Aquarium

Last weekend Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Ralph were visiting and all 6 of us went the the Aquarium.  We had a grand time!  The boys took in everything and seemed to have a great time.  I think they saw some fish, but mostly they liked the people and hustle and bustle.  I haven't been there since they remodeled and it is so cool!  They made some really neat changes, but kept the old goodies the same.  We let the boys out of the stroller at the underwater dome and honestly the heater vent was more interesting than the fish, but this Mama sure enjoyed sharing the experience with her kiddos!  It will be so much fun to continue going back with them as they grow up and see through their eyes a favorite place of mine.

 Odin in the underwater dome

 Lars in the dome

Yep, we were THAT family hogging a whole section of floor in the dome 

The heater vent may have been the highlight for this trip, but we'll see what it is next time 

Grandma and Lars checking out the fur seals 

Grandpa and Odin

Crawling!

Lars is now crawling!  It isn't super efficient yet, but it is effective.

Third tooth for Lars!

Lars now has 3 teeth...that makes for 3 teeth popping up in less than 2 weeks!  Fortunately they have come up with little fanfare or fuss.  He is spending a lot of time clacking the top tooth and the bottom teeth together so he looks like he as an underbite now.

Playing Together

I was in the kitchen and heard giggling and I caught them playing together, too fun!  Please excuse the poor video quality, I needed to zoom in so that they wouldn't see me and stop.

Life with twins

Today was baby story time at the Ballard library from 10:30 to 11:30.  Given the boy's new (2 naps a day at consistent times) schedule, the timing was perfect for us to go.

The boys woke up at 7am, right on time for them to go down for their first nap 2 hours later at 9am.  They ate and I changed them out of their pajamas and they went down without a problem, as planned at 9am, I anticipated them sleeping for 45 minutes or an hour max.  I got ready to go, pulled out the stroller, the baby carrier, grabbed a blanket for the floor at the library, some toys and filled the diaper bag with diapers.

The boys were still sleeping, so I worked on making their lunch so that it would be ready for when we came home since the turn around time would be tight between getting them home and them needing to go down for their second nap.

Then I checked my email, and some blogs and the twinstuff.com forums...and they were still sleeping.

Lars finally woke up at 10:30, I opened the door to the room Odin was sleeping in so that he would get the hint and he finally woke up around 10:45.  They needed to eat (milk) before we left and they needed clean diapers.  I loaded them up in the car and it was 11:08.

We drove down to Ballard in the pouring rain and made it to the library parking garage at 11:23, yep, 7 minutes before story time was over.  The parking garage was full, so back out to the street for parking, in the pouring rain.  I strapped the Ergo carrier on and got Odin all loaded up on me, then I put Lars in the single umbrella stroller, got stopped by a woman pregnant with twins to ask about my double stroller preference (we twin moms are always a spectacle), went to pay for parking, went back to the car to put the parking sticker in it, and got in the library door at 11:37.  Yep 7 minutes after it was over.  And I was hot and sweaty!

Honestly I knew we wouldn't get there in time when I left the house, but I figured I had put all the work into getting ready that it would have been wasted if I didn't go somewhere.  We saw where the story time is held for next time, and I was able to buy shampoo at Bartell's.  I also went to Cupcake Royale and treated myself to a cupcake and cup of coffee.  We even got to see some other babies and moms since a group of singleton moms who had actually made it to story time came into Cupcake Royale for a treat.

All in all it was a fine trip, just a funny "life with twins" kind of day.

Best of all, they had a GREAT nap!  That is what I, as a twin mom like best.

9 month well baby check

We have two healthy and GROWING boys!  The boys also didn't need any shots, woo hoo!

Here are the stats:

Odin
length:  27.25", 16.50%  (6 month comparison:  9.44%)
weight:  17 lb 2 oz, 5.07%  (6 month comparison:  2.39%)
head circumference:  17.4", 19.27%  (6 month comparison:  6.36%)

Lars
length:  28.75", 66.66% (6 month comparison:  30.01%)
weight:  19 lb 6 oz, 30.06% (6 month comparison:  14.13%)
head circumference:  17.87", 52.77% (6 month comparison:  21.67%)


I'm so impressed with how they are jumping up through the charts...I guess if we keep feeding them, they'll keep growing!

9 months

Dear Odin and Lars-

Yesterday your cousin Einar turned 6 years old, you turned 9 months old.  We aren't really sure where the time is going, but we sure are enjoying it.  You have both changed and developed so much in the last month, it is really amazing to watch.

Solid foods are a real treat to serve you.  You are both great eaters and are having 3 large solid meals a day, and you eat so well!  Amazingly you are still eating the same amount of milk, so it seems like we are always feeding you, but as quickly as everything else is changing, I'm sure that will change soon too.  You are now working on finger foods in addition to the purees we feed you.  Lars you LOVE baby crack cheerios and are really good at feeding yourself.  You've invented this pretty cool index finger hook grasp to get them to your mouth.  Odin, you really like grabbing a handful of them and dropping them on the floor.  After meal time we have a lot to clean up!  Too bad Scooter the dog isn't around any longer, she would love to help clean up.  So far the cats haven't been too interested in your food.

Nice color coordination with shirts and bibs guys!

You are finally on 2 naps a day at pretty predictable times.  I'm SO glad about this.  I did have to put you in separate rooms for naps, but you still sleep in the same room at night.  Since you're not napping as frequently and the naps are at predictable times, for the first time since you came home I feel like I have a chance of getting out of the house with you both when I'm on my own without worrying that I will be dealing with 2 over tired, cranky babies.  Just last week, we got out for a couple of walks on the beautiful days we had.  It is sure helping your Mama's state of mind.  Next week I think we will try baby story time at the Ballard library, it happens every Tuesday and I think that will be lots of fun!

You are both moving around A LOT on your own.  Neither of you are crawling in an organized way quite yet, but you see something you want and usually find a way to get there through a combination of rolling, scootching and reaching.  As one of our twin moms said, it seems as though you may have cilia on your bottoms since you are never where we left you when we step out of the room!

This is just the beginning of wrestling isn't it?

Both of you can sit up without any support!  Though Lars, you've decided that sitting up playing is too boring and you want to move around, so I will sit you up and give you a toy and you'll play for about 2 minutes and then you are rolling on the floor.  Odin you are more content to sit and play with a toy, but I foresee that changing pretty soon.

It is so fun to sit up isn't it?

The first real cold struck this month and it was hard to see you both feeling crummy.  Though we had a couple of nights of pretty interrupted sleep, fortunately it didn't last too long.  You both had terrible coughs that made your Mama and Papa very sad to hear, but fortunately you recovered quickly.

Teeth!  You both have them now.  I still haven't been able to get good pictures of them since you both seem to want to keep them a secret, but soon enough we'll get to show everyone your pearly whites.

This has been such a fun month of firsts.  You are the happiest, most smiley babies a Mama and Papa could ever want.  It it truly an honor to be the recipients of such amazing smiles.  Thank you for sharing your love with us.

With all our love,
Mama and Papa

First tooth for Odin!

Odin's first tooth appeared this morning!  It is the lower front tooth on the left, same first tooth as his brother.  I have 2 left toothed boys (for now at least).  Pictures when we can actually see it without a tongue in the way!

It was a beautiful day

Yesterday was a beautiful day so Odin, Lars and I went for a walk.  We checked out the local kids play area and tried out the swings.  It was fun!

 Since there was only one baby swing, we got creative!

 Lars says, this is cool mama!

Observant Odin...he did NOT want to look at me or the camera, there was too much other stuff to look at!

Another tooth for Lars!

On Tuesday another tooth appeared in Lars' mouth, directly above the first one.  At this point, he is our left-toothed baby.  Again, pictures when he lets us see them.

Playin' in the bath

 Now that both Odin and Lars are sitting up without support...they get to have baths together in the big bathtub!  Fortunately we had Grandma Cheryl on hand to photograph the first one.  I forsee lots of splashing in our future!

First Tooth!

A tooth has appeared in Lars' mouth!  Pictures will come as soon as he lets us see it.