Three out of five Birthdays within a week of Christmas.

The twins were born on the twenty-first with Kate born on the twenty-seventh. It's been suggested to me, that I was somehow being responsible for this phenomena planned poorly on the births of my children. I have to laugh since the twins were actually due on Valentines day. Since we fought to keep them in as long as possible, personally I take great pride of them baking until almost Christmas. We could have had them two months earlier, and had micro-preemies.

Well, Kate, Kate we left entirely up to the Lord. My cycles being extremely erratic, at least during this point of time they were, other then charting, there wasn't much we could do. And I stink at charting.

I was actually due January ninth with Kate. However she came when she was suppose too, so two days after Christmas it was.

Of course the end result is a very busy week with Christmas sandwiched in the middle. So I thought I'd focus on Birthdays and tackle Christmas in it's own entry.

The twins turned three. Of course turning three means nothing to them. They've hit this huge milestone and all they know is, they got to eat cake. That and everyone kept saying Happy Birthday, so much so they often repeated it at random, not grasping that it specifically meant something for them.

The twenty-first was on Sunday, which was highlighted by the Christmas program at church. Personally the Christmas program is the highlight of the year for me. The focus on spiritual music that focuses so much on Christ's birth just leaves me feeling so full, so uplifted. Actually when I had the twins, I was released from the hospital on Christmas Eve and that Sunday there was only Sacrament meeting with the Christmas program. I went and sat and enjoyed every second of the program. My friends thought I was nuts, sitting through a meeting four entire days after my c-section, but after three months (that's worth repeating) three months of bedrest and isolation, I NEEDED that program.

In some ways I needed that program this year. Sacrament meeting is so hard for us and I've struggled with staying when it's such a battle with the kids to keep them reverent. Hell, reverent is the wrong word. To keep them from shouting/fight/killing each other would be more accurate some Sundays. We do have some basic quidelines that help. Kate isn't allowed to sit next to me, she gets physical with any sibbling that touches me when she's laid claim to me. We sit in a long middle bench taking up the entire space in case Ean should want to lay down, because he'll kick a sister or brother if he feels crowded.

We just don't have enough hands and some Sundays go ok, some we fight through and some we give up.

I had high hopes for the Christmas program since I know my children all love music. The twins are now singing at the drop of a hat. Both of them. We understand less from Greg, but when he rattled off Eh moo moo moo moo moo, Eh moo moo moo moo moo moo, Eh E I E I Oooohhh It was very obvious he was singing "Old McDonald had a farm".

My hopes were stymied by Sister Bunce in the row behind us. Sister Bunce an eccentric older woman with very strong ideas on pretty much everything. For reasons I cannot fathom, Sister Bunce sat behind us with a lap full of candy shooting daggers at my 36 month old boys when they tried to beg for some. Greg's world ended several times.

I am not saying someone should give my children what they have at church. Nor am I saying that for whatever reason, Sister Bunce shouldn't have had her candy, but to sit in a family ward with small children and not even *exasperated hand motion* try to be discreet, but scowl at the small children you've put in an uproar... Well lets just leave it at, we left early, so much for the Christmas program.

The clueless boys were happier when we got home. I made dinner, home made mac and cheese, which was wolfed down by everyone except the twins. Apparently this was their day to be picky. Per my husbands request because he's announced he'd rather eat a box cake mix then my homemade cake crazy man, I made pumpkin bars for dessert. We took the kids to Kent's parents so they could share the great blowing out of candles. The twins still couldn't figure out this was actually their day. You can tell this from the pictures.



This pretty much captures the evening. What? Is something going on?? This is what happens when you celebrate with language delayed kids that have no clue what you're talking about.

However, they did decide the candles were a good thing.



David understood candles are to be "blown out" and started on his the very second we started singing. Ean was very prompt to go and chew David out the very second "Happy Birthday" was over for doing it wrong! I had to let Ean know it really was alright. Greg on the other hand, had a hard time getting his out. Of course he was kind leaned W A Y back and blowing very softly. It reminded me a little bit of how my older brother use to blow out candles. Greg finally got it, and just seconds before three older sibblings were about to jump in and do it for him. Dessert was a hit and of course the consumption of dessert meant it was now time for presents.

I had gone shopping about a week before. I had held off, not quite sure what to get them. I had long ago with Kate decided to do everything in my power to separate Christmas presents from Birthday presents. I make sure there's not themes or stuff that goes together. It seems kind of odd but I feel better knowing we're not just clumping everthing together.

You know, I felt Kate was hard to make sure she felt special on her birthday, the twins are worse. Not only is there the challenge of making sure their birthday is seperate from Christmas but twins struggle with naturally being grouped together. Everything is always the same for both. Some people struggle with referring to them as single individuals lazily choosing to refer to them as a unit. So making each individual feel special is my new challenge. Luckily they're still young. This will get harder as they get older.

I don't know when the time for individual gifts will become appropriate but for now, double is easier because of the non-stop fighting due to their age. I'll try to take cues from them as they grow and mature. I felt pretty safe this time around going shopping at Cal-Ranch down the John Deere isle. I bought these cute sets with animals, tractor, combine, fencing. Way cute!

Here they are opening them.



They slept with their tractors until the Christmas presents showed up. *laugh*

Poor Ean really struggled. His Birthday isn't until May and it's hard to understand why everyone gets presents except him. As he matures he'll appreciate his birthday a whole lot more.

Except for Sister Bunce, the twins enjoyed their day even if they didn't understand it.

Fast forward to today, and Kate the Great turning Eight. The big eight, KATE knew what was going on, lol. We took Kate sledding with a friend. We actually went on Kent's parents road. It's a gentle slope and since we have so many teeny guys, it gave the option of actually going inside if anyone got to cold. Kate's guest left her gloves at our house, so I lent her mine. I didn't actually go sledding. Without gloves, I ended up running inside and out with the camera to get pictures of the kids.

Greg loved sledding!!! He stayed out there for a very long time sledding over and over with his daddy. The big girls lasted the longest, David lasted the shortest. David went on two runs and decided cars at grandmas sounded like more fun.

I brought the ugliest cake up. It was heart shaped, the top uneven, roughly shaped with the pinkest icing that I lost control of all over the cake. Uh, yeah, I'm not winning any cake decorating awards. Of course Kate had to go in and tell her grandma "hey look, I have THE ugliest birthday cake EVER!"

*blush*

Thanks for sharing that tidbit with your grandma Kate!

I haven't downloaded pictures of Kate from today, I'll have to do that another time. Kate seemed to be quite pleased with her dress, dolly, poster and Hannah Montanna game. It's really getting hard to shop for these bigger girls. It'll be interesting to see how their tastes evolve as they get bigger.

Surely it can't get worse then Hannah Montana!

The big exciting weekend (and inevitable tree destructions)

After much debate, we decided to have a tree this year. Friday we hauled out one of the store's old beater trees and put it together as a family. Or rather, I hollered at little boys running around with tree parts as Kent did whatever the heck he was doing and the girls danced excitedly and my friend Kim helped where ever it was needed.

This included letting me know where I was confused on how to set up the tree.

Luckily Kent had multiple trees because the first box I opened was missing part of the stand. I had the tree branches sorted, the box was empty and there were only two parts of the stand. Lovely. So out came the other tree and we combined the two for one frankentree. It didn't look bad.

Kent proceeded to drag out some lights, I found some garland and with my helpers pulling and tugging, I wrapped white lights around the whole tree and with the one colored strand, loosely zig zagged it up the front. The effect was charming. A white lighted background with sporadic dots of color. I really liked it. Of course there was one corner segment that was blinking. The kids liked that... *laugh*

Then I took out my garland, white with silver dots, and wrapped the whole tree. The effect went from charming to stunning. Suddenly our tree looked as if it was covered in snow with lights peaking out from behind. I finally took my Swedish flag garland that I'd made four or five years ago and put that on. It really didn't fit but I wanted something personal on the tree. We were not digging our keepsake ornaments out. Absolutely not. I want to keep those as long as possible and well, I know my boys.

Kent moved the kitchen tv and dvd player into the front room and we watched Kim's copy of Wall-E, while constantly reminding Kate that if she made "Wall-E" noises, she'd get sent to bed. Well almost everyone watched. Greg was asleep on the floor and I went for a walk. My legs were itching for movement and I had to spend a little time away from my children. I love them dearly but it had been a long day.

I came back before the movie was over, changed Greg while Kent informed me I was a miracle worker because I got him ready for bed including teeth being brushed without him getting ticked at being disturbed. I think Kent was just buttering me up so he won't have to do it next time. Finally some very tired kiddo's went to bed.

Saturday was a big day. We were having a big girls day out at the local rotary club's sponsoring of the nutcracker. Kate's a wanna be ballerina so this was a very big deal for her. Marja, her daughter Maryah, Marja's friend Melonie and Melonie's two children along with Kim and my girls all sat together to watch the performance. We sat far left right in front of the stage. The bad, we weren't able to see the footwork in the last 2/3rds of the stage however we did get to see expressions as the performance progressed and that was amazing. Also, we were five feet away from the Rat King coming out of the stage. Talk about children with big eyes!!!! There was smoke blowing towards us and he towered right above us before starting in his part. I loved it. *smile*

By the time the Sugar Plum Fairy came on, Kate was whispering a wardrobe wish list. She had at least a half dozen dance costumes on her list, hopefully when she had her recital in January, her costume is uber girlie and pink, being pink would help.

We rounded out the performance with ice cream at Farr's. I know, snow on the ground, bitter wind but I suggested ice cream. All those fun flavors at only a buck a cone, it's hard to turn it down. I went ahead and treated everyone. Not that we're swimming in the dough but I seldom get to "do" nice things for my friends and this seemed like a great opportunity. Not to mention I actually had money in my wallet and it was burning a hole in my pocket.

When we arrived home, I noticed that the garland on the tree looked a little rough. Sure enough, the tree had taken four headers while we were gone. Kent, of course, had to grab the camera.







You may notice the tree is actually facing different directions in several pictures, it's as if the boys tried to "steer" the tree. Also, Jesse looks pretty desperate trying to say Honest, it wasn't me. *laugh* Here we have proof why we didn't go all out. We knew, KNEW this would happen. Maybe next year we can put the pretty tree and decorations up again. We'll have to see.

The other big happening while we were at the Nutcracker. Poor Ean thought it was incredibly unfair that he was left out. Kent said he cried for a half hour, how sad is that???? So Kent in his infinite daddy wisdom, took the tops off two broken VCRs and let Ean go to town. Kent said he was at it for five hours at least.







Does that boy's daddy understand his son or what?? *laugh*

The weekend finished off with sending Kim on her way, and going up to Kent's parents where Jane occupied herself by making a fifteen foot paper chain for the Christmas tree.

I'm not making any bets if it'll survive until Christmas.

Playing catch up, This, That and Everything.

My friend Kim is visiting until Sunday, as always it's wonderful to see her. We've been friends for a very long time. Actually we met when we were twelve at girls camp. Through church activities over the teenage years we kept in touch. We've cried through many bad men experiences and during my mission I broke the rules and arranged a fifty minute phone call because going a year and a half without talking was to much to bear.

Kim is single, has never been married, has no children and has always desired a life exactly opposite of what she has. She's grown to embrace the hand given to her but her biological clock is ticking and it pains me to see her realize that biological children may not happen.

I think that's why she enjoys coming here so much. She loves my children dearly and with the exception of Kate (who would not be charmed by Kimmy's energetic and fun nature as a baby, she did eventually warm up and now adores Kim.) all the others have warmed up fairly quickly to her visits. This time round Greg and David played shy for only 20 minutes or so before realizing what an inviting lap Kim has and that she'll gladly sing and play at the drop of a hat. She charms the little people and most certainly has charmed mine.

Kim will cheerfully change diapers, help someone with homework and load my dishwasher.

More important, she's there, no matter what. I know I can call, gripe, cry (and we have a long history of very good cries *laugh*) and she'll love me unconditionally.

In observing my children, Kim's commented on the boys delays, observing that they are extremely behind in speech. She commented looking at Greg that it'd sure be nice to know what was going on in your head. I would have to agree.

Speaking of speech, the boys will start Early Intervention January sixth. That's a Tuesday, they'll go Tuesday and Thursday from 8:00 am until 10:30 am. They can ride the bus both ways, the school district is legally obligated to provide transportation but due to the early hour, and the school being a whole five minutes away, Kent will drop the boys off to school and they will ride the bus home afterwards.

I have agreed to having the twins in separate classrooms. Apparently there's strong ideas on whether twins should be together or apart in school. Personally I feel it depends on the twins. No decision should be made without knowing the children involved. For my twins, being apart feels like the right decision. My boys do not suffer any anxiety from being apart and with Greg being less verbal with David, I want Greg to get more stimulation then he gets with his twin. David of course understands him perfectly, through whatever unseen twin connection they share. Being with others will hopefully give Greg a greater desire to communicate.

Ean was in early intervention and thrived there, easily testing out of the program by the end of the year (he still has an IEP for speech). I strongly suspect that Dave will do the same. Not the end of the this semester, that's only four months of school but by the end of next year.

I'll put in applications for head start in the spring. Who knows, maybe the boys will do both. I'm willing to wait and see.

Ean will start Kindergarten in the fall. I can't believe how grown up he's getting. Still have times when I can't understand him, but he is getting very grown up.

While blogging Greg decided to perform some kind of experiment involving dehydrated carrots, baking powder and my hot air popcorn popper. Not wanting to waste I just spent fifteen minutes sifting the carrots out of the baking powder. I wonder if Greg's mischievous nature comes from not being able to communicate, and the boredom that follows.

Anyway, it's cleaned up, I've updated the boys, Kim's loading my dishwasher and I have to take Ean to school. Kent picked him up and forgot his backpack. Head Start won't allow kids on the bus without their head start backpacks.

Dumbest rule ever!

For prosperities sake, the tale of Kate's eye infection.

Kate's eye infection actually happened two years ago however since I wasn't blogging at the time, the story has not been recorded. No better time then the present to fix that.

Kate was in Kindergarten, she actually was in full time (we have part time here) because she qualified for needing her help in her reading. I believe this occurred in February, but I may be off. I do however have the year right. The twins were here and just over a year. I remember how stressed I felt about needing to be able to nurse them. With David's vomiting, he still depended heavily on nursing.

Anyhoo, Kate came home from school and she acted tired. I noticed her eye was red and thought, dang, she's getting pink eye. It was a Thursday so I was relieved we were going into the weekend so it wouldn't go interfere with school to much. I sent the tired girl to bed and she woke up two hours later feeling slightly warm to the touch and her eye was really red. She went right to bed and in the morning she looked like this.



Holy wow! That was NOT pink eye. She obviously had an infection and she was very warm to the touch. I called the doctor and was able to get her in right after lunch.

Unfortunately since it was Friday, she wasn't able to see her regular doctor. She saw the other doctor in the practice. He prescribed an oral dose of amoxicillin, that I had filled immediately and given Kate her first dose by 2:00 pm. Kate was so sleepy, she went right to bed and didn't wake up until just after 7:00pm. The swelling was twice as big and she obviously was extremely sick. Kent was able to get to the immediate care center before closing and she received a shot of antibiotics and was sent home.

Once again exhausted, she fell asleep for the night and by morning, this is what we saw.



The poor child was unable to open her eye it was so swollen. It looked so painful and Kate, bless her heart, she pitches a fit at every little bump or bruise but when the painful stuff hit, she handled it like a trooper.

Kent's dad came over to help Kent give her a blessing. To say he was worried when he saw her would be an extreme understatement. After she had some breakfast, I do believe we allowed her to eat ice cream that am, her daddy took her to the emergency room. It was extremely obvious that the infection was immune to the types of antibiotics she'd already received within twenty-four hours.

I do have to throw in that Ean had this same type of eye infection the previous year but his responded extremely well to really brood range type antibiotic. The rate of growth that Kate was experiencing scared the crap out of me.

I found it frustrating to be at home when my instinct screamed to be with my obviously sick little girl but with four other children, two of which were extremely needy infants, I sat impatiently waiting at home.

When I called for reports, Kent filled me in but it wasn't the same as being there. After a few hours, there was talk about putting in an IV line and allowing Kate to come home, returning twice a day for IV antibiotics. However this no longer became an option when Kate received a CAT scan and it was confirmed that the infection had spread into her actual eye socket. Extremely dangerous because of the chance of the infection traveling along the optic nerve into the brain, Kate's only option was to be admitted for observation and aggressive IV therapy.

Kent was kind enough to share that Kate was charming the pants off the nurses and anyone else that came in to work on her. Kent's dad generously offered to spend the night at the hospital to make sure someone was there to be an advocate for Kate. With all the other kiddo's we took him up on that. Kate was admitted to the largest pediatric room I'd ever seen. For some reason there was one room at the end of the whole, bigger then my kitchen, that's where Kate was.

I was able to sneak away from home for a bit as she was admitted. She was the most cheerful child on the floor. All giggles and smiles, thrilled that I brought her favorite movies up. Oh and the gifts she was getting. Great fun, great fun! Getting blood samples taken only spoiled her mood for five minutes or so. The IV line was in, all they had to do was hook it up, so that didn't phase her and the wrap on her line was pink! She loved that!

Of course how dangerous this infection could be was beyond her comprehension and we didn't want to scare her. Actually, we didn't want to scare Kent's parents either, we planned on keeping the details to ourselves. Kent's parents tend to really panic and I mean really really panic. Unfortunately one of my in laws neighbors was a nurse on the peds floor and she filled Kent's mom in on the danger of the infection traveling through the optic nerve to the brain.

*Shaking head*

As predicted, they panicked.

Kate received six doses of IV antibiotics in twenty-four hours. Amazingly enough once Kate started to respond, her healing was extremely fast. About eighteen hours after her admittance, Kate was able to open her eye. We were thrilled!

During her time there, she saw a steady stream of doctors, all for different things. She saw an optomologist in case there was any damage to her eye. She saw an oral surgeon in case there was a need to lance and drain the infection site. There was at least three other separate doctors but for the life of me, I can't remember why they were involved.

Kate was released after about twenty-six hours in the hospital. Here she is after another day's mending.



She ended taking oral antibiotics for another two weeks after being released to make sure the infection was taken care of. The optomologist following her case was amazed that she suffered no ill effects and we skipped the follow-up appointment with the oral surgeon. We could hear the cha-ching of money slipping out of our wallet straight to all the outreached medical branches that needed payment.

It could have been so much worse.

I wonder if I should put a tree up this year.

We skipped last year. The year before, the tree was demolished. Wait, I do have pictures, *laugh*

First, there were only edible decorations on the tree. Asking for trouble? Maybe. But I sure wasn't putting my keepsake ornaments on with one year old twins and Ean, the destructo two year old.

Ean started by knocking the tree over, please note, most of the edible decorations had been digested the previous day. Ean is proudly holding part of the Christmas tree stand there.



Then the twins got into the act. Please note since the twins weren't walking, they greatly appreciated the tree being brought to their level. This was right before their first birthday. That's popcorn they're eating.





It was purely by chance the twins are festively dressed in green and red. It goes well in the pictures of the decimated tree though. Looking at those pictures, it's easy to see why last year we just never got around to putting the tree up. Last year on Christmas eve, we have a bright red crocheted blanket with holly on the corners (it was a wedding present, get married the sixteenth of December you get LOTS of Christmas-y sort of presents, *laugh*) We spread the blanket in the middle of the floor and piled presents on top. It actually looked kinda cool.

This year we are again facing the Christmas tree question. Should we even bother? The twins are another year older. At almost three, you'd think we'd have a decent chance of tree survival, ornaments are another story but maybe a tree alone could survive. We have to keep in mind that communication is a problem. With the comprehension delays on the boys, they (especially Greg) act more like and early two then an almost three.

A friend did suggest that we could hang a tree upside down from the ceiling. That's a great idea! The twins could swing from the tree, like red-headed tarzans!!! We are talking boys that scale shelves and move chairs to reach pretty much everything under the sun.

Holding off until the last minute was another suggestion. Personally I think it hardly seems worth the effort.

I guess we'll play it by ear. Really whats the worse that could happen? We could get even better pictures then the ones shown! WOOT!

Egads, I hate shopping

Some folks are natural shoppers. The thrill of finding a bargain. Browsing along isles, just to see what they have. Envisioning future purchases while feeling the edge of the credit card in your purse.

Oh yeah, that's so not me.

Shopping makes me grouchy. I find what I want as fast as I can and book it out of the store. Or at least that's how it would be if I didn't have to drag anywhere from one to five children along. And today, I had two. The youngest two. The two that are language delayed, low comprehension, act very immature. The ones I have to restrain from running into traffic, as they split in different directions. Just thinking about taking them to the store gives me an instant headache. Makes my legs hurt from the fatigue I know I'll feel when I'm done.

Today was no different.

I did have enough sense to put Ean on the bus first. I could have gone with all three boys. I've done it before. I've nearly always regretted it or at least came home with a few dozen more grey hairs but this time, I thought, I'd make it easy on myself.

HA

Boy am I foolish.

I should have realized how things were going to go when Ean announced he had to pee while waiting for the bus. Now the bus is very particular. Head start demands that the child be waiting at the curb, with their head start back pack when the bus arrives. The parent must be there with the child. Their game, their rules, so I follow the rules. Now Ean's bus had been coming late the past few weeks. Anywhere from five minutes to 25 minutes (the bus did break down and they had to get another bus on Tuesday). Oh not to today, today the bus was right on time, I saw it coming down the road the very second I allowed Ean to run in to pee.

I was talking with my mom on the phone when I started to yell Ean, QUICK, the bus is HERE!!!!

My mom quickly said to goodbye as I grabbed Eans hand, said a prayer he would make it to school and ran to the curb to meet the bus. At this point the bus was inching towards our house. For some odd reason the bus driver was leery of parking to let Ean on. Two year olds running loose on the sidewalk made him a little jumpy.

Now don't get me wrong, i appreciate his caution, it was just my day to be annoyed with every little thing and well, that annoyed me.

Got Ean on the bus, and rushed the twins to the suburban. I don't know why but David started to cry as soon as I buckled him in. We were going. He wanted to go. Buckling in is never optional for my children, I don't know why he was upset. Again feeling mildly irritated, I wished the child could just tell me what the problem was.

You know, I never had a problem with the other kids not communicating at thirty five months. Now I did have a problem understanding the older three, but never with them not comprehending, or speaking to me.

Dave cried the whole way to Wal-mart. Thankfully it's only a five minute drive and he perked up as soon as we got there. Actually both boys walking in the parking lot were extremely cheerful. Now they were both trying to escape so they could run free dodging the speeding junkers and souped up trucks, but they were cheerful while I dragged them along, only objecting every now and then.

It doesn't help that they're so short I have to stoop to hold their hands. Really, I'm 5'3'' and I have to stoop? Basketball players they won't be. I'm afraid they take after my dad.

We found a cart and they road the rest of the way into the store. From that point on the fun never stopped. There was climbing in and out of carts. Actually I turned my back at one point to get some juice on the very back of the shelf and when I turned around this woman was making sure Greg didn't crack his head open climbing out of the cart. Who ever you are, thank you! I wonder if I could have paid her to just follow me around helping the boys in and out of the cart...

While the boys exercised, I looked at the WIC checks and realized they were going to expire in three days. I had three checks, I needed to use them all. That meant three dozen eggs this trip. Well we were out of eggs, that's not a bad thing but, with the twins all over the cart there literally was no place to put the eggs where they would be safe. I opted for the seat and spent the rest of the trip keeping David from climbing in on top of them.

I had to open seven cartons before I found a carton without any broken eggs in it. Sheesh and I hadn't even let the boys near the eggs, it really looked like their work too. Like a twenty eight pound kid had climbed up and elbowed and kneed every other carton. I swear they were in the cart. And after all that hard work to find the cartons, I wasn't going to allow a child to break the ones I had.

Getting the last few items, Greg climbed out of the cart again and ran around me. Literally around me. That is until he saw apples and ran to grab one. I had to leave David in the cart with the eggs unsupervised while running after Greg. I reached him just as his teeth penetrated the apple skin.

Uh, guess I was buying a few apples today. Why a few? Because honestly I couldn't buy one apple with two boys. That wouldn't work at all. Greg's day was ruined when i wouldn't allow him to eat his prize then and there, choosing instead to make him wait while I paid for the apples.

I put Greg back in the cart, picked a check out lane and didn't realize the gal in front of me was letting her little girl eat saltines.

Great.

Just what I needed.

With a cry of COOKIE Dave let half the store know HE was being starved. While working on Dave I failed to see that Greg was within a centimeter from actually scoring a candy bar. Luckily I spotted him before he scaled the cart to grab more booty. At this point I still hadn't paid for his previous ill gotten game.

The six minutes we waited in line felt three times as long, as David noticed there was candy and I had to continuously block escape attempts. Good gravy, I could barely keep up!

The gal in front of us took pity and gave me a package of saltines to feed the boys. I could've kissed her! That was incredibly nice and it did help the boys settle down while I checked out.

Keep in mind I needed to check out four times. I had three WIC checks and some other groceries as well.

I gave the boys their apples, said a little prayer they wouldn't get sick and discovered that my groceries didn't fit back in my cart. I'm serious. You know how a cat can lay in the center of a queen sized bed and leave no room for you to actually lay down? Well that's the twins were like in the cart. Even though every grocery I had before had been in the cart, for the life of me, I couldn't seem to fit it back in. I finally resorted to standing the boys up, praying they wouldn't throw apples at anyone or try to climb out with their hands full and stacked stuff around them.

We made it out of the store and I needed a nap later to recover. I keep telling myself this stage is only temporary but it's not working. I still get depressed thinking about going back to the store.

On the lighter side, the twins both have a new word. When looking at Christmas lights tonight both boys exclaimed AWESOME everytime they were impressed. Which was often. *laugh* Greg was as nearly as impressed with Santa earlier.

*shrug*

Oh well, I wasn't impressed with Santa either at that age and my mom has the picture to prove it.