2008 in Review

2008 flew by in a blur- babies everywhere, lots of coffee, countless sleepless nights, running a couple businesses. Good thing we took a ton of pictures, because it was the busiest year of our lives and I don't think we'd remember the details of this crazy, but extremely memorable year.
Here is a slideshow of 2008...

We brought two healthy babies into the world this year, but we also lost two loved ones- My Grandma Rooney, and our Solomon. We are thinking of you and miss you dearly.

Macy's 8th Floor

Every year just before Christmas we head downtown Minneapolis to Macy's Santaland. I've been going to Macy's 8th floor for about 15 years. Bright and early this morning my mom and I packed the kids in the car and headed downtown. This was the 46th annual show and this year's theme was "A Day in the Life of an Elf," telling the story of Santa's elves at the North Pole as they prepare for Christmas. We enjoyed seeing what happens in an elf's life from waking up and getting Santa's mail to teaching the reindeer how to fly, learning about Christmas traditions and making toys.

At the end the kids got to see Santa and sit on his lap...

It's a surprisingly good picture! Nobody is crying or scrambling to get away from Santa. :)

Cal and Teagan were happy to get out of their stroller and crawl around while the rest of us munched on treats made by Mrs. Claus.

For all of you who've grown up with and loved Macy's 8th floor (which used to be Dayton's 8th floor) here's a list of my favorites over the years:

1989- Cinderella

1990- Peter Pan

1991- Pinocchio

1993- Beauty and the Beast

1994- The Wizard of Oz

2006- Mary Poppins

Merry Christmas!

Day in the Life

What does a typical day look like? Hold on tight...

6am: Nick is up and gone to work before the rest of us get up

6:30-7am: First Bottles of the day

7:30-8am: Get 3 kids changed, dressed and teeth brushed

8-8:30am: Breakfast

8:40am: Everyone bundled up to take Ethan to preschool

9:20am: Back from dropping Ethan off

10am: Bottles

10-11:30ish: Twins nap. While they nap I clean the house.

11:45am: Ethan back from preschool, usually dropped off by Nick or carpool

12:15pm: Lunch

1-3pm: Play time

3pm: Bottles

3:45-5pm: Twins nap again

5:15: Nick gets home

5:30pm: Dinner

7pm: Bath x3

7:30pm: Ethan to bed first

8pm: Last Bottles, then bed for twins

8:15pm: Wash and prepare 10 bottles for the next day, and pick up toys

9pm: Peace and Quiet! = Couch/TV time, usually while folding laundry

10pm: Shut-eye, hope to get a full 8 hours of sleep in order to start all over again.

Wait...did I manage to shower today, or at all this week? Maybe tomorrow.

We're tired!
We are really looking forward to the holidays for a much needed break in the daily routine.

Firsts

We have been treasuring a lot of "firsts" in the past few months. I'm not talking about firsts with the twins. I'm talking about our leader of the pack- Ethan. Ethan, the lucky first-born, will always pave the way for us as parents, and prepare us for the future x2. Here are some of the most exciting "firsts" we've celebrated recently:

-Last month Ethan started writing his own name! He signs in each day for preschool...

-Ethan is swimming very well, with his head under water! A few months ago he was somewhat fearful of the water and would never put his face in the water, but now he's a confident swimmer and loves going to swim class.

-Last weekend Ethan went skiing for the first time! A few weeks ago he and Nick went sledding and afterward announced that he thought it would be fun to try skiing. Last Saturday Ethan had a ton of fun taking a ski lession and then skiing with Nick. They both had a blast and Ethan keeps asking when he can go again.

Here he is rock'n down the slope. Pretty soon it'll be time for a family trip back to the Rocky Mountains!

Thankful Weekend

We have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. Just look back over the last year of our lives on this blog and it's apparent that last year was a life test for us. So, we couldn't be more thankful this year.

This is what we are most thankful for...
-Family (Grandmas, grandpas, and the greats-, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, and twins), and we spent time with each of them this weekend.
-Health- need I say more? We will never take our health for granted again.
-Kids- We are blessed with 3 healthy, happy kids. We love you Ethan, Cal & Teagan.
-Friends- Congrats to our friends Helena & Daniel who celebrated Thanksgiving in the hospital with their new baby boy!
-Laughter- keeps the soul healthy.

Bob & DonnaRae have been in Mexico for one month now and have been missing the kids. This is a little slide show of our weekend dedicated to you guys.

Nine Month Milestones

Cal & Teagan had their 9-month check-up yesterday. Both are healthy and hitting their milestones right on track.

Cal is weighing in at 20lbs 11oz (55th percentile) and is 30 inches tall (93rd percentile). Teagan weighs 17lbs. 2oz (20%) and is 28.5 in. tall (40%). With a 4 pound and 2 inch difference, these two don't look obviously like twins, which is surprisingly the most frequently asked question. When out and about with these two side by side in the double stroller we get lots of smiles and comments. Then the very first question is, "Are they twins?" Of course, we say, "Yes" and point out the obvious, "He is just bigger." We've grown tired of answering this question, and Nick has come up with a great response. Instead of informing them that "yes, they are twins, " Nick likes to say, "No, they are just 4 months apart." Let them try to figure that out!

Now for some fun milestones...

Teething: Last week Cal got 4 teeth in on the top all at once, for a grand total of 6 teeth! Teagan has 2 teeth breaking through on the top, for a total of 4 teeth.Teething, combined with double ear infections and colds, has made for some sleepless nights.

Crawling: A few weeks ago Cal and Teagan started scooting around and pivoting on their bellies. After a couple weeks of scooting they began crawling/pushing themselves backwards. Then they learned to creep forward army-crawl style. But NOW (as of yesterday)... they are full-on crawling with their tummies off the ground! And they are picking up speed.

Standing: As if teething and crawling weren't big enough accomplishments this week, Cal has starting pulling himself up on things into a standing position. I guess we'll see how this develops over the next few weeks.

Life as we knew it changed yesterday with 2 crawlers in the house. We've learned a few things:

-We need more baby gates. Or maybe I should just use puppy pens?

-When crying/whining for attention, they can simply crawl over to me and climb into my lap. It used to be easier tending to one crying baby at a time, now they are both in my lap fussing and wanting attention at the same time.

-Ethan's toys are fair-game if left on the floor. Until now we haven't had to worry about baby proofing or putting small items out of reach. Now we need to create some type of upper shelving unit for small toys. I'm sure Nick will get around to building something in his spare time.

-Cal is like a hound dog. He seeks out dried day-old food 3 rooms away, determined to eat it as if it were his last meal. This means I'm on my hands and knees picking up leftovers and mopping the floor hourly.

-Teagan seems happiest with herself when she crawls over to Cal with the sole purpose of pulling his hair to hear him cry. After that she heads straight over to Ethan's trains. She already thinks she's running the show around here.

As for current pictures, it's challenging to get a good picture of a moving target. Here are a couple shots of them crawling into my lap:

Or, trapping them in a laundry basket allows for an easy shot...

Until they learn to climb out...

We Voted for Change!!

New Stars of High School Musical

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Happy Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween from the 3 Little Walton Monkeys...

Thank You for the Gear!

Many of you generously gave Cal, Teagan and Ethan gifts of clothes and toys when the twins were born. We made a point to take pictures of the kids in their outfits to say thank you for your wonderful gifts. I've posted many of these pictures in previous blogs but here are more pictures to say thank you so much!

This summer they wore their Hawaiian outfits from the Flemings...

Adorable Adidas outfits from Mary & Frank Fish...

Great Aunt Susan sent these "woolies" from Tibet...

Melissa Cuddy sent these bibs home from Guatemala...

And muchas gracias to Mario in Coz, Mexico for the Jeep double stroller we use every day...

Caps Off

Cal is done wearing his Cranio-Cap! His noggin is officially round.

Luckily, Cal's head was very pliable. He rounded out after only a few weeks of wearing it 22 hours/day. Then he graduated to only wearing it nights and naps for a couple months just be make sure his head would remain round. At today's appointment they gave up the OK to stop the cap completely. We were originally told to expect 4 months of non-stop wear with occasional issues like skin break-down, rashes and discomfort, but Cal was a champ and didn't have any problems.

Cal still has his physical therapy appointments for the torticolis, but his neck muscles are looking good and we should be done with that before Thanksgiving.

We all enjoyed decorating his cap and it became a part of him for the last 3 months. I can't say we'll miss it, but it sure was cute. We will keep the cap in his baby box to show off when he's older. :)

We had a great experience with the cap and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Though, I can say I'll be relieved to be done with our weekly Tuesday morning appointments in Minnetonka we've had for the past 3 months.

Cap's off for Cal!

Copy Cat

Both going for the prized possession...

Who will win?

As usual, Cal wins- such a bruiser.

Rocky Mountain High

Why did we ever leave this place?


Thanks (again!) to our wonderful parents for allowing Nick and I to get away and go back to Boulder together for the first time in 5 years.
We had a perfect weekend. Really, it couldn't have been more amazing. We stayed at a couple of beautiful places and enjoyed every moment of our trip.

Here are some highlights and recommendations for anyone visiting Boulder & the Rocky Mountains:

The first day, we drove up to Winter Park and stayed at The Devil's Thumb Ranch. This place was a little slice of heaven! We had our own little cabin on the mountain surrounded by orange and yellow Aspens. Down the road we visited with horses, fed a 1 week old foal, went hiking, Nick went fly fishing, and I enjoyed the pure silence and a book.

The second day we drove to Boulder through Rocky Mountain National Park.

While in Boulder we stayed at the St. Julien on Pearl Street, and it was luxurious! Nick can't stop talking about how nice the bathroom was, and he even took a bath both days.

Of course, we ate at all of our old favorites: Hapa for kick-ass sushi, Juanita's for margs and Mexican, Jax's Fish House for oyster apps and drinks (where we sat at the other end of the bar from James Taylor), Wahoo's for the best blackened fish sandwich ever, Buff Restaurant for the best breakfast in Boulder, and Half Fast Subs for those subs we've been craving for years.

Even better, we spent time with Boulder friends- Valerie, January and Dell.

Besides indulging in our favorite foods, we walked and hiked all over town.

We did everything from shopping on Pearl Street to laying in the grass in front of the Humanities building where we both had Italian class many years ago.

Boulder, we miss you. Next year we'll be back with the whole gang. I can't wait to show our kids the mountains.

Loving 7 Months

At 7 months of age now Cal and Teagan have mastered a few big milestones in development and our arms are finally getting the relief they need. Here are some of the things we love about 7-month-old twins:

They can hold their own bottles! We no longer have to hold both bottles at the same time. I can't tell you how great this is! We've been waiting for this day to come for 7 months. Let me revisit the feeding situation over the past 7 months. In the beginning I was breastfeeding one baby at a time, which would take 1 hour and someone was always screaming for their turn. At 3 months of age we switched to formula, which allowed someone (not just me, yippee!) to feed both babies at once by holding both bottles as Cal and Teagan sat in chairs. Or, ideally, there were two people at home so each could feed a baby comfortably. After months of double bottle feedings in awkward and uncomfortable positions, I feel a huge weight lifted off my back now that I can just hand over their bottles and watch them feed themselves. Ahhhh.

The other equally fantastic development is...

SITTING!!!

Over the past couple weeks these two have been practicing sitting on their own! Let me just say that again because it is music to my ears: They are sitting up without my help!

For the past 7 months I've been dreaming and talking about this moment. Until now I've been holding both babies at the same time, all the time. During their waking hours I've been using all kinds of baby seats (bouncy seats, swings, the Bumbo, exersaucer, boppy) to assist in taking a load off my arms, but after a while they grew tired of the seats and just wanted to be held in a propped-up position to play. This was getting tiring as they grew, especially now that they have a combined weight of 35lbs.

Everyone is much happier now that Cal and Teagan are sitting on their own!

What else is going on?

Cal and Teagan are eating! We've only just begun feeding them set meals each day. We put it off as long as possible because we weren't ready for this next step. It's fun and cute, but it's a huge, messy production. We still have some kinks to work out with feeding twins. It's times like this that I really miss Solomon. He loved cleaning up after Ethan's messy meals and I don't think I ever washed the floor! :)

Here are Cal & T, ready for breakfast.

Overall, we seem to have found our groove with these two at 7 months, and we're really enjoying where we're at right now. We can even sit down at watch a little Sunday football...

Once in a while I'll get emails commenting on the blog and the only complaint I get it that I'm not in enough of the pictures. This is for you guys ;)

Ethan took these pictures: