Archive for the ‘twins’ Category

I’ve been wanting to get this post done for quite some time now. Blake & Brady’s birthday was on July 27th. So many things get me side tracked. And just when I think I can sit down for at least 20 minutes, something happens to keep me from it. That and the fact that I’m utterly addicted to some of the FaceBook games and when I sit at the computer I tend to gravitate towards them rather than post here.

My two little guys have turned 2 years old. I can’t believe that just 2 years ago I held theses to “not so little” babies in my arms.

During the past week I’d been getting ready for a big Mom-to-Mom sale. Since the twins are the last children I’ll have, as they grow out of things I can get rid of them not thinking “I should probably keep this in case we have another baby.” I tend to be a hoarder with stuff like that. I come about it honestly. My mother was always one of those “we might need that one day” kind of people. But since becoming a mom of multiples, it means multiples of stuff. Stuff everywhere. We still have boxes of stuff from our move 19 months ago that haven’t even been opened. I often wonder, if I haven’t missed it in 19 months, would I ever miss it at all?

One thing I do miss, that I can never have back, is my babies. Today, while packing up for the sale, I picked up a tiny tiny pair of little baby booties. One of them could literally just fit over my thumb. I actually began to well up inside. My babies are gone. Those little tiny beings that use to curl up in a little ball on my chest are now running through the house and talking and trying to escape every saftey obstacle I put in their way.

I knew the twins would be my last. And I swear I’ve tried to cherrish every single moment. I try hard to not miss a thing. I’ve relished every milestone. And even though I know there’s so much more of them yet to come. I still miss their infancy. And oh.. oh.. oh.. that smell!!!!

They’re on-the-constant-go toddlers now. Forever investigating every little thing. They’re imitating real life things now. One of their favorite things is to help me clean. They won’t let me craddle them anymore. But they will sit on a lap for a story couple pages from a book.

I can’t help remembering how tiny and helpless they were just 19 months ago. And as I sold their baby stuff in the sale today, every article that exchanged hands, I relived the memories that went with it.

Last Thursday night around 2am Brady woke up screaming. This wasn’t his usual “check to see if mom’s paying attention” cry. But more of an urgent cry. As I walked through their bedroom door, that’s when the fog hit me. It was the unmistakable odor of vomit. I took him downstairs to clean him up. Change his jammies and offer a sip of water. Not wanting to wake Blake up, I just layed with Brady on the full mattress on the floor in their room. He snuggled right up and went quickly back to sleep.

That was the beginning of a long night and what was soon to be a long week. Brady continued to throw up almost every half hour to 45 minutes. Every time he’d start to whine and do his “death roll” in the bed, I knew it was coming. I must have changed his jammies 3 times. I layed a huge beach towel down under him and grabbed a stack of recieving blankets from the closet. Blake slept soundly through all of this.

At about 6am, Blake started to stir and whine in his sleep. He didn’t sound too good. I picked him up and then suddenly “BLECH!” He’s throwing up. Most of the day Friday they weren’t keeping much down. They were only getting liquids all day. Just little sips every half hour until they could keep it down. They were miserable Saturday, Sunday and on Monday, the diareah started. They were on plain liquids again yesterday and so far neither has had a dirty diaper. I’m hoping that means it’s about out of their systems.

I felt so sorry for them. Blake’s fever went up to about 103F. Both of them have been clingy and irritable for several days. They’re still not running at 100% and I miss my happy babies. This morning they were back to fighting over the same toy, even though there’s a duplicate toy nearby.

Here’s a picture from Saturday afternoon of my recuperating boys watching their favorite Elmo video.

 Blake & Brady turned 18 months yesterday. A year and a half has flown by. They have their 18 month well-visit on Friday. They most always end up weighing the same and measuring the same.  I also scheduled for both of them to have tubes put in their ears. In the last 6 months alone we’ve battled way too many ear infections. They finally saw an Ear, Nose & Throat doctor last week and yes, they both have fluid in their ears.  I’m nervous about it of course but, I know it’s a routine procedure and it is going to benefit them so so much. I’m anxious to see if they start hearing better and as a result start to really talk more. They do talk a little, but I’m looking forward to seeing if the talking really picks up after the tubes are put in. I’m also anxious to see if it makes nights any better. Surprisingly though, both boys slept about 11 hours last night. Brady woke up once, but I didn’t have to put him back to sleep, he just kind of stirred, fussed and then found his bear and went back to sleep.  It’s been a long time, if at all, that we’ve had a full nights sleep.  It’s always one of them that needs to be comforted back to sleep.  And during an ear infection, it’s a nightmare.

Gavin turns 6 next week.  Last year, before his 5th birthday, whenever we wanted him to try a new food, or just do something he’s not used to, he’d say, “When I’m 5 I can do that” or “When I’m 5 years old I can eat that.”  We’d tell him all the time that he’s going to be quite a busy boy when he turns 5.  Well, needless to say, he’s going to be a busy 6 year old too.  In school (kindergarten), he’s starting to learn greater than and less than. And I think he’s beginning to catch on because the other day I wanted him to try some swiss steak my mother had made and he said, “When I’m 13 I can eat that.”  Seems he’s learning he can buy himself a lot more time by going with higher numbers. At least I know he’s paying attention in school. Kids are so much smarter than we give them credit for.

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!

I have done it. I’ve crossed that line. The one I swore I wouldn’t cross until the twins were at least 3 years old. I gave them french fries from McD’s. And from the moment the fry passed through their lips, they were hooked. Brady looked at me and with eagerness in his eyes, he said, “mo, mo, mo” all the while frantically making the sign for ‘more.’  Blake, he’s a little more nonchalant about it all. He’s so happy go lucky about everything. He’ll take the fry and walk away with this little happy swagger of his.  Then the other day, Brady is in his high chair with a fry in his hand and he kept motioning toward my plate. I couldn’t figure out what he wanted. I offered him a bite of what I had but he insisted it was something else he wanted. So I picked up my plate and had him show me. And what did the child do? He dipped his fry in my ketchup.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween.

The twins birthday was quite a hit. My guest list was over 50, including kids, and that’s about what we had and then some. We had a Luau theme. Our 30in. deep pop-up pool was packed with kids. We even borrowed my brother-in-laws moonwalk. The kids had a blast, the adults had a blast. The twins? I suppose they had a good time. They were miserable for part of the day though. They were so off routine and they do not do well when they are off routine. My sister was in town for a few days so the craziness continued. It took a couple days to get them back on routine. Even now, a couple weeks later, we aren’t still quite right. Seems we’re still running about 90 minutes behind.

I can’t believe it’s been a year already. I actually survived. I’m still breathing, though barely, and more importantly, Blake and Brady are still breathing. I’m still amazed some days that I have two babies, who are now officially toddlers. They’ve been walking since about 11 months. They both weighed about 22lbs at their one yr well-baby visit. We’re still breastfeeding. Though night weaning is well at hand and is going rather well, however they still wake a couple times at night for comfort even though “Mom’s Diner” is no longer a 24 hour establishment.

Just when things seemed normal again, then it was time for my dad to visit. Last time he was here was for my wedding back in September of 2003. He lives in the Houston area and drove up last Friday. It was so nice having him here for four days. I don’t get to see much of him and with every visit it seems I get closer and closer. I really missed him after he left.

Going to Indiana later this week. Mom took the train out there to my sisters and she needs a ride home. So I get to spend a few days with my sister again. Looking forward to “getting out of dodge.”

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.