Thursday, October 27, 2011

There is no Birthday like a First Birthday!

What a wonderful blessed day October 21, 2010 was! How excited I was to celebrate the one year anniversary of our two little beans birth on October 21, 2011! The day didn’t start like every other Friday. The day didn’t start with a scream from upstairs, a little voice desperately trying to tell Mama and Dada that they were ready to start the day. The day didn’t start with Mama frantically rushing around the house with a baby on her hip trying to put on liquid eyeliner and still coo words of encouragement to the other little bean pulling at her pant leg.

This special day started with the sound of a little voice quietly talking to make-believe friends. Silas' voice raised and lowered as he spoke to his buddies painted on his bedroom wall, most surely explaining to them the meaning of life. As I laid in bed listening to him, I replayed in my head what I was doing a year ago at that time…which was receiving a hefty dose of petocin, and how different it was from what I was doing at this moment, at that time I knew I loved the little babies, but I had no idea how deeply the love would grow once I could hold them.

Listening to Silas babble on is truly the best way to wake up in the morning. When his voice started to become louder, I knew it was time to go gather up our little boy and start the day. I softly climbed up our creaky wooden stairs, trying not to wake Grace. I slowly opened the door to find our little man sitting in the middle of his mattress holding his blankie with a big smile. I walked over to him and whispered “Happy Birthday my little love.” He snuggled in the way only babies can do, nestling in the crook of my neck and relaxing his body. I wish I could start every Friday this way.

Grace was up within minutes, hollering at either Cory or I to attend to her. Even she knew it was a special day, because she just whooped out for us a little high pitched noise, not a frantic “Hey, come and get me guys!” yell. As Cory brought her downstairs her eyes settled on a Mickey mouse helium balloon and she could not look away. She kept pointing, willing her little arms to reach higher and farther so she could touch this unusual floating picture of her dear friend. “Happy Birthday little love!” I exclaimed to her, and she clapped her hands. For the second time in an hour, my heart melted and I reflected back on the momentous anniversary we would be celebrating today.

Around 1:30, Grandma Helen came and helped me prepare the rest of the decorations…which consisted primarily of us spending 20 minutes deciding how the happy birthday banner should be hung. We then waited for the little ones to wake up from their nap. Around 2:30 the rest of the crew showed up, Aunt Bitty, Nana and Papa. The little beans were very excited to see their loved ones all in one place at one time! We opened presents (or rather, I opened presents and convinced them to tip over a couple of bags) and they couldn’t decide what to play with first. I think most of the time after they were opened was spent by Grace and Silas walking around in circles debating what to look at or touch first/next. Smiles and giggles were in abundance, and the babies kept trying to practice their new skill (climbing and standing on anything they can) on most of the toys/boxes the toys came in.





After presents, we moved upstairs to eat cake. Cory made the babies a vanilla cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting, and made espresso cupcakes for the adults. Grace had the most fun with the frosting and just kept smacking her hands in it. The cake was dense as the recipe used yogurt and minimal sugar, so when you picked up the cake it didn’t crumble. Grace picked up hers after about a minute and threw it across the room, to where the dogs were eagerly waiting. We had to quickly scramble and give her smaller left over pieces, because we didn’t have nearly enough mess on her face yet nor enough pictures. Silas was straight down to business and systematically ate all of the frosting off first, then picked the cake brick up and took bite after bite. After one or two glances at Cory and I as if to say “really? You are letting this happen” they were giggling and munching.

All in all, it was a practically perfect birthday, I wish Uncle Jay, Aunt Mandy, Reese & Ronin could have been there, but I am sure there will be many more occasions soon for everyone to be a part of. Thank you all for the love and support you have given over the past year to all four of us, it has been appreciated and never taken for granted. I cannot wait to see what is in store for our little beans in the coming year!

Monday, October 17, 2011

In the jungle, the mighty jungle..the lion may be sleeping but the babies are not...

Friday will be the twins first birthday! Hard to believe, it will most surely be a bittersweet day. Another big day is tomorrow…on October 18th it will officially be one year since I have slept for more than 4 hours straight. Don’t be surprised that I remember my last full night of sleep…at almost 9 months pregnant with twins I cherished this unusual peaceful evening! Most nights they wake up twice a night each at varying times. With one baby that might not seem too bad, but with two little ones that is four times a night for 365 days...I was going to grab the calculator but I am too sleepy to reach for it. 

I like to find humor in all situations, so I sat down and thought about some of the “tips and tricks” Cory and I have tried over the past year to get the twins to sleep through the night. Enjoy!

1.      Leaving a bottle of water in the crib
2.      Noise machine set on loud waves crashing/birds chirping/rainforest rainfall
3.      Noise machine set on soft waves crashing/birds chirping/rainforest rainfall
4.      Sleeping on the floor next to the cribs (you can guess who did that one)
5.      Rubbing backs when the babies start to wake up
6.      Singing
7.      Crying it out (yes, we have tried this. Just for a few nights. This is the most common suggestion given to us by folks far and wide, unfortunately this has been the most detrimental to try. This may work with one baby, but after about 5 minutes of one “crying it out,” the other baby – who was previously sleeping peacefully – is awaken and then a cry contest ensues)
8.      Putting our shirts in the crib with the heartbeat sound machine under the crib
9.      Nightlight
10.    Complete darkness
11.    Rice in the bottles
12.    Big 2nd dinner right before bed
13.    Not feeding them when they wake up in the middle of the night
14.    Playing the “sleepy lady shuffle” – putting a chair next to the crib and moving it towards the door a little farther every night
15.    Separating the babies into different rooms
16.    Keeping the babies in one room
17.    Blankets
18.    No Blankets
19.    Warm Room
20.    Colder Room
21.    Moving the actual cribs to different locations in their rooms
22.    Having a “lovey” (stuffed animal or familiar blanket for security)
23.    Early bedtime
24.    Late bedtime
25.    Wearing them out during the day (i.e. day at the pumpkin barn)
26.    Bedtime routine
27.    Quiet time before bed
28.    Leaving pacifiers in the crib (although they don’t like pacifiers)
29.    Laying heavy hands on their backs while they are restless
30.    Socks
31.    No socks

Ah well, our quest will continue. Nightime may be rough, but man do the day hours make up for it :-)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Amazing Day at Amazing Acres

The little one's experienced Papa and Nana's farm for the first time Sunday. I truly think it was the best day of their lives so far, because they were free to run (or more, trot) around anywhere they wanted to go, there were flowers to see, animals to yell at, and lots of family/friends to dote on them. Seeing the farm through their eyes was a truly wonderful experience.

Grandma and little Gracie
  


"Wow that is a tall pile of hay"



Oh she is going to be champion quality at Corn Hole (that's "Bean Bag Toss" for you non-Elkhartians)!