Mama Mama Quite Contrary

I have a sweet high-school student who comes in and helps us out during the insane time of 5-7 p.m.  For those of you who don't have children, or have forgotten, this is the time of day when a mother would rather rip out her own toenails than be alone with her demanding children.  A time when EVERYONE is at their wits' end and nothing can get done fast enough.  We hired this babysitter back in August during the period between when my sister left and our Brown student returned for the fall.  She came to the interview with her mother and I hired the girl the next day.  She started that evening and has worked with us ever since.  So, a couple of weeks ago, we had this conversation: Babysitter:  My mom wants to come visit and see the babies again.  Is that okay? Me:  Sure.  Can she take one home with her?  Ha..Ha... Babysitter:   I'm sure she would.  When we met you, we were surprised ...

Vivi is our little multimedia artist.  The child is not content with just crayons and paper.  Oh no!  Every project must involve glue, glitter, stickers, or any other random scrap of something we have lying around.  Her philosophy is the more, the better.   To ease our daily craft routine, I've compiled all of our various art supplies in one rubbermaid container which she has dubbed the "arts and crafts box."  The box sits on a low shelf in my office and she is free to take it and use it as she wishes.  There are just a couple of rules.  One is that she must do her art at the table.  The second is that she  must put everything back in the box and return the box to the shelf when she is finished.  Simple enough, right?  It has been... until this morning.  That's when we discovered this work of art sitting on the kitchen table: So long sippy cups.  Bye-bye big kid scissors.   Hey, at least the a...

Yesterday was just one of those days when I felt like I had it worse than every other mother in the world.  The sort of day when nothing goes right and I am living some sort of existential nightmare where there is no rest, no end to the crying, and no freaking escape from my children.  A god-awful, suck-the-life-out-of-you kind of day that makes a woman hate every other mother who has ever complained about how hard it is with their kid-- their one child or their two children-- because they (the infamous "they") do not know how much harder it all is with twins.  And, let me just say it now, having twins is so much more than double the work.  It is the kind of thing that makes one regret becoming a parent at all.  There, I said it.  I have been so good about staying positive the last eleven and a half months that I barely have let the drag of it all get to me.  Well, it got to me yesterday so unless you have twins y...

Dear Bob,       I heard rumors about you at the playground.  Many a woman has reported that you are strong and tough but have a soft, sensitive side.  The word around the swings is that you really seem to take good care of the children and these ladies wouldn't know what to do without you in their lives.  They say that the big potholes of life are just little bumps in the road to you.  As you know now, it was that attitude and your zest for life that made me want to meet you.       I believe that our first rendezvous was one of passion and promise.  I had that giddy feeling of potential and I knew what the ladies said was true.  You would never let me or my girls down.  I am singing your praises without any benefit to me other than your unwavering support and commitment.  You have already given me so much and I only hope that I can continue to be worthy of your g...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am saddened to report that the golden period of twin-parenting is now over.  It was a short but glorious time.  A time when my Turtles were mostly sleeping for 11 hour stretches.  A time when they could sit in one place and happily amuse themselves.  A time when I could use the bathroom and know that when I came out they would be exactly where I left them.  A time, I knew even while it was happening, that I would miss when it was over.  And over it is.  BIG TIME. Not only are the Turtles moving but they are two disparate paths of destruction.  Eliya takes to climbing on things and pulling stuff off shelves while Jude has a penchant for scooting around commando-style, tasting power cords, and getting herself stuck under the couch.    One would think that all the movement would make them more tired but I've not found this to be true.  The inability to sit still results in very short nursing session...

About two months ago, I promised to post pictures of the Turtles' new bedroom.  I never quite got around to it because I never felt like the room was done.  The babies were sleeping in there but it took a bit of time for me to decide on a rug and make the curtains.  Once that was done, I needed something for the walls.  I discovered some lovely prints from  Art and Philanthropy  but couldn't justify buying them (despite the philanthropic bent) after we'd spent so much on the damn renovation project. Alas, ask and you shall receive.  My mother got the alphabet and number prints for the Turtles for Christmas and, one month later, I finally got them on the walls.  If you need a reminder of how the room looked before, you can click here .  This is their room now: Vivi putting Ellie in a headlock while Jude smiles is typical of the wild shenanigans that happen in this room.  Now on to other projects.

I thought that since it is the end of the first month of the new decade I should take a look at our 2010 resolutions and see how we have fared thus far.  In no particular order, we decided to: Give up juice and papertowels Grade B I have not purchased any juice this month and I don't miss it.  Vivi asks for it occasionally but it is my husband who has been going through some serious juice withdrawl.  He has boxes of Gatorade-type rehydration powder that he uses for refueling after particularly hard workouts except now he just drinks the stuff with dinner.  Those boxes are his responsibility so when they're gone, they're gone.  I'm not buying more.  Maybe then he can take the first step toward recovery and acknowledge he has a problem with juice. Like the Gatorade powder, we had some papertowels on hand from last year.  I've barely touched them and have pretty much trained myself to use clean rags o...