this post was bought for the price of a nap

Unfortunately, my naplessness will likely sap all the creativity out of my posting. But I must post! It's been way too long.

For instance, I give you Exhibit A: Three-month-and-one-week old babies! It has taken me a WEEK to post that they are now three months old. At three months, Noah weighed 12 lbs. 9 oz., and Lily weighed 10 lbs., 9 oz. They were 21.75 and 21.5 inches long, respectively. That was a week ago, and now they are... well, a little bigger.

Here is something that makes their mommy slightly unhappy: They are both on the growth chart for weight (Lily is somewhere around the 5th-10th percentile, and Noah is around the 25th). But NEITHER of them is on it for height!! We are apparently producing beachball-shaped people. Perhaps hanging them from their heels is in order--maybe it will stretch them out. We'll have nap time, tummy time, and stretchy time.

Want to see them look REALLY small? I went to a baby shower last weekend and took the babies (but did not shower them). Another baby was there who is a week older than mine. Can you tell which one he is?

Right, that was probably too easy--he's half Chinese. Seriously though, the child made my babies look like silly imps! He weighs over 20 pounds. He is more off the charts on the large end than mine are off the small end, so it was really funny looking.

We had an interesting incident the other night--we're pretty sure our house was struck by lightning! I ran to Wal-Mart while Scott stayed home with sleeping babies. A storm rolled in. Scott was on the computer, and suddenly there was a massive clap of thunder and lightning. He also felt a big shock, smelled burned hair, and saw sparks all over the living room. He said the room was just buzzing afterward. The thunder was so loud that our neighbor called to see if we were okay. We're pretty sure the lightning struck our satellite dish, because Scott discovered a charred spot in the carpet and a place where the cable to the satellite receiver had blown out. Oh yeah, and our TV, DVD player, and satellite dish are all kaput. The lightning also killed the batteries (yes, batteries) in the thermostat control. And our security system (that we don't use) started smoking ominously when the power came back on. (Scott ripped it off the wall.)

Oh yeah, and Scott's okay. He had a headache, and found a quarter-sized patch of arm hair that had been sizzled off. (It wasn't touching the computer or anything, so it's a mystery.)

And the babies slept through the whole thing.

Okay, what else do I need to record for posterity...? Both the babies have laughed now--Lily only once (but very clearly) and Noah several times. And both of them have rolled over--Noah only did it twice in a row a couple weeks ago, but Lily has managed it several times. They have both begin discovering various body parts and can fling their arms in the general direction they want them to go. (It's endlessly entertaining to watch a baby stare at something and obviously want to touch it, but their arms just don't make it anywhere close.)

And now a couple more pictures. Not too many, because I've been a bad photographer lately, too. But I'm putting the camera on the charger and I promise to reform my wayward habits in the upcoming weeks.

Lily has some idea of smiling at the camera. Noah thinks it's a trick.

Emily got me this for my birthday--sadly, it took me over a month to stick the silly thing on my car. But I've gotten lots of comments on its cuteness since!

looooots of pictures

Okay, I'm FINALLY getting to post the pictures from our trip that was now two weeks ago!! I can't believe it has taken me this long. I've literally been uploading pictures here and there for two or three DAYS, whenever I have a spare minute. Part of this is because I've started working again. But mostly, this is because Scott's mom ("Gemma") takes her job as Family Documenter very seriously. Very, VERY seriously. There were literally hundreds of pictures to sort through. But while it is a lot, I am very glad that there are people who are better at remembering to take pictures than I am. Because I look back at pictures like this:

and this:

...and I am very glad I am not the only one in charge of taking pictures. How on EARTH can they change so fast and not be morphing right before my eyes??

Anyway, on to our trip. Lily is having a very important science lesson about trees:

Doesn't Noah look contemplative? Probably contemplating what bark would taste like. (Why won't these people ever feed me??)

Gemma, Granddad, and twins in their Sunday best. Noah is particularly unimpressed with the proceedings. In other words, he's hungry.

And yet another picture of babies in Sunday clothes. Noah is beginning to wonder if he will ever eat again...

Scott's aunt Ann picked up Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls at Cracker Barrell. It was so fun to see the babies get so intrigued by them!

Lily was absolutely captivated by her doll. I hope this does not signify an early interest in excessive makeup and dyed hair...

Scott and I rode his dad's motorcycle while we were visiting:

This was my favorite part (getting off). Sorry, Scott. Tooooo windy for me.

Granddad and Gemma held a get-together for relatives to come visit the kiddos. (We have tons of pictures of everybody holding babies, but I think I've already expressed how weary I am of uploading pictures--so please don't be offended if you're not pictured!)

Lily is learning to multitask--here she is napping while attending her own party:

Noah is not quite as adventurous and didn't sleep the entire afternoon and early evening. As a result, he spent most of the day looking fairly bleary-eyed, but appeared to thoroughly enjoy his party.

Lily looooved spending time on the hammock with Granddad:

Happy Noah! He will probably be mortified of this picture when he is seven--how much pink can a little guy take?

We got to visit both of Scott's grandmothers, who were staying in the same facility at the time.

Noah found his Great-Granny to be a very suitable mattress. (Apparently Reed wasn't as comfortable...)

And onward, to a cacophony of matching outfits! We had to do a little finagling to get them both in the Ralph Lauren outfits their Great-Aunt Susie got them. (Noah is fat. He also thinks he looks too preppy.)

Here they are (though you can't tell) in onesies that both proclaim "I'm the best!" --courtesy of (aunt) Liz and (uncle) Reed.

... and Mommy's shining star, and Daddy's little sunshine. Complete with two little faces that are clearly tired of being dressed up and wedged into the same Boppy.

an epiphany

My babies are wonderful and beautiful and precious.

That is all.

our trip in pictures

... or pictures, anyway. I wrote the title and then couldn't find many trip-specific shots! I'll have to beg them off of relatives and re-post. But, never fear--we have other pictures. I did find one of our trip, of the babies' first visit to the beach. Noah did great--he just hung out in my arm like that as we walked for a little while. Lily, on the other hand, had a small mental breakdown on our arrival, which is why she's swaddled at the beach. Ah, well--there's always next time.
And I forgot to mention our mini-trip a few days before the big trip to Corpus. We went and visited the family of Scott's friend Todd, a trooper who was killed in a car accident a couple years ago. But he did manage to produce four adorable children before he had to go. They like Scott:


And that's only three of them! (Scott is behind the horde of children, with Noah.) Tyler, the oldest, preferred to play with a rubber band at the moment.

Here is Noah dreaming of becoming a cha-cha dancer. Hopefully his dreams will become more gender-appropriate as he gets older.



Lily is really getting a handle on tummy time!



Noah is doing much better too. Both babies actually rolled over this week! I think it was mostly a fluke though--I always put them down on their bellies with their hands up like they would be for a push-up. It tends to keep them happier than having them down at their sides. So I don't think they can roll over "from scratch", like having to pull their hands up AND roll over. But still--I'm excited!


Oh, and I almost forgot--Noah has purportedly laughed, like 3 times! All incidents have been witnessed solely by the daddy, so I guess I have to take his word for it. But Noah apparently likes it when Scott makes fart noises. Boys!!

And speaking of boys, remember this picture of Noah?


And remember this picture of Noah?

Except it's SCOTT. Weird, huh? It's starting to look like we cloned Scott instead of going about babymaking in the normal way.

And one more happy twin picture for the road...

our big adventure... sort of

It's been awhile since I've been able to post. I've been really meaning to for the last few days, but the time keeps getting away from me (worse than usual). This is our last week before going back to work, so I'm trying to squeeze in a bunch of things. Really fun things, like sifting through the semi-permanent pile of papers and cards that has littered the kitchen counter since the babies arrived. And squeezing a clothes-shopping trip in between feedings so that I could buy some fat clothes and not show up naked the first day of work. Fortunately (or not), Noah has chosen this week to move into the next size of clothing, which sends me into an odyssey of sorting, washing, and packing up. I have no idea how two tiny people can require so much clothing.

Speaking of moving into the next size of clothing, Noah is officially huge. Two days ago he weighed in at 12 lbs, 3 oz! He is in his fourth size of clothing since being born. And Lily is right at 10 lbs. The gap between them is definitely getting bigger! But they are both growing fine--it looks like Noah is approaching the 25th percentile, and Lily is finally on the charts.

We took a trip down to visit Gemma and Granddad last week. A 6-hour trek is quite the journey for new parents to attempt, so we were definitely feeling a little apprehensive. But the babies really did well! They don't need a whole lot of entertainment at this point, which is a blessing. They were happy through the whole car ride. And during our visit, we got to introduce them to gobs of family and friends. I will post pictures, eventually...

We drove home Monday, and a few miles from home we were congratulating ourselves on having had such a smooth trip. We celebrated a little too early, as it turns out... A few miles from our exit, I was in the backseat--I had just fed the babies with bottles and was pumping more milk (which takes at least one hand and a little coordination). Scott was driving and on the phone with his mom. I noticed a bit of drool on Lily's mouth and pulled up the burp rag that was next to her in her carseat, to wipe it off. I noticed too late that the burp rage was COVERED in yellow baby poo! Which I had just wiped on my poor baby!

Now remember, one of my hands is taken up holding the pumping stuff. So now my other hand is holding a poo rag, and I can't put it down, or I'll get even more poo everywhere! I told Scott we had to pull over, even if we were only 2 miles from our exit. At the same time, he was actually trying to avoid hitting some random guy who was walking slowly across the interstate, as he talked to his mom. So after a few minutes of confusion, he pulled into a conveniently-situated rest stop so we could pull things back together. He got Dakota out of the back and tied her to a trash can post so that I could use the back tailgate to change Lily's diaper (and clothes, etc.). As I tried to figure out how to get her outfit off over her head without getting any of the poo in her hair (or mouth), I heard Scott make a disgusted noise. Apparently the trash can to which Dakota was tethered had a puddle of leaky trash juice underneath it. Dakota must have thought she died and went to heaven--such a perfect opportunity to roll in some lovely muck! By the time Scott caught her, she was all wet and smelled like a dump.

This was the point I started laughing. Really hard.

As I continued getting Lily under control, Scott dragged Dakota away from the trash and I heard another yell. It seems that Dakota decided she was a little TOO damp from trash juice and had shaken herself... all over Scott! So now Scott smelled like a dump. too.

This was the point I started crying, I was laughing so hard.

Through my tears, I finally got all the way down to Lily's diaper. Turns out she hadn't filled her diaper to overflowing, as I had thought. Her diaper was just on a little crooked--enough that she pooped out the side. Totally preventable!

Needless to say, we limped home a little humble than we'd been just a few miles previously.

tip of the day

When someone lets you hold her two-month-old for the first time, and the baby is asleep and wrapped snugly in a blanket, it is not a good idea to immediately unwrap her. Not even if you declare that "She just needs to breathe a minute." When the baby then starts crying (duh), it is also unwise to tell her mother that "She wants to go home now."

Her mother JUST might smack you. Or at least proclaim your ignorance all over the world-wide web.