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.

Bowling!

So the kids got a dose of Irish culture over the weekend. Well today they got a taste of American culture. First we had a snack of ice cream bonbons. I was feeling guilty for going to work this morning and Kyle was upset when I left. So what do I do, I give them a bonbon for a snack... Emily LOVED it!! Kyle wasn't so sure about it. I told him it was ice cream with a cookie inside, but he just played with it and ultimately gave it to Emily. He was very proud that he shared. Emily was super excited Kyle shared this!!

After our snack we headed over to the Science museum and played for a little bit. Then we went to the bowling alley downtown for the kids first bowling experience!! They were excited going in, but once they started hearing the balls hit the floor and the pins, they got a little hesitant. But they warmed up pretty quickly. And they didn't have any milk there so the kids had 3 cups of cranberry juice!! That's more juice than they get in a week! But they were happy and well behaved so what can you do?!

Anyhow, they did some great bowling. We had bumper gutters and a little ramp to roll the 6 pound ball down. Kyle & Emily both rolled several spares. And Emily even had a strike! Some of the rolls (no mommy or daddy extra oomph on it) were straight out of Uncle Buck where the little girl goes bowling and the ball stops and rests against the lead pin. Ultimately, all of the balls made it. They were both excited watching the ball roll down the lane as slow as it sometimes went! Emily would proclaim "hit pins" as the ball went rolling! The kids had a great time with this slice of Americana!

2 year photo shoot pics

So I can't believe I have forgotten to share some pictures from the kids 2nd birthday photo shoot. Here are some of my favorites

dinner and a show

So tonight for dinner, we went downtown to The Field, an Irish pub. Not just any pub, but a real, awesome Irish pub with live Irish music and dancing tonight! The kids LOVE that place and usually have a great time. Tonight it was just packed and loud. But they had a blast with the dancing and music right in front of them! Emily just couldn't sit and watch so she got up and started dancing. She was trying to do the dancing moves and kicks! It was the cutest thing! She even got compliments on her dancing afterwards!

What a girly girl!

So Emily is really such a girly girl! It's unreal just how girly she is!! And she does this on her own! She got "sparkle glasses" at the pediatrician's office for being such a brave girl at her 2 year check-up. She has wanted to wear them morning, noon and night. She wore them to dinner, woke up in the middle of the night saying "sparkle glasses on!" in the midst of tears. And Saturday morning she found her boa, put it on and went into Daddy's office where he was working and made some calls on her pink cell phone to help him!

Dancing babies

So Friday we went to concerts in the park. The kids had a great time running around and dancing. One of these times we will capture their dancing on video because it is the cutest thing ever!! Emily danced in circles with Mika and Kyle did his high shoulder, running dance, waving Mika.

Before we left though, they showed us what good share-ers they are becoming as Kyle gave Emily a ride on Mater.

Hugs

So the other day on our walk / tricycle ride home from dinner, Kyle decided he wanted to give Emily a hug. We were all just walking and Kyle goes "hug Emily" and proceeded to give her an awesome hug. Sure was sweet!

Kyle's 2 year anniversary of coming home!

So 2 years ago today, Kyle came home from the hospital. He was pretty much fine, just small so they wanted to make sure he was eating and growing before sending him home. Plus Emily was still in the hospital so I think they kept him a bit longer because her road was a bit longer to go home.

Today, Kyle is a whopping 26 pounds and 2 foot, 10.5 inches! He was 4 pounds 2 ounces and 17.25 inches at birth!! He's come a long way! That's 22 pounds and doubling his height!! Wowsers!! So hard to believe!!

He sure knows where home is. Whenever we go out in the car (rarely) or in the stroller, wagon or tricycle, he knows which house is ours and upon seeing it, exclaims with great happiness "home!" Happy 2 year homecoming anniversary Kyle! (The pics on the left - Kyle just after birth, all snuggled up in the NICU; 1st night home in his big crib; 2nd birthday pictures)

Quack, quack... Yummy!!

So today the kids had their first experience eating duck! We went to China Max for dinner and ordered the Peking Duck. They first bring it as duck sandwiches. The kids were reasonably excited about the duck sandwiches and ate them reasonably well. Then Jeff told them that they were eating duck and they were even more excited and ate even more! Go figure! I remember when my dad told me that veal was moose meat, I was so disgusted, I wouldn't eat it for a very long time. Finally learning that it wasn't moose meat didn't really change that, but whatever! It's just crazy that they got even more excited about eating it because Emily LOVES duckies! She was a duck for Halloween and loves to carry around this little red plastic duck bath toy! Needless to say, I had to capture the dinner with some photos. There is Kyle chowing on a duck sandwich and then Emily looking as if to say, "I'm eating WHAT?!" (but really she wanted more duck!).

In other news, they are really going thru some major language changes. Emily really tries to put together more than one or two word all the time now. Kyle is following suit. And their clean up abilities are improving too. They get really proud that they cleaned up their toys or Playdoh or crayons, etc. Today at music class, they were both really involved, doing what the teacher directed the class to do and didn't even notice that I stepped out! That is a big change for them! It's amazing how they are growing up every second and sad how fast it goes!

Happy Birthday Babies!!

Happy Birthday Emily & Kyle!! It's hard to believe they are already two!!! It feels like forever ago because I don't remember the fine details, but seems like yesterday that they just entered this world! So two years ago today, Kyle was born at 8:17am and Emily followed at 8:23am. They weighed in at 4 pounds 2 ounces and 17.25 inches long and 4 pounds 7 ounces and 18 inches long. Kyle was a feisty little one fighting off the CPAP just wanting a bath, some milk and a warm blanket. Emily fought to breathe, open her eyes and eat, but she fought hard very quickly and got healthy (enough to come home) in about 5 weeks (1 month and 2 days to be exact).

And look at them now! They are growing so fast and the things they do now are pretty impressive! They are becoming a little boy and little girl! Everyone says they grow up fast, but it's hard to realize just how fast fast is until they are staring right back at you! So Emily is very inquisitive and into telling us who is a boy and who is a girl. And she will tell you if that girl is a lady or a girl and if that boy is a man or a boy. And Kyle is really into repeating words. Some of my favorites are "vi-ba-nen" for vitamin and "ti-gar" for guitar. They get chewy Flintstones vitamins each morning and he LOVES them! Emily does too and she calls them "vi-da-da-da".

So for their birthday, we had lentil soup (Kyle's favorite) and grilled cheese (Emily LOVES cheese) for lunch and Japanese for dinner (both their favorites). And Kyle loves to eat with chopsticks for Japanese food. In his picture, Kyle is eating mochi with chopsticks! Emily is enjoying her cupcake. And they love their new tricycles.

We're working more on using the potty now that they are two. Yesterday they got to wear their Thomas the Train and Dora the Explorer undies and they were sooo happy about that. Emily was so happy about her Dora undies that she refused to wear shorts over them. They each went thru 2 pairs b/c they didn't quite get that they had to tell us when they had to go peepee even though we took them to the potty very often and kept reminding them. Today it's been different though. They have a diaper on under their undies (yes, I'm sure that's confusing) but Emily keeps telling me when she has to go peepee and goes and sits on the potty and promptly goes peepee. Maybe just maybe we won't be in diapers forever!

HOME!

So we took the early flight home yesterday after a month away. As mentioned previously, the kids have been learning so much! As we pulled into the driveway, Emily shouts out "HOME"! It was so sweet! She knew where we were! And Kyle immediately saw the giant jug of bubbles and shouted "BUBBOS"! It was really sweet!

Before we left, Jeff bought Guitar Hero for the Wii. Kyle was just getting into the "ti-gaar" before we left. Last night, he picked up the guitar and jammed to "Sweet Child of Mine" with Daddy. He was rockin and rollin and strummin and saying "ba ba ba" like Daddy. We're going to take a video so you can see just how cool it was. We'll have to have him dress the part with just a diaper, a mohawk and the guitar! Perhaps we have a future rocker in Kyle!

I-teen, ish-lo, & gramma

Yes, it's been a VERY long time since the last post and I apologize. There has been a lot going on. With visits from family and friends and travels, I have let the blogging fall by the wayside.

So we've been in Chicago for the past several weeks and the kids speech has improved dramatically! They went from saying "greeya" to "gramma" for Grandma. Bailey went from being "Bittie" to "Baitey". At first, we thought Kyle was calling her "mut" but he was confusing Mozart with Bailey. Oscar and Olivia went from being "meows" and sometimes still are to being "Ah-kar" and "Littie". The picture going down the stairs at Papa's is "I-teen" (Einstein) and lotion is "ishlo", neither of which they could say previously and now it's "loshon". And there are some new words too! Like "ti-gaar" for "guitar" and they can now say "Stephanie" though it comes out "Steffeee".

I now have a better understanding on how people learn a second language. I'm in the process of learning my kids language. It's a repetitive, often difficult, process with a lot of trial and error as well as pointing. For instance, the other week when Emmy had her big leg owie she was a bit more whiney than usual (for very good reason - not only did she fracture something in her leg, she was also getting 2 year old molars! Poor little girl!). She asked for "wah-wah" for about 20 minutes. She declined water and anything else I offered her that could have been "wah-wah". Finally I brought over her woo-bear and she smiled happily and goes "wah-wah"! If only I had figured that out sooner to spare us from the 20 minutes of difficulty!

In other news, the kids are doing great! Emily is back on her feet after 2 weeks of not walking. Her leg seems to be healing great, only with a slight limp that will hopefully correct itself in time as she regains strength in her leg. Kyle is having a great time playing cars with Ben. He is also learning how to climb everything! He uses cabinet knobs and handles as steps to climb to higher heights. I'm glad we have the furniture bolted down at home!

Today we went over to the park district and rode the horseys (carousel), played at the kiddie gym, and went swimming. Emily couldn't get enough of the horseys and swimming. Kyle LOVED driving the car in the kiddie gym.

Okay because I can't quickly figure out how to make the pics line up nicely, here they all are at the bottom. First, Emily meets a chocolate cookie while Mommy drives! Then, Kyle & Emily walk with Davie & Ben after sushi with Josh & Stephanie on each end. Note Kyle's mohawk! He LOVED it! The last 3 pics are at the park district with the kids on the carousel and Kyle driving the car the playroom.

future Kyle & artists

So today I caught a glimpse of Kyle in the future, Kyle as a Daddy. He has his monkey, Miko, that he LOVES. Miko goes everywhere with him. It's truly a sign of comfort and acceptance from him when he has Miko give you a kiss. Anyhow, when we go to the park, I tell the kids, "Miko and Woobie don't play park." That took some adjusting to, but now Emily sees the park and gets all excited and hands me her Woobie so she can play park. Kyle is usually pretty good about that too with Miko, but today he didn't want to part with Miko. So I told him that I would hold him while he held Miko, but if he wanted to play, I could hold Miko for him or Miko could sit on the stroller with Woobie. As I held him, him holding Miko, he saw how much fun Emily was having playing park and wanted to play, but he would not part with Miko. I couldn't let him not play, but didn't want to give in (the point of Miko and Woobie not playing park is partly for cleanliness reasons - Miko gets a bath not so often since it requires such a covert extraction and quick turn-around and Emily sucks on the corners of her Woobie, clean or dirty - and part for comforting reasons in that they need to be able to have some reasonable separation from their special objects.) So we compromised - Miko could play park with Kyle so long as he stayed inside Kyle's sweatshirt. Kyle LOVED this. He was doing kangaroo care with Miko! We did kangaroo care with Kyle & Emily when they were in the NICU as it is supposed to be very good for development. Kyle gave Miko such love with him in his sweatshirt. You could see how much he loves Miko and could very easily see how he would love his own baby someday. (The pics show Daddy & Emily doing kangaroo care while still in the NICU and Mommy & Kyle after he came home)

After the park, we went to art class. It was good fun to make a big paint mess and not have to worry about cleaning it up!! Emily had a great time painting. Kyle enjoyed it too, though he much preferred to check out the ball rack and to paint on the big sheet on the wall instead of the little projects around the room. Maybe they will be little Miro's!!

Love 'n 'macaws'

What a wild time this is for the twins! They are learning things at lightening speed and impressing us many times daily with what they pick up. This morning, Emily picked up a purple 4 from the foam flooring, brought it to Jeff who says "that's a 4" to which Emily responds "purple"! Just prior to that, she picked up 2 giant checker pieces and put them on the floor and said "two"!

Yesterday, Emily was laying on the floor with her feet kicking in the air. Kyle saw her and rested his head on her tummy and then proceeded to tackle / hug her. They both loved it! Emily thought it was hysterical and Kyle was so sweet giving her hugs. It was the cutest thing! They have become really chummy lately holding each others hands and laughing together. They really are each others best friend.

So during baths, we often give the kids mohawks with their shampooed hair. Kyle thinks it's the greatest thing. He often asks for "macaw". He also does Emily's "macaw" (see picture) and wanted to give Mommy & Daddy a "macaw" as well despite our dry hair! There's never a dull moment here!