Our Little Ballerina

Sydney didn't get mentioned last night, so today she gets her own post. She had quite a big summer. She had gymnastics with Miss Brandy again and she started ballet. Gymnastics is still her favorite and her donkey kicks are starting to get really great. She loves doing them. All the time. In the living room, the bedroom, on the ottoman, on the couch, at church. Really anywhere there happens to be a little extra room. Sometimes she performs the maneuver dangerously close to her brothers and gets in a little bit of trouble. Her cartwheels on the other hand, well, let's just say, sadly, I think she takes after her mother on those. Maybe someday she will do one, but it's not looking too good right now.

Her first experience with ballet did not go quite like I thought it would. She had a teacher that was a little, well, not fun. She is probably an excellent teacher for experienced dancers, but not so much for beginners. I understand that teaching ballet to three year olds is like trying to herd cats, as my dear hubby likened it to, but couldn't you at least try to make it fun and enjoyable? Sydney came home and said, "Ballet is kinda hard for me; I think I'll just do gymnastics." That just broke my heart because as you can see from the pictures below, she was extremely excited about ballet before it actually started. We switched to a different studio for the fall and based on the one class she has been to so far, I think it will be a much better experience for her. Her teacher is Miss Lugene and she seems to have the perfect disposition for teaching beginners. Sydney left her first class just bubbling with smiles and laughter.

Our Little Ballerina

She loves taking pictures on the stairs.

In her tap shoes. She loves them. Our floors do not.

She has become quite the expert on her tricycle.

We will get her a bike for her birthday. She can't wait!

She really loves our new house. I will let Sydney tell you in her own words, as dictated to me, what she loves so much about her new house.

"I really like my bunk beds the best cause Ardyn gets to sleep over. I think we will be best friends for ever and ever. And I love that Ardyn lives down my street so I can see her all the time. I love my sandbox in the backyard and my swing-set. I love having my room downstairs cause I get scared by myself. And I love the Woodlands playground and I am going to be a Woodlands Bear!"

We have really been blessed by the new house. Having everyone downstairs is more wonderful than I ever could have imagined. I was unsure about living on this side of town at one time, but I was so wrong! It is really great up here. No traffic, people actually play outside, it's incredibly beautiful- lots of hills and trees, the golf course is right down the street. It takes a little longer to get to church, but everywhere else we go is pretty much the same distance. And since we live in Amarillo, that distance is never more than fifteen minutes.

Our backyard has been just incredible this summer! We are out there every day and there is so much to do. It is fairly well protected from the fierce Amarillo winds, so it is quite pleasant. We have a great porch that wraps around the whole yard and it is a fun place to sit a spell and watch the kids play. The boys love being outdoors. If they are screaming out of control, we just take the bouncers outside and let them get some fresh air and watch Sydney's crazy antics. She loves entertaining them. She likes to "hold court" sitting on the fireplace with the boys in their saucers hanging on her every word. They all just adore each other. She has come a long way from crying on the floor in the sonographer's room when she learned they were brothers.

Preschool starts tomorrow and she is so excited. All her friends are in her class again and she asks me everyday if it's Tuesday yet. We have already coordinated her first day outfit with her little friend Saige. Pink playdress, pigtails with pink hairbows, pink socks, pink tennis shoes. Pink pink pink. Can you guess what her favorite color is?

Arydn and Sydney making cupcakes at their first sleepover.

Being silly in the tub.

Taking a bath after one of their many swim dates.

Eight Months Old Already!

If anyone reads this, please post a comment so I will know someone is still checking my blog. I will be very surprised if anyone actually reads this since I have quit updating it. So sorry to my loyal readers. Both of you.

Today the boys are eight months old. I know. I can't believe it either. Quick run down of all their stats:

Braden has two teeth and has just now decided to start rolling over. He has been able to do it for several months, but he is on "Braden time" and simply didn't want to do it yet. He is very curious and always wants to see what is behind him. He is very reserved most of the time. He is extremely coy and smiles primarily with his eyes. You can get him laughing sometimes, but it takes a lot of doing. He is pretty even tempered most of the time, but when he gets mad-brace yourself- because he cannot be calmed down until he is ready. He has a nasty temper and a very shrill screech. He does not like loud noises. At all. He has been sleeping through the night for the most part since June. He does wake up on occasion, but goes back to sleep pretty easily.

Brock. Oh, Brock. He is a ham! He will smile at anyone and anything. He has these amazing belly laughs that are just contagious. He has been been rolling over and army crawling for quite a while now and refuses to stay on his back. He sleeps on his tummy and always has his lovey at hand. He just got his first tooth on Friday and boy were we relieved. I was starting to think it would never come through. His emotions change on a dime, but he is easily soothed most of the time.

The boys are really starting to interact with each other-especially through jealousy. They cannot stand it if someone picks up the other one and not them. They will go from perfectly content to banshee if they see the brother get picked up and not them. They steal toys from each other and food, as well. If we give one a toy because the other one had one and they didn't, the one that had a toy will stop playing with his and look at what the other one is doing. They are the most fun to watch in the bathtub. We have this great little baby bath that I call their "boat." We can fit them in it together and they will kick each other and eat each others' feet. We have many photos and much video of bathtime.

Their favorite activity of all is watching Baby Einstein videos. Specifically, "Baby Van Gogh-World of Colors." They will be shrieking and then they will hear the unmistakable music of the DVD starting and they will stop what they are doing, turn, and look for the video. Pavlov's dogs...

We have still not had them tested for zygosity yet, but we do think they are most likely identical. To be more precise, I think they are mirror image twins. Google it, it's really cool. We learned at about five months old that Brock is left handed and Braden is right handed when they started sucking their thumbs. It is the cutest thing I think I have ever seen. They will snuggle with their monkey lovey, rub it on their face, and pop the thumb in the mouth. I will carry this sweet memory with me for always when I want to remember my sweet little boys as babies. I hope everyone gets to enjoy this precious gift with at least one of their babies.

I have run out of steam on my post, but I have much more to share. So if anyone actually reads this, please comment so I will know I am not just wasting my time blogging and I will post again tomorrow or Tuesday.

Great News!

We accepted an offer on our old house yesterday! Thank you to you all for your prayers. God is surely taking care of us. We both really heard His voice when we bought our new house without having buyers for our old one. It is so nice to feel confident in Him. I wish I was able to live like that every minute of every day, but somehow I always seem to get in my own way. We will not close as soon as we would like, but at least we have a buyer. Praise be to God!

The kids are all starting to feel better, but that darn thrush will NOT go away! The nurse called me today just to chat (I LOVE our doctor's office!!!) and I mentioned the thrush problem. She asked if I was still nursing and I told her yes. She said that is why it is not going away. Because I have to TREAT MY BREASTS, TOO! Now why couldn't someone have told me that, oh I don't know, TWO AND A HALF WEEKS AGO!!!! Jeez! So now I have to put this fantastic yellow medicine all over the girls four times a day. What am I supposed to do with that? Just not wear a bra, or get it all yucky? Not wearing a bra doesn't sound too bad actually...

So our bestest nanny in the whole world has been on a much needed vacation with her family this week. And boy have we ALL missed her!!! I think she is having a fabulous time cause she texted me that she met Stacy and Clinton at the amusement park in Denver. How cool is that? She comes back on Thursday and will be here on Friday morning. I can make it. I can make it. We have had one of Sydney's preschool teachers here helping us today, but she was exhausted after a few hours. She kept telling me, "I don't know how you do this every day. I just don't know how you do it." She is supposed to come and help me again on Thursday, too, I just hope we didn't scare her off...

Brock and Braden started MDO on Monday. It went pretty well, all things considered. Neither of them ate very well, but they don't for me either. They will go back tomorrow and hopefully it will go even better. Sydney told me tonight that she LOVES that her "bubbas" go to school with her now. She thinks it's so cool they are right across the hall from her and she can check on them. She is such a great big sister. Now if we could just keep her from squishing them...

Has It Really Been This Long?

If you are reading this post, thank you. I fear I may have lost both of my loyal readers. We have been very busy the last month and a half and I have not wanted to blog in any of my free moments. I have most likely chosen to sleep.

Brock and Braden are now four and a half months old. Brock weighs 12 lb. 10 oz and Braden weighs 12 lb. We are just thrilled with their progress as they are now on "the charts." Brock is in the 4% and Braden is in the 2%. We take our victories where we can. They do not sleep through the night, but they are doing better and better each week. They typically wake only around 2-3 am and then they are up for the day between 6 and 7. They had a pretty rough week this last week. On Sunday, I realized they both had thrush. And on Friday my mommy radar was going off again and sure enough they both had strep throat. Add their twice daily dose of Xantac on top of everything and they were getting three different medications throughout the day for almost the whole week. One was twice a day, one was three times a day and one is four times a day. Times TWO babies. Let me tell you, that is a lot of medications. I will be glad when we are well again! And Miss Sydney was sick, too, with the adno virus and a secondary bacterial infection on top of that. She had a z pack for three day and an antibiotic eye drop. If I never see our pharmacy again...

Oh yeah, and we moved.

We went through the building process last year (if you followed my other blog) and decided not to move into it since our other house never sold. Neither of us felt quite right about taking the risk of moving into that house since our other one wasn't sold yet. We were working with the architect and our builder drawing up plans for another house (which was being bid out at the time) when Tony found a brand new house completed finished and completely perfect for our little family. We decided to take a chance and made an offer even though our current house still hadn't sold. We moved in last weekend and WE LOVE IT!!! It is just absolutely fabulous and perfect for us. The builder used to work with our other builder so the quality and little touches are much the same. This builder built the house for his family, but the family buying his old house backed out and he had to sell the one he built. There are so many fantastic touches throughout the house, many of the very things we have always wanted in a house that we built. And some of the things were actually better than the house we designed. I will try to post some pix when Tony gets the other computer hooked up (that is where the pix are downloaded.)

I will try to post more frequently in the future! I have missed you all very much!!!

So Much Work!

If it feels like I haven't blogged in forever, it's probably because I haven't. In case you didn't know, two little babies are A LOT OF WORK!!! Every time I finish with one baby, I have to go right to the other baby. It feels more like an assembly line most of the time. I don't feel like I have really bonded with either baby yet and it hurts my heart. Sydney and I did nothing but bond when she was a baby.

Long gone are the days of Mommy and Sydney. We used to spend hours just playing and reading books. Now she's lucky if I get to read her one book before bedtime and help her brush her teeth. At least she had me to herself for three full years. The poor brothers will never know what that is like. Another mother of twins once told me that twins learn patience from a very early age. I am not sure what age they learn it at, but I sure wish my boys were there! I wake up with one of them before five every morning. And it's different each day. We try to survive until our friend, Rena, gets here a little before 8:30. She started coming Tuesday- Friday during the day to help me keep my sanity. She gets here, I take Sydney to school at 9, and on a good day I come back home and go back to bed until I have to pick Sydney up from school around 2 or 3. On other days, I have the weekly errands that must be taken care of before I can try to get some much needed sleep.

A typical night for us right now looks like this: Sydney to bed before 7:30. Bottles at 8:00 and bed for the boys around 8:30. One or both may stir a few times before we feed again at 1:30 or 2:00, if we're lucky, which requires whoever is staying up with them to settle them until the mid-night feed. And then they both go back to sleep until one of them wakes up around 4:00 or 4:30 just to hang out. And then the other one wakes around 6:00. And this week Sydney has been getting up before 7:00. And thus, our day begins all over again.

Just in case you missed the point of this post, TWINS ARE A LOT OF WORK.

Ramblings

Both boys got their blood reports back yesterday and they are "stable." Braden went down from 10.3 to 9.0; and Brock went from 9.3 to 9.6. I am not really sure what this means. I was hoping both would be around 11 or 12. Hopefully we are not going back down. I guess this is why we have them checked weekly. Thank you God for modern day medicine.

You would not BELIEVE the amount of mail we receive EVERYDAY from these doctor/hospital visits! We have a stack of papers about two inches thick explaining our benefits, or bills from each "encounter." You would think these guys were ninety and had been suffering from a slow, debilitating illness for years instead of just nine weeks old and something relatively minor. I truly think a small forest will die before this is all over. We have received paperwork for our paperwork. Why can't insurance companies and doctors' offices just use email? I opened the mailbox one day to find a large manila envelope from our insurance company with a thick stack of EOBs in it. I thought, "Finally! They figured out how to send them all together!" But, alas, no. The mail yesterday had two separate envelopes from them. Again. Good grief.

Poor Brock and Braden. They have had their blood checked so many times they barely even cry anymore when they get stuck. They have had it done more times in the last nine weeks than Sydney has in over three years. She has been stuck around six or seven times in her life, not counting shots. The poor little brothers passed that number when they were in the NICU. Since then they have both had blood drawn around ten more times, with multiple sticks at some of the draws. These poor little boys! And the end is still not in sight for them! This has just made me realize what the poor little kids that get cancer must go through. Why do children have to suffer, God? This world is not my home...

Team Brothers

In the past, we have participated in the March for Babies. Friends of ours had a little girl, Amberly, who was born premature and lived for three weeks and they created a team that we have raised money for and walked for every April. 

This year, we are forming our own team, Team Brothers, for our precious little miracle babies. I would like to invite anyone who reads this blog to participate in the walk with us this April. We will be raising money for the March of Dimes and if you would like to donate money, I will try to figure out a way to link you with their website through my blog. This is an organization that has been near and dear to me for many years as an observer; I simply never thought I would be a recipient of their good works. I did not know very much about the past of the March of Dimes until recently. 

This organization started in 1939 to find a vaccine for polio. And since then, they are responsible for almost everything related to prenatal and newborn care. 

They are the ones that developed the PKU test that every baby has to prevent some forms of mental retardation. 

They are the ones whose research led to discovering that alcohol consumption during pregnancy leads to birth defects. 

They are the ones that led the campaign for the creation of Neonatal Intensive Care Units. And I thank God every day that they did. 

They are the ones that launched a campaign in 1994 urging women to take folic acid during pregnancy to prevent birth defects. 

They helped secure passage for the CHIP program which provides healthcare for underprivileged children. 

They help provide prenatal care for women in third world countries. 

And they have provided funding for so many, many others working to eradicate premature births, genetic birth defects, mental retardation and so much more. This organization has touched everyone who reads this blog in some way. Some a lot deeper than others. If you want to know more about these amazing people who are helping babies, please check out their website

http://www.marchofdimes.com/home.asp

The March for Babies in Amarillo takes place on Saturday, April 25 in Thompson Park at 10 am. I would love for everyone that has been touched by The Brothers' story to join us if they are able. I will have t-shirts made up for Team Brothers and if you let me know your size, I will make one for you. If you live out of town and still want to help, let me know and I will figure out a way for you to help. I am planning on making this an annual event for our family and would love to have you and your family join us.