Pictures of doctor appointment..

As promised, here are pictures of the sweet babies waiting patiently in the exam room at the pediatrician's office (see post below).

One mommy, two babies, and a double stroller

I have never run a marathon so I don't know what crossing the finish line feels like, but I'm pretty sure it is similar to the feeling I had yesterday leaving the doctor's office after a SUCCESSFUL visit with the babies BY MYSELF! Lilly woke up with a horrible cough and Nate was still running a fever too, so I decided to get them in to the doctor. Putting all of my double stroller fears to the side, I decided to try and make it a fun outing. After all, my day was already an improvement because I got to stay at home with the babies instead of going to work! It had been raining all morning and by some miracle of God, it stopped before we got to the doc's. I was already running late, so I pretended like I was trying to beat a record and managed to get my 500 pound double stroller out, unfolded and carrying two babies in about 3 minutes (woo hoooo)! We quickly strolled across the ginormous parking lot in victory. I walked up to the door, opened it, and pulled the stroller inside from the front (just want to say thanks to everyone who just stared at me banging the stroller into the door trying to readjust to get the right angle to clear the doorway and get inside -and didn't offer a hand)! Nate got a little fussy when I was filling in paperwork at the front desk. I could hear a collective sigh in the waiting room when Lilly made one little outburst and it sounded as if they may both go into hysterics in stereo. I mean, you're in a pediatrician's office in the middle of the day- what did you expect, a glass of wine and thought provoking conversation while Celine Dion plays in the background? I pushed down my instinct to say "SORRY" with my nervous frowning face and focused (calmly) on my kids. "You're alright!" I said. I took Nate out of the stroller to sit in my lap and pulled Lilly (in the front of the stroller) up where we were all sitting together. Nate was content to eat my keys and Lilly played peekaboo with an old lady sitting across from us. After everyone was calmed down and the babies were "cute" again, the questions start flowing from the mean, staring, sighing strangers.. "Are they identical?".. Me: "Ummm.. no". Mean staring sigher: "Is that one a boy? Are they both boys?".. I'm thinking: "Yes, they are both boys, but since I don't like that one very much and I had an extra purple onesie with a flowers on the collar laying around, I thought it would be funny to dress him like a girl." PEOPLE- look at what a baby is wearing before you start questioning gender out loud!!!! "Do twins run in your family?" Me: "Why yes in fact, they do, but after three painful years of not being able to have a baby, my husband and I used fertility drugs to help us get pregnant, thereby causing more than one egg to be released and fertilized. This is how our twins came to be. And now that you have heard my life story, would you like to share yours?" (Okay- I know I could have just said "yes" or "no"). I have to say I really don't mind the questions or anyone admiring my babies in any way..I think it just annoyed me that they were rude at first and then wanted to strike up conversations later. AT ANY RATE, after about 30 minutes in the waiting room, we got called back to exam room. The stroller pretty much filled up the entire room (pictures to be posted later), but it was no sweat. The babies checked out great and it turns out they are just congested- YAY! No ear infections, no yucky lung stuff. Great news. We checked out and were on our way. I was so empowered- like I could do anything! That probably sounds stupid, but it felt good! I was so proud of Nate and Lilly and how they behaved themselves. Poo on those mean sighing staring strangers in the waiting room! BTW-Thanks to everyone for the advice on the double strollers and getting around with two babies by yourself. I was reluctant, but it turned out to be MUCH easier than it was to carry two infant carriers at one time (MUCH easier).

Wow- that felt good! I really didn't intend on this post being so long, but I started typing and couldn't stop!!

Weekend with cousins!

I have two sisters. One of them has four kids and the other has two. It's not too often that ALL of us wind up together at the same time and place, but this weekend it worked out and we all met at my mom's house. Thankfully my mom and I live ten minutes apart, so she and I are the only ones who didn't have an hour and a half drive. Seems fair to me :) All six of the kids were so sweet to the newest little twin cousins. They helped me by entertaining the babies so I could talk to my sisters and they even helped feed them. I think they were glad to see that Nate and Lilly are getting a little bigger and are no longer just baby "blobs"! We had lots of fun!!

COOL DUDE

Pretty girls

Playing around in Grandma's play roomAvery and Nate

Lilly getting in some leg exercises while eating

Scarlett feeding NateCassidy feeding Lilly

What's going on?!?

Nine months old!

Nate and Lilly were nine months old last Sunday! Stats will have to wait until doctor appointment next week, but for now-let's see..they are so many things to report! Nate and Lilly both talk up a storm and now they have both added "Da Da" to their vocabulary (alas, still no "Ma Ma"). Nate likes to scream.. a lot. He screams when he's excited, when he's mad, when he wants to get your attention, all the time! Lilly still cracks us up with her Canadian goose noises. Nate had his SECOND hair cut about two weeks ago (the boy's hair is out of control). They are both doing this funny thing when they get excited where they stick their arms straight out and their hands go up and down and open and close kind of like they are riding a motorcycle. Sometimes I think they are trying to wave "bye-bye" or "hi" too. They (especially Nate) are very clingy lately, which I love of course (until I have to drop them off at the sitter's and cry all the way to work!!). Nate still only has two bottom teeth, and Lilly is still all gums, but she will have some soon without a doubt! She is DROOLING like crazy and chewing on everything! She has been a little on the fussy side and has had a lot of cold symptoms lately, too. We finally got Lilly to stand up on her legs (she is soooo lazy!), so they are both standing on their legs now, but they haven't really started to pull up on things yet. They are sitting up great and spending a lot of time on their tummies doing "Super-Man" looking maneuvers, so I imagine some sort of crawling will follow shortly. They love books, especially Lilly. Her favorite is Veggie Tales "Peas and Thank you" and Nate's favorite has to be Elmo "So Big!". They have had several opportunities to play with friends and cousins this month and they had so much fun! As far as sleeping goes, they are doing great but we still take it one day at a time. They are still sleeping in separate cribs in the same room, but lately we have seriously considered moving Lilly due to her sudden screaming outbursts. I think maybe she is having nightmares (or it may be due to teething?) but they come on pretty quick and she can get LOUD! When I go in the room to get Lilly, poor Nate is usually looking at me like "C'mon, mom, I'm trying to sleep here!!". He does pretty good falling back to sleep and Lilly does too, after rocking her for a few minutes. Other than that, they sleep great through the night (8pm-6am-ish). Last but not least, food update: they are finally on to stage 3 food and soon we will start giving them mushy-regular people- table food. Can't wait! Our babies can EAT! I can't wait for the next month and all of the new discoveries it will have in store for us!

Pictures from the last month:

We tried the mesh things you can put fruit inside (good, but kinda messy!)Lilly wasn't all that interested.
SO happy
This is the head tilt I wrote about in a previous blog
Reading "That's Not My Dolly!"
Caught Lilly in mid-clap. She loves clapping!!

Nate trying to crawl
Up to no good!
This is Nate's new smile- one of my favorite things in the world!!

Sweet baby girl
Having fun together

Cutie on one of our last cold days

Daddy and Nate
How could I resist?

Before an outing to the park

Officially nine months old- March 22

Nate gives a thumbs up!
Lilly can eat her feet - YAY! I'm so proud.

Attempts at an "official" nine months old picture (what a joke)

This one will do!! :)

Help-calling all moms of twins!

I'm not sure if there are many of you who read this blog, but I think there are a few so I am putting this question out there to see if anyone can help. Nate and Lilly are almost nine months old. They are now too big to be carried in infant carrier, but they obviously haven't learned to walk yet. So if I need to take them somewhere by myself- what is the best way to go about doing that? Of course I take them to the sitter's house every day (one at a time), but my main problem is that I have to hold/carry them one at a time until we get to the final destination. As I am writing this, I am thinking the only way to do it is probably using my MASSIVELY HUGE double stroller. Are there ANY other ideas/solutions? This morning Lilly was not feeling good and I got to thinking.. if they are both sick, how will I get them from the car to the doctor's office by myself? I am thinking the only solutions are making someone take off work to help me, or taking them in the double stroller (which would take up 75% of the waiting room and 100% of the tiny exam room). I am hoping some of you creative twin moms have an ingenious solution, because I sure as heck am not coming up with one. Until then, we will be housebound. Just kidding.. kind of!

Another day.. another playdate!

Who knew "playdate" was one word? Apparently everyone except me (see post below)! OOPS!

Anyhoo-it seems that ALL of my friends are teachers and have this whole week off for Spring Break ( I'm not bitter AT ALL) , so I decided to play hooky Tuesday and two of my bestest friends in the world drove down in the morning to see the babies. Jenn brought her little girl, Brynely, who is such a cutie patootie!! We all chatted and watched all the kids play. Megan listened to Jenn's and my pregnancy/labor stories while cringing in horror. We had a great time girl-talking and the babies played surprisingly well together! I wasn't sure how much fun Brylney would have since she is almost two, but she enjoyed being the big girl, showing the babies how to use some of their toys and reading to them. She was such a doll and very sweet, smart and well mannered! It is so cool to me that Nate and Lilly are really starting to pay attention to other babies/children (now I can't wait to see them play with their millions of cousins)!! I was sad I had to cut the visit short for my dentist appointment at noon (Nate and Lilly were coming up quickly on a melt-down anyway). Thanks for coming by Megan, Jenn and Brynley- and I promise I will leave my house and venture up north sometime before the babies graduate from high school. HAHA!!

Brynley and Lilly

Playing on the floor.. this seems to be a common theme in my house lately!

Brynley showing Lilly how to make the truck go!

Lilly is nothing if not focused!

You can imagine the circus going on behind the camera to try and get all three kids to look up at the same time!! I think Lilly enjoyed the noises Megan was making the best. She'll be a great mom. :)

Reading one of their Elmo favorites, "Soooo Big!"

Play Date!!

Yesterday afternoon we had our first play date! We have had some play time with older cousins and babies at the babysitter but this was the first official play date! My friend Lindsay and I were both pregnant at the same time and her little guy (Logan) ended up being almost exactly one month older than Nate and Lilly. Perfect! I have a lot of women in my family who give me excellent advice, but it has been nice to have someone in the exact same baby stage as I am to compare what she is feeding him, how long he is sleeping, when he grew out of his baby stuff, etc. Boy, did Logan show Nate and Lilly the ropes yesterday! It worked out perfectly because the boys got a little one on one time to play due to Lilly's extended morning nap. The three of them only played for a few minutes, then it was nap time for Nate, so Logan and Lilly also got some quality "alone" play time! I don't know if it was just me, but I swore I saw the beginning of a budding romance! We had so much fun! Let's do it again SOON!

The boys had to warm up a little..I love the way Nate kept looking at me like I was embarrassing him. He's not even nine months old for goodness sake! That's more like it. BIG BOYS!
Lilly woke up ready to play! She can hang with the boys.

Who does this kid think he is- crawling all over the place?!?
Nate was starting to get a little fussy at this point.. nap time!

Okay, you're not my brother.. let's get you figured out..

Logan was nice enough to let Lilly play with his Sesame Street toy remote. I have to get one of these- she loved it!!
This picture makes me laugh out loud. Just as I pushed the button to take a picture of them sitting side by side, Logan took off crawling leaving Lilly in the dust wondering what happened!! I love the way she is looking at me like "whaaa?".