Friday, March 30, 2007

Silly birds!

As we were walking to the van the other morning, Gage saw some birds flying overhead. He looked at them and started to yell, "Hey, birds! Where are you going? Come back! Silly birds!" He asked me where they went, and I told him they were probably going to go make a nest. His reply was "Those birds shouldn't make a mess, Mama!"

He comes up with the greatest things.

Supper time

We had mashed potatoes, broccoli and cheese for supper the other night. Gage doesn't like potatoes too much, but Jude thought they were fantastic! I just put a whole pile on his tray and he wolfed them all down. Nate wasn't too interested, but he did eat some.

Gage



Jude



Nate



Our original setup for supper time was like this, with all three of them in a row.



The boys have decided however, that they enjoy being up close and personal with everyone during meal time, which is fine with us. So now, James sits on one side of the table, I sit on the other and Gage sits at the end. We put a high chair beside each of us, and everyone eats. We've found that Gage eats really well this way, and the boys are enjoying table food a lot too. The other night we made chicken and stuffing, and everyone cleaned their plates.

Dog Pile!!!

After supper we all go into the living room and play. Usually it's trucks, or building with blocks for Gage and Nate and Jude chase a ball or play peek a boo with a blanket. It's nice family time every night. I was cleaning up the kitchen the other day and heard a commotion in the living room. This is what I saw:





James was kind of stuck. I've been in this position before, most of the time you just have to let them finish attacking you and then you can make your escape.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Where did the time go?

I can't believe it... in less than a week (5 days to be exact), I will be going back to work. It has been a very long year, but it feels like it hasn't taken much time at all. At least the boys have been at the day home (off and on, of course) for about a month now, so I'm used to them not being with me all of the time.

Last week was so much better than the week before. Everyone seemed to be over the flu. Then, Jude's bum started to run again, and Nate got an infected toenail. I called the pediatrician Thursday afternoon and the nurse told me to give Jude nothing but clear fluids (read: Pedialyte) for 24 hours, then the beloved BRAT diet for 48 hours. I took Nate to the Medicentre Thursday evening and they put him on Keflex for his foot, 4 times a day for 7 days. So, I had the twins with me on Friday. James and I anticipated a really rotten Thursday night, but Jude slept right through it. We gave Nate a bottle of water when he woke up and left it with him (I know, I know, bad Mama!) and he slept, too. They did really well on Friday, and Jude didn't seem to mind the unflavoured Pedialyte at all. After the BRAT diet (which Jude LOVES), he seems much better, though our thought about trying soy formula to help wasn't really a good one. It didn't seem to bother him too much, but he spit up all the time and it smells really gross. So he's back on the regular formula again. And, he's been sleeping through the night since Thursday. Nate will only wake up at 10:30 for a bottle and then sleeps until 6:00 am or so. That means that James and I are finally, finally, finally getting some sleep! Now, if we could just get ourselves to bed earlier...

So, everyone is back at the day home this week. Which is good, I'm almost done getting ready for the Club sale on Saturday, and Gage's new curtains are just about done. So much for a month of rest. I'll have to cram it all in on Friday. James bought me a whole bunch of Friends episodes on DVD, so Friday I'm screening my calls and laying on the couch. I'll probably put the first one in and fall right asleep, knowing me. I'll have to remember to set my alarm so I get the boys on time.

I should have some new pictures tomorrow or Friday.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Ten Months

Nate and Jude are ten months old (last Saturday). They are feeling much better after an awful bug got the best of all of us last week. Jude is the only boy left who's still suffering, but as with everything tummy related, he tends to take a long time to recover. He feels great, he's not sick in the least, but he's always had a hard time with tummy bugs. He's just too acidic. James wonders if they make baby antacids. At least his diaper rash is starting to clear up. Last Friday his little bum looked like hamburger, but after a few days on the super duper prescription strength diaper cream he looks much better. James had it pretty bad on the weekend, whereas I was sick with the boys last week. Today we are both feeling much better, we actually wanted to play with the boys. At one point on Saturday we both laid on the floor and just let the kids crawl all over us, because we didn't have the energy to do much else. We'd always wondered what we would do if we both got sick at the same time, I guess now we know. We watched a lot of A Celebration of Me, Grover and Elmo's Potty Time.

More pictures, like I don't have enough of the boys already.

Gage playing hide and seek under the piano. He goes under there and then says "Mama? Where did Gage go?" Now Nate and Jude will go look for him, which really pleases him.



Nate was all smiles on Sunday.



So was Jude.



Nate and Jude were playing in the kitchen.

Friday, March 16, 2007

The Scar

I finally have a photo of my incision from the surgery. They only removed the left half of my thyroid (along with the lump), but the standard incision is all the way across my neck. It's still swollen and I look like crap because all of us have been sick with the flu since I got home and I'm really, really tired. But, other than that, I'm doing great. I can lift the boys up all I want and I today I can tip a glass and swallow with my head back. No more straws!!!

Thursday, March 15, 2007

I DID want this!

I was reading my post from a couple of weeks ago, about how sad I was that my babies were all going to be at the day home during the day and I would be all alone. Fat chance! I've had at least one sick boy with me during the day all week. At least I don't miss them. And, they are sleeping really well for nap time, which gives me a break. I guess it's true... be careful what you wish for...

But then again, I'd always wished for twins...

Hmmm...

Ok, normally I wouldn't post anybody else's stuff on my blog (it being my blog and all), but this has been posted on other multiple blogs and I wanted to share it. James and I can really relate to this video, albeit on a much, much smaller scale. You can laugh at the people who ask the dumb questions and be amazed by the people who stare and comment, but the one overwhelming feeling that I got was pure fear. James and I get stopped by all sorts of people when we go out with the boys and everybody wants to touch the babies. Some people stand right in front of the stroller to stop you. Most people are just being curious, and many, many people just want to comment, or share a story about twins that they have/know. Most of the time, we don't mind the attention, but if I hear the comment "Wow, you have your hands full" one more time, I'm gonna lose it. James wants to make shirts that say "Buck a gander!" so we could a little cash on the side from all of the people that stare at us.

This all being said, we have encountered a great number of people who go out of their way to make room for us, or hold open a door, or even try to make room in an elevator. (That's a big one, I drive a double wide stroller.) When we were mall walking, there was always a nice senior citizen who would talk to Gage while I got the twins in their snowsuits. To everyone who has made room for us, let us go by, opened a door, or in some way made me not feel like such a side show, THANK YOU.

I'm guilty of it too. When I see twins (especially newborns), I always nudge James and say "Look! They have twins, too!" And I'm a sucker for a baby. But I never, ever touch them. We don't need to share any germs.

Sorry for the rant, it was long overdue.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Where's the camera?

Nate was being a lump on the floor yesterday afternoon. Until I took out the camera, that is. Everytime it would flash, he would look up and smile. Maybe I take too many pictures?



Wrestling Match

Before I start, let me just say that it's funny to dress your twins alike when they look as different as mine do.

Nate noticed the tag on the back of Jude's pants the other day. Jude just wanted to chase the ball, Nate just wanted to chase Jude.







Pancakes

Before things got really ugly in the house, Gage helped Dad make supper Monday night. We had pancakes, Gage's favorite part was cracking the eggs. Heaven forbid he learns how to open the fridge door, I'm sure I'll find all of my eggs cracked in a bowl for me.



Bottle Techniques

Apparently there are two really good ways to hold your bottle in our house.

Nate: Hold at the bottom with your fingers, so you can free up the other hand and use it to play with toys or hit your brothers.



Jude: Hold your bottle with both hands as tightly as possible so that Nate can't come over and swipe it. (He has reason for this fear. The other day Jude was on the floor with his bottle and Nate dove, laughing, and swiped it from him.)

BRAT

No, this isn't what I think of the boys right now. It's the diet I have to follow to help the twins' little bums get all better. Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast. We've had quite the week, and James and I can look back at Monday night now and think "It really wasn't that bad", but at the time it seemed really gross. Jude stayed home on Monday with me because he was still kind of gunky. Nate started throwing up at the day home, and kept at it until around 8:30 pm, Gage was the best little boy, helped Dad make supper and ate really well. At 10:30 pm it started coming up. James and I are such a great team, one of us would take Gage and wash him up and get him changed and the other would change the sheets, pillows and blankets on his bed and ferry them down to the wash. Gage was such a trooper, he just kept saying "Uh oh, I spit!" So Tuesday, everybody stayed home with me (who is supposed to be resting). Nate threw up, Jude pooped and Gage was his normal self. Today, Gage is at the day home and the twins are with me. I'm not sure when the twins will be able to go back, but the bottoms are getting better, and Nate hasn't thrown up all day.

Tonight I'm trying BRAT.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Max the Visitor

A couple of weeks ago Gage's friend Max came over to visit while his Mommy was at work. We had Max for two days, and he was fabulous! Gage was happy to have someone other than his brothers to play with and Nate and Jude thought that Max was cool, because he crawled like they did. I liked Max because he slept better than the twins.

What do you do when you're in a new place and feelin' blue? You curl up with your friend, Doug the Moose, and look pathetic.



Seriously, he is soooo attached to Doug. When he had his lunch the first day, Doug sat on the table where Max could see him, or Max got really upset. Doug is to Max what Elmo is to Gage.

Max is just over a year and I was afraid he'd just take off if I didn't put the tray on the booster seat, but he sat and ate just like a big guy! (It's very hard to put 4 boys in a picture together, but Gage was having lunch, too.)



Gage showed Max the many uses of the abacus.



Gage and Max had their snack while the boys had their nap on the Friday morning.



Feeding time at the zoo.



For the most part, I didn't even notice the difference between 3 boys and 4. I was amazed at how well Max and my boys all just fit together. Kids are so adaptable.

Surgery Update

I had my thyroid surgery last Tuesday, almost one week ago. My surgeon is amazing, and in the end I won't have a huge scar. The incision is about 3 inches across the base of my neck, but it's very thin and should just fade into the crease that's there, once the swelling goes down.

I'm feeling pretty good, really, really tired most of the time and I go back and forth from sweating hot to freezing cold. I'm still getting over the strep throat infection that I had before the surgery and now I have the boys' cold, so that isn't very helpful. My pain is minimal and I can still take care of my boys when they are not at the day home.

Thanx for all of the good wishes, I think they are making the recovery go well.