Twins-7 Months

The days keep going faster and faster and faster!  I'm sure as the weather warms up, they will go by even faster.  We are so excited for warmer weather. It has been a long, drawn out winter.  What's so fun about little ones this age is they change so much each month.

Lauren:  You can sit unassisted now and love being able to reach forward and grab toys.  Your brother still steals toys from you, which sometimes upsets you, but you're going to have to start getting tough and "fighting back."  You continue to be such a happy little girl and love to smile back at anyone who smiles towards you. We thought you were developing some stranger anxiety, but that hasn't really been present lately.  I swear your dimples keep getting more pronounced and I love them!  Your eyes have turned to light brown. I'm guessing they will continue to darken as you grow.  (We're still not sure where your big sister's blue eyes came from).  You continue to be a finicky eater, and we have to be careful to remove all distractions before giving you your bottle.  You are enjoying solids, especially zucchini, sweet potatoes, peas and squash.  You haven't made many funny faces, but didn't really enjoy mango.  With help, you can drink water from a cup without a lid.  A few days after your 7 month birthday, we decided to stop using your pacifier (you were only using it for naps anyway).  You were a champ and did great-I knew you weren't too addicted to that thing.  I think it has helped you sleep more soundly.  You have become more and more talkative and we love it!  I'm hoping you'll be our little social butterfly because you sure have a lot to say! 

Caleb:  Just thinking of you makes me smile!  We cannot get enough of your little laugh!  Sometimes you'll just be watching your big sister and start laughing and you love when daddy wrestles with you.  You've been sitting for a while now (about a month) and have been getting up on all fours for the past couple weeks and rocking.  You can spin yourself around on your tummy, but you haven't figured out how to crawl yet.  I don't think it will be long though!  You remain very laid back too (we have been so lucky!), and you can be entertained for a long time with a variety of toys around you that you can reach.  Unfortunately, you seem to get cold after cold after cold.  It doesn't seem to bother you too much, but dang you get snotty!  You constantly have a toy or your hands in your mouth so that probably explains a lot of the illnesses.  No teeth yet!  Your eyes have also darkened to light brown and your hair is getting browner-it lays down so nicely, (unlike your twin sister's who is starting to get crazy!).  You have become a pretty decent sleeper when you feel good and will usually sleep all night long.  You enjoy your solids, but have made funny faces with every new food we introduce.  By the third day, you seem to enjoy the new food though.  Your favorites are carrots, peas, squash, zucchini and sweet potatoes.  We will be starting fruits soon.  You are much less talkative than your sister, but I think that is because you are more into figuring out how to move around the room. 

We have finally developed a good schedule that seems to work for both of you:

6-7 AM - wake up and have first bottle
8:00 Cereal/Oatmeal
9:00 Nap
9:30-10:00 - Second bottle
11:30  Nap
Solids after waking from nap
1:00 - Third bottle
2:30- Nap
4:00-4:30 - 4th bottle
6:00 Solids
7:00 Last bottle and bedtime

So what is life like with a 3.5 year old and two 7 month olds?  My reply is usually "busy!"  It is great that the twins can sit up now and play somewhat independently for a while. Alena has never been an independent player so she usually asks for Justin or I to play with her, which makes it extremely hard to get anything done.  Thankfully my flexible job allows me to get some things done during the week when my schedule is lighter.  I'm not sure what I would do without this flexibility! 

We are taking the twins to get their 6 month (ok, now 7 month) pictures this weekend.  Finding matching boy/girl outfits was much harder than I thought it would be.  School pictures will be done at the beginning of May, but I really wanted to take the twins to Portrait Innovations.  I'm hoping Alena's school picture turns out great because she hasn't had any new professional pictures for over a year.  After pictures, we are planning on going to the zoo because it's going to be a beautiful weekend! 

Twins's Baptism

Whew, who would have thought it would have been so difficult to get the babies baptized in the Catholic Church!  We really wanted to baptize the twins at St. Cecilia Church in Ames, since that was where we were married and where Alena was baptized.  When Alena was baptized, we were able to do a private baptism in the Burke Chapel (which is also significant to us, as the Burke's are our neighbors).  After communicating with the baptism coordinator in Ames, I quickly learned that baptising the twins in a private ceremony, let alone in the Burke Chapel, was not an option.  A new priest had recently started at St. Cecilia and he was all about The Canon Law.  This indicates that all baptisms must be done in front of the congregation. 

We had taken a baptism preparation class for Alena's baptism, so I didn't think we would need to take another class.  I was wrong.  We decided to take the preparation class at our local church, St. Pius, to save a trip up to Ames.  Finally, one of the Godparents must be a practicing catholic who goes to church regularly, because St. Cecilia requires a letter from the parish the Godparent attends indicating he/she is confirmed and does attend church.  It took a little time, but three days before the Baptism, St. Cecilia finally had everything they needed and they gave us the go ahead to baptize the twins on April 14th at the 8:30 mass.

We chose my brother, Jason, as the twins's Godfather, and my friend Lisa Nelson, as their Godmother.  We chose to not have separate Godparents for each twin.  Lisa and I have been friends since the Fall of 1999 when we met in our first college class, and she has been like a sister to me since that time.  Jason was unfortunately unable to come back for the Baptism, so Justin's brother, James stood in as proxy.

Ironically, another set of twins (girls) were also baptized at the same time.  Caleb and Lauren were great during the service.  Caleb slept after his baptism, while Lauren chatted away.  Caleb wore the baptism outfit that cousin Jonathan wore for his Baptism, and Lauren wore what Alena wore for her Baptism.  Lauren and Alena's dress was made from my wedding dress and the wedding dresses of both grandmas. 

After the ceremony, we all gathered at my parents house for a brunch.  We are so thankful for all the family and friends who could attend the ceremony.  It was very important to Justin and I that all of our children be baptized. 

6 Month Stats, Solids and Easter!

We finally had the babies 6 month appointment a couple weeks after they hit the 1/2 year mark.  I was so anxious to see what their weights were going to be.  It seems as if Caleb keeps gaining and Lauren is just holding steady...

Caleb:  Length 27.3 inches, 69%
            Weight 17 lbs 11 oz, 45%

Lauren:  Length 25.6 inches, 35%
            Weight 14 lbs 5 oz, 13%

We knew there was going to be a significant difference in their sizes, but we were so surprised that Caleb was 3+ pounds heavier and nearly 2 inches longer.  He is definitely a Schaack boy.  They took their vaccinations like pros and didn't have any side effects later on. 

We sort of delayed starting the twins on solids because we knew that would just add more craziness to our evenings, but knew we would eventually need to start.  Caleb especially seemed interested as he would often eye my food while I was eating.  Instead of starting with the traditional rice cereal, we skipped that all together and went right to the veggies.  We started with sweet potatoes, moved to peas and then to avocado.  I was surprised that Lauren has actually seemed more interested in solids than Caleb. He makes the best faces each time he tries something new.  They are also getting oatmeal in the morning at school.  Right now, neither one is eating too much and I don't think they have found anything they particularly like.  I find this quite interesting because Alena seemed to enjoy everything we fed her.  Alena volunteers to help feed one of the twins every night. She does a great job and it frees up Justin or I to finish dishes. 

 

Justin and I had a date night with Alena a couple weekends ago.  We took her to an Iowa Energy basketball game which was a lot of fun.  She was more fascinated with watching the mascot "Surge" and the cheerleaders, but let's be honest, it wasn't that exciting of a game anyway! 

Easter was a lot of fun.  Alena painted eggs a couple times (one of these days I'll hard boil them correctly!), and did the Easter egg hunt at the zoo.  We had planned on her doing the Easter egg hunt at the Urbandale library which specifically said the hunt was from 10-10:45.  We pulled into the parking lot at 10:10 and noticed all these cars leaving already.  Of course we missed the whole thing-we were probably more disappointed than she was.  Guess we better get there early next year-dang these hunts are competitive!  Easter morning, we drove to Ames, got all the kids dressed in their fancy gear and headed to church with my parents.  About half way through the service, Alena announced that she was ready to leave.  Poor girl, she is not used to going to church.  This is something we really need to change.  Caleb laughed through most of the service, as there were a few kids in the pew behind us who were making faces at him.  After church, we had a yummy lunch with my parents.