quick stats!

cheerios with Grampa! too cute...

lounging with the Toy catalog and some french toast sticks....

bed head!

finding Peanut in various places to cuddle!

TWO YEAR OLD STATS:

Oliver: 33 lbs, 3 feet, 1/2" (!)
Violet: 27 lbs, 2 ft, 10"

A few photos of our wonderful visit with Grampa! Oliver ADORED him, and never left his side (which was preferably always by the Thomas the Train Track!), Violet was thrilled that Grampa let her blow out the birthday candles on her cake (one of her favorite things to pretend right now), and we all had a great time.

This is a short post, as I am in the process of teaching Ollie to sleep in a *sniff, sniff* big boy bed! He suddenly decided to climb out of his crib- and literally WILL not stay in there at ALL anymore, so this morning I transitioned it to a toddler bed, and we're working getting him to stay in there. VERY hard, and MUCH earlier than I was hoping to do this!

Road trip, ER trip and fingertip...

OK- huge post ahead, so beware! The Sheaffer foursome made our very first real trip together! Grampa and Popi had an *official as possible* commitment ceremony in Milwaukee, and we needed to be a part of it. We made the (worst possible EVER) decision to drive, with the (ridiculously optimistic) idea that the babies would sleep all night as we drove the (hellish, eternal) 14 hours there. To better summarize, let me make a timeline:


Road Trip from Hell:

Thursday:
5pm: Rental SUV is stuffed to the brim, babies are stuffed with grilled cheese and yogurt; off we go!

9pm: babies begin cycle of one falls asleep, the other screams and startles the other awake, and so on until about...

11pm: both asleep finally! Until- something wakes Violet up, and she sobs so hard she vomits. We are somewhere in dark, flat Ohio. Ben pulls over and takes her out, snuggling her vomit-covered body on the side of the road while I clean out the car seat. Yuck. All the ruckus wakes Oliver, who screams and shakes. I am feeling like we are back in the colic stage.

11:45: Back on the road. We start to watch a Baby Einstein DVD in the back to calm everyone down, but then I smell something awful. I ask Ben if it's possible that we're still in Amish country; he answers that he doubts it as we're in Ohio. I realize the smell is my beautiful doll-baby of a daughter, who has filled her diaper and then some. Sigh.
We stop for a road-side diaper change, and then, thankfully, both babies fall asleep. Whew!

2:30am: Ben feels his eyes closing so he pulls over to a rest stop. The four of us sleep there for an hour. Normally, I would be terrified of being murdered, or at least of strangers staring at us through the windows as we sleep, but I'm just grateful we can all sleep in the quiet.

3:30am: Ben rouses and we hit the road again. Babes are still asleep- wa-hoo!!

3:40am: a HUGE traffic standstill only miles from the rest stop. We turn the car off and sit here for TWO HOURS. It turns out to be at huge semi that drove off an overpass. What a nightmare- one of the (very few) benefits of driving at 3am should be NO traffic! Babes wake up at about 5am.

6am: back on the road.

6:30am: Ben pulls over on the wrong side of the road (i.e. not the shoulder) to vomit. O and V stare at daddy dry-heaving into the gravel as I scramble for towels and a new DVD to distract them....

10-ish: we arrive in Milwaukee!!!! Never happier to be there.

*everything in here I'll discuss later, since that's all the GOOD stuff! Let's continue the Timeline of Hell first:

Sunday:

1pm: on road- leaving earlier this time, since we know we can't count on the night sleep. The babies are asleep within moments of getting in car- they are exhausted from being TRUE party animals! This is the best part of the drive- they sleep for three hours straight, even with terrible Chicago traffic, and Ben and I get a chance to talk in quiet.

8pm: We've hit so much traffic that we decide to pull over at a hotel. We think we can take the babes for a swim, have dinner, maybe get some decent sleep and leave in the morning.

8:04pm: Getting Violet out of the backseat, I shut my hand in the car door. I scream words I wasn't even aware that I knew- it hurt THAT much. I basically caught the tip of my (so appropriately named) swear finger. I think I might vomit. Mostly I am worried because I do not have time for a broken finger- esp in the middle of South Bend, Indiana, where one can't even find Tylenol on a Sunday night. Hell.

10:30pm: I, my huge purple finger and Oliver are asleep in the pack n' play (yes, I am IN the p n' p), and Ben and Violet are asleep in the bed. Finally! I sleep fitfully because of my finger, and Ben because of the little monkey he's in bed with.

3:30am: Violet awakens, for no reason, and starts an intense conversation about cars, trucks and Cappy with Oliver, who immediately jumps out of the p n' p to chat. Ben and I laugh (I believe it's called delirium) and decide to just pack up and get on the road.

2pm: We drive and drive...babies sleep on and off (um, never at the same time though), we watch DVDs and change diapers and snack. Oliver seems really cranky....and at

2:30pm: Oliver yaks EVERYWHERE. Again and again and again. I want to get home!!! Somewhere in western Pennsylvania is a pair of horribly vomit-stained Baby Gap footie pajamas on the side of the road, just too gross to go back in the car.

5:30pm: After pulling over twice more for O to throw up, we get HOME. The car smells of every bodily fluid imaginable and is filled with french fries, crayons, dvds and the like, but we're HOME!!

postscript: Oliver kept NOTHING down after getting home, and we had to take him to the CHOP ER the next day. Poor baby! He was very brave, and it's an amazing facility. LUCKILY, they did not have to get liquids in by IV. They gave him a medicine to stop him from vomiting, and then we could get some juice in him. By the time we left, he was climbing on the Firetruck-shaped X-ray machine! Whew! And of course, no story about twins would be complete without Violet starting her stomach flu yesterday.....

the Sheaffer men!

babies dancing on the altar

high five, Uncle Adam!

Ollie, stealing the show!

Violet with Popi's niece, Ellie.

Oliver and Laurel- who will get the chair?

Ruby (Laurel's twin) and Ollie

O looking too dapper!!

laughing with mama!

Avery teaching Ollie about the truck

Oliver and Ben

And now, the good stuff! The babies LOVED being at Grampa and Popi's !! There was a HUGE yard, lots of flowers and trees, toys waiting for them to climb on, fountains and even a pond with fish!! I already love thinking about the memories my babies are going to make with their grandfathers. I have great memories myself of my grandparents' houses and land and towns, so I know this will be special.

The ceremony was beautiful, and both Grampa and Popi were very understanding when Oliver wanted to climb up on the altar with them mid-speech. I love, love Ben's family and really wish we saw them more often. The babies finally got to meet their twin cousins, Ruby and Laurel, who are adorable and sweet, like their big brother, Avery! We loved meeting some of Popi's family, too! The twins also loved spending quality time with Uncle Adam and Auntie Dana- who were, as always, amazing helps with letting mama and dada have a break! Seriously, could these babies be any luckier with these relatives?

love this baby girl!!

a little chat over a nice picnic dinner!

It's been a tough week here. A lot of random things adding up to very little sleep and lots of stress! Oliver got a fever over the weekend- poor baby. Ben immediately feared the Swine Flu and called the pediatrician. Luckily, as there were no other symptoms at all, Ollie was cleared.... His fever seemed better by Monday, but then Violet awoke with a horrible cough and runny nose. She was very under the weather, and as is usual for her when she has a cold, she vomited as well. I think it's just a case of too much mucus and a touch of her past reflux...makes for a huge mess, though!
Tuesday, Grammy came to watch the ill Peanut while Oliver and I did music class by ourselves. He had a great time, running around like crazy, dancing, playing the drums like you wouldn't believe...thought we were in the clear. Leaving class, I did *something* to my back- this has never been an issue for me before, but it was awful! It kept me up all night, along with both Violet and her cough and Oliver beginning to vomit at 4am. Ugh. His fever had spiked high again, he vomited twice before I could get some Tylenol in him.
Wednesday, everyone was off. My back was still killing me, Oliver had finally stopped vomiting, but refused to drink anything. Violet was still running from every orifice! I dug out my Percocet from my C-section (um, 23 months ago...). Of course it had expired, but I figured it couldn't hurt. It was AWESOME. Helped SO much!
Another long night last night, although not nearly as bad as the others. Ollie was up at midnight, crying and sad, but no fever. He had begun to cough- that same "bark" as his sister, and his nose was running. No more vomiting though, and he's eating better today! Violet seems on the road to wellness- still a bit of a cold, but seems to have her energy back!
Whew! More soon!

quarantined

poor sick babies!

still busy when they can be!

another short update from the sick, sick house of Sheaffer. YUCK! As both babies seemed to be improving on Thursday night, I woke up early Friday morning VERY sick. I vomited all that morning and missed opening night of Turandot (VERY sad). Ben missed work to stay home with the babies, and my glorious mom came in to help with EVERYTHING!
By Sunday, things seemed better for all three of us, and we thought the bug might pass Ben by...but he called as I was at my matinee, and Oliver was throwing up again! I was so upset- not knowing if he'd re-caught the same bug, gotten something new, or simply was getting too many solids too quickly. Ben called the pediatrician, who said she was "on the fence" about bringing Ollie into CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia- one of the top five in the nation). Ugh. So, as of now, we're watching him like a hawk, counting wet diapers, measuring pedialyte like crazy...and praying. Poor little puppy.

Backing up a bit, as we were putting everyone to bed last night, VIOLET starting vomiting again! I thought I would lose my mind. Poor baby. She seems a bit better this morning, and only threw up once last night, so, again, we're keeping our fingers crossed.

To top everything off- who can guess where this is going??- BEN woke up during the night, sick as a dog. As of now, 9:50 am, he is still vomiting, and I'm seriously hoping to stay well, if only to take care of my family, sanitize my house, and not miss any more performances. I feel as though I have puke seeping from my pores at this point, and plan on cloroxing my house from top to bottom, as soon as my nursing duties are on hiatus.




I'm adding some "sick photos". Really, how can they still be so cute when they feel so rotten? The video is Oliver eating a "Pedialyte popsicle". He usually isn't a fan of icy things, so I think he wasn't sure what to do....
(oh yeah- and I put it in a sock. Genius mommy!)

two more actors in the family...

Yes, it's true. Violet and Oliver had their first audition yesterday! Ben and I went in for a commercial spot, and, as they were looking to cast a baby (or two?), they asked us to bring in the twins. It was ABSOLUTE chaos getting there- basically changing, dressing and feeding Violet in the backseat on the way there, trying to cover up the goose egg on my head from my overzealous game of peek-a-boo, Ben forgetting to put in his contacts, hoping Oliver won't completely saturate his shirt with drool before we arrive- and all of this in the pouring rain. Crazy.
The babies were wonderful in the audition, which consisted basically of an impromptu conversation in front of a video camera. Unbelievably, there was a DOG in the room, so Violet was laughing, clapping, reaching for the dog- just charming the pants of everyone (I'm certain they think this is her natural personality...). Oliver had on his newsboy cap, and was very friendly to everyone and entranced with the big spotlights. We were SO proud. We'll keep everyone posted on their blossoming careers!

In the meantime, our sleep training has been working beautifully with Oliver, and both babies fell asleep on their own and slept all night, in their cribs, 12 hours straight! Yee-haw!! I know this won't happen every night, but I see now that it CAN happen, even at the same time, and I feel so, so fortunate! Oliver is suddenly wanting to stand, all of the time. He can pull himself up on his toys and balance, and he loves it. There's no turning back now, for sure! Violet tries to copy her brother, but has trouble balancing still. For those of you keeping score of the teeth...Oliver is now at 5, Violet, still at 0. Unfortunately, Oliver is biting a great deal, and left a huge welt on his sister's leg last week...she retaliated with hair pulling, though, so they can both hold their own.



our happy girl

Ollie and Grammy

a little update..

Just wanted to write (while both babies are napping!) about something funny that happened the other day. We've been shifting things around a bit upstairs, as it's apparent to us all that our babies won't be able to share a room (poor sleeper and screamer do not slumber well together). To make a long story short, we've moved Violet into our room in front, Oliver is in the original nursery and Ben and I are in the minuscule office in the back, which has no heat (thus no baby sleeping in it!). Violet's new room will also be the "playroom" of sorts, where the babies can hang out while mom does some things on the second or third floors. Anyhow- the other day, after they'd woken from a nap, they were playing on the floor in that room, and I had run up the third floor to get something, and I heard a wail from Oliver- true anguish, not just discontent. I race back down the stairs, and see Violet holding a huge chunk of Ollie's beautiful red mohawked hair (still attached to his head) in her fist! He is sobbing.... and she's smiling, as if she's found a great new plaything.

I do know this is only the beginning.

Ollie and Violet have really been interacting a lot lately- we LOVE it- so cute to watch! We're trying to start early with words like "Gentle!" ("Gentle with brother's ear!" "Gentle biting on sister's arm!"), and "Share" (which people say they won't know anything BUT sharing, but I can already see that Violet wants the toy Oliver has, and vice versa).

The BEST news of the week, by far, is the new addition to our family: our new DISHWASHER!!! I never thought I'd be the type of woman who would weep over a kitchen appliance. It was a beautiful, amazing gift from Popi and Grampa; and gave US the gift of more time with our babies.
Ben and I figured out that we've washed nearly 3000 bottles (read: bottles, nipples, caps, rims), and that's not counting the two months spent pumping, which adds an additional 16 bottles a day, multiplied by two months, plus pumping tubing....ugh! Add on to that the sterilizing part, which means putting all the paraphernalia into the four special bags with 2 1/3 cups of water and microwaving it for 2 minutes and 25 seconds EVERY DAY FOR SEVEN MONTHS...can you see where the tears of gratitude come from now?

The first night I stacked all the bottle stuff into the dishwasher, added soap and turned it on, I literally kissed the dishwasher on its lid three times. Then I went in the living room and played with the babies- how awesome is that??


okay..one photo...Ollie doing a little light reading, Violet doing a little kicking, and everyone admiring the new dishwasher!