personalities emerging

Today or yesterday is their should-have-been 2nd birthday! But hey, we got to meet them sooner than expected and they are doing great! So the kids personalities are really emerging. So a little about each:

Kyle is really into cars, choo-choos and airplanes. He found a few train cars and figured out that they go together magnetically and put a 3 car train together all on his own. His favorite food is still probably lentil soup, beans and pretty much anything you put in the little traveling cereal bowl. He loves Puff the Magic Dragon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar books. And he still loves playing guitar - or tigar as he calls it. His favorite song is La Bamba as sung by Hullabaloo. He's excited to see them play for his Stroller Strides group. His favorite shape - doesn't everyone have a favorite shape?- is an octagon, closely followed by diamonds. The other day as we were walking through the neighborhood, he pointed to his left and excitedly said "yellow diamond!" There was a yellow diamond sign that said "bump" off to his left! Amazing! And then on the way home, he saw the back of a STOP sign and even though it was the back and silver, he said "red octagon!" Pretty cool!!

Emily is really into princesses. She recently got a Cinderella princess boo-boo ball and is always saying she has an owie so that she can look at Cinderella. She has diversified from Dora! And she really loves books, asking to read stories all day long. Among her favorites are Puff & Caterpillar, but she also loves the Dora books, ABC, 123, shapes and duckie books. She too is a big fan of La Bamba. Her favorite food is still cheese, but she loves fruit twists and lollipops (vitamin C lollipops we got when we were all sick). Jeff took the kids to the zoo the other week and they had a blast. The zoo conveniently situates their gift shop right by the exit and the kids suckered Daddy into getting them giant stuffed animals. Kyle chose a giraffe and Emily chose a Cheetah. When we asked her what her cheetahs name is, she replied "Shasta mommy!" How cute! Soon though, she will learn that cheetahs are cats and Shasta is a golden lab dog, but for the meantime, she things this giant cheetah is Shasta's mommy! Speaking of names, Emily has learned her full name - Emily Beth. And Kyle knows his - Kyle Thomas. When we pointed out that Kyle's middle name is Thomas, Emily started saying his name as Kyle Choo-Choo, just like Thomas the Choo-Choo. And since Kyle gets to have his middle name share the name of a train, she insited that her middle name was Dora - Emily Dora! How funny!!

Kyle & Miko play ti-gar

This was just too cute of a picture not to share!

Shassssa

So the kids have some new friends living with us! Spike and Shasta! This is the first time the kids have met Shasta. She came to visit 2 years ago while we were on bedrest, but the kids didn't get to meet Shasta then (thankfully they stayed in a little bit longer!). They have played with Spike many times since then, but not Shasta until now. We were unsure how the kids would respond to a big doggie living with them because anytime they have looked eye to eye with a dog, they have been a bit freaked out. They don't mind little dogs so much - Bailey, Mozart & Delle - but they are much smaller doggies. Anyhow, the kids have been doing great! The first day, Shasta gave Kyle big licks on the face and instead of losing it, Kyle smiled and laughed and said, "Shasssa kissies!" And he even gives her nice touches. Emily just loves Shasta too. She has been a little more fearless with other doggies and has responded beautifully to "Shassssa". We took Shasta to the park the other day and the kids both wanted to throw Shasta's kong toy to her. They thought it was the funniest thing when she'd chase after the toy and bring it back to run after it again! And Emily wanted to walk Shasta on her leash. Needless to say, they are loving their new friend Shasta. And of course they are loving Spike ("Docter Fike") a ton as usual!

Emily's 2 year anniversary of coming home!

So today is Emily's 2 year anniversary of coming home from the hospital!! For those of you keeping score, yes, that was nearly 5 weeks after she was born - 33 days to be exact. She was born on a Sunday and came home on a Friday one month and 2 days after her birthday, after a long time in the NICU working out many health issues. She had to have a ventilator, CPAP and oxygen to help her breathe. She had profusion difficulties likely caused by her PDA - no not a Palm or Blackberry, but a hole in her heart. On top of all this, she had a lot of bruising likely because her cord was around her neck twice so couldn't open her eyes for a few days. And then she had to learn how to coordinate her sucking, swallowing, and breathing while eating. The things that just seem automatic have to be developed / learned in a preemie! Poor little girl! But she fought well and conquered all these difficulties quickly, all the while growing bigger, taller and stronger!

And look at her now! She started off at 18.25 inches and 4 pounds 7 ounces! And now she is 34 inches and 23 pounds - what a long what she has come! She is running, jumping and talking a ton! She loves her woobie (blankie for those of you who haven't seen Mr. Mom), Mika (her monkey) and Mee-Meow (her kitty cat) - not to mention Mommy, Daddy & Kyle. Kyle & Emily are really best friends. They feed off one another all the time. They always want to be doing what the other is doing which is sometimes good and sometimes not so good!

Their first night home, they were totally checking each other out. Of course, they got a few visits together in the same incubator and crib during their NICU stay, but for the most part they were in their own beds. I remember bringing Emily home - Jeff's Mom & Dad got here that morning and stayed with Kyle - his first babysitter - while we went and picked up Emily. We came home and all just chilled and relaxed all afternoon. Before bed (whatever bedtime is considered with 2 newborns!), they were just looking at each other, wondering what was going on. Now they are always asking where the other one is should they be separated for one second! How nice it must be to have a best friend from birth!!

chug-a-chug-a-poo-poo

Today Kyle did his first poop on the potty! In case you all wanted to know! Sorry no pictures! He has a book called "The Potty Train" that he reads while on the potty. Pretty funny book. The title of this post is from a line in the book. Clever... And Kyle has learned how to jump. He no longer does the ho-down when you ask him to jump! He is very proud of this feat! And he has learned that playing basketball you can do more than slam dunk. He now throws the ball to the hoop to make 3 pointers which he is very good at!

And last night, Emily fell asleep in about 2 seconds. I said goodnight, went downstairs to get Mika (her monkey), brought it back upstairs and she was already asleep. Amazingly tired! And now (it's the afternoon naptime) and she's been ratsing around for a little bit as I can hear on the monitor. I just heard her say "Kyle wake up!" I don't know why, but that is really funny to me! She's so silly! And Emily has learned the joys of hot chocolate over the weekend when we went to Walker Brothers for lunch. She drank it like such a little lady!

And yesterday Jeff, Dr. Spike and I went to mommy happy hour over at the W. They use their upstairs "Beach" - really it's like a giant beach / sandbox that the kids play in and parents can have lunch and happy hour at noon! What a concept! The kids had a good time and so did we.