Nanny-gate is over!

We have found someone to watch our boys!! Woohoo!! I love good news and I love to be able to share good news! We've had so much crummy news to share over the past 8 months or so, that it is so nice to be able to have some good news, with no strings attached!! She was just under our noses as well, being my sister-in-law's future cousin-in-law (I know, I know, too confusing for a Monday morning!). She has just graduated from nursing school and will watch our boys for us at our house until January, when she finds a job. She has already been a big help and watched the boys last week after the big blow out between Matt and "she-who-will-not-be-named". Thank you everyone who has shown so much concern and well wishes for us, we cannot thank you enough for sending us good babysitter vibes our way!!

So three cheers for our new babysitter, Jess. Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! And look at the cuteness that she gets to be a part of, I mean really, who wouldn't want to watch these cuties??

Our Babysitter Quit

Sorry, no witty blog today...our babysitter for the boys has quit, giving us until the end of the month to find someone new. I am so utterly and completely pissed right now and feel like a fool for using this woman. On top of it, she is my husband's boss's wife, so that should make things really fun :(

So for now, my free time will consist of trying to find ourselves some reliable daycare that doesn't completely put us out on the street due to cost. There is already talk of second jobs for us if need be, so although that would really, really, REALLY suck, we gotta do what's best for the boys.

If anyone knows of any good nannies or daycare in the Merrimack valley, feel free to leave a comment. If not, please keep your fingers, toes, and any other appendages crossed for us. We need all the good karma we can get. Hmmm...short of the boys being born, 2008 hasn't been the best year for us, huh??

Well there's only how many days left in the year?? 99 based on some website, so we are into double digits now, hopefully 2009 will be a little less dramatic than this year has been. Here's to some wishful thinking....

Welcome to the house of whine, would you like some cheese with that?

For those of you who (whom?) don't believe in Karma, I have a little story to pass on. You see, I grew up an only child, meaning, that I didn't have to share anything; toys, clothes, bathrooms, parents, etc. Well, I didn't have to share for the most part, but of course I did grow up with cousins and friends, which meant that I had to learn to share...and I was NOT a fan! So, as most only children do when they don't get their way; they whine, they whine a lot. I was a professional whiner and could pretty much out-whine any adult in a 10 mile vicinity. I had a tolerance for whining that was very impressive and could break down pretty much anyone that I came in contact with. To this day, I am still a pretty good whiner, but I have to say that I am not even a shell of my former self. My mother would always warn me not to whine, that it's not polite, it makes me look spoiled....blah, blah, blah. And my husband, well, he pretty much ignores me now when I whine, or, even worse, he calls me out on it. So, needless to say, whining isn't as big a part of my repertoire any more.

Unfortunately (and this is where the whole Karma thing comes in) for me, I am now inundated with whining, and none (well, most of it at least) of it is mine! Whining is now the boys' favorite past-times, and although they can't speak a lick, they've got whining down to a science (they are their mother's children, no doubt). They whine for their bottles, they whine when they are finished their bottles, they whine for their baby food, they whine when the other is being fed baby food instead of them, Josh whines when I am holding Brody, Brody whines when I am paying attention to Josh, and they both whine when I am holding neither of them!

It is a vicious cycle that continues day in and day out, to which I cannot even imagine how it will escalate when they are older. On top of the boys whining, we have the whiniest dog on the planet. Basset Hounds are known to be stubborn, and this girl takes the cake! You would think that she was an only puppy, but I know better. She is an only doggy in our house though, and was in fact the princess of the house until the boys came. And she whines like you wouldn't believe. She whines when she wants to be let out, she whines when she wants to be let in, she whines when you are eating something that she wants, she whines when you close the bathroom door and she can't get in, she whines when you close the bathroom door and she can't get out! She would sure give the younger version of me a run for my whining money, and just might win, because Lucy never gives up...it never fails to amaze me.

So, now I am filled with a house of whiners, and have no one to blame but myself! If one of my little men isn't whining, then it's the dog wanting to go out at the perfect moment where we just got ourselves tucked into bed. The truth is, I am quite jealous, because no one listens to my whining anymore! So now, I am left to resort to whining on my own blog where no one can tell me what I can or can't do...so THERE!!

6 Month Photos are here!

So, I realize that every month I elaborate on how hard it is to take ONE good picture of twinfants. This month was no exception, so the photos you are about to see are cute, but not smiley-cute, they are crying baby-cute. You see, Josh wanted NOTHING to do with getting into his cute picture clothes, let alone having to sit with his brother...all this man wanted was F-O-O-D and he let us (and poor Brody) know about it:



In the above picture, I can just see that Brody is thinking "Alright, Mom, not only did you get me in this STUPID outfit, but now you are sitting me next to this crazy guy that is screaming his head off! What on earth did I do to deserve this??"

And all in the name of a cute picture! I'm finding that I am taking less and less photos of the boys thanks to the giant interruption that is my job...so I am going to try and remedy that this weekend. My photo pool is getting smaller and smaller to draw from, and I want to have as much cuteness on record as I can! Hopefully we can bust out these outfits this weekend for their pal Jonah's 1st birthday party...we'll see how well they put up with them then :)

Ridiculous Baby Items 2 - Baby Bling

OK, so there are no 6 month photos to post :( The boys are teething and were being EXTREMELY grumpy last night, so they were not going to have anything to do with being cute in restrictive clothing for mommy. My plan is to do it this weekend, so they will be in much more receptive moods :)

But, since all of you enjoyed my ridiculous baby items post - meaning I enjoyed writing the post and it's my damn blog - I figured I would do it again. This week's spin off will be baby bling. With all the famous people out there having babies (and twins are so in right now, dahling) there are companies that are trying to cash in on all this disposable income. Needless to say, these things seem ridiculous to us, but I'm guessing there is a market for outrageously priced baby items, or these companies still wouldn't be in business:

Baby Bling Pacifiers

I'm not sure about you, but binkies are a treasured commodity in our house, but not because they are covered with swarovski crystals, but because we are forever losing them (i.e. Lucy steals them and buries them around the house) and they are an important part of keeping our boys calm and content during a "fuss session". And since we are forever needing to buy more, I just cant justify spending $120 on a pacifier that is just going to end up as a dog toy! But if this is right up your alley, they have coordinating items such as rattles for your favorite "aristabrat".

Baby High Heels

I have to admit that these are pretty darn funny, and although they aren't ridiculously expensive, I would say that $35 is quite a bit to pay for heels that your baby can't walk in....heck, I will barely spend $35 dollars on heels myself. I'm kinda hoping that Target will come out with their own version, since that's where I buy my super-uncomfortable heels, why shouldn't my niece have price options herself??

Fantasy Carriage Crib

What little girl (er, baby) wouldn't want one of these to help her ride off to fairytale dreams?? And to think, the price of your baby girl's happiness is only $15,000!!

Princess Coach Crib

Alright, so if you think that a crib the price of a cheap foreign import is a bit too much...here is a "cheaper" version. When I say cheaper, I mean a bargain price of $5,000!! But, remember, all the other little girls' (again, these are babies) moms bought them the supped-up (sooped, souped??) model and that in buying this version, you are only 1/3 of the mom they are.

Really, I could go on and on with all the crazy stuff, but this is where I will stop for now...I need future material! And, since these options are for the female clientele (or maybe pre-metrosexual babies out there), I will do my due diligence to find some male-focused baby ridiculousness. If you happen to see any yourself, let me know!!

Happy 6 Months, Boys!!!

Oh my God, I cannot believe that six months has flown by as quickly as it has!! It's not fair, can we rewind a bit and maybe play back in slow motion. My little guys (who are not so little anymore, BTW) have been in sweet existence for half a year now, and it has gone by in a blink of an eye.

I will take their 6 month photos tonight - stay tuned for cuteness squared. But in the meantime, here is a photo from their first minutes of existence. Funny how newborns (especially preemies) and old men look exactly alike. You've come a long way, boys!!

Better YOU than ME! And other dumb thing said about being parents to twins…

This is a sort of spin-off of the freak show post from a while back, but I thought that it would be fun to let you guys in on what happens when you take twins out in public. Along with the whole freak show aspect of being out with twins in public places, is the ridiculous (or downright rude) things that people feel the need to say to you. Here is a list of a few of my favorites:

1. Are those twins?? Nope, I just happened to have two babies that are the exact same age, size, features, etc., but they are most certainly not twins cause that’s impossible!!

2. Are they Natural? They are 100% spontaneous, but as far as I know, all babies are NATURAL.

3. I’ve always wanted twins!! Hmm…are you sure about that one? If you ever feel the urge, you are more than welcome to babysit for us, overnight.

4. Our children are only (insert numbers from 12-18) months apart - it’s just like having twins!! Um, not by a long shot…I am not saying “Irish Twins” are easier, but it is different…very different. Having two screaming newborns at 3AM is much different than only having one. Just like having one screaming infant and one toddler walking around at the same time.

5. So have you started tryin’ for that girl? First of all, is that any of YOUR business?? I love people that think that a family isn’t complete without both sexes represented. Who says all families HAVE to have a boy and a girl?? Maybe we are just happy with our two little guys. And secondly, we have just gotten over that newborn “hump”, so while we might be a little bit nuts, we ain’t that nuts!

6. Better you than me!! Yep, you are right on that one!

7. Whoa, Double Trouble!! Maybe, but what you are forgetting is that there is also double the love and double the fun!

8. They are going to eat you out of house and home!! Really?? Any more than any other family with two boys, but then maybe they have heard rumors about the Gillis boy appetite (and for the record I am terrified!!)

9. Those C-section babies are so much better looking! – Seriously, someone told me that a week after Brody came home and we went out to eat at Friendly’s. It was a man too, which totally threw me for a loop.

But then to be fair, we do get some positive attention and some really nice comments, although the people more likely to stop and comment are the ones that have the craziest things to say. Mostly, we just get a lot of smiles from the not so crazies out in public!

1. Twins!! What a Blessing! Yes, yes it is…is it easy – nope, but is it worth it – most definitely!

2. Wow, you must be a supermom! Now, I will never claim to be anything close to a supermom, but I will certainly not correct someone if they think that I am!

3. I have no idea how you do it! Me neither, but you do what you need to do to get the job done. I believe these are the most empathetic people, because they know how hard it was to do it with just one at a time, so I admit that I do feel a wee bit superior when I get those comments

I have heard from MOMs of twins that are older that one day I will miss the attention, and maybe I will, but for now I can't help but shake my head at most of society. And people as a whole should start using the filter between their brain and their mouth. On the other side, when someone is truly interested and curious to ask questions about the boys, I turn into "Proud Mama" mode and am more than willing to brag about my boys - Just don't ask me if they are natural....

Happy to report...

That my boys now have the prettiest penises on the block! Not that I know that for sure, but since my boys are the cutest on the block, it only make sense that their anatomy should follow suit :)

Thank you everyone, for all your thoughts and well wishes...unfortunately they wanted the boys to stay overnight for observation due to the fact that they were preemies and that Josh had the long-standing apnea issue. I guess it was better for them, but not for myself and Matt who had to sleep in the world's most uncomfortable recliners!! Plus the boys were in separate rooms, so I ended up staying with Josh, while Matt took Brody. It was bad enough to stay in the hospital overnight, but to stay apart from my other guys totally sucked too. The good news is that I only watched what I wanted to watch of the Republican Convention, as opposed to watching it for hours on end, which my politically obsessed husband has been making me do at home.

One bit of good news was that they were the first up for surgery, so we didn't have to worry about screaming babies at the hospital with everyone looking at us like "What the hell are you doing to your children??". Brody actually ended up falling asleep while he was waiting for his turn, so somebody apparently thought we deserved a little break after all the nonsense that we've had to deal with.

The boys did extremely well for being so far away from their normal routine and environment and even slept through the night which was very surprising due to the fact they slept the entire day away after their surgery. We were convinced we'd have a bunch of night owls on our hands, but our lack of sleep was only due to our wonderful hotel-like sleeping arrangements (note the sarcasm).

Now that our boys are done with their hospital stays for the near future, here's to hoping we won't be in a hospital for a good long time....but since they are Gillis boys and most likely have their mother's supreme grace I am sure we will be doing our fair share of ER visits :)

And if you think my life is crazy!

Check out our MOMs (Mothers of Multiples) Blog that we put together! My favoritist (yes, I know that isn't a word) message board in the whole world is the Multiples Message Board on the Nest (or the Bump, or whatever the heck they are calling themselves now a days!) decided that since we (as in having multiple babies) are so in right now, that we would post our stories for the world to read. For my friends and family in real life (IRL is the cool message board acronym), these are the girls that have kept me sane over the past year and I wouldn't know what to do without them.

We are hoping that there is a distant chance that we might end up on Oprah, (maybe Oprah's favorite things for mothers of multiples...can you say "free minivan??") so please go visit and read some of the heart warming and tear-inducing stories. The word out on the street is that our leaders for this project have already received some phone calls from the producers, which is a very exciting thing to hear! Of course, I'd just be thrilled to meet these girls who I have come to use as my MOM barometer!! Pass on the link to anyone who might be interested, and you never know, Team Gillis might become famous!!

Here is the link for the blog, but beware there are upwards of 100 posts on there, so grab a glass (or bottle in my case) of wine and wear your procrastination hat!!

T minus one day...

Until the dreaded "C Day" meaning, the boys big circumcision surgery tomorrow. Just the thought of it puts a pit in my stomach :(

I have to thank my crummy OB for this lovely situation that we have to be in, I mean it's just soooooo exciting to have to deal with two (almost) six month olds going back into the hospital, maybe even overnight. See, apparently when Brody was discharged two weeks after his birth, he was too small to be circumcised at just over 4lbs. We were told that our OB doesn't do circumcisions on babies less that 7lbs (um, what about the full term singletons that might be under 7lbs, they do exist you know) and that we would have to wait until Josh is discharged before the surgery is performed. Well, when Josh was discharged 5 weeks later, I called the OB all ready to get this part done and over with...but she, and when I say she, I actually mean her talking through her nurse since she apparently is too busy to talk to the mother of the boys she was supposed to take care of...anway, she then dropped the bomb on us that we would need a pediatric urologist to do the surgery now. Huh?!? Why wasn't that mentioned previously??

Fast forward to now, almost at 6 months we have to get our boys done. What a nightmare experience, first we had to track down a pediatric urologist, which like it sounds, is a very specialized job and not easy to track down. Once we found one, we made an appointment (albeit a month later) with him, thinking we were actually getting the deed done then and there, but low and behold, it was just a consultation. Well, I had just about had it and almost said screw it, I don't care about whether my boys look like anteaters or not, but realized that although I am their mother, it's their father's final decision. You see, I don't have those parts and I don't want to make a decision without having, ahem, lifelong experience like their father does. After meeting with the doctor, I felt much more at ease because he was very confident (downright cocky actually, pun intended) that he does an excellent job. I think my husband's biggest fear is that the boys would need to get it done later in life when they actually remember it and how traumatic that must be for them, so he'd rather get it now even though it's going to be harder on them, at least they won't remember.

So here I am...counting down the hours until my boys are put back into the hospital. Any mom that has had their baby (or babies) in the NICU has a total and irrational fear of putting their baby back in the hospital, for fear that they might have to stay there; that there was some sort of mistake and the boys shouldn't have been discharged that many months ago, and that we're somehow thrown back into the torture that was living without my babies at home. I realize that at the worst, they might have to spend the night, but in all honesty, I don't want them in the hospital one minute more! They've been in longer than most adults and it's just heartbreaking to take them back.

What's worse is that as of right now, I have no idea when their surgery is going to be. The hospital is going to give me a call today to let me know, but I hate not knowing, especially since the boys will not be able to eat before the surgery. I am hoping and praying that their time will be early, because if not, there are going to be two extremely grumpy screaming babies in the pre-op office. And like I said before, babies screaming in stereo = not fun for mommy.

So please send good vibes my way, let's hope for a 7AM surgery time and for the boys to not have to stay the night. That would be the best case scenario for everyone, and I think it's about damn time we get a little good luck on our side :)

And since the unofficial end of summer has come and gone, here are some pics of the boys on their first trip to the beach and by nana and bop's pool:

Mr. Mom is no longer...

Yesterday was a sad day in our house....it was the last day of summer vacation for my husband. And usually, I just tell him to suck it up because most of the world is not lucky enough to have more than two months off during the summer, but this year is a little different. It now means that our boys will no longer be watched by their parents :(

We've been very lucky that we were able to finagle a situation that allowed for the boys to stay home for almost six months, but the transition to daycare isn't any easier for us. While it was incredibly hard to leave my boys for that dreaded first day back at work, it wasn't as hard as it could have been, knowing that my boys were in good hands at home with their Daddy.

But, thanks to my friend Molly, I'm going to try to look on the bright side. We will now be a double income family again ::phew:: so now maybe we can get out of the red and back into the black. It isn't fun being the breadwinner for the summer, especially after not getting a paycheck in over 10 weeks. So here's to looking to some positive cash flow heading in our direction!!

Good luck, Matt on that first day back...I feel the anticipation is harder that the reality. I know our boys miss their daddy dearly, and can sympathize with how sad you must be. Remember, there's less than 10 months to go until you can do it all over again!!

My Turn

My fellow MOM (triplets actually) Pam tagged me for this little questionnaire a while ago and I finally have a chance to fill it out:

How it works:
1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers questions about themselves
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and post their names, then goes to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the players blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answers

Where were you 5 years ago?
I was living in my very own condo and working at Welch's. I had just recently become engaged in July and was probably transforming to bride-to-be mode and having fun with all the research of weddings :)

What are 5 things on your to do list for the week?
1. Make Baby Food
2. Do Laundry
3. Go Grocery Shopping
4. Walk the Dog
5. Pack for our trip down to the beach

What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
1. 100 Calorie Packs (pretty much any of them)
2. Pink Lady Apples
3. Smoothies
4. Fiber One Oat and Chocolate Bars
5. Ice Cream, always

What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pay off my debt
2. Pay off our family's debt
3. Set up trust funds for the boys
4. Get a fabulous house on a ton of acres
5. Rescue 50 dogs and have them live on said house

What are five of your bad habits?
1. I am Lazy
2. I Procrastinate
3. I don't like to share (only child syndrome)
4. I am not particularly patient
5. I hate to clean

What are five places you’ve lived?
1. Upstate (very upstate) NY
2. Newark, DE
3. Pittsburgh, PA
4. Amherst, MA
5. Winchester, MA

What are 5 jobs you’ve had?
1. Retail Girl at Halmark
2. Ice Cream Cake Girl at Carvel
3. Coffee Girl at Dunkin Donuts
4. Lab Girl at UMass
5. Food Scientist for Welch's

Five people I tag
1. Megan
2. MJ
3. Annie
4. Valerie
5. Aimee

Adventures in Baby Food

Well, we have managed to make it through another milestone and remain intact...trying out solid foods!! As new moms know, like anything related to babies, this is a huge decision that is made based on weighing the many pros & cons. When to do it, where to do it, how to do it....there are so many studies and facts and statistics about when and how to introduce baby food, it will make your head spin. And I wonder how much of our taxes are put to silly studies such as "Should babies be introduced to fruits before vegetables?".

There is the mentality from our parents' generation that is wondering why we hadn't started putting cereal into the bottle at 4 weeks to help get them to sleep at night ::gasp:: while the newest information out there states that you should never feed your baby (or babies in my case) cereal until after they turn 6 months old. Some people are so adamant about this that they use the favorite method of the Catholic Church - Fire & Brimstone - when it comes to feeding your baby before 6 months. Oh, the digestive track is too immature, it can cause obesity issues (really, if your baby has a few pureed pears a month early, they are going to get fat??)...blah, blah, blah. And based on all this information overload...I just shut down and decide that when it 'feels' right to try baby food, I will do it. Statistics and news articles be damned!!

So at 5 months, it looked as though Josh was really starting to dig adult food. He would watch memorized while we were eating our pasta, and he was only ever that memorized by the Olympics on the TV...so we decided to delve into the adventure that is baby food!! Lo and behold, they actually seemed to like it! At first they weren't quite sure to think of the whole spoon-feeding scenario, but they are starting to get it and it's becoming quite fun! Just the sight now of the spoon coming to their mouth sends them in a tongue-sucking frenzy since they don't yet understand the whole "open mouth, insert food" concept. It is quite hilarious to watch them trying to suck the spoon like it is their bottle, and immediately get angry when the spoon has been taken out of their mouth to get more food.

It is not the cleanest thing to do, feeding twins. Luckily, right now it's more for practice than anything else...but I see my future very clearly, and am very glad that I painted my kitchen fern green and eliminated white from the wall repertoire. I might even only feed them green foods, so that the splatter is totally undetectable! For now, they are only messing up themselves since their new favorite thing is to shove their fingers in their mouth to scoop up any baby food that might be hanging out on their face. So it proceeds from face, to hands, to chest, to feet...and someone who doesn't miss a beat, is our Lucy. She is my cleanup crew, and I am sure she is already dreaming of that beautiful future where more food lands on the floor than in their mouths :)

I have heard that it takes something like 15-20 introductions to food before the baby starts liking/disliking items, but for now it seems that they don't mind anything we have given them. Brown rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, they inhale (literally) it all. I am hoping this is a good sign to come and that our children will be foodies just like me (minus that mac and cheese kick that starts about age one and ends at age 3). I can see my boys already, gobbling down escargot at age 4 just like their mother...well, here's to hoping at least!!

So here are a couple of shots of the boys eating:

I'm sure in the future, I will have many more hilarious photos, but this is all I got for now. Now, on the the next adventure...

The Best Invention Ever...so far

So I know that there are many other great inventions out there, most of which have nothing to do with babies (artificial heart, anyone?) but when you are the parent of a newborn or two, you really only care about items that will make your life easier, i.e. sanity savers.

The first real sanity saver I considered was the pacifier. It's cheap, simple, and does it's job...it pacifies. But, unfortunately our dear boys only like the soothies-type binkies which are very hard to keep in their mouth, without assistance from us. So, while the binkie is a great invention, it is not the best invention.

Something that completely blew the binkie out of the water was the Swaddle-me swaddles by kiddapatomous. They not only allow our babies to sleep through the night thanks to the baby straitjacket construction, but they work on velcro which means it is almost impossible (note, I said almost) for them to wiggle their way out of it!!

(note, this is not my baby, but the high paid swaddle-me model)

I admit, it does look like some sort of torture device, but I assure you, it is not...and I promise that I will find a way to create adult swaddles if it means they will sleep through the night until they go away to college!!

And while the swaddle-me is still on the top of my list of great inventions, I have to say that though, getting a baby to sleep, while important, it is just as important (if not more) to find a way to entertain the baby while awake! Sooner or later (unless I find that adult version!) the swaddle will be put away, but the best sanity saver - THE JUMPAROO will still be there!!

For those of you that are not blessed (meaning, those of you who are not gluttons for punishment, he he) with babies, or for those of you who have had babies a while ago, a jumparoo is a contraption in which you place the baby into a swing-type holder which is attached to a circular tray filled with many distractions for the baby. That tray is then attached to what I can only guess is bungy cords that allow the child to move. Here is a picture:

Our boys have the above "Rainforest Model" which is jungle themed in not only it's garish color choices, but in it's obnoxious melody choices. And while I did try to find a jumparoo to match our non-rainforest decor (crate and barrel, are you listening??), we figured this was our best bet because, at least it matched our other rainforest themed baby items. Well, I couldn't care less about how obnoxious the look and/or music is...the bottom line is that it ENTERTAINS OUR BABIES!! And not for a few minutes, but hours at a time!!

And even better, it puts our babies to sleep, without said baby straitjacket! Oh, what a glorious invention!! Not only are our babies happy, downright joyous in this contraption, they jump themselves to sleep!! Here is the evidence (note, some pics are taken with a video camera and some with a regular camera, so please excuse the graininess of some of the photos)

Here's Brody, dreaming of jumping...

And Josh, passed out from his jumping excursion...

And here are some photos of the boys actually consciously enjoying their jumparoos :) Josh is very fascinated with the wheel that makes noise when he spins it!

And here is Brody wondering how to get that blue lizard-thing in the bubble!

I am sure that in months from now, there will be a new greatest invention ever, but this takes the cake...so far :) Have a great weekend everyone!