Fun Pictures

Here are some fun pictures of Josiah and the boys. The babies are getting more wake times now and so we are putting them in their carseats so that they can be out with us where the "action" is apparently! Josiah helped prepare the rings for the babies enjoyment. Incidentally, Caleb is sitting in the animal print carseat and Daniel in the blue car seat for your reference.

Visit from Uncle Brent & Aunt Katie

Today Uncle Brent and Aunt Katie came for a visit and had their turns at holding and feeding the babies. Since Caleb is the one who takes the bottle the easiest, he is the one I had both of them feed him (they were here for 2 feedings). Here pictured however is Brent holding Daniel. By the time I got the idea to get the camera, Katie had already put Caleb down for a nap and so I missed the shot. Whoops! What can I say..I am a tired Mommy! They brought Barry the beagle dog, the newest addition to their family, to visit as well. Our dog Echo was none too pleased to share her stead with the newcomer. The dogs were chasing each other around the house as well as when they were outside together, and it was rather entertaining to watch. Barry would bark at Echo when she got too annoying for him and she would show her teeth to him off and on, but no harm was done!

For those of you wondering, I am feeling much better now and Josiah is too. We are still dealing with the bad rash he has though, so you can pray that it goes away soon. He woke up today with another bad blowout and he immediately had to take a bath to clean up and then yet another blowout in the bathtub (those are always SO fun for me). As you might guess, there was a special load of baby toys for the dishwasher today to sterilize the whole mess as well as a much needed thorough cleaning of the bathroom! What fun at 6:00am in the morning, eh? In this picture, Josiah had previously found the camera and was saying, "Cheese" and holding the camera up, so I asked him if he wanted me to take a picture of him and he did, so here it is! And who are the 2005 State #1 Champs? You tell me!

And you know I can't resist adding some cute twin pictures to the post as well. Here you see how I am now propping them up a bit in their beds as I suspect they both may have silent reflux, which is a version of acid reflux that is a little different than the normal variety. They haven't been officially diagnosed at this point, but I thought I would do some of the suggestions I read about to help them in case they do have it. Daniel is the further away child and Caleb is the one with his eyes open (posing for the camera again!)

Here is little Caleb asleep with his token hand beside his face.

Here is Daniel with his token dangling hand outside the blanket.

Wild Weekend

As you may have read in the previous post, Josiah has been ill and so we have been tending to his needs. He stopped throwing up the first day (thank you Lord) but now has been having some problems with his other end, and he has developed a rash since he hasn't been telling us he keeps pooping. We thought we had quite a success the other day when he said, "I have a pooper," and though he did not, he wanted to be brought to the toilet and actually went in the toilet! When we left the bathroom, I praised him a lot and he shouted, "Hooray!" as we walked back to the living room. This was a short lived moment though as all today he hasn't been telling us he needs to go. I think it is out of his control at this point anyway and it is so painful for us to clean him up he would rather avoid the whole thing. David gave him a nice bath though as he was screaming bloody murder for the first 2/3rds of the bath and I am thankful that he did it because I was feeling out of sorts right about that time myself as well. This picture of Josiah is typical of how we all felt this weekend...very tuckered out! David went in to work everyday this week (and did his normal 8pm to 2am shift) to do some training and so has been pretty worn down. He even flew to Spokane on Friday and back again that night.

I have also been feeling ill a bit, but thankfully haven't had a full blown version of what Josiah had as of yet. I started feeling sick to my stomach last night as I was feeding Caleb at 4am, but managed to keep it together and finish feeding Daniel too followed by some restless sleep before the next feeding started at 7am. Ahhh, such is our life nowadays! The babies are doing well though thus far, no signs of illness in them thankfully. We continue to watch them though just in case. Please continue to pray protection over them! Incidentally, this picture of Josiah and I was taken after we finally calmed him down after all his crying and problems today. He actually sat and cuddled with me, which is a VERY rare thing for our active little boy. He didn't get much of a nap today, since he fell asleep in the chair (as pictured above) and ended up crashing on the couch watching Nemo around 7pm (usual bedtime of 8pm). Poor little Josiah! I hope he will have a better day tomorrow!

Prayer Request

This morning Josiah told me "I feel cold," which in our household means his tummy hurts and he may throw up soon. It was apparent he wasn't feeling well because his appetite was low (more like non-existent) as he only had a few bites of a sandwich before he ended up falling asleep next to me on the couch around 11:30am (usual naptime is 2:00pm). Incidentally, when we hear the "I feel cold" phrase we give Josiah his "speical towel" to hold on to, which of course is more for us to clean him up afterward than it is for him to throw up into. So now when his tummy hurts he says, "Need towel!" (He is still very cute even though he is sick!)

All morning and afternoon he was obviously ill, but no messes to clean up....until...as I was beginning to do my afternoon pump, sitting all cozy on the couch hooked up to the milk machine, Josiah came over to the couch complaining he felt cold again and the next thing you know the grapes that he just ate were all over the couch in a new and grossified form. Ugh! Following this lovely scene, I somehow managed to remove the breast pump parts off my body and whisk Josiah off to get him cleaned up all the while wondering how in the world to get puke smell out of the couch. I was able to clean the couch up really well by the way by washing the cushion covers in the washing machine and hand cleaning and using lysol on the non-removable parts of the couch. It was quite a job!

Then later in the afternoon, Josiah showed interest in eating a sandwich and so I thought perhaps his throwing up problems were through. Instead, we had nice little visit from Mr. Diarrhea, which resulted in a quick bath to clean up further for Mr. Josiah. UGH!! Then later before bed another "I'm cold," incident, but this time I managed to escort him to the toilet in time!

Poor little pumpkinhead! So I guess you can guess the prayer request at this point? It would be nice if David and I were bypassed by this illness, but my main prayer request is that the babies DO NOT get this! I am hoping that the immunities in my milk will protect them against it!

Thanks in advance for your prayers. I am sorry there are no pictures of late, as you can imagine picking up the camera is rather far from my mind at this point. However, I am blogging because I get stuck in front of the computer while I pump milk (in case you are wondering why I can find the time to type all this).

Another Funny Moment

Josiah came up with a doozy today that had both David and I laughing pretty hard. Thought I would write it down before I forgot. Here goes:

Daddy: (holding Caleb) "His head smells like cooked pasta."
Mommy: (smells his head) "Yeah, sort of I guess."
Josiah: "Want smell too!"
Daddy: (brings Caleb over) "OK, What does Caleb's head smell like Josiah?"
Josiah: (very matter of factly) "Poop!"

....resounding laughter follows!

Josiah: (gets a big smile and starts getting all excited that Mommy and Daddy are laughing at his joke)

Funny Josiah Moments

Yesterday I was pumping milk (as is often the case throughout the day) at my computer (I have a discrete way of doing it now) and Josiah was sitting next to me playing a toddler computer game on the Fisher Price website. Our conversation goes like this:
Josiah: What doing Momma?
Mommy: I am pumping milk.
Josiah: (taking his shirt and putting it over the arm of the chair) I'm pumping too! Pumping shirt!
Mommy: No you're not silly!
Josiah: Yes, pumping!
Josiah: Pumping too Daddy?
Daddy: (with a sideways grin) No!

Another fun thing is that he pronounces his "L's" like "W's" and so we get these kind of words out of him:
HeWo (hello)
CaWeb (Caleb)
The combined above is so cute. "HeWo CaWeb!!"
PiWrate (Pilot)--to which I say "what does a pilot say?" and he answers "Rrrr Hardies" (confusing pilots with pirates!)

I tried to work with him on getting the "L" sound by putting his tongue on his teeth, but he just sticks his tongue way out and gets a sort of "L" sound and then prounces the word in question with a "W." He does a similar thing when he sees the letter "D." He says, "D is for Papa!" and I say, "No D is for Daddy!" Then I say "Duh, duh duh Daddy" and he says, "Duh, duh, duh Papa! Oh well, he will get it eventually! For now it is a cute little thing he does.

Gaining Weight!

We went to the doctor yesterday and the report is that she is VERY pleased with their progress! I tried to get a picture of the boys both awake and looking at the camera, but that wasn't to be this time! Instead we get a nice shot of Caleb's face and Daniel showing us his typical flailing stance with eyes closed.

When we got ready to go the doctor's office, we noticed that Daniel seemed to be too big to fit in his car bed, but we crammed him in there anyway (with the buckle at its largest setting). I read the directions on the way to the doctor's office and saw that the length limit is 20 inches and weight limit is 9 pounds. I knew he wasn't 9 pounds, but it was conceivable he was 20 inches, since at the last visit he was 19 inches long. Sure enough, Daniel was 20 inches long and he weighed in at 7 pounds 4 ounces (gain of 8 ounces in 2 weeks). The doctor said that we could move him to the regular infant seat now, and so we think we will. I did call Tacoma General to see if they would test them in the regular seats again and apparently they don't do that now that they are not patients there, and the clinic we go to does not do the test either. We think we will just put them in their seats at some point and watch them to be sure they are breathing OK. Really though, they weigh what normal newborns weigh coming out of the hospital, so I am sure they will be fine.

Here is another attempt to get the boys' picture together. This one shows how Caleb is our little camera hog and Daniel who likes to hide from the camera, just like they posed (or didn't pose as the case may be) for many of their ultrasounds!! The report on Caleb by the way is that he weighs 6 pounds 12 ounces now (a 1 pound 10 ounce gain in 2 weeks) and is 19 inches long (grew 1/2 an inch).

My Dad came over today and eventually took Josiah out for dinner (meeitng Grandma at the restaurant), so David and I could have a quiet moment or two while the babies sleep. Josiah was thrilled to get out of the house too! Before he left though, he got a nice picture of me with my three boys. Yes I know...I am outnumbered! This has been mentioned to me once or twice already! It is a good thing I have always liked boys I guess, right? Hee hee!!

The Green-Eyed Monster Rears It's Ugly Head

So....no picture today as it is hard to catch a shot of the green-eyed monster in action. Yes, little Josiah has been showing some signs of jealously of late and it has taken the form of annoying Mommy in every possible way. And before you say it, I know he is doing this to get my attention because he knows he isn't the center of our world anymore....BUT can I still be annoyed that he pushes me over the edge doing it?

Here is the typical scene around here of late: I am either pumping (which takes a good 30 minutes or so stuck to the machine) or feeding one of the twins and Josiah says, "Want eat," to which I say, "What do you want?" Then he will say something like "fruit snacks" and I will say "Ok, just wait until Mommy is finished." Then a resounding, "Noooooooo," and the continual whining and asking for it again and again after that until I am ready to help him. Oh and the lovely part is when I am actually able to get the fruit snacks he says, "Don't want fruit snacks!" and throws them on the floor. Ugh I say!!

Another one of my favorites is how he takes the cooking utensils out of the cannister on the stove and runs around the house waving them around. Usually he ends up hitting Echo (our dog) with them and then he ends up in his room for hitting people/animals with utensils.

Though Josiah is learning to obey better, he is also testing his limits. When we tell him to stop doing something or not to do something he will say, "No," and so we have been working with him to stop that and say either "Yes ma'am," or "Yes sir" depending. We don't want him to get in the habit of saying "no" to our requests. It has been working little by little, but he still doesn't quite get it.

Overall though I have been praying for patience in dealing with him as it has been wearing on me to care for all three boys at once. My hardest time is early mornings (around 6am) when I am due to feed the twins and Josiah typically wakes up right around the same time. This is when I am most tired and not in the mood to deal with the green-eyed monster. If any of you are up that early, please say a prayer for my sanity!

Friends, Fences, & Food!!

We haven't had too many visitors since the twins were born, but today Josiah had a special treat in that when Karen & Sharel came over to see the babies, they brought Hannah (Josiah's buddy) with them. I got this cute shot of them smiling real big together (tough moment to catch!)

Sharel and Karen both got to feed the twins and interact with them a bit as well, which was fun for them. The whole time Josiah was trying to get Hannah to come and play with him, but she was more interested in the babies at first and was telling him to "be gentle" whenever he came around one of the babies. There is definitely a difference in how 2-year old boys respond to babies compared to 2-year old girls as demonstrated today.

As we have previously shown in other posts, Josiah loves to line up his cars in an orderly fashion. Today he enclosed himself in a nice car fence! When we took this picture, he was actually saying the word "cheese" as well.

Now for those of you who have been wondering, "How do you guys do it?" The answer is that we have had to be super organized of late and the funny thing is, the house seems more in order now than it was before! Funny how the busier you get, the more organized and efficient you become. In this photo, David lined up many of the various things we use to feed the twins. We have 3 kinds of formulas (regular, sensitive for fussy tummies, and high-calorie type), infant gas drops, multi-vitamin drops, saline nose drops, hand sanitizer (since we wash our hands so much), bulb syringes for suctioning noses and mouths when needed, bottles, breastmilk containers, & breast pumping supplies. And not pictured here is the Ivory soap, which David said he will now always associate the smell of with breastmilk, since that is what we use to clean all the supplies. It was recommended to us to use that soap in the hospital because it is mild.

Another thing we have done is to keep track of all the feedings and relevant data on the twins on a steno notepad. This is good because we can see what is going in them (in milliliters) as well as what is coming out of them (in counts of wet/poopy diapers), which is very useful when we go to the doctor to show them a record of what is happening with each boy. Caleb as many of you might know likes to hold his #2's in for a few days and then apparently waits for Daddy's shift in the night (hee hee hee) to let it all go in a giant blowout. So, this morning I looked at the record of the night's events and saw that David put one very thick, darkened hashmark under the poopy diaper section for Caleb. Then this morning he told me that it was so bad he had to change outfits! I had to laugh....sorry honey! Anyway, this record is really helpful, and especially when you are sleep deprived it is nice to have a record that you DID feed them and that it wasn't just a dream! Incidentally, the 2 shifts (David from 8pm-1 or 2am and me from 1am or 2am to the morning) are working well for us. Thank you Sarah from TPOM (Tacoma Parents of Multiples) group for suggesting this! I figured that if I didn't pump milk (which takes 30 minutes including the clean-up afterward), at the most if I was trying to do all the feedings I would get little 2 hour chunks of sleep here and there and that just would NOT work! I am thankful for my 5-6 chunk of sleep because that is at least something to get me through the rest of the night.

And just a little food for thought for those of you out there wondering....I figured that if we changed each twin's diaper before each feeding (which we almost always need to do) it amounts to around 480 diapers a month (16 diapers a day). Isn't that insane? Thankfully, as they get older the diaper changes are less frequent, but still...that is a lot of diapers!

Precious Birthday Gifts!!

Today was David's birthday and though we didn't go out and do anything special, his comment to me was that he had the best birthday in a long while because he had two special gifts to cherish now! I am thankful I have a husband who values his children in this way.

We have moved the little ones to their crib for sleepy time to see how that goes. It seems they do wake each other up a bit lying next to one another, but we figure that even in separate cribs in the same room that they would still wake each other anyway.

We have a great system going now to help us remember who is who at a glance. My friend Dawn made us these lovely blankets, hats, mittens, and booties in two different colors (green and blue). Caleb wears the blue & white hat (as in picture above) and Daniel wears the green & white hat. We have bottles that are color coordinated as well so we remember who gets what bottle that we prepare in advance before their feedings. It makes things a little easier in the wee hours of the night/morning when things are a bit groggy for both of us.

Here is a nice picture of Daddy burping Daniel on his birthday! Happy Birthday Poppa! We all love you very much!

One Week Appointment & All Is Well!

The boys were checked out today by our pediatrician and she said she was "very pleased" with their progress. Daniel was giving me a ton of these cute little involuntary smiles in the office today, so I got my phone out and took a picture of his lovely smile. Daniel weighed in at 5 pounds and 12 oz. (gain of 1 pound 6 oz. since birth) and was 19 inches long (gain of 2 & 1/4 inches since birth). The doctor checked all his vitals and he was very healthy. In fact, as she was checking his lower extremeties, he let out a loud expolosive poop and filled his diaper, which thankfully was still in place. She actually jumped and then said, "Well, his bowels are working well it seems!" Then he proceeded to pee all over as well, so that was fun! Daniel has left his mark at the doctor's office so to speak.

Caleb had his usual concerned look on his face at the doctor's office most of the time. He was due for his next feeding around the time we were there, and so I think he was looking more for milk rather than a doctor's check up! He was also none to pleased to be unwrapped from his warm, comfy blanket either! We got to hear the full force of his lungs as he wailed on until he was rewrapped in his baby burrito. At home, he nuzzles down into his blanket and is a bundle of warmth when we retreive him for feedings and diaper changes. Caleb weighed in today at 5 pounds 2 oz. (gain of 1 pound 1 oz. since birth) and was 18 & 1/2 inches long (gain of 1 & 3/4 inches since birth). We had to do the length measurement twice because Caleb doesn't like to extend his legs out fully. He typically keeps them bent into his body all the time.

Some fun Josiah exchanges occurred today as well:

Mommy: "Somebody has a pooper!!" (as I am looking down at Josiah)

Josiah: "I have a pooper TOO!"

Daddy bought some Martinelli's sparkling cider and gave some to Josiah this morning calling it "champagne." So all day we heard this one: "More champagne please." Silly Daddy! That one will get us in trouble someday I have a feeling!

Josiah was drinking out of a cup that poured more freely than the type he is used to and got water all over his front. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt with a zip up jacket as well that was zipped up almost all the way. When he got wet he said, "Help...over me!" and "Open me up!" (in reference to unzipping his jacket).

He has very imaginative play now and was taking his bees (toys from McDonalds) and hooking them together and making them fly around the house. Before take-off he would said, "Hold on tight" to the bees and then would go buzzing around the house. Periodically we also hear him say, "Help!" then followed by, "OK here I come," as he manuevers his toys to "help" each other out of various jams they get into.

Last night, Mommy went to bed before Josiah and I asked him to tuck me into bed. He came in and I said, "Can you sing Mommy a song?" (On a side note, I sing to him "Baby, Mine Don't you Cry" from the movie Dumbo all the time) and he started singing in his own key with his precious little voice, "Baby mine....don't...you CRY!" Then we prayed together and he said, "Dear Jesus, thank you...cars, mommy, daddy, brothers." So, soooo precious! Mommy treasures these moments in her heart!

Can you tell the difference?

Hello all....well, one of the questions we get asked from most anyone we tell that we have twins is, "Are they identical or fraternal?" Our opinion is that they look and act very individual and appear to us to be fraternal. They were also in separate sacs and had separate placentas, so the likelihood that they are fraternal is very high. In this shot, we had one awake and one asleep (Caleb on the left and Daniel on the right) but I think it is clear some of the differences even in this picture.

Some of the differences we see are as follows: different skin tone & hair color (Caleb has darker hair and skin tone), their lips have a different shape and fullness (Daniel has fuller lips), & Caleb is still thinner than Daniel and doesn't have the chubby cheek look like Daniel does (and in general Daniel's face is puffier than Caleb's).

Today David's brother Jon came for a visit to see his nephews. We roped him into giving Daniel part of his bottle, which he did willingly and even posed for a picture! It was nice to see him and we were glad he was able to help participate in the baby care too. And for those of you Yankee haters out there, he and David say, "Go Yankees!" David has Josiah trained so much to like baseball, that when football is on we say, "What are you watching?" and he says, "Baseball."

Last night, Josiah was VERY disturbed by the fireworks, and woke up screaming for Mommy & Daddy. Because of this, we had a little Pumpkinhead up during both night shifts from around 10pm-3am, when he finally fell asleep watching "Finding Nemo." On a side note, our very scared doggie probably lost all her body weight in drool due to panting all night because of the fireworks as well. We had forgotten that whenever there are fireworks, that we need to get her some kind of sedative so that she doesn't freak out.

Also today, while Daddy watched all the football games on New Year's and stayed home to care for the twins, Josiah and I went on an outing. Josiah sleeps better for his nap when he has a morning outing, so today we went first to Jamba Juice to get a special drink and then we made our way to the Target train for him to play on at the mall. Josiah gleefully ran around the train chasing all the other little boys and girls until he ran out of steam and finally came back to Mommy requesting to put his shoes on. We then went and got some lunch in the food court and came home. Josiah fell asleep in the car (much to Mommy's delight) and we were able to then transplant him into his bed without disturbing him too much....SCORE one for the parents!