HAPPY SUMMER!!

Here in Jane-and-Emma-land (since that's what we call it due to the fact that it is THEIR world and Hershey and I are just livin in it, or surviving barely), our summer schedule has actually been pretty tame.  Here's a peek at our day.

7:00-7:30 // Rise and Shine!  The most adorable thing EVER is when I get one girl up, she runs full speed into the other's room when I open the door and sticks her hand through the bars of the crib to say good morning!  It's so super sweet.

7:45 // Milk from a sippy.  The girls WILL NOT drink plain milk, so Jane has chocolate milk and Emma has strawberry.  The ped told me NOT to do that, but it's the only way they will drink any kind of milk, regular, almond, rice, or other...

8:00 // Breakfast with Mama (usually an omelette, waffle, pancakes, turkey bacon, chocolate chip muffin tops, Cheerios, fresh fruit, all of the above or some of the above, the rest of which goes to the animals out in our yard).

8:30 // Play time while Mama cleans up the kitchen and Jane and Emma help (and by "help" I mean open and close the dishwasher 273 times, grab for knives as Mama dives and swallows her heart, and walk around and around in circles, screaming and throwing every toy they own on the floor directly in Mama's path).

9:00 // Neighborhood walk!  We take a 2 mile loop down to a beautiful lake across the way and back.  We stop at the lake for a snack and some iced water, and then we start the STEEP climb back up all of the hills (6 total) to get home.

10:00 // KITCHEN SNACK TIME!  We share some cool melon, cherry pie, fresh banana bread, etc. on the floor of the kitchen, while sipping on some iced water and climbing all over Mama.  Then the girls run wild for about 2 minutes, wearing down their energy and getting ready for their nap.




10:30-12:30 // Nap time.  Now, I don't know how other mommies have MOMMY time during nap time.  When the girls go down for their nap, Hershey and I start scrambling to shower, water flowers, paint rooms, unpack a few remaining boxes, pay bills, and whatever other house work we have on the schedule for the day.  Shit's cray.

12:45 // LUNCH.  The girls have been eating everything that I put in front of them lately, which makes it easy to have lunchies every day.  They have turkey dogs (with the skins peeled off), pb&j, tuna samiches, leftover chicken from the night before, veggie burgers, chicken nuggets, fish sticks.  Basically whatever I pull out of the fridge.  I still try to really balance each meal, with a starch, a dairy, a veggie and a fruit.  Especially since they are not getting very much milk at allllll these days...

1:30-3:30 // Play time, errands with Mama and Daddy, and hopefully soon we will have some lake time!  The lake is literally less than a mile away, and we finally joined and are excited to bring a lunch and some swimmies and jump in that lake.  In the meantime, we have a swingset with these swings (which Grandma also bought for the shore house) and our friends gave the girls an amazing little slide/climbing wall that they love to climb all over, and we bought them a little blow up pool.  Our backyard is HUGE, so we have been having fun outfitting it for the girls to have some fun in the sun.







3:30-4:30 // Nap time again!  This is when I unwind finally.  I pick up the mess, and sit down with my husband, or start prepping dinner.  

4:30 //  Snack time and play time!  Snacks range these days from cheese sticks, to Puffs, to Animal Crackers, to applesauce squeezers, to yogurt squeezers, anything that they can grab and go, because they are ALWAYS on the go.








5:30 // CRANKY TIME!  As always, 5:30 is the girls' witching hour.  It also happens to be when we start cooking, so it's a war every night to either pay attention to the girls or make dinner, or both.  It's a balancing act, as Hershey is usually out by the grill and I am prepping in the kitchen, but they are so happy and so are we when we finally punt them into their high chairs and sit down to a family meal.

6:00 // Dinner YAYYYYY.  No matter what I plunk in front of Jane and Emma, they gobble it up.  They are eating everything that we eat now, so Hershey and I take turns cutting up food and shoveling food into our own pie holes. Then we have some fresh fruit or ice cream for dessert, and the girls march their little dirty heinies up the stairs to the bathroom for...

6:30 // BATH TIIIMEEE!!!!  The girls splash and play in the tub, try to stand up 8365 times and give me a heart attack by diving for a toy and going under water as I try to wash their hair.  They love bath time, but it has become a full contact sport for me.  They then run around naked for about 34 seconds, because naked time was cut off when Jane shit on the rug and played in it during naked time a couple of weeks ago.  Instead of naked time, we now have get-that-effing-diaper-on-your-butt-as-quickly-as-possible time.

After their bath, the girls play in their rooms, marching back and forth with their toys and their choopies as Hershey and I collapse onto the floor, and at 7:45 we read them a story and put them down to sleep.  And they have been sleeping, pretty much through the night, every night.

We then take about 45 minutes to clean up after Hurricane EJ, and then run into the man cave to watch Orange is the New Black (which we finished) or any other movie or show we can find.

That's just a taste of what our summer has been like so far.  We have also been totally breaking our schedule by going to parties, going DTS, having friends over, and shopping tirelessly for finishing touches for our home.  I feel like the summer is already FLYING by, but I can honestly say that I am enjoying every second of being a SAHM.  I wish I never had to go back to work!  




Hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather and lazy summer days!  Although I don't blog as much now, I am continuing to update everyone on Twitter, Instagram, and on our Facebook fan page, so please be sure to follow us there!  See you soon! 

xoxo

This has been one ROUGH winter.  And I mean ROUGH in every way of the word.  At least one person in our household has been sick every day since MLK Day.  No sooner did Hershey get over his mutated stomach virus than I came down with a sinus infection.  I ended up leaving work early last Friday feeling like I had been hit by a truck.

Now that everyone is healthy, we can begin to get ready for our next big step -- SPRING CLEANING!  Oh, and a little thing called house hunting.  I hope to be able to take you along with us on that fun journey, as well!

Jane and Emma are doing some really cool things, like pulling themselves up to standing, chewing, cutting teeth, and babbling.  At their doctor's visit yesterday, we found out that they are no longer being measured by their premature adjusted age, as they've caught up to other babies their age, and they are actually ahead developmentally!  So exciting!  


This string of diseases has taught me an invaluable lesson:  It is IMPERATIVE that Mama-Bear takes care of herself so that she can enjoy all of the little milestones with her baby bears.  That being said, I've compiled a list of goodies to help you take care of yourself.  Your cubs need a healthy mama!

1.  Emergen-C.  I'm not saying that it has a GOURMET taste, but it will KICK ASS when it comes to knocking out any potential health threats.  Drink one glass of it twice a day when you are starting to feel run down.

2.  Purell.  Buy it in bulk, and sanitize, sanitize, sanitize.  I use it every time I touch anything that my students touch in the classroom, in between diaper changes, and sometimes in between boogie-wipes.  

3.  Chapstick.  I love Burt's Bees, because it doesn't leave a film on my lips.  I tuck them in every crevasse I can find, from the couch cushions, to the junk drawer, to my purse, to my coat pockets, to my diaper bag, to my nightstand drawer.  I always have one on hand for when the cold zaps my lips of moisture.

4.  Aquafor.  Since an integral part of taking care of yourself and keeping yourself healthy is constant hand washing, I keep a stash of Aquafor in my purse, diaper bag, and desk drawer.  My knuckles literally bleed during the winter from being dry and the onslaught of sanitizing and washing that they endure.

5.  Vicks Warm Steam Vaporizer.  If you should come down with any kind of upper respiratory issue (as I did), this humidifier is da bomb.  It has Vicks inserts to make the air in the room smell like Vicks, and it is so soothing, it made me feel like I was sleeping in a warm, silky pond.  My mother-in-law bought it for the girls during their bout of RSV, and it helped them greatly, too.  

When all else fails, if you do end up sick, it's best to call in the reserves, quarantine yourself to your room, don't touch any of your kids' feeding utensils (bottles, spoons, bowls, etc.), and limit the kisses to the tops of their little heads.  You will get better soon enough, and the more you rest and take care of yourself, the quicker you can kiss their little cheekies again!  And just think, if you're not touching, you get to hold the camera and capture some great moments, like these.






Only a couple of more weeks left of this horrendous crap-ass winter, so hang tight and stay healthy!  Have a great weekend!

And PLEASE don't forget to vote!

xoxo

When we decide to become parents, we subconsciously sign up for a whole slew of bad stuff.  Don't get me wrong, there are all of these amazing, wonderful moments that make being a parent the best job in the world.  However, every once in a while, something happens that makes you wonder if you are strong enough to handle this journey.

When I was 20 weeks pregnant, Hershey and I went in for a routine anatomy scan.  We found out that we were having a little Jane and a little Emma, and after an extremely long consultation with the doctor, the technician returned with the doctor to deliver some other news to us:  Our little Janey was presenting with something called a "double-bubble".  Basically, it looked like there was some kind of blockage preventing Jane from fully digesting the amniotic fluid that she was swallowing in utero.   



The doctor then went on to explain that there were many reasons why this must be happening.  The first possibility that she noted was "she may have Down Syndrome."  That was all I heard before I went into shock and started crying hysterically.  Luckily, my husband is very level-headed and asked all of the right questions, because I wasn't hearing anything else this doctor was saying.

When the girls were born, I had to wait in recovery for about an hour before having my hospital bed wheeled into the NICU so that I could hold them for the very first time.  As the neonatologist approached my bedside, the only words that I could muster were, "Is Jane ok?"  

"She's perfect."




I don't think I'll ever forget that moment for as long as I live.  I'm crying as I'm writing this.  The overwhelming sense of relief and joy is something that only a parent who hears that their child is healthy after worrying for 4 months that they are not would understand.

It turned out that Jane's pancreas had wrapped around her intestine and fused it shut.  Two days after she was born, I wheeled myself alongside her little incubator and sent her into surgery, the second scariest moment of my life.  Those four hours until the doctors came to my recovery room to tell me that they fixed the issue and that she was going to be alright were unbelievably difficult.  

I then had the heartache of watching her recover, looking up at us through the tubes and wires that were keeping her "comfortable" as if to say, "Mommy, why is this happening?  Why can't you just pick me up and hold me and tell me I'm going to be ok?"  There's nothing like feeling so helpless while your child is suffering.




Of course she's now a happy, healthy six-month old (who LOOOVES carrots!), but I remember feeling back then like this nightmare would never end.


When we brought the girls home, they had to remain on apnea monitors.  Because they were born so early, they sometimes forgot to breathe, and their heart rates would slow.  The monitors alerted us to when this was happening so that we would be able to revive them.  Hearing those alarms go off in the middle of the night, knowing that your child is not breathing...waiting for them to take a big breath...absolutely terrifying.




The girls came off of the monitors for good in October.  We were finally out of the woods!  Until this past Friday night.

We decided to give the girls a bath together.  They are very independent now, and love splashing in the bathtub.  Jane sat in a sling, as Emma stood up on a foam mat with me holding on to her.  She wiggled and splashed, and managed to swallow a little bit of water.  Hershey whisked her out of the tub and brought her into the nursery as I finished up with Jane.  I heard Emma crying, and figured she was just giving my husband a hard time (as the girls like to do on the changing table now). 

As I walked into the nursery with Jane, I realized that something was not right.  Hershey said that it was like she couldn't breathe, so I quickly grabbed the Nose Frida, handed Jane off to Hershey, and worked to clear out Emma's air passage.  Her lips began to turn blue, and her frantic, hysterical cries got caught in her throat.  I screamed for Hershey to call 9-11 as I stripped her jammies from her little body and blew into her face.  

By the time the police arrived, Emma's cries were dying down, and she was turning from bluish-purple to white, her eyes were slowly closing, and her hands, feet and cheeks were all cold.  The police officer gave her some oxygen, and she slowly came back around, smiling at the officer and looking curiously at the crowd of emergency responders gathering.

Her vitals were checked and she was back to normal, so we opted out of going to the hospital.  Hershey called the pediatrician, and we learned that "some kids just do that."  It's called a cyanotic breath-holding spell, and it can happen when a child becomes frustrated, upset, angry, or scared.  They cry and hold their breath until they pass out.  And Emma now does this.  Awesome.

Needless to say, we watched Emma like a hawk for the rest of the night.  As soon as we put her in her crib, I broke down and started crying.  I thought I was watching my child die on her changing table, as my other child looked on from under the teddy bear hood of her towel.  

I'm not telling these stories because I want you to feel bad for me.  I'm telling these stories today because I want other mommies (or daddies!) out there to know that you are not alone.  These terrifying moments will happen, and you will question your strength and fortitude.  But looking in your child's face, you will know that it is worth it.  1,000%.

What moments have you had to overcome as a parent?  When did you first realize that you're stronger than you could have ever imagined?

I hope that you all had a great weekend!  I promise that I will write our Weekly Wrap Up as soon as I can catch my breath.



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