Memory Bank

I lay awake in bed burning the day's images into my memory bank and realized I didn't want these memories to escape my brain. So instead of using this precious time for sleep, I'm making a list.

Laith

He runs everywhere; to the kitchen for snacks & drinks, to the bathroom to brush teeth, to the front door to put on coats and leave, back and forth through the living room playing. It's not often I see him walk.
He uses a Grrrrrrrsh noise when driving his trucks & cars. I taught him this noise when he first started playing with the heavy machinery dump truck and he uses it for all vehicles.
He stands on the couch back, leans against the wall, gives me a huge grin and jumps onto the couch.
He has one dance move, running in place, doing a quick 2-step river dance move.
He likes to stand behind me in my work chair, and wrap his arms around me giving me a hug. He also loves to lean around my right side with the sweetest grin and say Mmmmmmhhh which means I love you in his language and then I get an extra special hug.
He helps me with laundry by pulling the wet clothes out of the washer and handing them to me to put in the dryer.
He said Yeah today in conversation for the first time. I asked him if he'd brought me Elmo and his reply was 'Yeah!'
He likes to hold the sippie cup lids while I make up drinks. It's his way of helping.
When I yell it's time for lunch, he runs to the kitchen to open the pantry. He pulls the peanut butter off the counter and hands it to me.
He stands in his high chair when finished eating and says ooooooooo and waves his hands, giving me the signal he's done.
He reads books in a loud commanding voice, saying da-da-da-da-da-da again and again.
He splashes in the tub like crazy, doing this funky leg move, like he's running in place to really get the waves going.
He is always ticklish and has an infectious laugh. He has super ticklish knees.
He loves to wrestle, making all sorts of noises and pulling us to the ground. He's super strong and he makes this silly tough guy face when he comes running at you to wrestle.

Both

Whenever a show finishes, a series of high-pitched unh-unh-unh-unh follow until I get a new show started.
When snack time is declared, two sets of feet run to my arms to be swung up into their seats. Lately it's added a new twist, with each sometimes running off in a game of chase, huge grins ear to ear when I catch them.
Both climb into the toy chest, but most commonly it's Vivienne who then unloads every toy to Laith to strew around the living room.

Vivienne

She makes everyone comfortable. If you need a blanket, she's there handing you one. Need a pillow for your head? She's there to hand it over. Needed the bean bag to prop your legs? No problem, here it comes.
She runs off whenever I try to put her coat on. She thinks it is chase time.
She gets hurt and needs loves, each love ends with a kiss better.
Scrunching her face in the funniest smile ever when we say Cheese!
Dancing like crazy to any & every song. She has a bum bounce move, a rock back and forth on her feet move, a twirl move, a clapping move, and a new wave her arms move.
She sings to every song, and is really good at keeping to the tune.  She gets me giggling whenever the song has a high note, as she hits it every time.
She reads all books in a quiet commanding voice. She knows the color book by heart and will randomly burst out reading it from memory, pointing to her hand for the colors and doing the moves when needed. She does this with the So Big Elmo book too. And today when she got a new book, she immediately grasped the new moves for Pat-a-Cake.
She loves to sit in my chair and pretend to work. She's super quick and runs to my desk the moment I stand up. If I come back too soon, or beat her to the chair, she gets angry as I've ruined her fun.
Her most common word is 'astsss'. We couldn't figure out what it meant and it sounded a lot like...well no way around it 'ass'. It made us giggle a lot. Yesterday we realized she's saying "That's...".
She loves Blue's Clues, Daniel Tiger, and Doc McStuffins mostly in part to the songs. She sings them beautifully. She also loves the Minions and smiles huge grins whenever we watch a Despicable Me.
She loves when we go out and she gets to actually go into the store we've gone to visit. She has shouted Yay! a few times when we open the car doors to get out.
She cries at any closed door I go behind and lays on the floor reaching her fingers under the gap best she can to reach me.
She loves to jump on her bean bag and has huge giggle fits to herself each time she does it.
She walks around the house with her blankie and will wrap it around herself looking like a miniature Mary.

Bits and Bobs

When I first posted my blankets for sale, I only had time to take one picture of each blanket. The sunshine doesn't last long here, nor do happy twins. After wishing I hadn't made that blunder, I waited for the next sunny day...and I waited, and I waited, and I waited. One finally showed up in early January and my picture efforts were squashed by a couple of photogenic smiles. The camera couldn't stop snapping pictures of those two.

A typical day at our house consists of waking up anywhere between 7 and 8 am (and the closer it is to 8 the happier I tend to be). We get dressed, have breakfast, feed the dogs, do a few dishes and a couple more chores, then I hit the keyboard for work and the twins hit the great room for a full day of playing hard. We have a snack around 10ish, then lunch is served anytime after 11:30 am. I try to finish up work before nap time, but lately that has been my unicorn. Around 1:30ish the twins start to melt down and I take that as cue for naps. We have warm milk, turn the lights down some, and cuddle together on the couch watching Daniel Tiger. He's a good friend to wind down with. Then the twins go to their beds. For the longest time, I'd put Laith down and while he fussed a little, I would cuddle Vivienne on the couch. Slowly Laith started to fall asleep faster and without fussing, and Vivienne resisted falling asleep with more determination each day. In a fit of fed up to my eyeballs with this routine, we tried a new tactic. I laid Laith down, then grabbed Vivienne and laid her down. Nap time has now become jumping-in-the-bed time. Laith and Vivienne jump for a few minutes, laughing and giggling, talking away to each other. After a while you realize you're only hearing Vivienne's sweet small voice and know that Laith has conked out.  A few moments later, and Vivienne is gone too. I've been really lucky and gotten 3 hour naps for a l-o-n-g time. However, I think these days are soon to be gone forever, as the naps have started to shorten and two days in a row this week, Vivienne refused to nap. I knew the blissful afternoon peace & quiet wouldn't last forever...I'm gonna miss the 3 hour nap window. Laith always wakes first with the grumps. Vivienne is always smiley. Laith has to cuddle with me for a few minutes to several minutes before the grumps fade away (and they're not always gone). The twins have another snack, then play while I get dinner prepped, ready to start cooking once Bryan sends the message 'on my way'. The twins love to run around while I cook dinner, pushing on my legs, pulling me away from the counter, sidetracking me from my tasks into a romp of chase around the kitchen and tickle fests. Dinner's usually finished just as Bryan gets home and the twins are impatient for their dinners. Dinner is served on a plate every night and has been for the last six months. Last night was the FIRST time Laith ate his dinner on his plate without dumping its contents onto his high chair tray. Vivienne still prefers to eat directly from the high chair tray and every dinner is promptly emptied from plate to tray in a few minutes. After dinner is spent playing a whole bunch more then it's bed time. I usually aim for 8 pm, but sometimes we lose track of time and don't realize how late it is until almost 9 pm. For the last couple weeks, Laith has finally figured out how to sleep through the night. For me, sleeping through the night means I do not get out of bed to take care of a baby. Waking up to use the restroom, waking up from insomnia, waking up because Laith cried out in his sleep, waking up when Bryan gets up to ready for work, do not get factored into a full night's sleep. If I did, I'd still be waiting to get 4 straight hours of sleep. My body has learned how to function with the sleep I do get and I finally can count more nights than fingers & toes that have been 'full nights of sleep'.

Whenever I find a lazy moment to sit on the couch, someone (and I mean anyone by the someone) will inevitably end up in my lap. If it's not Laith climbing on me, it's Vivienne, and if it's not Vivienne, it's Bryan using my lap as a pillow for his head to watch TV. Before mommyhood I didn't mind, but now....I miss my personal space. I try not to whine about it, as I know soon enough these two little babies will be teenagers who won't want to admit I'm related to them. (And that's ok with me, it's a rite of passage.)

 

Feeling a fit of cabin fever, I came up with several day outings. We could drive to Bend, Oregon and see Smith Rock State Park, we could drive to McMinnville, Oregon and swim at the air museum water park, or we could drive to Seattle, Washington to visit the aquarium. Option 1 was nixed when the Oregon road cameras showed snow at two different passes we'd have to traverse. Option 2 was nixed as I realized I'd need swimsuits for the twins and me...and the idea of me in a swimsuit is not something I'm ready to brave yet. So option 3 it was. We left a very sunny Vancouver, to enter a very foggy Olympia. Luckily when we hit Tacoma, the sun broke out and we enjoyed a decently sunny day in Seattle for the first time. The pictures don't really show that...the one we got as we passed the Needle on our way out of town would lead you to believe it was cloudy, but it was a cloudbreak rather than a sunbreak that day. I wasn't sure how the twins would react to swimming fish...I figured we were probably trying a new adventure a little too early. Boy was I wrong. Laith enjoyed getting his hands wet to touch the starfish while Vivienne preferred to stay dry and just look at the pretty pink stars. Both loved seeing the Hawaiian fish display. It's easy to tell as the fish are extremely colorful and energetic. Surprisingly the sea lion didn't catch much of their attention, but the river otters did. They were having a good game of swim tag and the twins had smiles watching as the otters kept swimming past. I chose to get each a book from the gift store. You can't see it in Laith's blurry picture, but both latched on to the new books and read them for a good portion of the way home.

Today I got lucky and outlasted Vivienne during nap time. I had finally selected some fabric to finish the new bed linens for the guest bedroom and was itching badly to sew up the pillow shams for the Euro pillows. While I ironed, pinned and sewed, I could hear her voice babbling away. At one point she started coughing, as though to get my attention and say "Mommy! I'm still awake. Come get me!!" but I kept pretending I couldn't hear. After a while I no longer heard her babbles and when I peeked in, she was fast asleep. I finished the pillow covers and made up the bed. I think I want to put one more long, low pillow in front, but above is the almost finished look. Our guest bedroom now has better linens than the master bedroom....hmmm..gonna have to fix that. After taking the pictures and looking at the results, I had to relax on the bed, but as I looked around the room, relaxation was the last thing on my mind.

 

Our guest room has always been a catch all room. To the side are the car seats I've been trying to sell for six months, the old bed linens and the many toys that the twins have figured out may be used as climbing step stools. After several climbing accidents, they've been banished to this room. Across from the bed are my sewing machines, ironing board, and the bajillion items stacked on the dresser. There's two sets of crib bedding I never used, coloring supplies for twin toddler art projects, bits and bobs from leftover handmade cards and scrapbook layouts, the humongous bag of beans I thought I'd bought too much of (which by the way, I can now use as the bean bags have started to 'deflate' with use), picture frames that kept getting played with by two mischievous babies, a Silhouette machine and the stack of guest pillows waiting for new pillow cases. I know my next project should be organizing this room and clearing up the clutter....but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Straying from the Comfort Zone

Sunday night I had to do some impromptu laundry...I thought the twins would be able to handle a few bites of jello on their dinner plates and learned quickly that the answer is no. Not wanting white shirts to be stained red forever, I gathered all of the twins laundry. Laundry day is normally reserved for Wednesdays. As I folded clean clothes, I realized I folded only one pair of socks for each twin. This means since Wednesday, we'd only gone out once. I felt badly about this, as both of them love getting out and about, especially Vivienne. Lately when we go somewhere, she squeals in delight when we head back to unbuckle her and go inside whatever place we've ventured to. Yesterday we visited Bryan for lunch, making the wildly unpopular choice of going into public by eating out. We tried a new burger joint which was really good. Laith and Vivienne were extremely well behaved. They stood next to us on the booth, eating the snacks I set up for them mixed with french fries and whatever else tickled their fancy. Yesterday, it was my hamburger bun that Laith kept grabbing at. I'm not a big fan of the no-low carb diet so I was glad when he switched to the sweet potato tots. The couple behind us kept being goggled at by the twins, much to my dismay and continued efforts to turn them around and focus on their own food. Luckily this couple was understanding, as they have 9 grandchildren of their own, and later learned, a set of twins. It was nice to share in the understanding of the difficulty that sometimes arises from having two at the exact same learning stage.

Later in the evening, we ventured out again. Bryan needed some new work garb so he dropped us at the mall to do some walking and exploring while he went to get fitted for a new suit. We wandered the bottom floor, checking out the kiddie clothing shops and the Disney store. I spoiled each with toys and new pajamas. Vivienne picked out her pajamas. I held up several different colors which she shook her head to all with a resounding No. The last choice was Ariel. She started to shake her head, then changed her mind and reached out to grab the gown. We also headed into a couple of stores I like, and got ourselves a salty pretzel to share. Laith thoroughly enjoyed his snack. Vivienne absolutely refused any after the first bite (which I later found in the bottom of the stroller). We started circling the mall (which takes about 25 minutes to make one entire circle) and after the first half circle, the twins started to meltdown. Bryan was still in the middle of measuring, so I pulled the last card up my sleeve. We headed for the kiddie play area. Normally I wouldn't dream of going into the kiddie pit. With all the germs, dirtiness, sickness, kids, adults, germs, stinky feet, stinky diapers, germs, and so on, it's not exactly my ideal locale. If Bryan had been with us, the whole adventure would've been kaboshed. But Mommy didn't want to deal with screaming in a loud echoing mall. We parked the stroller inside the kiddie area (I know...curse me now. However, watching two kids run in different directions that don't know how to entirely listen and watch my purse is not easy peasy). The shoes came off and the smiles were plastered on. Vivienne ran off without a care in the world. She never looked for me. Laith ran after his sister, to only come running back after 5 seconds to check I was still there. He kept an eye on me the entire time, making sure to check every 30 seconds that I had not evaporated. Vivienne ran out of the area twice and Laith once. It was a workout keeping an eye on those two...but the rewarding squeals, giggles and smiles were completely worth it. Once Bryan was finished, I grabbed both babes and rocketed off. I hadn't thought about the kiddie area being on the opposite side of the mall from where we had been dropped off (and would be picked up). Bryan was able to find a parking spot and walk inside just as we arrived at the meeting place. He said the smile on the faces of our children were amazing. He couldn't believe how happy they looked. When I told him about our escapade, he kept a smile, but I know deep down he was wanting to puke his guts out, grab the sanitizer, go through an air lock chamber, burn the clothes and probably the stroller, and maybe even just fire me from my position as mommy. But how could you? Especially when there was fits of laughter and jibber jabber all the way home and the easiest bedtime I've had to date. Straight to bed without a peep, no lingering fake crying to drag me back in for another final hug and kiss good night. I adore these moments...it makes all the other trying times of mommyhood melt away.

My Christmas Carol

My ghosts of Christmas past, present and future have been flitting about in the background all month long. I think often back to my Christmas post of how sad I was to decorate my home all by my lonesome and how different my world has become in a short two years. I remember how happy I was decorating Christmas 2011...I couldn't let go of how exciting it was to trim a tree with two wee babies growing inside me. My Christmas dreams of a happy family celebrating a jam-packed season were finally unfolding. I dithered this year about decorating. I knew I wanted to and I also knew that two extremely curious and somewhat mischievous twins would have their hands all over everything. I finally settled on all the decor displayed all month long with the exception of a Christmas tree. I'm not going entirely Grinch here, as tonight we'll put up what Bryan has dubbed our first Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I knew deep down inside that the exuberant Laith and Vivienne would be too much for my sanity and keeping two sets of hands off a tree was something I was not going to put ourselves through. Why spend most of the month of Christmas upset about ornaments on a tree? I also had the stroke of brilliance to set up our tiny tree in our guest room. Currently this room is used for all sorts of crafts and I've set up the baby gate to keep the twins out and me in. Our set up works decent enough, as no one has yet figured out how to climb over the gate into my hidey hole. I figured the tree could reside behind the gate for all to see and clamor at yet keep the ornaments where my OCD brain needs them...on the tree.

Ghost of Christmas past has also come to visit while present shopping. The excitement that has been generated in our hearts is more than I could've wished for. I know Laith and Vivienne may not entirely understand present opening, or the enormous amount of time & energy put into a particular gift, or the reason of this holiday season. Yet we've been given the wonderful opportunity to lay the foundations for many happy Christmases to come.

Ghost of Christmas present taps my shoulder often. When making Christmas treats, Laith rushed his truck over, climbed atop to the highest part of that truck and set to work helping me. At least he thought tipping the can of evaporated milk over was helping....twice. He also grabbed at chocolate covered spoons, empty boxes of Nilla wafers and sampled a few treats before deciding his help was no longer necessary. He then went to work driving his trucks on the kitchen floor. Meanwhile, Vivienne kept up a running jibber-jabber, walking circles around our entry and through the kitchen, giving me the most darling smiles a mommy could hope for. I've planned to deliver our home-made goodies to our neighbors tomorrow night. I've got grand dreams of two little helpers, decked out in their winter hats knitted by Ginger Nannie, holding a parent's hand each and knocking on neighbors' doors. Thankfully we deliver to just a handful of neighbors that all live within a four house block, so my idea may just work.

Ghost of Christmas present also smiles when I sing carols with the twins. Vivienne's ever watchful eyes sparkle with happiness, as I can see she is stowing the words and tunes in her head. She still dances like crazy but she has now added singing to her repertoire. I love listening to her sing along to Outdoors by Jason Mraz on Sesame Street. There's a part where Elmo sings really high and Vivienne matches his octave. We've watched Elf several times this season and the original cartoon Grinch. I wonder what will be their favorites later in life. I caught the end of Bundle of Joy and smiled at memories of watching this movie at Grandma & Grandpa Garrett's house. Will the twins love the old flicks like we did as kids? I have a hunch they will...mostly because it will be force fed while they're too young to realize it's not 'cool'.

Ghost of Christmas future may be a little foggy, yet I know he's been here too. There have been several traditions we'd like to do yet know the twins are a little too young still, like eating at a fancy restaurant to watch the Christmas boats float by or catching the steam locomotive for a short ride into Portland. Their current time span of interest is far too short. However in just another short year (or maybe two) we'll be able to do any Christmas tradition we set our minds to. I've loved where the Ghosts of Christmas have taken me this year and thank my lucky stars every evening for having been blessed with the sweetest two souls ever.

Thankfulness

Vivienne Lost Herself to Dance

Vivienne started dancing the moment she could stand. It's funny to catch her doing it but it's hard to get on video. She already has a favorite song and LOVES to watch the music video. Coincidentally the song by Daft Punk is titled  Lose Yourself to Dance. Here is Vivenne and a little bit of Laith having fun dancing.

I Finally Did it!

It took almost 4 years to do so, but I finally posted the baby blankets I have made on Etsy!  I've made these types of blankets for years, all along hoping & wishing that one day I'd get to make some for myself.  I've gifted these blankets to families and friends and love seeing them years later.  I always snatch the blanket up and take a look at my binding, as I continually doubt my sewing skills. Thankfully, each of my carefully plotted stitches have held up to the many washings that baby blankets tend to get. I breathe a sigh of relief and tell myself to allow that feather to my cap...maybe one day. If you know anyone who is looking for a good quality baby blanket, send them over to my shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/CrimsonConfection.