Way Back When-esday

I'm joining in again with Cheryl at http://twinfatuation.blogspot.com/

Our first Easter as a family of 5.  Easter 2009

Thomas' first Easter 2009 with his cousins(3months old)

Eva Rose's first Easter 2009 with her cousin(3 months old)

Michael's 2nd Easter 2009 with his cousin(13 months old)

Happy Easter Babies!!!!

Happy Easter to Everyone also,

Amy

Michael's 2 year appointment

Michael had his 2 year well baby check up yesterday.  He measured in pretty much where I thought.  He was 34 1/2" and 24 pounds.  He is still on the small side but is growing on his growth curve.  I just have small kids.  Michael was not a happy camper at this appointment, but to his credit he had never been examined by this doctor before.  (His regular doctor is out on maternity leave and we are so happy for her.  She gave birth to a little girl about 3 weeks ago.  This is after she went into early labor about 1 year ago and her twin boys did not survive.)  Along with that, the doctor was running late and Michael was ready be on his way.  Needless to say, the appointment was not fun and thankfully, I only had Michael.  We talked about early intervention for Michael and his speech delay.  I think we may just watch him for a few more months and then see what happens.  Maybe we will still do the evaluation and see where it takes us.  We also talked about maybe a food sensitivity being the cause of all 3 kids yeasty/rashy bottoms.  Since dairy seems to be the biggest thing that all 3 kids take in, I am stopping that first.  It seems to be going ok converting over to an alternate form of milk ie: almond milk or rice milk.  I could try soy, but that is on the allergen-sensitivity list and since dad is allergic/sensitive to soy, I decided that soy is not the best alternative to try.  Now since alternate milk forms are more expensive and have all sorts of potential additives to it, I may try to make my own rice milk.

We go back to the doctors for the twins 15 month appointment next in May.  Unfortunately, the kids doctor is not going to be back yet, but hopefully she will be back for their 18 month appointment and maybe Michael's 2 1/2 month appointment if we don't decide to go with an early intervention evaluation.

Amy

Cute Giveaway

http://oneporkchop.blogspot.com/2010/03/pixie-laine-boutique-give-away.html teamed up with pixie-laine boutique for a fun Friday give away.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/pixielaine has some adorable pillowcase dresses.  I will be checking out her etsy shop to see some of the newest items that she has.  My favorite(which was hard to choose since they are all so adorable) is the Kadence, but in reality I like them all.  I think they would look absolutely adorable on Miss Eva Rose.

Amy

way Back When-esday

My cousin was over last week and hadn't seen the kids for a couple of months.  One of her first comments when she saw Eva Rose was "She's a mini Amy!"  My cousin is 10 years older than I am and often use to babysit for me when I was little.  My mom has thought that she looks like me since Eva Rose was just a few months old.

What do you think?

Eva Rose 3/20/2010

Amy July 1974

Amy

Nice Weather!

Here in New England, the first day of spring is March 20th, which happens to be tomorrow.  This week has been especially gorgeous!  We have spent every day outdoors for hours at a time.  I have been loving getting out of the house.  I have also been meeting up with some other twin moms at the park which has been awesome!  This way, I get out of the house with the kids, they get to play outside and with other kids and, best of all I get to be with other adults.  Having 3 little ones at the park isn't easy, but when you have other moms that you know at the park with you, it becomes much more doable.  This week has really made me appreciate people with Seasonal affective disorder.  I know I don't have it, but the nice weather has made such a difference in mood, that I can only imagine how difficult it is to actually have the SAD diagnosis.

I know that New England weather, especially this time of year can be extremely fickle, but I am loving having kids and being outside with them!  Let's hope that the weather doesn't get to bad before it gets good again!

All 3 kids playing together as much as they will play together

Eva Rose and Thomas loved this bouncy toy.  Eva Rose got to the point where she was able to get off it by herself.  They are on with another twin.

Michael driving the fire truck

Michael sitting at the top of the slide before going down by himself.

Happy Spring Everyone!

Amy

Was that actually the sun today?

So for the last 3 days, here in New England, it's been pouring rain.  We got so much rain that school had to close due to flooding issues.  Thankfully, at my house, we only got a little bit of water in our basement but, we have a sump pump that has been going constantly.  Today we finally had 50 degrees and sun.  Unfortunately, I had errands to do this morning then it was nap time, so we only got a little bit of outdoor time.  One of the errands was to return a birthday gift and get something new and then get more bubbles.  We spent about 1-2 hours outdoors blowing bubbles and playing with the new bubble lawn mower that we got today.  Thankfully all week is supposed to be sunny and warm.  My goal is to go to the park tomorrow and/or go for a walk.

the new bubble lawn mower

attempting to blow bubbles

I don't usually post pictures of myself, but this shows the bubbles

I'm looking forward to enjoying the rest of the week!

Amy

Getting Crafty

For years before I had kids, and pretty much all while growing up (except for my teen years) I was pretty into arts and crafts.  Before I had kids, my favorite stores to go into were AC Moore and Michaels.  I loved to learn new crafts and if you saw all my craft supplies and most of my books, you'd think I owned a store.  Now that I have kids, I don't have any where near the time or the energy to work on the multiple unfinished projects that I have already started.  I have the desire to work on things, but just can't seem to get myself moving to create.  I'm sure that once the kids get older, I will get back into being the creative person that I love to be.  Because I love to be creative, I use any excuse to do so.  Since I often have to send out cards, usually thank you's, I try to make them myself.  It's a good excuse to make sure that I do something I love an d not put it off.

Now that my son is 2 and the twins are 13.5 months, I am starting to think about getting the kiddos involved in arts and crafts projects.  I am trying to find something that i think is age appropriate, but I'm just not sure where to begin.  I know that the twins are probably a little young, but I would love to find something that would get the ball rolling.  I know that Michael could do a few things and I would love to put together a craft kit for kids.

Given that I love crafting and doing anything creative and that my husband is a shop teacher/woodworker, I really hope that our kids have an interest in doing something creative.  I would love to start offering things to them and expose them to creativity at a young age.  So, any of my readers, if you have any suggestions, please let me know.  If and when I get things rolling I will be sure to post what we are doing and how it is going!

Amy

Bittersweet

My oldest son turned 2 yesterday.  One would't think that this would be a big deal, especially since I have 13 1/2 month old twins.  But, we gave away a lot of baby things recently since we are not having any more children.  I am more than fine with no more children.  I have 3 beautiful children who I am so thrilled to have.  I didn't have the best pregnancies in the world, though I love every minute of being pregnant.  We no longer need the infant car seats, exersaucers, infant clothing, snap and go stroller, jumparoo, and a crib.  I love that my children are getting bigger and doing so much more, but sometimes I do miss them as tiny infants.  People said that time would go by fast, but I never realized how fast.

I have a crazy life, but I wouldn't change a thing.  I love my husband and my children and feel so lucky and blessed to have such a great life!

Amy

Way back When-esday

I am once again joining in with http://twinfatuation.blogspot.com/ for Way back When-esday.

Michael is turning 2 on Monday.  I feel like just yesterday I was getting married and then finding out I was pregnant 1 month later.  I can't believe that he is going to be 2.

June 16, 2007

July 11, 2007

January 8, 2008

March 10, 2008

Amy

Life Changes!

Boy does life change once you have children!  I feel so blessed to have not struggled to have my children.  Fortunately, my husband and I had our babies when we wanted to without difficulty.  Unfortunately, our friends either have already had children and they are much older than our kids or they haven't had kids yet.  I had hoped that once I had children, I would meet other moms with children around my kids ages and make new friends to go along with the ones I already had.  Unfortunately, this does not seem to be as easy as I had hoped.  I have met some wonderful women who I thought would be great to hang around with, but unfortunately, that does not seem to be the way it is working out.  This is especially hard since i am now a SAHM.  I had worked as a full time, professional social worker for 12 years.  I was always around people, be it other staff, clients, or professional liaisons.  Now I am at home with 3 kids, none who speak.  I love being home with my kids, but I so miss having other adults around.  Is that bad?

I had hoped that I would make some new friends and so would my kids and maybe it will happen someday.  I need to look at myself and figure out if there is anything that I am doing that limits me from making new friends and see if there is anything that I can change.

Amy

More on Sleeping

So it's been about one week since Michael changed from his crib to his toddler bed.  Like always, the first three nights or so went fabulous.  Michael walked himself to bed at 8:15, climbed in, and then went right to sleep.  This was way better than when he was in his crib.  Then all of a sudden, he decided that he didn't want to sleep anymore.  He now has decided that it is more fun to get out of ad bang on the door and scream and cry.  I did read my healthy sleep habits, happy baby, and Weissbluth states that when transitioning to a toddler bed and the child gets out of bed, one should put the child back to bed without talking to the child.  So, every night, I give Michael some time crying to see if he will get back in bed by himself.  Pretty much every time, I go in, and sometimes it is so difficult not to laugh because he is so damn cute, I pick him up, put him back to bed and no talking.  Usually, Michael screams and cries and sometimes I need to put him back to bed more than once.  But once I get him back in bed, he will cry for a short time, and then he is off to sleep for the night.  It's amazing, but he almost sleeps better now that he is in a bed.  I am hoping that once he gets used to sleeping in his bed, and from what I have heard it takes a couple of weeks, he will go to bed with less and less hassle.  As for the twins, they are going to bed great around 7:30 and pretty much sleep through the night.  If they wake, it's usually a diaper change and maybe some tylenol, since they are both teething and then it's off to bed.  I am so happy that they are all sleeping through the night for the most part.  It took some time to get here, but I think we did what was best for our kids.  It's great that there are all these books out there, blogs, and in my case, my twin group.  I took all the advice that I got and figured out what works best for out family.  I think that we are in a good place, even though there are still those tiring times, you can get through it because you trust yourself!

My sweet Michael in his new bed (we just took the crib down)

My pretty little girl

My adorable baby boy

Amy