Soooo, guess what I did? I ordered some new clothes online yesterday! For me! Clothes! For ME! I'm so excited! Hehe! I still haven't gone shoe shopping, though. I need to find a babysitter before I can go shopping anywhere. It's too hard with all the kiddos!

Last night we all went to an outdoor concert in our neighborhood - it was really a lovely evening with a nice breeze, and the music was great - I can't remember the name of the band, but they played sort of salsa/Tejano music. And I ate a big old Hebrew National hot dog all slathered with mustard, and the kids behaved. It was a great night! It's been great anyway, just being able to hang out a little bit without all that added "can we buy groceries this week?" stress!

I'm sure other stuff has been going on too, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and blog about anything, so - apologies for the lame entry, here. I think I did put a few new pictures up on Flickr, though, so have a look at those.

Bye!

It's all good, baby. All good.

Yesterday, WE CLOSED ON THE TOWNHOUSE!!!! I can't even begin to stress how much this is going to change things for us. After paying our own mortgage plus the mortgage for a goddamned empty house for almost two years, we have gone without EVERYTHING and we can finally play catchup a little bit. I haven't bought new shoes in a year and a half. I haven't bought clothes (except maternity clothes) since before the first twins were born. And our kids - oh, our poor kids! I can finally buy them something that doesn't come from a garage sale! Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to be one frugal bitch - that's not going to change; after all, we still have FIVE KIDS! But just losing the stress every month of wondering how we're going to get by...that's the best thing of all. I'm so happy!!! So happy that the first chance I get, I'm going shoe shopping!!

And last night, while floating on air because of the whole house closing business, I went with my new twinmama friend to meet some people from HER twin club at Cold Stone Creamery. It was SUCH a nice night, with a little breeze - we sat on a bench near a pretty fountain and just chit-chatted about our kids. It was a GREAT little escape for a couple of hours.

And today, honey took the day off of work and went with me to playgroup. We went to a tumbling gym at a rec center, which was SO much fun. This crazy woman in charge of the place about near ruined our experience bitching at us about EVERYTHING. (They tried to charge me four bucks a kid - INCLUDING MY FIVE MONTH OLD TWINS WHO WERE ASLEEP IN THE STROLLER!!! I made a huge stink until they only charged me for the bigger kids.) But the crazy lady in charge had this CRRRRRAZY mullet that was shaved like a crew cut on top and all pulled back in a bun everywhere else, so at least I got to make fun of her hair. All's well that ends well. And then we went to Sam's Club to buy a shed, but they didn't have it in stock anymore. Phooey.

And that's been my Monday and Tuesday! All kinds of fun! Whee!

P.S. I cracked up at this referral in my stats: Tom Cruise Sucks Ass. Hehe!

Wow. I am SO glad the weekend is over and it's back to the old schedule where I am the one in charge of the world and there isn't anyone extra monkeying around with the ROUTINE. K had someone spend the night Saturday night and it was a pain. It was actually less work when she was GONE the night before at a sleepover! I was thinking, "Cool, two girls here I can put to work!" NOT. Everything they did for me I had to BEG THEM to do, and then they did it half-assed and complained the whole time, and then I had to clean up all their messes and fix food for them and all that. Blech! I miss the days of having an only child sometimes - sleepovers were a lot more fun when we could bake cookies and do crafts and stuff.

And the Mister was being kind of a butthead yesterday. Hmph. I hope all THAT drama is over. Seems to be.

We're out of milk - a travesty in this household - so we're off to the supermarket in a minute, as soon as everyone gets their shoes on. Including me. Oh, and K lost ANOTHER tooth last night! The toothfairy brought her a five dollar bill, folded like a fan. She thought that was neat.

Have a splendid Monday!

A little meme, stolen from Katy. The goal is to describe the "Five things society at large enjoys, but that I, for the most part, just don't get..."

Number One



The fascination with Star Wars. I just don't get it. The only one I like is Chewbacca. I saw this quote somewhere that described my feelings perfectly: "Luke, I am your overrated piece of crap."


Number Two



Sushi. I want to like sushi. I want to love sushi, since my honeybun loves it and eats it every Tuesday. (Sushi Tuesday!) In fact, I DO love the kind that doesn't taste like ass. The eel is good. The salmon is good. (I don't know any of the fancy sushi-slang names!) The problem with most sushi, as I see it, is that it's wrapped in seaweed. Do you know what seaweed tastes like? Ass. Do you know what it smells like? A dirty fishtank. No amount of soy sauce and wasabi can erase that fishtank ass smell. Not to mention, you have to eat it in one bite or it falls apart all over your chin - and that's just too big of a bite for me to chew up without fearing that it's going to trigger my gag reflex and I'm going to yack ass scented sushi all over the table. When I can get California rolls WITHOUT seaweed inside, then I'll become a sushi lover, I'm sure.


Number Three



Paris Hilton. Um...she's okay looking. She'd look better if she put on, like, thirty pounds - perhaps her nose cartilage would appear less sharpened and beak-like. She seems to be relatively free of talent and charm. WHY is she famous again?


Number Four



The Mr. Clean MagicReach. Who is this for? People who have showerheads twelve feet high? Is this REALLY necessary? You're basically, like, Swiffering the shower walls? Isn't it almost EASIER to stand there and use a rag than to try maneuvering something with a pole while you're standing inside the shower? Am I missing something?


Number Five



Live Strong (and all the other ones just like it) bracelets. Psst. They're RUBBER BANDS. Just thought you'd want to know!

I guess you're supposed to tag 5 people, but I'm afraid no one I tag will do it and then I'll feel lame. LOL! So, if you want to do it, consider yourself tagged! You're it!

I'm aware I haven't posted for a couple of days. We're having sort of a rough week around here. I know this, too, shall pass, but it's still all sort of rocking my world. No worries. We'll get through it.

The kids are being pretty good. They had a pretty whiny day yesterday, but I think they were just played out from being in the hot sun at the park in the morning, then shopping in the afternoon. They were SO GOOD all day until we got home, then everyone seemed to have a meltdown!

I don't know what else to say. You know how it is when you have SO much on your mind, so little of which you can share, and don't even know how to put it into words anyway? So instead of any substance, I offer you the following observations:

That long-haired carpenter dude on Clean Sweep annoys the crap out of me, the way he always sticks his hands in the paint and then fingerpaints it onto the wall to show what the new color will be. Oooookay. You're the Cool Carpenter, with your sunglasses on in the house, we get it.

I thought the Doodlebops were annoying as hell until I started noticing how much my kids HATE Dragontales. That show REALLY sucks ass - mostly because of the annoying voices. Since when do dragons have weird Latino accents?

Sure, he might look a little gay in his twin sister's flowery embroidered overall shorts, but you haven't seen that kid take off his diaper ONCE since I put them on him, have you? Not that I can blame him. Would YOU want to wear a diaper in this hot weather?

Okay, that's it. That's all I have to say. Have a nice weekend!

We need diapers. And bananas. And toothpaste. And any number of things that live inside of Wal-Mart.

But it's 95 degrees outside. And inside my central air-conditioned house, it's 71. And you've heard of windchill factor, right? When it's 30 degrees, but the windchill factor makes it feel like it's about 18? Well, when you have to get four babies buckled into the stroller, 95 feels like 120. LOL!

I'm just not in the sweating mood today! So we're sitting on our asses in cool air conditioned comfort. This is better. The kids can go without bananas today. I'm not going anywhere!!

Oh. My. GOD.

I just spent an hour and seven minutes getting all the tiny beads and rubberbands out of Kayley's hair and untangling/unbraiding a billion tiny braids.

I'm really thinking the next time she goes to Mexico with her dad, I'm going to let HIM take the braids out.

My girlfriend Angie had her baby today. Yay! She had a little boy. I can't wait to go up and see them tomorrow evening! Honey's going to come home and watch the babies so Miss K and I can head up there and see her. I can't imagine giving birth and then having someone visit me with four noisy babies. Ack!! I know she wasn't really planning to have more children so this little guy is a happy surprise for their family. I know they're in for a lot of joy in the future. It's so neat that they got a little boy to add to their houseful of girls! (Just like my little guy, surrounded by sisters!)

I took the kids today for haircuts. That was an adventure! My big girl did great. She was a little afraid at first, but the stylist gave her a sucker right away (hairy sucker be damned) and she calmed right down. She got a nice little bang trim and got the rest of her hair pulled up in a tiny "fountain" ponytail. It looks like a spider plant sprouting out of her head!! LOL! The boy had a freakin' FIT like I knew he would. He hates having his face washed, his nose wiped, his hair combed - you get the idea. So his 'do is a little uneven. But it still looks WAY better than it did yesterday! I didn't really get a decent picture of the girl. I'll see what I have and upload it to Flickr.

After haircuts, we went to Chik-fil-A for lunch. The kids had a BALL in the toddler-friendly play area and were MAD when it was time to leave. A whole bunch of moms and kids came in all at once and it was crazy. The play area is tiny as it is, and all of a sudden, I couldn't see my kids, and I started to panic, so we left. They sacked out all the way home, though - tired little boogers!

Well, the sale of our townhome fell through today. As fucking usual. May I just say - mortgage companies can all go suck a fat dick. They're so dishonest and disorganized - they're not regulated at all - I think being a buyer right now would be really aggravating - particularly if you didn't have the greatest credit. People are being taken for a big ride in this market. I don't even know what else to say about it, except that it feels so absolutely hopeless that we'll ever dig out of this pit. Frustrating.

Sorry to end the post on such a pissy note. Hope you're having a nicer Tuesday than I am! LOL!

We had a really nice weekend. So nice that I'm pouting today because my man had to go back to work. Sigh!

We went to Macaroni Grill for our date night. It was the bomb-diggity. And we never ended up going to a show, just shopping around - we browsed Pier One, Comp USA, and some other places - didn't buy ANYTHING. Just walked around talking and spending time together. And then we came home at 9:30, because we were so damned tired! My parents seem to have a knack for getting the kids to bed EARLY and making them sleep all night - I don't know what it is, but we need to catch on already! So, we ended up going to bed by like 10:30 Saturday night and sleeping until about 7 Sunday morning! OMG, I so need more days like that!!! Amazing how great you feel when you get some sleep!

Yesterday we took the kids up to visit the other grandparents and went to the park in the 90+ degree heat. Whee!! We came home in the early evening and hung out with some other family members who dropped by. Evidently on Father's Day, you visit the father who has the most small children. LOL!

Now I'm home alone with whiny children and I'm pouting because my monitor seems to have died. Dammit! I just GOT it like two months ago, and it won't turn on today. I hate when things like that happen.

Sheesh. Sorry for the boring-assed post, here! Maybe I'll be wittier later.

My mom and dad are coming over tonight to watch the kids so we can go out to dinner and maybe see a movie.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's not often that we get to go anywhere, and it always seems to require a whole lot of setup!

I'm feeling frustrated and not even sure how to put it into words without sounding like a little spoiled brat.

When we bought this house, my parents bought a house about 10 minutes away so they could be closer to us. They also set up a playroom in their house with toys for the kids, and set up one of their spare bedrooms with two cribs and a changing table. Trying to set things up for us to spend time over there, it would seem. They kept saying they wanted to have a closer relationship with the babies than they had with K, since they lived 200 miles away when she was a baby. All fine and good. Except we never see them. The few times we've been over there, the kids just run around crazy, and my dad can't seem to deal with it. He gets all passive aggressive and snide commenty - only my biggest pet peeve IN LIFE - got something to say? Out with it, dammit. So we haven't been over there much. Particularly since the little babies were born. It's HARD to get out of here with four babies; I ain't gonna lie. It's really hard going places where nothing is childproofed - I spend all my time running after the kids and plucking antique figurines out of their hands and trying to get them to stop sitting inside the fireplace, y'know?

So, okay, whatever. They can come over here and see the kids, right? Well, no, not so much. They both work 40 hours a week (in their late 60s) so they're TIRED, and on their days off, they do their grocery shopping and housework and don't want to drop in and see the kids. Still, once a month or so, they'll graciously offer to come over and watch the kids so we can get away. And I appreciate the gesture - I really, really do. Believe me, nobody else is offering up any help whatsoever, so I appreciate anything I can get. But I honestly need a break from the kids more regularly. And not to go to the damned movies. I wish they could just DROP BY, you know, since they live so close, and just watch the kids for 45 minutes or an hour so I could vacuum the entire upstairs and clean the bathrooms and put laundry away. But I can't seem to get ANYONE to do that for me. Am I asking for too much? I mean, really? I would do anything in the world for my family and friends. But can I get someone over here for AN HOUR so I can scrub a damned toilet? No. I would cheerfully give up going to the movies every month and a half if I could get a couple of hours a week. If I could get someone over here for just a little while so I could run to the supermarket ALONE. My God, do you know how nice that would be? Can you imagine pushing a hundred pounds of stroller with four babies in it, all whining and needing cookies and bottles and attention, while pulling a cart full of groceries behind you with your other hand? Because that's how I go grocery shopping EVERY WEEK. And I really don't feel like I can dump them off on the man, because he is busting ass CONSTANTLY trying to work on our yard and stuff. (Damn us for buying a stupid house with NO LANDSCAPING. Did we REALLY think we'd have time for this?)

So that's my big rant. I'm getting sort of bitter about the whole thing. Every time we go ANYWHERE, we are a huge spectacle. People come up to us ALL THE TIME, asking questions and making comments. I hear "Boy, do you have your hands full!" and "How do you DO IT?" probably a dozen times every time we walk out the door. Here's what I never, ever hear: "Can I get that door for you?" or "Do you need a hand getting that stroller out of your van?" I know I sound like a big whiner. There's nothing impressive about popping out a bunch of kids; I know this. I know we made our bed and now we have to lie in it. I know I'm responsible for my own family. I know all this. I also know I had a little old lady in my van last week at Sam's Club, driving around for ten minutes because she couldn't find her car. I know every time my honey's aunt or dad calls him needing something done, he is RIGHT THERE helping. I know when his brother needed his stereo installed, we spent a whole Saturday working on it. At my last twin club meeting, I carried one of the new mom's infant carseats out to her car when she had to leave in the middle of the meeting, because I know what it's like to lug that shit everywhere. When is that common courtesy going to make its way BACK to us?

I keep thinking there's some grand lesson I'm supposed to learn here, just exactly why WE ended up having four little babies - and we love them dearly and wouldn't trade them for the world - but it's lonesome here, dude. I would love so much for someone to come over and just sit down and watch What Not To Wear with me while we drink Diet Coke and watch the kids play - and then maybe I could run upstairs and take a long shower, one long enough where I could shave my pits AND my legs, y'know? Am I really asking for a lot here? I don't feel like I am, but maybe I am.

I posted about my little baby getting her first tooth and I think it got lost in my tangent about getting charged for the free cucumber.

Did you see it? My baby has a tooth! A tooth! She'll be five months old tomorrow, and she cut her first tooth the other day.

Acknowledge the tooth! Represent!

I'm cranky today! One of the babies woke up early - her head was under the crib bumper!! Must be time to take those out, huh? She was sideways in the crib and got her head up underneath it and was screaming to be freed. Miss M woke up from all that and I got her to lie down in her crib again, just in time to be woken up by her other sister, who was awake and hungry. I gave up and got all three girls up and brought them downstairs, and then the boy woke up too. I don't know why everyone woke up so early today! And the toddlers are cranky and whining. Hmph.

Honey stayed around long enough for me to grab a quick shower, so I'm all ready to go - dressed and shoed and everything - so I'm thinking we're going to get out of here and do something. Maybe we'll go garage saling since it's so early. (That's the SAHM secret, y'know - Friday morning garage saling! Best day to go!) I'd really love a huge diet Coke from McDonald's, too.

Maybe we'll do that. And pick up Father's Day cards while we're out. Bye!

UPDATE

We went garage saling. I was starting to get really annoyed and disappointed by all the total crap sales I was finding, but finally, I found what I was looking for. I spent five bucks and got a bunch of great toys - a Blues Clues talking fridge (dude! It is soooo cool!) and a Leapfrog talking doll thing and a Little Tikes light up power saw thingy and like ten little Lamaze/Infantino/Discovery Toys rattles and things for the little babies. Score!! Then we went to Target for a hot dog and some Father's Day cards. I also bought sandals for the big kids. Spiderman and Hello Kitty. The End!

Bedroom door:



Kitchen counter:

So...psychobaby girl's been a little monster all week, constantly fussing. Goodbaby has been her same, sweet self.

I was feeling around last night and guess what?

The good baby, who hasn't fussed at all - has her first tooth!!

In other news...man, I hate being stupid. It's so hard going through life with SO little common sense at times!! The babies have been so fussy, and honey pointed out to me last night that they still seemed hungry after they ate. He suggested that they might be ready to move up to 8 ounces, since they've been on 6 ounces for like, three months now. DUHHHHHH! They're almost five months old. Of course they should be eating 8 ounce bottles. Can you believe I've been starving them for weeks? No wonder they're so fussy. I fixed both of them 8 ounce bottles this morning and they're happy as pigs in shit. Happier than I've seen them in days! Oy. I can't believe it didn't occur to me to just feed my children.

Also, they started eating baby food this week. Last night, they had sweet potatoes for the first time - they seemed to like it! I didn't get any pictures, but I got some cute ones of them having pears the other night.

They're growing up so fast - baby food, teeth, full huge bottles - I'm feeling sad that my last babies are so quickly leaving babyish things behind! They're going to be TODDLERS next week at this rate!

And I also decided I need to start getting them on a schedule - particularly miss crazypants, who is SUCH a bear lately. So, they're both in their cribs, sleeping away. I took them up about an hour ago right after I put the big kids in the tub. They just aren't content anymore to fall asleep in their swings or whatever. In fact, crankygirl won't go anywhere near the swing or the bouncer - she starts arching her back and kicking and swinging her fists and screaming if you try to put her in either. Little psychobaby! I'm glad they're sleeping - I just KNOW that's a big part of their fussiness. I learned that the hard way with the big twins - I had to FORCE them to become good nappers, because they were so sleep deprived that they were just angry all the time, and it was like a vicious cycle. It wasn't until I started just shutting them in a dark room in their cribs that they learned they had to nap every day. Hopefully the little ones will take to it as easily. Now, if only I could get them to all nap at the same time!!!

Oh, I forgot to mention my ANGRY MOTHER moment yesterday! I was LIVID!!

We went to Wal-Mart for our weekly diapers/formula/grocery run. I searched and SEARCHED for cucumbers and couldn't find any. The grocery clerk told me they couldn't find the shipment! He said they had six cartons SOMEWHERE but they weren't sure where. He said he'd try to find some for me. So, like fifteen minutes later, he actually TRACKED ME DOWN clear over by the milk, with this fancy cucumber - the kind that has a "Grown in SoCal" label on it and is shrink wrapped in cellophane and is usually overpriced, KWIM? He said, "All I have are these big seedless ones - I'll give it to you no charge." Pretty nice, huh? He'd taken out a Sharpie and completely marked out the barcode, and written NO CHARGE across the label, big as could be.

So. I get to the register and one of the babies starts having a meltdown, so I'm trying to deal with her and pay for my groceries and get out of everyone's way so we're not making a scene. Then when we're done, I start checking my receipt (I always check it before we leave the store!) and the motherfucker CHARGED ME FOR THE CUCUMBER! It didn't scan, obviously, so he had to KEY IN THE CODE FOR IT, even though it was all marked out and said "no charge" on it. I was fuuuuuuurious!!! I was HOLDING a crying baby, pushing the stroller with one hand, left my cart of food behind, and confronted him while he was ringing up someone else. I was all, "What in the hell is your problem? Does it LOOK like I have time to go straighten this out? Would it have killed you to just ASK ME why it said no charge?" I swear, he was almost in tears when I finished. I can't believe how ANGRY I was! And during all of it, the baby spit up ALL OVER my shirt. Aaaaaangry!!!

Luckily, the register was RIGHT in front of customer service, and nobody was in line, so I marched right up and got my dollar seventy-six back. I know it's not a huge amount, but MY GOD, it pissed me off! What the hell, man?

Now I'm waiting around to see if my mama's coming over to visit today. I hate it when people say "I might drop by." Then I feel obligated to BE HERE all day. Not that we were planning to go anywhere, but I get all anxious just going up to switch the wash, because I can't hear the doorbell up there. Jeez.

Okay, off to do mama type stuff. Have a splendid Thursday!

My honey decided not to work in the yard tonight and is instead playing with all four kids while I hide up here and take a hot bath. I just got done reading message boards and blogs and I'm about to hop in the tub!

Woo!

Bubbles! Exfoliation! Hair removal! Deep conditioning! It's all so new and wonderful!! Haha!

I got a cute email today, with pictures, from my girlchild. She's currently in Mexicon on vacation with her dad. Here's what she said. (The spelling errors would be cuter if it were HER typing, but they're all her dad's typos. I know his style! Ha!)

Hi Mommy,

I got a new necklace. I cut my foot on the coral, but it is not that bad.

We went rafting yesterday and on our way back, we saw a blue jelly fish in the
water. T abandoned ship and left Daddy to navagate around it by himself.

We went to the acquarium and fed the sea lions and turtles. I held a sea
cucember and a sea earchent. The sea cucember squirted water at daddy's girlfriend.

We are sending some pictures.

Love you, Bye K

<--- Pictures are on Flickr!

The babies, they're insane. And so am I. I was up until almost two with one, because she wouldn't go to sleep. The other, who usually sleeps late, woke up at 5:30. My eyeballs are ON FIRE today!!

I need to get a break from these kids today, somehow, some way!

And I need diapers, wipes, and formula, so we'll probably be going to Wal-Mart, even though I need toothpicks to hold my eyes open.

Thanks for all the congrats and comments about the dress. Isn't it pretty? I'm excited. We're going WAY low-key. We're getting married in the backyard (which, uh, WILL have grass by then) in a very simple ceremony with family and friends with us. Just a little party. And I thought everyone knew we weren't married yet. That's the big joke! How many people do you know who have four kids in less than three years while they're DATING? Ha!

Time to fix breakfast and cry into my cereal because I'm so tired. Have a nice Wednesday!

(I don't know why the mannequin has Dude Posture!)

I just have to brag on my big girl here...



She's getting so smart all of a sudden! And I'm predicting a big old language explosion - she's been repeating things we say a lot lately - something she's never really done. She's still sticking to the few words she knows, but it's clear that she can SAY things if she wants to. She's always saying shoe, good girl, no!, uh-uh, dada...and now she's repeating our words too.

But more than the language thing - she's just learning things left and right. I noticed the Actimates Barney that Colleen sent us sings the song Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes - and when my big girl heard Barney singing it, she started touching her nose and head and shoulders!! We were like, where the hell did she learn that? I think it was either from Baby Einstein or from one of her Curious Buddies DVDs. SO cute.

And the boy is just blossoming too. I don't know if he's ever going to talk - although he does everything about two months after his sister, so I imagine by August, HE'LL be talking too - but he's so bright and sweet. He's been REALLY into puzzles lately and puts all the pieces in place so quickly and easily, over and over. He's so meticulous in all the things he does, always carefully laying pieces of puzzle or Legos or whatever in neat little rows. Sweet little boy.

It's a lot of fun having kids this age.

::dreamy sigh::

How I love that man. And guess what? I'm gonna marry him in September. Whee!

Well, it's almost 11:30. It's muddy as HELL outside (thanks for all the friggin rain, Mother Nature! Yeah, we're in a drought, but you don't have to be such a showoff.) so we can't go out and play - we're stuck inside all day.

Today, I've cleaned the kitchen, swept, mopped, threw out a 3/4 full container of sour cream opened about four days ago because we left it out on the counter all night (dammit! I hate doing stuff like that!) and broken up about fifteen little spats between the big twins.

The girl won't stop taking stuff from the boy, and he stands there and just wails. Stand up for yourself, boy! I'm so tired of it all! She is so bossy, and he is such a little WHINER. He NEVER stands up for himself, and my GOD, is it getting old. If he can't stand up to his twin sister, who is smaller than he is, what's gonna happen when they get to school?

I gave them each their goodie boxes from the party (exactly why goodie boxes are required at a 2-year-old's birthday party is a topic for another day) after I removed the Play Doh, stickers, and M & M's. Basically, they each got the goodie box itself, the little toy truck, and the blower thingy from the party. Within approximately five minutes, each of them had broken off a piece of the truck and were chewing on it. Two cheapass toy trucks, in the trash. Within approximately two minutes, the girl had both blower things. I got the boy's back for him five or six more times before I took all the stuff away from both of them and threw it all in the trash. Maybe it isn't a topic for another day. Why in the hell do two-year-olds need goodie bags? Nothing in the goodie bag was age appropriate - I knew I'd be throwing those cheapass trucks out in about ten seconds. I'm going to end up eating the candy. Huge waste of money, in my opinion.

The little babies will not shut up. They've been crying, crying, crying, unless I'm stuffing a bottle into them or holding them in my lap, which is just not practical when there are so many other kids in the house to deal with. I'm thinking they might be teething. The psychobaby is REALLY giving me fits, because she's SO tired during the day and just going through a phase where she refuses to nod off to sleep. She used to sleep well in the swing or the bouncer seat, now she says to hell with both of them. She has a freakin' FIT if you try to even PUT her in the swing. Yeah, it's fun.

Between all the fighting and bickering and wailing and the tears of sorrow because sissy stole the blower again, I cleaned the bathroom and Windex'd the sliding glass door. I felt like mother of the year as I sprayed Windex all over the glass, then realized one of the babies was sitting in the Exersaucer about a foot away from me. Nice! She didn't seem to even notice what I was doing, so I guess I didn't poison her.

And wow, what is this? I sat down at my laptop, and now I just hear the sounds of The Koala Brothers (man, could that Mitzi BE more annoying??) and a talking toy. NO crying children. Seems as if baby number one fell asleep in the swing, clutching a toy, and baby number two fell asleep in the bouncer (I forced her into it against her will - haha, baby, TOLDJA you were tired!) and the big twins are actually PLAYING. Making a note of this moment, for the record: 11:38 a.m. in Casa de Chaos, and all is calm.

Scratch that. Baby number two realized she's in the bouncer and woke herself up screaming. Dammit!!

Edit...

11:49 and psychobaby is having a bottle and big boy is lying on the floor, shrieking, for no reason I can detect. THIS is the household I know!

I know what I forgot to mention in my post yesterday!

My best friend's boy turned two on Friday and we went to his birthday party on Saturday. It was much fun! My kids seemed so grown up to me, playing with so many other kids just a hair older than them - eating cake off of plates (and then dumping ice cream on the ground - s'okay, the other kids did it too!) sitting at a tiny picnic table - they were pretty cute! My girl even climbed up a way tall, unfamiliar play structure and went down a huge slide all by herself, several times! It was a good time.

Okay, that's all. The quiet morning is about to be disturbed by the sounds of hungry kiddos here at Casa de Chaos.

I'm generally not a weekend blogger, so, HELLO!

It's been raining for days and I can't seem to get ANYTHING done around the house and it's driving me nuts. I have a veritable fuck-ton of laundry to do. And I can't keep putting it off, because honey's going to work tomorrow and would probably appreciate having clothes to wear. Sigh. I remember thinking when I picked this floor plan how NICE it would be having the laundry room upstairs on the same floor as the bedrooms - no lugging clothes baskets up and down the stairs! I never realized it actually meant: no laundry ever gets done, because 99% of our time is spent downstairs in the kitchen/playroom/outside! The only time I can really do the laundry is during naptime, but unfortunately, the big girl's crib is right on the other side of the wall from the washer and dryer, so I can't run them while she's sleeping or it'll wake her right up. So basically, I RUN upstairs and throw clothes in to wash and run back down before the kids escape the playroom and hotwire the van. And nothing gets folded before it's wrinkled. It's driving me bananas, dude. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

And last week, I realized one of the automatic doors on my van has DIED. Oh, I was upset over this discovery!! Honeybun is taking it to the dealer tomorrow for them to look at it. I sure hope it's a quick fix and I can get my van back right away! I hate being stuck at home - and since we haven't been able to go to playgroup for two weeks, I was REALLY looking forward to going on Tuesday. This is the first problem I've ever had with my van - I love it so much - I'm so happy it's still under warranty!!

Today, I said TO HELL with the rain. To hell with it - we are GETTING WET, I don't care. I took all the kids to Sam's Club because we were out of milk and hamburger buns and toilet paper and paper towels and all that other stuff I always get at Sam's Club. And since I knew I wouldn't be able to go tomorrow because of the sad van door thing, we just had to go. And it was cold and damp. We all got a little moist. But we went. Woo-hoo! Now my pantry is full again. And I only ran into about ten people who said, "Boy, have you got YOUR hands full!"

I know you're dying to find out how our playdate went on Friday. It went fine. It was pouring freakinass rain THAT day, too, so no park for us. We went over to the twinmamachick's house (she lives, like, 90 seconds away from me. Seriously, I looked it up on Mapquest: it's .89 miles away.) and the kids played and watched Baby Einstein while we chatted. She was really nice. She didn't seem super judgemental in person, which was great. I can tell we are very, very different people - and that's totally okay with me. Like Sherina said in my comments, I'm not looking for a clone of myself to hang out with! Her kids are nearly two years older than mine, but they're TINY. I guess it really does take a long time to catch up for little tiny preemies. I hope we get to hang out again soon! The best, best, best thing of all was I noticed she lives right by the elementary school where our kids will probably go - and I noticed the school's playground is FENCED AND GATED!! It has two open gates, which I could use to close us all in and we could play in safety! Oh, the thought of being able to play on a playground without chasing two toddlers running in different directions - it's just an awesome thought!! I don't know why they're attracted to the street like little magnets, but they sure are. I can't wait until this deluge of rain lets up just a tad, so things will DRY OUT and we can GO PLAY!

I think that's all I have to say for now - I think I wanted to post more boring stuff about our weekend, but I am definitely detecting some caca in the air here - I need to see who needs their diaper changed, like, NOW. Have a splendid Sunday!! xo

So, I'm supposed to be meeting up with someone today at the park. Someone I met in the supermarket, who lives near me and has boy/girl twins. She seems nice. I hope it's fun.

I'm worried about meeting her, though! We spoke for over an hour on the phone a couple of days ago. Like I said, she seems SUPER nice, but mentioned that she doesn't hang out with the mamas in her twin club very much because she has nothing in common with them and feels like she doesn't fit in. When I asked her why, she said distastefully, "Well, they like to meet up at MCDONALD'S..." Ack! I told her I've gone to the Burger King playland with the playgroup a couple of times and it was lots of fun because the kids were so CONTAINED, I didn't have to chase them too much - and that she could probably even bring in her own food and they wouldn't even notice. She seemed intrigued. And then she said she went to the zoo with a bunch of mamas once, and someone's little girl got a fever and right away she had to break out the bubblegum flavored baby Tylenol. She said she doesn't believe in using Tylenol for fevers. Again, I felt weird - I totally would have been THAT mom at the zoo! I immediately dose up my kids when they have a fever or aren't feeling well - after all, *I* take Advil when I have a headache - why would I let my kids suffer?

Anyway - she's just different from me - she's more into attachment parenting, they don't have set bedtimes, she nursed her kids until they were three, she obviously doesn't feed them food from McDonald's...and that's totally fine. I don't care if you do the family bed thing or if you use cloth diapers or if you think Wal-Mart is bad because they run small town stores out of business. I don't CARE. As long as you're passionate about doing what's best for your family, I think it's cool, baby. Whatever's clever, y'know? But I don't want her dissing ME for doing what I think is best. Like my friend Kim said, it may be just what she needs, to see my big, healthy, bottle-fed, disposable diaper wearing, Tylenol-taking twins (all four of them!) thriving. I don't think we have nothing in common just because we have different approaches - we're still both raising twins, we live in the same neighborhood, hell - our men even have the same type of jobs! I hope she's less judgemental than she seemed on the phone, because it would be awesome to have a twinmama friend in the neighborhood.

Wish us luck.

It's after 11 and everyone in the house is asleep but me.

I'm about to join my honeybun and head off to dreamland, but I wanted to pop in real quick and say that I had a crazy dream this morning about taking Busta Rhymes to prom as my date. I have no idea why I was going to prom as a 32-year-old mother of five, but I was. And the fucker stood me up. And I woke up with much anger, and a little guilt over not taking my honey instead of Busta Rhymes.

All that just because I heard "Pass the Courvoisier" on my way home from Wal-Mart yesterday for the first time in like, two years.

It's weird to be DREAMING again so vividly, after months of sporadic dreaming. This is what happens when the babies start sleeping through the night, see??

I notice that sometimes people ask me questions in my comments and I usually don't answer them. So I went through the past few posts and answered everything I could find. Here you go.

What kind of formula is cheaper at BRU? I didn't think anything was cheaper there than at Wal-Mart.

I was shocked as well! It was Nestle Good Start. $19.97 at Wal-Mart and $18.99 at BRU.

I am not sure where in Co you live. Where is the children's museum?

We live in Denver. The Children's Museum is off of I-25 and about, oh, 20th street? It's on the same street as Ocean Journey and just across the river from Six Flags Elitch's.

ARE THOSE BOTTLES???? Where did you find those? I LOVE THEM!!!!!

Yes! They're Podee bottles, available at Babies R Us. You can also find them online, but they're pricier. They work great, after some practice! Helps if you have binky babies!

She looks so grown up. and beautiful and just like you! And short? Or is her friend just tall for her age?

Thank you!! She IS short for her age. And her friend is tall for her age. So, it's both.


Well, I guess that's it. Is there anything else you want to know? Just ask!

Time flies, I guess!

We didn't get to go to playgroup this week. Most everyone still has sick kids, and those who didn't decided to go to the pool. That's something I just am not capable of doing on my own - taking four babies to a pool!! So I took them all to the Children's Museum instead. We had a nice time! It's SO friggin EXPENSIVE, though! I really think it's a rip off. I mean, it was fun and all, but CLEARLY I have four babies - we are only going into the ONE toddler area - not even venturing past it into any of the rest of the museum. And we were only there a little over an hour - and it still cost us $28 to get in. $7 for each of us, except the littlest two, because under 1 gets in free. That's a fucked up pricing structure, charging the same price for kids THAT young, who are clearly only visiting one tenth of the museum for just a little while. A family membership is $70, but paying that much left a bad taste in my mouth and now I don't want to go back for a long time!
Still, though, the kids had A BLAST. It really is a great setup for tiny kids. And I put several pictures up on Flickr if you want to check it out over there in the sidebar.

Yesterday was our weekly Wal-Mart trip. It went fine, except it was SOOOOOO incredibly windy outside. I can't recall being outside when it was that windy before. My 80 pound stroller with 70 pounds of kids in it was actually GETTING AWAY from me in the wind. It was that sort of wind that makes you feel like you're on a motorcycle or something, like you can't even catch your breath. Damn! So we bought diapers and formula and groceries, and we popped into the new Babies R Us for a birthday present for my best friend's little boy. His 2nd birthday party is Saturday. We got him tub toys, at her request. They didn't have SHIT at Wal-Mart, so we HAD to go to BRU. And I noticed there that formula was a buck cheaper a can than at Wal-Mart, but wipes are a dollar more per carton, and they don't even CARRY Luv's diapers. You just can't ever go ONE PLACE to get everything, y'know?

Oh, and Miss K fixed dinner the other night, all by herself. I was pretty proud of her! She made hot dogs and corn on the cob. It was tasty, especially since I didn't have to do ANYTHING. She even served it up on Zoo Pals plates. Hee! She's leaving Friday for a week in Mexico with her dad and best friend.

And I think we've turned a corner finally with the baby girls - three nights in a row, they've slept until 8:30 without waking up at all! Oh, glorious day!!!!

Have a nice Thursday!

I took all the kids to the Children's Museum yesterday. We had fun! I put some photos up on Flickr; I may upload more later.

Lookie!

That's all I have time to say before I fetch children and start doling out the Froot Loops and banana slices. Later, gator!

- The Swiffer Wet Jet works SO much better when you actually have cleaning fluid in it. Changed the bottle, and look out, my floors are gleaming.

- Leave the room to pee for twenty seconds, and the kids will get hurt during that tiny little window. Ugh!

- It's much easier for toddlers to get INTO the Exersaucer that they outgrew a year ago than it is for them to get OUT of it.

- Even when the kids are being in-fucking-sane and we're having a "sell them to the gypsies" day, I feel SO much better when the house is clean. At least SOMETHING'S within my control. Fake it 'till you make it, baby.

Well, good Monday morning!!

It's been just family, family, family these past few days. I was remarking to the man last night that the past few days, we've seen damned near everybody!

Thursday night was his little brother's high school graduation, so we saw his brothers, his mom, and a bunch of other family. The graduation was fun, even with all the babies there. It was a late night, though - we went out to eat at Lonestar afterward and didn't get home until like 11 p.m. Pretty late for those kiddos! And by the way, Lonestar can suck a fat dick. They are SO INCREDIBLY OVERPRICED. We usually go to Texas Roadhouse, which is just as good if not better, and WAY less moolah. I got a teeny, tiny, eensy beensie little filet mignon. I'm trying to think of something visually to compare it to. It was slightly bigger across than a Chips Ahoy cookie, but not by much. I cut it into like ten tiny bites and ate it in about three minutes. That steak, along with a baked sweet potato and a salad with bleu cheese dressing cost me SIXTEEN DOLLARS. Fucking fuckers, man. Just among our little group (honey and I and the big twins) our bill was sixty five dollars. For our two dinners and a grilled cheese and fries for the kiddos. I'm including the tip in that, too. Crazy.

Friday, I went to the Grand Opening of the BRAND NEW Babies R Us store that's right across the street from our Wal-Mart. Oh, it's so big and beautiful!! We got balloons and cookies and window cling shade things just for walking in the door. And we got TONS of attention in our giant stroller. I saw like four other twin parents too! I returned some babyproofing stuff I've been holding onto for awhile, and I got another Podee bottle for the babies (the kind with the tube they can drink from.) I also got some strappy things to see if they'll work holding the dresser drawers shut. Gonna try them out. AND! The new Del Taco that's right there opened on Friday too, so we had fish tacos and fries for lunch. Yummay!

AND THEN, I took my $17 I got back from BRU in returns and went garage sale shopping. I got a bunch of stuff! For seven bucks, I got about ten little Sesame Street vehicles with these magnet things that pick up pretend rocks and stuff like that - three shirts for my girl and a 3-pack of burp cloths - a Tonka dump truck - a neat board book with baby pictures in it - three little electronic toys (two radio things and a phone) - some cloth book type of thing for the bitty babies - and a squishy truck thing. It's like a truck that rolls and makes electronic truck sounds, but it's made out of squishy foam or something. Woo-hoo! The kids were SO GOOD while we drove around the neighborhoods.

We got home right in the nick of time, too - almost as soon as I got the kids in the house, it started raining, and we had SUCH a huge storm, complete with flash flooding (I saw the street I drove home on completely flooded with water on the news!) and hail and a funnel cloud less than a mile from my house and buckets and BUCKETS of water just pouring from the sky. I had all the kids in the basement for an hour and a half - that was FUN - not! Spring/Summer in Colorado!!

Saturday, honey's dad and stepmom came over. We hung out with them for awhile and had an early supper. Then his aunt showed up too - and my parents! His family watched all the kids while we went with my parents to the girlchild's dance recital. And there, we saw K's dad and a bunch of other people we knew. The recital was a lot of fun. We were out later than we planned, though. It went on FOREVER! We got home so late that his dad and stepmom just spent the night. And then yesterday, Sunday, they got up and left - and honey's mom came over to help him with the kids so I could go to my friend's baby shower! And I saw a bunch of people THERE that I know.

So, all weekend long, we've seen like...almost everyone in our lives!! Weird! The baby shower was fun too, as those go. Usually I think baby showers are lame, but this was a lot of fun. I was gone for almost six hours, between picking up the child and shopping for the gift and hitting Wal-Mart for groceries afterward! I was watching my friend open her gifts thinking, man, she got EVERYTHING she'll need for that baby! Then later I realized she didn't get THE MOST important things of all, in my opinion: a swing, an Exersaucer, and a bouncy seat!! The lifesavers!! I'm sure she'll get right on it, though.

Today it's bright and sunny (finally! After days of rain!) and I'm HOPING we can get out somewhere. The kids are going stir crazy - they haven't been able to play in the yard because it's a huge mud puddle. And my house is a PIT because we've been off doing stuff all weekend and not here picking things up. It's just a constant battle to pick up around here, with so many babies messing it up! And tonight's the twin club meeting, so I'm getting to go out AGAIN! Whee!

Have a nice Monday! (P.S. in the sidebar there, see my Flickr pictures? There's a picture there from the dance recital!)

Okay, so, it's Thursday! And the kids have been pretty good all day long. Shocking, I know. The boy has even been really smiley and cuddly and lots of fun to be around, even though he's not wanting to take his nap and I can hear him KICKING THE WALL with all his might, trying to move his crib across the room. Little stinker.

Today is the girlchild's last day of school. And tonight is the dress rehearsal for her dance recital. Where I will not be because honey's little brother is graduating from high school tonight and we will be there instead, with all of our babies. Sadly for me, tonight is the only night photographs and video are allowed at the dance thing. They don't allow cameras and all that during the recital. My girlfriend was kind enough to call and fill me in on this little fact, since K's dad couldn't be bothered to do so. ::eyeroll:: I'm bummed out that we can't take video or pictures of the recital and I can't even get to the dress rehearsal to get pictures and video then. But, high school graduations are pretty important as well. Fingers crossed that my friend takes lots of pictures for me! (I ain't counting on K's dad to send me pictures, or even bother to take any, as he doesn't seem to give two shits about ANY OF THIS. I'm still scratching my head as to why he absolutely INSISTED on enrolling her in dance, when he's been absolutely apathetic about all of it for the past year.)

It was a beautiful, bright and sunny morning, and now all of a sudden I'm finding myself sitting here in the dark. The sky is black and I hear thunder - sounds like summertime in Colorado is upon us!! This is good napping weather. I hope the kids sleep extra long because their rooms are so dark!

Remember yesterday when I posted that I was going to run around and do some quick picking up before the man got home from work? Well, right after I posted that, one of the kids fell off the toybox and needed some attention. Then after I cuddled and kissed booboos, I started picking up the kitchen and in walked honeybun! He decided to come home from work early, on the day I was being a slackass. Whoops! But it's okay. We had a nice night. We took the kids out in our backyard to let them play with the dirt and the sticks and the weeds and the rusty nails. Woohoo! They took their shoes off and lay down in the dusty dirt - good thing I bathed them that morning. We all came in and ate leftover tacos and watched The Eagles concert on TV. I loved it. I LOVE the Eagles. Are there people out there who are NOT Eagles fans? I don't see how if you're my age, you can't love them. That's our childhood music, man! Even though I mostly listen to hip hop these days, I love me some classic rock.

And today I've already gotten more done than I did yesterday. I scrubbed up the kitchen really good, cleaned the downstairs bath, straightened things up upstairs, did two loads of clothes, and folded a ton of stuff from yesterday. And I took a shower. Go, me.

By the way, one more thing I wanted to mention. I'm sometimes a little snarky, but I'm NOT a mean person - if I hurt your feelings, I will apologize immediately because I hate doing that. So if I ever say or do something that bothers you, please bring it to my attention so we can talk about it and get past it. However, once I apologize, realize that the incident is over and we CAN move on with our lives. I don't need your passive aggressive snide remarks punishing me for being bad, okay? I really dislike confrontation, and usually avoid it. But I hate passive aggressiveness and subtle hostility much, much more. I'd rather get it out in the open and fight about it and be done with it than have this petty "what does she mean by THAT?" nonsense going on. Ugh.

All righty, I'm off to do more mommy stuff. Actually, I'm off to eat a popsicle and watch While You Were Out. Hee!

It is 4:48 p.m. My "workday" is almost over, for the most part. I mean, the part where I actually get shit done before the man comes home from work.

And what have I done today? Well, let's see. I gave the big kids a bath. I folded two loads of laundry and washed a load of towels. Oh, and I put those towels in the dryer. I loaded and ran the dishwasher. I took a shower. Fixed my hair a little. Worked on our family website a little. (I think that's what ate up my day.)

That's pretty much it!! I didn't officially Clean The Kitchen - there are lunch crumbs all over the counters and bottles in the sink. I haven't picked up anything.

I think I need to run around and pick some stuff up and maybe spray some Pledge in the air so it'll seem like I was cleaning today when honey gets home!!

I uploaded these to Flickr last night, but forgot to mention it. Whoops!

Nikki sucking her thumb, upside down. That, and many more, right here. (I didn't want to link to all of them! Sheesh!)

Notice honeybun eating one of his FAVORITE lunches - bleck!