Sweaters the Second

My eyes always pop open about 7 am and I lay there wishing them to close and go back to sleep. It isn't long after I awake that I hear Laith wake up and start babbling away.  He tells stories to the ceiling as Vivienne is deep asleep.  I have to make sure and flip on the hall light and their bedroom lamp before I walk up to the crib because if I don't, I scare the begeebies out of him and he starts crying.  But since I'm careful, I get to walk up to him holding his hands, giving the most serious look possible, and telling a very important "Okay!" to his imaginary friend.  He then glances over and sees me and I'm rewarded with a ginormous grin.  I pick him up and we exchange a hug then get down to business, getting him ready for the day.  We wander out to the living room and he gets plopped in his easy chair, which he's about half a pound away from being too heavy for.  I switch on the TV, and pull up Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Mickey's face is humongous on our TV, and Laith gives him a big smile too, then starts to play with his blankie.  I go back to the crib for Vivienne who is cooing softly and waking up ever so carefully.  She takes a little longer to get the Sandman's sand out of her eyes.  We sing my version of "Good Morning" from Singing in the Rain as she gets ready for the day.  Then she's plopped down in her easy chair and starts kicking like mad playing with her blankie.  At this point Laith is ready to eat immediately.  He usually will go back in his chair, but not for long, as he wants to play badly, and is eyeballing the jumper.  He then gets jumping time and is happy for a good hour to two hours.  Vivienne is never ready to eat until being up for about an hour, so it gives me a good amount of time to put the house in some sort of order and get the dogs fed and out for the day.  We watch Disney Junior all morning now, as they seem to love the shows more...or at least they stay happier longer, so I've chalked it up to the channel change.  I get in as much work as possible during this time, as the rest of the day is helter skelter.  Sometimes they nap at the same time, but most days are Laith goes down for a small nap, then about thirty minutes later Vivienne will go down for a long nap and Laith wakes up within five minutes of me laying Vivienne down.  It's like this the rest of the day.  I balance work, housework and baby time as best as possible, and try to switch up their playtime between the chair, jumper, floor, pack-n-play and Mommy's lap.  By late afternoon it's a countdown until Daddy gets home, as Mommy so badly needs that extra adult to help bring some sanity back to the day.  Every day when he walks in the door, we laugh, clap and shout out "Dad's home!  Hooray!  Hooray!!"  The evening is much the same as the afternoon, one baby to the next.  Somehow though, they've both decided that between 8-9 pm they're ready for bed, which is glorious.  I realized finally why my parents sent us to bed at 8 pm for all our childhood.  It was the only time of day the both got to enjoy being adults and have peace, quiet, and their own time to do whatever.  I spend most of that time doing dishes and cleaning up from afternoon and evening festivities, but when I'm done, I know both babies will still be out, and it's finally time, time to relax.  Harry Potter has become my relaxation obsession.  There's no required thinking involved to read a Harry Potter book.  It's pure enjoyment.

What I could really use is an extra few sets of arms.  Looking at this picture reminds me of Thirty Minute Meals and how Rachael Ray tries to carry as much as she can in one go.  Can you name everything I'm holding?  I know of 9 items for sure.

The twins started holding their heads up more often just around their four month well baby check-ups.  In the past 6 weeks since then, they're both holding their heads at 90˚ most of the time.  Vivienne will last for about 5-10 minutes and then rolls to her back ready to play with toys.  Laith will scoot himself around in a circle looking for the best toy to play with, then become really angry that Mommy isn't one of those toys and screams until I come over.  He's gotten really good at pushing his legs under him and stretching his arms out.  It won't be long before he'll be army crawling around this house.

Vivienne discovered her feet about a week or so ago and would occasionally reach out to grab a toe.  Yesterday I caught her actually playing with her feet.  She grabbed both over and over and would stretch out her legs, giggling to herself at her new trick.  Today she stuck her toes in her mouth.  It's amazing how quickly both grow and learn from day-to-day right now.

The cold weather set in the beginning of October.  I can't truly say it's cold...nothing like Logan winters, but it's colder than it has been in a while.  We've had the most wonderful stretch of sunshine ever known to the northwest, a whole 3 months without rain!  The rain started in today, and we're meant to get a monsoon of 8 inches this weekend.  Winter has truly started, and with it the sweaters.  We went to visit a good friend last night, and when I got them all dressed up I had to take a billion photos as the two next to each other in hoodies for the first time was adorable.  Here's the slideshow of all the shots.