pumpkin is good, but MESSY

Our new food this week is pumpkin. The girls LOVE it, but made a huge huge mess and had permanent orange stains around their mouths even after their much needed baths. I decided to just let them have fun, go for it, and get it all over themselves.

Caroline

Olivia

Liv enjoying her pumpkin

And this is why Rob and I have to work as a team when feeding them.

Double Stroller Giveaway Contest!

I entered in a Giveaway contest for a super rad double jogging stroller from Bumbleride, which retails for $659! Another mom is featuring this giveaway on her blog, and the winner will be chosen randomly this Friday. I know it's a long shot, but wish me luck!

Ooooohhh...preeeeetttty!

Weekend

Today Grandma & Grandpa Krupa came over to babysit so Rob and I could get some much needed errands done. Thank you Mama Diane and Papa Bede!

Grandma & Livi
Mommy & her girls

Oh, and I tried to capture Caroline's infamous backbend pose. You can't really tell from the picture, but her back is ALL the way off the floor. This girl will not lay flat, she's always squirming and flipping and backbending. It's funny, but not when you're trying to feed her.

And here's our happy girls after they had their peas and rice tonight.

6 Month Check Up

We took the girls to their 6 month appointment this morning. They are doing great! Here's their stats.

Caroline:
13lbs, 8oz (10th percentile)
24 1/4 inches (5-10th percentile)

Olivia:
15lbs, 6.5oz (25-50th percentile)
25 inches (25th percentile)

Here's some shots I got of them when we got home from the doctor. I'm including all the out-takes too because I think they're so cute! (Caroline in pink shirt, Olivia in the brown)

On the mend...

The girls have had this bug for a good 9 days now. Blah. But the good news is that I'm pretty sure they're starting to feel a lot better. They both still have this awful cough and snotty crusty noses, but yesterday was the first time I saw them smile and heard them laugh in days. Coincidentally, we already had a doctor's appointment scheduled for tomorrow (their 6 month check up) so maybe their pediatrician will let me know what else I can do for them.

Here's my little booger butts with daddy after their baths tonight.

Daddy took a picture of me and Liv after I FINALLY got her back to sleep at around 4am this morning. Poor babies keep waking themselves up with all the congestion they have.

My poor little snot-nosed kids

The girls officially have their first colds. =( We've been very fortunate that they've been so healthy for the last six months so we can't complain. It started a few days ago with little Caroline. I was noticing that she was so congested in the mornings when she woke up, but it seemed to clear up as the day went on and she'd be back to normal. Then she started waking up several times during the night which isn't the norm for them anymore. Her little nose would be so stopped up that it was waking her up every hour or so. And without surprise, Livi caught the cold yesterday. Poor little babies. They both have these awful sounding coughs and runny noses, and they just aren't themselves. I stood with them in the shower last night for a while, hoping that the steam would help to break up some of this crud. The only thing we can give them is saline nose drops and then use the nasal aspirator (aka - the "Booger Sucker") which they absolutely HATE! Hopefully this remains just a cold and doesn't turn into something else. And hopefully they get better soon! Until then, our nights are filled with babies fussing and booger sucking!

6 Months Old!

Wow! I can't believe that my little babies are half a year old. Time flies! Rob and I cannot even express how much joy these little girls bring to our lives. It has been truly a blessing to watch them grow and learn and hit new milestones. Both girls are doing wonderfully and surpassing the expectations (or lack thereof) placed on preemies. They are so interactive, talkative, and mobile! No crawling yet, but they sure are little scooters! And we've been practicing every night with our solid foods. So far the girls have had rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, peas, bananas, and avocados.

Miss Caroline is able to roll over both ways and loves to flip herself over when placed on her back. She's our little tummy sleeper and squirms a lot. When she gets excited she does a back bend, kicks her little legs and smiles so big. She is super ticklish on her feet, knees and tummy, and has the sweetest little laugh. Liners also loves to straighten her legs and try "standing" (with our help of course). She doesn't like to sit and is always pushing herself up. I have a sneaking suspician that child might skip crawling all together and go straight to walking. She holds her head up very well and is working on sitting up by herself, but she LOVES to be held (all the time, which I've been told is just like her mommy was!). And since we've switched her to the reflux formula we've seen a drastic change for the better, and she is working hard to catch up to her sister. Her favorite foods so far are sweet potatoes and pears.

Miss Olivia also rolls both ways, but mostly stays put how you put her down. She is a VERY good eater (can't you tell from those cheeks!) and is a VERY good sleeper. She is out cold for a good 11-12 hours a night, and usually sleeps through her sister's crying fits with ease. She is so close to sitting up unassisted! She loves to talk to us all the time and as of late has been screeching a lot. I think she likes to hear her own voice. She is just a happy baby and can entertain herself for a good 30 minutes at a time with her toys (Grandma Diane says that daddy was like that too). Liv loves to smile and laugh, and is ticklish on her tummy and crazy ticklish on her neck. She thinks mommy is the funniest person ever! I think she'll be cutting a tooth first because she is constantly gnawing on anything she can get her chubby little hands on... and drooling like crazy! Liv's favorite foods thus far are applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, and avocados... well, there's really nothing that she won't eat!

Our pediatrician couldn't get us in for their 6 month appointment until next Wednesday, so I'll have weights and other stats then. And I'll try to get a 6 mo. picture of the two of them this week - it's hard to find the time for it now that I'm back at work. Squeezing in a nap, veggie/fruit high chair session, bath time, and then bedtime bottle all in 1.5 hours before they go to bed is quite challenging!

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend! We spent the day with Rob's family at Uncle Jay and Aunt Kari's house. (Thank you for hosting!!!) All the kids had fun tearing around the house and the girls were pretty entertained watching all the commotion.

Great Grandpa, Cousin James, Mommy & Caroline, Daddy & Liv

And here's a couple I took tonight when we got home. They didn't really want their picture taken, I think they were tired from being cute all day long.

Livi on the left, Liners on the right.

TGIF

One work week down! My office closed at noon today so I got to come home early and spend the afternoon with the girls. I miss our days together! We are trying peas this week and the girls liked them the first night but weren't so sure about them today. There was green mush everywhere... good thing it was bath night.

And Miss Olivia has been sucking her thumb like crazy these last few days. She looks just like her Aunt Vanessa when she used to suck her thumb covering her face with her hand.

They're getting to be so interactive! Reaching and grabbing at all their toys and figuring out how they work. It's so fun to watch them learn. I can't help but feel a sense of pride over the littlest things!

Livi Lou

And Liners too!

First Day Back at Work

I made it through my first day back at the office without having a meltdown. It was sad to leave the girls this morning, but I was so busy all day that I was heading home before I knew it. Caroline was of course up screaming at 5am. I tried rocking her, hoping she'd go back to sleep so I could get ready but she wasn't having it. So by the time 6am rolled around I fed both of them and then thankfully they played on their mat for a while so I could get myself together. The Nanny arrived at 7:15, I did a quick run-through with her and then was on my way to the train. I missed the girls and glanced at their pictures a few times throughout the day, and I was so excited to see them that when I got off the train at 6pm I was practically running the block and a half home! There is nothing better than walking in your door after a long day and having your babies smile the biggest smile you've ever seen when they see you! I love that by being apart all day, I cherish those couple of hours with them in the evening before they go to bed.

Tonight we tried sweet potatoes for the first time. The girls LOVED them! I think it's their new favorite (just like their daddy). Especially little Caroline, she gobbled them up so fast and we went through a whole jar in one sitting! Then we had to have a bath because there was food all over them, in their noses, hair, even in their ears. It was fun.

Sorry for the dark pictures, we need to replace some lightbulbs in our kitchen.

Caroline

Olivia

We love Bathtime!

The girls have always really enjoyed their baths... it's just the getting out cold and wet part that they hate! But we have so much fun during bathtime, singing, splashing, making mohawks. I can't wait until they're ready to go straight into the real bathtub so they can play and splash around together. Here are a couple pictures we captured from last night's bath.

Olivia

Caroline

And thank you to Grandma & Grandpa Krupa for babysitting today! We really appreciated it and the girls had fun with you! (they told me).

Back to Work

Well, it will be almost 7 months since I've been in the office (6 weeks in the hospital, plus my time here at home with the girls). Soooo, I'm finally making the transition to being a working mom. I'll be going back to work full time in just a few short days - Monday, April 6th. It's definitely bitter sweet since I'll of course miss spending my days with my precious little girls, but it will also be kind of nice to have some time for myself. We hired a wonderful nanny who's most recent FT job was working for a family with identical twin girls from the time they were 3 months old to 2 years old. Even though I know she can handle these little rascals, I'm still feeling major anxiety about it! I'm sure every mom feels this way when leaving her children for the first time, though. It will be fine, but I know I'll be crying on my train commute to work on Monday!

The girls and I just playing around:

Livi's ready for her close-up

Liney surfin'

They grab at EVERYTHING now.