Just blabbing...

The babies are getting so big! They are so much fun now. They are both rolling both ways and smiling and "talking". Sydney Frances had her first fit of the giggles this past Thursday. I was playing with Rush in the floor at Mama and Daddy's. I was making a funny noise and playing with his arms and feet. SF was sitting Mama's lap, and she just thought that noise was HILARIOUS stuff! She laughed over and over. So, of course, I sat there doing it over and over just to hear her laugh. What a great sound!! Too cute! I feel like they are both becoming much more aware that the other is there these days, too. They stare at each other and smile and hold hands. SF will rub Rush on top of his head. He is getting a lot of hair, so maybe she is just jealous. She is still a baldy. They will be going back for their 6 month checkups next Friday, so we will have new weights and stats for them then. Also, Phil and I are having our first official date tonight since Aunt Ivy and Uncle Tony have volunteered to keep the babies for us. We have not really ever gone out on V-Day in the past, but we will definitely take advantage of the offer for GREAT babysitters. They will be here during the hardest part of the day, but they are both willing participants, and we are so thankful. They will be here for a cereal feeding and bath time... both fun but also tiring. We are trying a new restaurant (new to us anyway) called Zazu. It is downtown, and we are hoping for good food! Our reservations are really early because that is the price you pay for living in a small, college town. There aren't that many places to eat, and places fill up fast. We could only get reservations at 5:30! I wonder if they will offer an early bird special?? Ha! Well, we will just have to eat slowly, so hopefully, we won't come home too early! Hope you all have a great Valentine's Day!



Rush laughing at Gram (Phil's mom)



This picture makes me laugh. It is right before bath time. Rush drooled all over Phil's shoulder. Phil looks like he has been in a war, and SF was NOT HAPPY that someone else had been on HER Daddy's shoulder. That is HER spot!


Not sure what this face was about... first time in her jumparoo.


SF in her jumparoo. Unfortunately, her feet don't yet touch the ground in order to be able to jump. She just kind of hangs there. Oh well, we will try again later.


For those of you that have been following their progress all along, this is Rush's signature hat from his stay in the NICU. It used to fall down over his eyes.

Video of early days

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This is a video that I put together of some pictures from my pregnancy and the early days when the babies were still in the hospital.It ends with them at home together for the first time. I think I may end up subscribing to this site. It is really cheap, and you can create your own "montages" and order DVDs of videos or pictures that you download. This is one of the very basic videos. I was just playing around with it one day and did this one a while back. You can really make them cute with different backgrounds, music, fonts, etc. It is pretty fun.

"Normal.."

Just wanted to post quickly to let all of you that are reading know that we received GREAT news about SF's echo. The voice mail they left for Phil said that her echocardiogram was "normal". Yaaayyyy!!! That is all they said, so we are not sure if that means "normal" as in she doesn't have a heart murmur after all or "normal" as in she has a murmur that requires no attention and will correct itself. We will get all of these questions answered at our next appointment. Normal is such a wonderful word sometimes!

CEREAL!!!!!!!! Yum!!!

We gave the babies their first try with cereal this weekend. They were so funny! They are getting absolutely no nutrition from it right now. I am not sure they ever swallowed any of it. Most ended up on the bib. Oh well! On the last couple of tries with the cereal, they have started smacking their lips around it and maybe swallowing some. At least they looked cute! :-)

Family Girls' Beach Trip 2009... oh and one boy!

We have had a tradition of heading to the beach for a girls' weekend with Ivy, Mama, Aunt Julia, and me for the last few years in January. We decided to take the babies with us this year since I didn't want to leave them for an extended time just yet. We decided to break the "no boys allowed rule" for Rush since he is so incredibly cute. I was pretty anxious about it because I have, of course, never really traveled with them. It was actually a fun time! We stayed busy taking care of the babies, so I don't think anyone relaxed as much as we usually do on this trip, but we still had a really good time! The weather was a little chilly and windy, but I don't think I have ever seen the water looking more beautiful. We couldn't really play on the beach because it was too cold, but we did go for a couple of long walk with the babies in the carriers. They both slept for the most part, so I guess they liked it. I am sure they thought it was quite relaxing!! We did have one pretty terrible trip to a restaurant. I think it was my idea to take them.... OK... it was my idea. It was not a good one. We decided we would go early.. around 5:00 pm to avoid large crowds of people. We went to a restaurant called The Fish House. Phil and I have been there more than once on previous trips and really enjoyed it. Well, guess what? They had some special menu where it was 2 for 1 from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm for the "early birds." Apparently, "early birds" are willing to eat the worst seafood ever! It was not tasty. Oh well! The babies started crying immediately as soon as we put them down. Poor Aunt Ivy had SF sitting next to her. She started first. No amount of toy-dangling or funny faces was doing the trick, so I took her to the lobby. Upon our return, Rush started up. He was also taken away for a brief period. Needless to say, after SF started crying, I don't think 4 adults were seated at the table again. If we were seated, there was a baby being jiggled on a lap. We were back at the condo in less than an hour. Oh what fun! It was at least worth a good laugh when we all got back and settled. We did, however, make up for the gross seafood by cooking some of our own at the condo. Ivy and Aunt Julia went to Goatfeather's and bought fish, shrimp, and crab cakes. Mama and Aunt J cooked it all, and we had a fantastic dinner that night. I ate WAY too many boiled shrimp! I think we all really enjoyed the trip.

Me with both babies

Rush getting ready for a walk on the beach

Sydney Frances enjoying the beautiful scenery

Baby Einstein mat even goes to the beach

I just think this one is cute of Rush, and we were at the beach, so it fits. :-)

A Little Heart

OK, E.B., this post is for you! :-)

I am not really planning to post every time the babies go to the doctor, but I just wanted to share some news from today's "Synagis appointment". We go to the doctor every 28 days for an injection called Synagis that will help to protect the babies from a severe case of RSV. So, we saw Dr. Glaze today. We really like him. He is great with the babies, and always takes time to answer all of our questions. Today, when he was listening to Sydney Frances's heart, he listened for a long time, so I could tell something was up. He didn't take nearly as long when listening to Rush. So, my heart began to pound because I knew that he was going to say something about her heart. It turns out that Miss SF has a heart murmur. Not a big deal, right? Dr. Glaze was very confident in telling us that it is probably not a big deal. He said he "likes to shoot straight" with people and would tell us if he felt that we should be concerned and worried. I must confess that I felt a small amount of relief when he said "heart mumur" because it sounds very manageable. After all of the time we spent in the NICU, I know it could be much worse. Of course, I am worried about my baby girl, but I really know deep down that all is going to be fine. We are going for an echo-cardiogram (sp?) tomorrow at the hospital. We will get the results back in about a week after a pediatric cardiologist reads the results of the ultrasound. I will keep you all posted. I will pray for a healthy heart for my little one.

Some good news.... We have two FAT little babies on our hands!!! Rush weighs 12.3 lbs. and Sydney Frances weighed in at 12.8. I can't help but refer back to their birth weights... Rush.. 2.12lbs. SF... 3.13. That is a long way in a short time, y'all!! Love it!!

I will be posting from our beach trip in the next post! Good times!!

Sydney Frances after her bath when when we were at the beach. So clean and sweet!

Rush hanging out on the Baby E. mat. Ivy took these with her new camera she got for Christmas. I think the pictures look really good. Thanks, Aunt Ives!

Checkup.. 4 months old!!

We went to see Dr. Jones today for the babies' four month checkup. It went GREAT! I think that Dr. Jones was very pleased with how they have progressed. I was very excited about getting their new official weight and height measurements. They are both growing so quickly. Rush has almost caught up with Sydney Frances. Every time we go, he inches a little closer to her in weight. This time Sydney Frances weighed 11 lbs. 12 oz., and Rush weighed 11 lbs. 6 oz. Everyone usually thinks that Rush is bigger, but I think it is his chubby cheeks that are a little deceptive. SF is now 23 inches long, and Rush is 22 inches long. SF actually measured on the full term baby curve for growth. I think it was only in the 5th percentile, but STILL... progress is progress! We are looking forward to a great 2009 with the babies. Would anyone like to see new pictures of the babies?? I know I sure would like to show them off, so here they are...

This is Rush wearing the very first gift my babies ever received. Rush and SF have to share their frog bib that Aunt Ivy gave them because she bought it when I found out I was pregnant. At the time, I didn't know I was having twins. Rush is also making my current favorite face of his. Phil calls it his "running face". He loves to move his legs up and down REALLY fast. He really gets going sometimes, and he gets this expression on his face. His two favorite places for running are on the Baby Einstein mat (Thanks a million times over, Leslie!) while he watches the star light up and play music. He also loves to run on the changing table after his bath or while you try to change his diaper.

This is a video of Rush and SF on the Baby Einstein Mat. I apologize that it sounds like my house is a three-ring circus. You can hear Forrest Gump in the background and the baby mat sounds so loud. It really wasn't that bad. Please notice how many time SF smacks Rush in face as he is trying to run. My goal was to get him running and to capture the face he makes, but I never got both at the same time. You see him start going pretty fast one time, but this is NOTHING compared to what he can do at times. I couldn't turn on the overhead light because I was afraid he would stop and stare at the light. The humorous part of the video for me now is that I didn't even realize that SF was hitting Rush over and over again. Since she sat on him for the entire pregnancy, I guess he is unfazed by her now. (Yes, I do realize that this is a boring video to everyone but me (and maybe Phil, Ivy, and my Mama), but I wanted to see if I could get a video to post, and this one fit with the rest of the post. )

A few more pics... just for fun!

I love this picture of Sydney Frances. this is right after her bath. She was so happy!

Of course, she can go from bath-time cutie to boy-bib wearing fit-thrower in about 2 seconds. She is in full meltdown mode here. Almost bedtime!

And then, there are those times when they both enter meltdown mode at the same time. This is about 5 minutes before "bath, bottle, and bed." You just have to laugh and take pictures.

P.S. A little milestone to share.. BOTH babies rolled over this week on their own! Yay Rush and SF!!!