The Mystery of the Missing Measuring Cups

Acquisition

I was given the cups by my mother when I moved into my first apartment. She had been searching garage sales and thrift stores for months gathering a little bit of this and a little bit of that. She made quite the score when she found these cute vintage 1940's style tin measuring cups for $2 at Goodwill. They were one of my most treasured items that she gave me, and I used them nearly every day. No one ever complimented me on my cute measuring cups, but it didn't matter, because I loved them. Their simple design was pleasing to the eye and I couldn't help but think, "Who owned these cups before me? Did she make bread? Did she make pie? Was she a muffin kind of gal? Or was it cookies?" I imagined her, in her cute little apron and her perfectly manicured nails and done up hair-do.

Loss

The girls were about 2 years old when disaster struck. I don't remember what I was doing, or what they were doing. Only noticed that one day I went to use my 1/2 cup measuring cup and it was gone. I went through everything in my kitchen. The dish drain, the drawer it belonged in, the toy box, the bath tub, every little hiddy hole that I thought the girls might stash something away in. But nothing. It was gone. I was so upset! What did I do with it? Did Hubs put it someplace strange trying to "help"? No? Well, it must have been the kids then... those darn kids!

Where oh where could it be???

And then I had a thought... the trash. The girls were going through a phase where they thought putting things in the trash was fun. We'd caught them several times trying to throw away "good stuff" like the remote control. Well, that must be it then. It went in the trash. It was gone forever.

Renewal (... sort of...)


Six months later, and still no sign of the missing measuring cup. This whole time I've been using the 1/4 cup twice each time I had to measure something and each and every time I was reminded of my incomplete set. I was still irritated about it.

Hubs thought he came up with the perfect solution, he searched the internet and found another cup set and bought it for my birthday. Alas, this "new" set was more than just antique, it was antique. It was darkened in color, had several dents, and one of the cups had a hole in the bottom. They were perfect for a display of old kitchenware, but not something I could use on a daily basis. I went on with my 1/4 cup twice.

After that I looked into buying new measuring cups. I gave up on the idea of finding another 1940's style cups and found myself browsing Bed Bath & Beyond and Anthropologie (which do have some cute cups by the way!). But nothing was quite the same. Sure, the new cups were nice, but they just weren't me. The new cups didn't have some other lady making cakes with them years ago.

I'd tell the story of the missing cup to anyone who'd seem remotely interested. Usually other mom's with young kids understood the significance of my loss. It was more than just treasured measuring cups. It was about personal space, and how we as mom's give that up when we bring kids into the world. Nothing is "mine" anymore. All of "my" stuff gets messed with, broken, lost, tangled up, marked up, and dented. Nothing stays the way I left it. Nothing is in the same place. I put something down so I can take a pee only to come back and have it gone! Just gone! And after a while I start to feel like a crazy person! "But... it was just THERE a second ago!"

The cup at this point had been missing for over a year. I was getting tired with the 1/4 cup twice. One day, I was browsing Etsy and I was very excited when I happened to find a set of measuring cups EXACTLY like mine. They were tin, and old, but functional. They were $40, but I didn't care. I bought them.

Reunification

I now had three (mostly complete) sets of antique measuring cups. I thought that was pretty much the end of the story.

Several weeks before Christmas I was working on baking some goodies for gifts when I was clearing out the dish drain and realized... I was missing another cup. It was the 1/4 cup this time. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Where is my cup?!?!? Is nothing sacred around here???" I questioned both of the girls, at 4 and a half they are completely capable of remembering where they put things. They said they didn't know. I questioned Hubs, he didn't know. I questioned my mother-in-law who had just flown in from out of state, she didn't know. I backtracked my own actions, opened cupboards I knew I was into, looked through everything. Nothing. Then I called my mom and lamented on the phone, "Again?" she said. Yup, again.

Thankfully, I now had a stash of measuring cups! I got out the 1/4 cup from the set I bought and went on with my baking.

I told the story Christmas Day to a rapt audience. We laughed about how funny it was that it happened AGAIN! YEARS later. And that I still don't know what happened to them. They were just gone, into the abyss. Along with the missing socks that never come out of the dryer. It was just going to be one of those things... Amy and her missing measuring cups. Wonder what ever happened to those?

And then two days after Christmas the most amazing thing happened. I was putting away my big crock pot, you know, the one that goes into the back of the cupboard that I pretty much never use, and I looked down, and there inside my 1940's tin egg poacher were not just one, but BOTH of the missing measuring cups!!! They were neatly stacked one inside the other. "I can't BELIEVE MY EYES!!! I CAN NOT believe my eyes!!!" I laughed and laughed! I ran upstairs cups in hand to where my mother-in-law and daughters were playing. "Do you SEE this?? Do you SEE what's in my hand right now??! It's my CUPS!!!!" I told them where I found them to which my mother-in-law said, "I guess you don't poach eggs that often." Nope, I use the microwave instead.

Which of course begs the question, "Which one of you girls put them there???" To which, I got blank stairs and "Uhhh...I don't know, Mommy." I have a hunch which child hid my measuring cups, but it's just one of those mysteries that will live on.

Such Is Life

I haven't updated my blog in forever, so I thought I should, and then I thought, "But my life pretty much sucks, who would want to read that??" So I didn't. And then life started to suck even more, and more, and more. And now it's gotten to the point where I can't even put it all into words. I just don't have words. It's too vast.

How can one quickly sum up the incidents of a life that lead to this place? The place where sorrow and happiness meet. Where emotions run so high and so complicated that thinking about it makes you want to cry and smile at the same time. I have no idea. But maybe trying will help somehow, although I'm skeptical that's even possible.

To catch you up to speed, Workman's Comp denied Hubs' surgery back in April. Since then we've been waiting for doctors and lawyers and insurance reps to get their paperwork ducks in a row. We're still waiting, and praying, and hoping for the best. In the meantime Hubs hasn't been working. We're living on savings (thank God we have it!) and praying we won't have to much longer.

In the midst of this waiting, our 24 year old niece passed away on June 19th. We're devastated. I could write a whole post simply about this incident, but I'm not sure I could bear it. Let's just say, no one expects their 24 year old daughter to go asleep one night and simply not wake up the next morning. Alisha was a sweet bright light in our family, we loved her dearly, and miss her terribly.

We drove to California for a party in her honor, stayed for a week or so, went to Disneyland with Hubs' family (Who does these things? We do apparently. Although I'm sure Alisha would have approved.) and came home. A grueling 16 hour drive home, but hey, who's counting?

Our dogs were sick the whole time we were gone, and although we had excellent neighbors caring for them, our house was a poopy barfy mess when we arrived and we spent the following 6 hours cleaning and sanitizing. And then we fell down and slept like rocks.

We also came home to some scary letters from Hubs' work and workman's comp, and had to wait for 2 weeks for our lawyer to get home from his vacation before we knew what it all meant. Basically, they can't fire Hubs, but they can stop paying for his health insurance and force us to pay for Cobra. We learned this on our anniversary this week. Happy Anniversary to us! Eight years, and we're still chugging along. At our Anniversary dinner last night, in the same spot where we had our wedding reception, we decided that I need to start looking for a job. It's not what either of us had planned, but we gotta stay solvent somehow.

To top it all off, I found out yesterday that I have a gallstone. I had the ultrasound yesterday morning, and I am waiting to hear from my doctor about whether or not she'll recommend surgery.

Truthfully, we're pretty scared and sad. We're not sure where this road is leading but it sure seems like it's not going to a good place.

The bright spot of course, is our girls. Without them we'd be wallowing in self-pity right about now. Instead, we're having so much fun with them! They're at such an excellent age right now, learning new things all the time, excited about such simple pleasures, and constantly saying things to crack is up. Laughter really is good medicine. Amen!

Interesting Truth

*A conversation between me and my mom*

Me: I've learned an interesting truth. That as my kids grow so do my arm muscles!

Mom: *grins* Wanna know another interesting truth?

Me: Sure!

Mom: So does your heart.

Living in Limbo Land

We found out yesterday that Hubs' surgery isn't going to happen this coming week. As you can guess, we're very disappointed. And pretty pissed off at workman's comp and their failure to approve (or deny) the surgery even though they've had 6 weeks to do so. We're back to waiting. A situation we've become familiar with over the past 14 months.

I've been trying to look at the bright side. Since this surgery isn't going to happen when we thought, perhaps I might be able to see the opera that's performing the first and second week of May. More time before surgery means more time on our diet, which could mean a healthier outcome. More time to clean my house. To plant my garden. To visit with friends. To... oh who am I kidding I'd much rather have a healthy husband.

So as a means of distracting myself from the disappointment my mom and I took the girls to see the tulips in Woodburn, OR. This is the last weekend of the festival, so if you're in the area you should go check it out! It's so purty. Made me wanna pull up a lawn chair and just soak in the beauty. Too bad mom and I were chasing 2.75 year olds instead. We both kept saying, "It's an adventure!" After walking through the fields for about 15 minutes Ziva decided to throw a hunger and nap-time inspired hissy fit while Anya dragged her feet to admire each and every lady bug she came across. We ended up carrying them back to the tram. Yes, my arms hurt today.

Once we got home I showed the pictures of our trip to Hubs. His comment, "Why didn't you get any pictures of their faces?" Ummm... I TRIED!!! It's pretty tough to capture cute smiling faces when they're in a new place. Looking at the camera is the LAST thing they wanna do. lol

See for yourself.

"Hmmm... what's this?"


"What, you wanna take a picture of me in front of the flowers, sure thing Mom."



Going...



Going...



Gone.



"Wanna see me smile? CHEEEESE!"


Well, at least we have proof that we were there.

For some better pictures and the story of our adventure with the tulips last year, check this out.

So, where have you been?

Me? I've been playing Sims 3 in between watching my kids grow and trying to remain sane. So let me get you caught up on the past few months since obviously blogging hasn't been my forte lately.

Hubs is scheduled for shoulder surgery the end of April. FINALLY!!! I know this is a good thing because obviously something needs to happen to get him healthy again. But I'm terribly nervous about what an actual SURGERY will mean in the here and now. It will mean that he will be even more incapacitated for the next several months. Which will mean I will take on even more of his duties, including taking care of him in his post-surgical state which I have been warned isn't going to be pretty. So we've been brain storming about things that should be done before then, and we've got a list going. My parents have taken the next week off of work for Spring break, so hopefully they'll be able to help out with the preparations.

My own health has been pretty terrible lately. I've been in a lot of pain in pretty much every joint in my body. Looking back, probably too much inactivity playing Sims for sure, but it's enough to be concerning to me. So I'm going in to get my blood tested this afternoon to make sure that it isn't something more serious. I'm not sure I've mentioned before, but I've been in 2 pretty serious car accidents in my youth, so I've always been a bit messed up. But this is probably the most pain I've been in since recovering from those accidents. Not good. Especially with Hubs' surgery coming up. I really need to be at my best by then.

All this, plus the whole chest pain incident, has lead me to the conclusion that one of the things we HAVE to do before the end of April is get on a diet and loose some poundage before then. My personal goal is to loose 10 lbs. I'm hoping Hubs will loose even more than that, being a man and all it should be easier for him. (Don't you ladies just HATE that?) I'm sure we will both feel better if we are successful with this and be more prepared for the physical demands that this surgery will require. So we're getting back on the Mayo Clinic Diet, since that has worked for us in the past and we didn't feel terribly deprived while on it. The only reason why we stopped doing it last time was because it's very produce heavy, which is wonderful but also expensive. But now that Spring is here and I'll be planting a garden soon it should help with the cost.

We're postponing potty training. The girls are VERY ready, but we're not. And knowing this surgery is coming, I just can't take on another project. I'm currently planning to start with the potty training once the weather warms up. I've been told it's much easier to do outdoors.

The girls are doing really well in Early Intervention. They age out of the birth-3 program in June, so soon they will start testing to determine if they will qualify for the 3-5 year old program. We've pretty much already decided that they won't be going to pre-school in the fall, even if they qualify for the free public pre-school. We're not ready to make any school decisions, we didn't think we'd have to until kindergarten. Hubs very much wants me to home school, I pretty much think I'd be terrible at that. But if they qualify for speech therapy then we'll probably do that.

Outside of that they're at an absolutely delightful age right now. Chubby chubby cheeks and smiles and giggles. Playing much more social games both with us and with each other. This whole twins thing is certainly easier in that regard. They are much more able to entertain themselves rather than needing me to entertain them. Ziva is much better at asking for things that she wants with her words, although there are certainly times when I don't understand her and she gets very frustrated. Anya now asks for some things, such as crackers or milk and sometimes requests which movie she wants, but her vocabulary is more limited and tantrums are pretty frequent for her as a result. Sometimes they're both crying and demanding things from me and unable to tell me what they want and I end up wanting to throw my own tantrum! Yikes! Thank God for Book Club and Bunco night so that Momma can get a break!

Anyway, so that's where we've been. Obviously my blogging life has taken the back burner. I'm hoping to update more often. I think I really NEED it, if you know what I mean. Writing is my outlet, and when I don't do it I end up becoming even more stressed. It's become part of what I need to do to take care of myself. This, and yoga. And if I stop doing either one I end up a mess, both mentally and physically due to stress. So I'm hoping to keep up better, both writing and visiting my fellow bloggers whom I love. As part of that I'm pairing down my blogroll so that it's more manageable for me. I've been following WAY too many amazing blogs, and then feel overwhelmed when I check my reader and there are 1000+ things to read. So please don't take offense if one of the blogs I drop is yours. It was either stop the following or just stop reading anyone at all. Truly, nothing personal.

Family Update

No new news on Hubs' shoulder. We're getting the feeling that the doctor that supposed to provide the second opinion is giving us the brush off. So we're researching other doctors. If anyone knows an orthopedic surgeon in the Portland, OR area who specializes in shoulder injuries please let me know.

My parents are back in town after being gone for the past 2 weeks. They attended my dad's family reunion in Kansas and also went to the Christian Counselor's Association Conference (say that three times fast!) in Nashville, TN. So you can look forward to more of my mom's restaurant reviews covering different places they ate while on their great adventure.

I for one am very glad that they are home. I tend to take their help for granted, and whenever they leave I quickly realize how much they do for us. They watch the girls so Hubs and I can go out, they provide a huge and very important part of my social circle, and my mom is flat out awesome when it comes to helping with projects such as canning peaches or making jam. I know I tell them thank you all the time... but seriously, there aren't big enough THANK YOUS for what they do for us.

To celebrate their return, they came and babysat for us last night so that Hubs and I could go out for a date! HURRAY!! And since Hubs birthday is next week, and my parents are going to watch the girls so we can go out again... I decided that it was MY turn to pick where we were going to eat. So I picked On The Boarder. Why? Because we had never been there before and I've wanted to go there for a long time due to rave reviews from friends, and Hubs HATES trying new places... so HERE WAS MY CHANCE!! And oh man, it was GOOD! The first bite Hubs took of his carne asada steak was enough to practically melt him into a puddle, that's how good it was. And my combo plate with beef empanadas, chicken enchilada, and beef taco were all fantastic. The only thing we weren't wild about were their chips and salsa. We both prefer white corn chips, and theirs were yellow corn, so no matter how awesome they were for yellow corn chips they just were not as good as white corn. We also indulged in margaritas, because what Mexican meal is complete without them, right? We started off with their most expensive top shelf margarita, and then decided to try their "shaken margarita. My opinion? The top shelf was excellent, but pricey. Next time I'll just go for the shaken because it too was very delicious and was enough for the two of us to share.

And then we went and bought a Wii! And came home, and hooked it up, and played! So far I'm lovin' it! In fact I'm gonna go play some more after I finish this post. I'm ashamed to say that my Wii age is 74... and I'm really hoping that I can blame that on the margaritas but in all seriousness I just can't hit a baseball if my life depended on it regardless of my alcohol intake. Hopefully I can do better today... but I'm not betting on it. lol

So a lot about me... but what about those cute little kidlets??

Well, the kidlets are doing just awesome! Mommy feels like she needs a vacation though. They are getting SO busy!!! By the time nap time comes around I feel like I'm going to fall down. And when they get up I sigh and think, HERE WE GO AGAIN!!! I'm trying really hard to enjoy it, and they do provide an endless source of fun and entertainment and love (let's not forget the LOVE!), but they totally wear me out. I feel like I'm in a constant state of exhaustion from which I will never recover.

But enough doom and gloom! Weren't we supposed to be talking about the kids??

They are constantly doing funny stuff, and I am constantly running for my camera, and then when I get it on and point it at them they come squealing and running at me and I totally miss the thing I was trying to capture!!! So as a result I have very few pictures of them over the past few months. I think I need to hire a film crew to come follow us around for a day just so I can get some memories on tape!

So what would a film crew capture in our typical day?

-Dancing, lots of dancing. Cute adorable toddler dancing. Dancing that involves jumping, kicking of feet in the air, and spinning around in circles until they are dizzy and fall down.

-Ziva blowing spit bubbles, and then saying, "Buh boowwww" which is the signal for me to pop the bubbles with my finger.

-Books books BOOKS!!! Pointing to pictures, saying words they know, indicating that I should tell them what something is, and for Ziva... identifying a few letters. Her smartness somewhat terrifies me.

-Moving furniture. BECAUSE THEY CAN! Carrying chairs to things they want to reach, and then standing on them, and helping each other out to reach whatever it is they need to get their grubby little hands on.

-Much more proficiency with spoons and forks. Lately I give them each their own serving of yogurt or applesauce (yes, mommy is getting braver!). Yesterday once their faces were all messy Ziva said "Beeeer". What honey? You want some beer? "No, Beeeeeer!" Oh! BEARD! Yes honey, you have a beard. Tee hee!!

-We've discovered the trick of putting their pajamas on backwards in order to keep them ON at night! Yes, for weeks and months I've woken them up only to find them totally naked and soaked. Super awesome laundry practice for mommy! Hoping this whole backwards jammy trick will continue to work for a while.

-Anya is becoming more assertive about keeping toys, and is becoming more territorial of Mommy. Part of me kind of hopes that she's swaying away from the Daddy kick she's been on for a while. But the other part of me really doesn't like to be guarded like a dog guards their food. When Ziva comes close Anya will put her hands on my face and then push her face right up against my faces so that our faces are smooshed together as if she's saying, "I NEED YOUR UNDIVIDED ATTENTION NOW!!!" I get it Anya. I do... now can I please have my face back?

New Developments and other odds and ends

My mom keeps reminding me that I need to write this stuff down, so here I go! You're welcome, Mom. :)

The girls are getting very good at taking their clothes off. During our morning walk today Anya somehow was able to get her shirt off while strapped inside a 5-point harness! Still have no idea how she did that.

I often leave the living room, only to come back 5 minutes later to a naked Ziva. She's started taking ALL her clothes off any time she gets her diaper wet or dirty. This morning I walked in after she had pooped, and she was in the process of taking off her diaper. She looked at me and hurriedly finished taking it off, and then ran to the changing station saying, "Poop! Yuck, yuck!" The other day after a #2 I was changing her and she said, "Poop. Yuck. Bye-bye poop!"

On a somewhat related note, Ziva also hates sleeping with ANY clothing on, including her diaper. So every morning for the past week when I go to wake her up she's totally naked and sleeping in a puddle. She always seems kind of surprised to be all wet, like whoa! How did that happen?

These things lead me to think that Ziva is pretty darn close to being ready for potty training. I think that maybe on Monday I'll try to help her out with that and see what happens.

Elmo Mania has hit our house with a vengence. Ziva says, "Melmo" all the time, and Anya will readily go and get the Elmo doll if we prod her with "Where's Elmo?". But in Ziva's mind pretty much anything that's red is "Melmo" including a pile of tomatoes on the kitchen counter. She saw those tomatoes and signed and said, "More?" "More Pees (please)?" "More Melmo?". I kept trying to explain to her that those were tomatoes, not Melmo, but she wouldn't hear of it. I finally had to shove them into the fridge to get them out of her sight.

Coloring has become a favorite past-time. Yesterday their EI teacher pointed out that Anya is more interested in the process of coloring, and Ziva is more interested in the result. In otherwords, Anya jumps right in with the colors, making lines and circles and dots and seems to really enjoy doing it herself. Ziva on the other hand would much rather watch me draw or color things and only does her own coloring if I push her to. Ziva often brings me their magnidoodles and asks me to draw on them. I almost never see her do her own drawing with them, but Anya draws on them all the time.

Dancing is also big on the Fun list. Anya likes to spin in circles and has a lot of really great dance moves! She starts dancing pretty much as soon as any music comes on and I seriously think she's a better dancer than I am (that really isn't saying much!). Ziva really likes to dance too, but her moves are really different. She really likes to do a bouncing motion bending her knees, it's become her signature move. And when she really gets going she'll jump up and down.

We are really having a lot of fun with them these days which is such a blessing! If it weren't for them we pretty much would lay around and complain about our aches and pains. Instead we're dancing, and tickling, and laughing at their antics! It makes us realize at how good our life really is despite our circumstances.

Small Victories!

Brushing the girls' teeth has been a major struggle. So much so that I'm often guilty of just giving up and not even trying. Gross!!

But last night I decided to try a new approach. In the past I've just taken their brushes into the living room and brushed their teeth sans toothpaste. Well I finally got some training toothpaste (the kind that's safe to swallow) and decided to give it a go. I took a chair into the bathroom, got the brushes and toothpaste all ready, and then I went and got Ziva. Took a few minutes to convince her that she should stand on the chair rather than sit. But finally I got her on her two feet and gave her a taste of the toothpaste. Hmmm... this might not be so bad! I told her to look in the mirror, and she did, while she allowed me to brush her teeth with NO struggle!! And then I tried to teach her how to spit, which she thought was hilarious! Then I put some water in my mouth to demonstrate how to swish, she was laughing so hard she could barely stand up! And then we were all done. She started to get upset about being done, but when I assured her that we'd do it again tomorrow she calmed down. Then it was Anya's turn. Anya had a more subdued response, but she was also willing to give it a go and her teeth got cleaned. She was very interested in playing with the water, and was fascinating by my gargling demonstration.

Anyway, it was really fun! It's so exciting to see them learning new things and getting excited about the most basic things that we grown-ups take for granted. :) Certainly a bright spot in what has been an otherwise crummy week.

The Pressure is ON!

I had a horrible no good rotten day yesterday. I got my pressure canner in the mail on Saturday, and yesterday I realized that my whole life right now feels like a pressure cooker. The steam is building, and pretty soon something will have to give otherwise I'll simply explode.

Let me give you a little back story. I haven't been writing about my current life circumstances much lately here on my blog. Why? Because I honestly don't want to think about it. And I certainly don't want to put it into words and make it even more real. But the reality is that although certain parts of my life are awesome right now, spectacular even, while other parts are downright horrible and frightening with no end in sight. The wonderful parts mostly include my domestic life with the girls. I truly love my life with them, and enjoy 99.9% of being a Mom. The horrible scary parts mostly have to do with my husband's shoulder injury...

Now, I fully realize that other people out there in the world have much worse problems. A shoulder injury after all isn't life threatening. But it has an absolutely HUGE impact on our daily life. Because of his injury he pretty much isn't able to do much of anything around the house, and the few times he HAS tried to do things (like tackle the dirty house and clean it from top to bottom) it always ends with him totally doped up on pain meds and completely out of commission for a week. Over the past 4+ months I've fully realized that his contribution to the household is vital, because I've pretty much had to go without his participation. It may sound like an excuse to sit around and do nothing, but honestly it isn't. The man barely has use of his right arm, and of course he is right handed. I've had to help him fill out workman's comp forms because it was too painful for him to hold a pen and write. It's that bad. He can't change a diaper, he can only lift the girls with one arm, and lets not even start talking about the numerous projects around the house that remain undone (like baby proofing our kitchen). It's crazy. And I've had to do a lot more heavy lifting (both literal and figurative) than I ever thought I'd need to.

I recently had a friend tell me, "But it's only temporary." Well, I guess that depends on your definition of temporary. So far all the doctors that have seen him have said that there isn't much in the way of treatment available for the kind of injury that he has (bruised bone, nerve damage, AC separation, and who knows what else). The only thing to do is wait. We've heard time frames like one year, 2 years, maybe 5 years, maybe never. Maybe this is as good as it's going to get.

And me? I'm furious. Because this never should have happened in the first place! I feel like when that idiot trainer injured my husband he practically stole him away from me. And I NEED him!

So we've done something I thought we'd never do, we've hired a lawyer. And although I DO think he's going to be able to help us, I also have to continue to live day by day without help. Going it alone, and burning out.

Back to yesterday and why it was so terrible. Ziva smeared poop in various locations not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! Our stupid dog would not shut up due to the children playing with toys he didn't agree with. So ALL DAY LONG it was bark bark BARK at every single little thing. I was/am stressing out about canning green beans. I've never done it before, never even seen it done, but I purposefully planted extra beans back in April because I wanted to give it a try. Well, the beans are ready RIGHT NOW, and I have to figure out where to get the pressure gauge tested (I know the where at this point, but I still have yet to figure out the when, and those beans aren't going to wait forever) and buy canning jars, and check recipes, etc. etc. And I'm terrified about doing it all by myself, but I really have no other option since me and the girls are getting over colds, and Hubs is just starting to come down with one, and I don't want visitors in my house who would inevitably catch what we've got. In addition to that, my house is a total pig stye after me being sick for the past 2 weeks. I have dog hair balls the size of Kansas floating across my floor and my bathrooms are downright toxic.

And then I looked at my schedule for this next week. Monday, Hubs has a Dr. appointment and then works that night. Tuesday, same. Wednesday Hubs works a 12 hour shift. Thursday, same. Friday, Hubs has another Dr. appointment but thankfully doesn't work that night. So pretty much from now until Friday I'll have a "Hi, Bye." relationship with my husband and pretty much act as the single parent. That, my friends, took me right to my breaking point. I ended up sobbing last night because I just don't even know how I'm going to do it... AND can green beans.

So obviously, I could use some prayer. I really feel like I could crack at any moment, get my car keys and purse, hop in the car and just keep driving.

I feel slightly better today, mostly because Hubs decided to see his Dr. this morning rather than sleep and call in sick tonight.

Not sure how to end this post other than to say that if you have your health, you should thank your lucky stars.

Note to Ziva

Dear Ziva,

I know you're only two. I know you have boundless energy and a relentless curiosity about the world around you. I know that you have this drive inside of you to explore the world in a hostile takeover fashion. I know. Believe me, I know.

But could you please oh please stop exploring your diaper contents during nap time? It may seem like a great place to find art supplies, but it's yucky Honey. Really REALLY yucky!

Thanks so much,

Your Momma

Speach Development and a Crib Party

My mom keeps telling me that I need to write this stuff down, otherwise I'll forget. I know she's right, but so often I get caught up with making this blog all nice and semi-professional (HA!) and wonder if people will care what my kids are up to. I figure the only people who REALLY care about this stuff is me, Hubs, and the extended fam (and some of them might not care either!).

But since this is really the place where I share my thoughts, I don't keep a journal hidden under the mattress or anything like that, this is it baby! I better start writing some of this stuff down, and write down here because it really isn't going to happen otherwise.

So if this bores you, come back tomorrow. lol

Ziva has added a few words to her vocabulary! On Monday she said, "Mama" for the first time! She pulled an old photo of me and Hubs out of my Bible and pointed to him and said, "Dada" and then pointed to me and said, "Mama". She's said Dada before, but this was the very first time I've heard her say Mama, and she said it very matter-of-factly, as if "Duh, I know this people!" were going through her head. lol, it was very cute!

She still says Bye all the time, but now she also says Hi and Go. Obviously leaving and arriving are very critical to her and she wishes we would Go all the time! Thankfully as far as she is concerned Go to the backyard is just as good if not better than Go in the car to actually Go somewhere.

So I think that all of Ziva's words at this point are Go, Bye, Hi, Mama, Dada, Yay!, Mo (for more), and Ga (for dog).

Anya does a LOT more babbling, but much fewer actual words. She says Dada and Bye and that's about it. You can tell who her favorite parent is! lol She does do a lot of imitating, and there have been a few times when we've turned our heads and asked each other, "Did she just say, 'Lets go to the store?'" I think that's because her babbling is becoming very pronounced and often sounds like she's talking full sentences. She's still a very sensitive little girl, and gets her feelings hurt quite a bit. I find that I spend a great deal of time comforting her, and often feel the need to shield her from certain situations. Hopefully I'm not making matters worse.

There have been lots of cute stories, and my mom is right, because right now I'm not thinking of any. DANG IT! I hate it when she's right...

Ok, I just thought of one!

The other day I heard them laughing upstairs during nap time. I had just put them down for their nap 30 minutes prior so it was NOT time to wake up yet. Fearing another poop party (yes, Ziva does get her diaper off by herself, we now duct tape it on and use onesies over the top to keep them on) I went up there only to discover that they've learned how to play peek-a-boo with each other using the crib rails as a little hiding spot! After I walked in they squeeled as if to say, "Yay! Mom is here to join the fun!" And then they gave me a little demonstration to show me what was so funny. LOL Since I was up there I went ahead and checked their diapers, and they were both indeed poopy which was why they were still awake and able to invent their little game. But after I changed them and put them back in their cribs they went right on back to playing and never did take a nap. The rest of our evening didn't go so well as a result, but it was still pretty funny. Stuff like this are what makes twin parenting so much fun though! It's so fun to hear them squeeling and laughing in the other room and know that they're just having a good time with each other! Warms our hearts!

Just Another Day

Last night I made that Cheesy Tavern Soup. Well, the recipe sounded divine! But the results? Not so much. I found it to be edible, and Hubs took one sip and said, "Gah! What's in this??" Needless to say, the soup that was remaining this morning (aka nearly all of it) was fed to the garbage disposal. I was pretty bummed about it, but Hubs reminded me that failure was all part of the spirit of exploration, and that it was inevitable that I would make something that wasn't as good as it sounded. He's right. He usually is. Damn, I hate that! lol

This afternoon we're headed to the girl's first Early Intervention appointment to learn more about their speech delay. Yesterday it really hit me how difficult things were getting to be to parent children who can't communicate with us. I know all parents experience some of that in the 2 year old age set. There's obviously a lot of frustration on both sides when a child is pre-speech. Lately there have been so many times when one (or both) girl (s) will throw a tantrum simply because I don't understand what they want or need. I'm pretty good at judging when they're hungry or tired, but anything else and I feel like I'm talking to a space alien.

Hubs is really not looking forward to the appointment. He's convinced that the whole thing will be about our failure as parents. He's sure that it'll just be one thing after another of things we should be doing, and of course the obvious conclusion that we should have been doing these things all along. Hubs tends to be frustrated with how long a 15 minute Dr. appointment can take, so I really hope he can just chill out and relax for what should be a 2 hour appointment.

Pray for us. Honestly, I think the girls will probably have a lot of fun (playing with other people's toys is ALWAYS fun). But it's us as parents that I'm a bit concerned about. Will they tell us that we've been slacking for the last 21 months? Will the improvements that they suggest work? Will Hubs go stark raving mad at the 45 minute mark?

I'll keep ya posted.

Anya's New Do

As I'm sure you've noticed in many of my pictures of her, Anya has quite a bit of hair.



Until recently, there wasn't much I could do about it besides cut it, and I just wasn't ready for that. So we just kept pushing it out of her eyes every time she held still long enough. We tried clips and such, but although Anya didn't seem to mind, Ziva was fascinated with such adornments and would pull them out of Anya's hair. So poor little Anya just looked through a veil of hair to see the world.

That is, until just a few days ago when I decided to try the rubber band approach.

And thankfully, Anya is now big enough to protect herself a little better and won't let Ziva anywhere close to her hair. WOO HOO!!!



Oh, did I mention the girls are sick again? Yup, they both have colds... again... So that should explain the spacey look on her face and her refusal to stop watching TV even for a second.

Looking back, I should have just turned it off.

But I'm starting to feel yucky too so my brain is only 1/2 functional.

Sorry.





And of course, the cutest picture of the day is of Ziva, the child I wasn't trying to capture. lol But if bringing out the camera perks her up for just a minute then it was well worth it!

Way Back When-endsday: Sleepy Babies

The girls were 13 months old in these pictures. And they were so sweet and fun. I was finally starting to enjoy motherhood. Yup, took me that long to decide that I was actually having a good time. Before that I knew I loved them, I knew they were wonderful, but my life was hard and I was decidedly not having any fun.

So glad those really hard days are over! Although I'm sure there will be hard days ahead, they'll be hard in a different way, and for that I'm very thankful.


Would you like to participate in Way Back When-endsday? Then check out Twinfatuation. Or if you don't have twins and you'd still love to post and talk about your old photos you can check out 7 Clown Circus.

My First Way Back When-esday

I told myself I wouldn't follow blogging protocol, but... I don't know, I guess I'm caving to peer pressure today.

Maybe it's because I ended up taking Ziva to the ER last night only to find out that I'm a paranoid mom who's kid only has some sort of virus. They kept asking me things like, "Does she have a fever?" "Only a mild one." "Does she have a hacking cough?" "Umm... not really." I felt like a total idiot... They sent me home with proper dosing instructions for Tylenol and the keep-her-hydrated speech.

Came home to a cranky sick Hubs, and woke up this morning to a sick and crying Anya.

So my day is headed off to a fabulous start, and I'm tired and praying I'm not going to be sick too.

As a result, it seems like the PERFECT day to join in on Way Back When-esday and think about happier times.

So here's the girls in their stroller and Baby Legs when they were about 13 months old. I LOVE this picture of them!




It was taken up at the lilac garden in Woodland, WA. My parents invited me and the girls to go with them, and I'm so glad I went! It was a glorious day, and the girls had a great time getting out, we didn't get out often back then!

Language Development of Twins

My girls are behind. I know they are because at 19 months old Ziva pretty much only has 1 word (bye bye) and Anya has maybe 3 (bye bye, ba ba, and no). Neither says Mama or Dada.

So today I called Early Intervention and made an appointment. The soonest we could get in was March 10th. My guess is that by then they will have made significant progress and I'll end up calling and canceling. That's pretty much what happened a few months ago when I called because they hadn't started walking yet. Murphey's Law: As soon as you make an appointment for a problem, said problem resolves itself.

Anyway, I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I'm reading the book Raising Twins. And since there are a few twin mommies who follow my blog I thought I'd share a couple paragraphs about why twin language development is different from singletons. It's pretty interesting stuff!

"When a baby is born, its parents' initial communication is made up of smiles, cuddling, gestures of affection and cooing at their newborn. Parents also seem to intuitively imitate their baby's vocal sounds. There have been studies that indicate that the children of parents who used a lot of "baby talk" were faster to acquire expressive language skills. These parents may also have been particularly physically affectionate with their infants, so it is not really possible to pinpoint the reason their children were ahead of the language curve. Yet knowing as we do the overall importance of early one-on-one communication between parents and young children, environmental factors give us important clues about language development in twins. Twins usually engage in three-way (triadic) conversations instead of two-way conversations. They have less language directed toward them and less opportunity to participate verbally. The more available the mother and father are to the child, the stronger the symbiotic communication between them. Parents of newborn twins typically do not have the luxury of extended periods of one-on-one time with each baby. This may account, in part, for some of the delays in twins' language acquisition that sometimes occur.

Multiple births are at a higher risk of prematurity than singletons, and researchers have long associated low birth weight (typical of premature infants) and other complications of prematurity with developmental delay. A 1986 study compared low birth weight twins with low birth weight singletons (less than 1,500 grams) ranging from one month to four years of age. They found there were intermittent differences in hearing and speech at some ages but not at others. They also found that there were no significant language differences after the age of two and that by four years, twins measured ahead of non-twins on several measurements."

So hopefully, in a couple years time they will even out with their peers and there will be no noticeable delays. But until then, it's getting kind of frustrating. I'd really like to be able to communicate with them in a more significant way than what we're doing now.

Anya babbles non-stop, but really doesn't say many real words. She does ask for things that she wants, but usually it's by pointing or going over to the thing that she wants me to get for her. She does LOVE books though, which is encouraging. She loves to look at the pictures, and often vocalizes what she sees in her own incoherent "language". She "reads". But if I try to sit down with her she quickly gets upset, she'd much rather be on her own to "read" than have me read with or to her. Anya is more social, she makes better eye contact, and is very jolly and giggly. She loves to be tickled and roughhoused with.

Ziva is a much quieter child, and doesn't verbalize much at all, but she pays attention to EVERYTHING. She says bye bye, and has said night-night once. But I think she understands a lot more than Anya does. She obeys commands, she likes to play little games and picks up on new ones very quickly. She stacks blocks, and arranges her food. And since they have several matching or similar toys she will often get one, and then find the other that corresponds. So I know she's smart. She has 2 signs, "more" and "bye bye", and she uses them at the appropriate times and pretty much signs "more" any time she wants anything. She is very very very busy, and so far has done everything at least 1 month ahead of Anya.

I feel kind of lost. I have no idea what I should be doing to help them. I'm sure there's some totally obvious things I could do that would help them along, but I have no idea what those things would be. I'm sure they should watch less TV and do more activities, but again, I have no idea what those activities should be. I often feel like I'm failing them, and that makes me very sad. I really wish that appointment with EI could be sooner because I feel like I really need help NOW, not 2 months from now.

So if any of you mom's out there know of some good online resources or something I'm ALL ears! :)

I feel a change a' comin'!

Two days ago my sweet little Ziva woke up from her nap SCREAMING! I thought it was because she got her leg stuck between the crib rails, she's done that several times before. So I rushed upstairs as fast as I could, she really sounded like she was in a frenzied state of panic! Poor baby...

When I got into the room I could not believe my eyes!

My sweet little baby was straddling the front rail of the crib!!!

My heart leapt to my throat as I rushed to her aid!

Luckily she when she got up to the top she scared herself and started screaming, otherwise she probably would have fallen and hurt herself!

She's always been the adventurous/active one so I knew she'd be the first to try something like this. And I've heard many many stories of crib escapades, so I wasn't overly shocked, I was expecting it. I just had no idea when it would happen.

Since then she hasn't tried it again. But I know it's only a matter of time until she forgets how scared she was and goes for another attempt.

This morning when I went to wake her up she immediately stood up in her crib and flung her leg up to the top of the rail like she was just going to come out and get me! So I'm sure it'll happen again...

Unless...

We take the rails off the crib and turn them into toddler beds. ACK!!!! Talk about terrifying!!!

But it's gonna happen sometime, and I would rather do it sooner than later if later means having her take a really bad fall.

Of course in order to make this happen we have some major baby-proofing to do in their room. They don't know how to open doors, so we don't have to worry about that... yet... But they have this big bureau in their room that needs to be secured to the wall, and perhaps a lock for the sliding closet door. They do make such things don't they? I'm sure they do! Right? lol

So part of the reason I'm saying this and putting this out there is because if I write about it, then it gives me more motivation to make it happen. And maybe I'll get out this weekend and buy the supplies we need, and then convince my hubby to install everything for me. :)

One of my goals for the next 6 months is to get the entire house baby-proofed. Right now the girls spend the majority of their time in the living room which is gated off from the rest of the house and is perfectly 'proofed. But my kitchen, dining room, stairs, etc, still need to be done. See? Write it and it happens! Hopefully...

Bye-Bye Ba Ba

My girls have officially switched from bottles to sippy cups. I know that's really not a major accomplishment since they are now 19 months old, but I feel like it's a BIG step! So I thought I'd post a picture of Ziva demonstrating her Ba Ba mastery.



Now we're working on eating from actual plates and using actual utensils rather than just grabbing with our hands. Exciting stuff!

And since this post, at it's roots, is all about savoring my girl's babyhoods while they're still babies (sort of! ack!) I thought I'd share this sweet picture of me and Anya after she had a bath a couple weeks ago.



All wrapped up like a little bitty baby...


PS: I have 10 Dr. Brown's bottles if anyone wants them! FREE if you can come pick them up!

Ringin' in the New Year!

I almost called this post "Makin' a Joyful Noise" but since the pictures actually WERE taken on New Year's Day I decided to go with this title. :) We really didn't plan these pictures at all. The girls just decided that the tins that some dresses came in on Christmas would make good drums (and I think Daddy introduced the plastic spoons to the mix). This kept them busy for a good 30 minutes.

Here's Daddy & Anya. Yes, I know Anya needs a haircut. I was perfectly settled about cutting it until someone commented, "But you'd be cutting off the hair she was BORN with!" And now I'm very unsettled about it and it's getting pretty shaggy.



I think she's still pretty cute though.



Yup, very cute. :)



Ziva decided to join the fun!



Ooooh, this was a really good idea Daddy!



And I know I've posted this picture of Ziva before, but it's seriously the BEST picture of her I've been able to capture in a Looooooong time!



Most pictures of her look like this:



So thank you very much Aunt Suzy and Uncle Wayne for inadvertently giving my daughters their most favorite toys. lol

Labels

I'm reading a pretty good book right now. It's called Raising Twins from Birth Through Adolescence: What Parents Want to Know (and What Twins Want to Tell Them) by Eileen M. Pearlman and Jill Alison Ganon. I'm only about 1/2 way through it but so far it has a lot of really interesting things to say. Sometimes it's hard to get into a book when you only have 5-10 minute segments of time to read, but the way this book is laid out I can usually get something out of it during such a time stretch.

Right now I'm knee deep in a chapter about Labels. I think all parents who have more than 1 child have to deal with such issues to some extent, but to parents of twins or more it's even more difficult to avoid labeling your children. It's how the human brain works. We look for differences in order to find unique qualities that set one person apart from another. It's how we define people as individuals. But with twins some comparisons can be hurtful or even damaging.

So I've been looking at how I've inadvertently "labeled" my kids. Several family members have looked at Ziva and commented on how she's going to be the "tomboy" someday because she's very active. And I've found myself automatically giving her the green or blue cup to drink from, or dressed her in more neutral colors instead of pink or purple. Or go just the opposite and put her in the most frilly shirt possible to fight off such a stereotype. Either path I go with this I end up being upset with myself afterwords.

And Anya, who since the beginning has been known as "the shy one". I find myself often shielding her from new people or situations, anticipating that she will get upset before she even has the chance to make that choice for herself. Yet she was the one who warmed up to Santa Clause right away at a kids Christmas party, not Ziva. So obviously I need to give her more space to be open to new people and experiences so she can learn to make those judgments herself.

It's so easy and simplified to say child A is ________ and child B is _______. The challenge is in allowing your children to just be who God created them to be and stop putting them into little boxes and expecting them to stay put. Because the child who is rebellious and challenging today may very well be the helpful and considerate child tomorrow.

As one fraternal twin girl in this book put it, "There is really no good twin and bad twin. Each one is good some days, and each one is bad some days." I think that's a pretty apt description of the twin experience. Just like you and me and everyone else, they have their good days and their bad days. Sometimes they take turns on those days, and sometimes they decide to be good or bad simultaneously. And Lord help me when they're bad simultaneously!