Home

We are home. Safe & sound. B & K seem to be relieved to be in their own beds (as I will be very soon). Today is the first day I feel a little better. There were several other not fun things that happened along the way (Tabasco had another seizure on his "vacation", Tim's money pit of a 4Runner has a big crack in the windshield thanks to a rock on the highway, Bennett did not fare well in the hotel on the way home, etc.), but I will spare all of the details. Here are a few pics of the grandparents on our last night of vacation. Enjoy!

Nana & Papa Williams

Grandpa Zelasko

Grandma Zelasko

Not getting better

This may officially turn out to be the worst vacation ever. Don't get me wrong . . . we are very thankful to be here with our families (although we still miss Mark!) and we are also very thankful to not be at work (sorry work peeps . . . and thanks to Kimberly for "filling in" for me!). We have had the remnants of "Faye" for the past 24 hours. Goodbye nice golden skin! It was actually pretty scary last night & earlier today. . . I have officially been up since 3am thanks to Kendyll waking up during the storms and me not being able to fall back asleep. Then there is the fact that Tim & I are STILL sick. And now Grandpa Z & Papa W have caught the virus as well. Hopefully Grandma Z & Nana W can stay healthy through the rest of the week. We believe it is linked back to a live virus "vaccine" B & K received at their 6mo appointment last week. Although we have ALL been very careful about washing our hands, etc., we can't seem to shake it (and I think it all goes back to that dang poopy diaper I bragged about changing in the car on our way down . . . although I swear I cleaned up everything, I have a feeling this may be the culprit). Ugh. It really sucks, too, because we have a whole fridge of beer just waiting for us all . . . but no one feels like drinking. Oh and did I mention the colony of red, biting ants that have set up camp in Tim's car?!?!? Um yeah, we're parked right next to the trash can at this house (which is also infested with the ants -- go figure). We were on our way out to do a little shopping in between feeling bad this afternoon and discovered the interior of his car covered in them (dashboard, carseats, baby carseats, etc.). Needless to say, Ace Hardware became one of the stops on our shopping trip. Ugh. Hopefully they are all gone by our return trip on Saturday.

The one redeeming thing . . . the single thing that can make this all a little better?? FOOTBALL!!! Hell-yeah folks . . . we have a full night of real college football and fake (read: preseason) NFL football on tonight. Makes our evening on the couch or in bed being lazy bums on vacation a little less lame. :)

Oh, and because I know this is why you really come here, I've included a few pics of B K & and us as the beach (before dreaded virus attacked). B's outfit says "Teething" and K's outfit says "Golden" -- too cute! Oh yeah, and check out my very sexy bruises all up & down my legs. There is an effen wood edge all around our bed here that I knock my shins on every.single.time I pass it. Lovely.

Vacation update

Just a quick update from vacation. Tim & I have been sick. Between the ridiculous amount of stairs in this house, us playing tennis twice (and I'm not very good . . . I think our record for hitting it back & forth has been two times) and also swimming laps we were sure we'd at least be able to "maintain" our weights this week. Then managed to catch some sort of stomach bug, which has basically sealed the weight deal. Ugh. Honestly, though, we'd both rather be sick on vacation than next week (Tim is in Chicago again and at least we have LOTS of help with the babies here).

B & K are enjoying vacation. We've taken them swimming almost every day and they have been experimenting with veggies this week. Day 1-- B LOVED carrots, K not so much; Day 2 - neither were really into them; Day 3 -- K now loved them and B wanted nothing to do with them. Today we tried Sweet Potatoes and K nearly at the entire container. B wasn't in the mood. I'm sure it will be reversed tomorrow.

The weather is starting to get crappy, so I'm not sure if I'll make my goal of having golden skin upon my return to the OH-IO. But we'll see . . .

Here are a couple of pictures from B & K's first hotel stay over the weekend:


Here are a few pics I snapped today, just playing with our camera:

Greetings from the NC

We made it to the Outer Banks -- Avon, NC to be exact -- in one piece. I have to give a special shout out to my brother, Uncle Mark. Unfortunately he wasn't feeling so well and at the last minute decided not to make the trip -- we miss you & hope you are feeling better!

The drive down was OK. I followed all of the advice I received (except for the portable DVD player . . . we're not quite there yet). B & K did well on the first day. We only stopped once at a Bob Evans from hell (sorry Jodi!) to eat dinner, feed the babies and let them stretch their little legs for a bit. After that we hit the road again and stopped for the night about half way. We had a rough night in the hotel -- "monster Bennett" came out, as he often does when he is overtired. But after an hour & a half of non-stop screaming he finally went to sleep. We learned that night why he is so skinny -- he burns all of his calories in his sleep. I swear the boy did not stop kicking or moving around one minute!! This was the first time we had ever slept in the same room as B & K -- they have slept in their cribs at night since day one at our house -- so we had no idea he was such a mover & a shaker in his sleep. Ugh!

The 2nd day of driving was a bit rough, too. We hit a lot of traffic in NC and thankfully I decided to sit in the backseat with the babies for the home stretch into Avon. I have mastered the skills of feeding two babies while moving, changing a poopy diaper while in the backseat squished between two carseats (we were in stop & go traffic at this point) as well as breaking the law. The last one had to do with taking B & K out of the carseats at different points just to give them a break (we weren't moving at the time -- I swear!). They were super overtired once we arrived at the house, but after a good night's sleep they were in great shape for our first full day. And THANK GOD they have had no issues sleeping in the pack n play -- actually, we even were able to get them to take ALL of their naps in there yesterday (woo-hoo!!).

We spent yesterday hanging out by the pool and had a really nice time. Our house is super nice -- but 4 stories which means that I am going to have kick-ass legs by the end of the week. We are staying on the bottom floor (by the pool) and the kitchen & dining room is on the 3rd floor -- 28 steps above us to be exact (Bennett & I counted them one day). Both babies LOVED the pool. We were shocked . . . we actually thought that Bennett would freak, but he was very mellow. Both babies liked their little floaty boats and Kendyll loved to kick her little legs. So cute!

Here are a few pictures. B & K mastering their cereal this morning and both babies by the pool yesterday. I'll try to add more updates later this week.

Please check it out!

Vacation is going well and I promise an update -- with pictures -- soon (obviously I can get online --woo-hoo!).

You are probably wondering how in the heck I know so many multiple moms (see blog addict to the right!). In addition to belonging to a local twins club, I found a wonderful online community through the site called thenestbaby.com. There is a multiples board out there and a great group of women from all across the country can connect, vent and provide support to one another across the web. One of the moms -- from The Wilson's blog (check it out -- we think her Brody & my Bennett look alike!) -- came up with a brilliant idea. She suggested we pitch an idea to Oprah -- we're asking that she dedicate a show to us MoMs (and it would be even MORE cool if she made it her "Favorite Things" episode). So she created a blog for us to all put out our stories. If nothing else it is going to be a great place for us all to share our background and learn about each others lives. But it would still be really kick-ass if we could all travel to Chicago, meet each other and get free stuff from Oprah (because who better to give free stuff to than moms of multiples?!?).

So please offer us a little support -- check out the blog and provide your comments (if you want to leave a comment, but have issues with blogger please e-mail me and I can put it out there for you). And if nothing else check out some of the other cute babies!!

http://oprahmoms.blogspot.com/

edit: I forgot to add that my entry is titled "Did you have them at the same time?.

Road Trip

As I mentioned earlier this week, we are heading out on a MAJOR road trip this Friday. We are taking B & K on their first family vacation. We are driving to the Outer Banks, NC (Avon to be specific) and we will be meeting up with my parents, my brother and Tim's parents for the week. Hopefully we have nice weather and the hurricane gods are kind to us. We are breaking the 12+ hour drive up into two days . . . we'll head out Friday afternoon and hopefully arrive at the rental house by Saturday afternoon.

I have this insane Excel spreadsheet for a checklist, yet I'm sure I will forget something important like underwear. E-mail me if you'd like to see my anal, organized list. We even purchased one of those soft topper things for the 4runner. There is so much baby crap we need to take with us it isn't even funny. Please drop me a comment if you have any advice on traveling with multiples (or babies in general).

I'm going to warn everyone in advance that I'm not sure if I will be able to get online next week. That's right -- you may actually have to go over a week without any updates. Knowing that 5 of the major people who are addicted to the blog with be with us & B & K, I'm sure everyone else will survive. What I'm not sure of is how I will survive without reading everyone's blogs (or the nest or my other boards). I guess the sun and endless beverages will help a bit.

Wish us luck and I will try to update you on our adventures if I can.

Dr Appointment

Bennett & Kendyll survivied their 6 mo shots. Actually, they took them like champs! I like to think it is because they "did time" in the NICU, so they are all tough, but really it was probably because mommy & daddy were right there to soothe them (either way I think they did just fine!).

Bennett
Weight: 14lb 11oz
Height: 26in
Head: 17 3/4in

Kendyll
Weight: 15lb 4oz
Height: 25 3/4in
Head: 16 1/2in

They both look GREAT! Bennett's head is in the 80th percentile. No wonder the little dude JUST NOW has good head control! Poor little bobble head! And Kendyll is making great strides in all of the growth charts, too. The Dr. said they are doing well and we are going to start introducing some new foods over the next few weeks. Woo-hoo (they don't really care for the cereal much). They won't have to go back for another check-up until 9 mo (and no shots then!). The Dr does want to see Bennett back in about a month & a half just to measure his head again to make sure it isn't growing too fast (plus this will give us a chance to sneak a peak at both of their weights!).

Let's see . . . what else. In addition to loving her fingers, Kendyll is almost all about loving her feet / toes as well. She can grab them, but hasn't quite figured out how to put them in her mouth (Bennett likes to grab his feet, too). She has rolled all the way over, but doesn't do it often. Bennett's head is too big, so he's a little behind on that front. :-) They both "talk" A TON and have just recently taken back to sleeping through the night (which will probably go to crap again once we leave for vacation). Oh well.

All-in-all everyone is doing well. Sorry, no pictures this post but I promise to try to get a few out here later this week.

Yummy fingers!

Bennett gave up his Soothie pacifier a few months ago . . . the kid just won't take it. Kendyll still loves it, but now she can pull it out (rather than just drop it out of her mouth) and sometimes she can figure out how to put it back in, but most of the time she just throws it on the floor. Other times she's opted for her new passion -- her thumb -- instead. Uh-oh! Not to be outdone, Bennett has taken to sucking ALL of his figures (I heard him slurping away one day in his carseat as I was driving to the store). Photo evidence below.

Low Key

We've had a pretty good weekend. It was actually very low key . . something we are thankful for since we both have petty busy weeks at work coming up (Tim especially) and then we head on our LONG road trip on Friday for our vacation (more on that to come later this week).

We checked out a few garage sales this past weekend and scored some wicked cool deals. We finally purchased an "entertainment" center for B & K. I like it because it sort of matches some of the other baby crap we have (bumpos) and it isn't a huge monstrous one like some of the others we've seen in the stores. I'm still all about trying to make our house NOT look like we have babies there. I'm losing this battle, but I will fight it to the end!! Anyhoo, we scored this AND a bottle of liquid Similac for TEN BUCKS! (normal retail value = $50 total). Pretty good deal. Then I hit up this going out of business sale for a local children's consignment store. I scored a double snap & go stroller (basically it is just a frame that you snap the carseats in) for 1/4 the normal price. Woo-hoo again!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. More updates -- including B & K's 6mo check-up -- to come later this week. Oh and a big shout-out to Nana Debbie and all of the Aunts . . . they are all getting together this weekend in CA and we hope they have a nice trip / visit and that everyone is doing well. We miss & love you all!!

B & K "tasting" and checking out their new gear



Tabasco looking annoyed to have yet ANOTHER piece of baby crap in the house


Bennett reading a story to Kendyll (what a smart boy!) and Kendyll playing with their FAVORITE toy


Yesterday Tim made a "tricked out" Bennett with some rattle wristbands & socks (poor kid).


And lastly, because she's been a little grumpy gus lately when the camera is out, proof once & for all that Kendyll does indeed smile!

SIX MONTHS OLD!!!

Here are a few pictures from B & K's 6 month home photo shoot!! They weren't very cooperative, but oh well. Bennett was the happier of the two.

We go to the dr next Tuesday, so I'll save our big update for then. I'm excited to see how much they have grown in the past month (although we aren't expecting big weight jumps since we've moved them off of the preemie formula).

Stay tuned and in the meantime enjoy the cuteness! :-)

Way back When-sday

Several other blogs I read (see the new links off to the right??) often have a "Way back When-sday". They normally post pictures of their babies / children from way back when. Well, I don't know that B & K have been around long enough to have this day every week, but I figured in honor of their 6 month birthday we'd go back in time for the past six months. That's right peeps -- BENNETT & KENDYLL ARE SIX MONTHS OLD TODAY!!!!! How the h-e-double-hockey-sticks did that happen?? Don't worry, the six month picture will be coming soon (I'm "advance" posting this) . . . I just wanted to give a little flashback. Enjoy!

J & K + 8

As I've mentioned before, we get some ridiculous comments & questions when we go out in public with B & K ("are they twins?"). Lately the natural progression of questions leads to a question on whether we watch the TLC show "Jon & Kate plus Eight". My response used to be that we do indeed watch that show, if nothing else to make our lives seem a little more calm / less nuts / normal. But lately I really can't watch that show much. And it wasn't until I was reading this blog entry that I really got why I've stopped watching that show (and thanks to a fellow local MoM for pointing me in the direction of this site . . . please go check out her blog -- her boys are a ADORABLE!!).

I always thought it was a bit odd that these people let cameras into their homes to tape their every moment . . .but then I watch it, so who am I to judge? I always found Kate to be annoying and a bit of a b!tch, Jon to be a little wimpy and their kids to be adorable but absolutely out of control. Again, it helped me to think our lives with just two would be a walk in the park. I felt a little uneasy about the money they probably make for allowing TLC into their home and I always thought their product placements and "free" procedures were a little over the top (I mean what MoM wouldn't want a tummy tuck and possible boob job??). But the last straw to me was the episode where Jon flew across the country to get hair plugs. Initially I was just put off by the whole idea that he thought he needed them in the first place -- nevermind the fact that I'm sure he got them for free, they paid for his flight and that he probably felt like he needed them because he is a big "celebrity" now. And Kate really pushing him to do it was over the top (come on, we all know she is probably the one who even gave him the idea in the first place).

But even more upsetting (to me -- as it was to the person who wrote the blog entry) is that that they flew across the country for such a vain thing while their little children were really sick. I mean I'm still a pretty new at this parent thing and my two have only been sick once, but I think I would have a really hard time leaving them for a MAJOR surgery while they were sick, let alone to go have some plugs put in. Ugh . . . I just don't get it.

So I know this post probably seems totally random, but I was asked this question AGAIN today and I just felt the need to share my opinions. Because I certainly didn't go into this depth with the person who asked the question . . . my new polite answer is "No, I don't really watch that show anymore".

Reunion

We had a very busy weekend. It was my mom's family reunion this past Saturday. So we all packed in the wicked Pacifica and drove 2 hours to Canton to drop off Tabasco (who in typical form puked 2 minutes from Tim's parents house . . . poor dog has been car sick as long as we've known him). We fed B & K and then drove another hour to Girard to the Pizzulo family reunion. I haven't been to Girard since my Grandpa died 2 1/2 years ago and haven't been to a reunion in at least 6 years (probably longer!!). It was really nice to see everyone. B & K were a big hit and everyone mentioned they love keeping up with the family on our site. Thanks!

Here is a few pictures of my me, B & K and my cousin "Aunt" Julia (who everyone says looks more like my sister than my cousin . . .I take it as a compliment -- and I hope she does, too!).





As I've mentioned before, twins run in my family on my mom's side (hence B & K). Here is a picture of my mom (on the right) and her twin sister, my Aunt Anna Marie.



The reunion was held at Tod Park. A few of our family members had a park bench dedicated to my Grandma Belle when she passed away almost 6 years ago and we were lucky enough to have the pavilion right by her special bench. My Grandpa Frank (Bigs to his friends . . . his last name was Bigowsky) also has a special bench at his old hang-out, Jib Jab Hot dog Shoppe. I made Tim stop on our way out of town so I could snap a picture of that too (I had not seen it since they put it up . . . Grandpa visited Jib Jab EVERY day. He had his own booth that they called "the office" and his is the only bench in front of Jib Jab. And it faces towards the building, always looking inside, instead of facing the street. So cool!).

For Aunt Elaine

Tim's Aunt Elaine & Uncle Brian in Nashville gave Bennett & Kendyll these precious outfits. They finally fit into them, so I thought I'd snap a few pictures.

And here they are "checking out" their outfits a little further.