Tractor Heaven

Well if you know Jack at all, you know he loves tractors. So moving down here to Morton and living with his Tractor Papa is basically like moving to tractor heaven. Not a day has gone by where Jack hasn't asked to see a tractor or ride a tractor. And yesterday my dad pulled out his pedal tractor from when he was a kid. Jack is way to small to reach the pedals but he loves to be pushed around on it. Since his first time riding it yesterday, he asks almost non-stop to go ride John Deere. Unfortunately, it's one of those intense loves right now and every time we have to quite riding John Deere, Jack throws a huge tantrum. Hopefully that ends soon! I took his picture tonight on the tractor as he was looking especially cute.

Monday Pictures-Week 6

We made it to 6 weeks! The boys are getting big and filling out their once baggy newborn clothes. Perhaps we'll make it to 0-3 month size before they turn 3 months. That would be a first for our family. Both boys are getting so strong. They are getting pretty good at holding up their heads, though just after snapping these photos gravity took hold of their noggins and they started to tip over. Logan is actually rolling over from his tummy to his back. This first happened on the 19th and I finally got it on video this past week. Schaeffer did it once, but I think he cheated since I laid him down with his arms right under him for an easy push. Logan actually flashed his first precious smiles to me this week as well. Saturday morning we were spending some quality time together before everyone else got up and he grinned at me. I tried to get it on camera and I think I sort of succeeded, though the pictures are blurry. I haven't seen his smile since, but hopefully it will make a regular appearance. And Paul thinks Schaeffer might have smiled at him once today. But he's not sure, so hopefully that will come soon too! Their 6th week was much busier than a 6 week old's life should be, but they are hanging in there. Logan's proving to be more and more like Jack in his physical abilities and in his fussiness. There have been many hours trying to calm the little guy. And Schaeffer, while typically  more laid back, enjoys a long stretch of awake time most mornings around 4 or so. Hopefully he will soon realize that he should be sleeping like the rest of us at that time. And hopefully they will both start sleeping for longer stretches at night. Currently they do about one 4 hour stretch and then only 2 hours stretches. That's their life right now and here are their Monday pictures enjoying Papa's recliner.

Schaeffer

Logan

Schaeffer and Logan

Schaeffer, Jack and Logan

Monday Pictures-Week 5

Happy 5 weeks! This is our last Monday picture in Palatine at this house. The boys weren't the happiest so it took many tries to get a picture of them each.

Schaeffer

Logan

Schaeffer and Logan

What I've Been Up To

I'm super behind on my posting. I have Monday pictures to show you and a trip to the farm park and pictures of Logan's first smiles....but I'm not sure when I'll get around to it. Life has been hectic to say the least. When Schaeffer and Logan were first born they were relatively easy babies to care for. But as the weeks go by they get increasingly more difficult. With the move this week we were very busy and with my sister and her family also at my parents this week things were a bit chaotic but also fun and helpful to have extra hands around. That being said...my days lately run on average in 2 hour cycles that look something like this.

Nurse for 30 minutes, play with happy babies for 10-15 minutes, spend the next hour trying to get babies asleep, babies sleep for 10-15 minutes and wake up hungry so we start over again. Often one will fall asleep fairly quickly and the other will take quite a while. Then within 10 minutes of the second one falling asleep, the first one will wake up ready to eat which means I wake up the second baby who I just spent a good hour with encouraging the slumber I am now waking him from. Of course I haven't been doing all of this on my own, we have lots of help right now. But when I'm not helping with the babies or with Jack all I want to do is eat or sit down and rest.

So that's what I've been up to since we moved. Thankfully, with extra hands around I've been able to unpack half of my suitcase and the twins' clothes and catch an occasional shower and nap. Hopefully, once things settle down a little and I adjust to life at my parents our routines will get sorted out and my blogging will resume at a more normal pace. Until then, please bear with me!

Day Out With Thomas

Today we spent our morning with Thomas. The Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL has a Day Out With Thomas event every year and we decided to take Jack before moving away. Thankfully, he thought it was a great time and keeps asking to go back. Can't say Paul or I have any desire to go back though! It was a long, hot day. Below is a collage of our activities. We got to ride Thomas and get our picture taken with him. Jack got a cool tattoo and got to hold a fireman's hose. He loved to wave, along with everyone else, as Thomas went by on the track. And he LOVED the choo choo horns and the "bing bings". Bing bings are the lights and signs at railroad crossings. He had a great time I'm guessing we'll be hearing about the choo choos for a long time to come.

Monday Pictures-Week 4

It's Monday again! Well, actually it's Tuesday. As you read in my previous post, Monday was a bit hectic and I didn't get around to taking individual pics of the boys until this morning. The blankets they are laying on were gifts from their Great Grandma. They are super soft and cozy. This past week was a bit of a rocky one. It was my first week home by myself with the three kids. That part actually went ok for the most part. It was the nights that were rough! Most likely they were having a growth spurt because they were eating all the time. Every night it was like musical babies. Feed both, one sleeps while one is awake, get the awake one to sleep just in time for the sleeping one to wake. It was crazy and I can't say I handled it all that great. I get pretty mean and irrational in the middle of the night. But we survived and are hoping that this week brings more sleep for all of us. Happy 4 weeks boys! You'll be a month old on Thursday.

Schaeffer

Logan

Schaeffer and Logan

Logan, Jack and Schaeffer

A Very Long Day

I should be in bed. All the kids are sleeping which means I should be, but I wanted to get in a quick post about my day. This was a very long day. I knew it would be when I planned it, but taking a trip down to see my grandma was something I really needed to do, so the long day was worth it. I packed up all the kids and met my mom, sisters, niece and nephew for lunch in Paxton. Then we headed to the nursing home to spend the afternoon with Grandma. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day so we were able to sit outside and let the kids run without disturbing a lot of other people. My morning getting ready was hectic. Schaeffer and Logan wanted to eat much earlier than I had hoped which wasn't working with my plan for when to leave. So like the good mom I am, I let them cry much of the morning and when it got to be too much I turned on the vacuum to drown them out and also in hopes that it would lull them to sleep. It lulled Schaeffer and drowned out Logan, which was a definite improvement over the surround sound crying I was getting pre-vacuum from the two of them. So while the vacuum ran, I ran around the house packing up all we could possibly need for the day and cleaning up the house just in case someone wanted to come look at it while we were gone. Finally I was ready and I fed the boys and loaded up the car. We were doing awesome on time...gps said we'd get there right on time. However, about the time I reached Schaumburg, I realized I had forgotten something I told my sister I'd bring for her. So we turned around and started the trip over. The drive down was alright. There was a lot of crying, but all three kids were asleep for at least an hour of the trip. The last 30 minutes were rough as Schaeffer and Logan were both quite hungry and I was trying to use the car bottle warmer to get a bottle ready for as soon as we arrived. The bottle warmer is nice in theory but I had to hold the safety button down for 30 minutes since my bottles weren't pushing it down on their own. That was fun. I had considered trying to pump while driving, but thought better of it. Surprisingly, I did not cry during this trip, though I came close. The drive home ended up being quite an adventure...and something I'd never like to repeat. We left at a fairly inopportune time, just before 5 and an hour and a half after the twins had last eaten. I knew we'd never make it home without stopping, especially since I forgot to get gas before I left. So after listening to Logan scream for 20 or 30 minutes and seeing Schaeffer begin to wake up we pulled over in Kankakee for some dinner. While this stop was unavoidable, it was also a horrible idea. I took all three kids into McDonalds. Jack ran into the parking lot right after I told him to stand by the stroller as I grabbed the diaper bag and a very kind man had to stop him. Both babies were screaming as we walked in. Once I got our food I promptly tipped the tray while I was trying to carry it and push the stroller at the same time. 3 out of 4 of Jack's chicken nuggets landed on the floor and another nice man offered to carry my tray for me. Also they forgot Jack's milk which I didn't realize until I had everyone unloaded at the table. So I left the three kids by themselves to go get it....thankfully they were in my sight the whole time. I tried feeding the twins bottles at the same time, but that wasn't really working and more formula was ending up in their neck creases than in their bellies. Also, I had to make the formula with the water I got from the drink fountain...so it was pretty cold. Thankfully, they were too hungry to care very much. Jack ate his one chicken nugget, all my fries and picked some of the cheese off my burger while I alternated feeding the twins. I'm pretty sure everyone thought I was nuts for taking three kids to McDonald's by myself. Or they felt sorry for me, were annoyed or a combination of all three. Of course Jack spilled his milk all over and then played in it. And Schaeffer had a poopy diaper which require taking the whole crew to the bathroom where he pooped mid-diaper change. Thankfully, no one took any of the stuff we left at the table for our bathroom adventure. Finally, everyone was ready to leave and we departed, now with only one screaming baby. A woman stopped us in the parking lot to ooo and ahhh. She also informed me that Schaeffer was upset. Duh! As I was strapping Jack into his car seat he told me he pooped so we did another diaper change, this time in the back of the van. Finally everyone was loaded and I realized I didn't know where my keys were. Thankfully, they were sitting by Jack in the van and not inside the restaurant. At last I was sitting in the drive through getting myself a mocha frappe to get me through the rest of the trip. Once we were on the Interstate again I realized that I had forgotten to get gas and had to exit right away. That actually worked out though, since Schaeffer was still screaming. It gave me a chance to calm him down. So after getting gas the car was quite and we were on our way home for real. The quiet didn't last as one baby or the other was crying for most of the way home. But thankfully I kept my cool and Jack wasn't bothered. I never want to do that by myself again! But I am very glad that I got to introduce my grandma to Schaeffer and Logan and that I got to spend the afternoon with her and my family.

Day 2

Today has thus far been a bit more stressful than yesterday. Probably because my idea of what should happen today did not fit Logan and Schaeffer's idea. We had plans to visit my old office one last time before our move to say hi and goodbye to my former co-workers. I figured I'd feed the twins this morning then put them in their car seats to fall asleep so they'd be ready to go when I was. That seemed to be working until they both refused to fall asleep and instead fussed at me for an hour while I tried to get ready to leave. By the time we left the house all three kids were crying or whining and I was losing my mind. But I forged ahead praying the twins would fall asleep in the car. Schaeffer did, Logan proceeded to scream the entire drive until the last two minutes when he finally drifted off. Thankfully, Jack was a happy camper in the car and by the time we unloaded I had regained my composer as well. Our visit was really well. I really enjoy my past co-workers and will be sad that our visits there have pretty much come to an end. Hopefully we'll be able to sneak a few in on some of our anticipated return trips. 

Now we are home again and I'm trying to get a few things done, but of course Logan didn't fall asleep on the ride home and he is fussy again. Schaeffer...well he's asleep. This seems to be the more common pattern. So I dug into the depths of my creativity to figure out how to get Logan asleep while still being able to accomplish a few things during these precious moments of afternoon nap time. Turns out, the car seat fits quite nicely in the glider. And there Logan sits asleep at last after I rocked him in his car seat, in the glider. I am sure I will use this trick again. And now while I should be resting myself...I realized that by 2 o'clock I should have eaten lunch but have not. So I'm enjoying a taco salad while I blog and figure by now if I close my eyes, it will somehow just signal someone else to open theirs.

My Ambitious Day

Today was my first day at home all day with no help. Admittedly, I was a bit nervous about how I would handle three kids and feedings and keeping up with Jack. But surprisingly, the day went quite smoothly. Jack spent a lot of time watching Thomas, so I wouldn't say it was the most enriching day of his life (not even close). But I figure we can work on the enriching stuff once I've mastered tandem feeding with no help. We actually went out for a bit today. If you know me, you know I like to get out. Staying home all day is challenging for me. So I decided to try taking the three kids to Carter's with me to return a few things and check out their great sale. The outing went really well. There were no screaming kids, no lost children, I didn't feel like pulling my hair out and thankfully no one got hungry while we were out (because seriously how do you nurse two babies in public?). That's not to say the outing wasn't without some excitement. Carter's has a lego table in the back which is really nice for the kids to play with while the mom's do the shopping. I sent Jack back there to play with two other boys. The other boys were having a hard time sharing with Jack and kept taking blocks from him. So they got in trouble with their mom and had quite the break down. Then in what seems like a very short amount of time I turned to check on Jack and saw nearly every lego on the floor covering a large portion of the store. And Jack was the only kid around. I thought we were going to have our break down here, but thankfully once I checked out he did a great job helping me clean up the blocks he'd thrown everywhere. And Jack was even a gentleman and opened the door up for me to push the stroller through on our way out. As a bonus...at least for Jack...there were several tractors tearing up with parking lot.

Monday Pictures-Week 3

It's Monday again. 3 weeks old today. Somehow the boys coordinated themselves this afternoon and were awake at the same time, thankfully while Jack was sleeping. So here are the little pirates. I went with a nice size comparison with Paul's beloved big pillow.

Schaeffer


Logan


Schaeffer and Logan

A Very Pink Birthday

Last Thursday was my niece Hailey's 4th birthday. It's hard to believe how grown up she has gotten. It really seems like just yesterday I was woken from my sleep by a phone call announcing her birth. Sunday we got the chance to celebrate with Hailey at her birthday party. Can you tell someone likes pink?

A Little Snooze

I had my first trial run this afternoon being at home by myself with the three boys. My mother-in-law is with us for the week, thankfully. But I sent her to the grocery store while Jack was napping. So I guess it's a little bit cheating since I didn't have to deal with Jack while she was gone. But I did have to feed the twins by myself which is a difficult task. After they finished eating I was sleepy and they were too so we just re-situated ourselves on the couch a bit and took a little snooze ourselves. And that giant green pillow is my nursing pillow. It's huge but it is so helpful. I like to call it the green giant.

Monday Pictures-Week 2

This week I tried to capture Schaeffer and Logan doing what they've done the most of the last week...sitting in a swing. Granted, they aren't always asleep as their wake time has been increasing as has their need for being held. And of course Jack wanted to join the photo shoot and ended up sitting on Logan twice during the process. Nice.

Schaeffer                          Logan
  

Schaeffer on top, Logan on bottom

Schaeffer, Logan, Jack