Jail Birds

Daddy came home last night. He is to rest and not to come back to work for another week. We still don't know what he has.

In the meantime, I better get to the pictures. Two weeks ago, we found Katie partly on top of Jojo. That was our que to buy the second crib. So here it is. Matty thought it was the greatest thing and he joined in on the fun. If only he was so enthusiastic about the crib when he was an infant.

The first night apart, Jojo had a hard time. It took her about 2 hours to get settled and fall asleep. The next day during their floor time, they stared into each other's eyes as if they had been seperated since birth.

In Times of Uncertainty, A Comic Relief

The TV was on Sesame Street one morning and on the TV were ducklings hatching out of their eggs.

Matty: Mommy, look! They're coming out!

Me: Oh yes. The ducks are hatching.

Matty: They're coming out, Mommy!

Me: Can you tell me what that is that the ducklings are coming out from?

Matty: They come out of the mommy's butt!

Hoping for the Best

It's now Day 3 of the hubby being in the hospital. After suffering with a fever for over 2 weeks, and the antibiotic not making him better, his doctor suspected meningitis and admitted him to the hospital. Thankfully, meningitis was eliminated without having to the a spinal tap.


Pneumonia has also been eliminated. After a CT scan which only showed acute sinusitis, and a clear x-ray, the Infections Disease doctor said he could be battling both a viral and bacterial infection (or more than 1 of each). The doctor is thinking this could be epstein barr, but this cannot be confirmed as of yet because most of the cultures that were taken would not be back until a week from now.


The neurologist has his guesses on what this could be, but again, there will not be any confirmation until a week from now.


The good news is that he will be released tonight, but on orders to rest and not go back to work for another week.


The little man was out of sorts since Friday and on Sunday, he had a fever of 104.2 which warranted him a tepid bath. On Monday he complained of his ear, but I didn't think anything of it. Yesterday I took him to the doctor and it turned out that he has an ear infection. He has also been out of sorts since his Daddy didn't come home on Monday. But all was made right when we visited Daddy yesterday. All he needed was some Daddy time.

Rolling from Back to Front

I must go ahead and write this milestone somewhere or I may never remember to do it.

Katie finally rolled from her back to tummy today. Both she and Jordan have been experimenting with this movement for a month or so but have never really gotten it. Katie did it this morning and then again tonight.

They are also becoming more and more different, socially. Katie smiles easily at people she knows, and she gives the biggest open-mouthed smile you will ever see. While Jordan treats her smiles as precious commodity and does not easily give it. You must work for it. Plus, when she finally does smile, she gives a small grin that starts on the side of her face first. Her smile will make you think she knows something that you don't.

Sick Men

The little guy stayed home on Friday because he wasn't quite feeling like himself Thursday night. Yesterday he had a fever on and off and last night he had a high fever. This morning it got even higher, 104.2 F. I was about to nurse the girls when the hubby told me to put the girls down and go with him and the little guy to bathroom to give him a tepid bath. Actually, the hubby wanted to use cold water (to shock the heck out of the fever, I guess), but thankfully he listened to me when I said it must be tepid, NOT cold!

After about 10 minutes in the bath and the little guy shivering, I thought it was enough. We had given him Motrin so it was time to check the temperature again. The thermometer read 102.5. Not bad.

After getting dressed and sitting down on the couch for another 10 minutes, I took the temperature again and it was 103.3. Darn it! I gave him Tylenol and dabbed his body with a wet towel. After another 10 minutes, he had enough and was off to play. Phew.

I took the opportunity to go to the pharmacy and pick up another thermometer (the battery on the one we have is running down) and pick up lunch. When I got home after an hour, the hubby reports that his fever is back again.

The hubby and the little guy are now taking a nap and the girls are also napping. Time for me to rest.

Is it wrong for me to wish that I get sick so that I can just watch over myself and no one else? Nah, chances are I would be sick AND care for everyone at the same time.

Big Boy Bedroom

Matty's big boy bedroom is finally finished. Actually, it's been finished for a while, we just had to wait a long time for missing parts. It was highly frustrating to wait for pieces that were missing, and replacement pieces for the ones that were broken.

But here it is finally. The Cars appliques are great, which are all removable. The pictures are special request by Matty. He wanted pictures of his family right there. The picture with Santa is his favorite one.

Twin Parenting Hair-Brained Idea #1

(Jojo on the left, Katie on the right)

So I finally decided to try and give the girls a bath together for the first time the other day. Daddy was home sick, so I had an extra pair of hands should I need it. Boy, did I need it.

There was slippin' and slidin' going on and it took all of 3 minutes before everyone started screaming. And that included me too.

Off to the internet to see how other moms of twins do this. Or maybe they're all smart enough to not even try it?

Explotion in the Neighborhood

A lot has happened this past few days and I have a lot of pictures to post. But I have no time right now except to enter a post.

Yesterday at about 3:30 pm, Matty had just woken up from his nap and we were all in the livingroom, when we hard a bang. It wasn't loud at all. What was alarming enough that Daddy had to get up and check it out, was that the whole house vibrated. I thought maybe the a tree branch had fallen off and hit the roof. Daddy checked the perimeter of the house and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. He checked out the attic and found nothing.

This morning after I got back from driving Matty to school, I saw police everywhere. There was a police car about every 300 feet or so. And when I turned into our neighborhood, I could hardly drive through the street. There were tons of cars, mobile units, fire trucks, etc.

I didn't find any cops that I could easily talk to without getting out of the car, so I just drove straight to the house with all sorts of horrible thoughts going through my head. Was there a kid that was hurt? Surely some brawl or domestic violence, or even homicide wouldn't require that many police unit.

I turned on the TV when I got home and found out what it was. A house, about 1/4 of a mile away had an explosion. A person, who handles civil war munitions in his detached garage died when the thing he was handling exploded. Twenty or so houses were evacuated yesterday because of possibility of other things exploding.

Wow. We moved from a neighborhood with noisy teenagers, loiterers, illegal immigrants who constantly rang our doorbell at 5am (only to find out that they got the wrong house) on days we would rather sleep in to a neighborhood with older people who keep to themselves, who apparently handles exploding materials in their house!

I have 3 young kids. My heart can't take this kind of excitement. Sign me up for a community in a bubble.

On the upside, I'm thankful our house wasn't one of the ones that had to be evacuated. A sick hubby, a toddler with endless monkey energy (there was no school yesterday) and 8 month old twins would not have been easy to evacuate.

My condolonces to the family of the person who died.

Valentine's Day

It's my 11th wedding anniversary and I got roses and chocolates from the hubby and cards from the kids. All is good and yummy, plus we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Really yummy!

The little man got tons of valentines from school and tons of chocolates. Can we say yummy dinner? He's two favorite occassions now are Halloween and Valentine's Day.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

I swear I will look like a granny in a years time.

I was talking to the husband (while driving home from school) when I hear a cry. I look in the rear-view mirror and see that Matty is holding one of his ear.

Matty: I broke my ear, Mommy. It hurts! Waaaaaaaah!
Me: (I instantly saw him holding a lollipop stick in one hand and panicked.) WHAT DID YOU DO?!!!!
Matty: I broke my ear, Mommy!
Me: Did you put that stick into your ear?
Matty: Yeah!! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh
Me: (talking to the husband) Matty stuck something in his ear and he's crying. WHAT DO I DO?! WHAT DO I DO!?!?!
Hubby: Pull over. Check his ears and see if there's blood or anything, then snap a finger beside the ear and see if he can hear it. Call me back after you check.
Me: (trying not to freak out) OK. I'll pull over. Bye.

I jumped out of the car and went in the back to check, but didn't see anything. I started whispering into Matty's ear and snapping my finger. At this point, Matty starts to laugh. I guess he's OK after all. If I wasn't slightly hysterical, I think I'd be laughing at myself too.

I swear these kinds of occurances age me instantly by 5 years. Had I not been First Aid certified, I think something like this would age me by 10 years. You don't believe I have First Aid training? Well, I do. Trust me. The knowledge is back there somewhere.

Katie the Giggler

The girls are looking out the window and looking at the trees sway back and forth. Why? Because there's nothing more exciting than to watch trees sway and hope none of them snap and fall on our house. Oh yeah, and there was no power (for 4 hours!). That's why. So while Daddy tries to "organize" his tools, and Big Bro paints in the garage, the girls and I stare out the window.

Katie giggles every time I tap the window. Jojo doesn't think it funny at all. To each her own, I guess.

I'm Worried and Relieved.

As I opened Katie's diaper to change her, I found something that looks like a picture of a girl's head. Hmmmm. Was my mind playing tricks on me? I called in the hubby. The hubby looked and said, it was a sticker of a girl and left. As if it was an everyday occurance.

I stared at it a moment longer. I'm worried that somehow Katie is getting a hold of stuff she's shouldn't have, or is being fed stuff she shouldn't have. And I'm also relieved that she's able to pass things that shouldn't be ingested in the first place.

I shudder to think what else I would be seeing in the girl's diapers from now on.

"I want a baby brother."

I was making small talk with Matty after we got home from school yesterday.

Me: Matty, do your friends have baby brothers and sisters?

no answer

Me: Do you have brothers and sisters?

Matty: No.

Me: You don't?

Matty: I want a baby brother, Mommy.

Me: What? Why? Don't you like your sisters?

Matty: My sisters are getting old. I want a baby brother.


We realy don't know where he comes up with these things. Really. It's not like the hubby and I go around the house discussing having another baby. I'm a year behind on my sleep, so I have a long way to go before my brain could even function well enough to discuss another baby.

It was 70F Outside!

On Tuesday, it was 70 F. Yup. It's like summer! So I took the girls out for a walk in their stroller for the first time!

I thought they would end up flopping around from side to side, but apprently, they have grown bigger from the time they were born 8 months ago. How did that happen?! They fit in the stroller perfectly and enjoyed the warm windy day.

But before we even left the driveway, I get a call on my cell phone from the preschool.

School: Matty had an accident.

Me: (the word "accident" conjured up all sorts of bad images, but I tried not to freak out) Is he OK?

School: They were in the playground and he tripped over his own feet and hit his head on the playground stairs. He has a good size knot on his forehead.

Me: IS HE OK? Is he still crying? Is he confused?

School: He's not crying anymore. We gave him ice and he's behaving just fine. I just wanted to let you know.

I called the husband since he got off of work early today and was going to pick up our son. I told him Matty had just fallen and hit his head and has a good size knot on his forehead.

The picture in my head came nowhere near the real thing. It was a like a head growing out of his forehead. This picture was actually taken the day after, so it had already shrunk.

And the title of "Honorary Mommy" Goes To...

I bestowed the title "Honorary Mommy" to my husband this weekend. And it's not just for show either. You know when a celebrity is invited by their alma mater and they show up and all of a sudden they get an honorary Ph.D.? No, it's not like that.

Jojo, as mentioned on my previous blog, refused to nurse. Every time I put her on the breast, she cried. And oh, how she cried. You would never suspect such a sound coming from such a tiny little girl. Well, 14 hours past since she last nursed, I was getting a bit worried and didn't know what to do. That's when the husband suggested that I pump and give her breastmilk via the bottle. I already thought of pumping to relieve the inevitable engorgement, but it didn't occur to me to try to feed Jojo through a bottle. But once the husband suggested it, I thought, DUH I'm sure she'll take the bottle because the milk comes out faster without much effort.

But then pumping proved to be too much. The girls had to be on the nebulizer every 4 hours (each session lasting 20 minutes), and then I nurse one, and then pump for the other. Then I also had to clean the pump. The twins feeding was no longer sync and there was barely any time to sit.

Then the hubby had another bright idea. He said, that maybe while Jordan was feeding, I should take the bottle away and immediately put her on the breast. And that worked again! No more pumping!!!

So, for coming up with solutions (that usually only moms think about) that make my life easier during these trying days, the husband becomes an honorary Mommy. His ideas attest to his involvement in parenting our children. What a great guy. I mean, he talks about breastfeeding with women at his job! How many husbands do you know who can talk about the ins and outs of breastfeeding and not get embarassed about it. Really.

The next day, Jordan was still fussy when I put her on the breast. And since she took to the breast the previous time, I stopped pumping. I put water on the bottle to get her to suck on it, but she didn't want water. Oh, great. I thought I need to start pumping again just to get her to suck on the bottle so that I could transfer her to breast. GROAN.

I jokingly told the husband that I am taking back the honorary title and he got upset. Hmmm. I really meant the title as the ultimate compliment, and apparently, he did too. For the rest of the day, I had to reassure him that he could keep the title.

So, hubby, this one is for you. You deserve it!

What a Weekend

So much happened this past weekend, I don't even know where to begin.

Let me start with Katie's bronchitis. Or so we thought it was bronchitis.

Jan. 25th, Friday - Daddy and I took Katie to the doctor after she's been wheezing for 2 days. The doctor put her on antibiotic and sent us home with our very own nebulizer. She was to be on Albuterol every 4 hours though the weekend. By Monday, though she was still wheezing, it wasn't as bad.

Jan. 31st, Thurday - Jordan was starting to cough. By 11am, she refused to breastfeed. By 2am, she still hasn't breastfed and so I was beginning to worry. Daddy suggested that I pump because she may take a bottle. Sure enough, she took it.

Feb. 1st, Friday - Jordan and Katie are due for their RSV shot, and Katie is also due for a follow up with her bronchitis. Since we're already there, I decided to have Jordan checked out. First of all, the doctor said Katie's wheezing wasn't any better and that her antibiotics wasn't working. To top it off, Jordan now has the same thing. They were given new antibiotics and were put on Albuterol and Palmicort (a steroid).

By Friday night through Saturday, even Daddy was up with me in the middle of the night. I nursed Katie, while Daddy had Jordan on the nebulizer. When Jordan was done, he took Katie on the nebulizer, and I pumped so that I could feed Jordan through a bottle. It was a very long Friday night and very long Saturday.

Feb. 2nd, Saturday - Jordan finally takes the breast, making life a bit easier. Daddy suggested that I take away the bottle in the middle of the feeding and I quickly offer the breast. It worked!
We had to resort to this trickery for the rest of the day. Oi!

Feb. 3rd, Sunday - Katie is no longer wheezing, so I have weaned her off the Albuterol. But she's still on the steroid. Jordan still sounds like she's smoking 4 packs of cigarettes a day, so she's still on continuous round of Albuterol and steroid.

Today Jordan is only wheezing intermitently, but Katie is wheez-free.

Phew.