On Tuesday, I made a status update about my life.  That update and the comments that followed pretty much say it all…

Elizabeth at 2:36pm March 10

Sorry Sara!!! When do they outgrow that phase…16?

Veronica at 2:45pm March 10

Good to know what I have to look forward to!

Sara at 2:50pm March 10

Luckily, so far all of the peeing has been in their room. The first time, E peed on the floor so that B’s boat would have water. Another day, they took off all of their clothes, threw them on the floor, and “painted” the clothes and their beds with their pee. Yesterday, E peed on B’s blankets just for fun, after which B decided it was cool to strip down and pee on his clothes. For fun.

Sam at 2:50pm March 10

lol. awesome.

Veronica at 2:52pm March 10

I have another friend whose two boys (not twins but a year apart) just smeared butter on the TV and the couch while she was taking a shower. She even took pics and just posted them, LOL!

Sara at 2:54pm March 10

Yeah, it really is scary what they can get into when they put their minds together. We have also had Frosted Flakes in the fish tank and markers on the wall in the last few days. I just love being a mom to boys!

Jacqueline at 2:58pm March 10

I hope you are documenting this! You will have to share this with their wives someday.

Sara at 3:04pm March 10

Yes, I definitely am. Hubby’s mom told me about how he did this when he was a kid, too – one of his experiments involved peeing in his mom’s shoes. Ewwww!!! Sadly, he was 4 when he did it, so I am not holding out much hope for this to end soon.

Beau at 3:48pm March 10

I think it’s a guy thing. We do it b/c we can. I had an incident at age 3 or 4 involving a fountain in a highly public location.

Jan at 7:27pm March 10

The bigger they get, the more pee there will be. Mom of 3 boys aged 7,9 &12.

Okay, so quick and simple, I’ve been busy. So sorry! Probably shouldn’t have started a blog and then gone on vacation. We have also had lots of three-year-old issues here, especially concerning experiments with pee. Gotta love boys.

Just wanted to say I am back.

Earlier this year, I read about a ta-da list.  Rather than writing up a to-do list and feeling like nothing gets accomplished during the day, you write up a ta-da list as you get things done.  You can find my first list here.  It is interesting for me to see the first list because I think I got more done that day.  Of course, at that point little Z wasn’t born yet – I think that makes a huge difference.  Anyway, here is a snapshot of my day…

1. Got up – major accomplishment!
2. Got kids breakfast
3. Got self dressed and ready for the gym
4. Got three kids dressed and ready for the gym
5. Helped older two brush teeth
6. Made lunches for B&E for after gymnastics
7. Packed snacks for everyone
8. Make up water bottle for me and juice cups for the twins
9. Restocked diaper bag
10. Washed & dried a load of towels
11. Unloaded dishwasher
12. Cleaned up breakfast
13. Worked out at the gym – woo hoo!
14. Took kids to gymnastics class
15. Helped B & E eat lunch at park district building after gymnastics
16. Returned baby scale to hospital
17. Ate my own lunch
18. Got kids down for a nap (took HOURS)
19. Folded Z’s clothes
20. Changed diapers
21. Played with Z
22. Read books to B & E
23. Ate a snack
24. Dropped a glass in the sink and broke it
25. Cleaned up aforementioned glass
26. Washed diapers
27. Cooked dinner
28. Served dinner
29. Cleaned up dinner
30. Helped get kids bathed
31. Got jammies on twins
32. Cleaned up mountain of books on floor in B & E’s room.
33. Fed baby six times
34. Broke up fights
35. Stared in wonder at the disaster that is my family room – the toys have taken over the ENTIRE floor
36. Wrote this blog post
37. Collapsed from exhaustion

So, I did apparently get things done.  I don’t know how I feel though… I still see three baskets of unfolded clothes around the house and a few dishes in the sink.  Do you ever have days/weeks/lifetimes where you just don’t feel like you can keep up?

We moved into our house at the end of April, so about ten months ago.  When we moved in, I had clean walls.  Now, on the wall going up the stairs, I have this…

Can you see that nice dark stripe of handprints up my wall?  Heaven forbid they actually use the railing that is on the other side of the stairs (or, by chance, actually wash their hands).  Honestly, I am kind of scared to try to clean the marks off because it is fairly matte paint on plaster walls.  How do you clean plaster walls without leaving marks behind?  Would the marks I inevitably leave behind because I am inept at cleaning look as bad as the handprints, or worse?

A new discovery in this area came over the weekend, about another three feet up the wall…

Hmmm… who do you think could have left that handprint?  It must have been my husband the elves who leave dirty socks all over the house.

I’M WEARING PRE-PREGANCY PANTS!  I’M WEARING PRE-PREGANCY PANTS!  I’M WEARING PRE-PREGANCY PANTS!

Is it bad that I feel the need to shout that from the rooftops?  With three boys here and my husband, I don’t think any of them can truly appreciate how good it felt to button up those pre-pregnancy jeans today.  Woot!!!!

The only sad part of the day was that as soon as I started coming down from the I-fit-in-my-jeans high, I realized they are now totally out of style, being that they are kind of a stonewashed, faded color.  Isn’t it dark jeans that is all the rage now?  I don’t even know… how sad is that.

Still… I’M WEARING PRE-PREGANCY PANTS!

Conversation between the twins and me yesterday afternoon…

E:  Mommy, we’re playing with our cars.

Me:  Oooh!  That’s fun!

B:  Yeah, they are getting married.

E:  Have you ever seen two cars get married, Mommy?

Me:  No, no I have not.  This should be really interesting!

I decided to jump in and try out Project 365. It is a project where you take a picture every day for a year. I think it will be interesting to see not only how my photography progresses, but also what I take pictures of each day!

Want to follow along? Visit http://yearinthelife.wordpress.com.

Yesterday, my boys did not want to nap.  Because they are starting to get towards the age of giving up their nap (gasp!), we have rebranded nap time as “quiet time.”  Three activities are allowed during quiet time;  anything else is off limits.

1. Laying down and silently reading.
2. Sleeping.
3. Just laying in bed.

I realize I may be the meanest mom ever with these rules, but oh well.  The boys need the rest.  Their mom needs the rest.  Quiet time will be a staple at my house until my kids move out.

Well, yesterday was one of those days when the kids did not want to do quiet time.  Because they share a room, this is a big problem.  Things actually started out okay.  Although they weren’t following the quiet time rules, they were really just talking and reading books together.  After a while, it got quiet except for the flickering sound of a few giggles.  Trouble.  So, I went up to check out what was going on.  This is what I found:

B and E had emptied an entire box of Kleenex on the floor.  Their explanation?  They were using it to decorate their bodies with hats and beards and whatnot.  I held in my anger laughter and told them simply to clean it up and hop back in bed.

In another minute, I heard them talking about making something pretty, so I ran back up to see what in the world they could be doing now.  They were ripping the Kleenex into small pieces, putting it in their mouths, and then sticking it to their Kleenex box.  That’s right folks, they were decorating with spitballs.  Oye.

The only upside of this whole experience was that everything got cleaned up pretty quickly when I told the fellas they could be done with quiet time once all of the Kleenex was in the garbage.  I guess that is not the only upside… I got to practice being patient with my two three-year-olds, which is something I rarely get to do, right?!

So, I am posting at 4:30am.  My little Z, who is 4.5 months old, is up.  I hate this part of the infant years, the crying-it-out stage.  With the twins, it was actually easier for me.  There was no way I could hold the hands of both children or cuddle them both, so I didn’t have to negotiate with myself each time there was crying.  I went in, comforted them, and left.

This time, life is different.  Z is my little baby. I hate to hear him cry.  I just want to swoop in and snuggle him up with me.  However, I know that would be doing him a great disservice.  There are times when I slip, when I stay and let him hold my hands to go back to sleep.  But that always comes back to bit me in the behind because he then wants me to stay.  When I do leave, he doesn’t understand why I did, and I feel even more guilty.

So, from here on out, I am not going to stay.  I am going to let him figure out how to get himself back to sleep.  This is my solemn vow… at least until the next time I hear him crying and my heart breaks.