22 things I've done

So, I have dipped my toe in,  here and there,  in the blogging world that is and recently stumbled across a challenge to write 22 things I've done. It was fun to think about. It's so easy to slip in to the "I'm a mom" mode, but truth is, I am more than that. I hope I will continue to live a life that inspires my boys to explore, take risks, and fully embrace life. I also hope I can rekindle that part of me that has quieted over the last several years.
No particular order, just random recollections.

1. Experienced  and survived a category 5 Hurricane in a small bathroom with my parents, sister and a crazy cat. Andrew was a life changing event on so many levels. Camped out in our house for 3 weeks without power and then our family splintered. Debbie moved in with David's family, I moved in with my friend Petra's family and mom and dad left Miami for good. Life's never been the same.

2. Rode an elevator with Kevin Costner in a south beach hotel I was living in for a short time. Missed an opportunity of a lifetime when he asked about where I was going and what CD's I was bringing to our party. Elevator stopped, I giggled and got out before I could say "Hey, wanna come to our party?"

3. Got a Masters degree from FSU. Really? Me? Yep!

4. Been skinny dipping more times than I care to admit too.

5. Gave birth to 2 healthy, full term twin boys at 37 1/2 weeks! That was an accomplishment and a blessing.

6. Spent a small fortune trying to have said babies. Best money ever spent! What a bargain actually.

7. Met my husband at Floore Country Store while I was on long extended vacation with suitcases still in back of a car. At the time I was jobless and homeless too. No job? No home? No worries, just travel  and if lucky, meet husband. Best things have happened to me when I was jobless and homeless!

8. Traveled to Bora Bora on our honeymoon and stayed in over the water bungalows. Dream come true.

9. Been up close and personal with LAVA! Hiked the Kilueau volcano on the Big island, more than once. sizzle, pop, sssss, steam. Awesome!

10. Flew over same volcano at night in a piper. GORGEOUS!

11. Speaking of flying, flew in a small Cessna plane over the New River gorge in West Virgina with a nearly deaf 79 year old man who liked to keep old coffins in his hanger, for $15 bucks. Cheap thrill. I actually think it was less than $15 bucks, but you wouldn't believe me. Reminded me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

12. Back packed in Europe. So many amazing things happened on that trip. 2 highlights: paragliding in the Swiss alps and spending an evening in the Hauf Brau house in Munchen with the 42nd infantry division  veteran survivors who helped liberate the Dachau Nazi concentration camp in 1945. It was the 50th anniversary. After a SOMBER and emotionally draining day at the camp, I can't think of another moment in my life where I felt so proud and happy to be an American. It was probably the only time I have really enjoyed drinking beer too.

13. Went ice climbing in Alaska. Invited in to the home of "Daniel Boone" to drink coffee, get out of the cold and sleep when my friend Krista and I broke down in the middle of nowhere Alaska and had to wait 6-8 hours for a tow truck to arrive. Good people are everywhere and I seem to find them.

14. Swam with dolphins in a natural and educational setting. Volunteered with the Hawaii Marine Life fund for a year to give information about marine life in Hawaii. Kayaked across Kealakekua Bay as the dolphins swam around us.

15. Ate a raw opii right out of the water, bleh! Don't recommend it.

16. Lived in San Antonio, Florida population 426 as a child and currently live in San Antonio, Texas population 1.33 million. Cool eh?

17. Played trumpet in the marching band. Very proud that our high school band got to march in the Orange Bowl parade!

18. Camped out for U2 tickets!

19. Cut my nieces umbilical cord when she was born! I was the first person aside from the doctor to see and touch her.

20. Driven across country 4 1/2 times as an adult. It's my dream to visit every National Park. Just love driving. We live in a beautiful country. Sometimes driving makes the world  seem smaller even though it takes so much longer to get from one place to another compared to flying.

21. Paddled with an outrigger canoe team in Hawaii and California. Survived paddling I should say and consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to experience such an amazing sport since I am not a natural athlete.

22. Won a middle school talent show doing the robot. Yep, you read that right, the robot. Go figure.

Twin poops

Poop. It's what's on the agenda. It's my life. Day in, day out. I've got too much with one, and not enough with the other. We've got a hider and a crouch er and one who paces, runs wild and moans until the job is done. From morning til bedtime, I appear to have poop on the brain. Did you poop? Who pooped? Some one's missing, must be pooping. Someones CRANKY and needs to poop. Someone is sooo happy, they must have pooped. Someone has had WAY too much juice today, ewwww poop! Honey, you really need to eat this. It will help you poop. OK, you can have a Baba but only because I snuck some poop medicine in it. NOOOO touchy touchy until  I wipey wipey ( OMG, I seriously need help). Oh no, diaper stays ON! You pooped AGAIN? Now when was the last time YOU pooped? Did you poop yesterday? Are you done pooping? YEAY! You pooped. Oh, baby I am so sorry this pooping thing is so hard for you. Yes, everybody poops. Where is daddy? He's going poop.
I started this a few weeks ago and didn't finish. Classy post don't you think? I am going to post it tonight to get it out of my draft box. In the last few weeks we have had more dialogue and less mommy monologue about poop. Yipee!  " I goING PooooP Mommy! I MAKE poop mommy. I go sit on poTTy chair? Henwi, you go poop too? Change diaper. Diaper saggy." Yep, that's my stimulating life! I am thankful today I have twins and not triplets.
Talk is cheap.  Potty training? Can I hire out?

ok, now a little sleep so I can wake up super early and work on my "a week in My Life" challenge. More to come!

Twinspeech

My poor boys. At only 22 months, they have been therapized. You'll have to excuse them. Their mommy is a speech pathologist. Of course I beam with pride when I hear them speak. I have diligently been counting their words, adding up their morphemes, observing their social development and analyzing their speech sounds since day one. They have an amazing vocabulary and are speaking in sentences. However, I have a sinking feeling that all this talking they are doing may not be exactly what I had in mind...
It is really cute that they sing the ABC's, twinkle twinkle, jingle bells and an assortment of other tunes. Of course I have taught them the correlating signs for these songs so my babies look Italian as they sing and move their clumsy little arms and hands while we sing. They know the names of just about every vehicle ever invented, a wide assortment of zoo and farm animal, foods, instruments, colors, letters, numbers, shapes, tools, you name it. They learn language quickly and easily. That's not the problem.
You see, I thought I could reduce those toddler tantrums and melt down behaviors if I could improve their language use. I cleverly thought, why not teach them to say "no thankyou" when they don't want their yogurt or juice cup or whatever it is they decide at the moment they don't want. I have tried to instill the ole, food and juice stay on the tray and we say "no thank you mommy." Here is what I get instead: " NOOOOOO thankyou mommy" as thing one or thing two tosses the sippy cup across the room. Or I get,  "no thank you. no thank you. no thank you. Uh OHHHHH! What hApPENed?" as one of them throws the macaroni on the floor and then as I reach down to pick it up they drop some more right on top of my head and sweetly say " I sowi mommy. I sowi." They have the language. Not sure about the appropriate use.

I also thought,  OK, instead of them whining, screaming and getting so frustrated as independent minded toddlers so often do, I will teach them to say " I need  some help." You can still whine, scream, cry and be frustrated while clearly saying  over and over again, "I need help. I neeeeeeed help. I NEED help. I need some HEEEELP ahhhhhhhh.!"

They are obviously boys, but have also inherited some amazing bodily function skills from their daddy. August is quite the burper and they both are blessed with melodic gas. It didn't amuse me much when daddy did it pre babies, but now I am out numbered. I figured I might as well start teaching them some manners in this area. SO, August burps and I give him the look. He looks back at me sheepishly and says "scuz me mommy. I buuuuup." Hard NOT to crack a smile at that right? Then there is the ever frequent TOOT. Suffice to say, I never imagined I would I really would engage in the "who tooted? Somebody tooted! Did you toot? Are you my little tooter?" conversation. Really? WHO AM I? Anyway, we also practice saying "scuz me. I tooted." Great right? Well, guess what happened the other day? A certain someone who doesn't like to make a big deal about tooting, actually tooted and August looked her straight in the eye, gave her the "look" and said "moooomy? I hear that."  Super.

I used to like Bob the Builder,  but I had to send Bob off on an extended vacation. I might ship him out to Siberia soon. Henry really likes Bob the builder. I hear about it all day long and sometimes in to the night.  " I like Bob builber." Cute isn't it? This can  turn in to "I like Thomas train. I like Mickey Mouse. I like Daisy Duck. I like Mommy. I like Daddy. I like Nana. ect." That is it will turn in to that sweet game when Henry good and well feels like it. Most days though, it's " I like Bob builber. I like Bob Builber. I LIKE Bob Builber. Bob ba builber. Bob Builber. Bob Builber, ahhhhhhhhhhh!" I think he does it on purpose because he knows I am just fishing for him to say I like Mommy.

My guys are VERY social. August knows no stranger. I model saying hello, good morning, thank you and your welcome when ever we are out and about. So, the other day I had to go to Sprint. Miss Carla started helping us out.  She didn't have much opportunity to help others. Luckily she thought the boys were cute ( and they are) and it wasn't very busy. "GoooooMoorning.HI MISS CARLA! MISSSSSS CARLA. Miss Carla WHATCH DOIN? THANK YOU MISS CARLA!" Mommy quietly said , ok. Shhhhh. Miss Carla is working. She is helping other customers now.  Didn't matter. "MISS CAAAAARLA! You working? Thank you Miss Carla. WAIT. WAIT MISS CARLA. HELP cussomers. Come here Miss CARLA!" As Miss Carla attempted to help other customers, Mr. Travis came out to assist me with my phone. "HI MR. TRAVIS! Mommy phone CAPUT."    I had told them we needed to go to Sprint because my phone was caput. I thought it sounded cute when they said it in the car. Maybe it helped that they were so loud and vocal? I did get a new phone that day.

Finally. I do try in all earnest to use positive reinforcement and avoid the no's and don'ts whenever remotely possible, which isn't often quite honestly. But, August loves to take his diaper off and run around naked. I will say to him "Oh Auggie, diaper stays ON." To that I get,  "Mommy, diaper stay ON!" as he rips it off and runs thru the house patting his little booty and squealing "I NAKED! I NAKED MOMMY!" Henry on the other hand loves to climb out of his high chair and bed. I say in my calmest, most soothing mommy voice, Henry, it's bedtime. We STAY in bed. He likes to repeat what I say "Mommy I stay in bed." Seconds later, he stands up, gets the Henry gleam in his eye, hoists his leg up and over the crib rail and tells me "Mommy, STAY in bed." August, ever helpful will scold Henry and exclaim "Lay down Henwi. Stay in bed. Mommy pow pow." Sigh....Affirmatives and positive speech reinforcement? A little pow pow or swat to the booty? What was I thinking? They are 22 months old. No great therapy techniques are going to change that fact.

Ohhh Mommy. You have good intentions.

TwinFleckting in the shower?

Did I just make that word up? Who doesn't love to shower right? It has always been such a great place to think, relax, unwind, plan, escape and oh yeah wash hair. I think every mom would agree with me though that the process of getting clean just isn't that easy when you have kiddos around. Enjoying that relaxing shower? Thinking coherently? Forget it right? When the babies were first born, I confess, daily showers were optional. I didn't have a plan. I was dependent upon another adult to supervise and care for the little ones. But right around 3 months, I discovered the BOUNCY SEAT. I would put my sweet little ones in those bouncies in front of my shower door, give them a bottle and let them coo, bounce and suck down those bottles while I showered with ease and peace of mind. Then they grew and just as hermit crabs need to find new shells, we had to move on up to the next form of containment for shower time. Alas, I started dragging in the exersaucers. I loaded those up with a sippy cup and some cheerios and we were golden. The babies would babble, jump and explore the rattles, buttons and obnoxious sounds, while I washed, conditioned and even shaved my legs! I don't think I had many deep thoughts in the shower, but at least I had a few minutes to myself right? As they continued to grow in size and their communication skills, my actual think time started to diminish because we started the ritual of singing and talking to each other while I showered. And then it happened. Those little hermit babies outgrew their exersaucers and turned in to toddlers. I stopped showering for a brief period. Ahh, not really, but I did have to instill the hurry up and get it done early in the am or late at night when they were asleep with the monitor on the bathroom counter. Early? What a drag that was.

I soon discovered the art of baby proofing a bathroom. My nice giant garden tub which I never get to use, stocked with an assortment of toys, was a temporary playground, that is until they discovered it was more fun to climb in and out of said tub. We have the usual cabinet and toilet locks, doors remain closed at all times, items are pushed out of reach from inquiring hands on counters or shoved away into a basket inside a locked cabinet, chairs and items that can be climbed on have been removed from the bathroom, garbage cans are not to be found and all my expensive bare minerals make up has been removed from the drawers. ( Thing one and two just love to open and close any container and dump all contents on the floor.) Did you know packing tape has many many uses in a crunch? My house is decorated with it. We travel with it. They are allowed to go in one drawer and play with all my head bands, brushes and assorted hair accessories. There is a "no-no drawer" but they don't get that or care. We have a system now. I tell the boys mommy is going to shower. Yipeee! We collect a box of super fun toys, making sure there are duplicates of course, since you can't have just one of something because certainly they will ALWAYS want what the other has. As a matter of fact, they will want what the other has EVEN IF they are holding the SAME EXACT thing in their hands. But that's fodder for another post. They get to bring in a drink or snack. Turn on the easy phone tunes and I attempt to shower. Did I mention I shower with my glasses on? Doesn't exactly work. As I mentioned, I foolishly started a cute ritual of singing and talking to the babies earlier on while they were nicely strapped in or contained. Now, if they are not fighting over the same toy or stealing the others juice cup, one or both are standing at (or banging on) the shower doors saying "HI MOMMY! Mommy. MOMMMMMMMY, MMMMMMMomy. I see you. Whacha dooooin mommy. Hi mommy." This game goes on until I start saying "MARCO!" Marco/polo is not nearly as much fun for them as shouting MOMMY. Then they get quiet. Quiet is never good. At that point, I usually need to clear off my foggy glasses, pop out of the shower to see what trouble is brewing. Just when you think you have baby proofed..."where did you find that? Get that out of your mouth. Give mommy the...shoots, where's my towel?" It works. But there is not much reflecting going on in this shower. Some day I will once again enjoy a nice hot, relaxing shower.

I have an idea for my next post, on the same shower theme. Stay tuned for Twinfreakouts!

What's a BLOG anyways?

I don't blog. I don't Tweet. I FB and that is how I got here. I was reading one of my over achieving teacher friends FB posts about starting a blog and then I accidentally clicked on a link to start a blog. Now here I am. I mulled over this last night and thought why not? I would like to have a place to share and document our misadventures. I don't read any quality literature these days, but I sure do love to listen to and observe all the amazing developments in our boys. They entertain me and maybe they will entertain you? The hardest part was coming up with a title. I wanted it to be clever and capture the twin thing. I wanted it to be able to encompass more than just our day to day life should I venture out and do some personal reflecting. All my great ideas were taken. Then, during nap today as I was hiding under the blanket in the reclining chair chanting to the boys, nap time is NOT over until the beeper goes off. Mommy's beeper has not gone off. Lie down. Do not climb out of that crib. We can all get up when the beeper goes off....it came to me. I have twins. Our last name is Fleckenstein. TwinFlecktions. I googled it. There's no other website or store name or Utube video with that name, as least on the first 2 google pages. Wait did I say the hardest part was coming up with a title?? Now what do I do? Where does one start? What am I thinking? Well, I will get to that later. I hear Henry. It is his first waking, but certainly not the last of this long restless night.