We’re emerging from the darkness in more ways than one.  Finally, blessedly, we are starting to feel those first twinges that spring is coming.  Today was the first day in approximately 8,000 days that the car has not been covered with a fine layer of frost when we leave for our day at the bewitching hour of 6:45 am.   It was actually so so wonderful to feel the sun this, that this Sunday afternoon we took an extended (partially by getting lost, hehe!) drive in the country to feel the sun without having to bundle up for a long time outside.  James and Emma stayed awake long enough to see some llamas/alpacas (this is still up for debate) before conking out for a lovely nap in the sunshine.

Metaphorically, we’re coming out of a long spell of general yuckiness that has touched the lives of all who have encountered us.  It started with a lovely scene of Mama (that’s me!) in elbow high blue rubber gloves scrubbing poop off the bathroom walls and a very melancholy and newly pajama-ed 8 year old girl and ended with a desperate Grandpa (who came to lend a hand in the sick house) who was stranded with two toddlers while Mama and Daddy tried to make their way home in an ice storm.  Digestive pyrotechnics were plentiful.

However we learned some important lessons during our sicky adventures.

1. When an 8 year old disappears for 20 minutes, then returns butt naked asking for paper towels and spouting, “There is a perfectly reasonable explanation why I am naked!” nothing good is coming.
2. Daddy and James have stomachs of steel (tummies of… tungsten?  Bellies of brass?) and were the only ones spared from the puke parade.
3. Emma is what our doctor has labeled “a barfer.”  J&E both had a viral upper respiratory infection (aka a bad cold) and had fevers.  Emma’s came with the lovely addition of vomiting.  We took them in to the ped’s office (who we love!!) and she thought Emma is just going to be one of those kid’s whose body’s reaction to a fever is to barf.  Even if their sickness is not gastrointestinal in the least.    Side note:  someone at work pointed out this could come in handy when the sneaky partying teenage (oh God, starting to hyperventilate now) years come.  Em may never be able to sneak around and drink without giving it away with her “barfer” status.
4. You never, ever, EVER want to see the same chipotle burrito you ate for lunch make a reappearance at midnight.  Really, you never want to see the same burrito twice.
5. 16 month olds are a LOT harder to use the bulby snot sucker (what?  Those have real names?) on than on a 26 day old, but I sure am less scared to try than I was then.
6. Two hours is a long, lonnnnnnng time when you are driving home in an ice storm, watching cars all around you crash and getting quarter-hourly phone calls from your poor dad who is puking his guts out and just wondering when you may get home.
7. You never fully understand the joy of coming to wake up a toddler who looks up at you, smiles and hugs their lovey, until you experience going to wake up a toddler and finding one completely quiet, sitting up in the corner of the crib with everything in sight covered in vomit.   Makes those unnaturally early, normal 6 am’s seem like Heaven on earth!

So, I’ll leave you with those lessons and my apologies for being so long absent.  We hope to stay in the light for a long while!

Normally I would chalk this up to the “my baby is a genius” Mama thing, but….

Today when we were riding in the car and Emma was fussing a little bit, so I said, “Emmy, what’s wrong?  Are you sad?”  And then clear as crystal she says, “I sad.”

Tim whipped his head around to me.  ”She just said ‘I sad,’ holy crap!”

James is walking.  Emma is talking.  We’re in for it.  :)

If sleep is the ever present topic of thought and conversation for moms of infants, food is the topic for moms of toddlers.  I think the burgeoning independence and the realization that if they don’t want to eat it, they just can refuse to, leads to many toddler mama worries.  James and Emma have started down their paths of toddler food drama already.  Well, not real drama, just stubbornness.  Not like they came by that trait naturally because I don’t know a single solitary family member that has even an ounce of a stubborn streak.  *cough cough* 

My mom always told me, “Don’t try to apply logic to crazy people, because it just isn’t relevant.”  I think, in some ways, that applies to figuring out what to feed a toddler.  Just because green beans used to be the favorite doesn’t mean that they won’t get spit out at high velocity at tonight’s dinner.  And if you try to figure it out, it will just change tomorrow anyway.  I have read lots of advice on this topic, of which I think the best was probably along the lines of this: try to set out healthy options and don’t sweat if they won’t eat this thing or that thing.  It will all balance out.  If they eat all yogurt and crackers today, tomorrow may well be peas and chicken. 

I am pretty confident that my kids will not starve and thankfully they have both grown very well so far.  I try to maintain the balance of getting big enough (preemie mom worry) with not starting them out on the too heavy path (overweight family history worry), and they have been doing really well.  But now they actually have opinions on the matter of food.  Not that they can say, “Hey mom, this turkey leaves a bit to be desired, how about some ham tomorrow?”  Instead it is communicated by refusing some foods or, my favorite, eating a bunch of bites without actually swallowing and then spitting out a lovely mix of chewed-up grossness. 

My major concern with their food right now is that they don’t seem to want anything to do with meat.  Even when I think it is well mixed into a dish that they can’t really pick out the meat, oh yes, they find a way.  The other concern is that I think they don’t get enough diversity of foods.  But last night we hit a jackpot on both of those fronts.  We had breakfast for dinner – a favorite in our house and even my house growing up.  Scrambled eggs have always been a hit and have not yet *knock on wood* been the subject of toddler disdain, but bacon has never worked (whose children are they?).    So last night we tried two brand new foods – turkey sausage and blackberries.  Both were a huge hit!  Hooray for protein!  Hooray for a new fruit!

Rest assured, I know that they next time we have those they will may or may not work.  But for now, one dinner where each type of food was eaten?  I’ll take it.  And messy blackberry-smeared baby faces make it even sweeter.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

… and that word is Toddlers.  And it has come to our house! ACK!

In the truest sense of the word, we have toddlers now because they are, in fact, toddling.  James and Emma can now both stand without assistance and even take a couple unsure steps.  Mostly shuffling sideways to get to something they want to grab.  But in very short order, I’m sure, we’ll have two full fledged walkers who will now forever keep me moving.

And secondly, we have some of that toddler attitude (spunk, moxy, screaming defiance… whatever word you choose).  It comes out so differently between the two of them though, which I love.

James is very much into doing things himself.  He does not want to be fed, thankyouverymuch, he will feed himself!  No, he does not want you to hand him that toy, he will climb over the mountain of laundry (oh wait, you’re not supposed to have mountains of laundry? crap!) to get to that toy.  And most sadly for me, he does not want to be cuddled nearly as much anymore.  I know he’s just exploring his world and he still comes to me when he needs comforting, but I sort of do miss the new baby, warm neck nuzzling, rocking sleepy babies time.

Emma’s toddler-hood is gonna have some lungs, I think.  Whoa nelly, that girl has some pipes.  Which she has recently discovered can screech very loudly to get someone’s attention.  It is a very weird thing when you hear a blood-curdling screech and run to find the problem, pictures of broken bones or other emergencies in your mind, to find a giggling little girl who just wanted to make sure you knew she was there.  She also likes to feed herself, but sometimes will allow you to feed her the messy stuff.  She wants to play with everything she isn’t allowed to and already vocalizes her disdain for the word “no.”

And since no post is complete without some pictures, here is the most recent trip down, “I feed myself” lane.  Spaghetti night is a whole new ballgame at our house…

I am buckling up for this ride.  Do they make a 5-point harness for twin toddler parents?

Today is the one year anniversary of my first day back at work after Emma and James were born.  My working-mom-iversery.  In some ways, I think about all the changes that have happened since then and think things are 100% different, but in some ways, things are just exactly the same.

I was so lucky that my Mom came to stay with us for my first week back at work.  Not only could I call her 18 times an hour to see how the babies were without worrying what she would think, but also because she had been doing the working mama thing for 30 years at that point – she knew exactly what I was feeling.  And really when you’re sad and don’t know what to do, sometimes you just need your Mama, even when you’re a mama too. 

That first day back though, whew, it was rough.  I think I cried every single time someone said, “Welcome back!”  I made a special photo album of the babies’ first two months and looked at it about every 2 minutes.  I took it with me to all my meetings.  I showed it to total strangers who didn’t know me from Adam.  I joined the ranks of the pumping mamas who made the thrice a day trek to our pretty awesome pumping rooms at work.  But weirdly, I also felt a little good every once in a while, which of course, made me feel guilty.  I actually have 2 hands free to check my email or eat my lunch.  I hadn’t had both hands free in 2 months!  I forgot how much faster I could type with all 10 fingers. 

Since then we have had huge transitions.  We transitioned from the week of Grandma-care to our babysitter Bekah.  That is another God-ordained story for another day.  Babies started sleeping longer and longer till it was all the way through the night.  Then in their own room.  Then their own cribs.  They started eating solids.  I stopped breastfeeding and pumping (another story for the mama guilt factory, but hey! I made it 4 solid months).  There has been new adventure in rolling over, crawling and now cruising.  We moved into a new house.  So many firsts have happened in the last year.  James and Emma were just sleepy, warm bundles of cuddle this time last year.  Now they are playing, “I wanna get down!” toddlers.  The whole world seems different.

But then again, it all seems the same.  I still am trying to figure this “juggling act” all out.  How can I get up at the same time everyday and sometime get out the door 10 minutes early and sometimes 20 minutes late?  Where the heck does all my sick time go?  How am I supposed to get the laundry done?  And dinner?  And bathe, read to, feed, change AND play with the babies?  And get some sleep?  All in the 3.2 seconds before tomorrow starts it all over again?  If you know the answer, you need to write a book, because I don’t know if any mom ever gets it all figured out. 

But I have learned a few lessons along the way this past year too.  I am thankful for our childcare situation which suits our family perfectly.  I learned that I just cannot attempt to do any housework or chores until after the babies go to bed.  I don’t even try, that little time I have between getting home and their bedtime is too short and way too precious to me to spend it elbow deep in dirty dishwater.  I have learned that I freaking love our crockpot and if I were creative enough, I would make dinner every night.  I learned I should make my lunches for work the night before, but I never seem to get around to it.  I have learned that sometimes the dishes and the laundry will pile up, but I would rather be on the floor playing with the babies, so who cares?  Those jeans can get one more wear.  And lastly I learned that I will never stop missing my babies during the day, but seeing their faces sure does help…

- When we don’t like certain bites of food that Mama gives us, we can just open our mouths and let the food fall out all over the place

- Emma can now get up the single step from the den to the kitchen

- Emma can successfully get DOWN the step from the kitchen to the den

- When you yell into an empty cup it sounds super cool

- Mama is fun to climb… Mt. Fujimama

All in all a very enlightening day!

~James & Emma

Here are some of the pictures from our first birthday party.  Unfortunately, we don’t have pictures of everyone who came to help us celebrate, but we had so much fun with all of them!  Grandma and Grandpa Hornbeck and Great Grandma Hermon came to our house a couple of days before to help us get everything ready. 

Mama’s friend Katie from work and grad school came to celebrate with us.  She had on a very cool necklace that we didn’t want to leave alone!

Mrs. Bekah and Mr. Ashley came to our party!  James looks like a punk rock baby standing on Bekah, and he would like everyone to know that his mohawk style is how his hair naturally grows.

Mama steals a kiss from Emma in her very pretty white party dress.

But Mama gets to kiss us everyday, so our cousin Erin stole some kisses of her own from James!

Aunt Patty and Uncle Bob know a thing or two about having birthday parties for twins!  Uncle Bob and Grandma chat with Em.

Aunt Judy traveled really far to come be with us!

BIG SISTER!!  A party is no party at all without the Kenzie!

Great Grandma Hornbeck traveled the long way with Aunt Judy to be with us.  We love her!!

“Why are all you people singing??”

James thinks getting your hands dirty is for suckers!  Just lick the frosting!

Emma had no problems with getting her hands right into it!

Post cake and post bath, Emma snuggles with Great Grandma Hornbeck and cousin Josh.

It was a great party and we wish we had pictures of everyone who came!  Like Grandpa (who was behind the camera for most of these shots!), Aunt Marianne, Tyler, Great Grandma Hermon, Aunt Patty, Kelly,  Jill and June, Sarah, MaryBeth, Tony, Ashley, and everyone else! 

Aunt Cassie spent the night at our house and Emma wanted showed off her new winter hat.  That Aunt Cassie!  She cracks us up!!

But Emma says, “Watch out Aunt Cass, I am ferocious! RAR!”

Thanks so much to everyone to came to our party or thought about us on our special day.  Mama and Daddy wanted us to tell you all that they couldn’t have made it through the first year without your love, support and prayers.  You have all made us feel so special over the past 12 months and we are excited to spend many more years with all of you. 

Check out the rest of the birthday party pictures at our GALLERY.  If you have any more pictures from our party, please let our Mama know, she would love to see them!  We love you all!

~Emma and James (now toddlers!)

In the United States, 1 out of every 8 babies is born prematurely, and in 40% of those cases the reasons they were born early is unknown.  Preemies (even babies who are “late” preterm) can have seriously dangerous health effects.  Even though James and Emma came earlier than we planned, I praise God everyday that they escaped some of the complications that are all too common among their fellow preemies.  But for many, especially in Ohio, they are not so lucky. Over 13% of Ohio babies are born too soon. 

As a part of the community of Mothers of Multiples, this topic is very close to my heart.  I have read too many stories, emails, and blogs of mothers who have had to help their child fight for life, or even worse, had to do the unthinkable and grieve for their lost child.  Their pain is unfathomable to me and I often cry and pray that no more mothers or families should face these hardships.  But so much more research is needed to find out the elusive “why” of prematurity.

Please support the fight against prematurity by support the March of Dimes.  Please also consider supporting groups like Touching Little Lives that help families of preemies in practical ways. 

Hello everyone!  We have started the holiday season and officially our 2nd set of these fun days.  We just celebrated our 2nd Halloween.  Last year we were just tiny little bits, only 26 days old, so it’s not like we could do much mischief raising.  This year we got to dress up in costumes and have more of a traditional Halloween time.

The weekend before Halloween, our Grandma Penny came to visit us and we carved pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns!  We thought about going out to pick our own pumpkins at a farm, but it was very cold, so Mama and big sister Mackenzie picked out some awesome pumpkins for us.  Mackenzie had one that she carved all by herself and she even scooped the guts out! 

Mama and Daddy claimed they had to help us carve our pumpkins, but we think we totally could have dine it ourselves!  It didn’t look all that hard.  But they took directions well and the James/Mama teams and Emma/Daddy team made some very cool jack-o-lanterns to decorate the front of our house with.

We decided that we are still a little too young to eat too much candy, so we thought we should hand out the candy to the big kids.  Mr. Ashley and Mrs. Bekah have lots of big kids in their neighborhood, so we went over to their house in our super cool costumes and passed out candy.  They had their trick or treating night during the week, so it was a special mid-week treat.

We were so convincing as Tigger and Pooh that some people thought that we were stuffed animals!  We did get pretty tired though because we stayed up past our bedtime to make sure all the candy was given to kids.  But we had a very fun time! 

That weekend our big sister was back to play with us, but she got to go to a cool big kid birthday party.  This one was for a set of triplets (imagine if there was another one of us!) and a costumeparty!  Kenzie had the coolest Super Girl costume! 

It was a very fun week long Halloween celebration for us and we are even more excited for next year where we can have new costumes and eat candy!!  Love you all,

~Tigger and Pooh (E&J)

P.S.  Check our more pictures from Halloween in the GALLERY!