Horrible Awakening

OK.  Here's the scene. 

3:30AM. 

Blindly walking towards the bathroom without my glasses in the dark.  Turn on the bathroom light.  The bright light blinds me.  I sit and then FALL.  Into. The. Toilet. 

Seriously?  Why can't a guy put the seat down? 

*sigh*

Which one of these cuties is the guilty party?

This is a new thing in my house.  Ely (I know you read this, so if you want me to stop writing about your dirty little habbits then maybe you should fix them!!) never use to leave the seat up.  In fact, I was always impressed that he had manners.  I chalked it up to him having 4 sisters.  Alas, he has become lazy and no longer tries to impress me with his knowledge of bathroom etiquette.

He may become defensive and blame on one of his boys.  We may never know who made mom fall into the toilet.  But one thing is for certain.....I will never forget to look before I sit.

Guilty Pleasure

Shhhh...don't tell anyone.  I have a dirty little secret. 

For those of you who know my family, you know we don't have a TV.  Well, we a have a television set upstairs that the kids watch dvd's and Ely likes to play playstation once every six months....but no converter box or cable.  We're just unconventional to cheap to pay for TV.  It just isn't that important to us.  I mean really?  When the heck do I have time to watch tv?  There is so many other things I want to do.

But I must confess.  I do watch something religiously on abc.com everyday while folding laundry.  No, it's not anything cool like Lost or Grey's Anatomy.  I watch General Hospital.  I know, I know, stereotypical SAHM right? 

But this secret obsession started way before having children.  At NSU my roommate watched it everyday in our tiny dorm.  I was literaly forced to watch it. 

So there it is.  My guilty pleasure.  It's out there for the world to know. 

But really...who can blame me for wanting to watch? 

What's your guilty pleasure?

One And The Same

I am very excited to announce my very first giveaway! It's a pretty cool prize, I might add, but more about that later.

When I found out I was pregnant for the first time I read "What to Expect When You're Expecting" religiously, spent countless hours online googling everything baby, and asked to many people for their advice on names.  Not to mention, I registered for way to many things...and half of them I never even used! 

With baby #2, pregnacy was a little more relaxing.  I knew what to expect. 

Then, uh-oh, baby #3 turned into TWO BABIES!  What?  Twins?!  I really shouldn't have been suprised.  According to my Grandmother me or one of my sisters was "supposed" to have them.  My mom is an identical twin and the old wives tale says it skips a generation.

awww...look how tiny they are...

Anywho, I was back at square one.  Reading every "how-to" manual I could get my hands on.  But I've stumbled onto something better than any how-to-for-twins book.  Right now I am reading a very insightful book titled One and the Same: My Life as an Identical Twin and What I've Learned About Everyones Struggle to Be Singular by Abigail Pogriban.

This book is totally different from anything I have read about twins.  It's part memoir, part investigative journalisim.  As a mother of twins, it's nice to read a twins perspective. 

In the book, she talks about the importance of spending seperate time with each child, creating seperate memories.  This book isn't only for parents of identical twins, but fraternal too...or anyone looking for an interesting read for that matter. 

Abigail also touches on the pressures of being a twin and how there is this novelty of two.  Guilty as charged.  I get a thrill out of dressing my girls up alike and showing them off.  After a rough day at home it's nice to be reminded how stinkin' adorable they are!

Sooo....my point is, you should definitely read this book.  Oh, what's that?  You don't own a copy?  Well you're in luck my friend.  I'm giving away a personalized autographed copy of the book.  A random drawing will be held on March 5, 2010. 

You have two chances to win.  #1 leave a comment below.  #2 if you are a "follower" of my blog and leave a comment you get your name put in the drawing twice....not a follower?  It's easy, go to the right hand column of my blog and click on "follow"! 

Good luck!! ~dana

Homemade Wipes

A friend of mine gave me a recipe for making homemade baby wipes last month. *Thanks Debrah* I've been telling everyone I know about them. I haven't used store bought wipes since. It's SO SIMPLE! My girls have such sensitive skin. Did you know most baby wipes have alcohol in them? Read the ingredients....I can't even pronounce most of it.



We go through so many wipes in our house. We use them to wipe dirty faces, clean grubby hands, and of course wipe bottoms. We are saving over $20 a month making our own wipes...hey, every penny counts! For those of you with more than one child in diapers this is a must!


OK, here's how I do it.

1. Cut a roll of paper towels in half. (This can be tough if you don't have a sharp knife!)
2. Take the cardboard center out. You will pull the wipes from the center when using them.
3. Place in a tall Tupperware container.
4. In a separate bowl mix 2 1/4 cups of HOT tap water, 1 tbsp of baby oil, and 2 tbsp of your favorite baby soap.
5. Mix and pour on top of wipes.
6. Place lid on wipes and let the paper towels absorb all the water.

Viola! It's that easy!

Running into problems? Here's some FAQ

What soap works best? I prefer Aveno or California Baby wash, but any baby soap will work. If it's really "bubbly" soap it makes your wipes tooo soapy (is that even a word?).
Baby is allergic to mineral oil? I read that you can use a tsp of tea tree oil instead. This probably would not smell as nice, but would work just fine! I LOVE tea tree oil.
Why do I have a pool of water at the bottom of the bowl? Your paper towel absorbency is probably different then mine. Just adjust the water amount. If using off brand paper towel maybe only use 2 cups of water....don't be afraid to experiment!
Mold problems? We go through wipes so quickly in my house I've never run into this problem. But remember, your using all natural ingredients so there is no chemicals preventing mold to grow. Be sure to wash your Tupperware out between each use.

Twin Troubles

If you came here for a funny story....not happening. There is nothing cute going on in my house this week. Instead the kids have been overly obnoxious (writing on faces with sharpies, Gavin of course) and the girls have been sick.

The twins, almost 21 months, have been separated at night since they were about 7 months old. The reason we did this was because they were starting to wake one another up. When we put them in different cribs, set up beside one another, the problem ceased and they were sleeping through the night once again.

OK, fast forward to the present time. I was putting the girls to bed the other night and Maya started crying. I asked her what was wrong and she stood up and reached her arms out saying "Sissy!"

It was so sweet. I laid her down next to her sister and they slept all night and actually slept in later than normal...8 AM!! (Usually up by 7, so this was amazing)

The girls have continued sleeping together at night. Unfortunately sleeping in until 8am was a one time thing.

Camille, the bitee

Nap time is a different story. Which brings me to a new problem we are facing......BITING! Ugh. My boys never really bit each other...well, not like this anyway.

SOOOO...I put them down for naps in the same crib. They had their little baby dolls and were playing....and then fighting....which, of course, led to biting. I had no clue at this point, I just heard screaming and crying....which I separated and they went to sleep.

Maya, the biter

I didn't notice until baths that night. Let me tell you...it was BAD! Poor little Camille had FOUR bite marks!

Any biting advice out there? Especially when you aren't around to see it? And if your going to tell me to bite my kid back, save it. Not going to happen.

Disappointed Child

This afternoon Gavin's balloon flew out of the van. His eyes filled with tears as he watched it fly up higher into the grey clouds. Soon he was sobbing uncontrollably, scolding me for opening the van door with my key chain instead of my hands. It was my fault. I needed to retrieve his balloon....pronto.

This is just a life lesson, "no attachment," right? But to my 3 year old this is serious business.

this picture is G last year...but you get the general idea of how much trouble I was in

After forcing him in the van.....I had no time to console the poor kid, I was already late picking up Zander from the bus stop....he proceeded to lecture me about his balloon, which he apparently developed deep feelings for in the past 24 hours. I apologized and told him it was an accident and that there would be other balloons.



"Mom. I loved that balloon," he choked out between tears.



"I said I was sorry Gavin. What do you want me to do?" I asked him.



"Get it."



"How?"



"A plane or a helicopter."



"Buddy, we're out of luck. I don't have one of those."



"Call someone that does. I know! Call the airport! They have lots of airplanes!"



"I don't have their number, and besides, they are to busy to catch your balloon."



"Fine. If you won't call them take me to the airport...I'll talk to a pilot."



Alas....my disappointed child....he is now upstairs staring at the string that his beloved balloon was once attached to.