2 Months?!?!?

It's been TWO whole months since our little girls entered our lives.

Two months of sweetness.

Two months of watching Addie be the best big sister.

Two months of waking up 1-2 (or 3) times each and every night (now just 1...whoohoo!).

Two months of diapers (that's close to 1500 diapers...we've just started using cloth diapers part of the time because of this).

Two months of nursing two (that's over 4,750 ounces of milk).

Two months of juggling three (or attempting to!).

Two months of the most amazing times of our lives!

I'm not going to sugar coat things here: it's really hard having three 2 and under. I've had lots of help from my mom and of course Paul over the past month; but sometimes everyone is crying (and I'm on the verge), so we all end up in the chair watching a video like this...

(Addie's actually grinning for the camera here! She'd calmed down.)

The girls are sleeping awesome at night, but their daytime schedule is re-evolving. They continue to eat at the same time, but don't always sleep at the same time during the day. That's ok because they either play/swing, it gives me some one-on-one with each twin, or I just get things done with one hand!

Here they are at 1 month and 2 months!

The biggest difference I see are the cheeks and the rolls (which you can't see here)! (and they are outside, so they are squinting). Oh, and I suppose gaining almost/over 2 and half pounds each might make a difference too! :)

We went to the pediatrician yesterday and here's a little info about each girl!
(fyi: Addie weighed 12 lbs 8 oz (from 8-4 at birth) and was 24.5 inches long at 2 months)

(I know, I know...
some of this might be boring to you; but this is their unofficial baby book for now!)

Anne Perry (Baby A)

weight: 11 lbs 10 oz/75th%ile (from 9 lbs 1 oz/50th%ile at 1 month)
length: 23.5 inches/90th%ile (from 21.25 inches/50th%ile at 1 month)
head circumference: 39.4 cm/50th%ile (from 37.5 cm/50th%ile at 1 month)

She:

• can truly make an upside down frown right before she cries. p.i.t.i.f.u.l. 
• loves to holds hands still
• enjoys watching/playing with and grabbing her hanging toys (so observant)
• can hold her breath & turn purple when she cries faster than her big sister ever did
• snuggles best when she's upright on your chest/shoulder
• somehow already scoots when we put her on her tummy
• and just started smiling in time for this post!

Oh how I love their smiles!


Audrey Kate (Baby B)

weight: 11 lbs 12 oz/ 75th%ile (from 9 lbs 5 oz/50th%ile at 1 month)
length: 23.25 inches/90th%ile (from 20.25 inches/25th%ile at 1 month)
head circumference: 38.5cm/25-50th%ile (from 37.5 cm/50th%ile at 1 month)

She:

• sticks out her bottom lip right before she cries! again. p.i.t.i.f.u.l.
• has been smiling at us for 3+ weeks now
• has been talking to us for a while too (loves to interact with people)
• wrinkles her precious nose up when she smiles
• continues to love the swing
• enjoys just sitting in your lap facing out
• is finally growing a little hair back on the top of her head

The both:

• can soak an outfit, burp cloth, bib, sheet or my shirt with spit-up in 3 seconds flat
• love their halo swaddles
• love their wubanubs
• sweetly coo and talk to us
• hate red lights
• ...and have just found their tongues!

But one of the best things about these past 2 months has been watching Addie fall more and more in love with her baby sisters. Sure, she's told me NOT to feed her baby sisters or NOT to take their pic-tures. She's smooshed their pacies in their mouths a few times and almost kneed them trying to get on their play mat, but she continues to tell everyone she meets/sees that she has twin baby sisters, two babies. She is so proud of them! And she often either tells us: i love my baby sisters SO much or my baby sisters love me SO much!
Just another tremendous answer to prayer!

Wordless Wednesday: Sweet Hands

Happy 4th!

It's amazing what a calm and relaxed atmosphere can create.

(when Mommy's not stressed out trying to get the perfect picture and Daddy's not stressed out because Mommy isn't!)

It's even more amazing what our little 2 year old will do when it's her idea, even if we hinted at it first.

These shots may not be composed perfectly. 

The color may not be spot on. 

The angle may not be exact.

But they have captured a precious moment that we'll have forever...

...and that's all that matters.

Our little girls turned two months old today! More about that to come.

But for now, all three of our girls wish you a Happy 4th of July!

We never suggested to Addie what she should do except ask her if she wanted to hold both of her baby sisters.

She gazed down at each of them.

And then on her own, she placed the sweetest kiss on each of her baby sister's head.

Couldn't ask for a sweeter big sister.

and now all Mommy and Daddy need is for the little girls to sleep for another 6 and a half hour stretch tonight! ;)

House of Pain

or whatever you want to call it!

our house has literally decided to fall apart...again.

a little history (and i wont even attempt to link back to the posts on it: light covers falling, furnaces going out, refrigerators quitting, main sewer lines breaking, water in the crawl space from the AC, etc.):

we live in a house built in 1928. i love our house. but it's freaking O.L.D!

the advantages:
it's built really well. so we think.
it has lots of character.
it's in a great part of town.
it's beautiful (we think)
bottom line: we love it.

but seriously!

we started noticing a few extra cracks here and there. sure. two years ago was the drought. and then about 6 months ago was the flood. we're on a pier and beam conventional foundation. again. it has it's advantages and disadvantages compared to a slab foundation. i've lived in this city all my life except college. i can live with cracks and expect to!

here's the scoop:

• foundation specialist #1. the left side of your house is falling off the face of the earth. recommendation: call the structural engineer he recommend out of Birmingham. total initial cost: $1000. i think not.
• structural engineer #1. has 11 years of history on the house. continues to say there is nothing wrong and we don't need to get anything fixed. owes us a report from the '07 inspection, so comes free of charge to update the report and write two. pretty much talks down to me the whole time.
• general contractor #1. there is something wrong. something seriously wrong with the left side of the house. not his specialty, but he suggests we get that figured out before we stabilize the kitchen floor, put down a subfloor, replace the flooring, move the washer/dryer to our bathroom or create a beautiful pantry IN the kitchen. oh...and fix the cracked plaster ceiling that he confirms is dangerous. or even blow that insulation into the attic. as we're trying to figure out what exactly is underneath the kitchen flooring, I find wet wood. I do not like water! his concern: maybe we have some water underneath the house?
• general contractor #2. doesnt show up.
• structural engineer #2. scheduled for next thursday.
• general contractor #1. came back friday.

and so Thursday, I get home from taking Addie to gymnastics. sit down to feed the girls. hear Addie in the kitchen (probably admiring her ladybug picture or potty chart on the refrigerator), and I hear the BIGGEST SPLAT, CRASH, CRUMBLE ever.

my mom runs in to find plaster all over the kitchen floor (literally from one side to the other) and addie standing across the kitchen from it. no lie. it would have knocked her out had she been hit by it. you see, old plaster ceiling is made from concrete mixed with real horse hair (i know, sad). this was coated in plaster and then recoated with drywall mud. one tiny piece weighed so much!

um...so much for waiting to fix that ceiling.

can I please have a "pass GO and collect $200" card? make that more like collect $20,000! if only that monopoly money was real!

so friday i call back contractor #1 (who we like) to tell him about the ceiling. he was headed back from pike county where he was finishing up a job (near Troy). he is at my door in 30 minutes, plywood, screws, and drill in hand. probably as much or more of the ceiling fell as he was putting up the plywood, but there won't be anymore falling anytime soon! it may not be pretty, but it's secure!

But I think the biggest surprise came when this contractor went in our crawlspace. You see, we had a new AC/furnace put underneath our house about a year ago (the same thing that's in most people's attics). We had its checkup about 2 months ago. Perfect. No problems.

Well apparently there is about an inch of water sitting under the unit (that a pump is supposed to be removing), and the insulation around our ductwork is soaked to the point that water is dripping off it. I guess that would explain the wet board under the small piece of kitchen floor I pulled up the other day. Have I mentioned my dislike (and fear) of water in the wrong place at any time? That might explain the mold I found in a small broom closet that carries a pipe (from the unit) up into/out of our attic.

So...who wants to buy our house?

Flashback Friday

round about this time last year, this is what our now 2 year and almost 4 month old looked like.

round about this time next year, we'll have two of these!

Triple Tails

You may remember this post from last week. Well I took over 60 pictures in a little over 10 minutes all of which started out with this:

i know. i know. how pitiful is that? 

(and yes, it was so humid outside that my lens was fogged up)

But then I bribed her with flowers.

And she settled down nicely and gave me some sweet, fun, cute, silly faces!

I know a lot of people think that Addie looks like her Daddy. But do you see this face...?

those pursed lips?

She's definitely still at least part mine!

All of a sudden I looked up (or down) and this is what I found. I just thought it was so sweet how she was studying her fingers with her feet up in the air laying on her lovie while sucking on her paci (the last two of which were supposed to be in her bed!). Then again, she did have on her pjs.

And then she looked up at me, and I melted!