cereal...the dinner of champions

We started the girls on cereal yesterday evening, since we got the go-ahead from our doctor on Friday. Randy mixed up the very thin cereal for their first feeding and I got them both situated in their bumbos...BTW, I've getting a little tired of all these baby creations started with the letter "B"...boppy, bumbo, burley...but that's another post.

Randy videotaped it while I attempted to feed them with the spoon. Mae definitely grasped the general concept, but she was too hunger to mess with this new stuff we were trying. And Eve
seemed confused, but not upset about the whole thing.

After a couple minutes we gave up b/c Mae started to cry and we poured the cereal into their bottles, which they both took readily. I know it'll be messy, but so far it's fun.

5 things I believe...

I like the idea of lists far more than I care to admit, since it doesn't take a large amount of creativity to complete it. Ah well.

5 things I believe...

1. I believe in soul mates, because I found mine.

2. I believe my mother's cooking can cure whatever ails you.

3. I believe baby laughter could bring about world peace.

4. I believe Coke is the elixir of life.

5. I believe life is a great adventure.

s-h-o-t-s

Friday was a big day. The girls spent the morning with a parishioner while I organized/sorted through our guest bedroom/dining room/catch-all room and then we spent the early afternoon shopping and then to the doctor's office for their four-month check-up.

They did fairly well the whole day, too. They were all smiles for Loree, which is excellent. And they were very happy babies until the shots. I had completely forgotten about the four month shots. I was just sitting there, all happy-go-lucky, playing with Mae and watching Eve when all of a sudden a look of complete and utter betrayal displayed itself on my sweet little Eve's face.

I have been able to distinguish their cries for almost two months now, and I have never heard my baby cry like that. When I bumped her head on the crib a month ago it came close, but never have I heard a cry of such pain occur. My heart broke into a million little pieces as I watched her get poked three times, with two little drops of blood spilling forth.

I immediately set her sister down, who by this time realized something was up and began whimpering herself, and held Eve close to me, telling her it was all right now and kissing her cheeks. After awhile she calmed down and just sniffed her little nose and held onto me.

Meanwhile, the same horrible situation occurred for Mae, who looked even more betrayed than Eve had, but Mae cries more in general, so her tears, while still horrible, were not the heart-breaking ordeal of a few minutes prior.

Soon I had both girls in my lap, covering them in mommy kisses and rubbing their backs. After a couple minutes they were both fine again and we departed. It shouldn't be that traumatic and difficult to watch them get shots, but I think it's the idea of purposely saying - go ahead, hurt my baby - that just gets me.

I KNOW I'm over dramatizing it and I'm glad they have their immunizations, but it was an odd feeling, watching my babies be hurt, even if only temporarily.

The rest of their appointment went well. Mae is 12 lbs 9 oz. & 25 inches long. Eve is 13 lbs 2 oz. & 24 inches long. Mae's head is slightly larger than Eve's (40.9 to 39.2 cm), but nowhere near the huge difference there was when they were first born. My little chunker is catching up!

They continue to be very healthy and we got the go ahead to start cereal this week...so we'll start tomorrow evening when we're both home. I have a general feeling that Mae will immediately take to it while Eve will grudgingly get used to it. We'll see.

It's the little things...

So, I feel rather foolish by this admission, but my life has been changed in a not insignificant way by the purchase of a new gate from the kitchen to the rest of the house.

This is the new, wonderful, amazing, stupendous, fabulous, great gate. Purchase for $50 and overpriced-baby-items-R-us. However, in this particular instance, I feel the actual value far exceeds the dollar amount.

For the previous five years we had suffered through this kind of gate. Horrible. It falls down constantly, is too high to easily climb over, after a few falls to the floor it gets out of wack of the tracking and just generally is not a good thing. Of course, it's the cheapest one out there. We cursed it. We actually cursed a wooden and plastic gate...that's how deep the arrgravation went.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. We have our tax refund money and I was determined to buy a decent gate. And it worked. I installed it in a matter of minutes and now I am rather embarassed at how easy life is with the new gate.

Going to the kitchen is no longer such a hassle. Letting the dogs into the rest of the house is easy. The gate is hands free...just use a foot and knee to nudge it open. That means I can have a baby (or two) in my arms and not be hindered in my movement...(well, by the gate...the tendinitis is another thing).

So, that's that. Wonderful gate. Ridiculous warm fuzzy feelings for an inanimate object. I don't care. :)

30 things

30 things I'm looking forward to experiencing with my daughters:

1. Visiting the Dane County Farmer's Market on the capitol square
2. Riding in a red wagon.
3. Watching their father teach them to fish.
4. Going to the zoo.
5. Making pancakes on Sunday mornings.
6. Sleepovers.
7. Fingerpainting.
8. Drawing with sidewalk chalk.
9. Playing hopscotch.
10. Building towers with blocks and then knocking them over. Repeatedly.
11. going to Disneyworld.
12. Coloring books, outside the lines.
13. Decorating the Christmas tree.
14. Having them turn the pages of the books while I read them.
15. Finding one of them napping with the dogs.
16. making sugar cookies with them.
17. Showing them the secret recipe to our family spaghetti sauce.
18. Seeing their faces after a fun day with Aunt Kate.
19. blowing bubbles.
20. jumping rope
21. camping at national parks on vacation.
22. making meatballs.
23. seeing their outfits when they dress themselves.
24. coaching their t-ball team.
25. going to their piano recitals.
26. planting a garden.
27. kissing skinned knees.
28. chasing a rainbow.
29. watching them teach Daddy the different Disney princesses
30. going for bike rides.

In your Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it...

These are wonderful babies. Easter was a breeze. It was the first big car trip...five hours total from Madison to Des Moines, followed by two full days of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, neighbors, etc.

And the only time they cried for more than a few whimpers was when I bumped Eve's head against the crib trying to get her out in the morning...oh, the the previous morning when she's had a hard bubble stuck. Otherwise - happy, squealing babies.

Eve started belly laughing on Sunday. I was in the kitchen, helping get the meal ready when I heard that most beautiful sound. Grandpa and cousin Zane were playing with her on the floor. Big belly laughs.

They were so well behaved during the Holy Week masses....we only missed the Vigil, which is a good things, since it tends to get fairly long. And they were super cute in their Easter dresses and bonnets.

I just can't believe how blessed we are to have these lovely girls. Maybe the trade-off for us was twins, but because we're so busy, they're going to be even-tempered, healthy little things.

Oh, but they did inherit their parents' cat allergies. My allergy seems to have gotten worse during my pregnancy...now my airways constrict, even with medication. So, I was very much hoping the girls would be spared. After all - this house is not kept super clean, there are two dogs living here, and I don't exactly keep them out of the dirt.

But both mornings they woke up very congested which indicates an allergy. And they haven't woken up all snotty since we've been back home, so it wasn't a cold or anything. Darnit. I'll keep working on getting them immune to it, since otherwise spending a week with Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't exactly be a treat.

And to finish - here is a pic of them from Easter Sunday.

Chunker Monker & String Bean

Those are the current nicknames for my girls. Eve, who started off as the little one, weighing a pound less than her sister, has, in the past two months, soared ahead, likely weighing close to 14 pounds now. String bean, on the other hand, is constantly moving, and therefore weighs less, probably right around 12, maybe 12.5.

And the smiles....my goodness, the smiles. I can't wait for laughter to accompany those toothless grins. We're starting to get occassional squeals out of them, though generally such fun noises are reserved for when they're looking at each other.

They are such happy babies...which everyone tells me is because I'm such a relaxed mom. I don't know about that...I think I was able to relax because they were, and continue to be, such good babies. The sleep thing isn't quite worked out yet, as they've gone back to shorter shifts, but otherwise - these babies are very even-keeled.

Girls clothing is going to me my downfall, though. I will admit, selfishly, to a moment of disappointment when we found out they were both girls. I had really wanted a boy...especially two. Now - I couldn't imagine not having these wonderful ladies in my life.

But it IS a LOT of pink. Apparently clothes manufacturers think we live, drink, eat, sleep pink. I have not been quiet in expressing my opinion to families and friends who may buy us clothes that pink is not a favored color in this house. But - 80% of the clothes out there are pink.

And not even a fun pink, like magenta, but pastel pink. Yeah - everyone talks about bright colors stimulate babies' brains, but they make the clothing all pastel until they're a year old. Ok...using the word 'all' was an exaggeration. But the vast majority of clothing for little babes is not bright and vibrant. As a mother - it gets old. I wear bold colors (when I'm not hiding out in form-flattering black). Fortunately, my sister found very adorable BRIGHT sun dresses for the girls and at the huge resale last weekend I was able to find a few bright outfits, so there's hope.

In the meantime, Eve is currently hanging out in one of my outfits from when I aws a baby (it's bright yellow) and Mae is dressed is purple. She looks good in purple and I currently save all purple outfits for her. The same way I save the yellow outfits for Eve. They just look better, in my opinion.

Mae just woke up from her mid-morning snooze to smile at me. She gets so excited while smiling she has to look away. Fantastic. And Eve is propped in the boppy right next to her, sound asleep. They sleep all cuddled up to each other at night, too. So flippin' adorable.

Love these babies. Love them so much.

Video post

Well, the girls continue to prove elusive at recording their interactions...but here's what I've got. Enjoy.


And here's a second one just of the two of them talking...Randy took it last night while I was making dinner.