Happy 11 Months!

Yesterday the girls turned 11 months. We are now on the countdown to their 1st Birthday! Not sure I'm ready for that one.

Here are some of the things you guys are up to:---Ellie, you have went pee-pee twice in your potty, even though we're not really trying to potty train yet.

---Audrie, you like to play peek-a-boo with Daddy. Your favorite thing is to put a shirt over your head..Daddy will say, "Where's Audrie?, then you pull it off and Daddy will say, "There's Audrie!!"

---You are both standing a little on your own. Audrie, you tried to take a couple of steps last night.

---Audrie, you like to carry things around with you. Normally we find you crawling around with items in both hands. Either you have a binkie in both hands and one in your mouth or a rattle in one and a binkie in the other. I guess you like to be prepared. You always want a spare...just in case.
---Ellie, you are our dare devil and climber. 1st you took a nosedive out of your crib..we still don't know how you got out..then you started climbing in drawers..now today you've been trying to crawl the bunk bed ladder. I watched you climb to the 2nd step today...if I wouldn't have got you down, I'm not sure how far you would have made it.

---Ellie, you give such good kisses. Recently you've become so cuddly. You love to crawl up on my lap and put your arms around my neck. It makes my day!
---Audrie, you've started waving bye-bye and Ellie you do it sometimes too.

You guys are so much fun! Everyday is an adventure..we love you so much! Happy 11 months!

Oh, Ellie

A couple of weeks the girls found a drawer under the bunk beds that has a ton of dolls in it. When I went to check on them they had pulled every..single...one..out. They love to go in there now and pull each one out. I've been trying to teach them to put them back in when they're done...with little success might I add.

Well, on Thursday..they were playing with the dolls and it was awfully quiet. When I went to check, Ellie was INSIDE the drawer and was now pulling all of the dolls into the drawer with her. So funny! Little did I know all I had to do was put HER in the drawer and she would put the dolls away for me.

And..all the dolls are back in.

1 Day Strike

So Audrie apparently is a stubborn little girl. When we woke up on Saturday she nursed just fine and then the remainder of the day she refused to nurse. Normally as soon as I do the hand sign for milk so comes right over & can't start nursing fast enough. Well, Saturday I would put her on the nursing pillow and she would just lay there and then sometimes turn her head the other direction. Totally relaxed but just wanted nothing to do with nursing. She even refused to nurse before I laid her down for the night.

The first couple of times I just thought she wasn't hungry. But as it went on I kept thinking maybe she was just done...weaning herself. That night I researched a little and everything said that a baby suddenly stopping isn't weaning, but it's a STRIKE for some reason. Ellie had bit me really bad a few days prior and I let out a scream which they sometimes can lead to a strike...maybe Audrie was reacting to it instead?

Anyway, long story short...I was extremely sad on Saturday. It's hard to explain how I felt, but it's almost like a sudden death of a loved one. The relationship you once had is over without having a chance to say good-bye. I kept thinking, if I had known she would suddenly stop nursing I certainly would have savored the last time. My thoughts were that I would wean her gradually, not just have HER suddenly decide to quit.


Here she is taking her sippy cup just fine that day:(
Well, anyway..the good news is, when we woke up on Sunday she nursed just fine and we haven't had any strikes since. I don't know what her deal was, I suppose she was just exerting her independence. But whatever the reason, I'm glad she's decided to nurse for a little while longer.

Hey, Where's My Sister Going?

As a quick side note... Justin and I were finally able to spend the day together minus kids on Saturday. We hired a nanny for the day. We were gone from 11-6:30, which is the longest I've been away from the kids EVER. We went to lunch, then went to Target, Barnes & Noble, then headed to the golf course. We hadn't golfed together since right before the pregnancy. We had a blast..Well, Justin maybe not so much :) I had an amazing day on the course and drove the ball farther than Justin & the other 2 guys we played with at almost every hole. I don't think Justin really enjoyed THAT so much, but we really did have a great day!

Back to the kids...I'm am so enjoying watching the twins become best friends. They really look out for each other and don't like to be too far from one another throughout the day. Even the nanny commented on how they stick together. I'm posting a video...they like to play follow the leader. Dad or I will start crawling, then one starts behind us...as soon as the first one takes off, sister is right behind. Then it's funny, because they always check to make sure sister is still coming. Also, if they are playing in the nursery and one comes out to see what we're doing in the front room...the other baby is most certainly close behind. They don't go ANYWHERE without the other.

UPDATE on teeth: Audrie now has her 2 top teeth and Ellie has 1 top tooth and is getting the 2nd.

Happy 10 Months!

The twins turned 10 months old today. We are quickly approaching the 1 year mark..I don't quite know if I'm ready for that. Seems like just yesterday we were bringing them home from the hospital.They are eating a lot of different things these days. They like nearly everything. Even kale...ick! I'm not even sure if I could choke that down. Last night they had a turkey burger & sweet potato fries. Audrie is a master at feeding herself finger foods. She is so fast.

Ellie, on the other hand refuses to feed herself. She'll pick the food up, but won't put it in her mouth. Then she clinches the food in her hands the entire meal and won't let me take the food from her hands after she's done. She carries it around like she's saving it in case she never gets fed again :)
They are both pulling up on everything, but no steps yet. Crawling around like crazy. They are getting harder to chase around. Both of them are becoming Daddy's girls, especially Ellie. They certainly like when Dad works from home. The other day, Justin left for the office and Ellie was searching for him. First she made a beeline for the bedroom, then she headed straight for his office to no avail. You could almost see the disappointment!
Although they love their Daddy...Mom is what they spend their days talking about. The only word they know so far is "Mom or Mama."

It's starting to get hot here. We hit 90 today...hopefully we don't get cabin fever too bad this summer. I'm posting a pic of the girl's 1st swimsuit. Can't wait to get them started in swim lessons this summer!

It All Started On Cinco De Mayo

Warning: This post may be a little long. The purpose of my blog is two-fold...it's great to keep our families updated, but I'm also using at as somewhat of a "journal." I'm trying to document EVERYTHING so that someday the girls will be able to read through it. So, I apologize but I want to document how the girls came into the world before I forget most of the details:)

So, I've already blogged about how we found out we were expecting twins so now I'm going to start from I guess May 5th, 2009 on. This is where the fun really starts, haha!
On May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, Justin and I went to Native New Yorker to have a couple of beers and some wings (well, Justin was having beer anyway.) I was 28 weeks pregnant and since about 20 weeks had been having contractions, but the Dr. said nothing to be alarmed about as it was ok with twins as long as no more than 6 per hour. I was told to monitor an hour a day and count how many I was having.

Girls..this is a picture of your pregnant mom, pretty early on.
After we left Native New Yorker, I felt like I was having quite a few so I laid down to count them. Within about 20 minutes I'd already had 4 and by an hour I'd had way over 6...crap!! So we headed into Chandler Regional thinking they'd just hook me up to the monitor, call my Dr. & release me. When I got there, she said "I can't believe this is your 1st trip in here." We see twin Moms a lot. So, they hooked me up...indeed I was having a lot of contractions...then they examined me. I was 2 cm. dilated and 50% effaced...I couldn't believe it. At this point I'm still thinking they are going to send me home.

She calls Dr. Kells and then comes back to tell me I have to stay the night while they try to stop labor. It was the longest night of my life...we brought nothing to the hospital so Justin had to go back to the house and get some things. I laid there in the hospital bed having non stop contractions petrified. I kept thinking how small the babies would be at 28 weeks.


And this is Dr. Kells, he delivered you.

The next morning Dr. Kells came in and examined me and told me I could go home. They hadn't stopped the contractions, so I would need to be on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. For the next 6 weeks all I could do was lie on the couch. Justin was my angel! He made me every meal and took phenomenal care of me. All I did all day was count contractions. Justin would laugh at me because he would come home and I would be laying there facing the "back" of the couch with no TV or anything. Just staring at the couch. I told him it was because I was trying not to have more than 6 contractions in an hour and every time I rolled over to face the other direction it gave me a contraction. He still thought I was weird.

So for 6 weeks, I laid there just praying I would keep the babies in as long as possible. So since this is getting so long I'm going to finish the story in another post. That's all for now!

Trip #3 To Kansas

We are safely back home from our 3rd trip to Kansas. We are trying to go back every 3 months, so it's a good thing that by the time the next trip comes we will have forgotten what a pain it is traveling with twins. All in all they were very good, but it is still quite an undertaking.

I am so impressed with them...it doesn't matter where you lay them down to sleep. Even being at a new place, you can lay them in the pack n play and they pretty much go right to sleep; which I am thankful for. We always try to keep them on their schedule & we don't adjust with KS time; we just stay on Arizona time, which I think also helps.

We had a great time...we got to spend a few days with my family and a few days at Justin's. The girls were spoiled rotten. They quickly got accustomed to seeing new faces and being passed around like a football. They came back with new outfits & 3 new pairs of shoes.

The flight home was probably the most challenging. Probably not the best time for a flight since they weren't due for a nap and it was past their bed time when we got home. I had to pull out my arsenal of tools for the flight. Ellie slept for a little bit, but Audrie was up the whole time. For about the last hour+ of the flight they were both threatening to get cranky. First I nursed them, then they got a sippy of milk, then came the puffs. Everytime they would let out a little wimper we'd shove a puff in their mouth. We drained about 3/4 of a container of puffs. Then we fed them each some squash. Then came the new toys...We just tried to keep them really busy and finally the flight was over.

Everyone on the plane commented on what happy babies they were & how quiet they were...but not an easy task. Boy, it was sure easier to fly with them when they were newborns and all they did was sleep :)

I love seeing how happy they get when they know they are home. This morning I went and got one of their favorite toys and both of their faces lit and up and they crawled straight to it. Now that we're back home it's crazy how much I feel like they've changed. They are literally all over the place and are certainly standing up better & getting more brave.

We'll be back in June for their 1st birthday! I'm imagining they'll be walking by then & into everything!