Twinfinity

This week I learned that you never grow out of being a first time mom. There are moments that you and your first born can’t fully prepare for because you have never experienced them. For you and your first born, every new experience is uncharted territory for both of you.

My oldest started kindergarten yesterday. I found myself feeling a bit unsure of what exactly to do in preparation for her to go. I did the things I remember from when I grew up like the first day of school outfit and pictures in front of the house. After that it was guesswork on my part.

I thought about bringing my camera to the school but I didn’t want to embarrass my daughter and I didn’t want to be one of THOSE moms so after taking the pictures in front of the house, I put my camera down and left it there.

We piled in the car and drove to the school. I had no idea if I should just drop her off at the curb or if I should wait until the teacher lined all the kids up and took them into the school.

To decide I did the mature thing and asked my daughter what she wanted me to do. She said she wanted me to wait with her. Decision made, I got everyone out of the car and walked to the play ground to wait.

Slowly other parents began showing up and I was amused to see that almost every one of them had their cameras with them. They lined their kids up and tortured them through pictures in front of the school. I was actually glad I’d left mine at home.

It was amazing the number of parents that turned out to watch their kindergartners line up and disappear into the school. Some parents were crying and some kids were crying, but I couldn’t quite figure out why.

In fact, for a moment I wondered if there was something wrong with me because I wasn’t sad. My daughter had been the first one in line and had held the door open for everyone else. I was proud to see her so grown up. She and I were long past ready for kindergarten.

I waved goodbye and did a little dance on the way to the car with the thrill of a few hours to myself while the younger three napped.

I won’t lie, the afternoon was wonderful. The younger kids napped and I actually got to read for more than 30 minutes uninterrupted.

It wasn’t until we walked down to the corner to meet the bus after school that I began to understand why some of the parents were crying. As I watched my tiny daughter walk down the steps of the huge bus and then come running to me, I felt a little lump form in the back of my throat with the realization that there is no turning back.

She is growing up and will forever more be older, a school kid, and before I know it, a teenager that thinks I am stupid and annoying.

As she ran to me, a huge smile on her face and her backpack thumping against her back, I threw my arms around her and held her tight, hanging on to the moments I have left where she isn’t too cool to hug her mom in public.

I have mentioned before how much I love summer rainstorms, but I discovered that watching my toddler’s love of rainbows far exceeds any joy I get from the storm itself. She was so excited about these rainbows that I had to capture them. Happy Wednesday!

There is a phenomenon sweeping my neighborhood in the form of glitter toes. It may be sweeping the nation, but I don’t get out much so I couldn’t tell you. I can tell you that they are super sparkly and super girly and I love them.

So…

You know you are a mom when:

Looking forward to an evening eating finger foods, enjoying conversation, and pampering yourself just a little with the neighborhood ladies is the main thing that keeps you going through a day with three cranky, post vaccinated children AND you get to come home with these:

Your toes become a form of entertainment because they are so shiny that the twins keep following you around trying to pick them up.

Your front porch is covered with all of the sticky, messy items you sent your children outside to eat in order to protect the inside of your house.

You know that even though you are a mom, you are still a kid at heart and don’t want to believe summer is almost over.

Kindergarten excites you almost as much as it did when you were actually the one going.

Certain milestones that have long been worked towards are met with joy and a little sadness at how fast your babies are growing.

For more mom moments, go to Arizona Mamma’s You Know You’re a Mom When-sdaze.

You know those moments that define parenthood. The ones that are so outrageous that you find yourself laughing simply because you can’t believe what just happened?

I had one of those today.

We survived a surprisingly easy appointment with the pediatrician at which my three youngest all received shots. I had expected the trip to the doctor’s office to be the most interesting (and traumatic) part of my day. I was wrong.

Instead of going home after their appointments, I took my kids over to my mother’s house for a visit. We have a joke that my kids wait to poop (yes, it is one of those posts) until we get to Grandma’s because they ALWAYS do it. True to form, one of the boys promptly stunk up the room.

At the same time the other two kids were busily making noise and discovering new things to destroy play with, so when the stinky boy crawled up to me, I absentmindedly picked him up. Do you see where this is going?

As soon as I had him propped on my hip, I felt something very warm and very wet slide down my arm, followed by an audible plop as it hit the kitchen floor. Praying it wasn’t what I thought it was, I looked down and to my horror found the other twin crawling as quickly as possible towards the unknown specimen.

Thankfully my mother was there to intercept the curious hands. As we were expressing and giggling about how gross the situation was, she diverted the other children and began wiping up the floor (and my leg) while I put the baby that was the culprit into the sink for an impromptu bath.

As I was scrubbing my son, he being ever curious and resourceful, found the nifty little spray nozzle by the sink. He proceeded to squeeze it and successfully sprayed half of my face, hair, and clothing with ice cold water. At this point I began laughing so hard tears were coming down my face.

Kids…what will they think of next?

We managed to get everything clean, including my son, and were once again reminded of why life with children is never boring.

How can I really thank someone who saved my child’s life. How can I truly express my overwhelming gratitude?

As my boys’ first birthday swiftly approaches, I have found myself often thinking about where I was a year ago at this time.

One year ago, I was so hugely pregnant, that I was in constant pain, on bed rest, and taking these horrible pills every six hours to keep my contractions under control. At the end, the doctors gave me Loritab to try to help me sleep, but it didn’t even soften the pain.

It was a very difficult time for me and my family. I was so blessed to have a toddler who was content to play close by while I rested. I am sooo relieved that that was last year and not this year, but still I would do it again in a heartbeat for my boys.

This picture does not do justice as to how large I really was. I was wearing a triple X sized shirt here.

My pregnancy was high risk and incredibly scary. I have briefly mentioned before that my boys suffered with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (I have written a more in depth post but have yet to publish it) which can be fatal to one or both babies.

The last few months of my pregnancy was filled with appointments to monitor my boys and almost constant fear that I would lose one of them in the few days between appointments. I did not relax until they had once again confirmed that both babies hearts were still beating and they were still ok.

I went into labor for the second and final time when I was 34 weeks and 2 days pregnant with the boys. My body had had it and I knew I couldn’t go on any longer.

I ended up having a C-section and because of the TTTS, Baby A had tons (at one point during my pregnancy they drained almost 2 gallons of amniotic fluid out of his sack) of fluid, so the second they got me open, he literally came rushing out.

The term they used for him after birth was that he was “depressed”. Thankfully they didn’t tell me that that meant he was not breathing and his heart was not beating. I still can’t believe I didn’t know my baby almost died until I was more recovered the next day.

Baby A

Baby B

I often think about the team of people that delivered them and then spent 10 minutes tirelessly pumping blood through my tiny son’s body and filling his little lungs with air. I think about the gift that they gave me in acting swiftly and saving my little boy.

This is the handoff of Baby A to the NICU staff.

It may have just been another day of work for those wonderful people, but they changed our lives forever. They gave me my son and I will be forever grateful to them for that. Sometimes I look at him and I am overwhelmed with gratitude that he is here, that they are both here. They beat the odds.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

Baby B is on the left, Baby A is on the right.

0 – Number of times I got to sleep in this weekend

1 – Neighborhood cars successfully washed with the assistance of numerous children (Unless you count the toy car which was also quite successfully cleaned.)

2 – Times I was asked my favorite silly twin question while we were out and about, “Are they twins?” What I would love to responds with is, “Nah, this one is actually 3, his growth is a bit stunted so since he looks exactly like his brother we try to pass them off as twins.”

3 – Hours of church survived with four small children

10 – Sighs of relief when church was over

11 – Popsicles consumed

15 – Times I told someone the boys were turning 1 this Thursday. Yes, I’m a little excited.

25 – Times I found myself loudly singing a song from one my kid’s cartoons

27 – Poopy diapers changed (this number may be a bit inflated, but it sure felt like it was that many)

34 – Number of paragliders we sat watching from our front porch on a perfect Saturday evening

439 – Times some variation of no was said to one of the children

Inumerable – Times I kissed my sweet babies’ heads

I found this creative meme on my new found blog friend Tropic of Mom’s blog. Hop over and join in!

Ever have a real head scratcher moment in your day? A moment where you think What the…? That is what Stacey and I are here to celebrate. Things that make you go hmmm? (Are you singing the C&C Music Factory song in your head yet?)

I love looking at my stats and seeing what, who, and why people visit my site. I have found several of the search terms that led people to my blog to be sometimes quite humorous and other times a little disturbing.

My what the moment is brought to you by the people that performed the following searches:

twins killed mom

I have written a few posts about being tired and the stresses of twins, but I don’t recall any post that would actually match this search term.

mama called my penie goober

This one made me laugh so hard. It showed up shortly after I wrote this post.

in his belly button

Yeah, I have no idea on this one. I even tried googling it myself and couldn’t find my blog listed.

cheerleader confessions and cheerleader forgot bloomers

I see variations of these fairly often. I am thinking that the people searching for these are looking for something a bit juicier than my cheerleader post. Sorry to disappoint, but this is a family place.

I love my retainer

So do I. I’m glad to know other people do too. It lowers my weird factor a bit. I wrote an entire post about this very subject.

Streakers

As of this week, I have now started to get streaker searches. I’m thinking I need to be a little more careful as to what words I include in my posts.

Thank goodness for life’s little What the…? moments. It keeps things entertaining.

I also want to give a special thanks to Lula Lola and Amy from The Adventures of JAMC who have played along with us. This is not to be taken as pressure to participate again this week, just a sincere thank you to some amazing ladies!

The linky will be open until 08/19 at 11:59 PM central time. Feel free to link up at any time.