New Toys

I noticed the boys were showing more willingness to make attempts at walking unassisted, so I went downstairs to get some of Evan's old walking toys. While I was digging through the corner that contained the numerous rubbermaid containers of toys and baby stuff I came across Evan's old tents and tunnels. I grabbed them up and dusted them off; I suspected all three of the boys would be excited to see them. They were! Evan jumped right into them and Brennan and Carter followed immediately after.

In my eyes these things are worth a million dollars, easily. It is the one place that all three can touch, interact, and play without Evan screaming bloody murder. They all get along great, provided they are all physically in the tents and tunnels. If one little toe is on the outside, they are no longer on protected ground and the treaty has been broken - it's an all out war, usually consisting of Evan wailing that one of the babies is "hurting" him as he pushes on their head or chest and knocks them over.

I didn't get any pictures of Evan, he was happily playing with other baby toys at the moment...

Brennan, he has the most wonderful smile and dimples, even behind that paci:

Carter, he's been my cuddle bug lately (probably due to teething):
Brothers and best friends. Carter on the left, Brennan on the right:

Mother's Day

Yeah, so today is supposed to be Mother's Day...and it turned out fan-freakin-tastic. Yesterday we got everyone up at 6 a.m. so that we could all be ready and out of the door by 6:50 and in the QT parking lot to meet my parents, brother, and grandma. We were heading out to Kansas City for my brother's graduation. Did I mention we have a doctor in the family now? No? Well, guess what? We have a doctor in the family now ;) He's not a physician or anything, but he is a Doctor of Pharmacology and he already has a job waiting for him making WELL over 100k per year working in the Pharmacy at a Kansas City area Wal-Mart. I'm sure it will be nice to be single and making that kind of dough. Do you think there's any chance that we can become his new favorite charity?

Anyway, back to the story. All three boys did great on the trip out there, through the graduation ceremony, and even at the fancy restaurant we went to have dinner and celebrate at. I had some of the best wine I've ever had and literally was feeling tipsy after just one glass...my mother was loaded off of her butt because she pretty much had half of the bottle, possibly more.

That evening we took the boys swimming in the hotel pool. It was very nicely laid out. They had a hot tub, which we did not get to enjoy, a separate kids pool that was maybe 3 ft deep and then another separate pool for the big "kids". The kiddie pool was a tad cold, but Evan got in and went right into having a good time. He actually used the pool floatie I bought him, which I could not believe considering last year he wouldn't let you get within five feet of him with one of those things. Best dollar I ever spent - he had so much fun. I also bought the boys some basic baby floaties to sit in. Carter got in first and we were expecting a reaction but got none. We thought for sure he'd have a problem with the water temperature, but sure enough, he was fine with it. He stayed in almost as long as Evan, who we had to drag out of the pool when his lips changed color to a lovely shade of blue.

Brennan? Not a fan. Upon dipping his big toe in, he immediately went into hysterics. We tried to put his whole body in and let him warm up to the idea, but he wanted no part of it. Out he came and we tried at least once or twice more to get him into the pool for some fun.

It was at this point the jinx was laid on us. Mom, Dad, and Grandma all reached a consensus that the boys should be great sleepers that night. Brennan and Carter, always out to prove you wrong, apparently caught wind of the news and in true twin fashion devised an evil plan in their secret twin language. They went down in their pack 'n plays fine. There were a few times I woke up to place a paci in a mouth or two, but they were doing pretty good all things considered.

I remember waking up at 2:30 a.m. to one of them screaming yet again. Operation: Sleepless in Kansas City was officially in progress. That screaming must have been in secret twinspeak and the official call to action. With one single cry the other half woke up and starting mimicking his brother. Kevin and I both grabbed a baby and tried our best to soothe them. Our efforts were fruitless and we gave in bringing them into bed with us.

I feel it is important to note that our bed was a standard sized double bed. Not a queen. Not a king. A standard sized double bed. Yes, you did the math correctly - that's FOUR human beings in one small amount of square footage all trying to steak claim to a comfortable enough space to catch some sleep.

We ended up getting up and down several more times that night equalling one tired mom and one tired dad...and one tired Uncle Nate who was (alone) in the other double bed in our room. I vaguely remembering trying to be funny at 4 a.m. and halfheartedly "threatening" to throw them over the balcony.

At 5:30 Kevin had had enough of a bad situation. He was somehow able to convince his baby (Carter) to throw in the towel and fall asleep. My baby (Brennan) had no intention of waving the white flag of surrender. While I was in the throws of a baby thrashing about and screaming at the top of his lungs while in my arms in bed, Kevin told me to leave and take the baby to the living room portion of our suite. He informed me that I could sleep on the couch while the baby roamed around and played. Yeah, because that's safe! It had a separate door and everything, thank God, but was most definitely not baby proofed. I was obviously up for the day at that point. I figure I probably got around 4 hours of broken sleep that night.

I guess it was about that time that I realized today was Mother's Day and it was off to a pretty shitty start. It didn't get any better...Evan almost got lost in the hallway after he followed me out of Mom and Dad's room without my knowledge. I went into our room and shut the door behind me, meanwhile my 2 year old was wandering around nearly in tears wondering where the hell his mommy went.

Carter cried for an hour in the car on the drive home before finally falling asleep. After we got back into town we went straight to the In-Law's to give Nonna her holiday time. We were exhausted, but me even more so since Kevin at least got a little extra sleep. I didn't even get a card today. Oh well. I know my boys love me and that I do the best I can with them and that's all any of us can ask for.

It was just another typical day for me, nothing special and just a small step away from being a slightly controlled, extremely chaotic, borderline disaster. Seems about right.

Round 2

The sickness has now passed it's way around and made it to Evan. We got up this morning and as I was making bottles for the babies Kevin appeared in the kitchen with Evan curled up in a ball in his arms. I was instructed to "feel his head" and sure enough - hot. I finished making the bottles and took them to the boys while Kev took Evan's temperature: 101.3. I gave him a dose of children's Motrin and set him up on the couch with his green blankie (the one he chews on), his Thomas blankie, his "brown clues" pillow (it has brown paw prints on it that he thinks are Blue's clues), a cup of juice and a bag of fruit loops.

Throughout the morning chaos, I'd frequently feel his forehead to spot check his temperature and it always felt a little warm, but not crazy hot. Eventually it was time to put the boys down for their morning nap and these past few days have had me incredibly exhausted, so of course I was really jonesing for a nap. I packed up Evan's camp and brought it into the bedroom. I set him up with an episode of Team UmiZoomi while I dozed off for a few minutes. I was actually able to squeeze in almost half an hour - not quite as long and refreshing as I really was in need for, but I'll take every spare minute I can get.

The babies woke up and were ready for lunch. Evan wanted to stay and watch some more Nick Jr, so I left him in our bedroom. After I got the boys all set up with their highchairs and food I went to check on Evan and ask if he was hungry. I cracked open the door to find my bug passed out sprawled clear across the middle of the mattress. I figured I'd let him be since he probably wasn't hungry anyway.

About an hour later I hear a very pathetic, "mommmmmy, moooommmmmy...." coming down the hall. I was in the kitchen when he found me and he practically fell to the floor of exhaustion. I picked him up and he was a little ball of fire. I rushed him over to the thermometer and boom - just like that he had gone from barely a fever at all to 103.4 in about an hour. It had only been 5 hours since his last dose of Motrin, but we didn't have any Tylenol in the house so I decided to give him another dose an hour early. It brought things back down to a somewhat decent level and he started acting kind of normal again.

He seems pretty fine as long as he's doped up. But, man, can you tell the second the meds start to wear off - poor guy completely crashes. I hope tomorrow is better for my little man, he's had it pretty rough today.

Why Is Someone Always Sick?

Kevin hasn't been feeling well this weekend. We went out for breakfast (successfully!) and headed to Toys 'R Us to take Evan to a Thomas and Friends storytime. He was too shy to be read to in a group of strangers, so he collected his BOGO 50% off coupon and proceeded to pick out two new trains. By the time we left the store Kevin headed out to the car while I stood in line and waited to make our purchases. When I got outside there was a nice puddle of vomit outside of the driver's side door and I was informed that I would be playing the role of chauffeur for the rest of the trip.

So there I was, yet again taking care of the whole family by myself. We had a ton of plans to get crap done around the house this weekend, but they were obviously put on hold. I was also really looking forward to being able to relax a little...but yesterday and the previous week had me absolutely exhausted. Oh, did I mention that Evan woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was horrible the whole day Saturday? Or that Carter developed a fever and was extremely fussy? Or that Brennan must have found his way into a bottle of caffeine pills or something - incredibly hyper!? Or that my house was filthy - it literally looked like someone had come in to rob the place - random things everywhere and not a clean fork to be found?!

Thankfully, Kevin was feeling a little better today and let me take a nap to recharge the old batteries. I don't think I could have made it otherwise. Carter woke up fine this morning, but soon the fever and fussiness were back for a second round. I'm not sure exactly what's going on. My first thought was teething, since our total tooth count between both of them remains at zero...but the fever was, in my opinion, much too high for that to be the case. I'm hoping it's not another ear infection, but their track record speaks for itself.

I have to take them to their ENT specialist appointment tomorrow for review and see if the doctor thinks they need tubes or not, so keep your fingers crossed that his answer's a "no". The good news is that if Carter does have an ear infection, we'll catch it pretty quickly. The downside of twins - double the copay, and in this case the specialist copay. Goodbye $100...

Well...

The "new plan" isn't going so well. And you know what's sad? When I check the blog of my personal training company and think to myself "what the hell, they haven't updated since March 17?!" and then I realize, hmmm...I haven't updated mine in a while either, log in, and see that it's been one day longer than theirs in comparison.

I think I'm a pretty good FAIL when it comes to my existence in the blogosphere, but I'm okay with that. I can't be good at everything, now can I? I mean, there has to be one thing that I'm not good at, and this is it!

Okay, maybe that's not it. I'm also crappy at keeping up with laundry, keeping a clean house in general, staying organized, remembering things (I think this is mommyhood related though, I was good at it pre-kids). This list in neither cumulative nor exhaustive - I have many more FAILS to my life story and I'm sure you would love to hear about them ALL someday, right? ;) Right, probably not.


I took the boys back in to see the pediatrician this past Monday for coughs that weren't going away and general yuckiness. They still had ear infections, so we bumped them up to a stronger antibiotic. They seem to be doing tons better on this new prescription and are a lot happier this week. They have now exceeded their quota on ear infections though, so we have appointments on April 19th with an ENT (ear, nose, and throat) specialist to see if they have a future with tubes or not. Hopefully not, since spring has started coming around the doctor is thinking this might be the end of their crappy ear infection "season".

The babies had evaluations with our teacher from the school district's Parents as Teachers program. Usually we just kind of do playtime lessons and she gives us some handouts on things they should be doing at their age and suggestions on what to work on with them. Ms. Jenny has always said Evan was the smartest kid she had ever worked with, but she was also really impressed with both of the babies too, it turns out they are both "above average" for their age. Brennan was a tad more advanced than Carter, but we already suspected/knew that since he is the one that seems to hit and master developmental milestones sooner than the C man.

It was kind of funny, Ms. Jenny suggested we start doing 3 to 6 piece puzzles with Evan. I just kind of gave her that look and she said "you're kidding me right? How big are the puzzles he's putting together right now?" I told her 25 pieces...but he does need a little bit of help sometimes with some of the trickier areas. She's always amazed with that kid, and so are we. Mom and dad are super proud of their little guy!

Evan was sick and stayed home yesterday. He threw up several times that morning while on the way to school, so Kevin drove him back home and he got to spend the day with Mommy. He seemed better towards the later part of the morning and was running around the house causing the usual raucous.

It was back to school today for him and Kevin called a little later giving me the usual update on how he had a hard time with getting him into school, etc. We got some really sad news this morning: Evan's best friend at school had his last day yesterday and he missed it. :( I have to admit, I cried when Kevin told me. It's just so sad to think about.

I was about to ask Kevin to see if he could stop by the office and get the family's address or phone number, or some other form of contact information when he told me that they are leaving the country. Furcon's mom is from Turkey and the whole family is packing up and moving to her home country. Evan didn't even get to say 'goodbye' to him (and just so you know, I'm crying again typing this out).

Furcon was one of the very few things that Evan looked forward to when it came to school, which leaves us in a whole new pickle now. It makes me realize that Evan really is growing up, and that this will happen to him many more times in his childhood and even in his adulthood. It's a fact of life that friends come into our lives and they also leave them.

Some of my mom friends have suggested that maybe this is a good thing, that he won't be traumatized by any 'final moments' with his best friend or that he won't associate any bad feelings with school for taking his friend away, but it doesn't really make me any less sad for my growing boy. I know he won't remember this when he turns 21 or 10 or probably even next week, but I think that makes all of this even more sad - that it will be like his friend Furcon didn't even exist. And this stage of his life didn't even exist. His two year old mind is pretty likely to not remember his first best friend, Furcon, once he has forgotten about him and moved on - and he was such an important part of his life!

We all loved you Furcon, for helping shape who our little boy is now today. We'll all miss you, but I know deep down somewhere, Evan holds a special place in his heart for you. I'd like to think that tiny little spot will always be yours.

Fussy McFussersons

That's what the babies have been this last week...and still are. One, if not both of them, are always crying - ALWAYS. Unless I'm holding them, but gee wouldn't that be wonderful if that's all I had to do during the day?

I'm not sure if it's their ears still, or maybe teeth that are getting closer but I have had enough. Add on top of that a two and a half year old who no longer likes going to school and playing with his friends and you've got one exhausted mama.

Evan's been crying for me in the mornings and seems so sad to be leaving that the past two days we've let him stay home with me. Kevin and I have a pretty big decision that needs to be made and I think a certain mini-someone is forcing the issue. It's so hard to get anything done with two infants in the house, but when Evan stays home with us it's even more difficult. In fact, nothing gets done and the house looks worse when Kevin gets home than what it did when he left.

I also feel terrible because Evan is pretty much parked in front of the tv all day, not good. I honestly feel like he enjoys school once he gets over the two minute crying fit that goes down when daddy drops him off. I mean, seriously...he has friends to play with, he gets to play outside, go to the school's gym, color, paint, glue stuff, read books, etc. and I have no time to do that stuff with him when he's home. It makes me so sad to think how bored he is with me and that I know he craves more attention and time, but I just don't have it. Although, maybe he really would rather be home doing a whole bunch of nothing if it means being around his mom. I don't know. But I do know that keeping him home would save us one thousand dollars a month, wouldn't that be nice?

I know there are plenty of other MoMs who have a toddler and twin infants or twin toddlers and a newborn, etc. and they make it work...I mean, I technically make it work too, but I'm constantly struggling with "what's best" for Evan - and I still don't know the answer. Is there one?

Ear Infections

When will they stop? The boys were getting more and more fussy and all of the other usual signs indicating they might be headed towards ear infections. I waited about a week to see if the cold-like symptoms would subside on their own, but to no avail. Conditions continued to deteriorate, so I made the call to our pediatrician this morning to squeeze them in.

After a mad dash to get everyone ready and fed AND to the doctor's office in less than 35 minutes (I can't believe I actually did it!) my suspicions were again confirmed. The doctor is putting them on Augmentin this time around as opposed to the usual Amoxicillin. Hopefully it works for them, we'll see I guess.

I asked her at what point we begin to discuss tubes, so she went back through their charts. She said she is hopeful they won't be getting anymore, since the cold and flu season is drawing to an end, but that we would probably have to have that talk if they end up with one more before May.

Tubes aren't the end of the world, but I can't wrap my head around the possibility of sending them both into surgery. My poor little babies, they just aren't feeling well and that makes me a sad mom today.