Crazy how fast a year goes by…..

One Year ago….

 Roooooooaaaaarrrrrrrrr

If you have a good imagination you can imagine that he is roaring like a lion and not crying because he hated his costume.

Meow!

Hisssss!

*Just ignore the bad quality…they really HATED the costumes so I had to be quick.

Once upon a time before Jeff taught me the error of my ways I would clean for 3 hours every Saturday. And I liked it. Crack smoker! There was a satisfaction to having a nice, clean, sparkling house. I would CLEAN clean…scrub with a toothbrush clean. When my sister Kristy was staying with me she would vacuum and then I’d re-vacuum because her vacuum lines weren’t straight. OCD anyone?

These days there are so many other things I’d rather be doing than cleaning. I still do enjoy cleaning occasionally (usually when I’m angry, upset, or bored), but those times are much less frequent now with babies. I am finding it VERY difficult to keep a clean house…especially when my Shenzie Bear is deathly afraid of the vacuum. Now that I’m home everyday I HATE to look around and see the floors that need mopped, wood that needs dusted, carpets that need vacuumed. It gives me anxiety to know I have to somehow find time to do it all.

Every night after the babies go to bed I pick up toys, sweep the tile, wash high chairs, and clean the kitchen…yet my house still feels dirty. This weekend I conned Jeff into helping me mop the floors. It was great…he kept the babies upstairs while I used the death machine aka, the vacuum. That night after the babies were down we got busy…..cleaning ….get your minds out of the gutter!!! It was GREAT. The floors were sparkling clean and it didn’t take me an hour to do it all by myself. Thanks baby! I have learned by now not to complain when Jeff doesn’t do something the way I do it. It’s getting done and that is all that matters, right? For some reason I forgot that little fact so when Jeff walked across the sparkling clean floors with his dirty shoes I about had a fit. It was like I was possessed by the clean monster. !!WHY ARE YOU WALKING AND TRACKING DIRT ON THE NEWLY CLEANED FLOORS!! Poor guy.

This is the problem….now that the floors are clean I want them to stay clean for as long as possible. With babies it is just impossible to keep them clean. I follow them around and when they spill juice or drop a crumb I swoosh in and clean it up. I almost feel more anxiety now that they are clean than I did when they were dirty. Crazy anyone?

All I have to say is I am glad I don’t have OCD for reals like the poor mom of Jon and Kate + 8. Eight kids, twins, and sextuplets and she sweeps and mops 3 times a day. Now that is CRAZY!

Overall Cuteness

The Shenzie Dance.

Congratulations Kristy and Brad!!

Welcoming our newest addition…my nephew Carter Bradley.

Born October 25, 2007

5:00am

8 pounds 4 ounces

20 1/2 inches long

Now that I stay at home with the crazies I am spending WAY too much money. I have to take them out daily so they don’t get bored and I’m finding it hard to come up with things to do every…single…day. It is getting cooler so we can go to parks and other outdoor things, but lets face it, shopping is so much more fun than walking babies around a park. Maybe if they were walking and playing on toys parks would be more fun…but basically is it me pulling them in the wagon or pushing them in the stroller around and around the park. Fun? Not so much. Shopping on the other hand….fun!

Where do you take your kiddos so they don’t get bored? What kinds of fun things do you do? I have about 2 hours to kill in the late afternoon before dinner…help!!

This is what happens if we stay home and get bored.

It is crazy how fast the babies phases come and go. One week we’ll be cruising along, things going well..no sleeping or eating issues and then WHAM! no more cruising. Last week was rough. I’m not a big fan of rough so when Thursday hit and the babies were angels I thought the crazy phase was over….wrong. Friday was another one of those ‘please, somebody please kill me now’ days. Then the weekend hit and life was good again. It is amazing how much better, more relaxed, and more fun things are when Jeff is home for the weekend.

It seems these phases follow a week calender. Life is good for about a week and then a week of hell hits. The babies Shenzie waking at night, Heaten refusing foods he loved the prior week, fussy fussypants all over the place and then…poof. Things get back to their normal crazy.

Today is probably the best day ever! Well, last Thursday we had a really good day as well so maybe a tie? Both babies slept in until 7, which is VERY rare. Took a 2 1/2 and 3 hour morning nap, which NEVER happens and went right back down for their second nap with no fuss, no muss. Must be another growth spurt…that or aliens came down and did one of those invasion of the body snatcher thingies.

We went to a new park last week…the Nature Discovery Park at Aliante. It was really nice. There is a HUGE waterfall, gated play area where older kids can “dig” for dinosaur artifacts, ducks, turtles, and lots of grass. Shenzie was scared of the ducks, Heaten hates the grass, so it was probably not their favorite place, but I had fun! =)

  
Begin Rant. On the way out a dad was yelling at his little toddler because the toddler didn’t want to get in the car, he wanted to stay and play. After the dad finished yelling at him to GET IN THE CAR NOW OR WE’RE NEVER COMING BACK HERE, yadda yadda the little boy started to cry. The dad said…well, thats what you get for making me yell at you. I wanted to march on over there and smack the stupid asshole right on his head. First, do you really need to yell because your tiny little toddler was taking too long to get in the car? Second, he didn’t make you yell, you chose to yell. Take the blame asshat. When I hear how little kids made their parents yell or made their parents hit them I want to scream. Those parents CHOSE to yell and hit, nobody made them. I’m sure there will be a day when I get really frustrated and want to yell at the crazies…but if when it happens I will take the blame for yelling, not blame them for making me. End Rant.

Sweet Beautiful Babies

 I think we may have some greeeeniuses on our hands. I may have to take them out on the road so they can start contributing financially around here…what do you think, would you pay to see these great, wonderful, greeeeniuses at work?

They play the piano:

They read:

They sing:

And they play the Carmex tube:

Dear Shenzie and Heaten,

I swear, just the other day you were little lumps that made funny noises and cuddled me close. Not so much anymore…you are now perfect little people with HUGE personalities.

Heaten, you have started cuddling more with me and will lay your head on my shoulder when I sing you lullabies for naps and bedtime. It is so sweet and precious I hope I keep that memory forever. You also lay your head down on the floor while crawling around like you’re just too tired to hold it up. Must. Lay. Head. Down. Now. It is so sweet…almost like you are fake napping.

You are such a wonderfully emotional little boy. You smile constantly when you’re not fussing and crying. I love to “get you” and make you laugh…you laugh hysterically and then look over at me waiting for me to do it again. You are getting VERY hard to keep entertained. You go from one toy to the next in 3 seconds and I’m constantly running around trying to find things for you to play with. You somehow know when you’re not supposed to play with something and of course that is what you always make a beeline for. Outlets, cords, window blinds, mommy’s book, daddy’s guitar…you want them all!

You love to give me kisses and let me tell you, I will NEVER tire of your kisses. The other day at Grandma’s house Grandpa was holding you and you kept giving him kisses over and over and over until he got embarrassed with all the touchy feely. It was so funny. You love your cousins and laugh at them. You pretty much love any kids…in the stores you will stare and laugh at them. I can’t wait for you to play with other kids…you are definitely going to be my outgoing toddler while Shenzie will hang back and be more selective and picky with her friends.

For months now you have been putting your arm and hands over your ears. At first I thought you might have an ear infection or maybe teething. I finally realized this is a soothing technique. You do it when you’re tired, scared, or sad. You are getting so big, so fun, and are so perfect. I love you to bits little boy!

Shenzie, Oh my, where do I start. You are crazy…and I mean that is the most loving way. This month your temper has really taken off and my, oh my, it is fierce! You hit, scratch, bite, head butt, kick, push away, pull hair, and yell when you are frustrated, angry, scared, or upset. When I’m holding you trying to calm you down you buck and shake in my arms pushing my face away and scratching me. You will pinch my arm and push your head into me really hard. The tantrums are getting more and more frequent as your frustration grows because you really want to walk and do things on your own, but haven’t figured out how just yet. You are still so sweet though. You give me kisses and laugh so loudly when we’re playing.

You have really taken off this month. You try to mimic so many words and sounds. You are turning into a copy cat. I guess its time to stop using the F bomb around you. I would hate for that to be one of your first words. =) You are getting really good at crawling and cruising I’m just waiting for you to take those first unassisted steps.

You are still very people shy. It takes awhile for you to warm up to anyone other than me or dada. You are also VERY scared of noise. When we’re out walking if a loud truck or motorcycle goes by you cry. The vacuum, hair dryer, crying babies, and any other loud noise makes you cry. I’m hoping this is just a phase that you’ll grow out of because I hate to see you scared. I love you little crazy girl…you are just like me and trust me, I am VERY scared!!

A little late…I started this post last week and am just now finding the time to finish it. 

 This week has been oozing firsts.

  Of course the biggest first was the babies first birthday! The second first was Heaten’s first tooth. Then we had Shenzie’s first crawl. Next came the first time in over a year that I was alone in the house…Jeff took the babies for a walk..I didn’t quite know what to do..run around naked? Take a 15 minute nap? Shower AND shave? Nope…I vacuumed. I’m such a rebel! We had the first time Heaten and Shenzie did the sign for duck. Today (October 10) for the first time Shenzie said Ut Oh.

 Fast foward one week and Shenzie now says Bye Bye, Red, and Blue*. Today while out to lunch with Daddy she waved for the first time. Heaten isn’t saying any words just yet, but still signs duck and milk and can yell really loud.

  Last week we stole the highchair water table idea from Eva. It was a great, big, messy, cold hit! The first thing Shenzie did was spash the water everywhere getting her clothes completely soaked. Then she tried to scoop the water in a spoon and drink it. I had to refill her water 3 times in 15 minutes. Heaten was a little less messy. He still ended up soaked, but wasn’t the crazy water throwing baby that Shenzie was. They had fun and the highchairs got a good cleaning in the process!

*Edited to add: Shenzie does not recognize the colors red and blue..she just repeats the words back to me.