more birthday pictures

My computer wasn't letting all my pictures load last time, but finally got it working. Here are a few more pictures from the babies birthday weekend. I love this picture of Alex and lilly. They can be so sweet with each other. I love seeing them love each other.

Just hoping she is going to eat that big scoop of icing. Calories, calories, calories.






Our 1 nice day in the past 6 months was spent at the philadelphia zoo. We had such a wonderful day.
Alex was going to brush the little goat.




Julian was in heaven in the reptile house.

Babies Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX AND LILLY!

We have made it 2 years!!!! 2 years is the mark with preemie twins that we were always looking to get. It is suppose to converge to normal now. Life is certainly interesting with 2 toddlers running around all day long. God certainly gave me children with LOTS of energy. They don't stop from the minute they wake up until the minute they go to bed. This makes for a long days, but wouldn't have it any other way.

We had a great birthday weekend. I don't know if they understood that the weekend was all about them, but they had a good time to say the least. Friday, the 18th, was a beautiful day. I think God knew we all desperately needed it, we needed to be able to enjoy going outside and feeling the sun. So that's exactly what we did. Julian skipped school, and I loaded everyone up and went to Philadelphia and met Mary and Tom at the zoo. They had flown in for the babies birthday the day before and thought it would be a great day to get out. The kids had a ball at the zoo. I have such animal lovers its unreal. Julian was so excited and really enjoyed the day. We lasted at the zoo for 5 hours, which was much longer than I thought the babies would last. They did great. Everyone was happy, and having fun. We had no meltdowns, and then they crashed in the car on the way back to Anne's house. Julian's most favorite part (of course) was the reptile house. He is so smart that he knew most animals in the zoo before we told him what they were and even educated all of us a time or two. We then went back and had dinner with Anne, Ray, and Rob. It was a long day, but so much fun.

Saturday, was a day of recovery in the morning from the day before. Alex even took a 4 hour nap that afternoon. They aren't used to being that busy and not getting a nap. Then that night, we planned the babies birthday dinner. PaPa came down to join us and help celebrate. (DeeDee had to be in Atlanta helping grandmommy nell move, but we missed her) We also invited our close friends, Kim and Mike to join us. Mary and Tom helped us cook a delicious dinner and we had great company to have a wonderful night. The babies opened their presents and it was like Christmas all over. They had fun.

Sunday, the actual birthday day! Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet babies Alex and Lilly. I can't believe they are 2. Everyone always asks me if it has flown by and I say it has and it hasn't. Due to our rough start, it has often seemed like time was going so slow. Days now though are much different than they were 2 years ago. I'm not worried anymore about what was going to happen to them being so premature. They have done great. They are 2 healthy, growing, active, happy toddlers. I can't imagine what life would be like without them here with us. They are exactly what we dreamed for when we were trying to have more children. I can't wait to tell them about how they got here and how strong they are.

We just had their 2 year old check ups also. Everything is going great. They are doing well. We still have some speech delays, but everything else is on target. The speech may be that they were premature, or they are twins, which sometimes have some delays because they develop their own language. Lilly, is still not on the growth curve yet, but is growing and the doctors were pleased with her weight gain this time. She's just going to be a little girl. I don't think any of my kids will ever have to worry about their weight. Even the doctor said, she was so active that her size is not holding her back at all. She's the most independent, fiesty, self-assured little girl I've ever seen. Alex, is more sensitive and needy, but loves being with Lilly. They are always right next to each other. Lilly is usually the leader, and Alex is right there with her.

Alex

weight 26.4 lbs ( 30th percentile)

length 34 inches (40th percentile)

head 19 3/4 inches (80th percentile)

Lilly

weight 21. 2 oz ( -3 percentile)

length 32 1/4 inches ( 15th percentile)

head 17 3/4 inches ( 4 percentile)

Long Winter

It's been so long since I posted, but everything has been about the same here. Still cold and not able to do many activities yet. Finally, we can at least see our grass. There is no snow out there right now, which is a blessing and we are just praying it is over and spring will start to appear. The kids are itching to get outside and play all the time. I am so not a cold weather fan and I can only take it outside for little bits at a time. The babies can tolerate the cold better than I can. I think they don't know any different like the rest of us and don't understand how much better our friends and family have it right now in the south. We are trying to make the most of being indoors and get outside whenever possible.

Julian continues to do great in school. We are working on his 3rd oral presentation right now. It's right up his alley. We have to do a presentation on a wild animal. Just like Julian style, we aren't doing any normal animal. He picked the platypus. I bet we are the only ones that pick that one. It's funny being on the parent side and wanting your child to have the best presentation. Whenever he gets grades back, I see it as a personal failure of mine if he doesn't do good (which is rare). He is just like mommy though and already seems his strengths lie in math and science. Hopefully daddy can help later with the grammar and english. He continues to amaze chris and I how smart he is. The first 2 presentations, he got 100's and the teacher said he was a great presenter. He gets that natural just like his daddy and PaPa. We have registered for T-ball and are so excited for that to start and to get out and play.

The babies are doing great right now. (knock on wood) we haven't had any illnesses in a while, other than the winter runny noses. We are so happy though that the ear tubes have done what they were suppose to, and alex hasn't had a single ear infection since they were placed in November. That has saved us many doctor appts and antibiotics. Hopefully they will continue to do the trick until they are ready to fall out. Lilly, has also been doing pretty good. We have good eat days and not so good eat days, but overall, I think she's doing pretty good. They continue to go to speech and have early intervention for their speech delay, but everyday, they seem to make more sounds and try to form words. I keep saying I'm ready for them to talk, but may take that back when they start to.

I have interviewed this week for a job in Labor and delivery and am thinking of going back to work a little bit. It's a PRN job, so only 2 days a month are required and I think chris and I can still work around each other's schedule so I can do this. I will have to work a couple days a week initially to get through the orientation, but then can work at my leisure. It is a hard decision for me even to commit to that and leave my kids. I told the manager that the past 2 years has been devoted to keeping my kids healthy and meeting all their needs, which is still my priority and work is secondary. She agreed and understood this point of my life I'm in, so it's sounds like it may work well. She sounded like she is flexible to work around my schedule and what hours would be best for me and childcare. I've got to work on getting my license transferred, but think that is something I am going to proceed with. If it doesn't work out, or feel like the babies are doing as good with me gone a little, I can always change my mind. I do miss L&D and hopefully would give me an opportunity to meet other people since PA hasn't been the friendlies place we have lived.