FFF- Spooky!

Party favors?

Boo!

Boooooooo!

or Aliens stuck in a furry purse?

Either way, Spooky!  Seriously freaky, spooky stuff!

Play along with others for Favorite Foto Friday...   FFF - Spooky!

Bed Time Stories

As previous co-sleepers who spent a long time getting the boys to fall asleep by themselves, we rarely allow ourselves the luxury of laying down with them at night.

Exhausted one evening and ready for bed myself, I giggled when I saw Austin and Logan's eyes light up when I said "Move over, Mommy;s going nite-nite, too."  (They ask about every night.) 

So we settled down to our old routine, me sprawled out on my back, arms spread out to each side, the twins demanding, "I want a shoulder, Mommy!  I want a shoulder."

So, they each claimed a side.  Memories of how we had fallen asleep for naps (2x a day) and nighttime for a year a half came back instantly.  Usually one twin would cuddle into me, head on my shoulder, leg across my belly and then the other twin would snuggle up with his back to me, wrap my arm around his body, and lay his head on my shoulder.   I've never been a "laying on my back" kind of sleeper, but having them close to me like that, after being away from them for so long; And especially with having two, where it was hard to have solo cuddle time without the other one pulling on ya and trying to get up on your lap, too (which I never minded), it was always so nice just be able to lay there and have both of them right there with me.  My body couldn't give birth to them, and I couldn't be there physically to hold and comfort them for their first year, so I really relished my role as human sleeping bag/pillow.  I loved that these two energectic, non-stop spit-balls of life would mold themselves against me, match my breathing and be out in no time!  I loved that the warmth my body provided, allowed for extra long naps.  That if they woke up and I was still there, they would smile, snuggle down and fall right back asleep. 

As we settled down last night and the boys got calm, Logan was on one side of me and he began to "day-dream" about his favorite obsession: basketball.  "Mom, when I play basketball, I'm gonna go out of the locker room and onto the basketball court.  And you'll be there.  And the cheerleaders are gonna do flips and wave their pom-poms.  And when I score, Mom - you're gonna say, 'Yay, go Logan! WooooooHoooooo!'  Right, Mom?"  

And at the same time, Austin was on the other side of me, mommy'ing me.  Doing all the things I do to show my love for him.  He would lean up, kiss my forehead (extra long), brush my hair and say, "Oh, Momma I just love you so much.  You're my extra special gurl and I'm so proud of you."  And then he kissed me again and smiled (just like I do) and then he ad-libbed and said, "And I'm your extra special boy, right Mom?"    

Oh, how did I get so lucky?  Despite all my yelling, all my not-so-patient Mommy-moments, at the end of the day, I know that Logan's perfect moment in life is not complete without me being there to cheer him on and I know that Austin's fierce and loving heart is well tended to and that he knows he is loved deeply by his Momma. 

Fashion Sense - sometimes Momma wins!

I know you all well remember Austin and Logan's lack of fashion from this summer.

But here's proof that sometimes Momma wins!

 

The BEACHES (Part 4)

Of course, Nonnie and I love the beaches, but with Evan a first time West Coaster, we really made an effort to catch a lot of scenic views for him.

I am sure I cannot even put into words the amount of fun we had just hopping in the car and heading to nowhere in particular.  No agenda, no time schedule.  Just the thrill of seeing what we would find. 

Austin and Logan thrilled us to no end in the car.  Evan packs one heck of a funny bone himself - so between the three of them, we were entertained around the clock.

And we found and "discovered" so many amazing spots! 

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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DISNEYLAND (Part 3)

You can't go all the way to California without going to DISNEYLAND!

Although the trip was planned in less than a month's time, that was enough to get Austin and Logan worked up for the Magic of Disney!

As an added bonus, Logan was beside himnself when Mommy pulled out the stashed forbidden basketball outfit - after this summer's wardrobe fiasco, I banned all mismatched, torn, yucky clothing.  In order to get Logan in his daily outfits, I had told him there was no basketball clothes in California.  He flipped when I showed him I had brought his favorite High School Musical basketball uniform with us, "Oh, THANK you, Mommy.  THANK YOU for bringing my basketball clothes!"  (Yep, it only made me feel a leetle guilty!)


This is our Fairy Godmother - she provided our entrance into Disneyland!

Evan and Logan on the Nemo ride.

It's a Small World, Afterall...

Austin and Nonnie!

Logan a little unsure of darkness and music...  ;-)

Evan and Logan (his mini-me) having a blast on the flying Dumbo!

OhMyGosh, It's Lightning McQueen!!

What!?!  Mater's here, too?

So excited, a parade's coming!

Uh, this big scarey dude came over and high-five'd us....

He was HUGE!

We probably could have spent a whole 'nother day at the parks.  It was so much fun watching Austin and Logan go crazy with excitement over all the different things for them to do.   It was indeed a very magical day!

The FAMILY (Part 2)

We made it!! California touchdown!

Between the early morning wake-up and the flights combined with the time change, Evan says we ate 9 meals that day! lol

Nonnie and the birthday girl!This picture cracks me up! The children were wonderful the whole trip, very well behaved, very, very entertaining (more stories to come), but whenever we went to my aunt's house - they were their wildest! So, my cousin Gina, called in the now Infamous, Mr. Honey to entertain them! And boy, did he deliver! Austin and Logan loved Mr. Honey! In fact, before they even met him, they named their two new blue toys, Mr. Honey - very odd as none of us had ever mentioned his name before. We were trying to get a picture of the three of them and right before this picture was snapped, Austin jumped in smack dab in front of Logan and blocked him - it was hysterical!

Our lovely West Coast family!

See a family resemblance?

Fun times!

Ah-low-a-eh!

What a wonderful birthday celebration! We are so glad and honored that we got to share it with you, Aunt Carmen!

The TRIP!! (Part 1)

In mid-September, Nonnie took Evan, Austin, Logan and I are the trip of our lives! Nonnie's lovely and delightful Aunt Carmen was turning 89 and her two beautiful daughters, Gina and Cathy were throwing her a Polynesian Luau to celebrate in style.

We live on the East Coast. Aunt Carmen and her daughters live on the West Coast. Picking flights, travel times, layovers, and all of the other details of the trip was definitely centered on the twins! To say that Nonnie and I had concerns about "handling" them and all of their energy (while bogged down with luggage) cross country is putting it very mildly!

We don't look like we woke up at 4am!

But we sure do feel like it! That tricky Mom of ours!

We travel in style! We have these cool straps that attach the car seats to our luggage and we just wheel the boys through the airports.

Don't they look HUGE in those seats? ack!

What!? Nonnie's got both boys! Time for Mom to catch some zzz's. Wake me up in California!!!

Boyz in da hood!

Emotions running high around here...

As the boys have grown, their understanding, their emotions, and their reactions have intensified!

Brokenhearted:

On a particularly bad day, as I was throwing out ultimatums like candy in a parade, and nobody was listening to me what-so-evah, and after Logan continued to *touch* the bedroom window screen insisting, "But I'm not PUSHING on it, Mom. It's not PUSHING" (*touch, touch, touch*) - I hollered "That's it!" and then I put myself in Mommy time-out in the bathroom.

I took my time washing my face, putting make-up on and fixing my hair. All the while, Austin and Logan banged on the door screaming and yelling and crying. I didn't really listen to their actual words, it just seemed like a lot of repeating: "No, Mommy! Let me in. I promise to listen. Mommeeeeeee!"

When I finally opened the door, Logan was pretty quick to recover. But Austin had big ole' crocodile tears and was just heart broken. It took him forever to spill out his heartache, "Buttttttt, Mommyyyyyyy, you forgottttttt. You forgot meeeeeeeeeeeeee."
"I forgot you, baby? Honey, Mommy just took a time-out, that's all."
"Noooooo, you forgot meeeeeeeeeeeee. I WAS listeningggggggg, (sniff-sniff, wails again at the thought of the perceived injustice), I didn't.....I didn't...I wasn'tttttttt....touching the windowwwww (bawls and bawls and buries his head in my shoulder). You were...were...were supposed to take me WITH you, Mommy!"

*********

I'll fight for my brother :

Austin is certainly more laid-back than Logan. And in the area of potty training, Austin tends to have some, er, lapses that I think are just the result of really not bothering to take the time to pee on the potty. When these lapses occur, it's takes me about a week or two of positive reinforcements, dangling the carrot, taking away privileges, etc, to find anything that might matter enough to him to start, well, taking the time to put his pee-pee on the potty again.

We have annual passes to an amusement park (Busch Gardens) and last week when I picked the boys up from Preschool on Friday - I told them we were gonna go home and pack lunch and head there. As the park boasts a big ole' Elmo-land, they were obviously ecstatic about this venture. However, upon arriving home and going to unbuckle Austin (who 5 minutes ago at school was dry), I was a little surprised and a lot aggravated to find a little "accident." I declared, "No Busch Gardens for you. You have to be able to wear underwear to Busch Gardens." Austin seemed to think about crying, kinda gave a little shrug and continued to contemplate whether or not this newsflash bothered him at all.

But Logan, milli-seconds after my announcement, fell out on me. He completely lost it. He stood in front of his brother, arms spread out (in full-on protection mode) and could barely contain himself enough to speak, "Noooooooooo, Mommy. Austin comes!! He's a big boy. Right, Austin? Right?" He turns to Austin, "You can do it Austin, tell her, TELL HER!"

As I'm walking into the house, Logan has attached himself to my leg and is trying to drag me back in time to before this disaster struck. All the while wailing to know end. Truth be told, I have actually never seen Logan react this way before. Austin had eventually decided it was in his best interest if he started carrying on as well. But he kept pausing to look over at Logan and then up at me, sort of as if to see if he had missed something, like, maybe: "We are going into the house and inflict ancient and severe torture methods on Austin."

My chants bounced between, "No Austin. You are not going. No more pee-pee'ing in your pants." and "Logan, honey - you can go. You can stop crying."

Logan eventually let go of my leg, grabbed ahold of Austin, dragged him into the bathroom and in between hyperventilating wails, begged and pleaded for Austin to pee in the potty as if his life depended on this. This goes on for the full 5 minutes as I'm unloading the car.

I hear pee on the potty. Logan comes out, still a complete emotional mess and manages to spill out some sentence like, "Mum, Mum. He pee'd. He did it. Can he pleasssssssssssssssse go to Busch Gardens now?" *snif, snif*

Austin comes out still sporting some sort of I'm crying, but not really sure what's going on look.

After several minutes of discussion with Austin going over all the potty rules again, eliciting several promises from him, and with one final warning that if he does pee-pee in his pants at Busch Gardens we will immediately leave the park, I declare, that "Yes, Austin can go to Busch Gardens."

Austin runs upstairs to change his clothes.

Logan collapses into a heap on the floor. Head buried under his arms. Emotionally exhausted.

Angels or Devils?

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Staircase Greetings

Recording a memory: When Austin and Logan wake up in the morning, they tumble out into the hallway, lay down on the landing and half asleep, call out "Momma." I love climbing up the stairs and peering over the edge and scooping them up into my arms.

As much as I really want to capture this "moment" on film, I just don't have the heart to snap that picture first thing in the morning!

After a few seconds of snuggly time, the first question I hear every morning is "Mom, where is (insert name of twin not yet awake)?" Even if they just crawled over the missing twin in order to get out of bed!