Anyway, the point is that I am doing the same thing every day. Here is a bit of how the schedule breaks out. Don't worry, there are pictures coming up.
4:00 AM: One or more of the babies wakes up and demands to be fed. This is our new alarm clock. It most often has me awaking to laughter because I find the babies' cries funny sometimes. As I often tell Marcy: "It is such an impotent rage, isn't it?"
4:10 AM: After we blindly stumble through a house that has become a veritable minefield of discarded spit rags, chew toys and forgotten binkies, we arrive in the nursery and have to change the morning diaper. What bothers me is how devious their little smiles are as it happens:
4:30 AM: The morning bottle is eaten and, if we are lucky, nothing that has been placed into their volatile little Mount St. Helen's stomachs has been returned during the burping process. Once this is over, I finally get my reward. Xander now loves to sit in my lap and talk to me first thing in the morning. It is often the highlight of my day:
4:45 AM: The babies go back to bed but it is time to go to work, so no more sleep for me.6:30 AM: On the weekends, we often try and get a bit more sleep until they wake up again or the older kids wake up, then it is time to clean up and get ready for the next bottle.
8:00 AM: After the regular morning bottle, the twins like to veg for a bit in their swings. They don't often wake up lively and want to play. They are slow risers. Here is Tony, stretching as we wakes up. He loves to smile and giggle at passersby:
10:30 AM: After swing time comes tummy time, where we are learning to push up on our hands and wiggle our feet. This wiggling is a subtly effective form of movement. They often creep in circles, covering most of their play mat in the process. Here is Xander, doing the mat dance that is sweeping the Allen area: The Creep.
12:00 PM: Time for another bottle and then it is nap time. Now by nap time, we mean that they have to lay in their cribs. Sleep is negotiable.
2:00 PM: Nap time is officially over when we can no longer stand the screaming. Time for diaper changes and perhaps a little practice sitting up while Mommy holds our hands, like this fine example from "Thing 2", Tony:
Or perhaps they spend some time sitting in their "Bumbo" seats, these really neat plastic seats that they have now to teach the babies to sit up on their own. Here is Xander with his canary yellow version with an assist from big brother, David:
3:30 PM: Another recent afternoon distraction has been bouncer seats. They are now old enough to at least hang lifelessly from them like chubby, fleshy marionettes. Here is an example of the fun. First up is Tony:
Xander is still a little small for the big torture device, so he gets the lower to the ground scooter style. we have to put a pillow under his feet to reach the ground but he loves bouncing around in that thing:
6:30 PM: David and Beth have been so great about helping out in the afternoons and evening when the boys start really getting fussy. Little brothers just love their big brothers....until they get older at least.
7:30 PM: Dinner is now solid as we are learning to enjoy things like peaches and green beans. Once this over, it is bed time.
8:30 PM: The night is time to do fun stuff with the older kids or just hanging out and trying to decompress. The older two have had a lot going on lately. David, for example, recently starred in his school's production of The Wizard of Oz. He played the Cowardly Lion and he was excellent and funny and really stole the show.
10:00 PM: We collapse in bed and try to get a little sleep before the whole thing starts all over again.
4:00 AM: The screaming alarm goes off again....time to make the donuts!
Author's Note: I am having the most fun of my life. I never knew how much we needed these twin boys until God threw them into our lap.
Another Author's Note: Thanks so much to Maw Maw for all of the pictures above. Our digital camera was dropped...er...broke and so these are the best and most recent pictures we have and may be the last for a little while until we can procure a new camera.
One Last Author's Note: Thanks for dropping by, and sorry we all have been out of touch. It's been a busy six months :-)
