The 12 Things I learned in the 2nd year of Mommyhood

Last year after the twins turned one I wrote a whole post on the 12 things I learned from my first year of mommyhood, you can read it here.  I figured I should do another one because that one was kind of funny to look back on.

1.  I will say this now, my toddler twins are harder then my newborn twins were.  These tantrum throwing, sibling fighting, independent humans have a mind of their own and they let that be known now.  99% of the time that are sweet, loving and considerate but that 1% well that 1% is a doozy.

See my mad face mom

 2.  An endless supply of snacks is sometimes necessary.  This one is true for me in the car, sometimes they love the car sometimes they hate it.  If I have "nacks" they will ride along happily.  Our favorites are the fruit pouches and animal crackers at the moment.

Example of perfect car behavior

I promise he didn't eat all of those

4.  The outnumber me now.  It used to be ok because they were running around, but now, now they run and fast at that.  Usually I'm chasing one and the other thinks it is hilarious to run the other way (They must know I need to run).  Man on man defense is our best method right now, at church we have a ratio of 2 adults to one child to keep them entertained...

5.  Disney Junior is sometimes my best friend.  (Don't judge unless you know), I may know the hot dog song by heart now and honestly never knew what MMCH was until we started watching and if you know what it means too I won't say anything.  But during that "witching hour" as we call it, usually between the hours of 4-6 when they are starting to get hungry and cranky, it is all that will call them down.  They ask for Mickey and Steins (Little Einsteins) now. ::hangs head in shame::

6.  Where does their energy come from.  I've told my husband if I had 1/8 of the energy they had I wouldn't be exhausted when 7 pm comes around.  I mean is their baby crack in animal crackers....it is like an endless supply of craziness.

7.  Toddlers are so very smart.  People tend to underestimate the brain power of a toddler.  Ava and Landon can remember things, like where they found a toy last (I mean I sometimes can't find my own keys).  The other day Ava mocked my mom giving herself an insulin shot.  I mean she has seen her do it maybe two times and she pulled her shirt up and tried to give herself a shot with a marker...Their brains truly are little sponges.

8.  People still ask dumb questions about twins (like they've never seen them before)...I'm sure this will be on my list for a long time.
Example of a typical conversation:
Random Person: "are those twins"
Me: yes
Random Person: "WOW I bet you have your hands full"
Me: yes
Random Person: "They must keep you busy at that age"
Me: yes
(get the point)
Yes my hands are full but so is my heart, yes they keep me busy but I wouldn't have it any other way.

9.  Sometimes it is necessary to loose your mind.  My most favorite post on this is AP from I Love You More Than Carrots where she talks about letter C paint in the bath tub.  Sometimes it is just necessary to do something that you know will be a pain to clean up but you also know it will keep them entertained for a solid 30 minutes and time, my friends, is vaulable.

10. If I teach them young maybe they'll help.  This applies to my little helper Ava who took an interest in all things cleaning.  She love to "clean" with me, she will wipe and vacuum with her little vacuum, I'm not going to lie, it comes in handy sometimes.

She insists on wearing Landon's shoes...

11.  The twitter and the blog world is full of awesome people.  I joined twitter around the time the twins turned 1.  I could never have imagined the amazing people I have met on there, really there are too many to list.  Other moms who were going through similar things with kids around the same age.  People to bounce ideas off of, to ask a quick mommying question.  I have created some great friendships with these people.  It is amazing when more people on Twitter wish your children Happy Birthday than those on Facebook who you know IRL.

12.  Lastly, I could never love two little people as much as I love Landon and Ava.  They may stretch my patience and it can be trying but at the end of the day I would lay down for those two.  I would walk a thousand miles, I would do anything and everything to make sure that everyday they feel loved and taken care of, happy and healthy.  I always have said I love this stage of life that they are in, then they hit the next stage and I love that one even more if possible.

This rarely happens any more

SUYL-Moms of Multiples over at Kelly' Korner

Today over at Kelly's Korner she is hosting an awesome link up for all the mom of multiples. So head over and link up if you have twins, triplets, or even more. I know I'll be going through to find new moms to connect with. I love finding other moms of twins since hardly any of my friends have a baby let alone two.

And if you are here visiting from Kelly's Korner welcome! We have 22 month almost 23 month boy/girl twins born at 32 weeks after ivf. They are crazy toddlers and I would change any of it. Please check out our stories above and some of our recent adventures!

Thanks for stopping by!

Could you do me a little favor...pretty please

Could you vote for us! Just click that button and you will help us meet other multiple mommy blogs! Thanks a bunch!

I'm Featured!

Today I am featured over at Multiples & More, Multiples & More is a great community full of MoM (moms of multiples).  It is how I found many of the multiples blogs that I follow.  These women are a great resource to a young mom of twins like myself. 

If you are visiting from Multiples and More or Toddle Along Tuesday, let me know.  If you decide to follow me (hint, hint), please let me know so I can follow you back, I am always looking for great blogs to follow.

The 12 things I learned about MoMmyhood in the first 12 months!

1.  You will still buy too much crap, even if you think you need a lot of crap, especially with twins, I thought I needed double of EVERYTHING...turns out, I didn't. I should have returned all recieving blankets, bottle warmers, and half of the clothing....

2.  Two babies is hard work.  Especially when those two babies both had to be woken up at 4 am after coming home from the NICU to be fed, burped and changed...all by myself since my hubby and I split shifts. 

3.  Boppy pillows are necessary, they serve many different fuctions, first as a feeding support, then a resting spot for the non-mobile baby, then a back prop for the almost sitting baby, now sadly we don't need our boppy pillows any longer.

4.  The first few months are easier then right now, at the time I never thought I would see the light at the end of the tunnel with newborn twins.  It turns out I now miss the days that they would lay there under their playmat and stare and the flashing light and animal mobile.  Now one goes       <------this way and the other------> that way.  I am now always chasing someone.

5.  Plan at least an extra hour when running errands, little old ladies love to stop and ask you a GAZILLION questions about your babies...for example my favorite
 old lady: "Are those twins"
 me: "yes they are"
 old lady: "o boys or girls"
 me: "a boy and a girl"
 old lady: "identical?"
 me: "um...no"
old lady: "wow, you must have your hands full" (like I have never ever heard that before)
 me: "yes but its lots of fun"
old lady: "well they are just adorable"
 me: "thank you"...walk away
 ***rinse and repeat about 5 times per store...***

6.  Its true once you have babies that your friends change, you now identify with the "moms", even if those moms are 10+ years older then you, you have the biggest thing in life in common, you both have children.  The friends you once had who don't have children yet may still come around to play with the babies, but don't understand your priorities any longer.

7.  My once clean and spotless HOUSE has now become a toy infested, cluttered HOME, while some days it still irks me to my core that the bathroom or bedroom literally look like bombs went off and I contemplate the fact that buying new clothes might be easier then washing the ones on the ground.  I have to remind myself that no amount of cleaning is worth missing out on precious baby time!

8.  Time really does speed up.  I've always heard people say that after you have kids time just flies.  Its true it does, our first 4 1/2 years of marriage felt quick but we were in a very comfortable routine, once the twins were born its like someone hit fastforward...everyday is different, there is a kinda/sorta routine regarding the twins schedule but everything else has just been set aside.

9.  Can someone remind me why I thought I needed every baby book there was, every book on multiples or the first year.  I have opened these books, but motherhood is natural and not one book out there is going to identify with your exact situation...EVER. 

10.  I'm now a sappy sappy person, I used to be the "I don't cry at the dying anything in a movie" gal.  Now I see anything remotely emotional and I tear up...the worst being the Grey's Anatomy episode where Callie gave birth... I just started crying as I saw what was happening, NICU terms, APGAR scores...etc. 

11.  Being away from your babies suck!! I know I HAVE to work, its just not an option for us at the moment for me to be a stay at home mama.  I used to never ever ever think I would want to be a stay at home mom but now its all I can think about on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8-5!

12.  And last but not least...I never knew that a love like a mother's love for her child actually existed, sure I had been told, but I did not truly understand the meaning until I was wheeled into the NICU and held their teeny tiny little hands, if I could I would never let that little hand go.

Well those are the 12 of many many things I have learned this first year. 

PS...It took me 2 weeks to write this, hence the mobile twins thing in # 4....

Look Mom Were One (A picture post)

We had the twins BIG 1st BIRTHDAY BASH on Saturday the 14th! Our whole family came out as well as all our friends and celebrated with us! I wil split this into a couple posts.  This one being mainly pictures! That being said....ENJOY!

 Birthday Girl

 Ava's cake (made by grandpa)

 dig in

 Centerpieces

 Favors

 Probably her favorite gift

 Cupcakes!

 Welcome

 This is the knockoff version of Olive Gardens Strawberry Mango limonata, easy and so tasty! I will share!

 The setup

 Fruit skewers

 Landon's cake (also made by Grandpa)

Well if you made it through those pictures...{pat yourself on the back}.

I'll be back tomorrow with the details on decorations, cupcakes, cookies, cakes and everything else birthday!

Hope you guys are having a great Monday. I'm still grieving the fact that my babies aren't "babies" anymore...

March of Dimes

On Saturday we walked for March of Dimes "March for Babies", this cause is close to our hearts since the twins were born early for no apparent reason other then they simply ran out of room and my body could no longer support them. 

We were so lucky and the rain here in the PNW held off until the walk was finished.  It was perfect, it was cool so we didn't get too hot either! Thankfully the weather gods were looking out for us.  Our walk was 6 miles and well guys I don't work out, as in I mean I DO NOT WORK OUT, the last time I walked 6 miles was probably sometime in High School and well that was 6 years ago, and since then I went through IVF, twin pregnancy, givng birth, well you get the picture...OUT of SHAPE!

I am proud to say I made it, surprisingly wasn't really even that sore the next day! Only my shins! My hubby and mom and dad came out to support the cause as well. 

I raised $350!! I have awesome friends and family! AWESOME! All I did was send out a cause letter and published on facebook and BOOM !!!$350!!! was raised like that {snaps fingers}!

I had a lot of fun and it made me proud to walk with my healthy happy twins! Thank the lord that they are healthy and happy and are developing at their actual age rather then their adjusted age.  They rode in the stroller the entire time and did so wonderfully! We did have to bribe them in the end with some animal crackers and puffs but they did it!

Here is a couple of pics from our walk! I can't wait to do it again next year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and Mother's Day! My hubby didn't dissapoint and I got a new lens for my camera, just in time for the Twins Birthday this Friday!!

I will be back soon with a series of flashbacks and updates and soon a PARTY!!

My first official blog post! Kind of long catch up story below...

After reading multiple blogs over the last few months, I have decided to start our own! Not only to offer the chance to our family and friends to follow our journey with our soon-to-be-here twins but also as a way to put my story out there for anyone who may want to read or is going through the same thing.
As some of you may know by now it has been a long journey to pregnancy for us. We were married in November of 2005 and about a year later decided to not prevent anything....well nothing happened. It was supposed to be easy but it turned out to be anything but easy! After years of different doctors and multiple diagnosis' for both of us we finally had answers in February of 2009. I was diagnosed with endometriosis and my hubby with MFI. I was going to need surgery if I ever wanted to have a baby or babies. In March of 2009 I had surgery to treat (because there is no cure) for my endometriosis. Our doctor was still not too optimistic about us being able concieve on our own but said he would give us 2 months to try.
After two months had passed with no double lines we moved on to IUI, now after two rounds of IUI it was fairly obvious to our doctor that IVF was our only option. So we decided we wanted this now, we did not want to wait, both our conditions were never going to just disappear but would just most likely get worse. In August we began the process with our clinic. At the end September we started the multiple injections, ultrasounds, appointments, and bloodwork. Our doctor harvested 18 eggs on October 13th, 2009, not such a fun process. We waited for daily calls from our clinic to let us know how our embiebabies were doing! We went from 18 to 15 that were succesfully fertilized, down to four the day we transferred. We went back and forth all week about how many to transfer, we knew the risks of a multiple pregnancy and also knew the chance of us being able to do this again was slim. We have always wanted at least 2 children so we put it in gods hands and decided to trust the doctors opinion. I kept leaning towards 1, hubby 2. October 18th rolled around (day of Embryo transfer), and the doctor suggested transferring 2 with a 10% chance of both taking.......well 7 days later we had a big fat positive on a HPT.
I called the clinic to move my bloodwork up and sure enough our numbers were HIGH. The clinic tests the HCG in your blood, normal range for 9 days (when my blood was taken) for one is somewhere in the 100's, ours was 368! We went back 2 days later and it had more then double, the clinic was betting on twins! Our first ultrasound was at 7 weeks and sure enough two beautiful babies were there, both with strong heartbeats!
That brings us to today well...kind of...without a super long story on typical morning sickness, exhaustion, cravings and everything pregnancy related! We are now at 30 weeks 4 days with our little boy and our little girl, I have been on bedrest for 6 weeks because of preterm contractions/labor. We are sooooo looking forward to having our twins here sooner then later now!! So now you can follow this parenting of multiples thing, my favorite mommy items, favorite baby items and trying to stretch a budget for two babies, two dogs and two adults...this should be interesting.