Wordless Wednesday {What happens when your 20-month-old starts climbing out of his crib ... and doesn't stop}.

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Do yourself a favor and don't tell a twin mom that you "pretty much" had twins.

The boys and I took a walk around the block today.

Like most of our walks around the neighborhood, the Brothers started out in the wagon and Brennan started out walking. By the time we got halfway around the block (you know, about 30 minutes later) I had Beckett  on my hip while Brennan lagged behind pulling the wagon and I chased Kiernan down the sidewalk.  Standard.

These legs were made for climbing.

My boys are climbers.  

 

They are ALWAYS climbing on something.  Toys, furniture, people ... 

... the sand table, kitchen chairs ...

 

A Not-So-Normal Day in the Life.

So this morning I decided to do an Instagram "Day in the Life" series.  Except that I also discovered that we were completely out of dog food and therefore needed to make a Target run.  Usually I either plan outings the day before or we go after naptime, but I didn't feel like starving my dogs all day long, so I kicked it into high gear.

8:00am - The Brothers wake up and are ready to cause some trouble.  I get green smoothies made and pop some Eggos in the toaster for breakfast.  Talk about a mix of healthy and not-so-healthy.

The terrible, horrible, no good, completely suck-ass day.

That's the title of that kid's book, right?  Yeah, that's what I thought.

If you follow me on Instagram (@imflyingsouth), you had the pleasure of seeing this gem the other day:

Honest to God, it was one of the craziest days I've had in awhile.  The kind of day that 9 months ago, before therapy and Paxil, would have left me crying in the corner with a beer in my hand, on the phone with Brian begging him to come home.  Can we just pause for a moment and celebrate the fact that now when I have one of those days you can find me in the middle of it all, laughing (and wishing I had a beer in my hand, but I'm off the booze til after my race ... sue me, I like my beer), on the phone with Brian telling him that it's no problem that his boss wants him to stay late?  Yeah, I've come a long way.

11 months!

I learned today that monthly pictures now require 2 adults.  These 2 pics were insanely hard to get and I don't really like either one of them.  So when/if I ever get around to attempting to retake them, I'll post them.  If not, at least these reflect the chaos that is life right now!

I'm just not sure where time has gone.  I feel like I blinked and all of the sudden my babies are one month away from their first birthday.  When did that happen?! 

Physical therapy update!

I know I've mentioned the fact that both of the twins have been in physical therapy for awhile now.  I haven't written an update recently because, quite frankly, I've been too afraid to jinx anything.

But now that I can officially declare that both of my boys have "graduated" from physical therapy, I feel like I'm safe to shout it from the rooftops! 

They both started physical therapy back in January, after the pediatrician diagnosed them both with torticollis.  In the most basic terms possible, Beckett's muscles on the left side of his neck were tight, therefore causing his head to tilt and turn slightly left.  This was especially a problem when he was sleeping, which of course young infants do frequently, so the back left part of his head was starting to flatten.  Kiernan had the same problem, but on his right side instead of his left; and his head was more misshapen than Beckett's.  They were also quite weak and beginning to fall behind in gross motor development, which could have been related to the torticollis, but also to low muscle tone.  So the pediatrician recommended physical therapy.

Ass-like feelings and bat-shit-craziness.

Well, hellllloooo blogland.  Long time, no see!

I'm attempting to get back into the swing of things after returning from our almost 3 week long vacation.  Key word there is attempting.  We're all going through/have been through various stages of a weird sickness that basically just knocks you on your ass, makes you act like something crawled up your ass, and makes your throat and head feel like ass.  Basically, it involves a lot of ass.

And then there are the mental patients who call themselves my children.  You know how I said in the boys 10 month post that life was starting to get a little easier?  Ha!  Somebody please teach me to just shut the F up when I start to get optimistic.  I mean, I'm cool with thinking those thoughts, but the minute I start to voice them life spins in the opposite direction.  It's like back in the old days at work when some jackoff would say that it was "quiet" and 10 minutes later everyone within a 50 mile radius who was carrying a fetus in their body would come bursting through the doors.  Seriously.  I should know better.

10 months old!

Double digits!

My babies are creeping up on the one year mark.  How is that even remotely possible?  This time last year, Brennan and I were enjoying Mommy and Me swimming lessons and I already thought that I was as big as a house.  Ha!  I was blissfully unaware that in 2 more months I'd end up being induced and push out a collective weight of 13 pounds 3 ounces of baby. 

I must say, life is finally getting easier.  Don't get me wrong, it's still complete chaos around here and I'm always busy, but we're settled into a nice routine.  The boys all entertain each other fairly well during so I'm better able to get household chores completed.  Naptime routines are fairly easy now as both twins will fall asleep on their own in their beds after a nice cuddle and bottle.  And big brother Brennan is very well behaved while I put his little brothers down for their naps.  More than anything, it's really fun to see the 3 of them play together during the day.  It makes me excited to see them grow up together.

Beckett

Mr. Beckett had another big month.  He's become a pro at crawling and can finally give Kiernan a run for his money in the speed department.  It's so much fun to have them both moving like madmen, even though it's a bit chaotic at times.  On June 18, after physical therapy, Beckett pulled himself to a stand on his little activity table.  He didn't do it much over the next week, but after physical therapy on the 25th, he started doing it more regularly.  I'm so used to seeing a baby standing up and assuming it's Kiernan that when I look closely and notice it's Beckett it still catches me off guard.  Physical therapy with Ms. Leslie has worked miracles and he's pretty much caught up with where he should be.  Our insurance company has denied any further visits, so when we return from Michigan, we'll have an appointment with Ms. Leslie to determine whether or not he needs further treatment.  My gut feeling is that he won't need any, or he'll only need a visit every other week, which won't be too bad.  I'm so proud of him for working so hard. 

Beckett is getting more and more vocal too.  It's been easy for Brian and I to tell the twins' voices apart from a few rooms away since they were just a couple months old, but it continues to get easier.  Beckett has a deeper voice than Kiernan and deep belly laughs and cackles.  On the morning of June 14, Brian went to get the twins out of bed while I made their morning bottles.  When I came into the family room, Brian said, "I know you won't believe me, but Beckett is saying Da-Da".  I laughed at him and said of course I believed him.  And Beckett confirmed it for me later that day.  It's very cute to see Brian's face light up when he says Da-Da.  That mouth isn't only good for babbling though.  It's also very good for eating.  Mr. Beckett will eat pretty much anything if you put it into his mouth.  Other than squash, he hasn't met a food he didn't like.  I'm feeding the boys a lot of table food now, and while Beckett is quite good at the pincer grip, he's also pretty slow and laid back about eating table food.  But he gobbles down purees when I spoon-feed them to him.  He also enjoys spitting the purees back at me with a big smile on his face.  I don't enjoy that as much as he does.   

Brian sometimes describes Beckett as "lazy", but I prefer to call him "laid back".  He continues to be a very easy, mellow, go-with-the-flow baby.  But his wild moments come out when he's in the bath tub.  This month we started to bathe all 3 boys in the tub at the same time.  I can only describe it as extreme insanity, but it's definitely fun.  And Beckett greatly contributes to that fun.  He splashes like a wild child and laughs louder than ever.  I can't wait to take him into my parents' pool when we're in Michigan!

Kiernan

Oh, Kiernan.  We call him our "angry bird" and it fits him perfectly.  He is just completely crazy in every way.  He never stop moving.  EVER.  He's constantly trying to climb - furniture, people, dogs, the baby gate, out of the bathtub…  If you're on the floor, Kiernan will try to climb you.  Even if, no, especially if you're attempting to change Beckett's diaper.  He very much likes to be the center of attention. If nothing else, Kiernan is a constant source of entertainment.  And as always, he feels every emotion very fiercely and can change in the blink of an eye. 

Teething has been very rough on him.  He's a drooling machine and has been very fussy.  His top left front tooth finally cut through on June 24 and I think the right one isn't far behind.  He's constantly chewing on something, partly because of teething and partly because he's always hungry.  Kiernan loves to eat.  He prefers to feed himself and is very proficient at stuffing fistfuls of food into his mouth.  He can't be bothered to learn the pincer grip.  Personally, I think he thinks it's just not an efficient method of getting food into his mouth quickly.  Kiernan's tray is always clear before Beckett's and he usually eats twice as much table food.  He gets about half as much pureed food as Beckett, mostly because I double up Beckett's spoonfuls since he doesn't eat as much as Beckett.

Kiernan continues to impress Ms. Leslie when she comes to see Beckett by cruising all around the furniture.  He's also standing on his own for up to a minute and has stood up and sat down a few times without holding on to anything.  I can't believe how far he has come!   He is still terrorizing his brothers, but has been known to get attacked by Beckett now and then too.  And now that both Kiernan and Beckett are a little more hearty and aggressive with Brennan, he isn't afraid to rough house with them a bit.  I found Brennan dragging Kiernan around by his left leg just the other day.  Luckily, Kiernan thought it was funny, which is why I didn't know about it til I saw it. Otherwise, there would have been insanely loud shrieks of terror and rage coming from the angry bird. 

On the same day as Beckett started to stay Da-Da, Kiernan began saying Ma-Ma.  I love to hear them chat back and forth with each other, although Kiernan almost always controls the conversation.  He babbles all day long, especially in his crib when he should be going to sleep.  Lately I've begun to notice him developing the same language pattern as Brennan had - saying Ma-Ma when he's sad, tired, hungry, or wants something and saying Da-Da when he's happy.  They learn young, don't they?

Naptime snuggles.

We have been changing our naptime routines around here a bit.  Now that both Beckett and Kiernan are crawling, they have been joining us for Brennan's pre-nap story time instead of playing in the family room.  When I make the nap time announcement, Brennan grabs his blankies and says "Come on brothers!" and they crawl down the hallway after him.  The twins are a bit rowdy during story time, but Brennan doesn't seem to mind and in fact frequently asks me to put his brothers in his bed with him for a few minutes - a few minutes that closely resemble a cage match with Mommy constantly on guard to catch small bodies that get flung off the side of the bed.  I'm learning very quickly that being a boy mom is a very physical job.

After we read books and he gets "tucked tight", he likes to "watch" one brother while I take the other one to the family room and dash back to Brennan's room to grab the other before the one I deposited in the family room gets back into Brennan's room.  It's nice to read stories to all 3 of my boys, even though I'm frequently trying to keep Kiernan from climbing on Brennan while trying to keep Beckett from eating the books.

The intricacies of learning how to be a twin mom.

People very frequently tell me that I'm lucky to have had twins.  While I whole-heartedly agree, I often jokingly tell people that if they're going to do it, do it before having any other kids.  Because in my opinion, ignorance is bliss. 

One of the ways my Mom tried to keep me calm during my pregnancy when I would get overwhelmed by the thought of the chaos that was going to consume my life was to tell me that at least I was a seasoned Mom.  I had the luxury of already knowing how to take care of a baby, so I didn't have to learn while taking care of 2 babies. 

But in my mind, that was a disadvantage because it was terrifying.  I knew the huge amount of work that came along with taking care of a baby - and I had 2.  Plus a toddler.  And that's a big PLUS. 

Either way you look at it, it's a learning curve.  And I had to re-learn a lot of tasks and how to do them more efficiently for 2 babies - from carrying to feeding to getting out of the house.  Of course as the boys get older I've had to adjust my methods and create new ones for many things.

9 months old!

I know I'm a bit late with the boys 9 month post, but we had to push back their appointment with the pediatrician and I wanted to wait for official stats.  Judging from their doctor's office measurements, it seems like I wasn't too far off with my unofficial measurements last month.  They're growing and changing so fast.  Today when the pediatrician said, "Well, looks like they're all set until one year" I nearly died.  How can we be talking about that already?  Weren't they just born?!

The twins'  9 month pictures are hilarious and very indicative of life these days.  They do not sit still well at all!  Now that both boys are moving, life is getting a bit more hectic.  It's a blessing and a curse as while they get into more trouble, all 3 of the boys entertain each other very well.  Between eating table foods 3 times a day, giving them bottles before they go down for naps, and chasing them around between naps, I don't have much down time during the day.  I like to spend time with Brennan during the twins' morning nap and when all 3 are napping in the afternoon, I either run around like a madwoman trying to get things done, or I take a nap J

Bodily functions & chaos.

Some days the chaos around this house is enough to make me want to yell "Cut!" because I'm sure I'm on a sitcom set.  Or as my nerdy engineer husband and his nerdy engineer friends say, makes me want to hit Control-Z and undo what happened last.  Yes, they're giant nerds.

Last week we awoke to find dog poop on the family room rug.  It had been storming the night before and the dogs didn't want to go outside and someone must have decided that the family room rug was a suitable place to defecate.  Brian cleaned it up and while I made the morning "snack" bottles and we fed the boys together.  Brian got ready and left for work as I emptied the dishwasher and got the boys breakfast ready.  When I walked back into the family room to get the twins, I found Beckett happily playing with a turd with smears of poop all over his face, hands, and even his feet.  I thought I was going to vomit right there on the spot. I pulled myself together, bathed Mr. Beckett, and sent an angry text to the husband about his inability to get all the turds.

Out-numbered in the airport {part 2}.

Onto part 2 of swimming in shark infested waters, ahem I mean surviving the airport with 3 kids under 3!  And this time, thanks to my friend Paxil, I was actually calm enough to take pictures!

While Brian and I thought our first trip went well, we definitely agreed that there were things we'd do differently next time.  We identified a few minor things right away, and didn't change other things until days before our most recent trip.

Carry-on luggage looked pretty much the same, with the addition of toys and snacks for the twins - both of which they were too small for during our previous trip.  We also got to leave out diapers for Brennan as we can officially declare him potty-trained.  Again we had Brennan's "pack pack" filled with his entertainment, a diaper bag for my carry-on, my small purse, Brian's back pack, and his carry-on suitcase that he insisted he didn't want to check.  It was more to carry on, but we managed and it saved us $40 so I guess I can't complain too much.

Out-numbered in the airport {part 1}.

There are few things less intimidating than your first time travelling with your child.  But usually, you do it the first time and find out that it's not really all that bad.  You have a 1:1 parent/child ratio, or even 2:1 if you're lucky, and everything is fairly under control.

I flew several times by myself with Brennan before Brian ever joined us on a flight and while it turned out to be a fairly exhausting experience as he grew into toddlerhood, it's definitely manageable.

The difficulty grows when you add more children to the mix.  As a parent of twins and an older child, you learn to adapt your parenting.  Everyday is a learning experience and for the most part you are able to make slow adjustments ... until it's time to travel.  Then, you're thrown into shark-infested waters with no life preservers and it's just the 2 of you keeping all 3 of your younger than 3 year old children alive.  OK, maybe that's a little exaggerated.  But just a little.

I'm a model you know what I mean.

Anyone who has children or has tried to take pictures of children knows that it's not always an easy feat.  I took the twins' 8 month photos yesterday and it was by far the most difficult shoot to date.  But it was also completely hilarious.  Kiernan doesn't sit still very well  at all and poor Beckett isn't very stable next to his wiggle worm brother.  Here's a look at the hilarity:

Very first photo and Kiernan is already diving for the camera.

8 months!

 

Eight months.  EIGHT months?  EIGHT MONTHS!! 

I really don't know where time is going.  I know, I say that every month.  But really, it's FLYING by.  I can't believe how fast the boys are growing.  All 3 of them are growing and changing so quickly.  It's fun to watch but sad at the same time.  My babies!  I haven't been to Mom's Club in awhile and their next pediatrician appointment isn't until next month, so I don't have official weights.  But since I was curious I jumped on our scale with them and did the math and then measured them myself too.  So these are very unofficial weights and heights!

I quit.

Today I told Brian that I quit.

He's going to have to find someone else to do this job because for the past few days I feel like I'm not cut out for it.

These boys are killing me.  One ear-piercing shriek and twitch-inducing whine at a time.  And let me tell you,  it's a very slow, very painful death.

Kiernan is on the move.  In the last week he has progressed past his "inchworm" moving to full on big-boy crawling.  Then he started pulling himself up on his knees while holding onto the couch and just a few short days later he started to pull himself from his knees to his feet.  Now he's pulling himself up onto EVERYTHING.  But the problem is that he's still arching his back quite a bit.  So one minute he's standing, the next minute he's hurling himself backward and knocking his head on the floor.  Then of course the screams ensue.  Therefore in a effort to save my eardrums and his ability to use his brain in the future, I spend a good portion of the day just following him around.

Freedom.

I'm feeling free people.

Well, maybe not free, but definitely free-er.

For most of the last year, I've felt caged.  Getting out of the house was difficult with a toddler and being pregnant with twins.  Once the twins were born, well, that caged-in feeling is pretty understandable in that circumstance.  But the boys are getting older and it's getting progressively easier to get out of the house with them.

Most of our expeditions have been walks, play dates, or to meet Daddy somewhere.  All relatively easy things.  But I was hesitant to stray too far from home or go somewhere without another adult to help out.

Then one (terrible, awful, hectic) day, Brennan begged me to go to the zoo.  For whatever reason, I thought "Why not?  I need to get out of this house!"  So off we went ... and we survived.  And apparently we started a trend for ourselves.

Hear me roar.

I feel very accomplished today.

It started out as a crappy day.  Crabby kids, too many things to get done, and no motivation to do anything.  I decided that I needed to get out of this house.  But I wanted to do something more than play in the yard or go for a walk.  I wanted the effort to get out to actually be worth it.