The Highlight of My Week...

We've had a relatively eventful week this week - grandparent visits, doctor appointments, professional pictures taken. But probably the most exciting day was yesterday - 8 loads of laundry started, cleaned, folded and put away. Is that a record, by any chance? I know that I certainly haven't done anything so impressive in months, years if you exclude giving birth to two babies in a three hour period.

I had a little help. Grandma Sue spent several hours entertaining Ailey and providing lunch so that between feeding, diapering and playing with Marin and Silje I actually had some time to fold, sort, put away laundry and complete my safeway.com order (the grocery shopping more time consuming than it should be because their website is SO SLOW).

I think even more amazing than completing 8 loads of laundry is the fact that 8 loads of laundry can be created in only a few days. The obvious culprits are the babies' burp-cloths, washcloths, bibs and sheets. I swear we go through way more than twice as much as when Ailey was a baby. She was one baby who didn't really spit-up, though she did go through an amazing amount of bibs intended to save her clothes from the fountain of drool that she was. Marin and Silje are not only two babies, but two babies who spit-up, drool and "blow-out". A lot. I like putting the babies on the floor because they have so much fun (see them both below on their hands and knees!), but no matter how long it has been since they ate they will spit-up all over the blanket (an item that creates it's own load of laundry every couple days), their clothes (another load) and their toys (some of which can go in the washing machine).

So three of yesterday's loads of laundry were the babies clothes, their burp cloths, etc., and the floor blanket with at least one large sweet potato stain on it. Ailey's clothes are thrown in with the babies' since she hardly dirties anything comparatively. Her overuse of her cheer outfit lately is actually helping me in the laundry arena. Three more loads were mine and Andy's. With all the baby-created laundry I tend to forget ours, which is actually pretty bad because I get spit-up on almost as much as the babies spit-up on themselves. I've been known to go through a few outfits in one day because I can't handle the smell. Another load was towels that had been taking up space in the hamper for way too long, and the last load was a set of bed sheets that had been decorating our hallway floor all week (ok, these didn't actually get folded).

Eight loads of laundry. I'm impressed. I don't think I even owned 8 loads worth before I had kids. And in the past six months I know there hasn't been a moment when all the laundry was done. So it was a proud day.

As for the rest of the week, Gma and Gpa Johnson came to visit bringing gifts from their week-long Alaska cruise, and Gma and Gpa Higgins came to play and help Andy on the fence, respectively.

Marin and Silje had their 6 month doctor appointments on Monday. By the time Ailey was 2 months old she was off the top of the height chart. It took Marin and Silje 6 months to get there, but they are now 28 and 28 1/2 inches tall and each just over 18 pounds! Marin also had her follow-up hip xrays and passed with flying colors. Ailey is now our only current Children's Hospital patient again.

On Wednesday I took the girls to get Marin and Silje's 6 month baby pictures taken, also hoping Ailey would cooperate and join them for at least one good one. We did get a good one of the three of them, and Marin and Silje took very good individual pics too. Our success would only seem truly impressive had you been there to witness the chaos we created. Ailey got into all the props. Silje was burying her face in her hands crying while we were trying to get her to smile. Marin came up with a new face, a cross between fish-lips and an old man gumming his food, something that even had the photographer cracking up. It was most unattractive, but what a great time to be trying something new when she's supposed to be posing for posterity! One of Ailey's "props" was a pink tu-tu. I used it to bribe her into sitting for the picture of her with Marin and Silje: she could keep wearing it if she would get her picture taken and smile. In the copy of the picture below you can make out the pink tulle sticking up behind them. At least the color matched! My mom can vouch for all this as she was there with us. When I had the babies' 3 month pictures taken a friend of mine was visiting and graciously agreed to go with. That session was, if I remember right, just as chaotic ... and I haven't seen that friend since. If I promise her she can just sit on the floor and play with babies maybe she'll come visit us again!

Today we went to the SNOMOMS family picnic. For those of you who don't know, SNOMOMS is Snohomish County Mothers of Multiples, a local chapter of NOMOTC, National Organization for Mothers of Twins Club. SNOMOMS is what Andy calls my therapy. I get to get out of the house and socialize regularly without kids, and with other moms who know exactly what my life is like right now. Can't get much better than that! The other moms are all great. It's a very friendly group, even though most of the time you only know or recognize half of them. There is never a lack of conversation. The dads don't seem to feel the same. Almost every mom says that their husbands groan when told there is a SNOMOMS event they will be attending as a family. Most dads end up coming to the events, but I couldn't say I've talked to more than a few of them. Do we moms just dominate the conversation? Or do the dads feel so out of place that they keep their thoughts to themselves?

Anyway, on to the pictures of the week.

Ailey got a train-conductor's hat from Grandpa Mark, and the babies are wearing their Alaska bibs!

Grandma Sue spent a day playing, reading and doing puzzles with Ailey.

Marin and Silje are all over each other often! Here we see sweet babies hugging ...

... and wrestling the next minute!

Ailey yelled from her reading corner in the living room "Hey Mom, I can read Dora's picnic!" She proceeded to "read" the words on each page word for word. It was a proud mommy moment.

Ailey didn't crawl until she was 10 months old. That's probably partly why seeing Marin and Silje on their hands and knees the past couple weeks has me wondering how life is going to change for us yet again very soon with two crawling babies. They're only just starting to sit up, couldn't they just do that for a while?! Arg!

Marin is getting a little better with eating - most is going in rather than out at least. However, she has discovered her pretty hair on the top of her head. For some reason it feels really cool ... only when she has food all over her hands.

We have a couple of really cute babies, but, seriously, the drool!

And here is Marin being not-so-cute with her fish-lips slash old-man-gumming-food face that she learned while getting her 6 month pictures taken.

Silje being cute.

And last but not least - certainly not least in our house where Ailey sings all day long - a performance ("strummin' on the ol' banjo"):

That feeling of laundry-success is already gone. There are messy, unusable burp cloths and bibs piled on the kitchen counter waiting to be tossed into the hamper, Marin went through two outfits, and Ailey wore something other than her cheer outfit today and dripped watermelon on it. That's to say nothing of my own spit-up-on clothes (right in the middle of the picnic) and the towels that were dirtied during bath time. More than once I have dreamed of owning two washing machines!

Have a great week.