Sunday, March 31, 2013

Babies' 1st Easter: 2013

As evidenced by most of my posts that contain photos, I am horrible about pairing down the amount of photos I upload. So, get ready for lots of Easter photos!  

We got too eager to wait until Easter to give the babies their goodies, so we cheated and they got their loot on Saturday afternoon. I wasn't even going to do actual baskets but at the last minute I grabbed two random baskets from a stash in the garage and quickly stuck their Easter bunnies and egg shaker instruments into them.


After I came back home from 7:00am worship rehearsal on Easter morning, Tom and I got the babies ready and I snapped a few pics before loading up and heading to church. 


It was a beautiful day but the sun was making us all squint and we couldn't get everyone looking at the camera at the same time, so these are the best family shots of the batch.


Grady was on the verge of a meltdown during the quick post church photo session due to his nap being interrupted at nursery pick-up time. Poor guy, Sundays are hard days.


Don't worry, after he got food in his tummy, he perked up and was quite the entertainer while we ate lunch with my parents at Charleston's.


Happy Easter! He has risen!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Gorgeous Sunny Spring Day

Today was the type of day I just want to bottle up and save. It was a gorgeous sunny spring day and we took advantage of it by having the windows and doors open while we were inside and we also played in the backyard for a little bit. I didn't want to keep the babies' fair skin in the sun too long and they wouldn't leave their hats on, shocker. 


It's also worth mentioning that after Tom got home from work, the whole fam went outside and I ran 2.5 miles WITHOUT STOPPING. My pace was sloooower than slow but right now I am just aiming for endurance. I'll work on my pace later...maybe. Even though I've been training for the past 7 weeks, I've been a bit worried about how I am going to actually pull off running an entire 5k. Today's run gave me confidence. (Side note, I am down 10 lbs since the beginning of January!)


Tom pushed the babies in the stroller and had Ruby with him so it was kind of difficult for him to run with me but we met up at certain points and he would give me my water bottle. It was so encouraging to run into them and hear him yell "Go Mama!" Gotta love having your own personal cheering section!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Grady & Wren: 10 Months


Grady's Stats: 17 lbs ? oz

Wren's Stats: 18 lbs ? oz

Grady's Clothing & Diaper Size: 9 month sleepers and 6-12 month onesies/one-piece outfits; Size 3 diapers. 

Wren's Clothing & Diaper Size: 9 month sleepers and 6-12 month onesies/dresses; Size 3 diapers. 

Special Outings: On Tuesday, February 12, we had your 9 month well child check-up followed by a play-date at your friend Cora's house. It was cold and snowy that day but it didn't stop us from going to the doctor and going over to play with our friends.

The evening of Tuesday, February 19, Dad and I took you, Wren, to your first visit to Kids 1st Pediatric After Hours Clinic. You were on your 4th day of being sick with what turned out to be an awful cold, which was way worse than it sounds. We immediately went out and bought a cool mist humidifier, Vick's baby rub, saline, and a plethora of other home remedies to help you feel better. You were miserable and it felt like nothing gave you relief, the virus just had to run it's course.

On Tuesday, February 26, Wren and I went on a lunch date at Chick-fil-a with Brandi and her kiddos (Britton and Landon). Brandi is one of my dear college friends who I hadn't seen in over 4 years. Grady, you stayed home with Grammy because you came down with what your sister had after she started to feel better. I was going to post-pone our lunch date (for the second time due to sickness) but your Grammy insisted that I get out of the house for a while and she took sick baby duty back home.

On Thursday, February 28, I took you, Grady, to see the pediatrician because you just weren't getting better on your own like Wren did. Your cold turned into a double ear infection and you had to be put on antibiotics.

On Thursday, March 7, Grady had a preemie graduate appointment at the PremieRE clinic at OU Children's Hospital. Grammy and Wren came along too. After the appointment I decided we should pay a visit to the NICU. We'd been back in the building several times for various follow-up appointments since your release, but I just hadn't been emotionally ready to go back to the 7th floor. I checked with the front desk clerk to see if any of your nurses were on the clock and we lucked out because one of our favorite nurses, Amber, was there and came out to visit with us.

Milestones: We have been working with you on waving "hi" and "bye" and clapping your hands. Wren, you have mastered clapping and it is now one of your favorite things to do (but you don't wave just yet). Grady, you aren't interested in waving or clapping.

Wren, you are now scooting backwards and rolling around more like Grady does. Grady, you are making progress on the crawling front and have "army" crawled dragged your body forwards just a couple of times when you spotted a toy or something particularly interesting that you needed to check out.

Grady, in addition to your 2 bottom teeth, you now have 4 top teeth. Your top 2 canines have partially erupted, so you will soon have 8 teeth in your little mouth! Wren, you have your bottom 2 teeth, and now your gums over your top front teeth are swollen and the left one is about to erupt any day now.


You are both babbling and "singing" more. I get so tickled when I practice for my Disney show or for worship team because you immediately join in with me with your own rendition of what I'm singing.

My Thoughts:  Gosh, you guys bring me so much joy. One of my favorite things in the world is our first meeting in the mornings. I walk up to your cribs and greet you and you are both full of smiles and squeals. I scoop you up, hug and kiss you, and I sometimes spin around with you in my arms just so I can hear you laugh. Your laughter is music to my ears and is highly contagious.

It was a rough, sleepless, and miserable 2 weeks over this past month when you were both sick. It was pretty hard on all 4 of us (and our reinforcements, Grammy and Oma). When you both began to feel better, I was overcome with thankfulness that you are both overall healthy babies. That is something I don't want to take for granted. 

Routine:
These days our routine looks roughly like this:
6:00am Feed (bottle)
7:00am-9:15am Nap/Quiet Play
9:30am Feed (breakfast & bottle)
10:00am-1:00pm Playtime
1:30pm Feed (bottle)
2:30pm-3:30pm Nap
4:30pm Feed (dinner & bottle)
5:00pm-7:00pm Playtime/Bath-time
7:00pm Feed (bottle)
7:30pm Bedtime

Favorites: Blowing raspberries, Ruby dog, Sophie the giraffe, your beach ball, your wooden house shape sorter and bead maze from Ikea, your new tumbling mat, and watching mama blow bubbles with bubble gum


Dislikes:  Getting your noses wiped and suctioned and being sick with colds and/or ear infections. Wren, you are violently against taking any kind of medicine and it is a mighty unpleasant experience for us all when we have to give it to you.

Food:  You are both now on Target's generic of Similac Sensitive Isomil Soy Formula (Up & Up Infant Soy). Wren, we moved you to soy formula like your brother to simplify things with hopes it would help you spit up less (it didn't necessarily help). You are both eating the following pureed/mashed foods: bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, apples, peas, pears, carrots, butternut squash, acorn squash, zucchini, green beans, prunes, and raisins, and many of the Ella's Kitchen or Earth's Best baby organic baby food pouches. You also snack on puffs, plain cheerios, and yogurt melts.

With you all being sick and our busy life in general, I haven't had a lot of extra time to re-stock our freezer inventory of homemade baby food, which is why I've been feeding you store bought pouches. I plan to get cooking in the near future so I can replenish our stock.

Church nursery pick-up social time with sweet friends...

I needed to use the bathroom and move clothes to the dryer but
I didn't want to move because you fell asleep on me, Wren...

Kisses from daddy...

Happy Heart Day!

Playing on the new gigantic play-mat right after it was delivered...

Waiting in the car for daddy to get done with his eye procedure...

My patients...

Sweet little sickling smiles... 

So not fun watching your baby be sick...

So wonderful to see her feeling better...

Grady wasn't thrilled that his sister shared her germs with him...

Ringing in our 7th Anniversary with this little 
sick guy next to me in bed instead of his daddy...

Old-school highchair at Grammy's house...

We made it nearly 10 months with 4 infection-free ears.
Grady was the first victim with yucky pink medicine as his prize...

Both feeling better and playing in bubba's bed...

Sis is kind of a bully...

Chewing on bubba's toes...

Teething on his highchair tray...

Grady's first noggin bruise after a run-in with the tile floor...

First visit back to the NICU since being released 9 months ago...