Tonight's Project (1/2 done)

It is 11:45pm so I am actually calling it quits for tonight and I'll make another set of these tomorrow night. It shouldn't take me as long to do because I have all the candy colored and in bags, ready to go. I set up a little workstation right next to the microwave as I have to melt and re-melt different bags of candy as I go. Good thing I'm not making 50 of these detailed ones!

101 Dalmations Halloween

My MIL is the greatest. She loves us and she loves her grandbabies. I think we are really lucky to have her nearby (well, in Ellensburg). We had decided to be 101 Dalmations themed for Halloween this year, and mom obliged us by making dalmation puppy costumes for the boys. Raymond loved wearing his puppy hood. Which is funny, because I can't get him to keep a hat on to save my life (or his)! Maybe this winter he'll have to wear a warm hat underneath his puppy hood to stay warm.
Here we all are, at our yearly Halloween party with some special friends. I've had this Cruella DeVil costume for awhile now, and have gotten good use out of it. It was fun to wear it again as an ensemble crew. My MIL is in the middle, she is dressed as the maid to the couple who own the dogs, and Timo is dressed as Horace Badun, one of my henchmen.
We also celebrated Mom-K's 60th birthday this weekend. Happy birthday, Mom! Grandma-D surprised all of us by showing up on Saturday to visit with us and celebrate Mom's birthday. Here are three generations of the family, all together. Grandma-D is 83 years young!
And finally, late last night, I carved our pumpkin. I can't take credit for the design - my sister emailed me a bunch of cool carved pumpkins, and this design was one of them. But even though I hate talking about or hearing or watching (on TV) people puking, I really wanted to carve this pumpkin. It was the easiest, quickest carve I've ever done. I didn't even cut a "lid" but just carved the design and then reached in through the mouth to make it "puke".

We also filled the favor bags last night. Today/tonight's project is making detailed Sesame Street character candies to decorate the birthday cake.

Sleep Issues

After months of rocking, bouncing, shushing, nursing, etc. to get the boys to sleep (or back to sleep in the middle of the night), taking hours on end at times, we finally broke down and said "I can't do this anymore" and we are letting the boys cry it out (CIO).

Now, for those of you who feel strongly against CIO let me just say now that I don't want to hear it.

The first time was in the middle of the night, both Timo and I had been rocking and shushing a boy for an hour or more. We were both very tired and simply had to put them in their cribs. They had been nursed, changed, temp in the room was good ,etc. They just didn't know how to fall asleep. Ray cried for longer than I know, cause I finally fell asleep. Dario only cried a little.

The next night we put them to bed (after their nightly routine), Ray cried for 45 min, boy was that hard. Again, Dario cried for much less time, but we always knew he wouldn't have as much trouble as Ray because Ray seems more dependent on me in general.

Now, most nights, they hardly cry at all going down to bed. My MIL was here the first weekend when we "gave up" two weeks ago, and was the one who went to check on them that first night of CIO, and found Ray sleeping slumped in an upright position at the end of his crib facing the door. That was heartbreaking and hilariously funny at the same time. Now, she thinks I've traded my boys in for new babies, because they went down so easily this weekend.

But there are still times that I struggle with myself, trying to decide, do I go in there? Do I soothe him, reassure him? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. If I know his basic needs are met (fresh diaper, warm milk in belly, good temp room, clean bed, comfort blankie ready at hand) I'm most likely to let him figure it out on his own. The "he" I'm talking about here is Ray. Because like I said, Dario hardly makes a peep anymore either going down to bed, or back down after a middle of the night waking. But Ray is my Mommy's boy, for better or worse, and I love him for it - but I also ache at his apparent heartbreak at having to be apart from me to sleep.

But I feel really liberated and I get a lot more sleep now since we made this decision. And, it's crucial with me going back to work a few days a week, working evening shifts. Timo will have to put them to bed by himself, and he never could have managed it alone before.

400 some meatballs later..

Update: Timo was awarded the champion meatball roller award for the day. Look at those beautiful, uniform meatballs all lined up in rows and columns! You the man, sweetie!

Today was a very long, busy day - but a good one. We got a lot accomplished toward our goal next week Sunday of the boys' first birthday party. My parents, niece, and mother-in-law came here today and we made 400 some meatballs for the party. I don't really think we need this many, but that's just how it turned out. I gotta get some sleep. But - they're really yummy. I don't think that there's a day this week that I don't have a project to work on for the party. Let's see -

Sunday - make colored, detailed Sesame Street candies to decorate the cake
Monday - fill favor bags
(funny, I forgot Tuesday in my original post. I guess Tuesday's task is to watch Beauty and the Geek with my hubby. Sssh, don't tell him I told you, he's addicted to this show!)
Wednesday - make and color icing
Thursday - bake cakes
Friday - fill layers and ice cakes
Saturday - decorate cakes, Timo shops Costco for rest of food items
Sunday - arrive at location early to decorate

We'll have my 15 year old neice over the Saturday just prior to the party to help watch the boys while I get all the final stuff done.

Wow, I'm so tired. Gotta go.

4 Hours of Candy Making

Candy lettering for the cake to make decorating the cake "easier"

50 Sesame Street Candy Lollipops for the favor bags at the party

Peanut butter & Chocolate
White Candy & White Candy layered with Chocolate

Solid Chocolate

What I do know is, I am not my sister. She is amazing with this stuff. You should check out her website at http://www.cakesadorned.com/ to be completely amazed by her cakes, candies, cookies, and other confection creations.

Is it worth it? I guess we'll see when the kids open their favor bags, and see if they even notice the two little themed lollipops along with the mass merchandising candy in there.

Dario amazed me today

This has been the boys' favorite toy since they were about 6 months old. They play with it A LOT but up until now, they have not shown any interest or understanding about the shape sorting feature of this toy. Well, this morning, Dario was playing with this toy all alone (I was nursing Raymond) and he took the circle piece and tried fitting it through the square hole in the lid. Nope, doesn't go through, what about this other hole? Yup, he put it through the circle hole. I was such a proud mama! I was amazed that he did this on his own, without any leading or encouragement from an adult. I mean, I have showed them before that you can put the shapes through the holes, but that Dario figured it out on his own and shape sorted that toy, I was just so proud.

They're growing up already. I can't believe it's been nearly a year.

I remember when they were in the NICU, and it's hard to imagine that we have come all that way. I wouldn't wish that upon any parent, to have their baby or babies in the intensive care unit, for any length of time. But I do remember it, and it's hard to believe that was part of our journey now that we're here.

First Birthday Extravaganza (aka Headache)

The boys will be one year old in just a few short weeks. We have fallen into what I am calling the 1st birthday big party trap. I'm hoping that everyone (including myself) will have fun at their party but I am a little skeptical. It seems like stress on level with our wedding - and although I will be glad to see everyone that comes to the party, this will likely be their one and only really BIG party. We have invited aunts, uncles, cousins, great aunts, great uncles, great cousins, great cousins kids, and friends too. We didn't rent a hall, although I'm starting to wonder if we should have. We're having the party at my brother's house. Did I mention I'm making the cake? I'll post pictures when it's all said and done. Thankfully we are getting some labor help from family with the food prep. In the future, I think that we will only invite the boys' aunts, uncles, cousins, and a few friends. How did I think that I should invite all of my and Timo's aunts, uncles and cousins too? Probably because they were always invited to my parties when I was a kid, so it seems to make sense that they should be invited to my kids' parties. But with two large families, well, you see what I mean when I say it's stress like my wedding. Not really, though. I mean, it's only a birthday party, right?

Here's a few choice photos I took of the boys in the last few days. Sorry for the red-eye, we don't have any image editing software on the computer right now.

Gotta love Dario's dimples - he loves smiling for the camera. What he really loves is chasing after me when I am trying to take his picture, trying to grab and eat it!

Raymond is a little trickier to try to get to smile. The camera flashes the pre-flash orange light at him and he doesn't quite know what to think of it. I'm sure I was playing peek-a-boo with him to get him to smile like this.

Daddy is tickling Dario while I sit in the rocker with Raymond. We really love this picture because it shows all of Dario's teeth!

I thought that Raymond looked like a little mini-college professor in his corduroy pants and turtleneck, so I had to get some pictures of him like this. I also realized by taking this picture that turtlenecks really show the fact that our little Raymond has almost no chin, but is all forehead. Perhaps someday his face will grow to catch up with his huge noggin.

Love Affair with Q-Tips (and other good stuff)

I know I shouldn't use them - and every time I run out, I go another 6 months or so before buying more. It's like an addiction, especially after showering and I just feel the need to dry out my ears really well. I probably have hearing problems because of wax buildup from forcing it further into my ear from using cotton swabs. But no matter how much I tell myself it's bad, it feels so good.

On a less disgusting note, I have decided to attempt to blog for 15 minutes each day, to try and record some of my thoughts and also any accomplishments or other fun stuff I'd like to remember about the boys' day.

Dario has learned how to drink really well from a cup. When I put just a very small amount of water into his cup (a regular, plastic drinking cup, not a sippy cup) and hand it to him, he will put it up to his mouth, drink, drink, drink, until it's all gone, swallow it, and then play with the cup.

The boys love to chase each other around the living room, laughing the whole time. They also love to steal toys from one another, pull each other down from a standing position, stand on top of one another or crawl over one another to get to where they want to go, wanton disregard for each other's presence or safety. I try as much as possible to let them work things out for themselves and intervene when somebody's safety is at stake. Regardless of all of these types of interactions, I am so glad that they have each other. I think that their relationship will make them stronger people, in the end.

We have been watching a show on TLC called "Jon & Kate + 8" about a family that did infertility treatments, had a set of twins, and tried one more time for another, and ended up with sextuplets! It is a great show for us because it makes me feel like less of a freak as a mother of twins. And, it's a really funny show. They have been doing this show since the sextuplets were babies, apparently. They're now 3, and the twins are 5 or 6 I think. If you want to feel really humbled as a mother, you need to watch this show.

We left the boys with a babysitter on Saturday night for the first time. We have gone out before and had their grandma watch them, but never a non-family member. We went to a good friend's wedding, and it was totally worth it. I am so glad we got a sitter instead of trying to bring them along with us. I didn't really know anybody at the wedding except for the groom and one other friend of Timo's, but we met some people at our table I got to talking with, and the best thing for me about the night was that my kids weren't the center of conversation. It just felt really good to have a conversation that wasn't about kids, questions about twins, etc. I feel like when we are out together, I am just the nice lady driving around the star attraction. It doesn't seem like anybody ever wants to talk to me anymore, or if they do it's just questions about the boys. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I love sharing about them, but I don't think I realized how much I needed to be more than their mommy until I got to spend 3 hours with adults who don't have kids yet.

I'm starting work on November 5th at the local hospital in a per-diem position. I'll be working 3 days a week for about a month for training, and then I will pick up shifts on an as-needed basis. It's a great situation for us because that way I can bring in some money but not have to work all the time, or anytime that I don't want to. I'll be working evenings 3pm-11:30pm so we'll be using a babysitter from 2pm-6pm on weekdays that I work. We have been trying to sleep train the boys to make it easier on Timo to put them to bed by themselves. I am still nursing them so that might make things more difficult at bedtime with me away. But I am excited to be going back to work, knowing that it can be as little as one shift a week, or less, if I choose (after training is complete). I am excited about the chance to have some "adult" time and keeping up in my profession, while still having most of my time with my boys (this includes hubby).

Well, it's been way more than 15 minutes and I ought to go to bed. I hope there are still a few of you out there who haven't given up that I would update my blog. I hope you are all doing well, and I'll try to read your postings soon.

P.S. The boys 1st Birthday is coming up (Nov 4th). I'll post about that tomorrow.