Dada Dance

Today Hannah turned on some music all by herself, started dancing and said, "Dance! Dance!" Bart and I thought it was pretty darn cute, but then she turned to Bart and said, "Dada," grabbed his hand, pulled him over to me so that we were face to face and said, "Dance!"

We looked at eachother not quite sure we were interpreting her properly, but then she made a motion with her hands as if to say, "come on guys, get together and dance," and said, "DANCE!"

We laughed and started to dance together. She gave herself a satisfied nod and continued to dance herself. It was pretty much the cutest thing EVER!!!

It was fun being a mom again!

So last week, there was a morning when I actually felt like it was fun being a mom again! I know that sounds sad, but I don't really feel like it's sad. It's just life. Being a mom is work. It's AWESOME work, but a lot of times it's HARD work. And, like any other type of work, or job, there are easy times, and there are hard times.

Having a new baby is so so so so awesome. But I don't think there is a mom out there who wouldn't tell you it's also really tough. Babies demand so much time and attention, it really is hard. (Even without the challenges of being sleep deprived!) And, let me tell you, having two is MORE than twice as hard as having one!

I can get TONS done when I have just one baby. I can clear out the dishwasher, work on dinner, pick up toys, read stories, comfort another child, change laundry from the washer to the dryer, update blogs, make beds, and so much more WHILE NURSING one baby. (Seriously, I've done it).

But two is a whole new story. With one baby, you have one free hand to do things. When you have two babies, there are no extra hands. When I am nursing or holding the twins, I can get NOTHING else done. Well, since I have a huge nursing pillow, I can pretty much nurse tandem without using my hands, so I can read blogs or update facebook from my ipod, but that's about it. And when I'm just holding the twins, I can't even do that.

I nurse the twins A LOT! They're usually eating every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. And that's from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of another feeding. When you take into account that they will eat anywhere from 20 to 45 min, that leaves me more like 1 to 1/2 hours in between feedings. And a lot of time, during that time, they're fussy, so I have to hold them. (Especially Lilly. Man, that baby is fussy! And if I'm holding Lilly, after a while Maya will begin to wonder why she's not being held to and start whining).

In short, lately, this mom job of mine has been in a hard phase. A VERY VERY hard phase.

But the Monday before last, the twins decided to be perfectly content in their little bouncer and car seat while I bathed myself, Hannah, and Addsion. Got all of us dressed, and fed all of us breakfast. And you know what, not having crying babies, and getting to interact with my kids without screaming in the background was actually fun! I thought, "Maybe we can go on a walk."

So I buckled the twins into their carseats, wrapped them in blankets, put on their little beanies, and clicked them into the stroller. Of course that's when they decided to start to cry. I could feel my stress levels rising, but I was DETERMINED to get out of the house for a little while and go on a walk, however short. So I put on Addison and Hannah's coats and PRAYED that the twins would settle down. Well they did and we got to walk for a little while. It was so nice. In fact, it was fun!

I can finally see a distant light at the end of this difficult tunnel. The twins are starting to take regular naps. (I can only get them to sleep at the same time about half the time during the day, but like I said before, I can do a lot with only one baby). And I think it won't be too long before they start really getting into a schedule and sleeping at the same time regularly (I hope). That will free up some much needed time for attention to my other two little girls. YAY!

Bart says Lilly looks kind of like Uncle Fester from the Addam's Family when she wears this collar.

Bald Head, Big Cheeks, Double Chin.



Hmmmm....I still think she's cuter.

Hannah's doing it too

I told you guys how Addison likes to copy Hannah here. Well, Today Lilly was sitting in her little bouncer. I took her out, set her on the bed, and turned around to this:


Guess Addison's not the only one.

Supermoon a Haiku

My dear Supermoon
Would that I could see you, but
Cloudy skies forbid

A Great Evening

I just spent the evening at the Pantages seeing Beauty and the Beast, with this little girl:

I can't think of a better way to have spent my evening.

Thanks for a great time Addison!

A few things...

This is how I get a shower every day:


This type of thing is the reason we call Hannah our silent little comedian:

There was no giggling. Just a rag girl slowly walking silently toward me. Then, when she had heard me laugh, the rag girl walked silently away.

And this is the type of thing Addison does when she sees Hannah's made us laugh:

I wouldn't call her jealous per se, but when Hannah gets a reaction out of us, Addison does her best to do the same. I love this sweet little girl.

So excited!

Soooo, at the beginning of the year I won a year membership to a Photography forum. I was pretty stoked considering the one new year's resolution I made was to improve my photography skills.

On the forum they suggested a 50mm 1.4 or 50mm 1.8 if you're just starting out. I can't afford the 1.4 at the moment (even though I would desperately love to have it), so I found a used 1.8 one of the other forum members was selling and purchased it. It arrived today!!! I am in love with this lens! Here are some pictures I took with it today:


The light in my kitchen was not very good. Normally I have to bump the ISO WAY up....like to maximum. Although I still needed to bump it up a little bit higher than I would ideally like, it was nowhere NEAR maximum, and I think they turned out beautifully. (In low lighting!) When I looked in the viewfinder to see the pics, it took my breath away!

And look how narrow you can get the depth of field (look closely at Hannah's right eye vs her left eye). And the background is so beautifully blurry! I'm seriously in love.


I especially like the blur because you can't see the mess that is my house. :o)


And it makes for a pretty nice portrait.


Ah my silly girl.


And here's one, just for fun


I seriously can't wait to learn to use this lens better and see what it can do!

Some Pictures of the Girls

Well, it's been a while since I posted any pictures of the girls, so here they are:

Addison...posing. She wanted me to get a picture of her sleeping, so I oblidged.




She is seriously such an angel child. I can't believe how helpful she is...and how happy and proud she is to be so helpful. It's so sweet. Today she told me, "Mom, I have two super powers. Helping you, and turning on the TV." LOL! I'll give you one guess what I tell them to do 99% of the time that they need me while I'm nursing the twins. Sigh. It's hard to be a good parent when you have four little ones.

Hannah REFUSES to look at me when I'm taking pictures lately. Instead she looks down and tries to get around me. It makes me sad because I can't get good pictures of her beautiful eyes, but this one was pretty cute.




Hannah is going through the naked stage. She is stripping down completely whenever we put her down to sleep. At night we have to pin up her zipper with a diaper pin so she won't take all her clothes off and wet the bed. Silly girl.

And now for the twins. They're starting to smile. I haven't caught a cute one of Lilly's full smile yet, but I like these pictures of her. Whenever Lilly smiles, the left side of her mouth kind of twitches up into a little half grin just before she flashes you her huge toothless smile. I love it. Hopefully I'll be able to capture that sometime.




This is a cute one of Maya, although it's not as sharp as I'd like.


And here's one I caught of her laughing. Not the best compositionally, but I love how it looks like she's just letting out a big belly laugh. And look at those two dimples!!! SOOOO CUTE!


The twins are starting to babble too. Not a ton, but they've made a few sounds. The other day one of them...I can't remember which (that happens when there's two of them)...made a sound in reaction to something we were doing that almost sounded like a laugh. It's only a matter of time. We're excited!

Les Miserables

So Bart and I are sitting around, watching PBS's 25th anniversary concert of Les Miserables. OH MY GOSH!!! It is absolutely AMAZING! I forgot how increadible this music is. I am getting goosebumps!

And the story! Oh my gosh. If you haven't read the book, you need to. I really think I don't have the writing skills to adequately describe how increadible this story is. If you do not read it, your are missing one of the greatest accomplishments in literary history. Seriously. Your life will be incomplete without it. And you don't even know it! It is absolutely AMAZING. The characters are some of the most amazing, complex, increadible characters. Amazing! And the music. Oh man! And the story. Did I mention the music...or the story?

And in this particular performance , Javert is absolutely increadible. I mean everyone is amazing, but he is just so perfectly cast. He's increadible! It's breathtaking!

Anyway, I have to go and re-read the story now...and perhaps donate to PBS so that I can have the dvd. And then see how many times I can say amazing and increadible.

Goodnight everyone!