Friday, December 20, 2013

15 Months


This boy. 


This boy is FIFTEEN MONTHS. 

463 days.

He has eight teeth.

He is a big brother. Times 2.

He feeds himself and uses real silverware (most of the time).

He loves making animal sounds.

He helps change Annelise and Olivia's diapers.

He likes doing laundry.

He loves books and will sit and "read" them by himself.

He signs "please" "thank you" "more" "food" "milk" "light" "fan" and "book"

He verbally says "Mama" "Daddy" "ball" "shoes" "amen""ow" "ew" "yuck" and sometimes if you
ask him what his name is he says "Did-yun" (Gideon)

He loves giving kisses, hugs, high fives, and fist bumps.

He dances like a fiend.

His favorite song to sing is "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" or "Popcorn Popping"

His daddy is his favorite person in the world.

He gets sad when he doesn't see his Grandma every day and lets her know it the next
time he sees her.

He loves to splash in water.

He eats anything. Even gross things like pickles or salt and vinegar chips.

His laugh is infectious.

He is very meticulous and likes screwing bottle caps on and off, flipping light switches, and
opening anything with a cool clasp.





















Wednesday, December 11, 2013

all my eggs in one basket...

Or frying pan 


Did I ever tell you about the twin omens?

No?

Well now you get to hear about them. All of them.

~I was born on October 18th---along with the DeMaster twins,  whose mother was my mother's friend. We were delivered by the same doctor.

 I'm the chub scout on the right

 This is Dr. Shahriari holding all of us

 my mom, doc, twin mama

~My best friends in elementary school were twins---Kalynn and Andrianna Cole. I scored big-time by having twins for best friends because that meant that I always got to have two of my favorite people spend the night instead of just one.

 Andrianna and me at my birthday celebration

Kalynn and me at the same birthday celebration

If you look closely, I have a black eye. Between that and the braces I was one hot chica!




~My favorite band in High School was comprised of twins---Tegan and Sara---here's a link to my favorite song from HS


~The twin omens were less obvious for a while but there was a hilarious incident in college where I went to a Tegan and Sarah show and danced next to an extremely handsome boy all night (yes, I said next to, not with <----that's not the hilarious part).  

Fast forward two weeks and I had finally gotten ahold of the owner of a credit card that Tiff and I had found on a morning run. The owner was coming to my apartment to pick it up. When the handsome boy from the concert walked in I almost choked, it was fate, right?? Wrong. He barely batted an eye. I obviously hadn't made as big of an impression on him as he had made on me.

We chatted it up for about 45 min., neither of us mentioning the concert, but I was dying to know if he was just playing it cool or if he really didn't recognize me. So I said "I know this is crazy, but did you go to a Tegan and Sara show two weeks ago?". 

He just looked and me blankly and shook his head.

NO?? But I absolutely knew he was there, and I had spent most of that evening trying to make sure that HE knew that I was there.

How could this be?? Had I gone insane?

Luckily he saved me by saying "Wait a minute...I think my brother, my twin brother, went to that show!"

I seriously thought he was messing with me but it turns out that two extremely identically handsome boys existed.  He promised to introduce me to his brother but it never happened. (Which I'm more than ok with because my extremely handsome husband is more handsome than both of them. combined. And that's a lot of handsome.)

~My sister Becky and I got married one day apart and shared a wedding reception. She married an identical twin! 


~Gideon and our puppy, Meisje share a birthday. We used to jokingly call them our little twinners.




~A couple of weeks before we found out about the twins I made breakfast and this happened--->
If you can't tell, that is 4 double yoke eggs! 4!?!

After which I promptly texted a pic to my mother which said "Good thing I don't believe in omens!!"


Now, I realize that not all of these things really count as omens, but you have to admit that it's pretty weird. Especially the double yokes. 

And just to add to the weirdness, this picture happened a couple of weeks ago while Rob was making breakfast ---->


It has kind of become our family picture. Please note that there is a big "daddy" yoke, a medium "mommy" yoke, a small "Gideon" yoke, and teensy twin "baby" yokes. 

Thursday, December 5, 2013

never enough hours...

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There are truly never enough hours in a single day.

Never enough hours to stare into my children's eyes the way they deserve to be stared into.
     ~or to read them the stories I want them to know
     ~or to sing them all the songs that bring them such delight

Never enough hours to do the laundry and the dishes and the cooking.
     ~or to make a scrapbook 
     ~or decorate the house

Never enough hours to finish all the things on my "to do list" or to do all the amazing things not on that list. 

Never enough hours to spend with the man I've promised eternity to.

All I have are moments. Fleeting moments like this one. The house is quiet. I have one baby in my arms while the other sits in her carseat as I rock it with my foot. 

I know it sounds like a complaint---a greedy, selfish, naive complaint I want more time! I want less to do!  But what I'm really saying is this---I have enough.

I love my life. I love that my hands are full and my day is full and that my heart is full. I love that some days I spend too much time staring at Annelise and Olivia, or singing 'head shoulders knees and toes' with Gideon instead of folding the laundry. I love the time I get to spend with my mother and ask her advice and understand her perspective when I probably could (or should) be doing something else. I love that those hours disappear and leave me with sweet moments and memories from a day too quickly gone.

In yearning for more time what I'm actually saying is, I love what I have! 

The fact that there are never enough hours to do all the things I want to do means that I have an abundance of things that I am capable of doing, and isn't that amazing?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Life is good!