1.46 Hurricane Sandy in Pictures!

By Cyndi
October 30, 2012

Over the past week, we have spent a lot of time indoors, therefore, this will be a week in pictures!!!

Someone didn't want to leave the park!

Happy boys riding their cars around and wearing hats!

Who needs to see to drive?!

T&Z have watched one episode per week of Yo Gabba Gabba and maybe not even that much.  It is the only thing they will actually sit and watch!

With terrible twos approaching quickly, there are cute moments and tantrums.  I hope we have more of the first!!

PS.  Hurricane Sandy was a lot of rain, wind, but no power outages (for us).  We did have some minor foundation leakage in the basement, which we were able to manage with towels.

There is a first for everything ...

By Cyndi, mama extraordinaire freshly from the ER
October 23, 2012

Yes, yes, if you read carefully, we had our first ER visit today.  I was on my way home from work (a little early) since we had a birthday party to attend when I received the dreaded call from daycare that Tyler had a 103 degree fever and they felt his breathing during nap seemed somewhat labored, which he had woken up from 30 min prior.

Luckily, Matt was off today and went to pick him up and we met at home.  We called the nurse's line at the pediatrician and they suggested to go to the ER.

We arrived, checked in quickly.  Tyler would barely stand on the scale to be weighed.  Poor guy looked bad.  They took his vitals, temp 102.8, and did a flu, strep & RSV test.  They also wanted a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia.

We then had a breathing treatment which Tyler was not fond of at first, but was fairly cooperative.  A popsicle was his reward for completing that and he started to perk up with ibuprofen.  Waited some more and finally had the chest x-ray.  We waited some more but Matt had to leave at this point to pick up Zach from daycare.

Yup, our little guy has pneumonia.  I opted for an antibiotic shot to get working in his body ASAP, and will start oral meds tomorrow.  We have an inhaler to help with breathing, as needed.  After a total of 3 hours, we were released.  The doctor said that he sounded better with one breathing treatment so she didn't feel we needed to do IV fluids/meds and stay any longer.  Phew!

Both little guys played for a bit when we got home and then went to bed.  I guess there is hope that next week, we won't have any sick calls for daycare since every week this month we have had at least one.

1.45 Fall is in the air!

By Cyndi
October 22, 2012

We had another touch and go week with daycare.  I swear they must think we have the sickest kids and until recently, we had never worried about fevers, etc.  This time, it was all Tyler ... fever spiking AND then he had a rash all over his torso.  By Friday everything seemed to have subsided.

We had our fall pictures at an apple orchard on Saturday.  I'm not holding out hope that there will be many decent pictures.  Zach was uncooperative starting about 5 minutes in, no joke.  He didn't want to be held, so I tried to put him down.  Nope, he didn't want that either.  Finally at the end, I think I might have seen a partial smile when we put him in a huge crate of pumpkins.  Oh well, there's always Spring pictures, right?

Here are examples of the great smiles that did NOT occur while the photographer was around ... thanks kids!

The only "big" news for the week is the boys switched groups in their room at daycare to the oldest group.  At the end of this year or early next year, T&Z will move into their preschool program!  Timing will depend on when they rotate other kids out of that room, making room for the 5+ kids in the toddler room who turn two in December & January.  While in preschool, they will wear polo shirts with the school logo Monday through Thursday; while they are super cute, I don't get to do as much shopping since we will only need clothes for 3 days a week.   We now have plenty of clothes for the winter and might even be set for spring since I buy ahead.

We have officially booked our flights to Chicago for Thanksgiving.  I am NOT looking forward to sitting in an enclosed space with a 28lb kid who doesn't know what he wants, thus he cries with gigantic tears streaming down his face.  This does NOT sound fun to me.  We will be making our normal food stops at Portillos (at least once), Lou Malanti's pizza & Tsukasa (an amazing hibachi place near my dad's).  And of course, time with all of our family and friends.

Uncle Daniel and Aunt Jill reading books

Word Count: Ball, Cheese, Bye, Uh Oh, bubu (bubble), Down, Choo Choo, Beep Beep, Airplane, Shoe, Sock, Train, Hi, Help Me, More, Water, Milk, Puzzle, Pretzel, Mickey Mouse, Fan, All Done, Oh no, Dog, Mommy, Daddy, Mail, Hello, Din din (dinner), Up, Ready, Shopping, Truck, Tractor, Turtle, Bus, Flower, Butterfly, Bagel, Applesauce, Star, Tree, Nose, Mouth, Eye, Tummy, Light, Outside, Butt, Flower, Moon, Cow, Duck, Chicken, Sheep,
Signs: More, Milk, Please
What does this animal say: Dog, Horse, Sheep, Cow, Lion, Snake

1.44 Little socialites!

By Cyndi
October 15, 2012


I am still exhausted just thinking about the weekend we just survived.  The boys' social calendar is filling up with birthday parties and fall fun events.  Trying to fit in our normal errands while keeping them entertained is exhausting.

We had a friend's bbq on Saturday afternoon/evening.  He has been hosting bbq's for 6 years (remember this one !)  We've been attending at least once per summer from before being engaged, engaged, married and now with the guys.  We still had a great time.  The boys enjoyed snacking in their wagon.  Tyler loved the slides and Zach actually ate a few bites of my hamburger.

Zach, Tyler & their buddy Lincoln

And then ..... Zach had his first party foul.  Matt was cleaning up and left a cookie on the chair.  I leaned over to grab it since it was in Zach's reach and while I tried to give Matt his cookie, Zach grabbed my beer.  He poured it all over himself while he tried to take a drink.  They don't know how to drink out of an open cup, thank goodness!  Poor guy smelled like beer all the way home!

Todd, Tony & Matt

Sunday we had a birthday party at a local farm / fall festival.  It was incredibly busy since it was a perfect fall day.  We went on a hayride, had some eats & enjoyed some slides. 

Ahhh the life with twins, one stays, one goes!

And here I am Monday evening with the kids home from school since Tyler spiked a fever and now can't go to daycare tomorrow.  Matt's to-do list on his one day off for the week will not be touched now that they guys will be home.  I guess it can wait another week!  Till next time ..............

1.43 SAHM .... maybe not!

By Cyndi
October 7, 2012



After our last post, the sickness had not fully left our house.  The guys didn't go to daycare until Thursday and then we just hoped that they would be able to stay all day.  Their diapers are still not normal, over a week later.  Their entire room at daycare was hit with this bug, teachers included.  This was one nasty bug. 

So during the course of the last week, I've been home with the guys much more than normal and I'm not cut out for full time SAHM.  My daily activity is to run errands.  I'm not crafty/creative in the moment.  Everyone survived, but I need to figure out some additional activities, because as winter moves its way in, there may be more stay-at-home days on the weekends and I need to be more prepared. 

Sharing twin style

Let's play Mommy wraps you in a blanket and sees how long it lasts!

We FINALLY have all of our furniture (majority of it was still in the townhouse for staging when we listed it).  The air mattress that Matt and I had been sleeping on was not cutting it anymore.  It is so nice to have a bed.  We now have to start to unpack everything else and hang pictures and make this place look more like a home.

Daddy daycare was in full swing today since normal daycare was closed due to a professional development day for the teachers.  I arrived home after work to two happy kids.  He did something right!! :)

Word Count: Ball, Cheese, Bye, Uh Oh, bubu (bubble), Down, Choo Choo, Beep Beep, Airplane, Shoe, Sock, Train, Hi, Help Me, More, Water, Milk, Puzzle, Pretzel, Mickey Mouse, Fan, All Done, Oh no, Dog, Mommy, Daddy, Mail, Hello, Din din (dinner), Up, Ready, Shopping, Truck, Tractor, Turtle, Bus, Flower, Butterfly, Bagel, Applesauce, Star, Tree, Nose, Mouth, Eye, Tummy, Light, Outside
Signs: More, Milk, Please
What does this animal say: Dog, Horse, Sheep, Cow, Lion, Snake

1.42 Worst.Weekend.Ever

October 1, 2012
By Cyndi

Actually, let me revise that.  Grossest.Weekend.Ever.

It was supposed to be a fun weekend with our friend Jason visiting from San Francisco, who we get to see once per year.  Friday went off without a hitch.  Matt dropped the kids off at daycare and picked up Jason.  They went to Matt's facility for a tour and out to lunch.  I made it home from work and we picked up the guys.  This is when it started to get bad.

Zach was super whiney all night.  When it came time for milk, he wasn't interested at all.  Not Normal!  Then ..... to my surprise, out came dinner.  Ugh.  I cleaned him up and since he was acting fairly normal, I put them both to bed.

Every time on the monitor I head a cough, I got worried.  Waited a minute or two and went up to check.  So far, we were okay.  I started laundry load #1.  Matt came home an hour early from work and I sent him up to check.  Not Good.  Not Good At All.  Let's just say, it was everywhere on both of them, we gave them a bath at 9pm.  Round #2, ugh.  Laundry Load #2. 

An hour later, repeat.  Ugh. Round #3

An hour later, repeat.  Ugh. Round #4

At that point, we were exhausted and went to bed.  There were a few mid-night check-ins, but they lasted until morning.  Matt went to work and I hoped today would be normal.  You could tell they were totally out of it, but they kept down water and kix.  Everything was good until 4pm when Tyler lost it in the playroom. 

Sunday was fairly normal and the guys eating was slowing getting back towards normal.  I decided that after an awful weekend, I would stay home Monday.  Matt felt pretty bad Monday morning but still went into work.  Let's just say the bug hit both of us Monday and sadly, Jason went home from work early on Monday.  Gosh, I feel absolutely horrible.

Here's a few pictures ... let's hope that we get over all of this.  The timing is not great, as we are doing the last cleanup and movers out of the townhouse.  We close next week!

Smile!

KIX!!!

Awesome Craigslist score -- play kitchen and tons of play food for $40

Sunday dinner before the sick bug hit Matt, Jason & I