Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Panic Attack ~ Shopping With Twins

Oh....the love of grocery shopping. Imagine: twin 2 year old's sitting side by side for over an hour as I bargain hunt. A bad situation in the making. When I wasn't looking Nicolas bit Christian for stealing his piece of ham. Aghhh, I had to take Christian out of the huge "buggy", push it with one hand, full of groceries (which is impossible to steer) and keep Nicolas from throwing food out of the cart. Speaking of which, someone needs to design a new cart that doesn't feel like it is continuously stuck in mud. So, as I am holding Christian who is crying hysterically,bumping into people with this huge cart and Nicolas ended up hitting a lady by mistake by throwing a box of Popsicles like a torpedo. Panic attack. I kept hearing the same words out of my mouth over and over : "Nicolas no" or "I 'm so sorry" or "Opps, sorry I didn't mean to bump into you".

My very wise sister said before I left for this week's journey to the store: "Try and enjoy all the little crazy things they do and just be thankful and in the moment because in the next year, they will care less about the big adventure of the grocery store". That put me in a confident mood as I headed to the store. We did great, boys didn't fight, Christian sang Happy Birthday song as loud as he could which brought him an audience and Nicolas swiped boxes off the shelves. A normal shop.

Then we got home. The really hard part of Grocery Shopping with two kids is unloading and putting the groceries away. As I walked into the house, my lovely dog Rocky ran to greet me at the door and oddly greeted me with projectile barf at my feet. Yep..lovely, thanks Rocky. Both kids are crying in the car for their sunglasses (of all things) and I realized I had to quickly come up with "unloading the car strategy". Panic is starting to set in and I am starting to loose perspective.

Once the groceries were in, the boys in and the dog out... the boys went wild and I mean WILD. They were pulling the bags off the counters, grabbing food, screeching at the top of their lungs with shear delight thinking it was a game - How fast can we run from mommy with food if we run in different directions and hide the food. I lost total control of the situation. Ken called in the middle of it and asked how is it was going? How was it going? ......He knew I was on the brink of losing my "positive perspective" and responded with "Oh boy, I better let you go".
At that point...yep I lost it. Panic attack. Darn it! Why did I have one...because I randomly get them over ridiculous stupid things. I fully understand them (I have a Master's Degree in Clinical Social Work and specialized in clinical psychotherapy - I say that only because I get the whole cause and effect thinking thing) but I still get them regardless. Meds or no meds. It's part of who I am that makes me., well me.. (let's just say it's a work in progress). For instance, I couldn't stop obsessing on all the meat and cheese that needed to be put away of all things as I was chasing the kids. I kept thinking, the meat has been out to long, it's going to get us all sick if I don't get it in the refrigerator soon..WHY CAN'T I FIND THE BAG WHERE THE MEAT WAS!!

Boys are finally up in bed, Rocky is fine...big sigh. Was that really another grocery store disaster? Was it really that bad? It took a lot of energy..but not a disaster. Yes, I lost focus for a minute but the more I thought about the chaos of this household, the more I started to laugh and see how much fun the boys have during it. The sound of their laughter as they ran from me in different directions is priceless. I mean, thankfully we didn't have any torpedos thrown at anyone this time at the store. Kids have such a sweet simple sense of humor and as I always say, it's a learning experience. At least I am confident that the next trip will be better and who knows....maybe no panic attack!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Happy Belated Birthday!

I still have not put photos up of the boys for their second birthday. I don't know why I just can't bring myself to do it. So.. I wanted to put up a happy belated birthday shout out to a cutie who just turned one and just happens to be one of the boys most favorite sweethearts! The boys of course wanted every piece of the gifts!!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Visits With Grandparents!

This week the boys got to see almost all their grandparents and their great grandparents. We miss including my mom in this blog because she lives in Louisiana but she just so happened to send the boys this awesome care package which came during a week filled with grandparents! Thanks mom!

Grandma Paula spoiling the boys during a visit while Grandpa was gone on disaster (he is gone 5-6 months out of the year working for FEMA).
Grandma Judy coming for a visit, reading with the boys which they absolutely adored!
Grandpa is back in town this week and he was an EMOTIONAL Wreck when he saw the boys and how much they have grown. He hasn't seen them for 5 months since he was out on disaster for FEMA. Of course he comes loaded with presents, presents and more presents. It is so cute how he can't stop talking about the boys to the rest of the family. Immediately- and I mean immediately ( pulling out of our development) he called Ken's sisters and told them every detail of the visit and called them again to tell them more the next day!

Reading to the boys,he could barely get through the pages because each page made him start crying. It was so sweet and of course funny (Is that wrong of us to laugh at)?

Loving this week!

This week was one of the best weeks we have had - filled with all kinds of activities which I will blog on later on in the week.

1.) My cousin Anne's son had his beautiful baptism which I couldn't stop blubbering the whole time.
2.) Our family had a party after, which is always great because we laugh, Ken and I get a break with all the family watching the boys and of course all the yummy food!
3.) My Aunt Colleen and my cousin Eileen stayed overnight with us for the baptism and spent the day with us after- again lots of laughter and help!
3.) Boys finally got their hair cuts.
4.) Two playgroups.
5.) Had a Pajama day which we did absolutely NOTHING! Stayed in our PJ's, no cleaning, no resume work, no emails and we played all day!
6.) Got to go to a spa party on Friday night.
7.) Grandpa and Grandma Hughes came for a visit and dinner.
8.) Today we went and spent the morning with Lou- Lou, who provided a nice break, activity for the boys and coffee...coffee..coffee!
9.) We got outdoors and went to the park...needed because I get cabin fever in the summer in Florida.
10.) Aunt Colleen set up a cool craft activity for the boys (which I will blog on)..painted Zita and strung it.
11.) Ending the week tomorrow with a full day visit down at Grandpa Hughes who has his house set up for activities, toys for the boys and yummy food.

How can I top this week? Here are a few photos of Aunt Colleen spending the day with us and going to the park.



Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Bedtime Military Operation

Putting the boys to bed sometimes sounds like or feels like Ken and I are in a military operation, lost in the jungle trying to escape and get each other to safety.

This was our conversation the other night as we are getting ready to leave their room:

Ken : "Go..go..now"
Me: "Wait..I didn't get the water out of the crib"
Ken: "I have to water, go..go"

Ken is out the door. Five minutes goes by and he comes back in and finds me rocking Christian .

Ken: "What happened? I thought you were right behind me?"

Me: "I don't know, you went to fast and I panicked. Nicolas wanted another book, Christian wanted to be rocked and I got sucked back in".

Ken (Laughing now - we both are) says to me: "It's like a military operation getting you out of here at night. Your with me when we are leaving the jungle, I think we are getting to safety, I turn around and your gone.....what happened! Then I have to come back into the jungle and try to save you!

It's so true! Our kids are really easy normally at bedtime, especially when Ken does it. If I do it by myself I get sucked in and the worse part is I know what is happening. It's just one of the boys will ask me for something, I quickly go get it, then the other one is throwing pacifiers at me, I bend down to get then something else goes flying by my head and I am scrambling around.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Bringing You A Smile Today!

Happy Friday!
I hope today brings you:
A Smile
A Hug of Love
Laughter
Something Sweet To Eat
And Playtime!
Lord knows I certainly need it after this long week!
The sweet innocence of a child can warm any heart...even after making a mom insane, tired and grumpy the last two day. Wish I could go back to being that age!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Going Fishing On The 4th of July!

Once again the boys had colds for a holiday. EVERY single vacation Ken has taken in the past 18 months the boys have gotten sick! Seriously! It is so weird, maybe God knows how challenging it is with two boys sick at once. Thankfully, on the 4th of July Nicolas was feeling better and we were able to go to Grandma's for the big family party. Uncle Dan and Aunt Colleen were in town so it made it even more special...plus we got to see baby Joshua ( my cousin Anne's son who is 8 weeks old- what a love bug)!!! Nicolas got to go with just me, so he loved being in the spot light!
Uncle Dan is know for his love of fishing and took the opportunity to take Nicolas and actually get that "BIG CATCH"!!!
Showing Nicolas how to cast... Reeling it in.....
The Big Catch...COCO the Cat!
Nicolas loving life!
Baby Joshua!
Mary Therese Reading "I Spy" to Nicolas...ohhhh the concentration!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Green Eggs and Hearts

This morning for some reason I was in the mood to make the boys a more interesting breakfast and create a fun looking plate. I have no idea why since I hate mornings, I got about 4.5 hours of sleep last night and I don't have a "love" for cooking but I just wanted to do something sweet for my little men.
Christian woke up crying last night (first time since he was 22 months old) and then Nicolas woke up. Christian used to do this on a regular basis because he has reflux and it wasn't until he was on Prevacid that he stopped waking up and we FINALLY got a full nights sleep - yes the boys didn't sleep all night until 22 months!!

This past week, we have been reducing his Prevacid and some of the old symptoms are showing their ugly face again. Poor little guy, which means most likely he will have an endoscopy this fall. I was praying that the symptoms wouldn't come back as most kids outgrow the symptoms by 2 years old and the esophagus heals. I have forgotten how hard it is to wake up in the middle of the night.
Anyways, this morning I just felt a little sad for Christian so I wanted to do something to brighten his day. I made them green egg hearts! I have never done this and found this pan in my cabinet today. I just whipped up 2 eggs, 1/2 an avocado and shredded cheddar cheese. It came out so yummy. As you can see in the photo below Christian HAMMERED his heart! Nicolas liked them as well, even though you can't really see his joy in this photo!