Vacation Day 1: Friend's Twins' Birthday

We left on a Saturday morning, with Grandma and Grandpa's help, at about 7 am (Mountain Time). We drove all day to Oklahoma City, stopping whenever it was needed. For lunch we had a picnic at a rest area so the kids could run around for a while. I love Texas rest areas because they are so nice.

We checked into our hotel at around 4:30 pm (Central Time), changed the kids into water clothes, and headed over to my friend Charissa's house. She was my best friend and roommate from college. We haven't seen each other since I was pregnant with my twins, and that weekend was the 1st birthday of her twin boys. It's a great bond we share by both having twins so close together.





We ate food, watched them open the twins' gifts, and joyfully talked as all the kids played in the water toys.

They're big kids now

Side Note: We had a blast during our week long vacation in Branson, MO with my family. I'll post pictures about that later. But first...

I realized last night that I officially don't have babies anymore (for 6 more weeks anyway).

We rearranged the guest room over the weekend. The twin beds that were together are now on separate walls, and we removed the box springs. We moved Ryan and Alyna's clothes into a dresser in the new room. All afternoon yesterday we played in that room as we moved things around, and we were sure to keep calling each bed "Ryan's bed" or "Alyna's bed."




When bedtime came, Ryan was fussy and anxious. He knew something was just not right because we kept saying "your room", but it was a new room. When we finished reading books in their beds, Alyna laid back in her bed with a big smile on her face. She was so proud of herself for getting to sleep in a big bed.

Ryan was crying. It wasn't an "I don't want to sleep," cry. It was a "What's going on, this is scary," cry. So I sat by his bed for about 5 minutes, stroking his head and telling him how proud I was that he was sleeping in a big bed. It didn't take him long to calm down, and I left the room.

Within 5 minutes it was completely quiet, and both were asleep. Alyna won the award for falling off the bed first... about 30 minutes later. We heard little cries until about 10 pm, but they'd be asleep whenever we went to check on them. They slept solidly all night (to my surprise). Ryan woke up at 6:45, and was already off the bed when I got in there, but I'm not sure how long he had been off the bed. We left the room and let Alyna sleep another 15 minutes.

They both smiled a lot this morning when I told them how proud I was that they slept all night in their big beds in their new room. But they are both fussy today. It's a combination of being home from vacation and changing rooms all at once. We wanted to do this move while Grandma is still here to help me this week.

Hopefully nap time today will go as smoothly as bedtime did.

(And Ryan has peed in the potty 2 times this morning.)

Wrestling match on Ryan's bed...

Cute story

I remembered this story last night sitting at church. Last week was so busy with VBS and recovering from VBS that I forgot to post it.

One of the twins friends at church is Cole. He is 3 now, but is only about 14 months older than they are, so he was in the cradle roll class with them until he turned 2. Since they were tiny he has called them the babies, and he still does. He sees them at church and says, "Hi babies." It will be interesting to see if he stops that once they move into the 2-3 year old class with him in September.

Anyway...

Cole's older sister (a teenager) passed this story on to me. Last week as they were headed to the Wednesday night VBS program they told Cole that he needed to be good and stand up and sit down when we said to.

He said, "I'll stand up when the babies' Momma says to stand up."

It took them a minute to figure out who the babies' momma was... it's me. I'm the "Babies' Momma".

3 year olds are so much fun...

She wants what she wants

Alyna asserts her preferences throughout the day. I try to give her 2 choices on things so that she picks an approved item (like snack), but it doesn't always work that way.

On Sunday morning, I got them out of their beds, and as they were playing in their room I went to the closet to pick out a dress for Alyna to wear to church. Last week she wore a pretty blue sundress with little pink fish around the bottom. It was the first time she had worn it because she has a closet full of dresses we received as hand-me-downs from a friend of Aunt Robyn's. So I pulled out a brown dress with polka-dots and said, "how about this one." Alyna shook her head "no" and pointed to the blue sundress. I said, "We wore that one last week. How about this one?" as I picked up a green dress with cherries on it. She shook her head and said, "That," as she pointed to the blue sundress.

I decided it wasn't worth arguing over, and she wore her pretty blue sundress to church. The only people who even knew she'd worn it the week before were those whom I told the story.


Her preferences also extend to which Pull-up she wears. She actually prefers the "Cars" and "Toy Story" Pull-ups over the pink Princess Pull-ups. It's not too surprising since those are 2 of her favorite movies at this point. We've watched some of the princess movies, but they don't capture her attention just yet. It also isn't too surprising since in my baby book it says that my favorite toys were my brother's cars. She's a lot like her mother, I guess.

She has become quite attatched to her baby doll that Uncle Daniel and Aunt Katelyn bought her for her 1st birthday. She picks it up and carries it around a dozen times each day. She puts it in buckets and boxes as a bed, and give her lots of hugs. She hands the baby to me or Daddy to hug, and then expects us to give her back.

She gets upset when Ryan picks her baby up... that's her baby doll. Of course, he gets upset when she plays with his Lightning McQueen car so it's all fair. They share most everything, so it's good for them to have a toy that is their own.

vacation time

Vacation time doesn't quite mean the same thing once you have children. I still do pretty much the same thing every day regardless of whether Barry is on vacation or not. His 2 weeks of vacation starts today.

We're just staying home this week. He has to adjust back from his night shift schedule, and then we have things to do around the house and yard. I'm hoping we'll fit in a trip to the pool with the kids at some point this week. They really enjoyed it last time we went.

Thursday night my parents will drive into town. Friday we'll pack, and Saturday we will drive off to Branson, MO. I'm so glad my parents will be along to help us out on the trip. I don't think I could make it otherwise.

Saturday night we'll be staying in Oklahoma City where my best friend from college lives. I'm excited to meet her one year old twin boys, and for her to meet our almost 2 year old twins. We haven't seen each other since I was pregnant with the twins.

In Branson, we'll be staying at a resort with my parents, brother's family, and sister and her husband. 2 of my aunts (Mom's sisters) and one cousin will be staying nearby, and we'll have a mini-family reunion. We'll see a couple shows, and go to the Springfield Safari Park, but mostly we'll just be together swimming and playing.

We'll stay there Sunday through Friday and then head home again. My mom is accompanying us home too, and will be staying with us for that week. That will help me a lot since Barry has to go back to work, and I know I'll be worn out after the drive home.

Skinny boy problem

My skinny boy has presented a new challenge... he's too skinny for the smallest Pullups size. They stay on just fine, but he has too much room to mess around with them.

Here's what I mean:
The past TWO days in a row, Ryan has come to me fussing to go potty around 8:30 or 9 am... so we go. He sits there for 10+ minutes, and doesn't pee. It's not a big deal, and I take him off the potty. 5-10 minutes later, he has pulled "it" out, and peed all over his shirt, shorts, and the floor.

I guess I'm just not letting him sit there long enough, and I'll have to go back to using plain diapers so I can tighten the waist. He really loves the Cars Pullups though, so it's a major motivation for him.

Other times he fusses, we go, and within 2-3 minutes he pees... so it's not that he doesn't know what's going on. I don't know what the deal is at that time in the morning.

VBS Rainforest Adventure

This week was our VBS at church, and we had a blast. It was a rainforest adventure, and I helped teach a lot of new songs as well as singing all the songs the kids always love. I didn't have to be the narator during the assembly time this year which was a big relief. I just helped with the songs, and taught the new songs in the music class.

The songs that came with the program were great because the chorus parts were the exact words of the memory verses each day. Then there were fun songs about the rain-forest and following Jesus.

My co-teacher for the music class is 5 months pregnant with twins, so we laughed at ourselves a lot doing all the kids action songs and getting really tired. The funniest was when we'd sing "Hip-hip-hip-hippopotomus, Hip-hip-hooray God made all of us" while swinging our arms down by our stomachs to be big like hippos. We were already big enough...

Ryan and Alyna were in the nursery again this year, and the workers took them around to the different activities during the day for short times. They would come to music class with the 3 year olds and sing songs with us. On Monday, they both ended up in my lap because they didn't understand that Mommy was the teacher. On Tuesday and Wednesday they were both content to sit in the helpers' laps.

Nap times were off a little this week because Alyna would fall asleep on the way home. Tuesday, I made the mistake of letting her sleep for about 20 minutes on the couch, and then she didn't nap at all when Ryan took his 2 hour nap. However, they made up for it all on Wednesday. I (myself) took a 2 hour nap, which means that they slept for about 2 hours and 15 minutes without stirring. It was bliss.

Wednesday night after dinner I asked Alyna if she wanted to go bye-bye... and she actually shook her head, "No." That's a first. Neither one really complained when I put their shoes on to go to church for the wrap-up, but everyone commented that they looked tired.

It was a long week for all of us.