Within Which Are Many Pictures

We had a Wintery-Twintery time in Chicago this time. There was never a time when there wasn't snow on the ground.


On Sunday, we celebrated The Twinks' birthday up in Chicago with our Great Lakes relatives.

Emma struck a pose with her cowboy cake...


While Joseph got right down to business.


We also had Christmas with Uncle Matthew, Aunt Nicole, and cousins Will and Josh. The Twinks were decked out as Santamen.




As is my wont, I put gift bows on their heads (and my own, at times, but there are no photos thereof).




As one-year old kids tend to be, they were often more impressed with the wrapping than the gifts. They'll figure it out soon enough...


Oh wait, maybe Emma already has...


We also have to thank the kind people at Palm Court as we left quite a mess behind at this end of our dinner table.

Emma and Will had much fun.


JoeJoeMan got serious with his breadstick.


Of course, there are many more photos from our trip to be found at the Flickr site (check the badge to the right), as well as some that I never posted from our "All Saints' Day Dress-Up" at my parents'. There's some cute stuff there...

Oy, Airlines

We flew back home yesterday, and lemmie tell ya, it wasn't fun. We got through O'Hare pretty easily (delayed 30 min, I think), but the kids were none too happy on the flight. Thankfully we were sitting near understanding, kind people. Then came Memphis. We got on the plane on time, but then it went South. The plane was HOT. Also, it turns out, the plane was overweight, so we had to have volunteers to leave the plane. In the end, we sat at the gate, in the plane, for an hour before we took off. We fed The Twinks when we got on the plane, but they were already fussy before the plane even took off. I did not have the touch, as I couldn't get either of them to fall asleep. Sarah got Emma to sleep and we swapped, but she eventually woke up, and was sore displeased. As we got close to home, we were told that visibility was bad and we might have to divert to an airport 2.5 hours away from home (with no car, natch). They decided to fly around for 15 minutes to see if the visibility got better. Eventually it did, or they decided to cheat, because we finally landed, and not a minute too soon. Sarah and I hadn't eaten since breakfast so when we got in at 5:30 we were starving. The Twinks seemed glad to be home, and happily terrorized our cat and dogs, and played with toys, old and new. Thankfully, they went to bed early and slept pretty well last night (or if they didn't, I certainly wasn't awakened by them). Of course, they were up with the sun at 5 AM this morning, but that's every morning...

Happy Birthday!

The Twinks turn "One Years Old" today. To celebrate, we went shopping at Target in the snow. Chicago + December Weather + Babies = Not That Fun. It really started snowing again this afternoon and we're hoping we don't get delayed flying back tomorrow, but it is Chicago...

We'll have some pictures to post after we get back. All in all, we've had fun, as busy as we've been. Those of you who remember our terrible American Airlines experience back in February will be happy to hear that our Northwest Airlines experience was much better. From Pensacola to Memphis we even got to sit at the front at the bulkhead, with an empty seat for the kiddos on each side. Jackpot.

Babies and Food

Since The Twinks have a milk protein allergy, we've had to introduce some foods later than most. This includes meat (which they've been on for almost a month now) and, as you'll see below, graham crackers.



Emma was a little less enthusiastic than Joseph, but she still liked them. She's very businesslike about her food.



Emma also is proud of herself afterward, and claps for herself.



Joseph already has "See-Food" down pat.



And he usually gives us a speech after dinner. We don't know what he's saying, but he says it with feeling.



He's probably telling us that crackers are way better than that "meat" stuff that smells like cat food. Ugh. I HATE meaty baby food.

9 Month Update

The Twinks have now been out longer than they were in.

As of their last appointment, Emma is 27.75" tall, 19 lb 1 oz, and her head is 17.5" around.

Joseph is the exact same height, is 18 lb 15 oz, and his head is 18.25" around.

They are both quite talkative these days, although most of it is gibberish. Emma's first word was "yay!" as she clapped. She followed them quickly with MaMa (in her "sweet voice") and DaDa. JoeJoe's first word was DaDa. They both cluck their tongues and make lots of fun noises.

Emma crawls around pretty well, while JoeJoe is still working on it. He's not as interested as getting around as Emma is. He's slowly starting to get more motivated, though, and should be getting around soon.

In conclusion, here are a couple of pictures of the kids with some funny hairdos, compliments of their sitter.

Is It Any Surprise That The Twinks Have Strong Legs?

Sicky Babies

The Twinks each have a double middle-ear infections. So that's four infected ears if you're scoring at home. So the kids are feeling a bit peaked (that's "PEEK-id," for those unfamiliar with the term). The doc's got them on antibiotics for a while which should clear things up.

They weighed the kids today, and they're within 1 oz. of each other. So JoeJoe's finally caught back up to Emma, who is still a bit taller than him.

They both love their jumparoo and their exersaucer and have been working on different sounds. They have lots of fun talking to each other and have a lot of fun playing together, even when they don't try to put each others' eyes out. :)

Identical Twins (Which Mine, Of Course, Aren't) Can Be Fun

Twins by Aunt Jess

twins
Originally uploaded by jjamesphotography

Emma Bootiful

Taken by Aunt Jess.

Cumulative 1 Year Old!

The Twinx had their 6 mo. checkup yesterday. They are progressing well and are even ahead of full term babies, based on their development benchmarks. They roll over from back to front and front to back, they grasp objects, move them from hand to hand, follow lights and voices, and "talk" with people. Neither can sit up from laying down, but Emma can stay up for a while, until something catches her attention, and she falls in its direction.

The data:

Emma is in the 75th percentile for height and weight, meaning she is taller and heavier than 3/4 of 6 mo. old babies who were born at full term. Her head is now at the 50th percentile.

Joseph is up to just above the 25th percentile in height and weight, so he's only bigger than 1/4 of 6 mo. old babies born at full term. However, JoeJoe's head is near the 80th percentile. Go, Go, Gadget Brain!

They got 3 more immunizations, and they were sore displeased. JoeJoe is the king of the silent cry, where he is so upset that no sound comes out until he can get another breath, which is often several seconds. Emma wastes no time and cries right away.

After we got home, we played in the exersaucer and the jumperoo, and they had a blast. I'll get pictures posted sometime later tonight (hopefully).

Chicken In The Car And The Car Won't Go

We're up in Chicago, visiting family and taking a mini-vacation.

Emma had a pretty dress on for her arrival, but it was, "soiled," during our layover in Dallas, so she got a 2T Tay-Haas shirt from the airport gift shop.



We had breakfast with Grandpa Olson.



The twinx had fun with their cousins and aunt.



Even Bathtime was fun.





My dad and I went to Wrigley while the babies went shopping.





Jim Edmonds got us our seats (which were great) and he had a pretty good game, with a triple, a double, and 2 RBI.



Emma <3's PapaJoe.



JoeJoe is a silly boy.



We also went to the Art Institute of Chicago, which my dad has wanted to go to for over 35 years.





The Bean at Millennium Park is pretty cool.





Babies in the Bean!



And that most famous of landmarks, Superdawg!

Memorial Day!

The Twinx started the day spending some quality time together while we went through some of their older clothes.



We then went to GranJan and PapaJoe's for some BBQ and swimming. Maddy thought JoeJoe was "Coooool!"



The twinx were not that happy with swimming. Perhaps the water was too cooool.





JoeJoe like laying out instead.



This, they can handle.



Maddy and Hannah, however, had much fun swimming, even if they weren't as good at sharing.



Jude wasn't sure which theater he'd be inserted into, so he wore 3 kinds of camo, just in case.



Maybe next year the twinx will enjoy the pool like this.



Buh Bye, Now!

Five Months

The twinx turned 5 months on Friday. Most of this last week they've been sick, so they ended up going to the doc at exactly 5 months. Emma is 15 lbs and Joseph is 14 lbs, 10 oz. They're both between the 25th and 50th percentile for full term babies, which is great since they were a month early. Turns out they have had rotovirus and RSV; essentially we've got a mess at both ends. Add to that the fact that they've gotten us sick, so we are a house of infirmity right now.

The kids got Sarah some lilies for Mother's Day. They were delivered to her work, but, alas, she was at home with sick babies. She's got them now, though.



The kids are babbling even more now. When trying to get JoeJoe to eat some rice cereal, I kept going "Mmmm" so he'd close his mouth and swallow. Now he will have entire conversations with his toys with his mouth closed. Emma's got the "ggggg" sound in the back of her throat down. We joke that JoeJoe should speak Spanish or French and Emma should speak German.

Here's a pic of the pretty girl from a few weeks ago.



Speaking of the rice cereal, Emma took right to it. JoeJoe didn't seem to get the hang of eating off a spoon for a while, but we think it's because we were trying to feed him when he wasn't that hungry, as he's done better when we fed him at a later time. We really want them to take to the rice cereal, as it's way cheaper than the formula. One thing that Sarah and I have joked about is how much work it is to teach kids to eat. Who knew it wasn't super easy (I know, all you parents knew)?

Four Month Appointment

The twinks had their 4 month appointment yesterday.

Emma is now 13 lbs 13 oz, putting her right on the 50% line for weight for full term babies at 4 months. She's 24 in long, which is between the 25th and 50th percentile, an improvement from 2 months when she was under the 25th percentile. Her head is still a bit smallish, but is not too far off of average.

Joseph is 13 lbs 4 oz, which has him between the 25th and 50th percentile. It's odd, because he eats more than her, but he also spits up a lot, so that explains the difference. He is also 24 in long. His head is well over the 50th percentile. All his food is going to his brain, I guess, which isn't so bad.

We finally get to start supplementing their formula with rice cereal. This will be much appreciated as their formula runs $150/week. Yikes. We start out slowly, of course, and will increase the cereal in the coming weeks.

Finally, they got their 4-month immunizations. They were not happy babies. Their little band-aids were cute, despite the reason they were necessary.



Just like last time, they weren't very happy the rest of the night. We ended up getting them baths an hour early and everyone was in bed before 9. Everyone included their exhausted parents, too. After an exciting weekend of grocery shopping and visiting family, the babies and we were just plain whipped out, and the immunizations just put us over the top.