Medical update

This morning we took A & E to the pediatrician to get more shots (will they ever end?!). They were scheduled for one shot, but we decided to get them flu shots as well. (The pediatrician recommends it, especially for anyone under 2 years old.) Well, A has a fever today, and possibly a bit of a red throat, so the doctor decided that it would be best to not give her any shots today. So she lucked out. E got the two needles though, and handled it like a real trooper. A will go back in two weeks to get hers.

Updated medical info is as follows:

A -- weighs 21 lbs, 5 oz; and is 74 cm long.
E -- weighs 19 lbs; and is 72.5 cm long.

E did not gain as much weight as A this time around, but she's still following a normal curve so that's fine.

No new pics today. Sorry.

Have a great week.

A couple of pics and a video

To begin, here's a shot of A & E at what was supposed to be naptime. After listening to what I thought was one of them babbling for about 15 minutes, I decided to peek in to see which one was still awake...



As you can see they are still in the same room. We're hoping to find time today or tomorrow to move one of the cribs. (Although they have slept better for the last couple of nights, so somehow it doesn't seem as important now.)

And now, DoT and I proudly present their first piano duet...



Finally, I'll leave you with a couple of photos DoT took yesterday...

















Bye for now.

That's it. We're moving!

Okay, so "we" are not really moving. But one of the girls is. After many months of trying to solve our sleep problems, DoT and I have decided to move the girls into separate rooms. They are still not sleeping well -- waking several times a night, unless we give in, in desperation, and let them sleep with us. And it now seems that their crying is waking the other one up. So, over the course of the next few days we will move one of the cribs into our guest bedroom. (Unfortunately we can't just roll it down the hall, since the cribs are too big to fit through the doorways.) Hopefully we can cut down the nighttime wakings to only one or two -- and maybe even none (dare I dream). :-)

My mom and dad were visiting this weekend, and it was once again great to have others eager to entertain the girls. Yesterday, my folks looked after the girls for much of the day, and DoT and I were able to have some peace, go out to our favourite eatery for lunch (The Lone Star... mmmm, fajitas), and get some Christmas shopping done. It was great. I still feel like I'm really far behind, but at least now we've made a start. And in three weeks I go back to work and DoT starts his parental leave. So, whatever still needs to be done then will be his problem. :-)

The other "big" news around here is that the girls have started tackling the stairs. E started first, and we taught her how to come back down on her own. Then A started following E up the stairs, but she sometimes seems to think she can do it on her feet, rather than crawling. So we have to be careful and make sure one of us is around if she's heading up too. We're working on teaching her to climb up and down crawling, so pretty soon there will probably be no stopping them. Here's a picture of the two of them heading upstairs, both still in their pajamas ...















And here's one of E, having made it to the landing halfway up (taken a few days ago)...




















Well, that's it for today. Hope you all have a great week.

Another little video

DoT took this video this morning. Nothing too exciting about it, but now that it's so easy for me to upload videos, I'm kinda into it. :-)




I'm also showing the long-promised picture of the sweaters that have been knit for A and E. Friends from my monthly craft group knit these.







And, finally, here's a shot of E wearing one of the sweaters. So far, it's the only one of the sweaters that fits either twin. The rest are still a bit big, but will probably fit sometime this winter. This one is even a bit big on E -- I probably should have put A in it, she might fill it out a bit better.

Not a race but...

So a couple of posts ago, I think, I promised to try to get a video uploaded of the girls racing. Well, tonight I have a video for you. Unfortunately, the novelty of the race has worn off somewhat with the girls, so it's harder to get them on camera racing each other. But I do have a video of them both walking. (DoT reminded me that our digital camera will also take short video clips, and luckily I don't have any trouble uploading these.) A is walking with the help of DoT, and E is behind the toy walker.

So here it is....


Unfortunately, A seems to only be interested in watching E, so she's not really looking at the camera. But you get a pretty good shot of E. The colouring is pretty bad (I guess I should have waited to take the video until the daylight), but it's better than nothing.

I also have a picture for you. This is taken from our steps down to the basement, looking up at A & E through the baby gate. When A and E first started holding on to the gate and rattling it, DoT would start chanting "Attica, Attica"... it was pretty funny. (If this doesn't mean much to you, and you care, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attica_Prison_riots.)



Well, that's it for tonight. Blog ya later. :-)

Girls on the move...

So, A is now crawling without too much fanfare. It took her awhile to realize that she was going to have to do it, but now she willingly crawls to whatever toy she wants at the moment -- which usually is whatever toy is in E's hand. Boy, or boy, can I see some epic battles coming over toys when they both get a bit stronger. Both of them will readily snatch a toy away from the other. For now, they're too young to understand about sharing, but it's not a huge problem because we can typically distract one of them with something else. But, as their attention spans get longer, it's gonna be a problem. Oh yes, I see it coming. If only they had dispositions like their mother... kind, considerate, always giving. :-)

So, I do have a video of "the great race" -- A is walking with the help of DoT, and E is racing along beside crawling. The problem is that I seem to be technically incompetent when it comes to video recording or putting video on the web. For some reason when I finalize the CD in the video camera (to make it able to play on other things -- like a computer), all of the various videos on the CD are merged into one video. And it's too big to put on the blog. My computer does have a video editing software on it, but of course it doesn't seem to recognize the file type that the video camera has saved the file as. So, unless someone out there can provide some technical help on Sony Camcorders I'm afraid you're not going to get to see the video. Unless I decide to sacrifice a 30 minute CD, and tape the 10 second race again on a blank CD and then finalize it, even though there is still another 29 minutes of blank space on the CD. Oh who am I kidding... you know I'll do it. I'm just such a giver. (See above.) Expect the video next week, maybe.

Naptime and bedtime are becoming battlegrounds as well. Both E and A now like to stand up in their cribs, and it's almost impossible to get them both to lay down long enough to go to sleep. And if I can get one of them to lay down and almost drop off to sleep, that seems to be the time when the other decides it's time to start bouncing up and down in her crib and making lots of noise -- what with the crib creaking and her celebratory shrieking and laughing. Aargh. It's not too bad when both DoT and I are home at night and one of us can take each of the girls and get her to sleep. But when it's naptime, or when only one of us is home at bedtime, it's a bit of a challenge.

Well, I think I better end here. I hear noises coming from the nursery, so I think naptime is about to end. Have a good week all. And do feel free to add a comment with your suggestions on how to overcome my video problems or how to get two 16 month-olds to lay down like little angels, close their eyes, and go to sleep on command. :-)

Another Monday update

So, I just noticed that this is the third Monday in a row that I've updated the blog. Maybe I'll try to make it a regular thing. (Okay, so I've just jinxed it.)

The exciting news of this week is that A is now crawling too. A little bit. She knows how to crawl (we've seen her do it), but she doesn't much care for it. She'd much prefer to sit on her butt and cry and hold out her arms to DoT or I, until we either pick her up or bring her whatever it is that she wants. We try not to give in, to make her crawl, but so far it seems she has more perseverance than we do. It might be the really, really annoying whine that goes along with the cry. :-) Hopefully she'll get better at crawling soon, and will be getting around like E is.

Now, that both girls are crawling, their new preferred way of getting around is walking. They like to take hold of our hands and, with our help, walk around the house. Problem is that neither of them is tall enough to allow this to happen without us having to bend over. So it makes for sore backs. A woman at my Chinese playgroup suggested looping a towel or scarf under their armpits and holding on to that. The only problem is that they then lean forward onto the scarf -- so it's not much good for working on improved balance. But it does save our backs, so we do it every now and again.

E's crawling has really improved. She moves pretty quickly now, and when DoT takes hold of A's hands to help her walk, E likes to race them. It's pretty funny, and usually ends up with E and A both laughing. I may try to get that on video and if I do, I'll post it.

Both girls are teething, and I'm hoping that's the cause of their sleep problems. They are back to waking up a couple of times a night (at least) and, unlike before, when one wakes up and starts crying, it wakes the other one up. We may have to put them into separate rooms.

This week we booked our flights to New Brunswick for Christmas, and have reserved a mini-van for our time there. When I was in university I had a roommate who always said she'd make two trips before ever owning a mini-van, and I whole-heartedly agreed. Now here I am booking mini-vans and car seats for vacations. Times have changed.

Well, that's it for today. Have a great week.