My chair

I walked into the living room yesterday and was informed by Andrea that I had lost my chair and had better not kick my daughter out of it. She had been a terror for hours and the chair made her happy. Riley was sitting in my chair watching the Home Shopping Network on TV. I have lost sleep, financial security and my sanity over these girls but I am drawing a line in the sand here. I refuse to lose my chair.

Dr. visit with Riley

After weeks of waiting we went to the GI Dr. for Riley about her acid reflux. As we thought, we were told that we are already doing everything there is that we can do for her. It looks like we just have to wait for her to grow out of it. Andrea has been going out with the girls more often and is getting pretty good at it. It is not an easy task to load everyone up and be out for hours. We have regressed a little in the sleeping department. Riley sleeps all night every night but Reagan has started getting up once to eat anywhere from 2-5am. Andrea gets up with her every night and lets me and Boo sleep. I have a wonderful wife. The picture above is Reagan in their new bouncy seat. I put the seat together with no help from Bob.

3 month photos

I did not know it but there must be a federal law that says you have to go to a professional photographer for 3 month photos of little girls. Andrea made an appointment for the girls at Target today at 11am. I was not sure if I would be able to stop by while they were there so she took her friend Patti to help. As it turns out, she needed the help. Between the crying, wailing, puking, wardrobe changes, acid reflux attacks, Patti and I babbling like idiots to get them to smile and Andrea playing the Beyonce song all the single ladies song on Patti's phone and dancing around the studio like an idiot, we had to be an amazing sight. In the end we got a few good shots but we were all ready to be done. You can see the pictures we took at http://www.thesmilestation.com/

Customer name- Andrea Gregg

Access code- LTTT0954105855TAR

Shame on you congress

Today was the perfect day to get what we got in the mail. It could have not been more appropriate timing. I got another bill for our portion of Riley's hospital stay last month. In addition to the $600 we already paid we now have another $800 to pay for her care. I have no problem paying it. Of course I would rather not but we owe it. My question is how much more will it be if there is ever a next time. Our government passed a historic bill last night that will give many more Americans health coverage, at some point making them have health coverage even if they do not want it. Who will pay for this new law? Me, and I don't want to. In fact the majority of hard working Americans do not want this but we were ignored. I hope that all of you that voted for "change" are happy with what you got. You blindly voted for change and what we got is screwed. The Decleration of Independence promises us "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". These three aspects are listed among the "unalienable rights". Healthcare is not a right. I work hard to support my family and I do not want to support those who chose to not work as hard as I do. I agree that healthcare needs fixed but this is not it. Obama and Pelosi are socialist that are endangering the future of this country and the future for my daughters. November is coming and hopefully the voters in this country will wake up. I just pray it is not too late.

Happy girl

Not much to report but I had to put this picture up from last night. They are still on the same sleeping schedule. It is about every other night that Andrea has to get up. Last night she was up with them at 3:30 and the night before they both slept all night. They are going to my parents house tonight for a visit. The P's are headed to SC on Monday so they have to get their last fix in. Andrea and I are helping Doug and Lisa Meyer move this weekend so by Sunday I should be making all kinds of old man noises. When I was in my 20's I helped lots of friends move and it was never an issue. As I approach 40 the list of people I will move furniture for gets smaller and smaller. Fortunately for Doug he is still at the top of the list. Andrea will have the Ben Gay ready.

Crisis Averted

Yesterday morning Andrea had plans to go to the mall to have the girls pictures taken with the Easter Bunny. She was a little sleep deprived since the girls both decided that the night before was a good time to revert into their old ways. She had a lot to do to get them ready. After all they needed to be fed, cleaned, changed into something pretty, and off to the mall. The intention was ( and trust me, this was planned, practised, talked about, scheduled, etc. ) to have them in their pretty pretty pink outfits with the built in ballerina slippers and wearing their bunny ears that Miss Patti from across the street got for them. Now mind you, I was not here to witness the following events so I am just relaying what happened as it was told to me by a busy stressed out momma. Andrea was upstairs working on getting the girls ready and she had to come downstairs to get something. That's when it happened, the end of the world as we know it. There he was, the idiot black lab laying on the floor eating the bunny ears. What to do, call 911, panic, call me to come home and kill the dog? All were valid options at the time. She quickly finished dressing the girls, minus the bunny ears of course and ran from door to door in the cull de sac like a Jehovah's Witness with a confusion on what it takes to get into heaven. At the third house she located a back up set of ears. Crisis averted! She loaded up and off to the mall she went. I had a meeting in Ross Township so I met her there to watch the magic. We had a great time and as you can see the girls were not that impressed. Can't wait to meet Santa.

I think they are cute.

I don't have that much to report, I just needed an excuse to show you this picture. I know that every parent says their kids are way cute but I think mine really are. At some point in life you find yourself turning into your parents. I was told that these exact words came from my mother many years ago. I can only assume she was referring to my brother Jason when she said it though. Speaking of Jason, he is doing very well and you can keep up with his progress at www.thesouldier.com. Now back to the girls. They are sleeping much better still. They usually get up once a night but we do get some all nighters every now and then. Sunday night they went over 9 hours. Riley continues to have issues with acid reflux and we have an appointment with the GI Dr. later this month. It is sad to see her in pain because you can't do anything for her. She gets REAL grumpy several times a day from the reflux. They both are getting more reactive. They smile, babble, and look at you. Riley watches Andrea intently as she moves around the room. Andrea is doing a fantastic job with them. I knew she was the best wife but she is even exceeding that as a mother.

TNT ( toenail teaspoon )

There are a few things that I would rather have Andrea do. One is give baths, they get all slippery and squirmy. The other one is cut fingernails and toenails. Andrea has been cutting their fingernails for months but they have not needed to have their toenails cut until now. While I was at work today she cut Rileys toenails and thought that I would want to see them. So what to do with very little tiny toenail trimmings. She thought she would put them in a teaspoon and sit it on the kitchen counter until I got home. Why a teaspoon you ask, actually, I have no idea. I guess she just figured that they were so small and they would be easy to see and not lose there. Fast forward to several hours later when I get home. They were fired up so I went to fix bottles. 5 ozs of water, 2.5 scoops of formula and 4 teaspoons of rice cereal. Yup, 4 teaspoons of rice cereal. It was later that we realised that I had used the "toenail teaspoon" to make the bottles. Did the toenails make it into the formula? No one really knows but it is a definite possibility.

Hello sun!

We had a bit of a set back last night. Both girls wanted to eat over night so Andrea was up from 4-5am. Other than that they were down from 10pm till about 8am. It is easy for me to say since I am not the one getting up but we can live with getting up once over night. With the warmer weather Andrea ventured out this afternoon for a walk around the hood with her friend Sylvia and her 1yr old Noah. Boo and Brandy got to go also. I stopped by the house at lunch time to check up on everyone and the picture above was what I found. Spring can't get here soon enough. We are getting cabin fever and we are looking forward to being able to head outside more with the girls.

A trip to church

We finally went to church last night with the girls. I will save you all the details of what it takes to go out as you have read them before and I don't feel like typing that much right now. Just be assured that it is quite an ordeal to load and go. We got to the church and had back up waiting for us. We met my parents there and sat in the back of the sanctuary. There is no way that 2 little babies could take on 4 well trained, baby experienced adults. We started into the service with all going well. During the musical part of the service they enjoyed themselves. Grandma was holding Riley and dad had Reagan. Riley was dancing and Reagan was taking a nap on grandpas chest. Everything was going as planned until Pastor Scott took over the service.
I don't know if it was that they were not impressed with his version of Sampson and that evil wench Delilah or if it was that he was not wearing a sweater vest in honor of their first trip to church. Either way they were not happy. Riley had to be escorted out several times by several people. On one trip out Andrea took her to the cry room at the church. It is a room where "mothers" can take their crying children to feed them and still watch the service through a one way mirror. There are 3 rocking chairs in there and all were filled. One by a woman that was breast feeding, one by a woman that was rocking an upset child and one by a man that was just there to be with his wife. Now Andrea enters into the room with a crying child and he just sits there. He does not get up, he does not offer her the seat, he just sits there. Now Andrea should have asked him to move, get out, something. She was not in a confrontational mood so she moved on. She has been given strict instructions that if this ever happens again that she should come get me. Church or no church, it's on. I am pretty sure that God will understand me punching an idiot in his house. Who knows, maybe he will even turn the other cheek and I will get a good second shot in. Andrea went back into the lobby and at this point Reagan started going off. So now dad and Andrea were in the lobby and mom and I were still in the service. Andrea came into the service to get a bottle and I went out to help. They needed fed and we stayed in the lobby watching the service on a TV. I think in the future we may just start there. We were going to go to eat after with my parents but we had had enough. We went home and grandma and grandpa brought over pizza. Before we left the church I put a little something in the offering plate and guess what happened. Last night was the first night they both slept all night. They went down at 10pm and slept till 7am. Did it have anything with the offering at the church? I don't know but I am not willing to risk it.

Zzzzzzz

Hey we got something going here! We are at a week with very improved sleeping patterns. They even went to my parents house on Wednesday and did pretty good over there also. It is currently 7:20am Saturday morning. We fed them at 9pm last night, put them down at 10pm. Andrea fed Reagan at 5:30am and then she went back down. Riley has been down since 10pm and I am up and waiting for them to get up. The wake up is my favorite time of day with them. They are in such good moods when they first get up in the morning. They talk and smile bigger than any other time of the day. My dad commented on Reagan smiling and talking in the morning when they stayed over. I kinda expected him to show up for some unrelated reason every morning at about 7am to experience the daily "cooathon". When mom and dad returned them Thursday evening I was not sure I was going to get mom out of the house. I could tell she had lots of fun with them for the day and she had not been able to spend much time with them in about 6 weeks. Andrea took them out for a little road trip yesterday by herself and we are going to try to take them to church tonight. Twins at this age are still a full time plus job for both of us and then some but it gets alot easier if you can get some sleep. Our social life, sleep patterns, savings account, work productivity and house organization have all suffered but we sure are having a good time. It is amazing how one well placed coo or smile can erase an hour of crying and diaper changing.

The start of a beautiful thing

Do we have a new trend starting at the Gregg house? We sure hope so. The last two nights the terrorists, oh excuse me, I mean my two beautiful baby girls went to bed around 9-10pm, got up once around 3am and slept till 7am or later. Reagan did do the most impressive puke so far last evening just to show us that they are still in charge but things may be headed in the right direction. The other good news is that Grandma and Grandpa are back in town form SC so we are gonna get some relief there also. I think they will be going for an overnight visit tonight. I hope the trend continues for them.