Head Dive into the bathtub...

Today while at work I got this email from Marcus:

"Emerson Fell head first into the bath tub when Eli was taking a bath. Clothes and all in she went. She popped up and looked very surprised but survived."

When I inquired about how this happened he sent some follow up information:


"She was trying to reach the alligator and her little feet came up and she was a teeter tooter and in she went, and I must say it was a smooth dive into the water.  it was really funny."

Does it make me a really bad mom that I laughed hysterically at this? (It's also Marcus' description of the event that makes me laugh). Marcus sent me a picture of her in the bath with all her clothes on and she looks so pleased with herself.

*Footnote #1- She loves the bath so it doesn't really surprise me that she was pleased that she somehow ended up in the water. It's hard to give both babies a bath at the same time because Emerson seems to think that she needs to do the back float in water so she can kick with her legs and splash with her arms.  Eli does not appreciate being kicked repeatedly by his water loving sister. So we usually give them baths separately while the other one stands and watches. Hence why Emerson was next to the tub but not in it.

*Footnote #2 - We are lucky that all is well and it's a reminder about how quickly something like this can happen. Luckily Marcus was right there and she apparently is a natural diver who was not hurt or scared in this event.

First Haircuts...

We've been (or should I say) I've been resisting giving the babies haircuts. I loved their crazy, messy, hair and many people kept telling me to cut their hair and for me that always makes me want to do the opposite (I don't know why I can't help myself).

See isn't their crazy, messy, hair fun?

She seems satisfied with messy hair

But today for some reason I felt inspired and so after looking up a place that cuts kids hair off we went on our hair cutting adventure.

While we waiting both Eli and Emerson explored a little bit by walking. They've never walked in public before and it struck me that my babies were growing up.

They were both a little nervous at first and just stood in one place but they eventually got brave and set off on their own.

I was trying to get a before shot of both of them but they didn't want to sit still.

Eli went first...

and for the most part it was very uneventful. He kept trying to look at himself in the mirror and he fussed a little bit when she cut around his ears but other than that he did really well.

Isn't he cute?

I'm not going to lie I was tempted to keep his hair like this. It looks cute short on the sides super long on top haha.

And then he was done. Looking all grown up with his new haircut. Another hair dresser took Emerson while Eli was finishing up. Marcus set her in the chair and she immediately started screaming. She was shaking, crying, and was hysterical. Poor baby. When Eli heard his sister start crying he immediately started looking around and getting upset himself so I had to take him over to see her. 

I picked her up and she kind of calmed down, but she was still very unsure about the whole thing.

I held her while we just trimmed up her bangs and the back a little tiny bit. She really didn't need much done.

She was being super dramatic in this picture.

And then she was done. 

I loved that they gave us locks of their hair and certificates for the occasion.  

Funny things...

The other day I ran to the store while Marcus stayed home with the babies. When I returned both babies were in their highchairs finishing their dinner. I walked in and Emerson put her arms up for me to take her out.

When I lifted her out something seemed to be missing....

It was her diaper. Marcus in the midst of changing the babies took off Emerson's old diaper and somehow forgot to put a new one on her.

The funniest part of the whole thing is when I asked Emerson, "Where's your diaper?" She just did her "I don't know hands". Even after I put the diaper on her she walked away with her arms up as if to say, "I don't know why I ate my dinner with a bare butt."

I had a good laugh about it and luckily we avoided any huge disasters which could have resulted from the forgotten diaper.

:::

Eli is obsessed with out shoes. He studies them, throws them over his shoulder and walks around holding onto the shoe by the shoe lace. Puts them on the table, sticks his face in them, makes piles, and even licks them (although he licks everything). Yesterday, he saw me put my foot in the shoe so he tried to do it too and missed...

I miss my friends :(

School starts in a few weeks and for the first time in 22 years I will not have a first day of school. I will not see my friends in class, there will be no more obsessing over papers and tests, no more study groups, and now we've all scattered across the country (literally) to start jobs and put our master degrees to work and it's all catching up with me.

I'm not even sure I know how to describe what it is I'm missing except that my friends in Connecticut and at grad. school were among the best friends I've ever had in my life. Friends who watched my two babies at basically anytime so I could finish my last year of grad school and travel with a travel seminar to Australia for two weeks.

Friends who knew about my food issues and would buy 15 different types of macaroni and cheese because they weren't sure which I liked. Friends who visited me in the hospital and kept me sane during the bedrest. Friends who introduced me to woodchuck cider (the only alcoholic beverage in the universe I can tolerate) and let me cry in the common room at the school over a less than stellar grade on a paper I worked really hard on and thought was brilliant (Seriously, not one of my finer moments).

Friends who saw me at some of my worst (PPD, grad. school, crazy anxiety wash your hands before touching my kids kind of worst) and who helped bring out my best. I miss them all each and everyone for the uniqueness, goodness and joy they brought to my life during our three years in CT.

Taken the night before the first one of us moved away. (Lots of crying in those days as we all said goodbye).

That night one of my friends had a bottle of holy water or oil or something and she decided we should give each other blessings (which may seem odd to some but in our circle not so much) so that's what we did. With the water we blessed the person to our right. 

I'm enjoying my new stage in life. I know that it's only logical to put good education to work but a part of me wants to rewind a bit and go back to when we were all living within 5 minutes of each other. 

I also miss my therapist he was really great :~)

"I don't know..."

One of my favorite things that Emerson does is this....

When we ask her a question and she doesn't know the answer she puts her hands up like this to indicate, "I don't know." It's so cute. She also uses this gesture to indicate "uh oh" like if she drops something.

This isn't the greatest picture since it's from a cell phone but I've been trying to get a picture of her doing it forever and finally we got this one.

::

Today Eli did the gestures for the Itsy Bitsy spider all by himself. I was singing the song with Emerson in the chair and I looked over to Eli who was sitting on the floor going through the motions. I had no idea he had even learned them. He was always a few beats behind but it was one of the cutest things I've ever seen, not to mention he was sitting in one place which he never does. 

::

The other day while I was at work Marcus went on-line to try and find some animal sounds to show the babies. I have no idea what he googled but he ended up here at a site with two characters named Boowa and Kwala (does anybody know about these guys?). On the main page there's a play button and the two figures start singing the most obnoxious song ever, but Emerson loves it. She smiles and bounces and flaps her hands. Marcus showed me when I came home from work and I had never seen her that excited about anything. It's truly adorable and the song is truly bizarre (and gets stuck in our head). Eli also enjoys the music from that site but he just likes to dance to just about anything. 

So whoever and whatever these things are they have captured Emerson's attention. 

It seems I'm the go to girl...

on all things job related. In the last two months I've created resumes for: Marcus, my sister, my mom, my sister-in-law, and my brother-in-law. My sister has contacted me on several occasions to help with cover letters and of course I've been assisting Marcus with his own job hunt.

Today, it seems my brother-in-law finally decided to put that newly created resume to work because he called me today for some very specific help. Which included:

Q. How do I upload a resume so the formatting doesn't get messed up?
A. Upload it as a PDF.

Q. How do I make a PDF.... wait how do I save the one you emailed me in word? How do I open the document? What do you mean.... etc, etc.
A. (Lots of step by step instructions I'll spare you the details).

*Hang up call #1*

*5 minutes later*

Q. How do you make it into a PDF?
A. I already told you how to do that.... okay fine I'll tell you again. (More step by step instructions).

*Hang up call #2*

*3 minutes later*

Q. How do I upload the document?
A. I don't know I have no idea where you're currently applying too. Usually you just use the upload button and then find what you want to upload in your documents file, but I can't really help you much more than that since I can't see the screen.

*Hang up call #3*

*2 minutes later*

Q. How do you spell immediately?

(In my mind I'm think you have got to be kidding me what am I your own personal dictionary, surely there are other ways to figure out how to spell words without a fourth phone call to me).

A. Um... you're on a computer use spell check.... okay fine you spell it...

*Hang up call #4*

It might be good if he finds a job quickly.

I hate....

the conversations where people start saying ignorant hurtful things (even though they don't know or realize they're saying stupid hurtful things).

My brother and his wife were over this evening and somehow we got on the conversations about babies. I think because we have several cousins who are pregnant. My brother mentioned that he really wanted a son someday to carry on the family name, and I don't even know how it came up but talk about genetics became involved.

My brother was adamant that is was important that our family name not only be carried on but that it be carried on with his genetics.

I tried making points about people who were infertile, couples who adopt, same-sex couples where both partners can't contribute, and the name can still be carried on even without a genetic element, but he kept going and going... and I eventually just stopped talking and let my brother say his piece.

I could tell it bothered Marcus. I know my brother doesn't know about our IF and how Eli and Emerson came to be, but these kinds of comments hurt. I know we can't fully fault my brother for his comments because he wasn't intentionally trying to hurt us. (Although they were just kind of stupid comments in general). He has no way of knowing at this point that he was speaking about something that directly affects us.

After they left Marcus mentioned that we should have just told them. (Which I was tempted to do but I won't do until talking with Marcus). I suppose someday that conversation will have to happen.

:::

On a totally different note the reason my brother was over was to help Marcus get my massive bookshelf (it's 7ft tall 5ft wide) into my office at work since we don't have a truck.

My sister-in-law stayed at our house while the babies slept, and Marcus, my brother, and I went down to my church. I have been shown how to disarm and arm the alarm once and I was hoping I could remember how.

Yeah... turns out I didn't remember and I set the alarm off. It was loud and obnoxious and even though I called the company for assistance and asked them not to dispatch anyone, a guy from the church came down anyways.

At first when he came in he only saw Marcus and my brother and he was mad. When I came around the corner he was a little less irritated but I don't think he was very pleased about being called down for nothing. I was told the other day that accidently setting off the alarm is a $75 fee. I hope they take pity on me since this was my first attempt at using it.

Fun at the park...

This evening we walked to a park near our new home. Eli and Emerson were big fans. First we tried out the swings. 

They both loved it. Emerson kept giggling and laughing and they both just kept looking at each other. After the swings Marcus and I took them down the slide. Which was a huge fail as the slide was not really designed for adults and it was really slow. Then we did some crawling in a tunnel.

The funny part about this was it went up at an incline. So they would crawl, crawl, crawl almost get to the top and then slide back down on their stomachs. Emerson also thought this was hilarious.

It was a nice way to end our evening. The babies are so fun these days. They seem to understand us more, their personalities are coming out more and more each day. Best of all for an entire week they've gone to bed without any kind of a fuss!

(The pictures aren't the best because we only had Marcus' cell phone with us). 

Dr Eli and other random musings...

The babies have always loved Marcus' stethoscope and the other day Eli put it on himself like a doctor and was walking around I thought he looked adorable.

Speaking of adorable...

I love these pictures of Eli with his dad. He was just sitting and resting his head on Marcus and snuggling with him. The babies love their daddy.

A few more random tidbits that I just want to remember:

-Emerson said "mama" yesterday for the first time. I was talking to her about something like I always do and I said something along the lines of, "Mama's going to do it" and she looked and me and smiled and said clear as day in her little voice "mama". So incredibly sweet.

- This next story I'm not even sure if I should share but Marcus and I had a good laugh after the fact. Yesterday after work I was sitting on the couch typing something for the meeting I had that evening and Emerson came over and pushed on my laptop screen and pinched some skin in my leg. It hurt, I instinctively jerked my hand/arm, which was holding a can of Dr. Pepper and it splashed all over Emerson's face. Poor baby was so shocked by the whole thing and her face was just covered in soda. After I got her cleaned up Marcus and I couldn't stop laughing. Clearly, we're parents of the year.

-Emerson has been watching Eli walking and she's determined to follow suit. She's been taking 3 or 4 steps at a time (although unlike her brother she doesn't think falling down is fun). Yesterday. She had my cell phone up to her ear, she was taking about three steps, and saying, "hi, hi" over and over. It as adorable and hilarious. 

Finally a few text messages from Marcus that he's sent me while I'm at work. He hasn't yet found a job so he's been staying at home with the babies and doing a fabulous job being the "house husband" as we joke about it. If I made just a little bit more money he could stay home while I worked which would be ideal for both of us. Maybe one day when we're rich and famous or something.

Texts:

Marcus: "Eli kind of fell down the stairs. Well only two steps. I caught him, he did like a cartwheel"

Me: "Is he okay? How did that happen?"

Marcus: "He was going down and weeeeeee off he went."

Haha I can laugh because Eli is fine and the way Marcus described the whole thing makes me laugh.

Another one:

Marcus: "I think Emmy just broke my xiphoid process" 

Who talks like that haha? At least he's putting his degree to good use.

7 Years Ago Today...

Marcus and I were married.

And I have to say this last year of marriage was by far the hardest. One thing that people don't really talk much about (or maybe it was just our case) is how hard having babies is on a person's marriage. Add in bedrest, prematurity, NICU, twins, grad. school, post postpartum depression/anxiety, difficult babies, etc and yeah it all really takes it's toll.

Marcus and I have probably argued more in this last year than we did in our previous six years combined.  We were suffering from exhaustion and stress and any number of things (many mentioned above) and it's just a recipe for diaster. 

I do have to say that I think we've come through it better than we were before. Things are without a doubt different in our relationship. That's to be expected when your family doubles in size but right now I'm in a really good place mentally and physically. The babies are finally sleeping better and we're settling back into our routine.

It gives me so much joy to watch Marcus be a dad to our kids. He's amazing at it and does it with an ease and a joy that I envy. I am so very blessed that he is mine and I so look forward to what the next years have to bring. I know that if we can make it through my parents divorce, infertility, undergraduate and graduate school, cross country moves, bedrest, NICU, twins, then we can meet any obstacles that come before us. Although it's been a challenging last year it's been a very good last year.

Happy 7 years Marcus love you!

(Photos by Brisham Photography)

Unpacking progress...

The mission was to unpack my 33 boxes of books (Marcus seems to think I have too many, I say there's no such thing).

Marcus set to the task of constructing the book shelves with his assistant Emerson. She's so observant and really loves tools for some reason.

So after Marcus put some screws in Emerson had a turn.

Then we had a problem. Two shelves were not enough...

We still had piles of books.

And more boxes.

So a third shelf was added and eight boxes of books are going to live in my office. Isn't it beautiful? It took me so long to figure out how to organize them. I'm not totally happy but Marcus was ready to move on in our packing adventures. 

15 Months old!

15 Months old! They're both getting so big.

Lately they've both been particularly hilarious. I think one of my favorite things is they're both starting to understand what we ask them. A while ago at my mom's house we asked Eli where the ball was and he crawled over to the TV stand and looked underneath it. Sure enough the ball was underneath.

Emerson is also understanding more and more and she can show me where her nose and her belly button is. She also knows where my nose, Eli's nose, and Marcus' noses are. She's still really attached to her little stuffed pig we call piggy. She wants to eat with him and he gets hauled around everywhere. So he's really disgusting. This morning she threw him in the bath with Eli I guess she noticed he also needed a bath.

Eli is still struggling with the eating. He really tries to eat things with textures and he's so over the purees but overall it just doesn't work for him. Now that we're settled I'm going to looking back into EI services so we can start working with an OT again. He's so frustrated. Although he doesn't gag and throw up as much when he puts different textures in his mouth.

Emerson is loving food still and her new favorite at the moment is bananas. She wants them for breakfast, lunch and dinner so we've taken to hiding the bananas so she won't see them. 

As far as vocals go Emerson still pretty much just says "hi" over and over again. Especially to Eli. She loves her brother and they're so funny lately when they play together. They crack us up. Going in circles, chasing each other, wrestling with each other. The fun side of twin parenthood. 

Eli says dada and mama and maybe ball it's hard to tell. He throws everything in his reach and he's just a happy kid pretty much always smiling. One of their new favorite games is climbing al over their dad. Emerson just sort of throws herself over Marcus and then laughs hysterically.

Finally, some of the biggest news is Eli is walking. In the last couple of days he's really taken off and now he's attempting to run. He'll go and go and then fall and laugh and then stand up and do it all over again.

Not to jinx anything but the last three nights they've also gone to bed without any crying. Prior it would sometimes take over an hour to get them to bed, so this is a huge change and relief. 

They're at such a fun age right now and they crack us up all the time.

Still here....

Nice huh? This is during our clothes sorting and putting away adventure. 

(Can you spot the baby in this mess).

Our unpacking and cleaning is going very slowly. Between my new job and the two babies it's hard to get much done. (Although I did make a list for Marcus to try and work on tomorrow).

My new job is going well. It's very hectic and unorganized so I have a lot of catching up to do and a lot of planning for the upcoming fall. 

I'm exhausted. Really, really exhausted.

The babies are loving this moving thing. They take things out of boxes. The love the big empty spaces. (Eli's been trying to walk more with his arms straight up in the air because of all the space). They've been hilarious these last couple of days. At one point Emmy was laying in this box I just got the camera out too late.

Lots of cleaning is taking place. People keep asking me why we're cleaning. Do people seriously move into a new place and not clean? Really? That's unfathomable to me. 

 Not only is my home currently a chaotic mess. My office is also very sad and lonely. I don't yet have a desk or shelves or anything really. So I'm using a super tiny table as my desk and I have a piano bench to hold my printer. People keep walking in and laughing at my set up. It's all just a work in progress at the moment. For some reason there were also about 10 chairs in my office. I've moved most of them but a few remain including a rocking chair.

And finally, just because I think it's hilarious. Marcus took a picture of Eli and happened to catch him in the middle of a sneeze. Look at his cute puffed out cheeks. Haha funny stuff.

Good night!