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.