First Tooth

They are no longer the toothless twosome! J Frog got his first tooth. It took about 3 days to go from a red lump to a sharp little line in his bottom gum line, but it's there. Now when I spoon feed him his breakfast, lunch and dinner he spends an extra beat biting on the spoon before I can get it out of his mouth. It didn't seem to bother him too much coming in, so I hope the tooth next to it goes as smoothly.

Speaking of eating habits, J Frog and Missy couldn't be more different. He will suck down an entire bottle of formula for lunch and somewhat ignore the solid food we try to give him. She loves the solid food and shuns the bottle. She even yells when I take a moment to try to give J Frog a spoonful in between her bites. Jealous much? It starts early with twins.

One of J Frog's favorite new places is behind the couch which is where the first two pictures were taken. He's getting so fast with his commando crawling that it's difficult to keep my laptop on the floor while we have video conferences with family. He makes a B-line for the screen and hollers if I drag him away after he's worked so hard. He even ended up under an exersaucer. I had a terrible time getting him out. He kept bumping his head.

J Frog has also turned into an adventurer. If he sees you come near, he'll go back to his superman form and lift his arms in anticipation of being picked up. Otherwise, he's off exploring the living room or heading into the ball room. A very kind neighbor gave us her daughter's old Wiggles tent and J Frog has claimed it. We've kept it in the ball room and he often crawls from the living room to the ball room just to play with the door flap of the tent. I'm sure I have pictures of it. I'll get them up soon.

From the pictures you might think that J Frog is always smiling now. That's actually pretty accurate. All I have to do is say his name to make him laugh. And it's a pretty infectious giggle. Love having smiley kids.

First Day of School

The shame about being behind on my blogging is that I'm missing so many great milestones. For example, LR started school! His first day of preschool and he and I were both psyched! He wore his paper bear which had arrived in the mail the week before. His teacher, Ms. Marie, had sent it for the kids to decorate and wear the first day. He honestly wasn't that interested in it, but he humored me and wore it for the picture. The first day was only an hour, but he got a chance to meet his teacher, hang out with half of his classmates, and test run all the toy cars in the classroom. I stayed with him and all seemed to go smoothly. The next day was 2 hours and I left him on his own. He didn't notice when I left and didn't care when he realized I was gone. I thought all had gone well until a few hours after I picked him up. Then the call came from his teacher. She left a message on my voicemail... "LR had a few 'issues' today and I wanted to talk to you about it so that he has a good year... and all the other kids do too." *sigh* Guess it didn't go as well as I thought.

So, I obsessed about it and then made Daddy call her back. Apparently, he had trouble following directions and he left the room a couple of times to explore the other classrooms and what they had. (On the way in he saw a room with a water table and sailboats in it. I think he was trying to find it again.) And the kicker... he slapped a kid. Daddy asked if anything provoked him, but the teacher assured him that it was completely spontaneous. *double sigh* Okay, so our week of vacation with him turned into a week of discipline. Every time he ignored our instructions or requests, he went to his room. Fun fun.

On his third day of school, I went in for 1 of the 2 hours to help/observe/celebrate his third birthday and found that LR was being a typical almost-3-year-old. He does have a hard time listening, but most of the kids in the class do at some time or other. He tends to be more interested in the other children than what the teacher is doing. (When does that change?) He's a bit of an alpha-dog, class clown. I know it doesn't bode well, but I'm not really concerned either. He's happy and healthy and has a hard time sitting still during story time. Whaaaat-ever. Oh, and I found out that it's the teacher's first year teaching and that she doesn't really have the skill set that experience will give her. (said the woman with a masters in education who quit teaching within a year.) She has a few tricks up her sleeve, but doesn't have a handle on how to work with LR yet. He'll get used to the routine and she'll find out what privileges he doesn't like losing.

One of the bright spots in the week came when we got a chance to go peach picking. We ran into 2 other families with twins while there. Go Massachusetts! We palled around with a 4 year-old boy and his identical twin 2 year-old sisters. Then we hit the playground and played with fraternal 2 and a half year-old sisters dressed in matching OshKosh. The babies seemed to enjoy our time outside and we all liked the peaches.

Other milestones to come: Missy crawls, J Frog gets his first tooth, and LR gets observant.

Wrestle Mania

Every time I put Missy and J Frog down on the play mat it turns into a wrestling match. Missy will grab a toy, usually a side piece of the play mat. Then J Frog will pull himself over and try to take whatever she has by whatever means necessary. So far she hasn't proven to be terrific at defending herself, but as long as she has a good grip on the toy, she's okay. The worst is when she takes a toy and rolls over onto her back. She plays with it otter-style until J Frog arrives at her head and grabs a chunk of hair. I've run into the room more than once to find her screaming with him still latched onto her hair. Yes, that means I do leave the alone when I run to pee which leads me to my next point...

I bought a pen for them to keep them safe when I leave the room, but now I'm thinking that I can't leave them in there together. *sigh* I think I need a baby jail for each child. Uncles Keeper and Corbin should be especially proud of Missy's fishhook. J Frog got a little too close for comfort and she let him know.



In the last picture, J Frog just kept on chasing her no matter where she went.

Duck Tours

Grandma W's visit was a huge success although much, much, much too short. She arrived Friday afternoon and saw the craziness that is our house from 5 to 8pm. It goes: baby dinner, our dinner, double baby bath, LR bath while nursing babies to sleep, LR snack with milk, LR bedtime routine. *phew*

Then on Saturday we decided to go out adventuring right away. Since I was the only one in the family that had been on the Boston Duck Tours, we decided to take everyone on the amphibious vehicles including Abra and her friend Chrissy. The skies were overcast, unfortunately, but it went pretty smoothly. As soon as we got on the boats and started rumbling LR passed out. I was disappointed that he wasn't watching as we drove around Boston, but he woke up for the part of the tour when the boat dives into the Charles River. I guess that's really the best part of the tour anyway. The twins napped off and on and J Frog spent much of the time in my arms. He and I were sitting in the first seat on the boat and got blasted by the heat of the engine every time the driver stepped on the gas. It was a little intense, bouncy, and noisy. The experience was definitely different with my family than it was with my company a few years ago.

On Sunday we decided to leave the kids with the au pairs who were gracious enough to take all 3 of them! What a treat. Grandma, Daddy and I went shopping without our standard collection of strollers, bags, snacks, and a bottle of Excedrin. It was awesome. We hit Toys R Us and then the mall to get a new professional fall wardrobe for me. I used almost all my Banana Republic gift cards I'd been saving for the past 3 years of on-again-off-again pregnancy.

We we got home it was back to Babyland. Grandma W fit in some quality time with LR. She read him books and played games with him. He wanted all her attention, but we put her to work doing things like double bottle feeding J Frog and Missy while they sat in their car seats. It'll be nice when they can hold their bottles. Missy is close. J Frog doesn't have the manual dexterity yet. He's got the gross motor skills though. He just keeps getting faster.

Grandma had to hop on a plane midday on Monday, so the first thing we did in the morning was to go outside and take a ton of pictures. We even took one of just the girls. Between Grandma and her brother, there were 4 sons and 1 daughter (me!). Between SwindDaddy and I we have the same configuration. We both have 2 sons and then there's Missy. She could end up in a sorority and wear nothing but pink for the rest of her life and we'll still have that in common. Cool!

Labor Day Weekend Visit From Grandma

Last weekend we had a wonderful visit from Grandma W. She came out just to see how much these kids have changed in 6 months. While I would love to post all about it, I'm going to start with just a handful of the 200 photos we took. (It was my turn to put LR to bed and it's now 10pm. Boy, I just can't let that kid take a nap. It kills me!)

Missy showing Grandma just how tasty those hands are. We were trying to get her to smile for the camera, but she insisted on covering her mouth. You can tell she's smiling behind there though.




J Frog was more accommodating for the most part. He's just content to be held.






Then there were the zillion shots we took trying to get all of us. Daddy was pretty handy with the camera, but we still ended up with dark photos because of how bright the sun was that day. It was either 5 squinty faces or dark shadows.

Could She Be Any Cuter?

Those cheeks make her pretty darn irresistible.







Careful. Don't get too close or she's get you with her pinchers. (Then she'll stuff you in her mouth and hide you in her cheeks.)






Pensive Missy. She doesn't smile all the time, but pretty darn near.

J Frog is Movin' and Groovin'

I was trying to take some nice shots of J Frog,







but as soon as I got down to his level...







he came after the camera!

Taking the Zoo to the Zoo

We've been a little light on the photos of LR, so here is an almost all LR photo post.

Last Thursday we had Chrissy with us so that Abra could have a dentist appointment for a toothache. Her wisdom teeth are coming in. So, rather than spend $10,000 out of pocket... that's right, 10K... you heard me. Anyone want to tell me our health care system isn't broken now? We are sending her home to South Africa to see family and go to the government hospital where she can get them removed for free. I'm not saying we don't have the best health care in the world. We do for the people who can afford it. We have the best doctors and nurses (Cheers, Papa, Grandma Nese, Gigi, and soon Uncle Keeper), cutting edge technology, beautiful facilities, etc., but there is absolutely no way someone like Abra who is here without dental insurance, could pay for something like this. She might get it done, but she'd be on the next plane home. We're just lucky that she has one more month to travel home before her visa is within 2 months of year end. Apparently, it's tough to get back in the country when you have less than 2 months left on your visa. So we have to say goodbye to Abra for a couple of weeks in Sept. Not really sure what we'll do without her - other than beg and plead with Grandma Nese to come visit. :)

Anyway, we packed everyone up for a quick trip to the small Stone Zoo around the corner from our house when we got home from the dentist. They have a new black bear exhibit and a baby jaguar since our last trip. LR really enjoyed watching the bears from his stroller and then getting right up next to the glass where the jaguars were "playing." I think it was play, but you can see from the picture that Mama jaguar took Baby jaguar's entire head in her mouth. LR thought it was pretty hysterical. He was packed in with a bunch of kids, so I could barely see him, but I could definitely hear his scream/laugh every time Mama knocked around Baby.

LR also loves the little playground at the back of the zoo where there is usually a train for him to ride, but since the zoo was about to close, they shut it down early. LR was disappointed, so I let him ride the helicopter before we left. It wasn't nearly as good as the train, so he seemed a little deflated. I'll be sure we ride the train first next time so that we don't get to it so close to closing time. Then LR helped Abra load the babies into the car. He always leans over the seat and entertains them while we pop their car seats into the docks. More screaming from LR, but less screaming from babies. I'll take it!

This is what I call parenting! "Don't make me put your entire head in my mouth again, cuz I'll do it!"

Hanging out the with Au Pairs

Abra's good friend Chrissy was hanging out with us last week. She's an au pair for another family in the area and we love to have her visit. She's great with the kids and LR can't get enough of playtime with her. I love the pic of her with Missy. It's like a glamor shot! She's from Namibia which shares a border with South Africa, so she and Abra really hit it off when they met.

Speaking of people who are good with the babies, LR is always very loving when it comes to them. He just has a huge heart. When he got a cold 2 weeks ago it was terrible trying to keep him from kissing the babies. We had to institute a no-mouths-on-babies rule. Regardless, within a few days both J Frog and Missy had runny noses. I'm glad it wasn't a flu or something worse, but I'm sure that with LR starting preschool next week, shared colds like that aren't far off.

I have vivid memories of getting a stomach flu when LR was 4 months old and trying not to vomit on him when he woke up during the night to nurse. That being said, I wouldn't change a thing about LR. He always wants to give his friends hugs and kisses. He doesn't mind that they give him the straight arm or duck under his arms. He constantly wants to snuggle... well, when he's not playing cars, jumping off tables, running laps, or swinging bats.

Shy Missy

Right after my last post, I got some great shots of Missy being shy. We went to a farm to pick peaches this weekend and I had to unlatch the car seats from the stroller to get them into the tram to take us to the trees. It was amazing that the farm owners had not foreseen the trouble that all these families would have with strollers when they changed their policy to force everyone to ride instead of walk 500 yards to the trees. Oh, and it cost $8/person for the privilege. Not to say that LR didn't love it, but we won't be going back to that particular farm, so I'd have to say the choices they made were poor.

So these shots were taken of Missy sitting on the floor of the tram when it started moving. I guess it freaked her out a little.







Eventually she came out of her shell.

Bath Time Fun

It doesn't matter how fussy the babies are, as soon as I drop them into the bath, they're happy. I tend to face them toward each other, but recently Missy has had this thing for the water rushing out of the faucet. She likes to keep her hands under the faucet and lets the water spray her in the face. I think this time around I'm far less cautious about getting water in their faces. I can't remember if I babied LR when it came to getting his face wet, but since these kids don't seem to mind, I'm encouraging lots of water in the face starting early.

Missy has hit another milestone, stranger fear. She's cool with Daddy, Abra, or me, but as soon as someone else walks in the room and smiles at her, she ducks her head. God forbid we hand her off to someone she isn't familiar with. That's when the high pitched, extremely girl-y cries erupt. It's both annoying and adorable at the same time.

J Frog continues on his LR-like track of loving everyone who walks in the door. He always has a smile on his face and doesn't mind going to new people. Clearly, however, his favorite person is LR. I think that's the only reason he's starting crawling. Whenever LR is on the floor playing, then that's where J Frog is heading. Today I had to detour him with wooden cars while LR and I played a board game. Pretty sure he's going to need something more like a barricade soon.

Banner Day

Today is a banner day. I finally hit my goal weight. Too bad it doesn't look as good as I had hoped it would. I'm afraid my skin will never recover from the stretching that occurred while J Frog and Missy played dueling blindfolded conductors while in utero. Daddy has said that if I didn't like the way I looked after losing 40 pounds (65 since their birth) I could have a tummy tuck, but I don't know. (He didn't offer that up on his own accord. I asked. Can you imagine? "Honey, I think you deserve a tummy tuck after you lose all that weight!") I'll never forget what a very wise young rugger said to me while we were jogging the 6 mile round trip from Tufts to Harvard and back. I asked her if she ever thought about getting a breast reduction since she was 5'2" and had double D breasts. She said, "yeah, as an athlete, I definitely thought about it, but then I thought I would find something else to obsess about after that, so I better just learn to be happy with what I have." I must have been 24 at the time and she was 20 or so. She obviously made an impression since I've remembered all this time.

Let's just see how 45 pounds down looks first.

Betwixt the Two of Them

Every night when I feed J Frog and Missy their cereal and veggies or fruit mush, I'm reminded of the nursery rhyme Jack Sprat.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean
And so betwixt the two of them
They licked the platter clean

When I feed Missy, she grabs at the spoon whenever it comes near. She'll eat what's on the spoon, grab it, and turn it around to gnaw on the handle. J Frog, on the other hand, only had eyes for the bowl. He could care less about the spoon, but when I hold the bowl above the level of his tray, his eyes open wide and he grabs for it. Eventually I'm left with no spoon and no bowl. If only they were as efficient as a dishwasher, I'd have a good system here.

On The Move

While I was being lazy about blogging, Missy and J Frog worked their tails off and started moving. Originally I speculated that J Frog would be the first to move because he was so good on his tummy, but I had to amend that as Missy started log rolling to whatever she wanted. She's been doing that for 2 weeks now or so. I went back to my 2006 posts about LR as he started exploring our old apartment. (Turns out that I can't remember squat anymore, much less what month LR started being mobile.) He was a roller just like Missy and was pretty good at it by the time I posted in mid-April. That would make him 7 months which puts Missy right on par.

This past weekend J Frog started showing signs of pulling himself along the floor commando style. He hadn't done anything dramatic and since he's spent the last two months flying on his belly and spinning in circles, I was incredibly surprised yesterday when he started hunting down LR as LR played with some trains on the floor. J Frog discovered that he could drag/wiggle his way forward. And once he started, he didn't stop. It was as if a switch had been flipped in his brain. I'm afraid that's the end of leaving the babies unattended for a minute or two while I run to the kitchen. With the core muscles that J Frog has built over the past few months, we're going to have to watch out for him.

The second photo makes me laugh. "Look, ma! No hands!"

Happy 34th Daddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy! You are an amazing dad to these kids. Someday you'll look back at the changes this past year brought and think, "why didn't I just pack some underwear in a picnic basket and run." But then you'll look at your artist, cheerleader, and astronaut (in no particular order) children and think, "I spent 12 million dollars for you to be a god damn artist!" And then you'll pony up for the gallery opening, put on a tie for the first time in 25 years, and look in the mirror at the gray scruff. I'll comb your eyebrows and tell you for the billionth time what a good dad you are. That J Frog looks just like you. That Missy's personality is just like yours. And that LR is nothing like you - from which you take solace.

We love you today and tomorrow. We also hope your eyebrow hair doesn't really get that long.
XO,
RuggerMom

Beware of Potty Enthusiasts

This is a shout out to SwingDaddy and Lady M for their continued progress with Bud on the potty training. It's also a warning. As LR's comfort level with the toilet increased, so did his curiosity. I came home from work one day to find that the toilet had overflowed due to mass amounts of toilet paper wadded up and thrown in by LR. (Abra was at the end of her rope that day after having to clean up toilet water.) Now we keep the toilet paper well out of reach which results in me sitting down and cursing every time I pee and realize, too late, that I have to stand up to get the roll.

That same week I sent LR to bother entertain Daddy while he was in the shower. When I got home from work, I went upstairs to pee. After I flushed the toilet, I looked into the bowl and saw something at the mouth of the pipe. I thought that it was strange to get rust there when it was a relatively new toilet. I looked closer and realized it was my good opal pendant which LR had taken off the sink counter and plunked into the bowl earlier that day. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that I had already flushed the toilet once. I was just lucky that it was a little too heavy to go down. I would have been devastated.

So, SwingDaddy and Lady M, batten down the hatches! I'll cross my fingers for you and hope Bud isn't as curious about plumbing as LR.

"I'll just sit here" and Other New Phrases

LR has a whole new arsenal of phrases that he's been using on us. The first one appeared a couple of weeks ago. He says it when he's particularly disappointed. He's never been a pouter, but when we say we can't play because we're still eating dinner even though he's already wolfed down his and jumped out of his chair, he wanders over to the stairs and says, "I'll just sit here." His resolve to sit there never lasts long, but it makes me laugh every time.

The second is the result of watching a show called "Super Why." We try to pick educational programs for LR since we know we're exposing him to more TV than we would like, but I didn't realize how much he's picking up until I heard him say, "I can't. My story says so." That line is used by a character toward the end of each episode. Now when LR doesn't want to do something I've asked him to do, he whips this handy phrase out.

Aside: Speaking of educational TV, the other day LR came rolling into the living room on his stroller and claimed he was going "adagio." The musically challenged person that I am, I asked him what that meant. He said he was going slowly. I asked him how could he go fast. He replied, "allegro." Go Little Einsteins!

The last phrase he's been using is a little sinister. When we need to discipline LR we say, "I will take you to your room." Recently, he's been threatening us with "I will bang you with my hand," or "I will scratch you with my nails," or "I will throw you down the stairs." He's such a sweet kid, that it always surprises me when something so venomous pops out of his mouth. We've explained to him that threats are not allowed and I quizzed Abra and Daddy about what they've been saying to him. Daddy fessed up and said that he's said, "I will throw you out the window" while playing with LR.

The Past 2 months

Great Reading Material

When I came out of the parking garage this morning on my way to work, I passed a man who was holding a small novel in front of him while walking. Normally, walking and holding a novel = not so novel; however, he had it open and was reading it. I looked at him closely because, lord knows, he wasn't paying attention to me staring, and thought like any good mom would, "that's dangerous - he could step in a hole!" After I passed him I absolutely kicked myself for not asking what the title of the book was. If it was so good that he couldn't put it down, I want to read it!

Missy and J Frog are healthy and happy!

Last Thursday, Missy and J Frog had their 6 month checkup. All is well. J Frog grew 3 inches in 2 months. They were so surprised, they measured him twice and then the doctor even questioned the nurse's measuring. He's now 27 inches long and 17 lbs. He's 60th percentile for height and 25th for weight. Missy is 70th for both. She grew 2.75 inches and weighs 17.5 lbs. J Frog's low weight seems to be the only thing left from being a preemie, but even that isn't bad. His legs are plenty chunky and he can drink up to 7 oz. of formula at a time now.

They both got 3 shots and I asked the doctor to space the two on Missy's right leg a little farther apart to attempt to avoid the swelling that both she and LR experience with all their double shots. Not sure if that was the trick or not, but Missy's leg didn't swell that night. That was an incredible relief. LR stayed home with Daddy while Abra and I took the babies to the doctor.

Yesterday I measured LR and he's now 38 inches tall according to his ever-so-accurate Thomas the Train height chart. Abra and I took some time to rearrange the furniture in LR's room and it's all starting to come together. I'm working on curtains and have 4 of 10 panels made. The trick is to keep LR from touching my sewing equipment during the day. I can only really use it at night after they've all gone to bed, so the process is slow going. Will put up pictures of his room when I finish.