Nap time struggles

The weather during the few days before Christmas ranged from the low 50's to a high of 61 degrees. All the snow we had around Thanksgiving had melted and Will was disappointed that we wouldn't have a white Christmas. Well, it's the day before and the ground is covered with a dusting of snow. Unexpected and pretty-another reminder to be thankful for the little things.

Carter and Ainsley are both 10 1/2 months now and continue to be as playful and active as ever. Here they are wearing their 10 month stickers and the picture on the left is the best one we could get. The picture on the right is what the rest of the pictures we tried to take looked like. They would both try to remove each other's stickers or their own.

I continue to acknowledge how lucky I am with these two blessings but I have to admit that some days do get hard. Ainsley continues to be a very picky eater so feeding solids is always a challenge. Today, I wanted them to get vegetables so I gave a mix of broccoli puree mixed with bananas. Carter and Ainsley loved it yesterday but Ainsley would not eat any of it today. After a battle of the wills ensued in the kitchen, I decided that she would not get anything else before I laid her down for her nap. Will told me she gave me stank eye.

Will and I bring both of them to their room and I proceed to nurse them both before their nap. Carter ate well during lunch so he didn't nurse much and wanted to crawl around and play instead. Will cradles him to indicate nap time so Carter cries. Ainsley nurses hungrily and starts to get tired so Will takes Carter to an adjacent room to let him nap in the pack and play. After some time, Ainsley has fallen asleep so I move to leave and lay Ainsley down on her bed. She moves groggily but seems to stay asleep.

I go downstairs and Will asks me if I heard a thumping sound. Carter is sitting up and crying in the pack and play so I start to nurse him to sleep. Then I heard thumping which was actually coming from the nursery and realized that Ainsley was probably bumping her head into the wall. The twins have figured out that if they bang their heads on the wall, we will come running.

Now I'm torn. Do I risk stopping nursing Carter while he's finally starting to fall asleep to go stop Ainsley from banging her head into the wall? A few minutes go by and I get up to move Carter in the pack and play and he wakes up as I laid him down. He screams while staring at me with the saddest look on his face. I have to tear myself away and hurry over to Ainsley who is sitting up and bumping the back of her head into the wall. She sees me, grins and continues.

So I take her and try to nurse her to sleep but she remains awake. She needs her nap though so I finally leave the room while she starts to cry. Carter is quiet in his room so I don't open the door. Checked on Ainsley on the camera and she is shuffling along the dresser-not sleeping. I unloaded the dishwasher to give her some time and after what was maybe 20 minutes, she finally fell asleep on the floor and by the door. This time, I'm not moving her.

Pictures:

This is the first time we saw Carter pull himself up on the activity block. It was a struggle for the little guy and he wobbled the entire time but look at the joy on his face after pulling himself up.

 

At the aquarium in the zoo. Carter and Ainsley were amazed at all the fish swimming around. Will used to own a saltwater aquarium so it was cool to be able to nap the various fish and corals to the kids. Like that giant naso tang swimming up in the corner.

I really didn't know what to expect from this moment. Was it going to be tears and screaming like the Halloween pumpkin pictures? Or smiles of joy? I'd say this picture captured the moment perfectly. Mom and dad are around so the twins didn't cry but yet they're unsure of who this jolly stranger is. I love Ainsley's strong & secure grip on Will's sweater.

More pictures later...Carter just woke up.



Thanksgiving and November...

...were somewhat of a blur. After the twins (and Will & I) finally got healthy which wasn't until mid-November, the rest of the month has been a whirlwind. Carter and Ainsley will turn 10 months in a couple of weeks which is shocking to us. Shocking that the past 9 months have flown by so fast.

Carter being studious and Ainsley not.

At least Ainsley isn't standing on Carter.

My mom often thinks they are not wearing enough layers so this is how we'll find them. We started bringing more clothes over when we drop them off...

Carter didn't want to have to do laundry.

The tantrum was fake. Here he is five seconds later.

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If I haven't marked it in this blog, both kids said their first words in November.

Ainsley said "dada" on Sunday, November 3rd, 2013.

Carter said "mama" on Monday, November 25, 2013. I actually remember that I was about to leave in the evening to go for my facial and Carter called out "mama". That made it so hard to leave.

Catching up on some October pics

Apple picking with friends at Lynd's farm

"Where's my apple?"

New shelves for toys!

Carter being cute. The rug did not last long in their room. Ainsley took a chunk out of it. The rug, not Carter.

Exhaustion

(Note that Ainsley already has daddy wrapped around her fingers. That is why she is sleeping on the big bed and Will is on the baby mattress.)

Cold season has started

While September flew by, October has dragged along. The twins caught cold after cold from all the viruses passed around and Will and I suffered along with them. If we're not fighting a cold, we're trying to recover from one. This means lots of time spent at home which means the twins are exploring more.

Carter and Ainsley have gotten quite mobile. Carter isn't strong enough to sit up yet but he army crawls all over the place. If he really wants something, he can move pretty quickly.

Carter loves crawling onto the tile and pounds on it because of the sounds it makes.

 

Ainsley likes to crawl under the kitchen table.

 

Or tries to follow Wasabi around.

 

Carter sometimes gets stuck under the exersaucer.

 

I didn't want them to climb on the swing so I blocked it off with the activity block. Ainsley managed to climb in between the swing and block and got stuck but managed to escape pretty soon after.

 

 

 



Daylight Savings Carter

Calvin Klein's newest model

 

Does my butt look big?

 

Where is the light at the end of this tunnel?

 

 

Why isn't anybody playing with me?



Happy Halloween!

Halloween was rainy and windy for the second year in a row now. We live in a loop so all the neighbors in the loop gather together at the house situated right at the entrance into the loop and pass out candy there. It saves trick or treaters from having to walk the entire loop for candy and is a fun party for all. We brought the twins over there for their first Halloween and stayed warm in their garage. Noshed on pizza and candy-dinner of champions.

 

Happy Halloween!!

 

 

Picture of the two dressed up for their first Halloween party at our friend's baby 1st year birthday party.

 

Ainsley is dressed as a monkey and Carter a banana because she likes to use him as a chew toy. I can't tell you the countless times I've found her slumped over him asleep and him crying. Well, the funniest thing happened here. Carter turned and started pushing Ainsley! Huh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Normal is good

I used to feel sad for about a week after vacation when settling back into the normal day to day routine. Now, I actually find some relief in the normalcy of getting Carter and Ainsley back in their routine. That means everyone might start sleeping again and babies will go back to what is familiar to them which makes them happy.

Back to feeding solids. We started giving them some finger foods so they can exercise their little pinchers. Puffs and bananas were some of the first things we gave to them.

Ainsley loves feeding herself!

 

 

 Carter is working very hard at getting the puff into his mouth.

 

Will calls this Ainsley's ugly smile. I, on the other hand, love this picture of Ainsley and find her super smile endearing. She only flashes one of these when she's very happy.

 

I also love this picture of Carter.

NYC - we meet again

I used to visit NYC every year. Then Will and I got married and I haven't had the chance to go back after our wedding. We went on a long search for a house to start our newly married life in with the hopes of finding a home that we can grown into. Three years later, we did just that with the arrival of Carter and Ainsley.

So I find it fitting that my first trip back after my hiatus is to attend my cousin Ray and Melody's wedding. It would also be the first time for Christine to meet Carter and Ainsley after hearing so much about them.

Upon arrival, Will thrust Ainsley into Christine's arms while he went to carry our luggage up three flights of stairs to their place. Christine later told me that she loved that Will just let her hold Ainsley right away and Ainsley warmed up to her immediately too.

After relaxing for a little, we headed over to M Shanghai for long awaited soup dumplings which were scrumptious! Carter passed out during lunch but Ainsley remained wide awake. We went for a walk afterwards for some window shopping but instead of sleeping, the twins were both very alert to all the noises and on goings around them.

It was sort of like old times again with good food, great company, some shopping and even a mani pedi! Thanks for my wonderful husband for watching the twins so Christine and I could catch up.

My friends were going to babysit the twins while we go to the wedding. This would be the first time that we would leave the twins with anyone outside of our family for an extended period of time. The twins were so well-behaved that my friend thought watching them would be a breeze as she's babysat older kids before. Carter gave them a little scare by refusing to eat at first but then later cooperated. My friends did a great job and Will and I got to attend a fabulous wedding and even stay out for a little bit of the after party!

My handsome cousin and his gorgeous wife

 This is the view we had during cocktail hour.

 

Same breathtaking view at night.

 

 

Enjoying an amazing wedding

Limping out of the United Nations at the end of the night.



Headed for NYC

September was a fun and busy month. Shortly after returning from Hilton Head, we had another trip planned for New York City. It would be the first time the twins will fly so while we were excited to board a plane again, we were also a little nervous about how Carter and Ainsley will do.

Carter is thrilled to be flying. Will is nervous.

 

They are usually so good in restaurants that I felt that they would do ok. We packed a lot lighter for this trip and made sure to have a bottle each for takeoff so that their ears won't pop and cause them pain.

Some other things we learned about flying with babies:
- Will and I could not sit next to each other with both babies on our laps. This is due to there only being one extra mask for each seating aisle in the case the plane goes down. So Will sat on one side with Carter and my father while Ainsley sat on my lap with my mom on the other side.
- We could bring breast milk in our carry on onto the flight. They just took the milk aside to check it and dab our hands to check.
- Babies = priority seating - winning.

Ainsley drank all the milk and promptly went to sleep for pretty much the entire flight.

 

 

NYC is one of the few places in the United States along with LA where babies do not have to sit in a car seat in a taxi. Here we are with the babies strapped to us in their ergos while the taxi driver whizzed through traffic.

 

Let's not think about the crazy taxi ride.

 

Whee! This is fun!

 

 





7 Month Fun

If you can't tell, I'm super behind on this blog. September was super busy and the twins just keep developing and changing in so many ways. They turned 7 months old while we were in Hilton Head but we didn't get their picture until we got back.

The stickers didn't last long. While we were trying to take their pictures, Ainsley kept doing this.

Ainsley is in a doorway swing that will help her practice standing. Hmm, it might have worked too well as she is almost ready to walk now.

 Hmm, why does my head itch?



Hilton Head week

Hilton Head was a week of sand, water, play and good eats. One of the things I was looking forward to the most was eating at Robert Irvine's Eat! after discovering that it was in Hilton Head. Stella made reservations for us all for dinner and the staff was extremely accommodating. Even better were the happy hour prices that accommodated our food due to us being there for an early dinner. I've written a Yelp review for Eat! so I won't go into it here. I would definitely go back though.

 

Carter would definitely go back to Eat! too.

 

We also discovered Robert Irvine's new restaurant Nosh but only thought it was ok.



Upon discovering sand, Ainsley tried to eat as much of it as possible.

 

Morning sunrises were worth waking up early for.

 

We don't need naps.

 

We want to play all day...

 

 

Vacation did have a small downside. Despite being in a room connected to ours, the twins screamed bloody murder when they woke up in the middle of the night. Needless to say, neither they nor I slept very well all week.

 

Baby chess!