Growing Up and Letting Go

We're in a time of rapid changes. They both have one tooth at last. Sam and Anna are crawling all over the house, and making me fear the day they both are walking all over. Sam is pulling up/climbing on everything in sight, cruising the furniture and doesn't want to sit or be held still for a second. They interact for longer periods of time while playing together - hearing them laugh at each other's antics is one of the best perks of twins. I will have to imprint these memories in my brain to recall when toy stealing and temper tantrums punctuate their playing together more often than giggles.

Both are adding words to their vocabulary- they will say Mama and Dada, and repeat some words we say. Anna's first and most frequent word to say independently is "Bella" while Sam's is "Anna." Anna has learned how to drop food off of her tray to feed Bella. While I miss the days when this was purely accidental, it is cute (right now) to hear her call "Bella" and then uncurl her tiny fist to drop a yummy goodness from the heavens (as far as our dog is concerned) into a waiting mouth. Both babies are starting to show an increasing disinterest in eating "baby food" i.e., the pureed stuff, so our plan is to start moving towards 100% table food once daycare starts back up again next week. I am concerned that they won't be eating enough once we do that since their weight has never had any "wiggle room," but I think it is a step that Sam and Anna seem to be ready to take.

When Sam and Anna hit 9 months, we finally stopped tracking every single bottle amount throughout the day (anal of me, I know- but soooo hard to keep track for two babies at the same time when eating enough has always been one of our biggest concerns). Now this week, we are attempting to wean them off of their 3 doses a day of Prevacid (via Buffer Babies) to see if they have outgrown their severe GERD. To say that this has make me scared is an understatement. I never want to relive the days of uncontrolled reflux for two babies at the same time ever again. But I know that if we are ever to finally move on from their reflux, we need to be willing to see if the medicine is not needed any more. We successfully dropped one dose, and are now attempting to drop another. If all goes well, we'll try to stop the final dose soon, as well.

Sam is now too tall/big for quite a bit of his 9 month clothing. This is the first time that some baby clothes are too small to come in his size. This is somewhat of a milestone to me, because for so long I could pick out anything in the baby departments and it would come in his size. I want to know, though, why is it that it is so hard to find lots of footie pj options for 12 month + sizes? Why all of a sudden do the pjs come without feet at 12 months+? It's not like I can cover him with a blanket yet. While our babies sleep in sleep sacks, I still wonder if his feet will be warm enough at night without the footie pjs this winter. I wonder if I should put socks on his feet when he's wearing footless pjs?

We decided that Sam and Anna's New Year Resolution is to give up their pacifiers for good. The AAP recommends not using them after 6 months, but since our babies didn't have any teeth until this month, I figured it couldn't possibly mess up their bite. They've never been hugely dependent on them- we have just used pacifiers to make bedtimes and naptimes easier to transition to sleep. They haven't used pacifiers at daycare at all. Recently, pacifiers seem to be something that they are more interested in at any time of the day whenever they catch a glimpse of one, so we figure now is a good time to toss 'em, before they get too attached. I definitely don't want 2 year olds walking around with plugs in their mouths! I don't think it will be that big of a deal to them- I just hope that they don't decide a thumb is the new alternative.

Wordless Wednesday

More fun tunnel pictures

(Anna wasn't quite sure what to think at first. Her eyes were like a deer in headlights the whole time!)

(Check out that mischievous look on his face!)

Christmas Recap

Ah Christmas. The babes' first Christmas has come and gone, and we survived our long road trip crossing state lines (but barely on the return journey). One more family get together this weekend (At our home- thank goodness I have all week off of school to clean. My home hasn't been cleaned adequately since October when the last relative came for a visit.) and Christmas 2010 will be in the books.

Our dog Bella had her best Christmas ever: at the last minute our friend (who has a littermate of Bella's) invited Bella to stay at her place for the duration of our trip to Minnesota, instead of the mean ol' nasty kennel (where a stressed out Bella ate her own leash last time). Our friend was staying at home and apparently liked the thought of two puppy-like labs staying in one apartment for a few days. This also meant that Bella got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our home since we didn't have to drop her off at the kennel during their office hours. It wouldn't have felt quite right without her there.

We went to our church's 4:30 pm Christmas Eve candlelight service this year; because of our babies' bedtime the later service we used to attend just wasn't a possibility. We weren't prepared for the much larger crowd and actually ended up sitting in folding chairs in the sanctuary by the front door. We were so far back that I couldn't read the words on the tv screen set up just so the overflow crowd could follow along. Wowza- I will have to remember that next year we need to be at least a half hour early, if not more. It warmed my heart to remember singing my favorite Christmas songs at the candlelight service last year to my uterus, and this time being able to sing them while snuggling my babies close. Anna punctuated a few songs with her noisy "Mwah!" kisses. And then it didn't matter one bit that we were sitting under the exit sign by the drafty door.

Sam wet through his special Christmas pjs overnight (accidents at night still seem to be more regular than I'd like, even though we use overnights diapers), so we postponed stocking unveiling and gift opening until I could wash and dry the sleeper. (Hey, it was only for an hour and a half and Sam and Anna didn't know the difference. Plus, the pictures were a lot cuter with the matching Santa pjs.) In true little kid fashion, the wrapping paper was a bigger hit than the gifts. In our family, Santa only fills your stocking with smaller gifts. Santa brought Sam and Anna socks (that he got from babysteals, naturally), slippers, ornaments, books, and their first toothbrushes. (because when else can you put socks and toothbrushes in a stocking without an adverse reaction?) Anna thought that Sam's wrapping paper rustling was the most hilarious thing ever that she fell over guffawing at him. I adore that little girl's laugh. Sam and Anna got one gift from us- My Pal Violet and My Pal Scout. We didn't feel the need to get more than one thing to unwrap as our family of four because they don't have a clue anyway, and we knew they'd get more than enough from our other gift exchanges. Scout and Violet are the first toys that belong to just them- everything else so far is pretty much community property (because how can you tell a 9 month old that something belongs to their sibling?) I preprogrammed their names into the toys before they were wrapped, so right away the stuffed dogs were ready to say, "I love you Sam" and I love you Anna."


We hit the road that afternoon and 4 hours later arrived at Christmas gathering #1. It went well, even though Anna decided to skip her second nap (This has never ever happened before. A car napper she is NOT.) and the babes were up 2 hours past their bedtime. I kept looking nervously at the clock, but they were troopers and did not get fussy until we finally put them in their pajamas. We just couldn't put them to bed any earlier because we were staying at my parents house and there was no way they would have been able to sleep through the ruckus. So yes, Anna was awake for around 8 hours in a stretch. I credit the fact that I've always been really aware of their sleep needs that one day that was wayyyy off of their sleep routine didn't cause them to meltdown. They did not get enough sleep on Christmas Day, but were still able to function well because they aren't perpetually getting too little sleep. Since my father cooks the turkey in the fireplace, the heat didn't really kick in all night, and we woke up to a chilly room at 59 degrees (since the door was closed). I was really worried about Sam and Anna, but apparently they fared well in their onesie+fleece sleeper+fleece sleepsack.



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We then headed to Christmas #2 the next morning on the 26th. This also went well, although Anna once again had a second nap strike. We planned on leaving at their usual 7 pm bedtime that night and driving the 4 hours home while they slept. This worked okay for us at Thanksgiving and so we thought we'd try it again. As it usually goes, we ended up leaving much later than we had planned and finally hit the road at 8:30 pm. Anna did not do as well during this nighttime drive; probably because she was so overtired from skipping a second nap two days in a row and staying up late both days as well. They both started out sleeping, but Anna ended up awake from about 11 pm until 12:45 am. I must have replaced her pacifier 50 times trying to get her to fall back asleep to no avail. I think we will really have to evaluate how it went before we try the nighttime driving plan again...

We did get home in one piece and are slowly trying to get back to our typical routine (minus daycare for the next week). The poor kids have so many new toys they can't even play with all of them in one day. If the toys hadn't taken over our home before this, they certainly have now. I'm learning that as they get bigger, their toys get bigger too...

(The 6 foot tunnel was a big hit)

Memories Will Be Made

Although they will only recall it through photographs, a baby's first Christmas only happens once. As Sam and Anna grow up, I hope we can create the traditions and memories that I remember so fondly from my childhood.

I hope they cherish the holiday traditions we follow as much as I do.

I hope Sam and Anna have many pictures they can look back at when they are over 30 that bring a smile to their faces and warms their hearts, too.

And I hope we can always, always instill in them the reason for the season.

**************************

Pictures from my Christmases past:

(My most favorite childhood gift, ever!)

Some day, they will look through the photos I take today, just like I have with the photos of my childhood Christmases. I hope I can capture many "Kodak moments" during Sam and Anna's first Christmas they celebrate!

Kisses

A Melt-My-Heart moment for TIDWFT:

Tonight, Anna gave me her first ever kisses. I was kissing her noisily with my usual "Mmmwah" sound and she turned and gave me big open mouth baby kisses while making the same sound. Adorable! So of course I kept giving her kisses, and she kept kissing me after each kiss I gave her. I love it! I love that I didn't try to teach her how to kiss, she just naturally did it on her own. This might be my new most favorite mommy moment.

And another picture just because I can:

Our Little Climber

Wordless Wednesday

Our daycare provider also said yesterday that she has a first- in 14 years of doing daycare, she's never had a child climb out of an exersaucer. My dear sweet boy pulled himself right up and out of the seat using a toy on it for leverage. According to her, he thought it was funny (although Sam thinks everything he does is funny- he's our little comedian) and did it again right away when she put him back in. I think we're in for it when he starts walking- there's going to be no limit to the amount of trouble he's going to get into. I envision a little boy who figures out how to climb on top of the refrigerator!

A Time of Rapid Changes

Around 6ish months, it seemed like we were at a standstill developmentally for awhile. Nothing new seemed to be happening. Lately, we've had the opposite occurring- it seems like every time I turn around, Sam or Anna has some new Something to share with the world.

We decided that Anna has officially said her first real word now. She has been repeating words we say for a while , but this word is one she says on her own, and in an appropriate context. She has been enamoured with our dog for a long time, so it makes sense that "Bella" is Anna's first real word. She understands what it means and says it often when she tries to get Bella to come closer or pay attention to her. I like this newest development much better than the barking she's done for the past few months (although cute to see her bark like a dog to get the dog's attention, it is much cuter to hear her voice say Bel- ah.)

Anna is getting better at army crawling, but really excels at turning around. That girl can turn 360 degrees like on a dime and in speedy fast time. Although she can army crawl, she prefers to turn her body the way she wants it to go and then roll in a direct path to her destination. It's hilarious to watch her turn and roll, turn and roll, turn and roll all over the room to get from one toy/person/dog to another in succession.

She has been back to waking frequently at night lately, and I think it is because she's rehearing crawling on all fours in her mind. Whenever we see her awake in her crib, she's on all fours rocking back and forth. I think she's really trying to figure it out and her crawling days won't be far behind...

*****

Sam has now shown a huge amount of interest in climbing. His favorite thing to climb is our fireplace mantel. He loves to climb up there and try to open the doors. We have put a rubber bumper around the edge of the mantel for spills however I am not quite sure how to baby proof the fireplace doors though...

Along with the climbing, Sam is pulling up on everything. He can pull up to his knees and maintain that position and pull to stand. This new development allowed him to learn how to sit on his own too- although he spends very little time sitting in one place now since his adventurous spirit takes him all over our house...

Also today at 9 months 1 week and 4 days old Sam's first tooth made its grand appearance. His first tooth is his bottom right, while Anna's first tooth was the bottom left.

That's the latest in our world right now! Some photos from this weekend:

A Year Ago Today...

...could have been my babies' birth day. I've had in my head all day long how this could have been the day they turned 1 year old, but I am so thankful that it is not.

Last year on December 20th, I went to the hospital with preterm contractions. I was sent home after the contractions were "controlled" that afternoon. However, apparently they were not because bring-me-to-my knees contractions showed up that evening despite the terbutaline, forcing me to call my husband (who was grocery shopping at the time) in hysterics and beg him to come home and bring me back to the hospital. That day was the scariest day of my life- even more scary than the day my house was on fire (with me and my doggies inside). I was only 26 weeks along- past 50% viability day, but not past danger by any means. I remember very vividly rocking back and forth on my knees, griping the couch armrest, pleading through my sobs that it was too early and praying fervently to God to keep them in longer as I waited for my husband to get home. My dog stayed close by my side until he got there. My husband later told me that he ditched the almost-full cart in an aisle before he raced home.

I spent the night in the hospital while the contractions were finally held at bay with an increased dose of magnesium sulfate. (Ugh- I remember so well how wicked that stuff was.) It was a scary, scary 24 hours, but Sam and Anna hung tight. There were threats of strict bedrest until I delivered, threats that I would have to stay at the hospital longer than 1 night, and my husband was given a tour of the NICU by a NICU nurse (I think to scare him into making sure I stayed on bedrest). Ultimately, winter break from school gave me a change to lay low and recuperate. With no more contractions after that initial 24 hours, I went back to teaching two weeks later (with my OB's okay) until I chose to stop teaching at 35 weeks.

My cervix of steel earned its keep that day- helping me hold out to a C-section I elected for at 37 weeks- 11 weeks later. After December 20th, 2009, I never thought I would make it that far, and I am forever thankful that my babies were able to remain inside as long as they should have. I will never forget the vivid memories of my preterm-labor scare at 26 weeks and I will always be thankful that December 20th is not their birthday! Cause for a celebration tonight, since we aren't celebrating a birthday, right?

Let Me Tell You About My Week

This is why I say life is never dull around here. With the excitement and far-from-the-norm events of about the last week or so, we definitely can't say our life is boring! Let's start from a week ago Wednesday:

Two Wednesdays ago Anna started to come down with pink eye in both eyes at the same time. We decided to give her Sam's eye drops (as the doctor hinted we might choose to do, *wink* *wink* if another family member became infected, as was certainly very likely). By Thursday afternoon her eyes were much, much worse than Sam's ever were- they were so swollen she couldn't see at all, and when you pried apart her eyelids to try and get the drops in, you could see that the whites of her eyes were covered completely in broken blood vessels (quite vampire-ish, really). Our daycare provider called me at work, worried that Anna was having a reaction to the medicine because it was getting worse, not better. We decided to try to get her in to see a pediatrician that day. I hustled around trying to find a way to cover my class so I could leave right then (because as a teacher it is almost always impossible to just leave work in a moment's notice), but then got a call back that they could fit her in at 4 pm. I had a parent meeting planned for after school that I couldn't cancel, so I just tried to make it brief so I could get out of there on time.

Meanwhile, a nasty storm was brewing outside and unbeknowst to me, an email was sent from the powers that be allowing us to leave early to get home before the roads got worse. I left work with enough time to pick up Anna from daycare (but realized that I did not have enough time to go home to get the double stroller, which I would need to haul both babies into the clinic), so I called our DCP en route to see if she would keep Sam a little late until I was done with Anna's appointment. She said that would be perfectly fine, but wanted to know where I was on the highway, because she just found out there was a 9 car pile up on the highway by her son who was stuck in traffic in a school bus, and was told they would probably be stuck there for close to 2 hours. We figured out a back way that I could get to her house detouring the highway (meanwhile, the roads were nasty- hello- 9 car pileup), I finally got to Anna (in one piece), and my poor baby looked awful. She could hardly see. We headed off to the doctors, about 30 minutes behind, but after a quick call to the office to let them know, I was reassured that that would be fine because of the weather conditions.

THEN, on our way (just Anna and I), my car decided to die while idling at a red light. In the left lane of a busy 4 lane road. On top of glare ice. Oh, and did I mention that our other vehicle was at a repair shop that day because it had been making a funny noise so my husband was at work without a vehicle? I panicked and tried to call him, but I couldn't get a hold of him. Not like he could do anything to help me, anyway. So I called our daycare provider (because our family all lives out of state) and there was no one else available that would be able to help. She sent her husband and another daycare daddy to come and give me their car so I could get to the appointment (because remember, we were both worried about Anna). Meanwhile, a police car pulls up behind me and after talking with me, offers to call a tow for me and takes my name and number. I leave and get to the appointment over 30 minutes late. Short version of the appointment: the doctor says to "give it another day and see if there's improvement." Um kay- so that appointment was totally not necessary.

On top of that- the repair shop couldn't get our vehicle to make the noise I heard, so they didn't do a damn thing to it. If it hadn't been in, I wouldn't have been driving our crappy car. And in my chaotic stressed state, I didn't think to find out where my car got towed, or by who (because I left it there so I could get to the doctor) and I couldn't remember what officer helped me, or even what kind of officer he was (state trooper, city cop, and if so, which city?). All that added up to a very difficult time locating where the heck my car was after we were all home that evening. Then later, I find out that I missed the 9 car pile up by close to a mere 10 minutes.

Still with me? I left out a lot of crazy details, but needless to say, I needed a big ol' glass of wine that evening.

That following weekend, we had rescheduled our 9 month professional photos because of Sam's pink eye the week before, so we needed to reschedule yet again. But Anna's eye did start to improve.

Then on Monday, I started to come down with pink eye myself. I self-doctored with the drops we had but tried to get through the day at work. Sam and Anna's 9 month pedi appointment was that afternoon, so I was going to leave early anyway. However, my eye got dramatically worse in a little under 2 hours that afternoon- very similar to Anna's eyes. I was worried, so I told my husband he would have to take them to the appointment by himself, because I needed to get to the walk-in clinic fast. Before I got there, my eye had completely swelled shut, and I had to drive with only 1 eye open. They gave me a stronger dose of eye drops plus an oral antibiotic, and an eye patch. Thank goodness my babies didn't get any shots at their appointment this time, because nobody should have to do two babies (with stranger anxiety) with shots by themselves. (Trust me, I did the flu shot appointments by myself, and it was extremely less than fun.) I won't even get into how the pharmacy couldn't find my Rx and I had to send my husband back later to get it, after waiting there for 30 minutes with eye oozing goo all over the place. I went to bed as soon as I could that night, slept 10 hours straight, and stayed home from work the next day.

Moving forward to Wednesday- I headed back to work that morning. It was the coldest morning of the winter so far, with actual temperatures of 20 below zero, plus a windchill on top of that. It was that morning (already feeling crummy because my eye was only starting to improve and I felt ugly and gross and wished I could stay home more days) that the vehicle that was making a funny noise for us but not the repair guys decided to stop blowing any warm air. So because I was already on my way, I had no choice but to drive with ridiculously cold air blowing (in an attempt to keep my windshield from being completely iced over) in -20 degree temps. I couldn't feel my feet 10 minutes into my 40 minute drive. I could hardly walk once I got to school because my legs were so so so cold (I was wearing thin dress pants and fashion boots, not snow pants and winter boots, you know?) I just kept trying to think of tropical places and warm drinks and okay- I even drove 20 mph over the speed limit to get into someplace warm as soon as I could. Being that cold for 40 minutes was way way worse that the swollen eye goop two days earlier. I cursed the repair guys for "not being able to find anything wrong with it" the week before. My co-worker lent me a heated blanket for the drive home so that helped!

If you made it through all that, I am impressed. Things have settled down a little in the last few days, so I finally have my bearing enough that I can sort through it all in my head. In short- life is certainly never dull around here- sometimes regardless if we have twins!

9 months!

(I'm only just slightly more on top of this this month because I now have pink eye. Nasty swollen-shut-eye-lots-of-goop pink eye that prevents me from being able to go to work. Oh darn. :) Let's hope our household doesn't continue to pass it around again. 3 weeks of pink eye around here is enough thank-you-very-much.)


At 9 months, Anna:

Is in size 3 diapers (and will probably be for a long, long time)
Wears 9 month clothes, (although she still needs a 6 month waist size!)
Weighed 16 lbs (gaining about a lb in a month) - almost 10%ile
Has a head circumference of 44 1/4 cm (50%ile)
Is 27 inches tall (25%ile)
Drinks 6-9 oz a time, 4 times a day
Now eats a snack or two each day in addition to three meals a day
In addition to the old list of foods, has recently tried cottage cheese, broccoli, mango and pork
New finger foods include baked potato chunks, beans and pasta
Has been eating a little less due to tooth #1's full appearance
Tires of the baby food early, but will continue to self feed after that
Really dislikes eating meats
Has emerged on the other side of the 8/9 month sleep regression. We seem to be back to 12 hours of sleep... for now.
Attempts to roll over instantly on the changing table and crawl off the end.
Loves to grab mom's face, mouth or neck hair while being held when she's supposed to be getting drowsy
Likes to peek over the edge of the crib bumper when you go in to get her up
Takes 2 longer naps of 1 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours a day
Is finally a fan of sitting- now that she is a pro. I think walking will be the same way with her...
Army crawling more and more
Likes to play the drop-it-and-pick-it-up-for-me game
Favorite toy of the moment: the pop up toy. She loves closing the doors, but has not show any desire to learn how to make them pop up.
Repeats words like Bella (our dog's name)
Can wave goodbye
First tooth (bottom left) is all the way through now
Had pink eye for the first time in both eyes at the same time- resulting in broken blood vessels all over the whites of her eyes.

At 9 months, Sam:

Is in size 3 Overnight diapers with no more leaks
Wears 9 month clothing and a few 12 month things
Weighed 17 lb 9 oz (gaining about a lb in a month) - almost 10%ile
Has a head circumference 45 1/2 cm (50%ile)
Is 27 1/2 inches tall (25%ile)
Drinks 6-9 oz a time, 4 times a day
Has finally given up the MOTN bottle and has been sleeping about 12 hours in a stretch!
Now eats a snack or two each day in addition to three meals a day
In addition to the old list of foods, has recently tried cottage cheese, broccoli, mango and pork

New finger foods include stuffing, beans, pasta and baked potato chunks

Gets very fussy after his bedtime bottle and doesn't want to be held

Loves to grab at mom's face and neck hairs when he's supposed to be getting drowsy
Takes 2 longer naps of 1 1/2 hours to 2 1/2 hours a day
Is a master kicker in the pool

Has turned into quite the climber. He climbs up on our fireplace mantel, climbs into the bottom of the exersaucer, over chair rungs, etc.

Has shown more interest in pulling up
Had pink eye for the first time- although his eye didn't bother him, he hated the eye drops

Is either in a super chatty mood or doesn't babble at all- there's no inbetween

Favorite toy of the moment: anything that Anna has

Is our little comedian

A Few of My Favorite Things

One month into this twin baby adventure, I wrote a post sharing my then must-have items for our twin babies. I have been thinking lately of a few things I swoon over, that I never knew I would appreciate as much as I do now that my babes are 9 months old. Not an all-encompassing list by any means, just a few items I am so glad I discovered.

Bumkins bibs- We tried a few different styles and brands before I think someone recommended this brand in a comment. I LOVE them. I knew I wanted easily wipeable bibs, but it was so hard to find ones that could be tossed into the washing machine as well. Without being able to do that, food crust inevitably builds up in the crevices and fabric binding of non-machine washable bibs. They are a good size for right now too- and come in a larger size for toddlers when we need that. I am so glad I heard about them!

Amazon for disposable diapers- trust me, I get nothing from Amazon for mentioning this, but I wanted to share all the same. I used to save diaper coupons and stack them at Target (one manufacturer coupon plus one Target coupon) and felt pretty good about the deals I got. Anna has a pretty sensitive bum, so Pampers and Huggies are what works best for her, so I can't always get the generic diapers. First off, diapers are always free shipping on Amazon (a great thing when going to the store must involve trucking a double stroller around the aisles, which makes it difficult to tote a large box to the register). Secondly, if you sign up for Amazon mom (as far as I can tell, no $ strings attached to that), and Subscribe and Save, you get 30% off right now, and also get them shipped to you in 2 days at no extra charge. All you have to do is cancel the Subscribe and Save after your diapers arrive, and no additional diapers will be sent. Finally, if you use the green coupon insert found in Parents magazine or Parenting the Early Years you get an additional 20% off- making your total 50 % off. I know this has been all over the Mom couponing blogs, but it seriously makes me giddy that I got a box of 204 size 3 Pampers for $19 today, especially considering how many diapers we go through with two babies!

Lamaze Chime Garden- We got this toy secondhand from a co-worker when the babies were a month old. I think it easily takes the cake as my favorite toy so far. She told us that it was "her favorite toy" and I completely agree. It truly has grown with Sam and Anna. At first, as newborns they loved listening to the tunes and watching the flowers light up. When in the midst of our reflux struggles, sometimes dangling the flowers above their heads while trying to get them to drink a bottle was the only thing that would distract them enough to drink a few ounces. Our babies were never really motivated in learning to sit, and wedging this toy between their legs helped them forget they were sitting and kept them upright longer. The different textures on the flowers are fabulous to nom on as well. Sam and Anna STILL into this toy, because now they know how to hit the flowers to make the lights go on their own.

Kidco BabySteps baby food freezer trays- I have made 99% of Sam and Anna's baby food so far. We use freezer trays and baby food cubes to freeze the food I've made. Then I pop them out and put the cubes into baggies so I can make the next batch. With two babies we go through a lot of food around here and our freezer is stocked with baby food cubes galore. I've discovered that although the individual cubes with lids are nice, they just don't hold up to the amount of use required by two babies. I've already broken 4 cubes trying to get the frozen food out. The Freezer Trays are so easy to pop food out of, and the lids make them far superior to using regular ol' ice trays. Making baby food is sooo easy that even a non-cook like me can do it successfully. These trays are awesome!

Besides the Jumperoo and Leapfrog Learning Table, and other more common big hits in baby toys at this age, these are a few of my more unknown favorites at 9 months!

Our Holiday Card!

It was super challenging to find one to fit the format of our pictures, but here is our card! Enjoy!

Shutterfly Saves the Day!

We are so totally going with Shutterfly holiday cards this year, using the cute Christmas pj shots from our daycare provider. Professional 9 month photos are out, because Anna now has pink eye- and a much worse case than Sam. Poor girl- both her eyes got it at the same time, and so yesterday her eyes were so swollen, she couldn't see for a good chunk of the afternoon. Add in the fact that she has broken blood vessels all over the whites of her eyes (which the pediatrician said would take weeks to heal), and any holiday pictures we would take at this point will look a little more vampire-ish than cutesy-babies. I am so glad we got the pictures we did when we did (inbetween both rounds of pink eye), and I am so glad that Shutterfly has an awesome freebie deal for bloggers right now.

Bloggers who use Shutterfly and write a quick post about their experiences with the photo site get 50 free holiday cards! That's fantastic! The offer closes today, so hurry if you still want to get in on this! I know that tons of blogs I read took advantage of this super offer.

I am having a really hard time deciding which card to use because they have a TON to choose from...check them out for yourself. I'm a very indecisive person, and gosh- there are SO many cute designs. Do I use all of our photo options? Do I stick to 2-3 pictures? Or just 1? But how on earth do I choose just one photo?

Ever since Sam and Anna were born, I've uploaded all of our pictures to Shutterfly - they make it really easy to share photos, which my mother in law loves. I'm a little behind in ordering prints, but once winter break arrives, I know what will be near the top of my to-do list.

I wasn't aware of all the photo gifts that Shutterfly has until I poked around their website. I will definitely keep them in mind for next Christmas- I'm sure any photo gift would be a big hit with the grandmas!

I love making photo books on Shutterfly as well. While on maternity leave, I created one for my mom with pictures of all her grandchildren. She keeps it in her purse to share with anyone that will look at it. When we had to put down our dog Benelli in September, I decided to start a tradition of creating a photo book in memory of each dog we will have. It was a great way to help me process my grief, and I will cherish Benelli's photo book for many years to come. I also created a photo book for my husband for an anniversary gift one year filled with photos of us over the 10+ years that we've known each other- it turned out great!

When Sam and Anna turn one, I fully intend to do a one year photo book that highlights my favorite pictures from the year (The undecided question is: One photo book for each child? Or a combined photo book for both babies?)

So there you go- Shutterfly (and our daycare provider) saved the day for us! Now I just have to hope the cards arrive in time for me to find time to address them!

Wordless Wednesday

Our daycare provider sent these to me at work yesterday. These might just have to be our card photos! When I told her I didn't know what to do, she said to send their pjs and she'd play around with some ideas. She is awesome! I love that since there is only a 3 year old and a 18 month old besides Sam and Anna, they get so much individualized attention.

Starting to Panic

I procrastinated on taking a picture for our holiday cards. Here was my rationalization: We were getting a nice camera for our Christmas present to ourselves with a super Black Friday deal (Our tradition is that our holiday gift to each other is the one time a year we buy something big- one year it was our bedroom furniture set, one year a tv, another year it was our laptop, last year it was our Honda Pilot) and wouldn't our new Nikon take a much nicer picture that my good ol' point and shoot? Plus, I just couldn't decide on outfits. Sam and Anna are having their professional 9 month pictures later this month, and I didn't want to pay for expensive cards from there, when Shutterfly has an awesome freebie deal for bloggers. (My Shutterfly post is coming soon.)

Then Sam got pink eye and our pictures got pushed back even farther.

So now I'm panicking. I need to take the picture on the weekend so there is enough good light. I still don't know what to have them wear and I can't decide how to pose them or what props I should use. (Ideas welcome!) I've waited so long, anything I think is a viable option for clothing has been out of their sizes in stores.

I won't even mention that I haven't even figured out how to use our nice new camera to take the pictures....

Eeek! I'll tell you this though - I am going to feel pretty darn proud of myself if I pull it together and get cards done and out in time!

TIDWTFT

Things I Don't Want to Forget Thursdays

Sam has pink eye. My poor baby woke up this morning with his eye superglued shut with goop and so swollen he wouldn't have been able to see out of it anyway. So why is this something "I don't want to forget?" Because my dear sweet baby boy didn't let it bother him one bit. He was his usual happy smiley self. If it wouldn't have made me late this morning, I would have taken a picture of him smiling his huge toothless good-morning smile with a majorly crusty swollen eye right above it. It really was too adorable for words.

Sam has begun to sing along whenever we sing to him... or when there is a particularly good song to him on the radio. Yesterday while driving home, he added his own "la la la la" chorus. Either he's ready for Christmas songs, or he's gonna give Lady Gaga a run for her money. Either way, his singing sure makes us sing to both babies a whole heck of a lot more. How could anyone resist?

Anna has perfected her closed-mouth smile. This is what she flashes at us when we try to get her to open her mouth to eat some more by making her smile or laugh. She has definitely figured out how to foil our tricks! It makes her look so grown up when she shows it to us and reminds me every time that our babies are closer to toddlerhood than they are to the newborn stage. Ahhh- yet another sign that time goes by way too fast.

Anna is such a morning person! When I go into their room to wake the babies up in the morning, while Sam needs a few moments to get adjusted to the light and wake up, Anna pops right up (if she's on her tummy) and greets me with her wide open-mouth smile. She truly smiles with her whole face. Usually she tries to talk back to me right away as I say hi and good morning. If I don't say hi fast enough, she's quick with her "eh eh!" sounds (the way she lets us know she wants your attention). I'm sure it's only a matter of time before she's really saying hi to me in the morning!