Team Bubba: Part 2

We are all settling in nicely in our new place - we've only been here a week, but it's definitely starting to feel like home. The babies are handling the change nicely, in fact they're handling it much better than the other two babies in the house, Bella and Daisy (who are still completely wigged out...I'm hoping this won't last much longer!).

The babies are also settling very comfortably into their new roll as TODDLERS. It seems like it snuck up on me...one day they were babies - they looked like babies, acted like babies, sounded like babies. Then one day we woke up, and they looked like little people. And they SOUNDED like little people...albeit little people who speak their own language, one that involves as much shrieking as it does talking.

I, on the other hand, am struggling a bit with this transition. I wasn't quite prepared for the new phase, and all that comes with it:
Frustration: Theirs, at trying to communicate and at being told no; and mine, with trying to interpret the shrieking, pointing, teary exclamations they put forth so frequently and at having to say no. I'm starting to learn their language though. I'm noticing the subtle differences in the Baa's and Bwaa's and Waah's. It's helping that their pointing is getting more accurate (it started of VERY vague - a wandering point that would move on to something new as soon as you thought you'd discovered it's original target).
Repetition: Too bad they love it, 'cause in case you weren't aware, I HATE repeating myself (just ask my husband!). Right now the repetition is in two categories: Books (there are some days where "Go Dog, Go!" is hidden under a couch cushion so that Lauren can't bring it to me for the 21st time (literally...she's addicted to that book), because dear God, I just cannot take it!), and actions (specifically, opening/closing, and on/off...as in light switches, hats on baby dolls, etc...The door opening/closing video I posted on FB recently was only 1 minute worth of what was actually at least a 15 minute session of that activity!). I prefer the repeating actions to the repeating books, except in cases of put me on the chair/take me off the chair and turn the light switch on/turn the light switch off, 'cause those 2 involve lots of assistance from mommy :-)
Clinging: Luckily this symptom usually only rears its ugly head between 5:30 and bedtime, and most often only affects Avery. We're not sure when she became so mommy-dependant, but if she's in the mood for me, I'm all that will suffice.
Food Sharing: Ok, let me explain this one. I have NO problem sharing whatsoever. I've been sharing my entire life. But I literally cannot eat anything without two babies clinging to my legs with wide open chomp faces, clamoring for a bite. And bites I do give, when appropriate. But God forbid I should be eating (or drinking) something on the no no list - well, then we go back to frustration, see above :-)
Fighting/Tattling: There's quite a bit of sibling rivalry going on. Toy stealing, book stealing, binky stealing, all commonplace. Pushing and shoving, not as common, but definitely there. Tattling? Oh yes. In the form of shrieking. Specifically Lauren, shrieking about whatever Avery has done to her this time. Trying not to raise a tattler, but at the same time, sometimes the abuse from Avery is so blatant that I can't help but side with Lauren!

I could go on and on (insisting, stomping & kicking, refusing to eat, etc...) but I'll spare you all! The development of a baby to a toddler is rapid and unforgiving. Good thing there was a healthy dose of cuteness that came along with the change!
Cuddling - anything that's soft is worthy of a snuggle these days...especially the dogs!
Park-playing - two walkers means two playground lovin' kiddos! We've even moved past the just-want-to-eat-the-bark phase to actually playing on the toys. Exciting!
Running - even Lauren's got a little extra giddy-up in her step sometimes...Avery still runs circles around her, but she's trying!
Ribbit-Bobbing - I am trying SO hard to get this one on video...I don't know how it started, but whenever we're reading a book that has a frog in it, and I say "ribbit ribbit" for the frog sound, they bob their heads in time, so freakin' cute!
Animal Loving - we already knew they loved dogs, but now that we're out and about more, they're noticing animals everywhere, and they're all greeted by pointing and excited exclaiming. They love seeing birds at the park - they try to chase them, but we all know how that goes...
Dancing - Avery dances to anything and everything...she's got rhythm! Lauren not as much, but a few songs will get her grooving too :)

I could go on and on about the good things too, but frankly, The Office is starting, and I want to sit on the couch for the first time today :-) This is my parenthood roller coaster!

Some of their new favorites:


Playing at our new favorite park. Equipment for little tykes, and an unbeatable view.



Checking out the tunnel at the playground.

 

On a bird hunt.



My other little bird hunter (shortly before she threw a fit because I wouldn't let her run into the parking lot to chase the birds).

 

The chairs that they so dearly love, but can't quite get into and out of on their own :-)



Vultures.



A little pillow-snuggling time in the morning!



Cause and effect in action.



They "fight" (aka shriek at me) over this activity.



Lauren seriously does not get bored with this activity. Ever.



I make daddy read the books during the evening play session. Ha!



A year...seriously?!

It is boggling my mind a bit tonight that it can possibly have been a year already. It seems like last week that we brought our beautiful girls home, and yet I watched them both walk all the way to the end of the block and back before their bath tonight. They've morphed from teeny tiny, squawking creatures to what look like bonafide real kiddos. I know it's corny, but "having a baby changes everything" really is true, and it changes everything in such a wonderful way. I cannot imagine going back to a life before my daughters. They are the most beautiful things I've ever seen and I don't want to miss a second. I can't wait to see what the next year holds for us. Avery and Lauren, I love you!


My bed-headed book addict Lauren



My little chatty Avery



We win!

I am kicking myself right now.

I put off sleep training for MONTHS - out of fear. Yes, I was afraid of my children. Perhaps some of you out there can identify. Those two little darlings had me fearing every time a door closed or a floor creaked. They had me dreading every night, knowing that I would be getting at least one wake up call, if not 3 or 4. They had me declaring to my husband every morning that I was literally being driven out of my mind by his children. They had Rob and I calling "not it" on the bedtime rocking routine, that had morphed from a 5 minute easy out to a 30 minute struggle that more often that not resulted in the other parent having to give it a shot.

So, one hot summer night, with two babies refusing to sleep, we declared war. As my husband so eloquently put it "They need to figure their shit out!". Agreed, dear, agreed. That was on the 22nd.

War is never easy. Those dumplings fought, and they fought hard. They reminded us that first night of why we hadn't been able to follow through on this before. Avery cried as though her little heart were breaking, and in the process just about broke ours. Lauren wanted to give up, but Avery persuaded her to fight us too. Eventually though, they did sleep, and we breathed a sigh of relief. There was only one wakeup call that night, a little mini battle between Avery and I where I refused to pick her up, although I was cringing with every scream, positive that Lauren would soon join her (she didn't). On any previous night, Avery would have been whisked quickly and quietly into my bed so Lauren wouldn't be disturbed, even though the results of that were that Rob and I were disturbed. So I was proud of myself for that 1 a.m. battle (I may have even bragged a little to Rob the next morning).

Naps were on my own, and they about drove me crazy. Rob received MANY texts where I vented my supreme frustration. Poor guy! But sleep training alone is not easy, and I needed to feel like someone was on my side.

Days 2, 3 and 4 got progressively easier. The struggles got shorter, the naps got longer, the night wakings disappeared.

Now, I was close to declaring victory on day 5, before my darling Avery made a last minute suprise attack on a solo mommy in an attempt to reassert her control over our entire family's sleep, but I did not retreat. I did text my late-working hubby to declare that, even though he was stuck working late on a Friday night, I was having the worse time, but I did not let that child win.

So today, on the 30th, it is 10:20 a.m., and my lovelies are midway through what has become a RELIABLE, DEPENDABLE, EASY 90-120 minute nap. At 2 they'll go down again for another 60-90 minutes. And at 7:15, they'll squawk for about 60 seconds, and then pass out for the night, not to be heard from until 6:30 a.m.

I am in heaven. My chores are done, my house is clean and quiet. It is amazing what babies who sleep well can do for your sanity.

Someone tell me why I didn't do this months ago!

This is what Avery looks like when she's actually well rested.

Sleepy Head Lauren

Baby Talk.

You know that commercial from a few years back - the one where the husband gets home, and his frazzled wife who'd been home with the baby all day was talking in baby talk to him, so he takes her to a play to get her back into the adult world? I totally feel like that is my life sometimes...not that I don't LOVE "talking" to my girls, but the repetition can get a little old! Seriously, I have this "conversation" about 100 times a day:

Baby, holding block out for me to see, proclaims "BWAA!".
Mommy: "Yes, that is a BLOCK! Very good!".
Baby, turning block in hand, examining it closely, holds it out again and proclaims "BWAA!".
Mommy: "Block! Yes, that is a blue block."
Baby: "BWAA!"
Mommy: "Yep, that's a block. It says A on it."
Baby: "BWAA!"
Mommy: "It is a very cool block, I agree."
Baby: "BWAA!"
Mommy: "Block."
Baby: "BWAA!"
Mommy: "Mmmhmmm. Let's find a different toy!"

Then it starts all over!

Note: I used block for this example, but feel free to substitute just about any other toy. Most them are still BWAA or BA at this point!

Lauren, mid "sentence".

Avery likes to put things on her head.

My non-whiny whiny post!

My dear sister recently reminded me that I haven't blogged since June 16th.

I informed her it's because I don't want to be a whiny blogger, and all I've got to say at the moment will sound whiny.

However, the sunshine we've been graced with of late has somewhat lifted the fog of extreme sleep deprivation that my hubby and I are currently enduring at the hands of our children, and allowed me to appreciate the parade of cuteness that they display every day.

Just a sampling:

Clapping...it's the new toy banging:
Avery has learned to clap. It's adorable. It makes her happy. It makes us smile until our cheeks hurt. It makes me forget that she wakes up at 3 a.m. every night, and on the worst nights, wakes her sister up too. Lauren, like with most everything else, is just a smidge behind her sister, she's working on figuring out how to clap too, but hasn't learned to unball her fists yet.

Video of Avery clapping (I can't figure out how to rotate it...sorry!)

Raised by wolves....er, I mean, dogs!

From snuggling in to dog bed, to growling, to picking up Bella's worst habit (chewing on rocks...yes, we had to remove 3 rocks from Avery's mouth yesterday), our dogs seem to have a mighty influence on the bubbas!

Snuggly girls:

We may finally be entering the cuddly stage...I've been dying for cuddly babies, and they're starting to give me a (teensy) little taste of it :-)

Movers and shakers:

Avery continues to work on her walking skills, she now makes laps around the entire family room just balancing on the walls. She's taken 5 steps in a row between us. Lauren is standing independently more and more, but still refuses to put a foot forward...we must remind ourselves, Lauren isn't behind, Avery's just ahead!

Lauren talks (as long as it starts with "B"!):

Lauren loves her blocks. If you show her a block and say "BLOCK", she'll say "BWAA" back. Sounds a mighty lot like BLOCK, dontcha think :-) And if you show her a ball and say "BALL", she'll say "BA" back. Doesn't that sound like ball? Sure does! Same with Book, Bath, Blue, Bella, etc...Yes, we know she probably is stuck on the B sound currently, but that is not going to stop us from telling ourselves that Lauren can talk at nine months, thank you very much!

Clubhouses:

Any little space they can get their little bodies into, that's where they want to be. The current fave is the lower shelf of our desk. There's room for both of them, and they just think it's the coolest. Avery has ventured into a few more daring spaces on her own too - I'm sure Lauren will follow shortly!

Hair-do's:

Now that their hair is growing a little longer, I get to have a little fun (particularly at bathtime, teehee!).

So, when things get a little rough at night, at least I know that I've got a day chock full of cuteness to restore my sanity :-)

My Housewifely Duties

When the babies were brand new, and had no semblance of a predictable routine, I used to daydream about when they were on an actual schedule, with naptimes and bedtimes that went off without a hitch every time. I thought about all the things I could get done during their multiple daily naps - why, that would be hours and hours of free time...right?

Fast forward to today. A week away from 9 months, and little miss Avery Cays still only naps for 30 minutes at a time on most occasions. Oh sure, I can get lucky with a 2 hour nap every once in a while - but those are few and far between, and there's no way to predict when and where they'll strike. So I've come to terms with the fact that I have to squeeze all of my chores into 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon. It's made me very aware of the priority of chores - bottles first, floors second, dishes third, laundry fourth. Everything else is on a "when it gets to the point I can no longer ignore it" basis :-) No matter how tempted I am to fold laundry on the couch while Regis & Kelly keep me company, if the top 3 choices are not done, it cannot be so.

I do sometimes try to get my chores done while the girlies are awake. It just means that I have little helpers... or little leg-clingers, whatever you want to call them. The dishes are a particularly fun chore to attempt. Unloading is usually fine, as long as I remove the silverware basket as soon as I open the door. Loading, well, that's another game altogether. The gist of it is me, removing babies from their station at the dishwasher door, putting them back in the center of the playmat, running back to the dishwasher, and loading as much as I can before they're back on top of me. It's super fun. Laundry is another fave - I fold, they unfold...it's a riot! I don't try sweeping and mopping as much when they're awake anymore, Avery likes to chase the broom and/or mop, making it nearly impossible. Vacuuming makes Lauren cry, but also wakes them up if they're sleeping - so I choose the lesser of the two evils and let her face her fear (builds character, right?).

American Baby magazine assures me that around my babies first birthday, they will switch to taking one "gloriously long" nap after lunch that lasts anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours. All I have to say is, I'll believe it when I see it.

My Little Helpers:



I'm a Physical Therapist!

Ever wondered what having an 8-month-old in physical therapy is like? Let me enlighten you :)

For an hour every other week, Avery gets to play with new toys, but has to allow a strange lady to knock her off balance, stretch her neck, hold her in positions she hates, and just generally annoy her in exchange.

Then, mommy gets to continue the fun at home and annoy / piss her off 3 times each day - it's so much fun!

My repertoire of PT moves so far:

The Claw - Avery's least favorite, where I hold down her left shoulder with 3 fingers while pushing her neck into a straight(er) position with the other two. She does evasive maneuvers to try and escape.

The Tipsy Kiddo - When she's sitting, I tip her over to the left so she has to use the muscles on the right side of her body to sit back up. She also hates this one.

The One Legged Baby - When she's standing, I lift her right leg so she's standing on her left - this one is pretty much a joke - she usually just sits down when I try this one (since, shocker, she hates this one too!).

The Look-At-Silly-Daddy Stretch - This one requires the assistance of dear old dad, and he must perform whatever silliness is takes to get her to look all the way over to him over her left shoulder while I hold her chest so she can only turn her neck, not her body. If there is no daddy to look at, this one doesn't work!

The Office Max Special - This one we like! All it involves is sitting Avery on a binder, with her left side on the low side, so that she has to work with her right side to stay balanced. Usually drama free!

So what's the goal of all of these lovely annoyances? To correct an ever-so-slight tilt of her lovely head to the left. They were calling it Torticollis, but it's so mild, it really doesn't even count. The therapy is mostly a precaution, so that she doesn't develop a permanent preference to always tip to the left. I am doubtful of the need - it certainly hasn't hampered her mobility in the slightest - but the therapy was recommended, so to therapy we go :)



The Office Max Special



P.S. Lauren loves going to physical therapy - to her, it's a torture-free wonderland of new and fantastic toys to play with for an hour :)