Didn't realize we're raising bear cubs.........

Ok maybe it's the fact I grew up with identical triplets and twins, or that I tend not to be overly "friendly" and go up to people I don't know. But wow, the "twin" fascination is just insane some days. We have yet to go anywhere without attracting some sort of attention. Not one single outing "sans" comments or looks. That's fine but today it hit an all time high (or low?)

With hubby helping my dad do some tasks, my mom and I decided, as the girls don't have much in fall / winter clothing for their current size, to take them to the mall. Considering what I spent I did really well and even got winter coats. As an added plus up until we were about to leave both girls were happy in the stroller the entire time. Of course people here and there would point out that they're twins, oh so cute, sort of thing.

Well, in the store we found their coats, a girl maybe 6 to 8 years of age was sitting on the floor waiting for her mom to check out and intently watching our girls. Finally when the mom asked the girl to get up off the floor (as to not ruin the sundress she was wearing) the mom commented to her daugther "oh you're looking at the babies - aren't they cute?" To which the little girl answered"

"yes, oh can I pet them?

OMG..............I about died. And from her expression so did her mother. Yes someone asked if they could pet our girls. It was hilarious. The overly embarrassed mother quickly said something to the effect of "no you can't pet them, they're not animals." I'm glad it gave anyone within earshot a moment of laughter - even the checkout girl was trying not to laugh.

Somedays I feel like our house is a zoo. Apparently, I'm not far off.

The ways to measure a half a year

6 months in the scope of how ever many years (yeah yeah thirty I know) isn't a "very" long time, right? But we all know time at least in our messed up little heads doesn't always go by at the same rate, despite knowing it's all a mind game. A minute passes by the same as any other minute and these past six months have taken no longer or shorter than any other.

It's really been half a year? But maybe that's not the biggest reference point. It's been over a year since the "twin" news came - which may have been a bigger initial stunner to us than anything. Still, the first night we had the girls at home was, for lack of the perfect adjective, a slight shock. I had gone into our bathroom to put a few things away and had to stay there for a moment just to collect my sanity (rather to make sense of the fact we had two tiny little newborns to take care of now - no nursery nurses, no idea what we were doing - things we had plenty of time to think about but just hadn't quite grasped)

Rambling over. Trying to get used to our crazy schedule, still dealing with insomnia but at the same time trying to appreciate the moments (however hard at times and it might be a futile effort) I saw somewhere the quote that "your children only get one childhood."

But yeah, there are times it's just hard. Harder than I thought. I do get the reprieve every morning though of walking in to have two smiling faces upon me.

All right, blah blah, to get to the fun statistical part:

Allie - 15 pounds, 9 ounces. 26.75 length.
Audrey - 16 pounds, 7 ounces. 27 length.

Roughly they're both in the 50% for weight and 85-90% for length.

This past week and last, trying to get Allie to sleep has been an extremely frustrating task. She just gets completely bent out of shape and unconsolable. Very exhausting. Well their pediatrician summed it up to separation anxiety (we get home with the girls pretty much at their bedtime, so Allie flips out upon realizing we're doing the "bedtime" ritual and us, the parentals, will be going away so quickly.) He had mentioned that separation and stranger anxiety go hand in hand so of course when it was Allie's turn to be examined, she, compared to Audrey, was far more concerned with what was going on. Not sure if they're genitically identical but it was amusing to watch the difference in how they handled the "stranger" doctor. Audrey had no problem with anyone new. Allie, well, not so much. She also was more upset with getting shots than her sister.

I haven't taken many (well none to be honest) pictures this week so I'll borrow one from my mom. (during a walk this past week)

In times of slight crisis, let's go to the fish........

Ok so yes I've become a terrible (aka nonexistent) blogger. We have a long M-F schedule and weekends are the only time to keep the house up so I'm pretty much a headless chicken as of late who still can't sleep well.

I'm wondering if we are just a tad too late most days for the girls (Allie especially.) She seems to want an earlier bedtime. We put them down around 6-6:15 tonight and while Audrey made one fuss, Allie has been out like a light. Bad part - hard to get home by that time which may be why Allie screams and cries a lot during our normally later bedtime bottle ritual. But we may have found at least a slight deterrance. Yesterday she did the whole screaming ritual and by the time we finally got them to bed, both hubby and I were pretty exhausted. Tonight Allie started to do her 0-60 mad as heck routine and I turned on the little ocean aquarium we have. (We bought two - only one is in a crib so we have a loose one running around.)

Well, whatever the little fish and bubbles are doing, it works. Allie settled down and stared at the fish long enough for us to change her / put her sleep sack on / etc...... Pretty much fell asleep at the end of her bottle. This beats the crying bottle nights. I don't know the retail cost of said aquarium but definitely worth it. I (the mom figure) couldn't even calm her down last night so if little fish do the trick, we'll take it.

6 month (honestly ?????) appointment is next week so fun stats and such to come soon.

Update: So the girls for some unknown reason woke up around 3am (not sure if one woke up and her crying woke the other) but the first time in over a month we've had to go in and work with them in the middle of the night. Hoping very much it was a fluke and once again, back to being tired.

Not much going on...........

Well that's not "entirely" true. We have a pretty "makes for a long day" schedule to adhere too and I'm sick. That equals me being horrible at keeping up with just about anything. I've been slacking at reading blogs, emailing, updating facebook, you name it. I'm just tired by the time the girls are asleep and just want to rest. So if none of this makes much sense, I'm blaming it on the cold medicine. I do love real Sudafed. (aka stuff that contains pseudoephedrine and no, I don't run a meth-lab. But the "pseudoephedrine-free" stuff just doesn't cut it.)

We're tinkering with the girls' bedtime. They seem to do better the earlier we put them to bed so we're trying not to stay too late at work and to get them home before the "overtired completely fussy" baby stage emerges. I don't know if 7pm is an early bedtime for a 5 month old (or two) but at least it seems to be working around here (as I go knocking on every single piece of wood I can find.) The drawback to this is we really don't interact much with the girls on weekdays, but I'm not about to mess up their sleeping routine.

So I'm not a great sick person. Allergies fine....I'll deal but I haven't been "sick" for years. What a PITA. And now constantly worried I'm getting the girls or hubby sick. (Ha! if I'm a bad sick person, hubby is worse.) And our really good friends just had their baby so I'm dying to go see them all, but now I'm stuck waiting. I swear my immune system just gave up. We did go to a big twins club resale last weekend and that may have been the culprit. Although not too shabby to spend $70 and end up with an exersaucer, bumbo and tray, four outfits, and assorted toys and one Carebears DVD (awwww.....hubby picked that out)

At least a good friend is coming in for most of October - I could use a little stress-free time so hopefully hubby will help out so I can have a couple outings.