Trick or treat

Imagine that Dash's thought bubble says "I've decided to take over The World!"

We don't have any candy. If any kid is daring enough to dress up and brave the darkness and the local bear and come through our neighborhood to trick or treat, I'm going to have to hand them a twenty and praise their courage. **

Few things are cuter than an infant wearing stripes. Thanks, mysteriously yet conveniently located Hanna Andersson outlet in Woodinville! If I was rich I'd buy all my kids clothes there.

cute boys napping propped upon the floor to minimize post meal hurling

Today was a peaceful day. It's now 3am and only an hour till my shift is over and I can sleep. Good thing these boys are irresistibly cute.

**subsequent children will receive fresh tasty apples

skelingtons

The boys attended their first work halloween party today. It was filled with kids and candy and spooky decorations. My favorite costume: a three week old little girl wrapped up in aluminum foil with a real tortilla and lettuce cradling her head. Baby burrito, indeed! There were several luke skywalkers, princess leas, a harry potter and her red spooky witch sister, race car drivers, bumblebees and ladybugs, everything you could imagine. And two skeletons. I meant to take better pictures but Dash managed to pee all over his on the way home, was raging in general, and it had to get pulled off rather quickly. Luckily I grabbed a couple of pictures before we left.

Other than that adventure, Charlie's mom is visiting for a week and watching the boys grow. You'd think the woman had already raised a set of twins, the way she's handled some of their night shifts. I slept for seven hours in a row.


The boys are in a super cute stage, Liam especially. He's so very close to smiling at me. We spend a lot of time staring at each other and sticking our tongues out. Dash is suffering through a bit of a cold that Charlie brought home from work, so the poor guy has been sacked out on somebody's lap pretty much continuously, snorting and snuffling. I'm sure his turn to be cute will come next week. This is Liam during one of our late night mutual adoration sessions:




And so as not to play favorites, Dash looking cute on Charlie's lap

screaming mimi

In this picture from the other day, Dash looks about how I feel right now

The boys official due date was Friday.....seems like they've been here for ages! The past few days have been a blur of feeding and friends visiting and sleeping a little bit. Tonight, Liam has decided to perfect his spontaneous freak-out shriek. He's tucked on my chest in the moby wrap, and that has just slowed down the frequency to every 5-10 minutes instead of a steady air raid siren wail. Why? Who knows. Perhaps his brain is growing and it aches. Just when I think things have settled down (like right now, in the middle of this sentence) the little head below my chin flings back and remarkably loud sounds start. A few minutes of walking and jiggling and it shuts off and resets.
Thank you, Dash, for being relatively mellow right now.
Since cohesive typing is a luxury at the moment, I leave you with (silent) pictures:

dueling pacifiers

Liam reclines in the bath, moments before peeing in his own face

I will miss Dash's wizened old man face when he puts on some baby fat

togetherness

I've been experimenting this week with putting the boys together to wriggle and play and maybe even sleep. They seem to be mildly aware that another being is there, and perhaps they feel each other on a more primal level after spending so much time next to each other inside of me. But the rest of the time they grunt and warble and flail and smack each other and pretty much are unmoved. But then they fall asleep and are so damn cute. Yesterday because of laundry issues and the fact that they just don't have many outfits that fit them right now (they grow so fast, and my newborn clothing stash came mostly from lovely gifts) they were dressed identically. I know I vowed never to subject them to that, but I figured if a twin dresses like a twin in the woods and no one hears it, did it really happen? Yet here I am posting proof of their matchy matchy super cute outfits. Little wee bears and pine trees!

Mom's second quilt came! Now I just need to decide who gets which one...

tonight I finished cooking dinner while Charlie served as a napping plaftorm

Today's sweet boys, not sleeping. After a morning of sleeping (and pancakes, don't forget the pancakes) there was a whole lot of not sleeping the rest of the day. I love that in this photo they look like they're leaping up and clicking their heels together, their life choreographed by Jerome Robbins.

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Bonus video of wiggly boys. They do plenty of crying and shrieking, but the rest of the time they've got a vocal rambling repertoire of little grunty animal sounds.

One Month

I simply cannot get enough baby toes.

Yesterday the boys were four weeks old, and today they had their one-month checkup. Dash now weighs 6 pounds 12 ounces, and Liam is 7 pounds 4 ounces. They actually gained identical amounts of weight. They suffered the indignity of their second Hep B shot, and then we were pronounced healthy and out the door.


I celebrated by taking the boys on an outing to Petco. Thrilling, I know. But it was even more fun because Charlie dipped his toes back into work today and I had the boys to myself for the entire day (though he did meet me for the pediatrician appt and then went back to work) (and then was awesome and brought Spicy Talk super hot szechuan food home for dinner). It's become more and more apparent that our cat-peeing problems are because the cats are getting old. Henry especially seems to be having to work pretty hard to get up and down the stairs. It was time to have a cat box on every floor. So I popped the boys into their carseat-stroller (thanks Elisa!) and paraded myself into Petco. Following the advice of my moms-of-multiples group, I pushed the stroller ahead of me and pulled the shopping cart behind. Yes, I may have been a bit of a spectacle but it worked perfectly! I did perhaps look like a crazy person who just got a new cat along with new babies, since I was buying a new box, scoop, more litter, etc. But tomorrow afternoon Henry will have brand new facilities and fingers crossed that fixes the problem.

baby parade float

In six months, pushing a stroller and dragging a cart will probably be a bit old and tiresome, but today I felt like doing a little jump and tapping my heels together with glee.

slowly mastering the art of carrying two babies at once, and still having one hand free to do something

Podling

Sometimes they seem huge, and sometimes teeny tiny.

fresh air

sweet baby toes

We've had a stretch of lovely fall weather, windows opened during the day and leaves falling in the sunshine. Yesterday we bundled the boys and walked with them to the mailbox to get a week's worth of mail. A mile carrying a six pound baby is a pretty good workout! Today we assembled the double stroller and went for a longer walk through the neighborhood. It was so wonderful to breathe and move around in the sunshine. The boys slept through most of it, but did wake up near the end to announce that they were terribly hungry. Good thing we were almost home.

sunshine! babies! blankets and hats!

Other than that, the days have been passing in a comfortable hum of feeding babies, burping babies, changing babies, sitting with babies, Charlie cooking lots of delicious food, and watching Poirot movies. I can't bear to think about the end of this week, when things will have to move to a new more long lasting normal.

just barely fitting into his newborn-sized puppy pajamas

sleepy spaceman

We spend a lot of time remarking that the boys are bigger. Yes, yes, I know that people always say that they are only small for a short time and things change quickly but I really didn't see it until we had a swing that one day Liam barely took up a third of and now a week later he fits in it just fine. And they have outgrown one size of diapers. And pretty soon they'll be asking for the keys to the car.


So this isn't a perfect comparison because I didn't hold the camera exactly in the same place....Liam isn't that much bigger than his brother. He weighs about a half pound more than Dash, but definitely has a more robust bone structure. But here you can see their different hair color and head shape. And belly buttons. And buddha bellies.

compare and contrast

Liam, Dashiel

This was supposed to be a "look how different they are!" comparison. But after I managed to get photos of two schlumpy babies all curled up but at least facing the same direction, I seem to be only highlighting their similarities. At least you can tell the size difference. Liam's big melon head is quite robust.

this is a yawn, I promise

contemplation

I am convinced that once I get face-forward pictures you'll be able to see the differences that are obvious to me.

plotting domination

Bonus for today: babies were wearing cute outfits and not gowns! Those gowns are the damned best timesaving invention in infant wear, but there's nothing quite like little bears on your feet to make the screeching more bearable (ha!).

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Bonus image: Woman, I WILL escape this swaddle! Just grease up my shoulders a little bit more...

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Bonus technical note: the two images side by side in one photo is courtesy of the Picnik online photo manipulation tool. Free (unless you pay a little for extra stuff) and it's got a damn fine interface. I've been using it for simple brightness and contrast manipulation without having to load up photoshop, but it's also got a zany selection of things you can do to pictures to jazz them up. Two thumbs up! (also, it happens to have been invented by a guy I used to work for, and man how is it that some people just turn everything they touch into money! I am envious and proud)

noctournal

Liam does some intense work

Around 10 or 11, Charlie goes to bed and the night begins. The boys pretty much party with me until 4 am, when I wake up Charlie and they magically start eating and sleeping for him. I suppose it's just that I've got their witching hour....hospital babies are notorious for having day and night confused. The rodeo really gets going when both of them want to be held, and it's a two handed operation just to get one into my arms or draped over some part of my body with their little wee floppy necks and all. They don't exactly understand the concept of waiting and only have one reliable mode of screeching communication.

Last night was rough, I'll admit. There was painful spitting up on Dash's part, simultaneous requests to be held and jiggled and at one point I'm not even sure how I got them both onto my lap but there were 5 minutes of peace before Dash spit up again and starting flinging himself backwards and bellowing. Then we all slid down onto the floor and I was inching along on my way to get Liam into a swing so that I could tend to Dash. Charlie just happened to wake up right then and came down to give me a hand (and yes, he makes me promise each night to come wake him up if I need help but I was being stubborn andtrying to see if I could resolve a moderately complicated situation myself!) and we pacified the beasts. Then the night went on and while the three of us didn't exactly sleep, Charlie did and I tumbled into bed at 4am victorious.

lap party

Tonight is the Moby experiment. I'm not agile enough to try the twin carry when I don't have Charlie to rescue me out of it if things get crazy. But I've got Dash stashed in here right now and Liam parked on my lap. There is peace so far, though Liam's eyes do not show the tiniest wee hint of a sort of desire to sleep. Ever. When Dash wakes up hungry, I'll swap who is on my chest and hopefully that one will sleep for a bit.

three weeks, embiggened

Harry catching some lovely fall rays

The boys, they grow. Yesterday was their first pediatrician appointment (three weeks old!) and they were pronounced hale and wriggly. Dash now weighs 6lb 1 oz, and Liam 6lb 9 oz. This comes as no surprise to us. As a small example, this is how I spent the wee hours of my morning before the appointment: I fed someone at 9.45pm, 9.50, 11, 11.30, 12.40am, 1, 1.15, 2, 3.20, and 3.45. Then I went to sleep and Charlie took his turn. I think it's clear that they have surmounted the not-wanting-to-eat obstacle and have advanced directly to ravenous hunger.

woman, I will prove I am cute even while screaming!
(crying baby picture especially for Gabriel's amusement)

Dash enjoys the sunshine in the kitchen, while not screaming

In between the bodily functions, we've been enjoying our defensive position set up on the first floor of the house. Charlie was absolutely brilliant to get everything arranged so that we can take care of babies and ourselves at the same time. I must say that the kitchen remodel is playing a glorious part in this all. It's so nice to be able to see through to both of the rooms. Our laptops are perched on the island, and the sink is constantly in use with bottles and whatnot. Then there's the tasty food that Charlie keeps putting out during the day. I will be sad when it's just me at home, and he's at work, and no smoked cheddar/apple/ham grilled sandwiches show up in front of me. We've also moved the tv into the living room and when our brains are too tired to do anything else there is a huge stack of the BBC Poirot mystery movies that we have been watching. They are absolutely awesome.

From my cousin Sean and wife Lisa....can't wait till they can fit into these!

amuse bouche

By the grace of several items, some gorgeous weather, and awesome furnace repair men we have survived, nay, enjoyed our first few days at home. Thanks to Bel Red heating, for coming out within hours of my call to troubleshoot the furnace. It turned out to have an incredibly obscure part malfunctioning, but they super quick ordered it and the came right back out today to install it. The house is toasty again!


And huge thanks to Regan, who had a baby swing she was parting with and brought it over last night. That thing is like voodoo magic for babies, especially ones who needs to sit upright for at least a half hour after eating to avoid meals coming back up. Then there's amazon fresh, of course, who recently started delivering to our zip code. This is huge for people who live in a house and can't even get a pizza delivered. I think I startled the delivery man this morning around 4 am when I opened the door and thanked him for the boxes. Methinks he usually doesn't see anyone on his pre dawn rounds.

Then there's these snazzy amuse bouche. The boys learned to love pacifiers while in the hospital, but they don't have the oral dexterity to keep them in their mouths very well. This can lead to some empty-mouthed freak outs. The lion and giraffe are like very lightweight beanie babies. Just enough to provide a little support for an uncoordinated suck ,but light enough that the boys can spit them out if they really want to.


Finally, I have found something on the boys that looks like it came from me. Up till now they've been miniature Charlies. But if you look closely, we have the same ears.

Dash

me

home again, home again

cage free babies

When I got to the hospital yesterday morning, I was surprised to find out the boys were getting discharged that afternoon! Charlie had gone to try and get some work finished up before starting his leave. It was a lot like the boys birth.....neither of us expected it to happen that day. We thought they'd be in there at least one more.

So I called Charlie and we both got moving. I installed the car seats in the middle of the hospital garage. People probably thought I was nuts, the lady jumping up and down in her back seat (the only way to get them tight enough). Thank goodness I had happened to bring a set of clothes for the boys, because they'd been wearing the hospital's preemie outfits. Then there were a bunch of discharge meetings from the physical therapist, nutritionist, etc. By afternoon we were standing outside and the boys got their first fresh air.

Then we were home, and last night is kind of a blur. We managed to take turns who was sleeping and who was feeding since the boys were kind enough to not scream at the exact same time. We'll see how things go tonight.

And then we figured out that the furnace was broken (after blearily poking buttons at midnight on the thermostat and wondering why there was no hot air blowing out), but thankfully it's not too cold outside and it will be fixed tomorrow. The boys are hanging out in their little fleece bunting swaddles, and it's only when it's 4 am and you wish it was 70 instead of 66 degrees in the house that you even notice. Plus, warranties are super.

Exams

The boys have had a lot of tests in their short lives. Today's test is much more fun than most, and doesn't involve the drawing of any blood. Carseat tests! This is one of the final things they need to pass in order to come home. Wee babies sometimes have a difficult time sitting in car seats and being able to breathe, since they have exceptionally tiny bodies and the usual floppy newborn neck control issues. For this test, they have to sit in the car seat like big boys for an hour while wearing their oxygen saturation monitor. It looks like a glowy red light strapped onto one of their feet. They hang out, hopefully sleeping or otherwise relaxing. If their oxygen stays normal, they pass.

the nicu has cute little quilts and blankets they've been using

We're over halfway through the test and Liam, Dashiel, and Charlie are all asleep. It's actually quite peaceful in here. I'm going to assume that they are all passing the test. We bought carseats that are meant for tiny babies (they have crash-tested inserts in them to help make the boys not flop around) since we knew the boys would probably be smaller than average. The boys do look exceptionally tiny in them!

Now we're on the countdown to departure from this place. Hopefully we'll be sprung in the next few days and the next adventure will start.

First october

Liam, gloating because he has not only managed to pull out out his nose tube, he's also scored a spot on my lap

Yes yes, I know that life is full of firsts when you are only 2 weeks old. But they are so very exciting! October is going to be the month of eating. The boys have made it through three meals by mouth so far today. Dash was a bottle man, and Liam had a run directly to the source and ate about half of his lunch then finished it by bottle. Progress! It's a good thing they've been eating by mouth because both of them managed to pull out their tubes....again. Competition, competition. They just need to understand that the tubes only stay out if they continue to be awake enough to eat. My money is on them sleeping through their six o clock dinner, but you never know.


Dash, dealing with some particularly cute hiccups. Liam had some crazy ones earlier, but I had my hands full with him and a bottle and couldn't catch it on video.

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In non-baby news, I'm on egg watch at home. The teenager hens are moving into maturity and hopefully will start laying soon. Doubly hopefully they will start laying in the nest box and not in some crazy place in the woods because the older chickens won't let them in to the nestboxes. These days everyone seems to be getting along but you never know when someone is going to get bossy and crabby. Not only are they going to start laying eggs, I also have no idea what color the shells are going to be. The teenagers are Americaunas, so they should be a shade somewhere between aqua and khaki. My mature easter-egger lays beautiful pale blue jade eggs. I'm kind of hoping that every hen has a distinct color.