Have a baby shower coming up?

Now that the girls are nearing the one year mark (yay!), I wanted to look back at all the ways that our lives were made even the slightest bit easier. Maybe you'll use this information for yourself or someone you love, or maybe you'll just be astounded at the things they make for kids these days because you survived with a swaddling blanket and a toy rock. Either way.

(Note: Some of the best gifts we got were formula, diapers and wipes. No one ever doesn't want or use these!)

Here are some items that made me seriously grateful. The pictures are "borrowed" and might not match the exact item we had, but you get the idea.

Bouncer
This was great for when the girls slept in the front room because the tilted angle helped their reflux and if we had our hands full with one girl, we could rock her sister using our foot.

Playmat
The girls spent a lot of awake-time on their playmate in the early months. The bright colors and dangling toys captured their attention and allowed us to step away for things like eating, drinking, and using the bathroom. (You know, to pamper ourselves.) We wouldn't need to feel guilty about not entertaining them and we knew that they were safe.
Giant mugs
I think they're actually ceramic beer steins, but, whatever. We had two of these that we filled with hot water and used to heat up the girls' bottles. It only took about 2 minutes, and they fit the bottles perfectly with room for the hot water, maximizing efficiency, which we all know is a plus in Britt-world.
Baby changing pad
We set this foam pad on top of their dresser to make a changing table that can be their regular dresser later in life. It was soft and cozy and the cover was washable. Perfect.
Multi-purpose car seats
These car seats are life savers (literally). We could leave the bases installed in our car and bring the car seats inside, which meant we didn't have to disturb the girls or take the extra time to get them in and out of the seats repeatedly, especially in bad weather. The seats just clicked in to the base! Best of all, their stroller was compatible also, so we could take the car seats out of the car and snap them right in to the stroller without disturbing the kiddos. And when the girls were younger we put them to sleep in their car seats in a dark, quiet place if we were out visiting people.
Duo-glider stroller
It was hard to find a stroller that 1) Was a double and 2) Could snap in two car seats, but the Graco worked well for us. Most double strollers seemed to be designed for kids of two different ages, but this one accepted two car seats so it was worthwhile to have the whole system. The front-back seats are great for shopping since the side-to-side strollers don't work in narrow aisles. There are definitely some things I'd change about this design, but it met the basic requirements (see the beginning of this paragraph).
The Bundle-Me
Along with the car seats, we loved the Bundle-Me: a poly-fleece lined cover that fit perfectly in the seat and kept the girls warm without having to use a bulky jacket or a blanket that could be thrown off or lost. We could also zip off the top part and just leave the bottom cushy portion for extra comfort if it got too warm. A winner, especially since the girls were so sensitive to temperature for those first few months until they put on some insulating fat.

Butt Paste
Yes, it's a funny name, but a great product. If I had severe diaper rash I would use Ilex, but for everyday stuff, the Boudreaux's Butt Paste was great. It was easy to get out of the tube, stuck to the butt instead of our fingers, and was easy to wash off. It was also great at relieving diaper rash, which I guess is also important.

Car mirror
When you have a rear-facing baby, it's hard to know if the screams are from tiredness vs. a real problem, or if quiet is from sleeping vs. contentment, so these convex mirrors are super handy and we'll keep using them until the girls face front.
Gerber NUK Pacifier
We tried a lot of pacifiers (binky) when the girls got home because they were so little and undeveloped that their sucking reflex wouldn't be strong enough for most of them. We finally found that these worked best for the girls and really helped soothe them. There is a ledge at the end of the nipple that fit behind their gums and made it easier to keep in and thus, made less bending over, picking up and reinserting for mommy and daddy.
Pacifier keeper
We attached these to either the car seat or the girls' clothes and we never had to worry about a dropped or lost pacifier. (Although I still seem to be missing about 8... hmmmm.) It has Velcro at one end so it can be attached to any style of pacifier.

Baby Tad singing frog
We discovered the amazing use of this little guy several months in and it was miraculous. If you push on Tad's hand when it's in nighttime mode, it will play music for 5 or 10 minutes along with a glowing light in the sunshine on his chest. The light and music soothes the girls and distracts them from the fact that we've left the room. They fall asleep with a lot less argument when we use Tad. I supposed any toy that sings for a set period of time would work, but this is the one that Sean's brother gave us and can't do without it now!

Baby carrier
I used a Moby wrap a few times, but it was a little limited once both girls realized they didn't like to be swaddled and fought against anything the kept them from moving around. I wasn't too picky about the carriers we used since we got them free, but the Baby Bjorn seemed to work well. The best part about a carrier is that I could do other things with hands when I had a girl in it - like making 20 bottles at once, brushing my teeth, or picking up her other sister to soothe them both at once. Now I use it at the grocery store! One girl sits in the cart and the other is in the carrier facing out. They both can grab the cart handle and play together and I have my hands free to shop.

Bendy ball
This was hands-down one of the girls' favorite toys. It's colorful, rattled, and was very hand-held. They fought over it. And Charlotte usually won.
Exersaucer
Once the girls were old enough to hold their bodies upright, these exersauers were outstanding!! It kept them reliably in one place and completely entertained and they could see everything happening around them. The Exersaucers also built their leg strength and I credit it for their ability to stand and turn so early. The collapsible feature of one of them made it easy to take to grandma and grandpa's, too.
Snap-crotch long-sleeved onesies
Any top without a snap crotch just rides up to their armpits, and the long sleeves were necessary to keep them warm! These were very hard to find in preemie or even newborn sizes. Maybe it's because the girls were born in June?

Sleep sacks
These come in a lot of different brands and styles, but I really liked the ones with a zipper that started at the bottom and zipped up. Who wants to try to figure out the dual tabs of a zipper in the middle of the night? Since blankets don't stay on well, and you're technically not supposed to use them, these sleep sacks were warm and cozy. Plus, they add an element of constraint which still makes them feel more secure and helps them fall asleep faster.

Safeway.com
Having our groceries delivered was incredible. You can get just about everything you need and they even bring it inside. They even pick out really good produce. Such a time saver!

Nanntastic Cindy!!
I can't even list all of the amazing features of this one! She helps keep me sane, which is just about the best thing ever. (For me and everyone else around me!)

And that's what I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe Sean will weigh in with anything I've left off?

Little piranhas!

I don't know how it's possible, but Charlotte had 3 teeth come up in a single week! She now has 4 on the top and 3 on the bottom (which equals 7, you math-whizzes). Amazingly, she's only been slightly more fussy than usual, although nap times have been a nightmare, and she wakes up a few times in the night instead of sleeping all the way through. Lilah, on the other hand, still only has the bottom two teeth but we can see the outlines of her top two getting ready to make an appearance.

I'll probably always be boggled by the fact that two little girls are identical and yet they have so many differences that you would assume should be the same.

I found a cool graphic that shows how baby teeth come in and when and it looks like Charlotte is seriously ahead of the curve. I wonder how much we take gestational age-adjustment into consideration, because that would make her only about 9.5 months....



I'm a little worried about how Charlotte's teeth are coming in, though. I know they'll do a lot of shifting around in the next year or so as her jaw grows and the rest of the teeth come in, but it looks a lot like she has the same gap between her front teeth that I did as a kid. There is a web between the top lip and the front teeth that's called the Frenum (fraynum). Sometimes it grows too thick and strong and pulls the two central teeth apart. I had to have oral surgery to have mine removed, so that might be somewhere in the girls' future, too. Better make sure they're added to my dental plan, because none of this is going to be cheap.

With the new front teeth and the big gap, Charlotte is starting to look like a cartoon character - a very awkward phase of her babyhood. Every time she smiles at us we have to laugh because she just looks so goofy. But it also makes her look more like a toddler, which means they're growing up!

Accomplishments this week: learning how to "high 5" (holding up one hand so mommy can do the rest), Lilah started clapping (again about 2 weeks behind Charlotte) and has now started barking. Yup, barking. When she hears Roscoe or some other neighborhood dog bark, she reacts with a "HUH! HUH!" which is pretty cute. Charlotte has discovered my cell phone and will turn it over and over in her hands forever, just looking at it in amazement. She'll probably learn how to text before she can sign her own name.


Nanntastic Cindy usually gives the girls their baths twice a week, which saves us a lot of time to spend more quality time with them. She still bathes them in the kitchen sink because it's easier and because the girls freaked out about the bath ring when we tried to put them in the tub. On Friday, though, the girls had finger-painted with their bottles and their hair was covered with sticky formula, so I decided to give the big bath a try. With both girls at the same time. It was such a warm afternoon that I figured if they weren't dried off immediately they wouldn't start shivering right away, so it was a good opportunity to give it a shot (part of the challenge of bathing twins is making one wait). They loved it this time! They splashed and reached for toys and were having a great time. Toward the end, when I had soap in their hair, Roscoe started barking. I heard him jump on and off the couch and the next 10 minutes went something like this, over and over again:


BARK BARK!! Roscoe, off! BARK BARK! Roscoe, leave it! Leave it! BARK! No! Leave it! BARK! Hello? Who is it? BARK! Roscoe, off! BARK! Hello? I can't come to the door! Who is it? BARK! BARK BARK! Roscoe, leave it! (Jeez) Girls, your doggie is annoying. BARK BARK! Hello? I have the girls in the bath. I can't come to the door! Who's there? BARK! Roscoe, leave it! Off!


You get the idea. I finally took one girl out, laid her on a towel and dried her as best I could in 15 seconds, then reached in for the other girl while the first girl started crying. The second girl didn't want to leave the tub and started crying as I tried to dry her off. The first girl started to crawl away, naked, down the hallway. I tried to chase her to at least put on a diaper while the second girl was on my hip, also naked. I put the second girl down, picked up the first girl and attempted to put on her diaper with one hand while balancing her on my hip, listening to the second girl cry, and moving toward the front door. I opened the door to find my Safeway.com delivery guy standing out front, a half hour earlier than scheduled, while the second girl attempted to crawl across the threshold, still naked. I apologized for keeping him waiting and he said that he'd been responding to me but that I didn't hear him. It was apparent that he had no sense of humor about the situation. I pointed to the counter where I wanted the groceries, scooped up both girls, hoping that they'd already emptied their bladders in the tub, and scurried to their bedroom to get them dried and dressed. After the first girl was finished I set her free to roam the house while I dressed her sister. I found her a few minutes later, playing in the plastic bags the delivery driver had set on the floor, narrowly missing having a giant can of tomato sauce land on her ankle as she tumbled the contents across the kitchen. This guy obviously did not have children. What part of "on the counter" was a challenge for him? On the plus side, maybe, as a result of this encounter, he decided to consistently use birth control from that point forward.

This weekend I participated in the March of Dimes Walk for Babies! Thank you so much to everyone who sponsored us:
RENEA HESS (shout out for team Lilah!)
Gayle Sparks
Marcus and Jill Wheeler
Dean and Bob Magee
Kristina and Garrett Rutledge
Sarah and Max Collinge
Damian and Chelsea Kelly
Teri and Bud Kirkpatrick
Vivian Peterson

We really appreciate your support and hope that we can make this an annual event. Sean's mom, Teri, joined us for the walk and it was an absolutely perfect day for it - sunny, and just the right temperature. The girls were pretty good for the most part. Charlotte fell asleep pretty early on, which was what I was hoping for since the walk took place during their morning nap time. Lilah held out until later in the walk. Charlotte woke up at the end and pulled down the towel I was using to shield them from the sun, waking up her sister way too early. There were thousands of people, but I haven't seen any reports on exact numbers or dollars raised yet. My UWMC team raised $25k overall - not too shabby!


(That's a banana in Charlotte's mouth, not her teeth. Although she does look like Baby Herman here with that tuft of hair and silly smile.)

A new awesome website

If you get the chance to follow this on Facebook or just on the web once in awhile, there can be some pretty hilarious moments captured. Hilarious if it didn't happen to you, that is.

http://www.shitmykidsruined.com/

Everyone warned me...

...that it would fly by, go too fast, seem like just yesterday - and they were all right. In the course of a month the girls are now zombie-crawling anywhere they want in the house and are pulling themselves up to standing on anything they encounter, including my pants (note to self: elastic waistbands are not your friend right now). In fact, they both LOVE standing so much that they refuse to sit. And when I say refuse, I mean they go stiff as a board when we try to put their butts on the ground and, even if we do get them to bend, they immediately toss themselves backward in a show of defiance and lay on the floor for mere moments before crawling over to something to stand back up again. Charlotte has even discovered a love for the couch and is now scooting (because walking isn't quite accurate just yet) back and forth, turning to stand against the coffee table, and then back again.

And man, do these kids eat! We've been trying several new foods a week and by the time we turn back again, it has vanished. This week we did pancakes, steamed zucchini, shredded chicken, and yogurt. Not all in the same meal. We're not animals. Ok, sometimes in the same meal. They don't know about flavor pairings yet! I try to keep a balance of a protein, a grain, a dairy, and a fruit/veggie, which means they get 4-5 course meals, which is better than Sean and I eat. We've resorted to convenience food for ourselves quite a bit. Thank goodness for Morning Star Farms! In a single meal they'll eat a cup of canteloupe, a scrambled egg, a slice of whole wheat bread with cream cheese, 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/2 cup applesauce and a jar of baby food. No joke! Where do they put it?!

In between meals the girls also have formula and absolutely LOVE Cheerios. We put a blanket over a case of toilet paper so they could use it to stand up against and we ended up scattering "O's" on top and calling it "the salt lick" because the ladybugs scurry over to get it as fast as they can.

Both girls have just started to appreciate mimicking us: repeating syllables we say even if they're not identical, holding out their hands, jumping on our laps, etc. Charlotte loves to clap and to carry things around in one hand while she crawls through the house. Lilah has discovered how to make a kissy noise and will make it on demand. We're trying to work on waving and sign language, but I'm beginning to think I'm the only one in the house who is making an attempt, so we'll see if they pick it up or not. Right now the one thing they can do is bang their hands on their high chair table when they run out of food or want another bite from the spoon. No, that is not the correct sign for more, but I get it.

They have their good days and their HORRENDOUS days - I call it their tide chart of moods because it goes up and down so much. Waking up early from a nap, not eating enough, and the msyterious "no reason at all" can get them whinier and fussier than Britney Spears without a Frappuccino. They want to be held, but not really held. They want to stand in our lap and turn around and around until even I'm dizzy, but they don't want to look at anything in particular. They want to be near us at all times, but mostly so they can use us as a jungle gym. They whine and cry at the tiniest little movement if they think for a moment it means we're getting up from being at their every whim. It's utterly exhausting. And it's usually both girls at once. The catch phrase you'll hear over and over again in our house is: "If there were just one...." Poor Sean takes the brunt of it because he's home with them every afternoon, but on the weekends I get more than my share as well.

Part of the fussiness may be because of their top teeth. Charlotte had her right top front tooth break through this weekend, so that probably means that Lilah isn't far behind. Pretty soon they'll start looking like little rabbits.

We had an outstanding photographer, Sarah Sweetman, come to our house this weekend for the girls' first ever portraits and I'm extremely excited to see how everything turned out. Sarah is starting to build her business and portfolio and from the looks of it she will be a blazing success! She was very sweet and patient with the girls, had brilliant ideas, and came very well prepared. At one point, Charlotte knocked over the giant Tupperware of O's I had to entice them to stick around, and then she gloriously began scooping handful after handful into her mouth and throwing it around with a gigantic smile on her face. She looked like Uncle Scrooge in his money bin, except instead of coins it was cereal. Charlotte found her happy place. So, Sarah suggested we take off their outfits and let them swim around in O's and get some good shots out of it- perfect! It was so completely adorable and darned if Charlotte wasn't grinning from ear to ear the whole time!

Here is a sneak preview of some of the cuteness:

From Sarah Sweetman photography

From Sarah Sweetman photography

From Sarah Sweetman photography

From Sarah Sweetman photography