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)