Professional Photo's

We got all our pictures from our photographer this week. We bought the digital negatives, so I'm able to share with you all some of my favorite photo's of the girls!

Violet:





Eleanor:



Both the girls (biggest baby is always Ella..smaller Violet):



And Finally, all 3 of our girls (we had a really hard time getting a shot with Lily in it...she was not willing to stay still long enough for us!) :



Thank you to our wonderful Photographer, Kelli Dease!!

Little Gym Show Week

Lily had another Little Gym show week over the weekend. This is the last class of the session, where she shows off all she's learned over the past month! This session was really fun at the gym. Lily still adores her class, and is really starting to make friends with her class mates! All week she talks about going to Little Gym and seeing Miss. Lori, Megan, Charlotte, and Geoffry. Her new favorite thing in class is to swing on the bars with her friend Charlotte. She also got really good at the beam this session, and can walk the full length with very little spotting. We're so proud of how much she has accomplished in this class! Here are some of the pictures from show week.

Opening song on the mat with Daddy:


Running on the big red mat:


Walking on the beam with Miss. Lori's help:


Forward roll on the beam!!


Lily the Monkey:


"It's time to put the balls away!"


Getting her medal at the end of class:


Checking out her new medal:


Kisses from a proud Daddy:


Showing off her medal to Daddy:


We've had so much fun with this gym! We can't wait till this weekend when Lily moves up to the next level! We're looking forward to the new challenges she will tackle with Miss. Lori's help this year!

29 Months

Dear Lily,

What a big month this was for you Lily! This month you learned how to be a big sister! You just love your baby sisters so much! It's so fun to watch you interact with them. You always want to hold them or help feed them. When I'm sitting on the couch with one, you like to come snuggle next to me and gently rub a baby's head, or count their fingers. It's very sweet!

This last month having Christmas in it brought a lot of new toys to the house. New favorites include dress up clothes, mister potato head, music instruments, and blocks. We often find you playing with one of those. You especially love dressing up as a princess and dancing! Old favorites still include your kitchen set, baby stroller and ponies.

This month we finally sucessfully moved you into your own big girl bed! I think a large part of this transition had to do with the babies crying at night, and you wanting to get you sleep! :) We have a new routine at night where we spend about a half hour-hour in Mommy and Daddy's bed reading books and going through a few flash cards (which you call playing games! You love your Max game!). After a while we turn out the lights and we have about another hour of snuggle time, and then we move you to your own bed. I love our reading and play time at night...but I sure to miss co-sleeping with you! I'm proud of you for sleeping in your big girl bed though!

Speaking of your Max game...this has sparked a couple of "catch phrases" from you. In the game a lot of the pages ask you what Max is doing, or where Max is. You've taken this and have started asking us all the time what we are doing, or where we are. We often will be sitting right next to you when you will ask "where's Mommy?" over and over. Almost to the point of being annoying. I understand it's a phase your just going through though! I've also aready written about the possesive stage you are going through, when everything belongs to something. "No Daddy! That's Mommy's pillow!"

For foods you have a new unlikely favorite...broccoli! We have been shocked at how easy it is to get you to eat broccoli. You love it! Other favs still include chicken, turkey sandwiches, cheese, cereal, oatmeal and fruit. You also had fun this month helping Daddy make pizza! We let you put on all the toppings and cheese. You really enjoyed cooking with Daddy!

It's definately been a big month for you sweetheart, with lots of big adjustments! We're so proud at how well you are handling everything! We honestly expected the worse in behavior from you when we brought the twins home, based on what a lot of people told us about their own kids. We are so pleasantly surprised by how well you've taken the change! Remeber always that you are still our baby! We love you so much Lily!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Lily at 28 months:


Being silly:


Helping Daddy make a pizza:


29 months, playing with dress-up clothes...being t he princess she is!



Twirling:

Smiles?

I'm pretty sure Violet is smiling now!! I saw a few yesterday while playing, usually after I blew a raspberry at her and laughed. I couldn't get er to smile for Sean though, so I wasn't sure. But today I saw them again when we were playing this morning! I think she is officially giving me real smiles now! They are just so beautiful!

"No no Mommy, these are Lily's Hiccups"

Lily's in this new phase where she needs to identify everything as someone's. If Sean picks up the laptop she will say "No no Daddy, this is Mommy's puter!". To her right now, everything is possessed by someone, and only they can use it! She has a fit if we try to offer the babies any toys that use to be Lily's, because they are hers. We're trying to teach her about sharing now, but the message doesn't seem to be getting through right now. For the most part her possessiveness is funny.

Our favorite thing that she says often.."No no Violet, these are Lily's hics-ups" followed by a fake hiccup! Every time a twin hiccups she'll do this..which is often, because they always get hiccups after a bottle!

Lily and "Baby Sister" Eleanor:

1 Month appointment

The girls had their one month appointment this morning. Eleanor is 8lbs even, and 21 and 5/8 inches long!! That's a 9oz gain in the last 8 days! Violet is now 6lbs 10oz, and 21 and 1/8 inches long! That's a 10oz gain in the last 8 days! At our last appointment last week our doctor was worried about Violet because she had only gained 5oz in a week, and wanted us to increase her number of bottles. I wasn't worried at all though, and trusted my gut that she was doing already on what we were doing...so we just kept doing the same. I'm glad to see that my instinct was right!

It's funny though...we are so thrilled with their weight gains these last two weeks and they really are doing so well, but they are still so small! Lily was 8lbs 1.9 oz at birth...so both are still smaller than she was when she was born...and the girls are 5 weeks today! It's strange having a 6lb and change 1 month baby! They were just slow to start on their weight gain though, and are doing beautifully now!

1 Month!!

Dear Ella and Violet,

I can not believe it is already time for me to write my first letter to you girls! I know the first year always goes by so quickly...but your first month just flew by! Probably due to exhaustion! :)

You are both such good babies. You both only cry when your hungry or are getting a diaper change. The logistics of having 2 babies though mean you each sometimes have to cry while we are tending to the other baby or Lily. I feel awful when I have to let either of you cry! Like Lily though, you both like to use me as your pacifier, so it's usually easy to calm you down when I get to you. Ella can also be easily calmed by Daddy strapping her into the baby bjorn and walking around. Violet is sometimes calmed by this too.

As for eating, you both are breast feeding, but not gaining enough on my milk alone. To make sure you both are gaining, we've been supplementing with four 2oz bottles a day of formula each. Our typical schedule right now is a bottle at around 8am, 2pm, 8pm, 2am, with frequent breast feeding sessions in between. I do spend most of my days stuck on the couch nursing, but is all worth it to give you girls the best stuff on Earth. I'm working really hard to give you both the benefits of breast milk.

You both seem to be doing well with weight gain now. It was pretty slow at first before we started giving you both 4 bottles a day. We've been going to your doctor, Dr. Friedman, almost every week since you were born to check on weight gain. Here's each of your stats so far:
Ella:
Birth: 7lbs 1.7oz
2 days: 6lbs 6.8oz
5days: 6lbs 6oz
1 week: 6lbs 10oz
3 weeks: 6lbs 15oz
4 weeks: 7lbs 7oz

Violet:
Birth: 5lbs 10.5oz
2 days: 5lbs 2.8oz
5 days: 5lbs 4oz
1 week: 5lbs 5oz
3 weeks: 5lbs 11oz
4 weeks: 6lbs
We are excited to see that you are both over your birth weights now!! I hope we've finally found the right balance between breast milk and formula. We go back to the doctor next week for your one month appointments, so we will see how this week went! As for what sizes you are both wearing, you started out life with almost everything we had for you being to big, even preemie stuff for Violet. Now Ella is fitting well into newborn, and some 0-3 month items. Violet is just now outgrowing her preemie clothes, especially in length (at 3 weeks both were measured and Violet had grown to 20 inches! Ella measured 20.5 inches!). Newborn stuff is starting to fit better on Violet. For diapers you both are still in the newborn size.

With the exception of your slow gains, you both are doing really well. You both are hitting all you milestones for this month on time. You both are focusing on our face like you should, and lifting your head briefly while on your tummies to turn you head from one side to the other. I'm very happy to see that your smaller size isn't holding either of you back at all! Ella is even able to support her head while held upright, and is lifting her head about 45 degrees while on her tummy (you held it up for a good minute last night Ella..VERY exciting!!) Violet does really well on her tummy too...and I'm sure in a day or two we will see her doing the same as Ella!

We're already staring to see a difference in your personality. Violet is definitely the more laid back baby. You will sleep very contently during the day, and it can take a while to wake you! You also are so quiet while you sleep that I have to keep checking that you are breathing! When you are not sleeping you are very interested in looking around at everything in the room. You've got the widest eyes!! You are often very content just hanging out on your pillow or play mats. This reminds me a lot of how you were inside me. You were the calm and quiet baby most of the time! When you do cry though..it is not calm at all! You have a very high pitch and strong shriek! You are definitely a Mommy's girl, and are most happy while cuddling up to me and nursing!

Ella, you are a much busier baby! You move around a lot and are easily startled in your sleep. You're also a very noisy sleeper! We always hear you making little sighing and cooing sounds in your sleep. You're also a very noisy eater! I've been hearing you swallowing and gulping since the first time you nursed right after you were born! I also sigh a lot while eating! You must really enjoying your milk! I've never heard anyone drink so loudly though! It's so cute! You are definitely a Daddy's girl. You love sleeping on Daddy' chest and rubbing your head on his beard! We think you are starting to get really close to smiling! You smile a lot in your sleep (gassy smiles!!), and in the last couple days you've been looking like you might smile at any second! We are really looking forward to seeing your first real smile! Your cries are completely different from Violet's. You actually sound like a cat meowing when you cry! If fact Lily would meow and pretend to be a cat during your first week after you cried! When you are desperate to eat though you scream in a way that makes us think you are really mad!

While we are starting to see personality differences, we also are seeing you both doing some of the same thing. While nursing you both will pull at you checks, almost poking your eyes. Lily use to do this too! You also both always get the hiccups right after you finish a bottle. It's so funny when you are hiccuping at the same time! You also have both started cooing a bit. We most often see that when we put you down together, and you will "talk" to each other! It's so neat to see your relationship as twin sisters growing!

We are so overjoyed that you both joined our family a month ago! It is so much fun to watch you starting to interact with each other now!! I'm looking forward to watching your special relationship grow! We are so proud of the milestone you have already reached, and we're looking forward to all that are coming! The next big milestones are smiling and rolling over. I can't wait to see you both reaching those!! But don't grow up to fast on me, ok?! We Love you both so much!

Love,

Mommy, Daddy and Lily

And now for the abundance of pictures from the last month!! Starting with those that I never got to share from our hospital stay when the girls were born!

Daddy and Eleanor, 1 day old:


Violet's tiny feet:


Violet 1 day old:


All dressed and ready too come home! All the outfits we brought were huge on our tiny babies! All the hats we brought were huge too!

Ella in her car seat, waiting to go home:


Violet getting in her car seat:


Ella snuggled up on Daddy while Daddy takes a nap:


Ella's first tummy time:



Some of the visitors the girls had in their first week....meeting both sets on grandparents and one Uncle!

Meeting Papa:
Meeting Uncle Andrew (with Violet):


Meeting Grampa B (with Violet):


Meeting Gram B (with Violet again):


Nanie stayed with us for the first few days home. These are from the day she had to go home :(

Nanie and Ella:



Nanie and Violet, and big sister Lily:



A few of Ella:

Ella and the only binky she will use:
Nap time:



Showing off her head lifting skills:

And a few of Violet:

One week old and dreaming:


3 weeks old:



And our one month photo's:

Mommy and Ella:


Daddy and Ella:


Mommy and Violet:


Daddy and Violet:


Mommy and the girls:


Daddy and his girls:


Ella, one month old:




Checking out her fist:


Violet, one month old:


Getting close to smiles!: