Hiatus

Everyone calm down! Yes, this is me, blogging again. I think the last time I posted was back in February. Can you blame me for stopping? We just had twins (which I was NOT handling well), we were moving into a new house, and well, blogging was beginning to feel like a chore. But Ryan recently pointed out to me that 1) family members are mentioning that they miss my stories about the kids and the insights into our lives, and 2) We have every second of Lilly's life documented on the blog, but none of the twins'. That last point made me genuinely sad. So, for the sake of the twins, I'm going to try harder to blog more. If you were sick of me before, just you wait....

I'm going to try and find a balance between going back and recapping, and just starting from where we are now, with a few flash backs. Bear with me.

Anyway, leaving off from Link's stay in the hospital. That little guy made a full recovery and THEN some. He's such a chunker now! I remember when he was born, we called him "old man," because he had so much loose skin and he was so wrinkly. He's a big boy now, and I'm pretty sure he's going to play football.

Back in March, we finally made the exciting move into our new house. We can finally say that we're no longer basement dungeon dwellers! I had a few hectic months of decorating this place, but now it's all homey and perfect. I'll see if I can find some before pictures, so you can get the jist of how much work went into the house to get it the way it is now. The BEST thing about our house is our neighbors. The Coles. We met them when we did our initial walk through, and have been best friends ever since. Lilly ADORES their son Carter, and Crystal (his mom) and I joke all the time that they're going to get married.

Twin update. Well, they're 9 months old now. It felt like sleeping through the night and holding their own bottles was never going to happen, but both have, and we are LOVING it. Link is a bit of clingy baby. Okay, not a bit, A LOT clingy. If I leave the room, he starts whinging "mom, mom, mom" and will eventually break down crying until he can see me again or until I'm holding him. Then he whips out the biggest "I got you" grin and melts my heart. He's such a flirt, too. All the grandmas have to stop and talk to him when we're at the store. Personality-wise, I'd say he's more fussy (hence the clinginess), and he likes to pick on Ellie. He'll hit her with toys, take her toys and then hit her with them, like "Hey! This was mine! *BAM*!" He's a sweetie, but he has a naughty side. He weighs about 22 pounds. He's BIG! But so was Lilly at his age, and then she grew UP, and that all balanced out. He's a super fast crawler, especially if he sees my phone, food, or Ellie is touching a toy that he thinks is his. He's pulling up on EVERYTHING, and I think we'll have a walker soon.

Now, Ellie, she's my sweetie. She has her moments of meltdowns (but what woman doesn't?) She loves to give kisses, which are just her latching on to your face, open-mouth, and creepily swirling her tongue around your lips or wherever she's attached herself. I still love them, though. She has three teeth. Her top vampire tooth is about to emerge. She loves to say "mom" and "dadadada". They've both discovered the stairs, so we've had to put baby gates at the top and bottom. It gets really annoying, since the cats get trapped, and Lilly can't really move about all that freely. Ellie is just barely starting to pull up on everything, but when she gets standing, she panics because she doesn't know how to get back down. Falling onto her butt isn't a concept she gets yet. Both babies LOVE actual food, and only have a morning bottle and evening bottle. I'll jump for joy when we don't have to buy formula anymore.

As for Lilly. Well, she's 3 1/2, and isn't afraid to let you know it. All day, every day is filled with her begging me to play with Carter. We share backyards, so if she sees him, I can't say no. If I let her outside by herself, she goes and peeks into their back door like a stalker. Ugh, this girl. We bought her a real bike with training wheels on it for her birthday, but she's so freaked out by the slight teetering that the training wheels make it do, that she refuses to ride it, and cries bloody murder if we force her. She's a picky eater, and usually doesn't eat much during the day, and then right before bedtime, she's ravenous. And sleep, let's not even start. We've spent the last few months torturing ourselves, trying to figure out how to make her sleep longer. She goes to bed at 8 and, like clockwork, wakes up at 6 every morning. At first, she'd let herself out of her bedroom, play in the playroom, wander the house and commit all sorts of shenanigans, and, my favorite, let herself into our room every 20 minutes or so to tell me she made me pretend breakfast, or that she needs help putting on her princess dress. I had enough of that! So we put a handle lock on the INSIDE of her room. That created its own problems. She'd yell and pound on her door, begging to get out, or complaining that she had to go potty. Our current solution has been to put her little portable potty on a waterproof mat, and she gets up and goes when she has to. And we've moved a bunch of toys in there, so she's not bored. And, I'll admit, I may or may not have threatened her sweet, little life that if she bangs on the door or yells before I come to get her, she may not live to see age 4. It seems to be working!! Haha!

There's not really much to update on Ryan and myself. I've been having lots of medical issues, still stemming from the medication that my doctor put me on right after having the babies. I was SO proud of myself. I had the babies and was DOWN 30 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I felt so great. Then I started to have trouble sleeping (you know, anxiety from having twins and all), so he put me on this medication, and flat out says to me "this is going to make you gain weight". 50 freaking pounds later!! UGH! I feel like a whale again. All my hard work GONE! So I've been seeing another doctor, trying to work out other meds with different side effects. I completely cut out soda. No sugary drinks for me! I live off Crystal Light, and nearly cry every time I see someone with a Mountain Dew. We bought an elliptical, which, if I'm lucky, I get to do 30 minutes on every night after the twins are in bed. But suddenly I'm having debilitating migraines EVERY day. I swear, if I take anymore Tylenol (which really doesn't help, so I don't know why I even take it, I may need a new liver). My body is rebelling against me, and I blame the doctor that gave me the initial meds after the babies. Oh well, pity party over. It is what it is.

So, to tide you over while I find my "before" house pictures, here are the monthiversary pictures of the twins. Unlike with Lilly, getting pictures each month has been like pulling teeth. I get MAYBE one good one each time. BUT, as you'll be able to see from the pictures, and all pictures to come, I have THE HAPPIEST, smiliest babies EVER. They are so mellow and happy, and I'm so grateful for that.

This was back when Ellie was still dealing with her tummy issues (which turned out to be a lactose issue)