Letters, Letters, Everywhere!

In my last post, I told you about how we are all about letters these days.  Charlotte and Gavin are learning to write them, so they are constantly asking for a pen and paper to practice.  And Nathan is learning to recognize his letters, too.

So it should come as no surprise that I walked into Charlotte's room the other day and discovered this:

Do you admire her organizational skills?  One letter on each drawer.  Perhaps it's the beginning signs of a little OCD.  And there were scribbles outside of her room as well, and on the bathroom door:

*sigh*  

That's Michael's grandmother's old furniture.  You know, the furniture we repainted to match her crib and bought all new hardware for?  Looks like there's a bit more refinishing in our future.

Happy 4th Birthday, Twinkies!

**Don't forget to enter my leather cuff bracelet giveaway!**

Charlotte and Gavin turn four today.  Four.  How is that possible?  I can't believe I have two little four-year-olds.

The photo above was taken by their Aunt Sarah at our bowling birthday party last weekend.  I love it because it totally encapsulates their little personalities.  These two are such good buddies; they would do anything for each other.  As you can see, Charlotte often talks Gavin into things that wouldn't otherwise be his idea of a good time:

Doesn't Gavin look thrilled to be dressed as Tinkerbell?  What a good sport.

We've come a long, long way from our NICU days:

My little guys are fighters.  And I count my blessings every day for the spunk and the spirit that they have shown since the day they were born.  Little miracles, they are.  Four-year-old miracles!

Here they are preparing to blow out some candles.  Please ignore my terribly ugly bowling lane cake.  A baker, I am not.

Happy Birthday, Charlotte and Gavin! xoxoxo

My Week in A Few Pictures

Charlotte has been pretending that she's a Mommy lately.  Note the oversized sunglasses and the twins in tow.  Usually she also has a purse and "coffee."  I can also hear her playing house with her brothers:  "Sweetie, the cookies are ready!"(Which is hilarious.  I can't remember the last time I baked cookies.)   "Honey, it's bedtime!"

Then the booty-shaking began.

That girl is something else.

Yesterday, I was folding laundry.  Charlotte kept running in and out of Nathan's bedroom and smiling slyly.  Suspicious.  So I went in to investigate, and found this.

Lotion everywhere, even on the floor and in the bottom drawer.  It was a bear to clean up.

On a crafty note, I attempted to make a lamp for Gavin's summer-camp bedroom.

I bought this vintage jug at a flea market for $6.  I love it!  Except that every time I plug it in, I blow a fuse.  I can't figure out the problem here.  I'm sure the wires are connected to the right spots, and I can't find any information about voltage on the package of the lamp kit.  Any suggestions?

*EDITED TO ADD*  I think I figured out the lamp situation!  Right on the package it says:  3-Way Socket Kit.  I think I need a 3-way bulb.  Shoulda paid attention....

Have a great week!  :)

Custom Art for Charlotte

"Where's Papa going with that ax?" said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.

The first line of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  Only the first line, and I was hooked.  I read ravenously.  I read and read and read until I was finished, barely coming up for air.  And I sobbed at the end like I lost  one of my own family members.

Charlotte's Web was a Christmas gift from my parents in 1981.  I was 7.  I still have that same copy...the one that sent me on this journey.  I look at it often, with my dad's handwriting on the inside cover:

That book and its characters sent me on a trajectory that, at the risk of sounding overly-dramatic, turned me into the person I am today.  It is the reason I love reading.  It is the reason I became a teacher.  It is the reason I named my daughter Charlotte.

The writing is magical, yes.  But I also love Garth Williams's illustrations.  They are truly iconic.

I wanted to pay homage to Charlotte's Web in my own Charlotte's room somehow.  I'm creating a little reading area for her, so I thought some art work in that area would be perfect.  Here's what I came up with.

This is one of my favorite illustrations from Charlotte's Web.  It's the first message Charlotte weaves in her web to save her friend Wilbur, and the one I decided to recreate for my Charlotte:

And here's my illustration:

I used the original illustration for inspiration, and used a thin black marker on plain white paper.  I bought a plain white frame from Target with a mat already in it, and trimmed my paper down to fit:

Then I thought it needed just a little color, so I trimmed some scrapbook paper and added it to the mat:

And here's what the finished product looks like.  

My hope is that this book will eventually send Charlotte on her own journey, as it did for me.  She loves to "read" already, so I think we're off to a strong start.  My dad is gently nudging her along, as he wisely did for me many years ago.  Here's her own copy of Charlotte's Web, the one that was waiting for her under the Christmas tree on her first Christmas.  It's a little newer than mine, and a little cleaner, but it includes the same handwriting on the inside cover as mine:

I hope all of you have the joy of knowing a book that changed your life, as this one did mine.  :)

{DIY} Thrift Store Lamp

On a recent trip to my local thrift store, I spotted a lamp that I knew would be perfect for Charlotte.  And with a $5.00 price tag?  I was sold!

It came without a lampshade, so I headed over to Target to buy a plain white drum shade.  To jazz it up a bit, I also grabbed some green ric rac trim.

Then I heated up my glue gun and went to town!  For less than $20, I got an adorable, custom lamp for Charlotte's room.  Cute, right?

Preemie Twins Dot Com

Look at this!  Preemietwins.com named me one of their Top 10 Blogs about preemies.  You can read the article here.  The list was created about a year ago, but a few people have recently found my blog via this website.

I originally started this blog to describe and journal my triumphs and troubles of parenting premature twins.  It was not an easy road for me.  For those of you who may not know, the twins were born at 31 weeks.  Charlotte weighed in at 3 lbs. 3 ozs., and Gavin at 3 lbs. 11 ozs.  The first few months were a blur of diapering, breastfeeding, very little sleep, and some postpartum depression thrown in for good measure.

Charlotte and Gavin are now perfectly healthy three year olds.  We had a lot of help from family (and we still do), great doctors and nurses at the NICU (I thank my lucky stars for them every day), and a terrific occupational therapist from our county's Intermediate Unit.

This blog has evolved a bit as the twins have grown.  I'm now a mother of three.  But I like to look back at my earliest posts and see how far we've come and how lucky we are.  If you are visiting this blog because you are a mother of multiples, I encourage you to click back on the early links.  I hope you find something helpful!  Feel free to email me with any questions -- I'd be happy to help if I can!

Flashback to March, 2007:

Dutch Wonderland

Michael and I took the twins to Dutch Wonderland for the day  last weekend.  My anxiety is usually heightened in situations like that because (1) I don't know the lay of the land; (2) I anticipate that Charlotte and Gavin aren't going to behave well because, frankly, they often don't; and (3) I just don't DO amusement parks.  But it actually turned out to be a great day.  There were lots of people there, but it never felt crowded.  The twins listened well and had no meltdowns.  And it was just NICE to get out and do something together, which we don't often do because the kids are always running in three different directions.

Here are a few photos from our day:

Here they are enjoying a water ice.

I love this one.  Look how much they love the ride!

With the Dutch Wonderland Princess.

Happy Easter!

Lamp Lust

I'm starting to plan Charlotte's Big Girl Room. Considering my recent obsession with Tar-jay's Liberty of London line, I'm thinking I may need to incorporate one of these little beauties into the design somewhere. Aren't they cute? (It makes me laugh that I said "design." Like I am capable of designing anything.)

My other idea was something like this little jadite number from The Lovely's shop at Etsy.












I have no idea what to do with the rest of the room, but I figure a lamp is a good enough place to start! What do you think?

Happy 2nd Birthday, Charlotte and Gavin!

When Charlotte Attacks!

Lest you thought I was kidding about Charlotte's recent aggression towards Gavin, please observe:

Tales From a Frazzled Mother

My day began with bleeding. Which actually gave me a nice sense of symmetry, because yesterday my day ended with bleeding.

As I've mentioned before, Charlotte is the more physically aggressive of the twins. When frustrated, she hits, bites, scratches, pushes and squeezes. For a while, Gavin didn't reciprocate. Michael and I would watch these scenes unfold, and actually hope for Gavin to react. Imagine this scenario, if you will: Gavin is riding around the kitchen on the Disney ride-on toy. Charlotte decides that the Disney ride-on toy is HERS, and she needs to have it NOW! (In fact, everything in the ENTIRE HOUSE belongs to Charlotte, and if you dare to be playing with the toy when she decides she wants it, watch out!) Charlotte declares, "MINES!," but Gavin continues to scoot around the kitchen, unaware that Charlotte is growing more agitated by the minute. Charlotte marches over to Gavin, and grabs his face with all her might. And those sharp little nails hurt. Trust me. I've been on the receiving end of one of her face-grabs. These little scenarios happen several times a day. Usually, if we see it happening, we'll try our best to deflect her attention so it doesn't escalate into some sort of physical retaliation. But if we miss the signs that Charlotte is on the offensive, and she attacks Gavin in some way, we find ourselves almost hoping that Gavin will smack her back. (Is that wrong? Or mean? I contend that it will teach her a lesson.) In most cases, Gavin just yells.

Yesterday she was particularly possessive, and brutal. She drew blood on Gavin's left cheek in the morning, and left him with a matching boo-boo on his right cheek and nose right before bed. This morning, she delivered a swollen sctratch near his ear and a few on his neck.

So what do I do? I put her in timeout, and she does sit there for a minute or so, but it doesn't seem to be sinking in. I also make sure I am clear and firm with her (No Charlotte! We don't hit! Hitting hurts!) and then I lavish all sorts of attention on Gavin and ignore Charlotte. But none of it seems to be working.

I don't think she ever hit anyone at daycare. There was a questionable comment on her report card that said " We would like Charlotte to use her words when in a confrontation about a toy." But it made no mention of hitting or biting. Perhaps her teachers were avoiding the issue, or else they are just so accustomed to hitting and biting in the Toddler Room that it didn't seem worth mentioning.

Is this the terrible twos, a little early? If so, we're in for a very bloody year.

Words

Charlotte's vocabulary includes:

Mommy, Daddy, MomMom, PopPop
messy
Elmo
Issy (Nicholas, her cousin)
duck
"mo" = more
"mo"= no
eyes
boo-boo
baby
various animal noises

Gavin's vocabulary includes:
Mama, Dada
a few animal noises
cookie
Tuh-Tuh (Tucker, my mom's dog)

I was told that Charlotte's vocabulary would emerge first. It's been true so far. Gavin seems to be a bit more advanced in the more physical areas, however. I know it all evens out in the end!

Battered Mom

Look closely, and you'll see two swollen scratches under my right eye, a scratch on my nose, and one at the base of my neck. They aren't from my cats (usually those scratches are on my arms) or from walking in to furniture (which I've been known to do, but usually those take the form of bruises on my legs). These facial scratches are from Chuckie.

Who is Chuckie? Chuckie is Charlotte's evil alter-ego. Most of the time she's sweet, cuddly, clingy, and loving. But several times a day she gets this gleam in her eye, and Chuckie attacks. Usually it starts by her hugging me, and then she pulls back and wallops me in the face. It's sometimes a slap, and sometimes a scratch. I never know when it's coming.

My pediatrician says that sometimes toddlers can't figure out how to express their love for you, so they resort to biting and hitting. How charming.

When she does it, I sharply say, "No!" and move her away from me. If I were to do that to Gavin, he would fling himself on the floor and melt into a puddle of tears. But Chuckie thinks this is downright hilarious, and rushes back to me to hit again.

The worst part, other than the ridiculous-looking scratches on my face, is that she now has begun hitting Gavin when she's frustrated. (He totally takes it, but one of these days he's going to haul off and smack her!). Also, Gavin sees her hitting me, so now he's hit me once or twice too.

She doesn't do it to any other adult; not Michael, not my mom or dad, no one. I think it's a little bit of a game at this point, and I am certain she'll grow out of it. But for now, if anyone asks, tell them I...uh...walked into a door.

15 Months Old

When All Else Fails, Chocolate.

Biting the Bullet

I finally did it. I took Gavin for his first haircut. So, purely by default, Charlotte received her first haircut too, even though she didn't need one as badly. It was, of course, exciting. But a little sad, too. Gavin had these wispy baby curls in the back that have been there since his birth, literally. It was kind of difficult to watch the stylist cut them off. And now he just looks so much like, well, a big boy.

For the longest time, I just wanted the babies to grow. They were so tiny, and it was so difficult, and I kept thinking, "If only they were a little bit older, this mothering thing would be so much easier." And now I find myself wanting the opposite. My babies are becoming toddlers! When did that happen?

Back to the haircuts: I've been trying to train Charlotte's hair to sweep to the side with a barrette, because I wasn't too sure about the bang thing with her since she doesn't have a whole lot of hair to start with. But her hair just wasn't sweeping to the side like I had imagined (where is Suri Cruise's stylist when you need her?) so her hair kept getting in her eyes. I was also concerned that she was going to wind up eating her barette since she continuously pulled it out. (I caught the girl eating leaves yesterday; I'm sure a barrette would have been no sweat.) So I decided we should just go with some "starter bangs" and take it from there. However, the stylist's English was questionable, and she wound up giving Charlotte a trim much like Gavin's, and her bangs wound up WAY too short.

But whatever. The first haircut is out of the way. The trimmings are safely in the baby books. Hair grows. That's the important part, right?

Gavin, with his new business-man haircut. "Hold my calls!"

Charlotte, rocking super-cute bangs. I wish the stylist would have stopped here...

Bye-bye, cute bangs. This is what we now refer to as Bang Massacre 2008.