First birthday party

Last Saturday we had a birthday party for the girls here at the house. Granny and Grandpa Vogts came, along with Great Grandma Vogts, Aunt Linda and the boys, Aunt Karen, Uncle Carl, and Nathan, as well as Grandma Bingham. A full house to be sure.

Mommy did a great job getting decorations and making the cakes:





Little girls also had special party dresses, again thanks to Mommy:





We had a little lunch, including what could affectionately be called the "feeding trough":



And then, of course, we let them loose on the cake. Thanks to Mommy, each girl had their own, personal cake to go crazy on; however, they were both a little tentative with them. They got into it some after a while, mostly preferring the icing to the cake, but not to the degree one might expect.





And then on to presents!





They got a lot of great presents, a couple of "ride on" pink horses, an indoor slide from Grandma Bingham, a pop-up activity center, a pink train/block set, a pink wagon/block set, lots of clothes, several books, and probably lots more I'm forgetting about right now. Thanks to everyone for the great gifts.

But of course, like most little babies, boxes seemed to be the most popular gift:



Well that's all for now, we'll see you....Wait! NINJA VANISH!

Wow. It's been a year -- What can I say?
It brings such strong emotions when I think back on the last year.



We are so incredibly blessed to have our two beautiful daughters. They are absolutely a gift from God that we treasure every day.

Megan, with her thoughtful approach -- you can tell there's a lot going on in her little head! We nicknamed her early, "High-Maintenance-Megan". She always wanted held, always wanted to sleep on daddy's chest. She was the smaller of the two, and still is to a lesser degree. I was most worried about her development, but she's quickly proven that there's no need for concern.
She started out shy with strangers, but has since come out of her shell. She's the light sleeper, the one most likely to wake in the night.


Kayla started as the out-going one, always looking to make a new friend. As she's grown, she's become more reserved with strangers. But in the comfort of her home, she'll dive right into anything, no fears in that little girl there! She sucks her thumb when she's tired, screams if she doesnt get what she wants and her smile is the biggest little smile!
She often wants whatever her sister has -- and takes it from her. But if Megan takes something from her, she tends to take it right back.


They each have their own personalities that are developing more each day. It's so exciting to see them growing up! But at the same time, I want to keep them my little girls forever.


Happy Birthday, my little miracle babies! We love you more than you'll ever know!

One Year Old

Today is the girls first birthday. They celebrated by getting up at 6:30, having a little milk, playing, soiling a couple diapers, and then taking a nap.

In lieu of any fantastic new tricks or accomplishments, then, we'll post/repost some old pictures, to pseudo-document the past 12 months.


Baby's first night. We were up at 4:30 that morning to get into Wesley in time for the 7:52 birth, and it seems like it may have been close to 11 or 12 by the time they got us all squared away and in the recovery room so that anxious Grandma's could come see us. We had several other visitors that day, and IIRC this picture was taken at some point that night, while Jenn was asleep. Note the caps lack the "A" and "B" labels, something the nurses in the nursery took to doing that night to tell them apart, a habit we kept until well after we had them home (changed to Megan and Kayla of course).


We took a lot of pictures of the girls when we were still at the hospital, obviously. These onesies are probably newborn size, and still just falling off of them. The tracker things under the mesh kept falling off by the second day.


First day home from the hospital, sleeping in one of the pack and plays. We had two; one in the living room and one in our room, where the girls slept at night, for perhaps the first month or so. Jenn was on "night duty" for the most part, and probably didn't sleep more than 4 hours at a stretch until December. Lucky for us, the girls started sleeping through the night at around 3 months.


Girls at 3 months old. Seems like maybe I broke with the usual "Kayla on the left" convention in this picture as well for some reason.


Dresses that Jenn got online I believe.


In pink KU outfits.


Able to sit up by themselves.


Around 4th of July.


Getting into mischief, around 10 months old.


More mischief, closer to 11 months.


And of course this morning, officially 1 year old.

Good thing we're not having any birthday parties today, that nap didn't work out so well. Tried to put them down twice during the writing of this, it's apparently just not going to happen. Oh well, such is our life now. One final shot to end the official One Year Old blog post:

Just a couple random pictures...

Every morning, the girls like to "help" daddy put on his shoes. Shoelaces can be great fun, you know!

He brings his shoes over to the couch and like moths to a flame, the girls hurry over. They start by picking up his shoes, then move on to tugging at shoelaces.
It's a fun morning ritual. Well, the girls have fun, and I have fun watching it!
(Megan is standing, Kayla is sitting)



The girls don't have daddy wrapped around their little fingers -- nope, not one bit! But after all, who can resist those little faces when they look up at you with their hands out and mouths open...Megan won this bite!



And finally...who can pass up pictures of the girly-girls sleeping....complete with Kayla and her thumb!

Oops...Bad Mom Strikes Again!

Not too long ago, I was looking after the girls while Mike wasn't home.
Well, I thought I was looking after the girls...

We have them pretty well fenced into the living room. Loki, our dog, has learned to go over the end of the couch at the end table to get in and out of the fenced in area. His food dish and water bowl are in the kitchen, safely outside the gated area of the living room.

Unless, of course, you THINK the gate is latched, and it isn't.

I heard Loki eating his breakfast. I didnt worry at first, until some internal alarm went off, and I realized Kayla wasn't playing behind my chair, like I thought.

Loki was indeed eating his breakfast. I found it entertaining, and took a quick picture. Kayla was taking handfuls of dogfood, dropping it on the floor, and Loki was cleaning it up.


Then she looked up.

That's the picture I don't have -- because her little cheeks were stuffed full of dogfood, just like her little fists! I took 5 or 6 pieces of dogfood out of her mouth, amidst her vocal objections. I wish I'd clicked the picture first.

I guess I'm not such a bad mom after all, eh?

Eating is an Adventure!

I wish I had pictures of tonight's adventure in apricots.
But alas, I don't.
So you'll have to settle for these!

Eating has become more of an adventure, when we have the patience. We're trying to give them more "big girl food" and let them feed themselves when we're at home. Of coures sometimes, this results in more of a mess than others.
When we go out to eat with them, we keep things neater.
Or at least we try to....

They do enjoy meal time!

Megan was enjoying her carrots tremendously!



Kayla, though, had had enough. Eating is tiring work, you know!

I dont know how you do it.....

It's a very common thing people say to us. My typical response is that I have a VERY supportive and involved husband. It's accurate, honest and satisfies the curiosity of most random people who see us out in public and inquire.
But the fact of the matter is, I'm blessed with very supportive and involved family, friends and caregivers.

We've figured out a lot of ways to do things out of necessity. When they were little, I'd set them in two infant bouncy seats - the little sling-like seats that vibrate and bounce and play music. I could feed them both at the same time that way.

But they're bigger now, so we've graduated to letting them hold their own bottles and holding them. My mother has it down pat!


She never ceases to amaze me!
Thank you to all our friends and family who have helped us out.
And a special thanks to you, mom, for giving your granddaughters your time for all those months. We're all so lucky you were in a position to care for them for so long and we can't thank you enough!

Rock Chalk, Baby Talk

11 Months and counting. Girls continue to do great; walking, as previously mentioned, has been almost completely mastered, and both girls continue to add to their repertoire of tricks as well. Included so far are "wave bye bye", "fishy face", and the ever popular "blow kisses", though it's just the kissy noise and not the hand motion so far (but we're working on it).



Random picture of the girls in cute outfits that Jenn really likes. This may be the last "girls sitting in the pink recliner" picture that has so far been a staple of their portfolio for a while, as getting them to sit still for the picture was almost impossible. Little girls have minds of their own now, and they are not going to put up with any shenanigans from mommy and daddy, thank you very much.

The way they play with things has noticeably improved as well. One thing in particular they have learned is to "make" their own rattle, by taking a small toy like a block, and putting it in something bigger, like a hollow block or cup, then walking around shaking it. I even caught Megan doing this on her own, unprompted, the other day, only to then witness Kayla start searching for her block/cup. It's almost like a big, black monolith appeared briefly in the living room one day when I wasn't looking.



Also improving greatly is their vocabulary, such as it is. They both have known "ma-ma" and "da-da" for a while, though it is a title the dog has shared as much as mommy and daddy have for the most part. "Ba-ba" has also been quite popular, but again, describing pretty much everything from the TV to the geopolitical climate of Italy. New sounds are starting to show up however, "sh" and several others I could not hope to reproduce in print.





Girls eating habits are also changing. Both, but in particular Megan, are definitely wanting to start feeding themselves, so we are slowly moving away from baby food to "people food". Many things like shredded cheese and Cheerios have already been on the menu for a while, but lately they have been able to easily handle peas and diced carrots (without needing them cut/mushed up), dried fruit bits, small pieces of meatloaf, pieces of cereal bars, and even some of mommy's birthday cake last night. Much to Loki's delight, of course.

Big adventures this weekend, not so much for babies but for mommy and daddy. A brief run-down:

- Friday evening, met James and Tricia at Sumo for celebration of Jenn's birthday, and to partake in our new favorite past-time, "Tell James Horror Stories of Parenthood". Grandma Ruth was kind enough to babysit, with the help of one of the neighbor girls, who will undoubtedly be called upon for this task many times in the years to come.

- Saturday, myself, Mom and Dad went to the KU/Duke football game, while Jenn met up with Linda and Aunt's Kathy, Barb, and Paula for a craft fair in...Hillsboro? Marion? One of those two I think. Grandma Ruth was once again nice enough to watch the girls, along with Aunt Karen I believe. Long, hot days for both mommy and daddy.

After the game Granny and Grandpa Vogts stuck around for pizza, to see the girls for a while, and just generally help make our lives easier for the evening.





That's all for now, bye bye!

No stopping them now

A few new videos up on the Youtube Channel, including a couple of the girls walking. These videos are a couple weeks old though, and believe me, the "walking" demonstrated by the girls in those videos pales in comparison to what they are capable of now. In seemingly a weeks time we've gone from 2-3 timid steps then flopping into waiting arms, to girls walking from a chair to the bouncer, turning around, picking up a toy, and bringing it back to you. The progress is almost scary; I keep expecting to wake up one morning to find the car keys gone, $40 from my wallet missing, and a note on the kitchen counter reading "Went to Burning Man, back around Tuesday".

Some pictures as well, of course.





Girls enjoying frozen grapes, our official "Gee wouldn't it be great if you stopped crying for like 5 minutes" snack.

Jenn the other day made another Twin Challenge post; some behind-the-scenes pictures demonstrating the challenge of getting such pictures at all.







We are preparing for the girls first birthday, which is another way of saying "We have remembered that it is upcoming and have a vague recollection of the date depending on how much sleep we're working on". They should be in prime form come a month from now, walking with ease and quite willing to terrorize and lay waste to any populace to which they are exposed. Prepare yourselves.

Another Twin Challenge

Without the hair as a clue - can you tell who's who?
(Pardon the rough editing -- I wanted to remove the clothing as a clue as well.)