Surprise Me, God Update

I just had the best surprise of all!  It's the miracle we've been praying for!  It's the end-all, be-all, gotta-have-it, elusise FULL NIGHT OF SLEEP!

I'm not kidding you.  I know, I've said the boys are sleeping through the night before.  But I was stretching it; it just FELT like they were sleeping through the night because I wasn't nursing them.  Last time I told you I was sleeping through the night we were getting up 3-5 times a night to replace a lost binky. 

So I thought that was pretty good.  Then last wek we had a, hm, how do I say this without swearing?  Really POOPY week of sleep.  It was insane: binkies at 1 am, 1:30am, 2am, that "I'm starving you idiot!  Feed me!" cry at 2:15 am, then the other baby started his binky campaign at 4am.  Rocking, burping, feeding...ugh, we just finished this part of newborn-hood!

Then last night, we all slept in our own beds at our own house. 

 For the first night in over a year, I slept for 8 hours STRAIGHT.  The boys are still sleeping, clocking in at 11.5 hours as I write.

Peace be still.

Selah.

Amen and amen.

What a glorious, fabulous, miraculous surprise.  Thank you, God!

(Yes, I checked on them and they are still breathing!)

Nathan's pumpkin-butt in the air.

Cute Cousins

Evan with Matthew, Seth with Nathan

"Can I hug Baby Nathan goodnight?"  My nephew Seth asked from the doorway.

"Of course!" I crouched down with Nathan in my arms so he could reach for a hug.  Seth then wanted to hug Baby Matthew, so Steve did the same.  He gave us each a hug as well then went to sleep himself.

"Happy Birthday Aunt Kim," he'd printed in his best penmanship, next to a purple cake with 4 candles and "32" drawn on its side.  Beside it was another card with a pumpkin-esque drawing from Evan.  They'd bought me a caramel-nut apple from Bayne's, but just to make sure I knew it was mine, Seth had added a note, "for you --->(that's an arrow!)"  He's really good at this spelling thing!

This morning, my mom was fixing Seth's breakfast as I heard him ask, "Is Baby Matthew sleeping?"  He wanted to say goodbye to him before leaving for school.  Matthew was stirring, so I took him to the living room and set Seth up to hold him. 

"Baby Mat-chew!  Baby Mat-chew!"  two -year-old Evan sqealed as he rounded the corner.  "Where Baby Nay-tan?"

After Seth and Mom left for first grade and work, Steve and I were alone with our boys and Evan for the day.  Very rarely do we get an opportunity to spend time with our nephews like this, so we agreed to watch Evan while his parents celebrate their anniversary today.  (Happy Fifth Anniversary, Megan and Daniel!)  The boys were playing while Steve and I fixed our own breakfast and started laundry, when I heard Evan talking.  Peeking around the corner, I saw Evan "reading" Baby Beluga to Matthew, who was lying on the play mat!!

My nephews just adore Matthew and Nathan, which makes my heart happy because I know that Megan and Daniel have been teaching them who we are, despite the fact that we live hundreds of miles away.  They can even tell the difference between the boys (Matthew has More hair, Nathan has None, Seth says)!  We call and we skype to keep in touch, but there is nothing sweeter than the precious moments we've had with the cousins this weekend.

Life is good.

"I am an optimist.  It does not seem too much use being anything else."  Winston Churchill

I've been blogging to share our family's joy over the birth of Matthew and Nathan.  I've been blogging to share my own joy in the face of all the sadness reported in this world.  I've been blogging to prove to myself that LIFE IS GOOD.

The boys went down for their nap this morning and I started my new little routine: check my email, check my facebook, check my blogger dashboard.  On facebook today I read that my former colleagues are grieving: one of their students passed away after his second two-year battle with cancer.  My heart is sad for the family, as well as my friends who grieve.  I never taught this student, but I know he touched many lives fighting valiantly.   

I checked my blogger dashboard next, where I can read any updates of blogs that I follow.  I only follow a few, but I learned today that an old friend has been fighting for the lives of his leading ladies: both his mother and his wife have been fighting breast cancer in just the last two years. 

My dear friend A's mother is also fighting breast cancer as I write - for the second time in her life.  My own father has beaten prostate cancer.  My husband only knew his grandmother for 8 years because she passed away after her own fight against cancer.

That's not to mention the non-cancer issues so many others face right now.  We have dear friends in their twenties who are battling Crohn's disease and melanoma.  A fellow multiples-mom lost one of her babies in utero three weeks ago and is bravely facing three more difficult months of pregnancy in order to give birth to baby R.

I didn't even mention my husband's near-death experience last month, when he had emergency surgery to correct a bowel obstruction just 4 hours from bursting and becoming septic. 

Why do I list all of the troubles my friends and family are facing?   I don't usually sit and think about all the negative things in my life.  In fact, I try to do just the opposite: to be optimistic.  So when I found Winston Chruchill's quote this morning, I knew that was the one.  He's right; it does not seem to do much good being anything else.  But ignoring it won't make it go away, either.

We need to remember that we serve a loving and compassionate God, who heals all of our diseases and infirmities, who takes our sorrows as far as the east is from the west, who turns our joy into dancing.  We don't always understand His ways, but we still must trust that He will watch over us, take care of us, and give us burdens no heavier than we can bear.

Because when we least expect it, He makes life very, very good.

Matthew and Mom, Grandma, Great-Grandma, Nathan with Great-Great-Grandma on her 95th birthday.

Mountain Thunder Coffee

http://www.mountainthunder.com/

Burnt toast.  The odor fills one's nose the same way that the delicious aroma of freshly brewed coffee beans does.  I smelled my dad's burnt toast this morning before I opened my eyes, which made me think of COFFEE!

OH, how I miss my coffee!  I'm in coffee pergatory right now, waiting, waiting, WAITING for the day I can drink of God's most wonderful creation.  I believe the promised land flowed with milk and coffee...who drinks milk and honey? Oh, but I do like sugar, so if they used honey instead I guess it could be milk and honey and coffee...but I digress. 

Why no coffee? you ask.    My children.  I now understand what sacrafice means!  I had to give it up in my 9th week of pregnancy when my stomach lurched while grinding beans one morning.  That was one very wicked day of caffiene withdrawl!  I got back on the wagon the day I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes five months later.  I decided that if I couldn't have sugar, I WAS going to have my coffee!  The last two months of the pregnancy was pretty rough, but I had coffee to make it all better.

THEN I delivered early.  Darn kids robbed me of three more weeks of coffee drinking! 

The boys were just a few weeks old and I was SO sleep deprived I could hardly believe it.  In fact, I remember thinking, THIS is why they use sleep deprivation as a form of torture!  Steve was making coffee.  Mmm, just thinking about grinding the beans now makes my mouth water.  I'll have just a bit, a teacup full instead of my Mountain Thunder coffee mug, I reasoned.   I sipped that teacup and made it last all morning...ah, heavenly.  How could something so wonderful POSSIBLY affect the babies?

Oh, we learned.  In a hurry we discovered why nursing moms (me, at least!) should NOT drink coffee.  Let's just say I'm OFF the wagon again, waiting in coffee pergatory for those pearly gates to open and let me in coffee paradise.

Where is coffee paradise?  It's at Mountain Thunder Coffee in Kona, Hawaii.  When you leave the sunny, warm Kona coast and drive about 30 minutes up the hill into the cooler, foggier coffee region, you discover coffee heaven.  I've had the privilege to visit twice and can't wait to return.

There's so much to learn about coffee there!  Did you know that when you buy a "Kona Blend" coffee that it's only 10% Kona beans and those are the lowest quality beans that plantation is allowed to sell?  I don't even buy it any more! 

Now don't get thinking I drink 100% Kona coffee all the time.  That would be like eating wedding cake every day!  (Not that I wouldn't like that, though.)  We buy a bag or two of Kona to bring home with us and brew it until it's gone.  We've learned you can't save it for special occasions because otherwise the beans dry out and then you've got a very expensive bag of dried up, tasteless beans.  Might as well be decaf then.

Isn't it funny how something so strange as the smell of burnt toast can remind you of something so fabulous as Mountain Thunder Coffee from your Hawaiin vacation?  Or is it just me?

Up Up and Away!

Midland Ballon Fest Sept.19

Our second family trip to Michigan is already better than our first one was!  We want our boys to be good travelers so that we can show them the world and spend time with our out-of-state families.  On the way to the airport, we coach them to be as cute as can be so as to dazzle the folks working at the security checkpoint - they didn't disappoint!  People are so amazed to see a couple traveling with infant twins, they don't mind as we unload the two carseats, two diaper-backpacks, shoes, wallet, cell phones, baby bottles, and a double stroller onto the x-ray belt because staff and passengers are occupied making ga-ga and goo-goo faces at the babies! 

It turns out that twins are more common than I ever imagained.  While checking our luggage at MSP, a woman at the check-in kiosk nearby said, "I'm a twin, too!"  and the customer service agent asked us, "Did you name them like I named my twins?  They're 15 now - Sharika and Shaniqua!"  Steve and I grin whenever we have to explain our babies' 'normal' names: Matthew and Nathan.  I guess that's just too boring for some folks.

Nathan is our little sleep machine, so whomever carries him in the Snugli has the easy ride.  Mr. I-can't-close-my-eyes-because-there's-stuff-to-look-at-Matthew rode in my carrier, so I was busy, busy, busy the whole flight!  He decided it was taking too long to get his bottle (it was about 5 minutes past baba time) and started fussing.  Since we had to wait for the plane to be at cruising altitude before the flight attendant could help warm the bottles, I tried giving it to him cold.  WRONG!  My seat mate and I had a huge laugh as Matthew oh-so-politely refused his cold milk, screwing up his face and crying as it poured out both sides of his mouth!  Fortunately, he was a father of two boys and thought this was a blast from the past.  Even better, the flight attendant came right then to warm up the babas.  Whew, close call!

But that's as bad as it's been so far this weekend.  After finishing his (warm) baba, Matthew turned on the charm and batted his loooong eyelashes at the woman across the aisle who was trying to get him to smile.

Now that they're bigger, stronger, and so expressive, it's a lot of fun taking them out in public.  We're learning to be gracious to people who take such a keen interest in them.  As we walk by, strangers smile, wave, coo and talk to them before even greeting us!  I suppose I might have done the same thing, marveling at infant twins.  I don't mind though.  People have been generally kind and helpful (or at least give us a wide berth!) when they see us coming. 

Our babies are becoming real Fly Guys!  Up, up, and away!

Track and Field

Wouldn't you know it, we're already raising a pair of athletes!  Today's tummy time turned into a track and field race! 
Matthew: Waa, waaa! (Mom, I'm so bored with just looking at Nathan during tummy time!)
Nathan: Wa (Me too)
Matthew: Waa, waa! (Let's race each other!  I know I can smoke Nathan in the belly crawl!)
Nathan: Wa (You're on)

We think Matthew is considering a major in communications.

So I set them up at one end of the blanket and placed the elephant at the other end, the finish line.  The elephant was chosen because Matthew was particularly fond of it this morning - he put it in his mouth, that's how I know.  We'd practiced the belly crawl yesterday and Matthew WAS very fast, so I lined them up, giving Nathan an extra inch.  Well, he's shorter, come on! 

Me: On your mark, get set, go! 

I placed one hand behind each pair of feet and instructed them to push off toward the elephant. 

Nathan: Ung, ung! (Ha, ha!)
Matthew chooses not to respond to the taunting and instead, stares out the sliding glass door.  I glance to see he's heard the kindergarten school bus stop outside our townhouse to pick up the afternoon students.  Strong powers of observation, Matthew!  In the meantime, Nathan glances behind him to see bro-bro dawdling at the starting chalk, so he takes a moment to spit up on the blanket. 

Me: Time out! 
I wipe up the spit up, hoping Matthew will see that Nathan has crossed half the blanket in just two minutes.
Me: Okay, go!

As you can see, we have one who is all talk and one who is all action!

I am Blessed

Steve's work schedule took him out of town tonight for the first time since July, so I was on my own for bedtime tonight.  Fortunately, my good friend A. came over so I had a hand with the bedtime routine.  Thanks, A!  The evening was nice and calm, I'm happy to report.  After our nightly stroll, warm baths and babas, the boys went down like champs.

Being alone in this quiet house tonight has got me thinking about how incredibly blessed I am.  I have good friends who will lend a hand on a moment's notice, like tonight.  My babies are healthy and happy as can be, sleeping like logs these days - nothing short a miracle for 16 week old twins!  And best of all, I have a devoted husband whom I love more every day.

Nathan and Matthew had their regular bedtime routine tonight, but I don't.  Even though we talked and said our bedtime prayers over the phone, like we always do when he's on the road, I'm missing Steve more than usual. He's been traveling for his work for over three years now, so I got used to him coming and going.  Now that I've had him home for most of the last four months, I've decided I like having him around. 

He's such a great dad!  My heart fills with pride when I see him bathing our sons or hear him singing lullabyes to them.  I nearly cried when he read Goodnight Moon to Nathan last night.  Sweet little Nathan's eyes closed a tiny bit more with every turn of the page until, at the very end, when Steve read, "Goodnight noises everywhere," he was asleep in his daddy's arms. 

Even though I'll go upstairs in a few minutes and do my teeth-brushing and face-washing routine alone tonight, I will fall asleep with thanksgiving in my heart for my many, many blessings.  

One of Nathan's first baths at home with Daddy.