A Christmas to Remember

Ben and I woke up on Christmas morning at 7 a.m. (Alex & Olivia were still sleeping) to no power in our house. Alex & Olivia both started stirring around 7:30 so we got them up, but decided to keep them in their pajamas to stay warm since we had no heat. Although that did not last long as I soon realized that Alex peed through his pjs during the night. But we did find something else warm for him. Luckily we had some ready made formula around the house so we did not have to open the refrigerator to get their bottles that we had made the night before.

Ben's parents said they heard a lot noise earlier in the morning and thought that a transformer blew causing us to have no power. I called the electric company just in case they were not aware. Their first indications was that it would be turned back on around 11:30, then the next estimate was 2:30 - - YIKES! What were we to do with no power, no heat, and no water until 2:30!!!

Luckily we have a gas fire place in the living room so we used that to keep warm and we went about our morning of opening presents. Alex and Olivia since they had practice with Grandma and Grandpa Krausman were a little more into opening their presents. Olivia especially enjoyed playing with the tissue paper. But once the first new toy was opened.....there was no more opening presents by the kids since they were so interested in their new toy!



Ben got me a set of mixing bowls for Christmas (don't worry, I did ask for them!)....so as I opened them, I let Olivia play with the big one since she was so curious about them. Within a few minutes she spit up right in the bowl. Nothing ended up on the floor, it was a perfect shot for the bowl! So I think Olivia designated which bowl we will be using when the kids are older and they don't feel well! Every home has to have a "puke bowl".

Luckily the power came back on around 12, so we were able to start the preparation of our Christmas brunch which included a delicious egg, ham, and cheese casserole which is a recipe I receive from my friend Danielle (Thanks Danielle!!!).

Here is Alex modeling the new t-shirt that he got from Santa in his stocking! Olivia got the same one, but has not had the chance to wear it yet.

If you look closely at Alex's smile, you will notice that he now had one tooth that has popped up. Olivia now has two that have broken through the skin. So I suppose you could say she got her 2 front teeth for Christmas!

Even though we had no power, no heat, and no water for several hours of Christmas, it made it an extra special first Christmas with Alex and Olivia that we will remember forever.

Christmas Eve - The sound heard around the church

Ben's parents flew into town on Tuesday, December 23rd to spend Christmas with us and the kids. I had to work on Christmas Eve until 12. Once I got home, we did some baking in preparation for our dinner that night, and then we had to get ready to go to church for the 4 p.m. mass.


Of course it took us longer to get ready to leave for church than we planned, so since we got to church late we had to stand during the mass since it was so crowded. Olivia had a blast with the song sheet they handed out. She kept trying to rip it in half, and spent a lot of time crinkling it up. I sat Alex on the floor since he is good to stay in one spot. And he did stay in one spot (even though I kept thinking "what if this was the time Alex decided to crawl across the floor!") and enjoyed playing with my scarf.

About half way through mass, the room got quiet, and all of a sudden Alex (who was still on the floor) leaned forward and let out the biggest fart I have ever heard! It sounded like a fart that would have come out of a grown man, not a 9 month old baby! Everyone around us was looking at us and laughing!

Once we got home, we fed the kids, worked on dinner, and then it was time to get the kids ready for bed. But first we read them "The Night Before Christmas" and got them in their Christmas themed pajamas for the night - - Santa and his reindeer (we think she would make a great Blitzen!).

The first big snow fall!

The Friday before Christmas the forecast for Granby, Connecticut was for us to receive 8 to 14 inches of snow. They expected the snow to start between 10 and 1 p.m, and because of that Ben's school closed for the day which meant he got to spend the day with Alex and Olivia.

The Hartford started sending people home at 12, so I joined Ben and the kids at home around 1 p.m. From there, we just stayed in the house to keep warm and every so often Ben went out to snow plow the drive way. We ended up getting about 9 inches of snow, but then we got about another 4 on Sunday as well.

We did not take the kids out to play in the snow because it was rather cold. I did not want to bundle them up for the photo opportunity just to unbundle them a few minutes later when they are cold! So instead we decided to do the photos inside where it was nice and warm. (I tried to get Alex to stand as well but he is not as sturdy standing, so I did not want to chance him falling mid-picture!)



In other news, since Olivia experienced opening gifts with Grandma and Grandpa Krausman she became much more interested in the presents under the tree. Here is how I found her one afternoon - - yep, she is sitting on the presents she pulled out from under the tree, hitting them, and hoping they will magically open after she hits them.

Krausman Family Christmas

Every year we switch the holidays that we spend with our families. Based on the cycle this year we were to spend Thanksgiving with the Krausmans, and Christmas with the Jarboes. Instead of coming out for Thanksgiving, my parents decided to come to Connecticut for a week in December. We indicated to them that we would be working while they were here, and my mom quickly informed me "we are not coming to see you!" Since they were coming to see Alex and Olivia we decided to pull them out of day care and have my mom and dad watch them during the day. It gave them some great quality time with their grandchildren (I think it wore them out too!) and it saved us a few dollars with day care!

The Sunday that they were here we decided to celebrate Christmas with them so they could see Alex and Olivia open their gifts. Alex really had no interest in tearing the wrapping paper off of the gifts, even as we helped to rip the wrapping paper.

Olivia on the other hand was interested but did not really get it. She did pull little squares of wrapping paper off the presents but also enjoyed hitting the presents!!

The kids enjoyed their new toys from Grandma and Grandpa, and we had a very nice Christmas meal with them.

Alex my boy

Jackie was nice enough to provide and Olivia update so I thought I would be a a team player and do an update on Alex. One of the things you realize quickly is that even though you have two children who were born at the same time they can sometimes be very different. This is the case with Alex and Olivia. It would not have been possible for us to design them any differently if we tried. As you may have noticed from the Olivia update she is a focused little girl. She is always on a mission to get somewhere and do something. Alex has chosen a more laid-back approach to life. Whereas Olivia is out to grab life by the horns Alex is content to do things on his terms and on his schedule.

Alex is still working on the whole crawling thing. This is not to say he sits still all day. On the contrary, he is quite content to roll around the floor. He often ends up in rather strange locations. It is quite funny if you leave the room for a moment or two you may return to find Alex in a rather strange location or position.

While Olivia is quite the serious young lady Alex is the happiest little boy you could imagine. Often a simple look or gesture will bring the brightest smile to his face. He is a natural ham in front of the camera which is quite evident from the smiles he flashes for the camera.

Finally he has developed a new habit. Alex loves to blow raspberries. We have no visual evidence but this morning (12/19) Alex did not wake us by crying. No he chose to blow raspberries for about 15 minutes this morning when he woke up. He's such a funny little boy. He's very different from his sister but he's the best little boy a dad could ask for.

Olivia is on the move

The last two months have been a lot of fun for Olivia and have kept Ben and I very busy with Olivia.

First she has figured out how to move! At Halloween time, she was started to figure out how to pull herself around the house on her belly using her arms - - we have labeled this the "army crawl". She has since perfected that (and she got around quite fast using that method), and has now has perfected the real crawl. I must say I think she gets around slower with the real crawl, but don't tell her that!

When she is on the move though, don't get in her way! She is very focused and determined with what she is doing. When she crawls, you can tell she is on a mission to get somewhere or to get to something. And watch out if you get in her way, as she will crawl right over you - - just ask Alex!!

Then right around Thanksgiving, Ben put her down for a nap, turned around to change Alex's diaper and when he looked back at Olivia this is how he found her:

We quickly lowered her mattress and for a while she was unable to figure out how to pull herself up in her crib without hitting her head. But she has since figured it out, and now loves to pull herself up on EVERYTHING she can in the house!


She is a daring little girl too! Once she pulls herself up, she now loves to let go of whatever she was holding onto. She has managed to stand on her own for about 5 to 10 seconds, but then typically falls back on her butt - - which, with our help, she finds hystarical!! She, however, has not really figured out how to get down off of something so she will either cry for help or fall back on her butt!

And in other Olivia news, she was the first of the Jarboe twins to get a tooth! It cut through the gums about two weeks ago and it seems to only be about one quarter of the way up. It is a slow moving tooth!

It's been a while

It's hard to believe that almost 2 months have passed since our last post to the blog. The time has included me going to MI to see my friend Danielle get married, Thanksgiving, a week long visit from my parents, and trying to get everything ready for Christmas. Needless to say we have been busy and that does not even include chasing around Alex & Olivia!

It is amazing to think that Alex and Olivia are almost a week away from being 9 months old. The time has gone by so fast, and the nights of feeding them at 3 a.m. seem so long ago (although I am sure Ben would argue this one with me). This is such a fun age as they are learning new things every day and they appear to be looking more like little toddlers rather than babies lately.

We spent Thanksgiving with our friends Jen and Eric. They were gracious enough to invite us over while they were also entertaining 8 other members of their families. Alex and Olivia were so well behaved while we were there and providing a lot of enjoyment for Jen & Eric's moms.

Two days after Thanksgiving we bundled up the kids and took them to a Christmas tree lot in Massachusetts to search for the Jarboe Family Christmas tree. It was freezing outside and I am notorious for taking forever to find the perfect tree, so Ben gave me a time limit of an hour! I was so stressed by the time limit and him asking me every five minutes "what time is it"!

We found a tree, Ben cut it down, we got it tied to the roof of the car, and got the kids back into warmth....Then as we brough it home we decided it was too short....so the next day Ben went out to get another one and he was able to pick out my perfect tree for me! Perhaps I should send him by himself every year!


A week after Thanksgiving, we took the kids to get their pictures take similar to what we did when they were 4 months old. However, this time we decided to try a new place. They did great! It was hard to keep Olivia in one place, but we got some amazing pictures! Here are a few pictures from the day:

Halloween Party

Early this evening, Alex and Olivia had their halloween party at day care. The teachers at day care nicely put them in their costumes before we arrived. Alex was Winnie the Pooh and Olivia was Tigger. They fit their characters so perfectly!! They were both a little cranky during the party since it was happening during nap time, but they lasted a little over an hour (it was only a 2 hour party).

They both got to pick ducks out of water to win a prize. Olivia did not waste any time picking up her duck. Alex on the other hand loved just playing with the water and was not that interested in picking up a duck. His whole sleeve was soaking wet when he was done and at one point, we thought he was going to go in head first!!

We could not keep Olivia in one place - - she just wanted to move around everywhere. Here are some pictures from the party.

We've got skills!

The past month has been such a fun time to watch Alex and Olivia grow and develop. I wish I could be home with them now to watch them as they seem to change and get stronger every day!

Olivia has been experimenting with figuring out how to crawl. She has been getting up on her knees, and them sometimes on her forearms. But no crawling yet, but she lunges herself across the floor. Nothing is holding her back now, she can pretty much get anywhere she wants to these days within a short distace. Just this morning she was playing with the door on Dudley's crate! She is definitely going to keep us on our toes. I have a couple of videos of Olivia in action that I will have to post as soon as I get some time.

Alex on the other hand is pretty happy just laying on his back and not moving! Ben says it is a "boy thing". He can roll, but chooses not to...when we put him on his tummy (which he is not a big fan of) he tends to roll to his back. So he has not been experimenting with crawling like Olivia. However, he is getting very good with sitting on his own. Thanks goodness since once he gets the hand of it we probably will retire the bouncy seat and I am sure the bouncy seat will be happy about this!


I am not sure Olivia will ever sit on her own as she does not have the attention span to learn how to hold herself up! As soon as you sit her down she see something she wants to go get.

All the kids at play....even Dudley....

We're 6 months old! (okay almost 7)

Obviously, this post is long overdue, but I never did a post when the kids turned 6 months old! It is hard to believe that they are about a week away from being 7 months old. They are growing so quickly and learning new things every day.

They had a great 6 month check up. Alex was 17 lbs 2 oz (48th percentile), and 28 inches long, and Olivia was 14 lbs 8 oz (25th percentile) and 27 inches long. Alex at 4 months was in the 25th percentile for weight, so he is moving up on the charts, and Olivia moved from the 50th percentile to the 25th percentile in weight. The doctor was not concerned though because she is gaining weight. Alex is much heavier than Olivia who is very skinny and dainty!

I am almost positive that both of their length measurements were wrong so I am going to have them recheck it when Ben takes them back for the second half of their flu shot in November.






As they approach turning 7 months old, we continue to make our way through baby food.....so far we have done cereal, oatmeal (Olivia had a reaction to the oatmeal), squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, and bananas. Olivia loves her baby food and I think she secretly would love to get her formula on a spoon - - she has been known to throw tempertantrums if you take the spoon away from her! While Alex loves his bottle, and I think he would prefer to have his baby food through his bottle!

There is a reason for the assigned seats!!

Before the kids were born we only had one bouncy seat. Shortly after they were born, we realized how valuable the bouncy seats were when we needed a place to put the kids down. The one we had was such a hit with both Alex and Olivia that we decided to go out to by another one of the same one we already had. Instead, we walked out of the store with a little rocker. Not because they did not have the one we already had, but just thinking that perhaps the kids would like a little bit of variety.

As we started using the new seat, it seemed as though Alex did not care for it that much but Olivia liked it a ton. She can really get the thing rocking. So the assigned seats stuck....Olivia in the rocker and Alex in the bouncy. We rarely would deviate from this until recently.

Alex has been getting pretty big and fits in the rocker much better, and when in the bouncy seat he weighs it down pretty good. So we decided to switch the seats one night....and as you can see....it probably was not a good idea....




Olivia is pretty much banned from the bouncy seat at home AND at day care - - we cannot trust her to leave her in there if we have to leave the room for a few minutes since she leans so much to the side. And at day care one morning she leaned so far forward she almost flipped the bouncy seat over her head. Now, she just needs to learn to sit on her own! (I think she needs a bigger base though before she can achieve this!)