Picture Time!

Well, here are a couple of pics of the kids. It is really, really cold so we thought it would be the perfect time for them to wear their new sweaters from So So - they are a little big, but the way they are eating they will fit in no time!










She looks ready for snow, too bad it is going to be 3 degrees with NO SNOW!














She LOVES her keys that "Aunt" Lynley gave her.












She's got a lot to say these days!














We entered them in the Beautiful Baby contest on Regis and Kelly. You all will have to vote in March!

Just a little big!

Tyler looked so grown up in his outfit from Grandma Barnhart!

New tricks

I think we are coming up on a time when the babies are learning all sorts of new tricks, most of which aren't the least bit interesting to people who aren't their parents, I'm sure, but it is pretty fun. I told Lance at lunch today (yep, we went to lunch together - it was good and made me realize that sometime we can get someone to watch them in the daytime when they are a little less "trouble" and go to a movie, lunch, etc.) that we need to take some video tonight of some of the adorable things they are doing that they won't be doing for too much longer. When Katie gets excited she bicycles her legs really fast and lets out a big squeal - it's like she is so excited she just can't contain it. Tyler (in my opinion) is closer to rolling over and can get on his side now and soon will be all the way over so I want to get some video of these first efforts! I at least need to get video since I am doing horribly with keeping up with the baby books - I have no clue when their first smile or laugh was.

One that I do need to write down is their first rice cereal attempt - last night!!! It didn't go great, but it was a good first step. Katie made a horrible face but did "accidentally" get a little only to promptly spit it back up. Tyler was giving it a valiant effort, but he got frustrated pretty quickly because he was very hungry and he couldn't get enough, fast enough off the spoon. We are going to try again and feed him a few ounces more before we start with the cereal so he won't be so frantic. All in all it was a good first effort, they still hate their bumbos though (and are too small for the high chairs) so we don't really have a good method yet for trying to spoon feed them.

Here are some pictures of the adorable little munchkins. It is COOOOLD here today (and only getting worse they say) so we had them in their outfits that Uncle Tommy gave them, the sweaters that So So knitted for them, and they wore shoes for the first time. Of course, the camera was in my freezing car all weekend so it wasn't working too well this morning, but we did get a few pics! Another of their "tricks" is that they love, love, love holding onto blankets, lovies, our clothes, their clothes, really whatever they can get their hands on and they really love putting them in their mouths and covering their faces!!! I was worried at first and constantly moving the blankets off their faces, but somehow they inevitably find a way to get them back up there so I've ended the losing battle!

Tyler, "talking"!

Katie now has MULTIPLE chins, and the fattest, cutest "little" face.

Mom, where is my blankie?

Schedule woes

Well, I am sitting watching the Titans game (GO TITANS!) and the munchkins are sleeping soundly. We moved to a four hour schedule, completely by accident, we got off the day they went to the doctor and they seemed to like going a little longer so we kept it that way. It is working out alright, but they have started waking at strange hours - midnight and 5:00 AM last night. We are going to start solids on Sunday and hopefully that will make a difference. 5:00 AM just messes with the whole schedule because then they don't really want to eat at 7:00 and then we are off the whole day. This isn't a problem really on weekends but Nana Pam can't feed them between 11:00 and 1:00 when it needs to be if they wake so early if we intend to still make bedtime around 7:30. We are implementing a dream feed for a little while and are hopeful that will get them to a little longer. A dream feed is given after they have already gone down for the night (around 11:00 or 12:00 for us) and it is just feeding them while they are basically asleep just to kind of "top them off." It is really a babywise method that we are adopting, but Babywise suggests stopping it at about this time! From everything I have read four months is a difficult sleep age because they are just becoming aware of you leaving them, they are starting to be more active which hurts their little limbs, they are about to make huge developmental leaps, and they are starting the teething process. So, I don't think this odd (and tiring) schedule is ALL because we screwed them up so bad, but we definitely have to take some of the blame!

I have to admit that I am having a bit of a hard time right now feeling like we are in "baby jail." This is beginning to be such a fun age and we are loving getting to know their little personalities and see them grow and learn, but especially with the new earlier bedtime things are a bit difficult at the moment. With the later bedtime (they seem to do a lot better with the earlier one or we would change it back) that means that we can't just pack them up and go get dinner anywhere, can't fix our dinner until after they go down really which means not until 8:00, and can't get a babysitter (although I personally think it might be worth it) because the most difficult thing is getting these little boogers down and we would probably put them down first with a sitter and then leave and that seems silly to pay so much to someone to just watch them sleep. We had talked about trying to get out of the house every two weeks or so, but so far that doesn't seem like it will be happening. We want to try to go to a baby shower for a friend next weekend but it is from 6:30 until 10:30 and if we put them down and then left we wouldn't get there until 8:30 or so and then would need to be home to relieve a sitter fairly early moneywise and just so someone doesn't have to stay at our house too late and that doesn't really seem worth it. I know it will change soon and once they are Sleeping through the Night we will better be able to get a sitter - I guess I am just going a little stir crazy, probably doesn't help that Lance is at the game and I am not (not a horrible thing though since the weather is rough).

I am starting tennis again on the 19th (which means Lance has to put them both to bed by himself a few nights a month), so that will probably help me feel reconnected and like I am actually leaving the house occasionally!

Four Month Appointment!

Yesterday was Katie and Tyler's 4 month physical. They are doing great - both on target and growing well. Katie is 12 pounds, 14 ounces and Tyler is 13 pounds, 9 ounces! They are still little shorties - Katie is 22.2 inches and Tyler is 23 inches and they are only in the 1st (Katie) and 3rd (Tyler) percentile for height, but they are starting to catch up! Tyler is in the 23rd percentile for weight which is excellent since that doesn't even take into account him being 6 weeks early. We were told to wait until 6 months for rice cereal, we'll see...

Here are a couple of 4 month pics!!!

Almost big enough for our bumbos!

Katie likes sitting up like a big girl.

I think he was about to lose it, not a huge fan YET.

Our little Braves fan is getting so BIG!

I think it is time for round-the-clock bibs, Katie is a little drool monster these days!

She's started talking up a storm!

He can't wait to be on the go, so active and ready to move!

Baby Einstein

Also wanted to post a little thanks to Matthew (don't even know if you read this but if so...). We were at our wits end with little Katie Bug last night who at about 7:30 had worked herself into a frenzy and would not be calmed by anything. None of our sure-fire methods like walking around, the "good" swing, peek-a-boo, or just getting to sit with mom were working to calm her down so we attempted a little Baby Einstein diversion. IT WORKED! Katie was mesmerized (Tyler was napping), she is a real Beethoven fan. Thanks for the DVD's Matthew, I foresee them becoming a go-to!!!

Failed experiment!

Well, we had a miserable night's sleep on Friday thanks to a little experiment gone terribly wrong! We have been searching and searching for a way for the munchkins to sleep through the night so we decided to not wake them both when one wakes and let the other one sleep to see how long s/he could go. Well, Katie woke up at 1:30 so we tried to give her a pacifier and soothe her back to sleep with no success. So, we gave her a four ounce little snack bottle. She went back to sleep pretty well and we were back in bed by about 2:30. Tyler was snoring and seemed content so we were holding our breaths and hoping to not hear from him until 6:00 or so. That did NOT happen - at about 3:30 he was wailing and wanting to eat (Tyler cannot be soothed, when he wants to eat he is not going to be fooled by our sleep inducing shenanigans!). Tyler has also started only wanting to be held and screaming when you put him in his crib, or swing, or bouncer, or bumbo, or really anything but our arms! It is pretty annoying, we are really hoping it is a growth spurt, heightened awareness of being left that he will soon get over, or something that is not long-term! Anyway, we finally got him back to sleep at about 4:30 only to have them both wake at 6:30. Reminded me of the early days and not in a good way! It made us grateful for what we have had which is more similar to last night when they (well, we woke Tyler up) were hungry at 3:30, fed and back down (sort of for Tyler) by 4:00 and then not up again until 7:30. We'll just be happy that we have had a couple of months of waking only once and wait until they are both ready to sleep through. We are really hoping at their four month appointment tomorrow that they will let us give rice cereal - it has got to help!

Still no pictures, my mom took some cute ones that I will have to get from her!

Four Months Old!

Well, today the babies are officially four months old! I almost can't believe it!!! Pretty funny that just this morning Lance said, "so, when can we start rice cereal?" Some docs say four months, but I am going to guess we will be told to wait just a bit with these two. I know that pediatricians and the like say that rice cereal does not help them get through the night, but I'm not buying it - I am hoping that a few extra calories will get them through the night. We were up at 2:00 AM last night and then at 6:30 or so, not too bad but it sure would be nice to have a full night!

The babies are doing much better - Katie was the culprit last night for the 2:00 AM wake-up call, she is so stuffy. Lance is too and I am afraid that she has gotten yet another strain of something, because until yesterday she was starting to do better. Lance thinks he got it from sitting in the doctor's office last week and Katie probably got it from him. That means that Tyler is probably not too far behind with it and then me again, what a fun sickness merry-go-round we've been on! I can't wait until it is warmer so maybe they can get better, either that or when they can finally blow their noses themselves so they don't continue to think we are the most mean parents in the world, always coming at them with the nose sucker!

We had an awesome New Year's eve out (Go Vandy) and are so thankful that my mom came up to keep the kids for the evening. The little darlings can certainly be a handful so mom and GrandBob's watching them was MUCH appreciated!

So So gave the babies some awesome sweaters that she knitted - I'm going to put those on them to take the next round of pictures but haven't managed to do that yet - stay tuned!