"I did it!"

That's Matthew's phrase lately. He loves to make the "D" sound: Da-da-da-da, Heidi, I did it. It's so sweet, especially when he whispers under his breath, "I did it, dada, I did it." MAYBE I'm hearing things, but of course I think my sons are absolutely brilliant in every way! Especially Nathan, who's been saying "Mama." It melts my heart.

Here's a snapshot of something they both DID this morning while I was cleaning up their breakfast trays. They're on the bottom step,

Matthew is on the second step and Nathan follows suit. I tried recording it with the digital camera but am currently failing to upload it. They both got to the second step and Nathan to the third before I carried them back down. I'm getting pretty busy here these days.

Today was storytime at the library. Our librarian, Miss J, knows them by name now! I guess me and the limo stroller filled with these little darlings ARE quite memorable. They LOVE to listen to her tell stories! When I read to them at home, I get mobbed, the book gets ripped out of my hands and eaten. Perhaps 20 or so feet would be a better distance for reading! We always have a good time at the library, but today was extra special because each family went home with a new book:

It's a bit out of our league right now, but we'll put it away and read it later. In the meantime, we checked out some new board books to read at home.

AND I just have brag a little on myself because "I did it!" I put up the room-darkening blind ALL BY MYSELF. My wonderful hubby would have done it, but after the SECOND trip to Ace to get the blind cut - and it STILL wasn't cut right - it became personal.

Kim vs. The Blind.

Matthew, Nathan, The Blind and I made yet another trip to Ace yesterday to get the blind cut for the THIRD time. Fortunately, the Ace Hardware guys were happy to see my fellas again, and even joked that they would get the boys little red vests, putting them to work. My blood pressure started falling upon hearing that, as well as upon watching The Blind be hacked in the saw again.

While daddy took over dinner duties last night, I attacked the window treatments yet again. And this time, I won! It ain't the purtiest window blind ya ever did see (hence, no photo), but it'll do the trick. The boys slept till a blissful 7 am this morning, thanks to The Blind.

And Mama's handiwork.
I did it.

1000! and other stuff

Today I noticed we have had over 1000 visits to our blog!  It's way over that, but about a month ago, I added a counter that counts every *new* computer (URL? visitor?  IDK) that visits our site.  (Meaning you've been counted for every different computer you use.)  I'm a nobody-nothing-goin'-nowhere-blog, so it's kind of a thrill that we've had that many visits!

AND, I haven't had a new follower in months, so click the follow button and add a picture of yourself so I can see your tiny pretty face every day.  You have to have a google account,  (at least I think so - anyone know differently?) but it's ok to make one just to be my follower - they're free!

Follow me or else!

Ha Ha, you're so bossy, brother!  Look, I'm a big toy!  Ha Ha!

In other news, we're in the middle of installing a room-darkening shade in the boys' room.  Daylight savings times to them means they can wake up at 6 am. I. Don't. Think. So.  I say "the middle" because...well, let's just say stuff like that takes...awhile. (SO WHAT if I told the guy at Ace Hardware to cut the 37 1/2" blind down to 36" even though the window is 34"?  I DID take the measurements...they were safe at home on the counter.  You ever try to take two babies to the hardware store?  Huh?  Have you?)

And, as you saw yesterday, Matthew likes to get into cabinets.  So we are also in the middle of installing cabinet latches.  Yeah, it takes awhile.  Maybe I should just get rid of all the toxic junk.  It would be easier.  Like M said, if babies weren't so darn cute it would make us crazy!  

Except I already am.

Happy Thursday!  Oh, and here's how we celebrated St. Patty's Day yesterday:

by feeding  painting ourselves with avacados, of course!

Wordless Wednesday

Los Quatros Amigos

If you know me at all, you know I have a dear friend, E, who gave birth to her twin boys 3 days after my guys were born.  There's nothing like a year in the trenches together, I'll tell ya!  We just snapped a shot of the guys together yesterday, which is getting harder each month - note my arm holding Nathan in place.  He crawled out of the first take! The funny photo got my monkey-brain wondering how many pictures we have of los quatros amigos together, then searching for them, then thinking this would make a great post.  They met in utero:

Here we are 8 months pregnant together, May 09.  Only once were we able to have a girls' day before the boys were born - lunch at the Olive Garden.  Mmmm...salad and breadsticks, where are you now?

The boys are about a month old here, I think.  Clockwise from top: her sons A, G, Nathan, Matthew.  This was our quietest playdate.

July '09: E's son's G and A in the yellow/green car seats, then my Nathan and Matthew.  About 2 months old.

G, A, Nathan, Matthew - about 3 months old Aug. 09.

Nathan, Matthew, A, G - about 5 months old, Oct. 09. 

A, G, Matthew, Nathan - about 7 months old, Dec. 09.

Matthew, Nathan, A, G with the thumbs-up!  about 8 months old, Jan. 10.

A, G, Matthew, Nathan.  Taken 3/15/10 - 9 1/2 months old!

That last one cracks me up!  I don't know how we'll get all 4 of them to sit for a picture next month!

Here's me and E at her "reveal" - she won a makeover last week from MVMOM!  Doesn't she look fabulous? 

Question of the Week: Time Change

What are your tips/tricks for handling daylight savings time?

I don't consider myself qualified to answer this question, but I'm going to tell you what I did, anyhow.  For our first daylight savings time - fall back in '09 - we were on an airplane flying back from Hawaii with two 5 and a half month old babes.  So, nothing.

Our second was this weekend.  I'd totally forgotten about Spring Ahead because we'd had house guests all week. Because I'm such a planner, I would probably have devised a schedule of putting them in bed a few minutes early (or late, whatever the "experts" would tell me to do) for a week leading up to the change.  BUT, they woke up at 7:30 on Sunday morning - 6:30 because we hadn't remembered to change our clocks before that.  So we just got up then.


My freakish planning brain had completely turned to mush after a week-long staycation with the family.  So I just plopped 'em in bed at their regular times and hoped for the best.

So far, so good.  I have great kids! 

Tuesday update: Matthew was awake at 5am.  Nathan shortly thereafter.  It's 12:30 now, they're sleeping, and I'm tired.  Maybe we're struggling a bit with the time change.

Back to Regular Life

Yesterday Steve's family headed back to Michigan after a fun-filled week we called "Staycation," and we're sad to see it end.  Even though the weather was cloudy, foggy, and overall just plain yucky, we managed to fit a lot of fun into a short amount of time.  Now the fellas are looking around the house like, "Where did everyone go?"

We had so much fun playing Wii bowling at the house - here's Aunt L being "fierce" -

that we decided to go "for real!" Nathan and Matthew enjoyed watching all the action and playing with us between turns.  And before you get all, SHE TOOK BABIES TO THE BOWLING ALLEY?! on me, this was a fantastic local family bowling alley that was totally smoke-free.  Again, what took us so long to do this?  It's literally a mile down the road!  And Grandpa's back was bothering him too much to bowl (too many water slides the day before?), so we just took the babysitter with us

Here's Steve being "fierce!"  What's funny about this is that us girls beat the boys three games in a row!  No thanks to me, though.  It turns out that I'm not such a hot bowler, even though I played Wii for WAYYYY longer than I'll admit to on Friday night in preparation for the big day - and yes, I earned my pro status back.  However, it did not help one bit at a "real" bowling alley.  Grandma A, who hadn't picked up a ball since she was 8 and a 1/2 months preggy with my hubby, kicked all our butts!  Go Grandma, go!

Uncle A and Matthew with one more baba...I'm really impressed with both of my brothers-in-law, who did an incredible job playing with and feeding the fellas.  Don't worry, guys, we'll work on diapering skills next time!

Everyone is back home, back to work, and back to school today.  Back to regular life.  When my sister and brothers-in-law hear their college friends talking about Spring Break, I hope they'll know how much it means to me that they chose to spend it with us in the lousy Minnesota weather that's not really winter or spring to be able to spend time with their nephews.  Love you all and can't wait to see you again.

Staycation Report Three

Our staycation is winding down, but there is still one more day of fun to be had. The family photos finally came online, so here are a couple of shots:

I'm glad we started with the boys' 9 month photos because they were very smiley in the beginning.  Our normally-serious Matthew was loving the photo shoot.

You want me to do what?  Smile?  Gimme a break - I do that all day long.

What a cutie pie!

Nathan finally smiled in this one, but we didn't buy it because Matthew's waving cast a shadow on this face.  He was waving at the photographers!

And didn't L do a great job on my hair?  Wowsers, wish I had her here every time I needed it done!

Matthew LOVED the Water Park of America!  He immediately wanted to crawl in the water.

Look at those big-boy swimming trunks!  They're hardly babies anymore *sniff*.

Here we are after cruising the Lazy River, my favorite part.  Both boys LOVED the park - they splashed and played, and enjoyed watching the masses of kids riding the rides. It was our first indoor water park experience - wonder what took us so long?  It was great fun!