Final Day with Three Under Three

Tomorrow little Z will turn three years old. In keeping with tradition, I made him a birthday hat. As I had hoped, he designed it himself this year. Unfortunately, he hates to wear it. I can hardly blame him - it is really heavy. He wanted a field with horses, cows, a farmer and a fence, and ants. He also requested that the characters on the hat be removable so that he could play with them. His wish was my command. But it made for a very big hat.

Birthday hat recap:

Birthday party prep:

As my eldest reaches his next birthday, my membership in the "three under three" club with expire. It has been fun! That is, if by 'fun' you mean exhausting. ;)

My charming little kiddos.

Assorted thoughts on twins and more

As the shock of raising two babies at once (with an almost 3 year old in the mix, too) is wearing off, I am starting to see a lot of wonderful things about having twins.

Autumn

It seems no matter how we place the girls in their crib, the wriggle wriggle wriggle until their heads are touching and they are holding hands.

Autumn, Mikaela

It reminds me of their first night in this world. See, in the womb they had been positioned head to head, with the top of Mikaela's head touching the side of Autumn's. Their first night in their incubators, Mikaela, tiny as she was, managed to scoot all the way up to the top while Autumn wriggled all the way to the side. I think they were trying to find each other.

Mikaela

I walked into their room the other day to find them chattering to each other in their crib. So adorable. And they both giggle in their sleep! What's up with that? Z did it too. Quite wonderful.

Mikaela

I am getting excited about going back to school in the fall and starting work on some creative projects coming up. I'm not sure how it is going to feel juggling work and the newly-enlarged family, and I get little pangs of sadness to think that I might miss out of those great moments that the kids have. I was complaining to Jason that it is hard having both a family and work that I love. Then I paused and we looked at each other. He said, "Isn't that exactly what we have been trying to create?" Oh, yeah. I guess I am actually incredibly lucky. Nice to have it back in perspective.

The first time Z saw one of his sisters spit up, he recoiled in disgust (which is particularly funny to those of you who recall how much he used to spit up). Then just the other day, his sister spat up and he casually got a kleenex and cleaned it up. Jealousy issues and all, he is still a pretty great kid.

So he does alright most of the time, but when the girls get particularly needy, Z kinda falls apart. It reminds me of this idea I had years ago of doing a variety show lit entirely by the audience. Upon entry to the theater, each audience member would receive a miner-style helmet with a light. There would be several things happening on the stage at once, so whatever grabbed the attention would be lit, and everything else would go dark. I realized it would probably just dissolve into a bunch of attention-getting tricks. This is pretty much what happens to Z. "Oh, the girls are crying? Well . . . look at me! I just dumped out all my legos! Still nursing? Um . . . then I will dump a water bottle on the couch. Did you see that, Mommy? Look at me! Pay attention to me! Mommy! Mommymommymommymommymommy!!!" Totally transparent, totally understandable, and totally exhausting.

The world's cutest triceratops

The jealousy issues we are experiencing are basically the typical new baby problems that every older sibling has, only more so because, well, two babies. Plus we cannot go anywhere without attracting at least a few gawkers. While I am the first person to agree that the girls are gorgeous, these onlookers fail to notice that they have an equally wonderful older brother who stands silently by while people "ooh" and "aah" over his little sisters.

So if you are one of those people who likes to stop someone pushing a twin stroller and comment about the babies, please take a moment to notice if there is an older sibling you are overlooking, and send a little love that way.

Zander sharing his buddies with Autumn

Update

The girls had their monthly weight check, and their weights are now 10 lbs 10 oz for Autumn, and 9 lbs even for Mikaela. They are progressing right along their (premie) growth curves, so all looks well. Nice work, girls! I guess my high fat diet is paying off. Bring on the ice cream!

I am reading Entwined Lives: Twins and What They Tell Us About Human Behavior, and I just learned that if the girls grow up and have babies, these children will be genetic half-siblings because, at the genetic level, Autumn and Mikaela are the same person. HOW BIZARRE IS THAT?!?








I gave Zander the task of rinsing out an empty dish soap bottle. An hour later, the bottle was clean, and he and the kitchen were soaked. How great to be two!

40 Weeks!

May 1 is the girls' official due date, and they are almost 8 weeks old. Weird. They are now 6 lb 8 oz and 7 lb 9 oz. I can't even imagine what I would have felt like had I carried them to this size!

Things around here have been pretty good. We are busy with all the feedings, changings, and burpings, but it is going surprisingly smoothly. My wonderful mother was here for the first two weeks that the girls were home, which was enormously helpful since they were still struggling to eat during that period. It was rather stressful because we would have to wake them up and convince/force them to eat whether they wanted to or not, and then we would anxiously wait for the next weigh in to make sure they had increased the expected amounts. Since then, they have become more like normal newborn babies who wake up and cry when they are hungry. It may sound strange that I am so happy that they cry, but it is quite a relief to have the girls actually communicating this need for food.

Zander is proving to be a total superstar of a big brother. He takes his responsibilities quite seriously and assures me that he is being "very gently" whenever he pats them. He gathers up their car seat blankets and diaper bag for me while I get the girls ready for an outing, and when they fuss in their crib he goes in and checks on them. One day when he was looking at them, he shook his head, sighed and remarked, "I have so many babies!"

It is a bit of a challenge balancing the needs of a 2-1/2 year old and two babies, and we are really trying to ensure that Zander still gets one-on-one time so that he doesn't feel resentful of the girls. I think the hardest part about having twins is also having a preschooler, but if I hadn't already been through the baby-years once, I would probably think it is really hard having twins. So it all works out. 

So what do you think, identical or fraternal? We can't decide (and have not done any testing yet to determine for sure).

Update on the Baby Girls

When I arrived in the NICU today, I was shocked to discover that they had opened the lids to both girls' incubators. Wow, what a great step forward! We'll see how well they tolerate it and if they are able to maintain their own body heat.

They have each started taking some milk by mouth - another important step in their ability to leave the NICU. Autumn, perhaps in a moment of over confidence, pulled out her feeding tube. I reminded her that she needed to keep that in until she had mastered eating. I'm not sure that she understood me.

They are now wearing regular clothes and swaddling in blankets like regular old babies. It is so nice to see them like that! Autumn is now 4 lbs 9 oz and Mikaela is 3 lb 13 oz. Keep growing strong, girls!

Autumn

Mikaela

Snuggling together

Such tiny fingers!

I've been splitting my days, and spending the mornings with Zander then the afternoon/early evening in the NICU with the girls.

I was playing outside with Zander the other day when he picked up a rock and discovered a worm underneath it. He watched it crawling and commented on how it was wiggling slowly. This was the conversation I had with my very literal son:

Me: Can you wiggle like a worm?
Z: Um... I think so...
Me: (waiting) Well, can you show me?
Z: Uh... okay... (hesitating) Here I go ....

He then lay face down in the mud next to the worm and started wiggling. Oh man, I have to be careful how I phrase things with him!

The dangers of pacifism

We were playing in the backyard, and I heard Zander say, "All done! All done, itsy bitsy spider! ALL DONE ITSY BITSY SPIDER!!!" I looked over and he was yelling at a mosquito biting his arm. It's great that he was using his words to express his needs, but I guess I have to teach him that there are certain situations where violence may be the best solution. What a sweet kiddo.

Zander's Little Secret

Last Thursday I discovered that Zander has been keeping a secret from us: he can walk. For those of you who haven't seen us lately, Zander has been dragging out his "learning to walk" phase for ages. He went from crawling to walking on his knees (which he still does a lot) to walking with assistance. He can walk fine if holding on to a wall, hand, stroller, etc, but refuses to walk alone.

Then on Thursday I came around the corner to see him walking across the living room. I cheered and congratulated him. He responded by getting upset, saying "no!" and dropping down to his knees.

Hmmmm....

I decided to drop the subject and for the past few days we have just been pretending not to notice as he walks around the house.

 So what does this mean?

My hunch is that his perfectionist streak is making him self-conscious. It feels like he wants to get it "right" before he shows us he can walk. At one point when he thought I couldn't see him, I watched him walk across the room, then smile and applaud for himself.

There is also the possibility that he likes having to hold a hand when walking. It is kinda sweet, though he can be pretty demanding about it!

And maybe we have been putting too much pressure on him, trying to get him to walk. He's a pretty sensitive kid, so he probably senses that I've been getting anxious about him being a "late walker" (whatever that means).

I think we will just drop the whole subject and see how this plays out over the next few days....

Zander gets his driver's permit

They start driving young in Michigan!

Check the rear-view mirror...

Hands at 10 and 2 ...

Keep your eyes on the road!

Woah, it even has a backseat!

Zander calls this his "cool car".

Spring Cleaning

I've recently discovered that, in addition to having a wonderfully sweet little boy, I also have a child who loves to help with housework. Crazy. He certainly doesn't get this trait from me!

Washing the dishes:

Eating the suds:

Mopping the kitchen floor:

Hanging out the diapers:

Mowing the lawn:

Taking a break to hide in the kitchen cupboard:

And here he is looking super cute in his friend's bunny ears:

A Day in the Life of Little Lucy

I spent the day watching my niece Lucy, a charming and precocious two year old. Rachele and I took her down to Kiama to wander around the shops while Rachele had an appointment.

Here is Lucy in the morning, all tidy and nicely dressed to go out.

Here she is eating an ice cream cone. She chose a pink one - she loves the color pink. Notice how her hair is already disheveled.

I tried to tidy her up, then we sat outside the shops watching a lizard climb around in a flower pot.

Here is Lucy after her second ice cream of the day (it is great being an aunt).

I took her home and gave her a bath. She is clean and dressed. Let's see how long that lasts.


Now she is taking care of dolly.

Within the hour, she had taken out all of her hairclips and changed her pants. She loves changing her clothes. Notice how she is wearing pink from head to toe - she's such a girly-girl.

While I'm on the subject of my delightful nieces and nephews, I should tell you a Caleb anecdote. I took him to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" a few days ago. Before the movie, we spent close to an hour looking around the shops for the perfect candy bar to eat while watching that movie. I completely agreed with Caleb that a box of chocolates or a bag of gummy worms simply would not work. We eventually each picked out just the right candy bars and went into the movie. We both loved it (it was my third time seeing the movie). It was great listening to Caleb giggle at all the jokes, and his running commentary was pretty cute (that boy never stops talking). When the movie finished, we stood up and were about to walk out of the theater when we noticed a big, gooey brown mess on Caleb's chair. A look of horror crossed his face. He carefully reached out his hand and tentatively scooped some up with his finger and brought it up to his nose. He smiled and let out a big sigh of relief. "Don't worry, it's just chocolate."