Five Months Old

In case you were wondering, those are penguins on Suzie's diaper :)

Dave was standing to the side of me making faces at the babies.  As you can see Ian was not amused.

No visit with the pediatrician this month = no stat updates.  We are pretty sure these guys are growing just fine.  We've been told by more than one person that our best guess of what Suzie weighs right now is what their 9 or 12 month old is weighs.  Ahhh, gotta love those baby chubs!  

Suzie and Ian transitioned to the cribs very well.  Suzie will babble morning, noon and night before finally falling asleep and I can't help but smile when I hear her.  We decided during the 2 daytime naps to let Ian sleep in the play yard in our room so he can get some rest and let Suzie babble away.  He ended up not being as good as she is of tuning out the others sounds.

 Ian has been sucking his thumb for a while now and it's GREAT!  He doesn't even want the pacifier anymore and whenever he is tired and starts to fuss he'll just put his thumb in his mouth and all is right in the world again.  How awesome is that?!  I love our little self soother :)

The picture above Suzie's crib is one my grandmother gave me before she passed away.  It is of my mom when she was a baby.

During the night they both sleep in their cribs in the nursery (it's a little tight with 2 cribs, but they both fit, whew) and usually within 10 minutes of us leaving their room they are both asleep.  LOVE IT!!!

Tummy time has been going well.  We were told by Suzie's physical therapist to aim for at least 1 hour of tummy time each day.  Suzie could only handle 5 minutes at a time since she never put her head down to rest.  Now that she's started to take breaks we're getting 15 minute chunks of tummy time out of her!  I can't wait until they get better at sitting up on their own, they're so close!   Neither one is rolling over yet, but I fully expect that will happen sometime this month.  So I'll have a little more time before massive baby proofing needs to take place and I'm a okay with that.  Have you ever seen prettier blue eyes?!  I could stare at them all day.  They get them from their daddy :)

Suzie has seen a physical therapist twice now for her torticollis and head tilt (a private one we hired because the county services, which are free, take 2-3 MONTHS before treatment begins, ughh!) and things are going well.  I feel we're on the right track and I love the PT.  She is very through and explains things so well.  She'll evaluate Suzie first then teach me different stretches and holds to do with her throughout the day.  She helped me to have the proper expectations by reminding me it took many months for Suzie's head to become a-symmetrical and it'll take just a long to help it go back.  She also reassures me by saying often how Suzie's case is very minor.  I guess that's good, but to a mother it doesn't seem minor.  I just have to trust the professional.

In other news we've started the twins on brown rice cereal.  Upon the recommendation of pediatrician we feed it to them using a bowl and spoon in preparation of starting pureed veggies & fruits next month, woo hoo! 

Suzie is our really good eater (in case you couldn't tell) and actually did very well with the new method of eating.  

It was funny to watch her explore this new consistency of the cereal in her mouth.  I can't wait to see how she reacts to the fruits and veggies!

 Ian, as usual, was a bit more cautious of the whole experience.  

He wasn't quite sure what to make of it all and the camera is a bit of a distraction for him.

Every day has it's own challenges, but I know how blessed I am to have these two perfectly healthy and adorable babies as my own.  Seeing them each day reminds me just how known and loved I am by my Father in Heaven who trusts me (and Dave) to raise a precious son and daughter of His.  In the really trying moments, i.e. the high pitch crying, vomit filled, poop smeared, pee flying moments, I take a breath and try to remember the emptiness in my heart before these amazing spirits entered my life and it puts it all in perspective.  And you know what they keep teaching me every day?  They were worth every minute of my wait.

Pearly Whites

 We were expecting Miss Dribbles (aka Suzie) to be our first teether based on how her gums were looking and that she's been rather temperamental lately.  So we introduced Sophie the Giraffe to her last week and she has been munching away.  I was checking her gums each morning and night to see if any teeth had broken through and then...

Ian beat her to it!  He hadn't been fussy or drooling at all, but then we noticed TWO teeth coming through on Monday.  I know, I know the fussy/drooling part is probably coming.  But for now we are just enjoying the newest milestone of our sweet boy.  

Bye bye baby smile full of adorable gums - hello big boy with teeth!  

My Body

Not so long ago (summer of 2010) I looked like this...

and I thought I was fat!  I had little more pudge in the tummy and thighs than I wanted and not to mention I was just a *ahem* few sizes larger than I was when we got married in 2006.  But that happens to everybody, right?!  

Oh little did I know then that the toll of growing TWO human beings inside of me would make me look at those pictures with envy, just a little over a year later.

So this thing that we do as women of having our bodies literally ripped apart to grow these amazing little miracles is of course totally worth it, that's not even a question.  But this is - will I ever get my body back?!?!?!?

Lindsay Brin says yes and man, am I ever holding her to her word!  She and I have become pretty good pals over the past couple months (even though she has no idea who I am).  I really enjoy her upbeat attitude and positive motivation she gives during her workouts and the biggest thing for me - they are practical with having babies around.  Quick and painless, okay well maybe not so painless.  But she has restored my hope that YES I can get my body back, even a body more fit than the one in those beach photos!!!

And now that I've made this public to my blog readers lets just hope I stick with it and actually get some results worthy of an "after" photo

They Just Keep Growing!

My dad has an app on his iPhone where he can upload a photo and it'll make a postcard out of it and send it to whomever he wants.  So these are my most recent suggestions for Ian and Suzie's great-grandparens (my Grandma Hellie & Grandpa Quayle) to get in the mail as their next postcard.  My how they've changed in just a few months!

Giggles

Suzette has been full of giggles a few evenings this past week.  The other night while I was feeding Ian I yawned and Suzette, who was sitting in a bouncer in front of me, thought it was hilarious and started laughing.  Then each time I'd open my mouth as if I was yawning again she just kept giggling.  She starts off slow in the movie, but then really gets going (after about the 30 second mark)...

Then just last night my Grandpa was holding Suzette just before I got her ready for bed she started with a case of the giggles again.  To me this video is just priceless as it is something Suzie can always look at when she is older and know how adored she was by her Great Grandfather.

I cannot think of anything better than hearing a baby laugh, especially when they're yours!