Our Little Litter

For all of you parents out there, you know the dream.  Going away for a few days to a luxury resort and leaving the kids at home.  Well, I don't want to brag, but I am Living.  That.  Dream.  Right.  NOW!  I never get to travel for work, but for three days this week, my company has flown the whole team here to San Diego and are putting us up (yes even the locals) in a fancy resort for some conferences. When we were told about this mandatory staycation, I was so angry and irritated.  I did not want to leave Evan alone with the twins for 3 days.  Not because he is anything short of amazing with them, but let's be honest, I have control issues, and worry that Evan has not perfected the art of chaos as well as I have.  I thought that they would lay in their cribs at night and talk about how they were going to overthrow daddy while mommy was gone.  A piece of me worried that the babies would think that I abandoned them, and I really love waking up in the morning when Evan brings o

As all of you parents know, coming up with dinner ideas to keep the fam excited, is hard to do.  it is even harder if you have someone who has food restrictions, or, like me, is just trying to eat healthier. Almost every day, Evan says "what's for dinner?" and 1 of two things happen.  I irritably reply "I don't know Evan, why don't you help me think of something?"  Or, I say "I'm not sure, baby, let me find something that looks good." and then this leads into a 2 hour sort through Pinterest - the black hole of all websites, followed by a 3 store grocery shopping extravaganza to find all the right ingredients.  The question came up the other night, and as I was milling about my "food fantasies" pin board, I found a Shepherds Pie that looked like a big warm hug.  Big warm hugs of food are what make me pack on weight like a bear heading into hibernation, so I thought I'd try a lighter version.  The good news is - it was AMA

It's crunch time.  The wedding is 6 weeks away, and I need to lose 20 lbs to get to my "pre baby weight".  hahahahaha.  Kidding.  Well not really, but I lost the dream of "pre baby body" a long time ago, so now I just try to work out to feel better and relieve stress.  I have started replacing 1 meal a day (it's supposed to be 2, but that's too hard) with a smoothie of my own invention.  Today it was 1.5 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk, half an apple, two handfulls of spinach and a tablespoon of rolled oats.  yesterday it was similar, sub kale and a banana and probably a reeses cup or something.   I hate dieting, but I learned in high school that the best way to lose weight in a hurry is to go on a liquid diet.  My best friend and I did the "soup" diet for weeks before prom.  We looked amazing, but no one liked us because our bitch factor rose with exponential fury when we were hungry.   Anyway, I want my kids to be happy about thei

Do you remember that movie?  I'm channeling Jennifer Lopez tonight.  Not in an "defending myself from an abusive ex" way, but in an "I'm a super mom, and if you try to invade my home you will probably lose." sort of way.   I should back up. Evan is in Austin for his bachelor party, undoubtedly 3 sheets to the wind - as he should be.  I am home alone with the twins for a few days.  It's my first time alone with them for more than a day, so I am already overwhelmed.  Now this was just the icing on the "Are you kidding me?" cake.  Earlier today I was at work and got a text from my nanny saying that my neighbor stopped by to tell her that he came home and interrupted some guys casing the complex.  They had a lookout who saw him pull into the driveway, he yelled into the complex and a few guys came running out.   I called the non-emergency line to report the "casing incident" and the lady said she couldn't help me.  I begged her

I don't think "busy" is descriptive enough for our lives.  Hectic, chaotic... no those don't do it either.  I just sat back in my chair, put my hands on my head and tried to create a word that describes our lives in a nutshell.  My next thought was  - "stop wasting silence, you have work to do".  So there, I don't even have time to make up fake words.  My life is so hard.  Yes, I do have time to blog though.  Because I love to blog.  It's therapeutic to me, and I think for the most part, you all enjoy our stories.  Each day, I have a short amount of silent time while the kids are napping.  Ok, to be fair that happens Mon, Wed and Fri when I am at home with the kids.  But during these times of silence, I am cramming in phone calls to golf courses.  Because M-Friday, regardless of whether I'm at home with the kids or I'm in the office, I am also a full time account manager for Active Golf.  I picked up a new job doing chair massage at the ho

A very smiley and exuberant little Wyatt was on the floor laughing and showing me the toy he was playing with.  I was at the table filling out paperwork to send to the hospital to request a refund for an appointment we paid for out of pocket but had coverage for.  (oh the irony) Wyatt, practicing his new skill of pulling himself up on everything, grabbed onto the back of the dining room chair across from me and just as quick as I realized what was about to happen, he pulled the chair down on him.  Luckily our chairs are pretty light, but the back of the chair came down on him pretty hard.  Wyatt started screaming in one of those, "I first stopped breathing and then let out a horrific cry" ways.  I threw the chair off him, grabbed him and held him against me, rocking him.  Poor little guy had two bloody nostrils.  He wouldn't let me touch his nose, so of course my most "rational" mommy brain thinks:   Is his nose broken?   Omigosh is his FACE broken?   D

I've been over thinking these blog posts.  I sit down tonight to do some work for my marketing job, but I wasn't feeling motivated to do that.  Instead I thought ok, I'll write a blog post... but I don't really have much to say.  That's a lie!  I have some great things to tell you about. First and foremost, we have crawlers!  The babies turned 8 months old yesterday and today, as if they were watching and waiting on an 8 month countdown, they began to crawl.  Just a couple little crawls, they don't do much before laying on their belly's and crying.  Or in the case of Olivia, she just rolls everywhere.  Rolling is faster than crawling.  She's an innovator. Martha Speaks Wyatt still has only two and a half teeth, while Olivia has about 6 or so.  Wyatt is sleeping a little better at night.  We are up with him anywhere from 2-6 times per night.  It's usually 10pm, 2 or 3am, 4am and either 5 or 6am.  Evan gets up with them in the morning so I can

If I was counseling myself, that is the diagnosis I would assign.  Adjustment Disorder 309.9 unspecified.  That means that I am going through an adjustment in life that is bigger than our everyday adjustments and challenges and one that is probably part of the reason to seek counseling in the first place.  I think there should be a specifier for people who throw themselves into an adjustment disorder state of being on a regular basis.  like this Adjustment Disorder 309.95 - Self Inflicted.  That would be my real diagnosis. What am I adjusting to you ask?  Well, I have recently been hired back by my old boss to do marketing again for golf courses.  This is part time, and I can work from home except one day per week when I need to go into the office.  I also just rented space and opened Empower Bodywork & Personal Coaching , which is my massage and life coaching business.  I have a few coaching clients and am hoping that my old massage clients will come back to me.  I have a beaut

A lot of my friends are having babies.  I have been writing a million emails to friends who ask me, "what should we register for?"  "What do we need?"  Here you go, some of our favorite things.  Most of these are awesome for twins, but I'm sure they are wonderful for single babies too :) I should also note that in talking to other parents, I find that "splurge items" are different for everyone.  We choose to splurge on our stroller whereas other parents empty their accounts for the crib, organic products or whatever seems most important to them.   Favorites for Newborns 1.   Onesies - The onesies with long sleeves and mittens at the end were essential for us.  Buy a lot of them.   2.   Bibs - Bibs are NOT all the same.  We loved this one because it has a sponge ring around the neckline.  Wyatt was a big spitter, and before we had these he would get a rash around his chin/neck because we couldn't keep the moisture away.  This bib helped a

** Warning, this is going to be a long post, so shut off the TV, get out your reading glasses and a cup of tea. I think I've been having tiny little panic attacks.  That might be catastrophising things, but sometimes it's just hard to breathe for a few minutes.  Stress is high these days.  I'm pretty sure it's the kind of stress I am putting on myself, which I know because I think un-normal things like "Sleep is so annoying, I don't know why I have to waste time sleeping."  and "I should write a book".  I mean, comeon. How's the diet going you ask?  Don't even get me started, we had donuts for breakfast. I've actually realized that I need to be appreciated, and until the babies came, I was regularly appreciated at work or at school because I am an overachiever and would go above and beyond to gain kudos.  Now I am appreciated in a completely different way by Evan, the babies and both of our families.  It feels different though.