Two and a Half Years Old!

It's hard to believe that Zed and Alice are 2.5 years old--it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that they were born. On the other hand, they seem to grow and learn more every single day, and sometimes it blows my mind that a little 2 year old can do and say the things they do and say.

At their check up this past week, Zed was 35.9 tall (50th percentile) and weighed 30.8 lbs (63rd); Alice was 35.4 inches tall (50th) and weighed 24.4 lbs (7th). The doctor was quite impressed that Alice had grown THREE inches in six months and that she'd hit the 50th percentile for height.


At two and a half Zed:

• loves to do things "all by my own self"--he gets dressed on his own and even tries to do a belt all by himself (he still needs a little help but he's determined to try it on his own every single time) 
• loves to color--he'll color for hours sometimes, and if Alice isn't coloring her pages, he volunteers to help 
• doesn't like to listen--he definitely has a mischievous streak and even once responded, "Listening is hard!" when Adam asked him if he was listening
• likes doing puzzles; that's another activity he'll do for long stretches of time and he's getting really good at doing even more complex puzzles 
• likes to make noises all day long--and ask "What's that noise?" or point out "I making noises!" to ensure that we notice 
• likes to make pancakes and waffles--he asks on nearly a daily basis to make "pampcakes and waffles"

At two and a half Alice:

• likes to repeat everything we say; she is very good at giving detailed explanations of things (if you be naughty, you go to time out and Mommy be sad and Daddy be sad and...and..and...)  and gives reports on what happened each day
• loves to read books and go to story time at the library 
• likes to sing and make up songs 
• likes to snuggle--she is an early riser and comes to snuggle with Adam every morning when she gets up 
•  likes to push her stuffed dog around the house in a stroller or shopping cart
• likes to hoard things--she loads up her purse and stroller with everything she can possibly fit in there!

We are working on potty training (kind of) and it's exhausting (for me at least). Alice and Zed like weekly visits to the library, like it when their friends Henry or Ella come over, and like playing with their cousins (although they are disappointed that Perry and Kylie are in school and therefore aren't around to play as much). They are learning to say their prayers and listen when we read scriptures. They like to sing "I Love to See the Temple" and "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man." They like to give hugs and kisses--to us and to each other. They are super, terrific, wonderful kids, and we love them so much!

Two Years Old!

Zed and Alice turned two in May, which is just crazy to think about.

At two, Alice:

• has brown eyes and brown hair
• it still on the small side--she was 32.3 inches tall and 22.2 pounds at her two-year check up
• loves to sing--she will sing songs around the house and she makes up songs of her own and she frequently requests songs from Mommy, with her favorites being "The Wheels on the Bus" and "I Love to See the Temple"
• knows her colors and loves to find things that match--a pink chair matches her pink shirt, and so on. While she mostly matches with colors, she will occasionally match other things; for example, a picture of a dog in a book matches her stuffed dog
• likes to "go walking"--she loads up her doll stroller with as much stuff as it can possibly hold and then walks from one end of the house to the other, and sometimes she recruits Zed, too; she tells him to get the toy shopping cart so he can "go walking"
• loves to eat noodles and cheese--but she is particular on the color; if we give her white cheese and she wants "orange cheese" instead, she will be sure to correct us
• talks and talks and talks and talks--and if I tell her I need "peace and quiet for a few minutes," she is quick to tell me, "No peace, no quiet."
• likes to go to the park and "swing up high" and go to the library and play in the swimming pool
• likes to give BIG kisses; she grab our faces in both hands and pull us in for a big kisses

At two, Zed:

• has hazel eyes and blonde hair that is getting darker
• is average in size--he was 34.5 inches tall and weighed in at 27.8 pounds at his two-year check up
• likes to climb on things and roughhouse
• likes green; he knows other colors as well, but he seems to get the most excited about green things
• does not like it when we stop at red lights or stop signs; when we do stop, he urges us to "Go, go" and when we tell him the light is red, he likes to tease us and insist that it's green
• likes his routines; for example, on Sundays, we usually share a pew with our friends the Waltons, and if they aren't there, or if they just haven't arrived yet, Zed will say "Ella" and "Audrey" over and over and over again, asking where they are
• likes to dance and thinks it's fun to turn on the radio all by himself and start dancing
• likes to yell! He just yells for fun sometimes, over and over
• likes to splash in the swimming pool and go to the library
• gives super awesome bear hugs

Both Alice and Zed continue to keep us laughing and shaking our heads at their antics. Adam and I ask ourselves on a regular basis, "Where do they learn these things?!" We love seeing how sweet they are with each other--like if one of them gets hurt, quite often the other will come over to offer a hug or a kiss. Of course they have their moments when they fight over toys or who gets to sit in which car seat or whatever, but usually they are pretty nice to each other. I guess I'm probably biased, but I think they're the cutest kids ever :)

19 Months!

I started this post right after Zed and Alice had their 18 month check up, but it's been busy around here with the holidays, so I didn't get anything posted 'til today--when they are 19 months old.
At their check up last month, Zed weighed 25 lbs, 5 oz (66th percentile) and was 33 inches tall (70th). The pediatrician was happy to see that Alice weighed19 lbs, 13 oz (14th--she's in double digits!) and was 31.25 inches (31st).

They both have grown quite a bit since their 15 month check up and they're learning a ton, too! They're both saying quite a few words: Mama, Dada, Zed, Alice, Grandma, baby, shoes, juice, cheese, thank you,  arf-arf, duck, etc. Yesterday and today they've been saying some of their relatives' names: Kylie, Perry, Elyse, Addi, Holly, and Cole. Alice is quite a little talker and says sheep, tights, coat, all done, all gone, more, milk, Mary (which she learned from the Nativity magnets on the fridge), snack, etc. Zed doesn't say as many words as she does, but he definitely understands. He is also SUPER observant; he notices how we do things and is quick to copy or to "fix" things. For example, there is a cupboard in our kitchen that has a door that rolls up and down. I usually have it down, but one day, I had used my stand mixer, which I store in there, and had left the cupboard open. Zed made Adam take him over to the cupboard so that he could shut it! It's interesting to see how he just notices these things--things that I haven't ever pointed out to him or tried to get him to learn.
Zed and Alice both continue to enjoy music and dancing. Alice also likes to sing sometimes and she has a pretty little voice. They like to play outside. Alice especially loves swinging--she's content to swing in her little pink swing for a LONG time--while Zed likes to run around and do lots of things--go down the slide, ride their trike, etc. Lately, Zed's outdoor routine includes asking me for a snack; he thinks it's fun to have me put his snack on his and Alice's picnic table.
Alice and Zed both give terrific hugs--to us and to each other. It's super fun to see when they get in a bear hugging mood and hug each other for dear life.They are so sweet with each other and take good care of each other--like tonight before bed when Zed tried to wrap Alice up in her blankets, or a couple weeks ago in Nursery at church when I left the room and Zed started bawling and Alice tried to hug him.

Adam and I absolutely adore our sweet, beautiful children and are so grateful the Lord has blessed us so richly!

The New House...and the Complications of Buying a Short Sale and Working with a Crazy Realtor

For those of you who wants the whole story (well, okay, this is actually the short version of it, particularly once I get to the interactions we had with our realtor, but it's going to be a long post...if you want the short version, what you need to do is ask Adam. He'll give you a very short version.)
Several months ago (I'm not sure on the exact timing but I do know it was before Thanksgiving 2013), I was talking to Sandy Watrous, a lovely lady from church who had come over to help out with Zed and Alice, and I mentioned how we were going to outgrow our little house faster than we anticipated. She said, "Oh, I wish you'd buy the house across the street from us!" Well, just out of curiosity, I looked that house up online, but then I pretty much put it out of my mind; I wasn't super impressed with the photos, and it was time to get ready for Christmas, and oh yeah, I had twins to take care of.

Well, as the weather started to warm up in 2014, I would take Zed and Alice out in the stroller and walk around the neighborhood, and I'd frequently see the sign in front of this house (which I will refer to from here on out as the gray house), so I knew it was still for sale. At some point on those walks, my curiosity was piqued again. Adam and I had talked about how we like our ward and don't want to move out of it, but there aren't a whole lot of homes for sale in our ward, and there are actually only a few homes in our ward boundaries that we'd seriously consider (a lot are no bigger than our house; others are twin-homes, and Adam and I aren't twin-home type people). So Adam and I had kinda talked about it a little, and we looked at the pictures online again, and we kinda wondered if we should go look at it

Then, on March 11, Adam texted me to ask if I thought we should go look at the house that night; I responded, "Idk. What do you think?" He said he thought we should go look and that they could show it to us at 5 that evening. Our plan was that we would have the seller's realtor show us the house, and then if we happened to like it, we'd call the realtor we used when we bought our white house...except somehow (to this day, Adam still doesn't know how this happened), the number Adam saw on the listing for the house wasn't for the seller's realtor but was for some other random realtor, who I will call CJ.  CJ showed us the house, and we were surprised; I think we both went into it thinking we would get over there and just know right away that it wasn't a good idea (the photos--and the condition the house was left in--didn't exactly inspire a lot of hope in us). However, as we were walking through the house, rather than being put off by it, we both thought that maybe it could work; it definitely needed work (painting and re-carpeting the whole house and some serious cleaning, among other things), but it was also do-able work.

Well, we thought about things for a few days and we talked to CJ about what selling our home would entail. He was VERY optimistic in what he thought our house would go for; we were surprised to hear he thought it was worth as much as he thought it was, but hey, he's supposed to be the expert, right? We decided to go ahead and put an offer in on the gray house and put our house up for sale. We knew that this could be somewhat complicated because the gray house was a short sale and the seller's realtor said that Wells Fargo (the bank holding the mortgage) wouldn't consider our offer without us having our home sold. (At this point, I will note that we debated whether to keep CJ or go with our preferred realtor, and we ended up sticking with CJ pretty much out of guilt, just cuz we felt bad that he was expecting us to use him...so it turned out to be like a several-months-long pity date, and it was a terrible idea.)

So, we put our offer and put our house up for sale, and we quickly realized that CJ had been way high in the price that he recommended we list our house for. So we lowered our asking price, and we got an offer that was even lower than that, but CJ reminded us we needed to have our house sold in order to be considered by the bank for the short sale. So, with that in mind, plus what turned out to be a communication error from CJ in which he made it sound like we'd be netting more money than we actually would (and of course we didn't discover the error until months later), we accepted the offer...only to find out that the seller for the short sale filed bankruptcy, which meant Wells Fargo couldn't even give us a decision on the house because the seller had to go to court and get the house discharged back to the debtor.

Well, CJ assured us that would happen just after Mother's Day...except, when the seller went to court, it took longer than expected so then the judge had 21 to 45 days to get through his case...and he took the full 45, which took us into the beginning of July. At that point, the debt was discharged back to the debtor and our realtor told us we should have an answer from Wells Fargo within 48 hours. Well, 72 hours later, we heard from CJ that we needed to extend until July 31st. When I asked him what the hold up was, he said there wasn't one (Really? 48 hours and the end of July aren't the same thing to me but apparently they are to CJ.) but that Wells Fargo's employee working on this was new and needed to have time to review all of the files. Good grief.

We did get the approval on July 24th, and we quickly got our inspection done and were ready to move forward, but then our buyers were slow getting their inspection done and then the inspector they used was INSANE. He was seriously really weird with the comments that he put on his inspection--like that the appliances (including our fridge which is 2 years old) were all marginal because of old age (but the swamp cooler that he estimated to be 35 years old and only half works was acceptable), that we probably had asbestos in the basement floors because of the age of the house (uh...Adam and I put those floors in and we've only lived here 3 years, and given that we barely use the basement, they certainly don't look old enough to have asbestos in them), etc. So then he kinda freaked the buyers out, and then our realtor made it sound like they might back out entirely. They ended up submitting a lower offer than we really wanted to accept but we accepted it, rather than countering since CJ made it sound like these people were completely unreasonable and weren't going to meet us in the middle and would just walk away if we didn't do exactly what they wanted.

Then it came time to close on the house, and we needed to get a rental agreement from our buyers, since they had said we could rent the house back from them while we were fixing up the new house. Well, once again, CJ made it sound like they were completely unreasonable people and were playing hardball here and were demanding a $900 deposit and $40 per day for rent  and wanted us out as soon as possible because they were mad that the whole process had taken so long because they had wanted their kids to work on fixing up the house over the summer and just wouldn't work with him on this at all. So, Adam and I were getting really frustrated and worried that if we went and signed all the papers to close, these people were going to show up at the door demanding we get out, since we did not want to pay a deposit and thought $40 per day for rent was a little high. But again, CJ is making these people out to be the devil incarnate, pretty much, so Adam and I are trying to figure out if we need to go rent a storage unit and if we can stay with my sister and how we're going to get the house finished super quickly, etc. (And in the middle of this, for an extra does of awesomeness, every member of our family got the stomach flu and threw up and had body aches and felt awful.)

Adam ended up talking to the buyers directly, skipping CJ and all his crazy talk, and they were super NICE people who didn't want a deposit at all, wanted a much more reasonable rent, and assured him that this is our home and we can rent from them as long as we need to while we're fixing up the new house. Adam said they apologize profusely for the confusion, made sure that he and I had both of their cell phone numbers and knew we could just skip CJ for any further communication, and said that we could take as long as we need to get the new house fixed up and we don't need to feel rushed at all. So, yeah, totally nice, reasonable people...not at all what CJ described. (And, we didn't ask them about this, but we did a little Facebook stalking, and considering that their five children range in age from about 5 to 15, I don't think they were going to have them do a whole lot of repair work on this house. Cleaning, maybe, but I don't think most kids are qualified to do roofing or electrical work.)

So, we went and signed the paperwork to sell our house and then signed all the paperwork to buy the new house, and the seller for the new house did NOT sign the paperwork to sell it when he was supposed to (OF COURSE!)...but he did sign it the next day, and finally, finally, Adam and I were able to purchase the house that we have been trying to buy since March. And I guess for a short sale, that's actually fast, but it still feels slow, and it was made worse by having a realtor who is either completely incapable of communication clearly or delusional...or maybe both.

And now we move onto the house repairs...

Fifteen Months!

I can't believe Alice and Zed are fifteen months old!  Both of them have had a good growth spurt since their 12-month check up.

Zed weighs 23 pounds, 2 ounces (58th percentile) and is about 31.5 inches tall (69%). He has six teeth (four top, two bottom). His hair has been getting darker (he's still blonde, though). He has turned into a little climber and tries to climb on the couches, the rocking chair,  his toys, anything that he can and especially anything we don't want him to be on. He likes to dance, and he is especially good at doing "twirls" (turning in circles). He will sometimes fold his arms for our prayers, although he folds them when he hears "Amen" as often as he folds them at the beginning. He is very good about making sure things go back in their proper place...except for with his toys; those he just wants out! But he's good about putting his shoes and Alice's shoes away and has even recently figured out where to put mine and Adam's shoes--when he's not encouraging us to put them on our feet.

Alice weighs 18 pounds, 5 ounces (12th percentile--yay, double digits!) and is about 29.75 inches tall (28%). She has four teeth (two top, two bottom). Her hair has been getting lighter (she's still a brunette, though). She likes to wave bye-bye and blow kisses and says "Uh-oh" and "thank you" (which mostly sounds like a-oo, but she definitely is saying it in the right context and mimics our intonation). She folds her arms when she hears us say "prayer" or "pray" and sometimes even when we put her in her high chair because she knows we pray before eating. She thinks it's funny to find her belly button; she also knows head, toes, and nose, but belly button is her favorite. She loves to dance, especially shaking her little shoulders, and sings little songs in her sweet little voice. She has a favorite pair of shoes already--her pink sandals with butterflies and flowers on them.

Both of my sweet children continue to bring such joy into my life. I love seeing how they are similar and how they are different. It's funny how almost everything they do is cute, just because they do it (I'm not a big fan of whining, but isn't it funny how your kid can look adorable even with his finger shoved up his nose?). I love seeing them together; they don't always share so well and we're working on "being soft" but those moments when Zed is crying and Alice comes over to stroke his head or Zed leans over to put his head on Alice's shoulder just cuz he loves her just make me melt. Ah, adorable. Love those kids!

Funny Adam

Me: KSL (a local news website) has the worst pictures. They have an article about an autistic boy who went missing and the blind dog who found him, and there's not even a picture of the dog!
Adam: Well, the dog's blind; it's not like he can see his picture in the paper anyway.



Adam: We'll have to check to make sure no snails have gotten in the baby pool. There are a lot out there.
Me (with a horrified, I-hate-snails look on my face): There are?
Adam: Yeah.
Me: But you killed a bunch.
Adam: Yeah. We'll have to get a stick and stab 'em and see how many we can get on the stick.
My mouth falls open as I stare at my husband
Adam: Zed and I are going to have a lot of fun in a few years. You just look at me like it's a stupid idea.
Me: I wasn't thinking it was stupid; I was thinking that's a gross, boy idea.
(little bit of chit chat)
Adam: Well, now that they fixed the irrigation, we don't get the water snakes anymore.
Me: We had snakes?!
Adam: Yeah.
Me: A lot?
Adam: Oh, like five or six. They were little. I chopped one's head of with a shovel. That one was big.
Me: We had snakes?! You didn't tell me that!
Adam: I couldn't tell you. But now that they fixed the irrigation so we don't have them anymore, I can tell you.

 

Primary

I teach a group of 4- and 5-year-olds at church each week, and I love them to bits and pieces. Every week, they say or do something that touches my heart or makes me laugh, and they ask such good questions. Here are a few recent examples:

We were discussing who came to visit Baby Jesus just after His birth--the shepherds and the wise men. One kid asked what the wise men did.
Me: Remember, they brought the gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Jane: And they built the house.
Me, looking puzzled as I try to figure out why Jane would think the wise men built Jesus a house: They built a house?
Jane: Yeah, the wise men built the house upon the rock. And the foolish man built the house upon the sand.
Me, beaming: OH!
Jane: What does "foolish" mean?
We then got to have a tangential but awesome discussion about how wise men follow Jesus and foolish men don't.

Me, as Dexter bounced up and down on his chair: What could we do to help you be a little more reverent and stop bouncing on your chair?
Dexter: It would help me stop bouncing on my chair if Alice sat by me.
Cute! So, I did let Alice sit next to him, and he did stop bouncing...but he was a little distracted from the lesson since he kept giving Alice hugs. However, seeing this boy give my little Alice hugs totally melted my mommy heart, so I just went with that.
Later in the class, we were writing a note to invite a couple of friends to come to Primary. The children were dictating and I was writing.
Me: What should we write?
Dexter: You should come to Primary.
Christine: It's fun!
Audrey: We want to be your friends.
Dexter: If you don't come to Primary, you won't get to meet Alice!
Haha--I love that Dexter thinks not getting to meet Alice would be a serious disappointment. :)

One Year Old!

Zed and Alice are one! Crazy! It has been a wonderful/hard/amazing/humbling year. It's so fun to watch them grow and learn new things and see their likes and dislikes and personalities.

As a one-year-old, Zed 29 inches tall and weighs 21 pounds, 12 ounces. He is a blonde still, and looking at baby pictures of his daddy, I can definitely see some resemblances between him and Adam. His eyes are mostly green, with some blue in them. He has two teeth and we expect more any day now. He continues to be our sweet Snuggle Bear and gives great hugs.
Some of Zed's favorite things are:

• walking laps around the house
• swinging on the swings
• riding in his Radio Flyer wagon
• wrestling with pillows or Mommy or Daddy
• laughing
• playing Peek-a-Boo
• poking Mommy in the eyes
• eating pancakes!

Alice is 28 inches tall and weighs 17 pounds, 1 ounce. She's so tiny, but she doesn't seem to know that. She can totally hold her own with Zed and is very strong. She's our little brunette and also has mostly green with a little bit of blue eyes. She has two teeth. She is still our sweet little pretty girl and I love the fact that she really likes to sit on my lap a lot lately.
Some of Alice's favorite things are:

• riding in her Radio Flyer wagon, or the stroller, or a shopping cart, or a box, or a laundry basket, or anything that anyone will pull or push her around in
• pushing her toy shopping cart or a box or a laundry basket or anything that she decides needs to move around the floor
• playing in water--she likes the bathtub, her kiddie pool and sprinkler, and the local splash pad
• walking/almost running, especially when she can leap into Mommy's or Daddy's arms at the end
• eating pizza (she has actually only done this once, but she loved it and got upset that I wasn't giving her pieces quickly enough!)
• swinging on the swings 
• pulling Mommy's hair
• dancing! She just started doing this recently; she has always enjoyed music but now she is definitely swaying back and forth when she hears it. So cute!

Zed and Alice usually play really well together. Like all siblings, or small children, they do sometimes fight over toys or who gets to sit on my lap, but for the most part they are really good together. It's so fun to hear them giggle and babble to each other and see them reach out for each other. For example, sometimes when they are in their high chairs to eat, they just HAVE to reach out and touch each other's hands or arms for some reason. I love seeing them do laps--they just walk around and around and around. I love seeing them learn and am constantly amazed at the things that they've figured out--just when I think surely I've outsmarted them on something, they prove me wrong. I love holding them and hugging them, and I think they're both perfect in their oppositeness; Zed's my stocky, snuggler boy (and yes, my arms get tired holding him sometimes) and Alice is my tiny, monkey girl, but they're both just right exactly as they are. I love, love, love being their mom. It's been the hardest, most humbling, most amazing, most wonderful experience of my life and I love every little hug and smile and giggle.

Happy Birthday!

How on earth has it been one year (and three weeks, since I'm a little behind in blogging cuz I've been busy living life instead of writing about it!) since Zed and Alice were born???

Zed and Alice got to have two birthday parties, which was lots of fun. We did a star theme, with some dangly star decorations.

We also had cupcakes that we arranged into star shapes.You can kinda see both the blue and pink cupcakes here.

Zed does not look nearly as happy about his cupcake as you'd expect. He was a little nervous having so many people around.

We were worried Alice might try to grab the flame, but she actually didn't even try!

Our handsome little birthday boy! 

And our beautiful little birthday girl!

Adam Stories

Me: "They had Duck Dynasty stuff at Walmart, and they had cups, but they were GREEN!" (Uncle Si's ever-present cup is blue...maybe blue-ish green-ish, but definitely not the yellow-green of the Wal-Mart cup)
Adam: "Maybe his started out as green. They should do testing on that thing, if he's had it since Vietnam."

People from Juab County in Utah have a slightly different way of speaking. Some of the things I've heard from them: Chimley (instead of chimney), I've went (instead of I've gone), theirselves (instead of themselves), and ambleance (instead of ambulance). One day, Adam said something he learned in Juab and I sighed and said, "Before I die, I'm going to get the Juab out of you." His response? "Good luck."

Me (after looking from my plate to Adam's and back): "How is it that in the time you've eaten three green beans, I've eaten my whole meal?"
Adam: "Mm-hmm."
Me: "What?"
Adam: "I'm friends with Mountain Man.'" (from Duck Dynasty)
Me: "Oh, I see. Well, I'm not getting you a grape slush."

A couple days after that conversation, Adam and I were eating dinner. I had finished my plateful and went in the living room to check on something. When I came back several minutes later, Adam still had half a plateful of food.
Me: "Is that your first plate?"
Adam: "No, it's my second. I'm slow, but I'm not that slow." :)

Me: "What are we going to do for the babies for Valentine's Day?"
Adam: "I don't know. What does Pinterest tell us to do?"

Me, doing a little online shopping: "Twenty-nine dollars for a bath rug?!"
Adam: "I could paint a rug on the floor for a lot less than that."
Me: "Don't even think about it."
Adam: "If I told you about it, obviously I've already thought about it. And it's a good idea."

Nine Months Old!

Zed and Alice are nine (and a half) months old! At their 9-month checkup, Zed was about 27.5 inches (21st percentile) and weighed 19 pounds, 4 ounces (44th percentile). Alice was about 26.5 inches (15th percentile) and weighed 15 pounds, 3 ounces (7th percentile). So, they are both still on the small side for their age--in Alice's case, really small.
However, they are both healthy and happy and strong. They started crawling on January 3rd, within 30 minutes of each other. Alice crawled to reach a toy; Zed crawled when we put a plate of food on the floor and told him he could have some if he crawled to it--which he did...and grabbed a big handful of food. From there, they just took off. Both crawled over to see Ruby in her pen as soon as they got a chance. They quickly learned to pull themselves up to a stand and then, as long as they're holding onto something, walk around. They certainly keep Adam and me busy! They are fast, and Zed especially likes to have us chase him. Earlier this week, they each stood on their own for a few seconds, but they aren't doing that consistently...yet.
Both Zed and Alice like "real" food more than baby food. Zed is a little piggy and we're pretty sure he'll be a Chubby Bunny champ someday (Chubby Bunny is a game where you stuff as many marshmallows as possible in your mouth all at once) since he is always cramming as much food as he can into his mouth! Alice is better about waiting 'til she swallows to put more in. Her favorite food is ham, we think. Zed's favorite food is everything.
Both Alice and Zed have enjoyed moving from the baby tub to the big bathtub. They like to splash each other and kick their feet and have us hold them on their backs and help them float. They have lots of fun in the tub and we have lots of fun watching them. Alice especially is a little water baby and loves, loves, loves being in the tub.
Zed cut his first tooth earlier this week, and Alice looks like she's got two that will be here soon!
Both babies continue to bring so much joy to us. They are super sweet and cuddly and we love them to bits and pieces!

**Alice has her first tooth, too! It's just barely poking through as of this afternoon.

Zed's and Alice's First Christmas!

Okay, I'm waaaaaay behind in blogging, but we've been super busy! But for those who are interested, here's a little bit of our Christmas celebration.

It was super fun getting ready for Christmas this year. I have to say, Adam is not the most fun person to give gifts to--he's always appreciative, but he's not the type to get very excited. And since I end up picking out half of my own gifts, I'm not the most fun, either! But this year, I had tons of fun shopping for Zed and Alice and wrapping their presents. Even though they were a little young to know what was going on, I loved helping them open presents and reading the Christmas story to them.

Here are our stockings, all ready to go!

Christmas tree

Alice and Zed, ready to open their first presents!

 Alice in front of the tree

 Zed in front of the tree

 Alice and Zed with their gifts from Grandma Potter--some fun little bugs and some onesies

 Zed and Alice with their presents from Grandma and Grandpa Perry:  a toy workbench, a box of food (notice what Zed is reaching for!), a toy laptop and a toy kitchen set!

 Zed with his turtle (it crawls and says, "Crawl with me, Baby!")

 Alice with her Laugh and Learn Puppy

Alice and Zed helping me open my present from them: the Willow Tree "Two Together" set--twins! And it's funny, they are just like Zed and Alice--one has his hand in his mouth (like Zed) and one is holding onto her foot (like Alice).

 Zed and Alice with their present for Daddy--a calendar with pictures of them :)

 

Adam with his griddle...which I was so proud of keeping hidden since, like, July. Turns out, he saw it before Christmas :(

 Alice at Grandma and Grandpa Everitt's house

 Zed at Grandma and Grandpa Everitt's house

 Merry Christmas!

Six Months Old

Zed and Alice are six months old! (Okay, six and a half by the time I'm actually blogging.) It's crazy to think how fast the past six months have flown by!
Right now, they both have the second cold of their little lifetimes, but other than that, they are very healthy.We recently had nearly two weeks with horrible sleeping--hours and hours of crying and refusing to be consoled no matter what we did. Luckily, the past couple nights have been better.

Both Zed and Alice have been getting up on their hands and knees, trying to figure out how to crawl. They haven't figured it out quite yet...which is probably good because Adam and I need more time to babyproof the house! They're pretty close, though. They're also doing really well with eating baby food.

Zed is still our happy little snuggle bear. At his six month checkup, he was 26 inches long (24th percentile--huge jump for him!) and weighed 16 pounds, 5 ounces (27th percentile--also a big jump). He is very strong and so sweet. It's so fun listening to his laugh. His eyes, which were dark blue at birth, are now a light blue-green. They're looking greener every day. He lost most of his hair for awhile, but it's back now, a light golden brown. He loves being held and just being around people. Lately, if one of us is holding him, he likes to keep turning to see where the other one is. He really likes playing peek-a-boo. He also likes it when I toss a blanket over him and then pull it off really quickly. Recently, I had him in the pack-n-play and he was on his tummy. I knelt by the side and would peek my head over the top and say "Boo!" which had him laughing hysterically. Well, a couple days later, he was in the pack-n-play again and he would lower himself down and then push himself up and peek up at me--like he was playing peek-a-boo! I started saying "boo" when he'd look over the top and he laughed and laughed and we had so much fun.

Alice is still our little mover. At her six month check up, she was 25.25 inches long (24th percentile) and weighed 13 pounds, 11 ounces (9th percentile--which is actually down from the 14th percentile at her 4 month checkup). She's tiny but strong! She loves to lie on her back and then lift up her head and legs in a little jack-knife position, which she can hold for a long time. She is also a staring contest champ--she never blinks! She also loves to have someone hold her up and then jump up and down, over and over and over. Her eyes were dark blue at birth, then changed to a dark gray (basically black), then to a light blue...and now, they are starting to get hints of green in them. Her hair has grown back in much lighter than it was at birth; it's brown but has sort of a silvery element to it (I don't really know how to explain it, but it's Zed's definitely has a golden tone and Alice's has a silvery tone). Recently, she has been giggling whenever I make snorting noises at her; she just giggles and giggles and it's so fun.

Zed and Alice continue to be super cute together. They look at each other and smile a lot; it's so sweet to see how they light up when they look at each other. They also will give each other kisses and Zed has blown raspberries on Alice's back a couple times!

There aren't even words to describe how amazing it is being their mom. They are so sweet and happy and Adam and I are beyond blessed to have these little cuties for our babies.

Happy Halloween!

Normally, I am not a Halloween person. I don't care about costumes, I've never been trick or treating, and I'd be fine with eliminating Halloween altogether. However, now that I'm a mom, I figure I'll enjoy Halloween for the kids' sake. Plus, it's fun dressing the kids up. So, we had fun with dressing up in our homemade costumes. Since I already had an Egyptian costume from when Rick Riordan visited the library (check out this post if you missed the details on the costume construction), we picked an Egyptian theme. We made a gold cape-thing and took the blue cape-thing from my original costume and gave it to Adam (since it was more manly than the gold one). Adam just wore a large black shirt and shorts to look sort of like an Egyptian tunic thing and spray-painted some chain gold to be a necklace. Zed and Alice got to be mummies. I actually had two white sleepers and hats handed down to me from friends. We took those and sewed strips of old t-shirts to them to make their costumes. They kind of look like they're unraveling a little bit...
Anyway, I think they're the cutest mummies ever and I'm glad Adam was a good sport about helping make the costumes and even wearing one.

5 Months Old

Zed and Alice are five months old today! (And I'm actually blogging about it already!)
They are both doing well, although they both got their first colds and have been constipated this past week, which has been no fun. However, they have also had a couple nights where they have slept through the night! It's not consistent yet, but Adam and I are pretty excited on the nights that it does happen. It was such a crazy feeling the first time it happened--I wasn't quite sure I believed it!
Zed is still very cuddly and likes to snuggle. He also likes to give kisses, and the other day, as he was kissing me, actually blew a raspberry on my cheek! I think it was just accidental, but when Adam and I started laughing and cheering, then he did it a couple more times. He is still enjoying eating solid foods and will pretty much eat whatever we give him even if he doesn't like the taste. For example, he made faces the entire time I was feeding him apples for the first time, but he loves having stuff in his mouth and just kept eating. I think oatmeal might be his favorite so far. When Zed and Alice "talk", Zed definitely has a deeper voice than Alice, but when Zed shrieks (which he has loved doing this week), he sounds just like Alice. He likes it when we copy him and shriek back, but Adam has a little trouble getting that high! Zed is a happy little guy and we love him to bits.
Alice continues to have lots of energy. She also likes giving kisses, and she'll put her hands on either side of my face (or Adam's face) and then lean in to give us kisses. She also tries to kiss Zed. She doesn't care about her baby food as much as Zed does, but she is getting better at eating what we give her, as long as she doesn't get distracted by how much Zed is laughing as he is enjoying his food. She likes butternut squash the best, I think. She is building up her upper body strength and getting better at holding her head and chest up when she is doing tummy time. The other day she was on her tummy, and I put myself across from her and said, "Push up" and straightened my elbows to show her what I meant, and she actually copied me and straightened her elbows, too. She likes to sit up (with help) to see what is going on around her. She is a little sweetheart and we love her!

One of my favorite things is when one (or both) of the babies wake up and I lean over the crib and see a cute little grin spread across a cute little baby face. There is just something miraculous about those moments and knowing that despite all the things I do wrong as a mother, I apparently do enough things right that Zed and Alice are still happy to see me.

4 Months Old

Zed and Alice are four months old...okay, four and a half by the time I actually blogged. They had their check up last week and are doing great.
Alice was up to 24.25 inches and weighed 12 pounds, 8 ounces (exactly double her birth weight). That put her in the 37th percentile for height and the 14th for weight. Zed was 24 inches long (5th percentile) and 13 pounds, 11 ounces (14th percentile). Their doctor was very happy to see their weight gain, since they were both in the 1st percentile at birth and need to pack on some pounds.
Their doctor also gave us the okay to start introducing solid foods if we wanted to, since both are holding their heads up well. So, we broke out the rice cereal and gave it a go. Zed took to it right away; he actually gets impatient with how long it takes to reload the spoon because he wants to eat faster. Alice initially really didn't like the feel of the spoon, so it has taken a little longer to get her interested, but the past few days, she has done better with it.
Alice continues to be be super active--she just likes to move! She squirms all over, rolls from her back to her tummy, spins in circles (she really turns herself 360 degrees sometimes), throws her feet up on Zed's tummy, etc. This little girl has lots of energy. She is also very vocal--she "talks", blows raspberries and even sometimes sounds like she is singing!
Zed is more content to hold still and snuggle, although he does enjoy kicking his feet and moving his arms (he looks like he's marching on his back). He "talks" and he laughs a lot. He is super strong and can hold his head up for a long time, whether he's being held or doing tummy time.
Both Zed and Alice are super cute individually, but they are also totally adorable together. Pretty much whenever they are in range, they touch each other. They hold hands or touch each other's heads or turn toward each other. They've also started looking at each other more. It's really sweet to see them smile at each other.
Adam and I are still absolutely in love with these two little sweethearts and are so blessed to be their parents.

Two Months

Alice and Zed had their two month check up last week and they are doing great!
Zed is 22.5 inches long and weighs 9 pounds, 6 ounces, which puts him in the 23rd percentile for height and the 2nd percentile for weight.
Alice is 22.5 inches long and weighs 9 pounds, 1 ounce, which puts her in 48th percentile for height and the 5th percentile for weight.
It's funny to me that they're still so small as far as weight goes especially, since I've worked so hard to get them as big as they are! They've come a long way though--they were down to 5 pounds, 8 ounces when they left the hospital and at their 2 week check up, they were only 6 pounds, 4 ounces.

Both Zed and Alice are enjoying different textures. Zed really likes having cloth rubbed against his face. Alice likes Daddy's stubble--as long as she only has to touch it with her hands! Adam put her hands on his face and every time he did it, she smiled so big...but when he tried to put his face by hers for her to "kiss" him, she wrinkled her nose every time. It was really cute!

They are also getting really good at focusing on things. Alice's favorite thing to focus on is Daddy's face; she's content to stare at Daddy for a long time whenever she gets the chance. She has definitely been a Daddy's girl lately and likes to have him hold her...so it's a good thing Zed has been a Momma's boy so I don't feel too left out! It's been neat recently to see how Zed responds to my voice--and that he'll even stop crying when I talk to him. The other day, Adam picked him up when he started crying. I was still in bed, just starting to wake up, but called out to Zed, and he stopped crying when he heard me, but started up again when Adam took him to get a diaper change instead of bringing him to me. But when I talked to him again, he stopped crying again. It's a pretty amazing experience to realize that I can affect him like that and know that I can be a comfort to him. :)

Zed and Alice are still really cute to watch together. They like to kick their feet and wave their arms and still try to eat each other given the chance. If one of them flings a limb close enough to the other's mouth, they're likely to get a licking, literally.

And of course, Adam and I are still completely wrapped around their fingers. We love those little sweeties so much!

More Adam Stories

Adam: "I hope a vacuum salesman comes to our house. Maybe I'll take down the 'no soliciting' sign."
Me: "Um, why?"
Adam: "So they can give us their whole spiel and then we can point out to them that we have hardwood floors. It'd be funny."

At the store, I pointed and said, "Man, look at those granny panties!"
Adam, having seen what is out there for pregnant women to try to cover our bellies, quickly said, "Um, those aren't granny panties; those are mommy panties." Sadly enough, pregnancy clothes do sometimes resemble granny clothes.

Adam: "Do you think I should watch some c-section videos online to prepare in case you have to have one?"
Me (alarmed, since this man's one fear in life is needles/doctors/hospitals...and since at our childbirth class, he got lightheaded and had to lie down when they talked about epidurals): "NO!"
Adam: "Are you sure?"
Me: "Uh, yeah. Don't even think about it!"


Adam and I were watching an episode of Duck Dynasty online, and a commercial came on for Always pads.
Adam quickly observed, "This is kind of an odd commercial to show during this show. It's not exactly geared toward their target audience." Good point...redneck hicks and feminine pads...kind of an odd combination.

Eight Weeks

Zed and Alice are eight weeks old today! On the one hand, eight weeks seem to have gone by unbelievably fast, and yet, I've felt every single moment--it's exhausting being a mom! There's a lot to do and learn and each day is full of stuff, so in that sense, it has been a very LONG eight weeks. There are definitely ups and downs; luckily, the ups do outnumber the downs. There have been plenty of struggles--learning to nurse two children, wondering if I'll ever make it out of the house again, and especially trying to get any sleep at all--but we just keep pushing forward through the hard moments and try to appreciate the incredible moments, like how it feels when one of them smiles or wraps his or her hand around my finger or gazes up at Daddy like he's the most amazing person in the world (which, of course, he is).

The hardest things:

• When they BOTH cry at the same time, particularly when I'm home alone. It's hard to comfort and soothe two babies, particularly when they feed off each other--if Zed's howling then Alice will start and then the fact that she started upsets Zed even more and so on...
• Being tired! It's so hard to get a nap (even harder for Adam)
• Trying to figure out a schedule and if we'll ever be on one again
• Being hormonal!

The best things:

• Snuggling with Alice and Zed
• Seeing their smiles
• Seeing Adam with them--he is the CUTEST dad ever!
• Learning--for example, coming to recognize that even if "all" I did day was feed, burp and diaper the babies, I accomplished a LOT and actually did the most important things I could be doing
• When Alice and Zed play with each other--which usually involves them trying to eat each other

 It's crazy to see how much Alice and Zed have already changed in eight weeks and how much older they already look! Although they'll undoubtedly change even more, here is some current information on them.

Zed

• is definitely a boy! He has a voracious appetite, is loud, and messy. He hates baths and has only recently begun to tolerate diaper changes sometimes.
• has dark blue eyes
• has big hands and feet with long fingers and toes (which he got from Adam). In fact, while his body would fit in the newborn size sleepers, his feet would not!
• has detached earlobes (from me)
• has long eyelashes (from both me and Adam)
• has tan skin
• has an inability to nap (definitely from Adam)
• was born with lots of light brown hair that is getting dark and even has a reddish tint to it
• likes to curl up in a ball
• had a couple of VERY fussy weeks where any time he wasn't eating, he was screaming. In the past few days, he has settled down and actually spends time being happy, which is awesome because now we've discovered that he has an adorable grin!
• weighs the same as Alice but has a bigger head

Alice

• is definitely a girl! She is dainty and sweet and is a slow and steady eater. We've had a couple of doctors even comment about the fact that she (even at 1 week old) very much looks like a girl.
• has dark gray eyes
• has big hands and feet with long fingers and toes (which she got from Adam). Her feet fit in the sleepers a little better than Zed's, but not by much
• has attached earlobes (from Adam)
• has long eyelashes (from both me and Adam)
• is a great little nap-taker (from me)
• has dark, dark brown hair (from Adam--although at the hospital, one nurse commented that she had my coloring...I didn't bother telling her that my color is fake!)
• has paler skin with pink tones
• likes to stretch out and relax. I like to say that she is made for a hammock--she's total a peaceful lounger.
• has a sweet smile and smiles often while she's awake or asleep

I suppose I can't be considered impartial, but I think they're both absolutely beautiful. I just love looking at them!

Although this is already a pretty long post, I figured I'd quickly answer a couple of FAQs:

Q1. How are you?
A1: Tired! But good. The gestational diabetes are gone, so that's good. I've lost most of my baby weight--yay! The biggest issue really is just being tired. Adam is amazing at supporting me and helping me, even though he's exhausted, too.

Q2: How are the babies?
A2: Good. They're growing a lot, which is great because they lost too much weight after they were born and were very close to being hospitalized and on IVs; however, Adam, my mom and I all worked really hard to feed them pretty much around the clock (I nursed and they spoon fed to supplement) to keep that from happening. It used to be quite a struggle to get them to stay awake long enough to eat, but that's not a problem any more. They were in the 1st percentile for weight at their 2 week check up, but they've been gaining steadily, so maybe they'll catch up eventually.

Q3: Who do you think they look like?
A3: Um...I don't know. Neither Adam nor I necessarily sees either one of us in them yet! I just see Alice when I look at Alice and Zed when I look at Zed! Even though they look different from each other, I also see some sort of a connection between them; they just GO together somehow.

Q4: How are they and Ruby together?
A4: They don't know Ruby exists yet. Ruby has done well with them; she actually seems concerned when they cry and comes over to the edge of her enclosure and sits there, like she's standing watch or something to make sure I'm taking care of them! She definitely doesn't get played with and petted as much anymore, though, and I feel horribly guilty about that. :(

Q5: Where'd you get the names?
A5: My head. :) I've liked Alice pretty much the entire pregnancy, but I didn't know what to use for a middle name. I wanted something in her name that meant joy, light or hope, to go with Psalm 30:5 "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" to symbolize that feeling of hope that comes in the morning when the sun is shining after a difficult night. However, I couldn't find a name that I liked that would work with Alice. At the last minute, I made up Raiella; "Rai" being like a ray of light and "ella" to make it flow right.
For Zedekiah, I wanted a name that talked about promises, to remind him (and me) that the Lord's promises are sure and that He keeps them all. According to the Bible Dictionary, "Zedekiah" means "The Lord is righteousness" and then if you go to a thesaurus, some of the synonyms for righteousness are "fairness, goodness, honor" and for righteous are "fair, honorable, trustworthy." James is Adam's middle name and it just seemed to fit well with Zedekiah.
On a funny side note...yes, they intentionally have A and Z names, so they go together but don't match. I knew from the beginning I wasn't going to name them rhyming names or the same first initial, but I did think it would be fun to have them connected somehow. Our doctor said he always tries to convince moms of twins to do A and B names (since during the pregnancy, the babies are referred to as A and B), but no one ever has. Well, Zed was Baby A and Alice was Baby B. I didn't think our little girl would appreciate it if Mommy, Daddy, and Big Brother all had A names and she was left out, but I figured a boy wouldn't care if his sister had an A name. So Alice got to have the A name and we did consider a B name for Zed but couldn't find one that had that meaning we wanted and liked the A to Z connection.

Well...hopefully it won't be another eight weeks before I can blog again, but you can't blame me if it is! If you have questions I haven't answered, feel free to add a comment or shoot me an email. And if you just want to tell me that my kids are the cutest, feel free to do that, too ;)

We're Home!

We were in the hospital until Friday morning, and we've been home since then. In some ways, being home is a lot harder than being at the hospital, because there you had a professional staff monitoring everything and you knew you couldn't screw up too badly without someone correcting things and getting you back on track. At home, however, there's this constant underlying fear that I'm doing something wrong and just don't know it! On the other hand, it's nice being home because I get to spend as much time with Alice and Zedekiah as I want to, without nurses coming to whisk them away to the nursery for this test or that test.

One of the biggest struggles has been making sure the babies have enough food. In the hospital, the doctor was concerned about their weight loss; although most babies lose up to 12% of their body weight after they are born, the fact that our babies weren't that big to begin with had the doctor closely monitoring them. He told us if they lost any more weight, they'd likely need to be on IVs and stay in the hospital even after I went home--and that was not something we wanted to happen, of course, so I was determined to get them doing better. As of Friday morning, Alice was 5 pounds, 8 ounces (down from 6 pounds, 4 ounces at birth) and Zed was 5 pounds, 6 ounces (down from 6 pounds, 2 ounces at birth). The doctor told us we needed to go in for a weight check on Saturday, and I was determined that our babies were not going back to the hospital. So, for the rest of Friday and up until our appointment Saturday morning, Adam, my mom and I worked super hard to get the babies eating, including doing regular feedings and spoon feeding them and doing anything we could think of to get them to eat enough. Luckily, at our appointment, both babies weighed in at 5 pounds, 10 ounces, and they got to go home with us.

Much of being at home consists of the babies eating and sleeping, of course. The biggest problem right now is that Zedekiah seems to get hiccups a LOT and then has trouble sleeping, which in turn makes it so he doesn't want to wake up to eat. We've had some very LOOOOOOOOOONG nights as we've been trying to help him. To top off that very hard night, Adam's truck died this morning as he was headed off to work for a couple hours. I'm not particularly happy about that additional challenge, but on the bright side...my babies are still the cutest babies in the world.

Zed and Alice seem to like being twins. Just like at the hospital, we've got them sharing a crib, and quite often we catch them turned toward each other. It's really sweet. Adam and I are absolutely in love with these little ones!