Mama bear

The twins and I get a fair amount of stares and comments while we are out and about, but I think that comes with the territory. I mean, who wouldn't stare at this little girl pushing a big stroller around with a diaper bag the size of luggage on her arm? Plus there's the fact that I have 2 darling little girls inside curiously staring back at everyone. There are moments when I can't walk through the store without being stopped multiple times so someone can tell me "how full my hands are" or "double trouble!" My mom likes to tell me I'd be sad if no one noticed the girls. Don't get me wrong, it warms my heart that others find them just as adorable as I do, I just didn't expect people to be so forward. While at the doctors last week, a woman stood right in front of my stroller and stared the girls for an extended period of time, I pulled the stroller closer to me and facing away from her. This woman then proceeded to talk to a woman across the woman in another language as she occasionally pointed down towards my stroller. I'm usually more timid when it comes to confrontation , but that day the mama bear within me came out! I stood up and said to her, "it's rude to stare, you know" in a loud, stern voice. The woman had no response for me so I moved the girls to the other side of the room where I sat with my heart pounding and my face red from embarrassment.

We've been super busy the past couple weekends, but I have really been enjoying all the family time! Although hanging out takes away from my crafting haha... So thanks to Ellen Degeneres, I got 3 free photo books from shutterfly and made them all over the last week. I must say I'm awfully proud of how they turned out! The process made me think a lot about how much work this whole twins thing is going to be for me. What you do for one, you have to do for the other! I started with a book for Summer and put so much time and effort into making it really creative and special, so much that I didn't feel like making another one! But I had to. Just like with all this birthday party planning, I've made a bunting that says "Happy Birthday Autumn!" and can't stop without making one for Summer. I've got to get 2 cakes, 2 gifts, 2 this 2 that. If you could just imagine- it's 2 mouths to feed, 2 high chairs to clean, 2 sets of clothes to wash, 2 little baby bottoms.. and the list goes on and on. BUT always after I'm done throwing a pity party, I bask in the joy that I have 4 arms that embrace me, 4 eyes that light up when they see me, and 2 tiny voices saying "MAMA!" And that, I wouldn't trade for the world.

Celebrate!

I celebrated my first Mother's day a few days ago and it was really nice. Joe spoiled us all with flowers and gifts but most importantly it was nice that most of the family was all together. We also took Summer and Autumn on their first ride- the meri-go-round, which they loved! The girls seemed fascinated with all the animals and sounds at the zoo so I'd say it was a hit.

Also on Mother's day, Autumn pulled herself to stand! Now she is standing all over the place and getting into all sorts of trouble. Summer can get into a seated position from lying down and is just the cutest thing when she gets all the way up, she puts her hands in the air as if to say "TADA!" Can't wait to see what new milestones they will hit next.

Today I took the babies to the beach with one of my mommy friends. These characters are just too much- Summer was rolling and crawling around in the sand having the time of her life and Autumn was shoveling the sand in her mouth faster than I could keep up with. Despite throwing tantrums because I kept stopping them from eating sand and crawling away, I think they had good time! And needless to say, I'll be cleaning sand off them for days.

The 1st birthday party planning is in full affect and coming along nicely! I have everything booked and even started on my decorations. I have a lot of projects going on all at once so today I will show my progress on the birthday bunting I'm making for the party. 

I have been cutting out the triangles in various girly colors so that when I string them I'm hoping they all go well together.

 I bought the stamps to make letters for "Happy Birthday" but silly me, I forgot to buy an ink pad. So for now I'll just decorate them and leave the letters for last.

 Like I said I have a lot of stuff I'm working on so I'll try to take pictures as I go to show my progress!

De-Cluttering Life

The last few nights I have been organizing, labeling and dating ALL of my photos. Which not only turned out to be a much longer process than I expected but was also very bitter-sweet. A tiny bit of back story to help me explain why I feel this way is: Summer and Autumn were born almost 3 months early and spent 39 days in the hospital. It's amazing the amount of guilt you can feel in a situation like this, wondering what you possibly could have done different in order to provide the safe home they were supposed to have. But, it turned out my body knew the small space it was offering them was no longer a safe place for them to live. Summer's umbilical cord was only partially connected and Autumn was tangled hers. Despite being early my little miracles made it without any complications and came home with us weighing a fragile 3 1/2 pounds. That's why it is so strange to hear comments like, "how cute are your chubby little boys!" <-- You wouldn't believe how many people mistake them for boys, including a woman today at the grocery store. In addition to adapting to life with 2 premature babies, my dad decided to take his life about 6 months ago. I won't discuss much about this as it's a very sensitive topic for me, but I'm sure you can imagine how difficult it is to flip through old photos of him. Although, I will say it was a lot of fun to reminisce with Joe about all the things we have done together and to show him highlights of my childhood.

So. In other news. I took the girls swimming for the first time yesterday and they loved it! Right away Summer was splashing and kicking around like she had been swimming all her life. Autumn was a little shy at first, as that's her personality but eventually she opened up and had a ball! Both girls are really finding their way around these days! But Autumn has discovered she can pull herself up on things so that is her new favorite thing to do. She even uses Summer as a step stool! I admire her adventurous spirit as well as Summer's never ending happiness. I'm am so proud of these little girls, and I'm realizing a mother is really the one that celebrates all the little things they do <3

A step in the right direction

I've decided that I was meant to do this, be a mother that is. And that I need to express how proud I am of that more often. A friend of mine stopped by today and made a comment that "for having two, I keep things well maintained." I can't count how many times I've heard variations of this topic- how hard it must be to have twins. But I can honestly say it doesn't feel any harder than it must be for a mother with one child. So what if having twins means my life is consumed more with schedules than it is being carefree. Our life is filled with love and laughter and I'm sure that is what is the most important.

Now that Summer and Autumn are 9 months we have been exploring lots of different foods! I've been trying to remember to capture these adventures since it's amazing to see an infant develop before your eyes. Almost over night they have gone from screaming in frustration at new textures and tastes, to sheer delight at what the food of the day will be! (Today's new food was boring- oatmeal for breakfast, rice for dinner.) But I will say that my dad would be so proud of my little carnivores. It's awfully cute to see their tiny little mouths chomp down on steak and chicken like it was the best thing that ever happened to them. They have also been very interested in grabbing at my cup so today I let them drink from my glass of water. Well, they enjoyed it so much there was a complete meltdown when I wouldn't let them hold it themselves! Ay these girls are going to give me a run for my money!

So. After my sweet Autumn fell asleep on my chest rather than crying in her bed like the past few nights, I was running through my crafting ideas and decided I should document all the fun things my little family does!
Enjoy =)