pictures

I try to do activities with Caed in between the feedings. This one was an idea from my sister Kristen- I finally bought toothpicks and we got to play around with marshmallows- we had two different sizes, and caed made a long train out of them...he's so cute.



This is from today actually- Theron.



From today- Aldan:



From this weekend...what two different babies! I love looking for ways they are similar and different in personality at this point.




Some tummy time on the ottoman:





Big brother Caed loves to help with bath time.He gets to wash the feet, although he'd rather help with the head!

I think this is the picture i took for 4 weeks old. They don't like to sit up like this...

Oh Rado, moved to bottom of the totem pole. But we love having him around. I am working my way up to day time walks with him and the kids.

Jon's mom made this shirt for caed after we searched every store before the babies were born for big brother shirts...we found big sister one's, but no big brother ones!! He LOVES this shirt and wants to wear it everyday. We have to set limits!

finally, some more pictures.

Today i took the twins with me (alone) to my doctor's appointment. It was quite the spectacle. I carried in the two car seats and the diaper bag, and my purse....I decided not to take the stroller with me because my doctor's office waiting room is really tiny, and I wouldn't be able to take it all the way into the appointment with me anyway. I got in there fine, but then theron (pronounced more like theer-in) was crying...I am trying to give him a bottle, he didn't want to take one from me- I was flustered by that...then my doctor was extremely patient, so it made it okay and he had his receptionist help me back to the car. It was very sweet- but next time I'll make sure they are somewhere else for these appointments. They were asleep on the way home so I went through the McDonald's drive through for one of their special coffees. I wish every store had a drive through so I could get stuff done while I was in the car and the kids slept. On Long Island as kids our parents often frequented a chain of stores called Dairy Barn. You could pick up lots of different grocery store items, so it was kind of like a convenience store with drive through. I understand their benefit these days. i would love to drive up and just pick up a dozen eggs, gallon of milk, loaf of bread and some ice cream without getting out of the car and managing the double stroller. I am learning and getting better at it- but it sure would make some of those experiences a little easier at this stage.

A lot of people ask if I'm doing alright with the twins and how am I feeling? I actually do pretty well. writing/ saying that makes me feel like it will end- but I know that isn't true. It's also not all the time that it's okay. There are hard times during the day/ night but I trudge through them and I appreciate the glimmer of hope with a nights sleep, an in sync nap and a shower every morning. But i think for the most part I approach each day as a list to get through at this point. I look forward to knowing when I am going to feed the twins, give them "play" time and bath time (done every night as to give a sleep routine and again, an indicator to me that we are still passing time, and getting through the day) and fitting in Caed's needs helps too. I want to incorporate some flexibility, but right now I am giving myself 3 months with this mentality. My nature I am not a scheduled person. I have not been a list accomplisher (i love making lists!) but more and more I become the kind of person that thrives in this- to a fault. For now in these early years, it works for me and I try to be sensitive to when I need to be flexible- sometimes with the prompting of a family member...

Also what helps is not being daunted by crying. With Caed his cries were really hard for me to manage. He wasn't really consoled by things I might do anyway so I felt paralyzed by the thought of him crying- this time there are just times i cannot do anything for the crying. I feed them, burp them and change them- if they both still cry I try to take it as I can. I cannot easily hold them both with ease at the same time- and if I need to get something done, and I know I've met their apparent needs, I get the task done and come back to them and try things again and possibly try to put one in a carrier.... But I know they are safe, fed and clean...their crying still makes me on high alert but I deal with it differently this time- and it helps that other people have been here to help with picking them up and helping with one of them too.