MD visit 4 months

This week was another busy week. I was getting frustrated on Friday because I felt like I wasn't getting anything done but taking care of the babies feeding, naps, bottles and bathtime. That was probably true on Friday, but this blog is to help me realize I get a lot of other stuff done, too.

Monday was AMAZING. My house was clean all at once. I have no idea why, but Tucker took a 5 hour nap from 9-2 pm. Whitney slept for 3.5 hours of that. Crazy! They never sleep that much. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. It helped me the rest of the week. We didn't go for our morning walk because it was raining. It rained until Thursday afternoon.

Tuesday we went to the doctor. They got their shots again. So sad!! They were a lot more alert about it. Whitney hated it the most. She cried her take pity on me cry the longest. Tucker was mad, but he usually is, so he settled down the fastest. The doctor asked how much Tucker was eating. He weighs 16 pounds 8 ounces and Whitney weighs 13 pounds 3 ounces. Whitney is 24 inches long and Tucker is 24 and 1/4 inch long. She said that he is eating too much. She thinks rice cereal will help with his satiation. More on this later. She also said Whitney is doing well in that I can put her down for her nap in her crib, she will cry for 5 minutes, then go to sleep. Tucker screams a long time. She said I need to work on getting him to console himself and go to sleep himself. More on this later, too.

Next, we went to visit my supervisor, who looked at Whitney's head some more. We have more exercises to help her neck. I think it is helping already. She hates getting her neck stretched more than before, though.

They are doing well with their milestones. Tucker is finally catching on to what Whitney has been doing for a couple of weeks. Hitting at dangling objects and eating her hands. Whitney really likes to pull the burp clothes and her bib to eat. They are starting to grasp and pull Mommy's hair and the top of her shirt, too. Whitney can scoot herself in a circle for about 90 degrees. She pulls her knees underneath more than Tucker does.

Wednesday I finally decided they need some toys. I haven't bought toys for them, thinking I didn't want to spend money on something they will grow out of in a month. Boy was that silly. I got all their toys second hand and stuff they will use for a month or so. Why I didn't do this before is beyond me. Making dinner is WAY better. I bought that toy gym thing that dangles the toys above their heads instead of me having to do it for them. They played 45 minutes under that thing together while we ate and made dinner. I also got a bounce swing thing that hangs in the doorway. Awesome! Tucker loves to stand and Whitney loves to bounce. And I don't have to hold them to do that, either. I also found some hard bound books that they love for the bright colors and a baby backpack. Very exciting. Got to love KSL and Kid to Kid. I hooked up all the other toys that they already had to these things and things are a lot more fun. Jim thinks the TV held their attention enough with the lights and colors that change. No comment.

The babies are talking and playing with each other more. They have been practicing sitting more independently and like to practice it facing each other. I wish I had video of them cooing and laughing at each other! It is so cute.

Thursday was baby four month pictures photo op day. I had this great idea that I would give Tucker a hair cut. Dumb idea. I am so sad about his mohawk being gone. Whitney cried the whole time I was cutting his hair. I should have listened to her. I used a number 6 and a number 4 on the clippers. I hope I left enough for Anne to fix his hair, but it sure doesn't look like 3/4 inch on his head.

Friday Tucker got his first lawnmowing lesson. I mowed the lawn with Tucker in the backpack while Jim played with a fussy Whitney until bathtime.

Saturday the sprinkers finally got fixed and ready for the garden while I weeded and tried to get the babies to take naps in their cribs. Tucker tried rice cereal. At first he didn't know it was food and screamed with his mouth full of food because he was hungry. Once he figured out it was food (and his Mommy thinned it enough for him to figure it out), he cried because I couldn't shovel it in fast enough for his taste. Not like a bottle. We'll try again later.

Naps. Lots of people have lots of suggestions, all of which work for one baby. I spent the week figuring out how much sleep they each need and when and have decided that this is how the nap schedule will work. His and hers. After listening to lots of moms, I've decided the one consistent comment is that each baby has needed something different and the schedule has been slightly different as far as length and exactly what time they fall asleep each day. I have the same thing with my babies, just at the same time. I'll give this crying in the crib thing 3 more days (7 days total). If they don't learn to sleep through each other crying at different times, I'm going back to my way of doing things and bag the doctor's (and everyone else's suggestions). So you all can comment as much as you like, but I probably won't listen. However, Tucker is down from 30 minutes of crying and fussing at night to 5 minutes, like Whitney, so it has helped some, but I haven't figured out how to get them to sleep at the same time or any sort of exact clock schedule yet. I don't think that will ever come for any length of time longer than about a month.

I finally got my birthday present from Jim yesterday. He cleaned out the garage. Apparently he put my present in the garage somewhere. In a really safe place that I would never look. Nor would he.

There are pictures of Whitney and Tucker at four months, one of them holding hands, Tucker in his bounce chair, high chair and backpack, and before pics of the haircut plus the amount of hair I cut. I didn't put after pics because I was so sad at the time, but you can see in his other pictures that his mohawk is gone. The one of them holding hands is cute. I was telling them that they were going to the doctor the next day to get shots and Tucker reached over and grabbed Whitney's hand. By accident I'm sure, but the timing was perfect.

mother's day and birthday

I have it on good authority that grandparents aren't so interested in their kids as they are in their grandkids:) A lot of what I will put on here is related to me, so anyone that isn't interested in that, I'll put the baby news first.

Tucker and Whitney are starting to acknowledge each other. Before when I would face them toward each other, they would look anywhere but at each other. Jim used to say "They saw each other in the womb so they must be bored of looking at each other. ANYTHING is more interesting. Oh yeah. It was dark in there, huh". Now they look at each other and, on occasion, talk and smile at each other. I haven't got a video of that because my hands are usually full then.

Sunday is their favorite day. They don't sleep most of the day because they are so excited. Church is exciting because they get one on one attention from us and lots of other people that say the babies are the cutest babies they've seen. That's because they are not big enough to run around and yell yet. Just yell. Tucker especially loves Relief Society. He really smiles. One time he screamed all during Sunday school, so Jim took him out in the hall. Finally Jim had to go to Young Men's so I brought Tucker into Relief Society. That was a hit. Tucker smiled and cooed the rest of the time. He knows women will pay attention to him if he's cute. Learning young. Sunday afternoon is also pleasant because we can still spend one on one time with them since it's Sunday and we are not trying to get things done. They love it!

Yesterday I woke up to two cards, one addressed to Mom from Tucker and one addressed to Mommy from Whitney. Whitney's had a sticker in it that I wore to church. If anyone thought it was cheesy that I was wearing a sticker from babies that don't go shopping, they didn't say anything and I didn't care. It was my first mother's day. I've been looking forward to it for a long time. And the talks in church about great mothers didn't make me feel guilty because I wasn't doing it right. Mostly because I didn't hear much with all the playing with Whitney and Tucker to keep them from being grumpy. It was also very cute. I put a tie on Tucker for church. I looked over and saw Jim and Tucker in their ties, both with yellow background. So heartwarming!

Tucker and I went grocery shopping together this week for the first time. Both babies were kind of grumpy from not sleeping well that day, so Jim took one instead of both like he normally does when I go grocery shopping. It worked well. I put Tucker in the front pack. He was very amused with all the stuff to look at. And he charmed some more grandmas in the store too, while he was at it. The next time I went shopping, I had to get a mattress for Whitney's crib that we set up this week. Whitney liked shopping with Mommy too, but I left her in the car seat because it was cold that day. She slept. Apparently mattress shopping is not as exciting as grocery shopping.

I finally have both cribs set up in their room and decided on how to decorate the nursery. Now that they will be four months on Wednesday. I got gingham purple and medium green to make crib sheets. I'm going to look for stencils at roberts to paint frogs, lily pads and purple dragonflies as a border at the top of the wall. It will match, look good with the yellow paint already on the wall, but they will have a boy and a girl bed, not gender neutral.

I joined Jim in the thirty-something catagory on Friday. Jim made me a delicious seafood dinner, bought me strawberry plants, and we watched a movie continuously, start to finish, together. Jim also took care of the babies all night as a birthday and mother's day gift so I could sleep for 8 hours in a row. It was heaven!!

The garden is finished. We worked together as a family on Saturday to finish the planting. We have all the fixings for pico de gallo and stir fry for the summer. I can't wait!! I also have the best view from my garden of the mountains and the lake. Sammy and Rocky supervised us from the top of the stairs. Rocky was lying in the sun with his head hanging over the top step watching us and Sammy had his usually sheep herding pose as we worked.

Wednesday the babies and I went to Thanksgiving point to look at the tulips. They had a tulip festival there last week, but since it was snowing last week, this week the tulips were perfect. My walking buddy (note: it is not a running buddy at this time due to a double stroller being plenty of a work out going uphill) brought me there as she has a family pass and can get me in for half price. And then she ended up paying for me as a birthday present. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was as big as Disneyland, but all tulip beds. The babies were awake the whole time looking at all the bright tulips waving in the wind. We were there for an hour and a half during nap time!! I thought they would sleep in the stroller like they do when we go walking, but no. Especially not Tucker. He wanted to be held, or he would cry. Next time I'll bring my front pack. You'll note that there is not a single picture with a tulip in it on this blog. Lame! I brought my camera and the babies were cute, but I left the camera card in the computer. Very disappointing.

There are two pictures of Tucker with Daddy. One is relaxing with Daddy on Sunday afternoon. The other one is helping daddy fix the printer. I guess sitting on something to make it work helps more than hitting or kicking the device.

There are two pictures of Whitney. She is wearing these really cute shoes that a friend of mine made and she has a onsie on underneath that my old neighbor embroidered the saying "my mommy is a physical therapist".

There are two pictures of Whitney with her knit cap on. She was being so cute helping me finish weeding the flower beds while playing in her car seat.

There is a picture of Whitney in her pj's in bed, waiting mother's day morning to get dressed for church. There is a picture of Tucker in his Bumbo chair watching mommy get ready for church. (Tucker is the baby alarm for eating as well as starting the day at 7 am. Whitney starts her day around 8 am). The last picture is of all of us watching Jim make mother's day dinner. Tucker is hamming it up like he does in Relief society.

Watch for their four month pictures (four months on Wednesday) next week. Also, they go to the doctor to get their four month shots on Tuesday. So sad! We'll see how much they've grown!

video

This is the third time I've tried to do this and hopefully it works. There should be a video of Whitney and Tucker talking. I couldn't point the camera directly at them otherwise they would stare at the camera and not talk. Apparently the white and black contrast on the camera is more exciting than talking. This is also the third time I've written this blog. I have no idea where the other two drafts got saved to.

The week went something like this. Tucker flipped over on Monday by himself, but it was still a surprise. He looked at me like "Mom! Tummy time is over already?!" He hasn't done it since. Whitney continues to talk lots. She wakes up happy and smiling. I love it! She bats at the hanging toys in her swing.

Sammy ate all the dog treats. He got away with it because I thought the rustling was the bird in the dryer vent. He would take one and go outside each time, so I thought he was afraid of the bird.

Our family has a theme song. The chorus is something like this:"... and maybe it's true that I can't live without you. And maybe it's true, two is better than one..." It totally applies to the twins and Jim's philosophy.

Enjoy the video!

Beading, the definition of motherhood and moving out

I have some friends that get together at 6:30 in the morning on Saturday to do beading. Before I had kids, I thought they were crazy to get up at such an early hour to make necklaces and such. Now I really think they are crazy for missing sleep but I think I can understand it. First of all, you are up at that hour anyway, so it's not like they really are missing any sleep. Second of all, you socialize when you can, and most likely the kids want to sleep during that time, so you can have some alone time. These particular moms have teenagers and younger kids, but not younger than 2 years. So this morning I got to see a great sight. Those cute babies sleeping. I had finished feeding them at 6:30 in the morning. They sleep so much better in our bed, (what's up with that, by the way. Why is the parents bed so much better than theirs. Seriously.) so I put them with Jim to keep sleeping so I could get completely ready for church before I had to get them ready. And I caught the perfect picture of motherhood at that hour. You'll note that everyone is sleeping and in the picture except Mom. She is doing something. I was getting ready for church, but for every mom it is something different. Cleaning bottles, cleaning the house, catching up on emails or Facebook, getting a surprise ready, reading, who knows, but capturing the moment when they are sleeping to do something.

This week our big adventure was getting my car safety and emissions done and then registering my car at the DMV. I somehow let my registration lapse. I have no idea how that happened. Usually I'm very good at keeping track of those things. Like Daylight Savings time. But somehow I didn't get the reminder in the mail last year. It might have to do with the fact that I have been taking one day at a time for a year or that we moved or who knows what. But the DMV experience was surprisingly pleasant. I got my number from the guy at the door and my number was called while I was walking in to find a seat. I didn't even sit down!! And I paid for the year that lapsed as well as the upcoming year at the same time. The staff at the Provo DMV were very helpful in taking my money, but at least in a timely fashion. No screaming babies.

After that adventure in the beginning of the week, we pretty much stayed home and did the eat, sleep, exercise routine for the rest of the week. My supervisor measured Whitney's head. It is offset by 6 mm due to one neck muscle being tight, so I've been working double hard at stretching her neck, making sure she is sleeping with her head centered or on her left side and doing activities toward her left. At 10 mm it is recommended that a baby have one of those clear plastic helmets to reshape the head.

Jim finished the planter boxes. That includes shoveling all the dirt. He filled 6 planter boxes of 8 x 4 x 2 feet full of dirt. The dirt pile was in our neighbor's yard (they wanted the rest of the dirt we didn't use to spread over their yard) so it required moving it then shoveling it. Jim is really tired and sore. He started Wednesday and worked on it until Saturday with his free time. That's a lot of dirt, but our garden is ready and very nice.

While Jim was moving dirt, I was moving Tucker and Whitney out of our room. Whitney is too heavy for her pack and play and Tucker is too long. They still wake up 2-3 times at night, and lifting them from a lying position from the bottom of a pack and play that often isn't going to do me a bit of good. So they moved into the same crib in the other room. I can't believe the phase of life where the babies are in our room is over already!!

Anyway, it has been a great enjoyable week with the babies and some good weather in between. The pictures are of Jim keeping the babies sleeping while I get ready for church, the babies and I playing the piano together, and the blank wall where the babies pack and play used to be. So sad!!

good weather

Isn't it amazing how much good weather can do a body good? We have had 3 days in a row of sunshine and a pleasant breeze. I think it's been in the 60's and almost 70's. I've been able to weed a couple of days in a row and it's been great.

Another thing that does a body good is getting consecutive sleep. I've been able to weed during the second baby naptime because I don't feel this incessant need to sleep every second I'm awake. The babies have been only waking up 2 times in the night, and one of them is around 5-6 am, which isn't as hard to get up for as a midnight feeding. It's been awesome. The babies and I have gone for a walk every day.

We've also been working together as a family in the garden. Jim has been working on the plantar boxes and the shed, making adjustments to previous plans, as we've figured out and paid attention to the amount of sunshine different areas get.

Jim turned 30-something this week. We celebrated by having some friends come over, eating wings and apple pie with vanilla ice cream. I took care of the babies that night so Jim could go to bed whenever he wanted. That's what it's like to celebrate when you are an adult. The simple things in life.

The babies have been getting better at cooing and talking, even Tucker. Whitney does it a lot. I love listening to her talk. She often talks instead of crying when she starts getting hungry. It is a lot more pleasant than screaming. Whitney also has a lot of voice flucuation. It is so cute!!

Tucker has been making "sad face". He has the funniest sad face that I start to laugh and then he doesn't know what to do. He laughs because I am laughing, but he is still upset, so he goes back and forth between laughing and a sad face. Poor child. He is probably confused about how to respond to emotion.

The county nurse came on Monday and measured their weights. Whitney weighed 11 pounds 1 ounce and Tucker weighed 13 pounds and 15 ounces according to her scale. We all know doctor scales are different. This time the doctor scale will most likely be in agreement with my biceps and back muscles. I'm SURE they weigh more:) Most important is that they are happy, healthy and gaining weight.

There is a picture of Jim giving Whitney a bath, Tucker working with Daddy (Tucker is working on trying to break Jim's patience by crying and Jim is really working), Whitney enjoying her bubble bath, Whitney being cute in her pink overalls, and us trying to capture Tucker's sad face when he puckers up his lips. We didn't quite get the sad face but you might get the idea.

aftermath

This week we had a low key week after having so much fun last weekend with everyone here. I had to laugh at the picture of the babies sleeping with their arms up. That was the morning after everyone left. It looks like they are being robbed.

I actually left them with a babysitter this week. Jim couldn't believe I actually was able to do it. I agree with him. It was very hard to leave them for 2.5 hours, but she has 4 younger siblings, very responsible, and her mom said she would be home during that time in order to be available if she had any problems. Her mom said she has called home a few times before when she has had questions during other babysitting jobs. It was very traumatic for me but the babies had fun. They were very happy when I got home and must have had fun playing with the babysitter because they slept well the rest of the day. I worried about them the whole time I was gone. Typical. New parent nervousness.

I got a picture of them in their favorite onesies. Very fun to see Thing 1 and Thing 2 on them, especially since those outfits were so big when they left the hospital and now Tucker is getting close to outgrowing it.!!

We made it to church as a family today. It went really well. No one pooped on the way out the door, but I did think there was a bird in my clothes dryer 5 minutes before we left. Jim checked it out and the bird was pecking at the lint on the outside of the vent, so we made it to church on time still. It really sounded like flapping and a bird hurt in the dryer. I was kind of mad at first that there might have been a bird in the dryer because all my clean clothes were in there, ready to wear. I would have had to do laundry again if the bird was in there. Not cool. The babies have plenty of clean cute outfits, but mommy has a limited supply of clothes that fit and look good on her.

We are still in the newlywed phase together, the babies and us. It is so fun to snuggle with the babies and they seem to like it, too. Whitney really likes to bounce. Daddy likes to bounce her, but his arms get tired. She cries to let him know she still wants to bounce. He wants to get a chair that lets her do it. I say let Daddy and Whitney bond.

The first four pictures are their 3 month photo op at home. The last two pictures are just fun and described above.

baby blessing

Everyone has left us. So sad!! This weekend was very fun. It was Tucker and Whitney's baby blessing on Sunday, Conference weekend, Easter and Scott's birthday. Party hardy!!! Paul and Cathy came in on Wednesday night, my parents came Friday night with Scott, Ryan and Noelle close behind, and Grandma Anderson and Grandma Cindy came Saturday night. Lindsay and Ryall plus Jesse and Asher came for the blessing and to visit another time. Izana and Jonathan, as well as Dave and Jill, came for the baby blessing Sunday. We had a ton of fun, but as my dad said during the last session of conference, "the natives are restless". There was a lot of fun noise and activity but not something the babies were used to. They got a little tired from staying up to socialize.

This week Cathy and Hannah helped me with getting the babies pictures taken in their blessing outfits as well as go shopping in preparation for the crowds. Good thing!! Having more hands to hold the babies and prep really helped, especially since in the beginning of the week Tucker and Whitney got off schedule at night 3 nights in a row. Jim and I were very tired. I think there must be a quota of how much sleep you have to miss as a parent, so the kids are very accommodating in making sure we meet this quota.

Now that everyone is gone, Tucker still wants to be held all the time and Whitney likes to "dance", something she did the most with Grandpa Henry.

Another great thing that happened this weekend was that the planter boxes were mostly finished, thanks to Paul, Jim, Ryan and Erik. Hallelullah!! The garden will be planted this year!!

Anyway, there is a small sample of pics available, but most of you probably got your own on your camera from visiting. Others should get a blessing picture mailed to you.

The pictures are of Scott and Ryan feeding their nephew and niece, Grandma Anderson feeding Tucker, and Jim and I with the babies after their blessing.