We're packing our bags...

...and moving! Well, not us physically (I love my house, we will be here forever!) but the blog. It's already moved actually... and updated! Can you believe it!?

Sometime in the next couple of months Matthew and I plan to add our smiling faces to the 1100 other smiling faces in Utah that are trying to adopt through LDS Family Services. We noticed that a lot of people have their blogs available for birth moms to learn more about their family and thought it would be a good idea so we needed to become anonymous. It's an easier way to get yourself out there and also get referrals from friends and family.

Our new blog is cutelittlemonkeys.blogspot.com. For all of my e-Bffs, make sure to update all your linkys! All my links disappeared on the new blog but I will add them back shortly!

I also removed the videos form the new blog because I am wicked smart and my YouTube sign on also had my last name! =)

I made caramels!

And in doing so learned a very valuable Christmas lesson... it's not the making of the caramels that keeps everyone from doing it, it's the wrapping of them! I didn't get the memo... so there I am wrapping and wrapping. Oh well... the first batch went so fast at the Anderson's on Sunday (and the days before just sitting on the counter here) that I made a couple more batches. One for the rest of the holiday and one to take the NICU gathering tonight. All of the volunteers are supposed to bring goodie to share and it just doesn't get much goodie-er then homemade caramels.

So my boy is so sick! He is hacking away, they are very productive coughs and I guess that's good right? Abbi's sick too and Traci's taking her to the doctor so I will be anxiously awaiting those results before I decide what to do about my little guy. He isn't sleeping well at all because he can't breath and/or suck on his binki and when you get him he just complains. Course his complaints are 'dadadadadadada...nnnnnandadadada' which is even more sad I think. So he's been keeping me up at night since Monday night. Poor little dude. Hopefully he will start getting better soon.

Duncan loves wheels. Any wheels... just wheels. He's so random. He will take all of his pull toys with wheels and flip them over and play with the wheels. Even on Sunday at grandmas I looked over and he had a bunch of wheeled toys surrounding him, all upside down. I guess this is a boy thing? He will take one finger and roll them. More then this, he has realized he can crawl while pushing the pull toys. So uhmm... yea.. that silly lawn mower that he got for his birthday? Yea, the one the makes that really loud popping noise? He pushes it all over the kitchen! And in case you're wondering, it is as loud as ever.

Everyone done with Christmas shopping? I think I am but I am sure something else will come up and we will need to run out. Matthew pulled several angels from the Angel tree at his work. I miss the angel tree I always loved going down so I was really glad when he did it even without me mentioning it. Just goes to show how great he is. Anyway, we went shopping for a lot of coats the other night. He got a couple of toy ones but said once he saw the coat ones it was over, he had to grab those. From what I understand the clothes angels go to families and the toy ones go to a school that allows the parents to shop. It was fun shopping even though we were rushing to hit there and the grocery store in one night. (Which doesn't sound to complicated until you weigh in the twin factor).

We had to be back early because a different quartet had to practice "Oh Come Immanuel" for the Sunday program. I LOVE that Christmas song, it's my favorite so if any of you know of a good version of it leave me a note, I am still looking for the best one.

And I threw this picture in of me attacking Duncan - Who is obviously tired of being smothered - not so you could see his cute face (although isn't he so cute?!) but so you could see "toy land" behind him. Seriously, is this place heaven or what? And in our defense, a lot are hand me downs from Abbi, or borrowed from Aunt Jill!


There is one thing that we have learned and that is that Dylan loves Care Bears. I think she thinks they are her babies. She gets so excited and pulls them close to give them nice open mouth kisses. Don't get any idea's people, we have them all. Some from Shane and Traci - a lovely donation from their cousin Giselle - and of course the crystal Anniversary Cheer Bear from Aunt Jessica.


Keeping busy - Here are the Christmas cards and the wedding invitation that I did in the last couple of weeks. They were super fun! I just need to talk more people in to sending out Holiday cards and having babies right? Get on it people!


The Mathews


Megan and Michael's last minute announcement. And no, it's not in the mail yet... They have plenty of time right? Yea... not so much. At least it's ready when they are.


Okay - and just because they are super cute, here are a couple of new videos of my cute sick boy. This morning he was willing to do his tricks on camera, briefly... I always kiss his hands when he tries to play with my face while I am nursing and yesterday he stopped and gave it a shot himself... It's super cute because it's so new he still has to concentrate and how to get his lips just right to make noises.

Duncan making kissy noises


Duncan waving

Hi mom!

Oh yea... I saw you. Thought you could sneak in but I saw our little visit from Australia. Hope your having fun, envision Duncan waving. (He kind of does it with both hands if that helps.)

Christmas is coming too fast!

I finally got all of our Christmas cards out but we had a little problem with a a shortage of envelopes. I was just using what we had and not wanting to run to the store. So, some will be hand delivered, that means I love you that much more right? I am willing to get envelopes (or steal them from Michael and Megan) so if I forgot you, it doesn't mean we don't love you, just let me know mkay?

Speaking of the love birds, they are coming over tonight so I can do their invite. They waited too long, seriously... they got their pictures taken a week ago and the very minimum to get invites here is two weeks! That's practically the eve of their union. Crazy... anyway... so I will do them and we will get them to Costco for printing and hopefully they can get them out on Monday. Crazy kids... Seriously. They are just lucky they are sweet and funny and have random people they can call in favors from.

I forgot to mention that we went to the pageant last Sunday with Matthew's extended family. This little event is one that everyone always complains about but when it comes down to it, oh yea... they are singing. Personally, I love it... because they all can sing really well which allows me to sing even louder because my voice is masked. So there were all the adults happily singing along while 30 or so kids ran loose and wild tearing apart the church. I am sure every child there slept quite well. I just can't wait until next year when I can let mine loose too, then I can focus on eating the yummy food!

Doug and Sharrie came down on their way to Mexico last night and it was a nice little visit. They got to meet the babies for the first time (last time they came down the babes were in the NICU). Duncan was too busy exploring Shane and Traci's house to be terribly social but he was still cute. At one point Abbi waved to him and he waved back which was my proud parent moment since he finally learned to wave this week. I will go into his room to get him from a nap and he will wave to me. So freaking cute... Anyway. Like everyone does, they were just loving up Dylan all night. She really has this little baby girl thing going for her and I think she knows it. she works it.
Duncan and Uncle Shane


We brought home hand me down toys from Abbi and one is this laughing Cookie Monster. Seriously, have any of you seen this thing? It's HILARIOUS! He throws himself down on the floor and rolls from side to side. I think it's more of an adult toy since I was the one getting the kick out of it. Matthew showed it to Dylan who thought it was funny at first but then it quickly turned into just sheer terror. It was terrible. For the record though, she thinks it's funny again today, maybe she was just tired last night.

This morning we went to the church for a brunch where Matthew sang some Christmas music with a quartet that they put together. They did really super well, but I knew they would they practiced over here! I love it when the entertainment comes to me, I can just sit in the next room with the babies and listen. Santa came too, but it was nap time so we didn't stay to freak out the kids. Besides, I figure if I get pictures with Santa every year, I will have to do it with every kid and why set such a high precedence? Last year only Dylan saw Santa because he came to the NICU at Primary, Duncan was sequestered at home. See, already the scales are tipped, I don't know how parents do it.

The other day Dylan was sprawled out on the couch sleeping and Duncan came over and would tickle her hand until she moved it and then laugh and laugh. She would put it back and relax again and then Duncan would do it again. That was pretty cute. I am trying to put Dylan on the floor more and more so she becomes less of a novelty to Duncan. But I will walk away and hear Duncan giggling and come over to him poking an eye out.

Yep, this was the day, in her new outfit from Aunt Jill.


It has ears!


Daddy and daughter moments.

What a busy weekend!

Saturday we went to Ben's baptism which was so fun. He had so many family members there and was so excited. It was pretty cute. Afterwards we headed over to Ami's, it was a housful and somehow we were the last ones to leave. Not sure how that happened but it did. Apparently we were having too much fun and the party left us.

Then I went over the NICU for a little while and was reminded why I do it. When I went into one of the rooms a nurse said to go into a room where the curtain was drawn. I usually don't go in when it's closed off like that because sometimes the mom is sleeping or nursing or something but then nurse went in ahead to make sure all was well and I went in.

In the room there was a young couple with their friend. The mom was so grateful when I said I was from Parent Support she said "Oh, I am so excited, you are exactly who we wanted to talk to, someone who has been here." As we were talking it came out that their baby will probably be in the hospital for a while even though he was a 37 weeker. He's going to get a treatment for a virus that likely caused neurological and developmental problems. Normally I don't talk about my kiddos because the focus is really on these parents and their new babies but I was compelled to share a little bit about Dylan. There were just too many similarities to ignore, the unknown, the rareness of the problems and the lack of support groups. I shared with this mother that even if there were support groups for my daughter I wasn't sure I would want to know because there isn't a lot of positive stuff out there.

Then we talked about the future and how the doctors diagnose problems, and tell parents what they have to, they aren't taught to believe in miracles and exceptions. I just told these parents to take things one day at a time. Focus on their baby's needs now, get him home and then just focus on what's next because you never know about these special little ones. I shared how much joy Dylan brings us and our extended family and assured them that their little guy will do the same for them no matter what his challenges are. These kids write their own books and none of them are alike, or even similar for that matter. It was such a fabulous conversation and she told me that I was the most inspiring person that they have talked to so far. Not necessarily that their son won't have problems, but they were assured that they could handle whatever he had for them. The nurse caught me a few minutes later and thanked me. She said when she heard who I was she knew she had to get me in there since someone from Parent Support was who this family was waiting for.

So now you have it, that's why I do it... I am selfish. I left with such a wonderful feeling knowing that I was able to talk to this family and help them try to adjust to this huge task that has been given to them. Ahhh... I can't get over it really, it makes me want to go back. I am sorry I can only catch a couple families each week and that I rarely, if ever, talk to the same parents twice.

Saturday night I went to Megan's bridal shower over at Kristen's. Dylan and I left the boys at home an went over for the girl party. It was a nice little get away for the two of us and we just chatted it up for a couple of hours. Matt Christensen did their engagement pictures that morning and we should have them by Wednesday. I am excited to see them! I love Matt's pictures anyway but when they are of people I know and love it makes them all the better!

I tried to give Duncan a little fauxhawk this week and it looked terrible. Between the fine hair and his father's hairline it ended up looking more like a white trash mowhawk. Boo! Hiss! Jill told me that it will look better when he has more hair, that boys all start out like this but I can't imagine... I guess I will try again in six months!

I did my Christmas cards this week too, Ami took the picture when we went tree shopping. I just love to do these and baby announcements, it's a throw back to my working days! It keeps up the Adobe skillz if ya know what I mean!

Almost forgot, Dylan's head was infected! Seriously, if it's not one thing it's another with this little girl. I am so glad I took her in! She had a staph infection which her Ped said is a typical hospital infection. Poor kid. Good thing they put her on that antibiotic!

Mayo shots

The babies got their Synagis shot (RSV Vax) yesterday and boy was that fun! I called on Monday because Dylan had some left over stitches that looked like they might be getting infected, they were certianly irritated, and the nurse told me it was officially RSV season and they needed to come in anyway.

Dr. Wirkus made a quick appearance to take the stitches out and get some of the goo (nast!) to culture and then he was on his way. I was teasing him because he just popped them right out and I swear I tried! He said "Why do you think they made me go to so many years of med school! I obviously didn't miss that day!" It was cute. I really like him, and the nurse Eldine, even though she pokes the kids and then leaves me with them crying! So we added an antibiotic to her daily medicine and it became that much more nasty the it was before (I think this new one is supposed to taste like grape, key word 'supposed'.) So again, thank goodness for the medicine port.

We went to the Festival of Trees today which was fun, man there were a lot of trees... and stuff. I didn't remember it having so much stuff but I haven't been in a few years. Shelly gave me the tickets as a thanks, and I am glad we got the chance to go. Obviously, so were the kids (ha!):

Here's mom though!

And time to go, look at these cheekies!

Big day... (This by the way, is the blanket Jessica made for her and brought to the hospital last time. It's darling! I love it, and she loves to eat the scallops!)


Before we went though, I did try to get some pictures of them together. I will never learn that this isn't a one person job. But I have Christmas cards to think about people! And so, I will just keep trying. I did get a lot of her by herself, but only one keeper of them together.

So much to say!

She's looking at Duncan, I love it.

And a shot of the forgotten baby. Who seems to think I put these blankets on the floor for him... and not so the kids have a clean (and easily cleaned!) place to play. Nice.

Welcome to Holland

Earlier today, I told someone about this little story that I found when Dylan was in the NICU and we were discovering all of her challenges. It's so good, I wanted to put it here... where I can share it with all of you. I kept meaning to, but then I would forget, or someone would get a new tooth... but since I was reminded of it. Here we are:

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David.
The gondolas in Venice.

You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Shopping shopping shopping!

News flash! Matthew didn't get hurt this year! i think that might make two years in a row! So the Turkey Bowl curse might have lifted! I was surprised he even played since he's just getting over this illness that's kept him laid up for 2 weeks but apparently he felt well enough to give it a shot.

Thanksgiving was yummy but neither of my little munchkins took their naps and Duncan was a wreck! Traci and I had big plans to snap a picture of the four kids together, sounds easy no? Well, Duncan was in no mood and we left at like 7 and he was asleep before we hit the end of the main street in mom's neighborhood. It was crazy... I woke him up to change him and make him eat and then he slept all night.

I finally dug up some friends who would dare go shopping on Black Friday and welcomed me. I went with the Kougioulis ladies after effectively inviting myself along. It was so much fun! We started at 3 in the morning and hit the mall, then at 5 we went over to Walmart, at 6 Target.. at 9 or so breakfast at IHOP. So yes, not only did I invite myself, but Eileen also bought me breakfast. This means that it's now a yearly tradition, they have been warned.

Since I was nearly done with the Christmas shopping I basically bought a bunch of stuff that I didn't need. But it was a great deal!? I have to give myself that one... even if Duncan won't get the Thomas the Train set until 2 years from now (assuming I follow the age requirement on the box.) I couldn't resist. It was $15 ya'all! $15!

We went to Matthew's mom on Friday night for Chinese food which was yummy. Along with the normal fried yumminess Kristen got Orange Chicken and fried rice from Panda. I don't think I have had Panda since the babies were born. I rarely eat when I would actually have to walk in and order these days, that's reserved for date night.

On Saturday it was my turn to get sick I guess, and it was bad! I was so sick with some 24 hour flu like illness I couldn't even sit up! It was ridiculous! I very rarely get sick to my stomach and this was the most recent time I guess. Matthew was so nice to me, going to the store for Sprite and letting me stay in bed all day. I couldn't function anyway, it was terrible.

Most of you know this already, but I give milk to a lady who I got in touch with through our Physical Therapist. She adopted little 24 weeker who can't have formula for some reason and she has been lucky enough to find donors so far and little Haley is almost one. Anyway... Shelly came over on Saturday to pick up more of the goods and she told me that they have little 25 week twins at the adoption agency that she works for that they can't get adopted. Isn't that terrible! So sad... There are fewer parents adopting because the economy and people using second mortgages to finance adoptions, so already they have a lot of babies. But no parents will look at these babies because of their potential problems. The 19 yr old mom, who already has a 4 yr old knows she can't take care of them but is staying here until they find a family. Anyone want a couple of tiny itty bitty twins?


What you don't get with this picture is the image of Duncan shaking the bouncer madly trying to get it to sing it's little 'look at me, I am jumping' song. He was... and Dylan was along for the ride. She didn't seem to mind though.


When I run the bath water Duncan crawls to whichever bathroom it's in and does his little 'I get to take a bath' happy dance. (Yes, that's drool!)


Matthew's not as fond of little nekked babies as I am but Duncan peed through his jammies and I was on to feeding the next baby in line. Seriously, his tiny little shoulder blades... I can't resist and sometimes I strip him down for the fun of it.

The cutest hats on the block

Dylie's new tooth has been totally trumped by the new hats that Jessica made for the twins! These hats are fabulous! Stop, I know you all love them and want some of your own, I know... I know. Maybe someday J-bird will teach me how to make them and you will get one. Until then, my kids have the cutest hats on the block, enjoy these cute pics!











They are going to learn to love them because *we* love them. So they have no choice!

Thanksgiving's going to be late this year, 5 or so at mom's house. Normally we do it early so we can go over to Matthew's mom's house at night for Chinese food but for some reason this year they are doing Chinese food on Friday. It's kinds of sad actually, Chinese food on Thanksgiving was unique and charming but now it's like having it on any old day of the week. Oh well. One house to shuffle to, can't really complain about that right?

Matthew will be playing football with a bunch of people that he grew up with Thanksgiving morning. It's a little tradition they have and it's the only time that he sees some of his old friends. He will inevitably get hurt so stay posted.

Abbi and Traci came over today for a serious labor of love project. It took a little longer than we expected but both Abbi and Duncan were very patient while we worked on it. Dylie, as usual, slept the whole time. Her and Matthew, who was home sick from work, were banished to the bedroom for the party.

Hopefully Matthew will get better soon, he is sick as a dog and has been for nearly a week now. I think he's just running himself too thin because no one else in the family is sick yet. Knock on wood.

Dylan has been eating for a couple of weeks now! The home health people called me for a refill of supplies and I told them to call back next month. I think we will be done with them. Wahoo! I do like the little medicine port though, I will admit. Pop it open, dump it in, on our way. Every kid should have one of those, well except for the minor surgery required, that part kinda stinks.

I haven't posted in almost a week so I figured I would make up for it by posting pictures. You'll have to let me know if this actually works and ya'all forgive me!

PS Dylie now has three teeth on the bottom and one on the top, how weird is that? It's almost as bad as Suzi's kids getting their canines first!

For the record...

I have been trying to post... and it's making my pictures Jinormous. So I need to work on them a bit and then get a post up. Seriously, doesn't Blogger know I have two babies that I have to take care of? Thee including my sick husband. Post coming as soon as people are settled and I can figure this out! Bah!

Twin Photo Shoot #286

Yes, that's most definately drool on both of their shirts but hey, when the mood strikes, you go for it. The only problem is that Dylan got hungry about 1 minute into it and I think you can see where it went from there.

This would be a Duncan hug.


This must be a Dylan hug back...


Okay, now Duncan's starting to wonder what is up...


This is when we knew we pushed Dylan too far on dinner. (And I always say it's Duncan that's going to eat her...) Let me add that we know, the video quality isn't that great because both Matthew and I were cracking up.


The WINNER!


And this cute one of Dylan in an outfit she got from grandma when she was tiny, she's finally fitting into it. She's so cute!

What's the plural of diagnosis?

Since Dylan's surgery many new friends and old friends that never got the whole story have been asking what exactly is *up* with our little girl. I have been meaning to type things out but I haven't had a chance. Now, with this quiet moment (you'll notice a lot of my posts come at about this time, Nap time) I thought I would type it out. It's good to have it on 'paper' anyway right?

When Dylan was born at almost 31 weeks they tried to put a feeding tube up her nose and found that there wasn't any room. As a result of that, her nose became inflamed and closed off and she had to be intubated. They did a cat scan and found that her nares were small, she had Pyriform Aperture Stenosis. Also they found a single central incisor which can be an indication of Holoprosencephaly so they ordered an MRI which came back inconclusive.

We did genetic testing and found that Dylan's missing a part of her 7th chromosome, the Sonic the Hedgehog gene, (yes, it's named after that Sonic. Its a pretty important gene that is in charge of lower spine, kidneys and brain.

They scanned her kidneys which are fine, and her back, which was not. Turns out she has a mild form of Spina Bifida. She has Sacral Dysgenesis which means some bones of her sacrum are missing (3 of the 5) and Sacral Agenesis, which means what she has left isn't formed properly. The bones kind of split like they didn't come together right. She also had a tethered cord. These back problems indicate bowel and bladder problems but right now she's just as incontinent as she's supposed to be.

She was in the NICU 89 days, half of it spent at Primary Children's which was where she had the Pyriform Aperture Stenosis repair. She was the smallest baby that the ENT had performed that surgery on. After that but while still in the hospital she got spinal meningitis.

She's not an eater so she got a 'button' in May but she has actually started picking this up. A little late to the party, but hey... she got there right?

In June she got extremely sick with an infection. they did an MRI and found a nasty cyst on her spine. (That's when I started this blog to keep everyone updated). While she was there they repeated the MRI of her brain and also did a 3d cat scan of her skull to check on her sutures. They discovered that her metopic suture, the one that runs down your forehead, had closed early which would need to be corrected. Those 3D cat scans are very cool, I need to get those images on a disk to have forever. Not everyone gets to see their skull right?

After a month of IV antibiotics they decided to go in and resect the cyst tissue and untether her spinal cord in August. They also schedule and completed the Cranioplasty to correct her forehead. So on her very first birthday she got her 4th and hopefully final in-patient surgery. (Knock on wood...)

She also has a common heart defect, an ASD which she might have to have repaired in an outpatient procedure when she's 2 or so.

We finally got the results of the repeat MRI a few months ago when we found out that she doesn't have a forebrain. This very important part of the brain controls a lot of your reasoning, among many other things. There is no seperation between the two hemispheres of her brain which is what Holoprosecephaly is all about. We also found that she has very small optic nerves but her eye sight doesn't seem to be impacted which is good. The Neurologist told us that if someone saw her scans and then met her they wouldn't know it was the same baby. So she's doing great. That's the amazing thing about brains, a lot of time the unused parts try to make up for what's missing so you just never know.

We also get to visit Trina at her office every couple of months because it appears that Dylan's got a serious lack of growth hormones and her thyroid isn't functioning properly. We have meds for the Thyroid and the shots with hormones are coming soon. Boo! Hiss! They will help with her low muscle tone though, maybe at some point she will be all over this place like her brother!

Tiny Babies!

Sara brought over Madison this week so I could meet her! Yay! So ther I was holding this tiny little 3 week 6 pounder. She is SO cute! Seriously, I can't even get over it. I called Sara to let her know I was ready for her to come back but it didn't work. Of course, now we are getting into RSV season so she's probably not going to get out of the house much at all. I tried to take pictures of how mondo Duncan looked next to the baby but they didn't really turn out. You can't tell that he's almost 4 times her size! Oh well, we tried, at least he didn't eat her!




Last week I went to the NICU and was talking to a mom and it turns out that she lives like 6 houses away from us, on the same street and everything. Crazy. But I went again today and she wasn't there. Sure enough driving home I saw the "no visitors" sign on their door so that little one got to go home.

And then today when I was there I ran into a girl that I went to High School with. We kind of touched base at the HS reunion and went to lunch a couple times but didn't really keep up. Well, there she was, had a baby 2 days ago and they will be stuck in the NICU for a while. No fun, poor gal... Maybe we will keep in touch this time. Now we have a little more in common. Boy, wouldn't want to start that journey all over again that's for sure. But she's tough, she can handle it.

Dylan's still eating like a little trooper, tonight will be the 5th night in a row with no pump! Hooray! She's eating great during the day and staying asleep at night. It couldn't be going any better really.

My mom came over today to stop in and see the babies before her trip to Vegas and Duncan was so happy to see her! He crawled right over to her and was giving her loves and everything. It was darling!



Tired Boy!




Pucker Up!

Christmas music in the Haaaa-youse!

Yay! It's that time again. And no, I am not skipping over Thanksgiving entirely which is what Matt says. Just starting things a little Early. Hey, when Costco has like 4 isles of kids toys (Including the Dinosaur you can ride...) and that doesn't even mention their Christmas isles, it's inevitable. Seriously. So I stole back my pink iPod that Matt kidnapped for lawn mowing, and loaded it up with ONLY Christmas music. I was warned that if Christmas music is played around Matthew before Thanksgiving he would delete it all from our itunes. So, I guess the babies and I will have to just listen during the day and we will skip over the two radio stations already playing non-stop Christmas music, for now... For the record, I don't believe him, not even for a minute... he likes me too much.

Dylan had her follow up with the Plastic Surgeon yesterday so Duncan went over to visit Aunt Melissa for a little while. The doctor said everything looked great. He noted that her brow bones are prominent like he said they would be and said they will go back a little. She has a random ridge on her left temple and a bump by her incision on the left and he said to rub them gently twice a day for about a minute and they will go down. She hates it, so that will be a fun two minutes of her day. The incision has healed nicely but the stitches are just starting to fall out so he said to rub hydrogen peroxide on it and that will help get rid of them.

Dylan has been eating wonderfully lately. I haven't mentioned it, knock on wood for us... I started nursing her a couple of weeks ago but have been doing it a lot in the last few days and by golly I think she's getting the hang of it. So much so that we took her off the pump last night and she slept her first full night without food going into her belly. She's chunky so I think we can experiment now with letting her eat whatever she wants during the day and see if she doesn't lose weight. This is fabulous fabulous.

Grandma Shirley is coming down for a doctor appointment so we are going to see her at dinner. It will be very interesting since it will just be me and the babes. I am meeting Shane and Traci so we can follow each other though, I will need their help. I can't even carry the both of them and something tells me the stroller won't be welcome in the restaurant.

Dylan is all about squealing lately, in between raspberries that is. She will just yell and yell, and she's loud! She is getting so fun and interactive we just laugh at her all of the time. She starting to see stuff and dive for it with both hands. toys... your face... whatever, if she wants it, she goes for it!

Pokes and more pokes

So Dylan weighs a whopping 13.8lbs, she's so huge the doctor didn't even mention where in the chart she is. As in... she's not on the chart. We already knew that though, she's bittey, they just say she measures under the 3rd percentile. She got four pokes, two in each leg. She actually got one more then Duncan, the fourth in the series of something. I guess there's shortage but the Dr felt like she should get it regardless. I did ask what it was and he told me, but it was some huge long name so I purged it right away.

Then we went over to Matthew's work so I could get my flu shot. Serves me right I guess. It was fun, we got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in what seems like ages! So shout out to Nancy, Isabel, Shannon, Patty, Kirk and a bunch of others that don't read this blog. (I just know those people do!) It was so good to see everyone, I need to bring the babies in when we can really make the rounds but Matthew's been so busy that we have never figured out a good day. (Did you hear that? Blame him... and put a good word in for us! =) )

Nothing else exciting is going on really. Hopefully I can make it over to the NICU tomorrow but who knows since I imagine Matthew's working outside. Funny story... the last time I was there I walked in to talk to a new mom and she looked familiar. I asked what high school she went to, Alta... so no... not high school. I told her I went to WJ and she said that she transferred to Alta View in tenth grade so we put it together that we went to middle school together! Is that crazy? I have the worst memory EVER so I can't believe I even recognized someone from that long ago. Small world I guess.