Updates

First of all, thanks to my dear husband Tim for making me feel like a total dufus. :-) He was reading my blog last night and was like, "you took a picture of yourself in that dress?!?!?" (yes peeps, I've learned how to use the automatic feature on the new camera!). That is why I love him -- cynical, sarcastic, sometimes humbling Tim. :-)

Now on to what everyone really cares about:

Bennett & Kendyll are growing by leaps & bounds. I purchased 4 new Baby Einstein dvds last week and we (Ok, they) have totally enjoyed watching every one of them. They are both very ticklish all of a sudden. When we change their clothes in the morning & at night they full on belly-giggle when you tickle them. It is so darn cute! I'm going to try to have Tim catch it on camera one of these nights. They are both holding up their bottles. Ok, not really, but they try really, really hard to do so. I'll try to catch this in a picture soon. The problem is that the bottle is too heavy for them to hold it up, but it won't be long. :-) It is sort of a pain right now, though, because their little hands get all in the way when we are trying to feed them -- which in addition to their constantly squirming bodies makes feeding time a bit of a challenge.

We measured B-man last night totally expecting him to be at least 2 inches longer than Kendy, but it turns out he only has her by an inch (so far). Kendyll still prefers to stand and Bennett will have nothing to do with it. They are both waking up earlier in the morning and Mommy & Daddy are trying to figure out what the eff is up with that. :-) We believe this is a sign that they are ready to really start eating "food", but they still aren't into the rice cereal. I tried oatmeal cereal last night and although they didn't make the horrid faces they still aren't that super excited about it. We'll keep at it, though. They are up to 6 - 8 oz of formula depending on the feeding (they get 6 in the first 4 bottles of the day and 8 in their bedtime bottle) -- they pretty much finish everything. They are both into grabbing things & instantly putting it in their mouths. Kendyll is also into pulling herself up whenever you sit in her in anything (boppy, swing, etc.). I've tried to snap a picture.



Tabasco is even feeling better. We've been taking extra special care of his ear and it looks like it is finally starting to heal. He is still howling at B & K when they cry for food, etc. so I guess he is just sad for them, too. I have it on video, but here is a picture as well (I still need to upload all of the videos).

A year ago

Ok, to be truthful I don't remember the exact date, but it was around a year ago that we found out we were pregnant. A.Total.Surprise. Yeah, Tim came home from the gym one morning before work and found me on the bed crying. Not tears of joy -- oh no! Tears that were for the size-smaller-than-I-normally wear Banana Republic white linen pants that I had just purchased and felt like I would never wear again (I'm still working on it). Tears for the super cute and first ever social (not bridesmaid) strapless dress I had ever purchased and LOVED that I would never wear again. Tears for the trips I felt we would never be able to take. Tears for the nine months of hell that laid ahead of me (this one proved to be true . . . although not quite nine months). Tears for the sick amount of money I had just dropped in a personal trainer with my cousin and knowing that I will never have this body again (truth be told I wasn't skinny . . . just healthy & getting tone for the first time in my life -- and I swear, TIM, I will get back on the wagon!). :-)

We wouldn't find out for a few more weeks that we were expecting twins. Another.Total.Shock. But I'm happy to say on this end of things were are doing quite well. It is much easier than we thought (hey, I'm not saying it is EASY, just EASIER than we were expecting) and we have still be able to maintain a shred of our old lives. And just for poop & giggles I decided to try on that strapless dress today (don't have the guts for the pants yet . . . maybe next summer). Photo evidence of me before (at my dear college friend, Alicia's, wedding last summer) and me today. Still a work in progress (esp. the very pale skin), but I'll get there.




And here is what we have to show for it . . . two pretty cool kids, if I do say so myself.

And so it begins . . .

Below are a few pictures of Kendyll "stealing" some of Bennett's toys -- the "who, me?" look is priceless! Plus she is all about eating his hand. Nice! Let the sibling rivalry begin!

We had a nice weekend. Tim & I went to Chicago with our friends Nick & Jodi (well, actually, Tim & Nick were already there and the ladies met up with them). B & K spent the weekend hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa Z and had a blast. They played a ton, went for a lot of walks (which Tabasco loved, too) and went shopping a bit. Sounds like a good weekend to me!

B-Man's new trick!!!

We always lay the babies down in their cribs the same way -- heads facing towards the windows. Yesterday morning I went to get them up and Bennett had scooted so his head was at the other end of the crib!!! At first I thought maybe I mistakenly put him down that way, but no!! And he did it again last night! I actually peeked in on them both before I went to bed and he was still facing the way I put him in there . . . but this morning he was turned the other way. The boy must like to scoot in circles. :-)

Kendyll is all better now, too. She has been super smiley lately and both babies have been very talkative. Tabasco is now the one under the weather. He has always had ear problems and unfortunately Tim & I haven't been as on the ball with keeping his one ear (the bad one) cleaned up. It is super infected and I'm hoping I can get it cleared up without having to take him to the vet. But he may earn a trip to the Dr. next week! Ugh!

On another Tabasco note, I finally caught him on video doing his new trick . . . howling at the top of his lungs while the babies cry. I'm worried it may be because it is hurting his ears, but I think it is also a little bit of him being sad because the babies are upset (disclaimer: 9 times out of 10 they are crying because they are hungry and we're in the kitchen getting bottles ready). I have a ton of other videos I need to get online, so maybe I'll finally get around to posting a few of those, too.

Weekend Updates

We had a nice weekend. Tim made it home Saturday afternoon -- he ended up renting a car from Akron, so B & K & T & I waiting patiently for him to come home. We grabbed some grub at our favorite Mexican joint and then he headed out to "Man Day" at Nick's. What is "Man Day", you ask? Well, it is a yearly tradition where all of the guys (and I mean a LOT of guys) get together to grill up meat (a LOT of meat), play cornhole & poker. It was very lucrative, again, for our family as Tim was the overall winner -- yea! The wives appropriately planned, "B!tches Night Out", but I opted out since B & K are still getting over their colds. Instead we spent the day shopping a bit and then the night playing a bit.

This week is another busy one. Tim heads out to Chicago tomorrow and won't be home until Sunday. I'm flying out with my friend Jodi (her hubby Nick is going, too) on Friday and we're going to live it up in our old hometown next weekend. B & K are going to spend some quality time at our house with Grandma & Grandpa Z. Should be a fun time for all!

Here are a few pictures from this weekend.

B & K are super happy in the morning. They both LOVE their mobiles and get so excited when I start up the music. They are also into checking out the bugs hanging from their swings.

Tabasco taking in some sunshine (something I wish I had more time to do . . . momma is really pale this summer!).


Kendyll likes to talk on the phone (something she did not get from me . . . I hate talking on the phone!! One of the main reasons I started this blog . . . )


Bennett & Kendyll playing on the floor -- their new favorite past time (and thanks to my friend Elizabeth for the quilts!).

Travel woes

So Tim is stuck in Chicago. His boss (well technically his former boss) scheduled a two day "team meeting" in Chicago that ended this afternoon at 4p ct (who the eff schedules a meeting on FRIDAY until 4p out of town?!?!?). It has been miserably hot and rain free for days -- both here & in Chicago. But of course, just as he is getting to the airport a HUGE storm blows through, thus delaying everything at O'Hare (who are we kidding, a sunny clear day can back up everything at that darn airport). I talked to him at 7p my time and his flight was delayed an hour. He texts me at 8:45 my time as I'm putting the babies to bed and he was on the plane. He called at 9p and turns out another plane ran off the runway at O'Hare and now no flights are getting in and there is only one runway. The crew for his flight was now being diverted to Rockford (like at LEAST an hour drive away) and they were going to drive into Chicago. So people were given the choice to stay on & see what happens or get off the flight. Tim chose wisely because as soon as he got off the plane they cancelled the flight and the lines of peeps at the Customer Service counter swarmed. Yeah, the earliest flight he can get on to C-bus is tomorrow night at NINE PM!! So right now he is (hopefully) on a flight to Akron-Canton and he'll pay his parents a visit overnight. B & K & I will road trip it up to meet him half-way tomorrow. We'll keep our fingers crossed . . . man, we have the WORST luck at traveling!!

In other news, B & K are finally on the mend. Kendyll still hasn't been sleeping well this week, but part of the problem is because she hasn't been eating well. Bennett has learned how to hold on to things and he's all about figuring out how to get them into his mouth. They haven't been much into posing for pictures this week, but here are two I snapped tonight.

Family Pictures

I've been meaning to put these out here for some time. Here are a few family pictures from the 4th of July.

B & K and Uncle Mark



Grandma & Grandpa Zelasko in our back yard.


Nana & Papa Williams in our back yard.

Sick, but healthy babies

I took B & K in for their NICU developmental assessment this morning. Everything checks out fine. . . they are right where they should be according to their "corrected age" in some areas and ahead (closer to their actual age) in other areas. We are supposed to bring them back again in three months (which is October . . . doesn't that seem farther off than that?!?).

In other news, I took them back to the pedi this afternoon because they both sound like they have been smoking 15 packs of cigarettes a day . . . their coughs have gotten worse. Good news is the cough is nothing -- just all the crud in their sinuses breaking up (their chests are both clear). Bad news is they both have ear infections on the same side (weird, I know). So they are on the same round of meds as Mommy. Fun. Bennett seemed to gobble down the pink liquid tonight, Miss Diva was not so much into it. Hopefully we have better luck tomorrow. Ironic note (I found this to be hilarious) -- one of the warnings on the side of the bottle is that the drug may interfere with the effectiveness of certain birth control pills. Seems real appropriate to put on a bottle of medicine mixed up for a FIVE MONTH OLD! :-)

Let's see, what else . . . they are both so into holding their own bottles lately. Well, they can't actually keep them up, but they are both grasping them as if they were strong enough to hold them. Too cute. Kendyll still loves to stand, not sit and Bennett is Mr. Personality -- he is all about full on laughing at everything. They have both mastered sleeping without their swaddle blankets, but that has required me to invest in a few new sleepers as they have outgrown all of their 0-3 month sleepers (they were just sleeping in onsies when we were doing the burrito wraps).

Tim leaves for Chi-town tomorrow, so we'll be on our own until Friday night. It is supposed to get hot, hot, hot here over the next few days. Yuck!!

FIVE MONTHS!!!

Ok, did this past month go by as fast for all of you?!?! I swear it seems like just yesterday I was posting their 4 mo stats!!!

We are all doing well. B & K are going back to Riverside Hospital for a NICU developmental follow-up on Tuesday. They will be checked out by the pediatric therapists and we'll gain an idea of where they are at based on their actual vs. adjusted age. I'm hoping to get a weight update there, too -- I actually took them to the pedi on Friday (me & the kiddos have been fighting a summer cold . . . I caught it last weekend and they caught it from me late last week). The dr office doesn't normally do weight checks at ill baby visits (plus it was a MILLION degrees hot in there!), so we just did a quick throw them on the scale kind of update. With clothes on, not pooping in two days and VERY wet diapers on, Bennett weighed in at 13 lbs and Kendyll 13 lbs 10 oz. But I changed a diaper on Kendyll that seriously weighed at least 6 oz when we got home so I'm not going to put these weights off to the side because I don't consider them "official".

Big changes are on the horizon. We successfully moved them off of the preemie formula and onto regular formula. Although the pedi advised us to keep them on the "liquid / power gold" until they reached the 50th percentile, we decided since B & K seem to be growing so well and don't have any other issues at this point that we would test the waters with the regular formula. We had to take it slow (and try a few different kinds along the way), but I think we've finally succeeded in the transition.

Next up is cereal . . . the dr. advised us to wait until they were 5 mo to introduce it, so we gave it a whirl this morning. Given that they are coughing a ton & snotty nosed, it didn't really go over so well. We'll try again later this week.

B & K are also drooling a TON, so we have a feeling a tooth may be springing up any day now. They've both been very clingy and a little more fussy than usual, so hopefully these buggers pop up soon and we can move on. :-)

Tim is traveling over the next two weeks, so B, K, Tabasco & I will be roughing it. Hopefully he doesn't catch the same crud we've had all week!

Here are a few pictures in honor of B & K's birthday. We look a LONG walk this afternoon and the stroller pick is us wearing them out from that.

I'll post an update later this week after the NICU follow-up. But in the meantime, here are the 5 month pics. Enjoy!

Baby Crack . . .

Well actually it is Baby Einstein DVDs, but it is like Baby Crack. My fellow twin mommy, Alicia, mentioned she had put on a couple of these DVDs for her boys and they loved them. So I took a stroll to the library by my house and finally checked them out. Dude, the kiddos L-O-V-E them! They sat in their swings glued to the TV for a long time . . . no cries, no fussiness, just giggles & leg kicking & babbling. For like 40 minutes (at least!). I'm probably breaking every good parenting rule, but I figure they must be learning something from these freakishly silly colors & puppets & music on the screen. It is better than watching "Maury", right?

Ribs, Babies & Fireworks, Oh My!!!

Happy Belated 4th of July everyone! We've had a VERY busy weekend and it is only Saturday!! Thank goodness we still have another day to recuperate.

The Grandparents & Uncle Mark arrived in town on Thursday and we kicked off the weekend with some family bonding. B & K were super excited to see Nana & Papa Williams and Grandma & Grandpa Zelasko (as well as Uncle Mark). We had a very big day on Friday. Our community, Upper Arlington, celebrates the 4th BIG TIME and luckily our house is right in the middle of all of the activity. We started the day by watching the UA parade in the rain (and the parade route was crowded . . . that is how hard-core everyone is about the 4th!) The parade was filled with firetrucks (which the kids didn't seem to mind), old cars, bands from all over and floats. Several neighborhoods do up their own floats -- so cool! -- and then all of the class reunions have their own float, too. Tabasco enjoyed the parade for the 2nd year in a row . . . the only thing he barked at this year (again) was the horses. :-)

We hightailed it back home so we could finish setting up for our big party. Tim grilled up his awesome BBQ ribs & Greek chicken (marinaded in his own homemade Greek dressing) and awesome pasta salad. Several friends joined us, including a few new friends we have made since B & K arrived. At one point in the party we had eight -- yes 8 -- babies in our house!!! (quite a difference from many of our past parties). Our new friends Alicia & Bryan brought their 5 month old twin boys, Sam & Will, to the party and shortly after my "online" friend Marie and her husband Jeff joined us with their 4 month old daughters Anna, Ava & Alexis (click on their names to check out their blog -- so cute!!). Alicia, Marie & I were in the same Multiples class when we were pregnant, but didn't really meet up with each other until later. Marie & I met online while we were both on bedrest through a multiples site and Alicia & I met after our twins were born through the local twins club. It is so nice to connect with other multiples moms!! Plus our friends Greg & Nicole brought over their 8 month old girl, Avery. It was so crazy to see all of the babies around!! Everyone seemed to have a nice time, but we didn't snap many pictures. We'll have to plan a big play date sometime soon!!

The night was capped off with fireworks (which B & K slept through) right at the end of our street. Tim's co-worker Mark (who is a FANTASTIC musician & songwriter) serenaded us with a few tunes before everyone called it a night.

All & in all it was a very good holiday. We hope everyone out there had a great & safe holiday, too. And thanks for the comments on the last post (as well as the e-mails . . . it is so nice to know who is out there!). I'll try to post more pictures soon, but here are a few (if you'd like to see ALL of the pics from this weekend, click here).





Bunch of Babies!! Marie (holding Ava - I think :-)), Alicia (holding Anna), our friend Erin holding Bennett & part of Alicia's husband Bryan on the floor with one of their boys. :-)



This picture cracks me up . . . Kendyll HATES wearing stuff on her head!

Just curious

Who is out there?!?!? I purposefully chose not to have my blog "searchable" through Google & other search engines, but someone out there must be reading this because I have over 3000 hits to date! My blogging friend (and triplet mom) Marie is always so kind to leave comments (as have a few others), but I'm curious -- who else is out there??? I've had a few people tell me "off line" that they love keeping up with B & K through this avenue and I'm addicted to blogging now (I religiously read over 20 other blogs in my "free time") so I'm not going to stop any time soon. I'm just wondering who is checking us out . . . please drop me a comment if you are out there (you can do it anonymously too -- and include your name if you want -- I don't think you have to register with Google). :-)

OK, seriously I need to go to bed now because we have a TON of stuff to do tomorrow . . .

Busy, busy, busy

Just a quick one with a few pictures . . . we're busy getting ready for the big 4th of July activities in our community and hosting our family & friends at a cook-out on Friday. We are still putting the finishing touches on our kitchen before the party and we have a ton of running around & shopping to knock out tomorrow. Whew! Good thing we are both off of work! Poor Tim had do to a day trip over to Chicago today and has been delayed a bit, but thankfully he should be home soon.

B & K have been practicing "tummy time" with their boppy pillows




A couple of Bennett



And of Kendyll (she has almost been getting her entire fist in her mouth lately -- her new obsession -- but I have yet to catch it on camera)