Update

So I feel as if I need to update everyone since I had a major venting session for my last post. On Sunday my friend (and angel) Julee basically decided as soon as church ended to kidnap the boys for a couple of hours. She literally took my keys, ignored my excuses about us intruding on her weekend and left. The boys know "Ms. Julee" well but were quite surprised and quiet on the drive to her house. I drove her husband's car home and she took my van. She fed them lunch and let them play with her twins before returning them to me. She got to experience W's play-by-play commentary on the drive home:

"Airplane! Motorcycle! BIG truck! Volkswagen beetle car! Runway!"


Wow. That two hours did wonders for me. I got some much needed quiet, a nap, and got the house picked up enough to be seen by visitors. I would have never asked her to take the boys for me though. I "retreat" when we are having a bad time instead of asking for help. I guess I feel like I am weak and failing as a parent. But being around friends (or adults in general!) puts things in perspective.

J fell asleep on Julee while she was driving home...although he woke up when she got him from the car seat she was able to put him into his bed (awake) and he stayed there and returned to sleep. W ran around like a crazy man around the kitchen while we chatted. Then we attempted to put W down but he wouldn't have it. The kid screamed and banged on the door (he lays down on the floor and kicks it-it is LOUD) for about two hours. I don't know how J slept through that but I know he got a little bit of rest.

I was feeling much better and optimistic after talking with Julee and after a much-needed jog in the afternoon with the boys. W still fought bedtime and managed to sleep for an hour before waking at 9 p.m. to kick the door again. It is so loud (quite effective I must admit) that even in the guest bedroom with the air purifier on high doesn't muffle the noise much. But I was tired enough to sleep through it.

And we had a really good day today. We started off with a jog, then we went to thrift store where we found a great fire truck puzzle. As soon as I saw a semblance of a yawn from J at 12:45 I jumped up and said "nap time!" and put them down. I guess W decided that after six days of ignoring naps, he would rest on the seventh day. I didn't hear much for two hours. Hallelujah!

One week down. We miss you Geoff/daddy!

P.S. I had fun pics to put in this blog but for some reason my computer keeps freezing whenever I tried to link them..........so maybe later.

Unbelievable

Unbelievable. I don't know what is going on with the boys right now. I thought that getting them on a good regimen for their skin would stop the endless waking from itching. And I thought Tuesday night was bad. It got much worse Wednesday night. I was up with W all night - I think we both slept from 4-6a.m. and that is it. Unbelievable. No naps on Thursday. But the boys were doing much better in regards to playing together and communicating with me rather going straight to screaming and throwing things. And I made sure they were in bed by 7...and they made it all the way through until 6 a.m. Hallelujah! Unfortunately for me, our new (and questionable) neighbors across the street decided to have a screaming match at 2 a.m. in their front yard. They were SO loud and then I couldn't get back to sleep for 2 hours. Unbelievable. Why couldn't they have done that on a night when I was already up (every night since Tues but that one) Fast forward to Friday night where I was getting desperate....surely they will sleep great since again they didn't nap on Friday again except for a 15-min catnap in the car on the way home from the zoo. When they woke up from that little car nap; things went downhill way fast and we had a very unpleasant evening...I was counting the minutes until bedtime...but again, sleep eluded us; and W didn't get to sleep until after midnight with another appearance around 2 a.m. and then at 4:30 a.m.
No nap on Saturday despite my sitting in their room with them for TWO hours. Why did I do that? Because Geoff will sit in their room on weekends and tell them to get back in their bed until they go to sleep. And yes, it works for him. It has never once worked for me. I couldn't believe it...these guys were so exhausted that they were nodding off an noon in the car on the way home from swim lessons. Unbelievable. And again I prayed for the boys to sleep last night. But from 10 p.m. until 12:12 a.m. I had SIX sleep interruptions...J up screaming and banging on his door twice and W four times. I had had it. I HAD to sleep. So I made sure they were OK, tucked them back in and slept in the guest bedroom with the air purifier.
I guess they just are needing to check that I am still there at night- I don't know. And I have been good all week about getting in bed by 9:30 because I know they will be up by 6 a.m. And I can't nap during the day if they don't nap. Ugh. I used to look so forward to nap time but now I dread it. It is a battle not worth fighting. I am just going to return to my quiet-time plan and put them in their room for an hour and if they sleep they sleep if not then they don't.
Now that I have my sleep frustrations off my chest, I am going to play Ralph's World song: M-O-M-M-Y needs C-O-F-F-E-E while I drink some.

Sock Hands.The Sequel

Those of you that saw J and W in their first 6-12 months of life always saw them with their "sock hands". When they would get frustrated they would both scratch their heads so much they would make their scalp bleed. Their first pediatrician pointed out their eczema creases from their first well baby check so I think they have just always been itchy.

W's eczema is again out of control. We received a referral to an allergist/asthma specialist and we saw him yesterday. He was very knowledgeable and seemed quite frustrated at a lot of the things we have tried due to other doctors' opinions. But he typed a very clear regime for us to follow which included four new prescriptions (to add to our current 27+ prescriptions) and "socks over hands and feet at night - every night" was on the list. So I told J and W that they were going to wear puppets on their hands for beds and they thought it was funny. They opened and closed their hands and said "crabs!" They did look like little crabs or lobsters...but they didn't keep them on very long. Will have to try out the sewing machine mom gave me to sew the socks onto some of their pajamas.

Flashback to New Years 2007:

And yesterday with socks:

Rough Start

Geoff left early yesterday and it was not the greatest day. I am very surprised to say that he has been gone all of about 30 hours and I am exhausted. Geoff has been gone lots before so this is nothing new...and I can say that I am good to handle most things as long as I have enough sleep. But W and J had me up about 5 different times last night (midnight, 1:30 a.m., 2:10 a.m., 4 a.m., and then 5:50 a.m) when W was up for good. J slept on (since he probably didn't sleep well last night) until 8 a.m. So no surprise that J is running around right now wide awake while W is taking a nap. And hence continues an off-kelter sleep schedule. That broken-sleep stuff KILLS me. My patience drops a good 80% and I have had a major headache all day long. I think the boys have slept straight through the night maybe an average of once every 2 weeks. W wakes up itchy frequently and needs lotion. Sometimes he wants re-tucked in. But lately, I think he just knows that something big is going on and he just needs comforted...and he just can't get back to sleep.

Swim lessons today didn't help. W spent the entire class crying and yelling "da-ddddy UP" several times. It just breaks my heart.

The worst part of this is that the 179-day doesn't even start for several days...travel-time doesn't count. We are in for a long summer.

Seeing Double

One of my BFF from college lives close by now...and she happens to be an identical twin with another one of my BFFs from college...and she and her family and more of their family (who I think should be my family as well) all came into town for spring break. I met Alicia and Rachel through ROTC, then I bribed them into moving into an apartment with me and three other crazy girls....=)

Alicia and I by the hot tub....(I didn't dress for the pool that day folks...just sticking my feet in the water):

They are the kind of friends whom you get right back in the groove with like no time has passed...I have known them for 14 years and miss them terribly...I am so blessed that Sol and Rach (and their new baby) live close now so I can at least see them more!

We had some good visiting time (never enough though) and some time to relax in the pool (ok, maybe the pool was too cold for my thin blood), hot tub and the beach.

Rach, Adam, and Alicia:

Geoff and the boys on the beach that day:

Sol, Alicia, Adam, and Acey:

I swear each and every one of them has a heart of gold!

Go PuRdUe!

Easter Blessings

Easter Sunday was so much fun. The boys were READY for the Easter Bunny to visit and leave behind a trail of eggs. They had no trouble finding all of the eggs in the house (did I mention our Easter Sunday started around 6 a.m.?) Since we don't give them much candy and with the whole food allergy-thing...we filled the eggs with matchbox cars and even left some empty. Geoff told me that I could not leave any eggs empty but I did...and here is a short video of J's reaction when he finds one:

And here is a video of the boys in action during the hunt:

W showing off his eggs:

Reaction when Geoff carried in their Easter baskets:

Checking out their loot:


We went to church and then to our friends' house for brunch and an outdoor egg hunt. Unfortunately my camera battery died before I could get a family picture but one of our friends took one on their camera so maybe I will post it later.

Here are some pics of all of the little ones eagerly awaiting their release into the back yard to get eggs.

Get ready...get set..........

GO!

There goes W...where is J?

Still no sign of him:

Ahh, there he is...taking his good sweet time...looks like it paid off...he is going to get the eggs the other kiddos zoomed past:

Happy Easter!

Can You See It?

A few months ago the boys were running around our living room and I heard one of them (I don't remember who) point to the couch and say "bunny rabbit". I looked closer to see what he was talking about.

Can you see it?

And on the same note...during our severe weather last week...I had the weather station on to stay updated on the tornado watches/warnings and W pointed at the TV and said "Kix!" Huh? Then I saw the "kix"....

Watch Out--They're DRIVING!

We had neighbors a couple of years ago who generously gave us this battery-operated jeep (literally I think I was pregnant when they gave it to us)...and the boys were full-up driving, steering, and crashing the other day....Listen for big giggles after they crash into Geoff who was trimming the tree branches at the time:

Watch out...W's driving! It is perfect for them to be driving a jeep - they need it to get through the weeds and sand that is our back yard!

They picked up the steering and accelerating pretty fast. They also know how to move the lever up and down to go forward or reverse. The dogs weren't as quick to see that the boys might not stop! Here is a picture of W talking on the CB radio:

The Dolphins

The boys "graduated" today from their one-week "fast-track" swim lessons. It was a parent-tot class so it was perfect that Geoff was on leave all last week. The lessons were at a scuba place in a heated salt water pool (thank goodness). The program was FABULOUS...great coaches, great instruction-let's just say by day #4 one of the coaches had J doing his back floating exercise and she let go and we just watched him float (all by himself--he didn't know it of course)...and W was all fired up to be in the pool...he was jumping in - going under the water - and coming out with a big smile on his face. Good thing the pool was heated...the weather was not very (spring-breakish)--it was in the low to mid 60s for the first few days of the lesson (and overcast) so J and W were freezing. On the second day I went into the dive shop and bought a little dive suit for J and a long-sleeve rash guard shirt for W to help the boys feel a little warmer! Even in the heated pool their little teeth were chattering away. They especially looked forward to the dum dum lollipop they received from the instructors at the end of the class.

Here is a quick video of J going under water:

and floating on his back.....with my help and BTW, the crying you hear is not J or W:

They sang fun songs such as "I'm a little pancake nice and flat...I'm a little pancake on my back...I'm a little pancake nice and flat, flip me over...just like that!"

Here is W in the tub a few minutes ago demonstating his new floating skills:

Here is W showing off his dolphin medal:

I don't want them to forgot what they learned so I am going to register them tomorrow for two months of swim lessons so they can be quite the little fish before we get to Grammy and Grandpa's house this summer.