One of Mommy's Gifts from Santa

The last few years I've been using my camera with timer on a tripod to take the annual Kolbow Christmas Eve group picture (and Thanksgiving picture). Jill has made it a little more difficult to push the shutter button, then take my place in the group. So after Thanksgiving, I asked Santa for a remote trigger. Best thing EVER! Here's Striker trying it out...

 We learned how long you have to wait between clicks to make sure you get the flash to go off. :)

Still experimenting with remote placement and flash settings though...

And I'm sure Striker will be thrilled that I've posted all of these :)

Christmas Morning 2011

He saw the gifts stacked on his table from the stairs and giggled with glee! Then immediately ran over and dove in :)

 Must open quickly!!! Help us Dada!

 A choo!

 Cinnamon rolls for breakfast...of course!

 This continued for 3 hours until we realized that Santa had left the Cars GeoTrax in the garage...now we'll probably be playing with that for 3 hours...good thing mommy is well stocked on batteries :)

Kolbow Christmas Eve 2011

The group picture was an epic fail...I'll post a separate post with that disaster since there are MANY outtakes. But a few highlights...

How cute is this kid?!

 The Kolbow boys...this is when the Hexbugs were running around...those things are scary! Notice the little ones' feet safely up off the floor. 

 Alex distributed gifts to everyone and then expected to be allowed to "help" open them...and by help, he meant open for you. If you look closely, you'll see that this gift is mine...

 Tony liked to "help" too...

 These are shake and go cars...yeah, they were fun on the drive home ;)

 Playing with "Uncle" Art...keep in mind he was having back problems but couldn't resist playing with the munchkins...can you blame him?

I failed to take pictures of the goulash...or desserts...but it was tasty!

Merry Christmas to Jill

I couldn't very well bring my baby girl home from the hospital in a blue and gray car seat...and since shipping time on these suckers is running 4-6 weeks, I thought I should probably get it ordered. Just enough pink to hopefully avoid the "is it a girl?" question a few times. Striker was baffled that I spent as much as I did on this. While I am frugal, when it comes to something that I will be looking at every.single.day for a year-ish, I want something I love and that will last. :)

#3 - Week 32

Nothing new to report really...still wearing wedding rings, not swelling, super tired. Going to be the really annoying pregnant lady and ask a ton of questions of the "new" doctor tomorrow. Have I mentioned the heart burn though? Cuz it's awful. Like all day long, but especially bad at bedtime. I've got to eat something absorbent or drink milk (read: eat ice cream) or it kills to be flat. Oddly, I don't really want any sweets with the exception of peppermint mochas...or peppermint mocha cookies...OMG those suckers were amazing! Oh wait, there was also the Oreo pie...Maybe I just have a thing for chocolate...but selectively. Enh, whatever. 

Thanks for the predictions...I'm setting the eviction date for 2/7/12...This will be 39 weeks (though 40 according to MY knowledge...screw measurements), our 7 1/2 year wedding anniversary, another 7 birthday,  and roughly 10 years after Striker and I first met...technically we didn't start talking until after my 21st birthday in March, BUT I'm pretty certain our class started on or about this date and it's also the birthday of my very first BFF.

Striker pointed out that we were going to run out of comparison pictures in 4 weeks...I'm okay with that. :)

For comparison, pregnancy #1, week 32:

3AM Ramblings of a Crazy Pregnant Lady

I've been itching to start blogging more than just weekly updates and milestone posts for the boys. And thus, at 3AM when I find myself suddenly wide awake and obsessed with developing and preparing my "when I'm in labor" plan, I'm blogging (from my phone, in bed). I'm not sure why at not quite 32 weeks this is suddenly so important, but perhaps it's a combo of the fact that: I have twin 2 year olds, I've had experience with my water breaking and have somewhat extreme anxiety over that happening again while I am alone with the boys and out in public, I will need multiple contingency plans based on time & day and availability of those best equipped to take care of the boys while mommy, daddy, and grandparents, aunts, and uncles are likely to be at the hospital waiting to meet Jill, I am a list maker and planner by nature and I know that once I have this all written down and communicated to parties involved, I will not worry about it anymore, oh and since I had the boys at 36.5 weeks, I can't quite adjust my head from planning for the worst, but working towards the best (40 weeks), oh and there's the variability of my hospital stay based on the type of delivery...oh geez...maybe I'm not that crazy for wanting to purge all this stuff from my head!

Now that I've written all of that, I realize that I have already had some level of communication with those that will potentially care for the boys and discussed basic plans. Anything else can be worked out as it happens since there are far too many variables. The boys and my car will remain together for whomever ends up watching the boys since it contains carseats and stroller. Along with that obviously goes the keys to both house and car. Potential caretakers are already familiar with the boys needs/routines and/or twin parents themselves (and have ridiculously offered to help out as needed...I seriously have great friends). Plus, there is this super great thing called technology which allows for constant communication (hospital policy whatever...I am going to be a much less of a rule follower this time...I am not new to this rodeo). :) So really, all I need to do now is ensure that there is food stocked in my house for the boys, that their clothes are organized so that friend caretaker can grab what is needed in addition to the bag I will be packing and stashing in my car with approximately 24 hours worth of clothes and diapers, plus a picture of the items required for bedtime (2 Cliffords for Alex, Kitty & Doggy for Tony, 2 bedtime sippy cups, fish tank nightlight, and sound machine).

Ok, I feel better now. :)  I just need to get my level 1 responder to commit to keeping her cell phone actually nearby and to audibly receive ringtones from calls from me at all hours of the day or night. Because when it is time, I will actually be making phone calls...in addition to Facebook status and text alerting.

Back to sleep!

#3 - Week 31

Despite dropping lower last week, Jill continues to explore her accommodations...and by explore, I mean flip, twist, and turn in every direction. Last night she was nice enough to kick my ribs repeatedly. Yeah, that was fun and she probably doesn't even weigh 4 pounds yet...we still have 2 months to experience her full force...I'm so excited. I'm still able to wear my wedding rings...yay! But oh, how the third trimester exhaustion has arrived. Just keep swimming...

In the meantime, let's play that fun game "Guess the Birth Date!". Please comment with your name, date, time, and weight. Thank you for playing. :)

And to think I thought I had a butt this week in pregnancy #1, week 31: