So I obviously don't get much time for blogging these days. Life is busy to say the least. There is usually very little time in the day for "extras." When I finally do get a moment to myself, I'm usually so tired that I can't manage to put an intelligent sentence together, which makes writing a blog challenging. (You'll have to forgive all the grammar and spelling mistakes, as I really don't have time to correct them and somehow it seems more important to just write what's on the top of my mind without thinking too much.)
We had a wonderful Christmas. It's always a very busy time of year, and having the twins this year made it even crazier. I honestly was quite happy to see the new year come. I needed a break from Christmas. Nathan and Tate especially enjoyed Christmas this year. It's always heartwarming to share the joy of Christmas with children.
It's hard to believe but the babies will be 3 months old this weekend. In some ways it seems as if time is slowly dragging by, but in others it seems like these 3 months have gone by with the blink of an eye. They are still very difficult babies. This has been very difficult for me to get used to as I was completely spoiled with both Nathan and Tate who were two of the most pleasant babies to be around. In my worst moments I sometimes wonder why I wanted another baby and feel deeply sorry for myself. But then I realize that I would never give them back now that they're here. I mean if we had only had a single baby which one would it have been? I honestly can't say that I would choose one of them over the other. So I've come to the conclusion that as difficult as life seems now I couldn't imagine life without them.
There are days when they cry constantly for seemingly no reason at all. They are rarely happy in any position, which makes moving them from back to belly to chair to swing a constant necessity. They both have acid reflux issues which can tend to make them unpleasant to be around to say the least. They throw-up their formula constantly which makes wardrobe changes a frequent part of our day. We have switched their formula twice and they have been on Zantac for almost a month now and we've really seen a difference in their dispositions. With each day that goes by it seems to me that they are starting to feel better. My day goes by in 3 hour blocks based on their feeding schedule. I often wonder where the last three hours have gone. Has it really been 3 hours? They can't possibley be hungry again!
When they are happy, they are very happy little babies. They make eye contact, smile and even make little baby giggling noises which are so cute. It almost makes you forget about the crying. They both love to sleep in the late evening and through the night. They tend to fall asleep around 8pm sleep until midnight eat, and then go back to sleep. Lana frequently sleeps through the night until 8 or 9am, but Jackson likes to eat once and will usually wake up around 4am, which wouldn't be so bad except that Tate is our early bird usually waking around 6:30 or 7, which is still way too early for this stay-at-home mom.
After Christmas Tate decided that he wanted to be potty-trained. Yes, Tate decided not me. I would have much preferred to tackle this time consuming task this summer when the babies were older and less needy. He started refusing to go to the bathroom in his diapers and removing them himself. I decided that I'd better get Nathan's old potty out of the garage for him. I placed it in the living room because I knew there would be times when I was busy with a baby that I wouldn't be able to run him to the bathroom the minute he decided he had to go. I had a feeling that if I didn't get the potty out I would soon be cleaning up a lot of messes around the house. He has done very well with it.
He conquered the whole process within a few short days. We had a few little "EWWW" incidents, but for the most part he's good at remembering to use the potty, especially when we're away from home. Tate tends to be very mischevious and especially likes to torture his big brother. Twice in one day he poured some of his potty contents on Nathan's hands, (luckily there was very little in the potty each time) which got him in BIG trouble with Mommy. Another day he poured his potty into his bowl with his Goldfish snacks and brought them to me and said "EWWW!" I guess he decided making his Goldfish swim wasn't a good idea after all.
He still doesn't talk much, but we are slowly adding words to his limited vocabulary. He never says more than one word at a time. Although last week he did say "Go, Dog, Go" while we were reading the book, but after saying it probably 20 times that day he refuses to repeat the performance for me. I know he can do it, he's just being his typical stubborn self.
Nathan is enjoying his last year of pre-school. I am slowly finding more and more time each day to work with him on learning to write and read. Many things come so easily to him that he is frequently frustrated with things that do not. Writing is something that he really has had to practice and he's never liked to color, so it really has been a challenge teaching him. He loves his weekly Ice Skating lessons and is really very good at it.
Both of the boys love Play-doh and spend hours each day at the table playing with it. As big of a mess as it is, it is a blessing because it keeps them occupied and out of trouble. We have approached that time in winter when we're all starting to get very tired of being cooped up inside. I can't wait for Spring. These boys need to get outside and RUN!
Well, that's the best update I can provide for now. It's almost midnight and I need to get to bed.
I've written before about how little Tate talks. He's still pretty far behind a typical 28 month old, but he has really started to add new words to his vocabulary. He is still only saying one word at a time, and he doesn't say his name either, but nonetheless we're excited about the progress he's making. Although we're still waiting for him to use action words and words that express his feelings, he does a good job of telling us what he needs and wants. He is still making up words, which can make it difficult to figure out what he's trying to tell us, but overall we're excited to finally see him making progress. He's been saying basic words like ball, brother, boat, hat, fire and hot for awhile now. By far his favorite word is "eat." The child eats me out of house and home! We're really hoping that he continues to make steady progress because his increased vocabulary has really cut down on the number of temper tantrums he throws and helped him to not be so moody, frustrated and whiny.
Easter weekend for us is always filled with fun activites. One of our favorite activities is to dye easter eggs with my parents and my sister. The kids love making colorful eggs, but I think it's always Laurie and I that have the most fun. We also attend the Easter Egg Hunt at our church. The kids especially love the Magic Show performed by a christian magician (although the adults are getting a little tired of his tricks since he never seems to change his act very much from year to year. LOL!) 
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He's always been my little buddy, my partner in crime, the only kid I can have a conversation with during the day, and my little helper around the house. I'm going to miss him. But I'm so proud of the good boy he is and I can't wait to see what God has in store for his life. I think he's going to do great things! I just sometimes wish he didn't have to grow up to do them.
In June we took a fun weekend trip to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania with some of our best friends.
