I’ve done lots of behind the scenes “i.e. code” site updates in the past day.  Hopefully the site and, more importantly, the photo galleries work a little faster.

There are so many times that I think to myself, “Hey, I should put that in a post.” But lately it just hasn’t been happening. So here are a few little things:

New Baby
Things are good with him. I’m almost 37 weeks, he’s head down, and my due date is rapidly approaching. He’s crazy active almost all the time. I’m starting to be really uncomfortable, and heartburn has been a major issue the last week or so. The twins always want to sit in my lap, but I don’t have a lap anymore, which makes things difficult at times. I’m doing weekly appointments now and at the last two, the doctors told me I needed to get onto the c-section schedule at the hospital in case I don’t go into labor on my own. So I finally pulled my head out of the sand and called today, and if I don’t go into labor on my own before then, Dr. P will go in and get him on March 26th. I could have gone a bit longer, but then I wouldn’t have been able to get the doctor who I like who also happens to have delivered the twins. I am still hoping for a VBAC, but know that what will be will be, and as long as we get a healthy baby and mommy out of it, we’ll be happy and manage the difficulties either type of birth will create.

Avery

Avery is so smart it’s scary sometimes. Well, lots of times. She says the cutest things - the latest includes “Here ya go, honey” and “Thanks, honey.” She also loves to wrestle with Daddy and will go up to him and say “Bodysam? Peas?” when she wants him to throw her around. Not so cute is “NO WAY!” which is her answer to even her favorite things when she’s in a mood. Can’t imagine where she gets that attitude from! She’s still in love with Mickey and Pooh and can name all the characters from those two shows. She knows her colors, can sort of count to ten (1,2,3,2,3,2,3 and then eventually if you give her 4,5, she can do the rest,) and can say most of the ABCs. She’s been having some trouble with bedtime the last few nights, screaming when we leave the room and/or playing for up to an hour after lights out. Not sure what’s going on there. I worry a lot about what her reaction will be to the new baby. She loves the idea right now, but of course she has no idea of the reality of it, and she’s stuck to me like glue most of the time. Like, she literally has to be touching me most of the time. I cannot imagine the NO WAYs and worse that will happen when I’m trying to nurse or hold or do whatever with her new baby brother. Her little world is just going to be rocked. And I feel a bit guilty about that.

Alex

Alex and Daddy are best friends these days. He wants to do everything Daddy does - helping him build and fix things, following him around with his tools, asking for him as soon as he wakes up. It’s very cute. He’s really gotten to be pretty independent and doesn’t mind spending time playing on his own with his trains or vacuum or whatever. He LOVES to be outside and throws a fit anytime we drag him in, no matter how cold it is out. In the last couple of weeks, it seems like he’s realized that people communicate by talking, and while his vocabulary isn’t nearly as prolific as Avery’s he is starting to put two words together at times, and he babbles up a storm. I very often comment that I just wish he spoke English. Lots of context is helpful, since things like Colby (Cubby), cup (cuppy) and glove (gubby) all sound nearly identical. He loves to tell you what noise something made, even if you were right there to hear it. So he’ll say something like “Cubby *blech*” when Colby coughs, or “Daddy wzzzhhhh” when Don is using some nosy tool. Our little reporter.
He’s still doing well with the potty and us not pushing full-on training. He usually sits on it after breakfast, after nap, and before bed and at least pees every time. We have a really cute word book about a mouse named Maisy, and in it there’s a picture of a bull going poop. That seems to inspire him to go, which is very funny - he asks for the Maisy book and the poop page and then he goes. We had one incident last week when he woke up dry from a nap and I wanted him to get on the potty but he didn’t want to, so I told him he could have a piece of candy if he went. That worked like a charm - he got one M&M for peeing. Unfortunately, it backfired quickly when he wanted another candy and I said they were only for going on the potty - he ran right back to the bathroom and threw a fit when I wouldn’t help him get back on. The tantrum lasted 10 minutes and I decided candy was not going to be a good motivator for him for the potty - he got part of the logic but not enough of it for it to work.

Other

We’re still working on getting everyone in the house well again. I posted before about Avery & Alex being sick. Since then, the they both got another cold, and we had Alex at the doctor on Friday to make sure he didn’t have an ear infection. I hope they are getting it all out before their brother comes, but in reality I know they are just little petri dishes of funk at this age and there’s not much we can do. I’ve finally made some new mom acquaintances in the area thanks to storytime at the local library, so we’ve had some playdates and that’s been a nice break for us all. I get adult conversations and the twins get some interaction with other kids as well as out of the house once in a while. I think we’re all ready for spring and better weather - being cooped up sucks!

Don is finished the guest bathroom project he took on 3 years ago, and it was worth the wait. It looks amazing, and I’m so proud of him for doing it all himself. We spent lots of time at Lowe’s and Home Depot this weekend getting things to do the kids’ bathroom on the main floor, which is really the only room left that we haven’t redone in this house. We just had french doors installed in the basement to replace the slider that was rotting at the bottom by the “pros” at Home Depot. Yeah - it’s neither square nor plumb, the caulk the guy did at the bottom on the coldest day of the winter never set and ran out when it rained two days later, and there are holes big enough for mice to come in through and air to flow through on all sides. I don’t know why we bother - every installation experience from them has been awful. The installer said it was how all the doors from this manufacturer are, but how much can you trust someone who installs a door without ever using a level? At any rate, the manufacturer has been out and given us a written report that it’s HD’s fault, so now they have to come reinstall the door and I will be bitching to get a refund of our hefty installation fee. And we’ve learned that while it might take Don longer to do something, he always does a better job in the end and we’ll be sticking with that in the future, I believe.

And with that, I believe we’re caught up!

Wow, here we are with 29 days left until Baby 3.0’s due date.  It’s hard to believe he’ll be here in a month!  I can’t lie that I’m definitely getting more nervous as the time gets closer.  I think at this point it’s more an issue of dealing with the possibility of Jen going into labor early in the middle of the night or something.  Before Alex and Avery it really wasn’t a problem because we can just jump in the car and go.  Now with these guys to worry about I’m in a panic of what we’d have to do with them.

We’re also realizing now that we should probably get a back packed in case the time does come early.  I think we’ve both just had it in our minds that he’ll come on time and everything will go exactly as planned.  We were even talking the other night about possibly going to visit my dad before 3.0 comes and quickly realized we probably shouldn’t put ourselves in a situation where we’re 3 1/2 hours away from home.

What I’m NOT nervous about is having a new baby.  Before Alex and Avery I had zero experience with tiny babies, changing diapers, etc.  At least now I’ve got that level of confidence where I don’t have to constantly ask myself if I’m holding the baby the right way, if that noise he made is normal, etc.

But please don’t get me wrong, I’m still a paranoid person (parent) in general.  For example, Avery recently had a small scab on her head that neither Jen or I knew how it got there.  It just seemed to show up one day out of the blue.  At first we weren’t sure if it was a scab, a mole or what.  So we kept watching it and it didn’t seem to be going away.  So I started to think man, it’s probably a mole.  Then I thought, wow, if it’s a mole we should get it checked out in case it’s like cancerous or something more serious.

It turned out to just be a scab that Jen was able to pop off with her fingernail.  But, it just goes to show the process I went through in my head of “no big deal” to “we should get it looked at”.  I’m sure that will happen less and less as I continue to get more years of parenthood under my belt.  I’m sure once the big bangs/bruises (i.e. skinned knees, etc) come I’ll definitely brush such things off much easier.

Sorry for taking so long, but new January and February pictures are online.

Tis the season, right? We’ve had a few hellacious weeks in this house for the twins. It started on Jan. 23rd with Avery getting a fever that quickly went to 103-104 even with alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours. Her first visit to the dr. that Saturday morning revealed nothing, and by Monday it finally broke and seemed both kids just had colds. Alex never got the fever, though. But by Weds., Avery’s fever was back and I had her back at the pediatrician’s, where she was diagnosed with a double ear infection and given a strong antibiotic. We thought we were on the road to recovery and happy kids again. Ha! A week later on Thursday, Alex woke up at 8 pm puking all over his crib, the walls, the carpet… Don was such a trooper and cleaned it all while Avery and I supervised helping Alex to aim for the toilet or trash can each time he got sick. Avery learned a new sentence that night: “Agus pook,” (her version of Alex puke.) 4 hours, 5 changes of pajamas, and many vomiting and dry heaving episodes later, we got him to sleep in our bed. He was fine Friday and then puked once Saturday morning in the hall - too early to have given him milk, I guess. I’m still trying to hunt down a lingering smell somewhere int he hall or bathroom - so gross. Not one to be outdone, Avery did the stomach bug thing Saturday night, only she went from 11 pm to 3 am and wasn’t nearly as cooperative about sleeping once the throwing up was done. She’s been a super cranky girl - crying and having tantrums all the time, saying NO even to her favorite things like holding Beary Bear and watching Mickey Mouse. She was clearly exhausted for days on end, as were we all. All I heard for days was “Mommy, hold” over and over, which I don’t mind doing but she wanted me to stand and hold her non-stop, which kills my back these days. Finally, today, almost 3 weeks later, I had my happy babies back with good appetites and smiles and giggles. I’m praying it continues because I think we were all at the end of our ropes with exhaustion and frustration.