This is the first day that we slept in almost the entire time Mary Ellen was here. We had a really hard night since they seemed to fuss and stay up all the time. I don’t know if we’re not feeding them enough or what. I slept until 11am, it was a really nice chunk of sleep. Michael slept until 2pm! This afternoon, I had to go on some errands to pick up more printer ink and to pick up pictures from Costco. Costco has a really good service to upload and then pick it up the next day. I’m sure other places has this as well, I just never used it. I should though. I hate Costco’s parking situation. I wish they had a multilevel parking lot instead of the Wal-Mart style lot.

Yeah, this is supposed to be about the babies, but there is nothing to report. We have been working really hard to get the Litterbox done and we finally did it today! I started printing it and lo and behold, I run out of printer ink. Grrrr… I also realized that I had to get more pictures printed since my original order wasn’t enough. At least Costco will have it done tomorrow and I can go and pick it up.

We had a hard night last night, I think it’s because we overexerted them last night with the trip out. Both of them were kind of fussy and seemed to want to eat more than normal or just wanted to be held. I stayed up the night before trying to get our Christmas cards done, so I just crashed. Michael got more sleep than I did so he stayed up with them, getting a few minutes of sleep in between. At least he had his mapping program to work on while he was tending to the boys. When Mary Ellen came in the morning, Michael was really tired and went to bed. I slept in a little more until they started getting fussy. They returned back to normal during the day. Our friend, Steve, came over for a visit. He is the last person to see me pregnant and now he got to see the result. I was hungry myself, so he helped feed the babies. It was really cute to see Michael teaching Steve how to hold and feed them. The babies weren’t fussy at all and ate all they were given! Michael and Steve took off to go to the climbing gym and I held down the fort, still working on those darn Christmas cards! I’ll hopefully get the “litterbox” done tonight or tomorrow so y’all will get it soon!!!

I finally, finally got my new photography lights today. I spent the afternoon getting everything out of the boxes and putting it together and realized that I didn’t have this one part. It was so frustrating! But it made me put it aside and get our Christmas cards done. The Litterbox seems next to impossible to write this year, it seems like I have no time! Every year I think I will start doing it in early December, then leisurely work on it for a week, then send it out mid-December. Well, the boys threw a wrench in that plan! Of course I blame them, it is their fault after all! ;) Actually, it’s not that I don’t have time, it’s just that I have only small pockets of time that I would rather fill with watching TV rather than start something that is time intensive. I have to kick that habit if I want to get anything done. We went out for dinner to the Woodinville Cafe and the waitress there was just oogling over the boys. After that, we went to Safeway to pick up supplies and to introduce them to the cashiers that we know. That was too much for them, since they got fussy when we got home, especially Elijah. He had to be held for awhile, I think the cold weather really bothered him as well.

For some reason, today we got a billion phone calls. I usually ignore the phone and let the machine get it, but all of the calls needed my attention. We had the new washing machine delievered and the delivery guy was early (wow!). He called our house, I let the machine get it, then he called my cell, I let the voice mail get it and then he called the house again. I figured it must be important! The insurance lady called because they didn’t see the boys on my insurance. The doctor’s office called. You know, stuff like that. Michael took the car in to have the insurance look at the damage, but he had the time wrong so they had to reschedule. That was a bummer. I took the afternoon to pick up our Christmas pictures from Costco and also went to Target to pick up more stuff that we need. I spent the evening working on the Christmas cards…

Can you believe Michael and I have been married for 12 years? Geez, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. Where has the time gone? We had a rough night last night, the babies seemed to want to eat all the time. Michael stayed up between the midnight and 3am feedings working on learning some graphic thing on his computer, but then the babies got a little fussy after being put down. He became ultra sensitive to every noise that they made, that he couldn’t sleep. So, he went downstairs to sleep in the guest bedroom and I took care of the babies, since I got to sleep through the 3am feeding. It works out pretty well if I skip the 3am feed and then Michael skips the 7am. We both get a good stretch of sleep. Anyways, Michael got up, made us breakfast and then went to the climbing gym. He hasn’t been there since they put in the new walls. I stayed home and it was my first full day by myself. It wasn’t bad at all. I am gaining confidence that I will be able to do this whenever Michael goes back to work. In the evening, we gave them their baths, and it went much better this time. We coordinated everything very well. I think I had the water a little too hot though because both of them were like wet noodles for awhile afterwards. Unfortunately, it loosened Elijah’s bowels so he had the worst diaper ever, and Michael was fortunate enough to get the prize! We spent the evening watching “Legally Blonde 2″. Snaps for Elle Woods!

We had a pretty quiet Christmas. We slept pretty much all day with the babies, opened the rest of the gifts under the tree in the afternoon, and then our friend Carlos came over for dinner. Carlos brought his guitar over and taught Michael a Brazilian classical guitar song and they played it for the babies. The babies really liked it and sat very quietly and listened. We were going to make “yummy noodle”, one of our favorite dishes of all time, but we forgot to get the garlic! Michael and Carlos said I should make it anyways, but I was like “garlic is the main ingredient!” So, we had some mexican food instead (made by the Gourmet Girl, Jodi). We watched the making of “Winged Migration” (gift from Carlos) and it was so amazing how they trained the birds to fly with people. The movie is great, although something about the quiet nature of the film and watching the birds wings flap makes me very sleepy. So, I fell asleep while Michael and Carlos did other stuff. I am now able to fall asleep fast and deep anywhere, anytime!

We spent the day at home today. We were supposed to go over to the Tokumis’ for a gathering (since the “gang” is here visiting from Hawaii and Reno), but we decided to stay home and take it easy. I breastfed the boys all day today and didn’t need to pump for about 12 hours, which is amazing. Usually, I need to do it at least every 6. So that’s a good indicator that either they are eating more, I am producing less, or both. But I still pump at night since we bottle feed at night. We opened some gifts and watched some movies. More and more gifts for babies, less and less gifts for us! ;)

We decided that the washing machine that came with our house isn’t enough anymore (especially since we’re doing laundry all the time now). Since Mary Ellen was here all day today, we took the opportunity to shop for a new one. We decided on a front loader from Sears. It’s amazing what it can do with so much less water! Can’t wait for it to come. We had a hard time deciding on the color though. If we got the white one, we would have to wait until mid-January. If we got the black one, we could get it next week. Of course we had to get it ASAP, so we got the black one. We also had time to catch the new Lemony Snicket movie, which was pretty good. It wasn’t as good as I thought it would be, but the sets were gorgeous! Michael went on a hike early in the morning (after the 4am feeding) so he was really tired and fell asleep for part of the movie. We got home and Mary Ellen reported that the boys pretty much ate and then slept the rest of the day. It was nice to get out and catch a movie!

This morning we took the boys in for a weight check. We decided that we hate carrying around the car seats! They are heavy and bulky and very awkward to carry. We instead decided that it was worth the inconvenience to transfer them from the car seat into their slings. Also, it makes strangers with their disease filled hands less likely to touch them! It made us and the babies soooooo much happier to have slings. Anyways, we got them undressed and weighed on the digital scale and the nurse says “6.08, and the point is between the 6 and the 0.” So, we asked “is it 6 pounds 8 ounces? or is it 6.08 pounds? or is it 6 pounds .08 ounces?” and the nurse was like “it’s 6.08″, totally avoiding our question because she didn’t know. You would think that for someone who reads this scale many times a day would know what it means. Both nurses looked at the scale and concluded that it was 6 pounds and .08 ounces, which means they lost almost 2 ounces. We were confused because we didn’t think the scale could measure to that amount of accuracy, and also the boys have been eating like crazy and it is impossible for them to have lost weight. As the nurse was taking down their eating and diaper habits and giving us a “look”, we insisted that the weights were incorrect. She said “all right, why don’t we weigh them on the non-digital scale”. So, we undressed them again (not a pleasant thing to do) and took them to the other scale. Sure enough, Elijah weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces (7 ounce weight gain) and Rowan weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces (3.5 ounce gain). So, we concluded that the digital scale’s .08 meant 8 ounces, but the nurses didn’t put 2 and 2 together. It took her forever and a lot of writing down numbers and counting fingers to figure out how much weight they gained (anyone could’ve done it in their head in less than 1 second. OK, I guess not anyone!).

We were starving after the appointment, so we went to the Woodinville Cafe again for some brunch. I love their pancakes! After that, we came home, started feeding them and then the Haleys’ came over for a visit. We love seeing the Haleys’, they come in and light up the house with so much spirit, conversation and smiles! They loved seeing the babies, especially Nancy, since it probably reminded them of when their boys were little babies. They also brought us a ton of food, some chili, salad, cookies and misc. other stuff. Alas, their visit was too short and we felt like something was missing when they left!

In the evening, we had another visitor, our friend from work (and one of Michael’s climbing partners), Carlos. He held Elijah for a long time, and was on pacifier duty. Everytime Elijah would spit out the pacifier, he had to put it back in before he started crying. Michael talked his ear off about bivouac.com and showed him all the stuff he has been doing. No one is as enthusiastic about this stuff as Michael is!