Finding Contentment

One of the things I struggle with as a mother is finding contentment in the current moment.  It is something I have struggled with my whole life.  I am always working for the next step, getting ready for what's next.  So it is only natural that I am a mother to do that.  I find myself saying, I can't wait until they walk.  I can't wait until they talk.  I can't wait until whatever it is that I am excited for.

For the first time it is really sinking in how fast it is all going.  I mean at their birthday got to me with the first year being over, but now they are walking all over the place.  They are really starting to look like little toddlers.  Those baby features are disappearing day by day.  I do love this stage.  I get to watch them figure out something new everyday, but the baby things are going away day by day.  That's the trade off you get.

So my goal right now is for contentment.  I need to enjoy my babies in the stage they are in.  Take in and enjoy every cuddle and moment because they are fleeting.  The mama and dada will soon turn into sentences.  I as much as I will love the conversations we will have, I will never again hear the sweet whispers that I hear right now.

So right now I am working on finding that contentment and enjoying more moments with them.  These moments don't last and they change everyday.

S

Soon you'll have winking toddlers to make you appreciate those new born coos! :)

New Blog Look! Check it out!

I am excited to debut my new blog! My blog just got a face lift thanks to Tiffany. She was great to work with, I would definitely recommend her! So take some time to look around. I will be adding sponsors here very soon and I am very excited to be working with anyone who is interested. I will also be adding favorites to my favorite blogs and a couple new things.

Also we have winners to announce for the cloth diaper giveaway. Amy from Little Beauty was the first winner.  I have emailed the second and am still waiting for a response.

Please take some time and click around the new blog.

  

I fear we may have bad travellers on our hands...

So last weekend we took a family trip to go and stay with Will's family.  We had a great weekend and a great visit.  We got to visit with family we don't get to see all that often so that was nice.  The only bad thing was that Penny and Ben refused to sleep!  When we had traveled previously we would always leave at bed time so they would sleep, then we would just transfer them to where they would be sleeping.  That completely back fired this time.  We left home are 6:30 and got there are 9:30.  They slept most of the way. I thought we were on the right track.  We got there and tried to put them to bed, they woke up and screamed.  They were up til 1 and up again at 4 and up for the day at 7.  YIKES!  They took a 2 hour nap the next day, but were super crabby.  Then that night they refused to go down, so we finally drove around til they fell asleep and thankfully they made the transfer that time.  Next day... no nap, so again we drove around until people started arriving for the cookout my in laws were having.  Then Monday morning they slept in til 8:30... they were two sleepy babes.

So I am currently trying to figure out if it was the new place or the fact that they seemed to have a little stomach trouble, but I hope we can figure it out.  This weekend we are camping and in 2 weeks we have a big out of town wedding Will and I are both in.  Any of you out there with some travel tips?  We need some help to get there babes to sleep!

Besides that we had a great time!  They loved to play with grandma and grandpa and Aunt Emma and Uncle Noah.  It was nice to visit with the extended family.  Despite how sleepy they were they did a great time socializing with everyone.  They loved playing outside! 

 

Once again... I would love some travel tips!

Fine Motor Skills Activity

I love doing projects with the babies.  I always work up to them because they seem like they are going to be so much work.  For instance I bought these pipe cleaners weeks ago but it just seemed like to much work to set up this activity.  I'm crazy!  It took all of 2 minutes to set up and they were entertained for 20 minutes.  It was great, although this is one where they need your help to figure it out and supervision because they pipe cleaner ends are sharp.

So here's the basics.  It's just pipe cleaners and a strainer.  They need some help putting it in the holes sometimes, but they love trying it.

Pardon my messy house.  I chose activity over cleaning that day... prioritizing ya know... :)

This was a super easy activity that really worked their fine motor skills.  It also helped them with patience.  It took them sometime to figure it out.  They still weren't able to get it in the whole without help, but a couple of times they got it.  Penny clapped for herself when she did.  This is definitely something I will get out again when we need a change of pace.

Motherhood: the good the bad and the ugly.

I blog because I like to share my story with other people, and I read blogs because I like to read about how other mothers do it.  I also read them to find a sense of community and feel less alone in being a SAHM, which let's face it can get pretty lonely.  This is the main reason I try my best to blog with honesty.  I blog about the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I think this is important so that other mothers don't feel alone or like they are failures when they have a bad day.

There are many days I go to bed feeling like a failure.  I was not a good enough mother.  I lost my temper with the babies or with Will.  I didn't accomplish what I needed to.  That is honest.  On the other hand there are night I go to sleep feeling like I totally rocked it today.  Most days I just go to bed fulfilled, knowing I tried my best, my babies are happy and I'm pretty good at this whole motherhood things.  And I know for a fact every mother has gone to bed feeling every single one of these feelings plus many more.

I blog about everything and I admit things like this so people don't feel alone.  You are not the only one who sometimes dreads outings because your babies are almost too much to handle.  You are not the only one with a messy house.  You are not the only one trying to do it all and not quite getting it done.  I know I find comfort in blogs like this.  I feel like I'm not alone and I am doing everything I can.  So what if the dishes didn't get done.  So what if I didn't do some creative homemade activity with my babies today.  Honestly they were just as happy with cuddle time and seasame street.

So why is it that when I read blogs or facebook comments about mothers who only report the positive and do nothing but brag about their little ones, does it bother me so much?  I feel when I read those reports that I do not do enough, that I'm not good enough, that my kids deserve better of me.  I know for a fact that those things are not true.  I am a great mother with happy babies.  We do fun things.  We go interesting places.  I generally have a clean(ish) house and dinner on the table.... generally...

So this is just a reminder to those mothers who are struggling.  You are not alone!  I have bad days.  We all do.  I promise you that I will blog about them so that you can know that you are not crazy.  I will blog about the days I want to pull my hair out, but I will also blog about how I think Penny might be a genius because of how quickly she is picking up sign language.  I blog about all of these things because that is motherhood.  All of it is motherhood: the good the bad and the ugly.

Must have baby items!

It's Tuesday!  That means it is once again time to hook up with Melissa at Growing up geeky for toddle along tuesdays.  This week we are talking about our favorite baby items.

I think I may have a different take on favorite baby items with the fact that I have twins.  One thing you must have is a good double stroller.  You are going to be going to Dr. appointments and all kinds of places and it is not easy to carry two for very far.  So having a good stroller you like it important.  The first stroller I had was my favorite.  It was the baby trend snap and go.  It was so light and so easy to set up and take down.  Their infant seat would snap in so easy and there was so much storage underneath.  I loved this stroller.

This was our very first walk.

The other item I would not live with out when they were tiny was the the rock'n sleep.  I spent HOURS everyday holding one and rocking the cradle with my foot with the other one in it.  This was one of the few ways I could soothe both of my collicky twins.  This was indispensable to me.

These two items made life with infant twins so much easier.  I would definitely recommend them

100 Followers Cloth Diaper Giveaway!

YAY!
I am so excited to have 100 followers thank you to Confessions of a Redheaded Mama for being my 100th follower!

To celebrate this I am offering my readers a great giveaway.  If you've read me blog you know I am a big advocate for cloth diapers.  I have been using them with the twins and I love them.  I have a blog series about them if you want to check them out here.

So as a thank you for following my blog I have two giveaways.

Here's all the goodies!

The first prize will be 1 Grovia AIO diaper.  This is one of my favorites!  Also it will come with a set of 12 Grovia cloth wipes.

The second prize is one AIO white BumGenius diaper and one small wet bag.

Thank you so much for following my blog.  I love my bloggy buddies and the new community people I am meeting.

I will have two winners and the first one will be have first choice of the prize and the second winner will get the other one.

Keep checking back I have some big changes in store for A Day in the Life.



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Twin Nursery

I'm joining up again today with multi mommas.  This week we are talking about our nurseries.

I was so excited about my nursery.  I had it all planned out.  We have all kinds of woodland creatures and I thought it would be very suited for a boy and a girl.  I had it all organized and planned.  I love the new woodland creature looks.  I had owls and squirrels and turtles and even a hedgehog.  I thought they were so cute!

When I was pregnant sometimes I would just go and sit in the nursery and read pregnancy book and fight the urge to put my cat in a onesie.  I loved it in there.  I could just picture me gently rocking the babies nursing both of them gently singing lullabyes.  Life didn't turn out quite as picturesque.  I love the quite moments we had in there and I will always treasure them, but it definitely wasn't the romantic picture I had in mind.  There was more grogginess than I thought there would be.

Sadly, the nursery has never looked this clean and organized again.  I just don't understand how one can have a clean nursery.  When I am able to clean it they are sleeping in it and if I attempt to clean it while they are up it looks worse than when I started most of the time.

So now picture these, but toss in some piles of clothes, some toys on the floor, cribs that have teeth marks all other them, and bins of clothes to be donated or stored somewhere besides our apartment.  It definitely has a "lived in look". 

But our nursery started out precious and organized.  I have the pictures to prove it! Check out other twin nurseries and link up!

Birthday Party!!

I am finally getting up some birthday pictures.  We got the pictures back and there are some really cute ones.  One of my friends is a photographer.  She has taken all of you family photos.  If you are in the central IL area check her out. True Calling Photography

So we had this picturesque first birthday in the park planned.  We were all ready to grill out and take cute pictures and have the kids run around and play.  Mother nature didn't quite agree with me.  That day the high was 107, so we had to regroup.  I called around and finally found a pizza place with a party room we could use.  I was upset at first, I wanted there first birthday to be special and the way I had planned it.  It turned out good though, and atleast it wasn't 107 degree inside there!

Penny and Grandma

The babies eating pizza with their God parents (The Mikes)

We were so blessed to have so much family there!  Ben and Penny are sure lucky to have so many people caring about them.

Instead of party favor bags we gave out giant bouncy balls.  They were a big hit!

We had two cupcakes.  We had Black Forest Cupcakes.  They were delicious.  We also had confetti cupcakes for all the kids.

Black Forest Cupcakes

Ben dove right in!  He loved it!

Penny was very dainty!

Ben says "Nom Nom"

She decided she loved it too!

We got so many presents!  The twins have been having so much fun playing with all of them!

Blocks with Periodic chart symblos. Thanks Aunt Erin! (Daddy loved these!)

So although the party wasn't quite what I planned, it turned out great!  We had a good time and made some good memories.  I felt like more of a milestone for Will and I than for the babies.  We did it!  We made it through our first year with twins!  There were some rough spots, some sleepless spots, some crabby spots, but there were also moments of sheer joy and happiness and moments of learning and growing.  The babies have grown and learned so much and really so have Will and I.

I love you Ben and Penny!  You make the world a better place!