I go through life not really realizing how sleep deprived and drained I am until something happens and it sort of slaps me in the face.  That happened today.  I was going to bring all the kids to the library because Kira got very upset this morning when Daddy returned her book to the library.  I packed up all the kids and discovered when we got there that we still had 45 minutes before it opened.  Finn had already fallen asleep in his car seat – little stinker – so I went through the drive-through Caribou in Excelsior to get some tea and decided to just drive for a bit to let the girls look at all the flowers, to let Finn finish his nap, and to waste time until the library opened.

So I’ve got my tea, I’m driving along, pointing out flowers like we do Christmas lights in the winter.  In the winter when we see houses decorated with lots of pretty lights we yell, “Christmas on the left!” or “Christmas on the right!”  Today it was “purple flowers on the right!” and “white flowers all over that huge tree on the left!”  I’m driving along and I come to an intersection that I assume is a 4 way stop.  Wrong, two way, and as I am going through the intersection I realize a car was going through the intersection and I missed it in my blind spot.  CRASH.  In slow motion I watch as the other car’s air bags engage and the car spins in a half circle.  It really was a pretty soft bump and nobody was hurt.  Thank the Benevolent Blissful Ever-present  Divine Consciousness!  Still, it was scary and jarring to be in fender bender, however small.

Nobody was hurt, the other driver was a super sweet woman who politely declined my offer of a lift after we had exchanged information  Who can blame her?  It’s most important that nobody was hurt.  And as Blayne said, that’s why they call them accidents.  But it makes you think.  It could have been worse.  And I’m slapping myself for being so tired and for not being more present in the uber important job of driving my kids around.  Guilt, it’s such an ingrained part of parenting, isn’t it?

When will Finnegan start sleeping better aside from the fluke sleep through the night? (Hey, it happened once!)  When will he start taking more than 1/2 hour naps?  I can’t just wave a magic wand and make him sleep better.  We can’t divine the future so I have no idea when things will get better.  We just need to work through it with our son, I guess.  Luckily Blayne is willing to be up just as much as I am.  He’s such a good daddy and such trooper.  We will continue trying to get him to sleep better, we will continue to be patient while he’s up fussing for two hours in the middle of the night.  I’ll continue to nurse him and comfort him SEVERAL times a night.  We’ll continue to take him into our bed even though we’d really like to reclaim it as adults only.  What else can we do?  Just love him, that’s what.

He is pretty darn cute, isn’t he?

Iris has always had people clamoring to take pictures of her.  Photographers have approached me on the street to have a photo shoot with her, model agencies have called asking for her to submit a head shot….she is just a very photogenic little girl.  She is indeed a beautiful young lady and I’m proud that all of Chanhassen gets to see her having summer fun from Lake Ann Adventure Camp last summer!

My only complaint with the book is that a lot of the recipes call for eggs and milk or butter but their master recipe (my first freeform loaf picture above) is a basic recipe with just flour, yeast, salt, and gluten.  Hopefully my loaves will get better and not so dense, or I’m sure Iris will complain about the hard bread for her sandwiches.

Well, I have a lot more to write about but alas, Finnegan only took a 20 minute nap (no surprises there) and the twins are not playing well together in their quiet time.  Most days I feel like I live my life in 10 minute chunks, because that is all the time I ever get to concentrate on one task.  This too shall pass, I keep reminding myself.

Our day?  Kira has a cold so we hunkered down and lazed around.

I am crawling, crawling, crawling up a storm.

Apparently the veterinarian says I’ll grow into my droopy eyes.  Until then, I’ll just look sad and pouty.

Who needs pants?  Most days not me!

I’m a sickey-bickey today.

And last but not least, I was pouting because everyone else got a picture….so here is mine.

Mr. Finnegan has been going through some very profound baby changes these past few weeks.  He got his first tooth this week!  Whew!  And he started to crawl.  On account of all these amazing changes, he’s been an amazingly fussy baby!  There has been very little sleep in the Puklich household as of late.  Naps, nada.  More than two hours of sleep in a row at night, nada.  He seems to have calmed down a bit the last two days since the first tooth popped through, but he’s got another right next to it creating a very big and painful looking bump in his gums.  Poor little guy.  Can we have just a little pity party for poor mama right now, too?  I thought not.

Oh, he turned 8 months old on the 23rd, two days ago.  He’s just a big little boy now!  We are still working on getting him into his crib, but he’s not responding very well.  It’s a process.  We are not cry-it-out people so we realize it’s going to take longer for him to get comfortable in his crib.  He really likes to sleep snuggled in between mom and dad.  There is also the tiny little problem of him not being able to fall asleep without being nursed.

Tavie and Kira have stopped taking naps so we are transitioning into quiet time for an hour each afternoon.  I have them in the same room right now until they get used to the concept, but in a few weeks I would like to get them in separate rooms for their quiet time.  So far it’s going well and they are going to bed earlier each night which is nice.

And news of Iris?  She went through a rough patch at school and was not doing so hot in a few topics because she wasn’t turning in her homework.  But we have NIPPED that in the bud and she’s getting her homework in on time now.

We are all looking forward to Spring.  It’s going to be a great summer.  Finn will be more portable so we’ll be able to participate in a lot of fun and exciting activities.  I am thinking of doing the Mora Classic which is a series of four events throughout the coming year:  a canoe race, a half marathon, a 50 mile bike race, and the Vasaloppet, which is a cross country ski race.  I am still busy with my yoga teacher training program, however, and I don’t want to overextend myself.  It would be a great way to get in shape this coming year.

A very cool quote of the day:  ”Twins are lovely to behold, for multiplicity adds delight.” From the book A Celebration of Twins.  Art by Bertha Wegmann, a very cool Danish painter.

I thought this painting was lovely.  It reminded me of my time nursing the twins and what a joy that was (well, most of the time anyway).  I love having twins.  It’s been such a fun adventure.  Sure, it’s been more work…..especially in the beginning, but the pros have far outweighed the cons.  More hugs, more laughter, more love, it’s been awesome.

It’s been a marvelous year, actually.  Quite a few milestones have been mastered!  The biggest has been potty training!  It took several months of persistence but they are finally fully potty trained.  Their language development has skyrocketed.  We notice more advanced language skills all the time with the girls.  The girls have developed the ability to ask “why” “what” and “how”.  They can also explain things in their two year old logic using the word “because”.  A LOT.  They have learned basic math skills and can count to 20 but also they fully grasp the concept of quantity.

What I have enjoyed the most about the two year old stage with the twins is their incredible sense of play and imagination.  They will spend hours and hours each day playing make believe with each other.  Every little toy or object becomes a real person or character in their little plays.  I love to just sit and listen to their dialog.  Kira gets so engrossed that if one of her little characters yells at Tavie she blames it on her toy and says something like, “the little girl yelled at Tavie, not me”.  And she actually believes it.  It’s just so much fun to watch them immersed in their little magical kingdoms.

We enjoyed a quiet birthday mostly at home.  We went out to our favorite Mexican restaurant.  The girls call it Teka.  Then it was home for birthday cupcakes and presents.

We are currently on the fence about sending them to preschool next year.  I signed them up for two mornings a week just in case – but I’m not sure I want them to go yet.  If they go next year then they will go for two years before Kindergarten and I’m not sure they need that much preschool.  It would be different if I were not at home with them, but I am.  And I work with them a lot on the types of skills they would learn.  We go to ECFE class every week so they get the socialization they need that way.  We go to the library once a week and I can enroll them in some other fun preschool type activities.  I just don’t want to hurry up and send them off to school.  They really just may not need it.  And I don’t want to send them just because I want a few hours off each week, although it would be nice to have some mommy and Finn time.  As you can see we have to think about this much more!

Speaking of imaginative play, meet “Sally”.  This is Kira’s favorite little character.  It’s a toothbrush and she named her Sally, pronounced almost like Sully.  Oh the hours and hours of fun with this little character!

Finnegan is on the verge of crawling and it is completely freaking him out. He won’t sit still, he’s having a hard time sleeping, he’s just generally full of energy and curiosity. Having said that, he did sleep for the entire night in his crib last night! That is a first for us! He slept from about 10 until 5am, I nursed him back to sleep and he’s still sleeping now (it’s 6:45 am).

I’m writing this post mainly because I’m messing around with MarsEdit so I should try to import a picture and post it to my blog. Let’s see if it works!