Joys In My Life

Wow!  The boys are officially done Kindergarten and moving onto 1st grade next year.  I really can't believe it!  With Liam being sick this week, things have been crazy.  Tommy had his Portfolio Breakfast this past Tuesday, but only one of us could go, as one had to stay at home with Liam.  Tommy said I should go when we asked him in the morning, but then when he got home from school, he said his dad should have gone.  LOL - little guy, we wish we were both there!  He has such a different personality from Liam, whereas Liam wanted to hang with us and show us what he had done at school and point out one or two friends, Tommy introduced me to a bunch of his friends. Liam on his day, was interested in all the treats and choosing the sweet ones he wanted. Tommy couldn't be bothered with going to get a snack.  I chose some treats for him while he kept building  things at the tables in the classroom and he snacked while he kept buildi...

Not sure how other twin parents have their children in school, but our school recommends twins be in separate classrooms.  In our case, I think that's been working out fabulously!  Liam used to be so quiet, shy and let his brother talk for him.  Since November being in separate classrooms, Liam is much more able to talk for himself and complain if he doesn't get his turn to talk! At the end of our elementary school year, there is a Portfolio Picnic at lunchtime, but Kindergarten is still half day, so they have Portfolio Breakfasts.  Both are an event for parents and siblings to come in and see what the students have been working on all year.  Today was Liam's class, so we got to spend one-on-one time with him reviewing some of his work over the school year, hence the term "portfolio".  It was a lot of fun to have him walk us through his writing and he read some of his papers to us.  We also got to start by seeing how they start their day, with ...

Guess who climbed out of his crib after his afternoon nap today? Liam did. I'm completely not surprised, as I do call him my Monkey Boy for a reason. He might be smaller by Tommy by 2 inches and 5 lbs, but he's a climber. They were finishing up their nap this afternoon when all of a sudden I heard a really loud cry. I didn't hear a bump or a bang, so I don't think he fell hard. I ran upstairs, knowing this was not a normal cry and I found Liam standing in the middle of his room, crying and looking confused like, "What did I just do!!!!!" And Tommy was looking at him like, "Wow! That was cool. Can I try it?" We're going to take the sides off the cribs very soon. We need to get drawer latches to baby proof their furniture, otherwise we'll end up with clothes all over the room every day. Their sister never did that, but I know they will. I have a dresser near their cribs and the top drawer is now empty as they would empty that from ...

I have lots to update everyone on. The boys had their 9 month check last Thursday and their stats were as follows: Tommy: 29 inches long (73.7 cm), 19 lbs 12 oz (8.96 kg) Liam: 28 inches (71.7 cm), 16 lbs 12 oz (7.6 kg) So now that Tommy is spitting up less, he's back to being 3 lbs more than Liam. The doctor did say to encourage Liam to eat more. She wasn't acting like it was a big deal, but she did say that he's in the 5% for weight for his age! She also recommended a neurologist consult and a hip xray for Liam as a precaution that he's not as interested in moving as his brother is. We'll definitely do it, but I'm thinking that he just needs the light switch to go off in his head telling him it's time to move. Which seems to be true because all of a sudden last night, he wants to roll to his stomach when I'm changing his poopy diaper on the floor. He kept fighting me like Tommy does. Once I got his bottom cleaned, I let him finish his ro...

Believe it or not all the copious amounts of spit-up from our 9-month-old really was a problem. I broke down and took him to the pediatrician today after his physical therapy appointment that I swore we thought he needed an exorcism. I finally started piecing things together over the past few days: the arching of his back, preferring to sleep on his stomach, spitting up large amounts at any time of day (it could be hours after meals), the spit up smelled really sour and being very mad when his bottles or food was over. We really just thought this was something he'd outgrow, and I didn't want to overreact knowing that he seemed happy and like nothing was wrong and some babies just spit-up, right? But the physical therapist confirmed what I'd been thinking. That at 9 months this should have been gone by now. I called the pediatrician and they had us come in this afternoon and after meeting with the doctor, she confirmed that he seems to have reflux and she put him on...

I have to admit the boys are like each other's opposites which is really really funny. Here are some of their differences: Demeanor Tommy - Very very happy baby. He does get mad sometimes when he's tired or hungry, but sometimes you don't realize it's coming on because he's such a happy baby. Which is why we usually watch the clock to realize when he needs to eat or sleep. He loves everyone and is a big flirt. I'll actually see him look at people when we're out and doing something like "Do they see how cute I am?" Liam - A very serious baby. He looks at everything quite warily, not sure if he's going to like it or not. Thankfully, by now, he knows us and if he's not getting hungry or tired he smiles a lot at us. But he easily begins showing he's hungry or tired by moaning. He's adorable in public and people seem to notice how cute he is, but he plays hard to get kind of smirking to himself like he's thinking, "...

Here are some updated pics of the boys some are from yesterday, but others are from within the last two weeks. First. Here's "my little destroyer" aka Tommy. He tipped the whole baby gym on it's side when he forced himself to roll over when he was at the end. Sorry if Tommy is out of focus, but this was the best pic that showed the carnage. Here's some pics of Liam and his beautiful teeth! All four of them. Tommy still has none! But Tommy loves to eat teething biscuits and Liam hates them. I needed to take two pictures to get both top and bottom teeth captured. You have no idea how many pictures I took to get these. Liam will laugh and smile, but the instant he sees the camera he goes all serious and won't smile again. Here's a cute photo of Tommy's face. Poor thing has these little blemishes around his top and bottom lip from the way he sucks his fingers and/or thumb. He has such sensitive skin. I'm constantly putting lotion...

The boys went to the doctor yesterday for their second month of RSV shots (Synagis) and their H1N1 flu booster shot. The exciting part was that they were weighed yesterday to know what dosage they needed for the Synagis shots. They both needed two shots for this time because of their weight, but that's not the exciting part. What was so exciting was that they are only 2 pounds different now instead of three! I thought Liam was starting to catch up in weight. Their weights were as follows: Tommy: 17 lbs 15 oz (8.14 kg) Liam: 15 lbs 15 oz (7.23 kg) The boys are starting to look a lot more like each other that you have to think pretty hard as to who is who. Which is funny considering they were so different looking at birth. Although if their mouth is open, it's pretty easy to tell. Liam has four pearly whites that peak through with every smile. I'm working from home today as the boys have their physical therapy appointment at home in the morning, so I'll tr...

I have learned that singing to babies can often calm them down when you can't pick them up and of course we have to use this trick often with twins! I started doing this with Phoebe when she was a baby as I'd have to do dishes, make dinner, go to the bathroom.... I've found not every song works, so you have to find the right song. Sometimes you have to reach into the obscure music knowledge in your head to find the right song. With Phoebe, it was "Close to You" by The Carpenters. Since I didn't have to use this trick very often with her, I didn't get sick of this song right away. The boys are different. That song does nothing for them. They both love "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles. Because there are two of them there are many more opportunities to need to use this trick. I'm really getting sick of this song, so I've been trying to find other songs that work just as well. So far I've sung "Old MacDonald Had a Farm...

Leigh has prompted me to spill more info on EI and I figured I'd do it for anyone that cares to know. As far as I know in each of states of the US has some kind of Early Intervention program although some states call it something else. Both Delaware and Maryland call it Child Watch, which always sounds like a place to report Child Abuse to me. If you are in another country, I recommend asking your pediatrician and perusing the government websites. That's how I found the PA EI program as my ped is in Delaware and they only had the contact info for DE and MD. They now have it for PA too, cause I was nice to pass along the information and they were nice enough to change their documentation they give to parents that same day! As I was saying I started perusing the Pennsylvania state government websites and finally hit on the right area. What happens here is that the state sends your info to the county - Chester County in this case - and they assign you a local caseworker. ...

Every time I look in Liam's mouth I'm finding more teeth cutting though. Poor Tommy is loving gumming crackers, but has no teeth to show to help him out. I already knew Liam had cut one of his bottom front teeth back on the 10th. I kept a look out for the one next to it, as Phoebe always had two come in at once and he looks so much like her (just with blue eyes and a penis, as I like to say). Sure enough, yesterday morning I found the second bottom tooth coming out. Then last night at dinner time, I realize one of his top front teeth are coming through too! So now we've got the whites of three teeth poking through for him all at once!!!! Poor kid.