Our basement looks like Geoffrey the Giraffe threw up. You know, the one who doesn’t want to grow up, he’s a Toys R Us kid?

We’ve got a play kitchen with food and dishes, puzzles, new books, a Magnadoodle, a bouncy inchworm thing they can ride on, Little People and their accessories, a remote control car that Alex likes to drive off the end table, and so much more. The kitchen was left by Santa, and both kids were all over it as soon as they came downstairs Christmas morning, opening doors and drawers and mixing and stirring and cooking up a storm. I’m soooo glad they like it so much. I actually got to make breakfast in peace and go to the bathroom alone, with nobody asking me “Peepee? Poopy? Wipey?” because they were so entranced by the kitchen. Yay!

After a break for breakfast and to get halfway dressed, we came back down for round 2 of gifts here, when Don and I finally opened our gifts too. Highlights included matching Crocs shoes for Don and Avery

a new drill for Don, and an awesome diaper bag and hotsling for 3.0 and me. Avery and Alex took a teamwork approach to opening gifts and wanted to play with every single thing before they could be coaxed into opening the next package. We didn’t even open stockings until the 26th, it was taking so long! Then it was a mad dash from here to Grandma Pam’s for lots of kisses and smiles, then to Pop-pop’s for lunch and presents. Well, it was going to be presents first, but someone said something about eating and Alex made a beeline for the kitchen, so everyone took a food break. A&A loved everything Grandma picked for them, especially the wooden tool puzzle and velcro wooden food and metal pots and pans for their kitchen. Alex still seemed to want to get into my dad’s cabinet with Franklin Mint model cars, though. Smart boy!

After that, we headed to my Uncle Gene’s for more presents and food, and once again, as soon as someone said it was time to eat, my children were first in line. It’s unreal how much these two love to eat – they certainly get it honestly considering how much I like to eat, but still… Whoever says toddlers are picky eaters has not met these twins! Great Grandma gave them awesome Radio Flyer tricycles that Don can put together for the spring, with handles an adult can use to push or steer. My babies are so big all of a sudden! They also got a Little People garage that they are loving thanks to engineering and assembly courtesy of Daddy and their cousin BJ.

Overall, I was amazed at how they held up all day with two short naps in the car for Alex and one even shorter one for Avery. We left my aunt & uncle’s just past bedtime – like 7:20 – and I would have bet money they’d be asleep within minutes and zonked all the way home. Instead, Avery paid quite an homage to the stream of consciousness style the whole way home. We were treated to just over and hour of “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, skajfc hqioueya ckjnei Poohy Poohy Poohy sfivnw elau ;.zfmeu Mommy, Mommy, Mommy kfcj qhalifeu Beary, Beary, Shoey, Shoey kjclfeiuo oituari Butt-Butt, Butt-Butt” from her, with a little whining and crying from both thrown in for variety. But they went right to sleep once in their cribs, and Avery slept til 8:20 and Alex was out until 9 am the next morning! They both took a rock solid nap for a couple of hours right at noon, too. The day had definitely worn them out. Don and I were beat, too. The traveling is hard, but it’s worth it to see the twins put the joy back into Christmas for so many people when you’ve been so used to that jaded, grinchy feeling that seems to inevitably invade the holidays as you get older.

We’ll end with some more gratuitous cute pics from the day. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!

Thanksgiving turned out to be a beautiful day in every way. It was 70 degrees – unheard of! We had three stops to make as we visited Don’s mom’s, my dad’s, and my aunt’s house, and Don and I were both worried about how the kids would hold up. We left home around 10 and hoped for the best. Alex took a quick catnap in the car while Avery stared like a zombie at the Tigger and Pooh Christmas Movie playing on the dvd player in the van. “Poohy” seems to be her favorite thing to see on tv these days, along with Elmo and Mickey. As an aside, I don’t know how those marketing companies do it, but these kids who have so few words even for the most common things – they still say “woof woof” instead of “dog” – but damned if they can’t say Pooh clear as day, and Avery calls Micky “Me-oo.” She doesn’t even watch tv every day. Genius…

But anyway, both kids were happy to pose for pictures as they destroyed Grandma’s condo – driving (wrecking) her model car, smelling (picking and shredding) her flowers, etc. Grandma was very understanding and it was a nice visit. Then it was off to my father’s. We did our best to time leaving Grandma’s place at naptime so they’d sleep in the van, but they didn’t.

The kids had a blast at Bop-Bop’s house. They managed to eat twice, steal his new Hess truck, dump the dog’s water bowl all over the kitchen floor, and take the dog for a walk around the block. But it’s clear that Dad and Nancy love having them around, even if they are into everything in sight. My dad finally understood what I meant when I told him that his house wasn’t childproofed. I wasn’t so much talking about safety as the million and two objects that are on display within their 3 feet of reach height-wise – fun stuff to throw, move, climb on, rearrange, etc.

Finally we headed to Jimmie’s for dinner. Both kids slept on the way there, which was nice. Jimmie’s remodeled house gave them plenty of room to run. I think Alex’s favorite thing was her bird, Houdini. He terrorized the poor thing all day by running into its room and yelling “Tweet Tweet!” at the top of his lungs. The bird was upside down, rocking its head back and forth within a few hours. Dinner was exciting – the kids were definitely hungry and put on a show. They each ate probably as much as Don did – turkey, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, corn, biscuits, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. Avery was a little too distracted by it all to really eat at the dinner table, but Alex cleaned his plate quickly. He decided the cranberries were his favorite food ever, pretty much, and ate Avery’s and Don’s as well. Then he got a little nuts and started throwing food, so Don cleaned him up and put him down, then took Avery into the kitchen where she sat on his lap and finished her dinner. By dessert, they were ready to melt down from all the excitement. We left right at bedtime and they snoozed all the way home.

It’s funny how different this year was from last year, when they were still pretty much little lumps who just tasted a few bites of pumpkin pie. We are so blessed to have healthy, smart, funny babies who make us laugh and smile even when they are driving us crazy. We couldn’t help but think of next year, when our children will outnumber us. More craziness, but even more to be thankful for as well. Life’s good.

We’ve started our November album and uploaded our pictures here. We’re off to have our first family photo taken today for the holidays. Wish us luck!

The halfway point for baby 3.0 has come and gone. Jen had another bi-weekly sonogram and our boy is still doing great. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to make all the sonograms that Jen has had this time around due to work and babysitter constraints. It is nice though to see the pictures and know that he’s growing like a weed in there.

From what Jen says and I’ve felt this little guy is super active, especially at night. Part of the power behind his kicks may be this long femur that they caught on the sonogram at Jen’s appointment this week.

He actually looks like a little Karate kid in this picture. He probably just finished delivering a crane kick to Jen’s belly. If he’s half as active when he comes out as he is inside Jen’s belly we may be in big trouble when he teams up with his older brother Alex, who is already trying out some wrestling moves on Avery (which she doesn’t find amusing, at all).

It’s funny because this baby coming really only seems 100% real when I lay next to Jen and occasionally feel him kicking. At that point I quickly start thinking how hard it’s going to be and how I don’t know how we will manage everything. But it doesn’t take long for me to get to thinking about how wonderful Alex and Avery are and how much fun they have, and the fun we have with them. And it makes me excited to add another member to the gang and think about how much fun Alex and Avery will have with their new baby brother.

You can see all of the sonogram pictures for 3.0 here.

I was heading down the hall this morning – I forget what for – and I had one of those Oprah a-ha moments. I could hear the thump-thump of four little feet padding along behind me, giggling and following like little ducklings. It really is the best sound ever. And I realized for about the zillionth time how blessed I am to have these babies. They are so much fun these days. They are monkeys, climbing everywhere, exploring everything with no fear. You seriously cant turn your back for a second or they are up on a couch or chair, or someone smacks the other with a sippy cup, or they are using teamwork to accomplish some devilish goal. They love to help and follow directions. They are better at fetch than the dogs, because you can tell them WHAT to fetch – diaper, wipes, shoes, socks, bear, etc.- and they go to the room you say and actually bring the item back about 85% of the time. They answer questions with a “yuh” or a “no.” They understand sooooo much and are little sponges. Avery will grab a book and point at everything in it, wanting me to name each item. Alex runs up and gives hugs and cuddles out of nowhere, just because he likes to snuggle. He still has the best giggle ever, and has super ticklish feet to go with the laugh. I am absolutely in love with them.

To go with their little twin feet, their baby brother has been wiggling around in my belly for a couple of weeks now. I feel him every day now pretty much. Just little wiggles, and only if I am in certain positions, but it still never gets old. It makes me excited, like he is more real somehow. It makes me a little sad, too, knowing this is likely my last pregnancy, because seriously, 4 kids? I cannot even imagine. So I try to treasure each little thump and bump. This poor kid – he has no name and we have not even chosen any “maybes.” We are definitely open to suggestions. We found a crib we like, and planned to buy it on sale at Amazon, but when I went to buy it on the day the sale was supposed to end, it had mysteriously doubled in price. Amazon was no help, so now we are patiently waiting for it to go back on sale.

Thanks to him, I am now a minivan driving momma. Ugh, I hate the thought. I love the inside of our new Odyssey, and I just try not to think of how terribly dorky I look from the outside. The twins love it, especially the sliding doors. I am sure Don will take pictures of the new ride and post about it soon.

The Kitchen Family is happy to announce that we will be releasing a new version of our Kitchen Family Child software. This release, version 3.0, is due out on March 20, 2008. This date is obviously subject to change do to any circumstances that may be out of our control (you know how software projects go).

This is not a maintenance release, this is a completely new version of our ever so popular Kitchen Family Child software. As you know we were very aggressive with our first release and did something very uncommon in this industry, a version 1.0 and 2.0 release both on the same day.

Rest assured, we will not be doing the same thing with this release. While it was unplanned, version 3.0 is welcomed and will definitely only be a single version release.

Here’s an early screen shot of the initial design for version 3.0:

(For those of you who don’t speak computer-ese, I’m pregnant again! And you thought our lives were crazy now!?! Just wait til March.)

Poor Alex. He can’t catch a break. He finally got past the worst of his teething troubles, and now he’s got croup. It started Saturday night, when I went in to check on him before bed, like I usually do, and he was laying in his crib, wide awake and burning up but not crying. It was creepy how he was just laying there looking dazed. He had a fever over 102, and when Tylenol didn’t bring it down, I called the pediatrician in the middle of the night. It didn’t seem like anything other than the fever, so we didn’t go to an urgent care place. By Sunday night at bedtime, he had a runny nose and sounded so congested that he couldn’t sleep. We tried everything – bringing him into our bed, sleeping with him upright on my chest in the recliner, holding him… it didn’t matter. He slept in 45 minute increments at best all night. It was so scary listening to him unable to catch a breath, wheezing and coughing. It reminded me of the newborn days, and why I don’t miss them. A quick trip to the ped. got him diagnosed Monday morning, and he seems much better now. He’s whiny and fussy and wants to be held, but the stridor sound is gone when he breathes in. He’s totally hoarse, though. Nothing sounds as pathetic as a baby who’s trying to cry but can’t. Don is getting over a cold, Avery has a runny nose, and my throat has that tickle that tells me a cold is on the way. Hopefully we’ll all be on the mend soon.

The twins turned 8 months old yesterday. Do you know that’s 2/3 of a year? It seems nowhere near that long, but it also seems like forever somehow.

Things are as busy as ever in our house. Avery’s bottom two teeth are through and almost as big as Alex’s. They love using them and their gums to gnaw on table food. Soft veggies like carrots, green beans, peas, and potatoes have been a hit, as have pasta, chicken and rice soup, goldfish crackers, and pretty much anything else I can chop up into small enough pieces. Avery is a daintier and slower eater, while Alex is of the belief that the more he can shove into his mouth at once, the better off he is. He loves to steal things from Avery’s tray since she’s so much pokier. Unfortunately, I have to be careful what I give them because we think Alex may be allergic to milk, which is an ingredient in more than I ever realized. I had him at the doctor last week to see if she had any ideas why he was so whiny all the time, and why his reflux wasn’t improving. She suggested the possible allergy and now he’s on special hypoallergenic formula and we have an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist next week. She said we’d see improvement within a couple of days if the formula / dairy was the problem, and while he’s not as fussy, he is still leaving a slime trail like a slug wherever he goes. Our carpets are trashed, his clothes are changed about 3 times per day, and this new formula reeks. We’re sticking with it for another few days and then I am going to switch back to see if things worsen, which would help to confirm the allergy.

Alex has also been waking at night again. Sometimes I think it’s just a habit, but other times I think he may be having night terrors. It’s the strangest thing – he “wakes” in utter panic with loud screams and hysterical crying, but doesn’t want his binky or teething tablets or anything else that usually calms him. Even if Don or I pick him up, he keeps crying, and even though his eyes are open, you can tell he’s not really there. It’s scary for us and I hope it’s just a phase. It takes anywhere from 5 minutes to over an hour to get him back down and peaceful, if not asleep, in his crib. I did some reading online and there doesn’t seem to be much we can do about it if it is truly night terrors other than hope it passes quickly. It breaks our heart to see him so upset.

He’s also turned into a champion crawler and is loving his independence. We used to see the devilish glint in Avery’s eyes and think she was going to be the source of all our trouble, but Alex is holding his own. He has this great skill with finding the one thing in a room that you don’t want him to touch… the laptop computer, our touch lamp in the bedroom, the diaper can and trashcan, anything in the hall bathroom… They say this is the age when separation anxiety begins, but he has no trepidation about crawling out of my site. I ask him to follow me down the hall and he starts to, but then hangs a right into the bathroom to bang on the tub. And when I am changing Avery’s diaper, he slips out of the nursery and into our bedroom to bang on the lamp. One really cute thing he does is to stop at every new surface and touch it, from carpet to pergo to area rug, sort of like he’s testing to make sure it’s safe. I am VERY careful to keep the new stair gate closed at all times. The little bugger has gotten very fast!

Avery has turned into the happiest little baby. She always has a grin for us and babbles “mamama” and “dadada” nonstop. She has no apparent interest in getting mobile. If we sit her somewhere, as long as we stay within her eyesight, she’ll just play with whatever’s around or swing and wave her arms like a fool if nothing is around to play with. On her belly, she can spin in circles or scoot backwards, but there is nothing close to forward movement, so if I give her something to play with, I have to put her with her feet against a wall or she’s backed away from the toy about 2 minutes later and flapping her arms like a bird, trying to will herself forward to reach it again. She still hates naps. She takes them 2 or 3 times a day, but they are always short and I barely have time to eat or shower before I hear her in their room, babbling away.

Both babies have figured out how to push down the bumpers and peer out like little jailbirds to see what’s going on in the room. Alex likes to drop his binkies out through the slats. I guess he hasn’t figured out that they don’t come back when he does that. The other day, he fell asleep waiting for something interesting to happen.

Time to end the post – someone is awake and needs to be reminded it’s bedtime!

Avery’s had a very busy week! She’s definitely a tough little girl, too. Her bottom two teeth can definitely be felt just below the gums, sharp and ready to break through if they haven’t already. They are right at that point where it’s hard to tell. She’s also been really congested and wakes up with this terrible glob under her nose every morning that takes about 10 minutes to completely suck out. She sounds like she’s snoring when she drinks a bottle and I feel awful for her. She has an amazing talent for blowing snot bubbles – so gross. Since she’s been fighting this cold for over two weeks, I finally took her to the dr. today and found out her left ear is definitely infected, and possibly the right one too. She’s on amoxicillin for that and hopefully it’ll clear up soon. I hope she’s not inherited my crummy immune system. I know I had a ton of ear infections as a kid and had to get tubes in my ears. Through it all, though, she’s been as happy as ever. She smiles and giggles and doesn’t act like she’s sick or in pain – such a little trooper. Much different than her brother, who is whining during the day and waking often at night. I think he has a top tooth coming in now. It’s so funny to me how opposite these twins are – teething gives Alex fits, while Avery has sailed through without a complaint. But if Alex falls over from sitting and thunks his head on something, he doesn’t miss a beat, and if she does the same thing, she cries like there’s no tomorrow. Strange…

Avery has also started to very clearly say “Da-da.” She says it ALL THE TIME, much to Momma’s dismay. I know she hasn’t associated it with Don yet, though he insists she’s talking about him. I’ll remind him of that when she’s calling it next time she has a dirty diaper, or on one of her 5 am wake-up days. We have some really cute video of it that we just need to edit down to a reasonable file size before we post it.

And finally, a clear shot of Alex’s bottom teeth. They are much bigger now – this was taken a week or so ago. They are sharp, too. The little turkey viper accidentally bit me at dinner tonight and it hurt!

Well, two teeth, actually. The beginnings of them anyway. Don and I have been saying for a couple of weeks that Alex was really close to getting his first tooth. He had all the classic signs – drooling, fussiness, waking at night, grabbing his mouth and crying, etc. And every day, we’d try to look and see, but he has this little trick of covering his gums with his tongue anytime we try get a peek. We’d feel around and never felt a lump or anything. So yesterday, we went to the doctor for flu booster shots and I wanted to ask if we were giving him too much Motrin because he’d been getting it every night about an hour after bedtime for a week or so. Teething tablets helped during the day, but pain really seemed to be getting him at night. The doctor came in and checked him for an ear infection and made sure nothing else was wrong, and told us to try Tylenol instead since it was less irritating to the stomach. What really surprised me was that she looked in his mouth and said it would be “awhile” before he actually got a tooth. I was dreading weeks longer of his fussiness. Imagine my surprise when I caught a glimpse of something on his gums today. I felt with my fingers, and not only is there one jagged little edge on his bottom gum, but two jagged little edges poking through. He seems to be getting both central bottom teeth at once! I don’t know if we’re supposed to count today then as his first tooth or wait til it grows in a bit more. He certainly didn’t seem to be in as much pain as he has been – I think it must be awful to feel something pushing up through your skin like that. And now that it’s partly through, he’s feeling better. And I guess that doctor and I have different understandings of the word “awhile.” At any rate, it’s exciting and bittersweet at the same time. Between that and the crawling, I feel like he’s growing up an awful lot in the last couple of days and sometimes I just want him to slow down so I have my baby longer!

We’re finding that we get more than a little frustrated with our pediatricians’ office pretty regularly. There are 4 or 5 different doctors we’ve seen, and they seem to have differing opinions on everything we ask. It makes it hard to feel like we’re making the best choices for the babies when they don’t seem to have a consensus, and often their advice differs from what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends. For example, at the 6 month appointment, I asked about adding baby foods with meat, and dairy products like yogurt to their meals. The doctor we had that day said no meat til 9 months, and no milk or dairy at all til 1 year. Everything else I’ve read says 7 or 8 months is fine for both. And I wouldn’t mind so much if they just were ultra-conservative about everything, but a different doctor really encouraged us to start cereal and fruits at 4 months instead of 6 to help Alex’s reflux and Avery’s constipation. One put Alex on Zantac 3 times a day for his reflux and told us to call if it wasn’t working so we could adjust the dose. But when I called to get it adjusted, another doctor told me he was on the max dose for his weight and switched him to Prevacid once a day. She said to mix it with applesauce. Don picked it up and all the directions say in bold print, “Mix ONLY with water.” At $50 for our monthly copay, I want to be sure we’re not making it ineffective by doing what the doctor said. And he’s been puking more again, so I really wonder if they have a clue. Though he also has a fever tonight, probably (hopefully) from the flu shot, so I figure I need to wait til the fever breaks to see if that and the puking are related or not. My friend Katie just had a little girl a week ago, and one of the doctors told her to avoid kissing her because of it being cold & flu season. How can you tell a new mom not to kiss her baby?!? But there are only 3 pediatricians’ offices in Mt. Airy, and one isn’t taking new patients with our insurance, so if we leave this practice, it seems like we only have the one other choice. Maybe I’ll have to do some more research for surrounding areas. Before the babies came, I wouldn’t have thought twice about having their doctor be in Columbia or Frederick, but now that I see how often we go, and how hard it can be to get there, and sometimes how quickly we need to go, it sure is nice having them 10 minutes away. The price of living in Mayberry, I suppose… In the end, we make our own decisions, but we’re new at this and I like feeling like I have the doctor’s expertise on my side, and more often than not, I feel like I question their judgements.

At any rate, I’ll post a pic of Alex’s toothy grin soon, I hope!