Must be a boy thing

New 'Do

Matt and Will got some major haircuts a couple of weeks ago, and these are the "after" photos. Matt doesn't have as much hair as Will, so it tends to get a little crazy sometimes. This is what it looked like following a nap, and I just didn't have the heart to fix it. His hair kind of matches his personality sometimes.

Future Trash Talkers

Making Dad Proud

Looking Back

March has become an emotional month for me. It will always remind me of the roller coaster ride that led up to Matt and Will's birth. The end of March 2006 brought my first hospital stay for pre-term labor, steroid shots for the babies' lung development, weeks of IV mag and bedrest. The boys' birthday is bittersweet. It is a joyous occasion; we are incredibly blessed that Matt and Will are perfectly healthy now. But I will always remember the circumstances surrounding their birth. I will always remember that it was 12 hours before I visited them. Five days before I held Will. Ten days before I held Matt.
Today I picked out a white button down shirt to wear to work. It was one of many white button down shirts my mom purchased to make kangaroo care with the boys more modest. I can't look at those shirts without remembering hours, days, weeks visiting the boys in the NICU. The half hour kangaroo care sessions we had. The feel of their skin against mine. Knowing that my body had the power to help regulate their temperature.
Matt and Will take my breath away. They make me laugh. They turn me into a baby talking, uber-affectionate, swelling with pride mama. It amazes me every day how far we've come.











Will above, Matt below















Will above, Matt below

The "D" Word

We're closing in on the 2nd birthday and I'm finally realizing that I might need to start some form of discipline. We've been dealing with biting, hitting and most recently kicking for the past several months but I've pretty much had the "boys will be boys" attitude. I mean come on, they are going to have to live together for the next 16 years. I'm sure we'll experience our fair share of battles.

Don't get me wrong. I've been "redirecting" their habits for the last year. And what I've learned about "redirection" is that it is certainly not "discipline." Why would Will want to play with a puzzle when he could kick Matt in the face and watch him cry? A puzzle can hold their attention for as long as they can throw it across the room, but making one another cry NEVER gets old.

Redirection DOES work when you want a child to stop wallowing in their fit of self-pity. I can usually stop the tears just by asking, "Where's Emma? I don't know where Emma is?" I think the only reason this particular tactic works is because they are actually afraid of dogs and they probably interpret my question as "Emma is loose in the house and at any moment she might spring upon you and thrash you with her tail. Hurry! Find her before she finds you!"

I'm sure I could read hundreds of books about how to discipline, but why would I want to read a discipline book when I could be reading Us Weekly? So I recently went to the trenches for advice from some fellow twin moms and they broke it down very simply for me. It took maybe 3 sentences to explain. If there's anything a twin mom understands, it's the the necessity for simplicity!

Shaking in His Boots