Changes

Things have changed quite a bit in the last week!

Chris really started walking. Now he will walk instead of crawling. It’s just so cute. Lisa got her first physical therapist appointment and we have some exercises to do with her – she hates it. Dan has more success than me, because as soon as I try to extend her leg and flex her foot, she just wiggles away. I really hope we’ll get results… We got her some shoes to help but so far she hates them and I haven’t seen any difference either. I’m hoping we can get the physical therapist to come more often eventually…

They both drink well from sippies now. Today might actually be our first day without bottles too. I’m still a bit wary of dropping the night bottle though so we’ll see… but they’re having sippies with their meals and I actually had to refill them today… and they haven’t thrown them on the floor either (although I just heard a bump…).

And finally we officially switched to one nap three days ago. Ok, I hate it, considering I lost about one hour of free time every day because of it, but they tended to go to bed at 8.30-9pm which is way too late for my taste. I was really hoping they’d be two of those kids who take two naps until 20 months, but I guess we’re out of luck. At least they sleep over 12 hours at night…

Spring update!

Ok, I lied. I think Spring is officially tomorrow. No big deal, right? I was going to update earlier, but my video card died and we had to replace it. So, here I am.

The sale went great. I made $125. Less than last time, but I had less things to sell, so I’ll take it! Unfortunately, most of my bulky stuff didn’t sell. I guess I’ll check the local consignment shop to see if they will take it. I just don’t want to drag them to the next sale again. I made out great though. I got a couple toys and two big bag of clothes for $85. I lost count of the outfits, shirts, pants, shorts and hats I bought. Sadly they’re probably going to have to change clothes sizes in the middle of the Summer so I had to get two sizes. Lisa probably has yet again too many cute outfits and dresses for the Summer. Oh well, I can still try to resell them next year, right?

Early Intervention came two days ago. It was pretty fun. Chris cried at first because I had to leave him alone for two minutes with those strangers while I took Lisa out of her crib, but he got over it quickly. He even cried when they left! Lisa was pretty curious and happy the whole time and didn’t cry at all. Big improvement. The great news is that she qualifies for physical therapy because of her feet. So someone should come over every other week to work with her. It’s a relief. I know a lot of kids stand on their toes, but she really can’t stand with her feet flat, so I’m glad it’s going to be worked on.

Not much else. Lisa’s still always trying to give you stuff (she did it with everyone during the EI evaluation too). Chris is starting too though. They now both drink water well from a sippy… I need to start giving them milk with those sippies but I’m just afraid of the mess (figures they take best to the sippies that leak).

Glad it’s finally (almost) Spring!

I take, I give

Lisa’s started a new game. About two weeks ago she started giving objects when you held your hand next to her (I think she started with my mother in law actually!). She still does it, but now she will look for your hand, take it, bring it to her, and put the toy in it. Aww. She did it to me for the first time this morning. And she’s so happy every time too. It’s amazing to see them grow up into little children that are actually doing things on purpose.

Chris is still I take, I take, I take. You can’t even give Lisa a sippy to drink (she still won’t drink as much from it as from a bottle, but she drinks from it), without having Chris take it away from her. Every single time. Forget giving them each a sippy too… His sister’s is much more interesting. Even if it’s the one he had two seconds ago. He takes both and throws them over the edge of the play yard. Over and over again. Parents of singleton really have no idea what it’s like when finally one of your kids manages something new, to just have the other one screw it up.

On another note, tomorrow is the second sale of the Mother of Multiple Club I’m part of that I am going to be participating in. I spent a few days sorting clothes and toys to figure out what to sell and tagging them. With all the bulky things I’d like to sell this time, it’s going to be hard to fit everything in the car though! Hopefully I’m underestimating the available space in Dan’s car. If not, it will have to wait until next time.

I’m in less a buyer frenzy than last time though, and they really don’t need more toys, but I’d like to get more clothes, so we’ll see tomorrow! I’m just hoping I will sell enough stuff to have room in the car to bring back everything…

The one year old switch

I find it pretty funny that from the day they turned one, they’ve wanted to hold their own bottle. It’s happened pretty much overnight. Unfortunately for us, it seems that Chris actually discovered his bottle, and now he cries when we take it away. Lisa just drinks on her own now, she just picks up the bottle and drinks while standing (still on her toes) or kneeling. I’ve been giving her sippies instead but she doesn’t drink as much, maybe because of a flow issue… Finding sippies they will drink from without making a mess is a pain… Chris still doesn’t know how to tilt them (he just lies down in our arms with his bottle still) and pretty much considers them banging toys. We can’t give one to Lisa to drink either or Chris will take it from her. Ah, life with twins.

We’re having a hard time adjusting to the time change too. I had hopes yesterday when they went down at 7.30pm again, but they still slept past 8am this morning, then took 30 minutes to fall asleep for their nap, and ended up waking up at 12.15pm. So much for our good old 7pm bedtime.

Chris still isn’t taking more than a couple steps at a time. He got his first broken heart yesterday when one of the dogs snatched his last piece of chicken nugget from his hand. Poor baby… He was wailing until he went to bed.

Lisa’s still active as ever and all over the place. Early Intervention is coming in one week to evaluate her to see if she qualifies for physical therapy. Looking at her move all over you’d think it’s crazy to worry, but she still won’t stand with her feet flat, and I’m guessing it will make walking somewhat difficult in the end.

They still eat fine. They still pretty much won’t eat veggies. I’m guessing I’ll have to start looking into vitamins at some point.

First birthday party

We had a good time at their first birthday party! We all had dinner together (yes, the babies sat the table too!), unfortunately too much chair time got the best of Lisa, who melted down when her cake arrived. They both put their fingers in the icing and that was about it, although they had a bite of the big cake later (their first taste of chocolate… so much for the ‘no chocolate at their first birthday’ mento!). They, shockingly, seemed to like it.

They also enjoyed playing with their new toys, didn’t even melt down on the way back, and went down for a nap pretty fast!

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Their one year check up went well. They both put on 1 pound and grew half an inch (their heads did also) in the last two months.  Unfortunately, they screamed the whole time. The shots were not even the worst of it.. Lisa was the worst. I’m worried about what the next appointment will be now!

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And Lisa drank her bottle this morning. I just put it down next to her and she grabbed it and started drinking. Hopefully they relly take to sippy cups soon!

The standard one year post

The babies are one today.  I’m not even particularly emotional about it, just a bit amazed when I think that a year ago at this time I had absolutely no idea of what was about to happen.

When I got the call around 3pm (I’ll always be glad that Dan forgot his cellphone that day so I was the one picking up!), I was playing Everquest 2, being pretty bored because nobody was online. The first thing that crossed my mind was that it was probably a wrong number. It’s hard to believe, but after almost 2 years of waiting, I wasn’t jumping anymore every time the phone rang. I didn’t even think that it could be ‘the call’ anymore. I didn’t even think about adoption anymore.

It was a busy year, but here I am again, where I was last year at this time, at the computer, browsing forum and logged into Everquest 2 doing nothing, except I have two cute kids sleeping upstairs. That’s so much better.

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There hasn’t been many milestones lately. Feeding them jars was getting too hard (because of Lizzy), so we switched to finger foods all the time this week end. Forget changing diapers and being up all the night in the first few months – figuring out what to feed two one year olds is much harder! They eat about two third of what I give them. They’ll eat toast with about anything on them so far, so we put hummus for more proteins. They still mostly don’t eat veggies, don’t eat much eggs, and they hated the squash raviolis I gave them last night. I’m kinda glad I’m not taking the time to cook that stuff from scratch because I would be really bummed to spend an hour cooking just to see the dogs lick off most of it from their trays. Chris for some reason loves those veggie burgers I bought – they have mushrooms and walnuts so I’m really not fond of them though. They eat most of the pre-made nugget-type things I give them. They still love yogurt and they both seem to love milk, so it’s made the transition from formula to milk easy (we started a week ago, almost done now). At least they’re not starving.

Lisa’s still only standing up on her toes… We’ll see what the doctor says tomorrow but I’ve contacted Early Intervention and we should have an evaluation in a few weeks. She doesn’t seem to care at all and is happy cruising and climbing that way, but I’m worried. They’re getting their MMR shots tomorrow and I’m looking forward to see what their stats are this time. Chris is still not walking, but has taken a couple steps and is standing without support most of the time now.

Their (small) party is Sunday! I was going to make a healthy cake for them but I couldn’t resist those cute baby cube cakes at the store, so they’re getting one each… They’re only getting a couple small presents each this time, and I got them foam couch-type thingy that I gave them today. They seemed to enjoy trying to climb on it.

Tiny step

Today I put Chris down in the play area, and as usual, he refused to sit. So, he was about one foot from the couch… and just walked to it! Ok, it was a tiny step, but it counts, right?

Other than that, we’ve managed to get him to eat some chicken nuggets, mac’n cheese and tortellini. I guess there’s some progress, even if he really didn’t want to pick them up at first.

Lisa is still her usual happy-eat-everything self. And she loves her sippies, even if it involves more sucking on the spout than drinking still. Poor thing cried when I took them away…

We did get her SSN…

Yup, we actually got it on Saturday. So now we just need to figure out how to file our taxes!

Lisa is still only standing on her toes. I’m worried, but I guess if worse comes to worse, we can ask for an Early Intervention referral at their 12 months check up in 3 weeks. I’ve heard everything from ‘it’s normal’ to ‘she might need physical therapy’, so who knows (and honestly not getting that much feedback, which makes me think it’s not that normal after all). She’s still standing all the time so it doesn’t seem to bother her that much, she’s even cruising now, but she just doesn’t seem very comfortable and unstable overall, and just sits if we try to push her hips down so she gets on her knees. I hope she won’t need physical therapy, I can’t imagine doing that while the dog barks in the other room…

Chris started to walk when we hold his hands in front of him. He’s standing on his own longer now too, and cruising very fast. He’s still a very picky eater.  He had some bananas but still finished his toast first. He let Dan feed him some lasagna, but wouldn’t even try scrambled eggs. Same with green beans and other veggies…  And then he gives those huge smiles when you get the Puffs box out. I think he’d be happy on cheerios and puffs. He’s getting pickier about jarred food too, which makes it a headache every day to figure out what to give him to eat… Lisa just eats everything but is starting to refuse to eat jars also.

At least they still love their play pen and toys…

The day Lisa stood up

Lisa really pulled up for the first time today! This time her legs were straight as could be, and she was indeed standing! On her toes though… No flat feet yet. That must not be pleasant.

She did it first in her crib after I put Chris downstairs and went back up to pick her up, then twice on the couch trying to reach my cat (I don’t think the cat appreciates the milestone as much as I do). And she managed to go down on her own, so we might be lucky and avoid the ‘I can’t get down’ screaming at nap time.

Go Lisa!

Social security number voes

So, I went to the social security office at the beginning of December to get the babies’ SSNs, and it took an hour for the guy to process my two applications… I don’t remember if I mentioned it, but it was really bad ; he had to ask for help several times, and didn’t fill the right application for Lisa at first, and would never have noticed if I hadn’t shown him. When I finally got the receipt for her application, it said they had to check that her birth certificate was valid so it would take a couple more weeks… Honestly after that I wasn’t expecting to get anything in the mail, but I got Chris’ SSN two weeks later… that was about a month ago.

So last week I tried to call them to ask a status on Lisa’s application. I could only find the national 800 number on their website, and after talking to a machine for fifteen minutes (machine that doesn’t understand French accents apparently anyway), I managed to get the phone number of the office I went to. I tried to call and it was busy for two hours, so I gave up until today. I managed to get someone on the line after three attempts… and after being on hold for five minutes, she told me that they had received the clearance but apparently the guy who took the application left (or was he fired?), and nobody took care of it… Nice. Good thing I called. Now hopefully I should get it in two weeks… What a pain!

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I went out with the babies today. I’m a bit ashamed to say that they haven’t gone out at all since we came back from the Christmas trip. I just didn’t want to take them out when it’s too cold, because it’s a pain to put their jackets on and off, and forget what everyone says about too many layers being unsafe in the car and such. But today it was nice (everything’s relative, but it was over 40 for once), so we went out. Yup, they still hate being strapped in something that isn’t moving. Yup, they still hate it when people pay too much attention to them (I lost count of all the ‘cute’, ‘gorgeous’ and ‘adorable’ comments I got again). Yup, they’re still serious and won’t smile when we go out. So, apparently nothing has changed, and I think I won’t bother trying to get professional pictures next month again. You’d think they have never gone out, when I used to take them out once or twice a week… But they were indeed cute in their jackets.