Tuesday, July 29, 2014

10 Month Old Twins PLUS Family Pictures


Sometimes I look at Lydia and Eden and think to myself, "Whose children are these?!?!" They are just growing and changing so fast, I hardly even recognize them. I'm a little late on the post since we were on vacation last week, but our babies are now 10 months old! I'm excited to have some beautiful pictures to share of them. Nate's cousin, Carly, took some family photos for us a few weeks ago and I was so pleased with how they turned out. It's not an easy task to get two little ones to look at the camera and even somewhat smile!


Eden: Our Little Peanut weighs about 15.5 pounds. She loves Ollie and I'm convinced she even says dog, although it sounds more like "Dah." Ollie loves her too, especially around lunchtime! She has started doing the sign for "more." It's usually more like clapping her hands, but we know what she means. She is often giggling and still loves to do her fake laugh to make us laugh. She is really into faces and likes to pinch lips, noses, cheeks as she explores your face.



Lydia: Lydia weighed in just under 17 pounds. She has turned in to quite the imitator. She'll smack her lips or blow bubbles if you do it first. Lydia doesn't really like to play with toys unless Eden has it. Then, she immediately thinks she needs to steal it. Eden seems to have figured out that Lydia will quickly get bored and toss the toy to the side, so she can snatch it back pretty quickly. I've also noticed that Lydia likes to lead the music in church. As soon as she hears the organ playing, she'll start waving her arms to conduct the music! Lydia is also into head-butting. When you hold her she likes to bonk her forehead into yours and if she is on the ground and wants to be picked up, she will head-butt your legs.


Eating/Nursing: Both girls are still really good eaters. They normally eat whatever we're having for a meal and we haven't found many things they don't like. Although, sometimes they are a bit finicky about eating their vegetables so I have been known to get creative (spices, dipping in pear juice, even a bit of brown sugar on the carrots!) They prefer to feed themselves and can get pretty mad if I try to feed them, especially Eden. She'll swat my hand away, spit the food out, and scream if I attempt to feed her. Self-feeding can get pretty messy (hence, Ollie loves mealtime!) but it keeps the girls happy. As they are eating more, they seem to be losing interest in nursing. They still nurse four times a day, but they're easily distracted and are pretty quick to finish. However, I plan to continue until at least their year mark, possibly a bit longer. We're planning a trip to Disney World in October and I'm debating whether it will be easier to still be nursing them or tote around milk with us. Any opinions?



Walking? Nope; thank goodness! I'm not ready for that yet! Both girls will pull themselves up on their knees but not their feet yet. I think we're a ways off from walking, but I guess you never know with how fast they change!


 Sleep: I don't like to write about sleep because it makes me depressed! Neither one of my babies take consistently good naps, especially Eden. Anywhere between 30-45 minutes is typical for her. So if your baby takes two, two-hour naps a day, keep it to yourself. I don't want to hear about it! I've come to the realization that all I can do is be consistent and set the stage for good naps. Eventually, I hope they get the memo and we can have at least one long nap a day! The days are long but at least they are usually good sleepers at night. (Except when we're on vacation and out of our groove.) This month they decided to move their wake up time to 5:30-6:00 AM. I'm not a fan, let me tell you. The nice thing about their routine being thrown off with our vacation is we get a chance to reset things and I'm (desperately!) hoping to make 7:00 AM the normal wake-up time again.

While the girls aren't perfect, we do think they're pretty much the best kids we could have ever asked for. We love them so much and look forward to each day with them!

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Independence Day in St. Louis

Since the 4th of July was on a Friday this year, we decided we had to take advantage of the long weekend and take a road trip to St. Louis. It's about a 5 hour drive so we hoped if we timed it just right, we would be able to minimize crying and maximize sleeping from the girls! And I must say, they did pretty darn well and slept most of the way there.

We found lots of fun and free things to do in the city. (And you know me, I love FREE!) Friday morning we went to the zoo. We were quite impressed with how nice it was especially since admission is free. I don't know that the girls really cared about seeing the animals, but they enjoyed being outside in their stroller and observing everything. Plus, they were probably the most popular sight at the zoo. I'm pretty sure more people were admiring the twins than the animals on display!

Daddy and Lydi checking out the elephants
That afternoon and evening we went to a huge fair celebrating the 4th of July as well as the 250th birthday for St. Louis. Once again, it was free! There were concerts at the fair and we were able to watch Gavin DeGraw and Matt Nathanson. We also had front row seats to some great people watching including a girl passed out at the trash cans, a drug bust, and a domestic disturbance. Despite the trashy picture I just painted, it really was a family friendly event and we really enjoyed taking the babies to an outdoor concert. We were all pretty tired by this point, so we headed back to the hotel and skipped the fireworks. The girls probably would have been scared of the loud noises anyway. I mean come on, Lydia is terrified of the vacuum. Somehow I don't think she would love the fireworks.
Mommy and the girls enjoying the free concert at the fair
After a long day, Lydia was tuckered out while Eden was still going strong!


Sure wish the car wasn't photobombing my temple picture
Saturday morning, Nate and I took turns going to temple. I was able to go while the girls napped and then Nate went while I walked the girls around the grounds. It worked out perfectly. In the afternoon, we decided we couldn't go to St. Louis and not check out the Arch. We didn't go up, but it was still neat to walk around and see the outside of it.


The journey home wasn't quite as smooth as the journey there. Lydia cried for the first hour while Eden slept. When Lydia finally fell asleep, Eden woke up literally 10 seconds later. I am not even exaggerating! And then it was Eden's turn to be fussy for an hour while her sister slept. All the while, Nate was freaking out because he was trying to listen to the Netherlands World Cup game on the radio and the station kept cutting out. And then, like a Godsend, we spotted a Wal-Mart and decided it was time for a pit stop. We walked around the store for probably an hour and I fed and changed the girls. They were happy to be out of the car for a while and we were happy to not have to listen to their crying. There was a Denny's across the street that we decided to hit for dinner which took another hour. (Wow, this pit stop was turning into an all evening event.) Once again, the girls were a hit at the restaurant. The place was dead so every single waiter, waitress, hostess, busboy, cook, and manager had to come over and ooh and aah at the babies. These girls will have no shortage of self-confidence! When we finally got back on the road, they thankfully slept almost the whole way home, minus the last twenty minutes when we had to stop for gas and they woke up screaming. (Why didn't we fill up with gas during our two-hour pit stop? Beats me. We like to make things a challenge.) Overall, we really enjoyed St. Louis and are eager for another chance to go back as there are still a lot of things to do that we didn't have time for.

The famous Arch