No More Midnight Milk

So we've finally altered LR's bedtime routine. I figured it was all in shambles with the transfer from the crib anyway, so I decided to try to get rid of the milk. LR used to take a bottle of milk before bed and the routine was simple: bottle, blanket, books, bed. If he woke up during the night, he put himself back to sleep. Then when he went to the mattress on the floor it was bottle, blanket, books, bed... followed by a little bit from the bottle each time he came wandering into our room, once or twice per night. I really started to worry about his teeth in a way that I hadn't before. After fretting for a week someone (I can't remember who) suggested replacing the milk with water. Brilliant! Genius! He noticed the change, but didn't put up a fuss. He drinks much less now and I imagine we're not far from getting rid of the bottle completely. I'd really like to do that before the twins arrive.

Pictured above is Daddy's fix to our gate problem. Now LR can't let himself out of the yard. Unfortunately, they're even a little tricky for adults to open, so we'll keep looking. In the meantime, we can keep LR a little safer.

It's All About the Ladies

Saturday morning we had a play date with friends D & M and their daughter C, who is just 3 months older. They hadn't seen each other for a very long time, so it was good to see them interact well together. C got cuddly toward the end and we're pretty sure LR thought he was getting a big 'ol dose of cooties.

After they left we spent the rest of the afternoon at a big block party on our street. LR loved seeing so many kids and had a ball running up and down the street. We got lots of compliments on LR and congrats on the twins from our neighbors. I think we also got a lot of pitying glances... Found out that there was something in the water years ago when everyone had girls. There are more than a dozen girls from ages 5 to 18. We thought LR was the only boy, but I guess someone poisoned the well, because now there are 4 male 2-year-olds on the block. Awesome! Lots of friends for LR!

Sunday we took it easy since I had to do a 24 hour urinalysis. Daddy did the grocery shopping and took LR to the park while I tried to catch up on a bunch of rugby World Cup games. Just in case you were curious, the USA did not get slaughtered by England. I believe it was the least number of points the US has ever lost by in a world cup game. Go Eagles!

Monday we had a play date with LR's girl, V. They chased each other around both inside and outside the house. V's mom and I tried to rest since she's due with baby #2 this week and I'm starting to look like I'm close. (It's not that bad, but I'm getting bigger by the minute!) Also got my AFP test result back which test for Down syndrome and we're in the clear with both babies. That was a relief. Am becoming more comfortable with the idea of a C-section. It just looks like that's the direction that twin deliveries are going now-a-days thanks to a study which says the second twin delivered vaginally has lower APGARs and spends more time in the NICU. Might as well do what's best for both of them.

LR started his gym class today and Nanny C reported that he loved it. She said she thought the trampoline was his favorite and he has a hard time doing group activities because he wants to do his own thing. Not a surprise. Hope I get a chance to go to one of his classes.

Finding His Voice

LR has learned a new skill, singing! He's got the ABC's down for the most part, which he often sings while strumming the grill above the fireplace. Not sure what he likes about the sound it makes, but it's music to him. The past few days, he's picked up Ba-Ba-Blacksheep, Jack and Jill, and Old MacDonald. We sing at home and in the car. As long as the song is long enough, he will start to join in. He really liked Old MacDonald yesterday and even suggested animals. It's nice to feel like I haven't been singing to a brick wall for 2 years. He was actually absorbing a lot of it, just waiting for the connection to the mouth to develop, I guess. Very cool stuff.

Oh, and his favorite new bedtime show is Sleeping Beauty. I'm really enjoying the old Disney movies. The scary scenes are far less scary and adrenaline inducing than more recent Pixar movies. The music is wonderful and LR is soothed by it. I'll have to pick up a few more. So far Dumbo (it has a train!) and Sleeping Beauty are hits. Alice is Wonderland is okay, but probably his least favorite of the three.

First Day of Practice

LR came with me to the first rugby practice of the season last night. He mimicked the players as they stretched during warm ups, touching his toes and sinking into deep squats, and chased them while they ran laps. He showed off his somersaulting skills and they whooped and hollered for him. He was a little star. He gave lots of high fives and was told often how cute or cool he was. Speaking of, his new phrase is "how cool!" Guess that's a little of me rubbing off on him.

Despite all the attention and having a new fire truck to play with at practice, LR became a major distraction. When I held him during instruction, he overpowered me with car noises, "vroooooom, VROOOOOOOOOOOM!" The team thought he was hysterical, but we couldn't get much accomplished. Now I'm going to need to find a babysitter during practice. *sigh*

The picture is of Daddy and LR playing their new favorite game "jump truck." The rug is beautiful and apparently Nanny C has already had to learn the game. LR calls out the name of the vehicle and also the color. He really loves the rug. Thanks Yianni and Cookie!

At The Car Wash

This is our first test of the video upload feature. We know the quality is poor, but we're learning. Thanks to Daddy for both taking and editing the video!

Floor Mattress

So we ended up putting our guest double mattress on LR's floor. He calls it his "new" bed and hasn't had any problem sleeping in. The problem, unsurprisingly, is that he won't stay there. It takes around 45 minutes for him to fall asleep with either Daddy or I next to him, but then at some point in the middle of the night, he wakes up, closes his door behind him (I have no idea why he does this) and then toddles down the hall to our room. For the first few nights, I let him sleep the rest of the night in our bed. Then last night I took him back to his room each time he came to ours. He only woke up twice, so it wasn't too bad. I hope as he gets used to the arrangement, he'll stop wandering around quite so much.

The other reason he had a hard time getting to bed last night, Yianni and Cookie bought him a great big, new rug with construction vehicles all over it. He invented a game where he jumps on each vehicle and calls out its name. When it was time for bed, he asked to play the game again. I was barely able to convince him to get back in bed. I'll have to take a picture of the rug this week and post it. One of the nights of their weekend visit, Cookie made artichokes which LR couldn't get enough of. He got the hang of the scraping skill quickly and Cookie helped to make sure he didn't get any sharp ends as we got closer to the center. He kept us all entertained during dinner and then demanded another game of chase with Cookie afterward. She obliged and they went tearing around the house again. You can see how much gun he's having in the picture.

A new favorite game of Daddy's creation is Plunger Ball. If you haven't visited us yet, you might not know that we keep two plungers in the half bath between the washer and dryer downstairs. They have never been used for their intended purpose. I bought three for the house when we moved in. They were cheap and the first time we had the opportunity to use one we found that they lacked the necessary "oomph" that a plunger needs. So, we kept the other two as "decoration" and LR loves playing with them. He uses them as stilts, ground thumpers, and most recently, as a sort of batting / golfing implement. I'm not really clear on the rules, but Daddy seems to know them. I think both twacking and plunging are legal.

Game Over

At 4:45am this morning, LR climbed out of his crib. After calling for me for a bit, "climb, Mommy. Climb!" (and before you think that he was telling me he was climbing, that's what he always says when he wants me to pick him up) , and then escalating to some crying, he got a little quiet. We thought he'd gone back to sleep. Then I heard a little bump and a crash and Daddy and I sprinted down the hall to find a weepy LR standing at the end of the hall waiting for us. He was completely unhurt, so must have landed on his feet or butt. He hiccuped a little in Daddy's arms and then I took him and tried not to crush him with the amount of adrenaline running through me.

So, game over. LR: 1 Parents: 710 (number of nights spent in his crib). We're going to shop for a "big boy" bed this weekend. We would have had to soon anyway with the new kids arrival. It'll just be sooner than we planned. Daddy and I are learning not to make any more plans. :)

Xingu Plane

I went to the park this afternoon with LR after work. I put him in a swing and he talked about all the things he could see while he was swinging: trees, cars, trucks, slides, etc. At one point he looked up in the sky.

LR: airplane!
RuggerMom: What type of plane?
LR: Xingu plane (X is for Xingu in his plane alphabet book.)
RuggerMom: Are you sure?
LR: Yak plane (Y is for Yak in the same plane book.)
RuggerMom: *laughing*

He's awesome.

Little Daredevil

Okay, I've missed a bunch of things from last week, so I'm going to try to catch up here.

Gifts for Daddy's birthday arrived last week including an awesome beach bag from the Denver grandparents. LR claimed it as his own and Daddy and I made the mistake of giving him "rides" in it where we basically tested the bag's seam strength. Boy, is it a tough bag! Now we have to hide the bag from LR.

Last Wed we had our second ultrasound. Since we already knew it was twins, it was easier to enjoy it this time. I had started the day with a big glass of OJ, so the kids were bouncing and dancing all over the place. "Twin B is facing down... no wait, facing up" the technician said. The important part of the visit was that they found 2 placentas. The doctor said that makes them 95% sure that they're fraternal. Next visit we should be able to find out the gender.

On Friday we went to my company's summer outing where they had rented a large moonwalk for the kids. We could not get LR out of it. It must have been 100 degrees in it, but he bounced and followed the big kids around in it for at least an hour. Right away he found an 8 foot ramped ladder which led to a steep slide. He went up and down it 3 times before he tumbled a little on the fourth try. Then he was slightly more tentative, but only slightly. As soon as other kids he wanted to follow started doing it again, he was right there with them. And if he wasn't on the slide he was throwing himself around in the big jumping area. He was the youngest kid in there by about a year. That's our little daredevil.

On the way home we picked up a second bouncer from a mother of twins from my group. When we got it home, I couldn't get LR out of it. He's wearing his Mr. Potato Head glasses while sitting and playing with all the toys hanging on it. He was content for at least 10 minutes on the kitchen floor which is why it's still sitting there and will sit there until he starts ignoring it. Guess I put his bouncer away WAY too soon!

At swim lessons on Sunday the teacher guessed he was two and a half years old. I told her that he wasn't quite two and she was shocked because of how well he speaks. The past week he's shown a huge improvement not so much in vocabulary, but how he uses it. There's a lot more comprehension going on now instead of just mimicking. It's very cool to have little conversations with him now.

Great Beach Day

We had an amazing day at the beach with friends D & H and their son King J. The weather was perfect and the boys had a ball. If I were less exhausted, I would write a nice long post; however, it's bed time. The sun really wipes you out!

We went to Rye Beach in NH. It was an hour drive up and Daddy got the drive the new minivan for the first time. The boys watched Animusic 2 while the adults chatted. They stayed awake and then loved every minute of playing at the beach. LR was a little concerned about he sand in his flip-flops at first, but got over it quickly. King J kept running straight into the 61 degree water. LR was much more tentative. He thought the water was too cold, but Daddy managed to get him to play in the water for a bit. LR and I built sandcastles and dug big holes which we let fill with water. Both boys barely made it back to the car and fell asleep immediately. I took this picture of them when we pulled into the garage at home.

G'night!

ABC's

Last week LR started singing the ABC's all by himself. He tends to skip E and mumbles a little around L, M, N, O, P, but gets the sounds right in general. He also sometimes gets sidetracked by the S. It makes such a nice hissing sound that he has to stop and do his snake impression for a while. Then he might start over at the beginning because he can't remember where he was. Tonight he sang it 5 times in a row in the bath. It was very cute and we clapped each time he finished.

Opening the gate was not a fluke. He did it again tonight and Daddy had to chase him down. Luckily, we were watching for it, so he wasn't far behind. We'll figure out a fix tomorrow and will have to remember to tell the nanny.

For dinner we had corn tamales which he called corn "Ta-Mommies." I thought it was cute enough to include in a blog entry. Oh, and I took a first pass at shaving him down again. His hair had gotten long and it will just take a few evenings to get it all off. In the meantime he looks a little weird with clumps of short and clumps of long hair, but this is better than restraining him while a stranger cuts his hair. He even tried the shaver by himself (with the guard on). He had it turned the wrong way, so he couldn't do any damage.

Daddy's 33rd birthday

On Thursday LR managed to unlock the gate and let himself out into the world beyond the yard. I was watching, so I went out with him, but it made me nervous. I watched him try it again Friday with no luck, so I'm hoping it was just a fluke. Maybe the gate wasn't very securely locked. In either case, it's going to be hard to let him run quite as free in the yard anymore unless we add some other security measure to the gates.

Today is Daddy's 33rd birthday! We marked it by running down south of Boston to buy a minivan, the Honda Odyssey. It's the closest to a luxury vehicle we've ever owned. It's even got the all important DVD player with wireless headsets for the kids - only two, so I have the feeling we'll have to buy one more for our "bonus" child. We also checked out a store which carried one of the triple options we're looking at. First of all, triple strollers are ridiculous. They're heavy, unwieldy, and pretty inflexible in terms of configurations. There are very few solutions for our combination of kids. When I asked the MMOTA (Mass. Mothers of Twins Assoc.) for advice, three women with our exact combination of kids answered that they all us the Valco Runabout with a toddler seat attachment and love it. Unfortunately, it won't work for the time the twins are in infant carriers unless I want to take them in and out of their car seats to put them in the stroller. *sigh* So I need a double Snap n' Go for them while using the Bugaboo Cameleon for LR and just bring someone with me, I guess. In an emergency, when I'm by myself, I can take the twins out of their car seats. Sounds like fun in the middle of winter! Where do I sign up?

Our neighbors, T & T, invited us over for a BBQ this evening and their teenage daughters entertained LR outside while we sat on the deck and enjoyed a really pleasant dinner. Daddy and I even got a chance to talk! I had been battling a migraine for 24 hours and it finally went away during dinner. Was hoping I'd see an end to them now that I'm out of the first trimester, but no such luck.

LR is going on 2 weeks of sleeping through the night. Don't know how the family visit changed his routine so significantly, but I'm glad it did. I really need the extra sleep. LR continues to amaze us with his vocabulary. He's repeating whole sentences now and can usually tell us exactly what he wants or is thinking. He often gives running commentary in the car and when the salesman couldn't find the keys today, LR helpfully chanted "find da keys, find da keys," growing progressively louder until it got embarrassing. Not for us, for the salesman. We thought it was pretty funny.

No Pants

Yesterday, by the time I hopped out of the shower, I could hear LR calling "Mommy! Come in!" from our bedroom. He was hanging out with Daddy on the bed while they de-grogged. I think he actually meant "come out," but it was close enough. I emerged from the bathroom without my jeans on yet and crawled into bed with the boys. LR looked at me and said simply, "no pants." I started laughing thinking that it was a good thing he's not in school yet, otherwise I'd be the mom who doesn't wear pants.

See the People

Every morning when LR woke up during the family reunion, the first thing he said was "see da people?" He wanted to go downstairs to see what group of people were in the house today. I think that may be part of the problem he was having with sleeping through the night. Since everyone went home last Monday, he's been sleeping though. It's been really wonderful to not have to get up in the middle of the night with him. I'm thinking we need to alter his bedtime routine, however, so that we brush his teeth after he has his milk, not before. Unfortunately, he still uses the milk to go to sleep and I keep reading articles about 2 year olds with rotting teeth. For now I'm just happy that he's sleeping through. We'll tackle the teeth next month.

After Grandma Nese and Papa left, Grandma W and Granddad B arrived. They were not as terribly delayed getting in, but I hit accident traffic trying to pick them up. The reunion week was an incredibly bad travel week. Very few travelers made it through unscathed with 3 separate parties being delayed at least 24 hours. The day after they arrived we all packed up and went to the New England Aquarium. The place was packed and not as cool as I had hoped for. We also missed connecting with Aunt K's friend who was diving in the main tank in the morning. The kids loved it though. Penguins, jellyfish, and sharks ruled the day. On the way out the grandparents bought both boys stuffed turtles which they both loved.

In the picture Granddad B is reading the airplane book that the other set of grandparents brought from Oshkosh on their way. LR absolutely loves the book. His favorite page is "M is for Messerschmitt." I can't get over the way he says it. It's adorable. Then he always follows it by saying "looking for a dogfight" which is part of the second sentence on that page. The nanny must have been reading it to him since I came home from work on Monday and that was his new trick. He knows about half of the planes already. I think "J is for Jenny" is his other favorite page. He also follows each plane's name with the word "plane": China Clipper plane, Electra plane, Ford Tri-plane plane.

Another wonderful gift LR received was a Mr. Potato Head from Swingdaddy, Lady M, and Bud. He played with it often during the week and you can see him playing with it with Grandma W in the last photo. It comes with many more options than it did when Daddy and I were young. Not all of it fits into the butt of the potato anymore. He needs his own carrying case!

Tonight he sang the whole alphabet with me from "A, B, C" to "sing with me." It was awesome to have our first sing-along.

Explanation of Previous Post's Title

*laugh* I forgot to explain the title of the last post. On Sunday night we went out to eat with Grandad B, Grandma W, and Uncle D. We had to let LR run around a bit outside while we waited for a table. There was a pot of flowers next to a prickly bush and I encouraged him to smell the flowers. After exhaling on the flowers a few times, he turned to the bush, stuck his nose in and declared, "smells tasty!" That was it. Sorry for any confusion.

Smells Tasty

Wow, what a long time between posts! My apologies to Daddy's side of the family. My whole family has been visiting for a little over a week and it was wonderful. It started with Aunt K coming in last Saturday (after a 24 hour flight delay) followed within hours by Papa and Grandma Nese in their plane. Then Sunday Aunt Lady M joined us and we expected Uncle SwingDaddy and Cousin Bud, but they were also delayed in Dallas by 24 hours. I have no idea how SwingDaddy survived on so little food and so few diapers that night in a hotel with no crib, but he did. They arrived Monday tired, but recovered quickly. Here is a more detailed review of their adventure.

We did little more than let everyone acclimate for the next few days, but we did manage to catch a concert on Wed night at the Hatch Shell. Daddy was wonderful about finding the event and getting everything together for us to go. Bud was thrilled with the orchestra's performance, but LR was more interested in the boats. Daddy and I each took a turn chasing him down to the edge of the Charles River. He outran Grandma Nese and managed to get a foot in the water just before we left. He is getting so quick!

About mid week he learned how to do a somersault by himself. When I expressed concern about him breaking his neck, Papa comforted me by saying, "kids don't break their necks, they just dislocated them." Thanks goodness for medical people in the family to make us go from cringing to white-knuckling. LR also learned how to jump and practiced a lot, especially at the Hatch Shell after watching a couple of girls jumping.

Despite some tension between the cousins, they had a great time playing in the sprinkler outside a couple of times. Bud was much more adventurous with the spray than LR was. LR was more content to slide into his little pool.

There's so much more to report about this week, but I'll have to do it over the course of a few posts.

First Gender Dream

I dreamt about the twins for the first time last night and they were both boys. When I was pregnant with LR, my first dream about him was that he was a boy as well. While I think it would be convenient to have 3 boys, I also think a girl would be fun to have in the mix. Hopefully we'll know after the next ultrasound in August.

Witch's Brew

The other day LR spent a good 15 minutes making a great concoction in the sink of carrot and potato peelings in a bowl of water. "Mixing" is one of his new words and favorite things to do. Since then I've set him in front of the sink a number of times to mix whatever he can reach to put in the water. I should buy him some plastic vegetables or something similar. Yesterday he used clementine peels and half a banana that he decided he didn't want. He also threw in some fish from his fishing game for good measure. Gross, but entertaining. We even mix the bath water now as he takes his bath. We play the hokey pokey, but instead of turning "ourselves around," we mix the water around.

Another favorite bath time game is "loud and quiet." We drum on the side of the bath with flat open hands and we both yell "LOUD!" Then we tap with our fingers and it's "quiet." The quiet part never lasts as long as the loud part.

LR has started using a few words in the wrong way, but we've figured out what he means. First is the word "different." When I give him something to eat, he often feels a lack of symmetry and asks to have another piece of whatever I've given him for his other hand. For example, I'll hand him a cracker and he'll say "different cracker." He actually wants a second cracker to hold in his other hand just in case the first one disappears too quickly.

The other word is "try," which I guess he's using correctly, but it always makes me laugh. Whenever I'm eating something he asks to "try it" even if it's something he's familiar with or has eaten one hundred times before. Daddy and I used to have a friend, Rerun, in college who used to wander around parties asking people what they were drinking. When they told him he'd always say, "Hmmm... I've never had that before. Can I try it?" Amazing how often that worked with Bud Light and Natty Light. So whenever LR asks me if he can try my food, I think of Rerun and wonder if I'm being a little gullible.

Sleeping Through the Night (Again)

Since LR's last bout with a cold, he's had a hard time sleeping through the night. He'll wake up at 2 or 3am and call for me, claiming that it's "Mommy's turn." I still have a hard time listening to him cry, so I've been getting up, or making Daddy get up, and giving him a couple ounces of milk and putting him back to bed. With my family coming into town next week, we decided we have to get him to sleep all the way through again so that everyone can have a good night's sleep. Each night he cries a little less and last night was probably just 3 minutes or so. Then he slept through the night. If everything continues to go well, I'm hoping he'll be back to sleeping through the night by the time everyone arrives.

I'm up early this morning for no good reason other than most of my waking moments are filled with a sort of dread about having twins. Is it possible to feel lucky and screwed at the same time? I guess something like this was bound to happen since both Daddy and I are lucky people. As a kid, I was often picked as the volunteer during field trips or performances and Daddy always rolled double sixes when he needed them. I think it's time to start playing the lottery.

Big Brother

Say hello to Baby A and Baby B.

So LR's going to be a big brother... and not just once, but twice. We're shocked and excited, but mostly shocked. With no history of twins on my side and only one incidence of twins on Daddy's side, we were unprepared for the news at the radiology lab today. I'm going to have to decide whether to keep this blog exclusively for LR or whether to include the new kids. Should they get their own? If so, do each of the twins get one? I honestly think that's more work than I'm going to be able to handle, so my guess is that everyone is going to be cataloged in the same place.

What choked me up most today was thinking that LR won't remember the amazing 2+ years we had with him when it was just the 3 of us. He won't remember that we devoted all our time and energy to just him. With twins coming, I can only imagine the frustration he's going to experience when we have to divide our time. I know the same thing would have happened for just one child, but with two... it's going to be that much harder. This blog is probably the best way for him to know what it was like before A & B came along. I hope it's enough to capture what it was really like. Heck, we wouldn't have even tried for another baby if he hadn't been so cool.

We will start entertaining good in utero names for A & B. Let the games begin.