Giving thanks

We spent Thanksgiving with Tim's parents and the Quesnell family, this time at Aaron and Jessica's home. Since we moved to SD in 2004, I think we have spent 3 out of our last 5 Thanksgivings together. The first one was at Brian and Aaron's grandma's house and I was heavily pregnant. I went into pre-term labor the next day. We blamed grandma's fruit salad that had eaten the majority of. Come to think of it, I think I out ate everyone that year. It took a lot of work to get up to 200+ lbs. AGH- I just spent a half hour looking the picture of me passed out on the couch while others played cards. And they had an automatic shuffler that was so loud and it annoyed me, but I was too tired to care. It is a horrible picture and I will re-post when I find it.
The next year the babies were almost one and we were at Brian and Dina's old house. At that time, A and P were the only kiddos. This year we had 5 children (Adam, Patrick, Lexi, Will and baby Ethan) under 4 and one one the way. Times have changed. There is finally a kid table.

I am so thankful for the love of my family and friends.

Grow smaller

The boys found their Zebra and Elephant Halloween costumes in their closet from 2 years ago (2006) and wanted to wear them again:

Mommy: But you are now too big to wear those costumes.
Boys: When I grow smaller I can wear these costumes again.
Mommy: I am sorry, but you will just get bigger and you wont get smaller.
Boys: No, if I eat a lot of candy I will grow smaller. I am going to eat lots and lots of candy.
Mommy: Why would eating candy make you smaller?
Boys: Because you said that if I eat candy I wont grow big.

When it rains it pours....

I made it back from Philly and I am exhausted. I am so happy to have Tim's folks here to help out in my absence. I am sure Tim feels the same. Two trips back to back and a like million billables to do in between. I have to operate at over 125% of my utilization until the end of the year. It is going to be tough. I can't even begin think about planning for the holidays and boy's 4th birthday, which are all right around the corner. Yikes. Will it be bad if they still never had an official (inviting their friends) birthday party? I don't know if I have the time and energy required to pull it off. *Sigh*

Tim told me a funny that happened when I was gone:
Boys: Where's Mommy?
Tim: In Philadelphia.
Boys: Are there lights in Philadelphia?

They are so random. Guess they wanted to make sure I wasn't in the dark.

FDA- finally

I finally got to have my first meeting at the FDA. I have been chomping at the bit to go for years, but somehow my upper managers always went instead of me. Not this time! I was so nervous, but it went really well and the clients seem pleased. They even made me sit at the big conference table and not in the back like I wanted. And I had to talk and answer questions! They just love to throw me into the fire. Super shuttle called me at 3:30 am to let me know that they will be picking me up at 5:30. They were late and didn't come until 6:30 am. Today is going to be tough and I have to still make my reservations for Philly next week.

Prop sadness

Boo.
It looks like 8 might pass. I thought Californians were more progressive. I am saddened.
Boo again.
Prop D is going to pass. They are banning booze on the all public beaches. No more wine with my sunset watching. Boo.

It's raining in baltimore

I made it to DC (I had to wash a ton of laundry, according to the boys). It is kinda cool that I am in the nations Capitol for election day. As much as everyone is excited for the presidential election, I am more concerned over California propositions. In particular, I am most concerned about Prop 8. If Prop 8 passes it would amened the state constitution and eliminate the right of same sex couples to marry. Naturally, I voted No.
What shocked me is the amount of yes on 8 signs and protesters there were in my neighborhood. My boys asked me what they said, and I told them that the signs had hateful words. They told me the signs need a time out. Yesterday, when we passed a particular large crowd on our way home, PJ told me that some of the people holding the signs did not look like they were bad people, they just need to put down their signs of hate. Let's hope Prop 8 doesn't pass.

Happy Halloween!!!

Silly boys

Big Bear- not so fun

When looking for kindling for the fire at night, it is not advisable to rely on the flashlight feature of your i-phone.

Big Bear Fun!

Tim and I are taking advantage of our new found freedom. We were invited to join my friend Beth and her husband, Joe, up in Big Bear. Because we now have local living grandparents that are kind enough to watch the boys, we were able to say yes! We had a great time. We enjoyed the spectacular views and having uninterrupted adult conversation. We imagined buying a place up here one day. The pictures are from when we took a chairlift to the top of a summit and hiked down. We got a little lost but enjoyed ourselves.

Knew it was coming

Guess what- I am sick. To be predicted because I would never give up kisses and love from my boys even if they are sick.

I've got a sore throat, can't swallow, chills, fever, ear ache, grouchy, and even talking hurts. Now I feel guilty that I should have been nicer to the boys since I know how they must have felt first hand.

I just want to go home and rest, but I have deadlines. Grrr.

Update: Just got a call from the pre-school. AJ has a fever. I am so happy we have the grandparents as backup now. We just have to get them some booster seats so they can transport the kiddos!
Update 2: Took AJ to the Dr and we both were positive for strep! My mom says this is the best sickness to have because it clears up real fast once you start the antibiotics. I do feel better today after one pill, not 100%, but better. Hopefully we didn't infect anyone else. So far Tim is ok.

Bad day

I should have known today would not go well. It is never easy to work from home with a sick kid and I had two kiddos that were banned from pre-school today. The boys were so crabby today. All Adam did was whine. He must have had 5 time outs in the morning. PJ was a little better but had just melted down at dinner time. Apparently he did not have enough Trader Joes White Cheddar shells in his bowl and flipped out. So AJ scooped his shells into PJs bowl while crying that PJ is taking it all even though AJ is doing the scooping. Then AJ melted down that he had an empty bowl, etc.... PJ is in a timeout right now as I write.
If the children's disposition wasn't enough, I started to have work problems. A project that I am on is having this impossible secure website that I have to get my e-mails off of. The attachments don't work most of the time and I can't seem to get the secure website to work properly. So I spent over 4 hours dealing with computer problems which to add insult to injury turns out has to be non-billable because the my billing rate is burning through the budget. I am suppose to have an associate help me out, but we have no associates available and tight deadlines. So I just had to carve back 0ver 15 hours worth of billables in the last pay period alone. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Just had to vent. AJ is in a time out now. I need a strong drink.

Timing is Everything

So Tim's parents have left WI and are en route to San Diego for a 6 month tour of duty. We are very excited to have the extra help. Now we will have help for when we are on business trips, have sick kid days, and even will be able to have date nights! Tim's parents even offered sleepovers for the boys. Tim and I have never had a night in our house alone without the boys. As Brian says, our lives are not going to be the same and it is going to be really hard to go back to our old lives.

As luck would have it AJ came down with a fever yesterday and got kicked out of pre-school. Now I am doing my exhausting working from home while dealing with a sick boy dance. At least he is sleeping. Oh wait he just woke up. I am thankful that we just recorded a new Scooby Doo episode.

This morning was trying. PJ was very upset that he had to go to school without his brother. (mainly because his brother gets to watch Scooby Doo.) PJ has a very bad temper when he starts feeling out of control. He told (screamed at) us he was not going to school and was going to run away. He informed us that he was not going to get dressed either. Then to top it off he melted down because we didn't have the same brand of cereal bars and therefore they didn't match. Oh, the grandparents are in for some fun!

Sundays in the Fall

AJ is pretty excited about this season.

Also included are digital pictures taken by Adam.

PJ Surgery

PJ had his lasering surgery today. He was very brave and only got scared when the anesthesiologist came in and when they took him away to go on the "spaceship". He picked strawberry this time for his mask flavor and they didn't need to give him an IV. Yeah! His recovery was quick and he charmed juice, 5 Popsicles, toys, books, and even ice-cream (chocolate) out of the nurses. They sure think he is such a cutie. We had to stay a little later because he had to finish his Popsicles and was disappointed to learn that he couldn't take the leftover ice-cream to his brother.
He made me take him out of his gown right away!
It gets a little "coldy" after 5 Popsicles.

Miramar Air Show

We finally made it to the Miramar air show this year. We waited this long because we thought the boys could actually enjoy it this year. I think we waited so long is because we did not want to have to deal with the pain of strollers, bottles, or diaper changes. I am glad those days are behind us.

We met my coworker, Beth, and her husband, Joe, who is a lieutenant officer works at Miramar as a fly guy (he is the "Goose" guy in Top gun) . So we got all the inside scoop on the planes and equipment. Pretty cool. The boys loved matching the planes in the program to the ones they saw up close. They even had the Budweiser horses to look at. Fun times.

Beth, TPJ, PJ, AJ and Joe.
Big Tire!

Adam and Baby Ethan Quesnell

Warning to My Boys Future Significant Others

Dear Future Significant Other of My Son,



Congrats on finding such a great catch! You've found a funny, loving, smart, creative (just not so much with drawing/painting arts), and generally happy guy. However, he has terrible bathroom etiquette. I have tried to teach him to pay attention and aim in the water, lift the seat up, put the seat down, flush the toilet, etc. He just will not listen and continues to urinate on the bowl, the seat, the lid, the floor, and sometimes the walls. I am forced to clean the stinky bathrooms almost every other day. Please do not blame his mother if you have to do the same.

Love,

His loving mother

What Not to Wear

As you can probably see in most of my picture posts that the boys are always wearing the same colored shirts (we really do have others to choose from). Each morning I pick out their clothes, but they typically insist that they wear either a red shirt (P) or a yellow shirt (A). Fortunately, we only have about 3 days worth of this until we are out of these colored shirts to wear. (then it goes to the blue dino shirt (P) , and blue Cars shirt (A), and then to green frog/dino shirts, etc...)

Since I did laundry this weekend, we had all the shirts available to choose from. But to celebrate the weekend events, I picked out the Brewer shirt for AJ to wear (P already found a red shirt he wanted). AJ threw a fit when I tried to dress him and went into his drawer and took out a yellow shirt. I asked him why he wants to wear yellow shirts all the time and that his daddy would really love to see him in a Brewers shirt. He told me that he loves the yellow shirts and it is his favorite color. After that, PJ told me he had a secret and whispered that he will wear the Brewers shirt tomorrow for his Daddy.

Mommy has a 3 year old sense of humor

Went to Bev and More today and had to buy this bottle.

Housing mess and financial crisis

Now that I am on the topic of politics, I thought I would comment on the housing mess and financial crisis. I was listening to NPR this morning about the release of the administration's $700 billion bailout plan. Fine, we have a mess and this is what the experts tell us it is the only way out. I am not happy about paying for it, but what can we do. What got me fired up is the politicians criticism of the plan. If I have to keep hearing again that we need to provide funds for those who are loosing their homes I am going to scream. Since when is having a home a right? I think having a home is a privilege and I am very happy to finally be able to live in one after years and years of apartment living. I am angry that I had to pay (borrow) way too much for it because of people inflating the housing market through their choice in loans that led to them overextending themselves. Now I have a house that is worth much less than I paid for it in early 2005 and I get to pay more taxes to bail out the folks who inflated my housing price. Hooray. I wonder what is the point of striving to behave financially responsible? I guess we are fools.

Healthcare

I went with my mom to a AAFP (American Academy of Family Physicians) foundation dinner last week, which was lovely. The main speaker was Mr. Huckabee (who was previously a presidential candidate). Even though I am not really into politics, I enjoyed his speech and funny enough, it got me thinking about politics. He spoke about his experience with his family physician has transformed and as he said "saved" his life. He was able to loose weight and manage his diabetes through diet and exercise with the help of his doctor. What really got me thinking is when he brought up the topic of childhood obesity. It makes me sad that children (who we feed) are having to battle the bulge and that American children (and adults) are getting fatter and fatter. Correct me if I am wrong, but I remember reading about this problem years ago. I just want to know how we fix it. Actually, I don't want to know how we can fix it, but what steps are occurring now to rectify the situation and what are the outcomes. Maybe that is why I can't get into politics. I hate the rhetoric about identifying the problems and proposal of solutions. What I want to see is what work is actually being done, how have we evaluated the results, may it be good or bad, and see what our next educated move is to solve the problem.

Baby name suggestions

So I asked the boys what names are they going to suggest for their new cousins. Here is their list:
poo poo, pee pee, diaper, bottom, gina, penis, bad belly, diarrhea, privacy, and poop nut.

Nice work.

Twins Are In

We just found out that Tim's sister is having twins! I know she just wanted to be like her older brother. Copycat!
Honestly, I can not believe the news. Although I joked with her that her baby was really babies, I am shocked that it could really be true. Check out the odds... My boys are the first and were the only blood related grandchildren to Laurie and Carl Jette. Now their next grandchildren (No 3 and 4) are going to be twins as well. Insult to the statistical injury, is that Josh (Jenny's husband and the in utero twins father) has 6 year old, identical twin girls from a previous relationship. So this means that Carl and Laurie will have 3 sets of twin-only grandchildren. Amazing.
The funny thing is that identical twins are not suppose to run in families (just occurs in 1 in 250 to 300 of all births). And if P and A are identical, like I think that they are, then their twinning (egg splitting) was due chance. Even if they were not identical, it the amount of eggs that are dropped is strictly a maternal side and inherited event (a Kostick and not Jette event). Jenny's ultrasound today showed 2 placentas at 12 weeks so that means that she might have fraternal twins (it still could be identical if the placenta split). So if she has fraternal babies, then it might run in the Jette side. If they are identical then, the last 3 births to the Jette family have been identical twins (assuming I am correct that P and A are identical). Amazing.

Legoland

My mom and I went to Legoland with the boys and had a blast. The boys enjoyed all the rides, especially AJ. PJ got a little nervous on the big pirate ship and just closed his eyes and needed to be held tight until it was over. He did the same thing during the dragon roller coaster ride (their first roller coaster ride). After the ride I asked if he liked it and he said no and that he did not want to ride that again. AJ on the other hand loved it. A fun afternoon!

Lock drama

Ok- so we have the modified lock on the boys bedroom door. Apparently, it is too good of a lock because I got locked in. Debbie actually got locked in the other night and called us from her cell phone to get out. I should have known it is that tough!
I went up to try to get the boys to nap (Oh and yes I fell for the line that they told me that they would go to sleep in the same room). Well, my hands were all lotiony/balmy/oily from making some face balm and such products and I couldn't open the door. Tim was asleep downstairs and couldn't hear me to get out. Nice. Luckily, my hands de-greased a bit and I escaped. Hopefully, the boys will go to bed early since we didn't get a nap.

Bad bad boys

The modified lock has been replaced. The boys again would not stay in their room, but their latest shenanigan pushed us over the edge. After clearly explaining to them rules for nighttime and even instilling a bonus reward system for proper behavior, we still had escapees. We finally thought they were behaving as things got very quiet upstairs. Then I hear little voices, "Mommy, I got to show you something". So I went upstairs and first noticed that their room smelt very good. I initially thought that this was because of their bath before bed. I was wrong. I looked at the window and it was covered with something and there were attempts of finger painting in it. The boys had smuggled out an almost full bottle of oatmeal baby wash into their room and emptied it on the window, their hair, their body, sheets, pillows, beds animals, blankets, wall, curtains, and floor, EVERYWHERE! It was so bad that I had to throw them into the shower to wash it off. Tim immediately made a new lock for their door.

Why won't they go to bed?

My boys hate going to sleep. Nap-time or bed-time, it doesn't matter. They fight it- even if they are sooo tired, which leads to over-tired, which leads to no fun time. We are constantly struggle with putting them to sleep. We used to lock them in their rooms, but we had a few problems with accidents so we would leave the door open a little so they could use the bathroom. But we used to have a special child proofing lock that Tim designed (duct tape around a sock over the knob) they couldn’t open that we used when we felt they had enough potty/ water breaks and had to stay in their room. Well, the boys finally ripped off the door lock and it has been pandemonium ever since.


Last night was no exception. They escaped their room and fled downstairs at least half dozen times. They had to see what we were grilling, what we were eating, show us something, find a toy/book, etc. The ultimate was when they escaped and we were listenting to music downstairs. We found those boys at the top of the stairs dancing to the music. Tim had enough. He went upstairs to get them to bed for the last time and this is how the conversation went. (It was my birthday so I got to stay downstairs for this one.)

Tim: Boys, it is past you bedtime, get in your room.
Boys: But I HAVE to dance.
Tim: No more dancing. You need to go to sleep, now.
Boys: Just one more song.
Tim: NO! Get in your room!
Boys: Mommy!!!!(whining) just one song, one short song
Tim: Get in your room now and stay in there.
Boys: You are a bad guy. (angry)
Boys: You are NOT going to take me to school anymore.

I still had to go upstairs and “tuck” them in after that, but they finally went to bed.

OCD?

Football

Tim predictably had on the Wisconsin game. Go Big Red. The TV flashed a picture of a badger. The boys saw it, got excited, and then started shouting for us to look at the "raccoon". Sad.

Morning Time

When you are a twin parent, you learn to let things go. You don't sweat the small stuff . People (Tim) could say they walk all over me, but I like to think I keep the peace (especially when you are on work calls-Tim).

For example, this morning the boys wanted to color (which I am all for as they usually hate doing art) and eat their breakfast outside. I told them it was a little cold outside and AJ said "I like it coldy". Then I let them know that their coloring books could get dirty if they spill their breakfast on it. PJ said "no it wont". So I said fine, go for it.

So they took all their coloring stuff out there, then their bowls, and threw off the chair cushions because they were wet. Then they asked me why the cushions were wet and I told them it was dew. They thought that was very funny. (Yes, we are still in the potty talk stage. ) I'd rather enjoy mornings like this one than try to force them have breakfast in a conventional fashion. Yeah, they run the show, but we have a good time.

Dining Out- Twinado style

Our boys are very "spirited" and it is very trying for us to take them in public. We have typically tried to avoid restaurants, shopping, airports, or any place where they can anger/aggravate others around them. Have you ever seen that A&E episode of "Airline" the documentary on airline with the twin boys? I feel their pain.

It is funny that if I do have errands to run, I will just take one boy and the experience usually is very pleasant. We take our time, look at things, talk, and enjoy hanging out with each other. (After we get past the drama of the other twin sobbing that he is left behind.) It is when the two of them are together that the trouble starts (competition problems, whining, tantrums, loud indoor voices, climbing under tables, and other inappropriate behavior).

Now that they are older, it has gotten a little easier in public and we attempt to do the eating out thing. We still have struggles with staying seated, indoor voices, and not crying/whining over broken crayons or being upset that their brother has a color they wanted. However, every once in awhile we get sweet moments like this one where AJ is sharing the ice-cream with PJ. (Yes we bribed them to be good for dessert.) Another nice thing is that we also get insight into their unique personalities/preferences having them exposed to new environments. The waiter asked what kind of milk they wanted and P wanted chocolate and AJ wanted vanilla.

Guitar time

Cannonball....

Sick boys

I came back from my trip to 3 sickos (yes, Tim is stick too). Coughing, stuffy noses, irritability, but the worst is the not being able to sleep through the night. For the past two nights that I have been home we have been woken up with sick kiddies. Then you get the fun middle of the night routine to do: give them some water, take them to the restroom, take them downstairs for a little medicine, some honey for their throats, some saline for their noses, some blue ball suction, and then try to get them back to bed. It seems as the only way I can get them back into bed is letting them co-sleep together. They share blankets and give each other hugs and kisses and then fall asleep. The hard part is getting the parents to fall back to sleep especially when you have to be up at 5:30 to go to LA or take a 6 am t-con. To top it off P got kicked out of preschool with a fever yesterday and now he has to stay home with me (since Tim is in LA) for 24 hrs before returning. I think these days are the hardest for a working parent. Somehow I have to take care of the child and also try to take t-cons, write reports, e-mails, and make my billables and deadlines. I also have to wrestle with the guilt of essentially parking the sick boy in front of Scooby Doo all day. I guess we all do what we have to do.

Poor Adam was so upset that he had to go to school by himself today. He pouted, cried, and stated how he is not going to go to school over and over. It was a very trying morning.

Tasted the good life

Somehow I lucked out on my latest business trip and was bumped up to first class on my nonstop, round trip flight from San Diego to Newark. I had only flown first class once before from SF to Vancouver for my honeymoon, so needlessly I was very excited for my trip. Ahh, it was the way business people should travel. Meals, drinks, comfy chairs, and the service. I enjoyed the tablecloths and the "my pleasure" response to my thank yous. The only problem was that I had pre-ordered (due to my work profile) a vegetarian meal (as they really don't have a pescatarian option). They hand you a menu with dining choices when you settle in to your seats. As I was looking over the menu, I had my mouth water at the tasty fish/shell fish dishes and even contemplated the whole wheat pasta with the fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. Then when it came time to order, I was nicely told that I had a special meal set aside for me. To my disappointment, it was the low fat/vegan meal option. While everyone was dining on crusted halibut with sauteed asparagus and shallots or beef tenderloin with garlic potatoes and gravy, I was devouring my grilled tomato and steamed veggies with brown rice and a vegan cookie. Granted, It was probably much healthier for me. However, I did manage to get served the non-vegan ice-cream dessert with the works. MMMMmmm. Being in first class, I didn't even mind that we had to sit at the terminal an extra 1.5 hours before pushing back late last night.


When I was gone, Tim saw AJ taking a pitcher into the bathroom and filing it up with water. Then he went outside and watered my flowers. He said that will make mommy so happy. What a sweetie.

Beach Bums

This is why we love San Diego. Adam loves boogie boarding. PJ rather use it as a skim board. Fun days at Del Mar.

Lesson Learned

I will never run 4.5 miles again in a thong.

Fashion Police

So I decided to wear a black t-shirt type top to work today with beige docker pants. I was putting AJ into the truck to go to school and he says:
"Why are you wearing that shirt? It is not a stay home day. This shirt is not a work shirt."

How does he know these things?

Curiously Strong

Our boys have interesting tastes. They love Altoids. Typically they throw 3 (it used to be 2) in their mouths, chew, and take big mouth inhales. They tell us it tastes "spicy". Well, Tim caught the boys this morning pillaging his Altoids container. (Silence usually means trouble.) They had already eaten their fill, but Adam managed to procure 3 additional Altoids. Adam was discussing what he would do with the Altoids when he got to school. He told Patrick that there will be one for himself, one for Patrick and one for Carlito. Patrick told him that Carlito hit him last week so he shouldn't get one. They discussed this during the whole ride to school and decided on another friend who deserved it more. Their negotiation skills kill me.

Fun with Mommy in the Park

I want to be a cowboy

So Tim tells the boys I went to Washington, DC for work. We get a note from the school today:
Monday- Teacher: "Where's Mommy?"
Boys: "She went to DC to do laundry"
Wednesday-Teacher: " I heard Mommy is back"
Boys: "Yeah she is done doing laundry"

Don't you love 3 year old ears. They asked me if all my DC laundry was done this morning. So silly.

What more can they take away?

Seriously, can flying get much worse? Not only are you forced like cattle on a plane for 5 hours (and I still have to transfer planes), stare at ads on your tray table, and watch commercials on TV, but now they no longer provide you with beverages. Not even water. Oh you can purchase a small bottle of water for $2! I guess you are getting a deal because if you purchase water at the terminal you have to pay $2.89.

Even I can grow

Tonight I did something that I always wanted to do, but always chickened out in the end. I am in DC (Bethesda actually) and after checking into my hotel I took a walk through the neighborhood looking for some food for dinner. It was a beautiful night-70ish with no humidity! Typically, I usually find something where I can just get take out or even order room service. Not tonight! I found a cute restaurant (Red Tomato Cafe) on St. Elmo Ave. I entered the restaurant and asked for a table for one. I ate my dinner entree and had a glass of wine all by myself. It was actually much more enjoyable and less awkward than I had anticipated. Not to say I don't prefer dining with someone, but now I won't be so quick to dismiss dining solo.

Birthmark Blues

Patrick was born with a port wine stain (PWS) that covers the upper left half of his face- which makes it easy to tell the boys apart. He goes to the outpatient center at Children's to get laser surgery for its removal. It is kinda big ordeal for him as he is put under general anesthesia (usually with IV) due to the PWS being around his eye and wakes up looking beat up with bright red/purple dots where his now faded PWS is. He also gets scared when the doctors takes him away from me and they go on the "spaceship" (he gets to press the surgery double doors, hence the spaceship and gets a special mask). He has had so many laser treatments (I lost count at 10) since he was 6 months old that his birthmark is a light blush color.

It is about time to make for his hopefully last major laser session (next are supposedly just touch up time: Yea!) and I tell Patrick that I am going to call the hospital for his appointment. He is very excited to "get his birthmark" as he thinks the aftermath of laser treatment is the actual birthmark. He also likes the look of his face after treatment and I have caught him admiring himself in the mirror. He told me that it is beautiful. Also, now that he is older he enjoys getting the Popsicles and juice (a no-no in our house: bad bellies like their mom) from the kind nurses after he wakes. He brags about this to his brother who is insanely jealous and now wants a birthmark too. Well, Patrick made a deal with Adam this time on the way to pre-school.
A: I want a birthmark too, Pat.
P: Ok, Ad, you can go to the spaceship doctor and get a birthmark and drink juice and have Popsicles.
A: Yea! I will let you read my airplane book.
P: Lot of times?
A: Lot of times.
P: and I can wear the blue CARS shirt lot of times.
A: yes lot of times.

Then they held hands and were very pleasent the whole ride to school.

Too young for ghost stories

Our boys have been having trouble going to bed on time. We put them up there between 7:15- 7:30 and they seem to just play for hours. It wouldn't be so bad if they played nicely, but my boys seem to scream for us every 10 minutes. "Patrick threw his blanket at me".."Adam hit me" ... "That's cause you threw your blanket at me" ..."I am thirsty" ..."I got to go potty"... "I got to go poo poo" (we run on that one). None stop chatter. I think it is hard because it is still light out and warm in their rooms. Well, last night was especially hard and it didn't seem that they'd ever go to bed, so Tim decides to tell them a ghost story. We all sat on the ground around the night light and Tim told the story of a scary, crazy skunk. He even hit the floor for sound effects while I make skunk noises. (I made some weird screeching noise at least since I am not sure what noise a skunk makes). Well he finished his story which ended with a big tickle monster and him and me tickling the boys. The boys didn't make a sound. No usual laughter from the tickle and their bodies were ridged. Adam tells us "I want to go to bed". Patrick says, "I do too". They went to their beds, got under the covers, and there wasn't a peep out of them until morning.

Fired up

Last night I went out with the twin ladies, which was lovely. I need to flee the coup and get my lady conversation on every once in a while for my own sanity. It is my chance to have some wine and share life and twin related stories. Well, one of the stories got me all fired up. Apparently, during a playgroup one twin mother had the audacity to insult another mother about her decision to be an out of the home working mother claiming that her children suffer because of her "selfish" decision to work. Naturally, my working friend never returned to another playgroup.

As a working mother myself and also because I was raised by a working mother, I get infuriated at such accusations. A decision for a mother to work outside the home or not is a personal one and typically, this decision is not made lightheartedly. It is a complicated formula filled with different variables including that of personal traits, monetary factors, career expectations, goals, and guilt. It is disappointing to hear a women from this day and age be so ignorant and say such insulting remarks.

Personally, I think my children are better served having me as a working parent. I think I set an example for them that women can do anything that men can do and should be treated as an equal and respected in the workplace and life despite their family situation. I show my boys that as men and fathers they will be expected to be equal contributing members of the family and do their share to make the household run. They will understand that by having working parents they will have disappointments as a result of their parent’s responsibilities, but can be proud of their parent’s career accomplishments and how hard they work to try to balance both career and family. They will realize that “you can’t have it all” and life is not the 2 dimensional, glossy, perfect family images portrayed as ideal in the media. They will be OK with this because I will teach them that life is a challenge and dynamic filled with possibilities and choice and that their parents carefully made their choices and worked hard to deliver the best outcomes that they could.