Apple Picking

On Saturday we went out to the apple orchard to pick apples with our good friends Becky, Jon and Kyan. As always when we get everyone together, we had a great time! Apple picking is one of our favorite fall activities, and we're so glad we have another great family to share it with every year! The kids always have so much fun riding in the wagon together, and sampling the apples. We picked 4 huge bags, because of course Becky and I spent the rest of the day slicing up apples to make apple sauce! There is nothing better than the smell of home made apple sauce cooking on the stove!

Now onto the pictures!

Kyan pointing out the Pumpkins to me:


Going out to the orchard:


Giving hugs:


Yummy apples! They make the funniest faces when they eat apples:



Lily not that impressed at Daddy's juggling skills, who was trying to get her to smile:


Kyan was far more impressed!


Taking the small pumpkins for a walk:


How tall this fall?! It's amazing how much taller Kyan is than Lily!


And one last picture of Lily and I. 27 weeks, 4 days pregnant with the twins. I'm really starting to get a lot bigger all of a sudden! I'm starting to get scared of how much more I'll grow in the next 8 weeks!

27 Weeks

Let your spouse put an ear to your belly -- he might be able to pick up baby's heartbeat (no stethoscope required). Inside the womb, the formation of tiny capillaries is giving baby a healthy pink glow. Baby's also soaking up your antibodies, getting the immune system ready for life outside the womb. Eyes are forming, and baby will soon perfect the blink -- perfect for batting those freshly grown lashes.

Time for another update on how the babies are doing! Today I'm 27 weeks, 3 days. If the babies were to be born now, they would have over a 90% chance of surviving! Of course we're hoping they stay on the inside for another 10 weeks, but it's reassuring to know we're in the safe zone now, and survival rate is pretty high!

This week we had 2 baby doctor appointments. The first, on Monday, was just my regular quick monthly ob visit. Actually, it was my last monthly visit, because from now on we go in every 2 weeks. That appointment was pretty uneventful. The babies sounded fine on the doppler and blood pressure was good. I got my glucola drink and paperwork for the gestational diabetes blood test I have to do next week. Not looking forward to having to down that drink in 10 minutes. I remember it being pretty nasty with Lily! Cross your fingers we pass that with flying colors!

Yesterday we had our second appointment of the week, my monthly growth ultra sound. Both babies looked perfect! Baby A is still head down (please please please baby...stay that way!!!), but has moved over to my left side. Baby B is still transverse (please please please baby....follow the lead of your sibling and move head down!!) but has flipped so the head is on my left, feet on the right, still in the upper part of my belly. Baby A's heart beat was 156 bpm, and baby B's was 153 bpm. They have both grown a lot in the last month. Baby A is now 2lbs 9 oz! That's over a 1 lb gain over the last month!! Baby B is now 2lbs 1 oz. Still the smaller baby, but almost a 1 lb gain for this one too! I can't wait to see how much bigger they have gotten at next months ultra sound! It's so neat to be able to watch them grow like this...with Lily we only had 3 u/s's, the normal growth scan, and then 2 right at the end to check on position and fluid levels. I love getting extra u/s's this time! Lily was so cute at the u/s, she kept waving at the screen and my belly saying "Hi babies!" Unfortunately the pictures again aren't that great. I only got a face shot of each baby...and they are kinda scary looking! I haven't scanned them yet.

As for me, I'm feeling pretty good still for the most part, as long as I don't do anything! I get pretty tired out easily otherwise. Shopping, cleaning, and chasing after Lily have become really hard lately. The back ache is the worst, especially if I'm on my feet for a long time. Bending over is becoming a thing of the past. It hurts, and I definitely feel like I'm squishing the babies if I do have to pick something up off the floor. So I'm just trying to take it as easy as possible. Another reason I'm trying to take it easy is because some of my braxton hicks contractions have started to become a little painful. I'm still getting them fairly regularly, and for about the last week they have been coming with cramps and a lower back ache. I asked my doctor about it on Monday, because they are reminding me of the contractions I had the last 3 weeks of Lily's pregnancy....the ones that were effacing my cervix! She says they are probably just from my uterus growing faster this time, but to call if I get to many in an hour, and if they don't go away with lying down and drinking water. So it's definitely something I'm keeping my eye on. They didn't say anything about my cervix at the ultra sound though, so I'm assuming nothing has changed there.

As for the good things that go with pregnancy, I've been feeling the babies kick all the time still. I wasn't surprised to learn that they had changed position, because I've been feeling the kicks all over the place now. for about the last week or so I've been feeling this weird tickling sensation in my left hip...which must be baby A's head. Then yesterday before our u/s I laid down on my back briefly, and we could see a lump in my upper belly. After seeing how the babies were laying at the u/s, I believe the lump must have been baby B butt pushing out! It was funny to see! I love this part of pregnancy where you can feel every roll and see most of them too!

25 Months

Dear Lily,
Today you are 25 months old. You're first month down in your third year. Wow, that's so hard for me to believe that this is our third year with you already! I know I say this every month, but it's just going by so fast!! I can't believe you are already two, and that soon our family of three will be a family of five! It feels like just yesterday we were bringing YOU home from the hospital, and yet somehow it's two years later, and we're busy getting ready to bring another 2 babies home.


I know you are starting to get really excited about the babies. When we talk to you about them, you just light up! You love giving my belly kisses and hugs, and have lately taken to rubbing my tummy. Your favorite thing though to to blow raspberries on my belly! You think that is the funniest thing!


To prepare you for having new babies around the house, we've been encouraging you to play with your baby dolls a lot lately. Your new Cinderella doll has become your favorite I think. You carry that doll around everywhere! You love to take care of her, cuddle her, and give her big hugs and kisses. I've also observed you pretending to change her diaper several times. You will get the wipes out, and a fresh diaper, and go through all the steps like we do with you. You've done this with other dolls in the past, but we've been seeing you play like this a lot more lately.


Speaking of changing diapers, we've started to transition you into cloth diapers more this past month. You for some reason are loving this change! You constantly request to be put into a cloth diaper...or as you say "clock diaper"! I don't know why, maybe they are more comfortable for you?! We've been making this transition for a few reasons; First of all to save money once the new babies arrive. Three babies in disposable diapers would be quite expensive! Second, we're hoping that moving you into cloth, at least part of the time, will help with potty training! You are able to feel when you are wet a bit more in the cloth, and we're hoping this will motivate you to try using the potty. I don't know that it's working yet...but you have been telling me when you have a "big poopy" now. And within the last week you've been asking to go to the potty a lot more frequently. You still just sit and grunt, pretending to poop once on the seat, but at least you are requesting to sit. You may have actually peed in the potty last week, but I'm not counting it quite yet! (You went poopy in the bath tub, and I placed you on the potty while I was cleaning up the tub. When I went to put you back in the tub to shower you off, there was some liquid in the potty. It looked like more than would have run off of you from being wet, and smelled like pee, but I'm not counting it yet just because I'm not sure! ) We're hoping you'll start using the potty soon, but we're not going to push it yet. We know you've got a big transition coming up with becoming a big sister and all, so we think it may be best to just let you take the reigns on this one, and let us know when you are really ready.


Like I've written about the last couple months, you are really into singing right now. Every month it just seems to become more and more of an interest to you. This past month we've seen you making up a lot more songs. You love running or dancing around in our bedroom singing nonsense words. You also love to sing your ABC's (really you just string random letters together at the moment, and then the end bit, as you can see in the video from last week.) Charlie Hope has become your favorite singer. You ask to listen to music whenever we are on the computer, and if we try to put anything besides Charlie Hope on, you say "No! Charlie Hope!" You love her "I'm Me" song.


Another constant thing for you lately has been counting. You love to count everything. You still will miss numbers here and there, but you are getting better at it. You surprised us earlier this month by getting up to 13 or 14 (I can't remember which it was). You consistently get up to eleven know too.

Counting on your fingers:



Well there you are getting up from your nap now, so I have to wrap this up. For a while now you've been down to only one nap a day by the way. Anyways, we love you Lily, and are so proud of how far you have come. Every month it is amasing to me when I sit down to write these, and I realize how much you've changed and grown in such a short time! I can't wait to see what this next month holds for you! I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

From yesterday morning. Lily and Daddy reading one of her favorite books, "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?"



And our proud Mommy moment of the weekend...Lily walked across the low beam at Little Gym all by herself, without anyone holding her elbows for support! She got up on it, stretched her arms out, and very slowly walked the whole length of the beam all by herself! Way to go Lily!!!

GO SOX!!!

On 9/9/09 we all went to the Red Sox game against the Orioles. Lily was SO excited to go this time for some reason. Even before we were in the car she was saying " Go Sox!", then the whole way their she kept talking about "going to sox game!". When we got into Boston (where our GPS tried to tell us to drive down Yawkey Way! That would have ended well!) we went into our favorite place to eat before a game, Boston Beer Works, and Lily got so upset. She kept crying "No! Sox Game! Sox Game!!" We had to reassure her that we were going to the game right after our late lunch/early dinner!

After dinner we headed went out to enjoy the festivities on Yawkey Way. For the first time in all the times we've been to Fenway over the past two years, the entertainer making balloon animals was free, and made Lily a balloon. At first he made her a few straight balloons to catch, but after those kept popping her made her an Elmo balloon! She was so excited to have her new Elmo balloon! And somehow he survived most of the game! I'm a little bummed right now because I had a video to share of the guy making the balloon...but after an all night attempt at trying to get it to load, it still wasn't finished, so I had to give up. Sorry!

Lily Catching one of the balloons that didn't make it:


After getting her balloon, we went into the park to find our seats, and get settled. Here are a few pictures from before the game:

We went the wrong way at first and ended up checking out the seats right behind home plate. Lily picked out a seat that looked good to her and started to get settled with her balloons to watch batting practice. These seats were amazing!

Back up in our seats in the bleachers, and Lily checking everything out:


Being silly with her balloon:


A close up of Elmo:

The view from our seats:


Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures during the game this time. Lily had a great time though. Sitting next to us was another young fan, around 5-6 years old, and Lily had a blast playing with her the whole game! They kept each other entertained with silly songs and cheering for the game. They hada fun time every time Youkilis came up to bat. They would go back and forth saying "Yooouk!! No, Luuuke". (The little girl kept saying Luke, and Lily caught onto that!..Now she says Luke too...oh well!) It was nice to have someone there to entertain Lily, so we could all sit together and enjoy the game!

Lily also had a fun time dancing to a lot of the songs that they play. She was doing this at the futures at Fenway game too. I have a video of it from those games, but not from this game. Hopefully I'll get around to posting that game day soon so I can share it!

The game was pretty long, and was pretty close for most of the time. I was actually worried that we might go into extra innings at one point! Luckily the Sox pulled it off with a win 7-5! It was a great game!

After the game, ready to go home:

ABC

From this morning. "Now I know my ABC's!"

Lily's New Ride

Just a few pictures from today of Lily playing on her new car out in the driveway! She loves this thing! Thanks again to Aunt Eileen, Uncle Johny, and cousins Chris, Patrick and Cassie! (Also to Uncle Bob and Aunt Michele for the adorable shirt! )





After taking a spin in her car, Lily wanted to check out the garden and pick some tomatoes. Here she is showing off the two we were able to pick today. I think these may be the last two we get from this year. It was such a horrible year for tomatoes with all the rain and blight!


Then she wanted to take a spin in her old (yet still new) wheels, her bike. She was working so hard to peddle herself here. Please excuse the mess in the garage behind her!

And that was our afternoon outside today! We are loving this nice fall weather!

Party Girl!

Yesterday we had Lily's 2nd birthday party! The clouds parted from the past 2 days of rain we had had and gave us a beautiful sunny day, so we could have a fun family BBQ out in our yard! Lily had a great time being the center of attention and having all her family around her! We're so thankful for everyone who came to help us celebrate Lily's special day! I know she was excited to see everyone she loves at once! Thank you all for helping us make Lily's day in the spot light so wonderful!

Now onto the pictures (sorry for the over load!)

Lily enjoying her hot dog:


The birthday princess caught picking her nose! Lovely Lily! :)


Cake Time:

Due to a last minute party planning decision, I ended up making cup cakes for Lily's cake. I really think this ended up working better for everyone! And Lily had a fun time helping me frost them before the party. She kept wanting to take licks of the frosting I had made...and was eating just as many of the sprinkles as she was putting on the cakes!

Lily eagerly and patiently waiting for the ok to take a cup cake:



Kyan helping himself to two cupcakes :)


And sharing with his friend (and Lily's thinking..."no way...you've licked off the icing!")


Kelly enjoying some cake:


The kids all seemed to enjoy the frosting the most. I saw quite a few cup cakes that had the frosting licked off!


Best friends sharing a seat:


"Ooo! Good cupcake Mommy!"



Present Time!!

Lily got so many great presents! Thank you to everyone! I know she'll enjoy each and every one!

Hand knit sweaters from Gram B:



Opening the Veggie and fruit set for her play kitchen from Nanny and Papa:


This bag was so funny, Lily kept diving into it to dig out the presents. Her top half kept disappearing into the bag!

Tape stuck to her finger "Oh No!"


Opening the gift from Becky, Jon, and Kyan:


Charlie and Lola dolls!!!! (Lily's favorite cartoon! I know these will be winding up in bed with us soon!)


And some more warm clothes from Gram and Grampa B. This bag was really funny too. She caught on that everyone was saying "Oooo" after each gift, and started in on it herself. Of course this made everyone laugh, which of course was her signal to say Oooo even more enthusiastically with each new thing she pulled out of the bag, to keep everyone laughing! She's such a ham!


Unfortunately this is about where my camera ran out of card space. Some other notable gifts that I was not able to document getting open were a Cinderella baby from the Karr family, a stuffed horse from Aunt Michelle and Uncle Bob (which she keeps trying to ride!), beautiful porcelain dolls from Aunt Mary Lou, and a ride on car from the Collins family (which poor Lily and Kyan had a hard time sharing!)

Thank you everyone for your generous gifts! Lily's going to have so much fun with all her new toys, and will look so stylish this fall with all her new clothes!

Some of our guests:

The Karr family:

Baby Kelly (who just turned one herself! A big Happy birthday to her too!)


Lily and Daddy with Uncle Bob and Aunt Michele (and Gram B's arm!):


Part of the Collins family (Patrick, Uncle Johny, and Aunt Mary Lou)


Cousins Cassie and Chris with Lily and Kyan:


Papa:


Thank you everyone for making Lily's day so special! We're so glad Lily got to have her time in the spot light one last time before the new babies are here, and she'll have to share the attention. We had such a great time!

And now one last picture of our birthday princess, about 30 minutes after the last guest left...pooped from her party!