Christmastime is here

Growing up, we were never allowed to decorate for Christmas before my sister's birthday on December 8. Not in my house! We decorated the day after Thanksgiving and the boys helped us out by trying on the tree skirt before it went under the tree. I predict this will be an annual tradition. I have many more photos of them twirling around in it but they were starting to get worked up in a crazed-3.5 year old -boy way and making me nervous they would destroy it.



Tree, ornaments, stockings, garland, wreath, mistletoe, Santa cookie plate, another wreath, Christmas lights, advent calendar, yet a third wreath, and all the boys really gave a crap about was the singing dog. Again. When you pack up your car to come play in our treehouse, you should also hit the singing Christmas animal section at Target with them. SHEER JOY.



More pictures of holiday decorations are coming this month. For now, here's a preview of the Christmas excitement in our house. In future pictures, they will (unfortunately) not get to pick their own mismatched clothing. I put my money where my mouth is and let Nate pick out some lavender socks recently at Target. I'm certain they will end up in some random holiday photo.



And in future pictures, I will remember to change my ISO from 1600 instead of spending time afterward wondering why all my photos look so grainy, assuming something got broken in a recent camera fall, and looking for a new camera body on Amazon. Obviously still on a learning curve here playing around with manual settings and RAW!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a fantastic four day holiday filled with great food and family. Grandma Jen and her husband John came to visit for Thanksgiving and we stuffed ourselves with tons of Pioneer Woman food and my special tiramisu. The tiramisu was a request from Nate and I think we'll keep it as a tradition.



Since the boys were born, we have had few long weekends without travel plans or an illness hitting the family. This Thanksgiving was a rare opportunity to spend extended quality time just as our family. We didn't make many plans, we avoided shopping, and we avoided too many chores other than the mountain of dishes on Thanksgiving. (This is why I cook - I hate doing dishes!)



It was a welcome break and a fantastic weekend, exactly what was needed. Lots of time to recharge and refresh. Time to reappreciate our loved ones. Time to burn off the calories we ingested in the form of tiramisu.

The weather was gorgeous so we got plenty of outdoor time as well, both at the park and in the yard. As much as you plan, you never know when great family moments will happen. When I thought about having kids, I never imagined picking up acorns and leaving them for squirrels in our treehouse would bring such pure, beautiful joy.

The boys hanging out in our treehouse... new favorite picture? Absolutely. Hope your holiday was as sweet as mine.



(I mean seriously... tell me these boys don't make you want to pack up your car and come for a visit!)

Giving thanks

Thanksgiving is a time of reflection for me. The second half of 2009 has been emotionally difficult and this winter I plan to focus time on renewal and recharging. Along this mothering journey, I thought I had learned lessons on how to not worry over the things you can not control. The last few months have taught me I have quite a way to go with not worrying about my hearing and my moles.

In the past when faced with similar hurdles, it was easy to withdraw into myself. This year was different. Every day I needed to get up and care for my boys. Every day I had two little guys to make me laugh (or go crazy). They taught me that life goes on and it's up to me to decide what to make of that time.

There may have been some tough times in 2009 but I am more thankful this year than I have ever been. Thankful for my health. Thankful for my husband. Thankful for our jobs. Thankful for two amazing healthy children. I said it best in 2007, I am thankful this is my life.








Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

The one where I demonstrate that 3 year olds are jerks

Jon has a co-worker that we've both known for over 10 years and he also has twin boys. His twins were 3 when our boys were born. This co-worker says it like it is, so hearing his advice to Jon over the years has been hilarious. My current favorite advice from him is that 3 year olds are jerks. They pretty much fit this definition. They are loud, wild, selfish, impatient, temperamental, and OH MY the stuff that comes out of their mouths! But unlike adult jerks, this is a phase, they are sugary sweet when they are good, and the cuteness never ends.

This morning when Jon called, I handed the phone to the boys and the first thing out of Nate's mouth was, "Hey daddy aren't you jealous? Because we're watching Dinosaur Train and you're not and so you should be super super jealous."

See? Jerk.

On the car ride to school Nate said, "I'm not talking to anyone at school because none of them are my friends. I am going to stay quiet ALL DAY and if someone talks to me, I am going to tell them they are not my friend and run away."

Sorry Nate, this hurts you so much more than it will ever hurt them.

Alex at breakfast while I was in the process of getting more food for Nate, "Please can I be excused? Can I be excused? Scused? Mommy! EXCUSE ME NOW! PLEASE!"

I have to laugh because sometimes it is like being back in my early 20s with boys being such jerks to me.

The obligatory kids in leaves post

Unfortunately we have had a very wet fall, which means few opportunities to let the boys go crazy with piles of leaves. The end of last week was dry and a tree in our front yard suddenly dropped all its leaves in a few days. Jon raked them all into an enormous pile and let the boys go at it.



This picture of Nate is one of my all-time favorites. This is one of the few pictures where he has his real smile on his face. This, to me, is what he looks like in real life.



Photographing Alex was nearly impossible. He ran at full speed around the lawn, tossing as many leaves as possible. And thanks to some genius soccer coaches who do not have children, he had this lovely stamp on his forehead.



Alex is having a tough time with 3.5 - very emotional, prone to fits of unexpected crying, and ALL BOY. I only snapped a few pictures in the leaves before he destroyed the pile.



I mean really destroyed it. But you know, that is what you should do with a big pile of leaves. Go crazy.

A post script to my story yesterday

Upon arriving at home from school yesterday, Nate proceeded to almost shut Alex's fingers in the inside part of the door jam (the one near the hinges). The only thing that stopped Alex from having crushed fingers was me screaming STOP! NATE! STOP! (One of our naming prerequisites was something easy to yell. This has come in handy - NaynaynaynaynayNATE!!)

Since Thursday's demonstration did not include the other part of the door jam, I decided to use the pretzel trick Ann mentioned in her comment except we did not have any pretzels. I decided a pita chip would be big enough. I would put the pita chip in the door, close the door, and break the pita chip to get it through their heads and then this would never happen in my house again.

I gathered the boys and lined up the pita chip. I closed the door and yes, part of the pita chip fell to the floor. However the majority of the pita chip ended up crushed in the doorframe and stuck to the door. The boys found this hilarious and Alex rushed to pick up pieces and eat them.

LauraC, yet again proving that book smarts do not equal street smarts.

Phone Photo Friday

Despite being on facebook and twitter (friend me!), I try not to duplicate information I plan to write about here. Last night I broke my rule and mentioned on facebook that someone put the first hole in a door in our house. Nate and Alex had been slamming the downstairs bath door into the wall so Jon installed a doorstopper. We've told them a bazillion times not to do it. Nate slammed it open again while yelling at Alex about something and the doorstopper failed.


Half of the doorstopper broke off and fell off into the door. The other half dented the doorframe.

But I did save some of the story for you! This happened literally as we walked in the door from school. Nate got sent to time out. I later sent Alex upstairs to get Nate out of time out. Alex is in this crazy door locking phase and he accidentally locked me out of the house on Tuesday night. Well Alex locked Nate's door from the outside, went into Nate's room and shut the door, thus locking both of them in. Alex went bezerker so I let them both out and told them to wash their hands.

They came downstairs and as Alex walked into the bathroom, Nate slammed the door on Alex, shoving him into the bathroom. Alex was fine but Nate went straight back up to time out. When he came back down, I set up a big demo on how you can break someone's fingers, someone's arms, and someone's legs by slamming people in doors by putting Nate's appendages in the doors, mock shutting it, and explaining what could happen.

This was the first 15 minutes upon coming home. I can't describe my joy when Jon finally got home from his business trip at 11PM last night.

Leave a comment if you play along!

Mean things I have thought about other parents at day care

* I'm fairly certain this parking lot where children are picked up and dropped off is not a certified NASCAR track.

* Is it really that hard to change out of your pajama pants? At least put on some sweatpants. I'm not even in a position to judge because I don't think I've showered once in 3+ years of drop offs, but I can see through that hole and it skeeves me out.

* Karma is going to get you for holding the door open for my boys to run outside without first checking with me to see if that is acceptable. Hold the door open for them to go IN? Fine. Hold the door open for them to go OUT? DUMB.

* Tantrums on sidewalk - fine. Tantrums in hallway - fine. Tantrums in classroom - fine. We've all been there. Tantrums in the parking lot taking up parking spaces - you need to pick that child up and put them somewhere else.

* When/if you have a second child, you will understand why it takes me so long to get the boys corralled and going in the same direction without resorting to physical restraints. At least you're not waiting on me to pack up and move two newborns - those parents had reason to be impatient. Seriously... put two kids in car seats or stroller, pack up 8 bottles, grab changes of clothes, review status sheets and talk to teacher about any issues with two babies... that took a LONG time. I would have been impatient. But now? Relatively fast, even for someone with two kids.

(Don't worry - a post on what things other parents must think of US is coming up!)

Is it my hearing or the boys' speech?

One of the most delightful things about 3 year olds is the talking. Or rather, the inappropriate talking. We've had the boys ask about mohawks, piercings, disabilities, and obviously bad taste (NC state fair anyone?). I view some moments as teaching moments, such as when I took Nate to Trader Joe's last week and he sat in the motorized wheelchair and proceeded to tell everyone who walked in, "I can't walk good! Isn't that funny!" Nate and I talked a lot about how that is not funny.

This morning Alex asked again to wear his beloved football shirt As I helped him get dressed he said, "Sexy myles." I said what? He said, "It's sexy myles." Again I said, "WHAT?!" Nate piped up, "It's sixty miles to Aunt Angie's house."

I didn't have it in me to explain that it was more like 600 miles to Angie's house. Nor did I ask what the distance to her house had to do with his football shirt. I was just so glad that I did not start my day explaining the concept "sexy" to my three year old boys.

3.5

Yesterday, my babies turned 3.5.



3.5 has been easy on us. I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about why it feels this way. It shouldn't feel easy. They're louder than they've ever been. They are more opinionated than they've ever been. The messes, the fights, the back talking, the lack of listening - all crazier than ever.

I finally realized it is us, me and Jon, that have made it easy. When the boys turned 3, I realized this is it. This is my one shot at having kids and it is going too fast. They are growing up and growing away from me, a little more every day.



The epiphany came from my mother. My mom has always called me her baby, and as a teenager it drove me crazy (sorry mom, I'm making it up to you by writing about your grandkids every day). Why couldn't she see I was a mature woman? In the last few months, when I call the boys "my babies" they shoot back, "I am not a baby!" Now I understand that no matter how old they are, I will always think of them as I first knew them, as my sweet precious babies.



Now I start each day thinking about how I can make it a great day with the boys. Now I think about how I can say yes to their crazy ideas. Now I think about what really matters. I know some of this wisdom has come from my skin cancer experience this year. Some of this wisdom has come from maturing. But mostly this wisdom has come from the boys themselves. They give so much more to me when I am open to them as they are, as loud as insane as it may be.

From now on, I may call them my boys but secretly, they will always be my babies.

Happy 3.5.

To the mountains

With Jon traveling so much for work, it's difficult to get out and see my friends on a regular basis. Earlier this year I had an ah-ha moment: the mountains must come to mohammed. I asked a few girlfriends if they would be interested in watching So You Think You Can Dance with me every week while eating dessert and drinking wine since Jon is typically gone on Wednesdays. Eventually we stopped watching SYTYCD and focused our time on chatting and eating. In the six months we've been doing this, we've all had significant life changes- pregnancy, job loss, new house, medical problems - and it's been nice to have this weekly time to blow off steam and/or celebrate.

We thought it would be fun to go on a girls' weekend together so this weekend, we rented a house in the Appalachians. Each morning, we woke up to chat in front of this view:



We lucked out with a sunny warm weekend that enabled us to sit on the deck all morning drinking coffee and chatting. The house was secluded and spacious (and the the non-preggos were able to enjoy the hot tub in the background):



We walked and shopped and talked and stayed up way too late and OH MY WE ATE:



I feel incredibly lucky to have so many strong, smart, fun, opinionated, amazing women to enrich my life. Thank you all for coming to the mountains, both this weekend and every week.



(And the obligatory timer shot even though I love the shot above of everyone laughing so much more):

Phone Photo Friday: other ways to use your phone camera

I use my iphone camera a lot of different ways!

When I'm shopping I take pictures of holiday decoration ideas I like. I saw this at Pottery Barn and plan to replicate at a craft store for much cheaper:



I take pictures of delicious food, such as these Crumbs cupcakes in NY that I plan to replicate in miniature:



I also snap pictures of gift ideas. We are getting this for the boys to go with their starter Duplo set so DO NOT get them this:



Another Pottery Barn gift idea (perfect for someone else but it cracks me up)...




And a Christmas gift idea for Jon (please tell me who else loved that Office episode):



But by far my favorite use of the phone camera (other than cute pics of the kids) is when the boys start fighting over something. I shout FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! while I take their picture. It has turned into a game where they pretend to fight over stuff by yelling FIGHT! and erupt into giggles. But the first time? They FOUGHT FOUGHT FOUGHT over this precious toy and did not think it was funny that I took pictures.



Don't tell anyone but I've been working as a software professional for 10+ years and I just figured out this week how to directly download pictures from my iphone to the computer. Navigate through Windows Explorer to your phone then copy and paste. I AM A GENIUS!

Anyone have other brilliant uses of their camera phone? And please... play along! Get those photos off your camera and into your blog.

How we finally got H1N1 vaccinations

Last week Jon and I took Thursday and Friday off and put the boys in school to celebrate our anniversary. Thursday we shopped for necessary items (new mattress, new bedside lamps). Friday we went to the spa then out to lunch. We then heard our county was getting more H1N1 shots and I called our pediatrician who told us we were not in their high-risk category. I found an urgent care clinic that had some left so we picked the boys up early to get the shots. On our anniversary. On one of our precious double-working-parent vacation days.

We waited with the boys for an hour, then Jon had to leave to meet the mattress delivery people at home. I waited 90 MORE minutes with the boys by myself. They were angels the entire time, which was our best anniversary present. When our name was called after 2.5 hours, Alex went completely out of control in only the way a 3.5 year can.

Kicking, screaming, yelling, thrashing, bucking, trying to run away, crazy out of control. This reaction made Nate scream and cry as well. It took 20 minutes to get both boys their shots because they were on this vicious negative feedback loop of screaming and crying. Despite being physically restrained by myself and a male nurse, it took five sticks to get all of Alex's vaccine into him.

The nurse was awesome and laughed at the entire situation. He found it hilarious that Nate was crying when he already had his shot. I said, "Welcome to twin parenting!" I did ask him if it got any worse than this and he said this was by far his worst vaccination experience.

We're #1!!!

After walking out into a waiting room packed with people staring at us in horror, I spent an hour in traffic driving home listening to Alex and Nate talk about how brave they had been. Seriously! I rushed in the door with two hungry boys to find the babysitter had arrived early and the mattress people had just arrived. Mass chaos in our house trying to get boys fed, mattresses in and out, dressed for our night out, get kids some pain reliever for the multiple needle jabs.

At dinner I had the biggest glass of wine I've had in a lonnnngggg time because as parents know, we need to get them an H1N1 booster in a month.

Middle names

Nate is currently obsessed with middle names. That is one of his most common questions to anyone on the phone. When strangers say hi to him in public (this happens a lot, I think people can tell he is outgoing or it's the fact that he says HELLO!), he immediately asks what their name is and then what their middle name is. He and Alex thought it was hilarious when we told them Gigi's real name was Marguerite Clementine. Clementine struck them as particularly funny and when Nate tried to repeat it the next night at dinner, it came out at "lemon cool" which they thought was even funnier.

Last night Nate and I went to Trader Joe's and he wanted to talk about middle names in the car. For the first time, he asked me why his middle name is Robert. I told him I had a grandpa Robert/Bob I loved very much. Then he asked why Alex's middle name is Joseph. I told him I had a grandpa Joseph/Joe I loved very much and we talked about visiting him in Florida. With all the sweetness that only a 3 year old can bring he said, "I love grandpa Bob and grandpa Joe too. I love them very much."

It was an unexpected moment when the loss of my grandpas hit me hard, but I am so very glad we decided to give our boys names of two of the most amazing veterans I've had the honor to know. And through the years, I will tell them more and more about why my grandpas inspired us to choose those names, including the fact they fought for our country's freedom.

Happy Veteran's Day.

A bunch of random thoughts that I should make into a blog post but I'm too lazy today

* Why is it so hard to find boys' elastic waistband jeans in size 2T and 3T? You would think clothing manufacturers would know this is the most likely size for potty training boys. Do non-day care moms just help their kids with their pants each time? Our day care doesn't help the kids potty unless they ask for help so pants with buttons and zippers are not options. Help!

* I've decided potty training problems are like sleep problems. Everyone has a simple solution to your problem. But if the problem were so simple, why would people make so much money selling potty training books and promising "3 day potty training"? And if there's a perfect method, why does any kid ever have an accident? And again people I have TWINS! Obviously I got it right with one of them. This is definitely a nature issue, not a nurture issue.

* For the record, the boys turn 3.5 on Monday and Alex is still having accidents. Our only hope is to re-do booty camp over Christmas. And pray for a Christmas poop miracle (I would say poop-acle but that sounds so similar to poop-scicle).

* Lately the boys use made up words in conversation and it drives me and Jon bonkers. We never know if a question will elicit an answer or a completely random word. At dinner last night, most things were answered with "peepo!" and "boobah!" and this gem: "key card!" The boys were VERY sad to learn that in fact, key card is a real word, a very boring word that took a long time to explain.

* Peepo!

How to make your life look more fabulous through photography

This weekend's forecast was sunny and warm so we made plans to spend as much of it outside as possible. On Saturday afternoon, we went to Hemlock Bluffs to hike through the fall foliage. This is where I took our Christmas card photo last fall and I hoped for some good photos.

We should have known it might not go as planned when Alex skipped his first nap ever. As we "hiked" the boys shouted at squirrels, Nate face planted SO HARD on some stairs, Alex poked us all with sticks he found along the way, and there was a lot of whining and crying about backs hurting and the hike taking too long.

In some cases, a picture does not say the correct 1000 words.



Sunday we went to the North Carolina Zoo because 75 and sunny in November? Perfect for a family day trip. The boys were incredibly excited about the animals, running from exhibit to exhibit. When they got tired, we took trams to move throughout the zoo, which was just as fun to them.

Our big issue was this, a photo op I thought would be cute. (The yellow tone of the photos is because there was a canopy of yellow leaves throughout the zoo.)



The boys loved sitting up there, and Alex was excited to put his arms around Nate. I had plans to try to get them to smile while posed up there....



when Alex got a little aggressive and they fell off the side of the statue. Look back to the first photo and you will note the METAL statue has quite a large base. We saw them start to tip and Jon and I ran over in a panic, but we were not fast enough to stop them from falling. Alex was fine (Alex is always fine!) but Nate scraped his arm and was crying pretty hard.

Let me stop for a minute and mention the zoo was packed. MANY adults saw this event happen. Jon and I knew the other parents were thinking, "What were they thinking?!" I was so scared and worried and afterward I was so stressed I wanted to laugh.

But I could have just shown you the pictures without the stories and you would have thought we were this North Carolina family out enjoying perfect fall moments.

What I would tell myself five years ago

1. You will seriously regret your plan to hit the tanning booth for your November Florida wedding. While it might not be *the* reason you eventually end up with skin cancer, during the moments when you were waiting for your second biopsy, you will think about how dumb it was for a THIRTY year old to hit a tanning salon when you KNOW it causes cancer and you have pale skin. You will also think of all the times you got sunburned or went outside with no sunscreen. But mostly, you will think about the tanning bed.

Sure the photos look fantastic. You will regret it. Use a tanning cream instead.

Or do what you will do five years in the future, which is to go to Origins, get a facial and makeover, and buy all new makeup that compliments your pale skin. (Thanks Irene for the gift card.)

2. You will think your wedding dress is the most expensive thing you will ever buy. You will be proven wrong again and again in your future when you write monthly checks to day care.

3. Be comfortable in your skin. After kids, you will never have this body again. You won't mind your new body because it will be strong enough to carry two beautiful children, run a half marathon, and keep up with your kids. But enjoy your body this day, because you will never look like this in a bikini again and with the whole skin cancer thing, a beach vacation lying in the sun will not be at the top of your list of things to do in your future.

(St Lucia honeymoon was amazing.)

I would not want to know the rest of the details. I loved that on our wedding day, there was an entire world of unknown possibility waiting for me and Jon.

Five years

Five years ago this morning, I got up and walked along the shore of Siesta Key with Jon. As we walked, we talked about what we hoped the rest of our life together would bring. Neither of us was nervous. After almost five years knowing each other, we were ready.

This morning, I got up and walked around our home getting our boys ready for school. As we ate breakfast, we talked about friends, weddings, and our anniversary. On that beach walk five years ago, I don't think we could have imagined our life would be this sweet.

Here's hoping the next 50 bring us as much joy as the last five.



The advice I would give to myself of five years ago? That will be a post over the weekend.

Happy anniversary my love, my best friend. Every day is better with you in my life.

Untwinproofing the house

Over last Christmas break, we spent some time untwinproofing the house. Since then every month has seen more untwinproofing steps. Gone are all of the drawer locks except the lock on the knife drawer. Gone are all the gates except the gate at the bottom of the stairs, which is used to corral kids downstairs when friends come over.

It has been so much more fun to unbabyproof than it ever was to babyproof. And let me state for the record, Alex is the reason for 95% of our babyproofing. Nate rarely got into stuff except to climb on top of things. But Alex, that kid has a way of getting into things that you can barely imagine!

The things we have left are the items I think will be in the house for a long time to come:

* Doorknob covers on the doors that lead outside. We have these and half the adults who come over have a difficultly opening them.
* Permanent lock on the attic door. It is simply too dangerous to ever let the boys up there unattended.
* TV stand and dresser bolted to wall, with TV bolted to stand
* Window locks on their bedroom windows since we sleep on the second floor
* Outlet covers - these are on because we are entirely too lazy to go through the entire house and take them off

Additionally we had stopped using monitors but with cold and flu season here, we have turned them back on. Jon and I are extremely heavy sleepers. Without monitors we would have missed at least two episodes of middle of the night vomiting and Nate's 105 fever from last December (he was quietly whimpering rather than crying loudly).

What about everyone else?

PS. Both the exterminator and the chimney sweep who came to help with our hornet problem assured us it was extremely unlikely this would happen again. Now we need to figure out what/when to do something.

PPS. Phone Photo day will be tomorrow because Friday is a HUGE DAY. I'll give you a hint. It has been fun trying to explain Friday to the boys!

Fall cleaning

With the cold weather finally hitting Raleigh, we decided it was time to check out our fireplace to make sure there are no hornets, like last year. Last week one night after the kids went to bed, Jon and I decided to open the flue to check it out. This year we were mentally and physically prepared for battle.

Jon opened the flue and a huge ball of hibernating hornets dropped out into the fireplace. Jon closed the flue while I grabbed the Dyson. We sucked up the hornets and pitched them in the trash.

I may never get my dream of a fire in the fireplace on Christmas Eve.

Anyone want a box of fire logs?

Yet more proof my boys are growing up

The neighborhood party had bobbing for apples as one of the games for the kids. Once we explained to Nate and Alex the concept of the game, it was nearly impossible to drag them away from the buckets. They stuck their faces in over and over, completely drenching their costumes and never once getting an apple. (pic from a neighbor)


I stood there marveling at what little boys they have turned into, dunking their entire faces into the buckets and laughing. Jon and I renamed this game to "bobbing for swine flu" because in hindsight, this was a ludicrously bad idea for a party game.

That said, 19 more children died last week in the US because of H1N1. There have been just four less flu deaths so far this year than the entire 2006-2007 flu season... and we haven't even hit seasonal flu season yet. So please, if your child exhibits any flu-like symptoms, KEEP THEM HOME. Your kid may weather H1N1 fine but you could be putting other children in serious danger of hospitalization or death.

If you want to educate yourself on the facts of H1N1, the CDC has an amazing website they update every week with stats in a report they call Flu View. Here is the website, here is the latest Flu View. Here is a quote from this week's Flu View, with particular wording I have never seen before in my four years of tracking Flu View (my bolding):

"The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was above the epidemic threshold."