Some nice pictures of the babes and babes with the fam

The pairs of animals in our house like to sleep together.














Look at that happy Daddy!











Grandma Joanie's favorite thing to do is to make the boys interact. Never mind that they are probably biologically incapable of recognizing each other yet. She sticks their faces next to each other all the time. They then look anywhere except at each other, until they get angry and cry. So far, I would say it's been a qualified success. At least I tell her that.

Progress!

Beckett is reaching for and grasping rings on the activity mat, as you can see. Whether said reaching and grasping was purposeful, I don't know. He actually looked kind of pissed that his hand was stuck on something. But I didn't see the actual grab, so I don't know. Either way, it's cool!

Both little guys like the activity mat, though it can be hard to fit them both on it without having them both kick and punch each other so much that they cry. This morning we had a short window of both enjoying it at the same time.


I have wanted a black and white mobile for above their crib, one that looks cool from below and not just from the adult view head-on. I haven't found anything in my brief, middle of the night online searches, so I decided to make my own. I think it came out pretty great. I was so terrified that my knots wouldn't hold and it would fall down and impale someone during the night that moved the entire crib out of the catchment area of the mobile for the night. It did not fall down, so I moved the crib back this morning and put them both in it to see how they'd like it. I think they like it! I used two of the pandas from the set of Mama plus two babies from Great Aunt Teddy, plus plastic fork and spoon, three sticks from my front yard, my dad's fishing line, and a plush toy that came with the Fisher Price swing we have. I think it looks pretty neat!

Mornings are Tough for Daddy!

I know the quality is poor, but here are pictures of Beckett and Theo I took this morning before I left for work. It's so hard to leave them every day!

- Jeff

The fun never stops

I was kind of handling the sleep deprivation and discomforts of motherhood until two nights ago, when, on top of everything else, I woke up at 2:30 (first warning sign: I woke up NOT to a baby crying, which has not happened once since the babies were born) with a stomachache. I don't know if time alone helped, or if it was the pepto and ibuprofin, but either way, after a couple of hours I felt a lot better. I still had a whiff of yucky feeling during the day yesterday but mostly felt okay, except that I had gotten even less sleep than usual. By last evening I was toasted and Jeff did most of the baby care and meal preparation while I zoned out. After three rounds of 2-3 hours of sleep each, I feel a LOT better today! It also helps that the medieval heat that engulfed us last week is gone now and it's just beautiful out!

Today's busy schedule includes: two loads of laundry, going on a walk with another neighborhood mom and her kids, showing our friends Laura and John's house across the street (anyone want to rent or buy a beautiful home across the street from us?) to potential renters, pumping, having gutter people (as in, people who install gutters, not some new reality show about dirtbags) come to give an estimate, having an energy audit, and going to the last neighborhood park concert tonight. Also my dad will be here today to power wash the front steps and maybe start on painting it! Somehow the boys will have to get fed, diapered and have naps sometime in there as well!

In actual fun news, Theo has begun grabbing for things. For several weeks I have been putting each of them on the baby einstein activity mat in the nursery for a few minutes each day, like when I am feeding the other one or taking a shower. Before this week they would basically just lie on the mat and flail their arms and legs aimlessly, looking at all the fun hangy-down stuff. Yesterday I noticed that Theo was very avidly staring at one particular set of hangy-down rings and appeared to be trying very hard to get his fingers around the lowest one. It was his right hand, but I can't say that necessarily means anything because there was no equivalent set of rings on his left side. He can't get the grip part down but he seems to have his aim down pretty good. Theo has also started smiling with some regularity. It is amazing to me how different their smiles are--Beck has a wide open gaping grin, and Theo has this cheshire cat, curled up at the corners smile. Beck continues to be a pretty laid back guy. Theo is more watchful and skeptical, I would say, and he still has a nasty habit of throwing up some quantity of his meal after he eats, sometimes HOURS after he eats. Yesterday he destroyed my shirt four times and my entire outfit twice. If he weren't such a determined eater I would be worried he wasn't getting enough food!

Milk Machine

Saturday night we attended the birthday party of friends Robert and Ana. No pictures were taken because... we forgot. But we had a great time with some of my lawyer friends and other various friends of the birthday couple. It was especially fun to meet Robert's sister Angie and her family, including 9 month old twin girls. They are ADORABLE and it was really fun to see how interactive and different they are. Their parents report that so far they have gone through milestones (babbling, rolling over, crawling) at very different times, sometimes months apart. It's good for me to hear that because I've wondered what that will be like. The (other) twin parents referred to Theo and Beck as "husbands" to their little girls--what cougars!

Also fun was when my friend Kara asked me how much Theo and Beck eat every day, and when I said, well, if they were eating formula they would be eating 4-5 ounces every feeding, 8 times a day, Kara did some quick math (4 x 8 x 2 babies=64 ounces) and calmly said, "that's a gallon a day." Huh. I had never thought about the total quantity in a day. I have been bragging about it to my friends and family ever since.

Eight weeks

A quiet moment after early morning tandem nursing.
Jeff burping Theo after a nursing pit stop at the Cayuga Community College en route to the cottage last weekend.

Beckett and our dear friend Jeremy, along with Jeremy and Beth's son Isaiah!

Week with Cousin Kelly

My cousin (once removed) Kelly is visiting this week from New Jersey. She started out the week being afraid to hurt the fragile babies and now she is bouncing them like a pro. She is a natural and the babies love her. She has been fabulous and I don't know what I'm going to do when she goes back home!

Bath and Day at the Zoo

After their morning baths, we took the babies to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo today. I pumped so we could feed them at the zoo, but they ended up sleeping the whole time. Way to go, missing your entire first trip to the zoo! Kelly and I had a great time though, checking out the new Asian elephant exhibit. We were promised tiger cubs, however, and no such tiger cubs were spotted. Penguins are always my highlight. The boys both slept when we got home but Beck has been a crankpot all afternoon, very tired but refusing to sleep. Time for a walk in the sling!

Theo

Peg visiting with the boys

Lots of newness

Sorry it's been a while. We had a great weekend at the lake to celebrate Jeff's birthday, and then another great visit with Jeff's parents Monday July 4. Last week was a blur but I know that the boys were kept alive and that I met another new mom with whom I'm going to take walks semi-regularly. She's fun and friendly and has a lot of the same parenting philosophies I do (e.g. cloth diapering, attachment parenting), and I think it will be nice to have a standing walk date with someone I like who is also home during the day.

My cousin (once removed?) Kelly is visiting this week and she has been incredible! She started out the week afraid that she would drop the babies but now she is a professional, changing cloth diapers and bouncing cranky babies with aplomb. You should have seen her with the Baby Bjorn on yesterday in the grocery store! I promise to take and post more pictures of her--she's fantastic. It's amazing how much better a day goes when there are two of us here. We got two loads of laundry done, a major grocery shopping trip, and made a fabulous dinner. Not much, but when we also had two very wakeful babies yesterday, it seems like a lot!

New things babies are doing:

• Beck smiles while awake, seemingly in response to us, all the time. Big, open mouthed, gorgeous smiles. It's amazing.
• Theo has been smiling just in the last few days. One time I saw the open mouthed smile, but more frequently it is that cheshire cat, lip curled smile that he does so frequently in his sleep. He laughed yesterday.
• Beck did his first practice vocalizing on Sunday. I thought I heard him say "Ah goo" but Grandpa Stu corrected me--he actually said "Hi Stu." He truly is a genius.
• Both babies are doing lots of pushing off with their legs, both when lying down and when supported in standing position.
• Self-injury. I was holding Theo and spending time with my cousin Deb and Kelly and looked down and he had a big cut on his forehead. It may be from his own fingernails and I can't find any other explanation but it was bleeding! Other fingernail scratches have just been little red lines, with no blood. I have a picture of him with a bandaid that I will post. I didn't put a bandaid on it for HIM but so that I didn't get antibiotic ointment on myself when I hugged or held him.
  
• Beck hasn't rolled over again in a few weeks but when you put him down on his back he ALMOST rolls over lots of times. He also scoots up with his feet when on his belly.
• Last but NOT least: increased sleeping, as of last night. We put Beck down at 11:15 (he was wide awake until then) and he slept til 4:45am. That's 5.5 hours by my count! Wow! Theo went to sleep at 9:30 and slept til 1, but then went back to sleep at 1:30 until 5:30. I don't like having them on different schedules but it is getting increasingly difficult to wake them up from a deep sleep. I hope this sleeping longer continues!
  

First weekend at the Lake

Look how the babies have filled out! This is Theo alone in the bouncer seat. Look at those cheeks! We would like you to know that no babies were harmed in the filming of Daddy holding Theo in the glider chair at the lake, despite Daddy being asleep. He says he thought Theo was asleep too.

Perspective shot of cat next to Beckett: approaching same size! Last chance to eat the babies, cats!

No babies were harmed in the filming of the babies together in the bouncy chair, though there was some crying.



Daddy and Beckett.

For those of you who haven't seen these little guys lately (and also for those of you who just can't get enough of them), here are short clips of Beckett & Theo taken this past weekend. Watch for Beckett waiving to me around the 10 second point.

Beckett:

Theo: