Ahhhh...... the joyous sounds of the sweetest angel singing

NOT!!!!!!!!!

Apparently being tone deaf runs in our family.  I admit it freely that I am the worst singer, can't carry a note to save my life.  Nathan usually leaves the room if I even try to sing.  If I get him trapped in the car it drives him crazy when I sing with the radio, which is something The Girlchick and I love to do.  We love to roll down the windows open the sun roof and turn the radio up really loud and just sing our hearts out.  I may not always know all the words and my timing might be a little off, but it doesn't stop me.  So I have to say that it runs in the family.  The Girlchick is not vocally gifted or even slightly talented, but that doesn't stop her.

Something I didn't know was that I come by it honestly as well.  My dad was tone deaf and he didn't let it stop him either.  Who knew!  :)

You go girl!

Happy Birthday Uncle Bubby & Happy 11 months

Uncle Bubby turned 27 and the boys turned 11 months old.  So this past Sunday we went to Grammy's house to celebrate. It was a fun time.  A little bittersweet and emotional, but we had a nice time visiting and relaxing (well relaxing as much as you can with 3 kids running around in a house that isn't child proof).  It's hard to contain the boys and their mess to a localized area.  Grammy I'm sure will be finding cheerios for some time now.  It can also be a bit rushed, since we have nap and bedtime schedules to work around.  We can't get over there really early since the boys take a nap at 3 and will sleep for 1-2 hrs, and then we need to leave around 7 to get home and get ready for bed.  It's not ideal, but it works for now.

But the best part of the day is dinner.  Grammy makes the best birthday dinner.  It's the same for everyone, and it's always the same.  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad and the birthday person gets to pick dessert. 

The boys still aren't sure of Grammy, which just drives her nuts.  But they sure do love them some Uncle Bubby. 

The Girlchick, Uncle Bubby, Thing 2 and Thing 1

Twins vs. Singletons

I'm finding out that twins are not the same as having a singleton.  I've noticed a lot more of their personalities at an earlier age, and the emotions that they have and show are a lot more noticeable.  I'm not sure how much of that is a twin thing, but I really don't remember The Girlchick having such intense emotions at this age.  For example - Thing 1 gets really angry, and it is very obvious that he is mad, not frustrated or just upset, but very mad.  You can tell by the tone of his voice and his actions.  He will tense up and growl and kick his legs out really hard, not like a tantrum, it will only last a few seconds and then he is done.  But I've never seen a baby angry, it's interesting.  It seems that their emotions are in general more intense.  Again, I'm not sure if it is a twin thing or the fact that there are 2 babies around all the time.  I need to look into this more.  But it is a lot of fun to watch their interactions with us and each other. 

Teamwork

The boys often fight over the same toys, even if they each have one.  Even if it is the exact same thing, Thing 1 wants to have both.  Or Thing 2 wants what Thing 1 has.  So it is nice to see that they can actually play nice together and work together.  It can be very interesting how they do certain things and how they go about interacting with each other. 

First steps!!!!!!

Thing 2 took his first steps!!!!!!!!!  I was SO suprised!  He is barely able to stand on his own for more than a few seconds, but was able to actually stand and then take a few steps.

They have been only wanting to walk lately.  They each grab a hand and take you for a walk and if you get sucked into doing it, they won't let you stop.  In fact if you do they cry and follow you around until you give them your hand and they can walk.  There are times when this is the only thing that will sooth them.  It's kinda funny, but hard on the back!  They have even roped in the Girlchick to walk them.  She has a hard time with it since she tends to trip over the back of their feet and has a hard time holding up their amrs since she ins't that much taller than the reach of their arms.  But she gets a kick out of it.

Dealing with Loss

My Dad just passed away.  He was 63 years old.  He died from a serious brain injury he sustained from a motorcycle accident.  From what we have been told he was trying to enter a major interstate and was trying to merge with traffic and did not notice a stalled concrete truck and that traffic had started to back up and stop.  He laid down his bike, which is what you are supposed to do.  But it seems that he came off of his bike and that he struck the bumper of the car that was stopped in front of him.  He wasn't wearing a helmet and had to be life flighted to the hospital.  He survived the crash but the damage to his brain was too much to recover from and my brother and I had to make the decision to remove life support.  It has been a stressful time, from being at hospital and having to deal with everything to planning his funeral and dealing with his estate.  There are a lot of details and I feel like I'm missing things. 

A big thing I struggled with was how to tell the Girlchick.  She knew that there was stuff going on at our house, but didn't quite understand what.  Nathan and I told her that Grandpa Pat was no longer with us and that he was now in heaven.  She said that she was really sad and was upset that she hadn't seen him that much.  Luckily we had just seen him 2 weeks prior for Grammy's birthday.  The other thing that we really struggled with was if we should allow her to go to the funeral.  She is very sensitive to certain things.  Like the bad guys in disney movies really upset her.  Like when she went to see the Chipmunks movie she started crying and freaking out when the volcano on the island erupted.  Or she has nightmares about Lucifer from the Fox and the Hound movie.  Things that don't really seem like a big deal to us really affect her.  Grandma says that she would have taken Nathan at his age, but points out that Nathan was a different kid.  I know I struggle as an adult seeing a person in a coffin.  It creeps me out, I don't like it.  I don't like being in the same room and won't go up to the casket.  I didn't even do it with my dad.  I'm not sure why, but it does.  I was able to say goodbye to both him and my mom in the hospital after they passed, but it is something about seeing a dead body in a casket that I have issues with.  If I can't deal with it then how can I expect a 5 yr old to deal with it?  So eventually we made the decision that she would not go.  We will take her at some point to see his headstone and take some flowers for her to put on the grave so she can say her own goodbyes.  It was not an easy choice.  She has started to worry about mom and dad suddenly not being there and has been asking a lot of questions about us going away and not being there tomorrow like Grandpa Pat.  We have to keep reassuring her and telling her that we are not going anywhere for a long long time.

So that is what has been going on for the last couple of weeks.  I end with my 3 PSA's.

1. Where a helmet - I understand liking to ride, I like to ride myself.  But wear a helmet it could save your life.  The only other injuries my dad had were 2 broken ribs and a little road rash on his leg and elbow.  He still may not have survived since there was a lot of the ricochet effect on his brain, but he would have had a chance.

2. Have a will and make sure it is valid.  It just makes it easier on everything and everyone.  In the state of Texas a will has be signed and witness by 2 people not in the will or living with you at the time the will was created.  Or you can handwrite it and sign it.

3. Pay for and prearrange your funeral.  It is not cheap.

Just a quick note

I haven't forgotten about blogging, but we had a family emergency that I have been dealing with. I'm hoping to get some blogging time in this weekend.

Everybody's different

I often find myself making a lot of comparisons between the boys and even between them and their sister when she was a baby.  I have to keep telling myself that just because they have the exact same DNA they are different.  They are right around the same height, depending on who has had a more recent growth spurt, they have the same size head (but it doesn't look the same since one is more oval and the other is more round), there has always been about 1.5-2 lbs difference between their weights, so in many ways they are the same, but still very different.  I have found that even with the exact same DNA it doesn't mean that they are the same.  The boys have very different personalities. 

Thing 1 is very vocal, hates to settle down, doesn't like to eat all that much, doesn't really like to sleep, very hard headed, very stubborn, loves to play, loves to be the center of attention, can be very shy, really hates women strangers (will scream when a strange woman is within 5 feet of him), loves to be held to take a bottle, refuses to hold his bottle, would rather nurse than take a bottle, has a major temper.  I would say he tends to be on the difficult side. 

Thing 2 is more mellow, more laid back (unless it has to do with food, then you better not mess with him or get in the way of him getting fed), goes to sleep pretty well, eats pretty well, loves to snuggle, will hold his own bottle, loves to play and is pretty out going.  He will wave Hi & Bye, will do the signs for "all done", he seems to be more of a pleaser since he will do these things when you ask him to.  Thing 1 can do them as well, he just won't do them unless he wants to and he never wants to do them when you ask him to.  Thing 2 seems to be a little more sensitive. 

Thing 1 is really bad about always wanting what Thing 2 has, even if he has one just like it, he will want both of them.  He is bad about taking things from Thing 2.  But Thing 2 is finally starting to stick up for himself.  I really try to let them "figure it out" as my friend Katie is so fond of saying.  I don't want to be playing the referee for all of their lives.  But I am noticing that they have very different ways of dealing with conflict, which is surprising since they are so young.  Thing 1 does things head on, Thing 2 is more of the avoidance type.  If it is a toy he really wants or has just taken back from his brother he will run away from his brother, or try to put his body or his back to his brother so that his brother can't get to what ever it is.  I've also noticed that he is not always the push over and is not afraid to speak his mind.

Just another reminder that everybody's different - even identical twins. 

I HATE BATH TIME!

I used to love giving The Girlchick a bath, it was fun, relaxing, and great 1:1 time.  The Girlchick used to have a bath every night, it was just part of the bedtime routine and it worked for us.

With the small babies I've always found it easier to get into the big tub in our bathroom to give them a bath.  It is easier for me to control them and hold them then in those little baby tubs.  I never liked those and found them very hard to use.  So I always just took a bath with her when she was really little.  Then we moved to the bathroom upstairs and she loved it, I loved it.  Then the boys came along and it has been a real struggle to get everyone bathed.  Now we don't do a bath every night, and that is hard for The Girlchick's bedtime routine, she is still adjusting and on nights when she doesn't have a bath it takes her longer to settle down in bed and go to sleep.  Which I understand - it has been part of her bedtime routine since she was about 6 months old.  We have been doing ok with the boys and had gotten into a routine of baths on Sun/Wed/Fri, or every other day if we needed it.  The Girlchick and I would get into the big tub with one of the boys while Dad played with the other boy then we would trade off boys, then I would take care of getting big sister cleaned up.  She loved it since it was extra play time for her.  But it has been getting harder as the boys get bigger and more squirmy and slippery.  I decided during the last bath, that it would probably be the last time since it was getting too dangerous for me and try to hold them. 

For the next bath I took them upstairs and put them in the baby bath seats.  Well that didn't work.  The tub isn't big enough for all 3 of them if we use the bath seats, and the boys are so all over the place that they need to be in the seats to contain them.  But they just don't work very well.  They are hard to get the boys in and out of, even the one that is supposed to be easy with the flip down front (it is nearly impossible to get it open when it is dry with no kid in it and down right impossible if there is a kid in it and it's wet).  Plus the suction cups on the bottom don't hold it to the tub so they move and float even with the weight of the boys in them.  But I was willing to try just doing the boys and then putting in The Girlchick after I was finished with the boys.  I finally get them in the seats, and they are ok to start with, but then I poured water over them and then WWIII started.  They FREAKED out!  They both were trying to get out of the seats and out of the tub.  I was leaning in trying to calm them down and getting soaked for my efforts, but they were not having it.  I struggled with them for a bit then threw in the towel and called for back up.  I ended up taking Thing 1 out of the tub and trying to just do one boy.  He still wanted nothing to do with the seat and refused to go back into it.  I even tried to just sit him in the tub and no seat, but that didn't work either.  I even called in big sissy to see if having her in there with him would help keep him calm, but he was NOT having it.  He would calm down for a minute and then would start to scream and try to get out, and forget about actually trying to bathe him or pour water on him to get him wet.  Oh man...... I now hate bath time!  This sucks!  I finally get the boys clean and was so worn out that Dad had to give The Girlchick a bath.  I am out of ideas on how to get all of them a bath at one time.  I know I am not the only person with this problem.  Anyone have any ideas?  I know I am fresh out of them.  It really shouldn't be this hard, but for the life of me I can't seem to figure it out.