THINGS I HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS WEEK

Well, friends - people keep asking how the adjustment to four kids is going, and I keep telling them that it is going pretty well.  You know, we have hard moments, but overall, it is going well.  We are starting to get more sleep.  The babies are healthy and growing, and the big girls love them.  We have nothing to complain about, and life is good.

Oh - except one thing.  I have one tiny little complaint that is currently plaguing my life.  I am losing my mind.  Seriously - I have always been a fairly organized person able to function in society, and right now, I would question all of those assumptions I normally make about myself.  Here's a rundown of things I have forgotten just this week alone.

-  When I went grocery shopping this week, this time with twins in tow but not the big girls, I realized that I had forgotten my wallet.  AGAIN.  Thankfully, I knew where it was this time (in the car), and I could go and get it quickly (while the Kroger staff watched the sleeping babies in the cart with all the groceries).

-  When I went to the pool with friends, I apparently had forgotten how careful you must not be to spill Baba Ganoush.  I managed to spill it AGAIN.  Thankfully, this time it was in a chair at the pool, and though this meant that I was actually sitting in it after the spill occurred (I will spare you a picture of that that I didn't take), it also meant the clean up was dramatically better.  Especially since a friend did it for me - thanks, Nicole.



-  Yesterday, I cooked a meal for the first time since we brought home babies.  Seriously - we had the great blessing of having meals delivered until just this week, which was incredibly gracious and amazing of our kind friends.  And yesterday, while I was cooking, I realized I had forgotten how challenging it is to prepare a full blown meal (we were hosting community group), when you keep having to stop and feed babies in the middle of it.  You have to add a lot of time to it, because sadly, Bella will only do this for a few moments - not a whole bottle's worth of time.



-  Today, I left my phone at home.  I came back for it and did a few other things.  Upon leaving the house and driving about 5 minutes, I realized that I had left the diaper bag that I had just packed at home.  Back to the house I went.  AGAIN.

-  I had forgotten how sore you actually get when you do a real workout.  I am reaping the consequences of yesterday's workout today, and I especially dread going downstairs.

-  Today, I had packed the girls' bags for Mother's Day Out, only to forget those in the car.

-  When I headed in to Target on Tuesday to do a return, I realized that I had left the item I was there to return in my car.  Are you sensing a theme here?  I think I must feel victory to just get the kids all out of the car and thought of anything else goes completely out of my head.

-  I am sure that there are a host of things that I am forgetting that I have forgotten.  Since that is the name of the game these days, no one should be that surprised by this.

As I was lamenting this at lunch today with friends, my dear friend who also has four young kids encouraged me that it will get better.  I will not forget something big everyday.  I will learn the new drill and not always be leaving things in the car or at the house.  I am learning a new skill set, and it will get better.  I certainly need it to, because at this rate, my trips to and from the car and the house are going to eat up every last bit of time that I never had to start with.

IT WON'T BE LIKE THIS FOR LONG

Remember Hootie and the Blowfish?  How many of you realize that Hootie went all country on us as Darius Rucker and has made a smashing success of himself in a whole new music genre?  Well, he did.  We are Darius Rucker fans.  In fact, he was in Little Rock a while back, and we were not able to go, due to the fact that the twins came home that weekend.  Twins had the trump card - they usually do.

One of his hits right now is "It Won't Be Like This For Long."  If you are a fellow country music lover, then I am not giving out new info.  The song, if I really stop and think about it, could make me tear up every. single. time.  John feels like Hootie wrote it just for us - thanks, Hootie.  It talks about each phase of our children's lives and how they all fly by.  It doesn't stay the same for any length of time.

Which is truth as far as truth can be.  William and Violet are already gaining head control.  They are awake slightly more often, which has obvious pros and cons.  They have both doubled in size since birth, and they are just beginning to space out their feedings.  They are constantly evolving.  As I sat and dwelt on this, it hit me in the face that Lily and then Bella did all of these things as well.  And now look at them!  They are the biggest girls of all time - at least in comparison to babies.  How did it happen that Lily asks questions about life that make sense?  When did Bella start talking in complete sentences?  Each of these things crept up on me slowly, until all of the sudden - WHAM, BOOM, BANG - they are grown up.

Well, not exactly.  Bella is still in diapers, and Lily wavers from day to day on whether or not her car seat is too difficult to buckle, so I guess there is still some room for growth and development.

I feel like as a mom, I am constantly being told to enjoy every moment.  This is not a new refrain for me to mention, but it does seem to underline my life.  People tell me this in the grocery store and on Facebook and when I am getting my hair done.  I have struggled with knowing how to balance the "Enjoy Every Moment" camp with the "Just Have To Get Through It" camp.

But - it won't be like this for long.  There is a season for everything in turn, and while we are in a rather taxing season presently, the season will wane, before we even realize it.  It will fade softly into a different season that will offer new opportunities and challenges.  I will look back and wonder how my snuggly newborns were replaced by babies that can sit up, eat and giggle.  I have one more year with Lily still at home before she heads off to kindergarten, and that thought can send me into a tail-spin.  Which totally took me off guard, because I thought I would be ready for the change.  And maybe by next year, I will be, but I doubt it.  Sending our first child off to school will signal the end of an era - one that I have really enjoyed.

The best way that John and I have found to combat the simultaneous grief of knowing something sweet will not be forever and the tedium of a draining stage like feeding every three hours is gratitude.  John is particularly good at pointing out the positives and not wishing things away, and I am so thankful to have someone that is helping me to be more thankful in life.  I also want to hear from God what he wants for us out of each stage.  As I mentioned, each one brings new opportunities and challenges, and God does not waste any of those, ever.  I am sure I miss out on them regularly, but I am thankful above all else for his grace and mercy that have me covered when I fail at things.  All the time.

And here's the scoop on the pictures - it took a jumbo marshmallow bribe to get the older girls to participate.  These shirts were made by a sweet friend - we traded cookies that I made for the girls' shirts, and she gifted the babies shirts.  I love having them all matching, and the older girls would wear the shirts every single day if I let them.  There were tears during this photo-shoot from three out of the four and a bad attitude from 50% of the children, but I got some keepers after all.  It won't be like this for long.

HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL

Last year, for the first year ever, there was a hot air balloon festival right here in Little Rock - in fact, it was very close to our CFA.  (Here's last year's post about it.)  And, it came back this year, which was thrilling for us.  I really do find balloons to be magical, and our children definitely agree.

As we headed out for the little adventure, the rain was pouring  down.  I wasn't super hopeful that we would get to see balloons, but we needed to get out of the house, so out we went.  John and I picked up subs that we had ordered online, and we had dinner on the go.  Actually, on the way to the balloon festival, we stopped in and saw some people that we have gotten to know because they eat at our restaurant all. the. time.  They are really into Ham radio, and it was the North American Ham radio festival day.  They had been mostly rained out, but we got to stop in and learn a bit about Ham radio where you can talk to people all over the world.  It was fascinating.

By that time, the rain had stopped, and we made our way to the festival location.  They decided to do it after all, which was so exciting.  It was worth staying out late for.  We watched as the balloons were inflated.  (while feeding babies, of course.)

The babies enjoyed the white noise of the fans and fire.  They really are beginning to be awake more often, which is fun to see.  William gave us a little smile for the picture!




Bella decided to photo bomb Violet and I.

I tried for a picture of all four and got some results that I really like.  Sweet children.  Most of the time.

The "glow," where they all fire at once after dark, was really neat to see.  I especially liked when they "twinkled" and glowed at different times.




We try to leave activities while they are still fun, and we did pretty good on this one.  However, on the way to the car, it was clear that the girls were up past bed time as the whining began.  We were parked near a giant, sort of lit up, inflatable triceratops.  Naturally.  The girls wanted to go play with it, but it was more for looks.  Once we were in the car, Lily didn't feel like she could see it well enough and kept wailing, "I can't see the triceratops!"  On that strange note, we were glad to be headed home and headed for bed.



The babies slept from 12:30-7:30 last night, and have been doing similar long stretches for many nights in a row.  It makes us feel like new people to be getting more consistent sleep.  Hooray and Happy Monday.

TWINS: TWO MONTHS OLD

Today I have a set of two month olds!  Having twins is everything fun that I thought it might be with most of the parts that I thought would be hard.  I would say it is not twice as hard, but about 1.5 times as difficult as having one baby.  I think that will change when they are mobile, and I must say that I am apprehensive about having two crawlers.  Perish the thought.

I looked back at the one month post, and as usual, I am amazed at how they have grown.  They have filled out, which makes sense, since they do a lot of eating in the day.  They are starting to space their feedings just a bit, and at night, they are doing 5 to almost 6 hours stretches.  Amazing!  And much needed!  Just this week, they started each taking four ounces in most bottles.

Here's Violet.

She is just starting to smile a tiny bit, which is always a welcome milestone.  She continues to be a sweet, mostly easy-going baby.  Until she is hungry, and then she is starving and crying her eyes and everything else out.  But, that is something easy to address, so I am thankful.  I am so curious to see their personalities develop.  I love getting to know my children.  Violet is wearing newborn clothes almost entirely.

Here's William.

He was, surprisingly, more "cooperative" in this little photo shoot.  He also is starting to smile a bit, and he can still do a mean forehead wrinkle and serious face.  He tends to be slightly more fussy than Violet, but nothing to write home about (or apparently to blog about).  He is still the bigger baby and is now wearing 0-3 month clothing.  I don't really know how much they weigh, because it has been several weeks since their last check-up.

They still sleep much of the time, though they are waking up a bit.  They enjoy being on the go - or at least, they have adjusted well to the fact that our family is often on the go.  Lily and Bella continue to adore them and are helpful to put their pacis in and comfort them when they are crying.  It is very sweet and earnest and heart-melting.




These last two pictures make me laugh.  I like the look on William's face in the first one, and Violet's face seems to be saying, "Really, Mom?  More pictures?  I'm over it."  The second one is simultaneous falling.  They do coordinate a lot of what they do, which has pros and cons.  Sometimes it seems as if they are literally taking turns on which one should cry.  Thankfully, this is not all the time and does not last long.

Speaking of coordinating, many people who know my love of matching clothes have asked if I plan on matching the twins.  Most days, it is something like what they are wearing here.  I look for matching colors or patterns, and that is probably what will have to work most of the time, since they are not the same gender.

We LOVE William and Violet and are so very blessed and thankful to have them in our lives!  Happy Two Months on Earth!