Tuesday, May 10, 2011

2011: Warp speed

January 2011

Blogging is clearly not my forte.  I haven’t updated the blog in several months.  How does one ever catch up??  I know the answer is NEVER.  You never catch up.  I know that.  I’m going to make it a priority to do better at keeping the blog up to date.

Danny & Dean are growing and acquiring new skills and tricks at warp speed.  I’m failing miserably at writing all the ‘firsts’ down and I don’t see that changing any time soon.  That being said, here is a look at the month of January 2011…

Uncle Vadim’s mom knitted the boys a cap and sent them from Russia with cousin Gregory in December.  It was finally cold enough in January to wear them.  Dean’s round head looked so cute in the cap and he looks pretty happy to wear it!040_thumb

Danny was warm & comfy enough that he couldn’t help but nap!

Danny in the cap Lydia made for him

Dad and the boys got to hang with cousins Oliver & Finley and Grandma for a day from what I heard, they all had a good time.

Cousin Oliver hanging with D&D

Grandma & Dean

The boys sure love their daddy and here’s a great picture showing Danny looking up at his daddy.

Danny looking up at his daddy

Tummy time continues to have a love/hate relationship with the boys.  I love putting the boys on our bed while I sit on the floor reading them books, singing songs and getting them to try and reach for toys.  On this particular day, Dean was having fun.  Dean: Hey! There's mom!

Danny, on the other hand, was decidedly not enjoying tummy time and was very clear about it.  He used his voice and body language to get that point across!

Danny wouldn't agree that tummy time is good for babies!

And here they are together..

Dean & Danny.  Dean is fine. Danny is not happy!

Danny loves his sleep.  The only thing he loves more is being held while sucking on his pacifier and sleeping.  For the most part, once we give him that pacifier and put him on his tummy, Danny buries his face in a blankie and goes to sleep right away.  He has started to touch our faces a lot.  Seems like he’s trying to get to know us more.  Danny fell asleep in daddy’s arms while touching his lip.

Danny touching daddy's lip while sleeping

We look forward to weekends around here.  The boys get to stay in bed with us after their first feeding for their morning nap.  They love to snuggle up between us and fall asleep.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture of the boys on this particular morning.  Cousin Benjamin keeps reminding me that Danny hates the flash of the camera.  When he’s right, he’s right.  Here’s proof that Danny doesn’t appreciate to have these memorable moments photographed.

Dean, Daniel & Daddy in bed. Danny clearly doesn't want to be bothered!

Encouraging the boys to hold their own bottle is something we do at each feeding.  Dean has decided he’d like to try it out. 

Dean: Caught holding his own bottle

Here he is again.  I guess he feels like he mastered the bottle holding feat, so here he is showing off for Aunt Cathy; holding his bottle AND sleeping at the same time.

Dean sleep-feeding himself with Aunt Cathy

This month we also started putting the boys in their bumbo seat to practice sitting up.  Do you think Dean loves it?!

Dean in bumbo: big smile!

Danny tolerated it, but he’s not quite ready for this sitting up business. 

Danny: Great. Why does mom insist on putting me in this bumbo?

Speaking of sitting up, the boys are doing so well with that, so we decided they were ready for this…

Dean: Ooooh.  What's in that colorful bowl, mom?

Have you guessed it?  Dean didn’t know what was going on until…

Excited for our first spoon feeding in the bumbo!

Needless to say, Dean loved eating real food!  I think his face showed it clearly!

This eating from a spoon is such fun!

One of the challenges of twins is feeding two boys at once when they’re both hungry.  I thought I’d be able to feed them one at a time on this day (what was I thinking?!), but that was not to be.  We only had one bumbo and hadn’t pulled out the nice high chairs from Grandma, so we improvise.  Danny’s first bite was on my lap…

Danny's first bite from a spoon...rice cereal

What did we learn from this experience? Danny was not ready for spoon feeding.

Danny doesn't want to eat from a spoon!

It’s not going to be the last lesson we learn as new parents.  I quickly switched gears and gave Danny his bottle.  Of course, Dean was still in the middle of enjoying his tasty meal.  What’s a mom to do?  Feed both, of course!

How to feed two babies at the same time

That same weekend, Aunt Elainea came for a visit.  If her lap wasn’t so comfy, maybe he would’ve stayed awake and played with her!

Danny crashed out on Aunt Elainea

Every Tuesday the Danny & Dean get to spend the day at Aunt Noelle & Uncle Todd’s house.  When the cousins get home from school they get to play!  Dean loves hanging out with big cousin Kai.

Cousins: Kai & Dean

When you see someone with a mullet, is it hard not to stare?  I get a kick out of seeing pictures of Scott, back in the day, with his mullet.  I’ll have to post some of those pictures sometime.  Dean has his very own version of a mullet and I thought you’d like to see how he’s bringin’ it back in style!  That’s right, the baby mullet is here folks…don’t be jealous.

Dean's baby mullet

One of my favorite things to do is hold my boys when they’re sleeping.  I don’t get to do it often because I’m back to working full time.  It’s probably a good thing, too.  I’m sure I’d hold them so much that they’d not learn to sit up on their own or walk until they were 2 years old!  So, I spoil my boys (and myself) on the weekends and hold them as much as possible.  Danny and I had a good bonding session this day.  I’m pretty sure I’m beaming here!

Danny fast asleep in mommy's arms

The boys turned 4 months old this month.  I captured a picture of Dean and dad on their special day. **The picture of Danny and me above was also taken on their 4-month birthday.

Dean & Daddy (who needs a haircut badly!)

As you know, the boys are fraternal twins.  We think it’s pretty obvious they don’t look alike at all, but maybe it’s because we see them daily.  On the other hand, how could you look at these two pictures and think they look alike?

Dean's left eye with the brown spoke

Dean above; Danny below

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I love looking at a series of pictures taken at one time.  And since I love it, I’m posting one here.  The boys are starting to really pay attention to each other.  This series shows them interacting a bit.

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I was sitting there watching them and listening to them babble and coo at each other.  They were having a conversation about something, but I couldn’t figure it out.  That last photo looks like Danny just noticed I was listening and watching.  It’s as if he was telling Dean a secret and stopped once he saw me.  It’s so fun just watching them play with each other!

We’re always telling people how the twins always have to touch hands or feet or legs when they are next to each other.  Here is a glimpse at what  we’re talking about…

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I know I already showed pictures of the “first spoon feeding” earlier, but here is the second time around.

Danny is still not a fan!

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Dean is barley cereal drunk here.  I’m pretty sure he’s saying, “Dude, you gotta try this stuff!  It’s awesome!”

Dean: dude! you gotta try this barley cereal!

Aunt Joanna said these poor boys are always wearing bibs!  Well, this picture is for you Aunt Jojo.  A bibless photo! **Thanks Aunt Elizabeth & Uncle Luke for the frog onsies!

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The following picture is of Dean as I was changing his clothes.  I love taking pictures of the boys with their clothes stuck on their heads.   Maybe it’s because I used to love doing that as a kid, I don’t know.  This is pretty close to what I looked like as a baby…except I was chunkier, for sure!

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I mentioned earlier that January finally got cold enough for the boys to wear their knit caps.  Apparently I’m still getting rid of pregnancy hormones, because It never felt cold in the house for me.  That means I hardly ever turn on the heater.  Of course I made sure the twins were bundled up, but I figured Scott could take care of himself.  Here’s what Scott looked like one evening when I walked into the living room.

Scott: Please turn on the heater?!  Pretty please?

Just so you know, he was wear a log sleeved shirt, a hooded sweater, jeans, socks and shoes.  The closest blanket to him was a baby blanket, so he put that on, but he was still cold!  After seeing this, I felt bad for him so I turned on the heater…to a blazing 68 degrees! (it was 62, but it felt SO good!)

So there you have it.  January 2011 was full for us.  There were colds, ear infections and other stuff but all survived and none were overly cranky.  Thanks for stopping by.  February 2011 will be posted some day.  Hopefully this month!  Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?

1 comment:

  1. :) Good job on posting!!! :) Only a couple more months to get all caught up! :) I love all the photos! <3 and miss all four of you!

    ReplyDelete