These are my friends who threw the shower for me - Danika (my Sister-in-law), Sara (mom of twins herself and kids piano teacher), me, Becky (close friend and second mom to my kids, especially MaggieMae)

Me modeling a couple of the outfits that we received at the shower. Notice that the boy clothes are on the left and girl is on the right. That is the way they are inside too!

Momma's big ol' belly

33 weeks pregnant (with twins) - People tell me I look tiny, especially when they hear that I am pregnant with twins. This picture is not real good at showing it, but you can see I am "out there". While I am still "lighter than my last pregnancy", my belly is about 2-3 inches bigger (47 inches) and my measurement from top to bottom of my tummy is 9 centimeters longer (49 cm) than any of my other pregnancies.

With other pregnancies I have never had a feeling of my inside being larger than my outside and my outside having to grow to cover it. Think of "After Thanksgiving dinner on steroids". There have been about 5 different weeks that I have literally added an inch to my waist. It is amazing how my body is growing.

My mom also had twins around my age. I remember as a 10 year old kid seeing my mom's lap disappear. I recall her only having a couple of inches left on her lap to her knees. While I still have a good 5 inches or so, I have noticed that my daughter can not sit on my lap when I am sitting "Indian style" anymore, which is the only way I can sit upright without falling forward.

Time clock just keeps ticking...

I admit it, I totally stole this photo off a website! It was just too cute. So no, they are not mine.

Hopefully I have 3-4 more weeks until "my matched set" come. Went to the doctor today, all of us are healthy. The Ultrasound tech. is impressed with my ability to read the ultra sounds and extract knowledge from it (for example according to the Ultrasound, the babies are 5 lbs, 11 oz and 6 lbs and 1 oz) and I explained all the markers they are looking for: head circumferance, heart beat, amount of amniotic fluid, femur length, position (head down or not) etc.

So both babies are still breach and have their heads nestled in together (this is the way they have always appeared in all of their ultrasounds). Jeff thinks they are plotting something. I think, "I have four other kids, I don't need two that plot together. And what could you be plotting that takes 5 months?"

If the babies stay breach, then I will have a c-section on 9/9/9. Is that great? I will be 38 weeks along. I am sort of hoping for this option in some ways (because even if you deliver the first baby normally, you can end up having a c-section for the second and why go through both?). It will also make things much more convenient (which is the opposite of children by definition) as mom is planning on coming there abouts.

So I remain on modified bed rest. I have survived 5 weeks of bed rest(and have read a ton of books) and hope that after two more I can have a slightly productive last two weeks before the kiddos come. My sanity is so-so. The kids are dealing well with it, MaggieMae just comes and snuggles in next to me (usually after she climbs over me) and we read books or sing songs. She loves mom singing songs to her (a sure sign that she is tone deaf).

AnnaLisa's Meet the teacher night

 
AnnaLisa got to go back to her last year's teacher and say hello and give her a hug (which AnnaLisa talked about for the last couple of days), but after 10 minutes on her old stomping grounds, she decided it was time to move on to 2nd grade. Daddy took the kids and headed on over to her new teacher while I chatted with Andrew's current teacher (the same one AnnaLisa had last year). When I walked into the new teacher's room, I felt like I was in Disneyland, well ok, more like a Mickey Mouse museum. There were dolls, chairs, lamps, drop cloths, etc that were all Mickey Mouse. Evidentally there was a Minnie Mouse section, but I did not notice it.

I headed over to who I assumed was the teacher, (she was the only other adult in the room that I was not married to) and introduced myself. AnnaLisa was not far away and was reading some of the information that had been left on her desk for us to take. Her teacher chatted with me, slightly distracted by AnnaLisa's reading. "She is good at reading", her teacher comments to me. I smile (I try not to brag to people about my kids academic levels, but they all tend to be high), and told her that AnnaLisa reads well and was in the highest reading level last year.

AnnaLisa's teacher directs AnnaLisa to a few activities she has had the kids take part in. AnnaLisa enjoys them, but it is obvious that the novelty of these activities is a challenge for her to figure out - unfortunately she struggles with the same disease her father has where they can't often see what is right infront of them, especially if it is not the designated place for such an object.

As we left her new classroom, AnnaLisa announced, "I have a math book in my desk. A whole book about math!" We commented that sounded like it would be fun. Then she said, "My teacher will tell us to get our math books out and to turn to a certain page and then we will do math!" Jeff and I giggled. The thought that came to me was, if a 2nd grade math book thrills you, wait until you get into Calculus. You got so much math to learn you may regret this math book excitement.

All in all, AnnaLisa had lots of fun tonight as well and when her brother started wishing it was Sunday night, she just started wishing that school started tomorrow, regardless of what day it was.

JJ's Meet the Teacher night

 
OK, maybe this picture shows a little of JJ's mischevious side (bonus points for using a "Word Girl" vocabulary word of the day!) You have to know that JJ is holding a "Spider-man dart wrist strap" in one hand while casually wearing Daddy's Graduation hat, before Graduation on G-day, but it gets better.

Tonight we met JJ's new teacher and checked out his new school and classroom. He was shy when we first got there)those that know JJ well will have a tough time believing that JJ is shy when meeting new people and new environments). He started moving around the room while I chatted with the teacher and filled out paperwork. He was having fun investigating different areas while his sister sat down at a table and started coloring. I had just finished the paperwork to look up and see JJ struggling with a "fun mirror", one of those mirrors that is rippled to make you look like you are in a "Fun house". Thankfully it had a sturdy frame, and I was able to cue Daddy to jump across the room and help out his son. They quickly got it back on the wall, when I heard JJ mutter, "Good thing (my new) teacher did not see that!"

Mom had a different view and realized that this teacher is going to be a real good match for JJ because she did see the whole thing and calmly waited for JJ to fix the situation.

On the way out to the car, which was parked in the apartment complex next to the school, JJ was complaining about how far away the car was parked. He turned to me and said, "Where's the car? I am long thirsty and my feet hurt."

You can't blame the kid, 106 degrees outside and I think anyone would be long (very) thirsty too!

Mom, I wish is were Sunday night...

 
Andrew was bouncing off the walls tonight. We had "Meet the Teacher" night and he was inthralled to get back to school. He was very excited about getting AnnaLisa's 1st grade teacher, he got his picture taken tonight and just bounced around the room. If I did not know Andrew as well as I did, I would think this was crazy. No, simply my boy telling his family that he could not wait until Monday morning. So when we were headed out to the car, it did not surprise me at all when he said, "I wish this were Sunday night. I wish school started tomorrow.

And for this mom, who had gone to three "Meet the Teacher" events, I was wishing that school started tomorrow too.