No Crying...

On Wednesday night, for the first time in over a year, Mary Catherine went into the nursery without screaming as if she was losing a limb. 

She walked right in the door as if she had done it all along. 

You should have seen the dropped jaws of the ladies who know her from the nursery. 

Let's hope it continues. :)

We Did It! We Did It!

We Did It! We Did It!
(cue the Dora tune in your head...)

I put the twins down for nap and no one got up!  They are asleep at the same time! 

Hip! Hip! Hooray! 

Although I'm not naive enough to think that this will happen every day, I will say that I'm so thankful that consistency (and discipline) has paid off once again. 

Now, if only there weren't hundreds of other parenting dilemmas in my life...

I Wub Bubba...

I was getting Henry dressed for bed and he was doing the 'Naked Baby Dance' around the room in his diaper. 

Yes, we have the Naked Baby Dance in our house, complete with chant, clapping, and attempts at 'dancing', but it's more like spastic jerks.  It has been going on since Kinsey was born and was such a fabulous thing that it has spread to Jason's brother's home as well with all of his children. 

So, in the midst of this ritual, Mary Catherine ran up and hugged Henry tightly and exclaimed, "I wub Bubba!"  It was the first time I have ever seen her do that and it melted my heart. 

Sweetness! 

Watching the two of them almost makes me wish I was a twin, but then I remember that when twins grow up that sometimes that sweetness kind of fades and turns into ultra competitive snarky moments in between whipping the tar out of each other, or at least that is what we experience with Jason and Karl...

Just kidding.  Sort of. 

Maybe, Just Maybe...

I only had to go up once today during naptime. 

Mary Catherine is getting wiser.  She still gets up and gets toys, but goes back into bed at least, so we are making an improvement.  I still take the toys out of her bed, but at least we are making progress.  Right?

Henry, bless his heart, gets up and plays until he's busted, gets in trouble, and quickly cries himself to sleep.  At least he gets a nap. 

I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...but I'm in trouble if it's a train...(kudos to KGervase for that line)

Algebra for Babies

Bad Naps + Bad Bedtimes= Fussy Children

Fussy Children + Messy House= Whiny Mama

TV- Fussy Babies = Peace and Quiet (for 22 mins)

Whiny Mama + Peace and Quiet= Nice Mama

A Solution for Now...

In order to achieve peace and quiet during naptime, I have been enlisting the help of Kinsey and Kerrigan.  They are taking turns 'resting' in the room with the babies until they fall asleep.

In exchange for their services, they can either play DS, listen to their MP3, or watch Netflix on the Itouch with headphones while waiting for the twins to fall asleep. 

If either twin gets up, Kinsey/Kerrigan removes something precious from his/her bed.  Usually, this causes a ridiculous amount of screaming/crying, which exhausts him/her into falling asleep. 

However, because Kinsey/Kerrigan are in the room, it's immediate and the offender does not get the joy of playing before he/she is caught.  I'm afraid that Mary Catherine has a little bit of Kerrigan in her, which means that she'll take the lickin' if she gets to do what she wants and in conjunction with that, I am not sure that Henry really understands what is expected of him at all.  He is either very stubborn or very clueless. 

We have done this three times and so far it's working very well.

I Miss Naps (part two)

For the last hour I have been upstairs five times.  Yes.  Five times. 

First Time: Mary Catherine was beside Henry's bed.
Second Time: Henry was at the end of MC's bed chucking books at her.
Third Time: I cannot remember, but I think MC was up.
Fourth Time: They were both up playing.
Fifth Time: Mary Catherine was in Henry's bed and he was up playing. 

Seriously.  What happened to my favorite part of the day?  As I write this, I hear someone walking above my head.  Here we go for number SIX.  ugh.

and then we had number SEVEN... good grief.

I Miss Naps...

So gone are the days of putting the twins in their cribs for nap and walking away for a few hours of peace and quiet.  They used to nap almost three hours.  THREE HOURS! 

Now, due to their recent Houdini escapades, they are in big beds.  You know what is wrong with beds?  There are no bars!  Seriously, what is the problem with making a lid and bars on a twin bed? 

So, now I have the *joy* of spending most of nap time disciplining the escapees until they fall asleep.  Now, when Henry wakes up before Mary Catherine he gets out of bed and wakes her up.  Not pretty. 

Yesterday was the first time that I went in (when I heard them) after naps and they were both in the own beds reading books.  Yay!  I thought...

Then last night, I had a meeting for CC in my living room and we put the twins to bed.  Their bedroom is over the living room and I could hear them running all around for at least an hour.  I didn't go up because I was in the middle of the meeting and at least they weren't crying for me.  Not surprising, they have already figured out how to be quiet when they are disobedient.  When the meeting ended at 9 pm I went upstairs expecting to find them both passed out on the floor or quietly ripping books, but they had made it back to their own beds and were sound asleep. 

Sweetness.