The End of An Era

Everybody's saying it..."The End of An Era." I laughed at first, quietly, to myself, shook my head....

But I admit it, it really is the end of an era. The first book came out in 1997...I was 13. I think I read the first one at 15 and then saw the first movie which came out in 2001. There have been a lot of kids series that have come and gone, gained popularity and then fizzled out, but I think what HP had going for it was that the movies are seriously some of the best-made based-on-a-book movies I have ever seen.

I know this, because before every movie came out I reread the book, at least the most recent one, if not the whole series. For the record I do this with a lot of books/movies, not just HP. The director of the original movie (Chris Columbus) also did an excellent job of casting the characters. Never has a person entirely in my mind looked so much like their counterpart on the big screen.

Anyways back to the "era:" by the time the last book was published in 2007 those who had read the book as tweens or teens were well into college or even post-college life. In the amount of time it has taken to the entire series to finally come to an end I have: graduated high school, travelled to many different countries, worked at least 8 jobs, fallen in love, gotten married, bought a house, had two children...and so have, I would point out, the characters in the books/movies. The final scene of the last book shows the main characters grown, married, and with school-aged children of their own. Why wouldn't people my age feel that they had literally grown up and/or come of age with these characters?

I'm not blogging to prove any kind of point, this is just the kind of thing I really do like to write about when I can take a break from adorable twin-pics. I have caught myself from time to time genuinely feeling like I know these people, like how could I not? I've "known" them since 1997- longer than I've known my husband!

It was truly an odd dynamic watching the last movie on Sunday night. Having read the books I was fully aware of what the ending would be, I also knew there were some very abstract scenes and ideas in the last book that would be extremely hard to pull off in a concrete world. I think they did a decent job. There were some things that I could view with a grain of salt that a person who hadn't read the books (Andy, for instance) would say was just plain weird. But there was also a real sense of finality, excitement, even pride, at how far the characters had come and how amazing the relationships and really entire storyline came together.

Well thats it. Call me a super-freak, super-fan, super-dork, but I for one am honestly going to miss these characters and there is a bit of sadness moving forward knowing that we'll never "see" these people again, not in a new movie that is. We'll all have to deal with what will come for our favorite actors, the mistakes they'll make (let's all stay out of rehab guys, that celebrity drug thing is getting kinda old), the bad choices they'll make in future casting calls...

Thankfully I maintain that these books and movies are harmless. I will read them to my kids one day, and show them the movies, when the convincing special effects will be hopelessly out of date. But hopefully they will get caught up in it just like I did, the "magic" of it.

Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, it really is the end of an era.

On My Soapbox

In the past 3 years I have dealt with a lot, and I mean A LOT of phone and triage nurses. First there were the long months of fertility treatments which meant calling sometimes daily to talk to a nurse about cycles, medications, ultrasounds, etc. Then there was the pregnancy- obviously I had more appointments to schedule because it was a multiple pregnancy, but I also had plenty of questions as it was my first pregnancy period. Now I call the pediatrician on a regular basis- double because there are two kids (take how many times you had to call your pediatrician's office in the first year of your kid's life, then add a second kid...), and even more because of all Evelyn's ear infections.
I feel I can now say, without a doubt, that there are very few of them I like to deal with. I'm not a snob, at least I don't think I am....maybe I should take a poll....anyways....but I do feel like I should be treated with respect when I call. Am I wasting your time by calling? Would you prefer I found another doctor? Would you like to find out something terrible happened because I didn't want to call and bother you?! I will say that the Fertility Center had generally wonderful customer service. I can think of reasons for why that may be: you're more of a "customer or client" than a patient since most of their procedures are optional, much of their clientele probably IS a little higher class than a regular doctor's office, etc. but should it matter!? I don't care if I'm being completely ridiculous, emotional, or utterly thick when I call....a doctor's office should care and listen to it's clients and serve them as quickly as possible.
You may be wondering what set me off. Maybe you're not but I'll tell you anyway- I called my pediatrician's office around 8am, talked to a nurse, told her everything I'd tried for Evelyn's stubborn yeast rash (including the "magic butt cream" recipe they'd given me). A few hours later I called back and said while they were asking the doctor the first question I would also like to know if Evelyn constantly putting her head down on the floor and crying meant nothing or possibly that her ear infection is still hanging around. The doc has mentioned needing to know if her infections are actually going away or if it's all just one long one so I figured this could be helpful info.


....


At 3pm a chipper nurse called and said: "I just spoke to Dr. _____ (not my normal doc) and he said it's probably just water and to watch her a couple days."

Silence.

Me: "Oh, you mean her ears. Ok, I can do that (though she's already been doing it for several days which I told the nurse and which is why I asked)....but did he/she say anything about the rash?"

Silence.

"What rash?"

Me: "Well, that was the reason I called. She has a yeast rash, it's very bad, she is very uncomfortable."

Silence.

"Oh! Well there's nothing here about that, but you can use the Magic Butt..."

I interrupted- "I already tried that, I told the nurse that this morning (during our five minute conversation), it didn't do anything (and also wasn't cheap), so I need another option."

Frustrated sigh...."Ok, I'll ask the doctor."

Me, Annoyed at this point: "That's fine, and will you also tell him that I think it's important that she is constantly laying her head on the ground and crying? She has had 5 ear infections in as many months and we never know if it's more than one or one long one. She has been doing this head thing for quite awhile and I'm tired of just throwing antibiotics at her if we don't know they are working."

She told me to keep watching her and call back in a couple days. Fine.

At 4pm I got another call, they'd called a script in for a rash cream. I applied it at 5pm. At 7pm the rash is still there but SIGNIFICANTLY less red and obviously a ton less painful.
Was that so hard?!

I'm still not thrilled because I'll probably have to call again when she continues to cry and lay her head on the floor every few minutes, but at least the rash is clearing up.

All of that said, if you are a triage nurse, try to remember that your clients are dealing with sick, fussy, innocent babies. They are moms, just like you, who might have more education than you do! I'm sure you deal with all kinds of people, many of them frustrating and ignorant, but that doesn't mean we all are AND....the customer is always right ;)

Dirty Girl in The Heights

We grilled dinner last night, steaks marinated overnight in Baja Chipotle Marinade with a little Old Hickory Smoked Salt. The sauce was tasty, the steaks were not the greatest cut, but anywho. This mama got sick of Daddy getting to escape outside for an hour while he gets the grill ready and then cooks the food. So once all the prep work was done I gathered up the kids and threw out a beach blanket to sit on so we could enjoy the nice weather and grilling out in the neighborhood.

It was nice and relaxing. If you call repeatedly reprimanding Evelyn for trying to touch the grill, climb the cement stairs, and beat up her brother, relaxing.

My favorite part? The fact that nobody likes crawling on cement so they both adopted the Mowgli Walk to get around, but Evie perfected it:

What you can't tell is that her hot-pink painted toes are scratched and covered with dirt, and everything from her forehead down has a light spackling of green beans and carrots.

"Who me? Getting into trouble and dirty as a little piglet? Not so."

"Daddy loves me, we are working on an advertisement for Alger Heights."

What Not/To Wear

I recently ordered an adorable "petti-romper" for Evelyn to wear in her one-year pictures. I'd been eyeing them for quite awhile and had contacted the seller about getting them with straps (she stocks chiffon rompers with straps but only lace ones without, I wanted the lace one with straps because my girl is not going to go strapless until she's 40...I jest...kinda).
Anyways the seller (TheTrendyTutu on Facebook) just decided to place a one-time order from her supplier for lace rompers with straps. I jumped on it, and have one of these adorable little outfits coming in "dusty pink," a purply-pink color that looks very vintage. Here is her stock photo (minus the straps and in a different color).























Now I just need to find an outfit for Eli. The complication of course is that their birthday is in October, and so, unless we have awesome weather like last year, a sleeveless bodysuit is not exactly weather-appropriate. This is not a problem as I inted to do indoor pictures, but I can't exactly dress Elijah in a fancy little sweater and pants or they'll look like they are from completely different season. So I'm on the lookout for a cute, coordinating outfit for my little guy.

That being said, I know I will not be dressing him like this:

























We did the bowtie thing once and it was very sweet but I prefer a little more...clothing.
No worries.

Mommy's Lament

We're in a rough patch right now. I'm not sure what "the deal" is but we're struggling. The twinners just are not happy much of the time lately. It might be boredom in some ways- the days get long, and venturing out with them is often more than I feel I can handle; even going out to sit on the lawn requires suntan lotion, a big blanket, sun hats, and toys times 2. It could be teething, Elijah is about due to get some more chompers and who knows when Evelyn will start cutting some teeth, but both of them have been nomming nonstop on anything and everything in sight. Feeding times are confusing. Evelyn is hit or miss with solid food, and even when she does settle down and eat it she never eats enough to be satisfied. Elijah loves it most of the time but crumples most of it up in his hands and misses his mouth the vast majority of the time. As a result I feel like I'm back at the nursing stage- feeding constantly in one capacity or another as bottles get rejected but "real food" is begged for, or they have a "solid" meal but are not quite full and require a formula top-off. They hate the stroller- what kid hates the stroller?!
Morning wake ups and naps are quite wonky as well. Will they wake at 5am or 7? Should I make them wait to eat till 7? But then we'll be so incredibly grumpy by naptime....is it worth giving them a bottle and putting them back to bed? Maybe this just means an ealier nap...but then what does it mean for subsequent naps?
I won't lie, I am pretty sure with one baby this stuff wouldn't get to me as much. Or maybe I should say in the future when I have just one baby I'll remind myself how it was with two and I'll let stuff roll a bit more but right now I want, I desire, I NEED them to nap at the same time or I'll lose my mind.
I feel like a downer when people ask me how we're doing or "how it is with twins." Frankly, it's frustrating, and much as I hate to say it, I truly believe the baby stage just isn't my thing. I really don't like to admit that because it sounds like I don't like my kids! But that's not what I mean. I love them to pieces and am excited to see them every morning, they are adorable and much of the time a barrel of laughs and cuteness, I miss them after just a few hours of separation, I just don't do well with being clueless. I know, I know, most of parenting is trial and error, but I feel like I'll have a leg up in the guessing game of how to make a situation better if I at least know what the situation actually is.
Writing this is a catharsis of sorts, it makes me feel like I can explain better how I'm feeling to those who have asked lately how we are, and it helps me organize my thoughts on the current situation. That said, I know, because I've been told (and from experience), that soon enough we'll be past all this, I'll miss things about this stage and I shouldn't wish it away. So I remind myself that in a week, maybe two, definately by a month from now we'll be in a totally different stage that will also have it's positives and negatives. Today though, I'm going to bed praying for patience and happy days for my babes. I'm also thankful for a God who is ever-present and "on my side." My daily Bible verse today was Zephaniah 3:17 - The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
Happy to know he's rooting for me :)