We're Big Boys!

I'm not sure how they did it, but since they turned 10 months old the other day, both my fellas have turned into Big Boys!  That's what we've been calling them this weekend because they graduated from the ducky tub to the big person tub.

Matthew celebrates the "big tub" with a mohawk!

Nathan can almost make the new big toy car move - almost.

 And look how big they are in jeans and a t-shirt!  They are officially wearing 12 month-size clothes, which don't look babyish at all! 

The days sometimes go by slowly, but months are flying!

2 Tim. 4:7-8 (Princess Kay of the Milky Way Version)

"I HAVE FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT"

• 10 months - 300 days - of providing my sons with the best source of nutrition possible: breastmilk
• 1 Medala Pump in Style (it isNOT stylish!) and DOZENS of assorted parts
• 2 post-hospitalization appointments with United Hospital's lactation consultants, resulting in
• 1 Nipple Ointment antibiotic prescription for an infection
• 2 boxes of disposable breast pads before I wised up and bought washables ones
• a dozen or so assorted nursing bras and tanks
• 2 twins nursing pillows and 1 green Boppy pillow
• excruciating pain as "Barracuda" and "Piranha" learned to latch

"I HAVE FINISHED THE RACE"

• Hospital
• My house
• My mother's, mother-in-law's, grandmothers' and sisters' and friends' houses
• Airport bathrooms
• AirPLANE bathrooms
• My van in parking lots (notably, Burger King and Meijer's)
• Hawaiian condo and beaches
• St. Maartin hotel room 
• Church nurseries
• Macy's Mall of America

"I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH"

•  3 months of pumping 8 times/day  (approximately 120 hours of pumping)
• freezing breastmilk in ice cube trays resulting in 4 gallon-sized Ziploc bags full
• using the frozen milk that I thought would last into eternity in the 4th month
• 7 additional months of pumping at least once/day (approximately 60 hours of pumping)
• roughly 180 hours of pumping in 10 months =  7.5 24 HOUR DAYS attached to a milking device

"NOW THERE IS IN STORE FOR ME THE CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS BUTTER, WHICH THE LORD MINNESOTA STATE FAIR WILL AWARD TO ME ON THAT DAY - AND NOT ONLY ME, BUT ALSO TO ALL WHO HAVE LONGED FOR HIS APPEARING NURSED TWINS FOR 10 MONTHS OR MORE."

Happy 10 month birthday, Matthew and Nathan - and congratulations on successfully weaning yourselves, my little fishies.

 (If you're not from Minnesota and don't know what I'm talking about, check out this article.)

Wordless Wednesday: May I Take Your Order?

ZOOM! ZOOM!

The guys discovered that if they get up on their KNEES, they can move faster!

ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM! ZOOM!

Oh, boy.

My New Busy Mom's Bible

Ninety-nine percent of my blog is re-telling the crazy days spent at home with my ten-month-old twin sons for the benefit of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends who live far away - that includes Daddy, who travels often on business.  But today I'm going to talk about something a little different. 

I got a new Bible last month! 

Huh?  That's newsworthy?

Yes! 

First, I'll tell you why the new Bible is such a great blessing in my life right now.  Then I'll review its cool parts.

I used to be very faithful in my daily devotions - I couldn't conceive of a day in which I didn't spend time reading the Bible, memorizing Scripture, and praying.  When I was single and lonely, praying for God to send me someone special, as well as a direction for my life, we got very close.

Then He answered my prayers and sent me Steve, with whom I'll celebrate 8 adventurous years of marriage in June.  My life got immediately more busy after that with our wedding, college graduations, a cross-country move, traveling, trying to get two careers off the ground, trying to conceive, carrying twins...sounds like a long list of excuses, doesn't it?

It is.

We continued to be active in the church throughout all of that, but as my life got busier and I got more exhausted, I found myself reading my Bible less and less.  Why?  Laziness.  NO excuse is good enough to abandon God's Word.  I found that I was only pulling it out when times were tough.  Thankfully, when we are faithless, He is faithful.

My mother, knowing I would love this, sent me an email about Zondervan giving away 5,000 Busy Mom Bibles - she'd heard about it on her local Christian radio station.  Hey, I could use one!  I'm a busy mom and sure need some inspiration to read my Bible.  I emailed my application, thinking it's worth a shot, even though my odds of winning are slim.

To my great surprise, I received a package a couple of weeks later: a beautiful, HOT PINK LEATHER BOUND BIBLE!  And it was a "slimline" size, meaning it was big enough to read, but small enough to carry around without building muscle - like, (gasp!) to church.  It's SO COOL! I thought.  I wish I'd had one like this back in the day.  I would have been stylin'!

Again, what I used to do faithfully had fallen by the wayside.  My excuses?  My church puts the Scripture on the screen, my study Bible is too big and heavy.  Dumb, dumb, dumb, I know.

Here's where it gets humorous: I really AM a busy mom!  The first time I cracked it open last month - and every night thereafter - was when I was hooked up to my breastpump before bed.  It was my only quiet time during the day!  To breastfeeding moms everywhere, that's not funny because everyone multi-tasks while pumping, but to the elite few who have the privilege of witnessing a breast pump in action, it is a downright hilarious sight! 

So there I am in my pj's, hooked up to the most ridiculous-yet-lifesaving-contraption-ever-invented, reading my very-cool-HOT-PINK Busy Mom's Bible.  A sight to behold!

But you know what?

God showed up. 

Every night.

The past month I've spent my last few waking moments each night with my Bible (and pump), reading God's Word, drinking in passages I've known and loved for years, remembering how much I love to spend time in the Word - from a mother's perspective, now.

Here's where I'll review the cool parts (besides it's beautiful appearance, because we all know that God values inner beauty!).

Hands-down, the best Zondervan-added part are the one-minute thought starters.  There are 52 of them on colorful pages inserted throughout the Bible.  When I don't know what to read or where to start (and that's most days!) I flip to one and start there.

For example, I flipped open to this one, found in Ezekiel.  The top pink box says "Beyond Discouragement - A Crown" and quotes Isaiah 28:5, "In that day the LORD Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people."  There is a paragraph afterward explaining how God encourages us with His presence "like a beautiful crown, resting on you and strengthening you."

In just one minute, I was encouraged!

Then the devotion goes on to suggest what to read if you have more time.  Um, I'm attached to an electronic appliance, so I guess I'm not going anywhere.  Yes, I have more time.

I could choose to read Isaiah 28:1-6 on page 591 - by the way, I think adding the page numbers is an AWESOME feature for new Christians who never had the benefit of Sunday School and learning the order of the books of the Bible.

OR, I could choose the 5 minute reflect and pray option, where I am faced with questions to answer, like "Who do you think is an example of hope amid dark circumstances?"

OR, I could choose the 10 minute study, where I am directed to turn to page 1157 for additional verses about my emotions.  When I get there, many emotions are listed, followed by related verses.  For example, page 1157 references my absolute favorite verse in the Bible for anxiety - "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Phillipians 4:6.

THEN, I have a word to take with me for the day: CROWN.

Ah, what mom doesn't deserve a crown?

So, Zondervan, THANK YOU for sending me this beautiful new Bible!  I am rediscovering my relationship with Christ daily and becoming a better wife and mother because of it.

And, thank you to Pastor Rob of River Valley Church for your current series on the Dead Sea Scrolls and for changing our church culture by asking everyone to bring their Bibles!  Look for my cool HOT PINK Bible in the back at noon service (hey, I've got twins in the nursery - do you REALLY think we'll make it on time to get a front row seat?)!

And thanks to MY mom for knowing how much I'd love it!

 

 

Mother's Intuition

Do you believe in Mother's/Father's Intuition? Give some examples.

Yes! Yes, I do!  

My mother's intuition kicked in early in our pregnancy.  When we found out we were having twins at 6 weeks, we immediately began brainstorming names for the babies.  Steve and I agreed quickly on two girls' names, and I said, "You know we'll have two boys - that's why we can't agree on names!"  Deep in my heart, I knew there were two boys in there early in the first trimester.

At twelve weeks, we heard the babies' heartbeats for the first time.  The actual numbers elude me now, but one heartbeat was slower and the other faster.  It didn't faze me until I told this to some people (you know who you are *cough*momandmotherinlaw*cough*) who convinced me that the fast heartbeat was a boy and the slow one was a girl.  It happened again at our sixteen weeks' appointment: one fast and one slow.  I was swayed a bit and began to think I was having one of each, but I KNEW there was AT LEAST one boy in there.  There was no way it was two girls.

And sure enough, at our twenty weeks' ultrasound appointment, we learned we were having TWO BOYS!  We just HAD to find out - especially since we'd been calling the babies 'Righty' and 'Lefty.' Even though we told everyone we were having boys, we wouldn't tell the names - not because we were being coy, but because we just couldn't decide!


So yes, I believe in mother's intuition.  Matthew and Nathan will be 10 months old this week, so I don't have a lot of stories, but I CAN tell if the cry means hunger, dirty diaper, or a binky tossed from the crib.  I also know if the silence is playing with toys or playing with the kitchen trash.  So I think my mother's intuition is getting better!

 Here's Matthew sucking on his blue bink and stealing Nathan's green on right off his shirt yesterday!

To Daddy

Dear Daddy,

Good Morning!  We surprised Mommy by staying quiet until 7:30 am.  Then we surprised her again when we EACH had diapers full of green, smelly poo.  She didn't feed us peas again today, so our plan worked!

Good Afternoon!  We were very good boys with Mommy and her friend at the Mexican restaurant.  She even let us try the beans - they were okay, but we're glad she had Cheerios we could throw on the floor eat instead.  Then we read our library books this afternoon.  She reads to us, but we prefer turning our OWN pages, thankyouverymuch!

Good Night!  We were making Mommy a little crazy by 5:00 because we only slept one hour this afternoon, so we Skyped with Grandma.  Since we BOTH wanted to see Grandma on the computer at the SAME time - and we'll have you know we made that VERY clear by wailing and whining and pulling at the computer cords under the desk if one was not on her lap - Mommy invented this game where we can both see Grandma.  This is what Grandma saw while Skyping.  Pretty cool!

We love you and can't wait to see you soon!

Love, Nathan and Matthew