LaLaGirl - Twinfinite Chaos! Parenting Multiples and Dealing with Autism http://lalagirl.org LaLaGirl - Parenting 2 Sets of Twins and a Child with Autism Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:57:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaoshttp://feedburner.google.com Seven Years. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/5YASDR66Xtc/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/30/seven-years/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:38:06 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2683 I wrote this two years ago, but the story hasn’t changed, so I’m reposting it in honor of today: Pablo and Mallory’s 7th Birthday! I can’t believe my big kids are seven years old already. I mean, I vividly remember BEING seven. I remember turning seven, heading out to run an errand with my dad, and a friend of his giving me a wind-up hopping penguin in honor of it being my birthday. How is it that I have kids old enough to be making memories they’ll conjure up thirty years from now? It feels weird. But it’s true. And here’s how it went down, on this very day, in 2003.

I had no idea what I was in for as we headed across town to welcome our little babies to the world. We grabbed lunch at Le Peep before we went to the hospital, and Paul told everyone there that we were about to go give birth to twins. Our food reached the table surprisingly fast.

The delivery was uneventful, and except for Mallory’s blood sugar being too low, the kids were born very healthy. They were born at 12:16 and 12:32 in the afternoon on Saturday the 30th, and I didn’t get to hold Mallory until Sunday night at 8 p.m. I cried and cried when I finally got to see her in the NICU – I missed her so much! We didn’t know if we’d be able to take her home, since the NICU nurses told us the rule was that she had to be maintaining her blood sugar and off her IV for 24 hours before we could leave. I’ll never forget our precious doctor, Howard Corren, telling the nurses, “They know what they’re doing. I think we can let them take these babies home and love them now.” It had only been about 15 hours, but he was kind enough to bend the rules for us.

It was cold and rainy that Labor Day weekend, and it seemed like it went from hot summer to chilly fall during those couple of days while we were in the hospital. And it was a good indicator of how quickly time would pass for us from then on. Those were crazy, terrifying, amazing, wonderful, horrible days. We got little sleep and I struggled with PPD for months. But what precious days they were. Thank God I took so many pictures, because I honestly don’t remember some of it – we were just too sleep deprived, just getting by day-to-day in survival mode. Oddly, it was ten times easier when the little girls were born just 17 months later. I guess we knew what we were doing by then.

My little punkins:

Now, they’re big bad 2nd graders, with backpacks and Silly Bandz and best friends and light up sneakers.

Time just flies. Happy Birthday, Pablo and Mallory!

Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/30/seven-years/feed/ 0 http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/30/seven-years/ We’ve got a sophomore in the house. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/AsobD27mOs4/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/18/weve-got-a-sophomore-in-the-house/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:26:24 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2678

Kayley and I have had some delightful one-on-one time throughout the past few weeks, since the younger kids started back to school at the end of July. We’ve gotten our nails done, tried out those delightful McDonald’s smoothies (yay for free coupons!), and tackled an in-depth cleaning of her horrific cave of a room. (We still need to hit her dreaded closet. That will happen tomorrow.) Our mommy-Kayley time has just about come to an end, though, as my big girl begins her sophomore year next Monday. She’s spending lots of time at the park with her friends this week, trying to pack in as much chill time as possible! We’re feeling optimistic that this year is going to kick ass.

Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/18/weve-got-a-sophomore-in-the-house/feed/ 6 http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/18/weve-got-a-sophomore-in-the-house/ By my calculations… http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/70ry-ZOGCFA/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/12/by-my-calculations/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:43:17 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2675 The kids are finally in school, why am I not getting anything done? Thoughts about having all five children in school, for the first time in history. (Yay! New video post!)

Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/12/by-my-calculations/feed/ 13 http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/12/by-my-calculations/ Vacation Update! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/1o6Dt8frGsQ/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/09/vacation-update/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:23:38 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2661 Okay, so we’ve been home for weeks. But my girlie Janelle just reminded me that I haven’t posted a vacation recap or shared any California pics! You know what? When we went to California in 2008, two years ago, I do recall that I had my laptop with me and I wrote a long-assed blog post while we were on the road – right in the van! This time, I didn’t do that. Which is a drag, because now I’ve already forgotten everything we did. D’oh! Good thing I took eleventy billion pictures!

So, we left Denver bright and early, and headed west. Kayley was off at camp, so it was just Pauly and I and the four little ones. I’m AMAZED at how well all the kids did on the long trip – we made stellar time, and there wasn’t much whining at all! Actually, they did a whole lot of this for the first part of day one:

DSC06683

DSC06689

We made it all the way from Denver, CO to St. George, UT, where we spent the night. Paul had St. George in mind because it’s the first opportunity to eat at In-N-Out Burger on the way to Cali! However, we didn’t even end up eating dinner there. Burgers didn’t even sound good, so we took the family to the BEST PLACE EVER, Chuck-A-Rama!

DSC06686

I can only describe this place as the best buffet on earth. We like buffet restaurants, because our big family usually blends right in, and people don’t notice my rambunctious children, and my kids can eat right away. Yay for buffets. Boo for the fact that they’re usually GROSS, though. This buffet is not gross. It’s delightful. It’s clean. It’s full of tasty options, and has lots of healthy options, too. Also, cheap as hell. Thumbs up all around for Chuck-A-Rama. Hey, people that run that place: open a location in Denver!

After dinner, we checked into our hotel, and the kids spent about an hour and a half being silly in bed before they calmed down enough to go to sleep. It’s hard traveling with all these guys, where lodging is concerned:

DSC06688

The next morning, we hit the road, and made it to Vegas in time for lunch! Paul is always SO HAPPY when we finally get to In-N-Out. Awwww.

0703001232

DSC06692

DSC06693

DSC06696

DSC06698

We walked around the strip in Vegas for about an hour or so, just to let the kids run off some energy. The kids really enjoyed all the sights, but were a little overwhelmed by all the people!

DSC06690

0703001227

The girls and I hit a public restroom and ended up running into a showgirl. They thought this was awesome, but very weird. Mallory approached her and said, “Excuse me, but why are you covered in feathers? Are you dressed up like a bird?”

0703001117

Back on the road! It’s not a very long trip from Vegas to LA when you’ve already been driving for a day and a half, so this was the easiest part of the trip. Still, we were happy to start seeing familiar sights!

0703001703

Our first stop was actually in Fontana, where we visited Paul’s high school buddy, Beto.

DSC06701

DSC06718

By the time we finished up there and rolled into Paul’s Tia’s house, it was very late, and the kids were worn out!

DSC06719

They were soooooo happy and excited to wake up in the morning and see all their cousins!

DSC06722

Paul’s aunt also has a lovely pool, which we spent A LOT of time in.

DSC06726

Then we headed into East L.A. for a burrito at Manuel’s…

DSC06742

and then we headed out to Huntington Beach, so my kids could see the ocean for the first time. It was crazy cold, for a July afternoon in SoCal!

DSC06763

The kids stepped out into the water for a second, and then they were like, “Nope!” I was sort of stunned by the 63 degree temps, but Paul was LOVING it.

DSC06756

Then we headed back to Tia’s, so we could get up early and head to DISNEYLAND!

DSC06773

DSC06778

DSC06798

And just in case you think I’m lying about being with my family on vacation, I made sure I made an appearance in ONE picture…

DSC06799

Hey! It’s me! Usually I’m behind the lens. I’m sure there are more pictures of me, but I need to get them from my mother-in-law. Soon!

Disneyland was so much fun – so magical – and the day went by SO fast. I’d love to make multiple trips there, so we don’t have to feel like we’re packing everything into one day – but I don’t think we could swing spending half a grand on entrance fees for more than one day. *Gulp!* The kids LOVED all the rides – the faster and scarier, the better. Nikki and Lexi turned out to be my adrenaline junkies, and they loved The Matterhorn and Space Mountain best of all. We even got Mallory to go on Splash Mountain with us, but it pretty much destroyed her entire life. That huge drop scared the heck out of her!

Our amazing day at Disneyland probably ruined us for Legoland, which is where we headed the next day. On our way there, we swung by Kayley’s camp and sprung her for the day. It was AWESOME to see her for the first time in three weeks! Oh, how I missed that girl! Here we are, on our way into Legoland:

DSC06804

And inside the park:

DSC06805

DSC06806

OMG! Another Laura Sighting:

DSC06807

DSC06818

Hey, here’s the Vegas strip, in Legos:

DSC06833

DSC06845

Legoland was a buzzkill and a half, as far as I’m concerned. I enjoyed seeing all the cool stuff made out of Legos, and there were a handful of rides my kids liked. Like I said, I’m sure spending the day at Disneyland the day before probably tainted my opinion. But here’s the thing – Disneyland is…DISNEYLAND. It’s made out of pure magic and awesomeness. Legoland pales in comparison. Which is fine, I guess, except it costs damned near as much to get into Legoland as it does to get into Disneyland! What’s up with that? LAME. Still – fun day with the kiddos, especially because my big kiddo was along with us!

After Legoland, we met up with my favorite JULIE for dinner, and got to spend some quality time with the new married couple! SO much fun. Julie and Kayley spent quite a bit of time together, MANY years ago – and it was a lot of fun for them to see each other! I can’t believe I didn’t snap a picture of Kayley and Julie together – booooo! Oh well. Here’s one of Julie and me:

DSC06856

And here’s Julie and her adorable, funny, witty, talented, super cute husband, Jon:

DSC06857

After dinner, we drove Kayley back to camp and bid her a tearful farewell, and then headed back up to Paul’s aunt’s house. The next day, we decided to hit another beach – we took the kids to the Santa Monica Pier!

DSC06884

DSC06894

DSC06889

It was another chilly, but fun day. And the kids had a chance to ride MORE RIDES! Actually, they had many of the same rides we paid hundreds of dollars to ride on at Legoland. Next time, we’re skipping Legoland altogether and just taking our kids back to the Pier!

DSC06912

DSC06911

Also – look at these amazingly creepy costumed characters, who I paid a dollar each so my kids could get a picture taken with them:

DSC06888

SO weird. Elmo is not supposed to be six feet tall and smell like a wet dog, y’know?

The next day, Paul and I escaped all by ourselves, and hit downtown L.A. to check out the Fashion District. I intended to buy clothes for my kids, but I ended up just buying a really cute purse, a couple of belts for Kayley, and lots of hair accessories. PAUL bought a bunch of clothes, though!

Fashion District ~ Los Angeles

Maple Ave ~ Fashion District ~ Los Angeles

More Mannequin Booty

We also visited Paul’s good ol’ high school buddy, Vito, where he works at the Tattle Tale Lounge in Culver City. He’s been the karaoke DJ there forever, and it’s always so fun to see him. I didn’t actually take my camera with me, so I Googled for an image of the Tattle Tale – this isn’t my picture, but I snagged it anyway, because Vito is in the background! I think it’s a few years old, but that place never changes:

IMG_1044

I love me a good dive bar.

The Tattle Tale

And then…that was that! We headed for home. Our trip back to Colorado went by justlikethat. I can’t believe how good my children were in the car – the road trip was the least painful part of the whole vacation, which I wasn’t really expecting at all. Here we are during our last stop to stretch our legs, right at the Utah/Colorado border:

DSC06954

We missed you, Colorado! Glad to be back home. And we miss you, Tia, Andy, cousins, friends…come see us now!

Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/09/vacation-update/feed/ 6 http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/09/vacation-update/ Class Reunion! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/F5RBkh418aw/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/06/class-reunion/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:57:01 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2668 My hubby and I are heading out of here for the weekend (without our children! Whee!) to attend my high school class reunion! I’m SO excited – way more than I was about the ten year reunion! I’ve reconnected with so many old familiar faces thanks to Facebook, and I can’t wait to see everyone. I scanned a bunch of pictures to share with everyone and we’ve been laughing about them for days! Heck, just look at this class picture – imagine how much closer together we all could have sat, had it not been for all that giant hair!

And lookie, here’s ME!

I haven’t changed a bit, right? Sigh. My hair got smaller and my ass got bigger! Such is life, I guess. Anyway! So excited to raise a glass with all my classmates tonight! Class of 90 RULES!

Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/06/class-reunion/feed/ 2 http://lalagirl.org/2010/08/06/class-reunion/ First Day of School! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/81_Ub41cy40/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/29/first-day-of-school/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:27:13 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2653 Wow, I thought I’d have my whole house clean by now. It’s the third day of school, and the third day where I’ve had three whole hours to do whatever I want! So far, I’ve had lunch with my husband, gone out for ice cream with my teenager, and returned some shoes. Woohoo! I think I’m going to go shampoo the carpets, though, so…watch out. The day is still young.

Here are my big kiddos! Pablo and Mallory started 2nd grade! Time just flies. It doesn’t feel like very long ago that they started preschool and kindergarten. They’ve even grown a lot since they started 1st grade. Check out the big kids!

First Day of 2nd Grade!

And speaking of big kids, how big do these girls look in their fancy new school clothes with their spiffy new backpacks? This is their first time EVER being away from me – I homeschooled for preschool, so I don’t even have any cute pictures of them from the past that I can link to. Ha! Here’s the first of what will be years and years of “front door pose” pictures, though! My kindies:

First Day of Kindergarten!

Life is good at the casa de chaos. And it’s QUIET.

Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/29/first-day-of-school/feed/ 4 http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/29/first-day-of-school/ A little independence goes a long way. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/-umw0J5SLr4/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/26/a-little-independence-goes-a-long-way/#comments Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:08:40 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2613 I know I’ve shared lately how frustrated I’ve been with my boy – mostly with myself, really. It’s hard to maintain that balance between wanting him to behave like a normal boy so he can fit in, and wanting to show the world how special and beautiful he is, exactly as he is.

Recently, he and I got some alone time, and we had to stop by the market to pick up a few things. When he saw the almost Pablo-sized shopping carts, he asked if he could push all by himself. Usually, this would seem like a recipe for disaster – small rambunctious boy, aisles of glass jars, stacks of neatly arranged produce – yikes! But the store wasn’t busy, so I decided to go for it.

He LOVED IT.

0721001211a

He carefully navigated the aisles, and didn’t crash into anything or anyone! He picked out and bagged all our produce, and he put everything on the belt when it was time to pay.

0721001214

When we were finished, he pushed the cart out to the car and loaded up all our groceries by himself! Wow! Maybe the answer to shopping successfully with an autistic child is to put them in charge. Maybe. Or maybe it was just a stroke of good luck. I guess time will tell. For now, I was super pleased to have had such a pleasant outing with Pablo – oftentimes, our errand running is a big fat drag!

Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/26/a-little-independence-goes-a-long-way/feed/ 5 http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/26/a-little-independence-goes-a-long-way/ Kayley on her Birthday http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/-WASFMmyUEA/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/25/kayley-on-her-birthday/#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 22:19:49 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2634 Just a few pictures I stole from Kayley’s dad’s Facebook of Kayley and her BFF Taylor – aren’t they so cute?



Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/25/kayley-on-her-birthday/feed/ 4 http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/25/kayley-on-her-birthday/ My baby is FIFTEEN today! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/PAMJQbeuGvM/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/25/my-baby-is-fifteen-today/#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 06:01:15 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2617

Happy 15th Birthday, Kayley! I love you more than you’ll ever know, and I’m SO proud of all you! Yay for birthdays!

Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/25/my-baby-is-fifteen-today/feed/ 1 http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/25/my-baby-is-fifteen-today/ It’s coming… http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Lalagirl-TwinfiniteChaos/~3/581e0ldoIaY/ http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/24/its-coming/#comments Sat, 24 Jul 2010 19:16:53 +0000 LaLaLaura http://lalagirl.org/?p=2622 The first day of school, that is! My kids are SO EXCITED to be heading back to school – well, TO school for the very first time, in Nikki and Lexi’s case. They’re starting kindergarten! And guess who is JUST as happy about all of this? MOMMY! Yeah!

People keep asking me, what am I going to DO with myself? I have no idea. I’d like to think I’ll spend time getting pedicures and shopping at Target all by my lonesome. Unfortunately, I’ve already spent all my money on this:

School Supplies for 4 Kids...

And I still need to buy more pencils. Why in the world do 2nd graders need 48 sharpened pencils? Forty-eight? Seriously? For each kid, mind you. And my kindies need 24 each. I’m going to have to buy new batteries for our pencil sharpener!

Possibly Related


]]> http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/24/its-coming/feed/ 2 http://lalagirl.org/2010/07/24/its-coming/