if the shoe fits

m. wore actual shoes for the first time today. he has been walking for a few weeks now, barefoot. however, you throw shoes into the mix and it is a whole new story. he did seem to pick it up quickly and was running in no time. granted the top half of him often gets where he is going first if you catch my drift. he was a good sport about it though and would bring me his shoes if they fell off so i could put them back on. it was so cute to see him in f.'s very first pair of actual shoes. i will try to post video soon.

granny surprised us with a visit today and since it was about 68 degrees out we took a picnic to the park. it was the first time m&k did anything at the park other than literally hang in swings or their strollers. k., even though he can't walk yet, was all over the place. he wanted to try it all out. he was climbing through tunnels, going down slides, using steering wheels, climbing stairs - you named it he was more than game for it. m., on the other hand, was very timid about trying new things. he was even reduced to tears after going down the slide and would cling to granny anytime it appeared that she was going to have him try another "fun" thing.

i left the park thinking how this was exactly the opposite of what i would have predicted of my children. k. is more often the timid one and takes a lot longer to warm up than m. when i am offered help carting the two of them places i will normally let the helper take m. because k. would have a panic attack if i let someone else carry him somewhere - even though i am in plain sight. i learned a valuable lesson today. i am going to make more of an effort not to force my kids into what i think their personality allows. rather i will let them decide if the shoe fits.

perfect house(s)

we have been looking at houses since the summer. it has been an arduous process. one that i thought would be way more fun than it is turning out to be. it is just reconfirming that i am an emotional person and i dont function well in limbo. do they make a pill for that??!! here is a recap:

august: find dream house (perfect house #1) with wonderful view of bay. house has been on the market for about a year, needs work, totally fits our budget. see inside, discover some mold. undeterred, proceed and have the mold tested. decide to move forward, offer not accepted. hem and haw, decide to make other offer. discover someone beat us to it.

september: brood

october: brood

november: decide to regroup, then spend the rest of the month with sick babies.

december: get house ready to go on market, put half of the contents of the house either in the garbage or the attic - please do not let perspective buyers open the attic.

january: start to look at houses IRL again. find perfect house #2 in woods with water access and enough room to grow. house has been on market for nearly a year. discover possible foundation issues. decide to move forward anyway, arrange for engineer to look at house and give advice. get in car, go to meet engineer. 5 minutes before scheduled time, realtor calls and says house has 2 other offers and sold that day - hello?!?!

later in january: decide to expand search. look in more areas. spend many days looking at many houses. there is some real crap out there people. oh, and when someone makes an appointment to look at your house, for crying out loud - leave the house when they get there. if i can do it with 3 kids all by myself, you can do it by your damn self!

february: narrow list of possibilities down. j makes his list of top 3 and i do the same. lo and behold #1 on both lists is the very same house. we will call this perfect house #3 (granted my 2 and 3 are not on his list and vice versa) put our house on the market, decide to proceed with perfect house #3, however need to sell our house first. perfect house #3 has been on market for over 200 days, so are hoping it will stay there long enough for us.

yesterday: tell realtor we are in for perfect house #3 - he agrees and says will push our house.

today: get online to stalk perfect house #3, discover it is no longer online. email realtor in a panic. discover house is under contract and closes today! this leaves me back at square 1, wondering how many perfect houses do there really need to be??!

sugar bugs

moms sometimes come up with cute little names for the disgusting bodily fluids that fill our days. admit it, you know you have nicknames for somethings too. it makes the days easier.

in this house we use the term "sugar bugs" to cover various and sundry things from eye goop to snot to plaque on our teeth. somehow it has made the removal of these things less dramatic. last night as i was settling in, with 3 kids tucked safely in their beds, to watch some quality tv i heard that familiar pitter patter of feet coming my way. this is what greeted me when i looked up...





















when asked "what are you doing?" he simply replied "mom, i am catching the sugar bugs before they come out!"

what the ef?

so last night i was watching a little trashy tv - millionaire matchmaker on bravo (btw, what happened to friday night lights? please dont tell me this has been cancelled!) when i heard a strange thing. m&k possibly waking up around 10pm - hmm this did not bode well for the night. i finished up watching my show and this is how the rest of my night went:

11:23PM climb into bed with new book
11:25PM hear m on monitor again, now screaming
11:25PM think to self, sh*t do i go in there or not
11:26PM go in there to find m standing in crib screaming, cant help myself i pick him up
11:27PM k starts to stir
11:28PM think to self, that was stupid - how do i get myself out of this
11:29PM put m back in crib, screaming resumes only now k has joined in
11:30PM daddy makes an appearance and says, "if they are not sick lets just leave them"
11:31PM say to daddy, "lets just give them a dose of tylenol in case their teeth hurt"
11:35PM wonder what is taking daddy so freaking long to find tylenol, by now i am holding and rocking both m&k
11:37PM daddy reappears and asks "where are the medicine droppers" i make several suggestions of where to look (calmly of course)
11:40PM emerge from bedroom with m&k in tow to find daddy in the bathroom cleaning his ear with a qtip
11:40PM then i whisper/scream "what the EF are you doing?"
11:41PM daddy responds "i cant find the droppers"
11:41PM i open drawer by medicine, find droppers - all three of them!!! shocking i know!!
11:42PM administer medicine, haul boys back to bed
11:43PM resume reading new book

communication is everything

i admit it, i am encouraging the whining/crying/yelling by picking m. up anytime he starts in. for me, its easier. i dont deal well with all the incessant whining. for weeks on end now, i can see just how badly he wants to communicate with me. oh, the things he would say..."mommy, i am starving!!", "mommy, k. knocked me over", "mommy, naptime is so over!", "mommy, k. knocked me over AGAIN!", "dude, k. stop stealing my toys!" if only he could just use a few simple words. today was a BIG day. m. signed to me that he wanted more crackers!! for once, i was the one crying. he was soo proud of himself. i have hope that soon the drama will dissipate and the words will come, even if they are in the form of sign language.

new teeth

how many freaking new teeth can a set of twins possibly get at once? the answer seems to be a painful 5 gagillion!!

ok, its official

the house is on the market. today was insane - not the least of the problems was that when we were coming home from lunch, we noticed our for sale sign had mistakenly been installed on our neighbors lawn! umm, hello!!

also, fingers crossed, we have our first showing tomorrow. so we spent the rest of the day crazily crossing all those last minute things off the list to make the house look its best. i will be glad when this is all over and we can start packing!