Surprise, Surprise

Well, hello.  Yes, we still have a blog…I really feel like we need to get reaquainted, the blog and me.  Unfortunately, our relationship is not likely to reach its full potential this week.  We are gearing up for our big trip to Tahoe to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday.  I have been feeling the stress this weekend.  Of course, because we are crazy, we decided to host a 4th of July bbq at our house.  So, that, on top of trying to plan and pack for our trip has caused a little stress in the Seki house.  And stress does not make for a happy mama. 

But, what does make for a happy mama is the fact that her wonderful husband surprised her with an early birthday/anniversary gift.  I have been wanting this for a while.  Have talked about it incessantly.  But, because I am indecisive and frugal (not a good combination), I have been unable to pull the trigger.  But, Bryce came home from running some “errands” on Saturday and plopped that baby down on the counter.  I was SO excited and can’t wait to really put it to use.  It came early so we could break it in on our trip to Tahoe.  Yesterday, I went and purchased a UV filter and a new camera bag (because both camera and lens wouldn’t fit in my old bag) so I am all set.  Funny how that works…I can’t pull the trigger on the big item, but I have no problem spending the money on the accessories.  Not sure what that says about me?

Now we are in major get ready for vacation mode.  We leave EARLY Wednesday morning and I have packed most of Bree and Cullen’s clothes (in the new, bigger suitcase we had to run out and buy yesterday…yes, they have a lot of crap!), purchased all their snacks and other assorted surprises for the plane, made my list and feel like I am in fairly good shape.  I will still be stressed until we leave for the airport, but I am looking forward to this trip and keeping my fingers crossed that Bree and Cullen are cooperative travelers.  Thankfully, my parents are also travelling with us so we will now have four hands per child.  I think we will all be happy when we arrive in Lake Taco (as Bree and Cullen call it) and can commence the festivities.

Oh, and just a side note, Bree and Cullen are turning 2 on Saturday so we will have a small celebration on our trip and then something for their friends when we get home.  I haven’t even really had time to appreciate the magnitude of the fact that my babies are going to be two in less than a week!  So, I am stressed about that too.  July really will be a crazy month!

 

Whistle While You Work

Bree and Cullen’s birthday is quickly approaching (less than two weeks now).  They have already received their first birthday present.  Their California aunts and uncles and Grandma T sent them a cute little table and chairs set.  I have been wanting to get the one for a while, so we were all very excited when the box arrived.  Well, I was excited…Bree and Cullen had no idea what it was.  So, our handyman came into town and finally had some time to put the gift together.  And lo and behold, he got ALOT of help.

Dad said it took him about twice as long to put it together, but they had a great time and loved helping Papa with the construction.  And they absolutely LOVE their new little table and chairs.  They ate lunch there yesterday and have been having fun pushing the little chairs all around the house.  So, thanks so much everyone for the wonderful gift!

 

That’s Quite a Compliment

The kids are at the stage where they like to name everything in sight.  They are especially taken with clothes…”Mommy’s pants.”  “Cullen’s shoes.”  “Daddy’s shirt.”  “Bree’s socks.”  You get the idea.  They also love to point out and identify parts of our face.  We have to be careful because they haven’t quite figured out that jabbing their finger into our wide open eyes as they say “Mommy’s eye” isn’t exactly the best idea.  But, I digress.

This morning, I decided to wear a dress to work.  This is not something that I often do, but it is hot in Texas and long pants just don’t work every day anymore.  Sometimes my legs need a break and a chance to be free.  Today was one of those days.  By the time I was ready, Bree and Cullen were both sitting in their high chair eating their “baby” waffles.  I walked into the kitchen and Bree says (as clear as day), “Hi Mommy.  I yike your dress.”  Well, thank you, Bree, you just made my day.

 

Timber…

Well, we had a bit of craziness last week at our house when Bree’s beloved balance beam broke off at the roots and collapsed and fell to the ground covering the street in front of the house preventing traffic from getting by.  I was freaked out when I got the call from our nanny, but, actually, everything worked out very easily and I had to exert minimal effort to get everything resolved.  Thankfully, no one and nothing was harmed.  Our nanny usually parks her car DIRECTLY under that tree every day.  That day, she did not…thank you, thank you, thank you.  We also finally reaped the benefit of the exceptionally high property taxes that we pay.  You see, we have our own fire department who was not busy at that moment, so they came by and cleaned up everything and put it in our yard.  Then the following morning happened to be our weekly brush pick up, so the City helped us out even more by picking up all the small stuff.  And we were left with the big (or some would say huge) stuff. 

Strangely enough, the tree turned out to be a mesquite tree (Who knew?  Certainly not any of the people that actually own the house.)  And apparently, mesquite wood is very valuable.  We had several people stop by to ask us if they could have some of the wood.  But, we ended up giving it to the dad of a friend of ours (who came and cut it up and hauled it away!) who does woodworking and has promised us something home made in return. 

My dad had to do a little bit of cleaning, but lucky for him, he had help.

Bree decided that an oven mitt was required for this heavy duty yard work.

The big hole left in the yard has since been filled in with dirt (thanks Dad!) and is anxiously awaiting the new tree.  When trying to decide what to plant, we were lamenting the fact that there is not a tree that is both Irish and Japanese to represent all members of the family living in the house.  But, some wise person suggested that we plant a bonsai tree and surround it with potato plants.  If Bryce agrees to groom the bonsai tree, this idea might have some merit. 

Cullen did more raking of the sidewalk and drive way, but at least he was trying!

Bye bye old mesquite (again, who knew?) tree, our yard seems empty without you.

 

Happy Father’s Day (yesterday)

Not sure what it is with me lately, but my motivation to post has been somewhat absent.  Hopefully, things will turn around soon.  We had such a nice day yesterday and I hope that Bryce enjoyed his special day.  We were lucky enough to have my dad in town as well so Bree and Cullen were able to spend Father’s day with both Daddy and Papa.  And Auntie Tay Tay was in town, so we could all celebrate together as a family…so fun!  Bree and Cullen had fun coloring cards in the morning and even more fun delivering them to the proper parties.  Cullen had a hard time with the fact that you were just supposed to deliver the cards and not actually open them.  I think both cards may have been opened by the time they reached their rightful owners. 

Bryce was able to sleep in a bit and the kids then took him his card and presents.  He received some new running gear since it is getting SO hot here and he didn’t really have the appropriate attire to run in this heat.  So, he got two new sleeveless dri-fit running shirts and some dri-fit running shorts.  Papa got some nice new swimming trunks that he was excited about as well.  Bryce then had some quiet time to watch the US Open while we all went to Church.  Then Bryce and I got to go to Costco ALONE!  It was so nice, we just wandered through the aisles looking at everything and sampling all the goodies.  It reminded me of our weekly, pre-kids trips when we went for entertainment (this sentence just proved that kids did not really do that much to increase our lameness…we were already there).

In the afternoon we all headed out to the Webbs house to have some fun bbqing and swimming with Bree and Cullen’s buddy Jacob.  We always have so much fun at their house…it is such a relaxing place with a beautiful backyard and fun pool.  Cullen had a great time in the pool throwing balls and splashing Daddy.  Bree, for some reason, was not that interested in getting in the pool.  She was content to sit on the edge of the hot tub with GiGi and stick her feet in the water.  All in all, it was a lovely day.  It was so great to celebrate with my dad and with Bryce and to acknowledge all that they do for our family.

 

New Fascinations

There are lots of new things going on in our house lately.  The kids have really started to communicate their likes and dislikes to their parents.  So, here is a pictorial representation of their latest and greatest fascinations.

1.  Sunglasses.  They are both obsessed with sunglasses.  They want to wear them inside and outside.  It is funny when they put them on inside the house because they walk around with arms outstretched to avoid running into walls and other obstacles.  They enjoy pointing out who each pair of glasses in our house belong to…when I get home, they point to my sunglasses and say “Mommy glasses.”  They will point to each other and say “Breezy (yes both Cullen and Bree refer to her as Breezy.  Always.) glasses” or “Cullen glasses” as the case may be.  If anyone is wearing glasses in front of the kids, be prepared to have the ownership of your glasses established.

2.  Their new Lightning McQueen cameras.  Really, the Lightening McQueen obsession is a continuation of an existing fascination, but their receipt of these new cameras will help to prolong it.  Thanks GiGi.

3.  The one arm Seki pose.  Both Bree and Cullen have perfected this move.  This is definitely learned from Daddy.

4.  Cups and straws of any variety.  They like to eat all snacks out of a “cup” (this term also includes small bowls).  They insist on drinking from “Mommy’s agua.”  They prefer to incorporate these pieces into all of their activities.

5.  Jumping on things…more specifically, their beds, the couch and their parents.  These are not good things (especially the parents part) and are in the process of being put to a stop (at least in my mind). 

6.  The fake laugh.  Here is Bree exhibiting the fake laugh in all of its glory.  Cullen is equally guilty of this newly developed skill.  This laugh will never be confused with a genuine laugh…it is always very loud and lasts a very long time.  It is usually in response to Daddy’s jokes, so I guess I can’t really blame them too much.

So, these are just a few of the fun things going on in our house as of late.  We had a nice visit from my parents this weekend and they will be rolling back into town on Wednesday.  Gotta love the summer.  Bryce and I played golf, had dinner with friends, went on an early morning run and went to a party and didn’t pay a cent for babysitting, although my mom did throw some expensive items into our shopping cart at the grocery store…I guess that was her compensation.  It was well worth it!

 

The Terrible Twos or Something Quite Like It

I think that our house has been officially hit by the terrible twos.  And I shouldn’t really say terrible, because it isn’t really an accurate description.  More like exceptionally exhausting (almost) twos.  But, I hope this is as “terrible” as things get in our house. 

I don’t know what it is, but I feel like things have regressed, in terms of Bryce’s and my level of control in our house.  When Bree and Cullen were first born, we were exhausted, naturally, and often felt like things were spinning out of control.  We didn’t know what we were doing or how we were going to function.  But, at that point, it was a lack of control of the situation more than anything else.  And since then, things have gotten progressively easier, and I must admit that I have been a bit cocky about raising twins, often finding myself thinking that it wasn’t so hard.  And then, about a month or so ago, things began to change.  Lately, the kids have become much more expressive and opinionated and stubborn (wonder where they get that?).  And even Cullen, who has for the most part been one laid back dude, is starting to come out of his shell and tell us what he won’t do.  And now, rather than just saying no, they say things like “I don’t want to” or “Not me.”  So, at least they are becoming more creative with how they refuse to follow our direction.  And recently they have started this new thing where they say they want something, you get it for them, and then they say they don’t want it, so you put it back, and then they repeat the same sequence of events over and over and over…  For example, the other day Bree asked me for leche (milk).  So, I went and got her milk from the fridge.  When I gave it to her she promptly said “No leche.”  So, I put it back the fridge.  Then she proceeded to ask for the milk again.   You get the idea.  And you can insert pretty much anything in this story in place of milk and it will have happened in our household. 

They have also started to test each other to see how far they can push each other before reaching total melt down mode.  It is mostly with respect to toy stealing, which results in immediate tears.  There is no negotiation, it usually goes like this…one kid grabs the toy the other kid is playing with, said kid starts screaming immediately, the stealer will either return the toy and the crying will cease (good scenario) or will continue to play with the toy and repeat “No. Mine” or some equivalent when told to give the toy back.

So, I guess this is the time where they say the kids are testing their limits and that is pretty clear.  And I say this time isn’t really terrible because as exhausting as Bree and Cullen can be, they are also becoming so much more vocal and funny and loving and just fun little people to have around.  It is fun to see them grow and develop into little people, though it definitely has Bryce and me hoping for some extra long naps* so we can fit one in for ourselves.  

 

*I should also point out that the kids took no nap on Sunday.  We put them down two times and all I heard over the monitor was the sound of kids jumping in their bed, screaming and laughter.  I went in twice to tell them it was time for quiet and nap.  Each time, they looked at me as if they knew they were busted.  Well, I can only assume this was the case the second time, because when I walked in they were both standing at the ends of their cribs with blankets on their heads bouncing up and down and laughing.

 

Hello Summer, Goodbye Time

I don’t know what it is about summer, but it seems like our summer calendar fills up almost automatically.  It is like there are things on are calendar that I don’t remember putting on there…where do all of these things come from?  I guess it is a combination of things-travel, work events, summer associate season at Bryce’s work, weddings, and the list goes on and on. 

And of course, there is kid stuff.  If I am honest with myself, the kid stuff is the only stuff that I really feel is important.  I really want Bree and Cullen to get to do activities and I think it is important for us to do stuff as a family on the weekends, since we get so little free time together during the week.  For example, this weekend, we are attending our area Mothers of Multiples Club’s summer picnic.  And I am really looking forward to it.  I am not sure why it has taken us so long to attend a event with the club.  I have been a member since before the twins were born, but I just haven’t made it a priority to get involved.  There are a lot of reasons why, but this weekend we are finally taking the plunge.  I think it will be great to get together with other parents who have multiples and also for the kids to see that there are other kids like them.  I doubt they will really grasp that at this age, but the exposure will be good for them.  Plus, it is at a really cool park that I have heard good things about and have been wanting to try out.  The only negative is that the party is from 10-1, so I am just hoping my kids can hold it together until we get home for naptime. 

So, these type of “kid centered” events I don’t mind.  But, it is all of the other stuff that starts to drive me a little batty,  even though I am the one that is probably responsible for 70% of the commitments.   It is just such a struggle to say no to requests.  My first inclination is always to say yes, and I feel bad saying no to things.  I don’t know where that comes from, but I need to put a stop to it before it is September and all I can remember about our summer is a whirlwind of activity.

 

Go Bryce Go!

Its official!  Bryce has signed up to run a half marathon.  For those of you who know Bryce, you will understand what a huge endeavor this is for him.  And I must admit, that when Bryce first brought up the idea I was a little lot skeptical that he would actually follow through.  This idea seemed along the lines of his decision to do an Iron Man and his decision to give up red meat, both of which lasted little more than a few hours.  But, he went to the Team in Training meeting last week and officially signed up.  This weekend, we went to the running store and purchased some new running shoes and socks, both of which he has already used.  He sent out an email announcing his intentions to his family…I think he was waiting to reveal his intentions to his greater circle of friends for fear of facing their judgment should he back out (guess that idea is out the window…oops).  Needless to say, we are all very proud of Bryce and know that he will do great is this undertaking.  You can check out his website here.  I can’t wait to be on the sidelines for a change and cheering Bryce on come November.  I am sure that Bryce’s half marathon will be the most curse word laden run in history, but whatever it takes to get him over that finish line!

P.S.  As I was picking out the tags for this entry, I had to chuckle.  Running and Bryce…those are two words I didn’t think I would ever see together.

 

Giddy Up!

I have written before about Bree’s love for her bouncing horsey that also happened to be my bouncing horsey when I was little (and has the exposed springs to prove it).  Well, this weekend in the middle of Drew’s graduation party, Bree decided that Cullen was to be her horsey and Cullen actually obliged. 

Here they are in the initial stages:

Here is take down number one.  Bree doesn’t have much respect for other peoples’ body parts…like say their head.  If she wants to get somewhere or do something and your noggin (or arm or leg or toe or stomach…you get the idea) is in her way, she will just sit on it or crawl over it.  Here is the beginning of her attack on Cullen’s noggin.

Cullen eventually began to relax and enjoy himself.  Bree did not think he was being an active enough horsey.

Eventually, Cullen’s hair became the reins and the game was over shortly after that.

It is so nice to see them actually playing together nicely for a change.  Lately, there has been a lot of screaming in our house when a toy is taken away.  I must admit that in the past couple of weeks, Bree has been a little instigator.   Cullen has a one track mind these days…cars, cars, cars.  And frequently, Bree will enter the room and just grab his bag of cars (yes, he likes to carry them in a special bag).  Cullen will then scream a few times and Bree will then return them rather forcefully and go about her business.  So, you see, Bree had no intention of playing with the cars, she just wanted to show her little brother who was in charge.  And, in our house, there really is no question about it.