Family Life Triage {How moms of many, multiples, or both do it}

For many months,well, let's be honest since the twins were born nearly 18 months ago I have been asked several times "How do you do it?" I could never quite figure out how to answer other than, "By the Grace of God." or "Honestly I don't really know, you just do." Tonight as I was carrying the first of the twins ready for bed up the stairs to her crib it came to me! I finally know how to explain how it is done!

FAMILY LIFE TRIAGE is what I thought of as I was climbing those stairs with Ellie. What a catching name too! Here is how a seniro just might play out.

After a full day of activity, well who am I kidding, it could happen any day or at any time, you find yourself with 2-5 kids crying all at the same time. So, what do you do except sit down and cry with them? TRIAGE! Here is the way I like to run down the cryers as well as the rest of the gang.
In order of who gets moms help or attention first.

1. Youngest child or if hurt the child with the greatest injury.
2. After #1 is taken care of it goes up to the next oldest child in need. Again according to age and or injury.  Example: Our 7 year old may trump one of our 17 month olds if she is injured badly enough.

This continues until all crying stops. If, I am lucky enough a few stop crying on their own and realize they can cope with life without needing Mom they way they thought they did. Somtimes though more join in on the crying and the number in TRIAGE goes up. Then I just stop and cry! Haha. Oh, one more important thing to remember, enlist the help of older non crying children! My older children can often comfort a smaller sibling or help them while I tend to those in the most dire need. Side note: I can't say how many times my "big" kids help me with the twins or even Ashlyn! They are probably the reason I have not gone insane yet! haha "big" kids ROCK!

Some out there may think I am ignoring my other children who need me, but in reality I believe I am teaching them good life skills on how to handle their emotions, conflicts with siblings, or "small" hurts on their own knowing help is comming if they still need it in a few minutes. In the end every child gets checked on, tucked in bed, hugged, kissed, and told they are loved. But, TRIAGE is the way we handle multiple meltdowns that occur at the same time.

I also TRIAGE house work. Most important first and so on. There are times when an item on the list sits at the bottom of the list for days.

I want to state that I am NO supermom. I regularly have days when nothing gets done because I don't want to do anything, my kids go to sleep in their clothes and have not brushed their teeth, the twins eat food off the floor and not single dish gets washed or put away, this is just how I make it through each day.

Now you have an answer to "I just don't know how you do it!"

Took a Time Out Today

This morning after I had put our 3 older children on the bus and the Twins woke up for the morning and had their breakfast I sat back and just enjoyed the hours of the morning with them. I am very thankful that I did. I was able to witness some pretty special moments of twin bonding between Eli and Ellie.

To start off the morning they showed me just  how much they love each other. There we were just sitting and playing on floor and I was just enjoying the moment and drinking in how special each of them are and they stood up and started hugging each other! Eli was even giving Ellie kisses! This went on for at least 2 minutes. They would hug let go look at each other a giggle a little then hug again, until finally Eli was done and pushed Ellie away. To me that was such a special moment. Through out the morning they would play often apart but one would always get and check on what the other was doing. Usually they just turned around and went back to what they were doing but, it was like they were checking up on each just to see if they were OK.

One day not that long ago I was taking another moment to take in the uniqueness of each of the twins and I asked them, "Which one of you decided you just couldn't do this on your own and asked for a partner to take on the world with?" Well Eli started the hugging and from the first ultrasound at 6 weeks he always measured a day farther along than Ellie. I have decided Eli needed a hand to hold and I am ever grateful that God saw fit to give him a hand to hold.

Today showed me that in the busyness of life it is important to stop and hit pause. The world is just spinning so fast for everyone that the little things get lost. Today I found a few of those things watching our twins. I hope anyone reading this takes a moment and hits pause today to just take in the world around them and enjoy the beauty we pass by everyday without thought.

Cleaning Ballerinas

Friday the kids had a day off of school for Good Friday. Well, what is a mom to do but put them to work! So, Ashlyn had her first turn with the vaccum cleaner. Man did she have fun!


Kjerstin has been working on her broom handling skills and they are comming along nicely. If, you notice the twins were in their high chairs as is the custom when sweeping the floor in this house when they are awake. The dirt piles are like flashing beacons to them.

GroVia AIO Cloth Diaper

I have been struggling for MONTHS to find a diaper that really fits our twins well. They are smaller than average and have skinny legs and thighs. Eli is the worst offender of skinny legs and thighs! I have looke more than once at the GroVia line. The diaper shells (cover) and snap in inserts are more economical but I didn't like the way the hook and loop wears and makes the diapers look not as nice in a short period of time and there is only one row of snaps for the snap option. Then they announced their Spring Fling sale of Buy 3 Get 1 Free. I had a $75 gift certificate for Kelly's Closet and had finally found a way to get the most for my money out of it! So I ordered 4. One each of Ice, Cosmo, Mod Flower, and Owls. I was excited when they arrived. It says to prep wash them 5-6 times before first use but I threw them in the diaper wash and used them after just one diaper wash routine and dry. I did change them sooner the first a couple times around though just in case they were not up to the absorbtion power required for our 17 month olds. All I can say is that I am in LOVE with these diapers. I don't normally like All In Ones (AIO) but with the sewn in flap that dries quickly and the snap in booster if needed I LOVE these ones! I have only one other diaper that I thought I could have just a whole stash of these and I would be happy. Well, now I have two diapers I would choose if I could convert my stash. These are the first 4 diapers to be used every time they are clean. Hmmm, maybe I need to sell off some other diapers and make room for these. Just kidding I think my husband would disown me if I did! Now if you want to make donations to my diaper stash I am willing to trade you or accept outright donations!
 

Cutiepoops Cloth Diapers

I have been using Cutiepoops cloth diapers for a while now. I first started out with a small fitted and 2 One Size diapers. I will say that I LOVED the fitted! It was so absorbent and was one of my favorite night time diapers paired with a cover of any brand. I am not a big fan of her OneSize Diapers though. I think it may be due to the slender nature of our twins. To me there seemed to be a lot of extra material that made the diaper look sort of droopy and not that great. I can say I have not had her diapers leak! That is always a plus.

I now have these two diapers in Oogga Booga that are sized at a Medium. These diapers do have a great fit. And Eli and Ellie always seem happy in them. I use different inserts in them because the ones they came with seemed really bulky on them. I think the 6 layers of Microfiber after it is fold in 3rds is too much. But my two are not heavy wetters so I don't need that much absorbtion power.

Overall for a great price and lots of great prints to choose from I think having a few Cutiepoops in your stash is worth it. My suggestion would be to choose from her "Knit" collection of prints though. My 2 One Size diapers had cotton outer print and ended up with holes around the edges from washing wear where as the Knit prints are polyester and hold up much better to the heavy washing diapers take.

If you wish to know more go visit Adrian at her Cutiepoops site! 

1461 Blessed Days

It has been 1461 (yes that is right we must add in the 1 leap day she has expirenced) days since our beautiful Ashlyn was born in the middle of the night by emergency c-section and every one of them has been a blessing! Today we thank God for the 4 years he has allowed us to share Ashlyn with Him! It is really quite and amazing thing to watch how each child grows and develops differently. Ashlyn is our quietest and most reserved child, often not speaking much or at all when we are around people she doesn't really know. Even at preschool I don't think she says much of anything. Last year for her 3 year old check up she didn't say ONE word the entire appointment!

The doctor even asked, "She does talk right?"

Happy Birthday Dear Ashlyn! I pray that 4 is just as wonderful as year 3!

Pepper and Growing hair.

I will be the first to admit that my children can be picky eaters. They do eat many things but have issues with some condiments like pepper and mayo even to cheese. The cheese one is funny because for along time my husband would want to make our daughter eat cheese because he loves cheese he thought that she had to eat cheese too. He no longer pushes the issue but onto the funny proclamation our near 4 year old daughter made at supper last night.

Tuna Noodle Hotdish along with cooked Carrots was the menu for supper. Daddy loves pepper and always asks if anyone else wants pepper. Ashlyn will often say she wants some. So tonight she said yes. Daddy then goes to say something like, "No ones else wants pepper?" Then looking at our son Kehan says, " It will put hair on your belly." Ashlyn exclaims " I want pepper! I will put hair on my belly!"

Oh, how she many regret that proclamation as she grows older. But right now at 4 she just wants to impress her daddy and knows how to do that!