Twin Time

About every two months we get together with our twin buddies, Emmy and Jax Garman. They were supposed to come to our house on Saturday, but we had water issues (AGAIN!!!!!!!!) at our house so instead we made the trip to Bowling Green. Each visit is even more fun because the babies are doing more. I can't wait until they are all walking and talking. I can only imagine what we will hear and see! Emmy and Jax are exactly three months younger than Mya and Stella and so as of Saturday they were almost 5 months and my girls were almost 8 months. Mya was all about them. She wanted to touch and talk to them. However, her touch is more like a slap or grab so I stayed very nearby. Stella was so happy to be there, as well. She REALLY loved Kris, Emmy and Jax's daddy. He made her laugh a lot.

I didn't get any pictures of their big brother, Brody this time. He didn't want me to take his picture. He just wanted pictures of his duck or he wanted to be the one taking the pictures. LOL Also, it is getting more difficult to take their pictures because my girls don't want to sit still and getting all four babies to look at us is nearly impossible. Oh well, we will still attempt them every time we get together.

Stella and her future husband, Jaxson. These two are so similar. Kelly and I joked that they are a perfect match and should get married. Emmy is going to be a cheerleader for sure!All the kiddos.

Sisterly Love

There are so many great things about having twins, but the best thing about having twins is watching them play together. The moment we found out we were having two girls I started daydreaming about them. I knew that they would have a special relationship that only multiples can understand. I've read about twin sisters feeling each other's labor pains (which I'm not wishing on my girls) or knowing when the other was sick because they just have that special connection. I am so close with my sister and so I always hoped to have two girls. I never dreamed I would get twins.
Mya and Stella started noticing each other months ago, but watching them play together now is so cute. They crawl all over each other and "talk" back and forth. Yesterday, I had just picked Stella up out of her crib and was going to get Mya after a nap and when we stood over Mya's crib they just looked at each other and started smiling so big. It eventually turned into full out belly laughs and it was THE cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. I called Wes over the monitor and he came upstairs to join in the fun.I am so looking forward to watching them become the best of friends. What lucky little girls to always have a playmate and sense of security wherever they go. I think that when they are older, however, that Mya will be more independent where Stella will be more clingy to Mya. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

An Earful

"I'm all better!"

Daddy took Stella Grace to the doctor today for her follow-up appointment. She had had her final Rocephin shot on Monday. She has seemed happier lately and Lisa, our babysitter, said that she really thinks the shots were working because Stella was a different baby for her. Keep in mind she has had her ear infection since Christmas so Lisa has never known Stella without an infection. Well, Lisa was right! Dr. Carmen said that Stella's ears were all cleared up and tubes are not necessary at this point! Music to my ears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy for my little peanut. But now I guess when she wakes up in the middle of the night I have to make her stay in her bed. I was bringing her down with us lately because I wasn't sure if her ears were bugging her or not. I think she likes sleeping with us and was just putting on an act. LOL

Photos

I love to take and look at pictures. When I started thinking about sending the girls to the babysitter's house I thought it would be a good idea to send a photo album with them full of pictures of family so if they were sad they could look at us. I found these photo albums for babies that are "suckable" and hold 6 pictures. I got both girls their own album and went to work putting pictures in them. The cover holds a picture of themselves. The inside has pictures of their sister, Mommy and Daddy, Nana and Papa Skees, Grammy and Grampy Anderson and Grandma and Grandpa Rethman. They took them to Lisa's for the first few days and since then they stay at our house. They really do love to look at them. Well, they like to look at themselves in general. LOL Looking in the mirror is one of their favorite things to do. Sometimes while Wes and I eat dinner, we put the girls in their high chairs and give them their albums to look at. It is so cute! I'm hoping they have a love of pictures just like I do. My mom was very dedicated to keeping our albums up-to-date as children. We each have about 5 albums that are in chronological order and such an amazing keepsake. I am so backed up on general pictures but you better believe the girls each have albums and they are very current. Actually, they each have 3 albums and they are only 8 months old! It's more of an obsession, but they are so cute I can't help myself!!!!!!!!

Blue-Eyed Girls

I have blue eyes. Wes has brown eyes. My girls have the bluest eyes I've ever seen! Seriously, sometimes when I look at them it looks like they have colored contacts in! Their eye color can still change, but I really don't think that will be the case because they are so deep blue. I also love that their eyes are huge! They really stand out with their long eyelashes and I think they are such a beautiful feature. Someday they are going to be batting those eyes at their Daddy and getting away with everything!

Cheap Entertainment

The girls got tons of new toys for Christmas and they do like to play with them. For them, however, nothing compares to playing with a water bottle or a towel. They will play forever with those things without getting bored. They love to suck all over the bottle, especially when the bottle has ridges. Wes loves to watch them race. He will set them on one end of the living room and a water bottle on the other end and they will army crawl like crazy to get to the bottle. It is hilarious.
In the end, I knew this was going to be the case. I remember when Will was a baby and he loved playing with a shoe box with a golf ball in it. The simple pleasures of life. Soon they will want all of these toys but for now simple is best.

P.S. Their hair really looks reddish in some pictures. I'm wondering if the Scully (Wes' maternal grandma) side of them is coming out and we are going to have some strawberry blond girls. He woulda thunk it?

Rub-A-Dub-Dub MORE Fun in the Tub!

I know I posted about this before, but I have more cute pictures to share. My girls love to take baths and I like to snap pictures of their happy faces. They are really into playing with the water and their pink rubber ducky. They also sucked on the wash cloth for the first time. I wondered when that would happen. I remember doing that so I must have been a little older. When you really think about it, it is pretty disgusting. I mean it is full of soap, water that you have been sitting in and the stuff you washed off of you.....YUCK! Oh well, I think it's a rite of passage in childhood. LOL

Weight Update

We went for Stella's second shot of Rocephin today and I asked if we could please weigh the girls because I was curious. We hadn't had their weight since their 6 month appointment and wouldn't get it again until their 9 month appointment and I just figured we were there so why not?

At 6 months and 1 week old:

*Mya Alyse weighed 16 pounds even.

*Stella Grace weighed 14 pounds 10 ounces.

Today at 7 months and 3 weeks old:

*Mya Alyse weighed 18 pounds 15 ounces.

*Stella Grace weighed 16 pounds 11 ounces.

Yes, you read right......my little porkers gained 2 lbs. 15 oz. and 2 lbs. 1 oz. respectively in a month and a half!!!!!! They like to eat, that's for sure!

Stella was a champ for her shot. She literally cried for 5 seconds and then was fine! One more round on Monday and then we will check back in at the end of the week. Hopefully the doctor will say all is well at that time!

My Poor Little Tuna

Stella Grace has been struggling with an ear infection since Christmas. You may remember me writing about how she went to the doctor on December 28th and was diagnosed with a double ear infection. She was put on amoxicillin for 10 days and the nurse said they didn't need to see her back because this should do the trick. Well 10 days passed and after being off the medicine for a day or two she had a fever again and was spitting up a bunch. So Wes took her back to the doctor. It was a Saturday and so we saw a different doctor. He said the infection hadn't cleared up and she just needed a stronger prescription for 10 more days and she would be fine.
Those 10 days ended on Monday. By Tuesday she was refusing to take a bottle at Lisa's and was spitting up a bunch again. At about 1:00 a.m. she woke up screaming and was burning up with a fever. Fevers absolutely freak me out. They always did in the past, but even more so since Will had his seizure and since I read a blog about a family who's healthy little 18 month old boy died in his sleep from a fever. The boy was a twin and not that that matters, but of course I think of my girls when I read those things. Also, it seems that every time Stella spikes a fever it is in the middle of the night when everything seems scarier. Anyways, it took a lot to calm her down and she wanted nothing to do with laying by herself. She was so hot so I took her out of her sleep sack and changed her into some cotton jammies instead of the fleece ones she had on. I gave her some Tylenol. She just wanted to be held and every time she fell asleep and I tried laying her down she would wake up screaming again. Needless to say she ended up sleeping in my arms (which I secretly love anyways), but only got a few hours of sleep. At 5:30 I called for a sub and started getting things ready to drop off at school. Wes took the afternoon off so that we could take her back to the doctor. We wanted Mya to get checked too because she has been tugging on her right ear lately.
I spent the morning cuddling her although she seemed to be acting pretty normal. Our appointment was at 1:20. Dr. Carmen said that her double ear infection still had not cleared up and that antibiotics are no longer the answer. She said Stella would need to have a shot of Rocephin. She said she was sorry it came to this because this shot is painful. It has lidocaine in it to numb the muscle for a little while. She had it done today and will need to come back for another shot on Friday and Monday. At the end of next week Dr. Carmen will check her ears again and if God forbid this didn't work, she would have to have surgery to drain her ears and get tubes put in. Stella was an absolute champ. She cried really hard for about 30 seconds and then was okay. She didn't even act like her leg bothered her at all tonight. I'm just praying that this is the answer because I feel very nervous about her having to go through a surgery. I know this is a pretty common procedure for kids but this is MY baby I'm talking about. I hate the thought of her being put under and also the thought of all that she will have to do if she gets tubes. I remember my friend, Sarah, had tubes in her ears when we were younger and she hated them. She had to wear wax ear plugs to shower and she could never go under water. She had to have the tubes put in several times too. I don't want that for Stella, so I'm just praying that this will work. P.S. Mya's ears are just fine. The doctor said she is just doing it because she wants to be like Stella. LOL

Meet the Viking Twins

It is my pleasure to introduce to you....

Helgaand UrsulaI got these adorable hats at Children's Place (one of my favorite kids' clothing stores) and they just make me laugh. My mom and I decided the girls needed Old Norse names when they wear their hats. We've only worn them a few times, but we get tons of compliments. They have matching mittens and fleece coats but I thought we'd just showcase the hats in this post. :)

Picture Perfect

Today we headed down to Wes' hometown so that I could attend his cousin (and my friend)'s baby shower. Ashley is due March 1st and we cannot wait to find out what she is having. We went a little early so that we could stop at Grandma and Grandpa Bergman's house. The girls were not going with me to the shower because it was nap time and they are also really in the stranger anxiety stage and I just didn't want them to both be upset and me be alone. Ever since I went back to work Mya surprisingly is very clingy and doesn't like to go to other people. I just knew that it would be bad news if I took them to the shower because other people would want to hold them and I didn't want to stress the girls out. I do feel bad for whoever is holding them when they get upset because it probably hurts their feelings, but I feel even worse for my girls. They are crying because they are scared. I know they have to learn that it is okay for other people to hold them but most people do not give them the warm-up time that they need. You can't just take them.

Back to what I was saying.....Wes decided he would go over to our good friends, Ryan and Julie's house during the shower. Julie was going to the shower with me and Wes and Ryan were having a daddy daycare with our girls and their little boy, Kendall. They had a good time and the girls got a nap and got to play. It worked out very well.

We snapped some super cute pics of my little ladies at his grandparents' house before we left. Here are the girls playing and posing with their Grammy Jo.