Perfectly Painted Pretty Little Piggies

"This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home.  This little piggy had roast beef..."

Julie and I have been playing this game for a few weeks now, and she's just starting to giggle and smile as she feels the tickle on her toes.  And her toes are of course - perfectly adorable.  But my years of fantasizing about all the girlie things my daughter and I will do have gotten the best of me, and those tiny little toes are just a bit too tempting to resist.  I couldn't help it - they had to be painted.

I waited until she was three months old, I didn't want to be unreasonable of course!  And yes, my mother has warned me that babies put everything in their mouths - including their toes.  Considering this, I figured it was important to go in search of a baby friendly nail polish as my personal fave OPI was chalk full of toxins and chemicals certainly not toe-sucking friendly.

When I came across Piggy Paint I thought I may have found exactly what I was looking for.  A great variety of colors, reasonable prices, and (most importantly) baby safe.  Their slogan is "natural as mud," and the paint contains no toxins or harsh chemicals.  It's biodegradable and water soluble making it eco-friendly.  It's so gentle, it will come off with rubbing alcohol, and is unlikely to stain carpets.

I gave it a try and loved the results!  We ordered both paint, remover and a paint pen, which made painting teensy tiny toenails a breeze.  The color had great saturation and looked super after a few coats.

Here's what I picked:

The Cuddles and Kisses Gift Set

Angel Kisses Paint Pen

For our first pedicure attempt we used the Angel Kisses Paint Pen and I think Julie loves it!  Here she is today checking out her own fabulous feet.

Perfectly Pink Piggies

I'm totally a fan and can't wait to continue the fun of showing off her pretty paint job throughout the summer. Next time Julie and I play "this little piggy" - that last little pig will finally have something to cry "wheeeee" about on his way home.

This review is not endorsed, or encouraged by Piggy Paint nor was I compensated in any manor for my opinions.

Mamma's of Multiples

Tonight I attended my very first "North Pittsburgh Mothers of Multiples" meeting and had a lovely time.  Usually, it seems like it's more effort and stress than it's worth to get out of the house.  The stress doesn't balance out the stress relief of going out.  Tonight was different though.  It was totally worth going out.

So I've been thinking about joining since I was pregnant, but I was working, and waddling and it just didn't seem like it'd be the best time to go.  I figured since we're now out of the pure chaos stage, it was time to get to it.  So I took a shower, put dinner in the crock pot and was on my way.  My wonderful hubby even knew how much I needed the break, so he came home at 5:00 and my sister came over to give Dan some "back up" while I was gone.  Yes, someday he'll need to know how to manage them himself.  That day has not yet come yet.

At the meeting, I got to know a few of the Moms and asked lots of questions about their experiences.  The more I read other twin mom blogs and meet other mothers of twins, I realize how rare the fact that I delivered at 38 weeks really is.  So many of these moms had to experience the heartbreak of NICU life, and I am so truly blessed to have had my sweet babes come home exactly 60 hour after their birth.  God is so so good...

What do mothers of multiples do at such meetings?  Apparently, have fun and relax.  Of course on occasion, I'm sure they do much more important serious things like discuss sibling rivalry and twin developmental stages, but tonight's meeting was just some much needed fun.  We decorated cup cakes!  Here's a few that we made...

Mum Cupcakes

Sunflower Cupcakes

So super fun and I was actually proud of my creative capabilities for once!  I came home refreshed and actually eager to hold, feed and snuggle my little ones.  And the best surprise of all - my incredible hubby cleaned my mess up while I was gone and now, I feel like I'm not drowning underneath the chore list.  He really is the best.

Irish Eyes

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Coleman Babes!

It's like they discovered America...

"Oh my gosh - they're twins!"  It's a phrase I hear more times than I can count when we go out to the store.  Other variations include "you have twins" and "there's two of them!"  And I can't help it - I'm a snark.  Deep down I'd like to sarcastically reply "Really???  I had no idea!"  It's like they've discovered America and are declaring my babies "twins" for the very first time.  Then they go on to gush about how lucky we are, how adorable the babies are, and how it's perfect that we have one of each.

And it's not that I don't appreciate the compliments. I know the little old ladies are just excited to see babies, and two babies are of course, even better.  It's just that sometimes, I feel like we're such a scene with the huge double stroller, the huge diaper bag, and potentially two wailing tots.  I recognize that it's unusual to see twins - about 3% of all births, but my guess is less likely in Western Pennsylvania due to some social factors.

Part of the challenge is that in all social exchanges, you're almost expected to match the mood and emotional tone of the person with which you're speaking.  When they're all thrilled and cutsie wootsie, it's tough to put on a big smile and be super cheerful up to eight times in a single craft store - when you're just trying to pick out some ribbon.  Maybe I'm just not a people person.

See for me, I've come to realize that I don't even see them as twins.  I have so much time with them individually, that I see them as my beautiful Julianna, and my incredible Brayden.  They are so much their own people, and not at all "one half of a whole pair."

Then there are the people who are so personal.  "A girl and a boy - perfect!  Now you can be done!"  I am pretty confident that we want more kids.  And does that mean Dan's family growing up was incomplete because they had three boys?  And they want to know how much they weighed, how far along I was when we delivered - and almost seem disappointed when I tell them that they were pretty normal weights and that I lasted 38 weeks.  It just seems a little too much for me, standing in the checkout line, discussing this with my sales associate.  The attention is just so uninvited.

Yesterday we went to the museum, and my brother was carrying Brayden in the Baby Bjorn and my sister had Julianna.  These two ladies came right up and started congratulating them on their babies.  Awkward for them - yes.  Secretly though, I was standing by gleeful that I was able to avoid the conversation myself.  It leaves me wondering, would they have walked up to any family with a single baby, and gushed in amazement over their child and asked all sorts of questions.  Perhaps they would.  And maybe I should be the one to try it some day.  I'll walk right up to some unsuspecting new parent and exclaim "oh my gosh - you have a singleton!"  They'll look at me like I'm some crazy woman, and I'll walk away smiling knowing that at least I got a little revenge.

Wubba-what?

We've been struggling with getting the babies to sleep in their cribs - even for short periods - so that eventually, they can sleep there through the night.  With mom's anticipated departure set for the end of March, we need to figure out a way for us to handle our pair overnight - alone.  Right now that's a terrifying prospect.

So a challenge in crib sleeping has been that the binkies we use ALWAYS fall out of the babies' mouths, and as soon as they do, the sirens go off.  When I first came home from the hospital, this was CONSTANT before we began current strategies, and I felt like I was doing sit ups with my c-section incision in terrible pain.  So we started shifts, co-sleeping, yadda yadda yadda until we've arrived where we have now.  So somewhere in my online travels, I saw the recommendation of the wubbanub.

What's a wubbanub you ask?  It's a pacifier holder, with an adorable baby safe stuffed animal on the end, which props the soothie pacifier into the mouth.  We could find no where local that sold them here in Pittsburgh, so we ordered from amazon and boy are they cute!  It's taken a while for the babies to get used to them, (and Julie's not quite got the hang of hers) but they do seem to love the softness of these sweet critters.  Brayden's wubbanub is a giraffe, and Julie's is a cutsie caterpillar.  So far, we wouldn't say that these have been "miracle workers" as a good swift swing of brayden's arms and the giraffe will be tossed across the crib.  There has been improvement though, and they do seem to smile and look at the contrast quite a big.  Now if we could keep Duncan and Layla away from the temptation of claiming the wubbanubs for themselves!