Decorating for Christmas

Julian was a big help hanging the ornaments. He also like being able to climb the ladder.
Attempting to get everyone together. (Notice my foot trying to hold Alex up)
A family of 5's stockings this year.
Lilly attacking Alex. She is all over the place and he actually doesn't care when she climbs over him.

Thanksgiving

We had a great time spending thanksgiving at my family's house in Connecticut. The babies did well being away from home. It is always helpful to have extra adults to hold babies. We did figure out that Lilly hates to drive for long distances. She gets very upset being tied down to her car seat, so we had to stop a couple of times to give her a break. We enjoyed seeing everybody and friends came over to see the babies and Julian. Julian had a great time getting to play with my mom's neighbors twin boys. He played all day long and hated to leave them. I wish we would meet some close friends for Julian to play with here as well. He loves to play with other kids. We had to convince him to leave by telling him his frogs missed him and needed him to feed them.

Once home, it was time to do the unpacking and getting things put back together from being out of town. We put up our christmas trees and Julian did a great job helping mommy hand the ornaments. Now, we are getting ready for Christmas. It will be so exciting to spend christmas with our "big" family this year.

Big Events Today

Today is a milestone. The babies are 8 months old today. They are doing great. Lilly is finally over 13 lbs. That makes mommy so happy. I know it seems small for an 8 month old, but she started at 2 lbs, so we are making good strides. Alexander is over 17 lbs, and a little more needy than his sister. He would be very happy if someone would just hold him and feed him all day long. Lillian is crawling and little independent. She is such a happy baby. Alexander is starting to copy is sister. He gets on all fours and tries, but not quite there yet. They have started to eat solid foods, and actually doing very well with that. So far, we are up to bananas, applesauce, sweet potatoes, and peaches with rice cereal. We just pray this streak continues.

My big boy Julian, lost his first tooth yesterday. Such a big event in his life. He is no longer my baby anymore. The tooth fairy came last night. They leave much more than when I was little. It made me a little sad to see his tooth gone. The baby teeth are on the way out. I also had a great parent teacher conference yesterday. He is doing great, and makes me smile everyday.

At the bird house, Julian raised his hand every time she asked a question, and he got to be the one she demonstrated on. He loved it. Chris and I were wondering where he got his personality trait that is so NOT shy.
So hard to get a natural smile these days.
I love my big boy. Mommy and Julian. It was just he and I for so long.
Posing on the bear statue.
Posing outside the reptile house. Julian's favorite.
Notice he wanted a picture of him with the crocodile behind him.

We had a great weekend this week. Friday, I met Chris at our pediatrician's office because the babies had to get part of their 6 month vaccines and the flu shot. I made him go with me to help, so that both babies could get comforted after the shots. Chris dreaded it all day, and had to sit down while the nurse gave them to the babies. But he got home with me at a regular time which was nice. Saturday, I got out for a little therapy shopping and a trip to target and chick-fil-a. That was the best day for me. Then Sunday, we woke up and got ready to head to Philadelphia. Anne graciously agreed to watch the babies while Chris and I went to the zoo with julian. We had a great time. It was a beautiful sunny day(in the 70's) and Julian got one on one time with both of us at the same time, which is rare these days. He had a great time, and it reminded us how easy a family of 3 was (especially with an independent 5 yr old) We'll take those special moments when we can get them. We then had a great dinner at Anne's and spent some time with Lorena and Joey also.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving, and then Christmas. So much coming up.

Alex's serious look. He is trying to put this toy in his mouth and getting frustrated.
Going to pick Lilly up after a nap. Makes me so happy to be greeted like that.
Waiting for the bus. Julian's not into pictures anymore.


Well, Lilly has said "da da" I tell chris it is just the next set of sounds that is coming out and she is not using it to directly refer to him. I hate to burst his bubble. They continue to keep progressing and doing new things. I love to go pick Lilly up after a nap or in the morning. She is so happy when she wakes up and just sits there and smiles at you. Alex on the other hand is a little more cranky when he wakes up and wants to be held immediately. Julian continues to amaze us with some of the things he says. I also know more about dinosaurs than I ever thought I would. He even corrects me most of the time with pronunciations of words. Too smart.

Well, Chris comes home late tonight, and we survived another week on our own. We do get into a grove and it does get easier the longer we are by ourselves. With the time change, the babies are ready for bed by 6 and are getting up by 5-5:30 am. As you know, I am not a morning person, so this time is very hard for me. Thank goodness, they are very good in the morning and will play some without being entertained by me the whole time. Night time is still a challenge alone. Getting babies fed and put to bed when they want it at the same time is interesting. Julian really is a big help and does the best he can to help me out during that time. He really is a good big brother and loves Lilly(sister) and Alex.

Both babies are working on crawling. Lilly does a good job of getting to where she wants to go, and Alex is on his way. I am excited because Lilly is finally in 3-6 month clothes. That makes me feel better. Now she just needs some new clothes to fit her slightly bigger size. Alex continues to get bigger by the day. I am just working on getting him used to eating solid foods with a spoon. He is doing much better with that.

Julian is doing great in school. Everyone that talks to him comments on how smart he is. We have our parent teacher conference next week, that will be interesting to see how he does for the teacher.

We have had a busy few days this weekend. Started Friday when I picked Julian up at the bus stop to go try to get the H1N1 vaccine. I got a babysitter to come help while chris worked from home. I knew that wasn't going to work from the minute she walked in the door. Lilly has started to not want any part of "strangers", even though she had kept the babies several times before. Chris said he ended up having to take Lilly for her, that she wouldn't stop crying. No one is going to watch my kids if Alex starts that too. Julian and I got to his doctor's office for the flu clinic. They had 200 doses to give out and we were there an hr early and were 117 in line. I feel sorry for the people who waited for hrs for it and didn't get it. I had been on the fence for so long about the vaccine and was leaning toward not getting it, but I got scared into it. I've had the sick kids before, one on a vent, and NEVER want to have to go through anything like that again, so I did it. Scare tactics worked.

Lilly is still trying to crawl and is pretty effective getting to where she wants to go. Alex finally started to TRY. I guess watching his little sister do it was motivation. He is starting to get on all 4's. It will be so nice when the can sit on their own and crawl. A little independence on their part will make things a little easier.

Julian had his last soccer game today and he had a lot of fun. It was such a nice day to go sit in the sun and watch him play. Hopefully it the sun recharged me for my week ahead of me. It's been nice having the help this weekend. 2 adults is much better than 1.

videos

Do you know what a whole bottle of bath bubbles and a Jacuzzi bath does?? This equals a whole lot of bubbles and a big mess!! It started his new love for showers because it was the only way to get the bubbles off.

Chris and I are learning to not take our eyes off Julian. We left unattended there is no telling what that little guy can get into. He is so curious now, and loves to see how things work. He may actually grow up to be a scientist.

Well, halloween didn't go off without any hitches. I think I'm still trying to figure out how to be the mother of 3, and twin babies, and how to organize my day. Trick or treating here started at 6, so I started to get the babies in their costumes at 5:30 after bath and pj's thinking they would go to be right after. Mr. Alexander was extremely irritable. I don't think I got a single picture of him not crying. We even tried to feed him and take away the bottle quickly and snap a picture. The costumes were really cute, but the little hat didn't fit around Alex's head, so it kept falling off. We did the best we could with them. I'm glad I didn't waste alot of money on their costumes, because they were probably only in them about 10 min. Then Chris decided to stay home with the babies to pass out candy(probably because UGA was still playing), but I think he would have preferred the other. The babies cried mostly till I got home. Julian and I met up with a bunch of people and there was 3 other kids from his class we went with. We were doing good for awhile until it the rain came and we got soaked. Important thing was though that Julian had a good time with his friends.