M At Bedtime

While A bathed: Every time you wash her she smells like money.
Before leaving my room: Can I please sleep in your room and you can sleep in mine?  I will take care of the babies.

Person of The Week (POTW) Notecards

Favorite Activities: reading, chaleging peaple, playing, testing peaple (i do not think she means the last two in a smart ass way but i think she should mean them this way:))

Favorite Foods: candy, pasta, egg saled, egg saled on matzo, ice cream, cheese, eggs, bacon

Favorite Books: The Princess and the Pea, Whopper Cake

Favorite Colors (I wanted to do each caler for a word :() golden, pink, red, silver, orange, blue

Equal Treatment

J this am..
I hate this kind of father. When I am a grown up I will not live with you and I will not love you.
I feel better now:)

Baby Car Wash

I got caught in the biggest storm ever today! I was at Whole Foods with my friend. I was holding A. A boy in a stroller asked me if she was real. A man sitting near us asked me if I needed help when they were both crying (so anomalous) and then told me that he had twins too and that you always need extra hands. I had to leave WF because I had to take bebés home to leave with sitter to go to school to have a meeting about July camp. I don;t know why she swallowed a fly... Anyway, as AleVit lay in their strollers under the plastic covers, they were mesmerized by the huge drops. Just like I loved going through the car wash as a kid. Off to bed. BTW, babies were angelic tonight because F is back. Tricky bastards.

J This Am

Me- You need to wear underwear with those pants (J is anti underwear)
Him-Get out of town

J-Do you need to marry the person that you live with?
Me- No. Why?
J- Because I want to move to abuela S's house. I am going to take my bunk bed and my action figures.
Me- I will be sad.
J- You and papi can come too but I just want to live there.

Email From M's Teacher...

one question we answered today was "Tell what you'd be glad to see at your door". M wrote "A handsome guy".
Who wouldn't, right?

If You Are Cuckoo And You Know It

clap your hands...
if your foot hurts and you walked 5 miles in the park and got a weird burn on your arms clap your hands...
if you ran home pumped and bolted back out, ate lunch with a friend and left her babies as dessert, went dow to tutor then back up to get babies and walk home again clap your hands
verse two
if you then met your sister downstairs, went up power fed A and booked out stomp your feet (oh, mine hurts). if you were late to a meeting because there were no damn cabs or buses stomp your feet
if you then cabbed home to kiss MoJo and then wrestle AleVit who NEVER stopped crying, if your left arm is asleep with a "fakely" sleeping A, stomp your feet
ok, no more torture with lame song writing
my other musical thought was to record AleVit's crying so you could enjoy while you read, but that seemed mean.
Off to try to put her down, take 4!

Every Gal Deserves...

in no particular order..
a shower (amazing how much better I feel now as opposed to 10 minutes ago!)
great friends (thank you for your help A and D - not the butt cream- you rock!)
a wow sister (i have many, but C is available on demand!)
dinner (did not have this- unless coffee ice cream and crackers with butter count)
a wonderful friend to talk baby shop with (my walks with M and Gregolly as J calls him, help me maintain my sanity)
a night without PSYCHO crying (seems inevitable when I am alone)
ab F coming home on the red eye in the am woo hoo!

Bedtime Notes

F was home on Mon am before leaving for CA and he did something we used to do back when we were young and had time. He left us each a note (it used to be just for me or me leaving notes for him) by our pillows. M's eyes teared up when she read hers and she was embarrassed like when I catch her crying while she reads or watches a movie. J made a magnatile structure to keep his note in and wants me to save it "for the rest of my kid life." I have A asleep on me and other monkeys downstairs with a sitter. But it is time to let her go home (she is the third person I have to pay today!) and to face the loud crying evening ahead. J just asked me if the man who killed John Lemon (a leitmotif) had cool clothes and if he is going to "apology" to Yoko when he gets out of jail. M told her sitter that her birthday (11/11 Veteran's Day) is veterinarian's day. Off to mother more.

BTW

It took a little while last night, but after a concert of crying I got AleVit down at 10pm and not a peep until 5am. After eating V went ahead with the sleep 'itl 8 and A until 9:30. Good sleeping babies!

Baking Banana Bread

How is that for alliteration? Too bad it is Y week in school. M thinks she may be the person of the week this week. Exciting! I am in the process of making 24 mini banana muffins, a banana pear chocolate chip loaf and one medium banana muffin. What else can I do with a lot of over-ripened fruit? MoJo went off to school with a neighbor/sitter, a trial one is coming over soon to stay with bebés while I try to get work done for my summer jobs. My plan is then to go for a walk (possibly in a croissant direction) and be back here by 2:45 for the arrival of sitter number 3 (my goodness!) who will stay with AleVit while I go to PT and then to pick up MoJo. Depending on the level of fussiness I may have her stay through MoJo bedtime. Off to be productive!

Harlem Helping Hands

I walked to 125 St in some light drizzle with all 4 kids to get on the elevator to go down to the train. We were late for a theater show. Newsflash! There is no damn elevator at that stop. If you have a stroller or wheelchair you are screwed north of 96St. Thankfully F was still home (did not go to NJ because he had a midday flight to CA) and came to drive us down. Thank you A for taking kiddies to the theater last minute. Once in the 70's, post show and lunch and playground (why the hell do we need Easter Monday off?) I did  what few would do and hopped onto the 2 at 72 St with the train stroller and MoJo knowing that there was no lift at the other end. A cried and got transferred onto me in a carrier. M read, J looked out the window and put his mouth on it (yummy!) and V looked around. Once at our stop, I walked with purpose to the stairs and hoped someone would offer to help. Multiple people did. I snapped V's car seat out and a lady carried him up. Another lady helped me bump up the stroller (child free) and another guy was on hand to help but I did not let him because I felt sort of embarrassed. It was obvious that I expected help when I opted to train it and I felt guilty. Well, not that guilty as I now plan on taking the train more often. I thanked my helpers, one of whom said "no problem, you have your hands full." Word. Were I to have a status label online it could be that "hands full." I am going to try to put down A so I can go to sleep too. Vis down. Thanks A. Thanks strangers.

J Is A Doll

He told me "You are not the kind of mother that I wanted." He proceeded to tell me that I was the ugliest and the rudest- all because I would not let him eat dessert before lunch. Every day he has a new fit related to eating sugar. What a little monster. On a brighter note, he was chanting "boys can marry boys" in the tub. I asked him who he wanted to marry and he said "papi"- it figures since he is gone (in CA until Wed or Thurs).

Perfect 10!

Both babies went down, solo, to sleep 11ish. Not a peep until 5am when V awoke for a snack. 6 am, the other monkey. So they can go for hours without eating. I see some sleep training around the corner. J is telling me "I hate mothers who act like this" because I will not let him eat candy. He says he wants to eat junk and be junky. He says he does not care if his teeth fall out because then the tooth fairy will come. As you can see he is a smart ass.

Recent Comments

F picked up a crying V, who kept wailing. F said, if you are going tyo cry anyway I am going to put you down. M retorted: I do not think you should threaten a baby.

J noted yesterday: Babies do not have strong bones so you should not punch, hit, or kick them.

M asked me if I ever had pneumonia to which I responded yes. She noted: Thankfully you did not die or else we would not be here.

J: I open my legs when I sneeze to not get sneeze on my pants.

M: I think the world needs more bright colors.

M's friend E to her mother: Why don't you give G (her newborn brother) to V (moi) so she can have triplets?

Good Friday

So nice to have F home. So sad it is still crap weather. Each baby only woke up once and for V it was not until 5am. He ate again at 7 am and then slept another 4 hours in the crib! Napping in crib is a miracle. We all did not get up until 7:30am (read noon for regular people). I tutored. F ran. We went to Target and Costco. Made the mistake of letting MoJo each get a Ken doll. They fought non-stop after that. Why does Ken look so gay? Who knows. More tomorrow. I have to go to bed. Babies had their calmest evening ever. Will it bring on the best (or worst?) night?

A Day In The City

My foot hurts, my quad hurts. I am surprised that my arms do not. I walk like a maniac. In part to make them sleep, in part because I cannot take transportation. I started the day with a roughly 3/4 mile walk to school (114 St) to pick up the 4th grade. We walked a couple of walks to the nursing home to deliver toiletries and to participate in an Easter egg hunt they prepared for the kids. AleVit was very popular and every senior touched their feet. I felt sadness for them as they surely must have felt the poignancy of being on opposite ends of life. From there I went to Rite Aid where a nice lady helped me take AleVit's passport pictures. It was not easy to make them look straight, not cry etc. We forged ahead to the 104 St post office and I was certain that I had everything necessary for their passports. Obstacle 1: there is no fucking ramp and lots of steps (I was told it is a landmark building and cannot be modified) so I had to take apart the stroller to get it up there. Obstacle 2: I forgot their birth certificates! I had the forms, the notarizes permission from the missing parent, the money, the ids. Ugh. As A screamed at the top of her lungs and some crazy old lady kept touching her, I was told by the scary post office lady that I had until 4pm to return with the documents or I was screwed. Same transaction but in reverse to get down the damn stairs and out. Long walk to 77 St for lunch with tía D. Long walk home. Okay, I admit that I stopped at Whole Foods to buy an iced chai and 2! pastries (btw I tried to get the usual at Silver Moon and they were sold out for the second day in a row! A sign?). Got home. Met sitter. Fed A. Got documents. Train (too tired to walk) back to post office (thank goodness they did not need to see the babies this time!) just before 4pm. Made it. Walked up 10 blocks to school (are you getting the picture of the round and round nature of my travels?). Got MoJo. M4 home. Brings me to now. Sitter still here. F out to dinner tonight so a long evening awaits. Will bathe the kids before I let my help for the evening leave. Are you bored? Tired? I sort of am, just from the retelling. Ok. Laters.

Another Day Another Celebrity

Tues- L Bacall
Wed- G Byrne
Thurs- R Fleming (opera star)

Babysitters With Wine

T and M are the best babysitters a gal could ask for. I met T on the East side and left her with the twin train to walk back up to Harlem while I went to a meeting. Back in the hood she was met by M who came bearing chocolate and wine for dinner. The duo wrangled the crying monkeys until F came home, oops, alone. He went back out to pick up MoJo uptown, where they were frolicking with abuela. T & M braved the whole evening with us and the 4 cuckoo heads (well, the big ones went down early) and we had a scrumptious dinner prepared by F, complete with dessert and libations provided by the volunteer babysitters! It does not get much better than that. Good friends, good food, and crying babies. Thank you!

The Crying Game

These babies can outcry any others. In fact, I challenge you to find bigger cry babies. No, they are not hungry or colicky or gassy or tired,, they are smart, I guess. That or professional masochists. As soon as I pick one up, silence. This is how I know it is not one of the aforementioned issues that afflicts them. The crying is my new soundtrack. It used to just be in the evenings, the so called witching hours, but now it is their full time job. If they are not in the stroller, on my breast or somehow asleep, they are wailing like there is no tomorrow. It is exasperating. I recently learned, and this is why I think they might be smart (even though I detest people who label their babies as such), that they mostly just do it to me, for me. I left them for 2 hours with a new sitter. I warned her there would be mayhem, stay cool etc.  I walked in and A started to cry. Sitter said A did not make a peep the whole time I was gone. She added that at one point they were both sleeping and she read her book. WTF? I have not had that kind of silence since they were born. Maybe a few weeks ago I had it, not sure, it is all a blur. What I do know, is that the crying has grown exponentially and seems to be reserved pour moi for the most part. What goes up must come down right?

A Note in M's Backpack

Dear Osso
i love you i wish i could see you move and alive
love:M

My New Best Friend

I do not know what has come over me, but I am OBSESSED with almond croissants. The kind from Silver Moon specifically. I am an addict and whereas I initially thought it might be bad to eat several a week, I can now admit that I eat two per sitting. It is not every day only because the bakery is not that close to me. It started out innocently enough as a pre or post yoga thing. It has now escalated into a plan in and of itself. Get croissant my brain says. My co-conspirator lives a block away from the bakery and often generously picks them up for us. Were I to live where she does, I would eat 5 a day and die happy. For now I will enjoy this closing window during which I can eat them and not (apparently) gain weight. I would not get my cholesterol checked if you paid me though. Thank you M for the 2 (!) you brought to our walk today and let's never love another croissant like we love these. I will forever associate these with our lovely shared maternity time.

Lovely Visit

From my oldest little sister this past weekend. So excited that we will have her in the northeast for the next few years. Congratulations on getting into a fine school, taking more APS than I knew existed, and moreover for being such a loving smart person. M was very upset that she did not see you again! XO and thanks for helping me wrangle the little monkeys.

Feliz Cumple Delia!

87! Woo Hoo! Te mando un beso grande.
Con amor,
tu primer nieta

Ode to My Brother

Amazing project to run a marathon unprepared
with a blind man
as a guide
in Boston!
Go G-Man Go!
We are all so proud of you and admire you.
Kick It!

Cooking Craze

F and M cooked up a storm this weekend and I am about to vomit because I do not know when to put the spoon down. They made apricot parfaits that were truly parfait. I think I exceeded the annual allotment for heavy cream today. We also have a lamb roast, potato/leek soup, vegetable soup, chicken, another creamy dessert and goodness knows what else exploding out of the fridge. Want to come over to eat?

PS kids had chicken for dinner and M complained "I wanted sheep."

J on V

I heard him say "mamma" quietly.

Scattegories

Great game. Just played with my NYC sister and my oldest MIA one and F. Ambitious trip to NJ for a party before that. Lots of rain, and road rage, and children, and bad NJ road signs. Bad combo. Off to sleep. Please do not wake up tonight AleVit. You can do it. You hardly slept today. You did a great job crying. Thrush is in full effect. No more medicine in bottle. Called dr and she said I could discontinue if they were eating all right. So happy I was trying to give it to them four times a day as well as myself (12 applications a day is a cinch) for nada. Bonne nuit.

Deep Thoughts

J- When everyone was a baby who took care of them?
M- I will never become a vegetarian because I will never not eat salami.

Postless

Did not post because I was busy, then felt blah and then too tired. Thinking about the logistics of the summer and then the fall made me dizzy and I am ultimately alone. F can support me in spirit, help pay for it etc but I realized (again) the broader unfair dynamic of modern life. I, as a mother, have to balance way too many things and do everything half assed. This is how I felt yesterday at least. Today I am more optimistic. I always do a lot, more, then more and maybe doing it all is too frenetic. But I do not know how to be different than that, and if I did not work, walk, volunteer, I do not think I would be a better mother. I would be irritated. How to find the balance? Hmm. Today is a new day. Saturday. All I have to do is a loop of the park, go pick up M from her sleepover, then tutor and then go to a friend's house with all of the kids in NJ for dinner. You see? Hard to be idle.

Thursday

Walked to 77 th & Bway in 39 minutes 34 seconds tu tutor. A was kind enough to hang with bebés while I did this. Lovely lunch at Thai Market (host offered me to change V on the bar when he pooped) and wlak back home. PT where I spoke to Lauren Bacall (too shy to say anything real to her). Street Squash. Home. Tired. More tomorrow. Going to take a nap while babies sleep downstairs with F and the TV.

Summer Time

and the jobs keepa coming. I am very excited about a 2 week INTENSE immersion program that I will be teaching at this June. 2 weeks. Lots of hours. Great pay. New challenge. Have a meeting about it every Wed until it starts June 13. July will be filled with my new job running camp at school. Also exciting. Not exciting is all the pumping and schlepping of milk that I will be doing. Off to bed.

Attention W (rhymes with War)

Someone, who will remain anonymous in my family, labeled my daughter A as one of the above mentioned. It is a harsh and inappropriate moniker, meant to capture, I presume, the fact that she has always commanded more attention than her brother, wanted to be held more etc.  I will substitute the W word for "magnet." When you are pregnant you get a lot of attention, comments, advice. When you go out with a newborn, ditto. When you pound the pavement for hours a week like I do with a stroller that resembles a train more than a baby vehicle, you get ALL of the attention you never wanted. I do not want to chat or answer dumb questions from every Tom, Dick , and Harry (yes! even men ask me questions!) that I pass. Yett... when I go out solo, on the train, for a  walk, I feel naked. Nobody offers me a seat or looks at me with any special regard. It is strange, anomalous. I am alone so nobody notices me or wants to talk to me. They do not know what I have at home, what I wrestle with, or how cute my bebés are. What I have come to realize, is that like mother like daughter.

La Caca

est arrivé. The water worked. But now they both have thrush. What a pain. Medicine in both their mouths and on me 4 times a day comes to 12 times a day of annoying crap. And the medicine is mint/cherry flavored. First of all those do not go together. Second of all, do babies need flavoring? Why do we have to start with artificial crap from the get go?

A Spoonful of Sugar..

Did not make the caca come out! V might just burst. On a brighter note, V has discovered his hands and tries to fit it into his mouth. Berry cute.

At 5:30 am

J came to my bed and was a chatterbox. He asked me why V (also in my bed) did not have the same nickname as him. "Ciccione" I asked? No, Epstein.
He also asked me if he had to get married when he grew up. I said no. To which he replied, "Good, because I want to play with my super hero friends."
On a side note, V has not pooped yet. I gave him an ounce of water with sugar and he gulped it down and continued to toot his butt off but still, no poop on the horizon.

MoJo's Assessment of Moi

J- You are a giant hairy monster
M- No you are a beautiful normal sized mother
I guess the truth lies in the middle.

2 Month Check Up

V weighs 10 lbs 11.5 oz (up from 9lbs 3 oz 25 days ago). A weighs in at 9lbs 3 oz (up from 8lbs). Good job monkeys. A has thrush (fungus in mouth from breastfeeding?) which explains why she is fussy when she eats. I have to put some weird medicine in her cheeks and on her tongue and on me 4 times a day. How is that for low maintenance? It may or may not produce relief for her in two weeks. I love those. V has not pooped in 2 days and writhes around and lays lethal farts. In addition, each bebé got three shots in their thighs. So they are in a great mood (not!) Thank goodness that M came to the doctor with me with her baby (always calm) today because it would have been impossible on my own. Have you ever had the almond croissant from Silver Moon (random fat person thought)? I do not even like almonds and it is my new best friend. I highly recommend. I hope these babies sleep like babies tonight because last night was not good. Not being able to poop is rough on V. Off to wrangle babies until bed time. F is out to dinner for work. Tomorrow is another day.

J's Club

I am making a club and anyone can be in it.
Can I?
Yes, but only you and me because there is not a lot of room for people because you are big

High!

Made almost 15K for BT.  Just walked a loop (6.2 miles) with mother and bebés. Off to tutor. Woo hoo!

This Is It

Leaving for auction set up soon. Hope to make 10K. Will report back later skater.

Today, Friday

I wrapped up some auction stuff (but I am not done) and then walked over to Mt. Sinai to visit a colleague who just had a baby yesterday. She looked exhausted. She was in the room next to the one I was in only two months ago. Seemed like longer, already a distant memory, though I looked at A and thought that she was small enough that I could leave her in the nursery and they would not notice. I was reminded that there is a no return policy. My colleague looked so overwhelmed. She was discouraged about breastfeeding (her son had been alive for under a day when I saw her). She was alone because her husband was at work $%^&@? I could already see many of the underlying challenges that motherhood would bring her, but I could only say "nursing is hard, keep trying. He does not know what he is doing and either do you, it is frustrating." I came back home and left AleVit with sitter. Went to the gym for 15 minutes to work on my back (which I have been ignoring and is miraculously still okay) and then to school to pick up some ceramics for the auction. Down to BT to leave them and then to the park to meet my fourth graders for some community service. Back to school to pick up MoJo. J said he wants to be in a "Pool car" (I love these reversals, M still uses mark books and paint face). We stopped at Shitty Bank and the funniest thing happened. My kids and their buddy E started dancing and miming in the window. Every single person on Broadway that passed stopped to look, wave, smile, or mime back.  Quirky how little it takes to bring the friendly out in people. Came back home. Sitter left (with a lot of my money because I had to pay her for the week). F came home with loot from Costco after dropping some off at BT. By the time our rock dance party was over (J likes "strong rock" and stopped me on the street when my phone would not play music declaring "I need rhythm!") and MoJo was in bed, I nursed until I fell asleep. It was 8:42pm when I woke up. F had A. I was starving (surprise!) Inhaled an inordinate amount of food ranging from cheese and crackers and mayonnaise to chocolate and nutella (as you can see I joke not when I say that I am a sow) and that brings us up to speed more or less. I left out some of the other things I did today because this post is already too long. I wish I had eaten seated like a human instead of standing and shoveling while V screamed. I wish I had seen a movie and/or had a conversation with my spouse. There is always tomorrow and I am happy that babies seem to be asleep and I am on my way there too. This anticipated bed time will surely bite me in the ass in the middle of the night when I need to wake up extra times, but such is life in the tropics. Congrats for making it this far in my oral diarrhea. I promise that post you asked for soon C.
PS M lost no erasers and got to read to her class and J returned the goods. M told E she was her "un-best friend" right before the miming though:(

Happy 2 Months!

My little monkeys. Stay little please.

Time Delay Camera

If I had one in my room, you would have seen quite a lot of configurations on my bed. It started at around 11pm with the rightful owners of the bed (F and I) and V nursing. He went down. At about 4 something the natives were stirring next door (quite anomalous) and F (wtf?!%*&^) brought them over to our bed. Now it was 4 total on the bed. A woke up 5ish (go girl!) and nursed, so we were 5. But J would not sleep, kept telling M (asleep) that she had plumber's butt, that her butt was in his face etc. Tried to rub hi sback but it was tricky while nursing. A done. J said he wanted to go back to his bed but could  I be cozy with him? Sure. So that left F and M on bed. F made the mistake of closing all doors when he went to run at 6am. So I did not hear V for a while (he woke up for the first time at 6 something- go V!) but he did not wake M. Went back to my bed, so we were now 3 on the bed. Left M alone to sleep when I took V down for breakfast. Had MoJo not invaded the bed, it would have been perfect:)

Growing Up

J told me he was done with his school after Nursery. I get it. He did not want to leave BT. I made him. He played my game and now he is done. Then he told me he would jus stay home with me. Aaww. I will be back at school soon I tried to explain.
My father busted my chops for weeks about the manicure party that I would not let M go to. I never mentioned it to her but imagined that she would bust my chops when she found out about it. It was today. Tomorrow all her classmates will look ridiculous with their painted nails. A friend of mine told me that she saw M go up to the birthday girl's mother and say "Sorry I cannot go to the party. I am not allowed to wear make up." How classy and mature.

These kids grow fast!

Delinquents

We sort of always knew this, but MoJo is a pair of delinquents. J came home with 5 plastic cookies that he told me proudly that he stole from his class followed by "isn't it cool?" I told him it was not. When I asked why he did not ask the teacher to borrow the plastic cookies he said "I did but she said no, so I took them" At least he is honest. My first born was recently subjected to a behavior like program whereby she starts the day with 4 erasers in her pocket (weird) and each time she does not follow a rule (they are posted on our fridge now) she loses one. If she ends the day with all four she gets to read to the class. Day one she was enthused and kept all 4. Day two she lost one. Day three (today) she lost two and did not even mention it. That system is over I guess, because in the end, her desire to do what she wants is stronger than the prize. Quite honestly, the "rules" she "broke" today were dumb, so I do not care:)

Feliz Cumple Julio

Te extraño.

I Take It Back (Sort of)

So I am rocking with the left foot (who knows what weird muscles I am developing there) and I am wearing a bebé, but there is peace in the middle east. I have been working on the auction bid sheets for an hour. I am uncomfortable. But it is quiet. I have a sitter coming an hour before I need to be at Street Squash today so I hope to use that time to finish putting away clothes or the bid sheets or both and maybe squeeze in some back exercises? Ambitious? Yes! Possible? I think so/

The Sound of Silence

does not f%#^$*%ing exist in this household anymore. I am not sure what happened but I recently noticed that somebody is ALWAYS crying. I would say "she is hungry" or "he is tired, "it is that time of the day" but no, I think it is a conspiracy and unless we *just* (and by just I mean I have 90 seconds got back from a walk that knocked them out) or scenario II, they are on the breast together, someone is upset. Please let this fussiness/level of demand pass, or I am going to start crying myself. There is no peace! If I go out for a walk there is serenity, but it is hard to work on the computer or put away laundry (my next post) when you are out walking. HELP! I am currently rocking A with her back to me while V fusses on the bed. 1.5 minutes ago they were both asleep on top of me, but then I dared to move. Mamma mia!

This AM..

It may only be 9:44 but I am on a roll.  This morning I have made 14 out of 65 bid sheets, showered, pumped, nursed, 1 load of laundry, another of dishes, 3 thank you cards, 2 kids dressed and out the door, 1 husband lunch. Now I need another hand to get me some food. I am trapped in front of this screen rocking one bebé with my foot and nursing another. FEED ME!

8 Weeks

Wow! It was 8 weeks ago today, that Sgt Pepper asked his band to play. AleVit or VitAle is growing FAST. She is still quite mini but he is a pudgy baby and they are both smiling. V even talks sometimes. They both did a great job in yoga. They both almost always still wake up just once a night. If they could only entertain themselves a little, I could finish some auction work:) Before you know it these babies are going to be sitting and crawling and... I miss them being babies already!

There is Something About

Men and babies that is just irresistible. I am used to seeing (some) of the men in my family interested in my children as babies, but let's just say that the average man is not wired to give a rat's ass about another person's mini offspring. When F has encouraged his friends to hold a newborn they all look like he is offering them a bit of a rotten sandwich. I get it, it is not natural to feel paternal about little blobs, men are not women. Last week I had two men, one could maybe be labeled a boy as he is 20 and looks like Shaggy according to M, show love and affection to AleVit. It was too damn cute. I asked anybody and everybody to come over to help with the four monkeys. M I did not ask. He offered. Said T was out of town would I like help since f was out too. It was so darn cute to see him whispering to the babies, kissing them. The other male who came over and shed love on the bebés is J's favorite from BT. He acted like he was in love. There is something about men showing babies love that is just... precious. Thank you M and Z for your help!

J Says..

Sometimes I behave bad and M too because we want to be the boss.


I see your privates (as I nursed). I said "It's ok. You are in my family."
But papi cannot see your privates.

Feliz Cumple Tomate

WOW! You are 18. Hard to believe I was 17 when you were born. You are about to embark on a very exciting adventure. It goes by fast so enjoy. Te quiero mucho tomate. Que los cumplas muy feliz!

Productive Monday

Was out ALL morning doing errands with the bebés. Bank, BT art project, dry cleaner's, up to school to give J his antibiotic that I forgot in the am (oops). I am happy I did not listen to the weather people because it did not rain. The pm brought a sitter so I could go tutor and then go get the other monkeys. The day and the days fly by. I need to put away 1000 pounds of laundry and finish up prep for the auction. Off to bed.

Tidbits

I am sorry that I somehow did not make it to the blog yesterday. We are now driving back to NYC after a busy and tiring weekend in mystic. I witnessed some of the worst behavior ever from my daughter (who is explosive with her BFF) and I lost my shit, as did f one too many times. When there are so many children and meals and opinions and bags and plans, it is hard not to. Here are some funny lines from the weekend...
When I learned that m had stolen gum from my bag and lied about it I asked her to think of a punishment: how about no screens for two weeks because I love screens? I declined this suggestion because it would also be a punishment for me.
She also told me: I wish you could clone the babies so we could have two more (just what I was thinking).
About swimming on the hotel pool: there is nothing I am more exciteder about.
About her friend's parents: E's parents are better then you, they let her do whatever she wants.
When j asked her for some of her breakfast bacon: I only have a foot of bacon left.
That is all I have for now. I cannot believe how much crap we need to unload from the car and that they are back to School domani.

Mystic

Did not want to let the day end without posting but I am exhausted!road trips with small kids are not super relaxing. M and J fight a lot as do M and her friend. Will write more tomorrow. Pooped. You would not believe how much stuff (and I am a frugal packer) came in the car! J seems better. Hope babies sleep tonight!