Well, That Was Fun

1,400+ more miles later... we are home. Home, of course, being not so much a home and more of a camper.

We had a great trip and really enjoyed spending some time with my dad. It was a great distraction from Jason's notable absence.

Back in the RV park, we returned to discover that fall had arrived and left soggy, wet leaves in a 2-foot pile all around our camper. And then there was the tiny matter of cleaning up my van. After any road trip, cleaning the van becomes a monumental task. This trip was no exception. Needless to say, I've had my work cut out for me.

Did I mention that Ryan is potty training? He is... mostly. I don't know why these little boys are determined to be 100 times more difficult than their 4 older siblings combined, but they are definitely not making it easy for me. Ryan is peeing in the potty with 95% accuracy but still poops in his pants 100% of the time. And since he refuses to wear diapers during the day, I'm usually cleaning up poop at night. Nathan still has no interest in the potty... except to flush things down it.

We are down to our final days in Washington. With less than a month left here, I'm getting more and more anxious about what happens next. Probably because I don't know what happens next. A blog post I read recently really hit home. It sums up our situation pretty well, too. There are a lot of military families being forced to make tough decisions when it comes time to move to the next duty station and they can't sell (or rent) their home. Sometimes a stationary life seems so much easier.

A few thousand miles down, a few thousand miles left to go...

Lost

That's how I'm feeling lately.

Lost.

Jason is involved in a lot of training for his unit's upcoming deployment right now. And while I'm certainly grateful that he is not going on this deployment, I'm feeling guilty that he won't be joining them. It's something I can't really explain very well.

Then we have our upcoming move to Arizona. As expected, Jason still does not have his orders. And no matter how many times he reassures me that he will get his orders in time, I still have my doubts. If he doesn't have his orders this week, I'll be starting the packing process myself. No orders this week means no movers... which leaves me doing the packing and moving while Jason is gone again. Right now I am stuck in one of those moments when I think the Army life will be the end of my sanity.

If the Army life doesn't make me totally insane, my kids might! Nathan and Ryan have just turned 3 and are officially NOT potty trained. My other kids were all trained well before 3, so I'm having trouble not comparing them. Ryan is peeing in the potty with consistency, but the poop consistently remains on the floor. Both boys think that poo belongs anywhere but in the potty for some reason.

I've been feeling very emotional lately. I think all of the changes in our life right now, combined with the incredible isolation I already feel, are getting to me. I feel so lonely here and just never found my niche. We never found a church that we love and I was never a part of the clique of twin moms. Perhaps that's why it's not too difficult to say good-bye... there's hardly anyone to say good-bye to.

The next 3 weeks are going to be filled with change, stress, and excitement. I have no idea what is going to happen but I'm ready to find out!

I Love Worm Poop

In my garage there is...

...a pile of lumber scraps.

...a shelf full of power tools.

...a pile of boxes to donate to the thrift store.

...a big, pink hula hoop.

...a messy collection of bikes and scooters.

...a box full of worm poop.

What? Yes, I said a box full of worm poop.

A large plastic bin holds a happy worm family that lives in our garage and eats our waste. It's called vermiposting and it's a natural, easy way to dispose of food scraps and other organic waste. In return for your waste, the worms provide you with their waste, which is the perfect addition to any garden.

We always used to have a compost pile in our backyard for disposing of organic waste, but it soon became too difficult to find the time to go out and turn it often enough. I filled it up too quickly with grass clipping and soon the pile was larger than me. Enter the worm bin. The worm bin requires very little maintenance. It's small and compact. It's very efficient. I like efficiency.

I made our worm bin by drilling holes into the tops and sides of two large Rubbermaid bins and their lids. You can see an easy tutorial here. The holes allow for ventilation and the dark color of the bins keeps it dark inside so the worms are happy.

Inside the bin is a busy, thriving worm poop facility. The bottom of the bin is covered in a layer of shredded paper. I used to use newspaper for this until a friend gave me the idea of using the paper scraps from my paper shredder. I had been recycling the shredded paper without even thinking of using it for worm bedding. (Genius!)

The shredded paper is what the worms use for bedding. I place a moist piece of cardboard over the top of the paper to keep everything damp. (Not that that is a problem in Washington.) Every couple of days I bring our food waste out to the garage and bury it in a corner of the worm bin. The worms eat the food scraps very quickly and I collect the scraps in a metal compost container under the kitchen sink.

Our worm bin is bustling with activity. I started out with about 2 pounds of red worms but there are many, many more than that in our bin now. They can devour all of the food scraps for a family of eight in just a day or two. It is amazing! As the bin fills up with worm castings (aka poop) I can use their waste to fertilize our plants. I wish we had a garden, but we don't have the space. (I want to try square foot gardening on our deck though.)

A worm bin is an excellent project to do with children. It's green-you can't get much more environmentally friendly than using organic food waste to create organic waste fertilizer! Learning about vermiposting affords great teaching opportunities for homeschooling families too. (Field trip to a worm farm, anyone?) Worms bins are easy to maintain and they are very clean. There is no odor from our bin and zero mess. The entire process is fascinating for kids and costs nearly nothing.

Do you compost or vermipost? I'd love to hear about it!

Holiday Guests (of the 4-Legged Variety)

We have some new visitors at our house. And I hope they don't stay very long. It's not that I don't enjoy holiday guests... it's just that these guests bring more poop and you know I don't need more of that.

For the last couple of weeks we have had a coyote pooping in our driveway. Yes. A pooping coyote. I could not make this up if I tried! At first, Jason thought it was a dog but then we noticed that the poop was a strange color and was full of berries and tiny bones and fur. Gross.

It turns out that the coyote has been hanging out in our driveway eating the mice that are in my van. Yes. Mice in my van!!!

When we moved into this house it had been vacant for a few months and although it was clean and empty, there were mice in the third garage. There is a large double garage that is connected to the house and then a small, third garage that is only accessible through the outside garage door. In that small garage was a trash can that was left behind after the previous family moved out and so there were mice in that garage. I don't use that garage so we hadn't done anything to get rid of the mice yet. I did not realize that the little creatures would attract bigger creatures.

I thought I'd gotten the mice to stay out of our van by treating it with peppermint oil. I dropped some cotton balls doused in peppermint oil under each row of seats. The kids don't eat in the van and the van is actually really, really clean so I'm not sure what the mice are doing in there. I'm getting really frustrated now. I hate poop.

Sometimes I Ask For It

Sometimes I think I set myself up. Sometimes I ask for it.

Like when Joshua was born weighing a hefty 11 pounds and I proudly declared "That must be what it feels like to carry twins!" Ha. Not quite. And then I ate my words when my waistline expanded to carry nearly 15 pounds of babies less than 2 years later.
Or then there was the time when I assured Jason that we could never have twins again. You know, because identical twins are a fluke. And two sets of identical twins would just be impossible! Yeah, not so much. We all know how that turned out.

Or how about when I told the kids that it doesn't snow in Tacoma? I'll admit that I was a bit giddy when I realized that we are probably in for a pretty snowy winter. Of course, I also told the kids that we don't get much snow in the DC area and we somehow ended up getting blasted with storm after storm while we were there. Oops.

And then for Thanksgiving I told Jason that the kids could help me make some of the food. Because I was going to be right there, so how much mess could they really make? Apparently quite a bit. I think there are still clumps of pumpkin on the kitchen ceiling.

In a sick twist of fate, I also doomed myself to cleaning up piles of poop. We had friends over for Thanksgiving dinner and as I let our dog, Delmar, lick a plate of turkey and trimmings they asked if our dog was allowed to eat table food. And although Delmar eats a raw diet supplemented with regular dry dog food, I know that he gets his fair share of droppings from the table. I have six children so I know he eats well. However, the turkey must have been too much for him because I woke up on Black Friday to find no less than 12 steaming piles of poo waiting on the floor next to my side of the bed. Nice.

I remember on numerous occasions my mother telling me "I hope you grow up and have a child that is just like you." Well, I did it Mom. I actually outdid myself on this one. I have created the loudest, bossiest, most stubborn child ever to walk the earth. Thankfully there is only one of him, because if he had a twin I know that they'd have to commit me. Matthew may have just turned eight years old, but he already believes that he is smarter, faster, and stronger than me. He's learning some hard lessons right now. He's a sweet kid though.... when he thinks he's in charge.

(Before you ask, that is chocolate on Ryan's face. I really asked for it today when I gave them hot chocolate with their oatmeal for breakfast!)

When Jason and I decided to plan an impromptu trip to Portland (yes, again!) yesterday, we should have realized that it would turn into an adventure. I did some quick shopping (only one store because I did all of my shopping online already) and then we went to Burgerville. Tony Horton would not approve of my meal choice, but I say that it's ok to have a treat once in awhile. Peppermint chocolate milkshake, anyone?

On the way home we ended up stopping to get our Christmas tree. Jason wanted to wait but I knew it was going to rain this week and I thought we could just stop really quickly since we were passing the farm anyway. It was getting dark (so no pictures) and of course it was muddy at the tree farm. Oh, and I had not put the stroller back into the van so we were without wheels. Jason and I carried the little boys halfway across the farm before we decided to scrap the idea of cutting down our own tree like we usually do, and instead decided to grab on of the freshly cut trees that we sitting right next to the barn. Everything was great until Ryan was nearly flattened by a stray Christmas tree and Jason had to climb into the van through the window after securing the huge tree to the roof. Nothing is ever fast or easy in this family. Why can't I remember that?

And then, because I never learn my lesson, I suggested that we go to the Saturday evening church service. Although I think the evenings are the most chaotic time of the day with young children, I was hopeful that we could still enjoy the service. The last time that we attempted the Saturday evening service we didn't take the kids to the children's area and just brought them into the service with us. We made it 3/4 of the way through the service before Nathan got up and walked out of the sanctuary. By himself.

Today we put up our Christmas tree. In previous years we have used various different baby gates to protect the tree from tiny mischief makers. This year, we don't have such a great set up. Instead, I thought I was being clever by hanging the cheap, plastic ornaments (bought at Target for 90% off after last Christmas) on the bottom of the tree. We always put the glass ornaments up top. I figured the kids can touch the cheapy ornaments and not do much damage.

Wrong!

The tree looked quite nice for about 4 1/2 minutes.

Surprisingly, it's not just the babies that are stirring up trouble. Leila and Sarah stripped the bottom of the tree bare. They had a little bag that they were using to collect "strawberries." So much for the tree. I'm sure it will be naked by tomorrow. Or someone will knock the whole thing over. Oops... I shouldn't have said that.

Rocks in My Head

Yesterday morning I woke up to find Nathan in his crib, partially clothed. I put one-piece pajamas on him that zip up and I turned them backwards with the zipper in the back. Somehow he managed to get his left arm out of the neck hole and was climbing out of the jammies that way. He had pulled them down below his nipples when I caught him. Oh, and he had already taken his diaper off, but it was trapped inside his pajamas and was hanging down around his knees! How did undo the velcro without getting undressed first? I don't know. See what I'm dealing with here?
Nathan did redeem himself later in the day when he stripped naked again (again!!!!!) but pooped in the potty. I will consider that a huge success. Now that Sarah has been accident-free for more than 2 months, I am ready to potty train the terrible twosome. Or I should say, I'm ready to not have to change diapers. I wish there was a way to get to that point without me having to potty train two rambunctious boys!
Many of you have emailed me asking about my health issues and I finally have an update. Without sharing all of the boring details, here's the deal. It was mostly bad news that just kept getting worse. I wanted the doctor to stop talking because he just didn't have anything nice to say!

I'll be having surgery in either January or February and will know the exact date once the scheduler is able to get OR time booked. I will be able to have the salivary gland removed when I have the ear surgery. After initially telling me that was not an option, they had mercy on me and decided they could make it work.

I still have rocks in my head. Or in my salivary gland... whatever. The doctor removing the salivary gland has never used an intraoral approach (cutting through the floor of the mouth instead of the incision on the outside of the neck.) He said that there is nobody in the area that does it and my best bet would have been to have it done in Georgia because the doctor there is one of the best in the country. However, the doctor here will do the surgery through my mouth, but I will be his first. Ever. Kinda scary. He is hoping to be able to practice on a cadaver before my surgery, but he doesn't know for sure whether that will happen. I'm a bit nervous.

The ear surgeon had more bad news for me. He thinks that I may have a cholesteatoma in my right ear. He won't know until he does the surgery and sees what it looks like in there. I am going to need a second surgery on the right ear to replace the tiny bones in my ear that have been destroyed. They'll put in titanium prosthetic bones a few months after the first surgery. Then, my left ear will need surgery too. It's basically the same issue on that side, only less severe. The ear drum has negative pressure sucking it in against the tiny bones. Placing a tube will not help at this point. The doctor wants to fix the right ear first and then he will decide what approach to use on the left ear.

As for the dizziness, they don't think it is related to my ears. The doctor still can't do any formal vestibular testing until the ear is fixed, but said that the dizziness is probably neurological. I'm pretty irritated, as I was hoping the ear surgery would fix everything and now I feel like I'm back to square one. I do have another MRI in May, so maybe they will be able to tell me more then.

I'll update again when I know more.
Last night I went to my first Parents of Multiples meeting here in Washington. It's official: I have scared the newbie twin parents! Actually, I'm hoping that at some point I am able to encourage some of the new parents when they feel overwhelmed. I wish I had enough time to dive right back in with volunteer work, but I have to take it slow right now.

Maybe I'll be able to do more when I get these rocks out of my head!

Coffee, Homeschooling, and Poop

Which of these things just doesn't belong?

(If you said coffee than you are reading the wrong blog. Because I live in the land of coffee and I love it!)
Today my morning went something like this...

I woke up at 5:45 am when Jason was leaving for PT. I immediately noticed that our power was still out. We had a huge wind storm last night and there are trees and branches down everywhere. Our power went out at bedtime last night and was off for 12 hours.

While brushing my teeth using the light from my almost-dead cell phone, I made a toothpaste-y mess on the sink. While getting dressed in my pitch black closet, I put on pants with a hole in the crotch.

Just as I had started getting the kids dressed so we could go get breakfast, the power came back on. This was a good thing because I didn't want to drag six kids out in the cold morning air, but I had kinda been looking forward to hitting the Starbucks down the street. Ahh, well. I made a peppermint mocha at home and made oatmeal instead.

Things were going well until I set my coffee down on the table in our classroom/playroom. (I may need to rethink this set up, so I might be asking for input on this soon!) The big boys were just getting started with their studies when Nathan came out of his room and interrupted. I took him back to his room to play and within seconds I heard Joshua yelling. Ryan had spilled my coffee. From the way it sounded, I expected disaster but it was just a small spill on the coffee-colored coffee. Not bad.

Then things really got ugly.

I took Ryan in to play with Nathan and sent Matthew to get a baby gate from the garage. The babies easily climb the baby gates so I haven't put any up since we've been here, but I figured it would slow them down and buy me time. Matthew couldn't find the gate and when I was distracted and talking to him, Ryan made a great escape. This time he poured my entire coffee onto his Legos, the table, the carpet, and a few school books. Why did I set the coffee back down on the table? Good question. I will plead momentary insanity.
What happened next is something that I couldn't even make up, it's that good.

After getting Ryan and Nathan into their room and putting up the gate, I returned to the playroom/classroom to clean up the coffee. Finally finished, I got back to the boys' lessons. It was then that Leila called me. "Mommy, it smells like poop!"

My heart raced for a second as I tried to remembered if I'd let the dog out today. I had. But the babies both had clean diapers and clothes on, so surely it wasn't them. Right?

Wrong.

Standing in the doorway of the babies' room was a completely naked Nathan. Next to him on the floor was a neat pile of clean clothes and completely dry and clean diaper. Upon further inspection, I discovered the source of the odor. There was a huge, dirty poop smear across the top of the baby gate. There was no poop anywhere else. Everyone was clean, the toys were clean, the walls were spotless, and the carpet held no tell-tale signs of poo disaster. But there, on the baby gate, was the rankest smear of doodoo.

Why does Nathan like to get undressed? Why do we find him naked in his crib in the morning? When will I devise a plan to keep him diapered and clothed? These are serious questions, folks.
Eventually, I made the mistake of googling "homeschooling with a toddler" and found that this just will not work. One blogger's advice was that if you are the type who likes to have school done by noon, you might need to rethink your plans. Umm, you think?

I abandoned the idea of getting school done in the morning, as we have always done. Instead, I waited until the "evil babies"-I mean Nathan and Ryan- took a nap. I'm not sure how we'll do things from here on out, but I've got to figure out a way to keep the chaos contained.

We already bungee cord our chairs to the table. I can't put up gates in the important areas, and the babies climb them anyway. I put Nathan's clothes and diapers on backwards but he still escapes.
I'm living in a nuthouse.

Three Sets of Identical Twins + Four Singles = Chaos!

But it's chaos in a good way.

My friend Erika came on Tuesday night to spend the week with us. She has 7-year old identical twin boys and two sweet little girls that are 5 years old and 2 years old. And she's pregnant too.

Erika and I have actually never met in person before, but we have known each other online for several years. We are part of this secret group of twin moms and I know we have a lot in common just based on our parenting styles. And luckily, we hit it off. Our kids were instant friends and we talked like we had always known each other. It was so nice to have adult conversation. I miss that so much.
The kids spent a lot of time outside playing and Erika was able to take a nap each afternoon because the 5 little ones all slept at the same time. (Genius!) I was able to run a few errands and squeeze in an appointment, without having to drag the kids along with me as usual.

I even got to take a shower two days in a row. And I'm pretty certain that I haven't done that since the babies were born. Or at least since Jason left. It's now been almost 17 months since he left.
Perhaps my favorite errand was getting a (much-needed) pedicure. Erika watched the kids and treated me to a pedicure. It was an hour of pure bliss. It was relaxing and quiet and... strange... but in a great kind of way. I have pretty toenails. Now I can conquer the world!

Three 7-year old boys are quite a handful but they also play very well together and entertain each other. However, after watching Erika's boys interact, I'm certain that I am correct in my assessment that twins have a whole different dynamic, unlike singletons. I can't exactly explain it, nor can I put my finger on precisely what is the issue. Maybe it's just identical twins? I don't know. But her boys act like Leila and Sarah- they like to touch each other and have a lot of physical contact, anything from grabbing hands to hugging, wrestling, or poking and irritating. They think as a single unit sometimes, working together to get things done in a way that a single child would never be able to do it. There's this unspoken, but obvious, connection. It's fascinating and yet completely foreign to me. It goes beyond the typical sibling bond and everything seems magnified... more touching, more giggling, more mischief, more everything. I think I kind of love it.
And one of these trip of 7-year old boys lost a tooth on Tuesday. It was my boy.

Matthew lost his first top tooth and was very proud that he pulled it out himself. And now whenever I see that toothless grin, I'm reminded of just how fast he's growing up. Too fast.


In the midst of the chaos, Erika got a pretty good glimpse at my life. My real life.

I don't always write about the little things that happen on a daily basis. I don't even think about them that much. But when Erika posted a comment about all the things that were happening each day, I had to laugh. We had poop incidents, a dog barf incident, my garage door broke and I fixed it, my toilet flooded and I disconnected it and replaced the wax ring, my cousin was in an ATV accident, we made two trips to Target, and we rearranged car seats in my van. It was a normal kind of week for me but kind of interesting to have someone here sharing it with me.

And, for the record, Erika thinks I'm insane for wanting more children. (Most of you agree, I'm sure!)
But this crazy life is so much fun!

Even when the kids make a mess and Leila gets a bubble wand stuck in her hair, it's fun.
I only get to live this life one time. I only get to be a mom to six little children once. How could I not enjoy this?
I probably ought to write about how Erika discovered my OCD tendencies and about how I got some not-so-great news at my ENT appointment yesterday, but that will have to wait. Right now I hear babies waking up and ten bucks says someone pooped.

Keeping Me Humble

On Friday I had to get some lab work done (more on that in a minute) so I took the kids and went to hospital on post. The kids watched through the door as I had my blood taken and then we started to leave. On our way out the receptionist called me over. In a stern voice she said "Ma'am, come here please." This receptionist has worked there for years and she's never been the friendly type. In fact, I was sure she disliked children. I was scared to approach her desk for fear that she'd reprimand me for bring six young children into the lab.

Instead, the receptionist looked at me and without cracking a smile she asked "What is your secret?" I must have looked confused. She said, "Your children are the most well-behaved and quiet children that have ever come into this lab." I was afraid she was being sarcastic until she offered the kids a snack and pulled out her personal box of crackers and gave a pack to each child. I was still in disbelief but I politely thanked her and thanked the kids for being so good in the hospital.

I left the lab smiling and feeling grateful that Ms. Receptionist had never seen my children in my kitchen fighting over the last cookie or sucker punching each other over a stolen toy in my living room. Yes, they sure do know how to behave in public though!

I returned home and was enjoying my day, despite the constant spinning, until the babies woke up from their nap. In a span of 60 seconds, my phone rang, visitors arrived on our doorstep, and Nathan awoke from his nap covered in poop and diaperless. Suddenly, I was snapped back into reality.

And this is what keeps me humble...
See that? That brown substance smeared across my dress?

It's poop.

'Nuff said.
In addition to being Mother's Day, yesterday was also Jason's birthday. Since I couldn't bake him a cake or tease him in person, I settled for shipping him a cake. Yes, amazingly, you can ship a cake overseas to a war zone and it actually arrives fresh and edible!

Jason enjoyed his cake and I'm sure everybody laughed at the picture I had put on the top of it. It's a picture of Jason with his half dozen children. What could be funnier?
Jason is doing well and the countdown until his homecoming has begun. We're still counting months, but eventually we'll be counting weeks, then days. The end is in sight!

A few weeks ago an Iraqi brought Jason and his coworkers a gift. It's a sweet, little kitten! And the cutest part is that they (not Jason) named her Leila! My kids got a kick out of that.

Finally, thank you all for the input about my whole spinning fiasco. Yes, I'm still spinning. And to make things even more exciting I now have tingling and numbness in my hands, arms, legs, feet, neck, scalp, and spine, as well as tingling around my right eye. Today I started having electrical pulses traveling up and down my back and I headed back to the hospital. This is starting to get scary!

Another examination revealed little new information. My lab results showed no obvious clues. My thyroid is fine, no B12 deficiency, no anemia, no diabetes, and nothing out of the ordinary. My ears look fine and the doctor doesn't think I'm even suffering from vertigo because I have no nystagmus (pupils moving side to side) and no nausea or vomiting. He does not think it could be anxiety. He doesn't think it's a peripheral disorder and is pretty certain it's a central disorder, so he referred me to a neurologist. He told me that the symptoms may or may not go away and that a diagnosis make take weeks, or even months. In the meantime, his suggestions were to have family come and help me since I shouldn't be driving. Ha! I tried to explain my situation and request a rush on that neuro consult, but to no avail. They told me to call on Friday to see if I can schedule an appointment but it will be a few weeks before they'll see me.

I'm not sure what to think. I have no idea what's wrong and I just know that something is not right. Yesterday I briefly lost motor coordination and had no control over my hands because of the numbness. How could this not be urgent? How can a mother of 6 children just live like this for weeks? Ugh. I hate the system sometimes.

Tomorrow my mom will get the results of her biopsy. And then I have to remember to be humble. My problems are small potatoes compared to the possibility of breast cancer. I'll save my complaints for later.

Keeping me humble, see?

Let's Talk About Poop

A comment from the other day had me thinking that I should update about our potty training woes. Of course this involves poop. (Doesn't my life always involve poop?)

As of today, Joshua is mostly dry during the day with an occasional accident. Last week he wet his pants twice in one day. But he is capable of staying dry during the day. He's probably reacting to the changes in his life right now. He still wets the bed almost every night but this isn't a surprise since we have a history of that with the boys on both sides of our family. Matthew started staying dry overnight around age 4 I think.
Leila is pretty much the same as Joshua. She can stay dry all day but sometimes waits too long and has an accident. Sometimes it's just a minor problem and sometimes it necessitates a wardrobe change. She's been potty trained for 18 months now. She still wets the bed at night, despite her best attempts at staying dry.Sarah? Oh, sweet Sarah. That girl is a mess. She is struggling with the changes and stress in our life, I'm sure. She wets her pants daily, often several times. However, she will not have an accident when we're out. Obviously she's capable of using the potty all the time. But she doesn't. We can be running errands all day and she'll go on the potty and not have a single accident. At home she makes no effort to go on the potty. She has asked me to put her in diapers but then she won't keep them on when the other kids tease her.

Sarah is the Poop Master. This is her theme song:


Poop is my worst enemy with Sarah. She has never wanted to poop in the potty. Now she's entered a stage of hiding the poopy panties and smearing feces in inappropriate places. I know it's a result of missing Daddy so I try to be understanding. It's frustrating and I want to lock her in a bathroom for a few weeks sometimes, but she just needs love from me right now. Ironically, Sarah hasn't wet the bed at night in months.
Nathan has recently taken an interest in the potty. He toddled over to it the other day saying "potty, potty" and then sat on it and promptly peed. There was much excitement and he was so proud!

Not to be outdone, Leila and Sarah both immediately produced in the potty as well. I may be onto something here...
I told Jason last year that my goal was to have everyone out of diapers before he gets home from Iraq. I have all summer to work on it. And, so help me, I'm going to do it. At the very least, I'll have everyone out of diapers during the day. I've had 5 kids in diapers/training pants for 19 months now. And we only use cloth, so I've probably washed a lifetime's worth of diapers by now. I'm ready to be done.

(Until we have another baby.)

There's Not Many Problems That A Few Donuts Can't Fix

With this amazing job we call parenting, I'm always learning. It's a continual process, no matter how many kids (or sets of twins) I have. I have figured out some things but I still have so much yet to discover.

Most recently I have found out that children are incredibly adaptable. If you know the right tricks, you can get them through just about any situation. For example, you can calm the chaos of moving by buying donuts at the grocery store. Did you know that? What I also learned is that you will have to pay the price later when the sugar causes them to run amok and you desperately want to send them out to pasture. Only you don't have a pasture. And you're moving. So you then have a bunch of wild and crazy kids trapped inside, surrounded by stacks of boxes marked "fragile."

You can entertain kids with just about anything that is not a toy. This includes cell phones, remotes, empty boxes, rolls of packing tape, a colander, or even your running shoes. While this will likely keep them happily occupied for a while, you also may never see your cell phone or remote again. Lesson learned.
Potty training 19-month olds is easier than potty training almost 4-year olds. Because 19-month olds don't regress because they miss Daddy. And they don't hide their poop around the house. And they delight in the satisfaction you get from seeing them produce. But almost 4-year olds aren't so keen on impressing you and are smart enough to call your bluff. For example, when you suggest that perhaps your preschooler may need to wear diapers if she can't use the potty, she may happily oblige. And then you wonder if she'll turn 4 and still wear diapers. And since her birthday is in 2 weeks you know that this battle is lost. Score: Sarah-1, Mommy-0.
If there is dirt to be found, trust a 5-year old boy to find it. And I've learned that he's not just content to bury himself in it... he wants to bury his sisters, the dog, and your kitchen bowl. (Hey, maybe the missing remote is out there?) Forget any chance of keeping your house clean while it's on the market. Hope the buyers in Georgia like nature because we have brought the outside in... literally. My living room floor is a sand box.
Even a 19-month old can remember and recognize familiar faces if you remind them enough. Nathan and Ryan have only seen Daddy for a few months out of their entire lives. But they see Flat Daddy every day and it's done the trick. When Jason called me on Skype yesterday (hurray for internet!) the little boys ran over and said "Hi Daddy!" Kids are so awesome. That just made Jason's day and further proves that kids are always full of surprises!
So I think I'm going to have to go and buy some donuts now. Because I forgot a few things in Virginia and I smell another road trip. I know, I know. It's ridiculous. But a few boxes were left behind and of course they contain important items that I suddenly need, so I'm contemplating a trip up to Virginia this weekend and back to Georgia on Monday. Donuts for the car ride. And Starbucks. And more donuts.

Actually, there may not be enough donuts in the world to fix my problems.

Surviving Sunday with Six Silly Siblings

This is what it looks like when I take 6 kids to church by myself. Someone poops. Someone can't sit still. And everyone is hungry. It never fails! But we made it more than halfway through the service before I had to make my great escape. And we stopped at Target on the way home where I rewarded myself with a Dark Cherry Mocha. (Heavenly!!!) The kids got new sunglasses. Can you tell? We're getting prepared for our return to Georgia. Shades are a necessity.

Can We Talk About Poop? (Just One More Time!)

I can't promise that this will be the last time. In fact, I'm quite sure it won't be the last time. But can we talk about poop just one more time?
I won't bore you with the details of what happened yesterday. I'll just say it involved one (or possibly both) babies. And a lot of poop in my living room. It happened while I was taking a much-needed shower and David was "watching" the kids. One of the babies had an incident and it was not pretty. It's a darn good thing that I ordered a carpet cleaner from Amazon after returning my mom's carpet cleaner to her a few weeks ago. It's due to arrive today and needless to say, it will be used immediately.
Anyway, I'll get to the point.

One year and 3 months after Leila stopped wearing diapers, Sarah has finally followed suit.

Yes folks, Sarah is diaper-free!!!!!!!!!

(Can you tell I'm excited????)
She hasn't worn a diaper in over 2 weeks, even at night. I didn't believe it at first, but there's been no poopy underwear and no diapers. I just hadn't caught her in the act... until today. Joshua came running and told me that she was pooping and I sprinted up the stairs, two at a time. I got to the bathroom just in time to witness the miracle. And yes, it's a miracle.
I'm not sure what finally caused Sarah's poop to "let her" go in the potty. I suspect it may have been when I told that she couldn't wear diapers to ballet class. Suddenly she was using the potty! And to top it all off, she's staying dry all night. Every night. Which is good since she's usually in my bed by 4 am every morning. Leila is still not staying dry at night. How can identical twins be on such different time lines?
Whatever the reason, I can just say that I am giddy. Now I will gladly sell all of the girly diapers and stock up on diapers for the babies. (Any favorite diaper suggestions for me? I've been out of the loop for awhile.)

Sarah wants to take a trip to Disney World. I will tell you that I almost said "yes" because that is how proud I am of her! I think we'll settle for a trip to Sesame Place in the spring. For now, the girls are anxiously looking forward to their ballet classes that are supposed to start next week.

Of course the classes will be canceled. They were canceled last week due to snow. And now we're getting another 2 feet of snow this weekend. That follows the 8 inches we got a few days ago and precedes the predicted snow that will fall next Tuesday. That's 4 storms in 2 weeks. And the biggest storms always hit on the weekends!

I'll be certifiable by the time spring comes. I have cabin fever something awful. I haven't left my house since last Friday and probably won't until next Friday. I feel trapped, like a caged animal. And I still don't have a snow shovel! Can I call in the National Guard to dig me out? It feels like an emergency to me.
Anyone in Virginia want to come get snowed in at my place? I have hot chocolate. And I promise not to talk about poop.