All Played Out

Apparently playing in the tunnel is very tiring.

6 Months with Puppies

Here they are.  No picture with Juliana this month, she wasn't home.  Wyatt isn't that much taller than Ruslan, he was just sitting nice and tall and Ruslan kept sliding down in the chair.

6-month Check-up

Wyatt and Ruslan had their 6-month check-up today and they got a good report - healthy and well.  Both of the boys have been coughing a lot and Ruslan has been spitting up more than usual today, but they both calmed down relatively quickly after all of their shots.  In fact they are both still asleep in their car seats (in the house, not in the van...in case you were wondering, although it is a really nice day outside).

Wyatt is gaining on Ruslan in weight and continues to be taller.

Ruslan
Height - 26-1/4" (45%) - 2" growth since 4-mo
Weight - 16 lbs 8 oz (30%) - 1.75 lb increase since 4-mo

Wyatt
Height - 27-3/4" (91%) - 2" gowth since 4-mo
Weight - 16 lbs 5 oz (30%) - 2.5 lb increase since 4-mo

6 Months Old

6 months old and becoming more fun each day.  They seem to be learning a new "trick" every week. 

Ruslan figured out how to blow bubbles and of course his favorite time to do that is while eating; he loves the sound of his voice (will all of my children have this trait); his feet have become his favorite toy; and he is showing some signs that he might be the first to crawl.

Wyatt is finally growing some hair; it looks like a tooth is going to be arriving soon; he is getting very stable sitting up, loves to be as upright as possible and is close to being able to stand holding onto something - he is almost chest high on Juliana already...guessing he will be at the top of the height chart.

It's amazing how different they are in temperment, overall traits, and varying development.

They are both such calm babies - almost every day one of the teachers or childcare workers and even the other moms stop to tell me how much they love our babies and how sweet and good they are.  They greet everyone with a smile and generally only cry when they are very hungry or very tired.   Even two very good babies require a lot of attention and work, I can't imagine if they were fussy all the time.  I live an exhausted life on most days, but when I drag myself into their room in the morning and they catch the first glimpse of me over their cribs, both babies wave their arms and kick in great excitement, smile and shriek with joy that mommy has come to rescue them...and I feel a little less tired at that moment and smile back at my happy boys...I am blessed with wonderful children.

Some of the details of their lives at 6 months (need to record these details so whenever I do get to work on their first year scrapbooks, I will have the information to include).

Baths are 2 times a week and they are still in the baby tub in the kitchen sink.  I have such a good system down for the kitchen bath, but I think we will need to move to the duck tub in the big bathtub very soon.

Eating - So far the boys have enjoyed the following foods - rice cereal (only for the first week), oatmeal baby cereal, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, green beans.  And surprisingly green beans seem to be the favorite food so far.  After a few weeks of one meal at dinner each day, they started having cereal with fruit for breakfast as well.

Sleep - They still aren't napping well at daycare.  Most evenings they come home, eat dinner and fall asleep.  At around 8:00, we get them changed for bed (if they aren't already in their sleepers) and then Wyatt gets a bottle, Ruslan nurses and into their cribs they go.  We are still feeding them before we go to bed for the night to get them through until 6:30 most nights - they don't generally wake up for those feedings...just drink in their sleep.  On the weekends, they take nice naps (Ruslan will nap 2-1/2 - 3 hours at a time) and they are so much happier and are awake to play in the evening.

Making Baby Food

One of the gifts I received at the baby shower when I was pregnant with Juliana, was a small food mill designed for making baby food.  When I opened it, I laughed and said - apparently I am going to have time to make baby food.

Once Juliana was born and we neared the time for solid food, I started to look into making her food and realized that it wasn't that difficult.  So for her first few months, she had the standard boxed baby cereal and I made her fruits and veggies.  Foods that I made in those early eating months included: acorn squash, applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, apricots, peaches, plums, carrots, mangos, papayas.  And then the basic mush and feed - bananas and avocados.

I bought a kit that included a "cookbook" and covered ice cube trays for freezing the food.  Cookbook may be stretching it - the book give basic instructions and ideas for combinations.  I made notes in the book about when I first made a certain food and what Juliana liked and disliked.  Her favorite food as marked in the book was yogurt mixed with peaches.

I don't think I will be making much of the food for the boys.  In some cases it isn't cost-effective and some foods are more time consuming than others.  I will be making some of the easy stuff and that includes items I can buy frozen to start since those items are already prepped (frozen sliced peaches, peas, green beans).

This week I made sweet potatoes and it was as quick and easy as I remembered.  I spent $2.08 for the 3 sweet potatoes and made 32 oz of thick puree (about twice as thick as the Gerber first foods variety).  I prefer to make the food thicker to freeze and then add water after it is defrosted so I can serve it with less water as they get used to each new food.

Here are the simple steps:
1 - Peel sweet potatoes and chop into equal size chunks

2 - Add 2 TBs water, cover and microwave 10 minutes, let stand 5 mins.
3 - Dump into food processor, add 1/4 water and puree
4 - Spoon puree into ice cube trays

5 - Freeze overnight, transfer cubes from trays to freezer bag, and return to freezer

6 - Defost 1oz cubes as needed

Both babies love them!

A Few of My Favorite Things by Ruslan

#1 - My thumb - it is with me everywhere I go. I prefer my left thumb, but if Mommy has trapped that thumb in my shirt sleeve while trying to change my clothes, then I will use the right thumb. To get my thumb in my mouth, I press the palm of my hand against my face and slide my thumb along my mouth until it is there. Even if I am awake when Mommy puts me in my crib at night, I just suck on my thumb and get very sleepy. Sometimes I notice Wyatt sucking on his fingers, but not too often.

#2 - Rolling - I learned to roll over later than my baby brother, but now that I know how, I love to roll across the entire room. Mommy puts me on the left side of Wyatt so that I don't roll on him, like my thumb I prefer rolling to the left. Mommy always seems surprised when she leaves us on the floor to play and comes back a few minutes later and I have rolled as far as I can - it's a fun game. Some nights I have to cry for Mommy and Daddy to come help me. I love rolling so much that I do it in my crib at night and sometimes my left arm gets stuck and I can't get my thumb in my mouth. Daddy puts me on my back so I can get my thumb again and then I can fall back asleep.

#3 - Oatmeal Cereal - For the longest time all I got to eat was milk and now I get food from a spoon. The rice cereal was ok, I made a horrible face when Mommy tried to feed peaches to me, and now I have been eating oatmeal cereral - it is very yummy. I open my mouth wide every time I see the spoon and try not to let any come back out on my chin. Mommy says I need to wear my new bib to keep my shirt clean and I do like the bright colored pictures on it; but the bib causes a big problem - it traps my hands. When I try to get my thumb to my mouth I just end up pressing my bib against my face and then I can't see, I smoosh food on my nose and I still can't get my thumb. Fortunately I eat quickly and after Mommy washes my face and I can get out of my chair and roll.

One Year Ago

One year ago we had a life changing event.


One year ago we had to change some plans.

One year ago we found out we were having twins.

I go through phases where I keep a journal and write in it every day. And then I miss a few days and the more I fall behind the less motivated I am to write. From June 2001 to November 2003, my life is very well documented including the weather for that day and the clothes that I wore. The last entry in each book (there are 4 from that time period) is my favorite – it includes a summary of the time covered in that book including everywhere that I traveled (I was traveling about 3 times a month back then mostly for work), my thoughts on my life and the direction it was headed.

I wanted to journal when I was pregnant with Juliana but it didn’t work out. Same with the boys – I had so much I thought I should be saying about what was happening and how a new baby (babies) would change our family. I started a journal last August and it has a total of 4 entries – the last one about how incredibly tired I was. We were at the beach having a wonderful family vacation and I was exhausted and miserable –looking back I barely remember being at the beach I felt like I was in a fog the entire time all I wanted to do was sleep and thankfully there were lots of other adults to keep Juliana busy. While we were at the beach, we told both sets of parents that we were expecting – I was 6-1/2 weeks pregnant. Since that was the last entry in my journal last year, I have no written account of the next few weeks.

One week later I had some bleeding and freaked out. It didn’t help that Scott was scheduled for a 30-day deployment to the other side of the world in just a few days; his orders were canceled before the weekend. On the advice of my Dr. I spent the next few days on bed rest – my mom barely left my side during those days helping me stay calm and try not to worry. The next Monday I called the Drs. Office at 7:00 am and after tracking down my Dr. they sent me for an ultrasound later that morning.

I vividly remember everything about that experience – chugging a bottle of water on the drive so my bladder would be full and give us the best possible images (at just 8 weeks, we were going to be looking at a very tiny baby), getting there and waiting, waiting and waiting until I was about to burst, lying on the table holding my breath as the ultrasound tech moved the wand across my belly – praying that we would see a beating heart, and then the image appeared on the screen – two distinct circles. The women’s voice sounded so far away as she said, “here is the first baby and here is the second, I don’t see any more babies, and I see both hearts beating.” I remember looking up at Scott who had a huge grin on his face and was clutching my left hand so tight.

Throughout the rest of the ultrasound I tried to process what was happening – two babies? I wasn’t prepared for that news, but I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Twins run in my family and in my first pregnancy I was hoping for twins, but not this time – complete shock.

We left there with pictures of our tiny babies and called our parents from the parking lot to tell them the news – they were so excited. We went to Panera to get some lunch. As we were walking through the parking lot Scott took my hand and said, “It’s going to be alright.” I replied, “When? In five years? As Scott ate his lunch I picked at a fruit cup in silence trying to rationalize what was happening. I told Scott we needed to stop at Barnes & Noble on the way home to buy a book about twins; reading calms me down. And I started to think about what we needed to do in the coming months.

After the first trimester when we started to tell people, everyone would say how wonderful it was that we were having twins. And I was thinking – wonderful? Do you know how much work twins are going to be? Will I ever get a good night’s sleep again? The financial implications? Mother of 3? Two boys? It seemed so odd to me that I was carrying two babies. Even after they were born sometimes I would look at them surprised that there were two.

We bought a minivan, changed the bedroom plan for the babies, refinanced our house and gutted the kitchen – all as a result of this news.

A lot of work, sleep deprivation – yes and yes. But we also get double snuggles, smiles and giggles, and watching the two of them interact makes me so happy.

It's amazing how much the course of your life can change in a moment and how different our lives are just one year later.

Wyatt - Holdin On

Wyatt prefers to have something in his hands at all times.  His favorite of late are his feet and it's no surprise that he doesn't like to keep his socks on - 3 days of temperatures cold enough to require socks and we haven't lost one yet - I consider that a major accomplishment.

If he falls asleep with a toy in his hand, he continues to clutch it.

And apparently the bumps on the walk to and from daycare are an issue since he likes to hang on to the side of the stroller while we walk.  Now that is is colder, he has a blanket to hold along the way instead.