Mommy Cam

I love being a mom. Some days I wish I had a mommy cam permanently mounted on my forehead so I could capture the sweet images before my face when I'm holding my babies. By the time I get a camera, if I even can reach one, the moment is usually lost. This morning the camera was close enough to my side that I caught at least one baby asleep.

the click of the camera woke him up...

but not for long...

 

then the mommy cam...

saw something it didn't really want to see...

And the game was over.

                                                                                                                   

On another note

With full permission....

My friend Mary stopped by Friday on the way home from a client that she was working with in the area.  My kiddos loved her, and I'm now sharing photos of our visit.  While she was here, I promised Mary that I wouldn't put her picture on my blog, but they turned out so darned cute that she gave me permission to share them.

so here she is with Eliana...

and with Tommy...

It was great to see you - come again any time!

We have lift off!

Today as I was teaching in Relief Society, I noticed that Stacy was doing some teaching of her own.  She was teaching Tommy to walk, and apparently he liked it.  Until today, he resisted my efforts to walk him and just yesterday I was betting that Eliana would be the first to launch, but now I'm not so sure.  Tommy spent the afternoon practicing pulling up to a stand.  On end tables, printers, gates, and anything else that isn't a stable spot!  Forget about the couch, forget about the arm chairs, lets make sure it will hurt if we fall against it seems to be the theme.

We also enjoyed a visit today from Grandma and Grandpa Selvage.  They come to see us about once a week.

Ellie is enjoying a new dolly from grandma... 

 

And I think Tommy is giving Grandpa a high five here... 

They are all great buddies.  I think Grandma and Grandpa think Tommy and Ellie were worth the wait.

The Relief Society lesson that I taught today was based on the talk Waiting Upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done by Elder Robert D. Hales.  In a way, I struggled to teach this lesson, because I am not particularly good at waiting.  Or maybe waiting isn't the problem, my problem is the "Thy will be done" part.  I'd be okay if the deal was "Waiting Upon the Lord for My Will to be Done".  That would be the story of my life. :)

My favorite part of the talk was this,

"Waiting upon the Lord gives us a priceless opportunity to discover that there are many who wait upon us. Our children wait upon us to show patience, love, and understanding toward them. Our parents wait upon us to show gratitude and compassion. Our brothers and sisters wait upon us to be tolerant, merciful, and forgiving. Our spouses wait upon us to love them as the Savior has loved each one of us."

I always knew that one of the reasons I wanted to have children is that parenting is the ultimate object lesson in "the things God puts up with in me".  I laugh at the number of times I say things like, "the gate is there because mommy doesn't want you to get hurt" and then think about commandments that I don't particularly want to keep.  Mostly though, although I knew I would really, really, really love my babies beyond belief, I didn't understand how it would show me just a touch of how much I am really, really, really loved too.

Over the River and Through the Woods...

Tommy and Ellie and I took a little trek this week to go visit Grandma Lux.  She hasn't seen them since Christmas and they have changed so much, so I decided it was time to go.  We were going to try to visit a few other friends while I was in Cincinnati, but both babies have been teething and are a bit fussy, so I thought it might be wise to pick another day for those visits.  Better to just make family suffer for now.

We didn't really go over the river, but we did go through the woods to get to Aunt Sandy's house for the first day of our trip. We got to see Johnny and Megan, as well as Uncle John and Aunt Sandy, but we missed Rachel. We did get to sleep in her bed though and leave dirty diapers hanging on her bathroom door, so I'm sure she won't feel left out of our visit.

I forgot to bring high chairs, so we did an impromptu feeding on the floor.  Ellie was sitting in my lap with her back against me and I repeatedly missed her mouth while attempting to feed her oatmeal.  Oatmeal is good for your skin, right?

March 11th was the 9-month mark for my babies, so we went to get their portraits done to surprise Grandma.  Here are my two favorite poses...

To see the best of the rest, you can visit my Facebook page through this link, even if you are not a FB user.  We went to the studio inside Meijer, which is run by Olan Mills.  Our photographer was very patient and actually took 127 shots!  Not a bad deal to get 9 portrait sheets, some type of collage, and ALL of the pictures digitally for $150 with a full copyright release so I can have any prints made anywhere I choose.  I ran to the 1 hour booth at Walgreens and had a set of prints made for my mom and myself for about $12 for about 40 or so of the poses.  That beats the Olan Mills prices I remember from my childhood all to heck!

Moving right along from oatmeal, Grandma took us out to O'Charley's for dinner, and Tommy and Ellie chowed down on Cajun Chicken Pasta.  So fast that I was having trouble getting any for myself.  It was some spicy stuff but they didn't seem to mind a bit.  They also loved the spinach and artichoke dip.  What didn't they want?  The mashed potatoes.  Go figure!

Back at Grandma's new apartment, we made sleeping arrangements with an air mattress on the floor.  Or, as Tommy and Ellie thought of it, the trampoline on the floor.  They bounced around, quite literally, for over 2 hours before they finally settled in and slept.  Next time I think a blanket on the floor will suffice.

Thank you, mom, for a fun evening and a nice visit.  Our portrait sheets are due in at the store in a few weeks, so perhaps we'll do it all again.

The Irony of Blogging

The irony of blogging of course, is that when you have something to say, you are too busy to blog; when you have lots of time to blog, you have done nothing to report.  Or so it goes for me.

This was a busy weekend for me.  Friday I worked setup for the Canton Mothers of Multiples Club semi-annual sale.  I then got to shop the pre-sale starting 8 p.m. Friday.  I had a short list of things I was looking for, including Easter outfits, swimsuits, and a few toys for Tommy like trucks and balls.  My kiddos are definitely not lacking for clothing, but I think I managed to buy almost as many clothes as I took to sell. 

Here's a few views of the sales floor...

toys...

baby gear

more baby gear and toys...

more than 30 double and triple strollers...

(we had to start double parking them because we ran out of room)

 and yes, someone even sold a huge fire truck

 and lots and lots of clothing

I returned at 2 p.m. on Saturday, just at the end of the sale, to pick up my leftover items. 

This was all that remained.  The official tally was 7053 items sold!

Unfortunately I had a trunk full of unsold items. Newborn items are the most difficult to sell because people bring so much of it to sell from all of the gifts that we receive at showers.   And most of the people giving them gifts are buying new rather than used items.  Makes sense I suppose.  I think I probably about broke even.  My kiddos have lots of new toys to play with, a swing for outside, and Christmas gifts hidden in the upstairs closet now.

After picking up my leftovers, I FINALLY met up with Wyatt

and introduced him to his newest cousins. 

We went to IHOP and were joined by my sister Lindy (Wyatt's mom),

her daughters Phoebe... 

and Emma...

and Phoebe's friend Lori...

Because I am now blogging, I took a picture of my dinner.

Just in time, as you can see it almost got stolen by that pesky cattle rustler.

Yum... stuffed french toast!

Tommy and Ellie definitely enjoyed eating out...

with the big kid silverware...

All in all, a great day. 

Especially nice to see Wyatt again.

And while I blog, I am missing Sunday nap time. 

Don't know how long this blogging thing is gonna work for me!

Cattle Rustler

Don't let the white hat and the sweet smile fool you, this cowboy is a thief!

Be it a cow, a frog, or well... a pretty headband... if Ellie has it, Tommy wants it.  And generally gets it.  And so when he stole her headband right off her head this morning, I put it on his head and took pictures.  I figure he'll be sorry in a dozen years or so.

And then I made him give it back. He makes for a pretty girl, but she does it better!

Long Walk

It was a beautiful day today (well, yesterday by now) so I set out today with the kids in the stroller to take a quick walk around the block.  I decided to stretch it a tiny bit and walk through campus.
On the way down King St., I decided I was hungry and would walk to Taco Bell.

On the way to Taco Bell, I saw the sign for Spectrum Photography and remembered that I have been meaning for 9 months to see if they could help me retrieve the pictures that I accidentely took on the internal memory of my camera instead of on a removeable card.  I had broken the pins in either the cable or the actual camera and so the hookup to my computer doesn't work.

Well guess what, I am an idiot.  Okay, that wasn't much of a stretch for a guess.  Larry was able to move the missing pictures from internal memory to my card in about 10 seconds flat.  Right there as a menu option, although I swear I had searched DOZENS of times myself!

So without further ado, here are the FIRST pictures of my family together, which I thought were lost (except being seen on my tiny camera screen) forever.

These were actually taken on Sunday the 12th, the day after Ellie and Tommy were born.  We didn't try this pose again until two weeks later, despite knowing that we didn't have a group shot yet.  That's what tired will do to your brain.

And here are a few of Sandy at the hospital, and one of Tom, taken at the same time.

Sandy is holding Ellie, and Tom has Tommy. 

Thank goodness for those hats or I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to tell them (the babies, not Tom and Sandy) apart in any of the newborn pics.

So to pick up my walk story, here is a picture of Tommy and Ellie as we left Spectrum.  Aren't those sunglasses cute?  They don't stay in place very long; I'd like to find sun goggles instead because I think the real problem is that the ear pieces on the glasses are too long for them.  Or maybe their cute little noses are just to small to hold them up.

Please ignore the beautiful background and the shadow of some fat lady with a camera.  I was hungry, so I couldn't focus (pun intended) on taking a good picture.

Made it to Taco Bell and squeezed through the door.  At the last second, after I had struggled almost all the way through both sets of doors, a kind customer helped me by trying to hold the door open for me.  From the inside.  In front of us. Which, of course, blocked my very narrow entrance path.  But his heart was in the right place, so I'm not complaining.

Tommy and Ellie stared at me with that "aren't you going to share" look while I ate my taco.  I didn't give in, because we didn't have bibs and they had been fed right before we walked out the door at home.

When I left Taco Bell, I was kinda tired and the Claremont hill seemed steep, so I thought I would cross over to Center and walk back that way.

Then I noticed that the stroller tires were looking a little flat, so I decided to go to the bicycle shop to have them checked.

Next to the bike shop is Kid's Kountry, a clothing shop that I have a few $5 coupons for that I got from my ad sponsored baby books.  (Which NO, I have not kept up to date!)

So of course I had to stop in there first.  You never know, they might carry sun goggles.

If they do, I'll never know, because sticker shock set in within 10 feet of entering the door.  They have very, very cute clothes.  But it will take more than a $5 coupon to get them into my kiddos wardrobes.  $48 for an Easter dress.  And the coordinating suit for Tommy would have been $32 for the pants, $28 for the shirt, and another $30-something for the sweater vest!  Yikes!  And thank goodness for Andrea and Chelsy and everyone else who has given me hand-me-downs.  Maybe I will find something Easter-y for them at the CMOMC sale this weekend.  With any luck, someone there shops at Kids Kountry!  I have been keeping my eyes peeled for coordinating spring outfits to have their 9-month pictures taken.  Hopefully I won't be more than a week or two late getting that done.

It's very hard to make a quick exit from anywhere with a stroller that has about a half inch clearance through a standard business door, and even tougher when the very gracious and kind proprietor has to help you do it. :)

The bicycle shop guy was very helpful.  My stroller tires should be inflated to 40 psi, which I knew from reading the tire, but I didn't have a working tire gauge.  At least I thought I didn't.  Last week when I was getting the stroller cleaned up, I inflated the tires with my little $3 WalMart hand pump.  I checked the pressure on the front tire, but the little thingy wouldn't even  pop out of the end of the tire gauge so I threw it away.  Oops.  There was a reason that it wasn't popping out.  Even with all of my pumping the pressure was too low to register.  At least the rear tires (which are the ones I thought were low by the way) were at 20psi.  The owner didn't laugh too hard.  At least not to my face.  He did scare the crap out of my kids though with the pneumatic air pump!  Nap over!  And he sold me a new tire gauge.  $5.95 for one that looks exactly like the $.99 one that I threw away.  But it is important to support Main Street, and since I couldn't do it at Kids Kountry I bit the bullet here.

Leaving the bike shop, I was right around the corner from Center Street, and I wanted to stop in to visit Marji, but I didn't have her phone number to call her, AND it had now been over 2 hours since Ellie and Tommy had eaten and I didn't have any bottles with me.  So we trudged on home instead.

My "quick walk around the block" stretched into a 2-1/2 mile walk around town.  Granted, not a very FAST walk, but I was still pushing a stroller the whole time.  My arms are killing me!  I've been working on my arm muscles by doing Ellie-lifts and Tommy-lifts every day.  Many, many sets of them.  And you can actually feel muscle now.  But this stroller requires muscle in the saggy underside of my arm and whatever muscle goes into my armpit.  It's going to be a long, tough summer.  Hopefully those muscles develop quickly.

It would be really nice if they would magically develop overnight tonight, because I have an 8 a.m. date with Brittany Kucnick to walk at the Kroc Center.  Pushing that loaded stroller.

Which means that it is bedtime now.

Good Night!

Tagged and Bagged!

This evening's project was to put price tags on all of the things I'm planning to part with at the Mothers of Multiples sale this weekend.  I have been gathering for weeks now and poor Eliana was beginning to get squeezed out of her room by the pile in the corner.

Before tagging...

And after... 

Whew!  Now I've just got to load them in the car and get them there on Friday.  I think it's time for that minivan I've been asking about!

Measure twice... cut once?

The kiddos went for their 9-month check-up today.  They are definitely growing up, but now it is in skills more than size.  Tommy weighed 20 lbs 10 oz, which is a 10 ounce gain in the past 2 months.  Ellie weighed 18 lbs 6 oz, which is a 7 ounce gain.  How long they are is anyone's guess.

The nurse measured Ellie first and told me she was 29 inches.  I asked if she was sure and she said yes.  That was a 4 inch gain from her 6 month checkup.  Then she measured Tommy and said he was 27-1/2 inches.  That sounds more like what I've measured him at, and it was a one inch gain.  I asked her to measure Ellie again and this time she said she was also 27-1/2".  I was standing right there watching and it looked like she was stretching it a little, but not much, maybe a half inch.

A few minutes later Dr. Becker came in and told the nurse that she wanted to show her how to properly measure babies.  She was a new nurse and the doctor didn't like way her other nurses had shown her how to measure.  The nurse had marked the top of the babies' heads on the paper on the examining table, then stretched them out and marked where the heels landed, then measured the difference between marks.  Of course they were wiggling the whole time, so by the time the heels were marked the heads were no longer on the head lines.  Dr. Becker's method was to hold the tape measure at the crown and stretch it around to the rump, then measure rump to heel.  She measured both babies at 26-1/2".  I think she was pretty accurate with Ellie, but I saw some pretty big bends in Tommy that she was missing because he was wriggling like an eel.  Plus, at his 6-month visit he was already that long (theoretically).  So I decided to double-check her measurements when I got home.

Oh my goodness, babies are wiggly! 

These pictures don't really appear that way, but trust me. :)

My measurements ranged from 26" to 33".  So they are somewhere between the 15th and 85th percentile on height!  Close enough. :)

I think they are both a bit on the short side, and their weights are right around the 50% marks, so that puts them a bit on the chunky side for their height.  I'm not sure that they really are though, because they have the stumpiest little legs compared to their torsos, and since I think torso inches probably should be heavier than leg inches... well, you get the point.