Getting Some Words

On Tuesday (11/29/10) Makaio said his first intentional word and the following day, Kekoa said his.

Makaio's first words: Thank you.

Kekoa's first word: Yay!

Perhaps I should be reinforcing the "mommy" and "daddy" more than manners and excitement. No matter what the first words are, they are still exciting.

"Yay" for the boys and "Thank you" for reading!

An Unexpected Present

Today is Sterling's birthday and he almost got the worst present EVER! You might be wondering what that gift might have been so brace yourself for the story.

These were used to extract the gift!

This morning I was getting the boys ready to go to Vanderbilt so that we could have lunch with Sterling and deliver his birthday present to him (we took his gift to the school because it was for his office). Anyway, I put the babies in the bathtub so that they could be pretty and smell nice for our birthday lunch. After 30 minutes of playing in the tub they were all cleaned up and ready to get out of the bath. Makaio was standing up so I thought about taking him out but he sat down so Kekoa was removed first.

I was getting Kekoa ready and then I noticed that Makaio was really quiet. He is generally a quiet child anyway so I wasn't too worried but I had a feeling that I should check on him. When I walked into the bathroom I almost died. There in the tub with Makaio were 20 pieces of poop, the size of rabbit poop, asking me to gather them up and dispose of them. My throat started to close and I was in a full blown panic attack.

It seems like it should be common sense to immediately remove the child from the poo infested waters but instead I ran for my telephone. When my mother answered all I said was, "I need you to come over." I'm sure that isn't what mom's want to hear from their children but I needed my mother and she was too far away to save me this time.

Let me give you a snippet of the parts of our conversation that I can remember.

Mom: Cylynn, what is wrong?

Cylynn: Makaio pooped in the bath and I don't think I can clean this up.

- I got him out of the tub at some point during the conversation.

Cylynn: What am I supposed to do? How do I get it out of there? MOM!

Mom: Drain the water and then pick it up.

Cylynn: Pick it up?! Are you kidding me?! I can't drain it. I am not touching that because even if the poop isn't by my hand there are poop particles floating around in there. I think I have to leave it for Sterling until he gets home from school. I can't do this!

Mom: CYLYNN! Stop being ridiculous and clean it up!

Cylynn: "Dry Heaving"

Mom: Get it cleaned up. I have to go to the doctor so I have to go, Bye.

At this point I am literally freaking out and wondering if I can actually do this. I am wondering why I didn't follow my heart and take Makaio out first? I am still contemplating leaving it for Sterling. Fortunately for Sterling and the overall smell of our household, I decided to clean it up.

Thanks to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for sending us home with a few extra pairs of rubber gloves! One year later they have finally been put to good use. I was dry heaving the entire time and almost puked on one occasion but stopped knowing that I was going to have to clean that up also.

I am happy to report that Sterling only received good gifts on his birthday this year. If this happens again however, he better be prepared!

A Date with Fate

I found this on the playroom wall this morning and almost hyperventilated. I quickly started my Lamaze breathing, as learned from television, and put the babies in their cribs. I then went downstairs and got the fly-swatter to quickly end this bug's life. Once I got back upstairs and was in position for the kill I started dry heaving at the thought of the sound it might make when I smashed it. I knew then that I had to come up with a Plan B, why didn't I think of this sooner!

I decided that I would just push it off the wall and then pounce on it with a paper towel in hand. Then I started to think that I might not be brave enough to actually try and catch it once it was on the ground. Next idea was to get it to walk around and then I would coax it onto the fly swatter, dump it in the toilet and flush.

The coax-dump-flush method was my final plan and it would have gone smoothly if this thing didn't decide to start right for the handle of the fly-swatter and directly on course for my jugular. My throat started to constrict and I started to panic but I didn't want to run because I knew that if it dropped to the ground I wouldn't even try to get it. Luckily I made it to the bathroom and this little guy had it's date with fate.

I wouldn't normally care if there were critters like this in the house, never mind, yes I would. But I had to dispose of this one because the other day when I caught Kekoa chewing on something and pulled it out of his mouth it was the remaining legs of some bug. I puked in my mouth just a little.

Our First Halloween

This is actually our second Halloween but since we were discharged from the hospital a month prior to our first Halloween, this is our first one to celebrate. Daddy and Mommy really went crazy this year by taking us to one house and allowing us to get one piece of candy. It happened to be our neighbor and she kindly took a picture of the four of us.

As you can see, our parents didn't dress up like they promised but I guess we will forgive them. At least Daddy dressed up for the Trunk-or-Treat and that is saying a lot for two parents that don't really get into this holiday. Mommy said she would gladly dress in all gray, crouch down in a ball and be a rock but we don't know if her old legs could crouch into a ball at every door.

Our first trick-or-treater was actually me, Makaio. I took the opportunity while Mommy and Daddy were distracted to get into the candy bowl and go for a Kit Kat.

I chewed through that wrapper so fast and quickly devoured all the delicious chocolate knowing that as soon as Mommy caught me she would take it away. You better believe that I put up a good fight when she tried to get it from my "kung-fu" panda grip!

We hope that you have enjoyed the adventures of our day as much as we enjoyed our Halloween spoils. We love you all.

Makaio and Kekoa

Trunk-or-Treat Update

Someone actually asked Sterling if he worked at the Zoo. Either his costume was that good or he just looks the part of zoo animal pooper-scooper.