Musical Beds

Want to know about my night last night (and almost every night for about the past week)? Here's a brief synopsis:

9:30-I settle in to work on my dissertation for a couple of hours. Ha!

10:45-Will starts screaming--out of his mind screaming. Billy tries to comfort him. No go. It's all me. He proceeds to cry/yell for about 20 minutes. Finally settles down just in time for...

11:25-Marie has a whopper freak out. Again, Billy tries, and she's not having it. I stripped the sheets off our bed the night before because Abby had spilled milk on them so Billy scrambles to make the bed while I hold both Marie and Will in the rocking chair in the nursery.

12:10-Still holding both, rocking in the nursery. Will is asleep so I put him in his crib, but Marie won't go down, so she's off to our bed.

1:15-Will screeching again, and I bring him to our bed. It's now me, Billy, Marie, Will, and Winnie.

2:55-Abby screaming bloody murder. I leave our bed to get in the guest bed with her and calm her down.

4-Abby is asleep so I put her back in her crib, and I go back to our bed until...

7:10-Will wakes up and then proceeds to wake Marie up

What a night!

It's Movie Time!

Here are 3 great new movies featuring the Zeigler 3!



This action-packed adventure features the kids riding in the back seat with the windows down. They love it! When we would have to stop at a light or slow down, the would all scream, "mas, mas!" (more, more)



At the beginning of this one, Abby shows how much she loves Winnie. Listen to her say, "DAWG." How did she get a southern accent? Then, she sees Marie talking on the phone, and Marie goes to the toy box to try to find Abby a phone of her own. Watch Marie as she "talks" to someone...at the end of the conversation she says, "Bye-bye," and kisses the phone ("muh"), and shuts the flip phone. Funny.



This one is them demonstrating their dance moves, which really only consist of spinning around with their heads tilted to the side. Sometimes they do a little squat thing too, and stick out their butts.

Why my time is so limited (besides the obvious)

I have been a neglectful blogger lately for several reasons. First, Billy has been super busy at work, which means I have been super busy with the kids. I put them down to sleep alone many nights, and after that exhaustive process, I can barely see straight, let alone write an entry for this blog.

Second, I am actually finishing my dissertation. It's almost done, and my defense date is set. I will have by PhD by the end of April! Because I'm getting that wrapped up, every free minute I have is devoted to completing that document. If I have one second to spare, I write a word in my dissertation. I am so thankful to my major professor who has been turning around drafts very quickly so that I can finish. We are planning our big weekend in Athens for graduation! We are thinking all about where we want to have the kids' pictures taken---Sanford Stadium, The Arch, etc. Mems and I are also busy planning their wardrobes for the ceremony. I wonder if I could find them tiny caps and gowns? Hilarious.

Third, the kids now have a cold, which means lots of wake up calls at night. Billy is out of town, and last night, Abby and Will both slept with me. As you can imagine, my sleep was very limited. Then, Will decided that 5:45 a.m. was a good time to wake up, and he proceeded to wake his sister up as well. This all adds to my level of exhaustion, and if every free second wasn't occupied with my dissertation, I would take every free second I had, and get some sleep.

I still ask myself, will I ever sleep? Unlikely. Oh well, I have to take comfort in the fact that I have some pretty freakin' cute kids. Check out the new pics below. Alice has been on my case to post. Here you go, fool!

Speaking of Alice, big shout out to her! She's expecting baby boy #2 in August. The woman thought she was peri-menopausal, but it turns out, she's knocked up. Way to make a baby, old lady! For all of you thinking, "How old is Drew again?" He's 15!! Yes, that means one day, Alice will have a 15 year old son and a 30 year old. Exciting times ahead!

Pictures of each one strapped into their car seats.

Marmie got them this bench for Christmas and paid extra for express delivery by Christmas eve. Billy just put it together last week. Sorry Marmie, but thanks! We love it.

I have 3 videos uploading at YouTube. I'll post them here when they are ready. They are so funny.

March Picture Update

I'm exhausted and don't have lots of time to write, but I wanted to get up a few pictures. We had an eventful weekend. We started swim lessons today! It was great fun. I will have to write more about that, but it will have to wait. Enjoy the pictures.....

Marie looks like a homeless baby in this picture. She really likes wearing her hat for some reason.

Marie also loves Will's converse high top shoes. She wants to wear them all the time. I think she's going to be a bit of a tomboy.

The expression on Will's face made me laugh.

This one is just hysterical. Abby makes the silliest faces sometimes.

Abby looks like a poet, and Will looks like a big goober.

Hello? Marie loves to "talk" on the phone.

Hug one minute, punch the next. It's a love-hate relationship.

Everybody thought it would be funny to jump over the couch on to the table.

Abby and Marie both made real pee-pees in their potties last week!

Will is making his "cheese" face. Yes, they are all chewing on the bulbs we use to suck out their boogers. Don't worry, they're clean...I think.

Potty Training

Can you really call it potty training when they go on the floor? I don't know. Honestly, it's just way too soon for them to be interested in the potty, but they are, and I feel guilty if I don't at least try to encourage this behavior. However, it's really difficult.

Abby and Marie are both obsessed with taking off their pants and diapers. Then, they make the sign for potty, which is kind of like knocking, but they make a fist and move their hands up and down. The first time Marmie saw Abby doing it, she yelled to me from the other room, "Abby is doing this weird thing with her hand. What's it mean when she moves her fist up and down really fast?" Now, make that motion yourself and see what it looks like. Lovely.

The other night, Marie took off her pants and diaper and sat on the potty for a few minutes. Of course, she did not pee or poop or anything, but she was super content to just sit on the potty for a few minutes. When she got up, I put her diaper back on, and she went off to play. I was reading books with Abby and Will, and I heard her say, "Uh-oh." I looked over and see her with nothing on from the waist down, holding her diaper, and turds on the floor next to her. Will runs over, points at the turds and starts screaming, "Puppies!" I quickly grab something to clean the poop off the floor, and Abby comes over stands next to where I am crouching, puts her hand on my shoulder, and in a very disappointed tone says, "Ca-cas." What a night.

We only had one potty for the past couple of weeks. Marmie bought us this fancy one that sings. Well, since they were constantly fighting over it, we decided to invest in 2 more potties. I thought we would just get the same ones, but when we went to Babies R Us, I saw that they were nearly $40! The other option was about $15. Really, do people spend $40 on something their child is going to piss and crap on? Would you put 2 $20 bills on the floor and ask your child to take a dump on them? I certainly would not. I wouldn't even ask them to pee on $15, but you gotta go somewhere, right?

We are working on tricks to get them to stay dressed and keep their diapers on. We currently wrap masking tape around the waistband of their diapers. My step-sister gave me some tips for keeping them clothed. We'll try those next.

Pictures in the next post. We need to video tape their night-time teeth brushing ritual. They get so excited. It's really funny to watch!

Happy Valentine's Day!

After the snow died down, we had ourselves an exciting weekend! Marmie graciously volunteered to take on the girls as her Valentine's dates. Pop-Pop came to her rescue. Good thing he was around because they had an eventful evening. Marie took off her pajamas and peed all over herself before bedtime, and both the girls woke up at 3 a.m. and cried until Marmie and Pop-Pop took them away for cuddle time. They are so demanding, and they know which suckers will fall for their tricks!

We stopped by her house to drop them off, and she had bought some bows for Abby and Marie. Well, what the girls have, Will must also have.


Here he is sporting a bow. It's brown, of course, so it's more manly. Daddy wasn't happy about this look.
Marmie has a lego table, and the girls sat down to play nicely. That was short-lived.
The girls really like wearing adult shoes, or "choos," as they call them. Can you see Marie watching Abby intently? She's planning how she will knock her down and steal the choos for herself.
Here are the girls enjoying a meal at Marmie's. Will enjoyed dinner at Outback with mommy and daddy. He was our special Valentine! Speaking of Valentine's Day, the kids Valentines, aka Marmie and Pop-Pop, showered them with love and presents! Marmie got them each a new "na-na" pillow. At night, they refer to their entire night-time routine as "na-na." They want to drink their bottles, which they call "na-nas," and then, they want to go to sleep to go "night-night," which they also call "na-na." When we get their bottles (yes, I'm a terrible mother and continue to refuse to wean them), we tell them to get their "na-na" pillows, and they each retrieve a throw pillow of their choice from the stack that they have in the play room. Well, Marmie got them some fancy, soft, new ones that they promptly fell in love with! Pop-pop provided some new pajamas in size 24 months! We are getting big! Will's have dinosaurs, and he got another pair with zoo animals. Very cute!

Marie's say "I heart hot chocolate" on hers. She got another pair with ballerinas!

Abby's say "I love my mommy." These are very appropriate for her, as she's going through a mommy stage. Her other ones have flowers all over them.

Thanks, Marmie and Pop-pop!

Snow Day!

On Friday, it snowed in Atlanta! Here are the girls (including Winnie) staring out the window at it. They weren't sure what to make of it. They kept signing "rain," and when Michele tried to explain that it was snow, they kept saying, "NO!"

My office closed early so I came home and took them out to experience the "no." It was really coming down.
Will was trying to catch snowflakes.

Marie was just happy running around looking at everything.
Abby just kept trying to run away. She thinks it's funny to run out into the street or around to the back yard. She didn't care much about the snow falling around her. If it gave her an excuse to get out, she was thrilled.

Here is our house covered in snow. We got quite a bit. Billy even went sledding with some neighbors on Saturday morning. I wish I had a picture of that, especially since Winnie chased him all the way down the hill and almost dragged down our neighbor who kindly volunteered to hold on to her while he took his turn on the sled. The poor woman didn't stand a chance against our beast!