The story of my life.

The babies are fussing and getting ready for a meltdown. Me looking frantically around the house for something new they can play with. Spatula? No, they might poke it too far down their throats. Tupperware? Old news, they already played with that…they want something new. Lotion bottle? Score! Screw the lid on tight so they can’t get it off and viola’, new toy. Here you go Heaten, a new toy just for you. Ut oh. Shenzie took the new toy and Heaten is NOT happy about it. Me running up the stairs to find another lotion bottle, running back downstairs. Here, here. Look here Heaten, another lotion bottle just for you. Heaten looks at his lotion bottle, throws it down and then reaches for Shenzie’s bottle. Ok, you want to trade bottles. I can do that. I give Heaten Shenzie’s bottle and Shenzie Heaten’s bottle. Whew! Meltdown averted…now I can sit back and relax for a couple of minutes.

One minute later…..

Babies fussing getting ready for a meltdown. Me looking frantically around the house for something new they can play with.

All of their toys….the many, many bins full are old news and the babies don’t want those boring old toys. The babies want new things to play with and I’m running out of ideas. We’ve raided the kitchen and living room. I’m moving onto the bathroom next, but I’m getting desperate. A new toy only holds their attention for a couple of minutes and then they look at me like, ok mom, what next? We’ve already played with this tupperware, spoon, lotion, remote, cell phone, house phone, book, insert next item here ______. We want new. Give us new. New, NEW, NEW!!! NOW! Whaaaaaaaaaaa. Whaaaaaaaaaaaa.

How do you keep two babies entertained ALL day long? Help me please!!!!!!

Heaten trying to steal Shenzie’s treat

Heaten trying to steal Shenzie’s toy.

This is what happens when Heaten gets bored.

Introducing…..

Marlee Kay

7 pounds 4 ounces

19 inches

Born 7.10.07 5:09pm

And boy is she a honey. Her little meow cries, her GIGANTIC feet, her dark hair and little squished nose.

Ang and Marlee had a really rough start, but thankfully they are both doing well. It’s not a good thing when your OB says that in over 7000 births he’s never seen one like this. He is going to confer with specialist to find out what happened and why. Marlee decided she didn’t want to make her entrance to the world like every other baby, she wanted to make her own way (showing her true colors already). Ang’s cervix wall ruptured as well as her vajay-jay wall so instead of coming out the normal way Marlee came through the side of the cervix and vajay-jay causing a lot of damage. That wasn’t the worst part of it though. Marlee wasn’t breathing when she came out for over 5 minutes. She had oxygen, she had to be intibated, and finally right before they were going to start CPR she gave a little lamb cry. Both baby and mommy are doing good. Marlee is perfect and wonderful.

Congratulations Ang and Dave on your perfect, beautiful daughter!

By the end of the day I will be an Auntie again. My sister Ang is at the hospital, in a lot of pain, waiting for her little girl to arrive. She got admitted last night at 8 and as of 4:30 this morning despite tons of hard contractions is only dilated to a fingertip. Not good, but hopefully today will speed up so we can finally meet baby girl. Ang is being crazy and won’t tell us the name they chose until she is born. I’m as excited to find out her name as I am to see her!

When I was 24 or so weeks pregnant I found out I would have to have a C-Section. Shenzie (Baby A) wasn’t growing well and they didn’t think it was a good idea to try natural as it would be too much stress for her. On the one hand it was good because I didn’t have to go through hours and hours of contractions and pain…on the other it sucked because the after of a C-Section was the worst pain I’ve ever had. Ever. Stupid me left the hospital against my doctors wishes 2 days after my delivery rather than the 4 days I should have stayed. Duh. My babies were in the NICU, why didn’t I stay were I was closer to them, had nurses to help me, pain meds galore, and food brought to my room. No, silly girl I was I went home because I just wanted to be in my own bed with my own things. Bad idea.

Those first couple of months were a blur. There was no “sleep when the babies sleep” because they were always awake it seemed and I have sleep issues. While I do miss the tiny little creatures and their tiny little cries I do not miss feeding them every 2-3 hours and then having to pump. It took 45 minutes to feed one baby and another 45 minutes to feed the other baby. We had to feed them separate at first due to sucking/breathing issues. Add another 25 minutes of pumping to the mix and I had about 10 minutes of downtime before it started all over again. Oh wait, downtime? I meant changing diapers and trying to brush my teeth time. Oh man, the diapers these babies went through. 10-12x a day per baby. Whew. That is A LOT of dirty diapers.

I’m so excited to see a brand new tiny baby, but I must say I love this age much more. They are so fun (and crazy), but at least they sleep through the night!!

This weekend was full of insane, fussing, screaming, crying, not napping, crazy babies. I’m usually sad that the weekends go by so fast….for once I was wishing it away. Today is much better…whew!

This morning was a rough one for Heaten who woke at 5:00am crying and wouldn’t go back to bed, wouldn’t lay with me in bed, wouldn’t sit on my lap, basically refused any comfort at all. What he did like was watching the sunrise with me. It has been quite a long while since I’ve actually sat and watched the sun rise through the mountains. It was beautiful.

Yesterday I found this praying mantis thing hiding in our recycle bin.

This morning Jeff rescued it and set it free on the palm tree.

These little bugs have taken over my sunflower in the backyard. Ewww. I really, really hate bugs!

Dear Shenzie and Heaten,

It is so crazy that you are already nine months old. A year is just a hop, skip, and a jump away and I’m just not ready for that yet. The months are just speeding by at warp speed with barely any time to blink. Whoosh! There they went!!!!

You are both so much fun it is unreal. Your little personalities are exploding all over the place. We had a couple of rough weeks with naps and fussiness, but I am relieved to say you are both back to taking good naps, being happy, and not making my days so long.

You love to play with each other and now that you’re both rolling you roll on top of each other, roll and slap, push, pull, or tip each other over. Very cute until one of you cries…then I have to intervene with our new sign “gentle”. We’ve been signing for over a month now…we do eat, more, milk, gentle, mama, and daddy. I’ve also recently started book and night night. You don’t sign back and probably have no idea what those weird things I keep doing are, but one day it will all pay off.

We’ve started feeding you finger foods….so far puffs are your favorite. Anytime you are crying I just break those puppies out and Presto! quiet babies. It’s like magic. You are making great progress on feeding yourselves. One out of every ten puffs or so makes it into your mouth…then you just cry until I feed you the next one (see photo above). We got the ok from your Pediatrician today to start feeding you table foods. Let the fun begin!!! Tonight we had mushed pinto beans….they were a huge success. New and upcoming foods include rice, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, macaroni, and cut up fruit and veggies rather than pureed everything. Hopefully my days of steaming/pureeing everything are coming to an end.

Dear Shenzie Weather,

My little chunka whunka, how I love you so. A couple of months ago you were this quiet little mouse who barely said a thing. These days not so much. You scream in the highest pitch voice, laugh, giggle, babble, yell (very loudly), blow bubbles, and make me laugh every single day. You are so much fun and so full of energy. You are very curious. You want to touch everything that you see and will stretch as far as you can possibly stretch in order to get something. I’m hoping one of these days that the stretching becomes some sort of forward motion. Don’t get me wrong….you have motion, just not the crawling kind. You have rolling, scooting, falling, stretching, and backbending motion which is fun and all, but my back is going to say thank you when we have real motion that involves less bending, lifting, and carrying on my part.

You still have no hair and everywhere we go people make comments on how much hair Heaten has and how much hair you don’t have. Whatever….you’ll get hair when you’re good and ready! What you do have are the most beautiful eyes in the whole wide world. They are a blue/green, so big and round and pretty.

Your 9 months stats are:

Height - 25 1/2 inches which finally puts you on the chart at the 3rd percentile

Weight - 18.10 pounds which is the 50th percentile

So yes, you are still a short chunky monkey….but don’t worry, you’re the cutest chunky monkey I ever laid eyes on! You give me kisses all of the time. Daddy may have got the first word, but he doesn’t get the yummy, juicy, slobbery kisses I get…those are reserved for mommy and I love them to bits.

You now have two teeth and let me tell you, they are sharp! Along with your new teeth you now have a love for standing. You love to stand up…your favorite is standing outside the exersaucer while Heaten is in it. I’m sure it is not long now before you start cruising around the furniture which will certainly keep me on my toes!

You are my sweet precious Angel and I love you so much.
Love,

Mama.

Dear Heaten Grey,

My little man. You are such a happy, laughing, smiling baby. I know I say that every month, but it is true. You have three moods…you are either happy, tired/fussy, or angry/screaming. You love to throw temper tantrums. Your little face gets all red and you scream and scrunch your face up. Sorry to say, but it is the cutest thing.

This has been a big month for you. Last month you were content to watch Shenzie roll around and take your toys. This is said with all of my love, but you were kind of a lazy baby. You didn’t roll, scoot, reach, or sit. I can happily say that you not only roll, scoot, reach, and sit you also love to stand. You now stand on two flat feet (no tiptoes anymore). It has been so much fun to watch you go from lazy to crazy. You are now the toy stealer. If Shenzie is playing with a toy you want it. It doesn’t matter what the toy is, even if you are holding the EXACT same toy, you want hers. The funny thing is when you get the toy away from her you usually don’t want it anymore. Instead you want the new toy that she has. I can always tell when you want something…you stare at it like you are shooting laser beams from your eyes.

Today is a special day. Not because it is Fourth of July (yes, I know I’m two days late with this letter), but because you refused food for the first time EVER this morning. I gave you and Shenzie peaches mixed with yogurt. Apparently you HATE yogurt because you refused to open your mouth and turned your head away. Little boy, you LOVE you some food…any food, all food, except yogurt.

You have the biggest, prettiest bright blue eyes. I say you look like a little puppy dog with those eyes..Daddy doesn’t agree with me, but as we all know Mommy is always right! You have big chunky hands and feet that I love to gobble up. You are so ticklish and love when I “get” you. Your thighs, feet, and shoulders are the current hot spots of tickle. You love when we play peek-a-boo. Daddy will hold you and I’ll jump up from behind his back and get you. You whip your head from side to side trying to find me and laugh hysterically when I do, it is so much fun.

Your nine month stats:

Height - 26.5 inches putting you in the 5th percentile

Weight - 19.13 at the 40th percentile

Your first word may have been dada, but you will always be Mama’s little boy.

I love you little boy, more and more each day.

Love,

Mama

As long as I can remember my Grandma had a photo wall in her house of all of her kids and grandkids. She recently moved and due to our families being so large she no longer has the room for individual photos of everyone so she is putting up family pictures instead. She gave us back our photos from over the years. Mine started at age 2 and ended with my senior high school photo.

This is me at age two. I love this picture. I love the colors in the background. I love my dress and how it matches the background. I mostly love the color of my hair. Why did it have to turn dooky brown…it used to be so pretty.