Holy Fourth, I'm Tired

The holidays with kids & babies just keep getting better & better. It pushes us (even if we are beyond exhausted) to make the memories, because we want them to experience the magic. It helps us see the magic in the simple things. Sparklers, s'mores, friends, Gmas & Gpas,  parades fireflies & first slides were all completely magical this Fourth of July. Oh, and the nap I took after three glasses of wine at my mom's. That was magical too.

It Takes Two First Birthday

We canceled Thanksgiving during a bad bout of mastitis, had kids puking on Christmas day, so it was no surprise the twins had horrible colds the week leading up to their 1st birthday party. By some miracle the non stop screaming & snotty noses cleared and the party was on!!! When I  told Damon  I wanted to do an It Takes Two theme he said, Oh like Noah's Ark?' I was actually thinking more along the lines of Snoop Dog & Dr. Dre. We each picked our favorite duo & my BFF Brandi made us custom t-shirts to wear at the party. I chose John Lennon & Paul McCartney, Damon chose Kirk & Spock, Wesley, Batman & Robin and Mia, Mickey & Minnie. The twins wore the Best Friends shirts from Indie Nook.

When it was time for the smash cakes Wyatt had everyone laughing because he went crazy on his cake, eating it by the handful. He eventually picked it up with two hands. Like mother, like son. Grayson wasn't super interested. I think he was still feeling a bit under the weather.  Uncle Tony brought the traditional Mrs. Goodman's cake& I made the twins little cakes from a box after trying to research peanut free options. Honestly, I was pretty anxious the whole time they were eating it!!! We ate tacos & played with friends. All the kiddos loved snuggling with all their Grandma's. How lucky are they to have 3?

 

A few days ago I was scrolling through ig & came across a story. A mama was walking through a store with her 2 year old. An older woman approached & engaged the little boy. She looked at the mama who also happened to be pregnant & said I have a son who is 20. If I could go back in time for only one moment I would go back to hold & rock my boy when he was just 6 months just one more time. the sentiment gives me such a lump in my throat. I've said it before, time is a gift but also the most cunning of thieves. Happy Birthday Wyatt & Grayson, I want to squeeze you forever!!!!

Sunday Morning Adventures

Damon's been waiting for years to take our kids fishing! He's had Mia's pole since she was tiny. This morning we loaded up (all 6 of us!!!) and headed to Chestnut Ridge Metro park with a can of corn and hope the babies would cooperate while the bigs got to fish. THEY DID IT. Both kiddos caught their VERY FIRST FISH! Love seeing all three of them so happy.

Meeting the Twins

I can't believe I made it to my scheduled c-section date. The babies were breech and traverse early on and just never moved.  Around 35 weeks I began having contractions that were about 6-8 minutes apart anytime I was up moving around.  I couldn't sleep at all and moved to the couch to find some relief. Most nites around 3am you could find me on the couch eating honey crisp apples and beef jerky. The babies were measuring around 7lbs each and i kept asking people, "does it really look like I have 14lbs of baby in here?" Apparently it did because Wyatt (Baby A) weighed 7lbs 1 oz and Grayson (Baby B) weighed 6lbs 10oz.  I stopped working completely the Wednesday before my surgery. Sunday was my birthday and I needed to head to Riverside to get some blood work done. I'd had a pain in my leg that I was worried about, so I stayed a few hours to make sure it wasn't a blood clot. It kind of ruined plans for my birthday brunch but it was worth the piece of mind. 

Monday morning we said goodbye to the big kids and headed to the hospital around 10am. It's a totally different experience not to be screaming, puking or cursing, but rather driving calmly! lol This is prob going to sound weird but I actually enjoyed the c-section experience. It was relatively painless and easy compared to my other births. The worst part is of course the spinal block. It feels like two giant wasp stings as they numb your back.The recovery has been harder only bc I'm so limited in what I can do for the big kids. It's almost been two weeks and I am feeling 90% myself. Our hospital stay at Riverside was perfect, the nurse were amazing. We stayed a full 4 days and pretended we were on a cruise, ordering room service and watching HG TV! I nursed all day long and then sent the twins to the nursery usually from about 1am-6am. It was our newborn bliss bubble, before coming home to the chaos of two little, bigs whose world was about to be rocked. It's been a beautiful chaos navigating life as a family of 6. I only hope we can slow it down and savor because I KNOW the first year will absolutely fly! Please time, be kind.