It's hard to keep up with the babies as it feels like they are growing faster and faster every day. I have so many pictures and yet when I look back on this blog, I feel like there is only a quarter of the pictures I have taken. I usually try to keep it in chronological order but let's throw order to the wind, look back and see some of their fun moments.
This was at their buddy, Zach's 1 year old birthday Halloween bash. Carter had gone down for a nap when this picture was taken.
Carter laughed like crazy here when I put him in a plastic tub with some plastic balls.
Taken before bed. Ainsley always closes her eyes when the camera flashes.
Carter and Ainsley hanging out with their friends. Ainsley done with pictures.
Playing with some pots and pans I got them. These were their favorite for a while until new toys came along.
Love this smile!
And this smile...
You can see Ainsley's little teeth here. She got her middle top two and bottom two first. Then two more up top and two more on the bottom for a total of eight now. You don't see any pictures of Carter's teeth because he's got none. Just kidding, two top and two on the bottom.
Ainsley loves playing in these Ikea boxes we have. Here we're trying to do laundry (never ending) while keeping her entertained.
What Thanksgiving looked like...
See that foot on the table? yeah, that's going to be a problem later.
Yarn party!
Playing with Jingle.
Bella's 1st birthday
Hanging out with friends at Bella's birthday party
Bella is wondering why everyone is playing with all her toys.
They're just as cute from behind.
Will is excited that him and Carter match.
My daughter dresses better than me. (That little girl behind us has a career in photo bombing)
Sunday school. Ainsley has the answer.
The kids love to take on Goliath.
Ally's 1st birthday
Ainsley shows how to do the fancy feet.
Having so much fun!
This table is awesome.
Same party. Ainsley changed. Guess what happened?
Most popular toy at the party.
Carty forgets he's not at home sometimes.
What happens when we try to get them together for a picture.
Around January 10, 2014, Ainsley learned how to walk.
11 month pictures...
...got harder and harder to take.
Photo session fail.
Friday, January 17, 2014
6:01 PM
Author:
miaminemo
So while folding laundry the other day, we were watching 'How I Met Your Mother'.. Specifically, we were watching an episode shortly after
Marshall and Lily have their baby.
and the plot line of the story was on how new parents tend to dismiss everything and everyone else in their lives, placing priority on their new children. At the end of the episode the thought was that parents are too obsessed with their children, and should not forget about their friends. It made me want to strangle whatever non-parents who came up with that episode.
Never once have I forgotten my friends, or what it was like to be able to go out and do whatever we want on a whim. Instead, I have lost the time/luxury to think about such things.
Lets talk about the typical day:
5:30am - wake up terrified I've forgotten the set the alarm the night before.
6.10 - Wake up 10 minutes late because I did forget to set the alarm.
6.11 - Walk upstairs half asleep. Listen for wailing.
6.12 - Pickup whichever twin is crying, or closest to the edge of the bed.
6.13 - Turn off the humidifier, space heater, and sound machine.
6.14 - Attempt to take the Aiden & Anais sleeps sacks off of inconsolable baby while Lovanna attempts the same with the other.
6.15 -Turn on shower, pee, wait for water to heat up
6.16 - Shower.
6.23 - Towel off. Listen for crying. If no crying, shave.
6.30 - Assuming babies are crying, forego shaving. Take Carter from Lovanna.
6.31 - Change Carter's diaper because he won't eat well while he has a dirty diaper.
6.32 - Return Carter to Mom. Take Ainsley and change her diaper.
6.33 - Take Ainsley down to living room to play
6.34 - Let Wasabi out.
6.35 - Take 6 baby bottles out of the dishwasher/cabinet.
6.36 - Pour ~3 oz of milk into each bottle. Find lids. Put on lids
6.37 - Take off lids and put the D Vi Sol in that I forgot.
6.38 - Put the lids and caps on the bottles and put in a bag by the door.
6.39 - Find all the pieces for Lovanna's daily pumping.
6.40 - Let Wasabi back in
6.41 - Feed wasabi .
6.45 - Go upstairs and see if lovanna is out of shower. If so, ask her if its ok to start packing up the twins.
6.57 - Pack up Ainsley.
7.03 - Pack up Carter.
7.05 - Put a twin in the van while Lovanna puts on shoes
7.07 - Put other twin in the van.
7.10 - Leave the house wishing we could have left 10 minutes earlier to avoid traffic.
7.17 - Drop the twins off at Mother In Laws'
7.25 - Wait forever at the light to get back on 23.
7.55 - This is best case for when I get to the office. Bad traffic adds 30 minutes. IF we left the house by 6.55 traffic is way less bad.
4.15PM- Lovanna picks me up from work.
4.45 - Arrive at Mother in laws' to pick up twins.
5.00 - leave stella's with twins in van
5.10 - Get home
5.15 Unpack twins from the Van. Lovanna Takes Hungriest twin upstairs for diaper and feeding.
5.16 Let out Wasabi (Henry does this most days, thanks. Otherwise we'd often see poop)
5.17 Take other twin upstairs and change diaper
5.20 - Both twins eat.
5.40 - Both twins are done eating.
- Every other night is bath night. This takes between 15 and 20 minutes depending on whether its just a effort to clean or if we let them play after.
6.00 - Let them play for 20 minutes, try to read them a book while other parent tries to put something together quick for dinner.
6.20 - Put twins in high chairs. Carter eats like a champ. Ainsley refuses anything, and what she does not refuse she rubs throughout the hair which has just been cleaned.
6.40 - Put them down on the floor in living room to play. Eat while they play. Tell Ainsley to stop pulling Carter's hair.
7.00 - Take the twins up to their room
7.10 - Change Diapers
7.15 - Put the twins in their sleep sacks. Brush Teeth.
7.20 - Lovanna begins feeding.
7.25 - Refil Humidifier
7.27 - Clean up all the toys from babies room.
7.45 - Rock whichever baby doesnt fall asleep while eating.
8.00 - Go to basement and get frozen milk from the freezer
8.10 - place all the bottles into the dishwasher.
Every other night - run the dishwasher or freeze new breastmilk
8.20 - Let Wasabi out.
8.30 - Put a load of Laundry in washer
8.45 - Clean up the mess from where the twins ate.
9.00 - Check for messages from work, and try and get as much done in 30 minutes as possible. If no work, do reading for MBA school.
9.30 - Move clothes from washer to dryer.
9.35 - Fold / sort laundry that was washed the previous night
10.00 - Brush teeth, etc, get ready for bed.
If EVERYTHING goes perfectly, I then go to sleep, while Lovanna spend some time surfing. IF anything else went wrong, you get to bed by 11.
6-7 hours a night, sleep. Thank God that the twins are sleeping through the night.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
5:22 PM
Author:
Lov
The kids are getting so big now. Sometimes I forget how fast they are growing but once in a while, I see them and remember how small they used to be. Then I am struck by surprise at how big they are now.
3 month Carter
10 month Carter
Carter no longer stays still during his diaper changes and tries to roll off the changing pad. Every single time.
3 month Ainsley
10 month Ainlsey
Ainsley's scary mean look when she gets angry about getting her diaper changed. Every single time.
You'd think the kids would thank our overzealous nature when it comes to frequent diaper changes. No diaper rash. The fact that they won't ever get used to the feeling of a dirty diaper for easier potty training later-or so I tell myself.Sigh, the things they don't know to appreciate.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we've had several days of snow but then it all melted mid-December. Will was disappointed we weren't going to have a white Christmas but then I woke up to a nice dusting on Christmas eve. Carter and Ainsley's first Christmas was a white Christmas!!
We were all going to my sister's for the day but decided to let Carter and Ainsley open some presents first. The best part of the presents to them was definitely ripping the wrapping paper off.
My sister had an itinerary for the day. It started with brunch consisting of lots of bacon, French toast, sausage and many other various breakfast items. Story time followed to help the kids learn the true meaning of Christmas and then the kids got to open their presents. It was also a first Christmas for their cousin Ally and the first one that Bella remembers.
All of their cousins had a good workout opening their gifts too. This was followed by naps, more food, white elephant gift exchange and food coma.
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.
...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.
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.
