Babies, Housework and School - Oh My!

As I have previously announced, I am a student once more! I am going to school this semester. Most of my classes are online; I am only taking one class on campus. I need it to graduate. I was in it last semester when we found out we were having twins, and I was ordered to drop it and live exclusively in my recliner. So when the teacher saw me, she was shocked and asked me "are you sure you really want to do this?" I thought 'Of course I am, how hard could it be?'. Well....

Ashley and Elysha are getting bigger every day. They are eating close to six ounces now! They can grab toys, rub their eyes (I was particularly excited to see that one), and 'talk' to each other. They routinely sit on the recliner across from each other and take turns telling stories in loud, excited voices: "La Ba, Ga Da Ta!" "Ab Ga La Datta!" Then they both giggle. I don't know if they made up a secret language they will prefer to learning English, or if they just like the sound of their own voices? Either way, it is pretty cute to see them talking to each other like they know exactly what the other one is saying.

Another change is that Elysha is suddenly wanting to be held all the time! She wants to know exactly what I am doing when I leave to the next room. She studies the way I make sandwiches like she could easily repeat my actions if I handed her the bread and peanut butter. I love this; it is fun to see her so eager to learn. The only downfall is... I sit down to do homework, and she gets quite angry. I understand how she feels, I'm not that interested in the note cards or essays either. All the same, I now stay up after they go to sleep to get schoolwork done - a situation I never imagined when I signed up for classes.

Also, going to school makes me feel like I am trying to be young when I should be admitting that my youth died a long year ago. All my friends in that class talk about the dates they went on, their roomates, their jobs, etc. I feel like I am on a different planet, though we are the same age. I don't mind it at all, it is fun to hear about their lives! I think it has just been an eye opener to how much life has changed.

I am sure that after a few weeks, this will all feel normal and easy again. I will be able to work in a way to get all of the homework done before bed, and I will learn how to make it through a class without having an anxiety attack about whether my babies are being nice to my mother-in-law (who is sacrificing an hour every day to watch them!). And even while things may be crazy now, life is still wonderful, and I enjoy every change it gives me.

3 Months Old Today!

Ashley and Elysha are actually growing like other babies do.  I swear, for awhile there I was under the impression that my babies would always be little, but I had to pack away their old clothes and get out the 0-3 month clothes!  I don't really know how to react.  Christian is blown away that anyone would want babies to stay little forever.  "Ya, they are cute, but they can't even talk, walk, or really play yet!"  He has concluded that women are impossibly obsessed with babies, and men are much more practical and they just want their kids to get bigger already!  I think that by the time they are walking, talking, etc., he will miss their baby days.  We will see.

Christians new favorite joke is:  "We have an announcement".  So funny, let me tell you.  Everyone's faces drop to the floor and no one knows what to say.  Another baby?  Are they crazy? Then he will follow up with:  "We are finally putting in our lawn this week."  or "We are fixing our car".  Everyone then confesses that they were trying their best to look happy for us, while they were really panicking inside.  

Our Anniversary was last Friday!  It is so crazy that it has already been a year since we got married, and yet so much has happened, it feels like it has been a decade since we were dating.  Christian is taking me on a real live date tonight to celebrate!  We postponed due to crazy babies that I didn't want to drop on anyone.  I have to say, despite how packed this year has been, I have enjoyed every day of it, we are really blessed.   It really has gotten better every week and every month.  

Our Trip

The girls are recovering and getting happier every day now! After a wonderful week of constant crying and no sleep, they finally slept through the night last night! Well until 4:30 which counts in my book. I feel like a new person; I can think about the same thing for longer than half a minute, I had energy and time this morning to clean my house, and now I am enjoying a movie and I don't even need the subtitles on to know what they are saying!

So, last week I went to visit family. My cousin got married and we went to a family reunion. The wedding was great, it was so nice to see family that I rarely get to talk to in person. I am excited for my cousin too, they looked really happy together. We toted all three babies to the reception. I got asked "You have TRIPLETS??" several times. I felt a huge amount of relief as I was able to say "No, JUST twins". The family reunion was a lot of fun too, we got to play games, and the girls met a lot of my family for the first time.

One big reason we went up was to see my sister Alyssa. Carol and I were pregnant at the same time, our due date was 5 days apart. We both had girls (I just had two). Since Ashley and Elysha were born three weeks early, their aunt is three weeks younger than they are! So I don't want to miss out on seeing her as a baby. When Ashley and Elysha first noticed her, they both just stared at her with huge eyes like "woah! she is our size but she looks so different!" They seem to have a connection too, because I let my girls pick out their onsies (they do this by either looking at the poke-a-dot one or the flower one) and they picked out the same onsie that Alyssa was wearing and we didn't even know it! So we had fun with them looking like little triplets for the day.

Alyssa was even nice enough to share her toys and room with my girls. Elysha loved Alyssa's swing, especially the little mobile. She would literally stare at the teddy bears for hours making this exact face of stunned curiousity. I think we should probably invest in a mobile.

I don't know why I don't have as many pictures of Ashley on this trip, it just seems like she was sleeping every time we had the camera out. I promise she was just as cute and fun as Elysha.

Elysha was sitting with Alyssa and her uncles, Nathan and Nicholas, were making them smile. That is the first time they have ever really played, it was fun to watch them all together.

My mom practiced taking care of two babies at once and got pretty good at it.

Well, I start school again next week, so I might start getting a little crazy if I try to write everyday! I will start writing on Saturdays, and if I have time I will add more.

I am a bit late on the posting.  Sorry!  I actually don't have time to do a full update today either, but I will write a bit.  We had lots of fun visiting the grandparents!  The girls loved seeing family and being entertained - maybe even a little too much.  I also had a great time with both sides of my family there.  (I will write about specifics as soon as I can)

The only thing is...  I have gotten a total of about 10 hours of sleep in the three nights since then.  Good thing Jess stayed up with them the night before we left!  They have hardly slept at all, day or night, since we got back.  At first I thought they were used to a handful of adoring people staring at them, and were bored with their old mom.  I tried to be entertaining, I really did!  But nothing I do will help.  This is out of the ordinary because usually if I pick them up, they are instantly happy and content.  Now I can't even feed them without them crying the whole time!

Last night, at about 3 am, I broke my rule of letting themselves go to sleep in their crib because it was a seriously flawed rule at that point.  I picked them both up and started rocking them.  Elysha cuddled up and fell right to sleep, but Ashley was not so easily consoled.  So after awhile I started singing really quietly, as not to wake Christian.  She eventually stopped crying and started doing her little talking noises, really quietly.  She would smile like she knew how cute she was and then continue on 'singing' with me.  Moments like that always make it worth it.

We are suspecting ear aches now.  We will probably take them to the doctor tomorrow.  I will start writing again as soon as this passes, as they are now awake once more and needing some tender loving (and apparently inadequate) care.  

Blessing Pictures

When Ashley and Elysha were blessed, our relief society president had offered to have her sister make the dresses. They were absolutely beautiful! But, me being a new and inexperienced mother, I focused so much on the meal we served after church and visiting with family to take any pictures on the day of. By the time I thought about it, they had been changed out of their dresses and were being passed from grandma to aunt to another adoring grandma.

So a few days ago (aka a month later), I finally took some pictures of them. I got them in their little dresses and they were both happy. Lucky me! I took some of them both individually... and they were still happy! A miracle. Then Ashley spit up on her dress. So there are no pictures of them together yet, but at least now I can say I tried.

ELYSHA FERN OLSEN

ASHLEY EVELYN OLSEN

Tomorrow we are going on our first trip without Christian and the first ever overnighter. Ya, wish me luck! We will be gone until Saturday night so my next post will be on Monday when I am sure I will have a few adventures to report!

I Dreamed!

As you can probably tell by now, I am slightly obsessed with the subject of sleep. My dad and Carol recently had a baby too, she is a few weeks younger than Ashley and Elysha. So when we talk, it is almost always entirely about sleeping, discussed in excited tones: "So, how much sleep did you get last night?!" "Fifteen minutes more than the night before!" It is riveting to us, but would probably sound strange out of context to anyone else.

So, it would be out of character if I didn't report the miracle that occurred last night. I slept long enough last to have a full-out, real-life dream!

At about 8 o-clock, my girls got ravenously hungry, and I was feeding one or the other for three hours straight. When 11:00 hit, they could fight sleep no longer, and they passed out. I fell asleep, expecting to be awake within twenty minutes to an hour... but when I finally woke, it was 4:30! I woke from a vivid dream about vampires, scrapbooking, and Christian opening a hair salon in our basement. It was wonderful.

I Didn't Want this Day to Come

Yesterday we had our poor little car inspected. It has been faithful through the 4 years I have owned it, ever since I turned 16. By faithful, I mean that even if it dies, it always comes back to life. But it may be time to put our little clunker in it's grave. It didn't really pass inspection. In fact, it failed about half of the tests. On the 'notes' section, the mechanic wrote all the things that were wrong in little handwriting, filled the whole space, and needed to add another paper. We could ressurect our sweet car, but it may be kinder to end it's suffering.

Thus, we are brought to the next step in our rush of life.

The hard truth is that we already have two kids, and within a few years we will have another one. We don't want to wait too long for the next kid, because we want them to be close in age. We can't buy another cute little car. Already, our double stroller doesn't fit in our trunk and we have to drive with our seats forward so the carseats can fit in the back. Add another carseat and possible stroller, and I may need to ride on top so we can use my seat for storage space.

So, Christian and I thought, lets buy an SUV! They are rugged, outdoor, mountain-worthy vehicles. They have storage space, seats, and good looks. We could fit our family in with ease. Plus, it would boost Christians ego to be driving higher up. I guess men just like to look down on the world. Christian would be happy, I would be happy, it would be perfect.

However, after looking around a bit, we could no longer ignore the economical option of a... minivan. They are less expensive to drive, less expensive to buy, they have more storage space, and are easier to buckle three carseats into. I never thought we would consider buying a minivan this early in our lives. It feels like we have graduated from being parents to Parents with a capital 'P'.

I am not saying that I am going down without a fight. I will do my best to find an SUV that I can consider to be a smart purchase. I am more scared of buying a minivan than I was of getting married, buying a house, and having twins put together. This would be the last straw, and I would have to finally grow up.

But, that being said, I will probably become a 'Parent' in the end.