Visitors, Naps, and Giggles

My sister comes to visit today! Thank goodness for a doting aunt and the extra pair of arms!
.
We have had other visitors lately. Silas, Simeon, and Lieren's third cousins came to visit for a day last week. They had such fun playing together...

.

Such fun, in fact, that Silas did not nap at all while they were here. He only made it through one small helping of dinner until...

.
He is getting so big, but sometimes can still be such a baby. I love it.

.

And speaking of naps, Silas thought it would be fun to sleep on his toybox sometime. I willingly let him pretend till it was really time to take a nap. He is the best napper. Typically sleeps 2 1/2 hours each afternoon.

.

.
These two, on the other hand, are terribly hard to predict. Some days they take great naps, and other days they can't seem to sleep on their own for more than 10 minutes. I am still staying true to getting them down for 2 good naps each day. Here they are napping on Monday afternoon, a blissful day where they napped for over 2 hours in their beds!

.

And when they are rested, Simeon and Lieren are the cutest little things. I tried my best to catch each of them grinning and giggling...

Sim Laughs from Brittany Drury on Vimeo.

Lieren Laughs from Brittany Drury on Vimeo.

Sy

Silas, you amaze me these days. You have taken the recent incredible transitions in our life all in stride, remaining joyful, silly, content, and loving through it all. At barely 2 years old, you are showing a keen ability to adapt to difficult and changing circumstances. You are a thinker and a learner so you have pondered each change and communicated about as best you can at your age.

Just today you randomly said, "I miss Jonah. I miss Levi. I miss Feven." Sweet boy. I miss all our Louisville friends, too. We sure had great fun playing with them.
I know you can't appreciate this quite yet, but we are blessed to be here, too. Your daddy and I say all the time that we have never been around a group of students who worship like the students at Harvest. I love to stand at the back on Sunday nights and just watch them praise our God.
Sy, your very name makes me think of singing and worship. This song was precious to me in the season before we knew anything about you. And one of the reasons we chose your name is because the Lord taught us to praise Him in our midnights.
So it is deeply meaningful for me to see you develop a love for singing. Seriously. You love singing. You sing in your highchair when no one is paying attention to you. You sing in the car. You sing when you should be falling asleep. You sing when you wake up. From the alphabet to "Baa, baa black sheep", from "Jesus, Name above all names" to the hokey pokey, you sing by yourself and with anyone who will sing along. Last night and this morning you were singing Happy Birthday to the entire family while still alone in your crib. "How about 'dear Simeon'", you would say then sing the whole song followed by "How about 'dear Grandma Great'" and you would do it all again.
You are having fun in this new neighborhood, with its many new houses under construction. We make almost daily visits to the rock piles to climb and see the diggers. It will be a sad day when all trucks drive away.
As much as you love the outdoors, you also love books and letters and words. When Simeon and Lieren were born you were given a set of DVDs from a friend in Singapore. The videos were made for Singapore so are done in a British accent. You have picked it up and love to use it to be silly calling diapers, di-pahs and colors, cuh-lahs. I really can't believe that a year ago you were just learning to say a few words and now you are playing with words.
Sweet Silas, you are growing up far to quickly for your mommy's heart. I somehow want to capture each stage of your development and hold on to a piece of it. I want you to stay small and innocent. I would love for the worst thing in life to be the very upsetting decision by Daddy to go out the front door instead of the back door when the two of you take Luther out for a walk, and one of the best things to be when Daddy lets you "open doors" in the kitchen. I would love for you to always ask where I am whenever anyone else gets you out of bed, and for you to always want to "Get up with Mommy." I will be sad when you don't let me rock you anymore. And I might just cry the day you stop calling bumblebees, "kungle bees" and when you realize that your little Disney friend is not named "Pickey Mouse." I will never correct you on those two, Silas. You will learn soon enough.
We love you, Silas. Like I said earlier, you amaze us.

In Which I Will Provide A Lengthy Random Update

It is Sunday afternoon, a time created for napping. But one of the little people in our house has decided hanging with mom is more fun than rest. So here he is at the moment...
...and I'm awake with him. Everyone else is asleep, except Shane who has gone to get started on things for Ignite and possibly my dad, who is laying down in the living room with a football game on. But that's ok, Simeon, I like hanging out with you, too.
.
This weekend was the Marigold Festival in Pekin, where Shane grew up. It was nice to be right here and get to go to the parade and join in the festivities without driving for 6 hours. Silas had never been to a parade before. And poor thing, when Shane told him on the way there that he would get some candy, we figured out that he didn't know what candy was. So I told him he would probably get a lollipop. He has had one of those before. Sigh. I'm sure Simeon and Lieren will know about candy before they're 2.
.
Thankfully, some of the paraders did throw lollipops...
The babies pretty much slept through it all...

After the parade, we headed over to let Silas play in the park area. There was lots to see and do, but the highlights were the petting zoo...



...and playing with friend Ava...

Shane and I have always loved this park. Really, there are not many other small towns that have such a great place to play. We were so excited about it that we took our family there one of the first Fridays we were here. My parents sat with the babies while we took Silas for a paddle boat ride on the Lagoon. Now whenever we drive into Pekin Silas asks about the park and the "dragon boat"...

After we had played and eaten, and Silas was about ready for a nap, we walked through Art in the Park, the Marigold Festival craft fair. I was only on the lookout for our friend Susan's booth. She makes hairbows and I have been wanting to get some new ones for Lieren. It was so cute to put a new one on our baby girl this morning and see her smile when I told her how pretty she looked. I love having a girl...

Other random updates include...

.

1. Simeon has moved up to size 2 diapers! He is just about 12 pounds so the 2s fit. I know he could keep wearing 1s but I probably have enough for Lieren to keep wearing them till she is ready for 2s (she is right about 10 pounds). And I have a ton of 2s that I stocked up on so don't want to buy any more 1s.

.

2. We still haven't decided about a house to buy but our landlord has offered for us to stay a few more months if we need it. We are thankful to have more time to make the wisest housing decision we can.

.

3. I am very much craving a big piece of chocolate cake. After several weeks of no dairy or caffeine, I still want it. Maybe after several months of not having it, I will get used to it and never go back. Yeah, I know. Wishful thinking.

,

4. Have I mentioned how much we love our church? I know it is just like the Lord to give good gifts to His children, but we are more than blessed to be here.

,

5. Silas got a Mickey stuffed animal recently from Shane's Aunt Donna. Along with Lion, who was purchased at the zoo by my father, Mickey has become one of Silas' favorites. The best part? Silas calls him "Pickey Mouse."

Sim

Simeon, it is interesting how one incident can change our perspective. Last night Lieren woke first for your middle of the night feeding, which is entirely rare. I gave her a paci and looked over at you. You had a hard day yesterday so I was surprised you had slept so long without waking. You were very still and I couldn't tell that you were breathing. In what was probably a response due more to my lack of sleep than anything, I yanked you out of bed and yelled at Daddy to wake up. You slowly awoke and began to stretch. I think I roused you out of the deepest sleep of your life. If you never sleep well again, I will always blame myself for scaring you out of good sleep.

.

It was earlier than I would have liked, but I was more than thankful to feed you and your sister at 3:30 in the morning. The past few weeks have been hard with you not feeling well and not sleeping well. But I would take that any day over the thought of you not being part of our lives.

.

You are our passionate little man. You have high highs and low lows; you are either VERY HUNGRY! or VERY HAPPY! or VERY UNCOMFORTABLE! or VERY CONTENT! It reminds me of your namesake in Luke 2, who waited his whole life to meet the Messiah. When he laid eyes on baby Jesus, he proclaimed that the purpose of his life had been fulfilled. He had no other reason to live than to seek the Lord. Our prayer is that your passion will always be seeking the Lord and His glory.

.

We headed to a GI specialist last week to see if there was anything else we could do to help your tummy feel better. Seems as though we are doing all we can. We think that you have a negative reaction to milk protein as well as having reflux. So you are on meds and I am not eating any dairy. If you ever question my love for you, just know that I am giving up chocolate, cheese, milk, and creams for you. That's sacrifice.

.

We love you, Sim. We love the passion you bring to life and cannot wait to see how the Lord shapes and molds it to use you for the Kingdom.

Morning Diapers

Lieren-girl

Baby girl, did you know that there was a day when I thought I only wanted boy babies? When I found out we were having a girl, I almost did not know what to think. But you have changed all that. Just two months with you have made me more than grateful that the Lord decided to grace me with a daughter.

,

We are completely outnumbered, you and I. Between Daddy, brothers, and the dogs, it is 5 to 2 in their favor. We will have to look out for one another.

.

You are one of the most pleasant babies I have ever met. You love being held, but are content to sit in a swing, watching the world go by. You let us know you are ready for a nap with a short fuss followed by the prompt closing of your eyes. You are dramatic when taking your pacifier or a bottle; if you don't want it, you make a terrible face and act like you are gagging. I can't help but laugh.

.

You sleep like a dream. Now if you could only teach your brother to do the same...

,

I thank the Lord over and over for how peaceful you are. You wait patiently to eat when I am calming Simeon. You lay next to me with a slight whimper, chewing on your fists, reminding me that you are ready whenever I am. And you usually just look at me and smile when he flings a fist or a foot in your direction. I'm sure you'll remind him of that many times in the days to come.

,

Before I even met you, this song always made me think of you. It is my prayer that there will never be anyone else for you but Jesus. And that the goal of your life will be to bring Him praise.

Precious Lieren-girl, I am so glad that God chose you for our family. You have brought a flurry of pink and ribbons, butterflies, flowers and tulle to this family otherwise dominated by blue and trucks and basketballs and dirt and rocks. And I couldn't be happier. I cannot wait to see what the days to come will hold for you. You are a great delight to us.

On Nursing Twins, Sleep Camp, and Finding Freedom

I was a sleep fanatic with Silas. His personality lends itself to being a good sleeper, but I sure did all I could to foster good sleep. I have been so different with Simeon and Lieren. But our entire situation has been different so far: two babies, moving, babes still rooming-in with mom and dad at 9 weeks...

I have been lax about their daytime naps, too. So this week we're starting Sleep Camp. I had several Sleep Camps with Silas whenever I felt that we were getting too far out of routine and needed to get ourselves back in order and sleeping well. He always did great and began sleeping better within a day or two of strict naptimes, bedtimes, and extended sleep. We will see how my current little ones do. We're not far enough in for me to make a call on how they will respond.

We started yesterday afternoon, took a break this morning for a trip to the zoo, and have picked it right back up this afternoon. Lieren gets a star all around so far. Simeon needs a bit more coddling and attention in the Falling Asleep In Bed By Yourself category. He did make me proud in Extended Nighttime Sleep last night, though, which gets him bonus points.

A lot of people have asked how I keep routine nursing twins. Well, I just feed them at the same time no matter what. When one wakes to eat, I feed the other as well. I just couldn't feed them separately. It would be all I did all day long.

Simeon's tummy issues have made me be less strict on his sleep. I've allowed lots of sleep in swings and in arms. It has also made nursing the two together a strain at times (imagine trying to get one hungry baby set up to eat while the other screams at the top of his lungs for minutes on end and you'll get the picture).

When the babies turned 8 weeks I decided it was time for some freedom. I nursed Simeon and Lieren exclusively for 2 months. Silas went way longer than that. But every situation is different and I had to let something go to keep being a good mom for all the children. So now I'm giving the babies a bottle at their evening 7/7:30ish feeding. It's that crazy post-dinner, everyone-is-tired-and-needs-a-bath time of day. It is so nice to get to sit and chat with the family as we do bottles or spend time with Silas while others feed. And I'm supplementing at that feeding with formula as I need to, which has brought quite a bit of freedom in itself.

After feeling spread so thin the past few weeks, it has been refreshing to let some things go that will not matter in the long run. The Lord has been gracious to give us unforgettable gifts in this season and I'm grateful for the freedom to enjoy it.