Sunday, January 31, 2010

Sweet cheeks!

The girls LOVE water like nothing else. They like to touch it, put their hands in it, drink it, splash in it, submerge in it - you get the idea. Even if they're having a bad day, all I do is run the water in the tub and it changes everything. They enjoy baths and swimming pools so much so that we're seriously considering getting a health club membership solely for the purpose of bringing them swimming a couple times a week.
I can't even get the bath drawn without them banging on the gate and crying to get into the bathroom! We have to disrobe them while they're rushing to the tub. Royce has mastered the one handed diaper rip off (talented man that one).

I'm sorry Adia and Rasa - I just couldn't resist. Your little buns were just too dang cute side by side tonight.

Friday, January 29, 2010

1 Year Photos

Gramma had a Photographer, Jennifer Sime, come to my house to do a 1 year photo shoot of the girls a couple weeks ago (Thanks Gramma!). Jennifer is a lot of fun and her pictures speak for themselves. Rasa seemed to kind of get into it and had fun. Adia started to have a meltdown about a half and hour before Jennifer came so I was worried how she was going to do. Even though she cried nearly the entire time (thank you teething pain) somehow Jen managed to get a grip of picture of her without tears!


It was a bit of a workout trying to keep both girls in the six foot by six foot backdrop area, especially since they naturally move in opposite directions, but we managed ok and Jennifers VERY new and VERY expensive lights survived the twins.

Thank you Jennifer for the beautiful work. You are an amazing artist and a lot of fun too!

www.jennifersime.com

Rasa Bea!












Adia!










Tuesday, January 26, 2010

It's a jammie kind of day


In an attempt to be lazy I decided it's a pajama kind of day. It's so cold out and the girls have a break from school this week so we're not going anywhere. I took a few pics thinking the girls looked especially edible today.





Monday, January 25, 2010

Update on Adia

After almost three weeks of waiting for Adia's Hematologist to come back from vacation (Hawaii, how nice) we were told to bring Adia back to Children's Hospital Hematology for further testing this Thursday. In my 12 month update I told you that her hemoglobin went up initially from 7 to 10.5 but stopped rising at that point despite the enormous amount of iron supplementation we've been doing. Although it's better she is still considered anemic.
Rasa will be there to support her sister and provide a playmate for waiting times.

Adia has developed quite a distaste for clinics and hospitals for obvious reasons! Please pray that things go well and she's able to find comfort in Royce, Rasa and I while she's there.

The power of Rody Horse


Rody Horse is an amazing friend that the girls got from Gramma and Grandpa for their birthday. The girls love to chew on him, roll over the top of him, kiss him, grab his tail and slap him. Rody has an amazing amount of patience.

Adia would rather kiss him and dance WITH him, not on him, but Rasa hops on Rody and goes completely bonkers!



Please excuse the black and white video - Royce got a new camera and was experimenting.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Rock-a-bye and good night, go to sleep my dear Adia


Lately Adia has been giving us a hard time when it's "nighty night" time. Despite the usual sleep routine that we've been doing for the past eight or so months. Normally after a late feeding of veggies and cereal we play, get changed and into jammies, nurse, snuggle and off to bed. Rasa is usually out after Royce gives her a bear hug in the rocking chair for five or ten minutes and then Adia is next. Lately Adia sees Royce walking to her and she smiles and lets him pick her up but the second he walks her down the hallway towards her room she starts screaming! When he turns around and she sees me she smiles and laughs! Now normally I would say too bad if she's screaming in this case because she obviously knows that it's going to get her out of having to go to bed but Rasa is peacefully sleeping in their room and it's not fair to allow Adia to disrupt her and wake her up. We know very well that allowing this to continue will likely cause her to expect that this is how she gets out of having to go to sleep when she should HOWEVER (enter Mom guilt here) I have a slight suspicion that maybe she likes the one on one time with both of us and she's not willing to give it up? I mean she is a twin after all and never gets very much time alone with BOTH of us. Or possibly she's having too much fun to want to go to bed? Last night we were reading and I was showing her the signs for the animals in a book. She was having a blast signing after me and was beside herself with excitement over the sign for fish. She kept turning the book back to the fish page, smiling and signing it with both hands at the same time. When Royce went to take her away she was crying and reaching for me while signing fish. How could I let her go?!! I'm weak. She ended up back on my lap until after 10:30 pm until finally her lids were so heavy she didn't mind me handing her back to her Dad and while she did try and protest once he got her in her room it was a tired attempt and she was out two minutes later.
**sigh** Six months of hard work to get them on the same routine only to have it all squashed by fish.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

12 months!

Wow at such young ages what a difference a month makes in development! At the girls one year check up their Pediatrician told us both girls were developmentally on track with that of full term babies which was nice to hear because since they were six weeks premature doctor's go by their adjusted age so right now it would be 10.5 months instead of 12 months. Even though they're 12 months old they still have to make up for the shortage of time in utero that they would have been developing physically and mentally. Hearing that they're already on track is wonderful because it can take up to kindergarten for that to happen.

Both girls do sign language all the time - things like fish, more, crackers, all done, food and milk. Rasa recently started signing "come here" when she wants me to come over to her. They say the words Mum, Mom, Mommy, Mama, Dad, Daddy, Dadda while pointing to either Royce or me. Adia loves to say while pointing to something "wha's dat?" it's so cute! They say yum, yummy, hi, book, yes and are repeating a lot of words right after us.

The girls fight over toys and books a lot and they look to me to make things fair. They are working together a lot, not in my favor however, as they are teaming up to do things they shouldn't. They work together to knock the baby gate over and also race into their room and barricade the door, no lie. I can't get in when they're sitting against the door and they giggle like it's the best thing in the world that they have locked Mommy out.

Adia!
One year ago at Children's:

Now:


Adia is still slightly smaller than Rasa in both height and weight. She's in the 25% for weight and up from the 25% to the 50% for height. At her 12 month appointment we found out that her hemoglobin has remained unchanged for almost two months at 10.5 despite the massive amounts of iron supplementation we've been giving her daily. The level 10.5 is considered mildly anemic and because she's not responded as well she should have we've been referred back to the Hematologist at Children's for more testing. They will need to determine if she's losing blood somewhere or if and why her body doesn't want to absorb it.

Adia understands "all done" means no more in all kinds of situations. She will sign all done if she's done eating but also if we're somewhere she doesn't want to be. I'm fascinated by the ways babies brains can develop right before your eyes and just the complexity of them!

She is starting to be more and more shy in new places yet when company comes to our house she is very outgoing. At first she will act shy but five minutes later she'll be climbing all over our guests. She LOVES making people laugh and loves hearing people laugh and joins right in even though she usually has no clue why we're laughing. Her personality is very outgoing and bubbly. She's silly and smiley and has the ability to put me in a great mood no matter what. Adia's my tiny precious angel. She's back to being very busy and independent so I've resorting to scooping her up and giving her hugs and kisses while she squirms to get away from me! I have to be quick but I can't help myself, she's so adorable I could eat her!

She is a climber! She now pushes toys in front of the couch or the baby gates and uses them as steps to climb up onto the couch or halfway over the gate. She would get all the way over if I wasn't watching her like a hawk! When she does get up on the couch she dances up and down and gives a victory scream. I pray I don't go through with her what my Mom went through with my brother (lots of broken bones) because she's got that daredevil "I can fly" mentality my little brother did when he was a tot. Yikes. Adia will put her arms up and just jump not caring or being aware that nothing is there to catch her.

She is so sweet and loving. She's filled with giggles and joy almost all the time. She is my little sunshine who brightens my days and makes my heart bubble over with joy. I am so in love with every single inch of her inside and out I could squeal out loud just thinking of her.


Rasa Bea!
One year ago at Children's:

Now:


Rasa tries so hard to say belly button but it comes out like bubbabum. If I ask her "Rasa where is Mama's belly button" she will pull up my shirt and point to it. Something I thought was cute until I realized I will be apprehensive about doing that for most people because I'm not a fan of flashing my belly! We are now working on "where is Rasa's belly button" :)

She's becoming more adventurous. We brought her to an indoor play area that had climbing mats and a ball pit and she was all over it! She zips around so fast! She's taken her first steps and walks holding onto something with one hand but she prefers the faster method of movement - crawling. I see that she's coordinated and goes through obstacle courses quickly and with ease. She may have her Father's athletic ability. She can climb up the twenty stairs from our main level to the second in less than 5 seconds - literally. She loves being chased while doing it and screams with excitement.

She LOVES food! LOVES food! This is why she's in the 50% for weight and has the chubbiest most edible looking thighs I've ever seen on a baby. Both girls are eating off of our plates mostly now and anytime Royce and I are eating or snacking Rasa will drop everything and hurry over and hold out her hands while bouncing up and down saying Nummm. She wants to try everything and she ends up liking almost everything too. Her favorites are Annie's bunny crackers and rice cakes for snacks, she loves pizza and couscous and goes absolutely bonkers for hummus (YES! my fav!). She loves tofu and bananas and prefers soy yogurt to regular dairy yogurt. I don't recall if I ever mentioned in my blog that Rasa had another milk allergy test done a couple months ago that came back clear so she is able to eat dairy now although prefers soy which is what we usually buy anyway.

Rasa is very attached to both Royce and I. She wants to be close all the time and is so cuddly. Sometimes I have to coax her off of my lap so I can get up but I swear she would sit on my all day if I let her. It's so sweet and I do treasure these days because at some point her tiny body will grow too big for my lap and I will miss her so badly. She stares up at me with her huge blue eyes and gives me a look and smile like we're just the best thing that ever existed together. I am so deeply in love with her with every cell of my being. I really do love her so much it hurts.

Reflecting each month over the past year has given me great joy. The girls have grown so much each month and I can see that we have too. I know how blessed I am to have been given the enormous responsibility of growing these two magical beans. I promise to live in the present with them knowing that each day is a gift, to grow them with love, kindness, a sense of peace, humanity and the knowledge that God has a very special plan for each of them.

I am personally living in the promise that I would be blessed more than I could imagine and it's been pretty great to say the least.

I love you so very much Rasa & Adia, with all of my heart. Before you were born I would dream about you and never in my wildest imagination could I have ever dreamt up such amazing and wondrous little girls.

Monday, January 11, 2010

A Very Happy 1st Birthday....


The theme for the twins 1st birthday party was from the the book written by Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The girls love the book and the toys and I liked the idea of making the decorations. The premise of the book (as if you don't know) is that a little and very hungry caterpillar is born, eats a lot and eventually transforms into a beautiful butterfly which I thought was a good metaphor for the girls over the past year.

The party was a lot of fun. I made a vegetarian chili and did a build your own baked potato bar. We had cupcakes for our guests and the girls had little tiny white cakes which they actually ate a portion of. We wanted to keep the party on the small side so we decided not to invite friends but just have family so the girls didn't get too overwhelmed. Our attendees included: Grandpa Greg and Gramma Carol, Auntie Chrissy, Uncle Sean, Cousin Shaylah, Uncle Chad and Cousin Haley, Uncle Josh, Auntie Suzanne and Cousin Olivia, Cousin Amy and Chris, Cousin Gary, Cousin Bridgette. Royce's Mom (Grandma Sue) was in Florida and Grandma and Grandpa Steenerson live in South Carolina but they were with us in spirit.

The girls really enjoyed all of the attention and busyness. Adia loves her older cousins even though Olivia and Shaylah want NOTHING to do with babies (they are 2 and 4). She loves her cousin Haley (7) who is wonderful with the twins and gives them a lot of attention. Neither Rasa or Adia really got into the cake all that much. They obviously didn't get the I LOVE CAKE gene that I'm blessed with. Both of them did eat some of it but we really had to coax them into getting into it. Rasa loved kneeding it between her fingers and then throwing it on the floor and Adia took little pieces off slowly and licked all of the frosting and then rubbed it all over her face.

Presents were a big hit! After all of our Christmas celebrations the girls both have a good understanding of wrapped gifts. Just last week I bought some creative shelving and toy storage for all of the Christmas toys and organized everything neatly and perfectly. Now I'm back at square one! They received twice as many toys for their birthday and we now have them in every corner of every room! My house now looks like the stock warehouse at Toys R Us. I surrender!

Both Rasa and Adia fell asleep in Daddy's arms just before the end of their party. When they woke up they were still on a party high and had fun playing with all of their new toys. We were all up late Saturday night just making the day last and enjoying playing together. We spent Sunday morning setting up more toys and writing Thank You cards.

A huge thank you to our family for helping us acknowledge how special Rasa and Adia are and helping us celebrate their big day! Special thanks to my Mom (Gramma Carol) for the handmade tutu's and for taking pictures!