really hard sometimes.

Another Eventful Thanksgiving

So last year we ended up in Urgent Care in Joplin with Emily for an ear infection. This year we visited Urgent Care in Springfield because Emily was breaking out in hives all over her torso and it was spreading to her legs and arms--even after 2 doses of Benadryl. The doctor suspected it was caused by an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillian she had been taking for a sinus/ear infection. However he suggested it could also be food related because at Thanksgiving dinners we often eat foods that aren't normally in our diet on a regular day. We already know dairy is a problem, but now what? The doctor prescribed Prednosol--the baby version of Prednisone. Four days later and she's still having new episodes of hives. I've given her benadry at least twice a day. So far I'm suspicious of chicken, chicken broth, turkey, and cranberries. The strange part of all that is she's had those foods a dozen times or so and no reaction, so I'm not real sure what it is. I will ask our allergist tomorrow if he thinks we need to test her for all the foods they normally do allergy tests for. I just would like to know so that I can eliminate the food that's causing all this from her diet.

Among all the allergy chaos, Seth came down with a stomach virus and pretty much feels horrible. I'm just praying that Emily, Savannah, and I don't get it too--we were all just sick a few weeks ago. We need a break.

The fun parts of our Thanksgiving week all included visiting family. We went to my parents house first (Grammie and Pop as the girls refer to them). We had a good visit, the girls amused my parents with at various times--the two that stand out most are when Emily and Savavannah climbed onto the piano bench and began "playing" the piano, and singing in unison Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. My mom cried because she thought is was so precious. The second great event was decorating my parents' Christmas tree. The girls had so much fun hanging the ornaments on the tree and looking at all the old pictures on the ornaments my brother and I had made when we were kids.

We visited my grandparents (Great Grandma and Great Papa Howard). The girls have not seen them as much since my grandpa's health has been bad and my grandma has not been able to visit us much. So, upon arriving at their house I explained to the girls that Great Papa would probably been in his bed in the living room because he had been sick and so it made him very tired. I told them he needed to be in a special bed that could help him sit up since he could not do that on his own anymore. Savannah's response was "I will not be scar-ed of Great Papa". When we walked up the stair to the door, Emily would not go inside the house and said "I'm scared, I don't want to go in". This made me sad for the girls and for my grandparents. So, Emily clung to me with her face buried in my shoulder for about a half hour, then she wouldn't even look at my grandpa. Savannah was okay until my grandma raised the head of the bed up so my grandpa could sit up--I guess it was scary looking or something. Savannah just froze--facing the TV and would not move or look at anyone for a good 45 minutes. Poor girl. She must have been really stressed. Eventually she warmed up a little to my grandma, and Emily near the end of our visit let my grandma hold her.

We spent the end of the week visiting Seth's family. The girls were so excited to see their Grandma Terry and Pop-Pop. They enjoyed a big Thanksgiving dinner--thankfully everyone made an extra effort to avoid putting anything with dairy in it so that Emily could eat all of the foods that were served. I think her favorite were sweet potatoes and blueberry pie. After lunch we began to notice a few red spots on her stomach, but weren't convinced it was hives because they were small. From then on the rash just got worse...

On Saturday, Seth and his dad took the girls over to "Aunt" Jennifer's mom's house to see their horses and ride a pony named Smokey. I only saw pictures and heard the stories from Seth because his mom and I had gone to a fitness center to work off the extra calories from Thanksgiving. The girls seemed to have a lot of fun--especially Savannah. She had a huge smile on her face in most of the pictures and she looked liked she was having a blast!

Another cute thing that happened was when Savannah and Emily were playing on this little activity table at Grandma Terry's house--there's a 3 key piano on it and Savannah was pressing the keys and singing and Emily was pressing the buttons on the telephone pad and singing. Then Savannah breaks into her version of Oh Suzanna. As Savannah sings it :Oh Sue-Savannah don't you cry for me, I come from Al-bama weeth a banjo on my knee!"


Overall it was a good week, Seth and I even got to go on a date! We went ice skating at the Mediacom ice center in Springfield. There were only about 10 people on the ice...mostly teenagers/college kids, one elderly man and then then Seth and I. It took about 15 minutes for me to remember how to skate, then I was really having fun...Seth on the other hand was having a harder time. What a great husband to take on an activity he knew he might not be very good at just to make his wife happy. He earned some bonus points that night. It was so much fun! I even got brave enough to try out my spin move and I only fell once--ending up laying face down flat on the ice. No worries, nothing broke! After almost two hours of skating Seth and I began to feel really tired--and were reminded that we are getting closer to 30 and just don't have quite the endurance for that type of activity. We concluded your date with a walk throught the Festival of Lights in Jordan Valley Park.

I think it will be a bit of a rough adjustment back to normal. I really enjoyed all the extra family that helped take care of the girls and entertain them. Tomorrow it's back to being just me--and then I may also be taking care of a sick Seth too. Pray for us to get through it.

What was I thinking?

Okay, so I totally meant to post this story way before today, but our whole family has been sick this past week and I just haven't felt like blogging until now. So, hopefully I can recall the events acurately since it's been almost a week and half since this happened.

So, a week ago, Saturday, Seth came down with a yucky cold virus and fever. I decided to give him the chance to get some good rest and took the girls to Oak Park Mall to ride the carousel and play on the foam cars in front of Dillards. We stopped in at my Baby Gap store to try on a few shirts and pants and the girls were pretty good and actually ended up being overly helpful while shopping for a couple of baby gifts. Once I cleaned up all the clothes they had taken off the sale racks, we checked out and proceeded to the carousel. The girls waited patiently in line for their turn to ride the horses. They had a good time while riding. Then they were very cooperative once we entered the car area and took off their shoes and put them in the shoe cubby. Things were going well, despite the mall being crazy busy with tons of people and kids. After about 20-30 minutes of playing it was time to leave so we could bring Seth food for dinner and get the girls fed.

Of course, Emily and Savannah never want to leave the car area when they are having fun...so I expected some resistance. I gave them a 5 minute warning that it would soon be time to leave. I ended having to chase Emily and hold her down to put her shoes back on, but after that she came with me without too much of a problem. Savannah, on the other hand, went into full-blown tantrum mode--I mean HUGE! I struggled with Savannah for quite awhile, putting her shoes on only to have her take them off again. Finally I ended up carrying her out of the car area, all while she was kicking and screaming and crying. Emily followed us to the stroller. As soon as I put Savannah on the floor she screams "I don't want to leave--NO!" and she took off running--fast.

The first thought in my head was--NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! She was already 3 stores down from the play area and Emily was crying and not wanting to walk anymore. I knew I would not have time to get her in the stroller, so I picked Emily up in one arm, pushed the double stroller in the other and walked/ran after Savannah. I prayed to God no one would grab her and take her away. There were so many people and Savannah just kept running, weaving in and out and around the crowd. I tried to yell for Savannah to stop, but she ignored me and kept running.

By this time I was getting frantic because she was getting further away, and I was fast approaching the annoying design of this mall that requires people with strollers or wheel chairs to zig-zag down the main hallways--I hate that under normal circumstances, but when you are chasing a child through the mall it's even worse. Just as Savannah approached a stairway, another family with a stroller happened to end up in her way--she stopped and turned to run around them, but I caught up and blocked her with our stroller. I grabbed her hand and told her to "Always, always, stay with mommy at the mall!" . I have never been so scared to lose one of my girls until that day. Of course, getting her into the stroller after that was a nice little horrific side show for the mall crowd as she kicked and screamed and fought to get out of the stroller while I was strapping her in. AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Lesson learned: NEVER, EVER, take your 2 year old twins to the mall by yourself on a Saturday night. You never know when a tantrum will get the best of you.