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!)

We're twins!

No not Olivia and Alex (well we already know they are twins)....but Daddy and Alex were twins on two separate days!!!

About a month ago, Alex and Ben dressed as twins! This was not planned and we did not even notice until the end of the day. They did this twice in about a span of a week. I thought the pictures were too cute not to post!




And here the men are cheering on Purdue....who need all the help they can get this season!

Baby Food Here We Come!

I apologize for how long over due this is. Hopefully we have all of our technical issues worked out. Depending on my motivation there may be several postings between today and tomorrow.

Anyway, we took Olivia to the doctor about six weeks ago because she just seemed so much smaller than Alex. (This is the problem with twins, you are ALWAYS comparing the two!). She had only gained about 7 oz since her 4 month appointment, so they were a little concerned and told us to switch her formula (she is a huge spitter) and come back in two weeks. Meanwhile I looked in my baby book and I only gained 5 oz between 4 and 6 months, so I thought maybe genetics was playing a little part in things. I took her back two weeks later and she had gained about an ounce. The doctor was not as concerned as the nurse was during the prior visit because he was just happy that she was growing. But he did recommend us to start her on solids. We were originally going to wait until 6 months, but decided to start them both at the same time.

So on Monday, September 8th, Ben had open house at school so I was home alone with the kids from the time I got them from day care to the time they went to bed. I thought I would be daring and try feeding the rice cereal to the kids all by myself. It was very messy (the first time is not for those who cannot stand a mess!). I wanted to wipe their face after every bite. But they did very well - - Alex more so than Olivia but they both did extremely well.