Aidan's Adenoids

Isn't this a precious little face?  I love him.  :)  I don't love that he's been snoring something awful for a couple of months now.  I thought it was just allergies and congestion and it's not all the time, so I hadn't worried too much.  But then we noticed him stirring around every so often and felt that it was something like sleep apnea (where they stop breathing for a few seconds and then rouse to a lighter stage of sleep).  So our pediatrician sent us to an ENT at Children's last week.  Not a fun appointment.  I took both boys by myself during their naptime (could it get much worse?).  They were actually really good, but we were there for 2 hours.  There were a million people there and after we got taken back, we were immediately sent down for an xray of his adenoids because his tonsils look fine.  It took three tries to get the xray because he's strong as an ox and had to have two people holding him down.  Finally we got to see the actual doctor who showed me on the xray how his adenoids are so enlarged that his nasal passage is almost completely obstructed.  Poor little guy, no wonder he mouth-breathes.  I didn't set up the surgery then because Andrew wasn't with me, but we've talked about it and it seems inevitable.  We also found out that Andrew's dad has large adenoids that cause him some problems, so we're wondering if it's hereditary (and possibly the cause of all Andrew's gag-reflex problems).  I'll be talking to the nurse this week to see if we can schedule the surgery for a week or two after the boys' birthday.  It's outpatient surgery and the recovery is just a sore throat for about 4 days afterward.  It shouldn't be bad at all.  I just hate the thought of it.  But if it helps him breathe and sleep, then he needs it.  I am thankful, though, that he's still eating and gaining weight and perfectly healthy in all other ways.  It could be affecting him much worse.

Oh, and he weighed in at 24 lbs!!

This is him playing with a toy pot that I kept putting on his head and saying "hat."  After about 3 times, he picked it up and put it on his own head!  So cute.

New Van

Last weekend, we found a deal on a van at a Mazda deal on the other side of town.  It's a 2001 Chevy Venture with 160K miles on it.  We talked them down into a good deal because it needed new tires and few other things.  It has one automatic door on the passenger side.  The one thing I was afraid of was the driver's seat has a switch that moves it forward/backward & up/down.  It would go up & down, but not forward or back.  So I couldn't reach the pedals.  Laugh, if you must, but it really wasn't funny to me.  The guy said it was just the switch needing replacement, but it might have to be the whole seat.  Thankfully, we got it to move forward later on and now I threaten anyone who wants to move it back.  Which means that Andrew really can't drive it safely.  But that's ok for now.  After we had it checked out and a few things done to it, I drove it to Aidan's ENT appointment yesterday (seperate post about that next).  It did great until we were almost home, of course.  It died going up a hill on a major highway.  Pretty frightening sitting on the side of the highway waiting for someone to come get us with big trucks flying by at 60 MPH.  But our sweet friend Courtney did come get us and I just had to hold the boys in my lap because she drives a car and has her own baby.  But we made it safe and sound, praise the Lord.  It's just the fuel pump, I'm sure.  I've felt that shuddering once before when I ran out of gas in my old car.  So we're stuck at home today, but it's raining anyway.  We should (better) have it back later today.  We're very happy to finally have a vehicle that will carry us, the boys, their big stuff, their little stuff, and our stuff anywhere overnight without being cramped!!  Especially with the summer coming and an extended family trip to the lake in our future.  The van will at least last us a couple of years, prayerfully, and that's all we need right now.  The boys are sitting next to each other in the middle row, so that should be fun once they figure out how to reach other (and each other's toys).  Yay!

New Additions!

Just toys  :)  Last week, I bought a couple of big toys from a member of the multiples club.  We have a weekly email that goes out and people can put in ads for stuff they want to sell or buy - it's excellent.  My main purpose was to buy a play kitchen to put in my kitchen to keep them out of my pots and pans (not likely).  But the other reason is that my kitchen has very few cabinets and the only ones they can reach are on either side of the oven and under the sink.  Those are not okay for them to be playing in, so I needed a distraction.  They already have both bottom shelves of my storage bookcase, but those don't open and close (they're no fun).  So I found a kitchen that was exceptionally clean and excellently priced:

This was $35!!!  She sold me a few dish toys and things like that, but I'm still in the market for some realistic looking pots and pans (ie., with metal parts that clang).  They are a little short for it, but it opens and closes and they can stand up to play and they love it.  Mission accomplished!  But this kind lady was cleaning out her garage and asked me what else I wanted.  I asked her what she had.  I decided to buy this from her:

It's a housefront with a door that swings open both ways that sings and everything else.  They can stand at it, crawl through and around, open and close the door, mailbox, and window, and turn the lights on and off.  And Aidan has learned how to ring the doorbell.  :)  It's a good toy for their room because we really didn't have anything big in there.  It was $15!!  I wouldn't have paid a penny more because some stickers are missing and the shape-sorter came without shapes.  But boys are likely to tear stuff up anyway, so...

I also got a wagon.  Another member who has been very generous to us in the past, just wanted to give it away because her family never uses it.  I was all about that!!  It was dirty and muddy, but it cleaned up perfectly fine.  I haven't gotten a picture of it yet, but the boys had fun riding in it the other night.  It's very different walking our 2 mile stretch pulling 75 lbs as opposed to pushing it.  But I must say, I think it's easier.  And when it got difficult going up the hill, I just pictured myself in a swimsuit (which I'm afraid to say I'll be donning in two weeks) and I sweated right along.  Here's the wagon we got: Radio Flyer Pathfinder.  The seatbacks fold down into the middle and make a flat raised bottom.  It has seat straps and cupholders - couldn't ask for more!

By they way, I know the kitchen is pink and purple.  They aren't old enough to know the difference and if it bothers them later, I'll paint it.

So Behind...

So sometimes I forget to blog or have absolutely no time or energy to do it.  And then the posts pile up.  And then I don't feel like I have any extra energy to spare for posting 2 weeks worth of posts all at once.  Bleh.

It's hard to remember what all I've missed, but here's the big one.  Mother's Day weekend, we drove up to my Pappaw's (Daddy's daddy) Friday night and spent the night with him.  Saturday morning, we went on to my parents' house and spent the day with them.  The weather was perfect - maybe a tad chilly - for playing outside.  Bryson originally had a ball game that day around lunch, but evidently it was moved and we missed it.  I felt bad for him, but it's always more fun to play with everyone at the house.

I was being the "lookout" on the rabbit hunt with B

For my mama, I got two 5x7 picture frames - one green and one blue - and put a picture of each boy in the right colored frame.  For my sister, I made a cute little posy flower pin in Alabama colored houndstooth.  I'm right proud of it.  My mama got me a cute little cloth picnic basket with my initial monogrammed on it.  I love it!  I always need baskets and bags to tote around all the stuff that goes with kids.  From Andrew, I got a necklace that has a circle charm engraved with the boys' names and two little dangly beads in their birthstone color.  I love it, too!  Andew's mama got me new clothes, which I always need.  They are supercute, but they don't fit well so I will have to go try to find them in a different size.  We came home Saturday afternoon and went to lunch with Andrew's family on Sunday at a Mexican restaurant (what else?) of my choosing.  That afternoon, Andrew's mom watched the boys while went to see a movie.  We saw Date Night and it was a good laugh.  It was a fun weekend and I feel so blessed to be the mama of these two sweet little angel boys.

Signs!

We're learning baby signs!  I thought they would never catch on.  But that was mostly my fault because I don't feel like I have enough hands to sign to two babies for juggling all the things I do.  But this week, Aidan clapped (once and I missed it), Jordan has been clapping to clap and clapping to say "more," and both are doing a version of "fan."  Yay!!  They like to do Itsy Bitsy Spider and they've always paid close attention to that one, but this week it just clicked.  The sign I'm doing for "more" is one hand closed with fingertips together to the palm of the other hand which is open.  And I can see Jordan sometimes using a fist and an open hand and sometimes using two fists and sometimes just clapping.  So I'm pretty sure he's saying "more."  The funny thing to me is this: "fan" is one finger pointing up and the arm moving in a circle; Aidan is the one who can point with one finger, but he does "fan" with an open hand.  Jordan tries to point, but doesn't quite get his pointer finger all the way out.  Anyway, it's precious.  I love seeing them make connections and figure things out.  They are both little engineers, but in very different ways.  I will get pictures of them signing this weekend.

New Beds

This is just a quick little look at the new beds.  They are in them right now - asleep - and I don't know how the night will go, so I'll be headed to bed shortly.  But we had the boys sleep on the mattresses on the floor last night and they did super!!  I'm so proud of them.  I suppose we are asking a lot of 10 month olds (happy monthiversary today, boys!).  So today after a nap on the floor bed after lunch, Andrew put the big kid beds together.  We decided it best to scoot them together to make a mini-full size bed.  We left only one rail on the outside edge and scooted the rest up against the wall.  Like this:

And we let them play for a while, just to get used to it.  Jordan fussed about it at first, but Aidan showed him how much fun rolling around on it could be.

This is what scares me:

But Aidan has already fallen head-first off the end (I caught him mid-air and showed him how he would land on his head).  We put pillows all around the edges (like that's gonna help).  But hey- babies climb out of cribs all the time, right?  Well, this is much closer to the floor.  These faces crack me up:

Aidan looked like he was ridin' rodeo here:

Jordan being silly:

dancing:

"but we're sweet little angels..."

Jordan shows us how to get down off the bed:

Aidan was not about to go that way (after being perfectly fine and loving the bed for 45 minutes).

I'll let you know how the night goes  :)

Yard Sale Season!

Today, we decided to take the boys grocery shopping.  We never do that any more because of all the conversations we have to have with everyone in the store about who they know who has twins or how they can't imagine how awful crazy our lives must be.  But today, I convinced Andrew that they'd love to ride in the buggy and would be perfect because they'd be so captivated by all the sights.  And they really were excellent!  They got to ride the buggy that has the seats behind the handle and drive their little steering wheels to their hearts content.  They loved it!  And we really weren't stopped by that many people, thank goodness.  I mean, I know everyone loves babies and multiples are a phenomenon, but it does get tiring stopping every 5 feet.  So anyway, that was fun.  Then we had to run to the bank and the post office, which was fine because they fell asleep and it let them stay down a little longer in the car.  We decided to hit a couple of yard sales on the way home and we scored BIG time!!  At the first, the sellers were very good salespeople (and Andrew sent me alone with $20) and I was worried I was going to have to overspend because I loved what they had.  The first thing I saw was this: Rainbow Rollers.  Oh, so cute.  Marked $3.  Next they tried to sell me a Pottery Barn Kids standing wooden toy that has spinning alphabet blocks (one side has the letter, the other side has the object beginning with that letter).  Also super cute (and evidently older - I can't find it online).  Marked $3.  She said I could have them both for $5.  Then she found these refridgerator magnet toys - two sets - one is a farm thing and the other is a letter thing.  They were each marked $4.

How did she know I'd been wanting these?!  So they came home with us.  But, I was in love with the wooden toys, too, so she sold me the whole lot for $10!!  How great is that?  There was another yard sale just down the street from us, so we stopped there, too.  They had a few toys I looked at, but nothing I couldn't live without.  But then I saw something else... A sewing machine.  Not just any old sewing machine... When I walked up to it, the lady selling offered to plug it in (which she did) and show me that it worked (which it did) and let me sew on a towel she had, even though she didn't have it threaded (except for the bobbin).  I saw the light come on and declined to sew with it, but she showed me the knee lever and everything.  It was marked $35.  I asked if that was the price and she said it was and that she'd throw in the buttonholer and the unopened packages of binding for $5 more.  So I bought it.  :)  And, amazingly, I had the money in my "craft envelope" to cover it (and more), so it wasn't a big deal at all.  It's a Kenmore 1951 model in the cabinet and it's in pristine condition.  Just look:

Did you know that I sew?  :)  Well, I do.  And I have a little Singer that was inexpensive from Target that does the basic things I need, but isn't this beautiful???  Seriously, though, it will handle heavier things than my little and who doesn't love a gorgeous antique?  I'm so excited.  I have never sewn on a knee lever machine before and I'm a little intimidated by it being so old and pretty, but I promise to love it and try to use it.

In other news, we took the cribs out of the boys' room today... yeah, we're crazy.  And it took a while for them to settle down on their mattresses on the floor, but they did.

Two weeks ago, we bought wooden toddler beds from another Mother of Multiples for $25 (for the set).  So we'll be trying those tomorrow, probably.  We may end up all sleeping on the floor of their bedroom tonight.  But I want to go ahead and switch them over.  I can't fully explain why, but I think it's the right thing to do.  It will also give them more play room.  Andrew and I are having a little date night tonight, we'll be headed to Cheesecake Factory to use a gift card... Mmm, white chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake.... love.