I Used to Think I Had Lots of Patience, Now I Have Toddlers

I used to think I had lots of patience, really now I'm not so sure.  The boys are almost 2 1/2 now and pretty typical toddlers.  I feel like all I ever say is no.  "No no no no NO!", "Shut the Fridge", "Don't touch the trash", "Stop jumping on your bed", Don't climb on your changing table".  I'm trying to do my best as a parent, but I find myself wondering sometimes if I'm doing everything right, am I yelling too much?  I can't be the only parent who feels this way right???

Don't get me wrong, the boys can be total sweethearts.  Owynn now says "I luf you" which makes my heart melt.  Oliver really loves hugs and snuggles.  And they are pretty darn cute.

So not the most current photo, but I love this one. Oliver and Owynn their first Halloween 2011.

 

 

But then there are days like today where I was counting down the minutes to nap time, hoping that after they get up they will be in a better mood.  (Owynn didn't nap and is quietly hanging out with us in the living room playing with his kindle fire.  Oliver is sound asleep, he really needed it.) 
Or yesterday; the boys woke up and instead of going into the living room and turning on the tv or getting out their kindles, they decided they needed to raid the pantry.  They dumped corn meal all over the carpet in the living room.  Dumped out my baking soda on the kitchen floor, along with onion soup mix, yeast, and other baking supplies I keep in there.  They also got into my little baggie of hershey kisses I had saved from my baby shower that said "It's A Boy", which were almost 3 years old, there were bits of wrapper everywhere.  The boys also got into the birthday candles, we're hoping they didn't eat any of those.   
Or the day before yesterday.  They pushed Oliver's bed up against their dresser so they could reach the stuff on top.  They got down a small bottle of lotion and got it all over Owynn, Oliver's teddy bear, and the bed.

I've been told by other parents of multiples that things don't necessarily get easier, just different.  I can see that, but I'm still really hoping this stage will get a bit easier.  

Big Boy Beds: Update

The boys have been in their new beds for about two months now.  They have been enjoying their new freedom a whole lot.  It has been a challenge though trying to get them to stay in bed at night and especially at nap time.

Nap time right now is the hardest.  They still need a good nap every day, but they have decided that naps are over rated.  It just depends on the day and how tired they are, if they wind up napping.  If they don't nap they usually will play in their room for a couple of hours.  But on no nap days we usually end up with two very grumpy toddlers and Oliver like this during dinner:

Oliver asleep during dinner...again

Bedtime is a bit easier.  We still have to go in and tuck them in a few times before they finally fall asleep.  It usually takes them close to an hour to finally wear themselves out and fall asleep.  Tonight went quickly though.  They didn't nap, were exhausted, and John sat in their room with them until they fell asleep.  Which was a very welcome change from Saturday night when the boys decided that jumping on their beds was a good idea (it was in fact a very bad idea.)  The boys sleep in the same bed just about every night now.  Owynn likes his space, but Oliver always winds up in bed with Owynn one way or another.  I have found though that they sleep much better when they are together.  Owynn used to wake up around 3am every night, but he rarely does anymore.  They also are able to comfort each other better this way.  Occasionally Owynn will wake up crying and 90% of the time Oliver will comfort him and they will fall right back asleep without one of us having to go in to tend to them.  Plus they are super cute snuggled up in bed together!  All in all making the switch to toddler beds hasn't been nearly as bad as I had feared. 

Owynn and Oliver

Oliver at the top and Owynn.  I don't know how Oliver managed to get into bed with Owynn like this without waking him up.

This night was a struggle.  They are both asleep, with Oliver literally on top of Owynn.

Oliver and Owynn.  Owynn declared my socks were his, took them off my feet, and put them on his.  He slept with my socks on over his jammies all night.

Owynn and Oliver

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

It's Time for Big Boy Beds!

John had to change the boys' cribs into toddler beds on Friday, much sooner than we expected to.  When I went to get the boys up in the morning Oliver was in Owynn's bed!  I asked John if he put Oliver there and he said "noooo..."  Uh-oh.  We have their cribs next to each other with about a 2 foot gap between them.  John watched Oliver at nap time Friday pull up on the edge of his crib and slide across into Owynn's.  We had been hoping to keep them in their cribs longer, but apparently they have other plans.  I suppose it's about time, they just turned 2.  Right now I am very very happy that when we bought their cribs we had the foresight to spend the extra money and buy two nice, convertible cribs.

The first two nights went pretty well.  Friday night we tucked them in like normal, and they were up and out of bed in just a few minutes.  We put up a gate in their door way to make sure they didn't get into anything if they got up in the middle of the night.  They played for about an hour before the novelty started to wear off and they went to bed.  They wound up in their own beds and tried to cover themselves up with their blankets.  They woke up nice and early, but they stayed in bed all night without a fuss.  Yay!  Yesterday we spent the day over at John's parents doing laundry so the boys didn't get a nap, so they were pretty worn out by the time bedtime came along.  Oliver fussed just a bit , and they wound up on the floor in front of the gate nodding off.  I tucked them back into bed and they slept just fine all night.

Nap time today has been a different story.  We put them down for a nap about an hour and a half ago and they have been playing pretty nicely in their room since.  So I guess I'm glad there hasn't been any fussing, but there definitively hasn't been any sleep yet.  I expect to have two grumpy toddlers tonight.

They were pretty darn cute the other night, here are some pics!

Owynn

 

Owynn, Mommy, Oliver

Oliver

Owynn and Oliver

    

all photos are property of doubleotwins.com

We're Back From Our Winter Hiatus!

I'm hoping my winter hiatus is over.  Like most of our tv shows!  We haven't been so much busy here as sick.  Thanksgiving was good.  Our weather was gorgeous, just days before we were having beautiful sunny days in the 70's.  It was a little weird listening to Christmas music while it was so unseasonably warm. 

Oliver and Owynn

Then we all caught super mega awful worst cold ever.  I wonder if it may have been the flu, it was horrendous.  I lost my voice for almost a week and I missed two days of work.  I finally dragged everyone to see the doctor.  Everyone else was fine, but I got antibiotics and man did they help.  Apparently my throat was still all nice and swollen and red.  And then immediately after we all caught the stomach bug.  Ugh!  Christmas was great though!

Oliver, Mommy, and Owynn

  We were all healthy for the week between Christmas and New Year's, but by the time the boys' birthday rolled around we were all sick again.  I succumbed to the cold this past Friday and then on Sunday I managed to severely mess up my stomach.  I finally started feeling better Thursday night.
 The boys are doing much better now too.  I am sooooo ready for Spring and to be healthy again for some sort of extended period of time.   Between work, everything going on at home, and being sick, I just haven't had the time or energy for much of anything else.  I've barely been on the computer, never mind blogging.  On Tuesday I was able to take almost a 3 hour nap after work, it was amazing!

On a happier note John filed our taxes last week.  The company John used holds our filing until the IRS starts accepting them, which was supposed to be on the 30th.  But today John got a text saying that our filing was accepted by the IRS.  OMG! It is such a relief.  I'm really hoping we get our refund soon, we could really really use the money.  I'm thrilled though that they accepted them early.  Tomorrow is Friday and we earned jeans day again, I love jeans Fridays.  And it's Friday!  Yay for the weekend!  I am hoping to try and get some more posts together this weekend for next week. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

brought to you by Stacy

We completely messed up our sleep schedule yesterday, but man my nap was nice.  I got home from work just before 5 and we put the boys down for a nap soon after.  They weren't too happy about Mommy getting home from work and then putting them down for a nap though.  John and I were pretty worn out so we decided to take a "quick" nap too.  Ya, so that totally didn't go as planned.  We woke up at 9:30pm and the boys were still sleeping! Crap!  So the boys didn't actually go to bed until about 12:30am and I think I managed about 2 & 1/2 more hours before having to get up for work in the morning.  I am doing surprisingly okay right now.

Work has been crazy busy and the grumpy customers have been out in force.  Which I am sure will get even better since they just cut our hours (ugh! Please note the sarcasm here).  I love this video, and seriously this stuff actually happens way too often.  I have literally dealt with everything in this video. 

I am pretty positive I am going to get stuck working the late shift on Halloween and I am pretty bummed about it.   I am hoping to have a Halloween themed weekend at least.  I want to make Halloween shaped frosted sugar cookies.  I have my Mum's homemade sugar cookie and frosting recipe, they are so incredibly good.  I also want to carve a pumpkin or two.  We did this every year growing up and I haven't done it in a long time.  Now that we have the boys I want to start carving them every year.  I always loved it growing up.  It should be lots of messy fun!

Hopefully this week will get a bit better.  Tomorrow is payday and time for more budgeting, that always gets me depressed.  Happy Tuesday, at least the weather here is gorgeous!