Twin Fauls

And this is why we usually eat at home...

2012-02-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Today we took the girls out for lunch at an Indian buffet. Jon and a few of his co-workers met us there on their lunch break. We decided to take the girls to get Indian food for two reasons. First, the girls are showing signs of being pretty picky eaters (I'm so tired of feeding them PB&Js, pasta, and fruit) and so I'm trying to get them to try some new stuff. Second, Jon and I had Indian take out a few weeks ago and the girls seemed to really like the bite we gave them. Lunch, however, was a bit messy. The girls had a lot of fun trying to use spoons, and shoveling food in their mouths (Charlotte in particular seemed to think that Indian food was delicious). By the eat of lunch their was food all over the floor, the table, the bench, the girls, and Jon's work clothes. He went back to work looking like he had been in a food fight and his co-workers all decided that it had been a highly entertaining lunch. I apologize for the quality of the pictures... they were taken with a bad cell phone camera.

Body part identification... sort of

2012-02-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

Clearly we still need to work a little more on body parts

New Mexico Vacation

2012-01-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

We recently headed back to NM for a short vacation. Jon and I spent most of our time in Santa Fe at a good friend's wedding while the girls hung out at the grandparents' house. We were worried about how the girls would do since it was the longest they had ever been away from mom and dad but they did great.

They did some sandbox playing (where some other kids were nice enough to loan Charlotte some sand box toys):

Some playing with a highchair and stroller:

And a nice walk:

On Sunday they got the chance to hang out with their cousin Mckenna. We tried to go to the Children's Museum but wound up at the Natural History Museum. The kids seemed to have a pretty good time.

While the plane ride to New Mexico wasn't fun, we had a great time visiting family and friends and the trip felt way too short.

Baby Shark

2012-01-21T12:13:00.000-08:00

I was shopping at Target last week and in the clearance section I happened to see some baby towels on sale. There were a dozen pink kitty towels and one blue shark towel. When I saw a shark towel on clearance I did a little happy dance in the aisle (this actually happened and yes there were some weird looks). The reason for my excitement is that somehow Charlotte would up with the nickname of Char Shark or Sharkle and then it snowballed from there with the result being that she now owns a lot of shark stuff. She has a shark Christmas ornament, a HUGE shark stuffed animal (it might be bigger than she is), 3-4 shark t-shirts/onesies, a shark facts book, and now.... a shark towel!

Sorry for the not great pictures... Evie was running around completely crazy and naked at this point and needed to be chased down.

Definitely My Daughter

2012-01-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

Charlotte trying to convince me that she is old enough for big girl books

2012-01-01T12:45:00.000-08:00

The outcome may not matter but we're all decked out and cheering anyway

Merry Christmas (one day early)!

2011-12-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

I'm guessing that tomorrow will be too crazy for me to send out a holiday e-card so I figured I'd post the holiday card a little early.

The card is actually a video card (you can see the Faul family as elves playing music, dancing, snapping our fingers, etc). See the video by going here.

We hope that everyone has a great holiday. We wish it was possible to spend the holiday with all of our loved ones!

Barrettes

2011-12-22T13:40:00.000-08:00

In possibly her cutest moment ever Evelyn decided that I needed one of her barrettes in my hair. She understands that barrettes go on the head but she doesn't know how to clip them on. When this barrette stayed in my hair she was so excited and proud of her self. So... do I look fabulous?

Apple Eating

2011-12-20T18:08:00.000-08:00

The girls now eat apple directly off the core. This is pretty great since it means I don't have to cut the apple into little pieces anymore. Anything that allows me to be lazier is fine by me (plus the girls look ridiculously adorable eating apples the adult way).

Christmas Season Photo Dump

2011-12-18T18:06:00.000-08:00

We've been busy getting into the holiday spirit the past couple weeks. First on the agenda was a picture of the girls on Santa's lap. We actually did this twice, once at a holiday party and once at the Bass Pro Shop (which gives free pro pictures with Santa compared to the $17 our local mall charges). In both instances the girls sobbed like Santa had told them that they were on the naughty list and getting coal for Christmas. This was the best shot I got. It is considered the best shot because if you squint just right it might not look like the girls are sobbing their heads off.

Next, we decided to go cut down a Christmas tree this year... and we took the girls with us. A big saw; two squirming, crying one year olds; and a ton of trees apparently equals a good time to us. Evie actually handled the trip well but Charlotte cried almost the entire time (I'm starting to think she hates Christmas).

I didn't think the tree looked that big at the tree farm but it turns out it's huge. We had planned on putting a baby containment field around the tree to keep the girls from pulling ornaments off, rocking the tree, etc, but the tree was a bit big for our baby gates.

Despite how big it is I love this tree. It just looks so full and festive and I love to sit in the den with the girls and look at the tree (which they for some reason call "ka"). We've also taken some really sweet pictures of the girls, and the girls with Jon sitting around the tree.

Last week the girls and I went on an evening walk through the local Christmas light display. Charlotte cried (again... she does not like Christmas) but the walk was nice (if a bit cold) and the light display was beautiful. We did the walk with a bunch of other twin moms so there were probably 20 sets of twins walking through the light display. Evie refused to keep her hat on even though it was pretty cold.

Finally, today we went over to the neighbor's house to work on a rice crispy treat house. Sadly, I clearly am missing the artistic ability gene because this was our house at the end (that is a snowman, reindeer and fence in front of the house):

I wish I could blame our 6 year old neighbor for that train wreck but it was about 95% me. The roof is caving in, the reindeer can't stand... I guess there is a reason I didn't become an artist or structural engineer. It tasted delicious though.

It's a Dancing Bean

2011-12-11T18:26:00.000-08:00

The girls love to dance. They dance to any music they hear, including my music or the music that their toys plays. But their absolute favorite is to dance to their CD of nursery rhymes. They aren't exactly skilled dancers but I find it quite entertaining. Here is a video of Evie dancing to "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"

1 Year Doctor & Dentist Visits

2011-11-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

The girls had a very busy day yesterday. In the morning we took them to their first dentist appointment. Our dentist doesn't see toddlers so they referred us to a pediatric dentist practice. The waiting room at this office was insane. The had a two story castle for kids to play in and an several video game consoles for kids to play with. The dentist appointment went well. The girls got their teeth brushed and polished and the dentist went over proper baby teeth hygiene with us.

About two hours later we were at the doctor for their one year check up (and four shots for each girl... yikes!). Here are the girls' one year stats:

Charlotte:

Weight: 19 lbs 4 ounces (25th percentile)
Height: 29.5 inch (75th percentile)

Evelyn:

Weight: 19 lbs 7 ounces (25th percentile)
Height: 30 inches (75th percentile)

Both girls handled their shots extremely well. They had a great afternoon nap, slept in a little this morning, and have shown no increased fussiness.

2011-11-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

Even with tons of new birthday gifts to play with the box still reigns supreme as the favorite toy.

Happy Birthday Charlotte & Evie!

2011-11-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I have two toddlers! The last year seemed to both fly and inch by but it was an amazing year. We threw the girls a birthday party on Saturday and everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. I went a little crazy with the desserts and make five different desserts.

Two different kinds of cupcakes:

Cake Pops (these are much harder to make than I expected... I don't know that I would make them again):

Lemon Cookies:

And banana cakes for the girls:

To start the festivities we gave the girls a tray table covered with objects. Each object represented a different future profession that the girls could ultimately have. The options were chef, professional athlete, doctor/nurse, vet, teacher, author, dentist, engineer, and disaster coordinator (had to put the parents professions in there). Evie was so eager to be a chef that she grabbed the chef item off Charlotte's tray. Charlotte chose the ball, which symbolized professional athlete. With an athlete and a chef we are sure going to save a lot of money on college! Here is the video of the girls choosing their futures:

Next, we brought out the cakes. The girls really were not sure what to make of their cakes at first. It could be because we basically just plopped huge cakes in front of them and they are used to their food being cut into smaller pieces. They wound up eating about 1/4 of their cakes. I was hoping that they would really smash their cakes and make a huge mess but they were pretty dainty cake eaters. Evie is in bright pink with brown tights and Charlotte is in light pink with white tights.

Finally, we watched a video that I made for the girls to celebrate their first year. Hopefully you enjoy the video as much as the girls did!

Music by Ben Drake

Halloween Party

2011-10-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

We decided to brave the snow today and take the girls to a Halloween party (okay we weren't that brave since it isn't snowing that much... but snow in Oct is completely crazy to me). Charlotte, aka the little lion, hated her mane and cried anytime we put in on (she was a big fan of playing with her tail though) but we managed to snap a few shots. I'm going to take more pictures on Monday before we head out for a little trick or treating (also known as: mommy wants some candy).

Baby ID: Charlotte is the lion and Evie is the giraffe

It's a Baby in a Box

2011-10-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

We have a random box sitting in our living room. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that it is a box that I have yet to unpack from moving... which happened a year ago. The past week Charlotte has been really excited about climbing into the box and then just sitting in it. Anytime I can't find Charlotte I go check the box and 90% of the time I've found her sitting/playing/eating in the box.

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Charlotte was in the box but I forgot to take a picture

Saturday:

2011-10-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Think the girls like tomato sauce?

2011-10-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

Hmmm... I'm pretty sure that when I left Evie for her nap she was wearing pants. The same pants that are now next to her crib.

And in honor of game 5 today Charlotte is rocking her Phillies gear

Hopefully she brings them luck!

2011-10-06T14:15:00.000-07:00

Evie walked for the first time a few weeks ago. But after taking her first steps she wasn't exactly walking everywhere. In fact, it was still extremely rare for her to take steps on her own. Until today. Suddenly she is taking lots of steps and walking all over the place. It is like a light switch was suddenly switched on and suddenly she realizes that walking is kind of neat.

Beanie Walking!

2011-09-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Evie officially took her first unassisted steps... and then didn't do it again until today. This time we were ready and waiting with the video camera. So, here she is in action:

2011-09-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

We brought out the "big girl chairs" for Charlotte & Evie to try out. They love sitting in them and swinging their feet but they can't figure out how to get into the chairs by themselves. Additionally, the only way they know how to get out of them is to face plant. The pink chair is a hippo and the orange chair is a cat. Ignore the paper mess on the floor. That's what our living room looks like when the girls finish "reading" the news.

In honor of football season starting the girls are wearing their football baby legs today. They would be wearing Eagles onesies to show that they are "true fans" but 1) I couldn't find any where we live (Target didn't even have baby sized Ravens gear and this town is CRAZY about the Ravens) and 2) I was horrified by the prices of the stuff I found online.

Evie is definitely ready for some football:

Charlotte is more interested in reading her board book:

Sweet Potato Lovin

2011-09-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

The girls cannot get enough sweet potatoes. They love them (or maybe they love the cinnamon I sprinkle on top). Nutritionally I couldn't be happier since sweet potatoes are ridiculously good for you but I do wonder if the girls will turn yellowish by eating too many of them (I know this can happen with carrots).

Queen of the Stairs

2011-09-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

Can you tell by looking at this picture that we are having trouble keeping Evie off the stairs (the first time she tried to climb the stairs she climbed the entire flight - that girl is crazy!)?

Currently this configuration is working. It involves taking a Super Yard section and using ribbon to tie it to the banister. The step ladder is straddling the bottom of the stairs which is preventing Evie from pushing the gate back until she can slip through. The other side of the gate (not pictured) is held in place by shutting the door to the mudroom on it. It took us several failed attempts to discover this set up and to be quite honest the set up sucks. I've tripped multiple times trying to step over the fence and our cats aren't smart enough to jump it so I anytime they want over they cry till I lift them over. Additionally, it completely blocks our front door and this week I had a friend who was temporarily stuck in the mudroom while I took the gate down since she couldn't open the door enough to get her baby in a car seat through.

What I really need to do is just buy a gate for the bottom of the stairs but it is a tricky section to gate. We can't use a pressure gate because the bannister wouldn't hold and we don't want to drill into the bannister to attach the gate. I think you can buy gates that clamp onto bannisters but I need to research this first. We definitely need a gate that attaches since Evie quickly figured out that she could use her body as a wedge and force a gap between the gate and the stairs for her to slip through.

Rainy Day

2011-08-21T12:35:00.000-07:00

Apparently when I am stuck at home on a rainy day I take lots of random videos of my children. Like these two videos:

Two on the Move!

2011-08-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

At the 9 month check up the doctor was a little concerned that Charlotte wasn't moving yet. She gave me the phone number for the county program that evaluates children for physical and developmental delays but suggested that we wait two weeks to call. In the meantime she wanted us to really encourage Charlotte to crawl by putting all of her toys out of reach and making her get them herself. That very afternoon Charlotte proved that it hadn't been a physical problem but a motivational problem and she has been crawling every since. Unlike Evie, who crawled constantly from the moment she figured it out, Charlotte is a less curious baby who is often content to just sit and play with her toys. Here is our first video of Charlotte crawling:

Beanie is still getting into everything and has managed to climb from the first floor to the second floor all by herself already.

I finally caught the girls giggling at each other on video. This is notoriously difficult to film since the girls stop the moment they notice me watching or that a camera is trained on them.

Several hours later Beanie pulled that curtain down on top of herself... and another round of baby proofing begins.

Visit to the Aquarium: Guest Post by Maya Higgins

2011-08-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. Since Maya is the expert in all things aquatic I told her that she could write about the trip. So here are Maya's impressions of our trip to the aquarium:

For my birthday this year Amanda got me a ticket to the Baltimore Aquarium. Obviously, this gift was the perfect answer to my newfound love and obsession of the ocean. When she first gave it to me, I was excited to see the sharks, rays, and dolphins and was eager to share my love for the sea with Amanda. However, what ended up making the aquarium visit so special wasn’t actually any of the underwater life. Instead, it was sharing the day with Charlotte and Evelyn and watching them enjoy the aquarium and stare at the fish.

Our aquarium day first started with Charlotte and Evelyn getting dressed in their aquarium-themed outfits:

Then, Sarah, Amanda, and I packed the diaper bag full of snacks, toys, and changing supplies and headed off with me crammed in the backseat between the two car seats (which ended up being the perfect place to teach the girls along the drive how to give high fives!). When we got to the aquarium, I took Charlotte, Sarah took Evelyn, and Amanda took the camera. We started by checking out the aquarium’s vast selection of rays. Both Evelyn and Charlotte stared intently into the water, watching the rays swim around. From there, we moved on to the sharks and then off to see various other fish, octopi, and jellies, making a pit stop in the family room (with a TV, coloring books, and chairs) to nurse the girls along the way.

Evelyn struggled a bit being trapped in the carrier for the day as she wanted to use her newfound discovery of her ability to “cruise” to walk around the aquarium. Charlotte however couldn’t have been happier. She didn’t cry at all while at the aquarium and although exhausted, she fought sleep for a long time as she didn’t want to stop staring at the movement and color within the tanks. Her nickname, the “shark,” really seems to suit her well now that we know how much she loves watching sharks swim around!

At the end of our day at the aquarium, the girls tried on some costumes and we bought an informative children’s book about sharks.

Hopefully the girls will continue to learn more each day about life under the sea!

9 Months

2011-08-15T18:21:00.000-07:00

The girls seemed to constantly master new skills between months 8 and 9. This month was a particularly busy month for Evelyn. In the past month Evie began crawling correctly, pulling up to standing, cruising, moving from crawling to sitting, waving, and she got her two front teeth. Evie now obsessively pulls up and cruises all the time. I spend most of my day moving things out of her reach as she chases the forbidden objects around the living room with an impish grin.

Charlotte is still getting her physical skills later than Evie but she is often the more social baby and picks up on social skills, such as clapping, faster than her sister. This month Charlotte learned to clap and wave. She has become such a smiley, happy baby that thrives in a large crowd of strangers. On the flight out to MT her favorite activity was peeking over the seats and smiling/giggling at the people sitting behind us. She has also gotten her two front teeth.

The girls have started to spend time laughing at each other and chatting back and forth. Charlotte in particular seems to find Evie hilarious and we find her laughing at Evie's antics fairly regularly. After naps I usually catch Evie standing up in her crib in the corner closest to Charlotte. She usually proceeds to squeal and chatter at Charlotte. Every now and then one of the girls will give the other one a kiss. These type of moments are why I was so excited to find out I was having twins. I recognize that it is still incredibly early in their lives but I am now starting to see the beginning of the twin bond. We have also started to see the beginning of sisterly fighting. Charlotte is usually willing to share her toys with Evie but Evie will fight to get any stolen toy back with a pretty fierce, determined look on her face.

The girls are eating mainly regular food at this point. At the end of this month we took them off purees and they now feed themselves. So far Ikea meatballs and pancakes have received an enthusiastic response while raspberries and pasta have not been well received. The girls are finally starting to get a handle on drinking from sippy cups.

Evelyn:

Weight: 16 lbs 12 oz (10th percentile)
Height: 28 inches (75th percentile)

Charlotte:

Weight: 16 lbs 6 oz (10th percentile)
Height: 27 inches (25th percentile)

Must Be Something in the Water.... Or Maybe All That Fresh Air

2011-08-11T06:44:00.000-07:00

I'm horribly behind on posting about our vacation to Yellowstone, lots of milestones, and the girls turning 9 months (come to think of it I never wrote about them turning 8 months... it is amazing how much less computer time you have once a baby is crawling all over the place). I don't know if it was the water in Montana/Wyoming or if the girls just wanted to show off but they were hitting milestones right and left.

1) First airplane flight (okay so this one was clearly orchestrated by Jon and I)
2) Evie pulled herself to standing (July 27th)
3) Evie crawled correctly on all fours (July 27th)
4) Charlotte began waving at people when they waved at her (July 25th) - this made for an exciting plane ride.
5) Evie went from her belly to sitting up by herself (July 26th)
6) Evie began waving at people when they waved at her (July 31st)

I know this list is pretty much all about Evie but Charlotte has been catching up this week so later this week expect a much more Charlotte-centric post. Hopefully I'll get something up about Yellowstone and turning 9 months soon.

2011-08-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

This is what I just found when I went to grab Evie after her morning nap:

We are definitely in trouble now. We already dropped her crib to a lower level and removed her crib bumpers (she was using them to pull up) but seeing these pictures I'm wondering if we need to lower it some more. It is insane how quickly Evie has mastered pulling up. In Yellowstone she started using the suitcases to "stand" and by the time arrived home she was pulling up on everything. This, more than crawling, has really changed my days. I now really can't leave her alone for a second. Every time I turn around she is standing up with an impish grin and throwing a laptop or coffee cup or newly folded laundry on to the floor.

We had a great time in Montana last week and I'm hoping to have some pictures of our trip ready to post this weekend. Until then I'll be running after Evie and tearing my hair out.

Stacking Cup Fashion

2011-07-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

Maya discovered that if you put the girls' stacking cups on your head Charlotte thinks it is hilarious. So... we all put stacking cups on our heads, and on Charlotte's head and hilarity ensued. I will now carry stacking cups with me at all times.

2011-07-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

We've been working on getting the girls to eat food with chunks and finger foods. We can set anything in front of the girls and they will pick it up and put it right in their mouths... anything but food. Somehow they are never willing to bring finger food up to their mouths. On the rare occasions that they have eaten some finger foods they choked - not badly enough to need the Heimlich but badly enough to turn my hair grey. I finally stopped trying to give real finger foods and just bought them baby Mum-Mums (all future finger food will probably be given by Jon who does not have a heart attack at the first sign of a choking face). Mum Mums are basically really big rice cake like crackers that supposedly dissolve in the baby's mouth and therefore pose no choking hazard. Evie did great with her Mum Mum but Charlotte could really care less.

Charlotte eating Mum Mum:

Evie Eating Her Mum Mum:

Evelyn has decided that she is ready to feed herself with a spoon (for the record she is not ready). She now tries to grab the spoon out of our hands while we are feeding her. She actually does a great job of getting the spoon into her mouth but she usually flips the spoon over on the way there causing all the food to fall out.

Finally, there is something about dads and their babies. They love tossing them around, playing airplane, etc. I'm inserting a picture as evidence that dads love to toss their babies in the air (nervous grandmas might want to look away). Note, Evie's shorts are falling off her because she was wearing a disposable diaper. That's right, we count on cloth diapers to give the girls big enough butts that their shorts stay up.

Today Jon and Charlotte were playing airplane. Notice how every time Jon blows on her face she frantically kicks her legs. We were laughing about that for at least 10 minutes. Kids are so weird.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

Hoping that everyone is enjoying good food, good friends/family, and good times this 4th of July!

2011-06-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

Grocery shopping at Costco:

I love going to Costco because it is one of the only places that makes it easy to shop with twins (huge aisles, carts that accomodate two babies, etc). The girls hate shopping at Costco with me since I stop at each and ever sample table and proceed to eat my sample in front of them. They stare at my food and reach forward, straining to grab some of it... sadly none of the samples have been pureed fruit or veggies so far so they are out of luck.

While Charlotte was getting a diaper change Evie decided she wanted to watch Star Wars.

Pretty sure that Jon would say, "at least she has good taste." Now that she can crawl/scoot she is constantly getting into trouble.

We have this really chewed on, seen-better-days cat toy that Evie really gravitates towards. It started out as a fuzzy dog with a mermaid tail (such an odd toy) but our cats have pulled it apart, slobbered on it, etc. I really don't want Evelyn playing with it so I keep moving it to non-baby areas of the house. But every time I turn around she has found it again and is shoving it into her mouth. I'm not sure how she keeps finding it but I suspect that the cats keep bringing it back to the living room.

We've been trying to spend some time outside when the weather is nice. Yesterday we spent some time playing on a blanket in a shaded area in the backyard.

This peaceful scene lasted about 10 minutes. Then Evie decided the ties on Charlotte's hat would make a great toy. She reached out, grabbed a big handful of hat and dragged Charlotte over. Charlotte was not amused.

Charlotte has become quite the jumping bean in her jumperoo. I think that if I let her she would spend all day in it.

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T09:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day!

Love,

The Fauls

7 Months Old

2011-06-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

The girls turned 7 months on June 7th and I'm just now finding the time to write about the past month. This month was one where I look back and am amazed at how quickly babies grow and change. The girls learned and changed so much this month that they don't even feel like the same babies at times. They are finally growing hair. Their hair is still short enough that on hot days and after baths it sticks out at crazy angles and sometimes resembles a Mohawk. The hair that is coming in is a light brown/blonde finally causing the hair color prediction that Jon and I made before the girls were born to come true. Since both Jon and I were very blonde as babies & toddlers we were both convinced that the girls would be blonde initially. Now, watching their hair grow in, I think that this will probably be true. There are moments when the light hits their hair just right that I think I see a flash of red... but that is probably just my imagination. We might have correctly predicted their hair color but we never saw their blue eyes coming. As we get closer and closer to the one year mark I'm becoming more and more hopeful that their gorgeous blue eyes might be here to stay. I have no idea where the color comes from but it is stunning.

We now give the girls sippy cups with water to help them learn how to drink from a cup. They immediately figured out how to hold the cup, bring it to their mouths and get the water out. Jon and I were so proud at how quickly they figured out how to use a cup. Then one day we realized that they haven't figured out how to swallow the water. Instead, they either spit the water out or let it dribble down the corners of their mouths. After they "drink" their water their outfits are soaked. We are a bit stumped at how we can possibly teach them how to swallow.

Charlotte:

With every milestone we think that Evie is going to get it first. It seems like every time Evie will be working hard on a skill for weeks when Charlotte comes out of nowhere, with no practice, and does the skill first. After successfully beating her sister she doesn't do the skill again for weeks. At the beginning of the month Evie was trying so desperately to sit but Charlotte managed to sit unassisted first... and really hasn't sat since. We know she can but she is completely uninterested in sitting and will lock her body at the hips to prevent us from putting her in a sitting position. She is definitely a stubborn little thing.

Charlotte has started giving kisses. She grabs the side of the face, opens her mouth wide, touches her mouth to your face, and drools all over you. Her kisses are wet and weird but I love them more than anything. I love that she has started trying to give us kisses back... and if I need to carry a burp cloth to wipe drool off my face all day then that is a price I am willing to pay. It is also possible that I have a zombie baby who is actually trying to eat my face. Once she gets more teeth I should know for sure.

The girls have been eating solids for a month now and Charlotte isn't the best eater. Instead of opening her mouth she likes to slurp the puree off the spoon and then shove the food out of her mouth with her tongue. She is also quite the drama queen when it comes to trying new foods. Giving her peas resulted in what we call her "super dramatic gaggy girl face." When her gagging/I might throw up any second face didn't get the reaction that she wanted she added gagging sound effects. She can be quite the dramatic baby (maybe she will have a career on the stage) but she always makes me smile. One food that doesn't get her gaggy face is apple sauce. The girl is obsessed with the stuff. Anytime she doesn't like a food all I have to do is throw some apple sauce in the bowl and she devours it right up.

Evelyn:

This was the month when changing Evelyn became a huge pain. The second you put Evie down she flips over to her stomach (this is why her monthly growth shot is her on her stomach). This means that changing her diaper involves chasing the bare butt down, forcing her to flip over, holding her down and putting the new diaper on. This has resulted in a lot of frustration and several poop spreading incidents.

Evie has become a champion sitter. One day we sat her down and she just kept sitting... for hours. Ever since then she has sat with no support. It makes my life a lot easier since it means I can just sit her down on the floor with some toys. She also learned how to put her binky in her mouth by herself. This has meant that the binky is in her mouth almost all the time. She will take it out of her mouth, stare at it, turn it over in her hands, pass it back and forth and then plop it right back in her mouth.

Looking ahead to all the skills that the girls will be learning in the next few months I think we are in for some crazy times. We can't wait!

A Bunch of Firsts

2011-06-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

The girls have had a bunch of firsts lately. They actually nap pretty well now too so I'm a bit embarrassed that I haven't posted about these events yet. A few weekends ago the neighbors, my dad, and the family all went to a local wine festival. The girls did really great at the event. Charlotte was in a great mood and spent a lot of time "dancing" on Jon's lap. Evie slept a lot and rolled around on a blanket.

The same week we also finally braved the Metro with the double stroller and went to the Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. While we really tried hard to mess it up (tried to get on the metro going the wrong way, couldn't find the elevator, tried to go out the in turnstiles, etc) we got to DC pretty easily. Charlotte wound up fussing a lot in her stroller and so she wound up being held for most of our time walking through the exhibits and during lunch. Now that the girls will reach for my food I had to hold her away from my plate with one arm and try to eat with the other. In order to make this work my dad had to cut my food into bite size pieces for me. At my age it is pretty embarrassing to still need your dad to cut up your food. Washington DC wiped the girls out and they happily slept on the Metro on the way home.

Just 5 short days later the girls took another Metro trip (this time in carriers) to attend their first baseball game. It now takes us forever to get out of the house (just packing all the girls stuff up seems to take over an hour) and so we wound up missing the first 5 innings of the baseball game. This actually wound up being a blessing in disguise since 4 innings of all the noise and people seemed to be the limit before the girls started to fuss. Charlotte was chewing everything in sight, from her ticket to the Nationals souvenir cup.

On the way home from the game we discovered that Evie's two front, bottom teeth had come in. After months of crediting every fussy day, the tons of drool, and the endless chewing on everything in sight to teething we never saw her actual teething coming. She wasn't fussy, or sleeping badly... just one day we put a finger in her mouth and felt something sharp. Yesterday Charlotte officially cut her first bottom tooth and once again we didn't really see any signs.

On Sunday we took the girls to the playground for the first time. The swings were a big hit. We also discovered a really nice playground with bucket swings only a block from the house. I'm suspecting that trips to the swings will become a daily occurrence.

Water Babies

2011-05-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

Charlotte and Evie had their first swim lesson on Saturday (it is a 6 week long class). At this age swim lessons are really about getting them comfortable with being in a pool so that they aren't afraid of the water when they are old enough for real swim lessons. Their lesson involved lots of songs, bath toys (Evie was seen playing with an 18 month and up toy... we joked about how advanced she is but really it was just a plastic boat), blowing bubbles, kicking, bouncy up and down, and putting their faces in the water. We were worried that Charlotte would hate it since she still screams during bath time but they both did really well. The pictures aren't very good quality because they were taken using my camera phone. Ignore the band aids, these photos were taken the day after their 6 month shots.

Evie:

Charlotte:

6 Months!

2011-05-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the girls turned 6 months old. The past month was a great month. The girls are finally getting into a nap routine and they have become a lot more fun as their personalities start to come out.

Charlotte:
Charlotte has become our more serious baby. She definitely smiles but she is slower to grin than Evie and her smiles tend to look more bashful than excited. Charlotte always seems like she is going to take longer to acquire a skill than Evie but then seems to get the skills the first time she works up the energy to actually try. It has gotten impossible to keep Charlotte on her tummy (except when she has her sippy cup full of water in her hands). When placed on her tummy she immediately rolls over and then forgets that she can roll back. She will play for awhile and then fuss until someone comes and flips her back over. She will then spend about 5 seconds on her back before flipping back over (and the whole cycle repeats). The one time she seems to roll both ways just fine is at night. Charlotte now usually sleeps on her tummy at night and overnight has no problem rolling all over the crib. Charlotte loves her jumperoo and her favorite activity is to pull her feet up into frog position and squeal at the the top of her lungs. We started solids and water in a sippy cup this month and were surprised that Charlotte took to both right away. Since Charlotte still refuses to take a bottle we were shocked, and are still baffled, at how quickly she figured out how to sip from a sippy cup. The day before Easter Charlotte figured out how to put her foot in her mouth and now she can frequently be found sucking on her toes.

Charlotte 6 Month Stats
Height: 25.75 inches
Weight: 13 pounds 15 ounces

On Mother's Day we started recording the girls' growth on their growth chart. We both mark the height and use fabric paint to put the girls' hand prints on the chart. This wound up being a lot harder than expected. The paint got everywhere and the height marks are clearly wrong but I loved it anyway.

More Charlotte Photos

Evelyn:
Evelyn is definitely our smiley, social baby. She has a huge grin that she is quick to show to anyone that looks at her. Most strangers immediately identify her as our future trouble maker. She spent pretty much the entire month on her belly attempting to crawl. She isn't crawling but she is quite determined that she has places to be. For a non-mobile baby she manages to roll all over her crib and cover quite a bit of the living room floor. Evie can now put herself to sleep on her own for both naps and evening sleep. We just have to lay her down and walk out of the room. She makes a few fussing, grunting noises, flips onto her belly, scrunches up and sticks her butt in the air... this is her favorite sleeping position. Sometimes in order to fall asleep Evie needs her pacifier but lately she has gotten good at taking her pacifier out and playing with it... she has not figured out how to put it back in her mouth. Her favorite game now is to bang stuff. Her jumperoo has a butterfly that hangs off the side. Evie loves to grab it and violently bang it against the side of the jumperoo. She also bangs her toys against the floor, her leg, or anything in sight. About two days after Charlotte found her feet Evie found hers. We also have a sitting update: Evie wound up sitting the same day that Charlotte sat unassisted (no picture as of yet).

Evie 6 Month Stats
Height: 26.5 inches
Weight: 14 pounds 1 ounce

More Evie Photos

Charlotte Can Sit!!

2011-05-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

We've been expecting Evie to sit unassisted any day now since she sits extremely well with just boppy or a slight touch support. But today Charlotte came out of nowhere to hit the sitting unassisted milestone first. It was so unexpected that I didn't have the camera near me so I scooted to get it and snapped a picture. It is only of her back because I wanted to stay close in case she fell over. She actually never reached the falling over point. After a few minutes she started to cry and I rescued her... I think she might have gotten stuck in the tripod position.

Food Update: According to the girls, oatmeal is disgusting and sweet potatoes are the yummiest food ever (not that they have much to compare them too).

Garden Helpers

2011-05-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

Today the girls wound up only sleeping for 30 minutes during the nap that I was planning on watering the garden and pulling some weeds during. Since the garden still definitely needed watering I wound up with two lovely gardening assistants:

I can't wait until the girls can sit up so I won't have to lug their car seats every time I take them outside.

The garden is growing pretty well. I transplanted my asparagus over the weekend and so far I only see two casualties (out of ~ 13). The peas are growing like crazy, our first red strawberry has made an appearance, and the kohlrabi is coming up nicely. Sadly, I think the spinach is mainly going to be a failure. The seeds successfully germinated but some rows have just never moved beyond the early buds. Tomatoes, zucchini and peppers were officially planted last week and so far are looking good.

Evelyn's First Chores

2011-05-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

Need to start them early...

Avocado + Drool + Breastmilk = Yummy?

2011-05-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

This morning we started the girls on solid foods. I'm planning on making their foods so we decided to start with something easy, avocado. Since avocado doesn't need to be cooked at all it is one of the easier baby foods to make. All I had to do was mash up half an avocado (some of which accidentally wound up in my mouth) and then thin it with some breast milk (my eating the girls' food stopped at this point). I did have to do some research to make sure that avocado was even an appropriate first food but my research indicated that it was a fine choice for a first food. I've also made a batch of sweet potato baby food that is waiting in the freezer for next weeks meals.

We had heard stories of how messy first feeds are so we put a bunch of newspaper down on the floor, pushed the girls well away from the table, and put bibs on them. By the end the bibs were definitely a mess, as were their hands and faces, but overall the girls kept it pretty clean. They did great with the food and actually polished off the entire dish. I, of course, went crazy filming video and taking a million pictures. Sometimes I wasn't sure if the girls' confused faces were because they were deciding what they thought of food or because they were wondering why this crazy lady was shrieking and sticking a camera in their face.

The bibs wound up pretty clean at the end since once the avocado was gone the girls shoved their bibs in their mouth and sucked on them for awhile (awwww... look at my kids already cleaning up after themselves). The overall decision by the girls seemed to be that avocado + breast milk + drool = happiness (or at least not horribleness). The girls even grabbed at the spoons and tried to put them in their mouths. It is amazing that two babies who are so good at getting bad stuff in their mouths (newspaper, cat tails, etc) had a hard time finding their mouths with their spoons.

Charlotte:

Evelyn:

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! Easter for the girls = chewing. They chewed on eggs, they chewed on their dresses and they chewed on the hangers of their new swim suits.

Possibly the cutest video ever....

2011-04-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

Okay... so I might be biased given that the video is of my children but I still think it is pretty cute. Hopefully the moving hand held camera won't make anyone sick but Charlotte laughed more when I looked away and then at her, which meant the camera moved too. Also, feel free to ignore the ridiculous noises coming out of my mouth... I go to great lengths to make these girls laugh.

Finally, photographic proof that they are my children... Evie reading a book. They do enjoy a good Seuss.

Just a few days behind...

2011-04-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

Charlotte has now started sticking her tongue out a lot. This means that now both girls typically have their tongues hanging out. I managed to catch Charlotte in the act much faster than Evie. Here is the newest baby with a tongue hanging out:

And these pictures were so cute that I had to share them:

Apparently when they blow spit bubbles it is a mundane thing but when I blow spit bubbles it is hilarious. Gales of laughter were coming out of Charlotte for around 5 minutes due to my spit bubbles.

The Crazy Adventures of Evelyn

2011-04-16T18:04:00.000-07:00

Okay... so she's only 5 months old so her adventures aren't too crazy but Evie has had some funny moments of late. A few days ago I put Evie down on her play mat and went to change Charlotte's diaper. When I got back I discovered that Evie had kicked her play mat so hard that it had collapsed around her. We still have no idea how she could kick it hard enough to cause the snaps to come apart.

She also discovered that she could stick out her tongue and now her tongue is almost always hanging out of her mouth. If she is awake and not eating her tongue is probably sticking out. I finally managed to catch a few tongue shots today.

She is a rather silly baby.

5 Months!

2011-04-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

Last week the girls turned 5 months old. I took their monthly growth shots on the day they turned 5 months but then was lazy about actually writing about the month that they had. We have had some absolutely beautiful spring days out here so I've actually been taking the girls out for longer walks, spending some time gardening, etc. The first year in a new house is so exciting because with each season you get a surprise that your house or neighborhood had been keeping from you. We notice flowers blooming in our front yard that we didn't know were there, we discovered that our block is covered with cherry trees and magnolias, and we discovered that we actually have a weeping cherry tree right in our backyard. The first time we saw this house it was fall and I was convinced that it would be my favorite season. Our town has a ton of trees and when the leaves turned colors in the fall it created this beautiful lit up canopy. But now... spring is making a play for the status of favorite season.

Our weeping cherry (a bright pink in person):

Month 4 to 5 was a tough one for the girls since their naps completely fell apart and their night time sleep dropped off a cliff. We spent the entire month completely exhausted and are just now starting to get where we were sleep wise. The girls started the teething process... no teeth have made appearances yet but they drool constantly and put everything (mainly their hands) in their mouths. Toys suddenly are grabbed at but only to stuff in their mouths and gum furiously on them. Charlotte in particular had one day where her hands never left her mouth except for her to eat. Because of this the burp cloths have come out in full force and we have no less than 20 of them scattered around the living room to wipe drool from mouths and hands.

If Charlotte's favorite position this month has been hands in mouth, Evie's has been feet in the air. When she is on her back her feet are usually pointing straight up. She also has a "feet in the air and relaxing" pose she strikes every time she is in bouncer. This picture shows the position:

The girls desperately want to sit up and Evie in particular tries to sit upright every time she is in her swing, bouncer, boppy, or car seat. They got a jumperoo this month but are too short to use it so they play in it with a book stacked under their feet. They are girls who love to be moving their legs so the jumperoo has been a big hit.

The girls began laughing this month although it is still a bit unpredictable what will make them laugh. When they think I'm being funny and when I'm actually trying to be funny are definitely not the same. The girls spent the week constantly rolling from back to belly but have forgotten how to roll from belly to back. This leads to lots of screaming at all hours. We hope that they either master the full roll soon or learn to love being on their tummies.

The girls seem huge lately, even though they are still peanuts for their age. I met up with another twin mom who has 3 week olds and when I looked at her boys I was shocked at how tiny they were. I have no memory of my girls ever being so small. When I asked her how much they weighed I was shocked... my girls were actually smaller at birth. The other day I looked at Evie sleeping on her grandma and she looked huge to me. It is incredible how much they change in such a short time. I already feel like I don't have itsy bitsy babies anymore.

Evie's 5 month shot:

Charlotte's 5 month shot:

Evie photos from the month:

Charlotte's photos from the month:

Evie Laughs

2011-04-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

Grandmas are hilarious

Finally!

2011-04-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

Yay! The girls are finally big enough to fit in their Ergo. Since Evie frequently wants to be carried everywhere and will cry if she is put down or if you sit down this is potentially a life saver!

And given the expression on Evie's face in the picture below I'd say that she likes her new method of transportation.

Now I just have to figure out where to put Charlotte...

Reverse Turtles and Cherry Blossoms

2011-04-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been too tired to write updates about the girls. It isn't because they are waking up to eat more, because they aren't. Instead they have been doing what I refer to as the reverse turtle. Several times a night now one, or both girls will roll from their back to their tummy. Since they hate being on their tummy and have mastered back-to-tummy rolling but not tummy-to-back-rolling (they seem to find the "easy" roll hard and the "hard" roll easy) they proceed to scream until someone comes and flips them back over. By this point they are awake and only lots of rocking or nursing will put them back to sleep. A week or so ago in a moment of sleep deprived insanity I decided that their swaddles were the problem and if we just ditched the swaddles they would have an easier time rolling back over. We have had so much success with swaddling that we've joked that we'll still be swaddling the girls when they leave for college (using a staple gun and a bed sheet) so my abrupt decision to ditch the swaddle was met with some scepticism. After the first night we decided that Evelyn wasn't ready to lose the swaddle and there was no reason the girls had to do everything at the same time. So for over a week now Charlotte has been swaddle free and Evie has been swaddled. They both still reverse turtle though... we think we just need to wait it out.

Last weekend my mom and I took the girls to the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC. They strongly encourage taking public transportation to the festival but the thought of dragging 2 babies in their car seats plus a double stroller plus a diaper bag onto the Metro made me break out in a cold sweat. So we drove and wound up parked as far away as you could possibly get. They offer a free shuttle from the parking area to the Tidal Basin and on the way there we decided to take the shuttle. This involved loading the folded stroller separately and then accidentally hitting people with my diaper bag as we each held a baby in their car seat over our heads to maneuver down the aisle. My mom and I each took up 3 seats with the girls and halfway through the ride Charlotte started to cry... I doubt we were popular with the other bus riders.

The Cherry Blossoms are absolutely beautiful and once we were there we had a great time. It was a nice cool day and it wasn't too crowded. We walked around the basin and through the FDR memorial and the cherry blossoms in full bloom were the perfect backdrop. We were there for so long that I had to nurse Charlotte and looking out over the basin with blossoms all around was definitely the prettiest and most peaceful scenery I've ever had while nursing. We were surprised that the blossoms were white because we had expected them to be pink... I think the pink blossoms might be a different type of cherry tree that is located elsewhere but I'm still not sure.

On the way back we ran into a group of Japanese tourists who freaked out over the girls and ran after us taking pictures. It was quite odd. In Japanese culture are twins good luck? The shuttles were very full when we were leaving so we decided to just walk back to the car since it was only ~2 miles away. We were probably 1/4 of the way back when it started raining. It wasn't just a little bit of rain either... it was a torrential downpour that came out of nowhere. We ran the girls to shelter in a bathroom but they were drenched and screaming and it stopped being fun at this point. Once the rain let up we walked as fast as we could back to the car with Evie crying the whole way.

On the drive home we hit a bad patch of rain and Charlotte woke up and started crying. The rain ended and she fell back to sleep. We joked that she was having traumatic flashbacks to getting soaked on the way to the car.

Here are photos of the girls at the Cherry Blossom Festival (Charlotte is in pink and Evie is in blue):

Chatty Girls

2011-03-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

Make sure your volume is turned up for this video or you will miss all the squealing and spit bubble blowing fun. Charlotte rolled over 4 times in a row today. After the 4th time I went and got the video camera... she promptly stopped rolling over.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

4 Months!

2011-03-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

The girls turned 4 months yesterday and we are starting to feel like the 4 month mark might be magical. Yesterday for the first time the girls did not scream during bath time. Charlotte actually smiled during her bath and Evelyn only cried a little at the end (baby steps... baby steps). The girls also, despite protesting just a day earlier, began to take their naps in their cribs! I finally decided that they needed to transition from sleeping on my lap or in swings to sleeping in their crib for both naps and bedtime. A huge motivation was that as the girls become more aware of the world they are losing the ability to sleep through noises, activity, etc. I really think that they will sleep better in their cribs. I thought this would be challenging since the girls have adamantly refused to go to sleep in their cribs during the day. I had tried everything, putting them down drowsy but awake, putting them down completely asleep, rocking them until they were barely asleep... none of it had worked. Then the magical 4 month mark hit and yesterday was completely different. I swaddled the girls, gave Evie her binky and walked out. After 5 minutes of crying I peeked in and the girls were fast asleep. They proceeded to take 2 more naps in the crib yesterday and are on their second crib nap today. The bad news is that the girls only seem to cat nap. Yesterday they had two 30 minute naps and one 1 hour long nap. But even those brief naps were enough for me to get stuff done. Yesterday I cooked dinner, washed and folded 2 loads of laundry, straightened up the den, and unloaded the dishwasher. This was huge! 4 months is magical!

In agreement with our pediatrician, we are waiting to start solid foods until 6 months. The pediatrician wants us to wait because the girls are so small. She feels like they are developmentally ready but wants them to be 13 pounds first. I don't know that I feel like they are developmentally ready. They don't show interest in food when Jon or I eat in front of them, and they aren't really sitting yet. In any case we were fine waiting till 6 months... I'm not in any hurry to start solid foods.

The background for this months growth shots is a quilt made for the girls by my mom.

Charlotte:

Charlotte became quite the chatterbox this month. She will spend hours babbling away at anyone who will listen and some of the silliest sounds come out of her mouth. She loves to hear people imitate her sounds. Her pediatrician was surprised to hear that Charlotte already makes both vowel sounds and consonants.

We were pretty surprised this month when Charlotte, who is not the best sleeper, became the first one to sleep through the night (a full 12 hours!). Sadly, at this point it is a feat that has yet to be repeated. This month Charlotte also began rolling over (both from back to tummy and tummy to back).

Charlotte's favorite toy this month was her pink lovey. She loves to gnaw on the bunny and carry him around with her. She can also spend hours staring at her own reflection on the activity mat. She has spent many afternoons happily babbling away to this mysterious third baby in our house.

Her 4 month check up went great but confirmed that she is still quite the little peanut. The girls have both followed the 10th percentile growth curve pretty closely. She has shot up in height (probably ~50th percentile now) and head circumference (also ~50th percentile). Here are her stats:

Height: 24.5
Weight: 11 pounds 11.6 ounces
Head Circumference: 16

Evie:

Evelyn loves to stand up (with lots of help of course). She no longer wants to lie on anyone of anything. Instead she wants to be sitting with assistance or standing with assistance. When she sees something that excites her (frequently her dad) she does this loud gasp, clasps her hands together and grins from ear to ear. It is my current goal to capture this moment on video.

Evie is a serious drooler now and blows some award winning spit bubbles. She still loves to be carried around everywhere and definitely has days where she won't let us put her down. She loves to interact with people and definitely doesn't do as well with independent play time. This month she finally finished learning to roll by rolling from belly to back. She still mainly rolls from her back to her belly and then will start to sob because she hates her tummy. Recently I snapped a picture of her face right after she finished her roll. This is the face of accomplishment:

Evie also loved her lovey this month (hers is a green bear) but she also started to enjoy her giraffe teether (Sophie). She still doesn't really pick up Sophie but if I put Sophie in her mouth she will happily chew away at Sophie's legs and head. Evie oftentimes gets really into story time now (even when Jon is reading to her from The Economist... you should have seen how excited she got learning about Macedonia).

Her 4 month check up also went great but confirmed that she is still quite the little peanut. In fact, she is now both the the youngest and the smallest (although she is very slightly taller). Here are her stats:

Height: 25
Weight: 11 pounds 10.8 ounces
Head Circumference: 16

Additional Pictures (first four are Evie, second four are Charlotte):

Nom, Nom, Nom

2011-02-25T13:48:00.000-08:00

Giraffe, the other other white meat (at least according to Evie)

Giant flowers

2011-02-22T14:52:00.000-08:00

Today I "tortured" my children. As evidence I give you example A:

Evie totally gave me a look that said, "mom, why am I wearing a flower the size of my head?"

Warm Days, Sleepy Nights, and Ceiling Fans

2011-02-21T13:38:00.000-08:00

After a few days of sunny, warm weather it is chilly again with the feel of rain about to fall at any moment. We celebrated the nice weather by taking stroller walks, not even attempting to put socks on, and shopping for furniture for our screened in porch, which we suddenly could picture using soon. Today, we are responding to the cold weather by drinking bucketfuls of hot tea (me) and staying in warm, footed pjs all day (the girls). I miss the warm weather already but a day of tea and snuggles is nothing to complain about.

Following 3-4 days of completely forgetting how to sleep the girls returned to their normal sleep patterns. For Charlotte that means waking up twice (usually around 1 and 3) and for Evie it means waking up once (usually around 3 with a few 10 hour sleep stretches scattered through out the week). Based on their typical patterns we thought that Evie would sleep through the night first (I know the textbook definition of sleeping through the night is 5-6 hours straight but to me sleeping through the night means I don't have to wake up). Last night Evie did her usual 7 pm - 4:15 am and then back to sleep till 6:15. Charlotte shocked everyone by sleeping from 7 pm till 6:15 am! I think all my screaming and celebratory jumping up and down might have scared Charlotte. I also don't expect her to sleep like this again for a loooong time (I find that it is best not to get ones hopes up in these cases).

The girls have a new "baby sitter." A few weeks ago I discovered that if I lay the girls on the center of my bed, form a baby prison out of pillows, and turn the ceiling fan on they will happily watch the fan for at least 10 minutes. I now joke that the fan is their new babysitter. This development has meant that I can actually shower again. I feel a lot better now that I am able to take a shower and get dressed everyday.

Both Charlotte and Evie have become quite the talkers. They happily babble away for hours. They certainly have a lot to say. They also now squeal when they get really excited so frequently they greet Jon by squealing excitedly at him. During some story times Evie will actually stare up at her daddy with a huge smile on her face instead of screaming.

Charlotte Pictures:

Evie Pictures:

Story Time:

The house is now covered in paint swatches. They are in the living room, a bathroom, and in the stairwell. These paint swatches will probably stay up for months while I pick a color and then wait till I have time to paint. Looking forward to it!

A Special Message From the Girls

2011-02-14T06:33:00.000-08:00

A Story of Bad Sleep and Projectile Vomiting

2011-02-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

Don't worry, there are no pictures in this post. I figured no one needs visuals during a vomiting story. In general we've felt like our girls are good sleepers and we haven't had too rough of time getting through our days. For about a month I've gotten up ~3 times a night for 15-20 minutes a time, which is completely doable. Starting 3 nights ago the girls started waking up every hour. At this point I feel like a walking zombie. The worst part is that I have absolutely no idea what caused the sleep regression so I don't know how to fix it or how long it will last. Each night I am practically crying when I go to bed desperately hoping that it will be better. Everyone tells me it could be a growth spurt or they are about to hit a developmental milestone... but these seem to happen ALL the time! Images of not sleeping until the girls are 10 are flashing through my head.

Sleep deprivation will lead to you doing things that you always said you would never do. I never thought I would sleep with a baby in bed with me because I was terrified of rolling over and smooshing them. But in a state of complete exhastion I have given up numerous times and just put a baby in the bed with us. No one moves an inch while sleeping if a girl is in the bed and they sleep SO much better. Last night we had reached that point with Charlotte around 3 am. At 3:30ish Evie wakes up and starts crying. Jon was holding Charlotte so I got up and got Evie out of her crib and brought her back to bed to feed her. We had just reached the bed when she gave a monstorous burp and threw up all over me, herself and the bed. Before I had kids if you had asked me what I would do in this situation I would have said change my shirt, change the baby, change the sheets. Well... some of that happened. I changed my shirt, wiped off Evie's face (which had throw up everywhere!), changed Evie's sleeper and then I wiped off the sheet, put a burper over the throw up spot, put a towel over the burper and got back into bed. That's right... I was so tired that I decided to just sleep in the vomit. A few more sleepless nights and I might not even throw a towel over it first. Please let the girls sleep soon.

Charlotte Videos

2011-02-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

I filmed some cute videos of Charlotte today. Charlotte spent ~15 minutes smiling at herself in the mirror on her play mat. I managed to catch one of the cuter moments on camera.

I also filmed a video of Charlotte attempting to roll over.

This went on for about 5 minutes and then Charlotte started to cry. Fail attempt.

Photo Album Links

2011-02-08T14:23:00.000-08:00

I've added links to our photo albums of the girls on the right side of the blog. Feel free to check it out if you want to see even more photos of the girls (the photos that didn't quite make the cut to get put on the blog).The albums are updated at least once a week.

3 Months Old

2011-02-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

The girls turned 3 months old yesterday! The girls seem to have changed a lot in just the past few days, not so much physically but developmentally. Just like their mommy the girls love to talk. They now spend most of the day babbling and cooing away.

They are finally slightly interested in toys, emphasis on the slightly. When we put them on the play mat they will now grab at the tangling animals. In fact, one night Evie grabbed a dangling monkey and refused to let go. She was determined that monkey would go to bed with her. They still don't really seem very interested in rattles but both girls actually seem to enjoy story time now. Some nights they will stare at Jon with huge smiles on their faces while he reads.

The past two weeks the girls have been working hard at finding their thumbs. Their hands are almost always in their mouths and when the hands aren't in their mouths they are usually busy blowing spit bubbles. Charlotte has officially been deemed the queen of silly girl faces because she spends lots of time sticking her tongue out and just generally making weird faces. Evie, on the other hand, is very quick to smile. All it takes is some eye contact and a little bit of talking to her for her to bust out with a massive grin.

They were recently given their lovies (a Christmas present from Grandma) and just today Evie got really attached to hers. Everywhere Evie went today her green, bear lovie went with her. So far today her lovey has spent time on the changing pad, in the crib (sadly Evie was not napping in the crib because the girls are still nap fighters), the swing, the couch, and the activity mat. Every time I pick Evie up she has her lovey clutched tightly in her hand. This month Evie rolled over from back to front and Charlotte is probably just a few days away. Both of the girls hate being on their tummies so rolling over is usually followed by crying when they find themselves stuck on their stomachs. This month had a lot of sleep highs (including a 10 hour stretch for Evie and a 7 hour stretch the same night for both girls) and some sleep lows (a few nights ago they woke up almost every hour).

Overall it was a great month since the girls are becoming a lot more fun.

Here are the girls 3 month shots (background fabric is a quilt made for the girls by my aunt Kay):

Charlotte:

Evie:

Other shots from the week:

In case you didn't know they were twins (Evie on left & Charlotte on right):

Evie with Lovey:

Charlotte with Lovey:

Both girls with Loveys:

A Week of Cool Outfits and Getting Stuff Done

2011-02-05T16:22:00.000-08:00

I have found a huge negative to buying a house right before having twins. I look around at our house and I see so many things that I want to do to make it better (starting with painting every room) but I have no time to get stuff done. My entire day revolves around meeting the needs of two little babies and once they are in bed I just want to finish any chores that need to get done for the day, spend time with Jon and fall into bed. But certain rooms have been driving me crazy. The girls usually get fed in the master bedroom, which gives me lots of time to stare at the walls in that room. Enough time to notice that the paint job in that room is horrible. The room is two different colors... and it doesn't seem to be on purpose. It looks like the room was beige and they painted it white but ran out of paint with half a wall still beige and so they just left it. I have been dying to paint that room to give me something prettier to look at. The point I'm getting to is that this week my mom came to visit and we painted the master bedroom! It might have taken forever (a wall a day with frequent tending to the girls breaks) but we got it done and it looks fantastic! It also probably means that I will have zero desire to paint anything else for at least 2 months.

Having my mom here also allowed me to do some cooking and baking, both of which I've missed terribly. I actually made dinner from scratch two nights in a row and whipped up a batch of some red velvet fudge (I was pretty underwhelmed by this... I think next time I'll stick to the cupcakes). We also had a day that was beautiful, and warm so we took the girls for a long walk in the stroller (which due to some downed trees and snow patches involved the two of us picking up the stroller and carrying it at times). Finally, on Friday Evie rolled over for the first time to a cheering crowd. The feat must have really worn her out since she slept 10 hours straight that night (don't get too excited for us... Charlotte woke up 3 times during the night to eat).

Photos from the week:

The girls wearing sun hats that Maya bought them in New Zealand (the hats are a little big since the girls are tiny tots but they will hopefully fit by summer)

The girls wearing real clothes instead of sleepers:

Charlotte cuddling with grandma:

Charlotte in a colored giraffe outfit:

Evie trying to roll over (this was a failed attempt. I missed getting her successful try on video):

Snowed In

2011-01-26T15:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, so we aren't really snowed in. But with ~4 inches of snow of the ground and more still coming down there is no way I'm driving anywhere. So instead I spent most of the day still in PJs cuddling up with two sleepy (and sometimes screaming) girls. It wasn't a bad way to spend a day. The snow also meant that Jon came home from work early and an extra set of hands is always welcome (plus him being home meant I got to take some cute photos).

Evie spends more time in her Bumbo:

Evie has her first encounter with cat tail (it went well... no pulling):

Charlotte helps Jon get some work done:

She seems to find engineering pretty exciting based on this face:

Or maybe she just liked wearing a badge.

In other news, Evie has now napped in her crib for two days in a row. This is huge progress! Up until this point both girls have basically refused to nap anywhere other than on a person. And since I am the only one here during the day (and since no naps = serious cranky pants) this has meant a lot of days filled with sitting on the couch covered in sleeping babies for me. Her naps have only lasted an hour, and Charlotte has still refused crib naps, but we are making baby steps toward good nappers!

Starting to become interested in toys

2011-01-24T12:58:00.001-08:00

The girls have finally become a bit interested in some of their toys. We had quite a lively play session today with a few toys. In fact, it got a little too lively and Evelyn's foot (which had been frantically kicking in excitement) wound up in the bbq sauce on that was on the sandwich I was eating.

In the following pictures Evie is holding a butterfly toy with black and white wings and Charlotte is holding a blue elephant (I know it can be difficult to tell them apart).

A Lovely Weekend

2011-01-17T08:26:00.000-08:00

We had a great weekend with the girls. We finally got our pellet stove working for the first time since we moved into our house. The result was a roaring fire that looked wonderful and kept everyone feeling cozy as we looked out into a backyard that was still covered in a dusting of snow (the smell from the fire also meant that for about 10 minutes I thought our house might be on fire). There were grandparents visiting, a date night out with a fantastic dinner, chocolate cupcakes baked, stroller walks, and smiley girls.

Last night Charlotte slept from 7 pm - 2:30 am! Evie did even better... she slept from 7 pm till 4 am (that is a 9 hour stretch!). It was the perfect close to a wonderful weekend.

Fluffy Bottoms

2011-01-14T09:57:00.000-08:00

We have been cloth diapering for a few weeks now and it is going really great. During the day we use cloth diapers and at night and when we go out for extended periods of time we use disposables. Overall the girls have fewer blow outs and less diaper rash in the cloth diapers. Plus... they look super cute in them. Here is Charlotte rocking my favorite cloth diaper brand (Bum Genius)with some super cute, yet slightly too big Mary Jane socks.

And sadly our night of great sleep was a fluke... girls slept terribly last night. Oh well... one day they will sleep through the night.

Photos from our day

2011-01-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

Last night the girls slept from 7:20 pm till 3:00 am. It was glorious... we are also convinced that it was probably a fluke.

Charlotte:

Evelyn:

Notes on Month 2 of Babyhood

2011-01-10T13:55:00.000-08:00

This month we began reading an evening story to the girls before bed and it is now a nightly ritual that they cry for the entire story that Jon reads them. I'm hoping this doesn't mean that they won't be book lovers when they grow up.

The girls celebrated their first Christmas and New Years during this month. Christmas to them meant that they spent more time in a car than usual; spent the whole day being held; and wore really warm, slightly too big on them, red, velvet outfits. For us it was possibly the only Christmas where we could buy them no gifts.

This month brought an increased awareness of the world around them... which makes them delightful to watch (there is something joyful about watching such intense curiosity over very ordinary objects) and has made us frustrated parents since it has resulted in two babies that fight sleep in order to look around more.

This month also brought the first true social smile for each baby. Their earlier smiles (usually a result of gas or peeing) were adorable but their social smiles are so huge that they are contagious. The girls mainly smile at certain spots on the wall behind the sofa which causes us to joke that they have their first imaginary friend.. and boy is he/she/it tall!

The girls still grunt and they still cry but now they also make additional baby talk noises. They will sit in their bouncer or swing for hours and happily chat nonsense sounds to themselves (this is time that should be spent napping).

Night sleep has gotten a bit more consistent and we now will get a 5-6 hour stretch on lucky nights. After months of sleep deprivation even a 4 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep feels like heaven.

Charlotte:

I had a tough time choosing Charlotte's 2 month photo since she had several cute options. I finally chose this photo since her expression is quintessential Charlotte:

But this one had such a sweet expression that it was mighty tempting:

Charlotte continues to love being held and this month she spent hours happily napping in her baby sling that Jon would wear while he got things done. She loves being held and struggles to nap when she isn't in someones arms.

Weight at 2 month check-up: 9 pounds 2 oz
Height at 2 month check-up: 22 inches

Evelyn:

Evelyn has been pretty fussy this month (I will talk about a possible reason a bit further down) which left me with only crying pictures for her 2 month photo. So here is a picture of a baby that is super unhappy to be celebrating 2 months:

The doctor thinks that Evelyn might be suffering from reflux which would explain how often she spits up, crying/screaming while eating, and her general fussiness. After trying some non medication based strategies we are going to start giving Evie medication for it this evening and see if it makes a difference.

Evie picked up a nickname this month and is now referred to an Evie-beanie or just beanie for short.

Weight at 2 month check-up: 9 pounds 5 oz
Height at 2 month check-up: 22.5 inches

Moving up a size... or maybe not

2011-01-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

We had thought that Evie was big enough that she could move up to her 0-3 month clothes (since our girls were so tiny at birth they have been wearing newborn sized clothing for the past 2 months) but looking at this picture maybe not...

I have spent the entire day sticking her feet back into her outfit.

Silly Sleeping Positions

2011-01-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

Charlotte was so tired today (she has refused to nap for the past 2 days) that she slept anywhere and everywhere. Jon was putting together a bench for our mudroom and he put Charlotte on his lap while he put the bench together

Let's zoom in on that baby...

That's right... she fell sound asleep.

Then she slept for over an hour in this position:

Note: we did not force or encourage her to sleep in this position it was her choice.

Trying to Catch a Smile

2010-12-31T05:34:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks the girls have been smiling a ton. And not those closed mouth, they have gas smiles but the wide open mouthed, we are finally noticing the world around us smiles. This means that I have spent the past few weeks desperately trying to catch a picture of their cute, little baby faces in full grin. I'm pretty sure that my camera is too slow though cause I seem to always catch them just after smiling. One day I will get a smile picture... in the meantime, here are some almost-but-not-quite shots (and yes my babies are going bald)

Evelyn:

Charlotte:

First Gingerbread House

2010-12-24T06:12:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we built the girls' first gingerbread house... well their first reindeer flight school to be more exact. We ran into some difficulties, such as a leaning load bearing wall and a wall with windows that was put on the wrong direction. But everyone had a lot of fun putting it together and decorating it. Basically anything that looks like Charlotte and Evelyn could have actually done it was completed by me or Jon. Any area that is actually well done (like the wreaths over the doors) was completed by the more artistic Sarah and Greg.

Our Backyard This Morning

2010-12-15T04:55:00.000-08:00

Normally when we look out at the bird feeder in our backyard we see some cardinals and maybe a wood pecker. This morning we were surprised to see something different.

Sorry about the bad picture quality... if I opened the glass door to get a good shot I would have scared them away.

Preparing for Christmas

2010-12-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

On Saturday the girls met Santa for the first time. We aren't 100% sure what they asked him for but we think Evie might have asked for an unlimited milk supply and Charlotte might have asked for a pony. Since the girls haven't been vaccinated yet, and Santa touches lots of kids, we didn't really want Santa to touch the girls. So... we asked Santa to do this (Evelyn on the left and Charlotte on the right):

Santa has twins of his own so holding two baby carriers at once was no sweat for Santa. We know that he has twins because the Meet Santa event was thrown by one of my Moms of Multiples clubs so everyone there either has twins, or triplets. It was great to be at a party where twins were the norm instead of an oddity. Plus we learned a few things. One mom taught me how to carry both carriers in one hand.

We also decorated our Christmas tree and hung a few stockings over our mantle (cause we have a mantle now!).

Don't worry those itsy, bitsy stockings don't belong to the girls - their stockings just haven't been hung yet. We also took advantage of the Christmas tree to take our first photo will all 4 of us - I can't believe it took us this long to take one (Charlotte is in my arms and Evie is in Jon's arms)!

Babies First Snow Day!

2010-12-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

This is the view from our front window today:

And the view from our back door:

Having spent the last decade in a city that gets no snow I was ecstatic when I noticed the snow (it took Jon calling me from work for me to notice). Maybe later I will bundle the girls up and take them out to enjoy the winter wonderland (if I can find enough warm clothes for me to wear) but for now Charlotte is curled up in her favorite sleep position and enjoying being cozy and warm.

And Evie and I spent a lazy morning watching the snow fall down.

Notes on 1 Month of Babyhood: Evelyn

2010-12-09T08:40:00.001-08:00

Evelyn is our drama queen. Since we first heard her cry after delivery we have known that she has quite a healthy set of lungs on her. Once she starts crying she quickly gets herself worked up and has the angriest sounding cry that seems incredibly distraught over the unfairness of life. Her cry is actually so dramatic that we find it funny at times and can’t help but laugh.

She is a big eater (making up for her time in the hospital when she was too tired to eat) and would probably eat all day if we would let her. She almost always has her fingers, or sometimes her whole hand, in her mouth and is happily sucking away. Despite her having a very loud and angry cry she is a pretty content baby most of the time and will happily gaze around at the world as she sucks away at a hand, finger, pacifier, or the top of her blanket or outfit.

Evelyn loves motion and singing. So when she gets fussy what works best is to walk around while holding her and sing (she doesn’t care what you sing and she doesn’t care if you sound horrible). My mom spent lots of time singing the song” Hush Little Baby” to her, which Jon says is setting Evie up for big time disappointment since he isn’t going to buy her a billy goat or a diamond ring.

Evie is a big fan of her bouncy seat and she’ll sit there and kick at the toys on the console. Every now and then when she feels like not enough attention is being paid to her and she will give out one loud, high pierced shriek, as if to say “hello! I’m over here.” Despite her personality being a bit spunkier, she is usually an easy baby at night and will sleep some pretty nice stretches at one time.

Progress this Month:

- Found her thumb
- First Bath
- Good head and neck control

Notes on 1 Month of Babyhood: Charlotte

2010-12-09T07:07:00.000-08:00

Charlotte is our cuddle bug. When she cries it usually means that she wants someone to hold her. Once you pick her up and place her on your chest she will promptly pull her legs up into “frog position” and fall asleep. It is very rare that this will not completely stop her tears. She is a quiet baby who loves nothing more than to sleep the day away… sadly she struggles a bit more with sleeping at night.

After the first two weeks of life the pediatrician was worried about Charlotte’s growth and we had to bring her in at 4 weeks for a weight check. Turns out that in those 2 weeks our girl grew like a weed… 1 lb and 1 oz gained! She is starting to get some chubby chipmunk cheeks that only make her look cuter. She now weighs around 7 lbs and is finally filling out her newborn clothes.

You can never predict what silly nicknames a baby is going to wind up having and Charlotte wound up with a crazy one. We now call her Char-Shark on occasion (for the way she looks when preparing to eat)… a nickname that I’m sure she won’t appreciate when she is older. I hope for her sake that this nickname doesn’t stick but right now it is definitely our go-to nickname for her.

Charlotte loved swinging in her baby swing this month even if she really didn’t fit in it well and had to be propped up with blankets. She also would be pretty happy on her back on a blanket on the floor. She would practice rolling from side to side and happily grunt to herself. And this baby does a lot of grunting. I never knew babies could be so noisy when they weren’t crying but Charlotte is constantly loudly grunting and groaning.

Progress this Month:

- Found her thumb (on around day 3… seriously this baby is going to be a genius)
- First Bath
- Good head and neck control

I Actually Accomplished Something Today!

2010-11-29T14:31:00.000-08:00

Ever since the girls were born no matter how long my to-do list is I end the day with only one thing accomplished ... feeding babies. Breastfeeding twins isn't hard exactly but it is ridiculously time consuming and it is impossible to do anything else (other than watching tv or chatting with someone) while feeding them. But today I finally accomplished something (two things actually since I did a load of laundry). I have officially planted a bunch of bulbs in the yard in order to have a beautiful display come spring. Evelyn put on her warm clothes and came out to help:

Charlotte got all dressed up to help but then fell asleep instead (are you noticing a theme of Charlotte sleeps a lot?):

The flower bed doesn't look like much now but I'm sure it will look beautiful come Spring.

Tummy Time

2010-11-27T16:03:00.000-08:00

The girls each work on tummy time at least 5 minutes a day with Jon. Well... Evie works during tummy time, Charlotte uses tummy time as an excuse to nap.

Evelyn Catches Up

2010-11-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

Evelyn caught up to Charlotte just a few days later and had her first bath. She hated it...

Charlotte has learned to love her baths though so we hope that Evie just needs some time.

1 Week Photos

2010-11-18T13:44:00.001-08:00

Well... the girls aren't that great at taking weekly growth shots yet but here are their 1 week old shots from Sunday.

Evelyn

Charlotte

We still have trouble telling them apart but we don't think they are identical so it might get easier as they get a little older.

Small Babies

2010-11-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

If the babies are too small to see over the entertainment console of their bouncy seats are they too young to be in them? According to the manual the answer is no... but they sure do look funny.

Milestone Reached: Charlotte's First Bath

2010-11-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

Charlotte's umbilical cord has finally fallen off (Evie is lagging a little behind on this) so today we got to give Charlotte her first bath. She hated the being naked part of bath time so she sobbed the entire time that she was exposed.

Once she was out of the bath and wrapped in a cozy towel with a hood she calmed right down.

Overall bath time wasn't as bad as I had feared but I don't know that I'm excited about the next one.

What Not to Wear

2010-11-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

Evie should be on an episode of What Not To Wear here. Between the polka dots on her sleep sack, the stripes on her hat and the squares on the rug she is a mess of patterns.

Bear Bottom

2010-11-14T10:18:00.000-08:00

Ignore me in this picture... I'm looking a little haggard. Instead focus on Charlotte's cute bear butt.

Birth Story

2010-11-11T12:55:00.001-08:00

I was planning on writing about the nursery, the amazing in-person/virtual baby shower and take my big 37 week belly post. It was pretty clear that all of these things would have to wait (I promise to write about all of them at some point) when my water unexpectedly broke on Sunday evening just after dinner. We rushed out of the house, forgetting almost everything we needed (cell phone chargers, tooth brushes etc), left the garage door wide open and left a bunch of lights on. We also still had a giant exersaucer in the trunk of the car that we had been unable to get out previously because of a tight fit in the garage which meant that the car door couldn't open enough to get the exersaucer out. This meant that while I was sitting shivering and wet in the front of the car my mom was frantically carrying an exersaucer to throw in the house at around 8:30 at night. I'm sure that it was a pretty funny sight.

We arrived at the hospital where my OB confirmed that my water had indeed broken and that we would be performing a c-section that evening. It took awhile for me to be admitted, my lab tests to be run and me to be prepped for surgery but before I knew it they were wheeling me into an OR. I had been terrified of the c-section and started shaking badly from the moment my water broke but by the time we reached the OR I really just wanted it to be over with. After I received my spinal (which I thought was far and way the worst part) they begun the surgery. The spinal works so well though that I had no idea that they had even made an incision until the anesthesiologist looked over the curtain and told me that he saw a foot. While Jon stayed on the same side of the curtain with me almost the entire time he did pop up with the camera in order to get the very first pictures of the girls coming out into the world.

At 11:14 pm Baby A entered the world followed one minute later by Baby B. The doctors had a lot to say about Baby B's birth because apparently she was quite spunky when they took her out. She grabbed at everything she could, including her own cord, on her way out and then started screaming her head off. Her are their first pictures (warning: while there is nothing graphic in these shots these are not our girls at their prettiest):

At this point I had heard the babies cry and I had heard the verification that they were girls and that they were "huge", I had not seen the babies. Jon left to go with the babies to get cleaned up and I thought I would meet them all in the recovery area. I was actually surprised when the OR door opened and in came my babies.

Next we went to recovery where the nurses took measurements of the girls and I waited around to feel my feet again. Charlotte Mae (baby A) weighed 5 lbs 9 oz and was 17 3/4 inches long. Evelyn Jane weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and was ~18 3/4 inches long. Charlotte scored an 8 on her Apgar Score at 1 minute and a 9 at 5 minutes. Evelyn scored a 9 on her Apgar test at 1 minute and a 9 at 5 minutes.

Both babies were clearly doing great and joined us immediately in our hospital room (the hospital I delivered at only does rooming in and has no nursery). While the girls were perfectly healthy, they were 15 minutes and 16 minutes too early to be considered full term and so they needed lots of extra tests (glucose monitoring, a car seat test, etc). So far the girls are doing great (with some minor jaundice and feeding issues). We are ecstatic to have them home with us.

Now... if only we we could tell them apart without their hats on.

Graduation Day

2010-11-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

Today the girls officially graduated from the high risk doctor and we will never have another appointment with him. Cue the graduation music (note: ultrasound photos are old):

Both babies look great and he has absolutely no concerns. The weight estimates were 6 lbs 10 oz for big Baby B and 6 lbs 5 oz for little Baby A. Hopefully this means that I will make it to my scheduled c-section (which would allow for lots more unpacking to be done). My mom got to attend this appointment with me and came to the conclusion that it is impossible to tell what anything is during a medical ultrasound.

Week 36

2010-11-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

How far along? 36 weeks
Sleep? Has actually been a bit better! Might be due to exhaustion from how busy we have been getting the house in order.
Food Cravings? I actually haven't really been hungry lately... maybe there is no room for food.
Belly Button in or out? Definitely out
Signs of Labor? Still some contractions
Worst Symptom: Definitely the carpal tunnel fingers. The first 10 minutes when I wake up and try to bend my fingers is the worst part of my day.

Here is the 36 week belly shot:

This year for Halloween I was a painter and Jon was a builder (Maya wanted me to dress up like a sumo wrestler but that wasn't going to happen). So we didn't actually dress up as a painter or builder... but it was what we spent the weekend doing. I was hit by a late pregnancy burst of energy and so after a lot of begging Jon's parents and Jon allowed me to help with the painting. All was going great until I forgot how far out my belly sticks now and stuck it right into the wet paint. Whoops.

The nursery painting turned out really well. The room was already white with one pink wall so we skipped primer and went straight to no VOC paint. That stuff is amazing. We painted for hours with no ventilation and couldn't smell anything. The nursery is now a nice pale, soothing green and looks great.

Jon spent the weekend putting together some new furniture. We have a rule in our house that I am strictly forbidden from putting together furniture. This rule stems from the IKEA dresser I built that collapsed and the file cabinet where I put together the frame so badly that the drawers never fit in. Whatever gene makes people good at assembling furniture I am missing it. Jon is particularly adamant that I not put together the cribs... or think of even putting them together... I probably shouldn't look at them wrong either. So this weekend Jon started in on the dresser/changing table and wow does it have a lot of pieces! Here are all the pieces thrown all over the guest room:

Today I had another OB appointment. The doctor wound up having an emergency at the hospital and so I had to wait for ~45 minutes. This wound up being great because sitting in the lobby for 45 minutes resulted in a normal blood pressure reading. Yay! I also received the results of my 24 urine test and they were normal. Unfortunately Baby A didn't do very well on the NST or the ultrasound. I think she was just having a really good nap but they shocked her 4 times (this boor baby sure gets shocked a lot!) in order to verify that she was reacting appropriately. My next appointment will be on Thursday with the specialist. At this point I am still hoping to make it to 38 weeks, would be happy if I made it to 37 weeks and wouldn't bawl my eyes out if the girls came anytime after Wednesday. Fingers crossed that I can make it to 38 weeks.

Happy late Halloween from two happy homeowners!

We Bought a House!

2010-10-29T17:39:00.001-07:00

Finally our long home finding/buying process is over. The whole process took us longer than we thought it would (I'll admit that I was naive and thought we might find THE house after only a few home tours). Here are some rough numbers:

# of Houses Visited (not including visits where we looked at a house for a second or third time): ~35-40

Number of Houses Looked at Online: Over 150

Every morning I would look at any houses that were new on the market, add them to a spreadsheet and make a pros and cons list.

We literally looked at every house in Severna Park and Arnold that were a) in our price range and b) the number of bedrooms & baths that we wanted. We wound up having to look in a completely different area because there were 0 houses left.

Number of Houses we Tried to Make an Offer On: 3

The first house was converted to a short sale (at which point we promptly dropped out), the second one was pulled from the market right before we made an offer because the sellers had decided to rent the house instead. The third house... that one is now all ours!

Here are some pictures of our first place:

The Drive In

Front of the House

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen (sorry it is messy... photo was taken during our walk through before the seller had cleaned).

Den off the Kitchen

The house also has an enclosed porch, 4 bedrooms, and a basement rec type room. I'll take more pictures once we have furniture moved in and have decorated a bit (so probably in ~1 year). We did have a chuckle over one item the seller left behind. On some built in book shelves they had left one book. I got really excited since I'm a HUGE reader. Only to find that it was a US History book. I hate US History and I'm horrible at it (I've been known to miss every single US History question during Jeopardy). Jon and I joked that it was sign that I need to brush up on the subject. Here it is... my sign from the Universe:

Tomorrow the nursery painting and new furniture pick up begins!

The Return of the Jug

2010-10-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

That's right my old friend the 24 hour urine jug is back:

When I showed up to my weekly OB appointment my blood pressure was around 168/96! I know... holy smokes! Of course I immediately started freaking out that a) they were going to want me to deliver immediately or b) that I was going to have a stroke at any second (I'm not a very rational person). The babies both looked good on the NST and while it showed that I am contracting a lot more than last week, I am making no progress (which is good since I don't want to deliver yet). My OB used an ultrasound to check the fluid levels of the babies (which were fine) and then had me rest on my left hand side for ~10 minutes to get another blood pressure reading. For the record I check my blood pressure at home several times per day and it is always fine. When the blood pressure check came back at 120/73 I felt very vindicated. My OB admitted that this probably means that I'm right about my high blood pressure being caused by going to the doctor's office but is still having me do a 24 hour urine collection and blood work just to be on the safe side.

House Update: We did our final walk through today and everything looked great. We are still on track to close tomorrow morning at which point I will be able to post a picture of our new place and some "before" shots of the nursery. Jon and I will then attempt to put together a nursery as quickly as possible. Despite how late we will be starting on it I still have big plans for the room... including paint. Unfortunately since I can't move very well at this point my painting will mainly involve me sitting in a chair thanking Jon and my in-laws for painting the nursery for me. Thanks guys! I still will probably try to paint a little while sitting down... we'll see how it goes. Everyone cross your fingers that tomorrow's closing goes well.

Why Having Girls Could Be Dangerous for the Wallet

2010-10-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

I can tell already that having girls is going to be dangerous. The problem is that while I think little boys are cute, I don’t think little boy clothes and accessories are all that cute. This would make it a lot easier for me to only buy the basics. I have discovered that girl accessories, particularly girl headbands, bows and barrettes make me absolutely melt though. I mean seriously, how ridiculously precious are these:

I need someone to hold me back and keep me from going crazy buying head pieces! This one isn’t girl specific (I would definitely be going crazy over this one if we were having boys) but I have never wanted to be good at crocheting as much as when I first saw this:

Is it wrong to dress your baby in animal hats when it isn’t Halloween?

How do I stop myself from going crazy buying this stuff? Maybe I should just learn how to crochet. Does anyone reading have crochet skills? If so, how long did it take you to develop these skills? Are we talking months of practice or years?

Image Credits: Ridiculously Adorable Hat image found here, Awww Inducing Headband image found here, Giraffe Hat image found here.

Week 35

2010-10-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

How far along? 35 weeks
Sleep? Still snoring...
Food Cravings? The potato chip cravings are back (which would not make my OB happy since I'm supposed to reduce my salt intake). Or maybe the Girl Scout cookies that Jon surprised me with last night.
Belly Button in or out? Definitely out
Signs of Labor? I'm definitely having some contractions. They might be Braxton Hicks since they don't hurt... they are just uncomfortable. I definitely have them several times a day but there is no pattern to them. I asked my OB if I should be worried about having contractions right now and he said that with a twin pregnancy at 35 weeks they expect me to be having contractions.
Worst Symptom: Some days I actually still feel really good (I made it through a 2 hour Ikea shopping trip on Sunday. Although, Ikea is an easy place to shop while pregnant since when you are in the showroom there are chairs to sit on all over the place. I sat on ALOT of different chairs so if anyone wants a chair recommendation just let me know). Other days I really feel like I've hit a wall and I'm just beyond ready to be no longer pregnant.

Here is the 35 week 1 day belly shot, which was taken a day late because of some excitement that postponed taking my picture last night:

The excitement last night was not baby related. At around 9 pm last night the smoke detectors started going off (there was no smoke in our apartment). The smoke detectors for the entire building are linked so when one activates anywhere in the building they all activate. One of our cats was good and came to us when the alarm went off. This would have been very helpful if they actually needed to be evacuated. The other cat heard the alarm and ran straight under the bed. In trying to get him out I actually got stuck half sitting and half laying on the floor and needed Jon to come rescue both me and the cat! We went outside to wait for the alarms to be turned off and heard from other residents that the alarms used to go off a lot and the fire department just had to come and reset the alarm. Unfortunately when the fire department arrived we watched them hook up a hose and start using a piece of equipment that sounded like a vacuum on the second floor and it was pretty clear that this was an actual fire situation. To make a long story short, well shorter, we spent an hour sitting in our car waiting for the alarms to be successfully turned off. It took awhile for the alarms to be successfully reset, we think because the smoke on the second floor kept causing them to go off. It made for a very exciting evening!

Comments from Strangers

2010-10-25T12:44:00.001-07:00

The comments that strangers now make to me just get better and better. Today while shopping at Michaels (I'm having a second energy spurt for nursery related crafts projects) the lady at the check-out counter looked at me and said "wow... how many babies do you have in there?" I didn't know whether to be impressed that she had figured out that it was more than one baby (most people have just thought that I was going to go into labor at any second)or to cry because I've gotten THAT big. I think I need to find the nearest clothing juniors section and start trying on sweaters asap to make myself feel better.

Adventures in Dr Appointments

2010-10-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Due to a really tight scheduling week at the specialist's office I wound up with 2 different baby Dr appointments yesterday. At 7:00 am I met with the specialist for my monthly growth ultrasound. The girls both looked perfect and we were given estimated weights of 5 lb 6 oz for baby A and 6 lbs for baby B. If these weights are correct (which I actually doubt that they are) I am currently carrying around over 11 pounds of baby! However, in talking to other moms of multiples it seems like these growth scans tend to overestimate the weights. Out of everyone I talked to only 1 mom was given an estimate that was too low and for most moms the estimates were off by a pound or more.

At 1:30 pm I had my second appointment with my regular OB. My blood pressure was high again but given that my readings are fine at home, and only my top BP number is increasing they didn't seem too concerned. This appointment wound up being a bit of a marathon session. They decided to do a Biophysical Profile on me this week, which combines an ultrasound evaluation with a nonstress test (NST) to determine fetal health during the third trimester. Like most of the tests that I go through the only reason I needed the test was because twin pregnancies are considered high risk (I'm seriously grateful every day that we have excellent health insurance because all of these tests would really add up... especially since for every test we are charged per baby. Sadly, I have not found a buy one get one 1/2 off coupon). The NST scan went fine except that it turns out the nurse was accidentally monitoring baby A twice and baby B not at all... whoops. Next they did a quick check of my cervix which is still looking great. The problems came when we moved to the ultrasound portion of the test. During the ultrasound they are looking at 5 fetal attributes that they score as "normal" or "abnormal." The attributes they were looking at were breathing, movement, muscle tone, heart rate and amniotic fluid. The girls looked great on all of these except for one... neither of them were moving. They still had heart beats and were breathing so at no point did we think that either baby was dead, but the Dr didn't want me to leave without him seeing movement.So, we did the following:

1) I chugged a juice box and was scanned again a few minutes later. Baby B responded to the sugar and started moving. Baby A did not.
2) They continued to scan Baby A... still nothing.
3) I was taken back across the hall and re-hooked up to the NST machine to monitor baby A.
4) 10 minutes later still no movement.
5) The doctor shocked poor little baby A with a buzzer and baby A finally started to move.
6) Dr was satisfied and finally let me go home.

The bad (although not unexpected) news that came out of this appointment is that both babies are still breech and transverse respectively. While there is still a slight chance that they could turn, it is looking more and more likely that I will be delivering via c-section. I was really hoping for a vaginal delivery so I'm extremely bummed and really trying to psych myself up for a c-section.

In really exciting news I had heard that some insurance companies would cover the cost of a breast pump. I took 5 minutes and called up our insurance company and they will pay for breast pumps (counts toward your durable medical equipment allotment for the year) as long as it is "medically necessary," meaning if my doctor writes me a prescription. I checked with my OB yesterday to see if there had to be a medical reason why I needed a pump for him to write me a prescription (such as a cleft palate, problems latching, etc) and was told that he had no problem writing me a prescription regardless of how well the girls are breast feeding. Yay! This will save a ton of money! It was definitely worth the 5 minutes of my time spent calling the insurance company.

In exactly one week we are scheduled to close on our new house. Fingers crossed that nothing disrupts the closing and that I can keep these babies in for at least another week. Even if we wind up bringing the babies home to a house cluttered by unpacked moving boxes we still really dream of being able to bring the babies home to our first house instead of a corporate apartment.

Week 34

2010-10-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

How far along? 34 weeks
Sleep? Still fine... still snoring like crazy
Food Cravings? Now that it has gotten colder and the leaves have started changing I have gotten really into baking (and then eating) the Trader Joes' mixes. The pumpkin bread one is outstanding, the gingerbread one is yummy and the truffle brownies are great!
Belly Button in or out? Definitely out
Signs of Labor? I don't think so... but my NST last week did show that I am having contractions (very small ones)
Worst Symptom: Definitely the finger joint pain (typing and writing are really painful)

Well it has finally happened... I have failed to fit into a restaurant booth. This past weekend Jon and I went out for breakfast (side note: I had the most heavenly sweet potato pancakes) and it was at an old fashioned diner type place. While I did wind up fitting into the booth it was a major squeeze. I had to sit at a slight angle, couldn't put my napkin on my lap and had a mark on my belly afterward. Jon joked that I should have saved some butter from my pancakes in case we needed to grease my belly to get me out of the booth (turns out the butter was unnecessary).

This morning I interviewed a prospective pediatrician and I'll interview one more this Saturday. I really think this practice that I saw today will be the one though. They are located really close, use electronic medical records, have 2 lactation consultants on staff and a breastfeeding help phone-in line, and I got a good vibe from the doctor and the office. They also answered my very long list of questions to my satisfaction.

After running errands this morning I really felt like a hot beverage (it is very overcast and drizzly out today) so I decided to swing by Starbucks for one of their fall drinks (I got decaf of course). The 3 women baristas freaked out when they saw me (I have not had a single stranger attempt to touch my belly but strangers do squeal at me about how cute pregnant ladies are all the time). We started talking about pregnancy and how I'm actually having twins and they gave me my drink for free! It was such a surprise and quite a feel good moment. The manager walked by and the employee told her "this lady is having twins! I'm giving her a free drink" the manager looked at me said "wow... good luck" and then told the employee to give me two free drinks. I left with my yummy fall beverage and a huge smile on my face. I love Starbucks.

Here is the free drink inspiring belly shot:

Shopping in the Juniors Section

2010-10-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Sarah Faul and I spent an afternoon taking in the sights at Baltimore's inner harbor. This mainly consisted of us walking around for 5 minutes and then sitting on a bench for 10 minutes while I worked up the energy to walk another 5 minutes. We spent a lot of time in the Barnes & Noble (seriously the coolest building I have ever seen a bookstore housed in), which even had a fish tank in it. We were seriously tempted by the dragon boats but I really doubt a life vest would fit me at this point and I had these visions of me falling out of the dragon boat and sinking like a ton of bricks (weight wise I have quite a bit in common with a ton of bricks right now). This was probably serious paranoia on my part since I am a strong swimmer but I figured the dragon boats would still be there when I'm no longer pregnant.

We also did a bit of shopping where I stumbled upon a fascinating discovery. While browsing at Filene's Basement I saw a really cute sweater in the Junior's section. I thought about getting it but I've been trying not to buy any post-baby clothes since I have no idea what weight I will end up at. Sarah took one look at the sweater and told me that since the sweater was so long she thought I could wear it now. I tried it on the whole time thinking "please don't rip"... and it fit! I'll admit I did a silly little happy dance in the dressing room when I realized that I could fit into a non-maternity sweater from the Junior's section.

I give you the miracle sweater (from this angle I don't actually look that big):

And... the money shot:

Week 33

2010-10-13T05:35:00.001-07:00

How far along? 33 weeks (well 33 weeks and 2 days thanks to how late I'm writing this)
Sleep? Pretty good but I'm really congested so I'm snoring like crazy. If Jon was answering this question he would probably say horribly thanks to the snoring.
Food Cravings? I've been eating a ridiculous amount of ice cream lately. Flavor doesn't seem to matter.
Belly Button in or out? Definitely out
Signs of Labor? I don't think so... I have been feeling some increased pressure.

5 Reasons that I Am Ready to Not be Pregnant Anymore:
1) This one might not be pregnancy related but I really hope it is. I've been having a ton of pain in my finger joints, particularly when I wake up in the morning. At the beginning of the day bending my fingers is agony. I think it might be related to pregnancy swelling.
2) I get exhausted and have to sit down ridiculously frequently. I've reached the point where I can walk for 5 minutes and then need to rest for 10.
3) I really want to be able to wear shoes with laces again. Yep... I dream of being able to tie my own shoes (don't I dream big?).
4) The back pain.
5) Not having this HUGE belly anymore. We are trying to guess when I will have gotten so big that I won't be able to drive anymore. Right now I have ~1 inch between my belly and the steering wheel. I might be able to scoot the seat back a little bit and still drive safely.

What I Will Miss the Most When I'm Not Pregnant: Feeling/watching the babies move. Right now watching my belly is better than watching tv. I just sit there and watch my belly move and dance.

Here is this week's belly shot:

Pregnancy Survival Tip of the Week

2010-10-11T10:08:00.001-07:00

I get weekly emails from the Baby Center that tell me what I can expect that week, any big milestones the babies should make that week (this week they are losing that wrinkled alien look... way to go babies!), anything that I should do that week, and at the bottom of the email there is always a pregnancy survival tip. This was today's tip:

"Pregnancy survival skill: How to get out of a soft chair

Put your feet flat on the floor and bend from the hips. Push on the armrests with your hands! Use your stomach muscles. If upward motion is still elusive, pick up your magazine and yell for more mint-chip ice cream. (Standing up is totally overrated anyway.)"

Yep... substitute "mint-chip ice cream" for whatever ice cream we happen to have in the freezer and that pretty much sums up my pregnancy right now.

Week 32

2010-10-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

How far along? 32 weeks
Sleep: Pretty good lately
Food Cravings: I've been eating a ridiculous amount of ice cream lately. Flavor doesn't seem to matter.
Belly Button in or out? Definitely out
Signs of Labor? Nope... I don't even think I'm having Braxton Hicks contractions.
Worst Symptom this Week: How heavy my belly has gotten.

Here is this weeks belly shot:

In other news... the pine tar soap has made me believe in miracles. Everything I read and everything the Dr told me had led me to believe that I would just have to deal with the PUPPPs until delivery... and believe me delivery feels a long way away when you are constantly itching like crazy. But... after using the pine tar soap several times a day for about a week and a half the rash and itching are both completely gone. It seriously shocked me. I had read online about how great this soap worked for all sorts of skin reactions but I really only tried it because I was desperate and figured that when it didn't work I would only be out ~$3.

I had another OB appointment today (they now see me once a week) and it went really well. No ultrasound this time so I have no idea if the babies are still breech or not. Instead they performed a Non Stress Test. As an FYI I know that in singleton pregnancies these are only done if they suspect something is wrong or if you are overdue but with multiples they do them fairly frequently (I will probably get them every week) just because the pregnancy is high risk. So, what is a Non Stress Test? According to the American Pregnancy Association, "The test involves attaching one belt to the mother’s abdomen to measure fetal heart rate and another belt to measure contractions. Movement, heart rate and “reactivity” of heart rate to movement is measured for 20-30 minutes." So basically, my appointment was me reading a magazine for 20 minutes. Both babies passed with flying colors. Baby A even showed off her hiccups... that's right she had the hiccups. It was pretty cute.

Let the Betting (I Mean Random Guessing) Begin!

2010-09-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

We thought it would be fun to set up a baby pool where everyone could put in their guesses for things like the day the babies would be born, weight, hair color etc. Once the babies have arrived we will calculate an official "winner" who will win bragging rights for being the most in sync with our babies. The baby pool entries will be put in their baby books to remember all the crazy predictions. The baby pool website was completely unable to handle twins (here's hoping Jon and I are better at it!) so we had to create 2 separate baby pools. For each baby you can log a guess for the following:

1) Birthdate
2) Birth Time
3) Weight
4) Length
5) Hair Color
6) Eye Color

A few notes:

- Hair and eye color predictions are for hair and eye color at birth. No one can claim they actually won the poll if at age 3 Baby A's hair changes from blonde to brown.
- You can feel free to use data posted on my blog as much as you want. This can include information such as estimated weights, whether an ultrasound tech thought they had hair or not, and the date of my scheduled c-section.
- The baby pool will be locked, meaning it will not accept any more guesses, on November 1st. I am in denial that the babies will come any earlier than that. If they do come earlier please do not enter any "guesses" once you have actual birth info.

Without further ado I give you...

Baby A's poll

Baby B's poll

Jon and I spent some time guessing at this stuff for the girls' baby books and we had lots of fun (we also guessed on categories like "future profession," "hobbies," and "favorite color."). Hopefully everyone will enjoy guessing as much as we did! Feel free to pass along the pool link to anyone that wants to take a guess.