This Crazy Life

LIFE!!!!

2012-02-17T11:11:00.000-08:00

Lately, there have been lots of ups and downs in our family's life. Some of the ups include oh so much better sleep. Pretty much every night between 6:30-6:45 we start our bedtime routine. At one point, the routine was way too complicated. I've basically pared it down to either bath time or washing up/brushing teeth, diaper changes/toilet time, 2 books, and maybe a song. We are usually complete with lights out before 7:15. Usually, the kids are asleep before 7:30, at least the twins are. Michael, on the other hand, needs his own wind down time by himself one the twins are asleep. He is usually asleep by 8:00 sometimes a little later. This has made life so much easier. I love bedtime so much more now.

The twins have turned 3 and are no longer eligible for early intervention due to age, but Eva Rose is getting speech once a week for articulation issues. She amazes me though, and even the speech therapist mentioned it today. She can say alligator pretty clearly, but she can't pronounce the ending of simple one syllable words like cat or cup. Thomas is not receiving any services. He is going to be watched, but he really doesn't need anything. Michael continues to go to a preschool program for 5 hours. His behavior seems to be testing limit setting at home and at school. I think I am going to talk to his doctor about my concerns at his 4 year visit to see if there is anything that we should have him tested for, if not just to ease my own mind.

In the down department, we have had some big issues with a family member who has been living with us. Life has been really stressful and we finally told him it was time to leave. There are way to many things to write about why it was so stressful, but I am so looking forward to getting our house and life back in order! I am not looking forward to the potential backlash from the family, but we needed to do what was right for our family not what was right for this family member. I am hoping that my kids will be better off and I know that I will be better off!

It has been an extremely mild winter here north of Boston, but I still can't wait for spring. I can't what to take the kids out and play. I can't what to go hiking and walk the zoos and farms and ll those types of things. I can't wait to start our garden again. This year, I want to start planting our early spring plants on time and not wait til it is too late.

Amy

My Latest Projects (and a couple of pics of the twins)

2012-02-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

I am trying to spend some time being creative and also using up some of the huge crafting stash that I have accumulated. When I was looking at some of the things I thought about getting rid of, I realized that they were actually completed projects (if I was just a little creative in how I saw them), they just needed the finishing touches. I weaved in some ends, and Voila!!!!, a baby Belle granny square afghan and a granny square afghan for Eva Rose. Now on to using up some yarn stash to make the boys an afghan.

Eva Rose with her new afghan

Eva Rose's Baby Belle's afghan

The twins!

Amy

Healthier Me

2012-02-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

I've been joining in with another twin mom to challenge myself to get healthier. The first two weeks were rough, but I think I'm on my way way, at least with the exercising. The first week. My daughter was sick and then I got sick the second week. Finally, the third week, I am feeling more myself and was able to do 90 minutes of running/walking. I am down about 5 pounds and weigh less than I did when I got married and pregnant with Michael. Now I need to start doing some strength training and getting my food intake under control. Some days, I think that I want to run/walk more than every other day. I've been doing great drinking my green smoothies. I'd love to do a couple of days of detox smoothies just to see how I feel. I really need to cut out sugar, carbs, and fat, and even coffee.

Given the fact that I have decided not to pursue surgery for my BRCA2 gene positive status, it's really important to me to change my lifestyle. I need to continue to exercise, eat better, and deal with stress better. I realize that just because I have the gene, it does not mean that I will get cancer, but given that my great grandmother, my grandmother (who died of breast cancer), and my mom have all had cancer and my mom is also positive for BRCA2 gene,my chances of not getting cancer seem slim. I really need to do all I can to be healthy so that even if I do get cancer, my body is strong.

I really need to stop drinking coffee. I have switched to decaf, but I really want off coffee all together. I just bought some new tea. I have been trying to go from coffee to tea. Part of the issue is that I really like going for a ride with the kids and getting a cup of coffee. I think that I just need to let go of buying the coffee and bring my tea.

The other thing I am doing to get healthy is to get a little more organized and be better at cleaning my house. It will be an ongoing project, but one that I really need to keep working on. Some days, I think that I have some form of ADD, but hen other times I think I just need to be better organized and everything will be fine. I feel like if I get better organized, my stress levels will be better. Overall, if my stress levels are better, I will be better.

It slow going, but I feel like I am my way to doing what I need to do. I'm really glad I joined in with this challenge!

Amy

Pictures

2012-01-29T14:53:00.000-08:00

At the zoo

for a walk

reflections

Trying for a hug

The twins

My 3 kids

Michael

Eva Rose

Thomas

Being silly

Illness and Other Things

2012-01-26T10:37:00.000-08:00

I have been fighting a cold/bronchitis since Thanksgiving. Finally, I went to the doctors 3 weeks ago and got the Z-pak for bronchitis and was feeling so much better. I was feeling great for about 2 weeks and then my daughter got sick just before her 3rd birthday. She was miserable this past weekend. The poor thing was sick on her birthday party and her actual birthday, though she started feeling better on her actual birthday. I brought her to the doctor who felt that her fever was related to a virus and that it would just have to work it's way out of her system. He gave me some things to strengthen her immune system and help her body do what it needs to do to help her get better. She was fine the next day but guess who is using everything that she was told to use? I am once again sick. I am using the echinacea, the vitamin C and vitamin D and am hoping that I will start feeling better soon. I also need to start using my nasal rinse as well as eating better and probably starting my allergy shots again.

I started a Biggest Loser type program with another twin mom blogger. I have lost a little weight, but given the illness here, I have not exercised anywhere near where I should be. I am going to try to get on the treadmill today since I really am not sure who I feel about being out in the cold when I am sick or with my daughter who was recently sick. I am hopeful that I can at least use this challenge to lose a little bit of weight and get myself on the right track. Losing weight is so much harder when you have kids.

Here's a few birthday party pictures:

Sick birthday girl!

Birthday boy!

Big Brother

Birthday Cake Nonna made

Birthday Cake from Costco

In another month and a half, we'll be celebrating Michael's 4th birthday, but for now we are a house of 3, three year olds! Hopefully no one will be sick for Michael's birthday!

Amy

Test Results

2012-01-17T06:06:00.000-08:00

If you didn't know, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer just about 1 year ago. She has gone through chemo and radiation treatments and so far things are looking positive. Her lump was caught early, unlike my grandmother her mother, who almost 6 years ago died of breast cancer. Since my mom got diagnosed, she also got tested for the BRCA gene. She got confirmation that she is a carrier for the BRCA 2 gene. Currently, in my family, my mom, my grandmother, my grandmother's twin sister, and my great grandmother all have had breast cancer. My grandmother's younger sister also had and died of pancreatic cancer, which the BRCA 2 gene puts you at higher risk for.

Now that my mom got tested, my sisters and I had to decide if we were going to get tested. At first, I was leaning totally against having the gene test. After talking with my doctor, I decided that it would be better to find out if I had the gene, because with my family history, without getting tested, I would need to have increased testing to ensure that things were caught early just in case I was at higher risk and didn't know it. I got met with a genetic counselor right after Christmas and with my husband decided to have the test. Just about a week ago, I found out that I tested positive for the gene.

I wasn't totally surprised at the results, but I was still in shock from actually seeing it on paper and having one of my worst fears confirmed. Of course, the immediate recommendation was to have a bilateral mastectomy and oophorectomy. I was told that I needed to meet with an oncologist and discuss my options. If I decided not to have surgery, I need to have a mammogram and a MRI every 6 months alternating each time. If I don't have the oophorectomy, I need to have a trans-vaginal ultrasound and a CA-125 blood test every 6 months. Even though I don't have cancer, I left that appointment feeling like I had been given a a death sentence, especially if I didn't have surgery. Not exactly a great feeling to have especially not actually having cancer. I thought that since my family tended to get cancer later in life, I have a decent amount of time to decide, but no, they just lucked out (if getting cancer at all can be considered lucky) and got cancer later in life. The BRCA 2 gene tends to cause earlier cancers, something I did not expect to hear.

I am still trying to figure out where to go from here. I have 3 small kids and a great husband. I don't want to get cancer. I don't want to go through the pain and suffering and even potentially die, but I also don't want to have surgery. There are too many reasons to go into right now, and at some point I will probably write about it just to put it in words that I can actually read. My New Year's goals go along with the changes that I want to make especially now that I have tested positive for the gene.

My diet needs to change and so do my exercise habits. I have joined in with another twins mom's blog for a healthy challenge. I am hoping that this challenge will help me make the changes that I need to make and hopefully make theme stick.

Amy

Getting Our Family Healthier

2012-01-10T10:16:00.000-08:00

One of my big goals this new year is to work on being healthier. I don't want to make this a resolution, but with the new year, I decided to start thinking of new goals, or at least re-focusing on goals that I have already had.

My husband and I decided to start eating healthier, both us and our kids. For me, this is a tricky goal. I want to be healthy, but I have horrible food cravings for foods that are not good for me and unfortunately often give in. Also, my kids are on the very, very bottom of the growth scale, so I am always conscious of how much they eat. They are also very very picky eaters. With the new year, my husband and I started green smoothies again. Much to my elated surprise, my oldest son is loving them. He liked them the first time we started and he was about 18 months old, but quit eating them soon after. Now he is still loving them and having easily 2 shakes at breakfast. This means he is getting some sort of leafy green (kale, swiss chard, red leaf lettuce, etc.), and fruits. Finally I can feel like he is getting some good nutrition easily instead of fighting to get him to eat healthy foods. My twins, on the other hand, barely touch the shakes. The good news is that they are eating vegetables much better than before so I'm not as concerned with their healthy eating. I am trying to be better at meal planning which means I am not so crazed at dinner time trying to figure out what to cook. Also, I spend less money and waste less food because I know what to buy for when.

One of my friends, another twin mom, is doing a sort of biggest loser challenge on her blog http://goddessinprogressblog.com. I wasn't sure about joining in, but I decided that it is only ten dollars to contribute to the winning prize. Also, I figure maybe this would be a friendly way for me to challenge myself and have some accountability. So here I am joining in. My husband just bought new running shoes. I bought new ones last summer, and probably only used them and handful of times so far. The other thing that we splurged on is winter gear. We do have a treadmill, but I like getting outside and I can take the twins with me even if it is just a walk and no running.

I actually can't wait to start exercising again. My husband mentioned getting up early on alternate days so that we can go running without having to push the kids and then getting it out of the way. I really don't like getting up early and for me the thought of getting up at 5:30am instead of my usual 6:45am is not something I am looking forward to. I am however, looking forward to feeling better and getting in shape and hopefully liking how my body is going to look.

Plans are in motion to get at least a couple of my goals met. Hopefully my husband and I can set a good example for our kids early in life so that they don't have to deal with for addiction, food cravings, inability to stop eating even when they are full, and hopefully they will be active. Hopefully all of this will help them be healthy kids and even grow into healthy adults.

Amy

A Post About Me

2012-01-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

I usually reserve this blog to write about my kids, but today I'm going to write about me. Just because!

I am someone who has always loved to be creative. I gave it up when I became a teenager. I was already not one of the popular kids in school and back in the 80's knitting and sewing were not the popular thing to do, not like it is now. I guess it's probably not a totally popular thing to do, but the whole hand crafted arena is so much more popular with teens than it was back then. After college I decided that I was going to start being creative again, and since then, I have not stopped enjoying anything hand crafted. I love craft fairs. I love craft shows. And, I love actually hand crafting things myself. At this time in my life I am interested in so many different crafts; everything from knitting, scrapbooking, jewelry making, and sewing to even wood working. My biggest challenge right now is time!

One thing that would help, would be to have a designated area to work and keep out everything that I needed to work on a project instead of always having to put everything away even if I'm in the middle of completing a project. I do have an area that I could do this, but we have a house guest that has been here much longer than I had planned (yes this is also a post for me to piss and moan about having my brother in law stay with us). We are a family of 5 and live in a small 5 room ranch. It works for us, but having another adult for 8 months in our basement is totally cramping my style. I have all of my craft supplies in the basement and could actually organize it so that if I were working on a project, I could keep things set up so that if I found a small chunk of time, I could go and utilize it to my best way possible. Unfortunately, the basement is where our guest is sleeping. He will supposedly be moving out the end of this month, but I am not holding my breath. I would love to have a space to work. I would love to try to organize what little space I have so that I have a workable area that I can leave up that project that isn't quite finished so that I don't have to take up time setting up and cleaning up!

Last of the bitch session and on to more positive ideas. My friend over at http://www.goddessinprogressblog.com/quilts seems to post a bunch of fun tutorials (Thanks Liz). I have printed out a few that I want to work on. My 3 kids all have birthdays coming up. The twins turn 3 January 23rd and then Michael turns 4 March 8th. There are a bunch of things that I want to work on for their birthdays. I also have project that I want to work on for my husband. Since we didn't exchange gifts this year and I didn't get a chance to finish something else and since he has a new tea cup, I am planning on making him a travel mug cozy with lectures of the kids on it. I am hoping that I can make it work out the way I want it to. I love blogs and I love crafts so craft blogs with tutorials are my favorite. I can't wait to start working on some of these projects and hopefully, next month I can start working on organizing a craft space of my own!

And now for some simple New Year's Goals

Eat more healthy-cook more from scratch
Exercise more-get off my but and move damn it!
Organize my house-get rid of clutter, make sure that everything has a place to return to.
Be more involved with the kids-Now that the kids are more preschooler, I need to start doing more organized play with them. For now we have been just going with the flow (may be an excuse but finally having 3 kids so close in age is fun and not as difficult, even though it is still OMG so difficult)
Create more-Make time to create. Try to find a way to keep projects out until they are finished or choose projects that are easy to complete and don't take too much time instead of having to set up and take down everything each time for the same project!
Spend time learning more about the things I love- I need to learn more about gardening, herbs, art therapy (which will hopefully help me in my career someday), and many other things that I am interested in instead of just having limited knowledge of it.

Those are my simple goals. There is much more work that needs to go into them, but for now that is all I need to post.

Here are a couple of picture of the kids!

Juice Break at Drumlin Farm 11/30/2011

Stone Zoo 12/1/2011

Santa at the Enchanted Village 12/4/2011

Amy

Pre-School Parent/Teacher Conference

2011-11-29T07:37:00.000-08:00

We had Michael's first parent/teacher conference about 2 weeks ago and for the most part it was all good. Behavior wise, Michael is doing excellent. Given his fairly severe speech delay, his frustration level is at a pretty good level, but speaking of his speech, he is definitely delayed and I don't know why. I think the only thing that bothered me about the conference is that when we asked the teacher about about fears of autism, the only thing she could say was that she didn't feel that he was on the spectrum given his ability to be comfortable sitting in her lap and being affectionate. That was a good sign, but the fact that teachers are not allowed to give their opinion about testing because it may cause issues with parents really frustrates me. I mean, these are professionals, who in our case, spend 5 hours a day 5 days a week with my son. I am not frustrated with the teacher, but the system. Michael's teacher is wonderful. She is sweet and kind and motherly and I feel very comfortable with her as his teacher. I just wish I could get a sense if we need to do more.

I have a feeling that going gluten and dairy free is a really good step. I hate that we have to do this and we were really bad over the holiday, but we are now back on track and no gluten or dairy for Michael (so to be me too). I really do think that it makes a difference! It sucks, but I do think it helps! The other issue that got brought up at the conference (by his teacher), is wether or not to get Michael tested for diabetes. I am hoping that this isn't an issue. Michael seems to drink a ton and then pees a ton to the point of having multiple accidents. It kinds of makes sense that if he drinks a lot then he will pee a lot, but it is the drinking of fluids that makes me wonder, though I have to say, sometimes limit setting helps and his accidents are getting better. He has even slept with underwear on for the last 2 nights and the first night woke twice to pee, and then last night didn't soak himself. Maybe going gluten free and dairy free will really help with just more than digestive issues!

The twins are being evaluated for further needs in the school system. They are going to be 3 in just under 2 months. I can't believe that I have an almost 4 year old and almost 3 year old twins. Eva Rose has been in early intervention since the beginning of the fall for a speech delay and has improved immensely (which is another reason I am increasingly concerned with Michael's delay). She went from barely putting 2 words together and dropping the endings of words to the point of not understanding what she is saying, to still dropping the endings of words but putting more than 2 words together. There are still often times that I don't understand her and at 3 I probably should understand almost everything that is said. Thomas just amazes me with his vocabulary! That being said, when I look at friends kids I can't help but compare and still think my kids are behind, but maybe not. Then there are those people in your life who try to tell you that your kids are very behind and that they should be doing certain things, but in reality maybe those people are over estimating kids development.

It will be interesting to see how the kids further develop. Will Michael all of a sudden come out and just start talking? Is there more to his delay? Do Thomas and Eva Rose need more help with their expressive and receptive communication? Only time will tell and will see how things go!

Amy

Delays!

2011-11-16T05:57:00.000-08:00

Michael has some pretty significant speech delays! He is doing much better now that he has an IEP and is in school for 5 hours Monday thru Friday, but he is still behind. A while ago, Like more than a year ago, my husband mentioned Autism. We have gone through the back and forth of wether or not this is an issue. I have asked his EI person, I have asked his teachers at school, and our family practitioner has never mentioned anything. No one seems to be concerned about autism. Everyone seems to think that this is just a speech delay and that in time it will resolve itself.

I have this sinking feeling that there is more than just a speech delay. I am hoping I am wrong, but something just makes me think that there is more to it. The problem, is that I don't trust myself and my gut. There is a good chance that I am just over reacting and thinking that there is something wrong, when he is just behind the developmental curve and will catch up. I tend to compare my kids to my friends' kids who may actually be ahead of the developmental curve so that puts a spin on things too!

I don't think that it is autism. I have taken my DSM IV, and looked at the autism spectrum disorders and while Michael may fit some criteria, he wouldn't, at least in my opinion, even fit PDD. We are going to Michael's first school conference tomorrow and I will be asking and probably pushing the teacher to tell me if there is more than just a speech delay and if we should look at getting any sort of testing.

The other piece to the puzzle is that we have had a blood test for Michael and it showed that he has a significant sensitivity to gluten and dairy (as did my test). The problem is, that this blood test has a lot of people that don't believe it's a valid or accurate test. We have been trying to remove these foods from Michael's diet, but it is so hard! Michael is my son when it comes to food. When we removed dairy back in January, we saw a dramatic difference. I didn't see that difference with the gluten so I wasn't as strict. I was talking to my husband's cousin who mentioned that it could take a while before we see a difference with the gluten, and I remembered reading something about that. After that conversation, I decided that I really needed to be more strict and I have removed anything that he could see that he would want and I would be tempted to give him. I am trying to make sure that we have options in the house for him so that he can have bread and cookies and milk. I need to get better at baking gluten free. I also want to watch how much sugar he has. It's amazing how I can do this for him, but I can't seem to do this for myself. Michael is on his 3rd day of being gluten free. Yesterday, he came home and hadn't had an accident at school. This was the first time in a long time that he had been accident free. I think the other thing that made going gluten free hard was seeing him regress with potty training about the same time as we stopped the gluten. It probably had nothing to do with the gluten, but it was making me wonder if gluten was an issue or not. Maybe the potty training regression had nothing to do with gluten, maybe I just needed to be more consistent and stop feeling bad about not giving him gluten. I am totally on board with keeping him gluten free and hoping that this will help with a lot of his issues. The dietician we met with mentioned that getting rid of gluten would make a major change with his neurological symptoms (we had mentioned the autism fear that we had).

As I write this, I feel that I should make a strong point to say that Michael has made significant gains over the past year. This time last year, he had about 10 words in his vocabulary and that may be stretching it. He now will say 3-4 word sentences, but he will be 4 in just 3 1/2 months and still can't even have a simple conversation. I think I will feel better after our conference tomorrow and then we can hopefully move forward and either get some testing, or I can feel better knowing that it is more likely just a time thing!

Amy

Fall 2011

2011-11-12T19:17:00.000-08:00

Just a few pictures of our Fall 2011!

At our favorite restaurant

Pumpkin picking

family photo

Eva Rose picking pumpkins

Thomas picking pumpkins

Michael taking a break from picking pumpkins

Thomas at Michael's first school Halloween party

Eva Rose at Michael's first school Halloween party

Michael was enthralled with the lights at his first school Halloween party

Tree limb on our roof after our Nor' Easter October 29, 2011

The crane lifting the limb off our roof just days later

Michael climbed his first tree

The twins actually do share

These are just some of our memories from Fall 2011. I can't believe it is already November 12th. Before we know it Christmas will be on us and I for one can't wait. I don't want to rush the time, but I can't wait to start making our family's traditions. I know that we may be a little late to the party to start making traditions, but I think that the kids are old enough to understand them now. My next project is to make an advent calendar. We always had one growing up and I want to continue the tradition with my own children. I have a pattern that I plan to use for ideas. I found it at http://www.acaseofthemundays.com/2010/12/felt-friday-felt-advent-calendars.html. I have so many projects to work on for Christmas. I can't wait to start working on them.

Amy

Halloween and Way Back When-esday

2011-10-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

Halloween 2009 (Dorothy and the 2 scarecrows)

We have a lot of Halloween celebrations this year. One of the positives about getting laid off, is that I can now go to all these things at night with the kids. We have a town Halloween night tomorrow, a Halloween party for Michael's school Friday, a Halloween party Sunday for my twins' group, and then of course it's Halloween Monday! Last year was our first year being able to enjoy trick or treating with the kids. Michael's first Halloween I had gotten put on bed rest 2 days earlier, and then the twin's first Halloween, we attended my sister's wedding.

I have at least attempted to make part of our costumes. This is year no exception. I have to admit that I am not taking as much time as I probably should. Part of it is because they are costumes for not quite 3 year olds and a 2 1/2 year old, and part of it is because I procrastinated thinking that I had more time than I did, and now I think things will be worse if I stress about making the costumes perfect! They will look good, but will definitely have short cuts. As much I like crafting and creating, I don't know that I like sewing clothes. I like sewing in general, but clothing is not my favorite.

I am almost done with the boys costume, and I need to complete (for the most part) Eva Rose's costume. Hopefully by bedtime, I will have finished all the costumes and will only have to hem Eva Rose's costume tomorrow after she tries it on. The boys' costumes are a little big, kind of on purpose to accommodate warm clothes. Hopefully Eva Rose's costume will fit well enough.

Here's a sneak peak.

Amy

Diets

2011-10-24T05:50:00.000-07:00

No not the kind to lose weight, though from what I hear a lot of people eat this way to lose weight. Last summer I had a blood test for food allergies and this summer, my oldest has the same test. Unfortunately, we both showed sensitivities to dairy and gluten. I wasn't surprised about the dairy for either of us, and often wondered if gluten could be an issue. Now it is time for both of us to go completely dairy and gluten free.

I think that this is going to be a really difficult thing for both of us. Obviously, since I had the blood test over a year ago and haven't gone completely gluten or dairy free yet, I am going to have a really hard time. The good part for Michael is that I will be the one figuring out what I am going to be making for meals and snacks. He won't have a choice like I do. I have to make the right choice for me and him.

I have been reading some blogs that are gluten free focused and dairy free focused. I am hoping that I will feel some relief from my foggy brain that I sometimes get. When we talked to the dietician about Michael's test results, we mentioned that at one point we were concerned about him being on the Autism spectrum. My husband is no longer concerned, and even though I didn't pick up on things earlier, I am now the one that continues to have concerns that there may be more than just a speech delay. The dietician mentioned that we may see some changes neurologically once Michael gets the gluten out of his system. I am hoping that we see some changes since I have heard that diet can play a huge role in people's behaviors.

The other issue with diet is, my mom found out that she is a gene carrier for breast cancer. I am more than likely going to get tested for the gene, but I also want to change my diet to help keep myself healthy even if I don't have the gene.

I am hoping to find some good bread recipes since that is going to be the hardest for me to give up as well as for Michael to give up. What I have been finding lately is that I need to let go of what I expect things to taste like. I can't expect that gluten free and dairy free foods, unless they are naturally gluten and dairy free, to taste the same as the regular foods will taste.

If anyone has any good recipes, cookbooks, blogs, or any info at all, please leave a comment. If you have any suggestions on how best to tackle this, please leave a comment. I will be researching and reading blogs often!

Wish me luck!
Amy

Sleep

2011-10-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't written about sleep issues in a long time. That is because we haven't had sleep issues in a long time! The twins have always been good sleepers, and since we stopped dairy in January, Michael has also been sleeping through the night. For the last 8-9 months, I have only had an occasional middle of the night wake up. For the last couple of weeks, Miss Eva Rose has been sleeping horrible.

She fights naps, even though she still needs them. When she doesn't nap, she falls asleep what could be considered either too late or too early, meaning she takes a nap too late which then interferes with her night time sleep or I put her to bed early thinking she will be out for the night and she wakes up too early. Today I put her and Thomas in for a nap and Thomas fell asleep right away and she is still yelling and crying at the door almost an hour later, although I think she is finally going to sleep now!

I am hoping that a normal nap will help her sleep better at night. I hate having her cry it out for a nap, but she needs her nap. I don't even know if this will make a difference. I also got laid off and I don't know if that is impacting her sleep. She seems like she needs to be held, rocked, and/or have her head rubbed, but even then she still fights sleep. I wish knew why she all of a sudden needs more attention and seems to be having some sort of separation anxiety. I also wish I knew why she won't go to sleep like she has for the last almost 2 years 9 months.

Any help?
Amy

My How Things Have Changed!

2011-09-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

When the twins were little, we would put them in the baby swing together. I decided, now that they are 2 1/2 to see how they fit.

About 7 months old

About 15 months old

2 years 8 months old

WHAT A CHANGE!

Amy

Way Back When-esday: Football Season 2009

2011-09-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

When the twins were just about 2 1/2 months old I started taking pictures on opening day of our sports teams new seasons. I haven't been good about lately, but here is the start to the Patriot's Season 2009.

September 20, 2009 Michael just 18months and Eva Rose and Thomas 8 1/2 months

I should get out the football shirts and do more pictures for 2011!

Amy

Makes My Monday: Where's Michael?

2011-09-19T05:34:00.000-07:00

I went to check on the kids last night and what I saw was the following:

The twins were asleep in their bed

Michael's bed was empty

A little panic set in, but I kept reminding myself that he had to be in the house (even though I did check the window). For the life of me, I couldn't figure out where Michael was. I checked under the bed. I tried to see if maybe he had gotten up and was out with daddy with out me knowing. Then I checked the last place I could think of.

There he was, fast asleep in the toy box!

Amy

Toys, Toys, Toys!

2011-09-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

School has started! The weather is getting cooler. Christmas will be here before I know it. I have actually started a list of things that I want for gifts for the kids. This year, I am hoping that we don't wait to the last minute and end up not really getting the things we want. I think I want to get some more car toys and some older doll house toys as well as some duplo blocks. The twins are playing with some toy doll house pieces with EI and they seem to really like it. I am also thinking that I want to get a few more dolls. I had gone out looking for a Barbie doll for my daughter and even though I got so many thoughts about Barbie not being an issue for girls, when I looked them they were just so skanky and I couldn't spend $20 on a barbie for a 2 1/2 year old. As I looked for something that I felt was more appropriate, I found a small doll that was bigger than a barbie, but still small enough for a 2 1/2 year old to carry around. It came with a couple of changes of clothes that snap on to the doll and there are a few different dolls to choose from. The kids love this doll and it was such a good choice.

Now, with Christmas approaching faster than I care to admit, I really need to weed through a lot of their toys and get rid of things that they wither don't want to play with, or that seem too young for them. That way I can make room for new toys and hopefully keep a cleaner more organized house.

I am really looking for toys that are going to have a developmental benefit to the kids. I am not crazed about the type of toys that they get, but I do want to make sure that they actually do stimulate some learning. One of my goals is to also make a few gifts for them. I am hoping that I can make some things to go along with toys that they will potentially get for Christmas. A friend of mine made a great map quilt for her kids to play with their cars. I am thinking of something like that, or maybe even just a simple case for the kids to carry their cars in. I want to make a doll or 2 or 3, their quilts, and on and on and on. I have way to many thoughts and not enough time to complete them. I am hoping to have a few travel projects so that I can take them with me, for example when there is down time at work. Right now, I need to utilize what ever time I can find to complete my projects!

Amy

New Camera

2011-09-12T09:54:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting a new point and shoot camera for some time now. I have a really nice little olympus, but it is literally a point and shoot. There is nothing creative that you can do with the camera only after the picture is taken. That being said, as much as I love to think of my self as really creative and a photographer, I know that I am such an amateur when it comes to creating and taking creative photos. I now have 4 digital cameras and 1 film camera. When I bought my first SLR film camera, I decided to get a Canon Elan 2E. My husband was into Canon's and a friend of mine also recommended Canon's. I then moved on to a 7E, also film. Later I got a very cheap Canon that did me well, but it was sloooowwww! My husband bought me one of the first Canon Rebels SLR. I then went on to buy a 20D SLR. After My older son was born, I decided I needed a new point and shoot and bought the Olympus. 3 1/2 years later it is still going strong, but I wanted something that I could do more with the settings of the camera. This weekend I was at a wedding and was talking to a table mate that my husband had worked with and he recommended the Canon s95. The next day, I went out to the camera store with my husband and bought it. I really didn't want to spend the money, but I really liked the camera. We took the kids to the park and I played with the camera while they played at the park. The best part was that I actually used the manual setting and never once used the programmable settings that I had always found myself using. These are just a few of the pictures I've taken since yesterday!

Michael

Eva Rose

Thomas

Michael, Daddy, and Thomas

Rose at the park on Macro setting

Thomas

Michael and Thomas

Eva Rose

3 across in the car

Playing in the driver's seat

Michael

Oh, and I played with taking black and white, sepia, and color photos too! I had lots of fun with my new toy and got to get some cute pictures of the kids! Now I just need to learn more about photography and take better pictures!

Amy

Summer Pictures!!!!!!

2011-09-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

It's Labor Day, the unofficial end to summer. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with my family this summer, I am ready to have fall here. I am not a hot weather person and am really looking forward to fall. I am also looking forward to having a schedule again. We have really been kind of flying by the seat of our pants with our schedule. The only real schedule we had was Michael going to school the month of July, but after that, we just did what ever we felt like. As wonderful as it was to not really have to do anything at any specific time, I am really looking forward to being on a routine. We really did much more, but these are just a few of our pictures from the summer.

Tomorrow, the twins start a drop off group at EI and then we have orientation for Michael in the afternoon. Wednesday, Michael starts pre-school every day for 5 hours. It sounds like a lot, but he handles it so well and I really think he has benefitted from this extra school time! I am trying to set up play dates for the twins. I am thinking that it will help them socialize and maybe even learn to talk more!

Michael Kennebunk Beach

Eva Rose Kennebunk Beach

Thomas Kennebunk Beach

Swinging in big kid swings

Thomas in the fire truck at touch a truck

Eva Rose in the fire truck at touch a truck

Michael in the fire truck at touch a truck

Hurricane Irene (thankfully we missed a lot of damage. These were boats in Swampscott Beach)

Date night at Fenway Park

Hiking in Breakheart Reservation after Eva Rose fell and went to the ER for stitches

Eva Rose after stitches

Swinging after stitches

Our newest baby cousin, Hannah

It's been a busy summer!

Amy

Updates

2011-08-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I was going to write some really positive updates, such as potty training and returning to Early Intervention, at least for Eva Rose, but now I also have a not so positive update, not horrible, but definitely not great.

For the positives, we have continued to attempt to potty train all 3 kids. There continue to be lots of accidents, but they want to wear underwear, and they do go on the potty, they just don't always tell us when they have to go. On the other hand, over the past couple of days, Michael's accidents have greatly decreased and he is even taking himself to the bathrooma nd even pooping on the potty. We are most likely going against every rule in potty training, but it is working. The one rule we haven't broken is attempting to not make a big deal out of the accidents, but making a big deal when they use the potty. We continue to muster on and hopefully this will work.

Eva Rose tested in to Early Intervention again. The good thing is she will have more speech help and given that she had some fairly significant hearing loss prior to the tubes, I think this is a great thing. She will also be able to go to a drop off group, hopefully, and I think given that Thomas is her twin, he'll get to go also. The other positive is that they will make the referral to the school system like was done for Michael. I am hoping that she will also need an IEP which will get her services for pre-school. I will more than likely have Thomas evaluated, but I have a feeling he will just be going to a regular pre-school program. Maybe he'll be able to be one of the mentors for the pre-school program!

Now for the not so positive news. About a month ago, Eva Rose had a pretty high fever and a couple of swollen areas that had us concerned so I brought her to the doctors, which I never do for just a fever. The covering doctor sent us to the ER so that lab work could be completed and we would hopefully get the all clear. Both my husband and I were concerned about Lyme, which was one of the reasons we went to the doctors. The doctor thought it was a possibility, but when we went to the ER the ER pediatrician said that it wasn't presented in the normal manner for Lyme, but she wanted to test for it any way. All the lab test came back fine, but we needed to wait for the lyme, which takes about a week, and we were sent home. Things cleared up fairly quickly and we got the results from the lyme test which was negative. It was recommended by both our doctor and the ER pediatrician to repeat after a couple of weeks just to ensure that it was a true negative. Well, today I got the results and it was positive! I'm not sure how I am feeling now. We need to treat with antibiotics for 14-21 days. I hate that she has to be on an antibiotic so young and we will definitely have her start eating some kefir so that we can hopefully ensure that the good bacteria that is killed off along with the bad will be replenished and she won't end up with an imbalance to her system. My other concern is what are the long term effects of lyme? Not that she's had any long term effects from her RSV, but I am always watching for that, now we have to watch for long term effects of lyme. It's so not fun being a parent, but yet it's the best thing I've ever done!

Amy

Frustrations!

2011-08-05T15:33:00.000-07:00

The other day was one of my more frustrating day's as a parent. I'm not sure what was going on with me, maybe just normal parenting issues, but no matter what happened, I just felt like I had no petience. We have had my brother in law living with us for the last 3 months and it has not been easy. In fact it is definitely one of the biggest stressors right now. The other big stressor is potty training and trying to get my health back.

Potty training is probably the absolute worst developmemtal stage that I have gone through so far. I'm sure there will be worse, but in 3 1/2 years, this is the worst. The kids are definitely into going on the potty, but they are not quite ready to go without us telling them to go on the potty every so often, like every 1/2 hour or so. Sometimes, we have great days and there are absolutely no accidents the whole day. Sometimes, it seems like all we do is clean up pee and poop. I is finally seeming like Michael is getting it. He will go into the bathroom and either sit on a potty or pee in the toilet. He has even pooped twice on the potty after bringing himself to the bathroom with no prompts from us as parents. His biggest issue is that he loves to pee in any container he can find. This is one thing I am working really hard to try to break. I love his aim, but he needs to learn that there are places to pee and places not to pee. The twins are good about going when we bring them, but no so good about telling they have to go. Though, I have to say, Eva Rose woke up twice last night and after going on the potty went right back to sleep. I think we will just keep on moving forward and hope that they will get it soon.

Lastly, not only are we dealing with the terrible two's times two, but a three year old also. The behaviors and the whining are absolutely driving me mad. I can handle crying, but whining is not something I handle well. I am also not digging the defiant behavior of Thomas. My sweet little boy has all of a sudden started saying no when I ask him to do something. I guess he is just asserting his independence and I just have to remember my favorite developmental theorist, Erik Erikson states that people have different conflicts in life that they need to resolve in order to move on to the next stage of development. My kids are in the autonomy vs doubt stage, at least the twins are. They need to figure out how to have a sense that they are able to have some control over their environment. I guess, I need to figure out how to maintain some independence without giving them free reign. Michael, on the other hand, should be moving into initiative vs guilt. This almost seems like a continuation of more advanced independence and that is exactly where Michael seems to be. As I re-read some of the negatives, I think this may be what we are seeing with Michael's frustrations. He is learning to master different tasks and be much more independent and when he is unable to achieve a goal, he becomes frustrated.

Wow, writing this post has really made me feel better about things! I really like Erik Erikson's theories. I know that there are some people that criticise them, but I have always liked his theories. I actually used them in my theoretical perspectives paper in grad school. It's good to start looking at things again. I may need to start looking at more child development to help me feel better about my parenting skills and to help me remember that what my kids are doing is probably just normal developmental tasks that they need to achieve.

Amy

Toy Organization

2011-07-27T14:19:00.000-07:00

I am struggling with organizing my house, all areas of my house, but I really want to get the kids' toys organized and reduced down to what they need and waht they actually play with. I have started organizing some things, but I still have a lot to do. My goal is to really look at what they play with, what I would like to have to offer them to play with for educational purposes, and also what they never play with and why. Right mow, my house is a disaster of all sorts. I really need to get my act together and get my stuff organized as well as the kids, but I think the kids' things will be easier and really most beneficial at this point in time.

Right now the big thing that the kids play with are cars. I actually, for the most part, have things organized in this area. I have thier kitchen stuff in a bin that hasa place in a cubby. I want to get a bin and cubby for the following: art supplies, dolls, tools, puzzles, blocks. Any other suggestions for bins or categories of toys?

Any other suggestions for organizing toys?

Amy

Barbie Dolls Part II

2011-07-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

Thank you Tanya for you comment. It makes me feel better to know that not everyone is against Barbie dolls, though I am having a hard time realizing that the first doll my daughter seems interested in is Barbie. I guess I am not so against her having barbie dolls, I just hate the idea of the body image issues behind Barbie.

I guess the there are a multitude of things in our society that we have to protect or at least educate our kids about. It's too bad that we have to worry about body image in our children at a young age. I loved Barbie dolls as a kid as well as my baby dolls. I definitely have body image problems, but I'm sure that playing with Barbie dolls was not the issue. I was well aware that Barbie was not only an unattainable body to desire, but that it was also just not physically possible to have that big of a chest, that small of a waist, those hips, and those legs at least not without surgery. Not only did I love playing with Barbie's, I loved playing with my baby dolls. I was pretty much always a girly girl. Did this make me into a meek superficial female ? Not at all! I have a masters degree and I have had a career as a nursing home social worker for 10 years before I had my kids. Do I think as parents we need to be positive role models and talk about toys and goals and other life lessons? Absolutely! If I were honest, do I really think that toys by themselves are the devil incarnate? No! Do I sometimes have a problem with listening to others and following everything they say? Yes! Should I start thinking a little more critically and start listening to myself? Yes! Can I let my kids play with Barbie dolls, baby dolls and other very gender specific toys and have them grow up to be balanced adults? Yes! Actually, I think that it is positive for kids to be exposed to toys of both genders versus either only providing gender neutral toys or gender specific toys based on their gender. I have never thought that providing toys that are marketed for the opposite sex would cause any gender confusion. I have actually always thought that it would make a child into a more balanced adult, by letting them chose things that they are interested in.

There are many things in our society that we as parents have to talk to our kids about. There are all sorts of images that make both sexes have issues with body image. There are all sorts of things that we need to teach and be open with our kids about. I guess, after writing this, I am leaning more to getting an age appropriate Barbie doll for my daughter as well as dolls and doll accessories. That being said, I will certainly be offering these toys to the boys so that they can play with things other than cars and trucks and other traditional boy toys and I will certainly allow and encourage my daughter to play with the boys' toys if she chooses!

Ok, enough for my soapbox talk! Thanks for letting me spill my thoughts out and for any comments that people have.

Amy

Toys for Girls

2011-07-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been thinking that poor Eva Rose doesn't really play with dolls. She is much more of a tomboy playing with her brothers. We have a couple of baby dolls, but none of the kids seem to want to play with them. We have the little people doll house and they play with that a little, but they all seem to prefer running and jumping and other active things. Or the other big toy are CARS. My Thomas is totally into planes and trains and cars. I started wondering if we needed to get more stereotypical female toys and start offering them to both the boys and Eva Rose. I fully admit that when I found out I was having a daughter, I was thrilled that there would be dolls and barbies and hair things and dresses and all sorts of girly things to play with. Now I also fully admit that if the boys wanted to play with these toys and any other "girly toys", I would have no problem with it. My issues is, are we only really providing more of the male stereotyped toys since we have 2 boys and 1 girl who are pretty much the same age?

We went to York this weekend to a cousins house. She has a couple of granddaughters and there were a bunch of barbie dolls around and Eva Rose started carrying them around the house, not wanting to out them down. I started thinking that we should get her a barbie doll. Then I started thinking about whether or not I really wanted to introduce her to the whole barbie idea with the warped body frame, the clothes that barbie wears, and just the whole barbie stereotype in general. I decided to ask my twins group about getting a barbie doll for Eva Rose, hoping that there may be some alternative to barbie, but something that would be just as interesting as barbie. Unfortunately, the only ideas I got were really just don't expose her to barbie at all, which is where I was leaning and instead just get a baby doll. There were a couple of people who suggested more gender neutral toys in general, but I wouldn't mind having a more balanced approach to the type of toys we have in the house not just gender neutral. Like I said, I have no problem with the boys wanting to play with dolls and since they love cars, I don't want to take that away from them either. One mom did mention that she thought that barbies were good for little ones because they are easy to carry around. They have a small waist and are easier for little hands. This actually made a lot of sense to me. She decided to get a barbie at a yard sale and just let her daughter have fun versus buying a new one with all the gadgets to go along with the dolls.

I am still on the search for more girly toys to expose all the kids to both male and female oriented toys. we actually have a fair number of gender neutral items that are more on the educational side of things, but we really don't have a ton of female oriented toys. Maybe I just need to see if anyone on freecycle has anything they are looking to get rid of so that thee kids can be exposed to more dolls and doll type toys.

Any thoughts on getting toys by gender? Do you go more gender neutral or do you just expose your kids to both male and female oriented toys without making a judgement on which is better for which sex? Is that even possible or do we innately try to swing girls towards dolls and other female oriented toys and boys to more masculine type toys?

It's all very interesting being a parent. I don't want to sway my kids one way or the other based on what I liked growing up or what I didn't like!

Amy

Potty Training Update

2011-07-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

After having wirtten my last post and after getting a couple of answers to my potty training questions via my twins group, I have decided that we we muster on. We are not at the point of the kids telling us that they have to go to the potty, but they will and want to use the potty. They still ahve accident, but some days are better than otehrs and some moments are better than others!

My husband and I are on the same page. We have decided that they will be in underwear pretty much eery day. We are going to stop giving rewards for going on the potty, because they pretty much have no problem sitting on the potty and actually going. Where they have the issues is not always staying dry. I started thinking that we needed to start rewarding for the behavior we wanted not the behavior that we already had. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I thought about rewarding for actual dry diapers. I got some positive feedback on this and we are starting this process. We are also stepping up how often we offer the potty. Michael's teacher said that he is on the cusp of being ready. He will always go on the potty, but will not tell them that he needs to go. I needed to get more diapers for school so I decided to buy pull ups. They're much more expensive and I know some people disagree with their use, but I think in this instance, it is worth it. Michael will go to school in either a diaper (since I still have some left) or in pull ups which I am hoping will help make it easier for him to be trained while at school. The one comment I got also suggested to put them in underwear and if they have an accident to put them in a diaper and continue to bring them to the potty. They will also be going to be in a diaper at this point. I have a feeling this is not going to be a quick and easy process like for some kids, but they are definitely interested in going on the potty and I really want to encourage that as much as I can! I am totally in this for the long haul and feel much more comfortable continuing moving forward after getting some advice from other moms.

On another note, we have had the twins re-evaluated for early intervention. Thomas was not screened in, but Eva Rose was. What is so interesting about this is that I always thought that Thomas was going to be the one who was behind, but it seems like Eva Rose and Michael are the ones behind. Michael is doing well in school. He is able to sing the tune of twinkle twinkle with some words thrown in, and also able to go through the book Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See, and you can actually understand him reading the book. At this point, I'm sure it is more him memorizing the words, but he is right about the colors and the animals. My goal is to record him singing the book. Once I have it recorded, I will make sure to post to this blog!

Amy

Potty Training

2011-07-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

God I hate this part of parenting! I never realized just how much I would hate this part of development! We decided to potty train all 3 at the same time. I don't know if I am a glutton for punishment or what, but all 3 seemed to be interested in going to the potty at the same time. At first we were doing great, just a for accidents, but now it seems like all they want to do is pee every where except the potty! I am totally beside myself with where to go from here. Do I put them back in diapers? Do I keep pushing forward? Do I play it all by ear?

Please tell me this gets better!? I am hating potty training and am thinking that I would much more enjoy having my 3 in diapers rather than this whole potty training crap! Part of me wants to keep pushing forward, but part of me says just go back to diapers! I don't want to do what's best for me, I want to do what's best for them. Right now I'll just be playing it all by ear!

Amy

Next time, I'll post pictures and something more fun than potty training!

How Time Flies!

2011-07-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I haven't posted a single thing for over a month. This blog was going to be my version of a scrapbook and yet, I can't seem to get motivated to write. I read all these other blogs that have such great writers behind their posts and I can't seem to feel like there is anything big enough to write down as well as just not finding the time to actually write!

I don't have anything profound to share, but summer is here and we are on a different mode. Tom is home for the summer, which has been awesome. It is so nice to parent with another person and not be the only adult in a house of a 3 year old and 2 1/2 year old twins. It is also so nice to be able to take the kids places and feel comfortable letting them be a little more independent than if I were doing it alone.

So far, we have started a garden, gone swimming in a pool (large in ground pool), gone on a picnic in the park at the lake, saw fireworks, gone to the beach, gone to the Franklin Park Zoo, gone walking and then to the park, and probably more. We have started potty training all 3 kids, which has had it's ups and downs, but I don't think that I would change anything I am doing. All 3 kids are totally interested in using the potty and overall have been doing great, but there are still lots of accidents and they don't always tell us that they have to go.

Michael has been in summer school and has been doing great! I am really amazed at how he has been progressing. We still have a ways to go and Tom and I both have our concerns that there is something more going on with him than just a speech delay. Though I have to say, I have a gut feeling that he is just taking in so much information that he is just taking time to process it and all of a sudden he is going to just come out and have a conversation with us.

Eva Rose is still not really talking either, but is doing better. She is going to be eval'ed for speech through Earl Intervention, but I'm not sure that she is going to qualify. She is behind, but I am not sure that she is behind enough.

Thomas was just eval'ed for EI and did not qualify for speech. I am absolutely amazed at his speech over the last couple of months. His vocabulary has just exploded. He is doing way more than just naming objects. He is actually using action words and descriptive words. He is definitely the most advanced with his communication skills.

All 3 kids continue to amaze me with their gross and fine motor skills. They are running and climbing and actually even starting to jump. They are able to string beads and scribble on paper. Eva Rose and Michael tend to scribble on the whole sheet and Eva Rose is able to hold a crayon appropriately. Thomas on the other hand tends to use a small area of the paper when he has crayons. They are starting to do more pretend play and play with each other and even sometimes interact with other children. They have so much fun at the park and all the climbing structures! We have taken down their baby swings and put up the big kids swings. Michael will now say "Mommy/Daddy push me!".

Michael is my water boy. I can't wait to take him in the water again and do more swimming type activities with him. He was having fun in both the pool and the ocean. He even has fun in the new sprinkler pool we bought. All 3 kids are totally into container play. It absolutely blows my mind how much they love to put things in a cup, pail, watering can, and then pour it out only to go and do it all over again.

As sad as it is to see them getting bigger, I am so happy to watch them grow and change and develop each and every day! I am glad that I am finally writing a post and writing down all the newest changes that have been happening. I do wish more people commented on my blog, but I keep telling myself that this is for me and I don't need to have people comment to enjoy blogging. This is my way of keeping track of things and it is just a plus to have people comment. I wish I had more time to be an active blogger. I have one fellow twin mom who always seems to comment on the things I write and I am so grateful for her comments and any other comments that I get. I am going to try to find time to make sure that I am commenting appropriately on other blogger's posts so that I can hopefully network with others!

Amy

Jealousy

2011-06-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

One of my twin mom friends wrote a blog post titled "Green Eyed Monster" at http://www.goddessinprogressblog.com/2011/06/the-green-eyed-monster/ and without sounding like I have totally copied her post, her words totally resonated with me! Even though I was very lucky and was able to get pregnant very easily both times that I tried, neither pregnancy went the way I expected. My first pregnancy, I ended up on bed rest with pre-eclampsia at 32 weeks. I was hoping to go totally natural and let my body tell me when it was ready to go into labor. That plan went away when I was induced at 38 weeks. I ended up going into labor on my own and didn't require any medication until my contractions slowed and my son somehow got stuck. needless to say, I ended up with a c-section and then on magnesium sulfate. Breast feeding was pretty much a no go. He didn't take to it like I had hoped and wasn't gaining weight, so I ended up attempting to breast feed, supplement with formula, and pumping every 2 hours for a while until his doctor felt like he was gaining weight appropriately. By then I was pregnant again, he was only 3 months old. I figured here was my second chance. Then 2 months later we found out it was twins. Once again I ended up on bed rest, this time for 3 months. I was hoping for a VBAC, but again my body didn't cooperate. My son was breech and he was babyB and the bigger of the 2 (come to find out he was all of 2 oz bigger) and I wasn't able to go for a VBAC ( I also had pre-eclampsia again). They were 5 weeks early and didn't exactly take to breast feeding. After having a full term baby that didn't gain weight after breast feeding and knowing that my twins were on high calorie formula when they got formula, I was too worried to breast feed. Then they ended up in the hospital for 3 weeks and on an even higher calorie formula. Having 3 babies under 1 with some calorie issues was not conducive to anxiety free breast feeding.

I had my tubes tied after I had my twins. My husband and I decided that 2 difficult pregnancies was enough. We had 3 beautiful babies and didn't need to chance things again. As much as I know it was the right decision, I still sometimes long for a "normal" pregnancy with no issues after birth. I long to be able to go into labor on my own. I long to be able to breast feed my child. These are things that I will never experience and when I see others having this experience, I feel like I lost out and didn't get what others get to experience. When I get like this, I often remind myself that I have 3 beautiful children that are healthy and even though my pregnancies and their births as well as the first few months after they were born, I am extremely lucky to have them in my life and we all just have to deal with what nature gives us. I certainly could have experienced worse issues and could have lost any and all of my babies due to health complications, but some one was watching over me and them and kept all of us safe! And for that, I am truly and extremely grateful!

Amy

Pre-eclampsia

2011-05-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

May is Preeclampsia Month

I was one of the lucky ones and was able to get pregnant as soon as we started trying. My pregnancy was going along perfect. I had the normal morning sickness during the first trimester and pretty much at the start of the second trimester it was over. Things went along great. I was gaining weight just like I was supposed to. All of a sudden, just before 32 weeks, I was at a routine OB appointment and I was put on bed rest because of high blood pressure. I had no symptoms, but my blood pressure was high and I had gained a little extra weight. I had to go back to the OB after the weekend and was immediately sent to the hospital for a week and then sent home on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. I was to lie on my left side and only get up to go to the bathroom. I was able to hold on until week 38 when I was induced and after laboring and then pushing for 3 hours with little to no results, even though the nurse said I was pushing perfectly. My blood pressure continued to be a problem and then my son's heart rate started dropping. My OB decided that I needed a c-section and my son was born almost 11 hours after my water broke. I continued to have high blood pressure and increased swelling so I was lucky enough to get magnesium sulfate to help with the extra fluid and my blood pressure. I was supposed to be on it for 24 hours, but I had to be taken off early because I was having too many side effects and wasn't able to get enough oxygen in my system. The day of my discharge, the covering OB wasn't sure that she wanted to discharge me due to my continuing high blood pressure. After coming into my room and seeing me sobbing, she decided that I would be better off at home and made me promise to call if I had any symptoms of preeclampsia or if my blood pressure continued to be high even with out any symptoms and I needed to see my OB in the morning. All went well and I continued on my blood pressure medication with no issues.

3 months after giving birth, I found out I was pregnant again. We were ecstatic. We started trying right away,never thinking we would have a baby that quick. 11 weeks into the pregnancy, we found out we were having twins. OMG, I had a 5 month old and I found out I was going to have twins with my due date being 1 week before my older son turned 1. I continued on my blood pressure medication and my pregnancy went along great until week 23, when at a routine ultrasound appointment, I found out my cervix was too short. I was placed on bed rest again and had to figure out how to take care of myself while having a baby who was only 7 1/2 months when I went on bed rest. I had a couple of scares, but I think most of that was due to me being nervous. I made it to week 35 when at a routine OB visit, I was told that I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. My OB told me that she wouldn't be surprised if I went into labor over the weekend. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't know what it was like to go into labor on my own, but I figured, my body would tell me what to do. Unfortunately, while at a routine non-stress test that afternoon, my blood pressure was 188/111 even though I was on blood pressure medication. Along with that, I had protein in my urine and my labs were off. They decided it would be best for me to deliver the babies that night. I was hoping for a VBAC if Baby B (Thomas) was vertex. On Wednesday he was vertex, but just to make sure they did an ultrasound. Only 2 days later, my Thomas, how was always moving had turned breech again and I was off for another c-section. Thankfully, this time I did not need the magnesium sulfate. I had 2 little babies who were born 5 weeks early and an older son who was 10 1/2 months. My twins did great. They were able to suck, swallow, and breathe, their heart rate stayed stable, and they were able to maintain their body temperature. Thankfully they were able to come home with me when I was discharged 5 days after giving birth.

I received my preeclampsia foundation news letter today and found out, or should I say confirmed that women who had preeclampsia were more at risk for heart disease up to 15 year after giving birth. I have always been concerned with my risk for heart disease since my only uncle died or heart disease when he was only 42, just 4 years older than I am now. I really need to get my act together and start getting in shape. Not only do I have a family history of heart disease, but now I have the added risk of 2 pregnancies with preeclampsia.

Amy

First Parent Teacher Phone Conference

2011-05-19T16:23:00.000-07:00

Today was my first parent teacher conference ever. Michael's teacher wanted to talk about his progress and where things stood for the rest of the year and the summer. During the phone conference I found out that as much as I think Michael is progressing, the teacher thinks that he will do better in a classroom with a teacher:kid ratio of 4:5. I am thrilled that he is going to be getting a lot more attention, which I absolutely think will be a huge benefit to him. I am concerned though that he is not progressing as fast as I would like. the new plan is for Michael to transition into the new classroom and maybe even go to preschool for a full day. I am really excited about his going to school for a longer day, if he can tolerate it, but I am mostly excited about the teacher to student ratio.I hope that his speech progresses quickly and he can return to a regular classroom, but I would much rather see this happening now instead of delaying it and have him not be ready for kindergarten.

I know that all kids progress at their own rate, but given that all of my kids have somewhat of a speech delay, I can't help but wonder if I am doing something wrong or not doing something right while I am at home with them. I think one of the things that I tend to do is focus on their stronger skill set, their gross motor skills. Since they tend to be so much more active, I tend to let them do more physical play instead of working on either fine motor skills (which they aren't really delayed in, they just have little to no interest in doing), or a lot of technically cognitive skills. I need to put together a plan so that I can work on their fine motor skills such as holding a crayon and drawing and their cognitive/language skills. They tend not to like to sit and read books, so even though I try to read to them, I often get frustrated that they don't want to listen and I don't read to them as much as I should. This is really ironic since I am and have always been an avid reader. I am so afraid that I am causing my children to have the dealys that they have. I will just have to look at what I can do from now on and not look at what I haven't done in the past!

Amy

Potty Training Take 2

2011-05-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I started to attempt to potty train Michael. Needless to say it didn't go well at all. He had no interest and could have cared less if he peed in his pants. I am trying again, but now with school, I am a little gun shy about sending him in underwear. School mentioned that when kids start potty training, they will follow what ever protocol is followed at home. At this point, I think I am just going to have him in underwear when we are at home and if he is out with us, but I don't think I'm ready to make him go with no underwear at school, since I am not convinced that he is really ready. I think this is more to get him used to sitting on the potty than actually getting him to train. He'll sit there and we'll sing the ABC song. This also helps him to learn his ABC's. I know this approach may be considered confusing to some people, but for now I think the best thing to do is to take it slow and see how he does. I plan to put together a sticker chart so that he can see his progress and after so many stickers he can get a prize. I have been reluctant to use prizes, but I am caving and am going to at least attempt it to see if it helps him. Michael is now 3 years and 2 1/2 months. If he's not ready, I don't want to push him, but I do want to give him the opportunity to learn to go on the potty vs just in his diaper. If anyone has any suggestions on potty training, please comment. Even if you think that this is a bad way to potty train, please let me know and let me know why so that I can figure out if I should just hold off til he is completely ready.

Michael will continue to go to school through the summer a couple of days a week, so waiting til summer is not going to help. Also, the weather this week is really really crappy and the chances of us leaving the house for long periods of time are slim to none. I figure if we are going to be house bound mostly anyway, why not take advantage and to potty training. Michael's expressive language is getting better. I am hoping that with his increased ability to express himself, he will be more likely to tell me if he has to pee and maybe just maybe this will help him feel a little more independent.

Amy

Makes My Monday: Counting

2011-05-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

It's not quite Monday yet, but this truly makes my Monday and every other day! Michael is just barely putting words together, but he can actually count to 11. He's been doing it for a while now, but I was finally able to get it taped. I am so happy with his progress and can totally see how much of a benefit pre-school has been.

Happy Monday!

Amy

Way Back When-esday: March 2009

2011-04-27T05:53:00.000-07:00

I was just reading http://mollyandluke.blogspot.com and it reminded me of when I took my twins home from the NICU after their bought with RSV. Thomas had been admitted 1 week before Eva Rose and was supposed to come home on Friday after he had been in the hospital almost 3 weeks. Thursday night we got a phone call that Thomas had a minor set back with some tachycardia so he wasn't able to come home the next day. He stayed over the weekend and ended up coming home with his sister on Monday in a snow storm, just like when we left the hospital after they were born. I thought it was pretty amazing that not only did they they ended up coming home together, but pretty much on their due date. We had to have a visiting nurse to check their weights and their breathing. They did awesome and the visiting nurse was able to discharge us after just a couple of weeks!

March 3, 2009

Amy

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T20:00:00.000-07:00

Our Newest Family Picture! I was actually able to make the boys tie and Eva Rose's dress to coordinate!

I actually had a lot of fun sewing this and can't wait to sew more!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Amy

Blogging

2011-04-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

I've been a little at a loss for what to write lately. For the last week we have at least 1 sick kid at a time, sometimes 2. Pretty much they have just been sick with fevers of unknown origin. Michael has had a fever since last Friday. We took him to the doctors on Tuesday and she couldn't find any reason for the fever. He just may have had a virus that needed to clear his system or he may have had a simple GI bug. All of a sudden, Michael started getting better and then Eva Rose ended up with a fever. Hers seems to come and go a little more than Michael's. She didn't have a fever on Tuesday, so we didn't have the doctor look at her, now she has a fever and we are just riding it out. The only difference is, she seems to get herself worked up and then her breathing starts to get a little labored from crying so hard and then I get a little PTSD about her breathing and start worrying that she is having difficulty breathing and that she needs to be seen for her breathing. This is just one of my little neurotic behaviors about my kids. Ever since the RSV when they were just weeks old, I have always gotten freaked out by any small seemingly insignificant changes in their breathing, not so much Michael, but definitely the twins and more so Eva Rose since she seems to be the one that I notice it more with. We are now waiting to hear from the ENT doctor about scheduling tubes for Eva Rose. Hopefully this fever won't put it off!

Enough with my crazy thoughts about breathing. One thing I have been doing is reading a ton of blogs lately. I love my food blogs, my health blogs, my green blogs, and my craft blogs, never mind my twin mom friends' blogs. I wish I had known about blogging when I was on bed rest with the twins! I could have been blogging about my pregnancy, reading all sorts of blogs of interest, and finding things to do when I actually had time. What did I do instead, I slept, and slept, and slept. I certainly got a lot of rest back then and I probably needed it, but looking back, I wish I had been more productive and I wish I had a journal of my pregnancy! I am loving not only blogging, but reading blogs and even sometimes meeting new friends!

Hopefully, I'll have something interesting to write about soon!
Amy

Miserable Monday (and weekend too)!

2011-04-18T14:09:00.000-07:00

I have had a sick kid for 4 days now. My poor 3 year old has had a fever since Friday. He missed school on Friday, which was picture day, being the first day of his fever. I figured, he sleep and get lots of rest and then Saturday we'll be fine. Saturday came, and he wasn't fine. Bad mom that I am, I said let's go out for a little bit and maybe he'll feel better. NOPE! Sunday came and the same thing. Both Friday and Saturday, he slept all day and then was up way too late at night. Sunday, I thought, maybe we should let him rest, but not sleep so much since I would much rather him go to bed early than sleep all day and not at night. So, he slept less during the day, but still rested and actually seemed to perk up a little bit. We went out for a ride just to get out of the house and he just wasn't feeling good. Back home, we changed everyone into jammies and put everyone to bed quite a bit earlier than usual. Unfortunately, my daughter decided that she was going to throw up about 20 minutes after we put them to bed. Thankfully she is fine, but Michael still has a fever even today. It actually got to the point that I was ready to take him to the ER since he had the fever for 4 days and our doctor's office was closed today due to the marathon running right by the office. I love our doctor, but her being in Wellesley sometimes is just too far and too inconvenient. But the straw that is breaking the camel's back is the office answering service. I called twice this morning only to be on hold for 10 minutes each time. The first time, I did speak with someone, but the second time, I was just on hold. Not exactly the best customer service. I was all ready tio get the kids in the car to go to the ER and my husband tried again. This time he got through and we got a call back from the doctor. By this time Michael had peed, which he hadn't in about 5 hours, not a drop. The doctor pretty much made me feel comfortable not rushing to the ER but did say that we should see his doctor tomorrow. We have an appointment tomorrow for his sister and hopefully we can have her see him then. Hopefully he'll be feeling better tomorrow. Now the issue is deciding to change doctors or not. This also means that I will be changing doctors, since the biggest reason we stayed on after she moved to Wellesley, other than we really like her, is that she is a family doctor and she sees me and the kids!

Amy

Way Back When-esday: July 2007

2011-04-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

I'm joining up with Cheryl at http://twinfatuation.blogspot.com for Way Back When-esday!

2007 was a crazy year, leading to more craziness with the next couple of years (Michael's birth 3/2008, finding out I was pregnant again 6/2008, finding out it was twins 8/2008, going on bed rest 10/2008, and finally giving birth to my twins 1/2009 10 1/2 months after Michael was born). In May I graduated from Salem State College (now Salem State University) with my masters in social work. The next month, June 2007, Tom and I got married after dating for almost 14 years. That same month I sold my grandmother's house who had passed away the year before. Then just one month later, my mother in law got sick and went into the hospital, unfortunately never returning home, she passed away in the hospital. During the time she was in the hospital, I found out I was pregnant with Michael.

This picture is Tom and I and Takoda at Salem Willows, about 1 1/2 months after we got married. I was about 6 weeks pregnant at this point.

July 29, 2007 at Salem Willows, Salem MA, 1 1/2 months after we got married

Amy

Easter Dress

2011-04-12T05:37:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was our twins' group sale and I unfortunately misunderstood another twin mom who I had planned to buy a bunch of clothing from so I didn't get Easter outfits, nor a bunch of things at the sale. I had really wanted to sew my own outfits for Easter so I think that this may have worked out in my favor somewhat. My local fabric store had a sale with patterns being $.99 and I was even able to get some fabric for $2 a yard. I sewed up Eva Rose's dress last night and overall it was really easy. I still have to hem it and take out a few stitches, but I am really happy with how it came out. I am thinking I want to go back and get some more patterns since they are $.99 and my little girl seems to be in love with skirts and dresses. Now I just have to cut out and sew coordinating ties for the boys!

My little ham!

Amy

Way Back When-esday:Opening Day

2011-04-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

I'm joining in again with twinfatuation.blogspot.com for Way Back When-esday! I can't believe how much they have grown since April 6, 2009.

Since having the twins in 2009 we have tried to get pictures on or near opening day of the different sports teams from New England. We have mainly just done football and baseball, but I think we have one hockey picture. With Opening day coming this weekend, Friday I believe, here is our first Red Sox opening day picture with the 3 kiddos. Michael had just turn 1 a month before and the twins were just 2 1/2 months.

Look at that smile on Thomas

Not looking too bad for 4 1/2 pounds at birth and just 1 month after getting out of the NICU with RSV

My no neck boy! Look at those cheeks!

So sweet and comfy!

The big brother!

Michael loves his little brother!

Checking out his little sister

The twins just 2 1/2 months old!

Amy

Gardening With 2 Toddlers and a Pre-schooler

2011-04-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

Last year, we dug our first garden. We had pretty good luck with our first attempt at gardening, especially with tomatoes and eggplants. We definitely need to do better with a lot of other veggies. I am thinking that maybe we will go to the local garden center and get some info on planting seeds. I think we may be a little late. Having 3 little ones has made it difficult for us to get our act together. I'm sure that there are plenty of people out there that have things more difficult and do a better job, but we (ok me) just seem to have trouble getting my act together.

Can't really tell where the garden is since everything is one color!

A couple of my friends have blogged about either gardening or having garden fresh kids. This made me think about needing to get the gardening started. I'm thinking that we may end up with garden center plants again, because we haven't gotten our act together. I am hoping that we still have time to get some plants started. Even of we don't have time to get the whole garden started with seeds, I still want to start some plants by seeds with the kids!

Our composter!

I think it will be fun to start the kids gardening at such a young age. I remember having a garden when I was a kid, but I don't remember it being fun. I am hoping that we can get the kids to see gardening as fun and something that they want to be a part of. I'm not thinking that this will always be the case, but I am thinking that if we can start them off with the right beliefs, even if they stray, they will come back later in life. That was how I was with a lot of things in my life: gardening, line drying, crafting.

I can't wait until Michael gets home from pre-school so that we can go and look at some planting materials!

Amy

Way Back When-esday: March 2008

2011-03-30T05:40:00.000-07:00

I'm joining in with http://twinfatuation.blogspot.com for Way Back When-esday. This week is Michael's second week of pre-school. This is Michael 3 years ago:

Michael just about 2 weeks old

Amy

Makes My Monday: New Haircut for Mom

2011-03-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

Since my mom got diagnosed with cancer and I found out she may have to have chemotherapy, I started thinking about cutting my hair. I had been growing my hair out for about a year and a half and it went from being pixie short at my wedding, which it had been that way for years to growing it out to my shoulders. I started thinking that I could cut my hair short in support of my mom, who will most likely be losing her hair from the chemo that she starts this week. I made the decision to go short and got my haircut Saturday. I had some concerns about wether or not I really wanted to continue growing my hair or if I wanted to cut it. I had asked people on facebook, I asked my husband, and most importantly I did some soul searching about what I wanted (wow the soul searching sounds so crazy, but after putting the time into growing my hair, I didn't want to do something that I would regret), I decided that I really want to cut my hair. I made an appointment and brought a picture of how I wanted my hair. The funny part is that I brought a picture of what my hair looked like prior to growing my hair out and when I showed the picture to the hairdresser, she asked if I had ever had my hair that short before. My hair is now as short as it was 1 1/2 years ago and I am so happy that I did it. My husband who played Switzerland when I asked his opinion on cutting my hair, finally admitted that he likes my hair short. Now, I just need to make time to maintain my haircut.

Length of my hair prior to cutting it

My new haircut!

Cutting my hair to how I want to wear it and in support of my mom, makes my Monday. Check out http://twinfatuation.blogspot.com to see what makes others Mondays.

Amy

Ideas To Do With Kids

2011-03-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

I am terrible at coming up with creative things to do with the kids. They don't really like to sit still for long, so reading a book, doing a craft, anything that requires sitting for a period of time is tough. I am looking forward to the warmer weather so that we can go to the park and they can get some of their energy out and maybe then we can do some sitting activities. One of my friends over at http://thedoublescoop.com/ has some really great creative ideas that I really need to try out. I am hoping that she will share some of her sources for these creative ideas. One of my goals is to spark my kids creative imagination and help to maintain it. I also want to provide educational things for them and make it a fun way to learn. I'm still getting used to Michael's new schedule with pre-school , but I think that once i get used to his schedule, I will be making up a schedule for us so that we can have fun, do some educational things, and get these kids to do more than jus trun amd jump and climb and move. Maybe while Michael is at pre-school I can go to the book store with just the twins, though I have to say I took just the twins grocery shopping today and it wasn't that much easier. I am going to pick up the book "Rainbow Fish" and attempt to do an activity from http://thedoublescoop.com/.

Any suggestion for fun things to do with active toddlers/preschoolers are more than welcome. Any ideas on how to get them to sit and listen to a story are very much needed!

Amy

Just Some New Pictures!

2011-03-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

Co-Sleeping

Choo-choo wagon going to the park

Our first hike

On the log during our hike

At the Park

He loves his hats

My little girl

Taking a break at the playground after our hike

Amy

Way Back When-esday: Haircut

2011-03-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

I'm joining in with http://twinfatuation.blogspot.com for way back When-esday. This time I am going to post pictures off myself, which I hate doing, but I am thinking that after a year and a half of growing out my hair, I am really considering cutting it off. For years I had a short pixie cut, then I decided to grow it long because that is what I always do. One of the newest reasons for wanting to cut my hair again is my mom's cancer diagnosis. When I found out she was going to have chemo or at least the potential of it, I thought about cutting my hair short in support of her potential for losing her hair. I know that this is not a lot, but I thought that it could be a way to support her since losing her hair was one of her concerns. Now, I have been thinking more about cutting my hair, I want to do it because I really liked my hair short. So here I am going from this:

I'm the one blowing out the candle

To this:

October 2008 The first haircut after I decided to grow it long

It had been this short:

December 2008 1 month before I gave birth to the twins!

What do you think, should I cut it? My plan is to cut it like the middle picture. I felt like Audrey Hepburn, not that I looked like her, but I felt like her, classy and beautiful!

Amy

First Day of Preschool

2011-03-22T07:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Michael's first day at preschool. It started of fine, even though we needed to wake Michael up. I feel like I have a teenager already and he is only 3. He likes to stay up late and sleep late in the morning. I guess payback really is a bitch (both me and my husband never liked to go to be or get up early. I still don't like to get up early). We were able to get him up, fed, and dressed on time for the bus. For the first day, we had to pack wipes, a couple of diapers (yes the school is letting us cloth diaper him), a wet bag for the diapers, an extra set of clothes, and his lunch bag. By the time everything was packed, the backpack almost made him topple over. The bus showed up, and as I walked him out, I started crying, the twins started crying (probably because I wouldn't let them come out of the house), and as Michael got on the bus he started crying. I was prepared for this to happen, but it didn't make it any easier. I got a call from the school nurse and talked to her about Michael's dairy issue and the fact that it was probably more of an intolerance than an actual allergy. We talked about getting him allergy tested, but I have heard that there are lots of false positive/negatives at this age and we have seen so many changes after we stopped dairy, that I am just more inclined to eliminate dairy from his diet without getting confirmation from a test. During this phone call she reported that Michael stopped crying soon after the bus pulled away from the house (he will still cry once in a while when I leave for work and he is home with his dad) and that he was outside playing with his classmates.

He was dropped of at the house around 11:00 and looked so happy. I decided to take them out to lunch and called Nonna and Papa to come to lunch with us. Unfortunately my mom was only off for the morning as she had her appointment to schedule her chemo and was going back to work, but my stepfather joined us. I decided to trial pizza. At first I was just going to give them macaroni, but figured I would see how they responded to cheese. All three kids were so well behaved at Prince Pizza. They ate a ton of food and sat in their seats even though they were not buckled in. We then needed to drive around since the twins fell asleep and I didn't want to risk waking them. When we got home I noticed that Michael was starting to have the raspy breathing again and at night Eva Rose was snoring more than usual. I don't know if the cheese was the cause, but at least for Michael, I believe that the cheese was the cause of his breathing change. I really want to watch what he eat since I think he has more of an intolerance to dairy than the other two.

Bedtime was the normal routine and all 3 kids pretty much went to bed the same way they always do. Thomas and Eva Rose climbed into their beds and went right to sleep with no intervention. Michael, on the other hand, decided to strip out of his pajamas and his diaper. Tom went in and put his diaper back on. We haven't always been putting his pajamas back on since we figured that maybe he was just warm. At some point he took his diaper off again and at 12:30 I had to get up and change his bed since he wet the bed. With new sheets and a new diaper, he went back to sleep fairly quickly. This morning was pretty much the same routine. Michael cried as he got on the bus and I got teary eyes. The bus driver said that he will pretty much stop crying by the time they are at the end of our short street. I'm sure that things will get easier as time goes on and I know that he will love it more and more!

Waiting for the bus

Amy

Pre-school

2011-03-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

I got the call today to say that I could bring Michael in for his pre-school visit tomorrow and that he could start school on Monday. I immediately called to see if I could find a babysitter. Thankfully, my step-father is great and he said he would come by tomorrow and watch the twins so that my could do his intro day. I can't believe that he is old enough for pre-school. It doesn't feel like I've been a mom that long. I am so excited for him to start school. I think it is going to do him a world of good to be away from me for a couple of hours a day. I think his social skills will improve as should his communication skills. I am a little sad that he is growing up, what seems like, so fast., but I can't wait to watch him grow with all of thes egreat changes! Now we need to go find him a back pack and a lunch box for school on Mondy! Off to LL Bean this Saturday!

Amy

Way Back When-esday: RSV Twins

2011-03-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

I'm joining along with Cheryl over at http://twinfatuation.blogspot.com for Way Back When-esday.

Just a little over 2 years ago my twins were discharged from the NICU at CHildren's Hospital Boston after their bout with RSV. They both came home with me when I was discharged 5 days after their birth, but that didn't last long. My son was admitted after being home for about 2 weeks and my daughter was admitted 1 week later. My son was rushed from his 2 week doctor appointment when he declined to the point that the doctor called 911. Luckily my older son who was drinking his formula from a glass bottle dropped it and it broke. That delayed things to the point of my son declining at the doctors instead of in the car on the way to a local ER. Thankfully he was only intubated for 24 hours, but was in the hospital for 3 weeks. 1 week later, we brought his sister to Children's ER and she was immediately brought back to a room from triage due to an episode of apnea while being triaged. They tried to use a CPAP machine initially instead of intubating her, but it just wasn't giving her enough oxygen. She was ultimately intubated and got an NG tube. Unfortunately, unlike her brother she was intubated for 6 days until she decided she had had enough and pulled her tube out. The next day she pulled her feeding tube out. My son was supposed to be discharged on the next Friday, but he had a period of tachycardia the night before, so that delayed his discharge. He ended up being discharged with his sister on Monday which pretty much ended up being their due date. When I think back, I am almost sorry that they came home with me. I sometimes wonder if they would have been better off staying in the hospital getting a little bigger and a littler stronger. Maybe then they wouldn't have gotten the RSV. They say that sometimes kids who have RSV can end up with breathing problems later on. So far, we have been really lucky and have only had 1 scare where we needed to bring my daughter to the ER for difficulty breathing. Luckily, we were sent home with just an inhaler, which she really hasn't needed to use. We have been extremely lucky with all 3 kids regarding illness. Other then my daughter, we have only had to ring my older son to the ER 1 time just after the twins were born. I am very thankful that my 3 children are healthy babies. I hope they stay that way, though I still do get a little nervous when the twins get colds!

3 days before Thomas was admitted with RSV

At home the day after discharge in their preemie outfits that were still too big

The twins 3/9/2009

Thanks for looking at my way back when pictures!

Amy

Way Back When-esday: 3 years ago

2011-03-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

Three years ago yesterday, I gave birth to my oldest son, Michael. His birth didn't go according to plan and I was a little out of it after he was born, but it was one of the happiest days of my life. Fast forward 3 years and he is now starting pre-school in the next couple of weeks. He is starting to attempt to talk more and more. He has such great gross and fine motor skills and absolutely love to run and climb and sing and dance. He is starting to do more pretend play. Michael is starting to play more with his brother and sister who are just 10 1/2 months younger than him. It amazed me to watch him with them sometimes. I am so happy that they are so close in age. It's been a tough couple of years, with 3 kids so close in age, but I am now really starting to see the benefit of having them so close in age!

Michael just 2 days old

1st Birthday

2nd birthday

Just a couple of weeks ago

Happy Birthday my big boy!

Amy

Makes My Monday:IEP and Preschool

2011-03-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

Michael turns 3 tomorrow. I can't believe I have a 3 year old and he will be starting school soon. Michael has a fairly significant speech delay and has been in EI for 6 months until he aged out at 3. EI made a referral to the public school system given his speech delay and him being somewhat behind in his social skills. We went for his initial IEP meeting and I really felt like those that observed him, got a really good picture of who he is. They talked a lot about his strengths and how those strengths would be really beneficial in helping him with the areas that he needs to work on. I got to see his classroom and I found out that he is going to need a back pack and a lunch box. I am considering making him a lunch bag instead of buying one. It's something simple that I can do and it will be nice for him to have something that I made for him. For now he will be attending the 1/2 day pre-school program and will even be getting services through the summer. This plan is in place for the next year. I guess then we will have another IEP meeting. I am so happy that he got into the pre-school program. I really think it is going top be good for him to be in school and away from me for a short time. I'm sure that it is going to be an adjustment for all of us, but I am so excited and can't wait to see him bloom into who he is.

Having my oldest start pre-school and hopefully getting better with his communication skills and social skills totally makes my Monday!

Amy

Overcoming My Insecurities

2011-03-03T16:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've written a couple of poor me posts about my insecurities about meeting new people and making new friends. Yes, I still have them, but I am finally recognizing that I am having way too high of expectations. I keep thinking about my sister in law and her best friend. When I was in undergraduate school, I had to do a paper on how friendships change over the developmental stages. I remember hearing the story of how my sister in law became friends with her now best friend, only what I usually remember is that they became friends because they had kids who were all around the same ages. What I forget is that the best friend piece didn't happen overnight. I forget that this was a friendship that went through different stages and then ultimately they became best friends. I think I am in limbo right now with having a best friend. I guess on some level I miss having that person, that girlfriend who you share everything with. I have friends, but since I am the only one of my friends with little kids, having that commonality of marriage, and kids, and a a house, and a job just isn't there. The only firends that I have who have children who are the same ages as mine are from my twins group. Like others have commented, having little ones makes finding new firends and maintaining old friendships difficult, never mind trying to find a best friend. I know that as the kids get older and the chaos of life changes, I will have more of a chance of making new friendships and maybe even finding a new best friend. The funny thing is I still have friends from high school, I jsut don't feel like the relationships are the same as they were back then nor should they be. I just need to keep putting myself out there, meeting new people, and someday it will click. I will have that "best friend" again. Hopefully, when the weather gets warmer and we can get outside and go to the park things will get better. I can have people over to my house and enjoy our backyard with others. I am getting out to more playdates.

I think this winter has made it hard for me to feel positive about new friendships. I forget that everyone's lives are busy, especially mine and I don't always maintain contact with people like I should. I have had a couple of positive interactions this week that have me feeling much better about things in general. Sometimes, I think my shyness really harms me. The funny thing is I am so much less shy than I was when I was younger. The difference is that when I was younger I didn't have a large circle of friends, I had one best friend and a few aquaintences. I think that is the biggest issue. I always had a best friend, but now I have a much larger circle/community of people in similar situations that I can get together with and share things.

I'm not sure if what i am writing is really saying how i am feeling, but I am definitely feeling more positve regarding meeting people and making friends. I got a comment on my other blog regarding a totally different topic, and the commenter basically said go easy on yourself. I tend to have pretty high expectations for myself and when they don't get met, I tend to feel pretty bad. What I should do, is have lower expectations for myself, ones that can actually be met given that I have 3 little kids!

Thanks to everyone who has read these posts and especially to those who have commented. I really appreciate your kind words and encouragement!

Amy

Meal Planning And An Organized Life

2011-03-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

Some of my twin mom friends are really great at being organized, or at least they are better at being organized than I am. It's probbaly always going to be a struggle for me and always going to be a work in progress, but I get motivated by these moms to keep working at it.

I am in the process of working on my menu for March. I have never done even a weekly menu plan before, but am now truly motivated after spending the day with my mom after her lymph node biopsy only to come home and not have anything ready for dinner for me to take to work or for my family to have. Thankfully my husband is able to cook a couple of hot dogs and broccoli for the kids. If I had a meal plan in place, I could have been better prepared. With my mom now mostly likely having chemo and radiation, I'm sure that we will be spending more time with her to help out since I am home during the day and everyone else works. Since I go to work at night, it will be even more important for me to have a plan in place for meals.

Right now I am trying to get a bunch of recipes together to put on my monthly plan. I plan to have breakfast lunch and dinner mapped out, but can be a lot more flexible with these meals. I will have a few crockpot recipes as well as some easy/quick recipes that I can easily make before I leave for work, or that my husband can make after I leave. After I get my meals planned, I will make a shopping list and make sure that I follow it and go shopping after I have satisfied my hunger. This weekend, I went shopping just before supper, and what a mistake that was. I bought a whole bunch of foods that I shouldn't be eating and now it will either go to waste or I will need to eat things that I don't want/need to eat.

I am hoping that I can plan meals that are healthy and that the kids will like. After I get my meals organized, I am going to move on to more areas that I need to get organized, like cleaning the house, laundry, etc. That way I won't feel like I am doing it all at once and I won't get so overwhelmed that I just put it off over and over and over. Hopefully this will mean that I have more time to do fun things with the kids like salad spinner spin art, rubber stamping using the new stamps that I got for the bargin price of $.97 and $1.97, coloring, painting, and many other fun play things.

Amy

My Mom's Cancer Update

2011-03-01T16:30:00.000-08:00

I found out on my twins 2nd birthday (January 23, 2011) that my mom's mammogram showed a lump in her left breast. This is the same one that my grandmothers breast cancer started in. She has since had a biopsy which revealed that the tumor was 0.9 cm (about 3/4 in) and they removed 3 inches of tissue. The pathology report stated that she has stage 1 grade 2 breast cancer. This means that the tumor was small but semi aggressive and definitely invasive. This meant that they recommended and MRI to r/o any metastases as well as a lymph node biopsy. She was unable to complete the MRI with out getting sick, so that is one test that they are unable to do for her. Today was her lymph node biopsy. I guess, yesterday they injected her with a dye that would tell the surgeon what nodes to remove if any. My step-father said that the most the surgeon would take out would be 2 nodes, but they ended up only needing to take out 1 node. I guess that is a good sign. Now we just have to wait for this pathology report. As for treatment options, it really depends on the lymph node biopsy. If the biopsy comes back with cancer, then they are recommending 8 treatments of chemotherapy, then 5 days a week for 6 weeks of radiation. If the biopsy comes back without cancer, then she can choose either 4 treatments of chemotherapy and then the same radiation treatment or she can choose just to have radiation. At least one of my sisters and I are thinking that she should do the combo treatment and hopefully knock the cancer out of her system no matter what the results of the biopsy are. We also think that she can do conventional treatment along with CAM therapies (complementary and alternative medicine).

Because of this and the other cancers and heart disease in my family I am attempting to get a little healthier. One day I will be able to say that I am eating the way I want to be eating and exercising like I should be! The warm weather can't come fast enough. Maybe this is the push I need to get rid of this baby weight (ok teh baby weight is gone, this is jsut my fat)!

Amy

Makes My Monday: Play Date and Kids Crafting

2011-02-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

Today we met with some friends for a play date and the kids did a St Patrick's Day craft. The kids had fun and the moms got to talk. Play dates and crafting certainly make my Monday!

Eva Rose was the only one who stayed at the table while I got my camera, along with our friends

All the shamrocks we made

Update on my mom: She goes tomorrow for her lymph node biopsy. One we have the results from that she can then make a decision regarding treatment. She will either get to choose between chemo and radiation or just radiation if lymph nodes are not involved, and if they are then she will have chemo and radiation for sure. What we do know is that it was a small but invasive tumor that is semi aggressive. We can certainly use any all all prayers!

Amy

Public Preschool Eval

2011-02-15T15:25:00.000-08:00

Michael turns 3 in about 3 weeks. This means he'll age out of early intervention.He still has a pretty huge speech delay so we are having him evaluated through the public school system. I know that he'll qualify for speech therapy, but I am also hoping along with speech, he'll get to go to the public preschool. I think that he'll benefit from the preschool program for his socialization skills. He is just starting to parallel play with others. He is just starting to be social rather than always being on the outskirts of things. I know that this is most likely just him being more introverted and shy, but I think that he needs to work on this skill and I think our EI group has really helped him with this. I also think that this will help his speech instead of just having speech therapy a couple of times a week. In 2 weeks, the school psychologist is coming out to our EI group to evaluate him. The next Monday, the day before he turns 3 we have his IEP meeting where we will discuss what the public school's assessment is and what the plan is. Thankfully our EI worker is going to the meeting with me. My step father is watching the other 2 so I can go to the meeting and hear what they have to say.

I really can't believe that Michael is going to be 3. It feel like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant with him. I was just looking at the picture on the top of this blog, for Halloween 2010, and from that short time, it looks as if he has become such a big boy. I can't believe how much he has changed. He has done so well in EI, but he really still needs loads of speech therapy. I really hope that the school feels the same way and he gets to go to preschool with in a week or so after he turns 3.

I am so looking forward to tomorrow, but I am actually a little nervous too. Any words of advice from others who have been there?

Amy

Makes My Monday: Fine Motor Skills

2011-02-14T18:46:00.000-08:00

The other day I went to AC Moore and got a few things for the kids to sort. I decided to take them out and let them play with the colored wooden beads and string them on some pipe cleaners. They had fun and I was amazed at their ability to put the beads on the pipe cleaners. These kids are definitely delayed in the speech area, but their fine and gross motor skills are so where they should be if not a little ahead. I am so happy when I see them complete these tasks!

Stringing beads

Stringing beads and making Valentine's Day cards

Practicing fine motor skills totally makes my Monday!

Amy

The Big C Word

2011-02-11T14:57:00.000-08:00

I found out today that my mom has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Luckily, at least so far, it is the early stages and hopefully she can be treated and not have any negative effects from it long term. The scarey thing about this diagnosis is that my grandmother died from breast cancer almost 5 years ago. She under went 2 mastectomies a few years apart, and unfortunately teh cancer just spread through out her body. The last couple of weeks of her life were extremely rough for her. She was so sick and initially they didn't know what was wrong until they did surgery and found that the cancer was all in her abdomen causing all of the problems that she had been suffereing with for months (as far as I know, it could have been longer). Not only do my mother and my grandmotehr carry the diagnosis, but my grandmother's twin sister as well as their mother (my great grandmother). We still have to wait for some more results and then my mother is having a meeting with an oncology team. At that point, I think we will know how significant the level is and what mode of treatment she is going to decide on. She will also be having the gene test to see if it is the hereditary form of breast cancer. I am hoping that since it seems like it is the early stages, the prognosis is good. I am hoping that the prognosis is good, because obviously I want her around for a long time. I want her to see my kids grow. I want her to be a major part of their lives. I am hoping that thing go well and we get good news. At this point, it doesn't matter if she carries the gene or not. I am going to be changing my lifestyle to do what ever I can to prevent this from happening to me. The one positive, if there is ever a positive in breast cancer, is that everyone in my family (on my mother's side) with breast cancer got diagnosed post menopause. That seems to have a better prognosis, so I am hoping that that remains the case.

Amy

Routines

2011-02-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

We had one child before we had the twins and we were so not routine oriented people when it came to our son. He had a routine at daycare, but when the weekends came, we just went with the flow. Then, ten and a half months later all of a sudden we had three kids under one, two of whom were not even on the full term baby growth scale (yes they were five weeks early and yes they were pretty good sizes at four and a half pounds each, but they were little and early and they needed to fatten up) . Then they got sick, my son at two and a half weeks and my daughter at three and a half weeks and were both in the NICU for a total of three (my son) and two weeks (my daughter). Between being sick, being little, being early, and having three kids under one, we decided that we needed a routine to help us get through every day life. Routines helped me ensure that everyone was being fed and changed on time, and that the littel ones were getting enough sleep, since everyone said that is where they get the energy to grow. As they got older and stronger, we kind of slacked on the routines, but still had them. Unfortunately, we didn't relly have a routine with my older son still. My twins have been great sleepers, so maybe having the routine was a really good idea. Maybe we should have been a little more routine oriented with my older son and he would have been a better sleeper. Looking back tough, his first couple of years of life were probably pretty tough on him. I was on bed rest from the time he was almost eight months old til the twins were born three months later. Then I was in the hospital for five days, then the twins were in the hospital, all before he turned one. Now at almost 3 we have a little routine for him, that is special just for him. He now goes to bed so much better. He sleeps so much better. 'm not sure I could have done the CIO when he was much younger, but maybe if I had had a routine in place like the twins did, he would have been a better sleeper all around. Hind sight is definitely 20/20 and life was really crazy that first year, and still is, but I definitely now see teh benefit to having a decent routine in place yet being flexible enough that you don't frive yourself crazy. Would I recommend a new mother to have a routine? The answer is a definite yes. Would I tell her it was ok to break the routine once in awhile, yes. Is being a parent always a learning experience? Definitely! Routines work and now I need to have more routines in place for other areas in our lives than just bedtime.

Amy

Insecurities

2011-02-08T10:51:00.000-08:00

I have never been the most confident person, but since having kids and trying to make new friend, my self-confidence has really taken a dive. I'm not even sure I want to write about this here, but I'm not sure anyone reads my blog often enough to make a difference, which may be a good thing. I can write a little about how I am feeling and get it out without worrying that anyone is judging.

I have done a couple of play dates, but they never seem to last more than one time. I am hoping that I am not doing anything to offend people. For the life of me, I can't figure out why I can't seem to maintain friendships with other people who have kids. I know that it is difficult, but it really makes me wonder if there is anything that I need to either change about me or my kids or maybe how I react to my kids. The thing that kills me is when things like yesterday happen. I had a friend from high school over and we were talking about friendships and how much more difficult it is once you have kids. This friend, who I had kind of lost touch with over the years, was very complimentary about my friendship with her. So does that mean it's not me, it's just that I don't have things in common with the people I have met so far? Am I not friendly enough? Maybe it will happen just later, not right now. But I have to say, my self confidence has totally taken a dive and the insecurities that I thought I had moved beyond are starting to surface and really make me question myself!

Oh well! I guess I just have to continue to try to be friendly and hope that I can meet people that want to be friends with me and my kids. Maybe I just need to find people I have more in common with!

Amy

Makes My Monday: Sharing

2011-02-07T06:35:00.000-08:00

Having 3 kids within 10 1/2 months has it's trials and tribulations, one of the worst being sharing. All 3 hate to share, but my daughter is the worst. I made cupcakes last week and like all kids, they love to eat the leftovers. Who would have thought that they would share the leftover batter so well?!

Sharing cupcake batter makes my Monday!

Amy

Dairy Allergy

2011-02-03T16:20:00.000-08:00

So it has been about 3 weeks that we have been dairy free with the kids and we have totally noticed a huge difference. For the longest time, I felt like I was always wiping their runny noses and just chalked it up to the season and them being kids. Michael's breathing was really loud even in the daytime (I didn't realize how many people noticed it). Michael had horrible snoring. All 3 kids (but Michael and Eva Rose were the worst) had horrible diaper rashes off and on.

Now that milk is no longer in their diet (though I'm sure that there are times were we have inadvertently given them some sort of milk product since it seems like it's in everything), we have begun to see so many changes for the positive. I haven't had to wipe runny, drippy noses. Michael's breathing has improved, to the point that people have commented that they no longer can hear him breathing. Michael's snoring is much better, and he seems to do more breathing out of his nose vs his mouth. Michael has really come out of his shell and others are noticing it! There really hasn't been any diaper rash issues (granted the detergent change seems to have been a major help too) and their poop, yes their poop, seems more normal. Tom and I were recently just really sick with either a major cold or the flu and the kids didn't get even a sniffle. The other unexpected benefit is that their meal intake and snack intake and even water intake seems so much more improved. Granted we have made some major changes to how we react to Michael's sleep issues, but his sleeping is much improved and it didn't take any where near as long as Ithought it would for the sleeep to improve nor was it as horrific as I had expected that it would be!

I am in the process of making an allergy appointment for the 3 kids and we may look at other things in their diet as potential allergens, especially given my allergy blood test for which I have made enough diet changes but that is for another post. We need to take Eva Rose back to evaluate the fluid in her ears. I'm not sure if we need a follow up for the tonsils, but we will be seeing the PCP in a couple of weeks and I'm sure she can see how they look. I think either way, taking milk out of their diet seems to have helped. Now I just need to get myself to make the same changes in my diet because I know that I'll feel better too!

Amy

Sleep Update

2011-02-01T15:37:00.000-08:00

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about the horrible sleep issues we were having in our house. As usual, I posted a quick note to my twins group and got some support that I so desperately needed. It's been maybe a week, and sleep is so much better. It has gone way better than I expected. The first few nights were tough, but not that I expected it to be any different. Hubby and and I shave not shared the bed with any kids since I wrote my last sleep post. We have had to get up and put Michael back to bed, and sometimes he has spent the night sleeping on the floor as that is where he fell asleep. We even went through all this sleep training while one or both of us were sick, which is really impressive for me since I am the one that gave into Michael sleeping in our bed. The best news is that Michael didn't wake up once last night, or at least he didn't need our redirection. Today the goodnight light that I ordered came in. It will be interesting to see how it works, to see if it makes a difference. The only problem is I'm not sure how to plug the monitor in safely. Maybe wee don't really need it anymore. I'm sure I'll popst more on how it goes with the goodnight light.

Let's hope that the good sleeping continues. I know that I will be maintaining the same routine that we have in place since it seems to be working!

Amy

Mommy Guilt

2011-01-31T15:26:00.000-08:00

For about a week now, I've been feeling pretty crappy. We had a birthday party for the twins and I think 8 or 9 total people have gotten some form of flu like symptoms. The worst part is that over the weekend, not only was I sick, but so was my husband. So here we were 3 kids, healthy no symptoms of anything like anyone else had, and 2 miserable parents. I am trying so hard not to have tv on so much, but with being sick, I feel like that's what we've had to use for somewhat of babysitting. I am hoping that what ever illness I have left is leaving my body very quickly. I want to have energy to play with my kids. I don't want to be afraid that they'll get sick too and we'll just keep passing it back and forth. I want the nice weather to come so that I can open the windows and breath fresh air, take the kids to the park, go for walks, etc. But for now, we have another snow storm coming that seems to be planning on dumping about another foot at least in our area. I really need to feel better soon, so that this mommy guilt of not spending enough time with my kids goes away and I can plan for some fun times with the kids even if we are snow bound! And I want the energy to cook good healthy food. I don't want to feed them sandwiches all the time.

Spring please come soon!
Amy

Sickness

2011-01-30T12:27:00.000-08:00

We had the twin's birthday party last Sunday and since then, found out that at least 8 maybe 9 people have had flu like symptoms. My sister in law called Monday to say that she and her husband were sick and that she hoped that the little ones didn't get sick. Wouldn't you know, just a couple of days later, I ended up with 100 degree fever and cold symptoms. Then I found out 3 other people were sick. Things seemed to be just a 24 hour illness for me, that is until Friday night when I basically came home from work, put the kids to bed and went to bed myself. I spent pretty much all day yesterday sleeping and resting with a fever again. I should have gone to bed earlier than I did, but I think I have finally kicked the fever. Now I just need to get over the cough and the congestion. The worst is now my husband has it. I never realized how tough it would be to have kids and be sick. Thankfully, my body seems to know when I have help and seems to only get really sick on the weekend.

I can't wait for winter to be over. I am tired of the illness, tired of the snow, tired of the cold. I just want to be able to open the windows and enjoy the nice fresh air!

Amy

Sleep

2011-01-26T09:27:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know, not another posting about sleep! As usual, we are having horrible sleeping in this house! Michael, who will be 3 in March and who has never slept well, is getting better with going to sleep, but continues to be horrible with staying asleep. We put him to bed, and soon after he gets out and plays in his room. There are very few toys in there, but he definitely finds things to play with. We've been letting him play for a short time, and then we go in and put him back in his bed. For the last couple of days, this has really worked out. The biggest problem is him sleeping through the night. We decided, ok I accepted that I need to do CIO (cry it out). This morning, I can't remember the time, we started CIO at my husband's prompting. He finally fell asleep and slept on the floor. I am hoping that with consistency, he will start to go to bed easily and sleep through the night.

The twins, who just turned 2 this past Sunday, have been great sleepers pretty much from the beginning. Now, Thomas fight going to sleep, but letting him CIO for a short time usually works. Eva Rose, usually falls asleep quickly, but then has been waking in the middle of the night screaming! I have been bad with getting her up for a short time, but then I put her back in her crib and let her CIO. It's not as short as for thomas, but shorter than for Michael. I think this is why I have an easier time doing CIO with the twins. they seem to respond quicker. Michael can cry for what seems like forever and it kills me. I have hearing him cry to the point of almost making himself sick. I know I need to do it and i know that i need to be consistent with it. He's almost 3 and he needs to start sleeping. I need to start sleeping.

If anyone has suggestions for dealing with CIO in toddlers, I would very much appreciate it. I know that consistency is key, and that is my goal. We started CIO this morning and I need to continue it with all 3 kids! Any other sleep suggestions are very much welcome!

A sleep deprived Amy

Makes My Monday: Play Date and Mommy's Crafting

2011-01-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

Even though it was absolutely frigid, I took the kids on a planned play date with another friend who has twins. The kids got to play together and the mom's got to be a little creative for the girls! Next time we get together, we are going to try a craft for the boys! I love the little tutu that we made! Quick and easy and no sew and the kids were around playing with each other!

Getting out of the house on a frigid winter day, getting the kids to play with other kids, and getting so,me crafting with another twin mom totally makes my Monday!

Amy!

Happy Birthday Eva Rose and Thomas

2011-01-23T19:38:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that 2 years ago, I gave birth to two little babies who were only about 4 1/2 pounds each. Look at you now! Your still my tiny little toddlers, but you have grown so much! We had a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends! In just the past few months you have changed and grown so much. I can't believe how much more you are talking! I love to hear any words that you say. I love when I am changing your diaper or just carrying you, you out of the blue start pointing to body parts and start naming them. Just 4 months ago you had no idea what each body part was. I love how cute you sound when you name animals and start making their sounds. I love when you ask for more and you use word and sign. You each have your own special personality and I love how different you are!

Happy birthday my twinnies (as my cousin said her grandmother used to call her twins)

Amy

way Back When-esday: 2 years ago

2011-01-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

My twins will be turning 2 on Sunday. I can't believe I've been the mom of 3 kids for 2 years now. It seems like just yesterday that I was praying that they would not be born too early. The first few weeks of their life were tough with the RSV. I was looking at pictures the other night and was so amazed at how much they have changed! They were so young and so sick back then, but here we are 2 years later and they are healthy active 2 year olds. Happy Birthday Babies!

Eva Rose Reid Fratto born 1/23/2009 at 11:44pm 4 pounds 7 ounces 17 3/4 inches

Thomas Orlando Fratto born 1/23/2009 at 11:45 pm 4 pounds 8.9 ounces 17 inches

Cuddling with each other the day after they were born

2 days old double swaddled and 2 hats on just to keep warm!

On Sunday, for a month and a half, I will have 3 two year olds!

Amy

Children Teach Us

2011-01-14T14:47:00.000-08:00

I think my children are here to teach me to slow down and not to expect things to happen on certain time frames. They are here to teach me patience and I'm sure much more.

One of my recent posts was about starting to potty train Michael. This has not gone well at all and I was starting to feel like I was doing something wrong because I couldn't get him to pee on the potty. I posted a question to my twins group and so did another mom. Most people responded that kids will train when they are ready not on your time line. That made me stop and think about my life. I need to stop and slow down and not expect that everything happens when I want it to happen, but when it's meant to happen. My kids walked when they were ready, they are talking on their time frame, they will be out of diapers when they are ready. Life takes time and I need to be patient and let it happen

I can't wait to see what else my kids will teach me as life goes on!

Amy

Winter Wonderland

2011-01-13T08:36:00.000-08:00

Here is MA, we got a ton of snow. I think there was about 24" according to the news. Yesterday, daddy spent most of the day snow blowing our yard and about 4 of our neighbors. Since we've had our dog, about 7 years, he has snow blowed a path for the dog. This year, it is also for the kids. This was our second storm of the season. The first time, none of the kids would keep their mittens on, so we had to go back inside within just minutes. This time, Eva Rose had new mittens and I made some make shift mittens for the boys. All three kids kept their mittens on the whole time we were out and that was about 35-40 minutes (it took about that long to get them dressed to go outside). Here are some pictures from our outing!

My new favorite picture of Eva Rose

Thomas walking the path that daddy made

Eva Rose and Michael is the path

Eva Rose and Thomas is the path

Three kids walking together in the path in the backyard

Michael and Eva Rose heading out back while Thomas hangs back by the back door

In the sled last year

Last year snow suits

Keep warm,

Amy

ENT Update

2011-01-11T14:47:00.000-08:00

I've written that we are bringing both Michael and Eva Rose for an ENT appointment in one week. Eva Rose has an issue with fluid in her ears and we think Michael is having an issue with enlarged tonsils and/or adenoids. My first thought, when I heard about these issues, was what ever is recommended by the ENT is what we will do. There are so many things that this may be effecting, such as: sleep, hearing, breathing, speech and others. Tom on the other hand wanted to take a moer wait and see approach.

Tom had an appointment today with one of his specialists that he really thinks highly of and he mentioned the issues that we are dealing with in regards to the kids. This doctor said not to do anything right away. He thinks that there could be an issue with dairy and/or gluten. I find this interesting since I had a blood test this past summer that showed that I have an issue with gluten and dairy. This doctor recommended removing these food items from their diet for at least 2 weeks before we do anything. So, as of now, we are a gluten free dairy free house.

We will not be doing anything til we evaluate removing gluten and dairy from their diet. We are thinking that this may help with their diaper rashes also. I have been wanting to change my eating habits for some time now, but always find myself falling back on old eating patterns. Now that there may be a more serious issue than just my upset stomach, I am thinking that we will be more motivated to do teh right thing!

Anyone do a gluten free dairy free diet for kids?

Amy

Potty Training

2011-01-10T14:26:00.000-08:00

So my oldest, Michael, with be three in March. My twins are going to to be two in two weeks. I have decided that it is time to work on one of the things I am most dreading, potty training. Today was our first day sans diapers. My goal is for diapers to only be on for night time. How did today go? Total fail. Not one time did he do anything on the potty other than sit. I suppose that it is a positive thing that he at least wanted to sit on the toilet, but he was more interested in flushing the toilet than anything else. Every pair of under pants that I put on him, he soaked through. I have been cloth diapering for the last year and a half. I thought that it would make potty training easier, but I don't think it's made a difference in that regard. I am not ready to give up on potty training yet. It's only been one day, and I am hoping that he will start to get it sooner than later. The other thing that is spurring this on, is that he is going to be evaluated for public school pre-school and I don't know if they require him to be potty trained to go or not. I am hoping that he will qualify for pre-school and not just speech services. I think that he will benefit from pre-school and that it will really help his speech. But I digress. Back to the potty training issue. I am basically attempting to go sans diapers furing the day with offering him the potty often and even just bringing him and sitting him on it. I know that there are more formal ways to potty train, but for now, it's how I am going about it. If anyone has any other resources, please, please let me know. I have the info on the 3 day potty training guide and may do that if my way doesn't work out. It's just so hard with 2 others. I am not looking forward to doing this two more times!

Amy

Updates

2011-01-07T15:57:00.000-08:00

On the medical front, we will be spending our morning of the 18th of this month at Children's Hospital Peabody. Our first appointment is for Eva Rose to evaluate the fluid in her ears. She has had fluid in her ears for the last 3 months that hasn't changed, if anything, it's gotten worse. Thankfully, we have not had any resulting ear infections. I am almost hoping that the doctor recommends tubes because, all the feedback that I have gotten about tubes has been very positive. I have heard so many people say that their child's speech has improved immensely after having tubes. I don't know if it will be our case, but the fact that it has made a huge difference in everyone that I have talked to makes me feel really positive about the outcome.

The next appointment is for Michael. I have had some concerns about his breathing at night and I have inally done something about it. For a little while, I thought that maybe I was hearing things, but now my mom and my husband have heard issues with Michaels's breathing. So, I contacted his doctor and he was seen. The doctor felt that it would be appropriate to have hime seen by an pediatric ENT. Given that he snores, he sleeps horrible and always has, is a mouth breather and breathes loudly, and I think may even have some issues with apnea, he is being evaluated for enlarged tonsils and adenoids. The doctor that examined him did notice that, even though it was in the middle of a gag, there was a lot of soft tissue around his tonsils and uvula with little airway. Michael was not cooperative with the exam at all. Again, I am almost hoping that there is an issue that can be fixed with surgery. I am hoping that for his sake and our family, that we can fix his sleep problem. I'm sure that some of it is behavioral, but until I get him medically cleared, I do not feel comfortable with doing CIO or another form of sleep training. If there is nothing wrong with his tonsils or adenoids, I will most likely ask for a sleep eval at Children's because Michael has not ever really slept through the night. We have had short periods where he has, but it has never lasted more than at the most a week. Also, if he has issues with his tonsils or adenoids and breathing, it may also contribute to his speech delay.

It is so amazing to me that 2 out of our 3 children may have an ENT issue. I have really only ever had swimmer's ear when it comes to ear infections and ENT issues and I don't think my husband was ever really prone to ear infections or other ENT issues. My dad did have major issues with his ears and 2 of my sisters have had tubes and one of them has had pretty severe ENT issues. My niece has also had enlarged tonsils and adenoids and had them removed when she was 5. I am just waiting for the shoe to drop and to find out that Thomas has some issue. I really shouldn't complain. These issues are not all that significant, although Michael's breathing could be. I really don't have sick kids. As horrible and scary as the RSV was, and I will probably always be traumatized from having my son rushed to Children's because he was declining so fast as well as watching my daughter on a vent for 6 days, we have been really lucky. I wouldn't wish RSV on anyone especially when they are so little, but I have, overall, really healthy kids. I just want to get to the bottom of these issues and have them finalized and hope that after all is said and done, my kids speech will explode, Michael's sleep will improve as well as his overall breathing, and we will all be healthy again!

Amy

Doctor Visits

2011-01-04T15:56:00.000-08:00

In the almost three years that I have had children, except for a yeast issue with Michael right after the twins were born and RSV with the twins and then one related ER trip months later, we have only needed to see the doctor for well baby visits. I have felt extremely lucky that we have not had more illness requiring doctor visits. Now I feel that we are having pretty significant issues, though not serious, may be impacting my kids more than I ever realized.

Since all three kids have had a significant speech delay, we have had them evaluated by early intervention. EI recommended that they all have a hearing test to rule out that hearing loss is an issue for the speech delay. All three kids speech delay is unrelated to hearing loss. I've already written about having Eva Rose evaluated for fluid in her ears. Now, I am thinking that Michael may need to see an ENT. Michael has never been a good sleeper. He snores louder than an adult at times. My husband, my mother, and I have all heard what we think is apnea. I mentioned this to his EI worker, who is a speech therapist, and she said that if he is having sleep apnea issues, which could be related to his adenoids or his tonsils or both, that could be affecting his speech. She said that if she knew about this issue early, she would have recommended an ENT eval months ago. I had no idea that this could be related to his speech. We are seeing the doctor tomorrow and I hope that she agrees that we should see an ENT. I absolutely want to rule out that Michael's sleep issues and speech issues aren't related to adenoids or tonsils or both!

I new that his breathing could be having an impact on his sleeping, but I never even thought about it being related to his speech and it make so much sense that it could. His EI worker said that every time we talk, we need to stop breathing. She said in kids with breathing issues, as a means of survival, they don't talk as much. Where he is so young, he probably isn't able to verbalize the issue. He certainly also seems congested at times, even during the day, but there is no other evidence of a cold. Michael is certainly improving with his single words, but has not really put two words together. If breathing is an issue, then I can certainly see why he is speaking in only one word sentences. If anyone has any information about sleep apnea in kids or enlarged adenoids and tonsils and how it relates to sleep and speech, I would appreciate it being passed on.

Amy

2011 Family/Me Goals

2011-01-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of the new year, I am going to set some goals for myself that I hope will make life a little more sane for me and my family. I have come to realilze that without a schedule, albeit a flexible schedule, I tend to feel a little out of control. If mom's feeling a little out of control, imagine how the kiddos feel?

My Goals to Help Me Be A Better Mom

Make sure that there is something scheduled for the kids to do every day (story time, library, park on nice days, indoor play areas if possible)
Have a plan in place for the day
Make sure that nap/quiet time happens
Make time to clean and organize the house
Make a weekly, if not monthly dinner plan
Schedule some creative time for me
Try to schedule playdates for the kids (and for me too)

These are just a few of my goals that I hope will help me be less crazy and more fun. The last 5 years have been a whirlwind: grandmother'sdeath, grad school, engagement, moving, grad school graduation, wedding, husabnd miserable due to his job, selling a house, pregnancy and mother in law's death in the same month, bed rest for 6 weeks, twins pregnancy 3 months after giving birth to my older son, husband finally gets a new job and is so much happier, bed rest 3 months, 5 weeks premature twins, both twins in NICU with RSV, leaving my job after 10 years, buying a house, going back to work part time, and life as a family of 5.

I have very slowly realized that I need to have a plan in place for me to feel comfortable and not overwhelmed. After looking over all that has happened in the last 5 years, I am amazed that I am actually as sane as I am (not that it's saying much). I like order. I don't like to be completely rigid, but I do like to feel someehat organized, and when I'm not, I get totally overwhelmed and I can't get back there easily. So, my goal is to slowly start getting things back in order so that there is a plan to my day. I figure if I do things slowly, I won't get overwhelmed and give up like I usually do. My goal is to make changes that will last, not changes that happen for a short time and end up getting forgotten about because it is just all too much.

Amy

2010 Review in Pictures

2011-01-02T19:53:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how much the kids changed over the last year. One year ago, the twins weren't walking, now they are running everywhere! I love going through the picture and reminiscing about the things that have happened, the changes that have happened, and how we have all changed physically over the past year!

January

Eva Rose 1st Birthday

Thomas 1st Birthday

Michael enjoying the frosting from the twins birthday cake

February

Enjoying a winter day at the park

March

Happy 2nd Birthday Michael

Eva Rose enjoying Michael's cake

Mommy and Thomas

April

Crazy hot day in April!

May

All 3 in one picture and all smiling!

June

Father's day picture

July

Running at the park

August

Rockport with Daddy

September

Patriot's Opening Day Family Picture

October

Halloween 2010

November

Sitting together nicely instead of fighting!

Crazy sleeping positions!

December

Santa

First outing in the snow for 2010

Happy New Year Everyone!

Amy

Update On The Repeat Audiology Visit

2010-12-30T14:43:00.000-08:00

So, Eva Rose went for her follow up audiology visit today and pretty much nothing had changed from her last visit. Her hearing is borderline normal, which isn't really the issue. The biggest issue is that she continues to have fluid in her middle ear and the negative pressure in her middle ear was worse. Her last appointment was 3 months ago and either nothing has changed or it has gotten worse. We now have to see an otolaryngologist to evaluate what to do next. We have an appointment in 3 weeks which is the soonest appointment that we could get. I was thinking about an appoint on a different day of the week, but that would have meant that the appointment wouldn't be for at least 2-3 more weeks and the audiologist didn't want her to wait that long. We may be looking at tubes for her if the fluid doesn't resolve by the next appointment. She will also have another hearing test the day that she sees the otolaryngologist.

The good news is that even though she is borderline normal hearing, meaning that she hears fine at close distances, but may not hear so fine at further distances. This also means that if there is a hearing loss it is not impacting her speech. She, along with her brothers have all progressed quite nicely with their vocabulary. There is some talk about whether or not they will be eligible for further services through EI. I am hoping that they will still get services since they are doing so well with the services that they have! I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens at the next appointment. The best thing that could happen is that the fluid dissipates on it's own.

Amy

My Crazy Life

2010-12-29T13:47:00.000-08:00

I don't know if it was just a bad day, the fact that I got my period (sorry if TMI), or what, but I had a horrible day. The kids drove me crazy, the house is a disaster, and I was just in a plain crappy mood. My kids are now almost 3 and almost 2. In a couple of weeks, I'll actually have 3 two year olds for a month and a half. They fight horrible, they destroy my house (and I hate to clean as it is), and they just always want to be on the go. Now that winter is here, we can't really go to the park. They hate to keep mittens on so being outside for any length of time is pretty much out of the question. The indoor play areas can get crazy expensive or just plain crazy with 3 little ones.

With the new year coming, my goal is to have a schedule, albeit fairly flexible, but a schedule for both me and the kids so that I can make sure that they are having fun, learning, and I can get things done. I haven't been very scheduled at all, and I think it is now time to put something into place so that I feel less stressed about the day! I am hoping that with some scheduling, the craziness wll be alleviated somewhat, or at least I won't be as stressed about it. Now, I need to get a plan in place for waht I want to do with the kids. There is a resource network that I want to check out. I am hoping to get together with some friends who have kids and do a playgroup. I want to plan to have art time almost daily even if it is only for a short time. I want have dress up time. I guess I just need to put in some structured play time, and as stupid as it sounds, I'm not sure exactly how I want to schedule the day. If anyone has any suggestions or wants to plan a playgroup, please let me know. My newest goal is to start scheduling my day a little bit more than I have been.

Thanks,
Amy

Newest Crafting Projects

2010-12-28T16:02:00.000-08:00

So the holidays are officially over and I didn't get a chance to make as many handmade things for the kids, or anyone else. Hopefully things will settle down, and I can get into a routine for me and the kids. I am hoping that with a better routine, I will be able to get more done, including crafting for the kids. I have so many things that I want to make, but there is just not enough time in the day. I always knew that once I had kdis, I wanted to put my love of crafting to good use for them. The next projects on the list are: knit hats for all three as well as mittens, a doll and doll accessories like: quilt, clothes, maybe even a moses basket, a car caddy for each of the boys, since they are so into cars, especially Thomas. There are also the multiple quilts that I want to make for the kids and others! I better get that routine down so that I can set aside time to craft and get these projects done. Thankfully, I set aside Monday nights to get together with a friend and create. Oh, there is also the multiple scrapbooks that I need to work on. Good god, I have way to many projects that I want to make!

Amy

Happy 23 Months Babies!

2010-12-23T15:41:00.000-08:00

A few of my twin mom friends write letters to their children every month to document the different things that have gone on. This can be developmental changes, activities that have happened, or just funny things/memories to preserve. Since today is Eva Rose and Thomas' 23rd month of life, I figured I'd start today. I don't think that I am as prepared as I'd like to be to really document all the different things that have gone on, but I definitely want to acknowledge that my babies aren't babies any more. I will be sure to really document things for their 2 year birthday, but for this post, I will just briefly go over things.

We found out that we were having twins when I was 11 weeks along in my second pregnancy. I was so lucky to get pregnant so quickly after my first son. We never imagines twins, though so many people joked about it with us. I have twins on both sides of my family and even though the male doesn't really have anything to do with the likelihood, my husband has identical triplets on his side. I was put on bed rest at 23 weeks and was so scared that I would deliver early. At 35 weeks, my OB took me off bed rest and when I went for a routine non-stress test, I found out that I was having the babies that night because of pre-eclampsia. They were born 5 weeks early and my daughter was 4 pounds 7 ounces and 17 3/4 inches and my son was 4 pounds 8.9 ounces and 17 inches. They did great and were able to come home with me. unfortunately after 2 1/2 weeks, my son got RSV and was taken to Children's Hospital via ambulance from a routine doctors appointment. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks and did well. His sister was admitted for RSV 1 week after he was and she was in for 2 weeks. From the time they were discharged from the hospital, they just grew stronger and stronger every day! Over the last month, I have seen such changes in both of their verbal skills. We have had early intervention involved for about 3 months now and the improvement in their ability to express and understand is amazing. My Eva Rose was always and continues to be my feisty go getter and I thought that she would be the one to speak first and have a more extensive vocabulary. My Thomas is my little cuddle bug that loves to snuggle especially with daddy. The funny thing is, he is the one who seems to have all of a sudden exploded with his vocabulary. they are still only saying 1 word at a time, but they have gone from maybe a 5 word vocabulary to at least a 25 word vocabulary and probably more than that. They are able to point out pictures and name objects independently. They are starting to play with toys in a more functional manner.

My goal for the new year is to start really having some scheduled activities for them instead off me being wishy-washy about the day. I think this will be a better plan for all of us. I don't want to plan and schedule my day in a totally rigid manner, I just want to have a plan on what I want to happen that day. I love being a mom too my 3 kids, and even though I always knew I wanted to have children and stay at home with them, I never realized how totally amazing it would be. Don't get me wrong, I have my major stressors and don't always deal with things in the most rational way and my kids are not perfect angels, but I wouldn't change a thing! As difficult as it's been having 3 kids in 10 1/2 months, I wouldn't change a thing. I love watching them play together and overall they get along really well. They are siblings after all so they do also fight, but when they kiss each other and play together nicely, it makes me tear up!

Wow, lengthy post, but so needed. I may repeat some of this in next months post for their 2 year post, but after that I won't! thank you bloggy friends for inspiring me to write this type of post. I know that this is not the best most in depth post (even though it is so long), but I think this is a great way to document different things in my kids lives since I can't scrapbook like I would want to (though I really need to get back to doing that!)

Amy

way Back When-esday: Christmas Eve

2010-12-22T05:01:00.000-08:00

Four years ago, I got my engagement ring, after dating for 13 1/2 years.

By our 1st Christmas as a married couple I was already 6 months pregnant and one year later I was pregnant with the twins not realizing I would be giving birth to them 1 month later.

This was me and my older son 2 years ago Christmas Eve, just one month before our twins entered the world!

Merry Christmas,

Amy

Eva Rose's First Haircut

2010-12-19T13:02:00.000-08:00

Saturday, we took all 3 kids for their holiday haircut. Both the boys had been before and were certainly not fan for their first haircut, but boy oh boy, Eva Rose was not a happy camper. We take the boys to a traditional barber in Cambridge, that is not only inexpensive, but the staff have great personalities as well and they are actually really good with the kids.

This time, Eva Rose went first and as you can see from the following pictures, she was miserable. Then Thomas went, and her was just as miserable. I didn't think that he would be that bad since his first time wasn't too traumatic. Finally, it was Mr Michael's turn. He was amazing. He didn't cry once. This was probably his 5th or 6th hair cut and the woman cutting his hair said that haircuts 2-6 tend to be the worst. We have a few more to go with the twins before we have no crying. That is if what she said is true!

Before we started

Even eating her candy cane wasn't making her happy!

Yay! All Done!!!!

Thankfully we won't have to go back for a while!

Amy

Sleep and Lack There Of!

2010-12-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I thought I had figured out the sleep issues with Michael. I was so wrong! My good luck lasted for about a week, before it took a sudden dive. I'm sure that there will be plenty of people that say I am too lenient and never ever let your child sleep in bed with you. Unfortunately, I succumb to the need for sleep and Michael often ends up in bed with me and my husband. Maybe I should be more strict and just let him cry. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. I'm sure part of the reason it doesn't work is me. There is a part of me that loves to cuddle him with me, then there is another part of me that feels like I am doing him a huge disservice. If you ask my mom, she says "just let him sleep with you". One of my younger sisters slept with my parents for the longest time and she turned out ok. One of these days, Michael will learn to sleep through the night and we will all get some much needed rest. For now, I am ok with him in my bed, even if there are others that don't agree.

Amy

Way Back When-esday:

2010-12-15T19:38:00.000-08:00

Michael Christmas last year

Thomas and Daddy with Thomas making his favorite face

Christmas 2009

Eva Rose Christmas 2009

Happy Holidays!

Amy

Silhouettes

2010-12-14T19:33:00.000-08:00

Thank you http://sotorrifictwins.blogspot.com for this fabulous idea! I'm actually doing my second post of the day. This is the gift for my mom. I was thinking of doing a scrapbook, but I just don't have time. This is such a great idea and so quick too.

Michael, Eva Rose, and Thomas

Michael (Excuse the flash)

Eva Rose

Thomas

I think they came out really good, and I know my mom will love them!

Happy Holidays!

Amy

Handmade Christmas Update

2010-12-14T15:21:00.000-08:00

My Christmas cards are pretty much all stuffed and ready to be mailed. No, I did not make them myself, but I did pick out the pictures and the card myself.

I have completed 4 felt eggs and a few felt bow tie pastas for the kids for Christmas. I have a few Oreo looking cookies that still need to be sewn. I have a few other cookie to cut out and sew and I still want to decide on a few other felt food items for their Christmas gifts. I really need to move on to making aprons to go along with the food as well as some scrubs to go along with the doctor kit that I bought them. I also want to make a doll for Eva Rose and something else for the boys.

I have my silhouette patterns to cut out for my mom's gift. I need to get together an album of the kids for my grandmother (which is probably something I should do sooner than later since she is in a nursing home and is declining and is out of state). I have a few wine sacks to sew and I would love to make some wine bottle stoppers to go along with them.

As you can see I have way too many projects and so not enough time to complete them. I'll probably have to hold off on some of the kids gifts so that I can get the others done. Someday, I'll learn not to wait until the last minute, but wait in 37 years I haven't learned it yet. I probably shouldn't hold my breath, but it is something to strive for!

Happy Holidays,
Amy

Sleep and Christmas

2010-12-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

Hopefully by writing this, I am not jinxing myself. Michael has had almost 1 week of sleeping through the night (with a little of going in and rubbing the head or the back but only 1 out of the bed nights). The only night that he woke and was uinable to be quieted in his bed was the only night that I didn't go in and check on him. In the past he has always fought having a blanket on so I haven't been putting it on him figuring he's like his dad and tends to like to sleep on the cooler side. He has since started letting me put the blanket on him and it seems to make a huge difference. Yeah, I know, bad mom. I should have figured this out sooner, except like I said he would always kick the blanket off almost immediately. I have to admit that the one night that I had to take him out of his room, not only did I have an upset stomach, but he sounded like he was going to get sick also (we've also been fighting sickness in our house as well as a lot of stomach things going around). Let's hope that this continues and we all get some good much needed rest.

On another note, Christmas is 12 days away. Can you believe it? This will be our second Christmas as a family of five. I think the kids are going to love getting presents this year. I'm not sure that they are going to get Santa, but gifts should be much more fun. This year, we are giving them some new toys and some recycled toys that were given to us. Given that we got so many toys given to us, they are getting a ton of things. They would not be getting nearly as many things as they are if we had to buy everything. We are getting them some new toys. I got 3 Mr. Potato Heads. Mainly, I got these because I am trying to get gifts that will help with their speech so I was looking at getting things that EI (early intervention used) and also the Potato Heads are from Toy Story, which they love! I also got them some puppets, some blocks, and a doctors kit. I am making them some things also. I had wanted to try to make sure that they got something handmade every year, but this is the first year that I am able to do it. I have started on some felt food. So far I have eggs and farfalle pasta. I want to make a few more things (even though I asked for play food for Christmas). I also want to make aprons for the kids and maybe even some kid sized scrubs if I can get around to it. I am trying to have a somewhat handmade Christmas this year. I am, as usual, last minute susie here, but I know that the things I want to make for everyone, can get done by Christmas. My friend over at http://firstcametwins.com/ has inspired me to get my butt moving and make things. I need to stop stting and vegging out at the TV. I can hand sew things, make my scrapbooks, do my clay, even set up my sewing machine if I have to all while I watch TV. This way, I can be rpoductive rather than just a lump doing nothing. Plus, it's way better for my mind! I never watched TV growing us and here I am as an adult and I am wasting precious time in from of the TV.

Happy Holidays,
Amy

Handmade Christmas Gifts

2010-12-10T14:28:00.000-08:00

I am attempting to make a few handmade gifts for Christmas this year. For my sisters and my sister in-law and their husbands, I am making a wine sack and thinking about adding a handmade bottle stopper to the gift as well as a store bought bottle of wine. I think my mom is getting an album of the kids in 2010. No idea for my husband. But the kids are definitely getting some handmade felt food. After I read a post from my friend over at http://firstcametwins.com, I was reminded that this was a project that I wanted to make for the kids. She had a couple of post about a couple of handmade items that she made for her twins for Christmas. She made the most adorable aprons, which I have to attempt as well as some fabric food. After making my apron for my swap, I decided that I want to make the kids an apron also. I had also seen a ton of felt food on multiple blogs that made me want to make some. So far, I have made a few felt bow tie pasta. When I asked my husband to tell me what I was making, he knew right away. How awesome it that! I also have a few egg shapes cut out that just need to be sewn. The next step is to pick out a few more food items and make them to put under the tree for Christmas. I figure, I can always make more after the holidays are over and there is less pressure to get things done! My other goal is to make at least Eva Rose a baby doll. I may even try to make the boys a doll also. I did ask for both the play food and dolls for Christmas gifts, but you can never have too many dolls or play food right? Now I just need to get my butt in gear and get moving so that these gifts actually get made and it is not just another idea that never comes to fruition.

Happy Holidays!
Amy

Good News!

2010-12-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

We had EI (early Intervention) today and we talked about the fact that the twins are coming up for their re-evaluation in a couple of months. Amazingly enough, the EI workers feel that they may not qualify next time. This is such great news, but it also stink in the fact that I have loved having people to come in and help with the kids speech. At least, I now know what to do to help them get their vocabulary going.

Michael is coming up for his evaluation at the same time, only the biggest difference is that he is going to age out of EI at his next evaluation. He will then be evaluated by the school system and I am really hoping that he will get picked up for pre-school through the schools. He is progressing, but is at at least the same point as the twins and maybe even a little behind them. Given that he is 10 1/2 months older, I am assuming that he should be further ahead than he is. EI is going to do an evaluation also prior to the schools evaluation, I think. They are at least going to do their own evaluation before Michael turns 3. Hi EI worker doesn't think that he'll qualify for pre-school since he really only has speech delays. She does think that he may qualify for speech therapy, but that may be it! It will certainly be interesting to see how things go over the next couple of months!

Amy

If anyone has other suggestions for helping with speech, I'd love to hear them. Anything else that I can do to continue to get the kids to progress is great!

Way Back When-esday: Christmas Card

2010-12-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

Monday, I posted this years picture with Santa, which will eventually become our Christmas card. Last year, we did the same thing, our picture with Santa was our Christmas card.

This was our picture last year. 2009

It's amazing what a difference a year makes!

Amy

Makes My Monday: Santa Picture

2010-12-06T06:31:00.000-08:00

I've been waiting to get this year's picture with Santa, but I wanted to do it soon so we could send out our Christmas cards. We went at the last minute yesterday, and as we were waiting, I wasn't sure how things were going to turn out. All 3 kids just wanted to run around. The twins were at least interested in Santa, but when Michael saw him, he said his favorite words, an emphatic NO! (he may not have huge vocabulary, but he can say NO!). Thankfully, when it was our turn, all 3 did really well. It took a lot of being crazy and silly on mommy and daddy's part, but isn't that what being a parent is all about?

Waiting to see Santa!

Here's this year's Christmas card!

(I couldn't find anything to match for Michael, so I sewed him a tie)

Enjoy the holiday season!

Amy

Way Back When-esday: Lighting the Christmas Lights

2010-12-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

This week last year, we took the 3 kids to the lighting of the lights on the common in our town. The twins weren't even 1 yet and still in their infant car seats and Michael 1.75 and we were still using our triple decker. This year, we will have a 2.75 year old and the twins are 22 months old. This year they are able to walk at the lighting if we so wanted. Unfortunately, I have to work, so I don't know if we will be at the lighting or not. I would love to have a picture of this year though. Maybe I'll try to talk my husband into taking the kids, and I can meet them after work.

Happy Holidays,

Amy

COPE

2010-11-30T15:03:00.000-08:00

This year, I decided that I needed to get more involved with my twin's group, so I decided to be the COPE co-chair. COPE is a monthly informal support type group. We get together to help with issues that we are facing or just to get out and be with other moms. I haven't quite decided how things are going. Part of me is concerned that I am not doign enough and that I should do more. Then this month's meeting in in West Newton, which is just too far of a drive for me after work. By the time I got there, it would be almost time to leave. These things have got me wondering if I should step down and see if someone else wants to be the co-chair, or if things are going ok as they are. I guess I should probably talk to the other co-chair to see how she is feeling. I should make sure that this isn't just all in my head.

Sometimes, I wonder if I am active enough, or friendly enough, or just too quiet. I would love to have more playdates for the kids and for me, but somehow my schedule or somethign else seems to get in the way of getting out there and being with other moms and kids. Ireally need to get to the library in town. Actually, tomorrow, I am going to try to get there in the morning, so that the kids can play. I also want to sign up for their story time so that we can start meeting more people in my town. Also, I think I should maybe I should put myself out there and see if people want to come over our house. Our house is just so small and cluttered, that I sometimes wonder if it's even worth having people over. But, maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe I don't invite people over enough.

Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive and I just need to stop over thinking things. Life's too short to worry about stupid things. I just need to be a little better at putting myself out there and I need to stop being so introverted at times!

Amy

Crafting With The Kids

2010-11-29T15:57:00.000-08:00

I am trying to get the kids into crafting. I know they are a little young, so I am trying to go with their abilities and do simple projects for short periods of time with lots of help from mom! So far we have some gifts for their cousins and the start of gifts for their godparents. I still need to figure out what I am going to have them do for their nonna and their papa. If I can get them interested in crafting, I may be able to amke time for me to craft, and I'll hopefully help to support their imaginations.

Amy

Feeling Somewhat Better

2010-11-26T13:53:00.000-08:00

I posted a few days ago that I was starting to wonder if it was worth conintuing to write this blog. Mainly this was do to my lack of followers and people who comment. I totally realize that this blog is for me and if people read it and comment on it great. If there are not a ton of followers or coments made so be it. I got a few comments from people saying that they to don't always get coments or have the biggest following, but they write for them. I need to remember this. Also, people have reminded me that just because people don't comment of follow, doesn't mean that they don't read your blog. The funny thing is, after I wrote that post and got some of those comments, a friend mentioned that she reads my blog often. She has never commented, but she reads my blog!

I think part of these insecurities come from never really having a ton of friends. I have always had a couple of very close friends and a bunch of aquaintences, but never a huge friend base. I guess, I thought that maybe as an adult things would change. I thought, maybe I'd be more likely to open myself up and be more friendly than she and quiet. I thought having kids would make things easier. Unfortunately, none of these are true. I have met some great people/aquaintences between grad school, work, and being a mom, I just haven't really made the friends that I thought I would. There are a lot of these people that I would consider a friend, but unfortunately I don't think that the feelings are mutual. I know having 3 little ones so close in age may be making things a little more difficult. I know that my shyness tends to be a major limiting factor. I know that people's busy schedules play a huge role. But, I also know that there are plenty of people in my situation that have made friends, close friends, not just aquaintences. Maybe as I get more comfortable in my own skin and I open up and become a little more extroverted, maybe then I'll be able to make soem close friendships and not just have aquaintences!

Amy

Way Back When-esday: Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T18:39:00.000-08:00

I'm playing with http://twinfactuation.blogspot.com again.

Thanksgiving 2009 (Michael 20 1/2 months and the twins 10 months)

Even though the kids are still teeny weeny, it's amazing what a difference a year makes.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Amy

Potty Training

2010-11-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

So, I am starting to work with Michael on potty training. I think it's going to be a long road, and we may try it for a few days and then stop because I'm just not sure if he is ready or not. He is 2 years 8 1/2 months old and I figured it's time to at least give it a real shot. I don't think that I'm up for potty training boot camp. I give those mom's who can do it so much credit. I don't think that I could do it. Thanks to the suggestions of my twin moms, I went out and bought the potette plus potty chair. We already have 3 potty chairs from IKEA (1 for each kid) and a potty chair that is a Summer brand and pretty traditional. I like the idea of the popette plus for sitting on the regular toilet and also for travel. I'm not going to plan on being out of diapers for a while, but I think it's worth giving it a try. So hears to hopefully having one out of diapers sooner than later and if Michael isn't ready, I'll move on to Eva Rose, who may actually be more ready than Michael even though she is 10 1/2 months younger. Oh well, every kid is different.

Any potty training tips are very much appreciated and welcome here,

Amy

Makes My Monday: New Pictures!

2010-11-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

I'm playing along with Cheryl at twinfactuation.blogspot.com for Makes my Monday. These are some of the latest pictures. I haven't been really good at taking pictures lately!

Everyone wanted yogurt

My climbers

Eva Rose and Thomas sharing a swing at the park

Enjoying the park on the swings!

My latest craft project

As an update to my last post, I am certainly changing my way of thinking when it comes to blogging. My blogs are for me and if I get followers or comments, great, if not, oh well. My blogs are my stories and I will enjoy writing them and reading them. I do still have some insecurities about people wanting to be friends with me, but I'll get over it and I'm sure as the kids grow and I meet people, I'll meet people who want to be friends and it will all be good.

Amy

A Little Insecure?

2010-11-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

I didn't start this blog to get followers or have the most comments written, but still, I'm wondering if it is even worth writing this anymore. I have all of 31 followers and I get 1 maybe 2 comments, and on a good day, I may get 4. I know that I don't probably spend enough time out commenting on others blogs, but I try to do what I can. Maybe there is a different or better way to meet people through blogging?

The main reason I started this blog was to document the craziness of everyday life with 3 kids so close in age. I guess on some level, I wish that I had more followers and more people to comment on the things I write. Maybe, it's because I don't write things that are interesting enough, maybe it's because I'm not interacting with other bloggers enough, maybe it's just because...... who knows and I probably shouldn't care but I do.

I guess I just need to get over it and realize that this blog and any other blog that I write is just for me. Again, I never intended to have crazy followers, but it always feels good to have people follow you and comment on things you write.

As I write this, I am wondering if I should even actually post this, but one other thing that I wanted from this blog was a place to be honest about my feelings. So here it is, do I need to just change my way of looking at why I blog and focus it more for me, or do I change how I write and what I do with other bloggers and hope that I get more followers and commenters? A little bit of both?

Amy