May You Live in Interesting Times

Life never ceases to amaze me, and for the past two years it has been a rollercoaster of disasters and miracles. Well, the momentum has forced its way down for the time being, as Craig just got laid off from his "new" job. This also means we lost the wonderful, life saving insurance we have been eagerly awaiting. We had one month of the new insurance and it expires at the end of March. Luckily it was in time for Craig to have his gall bladder surgery, which was Friday, so even the painful $530 for the single month of insurance was worth it. He is doing fine, the surgery went smoothly, and he was in and out of there in about six hours. Still sore and working his way back to textured, non liquid sustenance, but doing well overall. We really thought things were moving in a positive direction with his job and the insurance, but apparently we needed more to test us... On what and why I do not know. But as the old proverb/curse goes, may you live in interesting times. Well that is us.

The boys are doing well, luckily no big problems with them outside the insurance issue. Collin is going to be acquiring one new ECI therapist, Speech. How do they know a baby needs speech therapy, you ask? Well, at this age speech is closely related to fine motor skills and eating habits/ abilities so they will focus on getting him caught up in those areas while doing sound and syllable therapy. Collin is still not making many syllable sounds except na na na, otherwise he just grunts and moans his desires and requests. Collin is also still crawling on his tummy, but getting onto his hands and knees occasionally to play so hopefully that will be the next thing he accomplishes. He is pulling up on things constantly but does not know how to fall and has had some crying spills on our ceramic tile floor in the kitchen. I have decided that I hate the ceramic tile floor... We have also lost a number of dishes to it. But he is still a happy baby as ever, smiling and laughing, even sleeping better. He hates to be woken up to eat now, so I let him sleep until he tells me and so more and more he is getting closer to just sleeping through the night. At least we have pretty much gotten out of the 3:30-4:00AM feeds and I am getting more sleep time these days. However, with the stress and drama that has been in our lives on the past two months, sleep has been hard to come by without having the boys to interrupt me.

Cyrus is a champ, sneaky and very intelligent. He is ready to walk, but does not want to, constantly sitting down while we walk down the hall holding his hands. He even stands alone for a few seconds if he is being entertained enough to distract him from the fact that he is standing. He is opening doors, reaching for doorknobs, getting into anything that is not baby proofed. They are such a handful these days I cannot be on the computer while they are awake unless I put them in the playpen or excersaucer, etc. Cyrus charms everyone who comes into his range of vision and smiles and much as he babbles. He is ready for his carseat to be turned to face forward, but he loves to play in the mirror while in the car, so I am going to wait until Craig has fully recovered form his surgery before making that leap. I suppose Collin is ready too, just not as big so we will turn both seats around to make things consistent and then things will be as they are until the boys are old and big enough to be out of carseats all together. Wow. Time flies when you have twins.

As for myself, I am leaving for my Germany vacation on April 10 be back in the states on the 17th. Again I cannot stress enough of my gratitude to my Friend Jen and my parents who have fully funded this vacation. And this may give Craig some time to focus on job hunting if necessary without having to worry about the boys. My mother is looking forward to having them at her house for a week as much as she is worried about having them at her house for a week. :P I just do not have the time I used to do things and get them done, now that everything seems to have jumped into overdrive. Getting on the computer is more of a chore than it used to be since I prefer to spend my afternoon nap time getting things done around the house (when I too am not napping with the boys), and evenings are to unwind and relax. We still aren't getting mommy and daddy dinner until 8:30 or 9:00 pm, but we are trying to make it earlier. Heck, I am just lucky to eat dinner period.

So big long update that I want to add pictures to but I hear babies awakening in the nursery. So that will have to be some other time soon. Pity too because I have a bunch of new pics I want to share.