Dum, Da, Dum, Dum . . . Deployment

Well, hubby is officially gone now and the countdown to his return begins. The girls and I took him to the ship the other day and said goodbye for about 8 months. Ugh! We hung out on the ship for a bit and took pictures for and then it was time for guests to leave the ship, but the ship wasn't actually leaving the pier for another hour. I decided it was better not to wait and see the ship leave just because an hour was too long to be sitting there looking at the ship and thinking about how much we will all miss each other.

As strange as it may seem, I think that it was hardest on hubby this time. Last time he went on deployment the girls were about 3 1/2. When hubby came back and saw how much he had missed it was hard and I think he was thinking about how much he was going to miss this time. He is basically missing their first whole year of school. I was very good and only cried a tiny bit, but then again I am still in a complete state of denial! If I can just stay in denial for about 7 more months I'll be great.

Daddy (aka Mommy) had gotten them singing Barbie dolls from the new Barbie movie The Diamond Castle. Well the dolls were a big hit. They played with them all the way home from the ship and Savannah took hers to school for show and tell. Yesterday they were "rehearsaling" the song and making a dance so that they could put a show on for daddy when he gets back. It was so adorable and they know the words so good already. Here are the lyrics . . . they are kinda perfect for now.

"I feel connected (connected), protected (protected), it's like you're standing right with me all the time. You hear me (you hear me), you're near me (you're near me), and everything else is gonna be alright. 'Cause nothing can break this, nothing can break this, nothing can break this tie. Connected... oooooh connected inside. "

In the movie it is about best friends, but since daddy gave them the dolls and the words are about being connected inside it is so perfect. I told them they can think of daddy every time they hear the song.

Goshin Angry

Hubby was mailing a package to a friend, and in the course of the girls "helping" him Savannah dropped it. The rest of the conversation went like this:

Savannah: I hope it isn't broken.
Hubby: Me too.
Savannah: Because if it is broken then he will be . . . can I say frickin yet?
Hubby: No you cannot say frickin.
Savannah: Oh, . . . then he would be goshin angry.

The first day of school

Today was the big day. The first day of school. The girls were so excited. Last night we packed up their backpacks with their school supplies, and made their lunches to take and they could barely settle down to sleep. I have to admit that I was excited for them too and had a little trouble going to sleep while trying to go over the list in my head to be sure I hadn't forgotten anything. This morning they were too excited to even eat anything but a couple bites of yogurt. Here they are in front of the house right before walking to school.

And here they are walking with daddy, who is carrying their backpacks because they were actually kind of heavy with all those school supplies in them.

Here is Savannah sitting at her table in her class just waiting to start learning.
And here is Sydney at her table (purple, of course. Thank you teacher for remembering). She already has a buddy and is busy "reading".
Walking down the hall to their classes I saw more than one mother red faced and crying as they obviously left their little ones. We saw one father standing outside a classroom holding his tearful little girl telling her he would see her after school. I just hoped mine didn't see that and start getting ideas but they sailed by on cloud nine without batting an eye. They went right in their classes and after locating where to stow their backpack and lunch box found their seats.

As hubby and I were walking out of the school I started to get a little misty myself. Me, who has been so excited for this day. I told myself I was not going to cry. I have been looking forward to this for years. Time. Time to clean the house up more, time to scrapbook, time to nap, time to myself. That is what school means for me I reminded myself. I managed to fend off the tears on the short walk home with hubby, however, when he went to get in his truck to return to work I found myself getting choked up.

As soon as he drove off I found myself doing something that I had sworn I wouldn't do. CRYING! Even now I am still tearing up and feeling like a ninny. It's not that I will miss them so much (hey there are still at least 6 more waking hours for them to annoy me) or that I'm worried about them (which I am of course. Will they like it, will they make friends, what if someone teases them, what if they hate their teacher? etc.) but it is more about this being such a big milestone.

Sydney said to me this morning "Why do you want us to look beautiful today?" as I was helping her put on her tights and shoes.

I replied "Because I am going to remember this day for the rest of your lives." And I will.

Open House Night

Last night was open house night at the girls school. It was basically a time where parents and kids can visit the school, see the classrooms, and meet the children's teachers.

The girls will be in different classes. This is a huge hot button issue in the twin community. Most teachers and educators are pro separation while most twin mom's are against separation. We will have to see how it all pans out, but my thoughts are as follows. I think the separation will be good for them while avoiding some common twin problems.

1. Separating them will foster individuality. A lot of twins act like a unit and I have seen this with mine as well. Often times when someone asks one of them their name they say "We're Sydney and Savannah", as apposed to "I am Savannah" or "I am Sydney".

2. One thing that I would be concerned about with them being in the same class would be the teacher confusing them. They do look a lot alike. I could easily see a teacher becoming confused about who did well at what task and causing one twin not to get the extra help they need in a subject because of it. Already Sydney is very interested in writing and carries around a notepad and pen or pencil all the time, whereas Savannah, not so much.

3. Give them time apart. I have been extremely lucky with my girls. I hear from other twin mom's about the constant fighting among their twins all the time and my girls really hadn't been fighting that often. The last few weeks though have been awful. It has been bicker, bicker, fight, bicker, hit, fight some more. So at this point I am really hoping that being away from each other 6 hours a day will give them a break and make them appreciate each other and their special bond as twins more.

4. Allow them to hone their social skills individually. Just a few weeks ago when we went to this little neighborhood block party while in Texas I had a glance into the different social skills my daughters have. While their friend was off playing with someone else Sydney had continued to play with several boys that were on the water slide, while Savannah walked back over to the adults and was sitting on her blanket alone. My mother immediately went to check on her. I wanted to see what she would do. To my mother this was just another example of why they should be together in school, after all Savannah needed Sydney to help her make friends. I, on the other hand, saw this as something Savannah needs to learn on her own and while I feel for her (after all, in a similar situation I can see myself taking her actions) I think she needs to learn it on her own. After all, in the real world she is not going to have Sydney around to ease her social anxiety for the rest of her life.

So, since hubby was home we split up and each took one girl to her classroom. I got Savannah and he got Sydney . . . after a brutal round of Rock, Paper, Scissors, because they both wanted to go with daddy. As soon as Savannah and I introduced ourselves to her teacher she said "Oh, Savannah has a twin that is in the class next door right?" which made me feel a little better. At least they were aware and I was so glad that they would at least be next door to each other. Then she said "I'm so glad you are separating them." That seems to be the predominate feeling among teachers. Savannah's teacher admitted to being a little strict, but seems to really love the children and said she had some fun times too. She did talk a lot, so much so that even I was tired of it, so we hopped next door to check on hubby and Sydney.

Sydney's teacher admitted to being a lot more easy going than Savannah's teacher even though he said they were friends and she was a great teacher. He did not talk so much and hubby filled me in on his little talk he gave to the parents. He told everyone that he did not need any supplies because he had purchased them himself, that he was a single man and spent a lot of money on his classes. We found out that the girls would have lunch together, so that was one plus. I was a little worried about that since there are 6 Kindergarten classes at their school and I know they have to stagger them so the Cafeteria isn't overwhelmed. I have to say that at first glance it seems that they are in the right classes. Savannah can be a bit headstrong and I think will benefit from having a stricter teacher, while Sydney is pretty mellow and should do well in a little bit more laid back atmosphere.

They seemed to accept being in different classes okay. I have been talking up the fact that they will make twice as many friends this way all summer. We will have to see how it works out when they actually go to school Tuesday though.

Just trying to make it through a few more weeks

I've been so bad about my blogging the last month, but really at this point I am just trying to get through the next couple weeks with my sanity.

Between getting the newsletter done for my Mothers of Multiples group, reading up on my new duties as Ombudsman for hubby's ship and getting the girls ready for school, and knowing that hubby is leaving on deployment in a few weeks I am definitely on the edge.

We got postcards in the mail today addressed to Sydney and Savannah from their Elementary school. They had the names of their Kindergarten teachers and room numbers. School starts next week, but there is an open house tomorrow night and they are so excited. I so hope they stay excited and like school. Mostly because I just need a break from their constant bickering of the last few weeks.

So nice to be home

It is so nice to be home!

I have loved traveling around the country and seeing all my family the last 3 1/2 weeks, but it is so nice to be home. I slept in my own bed last night loved it. I'll probably do a recap of vacation later but for now I am just enjoying being in my own space, trying to get caught up on laundry and enjoying a nice big rum and coke.

Neighborhood Party

Last night we went over to a friends house for their weekly neighborhood get together. It is one of those things where everyone brings something, they just pile it all on a table, someone bbq's some stuff and you just dig in. Everyone had a really nice time, even my parents. Our good friends with the daughter the same age as the girls had one of those big blow up things that is a huge slide with a pool at the bottom. Every kid in the neighborhood was on that thing! In fact, when too many kids got on the top of the slide it sort of started tilting and we had to yell at them for some to slide down before it dumped them off into the driveway!

They have been inviting us to these since they moved into that neighborhood about 5 years ago so by now we know all their neighbors too. It is kind of fun to go back and see all of them and how much all of the kids have grown since we have been gone for a year. It is so funny how time seems to go faster every year as you get older and the kids seem to grow up so fast. Even my girls have been sprouting up lately and have these long legs all of the sudden.

More swimming on the agenda for today, so better get suited up!

Fun, fun, fun!

The girls and I have been having a great time at Nana & Papa's house. They swim at least twice a day and are usually in the pool by 10:00 am at the latest. This past week a friend of mine and her 3 daughters came for a visit and all the girls had so much fun together. We had a 10 year old, a 7 year old, my two 5 year olds and a 2 1/2 year old, yikes! Then today, we finally got together with some friends that live here and their 5 year old daughter and 2 1/2 year old boy, this girl is a friend the girls miss a lot and 2 hours just wasn't enough, they wanted her to stay. We will definitely get together again before we leave.

We have also been SCHOOL SHOPPING! The girls have been hounding me about going school shopping since about May, when we went to the Kindergarten Orientation. They love to shop, just like their momma and nana. It has been so fun seeing them trying on shoes and clothes and getting excited over backpacks and lunch boxes. They are soo big!

Rehearsaling

The girls were in the pool today, of course. They told me that they were "rehearsaling" a play to put on for Daddy and I when he got here. That's right "rehearsaling". It's not a typo it is another word made up by Sydney and Savannah.

Playing Catch-Up

It has been a busy week!

Last Saturday the girls and I embarked on our cross country jaunt, along with my dad, the dog, and the cat. Amazingly, the trip went really well. We were able to drive half way, stay the night in a hotel, and then drive the other half and arrive at my mom and dad's at a decent hour. They were 12 1/2 hours of driving each day, but having my dad to help with the driving made it not so bad. The girls were practically angels! Unbelievable, right? All I have to say is "How did people survive before portable DVD players?" and also "Why does driving make you so tired?" I really don't get how come I am exhausted at the end of a day spent driving. All you do is sit on your butt, move your feet a little bit (even less if you use the cruise control). I just don't get it.

Once we arrived at my parents we had two great days, during which the girls were in the pool no later than 9:00 am each morning. Then hurricane Dolly hit near us, so it has been raining and windy (but still sweltering hot and HUMID, yuck!) for the past 2 days. Luckily Dolly hit far enough south of us that we weren't really effected except for some rain, wind, and a few tornado watches that didn't turn into anything.

Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so I'm sure my little water bugs will be happy to once more be splish-splashing around. I better get my rest so I can keep up with them.

Kidsitter

Hubby and I have been informed by the girls that they would prefer the term "kidsitter" instead of "babysitter". After hubby got off the phone with the babysitter the other night they informed us of this brainstorm. How old are these kids again? Because I can't imagine being 5 and having a preference on this terminology.

DVR Divas

Watch out! The girls have learned how to operate the DVR.

I guess I should go into a little back story. A few weeks ago at bedtime I discovered that we had run out of pull-ups for Sydney. As you may recall, Savannah started wearing her panties to bed a few months ago and has been doing very well, however, Sydney hadn't even been really trying. So, when we ran out of pull-ups I told Sydney that we were just going to try sleeping in panties. She did okay the first 2 nights, but on the third she had an accident.

Now I think part of the reason that she doesn't go to the potty at night is that she is just too lazy and since she is on the top bunk I haven't pushed it. Then Hubby says that another possible reason is that she doesn't want to miss part of whatever movie they are watching so maybe we should show them how to pause the movie when they want to go to the potty. So I showed them which button was the pause and which was the play. Of course, that night they had to try it out so they each "had to potty" like 10 times in the first hour after they were in bed. She has still had a few accidents so now we have taken to waking her up to potty when we go to bed and that seems to be helping. I still think she is being lazy though.

They are smart little cookies though because the other day they realized that they now knew how to pause and play the TV in the living room (which is the only one with DVR). We were having a lazy day and they were watching Sprout (PBS). Well one had to potty and the other wanted a snack so they paused their show. About that time hubby came in and was putting his stuff away and saw them go back into the living room and start up their show again on their own. He comes into the kitchen amazed and says "They know how to work the DVR now?" "Evidently," I replied.

Now nothing can stop them. I am already dreading the day they learn to read the channel listings because right now I can lie to them and say a show isn't on but soon those days will be over. Then I'll just have to be a mean mom who says "Enough TV" instead of a nice mom who lies and says "There isn't anything you like on right now."

Bedtime torture

What is it with husbands?

He walks in the door at 5 minutes until 8:00 pm, which is the girls bedtime. Now, I am not bitching about how late he was because I know that today was a good friends last day on the ship and they took him out to "play" after work, so fine. But, he comes in here right at bedtime and tells the girls he will play starry (that is what 5 year old girls named Sydney and Savannah call Mario Galaxy on the Wii in case you didn't know). They love to watch him play because they are not quite able to do this game on their own yet. He KNOWS that every time he plays this they turn into complete spazes!

So, he gets them totally hyped up right before bed.

Then to top it off he tells them that the ship picnic is tomorrow. Then they have 5 million questions ("Will there be food? Can we make daddy fall in the dunk tank? Will there be cotton candy? When will we go? Will be see purple Savannah? . . . and on and on and on) and they get all hyped up just thinking about it. We had told them about the picnic that was coming up a few weeks ago, but they had forgotten about it with the other stuff we have had going on, which rarely happens, and he had to go and remind them right before bed. I have to wonder some days if this man is insane!

Needless to say bedtime was complete torture. Thanks honey.

Mini Golf with T & the boy

I'm feeling pretty good today, I beat a 10 year old boy at mini golf. Hey, you gotta pump up the old ego whenever you can.

Today the girls and I met an old friend of mine and her son for a round of mini golf and lunch. We knew each other way back when neither of us had kids, we could shop in the Junior section, and our marriages were brand new. Our hubby's actually went to high school together and they introduced T. and I. Now we are the best of friends and the hubby's rarely talk. I love seeing her. She is one of the sweetest, nicest people you could ever meet, yet she doesn't make me sick with her niceness, and she is a super mom.

We met up at the mini golf place because I figured that would be something her son could do without being too bored and my girls could try for the first time so they would be entertained and that would leave us time to chat without 5 million trillion interruptions. It would have been a better plan if it wasn't so freakin hot, but we made it work. Even so, by the time we finished our 18 holes I think we all would have loved to slide down the decorative water falls even if we did end up in the pond at the bottom with the freaky catfish thing that seemed to be following us around the course.

As soon as we made it down the street to the Cracker Barrel I high tailed it to the restroom to dry myself off. I did get a few startled looks as I mopped my brow and neck up with their paper towel (and thank goodness they had paper towel and not those horribly useless hand dryer things). I explained to the lady with her daughter, who were staring as they washed their hands, that we had been mini golfing and she seemed to understand and ceased giving me the crazy lady stare. T confessed to me that she was carrying deodorant/antiperspirant in her purse on this trip because the relatives they are staying with do not have central a/c. How do people live like that in this day and age?!

I was loving the Cracker Barrel restaurant today. First, it was blessedly cool after our mini golf expedition. Second, the kids love to sit in the rocking chairs out front while we wait to be seated. Third, they serve breakfast all day. Fourth, they have checkers and those little peg games at the tables for the kids. And fifth, after we eat they can look around the little store and pick out a small candy instead of me having to order some huge dessert.

All in all we had a pretty fun day and I think the girls have a little bit of a crush on T's son. Cute!

Don't say uhm

My husband has made me aware of a strange quirk I have developed. It seems that I often ask him two questions back to back that should be yes or no answers but then they would have apposing answers.

Understand? No? Me either, at first.

Here is an example: I will say to him "Do you want another drink?" followed right away by "Are you done?" So any way he answers will be confusing. If he says "yes" I then have to qualify "Yes, you are done, or yes you want a drink." Or I'll ask "Are you coming to bed?" then "Are you staying up?"

Seems I do this a lot. Since he told me about it I have noticed how often I do this and I have tried to stop and I just can't. What is with that? It reminds me of when I had to do an oral report in school and right before starting someone says "Remember, try not to say uhm." Then of course the whole report is like "uhm, uhmidy, uhm". You try not to do something and just end up doing it more.

Mommy you snortled

The other day in the van the girls were telling me a story or something. When I laughed at what they had been saying I sort of snorted (yes, it happens occasionally).

Savannah said "Mommy, you snortled!" My children tend to make up their own words.

This just made me laugh even harder. Now I've told several friends about it and we have all started using the word snortled ourselves. So here are a few other words my kids have made up:

yogrit = yogurt

skippy dipping = skinny dipping

bednight = bed time

pattren = pattern

snortle = snort

Captain Dave's Wild Ride

Well, the 4th of July started out promising, but . . . here is a recap of what came to be known as "Captain Dave's Wild Ride"

Our friends Jeff and Angie came down from Pennsylvania for the weekend and as I mentioned in a previous post Hubby borrowed a boat from someone on his ship to use. So the plan was that we were going to take out the boat, meet our other friends with their boat and anchor in the harbor where we could watch the fireworks. Sounded good but right from the start things started going wrong. Before we even leave my mom has called and thinks she has a ghost, but that is another whole story.

When we got down to the pier our friends were taking their boat off the trailer. That went fine, but it seems that Captain Dave had backed the trailer a little too far into the water and the wheel had fallen off the concrete launch ramp so when he went to pull it out it was stuck. Four guys had to get in the water and basically lift the trailer up to get the wheel back on the ramp. Luckily they were able to do it. Hubby then launched our borrowed boat with no problems. Okay, ready to go right? Wrong!

We then realized that we had forgotten the girls life jackets. I though hubby had already put them on the boat and he thought I got them. At this point we didn't want to take the boat back out of the water, but no one else could drive it and we couldn't leave it docked at the launch pier because there were other people trying to put boats in. So our friends took Hubby over to the launch ramp so he could take the truck and go back to our house to get the girls life vests. Meanwhile we waited in the tied up boat at the boat rental dock. Then the friends were taking the girls and going to anchor right outside the jetty while we waited for Hubby to get back.

Well, while we are waiting this guy that works at the rental place comes out all frantic "You have to move, we have a sailboat coming in right now and they have to dock here." We told him we had no driver and he just says "Well, you have to figure something out because this sailboat is coming in now." I was going to call Captain Dave and see if he could walk me through starting the boat (I can drive a car, how hard can a boat be?) but I didn't have his cell number and when I tried his wife there is no answer. Then I decided to call Hubby and see if he could tell me what to do, but when I called his number I heard it ringing. He left his phone on the boat. Ugh! At least now I could call Captain Dave because hubby has his number in his phone. Captain Dave says they will come back but they don't show up and finally they call and say that their anchor is stuck on something and he is going to have to dive down and untangle it,! Luckily it is only 8 feet but jeesh what next! Right about this time this tiny little Styrofoam catamaran sailboat sails up and ties up right next to us. This is what the guy was freaking about?! We thought he meant a real sailboat not this toy.

Finally our friends called and said they were unstuck and on the way and they arrived right in time to pick up Hubby. Finally we are ready to go. Wrong again!

As soon as we start out Hubby says the engine on the borrowed boat doesn't feel right. When he has it on full throttle it is not even going that fast, so he decides that we better be safe and not mess with it so we have to go back to the pier again and put the boat back on the trailer and all pile in with our friends. So now their boat is filled almost to capacity. Surely nothing else can go wrong. Wrong again!

We got out to where we were going to anchor with no problems and there where quite a few boats out there too. The kids wanted to swim, of course. But right after they got in Captain Dave saw several large jellyfish so they had to get back in the boat. We had some snacks and soda's and hung out waiting for the fireworks that are supposed to start at 9:30. At about 8:45 we started seeing some lightening in the distance and we could hear on the radio everyone was asking the Coast Guard if the fireworks were still on and they said they were so we waited. Then at the last moment the announcement came over the radio saying that they were calling off the fireworks because of weather and everyone should disperse. Ugh! We got out of there fairly quickly and started back to the pier where we launched the boats. We had barely gotten 1/4 of the way back and we start hitting some choppy water and then it started to rain. The rain felt like hail pelting us in the face.

Let's recap, we have 4 small children, a tween, a dog, and 6 adults on this open boat. We are now in pretty choppy water being pelted by hard, cold rain, we are all soaked to the bone and we aren't even close to where we left the vehicles. Hubby and Captain Dave are trying to navigate so the rest of us grab a kid and hang on for dear life. I had Sydney and I covered her face with a towel so the stinging rain wouldn't hurt her and I would have covered my own face but by this time the boat was bobbing up and down so vigorously that I wanted to be able to brace myself for impact every time we crashed through a swell. Finally Captain Dave had to stop the boat because the rain was so bad he couldn't see where we were and after a minute the guys realized that we were closer to the shore (and rocks) than they had realized and the storm is pushing us even closer. Yikes!

Finally the rain let up and they maneuvered us away from the shore and headed us the right way. It was a little hairy there for a while I have to say. Luckily we had no other issues getting the boat back on the trailer. After she was off the boat Savannah informs us that she was just pretending to be scared on the boat. Kids can be so resilient.

We figured we left the fireworks spot about 9:45 and got in the truck to leave at 11:00. So the return trip that should have taken about 30 minutes took an hour an a quarter. Angie said we should name that boat the SS Minnow. We all decided that maybe the problems early on should have been a clue that this was not meant to be but in the end we have quite an adventure tale to tell.

Inner Tube Pictures

Savannah, Sydney, and Vee (friend)

Hubby is on a mission. He wants a boat.

He's been talking about it for a while now but lately it is really coming to the forefront. Last month on our way home from the water park we stopped in at the Bass Pro Shop and ogled the boats. Then our friends went out and got a boat. He's really been pushing the "family time" angle. Like: "It's something we can all do together" and "Think of how much fun the girls will have". The thing that is really cracking me up right now though is that the wife of our friend that just bought a boat keeps telling me the same exact thing about why they bought one. I asked her if she and my hubby had been comparing notes.

We had pretty much decided that it would be nice but that we were going to wait until next summer for a few reasons. First, because we have already missed half the season and second, because he is deploying in a few months for 7 months.

Now though, somebody on his ship has a boat that they are selling that is very close to what we were looking at and it is a good price. This guy is even going to let us take out the boat for the weekend to test it out. Should be a fun weekend, and we'll see how the boat works out.

Yes, the 5 year old is mocking you

We had great time Sunday. Friends of ours just bought a boat so they invited us out on Sunday. The girls had the best time, and not just because they got to see their friend "Purple Savannah", but because they love anything to do with water.

Okay, first I'll explain about "Purple Savannah". My twin girls are names Sydney and Savannah so when we met this couple with a little girl who is also named Savannah who is about a year younger than them it posed a bit of a problem. So the first time we got all the girls together this other Savannah was wearing purple and so hubby asked her if it was her favorite color and she said yes. Then he made a big deal about how our Savannah loves pink and their Savannah loves purple (and Princess Ariel, just like Sydney) and so my girls started calling her "Purple Savannah". Now I just call my daughter Savannah and the other girl Vanna since her parents sometimes call her that, but my girls still refer to her as "Purple Savannah".

Anyway we had a nice day on the boat. They even had gotten this inner tube thing that you pull behind the boat and all 3 girls got in it and they thought that was great fun. Then the husbands had to each try it too and see how fast they could make the other one flip off it so that was amusing also. Grown men acting like teenagers is always good for a few laughs.

When we got in the truck to head home the girls were both hungry, but there is usually a strict no eating policy in hubby's truck because the girls are such pigs and leave crumbs and make hubby crazy. So they were both begging and pleading for a snack and hubby finally gave in and said they could have some cheese crackers but they had to be careful. So I turned and said to them "You better be extra, extra careful because you know how daddy is about his truck." From the back seat I hear Sydney mimicking her dad saying "Oh no, my truck, oh no, a mess, oh no oh no" in this hilarious voice.

Hubby got that look on his face, the one where he is amazed and can't believe what comes out of our 5 year olds mouths, and said "Is she making fun of me, is she mocking me?" To which I had to reply "It certainly sounds that way." We all had a good laugh.