I could have sworn they were facing the same way when I put them down to sleep.

Eight hours in pre-school and what does he want to do when he gets home?

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Is it my mommy brain playing tricks on me? I could have sworm they were facing the same way when I put them down to sleep.

Katie (in white) , you're such a wiggle worm!

This post is from from my other blog here

This post is from from my other blog here

Nothing much has happened this past few days, so here are close up pictures of the twins.

Here is Katie with as many fingers as she can put in her mouth. Unlike Big Bro, she and her sister prefer fingers to pacifiers. Notice the red rash around her mouth from all the drooling. (By the way, Big Bro has been paci-free for almost 2 weeks. Good riddance!)

My little man is is 2 years old and 8 months, and my twins are 6 months old.  A lot of people marvel at how we seem to be coping with such a busy household. But that awe is eventually followed by eye-rolling and crazy looks when we get asked if we are having any more and we say, "we don't know".

My husband and I have agreed that should we want one more child, that it would have to be at least 4-5 years from now. But that's IF we decide to have one more. When the time comes, we may decide not to have anymore...we just don't know. We are going to let our situation at that time dictate what is best for us.   But somehow people disapprove of this and I don't really understand why. Maybe they're transfering their own feelings on us? Who the heck knows. One thing I know is I"m sick of it. Keep your opinions and eye-rolling to yourselves.

One of the worst is from one particular relative. She has 3 boys, all spoiled who don't know the first thing about sharing (they have 3 of everything: xbox, playstation.. you name it).

I've never felt judged by anyone before this.

The Thanksgiving holiday was a long one and I am just now getting back into things. The hubby just went back to work yesterday so I am just now slowly getting back to my routine with the girls, and housework. I don't know why I've done it this way, but ever since we started a family I don't do housework in the weekend. I end up doing them during the week when the hubby is off at work. And now, it's still the same. When hubby and little man are here, no housework gets done. I guess it's understandable because cleaning up after a toddler doesn't really make sense because it's like raking leaves when it's windy, the leaves just scatter all over behind you.

 

We did more shopping today and while we were out, we went to a baby store and looked for cribs. The twins are outgrowing the bassinet so they will need cribs in a couple of months. But while we were there we found out that the store is having  a 25% off sale on the bed that we wanted to buy for Matty.  We've been thinking about moving him to his own bedroom around his 3rd birthday, but now we'll have the bed early. It will be delivered in 6 weeks, so we have time to clear out the room, paint and work on getting him excited. I just hope it all works out and he transitions well.

Here's the bed we bought for him. It's a castle theme, but the themed curtains are easy enough to make that I can saw additional ones with different themes according to whatever Matty is in to at the moment.

http://www.maxtrixkids.com/popup.html?images/themebeds_17076.jpg

 

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This is what happens when mommy is busy on the laptop and daddy is busy in the office and there are Curious George and Shrek bandaids lying around.

The hubby took a day off today and also have day off tomorrow. Today, we did some Christmas shopping as it is easier to do without a toddler (he's in school). After we got done shopping for our 3 kids, the hubby was quite proud that we did it within budget. Though I don't know what budget he's talking about because we spent a lot. There is some bad math going on there.

We have also got gifts for pretty much everybody so we're doing quite well. We've even gotten gift cards for Matty's teachers.

By the way, it's Cyber Monday (at least in the U.S.) Apparently, in the Monday after Thanksgiving has proven to be a busy online shopping day in the past few years so now online merchants have deals going on today. If you're in the U.S, there is still time.

This post is from from my other blog here

This post is from from my other blog here

Jojo was quite the social creature this Thanksgiving holiday. She just ate up the attention and smiled at everyone. You wouldn't know it with this picture, though. I pointed the camera at her and she got busy pouting her pretty little lips.

Katie, posing prettily in her burgundy dress, was quite the opposite. She studied everyone's faces and reserved her smile for mommy only. She has perfected a worried look about her, though it is not evident on this shot.

The girls taking advantage of the available free arms. Jo is quite animated, while Katie studies her Nana's face.

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Matty had a lot of fun looking at the Ponies with Nana.

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The trip to see the family normally takes 3 1/2 hours and in fact, it took us that long. The planets alligned perfectly and the trip was smooth and stress-free.

We are finally home. The drive was again smooth. We only had to stop once at McD's and that was it.  Now it's time to rest and recuperrate. Somehow spending time with family takes a lot out of us.

We are at the inlaws for Thanksgiving. The 4 hour drive surprisingly only took 3 hours yesterday. The planets alligned perfectly for a smooth travel. We only stopped once for a couple of minutes to have the little man pee on the side of the road. Thankfully, we didn't get arrested. We were going to stop at a rest stop, but couldn't quite make it that long.

Almost turkey time! Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

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mrsizabel: Oi. Seeking quiet at the moment (from the kids, nephews, tv noise) by closing myself in room with a laptop. Hehehe. Relatives are so noisy.

This post is from from my other blog here

mrsizabel: izzy.minti.com

This post is from from my other blog here



The Paci Wizard visited Matty on Saturday and took all his pacifiers away, but he did leave him a Cars sticker book. It was a bit lame, so the Paci Wizard promised to return another day and give him a big boy toy. Matty requested a Deigo helicopter.

A few days later, the Wizard returned and surprised Matty with the helicopter and a Diego boat. It's day 4 of being paci free and so far so good. Though Daddy might say otherwise. Matty has been anti-daddy since the disappearance of the paci. Coincidence? We may never know.

One Diego Helicopter: $10

One Deigo Power boat: another $10

A few boxes of cartoon band aids: $3

Having a happy child who hasn't shown any paci-withrawal tantrums: Priceless

For everything else.... there's Wal-Mart.

 

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The Boys terrorizing the Girls.

Mommy didn't join in to even the odds, but it seems the girls would need to train a bit more. I hear twins attack together. One from the front, and the other from the back. I would sleep with one eye open if I were you, boys.



Jojo & Katie

If you can't tell them apart, don't worry. Neither can we! Jojo is filling up her cheeks nicely that we often do not realize who were holding until we look closely. But don't worry, girls. We've never switched you. Katie is Katie and Jojo is Jojo...or did Katie become Jojo and Jojo become Katie? Oh no! Well, you're identical so it's alright. Right?

The girls are better. If the bronchiolitis was caused by RSV, it was a mild attack. Perhaps because of the RSV vaccine. Yay! 

Big Bro is fine now, too, though he is still coughing every now and then. He has a nasty habit of picking scrapes and scratches on his face so they won't heal. It is very annoying, so we've resorted to putting band aids on them. LOL He looks funny, but hey... at least the scratches can finally be left alone to heal.

Day 3 now of being paci free and it has been going well. We bought 2 Go Diego Go toys yesterday and placed them in random places in the house for Matty to discover. He was very excited! He says the paci wizard gave him the toys because the paci is "all gone!"

We are going to the in-laws for Thanksgiving and leaving on Wednesday afternoon and will stay there until Saturday. My house is a mess so I'm trying to clean up. It's weird how that works, we're going to someone else's house but I'm cleaning mine. LOL   But I just hate coming home to a messy house after being gone for a few days. It makes me want to leave again!

 

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It is almost Thanksgiving and we've just only taken our Halloween decorations away. Wait. Did I say we? I meant Matty. Do you think we're breaking any child labor laws 'round this here part?


Notice the dead grass and compare it to the oh so luscious green grass over yonder. Oh Matty, the chores that await you when you grow up.

It was passed Matty's nap time by the time he and hubby got home from toddler gym. The hubby was rolling his eyes while telling me of the tantrum he had in the car on the way home.

When I finally lied down with him to get him to sleep, we'd forgotten to take a pacifier with us. Because I was slightly lazy and didn't want to go down and get it, I told Matty the bad men took all his pacifiers. The hubby and I have been working on taking the pacifiers away from him on Christmas. We've been telling him that in order for Santa to give him big boy toys, he needed to give Santa his paci. Otherwise, Santa would give him baby toys.  But then yesterday, I thought, this may make him not like Christmas and hate Santa, so I went with the "bad guys" route.

Matty looked at me and was tried to process what I had just said. I kept on going, and somewhere in between my half-assed story, I changed the "bad men" to the Paci Wizard. I told him the Paci Wizard took all the paci, but left him a gift. I gave him a sticker book that his daddy bought for him a few days ago but had forgotten to give him. I thought it was a lame gift, so I said, the Paci Wizzard was going to come back one day to surprise him with an even better gift... a big boy gift. He asked, "a Diego helicopter"? Yeah!

The nap time wasn't any trouble at all. He asked for Bubba (his bear) and a blankie and fell asleep. At night, it wasn't trouble at all either. In fact, he slept more soundly than he had been these past few days. This morning, he asked for his paci once, but I reminded him the Wizard took it, and that was that.

So far so good!! I hope tonight goes well, too. In the meantime, I have to go find the time to sneak out and buy a Diego helicopter.

This post is from from my other blog here

I've been feeling guilty about having my son be in preschool 5 days a week 8 hours a day, especially that I'm a stay at home mom. I've been planning on cutting back to 3 days a week but everytime I think I'm ready, I find out I'm not. Right now I have a goal of cutting back to 3 days a week starting on January. I hope I can handle it then. 

I just feel like I'm sending him away, though I guess that's really what I'm doing. I haven't been picking him up this week because the girls are sick and I didn't want to take them out. And because of this, I fidget and fiddle at home around the time I usually pick him up and wish that I have. The hubby has been picking him up but about an hour later then when I usually do it because he can't take off from work earlier than that.

I just feel terrible. He loves school, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

This post is from from my other blog here

mrsizabel: Trying to figure out how RSS feeds work while restraining myself from pulling my hair out.

This post is from from my other blog here


September 2005 - aspiring to be a centerfold




September 2006 - on a pretense of being angelic, but notice Koby barricading herself





October 2007 - a pro at puzzles and still mischeivous.




Matty comes up with the funniest things everyday. It seems like just yesterday he was a chubby rolly polly baby who cried loudly whenever he didn't get his way. Wait. He is still this way! But definitely a lot funnier, a lot smarter, a lot more sensitive and a lot more loving.

I would do a mommy dance, paint my face with stripes, put a feather behind my ear, and burn some sort of leaves and go around a fire if that would drive RSV away.

I took the girls to the doctor and Katie registered a fever of 38.5 C (101.4 F). She has a wheez and so the doctor ordered for her blood oxygen measured. But the machine thing they had wouldn't cooperate. They put on Katie's toe, her finger, her ear, her foot and nothing. Finally they gave up and said she's OK because she's nice and pink. She got the nebulizer too. But it didn't help the wheezing so the doctor concluded she has bronchiolitis (from RSV). Thank goodness they are on the RSV vaccine.

Jojo is not as bad off as Katie. She has a runny nose but that's all, but the doctor thinks she has the same thing. She's just not as far along as Katie.

We were at the doctor's office for 2 hours. My back hurts, I have a migraine from worrying and ... well, I'd do it all over and for longer if it means they'll get better.

Here is my brave little Katie, who fell asleep while on the nebulizer.

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Runny nose, cough, fever, irritability and possible ear infection sent the twins to the doctor today. Little Miss Katie, you have the worst of it. Your fever was 101.4 at the doctor's office. The doctor was great and wanted to be on the cautious side. He had your blood oxygen measured but the machine didn't cooperate. You were a trooper though! You hardly made a sound when the nurses were fiddling with your toe, then your finger, then your ear, then your foot. They finally just gave up and said you're nice and pink! But you do have bronchiolitis, could be due to RSV. Thank goodness you have had RSV shots.

Katie and Jojo have a cold. Apparently, when they stopped dirtying countless diapers last week, it wasn't the end of it. Now they have runny noses. Everytime I put them on their tummies, snot just drips down. Then last night, Katie was especially fussy and I saw her trying to scratch her right ear. Then in the middle of the night, she developed a fever. She probably has an ear infection. I'm worried more than usual, as they are preemies. I don't know what kind of things could happen.

I will call the doctor for an appointment and take them in. I'm debating on whether to get Jojo looked at too. She has a cold, but she doesn't seem to have a fever and she's not grabbing at her ear. But being that they pretty much share everything, I'm sure they'll share cooties. I guess I will get her looked at too. It's only a $10 copay anyway.

I hope they can fight this off. It's their first cold and I don't know what to expect and how they'll fight off infection being premature. I'm trying not to freak out!!

Yes, yes, I know you all know and would agree with me that kids are expensive. But the expense didn't become too much of an issue with my son since we got a lot of hand-me-downs and he's just one. With 2, it's a nightmare! Buying 2 of everything is just insane. I tried buying just one, but then several weeks later I find that we must have 2. The Bumbos were great, but now the girls want to be up. So we got an exersaucer. We got the cheapest one from Walmart, but cheap is a relative term since it set us back $60 USD. I'm trying to see if we could get by with just one. Matty used one for a short time, but it was ready to croak by the time he inherited it, so I don't know that it would hold up with for the twins.

Oh, and there is the issue of cribs. The most economic one I found online is about $200. I want one that will convert to a toddler bed, because we're definitely not going to have the twins on OUR bed. 2 adults and 3 wiggly kids would just be way too much. I guess we could buy another king size bed and butt the beds together for one ginourmous family bed. Nah, buying 2 cribs would be cheaper. LOL

 

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So we decided to invest on a pimped out stationary playstation for the girls. The one that big brother used as a baby is just not enough.


Before:



After:



Katie, don't worry. Those toys are not out to get you. Promise!



Here's the one that has been pimped out the block a few times before it even reached Big Brother.

Before:



(Notice the intensity of the stare on the camera since there's nothing else to stare at.)



After:




(Notice how she's STILL staring at the camera 10 minutes later.)

Don't worry Princess Jo, you will have your turn on the schizophrenia-inducing playstation.

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mrsizabel: Eating chocolate again from my toddler's holloween stash. Next year, I'm sure we'll have to fight each other to get to it.

We went to the mall the other night and let Matty play on the coin operated cars that would give you the ride of your life. But the thing is, the cheapskates that we are, we don't actually put coins in. Matty is just happy to just ride and pretend he's driving. But that night was a different story. He rode one car, but a minute later he comes back to me and whispers something quietly. He said, "mommy, want money for the car." Hmmm, what to say...what to say. 

"Matty, mommy doesn't have money. I'm sorry. You can still play on the cars though." With that he headed off again. Phew!! I thought I was going to have to dip into his college fund, which by the way is a stash of cash stuffed in an envelope that he got from his grandma at his baptism 2 years ago. ARGH, must add to my to do list: open college savings fund because money stuffed in an envelope only earns dust, not interest. 

The outbreak is finally over. Mr. Matty is still coughing, but not nearly as much and he is back to his difficult little self again. The little misses are back to their normal amount of dirty diapers, thank goodness. Waking up in the middle of the night to a not-so-subtle aroma is not exactly the best way to wake up.

We bought a Mega Circus exersaucer for the girls and boy, that thing is like a schizophrenic's nightmare. It's bussier than an actual circus. I was afraid the girls would get too overwhelmed, but they seem to be taking in stride.

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Thank you, Dora and Diego, for keeping the little ones company. You didn't mind the germ-infested livingroom, and held down the fort with me.

Oh and thank you, DVR. I can only take "More Diego, more diego!" so many times.

And thank you, Clorox wipes. Until the next outbreak.

We make a great team. We'll do lunch.

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Jojo, keep in mind that your mother has been up all night long changing poopy diapers (I will not embarass you and say whose diapers they were). Momma thinks yo' coo'.

Katie, keep in mind that your mother has been up all night long changing poopy diapers (I will not embarass you and say whose diapers they were). Momma thinks yo' fab!

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Though I am proud at how nurturing you are becoming, I don't think your dad would be too happy if you become versed on the intricacies of breastfeeding twins.

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Oct. 23, 2007 - almost 5 weeks old

The little Physicists have figured out the best position for maximum air flow so that they can keep cool during the hot days. Or perhaps it is a more efficient use of crib space?

Little Jo, I'm sorry to say that you have the bad end of the deal. If I were you, I'd move way from that general vicinity.