Snow, Snow, Snow

Uggggg - more snow. I can't handle it anymore. I did nowever get a break yesterday when the sun was shining and I went for RUN! Yup, that's right, a whopping 2.35 miles according to MapMyRun.com. I was exhausted, sore and had a bad side stich but I did it. I took Maggie with me. Maggie has been my running partner since she was about 8 months old. She is a great jogger and just loves it. Initially we were going to go for a brisk walk but I looked at her as we left the house and in her little Maggie-way-of-communication, she begged to jog. So we did. She smiled the entire time and I'm glad I was able to make her day and give her some quality attention that she has been wanting. It was the first time in 5 months that I ran and although it was physically exhausting, it was exactly what I needed too. I'm commited to working out 3x a week; I feel like that is managable with the babies.



We are so lucky that we live on Mystic St. I think there are more Colgate alums on this street than any other street in Boston. No kidding. And two of them happen to be Matt's really good friends - all of which have children between 2 mo-2 years. So every once and a while we rotate houses for dinner. Nothing fancy but it's our way of getting one another out of the house, being social and spending time together. Yesterday's dinner was at the Kubec's and I'll admit I'm always jealous leaving because Michelle is a very good cook. The bar has been set - high.



I wish I had seen the King's Speech. I've been dying to see it but I didn't get the chance. The only Oscar noms that I have seen is The Fighter and The Social Network. I always feel like I miss out if I haven't seen the movie that wins best picture. Not that I'll still be awake to see the award given out! I'll have to get all the news in the morning.

Loving Adult Company...and Teenage Pregnancy

Sandy finally felt better so she came and spent all day yesterday and this morning with me before she headed down to NYC. It was so nice to have her around and it was so clear that she just loved spending time with the babies. Even when she didn't feel good and was staying at Andrew's, she still made us some food to eat and sent it over. More than the help, I just really enjoyed some adult company - in particular her company. Even if we were just watching TV or going for a walk, it was nice to have someone around that talks back to you!

Last night was a little tough so this morning I had a bit of the blues. Days and nights are challenging right now and at some point it catches up with you. But the day was salvaged. After a nice, long hot shower that Sandy's presence allowed me to have, Steph and I went for a walk and rather than doing our two loop usual - we went to have a mid-day beer! Max and Dillons in Charlestown is very family friendly; unlike the rest of the watering holes that date back to 1680, M&D is bigger, newer and if you go at 3:00 pm during a weekday there are few people there. So the five of us made a pit stop, took over the bar and she and I felt almost normal for a brief hour. That was also the first time I brought the twins 'somewhere' that wasn't a hospital, doctor's office or someone's home. Another first that I can cross off the list.

I've gotten very good about DVRing shows at night to watch during the day. I would like to give a congratulatory shout out to Leah and Corey for getting engaged! Clever Corey, take her 'fishing' and put the ring on the line. Like she didn't see you do it...She is my favorite because I think she is a good mom and of course because she has twins. I hope everything is okay with Ally. I couldn't imagine what I would do if Connor or Caroline faced some of those unknown issue. And it's not like heathcare in West Virginia is stellar. Is that why they had to wait months for an MRI? Even though Jenelle and Kailyn (who I actually fell bad for, what's the deal with her mom?) are just trainwrecks, no one is worse than Chelsea. Does she seriously just sit around all day on her ass? So much needs further explaination! And her dad is totally weird - do something besides complain about Adam and stop paying for her to sit around all day. I would also 'rewind' and not cast her if I was Liz Gatley.

I'm also happy that Ghost Hunters is back for another season. I haven't watched the past few seasons but I'm going to get back into it. I better see some ghosts this season. For every 19 episodes, there is one apparition. It's a big investment for little reward.

Yay that the weekend is almost here and the babies are 6 weeks tomorrow. I can't believe it.

The CMA

Our big outting today was the Charlestown Mother's Association new mom's breakfast. Steph and Weston went too but it was nice to meet other moms in Charlestown. There must have been about 15 mothers there, most babies were born between Christmas and now. I was the only twin mom and I got a lot of questions like "how do you manage" and "how do you do it"? The truth is - I have to. I have no choice and I don't know any different and this is my reality.

Matt and I are finding that one of the things that helps us so far is staying on schedule. I'm not sure if anyone watched Oprah yesterday but Celine Dion was there with her twins, everyone in the audience was a twin but most impressive was the McGee Sextuplets. If they can do it with 6, we can do it with 2. Those babies were so cute and when the mother announced that she held a baby while changing another one's diaper when they were at the airport I nearly dropped Bug. THAT is amazing but again - you do what you have to. She gave me the motivation to figure out how to put both babies in my sling and wha-la! As I type this both babies are chilling together in the sling against my chest. (I sort of hate that I start many of my sentences with "On the Today Show today" or "I was watching Oprah"...but it is what it is right now. Besides, I'm now obsessed with Ellen and not shy to admit it.)

St. Stephanie is coming tonight and I'm so excited about it. The past few nights Connor has been waking up every 1.5-2 hours and it's made for some long nights. Bug has been sleeping pretty well but the rule is that if one wakes up, wake the other for a feed and change .

I really have to work on this blog. My friend Liz shared her awesome blog with me and it's amazing. foodtorunfor.blogspot.com She needs to give me tips! She has certainly given me motivation - I can't wait to run again. I'm shooting for Saturday!

Is it going to happen?...

Is Brenda going to walk down the isle right now and marry Sonny or is Carly going to ruin everything? When my mom was here she asked if we were going to call Caroline "Carly" because apparently that is Carly's full name (on the show of course). Really, Jan?

Is it bad that sometimes I eat several apples a day? Sometimes with lunch, then as a mid-day snack and sometimes we have apples, cheese and crackers for our app while we make dinner. I love them. I've housed two of them today and it's only 3:30.

We had a lovely dinner last night with our friends Adrianne and Stephen. Steve went to Colgate with Matt and they were roommates briefly in Boston. He is a twin so he has been excited for us from the beginning. Their wedding in May will be our first overnight away from the babies and we are already pretty excited for a weekend in Newport - just us.

Connor had a bad night on Saturday but last night the babies were pretty good so I got some sleep - 8 hours to be exact. 4-2-2. Not too bad; as long as I can get a stretch of 4-5 hours at a time and then a few extra hours here or there, I think I can get through the hard part. But we'll see how they are doing in a few more weeks.

It's Cold Season

Our dear family friend planned to come and stay with us for a few days to help us out with the babies during school vacation. But when she arrived today - she has a cold! Luckily her son lives a few door down so she is going to stay with him tonight and possibly until she gets better. (If her cold started Tuesday, she should be okay after the weekend. That might actually work out well because she can spend time with Andrew and then come over here on Monday.) I can't believe it; we are so bummed. And so is she of course. Not just for the help but because we were looking forward to just having her around. I've always been one of those people who goes to great lenghts to avoid sick people. I hate being sick. And if the babies catch a cold that would be the pits. Although I hate being sick, I can handle it. Not sure if they would be as accomodating.

I don't have too much to report today, it was sort of uneventful. I don't even have fun TV to give my two cents on. My big outting was the grocery store. Whoo-hoo...

Wipes: Huggies vs Pampers

I forgot to mention that if anyone needs wipes, get Huggies! We have been using Pampers and the box they come in stinks! The wipes don't easily come out of the box after you are about half way through so you have to open it all they way which is so annoying when you have a crying baby in front of you, not to mention another one crying in the background. Huggies has a very nice little dispenser.

NATURALLY we just figured this out - after we ordered like 10 boxes of Pampers wipes from Amazon....

Connor has his first little diaper rash, poor honey.

The Food Network

Dear Food Network - You must change your programing schedule. I can't believe you have Ina Garten following Paula Dean. Uppers and downers don't mix! Cushion the withdrawl by adding Down Home with the Neely's or Sandra Lee between the two to soften the fall.

We all got a great night sleep thanks to St. Stephanie last night. She told us that we have good babies but I hope she didn't jinx us! Our pediatrician gave us tips to help them sleep for at least a 4 hour stretch at night so we are just following her directions. We went to the doctor today and the babes are looking great. Connor made it to 6 lbs 3 oz and Caroline is 4 lbs 15 and 3/4 oz. Come on! Just give the girl 5 lbs, she has been trying so hard. Obviously they are both sleeping since Ina is on the tv...

We went for another walk with Weston today. It's going to get cold again so it'll be a few days before we can go for another walk. Steph and I decided that the next warm day we'll either stop to get frozen yogurt at Emack and Bolio's or we'll get a beer at T.O Dubb's. My vote is for the latter! It's never too early to take your children to Tavern.

Oh my god Ina! You are driving me crazy! I'm going back to Cash Cab.

We should be getting our dryer situation fixed in the next few days. Thank God.

Witching Hour

I'm shocked to report that both my little 'angels' are sleeping after their last feeding. Normally 5:00 starts the witching hour which can last until 8:00 or 9:00. I think they might be tired because we had a very eventful day.

I think last night threw everyone off. I usually go to sleep around 9:00/10:00 pm and Matt stays awake a little longer for the last feeding and I wake get up with them around 3;00 or so when they want to eat again. Because my husband is fabulous, he offered to try to the mid-night feeding if I stayed up. I think being out of the routine threw both of us for a loop. He said he had to get that new super-sized Trenta coffee at Starbucks today.

I think we are also having dryer issues. Well, not the dryer as the Sears Blue Crew told us, but the ducts. Somehow, somewhere, the ducts are clogged and our drying isn't doing a good job drying all the laundry that needs to get done. Of course while my brother was here and Matt was at work, I asked him to go and look at the outside ducts with me and he looked at my like I had 5 heads. For the record, Lanzafames are NOT good handymen. Growing up, if there was a leaky faucet, we called the plumber. I think using a plunger was about as saavy as we got. So when John saw a ladder and a broom and even though I was giving him instructions as to what to do, he just stood there like a deer in headlights. I think we need a real professional to come handle this. I'm not even sure where to begin. Being a homeowner is really hard and I hate to sort of point the finger at the contractor but this is the second issue that has come up in a few weeks. (The second day Connor was home our pipes froze and we had NO water for over 24 hours. Yes, we couldn't even use the toilet. The issue was that a pipe under the front outside stairs was not insulated enough and there was not a heater keeping the pipes warm.)

On a much happier note, we enjoyed a lovely long walk today with our friend Weston. Steph and I couldn't have been happier to finally get out of the house and go for a walk with the babes. Seriously, if anyone told us that going for a walk would feel like winning the lottery back in our crazy college years, we wouldn't have believed them. We spent half the time talking about how awesome it was just to walk. And MAN am I out of shape. I have a lot of work to do.

Oh! I just remembered I DVRed Teen Mom! I'm going to watch it before Matt gets home....

And many thanks to my wonderful mother who swooped in for a uber-brief overnight stay but helped us out tremendously.

GH Update

Jan just arrived in time to grab the babies and turn on General Hospital. She was happy to report that James Franco will be coming back any episode now - certainly in time for Sonny and Brenda's wedding next week.

Eat Up, Kiddies!

When we found out we were having twins, I had some time to mentally prepare myself for what the first few months might be like. I made a list of personal daily requirements vs optional tasks. Requirements are things like brushing my teeth, taking a shower (I know many people may see this as optional but for me, it's a requirement even if it's only 3 minutes) and optional are things like putting on real clothes like jeans (vs sweats) and going through mail (although there is only so long I can put that one off...). Based on my day yesterday, wearing a shirt might go from required to optional. Connor and Caroline wanted to eat constantly. And when Caroline aka "Bug" (*tangent alert* - Matt and I started calling Caroline 'Bug' not on purpose but because we have this green striped swaddle that makes her look just like a Gloworm, I'll be sure to post a pic. Anywho, somehow Bug started to stick.) wasn't eating she needed to be held. I hope this is a short lived growth spurt! And for those of you who have twins or know someone who does, there is a serious set up that is required to feed two babies at once. I have my remote, water, gatorade, burp clothes and phone all strategically set up around me in the event I don't get off the couch for a while - which was the case yesterday. I can't even imagine what my living room must have looked like to an outsider. If the mailman saw me, I'm sure it would have totally jazzed up his otherwise boring Tuesday (because as we all know, Tuesday is the worst day of the week - yuck!).



What jazzed up my otherwise boring Tuesday was the Real Housewives of OC reruns all day on Bravo. I totally forgot about One Season Only Tammy! And seriously Slade and Jo, you should have broken up for good when Jo got drunk off of the fish bowls the season before. I cann't wait for the RHO of Miami and OC to start next week. And don't get me started on Bethenny. YAY! But Bethenny, you should really send out your e-newsletter more frequently, I feel like they only come every 4 months and we need more content than your Skinny Girl Marg recipe. But I still love you...



I was so happy to see Matt when he got home. And I was even happier that last night was a St. Stephanie night. Stephanie is the night nanny that comes 2-3 nights a week to rescue us from an otherwise rapid downward spiral into insanity. So I actually feel pretty good today and I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my mom and brother. They are both coming into town for a brief 24 hours while my brother has a little break from his service duties. Connor and Bug can't wait to meet their uncle. The babies just got a bath, both did really well but Bug peed on me. Ususally its Connor but I guess she was due.



Did anyone watch the Westminster Dog Show yesterday? We did, Maggie really wanted to watch it. Congrats Hickory!

YES!!!

BRAVO is showing Real Housewives of OC re-runs of the original cast for the next two hours!! Slade is so creepy....

My First Post...

I can't believe I've joined the bloggers. And I can't believe that I just spent 15 mintues trying to determine what font I want to use. (I might change it a bunch of times, bare with me.) Just to set the record straight, I'm not looking to be a 'mommy blogger'. I'm using this as a place for all my friends and family that live far away to keep updated with my life with the twins. And lets face it, even if no one reads this, doesn't everyone like to hear themselves 'talk'? I should type fast, I'm listening to my babies make funny noises which means they are either waking up or just making funny noises in their sleep. Caroline often does that, I shouldn't laugh at her but sometimes I do. I can't believe a 4 lb baby can make noises like that, not to mention make the massive poops she makes. Same with Connor, how is it possible?? Thank god for the diaper genie.


Connor and Caroline were born on January 14 at 35 weeks and 4 days. Both babies were and are pefectly healthy but small. Connor weighed 4 lb 7 oz and Caroline 3 lb 11 oz. They both spent time at the Beth Israel hospital NICU in Boston. They are home now and are doing great. I'm not going to rehash that experience on the blog so we'll start from this day forward.

So far, the babies just do a lot of sleeping, eating and pooping and I do a lot of sitting on the couch feeding them and watching really bad day time TV. My mom wants me to get into General Hospital but I just can't do it. Sorry Sonny! Although I do think it's funny that you are somehow everyone's dad and have if someone wants to let me know when James Franco makes his next appearance, that would be great. As soon as the weather gets better here in Boston, we'll use this hour as our walking time. But seeing as though today is 22 degrees and I have a crap load of Thanks Yous and laundry to get to, GH it just might be today...