The worlds most annoying toy and other news

Aunties Liz and Andrea have done it - they've bought the girls the worlds most annoying toy, or so they claimed. The girls love it as predicted, especially Riley who took to it right away. However, Sam has done her share of playing too. Let me explain this toy if I can. It is sort of hour glass shaped with the ends of the hour glass being short and wide. When one rocks this toy, it sets off a motor that "rocks" the toy in such a way that a ball in the top will spin freely around a bowl, much like a toilet bowl except the ball is never expelled from said bowl. While all of this is happening there is of course lights and music that go along with it. All in all, it has the potential for being the most annoying toy, but me being the most annoying mom kind of like it. Maybe just because I get a kick out of the girls rocking, dancing, and squealing with it. Pretty entertaining. Thank you Aunties.

Apparently it's the week of baby gifts. My quilt group (yes, I quilt people). Wait, I don't "quilt people", I "quilt". In any case, they made a beautiful quilt for each of the girls. Apparently they wanted to give it to me at the Christmas meeting, but I was horribly ill and didn't make that meeting, and the schedule for our group has been slightly off since then. In any case, the quilts are very beautiful, brightly colored with a star motif, and quilted in hearts (another favorite of mine.) A lot of work went into these by everyone, and I can't say how much I appreciate them, and I'm sure they will become very loved and treasured by the girls.

Up and down day

I think I've truly run the gammot of emotions today. I have the constant joy, amusement, and love with my babies, but today some of that was totally overshadowed by a doctors appointment that I attended with my sister.

The long and short of it is she has breast cancer. It was not detected by mammogram, nor by a needle biopsy done a couple of months ago, however there was obviously something happening in there that the surgeon was not happy about, so they did a surgical biopsy (excision) last Friday. The surgeon says she took out 5 inches of breast tissue (part of a larger lump) that did not look cancerous at the time. However, the pathology report came back positive yesterday. The surgeon says the reason they couldn't see it or find it with all the tests is because it is seeded throughout the breast. The first line of treatment is a mastectomy, the big decision is whether or not to take one or both. After that it will probably be chemo and maybe radiation. We'll find out more on Monday when we meet with the oncologist.

As if this weren't sucky enough, she lost her job just before all this went down, so things are really tough for her right now.

So, if anyone out there that reads this could send some healing happy thoughts her way I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Three days since I posted, not bad.

I'll start with today and work my way back. Today was mostly uneventful, disjointed nap times, but naps all the same. Sam napped on mommy for about an hour and a half. Everyone up, most everyone nursed, change of clothes because it's getting too hot. We're nearly doing the white trailer trash look, diapers and tank tops. To be truly WTT, we'd have to lose the tank tops. Why am I telling you all this? Because without pants on, Riley discovered the tab to her diaper. Yep folks, we lost the diaper momentarily (mommy was right there to get it back on and distract.) The good thing is that it was still clean and dry as I had just changed her minutes before that.

Monday:
Invoked the "It's my birthday, I don't have to do dishes or laundry" clause. I had started the day thinking I would, but quickly decided that was just plain silly. Had dinner with my family, received some nice gifts, and had the waiter comment on how calm I was for being 40. (According to him, he was a 41 year old with a twin sister, and he didn't handle it well at all.)

I was very tired as my sleep schedule has been wacked out trying to work nights 2 to 3 times a week. In any case, came home from dinner, got the girls to bed and went to sleep myself, or at least tried to. Despite the fact that I was oh so tired, I couldn't sleep. Broke the drought (Liz understands) and finally went to sleep only to be woken by a howling Riley at 4, yes 4 in the morning. They are oh so cute, but oh so exhausting. I think I'll keep them anyway. ;)

Sunday:
Got home from work at 7:15 A.M., nursed babies, went to sleep. Got up at 4:00, nursed babies again (plus a couple of other times during my sleep). Cleaned up the family room a little, Rich volunteered to clean up the toy box (Yeah Rich!), so now the myriad of toys in the living room have a home. Had dinner with an absolutely fabulous chocolate raspberry torte (I think that's what it's called) from Angelica. I would rate it as one of the best desserts I've ever had, if not the best. She left an extra big piece for me to have on my birthday, which I did. Yum, yum.

Friday/Saturday:
Nurse, sleep, nurse, sleep, nurse, sleep, nurse, shower, feed babies, bathe babies, go to work, lather, rinse, repeat.

So, that was my weekend and my week to date folks. The lifestyle of the utterly boring, but exceedingly happy. ;)

3 Cheers for Cheerios

Okay, a day late and a dollar short as usual, but I just had to post that the girls had their first Cheerios yesterday. They loved them. Spilled them out of the dish, waved the dish around, ate the cheerios off the floor, waved the dish some more, and Riley clapped when I produced an additional serving of them. All in all, I'd have to say they were a hit.

Since I've been so cranky about work lately, I thought I should post some good stuff too. Last night I had a really good room to work with. All the nurses were positive, supportive, and generally fun to work with. It made for a pleasant night which is always a good thing when you have to be there till 7 AM.

Ok, off to play with the girls before bedtime for me.

3 for 1 baby stories

Well the week of gross baby stories as well as amusing baby stories continues.

Let's start with yesterday. I was working at the dining room table while the babies were crawling around and playing with their toys. I could see Riley to my left, and Samantha was sitting behind me. Suddenly I hear what sounds like clapping coming from behind me I get all excited thinking Samantha has finally decided to try clapping. I eagerly turn around, and what do I find? She has spit up on the floor and is patting it and smearing it around. sigh, so much for the clapping.

Today the fun continued. Again working at the dining room table (on the phone with Bill trying to fix the laptop), I turn around just to check on the girls. You guessed it, mayhem was afoot. One of them, my guess is Samantha, managed to get a half full container of baby food (Banana Orange) off of the table and open it. Since there was an upholstered dining chair convenient, they decided to dump the contents on the chair, though quite a bit looks to have ended up on Samantha's head and both of their fronts. Again, they were having a tactile heyday smearing and patting it. They were very upset when I removed the chair to the other side of the barrier and then cleaned them up.

The story doesn't end there however. I took the cushion off the chair (found out it was only being held on by two screws instead of the requisite four) and took it to the shower to hose it off. (I'm not really concerned about the chair as I dislike them anyway, and have been intending to recover them.) Once I finished hosing down the cushion, I came back to check on the girls. Samantha is crawling across the floor with a cracker in her hand and another in her mouth. I think to myself, "Wow, I thought they finished off their crackers yesterday, I guess she must have found a couple of leftovers." Then I round the corner to see, you guessed it, the box of crackers on the floor and Riley right in the middle of them. (I could swear the box was out of their reach.) In any case, Riley had both hands crammed full of crackers, but hey, there's still a whole pile there. Can't let them go to waste, and don't want to let Mommy clean them up, so what's a girl to do? Apparently the answer is to bend over the pile and start picking them up with your mouth. Yes, my girls are resourceful, and no, I don't starve them. I swear.

Gross, gross, gross

The innocent way babies accept the world around
thinking nothing is gross, it's just another way to
explore is quite amazing, and yes, gross.

What brings me to this? The fact that my babies were
just crawling around the floor when Riley stopped,
hacked up something and was moving it around in her
mouth. Samantha was quite happy to check it out for
her, put her hand in Riley's mouth, pulled out
whatever it was she hacked up and promptly put it in
her mouth and swallowed before I could retrieve it.

Twins or not, that's sharing just a little too much.

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My babies are growing up.

Not that we are shocked by this, and not that we need evidence, but here it is anyway.

Samantha has gotten tall enough that she can now reach the edge of the table. Things that came within her reach today; her water bottle (that was okay), a 1/2 full jar of baby food without the lid on (not so okay, all over her, the floor, and eventually me), and all the bibs, napkins, etc. close to the edge of the table.

Riley is standing up and pushing a dining room chair around the room. Not by having it slide away from her, and then having her "catch up" to it either. She is honestly pushing it around as she walks. She looks so proud of herself.

Lastly, they are both learning to communicate in their own way. Sammi comes over and yells at you when she needs something, becoming more and more emphatic if you don't figure out what it is right away.

With Riley we have had two major successes today - let's hope she repeats them. I have been trying to teach them sign language and just started with some very basic things such as "milk". Today Riley actually signed "milk" to me when she wanted to nurse. Yeah Riley!! It gets better though. When she was done, she actually said, "All done." I swear she did. I tried to get her to say it again, but sadly I could not.

Well, I'm off to bathe the girls - let's hope we don't have another floater incident.

Gross, gross, gross

It never ceases to amaze me how the innocence of babies can allow them to do the most disgusting things and not be phased by them at all.

Take today for instance. My girls were crawling around on the floor when suddenly Riley stops and hacks something up into her mouth. Samantha, ever helpful, decided to help her figure out what it was, so she reached into Riley's mouth and pulled out whatever it was. Before I could check it out, she popped it into her own mouth and promptly swallowed.

Still don't know what it was, but apparently it tasted ok, and was good enough to keep down.

Tired, tired, oh so tired...

I'm usually tired after working all weekend and not getting much sleep, but this weekend seems to have really dragged it out of me. I'm thinking that perhaps I let the negative energy of certain people I work with get to me. At work there are anywhere from 7 to 12 babies in one room which means there are usually anywhere from 4 to 8 nurses. Sadly, nurses are not always the most supportive individuals for each other. This weekend I worked with one such nurse who feels she walks on nursing water. Unfortunately she brings down the entire room, and because of the way we interact you can't just ignore her. However, instead of letting her get to me, I think I may have to poke the sleeping bear next time. I'm sure I can find many ways to push her buttons - heck I'm up all night. Gives me lots of thinking time.

Samantha and Riley came to work this morning (Daddy had to get to work and I had a staff meeting after work, so I couldn't get home in time). They were looking rather stunned at being out so early in the morning (7:30 A.M.) They're usually up at that hour, but not usually out. They worked their magic though and charmed everyone in sight, even being sleepy. We came home, they nursed, we napped. Sweet, sweet sleep.

Is Freecycle really worth it?

After having stuff sit on my porch for two weeks, I'm thinking maybe it's not worth it to try that route, but I will still try to recycle rather than dumping items. I managed to give away the sweaters, now I just have the microwave cart and the baby food jars.

Work is work. Same stuff, different day.

As usual, my family is my life. No more "potty" incidents from Samantha, and Riley has started cheering for her sister during dinner time. She claps her hands each time Samantha takes a bite and we praise her. It's really quite cute how she supports her sister.

Stacey is thinking about moving to San Diego. How do I feel about that? Let's examine that. OTOH, let's not. I know she has to grow and move, but I still don't want my oldest baby that far from home. Change is a good thing, change is a good thing, change is a good thing. Repeating it over and over is not working.

Check it out...

That last post was done using the email option my buddy Andrea blogged about. Pretty cool, huh?

When I stop laughing...

Let me start by saying, "Andrea, please teach Sammi
where poop goes."

This evening before I went to work I was bathing the
twins. (Yes, they get bathed together - they're only
10 months old people.) In any case, Samantha was
standing up at the side of the tub when suddenly I
noticed she was squishing something in her hand and
looking very inquisitively at it. Upon closer
inspection I noticed that there was a "log" in the
bottom of the tub and the water was somewhat cloudy.
Yes, you guessed it, she had pooped in the tub and
then picked up a piece which she was joyfully
squishing and then smooshing the pieces that fell out
of her hand and on to the side of the tub. It took
three of us to wrangle both kids and the poop out of
the tub. While being rather gross, it was also
somewhat humorous. After cleaning the tub, and
finally bathing the girls, I ended up getting to work
with one minute to spare.

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