one is improving.....the other is starting

The sunshine during breakfast :)


Well Celia is feeling better slowly. She went to bed at 7:00 last night and woke up a couple times while I was out to dinner with my dear wonderful friend, Julie (she bought me birthday dinner at Jaliscos, roses, a beautiful card).
She woke up at 10:30 and I rocked her back to sleep and then she slept until 7:20 am. Yippee!!! I think I went in and checked on her a couple times at night but I don't remember. lol
Today she is is much brighter spirits and is happier. Her nose is still dripping and she seems to have a gunky left eye (looks like when they had blocked tear ducts as infants). So with the saline spray, the nose sucker, vitamins, some antibiotic drops we have from the last eye clogs she seems to be on the mend. Her appetite is better than yesterday too.
On the other hand, Nicholas is feeling crummy today. He is crying easy and not as giddy as he usually is. His nose is all drippy too. AND his bottom (first) tooth is SOOOO close his gums actually look a little bloody at times. So between his tooth and his cold the poor guy is actually doing pretty well. I think he will be the one up a lot the next couple of nights. :(

Pictures of my crawlers in the hallway:

Reading with Grandma Maus the other day (one of their favs - The Three Little Kittens):
A silly picture with Mommy yesterday:
p.s. Do you ever notice sometimes your picture count is not even? Sorry Celia!!! Watch out - Mamarazzi is comin'!

Thankful for: 1. A nose sucker 2. Vicks Vapor plug-in thingys 3. Sleep

Her first Cold

Sad :(

Celia has her first cold ever. Up until this week she had never been sick before. Oh well - bound to happen sometime, right?

Yesterday was awful. She cried and cried big alligator tears, and when she stopped crying she cried an angry cry. It was so hard to not know how to help her. She wasn't acting sick yesterday - but this afternoon I have a bad headache, so maybe that is how the cold starts and her head hurt yesterday? She was up crying every 1-2 hours last night. After rocking her, etc she slept in our bed a couple times and Jason rocked her in the livingroom early in the morning. We eventually just kept her with us so Nicholas could sleep. We didn't want to chance both of them crying. So, i took her to the pediatrician this morning and her ears look great, a little red throat and a cold was the diagnosis.

I gave them chicken noodle soup (10 month olds don't know how to slurp - ha ha), vitamins (poly vi sol), vanilla icecream (in case of a sore throat), and lots of hugs :)

She is in a better mood today and napping better. Hopefully tonight is better too. :)

Grandma Maus picked up a Theraflu vapor-thingy too. So we will turn that on tonight. :)

The Trick to TRYING to keep Bowls/Plates on the highchair

I finally found these double-sided Soap holders this Friday. You stick them to the bowl/plate and then stick the other side to the highchair tray. It works quite well and cost about a $1.99.



The babies seem to like to have a plate on their tray to look over and pick out different finger food. I tried giving them a bowl with yogurt (yogurt with wheat germ so it is thicker) and spoons. Of course, the fingers were in the yogurt, but they started trying to spoon too. Celia actually seemed to get the hang of it after a while. I had my own spoon to help them out, but they seemed to like the challenge of it. They were a mess at the end!

Working at the Office (AKA the love-seat)

I took the cushions off the love-seat and used it to make a tunnel (like we have done before). However, in the last few days these two are wanting to pull up on a lot of things. So they crawled to the love-seat, which was lower for them because the cushions were off. I put toys on the love-seat and they played nicely like that for a while. It was cute watching them play like that this evening. :)

Our First Thanksgiving & Snowsuits

Our First Thanksgiving

After the big-people ate thanksgiving dinner ~ the babies pulled their highchairs up to the table and ate actual pieces of Turkey, squash, rolled balls of mashed potatoes, rolled bits of stuffing, and homemade cranberry sauce. They ate very well.

Celia eating her turkey dinner! She was so excited to finally eat!
Nicholas gobbled up his Turkey as fast as he could! Yummy!


Celia crawled over to Grandma & Grandpa Maus' kitties (Mick and Tonka) while they were eating their own kitty -thanksgiving-meal . Celia would've tried eating their cat food if Grandma hadn't picked her up as soon as the picture was taken!I found these wonderful snowsuits shopping for Black Friday today. They were normally $48 each, and I got them for $21 each. The feet and hands fold close- no messing with mittens and shoes everytime. We were joking that we were trying to save money on heating this winter so the kids were going to have to wear their snowsuits inside. Nicholas thought it was fun to go in his jumper with it on - Celia was in the excersaucer with hers on. I thought I got a picture of her too, but I guess not. I had videotaped them in their suits playing, so I must've gotten mixed up. Thats the first time all year! (just kidding :) )
Look how big they are on the rocking chair! I am getting a couple toddlers!

P.S. Today Celia surprised us that she knows how to put the rings on those cone/ring stacking toys. She was using a friend of our's rings and did very well. I was impressed! She is one smart cookie!

Celia in her Crib

Celia loves to pull up onto her knees now. She thrills herself by holding on to the crib slats and pulling up and looking around. Now she begins nap that way, as well as ends nap that way. This is her this morning after her 10:00 nap. She is so pleased with herself.

This is the only other one I could get where she wasnt blinking :) Unfortunately she isnt smiling either. lol :) But, I thought it was pretty.

She has been wanting to be independant when it comes to eating lately, but also wanting to be held a lot. This evening she was crawling to my feet and fussing until I picked her up. It is nice that she wants to cuddle with me. :)
They are taking 2 naps a day. Usually 10:00 am - 11:00/11:30am and then 2:00pm-3:30pm. Then they go to bed about 7:00/7:30pm. Its a nice schedule for now. :)

Diddle Diddle Dumpling

Diddle diddle dumpling
my son Nicholas.
He went to bed with his shirt on.
One arm in and one arm out.
Diddle diddle dumpling
my son Nicholas!

*This morning when Nicholas woke up from his nap, this is how he greeted me. A cheesy smile with one arm in his shirt, and one arm out. Silly Boy! But, Mommy loves you forever and ever!

Wowsers

It is just amazing how quickly they can jump to a new skill! In the last month (and mostly in the last couple weeks or less) they have learned to:
1. both were army crawlers
2. both can regular crawl
3. both can go from crawl to sitting (celia just did it tonight!)
4. pull up on things
5. Nicholas tried cruising while holding on to the couch tonight too
6. both can hold their own bottle

It is so neat to see them put all the skills together. It is so fun!
In the last week they have started drinking a lot more milk too. Lately they are drinking 6oz bottles 4x a day! They never drink this much. I had heard that sometimes before babies get real active they have a little drop in their milk intake, so who knows if that was what is was?
I am starting to transition from breastmilk to formula now. We are using Nestle Good Start 2 (for babies 9-24 mos). It has more iron and calcium to compensate for what they might not get when eating finger food, etc and their higher demands as an older baby. They are drinking a bottle with 1/2 breastmilk and 1/2 formula for now. I am pumping only a few times a day now and I have a lot in the freezer - so they will get some for a few more weeks. Its close to being 1 year old by the time they are on formula. Part of me isnt sure if I will have them have maybe 1/2 formula and 1/2 cow milk when they get over 12 mos for the extra calories? We'll see.

And they are both off!

Guess who is crawling now....NICHOLAS! I practiced with the blanket/sling idea this weekend with him and he was crawling a LOT today. He acts like he has been doing it all along. :)

On Saturday Jason and I took the babies to the store to look at Christmas gifts for them. We found the 'Sit and Stand Giraffe' at Fleet Farm for less than at Walmart even, so we bought it. It is soooooooo hard not to open it and let them play with it - So I have been letting them play with the box and push the button on the Giraffe's head so it plays music and lights up. The funny thing is Nicholas has been pulling himself up on the 'Sit and Stand Giraffe's' BOX. :) Celia was having fun standing next to it too.

Don't you love the cheesy smile :)

Celia was in a better mood this weekend. She has been liking to be rocked for naps and bedtime - which she has never been a big fan of previously. Usually she is just too squirmy, but lately she has been content to be rocked so it is nice. She seems to sleep better if you rock her to sleep. In the middle of the night when one or both of them wakes up and needs to be rocked to be soothed to fall back asleep I just think about how quickly they grow up and how we can't rock our babies forever - so I cherish that closeness - even at 3AM.

Thankful for 1. My babies (cant just mention them once) 2. Hot Chocolate with Cool Whip 3. Bacon

Guess who IS Crawling!!

CELIA!!!!
She has been doing the couple crawls here and there and today I took a blanket and folded it so I could sling it under her torso and support her from above (kind of like when you see a horse with a broken leg being supported by a sling). I held her up on all 4s and coaxed her along with a remote. Eventually she started using the crawling movements and I gradually released how much tension I was holding with the blanket until she was on her own. It worked!
Just a minute ago she crawled all the way across the livingroom to her highchair (after I coaxed her with a couple cheerios). :) Yay for Celia!!!

Those of you that voted for Celia in the poll box win!

Is this Teething?

Ok...maybe I am slow, but could Celia's unusally frequent fussing be teething? But....I don't feel any teeth in there yet?
She has a periodic clear runny nose (so does Nicholas, but I KNOW he is teething because I can see his teeth at the top), she is very cranky, she is waking up in the middle of naps and at night, she is playing with her ears (supposed to be a sign of teething)???
Maybe that is part of the problem?

Attack!

Yesterday, the babies were crawling to come and get me on the carpet so I grabbed a picture. It kind of feels like getting attacked by some sort of crawling bugs or something. :) They are getting fast too! Tonight Celia crawled for REAL about 4 or 5 "steps". I thought she would keep going but once she got to her toy she went back down into the army crawl. SOOO close!



Celia has been cranky this week so tonight I tried very purposefully to devote a lot of attention to her and play on the floor a lot. They both really liked it. Even though I am home with them all day there are so many things to get done that I really need to take time to make it a point to play with them more and observe them.



Thankful for 1. Icey Bubbly Fountain Soda 2. The Office (sitcom) 3. Orchids

Our Date night

Jason and I were able to go out last night. It was so nice! I missed the babies when I was out, but we had such a nice time.

My mom watched the babies and put them to bed for us and said "stay out as long as you want"

We went to the movie early (5:00) to catch the matinee fee (only $11 total for 2) I highly recommend "Dan in real life" movie. It was SOOOOOO good. I was laughing and then crying at the end and then happy again. Steve Carell is the widower Father of 3 girls (4th grader, 14 yr old and 17 yr old) and he writes a column for parents of teenagers. His three daughters and himself go to the shore for a family get together (the WHOLE family - grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins) and Dan falls in love with a girl he meets at a book store, only to realize she is his brothers girlfriend. Anyway...I will stop there. It was so cute. Funny, realistic and a good love story.
Then went to a great restaurant in the country called "Fox and Hounds" I had a coupon from my birthday to go there. So we couldn't pass it up.
We sat at a rustic wooden table by a fireplace and had soda (ha ha not alcohol), way too many appetizers (homemade wrapped motzarella sticks, baked french onion soup, chkn dumpling soup, salad and bread with cinnamon butter). We were stuffed before our meals even came! Jason had a steak and I had pan-fried trout.
Then we whisked to TJ Maxx to check out their things. and then home. I grabbed a couple shirts with birthday money, an outfit for Nicholas (couldnt find anything for Celia), a baby piano toy and a basting brush.

When my DH dropped me off at the door before putting the van in the garage I said "Call me again sometime" He said "Can I come in for some coffee - wink wink". Awww! After knowing each other for 9 years, married for 6 and getting through 10 months of twins...we still love each other. lol! :)
It was so fun.
Just sharing our nice night last night!

Thanks Mom for helping out with the babies! We appreciate it. Thanks Dad for helping Mom a bit too!

I am so glad it is bedtime

This afternoon was very rough. Celia woke up after at MAYBE 45 min afternoon nap. That woke Nicholas up. I waited a while to see if they would fall asleep again, but she started crying hard so I went in there and tried rocking them. Changed her diaper, gave them a bottle - but that wasn't fixing anything. I tried laying her back down and trying to get Nicholas back to sleep, but they were pretty set against napping again.
So I took them to the livingroom and from 3:00 - 6:20 bedtime she was one fussy and cranky girl. I tried prying open her lips to see if it is a tooth (which made her even more cranky) but there wasnt a tooth there. She didnt have a fever or anything that would make me think she was sick. She has been playing with both ears, but she does that and last time at the Dr I thought she would have an infection but she was completely fine. Also she is fussy in all positions - sometimes they say they are fussy laying down.
So....she fussed through her bottles and dinner. I skipped the bath because I could tell it wouldn't have gone well. Times like this really test your patience as a mom. I can't tell whats bothering and nothing seems to help. Finally at 6:20pm I put Nicholas in the jumper (he was fine all afternoon) and went in their room and rocked her and sang to her before I laid her down for the night. I was so 'done' with dealing with the fussing, but I didn't want to end the night on a bad note for her. I sang to her, rocked and played with the little hair on her head. :)
She was fine with that and fell asleep in her crib without a peep. Perhaps she was just over-tired? Hard to tell. She was fussy yesterday too, but not this much.
Heres to hoping tomorrow is better. :)

Thankful for 1. cellphones to talk with people when I am craving adult interaction 2. Icecream with brownie for after they go to bed 3. Digital cameras to record every moment in our babies' lives.

Roses

On Friday I had a vase of roses which were wilting and I thought some supervised observation would be fun for the babies. They really had fun - but I had to keep a super close eye on petals that were going into their mouths. :)





Thankful for 1. coffee 2. our cats 3. Jason's job so I can stay home for now :)

She likes Cat food :)

So, Celia likes to army crawl to the cat food bowl and taste her little bits of dry food. On Saturday she crawled over there and I saw her sucking on something. Jason picked her up and I swept her mouth with my finger and fished out a piece of food. She also had a hand-ful of more food for her next bite. She cried that I took it out of her mouth.
Then today she did it again. I am watching her and she is SO fast. I went over there to pick her up and she grabbed a piece of food and tossed it in her mouth before I could stop her!
Silly baby, cat food is for cats!

So, we are going to probably put the cat food in the basement since we have a cat door on our basement door.

My Thankful list (MTL): 1. for a soft bed to sleep in at night 2. for funny movies (I added a movie list to help myself remember) 3. for the internet

Happy Birthday to Me

Yup, blowing my own horn. :) ha ha. I am 27 today! Last year's birthday pretty much stunk since I was on bedrest and my b-day dinner was McDonalds. And by November 15th I was starting my 6 week hospital stay.
Jason, Mom (and Dad), my good friend Julie, and my Aunt Sandy all were so fast to call or write to say Happy Birthday this morning. Thanks guys!

Today I have a haircut and then we have our church small group. So, nothing too special. I have to cook chili for the small group too. Maybe an apple pie or two.

But, I have heard people write each day about things they are thankful for. So, I think maybe starting that would be a good thing:

3 things I am Thankful for:
1. My babies of course. They are healthy, happy (most of the time), and growing well.
2. My Family and my husband
3. My friends (on-line and in-person)

Seeing Double

At Grandpa & Grandma Velicer's house

This last weekend we spent time with Grandpa & Grandma Velicer. Nicholas was a bit cranky (you can't tell from the pictures of course) because his lower right tooth is SOOOOOO close now, Celia was very good and crawled all over the place (army crawl that is) . :)





Here are some 3-Generation pictures of Nicholas with his Daddy and his Grandpa Myron.

Sippy Cup Review

UPDATE:

I couldn't resist trying out the Playtex Sipster. I bought a set of them, and I think they WILL work well once they get better at drinking from the spout. They still drink more liquid and quicker from the Nuby cups, but I think the liquid comes out well from these Playtex cups too. Currently, it seems N & C like the softness of the Nuby drinking spout. So, we will keep the Playtex and Nuby. Avent and the Nuby Grip & Sip were the least preferred with my two. :)
-----------
Well, I am on a quest for the best sippy cup. I want cups that are small enough for them to hold themselves (at least learn easily to hold themselves), a flow that isn't too difficult to drink from, easy to wash, and inexpensive.
The First cup I tried, was Avent Magic Trainer. I registered for these cups for our baby shower and recieved a set of 2. They are relatively inexpensive. There is a plastic valve part inside to wash. I tried sucking on the spout myself and found it needed quite a bit of suction to get a small amount of liquid out. I seem to remember SOME leaking at some point, but the parts could have been incorrectly assembled. The babies didn't mind them, but the drinking was slow-going. I will be giving these cups away since I wasn't very impressed with them.
I purchased this Born Free trainer cup from newbornfree.com. These cups are BPA-free. The cups are quite pricey. I paid over $20.00 for 2 cups. There are a few parts to clean, but the liquid-flow is better. Celia has a stronger suck than Nicholas so she is able to drink from these cups relatively quickly and easily. Nicholas likes the cups, and drinks well-enough. These cups are quite leak-proof. However, I am not impressed ENOUGH to continue to pay the money for these cups as 2 cups are not enough once bottles are eliminated. If money was not an option, then I would consider buying more of them.


I also tried these Nuby flip-top straw cups. The straw is a silicone soft straw. Nicholas is/was able to sip from a crazy-straw I had at home, so I was curious if this would work for him or Celia. Also, since my babies haven't learned to lift the cup up to drink while sitting (they can do it laying down) I thought they would be able to sip from the straw without the lifting. However, perhaps due to teething (YES! the tooth IS close), Nicholas wanted to chew on the straw and had no interest in the sucking. Celia was also unsure what to do with it. While I was washing the cup, I found that there are a lot of pieces to take-apart and it is difficult to put back together. SO, this cup is out.
I Read about the Nuby sippy cups on-line. These cups are quite inexpensive, have only the silicone top, handles and cup part to clean. The flow is faster and easier to suck from. Nicholas was able to drink about 4 oz from this cup in about 5 minutes - holding it himself while laying on the floor. Since I purchased only 1 of these cups to 'try', Celia also tried it and seemed to really like it. The handle/lid part does need to be twisted on tightly, but once put on well, does not leak. I will purchase more of these cups soon.

The Verdict: Nuby Soft-spout Cups
Twins advice: only buy one of the cups so you can try them before you buy a second cup :).