Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

OH!! Would you look at that? I didn't fall off the face of the earth! It's been a while, I know, but I assure you that the Ringmaster and Casa de Gato y Ninas is still up and running, although now that we are in our "tremendous threes," every day really IS an adventure.

So a quick update: The girls are 3 yrs, 3 months going on 15. Seriously, 95% of what they say needs to be kept for posterity. If you follow my statuses at all on Facebook, you will know full well what I mean. The things that happen when they are around are sometimes beyond the pale. So here's a not so typical, yet completely typical example of life at Casa de Gato y Ninas right now:

I worked from home yesterday afternoon, but I had this meeting with my 3 supervisors and 2 co-workers that I had to call in for late in the day. Four of the five people work in our San Antonio office, so they don't really see or deal with personally (meaning face-to-face) on a daily basis. So I sequestered myself in our bedroom with the phone and things were going really well for about 45 minutes. Then it all stopped.
Ellie comes running to our door with no panties on, waving a plastic Target bag and SHOUTING, "ABBIE POOPED!!! ABBIE POOPED AND IT'S ON THE FLOOR!!" Abbie, who is now in the bathroom shouts back, "NO!! It's not on the floor anymore!!" as she is attempting to empty the contents of the potty into the toilet, which already has a great deal more than the 3 allotted squares of TP in it.
So here I am, phone clamped between my ear and shoulder, trying to wrangle a plastic bag from Ellie, clean a stinky, messy potty without water (because it's too noisy) while not gagging, wipe Abbie (which Ellie had started to do, and did a pretty good job, but then got distracted by the Target bag), AND find the poop that's on the floor while trying to listen to what the people on the phone are saying and praying that they don't ask me any questions.

So there you have it. Life with 2 three-year-olds...NEVER a dull moment.

Oh, and I did find the poop on the floor 10 minutes after the whole thing...Abbie had taken the washcloth from the towel bar and wiped most of it up off the floor and rug. So, on that note, until next time, dear devoted readers, Peace...and love

LIfe Goes Better With Duct Tape

Oh dear Readers, there is never a dull moment at Casa de Gato y Ninas. If you were cogniscent during the 70s or if you have had experience with toddlers, you may have heard about a fad called streaking. Well, we here under the bigtop are going through a retro-phase in that our little Monkey is all about the naked. Actually, she is more about the diaperless life than the Full Monty. I personally think toddler nakedness is pretty cute, but the cuteness stops when said toddler pees all over the floor, bed, towel, her hand, etc. So until she is more ready to be potty trained, we are breaking out the duct tape. Red Green would be proud.

Slow Down, You Move Too Fast!!

Oh dear readers, the wheels of change are rolling fast. My old road is rapidly changing and I should get out of the new one if I can't lend a hand cuz the times they are a changin. Okay, I will stop with the 60s song lyrics, but life is changing here at Casa de Gato y Ninas. Too fast for my tastes!

My dear readers, Abigail has started the ball rolling with a huge milestone. She figured out how to climb out of her crib tonight. To be fair to her, she's been working on it for about 3 months, but this time, she was successful, to some extent. I say this as I intervened before she hit the ground, literally. I was in the bathroom and heard what I thought was her gearing up to scream. It's a very distinct Abigail noise that is the vocal equivalent of a pitcher winding up for a fast ball. Even though Eleanor was clearly not asleep, I quickly scooted in to try and nip the crying jag in the bud. Since I was going from the bright bathroom to the dark room, I was pretty much blind, but could tell from her noises that she was standing, so I moved toward the sound, expecting to run into the crib rails. Instead, I ran into her body!! I felt her second leg fall off the top of the rail and grabbed her under the arms just as she was about to drop to the ground and certain head trauma. Sniff, sniff. My babies aren't babies any more!

As I said, she's been working on this for a while, so we have been reading up on it. I remember reading a message board discussion where a mom was contemplating toddler beds as her little one was going AWOL from the Infant State Penetentiary at 13 month old. Her question for the audience was, "Isn't she too young for this?" to which one person replied, "Clearly the answer is no. You may not be ready for her to graduate to a big girl bed, but she is." I remember thinking how harsh but how true that comment was, not just in reference to the bedding situation. So many times have the girls done something when I wasn't ready to hit that milestone yet. They did it with crawling, teeth, walking, and talking, just to name a few. I am sure the Great Bed Migration of 2008 won't be the last time that the Bear and Monkey leave Mom and Dad bewildered and in their dust. So before I get too sappy and nostalgic on y'all, I'll leave you with a good song that talks about looking back. Please note the section after the weird little Robin/Kermit conversation-it made me tear up:

So that was my evening. Just another day under the Big Top, I guess. Stay tuned for our next installment where Eleanor, not to be outdone by Sister, gets a job and goes off to college at 19 months. Until then, courage.

Random update

So if you have seen the little ladies lately, you will know that they are growing by leaps and bounds. This goes for their personalities as well. Here are 3 stories for your reading pleasure which all illustrate a typical day in the life of Clan Gacek.

The Monkey and the Cheese:

So I gave the girls cheese sticks-whole cheese sticks. Both of them plopped on the floor and started munching along. Well, for some reason, A got tired of eating hers and tossed it just a little ways away from her, but right next to Eleanor. So E grabs the stick and hands it to Abigail who narrows her eyes and tosses it again. Again, E picks it up and hands it to her. By this time, A is ticked, grabs the slimy cheese stick and with an exasperated UNH, whips it across the room. Eleanor did not get up to get it.

Music Soothes the Savage Beast[s]:

For those of you who don't know, we moved into our new Casa de Gato y Ninas this past weekend. Along with the house, we purchased a piano, intending for the girls to eventually take lessons. Well, needless to say, they are fascinated with the thing. They can both crawl up onto the bench and reach the keys. So yesterday they are both sitting up there playing away and pretty soon Monkey starts saying, "EH EH EH!!" Then the Bear joins in, both babies yelling, "EH EH EH!!!!" Finally E points down the keyboard. They wanted the bench to be moved down so they could play new keys. As soon as I moved them a bit, they were contented.

Comedy of Errors-funny and pretty sure we are doomed to the seventh layer of Hell:

Unfortunately, we had to make a somewhat unexpected trip to Chicago the week of June 16 for my grandmother's funeral.The whole family traveled there via minivan, which was an experience in and of itself. We also got to meet the two newest members of the family, Anthony who is 4 days younger than Monkey and Bear, and Noah who is now 6 months old. The 3 toddlers took to each other immediately and absolutely loved each other's company.

Being only 15 months, sitting in Church was not their idea of fun, so we spent a great deal of time outside having adventures. It was a beautiful day, very warm and hardly a cloud, so we spent a lot of time outside rather than in. The church was built in 1928, but in the classic Catholic church style which always seems to include millions of steps. So there we are, Abigail, Eleanor, Anthony, my cousin Shari, my mom and I, watching the babies run and frolick through the concrete pathways, ride the statuary and play the bongos on the Virgin Mary's head. Nothing too crazy, until the natives grew weary of their playthings and chaos ensued. First, Monkey decides she would like to do her best Nadia Comaneci impersonation by doing a well executed forward roll into Anthony's OCCUPIED stroller all while standing on the 4th to the bottom step of the entrance. My cousin immediately pulled back on the stroller, via instinct and I lunged forward to grab the still rolling Eleanor, only for both of us to trip over Abigail, who was having a senior moment and was crawling on the sidewalk. The end result was 3 toddlers screaming, 3 adults laughing hysterically, and one older late-arriving funeral attendee giving us all the crusty of a lifetime, damning us, I am sure, to eternal perril.

Feeling guilty that we were missing the service and worried that we would have a repeat performance of Miss Gold Medal 1976, we moved indoors to the OTHER set of 25 steps. At this point, my cousin gets tired of listening to Anthony whine, and lets him out of the stroller. He then immediately decides to show us HIS stair stepping prowess by going down the stairs like a big boy. Any of you with toddlers or younger children will know that when they are first mastering steps, more often than not, kids will back down them, using their hands and feet, in a modified bear crawl fashion. Going down like a "big kid" involves walking down the risers like any adult not completely inebriated or otherwise impaired, would tackle a staircase. I digress. Anyway, so Anthony is at the top of these stairs. To his credit, he did make it down about 5 before momentum took over and he started sliding down on his heals, but not going into a full-on log roll until about step 12. I should point out that this is my cousin Shari Lyn and any of you who know her, know that although she is only 5 feet tall, most of those 60 inches are occupied by lungs, so she shrieks, "ANTHONY THOMAS!!!!!!" Chris swears he didn't hear her inside the sanctuary up in the front of the church with the other pallbearers, but I think he is lying.

So yes it was an incredibly sad day, having to say goodbye to such a dynamic and wonderful lady, but really, there she was in all three of those little ones, having the time of her life.

So as you can see, most days we have our work cut out for us. As they say on Jon and Kate Plus 8, "It maybe a crazy life, but it's our life." Here, here, Gossleins.

Year-end top ten for babies!

Top ten...oh MAN!!
Yes, dear readers, it's that time of year when everyone and their brother makes a top ten list of their favorite things about the year. Usually they are books or movies or music, but as the ringmaster of Casa de Gatos y Ninas, and being who I am, mine will not be your run of the mill top ten. It may not even be a top ten. We shall see as it unfurls below. So here it goes...
The top ten or so things that I have either said, done, learned or experienced this year that I didn't imagine doing, saying, learning or experiencing last year.

1. Baby mittens do not belong in the VCR, although they do fit nicely in the movie slot.
   
2. "No, Sister's ear does not come off no matter how hard you pull on it."
3. Teaching Bear to say MMMMMMM when she eats does pay off when, unbeknown to Momma, she is in the kitchen chowing on cat food
   
4. "Please don't eat that [fill in the blank]!" Some examples are dreidel, Christmas tree, cat, Sister, CD of Ryan Adams you found by stretching to your full height and knocking it off the desk with the very tips of your fingers (although I do admire your tenacity on that one.)
5. I learned that although it took 15 minutes to set up the elaborate baby keeper inner that would rival that of a state penitentiary, the sheer force of 2 nine month olds can break it down and escape in 5 minutes.
   
6. The blind sweep that you learned in CPR for clearing a choking victim's airway also works for getting any number of shredded pieces of tissue paper, fur balls, cat food, and any random nastiness that shouldn't go into babies' mouthes back out.
7. "Eleanor, stop licking the DVD player."
8. In a blind taste test, the left-hand side of the cart handles at the Minnetonka Target taste much better than the right-hand side.
9. This one I already knew, but since I have been out of college for almost 12 years, I had forgotten it: no matter how many times you wash your hands, you can still smell the vomit on them.
10. I never realized that I can carry on a 20 minute conversation about poop.
11. When wet, Mum-mums and Gerber Puffs are stronger than super glue.
12. Our kids will curse us for our capturing a lot of their embarrassing moments digitally, like these most recent photos:

Eleanor with a puff stuck on her nose

Abigail with Chris's socks on

Now that wasn't too painful, was it dear reader? 2007 has been quite the year for us Gaceks, but it's been a great ride. Here's hoping that 2008 is just as fun and interesting. Until next time, peace, love and a lot of patience.

Randomness

It's Tuesday. Tuesday means different things to different people. To Wallace it meant porridge. To the college-aged Ringmaster, it meant tacos. But to the parent Ringmaster, it means babies go to Grandmas! WAHOO!! I also tend to work on projects that cannot be accomplished when babies are here, such as tonight's mission, cleaning the girls' room. It occurs to me that some of you have never seen their space, or at least haven't seen it this clean.

This would be their door. Who knew it would be so hard to

find letters that weren't cutesy? I found these on clearance at

Walmart. Actually only the A was on clearance, but

through the magic of fingernails, I got both for 50 cents.

SHHHH! Don't tell Sam Walton!

This dresser and shelf on the left was mine as kid. Now

on the shelves, I have displayed things that were

ours as kids, you know, things that reflect the childhood of

Mom and Dad. So sweet your teeth could rot, right?

Of course, straight ahead is the end all be all of gifts, books.

Don't worry dear readers, there are more than just those two

measly shelves. There is a whole basket-full next

to Monkey's crib.

And speaking of cribs, here they are, complete with clean

sheets, although that part is lost on you since this is just a photo

If you were in the room, however, you could smell the sweet

smell of Mountain Fresh Downey. And lentil soup.

Incidentally, Monkey's crib is in the foreground, and Bear's is in the background.

They both have breathable bumpers as they are both

devoted baseball fans and LOVED to play catch with their NUKers.

Try to find a NUKer at 3 in the morning when it has fallen behind

2 boxes of diapers and the humidifier. Just try it. I dare you.

Now they can practice their Torii Hunter catches off the baggie.

There it is, the Wall Street of Casa de Gato y Ninas: where

fortunes are made and lost, dreams made and broken. I speak of

course of the the changing table. Many deals have

gone down here. And many a diaper has given its life

for an innocent infant's butt.

This is the other side of the room, with E's crib and the

closet, cleverly covered with an old shower curtain.

See that picture above the door? Chris made that for his grandma

when he was 10. Go ahead with the collective, "Awwww!"

And last but not least, how could we ever forget the most

important part of the room, the Monkey and the Bear.

Don't you just want to squeeze 'em?

So quite the silly if not boring post, but hey, now you know where the magic happens in our house...and what I do on Tuesdays.

Until next time, rock.

13 weeks and sweating

I will be your father figure, put your little hand in mine

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers and father-figures out there. Life was pretty relaxed at Casa de Gato y Ninas for Chris's first day o the Pop. It was too bloody hot to do anything other than move at a snails pace, and even that was too much! Every day this week was over 90, which is fantastic when you don't have air conditioning in either your car or your home.
The babies faired okay with the heat for the most part, but we all pretty much hit the wall today. No amount of fanage, wet rags or undressing could help. And that was just the parents! Lemme tell ya, a semi-naked 13 week twin post-partum belly isn't pretty, so it's good that when it gets hot, most people lose their appetites.

I just want to bang on the drum all day

I made it through week 1 of back to work. It was tougher than I thought it was going to be, leaving the babies on Monday. I got a little misty, but was quickly distracted on Cedar Avenue where people were traveling 25 miles per hour in a 30. Let's just say that this font color really describes my language for that 20 minutes in time.
Being back at work reminded me of all the frustrations that I had before I left. Miraculously, they are still there, despite the fact that many of my co-workers are not. Thanks for the beautiful down-turn, Mortgage Market! You rock!

What's new Pussycat?

What else is new, you may ask? Not too much.
Monkey's tests came back negative for urine reflux. Yay E! Abigail is taking pro-biotics to help her tummy while she is on the amoxicilian. Pro-biotics are the natural cultures in yogurt and are helping to replace the good bacteria in her stomach that the antibiotic is killing off. She is a much happier Bear because of it and as are her parents and sister.
Tomorrow, June 18, the girls officially exit newborness and enter the world of infantism. Happy Birthday, Ladies!! Supposedly the big thing for this month is language and singing, so I have been practicing, hence the subtitles. They say that any songs and any voice will do. Somehow knowing all the words to "Fight the Power" and reciting them to an infant just doesn't seem right.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make

So I guess that's it for today...time to haul myself to bed in my 88 degree bedroom. Until next time.
-s-