Montage

I don't really have any exciting news to share or exciting updates. If you are interested in a thumb sucking update here it is. Since figuring out how to suck her left thumb, Caroline can now suck her right thumb as well. However, she is no longer interested in her thumb and sucks neither. Addison looks like she could learn how to suck her thumb soon too but is not as persistent in figuring it out like Caroline was so it might be a while.

So here are a bunch of pictures that I took the other day.

Success!

Great job Caroline! And we are back to sleeping through the night which makes us all happy :)

Thumb Sucker???

About a week ago Scott and I started to notice Caroline's left hand close to her mouth more often. We thought that she might be trying to suck her thumb which has been confirmed as over the last several days she has really been trying to figure it out. Scott has only seen her successfully have her whole thumb in her mouth once in the middle of the night. This past Saturday and Sunday night the girls slept for 6.5 and 7.5 hours straight without making a peep once which Scott and I were very excited about. However, since then Caroline cries a lot more often usually starting around 3 or 3:30am as she continues to try and figure out this whole thumb sucking thing. It is cute and heartbreaking to see her try so hard to get it in her mouth and then to cry out of frustration just to try again and then again start to cry. She is so close! I wish I could just do it for her, which I admittedly have tried, but I know she needs to figure it out on her own. One of many times I am sure I will wish I could just show them how to do something but know they have to do it themselves to learn. It is so interesting to me that she knows what she wants to do yet does not know how to do it. For now, we wait and hope that she figures it out soon for her sake and for our sleeping sake since we know they can sleep through the night otherwise.

As you can see, her main problem is that she is not extending her thumb. The closest I have seen is her getting her thumb and index finger in her mouth.

A little closer

The other day I came home to the girls like this. Scott said that they were upset and as soon as he moved them so they were facing each other they immediately calmed down and were happy again. Love it!

Sonja posing with Caroline in the bumbo seats. Look at that double chin!

A bit of a difference in the length of their legs


Sonja always willing to help with the pacifiers. At least she puts it in their mouth now versus anywhere else on their face.

A lot of people ask us if we feed them at the same time or not. Well the answer is yes and this is how we do it. When they were smaller we had them on a pillow side by side on the couch propped up against the arm rest. When their necks became stronger and they were big enough we moved them to their bounces. This should work until they are holding their own bottles.

Valentine's Day Activity

Our family came over after church on Valentine's Day and my mom asked if we were going to have a V-Day activity as a joke (but a little serious). I thought that was a great idea so Gwen and I made heart shaped sugar cookies for everyone to decorate.

Luckily, I was able to make one of my aprons fit her.

You have to lick the utensils

I loved making the cookies with Gwen. What a perfect messy activity for a 3 year old. It made me excited thinking about doing this with my girls some day.

Finished product

Decorating...Gwen took one bite and said she didn't want anymore. What 3 year old doesn't want sugar cookies??

Sonja on the other hand had Gwen's cookie along with several others all at the same time.

2 Month Check-up

We had their 2 month check-up this morning and they are both doing really well both physically and developmentally. They got their first round of shots and seem to be handling them pretty well so far. We'll see how the next couple days go though. Here are their stats...

Addison-----Caroline
7 pounds 13 ounces-----8 pounds 13 ounces
20 inches-----20.5 inches
35.5 head circumference -----36.5 head circumference

Overnight I feel like they have grown little personalities. Words that people have used to describe them are animated and charismatic. We wondered if they would act similar to how they were when I was pregnant with them and it does seem to translate. Addison tends to be quiet and calm while Caroline can be dramatic and makes her presence known. Caroline is a bit more ahead than Addison so she already has many little sounds that she makes. Here are 2 videos of her being vocal. The second video gets a bit shaky because I am holding Addison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAvAqcnQ9IA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_MbgIT9WrM

A question a lot of parents get with babies this age is "how are they sleeping?" Well, I am happy to report that they are sleeping pretty well. Last night they actually slept from 11:30 pm to 7 am. That was not totally interrupted though. They do still need to get their pacifiers periodically during the night but I'm ok with that. Scott and I have both seen Caroline with her hand close to her mouth like she is about to suck her thumb so we will see what happens with that.

Superbowl Sunday

For the Superbowl we headed over to Chris and Leah's place. It was a lot of fun to hang out with all of them because we don't get to see them as often since we moved to the suburbs.

It was also a little break for us since we had so many willing people to hold the babies

Chris and Kenny got the chance to finally meet the girls! Kenny had some great dance moves while holding Caroline which was a fun preview of him becoming a dad this summer. They were both great with the girls.

Caroline LOVED Annie. She would stare at her and when someone else was holding her she would still be looking at Annie. It was really cute.

Some more pictures of their room since I was finally able to get some time over the weekend when Scott was home to get some more of it done. As you can imagine, I don't get much done during the week when it is just me and the girls.

I saw these floor tiles at Babies R Us when I was pregnant and knew that if I had girls that I had to get it. I think it looks great and I love pink and brown together.

Right now the girls are sleeping together in the crib on the left...

...and the crib on the right is currently the home of their stuffed animals. It is kind of like the Noah's Ark of stuffed animals since we get everything in pairs.

Believe it or not, Addison was happy to be like this right before I took the picture.

Caroline smiling!!! The first smile I was able to get a picture of.

Kind of a weird one of Caorline but I think Addison is cute

This was kind of the end of a smile from Addison. It is actually only the second time I have seen her smile so I am surprised I caught it.

They have very pretty blue eyes that I started to notice this past week are getting lighter. It seems like they definitely have Scott's eyes which is what I was hoping for.

I love that when they lift their heads up that their feet go up too

That's it for now. They were 2 months old yesterday (wow!) and we have their 2 month check-up this Friday so stay tuned for some new stats.

Anne and Pete's Wedding!!

First things first, an update on Addison and Caroline. They are 8 weeks as of yesterday and I really cannot believe how much time really does fly by. We are right on the cusp of them being more interactive. They have both smiled but it does not happen every day and Addison has only done it once to Grandpa (lucky guy!). I know that every baby develops differently but it seems like since they were born 3 weeks early that is making a bit of a difference. That's ok though. We have also been told that twins develop a little behind with social things like smiling because they have each other to interact with. I weighed them on our scale at home today and Addison is weighing in at 8 pounds and Caroline is at 9 pounds. They certainly are growing! They are slowly but surely sleeping in longer stretches at night (longest stretch was 5 hours) and my hope is that they will be sleeping from 11pm to 7am by the time we go to FL in March. We'll see. Other than that, Scott and I are just trying to enjoy them in this stage before they move on to the next.

Caroline was born breech so as a precautionary measure she had an ultrasound done on her hips this past Monday to be sure she does not have a hip issue. I am not entirely sure what the issue is (Linnea I am sure knows more since Gwen had it) but if she did have this issue she would need to where a harness for several weeks as her bones grow. The alternative to this harness is having surgery as an adult so it is certainly worth the inconvenience of this harness when they are babies. The ultrasound was very interesting to me. There were 3 different angles that the Dr. looked at and one was a stress angle where they actually popped her hip out of the socket. They said it does not hurt when they do this and that was proven when Caroline fell asleep in the middle of it! I was told that she is a great baby which is something that we hear often of both Caroline and Addison. People at church are convinced that they don't cry....HA! They do, trust me. Anyways, the results are that Caroline's hips are perfect so there will be no issue or harness to deal with :)

Here they are right after a nap. Several weeks ago we moved them out of our room and into their's. They still sleep together which they seem to like.

This is from another day when Scott walked in to Addison sleeping like this. Interesting.

ok, now to Anne and Pete's Wedding!!! Here is Gwen as the flower girl. Recognize that dress! It was great she could where it again. Here she is starting down the aisle...


And here she is going back. Hey, at least she was not sick this time.

The beautiful bride and her dad, My Uncle Roger.

The reception place was at a barn in Greyslake. It was a lot of fun and could not be more perfect for us. We were able to get a table up in the balcony in the corner so we could watch everyone and keep the girls in a corner so they could sleep. They were great the whole time so we really enjoyed ourselves.

The happy couple :) Welcome to the family Pete!!

Here is the lineup of carseats at playgroup last week. There were 6 babies 5 months or younger. I really enjoy Tuesdays now because it starts with playgroup and then I spend the rest of the day at Linnea and Cam's with Linnea and her girls. Elsa has been joining us too which has been great! It is nice to be somewhere else for a day.

I pulled out the bumbo chairs for the girls last week. They have pretty strong necks so they were fine in these chairs. They do look a bit small in them which makes them look so cute :)

Addison

Caroline

Apparently Addison is still able to fall asleep even when sitting up. Go figure.

I saved the best for last. This has become one of my favorite pictures. I just happened to catch Caroline at a perfect moment. Ha! Make me laugh every time I look at it.