Goodbye and Good Luck Auntie Morgan!

This weekend I flew to Virginia on Saturday morning and got back to Maine this evening. I was only gone for 36 hours, but it is crazy how much I missed my adorable little men. However, with that said, there is someone I am going to miss just as much over the next 27 months.

I went to VA so that I could see one of my best friends, Morgan, before she is off to Ethiopia with the Peace Corps to do her part in saving the world. She is such an inspiration to me and I am going to miss her so much!

Andrew and I in his Safari outfit Auntie Morgan got, and Patrick and Daddy in his outfit!

So, all we want to say today is, goodbye Auntie Morgan, and good luck! (And don't worry, we will still rock those "My Aunt is Hot and Single" bibs you got us while you're gone. We'll have a line of hot guys for you to interview upon your return!)

Me, A Morning Person?!?!?!

One of the strangest things that has happened to me since becoming a mom is that I have now become a morning person. For those of you who have known me a long time, you know that I have NEVER been a morning person. My old coworkers used to make fun of me because I decided to start my day at 9 am and work until later rather than having to get up early.

Patrick cheesing right when he wakes up

Now, "sleeping in" to me is sleeping until 7 am. My new routine usually involves waking up at 5 am so that I can workout, shower, and do some chores around the house, or make some baby food for my boys before they get up for the day. Most of the time I can't even sleep past 6 am if I try. It's nuts!

So, here is what a normal schedule looks like in our household these days.

While the boys used to go to sleep around 7-7:30 pm and wake up at 8 am (yes, people, 13 hours!), they now sleep until about 7 am (shucks, only 12 hours!). Of course the past two mornings they decided to get up at 6 am, so I guess it's a good thing we started using the jogging stroller so I can skip the pre-baby wake up workout. This is one of my favorite moments of the day. They are always in such a good mood and soooo excited to see me when I first walk into their room. It's awesome!

Andrew right after waking up

Then they get their yummy breakfast. I am really proud of the fact that I make all of their food myself, except for the rice cereal/oatmeal they usually have for breakfast, but then again I stay at home so I have plenty of time to make their delicious and nutritious food. Check out Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel for some awesome recipes and good info.

After breakfast it's play time until about 10 am when they go down for their first nap. Play time consists of some time in their neglect-o-saucers (an awesome nickname Dave's cousin gave us for them, although they tend to get upset if I actually try to leave the room), and then lots of crawling and me sprinting back and forth dragging them back to where I would prefer them play.

Patrick is such a goof ball!

One of their favorite things is crawling after our cat, who is the best family cat ever! She lets them grab her and doesn't even raise a paw most of the time, and if she does, she NEVER uses her claws, and then just leaves if they get too annoying.

Then this cycle just repeats itself throughout the day. Lunch, play time, nap, snack, play time, nap, dinner, bath, story time, bed.

It is crazy and exhausting and I am finally finding the time to do all the things I need to around the house with this newfound morning personness (yes, I just made up that word), but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Hi Dada!

For a little while now our boys have been saying "ba-ba-ba," "ma-ma-ma," and "da-da-da." They are at an age where they are starting to experiment with language but they don't really know what they're saying.

According to What to Expect the First Year by Heidi Murkoff with Sharon Mazel (which is the biggest help ever to first time parents who have no clue what milestones their children will reach when, i.e. Dave and me), babies usually don't start to mean what they say until at least 10 months, although it's hard to tell for sure when they transition from babbling to understanding, and every baby is different of course.

Patrick standing at the coffee table (something he loves to do lately!)

Well, this morning both Dave and I swear Patrick looked right at Dave and said "Hi Dada" as Dave was walking by. It was one of the coolest moments that has happened to date. We both just stopped and looked at each other. Wait a minute, did he just say what I think he said? It probably was a coincidence, and just his way of communicating without realizing he was calling his dada the right name, but just to hear your child say "Mama" or "Dada" is an indescribable feeling. Now I just can't wait for his brother and him to say "Hi Mama!"

Andrew likes books!

On a different note, we finally put the boys in their "Cool as a Moose" onesies! We got them when we went on our first trip to Acadia National Park as a family in August. It is a Swartz family tradition to always check out the store when in Bar Harbor, and buy something for those that may not have anything, so of course we had to introduce the boys to tie dye and their first "Cool as a Moose" shirt!

Andrew left, Patrick right

Our First Jog

This morning I decided that it was time for us to try out the jogging stroller for the first time. I spent all this time researching which one to get, so I figured it's time to use it!

The boys all strapped up and ready to go (Patrick left, Andrew right)

Yesterday we went on a short walk with Dave and the dogs so I could start to get used to it, and I thought, "Hey! Maybe this won't be so bad after all!" Well, I was wrong! 

Not that long ago I decided it was time to start running again because not only do I love it, but it is the quickest way I know how to lose weight and I am determined to have lost all 90 lbs of my baby weight by the time the boys are 9 months old (which as of yesterday, is only one month away!) so that by Christmas I can reach my original weight loss goal I had before I found out I was pregnant. Plus, I figured I needed to be in some sort of running shape first before deciding to push my little guys around.

Unfortunately, I ran too much too fast and really killed my knees so instead lately I've been doing 45 minutes of Zumba fitness on my Wii every morning. Since my knees have seemed to recover from being the overachiever I am, off I went this morning with the boys.

All of us post run. Woohoo!!

We only went 1.5 miles and I am exhausted! Even though I'm super exhausted, I loved every second, especially because they seemed to enjoy it too. Plus, I'm happy to report my knees feel ok after that. Now, if only I remember that before I start trying to do too much too quickly again. Baby steps with my babies! :) 

Best Video Ever

***UPDATE*** I uploaded a little less of a compressed file so the quality may be a little better now!

Of course I'm biased, but I find this video to be hilarious. I smile every time I watch it! 

As a disclaimer to the video you are about to watch, I promise that my children were having fun, or I would have intervened! :) Enjoy! 

Andrew is the one giving Patrick the smack down!

5 Funniest/Most Annoying Things People Say

The other day as I was posting a status on Facebook, I realized that it's about time I find a new way to update my friends on everything going on with my big fat baby twins! Now that they do more than just sit there and look cute, our lives have gotten a lot more interesting and hectic around here. To think, I thought things were crazy before!

 Only a few minutes old in the picture above!

Also, just so you know why I've decided to call this blog "My Big Fat Baby Twins", it's because they were 7.5 lbs when they were born. In the world of twins, that's massive! Plus, unfortunately for them, they have definitely inherited the big heads of their mommy and daddy (97th percentile!). I can't help but love my big fat baby twins. :)

They both are crawling, and starting to stand up. Andrew started crawling a couple of weeks before Patrick, but now that Patrick has finally figured it out, he crawls just as fast as Andrew. It's crazy how he went from not crawling to sprint crawling in just a few days. It's like he was observing until he knew how to do it, and then off he goes!

So, now that you've gotten a little update as to where they both are, I thought I'd start my first post with the 5 funniest/most annoying things people have said to me while out in public.

5. "Better you than me." Really? I agree. If someone thinks this is anything other than a blessing, they are idiots in my opinion. My twin boys are the absolute best thing that has ever happened to me and yes, it is exhausting at times, but I would never want it any other way. It is simply amazing to get to watch not one, but two of my children grow up before my eyes.

4. "You're so brave to be out doing errands." Ok, so I appreciate the sentiment that you all think I'm supermom, because that's kind of cool. I love that people are amazed by me, but I mean, come on, what else am I supposed to do? Just stay at home and never go anywhere?

3. "Are they twins?" No, the two identical boys that are in a double stroller are mine and then my husband's mistress's. Of course they are! I know it's a conversation starter, but after the 100th person asks you, it definitely gets old. The best was when a lady asked me that, and her friend said to her, no, one of them is actually 2. It was awesome! Just a piece of advice, if you see someone with twins and you want to talk to them, start with, how old are they? That way if you weren't sure if they really were twins (for instance boy/girl twins), you kill two birds with one stone by the way they respond.

2. "My kids are only 10 months apart, it's exactly like having twins." No offense lady, but no, it's not. I understand that having two kids that close in age must have its own difficulties. However, I missed the part where your kids were going through the exact same milestones at the exact same times. Oh, so you could hand your 10 month old some finger foods while you fed your newborn. That must have been the exact same as when I had to feed two newborns at the exact same time...

1. "What's the age difference?" Now that was the absolute funniest. I wanted to just laugh in the ladies face. When I said, "Two minutes" she looked so confused, so I followed with, "They're twins." She responded, "Oh, I thought that one was older." The kicker, I had them dressed identically that day! I still just laugh at how special that lady was.

I'm sure there will be many more special moments that I will share over the years, but for now that's all I've got. I will update as often as possible and I hope you enjoy as I share the ups and downs of raising my amazing twin boys!