Story Time

Story time. A much needed calm at the end of our busy day. Boys fresh out of the bath. Jammies on. Bottles given. It's a chance to snuggle in tight and enjoy the few and far between moments of stillness from my little guys.

I hope they let me read to them for a long, long time.

McFirst

Tonight, the boy's had their first meal from the bag with the golden arches.

Ketchup and all.Ben loved to dip, dip, dip his fries.

And then suck the ketchup off.

Not many nuggets made their way into his mouth.

But he was still a happy camper!
As for A.B., he THOROUGHLY enjoyed his entire meal.And he willingly took care of Ben's nuggets too.I think next time, we'll have to dine in though. A Happy Meal just isn't the same without the play place!

A Bit of This and That

So I can hardly believe that yet another week has flown by. We're almost into July, which means the year is half over and we're just about 5 1/2 months away from Christmas (gulp) and (Lord willing) meeting our newest addition (double gulp). WOW. I seem to be having a lot of those moments lately. You know, the ones where you look at your babies and yet they don't look like your babies and you wondered when that changed. Or where an event that you've anticipated and planned forever, like a family wedding or vacation, is suddenly right around the corner. Those types of moments. And yet I know there's not a thing I can do to make time move more slowly.

I also know there's not a thing I can do to make the boys move more slowly. They have one speed and that speed is WHOA! I finally feel like being a "twin mom" has caught up with me. Sure, feeding two at once, comforting two at once, changing two at once, carrying two at once...those things don't equal a walk in the park but they were manageable. But chasing two at once...WHOA! What happened?! Suddenly it seems like a very unequal playing field. They smoke me just about all of the time. Oh, and they're into just about everything their spider monkey hands and feet will allow them to get into.

Perfect time to add another one, don't cha think?!

Fudge Pops

Just like we most certainly DID NOT give the boys milkshakes before bedtime a couple of months ago, we most certainly DID NOT give them fudge pops on the porch last night. To eat by themselves. In their diapers. And then take pictures of the massacre. No way. How crazy would that make us?!

Besides, even if we did, they probably wouldn't have liked them. Just like the milkshakes, they would have shuttered in disguest. And asked for another serving of broccoli instead.

They certainly wouldn't have drooled over those nasty things...

Or raised their pops in sweet victory!

I doubt they would have even wanted to stop playing for them.

In fact, they'd probably just let the whole thing just go to waste.

And they certainly would NOT ask for a second helping.

And we definitely would not have given it to them either.

#3

We found out today that I'm about 13 weeks along with ONE new baby and am offficially due on December 23rd! Our ultrasound was amazing, as it was mostly in 3D, and we got to see #3 doing all sorts of acrobatics. That was a total change from the regular 2d we had with the boys! So spoiled we are with all this new technology. Not much time to blog so I'll leave you with these few pics! I know that's all you want anyway :)

More Deuce in Action

Excuse the banging midway through the first video, Abe was having a drum session with his dinner plate. Turn up your volume!

7 Pounds

Not the movie either. Seven pounds is about the difference from what the boys weighed collectively today and how much I gained during my pregnancy with them. I'll let you do the math.

Anywho, the Deuce had their 15 month well-baby visit today. Not much to report other than weights and heights! Oh, and shots. Lots. More. Shots. Ugh.

Ben: 17 lbs. 9 oz., 29 1/2 inches

Abe 21 lbs. 11oz., 30 1/8 inches

Dr. K was delighted with Ben's weight gain from the end of April to today. It was over a pound! I wish my doctor got that excited when I gained weight :)

"Pop" Corn

In a Nutshell

We had Ben's final PT consultation on Monday and good news abounded! First, he passed his hearing test, which we never suspected would be a problem, but it was still nice to know he passed. Second, we met with his case worker and his developmental specialist who felt that "there were no red flags" (i.e. things look normal in terms of a diagnosis and most likely it's just a delay). They also said that they believe he doesn't even need to be seen by a physical therapist. Rather, they feel like he will benefit from working with a developmental specialist who will come out once a week and play with Ben and help me learn how to encourage correct movement and build muscle tone. If all that doesn't make sense, you can look at it from this perspective, it's like talking to a school counselor verses a psychologist. That's the degree of separation from a developmental specialist to a physical therapist. We found this news to be extremely encouraging and while we are still going to have him evaluated in August by ECEP, we feel that their evaluation will reveal similar info. Praise God for such wonderful news!

So for now, we will meet once a week with the DS and see how Ben tolerates our little meetings. The key is that he has to enjoy it and it should never feel like "work" to him or he might shut down. In addition, we were given some homework, if you will, at this last meeting to try with Ben. It's been interesting, as one of the methods suggested includes walking him around with a towel under his arms for support. Let me just say that neither of us knows quite what we think of this. I won't even go into what the neighbors must think :) All in the name of walking! But Ben is still quite mobile on his own. He's cruising and crawling about 50/50 in "four point" crawling verses his trademark army crawl. He's also crawling up onto the furniture and spending quite a bit of time vertical. I imagine it won't be too much longer before he starts with the independent standing and steps.

And because I can't leave you with some photos for the GP's, here's some pictures of the boys doing what they do best! Getting into mischief!

My Boy, The Monkey

Recently, The Deuce have discovered how much fun the couch can be! It started simply enough and now it has slowly started to transform into a monster of a problem. They want up there all of the time. To make matters worse, they both know the sign for "up" and become extremely displeased when they clearly communicate their desire, only to be ignored or turned down. See example here. Yesterday, however, one of my boys figured out how to climb onto the couch all by himself. He steps on the dog and climbs right up! It makes his brother CRAZY, by the way! Doesn't sound like too much of a problem though, right? Just a toddler learning to climb onto the couch? Well, wait until you can see what he can do from there...

Keepin' It Real

Yeah, sometimes our days go just like this.

And when it does, I sometimes think about joining in.

The Backyardigans

Warm summer days and nights alike have been spent in our backyard as of late. Which is really quite odd seeing that 6 years ago when we bought our house, we could have cared less that it even had a backyard...or a small kitchen. Hindsight is so much clearer than foresight! So much calls to us from out back though. Our newly grassed yard, the garden, the bbq, outdoor speakers and an ipod of favorite tunes. The most enjoyable part though is watching the absolute joy and excitement our two little boys find in exploring every rock, leaf, stick and ant. And while most of their finds are off limits for eating, Jer and I have gotten a good laugh or two in when they sneak a bite of the green onion from the garden. Ahhhh, the backyard. What an extremely relaxing time...well...with the exception of playing warden over the dog's water bucket.

Between May showers and June sunshine the garden is flourishing and almost too big for it's container. This week I'll probably spend some time relocating a few of our plants, mainly the strawberries and cantaloupe.

Our four tomato bushes have started to give way to golf ball sized green tomatoes.

The bell pepper plants have two bell peppers almost ripe for picking!

Several heads of lettuce, almost ready for salad!

The amazon sized zucchini was covered in beautiful yellow hibiscus looking flowers this week. I hope that means a plant full of zucchini soon!

The basil is anxiously awaiting the fresh tomatoes to be made into a caprese salad.

What you don't want to happen to your cilantro. See the white flowers up top? Yeah, that means it bolted. Basically it got too much sun and was on the verge of kicking it so the plant furiously grows flowers and tries to go to seed. It also means the plant tastes bitter and stops making leaves. Bummer.

And as for these two, well they are doing their own version of bolting...around the patio. We picked up this little car at the flea market for $10 and the boys love playing in it. What we shoulda got on camera though was when their daddy tied Deuce to the front of the car with both boys inside. Now THAT was a ride! Maybe next time...if this momma's heart ever stops pounding from the first time. Nuff said.

Sorry for the quality of the video, it's on Jer's phone. Oh, and the screeching in the back is me. Gotta love the mom voice.

He's not heavy, he's my brother :)

Bear Hug