A Trip to Montgomery and back (literally)

There are many wonderful things about living in a small, college town. One thing that is not wonderful is that there is nowhere to have your twins' six month pictures made without spending a small fortune. I wanted to have some cute little pictures made of them in these adorable outfits that they were given as a gift. So, I had heard good things about Portrait Innovations. For those of you not familiar, it is a chain portrait place for kids. Well, they have one at Eastchase which is only about 45 minutes from us. I called and made an appointment for the babies over a week ago, and I had been planning and preparing since that call. I believed that Portrait Innovations was also planning and preparing for our 12:30 appointment as well because they called not once.. but TWICE to confirm this appointment. I also believed that all of my hard work and planning would pay off with the perfectly timed appointment that didn't conflict with eating or sleeping schedules. Cute outfits..check.. cute babies.. check..cute diaper bags packed and ready.. check. even a refluxy baby that had not spit up ONE time all day.. check. Phil even seemed game to play along with my little adventure. It should have been perfect, right? As we pulled into the parking lot, I told Phil I would go in and check things out before we lugged the car seats, cute diaper bags, cute babies.. (you get the idea) into the "studio". AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (That is the voice inside my head that immediately began to scream as soon as I walked into this place.) I entered what I consider to be my version of Hell. It was CRAWLING with people. And.... there were public toys... Yes, I was raised by my mother, and we don't do public toys. I started sweating immediately. Not good... not good at all. I told the girl at the counter that we were there for our 12:30 appointment. She said, "OK... just have a seat and we will be with you as soon as we can." What do you mean?.. I have a perfectly timed appointment.. was my next thought. I then asked if having an appointment would make any difference in the wait time. (They also take "walk-ins".)She said, "Yes, it will.. if you didn't have an appointment, we wouldn't be able to take you at all." Well.. I feel very special then. I am so glad that you called to confirm that I would be here at this specific time TWICE!!! Yes, TWICE!!! So, we actually brought the babies in (not sure why), and we stood awkwardly by the door. One very nice lady offered us her chair. She said she had a brother and sister that were twins, so she "knows what we are going through." I think she could see from the look on my face that I was about to lose it. She kept smiling as if to say "it will be OK." She was nice. Thank you so much, kind lady, but no chair is going to help this. Next, Phil goes to the counter and asks very politely how far behind they are running on this fine Saturday. She says at least 45 minutes. She then proceeds to remind us that they work with children and often don't know how long a session might take. OHHHHH... I see... you work with children! Now it makes sense!! As a block from public toys whizzes by, we decide to chalk this one up and head back home. It is OK, though, because SF cried so hard on the way home that we had to resort to Baby Mozart CD just to get her to zip it. (Ivy.. you know this CD well from beach trip.)So, the pictures probably would have been bad anyway, right? We'll try again another day... :-)Perhaps we could reschedule it for 9:00 a.m. on a Monday or Tuesday as suggested by the "helpful" girl behind the counter. You know.. because 9:00 am on a weekday is a perfect time for people who WORK!!!

On a more positive note...6 month checkup went exceptionally well. SF weighs 13.12, and Rush weighs 13.4. They are both the same length now.. 24 3/8 inches. The best news of all is that Dr. Jones told us that we do not have to go to CCAD for the neurodevelopmental evaluation scheduled for them in April by the NICU. All premature babies that have a NICU stay are scheduled for an evaluation to check for developmental delays. He said that he thinks they are doing just fine! Rush rolled over on the table and pushed himself up on his hands just to show off for Dr. Jones whle he was talking about motor development.. cute stuff. It was like he was saying, "Look at what I can do,Dr. J. We don't need no stinkin' developmental evaluation."


One of my students gave SF some dress up items for V-Day. Thank you, Shakara. SF already thinks she is the queen!


Sweet babies! They love each other!


Sweet,sleepy boy

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!