Unfair Advantage

I used to feel guilty that my small frame (you like how I just threw that compliment in for myself?) caused Avery to suffer from a decidedly wonky head. Putting her in a helmet only added to the guilt, and added a healthy dose of defensive-mom-mode to it (people can be quite judgey when they see a baby in a helmet). I have spent many a breath apologizing to Avery for putting her through this, and assuring her that her only knowledge of it will be through photos, not memory. And then I noticed something...

Avery has become indestructible. She does not understand the concept of pain. When she learned to go from sitting to crawling, her method was to literally dive, headfirst, at the ground. She runs into anything she can headfirst, doesn't even bat an eye. She falls from standing straight to her head, and keeps right on going as if nothing happened.

Meanwhile, Lauren has a lovely collection of bruises on her forehead to show for her much more limited activity, and it's all my fault...I should have smashed her head too!

So, while Avery gets to go through arguably the most clumsy phase a human goes through with her own personal childproofing system strapped to her head, I've resorted to much more low-tech methods to try and give Lauren some of the same advantages: Foam packing paper around the sharpest corners she encounters, and a little more hovering around her to try and catch some of the nastier spills.

Makes me wonder which one will need therapy...Avery, for having to wear a helmet? Or Lauren, because we gave her sister the unfair advantage of the helmet. Damn you, Guilt...damn you!!

Checking out Mommy's handiwork.

Avery doubling up on protection.

Was a sunny day...

Saturday may very well have been the best day we'll get all spring...the weather gods blessed us with blue skies AND actual warm temperatures! We had to take advantage of it, since we don't know if or when we'll get another chance, so we loaded up the bubba's and took them to Lake Wilderness for the first time. It was the first really nice day of their whole life, and so it was their first introduction to grass (ok, mostly dirt, but there was a little grass in there too...), swings, and prolonged exposure to fresh air. I have to say, it was the best day in a very long while...amazing what a little sunshine will do for you!

Must Love Dogs

Let me get something off my chest: I love my dogs...but I don't necessarily always like my dogs.

They're stinky, drooly, whiny, destructive (diapers and baby toys are a beloved treat), and ALWAYS bark when the babies are trying to nap. More often than not, I find myself asking why on earth I have even one dog, let alone 2!

And then I see the pure joy on my babies faces when they see their dogs. I watch Lauren laugh when Daisy suddenly appears, surprising her. I watch Avery scoot towards the door to the living room so she can get a better look at what the dogs are doing in there. I see them both stop fussing to give a wrestling Daisy and Bella their undivided attention. I find myself calling the dogs in to entertain the babies when I'm home alone with them and in need of some backup. I seem to mind less and less as the days go by that the dogs kiss the babies (and the babies love it, and I'm sure one day soon will kiss back), and I laugh at the girls as they wrinkle up their faces when the dogs whiskers tickle them. I am looking forward to the relationship that my girls will have with their furry "sisters" in the years to come.

So while I've always loved my dogs, the fact that my babies adore them makes me like them again.

Lunging for Bella

Bella is very patient with the (grabby) babies!

It tickles!

Oh, the (forced) fun we shall have!

Well the weather gods FINALLY smiled upon the soggy PNW, and we seized our opportunity to take the pumpkins on their first hike. We selected Poo-Poo Point for it's proximity to our home, and because we thought we remembered it being fairly easy. Unfortunately I have a terrible memory when it comes to how easy or hard something was (somehow everything is remembered as easy!), and it turned out to be a smidge (ok, a lot) harder than we thought. But we persevered, and made it to the top, and got to watch the paragliders jumping off Tiger Mountain right it front of us. The girls LOVED it - awake and happy the whole 2 hours up, and happily napping on the way down (luckily chest to chest in the Bjorns still knocks them out!).

There was a group of 3 little girls at the top, I'd say maybe 6 or 7 year olds, and it got me daydreaming about all the hikes I want to take my girls on. There's waterfalls, lakes, rivers, rocks, bridges...so much to explore! They'll love it! And even if they don't, I love it, so they'll just have to suffer along with me, just like their older brother and sister do...they can just thank me when they're thirty :)

Lauren Thinks She's Two

We think Lauren thinks she is two. ALL this child wants to do is stand, and she is constantly frustrated by her lack of ability to do so. She answers our attempts to put her on her tummy with shrieking...yes, shrieking. If you heard it, you would probably think we had caused her bodily harm. But no, she just HATES being on anything but her knees or her feet. She searches for anything close by that she can use to pull herself up: my legs, the activity table, the toy basket, the diaper caddy, the edge of the bathtub...the list goes on and on. And mind you, she can't even fully pull herself up yet - she can just get herself to her knees, or on a good attempt, on one knee and one foot. Once she gets herself to this point, she looks at us expectantly to help her get the rest of the way on her feet, and again shrieks if she is not accommodated.  I have my fingers crossed that she learns this skill quickly and we see a reduction in the current number of shrieks per day :)

As for crawling, she has little interest at this point. She will attempt a half hearted army crawl for a cell phone or a laptop, but only if it's just beyond arms reach and one scoot will do the trick. Meanwhile her sister will scoot her away across the whole play mat to get her paws on a cell phone, and even managed to maneuver herself today from her belly, to her knees, to sitting on her butt. We were very impressed. Who knows, maybe Lauren will skip crawling and go straight to walking. I'm sure she would certainly prefer it that way, since she thinks she should already know how.

Ah, to be a 6 month old

Having newly joined the ranks of the unemployed, I think it goes without saying that I've got a lot on my mind. The last 3 days, my mind hasn't taken a break, running a constant stream of scenarios and what if's. I've been alternating between moments of complete and utter panic (have I just plunged my family into financial ruin?!) and an almost blissful state (I mean come on, the weight of a very stressful job has just been unexpectedly lifted off of my shoulders...it's not ALL bad!).

I was in one of my panicked moments this afternoon, when I looked over at Avery. She was in the bouncer, jumping her little heart out. She was alternating between blowing rasberries and "talking" to herself as she jumped, while periodically smiling every time she checked to make sure I was still there. I thought to myself "Wow, if only I could get my brain on the same level as hers right now, where the only thing running through it is to blow a rasberry, or not to blow a rasberry, and make sure my mommy is still here". 

I think that's why our memories don't go back all the way to infancy...if we could remember how easy we had it at 6 months, who would ever want to grow up?

Look at this child, and tell me you don't want to be her for 5 minutes!

Time on my hands!

Not a day goes by that I don't tell myself to write something down...a funny moment, a milestone, a breakthrough...but "later" is always my answer.

Well, now that I've got an excess of time of my hands all of a sudden, I'm going to start taking my own advice and writing these things down.

I mean, I've already neglected to write about:
First smiles
First laughs
First food
First rolling over
First sitting up
First....well, you probably get the picture! My memory, at the ripe old age of 31, isn't what it used to be, and if I don't start now, I'm going to forget every exhausting moment my babies are putting me through :)

I thought about writing an epic post - everything I can remember up until now - and quickly decided against it. How about just the basics?

My twins arrived on September 20th, 2010, at 1:27 a.m. and 2:04 a.m.
Avery Rose is my Baby A, my little one, who started out her life at 5 lb 8 oz.
Lauren Grace is my Baby B, my big one, who started out her life at 6 lb 0 oz.

Avery, named by her daddy, has so far proven to be very much a daddy's girl...from taking after his looks, size, even temperment as far as we can tell.

Lauren, named by me, has so far proven to be my little mini-me, right down to the red hair!

It is fascinating to watch them develop...they've done nothing at the same time or pace. Each has been "first" at something (Lauren was our first smiler, Avery the first laugher; Lauren was the first sitter, Avery was the first roller...you get the idea!). It is a nature vs. nurture experiment, taking place right before my very eyes, and I can't get enough!

Fast forward to today, the girls are 6 and a half months. They sit, scoot, eat, and drool. Lauren has 2 teeth, Avery has 0. They are full of personality, and I wake up every day wondering how they will amaze me today.

I'm excited to start capturing these moments and saving them for a rainy day, and hopefully the girls will enjoy looking back at this in 20 years and seeing their first months through my eyes.