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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Catch up/Week in review

I've been meaning to post for a while! I have lots of thoughts swirling in my brain right now, but for some reason, I've been too busy to post! (It couldn't be those two five month olds....could it?) So for now I'm just going to catch up on the last week!

President's Day, my friend and fellow music teacher from Avon, Stephanie, came to visit and finally meet the boys! It was really nice to catch up, and we even took the boys on a walk since it was such a nice day. I miss seeing her every day! Stephanie gets credit for the saying "Anyone can make it through an hour. It's just an hour." We always used to say that during our last hour of the day with kids....and now I find myself saying it as I count down the hours til Alex gets home! :) So I think of her when I tell myself you can do anything for an hour.

Tuesday mom came over to hang with us, Wednesday Evan and Phalo brought us lunch and took the boys for a walk, Thursday Alex stayed home from work sick, so I took the boys to my mom's. Dad appreciated this, as he was able to hold babies on his lunch break. The problem is that he can't say goodbye/leave them so his lunch break was roughly one and half hours.... :) Friday we had the world's largest playdate! No seriously! Nine moms and ten babies. The boys did pretty well; Holden rolled over on his own (but only once!) It's so fun to see all the older babies (the twins were the youngest there) play and crawl and eat real food and really explore. We got a few pictures of everyone on the couch, and it's pretty darn cute. We're trying to document them all together this little, so we can look back once they get older! I think it's pretty special to have friends you've known since birth, so hopefully we'll stay friends with some of these kids and get to grow up together. Friday night I took a cute little video of Holden laughing, since he was in a good mood, so I'll include that at the bottom!

Aunt Lauren came over on Saturday, and we made a quick trip to Babies R Us WITH the babies! (They'd never been. But they weren't all that impressed.) Every time I go to that store, I see other moms with twins. I swear, I need to take names and numbers and just form my own twin group! I'd love to talk to some other moms with twins close to this age. Laura and Jacob came over Saturday night, and we managed a trip to La Hacienda! Lucky me. :) The boys were good, but it's also a pretty noisy restaurant, so no one notices if they fuss anyway. Sunday I took the boys back to my parent's for the day, so that Alex could have uninterrupted time to work on the bathroom. The boys enjoyed this, as they are never put down at Grandma and Grandpa's! I managed a quick trip to Kohl's and Target, where I REALLY wanted to buy the boys some shoes. Yes, I know they don't need them...but they're such cute shoes, does it really matter? I resisted, but I don't think I can hold out for much longer. I made dinner for us, and then got the boys home in time for bed! (Bathroom update: still not complete, but making progress. I HOPE to have pictures of the completed bathroom soon....guess we'll see.)



So that was our week in review. Hopefully I'll have some time to blog about a few other things on my mind, but that'll depend on how much sleep I get over the next few days! Don't the boys understand that I need them to nap at the same time so that I can have some "mommy time"? Ha...


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Last year, This year, Next year

Oooh, it feels so luxurious to be blogging in the middle of the day...Why am I, you ask? No, it's not because both boys are taking a long nap. (I wish.) Uncle Evan and Phalo took the boys and Lanore on a walk on this nearly 50 degree February day! Don't worry, I made sure to straighten up a little and throw some laundry in, too. I didn't just blog. :)

I think a lot about the next few months. One of my mommy friends mentioned the other day thinking about when her baby was going to walk and talk, and I said I think about those things all the time! Last year at this time, I was just pregnant. We found out right before Valentine's Day, and I probably hadn't told anyone yet, maybe just my mom. So I wasn't even showing, hadn't been to the dr. yet, and didn't know there were two little surprises in there instead of just one. It seems so crazy to think that. Pregnancy felt like such a long time, yet here I am a full year later with FIVE month old boys!

Last year I was a teacher, working and loving my job. Probably at this point I was worrying about our upcoming recruitment concert for the fifth graders and picking out music for the spring concert. Now, a year later, I'm a stay at home mom! Not a choice I ever thought I'd make, but it was definitely the right choice for our family. I feel so lucky to be able to nurse the boys and stay home to see every milestone (even though some days I feel like I'm going crazy!) And if they were in daycare, I can't honestly imagine trying to get us all ready each morning and get out of the house. Everyone tells me I would have had to give up breastfeeding, that pumping at work would have been too much. Who knows, I'd like to think I could have done it, but it would have definitely been difficult! My mom has said several times she's glad they're not in daycare, since it's probably hard for the caregivers to hold them when they both cry. And it would have probably been most of one of our incomes to send TWO babies to daycare.

A year from now...It's hard to imagine! Next February, I will have two toddlers. The boys will be walking and probably making life extremely crazy for us. :) Obviously I will have to start thinking about baby-proofing the house at some point soon. I'm guessing they'll be starting to talk, or at least be able to communicate with us better than they can now. In my mind, I'm picturing life to be a lot more fun in some ways. We'll be able to get out of the house more, go to story time at the library, parks, playdates, zoo, Children's Museum, etc. Mostly I'm really excited for each new milestone, but sometimes I remember that they only get bigger. They'll never be this little again. Once they can crawl, and then walk, they won't want to spend so much time cuddled in our arms! And like many people tell me all the time, blink and they'll be in kindergarten! It's already fun to look back at their hospital pictures; we so quickly forget how small they were! Whenever I see new moms at our Friday group, I think the boys never could have been that small! As they get bigger, I wonder what their personalities will be like, and how they'll change. Holden seems more serious, and Henry maybe a little more easygoing. But in general, they both seem very sweet (if a little spoiled because they know someone will pick them up when they cry!) I'm sure I'll like them no matter what, but it'll be fun to get to know them as little boys instead of babies. I look forward to seeing them become more aware of each other, and how their "twin bond" will develop.

I wonder if I'll be working at a school again, or if I'll try to make staying at home work for a while longer. Maybe I'll teach more private students, or work a few days somewhere. But who knows how life will really look in a year. We had no clue what was in store for us in February 2012 a year ago, so anything could happen in the next year. We'll have made it through a first birthday party (man am I excited to start planning for that!) and a second Christmas, where they'll have much more of an idea of what's going on. I guess I'll just have to look back on my blog next year, and see if I was even close to predicting any of the exciting stuff that will happen this year. I guess that's the whole point of having a blog! :) So for now, I'm going to go enjoy the babies at the stage they are now, and be thankful they're in my life. Oh, and throw the laundry in the dryer...

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Five months old!

Hard to believe....wow. My mom and I were saying how five months seems so old; it's getting close to half a year! The boys are really starting to be more fun, but also more difficult. I won't say this was an easy month! I feel like as soon as I say "oh they sleep this much or they do this, etc" they change. In general, I think they slept well at night. We'd put them down (in their separate cribs now) at 7:30 or 8 and they'd sleep till 4 am to 6 am. But there were many nights someone would wake to eat at 2:30 or 3:30, so it's hard to say. I'm starting to feel like I should try to ignore them anytime before 5 am, because they can obviously go that long. But then I get worried or nervous that they were premature, they're on the bottom of the growth chart, and they need the extra calories, etc, so I always go feed them. In general, though, I can't complain about the night time sleep. (And we haven't started any solid food yet. I know people say when they're still waking at night, that some solid food can help to fill them up and get them to sleep through the night. I don't think we're quite ready, but it could be soon! I just keep telling myself that they're only four months "adjusted age" so I think we're ok to wait a while longer.)

Napping is another story! We are not on any kind of good day time schedule. They tend to eat at 5 or 6 am, and then go back to sleep, and wake up for the day between 8 and 9 and eat again. They start getting fussy an hour and a half or so after they wake up, and I put them down for the first nap. I usually have some success getting them to go to sleep then, but they don't STAY asleep. They wake up after roughly 30 minutes, which is not enough to get the rest benefits they need! So then I have fussy babies on my hands. I think I need to start making sure I feed them when they wake up, instead of nursing them to sleep. There are just too many things for me to worry and wonder about for me to know what to do with them! I think, oh, well, maybe they're teething or maybe they didn't get enough to eat, or maybe they need to burp or their tummy hurts. But I think the truth is that they need some longer naps to feel refreshed during the day. Afternoon naps are sporadic, which is hard for me. If one sleeps but the other is awake, then I don't get a break! But I think it's going to be pretty tough to get us all on a schedule. It'll be worth the difficulty if I know when it's safe to leave the house and have play dates, though.

Milestones are getting closer. As I said, Henry rolled over on Friday, but hasn't done it since. Both boys are grabbing more at their feet and better able to grab toys and bring them to their mouths. (Pretty much everything goes to their mouths now...) Everyone that holds them talks about how strong they are. Head control is good with both boys. When they're on their tummies, they can hold their heads up and can roll to the side. They love people and track everything that's going on in the room (and they're starting to watch TV, which probably means we need to cut back a little!) They may be getting a little spoiled...I think they know when they cry, someone will come running to pick them up! But I'm glad they love people so much and are typically easy to calm down. I think they're starting to teethe; they're very drooly, constantly have their hand/fist/thumb in their mouths, and are starting to get VERY cranky and scream without us being able to calm them down. Maybe by six months we'll have a tooth to report? We're starting to hear them "talk" more, which is adorable, since everyone loves their little voices. They laugh more too, especially if we tickle them or when we're taking their shirts off. :) They like baths, but hate the part afterwards, where they have to get their lotions put on. Henry's skin (eczema) especially is still really bad, even when we use the steroid cream. I don't know if he has some allergies and I should adjust my diet, or if it's just winter and he's going to have problems no matter what. I hope they both outgrow this, but we probably won't get so lucky. Alex thinks we should go visit a dermatologist, so I'll keep updating if we get any improvement.

I weighed them on Friday, so Holden is 14 pounds (!) and Henry is 13.6. That makes me a little nervous for Henry, but we'll see if the doctor has any concerns next month. They're still in size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes. Here are the pictures this month (and no, I did NOT pose Holden like that....it was so cute he put his arm up on the chair like that!! Lol.) Oh, and I take DOZENS of pictures of the boys in all these poses...Holden will NOT smile! Even when grandma or grandpa is being silly and jumping around, he is just Mr. Serious! He truly does smile, though, just not in pictures...



Fabulous Friday

We had a great day yesterday! The boys and I went to our support group again. It always takes me the ENTIRE morning to get ready, but it's worth it when we go! It's hard to get myself showered and ready and get them both fed and changed, pack the diaper bag, and get them both in the carseats while they (usually) scream, so I try to give myself plenty of time. We got in the car by 10, which left me time to get some breakfast and coffee on the way. Both boys were pretty content all morning. Holden was starting to play with his feet, which was pretty cute!

We got to group, and it was a small group this time, but it was all of our close friends! So it was fun to see some of the babies that we hadn't seen in a while. It's so cool to see the babies get bigger and more mobile, including some rolling over, sitting up, and crawling! And I love hearing stories from all the moms, especially stuff about teething, starting solid food, and sleeping for naps and at night. It always makes me feel better about how the boys are doing, or gives me an idea of what's ahead. And everyone is always so excited to see the boys and say how much bigger they're getting. I'm lucky to have such a cool group of moms to "grow" with! :) As I said last week, the boys do pretty well with tummy time at group, and they always look like they're so close to rolling over, but they never have. So I went ahead and put them both down on the blanket on their tummies, and I turned away for just a second. I heard some of the girls saying "Oh!" and I looked back to see Henry on his back!!! Yay! I put him back on his tummy and turned away for a split second, just to take a drink of my coffee....and yes, he rolled over again and I missed it!! :) He rolled two more times that I did get to see, but then he wouldn't do it any more. So no video yet. They both always look so close to rolling, and Holden can get to his side pretty easily. But they just have a little trouble getting all the way over. I think it's going to be soon, though!! 

The boys were fussy at the end of group and fell asleep in the car. I've been having trouble getting them to nap, but I took them in the house and put them in their room still in the carseat, and they both miraculously stayed asleep! My friend Christie came over with lunch, and it was nice to sit and talk with her for a while. She was showing me some photography stuff, and maybe one day I'll be able to take some good photos and figure out how to edit them! I'd love to get photo books done for the boys, but I definitely haven't started yet. When the boys woke up, we got some pictures of her and a really cute one of Holden! (The one at the bottom.) I LOVE their long eyelashes.

When Alex got home, it was nice enough to go take a walk. Still crazy to think how lucky we've been with the weather this year. We've had way more walks this winter than I bet we normally could have! After dinner, I went to Starbucks and read for a while, and then met up with Laura to catch up and just talk for a while. We went back to her house and talked some more, til like 10:00! I probably shouldn't have stayed up that late, but it was nice to be with friends and know that the babies were well taken care of. Alex does great with feeding them and putting them to bed, so it was a nice treat for me. :) So all in all, it was a great day! I just need to remember to keep being grateful for all my friends and support, and try to focus on the good days more than the bad.

LOVE this baby!! SOO CUTE!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Valentine's Day Pictures

Here are some pictures from our first Valentine's as a family. My mom sent me flowers and a balloon (flowers for me, balloons for babies cause they love to play with them!) Pictures of the boys, Henry in the first one, Holden in the second. A picture from our Valentine's play date: baby Eleanor, Henry, Ian, and Holden. The pictures were pretty funny, Eleanor didn't want to open her eyes (probably didn't want to look at all the crazy boys around her) and the progression of pictures was too funny; they kept scrunching together and slowly falling over! So this was probably the best of the four of them. The playdate was great, it made the day go by so fast for me! Love chatting with other mommies, and our house has PLENTY of baby equipment to keep everyone busy. :) Alex made me a nice steak dinner, but we didn't really get to enjoy it, due to whining/crying/fussing babies. I think the teething process has definitely started, but they also didn't really get a good afternoon nap. But hey, we tried! He also got me an icecream cake from DQ, since that's what I wanted for my "present". And last, a picture of me with my favorite Valentines! (Excuse my not-attractive look, I was more concerned with getting the boys dressed and in the picture, and forgot to do anything about myself!) And last, a family picture!! Me and my three boys, what a lucky girl I am!!

 

 
 

 
 

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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Busy weekend

We had a busy weekend last week! We made it to our support group on Friday, which is always a good way to start the day. The boys love to watch all the other babies, and I can usually get them to lay on their tummies for a few minutes since there's so much noise and so many people to watch. Grandpa came over at lunch time to hold the boys for an hour, which we all enjoy. Friday night I talked to my friend Emily, who was in town for the weekend. She was my college roommate, and I hadn't seen her in a long time! So I was excited she could come meet the babies.

Saturday, Emily came over and our friend Ashlyn came over. It was funny to see Emily around the babies, since she'd never held babies before. :) She did a great job, and got to hold each boy for a while. (I posted a few pictures in my earlier blog.) Then the boys stayed home with daddy, and mommy got to go out to lunch and shopping with the girls! It was great to catch up. Sometimes it's hard to believe that it's been six years since we were all in school together, because when we sit back down to have lunch, it's like no time has passed. It's great to have friends like that! We bought some cute baby clothes, so I'll post a picture of their new outfits from Emily and Ashlyn when they grow into them. It was nice to spend so much time with the girls, and funny to think about how our lives have changed in those six years. Emily kept saying how she couldn't believe I had two babies, and honestly sometimes I can't believe it still myself!

Sunday, the boys' grandparents came up for a visit! We hadn't seen Alex's parents in a while either, so it was good to catch up with them, as well. Alex's dad helped him with one of the cars and looked around in our master bathroom. (Long story...we started working on it before the babies were born...and sadly, it's still not done! That's a post in itself...perhaps I will tell the tale when/if the bathroom is finally DONE.) The boys were in a good mood, so we decided we could take a chance and go out to dinner. We went to Puccini's, one of my favorite pizza places, and the boys did great! They stayed in their carseats for most of the dinner, and seemed pretty content to look around and just hang out. The waitress got us our food really fast (it was early, but I'm sure she could tell we wanted to get in and out before any meltdowns!) They started to fuss right at the end of dinner, so we got them out of their seats and held them for a few minutes. We got a few pictures with Grandma A's camera, so I'll post them when she sends them to me! :)

Monday, February 13, 2012

The many friends of Henry and Holden!

These two boys are pretty lucky in life so far...they have an awful lot of people who love to visit and hold them! Here are some pictures of our friends. (They're going to have a pretty big first birthday party, if I had to guess!! :) I'm so glad some of you got to finally meet the boys!

My viola-playing music educator friend from Butler, Kendall!


Another college friend, fellow Pi Phi and roommate, Emily!

 
My awesome Butler/Pi Phi/NICU nurse friend, Ashlyn. (Huge help when you have babies staying in the hospital longer than you!)

Butler friend Michelle, and her husband Ben





Favorite mentor and fellow string teacher Kathy and her cute girls!

Uncle Jacob

Uncle Phalo

World's best next-door-neighbor and friend from high school, Ashley

 
 our best friends Laura and Jacob

PS-Follow my blog or leave a comment so I know who's reading and who still needs the link! :) Plus it makes me feel special...And thanks again to all of you for all of your help and support and for loving my boys so much!
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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Valentine's Day!

Red Hot Valentine's Card
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Couldn't resist making a cute Valentine's Day card. :) Thought it turned out pretty well! Enjoy the sneak peek, I couldn't wait any longer to post it! I'll add a few more pictures from our Valentine's Day "shoot" later. (Thanks Uncle Evan for helping! :)

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Meeting family

The boys got to meet some of my aunts (my dad's sisters) for the first time a few weeks ago. I didn't get to be there, since we dropped them at grandma and grandpa's for a few hours to get some cleaning done around our house. But here are some pictures.

The first is my aunt Bobbie, and below is my aunt Sharon. Then a group shot! Hopefully we'll all get together again soon, and I'll get to see my aunts next time, too! :) So see if you see any family resemblance, I think they definitely look like Suttners!



 


Then last weekend, on Super Bowl Sunday, Henry and Holden got to meet some of my mom's family. It was my great uncle Bon's birthday, and he wanted to meet the boys. So we jumped in the car! :) I would have loved for my Gran to get to meet them and hold them, but her brother Bon is the next best thing. I think he and my mom's cousin Bonnie definitely enjoyed seeing them. And I'm glad we have the pictures to show the boys later on.

 


Monday, February 6, 2012

Birthday party for Leah

Saturday we had my birthday party, since we hadn't had people over in a long while! We always like to entertain (and it gives us a good excuse to clean up the house!) and we hadn't tried to have people over since before the boys were born. Alex was awesome (as usual) and made all my favorites, including chex mix, Italian beef sandwiches, potato casserole, bourbon slush, and a cake from scratch! We had plenty of food left over, but that's ok, we ate it again during the Super Bowl. :)

My friend Christie brought her girls, and we got a picture of all three babies together, wearing their Super Bowl onesies! Charlotte is 6 weeks older than the boys, but they're still small for their age, so she looks older. (Henry is in the red onesie, and Holden is in the white. His belly looks so big! I don't know why he looks so much fatter than Henry all of a sudden. :) I got a few pictures of people holding the boys and we took a couple group shots. Still none of ME holding the boys, now that I think about it. How does that always happen?? Oh, well. We had a great time! It was nice to catch up with people, and we got a few rounds of Catch Phrase in at the end of the evening. Again, I'm a lucky girl! I have some great friends, I just need to see some of them more often!

(Pictures: Christie, me and all four kids! Babies in Super Bowl gear, Henry, Charlotte, Holden, Aunt Lauren and Holden in the rocking chair, Ashlyn and Henry, Ashley and Holden, both in Super Bowl attire, group picture without Alex, group picture without Christie, and group picture of the girls! Not too bad for so many people and babies! :)