Aunt "Wissa" saves the day!!

Aunt Melissa, A.K.A Wissa has graciously agreed to help out now that she's graduated from school! She just started but boy does it make a difference having another adult to talk to during the day! I was thinking just before she arrived that Wednesday morning that I was going stir crazy and couldn't wait for the twins to get older so we could start to get out of the house more. Well, I'm not sure who was happier to see her the kids or me!! It was just what we all needed that day. The kids had a blast making a human train (above) and I enjoyed some adult convo!! That same week we took the kids to Yorktown mall and Mel took the kids on the train and the indoor playground while I took the sleeping twins and shopped in peace! Aunt Wissa saves the week!!!

Christmas at Acension

Jack had his christmas recital at school, sooo cute!! They sang about 4 songs including We Wish You a Merry Xmas and Silent Night. Jack didn't really participate though, he sat quietly in the back row smiling at Ava and I!! The big surprise for all of the kids was Santa Clause. All of the kids were shocked and jumping up and down they were so excited! There was one kid whose screams you could hear above the rest....Ava!! She was the most thrilled that Santa was there and grabbed the teachers (Ms. Palmer) hand and pulled her up to see Santa! After the effort, Santa even gave Ava a toy!! After the recital the kids enjoyed treats and Jack showed Poppy and I around his classroom. Jack is only 1 of 3 boys in his class. I fear this is JAcks fate! All of his cousins are girls, the kids on the block are girls and now his pre-K class! He doesn't seem to mind and I'm sure this will serve him well when he's 16!! He has seemed to make friends with a boy named Cory (seen above). This is the kid who teaches him wonderful things like "Boppy head" which he says constantly and as an insult!! Could be worse, I suppose! All in all, they both had a great time! Can't wait til next recital, hopefully he'll have more boys in his class!

Preemie Say What???

Preemie, I don't think so!! He's getting so big and his eyes have settled into his head just fine, lol ( see previous blog)!! He seems to be falling somewhere in the middle as far as his age/adjusted age. He is 10wks, so his adjusted age is one month and I would say he's acting like a 6 week old! Alexa on the otherhand is acting more like a 10wk old, show off!! He's still eating a ton and not sleeping through the night, ha ha!! I'm starting to get used to it! Everyone's up now, gotta run.....................

Jennifer is coming to Town!

So, one of my favorite people came to visit...Jennifer and her hubbie Dave! The kids had a blast! Jackson of course acted shy until the last 15 minutes when I believe he was hanging from Daves leg calling him a "boppy head" ( don't ask, this is his new phrase)! Miss Ava loved them both too she kept climbing in the middle of them while we were all visiting in the family room! After they left and I was looking at the pics I took Ava came running over yelling "See Yennfer, me see Yennfer"!! She LOVES her Yennfer! Jenn and I are hoping to run a half marathon together in the spring! It will be my first, the problem is finding one we can both do since she's in TX and I'm here! :) I'm so glad I got to see her and Dave.....I love my "Yennfer" too!!

Recent Pics early December 2009

So, I should be sleeping, everybody else is but I thought it would be the only chance I had to share some pics I've taken recently. I've been using every spare moment (which hasn't been a lot lately) to work on enhancing photos with photoshop. I'm still learning and there's a lot to learn! I hope you atleast enjoy the pics. I believe if you click on the pics you can see the image larger?

He smiled and she slept through the night!!

Yeah, Johnny smiled! It was yesterday actually, December 9th!! In Jack fashion, he smiled when I wasn't being "sing songy" aka.. baby talk! They must get this from me because I really hate baby talk! I do it because I know it's good for their development but find it a bit silly! I looked at him and asked "Whatcha lookin at?" in kind of a "forgetta bout it" tone and got a grin from ear to ear!! I swear when you would play Peek A Boo with Jack he'd look at you like "Really, you look like an idiot, I know it's you behind there"!!

Just as equally exciting...Lexi slept through the night about 2 nights ago!! She slept about 7 1/2hrs! Jeff was very happy and well rested the next morning! Alexa is such a good baby! She of course didn't repeat herself the next night but she's on the right track. If she could only teach her brother this skill! He's still getting up every 3-4hrs but is eating 3-4oz's!!

2 Potty Train or Not 2 Potty Train??

Well, we thought Ava was showing signs of wanting to be potty trained so we tried it one day....a naked day that is! By the afternoon she had went "potty" on the floor twice with absolutely no remorse and than we found poop in the corner of the family room with poopy footprints around it!! Gross! We concluded that she was indeed not ready and put back on a diaper! She was so upset that she couldn't wear the princess underwear that we had to put them on over her diaper (shown above)!! The very next day we found out that she pooped and peed in the potty at Poppy's house!! She then continued to pee at our house but only on HER terms. She would come up to me and tell me she wanted help taking offf her pants and after I helped she's rip off her diaper and yell "pee" while running to the bathroom and sure enough she'd go! So, I'm not in any hurry for this and I feel like if it is her idea she'll do much better!! So, stay tuned I'll let you know when Miss Ava potty trains herself!! Now if only we could get Jack to go poop in the potty! Yup, he still hasn't gone yet and has absolutely NO intention on doing so!!

My Blue Eyed Boy!

You can't tell so much from the pics but the doc said Johnny will have blue eyes or atleast "light" eyes!! This is very strange to us to have a light eyed child! He's going to look so different from the other 3 in family photos. He appears to be getting in dark hair though and looks a lot like Jacks baby pics so he won't look totally out of place! He looks the most like my baby pics. It's strange that the boys look more like me and the girls like Jeff! :) Lucky Girls!

To add one more thing to list of things I decide to worry myself about Johnny...He like to lie on his right side and is beginning to get a "flat head" on the right!! The NICU follow up lady actually told me to be aware of this for both of them, to not have them lie or be in the same postition all of the time. I have tried but he keeps going back to that right side. If he keeps it up he's gonna have to wear a helmut but he of course doesn't understand this!! If he did, he would stop immediately, lol!!

Twins 8wk/2wk Checkup

So, the twins had their 8wk/2wk checkup on Friday December 4th. The checkup went well, Johnny is gaining weight at rapid speed! The doc couldn't believe he had gained 3 1/4 lbs in a month to make him 9lbs 1oz!! I'm happy to report that if the lil guy gains another 3lbs next month he will oficially be off the preemie charts!! We went over the 2 month milestones which they don't need to be hitting yet and he had hit everyone but smiling! This is of course the one I can't wait for him to make!! He stares and stares at me but hasn't yet smiled at me! He does have until January 17th so I'm not worried. The doc did mention that he still had a "preemie look" I asked what he meant and he said the way his eyes are set! This all made sesnse, my father in law and Jeff kept saying that his eyes looked swollen (like bags underneath) and I did notice that they were very large almost bulging! He said it's nothing to worry about and that it would go away by the time he was a toddler. I hope it goes away sooner, it's all I see now when I look at the cutie pie! Those who know me well know that I will now obsess over this until it goes away!

Alexa's checkup went well also, she was 7lbs 2oz and while she didn't gain nearly as much as her bro the doctor said she was doing well as far as the growth chart! Alexa also has reached pretty much all of her milestones she's just not as strong as her brother. She needs to work on her neck strength which will just come in time. She has smiled at us :) Alexa has a strawberry on her arm which the doc said is worse because she was a preemie but will completely go away by the time she's 3yrs old (you can see it in most pics).

While at the doc I finally asked about Jacks "toe walking" and was releived to know that he just has to do excercises with a physical therapist and all should be good? I guess he's really tight in his achilles tendon which then makes him walk on the balls of his feet. The doc said if we didn't correct it now he would be in a lot of pain if he played sports especially socceer and baseball that involve a lot of running. So, needless to say we want our little slugger to get this fixed so he can become the pro athlete he was suppose to be, lol!! :)

Professional or Amature??

So, 2yrs ago I recieved a gift that inspired a hobby, a Nikon camera from my father in law! I've used 2 professional photogs this year to take pics of the kids mostly because they were mom photographers that started out just like me! They taught themselves which is very impressive and also inspiring! The first 4 pics are pics I took and the rest professional but I think that's obvious! I just recieved yet another gift that will help me create better pics so stay tuned and look out all you other mom photogs!! My goal is to have some sort of home studio in the house by this time next year. I can practice on all my gorgeous nieces and nephews and of course my kids!!

P.S That pic I took of Johnny I love and want to mess with it a little to make it even better. He photographs like a "doll" sometimes. Perfect!!

O Christmas Tree, What did they do to you???

I apparentley didn't get the memo that people who have our age children either don't put up a xmas tree or don't put on their "Frontgate" ornament set!! I atleast knew better than to put ornaments on the bottom half of the tree! All of the plastic Halmark ornamnets MiMi gave the kids Jack is using as his "guys" to play with in his pirate ship, so those were out this year! I didn't even think that they would do something to the lights, but they're not working....none of them! We may have to take everything off the tree and start over and seriously think about not putting one up next year! I can't imagine 4 kids and a tree full of glass ornaments! Although, thinking of having the house full with 4 kids excited about xmas makes me smile :)

Already making eachother laugh!

They say that twins know when eachother are there and eventually develop their own "twin language". I believe it!! If either of them are fussy and you lie them down next to eachother they instantly stop crying and Johnny will usually try to scoot near her! We've even seen them suck eachothers fingers!! Here I was able to capture Alexa smiling at her brothers grunts as he was trying to inch closer to her! Sooo cute!!

What to Do, What to Do???

We used to be a team of 3 (Jack, Ava and I) out on the town!! We usually did something fun outside of the house 1x a day....not anymore!! I left the house yesterday for the 1st time in 3 days, unshowered of course but none the less it felt sooo good to get out! Jack asked me the first 2 weeks "where we going today mommy" ! He doesn't even ask now! So, we have to find fun things to do and do we ever!! I LOVE christmas and most all holidays which Jack seems to also! We have been trying to something christmasy everyday and a craft or two a week. Jack loves craft time and Ava loves to make a mess. The day pictured we made xmas trees and had cut out colored construction paper for the ornamnets and used glitter (yes, it's still all over the house) for the garland, which I'm pretty sure was their favorite part! I'm planning more xmas crafts, if I could only get over to Michaels for some more supplies!!

When they're not doing something creative or destroying the xmas tree they're usually wrestling and/or playing together (top pic)! Ava is one tough cookie! Jack throws her around like a rag doll and she says "Again Jack" The problem is she then trys to wrestle with other kids and they have NO IDEA what she's doing and want no part of it! She usually proceeds to "make them want to be a part of it" and takes them "down"! This is usually followed by tears (from the other child, of course) and me running over apologizing profusely!!

Jack and Ava are best friends! This has really helped in "our situation" becasue they have eachother there has been NO jealousy, thank goodness! :) I hope the twins have the same relationship and that they all have that with eachother!

Twins only 2 weeks old?? WHAT!!!

The twins are 8 weeks today but they're only 2weeks by their adjusted age!! Ughh, that means we can't do sleep training for another 10 weeks!! I have started them on a feeding schedule (been 3 days) and Johnny seems to be taking to it and has been doing his longest stretches of sleep at night (there's a theory that the way you feed them affects their sleep?)!! Yeah me!! I say that because Jeff and I decided early on that he would take care of Alexa (the easy one) and I would take care of Johnny (not so easy one)!! Well, guess who's not so easy anymore.....Yup, Lexi! Johnny is up and/or crying there's a reason, not Lexi! She'll be up for 2hours at night just starring and if Jeff puts her down she'll then start fussing so he then lets her sleep on him for hours at a time. I'm trying my very best during the day to stick to this schedule so that maybe they'll both be sleeping through the night at 12 weeks (that's what the books claim) or atleast 8-10 hours straight! Think of us tonight....wait you'll be sleeping!! :)