WOW. We are closing in one one year of twin parenting life and now that the babies are completely mobile and curious about everything times of lounging around snuggling are basically over and we are on the move! We feel like we have two puppies following us around the house everyday and it's so funny to watch them explore and play. We find ourselves laughing so much and just loving every single loud and crazy moment...MOSTLY.
Baby, Bye-Bye-Bye!
When you have four kids and the last two are a
complete surprise you know you're done having kids. Like really DONE. So as our
babies have outgrown and moved on from various items and stages Matt made the
comment that our house, specifically our master bedroom was beginning to look
like the storeroom at Once Upon a Child, a second hand children's store here in
our town. At that moment we knew it was time to get rid of a few things. Even
though I kept on saying “Well, what if one of the babies still wants to play in
this?” or “Maybe Hattie wants to use them for her baby dolls.” It was clear,
the stuff needed to go. I began thinking about each piece and really if it was
something we could use much longer or if it would only be used for a few more
weeks or even a month. If it was either completely finished being used and has
sat in one spot or just moved around for a month or longer it was in the “GONE”
pile and other items were decided upon if they needed to go or not. Mostly,
they all ended up GONE. I am quite the sentimental person though, I am nowhere
near a hoarder. TRUST ME. I throw things away like crazy but also have a few
things that I know would rip me up if they were gone and I never could see them
again. One thing I decided that helped with my sadness over selling our baby
things was knowing that if I sold them on Facebook they would be going to
people I know and could possibly see pictures one day of their babies using the
items. Having that frame of mind helped me SO much. I was so excited to know
the people and current and future babies using the items it felt great. As for
the other items? Well, I plan on hanging on to those for as long as….well ever. For example, I plan to bust out the Magic Merlin Sleepsuit at graduation parties and when
future boyfriends and girlfriends show up for the first time. Ya know, because
who doesn’t want their potential future mother in law swooning over baby
memories??
Going Up, Up, Up and AWAY!
Yayyyy look at them go! Oh wait, crap. Now
they can MOVE and pull up on things? Times have changed my friends. Nothing is
in the safe zone anymore. Food and drinks on the coffee table? Nope, not unless
they have a lid. Papers, Play-Doh and markers on the kids craft table? Nope, not
unless you want choking, papers ripped up and marker lines everywhere. Lamps?
Chords? Shoes? Bags? Baskets? Yup, all are now items to chew, knock over and
dump out. Don’t get me wrong, this is clearly an exciting time and you want
them to go through this milestone. It would be sad if they weren't. But now
when I sit and play on the floor with my coffee or ahem wine chilling on the
table next to me it’s not exactly an option unless I am totally paying
attention. Which I do, for the most part. But if you remember I have two other
kids roaming around besides the twins and they like to play and wrestle and
what not too. So sometimes I am all focused in the Legos or the current Barbie
friend drama on the living room floor and have to make a dashing jerk fast move
toward one thing or another, usually pulling several muscles just to avoid a
super major mess or injury. Unfortunately, we aren’t always able to make it to
said accident fast and there have been a few bumps and bruises along the way.
Harlow being our tiniest child is the one who seems to be the most accident
prone. She has fallen into the side of the dishwasher, pulled a small side
table over on her, fell into a crock and even just face planted crawling into
the kitchen for no apparent reason. Needless to say, this new stage is filling
us with more bruises than we ever had at this point with the older two but hey,
it’s making them tougher right??
“Hey! I know you! When did you get here?”
Are the exact words I know they would be saying to each other the first time I
saw them realize the other one was napping in the same room where they were.
Even as I sit here and type this I am watching them on the monitor jabber back
and forth and standing at the end of their cribs just avoiding nap time. I know
they will eventually lay down and fall asleep so really it’s no skin off my
back if they want to have a quick conversation and talk about their day. Who am
I to tell them to lay down, like it would even work anyway right? In all
seriousness though I have a feeling they will continue to challenge us as they
get older when it comes to nap time. One of the funniest/most annoying things
about this newfound situation is when Harlow decides she wants to toss her
pacifiers into Ryne’s crib but then she never gets them back. I am not sure
what her motive is here, maybe she is thinking she wants to share? Or maybe she
wants to play catch back and forth? Either way, Ryne clearly is missing the
memo and he just lets them sit in his crib while she slowly but surely gets
ticked off and wants them back. He never once yet has picked up on this. He
just sits there and smiles back at her while she is all mad and crying and just
staring at him like “Hellooooo, my pacifiers please?” to which he responds with smiles and rolls
around his crib. I’m sure at some point they will be crawling from one crib to
the other, tossing more things back and forth and even just straight up getting
out of their cribs. Having a monitor is a crucial baby item to have for so many
reasons but particularly in this situation because I just sit and watch them
like they have their own reality show. I can’t wait to see what each one will
do and it’s so funny when one finally lays down to fall asleep while the other
one just stands there creepily staring at the other one and then eventually lays down too. There
is no rhyme or reason to this nap time play time right now but it’s hilarious
and I love watching it. I’m pretty sure we need to set up a live stream for
people to tune in, I think they could get quite the following.
When I Sip, You Sip, We Sip...or NOT
Thirsty? Yes, I am sure you are. Go ahead and
take a sip from one of plethora of sippy cups I have put in front of you to try
and have failed every single time. I do not remember this struggle with the
older two kids, but I also do not remember at what age they were able to drink
out of a sippy cup with ease. When you go to the store to shop for sippy cups
they have age ranges on them...a few starting at even 4 months of age! We
didn’t start trying sippy cups with the babies until about 7 or 8 months and
just put small amounts of water in them. We only tried the cups during meal
times when I knew they were shoveling food in and they had to be thirsty. We
are now over ten months and have tried multiple types of cups and are still not
succeeding. We have tried ones that are spoutless, have a similar top to their
bottles, hard plastic ones, ones that have straws and ones that are just
straight up sippy cups. They just look at me like I’m crazy, put it up to their
mouth and just kinda chew on them, toss them around like a toy and then move
on. They do however love to have sips of water from a regular cup. That however
requires me or someone else right there holding the cup and helping them take
sips because if not then, well you know what would happen. So, I keep on trying
every single day and switching the cups out hoping that at some point they will
“click” with one or more of the cups and we will move on from this. I have
thought to try giving them water in a bottle, but at this point they see their
bottle and only want it when they first get up and don’t always drink all of
it. When it’s not officially bottle time they want nothing to do with their
bottles and toss them out of their face. Until they finally figure this out, we
will keep trying! The Brown Pack are not quitters.
"I don't know why, but I've always loved the idea of summer and sun and all things HOT..." Me too Olaf, me too.
We. Love. Sunshine. And once the weather is
nice enough I want nothing more than to be outside every waking moment of the
day. Like seriously, if I could be outside just about all of the time I would.
In fact, when I am typing these blogs I am outside soaking up the warmth,
breeze and sunshine (except for those yucky Winter months). The only time I
want to be inside is to sleep, I am not so much an outdoor sleeping/camping
kind of girl. Insert...almost one year old TWINS. Now that the twins are
mobile, which is awesome for the most part, it is proving to be a challenge
outside. They aren’t able to walk around yet, so they are crawling around. They
don’t seem to mind the grass or the cement really but crawling around means
they are closer to bugs, rocks, dirt and who knows what else that they will
inevitably put into their mouths. They also are constantly scraping up their
knees and toes or wobbling and falling straight back on their heads...yeah real
safe right? Unless they are in a stroller, wagon or swing I am pretty much a
nervous wreck outside or they are literally climbing on top of me if I am
sitting on the ground with them. Our babies have never been ones that are able
to just chill in a pack n play and not scream or want out. I thought about
that, but then decided after all of the effort it would take to set up the darn
thing the moment I put them inside with a plethora of toys they would
immediately stand up and scream and cry to get out. Then we would be right back
where we were before setting up the pack n play. Nobody wants to wish time
away, and trust me I am the first one who is not counting down a single day to
anything...EVER, but the idea of them being able to at least walk around the
yard and “play” sounds appealing. Oh wait, maybe I should bite my tongue. When
that happens, they will be running in different directions, climbing anything
and everything, pulling out toys, attempting to play with toys that aren’t safe
for them and basically making me look like I am the ringleader of the circus.
Okay, on second thought, let’s just enjoy these moments of scraped up knees and
toes and rocks and bugs in our mouth.
Harlow and Ryne's 10 Month Milestone Pictures
