Notice of Biting Child

It finally happened. Henry was written up for biting this week - twice! The school sends home a very official "Notice of Biting Child" explaining the incident that I have to sign and send back to school the next day. This happened yesterday and again today. So when I picked them up this afternoon, I asked their teacher about the school's policy regarding biting. Basically, we wanted to know if he would be kicked out of school at the age of 14 months. Fortunately, they do not kick children out of school for biting. Henry's teacher says it is just a phase that some children go through and that he will eventually grow out of it. I hope that will be soon.

Other than that, it has been a pretty uneventful week. So thanks to Suzanne's "tag", I'll spend the rest of tonight's blog telling you all a little more about me:

A: Attached or single? Attached to Andy, my wonderful husband

B: Best friend? My best friend since high school is Ann

C: Cake or pie? Cake with lots of icing

D: Day of choice? Saturday - no work and Monday is not hanging over my head yet!

E: Essential item? A pony tail holder

F: Favorite color? I don't know - orange?

G: Gummy bears or worms? I guess bears although I'm not a big fan of either

H: Hometown? Waco, TX - and no, I'm not a Branch Davidian!

I: Indulgence? Starbucks, Sprinkles cupcakes (especially the Red Velvet ones), and shopping

J: January of July? That's a tough one - the two biggest events of my life happened in these two months - my wedding (January) and the birth of my sons (July) - I guess July because it is warmer

K: Kids? Yes, my double-trouble 14-month-old twins Ben and Henry

L: Life isn't complete without? Family and friends

M: Marriage date? January 15, 2005

N: Number of brothers and sisters? 1 sister

O: Oranges or apples? Apples

P: Phobias and fears? Gotta agree with Suzanne - cockroaches - and it doesn't help that Andy is almost as afraid of them as I am!

Q: Quote? Two things my brain has never been able to retain - jokes and quotes

R: Reason to smile? My two beautiful boys and their SuperDad

S: Season of choice? Spring

T: Tag three people? I don't know who is reading this so I guess the first three who do can consider themselves tagged

U: Unknown fact about me? I have no idea - I'll just stick with my standard "interesting fact" answer even though most of you probably already know this - I have one blue eye and one green eye

V: Vegetable? Zucchini

W: Worst habit? Biting my nails

X: X-ray or ultrasound? Ultrasound - the only x-rays I've ever had were because something was wrong, but I looked foward to the ultrasounds to see my precious babies growing

Y: Your favorite food? Sushi

Z: Zodiac sign? Gemini

So now you all know a little more about me!

Daycare-itis, Double Ear Infection, and the Stomach Flu

Well it only took less than a week. Ben and Henry have had their first case of "daycare-itis." It started with runny noses over the weekend - Henry even blew bubbles out of his nose at Little Gym. Then on Sunday, Ben woke up from his nap in a pool of vomit. Andy went in to get them when they woke up. First he brought in Henry and then a shirtless Ben. He handed me a clean shirt for Ben and explained about the vomit. I guess he missed the dried vomit in his hair. It took three washes (and a Q-tip to clean it out of his ear) to get rid of the smell. Here's a pic of a vomit-less Ben ready to drive us to the Stride-Rite store for new shoes!

On Monday morning I got a call from their teacher, Miss Maggie, saying that Henry had a low-grade fever. I took some Tylenol up to school and they let him stay. On Tuesday, he had another fever at school, but again they gave him some Tylenol and let him stay. That night, I heard Ben wake up and vomit again. Andy got up and changed his sheet while I put him in the bathtub to wash it out of his hair. Then I rocked him back to sleep and went back to bed. About 30 minutes later, Henry woke up crying. When I went to check on him, he was burning up. So I gave him some Tylenol and rocked him back to sleep.

So I kept them home from school and took them to the pediatrician on Wednesday morning. Dr. Neely, our regular pediatrician, was out of the office this week so we saw Dr. Curtis. My main concern was Henry since he had been hospitalized with pneumonia in June, but I figured as long as we were taking one, we would take both to get checked out. As I suspected, Ben checked out okay - just a little cold. But Henry surprised us with a double ear infection. Poor guy! So she prescribed an antibiotic and sent us home.

We got home, fed the boys, and put them down for a nap. I guess I should mention that Andy had not been feeling well all morning. His stomach was upset and he was wondering what he and Ben had eaten to make them both sick. So anyway, about the time the boys woke up, I started to feel sick to my stomach. I helped Andy give them a bath, but then couldn't even finish getting them dressed. I went to bed and was pretty much down for the count until Thursday night. Thank goodness Andy's mom came over on Thursday to help us take care of the boys. I don't know how we could have done it - by Thursday morning I could barely pick one of them up.

Everyone went back to work or school today even though Henry woke up with fever again during the night. He didn't have a fever this morning so I sent him to school. I finished up with a client meeting around 2:00 and decided to go get the boys early. When we got home at 3:15, I took Henry's temperature and it was 100.4 degrees. I worked from home for a couple of hours while both boys passed out on the living room floor. So it looks like we're not 100% yet, but hopefully we're all on the mend. Here's a pic of Henry helping Daddy play NCAA Football '09 - Go Navy! One of the few benefits of sick babies is lots of cuddles.

The First Day of "School"

Today was Ben and Henry's first day of school. Andy and I both went to drop them off this morning. I wanted to get there early to talk to their teachers, but we got there too early. There teachers do not arrive until 8:00. So we dropped the boys off at 7:15 with very few instructions. Henry cried a little, but it wasn't too traumatic. The teacher who was there was very good about distracting them as we left.

Our plan is for me to drop them off in the morning and Andy to pick them up on his way home each afternoon. However, I wanted to pick them up today so I could meet their teachers and hear how they did today. I also needed to pay their tuition. So when I got there, I took care of the tuition first and then sneaked over to the boys' classroom. I saw them both before they saw me, and they were happily playing. Then Henry looked up and saw me. I expected him to burst into tears like he has been doing on Sundays when we return to the church nursery to get them. But he didn't. In fact, he didn't smile, frown, laugh, or cry. Instead, he determinedly marched over to his cubby and started tugging on our diaper bag. When he got it out of the cubby and onto the floor, he started dragging it to the door. I guess he was ready to go!

Miss Maggie and Miss Angie, the boys' teachers, said they were very good. They were a little fussy in the morning, but otherwise were happy and playful. They only took a 15-minute nap though. We put them to bed a little early tonight. Hopefully they will sleep well. And we will see how tomorrow morning goes now that they know they will be there all day.

I promise pictures from school as soon as I get a new battery for my camera. For now, here are a couple of pics from the weekend of the boys' new favorite place to play. Why do we spend money on toys when all they need to entertain themselves is a basket? They get in it together and rock back and forth - they look like they are crammed into a little boat.

The Stealth Poop

Henry surprised us tonight with a "stealth" poop. Andy and I each took a baby into their room to change their wet diapers. I was changing Ben on the changing table and Andy was changing Henry in his crib. All of I sudden I hear Andy behind me freaking out. Apparently Henry's diaper wasn't just wet. And since Andy didn't expect poop, he wasn't being very careful so poop got all over Henry and his onesie. So Andy took Henry's onesie off. Then a naked Henry, still covered in poop, fell onto the bed getting poop all over his sheets. At this point Andy decided it would be best to just take Henry into the bathroom and give him a bath. I scooped up Ben and took him in for a bath, too. There is no way I'm going to pass up an opportunity to have Andy bathe the boys. I've attached some pics of my boys enjoying their bathtime.

What a Week!

Wow! This has been a crazy and very hectic week for me. I have been in 5 different airports and 4 cities in the last 4 days. I left Tuesday morning to head to Phoenix for 2 days and returned to Dallas late Wednesday night. I was in Dallas for less than 12 hours, leaving Thursday morning to fly to San Antonio. I stayed in San Antonio last night, woke up this morning and flew to Houston, then flew home this afternoon. So I am very happy to be back home to see my boys.

Today was Rosalina's last day. I barely made it home in time to say goodbye. We have been so blessed to have her for the last year. She has made life with infant twins much easier for us. Everyone is always asking us how we make this look so easy - I think the correct answer is Rosalina! So it will be interesting to see how we do without her. I am sad though that the boys will not understand why she does not come back. I wish we could explain it to them.

So this means we are starting "school" (aka daycare) on Tuesday. I am both excited and worried about the upcoming week. I hope it does not take the boys long to get used to school. I think they will be pretty upset the first few days, but hopefully they will enjoy all of the activities that are in store for them. They will have music time, which I am so excited about, as well as Bible story time, playground time, nap time, etc.

Speaking of music, I am very anxious to move to a bigger house so I have room for a piano. I have been waiting and waiting to get a piano. And now that we have children, I really want to get one because I want them to be exposed to music in our house. So there was a clearance sale last week at Steinway Hall and I decided to go check it out. I know that Steinway is considered the best and is therefore expensive, but I wasn't prepared for the price tags I saw, even the sale price tags. If I could have my pick of any of the pianos there, it would be a basic black grand piano, probably around 6'. The clearance price was around $55,000 (regular price around $70,000). The cheapest Steinway grand was a used 5' piano for the bargain price of $35,000. So I guess I won't be getting a Steinway any time soon. Unless, of course, we win the lottery. But I guess we would have to buy a lottery ticket for that to happen. Maybe I should add a couple bucks a week into our budget for that.

Will We Ever Sell this House?

We have been trying to sell our house since we found out we were having twins. We put it on the market in February/March 2007 in an attempt to move before the twins were born. In June, when the traffic started to really pick up, I was admitted to the hospital for pre-term contractions. This was our first indication that the boys might be a little impatient and surprise us by coming earlier than we expected. We had ordered furniture for the nursery but were waiting to have it delivered hoping that we would be in a new house. So we had to make the difficult decision to take the house off the market and have the nursery furniture delivered. This was a good decision as the boys arrived about 2 weeks after the furniture was delived. Of course, they spent 6 weeks in the hospital but it was still a relief to know that we were ready for them to come home. Here are a couple of pictures of them shortly after they came home. It is hard to believe they were that small barely a year ago!

We put the house back on the market around Thanksgiving and have been waiting...and waiting...and waiting for an offer. After at least a hundred showings and a dozen or so open houses, we finally got our first offer last Saturday. It was ridiculous. Andy wanted to tell them "Thanks, but no thanks." But our wonderful realtor Janet urged us to counter. So we did. And then they countered our counter and we countered again. On Wednesday, it looked like we were finally going to have a contract on our house. I had looked at a couple of houses on Saturday and found the perfect house for us to buy. So Janet typed up an offer, which Andy and I signed. Just before Janet sent our offer to the seller's realtor, the potential buyer for our house called and said that her husband had just lost his job and they were withdrawing their offer. Seriously? After over a year of trying to sell our house, we get this close and it falls apart? Is this a cruel joke? So now we are back to playing the waiting game. This sucks. I'm so tired of having strangers come look at my house. It's not an open exhibit people! Don't bother me during dinner or my babies' nap time unless you are seriously considering buying my house. If it is out of your price range, don't bother coming to see it. If you want 2 or more bathrooms, go somewhere else.

So now that I have vented about the whole house situation, it's time to talk about everyone's favorite subject - Ben and Henry, aka the Little Escape Artists! Since we haven't baby-proofed the whole house (I keep thinking that we will sell the house and move so it doesn't make sense to spend $$ and time baby-proofing this one), we keep the boys confined to the living room. We have a baby-gate between the living room and dining room and keep the door to the front bedroom closed. The boys are always trying to escape. If you open the door to the bedroom they make a beeline for it to try to get through before it closes. So Thursday night, Andy and I were in the kitchen making dinner. I heard the familiar sound of two little boys crawling along the hardwood floor, but it sounded like they were getting closer. I looked up to see them both crawling down the hallway. How did they get out of the living room? Andy and I went to get them and take them back in there. We found the door to the front bedroom open and their little fire truck at the door. Our best guess is that Ben, our little climber, pushed the fire truck up to the door and used it to climb up and reach the doorknob. He has figured out that he can climb on the fire truck to reach the window and t.v., so why not the doorknob, too? One more thing for us to have to watch for!

Now for our big news - Ben took his first steps yesterday. Henry has been walking for a few weeks now, but Ben has been content with crawling and cruising. A few times I have seen him thinking about walking a couple of steps but then he decides against it. Yesterday afternoon I came home and Rosalina was in the living room with the boys. Ben looked up at me and then walked a couple of steps to Rosalina. Then he looked back at me and just grinned. He was so proud of himself. So I'm sure it won't be long before he is running circles around Henry.

My Little Smurfs

I finally have some pictures of the boys' first birthday to post. Gee and Pops (my parents) came to visit so I was able to download pictures from my mom's camera. I didn't end up taking any pictures that day with my camera because my hands were full. So anyway, here they are.

We had their party in our backyard on July 5 so it was pretty hot. To keep the kiddos entertained and cool, we filled up the baby pool and let them swim. We have discovered that Ben is our little fish - he doesn't care how cold the water is, he will stay in there all day. Henry prefers to sit outside the pool and splash and chew on the pool toys.

Ben and Henry's first friends from their days in the NICU, Luke and Jacob Patterson, came to the party and enjoyed the pool as well. In the photo, Luke is playing with the bucket in the pool.

Other party guests included all of the boys' cousins, including little Hayley, their buddy Mason, and neighbor Matilda.

For their first birthday cake, I decided to get one of those cupcake cakes that is really lots of cupcakes put together and iced as one big cake. I had them shape it like a big cupcake with a candle on it to match the invitations. It turned out really cute. Then I had two individual cupcakes for the boys to eat. They had blue icing so my two little angels looked like smurfs when they were done. We took them straight from their high chairs to the pool in the backyard to wash off the blue icing from their faces, hands, and bellies. All in all, it was a great first birthday and I think everyone had a good time.