Fun Valentine's Week

We've been having a fun Valentine's week. Following up from my previous post--nothing was hung. Maybe when the babies and I come back in a couple weeks our house will be magically decorated and things will be off the study room floor?

The babies--and Mario--like watching the Lady and the Tramp preview. Mario is the only one who would pose for my picture here though. The babies ended up getting Lady and the Tramp for Valentine's Day, which is good since Camryn goes around barking like a dog all the time.

Believe it or not, Cam let me put her hair in pigtails. I just need to learn how to do them cuter so they're not totally sticking out uneven--but it's still cute. She's also taken to coloring lately.

Cole has taken a liking to chips and salsa, again, proving he's his mother's son. Cam liked them too, but the spiciness would get to her pretty quickly and she had to keep downing water. Cole never took a drink--only more salsa. He likes to dip lately, he's getting good at it.
Here are my sweet little Valentine's on Valentine morning. We were up and at 'em ready to go to MOPS. We're still waking up a bit here having our "milk and Mickey" time. (There's now a song we sing to those words now too--it's something we look forward to every morning.)
Cole didn't really have a distinct Valentine's shirt--but he loves Big Bird (we all do!) and it's a fantastic red shirt, so it worked great.
Sweet little Valentine Girl
She was so proud wearing her pretty shoes that morning. She loves dancing around in them!

It was a fun MOPS time this week. I really enjoyed talking to other special ladies at my table and in the group. The babies really love it too. (After they get over their cry fest when I drop them off--I'm sure it ends about 15 seconds once I'm out of sight!) Their teachers are so sweet and you can tell they truly love Cam and Cole. They often tell me how sweet my babies are there. They say that they'll give each other kisses and hugs and that they're really sweet with the other kids and the teachers too. That makes me feel good! I'm glad Cole and Cam have each other there--and that they're usually very sweet babies. Usually they're like that with me at home--glad they're sweet babies at other places too.

All of a sudden, I get to have a bit of a social life. YAY!!!! Finally!!!! I've actually had something every night this week. Not how I totally prefer things--but it's all good. The majority of the week has been taken up with Junior League stuff. I'm so behind on my requirements for this year, I'm actually a bit stressed about making them all by May. I've had good intentions, but Matt gets home so late and hasn't been able to come home earlier for me in the previous months, so I've missed out on a lot of opportunities--in both Junior League and just fun adult social time for me, in general. This week, I'm making up for lost time. I'll be attending my 2nd Junior League function this week tonight. Hopefully I can continue with better attendance and breathe a little easier about staying in good standing. As for the other nights, Matt and I had a lovely Valentine's dinner out Tuesday and last night I got to go to the Lady Antebellum concert!! Darius Rucker (aka "Hootie") opened and I'm officially so into him. I LOVED Hootie and The Blowfish way back when--but I'm ALL ABOUT Darius Rucker right now. He is a MAN. :) It was such a fun group, the seats were amazing, and I truly enjoyed the whole entire show. Such a fun night!

This weekend the babies and I head home to Texas for a couple weeks. We're so excited to see everyone--and NOT bring/wear any coats!!

Hangin'

Glad the weekend is here, glad to just be hanging out! The past week was full of not-so-fun appointments, gunky/full heads for the whole house, snow with rarely-above-freezing temperatures, baby double ear infections, rough patches in the lives of too many special people we know, Camryn sprouting more teeth, and more snow. On a positive note, there were almost as many happy highlights in the week too. I discovered a new coffee drink I like for when all the Starbucks run out of pumpkin spice lattes (hazelnut vanilla lattes...), I went to my first book club here and had a fantastic time meeting really nice girls, Cole has been consistently "regular" all week (thanks to figuring out the right dosage of Miralax...and I'll leave it at that), got tickets to go see Lady Antebellum next week, and Matt and I had a very cool night out last night!

Not wanting to get out in the cold weather, nor wanting to drive around on snowy roads with hidden ice patches, we stayed inside all day Wednesday. I thought we might go crazy, but it was actually rather relaxing not having any kind of specific schedule to be on. It's also always nice when the babies can get good quality naps too--especially with all their gunky-ness, ear infections, etc. going on.

As mentioned before, the grocery carts are mostly used for lounging in. Camryn easily hoists herself in them and is surprisingly content just hanging out in the cart for a good 10 minutes sometimes. Cole likes to lounge in them because Camryn does, only he can never easily get his bulky boy body in them on his own. And he'll only sit in a cart for maybe a couple minutes before he's ready to move on to the next thing. That next thing lately is then pushing Camryn around in her cart. Not the safest way to play. But she loves when Cole pushes her around. It's delightful-squeal-central! But those excited shrills turn into big tears when she falls forward out of the cart landing on her head when he pushes her too hard or too fast. This happens about 5 times before I have to stow the carts away in the basement.

...The grocery carts also make great seats for watching the KU basketball game...

At school this week Camryn let Jen put her hair in adorable pig tails. She still won't let me do anything to her hair--combing it after a bath is even a fight. But so far she's let Nana, Mimi, and now Jen do her hair all cute.

Nana got Camryn an awesome Elmo jacket. Cam is in love with it. Yesterday she handed it to me then stretched her arms out for me to put it on her over her jammies. (I promise we did eventually get dressed...it might've been after lunch...but it finally happened) She's into "modeling" certain things she wears lately, like her dresses. Yesterday she modeled the Elmo jacket around for a bit very proudly! And then it was off to play...
Last night Matt and I went to a fun Junior League event at a wine bar. We did some wine tasting and then mingling in a very cool place. There, I was again reminded that I am not right out of college, and was also reminded of the very different dynamic between those around their mid-20's and then my age category of those around their mid-30's and older. I'm glad to be in the age category I'm in. I was exhausted watching all the younger girls compete with each other in all kinds of subtle ways. My feet hurt just watching them walk awkwardly in their uncomfortable, super high heeled shoes.

Here's how a conversation with a really cute, no older than 25 year-old girl went after introductions were made:

Me: This is really fun, what a fantastic job you guys did with everything for it

Her: Thanks, I'm hoping I don't drink as much as I did at a crazy bachelorette party last weekend. But my boyfriend has a bachelor party tomorrow night, so he can be in charge of getting us a cab after tonight is over.

Me: Umm, yeah.

Her: After this we're meeting up with (she listed like 5 different names---like I should know them?). We can't decide if we should go to __(bar) or __(bar)?

Me: Sounds fun.

Her: So where do you work? What kind of title do you have? Do you like your job?

Me: Well, my title would be "full-time mom to 1 year-old twins".

Her: So you don't work?

Me: Well, I work for two 1 year-olds

Her: *squeal* I love babies, that's so cute! I really hope when I have babies that they're twins.

Me: Really?

Her: Oh yes, I just love babies, I really hope I can have twins too.

Me: Okay. So hey, really nice to meet you, you look so pretty tonight. See you at the tasting...

Her: (Already looking down to her phone texting for about the 5th time in our short conversation)

She really was super cute and nice--I just am not in the habit of keeping up with conversations that start with what my title is? Or what my job is? I don't think I was like that 10 years ago? I hope not, but who knows. I'm thinking things in general must be pretty different now than from what I know. I'm glad to be older and to have had the experiences I did "back then" and to be where I am now in life.

We had a great time out, I got to chat with a very sweet friend in the League here who is also from The Woodlands. Matt and I tasted some yummy wines, got a sense of the cool atmosphere--and then our hunger took over. There wasn't much food there so we decided to take extra advantage of having a babysitter and go out to eat. Being in downtown Denver our restaurant choices were endless. However, once we stepped outside it was too freezing cold and was starting to snow--so we booked it in the direction of where our car was parked (7 blocks away) and went into the first warm, inviting place we came across: PF Changs. I love that place, so even if it wasn't some original, cool, downtown Denver restaurant, I was ecstatic because 1) It was WARM and 2) It was a sit down restaurant with a waiter and NO KIDS. I enjoyed dinner last night immensely!!!!!

It snowed all night and all this morning. It just now stopped. Staying up past midnight is NOT my norm, so needless to say, I'm totally lazy today. Glad we don't have to be anywhere and I didn't have to get 2 babies dressed and bundled up to be out in the 14 degree weather right now. We're hanging around the house today. We're FINALLY going to get around to hanging some more things on the walls and stuff. Although there are 4 things in particular I've wanted hung for like 2 months, we're starting with the surround sound speakers. I guess some family pictures and nice paintings are further down the list from TV speakers. When will I learn to get our priorities straight?! Matt's getting a lot of help with this first project...

Hopefully we're able to get some things accomplished and stay relaxed this weekend...!

Beloved Bear Blanket--we officially have an attachment issue

I know I've been saying it for a while now, but I was kind of saying it lightly--Oh, Cole is SO attached to his blanket! But it's totally true. And it's an issue. When we left Nana and Papa's house Sunday for our long drive home, Bear Blanket accidentally got left behind there. Nana found it and alerted us maybe 2 hours or so into our drive. Cole fell asleep instantly as we started the drive, otherwise, I bet he would've let us know it was missing sooner. I felt HORRIBLE when we learned we left Bear Blanket behind. I'm also now wondering who really is the one with the issues?--Because I'm thinking it's both of us...okay, maybe ME with attachment dependencies. I mean, I started crying in the car when we found out we left the blanket. All I could do was look back at a peacefully sleeping Cole, and anticipate how upset he would be when he realizes he doesn't have it. It completely broke my heart, I felt like the worst mother ever. I've had horrible anxiety the whole time Bear Blanket's been gone. But okay, so it's not just me. It was clear Cole has an attachment issue when he cried for 45 minutes going to bed the first night we got home without bear blanket. We tried giving him two other blankets and he would just throw them right back at us and cry even harder. The next morning and night was just as tough. Nothing I gave him or did would console him. Then...

HALLELUJAH!!!! Bear Blanket was waiting for us at our front door when we got home from MOPS this afternoon. I opened the box as quick as I could. The second I pulled bear blanket out, Cole's eyes lit up like I haven't seen in 2 days and, I'm not kidding, he held the blanket up to his face, closed his eyes and took deep breaths--like taking all of blanket in. He instantly started running in circles around the living room holding onto bear blanket with a big smile on his face. I then got tears in my eyes at that sight.

So, yes, Cole is officially attached to Bear Blanket. (And Momma too, I suppose.)

Weekend in Kansas

This past weekend Matt's brother got married in Wichita, so off to Kansas we drove. We were planning to leave Thursday after dinner and drive into the night with the babies asleep--however, a record snow for the month of February was coming Denver's way that same time so we rearranged everything to leave a bit earlier that day. We were able to stay about 3 hours ahead of all the storms, so although the drive was not the most ideal with timing for everyone, we made it safely. It's always overwhelming how much stuff we have to pack and tote along with the babies--and even more amazing that we actually do end up using everything we bring!

Friday we were able to hang out at Nana and Papa's. The babies had a fun time playing with their cousins. Cole was pretty social the whole time. Once he had a quick warm up time he was good and social with everyone. Camryn, as usual, was Miss Clingy. However, she would have some moments of independence and was very "on" during those times!

Before we headed over to the wedding, we took some quick "family pics". You get what you can with those!

Matt got a pretty picture of Camryn...

The babies were not in the mood to sit and watch an actual wedding ceremony take place. Good thing there was a great nursery off to the side. We had fantastic play time in there instead. Nor were the babies in the mood to take a picture afterward. Actually Cole was okay--it was Camryn who turned into a devil child at picture time. She twisted and screamed and fought me the whole time the photographer was snapping pictures. I'm sure those particular ones will turn out real well with this screaming girl practically falling out of my arms with her dress up over her head. After the family was done, she made her way over to the steps and sat there all still and pretty on her own. Luckily the photographer got some pictures of her that way--so she looks normal at some point then! I guess she just wanted to be in pictures all by herself? Diva.

The babies were definitely in the mood to have fun at the reception. Although I got more pictures of Camryn on the dance floor, Cole was actually the one doing the most dancing I think. He was so cute and funny out there shaking and dancing away.

All the kids were having fun on the dance floor while we waited for things to start up








...Gavin's not so sure of Camryn hanging out with him...!

Camryn LOVES her cousin Bella!



And she loves her Nana too...
And getting her nose wiped with Papa's handkerchief...!


Cole had a good time with Aunt Teri

It was nice to see a lot of family and have fun times with them!





The babies started to wind down around their normal 7:30-8:00 bedtime. We were so thankful Anne, Maggie and Fisher drove over to help out and take the babies that evening. They loved being with them and playing with Fisher!
Once I got back up to the rooms, this is how I found them--totally crashed out on Maggie!
Meanwhile, this, and other craziness continued down at the reception with Matt. He called it a night around 1:00am. Needless to say, he suffered a bit the next day.
...Which was okay. I drove the whole way home and we got to stop at McDonald's and stretch our legs at one point.---And Matt was able to grease it up with his super-sized meal there! The babies did good on the drive home. They watched their Curious Buddies and Baby Einstein DVDs. I listened and sang quite loudly to my iPod---and Matt wedged his head between two pillows against the window in recovery mode!
We missed out on all the actual big snowing over the weekend in Colorado. We were a little anxious what we'd drive home to. Luckily our side of Denver didn't get as slammed and our car was able to smoothly pull up and into the driveway. Whew!