A big event

One difficult thing about having two babies rather than one is that you can't go to the grocery store because only one baby fits in the cart. While we were using the double snap and go there was a nice storage area underneath and I could at least do a small trip. But last week we had to tuck it away because the babies have outgrown the graco car seats that snap into it and they now have the big convertible seats instead. So we now use the side by side Combi everywhere. It's a great lightweight stroller but there is virtually NO storage. I thought that was the end to my even light weight grocery shopping with the babies. BUT...

drum roll...

today we went to Costco, which is the only place I've ever seen with two baby seats in the cart, and the babies had their first grocery cart experience!! Yes, I did a full Costco shopping trip with Nathan and Kenna riding in the front. I'm so excited (I actually really like grocery shopping because I've gotten way into cooking lately). It occurred to me that if they can sit on their own now, they should do fine in the cart so we ventured out. I parked in the back of the lot where I spotted a cart so I could try it out there and abandon the mission if they were falling over. SUCCESS!

As a side note, I knew I was going to post about this so I decided to count how many people stopped to talk to us (people are fascinated by twins). 17! Yup, 17 people talked to me about them. I think they looked pretty small in the cart compared to babies you usually see sitting up, and with two of them, they caught everyone's attention. It was lots of fun. I really never get tired of people wanting to see them. I'm so proud of my little babies. :)

"Mom, I think this one needs to be baby proofed"

Sitting, Crawling and Sick!

We have been very fortunate that the babies have only been sick once since birth - when they were three months old they had a cold for about 3 days. Well, cold #2 is now under way. It started with Nathan sniffling, then I got sick, now Kenna and we are all three a mess. I have it worse than they do fortunately (I have the additional thrill of throwing up too, which they don't seem to have). Kenna had a 102 fever yesterday but we gave her tylenol and it brought it down. The only thing worse than 2 sick babies is being sick yourself at the same time! I feel really bad for them not being able to blow their noses on their own. I keep using the nose sucker thing but with as much as I blow my own nose I know they must be miserable.

I'm pretty sure we brought this home from the church nursery, which is where I think we got it last time. No more nursery for a while.

I've been posting about how Nathan has been entering new crawling phases and finally pretty much perfected the one knee at a time thing. Well, if he was at 90% ability before, I can safely say this morning he hit 100%. Crawling before was a thing of necessity for him. He would see something he wanted and find a way to crawl to it. But this morning he went exploring all over the house on his own, for the sake of exploring. I watched in awe as he crawled across our hard wood floors, through the kitchen (where he never has tried to go) and around the dining room with no problem. No falling to his stomach and resuming, one long consistent Christopher Columbus style exploration. :) Wow, you can guess what we will be doing today. I never thought baby proofing would suddenly become so urgent. The way our house is, it's hard to baby proof. We have an empty room in the entry way that I have wanted to turn into a playroom eventually and now is the time. We've picked out a cool wall storage system and rug to start and Bryan is going to go pick it up today. I'm really excited to do something with that room.

There is such a difference between this age and the first 6 months or so. Today I'm sorting and putting away all their old close, breaking down swings, putting bouncers and tummy time things in the garage, etc. It's a whole new stage. I need to go buy some new types of toys for them ASAP. I really feel like we have little kids now and not babies! It's really exciting.

Lastly, I think we can also safely say this is first week when BOTH babies are sitting up for long periods of time on their own! It's amazing! Here are some pics:





A couple of other updates...Kenna is constantly saying "mamamamamama". OK, I know that she isn't referring to me but it is so clear when she says it with a big huge smile that it melts my heart anyway. It is SO precious. I can't even imagine when she says it for real what it will be like. Lastly, our babies are really starting to "argue". Nathan wants whatever Kenna has and immediately grabs it away. If she grabs it back he doesn't care, but when he takes from her she cries immediately. Very different personalities. :) We're working on "No" but it's not very effective thus far!

More teeth!

Kenna now has both of her top teeth coming in - they are just about to break through the gum! I guess she is getting all her teeth in pairs. :) Nathan's bottom tooth is still pushing through and now we can see it is slightly at an angle. Hopefully that will resolve itself. But no sign of the other tooth yet. Kenna will certainly beat him to a toothy smile!

Nathan has almost perfected his crawl. He is getting places fast. He has even figured out how to go from crawling to sitting. We have an urgent need to do the following now:

1) BABY PROOF!
2) Lower the crib mattresses before Nathan figures out how to pull up (which could happen any day)
3) Switch the car seats to the convertible ones. Even though those Graco snug rides are supposed to last until about a year, they only go up to 22 pounds and Nathan is just about there! He barely is fitting in his seat. So we need to swap out. I'm really sad about not being able to use the snap n go stroller anymore though. It's so much more of a hassle to take the gets out of their car seats everywhere and rebuckle them in a regular stroller!

Two Nathan milestones this morning

While feeding the kids breakfast this morning, I noticed something white in Nathan's mouth...sure enough, he had the bottom left tooth break through this morning! There is just a little white peaking through but it broke the gum line. The other one looks close! Kenna's literally came in within 2 days of each other, so it will be interesting to see if Nathan does the same.

Secondly, Nathan figured out this morning how to crawl without double-knee hopping - he went across the living room one knee at a time! I think it's official, we have a crawler!

I can see how exhausting this is going to be...both babies are into EVERYTHING. This is going to be a hard stage because they are too young still for "discipline". It would be much easier to say, "Nathan if you touch my computer cord one more time you are going to your room." Any advice on how to at least teach them what "No" means at this age? I know most books say that they can start to understand that now, but I'm not sure how. I will tell Nathan no in a firm voice repeatedly and move him away then he keeps going back.

A few updates

Nathan has been lounging around in the full crawling position (hands and knees, tummy off ground and everything) for probably 6 weeks. I thought he would crawl forever ago because he looked so ready! Well, he still isn't crawling in that perfected baby crawl stage, but this week he has definitely entered another stage. He moves forward both knees at the same time in a little "hop", then stretches out and gets in position to do it again. He basically gets all over the living room like that. He is unstoppable. Bryan has to get on the whole baby proofing thing!

Kenna hasn't made it to all fours yet (with tummy off ground) but she has no problem getting around either with some combo of slithering and rolling. She has been so extra cute lately with her two bottom teeth. :) I think she'll have the top two soon also because the gums are all swollen. Nathan has been teething but no teeth yet!

I have one problem right now that I wish I could solve. Nathan has been waking up at 5 am for the last few weeks! I never go in until 6:45 so he just lies there talking, whining, making sounds, etc the whole time. I end up in and out of sleep for the whole time so it's not exactly restful. Every book I have says you can't control the wake up time and I have found that to be true. We put him to bed one night 1.5 hours later and he woke up the same time. He's not starving or anything - I usually don't even feed them until 45 minutes after they get up and they are fine during that time. He doesn't have a dirty diaper, it's not overly light in the room, and he never is rewarded with me coming in. But weeks and weeks this has gone on!! And then he gets super cranky too early before his 9 am nap. I still make him hold out until then to go down but it's like his bio clock is stuck on 5 am. UGH. Poor Kenna - she's such a great sleeper and sometimes by the time I come in in the morning she is sucking her little tiny thumb trying to get back to sleep! Any ideas?

Lastly, I wanted to mention that at our 7 month appt they were both in about the 95th percentile of height - Kenna shot up since the last one from 70 to 97! They are growing like crazy! Nathan weighs over 20 pounds and Kenna over 18.

Welcome!

Welcome to our new blog! Most of the blog will be about Nathan and Kenna, our precious baby twins, with some other thoughts about life along the way. :) Thanks for visiting!

Family vacation pictures!

Last week we went on our first prolonged (i.e., more than a weekend) family vacation! We went to Mammoth, in the Eastern Sierras of California. It's the most amazing place, and a place that we have gone back to over and over again the last few years. Even though it's known for skiing/winter activities, I love Mammoth even more for the summer beauty of hiking. We can't backpack overnight just yet with the babies (a favorite activity of ours), but we are definitely getting them on the hiking trail, as you'll see below! The beautiful lake pictures with the mountains in the back and Nathan and Kenna in front were taken at Heart Lake, in Little Lakes Valley, near Mammoth (up from Rock Creek Lake and Tom's Place if you know the area). I think those are my favorite pictures ever. :)

The babies did great and celebrated their 7 month birthday up there! They also started to sit up for longer periods when we were there (maybe half a minute now). It was just wonderful to share a vacation with them, even if it wasn't exactly a "relaxing" vacation!