Happy Mother's Day Moms!

Hope all you moms are enjoying a relaxing mother's day!

Twin Skin

Ok, so after having the boys my belly is just not quite attractive...I still have some stretched skin and if any of you saw the episode where Kate (of Jon and Kate plus Eight) reveals her belly before having plastic surgery...it is very similar...but just not as extreme.

The boys were in my bed trying to wake me up the other day and saw a glimpse of my belly. Whenever they see it...they press on it and burst out laughing (I am surprised it doesn't gross them out)...and this morning was no exception. They both started pushing on it and then said "mommy, we are rolling the dough!" I laughed so hard (although really it isn't very funny =). There is really nothing else to do...because my belly does look a lot like a lump of bread dough.......but the following pictures illustrate why **warning***this is not for those with weak stomachs.............

My 12-week pregnant belly (which at the time I thought was SO big):

My 36-week pregnant belly--this is what did in the skin!:

Ha ha! People would tell me that I didn't look big until they actually saw my belly! I seriously had a 90 degree angle at the top...my short torso just had no where to put it.

Lightning.

It was looking pretty stormy out this morning when we were skyping with Geoff.

Here is a funny question/answer chat between Geoff and W:

Geoff: Hey W, what sound does thunder make?

W: BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Geoff: And what does lightning say?

W: KACHOW!

(As is Lightning McQueen) for those of you who haven't seen the movie Cars.

I was able to upload some pics so here are the boys getting ready for a jogging stroller ride last Sunday after church:

And here is a flashback to their first ride in our beloved BOB when they were nine months:

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.