Winter blech, talking bears & first b-days

Sorry for the lack of updates again. It has been a weird couple of weeks. Can I just go on record here staying I HATE WINTER AND I HATE JANUARY (and February & March . . . pretty much all the winter months!). Ugh . . . we had another 8 inches of snow & ice this week and while shoveling the driveway is great exercise, the lack of snow removal on the rest of the roadways in this town is a joke! It is pretty bad when your driveway looks better than the street (and we live in a nice community known for great snow removal). OK, I digress . . .

We want to send along a huge get well to Grandpa Mike & Nana Debbie. My dad has been under the weather since Xmas and was finally able to get the treatment he needed this week. It has been a rough week for him (and my Mom), but thankfully after a procedure on Wed. he is feeling better. Sadly because of this crappy weather I couldn't drive up to be with them, but I'm glad he is on the mend. And poor Nana -- Tim's mom thought she made out well when she didn't catch the nasty bug we all had at Xmas, only to come down with it (10x worse than us all!) during her nice vacay in Fl. Sorry!! We're glad to hear she is on the mend (after some serious doses of meds -- nice!!). :)

And we'd also like to send along a HUGE thank you to my Aunt Kathy & her "clan" for the Xmas gifts! Grandma Angie sent them down to us and B&K are loving the books and can't wait to grow into the PJs. Most of all they LOVE this talking, singing, book reading bear. I thought they might be a little creeped out by it, but quite the opposite. They can't get enough of him (Tabasco likes him, too). So thank you!!

We have a VERY busy month coming up. Our good friends Will & Sam will turn one on Feb. 3rd and that starts a month of big first birthdays. We have their party, then B&K's party, and then our friends Anna, Ava & Alexis will turn one on March 3rd. Whew! The invites for B&K's party (a bee & lady bug theme) went out last week. I made them myself and I'm super proud of them, if I do say so. :)

Have a great weekend! Watch for my big GO STEELERS post on Sunday!! Woo-hoo!!

Picture time!

Just some fun pictures from this past week. Yeah, still no videos -- sorry. I've been trying to get some crap tagged for the twins sale next month and Tim is working on a new financial venture, so I didn't really get a chance to spend the HOURS it takes to upload the video over the weekend. Don't hold your breath, but I'll try to get to it soon. :)

B-man being funny in K's chair

FINALLY holding their bottles (although not consistently)

Playing & lounging

The Yeah Yeahs

Just a quick update . . . I’m pretty sure Bennett said his first “official” word last night (constant mama and dada and baba aside). The kiddos were in their highchairs eating dinner last night and Tim asked Tabasco if he needed to go outside. Bennett quickly replied “yep” as Tim was passing by. We both stopped for a sec in shock. Bennett proceeded to reiterate what Tabasco couldn’t say (obviously) with a chant of “yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”. So there you have it.

Kendyll meanwhile is thisclose to mastering the crawling thing. She gets up on all fours, rocks, picks up one hand or the other and tries to go forward (just to face-plant fast) . . . we have a running bet on when she’ll finally take off. Lauren estimates when she sees us again on Monday K will be full-on mobile. We’ll see. She has also taken to doing this thing that I think looks like brake dancing – a description here wouldn’t do it justice. I caught it on video and if the blogger / you tube gods align this weekend I’ll finally get some freaking video up here. : )

I have a VERY busy / exciting weekend ahead (I say “I” because a lot of it is all about me!). Tonight I’m meeting up with a few fellow multiple mommies for a drink or two – our 2nd official “MoMs Night Out”. I can’t wait!! Then tomorrow I am getting up at 8a and cashing in on one of my favorite Xmas gifts from Tim – a gift certificate for a spa day!! I’m getting a massage and my hair cut (I’m tempted to do a major overhaul . . . we’ll see). And then I get to show off my relaxed self & hair did at night because we’ve got a sitter and are going out with our friends Nick & Jodi. Woo-hoo!!

I promise to at least get some new pictures up here over the weekend . . . I’m still determined to get those darn videos up, too. Hang tight!

Learning & Growing & Changing

First up, yeah . . . I changed up the look again. Many thanks to a local crafty lady named Janny . . . check out her site by clicking the link to the top right. She is SO talented! Thanks for the free background, Janny!

Second, I figured it was time to do another quick update on what B&K are up to:

* Kendyll is all about clapping these days -- prompted and unprompted. I'm assuming this will lead her to a cheerleading position down the road (lord help us all).

* Bennett is getting better at putting weight on his legs. He'll actually put his feet underneath him when in the exersaucer (before he'd dangle them behind him). Every little bit helps.

* Kendyll can go from sitting to crawling and tonight she went from crawling to sitting. She was very proud of herself . . . so much so she started clapping. :)

* Bennett still LOVES to sing. Now he'll do choruses of "mamamamam", "dadadada" "mumumumum" and "babababab". Beautiul. He also loves to use the hollow blocks as a microphone (I've been trying hard to catch this on video).

* Kendyll will pretty much each anything and especially if she is feeding herself. She'll take fistfulls and usually only 1 or 2 of whatever she is eating will make it to her mouth.

* Bennett will almost stay on his belly or more than 5 seconds and the other night I almost caught him rolling back to belly (which he can do, he just doesn't like to do). It was funny because he caught himself midway and was like "oh crap -- I hate my belly!".

* Both babies are becoming more challenging to dress . . . especially miss escape artist, Kendyll. They are more into wiggling and sneaking away from mommy on the floor vs. getting their diaper changed or getting their PJs on.

* Both babies still LOVE to shake their head no. Over & over & over again (K especially loves to do it when B is crying).

Whew. . . that is enough now. I'm sure there is lots more I'm forgetting, but this will have to do for now.

Life Celebrated

My friend, Jennifer, passed away yesterday. Many thanks to those of you who have been keeping her in your thoughts and prayers. Jen was an amazing person -- super funny, smart, strong, beautiful and creative. She was a phenomenal writer. I was looking back through some old pictures of my days in high school and the time she & I were roommates after I graduated from college. Gosh I was so skinny back then!! But I digress -- this is about her. :) She was an awesome person and will be deeply missed. She was 40 years old. Our condolences go out to her family -- her parents Todd & Kathy, brother Todd and husband Matthew.

I posted this on her CaringBridge site, but I wanted to include it here, too. Many, many years ago she gave me a wonderful book of poetry by James Kavanaugh. This is by far my favorite poem. An excerpt from "In Celebration of You!":

I could never replace your smile, your eyes,
Your gentleness and giving, your loyalty and caring,
The memories we’ve filed, the secrets we’ve shared,
The love that is forever there despite time or distance.

So, today I celebrate your very existence,
Thank all of life for your life,
Express my deepest gratitude that
Of all the millions of people and possibilities,
Our lives were destined to be intermingled.

And as I celebrate your being,
I want you to know, clearly and forever,
That my world would never be the same,
Without you.

A few pictures I was able to dig up . . . this one is from St. Catherine's retreat -- I'm guessing maybe 1991 or 1992 (I need to label my pictures better!). Jen is the 2nd from the left and "skinny me" is the 2nd from the right.

Necessary "hold the camera out and take a picture of ourselves" pics . . . I'm guessing late '90s (again, no dates on pictures . . . what did we do before online photo albums???)

Sunday night report

We've had a really nice weekend. Tim flew back in from Chicago Thursday night just in time for me to head out to attend my local twins club meeting. Fellow twin mommies April & Alicia and I also were able to sneak in an adult beverage after the meeting -- fun times.

Friday the temperature gauge in my car read -11 on my way into work and I was further greeted by the fact that the heat in our office building stopped working overnight and they were working to get it fixed (Tim's office had the same issue). Lovely. We survived and stayed in Friday night.

Saturday was a fun filled day of shopping and then hanging out with our friends Alicia & Bryan and their twin boys Will & Sam. We were all marveling over the fact that our four will be turning 1 soon (W & S are 10 days older than B&K). Amazing. They all played well together and enjoyed an evening of "baby crack" watching while us adults devoured a DEE-LICOUS meal prepared by Tim.
(Kendyll, Will, Bennett, Sam in this photo)


Today I've spent the day tagging stuff for the upcoming twins sale in Feb. and counting down the seconds until the Steelers game tonight. B & K have been busy playing all day.


May I ask a favor of those of you who say prayers? This may seem a little random, but you might recall my post in October wishing my friend Jennifer a happy birthday. Unfortunately she is very close to losing her extremely long battle with cancer. She is within her last days (maybe even hours) of life in this world and I'd like to ask that you please keep her & her family in your thoughts. It breaks my heart what everyone has been through and I wish I could be there in person to offer support . . . I figure this request is the next best thing. Thanks.

Happy Birthday, Mindy!!

A very happy birthday to my dear friend and former college roommate, Mindy!!! It is fitting that we received almost 6 inches of snow here today -- she LOVES snow (and I'm sure she probably has more where she lives). :)

11 Months Old!!!

Guess what today is?!? Yep, B & K's birthday!! Here is their official 11 Month b-day pic and some individual shots:

Of course there are some outtakes . . . Tabasco wanted to get into the picture:

Kendyll's like "where did Tabasco go??":

And then Bennett pooped (I'm sure he's going to thank me for this later . . . see how red his face is?? At least he stays happy through it):

And Kendyll says "pee-uuuu":

Like their shirts? Check out Savvy Sarah's website: http://www.savvysarahdesigns.blogspot.com/ She has a TON of super cute, hand made items! And she's working on a wicked awesome get-up for B & K's first birthday . . . stay tuned!

One Year Later . . .

Last night I was thinking back to this time last year . . . the holidays were over, I had missed my baby shower and I was living life as a hermit from my couch. It was a year ago today that I started this blog. Remember that first post? I never in a million years expected to keep up with it as long as I have. But I've found it to be therapeutic -- as well as a GREAT reminder . . . have I touched B&K's baby books since I was on bedrest?!? Um, a big fat "NO!" My hope is to be able to look back through this site to fill in the pages. :-)

Thanks for reading, thanks for visiting and thanks for all of your comments & support! I'm not going anywhere . . . I just wanted to commemorate this day.

note: NO, I haven't forgotten about the videos. I'm working my friend Marie's suggestion and trying to get them up through You Tube . . . but it may not be until next week. Sorry!

Happy Belated Birthday!!!!

ACK -- oh my goodness!! After my hiatus last week it occurred to me that I neglected to publish this post!! I SWEAR I had it all ready to go (set to publish/post on the correct date), but for some reason it was saved as a draft, not published!!! So an extremely belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad, Grandpa Z!!! I won’t tell you how “young” he was last Friday, but we know he wasn’t feeling well (thanks to all of us sickies) and I feel horrible that this didn’t go out! Here are a few pics of B&K with Grandpa! :)

New Year - New Look

My cousin Julia came to visit us last night and she looked SO cute! New haircut, new life back in school and super cute clothes as always. I wanted to go out and color my hair and wax my brows and get a new do, too. But alas, that will all have to wait for me . . . so instead I've spruced up the blog a bit. :) What do ya think?

And NO, I didn't forget about the videos. Yet again blogger has been trying to upload them for over TWO hours!! I may try to find another way to upload them. So stay tuned!!

I don't like Mondays

Sorry, I couldn't think of a catchy title and that is the last song I heard (playing on a commercial, no less!).

We're all still here. Sorry for the lack of posts. Actually, I have been trying to get a freaking cute video or two loaded all.night.long, but blogger just doesn't want to cooperate. So you'll have to do with words and a few pictures (and I'll try again another night . . . I also have updating the header on my agenda . . . Tim is traveling this week, so I hope to get that accomplished one night after B&K go to bed).

We're all *almost* over this absolutely nasty virus. The babies are pretty much back to normal -- back on their schedule and back to sleeping & eating better. Tim & I are almost better, too. I felt so bad for Tim having to fly today, but thankfully he made it without his head exploding. Now just about everyone else who saw us or spent part of Xmas with us has a some form or another of this crud. Not fun!

Let's see. . . what's new with B&K.

• Kendyll is finally cutting another tooth (she'll be at 3 compared to Bennett's 8). Actually, I think she may be working on a tooth explosion, but I've taken to calling her "Snaggletooth" because the new one popping in is a random one on the top side (not her top front teeth, but next to that). Sexy.
• Bennett has started to watch Kendyll like a hawk when they are eating. Normally if they are eating something that needs to be fed by a spoon, one baby gets a bite, then the other. Well he watches her (and whomever is feeding him) so closely just to make sure she is getting the same thing as him (or to make sure she doesn't choke . . . I'm not quite sure) -- the look of intent / concern is priceless.
• The super cute video includes the two of them "playing" together, which consists of Kendyll stealing a toy from Bennett and then him stealing it back and then repeat. It also includes her pulling his shirt and him laughing at her. They are really starting to interact more and it is super cute (I promise to try to get the video up here later this week).
• Kendyll is still crawling backward, but she is getting better at getting up on all fours and rocking so it is only a matter o time before she figures it out. We have started the baby proofing process. Lovely.
• Bennett loves to sing and loves to listen to other people sing. The other night Tim was flipping channels and stopped on this lady singing Celtic tunes (or something random like that). Bennett stopped what he was doing and watched her so intently -- and at one point she raised her hand during her tune and he did the same thing. Funniest.thing.ever -- it was probably a totally random coincidence, but the timing was HILARIOUS!
• Kendyll has started to clap and Bennett will wave. Both still LOVE to shake their head no (K especially when B is crying).
• They are both really interacting with Tabasco more. TB will lay next to B&K on the floor and the babies will pet his fur. They also follow him around the room and B will crack up at him for no apparent reason. I have a video of this, too (I swear!).
• Speaking of B cracking up, last week when they were at the pedi for their ear infections there was this little boy (I'll say 8ish) who was playing with a toy and counting to 10 in Spanish over and over and over and over and over again. Every so often he'd stop his counting to let out this croupy cough. Bennett thought the cough was hilarious. I felt a little sorry for my kid cracking up & making fun of this other kids cough, but it was so cute!
• We were guessing weights last night and I did an unofficial weight on our scale at home (by weighing myself and then holding a baby). They are both at 19lbs. I'm guessing they will be close to 20 by their 12 mo appointment.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of B & K (and Tabasco) doing one of the their favorite things -- watching "Baby Einstein" holding their new remotes (thanks Grandma & Grandpa Z) in their Pottery Barn Kids chairs (thanks Nana & Papa). I think Tabasco wants one of these chairs, too!

And here are B&K in their "Baby's First New Years" bibs on NYD.