A happy baby makes a happy mommy

oh last night was much better. i somehow managed to bathe both kids and had kathryn in bed by 8:30, and daniel asleep and in bed by 9. i made a pork roast for dinner last night, and corn on the cob, and kathryn tried out the corn for the first time. she didn't eat much but it was fun watching her try something new. she ate a good bit of dinner, so john asked if he could make her a "kiddie" cone (the kiddie cones are small) so i agreed as long as she was in her highchair. in about 20 mins, i noticed this:

poor kathryn. she hadn't had a nap (those are becoming harder and harder to get out of her, and more of a hassle, besides, she goes to sleep on time without one! and goes without a struggle. lol.) and at 7:30, she pooped out, but she was covered in ice cream so i woke her up threw her in the tub and tossed her in bed. she was so good for me when daniel wasn't. it's nice when it works out that way. 

i got to have about 2 hours of play time after the kiddos went to sleep and then i pooped out myself, and no crying was heard until kathryn started beating on her door at 7am. i'll take that over last night! it's always a plus to start out good. 

i have 4 major chores to do today, and i told john to pick two...i gave him his choice! how nice is that. lol. so we'll see just what gets done. 

I jinxed myself

call it what you'd like...before i went to bed i said it didn't seem like Daniel was cranky from teething...and then it started. apparently daniel woke up about 1am, john got up with him tried calming him down till 2:30 then woke me up to see what i could do. i tried feeding him, but his nose was so stuffy from crying, he couldn't breathe but out his mouth which frustrated him more, and he just kept crying and trying to nurse for about 30 mins or so, then he gave up and just started trying to suck his thumb to sleep, but with the same problem, i think he may have slept for about an hour and a half, but at 5:30 it was more screaming for him. poor guy...but when i don't get sleep i don't have a whole lot of patience. so i tried feeding him again, and i attempted to try falling back asleep, but he couldn't breathe still, and went back and forth from crying to nursing for about an hour. finally at 6:45,  (i forgot to set back my clock so it said 7:45) i woke john up and asked him why he wasn't heading for work...he reminded me of the switch, then proceeded to get dressed. daniel started semi smiling at john who was trying to cheer him up while i feel dead and just want the crying to stop. well, i try feeding him again, and after 5 mins he gave up, and about 7am kathryn is banging on the door. nice. now it's hopeless, i'm certainly not getting any more sleep. i tell john to put daniel in his bed so he can cry there, i can't hardly hear myself think from the ears ringing. 

so kathryn gets in bed with me and i still desperately fight both kids being up to try to sleep even for 10 more mins. well, i almost fall asleep when john comes to tell me bye, he was leaving for work. about 7:30 daniel is still crying, so i take him out of his bed, change his diaper, try to give him tylenol which he just lets drool out of his mouth, then, since i was nursing him all night i knew i had nothing left, i made him a bottle, and let him drink it in bed hoping it might put him to sleep...i meanwhile crawl back in bed, kathryn following, and close my eyes, even though kathryn is jabbering away at me, my eyes just burn. i sing some songs until i hear daniel wail again, i get him out of bed and put him on the blanket in the living room to crawl around so i can get breakfast for me and kathryn and possibly start getting read for church. it's like 8:30 now, i'll probably be late but what can i do...so i get breakfast (cereal) try to eat it fast as daniel is staring at me wanting some...i notice spit up on his mouth, i go to wipe it off and find where on the floor it was when i pick him up i realize he tracked all through it and now he was covered from neck to waist in it. gross. i get the water ready for a bath, strip him down, bathe him, start drying him off when he starts again...WAILING. ahhhh make him stop make him stop! i try to dress him but he's stiff and uncoopertive and try holding him and comforting him, he only turns to scream directly into my ear. so i decide i am going to jump through the window if i don't let him calm down away from me....i stick him in his bed half dressed in his bed and quickly leave the room. i hear kathryn say "sta cying dan-do" as she closes the door. that made me laugh. 

after about 5 or so mins he was only hooting, so i go back in there, as soon as he sees me he starts screaming again, but i figure, maybe he wants solid foods, he hasn't had those all morning, so i stick him in the swing, and try to feed him he's so worked up but wants to eat that he takes the bite, but blows it right back out as he tries to breathe, then realizes he didn't take the bite and screams again. finally i decide to search for the medicine..orajel, i lost it, and so it took me all of 5 mins to find it, i got the swab, tried to swab his gums, the screaming only got worse...come on please...i fight with him to get more on his gums for a bit longer, and he sticks his thumb in his mouth and within minutes he is sleeping. oh finally!!!! 

 

on a funny note, kathryn kept tripping over her shoe that was laying on the floor and i kept telling her you need to pick it up so you won't trip on it, then finally she tripped again, and i told her if you would pick it up and put it away you wouldn't trip on it, so she proceeds to grab her shoe run over to the diaper bag and pusehed the shoe in then proceeded to push it down with both hands over and over while saying angrily "sta in deh" (stay in there!) it was just funny because that's exactly how i am when i get mad!

Ahhh a tooth

so daniel cut his first tooth...i dunno if it happened today, but it had to be within the last 2 days, it's pretty new. i would take a picture, but there is nothing to see yet...the tooth just barely broke the gums, so we gotta wait for it to sprout up. no more toothless grins =(  i sure hope this doesn't mean he's gonna get them all at once though! i'd like to keep breastfeeding him, but not if he's going to bite! it just doesn't seem like he's been cranky from cutting a tooth...although i have noticed an increased desire to chew on everything...hehe. he's getting energentic already and it's so cute.

2 sets of twins

so today i went to sam's with amanda, and we had all our kids with us...i love the sam's shopping carts because they hold two kids up front. so we put both babies up front and both toddlers in the back...we were walking through the store and amanda saw something she wanted to go run and get, so i just stopped as i was the one pushing the buggy, and waited for her to come back..and there were quite a few older folks that kept staring at me, and one older guy stopped just long enough to comment: "WOW two sets of twins, you've been blessed, they are adorable" i didn't get to correct him, because he was already walking off...but he said it rather loudly, and a few people turned to look and smiled...i couldn't help but smile back...as i thought what it would really be like to have 2 sets of twins only 2 years apart! i certainly wouldn't be bringing them to sams without extra help!!

picture tag!

so i've been meaning to do this for a while, thanks jenn. the fourth folder in my pictures, fourth picture would be: 

 and this is a cloth diaper that i made from recycled t-shirts (and if anyone has any donations that would be awesome). yeah, that's right. i cloth diaper. i look for ways to cut our costs so we can get out of debt, and for me, that means cloth diapers. it's actually quite fun to sew them up and see them so cute. and heck, aside from the thread and elastic, they're free!!! oh, and what's better, i can sell these once i'm done to another mama, so i actually come out ahead. 

if you're wondering, the diaper above is what you would call a pocket fitted diaper, you stuff an insert from the front which has a flap that folds over to cover the opening. i stuff with microfiber. it absorbs 8x it's weight in liquid, and works on daniel and kathryn overnight!!! i could finish the diaper off with some velcro or snaps to keep it on, but instead i use a snappi, it's quick and velcro or snaps is not cheap. what's a snappi you ask? check it out:

pretty cool. now, the one thing i do have to buy is a cover to contain the moisture and keep the diaper from wicking on to clothes, but once again, they resell very well. one example of a cover:

i think it's cuter than a disposable, and i've been doing it for 3 months now, and it works for me. my friend amanda and i are working on sewing up some diapers and selling them. i'll let you know how that goes. so cloth diapering still exists...who knew???

oh and i've decided i'll take on the NaBloPoMo challenge too. here we go!

and my heart stopped

so lets set the stage...on friday my friend Amanda was trying to pack up everything in her apartment so her husband could move it into their new apartment, well, i knew she was going to be busy, and so i called her up and volunteered to watch her two kids (michael 3 and benjamin 8 months) well, it's like having 2 sets of twins, our kids are so close in age, however it really wasn't that bad. so i have 4 kids to watch... and michael says he wants to go see the ducks. (we have about 10 ducks that hang around the apartments hoping for food...) ok, we can go see the ducks...sure. well, i get kathryn's shoes on and i put ben in the stroller cuz he's the heaviest baby, i have daniel in my arms, and i open the door to let everyone out the door. michael walks out the door first, and kathryn is trying to put the stroller out the door and running into everything, so i tell her let me get the stoller outside, and then you can push it. well that just wasnt good enough for her, she got all upset, and went outside to find the ducks while i push the stroller outside. i get the stroller over the door jam and realize i only see michael who is a few feet in front of me, and the ducks aren't sitting underneath my neighbors truck...so where are the ducks? on the other side of the  parking area next to the mailboxes (about 50 feet away). and kathryn is running after them...and the ducks are quickly making their way into the ditch...right next to the road. i scream kathryn's name...she keeps going, i scream (fairly loudly at this point)"kathryn get over here now".. she turns and looks at me with a sarcastic look like, "make me"...all the while i'm getting the sroller off of the sidewalk so i can go get kathryn, until...she turns and starts running toward the road (cuz she knows i'm coming to get her, so she's trying to run away) and she's like 5 feet from the road, i'm at least 50 feet from her, as soon as i see her turn toward the road... i scream. the kind of scream that is so high-pitched and wavering you can barely understand it, the ear piercing scream of fear..."KATHRYN KATHRYN  NO!!! NO NO!!" and of course as i'm screaming i'm sprinting daniel in hand, which i nearly threw out of my arms concentrating so hard on stopping kathryn...running as fast as i can and screaming as cars zoom by...i reach her just as her foot touches that white line, you know, the one that marks the outside of the lanes... i reach for her arm and pull her back for all i'm worth...and as i do, a car in that lane flys by. i nearly collapse in the thought of what almost happened... i'm shaking so bad dragging kathryn and barely holding on to daniel making my way back into the house.... tears falling down my cheeks, while screaming, "DON'T YOU EVER EVER DO THAT AGAIN!" i can barely think straight, and i guess kathryn is freaked out too, because she starts screaming and crying.... i just get everyone inside and try to breathe.

if i was a second later than i was in grabbing her, she would have run into the middle of the lane and the car would have hit her, and killed her no doubt. the speed limit on the road in front of my apartment is 55, but i can't tell you how many times people tail me on that road cuz i'm only going 55... it's a bit different from the neighborhood speed limits of 25 or 30... and just seeing it play in my mind while i was running to grab her...yeah, it felt like my heart stopped beating. it took a while to settle down and to calm kathryn down too after that. i tried to explain to her in the most calm voice i could muster, that if she runs out in the road, the cars driving by will hit her, and hurt her really bad,so we never go near moving cars. as soon as she heard the word her she starts bawling her eyes out again. wheeew...i don't think i could take witnessing that happen to kathryn...

and what's worse...last night (saturday) coming home from getting groceries, all the traffic was stopped for quite a ways, right before my aparmtent, and there were numerous cop cars with their flashing lights, and right behind the church on joe may road, their was a heliocopter!!!! oh no! yeah, someone had to be air-lifted to the hospital. i saw a guy walking down the road (traffic was stopped at 10 pm) and he said there was a really bad wreck, and i asked him if i could take the other lane to get past the cars to get to my apartment...and he said yeah, so i did, and this wreck was about 50 feet from the driveway to my apartments! just reiterating how people can't drive and how dangerous a road it is. 

how cute!

so i just had to share a few cute pictures before i went to bed. 

it's toddler john!!! how cute was he! i think daniel really does look like a combination of both of us. 

so i stuck daniel in kathryn's bed while i did clothes on their floor so he could see us, and he just got into the cutest stares...

then he would smile really big. i love it when he smiles!

i love this one. he's a thinker.

notice kathryn with a purse full of crayons. lol. she's a funny one. 

this is an adorable picture of my kathryn. it's gotta be my most recent favorite. she's standing in her highchair hoping to get something off the counter without me catching her...yeah, she's a sneaky one.

i was reading bedtime stories to kathryn in a chair right next to daniel's crib when i looked over and saw him peaking back at me! i think it's cute how the rungs frame his face.

so this is what happens when kathryn sneaks off to her room with her markers and mommy wonders why she is so quiet...she colors her lips blue. and of course she is trying to hide them when i want to document it. lol. she also colored her legs brown...at least it wasn't daniel right?

and she tries to put her shoes on "zizzy" her all-time favorite plush.

daniel the flexible lad likes to suck on his big toe when his thumb just doesn't cut it. and of course while i'm trying to diaper him he's gotta have his toes.

this is just cute. Ali one of the sweet girls that comes to the playgroups couldn't get enough of daniel.
today both kids peed all over themselves through the night, so a good morning bath was needed...and since daniel can sit up now, they get to play together in the tub. 
and when they got out...mmmmm nothing like having clean babies to lotion and kiss!
and we went to play with amanda and her kiddos michael and benjamin... daniel is sitting straight up...it almost looks weird. lol. 

well, that's it for now, more to come later. i sure do love my kiddos. goodnight.