Road Warriors

T r a v e l i n g   T w i n s...
So this past weekend we made our final trip of the summer to Peoria, Illinois for my cousin's wedding!  It's been a long awaited trip for us to see my family and for the twins to meet their cousins (well, my cousin's children so their second cousins?  I'm not even going to pretend I know which is which..).

We left early Friday morning on the what iphone maps would tell us would be a 5 hours and 45 min drive.  With twin babies, just go ahead and add 2 hours on that... always.  The ride there was pretty rough.  We hit a stretch of highway that had no exits.  Not even a side road to pull over onto for what seemed to be 20 miles (it was probably shorter but once you hear the rest, it just felt like forever).  We smelled poop.  

I peeked back at Emmy first and didn't see any poop.  Then I turned to Bennett.  Poop was all over.  His legs, hands, car seat, and even onto his head.  Once he saw my reaction, he started crying, then screaming.  Then Emmy started.  And we had no exits.  All Alex and I could do was just focus on the music and push through.  Of course the first exit told us there were restaurants and gas stations but it was one of those exits where you had to drive a few miles off the highway to reach one.  When we finally found a McDonalds, Alex grabbed Emmy and went in to change her diaper.  I tackled B.  Alex was in the bathroom pretty long so I wondered if something else happened in her diaper.

When I finally finished cleaning up B, I came out to find Emmy in a new outfit and Alex with a look of exhaust on his face.  Her poop didn't come out the front like B's, but up the back and to her neck.  Oh the JOYS of parenting.  All we could do was laugh a little, pack up the poopy clothes in a to-go bag and hit the road again.  Luckily, that was the only real eventful thing that happened on the road trip.  

We rolled into town, checked into the hotel and started getting ready for the rehearsal dinner.  It was at an amazing steakhouse and it was so great to see all the family there.

One of the first feedings in the hotel.  We brought their Baby Bjorn Bouncers along for feeding solids, they work pretty great.  B and his strawberry yogurt.  A favorite thing to do is blow raspberries with a full mouth of food.

The wedding was at 1 pm on Saturday and Alex was a groomsman.  So he left at 11 and was gone for the whole day with his responsibilities for my cousin Leonard.  It was difficult not having Alex but I had my lifesaver, my sister Anna, with me the whole day.  I can't tell you what that girl has done for our family and how she's helped.  I just get so frustrated that I can't hold both babies at once.  I'm sure other mom's of multiples can agree.  When both want to be held, it just gets hard and frustrating and I don't know how to handle it.  Sometimes I do just pick them both up!  All almost 40 pounds of them!  It's just easier than hearing them cry.

Right before the mass, my husband looking so damn handsome.

Quick selfie with my Buddy

Auntie and Emmy girl.  

But overall, it ended up being a great time with family and fun to bring the babies to their first wedding.  Can't say I will bring them to any of our other weddings this year.  I like to use weddings to unwind and have fun.  Being "mom" is great but it requires me to be "on" at all times.  Thinking "do the babies have clean diapers, have they eaten enough, have they taken a nap, when is bedtime" can get exhausting, especially at a wedding.

My trustee stroller.  I couldn't do half of the things I need to do without it.  I'm not sure which stroller to go to next once they outgrow this one... Any suggestions?

Grandpa West, aka my Dad.  Glad to rock the babies while Mom got to walk around for a bit.

I was SO excited to see my cousin Katherine, her husband Pat and their little beauty Lillian.  I hadn't met Lily yet and she is almost a year old!  She was born in September, only a few months before the twins.  I just know that they'll be close friends and Thanksgivings will be onto the next generation of sardines.  Only the fam will get that reference.

Auntie and Em again.  Two peas in a pod.

My sweet cousin Timmer took some awesome family pics for us.  PS these are all iphone pics.  Impressive camera ehh?

My cousin Liz and her little girl Katherine.  She was born in February, so she's close to the twins age too.  It was so good to see them and see how big she got since we saw her back in the Spring.

Okay, orobably my favorite pic.  Emmy and Daddy's first dance together.  Cue the cute feels!

My sweet boy, all ready for bed and one last slow dance with Mama.  We ended up leaving around 9:30, which was way past their bedtime but they were troopers and fell right asleep when we got back to the hotel.

We stopped off in STL on the way home to visit some of our great friends John and Sarah, who just moved there from NYC.  I was soooo happy we made that a must on this trip.  We got to STL around noon and stayed until 4 before heading back to KC.  It gave the babies some time out of the car and a chance for mom and dad to have a beer and relax with friends.  I loved not having a time limit for that return trip.  It felt so great just to be spontaneous, it's sometimes hard to be with two babies.

Rolling around in STL.

Although I loved the trip, it was so great to get home.  Does anyone ever feel like a tornado hit their home after they unload the car?  I always feel like everything I own is scattered around my living room.  It normally stays like that for at least a day until I muster the courage to tackle it. {Side note, its put away now}

U p d a t e   O n   E & B
So I want to get back to the meat of why I started this blog.  The babes.  We're currently in the middle of tackling our first bout of colds that were probably caught on the trip.  Let's face it... you can't clean those highchairs at Wendy's long enough, I'm not surprised the poor babes got little colds.

Monday night we put the babies down around 7:15 PM and Em woke up crying and completely stuffed up around 10:30 PM.  We tried calming her down and rocking her but every time we tried to lay her down, she couldn't breath well and would scream.  We unpacked the trustee Nose Frida and went to town to try and clear her poor nose.  We even created a sauna with the hot shower and sat in there with her.  I ended up rocking her on my chest in the nursery until about 1 AM.  I just wanted to take her sick away and let her sleep.  It's so hard to see your baby sick and know that they don't understand why they feel bad.  Ugh, cue the tears.

B came down with the crud yesterday.  I knew it was a matter of time before he got it.  I tried to keep the toys separate (because everything goes into the mouth) but that like trying to catch a minnow in your hand out of a lake with these two.  As I type this, the sniffles are coming on with me now.  It's just a matter of time.

Other than the colds, the babies are doing so great.  They aren't quite crawling yet but are SO DARN CLOSE.  Within this month, I just know it.  Emmy is up on all fours and rocks back and forth.  B is a champ at army crawling.  They eat like crazy, still pureed solids, and I've just started giving them banana rice rusks? (Basically a dissolvable rice cake for babies.)  They also LOVE strawberries.  A friend from work recommended these little mesh things that allow the babies to basically suck the strawberries out without having to hold the berry... you can find them here...

Emmy has two teeth already!! On the bottom and B just had his first break through on the trip!  Caught this awesome pic on the trip home... I feel like it's kinda rare to get a baby to show their pearly whites...

Alex is back to school and guys, I am so ready for FALL!  This hot weather has got me in a mood.  Ugh.  Oh and my best friend and B's godmama got engaged over the weekend!!! Shout out to Meredith! Can't wait for that wedding.

Just a girl and her Mama, playing salon... or just pulling hair, salon sounds better.  But she was pulling my hair.

Until next week...
Lauren, E & B