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.