Working Momma?

I will be the first to admit, I do not have this working mom thing down. Today marked the end of my 11th year of teaching, and my 2nd year teaching and being a mom at the same time. It's different now being a teacher and a mom. Life is hectic and crazy as it is and throw in the home management and then a few illnesses, lack of sleep, and planning for a sub into the mix and sometimes I wonder how I haven't lost all my marbles just yet. How do all you working moms do this with such grace?

I do have to say that being a teacher in the same town we live in affords me the best working mom schedule around. I am with my boys until just minutes before I arrive at school and am able to pick them up and be home at a reasonable time so that we can spend our evenings together. But I still missed my boys just as much today as I did on the first day of school. Does this ever get any easier?

I am thankful for being "off" in the summer, although as a mom of twin toddlers, it certainly isn't "vacation." I get to pretend to be a stay at home mom and go on adventures with my boys that I can only dream about during the school year. We won't have to race around each morning to make sure that all of us are up, fed, and ready to go by 6:51am. (Crazy to remember back to when I could barely get just myself to work on time...)

One thing is for sure: working outside the home helps me appreciate the time I do have with my children, simply because I get less of it than I'd like. And in the end, my family comes first.

Some might call me a working momma. But I'd like to look at it more as a momma who works.

First Day of School 2013-2014

Last Day of School 2013-2014

Summer is Here

When we woke up today, we didn't have any plans. We were thankful for an extra day at home with our boys and thankful for good health after a week of both boys having fevers and just not feeling so well.

Yesterday I happened to share a photo with the boys of the swimming pool that was set up in my mom's backyard that the boys would get to swim in later in the afternoon, and let me tell you, they did not forget about that swimming pool until their feet were dipping in the water and their hands were able to splash and splash until their lips turned blue. To say they love the water is an understatement!

So today, when we stepped outside, we felt the humidity and it felt so foreign and strange after 6-7 months of cold, snow, and Minnesota Winter.  We set up the water table in our backyard and brought out their baby pool from last summer.  It looked so small now as they towered over it, trying to figure out how they both could fit in it at the same time.  And then we remembered a pool that the boys had received as a gift for the 1st birthday, that we just didn't use last summer because it was big and fancy and had a slide. But now, we knew this pool would be the perfect addition to our backyard water adventures and I kid you not, we were outside ALL DAY TODAY with the exception of lunch and nap. And the boys couldn't have been happier.

2nd Birthday Video-2 year old twin boys!

My 2nd attempt at creating a video/photo slideshow to highlight the memories in the last year. One thing is for sure: I take A LOT of photos! We showed this video at the boys' 2nd birthday party, but if you missed it, check it out here!

Owen and Aaron 2nd Birthday Video

Two.

If you're like me, you haven't celebrated your own birthday since junior high when you hosted a sleepover complete with pizza, the game Girl Talk, prank phone calls, and enough sugar from the bulk candy bins at Cub Foods to make your stomach ache.

But if you've ever been a parent to a toddler (or two at once), you know that birthdays are something to be celebrated. It's that date on the calendar that pinpoints another year under your parenting belt and forces you into constant reflection mode: What were things like exactly one year ago today? How have things changed? Are they better? Do I have this mothering thing down yet?

While the changes in the past year aren't as physically dramatic as when our twins turned 1, turning 2 feels just as monumental in its own way.  It seems as though we are finally starting to see through some of the fog that has been present for so long: a time when their little bodies literally needed us for every piece of their day. To feed them, to carry them, to clothe them, to change them, to help them make sense of a world that doesn't speak in baby language.

(13 months old)

It's not to say that the dust has finally settled or anything like that, but just that I can finally start to see my boys as something outside of myself. The times when I stand back and look at them from across the room and something that they are doing literally takes my breath away. You just lined up all your cars from end to end--you're so imaginative! You just unzipped your jacket all by yourself--I didn't know you could do that! Yes, that is a blue truck--you're so smart! Thank you for offering to carry your jammies downstairs--you're so helpful!

Silly boys and best friends (most days, anyways...)

The moments that stick out for me over this past year are not major milestones. They are only little glimpses into an average day that, had I not written them down somewhere, I probably would have forgotten about. The first time you hugged each other before bed. The time when we were in the process of getting new carpet, we came home from daycare and there was no carpet in the dining room; the way you both tried to explain in your limited language where the carpet went. How you would lean in to the Christmas tree to give it hugs and how Owen would wave and say "hi" to the people and horseys in our Dicken's Snow Village. How you only like singing the "choo choo" song before bed and how you both belt out "A-MEN" after we say prayers each night. How you are obsessed with seeing if there are ice cubes in Mommy and Daddy's water glass at dinner every single night. The time when our house had suddenly gone silent for the first time since the babies were born...Dan and I looked at eachother dumbfounded wondering where the boys were until we noticed that they were sitting right in front of us stacking their MegaBlocks into towers like little champs without any adult help. How Aaron says "yaaaaaa" in a perfect Minnesota accent, complete with an over-exaggerated head nod. The first time I heard you say, "yuhve you, Momma" in your angel little voices, how nothing else in the world seemed to matter at that precious moment.

It is truly hard to remember how we filled our days when "woof, woof" was the only word you were able to communicate with me for several months after just turning 1. Now, you are running out into the street after a runaway ball yelling proudly, "I ga dit, Ma-mee!" Just recently you spent an entire shopping trip to Target telling every stranger we passed who was kind enough to stop and try to decode "buh-ckle bo-ken," your story of how the first cart Mommy tried to secure you into had a broken buckle, so we had to go to a "diff one."

You now sleep with grown-up sized pillows in your cribs and are three times the size of the baby blankets we brought you home from the hospital in. You eat gummy bear vitamins and we now share our kitchen table with messy little eaters who prefer to use the same kind of fork and spoon as Mommy and Daddy. I'm convinced that wearing helmets 24-hours a day would be the best way to keep you safe from your adventurous spirits that don't quite know the limits just yet.

2 year old twin boys

And while there are glimpses of what friends warn is to come in the next year (how dare I take the string cheese out of the plastic wrapper, I forgot that you want to "doo wit" yourself for goodness sake), I do try to hold onto what each day brings. I know in just a matter of time, we will be able to play at our neighborhood park without my blood pressure spiking every time you get close to the edge when Mommy is still making her way through the tunnel. I will probably have forgotten that we spent a month (or more) of this past year sleeping on an air mattress when one little guy just needed to know that Mommy and Daddy were close by. We will forget the crabbiness that accompanied the welcoming of 22 new teeth and molars into this world in the same year (okay, so maybe we will never forget the joys of teething). But you will laugh when we tell you how much you loved to read the Superhero Potty book or how you would ever so politely say "key que" (thank you), complete with the baby sign language, just after stealing a toy right out of your brother's hands. Soon, you will no longer be asking me to carry you up the stairs to go to bed. Before long, there will be new hurdles to conquer and milestones to reminisce.

So for today, we CELEBRATE turning 2.

To read my thoughts on my twins turning 1, read my post from last year here.

My Little Helpers

If you know me, you know that I like to be efficient and get things crossed off my to do list as quickly as possible. More jobs are waiting to be completed and I am already thinking about my next project before I am even done with my first.

My husband and I learned long ago that we do not cook well together. He is one to measure sugar perfectly by leveling it off with a knife, actually sifting the flour if the recipe calls for it, and will not bat an eye when just about every dish in the kitchen is being used for said recipe. He is a great cook and the end result is always worth the...ahem..long wait.

I, on the other hand, try to hurry up and get the brownies in the oven so I can wash the dishes and put them away so the kitchen will look pretty again. I resist the urge to wipe up the flour on my countertops each time it spills, and the sight of all the ingredients sprawled out on every flat surface of my kitchen makes my blood pressure rise. (OCD much?!)

I am just really not one for messes.

But, Santa must have been listening when I told him that all I wanted for Christmas was a cleaning lady. He even sent 2! Their hours are 5am-7pm and are immediately at my beck and call if they see the need arise.

"Howp?!" In Owen and Aaron's language this means"help" and let me tell you it has become a favorite word around here, usually right as I am about to get down to some nitty gritty cleaning for the first time in 3 weeks. From doing laundry to washing dishes to vacuuming up Brady's fur to wiping off the food that is caked on our dining room walls, our to-do list is always a work in progress.  And each night, just as I open the fridge to gather some ingredients to throw together for dinner, I hear the tiny voices asking to help...and, as if they already know the answer, they push over the 2 booster-less dining room chairs so that they can hog stand at the counter with me to help.

I secretly cringe at the fact that my 30-minute meal will undoubtedly will now take a good hour.

But every time, my answer is the same. Yes, you can help. Deep down I know that not much gets done when my helpers are at my side. The floors will need to be swept again. I will have to re-wipe the windows down in all the places that were missed. And I will have to re-wash a load of laundry that just came out of the dryer because I couldn't bear to tell the boys to take the clothes out of the washer once I saw the proud looks on their faces when they knew that they had "helped" their mommy. 

In the end, it is not about how clean my house is or how quickly I can make a meal. It is about spending time with my little helpers. And for that, I will take all the help I can get. 

Now, can I get someone to help me pick up these toys?!

First Haircuts

It seems like we are running out of times we can say "their first _____." The token first smile, first steps, first teeth, and first holidays seem like eons ago and now we are just in the thick of living life with two very busy toddlers.

Maybe that is why I held off on Aaron's first haircut until just today, at 21 1/2 months old.  As I see my little babies becoming little boys right before my eyes, I find myself clinging to hold on to anything that will remind me of their tiny little bodies, of a time that has so quickly come and gone.

While Owen's first haircut was just as momentous of an occasion, and I was that mom in the Kids' Hair salon with my camera snapping a bazillion photos and probably getting in the way, I was so much more ready for it. It was the end of Summer, he was15 months old, and his hair was getting long. And while I held out until the last second and debated over it for weeks, it just seemed like the right time. (Seriously...do other moms linger over these events as much as I do?!)

But Aaron. He really has not had much hair until recently. It is fine and thin and wispy. But then there are curls. Right at the back of his neck. Sometimes just one. Sometimes more. The curls melt me and are probably the single reason that I held on this long.

The only problem was that these days the curls, more often than not, resembled a frizzy rat tail. The "bed head" was out of hand, and was present at times when he hadn't just gotten out of bed. And I say this this in the most endearing way, but every now and then those curls took on the look of an over-watered Chia Pet. It wasn't until I saw him with his crazy locks from across the room at ECFE class this past Tuesday night, that I finally came to terms with his need for a haircut.

He was so quiet and shy, but he sat in that big red chair like such a brave little boy. And again I got to be the sentimental mom snapping pictures of this momentous occasion. The stylist knew, without me saying a word, that I wanted to save those sweet little curls from his haircut. So she tucked them into a cute little souvenir baggie to remember this haircut. His first haircut. 

Aaron and his sweet, sweet curls.

Before His First Haircut

Little boy in a big red chair.

So brave.

Not so sure what just happened!

Aaron's first haircut. After.

These Are My People

I remember the moment like it was yesterday. I was over in London, England completing my student teaching.  My fellow student teacher friends and I were waiting in line to get into a pub one night. We started chatting with the people in front of us, and learned that they were from Norway. And all of a sudden it hit me. The trademark Scandanavian "thin upper lip" was the first dead giveaway. "Oh my goodness," I told them. "We look alike!!!"  Of course, they had no idea what I was talking about. But I could see in these strangers my own reflection. I could see my grandma, my dad, and my uncles. I could see my Norweigan roots like never before and I couldn't believe my eyes and the connetion I felt with these people!

When I found out I was pregnant with twins, of course everyone I talked to had a cousin with twins, a grandma who is a twin or a neighbor who wishes they were a twin. But I didn't KNOW anyone with twins. A former coworker invited me to join a local group of Mamas of Multiples and this group of amazing moms has been one of the biggest blessings in our journey with twins.  This group can roll the acronyms TTC, PUPPs, VBAC, CIO, BH, and RSV off their tongues with the best of them. It is a place to go to for support, to share in accomplishments, and even to see if your child's latest diaper looks, ahem...normal. It is where I first met moms of twins the same age as my boys, who on any given night can light up my cell phone with more text messages than most teenagers I know (and the sole reason my husband made me take my phone off "vibrate" when in silent mode, turns out it's not too "silent" when receiving that many messages at a time!)

It is a support system that I wish upon every new mom. These rockstar mommas have all faced the daunting tasks of everyday life with more than one child of the same age at the same time. We can all answer the unending questions of, "Just HOW do you do it?" and "Two? Are they twins?" We speak a sometimes unspoken language, us moms of multiples. But it is when we all gather on a snowy Minnesota night after our babes have all been tucked in snug as a bug, and we look around the room that we see our reflection in each other and find the comfort and presence of strangers and friends. Of those who have gone through the trenches before us and those who are bringing up the rear. They get it, when no one else does. These are my people.

 

*Special thanks to Kate B. for taking photos and allowing me to use them here.