July 10, 2006

Yes, I am aware that it's been a week since I last posted. But, as you know from the past, when I don't post it means that things are status quo. Such is the case this time around, too.

We're still adjusting to life as a family of five. The girls aren't exactly sound sleepers at night (but, of course, during the day they could sleep through a hurricane preceeded by a marching band), so we've been trying and trying to get them on a schedule that we can live with. For the last week or so, it's gone mostly like this:

8 PM: bathtime, bedtime
10 PM: evening meal
10:30 PM: screaming commences from one twin
1:30 AM: meal time
2 AM: whoever wasn't screaming at 10:30 starts screaming
3:30 AM: they both finally shut up
5 AM: meal time again
6 AM: Todd's alarm goes off
6:15 AM: Devin wakes up and demands to watch the Disney Channel
Rest of the Day: Erin and Todd try to sleep when they can

Obviously, this schedule was not going to work. So we set forth a new schedule last night. It goes something like this:

8 PM: bathtime, Todd goes to bed
10 PM: evening meal (after being kept up, not put to bed)
10:30 PM: Erin sleeps with or near babies in case of crying and/or screaming
1 AM: meal time
1:30 AM: Erin does what she can to keep both girls happy
3 AM: Todd relieves Erin and takes care of the next feeding while Erin gets some sleep
6 AM: Todd gets up and makes Devin happy when he gets up. Erin continues to sleep
7:30 AM: Erin gets up to feed the babies and see Todd off to work

Okay, it's not a perfect schedule and we've only been on it one night, but it worked well. We're also doing our best to keep the babies awake during the day so they won't stay awake all night long. They slept much better last night (as did Todd and I) and here's to hoping for more of the same. I feel like a relatively normal person today.

Aside from all of this, though, the girls are doing well. We took another trip to the hospital on Friday for more blood work and they both came back extremely anemic. They are now on grape-flavored iron supplements. Boy can that stuff stain. I have purple spit up on everything I own.

In other news...

Yesterday we celebrated Devin's 3rd birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's. In attendence was the Mylar Clan along with pals Ethan, Colin, Nate, Dale, Reid and Macy. Pa-pa, Nana (my parents) and Grandpa came too, while Grandma stayed with the twins.

Now this was a great experience. In the past, we've celebrated D's birthday with a bbq at home with the family. I mean, you don't have a whole lot of friends at one and two years old*, so it's to be expected. But this year, we needed to do something more than just have the cousins and grandparents over and boy am I glad we did.

For the past two years, we've purchased fajitas, fixins and sides for 15 or so people, cleaned the house to prepare for the onlsaught, spent numerous hours cooking and cleaned up after everyone left. It was a two-day event, at least.

At Chuck's place, all we did was show up. There was pizza and Sprite for each kid, along with game tokens and free reign of the place. The cake was provided, as was a personal appearance by Chuck E. Cheese himself. We got an extra table for gifts and they even cleaned up the wrapping paper during the gift-opening extravaganza. At the end, we just paid the bill (about HALF of what I would spend on a home party) and walked away. Ahhh...the sheer bliss. No cleaning, no endless bags of trash. Just the quiet solitude of the car.

So, the party was a success. Devin will officially be three tomorrow, so we'll do presents from Todd and me then, along with cake and a meal of his choice. I see chicken nuggets in our future. :)

As more exciting stuff happens in the Pruetz family, I'll post.

Love to all...

E

*My brother-in-law, Brian, has a short commentary on first and last birthdays that I'd like to share with you. I think it may ve courtesy of Jerry Seinfeld.

Your first birthday and your last birthday are almost identical. You're dressed in some outfit you didn't pick out and are wearing a diaper. Your family plops you down at a table with a cake in front of you and points to the people around you saying, "These are your friends..."