Us as parents . . .

I am on Day Three of being on my own during the day (well, technically I wasn't alone yesterday -- Tim worked from home -- but he was in another area of the house all day working while I took care of the kids, so I'm still going to count it). All Grandparents and Daddy are back to the day-to-day of their work lives and I'm here as a stay-at-home mom for three weeks. The 2nd most popular question / statement when I was pregnant was "you're going to stay at home with the twins, right?!?". And my response was always a very polite "H-E-DOUBLE-HOCKEY-STICKS no! I will be a better mom because I work". Um yeah, I'm sticking by that statement (job security for our nanny, Becca, if you are reading this). I love my kids, don't get me wrong, and I'm sure this will be a LOT more fun when they are older and do more than eat/sleep/poop, but I'm just not cut out to be stay-at-home mom material. So to all of those peeps who thought I would change my mind once B & K arrived -- ha! I win and was right! :-)


Those of you who have known us for a while know that Tim & I are not "kids people". We are not really a fan of babies or other kids and we hoped that we would at least come to like our own children (which is the case, thank goodness). If I hear one of our parents say one more time that they thought we would NEVER have children I may actually develop a complex about it (just kidding). Seriously, we were not planning this and certainly did not expect the twins part (even though they run in my family), so we are slowly coming to terms with the idea of being parents and having these two as our responsibly for life (I know, most people deal with this WAY before they become parents -- or at least while they are pregnant!). I don't want to sound ungrateful for our blessings -- I know that there are many people out there who would give their right pinkie to be up all night with a screaming baby (let alone TWO) and we are very thankful for our two healthy and for the most part easy babies. It just wasn't our plan and so we're still working through that. With that said, to those of you who have asked if we had any "magical" AHHHH moments with the kids, my answer to that is no. They do make us laugh and it still feels like we are watching someone else's kids for a while, but we're sure it will all click with us some day. :-)


We are not your typical parents and are already probably scarring our children for life. For example, our new bedtime routine involves listening to Alternative Rock station 106.7 while we feed the babies their 11 pm bottle in their room. Last night they were rocked to sleep by the Killers song "Somebody Told Me". Today we are jamming to DMX and Snoop Dogg on the rap music channel on TV. And yes, we took up the Grandparent's offer to babysit the first weekend both B & K were home and we went shopping both Saturday AND Sunday all day. And yes, we went to a Riverboat Casino last weekend to gamble while our 5 week old twins spent the night in the care of Nana & Papa. We're already planning a trip to Chicago this summer without them (heads up IL folks!) and we will probably take a trip in October for our anniversary without them. We are not the kind of people who go two years without taking a trip (or even a night) to ourselves. No offense to those of you who are that way -- I admire you, for sure! -- but we are trying to keep some shred of our old lives while we incorporate our little blessings into our new lives. Our family vacations will probably consist of trips to St. Martin and all-inclusive hotels in Mexico (I'm sure we'll fit Disney in there at some point, too) -- I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wasn't your typical gushy pregnant lady and we aren't your typical parents.


Ok, sorry for the ramble. It occurred to me last night while I was up with both babies in the middle of the night that I had mentioned a while back I would discuss how unqualified we are to be parents (and how we're winging it, not your typical parents, etc.). I need to run because Kendyll is stirring and when the girl wants her food she WANTS her food NOW (I swear I'm going to try to catch this on video some day . . . she literally YELLS at you until you feed her). Here is a picture of what our lives are now . . . hanging on the couch in our boppies with my co-babysitter Tabasco (that's another thing . . . our kids are covered in dog hair and Tabasco loves to give them kisses . . . we can't help it!). B & K are also into checking out the swing - Bennett likes it more than Kendyll . . . but they are just now big enough per the weight requirement to hang out it them so hopefully they both start to enjoy it soon.