"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!!!

Santa came for a visit!

Here we are on our first Christmas Eve with Rush and Sydney Frances. My parents, Ivy, and Tony came over to spend a little time and have some dinner. We got the babies ready for bed so that Santa could come for his first visit.

The big present that Santa brought for Rush and Sydney Frances to share was a Rainforest Jumparoo that they can use in the next couple of months. All they need to be able to do is hold their heads up by themselves consistently. They are almost there, but their necks still tend to get a little tired and droopy here and there. Of course, Rush is trying to hold up some pretty hefty cheeks, so he has a bit more work to do.

This is Rush holding his new keys on Christmas

morning. I think he was pretty darn excited about these keys! He is not as eager to give us a smile as Sydney Frances is, so Santa really made a good choice with the keys that light up.

Here is Sydney Frances with her new book that I gave her. For those of you with little girls, this book, Someday by Alison McGhee, is a great keepsake book. I found this copy at Target. It is one of those sappy books that was written to make you cry, but I bought it anyway. And cried.

I found this little pop up toy box at Walmart,

and I bought it since we needed a place to keep all of the little toys and stuff that tend to accumulate to keep the babies entertained. So, we had the bright idea to put the babies in the box to take their picture. Doesn't everyone put their children in toy boxes on Christmas morning? We took several pictures but this is my favorite because while Rush looks like a willing participant in our crazy idea, Sydney Frances has a look on her face like she is saying, "What are you crazy people doing now?? I am going to cry AGAIN." Love it!

And CRY she did!!!

The babies got to spend some time with Gigi and Papa and Gram and Granddaddy. They love being spoiled by their grandparents. Sydney Frances was all Christmased out as you can tell as Gram tries to comfort her. Again, Rush just goes with the flow. Although, he had decided he was tired of looking cute and asked to be put in his pajamas.

Sydney Frances and Rush got to have some fun times with Aunt Ivy and Uncle Tony and Aunt Courtney and Uncle Chris!!!!

And a little Christmas present for Mama... they held hands! Awwww!!!!

P.S. I am still learning about this whole blogging thing. I am having a little trouble with lining up the text with the photo I want it to go with, but I have spent all the time I can on this post. I'm done, so hopefully, like most things, I will improve with time. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Fun

I had some fun dressing up the babies in all of their Christmas gear. There is a slight chance they did not enjoy it as much as I did. I thought they looked so cute, but they were only game for a few pictures before things began to take an ugly turn. I think Sydney Frances got really hot from all of the posing and crying, so she really fell apart. This, in turn, made Rush feel a little anxious, and he began to fret as well. These are few pics from our photo session.