Another trip to the ER. Sunday - September 28, 2008

Little Miss Gabby has had a bummer of a week...

On Wednesday, Dan and Gabby were playing ball at our neighbor's house with her 5 year old buddy, Gabe, and his dad. Gabby & Gabe truly adore each other... it's real cute. Anyway, Gabe accidentally kicked the ball that just happend to hit Gabby right in the face. Poor Gabby started screaming and was in her daddy's arms in a split second. And Gabe and his dad felt sooooo bad. In fact... the little man felt so bad he made the cutest "I'm sorry!" card I've ever seen, for Miss Gabby. Gabby got a bit of a shiner... but her eye was fine. And, she of course still loves Gabe.

Then, on Saturday night we went to a neigbor's party. Lots of neighbors, lots of kids, and lots of people we didn't know too. It was fun... until Gabby got hurt. One of the little girls there (not a neighborhood kid) was a little 4 year old terror. The little terror was busted hitting Gabby and some of the other kids numerous times. She was just not a nice kid and clearly had some issues.

Long story short, the little terror pushed Gabby off a stool and Gabby's face went into a table. Her chin and tounge were cut. The laceration was so bad on her tounge that she was practically choking on the blood. Blood was everywhere. Needless to say... this resulted in our second trip to the ER in two months. Lovely.

The doctors and nurses were GREAT with Gabby. And, I think Gabby enjoyed the experience up until they stuck her with a needle. She was given anesthesia to knock her out so they could stitch up her tounge. Poor baby! Dan & Gabby finally got home from the ER around midnight. She looked awful... dark red and swollen eyes, dried blood everywhere, and a bloody white dress (these photos of the 3 kids were taken right before the party). Poor sweet little monkey. Definitely not her best week ever.

The doctors were GREAT though... they even called today to see how Gabby was doing.

Sadly... the mom of the little terror was in total denial of her child's *issues*. I get *kids will be kids* and *accidents*. I mean... I'm practically a walking accident. But, when you deny your child's repeated violent actions towards other kids... I'm sorry... not acceptable. Clearly, there is a reason why her daughter is the way she is.

Sleep Training is DREAMY! Wednesday - September 24, 2008

Since our kiddos were all on the road to being healthy… last weekend we decided it was the perfect time to officially sleep train the babies.

Our sleep challenges to date with the twins have been:

1. Matteo would cry until he’d puke on himself… and that took less than 15 minutes of crying.
2. Both babies tend to be light sleepers.
3. As a result of #2, they'd wake each other up if they cried because they sleep in the same room.
4. Rocco was still waking up once or twice during the night, at minimum… sometimes for just a pacifier, and sometimes for a bottle.

So, we decided to start sleep training last weekend. Just before nap time, we would be sure their little tummies were full. Then, during their normal nap hours, we started putting them in their crib when they were wide awake, but tired. It went well for the most part with no puking and minimal crying (under 15 minutes and not hard crying – just fussy cries). Prior to this, we would usually wait until they were tired or showing signs of being tired and then “shush” and bounce them a little until their eyes would get heavy and then lay them down. Imagine doing that with TWO, 20lb+ babies, for 3 naps daily each.

We knew night-time was going to be our bigger challenge. Night-time is the fussy time for our little men, as it is for most infants. Their job is to fight sleep, right?! Rocco & Matteo usually begin getting tired in the six o’clock hour. And, we usually start the *stuffing* (stuffing = Dan & I FILLING the babies with solid food). In the past, we would take one baby up at a time… work on getting that baby to a sleepy state for 10-15 minutes. Then, do the next baby. Then, play defense with any unruly babies who might have decided they needed to be wrestled to bed. This process would last 1 hour at minimum. It was getting exhausting. Not to mention… our little men were then still choosing to wake up in the middle of the night, on most nights.

Not anymore… HOORAY!

On Monday night, we started our stuffing routine at 6:30pm, then we made bottles and both Dan & I bring the babies up to their bedroom. We rocked and snuggled them while they drank their bottles. When they were done, we put them in their cribs at the same time and kissed them goodnight.

On Monday night, Matteo cried for 10 minutes pretty hard. He didn’t puke on himself and he fell asleep. Rocco cried for 15 minutes hard… and in an effort to not let him wake Matteo, Dan went up and rocked him for 5 minutes. Rocco fell asleep and Dan put him down. BOTH boys slept 12 HOURS!!! TWELVE. YES… T-W-E-L-V-E! Hallelujah!

On Tuesday night, we did the same routine. Both boys were happy for about 2 minutes and then started crying. Both boys cried for about 8-12 minutes and then fell asleep. BOTH boys slept 12 hours AGAIN. Yes… A-G-A-I-N! 12 hours!

Tonight… we did the same routine at the same time. Both boys fussed for about 3-5 minutes and fell asleep.

I have to say… this all seems SO DREAMY to me as we were never able to do the sleep training with Gabby because she had colic. Trust me when I say we tried. I read all the sleep books… and the sleep books said the training and techniques would rarely work on babies with colic. But we tried. When we tried sleep training Gabby, she would scream for upwards of 2 hours… and it got worse every night… we quit after trying it on her 2 different times, after 3 nights.

Anyway, if you have a baby with colic… I feel for you. Honestly, I do. It is SO HARD. Whenever someone says “Twins… wow… that must be so hard.” My first reply is always “Twins are SO much easier than a baby with colic. Trust me!”

Musical Beds. Wednesday - September 24, 2008

So, in all the chaos of last week's sleepless nights... we had a few nights of musical beds. What can you expect with 3 sick kids, right?

Anyway, Dan was doing all the getting up in the middle of the night because I was also really sick. Around 4:30am one morning, Rocco woke up screaming... then Gabby woke up because of Rocco's screaming. So, Dan plopped Gabby into bed with me. Then he went back and grabbed Rocco and tried to get him to go back to sleep. Rocco didn’t want to eat. He didn’t want his paci. He just didn’t want to be put in his crib… probably because of his ear pain. But, he’d sleep on Dan’s shoulder.

So, Dan took him into Gabby’s bed with him, so they could both try and get a bit more sleep. Well, two hours later, Dan woke up… and started freaking out when he noticed Rocco was no longer sleeping on his should or even right next to him. Then, Dan said he suddenly heard Rocco sucking on his pac. Dan looked over to the wall that sits up against the side of Gabby’s bed… and there was Rocco. Standing in the tiny space between the wall and the bed, sucking on his paci and watching Dan. Dan said that when Rocco saw him look at him he got the biggest smile on his face.

There are few things better than a pacifier smile. Especially after thinking your wild child has gone incognito!

Wow... last week was rough. Wednesday - September 24, 2008

I wish I hadn’t complained about the weekend because the week that followed ended up being CRAZY. We should have predicted it, right?

The added drama included:
* Not only was Rocco still sick & fussy with the ear infection, he continued to not sleep well for the next two nights.
* Mommy got sicker as the week progressed… the nasty head cold moved to my chest resulting in lots of coughing, sleepless nights, feeling crappy and missing a few training runs.
* Matteo was then diagnosed with a DOUBLE ear infection after a sleepless night. Poor sweet boy.
* Did I already mention we had a few sleepless nights?
* And the kicker? Our au pair has a melt down… yikes.

But... we’re all good now. And, soon it will get cooler, right? Hopefully! And, good fall TV is just around the corner... hooray!!

Each day is a new canvas to paint upon. Make sure your picture is full of life and happiness, and at the end of the day you don't look at it and wish you had painted something different. - Author Unknown

A rough weekend. Monday - September 15, 2008

My summary of a rough weekend:

* Matteo cut his third tooth, one of the uppers.

* Rocco came down with an ear infection – diagnosed today, meaning…

* 2 sleepless nights for mommy & daddy. Not good.

* Kathleen & I ran 16 miles in 2 hours and 20 minutes first thing Saturday morning. No, it wasn’t a race. It was actually our own personal torture session. Seriously. Yes, we’re insane idiots. No, it was not really our favorite sort of fun... that would have most likely involved cocktails in-hand. We’re some of the freaks training for the San Francisco Nike Marathon (October 19th). Go us! Back in March… I thought it would be a great idea to sign-up for a local marathon as a motivator to get back into my running routine and help shed the baby weight. Clearly, it should not be legal for women with two month old twins to sign up for marathons. At that point, you are still legally hormone-insane and making very, very bad personal-motivation decisions. Clearly.

* 1 quiet, Sunday morning (6am’ish) argument between two overtired parents who both got under 4 hours sleep Saturday night. Never want to freak out the kids with a loud argument… OR the au pair for that matter. Good lord knows the kids won’t leave us… but the au pair could! ;-) And, that would just be BAD. Not sure we could or would even want to imagine life without Julia right now!

* 1 attempted trip to the San Francisco Zoo on Saturday. But, half-way there, Rocco threw-up in his car seat... which ended up being my second hunch that he was battling an ear infection. Rocco screamed the entire car ride... so when we got home, everyone was wiped and near-deaf.

* I come down with a nasty cold… probably from two sleepless nights. Sneezing, stuffy sinuses and a froat (froat = sore throat in Gabby-land).

* Started my Monday at 5:10am today. Monday’s are my least favorite day of the week. Starting it in the 5 o’clock hour doesn’t help one bit.

* Matteo started crawling! UGH! See below post…

* Me getting around via crutches on Monday because the plantar fasciitis in my right foot decided to act up… equaling another appointment with my foot MD.

Silver lining:
I truly do have the world’s greatest husband. I have three healthy, beautiful children. We are so lucky to have one fabulous au pair, who we really enjoy and does a great job with the kids. And… even though we had a rough weekend, we did have a lot of great moments over the weekend. We laugh hard in the Martino house.

For instance… it is SO FUNNY to watch Dan and the boys “baby wrestle”:


And, Gabby is always singing… this was recorded a few weekends ago when we had neighbors over for dinner:

Matteo's crawling! Monday - September 15, 2008

Matteo started crawling... CRAWLING! The baby of the family is crawling. Ugh.

He did approximately 4 crawl moves for me this morning around 5:30am'ish. I figured it would take him a bit longer to build the strength to go a distance, but considered it an official first crawl.

Then, before Dan went to work... Matteo was full on crawling around like he had been doing it for days. Trying to chase people away from the play area. I then decided to tell Dan and Julia “Well, now we need another baby!”

And then... I had to pick Dan up off the floor and convince Julia to stay. ;-)

We've hit eight months! Friday - September 12, 2008

The boys hit EIGHT MONTHS old this week. I can hardly believe it.

Time really flies when you're busy! And, I mean B-U-S-Y. So busy that on most days, the first time you sit down to enjoy a quiet moment to yourself just happens to be around 11pm. It's the first time you're not worrying if everyone's ok and fed, or picking up the crap on the floor that surrounds your feet, doing more laundry, thinking about work deadlines, etc.

But, things around here seem to just keep getting more fun and a tad bit easier every day. Well… kind of. I mean, we do still deal with the bumps & bruises, challenges of juggling 3 small kids, tantrums, juggling our jobs with family life, etc. Hmmmm… ok, maybe it isn’t really getting easier yet. Does parenting ever get easier though? I mean… are we going to think being a parent is easier when the kids are 18? I think NOT! ;-)

Recent noteworthy news in the Martino house includes:
* Matteo is holding his own bottle. He doesn’t hold it consistently… but hey, I’ll take ANY sort of help at this point.

* Rocco is EVERYWHERE climbing EVERYTHING. Climbing favorites include the stairs, kitchen cabinets, dishwasher, and the sofa.

* Matteo is on the verge of crawling. He’s up on all 4’s… moving knees and hands. Just not at the same time. I think he’ll officially be crawling in another week or two.

* Gabby is now in the older preschool, with the older kids (ages 3-4) and new teachers. She’s settled in and one of her teachers told Dan at pick-up time today that she’s a definite *leader* on the playground. Is that *preschool code* for slightly bossy? I have absolutely no idea where she would get that from. Seriously. Erhmmm…

* Rocco now jumps in his chair and screams at us simultaneously when he’s really hungry. No really. The child jumps while sitting. A lot. So much in fact that I’m scared to leave the kid alone in his chair and I wouldn’t dream of leaving him unbuckled. Kids like Rocco are THE REASON safety belts were installed in random infant chairs. I never buckled Gabby into anything when she was a kid… well, except for her car seat, of course. I never had to worry about her doing chair dives or anything.

Now for some photo cuteness... I'll post some video soon too:

A rare Canon moment. Thursday - September 11, 2008

This rarely happens...

Rare is the moment when Dan & I are both captured in a photo together... ever rarer are the moments when Dan & I are photographed with ALL THREE kiddos.

We were playing around outside last week... and I took a couple photos of Julia, our au pair, with the kids. Then, she turned the camera on us... and she captured a couple funny photos for us. She's a great photographer... don't get me wrong. It's just that three of the subjects were less than cooperative.

It's a tad bit crazy trying to hold 3 kiddos for a photo. But, it's so great to have the help of an au pair to help capture some of these moments for us. Julia's been great... and absolute joy to have in our home and she's great with the kiddos.

Below, top, is me with the kids... and then, Julia with the kiddos.



















Usually... if we have 3 kids in hand, it's not on purpose... trust me. I've usually got one two year old requesting chocolate milk IN my lap because she thinks it will result in her getting it sooner... WHILE I'm feeding an 8 month old, WHILE also holding the other 8 month old so he doesn't bang up his head on one of his expeditions around the kitchen.

Yes, friends... THIS is what a real moment with 3 kiddos under 3 looks like, before I head out on a run:

More recent cuteness!

Lots of stuff happening around here lately. Lots of crazy, but fun stuff. Sometimes I think my head is spinning. But, we sure do laugh hard every single day...

Here's some of the cuteness to share:

Matteo getting up on all 4's! Monday - September 1, 2008

I think Matteo is tired of sitting on the sidelines while watching Rocco chase Gabby around the house. Mr. Matteo has decided he's going to try and start moving too...

Yup... he's getting up on all 4's people! Any bets on when we'll have another crawler in the house?

Crown apples. Monday - September 1, 2008

After a weekend of fun dinners with friends, neighborhood bbq's, and LOTS of yummy treats... how do you possibly get a 2.5 year old to eat a piece of fruit?

Well... you give her a CROWN APPLE, of course.

Gabby was begging for more sweets tonight, and I had to put my *mommy* hat on and tell her she needed to eat some fruits or vegies.

Then, Julia said she'd make Gabby a crown apple. Immediately, Gabby was VERY interested... and then proceeded to eat her crown apple with lots of enthusiasm. What princess wouldn't?!

Just a tad bit messy. Monday - September 1, 2008

So... just a little example on how messy it can get feeding the twins.

Matteo:

Rocco:

And then you wonder what their chairs look like when they're done eating, right? Well... maybe not. Maybe you're still fixated on their faces. But... below is what the chairs look like. And, for the record.... this picture doesn't even do them justice. I think the flash bounced off all the food spots so it just looks sorta shiny in the foody areas (ok... so the whole thing looks shiny... you get the picture).

Now you're thinking... "OMG! How do you clean them?" Easy. Dan takes them outside, sprays them with the pressure washer, rubs them down with soap, and then sprays them with the pressure washer again.

Nothing strange about that, right?! I mean... parents across America clean their kids chairs with pressure washers, right?

Uh-huh. Yeah right...