7 month/25 month newsletter.

Dear Park and Jack,
SEVEN MONTHS OLD.
Ridiculousness.
A. we all have survived.
2. HOW?

You both are just more and more precious as the days go by. Usually happy as little clams. Both of you are getting so much hair that is really starting to stand straight up on your head just like Owen's used too. Jack more than Parker but its getting to be close. Jack- you're winning the teeth race with your 2 bottoms and 2 tops with a 3rd top right tooth aggravating you to death. You have no idea what to do with all of these teeth and you're making hysterical faces that resemble a precious little chipmunk. Your smile is now even different. Park- you're still going strong with only your 2 bottoms but something somewhere must be on the verge of explosion because YOU PUT ANY AND ALL THINGS in your mouth. All objects, your highchair tray, my shoulders and hair, your brother's limbs if you can find one... Thank God that He doesn't allow anyone to recall their days of teething because seriously- its wretched.

In other news, both of you are still content as the day is long to remain in your earthworm state of rolling and rolling and rolling. Noooo one feels like sitting. You can stay up for a couple seconds but its all wobbly with an inevitable crash landing. This is no good for your father and I... and we'd appreciate it if we could just plop your tails down on the ground instead of finding one of the sixteen daycare items that have taken over our house. 2 bouncers, a swing, an exersaucer, a jumperoo, 2 bumbos, 2 highchairs, and a walker. Really? LEARN TO SIT. Thanks love ya.

You're both saying Dadadadada... SO SO SO PRECIOUS. And last week you started with some other syllables.. I've heard a couple Nanana's when you're hungry. I think I heard a Baba somewhere also. Just adorable.
Of course no Mama. But I'm not upset about it don't worry. I hear it all the live long day from big bro.

Yall love to be tickled and we are just adoring how much you both love to laugh and grab our faces and plant your own faces on ours.
YOU LOVE EACH OTHER. Whenever you catch each others eyes, you both smile and laugh like the other one is the greatest thing you've ever laid eyes on. And its adorable. Yall love to laugh at your big brother when he's being sweet and trying to make yall giggle. Unfortunately he adores yall to the point of pain... and sometimes its a little rough. But Dad and I are trying hard to keep him from riding yall like horses, poking your eyes out, sticking his entire fists in your mouths, or belly flopping on top of you. But seeing as how he's a fast little booger, sometimes this cannot be avoided. And I do apologize. Remember this now and forever... Dad and I are outnumbered... there's only so much we can do!!

Oh this just in: YALL ARE EATING US OUT OF HOUSE AND HOME. You two are little starved gremlins who sit in your highchairs as though each meal should consist of a thanksgiving feast and grunt and groan and pout when the spoon is taken out of your mouths because it cannot possibly be shoved in there fast enough. For God's sake men! Wanna know how much yall eat? Ok here we go:
Boob upon arising.
Oatmeal and fruit for breakfast.
Boob for nap.
Boob when you get up from a nap.
Rice/fruit for lunch. and then you split another fruit because you're still grumpy and want more.
Boob for nap.
Boob when you get up from a nap.
Rice/veggie and split a fruit for dinner.
Boob for bed.
OH AND THERE ARE TWO OF YALL. So double it up team.
Are yall serious?
You're only seven months old.
Your father and I are already wondering how many gallons of milk this house is going to consume when yall are in high school. Ok I can't go there at this time.

Anywhooooo. None of that matters.
What matters is that your mother loves both of you so much more as each minute goes by. I live with constant guilt that I can't hold all of you all day long but guess what? There's only one of me. And three of yall. So there's that... but I can still feel guilty because I wish I could just snuggle with all of you all the time.

Oh and guess what else, I just finished TEN miserable days of pumping and dumping because I had to take antibiotics and your Dad and I were up to our eyeballs with formula, and bottles, and trashbags full of vomit-inducing diapers full of formula poo... But we all survived. And both of yall were back on the boob like you hadn't missed a beat. I told Daddy I would never complain about nursing ever again because I missed it terribly and it is so much easier than 230948 bottles a day not to mention yall like it so much more. YAY TATA's!!!!!!!!!!!! God didn't give women boobs for any other reason. Remember that later my little gentlemen.

Dear Owen,
HOLY MOLY YOU ARE THE CUTEST 2 YEAR OLD ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET.
You're just turning into more of a little person every single day.
You love being ALL OVER your brothers and it's not your fault that your molars are coming in and you want to chew on them. We're not holding that against you at this point.
Yesterday you said your very first nursery rhyme in its entirety:
Wee Willie Winkie ran through the town
Upstairs Downstairs in his nightgown
Rapping at the windows, Glaring through the locks
Are the children in their beds? For its 8 o'clock.
Yep you said all of it. It's on video. I ALMOST DIED it was so precious.
More and more you're saying complete sentences and its just amazing to both of us. You're so happy to get up in the morning... you love saying Good Morning to everybody. You're such a helper boy with me all day long. You're really getting to be more independent playing with your books, and trucks, and puzzles, and blocks. You're super into trucks/cars/buses... especially diggers! You LOVE animals and play with your big pals Edgar the elephant and Gorilla a loT. Lately you like to read them books and last week you got into sitting them right next to each other in different places all over the house and saying, Look Mommy, they love each other! Its hilarious. You love LOVE LOVE Mike the Tiger and we go visit him as much as possible and you tell everyone, "We sawed him. He's so lazy. Sits in the corner". You actually think every tiger you see is Mike. And you get so excited. You love being outside and running around like a crazy man. You love the zoo and the park and any and all playgrounds. And you are so dang smart! You remember so many things that we are just blown away sometimes.
You're just now into Sesame Street and beg to have it on at all times even if you're not paying attention whatsoever. You never saw a single second of TV in your first 2 years of life. I was so proud of this accomplishment. But the fact remains, the more kids you have.. the lower your standards become. Sad but true my boy... sad but true..

Anyway... we love you so so so so so much and as crazy and insane and out of all control as things tend of get on occasion... all it takes is one single second of you doing something so adorable that Daddy and I look at each other and know we could not imagine our lives without the three of you. Although we do look upon those faint memories with fondness... HA. Only kidding boys.

Dear Daddy,
I would be nothing without you. You make everything better. All the time. Thank you for putting all of us first. There is no one more wonderfully made anywhere on earth. I love you more every day.

Dear Self,
Hey so you're still alive. Thumbs up!
Keep on keepin on. How about you not forget to take care of yourself every now and again?
How about you go to gym a little more often since you're paying for it, even if it puts big daddy in a little bit of a bind? How about you stick to Weight Watchers for the 789th attempt? All of this would be good. Don't worry self, you won't be stuck in your house forever. One day these three gorgeous amazing children will be manageable in public and you will see the light of day again. Remember what Barbara Bush told you, long days... short years. One day all of these boys will think you're the most ridiculously embarrassing human on earth and they will pretend they don't need you... lap up this time while all three of them are constantly on top of you because one day you will miss it.
Peace out.

Can You Hear Me Now?

The other day, Jen was at work and I was in the kitchen making a sandwich. I saw Owen picking up one of his many toy phones (these are actually just old cell phones that no longer work that he likes to play with) and had a conversation with himself. It went as follows:

"Hello? Sissy? Where Uncle Lea? On ship? Um-kay. Talk to ya later."

At the end of this, I asked him if that was Sissy, and he just shook his head yes and went on playing quietly by himself. It was freaking adorable and it just made me wonder what is going on in that little head of his.

These Are My Confessions

How can you not love these faces?

In response to a post at our favorite twin blog site (How Do You Do It - http://www.hdydi.com/), and Usher's song in my head, here are a few confessions I would like to get off my chest.

1. Bedtime is golden and I look forward to it every night.

2. Coffee and/or some form of adult beverage give me the strength to face certain parts of the day (breakfast/bathtime/bedtime).

3. I think Jen and I can pretty much handle anything as parents and we tend to show no mercy to other parents that are "overwhelmed" with fewer than 3 kids.

4. Whenever I have the twins by themselves and get comments on how "your hands are full", I am quick to tell them that we also have a 2 year old to make myself look like super dad.

5. I secretly like that twins are like rock stars and everyone stares at us at the mall, park, or wherever. I'm sure that will get old, but for now, I am just happy to get out of the house and think their stardom is kinda cool.

6. TV has become a babysitter in our house. Owen never watched it, but does now and it is hard not to put Parker and Jack in front of it to keep them entertained while we eat, chat, not hold a baby, etc.

7. There are numerous times my house looks like a Toys 'R Us that has been ransacked by looters. I would prefer all the toys, books, etc. be hidden and our house looked like Pottery Barn.

8. Owen knows what beer is. "Daddy's beer." "Mommy's beer." I think its cute and don't think there is anything wrong with this.

9. I think it will be so much easier when P&J are walking/talking/toddling. I know I am just fooling myself, it will be just be a different kind of hard.

10. When they are smiling and making each other laugh, I can see a bond between my boys that I am already jealous of.

Ahh, I feel better.

Jack and Not Jack

It has become quite obvious that we are going to run into some identity issues in the years to come with our twins. When we found out Jen was preggers with twins, I started to do a lot of reading about them. I remember reading a story about a set of twin boys that were going into kindergarten, when one boy was asked his name; he promptly replied…Michael and Brian (or whatever their names were). It was at that moment that I was set on making sure our boys knew their own names and knew they were each special, individuals. We rarely refer to them as twins, partly because I don’t want them to be labeled like that, and partly as a conscious effort to recognize them as two people and not one unit (yeah I know, everyone else is going to look at them that way).

It can be hard to tell Parker and Jack apart. They look the same, they're identical twins so that is kinda the point… Now, I can't say that we didn't have (don't have) trouble sometimes identifying the boys if we can’t see their faces, or we are looking at old unlabeled pictures, or its 3am, or if Jen put Jack in Parker's crib (probably just to see if I noticed - she has such a lovely sense of humor). So with all that, I know it's hard sometimes getting the boys names straight. I know that we will sometimes forget who did what or who we are holding and refer to them as Jack/Parker or Parker/Jack. More recently we have a running joke using Jack/Not Jack when someone refers to one of our little ones as Jack and either Jen or I come back quickly with "that's not Jack." Everyone is entitled to make mistakes. This week, I have just seemed to take notice of these many mistakes because my parents were staying over. It isn’t just them, it’s everyone. Even Jen’s parent’s who probably see them more than anyone else does, have just as hard of a time keeping them straight, but it is just humorous to see it happen on a regular basis.

Parker has a strawberry hemangioma on the left side of his head. This birthmark is a series of blood vessels that joined together and takes some time to break up. It has started to stretch out and become thinner and lighten up in color, but currently, it has been the thing that makes it easy to tell them apart. Parker is affectionately referred to as “Parker with the marker.” There are many other differences that Jen and I notice immediately, but others who are not around them as much, don’t seem to pick up on. When this birthmark fades and eventually disappears (or is covered by hair), we will have to figure out another way for everyone else to distinguish between the two boys. I know that they will continue to be mistaken for each other; by friends, classmates, teachers, but I would really like for their relatives to be able to tell them apart!!!!

Mom, Jack, Park, & Dad visiting Mike the Tiger

Parker & Jack holding hands

Jack & Park playing in their crib

Time for some adult...time?

My parents have been in town since Wednesday…needless to say, Jen and I really look forward to when they are in town. We love to visit with them and hang out, we love to see their interaction with all of our boys, but this time, I must admit, it was all about us... This trip, they were staying for over a week so we didn’t feel like we had to cram everything in. We were getting a well-deserved break, and were able to get out with each other, to the gym, dinner, for coffee, and relish the time we can spend to ourselves. Ever since we felt that Parker and Jack could adjust to a schedule, we were on a mission to “take the night time back” (in a very similar fashion to a neighborhood watch program). This really just meant that we had a goal to get ALL the boys in bed by 7:30p. Sure there are days that this doesn’t go exactly to plan, but for the most part, we are on track. Jen and I will sometimes wait to eat dinner until they all go to be so we can actually enjoy a meal. One forgets though, that even though we have that time together at night, WE STILL CAN’T GO ANYWHERE!!!!! When MawMaw and PawPaw are in town, we get to take advantage of the time and get out of the house as much as possible.

This trip served a special purpose, they once again came in to save the day and watch the boys while we were headed to NOLA for an engagement party at Jen’s parent’s house. My parents were going to watch the boys for their first overnight trip away from us (at our house in BR). The two of us have never spent the whole night away from the three of them, especially not in different cities. It was quite the uneventful night on my parent’s part. The boys all were kept on their schedule (did I mention that both my parents are military??) and Jen and I were the ones forced to adjust. It had been over 2 years since we were at GiGi and Pop’s place without any kids. We used to head into NOLA for the weekend on a pretty regular basis, hang out, go out to eat, visit the French Quarter or Harrah's or whatever...but now when we go in, we spend the majority of our time packing, unpacking, feeding, changing, etc. It is quite a different experience without the kids. I walked into their house and it had an eerie quietness about it. Jen and I looked at each other and thought it was strange. We were able to sleep in (even though we both woke up at 6:45am anyway, we were able to go back to sleep), something we haven’t done in quite some time. We were able to pack up and leave in almost record time (instead of juggling car seats, pack-and-plays, toys, diaper bags, etc). As much as we missed our guys, it was nice to get some time with each other and hang out with the rest of the Dietz clan (and spent all of that time talking about our kids).

When we got back to BR, we still had to know every detail of their afternoon/evening/ night/morning, but it was nice to know that we were still capable of getting out and interacting with adults. We wouldn’t change it for the world, but it was fun to experience a night out - sans kids. Thanks MawMaw and PawPaw for letting us get out and enjoy some adult time.

(I have to get the pics from our night out from Jen's mom, so I will post them later)