I pink puffy heart Target

Ok I'm obsessed with Target, always have been (and no they do not pay me, but Target feel free to send me an email about that at any time). In one of our apartments we lived across the street from Target, no joke. It was like heaven. In our current house I could probably walk to Target if I really wanted to, but having twins makes you really tired.


So ever since we found out we were pregnant with the girls I've kind of been the queen of finding deals, well other than my mother in law. She's pretty good too. I cut coupons, I love outlets (I bought 3 outfits for me, my husband and the girls for under $200 at the Gap Outlet. I also love them. I put the wrong address on an internet order and they resent me all the clothes no cost to me. They rock. Again Gap feel free to email me about advertisements :-), I shop the sales racks and read the ads in the newspaper and get the emails about coupons.



Anyway, the point of all this: I've found some awesome deals lately I just had to share. Since most stores are currently shifting their inventory to fall stuff all the summer stuff is on sale. So I've been searching the sales racks, and look at what I found:

I got even more than this. Like I have two of the pink dresses and the pink elephant top with the brown shorts, I have two of those. Any way everything was under $4 (like the entire outfits were). Most of this came from Target, a few of the shorts are from Gymboree. All from the sales racks, and everything is for next year so hopefully the girls will be in 24 months by then. If not oh well, because the black shorts and two tank tops cost 75 cents, the two graphic t-shirts were $1, the dress was less then $3 (and a dress should fit). I love the black and white outfit! I think it is 2T though. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I love a good bargin :-)

The Crap You Need on Hand for Child Rearing

I know a lot of people who are currently pregnant or brand new parents. So I have decided to put together a list of must haves for new parents.

1. A screw driver
Seriously everything the baby needs has to be put together. J and I got in more fights cusing over how to put together the crib then we did in our first year of marriage (which they say is the hardest which is total crap. The hardest year on a marriage is the first year of your first child's life. A if you were wondering our marriage has survived- at least so far, I don't think J is ready to move out yet :-) You need a freaking screw driver just to put new batteries in the swing, which sucks when the swing is the only thing that will get your child to take a nap and it dies and you have to leave the screaming baby to run downstairs and dig the screw driver out of your husband's tool box. Then you have to dig the batteries out of the drawer in the kitchen or maybe they are in the tool box too. All the while the baby is screaming.

2. Batteries
We had the worst snow storms ever this year and in Virginia when you are supposed to get a blizzard people freak the F out. They run and buy toilet paper and milk and eggs. I ran to the grocery store and stood in line for hours to get none of those (they were already out) not diapers or formula but batteries because god forbid that we ran out of batteries. You need them for everything. Every toy, the swing, the bouncy chair, everything. We took batteries out of remotes even, and if you knew J that is a big freaking deal.

3. Ear plugs
At around 5 every day the baby will most likely scream it's head off for no reason. It's a scientific fact. Mommy's even have a special name for it- the witching hour. These will also come in handy when your child is old enough to do cry it out, if you so choose- we did. It's the only way S would go to sleep, sue us. A tv and bad reality shows also work, just crank it up- in the basement, two floors below your screaming child (only if they are safely in their crib :-) although I do know a mom that took her not yet moving on their own child down to the basement and let him sleep on the floor on a blanket with no monitor because it was the only way he and everyone else in their house would sleep- I say do what you have to, so long as the child is safe. (promise it wasn't me)

4. baby jail, or a playpen
Because really sometimes mommy just has to pee.

5. card board box
When they are old enough this will provide limitless amounts of entertainment. We have every toy available for children under 12 months and some sort of card board container (including a 6 pack beer holder) is way more entertaining then the $20 music table.


I'm sure I will have more of these fantastic tidbits as my girls continue to educate me in all that is toddlerness.

10.5 months

Dear Girlies,
I love you so much. It has been such a blast being able to stay home with you this last month. At the same time I am sad to think we only have a month until school starts again I am also a little glad because you two are exhausting. Now that you both crawl you are everywhere! You also love to fight! L you cry any time your sister comes near you and S you love to smack your sister and pull her hair. I think you are just trying to play but she doesn't like it! It is so much fun watching you learn and discover new things. You both love to crazy shake- which means waving your arms and laughing, you both do so big (S is better at it right now), you both wave but it is L's better trick. You also are figuring out how to high five and love to clap when we say Yay. You are too cute and I love smothering you in kisses. Your daddy said today that he couldn't believe you are almost a year. It has gove by so quickly.

Love you lots,
Mommy

L eating a french frie off Grandma's plate at Cheesecake Factory. They were really nice and brought out a plate of bread and bananas for the girls. We love eating out! L also likes a lot of the foods her daddy likes- Watermelon, french fries and pickles (she doesn't eat a lot of french fries I promise!)

S chillin in her stroller with her sun glasses and a stolen hanger from Gymboree (we returned the hanger). Grandma and I bought her the sun glasses after she pitched a fit when we tried to take them away from her. Both girls like shopping until we take too long in a store.

Tubes

Monday the girls got their first set of tubes in their ears (well first and hopefully last!). They've had quite the string of ear infections, S- 7 since March (including the one she had when they put the tubes in) and L- 5 since March. J and I both had our adenoids removed and tubes, I also had my tonsils out and J had a total of 3 sets of tubes. So the girls are following in our footsteps, sorry girls.

They were fantastic about the whole process. Our day started at 2 am with their last bottle before surgery. J and I rolled them over in their cribs, they love sleeping on their bellies, and fed them a bottle. S woke a little and L not at all, I wish I could eat in my sleep- although I probably do enough eating awake! Then I tried to give them a bottle of apple juice and water at 4 am, but they weren't interested. At 6:20 we left for the surgical center and checked in at 6:40 (right on time for once!). After filling out paper work we went up to triage to get the girls vitals done and meet with the anesthesiologist. The girls were champs but L didn't like the oxygen check.

After that we went to play! That part was probably the longest. The girls had fun watching the other little girl. They are fascinated by older children. S went back with J to have her tubes placed. She was happy the whole time! She chatted with the nurses and checked everything out and didn't cry once. Then J came back and sat with L and I until it was her turn. L and I went back and she was fine until she had to leave me to be laid on the table. She wasn't as bad as I thought she would be. She whined a little but was very good.

Then J and I went to the adult waiting room and were there for all of 5 mins until S was ready for us to come back to recovery. We walked in and she was hanging out with the nurse wide awake and looking around. She was laid down with me in a chair and I got to snuggle her. She was a bit mad about being hungry and she downed about 5 oz of water and apple juice.

L came out next and she was mad! The nurse brought her in and she was flailing and screaming. J took her and couldn't calm her down. She does not like being out of control and new situations. Finally I switched babies with him and had to rock and sing to L. Then she calmed down and went to sleep and slept for a good 3 hours! S slept on the way home too.

Once both girls had a good nap they were fine! We have to do ear drops for 5 days twice a day. They are not fun! Neither girl wants to hold still long enough.

For Mama's Sanity

My Darling Children,
For Mommy to maintain her sanity she needs the following:

1. To be able to pee in peace and not with children clinging to the gate two feet away screaming their heads.
2. For you to play nicely and not pull each others' hair, stand on each other, pull each other down, or smack each other.
3. For 10 seconds without someone climbing on me, I love you and I love to snuggle but sometimes mommy needs a little space.
4. For all my hair to remain on my head. I know you are learning to stand on your own but when you lose your balance could you grab my shirt or arm and not my hair that you pull out of my head in chunks.
5. For you to sleep past 5 am.

Poop

So I have a list of post ideas that I started and every time I get a new idea I add it to my list. Here is my problem: half the time I never actually write about them. I have ideas from months ago that probably aren't relavant any more, such as: The girls starting to sit up! Now that they are crawling it is probably obvious that they are sitting.

I have one about pooping. It just says pooping. I don't really remember what I was going to actually write about- baby poop? cat poop? When the babies came home one of our cats, Motor, decided that to get back at us for bringing these stinky, crying attention hogs into his life he would begin pooping on the floor. Lots of fun. Evidently he was really just mad about the organic flushable litter we were buying him (which I love) and decided to save mom and dad some money. We switched to the cheap stuff you can pick up at Target and Motor decided he could poop in the litter box again. Of course his pooping outside of the box confused the other cat, Joey, who is really pretty but not very smart (sweet but dumb as a brick, and I love him for it). So Joey now pees on the floor. Luckily it is only one corner of the basement, but it gross. We did take him to the vet and there is nothing wrong with him, so we are open to suggestions on how to fix this situation.

Pooping could also be about the girls. I love you ladies but boy do you poop. We decided when L was little she really liked modeling all the outfits she owned in one day because she was really good at pooping all over her outfit.

Along this same line, I am the best diaper changer this side of the Mississippi. I changed S on two chairs put together at Starbucks in the time it took my mom to pick up our skinny vanilla iced lattes (yum). She was just wet, but I am good, lots of practice. I can't wait until we don't have to pay for diapers any more.

We are almost done paying for formula. A little twin math for you: We go through 6 containers (the big ones) in a month. Each container costs about $23. So in a month we spend about $138 on formula. I do use coupons usually. Only 2 more months!

I'm a SAHM

So for those of you that don't know I'm currently a SAHM (stay-at-home mom). This, at least for me, explains the lack of posts. I am in awe of all the women who stay at home with their children. I thought that staying at home would be easier than being a working mom because you know I'd be down to one job from two. I knew that it would still be hard but thought it would at least be easier. Yeah not so much. Don't get me wrong, I love it! But you never get a break, except right now they are asleep. At least at work I got a lunch break and I had 8 mins. between every class period and the time at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day. Not now.

So what adds to this is that the girls are crawling! S started first with army crawling around Memorial day and about a week later she moved on to real crawling. L started on June 29. Being my L she went right to full blown crawling. If she isn't going to do it right she isn't going to do it. So no more easy changing diapers, because we always want to move, no more putting kids down and coming back to find them in the same spot. We have baby proofed everything, and Mommy's new favorite word is no. No don't chew on the cord, no don't pull all my magizines down, no you can't sit on your sister's head, no don't pull the cat's tail, no don't climb up on the coffee table, and so on.

One thing I never thought about is that 9 month old twins fight. Who would have thought! S steals a toy and L cries. Then L steals it back and S cries. L's favorite thing to do is everytime S comes near her she screams or cries. S most likely has barely touched her but still she screams. It's a blast.

Don't get me wrong, they are amazing and it is so much fun watching them discover new things and learn how to coordinate themselves. I love them and L has learned how to say mama. She doesn't know that is me yet but it makes my heart swell to hear it.

So hopefully I've gotten the SAHM thing down a little better now after two weeks and I will update more!