Because it's so hot...

Because it's so hot, I thought I'd share these pictures of what my parents, aunts and Nana thought was a good idea to do with my babies while Lester and I were in West Palm Beach for Memorial Day Weekend.

Yes. They went old-school and bathed the babies in the sink!! Clearly, Cary loved it!


They even got a little smile out of Dean! (This, my friends, is no small feat.)
At first, I have to admit, I was a little snobbish about this. Sorta like when my sister told me that the babysitting crew took my boys to the hospital to go visit my brother -- in their pajamas! Say what?!?!

But, it is like 97 degrees here today, people. And honestly, if I could fit in the sink, I would do this myself!

Victory for Home Alone Mommy!

Lester has a night meeting, so I had to handle the two babies by myself tonight. This used to scare me to no end.

When they were smaller, trying to hold and rock two babies, after having bathed and dressed them by myself, was an ordeal.

And when they got a little bit bigger, and not quite so fragile, they were mini-maniacs at night! Screaming, crying, writhing, unhappy little beings. They were hungry and sleepy and they wanted to sleep and eat and eat and sleep RIGHT. THIS. SECOND. I could not do anything fast enough.

For safety reasons, I had to bathe one, while one sat in a bouncy seat in the bathroom, then lotion and dress the bathed one quickly, and then 1, 2, 3 switch babies! Bathed baby goes in the bouncy seat; unwashed baby goes in the tub. Inevitably, one baby would be impatient and screaming. Many nights, it was both babies.

But now that we have them both in the tub at the same time, and they're big enough to sit up in the tub relatively safely (I say relatively because Dean still thinks he can crawl in the tub, and Cary likes to bend over and attempt to drink the water until he splutters and chokes. Crazy baby!), life is a little easier. I can plop them both in the tub and while one is getting washed, the other one is splashing away happily. When it's time to take them out of the bath, I just drain it first so that when I take one out, there's no water in the tub to potentially drown a crawling or a bathwater-drinking baby. Then I lotion (while wrangling) and dress them in their jammies quickly (quickness is still imperative when bathing two babies, no matter their newfound bathtub enjoyment) and get them their bottles.

(Bonus pic of them in their jammies from this weekend at Nana's:)



By 7:10 tonight, they were both down for the count. Victory for Home Alone Mommy!!

The only thing that gets left out of the Home Alone equation is the holding we usually do at night. Even though we put them down in their cribs still awake, we do still hold them until they're finished drinking their bottles. It's just a little bit of snuggling and cuddling at the end of the day that we don't want to give up just yet.

That's hard to do when there's only one of me, but I was determined to sneak in some individual love-time with each of them when I could. A hug while one was sleepily sucking away; a few kisses while the other was zoning out. I did the best I could.

And though they are little babies, I think they could feel my love.

"And I would hold you for a million years...to make you feel my love."

Happy Love Day!

Valentine's Day Things I Love List:

1. God
2. Lester
3. Dean and Cary
4. My Mom, Dad, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins
5. My friends, both old and new
6. Chocolate
7. Seafood
8. Naps
9. Traveling
10. Taking a nap in some fabulous hotel while traveling
11. Reading
12. Laughing
13. Old movies
14. Dessert
15. Giving gifts
16. Getting gifts
17. Pedicures
18. Great conversation
19. NPR
20. Pajama pants

I could probably think of a gang of more things I love, but I'll leave it at that. We'll be here all night.

So today, my thoughtful, romantic little boys gave Michelle and Kristie Valentine's gifts:

They gave Kristie a card and a Godiva chocolate bar. And for Michelle, they bought a red-and-white planter, filled it with Hershey's kisses and red-foil-covered chocolate hearts, and stuck two balloons on sticks in the planter. I thought it was totally cute, because the balloons said, "Kiss me," and the planter was full of kisses. Get it?! And...she can re-use the planter again, if she ever wanted to. Maybe she has a green thumb? I dunno.


I used a Sharpie to cross out "Mine" and write "Ours" on the planter. Isn't that cute? OK, well my sister Tahira, who is a teacher, and has far better handwriting than mine, did it. But it's still cute!


The boys also bought their Daddy two children's books with "Daddy" themes, because Lester is always lamenting how few children's books recognize fathers. (There are way more than there used to be, but still "Mommy" books outnumber "Daddy" books probably by 10 to 1.)

I have always been a sucker, sucker, sucker for Valentine's Day (I'm a big ole sap) so I love it that, now that I'm a Mom, I get to give even more people gifts on this day.

So I guess that's one more thing to love! Yay for love day!!

Oh! I also love, love, love how cute the boys are taking a bath in the big tub!
This is new, folks. They don't quite have the hang of it. Cary tried to drink the water and nearly killed himself, and Dean kept sliding around in the tub, splashing like a madman, getting water in his and Cary's eyes. He also mistakenly thought he could practice his newly-discovered crawling skills, in the tub. It was all hysterical! (Too bad I can only post a few seconds of it):