Little E

After brother F got out of the way, Little E took his time to be born, finding more room than ever to stretch out and swim around. Nearly 30 minutes later, Dr. B had to take control and make him appear.

Always just a little bit smaller than F, what he lacks in size, he makes up for in personality!

In an acrostic, "E" would stand for eccentric. That is a good way to describe our littlest man.

He came from humble beginnings, determined to live on this Earth , he hitched a ride with brother and snuck his way into the womb. I guess it could easily be argued that F was the one who did this, but for some reason I have always felt like if there had only been a singleton, it would have been F. I am so grateful that he "tagged" along because I cannot imagine life without him.

Once in the womb, he didn't find much room, so he ended up taking residence on my right side, under my rib. He had so little space that he didn't have much room to move, giving me a scare more than a few times that I couldn't count his fetal movements. Because of this, I thought he was going to be this quiet child (or I was hoping he would be) but he was just resting up because once he took his first breath, he made sure everyone knew that he was feisty!

From about 1 month until 6 months old, both of them were "colicky," one of the worst experiences of my parenthood. The best way to calm E was to put him in his car seat, put him in the bathroom with the light off and the fan on. He preferred listening to Elvis while riding in the car, and he always resisted diaper changes and screamed during bath times up until at least a year old.

Finally, he learned to calm down and the real E started to emerge. He makes funny faces and likes to act, like pretending to eat food from a bowl or lap water out of a cup like a dog. I know a lot of toddlers do this, the thing about him is that he can go on and on for quite a while, he does not break character!

He likes to hear songs and will clap when you finish singing. Sometimes he walks hunched over like an old man, just to be silly. He is fearless and is working on perfecting his climbing skills.

He is our precious boy and we love him dearly! Happy 2nd birthday, E!

Mr. F

My littlest fellas are rarely spoken about individually, it goes along the territory of being a twin, I suppose. So, I am going to write about them separately to celebrate their uniqueness.

From the very beginning, F was the candidate for alpha-twin. He occupied more space in utero, he was the active guy that would dance on my left kidney and kick my spleen, and he even managed to fight his brother to be the first one to take a breath of air.

F is flirty, he is quick to offer up a smile at people in public or show off his dance moves for others. Despite his confident attitude, he is scared of fast movements, like swinging too high on the swing set.

He usually leads the way in developmental milestones, he sat up first, walked first, and is now perfecting his toddler tantrums first.

He enjoys hearing the "ABC song" and "twinkle twinkle little star." He gets excited about doing the "hot dog dance" with Mickey Mouse. He enjoys playing with toy cars, and crawling into my lap to read books.

He enjoys playing chase with his brothers, running around the kitchen island while emitting shrieks of laughter. In rare moments, he will let me cuddle him and he will strum my arm lightly with his little fingers.

He is our F and we love him very much. Happy 2 years, sweet boy!

B2

Our sweet second born celebrated his 5th birthday this past week.
This kid gets so excited talking about his birthday and his birthday cake!

He is our only baby that waited until nearly his due date to arrive (actually, he was evicted by induction,) he was the only one that took to breast feeding, slept well, and was content being held.

Nowadays, he is rambunctious, hilarious, and affectionate. He enjoys playing games, working jigsaw puzzles and mazes, and being a big brother to his twin brothers.

Today he told me that when he grows up, he wants to be, "a daddy, scuba diver, chef, astronaut, chef, boxer" and he added singer to the list after singing the songs from vacation bible school.

If you ask him what his favorite color is, he will say, "all the colors in the rainbow and not in the rainbow." He will also tell you that he loves babies and puppies and that he is allergic to anything that has whiskers. He is allergic to cats and that has somehow morphed into lions and tigers.

He is our sweet boy who is heading to kindergarten this fall, will be playing soccer, and is learning Tae Kwon Do.

We love you, B2!

Update to Twins and Toddler Beds

Since I wrote the previous post, more changes have occurred. The twins have perfected turning their toy bins over and using them to boost up and grab at wall decor, baby wipes, etc...
So now their toys are without organization since I had to put the bins away.

The summer sun comes through their east-facing window most of the day, and since they had pulled down their black-out shades, I had to hang a blanket up, just to the point they can't reach it. This blocks a little bit of the sun, but still isn't a great solution for nap time.

The biggest change came today when I heard a crash and opened the door to see that they were climbing on the sides of their toddler beds and pulling each other off. The reason I turned their cribs into toddler beds was because I didn't want them climbing on their cribs, falling out, and potentially breaking a bone or have a head injury. With that being said, I spent this evening taking down their beds, now they are left with their mattresses on the floor.

They have less things in their room than an inmate has in prison, but they are happy anyway.
At bedtime, they were using their mattresses as a tumbling track of sorts, laughing and enjoying each other.

I thought it was difficult having twins as infants, but these toddler twins are beyond anything I have handled before or could have imagined. While taking deep breaths and taking it minute by minute, I will get through this stage too.

Twins and Toddler beds

I haven't had time to write lately with a combination of my whole household having an epidemic of stomach virus and end-of-school-year activities. However, the youngest two Moore's have been making lots of changes lately that are pretty cute, I really must share them before they fully move into the toddler phase and I forget how cute they are for a while (or until they turn 5).

The major change that has occurred is that last week, F started to climb out of his crib. Brad heard him fussing, which is nothing unusual when they are having a party while they are supposed to be sleeping. He went to check on them and saw F hanging on to the outside of his crib. He rescued him and the next morning was spent converting cribs to toddler beds, for the last time (I may have shed a tear or two at that realization.)

It is something that I have done twice before, but there are special considerations when allowing two toddlers to roam free during naps and night time. I had to go through all the toys and take out anything that could become a weapon. So basically soft toys and books were left. I turned the dresser around so they couldn't climb on open drawers or shut their brother's fingers in them. We anchored the bookshelf to the wall in case they decide to go mountain climbing.

Even with all of this, they still managed to find ways to cause destruction, keep in mind it has only been a week. They completely tore down the black-out shades on the windows, pulled the moulding off from under the window, broke their lamp, and are severely sleep deprived from not sleeping as long at night, and skipping naps during the day.

This change has been difficult, but there are some really sweet things that have come out of it. I went to check on them during nap time because I kept hearing a lot of laughter and some loud noises. I opened the door and saw F sitting in the middle of the room, but E was no where to be seen. I finally saw him laying on the bottom bookshelf with a huge smile on his face.

It has been fun to open the door and see where they are sleeping/playing. Usually they can be found next to each other either on the same bed, or the same spot on the floor.

I think this experience has really strengthened their relationship, they seem to be playing together even more, having more conversation, and even caring for each other. One night E was so tired that I had to hold him to calm him down to sleep. F kept coming over to "check" on him and trying to cover him up with his blanket.

A few days ago, I was running late getting them up from their nap and loaded into the car to pick B1 up from the bus stop. I went in their room and of course E had gone #2. I didn't have much time to move him to another location to change him, so I did it right in the middle of their floor. F saw an opportunity and came over, took some wipes out of the container, and started trying to "help" me wipe E's bottom! Although it was really gross, and hard to contain while I was trying to fight with E to hold still and not get poo everywhere, it was pretty funny and I couldn't help from laugh. That will be a great one to tell them when they are older!

I am going to hold on to this phase as long as I can, but before I know it, they are going to be asking where their bunk bed is, just like their older brothers sleep on.

Confessions of an Isolated mother

I have never claimed to be super organized or have "it all together" when it comes to childrearing. To prove this, I am going to let you in on a secret, I don't take the twins many places. Especially not all four kids together, the thought scares me! However, sometimes I wonder if I am being overly dramatic and think maybe it is just my anxiety that stands between my kids and the front door.

One of these moments happened a few weekends ago when we attended a first birthday party for our friends, Lindsey and David's twins (B and G). Our entire family was invited, and since our youngest two are twins, there was no doubt in my mind that we would all go.

F and E are very mobile these days, climbing, running, opening and shutting doors and cabinets, you name it, they are exploring it. So the plan was for Brad to keep an eye on one and I would watch the other. Seems like a good plan, right? It wasn't that simple, however. F and E were all over the place! Being that they were in a new environment, kids and toys were all around, and there were lots of adults to give them attention, they might as well have been at Disney World.

From the very start, it was obvious my plan needed modifying because they were snaking their way through the crowd, admiring knick knacks, and attempting to make escapes through doors. So instead of being assigned a tot to watch, we kind of traded off depending on our position in the house. I ended up mostly following E around, he was the one that wanted to do laps around their downstairs.

F was fairly content staying in the main room playing with toys, so Brad camped out there with him. Meanwhile, the older two were being their usual rambunctious selves, they were totally disobeying the lecture they got on the car ride over about being calm, about how it was a party for babies, and to be respectful, etc...

From the moment we arrived, the big boys took off to the upstairs part of the house which was not included in my battle plan. They came down frequently to rummage through the food and kept bringing me cans of soda to open (I refused after the first one). I felt my energy draining quickly, I barely felt like I was at a social event, I spent the entire time following E from room to room, while he kept looking over his shoulder and laughing because he thought it was a game of chase. He completely ignored my attempts at getting him interested in a toy so that we could stay in one place for a moment.

Then came time for the cake. Lindsey did a great job planning this Elmo-themed party! Both babies had an Elmo smash cake on their high chair trays. About that time, E was trying to figure out a way to the backyard. I tried to pick him up, but all that lead to was kicking and crying, which would have been very distracting to the moment, so I took him outside.



Cute Elmo cakes!

I heard the familiar "Happy Birthday" song followed by clapping and laughs. Then I recognized the screaming and laughing of my older two boys. I scooped up E and ran into the house. B2 had this life-sized balloon of Elmo and was chasing B1 and a few other young kids around the house. I immediately rescued the mylar Elmo and turned my attention to Brad. I gave him the unmistakeable "it's time to go" look and proceeded to gather up shoes and supplies.



That is one BIG Elmo!!

Brad didn't follow me to the front door, so I went back to the party, that is when he told me he couldn't find F! I felt like he had pressed the code button and my adrenaline suddenly kicked in. Fearing the worst, I ran to the front yard where I heard a neighborhood dog barking. I looked around, no F in sight. After surveying the grounds, I ran back inside. Several adults had joined the search party. After what seemed like an hour, (probably only 5 minutes or less) everyone met in the foyer empty-handed. 

I was about to start hyperventilating when someone mentioned that someone was in the downstairs bathroom. We held our breath as she knocked on the door, no answer. She opened it and revealed a wide-eyed little boy who was in the dark and had unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper into the commode. He started giving us that pathetic whine when he wants us to feel sorry for him. I scooped him up and gave him a big hug!

Not related to this event, but an example of said look.

We finally got out the door with all four children accounted for, and headed home. That is when Brad revealed to me that not only had B2 caused great disruption while running around, he had also eaten Elmo's eyeball off of baby B's smash cake and licked the cake too! B2 is a huge cake fan, like his Mama, but I was mortified that he had taken it to that level!

 

Poor B, he had no idea what was about to happen.

 Miss G was not going to let that boy get her cake!

Fortunately, Lindsey and David are very understanding and forgiving people. They even gave me permission to post this confession and pictures. So lesson learned, I will just stay at home until I have another moment of temporary insanity and then perhaps have another confessional blog post.

I am guest posting!!

Hi readers,
I am delighted to be guest posting on a friend's blog this week while she is on "maternity leave" from her blog after the birth of her third child. Please follow the link and visit the Vanderbilt Wife.

Beth

Www.vanderbiltwife.com