Twin Mommy Stuffage

As promised, here is a picture of all of us twin moms at the New Mother's Tea at Grassi's Cafe in Tacoma. The gal there had the insight to get us all lined up on their nice staircase rather than take a picture of all us at the table with all the dirty dishes after the meal. I noticed at the bottom of the stairs a book they were trying to sell entitled "Men, They Just Don't Get It," and suggested that we turn it around since all of us were ladies in the photo. No offense honey, but it was a funny joke I thought! It was a really fun event and I was glad to get out and talk with the ladies. Most people that find out that I have 5 month old twins and an almost 3 year old say, "Wow, you must have your hands full," but the twin moms just give a knowing look and/or actually have practical advice to deal with "having my hands full." This is the benefit of meeting other twin moms in my opinion. It is a common bond that unites us immediately...the understanding that it is a tough job to raise two at once! Molly said it nicely at the tea when she was speaking of the challenges of the first year and people asked her, "Are you getting help?" She responded with, "Yes, my mother is coming over once a week," and they said, "Oh good, you will be able to get out and do something then, that will be fun!" She said again, "No, actually I will be getting HELP...as in I need an extra set of hands to assist me!" It is hard to do alone and the way I put it is, when things are running smoothly it seems almost easy, but when everyone starts crying at once and there is a real kink in the routine it can be a huge nightmare!

David and I were talking the other day and we concluded that perhaps for me, in these times where it all seems so overwhelming, it is my opportunity to remain humble and look to the Lord for strength as it is clear that my strength is always inadequate for the task. I am attempting to take hold of these opportunities and look forward to the growth that it will produce in my life as well as the lives of these little guys. I have been memorizing the book of James and I think it was well put when it says, "...the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." As a twin mom, the "not lacking anything" part would sure be welcome at this point! I know I am not anywhere near there yet as this is a lifetime process. My current goal is to learn to draw on the Lord's calm in the storms I experience. To be firm with my children, but not lose control. To be self controlled with my time and to take time to play with my children. Speaking of which, Josiah is putting all his cars on the table for yet another reinactment of "Mater and the Ghost Light"...don't ask!! For those of you that have seen "Cars" you are perhaps familiar with this story. We have a lot of the small replica cars from the movie and I am called upon to tell the story over and over again.

The Ghost Light calls...off I go! Blessings to you all!

Good Times!

Sorry for being slack in the blog department, but it was partly not my fault. I went to a Tacoma Parent's of Multiples tea party for new moms the day before Mother's Day and actually brought my camera, but the gal taking the pictures accidentally dropped it before I was able to get any photos. Incidentally, my hubby fixed our camera when I got home, so I was glad it wasn't permanently damaged. Also for Mother's Day, my sweet hubby got me an Ipod Shuffle, which is just a quarter-sized Ipod with no screen that you can load songs, podcasts, etc. on that I could use at the gym while I worked out (and yes I bring the whole crew with me to the gym--the boys stay in their carseats in what is lovingly called there "the baby bus"). The first day I brought the Ipod to the gym I was being careful not to leave it in the kid's room and put it, my kid's card, and a pacifier in the cup holder of the baby bus. I put the boy's in the SUV and these VERY loud dogs were barking their heads off in the car next to me and Josiah was already whacking Daniel in the face. In my haste, I collapsed the stroller and neglected to empty the items I had in the cupholder and so they ended up on the ground. I didn't notice this error until later when I wanted to listen to my Ipod. I called the gym and they found the kid's card (which had my kid's names on them and the name of the gym if the finder had any compassion to return the Ipod to its rightful owner) and the pacifier on the ground, but perhaps not surprisingly the Ipod was gone. This little loss pretty much ruined my whole day as I felt like a total idiot for losing it. Thankfully, my hubby was understanding and said that maybe next month he could get me another one to replace it. To finish off our Mother's Day fun, we delayed and made a date for the following Saturday since we wanted to see the Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian movie. We went to this place in Federal Way called the "Thai Bistro" and then to the movie. The food we had was super yummy!! I had these rice noodles with broccoli and this very good peanut sauce. Afterward, we shared a scoop of coconut ice cream. We had a really nice talk and it was good to be out without the kiddos for a little bit. And I was the hero at the movie theater and saved my hubby from melting into the chair!! It was super hot as they didn't have the air conditioning on in the theater and I went and asked them to turn it on. About 10 minutes later or so, we started to feel the cool breeze. My poor honey was so hot that when I tried to hold my hand he waved me away saying he just couldn't take any more body heat. Some date, hugh? Just kidding! Anyway, it was much better after the AC had a chance to circulate.

I plan to post a picture of the twin mom's tea party when I get the photo from a fellow twin mom, but these photos are of my Mom's b-day. After the nice lunch and movie with my honey, we went to dinner with my parents, Josiah and my brother to celebrate my Mom's special day. She loves Red Lobster, so we went there to eat and then afterward came home to have a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.

My Dad was being silly and taking the cucumbers from his salad that he didn't eat and putting them on his eyes as you see pictured here. He tried to do both eyes, but they kept falling off. Josiah thought this was hilarious of course! The twins stayed home with a babysitter for those of you who were wondering. We find it is hard to relax at a restaurant having to monitor two babies and an almost 3 year old. I am sure you all can understand!

First Long Day Trip

Today, I took all my boys on our first longer trip down to see my parents (about 45 minutes away). My mom had invited me to the Mother & Daughter Luncheon at their church and of course wanted to show off her newest grandsons. Grandpa watched Josiah during the meal and the twins slept most of the time until after lunch when we brought them out to show the folks there.

As you can see, we got some nice pictures from the trip as well including a fun shot of all the grandsons with Grandma and Grandpa. If you look closely you will see that the twins are wearing very special shirts that say "I Love My Grandpa" and "I Love my Grandma." Josiah wasn't as willing to pose for this picture, but this one of him making a funny face was the closest I could get to a smile! Daniel was super tired in this photo and afterward he slept for 4 hours! He didn't get much sleep on the way over because Josiah kept bothering him the whole way there. And so it begins, the brother torture, I guess! Caleb fussed off and on the whole trip back and didn't really sleep again until we got home when Daddy wrapped him up properly for sleeping. Don't you know it is impossible to sleep without being in our baby burrito mode?

Here are a couple of other photos from the event that turned out nicely. Josiah had a steady diet of strawberries and dessert at the luncheon. Apparently, the variety of salads there weren't Josiah-friendly. They were super good though! Maybe one day he will try some new foods!

Our Silly Boys

Here are another two comparison photos of Josiah (1st picture) and Daniel (2nd picture). I just put Daniel in this same outfit today and thought I would try to get some similar shots of him. Daniel will actually smile really big for me, but when he sees the red light of the camera he immediately gets a more concerned look as you see he has in his shot. In Josiah's photo he is a little over 3 months and in Daniel's he is almost 5 months old. To me however, though they look similar, Daniel's face is a little fatter and perhaps it should be considering he is a little older in his photo!


















David let Josiah wear his headphones today and had him listen to some music on his mp3 player. He appeared to be in this funny trance as he was listening, that we captured here on film. Another funny thing that happened with him today was that David was reading him his favorite I-Spy book and for a joke said, "Where is the flying rhinoceros?" (which of course there was none) and Josiah replied with, "Lu-Lu flies." Now those of you who watch any Nick Jr. with your kids will maybe know of the cartoon called, "Ni-hao Kai-lan." On this show, they have a rhinoceros that carries a balloon and flies around named Lu-Lu. So I say, "Josiah--ONE, Daddy--ZERO" on that joke! David had no clue as to what Josiah was telling him, so luckily I was there to translate!

Our little Caleb boy gave us a real chuckle today too when he worked himself really far down in his car seat (as pictured here) and managed to fall asleep that way all the while holding onto his rings! Incidentally, this must not have been very comfortable as he did wake up at some point and I had to re-wrap him and set him back up in the chair more. It was very cute though! He is a our little squirmy one!

Thank You Podee Bottle!!

So I finally got one of those Podee bottles here recently. My Mom and I were at Babies-R-Us and I finally redeemed the remaining gift cards we had there to purchase some needed items for the babes. This little invention however, has made the biggest impact on streamlining the feeding process yet. It makes it so I can breastfeed one and let the other feed himself. It is a HUGE time saver for me especially at night time. The gals at my Tacoma Parents of Multiples group had recommended these to me for a long time, but for one reason or another I never got around to trying them. The only down side to these is you have to remember to stop the process and burp them during the feed or you will end up with a large amount of spit up afterward. What I have done is to burp Daniel before switching sides and then set him down on the couch and get Caleb out of his chair to burp him also and that works very nicely. I highly recommend to all you multiple moms out there and even moms with more kids to care for to try this as it has been a huge help. I might add that they have a modifier kit that works with many types of other bottles than the Podee brand. Here pictured is Caleb chowing down with an Evenflo bottle and the Podee attachment.

Comparison Photos--Please Vote!

OK everyone! This has been a project I have been working on for a while and just now finished. Look at the pictures below and vote in the comments section as to who is pictured in these photos. I am not giving any clues, so you will have to figure it out on your own! I altered a few of the photos though as I thought they were too obvious otherwise. Have fun and I will reveal the answers after people have had a chance to vote.

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King Grandpa

When we went to MOPS the other day, Josiah made this crown. I asked him what the story they read to the group was about and he said, "Kings." A very non-descript explanation, but to the point I guess! He also told me that he put jewels on the crown, which apparently was important to him.

He wanted Grandpa to wear the crown and then he wanted to wear it and then Daniel wore it too. This was the best of the three versions of this picture!

This morning my two baby boys were up having some wide awake times together and I even have this shot of Caleb smiling and Daniel more serious, which is a rare moment. I am beginning to see that Daniel has his Daddy's eye shape and that Caleb has my eye shape as they have gotten older. I also noticed that Caleb has my ears as well, a realization that came to me when I pulled my hair back the other day and saw the resemblance of my slightly pointy ears to his.

Here is another cute shot that exemplifies in my opinion how different these boys look. Even with the weight difference they have such different features, it seems pretty obvious to me that they are fraternal twins.

Cool Dudes in New Duds

My friend Michelle from my MOPS group, who also has twin boys (7 months old), brought over some new outfits for my boys a little while ago. Her boys grew so fast that they hardly ever were in the 3-6 month size, so the clothes she brought over look brand new! If you look closely too, they are wearing cute little shoes with Dumbo on them as well! Thanks Michelle for the cute new clothes!

I imagine many of you can tell the difference between my two now I would think as their features are pretty distinct. But for those of you who are still confused, this is my little Caleb boy pictured here above and in the top picture on the right.
And here is my little Daniel boy with a sideways smile for you. As I was posing the boys on the couch, Josiah wanted in on the action, so I have two shots below (which I have to add later because my upload picture function on blogspot is not working now--keep checking back later today or tomorrow to see these.) One of smiling Josiah and one of Daniel after Josiah hit him in the face....AGAIN. UGH!! I know he is jealous sometimes, but sheesh....how many times do I have to tell him "Don't hit the babies." It is getting a little old!

Will the REAL Sudafed please stand up?

Maybe some of you already know what I am about to reveal, but for those that don't I will tell you this is a gem of revelation that I wish I would have figured out earlier!

In my quest to get some quality sleep, uninterrupted by violent coughing and/or massive sinus drainage, I made two little jaunts yesterday. One was to the doctor, who deemed that I do indeed have a sinus infection and gave me antibiotics (yeah!) and the other was to the pharmacy to get the prescription filled. I got to talking to the pharmacist about the difference between the nighttime Sudafed and the daytime version. He said that all Sudafed products are non-drowsy because they are stimulants (hence the reason the drug dealers bought it in mass quantity for harvesting) and that the nighttime stuff adds some anti-histamine to make you drowsy. Then it got me thinking to ask about the difference between the Sudafed I buy over the counter and the stuff they had behind the counter. He told me that that the literature he has says that the current Sudafed blend (without the drug the drug dealers want) is supposed to work just as effectively, but the the people taking it have complained that it isn't as effective. Then I began to reflect that though I had been taking this "new" Sudafed throughout this whole ordeal that it really hadn't helped all that much. This lead to the realization that perhaps I should sign away my life (not really, but it seems so) to get the behind the counter "old" formula to see if indeed it would help.

Can I say....NIGHT and DAY? The minute I took the "old" blend, it dried me up so much that I had to get a cough drop to wet my throat! AND, I was able to breathe clearly through my nose without any congestion. This combined with the twins not waking until 3:15am equated to me getting 5 1/2 hours of straight, solid sleep. What a difference that made! So instead of sitting here in bleary eyed, coughing up a lung, nose running torture, I am dried up and ready to go back to bed after their feeding right away! And perhaps I will get to it now!

So here's to the "old" Sudafed that actually works! Thank you all for your prayers and I hope I am on the road to feeling normal again soon!

Sicky Family Update

I said in the previous post that Caleb wasn't sick....well he is now. The only officially well one is my hubby now. I have just finished feeding both the boys and though they are SO tired, they are both hacking away off and on as they fall back asleep. I wish I could help them somehow. I am hoping that a good night's rest will be a good start. I am sick too still and really need to get some antibiotics on board, but since I am still nursing, who knows what they will actually give me to kick this thing. I feel so helpless and overwhelmed with this right now. Perhaps I shouldn't post things at 1:21am in the morning anymore, but that is how I am feeling right now. On facebook, there is this fun little game where you are awarded a superpower and mine is "super strength." Well that is what I need right now in real life to keep this boat afloat this week. David is very busy at work and I have a load of lessons this week that we really can't afford to cancel. Please pray for me, that I can get through this week. Thanks.

Sicky Family

The latest Carpenter update is that the majority of us are sick...AGAIN! This would be the 3rd bout with "stuffage" to date for me (in a row I might add) and the only ones not officially affected by the latest cold wave are David and Caleb. Daniel and I have it the worst thus far I think and Josiah also is starting to be real congested also.

I am hopefully going to get an appointment with my Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor soon to see if there is some greater problem or solution for me. I had a sinus surgery done last March and up until this last February I was doing pretty good, hardly getting sick at all. I know that the pollen count has been rather high in this area of late and also that I think we need to get the whole heating sytem in our house vaccumed out due to all the dust it kicks out (I am highly allergic to dust). And I am sure that the "lack of sleep" factor has something to do with my continued illnesses. Please pray that I can get through with the Lord's strength, as it is becoming increasingly clear in recent weeks that I cannot do all this without HIM!!

Incidentally, in these latest photos, I put the boys in the play pen with their boppies and a few toys. They are really not interested in toys yet, but I thought I would try. I have to keep reminding myself that they are more like 2 months olds in their behavior than 4 month olds. In the first photo up above, Daniel is on the left and Caleb on the right. Then in the next photo is Caleb with the ring around his arm and Daniel is pictured here dressed as my little "Pooh Bear" boy.

We would covet your prayers for our families' health! Thanks!

Josiah Play

Here is Josiah's little friend Hannah as they played in the backyard on this sunny day. They are starting to play really nicely together. It was touch and go at first with each of them (though more so Josiah) being unwilling to share the toys they were playing with or Josiah would get frustrated and push Hannah down, stuff like that. Now though, they enjoy each other's company quite a bit and Hannah even gets to the point where she doesn't want to leave.


We have been told that before she comes over to our house that she tells her whole family that she is going to see Josiah, Daniel, Caleb, Heather, & David. It is very cute! Here they are hugging. Sharel and I saw them holding hands walking over to the chair in the house. Then they sat on the chair together and Josiah put his arm around her and she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. It is very cute now of course, but once the "girl" and "boy" cooties stage sets in we will likely see no more of that!

Here they are playing on the slide outside. They also exchanged dandelions at one point as well. Josiah and Hannah love to bring them in and give them to me as a present. Little do they know, they have just given me a weed that when they aren't looking gets tossed in the garbage, but it is the thought that counts right?




Here is another cute photo of Josiah and Sharel.

Both Smiling Together!

Yesterday, Sharel (my babysitter during lessons) was able to get a shot of both the boys smiling together, which as my husband would say is a "rare spawn." For those of you who play online role-playing games, that phrase would mean something to you.

Here is a close-up of our smiley Daniel boy. I have noticed recently he has been putting his hands up near his face more. And certainly when he is super hungry, he moves a lot more too. Normally, he is sort of sedentary, not as wirey as his brother.

Caleb has been smiling a lot more of late and also has been cooing up a storm! In fact, last night rather than crying to wake me up, he was talking to himself, cooing and gooing away. It was really cute! When I came in the room, he smiled really big too! I might add that all his talking woke up his brother who was also ready to feed at the very early time of 1am this morning. Ugh! I had just fallen asleep probably around 10:30pm. Oh well, this worked out in a way because then I had my larger chunk of sleep from 2:45am to 6:00am when Daniel woke me up again and so I feel more rested this morning than usual.

The Josiah-ness Monster

After Josiah's bath the other day, there were LOTS of bubbles leftover in the tub and he refused to get out as he wanted to slip and slide and play with them before getting out. I eventually had to hose him down with the shower head, which resulted in him slipping and falling and bonking his head which was not popular at all! Thankfully, he was OK and didn't even really cry, but he did want to get out finally! In the above picture, he was saying "I'm monster!" and was trying to get me.
Daddy caught this lovely shot the other day soon after Mommy had been feeding the baby boys. Josiah said, "Look I'm feeding babies!" I think this must be an older brother thing to do because another fellow twin Mom had her son who did the same thing with her nursing pillow as indicated on the link below.

Josiah is growing by leaps and bounds and his language is getting more and more precise. We have been amazed at his progress of late. http://mjcady.blogspot.com/2007/12/family-of-seven.html

Serious Business

This is a shot I have entitled "Serious Boys" and I am sure you can see why. I took it at a time when I think both were ready to go sleep and so they were on an energy low perhaps! These are now 3-6 month outfits, so they are officially in "their size" for their age! Incidentally, I think Josiah was in 6-9 month clothes at this stage, but oh well! They are both on the normal weight scale now just barely for their age.

Here it looks like Caleb has either seen an alien being off in the distance or he is concerned because he is bonking heads with his brother. As usual, Daniel is not phased by either scenario! It is funny though because Daniel is the one that startles the easiest when there is a loud or unexpected noise. He in fact cries very miserably when he gets scared. We would think that it would be our jittery, squirmy Caleb that would scare easily, but he isn't bothered too much by loud or unexpected noises.

I thought I would include this wide shot of our handsome boys in their cute outfits. We went to MOPS today (Mother's of Preschoolers) so they got to charm all the ladies there! Also, for those following the blog...both boys are well now, though they each have this lingering cough from time to time. Daniel's coughs make us wonder if he is dying (they are VERY extreme) sometimes, but he isn't of course and recovers from them afterward. The great news is though that they did not seem to contract RSV and got over their colds as full term babies would, so that is wonderful! When they left the hospital, we were concerned that they may have further problems, but so far they have been normal healthy babies, of which we are very thankful! Thanks for all your prayers when they were sick!

Our 4 Monthers!

As you can see, getting older just means our boys are getting cuter! David informed me though today that I dressed them in the wrong outfits. Since Daniel is our big eater, he should have the "Winnie the Pooh" sleeper as we can imagine him sitting around with his honey pots. And Caleb is our mover and shaker he should wear the "Tigger" sleeper as we can imagine him being more like Tigger bouncing off the walls. I will be sure and get it right next time!

I call these next three pictures, "See No Evil, Speak No Evil, and Hear No Evil" and you can probably guess why by looking at them. Apparently Daniel is getting Caleb back for all the kicks to the head inside the womb!

Our boys are again doing very well as far as the doctor is concerned. Daniel weighed in at 12 pounds 8.5 ounces and is 26.62 inches long. Caleb weighed in at 11 pounds 14 ounces and is 22.83 inches long.

Caleb got his vaccinations today, but since Daniel is still fighting off this virus, we held off getting his until he is feeling better. Both boy's had their iron levels tested and they are now in the normal range, so that is good for them!

The doctor said we ought to wait on trying solid foods with them since their adjusted age is more like 2 1/2 months or so based on their early arrival. She said it would be better for us to see how they were doing at the 6 month appointment before we start solids, which is fine because that is when I started Josiah on solids anyway and he was full term.

While we went to the doctor, my friend Melissa watched Josiah and then afterwards I came to visit with her for a bit. Josiah had a great time playing there (as he always does) and he found her son Isaac's masks and was trying them on. So I thought I would end with this cute picture of "Batman Josiah."

Recent Pictures

Today in the afternoon it started hailing and then afterward we got this beautiful rainbow outside our front door.

Here is my cousin Daniel holding our Daniel after the memorial service for my Grandpa last Wednesday. He and his wife Natalie have a little girl named Evelyn and it is clear that they are also hoping for a boy one of these days. They were both having fun gooing and gahing at little Daniel, who incidentally is sick now. He has had a bad cold, but I think he is on the tail end of it now. Tomorrow we go in for the boy's 4 month appointment, so I will post something on that soon!

This is a picture of my Aunt Genny with Daniel. At the time, I was feeding Caleb and so I didn't manage to get pictures of people holding Caleb as well, but he was there! I really didn't take many pictures as I was trying to visit with people as well as take care of the babies and doing my best to stay awake as well!