Twenty One Months!

Our sweet boys turned twenty one months old on the tenth of this month. It has been busy with the holiday activities so I am behind on getting their monthly update done.  We are loving this holiday season as the boys are so fascinated by all the decorations, lights and music.  It is amazing to be able to experience something in a new way through your children's eyes. I am trying to just take it all in and enjoy rather than trying to meticulously document everything and stress about doing it in a timely manner.

They have been going through a hat phase lately.  They actually request to wear one.

The boys are little sponges these days.  They hear or observe something once and then repeat it. They are learning more about personal relationships such as having grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.  When we visit with a friend or family member they ask for that person the next day.  Car rides now involve them naming off every person they know in an effort to guess who we are going to see.  Winston especially seems really keyed in on his Grandpa Guddat lately and is always asking to go on a car ride to see him.  They love Skyping and talking on FaceTime with family members.  They like to kiss the screen and tell everyone "I love you" or "Love you."

Abraham (left) and Winston.

They are still learning tons of new words and are saying more and more phrases and sentences.  They love books and cooking in their play kitchen. Our dining room table is their fort so they spend lots of time under there giggling and having fun.  They love each other and are sweet to one another and then the next minute they squabble.  We are trying to work on empathy and sharing.  In their minds, sharing means saying please and then taking what they want. We are trying to emphasize what sharing really means and are trying to help them assert themselves if brother steals a toy.

The other big change around here lately is that the boys are potty training.  They wear underwear while they are at home and use the potty chair.  If we go out for errands, they wear a diaper.  I am looking at it as a gradual process.  Some days they will keep dry all day and sometimes there are accidents.  A lot of it has to do with them not wanting to stop playing or not understanding how to completely empty their bladder.  They are making progress however and we are proud of them.   They will tell you that poop and pee-pee goes into the potty. I will have to do a separate post on the whole potty training thing and why I chose to start so early.  

Like I said earlier, the boys are sponges and are taking everything in. It amazes me what they can parrot back or regurgitate so quickly.  Some examples:

Winston is constantly saying "There you go"  because his mama says that a lot. He will give me something and sweetly tell me "There you go!"  It is really cute.  

Winston loves Christmas music and most of the time we had to have the local Christmas station playing.  He liked to sing the "rum-pum-pum-pum" part of the The Little Drummer Boy and mimicked the lines to "Do You Hear What I Hear?" by saying the words hear, know, see, etc.

Abraham knows quite a few sequences of numbers and the alphabet.  He likes to count to himself or say his letters as he is playing with a toy.  I have heard him say several times, "Cute...R...S...T...U." I nearly died with how adorable that was.

Abraham's latest thing is asking for something by saying, "How about (fill in the blank)?" His most frequent request is cookies...especially for breakfast.  His tone and inflection is totally copy of me: "How about cookies?"

I had taught the boys that Christmas was Jesus' birthday and that is why it is so special. I asked them one day what Christmas was about and they both answered "Jesus" very clearly without prompting.  When we mention Jesus we talk about how He is Lord and Savior.  Both boys will say "Lord" when we ask who Jesus is.

We had a pretty sweet reprieve with teething but I think the two-year molars are finally trying to make their way in. It has been a bit gnarly around here the last couple of days so that also pushed my monthly update even more behind. Now I need to get started on Christmas!

We are so blessed by the presence of these little boys.  I thank God for their ability to learn and communicate more with each passing day.  We love them more than words can say.

I Said Yes...

I said yes to Eric's marriage proposal five years ago today.  I will have to write out the engagement story in the coming year in honor of our fifth anniversary but for now I am reflecting on what God has done in our lives in such a short time.  Getting married meant a lot of change for me that went beyond just the huge change of being married and leaving my single life behind.  I moved to another state, left my family, left a job I loved, had to find a new one, left my church and started attending a new one and left a lot of my close friends.  I truly had to start over. I remember the weekend that I moved up here with all of my earthly possessions in a U-Haul truck and telling Eric that I loved him.  He replied, "I know you do.  I can tell you love me because you moved here for me.  That means a lot."  Of course, he also told me that he loved me too but that other part is really important to this story.  It is amazing to realize how much love is about our actions rather than just our words.

I had been told that the first year of marriage would be the hardest and at the time it did not seem too difficult.  Now that I have an additional three plus years to compare it to, I realize that the first year was not early as enjoyable as the following years. There was a lot of growing pains back then.  Heck, there still are growing pains even now but not nearly to the same degree.  I realize that I understand and relate to my husband better now than those first months and every year we are married.  I loved Eric when we first were married but that love has deepened so much more through the time we have spent together.  The economy really took a nose dive right after we were married and I think about how God has been so faithful in providing us.  We have remained steadily employed with good jobs since we have been married.  That is no small thing for a lot of people in today's economy.  We have been surrounded by family and friends who love and support us.  We have been blessed with a wonderful church body.  Above all we have been given much grace to not only persevere in our marriage but to grow more and more in love.  The anxiety about not being able to have children has ended and God has done something more marvelous than we could comprehend. We are both so in love with little our boys and see the presence of Abraham and Winston as profound blessings in our lives.  God is truly so good.

My dear husband flew out very early this morning for another work trip.  This last year has been a tough transition as we have had a long distance marriage for a large portion of the year.  Again, God has been faithful.  We persevere and continue to love one another.  I recently reminded Eric that today was the day he had asked me to marry him.  He told me, "It was the best decision I ever made."  He seriously tells me that quite a bit because he is sweet like that.  I would have to agree that saying yes to him was definitely mine.

Eric's proposal caught on camera by his brother Adam.  You can tell I was caught completely off guard.

Christmas Card Photos

I wanted to take some decent photos for our Christmas card but having professional photos done was definitely not in the budget.  The nice thing is we have a good camera and we have family that has good cameras.  So basically we got people to practice their photo taking skills on us.  The day after Thanksgiving we planned on heading to Eric's parents for leftovers.  Brent and Fran have a beautiful view of the mountains and we thought that would portray the rural and rustic area we live in nicely.  The boys' nap schedule that day got pretty out of whack so we had work with the late afternoon light the best we could.  The tones were definitely more gray but since these are winter photos I was quite alright with that.  The boys were not too keen on taking photos but we made it work.  I am happy with how it turned out and am looking forward to getting our cards mailed out this week.

Thanks to Brent, Eric's dad, and Adam, Eric's brother for being our impromptu photographers.  They did a great job.

As you can see, Abraham had to have Leo the Lion very close by.

Winston and Mama

Abraham, Leo and Papa

 

By the way, we had a great Thanksgiving.  It was quiet and enjoyable. It was just Eric's parents Brent and Fran, Alicia and her fiance Aaron and our little family.  I have met my storage quota on Blogger and I have not decided what to do about it yet.  I either have to pay for more storage or host my photos on another site.  It took me quite a while to add these photos one by one through the direct links on a photo hosting website.  If you depend on me to edit the Thanksgiving photos and add them to the blog in such a tedious manner, I am sorry to disappoint you for the endless wait.  Blogging is supposed to feel like fun and I do not want it to feel like work.  We will have to wait and see what to do about the photo hosting situation but for now I will try to do my best with keeping updates going on here.

Working Mom to Stay at Home Mom

I hit an anniversary over Thanksgiving weekend.  It was a year ago that I was starting the transition from having a full time job outside the home to staying at home with the boys.  I have now been a stay at home mom for twice as long as I was a working mom. Wow, that is crazy.  To be honest, I do not think I am any better at this gig now than when I first started.  I have learned and am continuing to learn some valuable lessons in all of it.  I am thankful that I have the comparison of being a working mom to look back on. It helps encourage me during the difficult days with the boys that I am so blessed to be able to spend as much time with them as I do.

There are the moms out there that seem to just genuinely love domestic life and are really good at it.  They never look back at their working days with a nostalgic wistfulness.  I am not one of those women.  I struggle with the mundane tasks that need to be done over and over.  It used to be that I found cleaning to be somewhat relaxing.  I got home and found satisfaction in doing housework.  I had areas of my life compartmentalized. Now I live at my workplace, so to speak, and it can be quite maddening sometimes.  I see stuff all the time that is not getting done and I get frustrated.  It is hard to gauge the level of your work.  There are no more formal evaluations and verbal feedback as to your performance.  So I look at my boys and their physical and intellectual growth and tell myself that I am succeeding despite the petty housework issues that fall by the wayside. 

Another thing that women do not tell each other enough is that staying at home with small children can be an incredibly isolating experience.  There are aspects of working that I miss tremendously.  It is very difficult to physically work just as hard if not harder than you ever have before and not feel appreciated.  Earning a pay check brought me a big chunk of my self-esteem.  Putting on decent clothing, doing my make-up and hair everyday and having conversations with other intelligent adults did a lot to boost my morale.  It is so easy to say, "I will never be one of those women that let myself go."  I get that. I totally do.  It is not that I sit around all day and fail to take care of myself.  It is just hard to motivate myself to beautify when Eric is out of town and the only people I see for several days in a row are Abraham and Winston.  The boys care that mama sits down and plays with them.  They do not care about my hair.  It is a tough balance to strike and I think like most things in life it is a constant effort to do so.

Becoming a mother taught me a whole new level of patience and selflessness and staying at home with the boys even multiplied that.  I have laid aside my ambitions and desires for the good of my children. It is hard some days.  Satan can tempt me with the thought that I deserve more and that I need more in this life to be fulfilled. The reality is that I have never had greater fulfillment in my life.  My children are a joy to me. Sometimes they drive me crazy but I am so thankful that I can serve them.  I am thankful they can look back and see with my lifestyle how much I love them. 

I have been in the position where I was leaving my two month old infants in someone else's care while I commuted and worked a full eight hour day.  It was hard.  I do not envy anyone in that position.  I know what it is like to be so tired when you are driving home from work but the minute you see your kids again, you pick back up and are giving them 110%.  It is that mommy DNA that allows you to do feats of super human strength.  Love drives and compels you everyday to do what you need to do to provide for your children.  I have some friends that are working moms and I am amazed to see what they do on a daily basis.  They could seriously run circles around me in the tasks they accomplish.  There is no right and there is no wrong when it comes to a mom working.  It is the unique situation and conviction of each family to decide whether mom is going to go outside the home to earn an income.

Me with my little bubbas at one week old.

To the stay at home moms, you are my hero.  To the working moms, you are my hero.  To those moms that are doing the very best you can for your kids every single day, you are my hero. We are all mothers and we love our children.  We do what we do because we want what is best for our kids.  Let's cheer each other on no matter our individual circumstances.

FAQ's #5

Do you always dress your boys the same? or Do you always dress them differently?

If I am in the store and I have the boys in matching outfits then I am asked if I ever dress them differently.  If I have them in coordinated outfits or completely different colors, then I am asked if I ever let them match.  Obviously it totally depends on the day and what people perceive the situation to be.  I think dressing the boys in matching outfits at this stage is harmless.  It looks cute and makes grouping laundry and planning outfits for the day a lot easier for me.  Also, I do not buy the boys clothes unless it is a really special occasion e.g. dress outfits for a wedding.  The boys wear clothes that have been gifted.  People love buying twins matching clothes and I am okay with that.  The boys also have a lot of hand me downs, much of which is from a family at our church that has twin boys.  The hand me downs tend to coordinate easily and I can put the boys in similar outfits but different colors and patterns. Once Abraham and Winston start displaying a preference for a certain color or style then I will absolutely affirm that and start dressing them accordingly.  If they tell me that they want to match some times then I will also support that.  I do not see a hard line or cut off to discontinue the matching outfits.  I am kind of laid back as a twin mama when it comes to the clothes thing because we try to really treat our boys as individuals. I think because they are monozygotic (identical) twins I am very cognizant of trying to treat them as individuals.   I am not too worried that they will hate me someday for putting them in matching outfits.  If anything when I put them in matching or coordinated outfits, it reaffirms in my mind that they are equals and that there is no favorite.

Matching except for socks and shoes.

Similar shirts and shorts but in different colors.

Both in polo shirts but different colors.

Twenty Months!

*Sorry for the delay on this post, everybody. I have been having some issues with Blogger and it really stalled my publish time on this.  I started the week before Thanksgiving and here we finally are!

With the holidays right around the corner, I know the next several months are going to fly by.   Our little guys are one year old right now but I know that in the blink of an eye we will have two two-year olds.  To be honest, I tend to round their age up in my head and often think of them as being two years old anyways.  I am not in a hurry for them to grow up, honest I am not, but they have become such little men lately that I tend to think of them as such. When people see them in public, they generally guess that they are two years old because they like to talk...a lot.

The boys are both very verbal.  I think positive peer pressure has a lot to do with this.  Abraham is like a little parrot and copies everything we say and I think Winston realizes that in order to keep up with Abraham that he has to talk too.  In fact, Winston even out talks Abraham now when it comes to having "conversations" with us or himself.  They are starting to identify colors and are learning to count 1-10.  Abraham can do most of the sequence by himself but he gets shy about doing it in front of people.  Both boys LOVE showing off their knowledge of animal sounds.  Their favorite, especially Abraham's, is the sound a rooster makes.  They say it like "how-doo-doo-doo" and even lift their head up like a rooster would.

The boys got a hair cut again earlier this month and it is becoming more traumatic for all involved with each successive time. They just cry and cry.  Obviously Eric and I get really stressed about that because we do not want them to be afraid. We try to make them feel comfortable and secure with the whole process but nothing seems to help with it.  Growing pains, right?  It is funny how little stuff like that is what parents have such a hard time with.

Winston (left) and Abraham

The boys love Sesame Street and especially the character Elmo.  They love music and are constantly asking to listen to music when they are eating their meals, when they are put into their car seats and when they are even playing.  They want to dance and then tell me "music, happy."  Both boys have said their first full sentence, "I love you."  Winston said it first and then Abraham followed within the week. They have also begun saying, "How are you?" but it is not always very clear. They are starting to say small phrases like "raisins please."   I hear "hold you" a lot and they pat the couch and tell me "sit" and "lap." They are good eaters and they are constantly requesting apple sauce and cookies.  Their requests are not necessarily a reflection of what I feed them frequently but once they find something they really like, they make sure they ask for it.  Seriously, they ask for apple sauce first thing when they wake up.  We joke that it is like toddler crack, just try it once and you have an addict on your hands.

They love books, toy cars and taking baths.  They can understand the concept of waiting now.  I can tell them before they take a nap that after they wake up we are going on a car ride and will visit their Grammy.  Sure enough they wake up and start chanting "car ride...Grammy!" They understand if I tell them that they have to wait for bedtime for a bath or that they can eat something but not right now.  They did so great with our drive home and I think a lot of it was that I explained we were going to be in the car all day, that we had to go see papa and drive back to our green house in Nevada.  It has drastically changed their behavior because they no longer get as frustrated. It is such a blessing!  Did I mention these kids are still on two naps a day?  It is both a blessing and a curse.  Their morning naps are still 1.5-2 hours and show no sign of really dropping off.  I am looking forward to one nap a day and how it is really going to open up the schedule for play dates and other activities.

A couple more photos from our visit to So Cal.

Abraham is a funny little guy. He LOVES his stuffed lion which we named Leo.  In fact, Leo has officially made our Christmas card photo.  He is starting to really take off with potty training which makes us really proud of him.  He has a lot of energy and is quite the wiggle worm.  He loves to show us items in books and brings out his plastic play food proudly identifying all the different items.  Abraham is beginning to understand different colors and can tell for example that a strawberry is red.  He is really into copying adult speech and gains new words really quickly.  We brought some new plants into the house and he referred to them as trees.  I explained that they had green leaves like trees but they are called plants instead.  Sure enough, every time he sees them he makes sure to point out and identify the plants. 

Winston has filled out in the last month and has begun to look so much like Eric when he smiles. Winston is our hug and kiss giver and even asks for kisses from us sometimes.  We are happy to oblige of course.  He narrowly edges out Abraham for the most extroverted and likes to say hi to everyone he sees.  He is also a wee bit of a stinker and likes to give us sly little looks when he intentionally disobeys.  Winston likes to spin around in circles and make himself dizzy.  He answers requests such as asking him to put a toy away with "okay."  He has a really sweet disposition and we are so grateful.

These kids are so much fun right now.  They are really starting to shine as individuals.  We are working on the whining thing and obeying with a happy heart.  It is not easy some days but seeing them thrive and flourish has been a tremendous joy.  We are so thankful for these little boys.

So Cal Visit

We are still getting back into the swing of things after returning earlier this week from visiting my family in Southern California.  It was a bit of an impromptu trip.  We typically rotate holidays between Eric's family here in Nevada and my family in California.  Due to a busy work schedule for Eric and (crazy!) gas prices, we decided to stay here for Thanksgiving.  My dad and stepmom really wanted to see the boys before the holidays and they started hatching a plan.  My dad flew up to Reno and the next day the four of us left for So Cal.  My dad paid for the fuel for my vehicle so basically the entire trip was free for us--a huge blessing!  Eric was out of town for work for several days so the timing was perfect in the sense that we were not spending unnecessary time apart as a family.  The boys and I had a great time in the warm weather playing outside, visiting with family and friends and getting to celebrate my grandma's birthday. 

The boys had started getting the sniffles on Halloween and the day following.  Their moods were good, they were eating fine and they seemed to be bouncing back quickly.  The first several days down in California everything was fine but then Abraham got really irritable and had a low grade fever.  He just looked miserable on the morning of our last day there so I brought him to urgent care and he had a double ear infection.  It put a slight damper on things having a sick little guy but we still had a good visit.   The main issue was that the boys have become very attached to me. I love that my boys love me so much but it can be physically and emotionally draining when I am the only one that they want to comfort them.  With them being in an unfamiliar environment, it was like they were super glued to me at times.  It definitely made me realize how much I miss having my family close by for various reasons.  The boys loved playing with their cousins and I know it means the world to my family to be able to see the boys and bond with them more.

We kept the visit a surprise for my grandma so it was sweet getting to see her reaction as she opened her door and she saw two little boys standing there.  Winston said "hi" and walked right in.  Abraham was much less sure and would not go in unless he was reassured by me going in as well.  My grandma also had a birthday when we were down there so it was special that we got to celebrate with her. My best friend also drove in from L.A. with her two little girls.  It was a little interesting trying to have an actual conversation with Kathy when we collectively had four kids two and under in the house but we made it work as best we could.  I am so thankful she made he drive to see me.  I loved seeing how her girls are changing and growing into such little women. 

Enjoy the pics from our week:

Boys and their shenanigans.

The boys have started calling my dad "Gee-pa"

Books with Grandma Ida

Winston LOVES his cousin Tyler.  I think the feeling is mutual.

Mama likes doing self-portraits.

Roxie is a natural looking athlete.

Kathy and me-- we have been friends since we were fourteen years old.

I tried to get Jane to hold still for a pic but this was the best I could do.

 

We loved the warmer weather and playing outside in the afternoon.

My sweet grandma and her birthday goodies.

The boys also turned twenty months old when we were down there so now I need to get going on that post!

My Deputy and Jailbird

Here is the short version:  We are ambivalent about the whole Halloween vs. Reformation Day thing.  Eric and I had fun memories of dressing up as kids and thought it would be fun to put the boys in costumes.  We handed out candy to the kids in our neighborhood and it was fun.

Abraham had a really bad runny nose so I did not think it would be a good idea to go around the neighborhood trick or treating. Basically I got them dressed up for my own amusement and the cuteness factor in the pictures. Last year at this time, the boys had their first cold and I was so disorganized that I did not even have candy for the neighbor kids.  This year was therefore a huge improvement for us.  Next year we may actually get the boys out to some festivities in their costumes!

Here are my very reluctant deputy sheriff and jailbird:

Abraham the jailbird and Winston the sheriff's deputy

Winston seems bored with his jailbird watching duties.

Abraham:  "I was framed I tell you, framed!"

Death stare.

Perfect!

Jailbird stole the deputy's hat.

Hey deputy, do you see what he is doing over there?

They obviously have very different reactions these days when the camera is upon them.