Sweet and sour and randomness

Something so sweet happened yesterday that I nearly went into a diabetic coma.

I was lying on the floor tending to Middie Biddies latest crisis (still not crawling and now teething again so she's doing a lot of whining and freaking out instead of playing) and Teeny Tiny pulled my hair to get me to look her direction.  Then she firmly placed one hand on my forehead, one on my chin, and pressed her cheek to my mouth.  Since K and I kiss our kids on the cheeks and not the lips, this was her interpretation of giving me a kiss!!!  The cuteness is just too much!!!

And for the sour.

Found a lovely puddle of water emanating from my washing machine today.  The washer and dryer were here when we moved in 8 years ago so I figured those would be the next things to break down and need to be replaced.  I'm not sure I can do anymore laundry until we get those replaced.  Do I go ahead and run a load or two and just keep towels at the ready or do I cease all use of those machines?

Random notes to my children -

• Yes Middie Biddie, your finger does fit perfectly up my nose.  Let's declare that experiment a success and cease all further testing, ok?
• You're allowed to pet the cat nicely even when I'm not holding your hand and doing it for you.  Just because you managed to reach the very patient kitty without me does not mean you must grab her fur and pull.
• Teeny Tiny, when your sister finally learns to become mobile, she's going to pay you back for all the times you're now crawling over her and trying to sit on her back.  It would be wise to stop doing that.
• Food does not change it's flavor as it exits my plate and enters yours.  I promise, just because it's on your plate, that does not mean it's now disgusting.
• Teeny Tiny - your foot belongs inside the jammies, not sticking out between snaps.
• My nipples are not appropriate handles for pulling yourself up or steadying yourself when bouncing on my knee.  If you keep pulling at them like that, I'm pretty sure they'll come off.
• Your crib does not become lava at night time.  I swear, it's the same crib you napped in very happily during the day.
• The litterbox is not filled with tasty chocolate treats.  I'm getting tempted to let you learn that the hard way.
• 50 million toys scattered on the floor and you insist on playing with the cable outlet?  Well allrighty than, whatever floats your boat.

Lean on me

Where Middie Biddie spends
a great deal of her time

We've hit the affection stage!  Both girls now want me to hang out on the floor in the playroom with them all the time.

Middie Biddie has learned to pivot on her tummy and can move a little bit, we suspect she'll be mobile in the next week or two, but she's also teething which is making her needy.  I'm trying to give her floor time so she can figure out the whole crawling thing, but she really just wants to be held all the time.  She's starting to bury her face in my chest and kind of head butts me and rubs her head on me from time to time.  I'm trying to give her floor time, but she tends to get upset.

Teeny Tiny is more independent.  I can walk away from her and she'll find something to entertain herself, but she really prefers that I be there.  She's now crawling all over my legs and prefers to lean on me as she plays with a toy.  That's nice and everything, but she's not interacting with me, just using my legs or my hip to lean her back against while she sits and plays with something.  Every once in a while, she'll climb up into my arms and give me a hug, and then she's off again!  Every once in a while I'll lie down in there and use a boppy as a pillow and she'll come and lie down with me.

My view of my lap a good portion of the day.
Middie Biddie between my legs and Teeny Tiny trying to
climb over her to get to me.

YAY!!!!  We're finally hitting a real snuggle stage!

I'm starting to pack up the baby stuff.  When K finally gets a day or two off, we're probably going to have the great baby purge.  I've decided that I can keep a few things under the bed just in case we have another - my favorite baby clothes, 2 of each type of bottle, my pumping stuff, but most of it has to go.  Apparently there's someone in my mothers friend circle who is about halfway through a twin pregnancy so once we find out if there's a girl, that will probably be the person behind me in the hand me down chain.  Being the youngest child of two youngest children and having kids so late in life, there's simply no one for me to hand down to!  Even fellow local blogger Tulips baby, who is about 7 months younger than the girls, is wearing the size clothing that I'm currently moving the girls into.

At the moment I'm leaning towards no more kids.  But I've leaned the other direction several times in the last year so we're aren't making any final decisions on that until the girls are 3 years old.  From what I've seen, when kids hit about 3, that's when parents start yearning for another one so we'll keep that option open just in case that happens to us.

This one just makes me laugh

Looks like we're about ready to buy a new car.  The girls will grow out of their car seats within 2 months give or take and there's no way I'm dealing with rear facing, full sized car seats in a 2 door car.  I was thinking a brand new car because I hate to buy someone elses problems, but now I'm thinking of getting something with the expectation of only using it for about 3 years.  Probably an old Honda Odyssey with high miles and a very low sticker price.  I only put about 3,000 miles on a car every year (my car is 13 years old and only 58k on it) and once we're done with rear facing car seats and strollers, I might not want a big giant van anymore.  By the time the girls hit kindergarten, I should have a better idea of just how many kids we'll ultimately have, whether or not I get involved in some sort of carpool situation, or just what it is a family needs in a car.  So it seems better to buy something really cheap right now, run it into the ground, and then buy a new car in a few years that I can expect to drive until the girls are driving it.

Ummmmm, ok

Teeny Tiny is sleeping face down, her knees tucked under her, and her butt in the air.  How in the hell is that relaxing and comfortable?  Middie Biddie is sleeping on her tummy with her head turned to the side like a normal person.

Yup, there's a teeny tiny tushie staring at me on the monitor.  Ooooookay!

Always humbled

Over the years, I've done a lot of complaining in this space.  Oh woe is me, my challenges are so hard, boo hoo hoo.

But there's always someone out there who has a bigger challenge and appears to be handling it better despite  it being a bigger challenge.  For me, that would be the quad mom in my Mom's of Multiples group.  Jiminy Cricket I feel like such a jerk when I complain about twin challenges next to her!  I barely manage to avoid being unpleasant most of the time and she's unfailingly friendly.  I'm trying to take her word for it that she's not perfect, her house isn't as clean as she'd like, or that she has her flip her shit moments, but by all outward appearances, she's got her shit together and I bow down.

I know you're not supposed to compare children, but let's face it, we all do it.  Teeny Tiny has been mobile for a little while now but Middie Biddie is still just trying to surf on her stomach and pitching a fit when she doesn't get anywhere.  My kids do seem behind their peers (peers who match their adjusted age) in terms of milestones.  I've been trying not to be disappointed or too worried about it.  I've been told that multiples often lag a little bit because the parents can't give twins the undivided attention to be teaching skills that singletons receive.

My twins and her quads are the same age.  Two of hers are a day older and two share my girls birthday.  And all four have been crawling for a while now.  Can't consider gender a factor, she has 3 girls and 1 boy.  All things being equal, my kids really should be hitting milestones at approximately the same time hers are.  Heck, mine should be a smidge ahead because I should be able to devote more time to each child than she can.  So, all things being equal, I guess the failing factor here must be....me.

I just feel so behind.  I still want to puree all the girls food but I'm trying to resist that urge and give them the opportunities to eat more real foods.  I bought a package of diced carrots designed for babies 8m+ and left that along with some other dinner for my parents to give to the girls last night.  I assumed that the carrots would be the proper size for their current development and skills.  I get home and my mother tells me that Middie Biddie gagged on them and Teeny Tiny couldn't really chew them so she spit them out.  I looked at the pieces and they just seemed huge to me.  Is this the size that younger babies than mine are able to handle but mine can't?  I'm still cutting up food much smaller than those pieces.  Tonight, I diligently cut up pieces of our corned beef dinner for the girls.  They loved it, until Middie Biddie gagged and puked it all up.  Hoping it was just a fluke, just a bit that touched her gag reflex the wrong way, we let her have some more, until she did the same thing again.  Months of finger foods and she's still shoving it to the back of her throat threatening to choke or puke, sometimes doing a little bit of both.

Am I holding them back?  They pretty much spend their entire day either in their cribs, on the floor of the small child proofed playroom, or in an exersaucer or playpen.  All of these places are limited but I put them there because they can't really hurt themselves.  I can't imagine the girls getting into anything because they don't get the opportunity to do so.  I also don't challenge them very much in the food department because I'm too afraid they'll choke.  If it was one and I could give them my undivided attention, I'd be a little riskier, but with two, what if both are in harms way at the same time?

If she can be moving her 4 forward, I must really suck if I can barely just keep up with my two.  It's either me, or my kids are slow.  Since I don't really consider that a possibility, I have to conclude that I'm just not very good at this.  What other skills should they have that haven't even occurred to me to be looking for or encouraging?  I'm trying to consider the facebook factor - where you compare your everyday reality to someone elses highlight reel.

I still feel like I suck.