Friday, May 30, 2008

Week JR...Almost Finished

I am literally worn out from celebrating JR's birthday, and the party isn't until tomorrow! I took him to Chuck E. Cheese yesterday after he got home from school. We played every game in the place multiple times (which really isn't that many since it seems that half the Chuck E. Cheese games are always broken). You should have seen us playing Dance Dance Revolution together. We didn't follow the arrows;we just did our own thing, but oh yeah, we can boogie. JR always has a new favorite game, and you'd think it would be one of the shooting games, but yesterday his favorite was Pirates of the Caribbean pinball. There was a Deal or No Deal game right next to the pinball machine, and let me tell you, I should be on the show. You win tickets instead of money, and let's just say we left Chuck E. with an armful of oh so fabulous Oriental Trading Company junk. After Chuck E. we went straight to karate and after karate I told him he could eat at any restaurant he wanted for his birthday. And where did my child pick to eat for his 5th birthday....Yep, you guessed it, the Chinese food buffet restaurant near our house. He calls it "The Chinese Cafe". He uses the words "cafe" meaning "cafeteria" and "buffet" interchangeably. He loves both types of restaurants because he doesn't have to wait on his food. After the "cafe" we went by "Toys For Us" so he could pick out his present from my parents. He finally went to bed about 9:30 last night and was up bright and early this morning gearing up for the party tomorrow. Only one more day of Week JR!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Baby Talk 3


Reed (in patten): I'm bored. And I'm tired of JR getting all the attention just because today is his birthday. How many more days of celebrating JR's birthday do we have to endure?"
Kyle (in yellow): Oh! I know what we can do! Let's go look through his birthday stuff!
R: Oh yeah, good idea!

K: Here's this crown he's been wearing around. He's acting like he's a king or something.
R: How do you think we'd look in it?
K: I bet we'd look awesome! Let's try it out.....


R: Dude, you were right! We do look awesome.
K: I know! It's a perfect fit.
R: What can we do now?
K: Um, I think I saw some birthday cards lying around....

R: You read them; you're older so you're a better reader than I am.
K: Okay um, blah, blah, blah, something about Happy Birthday, and I think it's from MawMaw and PawPaw.
R: Let's go see what his presents are.
K: Dude, you can't open his presents!

R: Oh yes I can! Now are you going to help me or not?


R: Clothes?! Clothes?! Borrring!
K: I think it's a bathing suit. I hope Mama and Daddy don't get us clothes when we turn 5, I want toys!

R: Let's see what else he got!
K: Okay, I hope it's better than clothes...

R: Well, that's a little better.
K: What is it?
R: It's a slip-n-slide. JR likes to play in the water, so he should like that.
K: Dude, I think I hear JR coming!

K: Stop eating the paper and get to cleaning up!
R: I'm trying! I'm trying!

R: What presents? We haven't seen anything....
K: Look at these sweet faces; we're just little babies...How could you even think we could begin to go through your stuff? We've been sitting here the whole time...

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Week JR Continues

Week JR continued today with PreK graduation. They sang 3 songs-guess who sang the loudest and added his own dance moves where he thought necessary? They also received their PreK diploma and a lei. They all graduated in bathing suits because after graduation they were having Splash Day, complete with 2 huge blow up water-slides...I sure don't remember having Splash Day when I was growing up. I was just thrilled to do the potato sack race and eat a snow cone at Field Day. He also got his final report card and let me proudly say he got "Advanced Development" in both vocabulary and writing! He's come a long way from the first report card when he got a "Needs Development" in uses pencil with control. I can only imagine the havoc JR was causing with an out of control pencil!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

It's All About...JR

We're in full swing of Week JR around here. "Week JR?" you ask. Oh yes, it's not enough to celebrate JR's birthday on the actual day(which is Thursday), we must extend his day of days throughout the whole week. Today was "take cupcakes to school to celebrate" day. (Thursday is the last day of school and graduation is tomorrow, so today was the only day left.) When I asked His Royal Birthday Highness what kind of cupcakes he wanted me to bring he informed me that he wanted Transformers for the boys and Barbies for the girls. (Um, thinking about the ladies feelings already...way to go JR!) The local Walmart down the street didn't have anything Barbie for the girls, so I came home with Hannah Montana.
Me: "JR, I couldn't find Barbie, so I got Hannah Montana instead. Is that okay?"
JR:" Um, let me see."
I show him the Hannah Montana party favors.
JR: "Oh yes! I think they will like Hannah Montana very much. Daddy, Mommy got the girls Hannah Montana, not Barrrrbie."
I arrived at school at 1:00 P.M. sharp armed with Transformer and H.M. cupcakes. They liked the cupcakes, but not near as much as they liked the blowout horns I brought. I guess I should have known they would do this...the kids started blowout horn fighting with each other immediately. During one of the fights, I heard Miracle scream, "My eye!" I was sure it was all over then, but luckily, she recovered quickly. There's only 2 more days of school left and I showed up with blowout horns, how bad do you think JR's teachers hate me? Oops, sorry teachers!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Calling the Authorities

We spent the day at Grandpa Gary's pool and Jason and I thought the babies were ready for their first swim. We had them all decked out in their swim-diapers and ready to go, but surprisingly the pool water was still on the chilly side (of course that didn't slow JR down who spent 6 hours in the pool today). Kyle was first to test out the waters and he started crying the second Jason put him in. He's used to the warm spa bath water at home and wasn't interested in the cold pool water at all. I was sitting on the side holding Reed and Jason tried putting Kyle in again. This time he let out a squeal that let us know he had no interest in cooling off in the pool. Of course none of the grandparents like to hear their grandbabies cry, so Gary hollered at Jason, "You get that baby out of that cold water right now or I'm calling the S.P.C.A. on you!" Yeah, that sounds about right, Hunter wants to call C.P.S. because we made him sleep in the barn, and Jason's dad is turning us in to the S.P.C.A. for taking our baby swimming.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Reverse Culture Shock

Jason and I had a big case of reverse culture shock today. Former and current expat readers won’t be surprised at all, but others of you might find it odd that our culture shock happened at, of all places, IKEA. (We went to buy JR a bed frame as the babies are taking over his old room.) Now, what could possibly happen out of the ordinary at IKEA? That’s the problem; nothing happened. It was totally boring. Just a typical, ordinary, non eventful trip to IKEA. That’s where the reverse culture shock comes in.
A trip to IKEA in Beijing was anything but normal. The first time I went I tried to go shopping just like I would have here in Houston. I had the driver drop me off at the door, (okay that part is different than Houston) loaded JR up in the stroller, and in I went. It was winter so I was wearing a coat, a sweater, and a short sleeve t-shirt underneath my sweater. JR was still a baby then, so it was just easiest to dress him in a fleece, pajama type onesie with feet. The only part of JR’s skin that was showing was his head and his hands. I thought this was fine, especially since I walked in the store and thought I was sunning myself on the equator. The heat was cranked up so high that I immediately pulled off all my layers until I was only wearing my t-shirt and jeans. Immediately I was bombarded was Chinese women touching JR, shaking their fingers in my face, offering me their own coats, and rubbing JR’s hands in theirs like they might save the poor child from frost bite. Of course I’m trying to show them the sweater I have tied around my waist, the coat I’m carrying in my arm, and the beads of sweat running down my forehead. Since I was still new to the country I was still under the impression that if I screamed “It’s okay, I’m hot!” loud enough, they might understand me. But no, nobody understood my English no matter how loud I got. And I had yet to lean the all important Chinese law that states, “If it’s winter, it is cold. No matter what, you must wear 10 layers of clothing. Period.” My next winter trip to IKEA (yes, a summer trip is quite different, we’ll get to that) I had my army of helpers with me. I was ready. I brought JR’s Ayi along to run defense against the other Chinese women. I’m pretty sure she was telling them, “I know, the white American woman is crazy. She won’t dress the baby in enough layers, but don’t worry, I’m taking good care of him. I can’t vouch for what she’s doing to him when I’m not around, but I’m working really hard on making him think he’s Chinese.” Whatever she was telling them, at least they were leaving me alone. I also had our driver come in with us. His main job was to scream loudly at the IKEA employees to follow us around, carry things, and get things off high shelves.
So what was a summer trip to IKEA like? So entertaining. As hot as it was in the winter, it was that cold in the summer. So what does that mean for Chinese people who have no air-conditioning? (which was pretty much the whole city of 16 million people) Go hang out at IKEA. There was not one couch, bed, or chair that wasn’t taken. Whole families would be laying on the beds taking a nap. A couch would be filled with old men reading the paper. Chairs would have kids eating ice-cream cones on them (the ice-cream at IKEA was 1 RMB, that’s 12 cents for us). Jason and I used to laugh that if you wanted to buy a couch you’d have to ask 5 people to move so you could try it out. Supposedly this is pretty common throughout Asia, one of my friends that lived in Indonesia said that people would spend all afternoon reading a book at Borders, dog-ear the page, and put it back on the shelf for later!
Unfortunately, there wasn’t one person doing anything but shopping today. Ah, the good old days, when a trip to IKEA was fun and exciting.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Baby Talk 2


R: Kyle, I'm so glad you booked these spa appointments for us; I really need to relax.
K: I know! There's only so much holding and cuddling a body can take.

K: I think I'll just catch up on some reading while we wait.


R:Great idea! Hey, do you hear that?
K: Hear what? I don't hear anything.
R: Exactly. Just listen how quiet it is. No JR jumping around screaming, No Hunter barking...just peace and quiet. Ahhhh.....

R: Oh goody, Our facials and body scrubs are first.
K: I definitely have some rough patches I need worked on. That rice cereal sure can leave some sticky spots if you get any on you.

R: I'm also going to need a mani-pedi. I've got nails like Mommy and they are just out of control.
K: And I'm going to need a deep conditioning hair treatment. You know how Daddy and I have that good hair.
R: Dude, you only have hair in the back. I heard somebody called you Dr. Phil the other day.
K: Whatever Dude, at least I have hair.

K: Um, Could you give us a minute? We're going to need some privacy.
R: Yeah, they told us we have to put on our diapers immediately since we've had a few accidents here before.
K: Bro! Hush! They don't need to know everything!

R: Okay, We're ready when you are.

R: Can you work on my feet? Daddy keeps making me stand on them and they're so sore.
K: And I need some serious neck work, tummy-time is a killer.


K: What a perfect way to spend the afternoon....zzzzz.....
R: It sure is.....zzzzzz......

Monday, May 19, 2008

Going Postal

JR's Ayi always sends him packages that we have to sign for. Since we have a gate, our mail-lady leaves a note in our mailbox and I have to go down to the post office to pick them up. First, I would like to tell all of you who don't know....there are other places besides the post office to buy stamps. Why in the world do people stand in line for twenty minutes to buy a pack of stamps? Do they have nothing better to do? Have they stopped by for decorating ideas since they find the color combination of grey and beige irresistible? People, there are wonderful little places with names like Postal Plus, Post Place, and Copy and Mail Center and there's one in just about every shopping center. There's never a line, and they can do anything a post office can do...except give me my JR packages! Needless to say, I hate the post office. One time I was second to next in line and JR had to go to the bathroom. I actually sent him off with a random woman and her son because I didn't want to lose my place in the line...I rationalized that I truly had no choice, I had been waiting for 30 minutes! I really believe the people behind the counter think to themselves, "Hummm, the line is out the door and around the building; I think this is a perfect opportunity to take my 4th break of the morning. I should also make sure everybody else working here is moving as slowly as possible.
We received a note Thursday that JR had a package waiting for him at the post office. Since the packages are sent to "J.R. Ingersoll" and the post office people demand you show them ID before they will even attempt to look for them, Jason can't go and pick them up. But guess whose middle name does start with "R"? Oh, lucky me. So Friday we were off to the post office. I must have picked a good day because there were only 5 people in line in front of me (2 of which bought stamps). I give the lady my note, showed my ID, and off she went. At this point JR is now jumping up and down saying, "Where's my package, When is my package coming? How much longer? I want my package." I knew it was a bad sign when after about 5 minutes had passed she came back to ask me if our address was a business. About 5 minutes after that she comes back and tells me, "I can't find it, sign here and your postman will drop it in your mailbox." I then nicely explained to her, "No, I can't sign there because it clearly says here that if this certain box is checked (which it is) I must show up in person to claim the package. If I could sign this and leave it in my mailbox I certainly would have done that." I guess all her searching for the package had cut into her break time, because she then snatched the card out of my hand and screamed, "NO! You can't sign it!" I wanted to say, "Um yeah, I just told you that." But I kept my mouth shut. She then dismissively tells me, "We'll look for it, when we find it, your postman will deliver it." I'm thinking, okay, they can't find it now, so how is it just going to miraculously appear? This package is JR's birthday present from his Ayi, there's lots of stuff in it, and she's spent a lot of her money buying things for him and shipping it here. I want to make sure he gets it. So I say, "What if you can't find it? Then what do I do." And now here's the kicker, the woman actually says to me, loudly and rudely like I'm an idiot for asking the question:
"How am I supposed to know? I just work here."
Are you kidding me? Now 7 years ago I would have said, "oh, okay" and slunk out of the post office hoping not to cause a scene. Well, after being married to Jason for 7 years, I've learned a thing or two about causing a scene and I was 100 percent sure that her comment required a scene. While reading the scene below please remember that JR is jumping up and down screaming "Where's my package?" "They can't find it!" and the ever so dramatic, "Ohhhh Nooooo! They can't find my paaaaaackage!"

Jan's Post Office Scene:

Me: "Exactly, you just work here. That's why I'm asking you!" "I can't believe you just said 'you just work here' who am I supposed to ask if I don't ask you?"
Post Office Employee: (read with attitude) "Miss, you're just going to have to talk to my supervisor."
Me: "Well, go get them. I'd LOVE to talk to your supervisor"
Me to people in line behind me: "Can you believe she just said that to me? She 'just works here'. Of course she just works here. Who else am I supposed to ask?"
(People behind me don't give the appropriate amount of eye rolling and hysteria over her comment so I turn to JR.)
Me: "JR, can you believe she just said that to me? Who else am I supposed to ask?"
JR: "They can't find my paaaaackage?! What are we going to do-who-who?"
Old Lady at the End of the Line: "What's going on? Did I miss some excitement?"
Me: "She 'just works here', how dare I ever ask her a question?"

By this time the supervisor arrives, and of course the first thing I tell her is that her employees can't give me an answer because 'they just work here'. About that time I see our mail-lady who waves at me and tells me that she remembers the package and she will find it and deliver it. They give me a piece of paper to sign and try to shoo me out the door without anymore incident. But, BTW, I got a note in my mailbox today that they can't find the package and to call the supervisor....I feel a scene coming on.....

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Chengdu Earthquake

I know my blog is usually on the lighter side, but today it won't be as I am finally able to write about the earthquake in Chengdu. If you have met me for 5 seconds then you have heard me talk about our time in China and how much we loved it there, and how we truly do have a special love for all things Chinese. I can hardly watch the news coverage, and when I do, I start crying. The hardest part for me is hearing about all the children. Most people forget that China has a strict one child policy. Those parents you see mourning on television have lost their only child. Also remember that China is a Communist country. So these people who are suffering aren't Christians (but they aren't Buddhists or Muslims or anything else either.) They're Communists. They have nothing to put their faith in but the government. They don't have a Father to cry out to in times of pain. Not because they choose not to believe in Him, but because they have never heard of Him. Please remember these people in your prayers just for the simple reason that they don't know how to pray for themselves.
Lots of people have asked me: Do you know where the earthquake was? Did you live there? Did you go there? Did you know anybody in the earthquake? Are your friends okay? So here are my answers:
Yes, I know where Chengdu is, but I have never been there. Jason has been many times. It is a large city in Chinese standards (which means it's way bigger than any city in the United States). We lived in Beijing which is much further north, and is about a 2-2 1/2 hour plane ride away. Chengdu is famous for its giant panda reserves. I have emailed with our Beijing friends and many of them felt it. Seems everybody that was in an office building felt it, and the people who were home noticed their chandeliers swaying or their china cabinet rattling more than they felt it. I wasn't sure what information they were showing on TV in China, I assumed that it was heavily censored and that the people in Beijing wouldn't know the extent of the damage. But it seems they are showing the devastation. I emailed with JR's Ayi's daughter who gave me lots of details of how bad it truly is. I won't give specifics, but she did say that it was "hell on earth" in Chengdu.
Please keep these people in your prayers, I can't imagine how they will overcome this tragedy.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Biggest Looser

I think my insistence that our TV be tuned to E!, Bravo, or VH1 at all times has officially effected the rest of the family. Just this weekend Jason came into the kitchen and said, "Do you think it's a problem that Kyle looks perfectly happy sitting there watching The Making of the Dallas Cowboys' Cheerleaders?" But it seems that my favorite TV channel of all, E!, has gotten to Jason the most. Jason has finally succumbed to Hollywood's harsh pressure to be thin. Yes, once happy with his curves, Jason has now joined a host of other young starlets who feel they must be excruciatingly thin to have a successful career. I fully expect to see him on the cover of US Weekly under the headlines: Jason Ingersoll:Is It Man-arexica? And maybe the next week an article: Seacrest to Ingersoll: Give Me Your Diet Tips, I'll Highlight Your Hair. Let me just say, these young Lohans and Hiltons have got nothin' on Jason in the weight loss department. He's dropped 30 pounds in less than 2 months. I keep telling him I feel like I'm married to Nicole Ritchie, sans the Vicodin addiction. He says he's going to write a weight loss book, but with Jason's descriptive writing skills I think it will be more like a pamphlet. But since you guys are such loyal readers I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at Jason before the book tour starts. Here he is without further ado...

Jason Before:


Jason After:

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Happy Birthday Anita!

I've been thinking about what story to tell for Anita's birthday, and I just couldn't narrow it down to one. Should it be our trip to the Chinese doctor who told us to squat 30 minutes a day to loose 30 pounds? The reason we just HAD to go to tennis lessons twice a week? or Anita's motorcycle ride down JingShunLu that still brings a smile to the Chinese men's faces? I guess there are just too many stories to chose from, but I do know I will always be grateful that there was somebody just like me in Beijing. (Except that her South Carolina accent is just a bit different than my Texas accent..."war-ter" for "water" and "pocketbook" for "purse".) Happy Birthday to my Chinese partner in crime...if there was a costume to be worn, a party to plan, or a ball to attend we had it covered. We miss you, and we can't wait to see you in July! (And, yes, in the pictures below that is me as the Wicked Witch of the West, and Anita as the most beautiful woman at the ball that night. And in the other picture I'm Velma from Scooby Doo and Anita is an "assistant to a knife thrower".)

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Baby Talk


Kyle(in blue): Okay Lil' Bro, Here's our big chance to look cool for the ladies so be sure and look tough.


Reed: Like this? I can show everybody how I can almost hold your hand.


Kyle: Get off me, dude! That's not cool, now don't make me punch you again.


Reed: Oh yeah! Well, how's this for tough?! I know I don't have any teeth, but when I do....you better watch out, man!


Kyle: Whatever, Get your mouth off my arm!


Baby fist fight ensues....


Reed: This sitting up on the couch thing is a much better idea. I hear Sesame Street couches are all the rage with the preschool ladies.
Kyle: Dude, quit smiling and give 'em your best McConaughey...Howdy Ladies, How you doin'? Would you like me to take off my shirt?

Monday, May 12, 2008

For Goodness Snakes!

We were getting ready to leave the house Saturday morning and JR went outside to put on his shoes (yes, our shoes are all outside just like in China) and wait for us to get the babies loaded up. All of a sudden he comes running in the house screaming, "SNAKE! SNAKE! MOMMY, DADDY, THERE'S A SNAKE!" Now JR can be a touch on the dramatic and exaggerative side (I wonder who he gets that from) so honestly, Jason and I didn't believe him at all. As we were walking out the door we kept saying to him, "Now, JR, if you're lying, you're going to get in trouble, did you really see a snake?"
And then we saw it. I almost passed out. I screamed, "JR, GET BACK INSIDE!" At which time, I also ran back inside. Poor Babies, I was screaming, "EWWWW!" JR was screaming, "SNAKE! SNAKE!" and we were both running around the house and jumping up and down. I came back out with the camera and tried to watch Jason kill it, but I ran back in the house when the snake stood up, flattened out it's head, and started striking and coming after Jason. I started screaming, "IT'S A COBRA! IT'S A COBRA!" while JR was inside jumping up and down at the window screaming, "SNAKE! SNAKE!"
At this point I thought it was a good idea to call my mom. So I called my mom and started screaming at her about the snake. She starts calling out all the information to my dad, so all he's hearing is "JAN'S GOT A COBRA IN HER YARD! JR FOUND IT!" I don't know how long it took Jason to kill that snake, but we had a big, bloody, snake mess on the sidewalk after it was over.
Eventhough I had run outside with the camera, I was so scared I couldn't get close enough to get a good picture. In my hysteria, I had the camera on video, but was holding it vertically and you can only take videos horizontally. Jason told me to go ahead and post the video because you can hear me screaming. I only have one picture of the snake, and Jason had to take it because I just couldn't bring myself to get up close enough to take a picture.
JR was so excited about the snake adventure he slept with his toy snake last night, but he made sure Buzz Lightyear was okay with their new sleeping partner. He told him, "It's okay Buzz, don't be scared, it's not a real snake."

Yes, I know the video is sideways...but as you will hear, I was too scared to realize it!

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my fun and fabulous mom who makes everybody have a good time no matter where they are, and to my stylish mother-in-law who wears more toe rings than anybody I know.

I love this one. Totally reminded me of my mom and me....

Here's what JR wrote (well, more like dictated to the teacher) about me. He brought this home on Friday, and was really excited to give it to me. My comments are in parenthesis.
J.R.'s Mommy
My mommy's name is Jan. Her eyes are blue (I wish!) and her hair is yellow. (I wish; But I guess to a child that thinks he's Chinese I do look like a blue-eyed blonde.) While I am at school she goes to eat lunch (not really), takes care of the babies, and sometimes gets the laundry (actually, that's Jason's job now that the babies are here) and waits for me at the bus. I like to help her fold stuff that comes out of the washer. (JR takes his dish towel and baby blanket folding job very seriously. I let him help me fold the other night and he told me it was a "special night".) My mommy's favorite color is pink. She likes to eat fruit. My mom is at least 15 (yep!)When I kick her, my mom gets mad. (Yeah, we still have some issues to work through.) My mommy likes to watch Spiderman and adult shows that my dad likes to watch. (Okay, great, so his teacher thinks we're watching porn, but anything that isn't a cartoon is an 'adult show' to JR. Should I send a note to school explaining that?) I love my mommy because she is so sweet to me. (Awwww!)

And here's my picture...I'm lookin' pretty good these days!

Happy Birthday Mirsad

Happy Birthday to our favorite hyper, crazy, soccer playing, George W. Bush loving (you know you love him), always late, multi-language speaking, guitar playing German. Hope you had a great time at your party, wish we could have been there!


Friday, May 9, 2008

Hello, World

I finally got the boys' baby annoucement in the paper. Only took me 4 months...

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Baby Magnets

So the babies are either:
A. Rolling around at night without our knowledge and refusing to show us their rolling skills during the day.
B. Secret superheros with magnetic powers.
or
C. Amazing scooters. If there was an Olympic medal for "Team Scooting" I'm sure they'd take home the gold.

I think I'm going to go with C. I took a before and after photo of the guys to prove their incredible scooting techniques.

Babies right after I put them to bed:
Babies the next morning: (I did not touch them all night long, except to give them a pacifier if needed.)


I gave up trying to move them apart awhile back (I was worried they'd wake each other up), they just keep scooting back to each other!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Class, Pay Attention

The ex-school teacher in me feels like getting back to my roots, so here's a little lesson for everybody on the best way to take twins to the doctor:

Step 1: Even though the doctor's office is 2 miles from your house, leave 30 minutes early.
Step 2: Don't even bother trying to find a parking spot in the lower portion of the parking garage. You have to open the car doors wide enough to get them out, and have room to work when maneuvering them around. Just go to the top floor where you can park without anybody on either side of you.
Step 3: When the doctor's office is too small to handle your double stroller, plan ahead on how you will get from the parking garage, down to the crosswalk (which goes over the street), and to the doctor's office on the 7th floor.
Step 4: Take first baby out of car and place on the ground in carseat.
Step5: Take second baby out of car and place on the ground in carseat.
Step 6: Take smallest baby out of carseat and strap him to you in the Snuggie.
Step 7: Put empty carseat back in car.
Step 8: Make sure you have diaper bag (which is a backpack).
Step 9: Lock the car, put on backpack. You should now have a baby on your front, and a backpack on your back. Use a backpack for a diaper bag /purse so you don't have a diaper bag and or purse slipping down your arm. (Thanks again for the b-pack, Allison).
Step 10: Pick up carseat that has a baby in it.
Step 11: Make friendly conversation on both elevator rides with all the people who comment "Oh, you have twins!"
Step 12: Walk in doctor's office right on time.

So, I am pretty proud of myself that I was able to get them both to the doctor. I've always had my mom or Sherry with me before. The doctor said they were doing good, but I need to make them do more tummy-time. I told her they had slept through the night for 3 nights and she told me not to feed them at night if they wake up from now on. They are still little guys for their age, Kyle is 13 lbs 12 oz and Reed is 12 lbs 10 oz which puts them in the 25% and 10%, but they aren't "falling off the growth chart" as she called it, so she's happy. Poor little things got 3 shots today and they really screamed. I needed a grandmother there with another set of arms to comfort. (Now I've probably made both grandmothers cry). Anyway, they're busy doing some big sleeping and swinging right now, so don't worry grandmothers, their fine.

Monday, May 5, 2008

So Well Rested

Cue Lionel Richie...
"All night long (all night, all night)
All night long (all night, all night)"
I've been singing it all day. Guess what the babies did last night. Oh yeah they did. And it was a true sleep through the night, none of that, 5:00A.M. or 6:00 A.M. stuff. 7:15 Baby! Jason and I hardly knew how to handle it.
Me: "I haven't been this rested in months, I feel great."
Jason: "I know, I woke up before the alarm went off."
It might be awhile until we sleep through the night every night, but last night was a great start!

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Product Placement

Best toy ever....



JR played with this thing until his lips turned blue and Jason made him come inside. As you can see, it's just your basic sprinkler toy, but it comes with 4 or 5 balls that you load in the top. The balls roll down the ramp to the bottom, then the water shoots them high in the air. In JR's world, it's the perfect toy. Thank you Wal-Mart toy section!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

First Swim Team Practice

JR had his first swim team practice last night (and we went again this morning). This swim team thing is pretty serious, practice everyday after school and on Saturdays until school is out. Then practice and meets during the month of June. So far, so good. JR didn't seem to care that the water was freezing cold, and he pretty much just jumped in and started swimming. We have trouble making JR keep trying when he is loosing, he just wants to give up, quit, and pout. Hopefully swim team will help with that, he can't just quit in the middle of a race or he'll drown! :-) Oh, and if you find a royal blue speedo in a size 26 please buy it for me...that's his swim team uniform and we can't find one anywhere! Here's some pictures of his first practice.