Totally jazzed!

Okay, I'll admit I have had two cups of coffee already this morning, so though my fingers are typing along at their regular speed, my brain is running twice that. Over at Love+Love, they're getting ready to TTC- Jessie mentions needing to give up coffee and oh my gawd, I have to give up coffee! And my occasional Diet C.oke! And my wine! If we're planning to start right around when the girls' birthday in September, how much time do I need to give myself? Obviously, it's just healthier to cut down on all of those things in general, but they are my crutches and I don't want to give them up until I need to. We're going to Orlando at the beginning of May for a trip to Disney with the donor sibling families and donor family... when we return, I'll taper down over the rest of the month. The same approach worked for kicking cigarettes nearly three years ago- and that time, my quitting coincided with the beginning of TTC the girls.

Your Blog Here.

For YEARS, I used Bl.og.lines as both my RSS reader and my list of links on my blogs. BL was bought by another company, and when they switched over, not only did the interface suck but I lost most of my links, including yours, most likely. I'm picking up the pieces with another neat reader called Bloglovin', but if you're reading this and I should follow you, leave a comment!

The answer is...

Our answer is jeans. For the moment, we are able to keep the girls off the couch by putting them in jeans instead of their usual cotton stretchy pants. I don't know if it's that their jeans are slightly too big or what, but it seems to do the trick.

Ruby loves shoes. The sight of one makes her say "shoe!" She also says "shoe" if she sees a sock. Right part of the body, so points for that.

Ellie has been doing a funny thing where she'll run leaning forward, arms behind her while making a weird, smiley duck/kissy face. We don't know where she got it, but she does it just to get a laugh.

I always want to make each post stick to one topic, which leads to a lot of half-written, never published posts. Things I'd like to talk about: the increase in familial obligations when you find other donor sibling families and donor's family, what obligation (if any) do we have to introduce the girls to their Jewish heritage (we were both raised Christian, but donor was Jewish. Many of our friends and some family are, and we've always been interested in Judaism anyway) and to what extent should we do it, looking toward my trying to conceive baby #3 at the end of the year and whether that makes us bat-sh*t crazy, our prospective move. Comments, questions for me if there's anyone out there reading?

Oh my.

My girls know what they want and they know how to get it. Or at least, they think they know how to get it. Geez. Their current obsession is getting on the couch. Non-controversial action, right, climbing up onto the couch? But no, it's the standing on the couch, climbing on the couch arms, teetering precariously at the edge of the couch that we don't like. If our floor weren't so hard (parquet over concrete) perhaps, or they were more coordinated, or they weren't so small that it's a loooong way to the floor- sure, why not? However, I don't want to take someone to the emergency room for a broken collarbone, so we have been trying to keep them off the couch. I say trying because when your back is turned WHAM! How did she get back on the couch so fast?

Take them off the couch and you get back-arching and crying and vibrating with frustration (Ellie mostly). If they're in the right mood, that turns into a really not-fun round-robin of Take Mama's Glasses Off Her Face, followed by Stand on the Toy Piano, and then Pull the Plastic Fence Down. Seriously, in the right mood, they'll do one after the other after the other. In the bedroom, it's Open the Dresser Drawers, Pull the Curtains, Touch the Hot Radiator, and Play with the Humidifier. Keep them from one thing and then they immediately do all the other things they're not supposed to do.

We don't want to yell. Our Ladies of the One-Track Mind are only momentarily slowed if you remove them from the situation (not much room in our apartment to remove them anyway). We're at a loss. They'll grow out of the toddler phase just in time for baby #3, I'm sure.

Big Day

Today's the memorial ride for our donor. We are meeting his parents and sisters and several of the half-siblings and their families today. We may even meet the coordinator from our bank! We hadn't planned on making the 14 hour drive, but decided it was too important to miss, so we drove all night. It is a sad and exciting day.

Little Houdini

Ellie started grousing at 6:30 this morning. We don't normally go get them out of their cribs until at least 7, so I waited a few minutes to see if she'd just go back to sleep. After ten minutes or so, I gave up and went in just in case something was wrong. She wasn't crying in the way that said there was anything wrong, but better safe than sorry. I went in and the little stinker had her sleep sack half on! One sleeve on, one sleeve off. I suppose it was uncomfortable. I can only think that maybe I didn't pull the zipper all the way down last night when I put her to bed.

Poor Ruby was still asleep when I went in to check on them. She lifted her head and sat up, but she laid right down and went back to sleep! Normally, if one of them is up and you go in to get the awake one, the one who's asleep wakes up instantly. So the poor girl must've been tired. I would be too if I had to hear that complaining when I was trying to sleep!

Oy, the Clingy and the Cranky.

The ladies are extremely clingy these days. You leave the room for a second and they let out piercing wails. Pick one up first, the other one screams, even as you're talking to the left-behind one to tell her she's next. The tears, the tears!

We've set up one of those Super Play Yards with a cushy alphabet mat at the end of the living room. It makes us doubly sad to see both of them standing, crying and pulling at the fence when we leave them to go get something in the other room. We are doing our best to rectify our rugless situation so that we can free them from their baby prison and explore the house. Our floors are parquet over cement (ie face-breaking-hard) so there is no way we can let them roam before rugs happen.

Seriously, being a parent to twins is so hard. Being a parent to twins without a car, dishwasher, or washer/dryer is f*cking impossible. Well, not impossible, since we seem to be doing it, but WAH!!

To keep the kitchen clean, one needs to wash dishes, dishes, dishes. Of course, we can't wash the dishes when the girls are awake (I like to spend time with daughters every day, funny, and with my hour commute, I don't get much awake time). We can't do them right after they go to sleep, because with their room right off the kitchen and that weird service window between the rooms (we think their room used to be the dining room), they wake up. So if dishes get done, they have to be done at 9 or 10 when they're asleep enough that they don't stir. We are planning to switch rooms with them so they won't be disturbed (unless it's by our neighbor with the recording studio who forgets what time it is- that's another story), but that requires painting their room, moving furniture, cleaning, etc. with babies who refuse to be separated from us. And then there's the laundry, which Zazie can't do during the day because of their nap schedule (and keeping them in the stroller for too long), so it can only be done at night or on the weekends. Or the grocery and necessity shopping that can be done either by me on my way home from work or on the weekend with both of us, during the time that we should be cleaning or cooking or doing laundry or hanging out with our children and each other!

Oh, wait, when did this become the whining hour?

Seriously, I have had it with New York. I've had it with renting. I've had it with not having a car. I've had it with not having a washer dryer. Problem is, on one income, how does a family leave this place? Or are we stuck in this circle of hell for all eternity?

(My opinions are not necessarily shared by Zazie. Just want to put that out there.)