Stay Tuned...

I just got a great idea for new funny baby pictures. Now that Alex is moving all around the landscape pictures I used to take are much harder to make successful...I may have figured out something great! I'm going to get working on this pretty soon!

Who's There?

I see your little face Miss Alex!
Alex and I played with an empty diaper box today. She LOVED it!

It's a Leaf Party

They girls and I went off-roading in our neighborhood and searched for the best patch of fallen leaves to play in..and boy did we find a good patch! The girls loved sitting up and playing with all the leaves that were surrounding them. Kaylee tried and tried and tried to eat the stem of the leaf and each time it landed in her mouth she would stick out her tongue and scrunch her nose. Alex loved leaning over to grab as many leaves as possible and she too promptly tried to shove them in her mouth. By the time we left Alex had cleared the area around her of all leaves and Kaylee wore most of her finding on her pants :)

I know I had fun watching the girls explore some new sites and textures of the world, I think the girls had fun as well...don't you?

Spoon Please...

I would like to eat her up!

photo was taken by one of my great neighbors, Rosa!

Monday Confession

I sometimes listen to the sound machine in the girls room through the monitor to help me fall asleep.

and- I often have the urge to jump up and down when the girls are playing in the jumperoo or exersauser. I get excited seeing them so happy and bouncy.

thanks for letting me get that off my chest-I feel better now.

Pumpkin Girls

This morning we took a little trip to the Cox Farms in Vienna to stroll around in their pumpkin piles. The girls weren't too sure about the big, cold, orange pumpkins at first but they went with it :) Kaylee ended up interested in touching or eating the pumpkins while Alex really couldn't care less about them the whole time we were there. We strolled around the gourds and apples and had a pleasant morning.

We are home now and Greg is busy reading, reading, reading, and perhaps a little research to spice things up in his life as a law student.

Visiting Grandpa

We went to visit my dad today and Alex found a "toy" while Kaylee was playing with grandpa! The girls and I headed out to find a long sleeve white onesie or shirt. You would think it would be easy- hardly! We have been to Target a few times, Old Navy, Toys-R-Us and now Wal-Mart (the nice one in Manassas, we don't do the one near us) and still no long sleeve white top. boo!

IOU Video

Since I couldn't post the food video...here is one I should have posted for you all earlier. Enjoy.

6.5 months?!

Where has time gone? I think I say that just about every week, but really where did the time go?!

Today the girls got their first finger food- Apple Cinnamon Puffs- (which almost made me gag...and I thought my problem was the pureed food, see post below). Alex and Kaylee needed a little boost to fit in their high chairs with the table attached so I placed a folded kitchen towel underneath them..it worked pretty well. I took a long video of the girls trying to eat, so I won't be offended if you turn it off early.

The girls were pretty good in using their little fingers- did you know that it is called a pincer grasp?! Here I am thinking it was called 'pincher grasp' until yesterday. How did I become a teacher and a mom and not know that? sad story. Kaylee was so excited to try out the little snacks, but the poor girl was pushing her puffs all around the tray trying to grab them :( And Alex got her little puff pretty quickly; making it into her mouth was another story. We are still practicing.

(no video for now...silly blogger)

Baby Food

So one of my biggest fears of having kids (before actually having kids) was feeding them. I wanted nothing to do with mushed up nastiness that once resembled a real food like peaches, green beans, or chicken- *gags* and bananas?! forget about those- no way no how, I'd puke. My mom used to hint here and there about having kids and I not so jokingly responded, "I'll have them if you come feed them."

I'm not sure if I have toughened up or if I have just avoided the situation. In an effort to save a few dollars and prevent me from gagging in front of the kids, I decided to make Alex and Kaylee's food. It started with applesauce, which they hated, and then green beans, sweet potatoes, pears, avocado and the works. My freezer has no more room for baby food. My latest batch of food was cauliflower and green beans with cauliflower. The picture above shows the cauliflower that gave its life to give my children sustenance, it was a good cauliflower and huge! Have you ever seen a cauliflower that big?! Some people think I'm slightly not normal for making baby food while taking care of twins, but I feel like if I didn't make their food I wouldn't be caring for them the best way possible. Now, that is not to say I'm better or my kids are better for not eating jarred food because the girls have had some jarred food, it is just not what I want to do on a regular basis- I get a certain feeling of accomplishment and joy by making the food...and really who wouldn't want to hang out with a giant cauliflower and make pretty colored food? (the inner art teacher in me is coming out...)

also pictured- peaches and P.E.P (Pea, Edamame, and Pear)

Babywearing

Remember that crazy week in October I was telling you all about?! Here is a picture when Greg, the girls and I went hiking at Burke Lake Park. It was such a perfect day to walk 3 miles- Greg and I are excited to take the girls there when they are older so they can feed the ducks and ride the train and we hear there my also be a carousel there as well :)

Halloween Sneak Peak

a little teaser before we are all dressed up! (I may have given away the best part :)

Yellow Babies

we got rid of the jaundice a long time ago....now I am just playing with the photo.

It's Been Crazy...

This past week and a half has been quite busy! I left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Neil last Friday as I headed to the OBX for an amazing wedding weekend. Greg had control over the girls for the remainder of the weekend, his mom and dad visited as well as his aunt for a short time. The girls and adults seem to enjoy themselves while I was gone- and Greg was outstanding with flying solo- he brought both of them to church on Sunday and I am sure he said a few prayers to keep them quiet during Mass. :) Our normal church goers were impressed with Greg and from what I understand the girls were well behaved.

The wedding was so much fun, though the poor bride was sick and then it seems that a few of us felt under the weather for most of the following week as well- lets hope the bride was able to enjoy every moment of her honeymoon!

My family that lives in Florida came to visit starting on Thursday and the girls and I had a great time visiting them at the farm that evening. Aunt Laura was there to meet the girls for the first time (as well as their cousins Tina and Hunter), my sister was able to see the girls again- last time she saw them they were probably right about 6 pounds!

On Saturday we had a family reunion of sorts and had lots of family pictures taken- Greg and I are so excited to see what the photographers were able to capture. Our girls woke up that morning with their first ever stuffy nose, but you would have never known they weren't feeling their best by their behavior- with the wind, stuffy nose, and crazy amount of people, Alex and Kaylee were such troopers!

Not sure what is planned for this week, but I will try to do some blogging :)

New Books!

We are so happy mom gave us new books to read (and play with)!

Moving, Grooving and Chewing?

I left the kids in their room while I went downstairs to put their milk away and grab some of their clothes that I needed to put away. When I came back upstairs our little shaker had wiggled herself around the room and found the one exposed cord. Leave it to my child to find that one thing she shouldn't be touching- notice the bird house on the shelf - it belongs to that cord. Ugh, time to baby proof the house; goodbye tchotchkes.

Cat? Bear?

I'm not really sure, but I do know the girls look so cute in their new hats...Thanks mom!

Sharing

I may complain about a $10 baby toy...but I end up giving them my iPhone.

Kaylee Update

This past Monday I had to take Kaylee to the hospital for a scheduled appointment for a "Clinical Swallow Evaluation". It sounds all fancy but it was the easiest dr.'s appointment we have been to to date. No crying, no fussing, no anger- all smiles and laughter. I could do appointments like these more often. While I was at the hospital one of our amazing neighbors came over to watch Alex for me- it was so great to be able to take Kaylee by herself, but I do think when Alex saw us leave she was wondering where on earth we were going without her! Alex had a good time while we were gone (pics to come) and Kaylee enjoyed being able to ride on me once we made it to the appointment (pic above).

The reason the appointment? Kaylee often times chokes on her food and also gets a raspy sounding voice (almost like a wet sound in her throat). When we got there we met with the Speech Pathologist and she explained everything to us and Kaylee seemed excited, probably because she hadn't eaten since 7 and it was then 11:30ish. So the speech path. prepped 3 different bottles full of Barium and then she added Kaylee's milk to them and then some thickener to 2 of the bottles. Kaylee was strapped down and the x-ray machine was placed by her side and off she was....just eating. Easiest appointment yet! All Kaylee had to do was eat, and she is pretty good at that! :)

The reason for the barium? The x-ray machine can pick up the location of the barium so when you want to see how the fluid makes it down ones throat the barium shows the route the fluid takes. It was really cool to see Kaylee through an X-ray (I saw little bones and teeth...and the concoction she was drinking)

So what is Kaylee's diagnosis? She aspirates when she eats. Basically, she doesn't swallow all the milk she takes in at one time-she might have to swallow 2 or 3 times to get down one of her gulps from the bottle.

Why is that bad? The extra milk that doesn't get swallowed right away sits right on top of her airwave. If this happens milk can get into her lungs and potentially make her sick with pneumonia or other illnesses.

Now what? Right now all we need to do is add a thickener to her bottle and change the nipple she is using and she should be able to then get her food down with one swallow motion. And in about 5 months we will go back for a reevaluation.

Simple fix and hopefully Kaylee will feel much better when eating. Thank you for all of those who have been following and asking me how Kaylee is doing- looks like we have a good handle on the problem and are well on our way to fixing it!

I'm Tired

For some reason the girls decided to stay awake during their normal nap time (2-5) on this particular day, so at 5, their normal meal time, I started to feed them oatmeal and poor Alex got 3 bites and was too tired to continue. I let her sleep there while I fed Kaylee and of course as soon as I took her out of the seat to sleep on the ground she woke up and was ready to go. I ended up feeding the girls for about 45 minutes or more that day, silly girls. Alex made it through the meal part 2 but not long after that she had a nice little nap!

Hello, October.

Excuse my absence this past week- it has been a little crazy around here. Our refrigerator broke, 70 degrees inside the fridge doesn't do much for all the groceries you bought just a few days prior :( It is surprising how much you want to eat when you don't have a fridge..I must have opened that darn fridge door 20+ times to find the same thing each time..NOTHING! Good news is that after the awful experience at Sears we were able to purchase a new refrigerator from the orange store. Now we have a fridge that is nice and cold though it is taking a little time to get used to since we went from a bisque fridge to black. It is kinda scary looking, but I'm a fan. Luckily our freezer still worked otherwise all the food I've been making for the girls would have been a waste. I was able to store my freezer food at my neighbors for awhile so that the new appliance could be delivered and then cooled.

We got our "baby backpacks"!!! I am so excited to use them so I am hoping Greg the girls and I might be able to go on a hike this weekend to try them out and perhaps see one or two changing leaves.

We have lots planned this month and it is only day one!
Oct. 1- 6 month check-up
Oct. 2- hiking perhaps
Oct. 3- A day with mom
Oct. 6- Grandpa's Day with the girls
Oct. 8-9- Kim's Wedding Weekend!!!!!
And that is only the first week!

The very next week my Brother and his fam are coming up from Florida as well as my sister!!! It is going to be a great week when they are here. My sister-in-law has yet to meet the girls and my Sister hasn't seen them since MAY! So it will be so nice to see them and for the girls to meet some more family! During their visit we are going to have family pictures taken- Greg and I are excited! I have a really great little jacket to wear and I am wavering on what the girls should wear; details to come I'm sure. I can't wait to share the pictures with you so let's all hope the photographer works quickly! :)

October is fixing to be a great month!