Well, Will has figured out something that approximates crawling. It really looks more like an animal that's just been hit by a car trying to drag itself off the road, but it gets him where he wants to go! He lays almost on his side with his shoulder and head down on the ground, the pushes his butt up in the air and stands on tiptoes and pushes himself forward. It kind of defies description, but since he refuses to do it when I have the video camera out, you'll have to use your imagination!

I also need to upload some video of the baby cage fight we had yesterday afternoon. I ordered this huge "play enclosure," which is really just a giant baby cage off of ebay and it arrived yesterday. It keeps the boys contained so they can't get in to anything, but it does nothing to thwart the brawling. Being the good mother that I am, my first instinct when Will started beating Hays up was to grab the video camera. The resulting footage was hilarious, and I'll share it as soon as we can get our camera working properly. Its playback feature is messed up, so we're not having any luck uploading video. Anyone know where to get a broken videocamera fixed?

I spent a lovely day out shopping with my mom today. I had to find something to wear to my high school reunion! We're having a 13 year reunion next week, since our slacker class didn't bother to have a 10 year, and I needed something fabulous to wear. I've been dieting for the past month or so and finally shed all the baby weight, so I needed an outfit that screams hot mama! Matt and I went to high school together, but we weren't friends and didn't run with the same crowd. I want him to be proud to go back and tell everyone that he married me!

The twins had their one year old checkup today and it went well. The doctor was really pleased with where they're at developmentally. Of course, they have some delays compared to an average one year old, but considering all they've faced, they're doing great. Hays weighed 14 lbs, and Will weighed 18. They each had to get three vaccinations, and they didn't think much of that, but they were all smiles just a couple of minutes later.
Hays hit a new milestone yesterday- he learned to clap! He's been waving for a while, but he finally got the hang of clapping yesterday afternoon, so he's been doing lots of it today. I think he just likes the fact that we cheer for him when he does it. Those boys love to be applauded. I imagine we're going to have a new skill to cheer on in the next couple of weeks. Hays is almost crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees, rocks back and forth, then launches himself forward and collapses! But he's going to figure it all out in no time flat. Then I'm going to have to take everything that could possibly break out of the house! Will's already getting into everything. He rolls to get to anything he wants, and he can roll crazy fast. The other day I was in the kitchen fixing their breakfast whhen I heard a crash. Will had managed to grab a cord from a lamp that was sitting on a bookshe;f and he pulled the lamp down. Thank goodness it didn't hurt him, but it was scary. I ordered a big "play enclosure" or as I call it, a baby cage, off of ebay the day of the lamp incident, and I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival. Right now I'm scared to walk out of the room because I know how quickly they can get into trouble. Got to cage those wild animals!

My latest crafty endeavor- monogrammed tote bags


My first attempt at monogramming



bags I made for my sisters



The twins and Tess





Will stuck under the couch


We are happy around our house because Hays is finally acting like himself again!!! He's been pitiful for a couple of weeks now, and I was really starting to worry. I knew he was cutting his eyeteeth and I figured it had something to do with that, but it had been so long. But today he was his sweet, happy self again and I saw that the tooth had finally come through his gum. I'm so happy to have my delightful baby back!
I have a new crafty obsession. I decided to try embroidery because I had seen some cute things an old friend of mine had made and posted on her blog. It looked relatively easy, so I decided to give it a try. To my surprise, I was pretty darn good at it. I found these plain canvas tote bags super-cheap and decided to give monograms a go. I bought an inexpensive grommet tool at Home Depot and put metal grommets in the canvas so I could run ribbon around the bags, and I think they turned out really cute. I like embroidery because it goes really quickly and I can finish a project in a couple of hours. Perfect for my ADD attention span!

Happy Birthday, Babies!!!!!

Mr. Cool at the fooseball table

Happy birthday, Will!

Happy birthday, Hays!

Lots to celebrate!

What is this???????

No cupcake!!!!!!!!

Hmmmm, interesting

Tasty!!

I love cupcakes!

Mommy and her sweetie twins

Their sweet birthday outfits

The twins' birthday party was a success! Lots of wonderful people came from all over to celebrate our little guys' special day. Will loved the party. He is Mr. Social, and he was thrilled to be surrounded by his adoring public! He was all smiles and really had a great time. Hays, on the other hand, was not such a fan of his birthday party! He was tired because they didn't follow the nap schedule I had planned for them (of course), so he was a little overwhelmed by all of the people and activity. He tolerated being passed around to lots of different people for a while, but then he decided he was done with that and wouldn't let anyone but mommy or daddy hold him.

It was more of the same at cake time. We gave each of the boys a cupcake. Will dove right into his and loved it! He had cake from ear to ear. Hays thought we were trying to poison him I guess, because he wasn't getting near that cupcake! It's so funny how they have such different personalities. But they were both good as gold, and we were so grateful to everyone who made the trip out here to be with us as we celebrated the passing of a very eventful year.

We had some high drama Monday night. Will had been coughing since Sunday, but it got really bad late Monday. He was coughing so hard that he was choking and gagging, and the coughing was almost non-stop. I gave him a breathing treatment with Albuterol, but 30 minutes later he was coughing his head off again. I decided to take him to the urgent care center because I was really getting concerned about him. They gave him a breathing treatment there, but it didn't stop the coughing. They took chest x-rays and it was obvious that he didn't have pneumonia, but the doctor was worried enough that they sent us to the hospital. At the hospital they did more x-rays, checked him for RSV and gave him an epinephrine breathing treatment. It really seemed to help, but they also started him on an oral steroid to bring down any swelling in his airway. It tastes disgusting, so he promptly threw it up all over me. I cleaned up the best I could, but I still spent the next couple of hours sitting in the ER smelling like puke!
It was a really long night. WE got to the hospital around 8 pm and finally got home at midnight. Will was as good as any baby could possibly be. He cried very little and stayed in remarkably good spirits for a sick, exhausted baby. He stayed awake the entire time we were there, except for a five minute cat nap. When he woke up he looked around like he was really confused, then burst into tears! It was so pitiful. The doctor and I think he has seasonal allergies and that's what was making him cough. I started him on children's claritin the next morning, and he's been fine ever since. Guess he just wanted to stir things up!
Hays is feeling somewahat better. He's still having a tough time with those darn teeth, so he's not quite back to his sweet, happy self, but he's better. We're getting ready for their birthday party on Saturday! I truly cannot believe that they will be one day after tomorrow. Thank goodness the last year is behind us!
I got a call earlier this week from one of the NICU nurses at Egleston. She was calling to ask me if I would talk to a mom who has a baby that likely needs a trach, and I told her I would be happy to. The mom called me today, and I was immediately impressed by her determination to find out everything she possibly could to make the best decision for her daughter. I told her about our experience with the trach, and that while it certainly changes your life, it doesn't end it. It's not easy, but it's not nearly as hard as it seems at first. Keep them in your prayers. She is a good, devoted mother and she is working herself to the bone to be there for her daughter.

Mommy the artiste'


The finished product



My take on a custom headboard!




The coolest little boy's room ever!





Mason approves!


Well, Mason's room is looking good. I got the mural done today. I started around 8:30 and finished up around 2:00, so it wasn't terrible. And it looks so cool!!!! It turned out better than I had dared to hope.
After I finished painting, my mom and I went out looking for room accessories. I was going to make a headboard for his bed by upholstering a piece of plywood, but we came up with something even cooler. I found a couple of really cheap black metal garden trellises at Big Lots. We cut them pretty much in half, wired them together side by side, and hung them on the wall to make a really unique headboard. It looks kind of like gates, so we're saying it's the gate to Gotham! I still have to find a lamp and a few other things, but we're just about done. After we finish and get all the artwork hung I'll show pictures of the whole room. But at least y'all can see the cool mural and new bedding.

Our finds from the comic book store.
$15 art- that's what I'm talking about.


The inspiration for Mason's room.




Oh lord, what a week it has been. Hays was pitiful sick all week long, but he finally picked up on Friday. He's still not 100%, but at least he'll let me put him down for five minutes. Will is still healthy so far (fingers crossed!) and has discovered a new love- Cheerios. He hoovers those things up like you would not believe. Give him a handful, and 30 seconds later, they're gone! And he's not dropping many of them. That boy loves his Cheerios.
Mason had a fun and busy day. We atarted the day early, thanks to Will. So Mason got his valentine present first thing, and Matt and I got to listen to him playing Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots at 6:00 a.m. Yay! That was after I had to figure out how to get the little plastic robots into their boxing ring before I'd had a single cup of coffee.

Later he was off to Valentine lunch with Yaya and Grandaddy. As soon as he got home we headed to a birthday party at a pottery studio- which, by the way, is a very cool place for a party. The kinds got to play with the clay, make bowls and decorate them with clay stamps and paint. They all had a great time. The only downside is that you have to wait a couple of weeks to get the thing you made since they have to glaze it and fire it.

Then we stopped by the comic book store to get supplies for this weekend's project, re-doing Mason's room! And here's the real challenge- do the room for $150 or less. I think I can do it. I already have bedding, so it's just paint and accessories. He currently has a cars and trucks themed room. He was big into anything with wheels when he was 2-3, but now his thing is Superheros. Any and all superheros, so we're changing it up Gotham-city style. I found this picture online, and I'm basically copying the wall mural exactly. And yes, in case it looks familiar, I stole this from a Pottery Barn catalogue! I know it's cheesy to completely copy it like I am, but Thinks was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, but couldn't come up with on my own!Seriously, I don't have an artistic bone in my body. I've got some some great striped bedding in several differnt blues, red and white- superhero colors, you know. And I found a great superhero poster, and we bought a few comic books with cool covers and put them in $2 Walmart frames! But it looks darn cute if I do say so myself. And I can't wait to do the mural tomorrow!!!! I taped it out tonight roughly, just to get the proportions right, so we'll have to straighten all the lines up tomorrow, but it is going to rock!!!!! I can't wait to show y'all the finished product.

Our lovely valentines cookies


Mason hard at work!


The swingset is all fixed up and it looks brand new! I did underestimate the amount of time it would take to stain it. I figured it would take 3-4 hours, but I was off by about half. It took a grand total of 8 hours to get it finished, but it looks so good now that it was well worth it.


Poor Haysie is sick again. He's been pitiful the last few days- very sleepy and cranky and just wanting to be held. At first I chalked it up to teething because he's drooling like a St. Bernard, but yesterday he started running a fever. This morning he still had a fever, and he threw up his bottle. A trip to the doctor confirmed what I expected- ear infection, as well as a sore throat and something viral. He started an antibiotic today, so hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow. He was so puny today the he slept all but about three hours. That made for an unusually peaceful day!

Mason and I took advantage of the unexpected peace and made valentine cookies for his class. He helped me make butter cookie dough this morning and we decorated the cookies tonight after dinner. So he now has cookies and Iron Man valentines for all the kids in his class. His class party is tomorrow since they don't have school Friday or Monday because of winter break. Darn you, Oconee County school calendar, making me miss two days of preschool!

I think this may be the first time I've gone an entire week without posting. There hasn't been uch going on, but really it's the lack of sleeping children that has kept me from posting! Hays is cutting his eyeteeth, and he's having a tough time. He has pretty much sworn off sleeping during the day this week, and it's been tough on all of us. One day he was so tired, he fell asleep in his high chair while I was feeding them dinner! Luckily he's still sleeping at night, so we're letting him live!
But after spending 12 hours a day with the kids with no break, all I do after they go to sleep is veg on the couch. Plus, I finally decided to read the book, Twilight, to see what all the fuss was about. I see why everybody loved it. It's not particularly well-written, but it's addictive! So for the past couple of nights, I've had my nose in a book every available second.
We started a big weekend project today. We're finally fixing up Mason's swing set! We got it right after we moved into this house summer before last. We got it from one of my parents' neighbors who's son had outgrown it. They told us if we would haul it away, we were welcome to it, so we got a big, fancy wooden playset for free. But since it was pretty old, it was in need of a few repairs. Matt and my dad replaced ladder rungs and the monkey bars, and I started staining the whole thing. Tomorrow I'm going to finish staining it, replace the rope ladder, and put the new canopy on the playhouse part. Then we should be ready for lots of outdoor fun now that the weather is finally turning warm.

So it's superbowl Sunday, but since I don't like football it doesn't really affect me one way or the other. It does mean that I had to make hotwings for dinner. I'm not a big wing fan, but Matt is, so I always make them for the superbowl. This year I used a sauce recipe that I saw on Live with Regis and Kelly and it was really good. I also made this banana split pie that was seriously yummy. Now I'm so stuffed I can barely move!
My mom and I spent most of the day yesterday looking for birthday outfits for the twins. We didn't have any luck, but I hit the jackpot today when I found light blue overalls on clearance at Pottery Barn kids. Only $9.99 each! We're going to have some kind of little birthday applique embroidered on them, so it should be really cute. I printed out the invitations and addressed them over the weekend, after spending well over an hour trying to decide which font to use! Crazy I know, but you only turn one once. And the fact that we made it through the first year is a miracle in and of itself!
And those crazy babies are doing their best to learn to crawl. I had been kind of worried about Will because he hated being on his tummy, and would just kind of lay on the floor. But ever since he learned to roll to get to a toy- look out! He now spends more time on his tummy than Hays does, and it wouldn't even surprise me if he crawled first. And they're both doing a great job with sitting up. Each can sit up for a long time with no support, it's just balance that we're having an issue with now. They can correct themselves if they start to wobble most of the time. But sometimes they just tip too far, and over they go! But we're getting there. Finally!