Royalty Among the Masses!

The day before the twins birthday party was a mad jumble of activity, loud noises, and seemingly life-altering decisions. I spent the day out with the twins, which in and of itself is an exercise in patience on a good day. You just cannot expect two preschool age children to be buckled in and out of their boosters to traipse around store after store all afternoon without some resistance.

All in all they were great, only really testing the limits in the cake decoration store. I think I may have said, "Hands to ourselves, please" in that [you will rue the day I first saw your father if you don't remove your hand] tone of voice well over thirty times in the thirty minutes we were there. You know the tone, the one where it comes out all sweet and sing-songy, but is tainted with a menace only a Mother can render! but I have to give them credit, they always pulled their hand away and never actually tried to take anything from the shelves. They only wanted to touch each and every thing within arms reach!

After picking up Syd and Chad I had to get the house ready and dinner on and the following days outfits set out( we had my great-grandmother's funeral to go to before the party) and put together the party favor bags and get everyone showered and pick up the cakes. I fit in an appearance at the tea party being thrown in the twins room, complete with plastic cookies and chicken legs and peas. It was lovely, and so I left for the store a half hour later in a great mood, nothing brightens the day like pretend tea with pretend sugar :)

I picked up the cakes at Von's with what I thought were my sunglasses on my head, chatting with the lady at the bakery about Payton's passion for giraffes and Brookie's preoccupation with princesses. I then meandered through the aisles, happy for a few minutes of solitude, perusing the frozen foods and the cheeses. I picked out three kinds of ice cream next to a lovely mother and her two teenagers, and then stood in line at the checkout behind a father and son, with a young couple behind me in line. I exchanged pleasantries with the woman behind the checkout, and then went out and got into the car to go home. I tell you all of that to tell you this;
My cheek itched terribly as I put on my seat belt, and so I leaned over to look into the rear view mirror to check it out, and discovered that what I thought were my sunglasses was actually a PLASTIC SILVER TIARA!, complete with huge pink plastic stones, which had been bestowed upon me during the tea party!!

The thing that gets me the most, other than my dorky obliviousness, is that no one said a thing!! Not the lady at the bakery, who talked to me for five minutes at least! Nor the woman at the checkout, who I should point out never made eye contact with me, and I can see why!! So either they all thought I was some crazy person it would be unwise to upset, or their professionalism is such that they were afraid to embarrass me. TOO LATE! I went and did that all by myself! :) Or, maybe they were fooled by the plastic stones and thought I was a princess worthy of their respect and admiration!!............lol!

What I hope is that some tired soul was having a bad day, and the sight of a grown woman wearing a tiara while buying princess cakes and acting as if that were not a bit weird gave them a laugh and brightened their day! Hope it brightens yours :)

Another Backseat Debate!

We had another car argument this morning, you know the kind! The one where it starts with a statement by Brooklyn, followed by a snide contradiction by Payton, followed by a high volume retort to the contrary by Brookie, and so on and so forth until the backseat is a puddle of tears and people driving next to us are gawking because they can hear my sweet girls over the music in their cars with their windows rolled up! Oh if only my arms were just four inches longer.......not that that would have mattered today, given that they were in the third row and taking full advantage of their remote location. Let me share the subject they were so vehemently debating; cows.

Now before you double over in raucous laughter at my predicament, hear the whole sad story. The twins have sides of the car that they claim as their own. Claiming territory has been going on since birth, and the car windows were certainly never going to be an exception. Well, due to some unforeseen decision by two unrelated but nonetheless connected farmers, there were cows in the fields directly across the street from each other. So when Brooklyn saw "her" cows, she squealed with precious four year old delight that she had cows!!(some mornings one will have horses, one will have goats, etc.) Payton was watching for critters on her side and is seeing only the cows outside her window so naturally assumes Brooklyn is trying to claim what are rightfully(due to the rules of the car) HER cows! Can you see the storm coming?

Poor Brookie thinks she is being robbed of her coveted cows and starts to raise her voice right away. "They are MY cows Payton, not yours!!", and Payton would never back down from a challenge when her property is being threatened, so of course she screeches back, "MINE!", and there starts the one word war for the duration of the ride! "MINE!", "NO!", "MINE!", "NO!", and when I try to input reason into the scene, I get lots and lots of that funny gibberish girls talk when they are really upset and crying over something, and I get it from both of them at high volume simultaneously. Whew! I was never happier to pull into the garage and deliver the necessary comfort hugs! Needless to say I will be using my alternative driving route to reach our destination later this afternoon, and may the cows stay as forgotten as every other thing they get heated up about! True to form, they are now sitting and putting a puzzle together, thick as thieves. I wish we all could forgive and forget so easily.

Thank Heaven for spirited little girls! :)

Biliferous Birthday!!

Hello people! I hope you all had a beautiful Mother's Day! I was vomiting and racked with fever, but other than that mine was lovely. :) The Advil would kick in and I would have about two hours of halfway normality, and so I squeezed in as much fun as possible between doses. I went and explored old boats and ships on the San Francisco Bay, meandered through the Aquarium, got sick on a park bench, and then took some more Advil and watched everyone else eat lunch and then did a little shopping before we had to leave. The weekend was actually pretty lovely considering my bad turn of luck and the unfortunate reality of Brookie sleeping literally the entire time we were there. We just bought a stroller when we got there and pushed her little sleeping body all over San Fran for two days! We have pictures of her sleeping all over the city, to show her all she missed. I got to spend some time with my Mom and my girls, so all in all it was a great day.

Yesterday I was just as sick, and so I tried to stay down and rest. Brooklyn still wasn't feeling quite like herself however, and she was pretty frank about her feelings. She wanted me to hold her, but I had the shakes so bad from the fever that I asked her to just sit next to me instead, explaining that Mommy wasn't feeling well. She turns the full power of her deep blue eyes upon me and starts to cry these big crocodile tears. "What's wrong baby?" I inquired, and she responds with this heart wrenching wail, "I don't want you to be sick, I want to be sick!" No sympathy from the masses, I'm afraid. Mommy doesn't get a sick day.

Now yesterday was the day when four years ago my two precious little ones entered this world! I was so pitiful I had to ask my own Mommy to get a cake for the girls so that we could sing to them properly with candles and a few gifts. I guess being a mom is a forever job, because even at almost 29 I still ran to mine when I was sick! Thank goodness we postponed their actual party until the 23rd. Thank goodness that even after all of these years, when I needed it Mom still had the power to fix anything! I just hope that when my girls are grown they can say the same of me.

Another update on the sickies!

Well, last night Brookie's luck ran out and right in the middle of a pouting session in the hallway her dinner exited her body much much quicker than it had been previously put in!(the child eats like a snail) She doesn't seem to have it as bad as Payton, but we are leaving for San Francisco tomorrow at 6:00 a.m., so in my book, it is just as bad! Her immune system has always been stronger than Payton's, so we can hope for a quicker recovery time. Sydney is still healthy, so that's a plus, but I am now running on pure adrenaline and diet Pepsi after three nights of cleaning, cuddling, and cooing, not necessarily in that order. Not so good for Momma. Or Daddy if we are being totally honest. :)

After about the third time Brooklyn "visited the bowl" by her bed she reaches for me, and as she hugged me fiercely she says, " I decided I don't want to be sick no more Mom, I better." So cute and sad :( The poor girl thinks because she kept asking and pretending to be sick to be with Payton that she can decide to be better too! Not even Brooklyn can make that happen!

Wish me luck on this relaxing Mother's Day vacation, and I hope you all have a beautiful day whether you be mother or daughter!

Update, and It's a Twin Thing!

Today Payton was as sick as before, only she switched from vomiting to having a high fever and sleeping literally all day. We have seen the doctor, and at this point are just trying to make her as comfortable as possible until it runs its course. She can drink today, so my dehydration fears have been put to rest!(at least something has, Goodness knows I haven't the past two days!)

I have kept Brooklyn and Sydney away from Payton rather successfully so far, but not without effort, and it has shown me another interesting thing about twins. Though they are fraternal and two different little people, they identify themselves as a unit, and as a unit do not function properly when separated. This afternoon after Brookie had lunch she was following me around the house like a lost puppy, so I told her to go outside and play.
"I can't go outside Momma", she says to me "you have to have two kids to play outside".
"How about playing with Ponyville then?", I ask.
"No, you have to have two for that too."
"OK, then lets put a movie on for you".
"No mom, you need two for that too, I can't do anything without Payton, I need her!" she cries, and then covers her face with her arm Sarah Bernhard style and leans into my leg. I picked her up and tried telling her about germs and fevers, but she just fake coughed and claimed to be ravaged with sickness and asked if she could go to her sister. It broke my heart to tell her no, but I did let her wave from the doorway!

Tonight I was putting Payton into a cool bath, and she cried for Brooklyn the whole time while just leaning there motionless. I am ashamed to say I caved, and let Brookie get into the bath, warning them not to touch each other. Payton perked right up at the sight of her sister, and they talked and giggled while I washed them. Payton's fever broke while they were playing, and she went to bed cool and happy, something cool rags and Pedialyte Popsicles and Tylenol and Ibuprofen couldn't accomplish. I am just saying..........

You know, Payton started to get better in the hospital the minute they let me touch her and once we let the two of them touch and smell each other they got released from the NICU, and neither one can sleep well if the other isn't close enough to touch even now. Maybe they need that when they are sick too. How lucky to be made with a built in best friend! I am always learning from these two precious ones, and so grateful for the opportunity! :)

P.S. Sydney has totally rocked and helped me pick up the slack these last two days.....without even having to be asked! She is the best kid, I tell you :)

Bowls, Backseats and Super Bugs

Today my littlest one woke me up at 4:30 a.m. by vomiting last nights dinner onto the floor next to my bed. Poor little baby made it just far enough to share it with me! I didn't have the heart to point out to her the screamingly obvious difference in distance between her bed and the toilet and her bed and my bed, but she is young and cute so I forgave and held my tongue! Now let's cross our fingers and pray Sydney and Brooklyn don't follow, since we are going to San Francisco by train on Saturday. Can you imagine a sick child on a moving train? Do you even want to?

As most of you know we take Chad to work in the mornings, and so we had to strap the poor thing into the car with a bowl and a towel and head out at ten to six. She used the bowl the whole trip there, and then on the way back fell into a fitful sleep. I was gazing at her in the rear view mirror, admiring her sweet face, when the bowl goes tumbling from her lap and splashes it's lovely contents all over the floor of the car! Since I was driving I could do nothing but lament the recently departed cleanliness of the carpet and roll down the windows. (SIGH) If only I hadn't decided to clean and vacuum the car out yesterday!! Such is the way of life with me though, and there is no use bemoaning my ill-fated and short-lived love affair with my clean car, I do have three kids and a pretty lackadaisical attitude when it comes to bringing food and toys and such aboard! :)

Now Brooklyn and Payton call the stuff that spews forth from themselves when they throw up their "sick". So I was holding Payton while she was utilizing the bowl, and Brooklyn is standing next to me straining to see into the bowl.
"OOH, 'ellow(yellow) sick!" she squeals,
"Payton, you have 'ellow sick!"
"Is it corn sick? Is it cheese sick? No, it's corn sick, you have corn sick!" all of this commentary in high volume as poor Payton is dry heaving and I am trying not to laugh. You cannot under any circumstances laugh while a child is vomiting you see, it is in very poor taste. Oh, Brooklyn my dear, where do you come up with this stuff? You are full of mystery!(and a fair amount of bull)

I am happy to say Payton is feeling much better right now, and she has kept liquid down for an hour now, praise God. I am slathering on the hand sanitizer(on much more than my hands) and spraying the Lysol and praying it was just something she ate. My nephew Tyler would cringe at all of the antibacterial products I am spreading about my home right now, as we speak helping to create more of the super bugs that will eventually get us all. I will sleep soundly tonight in spite of that fact, knowing his generation will surely fix it all! ;) I promise to go straight back to my vinegar and baking soda cleaning products right after the trip!