What I Have Learned

So, at this point in Mommy hood there are a few things I have learned and I'd like to share them:

1.  Always pick up and put away all the toys at night.  This may seem silly to some, but it gives the illusion that the children have not completely taken over your house.  It also seems to teach kids to appreciate their things a little more.

2.  Keep Clorox wipes or some type of disinfectant wipes in every bathroom.  I wipe down the sink and toilet every time I empty the trash in each bathroom.  This doesn't seem like such a big deal, but it really helps keep the bathrooms much tidier until it is clean the bathrooms day.  Also, if someone is coming over, you can run in there and wipe the bathroom down really quick so you have the illusion of a totally clean bathroom. 

3.  Keep another diaper station somewhere in the house other than the changing table.  With twins and a 2 year old, there are just times that you don't want to walk away to change a baby.  This way you can keep an eye on the others and still get the time to play with the baby you are changing.

4.  Clean something every day.  This takes about 15 minutes of your time, and you never have a totally dirty house.  For example, today I am vacuuming (this of course is all the bedrooms, hallway, etc., separate from the daily vacuuming of the living room).  Tomorrow I dust, and the next day is bathrooms.  If it doesn't happen one day, it doesn't matter, because it was just a week ago that I dusted anyway.

5.  Start dinner in the morning or during the day if you can.  Nighttime flies by when there are multiple babies to feed, and typically we end up eating very late if I have to start supper after the feeding frenzy.

6.  Patience is not only a virtue but a learned behavior taught most effectively by husbands and children.

So, that's just how I've been getting along.  I don't have an immaculate house and I don't ever stress over cleaning when people come over anymore because it's never really dirty, perhaps just a little messy from toys.  The important thing for me is that each one of my children feel like they get all the attention they need.  After all, the house and cooking is not my job, the babies are.

Mommy Blues

Christmas - which was incredibly stressful this year - is over and I am still feeling the stress.  Maybe it's because it's January and I can't play outside, maybe it's because we are officially broke - no amount of coupons or bargain shopping can help.  Either way, I am feeling really down lately.

My husband went out of town last week.  That was a blast.  During which my two big dogs attacked our little dog.  She had a gapping wound in her side the size of my hand.  We got her all fixed up, back home and recovering, and as I let her outside Thursday morning, I turned around to grab the garbage bag, and witnessed my two big babies attacking her again.  I don't know what she did or what is wrong with them, but we can no longer keep them with Karlie and the babies around.  Sallie, that is the only dog I've ever had, is the primary instigator.  Our dogs have been part of our family for so long that I can't even imagine what it is going to be like without them.  That's part of it.

My sister is not coming over on Tuesday and Thursday to "let me shower" anymore.  It was usually only for about 30 minutes to an hour, but man that kept me grounded.  I know that's part of it. 

Our finances have really taken a hit lately.  I'm sure I speak for every SAHM out there because you all know the feeling of frustration because you want to contribute financially, but it's just silly to work to put the kids in day care, and personally I'm exhausted by 5pm every day, so I don't know how working nights would be.  I think it's even more frustrating when you used to be the bread winner.  The bread winner - good lord, that seems like a long time ago.  I think that is a big part of it.

So, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.  I need to change my ATTITUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!

The babies are doing great, and starting to crawl.
I am looking into getting my masters online during my "spare" time.
Soon it will be spring.

Ok, I'm done with Mommy Blues.  I don't believe in being depressed and I don't have time for that crap anyway.

Dropping Bombs

So, my sweet, adorable 2 and half year old has begun dropping the F-bomb again.  It is currently part of our everyday vocabulary.  Her absolute favorite time for this expletive is when she is jumping and hopping around like a frog.  Instead of "ribbit, ribbit," it is "f***, f***."  This is especially cute and adorable as we are walking (well, she is hopping) into the grocery store.  I have repeatedly told her that only Mommies and Daddies can say that word, but she replies, "No, I can say it too Mommy, see, F***!"  Yeah.  Great.

We have had trouble with this word before.  APPARENTLY, she picked it up from me (yeah, I'll take the blame for this one) when I was pregnant with the twins.  At about 4 months pregnant, I was already measuring close to full term - I WAS HUGE- and already having extreme difficulty picking things up off the ground.  Well, Karlie was about a year and a half then, so throwing things down for Mommy to pick up was still great fun.  In my extreme pregnant state, I MAY have let an F-bomb go each and every time I had to do the straddle, squat, and try to get back up part of the game.  During the peak of this phase, I would be pushing her around in the grocery cart, and Karlie would systematically grab things out of the cart, throw them down on the floor, literally scream "F***," then dissolve into a fit of giggles, followed with, "Fun Mommy, it's fun."  To which I would reply, "Frog baby, is that what you're saying?"  Eventually, we moved on to bigger and better things.  Thank God.

Come to think of it, we are probably at a natural progression with the F-word.  I did try to cover it up with saying frog, and now, that is what a frog says. 

Great.  How am I going to get out of this one?

Fuck.

Our Christmas Craft

In the spirit of reducing, reusing, and recycling, we came up with a container idea this year for the "goodies" that we give family, friends and co-workers.  Actually, my super crafty Sis came up with the original idea for Halloween - see the Mummy - and I played off of that and decided to just use ribbon.

What to do:  Take clean coffee cans or formula cans (of which we had a TON of), remove outer paper and drill 2 holes in the top for handles.  I wrapped them all in streamers first (because some of the ribbon was see-through), then wrapped them in ribbon.  I then tied a bow, and used pipe cleaners for the handles.  I actually had a much cuter idea of using different colored streamers to make candy canes, snowmen and I even had a tree figured out, but in the interest of time, I punked out and went with the ribbon.  I still think they are super cute anyway.

Happy Holidays!

Morax of the Borax

Borax Laundry Booster is my new all-time favorite cleaner.  As you can imagine, I've spent a LOT of time spraying stain remover on my 3 babies' clothes.  A LOT of time.  So much time in fact, I feel like I don't need to lift weights for my arms on laundry days.  Sounds silly, doesn't it?  Not really.  It's also VERY time-consuming.  But now, all I do is just soak the load of clothes for about 20 minutes with some Borax, then wash them again with some Borax mixed in with the laundry detergent, and the clothes come out cleaner than they were when I was spraying them individually.  I LOVE not spraying stain remover on every bib, onesie, shirt, sock, etc we own.  Also, now I don't dread washing a load of whites - that is until they need to be folded.

Anyway, I figure if a product has been around for close to 100 years, something about it must be good.  Truth be told, I just like buying a product that says "20 Mule Team."  It makes me laugh.  Plus it has about a million other uses.

So, yes, 20 Mule Team Borax is my new best friend. 

Thanks Mom for the tip.

Benadryl or No Benadryl?

So the babies are almost 6 months old.  Six of the shortest and longest months we've ever experienced.  Short because they've grown so fast, and long because they still do not sleep through the night. 

I'll say it again.  Still not sleeping through the night!!!!  Ok, we've had the occasional teasers - probably about a dozen of them, but nothing consistent.  What IS consistent is Ella up at midnight, Maggie up at 2am, Ella back up at 3am and Maggie up by 5am.  Then of course there is Karlie Bea.  She wakes up with the babies each and every time, so not only do you need to take care of an unhappy baby, but you need to put back to bed a very unhappy toddler.  Add that to the fact that Maggie is a screamer - not an unhappy screamer - a happy, at the top of her lungs, wake the entire house up because she doesn't care it's 2am screamer and you just can't win.

Yep, 6 months of this.  My husband and I have tried taking turns.  It doens't really work.  Right now we are doing the shift thing, but truly that just creates a teaser for both of us.  Neither one of us are really greedy with sleep.  Both of us wake up wonderfully refreshed after a solid 5 hours - the trick to that is it needs to be solid. 

So, we've tried different routines.  Right now we are feeding them as much cereal as they will take, giving them a bath, then a bottle.  You'd think that would do it right?  Ha, ha.  Up at 12, 2, 3 and 5 everytime. 

We've never been the parents that gave our kids drugs to sleep, but as my step-mom pointed out, you should NEVER say never.  We've discussed giving them Benadryl, and I've shot down that idea each time, but I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea. 

Maybe.

Possibly.

I'm thinking about it.

Sick of Being Sick

My worst nightmare came true early last week.  EVERYONE was sick.  I remember bringing the girls home those first few weeks and thinking to myself, "I can handle anything as long as they are not all sick."  Literally, I would think how lucky I was that we didn't have to worry about that - especially during the transition period.  Turns out, I was right.  We were so lucky!!!  It has been horrible!!!!!!!!

All three of my babies and a borderline sick husband is just not pretty.  It all started with Karlie.  She had a terrible fever and cough and had to be held all day - wow, she is 30 pounds and I felt every ounce of it by the end of the day.  And I would race around her and make sure that everything she touched was wiped down, trying not to spread the germs.  What an idiot I am!  That didn't help a bit, and I should have been conserving energy!  Then came Ella.  Ok.  I can handle it.  I am an expert at holding two babies, rocking and feeding them is no problem.  Yeah, add Maggie to the mix and then a whiny husband.  By day 2 I was doubling my Zoloft and just praying someone would start feeling better.  By day 3 I think Karlie really did feel better, but she had figured out that if she acted sick she would get more attention.  My sweet, sweet, manipulative little girl.  By day 4 I was extremely concerned because not only did I feel like crap, but there was no end in sight.  By day 5, I called the emergency number for the girls' doctor (of course it was Sunday) and just balled to the poor doctor who returned my call.  She probably wasn't expecting to talk to a completely worn out, hysterical Mommy, but that's who she was dealing with.  By day 6, Ella's fever finally broke completely by morning, and Maggie's that afternoon.  By day 7 everyone was really doing better - except for a totally exhausted Mommy.

On a more serious note, that was a really scary sickness we went through.  I have never experienced fevers spiking like that, and it came on so fast!  I really wish someone would come out with some type of medicine to give the babies.  It is some kind of hell to watch them suffer; knowing the best you can do is Tylenol and a humidifier. 

On a less serious note, it is only the end of November.  I really hope we don't get sick all winter!  I'm going to have my Zoloft refilled tomorrow!