It's all a blur

"It was such a blur, that first year."
When I meet a twin mom with older twins and flash my two children id-ing myself as another twin mom, the above statement is often the first greeting.
And I'm beginning to agree.  This first year is a blur, somewhere between living on a never-ending treadmill situated in the middle of a white sands desert rolling dunes that stretch to the horizon.  The horizon is where you want to be and yet the likelihood of getting there feels almost non-existent.
But where is the "where?"  I've spoken to enough twin moms to know that it's not about getting to the point where they sleep through the night, can sit-up, eat solids, crawl, potty train or graduate from high school.  The where is not so much about them reaching a milestone, but rather, the "where" is a day where the to-do list is humanly possible to accomplish in a 24-hour period and that life becomes larger than feeding (everyone), changing (3 in diapers), appeasing (them and sometimes Troy), and collapsing (me).  Let me be clear...as I sit here writing this blog post, I'm aware that there are many, many other things needing my attention.  In fact, that's why I haven't blogged much as most often blogging comes in behind doing laundry so I have clean underwear.  I'm staring at thank-you notes waiting to acknowledge acts of generosity and kindness from the past 4 months, birth announcements longing to send their cuteness across the postal miles, Christmas cards anticipating only 25 more days, Christmas presents calling out to be wrapped in cheery paper and prepared to mail to Texas, paperwork longing to be filed, clothes hoping to be folded, a bathroom sink crying desperately to be cleaned, a kitchen floor whimpering to be mopped and I could keep going, but I won't because I'm blogging.
This first year has been, and is going to be, such a blur.  I'm lucky to check my email, even luckier to craft a somewhat intelligent reply.  I'm celebrating that for the past two nights Oliver has gone to sleep at 9 pm and stayed asleep until 4 am, but before you shout Hurray, Anna is still eating at 11:30 pm, 2:30 am and 5:30 am.  (Oh, and Ethan woke me up at 3:30 am standing beside my bed and just staring at me.)  When I told my dad about last night's schedule, he asked, "So when did you sleep?"
Me, sleep?  What is sleep?  If every event in your life is to teach you something about yourself and this universe, then this event is teaching me that sleep matters and sleep deprivation is a lonely stranger.
If all of this isn't enough, which by the way, it is enough, I'm thrilled to say that we are taking on another challenge...Christmas 2010 in Chester, CA.  That's right.  This is the first year in about 12 years, and probably the last year for another 12 years, when I don't have to work on Christmas Eve so I wanted to travel somewhere.  Somehow we managed to convince my saintly sister-in-law that opening her home to her father-in-law, Troy and me, a toddler, and two newborn twins would be a fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.  Of course, she will open the door right after she shovels the 4-feet of snow they will probably have then.
That's right...not only are we traveling, but we are traveling into the snowy mountains of northern California to my brother's house.  We are going via Amtrak, with just one catch...we are on an Amtrak bus from here to Seattle starting at 5:30 am.  (Let me say, this trip is going to make my cross-country move with a toddler, a dog and my dad seem like a Caribbean vacation.)
Once we get on the train, and once our stuff gets on the train (3 carseats, 2 pack-n-plays, 1 double stroller, 5 suitcases, diaper bag, toddler backpack, and a Christmas bag of wrapped toys), it should be smooth sailing.  I'm quite excited about the train...we have a private room reserved and will have access to a movie theater car, parlor car, dining car, observation car, and bar-car.  That's right, alcohol.  Tis the season.
We leave Vancouver at 5:30 am and arrive an hour outside of Chester at about 2:15 am, almost 24 hours later.  What a day it will be...and won't be.  If this first year really is a blur, and this ends up being more challenging transit than imagined, well, we won't remember it that well.
You might be concerned that be telling you about my trip that tells the blogworld that our home will be unoccupied over the holidays.  I'm not concerned about someone burglarizing my house.  We live in a condo building with 24-hour security.
And besides, my house is so unorganized that the burglars would probably have to stop and clean and pick-up to know if there is anything here they would want to take.