Musings

Life is getting better around the Shingler home. I sound like a broken record but we really are THIS CLOSE to having the house all settled. Why is it the last few bits of stuff are always the most difficult to get squared away? I am feeling much better than I was but am now wary of allowing myself to get as run down as I was over the holidays. That means insisting on taking a nap every day.. which cuts down on productivity ... particularly on the days when the girls decide to nap well for only one of their naps. Still we march on and I feel like I have made progress..slow progress.. but progress all the same.

I started to get self conscious about the fact that all I write about is the babies. So I decided I wouldn't post anything until I had something else to take about.. turns out.. that's all that is in my head right now. That being said I guess I will just talk about babies some more. I hate to think I am boring readers out there but.. they can always just surf on by so...why do I worry about such stupid stuff!? Shut up and just write already! Ok.

The girls are now eating 3 solid meals a day plus nursing 4 times a day.. that means that the majority of my day is spent preparing to feed or feeding in one fashion or another. Mom presented us with the most fabulous baby food maker - the Beaba Baby Cook. It steams cooks their food fresh in 15 minutes, and then you blend it right there in the same container. It is my best friend. If wasn't already married... anyway.. it's really great. Our girls are big eaters. They split a whole bowl of plain yogurt and oatmeal for breakfast and then for lunch and dinner two more bowls (respectively) of either applesauce, green beans, sweet potato or avocado and banana. We add a new food every 4 days and so far we have had no complaints. They have a hard time towards the end of a feeding being patient enough to wait for their spoonful but.. they are learning.

They are trying so hard to crawl. Ada can get up on all fours but doesn't know where to go from there. She gets up and then flattens out and does it again. Margot sticks her bottom in the air, face-plants, then lifts herself up high on her arms.. looks a little bit like a seesaw. They get bored more easily so I was super excited when Ellen brought that door jumper and exersaucer over. They are so thrilled to be upright and view the world from another angle.

I have lately been feeling a little guilty for not holding them more. That is one of the challenges of having multiples. You can't hold them both at the same time.. well .. you can.. but it's not very cuddly when they are little like this. It's more for transportation purposes. I wanted them to be ok with amusing themselves early on.. didn't want them to get the idea that if they cried they would automatically get picked up since that is not really an option most of the time. So now I have babies who will play together on their own very contentedly.. which is great... but I find myself missing the snuggling I imagine one must get with a singleton. I try to make up for it at some point during the day. If someone wakes up early from her nap, I get her up and feed her alone or just spend time cuddling with her until her sister wakes up and then I swap and feed and cuddle the later sleeper. In a small way ( and I do mean VERY small because it was super hard back then) I miss the early days when they were so teeny that they fell asleep right after they nursed and we would all snuggle/nap on the bed together. I wish they would nap with me now but I am glad they know how to nap on their own. Maybe we can share a nap together now and then when they are toddlers ? So strange how the older they get and the more their personalities develop the stronger my desire is to keep them as close to me as possible.. thus the snuggling issue. I have to be ok with the fact that I can't hold them all the time.. it has achieved the outcome that I wanted and for that I am thankful. It's funny, I am so used to having them comfort themselves that occasionally when someone is crying it will randomly occur to me that I COULD in fact pick her up. This week I did that several times and each time that baby looked like she had just won the lottery. Then the exact thing I knew would happen.. happened.. the other baby saw her sister being held and cried..demanding to be held as well.. so.. I had to either put the first baby back down.. or try to calm the tearful sibling while feeling extremely unfair. Sigh. Multiples. This is why I stick to the "quiet baby" rule. As much as is humanly possible, always try to tend to the quiet baby first..thus they begin to learn that being patient has it's rewards. Or at least that's the basic idea..

Now that I have rambled on about basically nothing.. I am feeling self conscious again .. oh well.. I have a bedroom to organize. G'night folks.