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June 2014 - 17 months old

6-4-14 Today is mama's first day of summer break! We went on a hike with Auntie Demi up Millcreek Canyon. I took the carriers and Lily rode on my back and Violet was on Demi's. The girls were great! We saw some doggies and some pretty wild flowers. We heard a lot of birds singing and sang a few songs ourselves! It was super fun!!! At dinner, we had asparagus, pork, and quinoa. Violet looooves asparagus! I cut the top and bottom off of the stalks and she ate about 10 of them!

6-5-14 We went to Liberty Park this morning to walk with a friend who is moving to Georgia. We went to the playground too and Violet liked the swing but Lily wanted nothing to do with it. She was interested in the water spraying and got a little wet!

6-8-14 Swimming! We went swimming for the first time this morning! I found some super cute swim suits at Old Navy and we were given two floaty saucer things. Some friends invited us to a relative's condo to swim. It was a little cold with the breeze, but the water was nice and warm. Violet held on to mama and Lily to daddy. After some time, we tried the saucers. Lily hated it, but Violet was chill with it as long as I didn't let go! After swimming, we went to the condo and had a lovely picnic on the balcony facing the warm sun and the mountains up Emigration. Mimosas for the parents made the morning complete!

Lily loves dancing! I sing, “Dance, Lily, Dance!" and clap my hands and she dances in a circle. Then she'll get a little dizzy and stagger and laugh! Violet is talking so much! Most of it is baby babble, but she says baby all the time! A few weeks ago I bought the girls sandals. Of course Lily loved them and wanted to wear them all the time (still does). She got a little blister on her left foot. She must have learned “owie" at daycare because now, weeks later, she points to it and says, “owie." It's almost faded. I wonder if she'll keep saying it after it's gone!

The girls have had allergies and runny noses. They actually don't mind when I wipe their little noses! Lily will even take a kleenex and try wiping her own nose!

6-9-14 This morning we went to Liberty Park to walk with our friends Kim and Amelia. After we walked, we went over to the playground. This was our third time trying out the swings and Violet loved it! She was smiling the whole time this time! I tried to put Lily in and she screamed so we'll try again another day. I held their hands while they each went down the slide and they really liked that!

6-11-14 Lily will shrug her shoulders a few times when she walks around. This morning, Ryan was holding Violet's hand and bringing her to me for morning mama milk and Lily walked over and held her other hand! So sweet!

Violet's been saying uh-oh! She's really been talking a lot the last few days!

Lily is very task oriented. She likes taking her diaper to the trash, putting on her shoes, turning on the air filter in their room, and taking things to mama or daddy.

I put a little froggy potty in the bathroom because they've been following me in and acting a little interested, even though it's probably too early to start potty training. They can sit on it with their pants on to get used to it. Lily sat on it twice but now is unsure about it, but Violet loves sitting on it!

6-12-14 Violet said bye bye today. She's still talking all day long! She waves hello and bye bye with her silly wave. Her hand is pretty limp. Lily walks around with her bear under one arm in a football hold. It's so funny!

In the car Lily is always taking off her shoes. Then I hear her say, “OwieOwieOwieOwieOwieOwieOwie.” She is hilarious!

They've been great eaters all week for me at lunch and snack time. We always start with a veggie, usually a purée. We've had carrot & strawberry, spinach & zucchini, and broccoli & golden beet. Those are all homemade. We had some soft whole wheat pita bread left so I gave them small pieces of that with yummy hummus on top. We've also had turkey meat and cheese, one of their favorites! For dessert this week, we've had small pieces of kiwi, plum, banana, and pear. They are such good eaters!! Even when they don't like something, they usually try it. Sometimes we'll start with small pieces of tomato. Lily doesn't really like it plain yet (she loves cooked tomatoes in sauce), but she loves it in cottage cheese! Violet loves veggies! Asparagus, peas, green beans, tomatoes, all soft and cut up small.

We went to Grandma’s work this morning and when I got home I had an email from her. It said, “The girls are delightful, full of life, energy and happiness.  I love them to pieces!  My family makes me the happiest.” 

We'll be heading to Chicago in a few days. We're really excited! We hope the girls have fun and do well on the flight. I've been continuing to nurse just for our trip. It might come in handy on the plane and at bedtime. After that, I'll probably start weening them completely. It's bittersweet, that's for sure. I NEVER thought I'd go this long! I didn't know if I'd last 6 months when they were born! It's more special than I ever imagined it to be. I'm sure it will be harder on me than them to finish.

6-15-14 We got up early to get to the airport and fly to Chicago! The girls were pretty good on the flight. Violet got a little fussy so I nursed her a little and she napped. Took the train into the city and Lily slept for a while on the train. A woman at the train station said, “Gorgeous! You have the president and vice president all in one basket!" That was so sweet! Were able to check into our hotel early, which was a relief because normally check-in isn’t until 4:00. After we settled in our room a bit, we went to Trader Joe’s for some breakfast and snack foods and whole milk for the girls. Violet and I had a quick nap while Lily and daddy went out and explored a little. We had snack in Grant Park which is right across the street from our hotel, and then we walked around the city. We ended up at Millennium Park. It was really crowded! We saw “The Bean” which is a big stainless steel sculpture, and the Ghery Amphitheater. We shopped a little around the park and had a quick dinner. The girls had their own little playpen/crib to sleep in. They did well! We brought sheets from home so at least they’d have that familiarity. It took Lily a little longer than usual to go to sleep since we were all in the same room. So far the girls have done amazing! We hope the rest of the trip goes this smoothly!

6-16-14 This morning we took the Metra train to the Museum of Science and Industry. They have a lot of cool, interactive exhibits. The girls’ favorite was a big incubator with about 30 baby chicks! Violet was making all sorts of cute noises and they were both smiling and pointing at the chicks! It was so adorable! We also saw a Disney exhibit which had a bunch of original Mary Poppins movie stuff. That’s our favorite Disney movie! Afterwards, we walked over to see the beach and then took the train back. If the girls were older and didn’t need a nap, it would be a fun day to go to that museum and then hang out on the beach. They were pretty tired though. They both napped a little at the museum. We missed the train back by about a minute! We waited at the station and they got a little antsy. Luckily Ryan has Choo Choo Soul on his phone! That saved the day! Once we finally got back to the hotel we decided to rest for a bit. I wanted to go to The Art Institute of Chicago, but they close kind of early and there wasn’t enough time so we'll definitely go tomorrow.

6-17-14 This morning we went to the Shedd Aquarium! It was so fun! The girls were great and loved seeing all the marine life. They had lots of opportunities to get out of the stroller and walk around, which was nice. As we were walking back, we started talking to a woman who lives in Chicago and loves it. She took her little boy to the aquarium. He was a little younger than our girls. She said the restaurant Yolk would be a nice place for lunch and she was right! It was delicious and the girls were well behaved and ate really well. We planned today a lot better and made it back to the hotel in time for nap. Yesterday we got back later than we wanted to, so they didn’t nap as well. We then went to The Art institute of Chicago. There is so much great art in that place! One of their special exhibits was on glass paper weights. It sounds silly, but they were so incredible! The whole time I thought of my Grandma Flo because she collected paper weights. They were so intricate and displayed vertically so you could really see the details. We decided to take the subway up to Chicago Avenue where there’s the Magnificent Mile shopping. We had a great view of the river and enjoyed the other end of the city. We’d have loved to take a boat tour, but we’ll have to do it next time when the girls are older. For dinner we went a pretty fancy place! Again, we were pleased with how well the girls were at dinner. We think a lot of passerbys were surprised we took kids there because Ryan said he noticed people’s faces and they seemed surprised we took kids to this restaurant! I was oblivious to that! I was just enjoying my wine and my yummy Mahi dinner. We sat outside and got rained on for about 30 seconds! Luckily no more than that. Today was a pretty perfect vacation day!

6-18-14 We went out this morning looking for a park for the girls to play on. With all of our exploring we hadn’t seen one around! Google maps showed a few that looked closer than they really were. It was too hot and humid to search too far so we didn't end up finding one. We packed our bags and had to check out at noon. It started pouring rain when we checked out so waited in the lobby for about 15 minutes until it let up. We walked to the Field Museum, which is next to the aquarium (both about a 10 minute walk from our hotel). We thought this would be a nice place to hang out for a few hours since we had to check out at noon and our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until about 8:00. There were lots of fun things to look at and the girls walked around a lot. Violet walks well when she’s holding one of our hands, and now Lily goes to her and hold her other hand. Violet likes it as long as Lily doesn’t pull her along too fast! At one point we sat down to rest in a big lobby area downstairs. They had four big comfy chairs and lots of space for the girls to toddle around. Plus not many people go down that way. There was a woman pregnant with twins right there with us! She was nervous but excited and asked us a bunch of questions. She seemed less stressed when she left so hopefully we gave her some peace of mind about having twins! It’s pretty great, if you ask me!

We then walked around the pier and the lake. It’s so relaxing by the water. Daddy had a polish sausage and I had a chocolate ice cream cone that I shared with the girls. They were so funny! Usually they have ice cream with a spoon so this was new to them! They ended up with chocolate ice cream all over their lips and a little on their noses. When we got back to the hotel to get our bags we found out that our flight was delayed 45 minutes. Luckily the girls fell asleep in the stroller so we hung out in the lobby for a while and they slept. It was a nice rest for all of us! It started raining again, but not really hard. We got out the umbrella and the rain cover for the stroller because it was time to head to the train to go back to the airport. The girls said, “Choo choo,” the whole way there! Check-in and security was quick, but the food court was super busy! I finally found a table after waiting for someone to stand up and leave! I had a delicious chicken gyro with peppers and zucchini and yellow squash. I’ve never had a gyro with all those veggies and I loved it! We put the girls’ jammies on at the gate. Lily was screaming and we were worried. Luckily, we sat next to some sweet black ladies from Ogden that sang soulful baby songs to her. We didn't take off until almost an hour after our delayed time! Those two women saved us by entertaining the girls so much! She didn’t fuss at all! Once we were in the air, she had some mama milk and slept on daddy the whole time. Violet fussed just a little, trying to get comfy. She had some milk too and then slept. Wow they were good! Demi picked us up and we were in bed by 1:00!

6-19-14 Today we were recovering from our trip, and trying to get back on our normal schedule. They napped well, but early, before lunch. By dinner time they were so tired. Violet took a 10 minute catnap before dinner, and Lily fell asleep at the table in her highchair! We tried to wake her up, but she was out like a light! Violet was super hyper at dinner! She was being a little goofball!

6-21-14 Lily loves Violet so much! As soon as she wakes up she stands up and looks for Violet in her crib, she gives her hugs and kisses all the time, and says her name, Bi, holding out the I sound. When we are walking with Violet, Lily walks over and holds her hand. Violet loves Lily so much too. She smiles and laughs with her and touches her hair. She’s usually gentle and doesn’t grab it. She holds her hand at the table. She doesn't say Lily's name yet, but when you say, “Where's Lily?" she points to her sissy!

Violet let me paint her toenails on her big toes. They're purple, like mine. Daddy loves them! Lily wouldn't sit still long enough for me to even try!

6-23-14 At bedtime, they always blow me kisses and wave night-night. I don't even have to ask them to! Such sweet girls! How did I get so lucky!?!? They are both starting to wave by opening and closing their hands.

6-24-14 We had an appointment with Margaret, the dietitian today. Violet weighs 17.2 pounds and Lily weighs 18.5 pounds. They’re still making good progress and following the curve. They’re both in the 2% for height! They’re way under the curve still for weight, but I really don’t care anymore. Margaret is so pleased with their progress that we don’t need to see her anymore! She is so sweet, I will miss her.

6-25-14 I love being home with my girls!! They are so sweet, so smart, and so funny! We have a blast every day! Today Lily was scooting down the stairs on her bum. Violet got some of her confidence back and was walking quite a bit. We went to Book Baby at the library today! It was a lot of fun! We read books, sang songs, and danced around! I hope I can take them every week!

6-26-14 Lily's been telling us when she has to poop. She says, “I poop," or “poopy." So today I took her into the bathroom and took off her pants and diaper, and then put her on one of the froggy potties. She peed a little and pooped just a little! Then Violet came in and sat on the potty too! I'm not sure if I can start toilet training before they can pull their pants up and down and before Violet is walking steadily! I am looking forward to being done with diapers though!!

We went to the park earlier today and of course Violet loved the swing and didn't want to get off. It's just like when she was really little and loved the baby swing. My parents said that I loved it too. We would both be in there for hours if we could. Lily even helped me push Violet a little bit! I think Lily thought about how much fun the swing is because after Violet got out she walked over and started touching it with her fingertips and then pushed it a little. I picked her up and she didn't fight me this time. She just sat there a minute, not swinging then I pushed her a tiny bit. That was ok. Then I pushed her a little more. That was not ok so we stopped. She liked it a little and was even smiling!!

6-27-14 Lily is definitely right handed. Violet seems strong with both hands. She always eats with her left, but today was throwing balls better with her right! We think left is her dominant side though. Ryan and I are both right handed, but I can do quite a few things with my left. Violet's a lot like me! Lily's a lot like Ryan!

This week I put the slide we bought them for Christmas out in our living room. I needed something new for them to play on to release energy when it's too hot outside. I put balls in the splash area and there's a little ladder and a red slide. They absolutely love it! Lily is fearless on the slide going down on her bum or feet first on her tummy. Violet loves climbing in and out of the ball pit and tossing out the balls one at a time, or climbing to the top of the stairs and looking out, standing at the top. They bring their stuffed animals in the ball pit and then lie back, relaxing in the balls. They have such a great time playing together!

6-28-14 Violet finally decided that she's brave enough to walk! She was walking all afternoon! I called my mom to tell her and she said that she's just like I was. Cautious and likes taking her time. She said, “You weren't in any rush!" I also called her to tell her that Violet loves rocks like I did as a child. We went out back to play with Bella and Jimmy, and Violet played with the rocks almost the whole time.

Later I showed Lily a picture of Sarah's daughter, Charlotte, on Facebook. They are friends and go to Mary's together. She said, “Jibberish, jibberish, Char-wotte. Jibberish, jibberish, Char-wotte,” and didn't want to give me back the phone! I think she misses her friend! We went upstairs for bath time and Violet was still walking after bath! She was walking down the hall naked and I said we'd better get her jammies on so she doesn't pee in the hall! She wanted to walk more and more with me on one end of the hall and daddy on the other with Lily walking too. She paused and even totally turned around without falling! She fell down and then stood up all by herself!!!! That was the first time she’s done that! She was able to do that over and over again! I think we've made a lot of progress today! Lily has been so supportive of Violet. She holds her hand and helps her up and gives her hugs and kisses. Ah, sissy love!

6-30-14 We went to Liberty Park this morning to walk with our friend, Giulia. At the playground Lily loved the swing! At first she didn’t want to move that much. She was happy to just sit in it, but soon she was swinging almost as high as Violet! Both girls were smiling and laughing! They didn’t want to stop!

I can’t believe they will be 18 months old on Thursday! They are growing so fast!!! 

Not an update and a few pictures!

Well, I'm not doing so well at updating this little blog. Every day is so full and by the evening, I want to crash on the couch. Luckily, I'm great at writing little notes of happenings on my phone, and then I email that to myself and put it in a word document every few months. For their first year I have 18 pages of memories! I'm planning on posting those here once a month. Then I won't be doing two separate writings; just a copy and paste. It might be boring and repetitive, but I guess it's better than nothing! As for pictures, I'll try, but I'm pretty good about posting a few on Facebook every week. Here are a few from earlier this week:

What did I just say?!

When you're a mom, you get a whole new vocabulary. You say words and phrases you never thought you'd ever say. 

Here's how it went down:
poopy diaper
fast hands
washed her twice!
nursing babes
faint smell of poo
grabbing nipple
"DON'T TOUCH MY NIPPLE WITH YOUR POO HAND!"

Doctor Visits and Milestones

We took the girls to their one year appointment last Monday. They only cried a little when they were jabbed! Shots are no fun! We are always so nervous about getting their weight checked. We work so hard at feeding them a lot and fattening them up, but they are always so small. Violet weighed in at 14 pounds and Lily at 14 lbs. 11 oz. We were sure Lily would weigh 15 pounds, but she's pretty close. They've pretty much tripled their birth weight, which is expected at a year. Dr. Cox wanted us to take them in to see a dietitian and wanted us to take Violet to physical therapy since she's not crawling. We also want to check her head shape. That's a lot for this mama to take in! 

We went to the physical therapist two days later, on Wednesday. She showed us a lot of ways we can help Violet strengthen her arms, many of which we were already doing. She also measured her head because it's a little flat on one side (only I notice, of course). She thinks it will round out as she grows so we don't need to worry. She wants us to go every week, but with insurance not covering until the deductible is met, we'll see how she progresses and then go from there. 

We worked on the play/exercises and so did Mary at daycare. By Friday, Violet was able to go from her tummy to sitting up! Woo hoo! She's been so close for so many days, and now she's finally done it! I'm so proud of her!

We started a food journal on Sunday because we had an upcoming appointment with a dietitian on Wednesday. It was hard to figure out how much food they actually ate! We had to subtract what was left on their face, in their bib, on their tray, and on the floor! Their appetites were a little smaller too, we think because they're both getting their top teeth in. Oh well! We took the girls to the dietitian on Wednesday, and she started by weighing and measuring them. Violet is still 14 lbs. and Lily is 15 lbs. 4 oz.! We think the old-school scale at Dr. Cox's office was wrong on Lily's measurement! Margaret, the dietitian, compared their weight to their height. I really liked this comparison because it doesn't take into account their age, just their weight and height. Lily is at 91% of her target weight (90-100 is the goal), and Violet is at 80% of her target weight. We knew she was a string bean! We always offer her the same, or even more food, as Lily. She eats slower and is a little pickier. Margaret made a lot of good suggestions to help them gain weight. We're already doing a lot of things we should! That's nice to hear. The biggest change for us will be to make sure they do not have any milk between meals and to wait 3-4 hours between meals so they're really hungry. I'm going to try to wean from nursing in the next month or so, too. They need to fill their bellies on high-calorie foods and drinks, and I don't think the milk I produce is very fatty. We're going to put some heavy cream in their cups of milk and butter on their crackers! We'll keep trying to fatten these girls up! We have a follow-up appointment in April, but Margaret said we can call her anytime we need to.

After school on Thursday, I went to Mary's to pick up the girls. Mary was thrilled to tell me that Violet crawled to a toy! I started jumping and screaming, I was so happy! All the kids stopped playing and looked at me a little scared. Haha! I'm just so proud of my little Vi-Vi! At home she showed off her crawling skills some more! She's pretty slow and careful, but she is definitely crawling. She'll go about two paces and then sit. That's a great start. She's also able to pull up to her knees, almost to standing! We're pretty sure we're going to cancel the other physical therapy appointments now. She's met most of her goals in 8 days! I'm not so worried any more! We're so lucky Mary and Val are on board with everything. They've been working with Violet on her arm strength and tummy time, and have always supported us with any diet changes we've needed to do for the girls. They always say how much they love Violet and Lily. They spend so much time with them each day, they're like family! 

I'm so proud of both my little girls! Today they were standing at the coffee table, playing side-by-side, and I couldn't help but think how lucky I am! 

First Birthday Girls!

Wow! We all made it to ONE! We had a fun birthday weekend. Ryan took a half a day off on their birthday. After the girls' afternoon nap, we went to the planetarium. Violet and Lily loved standing at the ball contraption and watching it send the balls all around, even on the ceiling. We looked at all the models of the planets and at the meteorite samples. Our favorite part was walking on Mars and on the Moon! Violet LOVES walking (holding on to mama or daddy) and she did great over the bumps and rocks! Lily wanted to crawl all over, but it was not the best place for crawling! 

Mama and the birthday girls!

Proud Daddy!

The big birthday party was the next day, Saturday, January 4th. We put up First Birthday banners the night before and Ryan picked up the balloons that morning. First Yia Yia (Grandma), Ted, and Isaac came. Yia Yia was so excited to see the birthday girls! Andrea, Matt, and Addy came, as well as some friends: Amy & Sam, Cathey, and Sarah, Rob, Maddie, & Charlotte. We had pizza, salad, fruit, and CAKE! It was some yummy carrot cake! The girls ate a big lunch of avocado and banana, some chicken noodle soup, raspberries, and grapes. We opened presents, well I opened presents and Violet sat on my lap while Lily crawled around. They got some clothes, books, toys, and puzzles. The card from us has a mirror in it and Lily kissed herself just like we thought she would! Then it was time for cake! Violet cried when I put the birthday hat on her. (They had the hats on earlier and didn't cry, so I thought I'd put them on again.) We sang the birthday song and blew out candles. Lily dug right into the cake and loved it! Violet stopped crying when I put some cake in her mouth! Haha! (Ooo, this is good!) They ate A LOT of cake and were so happy! Grandma was cleaning the floor and Lily threw cake on her head! Twice! Naughty girl!

 Cutting the cake!

 Yummy!

 

 

After everyone left, they had some milk and went down for a nap. They only slept a little more than an hour! Maybe all the sugar kept them from sleeping longer.

We went to The Dodo for dinner. We usually take our purple high chairs that hook onto the tables, but this time we tried the wooden ones. The girls were so good! Lily ate so much! She at some of my bruschetta topping, tomato soup, turkey from my sandwich, some wheat bread with avocado on it, plus the food we brought for them! We used the pink place mats that have a pocket hanging over. A puff rolled into that and she laughed her little laugh. Ha ha. Violet ate about half as much as Lily, but still tried everything. She was more into being social and smiling at EVERYBODY around us! She kept turning in her high chair away from daddy. She was entertaining everyone at the tables around us. They were soooooo good! What a great day! Now they are officially one!!

First Birthday Eve

Tomorrow is my daughters' first birthday! I can't believe Violet and Lily are going to be ONE! They are my sunshines and light up my life every day.

The last few days Ryan and I have been reflecting on our year and talking about what life was like for us a year ago. I was super-huge pregnant, and we were so excited and scared about our new adventure. A year ago, we didn't know what would happen after delivery since our little Violet's growth had slowed and we couldn't get a good reading on her cord or placenta. We were sure she'd be in the NICU and thought her twin sister, Lily, would be there too since they were coming a month early. We were worried we'd be leaving the hospital without them. After all the doctor appointments, non-stress tests, and ultrasounds we finally knew their birthday would be Thursday, January 3rd. I'd be having a cesarean delivery since Violet was breech and Lily was transverse. I've never had a surgery before and I was terrified. There were so many questions racing through my mind about how healthy they'd be, about the surgery and recovery, about how I was going to nurse and care for TWO babies! I didn't need to worry though. The delivery went smoothly and my girls were so strong and healthy that they didn't spend one minute in the NICU! Unbelievable! They weighed in at 4 lb. 11 oz. and 5 lb. 2 oz. Hearing their first cries changed my life. I became a mom! Me! A mom!

The past year has been incredible, overwhelming, exhausting, amazing, full of smiles and milestones, and most of all, full of so much love. I never thought I could be so happy! Tomorrow we celebrate your first birthday, my beautiful ladies!

One year ago! The day before their birthday. Whoa belly! I measured 43 weeks!

My first time holding Violet!

 

 My first time holding Lily!

 

Our first family photo! Daddy with Violet and Mama with Lily.

 

Lily and Violet, my beautiful sunshines!