We Be Cribbin', No More

I had been looking forward to, and simultaneously dreading this day for the longest time.  Brooke started crawling out of her crib just before 18 months. Harrison started a few months later. I was not ready to loose the cribs, and they weren't either. I knew it was coming though. We dropped the mattress all the way to the floor, separated their cribs, moved them back together, purchased a Tot Clock. We did everything to keep them sleeping in 4 walls as long as possible.

Shortly after we got back for Seattle, Harrison had two back to back days where he climbed out of his crib and hurt himself. I knew it was time, so we headed to Target to pick out some new bedding accessories. We considered switching to twin beds, but decided against it because their room isn't really big, and it's mostly taken over by their toys. Since we were just losing a side rail, all they needed were new sheets and a couple pillows. One for functionality and one for decoration.

I don't think they could have picked out more mismatched items. Harrison in particular. A brown, blue, and yellow dump truck pillow paired with green and blue robot sheets. Brooke picked more of a matching set, but her pink polka dot sheets and multi-dot heart pillow don't compliment Harry's choices at all.  Any attempts by me to steer their choices in a more matching direction were completely shot down. I lived with it because the point is to get them excited about sleeping in bed, right? They were beyond excited to sleep with their new pillows.

First night in their big kid beds

That evening we took one side rail off, explained their new beds to them and how even though they could get out, they weren't supposed to, and off we went. The first couple weeks were cake and they rarely got out of their beds until the appropriate time. Then their two year molars started to come in, they were restless, and naps became almost nonexistent. Thankfully their evening sleep is still consistently good, although the time change is really pushing that.

We found a couple things really worked well for getting them to stay in bed and go to sleep.  The Tot Clock. I can't sing the praises of this thing enough. Having a visual cue for them to know when it's ok to be wake up, and when they need to stay in bed is great. If we ask them what the blue light means, they tell us, "Stay in bed. Go to sleep." I also remind them it means to keep their head on their pillow and their hand to themselves.

The other thing that's a huge help? Being a stalker in their room. I always remind them that I'm watching on the monitor, and I come in as soon as one of them gets out of bed or even sits up in bed. If I have to go back in multiple times, I will sit in the corner of their room and watch them until they fall asleep. It works within 5-10 minutes every time. Rocking, patting, shushing, singing, etc., doesn't work for them. Once we sleep trained, they have needed to do it on their own.They need their own space and to fall asleep without help. Which is nice, but sometimes I wish they would let me snuggle them until they fall asleep. Although not in a toddler bed. I'm ready for twin beds already. However I don't think they'd be happy if I did away with some of their toys to make room for bigger beds.

So that's how we made the transition and are keeping them in their beds. Does anyone have any go to tricks for keeping your little ones in bed? I'm sure me being a creeper in their room won't always work, so I need some extra tricks up my sleeve. Because, I need quiet time and they need naps, otherwise we are not pretty in the afternoon. They've started shortening their naps too. Anyone else's kids do that around 2.5?

It's 8 am and their light just turned yellow, so off I go. Make sure you get out and vote today! H and B will be coming with me to the poles. Happy Election Day!

Halloween Weekend

Halloween, I love it and the kids do too. We've been building it up for weeks and working on their "trick or treat" and thank yous. All last week each day they'd talk about trick or treating and I'd have to tell them not yet. We were a hot mess after naps on Friday, but we managed to get dressed, in multiple layers, snap a few pics and get out the door with minimal meltdowns. 

Brooke was all about it. The costumes, the drumsticks, the pictures. Harrison, not so much. Once we made it outside though, he was ready to go and happily running from house to house ringing doorbells and saying "trick or treat." They didn't even care that we were being snowed on and it was super windy. They loved running around, and of course, candy. Their BFF, Sophie, joined us for trick or treating and dinner. Then we had their first slumber party. Slumber parties already?! Wahhh!

Brooke licking a Tootsie Pop is quite possibly my favorite thing ever.

Saturday morning once the kids were all up, we had waffles, watched Aristocats, and jumped in the bounce house. Aristocats is Brooke's new favorite. She doesn't want to watch Mickey or Frozen anymore. It's always "Cats."

Saturday evening we get dressed up again to go to a store opening and a costume party. Harry was equally as upset about his costume on Saturday. Who knew jeans, a t-shirt, and a hat would cause such a fit?

Wayne, Garth, and Stacy

Once we made it to Sweets So Geek, all was right with the world, until they saw Darth Vader. Tears and hiding ensued. They weren't having it. Enter cake. Raspberry Pomegranate White Chocolate Cake. So good! Definitely go check them out if you live in town. Their desserts and chocolates are amazing!!! The bacon and Nutella filled chocolate Millennium Falcon is out of this world.

We had treats, ate Bravas, ran around like a couple of crazies, and then headed to our cousin's costume party. Food, booze, a bonfire, and games for the kids. All the elements for a great fall shin dig. We stayed up past bed time in the hopes of getting them to sleep in. That failed. I definitely spent an hour Sunday morning laying on their floor in order to keep them in bed until their 8am wake up time.

It was chilly but sunny Sunday morning, so we took a walk to the park. By the time we got there, Harrison was already so sleepy that he almost fell asleep while swinging. When we did get home, he took a three hour nap, which is unheard of recently. 

We ended our evening as per usual, with friends, food, football, and The Walking Dead. We had the tough decision between watching TWD or The Steelers on SNF. We chose TWD with football updates during commercials. I did not survive until the end of the game, but I did last until mid way through the 4th. My 6am wake up call was lurking. I was happy to wake and see that The Steelers closed out the game strong. Yay for another win!

On a completely unrelated note, I am finally going to bite the bullet and paint our kitchen, living room, and hallway. I've been debating it since we moved in and even though it will require a lot of nap times worth of painting, it needs done. I think I shall pick out potential paint colors this afternoon. Happy Monday indeed!

Pumpkins and Stuff

Today is the first day all week that I haven't been completely exhausted by nap time. Sunday night I came down with a headache, which turned out to be the start of a lovely cold. H and B have been fighting it too, but much to my dismay they haven't been taking extra long naps to help them get over it. 

Now that it finally seems like we're on the up swing, I thought it was time to get back to blogging and share some of our pumpkin adventures from this year. I shared our visit to Hilger's, here, but we've also been on a couple other outings involving pumpkins and fall fun.  We visited Advanced Tree Technology for "you pick pumpkins," and Kuehnert Dairy Farm for their fall festival. 

We let the kids pick out a pumpkin kit from Target which they were super excited about. Brooke picked the dog and Harrison picked the cat. We decorated them this week, and they just went out front yesterday. The pumpkin kits were fun, but we definitely needed extra paint and some double sided tape. Rob carved a basic jack-o-lantern and I decided to forgo any carving since we won't be home to light them on Halloween.

The above picture is about as good as posed pictures get with them these days. At least they're both looking at the camera, right? I still have a few final thing to do to finish up their costumes. I was planning to do it all earlier in the week, but naps became more important. So here we are, last minute, rushing around to get them done. They are dressing up as 90s cable access stars, and I have a matching costume too. We'll be sharing pictures tomorrow on my Instagram @jennpargeon. What is everyone else dressing up their kids as?

The Game Plan

I recently, well in June so not so recently, had a follow up meeting with our reproductive endocronologist to discuss our failed FET and the potential for future cycles. Depending on what research you look at, the success rate for thawed embryos is 70-90%, so why did we have 3 embryos not survive the thaw? What does this mean for future cycles? What do you recommend we do in the future? I had a lot of questions.

What I found out didn't really answer the question of why none of our frosties made it. All three were low grade embryos, good enough quality to freeze, but barely. So there's no reason to think there was anything genetically off, but would it impact future cycle? Our RE thinks not, but since we didn't do any testing, there's no way to know for sure.

So that brings us to future cycles. Yes we are planning to do another fresh IVF cycle. We were looking at the beginning of the year, but it's looking like March or April now because I need to be able to make it to Denver in August. 8 months pregnant ladies don't usually get the green light to fly. We still have a few basic tests to run once we get closer to the start of our cycle, but the plan looks pretty identical to last time. Same drugs, same protocol. The big question will be how many embryos to transfer.

I know there are a lot of variables in this situation. We could even go through all of the drugs, monitoring, and stimulation and not wind up with any embryos. It's a possibility, but hopefully one we won't face. Best case scenario, our cycle goes exactly like last time and we have a handful of embryos to transfer or freeze. Statistically we have a 40% chance of a successful transfer with one embryo or a 70% chance with two. Those are our chances for a singleton pregnancy, assuming we have good quality embies.

So, what about twins? There's a 20-30% chance that we would wind up with twins if we transfer two. Yes I want to have a natural birth, a low risk pregnancy, the "normal" pregnancy experience. But if we play the numbers, two embryos it is. And would a second set of twins be a bad thing? Absolutely not. It would be a blessing. It would make for a long a difficult pregnancy and a definite hospital delivery, but I know we would manage.

Having twins has been the most amazing experience. Seeing their relationship grow and change. Watching them play with their best friend every day. Watching them help one another or comfort their twin when they're sad. The bond they have is beyond words, and we would be lucky to experience it again if we were so fortunate.

So we have a plan. We have a date. And now we wait. So much of infertility treatment is a waiting game. Waiting for test results, waiting to save money, waiting for insurance approval. Even though we are still 5 or so months out, having a plan feels good. It gives me hope. Something to look forward to. Something to pray for. 

And there you have it, where we are in our journey. Because I know all of you were just dying to know. But, some you you asked so now you know.  

Weekending

This weekend was a good one. A fun one. One I won't be forgetting anytime soon. We're trying to squeeze in every last moment of outdoor fall fun that we possibly can. Friday involved a few errands and two separate park trips. It was absolutely gorgeous in the morning. We visited the bunnies and picked up dog food at Rural King, exciting stuff, I know, and then headed to park #1. The kids swung, slid, climbed, picked flowers, and found a few caterpillar friends.

After a rather successful nap time, we headed out to park #2. By this time it was cold, windy, overcast, and we definitely needed jackets. We still managed to squeeze in a little more fun before Rob and I headed out for the evening.

We had been looking forward to Friday night for months. We are huge Ben Folds fans.The man is insanely talented, and really funny. He is currently doing as symphony orchestra tour, and The FW Phil is one of the orchestras he chose to perform with. We rarely get good tours that stop in Fort Wayne, so we were hugely excited for this.

The concert was great, and I definitely recommend seeing a concert at The Embassy Theater. There isn't a bad seat in the house. After the concert we went to The Phoenix for cocktails and then closed out the night with a little food truck action. The weather was complete crap by the end of the night, but standing in the cold rain for Bravas was totally worth it.

After a few martinis the night before, it's no surprise I had a migraine Saturday morning. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse saved me. I was able to lay in bed while the good drugs kicked in, and the kids were happily entertained with fruit, cereal, and Mickey.

Once I was feeling a bit better, we headed out for a play date and Chipotle with our besties. I failed to get any pictures, probably because the kids didn't stop moving the entire time we were out. Saturday evening we went to Meijer to grab groceries and so the kids could ride Sandy. I'm sure I've said this before, but that horse is the only reason we get through some grocery trips. The promise of the penny horse keeps them in line 99% of the time.

Crazy hair!

Sunday was of course Daddy Day. We went to Hilger's for hay rides in the morning, where we all got way muddier than expected. We did the corn maze, drank cider, dodged bees, petted kitties, pushed around plastic cars, and of course went for a hay ride. A great time was had by all, except for Brooke's pink boots. I'm pretty sure they died yesterday morning. Suede and mud don't exactly mix.

Sunday evening was of course dedicated to TWD. Our friends came over and we feasted on chicken ranch enchiladas and a delicious dessert Andrea brought along. Brooke said she doesn't like enchiladas, even though I have photographic evidence that says otherwise. She instead ate 3 bananas for dinner. I won't detail the disaster that followed after dinner, but with three tired toddlers I'm sure you can imagine how the rest of the night went.

Coffee at 8 pm last night made for a night of terrible sleep, but thankfully the dogs are being nice to me this morning and I have a large cup of hot coffee to power my morning. Happy Monday!

Flying with Twin Toddlers

It's been almost two months since our trip to Seattle. It was our first flight, and major trip with the kids, and we definitely learned a lot. Some things we tried worked really well, and some others we will do differently next time. I definitely scoured the internet for tips and info which proved to be a huge help.

We flew from Midway to Sea/Tac. When picking flights we knew we wanted non-stop flights both ways. We could have flown out of Fort Wayne, but we would have had layovers each way, and one of our flights would have been a red eye. We opted for the three hour drive to the airport instead of the overnight flight. Both of our flights left early in the afternoon which fell right during nap time. The kids thankfully took a cat nap on the drive to airport both ways, because there was definitely almost no sleep on the planes. It's amazing what a difference a 20 minute nap can do.

Getting through security at Midway was easy. They have a wheelchair and stroller lane, so we didn't have to feel rushed because the people behind us had kids too. Sea/Tac did away with their family lane a couple years ago, so getting through security there was not quite as easy, but we still did it without too much of a struggle. If possible make sure to print your boarding passes ahead of time. We were able to print them ahead for our flight to Seattle, but not for the return trip. we definitely save 20-30 minutes of standing in line by having boarding passes pre-printed.

We flew Southwest, which means we got to pick out seats. We didn't do priority boarding, because Southwest lets families with small children load after A group. We didn't have any troubles getting seats together on either flight. Instead of taking up seats on both sides of the aisle, we picked window seats in front/behind each other. It worked really well to be able to pass things back and forth if needed.

The kids each had a backpack with their toys and tablets. We made sure their Kindles had multiple games on them, Frozen, and an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We purchased these headphones for the trip, and we were very happy with the sound on them. They also had Wonder Wow cards, an Elmo Dry Erase book, and a Color Blast book for coloring. We also made sure Rosie and Thomas were in their bags.

In my carry on I packed their blankets and a back of snacks for each. I went pretty heavy on the snacks, but I am someone who would rather be over prepared. They each had 3 pouches, two Happy Tot granola bars, 2 Mighty 4 Kids bars, 2 Cliff Twists, and a bag of goldfish. The pouches were great during take off to help with the pressure. We also made sure to bring empty sippy cups, and we filled those as soon as we made it through security.

So much stuff!

After debating for weeks on how to handle the car seat and stroller issue, we decided to take our Britax B-Agile Double and gate check it. Our stroller is easily collapsible, and we didn't have any issues bring a larger side by side. I can't imagine not having it with us. With as much walking and hills as we had on our trip, an umbrella stroller wouldn't have worked well. We bought stroller hooks for the stroller and they were a huge help. I was able to hang my carry on and purse on there, and they were also helpful when getting groceries in the city.

We also decided to bring our Diono Radians, and not check them. The kids sat in their car seats on the plane, which I think helped make them more comfortable and not as interested in moving around. These were the one thing we knew we absolutely had to have, and we didn't want them to get damaged. We bought a folding luggage cart to lug them through the airport. Yes they were a pain in the ass, but I would do it the same way again. I think it's also worth mentioning that we forward faced them while in Seattle due to size constraints, and then switched back to rear facing once we got home. They had absolutely no issue switching back and forth.

The kids didn't sleep at all on the way there, and only slept for a short amount of time on the way home. Even with the lack of sleep, they did really well on the 4 hour flights. The only times they had any issues was during the descent. Harry was so upset he wouldn't listen when we told him to take a drink or have a sip of his pouch. Brooke did take drinks when we asked her too, and that helped a lot with the pressure.

One thing we brought along that I wish we wouldn't have brought the Pack and Plays. They are so large and bulky, and there's no good way to carry them. Thankfully we won't need them the next time we fly. If I had to do it over again, I would spend the money and rent pack and plays for a week instead of bringing them with. There are rental services in almost every large city.

By the end of the trip, our Kindles were a saving grace.

I think the biggest thing we will do differently is the duration of our trip.  We were originally going to go for 7 days and then changed to 11 days. It was too much for the kids. By the last few days, they were a mess. Too many days with not enough sleep had worn on them. I think a week would have been perfect. I also think next time we travel they will have their own space. We all shared a room which was ok, but I think they would have slept better if they had their own space. I foresee a hotel suite with doors when we head to Denver next summer.

The view from our bed to theirs. Definitely right on top of each other.

While we were in the city we took the bus quite a bit. There are a lot of really great smart phone apps that can help you master public transit schedules. We used One Bus Away and MoovIt. It was definitely easier, and cheaper, than driving and paying for parking. We didn't rent a car, and we definitely didn't need one. We did take a limo to and from the airport. It cost us about the same as a cab, and we had help loading/unloading. We even had driveway pick up. I definitely recommend looking into a town car/limo service for getting to and from the airport.

Overall I feel like our trip couldn't have gone much better. Traveling with kids is no joke, and it requires so much planning. I hope what we learned can help others with planning trips with littles. I think we can successfully tackle another trip with H and B, and I'm glad we don't have to for another 10 months.

The Walking Dead, Season 5, Premiere Party

The Walking Dead is back, and we couldn't be happier in this house. It feels like forever since we saw Rick bite through a man's throat and then disembowel his friend. It was a long off season and we're so glad it's over. The season premiere did not disappoint. It was intense, hilarious, and touching. And seriously, Carol! Wow. I am not going to spoil anything, but if you saw the episode, you know what I mean.

We of course had a party to celebrate our favorite showing coming back on the air. We do TWD viewing parties at our house every week, but this is the only one we go all out for. Our Sunday nights for the next 7 weeks will entail drinks, dessert, and probably a taco bar or two. Then we'll be forced to go without our beloved show again once the mid season finale airs. Anyway, back to the party.

For decor we did bloody decals for the floors and walls in the entry way. The bathroom also had some minor blood splattering. Our living room got a Terminus candle room makeover complete with writing on the walls, with sidewalk chalk, and flame less candles.

Outside we put up some zombie caution tape, and splattered the house with blood. I used washable tempra paint and mixed a little blue in with my red to give it a good blood color. The kids and I splattered the house with fake blood on Saturday, and it all washed off with a hose on Monday. We made sure not to get any on the wood trim, just on the siding.

For our front door, I made a Terminus sign. $4 at Kinkos for the map, a couple pieces of poster board, and a nap time dedicated to lettering the top half of the sign. The people at Kinkos asked if they could come to our party. I told them to come over, but they never showed.The fact that I didn't give them an address might have something to do with that.

Menu

Mary's Meaty Surprise

Grilled Sausage, extra crispy

Bone Bites

White cheddar Cheetos

Post Apocalypse Pizza

Crescent roll crust, cream cheese ranch spread, veggies

Dan's Intestines

Puff pastry filled with spinach and artichoke dip

Zombie Balls

Meatballs in BBQ sauce

Cheesy Brains

Cheese ball piped in brain form

Bloody Brains

Strawberry jello in brain mold form

Zombie Flesh

Nutella puppy chow with gummy body parts

Crunchy Bones

Chocolate dipped pretzels

I wanted to go with easy food that could all be prepped ahead. The only thing that couldn't be prepped ahead was the intestines. They were the last thing I got ready, and took the most time. Definitely worth it though. So good. We didn't do any special drinks this year. Just a couple variety packs of beer and some Jones Soda for those of us opting not to drink. 

We ate tons of food, had a few beers, and the kids played in the bounce house until it was time for bed. I'm already looking forward to next week. Now I need to decide if I should leave our "blood splattered" hallway the way it is until Halloween or if I should take it all down now.

 Thank you Andrea for the fridge art.

The TWD crew.

All decorations purchased from Meijer, Target, or Halloween party stores.