The Crocket Family Blog: June 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

"A pool is not a kitchen." - Gordon Mair

When we first found out we were having twins, we decided it was probably time to start house hunting. The difficulty with finding a house in the neighborhood we love, Burbank, is that we really love our condo. And unfortunately, houses in Burbank in our price range just aren't as nice or updated as our condo - there was always a compromise.

We considered dozens of homes and looked at about 10 in person. One we checked out while my dad was visiting had a perfect pool area, but needed a whole interior re-do. As my dad said, "A pool is not a kitchen" and he was right. That was when my wish list was revised - I decided we didn't need a pool or a view, we needed space (for family visits and the girls) and something that didn't need remodeling. We needed a good layout that made sense. We moved our hunt from the Burbank hills to Magnolia Park and after a few more weeks, found something perfect!

The purchase process was probably too easy. Our bid was accepted the day after we sent it in. I wrote a letter to the seller about why we needed a bigger home, and it turns out the listing agent also has twins! The inspections all passed with flying colors. The 30 days to closing goes so fast you don't have time to think about it. This was totally different from when we bought our condo, which was a short sale and took months and months - plenty of time to process it all.

We will be moving to our new home in mid July and renting out the condo. I will miss being right in the heart of so much good stuff. I'll miss our pool a lot, but we will get a little blow up number for the girls to splash around in and maybe some sprinklers to play in. I look forward to all of the space we will have, and for the outdoor area for the girls to play in. I really look forward to putting up family in the guest room, where they will have their own bathroom. I hope our family will really take advantage of that! And I look forward to discovering a new area of Burbank.

The best part? Really? The fireplace - because now I don't have to come up with some wild story about how Santa gets in to deliver presents!

Saturday, June 28, 2014

25 weeks! Almost at the halfway point!

This week's post should be called "wonder week 26." "Wonder weeks" is a theory that babies go through cranky phases right before major developmental milestones. At first I thought it was some sort of silly internet B.S., but at weeks 8 and 9 the girls were definitely in a fussy period, right on "wonder week" track. The one they are in now, "Wonder Week 26" is a long one. It lasts from week 22 to 26, and at the end of it, the babies will be sitting, crawling and more social.

What is especially weird about the wonder weeks is that the literature tells you "this week your baby will be interested by shoe laces" - "what?" you think. Then, Josie can't stop grabbing at shoe laces - like obsessed with them - despite being surrounded by other toys.

Little Hawaiian dresses from Jamey's work trip to Hawaii in March

Josie is really hitting this wonder week fussy period hard - she is ticking every single box of the good and bad. In fact, it was almost freaky reading the list of possible behavior, since she's doing all of it - she is crying miserably during diaper changes, she is whiny and clingy all day, her eating patterns are off, she is cuddling and talking to her stuffed animals. Lexie is having some whining and clinginess as well now, and has a few unidentifiable crying spells each day. Lexie is also very interactive with her stuffed animals, and is also practicing the different volumes of her voice. She can squeal REALLY loud!!!

The last two points are "has mood swings" and "is not pleased with many things" which is a comical understatement. I feel like this week I am constantly guessing with BOTH girls: "do you want to be on your back on your play gym mat?" (huge cry protest) "oh god no you really don't, ok how about tummy?" (cry) "oh ok sorry, in this seat?" (tries to wiggle out of seat and makes weird protest cough noises). "OK, so how about if I walk around with you in my arms?" (crying subsides into wimpers and baby seems content for a minute then starts looking at and reaching for the toys on the mat) REPEAT.

Yeah!!!!!

Too cute of Josie!

The WORST is that the girls have learned to roll from back to tummy, and put themselves into "tummy time," then they cry about being on their tummies, but they did this to themselves!!!! AND they know how to turn back! yeeeeeeesh!

OK enough complaining. The happy times are super happy. The girls are laughing hysterically at things and its so cute. They are super fun, and so close to sitting and crawling and are playing in a more interactive way (like peek a boo and looking at pictures in books). I really look forward to playing with them every day and get sad when we put them to bed at night! These photos are from the other night after work, Josie was gnawing on Alex's leg for much longer than I thought Alex would put up with it. I was laughing so hard, but managed to get a few photos!