Riley's new trick

Ok, I've blogged a ton in the last few minutes, but I have to post one more. Riley learned a new trick today, or maybe she taught me one. I'm not sure how that works.

Anyway, she coughed at me today, so I coughed back at her just for some interaction. She got a little grin on her face, coughed again and waited, so I coughed back. Bigger grin, another cough, etc. This went on for several rounds till she got tired of coughing. Later in the early afternoon we were going out, so I put them in their carseats. When I was buckling her in, she looked up at me, grinned an impish smile, and gave a phony little cough. She was so excited when I did it back.

So, who learned the new trick? I'm beginning to think it was me.

Everybody needs naps...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention why not messing with the girls nap schedules is so important. CUZ IF YOU DO, THEN YOU WILL NOT SLEEP OR REST FOR THE NEXT 24 TO 48 HOURS BECAUSE THEY WILL TAKE TURNS NAPPING IN 45 MINUTE CYCLES AND YOUR LIFE WILL BE A LIVING HELL. Did I emphasize that enough?

In any case, yes the girls were awake and the fussiest I have ever seen them which is saying a lot, because in general they are not fussy babies. The schedule today was wake up, change diaper, feed, fuss, fuss, fuss, fuss, fall asleep for 45 minutes, lather rinse, repeat. And the worse part is that they were on different schedules that were offset by about 15 minutes. Aaaaahhhhh. Suffice it to say I am nearly bald now.

I still think they are awfully cute though cuz in between the cycles I was getting some big beautiful grins.

There was a weekend?

Ok, my last weekend forever and I have no idea where it went. I had so much to do, yet got nothing done. Actually got to nap Saturday morning (after not sleeping all night Friday night due to the girls taking "shifts" being awake.) Went to soccer game Saturday evening - the Earthquakes play was flat, and the game ended in a 0-0 tie. It was as if they were playing for the 1 point tie instead of going for the win. Several bad calls as well. There was clearly a red card offense in the first half that only garnered a yellow card from the ref. Ridiculous, but this ref plays this way every time he comes to San Jose.

Anyway, after the game we went to my bro's house for a small gathering we call Haircut Night. A hairdresser comes to the house and does everyones hair - it's turned into a party every five weeks where we BBQ, potluck, etc. and get our hair cut. (The hair dresser is not allowed alcohol for obvious reasons.) In any case, every one ooohhhed and aaahhheed over the girls, we had some dessert, did the haircut thing, then headed home. The girls were very wound up so it took a bit to get them in bed.

Sunday we had brunch at our friends, Paul and Yuka's house. It was soooooo yummy. However, the girls missed their morning nap and had a short afternoon nap. Messing with their nap schedule I have learned is a bad thing. In any case, we were to have a BBQ in Sutter's honor Sunday evening, but most of the people bailed, and we were late going to another friends birthday BBQ which we had to attend before coming back for our own, so we ended up cancelling altogether. I'm okay with that though cuz Bill and I toasted Sutter, and talked a lot about him the night we said goodbye to him. I keep seeing shadows of him in the house, but I'm sure this will pass.

So though not much happened, the weekend faded to nothing, and here I am with 3 days till I start work and I haven't had a chance to organize my closet, my office, etc. Ahhhhh.

Emptiness

The house feels partially empty this morning, like a piece is missing, a wall, a door, or perhaps a chunk of the foundation. How could it disappear overnight?

Sometimes life sucks!!

Today I had to do one of the hardest things ever!! I had to say goodbye to my good friend Sutter. He wasn't an ordinary dog, even from the beginning. He scootched himself away from his litter mates to be with us on his first day of life. As he got a little older he walked himself down the hall to the bedroom where we were staying and climbed up on the bed to go to sleep - he had staked his claim. Somewhere during this time he also tried nursing on Bill's ear. It was so sweet and so obviously a way of claiming us further.

He had annoying traits to, like his penchant for chewing the crotch out of my underwear when he was a puppy, but his lovable, goofy, happy self always won us over. Eventually he calmed down a little (very little) and became the well mannered puppy most people got to know.

His whole goal in life was to please his family and keep them from harm. I can remember doubting this at one time because he didn't seem overtly protective like some dogs, but then I was proven wrong. When I was down at the creek with my oldest daughter, who was about 8 at the time, some boys/men came down and Sutter planted himself staunchly between them and us and let out a low, deep throated growl, just enough to say, "keep your distance." He did that again at our house when a stranger approached me. Not one person that met him as a friend would have ever suspected he had that side, but he did.

Even as much as 3 weeks ago, he was bouncing around acting like a puppy despite the fact that he was 10 years old. I'm angry with the cancer for taking that part of him away. However, I know that now he is free to romp and play like he use to, and he can eat anything he wants without worrying about his former allergies.

I will miss him greeting me at the door every time I come home, and following me around the house (even when I would sometimes trip over him). I'll miss him cuddling so close in bed that I felt as if I had fur blankets, or him sleeping on my feet (broken ankle and all). Even with the short time he had with the babies, he made it his job to let me know when they were crying. I'm not sure if this was a, "Hey, they need help" or a, "Hey, can't you make them shut up" notification. Either way, he was on top of it like everything else.

Some people said it was degrading the way we made him do tricks, but I don't think so. He seemed to truly like it when he caught a treat off his nose, or brought us back the ball. Granted, he didn't like the stay command, but that was only because it served to keep him away from his family (or the random squirrel he really wanted to chase.)

All in all, he was the best. I'll never forget him or truly be able to let him go. I know he's happy now that he's not hurting anymore and he's with the rest of the family, but if I know him, he's really waiting for this family and he will patiently wait as long as he needs to cuz that is his nature.

Sutter, I love you and miss you horribly even though it hasn't yet been that long. You are always in my heart. I feel blessed that you chose us to be your human parents. Thank you for that.

Love,
Mom

Boobie Bottle installment two

Okay, I'm sad to say the boobie bottle failed miserably. Apparently it is NOT just like the boobie as my little connoisseur Riley has let me know in no uncertain terms. The howling alone would have been enough to cause me to cease and desist the battle of the boobie bottle, but to add insult to injury she had to puke back whatever she had gotten and of course it was all over me. So, bottom line is we are back to sqare one with one week to go. I'm terribly afraid my little love is going to starve while I am at work. There is not a Berkeley protester out there that can stick to a cause like she can.

Think happy thoughts...

Sending many happy thoughts to Star Star Kitty and asking everyone else to do the same.

Sappy Stereotypical Mom

Okay. So I ventured out for the first time tonight without the twins, and what did I do? Called home every 20 minutes. I was only gone 4 hours. What's going to happen when I go back to work next week and am gone for 12 hours at a time? My sisters thought I was nuts and I think my hubby was ready to kill me by the end of the night. Yes, I left them home with Daddy.

I felt so wierd and kind of empty without the babies. It's odd how they could totally move into my life and change it that way. I did have my older daughter with me, but that made it that much more strange. On one hand it was like a time warp, like I never had the twins. On the other hand it made me miss them more. I wanted all my girls there.

Ok, let the razzing begin...

Candylicious way to fight breast cancer

Ok, time for a little commercial break for a subject near and dear to my heart, breast cancer. Buy special pink and white bags of M&M's and their company will donate 50 cents to the Susan G. Koman organization, up to a maximum of $650,000. Go here to find out more: http://www.m-ms.com/us/news/promotions/komen/index.jsp

Another way to help is by buying Yoplait yogurt with pink foil tops and sending in the tops. A little more work, but hey it's for a good cause. They will donate 10 cents for every top they receive to the Susan G. Koman group.

You're gonna eat anyway, you might as well make it fun and do some good at the same time.

Boobie Bottle

Ok, this is the most hilarious thing I've seen for babies, but it's what I've come to. My darling Riley (also known as my Berkeley protestor for her ability to stick to a cause at this young age) refuses to take a bottle, and this is a problem since I have to go back to work Oct. 1st. I have tried just about every bottle on the market. This is a last resort. I ordered it on the web and it arrived while I was in ballsac. We tried it out last night and it may be a hit. She protested at first, probably on the basis that it was still a bottle, but then seemed to be ok with it. We'll see how things go today. (Sometimes she appeases us by cooperating only to become more adament about the no bottle thing on the next round.) http://www.baby-living-clean.com/id13.html

Scroll down and check out the nipple comparison - it's hilarious.

My week in hell...

Ok, it wasn't that bad, but I did just spend the last week in Sacramento, or Ballsac as my buddy Andrea calls it. ;)

The drive up was rather uneventful other than almost needing CPR from choking on a BK burger that I had to choke down at warpspeed because the twins started crying when the car stopped to get food. This was late Tuesday after attending a twins group meeting at which I somehow became the "expert" on breastfeeding. Hey guys, I've only been doing this 4 months - scarey that I would be giving advice to expectant moms.

Day two (Wed.) Immediately started getting calls from the inlaws who needed a baby fix. Way too early in the morning, particularly with late arrival and lack of sleep from the night before. However, I did get to shower when they visited. My husbands nephew is quite a busy boy requiring lots of reminders in regards to the babies. He was very cute though, he thought the babies needed their toys organized by functionality and then got upset when they "moved" them to another group. MIL brought Pizza for dinner, root beer floats for dessert. Woohoo!

I've never lived with ac, but in ballsac it's a must. The house we were staying at has ac, but no thermostat, so it's either on full bore or off. I only brought summer clothes for the girls, so I was having to wrap them hotdog style in blankets with their hands sticking out to play. Then when the house was sufficiently cool I'd turn the ac off again and remove blankets until babies were sweating, then replace blankets and turn ac back on to once again freeze us out. Lather, rinse, repeat all week.

Day three (Thurs.) FIL arrived from Reno this morning with hottub on the back of his truck. This will eventually make it down here for us. Yeah! He puttered around outside in the carports and garages (it's the house he grew up in) while I napped with the babies. Can you believe it, they actually slept at the same time. Nice to visit with him, and have him see the babies again.

MIL brought dinner again. Something called rouladin or something like that. Basically beef wrapped around a pickle and cooked in some sort of beef sauce. Sounds weird, but it was actually kind of good. Needed a little red wine or something in the sauce - she's going to experiment more.

Day four (Fri) Planned to get up and get the car packed so I could get on the road by 1:00 to 2:00 P.M. and make it to my buddy Andrea's surprise b-day celebration. Got up ok, and was running on schedule, but MIL showed up with tacos (very nice of her. She likes to feed us, can you tell?) and time just flew out the window. I finally got on the road at 3:00 thinking, "Hey, I can still make it to the party." Silly me. 2 baby stops and almost 3 1/2 hours later I finally made it home just before 6:30 (Party was at 7:00 and 30 - 45 min away). Babies wanted to eat again, we all needed showers/baths. By the time I could even think of leaving the house it was already 7:30. Way too late to make the party. I'm very bummed.

So that was my week in hell.

It's just wrong

It's just wrong how our best friends in life can be taken from us. I'm talking about our loyal four legged companions that do everything they can to please us. They should be immune from illnesses such as cancer, they should never have to suffer a moment in return for all the unconditional love they give us.

The reason I write this is because Saturday we found out that our best friend Sutter has what is called hemangiosarcoma. It's a cancer of the blood that seeds itself into the major organs of the body and grows there. We found this out after his surgery earlier this week. We've been given the name of a good canine oncologist, but I think we have decided not to go that route. This particular cancer is not very treatable and we don't want him to suffer more than necessary his last few days on this planet. Instead, we want him to enjoy them as much as he can, with all the treats, and special treatment he deserves. He's been pretty lethargic all week, but is showing a little more energy today. We've always called him my shadow cuz he follows me everywhere, even in the house. He hasn't been doing that this week, today is the first day he's made an effort to be at my feet again.

In a weird sort of way, it's been a good week for him. He doesn't know why, but he is suddenly getting fed like a king, pork, potroast, chicken, bacon, etc. AND he's allowed to be anywhere, on anything, etc. without getting punished. He thinks it's great! I hope we can keep him deliriously happy for the time we have left with him.

Random Thoughts

Ok, it's been a long time since I've posted (again). Twins take much more time than you can ever imagine. We've had a few healthscares, but they basically come down to monitoring one baby for the next couple of years until she either outgrows her renal reflux (bladder backing up into her right kidney) or it's fixed via surgery. Other than that, they are healthy, happy, entertaining babies that give us no end of joy, or is it delirium from lack of sleep?

On a much less happy note, our puppy is not doing so well. He basically collapsed in the kitchen on Monday (Labor Day) so we took him to the emergency vet. It turns out he had a softball sized tumor in his spleen which had burst and caused him to bleed out into his abdomen. They took him into surgery where they removed his spleen and biopsied his liver. They believe it is a kind of cancer common to Golden Retrievers called hemangiosarcoma. We're still waiting for the results of the biopsies. If this is what it is, he has only a couple of weeks to a couple of months to live (if we're lucky.) He is home with us now, and we are trying to feed him all kinds of food that might interest him and help him gain back some weight. I was looking forward to the girls growing up with him and am very sad that this will probably not happen now. Please keep him in your thoughts.