Thursday, June 24, 2010

Our weekend

We had a great weekend and had some guests come over Saturday afternoon. Annie is in town from Alabama and it was so nice to see her! Courtney Black, Sue and Annie came over to see the girls (and me!)


 Annie and Lily

Sue and Kate
Courtney and Kate

Annie gave the girls the dresses they're wearing and I love them. They're also Devin's favorite- he likes the "preppy" look on the girls!

Sunday was Father's Day and we went to church in the morning with our friends Doug, Amy and their 12 week old baby girl, Landry. I'm SO glad we did this and the girls did very well in the nursery. They were absolutely exhausted when we picked them up and passed out immediately in the car. No tears though so I would call it a huge success. Later on we made the drive to Flower Mound and had dinner with Devin's family.

So it was a great weekend and now we're almost through the week, and unfortunately it hasn't been going as well. The girls are pretty sick and have high fevers- Lily got up to 102.9 yesterday. Devin and I were both sick 2 weeks ago, our cousin Sloane was sick last week and the girls were in a nursery with other babies Sunday- all several ways our girls could have caught a cold. Devin is out of town this week in San Fransisco for work, so things have been a little tough. Thankfully Motrin brings their fever down and helps them sleep so I'm hoping they'll be feeling better in the next day or so. When Devin and I were sick we took z packs (love those things) but antibiotics are very rarely given to infants so they pretty much have to tough it out. I would gladly take their place being sick any day.

So that's what's been going on with us. Hoping the girls have a good day today and start feeling better. Having 2 sick babies is tough!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

One in the Same

Just saw this book on another mother of twins blog: One and the Same:
My Life as an Identical Twin and What I've Learned About Everyone's Struggle to Be Singular
 

I'm going to get a copy today. I really haven't read any book on twins, other than what to buy for multiples and ways to make things easier when you come home with multiples. Whether I had twins or not, I think this book would be very fascinating. Here's a review I just read on Amazon:

I expected this book to be interesting (and it fully met my expectations), but I couldn't foretell how often it would make my heart ache. Abigail doesn't hold back, courageously revealing the sometimes painful longing she has for more closeness with Robin, her twin, while also discussing the wonderful aspects of their relationship. Although it isn't surprising to learn the strength of emotional intensity in being an identical twin, some aspects of the relationship are a revelation. Abigail tells readers that she has a life partner in her sister, someone with whom she is compelled to share her deepest thoughts and whose opinions she treasures. But there's another side to the coin: Abigail takes on any emotional distress Robin shares with her and is devastated by any spat with her sister. She also is frank about her sorrow in a certain recent distancing in their relationship, one emanating from Robin.

I think I've avoided reading these books because I don't want to hear about any of the "difficult times" my girls might go through because they have a twin sister. But in reality I'm sure they won't have any more than the other singletons out there, theirs will just be different. I suggest all my close friends and family buy this book so we can all discuss.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Halfway through 2010

I can't believe we're already in the middle of this year. I decided to go back and look at my goals for 2010 and to see what (if anything!) I've gotten accomplished from my list. Oh, and this is pretty long and really just for me so feel free to skip over. I did however add pictures of the girls in their bathing suits this weekend so there's something to look forward to at the end of this post.

Let's recap this!

2010 Goals

1. Curtains for my living room and dining room. I'm thinking Tiffany blue.
I went to the fabric store this weekend with my mother in law and picked out fabric for curtains for the living and dining room as well as fabric to recover our couch in the living room. I also picked out a really neat camel and cream zebra stripe fabric for a tufted ottoman for our living room. I plan on using it as a coffee table since our current one has lots of sharp edges and is pretty much a hazard to the babies. I can't wait to get all this done but I have a feeling it will be another month or two.

2. Summer beach vacation. I want us to rent a beach house with family and bring the girls.
We rented an amazing condo in Gulf Shores for a week in August. It's brand new, close to all the shopping and restaurants and has a great pool. My parents as well as Jeff and Jenny are coming with us and we're so excited. One minor flaw in the plan- BP had an oil spill. Heard of it? I have my fingers crossed that it will still all work out but we're pretty nervous to head down there if there are a lot of tar balls and oil fumes in the air. We have time though so again, fingers crossed. I really want to take the girls to the beach!
3. Fun weekend vacation with Devin. Maybe Mexico??? Mom, do you want to babysit?
Check and check. Hmm. Go figure that this is the only thing on my list that I can officially cross off. Thanks Gigi and Papa for babysitting!
4. Find a church for our family with a good nursery.
I'm embarrassed to say that this one still hasn't been accomplished. My neighbor introduced me to her church and I really, really liked the nursery but I'm not sure about the actual service. This is still an ongoing process that we haven't spent enough time working on.
5. Find a reliable babysitter that we can trust to keep the girls every once in awhile so Devin and I can go out to dinner occasionally. Not sure of the best way to do this but I plan on asking my neighbors who they use. They're moving soon so maybe we can just steal theirs!
We get to check this one off our list as well. We have a new babysitter named Allison that my neighbor recommended. She's so sweet and good with the girls, even though she doesn't really get to spend time with them since they're asleep when we go out. Her older sister is also a children's photographer and we're pretty sure we're going to use her to take the girls 10 month pictures. I really like her work.
6. Reconnect with friends. Now that the girls are getting a little easier, I would like to start seeing friends again. Maybe even having some dinner parties. The girls go to bed at 7pm so I'm hoping friends can come to us!
I'm very thankful that we've made some progress here as well. Catherine and Sean as well as Jen and Ben all came over Saturday night for dinner. It was so fun catching up. I wish we all got to see each other more. I've also been able to go out more with girlfriends the last couple of months after the girls go to bed. Our friends Doug and Amy Walker just had a baby girl as well and named her Landry. Well I've kind of stolen Amy and made her my new wine buddy while the Dads babysit the girls. Sure we miss having them around but it's just so nice to get out and it's so nice that I don't have to feel silly talking about babies all night because she can talk about hers as well. Times Ten is a local winery around the corner from us and it's pretty much my new favorite place.
7. Frame some of the newborn pictures we had taken of Kate and Lily when they were 1 month old. I'm going to start a "Kate and Lily" wall and can't wait to fill it up. (I'm a procrastinator when it comes to framing pictures. I didn't frame any of our wedding pictures until after Jeff and Jenny got married and we went to their house for Christmas and they already had their wedding pictures everywhere. I had no excuse!)
Well I did frame some small pictures and they look great. I also got large canvases made of their newborn pictures and I'm just not sure that I'm crazy about them. They just look awkward on the wall. Some people have suggested I frame the canvas so I'm going to try that. Frustrated about that one.

Lily
Kate. We LOVE drinking out of cups right now but not the sippy cups that are for them- they like the big cups that mommy drinks out of.

Lily and Kate

What we've been up to....

We've been pretty busy around here and I've neglected my blog and posting pictures of the girls. I'll try to catch up!

Kate and Lily are everywhere and into everything. It's a little out of control but they've both been so happy and content lately that I'll take it. Kate said "mama" a couple of months ago but never said it again. It very well could have been a fluke. She is now saying it all the time..."mama, mama, mama". She just says it over and over again. Music to my ears! 
Lily and Kate racing across the room

Devin's parents were in town last week from Colorado! They moved in January and now live 18 hours away from us, close to Aspen. We've missed them so much and it's been nice seeing them. The girls have changed so much in the last 5 months and I can't imagine how crazy that is for his parents. We wish they still lived here but we are very excited about all the ski trips and white Christmas's in our future!













The girls are so much fun right now and really starting to work up an appetite. They've started eating finger food (though really not very good at it!) but it's a lot of fun making their meals. This morning they had pieces of a whole wheat bagel, very small cheese cubes and my homemade apple sauce. We tried peas this week and they weren't very fond of those and I can't blame them. I always taste what I make for them and they were pretty much awful. Tomorrow we're trying kiwi and I'm sure that will be a hit. Their favorites are still sweet potatoes, avocado and banana.

Sweet Lily. I love her eyes in this pictures.
Kate. She looks so happy and innocent.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Pictures from Memorial Day weekend

We had such a nice weekend and had some company. Our nephew Grayson spent the night with us Saturday night. He's 8 and the girls are so infatuated with him, especially Lily.
Grayson and Kate
Grayson and Lily


Jeff and Jenny were also in town this weekend for a wedding. We met them at the pool at their hotel Saturday afternoon. It was actually the girls first time in a pool (other than our little baby pool) and I didn't get any pictures! We had a babysitter for the first time Sunday night so we could go out to dinner. It worked out well because we went out after the girls were asleep so she basically just sat here while they slept. Pretty easy job! We had so much fun with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jenny and it was nice to have them help with the girls- they were in rare form Sunday night!
Aunt Jenny feeding Kate. Love it when other people feed my girls!
Uncle Jeff with Lily

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Kate and Lily are 8 months!

The girls are getting so old and very big! I would say both weigh about 18 pounds. They are getting so hard to carry around and their long legs are hanging off their carriers. I ordered new car seats today and went with the Britax Marathon. They're much bigger than the car seats I'm using now so I hope they both fit in my back seat. I also had to get a new stroller since we won't be using the snap and go anymore and the Bob is too hard to use to run errands. I'm not sure it could even fit it through most doorways!

The girls have been trying all sorts of new food: carrots, yogurt, green beans, cottage cheese, peaches and a whole wheat bagel! The bagel is pretty random but they loved it and I'm pretty sure Kate wanted to sleep with hers. I'm still making all their food, at least the food I can make and I'm still enjoying it.

Lily is crawling everywhere and she is super fast. She has started pulling up on things and can even manage to crawl on top of things. She is losing her chubby thighs and I think it's because she's constantly moving. She also started babbling more and loves to say ga-ga over and over again. She's even said da-da a few times which makes Devin very happy. She officially has her two bottom teeth now.
Lily with a pink face after our walk. It's so hot outside!

Kate is determined to crawl her own special way. She scoots around the house and it's actually pretty nice because she's not nearly as fast as Lily! I'm thinking she'll go from her scoot straight to walking. She's started pulling up on things as well but can't stand as well as Lily. She's just as strong (if not stronger!) but she just doesn't want to right now. She got her first tooth a few days ago and is such a happier baby now. Side note- I am not a fan of teething.


 Kate playing airplane with Devin. She constantly has her hand in her mouth because her poor teeth hurt so bad.

 Lily standing up. She loves to use us to balance.


Both girls are still very busy and very happy (when they're not teething.) They're still sleeping 7p-7a, or usually around 6:45a which we're very thankful for. They take naps from 8:30a-10a, 12p-12:30p and 2p-3:30p. I'm thinking over the next month we'll try pushing their morning nap to 9a and cutting out the 12p. We're also going to start eating more finger foods this month which will be fun and extremely messy! The girls still have their bright blue eyes and are getting much more hair. It still looks like it will be light brown and I cannot wait for all the bows we'll be wearing in the near future. This has been such a fun month and I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.

Here's the 8 month picture!