Wordless Wednesday 4/21/10 - Sleeping Beauties

Wordless Wednesday 4/14/10

Shameless Plug

Anyone who spent any time around me when we were pregnant with the girls no doubt heard me express my concerns and fears.  They were not unfounded, as we had multiple risk factors involved.

Twins often come early.
I fully expected to be delivering the girls early.
I expected them to spend weeks, if not months, in the NICU(Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).
In fact, when there was an early indicator around 31 weeks for possible preterm labor in our future, we were given steroid shots to boost the lung development of the girls and give them a better opportunity should they arrive early, since babies that are born early often have underdeveloped lungs.

Our girls didn't arrive unexpectedly.  Our girls did not have underdeveloped lungs.  Our miracle babies were born as planned at 38 weeks, with no NICU time required, in perfect health, fully developed.

But premature delivery is often a bump in the road for many babies.  Sometimes it's more of a rocky road or even a ridge of mountains.  Medicine has advanced greatly over the years, and many babies born prematurely can be treated for things such as underdeveloped lungs, for example.  March of Dimes is instrumental in advancing this area of medicine. 


I follow another blog, The Wilson Triplets.  The family is raising money for the March of Dimes as part of the annual March for Babies Walk. Won't you take a moment to stop by The Wilson Triplets blog?  The triplets are as cute as can be and the parents are excellent photographers and writers. 

And while you're visiting, please take a moment to follow the link to their March of Dimes team site.

The Wilson Triplets' mother has a goal of $960 -- $10 for every day one of their daughters stayed in the NICU, a successful journey, thanks to medical advances directly resulting from research and development by the March of Dimes.

Please consider sponsoring them, so that future babies can have even better opportunities for good health. 
Thank you for allowing me to shamelessly plug a charitable fund raiser.

(And no, we don't feed Megan bottles of mustard -- but it was in the fridge at just the right height for her to take while she was "helping" mommy in the kitchen)

 

Wordless Wednesday 4/7/10 - Girls on the run

Wordless Wednesday - 3/31/10

Megan, Kayla

Megan, Kayla

Kayla

Megan

Girlies on the Go!

The girls are always on the go!  We still keep them corralled in the living room area, but let them come with us into the bedrooms and the kitchen whenever we go there.
Mike installed the safety latches on the under sink cabinets, so the girls won't be creating a Cascade sand pile, or getting into any potentially harmful substances.
The biggest problem though, is convincing them that Loki's water bowl is not for them to play in, and his food is not yummy.

Kayla

Megan

Kayla and Megan

Both of them have a fascination with lifting things bigger than they are, at every opportunity.  In this case, they emptied the clothes out of the basket, or at least most of them, then tried to carry the basket.  At least they took turns!

Kayla and Megan

Megan and Kayla

Of course they still have the fascination of getting in things....together....

Megan and Kayla

Megan, also known as Mighty Megan, sometimes forgets she's little.  Here we catch her attempting to lift a kitchen chair.  She tried HARD -- pulling back and making her strong face.  But she finally gave up ....

Megan

...and climbed on top of it, instead.

Megan

And both of the girls have become big helper girls.  Most of the time they like to help by bringing us things we ask for, or putting things in the trash, or giving a sippy to their sister.  Of course we have to be careful because putting things in the trash is fun!

Kayla and Megan

I can't believe they're almost 18 months old!  Little girlies are growing up!

Wordless Wednesday

First Haircut -- and First Haircut 2

The girls were born with a lot of hair.  Of course a day must come when that hair has to be cut.  Who knew it would be one night when I was giving them baths.  While it was wet.  Too short.  I couldn't share these at the time, because it was very sad.  Mommy does not have a future as a hair stylist.   At least I only cut the bangs!  And it grew out.  I inflicted this shortness of bangs on the girls last November.

Kayla

Megan

They both had some long tails of hair on either side in the back.  The middle sections in the back weren't going to catch up, and it really needed cut.

Kayla

So when I finally accepted that it was time to trim up their hair all over, we took them to a professional, to get it done properly.  I sure wasn't going to risk doing a too-short bowl cut on more than just their bangs!

We went to The Hair and Shampoo Center because they advertised a certificate for a child's first hair cut, as well as a special room with special chairs.  The east side location we went to had a room painted like an ocean, with animal chairs.  Each station had a dvd player - the girls watched Elmo.  Unfortunately, my camera's batteries died after one picture.  We had to resort to pictures with cell phones, which didn't all come out well.

Megan on a frog in the ocean!

Kayla watching TV on a frog in the ocean!

Kayla with her sticker and her new 'do!

Megan, going shopping after her haircut.

It was actually a painless and tear-free experience for all of us.  And yes, we got certificates and snippets of hair as well, to commemorate their first ocean haircuts!

Happy Valentine's Day! (Hey, don't look at that calendar)

I once told my husband for the first year, I intend to spoil the girls rotten.  For all we endured to get from point A to point B, I was going to celebrate the journey to the girls for a year by spoiling them with clothes.

 Kayla and her bunny, gifted by my friend Marilyn

The girls were gifted with a lot of clothes - some of which became my all time favorites.  I appreciate every one of them!  But of course, I wanted the thrill of picking out some outfits for them myself.  After all, I'd looked forward to that experience every since childhood.  Well, at least high school...

 Size-sorting and detagging gifted clothing in preparation for the girls' arrival 

I distinctly recall walking through a department store with my mother when I was a senior in high school, passed the baby clothes.  I stopped at a rack of cute baby dresses.  When mom inquired why I was looking, I asked her what she thought about my starting a hope chest with baby clothes in it. After all, seniors received a free Lane cedar chest so I wanted something to put in it.    She quickly explained the cedar chest was more of a jewelry box size, not a hope chest size, and then went on to explain why buying baby clothes at that time for a hope chest probably wasn't the best idea for her college bound daughter with no marriage prospect at the time.  My mom is smart.

Ebay was my friend.  The mail carrier probably hated delivering our mail for all the packages.  But hey! a bargain is a bargain!  And the girls' clothes drawers did overflow.  Every holiday they had not one outfit, but probably 2 or 3 outfits each.  Don't get me started on Christmas outfits -- let's just say it was a lot more than 2 or 3 each.

So in February the girls were 16 months old.  And I had no Valentine's outfits for them.  I waited until they were on clearance, and then snagged two matching tops and two different pants -- which fit perfectly with my preference of matching their clothes without making them wear the same exact outfit.  On sale no less!  yay me!  But then I didn't get a decent picture of them in their outfits.  oops!

Kayla (left) and Megan (right) in their Valentine's outfits

Megan (left) and Kayla (right)

Kayla, showing her belly  outfit

After all, I can still spoil them with clothes for the holidays, right? Isn't 16 months still in the first year?  

Superdad

This past Sunday Jenn had some month end stuff to do in the office, so the girls and I spent the afternoon/evening together. Good day overall; we wrestled around on the floor, watched a lot of Dora, the US/Canada gold medal game, and I think the Science Channel was even running a "Planets" marathon of some kind.

Around 4:30 or so Megan was stinky, so we went and changed her diaper. She wasn't having any of it, trying to wriggle out of her sleeper, kicking like crazy, but eventually we got her all zipped up. We went back to the living room just in time to see the US/Canada game go to overtime, and during that break we ate an early supper. Girls ate theirs, I washed each girl up and set them back in the living room, first Megan then Kayla. When I set Kayla down I noticed a spill of something on the carpet, figured Megan must have spilled a bit of sippy or the puppy got too excited for some reason, didn't think much of it and just dabbed it up.

Girls by then were happy to watch some more Dora, so I nuked a Hot Pocket or something and ate while they played. Somewhere around 6:30 or so we started getting tired, so I grabbed Megan and started making ready for a bath.

I had her sleeper completely off before I realized that she wasn't wearing a diaper. I double checked the sleeper....No, it wasn't in there. I looked around on the floor....Nothing there either. I must have stood there for a good 5 minutes, unwilling to admit the truth to myself, but finally came to terms with the fact that my daughter had been running around the living room diaperless for the better part of 2 hours, wearing only her sleeper. Evidently I had just forgotten to put one on during the last eventful diaper change. And yes, that was her "accident" on the carpet that I had blamed on the dog.

I got pretty lucky all things considered; no poopy, and only the one accident. They were rolling around everywhere on the living room floor; had she been water-logged it could have been a nightmare. Really though, if we would have started a "When will Mike forget the first diaper" pool before October '08, I'm guessing the heaviest action would have been way before ~17 months. I feel pretty good about beating the odds.

In non excrement-related news, things continue to chug along nicely overall. As Jenn mentioned I was laid up for quite a while thanks to my back, but seem to be on the mend and can at least get around and function. No surgery, but PT and a couple of epidurals, seems to be working so far. Girls are growing as always, we seem to be just about on the cusp of really breaking through in speaking. The "backpack" and "map" portions of Dora in particular elicit very familiar sounds. We can also sign "please" and "more" like pros, walk in and out of daycare on our own, locate Mommy, Daddy, Kayla, Megan, Grandma(s), Grandpa, and Loki with no problem, find toys by name, and just in general, our sentences are becoming more than a string of "dat dat's".

Let Them Be Little

"Let Them Be Little"

[Originally written and sung by Billy Dean]

I can remember when you fit in the palm of my hand

Felt so good in it, no bigger than a minute

How it amazes me, you're changing with every blink

Faster than a flower blooms they grow up all too soon

So let them be little 'cause they're only that way for a while

Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day

Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle

Oh just let them be little

I've never felt so much in one little tender touch

I live for those kisses, prayers and your wishes

Now that you're teaching me things only a child can see

Every night while we're on our knees all I ask is please

Let them be little 'cause they're only that way for a while

Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day

Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle

Oh just let them be little

So innocent, a precious soul, you turn around

It's time to let them go

So let them be little 'cause they're only that way for a while

Give them hope, give them praise, give them love every day

Let them cry, let them giggle, let them sleep in the middle

Oh just let them be little

Let them be little