Saturday, January 29, 2011

There’s a new sheriff in town...

and he goes by the name of Rafe. My sister and I talk all the time about the babies meeting each other. Maybe during the summer? Christmas holiday? We’ll see. The twins need to meet their cousins Rafe, Sophia and Vincent. There’s also Nick, Noah, Natalie, Neal, Claire, Hayden, Amelie and Ciara. 

Rafe’s new ride (looks a lot like Milo and Luca’s walker)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Luca’s eggs

Recently, Luca has been laying turds the size of robin’s eggs. To be honest, they’re pretty damn cute and so easy to clean up! Even though I love them, they cause him a bit of pain with grunting and some tears. Our pediatrician thinks it’s constipation. We speculate it from the bananas in his blueberry-banana smoothies. Ok, I squeezed one and it was really hard.

Check out my new teef!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

9 Month Checkup

We took the babies in for their 9 month checkup yesterday. Luca actually had a crying fit when he was put on the cold digital scale. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. He was then placed on the table where the crackly tissue paper freaked him out even more. Mouth-open-so-wide-I-could-see-his-tonsils type of crying. The best was saved for last: his vaccinations, a prick on his finger and a shot on his thigh.

The double BandAid added to his terror.

Luca chewing on his freshly, pricked finger.

Awwwwwwe, look at Milo’s sweet little body.

I wish I framed this better, but MAN is Milo’s expression priceless!

Luca actually started playing with the crackly tissue paper.

The appointment fell right at their naptime. They both fell instantly asleep in the car. 

Bloody finger from Luca’s chewing

It’s very unfair that I grew up with whimpy eyelashes. My mother 
actually trimmed them thinking they’d grow back thicker. My
revenge was having two beautiful boys with crazy lady-lashes. 





Monday, January 24, 2011

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Babies and their walkers





Dom, as in Domperidone

Today, I’m taking my last four pills of Domperidone (not to be confused with Dom Pérignon). After that, I will let nature take it’s course. I’m guessing my milk supply will drop even more and my breasts will shrink to their pre-babies, raisin size.

To be honest, I’m saddened by the thought of it’s end. I actually loved breastfeeding the twins. My mother scared me into thinking it was dreadfully painful. It wasn’t. I want to compare it to having a leach on your skin—you don’t feel a thing except gentle tugging.

Luca has outgrown it for a while now. Before, I would have to schedule it when he was really tired and couldn’t fight back or bite (usually at the 10:30pm feed). Milo on the other hand was always game. It really was cute how Milo would open his little mouth like a baby bird when I pulled up my top. Anytime I had knots or plugged ducts, he was my Go-To Guy. I loved how they would play with my armpit or shirt sleeve while nibbling away. So sweet.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Leaps and bounds

Milo and Luca have been really fun to hang out with lately. Part of it has to do with dropping their fourth nap which means their naps and playtimes are longer stretches. They are eating a lot of new foods. Lucky for us, they love their vegetables: kale, spinach, broccoli, sweet potato and zucchini. When we eat our dinner around the babies, they roll up in their walkers and stare up at us, begging for food. It’s funny, because we went from one baby (Ruby) to three babies hovering and begging for food.

Like many other twin parents, we live by a tight schedule and we also split up the baby duties. We take turns and do a shift so the other parent can have alone time. Dominic just went to jog at Forest Park with his free time. Here’s a sample of a typical weekend.

6:30am 
I wake and feeds the babies 6 oz. formula and a solid entré. Today it was yellow squash. Playtime includes reading, tummy time, walker time and Baby Signing Time.

9:30am 
Babies watch Thomas & Friends or Kipper after they guzzle down a 2 oz-er. Babies go down for their first nap. Usually 5 minutes of crying before they’re off to lala-land. I’m off duty at 10am.

11:30am/Noon 
Babies wake up to Dominic and are fed 6 oz. More baby activities. Dominic sings and plays his guitar while the babies chair dance in their bouncers. If it were summertime, an easy and fun activity would be a nice 30 minute walk around the neighborhood or up to Division Street. Now it’s a lot of effort to get the babies into their coats and walker.

2pm 
Babies are fed 2 oz. before their second nap. At 1:30, I’m back on “duty” at 1:30, i.e. hanging out while they sleep.

4pm
Babies wake up. One of my favorite things to do is giving them baths. It eats up a lot of time and by this point, I’ve run out of new things to do. They love splashing in the water. Once a week, I sit in the bathtub and Dominic hands me a baby and we soak together. Most of the time, it’s faster to wash them in the baby tubs. Afterwards, the boys are very peaceful and sleep like rocks. A older hippie worker at Breitenbush Hot Springs once said it was the positive ions from the water that has a calming affect on babies. Dominic is back on duty at 5pm.

7:30pm
Our favorite parts of the day: Babies go down for their last nap. Namasté. We have 3 glorious, long hours of nothing. Usually, there’s dirty bottles to be washed. Onsies, towels and bibs to be folded. Internet surfing. Snuggle-time with Ruby. 

*** Holy crap! I just realized they are 9 months old now!!! I use to be so on top of these little milestones. Amazing how time flies. When you’re raising children, a friend told me the days are long but the years are short. Clever and really true. Well, it’s 3:57pm and I need to wake up two little angels for their playtime. Below are some recent photos of their ever changing faces and bodies.


Luca watching Despicable Me.

Milo baby

The best shot of Luca’s two new teef

Luca loves licking his two new teeth.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Zoom zoom zoom

We had big plans this weekend: set the babies loose in my office gymnasium. We were very excited and wanted to make sure the babies had their afternoon nap. Luca had other plans. He fought his nap for 35 minutes before we gave up. After Milo woke up, we layered them up and threw the walkers into the trunk. This simple act sounds easy enough but it takes 25 minutes to coordinate. Diapers? Check. Bottles? Check. Camera? Check. During these mad whirlwinds, I have a bad habit of grabbing Dominic’s car keys to start loading up. Not thinking it through, I sit in the car with the babies thinking, “Where is he?” Meanwhile, he’s losing his mind in the house searching for his keys.

The babies loved it! Unlike their nursery, the babies had so much space to run free. The colorful kickballs and yoga balls also had them running in circles. By the way, on our drive home baby Luca was asleep in three minutes. 







Sunday, January 2, 2011

2011

Our first Christmas home was peaceful and sweet. We wanted to start new traditions with our new family. We got our first real tree. I freaked out when Dominic brought it home and the first thing I said was, “It doesn’t smell like a Christmas tree!” After we set it up, it started filling up the living room with it’s fragrance. We also took Milo and Luca to their first Peacock Lane stroll. Peacock Lane is a neighborhood street in SE Portland that displays Christmas lights.






Milo’s spinach goatee

Luca’s spinach goatee (they look like two Musketeers)

Milo, the red-head