Without Brent

Without Brent, there would be no one to take out the trash.
There would be no one to help with night feedings.
There would be no one to turn my throw pillows into burp rags.
There would be no reason to make brownie batter.
There would be no patio ping-pong tournaments.
There would be no reason to fall through the toilet seat.

Without Brent, who would find creative uses for our dish cloths?
Who would leave soda cans in rare places so I can spend my free time picking them up?
Who would support my vain addictions (running and shopping to name a few)?
Who would remind me to beware of strangers and to look both ways when I cross the street?
Who would insist that our infants wear short sleeves to show off their muscles in 50 degree weather?
Who would beat me in Kung Fu high kicks?

Without Brent, I would have full command of the remote control.
I would watch chick flicks whenever I wanted.
I would have a clean bedroom.
I would do WAY too many crossword puzzles.

Without Brent, I would not enjoy home improvement projects.
I would not need to fix any of his paint jobs.
I would not engage myself in lively political discussion.
I would not have seen Braveheart 42 times.

Without Brent, I would not laugh every single day.
Without Brent, I would not have so much fun planning the future.
Without Brent, I would not have such wonderful memories.
Without Brent, I would not enjoy today.

I have come to the realization that a sense of humor trumps all else in a marriage.
Brent and I just celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary. We had one of the best celebrations ever. I think it was because we appreciated the time together like never before. Those times are so rare now that it was a real treat to enjoy a quiet evening with just the two of us. And thanks to Brent's parents, we were able to use their dining room set for the first time. It was a perfect way to break it in.

OK. So this is the place where I should have a picture of Brent and me. Like most new parents, we only seem to have the camera ready when the babies are around. C'est la vie.

Battle of the Birds: Burnetts 1, Birdmites 0

We've had some recent drama at our house which has delayed me posting until today. Have you ever heard of birdmites? Well, apparently birds carry mites similar to rats and when they nest near or in your attic, you can get them. Fortunately, the birdmites usually only choose one host which happened to be me...no joke. I kept waking up at night feeling like things were crawling all over me and I was getting serious amounts of bites on my legs and none of the boys in my household were feeling anything. Brent thought I was going crazy. Once I had over 30 bites, I decided something was seriously wrong and started doing some research. We discovered that we had several birds nesting in our rafters and put two and two together. Welcome to home ownership!!! Brent spent several hours putting new screens up to keep the birds out, set off a few bug bombs and sprayed our house inside and out. I deep cleaned our house several times. I would wash the bedding and towels every day, give myself an epsom salt scrub-down twice a day and bleach the tub every day. I would also like to add that you could eat out of my window sills right now but I'm sure that won't last long!
Fortunately, my mom came down for a few days so I could concentrate on cleaning and now it's been over a week without a single bite. And we also don't hear the birds scratching in and around our attic anymore. Yes!!! If you've never had fleas or mites or bedbugs, I'm not sure you can truly imagine the horror of trying to get some sleep at night when you are feeling the creepy-crawlies and then the pinch and the hot burning and then of course the itching. If mosquito bites are a 5 on the itchiness scale, I would rank mite bites at a 9.5. And they don't go away! They just keep itching and itching and itching! OK, on to more pleasant things.
After we bug-bombed our house, we left for a few days to attend my brother's high school graduation. While we were at home, we put the boys in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa Smart's house so they could have their first swimming experience. It was hilarious! They loved it!

Mom pushing Cole around in the crab.









Mom holding Keith. He LOVED to splash around!









Mom holding Cole and Aunt Sydney holding Keith. Clearly, Aunt Syd is the one with the tan.

Off to Grandma's house!

Cole

Keith

Grandma Smart giving Keith a popsicle. He would have eaten the whole thing if we hadn't stopped him!


Cole going to town on a wooden spoon. I was trying to get him to bang it on the pot but everything now goes straight to the gums. Chew, chew, chew.

Happy Father's Day!

Look closely at Cole's bare foot. When I wasn't looking, Keith snaked Cole's sock and of course began to chew. Brent always told me that raising babies would be similar to raising puppies. To think I doubted him...

Finally

OK, so I'm finally joining the hosts of "mommy-bloggers"--partially because I'm tired of feeling behind the 8-ball in sending pictures of the twins to various people and partly so I can use this blog as a type of family journal. I know all anyone really cares about (including myself) is seeing pictures of the boys, so I will dedicate most of the blogspace to them. Cole and Keith just turned 7 months last weekend. Brent and I can't believe how fast it's flown. We reminisced all weekend about their scary brush with TTS (Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome), their unexpected delivery and their stay in the NICU at Mass General. We are now so relieved to have such healthy and perfect little boys. They are still quite small for their age, but they're right on track developmentally so we feel very blessed.


I'm posting a few pics I've taken recently. Cole is on the left and Keith is on the right in the two pictures at the top of this post. Hopefully from there you can identify who is who in the other pictures. Keith is definitely the smaller of the two, although he still holds his own in their wrestling matches. They are both becoming more and more interactive with each other. Keith was originally the instigator when it came to stealing toys, but as you can see from the picture, Cole got the best of Keith at least once when a row recently insued over the crinkley butterfly.

It doesn't seem to matter what toy Keith has, all Cole knows is that it must be better than his toy. Perhaps "grass is greener" syndrome is human nature on all age levels. I hope their battles over toys is no indication of what lies ahead...