Just some random pictures

Adalyn absolutely loves pushing this chair around the kitchen!

She thinks she's so smart.
I swear mom, I didn't do it!
Alivia finally enjoying the pool.

Swimming's not so bad when you have this floaty thing wrapped around your waist!

Even with a shiner on my head, I can still smile!

The girls are 9 months old today. Can you believe it? Where has the time gone? I guess I better start planning a birthday! It's going to be here before I know it. They're at such a fun age right now. They have their own little personalities. They interact with each other. They know that by making silly faces/noises, they can get mommy and daddy to laugh at them and then they laugh at themselves. They think the cat is the coolest thing on the planet. Unfortunately, Desi doesn't think the same about them!

Nate took them outside to play in their froggy pool over the weekend while I was working. I guess it was darn near impossible to get any good pictures of Adalyn because she wouldn't sit still. Alivia had a blast this time too...and actually cooperated to have a few pictures taken.

They see the pediatrician next week for their 9 month appointment. There aren't any shots at this appt, so we can actually look forward to going to the doctor! They'll just get weighed and measured and we'll discuss their progress.

And speaking of getting weighed...the girls like to explore the bathroom now. They enjoy standing up and looking in the tub and slapping the linoleum with their hands, etc. Anyway, the other day they crawled from the living room to the bathroom. Shortly thereafter I heard Adalyn start whining. I thought she probably got stuck or bumped her head, so I went in there. Somehow, she managed to sit herself completely upright and centered on the bathroom scale facing toward the digital window. It was in the process of calculating her weight. All I could think of was "oh baby, I know. Mommy hates the scale too!"

A little reflection

So Nate and I were talking about the girls' names the other day. All of a sudden, we found ourselves reflecting back on the day they were born. We had been set on Adalyn's name since before we were ever married. We simply liked the name and it was a bit unique. However, God threw us a curveball and decided that twins would be a lovely little addition to our family. Considering we weren't finding out the sexes of the babies, we had to come up with another girl name. We probably threw around 3-4 of them. The same ones kept coming up, but we weren't 100% set on any particular name.

Fast forward to delivery day. "Baby A" made her entrance. Nate announced that we were the proud parents of a little baby girl and he followed her over to the warmers to watch her get her first bath and her vitals. I remember hearing the nurse ask him "so what is her name?" Without hesitation, Nate proclaimed that her name was Adalyn Jean.

Twenty-eight minutes later, "Baby B" made her entrance. Once again, Nate announced that we were the proud parents of another little girl and followed her over to the warmers so the nurses could clean her up. And once again, I remember hearing the nurse ask him "so what is this little one's name?" Without skipping a beat, Nate said her name was Alivia Mae.

From across the room I said "ok, so I guess that's going to be her name!" Nate was a little concerned that I wasn't exactly in agreement and that he should've consulted me first before blurting anything out, but the name just fit. Neither one of us can imagine her as anything else. She's definitely an Alivia Mae.

Happy Belated 4th of July

The girls enjoyed their first 4th of July. They were dressed in their patriotic clothes and we spent some time outside enjoying the wonderful weather. They liked watching the neighbors play volleyball and all of the kids zoom up and down the street on their bikes/scooters/rollerblades.

We decided not to go to the city fireworks display because we didn't know how the girls would like it and we were afraid that if we needed to leave, there would be a big traffic jam. So we stayed home. But for the 3rd year since we've lived in this house, the neighbors put on a wonderful display for us! Unfortunately, Alivia zonked out before the show began. But Adalyn was awake through most of it. She smiled and "talked" and overall just had a great time.

Here we are in our "Baby's 1st Fourth" shirts!

Playing outside.

Clothes hangers are all the rage!

Look at this smug little patriotic girl.

Summer is here

We've taken the girls outside several times over the past couple of weeks now that it's finally nice here. Of course we had to avoid those days when the humidity was off the charts. Yuck! But we've played in the yard and we've gone swimming in the girls' new frog pool. Alivia really wasn't having any of the pool fun. I think the water may have been a touch too cool for her. But Adalyn couldn't get enough! I think we've identified our swimmer (daddy's baby) and our basketball player (mommy's baby)!

Our tooth count is up to 6 1/2. You're probably wondering how we can get half a tooth. Well, Alivia now has both bottom teeth and as of today, officially has her top two teeth. Adalyn has her bottom two and her upper gums on the left side are bulging. So I have a feeling she'll be popping one of her top teeth in within 24 hours.

Here are some pictures of our adventures outside. The girls weren't exactly sure what to think of sitting in the prickly green stuff.

Little Miss Priss.

Um, what?!
Seriously mom? Pick us up...now.

Oooh, a truck!

Where's that truck going?

Bathtime fun

Bathtime is a whole lot of fun as long as you have this blue hippo!!

The girls are doing fantastic. Each of them have their two bottom teeth. They both babble up a storm. And they are very interested in what WE are eating and not so interested in their baby food. Both girls have started with a little bit of stranger anxiety. I first noticed it with Alivia when I took the girls to work meetings with me. And I thought for sure Adalyn would never have a problem - because after all, as long as someone is paying attention to the girl and/or holding her, she's perfectly content, right? Wrong. She started up about a week ago. So I'm just hoping it will be a short phase.

As far as individual developments...

Adalyn - She is now pulling up on everything in sight...us, the couch, the toy box, etc. When she wants out of her crib, you can almost guarantee that she will be standing in the corner closest to the door waiting for it to open. She finds the cat extremely amusing and tries to chase her. She weighs 17lbs 3oz as of yesterday. Unfortunately, she has a pretty bad diaper rash that I had her seen for, so that's how we got the updated weight. She is on the verge of crawling, but she still prefers the army crawl.

Alivia - She is officially crawling. Not quickly by any means, but she puts one hand and one knee in front of the other. However, when she wants to get somewhere NOW, she reverts to the army crawl just like her sister. I believe she is working on her top two teeth. She loves playing with a toothbrush. She probably weighs just under 17 pounds, but we don't have an official weight. She thinks daddy is the funniest person on the planet.

That's it for now!

I like your hat!

I really do like your hat!

Yup, looks good from this angle...

...and the back looks great, too!

Hey, why didn't you tell me I was wearing the same hat?

It's robbery I tell ya!

This is some video that I took of the girls this morning. The whole thing is about 5 minutes long. Sorry, I just kept taping! The victim gives you quite a smile at the end. I don't know, is it sibling rivalry or sibling robbery? I think robbery!

Daycare

No, we're not putting the girls in daycare anytime soon. But we did find a pretty good way at containing the babies now that they're on the move! They didn't seem to mind...

Great, now what? (Desi apparently feels safer!)

Any ideas on how we can get outta here?

I'll try to chew us out!

Oh well, maybe we'll just make the most of it.

Holy moly, they did it!!

So what could I possible be so excited about? Well...BOTH of the girls slept straight through the night last night! Alivia slept for 10 hours and Adalyn slept for a whopping 11 1/2! Prior to last night, the girls had never slept through the night at the same time. Alivia has been sleeping through the night since she was about 3 months old. But Adalyn was still waking every few hours. Once every few weeks, Adalyn would have a good stretch of maybe 6-7 hours or so, but it never failed...when that would happen, then Alivia would be up!

The odd thing about Adalyn now sleeping well at night (she slept 7+ hours in a row the prior three nights) is that she cut a tooth as of yesterday morning! So when most kids become pretty restless at night when they're teething, apparently it helps mine sleep! Yup, we're always the oddballs. I'm used to it.

And the funny thing about Adalyn sleeping through the night is that just last week I jokingly told Nate that we could start *thinking* about adding a third one to the family when she is sleeping through the night (again, Alivia has not been a problem because she's been doing it for months). Nate's response was "so we're never going to have another baby." Neither one of us had much hope that she would ever start sleeping well. But apparently Adalyn wants a baby brother or sister!!!!

Flashback

So I had a flashback last night to my days on bedrest. The show Wipeout is back on ABC and I caught the last 15 minutes or so of the season premiere. The reason I had a flashback was because my mom forbade me from watching the show during my bedrest. Nate and I were watching it one night, and I laughed sooooo hard. I could barely catch my breath, I was crying, etc. My mom was here to witness it, and from that day forward, it was on my list of forbidden shows.

Which brings me to just how difficult bedrest is. I've had several people over the months since the girls have been born say to me "well bedrest can't be that difficult...I mean, I would love to lay around and do nothing for a while."

And yes, I agree. Laying around doing nothing sounds rather delightful at times! But nothing could ever replicate the incredible fear and debilitating anxiety of being solely responsible for the health of my babies. The first few weeks, I was petrified to even move. Thankfully, that subsided a little bit. But I was still very scared to get up to go to the bathroom...the one and only reason I had to leave the couch. I was afraid. Afraid of gravity. Afraid of my body failing my babies.

There is absolutely no way to express how incredibly difficult bedrest was for that very reason. To know that I was responsible for protecting my babies...no one else. What if I roll over on the couch too many times? What if I'm up to go to the bathroom too often? WHAT IF I LAUGH TOO HARD? Which is exactly why my mother said I was no longer allowed to watch Wipeout.

So yeah, bedrest sounds a bit fun if you can watch the TV shows you want to watch and move around as often as you want to "get comfortable" (I often laid in one spot for HOURS out of fear of setting off more contractions). Bedrest sounds fun if you don't have a constant guilt hanging over your head that if your babies were to be born too soon it's ALL YOUR FAULT. If you don't have the guilt that if your babies face lifelong disabilities due to a premature birth it's all because your body failed. I know it sounds dramatic, but I was put on bedrest when both babies were still under 2 pounds each.

Nothing can duplicate the feelings I experienced while on bedrest. Simply putting yourself on your couch for 67 days just isn't the same.

Happy Anniversary!

I just want to wish my fabulous husband a very Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary.

But I guess I will have to find a different avenue in which to do so, because he NEVER READS THE BLOG. So yeah, if he ever complains that I didn't wish him a Happy Anniversary, I have plenty of witnesses to say that I did!! Ha.

Two years ago today, we tied the knot. Two years, two kids, not bad. I wonder what year three will bring?!

Teeth and "uh-oh"

So. We have been stuck at two teeth since just after Easter. Alivia has her two bottom teeth. She cut the first one on her 6 month birthday (April 13), and then cut the second one several days later. Adalyn is still our toothless baby. And I don't think she's close to getting any. But who knows, she could surprise me and pop one through in the next week!

As far as the "uh-oh" goes...the babies are darn near on the move. Alivia is up on all four's just rocking up a storm! Every now and then, she scoot's both knees forward, but she just hasn't quite figured out how to coordinate the movement of her arms. Adalyn, on the other hand, is quite content rolling around. I honestly think she might skip crawling altogether and simply roll till she knows how to walk. She can roll from one end of our living room to the other in 15 seconds.

So what does this mean? Well, we've been making some major adjustments to the "look" of our house. We moved the coffee table into the basement for the time being. We are also considering moving one of the big chairs out of the living room just to open up the space a little bit more. The problem is with Adalyn right now. Although she is very proficient and very fast at rolling, she only knows how to roll in one direction. So she gets herself caught in corners and up against furniture. So until she learns how to roll the other way, we want as few obstacles as possible!

A few days ago, we put the girls in their sundresses and summer hats, lathered them up with sunscreen, and went outside to enjoy some of the sunshine. Adalyn loved every minute of it. Alivia ended up getting tired and cranky (both of them refused to take their morning naps!!).

She's so excited, can you tell?!

She's just happy she's wearing a big hat to shield the sun!

Sisterly Love

As sisters, they know that they'll always have a shoulder to lean on....

Wedding Weather

I know it's been a long time since I last posted. But I promise that I have not forgotten about the blog. We were out of town for the past several days...five to be exact. We were at my cousin's wedding in my hometown and then we went to Nate's parents' house for a few more days.

So in speaking of the wedding, the weather forecast was not good. As it turns out, it did end up raining. Which then reminds me of our wedding day, because we're approaching our 2 year anniversary. Like my cousin's wedding, it rained on our big day. I had several people tell me not to worry about the little bit of rain because "rain on your wedding day is a sign of wealth and fertility." Well, we sure have the fertility part down pat!! We're still working on the wealth part. Ha!

And just for fun....

Look at that smile. You can see her two "toofers"

Yes, that is the Tylenol bottle. And yes, she thinks she's a puppy.

Look what we did today!!!

We went to the park for the very first time! It was such a beautiful day out that we couldn't resist taking the girls to the park. They seemed to really enjoy the adventure. So I think we will be spending a whole lot of time there this summer.

Swinging like such big girls!

We do everything together!

Weeeeeeeee!! Slides are fun!

Now hopefully the weather will actually stay nice out so we can make this a fairly routine thing. I think the girls appreciated the fresh air. Let's face it, they were born in mid-October. Shortly thereafter, the cold weather hit. So we have been cooped up in the house for far too long.

Plus mommy needs some sunshine! I had to get a new drivers' license a couple weeks ago because mine was set to expire. My previous picture was taken when we got back from our honeymoon in May 2007. The difference between the two was amazing!! Not that I ever get a whole lot of color in me....but OH...MY...GOSH. I guess it's to be expected since the last time I saw the sun was the summer of 2007. I essentially missed the summer of 2008 due to laying on my couch. So this mommy hasn't really seen the sun in two years!

Oh yes, and you may notice the difference in the appearance of the blog. I am playing around with some different color schemes. When I was pregnant, I was trying to keep things as gender neutral and ambiguous as possible. But since we now have two little girlies, I figured it's about time I make it LOOK a little more girly! So things may change around a bit for the next couple of weeks till I find something I am 100% happy with. Hope you like it!