January Pictures

Will and Erin came to  our downhill ski Race League with us.  

Sledding on my birthday!

Christmas at Aunt Kathy and Uncle Ron's House

For as long as I can remember, we've spent Christmas afternoon at my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Ron's house. I have memories of playing with my brand new yellow, remote (with the wire between the controller and car) Barbie car. I remember their old dog named Fluffy. I am so glad that Will and Erin can be a part of this family tradition. We only see my this side of the family maybe twice a year. Definitely on Christmas and maybe once in the summer or at a wedding. I always enjoy spending time

Aunt Kathy, sleepy boy, Sleeping Beauty and Aunt Diane

with everyone and seeing how much all of the kids have grown.  Aunt Kathy slaves away for days cleaning her house, preparing an awesome dinner of prime rib, turkey, all of the sides, homemade spiced peaches and an assortment of homemade pies.  I know that she has Uncle Ron running around town (and probably the house too) getting things ready. I can't even begin to imagine how exhausted they must be on Dec. 26. But, I know that they wouldn't have it any other way.  Christmas Day is spent at their house and I am grateful for that!

Erin and Will still weren't feeling well. They weren't sleeping well at night and had stuffy noses. Erin (and Mark) took a nearly 3 hour nap when we got to Aunt Kathy's house.  I went to check on them during dinner and stayed with Erin so Mark could go and enjoy some of the fantastic food! Sleepy Beauty woke up soon after and joined the party.  Her brother only slept for 2 hours the whole day. In some of the pictures you can see that he is just exhausted, but was too excited to give in to sleep.  When we left, I think he was a sleep before we backed out of the driveway. 

This mistletoe has been hanging in the doorway at every Christmas. We have a variety of pictures underneath it. Will LOVED the sound of the bell and didn't even know when his daddy snuck in to give me a kiss.

Christmas Morning at Grandpa Paul and Grandma Connie's House

After opening the gifts from Santa, we got in the car and drove two hours to Walled Lake (near Detroit) to spend a few days with my dad and step-mom.  We opened gifts, had a delicious brunch and then headed to my aunt's house for dinner (that will be another blog entry). Grandpa and grandma spoiled Will and Erin. They got a lot of new Fisher Price toys and clothes (some dresses, pants, shirts for Erin, pin-striped overalls, jeans, fleece outfits, and shirts for Will There are always pretty bows on the presents and Erin loved taking the bows off. We were too busy opening presents to take a lot of pictures (we even forgot to take a family picture), but know that everyone had a great time!

Cousins Sarah and Amanda came over the day after Christmas. All of the cousins, had a lot of fun playing together.

Santa Came!!

Erin and Will woke up at their normal time of 7:00.  We brought them out to the living room right away so they could see what Santa had brought them.  They must have been good this year because he brought presents!  Santa knew that Will and Erin would get lots of presents from their grandparents and aunts/uncles so he wasn't worried about them only receiving one present from him.  Will and Erin loved the paper and bows just as much as the present itself.  Erin got an inflatable penguin to play with and Will got a set of pots and pans that rattle. Which were perfect because he likes any toy that spins and rattles. Both kids (and the dog) play with the penguin.  Santa did a good job of selecting out perfect presents for everyone!

 On a side note, I have to mention that we had a 4 foot tree this year because we didn't have room for anything bigger.  The little tree worked out well. Will LOVED to look at and touch the tree. Some nights we couldn't sit on that side of the couch when we fed him because he got to distracted by the lights.

11.5 Month Update

I had to title this entry as 11.5 Month Update because I am so far behind on blogging. We had a very busy Christmas vacation and both of the kids are still sick. By the time, we get them to bed and I prepare everything for the next day, it is 9:30 and I am too exhausted to blog. But tonight I have to at least finish this entry, so here it goes. '  During my first week of Christmas Break (I was off from Dec. 17-Jan. 2) home with the kids, I planned on getting a lot done during their long morning and afternoon naps.  Will and Erin had other ideas.  Both of them were sick with runny/stuff noses.  They were coughing and not feeling well. In one given day, I don't think that either of them would sleep more than a total of an hour.  They both wanted to be held, rocked and snuggled.  On top of that, we had an appointment 3 of the 5 days. It was a busy and somewhat stressful week at home with them. I have a whole new respect for stay-at-home moms. I don't know how you do it. So needless to say, I didn't get much done besides lots of snuggling and rocking time with my babes. Will and Erin had another round of RSV shots in

December.  At that time, the doctor checked them out and said that their colds were just viral.  Today, Mark and my mom took the kids back to the doctor because Will has developed a bad cough. I was up with him for two hours last night while he coughed and I suctioned his nose. We were both miserable.  I considered taking him to the ER, but decided against the idea when he finally fell back to sleep at 3:15 am. The doctor was able to see them first thing in the morning.  Will is on a liquid steroid to help his lung sacks. He is also getting breathing treatments 3-4 times per day.  Both babies had a mild ear infection too so they are getting an antibiotic. Dr. App did say that for 'normal' babies he wouldn't this aggressive with medication, but he didn't want to take any chances with Will and Erin. We have gone through boxes of Kleenex wiping their snotty noses.  And through it all, they have both remained happy and playful.

 

Erin didn't sleep well during Christmas break. She had a stuff nose and would wake herself up because she was so congested. We had a humidifier going in their room, used chest rub, elevated the head of her bed and gave warm baths and still nothing worked.  We had some pretty exhausting nights while we were gone visiting our families for the holidays. Thankfully, they would help out with the babies and give us a little break.

Will is rolling back and forth, gets up on all fours a few times a day and is starting to demonstrate the 'downward dog' yoga pose. He LOVES any to that spins or rattles.  He has a few favorite rattles. One is a yellow seahorse (from his cousins Olivia and Hannah) with three rings on it. He will hold the seahorse with one had, put the head in his mouth and move the rings back and forth with his other hand. He'll sit on the floor for an hour playing like this. He LOVES to jump and play in his exersaucer. There is a spinning toy on there that he puts his mouth on while spinning the toy with his hand. He studies toys and how they move. I think that some day he will build or design things.

Will continues to be a VERY happy baby.  Despite being sick and not sleeping much, he is happy and hardly cries. I am such a lucky mama! He coos and makes all of these really cute noises. Right now I can hear him in bed, cooing and 'talking' to the tigers on his mobile.

He still loves to eat baby food and is getting much better about eating different textures. He sucks his thumb and sleeps on his tummy.

He had 6 TEETH in his cute little mouth.  Just before Christmas we noticed that he had 4 TEETH coming in on the top. All at the same time too! He hardly fussed, cried or even let us know that they were there. I was giving him his Previcid one morning and noticed the teeth.

Will still gets 4 bottles of 200 ml of formula/breast milk. I am still pumping and produce enough for each baby to have 2 of their 4 bottles of milk. There has been a decline in the milk, but that is to be expected because I am not able to pump as often (5 times per day). I have decided that I've been able to be so successful with pumping because I've rented a hospital grade pump. For a mear $60 per month, I'm able to keep supplying my kids with milk. I do have a great Medela pump, but it just wasn't working as well for me so I rented this pump last February. I don't even like to think about how much I've spent on pump rental. When I do 'go there' I remind myself that it is cheaper than formula.

Erin is a VERY busy girl (as you can see in this picture)! She has learned how to pull herself up on anything (bouncy seats, exersaucers

Hopefully, she will fall back to sleep.  She used to suck her finger and fall asleep. Now she doesn't know what to do.

Erin has three bottom teeth. She loves to put anything in her mouth. I wouldn't say that she has any favorite toys like Will. She isn't a fan of the exersaucer because she doesn't like to be 'trapped.' Even though we need her to be 'trapped' so we can get a few things done without her 'help.' ;-)

She has gotten more vocal saying (what sounds to me) 'mama' and lots of other vowel sounds.

Her feeding therapy is going well. She continues to eat baby food and we practice spoon feeding her formula to her so that she can practice swallowing liquids.  She gets 4 bottles a day of formula/breast milk.

In the bathtub, Erin crawls all over the place. I don't need the laundry baskets anymore because she would just try to stand up in it! :-)

This is the longest update EVER! I guess that I have a lot to say! I promise that I will get Christmas and New Years pictures posted soon. It's 9:40 and I still need to pump and make bottles. But, I am glad to FINALLY have this blog done!!

On a side note, it was 40' and sunny today so we went for a walk! The kids look so cute in their snowsuits and riding in the stroller without their car seats, just like big kids!