8 Months

I really can't believe that Quinn and Riley were 8 months old yesterday! It seems like I just blink and another month has gone by. We are, of course, loving life and having fun as usual!
Some of my favorite things:
-Geoff bringing Quinn and Riley to me in the morning.
-How curious Quinn is about everything around him. I think his curiosity is motivating him to crawl, he just wants to get to everything to explore it!
-How Riley smiles the biggest smiles when she sees me and her daddy. If we catch her eye from across the room she will let out a "ha" and then smile from ear to ear. Melts my heart!
-Bath time: Quinn has started splashing around, and they just smell so good after bath time! I bathe them separately right now for safety but I can't wait till I can put them in the bath together.
-Mealtime: I am still nursing them 5 times a day and then they eat 3 meals as well. Quinn loves feeding himself puffs! Riley keeps rhythm by banging her foot against her highchair. They haven't refused any foods that I have offered them but they do seem to love peas, bananas, squash, and sweet potatoes! We just had mangoes today and they were a hit too!
-Playtime: We have so much fun playing with different toys, reading books, singing songs, petting Haley, and just giggling and smiling together. They both love to be held up in the air and zoom around.
-Nap time: Riley likes to be put down when she is tired and I sing her a little song before she goes to sleep. Quinn likes to hold his froggy and be rocked and sang to for a few minutes before he gets in his bed. When they get up they are usually very happy and will play in their cribs until I come get them. I love how they are just so happy to see me after naps!
-Twin time: The other day Riley was in the stroller and Geoff was holding Quinn and facing Riley and they were just smiling and giggling at each other. He would zoom Quinn towards Riley and they would both just laugh! So Fun!

Some challenges:
-Teething: Quinn has 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on bottom and boy have we felt every one of them! Riley has 2 teeth on the bottom that were also felt!
-Sleep: A few months ago they just weren't sleeping together very well. Now they don't sleep in the same room. I don't like this, I really wanted them to be together, but I have found that I would rather have happy and well rested children...sleeping in different rooms! Also, when teeth are coming in they don't nap well so some days are very long and exhausting. We are currently in the process of dropping the 3rd cat nap that they were taking in the late afternoon. That means they are pretty tired and last night went to bed at 5:30pm! Crazy early I know but they were asleep by 5:40 so it was what they needed. The good thing is that most of the time they sleep through the night until about 7:30am with no problems so I am very thankful about that! Not sure what will happen with Daylight Savings... we'll wait and see!

I dressed them in their Halloween costume for their pictures yesterday. Quinn is a lion and Riley is a Tiger. It's so hard to get the "puppy picture" because Quinn just flips over and tries to start crawling away. So this is the best I could get. So BIG!


Here he is flipping over...


If Riley is right next to him he will put his leg on top of her just like the puppy...


And here you can see that he is crawling... kinda. He is making forward progress but I wouldn't say it's a conventional crawl.


Riley with our pumpkin, we plan to carve it tonight!

Quinn just wanted to taste it.

Just relaxing...

See, no fingers in the mouth! They still are there plenty, but sometimes she will actually take them out. She has found she can replace her fingers with her toes in her mouth :) and she just loves, loves, loves her feet!

He learned how to rock the chair by moving himself back and forth. Wild boy...makes mama nervous!

Adorable... and this picture is classically them, Riley with her fingers in her mouth and Quinn making a funny face!

My Sweet Babies, I love you both more and more everyday and I am doing my best to just treasure these "baby" days because I know that soon enough they will be gone. You are the sweetest and cutest babies and I am so blessed to be your mother. Thank you for coming into my world and teaching me about love and selflessness and family and joy! I believe that I have to best job on the planet to get to spend my days with you both. I was looking back at the pictures of you in your first days (in the NICU) and I am so amazed by how far you have come and how much you have grown and developed. God is so good! I love you my darlings!

Love,

Mom

The Best Part of My Day

So I "write" all the time, or maybe the better word is compose because it usually gets "written" in my head (often in the shower) and never actually makes it to written form. This morning I was writing in the shower, it was actually in the form of a blog, and it had this title. So I thought I would actually write this one, Oh and I have some cute pictures to share too...

The Best Part of My Day

Every morning we get up, no more sleeping in when there are little ones to get changed and fed. I usually go check to see if the kids are awake (on the video monitor) and most days they are, quietly playing in their beds until daddy comes to get them. Every morning Geoff goes upstairs and gets Quinn and Riley, an armful that is becoming bigger by the day, and brings them down. I get a drink of water, a piece of cheese (because I wake up hungry) and their diapers and am waiting for them on my bed. This morning they slept a little late so we just waited for them to wake up. As soon as I see them stir I send Geoff to get them and get ready to greet them. I hear his footsteps coming back down the stairs and I look towards the door. Geoff enters our room with this armful of baby, Riley in her monkey pajamas and Quinn in his blue star pajamas. Riley immediately gets a huge grin that spreads across her whole face as she greets me and Quinn, he just about jumps out of Geoff's arms to get to me making a happy little noise as he wiggles in my direction. And we are together. As a family. And it is the BEST part of my day.

And then our day gets started. Babies get nursed, daddy goes to get ready for work, doggie must be let outside, diapers must be changed, and it is full steam ahead. But for those few moments when we are all greeting each other and the day, I find myself just soaking it all in and basking in the love and joy that I have being a part of this family. I find many other wonderful moments throughout the day, and some not so wonderful moments, but this, this is the BEST part of my day.

What's the best part of your day?

Here's the cute pictures I promised...If you are a Tiger fan or just love the color Orange, you will especially love these!

We've been cheering on the Tigers and Riley was calling the touchdown during last week's win against Wake Forest.

Quinn was very concerned when there was a man down on the field...he's ready to go in the game if the Tigers need him.

During half-time we played and laughed at daddy being funny.

After the game we went to get our pumpkin, just a local stand with produce. Tomorrow we are going to carve the pumpkin!

Twins are Twice the Fun!

This week we met up with some friends for a very fun trip to the zoo!

Beautiful little blue-eyed girl! Her eyes haven't changed yet, I guess they still could, we'll just have to wait and see. Oh and see that hair she's starting to get on top!

It was a beautiful day and we really had a great time seeing all the animals and enjoying the sunshine with good friends.

We cheered the Tigers on to another win today against Miami! Go Tigers! (We are raising these kiddos right!)

Quinn has been eating apple in this little feeder. It is so cute and he LOVES it and best of all it's very safe!

That's what we've been up to, how about you?

Trip to the Mountains

There is another new post below so keep reading...

We went to the mountains for a week at the beginning of October. It was so great to just get away together as a family. You can see Quinn was excited about having a new place to explore!

And Riley was very happy to have mommy and daddy to play with all week!

They discussed this turn of events with both mommy and daddy around all day and decided it was a very good thing. I wonder if they will develop their own language, I've heard that twins sometimes do that.

Quinn decided that he's tired of just rolling from place to place and used our vacation as a chance to start working towards crawling. He gets up on all fours, rocks back and forth, occasionally actually moves backwards, but hasn't gone forward yet. Soon I'm sure!

We stayed in Maggie Valley, North Carolina and our condo was right on a golf course with views of the mountains all around us. We would often spend time before bed sitting outside enjoying the views!

Sometimes they are very grabby with each other and will grab any body part they can, here it is Riley's forehead, she's not thrilled!

One morning Quinn was sleeping in so I got to stay in bed and listen for him to awaken, while Geoff fed Riley breakfast on the porch looking out at the mountains. Can it get any better than this?

I love this picture because you can see how big my armful of babies is getting. I sometimes carry them together and boy is that getting harder and harder!

We took a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway and stopped to enjoy some views! It was so beautiful! The leaves were just starting to change. A few more weeks and they will be full of color. Funny story is that at this stop a bee started chasing Quinn and I and wouldn't quit, so we hopped in the car pretty quickly and left. About 10 min. down the road Geoff realized he is missing his sunglasses. We decide that it had to be at this stop that they got lost, he was trying to get the bee off Quinn and I and they probably fell out of his pocket in all the commotion. We drove back and there was a car parked right about where we had been. I spot something under the car, just inside the left tire, sure enough it was his glasses...unharmed!

We went into several small towns and shops and loved carrying the kids around in our Bjorns! We often carried them facing out but here Quinn was tired and we thought he might sleep if he wasn't looking around at everyone...he didn't.

One night the kids were pretty tired so they went to bed very early. About 7 pm Quinn woke up and wanted to visit for awhile. Since the golfers were all done for the day Geoff took him to the course and let him sit on the grass. He's sitting really good these days so I just love this picture!

Quinn is so very expressive when he wants to be and makes the funniest little faces!

Riley has such a cute toothy smile here! I do realize that it seems like they stayed in their pj's all of vacation...that is not the case. I think we just took pictures while we were playing in the morning (I don't change them to clothes until after their morning nap) and in the evening before bed.

We did have lots of good play time together. They especially love playing with daddy, he makes them laugh!

Quinn has decided he likes putting both hands in his mouth. He does it all the time, riding in the car, in the stroller, it is so cute!

They are really interacting with each other so much! Part of Riley's therapy is to get her to turn her head to her right, so I often put Quinn on her right and know she will turn that way plenty to see her brother!

Towards the end of the week Geoff's parents came up to the mountains to spend a few days with us! Now the kids had even more people to give them undivided attention! I was a little worried about going home and it just being me all day...but they've done well and adjusted to that too! One night Geoff and I got to go out for a date while his parents kept the kids! Thank you Grammy and Pop for babysitting!

We got the kids dressed up in their dedication outfits and took some more pictures!

Grammy and Pop!
Yes, it was very windy!

The focus isn't great on this picture but I just thought it was so cute. Quinn is saying "now don't you wish it was you on vacation in the mountains!" Yeah for vacations, it was so good to just get away as a family!

Baby Dedication and Other News

We missed the Baby Dedication at our church by a few days (the kids had just gotten out of the NICU when it was held). We will participate in the next one at church, however, it doesn't take place until March 2010. So we got together with two other couples in our Sunday School class and had a baby dedication and picnic out at the park.

Adam's dad lead the ceremony and talked about how the idea for a baby dedication comes from the book of Samuel where his mother Hannah dedicates him to the Lord. I can relate a lot to Hannah. She struggled with infertility. For years she was without child and oh how she wanted a babe. She cried out to the Lord and asked him to see her misery and give her a son. She promised that if she had that son she would give him to the Lord (1 Sam. 1:11). I know that pain that Hannah felt when she saw all the other women giving birth to children. I know what it is to cry out to the Lord and ask for a child. I also know the conviction that if you were blessed with a child, you would know that the child first belonged to God. This has been something that I remember when I start worrying about my children. That as much as I love them, and boy is that more than I can even express, the Lord loves them even more and they are ultimately in His very capable hands. I know that does not mean all harm will pass them by, but I can rest assured that when harm comes their way (we live in a fallen world so I'm sure it will happen sometime) the Lord will walk that journey with them just as He so faithfully walked the journey of infertility with me.

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord." 1 Sam. 1:27-28a These were Hannah's words as she dedicated her son to the Lord and they express our hearts as we dedicated Quinn and Riley to the Lord and to raising them to know and love Him. It was a beautiful day with memories that we won't forget!

My mom made their outfits for the occasion. She did a wonderful, fantastic, beautiful, amazing job! She usually makes amazing quilts, hasn't made clothing since I was young, but did such a good job that I think she'll make some more! Here's Riley's sweet dress. I hope you can see the detail! It was so beautiful!
Here's Quinn lookin' handsome in white! So cute! I know that I call my children cute and adorable all the time (I am pretty biased), but hey, that's a mom's right!

Thank you Nana for all the time you spent making these gorgeous outfits! We love them and are so excited that they had such a personal touch from you!

My sister got the kids bibs, Quinn's is cute, but you had to see Riley's for yourself...

She's such a good aunt! I know when Riley is upset and mad at me she will probably run to her Aunt Hesper to talk and I'm so thankful that she'll have her there!

This has nothing to do with the dedication but Uncle Pete gave the kids these for Christmas (when they were still inside me) and they haven't been big enough to wear them until now. Riley has on an Aerosmith onsie and Quinn's is Lynyrd Skynyrd! Thank you Uncle Pete!

In other news, we had our follow up Dr. appointment. Quinn was 17lbs. 4 oz! He gained 3 pounds in 6 weeks and got back to the 25th percentile so the Dr. was very happy! Have I mentioned that he loves eating. He has even started feeding himself puffs! He also is working on getting 2 more teeth, pretty sure the front two. They are red and swollen and he has been very fussy! Poor little guy...I know it hurts him and it's no fun for me either (like when he won't sleep and won't let me put him down)!

Riley weighed 13lbs. 13oz, still in the 5th percentile. The Dr. has referred her to a specialist to look at the flattening of her head and determine if she needs a helmet. We are waiting to hear when this appointment will be so I will keep you posted. Riley has also seemed to have a little setback with her torticollis, she has been tilting her neck a lot lately and her physical therapist had to really stretch her on Wed. I am also trying to work with her, sometimes she really cries and gets upset so I think it's uncomfortable for her. Please keep her in your prayers!