Starfish
I've got a month left, hopefully, before the babies get here. We've got the third bedroom cleaned out ready to move them in there whenever I decide they need to be in there instead of in my room. We've got two cribs. We've got clothes, and blankets, and a twin nursing pillow and a nursing stool, and bottles, and baby soap, and washcloths and towels, and hangers, and wipes, and so so so many diapers. I've ordered a stroller that should be getting here in not too many days now, the Valco Baby Tri-Mode EX Twin. It's a very nice, very expensive stroller.
Let me talk about the stroller for a bit, because I'm pretty excited about it. It's a double, side-by-side stroller. Both seats can recline completely flat, and the reclines are independent of each other, as are the sun shades, which are nice and large. There are storage pockets on the backs of the seats that can zip off revealing a mesh peek-a-boo cooling window. There are two attachments we are planning on getting as soon as they're not backordered anymore: a toddler joey seat, and a hitchhiker board. The joey seat hooks onto the front of the stroller, higher up than the other two seats. The hitchhiker board hooks onto the back and provides a nice place for an older child to stand when they get tired of walking. So with both of those, all four children will be able to ride on the stroller! So, I'm psyched.
I'm particularly psyched about the stroller because I'm really, really looking forward to going on walks, out of the house. After a whole bunch of contractions a few weekends ago (and a trip to the hospital for monitoring when one bout wouldn't stop despite the terbutaline), I am now on a regular every-six-hours dosage of terbutaline. It's working really well, I haven't had any bouts of contractions since I started taking it regularly, but I do still have sporadic contractions, sometimes painful, particularly if I do, oh, pretty much anything other than sitting on the couch or in bed. I've read several great books, I've beaten quite a few iPhone games, I've done a bit of crocheting, but lately I've been feeling lazy and have mostly played a lot of solitaire. Oh, and basic child care like diaper changes and potty training, and the occasional load of laundry, and sometimes I get fed up and pick up all the toys off the floor, but that's pretty much it. I've had a cold the past week and a half, so I haven't gone to church, so the only time I've gotten out of the house in the past two weeks is to go to the doctor's.
Everything is looking good though. No signs of the babies coming excessively early (though I'm 33 weeks now so they'd do okay most likely if they were born soon). Baby A is still head down and likely to stay that way, which bodes well for birthing. She's 4lbs. 3oz. right now, based on my ultrasound on Thursday. Baby B is currently head up, and also likely to stay that way, though she sometimes flops over sideways I think. She's 4lbs. 14oz. right now, quite a bit chubbier than her will-probably-be-older sister. So, they're growing well, and will both hopefully be over 5lbs. when they're born, which is what I was aiming for. They gave me ridiculously bad heartburn for a couple of weeks, but that seems to have subsided a bit, so they must've shifted around. They kick and move around a fair bit. It's rather odd feeling one kick my pelvis while the other kicks my ribs, though that doesn't happen terribly often. Baby B gets hiccups sometimes, I haven't noticed Baby A having any yet.
Aiden likes telling me that he likes my belly. He comes up and puts his hand on it sometimes and says hi to them, and occasionally will play with his baby doll after, and put her down for a nap on a pillow. He's started preschool and seems to be enjoying it as far as I can tell. He gets to ride to and from with a girl he knows from nursery. He now knows what a lowercase letter "a" looks like, and has been particularly excited after having gotten to use glue (am I a bad mommy for never letting him use glue at home?) during one class, and getting to paint (on purple paper!) another day. He's doing reasonably well with potty training. He still has small accidents most every day, and occasionally big accidents when he gets caught up in what he's doing and doesn't want to stop to use the potty. Overall he's doing much better though. He has been growing, growing, growing, particularly his feet. We need to get him some new shoes, I think size 10's now. He likes running around the house with his church shoes on, and likes having socks on both his feet and his hands. He really likes playing with his foam "Thor" sword, and we have been trying to teach him to hold it with two hands so he has a little more control over it. He and Caleb will occasionally sword fight and whack each other's play swords repeatedly while making sounds effects and laughing. Aiden also loves pretending to fix things, and helping cook, and playing with PlayDoh, and all sorts of normal 3-year-old activities. He's particularly enjoyed watching Kung Fu Panda most every day lately, as well as InterStella 5555, and My Neighbors, the Yamadas, and Lion King.
Caleb has also been growing a lot. He's got three canines now, two of them just came through a couple days ago. He absolutely loves watching My Neighbor Totoro, and is starting to enjoy watching Baby Signing Time again after disliking it for a couple of months. There are some things things where he is exactly the same as Aiden was at this age (like the obsession with shoes, and hats), but I'm frequently amazed by how different they are from each other. Aiden has always been very independent. Caleb is a snuggler. He climbs up onto my lap all the time to give me a snuggle before running off to play again. Aiden has almost always been a very good eater. Caleb is sometimes picky and will refuse to eat half the food I offer him. Aiden never had any problems with nursery, he didn't ever suffer from separation anxiety when we left him there, but Caleb generally cries for at least 10 minutes at the beginning of nursery every week, and frequently breaks down again sometime before it's over. He also has a hard time with going over to other kids' houses to play without me there, and cries for 5-15 minutes before he'll get distracted and start playing. Aiden is a bit nervous about heights and falling, whereas Caleb has absolutely no fear, and absolutely loves getting tossed up into the air and falling back down. Aiden started talking on the early side, and Caleb is just starting to seem interested in talking. Speaking of talking, here's a lovely list of signs Caleb does regularly, followed by words he tries to say sometimes:
Signs:
Cracker
More
Wash hands
Brush teeth
Water
Hat
Sleep
Eat
Milk
All done
Banana
Bubble
Book
Words:
Shoes
Cracker (gager)
Water (wa)
Wash (awsh)
Baby (baybeh)
Hat (ha)
Reggie (my in-laws' dog, he says JiJi)
Milk (ilk)
Eat (ee)
Please (eeesss)
Up
Banana (nana)
Yay
Bubble (buhbuh)
Book (ook)
Me (memememememememe)
Daddy (da-eee)
That's all I can remember right now. He sometimes clasps his hands for a few seconds when we say prayers. He loves sitting and "reading" his books to himself, turning all the pages and looking at the pictures. He likes to dance, which consists of spinning around in circles until he falls over. He likes clapping and saying Yay. He's started noticing his reflection in shiny surfaces around the house and will put his face right up against it and say Baby and smile and touch it. He sometimes will try to give kisses, which consists of him pressing his whole lower face against your cheek and going "mmmm". His teeth have continued their trend of coming in ridiculously slowly, causing him weeks of suffering, crankiness, and runny noses (and the occasional fever). He loves stacking things, like stacking cups and stacking rings, and Duplos. He also really really likes throwing things all over the ground. He uses utensils quite well, and is probably better at it than Aiden was at this age. He loves playing with his brother, and absolutely adores his Grandpa and cries whenever anybody that isn't Grandpa comes to the door. He likes doing anything Aiden is doing, including coloring, painting, PlayDoh, sword-fighting, throwing balls, and sometimes throwing tantrums too.
Both kids love playing outside, and love playing in the water in their kiddie pool and making mud and digging holes in the dirt and driving their little play cars. They both love baths, and going for walks in the stroller, and playing in the sand at the playground. They like hitting things and drumming and playing one loud shrieky note on their recorder and whacking keys on the piano. Aiden sings sometimes, and Caleb sometimes tries to sing a little as well. They like pushing their tiny plastic kid chairs all over the house, which makes a very loud noise that they both love. They like chasing each other and playing hide-and-seek, and completely adore their daddy. When he comes home they both run up to him and jump at him until he picks them both up at once. They love it when he runs through the house holding both of them, and when he drops them out of his arms onto the couch, and they love rough-housing with him before bed. I have been the more "threatening" parent lately, which has its pros and cons.
Mike continues to be ridiculously busy all the time, running extra training sessions at work, attending lots of church meetings, and taking care of me, the kids, and the house whenever he's home. His grandfather (FarFar) passed away and Mike will be going to the funeral in California this weekend. I wish the kids and I could go with him, but I'm pretty sure my doctor would nix any ideas of me traveling anywhere, and I am not going to foist the kids on him by himself again. He took both of them on the Ward Campout last weekend by himself. They had a lot of fun and came home ridiculously dirty, and all three of them were completely exhausted from it.
We continue to be blessed extensively, receiving help from family and ward members without asking for it. People have brought us food, babysat the kids so I could rest, cleaned my house for me, and have been very generous with gifts for the babies. I am continually grateful for their service and kindness, even if I am really behind on writing thank you notes.
Knowing myself and the infrequency of my posting, the next post you read will probably be after the twins arrive. If you want any info before then on how my life is going (sitting on the couch, contractions, etc., absolutely riveting updates I tell you!) I update FaceBook regularly and just started using Google+ as well.
The End.
P.S. My belly is bigger than it has ever been before. Just in case you were wondering.
P.P.S. The title of this post has nothing to do with anything. It's just the first thing that popped into my head when I was looking at the text field. Now you can spend the rest of the day thinking about starfish and how they relate (or don't) to everything else.
Let me talk about the stroller for a bit, because I'm pretty excited about it. It's a double, side-by-side stroller. Both seats can recline completely flat, and the reclines are independent of each other, as are the sun shades, which are nice and large. There are storage pockets on the backs of the seats that can zip off revealing a mesh peek-a-boo cooling window. There are two attachments we are planning on getting as soon as they're not backordered anymore: a toddler joey seat, and a hitchhiker board. The joey seat hooks onto the front of the stroller, higher up than the other two seats. The hitchhiker board hooks onto the back and provides a nice place for an older child to stand when they get tired of walking. So with both of those, all four children will be able to ride on the stroller! So, I'm psyched.
I'm particularly psyched about the stroller because I'm really, really looking forward to going on walks, out of the house. After a whole bunch of contractions a few weekends ago (and a trip to the hospital for monitoring when one bout wouldn't stop despite the terbutaline), I am now on a regular every-six-hours dosage of terbutaline. It's working really well, I haven't had any bouts of contractions since I started taking it regularly, but I do still have sporadic contractions, sometimes painful, particularly if I do, oh, pretty much anything other than sitting on the couch or in bed. I've read several great books, I've beaten quite a few iPhone games, I've done a bit of crocheting, but lately I've been feeling lazy and have mostly played a lot of solitaire. Oh, and basic child care like diaper changes and potty training, and the occasional load of laundry, and sometimes I get fed up and pick up all the toys off the floor, but that's pretty much it. I've had a cold the past week and a half, so I haven't gone to church, so the only time I've gotten out of the house in the past two weeks is to go to the doctor's.
Everything is looking good though. No signs of the babies coming excessively early (though I'm 33 weeks now so they'd do okay most likely if they were born soon). Baby A is still head down and likely to stay that way, which bodes well for birthing. She's 4lbs. 3oz. right now, based on my ultrasound on Thursday. Baby B is currently head up, and also likely to stay that way, though she sometimes flops over sideways I think. She's 4lbs. 14oz. right now, quite a bit chubbier than her will-probably-be-older sister. So, they're growing well, and will both hopefully be over 5lbs. when they're born, which is what I was aiming for. They gave me ridiculously bad heartburn for a couple of weeks, but that seems to have subsided a bit, so they must've shifted around. They kick and move around a fair bit. It's rather odd feeling one kick my pelvis while the other kicks my ribs, though that doesn't happen terribly often. Baby B gets hiccups sometimes, I haven't noticed Baby A having any yet.
Aiden likes telling me that he likes my belly. He comes up and puts his hand on it sometimes and says hi to them, and occasionally will play with his baby doll after, and put her down for a nap on a pillow. He's started preschool and seems to be enjoying it as far as I can tell. He gets to ride to and from with a girl he knows from nursery. He now knows what a lowercase letter "a" looks like, and has been particularly excited after having gotten to use glue (am I a bad mommy for never letting him use glue at home?) during one class, and getting to paint (on purple paper!) another day. He's doing reasonably well with potty training. He still has small accidents most every day, and occasionally big accidents when he gets caught up in what he's doing and doesn't want to stop to use the potty. Overall he's doing much better though. He has been growing, growing, growing, particularly his feet. We need to get him some new shoes, I think size 10's now. He likes running around the house with his church shoes on, and likes having socks on both his feet and his hands. He really likes playing with his foam "Thor" sword, and we have been trying to teach him to hold it with two hands so he has a little more control over it. He and Caleb will occasionally sword fight and whack each other's play swords repeatedly while making sounds effects and laughing. Aiden also loves pretending to fix things, and helping cook, and playing with PlayDoh, and all sorts of normal 3-year-old activities. He's particularly enjoyed watching Kung Fu Panda most every day lately, as well as InterStella 5555, and My Neighbors, the Yamadas, and Lion King.
Caleb has also been growing a lot. He's got three canines now, two of them just came through a couple days ago. He absolutely loves watching My Neighbor Totoro, and is starting to enjoy watching Baby Signing Time again after disliking it for a couple of months. There are some things things where he is exactly the same as Aiden was at this age (like the obsession with shoes, and hats), but I'm frequently amazed by how different they are from each other. Aiden has always been very independent. Caleb is a snuggler. He climbs up onto my lap all the time to give me a snuggle before running off to play again. Aiden has almost always been a very good eater. Caleb is sometimes picky and will refuse to eat half the food I offer him. Aiden never had any problems with nursery, he didn't ever suffer from separation anxiety when we left him there, but Caleb generally cries for at least 10 minutes at the beginning of nursery every week, and frequently breaks down again sometime before it's over. He also has a hard time with going over to other kids' houses to play without me there, and cries for 5-15 minutes before he'll get distracted and start playing. Aiden is a bit nervous about heights and falling, whereas Caleb has absolutely no fear, and absolutely loves getting tossed up into the air and falling back down. Aiden started talking on the early side, and Caleb is just starting to seem interested in talking. Speaking of talking, here's a lovely list of signs Caleb does regularly, followed by words he tries to say sometimes:
Signs:
Cracker
More
Wash hands
Brush teeth
Water
Hat
Sleep
Eat
Milk
All done
Banana
Bubble
Book
Words:
Shoes
Cracker (gager)
Water (wa)
Wash (awsh)
Baby (baybeh)
Hat (ha)
Reggie (my in-laws' dog, he says JiJi)
Milk (ilk)
Eat (ee)
Please (eeesss)
Up
Banana (nana)
Yay
Bubble (buhbuh)
Book (ook)
Me (memememememememe)
Daddy (da-eee)
That's all I can remember right now. He sometimes clasps his hands for a few seconds when we say prayers. He loves sitting and "reading" his books to himself, turning all the pages and looking at the pictures. He likes to dance, which consists of spinning around in circles until he falls over. He likes clapping and saying Yay. He's started noticing his reflection in shiny surfaces around the house and will put his face right up against it and say Baby and smile and touch it. He sometimes will try to give kisses, which consists of him pressing his whole lower face against your cheek and going "mmmm". His teeth have continued their trend of coming in ridiculously slowly, causing him weeks of suffering, crankiness, and runny noses (and the occasional fever). He loves stacking things, like stacking cups and stacking rings, and Duplos. He also really really likes throwing things all over the ground. He uses utensils quite well, and is probably better at it than Aiden was at this age. He loves playing with his brother, and absolutely adores his Grandpa and cries whenever anybody that isn't Grandpa comes to the door. He likes doing anything Aiden is doing, including coloring, painting, PlayDoh, sword-fighting, throwing balls, and sometimes throwing tantrums too.
Both kids love playing outside, and love playing in the water in their kiddie pool and making mud and digging holes in the dirt and driving their little play cars. They both love baths, and going for walks in the stroller, and playing in the sand at the playground. They like hitting things and drumming and playing one loud shrieky note on their recorder and whacking keys on the piano. Aiden sings sometimes, and Caleb sometimes tries to sing a little as well. They like pushing their tiny plastic kid chairs all over the house, which makes a very loud noise that they both love. They like chasing each other and playing hide-and-seek, and completely adore their daddy. When he comes home they both run up to him and jump at him until he picks them both up at once. They love it when he runs through the house holding both of them, and when he drops them out of his arms onto the couch, and they love rough-housing with him before bed. I have been the more "threatening" parent lately, which has its pros and cons.
Mike continues to be ridiculously busy all the time, running extra training sessions at work, attending lots of church meetings, and taking care of me, the kids, and the house whenever he's home. His grandfather (FarFar) passed away and Mike will be going to the funeral in California this weekend. I wish the kids and I could go with him, but I'm pretty sure my doctor would nix any ideas of me traveling anywhere, and I am not going to foist the kids on him by himself again. He took both of them on the Ward Campout last weekend by himself. They had a lot of fun and came home ridiculously dirty, and all three of them were completely exhausted from it.
We continue to be blessed extensively, receiving help from family and ward members without asking for it. People have brought us food, babysat the kids so I could rest, cleaned my house for me, and have been very generous with gifts for the babies. I am continually grateful for their service and kindness, even if I am really behind on writing thank you notes.
Knowing myself and the infrequency of my posting, the next post you read will probably be after the twins arrive. If you want any info before then on how my life is going (sitting on the couch, contractions, etc., absolutely riveting updates I tell you!) I update FaceBook regularly and just started using Google+ as well.
The End.
P.S. My belly is bigger than it has ever been before. Just in case you were wondering.
P.P.S. The title of this post has nothing to do with anything. It's just the first thing that popped into my head when I was looking at the text field. Now you can spend the rest of the day thinking about starfish and how they relate (or don't) to everything else.