Just Playing Around....

Life in our house is slowly but surely settling into a routine, now that school is starting to get into full swing.

The girls are getting more use to Georgine's house....they have made several friends and they no longer cry in the morning when Daddy leaves them, but they do continue to be VERY excited to see Mommy in the afternoons. Who'd have known that playing all day long was so tiring. I often feel as if my days are a race b/c I have so much to do once I am up and running, but my favorite time of the day is the afternoons, when I race out of work to get home to pick up the girls. Once we are home from Georgine's house (I walk over to pick them up, after I change clothes and let the dogs out), we have snack and play before dinner time!

I am amazed by how fast they are growing and learning. Sydney is getting her first 2 teeth...at first we thought she was just getting her bottom left tooth, but a few days later I noticed that there were 2 teeth coming in! Olivia, not to be outdone has started taking steps. She can take about 5 steps before she falls down. Sadly she doesn't have any teeth coming in, but that's cool b/c Sydney doesn't appear to want to walk any more! :) YES, I know they will both catch up and there WILL be more teeth for both of them AND Sydney will walk, eventually!



HEre are the girls celebrating the return of Aunt Nozomi from Japan, by wearing one of their many Japanese outfits....they did enjoy being Japanese babies for the day. Japanese baby clothes are MUCH easier to take off than American baby clothes....little stinkers! THey love love love their wagon that they got for their 1st birthday. THankfully it has seatbelts to keep them strapped in!

Sydney is wearing white and Olivia is wearing the black!

Sydney playing with her basketball...she loves that thing, but not was much as Livi does!

Olivia..

The remote, like the telephone, our cel phones, and laptops......is a lot of fun! :)

Playing around one afternoon after work. The girls are slowly but surely getting more and more freedom to 'crawl' or walk around the house. They LOVE the front window (just like Cassius and Sugar do)! :)

HEre is Olivia playing at the front window:

Sydney...also playing in the window...but with the telephone....she loves it!



Goofing off one day!

Olivia giggling!

Sydney must not have gotten her way...so sad isn't it!?


Bathtime continues to be the girls' FAVORITE time of the day! They pretty much love everything about it....splashing each other, Mommy, Daddy, kisses from Sugar, squirting their bath toys at each other, getting their hair washed. The bath tub is just plain old fun to them! I have to admit, I love it too! Especially the way they smell after bathtime!

Sydney telling her Daddy, "I don't know who did it Daddy!" He's going to have to get used to hearing that, I am sure! :)

Olivia and her big blue eyes, just looking at the camera and her silly Mommy!


I am a member of the St. Louis Mother of Twins club, and last weekend we held our annual fall sale at Lindbergh High School. We of course went, it's a great way to find cheap clothes, shoes, toys, etc. for the girls. We really hit the jackpot on toys, many of which we put away for Christmas, but those that the girls did get to keep to play with, they really really like. Our plan of attack at this VERY large sale was that I would go look for shoes and clothes and Matt would be in charge of the toys..in particular anything Sesame Street. You see at the last sale (in April) we bought this Sesame Street table that plays songs, etc from the tv show and the girls LOVE it. I was super excited when Matt found a DMX Cookie Monster..this is what I wanted to get the girls for Christmas...Olivia LOVES Cookie Monster..it's so cute to watch both Olivia and Sydney play with him..he's fun!

Olivia......






Sydney...


On Sunday...all 4 of my children playing at the front window!

Aaaaaaaha! Cassius's food and water bowls are SOOOOOOOOOO much fun. :) The dogs were VERY VERY concerned about the girls playing with their bowls! :)

Sydney...

Olivia....

As we move toward Labor Day weekend, I keep remembering what our lives were like last year this time. I wonder, will I 10 years from now always think back to our Labor Day in the NICU? Will we continue to celebrate the date that the girls came home from Children's Hospital? I hope not, to be honest, I hope that some day we can officially put all of that behind. BUT, this year we WILL be celebrating their freedom from the NICU with the girls' Baptism. :) So, on Sunday, September 27th, the girls will be baptized, and afterwards we will be hosting a small luncheon for the girl's god-parents and our parents.

Also, please remember that RSV season is rapidly approaching, the rules this year for RSV season will continue to be the same as last year, per our release papers from the NICU....we were given instructions that for the first 3 years we needed to be very particular during RSV season...so be prepared to wash up and hand sanitize often while you are here or when you see the girls! :) They will not be going very many public places this winter, if you have been sick or around sick people, please do not come visit. I know it sucks, but Sydney and Olivia's health has to come first. As for how we are going to deal with the Swine Flu, I am not sure. WHat I do know is that they will receive their flu shot in October, as for the Swine Flu shot, I'm not sure if they will get that OR if I even want them to get it....there are way too many questions about it for me to really want them to have it. I'm very worried that if they get it they will suffer some sort of side effect that is very bad in a couple years....so, we're going to wait to hear what Dr. Yassin has to say about it when we see her next. :( What I do know is that I'll probably use all my sick days AGAIN this year, b/c I am not taking ANY chances with their health...I'd rather miss work and lose money than have them be sick. Fun times. SIck babies are NOT fun...that I do know, and worrying about then when they are sick is even worse than a sick baby.

Have a Fabulous and Beautiful Labor Day weekend!

Hope all is well....stay healthy!

J

New Experiences & New Places

As August arrived for our household, so did lots of new experiences, toys, and routines. As July winded down, Jeni began to get ready to return to school for the start of another year. The girls, however, did not know how things would be changing for them as of yet.

Since Jeni went back to work in January, the girls have been with our nanny, Nikki, until Jeni's last day of work in June. Jeni has been home with them most days since then, with the exception of a few days when she went into work to get her new office ready. Well, now that she's getting ready to head back for the full year, the girls are going to go to daycare. We've really enjoyed having Nikki as our nanny and the girls absolutely love her. However, we are going back to our original plan of going to Ms. Georgine's house on the street right behind us.

You may recall that going to Ms. Georgine's was originally scheduled for January. However, she was going to have her mother come and help to make sure she had enough hands to handle our girls along with the other kids she watches. Her mother ended up needing some surgery so we had to go to Plan B which was using a Nanny service.

So, our new routine is that on Mondays, Nana Sharon and Papa Rick come up to watch the girls. This is no change for them. However, Tuesdays through Fridays they go to Ms. Georgine's. In the mornings, I pack the girls in their stroller and walk them back to the cul-de-sac and drop them off.

I anticipated this being something the girls would need to get used to. However, I didn't realize how tough it would be on Jeni and me. The first morning I dropped them off they didn't know what was going on and thought they were 'just visiting' I guess. No major meltdowns. I went down hill from there. Every morning for the next 5 or 6 mornings, as soon as I parked the stroller on the porch and Ms. Georgine would come to the door, the girls would see her and burst into tears. Talk about a horrible way to start your morning... (and I'm talking about me!)

After about 6 or 7 times there in the AM, we decided to try a new tactic. Instead of putting them on the floor to get used to being there, Georgine suggested we put them directly into their high chairs for their morning snack. I was ready to try anything after the guilt I felt and the tearful looks the girls gave me as I walked out the door and left them...

So the first morning we did this everything went smoothly. Sydney went into her high chair, had some bananas and cheerios waiting for her and was fine. Olivia went into her high chair and fussed a tiny bit, but I was able to slip away and head off to work. The second morning went even more smoothly as they barely noticed I left! Woo hoo!

Jeni picks them up everyday now and gets the easy job of having them be super excited to see her. Oh well.

Other things have been quickly changing for the girls as well with them learning to do more and more things on their own. They've become completely mobile, whether it's by cruising (walking along walls, furniture, etc) or by crawling nearly everywhere.

They love getting outside of the confined area of the living room that we refer to as "The Pit" where we try to keep them in with the ottoman and some weighed down clothes baskets. Outside of "The Pit" is where we keep some of their favorite toys such as their Laugh N Learn Kitchen and their Jumpers.

The girls also have started to "walk" behind their cars. They pull themselves up and then push the cars across the floor, kind of like a shopping cart. Olivia is the expert at this and can go from the living room all the way down the hallway. Sydney isn't as interested and does it occassionally.

Sydney is, however, much more of a risk-taker. She tries to, at every chance, to push the limits. Whether it's crawling on or over anything she can, to being very interested in playing with Cassius & Sugar constantly, she's always trying new things. She is also testing us at every turn. She and her sister know very well what "NO-NO" means. However, Sydney will often do something, hear "NO-NO", turn to us and give us a sly grin, and then continue to do what she got into trouble for. She is going to be a handful.

Sydney checking the dogs out on the patio.

Sydney getting into trouble. She climbed up onto the fireplace on her own while we weren't looking.

As you can see, she's also our camera-ham.

Olivia is much more cautious and wary of new things. She's easily startled by sounds and is much more stranger-wary. However, she laughs and giggles much louder than Sydney! It truly is the cutest sound ever.

Another new toy we've started to play with is the Water Table we got from PawPaw Gale and Grandma Vicki for our birthday. It's like a sandbox, but filled with water. The girls can stand next to it and splash and play with their squeaky toys.

As you can see, Olivia wasn't very excited about the water table. Sydney liked it right away and splashed in it immediately.

In order for Olivia to get used to it, Mommy had to sit with her and show her that the water table was actually very fun!

Slowly Olivia warmed up to the idea and was soon having a good time. As was Sydney, Mommy and even Sugar.

Mommy & Sydney enjoying the water table. Sydney liked the squeaky toys the best.



As we already knew, our girls are such little Divas. When we sat the water table up, the girls did not want to stand next to it. The problem wasn't so much the standing as it was, they didn't like standing in the grass. We had to get towels for them to stand on and later we put down some waterproof yoga mats. SPOILED!

The girls are graduating to big time eaters as well. They have dramatically improved how well and how quickly they take their bottles now. What used to be a 40 minute ordeal has become a very simple 15 minute session where they, for the most part, hold their own bottles while on our laps.

They are also eating quite a few solid foods on their own. Every day they eat things like turkey, cheese, cheerios, puffs, fruits like bananas, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and veggies like carrots, sweet potatoes, and green beans. One of our newest and most favorite snacks are grilled cheese sandwiches.

Sydney & Olivia eating some green beans. They like green beans alot. However, they sometimes aren't as acurate in getting them into their mouths...

They've also learned that the food that Mommy & Daddy eat is really good too!

Sugar, Sydney & Olivia begging for a bite from Daddy.

Well, as you can see things are moving pretty fast around here. Hope to get back soon to give you all another update. Just finding time is the hard part!

Take care.

M