Archive for the ‘photo’ Category

I’m not sure just what it is that this child does in his sleep for his head to look this way when he wakes up. This picture taken after his nap the other day. I swear, I did not do anything to enhance his “nest”, this is exactly how he looked when he woke up.  We’ve dubbed Brady, the Bedhead Master.

Thank you Laura for this great idea. You should go check out her Year in Pictures too.

January

Solid foods officially become a part of Blake & Brady’s daily routine, time to move up into the high chairs.

February

Gavin turned 5.  Two days after this picture we had a huge party with friends and family at his favorite place, Pump It Up.

Blake & Brady are 6 months old.  In an attempt to save some money, I took their 6 month photo myself.  They were very cooperative and had fun sitting in the basket.

March

I think this was the last time the boys all laid still long enough for me to get a decent shot of the 3 of them.  After this, their newfound mobility would not allow them to sit still for more than a few second.

Both Blake and Brady cut all four top teeth at once. That’s 8 teeth! Ugh, we were all miserable that week.

April

Blake and Brady are officially hooked on Baby Einstein videos.

May

Blake and Brady are introduced to Jungle Java for the first time and they have an absolute ball! 

Gavin graduates from preschool and we have a fun picnic at the park with his class & teachers.

June

Gavin goes to work with Dave.

Dave drives Niklas Kronwall in Detroits Stanley Cup Parade.

We attend a Stanley Cup party at Dave’s work.

July

Blake and Brady turn one year old.

August

My dad visits from Texas. The last time he was in Michigan was for my wedding in Sept 2003. It was so wonderful having him here.

We take our 2nd road trip to my sister, Renee’s in Indiana. This is as we were pulling out of the drive way to head back home.

September

Gavin starts kindergarten.

Gavin joins the mini-mites hockey team.  This was his first day.  Three weeks later, he was skating like he was born to skate.

The Stanley Cup comes to our house for a visit.

October

We all enjoy a family day at the park.

Blake and Brady are introduced to Great Wolf Lodge for the first time.

Gavin is the Incredible Hulk for Halloween, his most favorite holiday ever.

November

My great aunt passed away and Gavin & I go to Northern Michigan for her funeral.  This was taken at the Mackinaw Bridge before heading home.

I reach that 40th 29th milestone birthday.

December

We attend Dave’s company Christmas party downtown. Gavin had fun skating on the home ice of the Detroit Red Wings.

Our Christmas family photo.

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. Happy New Year!

This picture of me was taken Easter 1972 at my grandmothers, I was 3 and a half. I have vague memories of this day. I do remember though, that the boy standing next to me lived next door to my grandma. He and I played together often when I visited my grandma. I remember I had colored him and egg and he colored me one. We had exchanged our eggs for one another when this shot was taken. I remember I loved my Easter dress. I always loved dressing up for Easter. My ensemble always included a white bonnet, white patent leather shoes, white gloves and even a little white wicker purse.  You don’t see ensembles like that any more at Easter time. I’m not sure if it’s that the tradition is lost or that those things just aren’t “of the times” any more. At any rate. I loved it.

Indiana trip was fun. What would normally be an easy 3.5 hour drive turns into about 6 or 7 with the twins. We left early Thursday afternoon at naptime. Blake and Brady were asleep with in 15 minutes and remained sleeping for nearly 2.5 hours.  During that time we managed to travel across the state of Michigan from Detroit area to Benton Harbor before the boys woke up.  Once in Benton Harbor, we stopped for lunch, dinner, “lunner.”  We did some more stretching by walking around the local Wal-Mart.  It was over 2 hours before we hit the road again. Arrived at my sisters around 7:30pm. We gained an hour since she lives in central timezone.  It was a fun visit. The boys had a blast. No problems (last time Brady got sick and we had to take him to emergency).  Renee and I got out Friday night. Went to see the new movie Mirrors, it was pretty scary. Had both of us watching it through her sweater.

On another note. I was going through some old boxes and came across an old cell phone I used to have.  It comes from the early days of consumer cell phones.  My husband thought it was one of Gavin’s play phones. He was shocked to discover that this thing actually worked. And I thought I was cool when I had it, as cell phones weren’t nearly as popular back then as they are now.  I remember purposely calling people so that I could be seen using it. LOL  I wish I remember what the ringer sounded like. I remember when it would ring, I’d look around to see if anyone noticed. Like “yep, that’s me, that’s my cell phone, I’m cool, I’m important.”  The darn thing about took up my whole purse.

I always tell people the best thing about co-sleeping is those morning smiles. Well, the best thing about co-sleeping with twins?? You guessed it.. double the smiles. Here is what I wake to each morning around 8:30am:

After morning time at the breast in bed.. it’s time to get up and start the day. Every morning the boys hang out in their bouncy seats or on the dining room floor and keep me company while I wash baby bottles and load the dishwasher. Mind you I’m usually standing on the other side, I just thought this was a cute angle.

After our morning chores, it’s time for breakfast. Some cereal and fruit.

Then it’s play time. A baby blanket on the floor just wasn’t cutting it for the boys to play on. The pak-n-play just seems so small for these two to play together and I needed to protect my expensive floor rug, so here you have it.. I threw a queen size blanket on the floor, and now my living room is one big play pen.

After playtime, it’s time for the first nap usually around 10:30ish. This is when they get one on one breast time. While I’m nursing one, the other is in his bouncy at my feet patiently waiting his turn.

About an hour and a half later, this is usually how I find them. I sometimes wonder what they talk about.

I’ll nurse them both again, then it’s playtime again.

or maybe even some nakey-butt time.

This is when they get their first supplement bottle, usually about 6 ounces of formula, and recently I’ve started adding the mid-day solid meal. Late lunch/afternoon snack of veggies and fruit.

Then it’s time for 2nd nap, usually around 4pm. This nap usually lasts till about 5:30ish.

Afterward, it’s the one time I usually tandem nurse.

Although, this particular day, they were more interested in grandma and what she was doing with the camera.

They get another supp bottle around 6:30pm, then dinner of some cereal, veg, & maybe fruit.

More evening playtime and breast time.

At around 8:30pm the lights in the living room are dimmed. We put their jammies and overnight diaper on, maybe a few minutes of laptime to settle into a sleepy mode and then a bedtime bottle around 9pm.

Then breast all night. If either wakes before midnight, that’s Dave’s tour of duty to parent them back to sleep. The first feed waking is around 12:30am(ish). Then quite often, each child is up every two hours, but alternating hours. Which means I’m up every hour. If they wake at the same time, Dave will come in and comfort one while I nurse the other.

So that’s our day in a nutshell.. it took about 6 months for that routine to emerge and it still isn’t quite consistant but I’m flexible. They still call all the shots. I think that’s what keeps them so happy.

Last Sunday marked the twins half-year birthday. Six whole months. With twins that’s like already a years worth of diaper changing. A years worth of sleepless nights. A years worth of breastfeeding and bottle feeding. And it’s also a years worth of toothless grins, belly giggles, cuddle time and oh we can’t forget, that irresistable, intoxicating new baby smell.

They’ve already cut their first tooth and the second is in the works. I read that identical (MZ) twins tend to cut teeth around the same time. Yep. It was within 4 days. Surprisingly though, I thought for sure Brady’s would cut first, he was just so miserable. But it was Blake’s that came through first.

They’ve flip-flopped traits so many times it’ll make your head spin. Just when I think I’ve got their personalities all figured out, they switch on me. I’ll tell my mom “They’ve switched bodies again,” just to give her a heads up. What a godsend it has been having her around. She still comes to help me just about every day. Except weekends or days Dave has off work. I think I’d go insane trying to handle it all alone. Sure I’ve had days that I was on my own, but it’s not every day that I am. Sometimes just having her presence here is calming and comforting to get me through the day. The thought of being able to have adult interaction on a daily basis is about pure bliss for me at this point.

They had their 6 month well-baby visit on Tuesday. The weight gap between them is wider still. Blake weighed 20lbs 1oz and Brady 18lbs 3oz. Both are 29 inches. I’m baffled at the weight gap. They pretty much eat the same. There may have been times that Brady doesn’t quite finish his bottle and Blake does. But it’s not often, and then it’ll be the opposite other times. So I can’t figure it out. You can’t really notice the weight difference yet. But if you were to pick them up, you notice. Most people still can’t tell them apart. I get a lot of the same question, “How do you tell them apart?” For me, it’s just looking at them. They simply just look different to me. Although I admit, there are days that even I can’t tell them apart. My husband, and most others look to one distinct difference. It has to be pointed out to notice, but it’s a sure way to tell who’s who. It’s all in their left ear.

 

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=0cVlTeIATBs]
That is what it’s like around here. And I’m not talking about the babies. I’m talking about their big brother. He makes that sound over.and.over.and.over.all.day.long.it.never.ends. I know it’s probably for attention. And maybe he doesn’t realize he’s doing it. I’ll look him in the eye and say, “I see you, will you please stop making that noise?” or I’ll just come out and ask him “why.why must you make that noise?”  He and I went on a date tonight. It was nice to take him out. We went to the community college and participated in the Build-a-Book event that was taking place. We had a lot of fun. Gavin’s book was about none other than Superman. We still have a couple pages to finish.

In other news. Today, my first born turns twenty. It was twenty years ago today that he made me a mommie for the first time. As quickly as it went, it still somehow seems like a lifetime ago. It was a different era in time for me back then. I’m so proud of him though. Very very proud. So Happy 20th Birthday Ray!!! I love you very very much!

Man am I bad at this or what? I’ve made a resolution to post at least twice a week. Not only for my loyal readers, but for myself as well. There’s so many things I’ve missed out on. Posts that would have been “posts to remember” had I just taken the time. Time.. time for what? I don’t have time these days. The twins were both sick over the holiday. Santa couldn’t even show up here until close to 2am because the babies were keeping us all up. The day after Christmas I took them to the doctor. They both had an ear infection and a sinus infection. Today was the last day of being on antibiotics.

The weeks leading up to Christmas, I kept arguing with my sister about her being here for Christmas Day. She’s in Indiana. She moved away 4 years ago and I hate being apart from her. She kept insisting that they couldn’t afford it this year. That she needed to work. Christmas Eve I talked to her and told her to please come, that she needed to be here for Christmas, needed to be ‘home’ for Christmas. We cried. She wasn’t coming until the day after Christmas.

Dave and I took Gavin and our sick little guys to Dave’s moms for a fantastic Christmas dinner and gathering. Then we went to my moms for more Christmas fun, including what will be the first annual ornament exchange. We went home with the ugliest ornament ever. I tell you that one’s going back in the exchange next year. As soon as I got to my moms, my older son told me to follow him to his room so that he could show me what he got for Christmas. His bedroom door was shut. He opens the door, and standing there is my sister. I screamed. I hugged. I cried. She surprised me. Everyone knew she was coming, it was all a secret behind my back. It was great though that she was here. I swear she’s my soul mate.

Dave and I did manage to get out for New Years Eve. Thanks to my mom and my aunt Susan. We didn’t get out the door til after 10pm, but it was nice to get out nonetheless.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2008 is a year fulll of love, family, faith and happiness for everyone. Below is our Christmas Holiday Card picture. The hands you see are my moms and aunts holding up the babies while I took the picture. My mom helped to hand make the elf hats out of felt. I’ll have to post more from this photo shoot later. Oh, and we also “elfed ourselves.”

Sunday marked the official end of another NaBloPoMo, another failure on my attempt that’s for sure. However, I did do somewhat better than I did last year. Last year I think I posted twice the whole month. This year a whopping 13 posts for the month. That’s almost a record for me really. The toughest part for me was not wanting to make every post be about the babies. But in reality, that’s all I got for now. The babies.

Speaking of babies. They went in for their 4 month well-baby visit. I can’t believe it’s already been 4 months. The first year is already a third of the way over. Anyway, for the first time since I was just 11 week pregnant, they are significantly different in weight. They’ve always been within 2 or 3 ounces of each other.  Blake tipped the scale at a whopping 17 pounds 5 ounces. He is huge folks, huge.  Brady is 11 ounces under him at 16 pounds 10 ounces.  Both are above the 90th percentile. It amazes me how big they are getting.

As I mentioned yesterday, we [myself and my mom] took the twins to Sears to get their 3 month photo taken [though technically they’re 3.5mos]. I was nervous, they probably sensed that. Whenever my mom and I take them out it’s always a chore, always. This time they were quiet and slept during the car ride there. Once in the mall, they were still sleeping. Normally they are fussy and anxious to get out of their carseats [which are part of the whole stroller travel system] and mom and I have to carry them and the stroller becomes a carry-all with no babies in it. So this time we HAVE to take them out of the carseats and wouldn’t you know it, they are sound asleep. They’re always so suspicious at any stranger. One of the photographers got to close to attempt to make friends and Brady instantly started screaming. We did manage to get a couple cute shots with decent faces, but this one truly describes how the whole ordeal went. Hoping the 6 month picture goes better. We’ve got 3 months to prepare.