This was our first family vacation, the girls first time to the beach, first time in a big pool, first time in a restaurant (thanks covid!), first time on a slide at the playground. We took a lot of walks, we played a lot in the condo, rode the SeaColony tram a bunch, we screamed a lot, it was exhausting and chaotic, and looking back at our pictures and videos, I'm glad we did it =)
Then it was September and we all went back to school - the girls started daycare - they screamed at drop off, but eventually got used to it, and they love to go now. Because of covid, everything is different and I really have no idea what they do all day, but it's easier not to think about it. Their teachers are lovely and the director is easy to get in touch with. I just freakin hateHATEhateHATE the daycare germs. Holy freakin hell. The girls were there like 2 weeks, and they already had to get covid tests. It's been nonstop random fevers, runny noses, coughs, congestion, whatever. Thank god it hasn't been covid, but they're still sick. We've had diarrhea a few times for a week for each baby, they brought coxsackie home and everyone got it (Madeline had it the least bad out of all of us actually), and we've had upper respiratory illnesses every waking minute in between.
October we did apple picking and pumpkin picking with our cousins; for Halloween we were slinky dog for Toy Story, but that was right around when we got coxsackie, so we were not happy girls. They were out of daycare for two weeks because of this - the blisters just wouldn't go away on Delilah. We ran around Uncle Bob's house for Thanksgiving - no joke, Grant and I were basically doing laps all night, omg.
In December, there was another covid scare, and covid things in the world are getting worse anyway, so this sucks. Delilah had a random high fever and they both required negative covid tests to get back to daycare - we also had a bout of diarrhea again here... Oh, the day we finally get to the pediatrician for our test, I'm driving the girls, we're 2 minutes away from the office, Madeline throws up all over herself. Luckily we have Aunt Sissy who lives close and brought us a change of clothes and clean up stuff!
Our bad luck with health brings us to Christmas. We're having a nice, quiet Christmas Eve at home, just the 4 of us - junk food is on the menu. We get in a bath, get in our Christmas jammies from our Christmas Eve bag, pop the babies in the car to drive through the neighborhood and look at lights and help the girls fall asleep. We were out for probably 10-15mins, not driving fast or on windy roads, and Delilah throws up, and keeeeps throwing up. Cool. Back home. Clean up, everyone gets put to bed. Christmas morning, Madeline has a fever. We pump that kid full of tylenol all day - at one point it was up to 103.5, which is scary, but every other time they've had fevers, the pediatrician assures us that as long as tylenol brings it down, you're ok. For the most part, everyone's in good spirits playing with their new toys. Babies get to bed, Grant and I settle in to watch our traditional Christmas movie - Die Hard, and I'm feeling funny. That's the beginning of the end for me and the girls - we went through all of the baby pajamas in the house, all of the sheets, all of the receiving blankets, a bunch of towels, a few t-shirts. The girls were alternating between throwing up and crying, I'm throwing up and trying to help Grant take care of the girls, it's the middle of the night and we're all exhausted. Everyone's out of commission the next day trying to recover, girls are still cranky - we have over used pacifiers in the last week just trying to survive.
So 2021 has been another interesting year. Looking back at the pictures just to make this post, I already see how much my babies have grown in a few months - they're more confident with walking, they've got more hair, and their personalities are bigger than ever. They're not those chubby little babes from last New Years, they're definitely toddlers now. It's still hard, but not infant twin-hard. Instead of no sleep, we have random night time wake-ups, or early morning wake ups, followed by 12 hours of pure chaos. We learned what 'up' means, and if our sister is being picked up, we need to be picked up. Except your sister doesn't want to share, and everyone's sad, even though they're both being held like they wanted. They learned they can run away now, and they're pretty quick too. You have to be on your toes every minute they're around - did you latch the gate on the stairs? Pull the knobs off the stove? latch the garbage can? pick up the dog bowl? push everything in from the sides of the table or the counter? is that baby standing on the couch again when you turn your back for a minute? oh no, it's just her sister. They love throwing things down the stairs until they have no toys, then they turn to chaos for entertainment. They love jumping on the couch and trying to get to the coffee table out of their reach, trying to pull the gates and baby jail pieces to get to what's behind them, standing on whatever is around them - chairs, cars, tables..., turning the humidifier on and off, ripping books apart, pulling clothes out of drawers or the hamper. I'm sure I could go on, but I'm about an hour and a half into writing this and it's almost midnight on new years eve. People used to tell me to enjoy the newborn stage because your babies were never going to be so snuggly again. For me, that hasn't been true - I get better snuggles now because I know my girls love me and feel safe with me. It's always sad when something ends (a stage of babyhood, a tv series, a book...), but I'm 100% looking forward to what 2022 brings because I'm excited to see my girls continue growing into little people.
Comments
Post a Comment