Santa Babies!

We took the girls to see santa this weekend and it just so happened to be the first major snowfall of the season! We waited about 1.5 hours to see him. Apparently, his name was legally changed to Santa Claus and the mall here flies him out from Denver every year. The guy was great. Really took time with each of the families and sat and talked to the kids. He told me about his friends who are married and are each a twin. She was pregnant 3 times and has 7 kids. You do the math!


We really thought Emma would cry, since she tends to be the more anxious of the two, but as soon as we sat Mady down she lost it. Poor girl. Emma just sat there and after we picked up Mady, Santa and Emma had a precious few moments together.


When we came home, we got a few good shots out in the snow with our new camera.

Somehow I managed to bake some cookies last night and will be making sugar cookies tonight. Still need to get the house in order for Christmas lunch!

Hope everyone has a great holiday... can't wait to report back with pics about the girls 2nd Christmas.

H1N1

We did end up getting the girls vaccinated. Well, they at least at the first shot. Our doctor originally didn't feel comfortable with it, but changed her mind. I feel much better knowing they have at least one shot in them especially since they seem to get EVERYTHING.

Wow, it's been awhile.

Busy would be an understatement. I honestly don't know how I keep going on some days. Working 4 days, running Lil' LJ, taking on tons of freelance work, trying to keep up with the house and finding time with my girls has proven difficult as of late!

I'm going to try to remember everything of note that happened since my last post and hopefully upload some pictures this week.

The girls tested out of their developmental and physical therapy! They are on target for just about everything and they feel there is no point in following them as closely as we have been. I did agree to a tracking system, which will follow up on us every 3 months, just to make sure the girls are meeting the milestones that they should be. I was very sad to say goodbye to Melanie, who was the developmentalist. We've seen her about every other week since they came home from the NICU.

Both girls currently have pink eye in both eyes. They've been waking up around 11 or 12 after going down for bed around 8. One night it's Mady, the next it's Emma. We let them cry for a little and then most times they wake the other. We've been pulling one or the other into bed with us when this happens so that both babies aren't screaming all night. Then, after they are passed out, we put them back or TRY to put them back.

Okay, so this probably isn't the best idea. I don't want them dependent on snuggling with us every time they wake up crying. However, at 12am, when you are exhausted and you know that letting them cry it out longer than 15 minutes wakes the other, there really isn't much choice. Right now they are teething and have horrible colds in addition to their pink eye. I'm hoping these are the reasons for these wakings. Last night Emma did sleep the whole night, so that makes me feel better. Mady was with me from 4am-7am coughing non-stop.

They are both walking and talking. Well, not talking persay, but they can babble on with the funniest infections in their voices. Mady says: diaper, mama, dada and what's this. Emma says: mama, dada, kitty, hi, baby. There are probably some other words that we just don't realize they are saying.

They are very into organizing and taking things in and out of objects. It's pretty funny to watch.

As I'm typing all this, I'm actually feeling guilty about not being on here more often and recording every single milestone and date. I guess I should at least be happy that I have done what I have on here right?

We bought a new camera and I am hoping to get some Christmas shots this weekend and then maybe I can start our holiday cards sometime before the New Year. Unfortunately, I also feel guilty about not picking up the camcorder enough to catch video of them. There are so many cute moments I wish I had captured. The reality is we have TWINS. There isn't always a free hand to grab a camera.

We drove to Chicago for Thanksgiving to spend the weekend with Christian's dad, step-mom and brother and sister-n-law. It was a lot of fun and the girls enjoyed exploring a new place. We took them to the aquarium while we were there and they loved it. The trip took 9.5 hours hours instead of the usual 7.5. That was hard, but the girls were troopers and either slept or just looked out the windows for most of the ride.

Still no Christmas decorations up at our house. I think we may keep it simple again this year. I don't really want to spend the next few weeks saying "no" to keep them away from Christmas decorations. I think we'll put up our mini tree again this year and put it somewhere safe!

Okay, that was a little update. Pictures to come!

Here Comes Santa!

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Some of my new super cute Christmas designs:

This design is a coordinating two-pack perfect for twins!

Walking and Talking? What?

Mady has been working very, very hard through tears at her physical therapy appts and thanks to Mary, our therapist, Madelyn is now a walker! She took 20 steps for Mary on Friday and has been walking since. She's so very, very proud of herself. Granted, she still crawls from time to time since it gets her from A to B much faster. Now, we need to work on Miss Emma. She tends to try to walk too fast, which just leads to a lot of falls!

The girls have been saying Mama and Dada for awhile now. Mady has been saying "wass tha?" Now we think they are repeating or trying to repeat a lot of what we say. Mady said Pap-Pap this morning and Emma said car Saturday night. We think Emma says Ki-Ki for Kitty. It's so cute. They now "pretend" to go night-night when we put a pillow down and Mady says "awww" while she does it. Emma gives hugs and kisses to her stuffed animals and the cats.

They are getting taller and braver which led me to empty most of my shelves in our living room. Anything they shouldn't get into, they somehow do. I could sit for hours and just watch them interact, talk, climb and take steps.

Cool!!

Lil' LJ is being featured on one of my favorite blogs today! Visit the site and leave a comment for a chance to win a shirt!

www.mybabyfaves.blogspot.com

And don't forget to register to on www.lillj.com. I'll be sending out a pre-holiday eblast with money-saving coupons!

October in Pictures

http://emmaandmadelyn.shutterfly.com/

Happy Anniversary Girls!

Today is the one year anniversary of the day the girls finally came home from the hospital. 63 days we spent juggling our jobs, daily life and visiting our babies in the NICU having no idea what each day would bring. Hoping that we were doing all we could to nurture them and let them know that we were always there for them. While I always knew (or maybe just didn't dare think) we wouldn't lose these girls, we had plenty of scary moments in the NICU. Watching tiny 4lbs babies get blood transfusions ... countless x-rays and blood work ... alarms sounding constantly ... being fed through tubes ... watching them turn blue ... having nurses rush into the room ... not being able to hold my brand new baby girls for a few days ... unfortunately, it's still all very vivid in our minds.

Those are the hardest days we've had together. Those tiny 3lb babies are now 14 months old and 19 and 22 lbs. Simply amazing. Every day they bring us more and more joy.

Happy Anniversary girls! We love you!

Trick or Treat

Trick or Treating was a blast with the girls and their friend Damon. We went to about 20 houses. Both girls are now taking 1-4 unassisted steps and it was amazing how many times they tried to "walk" towards the candy bowls last night. We let them pick up the candy from the bowls, which they thought was a blast. They didn't pay quite as much attention to the other kids/costumes as I thought they would, but it was dark by the time we got out. Can't wait for next year!

Happy Halloween!

The girls went for a visit at my office yesterday and dressed up again this morning for their music class. Trick or Treating in our neighborhood is tonight and it looks like the rain has finally stopped. We can't wait to take them out and see their expressions when they see all the costumes!

Miss Madelyn

Madelyn had an appointment with Physical Therapy on Friday. Her developmentalist saw that her feet always seem to point outwards, so she wanted to be safe and get it checked out. Turns out she does indeed have pronated feet and low arches. So, our Friday mornings will now consist of physical therapy sessions to work on this and strengthening her core. We actually have to do crunches with her! The physical therapist labeled her as "lazy", which we thought was pretty funny, because of the two, she definitely is the lazy and easy going one. She did mention braces, but thought that parents jump into those too quickly. I guess it's possible she could "walk out" of this. I can't be thankful enough that I have Friday's open for things like this!

Big Girls

I can't believe how big our girls look when they stand up by themselves! Where is the time going?

Pumpkin Patch

We took the girls to the pumpkin patch again this week with Grammie and Pap-Pap. They had a great time even though it was a little cold!

Christmas gift?

Came across these awesome rings today and have given the hubby a wink and a nudge ;)

http://mybabyfaves.blogspot.com/2009/10/you-takeover-tuesday-ring-around-mommy.html

She always has great posts! It's definitely a blog to follow!

I know, I know...

I know, it's been awhile since I've posted pics and I also have some video I need to put up. Just have to find the time to do it!

The girls are now on their 3rd week of sinus infections. They started on one antibiotic and it wasn't working, so they are now on another. I feel so bad for them - they are always sniffling. And it has meant not getting to have play dates with their younger friends.

They girls are eating all adult food now and love it. Not sure what their faves are, as it differs day to day. They love grilled cheese, grilled and rotisserrie chicken, pasta, peas, and squash. We managed to stay away from breaded chicken until our visit to PF Chang's this week. And of course, they loved it.

Emma is now able to stand and pick up objects while maintaining her balance. She can take about 3 steps when only assisted by one of us with one hand. Mady is practicing standing more and loves to use the walkers we have... especially the shopping cart. They are both are starting to point and Mady points at everything she sees and says "wass tha"? Very cute.

They are both sort of sporadic with sleeping through the night at this point and I truly blame it on the sinus infections/colds. They have been going to bed at night with no issues 6/7 nights, which is great! I think all that crawling at super speeds and trying to stand/walk is exhausting.

They love music class, which we started a few weeks ago. We all sing along and the girls get to play with maracas, drums and bells. We also get to dance and they get to hang out with the other twins (2 boys) in the glass as well as 2 other little kids.

We took them for a hayride this weekend and they loved it. I think this weekend, we'll head to another to pick some pumpkins and see the animals at the petting zoo.

Trip to the beach!

We went to Myrtle Beach the second week of Sept with my family (brother and SIL and nephew and my parents). We had a great time! I was worried about the drive, but it went well! We stopped about 6.5 hours into the trip and stayed at a hotel and did the same on the way back. The girls slept almost the whole time and really only whined a few times... which is less than the whining I did about the drive :)

They loved the sand and thoroughly enjoyed eating it. YUCK! Mady loved the waves and Emma took a little longer to get used to it. We had a condo, so we were able to eat breakfast and lunch in most days. The weather was great. We already are booked again for next year! I'm not sure if next year will be easier or harder. The girls will probably hate being in the car next year, but they will probably enjoy the beach more and hopefully will be over putting everything in their mouths.

The girls are doing really well. They are both attempting to stand on their own, but Emma really loves to show of her skills. Mady would much rather sit down and crawl off. We actually have a physical therapist coming in to evaluate Mady because the developmentalist noticed a slight red flag with the way Madelyn stands. She stands with her feet and legs pointed out. We are not overly concerned, but love that we have this support system right at our fingertips. The girls really aren't saying any words yet either, but it often sounds at though Mady is saying "what's that?" Very cute.

They are now both waving and Mady plays peek a boo and covers her eyes. Mady will point out to anyone that is holding her where their nose is :)

The girls will be 13 months tomorrow! Unfortunately they are both sick with colds yet again.

Oh, and we are now fully on milk and adult foods! Yay girls!

I will post some recent pics soon. I'm just glad I was able to get this post in!

One Year Check Up

The girls had their one year checkups on Sept 4th. Everything is right on! Mady was 21.5 lbs and Emma was 18.5 lbs. All their blood work came back good. Emma is in the 10% percentile for weight and the 25th for height and head size. Mady is in the 50% percentile and the 75th for height and weight. (I think I got that right.)

The doctor talked to us about Swine Flu and about RSV. The girls will most likely not be covered for RSV shots this year since they are healthy. The doctor is ordering in swine flu vaccines but will not administer them until she feels 100% secure with the vaccine. She just told us to keep a look out for the signs of both of these.

They were allowed to stop formula and move onto milk! We were all very excited about this, as formula costs us about $100 per week. Emma loved whole milk! BUT, from day one the girls started having loose stools and it only got worse on vacation. So, after a full week of milk we were put back on formula. We can slowly add milk back into their diets as soon as they are clear of any loose stools. We are hoping to add it back in this weekend. I'm not sure why the doctor didn't have us do this slowly from the get-go.

The girls now have tons of teeth! It's crazy. Emma has the cutest gap between her two front teeth. Her top ones show the most and Mady's bottom ones show the most.

The girls had a great time on vacation. We all did. I will update more on that, and hopefully soon. I wanted to at least get their doctors information posted!

The party!

As promised, I am finally posting some pictures. Unfortunately, I think you never get quite as many photos as you hope to. We didn't get many pictures of the details of the day. We also didn't get the most important shot... a picture of the girls together in the onesies and tutus I made them. We'll be taking some portraits at the beach next week and that will be one of the pictures we take.

A lot of twin mom's have been asking about the party and details, so I'll try to go through the day for you!

We invited friends and our siblings. No Aunts, Uncles, cousins, etc. the list would have just been way to long. Our initial list was at about 42 adults and 15 kids. In the end, we had about 32 adults and 13 kids at the party. I would highly suggest not going over the 45 mark. It was a wonderful party and so much fun, but anymore people would have just been too overwhelming.

We decided on a Rubber Ducky Theme for the girls because they LOVE bath time with their duckies. This is the invitation we sent out a month before the party...

I, of course, made them myself. The color scheme of the party revolved around these, so the main colors were Bubble Gum Pink, Orange, Yellow and Blue.

The party was scheduled from 1-3pm. We wanted to keep it short and sweet to let the parents of the children be able to scoot out without feeling guilty! In retrospect, 3 hours would have been a much better time window because we did feel really rushed.

We had the food ready for 1:30. We let people eat as they wanted, keeping the food warm. We did the cake smashing around 2:15 and went straight into opening gifts. Before we knew it, it was over! For food, we had macaroni and cheese (a favorite of the girls), applesauce and hamburgers and hot dogs. Simple, but enough for a good lunch. We also had rice krispie treats, mom's cake and cookies.

The cake...
If you don't know... my parents own a bakery and work as a team on fondant cakes like these. They not only look incredible, but are super moist! (www.creativecakespgh.com)

And of course the smash cakes had to be just as cute. Notice Emma checking out Mady to see what she's doing with the cake.


Some other details from the party... we had a little duck pond with dollar store gifts for the kids.

We also had bubble favors with little rubber duckies on top. We had a bubble machine making bubbles over the swimming pool. No photos of this :(

What they are really fighting over in this picture is not a toy, it's a water bottle!


The girls had a great time and I don't think either one of them fussed at all until after the party when they were beyond exhausted. My sleepy lil' Madelyn passed out on Uncle Fritz ...

They got a nice mix of clothes and toys and we had nothing to return! With some of the gift cards they received, we got them some stacking blocks and a bongo!

This week they will officially be one and we are having a low-key family pizza night at our place. They girls still have 2 gifts to open from us and of course they want to try Grammie's cake again.

Friday, Mady has an appt with the eye doctor. The eye with the hemangioma seems to be a tiny bit lazy, so we just want to make sure it's okay. Then they have an afternoon appt at the Pedi for their 1 year visit and shots. We took them for 1 year bloodwork on Saturday. They did so great. Poor Mady had to get stuck twice because they couldn't find a good vein.

Saturday we leave for the beach!

1st Birthday!

The girls had a great first birthday party yesterday. The weather even held out for us. We got a few raindrops a half hour or so after most of our guests left. The loved the cake! They got a ton of really cool toys and clothes that I am trying to figure out where to put :) I need a MoM (mother of multiples) to have a blog about organizing a house with multiples!

Big thanks to my parents for not only creating an awesome cake, but also for having the party at their house.

I will post pictures as soon as I can gather them from mine and my fathers camera.

We'll either celebrate their actual birthday (Sept 2) with dinner out with our families or maybe some pizza at our place.

Prayers needed.

Another virtual friend of ours is going through an incredibly difficult time. Please visit her blog and read about this family and what they are going through right now. They need everyones thoughts and prayers. Just another reminder yet again of how truly lucky we are. We thought we went through so much in the NICU. It doesn't even come close to what other families have had to and are dealing with.

http://threecheersforbabies.blogspot.com/

Please support the March of Dimes. In these tough financial times, they are having an even harder time raising money. Walk with us next May in support of our family and families like the triplets. Donate whatever you can. Even if it's $1.

https://www.marchofdimes.com/howtohelp/donate_online.asp

Or donate to our friends charity, "Grady's Decision", which helps families with support as they go through premature births and the NICU.

http://gradysdecision.com/

Kiss and hug your lil' ones!!!

More teeth!

Mady now has 5 teeth and Ms. Emma has 2! They have started chewing on their cribs! Yikes!

They seem to understand almost everything we say, but they still don't have any first words besides dada and an occassional mama. They are starting to cruise a little more and can climb up an entire staircase! I went out at lunch today and bought a flat screen tv lock to bolt the tv to the wall.

Just a few more days until their birthday party. We've kept it just to friends and our siblings/parents. I think the count is at about 35 right now and about 11 kids/babies. The weather is looking good so far!

Here's an adorable picture of the girls with Eli, their cousin at Grandma/Grandpa daycare.

July's pictures

http://emmaandmadelyn.shutterfly.com/

Nothing much new. Planning the girls birthday party and planning our trip to Myrtle.

Emma's first tooth is up and out! The girls are doing great. They seem to have a new black and blue mark every day from trying to pull up to stand on everything and anything they can. Right now they are obsessed with the tv/stereo equipment. I wonder how long we'll have before that ends? Madelyn will climb mountains to get to it. The last two days, Mady has crawled after us crying when we leave her at daycare. I really hope it's a short phase. It's heartbreaking!

This weekend the girls and I are going to a wedding shower. Should be interesting... especially since it falls during a mealtime. I'm a little nervous because the girls are no longer happy sitting. They want to be on the move ALL THE TIME!

Pics!

Our big girls standing up watching Wall-e.

A mini play date with Delaney, a NICU friend.

The carousel at the Erie Zoo.

11 months and NICU follow up

We had a great follow up appt at the NICU yesterday. The girls are right on target for 9-11 months (their adjust age is 9.5 months). No concerns! We go back one more time next summer. We're so proud of them!

Just a few weeks until their first birthday party, which they are very excited about! And a few weeks after that we'll be in Myrtle Beach!

On a side note, we are exhausted! I can't imagine how we will feel when they start walking :) And the girls have a cold yet again. It seems they average about 1 week between each new cold. I really, really hope the winter goes easy on us.

More fun!

We attended our first first birthday party on Saturday in Erie. It was for Gianna, who's family became dear friends of ours during our NICU experience. We stopped in at the Erie zoo beforehand and really liked it. It's great for kids. Unfortunately when we stopped back after the party, it was pouring down rain so we missed a good bit. We did get a chance to ride the train and the carousel, which we all loved. We will for sure stop back again next year.

It was great to see Gianna and her parents. I'm just sorry that we left without getting a photo of all of us together! The girls played on the swings in the park and of course, just laughed and laughed. We also got to hang out with neighbors of ours at the NICU and their daughter Delaney. The girls enjoyed sharing toys with her and snacks. I guess it was really our first "play date." I also met a friend of Gianna's who visits my site all the time. She was so happy to meet and see the girls in person after reading about them online. It made me wonder how many people we don't even personally know visit the site. I just looked up the stats and we've had 17,901 hits since our blog went up. That's really cool!

The girls are now playing together and it is beyond cute. They laugh and talk to each other in their cribs. Yesterday they were both giggling as they were playing tug of war with a toy. Oh, and mirrors! They can't get enough of seeing themselves :)

Great News!

I got my first online review yesterday from a baby blog site! Thank you to Upscalebaby.com for this review!

Click here

Our Princesses

in their baptism dresses...

The latest from the developmentalist

Well, the girls have graduated to monthly visits from Melanie, their developmentalist, instead of every two weeks. She feels the girls are doing really well. She doesn't want to totally stop visits just in case. The next few months is a time when things might start to pop up with speech and walking. The only thing we've noticed is that Mady only says dada and not mama. Emma really doesn't say it much either, but we have a least heard it a few times. Emma's new thing is "la" she just repeats and repeats it. I find that really interesting because I think the "l's" are usually pretty hard for kids.

She wants them to work on their pulling up to standing. The day after she came to visit, Emma started pulling up on her own. Mady is really close. Boy, can they crawl FAST!

And... we're all sick again. I missed work yesterday with a fever, swollen glands, sore throat, chills, the whole package. The girls are stuffed up with runny noses. I guess this is par for the course for the first year or so of day care. It is not fun! I'm running out of days to take off from work!

Some pics from our Idlewild, Zoo and Baptism weekend with the fam

The baptism

Idlewild Park

The Colorado Mayers: Michael, Abby, Izzy and Julie

Izzy!

Abby!