we want you.....

We voted Tuesday. I talked to the twins about who I was voting for and why the whole way there as they slept.
I won't be one of those parents who pushes their political views on their children, but I will teach them the importance of voting. I didn't even know which party my parents belonged to until college......and I'm glad. I learned who, why and everything else in between on my own and now we talk mad politics. Anyway, I just wanted my twinks to have record of their first voting experience.

I took us a lot longer than I expected....not because of the lines. Obviously, all the elderly voting volunteers were eating up my beautiful babes.

go shawty

it's my birfday.

I have never really been a big birthday person for my own birthday, which, is odd because some may say I tend to be an attention seeker the other 364 days of the year.

However, when I woke up this morning I must say I had a lil more pep in my step.

Maybe it is because I woke up to coffee brewing and I got to sleep until 8.....Matty is sweet.

or

Maybe it's because I woke up to them.

I know it's so cheesy
Trust me, I know.
But everything really does get
better
and brighter
and happpier
and funnier
when you have babes.

*sigh*
I confessed.
I'm one of them.
I feel a little bit better just knowing I said it.


I always rolled my eyes at the people who told me how my life would change once the twinks came.
I would always sometimes tune them out and go to another place because it's just weird to hear everyone telling you that.
What do you say?


Fast forward.
Babies come.
BAM.
I am one of those people.

I am a cheesy person.

I tell people how their life will change.
I want my mouth to shut itself up.
But it can't.
I really can't wait for my pregnant friends to feel the love.

My justification as to how I am not one of those annoying people?
I know I'm one of those annoying people and, I preface my rants with things like:

"I know this is cheesy, but"
or
"you can tell yourself it's not going to happen all you want, but it will"
or
"it will happen and you won't even realize it"

In my mind that makes me not cheesy or annoying.
And, as long as I believe that......it is true.

Right?


I mean, how can it not happen when you have two of these?

I love them.
I love us.

So, this year on my birthday I am spending it the best way possible.
With them.

With a lil Mexican lunch with the fam.

fyi - these angels now interact with each other in the cutest melt your heart way possible.....I walked out yesterday morning and they were making each other laugh.

They were taking turns laughing.

Like, having a conversation of just laughter.

For realz.

Silly Bubba, that is Uncle Michael's lunch, nochos.

Daddy will come home and we'll go to dinner and I will have had the best birthday ever.

I read this the other day in one of my favorite blogs and I now know it to be true.....

I used to want to be a child forever, now I just want to have a child forever.

Life is good.

have you ever had the kind of day......

in true marissa fashion my day went from left to right in 4.2 seconds. chloe woke up from her nap snotting, coughing and sneezing all over the place and colton wouldn't stop crying. i think he was cranky from making new big boy teeth. i knew mango would cheer the baby g up so off to whole foods we went.

but,

have you ever had the kind of day......

when you realized you forgot your wallet half way to whole foods?

when you finally make it to whole foods to buy mango to cheer your sick baby girl up they are out of mango?

you are trying to make it through whole foods without seeing anyone you know because you look a hot mess with one sick baby and one cranky teething baby and you run into someone you know?

you keep sipping your coffee convincing yourself that after a few more sips you will finally wake up only to realize it's almost 4 o'clock?

you buy a seedless watermelon for your kids to snack on so you can make something to eat for yourself and realize upon cutting it open it absolutely has 4 million seeds?

you're too lazy to get a paper towel to clean off the remaining tid bits of food the kids somehow smeared on your body so you just eat them?

you get looks like this:

and this:

while singing "the wheels on the bus"? apparently now that he has a tooth he is way too grown up for the "wheels on the bus".

you can't think of anything else to put in or on the bus?

you go to load the dishwasher only to realize it is full. with. clean. dishes.....

the hose in the sink gets stuck on squeezed and you spray yourself for 30 seconds straight in the face upon putting it back in the holder?

you go to feed your daughter green beans and avacado (which she likes) and get results like:

 this

 and this

 and this

 and this

 by this point even he was on my side

you feel like the only thing that will make it better is a cold, refreshing glass of white wine only to discover you only have red?

that's the kind of day i had. be jealous.

thank goodness this guy came home early as back up



now, i'm off to order pizza, do you think they will deliver white wine?

We have arrived......kinda

Whattup people? I haven't wanted to jinx myself but I think we're in the clear now.....kinda. My cousin said it best when she said

"never talk about the no hitter".

Well, I think we made it, through the no hitter, that is. These babes are sleeping!

Holla!

But not too loud because they are sleeping now! That is the other miracle goin down around here......the better they sleep at night, the better they sleep during the day. It's like the greatest domino effect ever.

So.....


Crying it out works and yes, I probably should have done it a few months ago. Just like A LOT of you told me to.


They still wake up a few times throughout the night but, they fall back asleep on their own within a few minutes.


Usually.
Last night?
Not so much for the Bubs.
Why you ask?
Because he was busy making a tooth!

Yup, it's official, he has the cutest tooth you have ever seen in your life, promise.

Last night I had a baby. Today he might as well be driving a car too fast and looking at girls butts who are wearing shorts that are too tight.

Oye vey.

You all told me this would happen but I'm just not ready.

I also wasn't ready for this.....

It truly will be a miracle if we make it another month without a visit to the ER. He fell, busted his face and got a little baby bloody nose. How cute is that?

Wanna know what else is cute? My baby girl now says Dada......it is only cute because she said

mama

first.

Yup, that girl knows who butters her bread!

The twins costumes are well under way and I have only had to unsew them once so far. Yes, you would be correct in that I will most likely be pulling up somewhere to purchase last minute costumes on Sunday.

In more successful crafting news, I would like for you to see what the twins wore to their Uncle Michael's birthday dinner.

This was probably the 95th picture and, as you can see, they were over it 95 pictures ago.

oops.

here's what happens when you don't pay attention to your kid in the grocery store.

dirt everywhere.

good thing they're so stinkin cute

this is right before bubba peed on the blanket that went through to the rug.

Mish Mash Monday

It has been an ADHD kind of day so this post will be too.

A: Thank you all for your sweet messages with your stories and/or advice. We'll get to how things are going over here in a sec.

B: For some reason a few of you who messaged me said you couldn't post comments on the blog. Annoying.
Sorry - I have no idea what I'm doing here and you people are lucky these posts actually make it on this thing we call the world wide web. I don't know if it's something I did???

C: I went to JoAnns today to buy fabric. Why you ask? Because I have taken one sewing class and feel as though that qualifies me to make the twins Halloween costume. Matt was so proud I "saved money". Little does he know I will end up spending more than the original costumes I wanted to buy. Bahahaha. It should be so interesting.

D: One of the reasons I didn't want to blog is because I didn't feel like proof reading. I just don't feel like it so let's just not focus my missing comas and semi-colons and such mkay?

E: I just got the coolest idea, what if I rambled for so long that I could make it through the whole alphabet??

F: Let's be honest, even I know that no one wants all that. And, my brother who  was the one who told me I needed to start blogging because my mouth was getting too big for Facebook has recently informed me that I am blogging too much and I should slow down? Ew.
G: I went on my first real playdate last week......here is our attempt at a group pic.....and a brief recap of the day.

The twinnies had lots of fun going down the slide even though they were fully aware of Avery's "that is MINE" stare from the sidelines. They weren't scurred.

The highlight of the day was that I finally found something to cage the wild beast! I know, how awesome is that? I so just bought 20 more minutes of alone time with this find!

 I didn't get too many pics because I was so busy chasing the twins around as they were repeatedly stealing Avery's snacks, shaking the crumbs all over the house and trying to crawl off with her balloon.

  FYI - If you go to Avery's, don't take her balloon. She doesn't like it one bit.

 This was Ave's favorite part......

 watching us leave.

 And this is just my adorable daughter in her new skinny jeans. I mean, really, she is scrumptious.

H: On Sunday we went to my Grandparents for a little family BBQ and here is what we walked into.....can you tell they are entertainers?

We had a great time until I put the babies down for a nap......Chloe started screaming and Taran informed me that she had fallen off the bed. Yes Lauren, I said fell off the bed. She had a teeny lil rug burn on her face but not enough to brag about ; ) The girl is tough, she gets beat up by her brother every day of her life.

Oh - FYI - this blog is my baby book so you all are going to have to get over the absurd amount of pictures that I'll be slappin on this bad boy on the reg.

I: Do we realllllllly have to talk about the sleep??? We do. You all sent me your suggestions and stories so I have to get you back.

I so thought we had it in the bag.

Friday night was terrible but, Saturday?

Saturday was a dream.

They woke up a few times but didn't cry for longer than 5 minutes.

I thought we had it.

That is, until last night, it was horrible. I don't even want to talk about it. However, last night was night three so you know what that means......tonight it the night "they" say we should be golden. Who wants to bet? My money is against my twins.

J: Oh, I already spoiled it on the "book" but we went to the Pumpkin Patch today. I mean my kids were the cutest things on the planet and I'm not biased at all. So I'll do a lil patch recap later.

goodnight, sweethearts

Soooooo. no, it hasn't happened.
The twins aren't sleeping any better being seperated.
I'm not happy I get to tell my sister "I told you so", I'm devastated we have to move forward with our final option.

cryingitout.

I will be the first one to admit I thought it would be cake. I remember disticntly being at my sisters house when em was a newbie and Matt and I both saying "you just have to let her cry it out". She doesn't believe in doing so and Matt and I both said "we do, and our kids will"

big fat smackinthefreakingface.


Don't get me wrong, I have made the twins cry at night and for naps but, not close the door and don't go in there for 7 hours a lot.

When they were first born we decided once we put them down, they were down. And, we stuck to that which I do believe helped them learn to put themselves to sleep. However, falling asleep isn't the problem - it's staying asleep. We followed Babywise and even a lil bit of Dr. Ferber but to no avail. They were waking up around 6 times each up until about a month ago.......that means I got out of bed 12 times a night. dhnapeuvrhewa.......that's me cussing. 

I decided getting up to get them their passy's was going to be no mas.
It was.
It helped.
But, they still wake up 3 times a night to eat.
I wake up everyday convincing myself as my 1st cup of coffee brews "I will rally, I can make it through today"

I can't anymore.


Listening to them scream like that really does cause me physical pain. I feel like they were given to me and my only job was to make them feel safe, love them, and feed them every now and them when I remember. When they are inconsolable and I am deliberately letting them cry it rips at every maternal instinct in my body and my heart hurts.

Last night was our first night. I was awake from 12:30 - 4 listening to my sweet babies cry. It was horrible and worse than I thought it would be. And, because my daughter is sleeping in the closet I couldn't escape it.

"They" say it takes three nights. Here's hoping it does because I won't make it four.

So, if my twins end up in prision it's probably because they are having a hard time coping with their troubled childhood. They will probably have felt abandoned and motherless for these 3 nights. You know what that means? It means all of you who tell me crying it out works are responsible for posting their bail.

Oh, and can you all write me comments about how it worked for you so when I am bored/crying my eyes out all night I will feel a new sense of hope? Thanks.


Please let it only be 3 nights.

Oh What a Night

No, it didn't help.

I'm not giving up hope.
Tonight's the night.

We did, however, have a little snafu.

Long story short (short for me, that is. My bro constantly asks me to tell stories in Cliff Notes)-

I'm grumpy but lots of peeps have asked how it went last night. I don't want to keep them hanging so here's how it all went down.

Chloe got really sick last night.
Throwing up all over everyone and everything.
She choked a lot and was throwing up through her nose.
We're rookies.
We were terrified.
Called mom for an emergency sleepover and Uncle Dr. Scott for a late night consultation.
Moved Colton back to the twins room.
Chloe slept in bed with mom and me.
Matt in the guest bed.
We were up all night.
And, as usual, so were the kids.
Wahhhh.

Tonight's the night.
We switched it up, Chloe is in the closet dreaming about all the heels I never wear anymore.
We're all better around here and, no, Colton didn't catch it even though I fed him with the same spoon last night.

Weird.

Oh - P.S. How cute is it that they yawned at the EXACT same time today and woke up from a nap at the exact same time even though they were at opposite ends of our house. So weird those twins are.

P.P.S - Big ups to Uncle Michael, yo. He helped my mom and me clean my whole house today.

Peace.
Until tomorrow.......

i told you so......

For the first time in my life I hope to hear the words "I told you so" from my sister. The longest stretch of sleep I've had since the twins were born has been 5 hours......and I have only gotten that once or twice.

My sister has decided it is time for an intervention.


I never thought I would welcome an intervention of any sorts.



Bring it.


This chick is ready for some zzzzzzzzz's.

The only thing we haven't tried is seperating the twins.

My sis thinks it's imperative.

I must say, even if one is screaming for 30 minutes straight, the other one very rarely wakes up.....like almost never rarely. My sis is pretty confident she has the answer so I am doing this kinda to shut her up, but, a lil bit hoping she is right.

So, Matt and I spent the evening taking apart and putting back together the crib in here.

Yup, in our closet.

So, our twinnies, who have slept together every single night for 16 months (9 in my belly and 7 out)

have been seperated for the first time overnight.

(Matt's taking it harder than I am, I promise)

So far........

So GOOD.

But, it's only 8:30 so let's hope it stays that way for the next 12 hours.

I'll keep ya'll informed.

P.S. - Cupcake wine is bogo at Publix, go on and git chu some.

P.P.S - I just talked to my mom and she wanted to know why in the closet.......the guest room is too close to the twins room and my sister said she wanted him in the closet. If I do what she tells me to, she will spend the night Friday night to better assess the situation.
I'll do anything.
I mean,
anything.

Daddy's Little Girl

One day Matty lifted Baby G up to touch her chandelier and she loved it. She would run her fingers back and forth through the capiz shells and now he does it every night after her bath. She gets so excited and the other day when I walked in her room with her and turned on the light she got so excited and lifted her arm. I thought it was so adorable that this had turned into their "thing". I have wanted to snap a pic to remember it......so here is daddy with his little girl doin their "thing".