... and babies make four: Our life with twins. : November 2013

Sometimes I feel so much happiness when I am watching the babies that I tear up… there I said it. They truly are the most amazing thing I have ever seen and to think about all the emotion involved with getting them here can be overwhelming at times. Every single day I fall a little bit deeper in love with them. They amaze me every day with all that they have learned!

They love to “watch” TV. I know they are far too young to watch TV, but they seem to love the colors and changing pictures. We catch them looking at it from across the room. They both seem to constantly have their thumbs and/or fingers in their mouths at all times now… makes for some really drooly messes. Riley “talks” all the time! She seems to especially love to have a conversation with the monkey we hung from her car seat. Every morning she looks right at it and smiles. Landon is a little bit quieter, but he has the greatest laugh. He loves when you move his arms around or tickle his tummy – he really starts giggling with a huge smile on his face. Riley loves to laugh as well and she is working on getting as loud as her brother. They are really starting to reach out to grab and hold their toys now. They both love the O-ball. The Hubby is excited because he thinks Riley is reaching out with her left hand more and he said if she becomes a left hand (or footed) person she can get all the scholarships! The big accomplishment this month was rolling over! Landon rolled over last weekend and his sister could not be far behind when she rolled over the next day. To be honest, she had rolled over before at daycare, but I have a strict policy that the milestone will not happen until I see it with my own eyes. We have started sitting them up in their Bumbo seats more and they seem to enjoy it – for short periods of time.

We had their four month check up this week. Landon weighed 12 lbs 9 oz. and Riley weighed 11lbs 9oz. Riley is about half an inch taller as well. Landon has earned himself the nickname of “Tank” due to his short stature – he never seems to want to stretch out completely- and his heft. It is an affectionate nickname. :) We still call Riley “Squishy” due to her constantly having a wet diaper. Hope she does not hold that one against us if that name sticks around for awhile – ha ha. They are still sleeping in our room, but we are going to start the transition to their cribs soon. Currently they both have some congestion, so it makes more sense for them to stay sleeping in the monkey rocker that holds their heads up a little. Speaking of heads, Landon has developed a love of turning his head to the left and as a result his head is a little “off” of where it should be at this point. We are working with him on that and will hopefully be able to avoid further intervention, but he is not happy about it at all.

This past month has been busy! We had their first Halloween and we traveled back to Illinois to have them christened. That was a really special occasion for us - we had the ceremony at the church where we were married, Christ the King Chapel at St. Ambrose University. It was very special to me that the babies were wearing outfits made out of my wedding dress. They looked absolutely adorable! The babies did pretty well in the car considering it is a 13 hour drive - a long time to remain confined in a car seat. We were all glad to be home once we got here!