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.

Someone Just Turned One!

Sophia had her first birthday on January 5th but we celebrated it this past weekend. It was a lot of fun getting together with Scott's family and a break for the two of us since we had many willing hands/arms to hold Addison and Caroline. Happy Birthday Sophia....we love you!!

The classic first cake pictures...

All the helping hands...

Janet certainly had the touch with both of them

Aunt Marne found a spare moment and was a great hostess

Great Grandma Hornaday

Grandma Anne

As many new moms do, I got a hair cut! I originally was going to get my hair cut when I was still pregnant but I ended up having 2 children the day I had planned on getting it. Oh well. Either way I am done with my long hair for now. Thank goodness!

Some more pictures from the past week or so...

Caroline and I having a one on one moment. I cherish these because they do not happen all them time and especially uninterrupted ones!

Both girls love to be held/sleep like this and I am expecting this to only last for another couple months. I will be sad when it is over. This picture was taken right after Scott got home from work. He generally finds me holding both of them when he comes home because from around 5:30 to basically when they go to bed they both like to be held continuously so putting one of them down for even a couple minutes usually does not work. It is somewhat easy right now but we will see how it goes as they get bigger.

Caroline ready to go to church. She is in her Bolivian outfit and I just thought she looked so cute!

My parents have this cute baby buggy and I finally remembered to take a picture of the 2 of them in there before they got too big. As you can see, Caroline was hanging over the edge before we adjusted her a little farther in it.

They don't look so excited about this

Gwen saw me holding Addison on my shoulder and she picked up Caroline to do the same. Just when I think Gwen has done everything cute with these girls she can possibly do she does another cute thing. She also still says a lot "they are so small" or "look at their hands, they are so small." I can't get enough of Gwen's interactions with them. Love it!

Aunt Elsa taking a nap with Addison

Taking a nap at home. I think they look the most similar when they are sleeping. Can you tell who is who???

Answer: Caroline is on the left and Addison is on the right.

The hazard of sleeping right next to someone who likes to either have their arms totally stretched out to the side or above their head. Don't worry, Addison can breath. I checked. Actually, they are rarely this close when they sleep anymore but we were on the couch so I had them closer together since there is not as much room.

Here is a continuation of the "modern mom"...the "modern dad" with twins. Who said you can't check fantasy sports while taking care of 2 babies!