Mom-preneur Shop-A-Thon on Tip Junkie

This is going to be a quick post since I've got to get the girls ready for gym class here soon. I just listed the Baby Dipper bowl on the Mom-preneur Shop-A-Thon on the Tip Junkie web site! There are tons of cool items from moms all over the place, so check it out to support moms like me who are trying to run a business and take care of kids at the same time! Thanks!!!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'.....

Yep, we had some rolling going on here today! That's Carlton and Franklin in the photo above. Both Carlton and Franklin rolled over for the first time. First it was Carlton rolling from his tummy to his back. It was less than 2 hours later and then it was Franklin rolling from his back to his tummy and did it two times! They've been in that "lay-on-my-side-try-to-roll-over-but-that-arm-is-in-the-way" stage for a few weeks now, so they have both finally made it to the point of actually rolling. Isn't it uncanny how twins do things together like that? Now I know that there will be some rolling in bed and likely some unhappiness due to ending up on a tummy (Franklin), so here's hoping that doesn't happen tonight.

Tonight I also have to start back on my injectable medicine for my Multiple Sclerosis, Betaseron. I went off of it in April 2007 when we decided to try to have another baby (not babies, but what can you do?). It's been rather nice not to have to give myself injections every other night for a year and a half, but it's time to get back on the meds since that's all the doctors can do for now. So, tonight starts the every other night ritual of self-administered injections until the pending oral medication is approved. I can't wait for that day!!!!

To end on a happy note, here is another recent picture of Franklin and Carlton. Yes, it wasn't long ago that we had weather warm enough to wear shorts and short sleeves!

Thinking like a four-year-old girl

It is absolutely fascinating to see the world through the eyes of two four-year-old girls. Hans, Mom, Dad, and I continue to be amazed at the ways they express things that they want to describe, but don't know the correct word for. They usually hone in on some words they know that are similar, but not quite the final word. The latest was when I was going to draw a picture of Thomas O'Malley and Duchess from "The Aristocats" for Cora. She asked me if I was going to draw the "handsome thing" on Thomas O'Malley. At first I didn't understand what she was talking about, but then she pointed to the collar and bowtie that he has on and I knew what the handsome thing was and, yes, I did draw it.

Greta's most memorable phrase of late was when Mom was riding with the kids and me up to Greeneville, TN, for my grandmother's funeral. That day happened to be one of the super-foggy days we get here sometimes in "the valley" (that would be the Tennessee River valley). We were talking about fog, so it wasn't that Greta didn't know the word for the white stuff all around us, but she expressed it in her own astonishingly artistic way: "the fog is a blanket of white." Mom and I just sat there looking at each other for a moment in awe of what just came out of the mouth of a just barely four-year-old girl. Greta loves to look at art and notices details that we adults don't usually see. She loves the Maxfield Parrish prints we have on the wall in our guest room. We have several of the ones in the collage below, specifically, the ones on the four corners and the one on the right-hand side in the middle.

Both Greta and Cora enjoyed watching and dancing to "Singing In the Rain," especially the very artistic scene with Cyd Charisse and the famous "Singing In the Rain" scene where Gene Kelly sings and dances in the street. They have tried to duplicate the flowing dresses and streaming scarves like the "green lady" (Cyd Charisse).

It's fun to watch the girls dance since they've not been taught any real dance moves. Sometimes we have "The Cora Show" and "The Greta Show" where we put on a CD and let them dance however they desire. Greta's style is smoother, more like real dance moves. Cora's is a bit wild with her long arms & legs flapping maniacally. That's Greta at the top and Cora at the bottom. Fun times!

And, yes, I'll write something about Franklin and Carlton in the next post....

OK, so step back in time a bit now. Greta and Cora turned four years old on Wednesday, October 29th, though their birthday party was at The Little Gym on Saturday, the 18th. In all (other than the adults), there were 8 sets of twins there! One set was 5 years old, 5 sets were 4 years old, 1 set was 2 1/2 years old, and Franklin & Carlton were 4 months old. The kids all had a ton of fun running around playing on the gym equipment and playing some "organized" games with the instructors on hand. This was the first birthday party we'd gone away from home for and we will never again have one at our house! It was SO much easier to go somewhere else and let them worry about coordinating everything including the clean-up! I did have to bring the cakes (we got one for Cora and one for Greta) and the goody bags for the guests, but that was it!

Um, Greta....

OK, so now I'm going to post a picture of Greta from July 4th eating a cupcake to celebrate the birthday of the USA. The reason for posting it is actually to enter in a contest to win a $500 gift card from Prego on the 5 Minutes for Mom blog. So, here is Greta (with all of us in the background saying, "Um, Greta, do you realize that you have a TINY bit of red icing on your face?"):

Happy Halloween!

Yes, we made it through Greta and Cora's birthday on the 29th and I'm now worn out after a day of Halloween activities, though we did not go trick-or-treating in neighborhood after all. I helped get the girls ready to wear their costumes to school and then worked a bit on Baby Dipper stuff in the morning between feedings for Carlton and Franklin. Then I got the boys in their cute little velvet pumpkin costumes and picked the girls up from school to take them trick-or-treating in Hans's office building where all of the companies had their doors decorated and were offering candy to kids whose parents work in the building. Cora dressed up as Cinderella and Greta dressed up as Snow White. They got tons of candy this afternoon and were so tired that we didn't bother going out in the neighborhood tonight. We also think that they were way overdosed on sugar after the day full of treats. We don't know exactly what they had at school, but at the office they had a few cookies & brownies. After we got home I let them each eat one piece of candy and then they shared another one, so I didn't think it was that much. Boy, was I wrong! They were completely frazzled by 6:30, much earlier than usual, and then had trouble getting settled in for sleep. Note to self: continue monitoring the sugar intake! It's amazing how just a small amount of sugar affects them! I could eat an entire bag of candy without any adverse effects except maybe an upset stomach. If they eat anything sweet, they're almost guaranteed to have an energy spurt about 30 minutes later. Here is a picture of all four of them. That's Greta holding Carlton and Cora holding Franklin:





Carlton and Greta, Cora and Franklin


Cora as Cinderella, Greta as Snow White

One generation gone

Yes, my father's mother, my Nana, or my kids' Grand Nana died on Sunday evening. She basically fell asleep in her recliner and did not wake up. The nurses at the nursing home in Gadsden, AL, found her nonresponsive with no pulse and not breathing. At the hospital they were able to get her heart beating again, but she did not breathe any more on her own. Dad made it there in time to hold her hand and tell her that it was OK to go on. She was 90 1/2 years old, so this was not at all a shock to our family. For the funeral, our whole family loaded up and drove about 5 hours to Greeneville, Tennessee, almost to North Carolina or Virginia. Yes, Huntsville is only about 25 miles from Tennessee, but Greeneville is at the far eastern end of the state. The weather was absolutely perfect - sunny and about 65 for a high and the fall leaves in the Appalachians were beautiful. Nana would have loved to have seen her old homeplace with us, but it is good for her that she doesn't have to live the way she's been living for several years now. She has been telling us for some time that she was ready to go on. I'm happy that she got to know Cora and Greta well enough to be able to tell them apart and at least got to meet Franklin and Carlton one time. Greta and Cora handled the whole thing very well, but I'm not sure they really understand that we won't go visit her any more. They enjoyed dancing and singing for her as she squealed with delight about her "little fairies." So, if you're wondering where I've been for a few days, that is at least part of it. Things continue to be as hectic as ever with our normal lives and then add to it that Cora and Greta's birthday party was last Saturday (I'll write a post about that soon) and they turn four years old on Wednesday the 29th. The good news is that they are starting to behave a little better. The threes have been the more terrible age than the twos were for them!