Return flight peekaboo

Baby flight 8 in 17 months :) (end of our fourth round trip)

Maybe next year we will take a real vacation? ;)

17 Months!

17 months! almost a year and a half!? Are you kidding me?? The girls have really grown this past month. All of a sudden - besides being TODDLERS and not babies, ever moreso - they've just filled out a bit, perhaps the only babies on the proverbial block to be (slightly) chubbier as toddlers than they were were as infants. According to the scale at the St. Louis children's museum, they are about 19.5 and 20.5 lbs now - a huge jump on the growth chart - but they won't get "officially" weighed for a few more weeks.

And tall! They're getting so tall. I think theyre close to 31 inches  I think 12 month might be our shortest lived size. Just 2 (ok, maybe 3) months after outgrowing their snug-fit cotton 9 mo pjs, we're starting to reach the ends of the 12 mo ones. Still plenty of room in their fleece pjs, but wow! I think it is safe to say they're a solid 12 mo size right now, but we cheat in baggy 18 mo shirts from small brands like the Kohl's Sonoma and Jumping Beans and Target's Circo because they're seasonally appropriate hand-me-downs (& they need the length). They can still squeeze into a lot of 9 mo onsies, but we really don't bother. I don't like to work to get the kids snapped in; a little baggy is easier.

They're SO clearly learning new words every day - elbow, knee, toe, and Emily in the week before Christmas. And they suddenly are taking interest in the TV. I guess it is time to turn it off when we don't, uh, need it for entertainment (the whole no-screen-time thing? went out the window when we both needed to get ready for work and they were no longer happy wacking rattles on the floor).

Amusingly, they still love the jumper (probably because unlike a few months ago, they're heavy enough now to really make it bounce) and will sometimes bounce "together" (one in it, one outside of it). Quinn in particular loves to dance, and while they both like books and frequently "read" to themselves or demand you read to them, Avery is particularly obsessed.

They're eating is improving (though I admit they're suckers for baked goods, especially Avery), but they still get a lot of their calories from milk, probably 20+ oz a day most days. We probably need to offer a more varied diet, but that's a project for all of us for the new year. They eat better at daycare than at home a lot of the time....power of peer pressure.

Sleep has been good, knock on wood and all. They sleep 7:30-6:30, give or take 30 min on either end, most of the time (unless sick, then it all goes to hell), and usually nap 11:45-1:45, give or take 30 minutes. 

17 months today!

More to follow!

1 day of Christmas

Love.

2 days of Christmas!

Christmas Eve dinner

3 days of Christmas

Flying to Grammy's

4 days of Christmas

Merry Christmas from grandma and grandpa!! Our own chairs!

5 days of Christmas

Practicing unwrapping

(Clearly it is hard to get a photo of two toddlers and their prized box)

6 days of Christmas

I thought these dresses would be corny, but I sort of love them in....in that corny ugly sweater way :)

8 days of Christmas

I am so behind!

I finally got and hung one of the photos from the girls' one year old pictures!!

7 days of Christmas

Given the amount of amusement this cereal box provided, I think Santa has an easy job this year.

9 days of Christmas

Tonight the girls opened their first Christmas gift, a package from a cousin in Texas. They did pretty well with the wrapping paper, so Christmas has promise.

Perhaps more entertaining was dinner though...

10 days of Christmas

Thankful for our babies.

They're thankful for Super Why ;)

11 days of Christmas

What do you get 16 month olds for Christmas? This is probably the last year they're too young to "get" Santa and such. And they don't need anything except maybe some new clothes (and I think their grandparents will get some toys).

So far we're thinking of getting them a new basement wall so they can play in the basement without hurting themselves on the furnace et al, and probably a carpet for down there too (it is unfinished, and will remain so for the foreseeable future).

For the meanwhile...

So far they've been fine with the tree. I haven't risked a wrapped present underneath though.

I am in love with our stockings. And have gotten a stocking stuffer or two...

12 days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas
My babies brought to me
The best Santa photo
In hissstoryyyyy!

disclaimer: I THINK the 12 days of Christmas are the days between Christmas and three kings day, but eh, whatever :)

SANTA

We took the girls to see Santa last weekend at the mall. We arrived at 9:45 - Santa arrives at 10 - and were about 20th in line. Excellent.

The girls were SO good on line, though Quinn was less than thrilled when Santa made his grand entrance...

She did let go for a while, once he was out of sight...

AWESOME Santa. Legit beard and all.

 Avery looked like this pretty much the whole time.

40 minutes or so after our arrival, we were second to next to go. Avery took off down the mall hallway, or whatever it is called.
She was DONE waiting.
The kid RAN. Who knew she could run??

Then Chris caught her. Tears ensued. Meanwhile, Quinn got wind we were going to put her in SANTA'S LAP.

Awesomeness followed.
Evidence to follow.
Totally worth the $22.

Barnyard dance

We can always tell when a book we have is in the rotation at daycare because they suddenly have a new "thing" they do with it (at the same time, without our prompting, so pretty unlikely to be chance)

The most recent example is Boyton's "Barnyard Dance". They stomp their feet and clap their hands. Too cute.

16 months!

Our babies toddlers are 16 MONTHS old (actually, 16 months and about 2 weeks. yikes)

babies and their Cookies

16 months. sheesh.

I am having a bit of trouble coming up with what went on this month. It is all a blur with the ear infections and Thanksgiving (and work and all).

They're such TODDLERS now. Attitudes. Avery says No to everything, even if she means Yes. They give kisses and hugs.  Kisses are a big favorite right now. They'll give kisses to the remote control. Speaking of the remote control, they'll bring it to you and sign Please. Maybe we should do less screentime at home (of course, I am typing this with a sick Avery in my lap watching YouTube...).

They LOVE Cookie(monster) and ask for him (well, ask for Sesame Street in general) by name, especially when in their high chairs. We have a (bad?) habit of putting on shows for them when we get home and get dinner together.

They will point out their bellies, heads, eyes, nose and ears and sometimes toes and knees. If you're lucky, they'll show you your belly too and poke it. Same thing for your eyes and nose. Bonus points for trying to remove your nose from your face, nostrils first.

They are really getting into mimicking - brushing teeth, brushing hair....they also love their shoes, and know which pair is theirs. Quinn tries to put them on. As soon as she learns "I DO" we will be in trouble.

They're expert walkers and are starting to climb a bit - I am hoping they don't become CLIMBERS because I'm not really keen on screwing all of our stuff to the walls.  They are good at stairs, despite not using them much. We have just started parking in the back of the house though, so they usually get to go up 4 stairs a few evenings a week. Avery can ALMOST do it one leg at a time.

Blueberries are our favorite food this month, and cheese is making a comeback. They're both also eating pasta now, which is awesome and has made packing lunches easier.  Quinn is a bit less picky and a lot more neat of an eater than Avery, but neither of them has even earned the "one year old garbage disposal" sticker. Toddlerhood might be interesting. They still drink about 20 ounces of milk a day each.

They're finally sleeping pretty well, when not teething or sick, sleeping 7:30-6:30 most nights and napping  2-3 hrs midday. Quinn just got her 8th front tooth and is working on a molar, and Avery has cut all 4 molars in the last couple of weeks. Shockingly these came in much easier than her first few teeth despite their remarkable size.

Overall, they're SO FREAKING cute. I miss them when I am at work now :)

The saga continues

So last week Quinn had her ENT visit. She's now on a two month course of a sulfa drug and if she reacts badly or gets an ear infection during the treatment she will go for tubes.

And today Avery came home sick from daycare. We go to the doctor in an hour, but my money is on another EI for her too. What was I thinking only making one ENT appointment??

She's cranky and clingy but not too sad this time :)

homework

We got our first "homework" assignment this past weekend. My cousin made a remark when her twins were 3 or 4 (they're 11 now) that weekend homework in preschool was about training the parents, not prepping the kids for K. I rolled my eyes at the time, but I think she is right. 

The "assignment" was to decorate Quinn's Star of the Week "onsie" poster for their classroom window (it is her week, obviously). At 5 pm on Sunday, I sat down and order photos from Walgreens, where I also bought markers when I picked them up, then had to scrounge around the house for a gluestick. I also committed a cardinal error in crafting  - gluing without pre-testing the layout. Oh well. Hopefully the one year olds won't judge.  I will try to do a little better with Avery's (but I can't do anything like get backing for the photos or do a cute teeshirt design or anything else I thought of on my way to work TODAY since that would be pretty unfair, right?).

one is tough

For the babies anyway.  As I've mentioned, we have toddlers now. Things are dramatic. Sometimes you get the wrong sippy. Sometimes Mom takes away the paper you were eating. Sometimes you just feel like screaming because it sounds like a good way to express your anger at the fact you're short but too tall to walk under the dining room table without hitting your head and you can't find anymore Kix to pick off the floor for a snack.

Both days this weekend Quinn woke up from her nap and was in hysterics within minutes. I'll skip the play by play, but the lesson learned here is it is not prudent to put tired babies down for their nap before lunch when their routine dictates lunch first. Even if that means lunch is at 10:45, that would be preferable to an hour of hysterics with the occasional bite of cracker because Tiny Toddler is too hungry to know what to do with herself and you offered milk before blueberries upon her waking.

In a similar vein, Avery, who didn't sleep well Saturday night, was hysterical at 6 pm and wasn't eating dinner Sunday, so I put her to bed early. She was up at 11 and had both of her mom's hand feeding her a midnight snack and some milk. Comically really, singleton-wanna-be baby. At least she went right back to sleep!

shopping

There's some level of challenge to shopping with two toddlers. For a long time, I scoffed at people who complained about this. It was SO EASY to take two babies out. What where they complaining about?

This was, of course, during the time period when they happily snoozed in their car seats in the snap and go stroller and let us browse to our hearts' content.

Eventually, they woke up, and preferred to look around. Cool. Hold the awake baby (or at least push back the visor). Aim to shop around naptime so they'll sleep in the carseats (or aim to shop when they're awake so they'll sleep at home. whichever).

Then they wanted more.

Cool.
Let them hang out in the cart. (a double cart is a perk. Thanks BJs!).
Sharing a cart worked great too (until Avery learned to climb out anyway).

Now? It is getting harder. We still take them out to the store at least once or twice a weekend, but while they fit, they refuse to share the top basket anymore. THEY WANT THEIR OWN LEGHOLES thankyouverymuch and two of them, not one. So we hold one and let one ride, or get two carts. We're styling. (We generally shop all together, or one of us goes sans-kids.) And now they're getting impatient. They eat tags off ornaments at Home Depot and the cardboard vanilla box at Shop Rite (gross, kind of, I know, I know). They want to walk. They don't want to hold hands.

How long until we can't shop with them at all?

As a related sidebar, why don't more store HAVE double carts? Lots of people have kids close in age. It isn't just for multiples! We JUST found the multiples carts at our local grocery store this weekend (and we shop there a lot - they hid them in the garage, not the surface lot). There are double carts with cars on the front (4 total seats) except the basket is tiny. So your family of 4 kids can have groceries for a single person? Who planned that? And then there's some triple carts...I went through three before finding one with a functional harness (a necessity when it is holding your kid on the seat...maybe not so important for a 4 ft tall kid). Also, Avery HATED this; only Quinn agreed to the full body harness. Avery needs to ride high like a Queen I guess. :)

Baby it's cold outside

What is more comical than a little baby (ok, toddler) in a big coat??

Amusingly, this is a 12-18 month Old Navy coat and they've almost outgrown their new skinny jeans in the same size. They have pin thin legs, so that isn't the issue!! Way to be consistent Old Navy.

The long version of the EI story

Hopefully my browser won't ditch it like my phone did (ok, I probably did, but I am blaming my phone).

The girls are in daycare and have had colds on and off since fall started. Sad, the summer was nice (coxsackie aside) but expected. Quinn had an ear infection a couple of weeks ago. Fast forward to last Sunday (8 days ago now). The girls were just....off. Hacky. Snotty. Whiny. Warm (100-101ish). Just off. We took them to the doctor, and sure enough, were sent home with instructions to keep them hydrated and use the nebulizer as needed.

They were sent home from daycare with fevers on Monday (101.5 is the cutoff).
Tuesday they were ok-ish, but whiny, slightly warm and continued to be off.

Wednesday they returned to daycare and were sent home at 9:30 am after Quinn spiked to 102.5. (Well, Quinn was sent home so Chris just got them both).
At 10:15, they were both diagnosed with double ear infections. AWESOME.

So Avery is on omnicef ('s generic) again and Quinn is on (or was I guess, since it was a  5 day course) Zithromax's generic (the stuff in the adult z-packs that should kill anything though overprescribing is doing wonders for mutations....). Wednesday night Quinn was still hitting 103 fevers when the motrin wore off...by Thursday morning, just 101, and by afternoon nothing. They had a nice Thanksgiving and were generally happy (if somewhat overstimulated).

By Saturday, all was right with the world, exept Quinn wouldn't eat (hence the pudding of my last post. better than nothing right?). All was well by Sunday (well, mostly. they're still drippy and Chris and I have colds now and are chugging Mucinex which by the way is awesome). Thank heavens for antibiotics. And Motrin.

Of course, now I am worried in advance about the last three weeks of so-so eating and Quinn's weight gain (especially seeing as she barely touched food for 5 days this week) :( Poor peanut.

Ear infections

I typed out this long post - on my phone, this is a new idea for me, mobile blogging - and lost it. Womp womp.

Short version: ear infections suck

In a desperate effort to get some food into Quinn this weekend, we made pudding. Huge success!!! And she (mostly) used the spoon properly!

more photos :)

This is a second photo follow up to my 15 month post . All 15 mo + photos actually but who can resist!

Avery expressing herself as a toddler. YOU PUT ME DOWN. I DO NOT APPROVE.

swings are still fun though!!

 

Twiggies. We are on track to hit 20 lbs at 18 and 21 mo according to WHO now though. Steps in the right directions!

sometimes we fail

As part of our rapid spiral into toddlerhood, the girls have started peeing more. Like a lot more. Like soaking their diapers in 10 seconds more. For the most part, this hasn't been a huge issue. I've started adding the NB doublers to our pockets and our old style BG AIOs. We haven't developed a leak issue in cotton, which is what we generally use on the weekend (well, aside from the size Ss which still fit but are getting inappropriate in rise and absorbancy...probably time to pack them up or sell them...).

Last weekend, we took the girls to the NYC Marathon expo. They had on their BG Albert freetimes and I figured all was well. The absorbancy of these is good, more than a standard insert, and they were happy as clams in the stroller sucking down their milk.

They walked around a while then got back in the stroller when I bought some stuff. Then we got them out.

OOPS. Maybe changing their diaper immediately after breakfast (and some milk) then giving them milk in the car (~5oz) then cups in the stroller through the expo (~9 oz) and FORGETTING TO CHANGE THEM for about 4 hrs was a bad idea. Quinn was damp but Avery basically flooded her seat, pants, onsie. You get the picture.

I didn't bring a change of clothes, so she ended up eating lunch in the expo center in her sweatshirt and diaper. It was 45 degrees outside and windy. I hung the pants on the stroller to dry (they did, mostly, before we left -thank heaven for fleece) and had her sit on a blanket instead of the soggy seat.

at least it had cute dinos on it.

Needless to say, I think it is time to pick up some more hemp for longer outings when mom might forget about toddler bathroom needs (daycare is excellent with the 2 hr diaper change!).

Halloween

A couple of weekends ago we had a nap time incident (basically a lot of screaming) and I took the girls for a drive thinking they'd go to sleep. They didn't. So we went to Target.

I got them nice, traditional Orange Pumpkins for Trick or Treating. Why do pumpkins coming in pink, purple and blue? WTF?

We practiced trick or treating at home. So fun.

ok...we're still working on the How Old Are You question...but she's ready for her next birthday!!

Halloween was basically cancelled here by Superstorm Sandy, but we did get to dress up for daycare's Friday night bash.

my little chicken and egg.

15 months! (photos)

apple picking trip!

Avery

Quinn

15 months!

I can't believe it (I am also a week late. I can't even blame the hurricane. I just forgot.).

They're toddlers now. I mean Toddlers, with attitude. I thought we had more time. Examples:

• Anything you ask Avery, she responds: "No". Even if she means "Yes."
• Tantrums. Epic crying. Example: "You sat on my car. The one I wasn't sitting on but was thinking I might. I don't care that it is IDENTICAL to the other one 3 feet away. NO MOVING TO THAT CAR DOES NOT FIX THIS. I will now proceed to scream semi-intermittently for 90 minutes because I am mad" That is a rather dramatic but true example, which resulted in an emergency trip to the doctor to rule out an ear infection. Quinn was fine. Our ears were not. Every-day tantrums typically involve several minutes of dramatic yelling and sometimes full body theatrics over things like spoons, hats, and socks they removed but cannot put back on. Or "You gave her the STRAW cup and me a SIPPY. ASSHOLE". Of course, their words are limited, so it all comes out like AAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAHHH gasp for air AAHHAAAHAHAHAHA et al.
• Everything must be done 10 times. Sock on, sock off, hat on, hat off, sunglasses on, sunglasses off, pop ball thing apart, reassemble. You get the drift.

Words:

• Avery has a few, though she only intermittently uses them properly. Mostly she likes to say them over and over to hear her own voice. Mama, (ba)nana, sa(ock), apple, yellow (it sounds like yellow but we think it is something along the lines of "what is that"), cookie(monster)
• Quinn talks less but tends to be spot on to what she wants. Mama, (ba)nana, apple, a(ll) da(one)
• They both sign more, please, banana, milk and cracker. 
• In my unprofessional opinion, their receptive language is good for their age. They'll follow simple directions (when they feel like it), like "bring me Cookie" or "put the socks in the basket".

Physical development:

• They're both walking now (about 2.5 mo for Avery and 1.5 for Quinn). Both just got up and walked one day, and went to full time walking in just a couple of days. Funny how fast it happened after I stressed over it a bit. Avery is close to running. 
• They both use a fork at home, and are working on spoons. Quinn's fine motor skills are somewhat better and she can draw good lines with a crayon and is better with the spoon. (so hard not to compare!)
• Our last weigh in was a month ago, but I think they're about 18 and 19 lbs now and 29 inches or so. Scraping the damn chart, but on it!

Sleep:

• right around 14 months, we turned a magical corner and they both starting sleeping through the night consistently. This has reinforced my growing opinion that a) they needed to eat for months and months and b) you just can't MAKE someone sleep.
• Of course, right as we settled into that heaven, Avery started cutting molars (she has 8 teeth and 3 tiny dabs of white now) and I am 99% sure Quinn is working on tooth #6 (bottom left incisor)  so that kind of went to pot. They sleep fine when not in pain though. Sigh.

no photos today. maybe tomorrow. I'm behind in uploading.

solo at the doctor's office

In almost 15 months, I've never taken both girls to the doctor's alone. Well, I have, but the once or twice I did one remained in the carrier, untouched.  Chris did a couple of early well visits solo, but since she went back to work we've done them all in the evening so we could have man to man defense (and, let's be honest, we're boring and the pediatrician is a big outing for us...might as well go as a family).

This week she was away for work, so I took both girls for a pseudo well-visit - just flu and polio shots. Now, could I do it again, I would use the same tactic I did when I took them for the 1 year blood draw (+ 100293 extra vials for Quinn for her extra bloodwork for the GI): Bring babies in stroller. Secure babies. Deal with one screaming baby at a time. Have free hands for wallet, keys, et al.

Here's what really happenned:

My mom offered to come with me.
I left the stroller at home.
My mom got a phone call from my brother.
She left the room approximately 9 seconds after the doctor stepped in.
Both started fussing (somewhere around that 1 yr mark, they decided nothing good comes from the lady who sticks things in their ears and legs).
I set Avery on the floor so Quinn could get her shots (seeing as I did Avery first at their bloodwork and she nearly flipped herself out of the stroller screaming while Quinn went). She flipped thefuck out.
Quinn got her shots. And flipped out.
My mom poked her head in to see if everyone was ok. She said something consoling to Avery. I told her Avery hadn't had her shots yet. She returned to her phone call. 
I swapped babies.
Avery went from screaming to screaming like she was having something amputated.
Now I put their pants back on, gathered my bag and sweater, and carried two writhing toddlers - still screaming - to the front desk to get our immunization copies and book their 18 mo well visit.

My mom turns up at this point and takes one for long enough for me to get out my keys.
She returns her when her phone started ringing (which caused the receptionist to look for HER phone).
Now with two arms full of now sobbing toddlers, I throw in the towel on putting the appointment in my calendar and jam the little card into my pants pocket after somehow retrieving it from the countertop which is about armpit height.
I open two doors and let myself into the hallway. Sometime between the desk and the door my mom has hung up the phone. Excellent. She can carry one to the car.
Then her phone rings again. She starts complaining how she can't find anything in her purse. Her phone is in her jacket pocket. Where she put it 30 seconds ago.
I give up on help and carry both kids through another door. I drop my sweater in the parking lot and risk all of our lives retrieving it by squatting down in the dark near the entrance from the road.

I somehow manage to toss both girls into their car seats and placate them with milk before buckling them in.
I start the car.
By now, my mom has returned and finished her last phone call of the 22 minutes since we entered the exam room.

I'd like to note there was no emergency.
But she's been pretty helpful the rest of the week, notably babysitting the (sleeping) girls for 3 hrs last night so I could go out to dinner in Chris's absence, so I'm pretty much over Tuesday night now. And now I know - solo doctor's visit = stroller.

this week's addition

of How Much Have We Grown

a bit hilarious...

Those hoodies are 3 mo Carters, from the first outfits we ever bought the girls.  Clearly they would have been just fine in NB clothes last October (though we had moved to 3 mo jammies by then because we needed length) but we didn't expect to have miniature babies so we'd gotten fall clothes in, well, non-NB. It's economical - they wore those pants all winter, and still fit into the hoodies (ok, they're a bit short, but they're fine for daycare. and still adorable).

14 months

Where does the time go!

Looking at the ducks! Duk-duk-duk. We must say duck a LOT in the bathtub because it was their first obvious word besides mama.

13 months today

Starting to enjoy the slide.

And dirty things. Avery especially loves to stick her hands in dirty things. Potplants. Gravel. Mulch. It is all fun.


This weekend we tried to do a 14 month "photo shoot" before going to the pumpkin patch.

 Clearly it is not as simple as putting two babies on a step.

they're more or less looking at the camera. and sorta kinda smiling.

I think the moral of this month is TODDLERHOOD is starting. They're developing opinions (eg, Avery MUST wear her hooded towel after bath until she decides it is ok to take it off). They fight. Quinn has bitten someone. They SQUEAL with joy when they see you. They're starting to express themselves - they sign more, please, milk, food and all done. They're making noises that might be other words (I think more and please) but I don't really speak toddler yet so I am not sure... They're walking off in different directions...

For those interested in stats and stuff....

percentiles from this site for actual age. It uses the CDC and not WHO charts, but whatever, good for scanning curves at least. It also reports anything under 5th percentile as 5th percentile, which is ridiculous...They're barely on the WHO chart in weight, so needless to say, they're not on the CDC chart.

Quinn
Birth: 3 lbs 8 oz & 16 inches
1 month (40w gestational): 5 lbs 13 oz (5th) & 19 inches (5th)
2 months: 7 lbs 13 oz (5th) & 20.5 inches (5th)
3 months: 9 lbs 9 oz (5th) & 22.5 inches (29th)
4 months: 10 lbs 9 oz (5th) and 23 inches (16th)
6 months: 12 lbs 0 oz (5th) and 24.75 inches (24th) 
9 months:  13 lbs 14 oz (5th) and 26 inches (38th)
12 months: 15 lbs 14oz (5th) and 28 inches (25th)
14 months: 17 lbs 6 oz (5th) and 28 inches (8th)
On the WHO chart, Quinn is now just over 5th percentile for weight and 2nd for height. This is a big improvement for her weight, which had been below 2nd percentile for a while (in failure to thrive range) and it now estimated her at hitting 20 lbs around 21 months instead of 24 :)

Avery
Birth: 5 lbs 0 oz (5th) & 17 3/4 inches (5th)
1 month (40w gestational): 7 lbs 13 oz (7th) and 20 inches (38th)
2 months: 8 lbs 14 oz (9th) and 22 inches (46th)
3 months: 10 lbs 4 oz (10th) and 24 inches (80th)
4 months: 11 lbs 13 oz (12th) and 24 1/4 inches (60th)  
6 months: 13 lbs 2 oz (6th) and 26 inches (71st)
9 months: 15 lbs 6 oz (5th) and 27 inches (47th)
12 months: 16 lbs 14 oz (5th)  and 28 inches (25th)
14 months:  18 lbs 4 oz (5th) and 28.5 inches (16th)

On the WHO chart, Avery is a bit over 10 percentile in weight now (15ish I'd estimate) and around 5th for height. Looks like she might hit 20 lbs around 18 months!

what a difference a year makes

11.5 months really.

They were about 11 weeks in the Oct 2011 pictures, and 14 months on the nose in the pictures from this weekend.

Every time I see Quinn crying the the pumpkins I laugh :)

On the same token, they're still minis.

Christmas 2011, just shy of 5 months (ok, maybe the 3-6 mo dresses were a little ambitious for the 11 and 12 lb peanuts)

September 2012, just shy of 14 months and trying on last year's dresses.

pause

Sometimes I wish I could hit pause. As tired as we sometimes are, every age so far has been the "best" age (I know this probably won't last forever, and I enjoyed this recent post on the topic)

I wish I had yesterday's daycare pick up on film.

I entered with the giant Bob as usual. The girls were in the back of the room with their teachers reading (note: this corner is labeled the "drama corner". I always chuckle to myself when I read the sign and wonder if Avery hangs out there a lot, teehee). They both SHRIEKED and continued to do so as they toddled towards me, hands up in the air, grins on their faces. We had a good hug, and they didn't want to let go so Ms. Andrea helped me load up all their stuff.  They had on these pucci-esque Adidas tops and purple capris, Avery with her brown shoes and Quinn with her pink ones, with pink socks with blue polka dots.

I really wish the moment was on film. Priceless.

all the stuff

I saw a post in my blog feed today that hit home on a few points.

Twins require a lot of stuff. I mean all babies do (to the extent you want/choose to buy/have stuff, I know you COULD get buy with nothing but a car seat and a crib), but there is just so much stuff. Assuming you live "normally" and not in a 400 sqft cabin, you need 2 car seats, 2 cribs, 2 high chairs, and a double stroller. And then there is the nice to have stuff - 2 baby containment devices at minimum for little guys and 2 more for bigger babies, a playmat, a pack and play, a single stroller, a dresser, a changing table, toys. We have a small house, and honestly, all their stuff takes up a lot of space, and I think we're relatively minimal.

We had

• 2 travel swings and a bouncer (none of which got a TON of use, but the bouncer was pretty popular for its lights. They never were into the vibration). And two Boppies.
• 2 exersaucers and one of those jumper things that hangs from the doorway
• 2 space saver highchairs (which still require chairs, but the footprint is smaller than a normal high chair, and they convert to boosters - sometimes I think the ones that clip on the table would be nice but its nice to face both babies to you...or the computer to Skype or the TV to stop crying).
• 2 infant seats (you could, in theory, skip these, but I can't really contemplate the logistics of moving two floppy babies in and out of the car without them) and now 2 convertible seats (the infant seats are still used sometimes and live on our enclosed porch). Oh, and a baby carrier. We have an Ergo (love) and a Moby (ok).
• a double snap and go (again, could skip, but this thing was FANTASTIC when they still slept all the time and was so nice for going anywhere in the winter), a double Bob, a double umbrella stroller. The post also made a good point about the selection of double strollers. It isn't the same as singles. They're much bigger in general, and the ones that aren't sacrifice something (eg, the City Select is pretty tight for two bigger toddlers, one baby gets a view of a back in the Phil & Ted, the City Mini double is quite wide folded AND needs two hands unlike its singleton counterpart.)
• and the toys. People keep giving us toys. This is awesome, but man there's a lot of them. And they already fight over them. Nevermind that we have two cars and two copies of some books. They want the same one. 
• then there is the dozen of bottle parts. And now food containers. and the clothes and diapers. All takes up space.

They're awfully cute though. And its fun to see them pass food at dinner, or squeal as they tickle each other.

its starttinggg

I haven't gotten a mini-tantrum on video yet, but I did nab some fighting.

oh sleep

We have our ups and downs. I need to write about this again, but I kind of want to wait until they sleep through the night consistently. Which will be soon. I hope. It's been pretty good lately though, maybe one waking each. knock on wood.

We started giving them blankets.  I was pretty nervous about this for a while, but they love them...and I'm not as much of a nervous nelly as I thought I'd be.  We do cotton or crochet for bedtime, but they sometimes get snuggly fleece ones for nap.

Quinn in her nest.

Avery, not a morning baby.

Coloring!

where did the babies go?

Seriously. We're having more and more moments of "what??! you're a baby! how can you do that?"

note: our tape job here was not sufficient for the Master Ripper

I think our pediatrician was right (um, 5 weeks ago) when she told me they're not babies anymore...

can you see the crayon lipstick on Chomps McGee?

cooking

This past weekend, we decided to rearrange the kitchen cabinets to be more kid-friendly. The girls aren't in the kitchen a lot, and really love unpacking stuff from the pantry when they're in there.

Turns out ziplocks full of pancake mix are not toddler proof.

unreal

Sometime around their first birthday, we dropped off babies at daycare and picked up toddlers.

A list of things they've learned to do in the last 3 weeks:

• walk (Avery) & stand unsupported (Quinn)
• climb off the couch safely
• climb off the giant, taller than the couch tumbling block
• say "all done" (Quinn)
• "brush" hair
• drink from sippies and straw cups well
• use a spoon to get [whipped cream] food into their mouths (sorta kinda, but Quinn is close to having it down)
• sleep on a cot at daycare
• cliimb up the ladder and go down the slide. alone.

twin love

We're in a really fun age right now (are all ages fun? past newborn/tiny babyhood?).  They're playful and giggly and it just melts me a little how they shriek with joy at each other.

so I think the girls read this blog

Within days of my post on their mobility, Avery got up and started walking. She's been taking steps here and these (mostly prompted by us) but towards the end of last week, she started doing it more. A lot we'll even say.  I'd put her at about a 30% walker as on Sunday. She won't try to cover long stretches now, but she's suddenly standing unsupported (and doing millions of squats) all. the. time.

Quinn isn't far behind. She's typically been 3-4 weeks behind Avery in gross motor, but she is standing free a bit already.  We're guessing she'll just up and walk perfectly one day, much like she just decided to crawl away one day. No trial and error for this kid. She subscribes to my theory that nothing is worth doing unless you can do it right (which is something I struggle with and can't say around them ever again, since it's not long until they repeat us...).

mobility

Walking seems to be the holy grail of the early toddler months like sleep is of infant months. Once you tell someone your baby is a year old, the immediate question is "are they walking?" much like the immediate question for babies of all ages is "are they sleeping?" (no, and eh, no).

They ARE quite mobile. Avery never really army crawled - she preferred to pile drive her head across the floor - but she's been crawling since 8 months and cruising (with distance) since 9 or so. Quinn army crawled from around 8 months, and at 9.5 months just got up and crawled one day. Now at almost 12.5 months, they move, and move and move. They cruise all over the place. They love the push walker, and love really anything they can use to walk with (tables, ottomans, etc). They can walk holding one hand. But walk on their own? Not really.

Avery will take a couple of steps - I don't think she knows she's doing it - but Quinn won't let go. We do sort of fling them at each other to "practice" walking, but I don't think toddling with propulsion really counts. But, as I want to tell everyone who asks, babies aren't considered delayed in walking unless they aren't doing it by 16 months adjusted. These guys have FIVE MONTHS left to be normal.

I do admit I am looking forward to them walking. We might need to baby proof a little better (um, more than a single gate, though, really, they pullup and stand everywhere so will it make a big difference? growing taller might be more of an issue for us than walking).  But the idea of babies who can walk themselves from door to car (ok, might need to wait on the stairs for that...)? or bathroom to bedroom?  It IS appealing. I also love the idea of a kid who can do more than swing at the park...more things to do to fill weekend hours :)

As a sidebar, Avery seems to be chunking up and Quinn has a bit of a belly now. Perhaps their bodies are holding back on walking until they can pack on some pounds since most kids don't gain much for a couple of months once they start walking?

sleep, follow up

I think the babies read the blog. They both slept from 7-6 on Friday night. Actually Avery may have had some milk around 10. I can't remember. But they did sleep from 7-6 Friday night.

They were both up once on Saturday, I think, and Avery was kind of a mess last night, bad enough I rocked her for a bit after giving her meds, but she has a new tooth this morning. I do hope we have a break on the teeth once we hit 8 before the molars (and canines) come in...

the ever elusive Sleep

Sleep is a popular topic with parents of babies.

"Is she sleeping through the night yet?" no.
"Sleep when the baby sleeps!" Say that again and I might strangle you.

It was hard early on. Rough. Nothing really can prepare you for sleeping just a few interrupted hours for weeks on end. I am sure this is a hard adjustment for any new parent (except those people I slightly curve under my breath who have babies who sleep 7 hrs at 2 months old. Trauma lasts a while.). Not that I have other experience, but I'm going to guess the sleep adjustment is especially hard for a) preemie parents (because they're newborns for extra long) and b) parents of multiples. It does get better with time, but it's still hard.

We have had some good weeks. Weeks where they woke once to eat, or for a day or two, slept until 5 without waking. We've had some very bad weeks. Teeth. Ear infections. Hand Foot and Mouth. Two weekends, at the ripe old age of 1 Year and 21 hours old for the babies, we took a drive as a family at 3 fucking 15 in the morning because they had been that much screaming for so long. Maybe it was 4:15. I can't even remember. They'd both been crying for something like 2 hours and we just ran out of ideas (and yes, they'd been drugged with Motrin and teething tablets and milk). It worked, not surprisingly.

Crying it out has had limited success here. It is fine for bedtime, and we've had some luck overnight if the waking is just waking for the hell of it. More often than not though, ignoring crying leads to more crying. Hysterical crying. Crying for 2 hours. So if it goes on, we give them milk, sometimes meds...and on it goes. We're getting into a better cycle it seems, knock on wood, and are back down to one overnight waking each. They're almost 16 and 17 pounds, and a friend told me her son dropped his 4 am-ish feeding around 18 lbs, so maybe it's on the horizon. It DID get better at 10 and 12 pounds, which were also relayed to me as milestones for feeding/sleep.So we'll see.

I have come to the conclusion a lot of overnight baby sleep is luck, baby temperament, and size. My girls have never been good night sleepers by the "standards" for STTN, but they started sleeping significantly more/longer at 10 lbs and 12 lbs (as I mentioned), so there is hope.... They are rather small for their age, so this had led to a lot more night feeding than I'd prefer but it is what it is. We did the same things and worked to establish good routines (for the most part, outside of our sickness/teething setbacks), and one of my girls consistently sleeps more soundly than the other, hence my opinion on temperament.


I'm still tired a lot, and I do think this affects me a lot in other aspects of my life, but it is improving, and I know this stage is fleeting. Heck, we're already a year into parenthood and have technically toddlers (though they're not quite toddling!).

One Year Old

So the girls are one.

and getting really hard to take joint photos of

Our 12 month well visit was last night, and it went quite well (especially compared to our 9 month visit when all hell sort of broke loose and we came home with a nebulizer and an inhaler).  The girls' pediatrician is pleased with their development, and they handled their shots just fine (you know, with lots of pathetic screaming). Afterwards we ran by Target for diapers (since they have - sigh - yeast rashes and we'll need to keep them in disposables for a bit to clear that up) and the drug store for their (associated) scripts. No antibiotics this visit. Score.

So, stats:

1!

Incredible.

The girls kicked off their birthday weekend with a bit of celebrating at daycare...

early morning, before everyone has arrived

dude, I was eating my breakfast. why am I not at the table anymore?

On Saturday, we had a little party with our families...

(it is super hard to get two ONE year olds to smile at once!)

Right in the middle of the festivities, the sky opened. Chaos ensued, and I wish I'd been able to get some photos of the rain and what it did the the tent.

before the storm. You should have seen us trying to save the tent (we did succeed, but were soaked).

So we had cake inside...