The Turner Troop featuring The Turner Twins

Happy 2nd Birthday Summer and Chase!!!

2009-02-16T23:54:00.001-05:00

Today was Summer and Chase's 2nd birthday!!!!

These past two years have been really long, hard, dizzying, joyful and amazing!

Summer and Chase celebrated today at Chuck E Cheese (thanks Grandma and Grandpa E!!!) and had a wonderful, fun day!

It's amazing how much difference just a few months makes. I remember the last time we went to Chuck E Cheese, I was in a full on sweat after about 5 minutes of trying to contain the two of them in the toddler area. Today, wow, they sat at the table to eat, they'd tell me when they wanted to go play or go see Chuck E, and I'd walk and just say follow me, and they'd follow me! And I'd ask them what they wanted to do or where they wanted to go and it's just amazing how well they listen now and how much easier it is to get them to do things together, instead of just full on running in separate directions! lol.

They still have their moments, Summer had a couple of crying fits today I couldn't really even figure out what motivated them, but all in all, two year olds are awesome. And Summer and Chase as two year olds .... amazing!!!

We're back!!

2009-01-20T02:19:00.006-05:00

I've finally fixed the computer and am able to download pictures again ... yay!! I guess it's been a few months so I've just been storing the pics on the memory card. Tonight there were 568 pictures to download! As if that wasn't crazy enough ... I still don't have one really good one of Summer and Chase together!

Here are a few pics I quickly picked out so you can see how much S & C have changed and grown these past few months.

Summer has taken to creating messes.

Just so she can get out a broom, dust mop or vacuum & clean up!

Time to clean up!

This is hard work!

Chase is just as happy just playing with his messes.

Catching up

2008-12-30T12:03:00.003-05:00

The holidays are over and we've gotten most of the decorations, tree, lights put away. Dad and Uncle Buck headed back to Reno by car, I think they'll be there sometime later today. Mom is still here for another week, thankfully!

All of the changes (the decorations, visitors, Lexi and Skye being home from school, etc.) have thrown Summer and Chase into an unusually whiny, grumpy, demanding phase and it has been draining. Today though they seem to be getting back to normal and things are much quieter. Yay!!

We all went to the mall yesterday and it was pretty exhausting. I know Mom was tired. Two adults, two pre teens and two toddlers and the toddlers pretty much won! They really weren't bad, just full of energy and that's fine if you're out to just walk around, but forget it if anyone actually wants to do any shopping. Skye found an awesome deal on a lined jacket at Old Navy but Lexi completely gave up looking because we were completely distracted by the babies. So last night I took her back out by herself after the babies went to bed, and she got a few things with a gift card she had been given.

Today we're headed to Chuck E Cheese after nap. It's been a while since we've been there, so I know all the kids will have a really good time. The girls love their pizza the best and still like playing the games too so they'll be happy.

Lexi is all better after her trip to the Emergency Room last week. It was a nerve wracking evening! I'm a little bummed Frankie doesn't remember riding in the ambulance or going to the ER though. Lexi was so insistent that we both go with her. So I'm not sure how well he's doing lately, I had hoped that would have been enough to last in his memory somewhere, but I guess there is just no rhyme or reason to what he can remember these days. Hopefully in the New Year he will have a big breakthrough of some kind!

Chase is talking alot more lately, he still has a very quiet voice so you have to listen very carefully or you'll miss alot of it, but his vocabulary is growing by the day. He copies everything Summer does so he makes so much progress by doing that. I can't wait for his therapists to come back in the New Year and see how well he is doing! He was so good with Wally (Mom and Dad's dog) I know he has to miss him! Chase has a special way with animals. It's his routine every morning to sit with Kitty and hug on him for a good half an hour.

Summer, well she has a special way of scaring animals! She is so fast it makes them nervous. She is still a talkative little tornado!! Fast, loud, demanding and spirited, that's Summer!! But so darn cute and funny you can't help but love her! She has moved on from calling me Mom to Mommy. She must say it a thousand times a day! She's a great helper. She helps sort laundry, empty the dishwasher, sweep. It'd be nice if that would last another 16 years!!! Lexi and Skye are in the "I'll help if I have to but gosh it'd be nice if you wouldn't ask!" phase. Oh well, all phases pass eventually I guess. 12 and 11 are hard ages. Having twins that age, oh boy, now there's a thought!!!

Being busy and still not accomplishing anything stinks.

2008-12-15T14:21:00.004-05:00

So aren't we all just posting how we aren't posting right now?! It's that busy time of year for alot of us. I'm not sure I really have that excuse, it seems I'm busy but getting nowhere at the same time!

The cherry on my sundae was yesterday... I usually go get coupon inserts bright and early Sunday morning, so I'm back before the babies rouse. Dad arrived safely Friday (YAY!) and so his car was behind mine in the driveway. I didn't want to wake him to get his keys, since he's still on West Coast time, so I waited until Mom got up, about 8 and got the keys but then the babies were up. So I got them dressed and fed, and left about 9:15.

Alot of the time, I get inserts from a nice guy at the gas station who buys a bunch of papers to bring to a nursing home, but since it was late I was just going to buy a few. Well!! Every single place I tried was sold out already!! I ended up having to go across town to Publix, since I was already there, I figured I'd buy milk and get my penny item and head home. Since it took longer than I thought, once I got home, I was trying to hurry in to help out with the kids and I went too fast over the baby gate, and without taking my clogs off and my toe got caught. While the majority of my body headed straight for the tile floor, my toe was stuck in the gate, so there was no recovering from this fall! The grocery bags hit the floor before I did and with a huge crash of a bottle of spaghetti sauce being the heaviest thing in my arms, it hit first and broke. Now I'd like to point out that if Publix had had oatmeal or toilet paper for the penny item there would be no story here!

So I put my hands out to brace my fall myself, and a piece of glass sliced directly into my hand as my knees crashed to the floor! My brother said last night he's never heard a human scream the way I screamed!! Not only did it hurt like crazy, but I saw the glass sticking out of my hand, pulled it out and blood started gushing everywhere!!!

Thank goodness my Mom is an RN and was there to help!! Lexi, Skye and Chase were mortified to here me scream and then I was bawling. Lexi ran into the room, saw the sauce all over the floor, thought it was blood, and ran to the bathroom to throw up!

So, not wanting to go to the emergency room and rack up a $2000 bill I settled on a Christian based clinic and racked up a bill about 25% of that. I had to get a tetanus shot, 3 x rays, and stitches.

So ... my plans yesterday to get all the Christmas decorations out and get the house decorated fell through. And now I'm really not much in the mood for it. But I know I need to enjoy having my parents here, try to stop stressing out and somehow get into a brighter holiday mood.

I also know I do have a lot to be thankful for. The kids are all healthy, Frankie is still making progress in his recovery, I have a roof over our head (for now anyway!) and we have plenty of food in the fridge. The rest of it, the overwhelming, sad, anxiety ridden hour to hour crap, I've got to somehow do a better job of letting go of it all.

Maybe I'll put together a time capsule tonight. I'll fill the box with reminders of every little thing that has me stressed out or down, take the box out back, and torch it. Just release it and let it go!! So I think I am need to move something off of my to-do list for tonight and put that as #1! I'll let you know if it is helpful.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday. If you have a chance, please say a prayer for our family that God may bless us and hold us in his care during this holiday season and always. Thanks and God Bless!

-Kristen

So here's the latest...

2008-11-29T22:51:00.002-05:00

I've finally got the computer back up but there's still a few glitches I need to take the time to investigate and fix. You can't use Google, can't print, and I can't download pictures from my camera. But email and the Internet work so I'm thankful for that.

The girls have been out of school since Tuesday and it's been nice having them home. I really like our schedule and it's so much less stress when they have a few days off. And even though Skye is going through a stage right now of not doing what I'm asking her to do, it's still been nice! :-)

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. I woke up early to go get a newspaper and hit CVS for a bunch of free Black Friday sale items (they started a day early). So I prepared the turkey, put it in the oven, after defrosting it in the sink the night before (thanks for the suggestion Mom!), got the kids up, dressed and fed, and headed out. While I was gone, Frankie started doing the green beans and creamed corn with Lexi. She had to call me a few times because he was a little unclear about what he was doing, but overall he did well. He and I finished them after I got home and they turned out really good! Now to be completely honest, they weren't as good as he'd have done prior to his accident, but they were still good and that's some serious progress on his part!!

We ended up eating about 3:30. Everything was perfect except Summer didn't make it to the meal because she was taking an extra long nap. I didn't want to disturb her because she and Chase have not been napping for the past 2 weeks, and they had just started getting back on track, so I wasn't messing with that! Twin toddlers who don't nap are really, shall I say... challenging!

So anyway, the meal was excellent!!! I honestly can say I outdid myself on the turkey (lol). It was the best darn turkey I've ever had, it melted in your mouth!! Chase must have eaten a pound and a half himself. We also had dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, creamed corn, I made broccoli for Lexi because she doesn't like corn, and fruit salad. It was the perfect amount of food, not too much, just right.

We went around the table and said the top three things we were grateful for this year and it was nice to actually see everyone think about their answers, instead of just blurting out things they thought sounded good.

Other than that, things have been fairly quiet.

One thing that I'm not at all happy about is that my landlords are divorcing. Originally they told me they were going to refinance the house and nothing would effect me, well I knew darn well that was too good to be true! So as it turns out, they are having to sell.

So they came by with a realtor the other day (Thanks for the 3 hour notice! Can anyone say "Power Clean"!!), did a walk through and will be listing it this week. I want to be accommodating and work with them because they are really nice, but it's going to be a royal pain to have to gather everyone up (including the pets) and get out for showings, not to mention keeping the house in "show" condition. I mean on any given day I pick up the living room and kitchen 3 to 4 times and most of the time within 10 minutes it's a disaster again!

As if that wasn't enough stress, then I have to figure out what in the world we are going to do when the lease is up in August! I'd really love to stumble across a period of time where everything was just on cruise control. There is always something, and it's ridiculously tiring.

But on a positive note, we are all really excited that my Mom and Dad are coming for the holidays!! Mom will be here in just a few days and Dad is driving and will arrive next week. He'll hopefully be bringing Wally with him, their Pomeranian, who is the son of my Pomeranian, Buster. Wally got very ill a few weeks ago though, so he has to be cleared for travel from the vet, but he seems to be doing well, so we'll all be very happy to see him too!

It's been almost a full year since we've seen Mom and that's the longest any of us can ever remember, so we can't wait!!!

Magazine feature on our family

2008-11-22T00:57:00.008-05:00

Our family is featured in the current November issue of LowCountry Parent, The Charleston area's #1 parenting resource.

Giving Thanks
Story and photos by Shannon Brigham

What does Thanksgiving mean to you? To your friends?

Thanksgiving has special meanings to different people. It is a time when many gather and give thanks for the good things in their lives. We talked to this Lowcountry family to get a glimpse into their lives. We talked about traditions and what Thanksgiving means to them.

The Turners

For years the Turner family of Goose Creek moved throughout South Carolina and from state to state.

Frank had a lucrative career with a large chain-restaurant company and spent most of his time traveling and opening restaurants around the Southeast. He planned to open his own restaurant — a lifelong dream.

Food was a big part of the Turners’ lives, especially at Thanksgiving.
“He was around it a lot and picked up a lot,” his wife Kristen Turner said. “Thanksgiving dinner was such a big deal every year.”

Frank’s mom, a Charleston native, always cooked his favorite southern dishes, adding personal touches no one else could master. Thanksgiving, to him, was getting to experience the food he missed throughout the year and spending time with extended family, including his now grown sons.

Two years ago, soon after finding out Kristen was pregnant with twins, Frank was involved in a motorcycle crash caused by an undetected brain aneurysm rupturing in his head. The accident left him in a coma for more than two months. Most of the major bones in his body were fractured and broken, including his neck and skull.

That Thanksgiving Kristen pulled herself away from her husband’s side in the intensive care unit and went through the motions of the holiday for the sake of daughters Lexi and Skye.

Later that winter, twins Summer and Chase were born and Frank returned home in an ambulance, unable to care for himself. He spent this last year recovering and struggling to relearn the simple tasks in life.

He’s since come a long way from the hospital bed and can now walk without his walker and play with his children. However, he still suffers severe brain damage that affects his memory. Even still, his wife calls his physical recovery “a miracle.”

Kristen says she is grateful for her life, including every hiccup and bump along the way. The family is now establishing new traditions that focus on the little things, she said. Her children have learned an important lesson, and so has she.

“The actual meaning behind Thanksgiving is very special for us now,” she said. “Sometimes you kind of get into the monotony of day to day and you realize that you should be doing special things for your children but instead you’re just trying to make it through existence. So maybe you just do a little something off the top of your head, like putting a note inside your child's backpack or lunchbox, or you simply say something to your child that you might otherwise have only thought, and not shared with them. It’s just the simple little things that down the road you might even forgot about, but your child will hold onto forever.”

Kristen still takes life day by day, facing the many new challenges that seem to find her at every turn. But she remains positive and is genuinely happy.

“If you try to focus on the good, it definitely outweighs the bad,” she said. “Hopefully from here on out our Thanksgivings are going to continue to be really special.”

I am ready to throw my computer out the window

2008-11-17T15:26:00.003-05:00

I'm having computer problems. It seems the more I try to clean it, the worse it gets. So until I can clear it up, I won't be able to post. I can get on email much easier than I can get online so I'm still here and we're still hanging in!!

Numbers

2008-11-12T01:10:00.002-05:00

How many things are on my to-do list: 48
How many things did I do from my to-do list today: 3
How many things did I add to my to-do list today: 6
How many doctor/therapy appointments did we have last month: 19
How many doctor appointments am I putting off for myself: 3
How many times did Frankie ask me what day it was today: 9
How many times did I see Frankie kiss one of the babies today, just because: 4
How many hair cuts did I give this past weekend: 3
How many months has it been since I had a haircut: 16
How many loads of clothes did I do today: 4
How many loads of clothes are there still left to do: 7
How many times did I find myself forcing myself to look at the bright side today: many
How many times did I count my blessings today: a lot
How many blessings did I count: 20
How many times did Chase or Summer giggle so hard today that it made me giggle: countless

Giving the kids a good time makes for a tired Mama

2008-11-08T19:15:00.004-05:00

So after a hectic week of voting, doctor and therapy appointments out the wazoo, soccer playoffs, consigning baby equipment, and the typical running around to the grocery store, drug store, filling prescriptions, etc. I was kind of hoping for rain this weekend. It seems it rains more weekends than not and normally I hate it. I hate the kids being stuck inside, I hate having to drive anywhere in the rain and I hate that it takes days to dry out and Summer and Chase can't play in the yard. But of course, it's been the most beautiful weekend ever. Which I guess has turned out well, but it hasn't allowed me to wind down. Which is exactly what I plan on doing once I finish this post!

The babies are asleep, the girls are so tired they are going to be ready for bed in another 2 hours, Brad came home from work and after having me look over a math assignment he's working on, he went out for the night; Frankie and Uncle Buck spent the afternoon watching football at a bar and grill that just opened 1/2 mile down the street, so he's almost ready for bed. And then darnit, I'm not doing laundry, I'm not picking up, I'm not even doing the darn dishes. I'm going to bed!!

Yesterday I picked Lexi, Skye and their friends Courtney and Kayla up from school and we went to the Coastal Carolina Fair. This fair has been here in Charleston since long before we lived here 17 years ago, but this is going to be the last year, because the fairgrounds have been sold. So as a treat for exceptional report cards and all the extra help they've been doing at home, I told them weeks ago I would take them to the fair.

We got there about 4:00. We got home at 12:30. AM. As the lady who was sitting on the bench next to me while I waited on them to ride their last ride said "Girl, you must be crazy!". She'd been there 1 hour and was ready to go home. *lol.

But the girls had a WONDERFUL time, so it was worth it. Lexi rode every ride there. I was surprised by how extreme alot of the rides were! But Lexi's always been a dare devil. Skye, not so much. She opted out of 6 or 7 of them and was happy when she met up with 2 other friends, who were also a little more timid, and they rode some of the tamer rides together.

The highlight for me was the agricultural center. I love seeing all the farm animals, the cattle, ponies, rabbits, ducks, turkeys, and especially the horses. The 1000 lb. sow nursing her 8 piglets was also a sight to behold!

So the girls got to sleep about 3 am. I was up at 7:30 with Summer and Chase and at 9:40 Lexi and Courtney had a revelation that today was the day they had to go to the Hanahan Rec. Center to sing with their chorus! As a part of their grade. In other words, nope, sorry, you can't skip it!! So that gave me 20 minutes to get us all ready and on the road. That was fun!!

But we made it and they sang, and we spent the next couple of hours taking hay rides, getting faces painted, bouncing in the bounce house, and chasing Summer and Chase all over God's creation. Man, they just love to run at that age don't they?! Several of Summer and Chase's neighborhood friends were also there, so they played together, ate kettle corn and had a good time.

So it's nap and lunch time when I finally am able to tear the girls away, and by now we've picked up another of their friends Julia, but instead of going home, since we're already 1/2 way there, I decided to save the gas of a full trip and head to Harris Teeter for a triple coupon weekend. I had a list of items I could get for nearly free that I didn't want to miss out on and they have the greatest samples in the fruit, deli, bakery section so I also figured the babies could get a free lunch out of it! *lol. They ate oranges, strawberries, french bread with hummus, swiss cheese and apple pastry and were in heaven!!

So as we head home the plan is to just get in the house, get the groceries unloaded, and get Summer and Chase changed and put down for a nap since it's already 3:00. Well, all of us pile in the house, Uncle Buck and Frankie are in the living room, we're talking to them about the morning and somehow the last person in didn't shut the baby gate to the living room or the front door. So all of a sudden I hear Chase cry and he's face down on the cement outside the front door! He had tried to walk outside but was so darn tired he probably just slipped off the step and it looks like he didn't even put his hands down to catch himself... he apparently landed face first. :-(

So there's blood gushing everywhere and Skye is freaking out (she's not good in a panic) and I'm trying to console Chase, get the blood to stop and get the girls calmed down and boy oh boy. Is there ever a dull moment!?!? Chase was easily consoled, and stopped crying after just a minute. He has a fat lip though and is scratched between his nose and his lip.

I was a little miffed tonight when he was riding the exercise ball and went over the top, didn't clear the couch and banged his lip on the hard edge of it. And bled ... again. Poor baby. Again, he was easily consoled and hardly cried. But his lip, it's even fatter now. I hope he looks ok when he wakes up in the morning! This is Chase's first day of boo boos so I'm pretty happy that he made it this long!

Though they are few and far between, I'm hoping tomorrow is a nice relaxing day!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-03T02:14:00.003-05:00

Here are Summer and Chase's trick or treat pictures and pictures of them earlier in the day with their blinking Halloween shirts - Thanks Aunt Maudie! I couldn't narrow the pictures down enough so I put them in a slideshow.

Summer and Chase made it to about 8 neighbors for Trick or Treating. We only went to friends so it was hard for them to understand where we were and were not going. But once they got the hang of it I think they really had a great time! Summer got "twick o tweet" out to a few and "twick" to the rest. Chase tried to get two handfuls of candy at each house and walked into two, I guess for a break.

I'm glad I did the dress rehearsal and worked on getting Chase used to his froggy costume. It definitely helped!!

Two toddlers are always alot of work and this was no exception and it was also a bit sad without Frankie, who was with his Mom for the week. But overall we all had a lot of fun!

When we finished with S&C, Lexi and Skye went out with 8 or so of their friends.

This will more than likely be Lexi's last year. She didn't dress as she had in the past and really didn't want to dress at all. She eventually went in her soccer uniform because I said she had to dress as something! (Mean Mommy!) Skye was excited about being Darth, and I think she'll still want to go next year.

Have you tried to take 1 picture of 2 toddlers lately?!

2008-10-31T14:08:00.004-04:00

Mom and I were talking the other day about how I don't have pictures of Summer and Chase together. She was hoping I might be able to do something with Photoshop so she could have a more current pic of them both for her cel phone screensaver. I've just been using 1 pic of a girl and a baby as my screensaver and the other girl and baby as my wallpaper (the girls check and make sure they get equal time!). So I decided I should try and get a picture of them both ... in 1 picture ... at the same time ... facing the same direction ... with no one crying ... are you kidding? What was I thinking! Oh well, I got some pics of them separately that turned out ok. *LOL

My amazing little girl

2008-10-29T23:47:00.003-04:00

So today Summer did a couple of cute things. As I went upstairs to get their cribs ready for bed, I turned Barney on the TV for them, to keep them entertained (aka quiet) for a few minutes. I put Barney on because Summer and Chase were both screaming "Buyee, Buyee" (aka "Barney") at the top of their lungs when I asked them what they wanted to watch.

So I'm upstairs and the theme song comes on and I hear Summer quietly singing "I wub you, you wub me" then she hums to the end and says "say you wub me too". Oh my gosh, my heart just about melted!!!

Then today she and I went out for a little bit. On the ride home "Stairway to Heaven" was on the radio so I'm singing and swaying a little bit and I notice her staring at me in the rear view mirror and imitating my swaying, so I move right and she moves right, I shrug my shoulders and she shrugs, I move left, she moves left, I clap, she claps and I clap a few more times to different beats and she does the same. Then I threw my hand out and snapped and brought it back. And she throws her hand out, clicks with her tongue and brings her hand back. She immediately compensated for not being able to snap and I thought "Wow! That was pretty darn smart!!"

Blue Turner - RIP

2008-10-28T16:35:00.007-04:00

Every morning before school Lexi and/or Skye feed, water and play with their Guinea pig Blue. We got her last year after I gave away the 3rd of our dogs following Frankie's accident. At the time of Frankie's accident, we had 4 Pomeranians and I just couldn't keep up with them all anymore. I knew it was hard on the girls after almost losing their father, having to move twice, new babies on the scene, and all the tons of other changes. So I told them I would let them get another smaller pet to give them something to take care of and be responsible for.

So we got Jack who got sick after 3 weeks. So we had to exchange him and that's when we got Blue. The girls were very sad to have lost Jack. But Blue seemed to be a keeper and was doing well, until this morning. Skye went to get her out of her cage and she wasn't moving. She came to me in tears.

So this afternoon we'll have a burial in the back yard, once the babies go to sleep.

I feel bad for Lexi and Skye. They have already been extra sad this week because their Daddy left on Sunday to go to Georgia with his Mom and Step Dad for the week. They have a cabin in the mountains and it's the first trip he's taken since his accident. So they were sad to see him go and are sad that he's missing Halloween. As Skye says, it's the 1st he'll have missed.

Even the year after his accident, they dressed up in their costumes and we paraded through the hospital and to Daddy's room with them on. And that was the year Skye went as a giant Lego. It was hard walking through that big old hospital as a giant Lego!!

Oh well. We are learning all kinds of lessons about loss and overcoming difficult circumstances.

But I'm thankful that Lexi, Skye, Summer and Chase are all otherwise well. They are downstairs right now playing together. I can hear them rolling trucks across the carpet, back and forth ... and Summer is finding something hysterical. She's just laughing and laughing and laughing! There is good in everything!

I love ....

2008-10-22T11:06:00.007-04:00

I love my "Kye"

And she loves me!

I love "bapples" and "beebee dawlls"

I love my "Sissy" ... and I love my "Chay Chay"

I don't love time out! But it's not so bad with a buddy!
*By the way, the dolls are just dolls they drug into the corner and were playing with and immitating, they aren't meant to entertain them while they are in time out.

Building towers is fun when you're King of The World!

2008-10-21T22:37:00.005-04:00

Oh wait, I must be serious!

There ... now to address my constituents!

Oh boy, he's already addressing constituents and I still can't work this crown thing out!

Yes, that's a mighty fine tower!
But as you can see, there's only room for one royal in this kingdom!!

Flashback Friday!

2008-10-17T11:15:00.003-04:00

Last year our digital camera went MIA from 9/29 to 10/23 (long not so great story) so I don't have pictures exactly a year old... these are from one year ago next week.

Last year about this time Summer was crawling, walking in the walker, jumping in the jumper and trying really, really hard to get Chase to do the same!

Chase wasn't moving around much, but was still as happy as could be!

Summer was all over the place!

Poor Sweety. She really lived up to her name.

A pocket full of sunshine

2008-10-17T00:26:00.007-04:00

So that's the most sarcastic title I could think of! *lol

Not the greatest of weeks going on here and lots of going on too. Thus the lack of posts.

Lexi started counseling yesterday to see if we can help her with stress management and to deal with some of the emotions that go along with all of the losses and changes we've had in the last few years. I hope it'll help ease the headaches she's been having too.

There's nothing like telling someone in just 1 hour everything bad, sad, depressing, stressful, that's going on in your life to make you feel good about things!

You know what else doesn't make you feel great? A 20th high school reunion. Now, it was in Va. so no I did not go this past weekend, but it makes you feel old either way!

And... we are having a garage sale this weekend. Nothing major, not huge, but I've been sorting through baby clothes and baby toys and equipment and it's hard to part with alot of that. It's sad to let go of the memories and just plain old sad to think about them being the last babies as well as thinking of the memories of the past 20 months.

Yes, we've had a lot of joy and happiness, especially where the babies are concerned, but I also still think about how different it would have/could have been if things hadn't of turned out the way they did. And that makes me sad.

I've also had to start sorting late at night. Skye is so much like her Daddy that she gets upset with every little thing I am planning on giving away, she not only wants to pack rat and keep everything, but everything has a memory attached to it for her, just like Frankie. She keeps taking things out of the give away to keep and not making the process any easier on me! Who knew such things were passed down genetically!!

Other than that at least Summer and Chase have been doing good this week. Chase is now walking 100% of the time!! He is no longer ever crawling and that is just fantastic! He has straightened out his foot position over the last week too which is very important. He and Summer are also talking alot more. Summer is talking in sentences. I say something like, "Daddy didn't put his glass up, Daddy is a naughty boy." And she says, "No, Daddy good boy!" Or she'll come tell me, "Mama, Chay Chay cry".

Chase is saying more words and is repeating everything you say, though he still talks very quietly, he's loving animals right now. His favorites are the monkeys, lions and elephants. He's always making animal sounds. He's also been eating, really, really, really well and has the tiniest hint of a little pot belly. lol. He's still too skinny for sure, but it can't be blamed on appetite, he's really out eating Summer this week!

He's also playing with his cars and trucks alot more than he has in the past. He still likes to play baby dolls but as long as their is a balance that's cool with me!

They are really liking their table and chairs and sit at the table for snack and to do blocks and peg boards and puzzles. I just wish Chase could get up and down on his own, he still can't. That'll come in time though!

The Fairy Princess and The Frog

2008-10-10T12:27:00.004-04:00

I bought Summer and Chase's Halloween costumes spontaneously last week. It hadn't even occurred to me to try them on until other twin MoM friend's were saying how their toddlers weren't liking their costumes too much. So we tried ours on. And now I am faced with a choice. Do I keep having them try them on every day in the hopes that they will indeed settle into them after a few weeks? Or do I let them swap costumes since Chase hates the frog costume and Summer is in love with it? That might sound like a decent choice, until you realize that by swapping, that makes Chase a fairy princess.

So it's been 10 minutes and I am NOT happy. But if you'll take this stupid thing off of my head I'll give you one good picture!

OK, that was your one picture, now get me out of this thing!

Seriously, I mean OUT!

What are you waiting for Mom?!?!?!

Am I a horrible Mommy for not taking off the costume yet and letting him collapse into a puddle since I think it makes for a cute picture?! *lol

This is NOT fair! He doesn't even want to be the darn frog and you still won't let me have it!!

I have nothing to say to you Mommy.

Oh fine, you want me to dance?! I'll dance!!

So this frilly thing isn't so bad when you're dancing!

OK, I admit it, I'm pretty darn cute aren't I?!

Happy Anniversary to me!

2008-10-08T01:07:00.003-04:00

Just a quick note to say this past weekend was the 18th Anniversary of Frankie and my first date! This is a date Frankie always stuck to celebrating each year, even after we were married. As a matter of fact it came a month before our wedding anniversary so it usually continued to get more attention, even after we were married!

There are few times over the last 18 years I even remember as vividly as I do that night. I don't know why, but I remember absolutely everything about it. We didn't do anything outstanding, there was actually a really bad storm that night so we couldn't do what we had initially planned. But I guess starting our lives together was outstanding enough!

A long time coming

2008-10-06T12:12:00.009-04:00

It seems I've been waiting so long to have 2 walking toddlers, even knowing how much more difficult it would be to chase after them both. Turns out it's not one of those things where the anticipation is greater than the actuality. It's even better!

Ready...Set...Hike!

2008-10-06T01:07:00.009-04:00

Or in Summer's case... Ready...Set...Roll!!

The weather has finally been so nice we can play outside alot!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-10-01T14:14:00.005-04:00

You want a piece of me?!

Chase's first BIG boy haircut.

Video of Chase walking

2008-09-29T02:21:00.006-04:00

As of 3 days ago, Chase has really taken off walking! He is walking 95% of the time and is much more stable than he was just a few days ago. Here are some videos of him walking, and getting up and down. But they were taken 9/25 which was just before he started walking full time, so he is much wobblier and not as confident as he is now. You'll also notice each video ends with him dropping and crying. It's because he always wants the camera!

And Dad ---- these are videos, not pictures, so don't go printing them out for Mom, she has to actually view the videos! *lol

Toddler twins at the park can be a walk in the park

2008-09-28T23:52:00.001-04:00

This morning I took Summer and Chase out to do some Sunday morning errands and they were so good and patient for such a long time I stopped to let them burn off some energy at a park we hadn't been to before. It was a spur of the moment decision and our first excursion to the park, just the three of us, so I wasn't sure how well or horrible it was going to go. But it went surprisingly well!

We had to park and walk across a large grass field to get to the park equipment and they both stayed right with me. A couple of times Summer wanted to hurry ahead and I told her to wait for me or wait for Chasey and she'd stop and wait for us to catch up. I put Chase in the toddler swing because he loves to swing and it was a good way to keep him contained until I could figure out what Summer was going to do. She stayed right by us, walking around a little, venturing over to the slide and back but never straying very far. I then was able to go between Chase and her while she climbed up the play equipment to go down the slide. She did that a few times but also sat on the stairs for quite a while, just looking around at the other children. She was also fascinated by a chocolate lab that was there.

Then I let Chasey out and he ventured around the different play areas and mostly either cruised or crawled. The last few days he has taken to walking mostly all of the time (YAY!!) so it must have been the wood chip ground he was unsure of.

We then went over to the section where the bigger slides were and Summer climbed up the stairs and went across the drawbridge so quick to go on the big slide that Chase couldn't keep up. So I stayed back with him waiting on him to get up the steps while telling Summer to wait, but she was dead set on getting to that slide! So I had to scoop Chase up real quick and grab her before she went down on her own. Little daredevil!! So they were both yelling now so I figure well, we're already up here (and it's kind of high if you ask me!) but I might as well let them go down since we're already here. So I put Chase on my lap and sat on one slide and held Summer's hand and put her on the one next to us and away we went! And that made them very happy so, of course, they wanted to go again! There was no way I was getting back on that slide myself so I told them I had some juice in the car and convinced them to walk back to the car, which they happily did.

I was surprised that in the 90 minutes we were there I didn't really break a sweat (and normally just 5 minutes alone at Chuck E Cheese makes me sweat!) and they didn't have any bad meltdowns, tantrums or anything.

Sometimes that is something that is different about having twins. You can't do everything you want to do with them when you are by yourself because you really need one person for each twin. So it was great to know we're getting to the point where we can do more and more things on our own!

Freeze Dance

2008-09-27T23:28:00.006-04:00

Tomorrow I'm going to post some videos of Chase walking so tonight I wanted to post a quick video of Summer and I found a really cute one! Well two... or three! lol

Summer has taken to playing freeze dance lately. She learned it by watching the strangest kids show I have ever seen. Yo Gabba Gabba. So there is a video from 9/5/08 of her doing the freeze dance and a few videos of her giggling away on 8/28. She sure is a giggler!

God's Grace

2008-09-27T22:07:00.006-04:00

I feel like God has been working in my life this week. Not that he's ever far away, but I admit I do sometimes loose track of him and don't keep him as close as I should.

The past few weeks I've been feeling really down. Nothing in particular, just a culmination of a lot of things. And normally I don't share that with too many people. But I was chatting with my twin MoM (Mother of Multiples) friend Jennifer and she told me about a book she was reading that she thought would be a good read for me. And she shared with me a little about the journey she was currently on and that made me realize I had kind of lost track of Jesus in my life. I used to be in constant conversation with him, but lately things had gone quiet. So that gave me pause.

Then tonight I'm at Publix with Skye and, as usual, I'm looking at all the "blinkie" machines for coupons and as I go to pull one out I notice it is empty. I've never seen an empty one before, so I look on top of it to see if anyone has put the stack on top. I never have looked on top of one before but there on top is a laminated card of the "Footprints" prayer. It is my favorite prayer and Frankie's favorite and we used to have a large print of it framed in our house. So I stopped to think for a moment and Skye asked what I was looking at. So I gave her the card and told her about the prayer and she said she wanted to read it and we began talking about when you pray and if it has to be quiet to pray and then we started talking about Daddy and different things she was thinking about him and our family and it was a really good conversation. I think it was one she really needed to have today.

Then we get home and after a few hours, I came online and the first thing I remember is I forgot to check Jennifer's blog about her date night last night! So I went to her blog and read about how she went to the Mercy Me concert (who sing my favorite song) and the lead singer was talking about how so many people give credit to Satan for doing bad in their lives and God for doing good when really God is responsible for everything!! This is not something I personally do, I give God credit for everything in my life as I know he has a plan for everyone, but again, it gave me pause and made me think about some things I hadn't thought about in a while.

Jennifer also mentioned her struggle with infertility and how difficult it was but where it has led her. Which makes me think, yes, God does work in mysterious ways!! Jennifer has been a blessing in my life and had it not been for her struggle, and my struggle, would we have ever crossed paths? Probably not!

I'm glad God has made a point this week to remind me who is control of my life!

Walking boy goes to the doctor... again!

2008-09-22T17:19:00.004-04:00

I'm on the computer printing coupons, helping Lexi with her math homework (I'm pretty sure this is stuff I did in high school!!) and we are heading out for soccer pictures and a game in 1/2 an hour.... but I realize I haven't updated my blog in a week (again!!) so I wanted to just say really quick that Chase has decided he's seriously getting into this walking thing today!! For the last couple of weeks every time I see him walking around I call him walking boy. I cheer and say "Yay, Walking Boy!!" and he grins big as can be!! Even Frankie when he sees him walking yells "Hey Kris!" come see! It takes us all by surprise!

Well today he took over 50 steps without falling!!!! He was walking in circles around his lap desk in the living room and back and forth to the couch. All the time I'm standing there smiling and cheering and bending over to pick my jaw up off of the floor! He's still a little wobbly, those little ankles are not quite strong enough, and he still locks his knees because he's figured out that he gets more balance that way, but he's walking more often and falling much less often that it is amazingly noticeable! Maybe by the time Grandma and Grandpa E. come for the holidays he will be running!!!! Wouldn't that be the best Christmas gift ever!

I took him to MUSC today for an appointment with his geneticist. Long story short, he's no longer really even concerned about him!!! He was "really concerned" 9 months ago and "moderately concerned" 6 months ago so that is huge progress!

He thinks if we were to do any additional genetic testing there would be a less than 2% chance that he would find anything. He says though, that genetic testing is improving by leaps and bounds each year, so he wants to see him in another 12 months to see if any additional testing has come out that might be appropriate in Chase's case.

Two weeks ago Chase had a follow up appointment with his Developmental Specialist and was retested on everything (speech, fine motor, gross motor, socialization, etc.) and was on track for an 18 month old for everything except the gross motor, and that was only due to his lagging behind in walking. But his speech and fine motor were well on target. Maybe by the end of this year, he'll be all caught up and next year we'll have nothing more to worry about!!!! I'll pray for that, anyway.

Wow, we're 19 months old today!!

2008-09-16T23:07:00.000-04:00

Today Summer and Chase turned 19 months old. Not an unusually common number to celebrate, but it makes me realize how big they are getting. They are now on their way to 2, and at that rate, we're not going to have any babies around here anymore! Some may think that is a good thing, but it makes me a little sad to think about.

Summer and Chase have brought more love and joy to my heart and our lives, it's almost indescribeable. I absolutely can not imagine what life would have been like without them. They have made me smile and warmed my heart more than I ever would have imagined and have truly been my saving grace. I can not thank God enough for blessing me with them.

Adventures in La La Land

2008-09-16T02:04:00.003-04:00

It seems there just aren't enough hours in the days anymore. So in an effort to maximize time, I'm going to just post some random cute things we've done in the past few days.

Summer ran across the living room, did a full body dive, spread eagle, onto the exercise ball (it's about 2 feet tall), which made the ball start rolling. As it rolled a full 360 degree rotation, she stayed stuck flat to the ball and went all the way around with it! When it came all the way back around, she popped off and wanted to do it again! She thought that was fun!! She may have a future as a superhero. I'll have to keep my eyes out for other possible super powers.

Chase has taken to singing Row, row, row your boat. Row, row, row boat. He rocks his baby dolls to a one note version of "Rock-a-bye-baby". He sings the tune of it but just says "By-i-i-i-i". His repertoire of animals sounds is increasing every day. He makes the cutest darn "mooooos" and "meows" ever heard!! He still refuses to do it for people outside of the family, or over the phone, so we are working on that! It's a good thing he has these cute things in his repertoire because he also has taken to throwing plates and food during every single darn meal the past 2 days. And he also gets a real kick out of walking up behind me and pinching my calves. Not funny Chase, that hurts!!

Summer was spied changing Chases diaper one afternoon. She got his pants unbuttoned, the diaper off, except it got stuck under him, so she was getting a little feisty trying to pull it off when she was caught in the act! So I don't know what her next step was but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Just in case, we're sticking to non-button pants for Chase for a while.

Chase did the take off the poopy diaper in the crib bit and now Summer has perfected the take off all the clothes and diaper in the crib bit. So I'm trying to make sure they are put backwards in zippered PJ's every time they go to sleep. But sometimes it's hard to change them in and out for nap and then bedtime. It seems I'm changing clothes all day long these days, between the PJ's and the plate and food throwing (that usually leads to at least 1 outfit disaster) and the other 4 shirts Chase is requiring because he is a drooling machine and refuses to keep a bib on. Well sometimes I loose track of the backwards PJ's. Which inevitably means I'm changing someones sheets and giving them a bath.

Teething. 4 new teeth each. There has to be a better way for us to have evolved up to this point than this slow process of acquiring teeth!!

Babies + Teething = Unhappy Babies = Unhappy Mama!!!

Did I mention both Lexi and Skye are cutting their 12 year molars!?! And Uncle Buck is having dental problems with infections and who knows what else, and I have a loose permanent tooth. Frankie needs 2 caps replaced but that's not causing him pain. I really hope one of these kids becomes a dentist one day...

Summer now understands absolutely everything I say to her. I can say, Summer go get Chase's blue cup for me, Summer please put Bumble Bee away in the toy box, Summer go dance a dance with Daddy, Summer please get your broom and help Mommy sweep the kitchen, Summer that wasn't nice, go give Chasey a hug and tell him you're sorry, and WA LAH! She does just what you tell her. No further explanation, no repeating, she just does it. She is a smart little cookie!! Now if only I can figure out how to get Skye to do this very thing... hmmmmmmm.

Whenever Summer puts on a hat and 'pretends' to dress up, Chase says "pitty" to tell her she's pretty. Awwwww. They are both saying alot more words and phrases now too. I also catch Summer now mixing words with her gibberish. She has always called Chase, Chay Chay, but I catch her now calling him Doodlebop every now and again, which is what I call him sometimes.

These two little ones sure do know how to put a smile on your face!

Pics Ahoy!

2008-09-14T10:28:00.007-04:00

I haven't had a lot of free time lately so I haven't updated my blog in over a week. I did finally download the pictures off of my camera though! The house is pretty quiet at the moment so for now, I'm going to just post some new pics and call it a day.

"Summer, where's your hair?"
We're very much into naming body parts.

"Chase, where's Brad's nose?"

We're also really into fooling around instead of eating.

For a few days we were into playing with Daddy at 1 am each night.

I bought them a toddler table and chairs. I really wanted a wooden one since it'd be much sturdier, but for $3.75 I am not complaining!

You can see how big the table is with Skye sitting at it.

It even matches the papason chair
Lexi got from Grandma E. a few years ago!

This is the dress Lexi wore for her 1st birthday party!

Summer's 18 month check up and a tiring afternoon

2008-09-04T23:23:00.005-04:00

Summer's healthy as a horse, fit as a fiddle, and all that jazz! She was so darn good at the Doctor's office today!! DH and I took her for her 18 month check up, no shots. She stood on the grown up scale for Pam and weighs 24.8 pounds. And she's 34 1/2 inches tall.

Summer
24.8 lbs 34 1/2 inches
Chase
21.2 lbs 33 inches

She started dancing and doing ring-around-the-rosie for the Doctor when he came in - showing off as he said :-) and she let him look in her ears and throat, feel her neck, etc. She had a complete look of confusion on her face as he took her diaper off though. LOL, it was like she was being modest! She smiled the rest of the exam and was just a little angel!

I then had to talk to him about Lexi. Her headaches are back and seem to coincide with school starting. So I'm thinking it's either an environmental thing at school or migraines/stress. She swears she's not stressed about anything with school and we've talked about everything that could possibly be bothering her and she says none of it is. But I know things at home are very stressful and she takes a lot of that on. So maybe she's worried about not being home with me during the day to help? I don't know. I would hate to think so and she says she's not, but I guess that leaves it being either the lights and some kind of paint or smell or a combo of it all or migraines. Because of her age he wants her to see a neurologist after he sees her again on Monday. She's had her vision checked and had an MRI in the spring that came out fine so he says maybe she'll start on some meds but with her age it's kind of tricky. I feel so bad for her, she comes home with a miserable headache every single day and nothing helps it. It goes away after a few hours but they get home so late anyway, 4:00, she doesn't have a whole lot of time once they've subsided and she can actually do things.

She was stressed today after getting home because Uncle Buck was watching Chase while I was at the doctors and when she walked in, the tv had a scary movie on that he was watching and she got upset that Chase was in the room with that on. So she asked him to turn it off and he said he was too little to have nightmares, so she said she'd take him upstairs until I got home. The other day when she came home I was at the doctors with Chase and she walked through the door to find Uncle Buck asleep on the couch and Summer marching in place on top of the kiddie table! Uncle Buck may have been gone too long! He seems to have forgotten what it's like to be in the world of twin toddlers!! lol

So I had planned on doing some errands after the dr. appt. (I couldn't do them before because Chase had therapy) but instead I went home, picked Chase up and we went to Sam's to fill prescriptions and get gas.

Frankie got really sick in Sam's. He had really bad stomach cramps and I thought he was going to collapse. We had to wait around for a half hour for that to calm down. It really scared the bajeesuz out of me not knowing what was going on with Frankie. I'm thinking maybe it was the chili dogs that Brad and Uncle Buck fixed for lunch! At least I hope that's all it was! He's been fine the rest of tonight. Summer and Chase weren't so thrilled to be hanging out in a cart that wasn't moving for that long a period of time so I had to resort to purse snacks. Trail mix to the rescue!

We finally got out of Sam's back into the crazy freeway traffic on that side of town and headed to the post office because I had to have some things in the mail by morning. Then I had to run into Rite Aid to pick up 3 things that couldn't wait and stop by the library to drop off books which would be accruing fines by tomorrow. Lexi and Skye had to bring them to school today to take their Accelerated Reader tests so I couldn't bring them back any earlier. So I wasn't procrastinating! lol But all that running around meant we didn't get home until 1 1/2 hours AFTER S&C's bedtime (and they are strict bedtime babies!). AND, we still had to have dinner and get ready for bed. I wonder if they are going to sleep in tomorrow from getting to bed so late?

It seems the last few days have been hectic like this and it's catching up to me. I was so tired tonight, as soon as I got S&C to bed, I sat down on the couch for what was going to be 10 minutes and I fell asleep ... sitting up ... for 2 hours! Lexi woke me up a few times to make sure I was ok, she thought something was wrong or I was sick or something! Then once I got up, Skye and Brad both asked if I was feeling ok or sick. LOL. It's a nap people, all is well!! :-)

Oh, and Chase was finally fitted with his orthopedic shoes (SMOs). They are supposed to be strengthening his ankles and giving him the feeling of how he is supposed to be holding his legs, which he doesn't fully have since he has low muscle tone. He's taking approx. 6 steps pretty consistently but still crawls more than walks. He has to wear the SMOs under a pair of shoes, so it's socks, SMOs, then sneakers. Makes me hot just thinking about it! Once the sneaker is on you can't really even tell the SMOs are under there. He's not loving it but I suppose he'll get used to it.

Anyway, everyone's in bed now and I'm headed there too. I'm hoping a good night's sleep will make tomorrow a better day! School is getting out 2 hours early because of the hurricanes. I don't think they are even really headed in this direction anymore, but we'll see!

Word Count

2008-09-04T02:46:00.006-04:00

I put Chase's word count in his 18 mo. checkup post but then today I remembered others and he said some new ones today too (baby, sun) so I'm going to put them up here for both he and Summer just so I can keep track which I need to do for the therapists, doctors.

Chase
8 animal sounds (lion, cow, kitty, sheep, goat, horse, duck, monkey)
Words: Mama, Dada, Kye, Itty (Sissy), Buck, Bri Bri (Skye's friend Brianna that he's in love with), bird, cup, Bu (Buster), thtop (stop), ish (fish), book, bye bye, uh oh, bawl (ball), mow (more), baby, eyeeeee (eye), no (nose), tee (teeth), apple, cukie (cookie), up, sun, kircle (circle), Sh (quiet), bu (bus), out (outside), top

Summer
3 animal sounds (monkey, dog, kitty)
Words: Mama, Dada, Kye for Skye but the sky is sky (go figure), Sissy, Chay Chay (Chase), Bu (Buck), Jewel (Lexi's friend Julia), I do it, my (mine), ish (fish), out, bye bye, night night, cup, rock-a-bye, bub (book), peas, beans, cacack (cracker), Jack, up, cookie, blablabla (banana and her tongue goes in and out three times every time she says it), baby, cup, Bu (Buster), poopy, diaper, pee pee, yuck, uh oh, Hi, Bye, shoe, kicky (Kitty), boyd (bird), eye, mou (mouth), ouch, are (star), kircle (circle), appoo (apple), kee kee (binky), down, ba ba (bottle), eat, rosie, down, please, Sh (quiet), happy, poon (spoon), sit down

My skinny minny ain't so skinny anymore!

2008-09-03T03:05:00.003-04:00

Today Chase had his 18 month check up. He wasn't required to do one but Doc wants to monitor him more closely because of the issues he's had so he just went to make sure everything was still progressing. My biggest issue with this appointment was his weight. I was hoping he had gained some!!

And he sure has!! He's up to 21 pounds and 2 ounces!!!!! The nurse actually wacked my arm when I was holding him on the scale and said "Get out!". She has more strength than she realizes.... but at the moment it was pretty darn funny! He's not a fan of the baby scale so I weigh myself alone, then with he and I together and then we deduct. I was actually glad to hop on that thing today as I've lost 26 pounds myself! Yay me!

And he's 33 inches.

So he's still a skinny minnny, but he's making progress!!

Doc says he is ok as far as speach is concerned but that if I wanted to get him and Smmer some therapy he'd give me a referral. He'd rather err on the side of overdoing some therapy than not doing enough. So I'll see.

We waited for an hour in the waiting room. He was an angel. He sat in his stroller and made animal sounds for the folks around us in the waiting room, ate snacks, read a book and played with my cel phone. I am so glad I don't take them together anymore or it'da been chaos!!!!! I'm afraid to see what the chunky monkey, I mean Summer, weighs. She goes on Thursday. LOL -- I have a skinny minny and a chunky monkey!!

I only have 4 words for today's blog

2008-08-31T23:24:00.003-04:00

Welcome Home

Uncle Buck!!

Flashback Friday

2008-08-29T22:25:00.007-04:00

What a difference a year makes!

It's hard to believe they used to actually stay in one spot!

And they were occupied by the simplest of toys.

Chase was always so affectionate with Summer. Headlocks, nose smashing, there all code for "I love you Sissy!"

Kung Fu Master Chase at your service!

A run down kind of a week

2008-08-26T15:28:00.003-04:00

So it's been almost a week since I've posted and I don't think I've taken any pictures in about that long either so I can't just throw up a few pics and call it a day! Chase started us out last Wed. with a cold. He was kind enough to share it with Summer who had it Thursday who gave it to me as of Saturday who spread it to Skye by Saturday night who shared with Lexi by Sunday morning who gave it to Frankie by this morning. Brad just said, hey I'm the only one who is safe in this house!! I told him that was another benefit to his getting more hours at work. Less time in this germ infested house!! lol

It hasn't been the world's worst cold, but I am just really, really tired. I think we all are. Yesterday Chase and Summer slept until 11 am so I guess they had some sleep they needed to catch up on!

Prior to getting the cold today Frankie has had a rather unusual week. Last week, 2 days in a row he remembered pretty much next to nothing. Didn't know what was wrong with him, forgot about his accident, where we lived, all kinds of things. Since his accident he's always had long and short term memory problems but he's never completely not known what was wrong with him. He just didn't know why he felt weird, like he couldn't do anything. So that was strange. Then he was pretty much back to normal for a few days. Then yesterday he was remembering every little thing!

I was talking to Summer and Chase trying to get them to let me clean them up by saying if we got cleaned up we were going bye-bye and Frankie called to me from the other room, I can go bye-bye too if you need my help. So I was like, great! It really will be a big help because these two don't do too great going from store to store alone with me. So that was a bit different for him, now if he's up and about he'll always want to go with me, but he doesn't want to get moving normally unless he has to.

Then, we were going to the grocery store and Target so I wanted to print out some coupons on the computer before we left. He and S&C are downstairs and I tell him what I'm doing and I'll be about 10 minutes (I still tell him all these things knowing full well he may forget in 2 minutes). Well of course the printer is acting up, my ink cartridge has to be changed, then it has to be realigned then the computer locks up and needs rebootting, so after about 10 minutes he's yelling up to me, am I ready yet? I tell him no, printer problems need a few more minutes and I kind of scratch my head, interesting he would still remember what I'm doing and that I said 10 minutes. Well this went on for about a half hour. Every 2 or 3 minutes he's yelling are you ready? Hey Kris, what's taking so long! Kris, are we leaving yet? For him to be on me like white on rice like this was REALLY new! He made me a nervous wreck trying to hurry and get out the door, but that was ok! LOL.

Then Lexi and Skye had soccer practice at 6:30, the babies bedtime. So I was going to drop them off, go home and back to pick them up. So we drop them off and start driving home and Frankie's like, how long is practice, 90 minutes? Why don't we just stay and watch them? I'm like, are you sure? The babies will be cranky because it's past their bed time and we'll have to watch from inside the car because the bugs are out and the babies are in their PJs and he says that's cool, let's watch. So we went back and did just that! Normally, he doesn't do much suggesting of things to do, just goes with the flow. And he wouldn't want to sit in the car for that long or not want to be away from home if he didn't have to be, so THAT was very unusual!

Then last night after getting home, getting babies to sleep, fixing dinner, eating, cleaning up, getting the girls to bed, it was about 10:00. Brad came home from work and the 3 of us were talking and Frankie was telling him about the girls practice and that we watched and about our shopping earlier in the day. My mouth almost hit the floor!!! This is a man who usually can't remember what you talked about 10 minutes ago, can't remember what he had for breakfast today, etc. So THAT was very unusual!

Now this morning, he woke up with a cold and so is feeling run down but he was helping Chase during therapy and has yelled up to me twice now that he wants me to come down, he's bored. So I'm going to wrap this up, and hope that at least maybe these are signs that he is still getting a little bit better, even though it's been 2 years since his accident, and will continue to improve over the coming months. Nothing would make me happier!!!

Baby's Day Out!

2008-08-20T23:06:00.002-04:00

I've been sorrily behind on downloading pictures so these are actually from last week but a local parenting magazine wanted to do an interview and article on me after the editor ran across my blog. When I agreed, she sent me coupons for some free go-cart rides at Frankie's Fun Park and free passes for all the kids at an indoor bounce house place that just opened up across the street from Frankie's. So it was a really fun day for all of us and it was really nice to be able to do it for Lexi and Skye before school started. They had a really good time and really loved playing with Summer and Chase and seeing them enjoying things for the first time too. So here is a slideshow of just a few pictures.

An Unusual Day

2008-08-19T00:45:00.004-04:00

Today the house was pretty empty, it was the first day of school for Lexi and Skye, Erik is still out of town and Brad worked all day. So other than Frankie, it was just me and the LOs today!

I had plans to take them out but Chase woke up with a runny nose and a slight fever so I wanted to just let him rest at home. It's been probably 9 months since they've had colds so I guess we were due. So I decided today the TV would stay off, I wasn't going to do any housework and today would just be about play!

Some things we did: Used their old bottles to feed baby dolls and stuffed animals, rocked every last one to sleep with a full rendition of rock a bye baby (Chase hung in there to the very last one, Summer wandered half-way through), worked on using spoons (they've got forks down but spoons are still eluding them), glued felt and foam circles to a big piece of poster board I hung in the kitchen (kind of like pin the tail on the donkey with no blind fold. I put a dab of glue on the back of the circle and they marched over and put it on the poster), made oatmeal cookies, brushed Buster (they really liked that!), worked with their shape sorter until they could do all the shapes through the right spaces completely on their own, scribbled on the sliding glass doors with outside markers, did a smelling/tasting game with citrus fruits, bowled with a soccer ball and 10 empty plastic bottles, tossed blocks across the room into a big pot (boy that was noisy!), finger painted with pudding, read books (again and again and again) and who knows what else!

Boy I was exhausted!! It was perfect timing when Lexi and Skye got home, I was running out of stuff to do and they were getting cranky wanting to go outside, but it was raining. Summer and Chase were so excited when the girls came through the front door they squealed and started jumping up and down on the couch! They had just started begging for the tv too. Of course, so was Frankie, but I stood my ground! That part stinks, I wish they didn't like tv so darn much!!

The musings of a toddler mind

2008-08-14T23:04:00.008-04:00

Pic 1) What box? Who cares about a box? I'm watching a lawn mower!
Pic 2) Hmmm Summy sure makes that box look kind of fun!
Pic 3) Let's see if this walking stuff will get me that box!

Pic 4) Oh no, gotta' balance, gotta' balance....
Pic 5) Hey! This walking stuff DID get me that box!
Pic 6) Climb aboard!

Pic 1) Who cares about a big old box anyway. This basket of clean clothes looks WAY more fun!!
Pic 2) I wonder why Mama just moves this stuff around in her hands. It's way more fun putting it all around your neck!
Pic 3) Maybe I can put this on my head if it won't fit around my neck?

Pic 4) Not quite what I had in mind!
Pic 5) Help! I'm being eaten alive by my sister's panties!

Word to Your Mother

2008-08-12T15:59:00.007-04:00

Thank's to my blogging buddy and commiserating MoM (Mother of Multiples) Kate who did this on her blog, I was introduced to the world of Wordle! They are cute ways to create 'word clouds'.

Something I've always done with the girls is at random times and in random places I write something like "The Top 10 Reasons I Love Skye". Sometimes I put it in their lunch box or slip it on their pillow. We have a huge white board up in the loft and that's where I wrote them last month. In return, this time they each wrote "The top 10 reasons I love Mommy". It was nice to read what they think too!

So for my word clouds, I came up with 15 descriptive words to describe each of the kids and created the below Wordles. I then printed one out to show Lexi and Skye and turned it into a game. I printed out a list of the 60 descriptive words (15 for each of them) and asked them to put the name of who they thought I was describing for each one. Whoever got the most right was going to get a prize! So Skye won the first round by a pretty large margin. I then gave them another chance and had them change their answers to the ones that were wrong. Lexi did better during that round. So they both got "stay up late" and "no chores today" passes and they were real happy about that!

Click on below images to see larger view.

Toddler Videos

2008-08-11T01:52:00.006-04:00

These videos are from 8/2-8/4

We have Chase eating, drinking and smiling cutely for the camera

The last second has Summer saying "bye" and waving. Chase is climbing on the couch and a half-hearted rendition of itsy-bitsy spider.

This one is long. There's flying couch monkeys, meowing cats on the farm, four wheeler wackiness and Chasey taking 1 step. Hey, you have to start somewhere!

Summer and Chase playing in the sprinkler.

Walk this way... and talk this way

2008-08-08T12:55:00.011-04:00

Just a quick note to say that Chase took 8 steps yesterday!!! He has been doing 1, 2 and 3 pretty regularly but that was the first time he really travelled. I had put out a big box for he and Summer to play with and Chase didn't pay it much attention as he was standing at the sliding glass doors watching Brad cut the grass. So Summer played for a bit and when she got out it tipped over which caught Chase's attention. So I went crazy encouraging him to now go get it, hooping and hollering! He took 3 steps, took a break and looked at me and then went 4 more to get to it! I'm not sure who was more excited, him or me!!!!

Not to leave Summer out, she has really taken to singing lately. When a song that she knows is playing you can here her going "ahhh ahhh ahhh" at the exact places words are in the song. She stops and starts in perfect time to the music. The first couple of times we thought we were kind of mishearing her but now she does it all the time. The theme to Sesame Street, Itsy Bitsy Spider (with full-on hand gestures!) and Bongo Bird are her favorites.

Lexi, Summer and Chase watching Elmo on Sesame Street

Sprinklin' fun!

2008-08-07T13:24:00.003-04:00

We had some fun in the sprinklers this week. Lexi and Skye had some friends over and we all played in the front yard. We need a new hose though, I didn't realize we had a big gaping hole in it and the whole side yard flooded while we were playing in the front. Ooops!

Chase really loves water right now. He could have played all day in and with the sprinkler! He loved the fountain last weekend, loves baths. Summer is ok with it, but she's not fascinated like Chase is. She likes to get a quick douse and run around. She's even now lifting her foot over the side of the tub and saying "get out" after just a few minutes of her bath. Last year at this time she was the one who loved water and Chase was not at all happy with it, especially at the pool. Funny how quickly things change!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-08-06T22:20:00.001-04:00

One scary sitcom

2008-08-04T12:22:00.004-04:00

You know when you don't work or the kids aren't in school it really makes the weekends so unimportant. I'm trying to figure out what we did this weekend and it's a blurr. I started sneezing last night and have a soar throat this morning so who knows where I caught a cold from but I guess that's why my mind is in a funk. I can't remember the last time I brought a cold to the kids instead of the other way around, but I'm crossing my fingers it stays with me.

One thing I do remember about this weekend (and boy would Skye ever kill me if she knew I wrote this on the blog!) but Skye started wearing a bra! lol My skinny-mini Skye wearing a bra!! Oi vay!

Saturday we did some errands including buying a few new shirts for the girls for school. We went to the library and stayed for almost 2 hours, Summer and Chase tolerated it much better than last time but it took the constant movement of the stroller to keep them happy. I got 4 books on raising toddlers and twins and renewed The Appeal by Grisham. L&S each got two books from their summer reading lists, S&C got two books each and Elmopalooza on DVD. Then we went to Once Upon a Child where we bought a potty chair and an electric car (pics of that later) so we were tired by then and ready to head home. Until we drove past a Plato's Closet.

I didn't know we had one, it must be new, so Lexi and I jumped out of the car and ran in by ourselves real quick. It's consignment for teens/adults, if you don't have one near you. So I grabbed two shirts for Skye which were really cute (she's very hard to shop for being a tomboy and all) while Lexi tried some on. The t's I picked for Skye were the type you get at Abercrombie or Aeropostle, form fitting. She LOVED them but since she usually wears big, baggy tshirts she was a little surprised by the fact things weren't so perfectly flat in the tighter shirts!

Then Sunday we were all in the car on our way to Sam's Club (in other words, a diaper, wipes and gas run) and she said, "Mom do I look different to you?" I said, do you mean in general or just right at this second. She said, in general, I feel like I'm starting to look different. I had to laugh, because that very morning she came running in the house and I looked at her as she flew by and BAM! I was so surprised by how different she looked! Her face is fuller, she's looking more girlish, her hair looked nice. I said, yeah I had noticed the same thing. She asked why and I said, well you're starting puberty and the hormones and everything are making changes. She said, "Darnit! That's what Lexi said and I told her she was wrong!"

She's obviously not thrilled about the idea, but neither am I really. Two girls going through puberty at the same time, I mean we knew years ago this day would come... but add two toddlers and a disabled husband to the mix and they couldn't write a scarier sit-com if they tried!!

A surprisingly pleasant Baby's Day Out

2008-08-01T22:05:00.004-04:00

Since it's been 212 degrees for the past month (if not raining) and gas prices have been so crazy, we've really been cooped up in the house. Now with my brother out of town, it's been even harder to get out. So today I had to go to Daniel Island to sign some papers so I decided to make a day of it with the whole family. I thought if we went towards the water we could catch a breeze... and boy we sure did! It was so beautiful!!

We went to Patriot's Point for a picnic lunch by the marina and where the USS Yorktown and all the Navy planes, helicopters, etc. are. Summer and Chase ate hash and rice and peas and ran around in the grass for a while. Skye of course loved looking at the military things and is hoping she can go back for a tour of the Yorktown soon.

We then drove downtown to Waterfront Park where they chased pigeons and played in the huge water fountain. S&C didn't love the water at first but after watching Lexi and Skye they got brave and then didn't want to get out! I even talked Frankie into getting a little wet in it too!

When it was time to leave I convinced Summer to go with me so we could look for more pigeons or 'bips' as she calls them. We walked about 6 blocks to the car and she held my hand the whole way. Awwww!! We then drove back to pick up Frankie, Lexi, Skye and Chase. S&C were both fine when it was time to go, no tantrums! And that was after having missed nap too!

We then went to Daniel Island and drove around touring for an extra 45 minutes. S&C were patient and content singing toddler songs. I'd never been to Daniel Island before and was surprised at how beautiful it was!! It reminded me so much of Palm Beach Gardens and especially the Abacoa, Jupiter area.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well Summer and Chase did today. I hope it wasn't a fluke and we're able to have another pleasant day out again soon. Too bad I left the camera at home on the charger!

Videos

2008-07-30T20:56:00.000-04:00

So Mom and Dad have WebTV (yes, there are WebTV users actually out there!) and I've just figured out how to get them to be able to view videos online! So I'm posting a few random videos.

7/19/08 Chase playing catch. Summer cheering him on.

7/14/08 Summer showing her salsa moves, getting jiggy at the end.

7/14/08 Skye, Summer and Chase dancing in the loft to "Salsa", music from one of Skye's old synchronized swim routines.

7/6/08 Lexi, Skye, Summer and Chase dancing. I don't know why Summer doesn't have a shirt on.

2008-07-30T20:49:00.000-04:00

6/28/08 The family going on a walk, Summer on her puppy backpack leash

6/28/08 Summer watching the portable DVD player with Skye

7/21/08 Chase acting silly with his green hat

Bean bag rides

2008-07-27T14:03:00.004-04:00

One of the great things about having older children when you have toddlers, is they still act and think like children! I think as adults, sometimes it's hard for us to get down to our toddlers level and think of things they might consider fun. For example; Lexi and Skye bought some bean bag video chairs to watch tv and play video games in. They also thought they would make a good amusement ride for Summer and Chase. So they loaded them on and told them to hold on and started zooming them around the living room! They giggled and squeeled and wouldn't let the girls stop pulling them! Now, Summer and Chase go and sit on them and call their sisters to come and give them a ride! (They all say thank you to Grandma and Grandpa E. because they used the birthday money you sent Lexi and Skye to buy the bean bags!)

Chase, video ham

2008-07-24T22:16:00.000-04:00

Apparantly Chase has been getting something out of this season's So You Think You Can Dance. Here he is doing a fun dance from the 80s, The Worm.

Unfotunately this video was taken sideways, but it's cute nonetheless! (Even with the cranberry stuck under his chin.)

Mindless Monday

2008-07-21T23:06:00.000-04:00

It just took me about 2 minutes to figure out what the day was -- so 'mindless' is in reference to me the last couple of days!

Summer and Chase's sleeping schedule has gotten completely off track the last 5 days. They are waking at a different time, napping at different times, wanting 2 naps instead of the 1 they've been taking for a few months and going to bed at a different time. I assume it was a growth spurt that got them off track initially. Then 2 days ago, not only were they off schedule, but then got out of synch with each other! It seems all day I was either getting a baby up, putting one down, or feeding one, because they weren't up at the same time to do meals together. Oh the things only Moms of multiples have to deal with!!!

Today they were a little more in-synch so I'm hoping tomorrow they are totally in-synch again. It's hard to remember who has eaten and who hasn't, who is due for a nap and who has taken one, who was changed, etc. when they are on different schedules. It's like when they are newborns all over again and you have to write everything down.

This morning I took Summer and Chase to Publix and that didn't help. They fell asleep in the car on the way home so I couldn't get them to nap once we got home. I love going to Publix with them though. They have the shopping carts that are configured to look like a car, with a full cart, a purse area and an area for 2 babies, with 2 seat belts and 2 steering wheels! So I go to Publix to get meat that's on sale and whatever buy-one-get-one-free items are on sale this week. Even if I weren't buying anything it'd be worth it to go every so often just to watch them "steer" the cart and make all those "vroom" "vroom" sounds!

If only Walmart knew the business they were missing because noone has thought to have just a couple of carts that sit two babies happily!! I bet if one of the managers had twins they would think of this! Not to mention the free cookies at the Publix bakery. Those keep them happy all the way through 5 aisles (they are slow nibblers!)!

One last shout out for Chase ... he climbed up on the couch by himself for the first time on Sunday!!!!! When he got up there, he turned around with THE biggest smile on his face and bounced up and down and clapped for himself! Do you think he knew what a big accomplishment that was!! *LOL* Now we'll see how long before he catches onto how to get down. It took Summer a good week, and about 5 or 6 full face plants. Here's to hoping Chase catches on quicker! My nerves won't be able to take a whole lot of falls from Chase. He's not as indestructible as his sister!!

Hide and Seek

2008-07-19T11:01:00.001-04:00

Chase and Summer have started doing something really cute this week. They play hide and seek with each other!

Summer is the hider and Chase is the seeker. They have a corner nook in the kitchen where the bathroom door is where she always hides. She wanders over there and stands with her back against the wall and presses up hard against it, like she's making herself invisible by molding into the wall. Then Chase goes crawling over super fast and stops before going into the corner. Then he backs up around the corner so he's out of her sight. You can hear Summer giggling this whole time but she doesn't move an inch. Then he slowly moves forward until his head sticks out around the corner and spies her. They both bust out laughing! Then she starts running back to the living room and he chases after her. It really is just the cutest thing!

I'm still trying to figure out though, how they signal each other that they are going to be playing this. Because it's not like Summer goes over in that corner for any other purpose so I'm interested in seeing how they tell each other it's time to play hide and seek!

What's new with Chase

2008-07-18T22:21:00.000-04:00

This week it seems Chase has made quite a few gains. He has going up the stairs mastered and is now almost as quick as Summer is. If she gets one or two stairs ahead of him, she waits for him on the landing, and then they start again to the top together. She then runs straight for their room and after he gets to the top, he stops and claps for himself (for making it up the stairs) and then goes crawling after her!

We're still working on going down. I'm having him go down backwards, on his tummy, because he still doesn't have quite enough trunk control to right himself if he were to start tumbling forward while on his tush. I'm also trying to get him to use the same principle coming down off the couch, but for some reason, he hates that! He tries to go forward and crashes, but won't let me help him go backwards.

He can get on and off the Fischer Price bouncy zebra by himself and walk with you by only holding onto one of your hands. He's a little wobbly, but he can go quite a long way. He's also free standing alot more now (getting up without holding onto anything). He's only taken a step here and there, but hopefully in the coming weeks he'll continue to gain confidence and that'll change.

Simple things

2008-07-17T16:17:00.004-04:00

Just a few pics today to show how Daddy's getting along better and how darn cute Summer and Chase still are! Frankie's now able to lift the babies up off of the ground and hold them in his arms. Sometimes it's the simpleist things that make such a wonderful difference!

Happy Birthday Skye!

2008-07-16T00:22:00.002-04:00

July 7 was Skye's 11th birthday!
Sometimes since Lexi's birthday is just 2 weeks before Skye's, she sometimes feels a little overshadowed. The day hit a snag early when she found out Trey wasn't going to see her on her birthday because he was out of town. She was really sad about that. But as the day moved on she was so excited and overall had a really wonderful day! She was so blown away to get a Ripstik Caster Board which is like half skateboard, half snowboard. She's working really hard at getting good at riding it. It's nowhere near as easy as a skateboard! She also was so thankfull to Grandma and Granpa E for the diamond necklace, the love token, the cash and the US Savings Bond!! Lexi bought her the WWF t-shirt she is wearing and she was ridiculously excited about that!!! Wrestling has become a new passion of hers. Skye --- we love you!!

What's for Dinner?

2008-07-15T01:01:00.000-04:00

Which do you prefer? Chay Chay or Sum Sum soup?

Chase's Turn

2008-07-08T00:12:00.003-04:00

The other day I blogged about Summer, so today is Chase's turn!

Chase has been having a really good week. It seems the grumpies of last week are gone and he's making alot of progress! He's been pushing Summer around the house in the stroller. He is unsteady on his feet but he keeps on trucking and you can tell he's so proud of himself! He smiles and cheers the whole time he's pushing her, it's really sweet. Summer is happy for the ride!

He also climbed to the top of the stairs by himself on Sunday!!! His physical therapist, Kristin, was hoping to work on climbing stairs with him and have him doing two to three stairs by the end of this month so I'm really happy about this!

Chase seems to have a special affinity for his older brother Trey who is in the Marines and lives in San Diego. He's here this week visiting and has only seen Chase a few times. Each time Chase sees Trey, he goes straight to him, wants Trey to hold him and he just looks at him very closely, like he's studying him. His body, his facial expressions, everything just completely relaxes, it is really amazing!

Summer on the other hand won't go near him with a 10-foot pole. The last time she saw him a few days ago, she warmed up enough to wave bye-bye and that was progress! LOL

Here are some pictures of Trey and Chase.

8 Reasons why raising twins is NOT easier than....

2008-07-06T20:46:00.011-04:00

Earlier this week I came across a post online 8 Reasons why raising twins is easier than raising two closely spaced siblings ....

In response, I have come up with
8 reasons why raising twins is NOT EASIER than raising two closely spaced siblings!

1. Sharing food. They share the same floor that they drop the food on, they share the same delight in making a soupy mess on their high chair trays, they share the same joy of rubbing mushed up bananas in their hair. Twice as much to clean up is not easier. They also don't share the same tastes. If one likes squash, you can count on the other not liking squash. Thus, sharing leftovers or having them share a jar isn't happening too often.

2. 1 bath/1 bedtime. Have you tried washing two babies, getting one out of the tub and wrangled and diapered and dressed while the other either almost drowns in the tub or freezes to death in the meantime? By the time the first one is done you are exhausted and you have one more to go! And while you are doing the next one, the first one is opening all of your dresser drawers and throwing your clothes wildly into the air!

One story time after they've fought over which book it will be tonight, 4 hands to tear the book out of your hands with, one set of hands turning the pages before the other one is done with that page. One story time is not all it's cracked up to be!

Everyone on the same schedule means when one wakes, the other wakes, when one screams, the other screams, when one throws a toy across the room and it hits his sister in the head while she's sleeping, one cries and then the other cries but doesn't even know why he is crying.

3. Sharing toys. If you can find me a set of twins who actually share their toys more than they don't, I'll take back this one, but I don't see that happening! Twins don't share toys, they take toys from each other and run with them wildly to the other side of the room while the other one kicks and screams that they've lost their toy. By the time they stop crying and get a new toy.... the scene starts all over again!

4. Same childproofing. When you have a partner in crime at the ready to help you figure out how to UNchildproof an entire house, you end up with parents who know how to childproof the childproofing and who can no longer open any of their own cabinets, doors, toilets, dishwashers, etc.

5. Same videos/movies. Elmo! Dora! Elmo! Dora! Need I say more.

6. DISCOUNTS. I'm buying two things from you that most people buy one of. The least you can do is give me a discount. At Sam's Club if I put two bags of Tostitos into one clear plastic bag, they charge you for one bag at the check out. I think 20% is a rip off compared to that!!

7. Same phases. Two children in the terrible twos at the same time?! Are you kidding me? The only thing worse I can think of is two three year olds climbing out of the shopping cart at the grocery store, or two 6 year olds trying to prove you can fly off the highest branch of the tree with a sheet tied around your neck, or two 10 year olds learning how to balance a bike on a skateboard going downhill, or two teenagers, Oh Lord --- not TWO TEENAGERS!

8. Same playdates. We are a constant playdate gone wrong. Biting, hair pulling, fighting, taking toys away from each other, all the things you just might not re-schedule a play date with another child for doing, you have a built in playmate who does it to you a couple of times, every day!

I probably should not be disclosing all of this because it makes it sound like having twins is really, really, really hard! Well, it is!!! But it's also, really, really, really, rewarding and really, really, really the greatest thing you could ever imagine as a Mommy!!!

Summertime

2008-07-05T19:20:00.009-04:00

Summer's favorite thing to do nowadays (because she is a big girl afterall!!) is to sit and watch a Baby Einstein video on Skye's portable DVD player. Granted, she's in the living room where there is a big screen tv, but one day Skye was watching a movie at the kitchen table and Summer was very interested by it. So Skye set them up a cozy little spot and they watched together. Here she is watching with her backpack on.

The reason Summer had her backpack on was we had just gotten back from a walk.

I always wanted to have a little girl who would frolic around in her cute little sun dresses with cute little pig tails or matching hair bows. Apparantly, it wasn't meant to be. Neither Lexi or Skye would keep a hairbow in. Summer occasionally keeps a clip in. Right now I do her hair every morning in her high chair while she eats. She looks so cute!! Then I let her down and within 2 minutes she's taken everything out. I keep trying in hopes that one day she'll just let them be! As if to add insult to injury, after she takes the bows out, she rubs her hair all over the place so that when she's done she looks like Brett Michaels!

8 reasons why raising twins is easier than ....

2008-07-04T15:57:00.006-04:00

I came across this post online and thought it was pretty good!!!

I remember when Lexi and Skye were little (they are 1 year and 2 weeks apart) Frankie and I must have said a hundred or so times that twins would be so much easier than such closely spaced siblings!!! Mostly because of reason #7 below. Frankie had hoped for twins with both Lexi and Skye so twins are something we had talked about alot. I'm so glad God gave me the opportunity to prove that theory wrong!!! These are still worth reading.

8 Reasons Why Raising Twins is Easier Than Raising Two Kids of Different Ages

People often seem amazed at the challenges of raising twins. Even parents with more kids then me mention it. How bizarre to think that people could imagine that raising four kids is more difficult in any way shape or form than raising twins. Ludicrous.

I will even go on record as saying that raising twins has to be easier than raising a mere two kids that are different ages. Don’t believe me. Well, read on.

1. Sharing food. Babies start off eating very small portions. Much smaller than one little baby food jar. Instead of throwing the leftovers away or trying to store them, parents of twins make them share a jar. Once they are big enough to eat more than a jar, it is easy to open 3 jars, feed both kids from each jar, and get a well rounded diet at every meal.
2. 1 bath/1 bedtime. With kids, bath and bedtime seems to take up most of their waking moments. With twins, they can easily share a tub which, let’s face it, helps save the planet by conserving water and saves time. They also can share a bedtime. Our kids sleep in the same room. We waddle in there and start the routine of shoving both feet into one leg hole while putting on pants and getting their arms stuck above their heads while putting on their shirts. Then, and here is the real magic. We have one story time. All the quality time you can imagine with half the ticks on the clock. There is no putting somebody to bed at 7 and then somebody else at 8. Everybody is on the same schedule.
3. Sharing toys. Since they are the same age, you do not have to worry about somebody’s favorite Legos being the choking hazard of Junior. You just need one big pile of age appropriate toys. How much easier could it get?
4. Same childproofing. Remember toilet locks. They made you feel good while your first child was wandering around the bathroom in her diaper. Then Junior came. But, Senior needed to start peeing in the big potty. Do you take off the toilet lock and risk drowing Junior or personally escort Senior to the bathroom every time? Worry no more if you have twins. If one is safe for the toilet lock, the other is, too. After all they are only 16 minutes apart.
5. Same videos/movies. Tired of fighting over whether to watch Baby Einstein or Spongebob Squarepants. I feel bad for you. You should have had twins. They may have their favorites, but twins at least like the same developmental stage of videos. And never again worry about trying to find a movie at the theater that will be appropriate for all of the children.
6. DISCOUNTS. Some stores feel sorry for us parents of multiples. To help ease our “burden,” they offer us DISCOUNTS. That’s right. When we bought our cribs at Burlington Coat Factory we paid 20% less on the second crib. They call it the Twin Discount. Suckers.
7. Same phases. Remember when the terrible twos ended. You finally got Senior to quit freaking out every time you left Toys R Us without a teddy bear. Be careful. Don’t let down your guard. Junior is about to enter that phase. The tantrums for twins are not any worse then singletons. It is very rare that both throw a tantrum at the same time. But, we only have to spend a brief period of time in each phase. Then it is done.
8. Same playdates. Tired of scheduling playtime for Junior on Wednesday afternoon and something for Senior on Wednesday morning. Sick of sucking up to boring parents just so all your kids have somebody to play with. We only need one playdate. One single kid can occupy our kids for the morning. Less gas money. Less dirty neighbor couches. Sweet it is.
I probably should not be disclosing all of this to you parents of singletons, but it is going to come out sooner or later. For real convenience, it does not get much better than twins.

My baby is not a baby anymore

2008-07-02T00:19:00.000-04:00

Lexi celebrated her 12th birthday June 24th. I decorated the house special for her and we had a family celebration. She loved her gifts and said "this was the best birthday ever!". I was a little worried about it being so low key this year and how she would react, but as usual, Lexi is always so cheerfull, content and unselfish, she is truly a blessing from God and an amazing 'not so' little girl!!

Finding Frankie

2008-07-01T00:20:00.000-04:00

Frankie's been helping out so much more lately. The first time he walked into the kitchen a few weeks ago and said "is there anything I can do to help?" I nearly fell out of my chair!

Sometimes living in the day-to-day I forget how truly far he's come since coming home from the hospital last year. In 6 weeks it will be 2 years since his accident, and lately I'm painfully aware of how much he has changed because we've been watching home movies from 10 - 12 years ago to compare Lexi and Skye to the babies. The biggest change is so much of his exuberance, his high energy is gone now. But I also see his old self emerging in different ways too, especially when he is doing things for the babies, like feeding them. He does these things the same way and with the same gentleness and care as he did for Lexi and Skye.

Mall rats

2008-06-28T01:38:00.004-04:00

This was our first trip to the mall where Chasey was able to fully take advantage of the kids play area. He crawled all over the place, pulled up on everything and had such a good time!! It started off on a bad note in the parking lot when I went to get the stroller out of the back of the van, only to realize --- no stroller! I wasn't going back home (gas prices have that effect on my decision making these days!) so we walked to Customer Service to rent one. Good grief, you think instead of just pointing with arrows, they'd put mile markers! I think it was 5 miles from where we started! The kids all had a really fun time. Summer especially seemed to like the giant frogs. She hugged and kissed each one. Days like this though I do miss living in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. The Gardens Mall is beautiful!!

My 6 quirks (a fun blogging game)

2008-06-26T20:23:00.005-04:00

I've officially been "tagged" by two of my blogger buddies: Jenny and Katie so here is my part in this fun little game we're playing...

The 6 Quirks Meme

The Rules:
1. Link the person(s) who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged

My Quirks:
1. This is apparently not a quirk because Katie does it too! I count things. And I like for things to be balanced evenly. If I'm counting floor tiles, I count from the outside in, on each side, to see where the center line is. I count syllables in sentences and think of ways to change it to an even number of syllables, like 10, by changing words.

2. I wash my hands too much. Not OCD or anything but in the kitchen I'll wash them when I first get in, after I touch a sponge or towel, after anything touches them, food, water, anything. I have to use soap. Noone has to ever worry about germs on my hands while I'm cooking!

3. I don't eat fruit because I don't like the texture of it. I can not imagine ever eating an orange YUCK! I don't drink orange juice if it has pulp, unless it's been strained. I love ketchup, tomato soup, tomato pasta sauce, all tomato products, but don't like tomatoes.

4. I can't drink well without a straw. I started drinking with straws so long ago because I have sensitive teeth that if I have to drink out of a glass I almost always miss my mouth at least once.

5. I can't sleep without at least 2 regular pillows and a king or 4 regular pillows. Two for my head, one to hold onto and one to prop my knee with. Frankie has slept with none before, at hotels while I've had four. I've folded up comforters (and then covered them with towels or a sheet or something since hotel comforters are gross) to make due before.

6. I can't stand it if someone tears a napkin. Paper towel, paper, anything else is fine. Napkin. AGGHHH!!!

I thought I was more normal until I was forced to participate in this exercise!!

Budding friends and binkies

2008-06-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

Lately Summer and Chase are interacting and playing with each other so much more, I love it! They reach out for each other, talk back and forth to each other while in their cribs, they sit and play with toys together. It's really sweet!! Now, don't get me wrong, they can also do a pretty good tug of war over a toy or a hair brush or a pair of Mommy's slippers. But hey, I'd be more concerned if they didn't do that!

Summer's always been a binky loving baby. She's down to just using them in the crib now. My nerves are not honestly ready to wean her from that right now (I'll save the crying and screaming for another week!!). But sometimes she seems to sneak one downstairs, I think she must have it in her hand and I don't notice when bringing her down. She must then stash it somewhere because she never puts it right in her mouth, it shows up like an hour later ... out of the blue.

I think this was Summer's way of saying, "Hey, I have my binky and I love my binky and you aren't going to get it from me!!!" Of course, I could be wrong. She could have just accidentally gotten stuck in the clothes hamper too.

Father's Day 2008

2008-06-22T21:38:00.004-04:00

We took Frankie out for a special Father's Day dinner at The Outback last Sunday. Lexi, Skye and Brad made and bought him cards and we made him cupcakes and had a little celebration at home. Erik's gift was to stay home with Summer and Chase so Frankie could have a stress free meal. I kind of felt bad about not taking them, but it really is nice every once in a while to have a quiet meal, we don't have those very often around here!!!
Of course, Frankie shaved the day after we took the pictures but even with all the grey in his beard, he still looks so much better than last year at this time. Hopefully he will still continue to improve every day. He's still such a caring and patient Daddy it really is amazing! He is truly a very special man who I love with all my heart.

Summy's signs and Chasey's new chapter

2008-06-21T21:07:00.001-04:00

Summer is signing more than ever. She's also pointing to things all the time asking what they are. She now signs eat, more, cup, drink, night night, cat, hello, bye, thank you and grapes. Tonight, at 6:30 she signed to me "night night". I asked her if she wanted to go to bed to go night, night and she signed it again. So I got her dressed and in bed at 6:45 and she went right to sleep!!

Chasey is now able to balance himself enough that he can ride on the zebra all by himself! He's also steady enough on his feet to rummage through the toy bins. This is really good progress for the little guy. He seems proud of his accomplishments! I know I am!!

That's using your head Chase!

2008-06-16T15:22:00.002-04:00

So we've been working on eating out of bowls, without Mommy holding the bowl. As you can see, Chase has it mastered! He's such a little genius!!

We've had to resort back to the darn cloth bibs. For some reason, the plastic ones with the pockets velcro on the side of their necks and they rip those off like there's no tomorrow. The cloth ones velcro in back and they don't mess with them. Go figure??!!

Flashback Friday

2008-06-13T22:51:00.004-04:00

Here is a picture of Frankie, his Mom Carol and Summer and Chase last year over Father's Day weekend. Frankie had been home from rehab for 4 months, had been back in the hospital the month before for a broken hip and was still in a wheel chair. He looks so much healthier now looking back at this picture! This year will definitely be a better Father's Day!!

This is Summer and Chase at this time last year.

Beached

2008-06-12T23:23:00.002-04:00

As a reward for Lexi and Skye's final report cards and all the awards they received I took them on a girls day outing to the beach! They both were on the A/B honor roll, Lexi received the 6th grade Triple R reward for highest level of Responsibility/Reliability/Respect. Lexi was in an advanced class this year (meaning she was working at the 7th grade level) and has tested for and been promoted to be in an advanced class again next year. Skye got awards for the highest GPA in both science and math. She also had the highest overall grade point average of her 5th grade class. They also both received several service awards.

So we picked a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon at Isle of Palms. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather and we all had fun swimming and sunning all afternoon. I can't wait to take Summer and Chase next time! I wish Frankie had come with us, but he had a really bad cold and wasn't feeling up to it. We all got a little too much sun, despite several applications of SPF 30 lotion. I even did a little souvenir shop browsing to get out of the sun a little bit and I still came home a lobster. It was well worth it though!!

Sand pit and a swim

2008-06-10T21:35:00.000-04:00

The thought of using the old, smaller, baby pool as a sand box was great... until it deflated and left us with essentially a sand pit in circular form. But Summer and Chase didn't seem to mind in the slightest. Chase thought the sand was just as yummy as if it was in a regular old sand box! After about the 50th "no eat. play" he seemed to do better. Hopefully he didn't ingest too much by then! Lexi and Skye seemed to have just as much fun as the babies.

It was nice to just strip them down and put them in the pool to get all that sand off! Chase seemed to like 'swimming' and Summer was really, kissy, kissy with her Sissy!

Flashback Fun

2008-06-08T23:52:00.009-04:00

So it's not Flashback Friday but I'm flashing back anyway. I haven't had a chance to download pics from the weekend so here are a few pictures from last year at this time.

Here is a family picture from this time of year, 2006. It's one of the few times since Trey's joined the Marines that we were all together. Frankie and I are in the back, Brad and Skye are on the left and Trey and Lexi are on the right. This was 3 months before Frankie's accident.

Who doesn't love a bargain!

2008-06-06T20:51:00.005-04:00

We have a really nice consignment store by the house, Once Upon a Child. If you hit it at the right time you can find some really nice clothes, toys at really great prices.

Lexi and I went last night. We hit a summer clothes clearance and that's what I had gone shopping for so we really lucked out.

My total bill was $28! Here is what I got.

3 Baby Gap dresses, with matching diaper covers
3 Gymboree one-pieces
2 Ralph Lauren dresses
2 Old Navy jeans
2 The Children's Place tops
2 Gymboree overalls
2 Circo tshirts
1 Laura Ashley dress with diaper cover
1 Baby Gap capris
1 Seafolly Girl bathing suit
1 Fisher Price melody push chime
1 lap harp (new in box, for Lexi)

The melody push chime new at Toys R Us is over $30 so it's like I got everything else for free!

Lexi loves the lap harp. I had one at her age I played with all the time. I called mine a 'zither' though, maybe they've just changed names, it's the same thing.

Walk this way

2008-06-04T23:44:00.008-04:00

Chase took his first steps Saturday!!
He was playing with the VTech sit-to-stand activity walker. A few times this week, he'd pulled himself up to play with this from a stand, he'd plop down on his tush when he was done. Well Sat., he took a step with it and another and another and went all the way across the living room! He made it all the way to the couch until he couldn't go any further. He looked so proud of himself, he had the BIGGEST smile on his face! He also started bear crawling, walking on all fours, so he really is on his way to walking!!

Here he is crawling across the room to the toy bucket, pulling up, free standing and catching his balance.

Lounging, and sweating, by the pool

2008-06-03T23:52:00.010-04:00

I guess I hadn't realized Summer (the season, not the baby) is full on here now! I decided Saturday was a good day, at 2:00 in the afternoon with high sun, to go out in the back yard and get the old blow up pool filled with play sand and get the new blow up pool set up. Wow! Won't make that mistake again for the next 3 months!

We all had a good time but man it was sooooooo darn hot!! We brought a few fans outside and got the stereo turned up. Skye helped me set the pool up and she and Frankie pumped it up with the leg pumper. Then she and Brad drug the sand bags from the garage and filled it with sand, I even got a few bags of green sand to liven things up a little bit. Of course it isn't until all the sand is in, we notice there is a slow leak and the pool is deflating! We'll get to that another day.

Lexi was on baby duty, walking Summer around the yard and letting Chase crawl in the grass. Erik was complaining of the heat and then took Brad and Skye up to the gas station to blow up the 2nd pool with the air compressor. The leg pumper was too much for that one! So we added water from the hose, which is ice cold, and assembly lined buckets of hot water from the kitchen sink. By now it had cooled off a few degrees so since the pool is in the shade we let the babies take a swim. Of course, Skye joined in.

Erik made a good point to let Summer's cut on her nose heal before letting them get in the sand so maybe we'll do that this weekend. Days like this make me wish we had an outdoor shower!

Time is just passing us by

2008-06-02T22:53:00.009-04:00

I can't believe Summer is in a regular ol' car seat now! It seems like no time at all ago that I was putting the extra cusion around their necks so their heads wouldn't flop to the side in the infant seats. Time seems to fly by much faster when you have growing babies to guage things by.

Chase will get there too eventually. In the meantime, he's just going to have to be my little peanut. Dad called me "peanut" forever, come to think of it. I don't think I ever was a tiny little thing though so not sure why I was called "peanut", but it stuck.
I have a hockey stick and I'm not afraid to use it!

Jack and the beanstalk

2008-05-30T01:14:00.010-04:00

So we had 18 mo. check up appointments this week. It was probably the easiest round so far but WOW was Chase ever a little stinker!! He cried from the time he got weighed 'til the time he got his prize (a very colorful stuffed worm that he loves). When we finished they were going to wait 10 minutes before bringing any other patients back because they were afraid what they might be thinking in the waiting room about what was being done to the poor child! Apparently, he's having some serious seperation anxiety issues right now. (I think I've been saying that for about 10 months now. LOL.)

Here's their height/weight. I'll let you figure out who is Jack and who is The Beanstalk!

Summer = 24.2 lbs 33 1/4 inches
Chase = 18.8 lbs 31 1/2 inches

Chase has gained half a pound in a little over 3 weeks though. YAY!!! The Dr. thinks I'm nutty for worrying about his weight. Since he's been below the 5th percentile for weight since birth, he says it's just going to be his body type. But I'm still going to keep up the pediasure whether he likes it or not!

They have both been within 1/2 inch of each other since birth. Summer has definately had a growth spurt!!!

He also graduated from his helmet this week. YAY!! He's not perfectly symmetrical but it's made a big difference and looks good. It's fantastic to be able to snuggle close to him, kiss his head and face as much as you want and get him dressed w/o the on/off procedure.

Lastly, since his surgery, his eyes have healed better than the Dr. expected and normally sees. They were really amazed! He says the alignment is perfect now.

YAY for Chase.
Yay for Summer.
Yay for Daddy for going to ALL the appointments with us!!!

It's been a good week!

Who's Your Daddy!

2008-05-28T01:21:00.015-04:00

Frankie has had a transformational few weeks! A year ago he had been home from rehab just 3 months, just had surgery on a broken hip, was unable to get in/out of bed by himself, had trouble remembering and naming all the kids, was not always sure where we lived, was unable to remember probably 50% of his life prior to the accident, had short term memory of approx. 5 minutes, was unable to do daily living things on his own (showering, preparing meals, etc.) and was doing PT and OT 8 times a week. Other than therapy, which I forced him to do, he wanted to sleep or stay in bed the rest of the day. He was still in a hospital bed and required 24x7 hour care.

Just a month ago he was talking much more, initiating more, remembered the kids, usually remembered where we lived unless he was tired, was able to help around the house, set the table, fold clothes, shower on this own, etc. It was still all I could do to get him to wake up though. He also didn't like going outside or on trips very much.

Fast forward to this week, he seems to be remembering things alot longer, even some things from day to day, he has more energy, he's more engaged, he's laughing more, interacting with the babies more, wanting to help me out and wanting to go out. All good things! Very good things!!!

Here's a few pics of Daddy playing with Summer. He just grabbed her, pulled her up to his lap and started playing with her. That was a first! For further information on the lack of hair on Frankie's head, please refer to previous post from May 12, 2008 :-)

Hey! Wait a minute, he's my Daddy too!

Thanks Grandma E for the new outfit! Do you like how I look in the cranky rhino shirt!! Aren't I cute? My Mommy sure thinks so!!

He moves in mysterious ways!

2008-05-26T11:12:00.009-04:00

When Chase was initially developmentally tested, the Drs. said he was 5 months behind in gross motor skills. We've seen that difference between he and Summer for about the past 8 months. But... we also were told it was possible he may not walk or there were larger issues than just a developmental delay. After more testing and even though most of the doctors now say they don't think that's true, it still lingers in the back of your mind.
So now every time Chase does something new; crawls on his knees, pulls to a stand, free stands, I feel the excitement I felt when Summer did the same things for the first time, the excitement of seeing your baby develop, grow and move forward, plus the joy in knowing that Chase is going to be ok and in seeing the glory of God's work right in front of me.

Hey Mommy! Let me out of here!

Summer's clapping YAY for Chase, he didn't used to like this!

I love having true Double Trouble!

2008-05-22T20:31:00.002-04:00

Chase is pulling up on everything now. He's always standing at the gate, or at the couch or the ottoman. It's so fantastic to see him moving all over the place and getting into trouble!!! Yesterday I took them both to Walmart and as I loaded a case of diapers into the bottom of the cart and pushed away, I noticed he had no socks and shoes on! He ripped them off and threw them down in about 30 seconds! This was the first time he'd done anything "naughty" like that. Summer ... well she's perfected naughty! LOL.

When we got home, Chase followed me from the living room to the kitchen, I was putting Summer in the high chair first and he pit stopped in the dining room and pulled all the books off the bottom of the book case before I even noticed anything was going on. He was just giggling up a storm waving books in the air! LOL.

Lastly, tonight Summer was giving Buster some of her turkey rolls. I told her firmly "No" and locked my eyes with hers (I've noticed if I keep my eyes on hers and make her turn away she is more apt to listen to my "Nos"). All of a sudden I hear a "thump" and a "Thtop!". Chase had banged his hand on his tray and told me to "stop" telling his sister "No!". Just in case he wasn't clear the first time... he did it again! How can you not laugh at that!

Chase is going next week to be measured to see if he can graduate from his helmet. His head definitely looks better! The orthotist, Jim, says we'll probably be done because even though he may get a little bit more correction, it won't be worth keeping it on and dealing with it. So we'll see.

We also have 15 month appts. next week meaning they'll both have shots. Ugh!! I dread these appointments. I get so stressed out about it and doing it just takes it out of me. I even take them on different days now to try to minimize the stress but it doesn't seem to help enough. It also has been taking 3-4 days for them to recover. It takes a lot to stress me out so I think it's funny that I get so wound up about it, but I do!

They've also perfected the fake cough and are using it constantly. They've figured out that EVERYONE stops EVERYTHING when they cough to make sure they are not choking. Well now they know it's a surefire way to get some attention! I need to start reading them 'The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf'! LOL.

Just Chillin'

2008-05-20T01:48:00.000-04:00

Not only do I love it when we get a package from Omaha Steaks from Mom and Dad but Summer and Chase love it too! The coolers the food comes in keep them busy for hours. It's too bad the styrofoam starts to crumble, maybe I could try to shilac them next time?! I don't know... that's a little too 'crafty' for me... Martha Stewart I'm not!

Summer really likes Buster and Kitty. She's learned how to be real gentle with them, finally! I just LOVE the back of Summer's hair!! It reminds me of Lexi's when she was a baby. Except she was blond.

Summer decided if this spot was good enough for Kitty to crash and take a nap, well it was good enough for her too! --- Notice Kitty's paw sticking out from under Summer's head. She literally was on top of his paw. He didn't seem to mind though. Kitty is a super sweet kitty!
And speaking of super sweet .... Look at Chasey .... isn't he cute!! :-)

Everyone take their seats!

2008-05-16T02:28:00.001-04:00

I have been looking for little trays for Summer and Chase for a few months now. I finally found some at Dollar General the other day and man am I ever glad I got them!! They sit in their boppies each with a tray and have their snacks or watch Baby Einstein or The Wiggles. We do snacks twice a day in the living room and this had made it so much easier and cleaner. When it's not snack or tv time, Summer has taken to turning hers upside down and sitting in it like a recliner but hey, at least she's creative!

Today Chase screamed his way through an entire PT session again. Poor Kristin. He normally loves her so I'm not sure what's going on! He just wanted me right there with him and there was no getting away today. I did hold his hands and help him take steps and walk from the dining room through the kitchen out the patio door onto the concrete slab and into the grass about 6 feet so that was a good trip for him!! It was an impromtue trip to try to get him to do something that resembled PT so we didn't plan ahead with shoes and he wasn't loving the feel of grass on his bare feet. I'm going to have to get him into some other things, like sand, and try to get him used to it. I don't think Summer's ever been in grass or sand barefoot either but I don't think she'll have a problem with it.

The joy of Little People (and I don't mean Summer and Chase!)

2008-05-15T00:18:00.000-04:00

I found a lady nearby who was selling lots of Fisher Price Little People sets. Her kids outgrew them and I got 3 sets plus 5 accessory sets for the price of 1 new set! That was my Mother's Day present to myself, I picked them up on Sunday and Wow.... Summer and Chase are just in love with them!

They both sit and play with them together and separately, they love the little people, well, the actual little people, and the animals and the sounds and music. Right now they are playing with the Pirate Ship and The Shop 'N Learn Market. They both seem to gravitate more towards the market. Chase loves opening and closing the refrigerator door. They like the different food pieces, bananas, milk, cheese. I also got them the Animal Sounds Zoo but am waiting until one day when they are super board to pull that one out.

We also finally installed child proof latches on all of the kitchen cabinets today. Well, Erik did. I'm no good with power tools. I'm not so good with manual tools either, for that matter! So it's nice to let Summer roam around the kitchen without having to tell her 'no-no' every two seconds! I'm thinking in another week I'm going to take down the gate between the living room and the kitchen and just let them have the whole space. I just want to be sure Summer can't get the latches open first. She's figured out almost every single one of the gates we've used so I wouldn't put it past her!!

Today while I was putting Chase in his high chair, I knew the bathroom door was open right next to the kitchen, and said, oh it's just 2 seconds before I pick her up, how much damage can she do? Well, yes, I shouldn't have asked! She got ahold of the toilet paper and how in the world she even knew what to do, but she took it and ran like lightning to the other side of the kitchen! Yep, the whole roll. In 2 seconds the kitchen was covered in toilet paper!! She thought that was a riot. Mommy... not so much.

Therapy Tuesday

2008-05-13T23:58:00.000-04:00

So Chase had two therapy sessions today. His morning early intervention therapist hasn't been here in 2 weeks and she was really, really surprised by his progress!! She hadn't seen him get to a stand yet and he was refusing to even sit this morning. He's also crawling (though not up on his knees) super duper fast, she couldn't believe it. She said he's already met all his goals for the 6 months but isn't due for reevaluation until July. Yay Chase!!

Then he had physical therapy this afternoon. I was so excited after his last PT appt. because Kristin (his PT) had said, because he's made such good progress, he'd probably be going down to 1 hour in a few weeks. Well, the excitment was sort of buzz killed today. She said she wants to talk to his orthatist about him maybe being fitted for braces for his feet/ankles. We talked about it for about a half hour because I really wasn't sure about what it was to help with and how it would make long lasting corrections as opposed to having to be a permanent thing. It's supposed to help him with stability and right now he's putting all his weight on the backs of his feet and it's making his knees lock. In the long run this is going to also make his foot ligaments too loose. We'll see what the Dr. and orthatist say, she said they may say hold off a while or something, but alot of kids with low tone need them.

So after we talk, she could tell I was still a bit hesitant so she asked if I was uncomfortable with the idea of him having to wear braces? I said, uh, Kristin, he's wearing a helmet right now... that doesn't bother me! lol. She was like, oh, duh!

So he may be out of a helmet in a few weeks and right into some leg braces. UGH! I feel like when is my poor Chasey going to get a break!!!

Mother's Day

2008-05-12T00:43:00.000-04:00

This is my first attempt at a blog. You can count the blogs I've read on two hands. I'm not very tech savvy and I'm surely not hip. But I do love my family and think, of course, my kids are the greatest. So I think that chronicling my families daily journeys, will not only be therapeutic for me, but also give me a good way to keep track of the small, daily, things that we sometimes miss so much of, as life races past us.

I tend to take a lot of pictures. Probably too many pictures. So that's pretty much how I have been remembering events and things that have happened, by looking back at the pictures. So the last set of pictures I have is of our trip to Chuck E Cheese this week. All of us went and all of us are in at least one picture, Me, Frankie, Erik (my brother), Lexi, Skye, Summer and Chase.

I feel like I have to explain Frankie's pictures in the Chuck E Cheese slideshow just a little bit. If he looks a little 'different' it's because under the hat that I made him wear, there is no hair! We had a minor beard trimming mishap that turned into a haircut dibacle that through all the giggling and dileriousness turned into a completly bald head!! My bad. (It'll grow back in a week or so right?!)

Chase's Medical Issues

2008-04-30T23:00:00.005-04:00

We started noticing around 5 months of age that Summer was making developmental strides that Chase was not. We just thought, oh girls develop faster than boys. Three months and a move to SC later I spoke with our pediatrician about it and he assured me Chase was just moving at his own, slower, pace. I asked for a referral to a developmental specialist ... and so the journey began.

Chase was diagnosed with hypotonia (low muscle tone) at the end of Nov. 2007. He was extensively tested for his developmental progress, his gross motor skills were behind 5-6 months, his cognition was behind 2 months and his fine motor was generally behind 4 months. He had some skills that were advanced, so he was a bit of an anomaly, but they determined his overall lag to be 5-6 months.

I'd also noticed that his head had gotten flat in the back. Our pediatrician said it would round back out on it's own, but it didn't seem to be making any progress in that direction. Because of his hypotonia Chase did not move when he slept, which is necessary to round a babies' head.

In addition, Chase's eyes seemed to sometimes be looking over your shoulder, or not focused properly at you. Not all the time, but sometimes.

Autism was beginning to become a real concern. But Chase seemed to be bright and engaged and didn't fit the typical patterns.

He then had an MRI and the outcome of that was a diagnosis of PVL, Periventricular leukomalacia. PVL is a precursor to cerebral palsey and the research I did on it was very grim. Noone could tell me if at some point Chase might begin to regress with skills he'd already gained, or what his future would look like. It was very likely he wouldn't walk and would be wheelchair bound.

We then got our first round of genetic testing results and everything was clear. Whew! Upon follow up with the geneticist, it was his opinion after examining and testing Chase and looking at his MRI again, that the PVL was either a mis-diagnosis, a missread of the MRI or that he had it and was not going to be effected by it. While this was the greatest news I could have hoped for that day, it was hard to get my hopes up based on one doctors assessment.

So we then went to a pediatric neurologist. Being that we waited in the examining room for 4 hours before we were seen by the doctor, he felt so bad that he gave us the most extensive appointment I could have ever hoped for. He pulled up Chase's MRI on the computer and we looked over almost all of the views one by one, he summarized each view for me and answered every question. After several hours, he also determined that the PVL diagnosis was not supported by the clinical evidence and he said though there may be some neurological issues (with the white matter of his brain), he was a happy, engaged, smart, easily soothed, well behaved little boy and that outwardly he showed no signs of neurological damage.

So the consensus of the doctors now was that Chase may be lagging behind for a few years, but that he would catch up and be just fine. Maybe not 100% physically, but pretty darn close.

We started PT, OT and EI in January to the tune of 5-6 appointments a week. Chase took several weeks to get used to the therapy and his biggest issue was PT. Within a few weeks, he began to make consistent improvements with PT, week to week.

Chase was now rolling over, sitting up on his own, maintaining his balance, and balance shifting. While these were all great strides for Chase, his gap with Summer continued to be quite noticable, as she was now running all over the place.

I then asked for a referral to a specialist to discuss having him fitted for a helmet to reduce the flat spot on his head. Repositioning wasn't working and though he was older than the ideal candidate, we went ahead and banded him. He wore his helmet for 3 months and saw a 52% improvement in his asymmetry. He started off mild/moderate at 10.6 (3 is ideal) and improved to a 6.6.

Chase's geneticist did another round of tests, which all came back negative and we agreed that we would just watch him further over the next 6 months before subjecting him to any further testing.

Three months following his initial developmental testing, Chase was tested again and at this point was not behind cognitively, only 2 months behind on fine motor and 5 months behind on gross motor. This was significant because it showed a steady improvement and no regression. Chase is now completely balanced, able to catch himself fall, and most importantly GI crawling at a million miles an hour and it has made such a huge difference that he can get where he wants to go and do what he wants to do. He's so much happier!

During this time, Chase was seen by a pediatric ophthalmologist who diagnosed him with strabismus, which is essentially eyes that float, turn inward or turn outward. The majority of kids' eyes turn inward and that was the statistics available for best treatment scenarios. Chase's eyes turned outward. And not all the time. It took 4 different doctors to finally see his eyes turn at his first appointment.
We decided to do surgery, cutting 1 muscle in each eye and reattaching it to a different part of the eye. This was supposed to "reboot" his brain and essentially trick it into thinking his eyes were new and hopefully it would reset properly. I had a hard time wrapping my brain around this surgery. I couldn't understand how a neurological problem (which is what strabismus is) could be fixed by cutting muscle. The doctor said it was like coming up with a carpentry solution to fix an electrical problem. Hey --- that's Frank Turner logic if ever I had heard it!!!

They said doing it by 14 months was critical. So Chase had surgery to both eyes. And low and behold he recovered so well I was amazed! The anesthesia they used this time, as opposed to when he had his MRI, was different and he tolerated it so much better. His eyes appeared to be completely straight within a week. At his 4 week follow up appointment, the Dr. had several doctors look at him because he was amazed at how good his correction was! His alignment was now perfect and it was the best outcome he'd seen with this surgery!

Chase then began crawling on all fours, pulling up on his own, letting go and free standing, bear walking and he even walked with a walking toy about 20 steps (5/31/08)!! All of these things I honestly had not expectted to see at all this year.

We decided by July to cut his PT to 1 session a week because he already hit all of his 6 month goals.

He has continued to cruise, take steps without holding onto anything, bend up and down without holding onto anything and get around really well. Chase's progress has been amazing to watch and he's had such a great attitude about it all.

On Septemeber 11 he was reevaluated by his developmental specialist team and they did a full panel of testing on him again. He is no longer showing any lag with fine motor, speach or cognition. His only lag in gross motor is his walking and he is clearly making great strides toward that end. The doctor's were all dumbfounded by how far he has come. The last time they saw him he had just started GI crawling and he wouldn't do that for them. They in no way expected that he would even be taking steps when they saw him today and he is taking up to 15 steps at a time!!

Chase's progress has been amazing to watch and he's had such a great attitude about it all. He is starting to talk alot more now and is making all kinds of animal sounds. He is a very happy, good natured little boy and he and Summer play so nicely together. He is a little too attached to his Mama and does cry alot if she can't hold him when he wants to be held (which is always) but for that to be his biggest problem.... I'LL TAKE IT!!!!