Hello- A lot has been going on lately as life continues to be a juggling act and I have had no time at all to even think about posting to this blog, or respond to emails, etc.  Even with Myke's mom here to help us we are still non-stop busy.  I've come to the conclusion that I NEED an extra set of hands.  It's a necessity with three small children.  I make do by myself, but it's SO hard--especially during the feeding time as that takes at least an hour on my own.  Every 3-4 hours.  Luckily, Chloë is slowly starting to play by herself a little more.  I know this is good for her to be able to do so I try not to feel too bad about not being able to give her more attention.  She is such an active little girl lately-- rarely sits and quietly and plays with toys -- always wants to play basketball, baseball, ride her bike or scooter, etc.  She also insists on wearing her Phillies t-shirt that her Aunt Patty gave her.  It's pink and has #26 on the back.  Chase Utley (according to Maureen..I have no clue).  That paired with pink shorts is her favorite outfit.

Okay, I have to close as the crew is ready to head out the door.  It's Saturday and our adult to child ratio is 3:3.  Yay!  We are heading up the coast on a drive today.  There is a yummy restaurant on the beach (that has a lot of gluten free options) that we love so going to go there for lunch.  I'll throw in some pics:

Beautiful birthday flowers from my parents!  

Starbucks even remembered my birthday!  They sent a coupon for a free drink!  

Below:  Concert at Kate Sessions Park last Sunday.  They have a free summer concert series every Sunday for a month in the summers.  It's always a great time!

Anie with Owen 

Myke and Owen 

Eli & Heather 

The crew

Vaccine time!  :(  

My little lovies!

Mom-Mom took Chloë to Sea World! 

Eli smiling

Birthday breakfast (I turned 32!) with Heather & Chloë

at Broken Yolk

Mom-Mom is Back!

Myke's mom has returned to Pacific Beach to spend some more time with her west coast grandkids (and us?) before she goes back to work at the end of this month.   We always welcome an extra set of hands around here.  Three kids is a juggling act to say the least.  Often it runs rather smoothly, but sometimes the days on my own can be quite daunting...for example: trying to put Chloë down for her nap (and doing her nap rountine- book, etc) while hoping the boys stay quiet while sitting downstairs in their bouncy seats can be a bit stressful.  There is no one to attend to them for about 10-15 minutes so I'm holding my breath they stay calm.  Mainly because if they cry Chloë gets upset and can't fall asleep herself.  Even in the middle of the night, if she hears one of them crying and it wakes her up, she screams hysterically.  We rush to her room, open the door and she says, "Baby Eli crying" or "Baby Owen crying" (and she ALWAYS gets it right.  Always.  Even when she's behind a closed door and the baby is crying on a different level of the house. It's amazing).  I go to great lengths to protect her sleep because a tired Chloë is a very challenging Chloë.

Anyways, I'm typing this at 4am and need to go back to sleep so I'm going to close.  Here are some cute photos Maureen took with her phone:

Both are smiling all the time now!  Owen just started laughing as well.  Eli started about a week ago. It's the best!! 

And one I took at Kid Ventures a couple days ago

Just Some Pics of My Bambinos

Chloë and the Boys

Hmmm...not too much to report.  We are just busy as bees over here.  I rarely have time to type a blog these days, let alone do anything that doesn't directly involve the care of a small person... The days are a bit of a whirlwind, especially the days when Chloë doesn't have preschool.  Right now she goes on Tuesday and Thursdays for 3 hours, 9am-12pm.  We're discussing changing it to M/W/F so I can have a bit more "help" or time with just the boys.  Wrangling the three of them at once can be quite overwhelming, but usually it's all dependent on Chloë's mood that day...or should I say that minute.  She can be good as gold and super-sweet or she can be cranky and testing me every second all within a 2 minute period.  She loves her baby brothers, but sometimes the love of a toddler can be painful.  She likes to give them big hugs when they are in their bouncy seats, then the next second I see her pulling the backs of their bouncy seats all the way to the ground and then letting it go, in what looks like an attempt to catapult them right out.  They've definitely gained air.  I've started making sure that I strap them in for the ride...just in case there is one.  She also likes to "tickle" them which ends up being more like pinching them, or she pokes at their little heads.  I definitely do feel guilty a lot because she is often asking, "Mommy can you play?", "Mommy, play now?", "Mommy play ball?" and I have to continuously say "Just a minute", "Right when I finish this...", or "As soon as I'm done feeding the baby" or "I can't right now, Chloë" etc.  I know it's all part of it and it's good for her to be able to play alone, but still...it can be hard...and it breaks my heart when I feel like I'm saying that to her all day long...and there are days like that.  I have twin infants!

For the most part, the boys are very chill little guys.  They will sit and hang out in their swings, bouncy seats or on the play mat and just look around and kick.  For the most part they only cry when they are hungry, wet, or tired and ready to nap.  It's fabulous!  I just hope it continues!  Chloë used to cry for seemingly no reason at all...and often!  (Wait, she still does that...I think it's partly because she's female..because I do that sometimes, too).  I remember the first few months having to hold her all the time, she would never sit in a bouncy seat or swing for more than 5-10 minutes, and she NEVER laid on a play mat and looked at the dangling toys.  We wondered if she had colic, we gave her colic drops, gas drops, reflux meds, etc.  Nothing really seemed to work consistently.  Even my mom once said, "Well, she's just mad at the world".  That was her diagnosis after years of child-rearing experience.  Thanks, Mom!  :)  (I had to put that in here because we still joke about it to this day).  

Chloë & Elijah

Chloë & Owen

She really does love her little brothers and she's a great big sister! :)

Stranger Danger

Week two on our own is going well so far.  Of course having our parents here to help was awesome and we definitely miss it, but we are handling it so far.  The babies being on the same eating schedule has been pretty crucial to staying sane.  They eat every 3-4 hours in the day and do one longer stretch (5-8 hours between feedings) at night.  Right now they must be having a growth spurt because they aren't going much over 5 hours at night.  We got spoiled when they did 8 hours a couple times so it's difficult to go back to only 5.

So we had our first encounter with "the stranger who asks inappropriate questions" the other day.  I always hear about this happening.  It's similar to the pregnant woman getting her belly touched in the grocery store, or some other public place, by the complete (but usually well-meaning) stranger.  I never had that happen with either pregnancy.  With Chloë no one was every really sure if I was pregnant or just eating too many burritos right up until my last month because of the way I carried her.  I never got really big in the belly.  With the boys I definitely got bigger and was obviously pregnant sooner, but I was on bed rest so I never experienced the outside world enough to allow the infamous stranger-grope to occur.  So anyways, back to my story- Myke, myself and the kids were enjoying a nice dinner at a pizza joint.  Sitting outside minding our own business.  We had the double stroller with Eli in it and I was holding Owen.  So a woman walks up and oohs and ahhs at Owen and then the conversation went like this:

Woman:  How old is he?

Me:  Almost 2 months.

Woman:  Oh! How much did he weigh at birth?? (Her tone suggested that she was taken aback by his small size...or something like that)

Me: 5lbs6oz.....but he's a twin.  (I nod towards the stroller)

Woman: Oh twins!  Are you breast feeding?

(Just to set the scene: The woman is standing behind Myke who is across from me.  So I can see her but he can't unless he turns completely around..  Though she is close enough to him that he probably felt her hot breath on the back of his neck).  When she asks this Myke and I glance at each other and he starts laughing --shoulders shaking but not making sound.  I try not to laugh.

Me: Yup.

Woman:  How's that going?

Me:  Pretty good, I guess.

Woman:  How far along were you when they were born?

Me:  38 weeks, 1 day

Woman: How was the birth?

Me: It was fine.

Woman:  Was it vaginal?  (are you freakin' kidding me?!  do you really need to know this?)

Me:  No, C-section  (Myke is continuing to shake uncontrollably at the situation).

Haha..I can't remember the rest of the conversation but it basically ended there.  I guess I was just surprised a complete stranger was asking questions like this right off the bat.  The conversation above was it.  No "how are you?"  or asking our names.  Lol.  She then went on to say she had a friend who was currently pregnant with twins.  The woman is 41 and single so this woman, who is her closest friend (according to herself) will have to help out a lot.  She seemed like this was going to be the end of the world for both her and her friend.  She was not looking forward to it.  Anyways, the whole situation was pretty humorous.  Of course after it happens we were thinking up all the funny answers we should have given or things we should have said... but you know how hindsight goes :)

Other than that I don't have too many other funny stories of stranger encounters.  They do get a lot of attention when we are out.  Occasionally, people ask to touch them or ask questions about them.  Mainly, asking their age, if they are both boys, etc.  They don't usually question which way they exited my body.  A woman in Old Navy last week asked if she could tickle their toes and then proceeded to do so before I could even open my mouth.

Anyways, on a different note.  The boys had their 2 month doctor appt yesterday.  Vaccines and all.  But only 2 because I feel more comfortable spreading out their shots instead of getting the 8 at one time like they do for the 2 month appointment.  Don't get me started on the long wait at the doctor office.  Horrendous.  Luckily, the boys were absolute angels and ate and slept while we waited...and waited... and waited.  As for their weights:

Elijah: 12lb 3oz
            23 1/4 inches long

Owen: 11lb 5oz
            22 1/4 inches long.

The gap is closing between them as they both chub up.

Being angels in the doctor office

Owen smiling at the ceiling fan...one of his best friends lately

Eli doing what he does best:  chillin'

Owen slumped over napping 

Hiking

 

My babies are two months old today!  I can't believe it's already mid-July and the summer is half way over.  Though here in San Diego our hot, summer weather really comes in August, September and even October so that is when it really feels like summer to me.  Today was a beautiful day and we decided to go opposite of the rest of San Diego and head east to the mountains to go on a hike.  The traffic was crazy busy with people driving to the beach so we were more than happy to get out of town for the day.  Mount Laguna is only about 45 minutes to an hour drive east but the landscape and terrain couldn't be more different than where we live at the beach.  You are suddenly away from the sand and palm trees and surrounded by pines and meadows, nature and quietness.  They even get snow there in the winter.  It's a nice escape.  Today was the boys' first hike.  We took Chloë on a hike when she was only two weeks old.  It's more difficult to get out with twins I guess!  They seemed to enjoy it and didn't make a peep the entire ride there or during their "hike" in the Bjorns.  Chloë enjoyed herself as well--overall, it was a fabulous day...all the kids were awesome, no breakdowns (amazing!), and everyone just had a good time.  Here are a few pics:

The trail

We were all dusty and filthy after the hike...bath time!

Date Night!

Myke looking so THRILLED that I'm taking his photo with

my phone and using the flash!  He loves when I do that in public places like restaurants!

margarita!

The kids we left behind...thanks Kristy for holding down the fort for us!