October 08

Here are some of our latest pictures....the babies are 7 months old already. They are eating baby food, sitting up by themselves, playing and starting to get into all sorts of mischief. Erin is crawling...sort of. She does an army crawl, but it gets her around. She follows me from room to room and tries to grab my pant leg. She is like a little puppy. I feel bad when I turn around and go back into the other room right after she's worked so hard to get to where I am! Emily can sit up well and get from laying down to sitting up, but doesn't seem to have as much interest in moving yet. Both girls are staring to try to climb up onto the fireplace ledge (about 6 inches up). Erin may really do it in the next few days. I am just worried they are going to hit their heads or knock those two cute little teeth out. They are starting to maul/tackle/climb on each other. Emily is usually the instigator of it. She is always trying to steal whatever toy Erin has. Crazy girls!

Maggie is doing well. She is not enjoying her sisters new found mobility and is always asking me to "please move that baby." Other then that she likes our new house and her new toy room. She seems to have an exceptionally long attention span and never wants to leave whatever it is she is doing....even if it is to go do something else that is fun. That is coming in handy since we aren't doing all that much these days.

Erin loves her bumper! She tries to use it as a pillow, hugs it, and sometimes pushes it down to look for me at the door.

Maggie and her best friend Peter Rabbit...all dressed up in his pumpkin Halloween costume.

Emily gets a chance to play with Peter...a rare occurrence.

Erin modeling the girls' Christmas dress

Awww...

More pictures while we were visiting grandma...

They love each other!

What big blue eyes!

The Silly Sisters

All three girls in the van. Babies had to move to big girl car seats now!

Messy eaters!

This is what happens when daddy feeds them!

Emily wasn't feeling very well that night. I put her down in the hallway and she fell asleep (notice her arm over her face to block out the light...)

Maggie's First Haircut

Maggie got her first haircut last weekend! Here are some pics of it... She was a very brave girl. She just sat quietly and patiently the whole time. Of course it helped that they had a TV there for her to watch and a basket of toys too!

Before...

During...

After....

It doesn't look much different, but we think it makes her look older!

August 2008

Things are still crazy around here. Hopefully I'll get to wrirte more soon. As for now, here are some new pictures!

Emily - Alomst 6 months old already. She can sit up and got her first tooth last week!

Erin Grace got her first tooth this week too!

Both girls got to try their first bites of rice cereal.

Emily thought it was yucky.

Erin loved it.

Give me more!!

Maggie is enjoying her new house. She loves the swingset and her new cardboard house (complete with kitchen!).

Erin & Emily's Baby Dedication

Here are some pictures of Erin and Emily's baby dedication at our church. It was a beautiful day and we had a lovely BBQ at our house afterwards. The girls all had fun playing together outside :)

The Answers

1. Erin
2. Maggie
3. Emily

Many of you guessed it right or close anyway! Did the difference in Maggie's picture give her away?

Sisters

What do you think...do we look alike? (All three girls are two months old in these pictures). Try and guess who's who! Answers to come...

The Votes are In

Emily & Erin (in the order)

Hi Everyone. This is Erin. That's right, Erin, not Arin. Mommy and daddy decided not to change the spelling of my name. They decided not to change it partially because of your votes (it was 24 to 9 in favor of leaving it the same) but also because while they were taking the poll, my Social Security card came in the mail. That made it seem like it would be to complicated to change. Besides, they didn't want me to have to spell my name for people the rest of my life.

(The top picture is me and the bottom is Emily)

Things are going pretty well around here. I am getting used to this being in the world thing and I'm even getting happier about it. This is a picture of me and Emily playing on our blanket. I'm starting to give some smiles and everyone loves it and thinks I look so cute when I do. Mommy loves to see me smile but thinks it's annoying that I mostly smile and am really happy around 3am. Oh well, what can I say?!!

Emily and I had to go to the doctor on Tuesday. We are getting so big. I weigh 10lbs 9.7oz (35th percentile) and Emily weighs 10lbs 6.7oz (the 30th percentile). Emily is catching up to me! We are both pretty long too. Emily is actually a little longer then me measuring 23 inches (67th percentile). I am 22.5 inches which is the 31st percentile. We are already starting to grow out of our 0-3 month clothes! Even though Emily's head was only the 2% when she was born, now she is the 22%! I have gone from the 22% to the 57% for my head circumference. I was kind of offended because the doctor said that I have a trapezoid shaped head. It's because I always look to my right side. Mommy and daddy have tried to get me to look the other way but I refuse. Maybe I'll change my ways eventually, but I am definitely going to make them work harder to get me to look the other way first...just for fun. Our brains are growing so fast...we are going to be smart little girls like our big sister! The bad thing about going to the doctor was getting our shots. Emily and I both screamed...but not for very long. We are tough. Emily has been really fussy ever since then though! Mommy almost cried just watching us, she felt so bad. Other then that the doctor didn't really say very much. She thinks we still spit up a lot because our stomachs are immature and we try to eat too much and too fast. Hopefully that will get better soon. I don't like getting my outfits all wet and mommy doesn't like doing so much laundry. The doctor also said that she felt bad for mommy that we didn't sleep well, but that's just the way it is. She said that maybe one of us should sleep in the swing or something. I wouldn't mind that!

Anyway, I've got to go. I'm getting hungry. I like to eat a lot!

Look at our chubby cheeks! (I'm on the left, Emily is on the right...)

I Love Swimming!

Hi Everyone, this is Maggie. I have some exciting news. Mommy and daddy signed me up for swimming lessons! I started last week. At first I didn't know what they meant when they said I was going to swim class. I wanted to go to the "hotel pool" like I got to do when Nana and Gramps came to visit. Mommy said we were going to the "school pool" instead. As it turns out, it is really fun there too!

Daddy comes in the water with me for my class. Then we sing all kinds of fun songs and daddy and the teacher do all sorts of silly things to get me used to playing, splashing, jumping, and floating in the water. After the first class mommy and daddy wondered exactly what they were paying for since it really is pretty simple. But I really like it, especially singing "If you're happy and you know it" (my new favorite song) and playing with the water toys at the end of class. The only bad thing is that the water is sooo cold. The first week lots of other kids were cold too. This week daddy said the water was warmer, but I was still really cold. I hope they make it a little warmer, it is hard for me to enjoy it when I am so cold. Look at this picture of me being "Humpty Dumpty" and falling in the water. It is so fun!

Lots of other exciting things are happening around here too. It is finally getting to be nice weather so I have been playing outside a lot. Today mommy and grandma took me and the babies to the park. They couldn't play with me though :( I am really starting to love my sisters. Every time I see them I yell "the babies! the babies!" I can even tell them apart now. Erin has "big hair" like me now (mommy and daddy think that means long hair...it's not really long, but it does stick straight up!). I always want to hug and kiss my sisters. I also really like to watch them while they are sleeping and when they get their diapers changed. They still cry a lot! I can't understand why they don't stop when I give them Peter Rabbit. Anyway, they have been keeping mommy really busy. That is why she hasn't written in a while, but she promises to tell you how the babies are soon!

A (Long) Update

A month has gone by already! Things are just as crazy around here as they were a month ago though. Here is an update on what is going on with everyone:

Erin and Emily: They are cute, but quite a handful. They seem to be growing, though we haven't actually had a doctor's appointment to have them weighed or anything. They are awful sleepers. They wake up after 15-20 minutes of their naps a lot. We are definitely exhausted, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. They do sleep ok at night. The bad part is that their longest stretch of sleep is from around 9pm to 1am. If we don't go to bed with them, then we miss out on a few hours of uninterrupted sleep! Lately it seems as if one of them is crying practically all the time. We call them the crying chorus. They want to be held 24/7, but sometimes that doesn't even calm them down. It can be quite exhausting. They also spit-up a TON! Maybe the two are related?! Erin is still more fussy, but her sister is getting to be quite a competitor. They are starting to agitate each other and be sympathetic cryers.

Nursing them has been one challenge after another. It is a small miracle that I haven't given up yet. Just when the milk supply problem seemed to be solved, they/I got thrush. It is a yeast infection type thing that babies get in their mouth and pass it to their mom. It makes nursing them painful for me and for them too. Fortunately, I figured out that we had it quickly, so it never really got super bad. The girls seem to be better, but after a week of treatment I wasn't better at all. (Probably because our insurance company wouldn't cover the medicine the Dr. actually prescribed without preauthorization which could take 3-5 days!). Anyway, they decided to give me something else last week and everything seems better now.

Below: Emily

Above: Erin

Me: Every week is a little better. I always seem to notice an improvement on Saturday for some reason. It still really hurts to cough, sneeze, laugh, etc. I haven't tried driving, but bumps and potholes on the road hurt too! :( Everything seems to be healing up ok though. I had a really weird, poky pain on my right side. It didn't hurt all the time, just when I was sitting a certain way...like in a dining room chair or something. It had been there since right after they were born. Some nurses/doctors at the hospital said maybe it was from the way someone was standing when they stitched me up or maybe some nerve that got messed up. I finally called about it again because it seemed unnatural for it to still be hurting so badly. They pretty much said the same thing except added that "well, when your abdomen gets cut open, things get messed up." Thanks. She also said that maybe something just got pulled to tightly or something. I wondered if they left something sharp and poky in there. That's what it felt like. It's feeling a lot better now, so hopefully it will be totally gone before long.

Other then that, I am doing ok. All the swelling has gone down and I have lost the extra water weight...about 35lbs so far. 15 left to get back to where I was before they came along. It will be a miracle if I ever get there with everyone bringing us such great food and yummy desserts everyday. Thanks to everyone who has brought us dinner, we haven't had to make dinner for an entire month. That has truly been a blessing during such a crazy time!

I am wondering how I will survive alone. Just the thought of it is overwhelming. It seems like I spend the majority of the day feeding babies. This may tell you how much time exactly, I have already watched nearly three entire seasons of "Friends" on DVD. I don't even watch it every time I am feeding them! It takes about an hour to nurse them both. We may eventually move to alternating nursing one/bottle feeding one. However, we figured out that to exclusively formula feed them, we would spend $25 every 3 days. (And that is for how much they eat now...what will it be like in a few months!) Yikes!

Mike: He is tired. Mike is doing more middle of the night duty then he ever had to do with Maggie. He helps get them from their bed, change their diapers, burp them, etc. As I am moving around a little better he doesn't have to do quite as much, but is still feeling the effects. Mike has been getting back to work slowly. My mom was gone for just one night and we wondered how we would get everyone to bed when he had to work at night again. He is getting far behind in his class work, but hopefully will get a chance to catch up this week.

Maggie: I'll let her tell her own story later :) She is doing great though, cute as can be and funny too!