Chomp!

Just a quick update. B & K are (finally!!) cutting some teeth. Kendyll has two really sharp spots on her bottom gums and Bennett has one (so far). I'm sure they will be popping through over the next few days. Good news is that it doesn't seem to faze them much. Fingers crossed that it stays this way.

Here are a few new pictures from yesterday (perhaps their last without teeth!):

In this one Bennett says "yes, people . . . Mom has dressed us coordinating AGAIN!"

Sunday Ramblings

Hmm, let's see . . . I feel like I've been really lax on keeping everyone updated. That damn Ike just blew everything off whack!

Bennett & Kendyll are growing up so fast (duh, I know). Bennett is super flexible and now has found joy in not only sticking all of his fingers in his mouth, but he can also get his feet in his mouth. He is super, super smiley all.the.time and all you have to do is look at him to get him to giggle these days. Kendyll is still Miss Serious (esp. when the camera comes out), but she also has her smiley / giggling moments, too. She is still our strong, I mean STRONG, girl. I swear she is going to crawl & walk before she can sit independently. Seriously, I try to get her to sit on her own and she is too busy looking around and trying to figure out how she can get from point A to point B. She won't even sit in the Bumbo anymore . .. she rocks herself back & forth so hard that she has almost tipped herself over in that thing. Uh oh. She also refuses to sit in general . . . she has preferred to "stand" when you hold her since about 4m and now she doesn't even like to sit while you try to burp her. As Nana Debbie likes to say -- she should have been born in May like Tim & me because we are both stubborn Tauruses.

B & K are both super good at eating and now prefer to eat their solid foods more than their formula. I'm trying not to freak out about this too much. It has caused us to adjust their schedule a bit and so far it has been working out well -- they eat their formula every four hours and we try to squeeze the solids in after naps. They have become super super great nappers since we updated our childcare situation in August and that has led to the change in the schedule as well. They are also sleeping well at night from 8p - 8a and we are extremely grateful for this!!

As for food, they've had oatmeal, carrots, sweat potatoes, regular potatoes, yams, corn, green beans, peas, brown rice, apples, bananas, peaches, pears, blueberries, pineapple, cherries and "harvest vegetables" (which I think may have included pumpkin). There really isn't anything they've flat out rejected and it has been a good mix of homemade puree baby food and store bought stuff.

They are into rolling and Bennett says "muuum" and "da" a lot. Kendyll just likes to squeal -- a lot. They both respond to every bite of food with a heartfelt "mmmmmmm". They really like to watch each other (and Tabasco) and we think they had their first "jealous" moment the other day when Bennett had a meltdown watching Kendyll playing with a toy that we think he wanted. We've also had our first of many incidents of Kendyll beating the crap out of Bennett (she was banging his head with one of their teethers and then started pulling his shirt. Tim had to separate them!). It is only a matter of time before Bennett becomes bigger than her and starts pulling her hair (when she gets some), or biting, or some other form of torture, I'm sure.

Tim is heading out to Chicago (again) tomorrow and will be back on Friday. My project in his absence is to organize our basement (because i need to have "projects" to keep occupied when I'm alone & the kids are in bed). We recently decided to forgo our gym membership because with Tim's travel schedule and the fact that we could no longer go together in the morning meant that we didn't really get to visit it often. So we decided not to renew and we purchased some weights and a bench to put in the basement. Now I just need to find the motivation to get my butt in gear and get serious about my diet (and find a way to fit in cardio . . . esp. since we won't be able to go for our evening walks with Tabasco much longer . . . it is getting dark earlier and earlier). I have two nice holiday parties to go to for Tim's work in Dec. and I thought the idea of being around a lot of stay at home but still have nannies and super skinny rich wives would motivate me to diet so I can purchase a couple of knock-out outfits, but that hasn't done the trick (as I shove a pumpkin cookie with cream cheese icing in my face). Ugh. PLEASE leave a comment if you have any suggestions!!

Ok, enough ramblings. Just one more thing -- Bennett & Kendyll wish to send our condolences to our Purdue fans Vicki & Tony C. GO IRISH!!! :-)

TGIF (and a Happy Birthday!)!!!

Woo-hoo -- Friday! Tim is home. He's switched airlines this trip and had much better luck getting there & back. He made notice of the fact that I haven't blogged much or put new updates out here. Sorry . . . work has been very busy, I'm been working hard in the evening tagging all of my stuff for the up-coming Twins Sale for my local twins club AND B & K are still adjusting to their new schedule (which I promise to write about soon). With this new routine / schedule means that I don't really get much time to spend with them between feeding them dinner / walking the dog / baths / bottle / bedtime. But I'll try to snap some new pictures and updates this weekend.

On another note, we'd like to wish our friend Mandy a very happy 30th birthday!!! She was totally surprised by her party last weekend (yay!) and we were so glad we could spend the whole day hanging out with her, Chad and the rest of the gang on Saturday.

thanks to Erin for the picture! :-)

Let there be light!!

We are home. The power is back on, the house is still standing and our garage door works. Everything was totally back to normal today. Tim leaves for Chicago tomorrow morning and will be back on Friday (bonus: he goes again next week M - F). B & K are trying out a new schedule this week . . . I'll let you know how it goes later this week (day 1: success so far).

Here are a few pictures from B & K's final few days at "refugee camp" (as Nana & Papa lovingly called it). They had a nice stay this weekend and got to see Tim's grandma on Saturday.

We partied it up like rockstars (or people without kids) while B & K stayed back in Canton . . . we went out for a nice, yummy steak dinner on Friday and went tailgating for the OSU game on Saturday. We also attended a surprise party for our friend Mandy. Good times.

Seven Months Old!!!! (part deux)

I had every intention of typing up all that B & K can do in honor of their 7mo birthday (rolling, eating toes, saying "mum" and "mmm", eating fruits & veggies -- homemade -- and all other kinds of goodies). But instead we are still refugees from stupid Ike and I don't really have the time (more on that below). So I promise to update with milestones and all that jazz soon.

Here are some 7 months pictures, a little late (oh and these matching outfits are thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Z).






We are still at Tim's parents house. Everyone has had a fun time seeing B & K, but we all really miss our own beds. We have been told we'll be lucky if we get our power back on by next Monday at midnight. Um, yeah, that's not good. Unfortunately, Tim leaves for Chicago next Tuesday for two weeks and we have a little bit of repairs to do around the house before he leaves (we had to break into our detached garage to get our cars out and now the door is a little messed up). So Tim & I are going to head home on Friday and B & K are going to spend the weekend with Nana & Papa. They seem to be enjoying their time here thus far. Photo evidence below.

The Fugees

I remember when Hurricanes Katrina & Rita hit three years ago. The media kept calling the unfortunate people who had to leave "refugees" instead of "evacuees". It used to drive me nuts. We'll, now we are "refugees" ourselves. Never in a million years did I think we'd ever have a hurricane in Central Ohio, but we lived through a hurricane force wind storm (70+mph) on Sunday -- Ike as he rolled through town. We had almost 6 hours of cross winds on Sunday. It was pretty scary. We live in an "older" community (our house is almost 70 yrs old) and we have a lot of huge, mature trees. Actually, we have two HUGE trees in our front yard. So we cautiously watched as big limb after big limb came falling down. Our neighbors across the street lost half of their tree (and I'm sure it will all have to be cut down). Another neighbor had a huge chunk of their tree fall across the driveway and into the street. And most importantly another large tree took down some power lines about a block from our house. Our power went out at 3p on Sunday and we were told it would take 3 - 7 days to get it back (actually, the AEP rep told me we'd be lucky if we had it back before Sunday). Our area was one of the hardest hit -- lots of large trees and almost all of the power lines are above ground. Yuck.

So we made the executive decision to pack up and head two hours north to our parents house. The thought of no power (and possibly no hot water) for a week was a little too much. Plus we had just spent $$$$ at Costco over the weekend -- the thought of losing all of that food was a little to much, too. Tim's office has been closed all week and I am fortunate enough to be able to work remotely. We drove up to Canton yesterday afternoon -- me, the kids and their crap in my car and Tim, Tabasco and our coolers full of food in his car. Ugh. Hopefully we'll be back by Friday, but realistically we're prepared to stay through the weekend. We're very thankful that everyone is OK and that our house is OK.

Over 2 million people in OH were without power yesterday and I think I heard 84 out of 85 counties had some sort of wind damage. I think I also heard that the Governor declared the state under a state of emergency. Ugh.

I've attached a few pictures of the damage.



Our dinner by candlelight Sunday night (we probably had 40 candles going all over the house):


And Bennett playing in the dark:

A house divided

Tonight is the first Steelers vs. Browns game of the year (GO STEELERS!!). Nana & Papa sent B & K a nice big care box full of Browns gear (and to be fair -- a Steelers item for Bennett, but it is still hot outside so I'm not going to torture him in it -- it has long sleeves . . . and anyway Tim has informed me that Kendyll can be the Steelers fan. Nice!). Tim is from Northeast Ohio and therefore a Browns fan. I grew up in the "armpit" of Ohio, near the PA border and only 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, so I've been a Steelers fan my whole life (plus I went to the same college as Chuck Noll -- so cool!). If I had known Tim's NFL affiliation when I met him, I may not have married him (just kidding). But seriously, I have to admire Browns fans . . . they lost their team, got them back and have pretty much sucked every year. Ha! But I do like that they have Brady Quinn (a Dublin, OH native and former ND star) even though they aren't smart enough to ever play him. Oh and since this is my forum, I want to go on the record for my "wife of the year" status . . . last year, against my better judgement, I purchased a Brady Quinn Browns jersey for Tim for our anniversary. Now that is true love. :-)

I want to also send a MAJOR shout out to Tim's cousin, Eddie, in CA. He, too, is a Browns fan (and reads the blog) and I'm sure he will be sporting his Browns jersey this evening, too. Take care Eddie (and all our family in Cali!!)

*the last picture is Bennett doing his new trick . . . sticking his foot in his mouth.

7 Months!!!

Happy 7 months, Bennett & Kendyll (no, I didn't forget . . . we had a very busy day yesterday). More to come on their b-day soon. Stay tuned . . .

How did I get this way???

Remember I mentioned yesterday that I've been going back through some old pictures?? It occurred to me that I have turn into one of "those people" again. When I first found out we were having twins I swore to myself I would not dress them alike. They are two different people, they deserve to dress as two different personalities. Then when we found out it was a boy & a girl, I figured "whew" -- this will be very easy to make them individuals in the way they are dressed. But nooooo . . . what do I do?!?! I coordinate them in matching outfits ALL.THE.TIME!! It is so easy (and darn Baby Gap and Target, etc . for making the cutest coordinating b/g baby outfits that don't look like baby outfits!!!). Photo evidence below.

Bittersweet

Lots of changes going on for B & K. Let me rephrase that . . . lots of GROWING up going on, I should say. One major thing that has happened in the past few weeks is that we have officially retired our swings. I figured they would be bringing these darn things with them to college, but sadly they really aren't into them anymore. I can remember a time when they were napping in those swings while Tim & I were eating dinner and we were asking ourselves "what is the weight limit on these things?" and "how long can we use them?". But now that B & K have finally read the memo about napping in their cribs and sticking to a good schedule we can officially remove two pieces of baby crap from the family room. Of course we have replaced them with two other pieces of baby crap (that formally resided in the nursery, out of the way), but I'm all about moving on.

In the same vain, it is a little sad. I was looking back through the blog last night at some of the older pictures. B & K look so much less like babies and more like little kids. I know, I know, they are only almost 7 months, but still -- they have changed A LOT over the past few months. Sigh . . .

So I wanted to wish our beloved swings a fond farewell. They are going to a good home, though -- my former co-worker is expecting a little girl in December (yay!!) and she & her mom are taking them. I hope they bring them as much joy (and peace & quiet) as they have brought us.

And here is what has replaced them in our family room:

Go Irish!!

Although we live in the land of the Buckeyes, in our house we are mercifully Notre Dame fans (Tim is a Domer . . . he went there for his MBA and I grew up going to the same grade school as Lou Holtz. I love that little old man!). Thank goodness the Irish pulled one out today! B & K have been in their ND gear the past two days. Woo-hoo! (and don't worry OSU fans, we have plenty of Buckeye gear -- and UD gear for my school, too!).

Reminders of vacation

Most people (I assume) look for meaningful little mementos of their baby's first family vacation. If you know us in real life (or you've been reading this blog for a while) you know we are not those people. :-) In a moment of not feeling like crap and escaping "Faye the Storm" last week, Tim & I went on a mad search to find THE.PERFECT.SHIRT for Bennett & Kendyll. And like the responsible mommy that I've become, I washed them up yesterday only to have the "fine quality" cotton shrink down at least two sizes! So the dang things don't even FIT B & K now, but I still wanted to snap a picture, because to us they are the perfect reminders of our trip. Enjoy! (*click on the picture to see it in full-screen view . . . if you look closely at Bennett in his picture you can see the snaps of his onesie . . . now that is classy, peeps!)