Question of the week.

How important is a schedule???

How old are your kids now? The boys are about 15 months old.

Have you always followed a rigid schedule? No way! Well, not because we didn't try/ want to. We didn't get on a schedule until the boys were about 13 months old. We finally got them sleeping thru the night when we turned to CIO and everything has fallen into place. Naps at 9 and 1, lunch between 11 and 12, dinner at 4:30, milk sippy at 6:30, bedtime at 7 followed by 10-11 hours of solid sleep.

Do you think that your schedule is conducive to healthy sleep patterns in your kids? Most definitely! Before we got them on a schedule we were up 4,5, 6 times a night, there were no simultaneous naps, it was CRAZY.

Do people give you a lot of flack for being a strict scheduler? How do you respond? Not really. It only becomes an issue around bedtime (7:00) which is pretty early and we stick to it which means we have to skip things or duck out early.

Has your routine become more relaxed as your kids have gotten older? Who knows- we just got here!

How do you kids react when they are completely off their schedules- and how do you get them back on track? They get really crabby. They need those naps now- even if the afternoon nap is more of a quiet play time in their cribs. If they don't have it they are so whiny and get really aggressive towards each other. So far we've stuck to the schedule pretty well. If we miss a nap, we miss a nap. We just get back on the schedule where we left off.

A Night at the Museum

We went to the Children's museum last night and had a great time. The boys were pretty overwhelmed at first but eventually warmed up to it when they realized they could run around.


Now what? Lincoln's idea of fun was hanging out here in the habitot


Nice picture with Daddy in the dinosaur area. The boys like the dinosaurs but were dissapointed to not see Buddy or the pteranadon family



This was definitely the boys favorite. They loved playing with the little dinosaurs

Question of the week.

As parents of multiples, it's sometimes hard to avoid comparing your kids; there's "the quiet one", the "bold one", the "bossy one", etc. Stereotyping and pigeonholing aside, we thought it would be interesting to see what kind of trends, if any, we can find relating to birth order and multiples. This week's question of the week is:



Describe your childrens' personalities, in birth order. Do you think your kids personalities are related to their birth order?
Lincoln- Baby A (and our first born by 1 whole minute) is at first glance much more serious than his brother. From the very beginning people have commented on how he's tough to get to smile, always looks like he's really got something on his mind. Some days I agree with this- early on he was a tough nut to crack- you had to work for every smile, every grin. Lately? He's my wild man. We like to call him dramatic. When he's upset- he can go to extremes, throwing himself onto his Boppy, burying his head in is hands and playing up every little emotion. Usually with quick peeks to see if you're paying attention.
Wyatt- Baby B has always been our smiley, happy, noisy kid. You know somethings up if he's quiet- because it hardly ever happens. He loves to antagonize his brother.

Is your baby A any bolder or more dominant than B, C, D?
I'd say he's a little more aggressive. If he wants something, he has a propensity to take it. We've had a few episodes of biting in the past that seem to be coming back. He wants what he wants, when he wants it. That said, Wyatt will take what he wants as well. We're trying to work on sharing...

Does your last-born reach milestones last as well?
Not really, he was the first to crawl, Lincoln was the first to walk. Wyatt is our talker, Lincoln prefers signs. Wyatt was the first to get teeth. Usually the other one is right behind- within a week if not sooner.

Are there any characteristics that you feel are somehow related to birth order?
I'm not sure. My husband and I are both the oldest of three and I know I've always felt like the "responsible one". The one who paved the way for the other two, the one who got all the first attempts at parenting from my parents whereas my sisters got maybe a more toned down version and possibly an easier path. I think having two at once really makes it easy to let some things slide right from day 1. Because there were two and we needed every bit of sleep we could get we didn't spend hours standing over their cribs watching them sleep. We didn't worry about every sniffle or sneeze, we tend to let some things slide that we possibly wouldn't if we only had one baby to focus on. I think this is going to take a lot of pressure off of one feeling like they are put in a position to be the responsible one or the baby or whatever tag they may be given.

Do you find that a lot of people like to "classify" your kids? How do you feel about it?
I think at first it bothered me that Lincoln was always called the "serious" one- I started to get a little paranoid if he didn't react the same as Wyatt all the time. As he gets older I see that he's just more of an observer than Wyatt and he may come off as serious but he's just as happy and fun as his brother.

12 weeks!

We made it to 12 weeks.

It's been a roller coaster so far, that's for sure. At least for me anyways. I suppose everything seems the same, normal, A-OK on the surface, but it's a different experience for me.

I started off really sick, all the time. We got that under control with massive doses of Zofran about 3 weeks ago. Slowly that total control of the nausea and vomiting has gone away. Now the vomiting is controlled (for the most part) but the nausea is constant. This past week I had a few days where I was really struggling with being up and moving around. The world does not stop for a sick pregnant woman.

When you are sick, everyone likes to remind you that "it all ends around 12 weeks!"

Sure. If you have regular morning sickness it probably does end around 12 weeks. If you have regular morning sickness you probably aren't losing weight and sucking down Zofran like your life depends on it.

So I'm at 12 weeks. We'll see what happens now. Things seem to be ramping up again and I'm starting to figure out ways to cope if I have to endure this for another 28 weeks. 28 weeks just sounds so far away! The worst part is knowing that I have to keep looking for a new way to feel better- because eventually everything stops working.

Thankfully I have the best husband in the world who is totally supportive and willing to take on the boys at night. The boys are at their best (if their best= craziest) from about 5 to 7 every night. It seems we're in another stage of teething and Lincoln has finally found his voice! Screaming ensues often- just because it's fun and they like to hear themselves, or because their teeth hurt (it's hard to tell sometimes). Thankfully they go down for the night without a fight.

I try to remind myself that this is only 40 weeks. That it will have an end and if it's anything like last time as soon as this baby is born I will feel like an entirely different person and I'll forget I ever felt horrible. It's hard to keep that in mind some days.

And really, at the end we get a new little baby- who from here until our 20 week ultrasound will be referred to as Little Mystery.

Question of the week.

Choosing the names of multiples (like every other aspect of being a multiple parent) is just a little more complicated than choosing a name for a singleton. Not only do you have to consider which name you want to hear yourself repeating (in various tones of voice) for the rest of your life, you have to consider how it sounds along with that of their siblings.


Our boys names are Lincoln Davis and Wyatt Josef. Mr. Wonderful had suggested Lincoln or Davis as first names early on and Wyatt had always been a favorite of mine. It took us a long time to agree on our first boy/girl names and when we found out there were two we decided on our back-up names that same day. Because we were waiting until delivery to see if we had boys or girls we had 8 names picked out ready to go. Our 1st choice name was Baby A from the beginning. We didn't change a thing from the day we found out there were twins.

Did you stick with family names? We did use some family names, although not the obvious ones. Davis is my Grandmother's Maiden name and Josef is a family name on both sides although we used the spelling from my husband's Croatian roots. We did have to dig a bit to find family names that we a) loved (we'll pass on Vinco!) and b) weren't overused in current generations (John and James were out).

How do you feel about "matchy" names? We were really against matchy names from the start.

Did you worry about their names "coordinating?" This is something we wanted, at least a little bit. We didn't want a more modern name with a traditional name, we did achieve this I think. Lincoln and Wyatt although different in style bring you to the same time in history. The hardest part for us was deciding on names with or without nick-names. Lincoln shortens up to Linc pretty easily but there isn't really anything for Wyatt. We didn't even think about just how coordinated Lincoln Davis was until after the boys were born and someone asked if he was named after both presidents during the Civil War. That was purely coincidence!

Did you name your babies before you met them, or wait until you saw them to assign names? We assigned our names to Baby A and Baby B, and they seem to be perfect, just as they are. Wyatt is 100% crazy boy, Lincoln is our more laid back thinker if you will. If they would have been reversed I don't know if they would fit as well.

What were your second choices? Our Girl names were Hazel Adeline and Charlotte Lucille- all family names.

Did you consider the popularity of a name as a deciding factor? We really didn't want anything that was popular. No Kaylee's or Ethan's here. Wyatt ended up being in the top 30 names for Minnesota the year the boys were born and I think that is as close to popular as we want to get. I've had 5 people in my Facebook friends tell me they have their own Lincoln since the boys were born- that was a surprise!

Family Date Night!

Last night Mr. Wonderful had plans to take us out for dinner. Just the four of us.

We've eaten out plenty with the boys and it's always quite the adventure. Keeping the boys occupied, keeping more food on the table than on the floor. It's a little nerve wracking to say the least.

Last night we figured if we went up to Broadway Pizza, and we went early, we'd probably be OK.

We were right.

The boys were awesome.

Wyatt spent the first 20 minutes or so turned around in his high chair flirting with the 19 month old at the table next to us. Another little girl who was up in the booths spent most of her dinner trying to catch his eye and waving. Lincoln was content to sit and play with the crayons and drink water with his straw.

Then there were the waitresses.

By the end of the night we had three waitresses doting on us and our boys- two were grandma types. They couldn't get enough of the boys.

I was just happy nothing was on the floor when we left and no one had a tantrum or a blow-out.

We might just have to make this a regular event. Pizza at Broadway is always good and the atmosphere is perfect. Makes me never want to leave this neighborhood.