Halloween at the office

I took the girls to my office today to "trick or treat". We actually just visited everyone in the office. Surprisingly Mit did great and Bur was the crabbier one. I thought the roles would be reversed. Kermit was passed around and got held by a few people. She smiled a lot and talked a bit. Wilbur smiled a lot too but she ended up getting really grouchy because she was tired...because she won't nap (see previous post). I held her for a while until it was time to go. They both ended up sleeping in the car.

I intended for them to wear their little kitty headbands with their kitty shirts, but I forgot the headbands. They did wear shoes though - for only the second time. It was cute. I had two pairs of black dress up shoes, but the second pair didn't fit Bur. I ended up finding a different pair of shoes that my friend gave me that worked perfect. They are little high-tops with pink laces and pink flannel-print skulls on the side. I'm totally not into the whole "cute skull" thing, but they are actually pretty darn cute. She got lots of compliments :0) Perfect for Halloween.

I'm not sure what we're doing on Sunday. Hubby wants to leave the house while the neighborhood is treating, but I think we can just keep the porch light off and shut the blinds. We'll see.

I know there were some pics taken today at the office. I'll post them when I get them. In the meantime, here is a pic from the photo shoot they had a couple of weeks ago. And our second family pic :0)

Wanted: sleep

Actually, it hasn't been TOO bad lately...but it could definitely be better. Mit has been going to bed and napping pretty well. These days we can just wrap her up and lay her in bed. She puts herself to sleep. Her sister on the other hand is not napping well lately. She only sleeps in the swing or if you rock her. Once she's asleep she wakes up within minutes when you lay her in her crib. It's tough. Tonight my mom took Mit home for the night so I could work on Bur.

I rocked her. She fell asleep. I laid her down. She woke up. I let her cry, then put the pacifier back in her mouth. I never picked her up. I had to re-wrap her a couple of times because she snuck a hand out. It took about an hour, but she finally fell asleep. I'm pooped.

It's 9pm on a Friday night and I'm headed to bed. At least Bur sleeps all night and probably won't wake until 7-8am. Mit on the other hand goes down easy, but has to eat at least once in the middle of the night and it up about 5:30 am. Yeck. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

Missing my Grandma

I don't know why, but I've been so emotional about my grandma's death lately. She died fairly suddenly last May, the day before Mother's Day. We weren't actually that close, but I did hear that I was her favorite grand kid. She lived near me my whole life up until about 7 years ago. While she lived out here I didn't see her as often as I could have. After she moved back to WI, I probably had seen her 3 times. I found out on a Thursday she wasn't well, my mom flew back there on Friday and she died on Saturday. I chalked it up to being almost 8 months pregnant for being so emotional about not being able to go back to see her and attend her service, but I guess it wasn't just hormones.

Even now, almost 6 months later, I still cry when I think about her - and I think about her a lot. I think about how she knew about my infertility, and how excited she was that I got pregnant and with twins. I get so sad knowing she died just weeks before the girls were born. She never got to see them. I get angry that she died when I was so far along and even if I could have afforded the last minute airfare, that I wasn't allowed to fly anyway. The last time I saw her was two years ago this Thanksgiving. I get so sad.

Yesterday a coworker missed work due to her grandfather's death. She came in this morning and we were talking about it. I think I got more emotional than she did. Even as I write this, I'm teary eyed.

I'm am thankful though, that my girls have young grandparents and they should be around for a long time. AND they have good grandparents that will spend time with them and have fun with them. That is something I didn't get from my own grandparents.

I am also thankful that even though they will never know their great-grandma they do get to hold on to some of her things. My mom brought back two quilts they girls can use on their big-girl beds, two small, framed Capodimonte pieces and I got a couple of pairs of her earrings. My mom asked me if there was anything of grandma's that I remembered and would like to have, that's how I got the Capodimonte pieces. It's just lucky she brought back two small ones instead of one, that way I can pass those on to my girls as a keepsake from their great-grandma.

Nom! Nom! Nom!

Bittersweet

I'm sure this could be a title for many posts as the girls get older. Tonight, it's for Kermit, and the fact that she no longer wants to be rocked to sleep. It's actually a relief that she doesn't need it anymore, since 4 nights a week a put the girls to bed alone, but I miss that cuddling and bonding time already. For a while now, Hubby has been putting her to bed that way at nap time when he's home alone during the week. She's gotten to the point now where she doesn't want to be rocked. Period. I try, but she fights me. She squirms and cries. I put her down and most of the time she doesn't make a peep. If she does squawk it's usually for only a couple of minutes. It is nice, but kinda sad.

Bur, on the other hand, is still a handful. Man, she used to be the easy one. She'd go down easy, sleep for hours, blah, blah, blah. Now, she takes FOREVER to rock, most of the time she's awake in less than 5 minutes and won't fall asleep again unless she's rocked. I know this isn't the ideal way to put her to bed, but up to this point, we've just kind of stuck with what works. We need to figure out something different though. I don't want to be rocking and packing a two year old to bed every night.

On a good note, I think I've got a bedtime routine, finally. We've always basically did bottle, jammies then bed, but it wasn't always that way. We seem to have fallen into a routine, since the girls have been eating around 5:30 -6pm every night. The last few days I've implemented the new routine: bottle, jammies, book, bed. The girls LOVE books! They both reach out and grab on to either the book or the pictures. I want to get some of those books that have different textures in them. I think they'd like it.

Anyway, like I said, I'm sure this is the first of many bittersweet moments with the girls, but it doesn't make this one any less emotional.

Terrible Two's can't be worse than the terrible 4 months, right?

Four months...how I loathe thee. I know "they" always say once you get used to something it changes. Well ain't that the truth with these girls!

In the beginning, Bur was the super easy baby, just smiles all the time. She'd nap for hours, sleep all night, blah, blah, blah...Fast forward a few months and now she's the hardest one to put to bed. She pretty much doesn't nap at all now. Mit is the easier one. She and Hubby seem to have a routine down during the day while I'm at work. Lately I've been coming home and she's asleep in her crib. Wilbur on the other hand is either barely sleeping swaddled in the swing, or she's wide awake. The.Kid.Doesn't.Sleep. If you rock her to sleep and put her in her crib she's out for maybe 5 minutes - tops! It's really turned into a nightmare. By 4pm she is super crabby, you can't entertain her. I try to get her to nap for a while again, but it's a no-go. Finally she eats again around 6pm and that's it. She's done, zonked...at SIX. Thankfully though, that kid sleeps through the night. She's usually up between 7-9am.

On the other hand, while Kermit may be a better napper, she is not great sleeper at night. I guess I can't really complain that much, since she is sleeping about 5 hours at a time, but she does wake up to eat once or twice. And she WILL NOT sleep past 6:30am. Ever.

Between the two of them lately, Hubby and I are just exhausted. Thankfully, both the grandma's took a girl on Friday night, so we had a good night's sleep finally.

This whole "phase" has lasted a couple of weeks and I'm SO ready for it to be over. Tell me it ends soon, please. PLEASE?

What's in a name?

Well...I've debated to use the girls' real names or stick with their nicknames. I think for my peace-of-mind I'll use their nicknames.

You may be wondering how the heck we came up with Kermit and Wilbur...well, it's easy. When little K was a newborn she kept her legs tucked underneath her body all the time. They were always curled up. We have some photos of her on her belly with her legs curled up and she looks like a frog, hence Kermit.

Wilbur's name did not come from looks...but size - and no, she's not a pig. It's cause Wilbur in Charlotte's Web is the "runt," the small fry. She's always weighed less, and is a little shorter. Because Hubby and I can't leave well enough alone...we even got lazy and shortened their names. They mostly go by Mit and Bur.

I know, right?

One week old

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome the the girls' new blog!

If you just found us, please feel free to follow along.

If you've jumped over here from my first blog - thanks for sticking with us!

As you may or may not know, Hubby and I tried to have kids since August 2005. We started fertility treatments in November 2007, since I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and did not ovulate on my own. If you are interested in that journey and how we arrived at twindom, click here. Since that blog was dedicated to my fertility journey, I thought it only fitting to create a new blog for the journey we will experience raising our sweet girls.

In the other blog it covers their birth story and life up til now (almost 5 months!!). If I have a chance/time, I will move the other posts over...but...that probably won't happen - just sayin'...