pseudo-Thanksgiving post

So here are some pictures of our early Thanksgiving weekend with Scott's family...

DOGGIE!

Gemma and Grandad with the babies.

Family shot:

Brad and Becca borrowing the babies for a picture...

The Hewitt fam

Liz and Lily

I thought the babies could have their own "Thanksgiving dinner" while the rest of the family ate, so I brought jars of sweet potatoes and turkey. Noah liked it okay... Lily, not so much.

Aren't we just cute?

semestris

Six months ago, my babies were fetuses. Six months from now, they will no longer be infants.

As much as it seems like my life has been consumed by babies forever, this whole thing is going way too stinking fast. In the past several days, Noah has developed about 28 new facial expressions. He now has a consonant sound: "b", and babbles it all. the. time. He now rolls over CONSTANTLY in his sleep, and wakes up very confused as to who put him on his tummy. Lily deftly pulled off her socks today to play with her toes. Her hair is getting so long that she always looks like some sort of mad scientist with a flyaway 'do. Her favorite thing lately is the Grabbing Faces Game, which she pretty much never stops playing.

Our little fam just spent Thanksgiving #1 with Scott's family in Beeville. Brad and Becca are in Texas for awhile on their way to Australia, so we took advantage of the opportunity to celebrate with the family a little early. They're taking off soon for Becca's home country before their baby boy is born in a couple of months. We had a good time catching up with family and consuming ridiculous amounts of food.

On a related note, babies love routines. Need routines. Especially Lily. We have been traveling for the past 4 days, and missing our normal sights, sounds, and timelines. So either due to that, or because she experienced her first ear infection (and subsequent diarrhea-inducing antibiotics) over the past week, Miss Lillian hasn't been herself lately. Fussy, uncomfortable, not sleeping well, not laughing or smiling as much... it makes a mommy sad. So we finally got home this afternoon after a 6 1/2 hour journey. I almost breathed a sigh of relief, until I realized that tomorrow they have their 6 month checkup... and shots. And then the day after that, MY family will be rolling into town for OUR Thanksgiving. Holidays are wonderful and I love spending time with family... I don't like that there's a part of me that's starting to dread times like this, wanting to run away with my babies and protect them from anything that might disrupt their little lives. I want them to learn to be flexible and resilient, and the only way to do that is to let them experience things and learn to bounce back. But it's hard. Good thing it'll only get easier for me to control, protect, and manage their lives...

Okay, enough of that. (Have I mentioned that they are growing up too fast?) Now is when I would post pictures, except that I have tried twice and apparently the ever-capricious internet is refusing my attempts. I'll try again tomorrow...

picture catch-up

So, Mommy's been a slacker in the visual media department lately. In my defense, though, I truly believe that time has speeded up lately. Take my last post, for example: It's only been about 3 days since I posted, and yet the dates say it's been over a week! Something has gone awry in the space-time continuum.

Anyway, I am catching up. This is mostly a collection of pictures and a couple videos, so to those of you who yawn a bit when I get long-winded, Happy Birthday. I'm not feeling verbose tonight.

Here are Halloween babies (Thing 1 and Thing 2) ready to dispense candy to the masses. (They are clearly unaware of the deliciousness of chocolate and chewy sugar, being so ready to give it all away!)


Mmm, peas!!


Mommy's exciting and slightly-psychotic peek-a-boo face...



Noah flying with Daddy

Lily has a great passion for sucking on things--she took to a pacifier from birth. Lately, though, she has her hand shoved in her mouth more often than not. A couple of times, it's been like this, just like Daddy used to suck on his fingers when he was little:

The view from our back porch on Diaper Day:

Could he GET cuter?

These are Texas babies, after all...

The kiddos enjoy sitting in front of the front door lately, can you tell?

...and now on to some video footage. Scott caught Lily blowing raspberries for the firsts time yesterday, and managed to catch it on camera. Believe it or not, it's a developmental milestone to blow raspberries! Lily isn't too happy about it, though...

People are always asking me about how the babies interact, since they're twins and all. I'm sorry to say that our kiddos do not show any of the touted benefits of twindom, such as being calmed by each other's presence, reading each other's thoughts, tandem telekinesis, or whatever else twins may be purported to do. They do acknowledge each other's presence, and could be construed to "play" with each other, if you're imaginative. Here they are:

a day in the life

For better or worse, a fairly predictable routine has been a part of our daily lives for a long time. Well, I guess you could call it "long" --for most of the babies' lives, anyway. It's evolved a bit over time, so I thought I might record it the way it stands right now. Both for the sake of curious and bored readers, as well as for my own gratification when things (so they promise me) get easier.

Here is a typical day when I am home with kiddos:

• 6:30 - Babies awaken! Happy smiles for a few minutes. Their wild screaming usually begins when they are on the nursing pillow, because they realize where they are and it apparently infuriates them that they are not already eating.


• 6:45 - Babies eat. This process has gotten both faster and more violent as the babies have gotten older.


• 7:00 - Babies play. They have gotten better at playing, but their attention span is still pathetic. I spend their playtimes rotating them to different Baby Play Stations every 10 seconds to 10 minutes, as I hear them yell their dissatisfaction.


• 8:15 - Babies begin screaming, signalling the need for a nap.


• 8:20 - Naptime. These last anywhere from 20 minutes to 2.5 hours and may involve The Pacifier Game, swing, and/or hair dryer to help them sleep longer. Things get even more complicated when Mom tries to grab a nap.


• 10:00 - Babies eat.


• 10:15 - Babies play. Attention span is a bit shorter than it was last time.


• 10:45 - Lily has an uncontrollable fit of fussiness.


• 11:30 - Naptime #2.


• 11:40 - Noah wakes up and refuses to go back to sleep.


• 1:00 - Babies eat.


• 1:52 - Noah has an inconsolable meltdown, refuses to nurse and doesn't calm down until he's given a bottle of formula.


• 2:13 - Noah falls asleep for Nap #3.


• 3:00 - Lily falls asleep for Nap #3.


• 3:01 - Noah wakes up.


• 4:00 - Babies eat.


• 4:15 - Babies SHOULD play, but they are fussy unless they are being held. And sometimes when they ARE being held.


• 4:48 - Mom's daily near-breakdown. Recent topics include: "Why do they keep crying?" "How could God give me two babies?" and "How long until bedtime?"


• 5:00 - Some days, Nap #4. I'm not sure babies this age are supposed to have four naps in a day. Ask me if I care.


• 6:00 - Babies eat final meal, sometimes have a bath, and change to pajamas.


• 7:00 - Baby bedtime.


• 10:30 - Nightly check-in on sweetly sleeping babies.


• 10:31 - Nightly moment of reflection. Recent topics include: "How blessed can one mommy get?" "How could people think having twins is hard?" and "At least it's not triplets!"

tips of the day #3 and #4

First of all, let's just get it on the table: When you take your 8-month-old trick-or-treating, you're not fooling anybody. I don't care how cute her little doggie costume is, everybody knows the candy's going to be for you. So unless you're actually willing to let your infant gum her way through a pile of Snickers and Tootsie Rolls, just let the farce go. You're a big girl--go to Wal-Mart and get yourself a nice big bag of candy and just eat it all yourself. You can even toss it into a plastic pumpkin first if it makes you happy.

Secondly, it is never okay to ask if you can hold a stranger's baby.* It's just not. Especially not while you're trick-or-treating and your judgment has already been called into question for the reason described above. Not even if you say, "I have a baby too!" What sort of ridiculous reason is that for me to let you hold my child? During flu season?! Go hold your own baby, then, and quit pushing her around in a stroller while you beg candy from your neighbors.



*I suppose, in the interest of full disclosure, that there are SOME instances in which it is okay to hold a stranger's baby. Like if somehow you witness someone toss their baby into the air as they fall down three flights of stairs--I think in that case they would be glad for you to catch their child. You might not even need to ask.