Starting tennis young...

Coach Adrian came by to assess (I mean meet) the babies today. We're hoping that he noticed their innate skills that will make them great tennis players one day. If grasping a finger, rattle or bottle is a good sign of a future tennis grip - then Connor and Kate are all set. Now - is that a continental grip or a western??

It's the small things

We gave up on boiling the water for the babies' bottles today. I know it seems small, but thinking about the kettle that has been continuously on the kitchen stove since early November - it seems sad that's it's time for it to go away. That is - until Nanna and Poppa come back and want hot tea!

Connor was in a great mood this morning. I had a chance to spend some time with the twins before I went to work (mixing paint, no less). Connor was smiling so hard, he almost broke in to laughter.

Kate meanwhile is having a blast with hearing songs that she recognizes and starts giving us her 100 megawatt smile.

I can't wait to hear them laugh!

Kelly S. hangs out with us

Kelly came by after work today and played with the babies. She hadn't seen Kate and Connor in 3 weeks. It seems pretty recent, but I guess that's 25% of their little lives. She promises me that they've grown - but it's so hard for me to see that since we see them every day.

We had some fun trying to remember nursery songs to sing. Heck, I can't even remember the correct words to Patty Cake. When I tried to pull it up on iTunes, we found some STRANGE rap versions of it - not quite what we were looking for. Anyway, Kelly shared a few CDs that her beautiful grandson Andrew loves, so we've loaded them up on the PC to use during the day. We are now the proud owners of TWO version of "Wheels on the bus"! It's fun to see how excited Kate gets when she hears that we're going to do "Wheels on the Bus" or "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Connor isn't so thrilled yet. Maybe our voices aren't that good??? It doesn't matter - we're laughing and having fun.

We're 3 months old!

Connor and Kate turned 3 months old today. I was thinking of it all day long, until I came home from work and promptly forgot all about it. An hour later - I had that lightening bolt strike - WAIT - it's their 3rd month birthday... we have to get a photo. By then, I was already all comfy in my sweats, so this is the picture we get!

We've been in size 2 diapers for several weeks now, and we've just now moved on to medium flow nipples (vs slow flow). Later this week, we're going to have to move Connor up to 6 month outfits, as he's about outgrown the 3 month outfits. The twins are still eating at mid-night, but now they don't eat again until 6am. We just HOPE that they are actually sleeping that long.

Here are the previous months pictures so you can see how much they've grown!



Here's the December 27th photo...2 months.



Compare that to the November 27th photo at Thanksgiving and then...



...the October 27th photo from Northside Hospital in the Operating room.

My first day back...

After 13 weeks on leave, it was my first day back to work today. So while that was a big day for me, I don't think Kate and Connor much noticed. Sad in that they don't even know I'm gone... Happy that they are so loved and well cared for while I'm gone.

Ganging up....

Certainly Hugh and I together can gang up on the little ones and outsmart them! Well - I think we did.

I fed them at midnight and then we separated them to different bedrooms (but this time where neither of us could hear them). Hugh set the alarm for 6am - so that's when they got fed. I guess we have no idea if they woke up at 4, 4:30 or even 5am. All we know is that they got fed at 6am.

Life is better (at least for the adults). Hopefully Kate and Connor will catch on and agree that sleeping in is a luxury for ALL of us!

Meanwhile - we had a nice time playing on the floor today.

We were sooo wrong...

Well - Kate sure slept well - until 6am. Good for her! The problem this time was Connor. We put him in his bassinet downstairs so Kate wouldn't wake him up early. Even without little Missy squawking next to him in the crib - he decided to wake up at 4:48am (not that I'm counting). I was able to hold him off until 6:45am with a pacifier - but that meant I was up for 3 hours (by the time I got through feeding him). Thank goodness for the Australian Open being on in the middle of the night... we were able to watch most of the Gasquet/Gonzalez 5 set match.

The idea of me getting MORE sleep certainly backfired last night. Thank goodness for Hugh getting up and taking the babies until 10am.

Wishing on a dream...

Hugh and I are WISHING that Kate will dream and sleep longer tonight. We've been feeding them at midnight - but Kate is waking back up at 4 or 4:30am - not good. I'll do the midnight feed and then separate Connor and Kate for the first time so Kate can cry it out if she has to. I know Connor will sleep longer... the question is will Kate? We'll find out in a few hours.

Nanna heads home again

Nanna had to head back to Miami today - I guess she has her own life too! It's been great having her here the past 10 days. She always seems to know the right things to say and stays calm when Connor and Kate melt down (every day promptly at 5:30pm). It was a shame that it was sooo cold while she was here. The temps went down to the single digits - the coldest weather in Atlanta in 6 years. And as she says, we all say "it's hardly ever this cold" - except when she is here!




Kate and Connor are doing great learning to see things in their line of sight and are actually starting to grab at toys hanging over them. This morning, we had them "sitting up" facing each other to see if they recognized the other person in their site. We think maybe they think they are looking at themselves??? Either way - it's very cute!

Kate and Connor are "talking" up a storm (especially Kate at midnight). they have also both started drooling and blowing bubbles. I guess we'll be using more bibs and burp clothes soon.

We still can't quite get both kids to sleep until 6am. Connor sleeps like a rock and has to be woken up to eat. On the other hand, Kate always seems to wake up by 4:30 or 5am. I had hoped that would stop before I have to go back to work Monday. Hmmm - she may just have to start crying it out this weekend.

We just scheduled their baptism at the Athens United Methodist Church for February 22nd. I'm excited - but have to start hustling to put together sip-n-see invitations. Should be fun.

Weigh in time...

The twins are now 12 weeks old and boy have they grown! Today Connor was 15 lbs, 1 oz, and Kate was 13 lbs 12oz. We still have the "Noisey" digital scale which Hugh says can weigh them at home until they are up to 25 lbs (or fall off the cutting board that we use to weight them on the scale with!)

Connor and Kate are both doing great with tummy time - but haven't quite figured out how to roll over (intentionally). Can't wait to see them keep trying. But then we'll REALLY have to be careful with them on the changing tables.

Almost through the night...

Kate and Connor had their usual midnight feed last night (courtesy of a much loving Nanna). But this night was different. We don't know how or why - but they slept through the night! Kate woke at 6:30am and Connor at 7am. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.

She's Perfect...but we already knew that

We've been a little worried because Kate sometimes crosses her eyes, especially when she's changing focus from up close to farther away. With me having bronchitis, Hugh took Kate off to see the Pediatric Ophthalmologist. Of course, he carried the "diaper dude" diaper bag that Aunt Anne got for him.

At Dr. Levine's office, everyone ooh'd and ahh'd over how cute our little Kate is. She even gave a huge smile to one of the technicians just to be sure everyone knew how precious she is. After dialating her eyes and much fussing, Dr. Levine proclaimed that Kate's eyes are perfectly normal. Amen for little Kate!!!

Poop patrol

Between Hugh, Tracy and I - we realized that we're not sure when Connor last pooped. Thursday is the last day we can think of - almost 5 days ago.

I've always heard adults have conversations about their children's BM's... now I know what they mean. After much discussion (should we give him water?), a phone call to the pediatrician (should we give him Caro syrup?), and plain old Googling (should we give him juice?), we decided that Connor should have some apple juice. 2 ounces at
10am, results at 3:30pm. I think we'll call that a win!

I'll save picture posts for another time.

Back by popular demand...

Nanna came back for a 10 day encore. Hugh saw me struggling, sent out for the cavalry and she arrived in no time flat. How nice to have someone who understands how hard this can be.

Mom's sick

It's my first time being sick with Connor and Kate. By sick - I mean having a cold (vs being sick of them!) It's hard as I really don't want to hold them for fear of spreading my germs. Time will tell if I've infected them... I sure hope not!

Foot prints on my heart

Tonight, Kelly S. came over to visit with us. We took a ton of photos and a good amount of video. Is the video worth a flip? I doubt it. Mostly, Kate and Connor were doing tummy time and squawking. True to form, when I had the video camera OFF is when the neat things happened. Connor grasped the rattle for the first time AND he rolled over again from his tummy to his back. Kelly helped him prop up on his elbows first, but still - he rolled over. Fun to see (oh wait - I didn't see it... I was in the kitchen fixing a bottle). Oh well - he'll do it again soon enough.

Finally before we gave the babies their bathes, Kelly helped me get brightly colored footprints of the twins for their scrapbooks. I've been dying to do this for a few weeks now - so was so pleased that it was easy (and turned out great).

Double Trouble - more twins!!!

Melissa (from our Breastfeeding class for Moms) and I met for lunch at the West Egg. Melissa and I connected during our class last September for several reasons. First - both of us showed up without our husbands, we had both been married for quite a while, we were both having boy/girl twins - and mostly - she was just nice.


Melissa ended up delivering two perfect babies - Jackson and Olivia - 10 days before Connor and Kate came along. She shared a fabulous story about her husband almost missing their delivery due to being arrested ON THE WAY TO THE HOSPITAL for an expired license and tag. Can you imagine the horror?? I think she's laughing about it now - but I bet it was a mess that morning!!!

We both bragged on our awesome babies and looked through all of the cute photos we had. Mostly, though, we realized that we are both going through something so similar and both trying to keep level heads about it. It was so assuring to know that we both had troubles with breastfeeding (despite all of Madeline's terrific encouragement), were working through sleeping and eating schedules, and just trying to balance time for ourselves with the time that twins demand. It was a terrific lunch and we want to make sure we get together every 3 months or so. I can't wait... next time our twins will be 6 months old!

Flighing High

We had a busy day today. Tracy and I started off with taking the twins to Charlie Brown airport to meet the team at the Hanger. Jennifer was quite insistent that we bring the twins - and now I can see why... she loves babies! After holding Connor for a moment, she picked up Kate and I'm not sure she ever put her back down for a moment. Meanwhile, Connor was happy being passed around person-to-person. Even Bill, Marty and Greg seemed to enjoy holding babies.


While the babies weren't on a jet today (can you imagine baby spit up all over a gorgeous Falcon???) - they know they'd love it (maybe one day MANY years from now).
For now, they seem to be happy just being held out parallel to the ground with their arms stretched out and being "flown" around the room courtesy Mom-power.

Duh... I think I forgot something...

Tonight after our bath, I realized it was the first time that I'd ever actually brushed Kate or Connor's hair. They've been on this planet for 73 days and I just now get around to brushing their hair. Go figure.

Feeling Stronger Every Day

I took Connor off to Physical Therapy today. PT Miss Lauren commented on how much stronger Connor's neck muscles are since his first therapy session in December.






It mostly seemed like play for him, but we know Connor was in for a work out. He seemed to be FASCINATED with himself in the mirror - so that was precious. When she kept commenting about how much better he was doing, of course, I started misting up. I hear that those emotions don't ever go away (thanks Kelly). I'm just so grateful that Connor is healthy and thriving.


Kate was a sweet girl to wait patiently at home for Connor to come back and play again. Then again, she slept so much, I'm not sure she even noticed he was gone. Way to play it cool, Kate!

Did you know Angels have tears?

After weeks and weeks of having absolutely no tears when they cry, Kate and Connor now both cry real tears when they are frustrated or upset. It's so hard to see the little tears come out of the corner of their eyes (and it brought a tear to my eyes too). Ouch.

Hang on, help is on the way!

Today, Connor and Kate are 10 weeks old!!!

Tracy was here today and we are so excited. She is smart, organized and a terrific Mom to Shelby and Will. We spent the day together working on learning Connor and Kate's daily routine. We also spent time on other mundane things like how the digital camera and the video-cam work. We have to have the technology to keep documenting these precious babies!

During tummy time this morning, Kate decided to grace us with her new found angelic voice. She gave us several loud coos and oohs and ahhs and it certainly made my heart sing. She seems to wait until the quietest times to try out her little voice on us. Connor has been vocalizing for a few weeks now, so it's nice to see his little sister join in on the fun.

Time for dress up

I dressed Kate and Connor in precious outfits from Nordstrom today and wanted to be sure to take photos of them that really captured their growing expressions. That black jersey throw is going to get a work out with a shutter-bug mom like me!



Connor still makes all of the rubber faces, but he get's frustrated and sure let's you know it too! For little babies - they both can bellow. I'll be sure to tell Doctor B that their lungs are fine.

Kate is smiling and cooing now - so her little personality is coming out more. She's not just serious all the time.




They'll be 10 weeks old tomorrow and I have to go back to work in 3 weeks. Who could leave these precious little babies????

Family lunch

Since Nanna and Poppa are gone, I was back on overnight duty. Hugh took the midnight shift and Kate actually slept all the way to 5:30am... a record for her! It was only tarnished by the fact that Connor decided to wake up at 4:45am. Oh well... as I've said before, night feedings are my favorite time with the babies.



We had lots of family come for lunch today. Was it my awesome cooking? Not this time...it was Costco apps and salads! No - of course everyone came to see Connor and Kate. They'll be 10 weeks old tomorrow. We dressed them up in our cute little Taggies outfits from Nordstrom (that Miss Rebecca bought for us) and were ready to hold court. I couldn't be more proud of these precious miracles.








Grandma was here, as well as Aunt Ruth, Uncle Gar, Cousin David, Aunt Anne, Uncle Patrick and Aunt Ruth. Noisey was here too - since he comes back home to visit with Grandma. Uncle Tom couldn't come because he had another cold. We hate that for him since he loves babies and hasn't met Connor yet (he was in NICU before).

The babies have grown so much since everyone had seen them last in mid-December. Connor flirted with the ladies, and Kate made everyone work before she graced us with her dazzling smile.

Tomorrow is an exiting day, as Tracy starts as our Nanny to the babies. We are really luck to have her joining us. And I'm REALLY happy to have relief to get some sleep after over-nights. It's less than a month before I have to go back to work.

Comings and Goings

Nanna and Poppa have to leave this morning to head back to Miami. Just as I start to miss them, Grandma rolls in from Athens. Sure seems like people visit us more since we now have these magnets (aka babies).

ABC and hearing GREAT news!

We took the twins to Atlanta Bread Company today. Nanna and I met up with Aunt Shirley, Uncle Michael and Cousin Lauren. Note to self: It's hard to unload twins from a car when it's raining outside. To hold a door open, open up an umbrella AND lift a baby car seat is no small feat. Then, repeat to do it all over again. Someone's gonna get wet!


We had a nice lunch of french onion soup (on a COLD, wet winter day) and sandwiches. Fortunately, Kate and Connor slept through everything since they had a nice lunch before we left home.

Before we were to leave, I made a quick bathroom break and came back to see Hays at our table. Since I saw she has just called on my cell phone too - I was very curious as to why she was there. She had a big grin on her face and told me she had some news to share.... she is 5 weeks pregnant! She just found out today! I'm so excited that Hunter is going to be a big brother and that Hays and David will get to add another baby to their awesome family. Yeah!!!! I re-read some of my pregnancy web sites to remind myself how tiny her baby is. It's the size of a sesame seed - but it's heart is getting ready to beat. And I know Mom and Dad's hearts are beating harder now too!




Back at home, we shared the news with Daddy and he was certainly very happy for Hays and David too. Connor and Kate celebrated by spending some quality tummy time :-)
Of course - the twins needed to eat again too - since we had already had our lunch, so Lauren and Nanny helped out with feeding duties. Last feed for Nanna as she and Poppa have to head back to Miami in the morning. Uh-oh for me!!!