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

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

Next Monday my hubs and I will be taking our first vacation sans kids since before we started IVF.  Obviously, having never been away from my kids (except when they were held hostage  learning to breath and eat in the NICU) I am a bit nervous and anxious which I'm sure is expected whenever a parent decides to go away on a vacation and leaves their heart(s) in someone elses perfectly capable hands.

The twins will be staying at our my parents house since we are already living there waiting out to build it is a perfect time as there will be minimal disruption from their day to day schedules and they'll have their own stuff.  My sister is taking the week off from her job to come up and help as well.  I know that they will be fine, I'm sure I'll be the only who is a mess in any of this.

I have put together presents/activities for them to open and do each day that we are gone.  My sister and parents plan on taking them to Northwest Trek and the zoo possibly.  I'm sure they will keep them plenty busy and occupied to not realize that we are gone much. 

I know that this time away is good for us as a couple, to relax, to not think 24/7 about what they ate for breakfast, did they play enough, did I stimulate their little brains with numbers and the abc's, what's for dinner and all of the other things that run through our heads as moms.  We will be able to sit back and relax which is something we haven't done in a very long time. 

We are headed back to Maui with a couple of good friends, which is where we spent our honeymoon, we will be gone for a whole week. I'm excited for gorgeous weather, the beach, the atmosphere there.  Basically I love Maui and am excited to go back.  We are staying at the Honua Kai which we have heard from our friends who we are going with is amazing!

source

So here is where you can help me, if you have left your little ones for a vacation, what did you do to make sure that everyone is on the same page, what numbers/names should I leave.  I;ve already gotten some great feedback from some and know that I need to leave something that gives my parents/sister authority to make medical decisions in the event that we can't reached or in an emergency.  I know to leave their insurance cards with them just in case.  But am I missing anything???

Disciplining Twins

O boy, we have reached some major terrible twos over here.  Mind you most of the time the twins are well behaved, we have worked on please and thank you and they are very good about using their manners. But lately we have hit some serious twin fighting.  Shoving, hitting, bitting, hair pulling, you name it one of them has done it.  This has been one of my biggest fears of parenting multiples.  It is so hard to explain to two children that are at the same developmental level which is really too young to understand sharing to start with and trying to get them to understand the concept.  If one has a toy that the other decides they want there is no please there is just "I'm going to go grab it".  Which usually results in tears on both sides. 

Ava has an issue with biting which we curbed awhile back after biting her back (say what you must but nothing else worked), my parents did it to my sister and she is a perfectly functioning 23 year old professional.  But now, now she shoves.  Landon, who used to be very reserved has started fighting back by pushing back which I understand but he is 30+ lbs and Ava is like maybe 23 lbs.  He is ALOT stronger than she is. 

We have tried timeouts, but they are still a little young to really grasp the concept of them, and usually they think it is funny.  We have just taken away whichever toy is causing them to fight which results in tears from both.  I am looking for any and all ideas to try and teach them that it is not ok to hit or shove each other.  I am not anti spanking as I was spanked as a child but very very few times and I remember why I was spanked to this day, so I don't really believe it spanking them at this age.  I just need help from my fellow mamas who have dealt with disciplining two or more children.  Even if those children weren't twins, what worked for you with your two year olds?? HELP!

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!

Zoo Trip

Saturday we packed up the twins and their wagon and headed up to the zoo! We had some passes that needed to be used by April so we have been waiting for a semi nice weekend to go.  Seeing as our weather here was 50 but sunny it is considered Spring and you go outside! The twins were much more into the zoo this trip than the last time that we went.  They were so excited to see all of the animals and wanted to walk around all by themselves. 

We got there just after the park opened before the huge crowds arrived (remember it is Washington and over 50 degrees, everyone goes outside).  We made the whole round by a little after noon and headed home.  The rest of the day we went on a family walk and played outside, good thing too since today it is raining... :( .  We are considering getting the family membership so we can go whenever we want all year and not feel bad if we only spend a couple hours there. 

Here are a few pictures from our zoo trip!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

Telling our story

Today I am over here at Life as we Know It with two twinkies and a Tater Tot.  Heather is hosting a series on preemies and ask for volunteers to tell their stories.  Please head over today and take a peak around.  She will be featuring a family a week as we all prepare for the March of Dimes.

O Hi There

Wow so I basically disappeared.  Life has been, well, crazy! We have been going non-stop since December.  I could say sorry for not writing but it took the back burner while we just lived our crazy life.  Things are finally dare I say calming down for the moment.

After my last post we enjoyed our family vacation to Whistler, BC for Christmas which was so fun this year with the twins, they played in the snow and on the playground they have there which is awesome. We had dinner out and the hubs and I actually had a date night since we had 8 babysitters.  We relaxed and had an awesome Christmas with our two toddlers.

In January our part of the state got hit with a massive snow/ice/wind storm.  We had over 18+ inches of snow which we rarely have seen in the past.  But not only did it snow, the next day is ALL froze and turned into a slippery winter wonderland.  But wait thats not all, then the trees started snapping and the power went out.  Not just a few people lost power but pretty much our whole county was out of power.  We only lost power for a little over 24 hours but enough to book it to the inlaws who have a generator.  O and in January the twins turned 20 months old and both had their first ear infection!

February brought some serious life changes, we decided in order to fullfill our dream of building our forever house we would need to sell or rent our current home.  Considering we bought our house at the literal peak of the market we figured out we would be more likely to just keep it rented for basically our mortgage which to me doesn't sound like a bad idea. So we ask my parents if they would mind 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs moving in.  To my surprise, they said yes no problem.  So we moved all of our stuff into my parents house, sold some of our living room/family room furniture and the moved the rest into storage and my husband's parents house.  We found a renter within 2 weeks and they moved in 3 days later. So now we are landlords.  We are paying off a little bit of credit card debt that accumlated over the past few years with the twins medical bills and while my hubs wasn't working and saving the rest to purchase land and build.

Also in Febrauary our beloved 3.5 yr old Great Dane suddenly got sick and we couldn't figure out was wrong until the vet took an xray and said that his stomach had flipped and that it was basically a death sentence unless we decided to pay 5,000+ for a surgery that may or may not work, so we had to say goodbye.  While I am still very sad over it we both knew it wasn't fair to our children to sink that much money into our dog who may or may not make it out of surgery and even then the life expectancy of a Great Dane is really only 5-8 years on average.  We miss him but when we build a house with a big yard we will probably get another big dog who will have room to run.

That brings us to March.  The twins just turned 22 months old, we only have 2 more months until they turn 2.  I feel like I need a time machine to go back and hold a teeny tiny 4 lb baby in my arms again just to remember what it was like.  They are independent, funny, smart and so energetic.  They can be exhausting and trying and well...a toddler, but they are so fun.  They are talking up a storm these days, small phrases are being put together, we can communicate with them better and I am just loving this age.


I like a crazy women already have their party planned and it will be taking place at a local zoo.  The twins love animals and since I don't have my house to throw a party in I figure we will just bring everything in and have a fun day at the zoo.

Which will feature lots of Mickey

And will be held here

Anyways, that brings us to today. Hopefully I will begin to blog more.  I became almost embarrassed at how long it had been since I last posted, but o well.  All I can do is try and be better.

Twins 18 Month Pictures!

A couple of weeks ago we had our good friend Kristina take pictures of the twins for their 18 month/Christmas pictures.  I had these ideas of Christmas pictures that involved cookies and pjs.  Needless to say they turned out WONDERFULLY! I am so happy with them, I always am when Kristina takes them.  Their personalities are so apparent in the pictures and I am so glad that we have them captured to look at down the road!

Here are some of my favorites.