Sleepy husband corner

Right before Christmas, Ryan and I were out shopping. I spotted a store (Coldwater Creek) and said, "That looks like a mom store, let's go in and look for something for my mom." Ryan said, "How do you know that store?" I said, "I don't," but then he said, "Oh, right, festive Christmas sweater in the window."


(Think "mischievous kitty cardigan," among others, compliments of their website.)






So we went in. The greeter at the door was one of those crazy-dressed older women with short spiky hair, just like you would expect. She creeped Ryan out. I guess I've been into Chico's enough looking for my mom to be prepared for their kind. By the time we made it through about 4 racks of clothes, Ryan said, "Um, I think I'm going to go sit over in sleepy husband corner." As I glanced over, I had to immediately duck my head away to hide my giggles. I was really sad I didn't have my camera with me. In the corner, there were three very large men, slumped down in some fashion or other (who knows how long they'd been there), all with their eyes closed. It was so obvious. "I don't know what to get you for Christmas this year, (or they've learned from past mistakes/size misconceptions/failures or just total fear of clothing shopping for women). Why don't you pick something out yourself?" And then somehow, to make it seem somewhat more of a personal gift, I suppose, they allowed themselves to be dragged along.

One of the wives came out, wearing a green mu mu. At her "how do I look?" we heard the husband saying, "No. It's way too big." "Well, should I get a smaller size?" "No. No. It's... no." Ryan was cracking up at this exchange. It was just all too painful. Dragged into the most horrible old lady store, full of wacky salespeople, tacky clothes, other super-uncomfortable husbands, and now having to watch your wife try on mu mu after mu mu while she keeps asking your opinion.

I will give him some credit though. I thought by that stage husbands would just have their standard responses, "Sure, if you like it." "Mmm, hmm." "Looks nice..." At least he was honest.

Ah, the Christmas spirit.


Makes me realize how good it is to put your wishlist on your blog ahead of time. Last year I put up this sweater I loved from Anthropologie, just as a someday sort of wish list, but I was in NO way expecting to get it. Well, my mom jumped at the chance to actually get something she knew I would like. One nice item that she knew I would love. Good choice. I guess all those years of returning everything she's gotten me from Land's End finally sunk in.




Then this year, she opted for the same and scored again - one nice, good, unique piece of clothing. This time from the British company, Boden. Can I tell you their catalog is fantastic? I actually thought it was better than their website, but they really have great stuff. I especially love their skirts. And they all have great names like "Fun, smart skirt", or, "Sassy swishy skirt."

I remember seeing a children's catalog from there once and loving everything in it so much I threw it away because it was more than I spend for kids clothing. But I felt pretty excited seeing that my Christmas present came through customs. Cute stuff though, huh?




I was discussing my shopping philosophy with a friend a while ago. When I shop, I think I'm naturally drawn to "Oh, what a nice v-neck t-shirt." Staples. Boring. So when I was about to move from New York, I decided I really wanted to do some NY style shopping, and that was my rule - if it was basic, and probably what I would usually go for, I wouldn't buy it. So now, when I really want to do some fashion shopping (not the I-don't-fit-in-anything-so-I-need-to-replenish-all-the-basics-in-a-different-size shopping), that's what I try to do. Look for something fun, unique, and not so basic. (And yes, this will work much better when we actually make real money.)

Anyway, back to my point - I also, yes, got my money toward getting someone to come clean the house every once in a while. See? It pays off not to be too cagey sometimes. Sure beats forcing your hubby into sleepy husband corner.

And we got my mom a cell phone.

Christmas festivities

Family Christmas party talent show:



Really, how could you resist with that chub?? The little sumos were even wearing their festive Christmas thongs.
And I'm not kidding about the talent part. Look at those synchronized moves:



(And a pretty good shot of the thigh girth, I must add).


I love the first year Santa wonderment.




Smart kid - sneaking in trying to run off with the bag of presents:




Christmas eve baths:





And as crazy as my life is this year,


At least I didn't feel like I did last year:







Merry Christmas to all! And to all a good night.

Happy holidays

Today I am enjoying some alone time with
2 chubby babies
pajamas
nutella
Christmas music
and a snowstorm out the window.

Lovely.


My Christmas goals this year:

More of the same - I always feel like I'm physically in the same place as my kids, but not always with them, you know? Driving, cleaning, making dinner, mmm hmming over the computer.... but now I just want to enjoy them.

Playing the "Sleigh Ride" duet with my mom without totally botching it (this may be next year's goal too. I have no piano so I only play about 2 times a year when I happen to be at home.) But that's probably ok since my brother, who is far superior to me on the piano botched it last year (ok, granted, he never practiced it), so I figured I could try this year and not do much worse. :)

Figure out how to not look totally lame with my serious lack of Christmas presents. Pawn it off as trying to not be so commercial? :)

Eat lots of Christmas goodness and not gain any weight.

Merry Christmas everyone!



And P.S. Yes, the flight sucked. I was a little hopeful as the first couple hours were actually not too bad, and even a little cute watching Phoenix snuggle up to Cash to watch the DVD player. But Cash got tired of the snuggling, the babies got tired of not sleeping, and it was all downhill after that. They slept 20 minutes of the whole flight. Luckily we sat by a few teenagers who just cranked up their Ipods.

Christmas countdown

10 degrees - the low temperature in Utah by the time we get there this weekend. As much as I am still sweating and am craving feeling cold, I still have a feeling we'll be in shock.

9 month old twins on an a cross-country flight. With a husband who will just be getting off from the night shift. I am just remembering that Cash traveled a lot when he was an infant - hard, but he slept a good amount. But then when I took a flight with him when he was 9 months old I remember thinking - oh wow, this is a LOT worse than it used to be. Nine month-olds do not hold still.

8 - number of boxes I will probably have to unearth and ransack to see if we even own any winter clothes these babies can wear.

7 - different kinds of drugs and elixirs I will be taking on the plane ride. I've got a different tactic in mind this time - if I'm the one sedated, I think the whole ordeal will go much better. :)

6 - hours on a plane with three kids. (Well, 5 and a half, rounding up and planning for inevitable delays.)

5 year anniversary on Saturday. Oh, right. Um, how about we give each other a hearty verbal congratulations this year?

4 - number of appointments I have for the babies between now and our 6am flight on Friday. None of which are less than a half hour away.

3 - number of weeks I'll be staying in Utah. Didn't actually want to stay quite that long since this is the ONLY nice time of year down here (and it's only really been nice for about 3 weeks now) and I better enjoy it while I can, but tickets were cheaper and I'm sure we'll love the family time.

2 - hours of sleep I will probably get the next couple nights. I feel like when I was in college - finals week the week before Christmas, exhausted, pulling all-nighters, constantly snacking on junk just to stay awake, feeling totally out of whack and just counting down the days until I could go home and just sleep. And let my mommy take care of me. (Hope you're reading this and getting a big hint! :)

1 - number of times I have thought about Christmas. Yesterday, in fact when someone mentioned that Christmas was next week. Huh? I blame the weather. Who thinks Christmas is next week when it's 81 degrees outside?

0 number of Christmas presents I have bought, or even thought about. Number of suitcases packed. Number of loads of laundry done.
AND
possibly more importantly - the amount of chocolate currently in the house available for coping purposes.


If you don't see me in a little while, you know why.


***Addendum. 3 hours later.*** The kids and I actually made a trip to the local ghetto-mart for the sole purpose of getting some chocolate. Let me just say that first, you should really go to ghetto-mart for just about nothing, and second, I have never actually dragged the whole gang out to a corner store just so I could get a "fix". So we were walking back, Cash and I sharing our Milky Way. As he tried to get the last bite, it fell out of the wrapper. Seeing as we went all the way over there to get my much-needed chocolate, you can bet I wasn't letting it go to waste. I pick it up, brush it off, and immediately hear a car honking. I look up to see a woman vehemently shaking her finger and her head at me to tell me I better not be putting that back in my child's mouth. I stare at her for a second in disbelief, and while maintaining eye contact, deliberately nod my head in an "oh yes I am" motion, split the remaining piece in two, put half in Cash's mouth, and pop the rest in mine - at the same time that she honestly starts rolling down her window yelling, "Noooooo!!!"

I have to give her props for the passion behind her cause. And for seriously making my day. I am still busting up about it.

Contraption

We finally got a new stroller. Thanks to my friend LuAnn, we were brought to the knowledge of the Valco tri-mode twin stroller. It's a double jogger - BUT - it's the only thing we've found that is double wide with the option to seat three kids! The toddler seat is boosted out in front of the jogger, kind of like a pyramid. The first thing I said was that it looked ridiculous. I said I needed to see it with kids in it to see if it looked as bad as I imagined when it was full of children because I would think it would look like this tower of screaming babies barreling down the street at you. LuAnn's response: anything with three kids in it looks ridiculous. Point taken.

So, a few hundred dollars later, here's the trial run:







He threw a fit all through our building, through the park, and all the way to the playground. (Our neighbor later said, "That was you guys out there?? Dan kept asking who was murdering their child in the hallway.") He wanted to sit back where the babies were. I was afraid this would happen. We probably could switch and have one of the babies up there, but I really want him to know the stroller is for the babies - especially for times when I don't have the toddler seat with it. This was the other reason I didn't try the sit 'n stand varieties - he just loves to sit in the stroller and after reading reviews of people whose kids refused to stand on the platform, I knew that is exactly how Cash would be. I figured this one at least had a seat. And it sure drives like a dream.

Luckily by the end he was a little more sedated.



Better stay that way.

All I want for Christmas

Sorry. Sick kids + sick mom + husband always on call = lame blogging. Seriously, I was excited when I was thinking that last Saturday was finally a day off for Ryan (he was on call - for him meaning in the hospital - most of Thanksgiving weekend, that Sunday, this past Sunday...), until I realized he was on call Friday night and only got home around 9:30 Saturday morning. Which really means that his "day off" was dedicated to sleeping.

Which leads me to my next point. I pride myself in the fact that we still manage to be pretty frugal. We only have one car, we rarely buy our kids toys, I know nothing but buying things on sale, we all know I'm a WalMart regular, and yes, I'm even starting to appreciate the fact that we have no matching bedroom furniture and the only thing at the head of our bed is a massive folded up box that Ryan is hesitant to get rid of before the next move because it holds the elliptical machine. Having said that, is it so wrong that all I want for Christmas this year is this:



Because let's face it, I really am slowly losing my mind.

I figure the whole getting a little babysitter to help out didn't work, so why can't I at least get someone to come clean? And really, I'd be happy with just like once a month. All day I seem to look forward to 8pm when the kids are in bed. But then 8pm comes, and all I do is pick up the house and clean and get anything done that has to be done that I can't get done during the day because I swear I am always feeding someone - and then it's basically time to go to bed. And I'm exhausted. And I haven't even really cleaned. I've just tried to un-do everything that happens after a day full of little kids.


I've been trying to evaluate how I'm doing lately and I remembered talking to another resident's wife before I moved here and one phrase she said seemed to hurl itself back into my mind: Looking back, I probably should have been on medication or something that first year.

Hmm. Later I think she did say she should have gotten some help with the kids or around the house. And to further rationalize my point, next year (meaning starting in July) is supposed to be a little better. So why can't we try this for 6 months and see how it goes? See if I'm suddenly lounging around in bubblebaths after the kids are in bed most nights...

So Santa, I hope you're listening.

(And seriously, please tell me someone else has done this at some point. I can't be the only mom who just has to give in. Or maybe I can!)


By the way, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a normal picture of a maid on the internet? Sheesh. Just like when I was thinking about Halloween. I knew the babies were going to be lions, so I thought for Cash, hmm, maybe lion tamer? So I tried to search for some costumes or something to at least give me some ideas. Yeah, apparently lion tamer is not the kind of costume you find for a two year-old, and it is most frequently accompanied by phrases such as "burlesque"....

Hey, didn't we have another kid around here somewhere?

Oh, right. It's all fun and games until the one on top starts bouncing around like crazy again, right?

The babies seem to look more alike the older they've gotten. Pretty soon it will be easier to tell them apart I guess because Ashton is getting a helmet to help round out his head shape. It's not terrible, but since he's a twin and there's a comparison, I don't want him to grow up being the fat-head. But nice that we're getting it just in time to go home for Christmas to see everyone that hasn't seen them forever! Now he's really going to look like the "special" twin, since he's the immobile one and you just can't help but look like you've got problems when you're wearing a helmet. But yeah, I guess that's why we have two babies - so people can see how cute he would be without that big contraption on his head. :)

And sweet little Cash is not as agreeable as he once was and has definitely hit the defiant stage. But he's still fun. And moments like this make me so happy. It makes me realize it's been so long since I was so genuinely thrilled and surprised like this. I guess that's why it's fun to re-live stuff through your kids. And this video was like the 15th time Ryan had done this.




One last thing I'll mention. This is something I'm going to miss:



Glancing back in the car to see 4 constantly bouncing feet. Even cuter because the babies almost never wear shoes. I asked Ryan why that was and he said it was because we have three kids. True. Too much effort. In fact I even put shoes on myself today (rather than flip flops) and realized even that was too much effort. I've decided that we never achieve perfection here. Everyday something's gotta give. It's either babies still in pajamas, mom un-showered, and the most common - bare-footed babies. Good thing we live in Miami. But really, we have lace up shoes that fit them at this age, and I really need to find some that are faster to put on. And I will, now that it is actually getting cooler! But anyway, people often comment that all they can see from across the park or wherever is a stroller full of kicking feet. I love it.