Brody moving!!

Brody has started crawling as of a few days ago. Yay Brody! He is as careful and slow as Tyler was in the beginning. I'm so happy he figured this out because he was getting so frustrated that he couldn't do it that he would just sit there and cry/moan. He's a lot happier now!

Tyler is crawling to other rooms now. He's made it to the kitchen a few times to check out what Mom and Hunter are up to. It's pretty cute and Hunter and I laugh whenever we see him coming. He is also trying to walk around the coffee table while holding on (side-stepping). He's made it a few feet already. It's only a matter of time before they will be moving in opposite directions and I will be constantly chasing them around.

Happy Mother's Day to all of my friends and family! Today seems like any old day to me though. John's at work and I'm at home with the kids. He's going to be cooking dinner tonight though so that will be a nice change-of-pace.

Getting places

Tyler is officially getting places while crawling. Granted, it takes him a LONG time because he makes little baby movements and is very careful while moving but he's moving nonetheless. He also pulls himself to a standing position while holding onto things and is pretty sturdy while doing so. He surprised me when he did this for the first time about a week ago. I left him near a footlocker-type trunk in our living room in a seated position and went to help Hunter with something in another room. When I came back a few minutes later, there he was, standing up all by himself! I think a mother will always remember this moment. I know I remember the first time Hunter did this too. He was in his crib with a very accomplished look on his face as if he were saying, "Look what I can do Mom!!"

Brody has started shaking his head back and forth like he's saying "no" although he doesn't equate the meaning to the motion. In other words, he does it all of the time just for fun. It's super cute because he usually begins by waving, then starts clapping and finally shakes his head all in a row. He really likes showing off his skills!

Brody following suit

Brody started waving and clapping this week so now we have two babies to wave "hi" to all day long. YAY Brody!!! Today while feeding them both lunch Brody started clapping for no apparent reason (practice!) and Tyler heard me saying, "good clapping Brody!" and he started too. They both kept clapping for a few minutes together. It was so cute! He's not very interested in crawling yet but he'll get there. Before long he'll be crawling all over the place and getting into things he shouldn't. He is up on all fours and rocking so it won't be long now. For now he gets to where he wants to go by rolling, and rolling, and rolling! The other day one of them, I think Tyler, rolled all the way from the living room into the kitchen! Whatever works!

Holy pukin' babies

Not that the title isn't adequate warning but this blog is not for those with weak stomachs.
Tyler and Brody got me up at 5:17 this a.m. I nursed them as normal and Tyler promptly started puking all over me. Good mornin'! I didn't know if he was sick or if he had just had too much milk in him because I always have a lot of milk in the morning and on top of it I had given him a full bottle last night before bed. (Both boys were very upset after I fed them their dinner so I thought they were still hungry.) Anyway, I changed them, changed me and hoped for the latter explanation for the interesting start to my day. After everyone is changed and I've started a load of laundry I pick Brody up to bring him downstairs and low and behold...more projectile vomiting...all over me (and my fresh new clothes), him (and his fresh new clothes) and their bedroom floor. Mental note: wait a while before starting the laundry again. I went to work still hoping for the best. Maybe Brody also had too much to drink?!

I called home on my lunch hour and John, who was at home with all three, said neither had puked since so I thought we were home-free. A half an hour later I get a very desperate and emotional phone call from John asking for the dentist's phone number (Hunter had an appointment at 1:30 p.m.) so he could cancel. Bad news...Menards had shown up with the delivery of our fence, which was taking up half the alley. They were unable to drop it in our garage because the equipment would not make it in. John proceeded to move 2300 lbs. of building material (wood, concrete, etc.) leaving the boys unattended inside. He had no choice! He asked Hunter to stay inside and report back but with a delivery such as this, that was last on his mind. Who could blame him? That's exciting stuff to a four-year-old. So John worked as fast as he could to bring all of the stuff inside the garage where it would be safe from theft, clearing the alley in the meantime and rushing back inside only to find Tyler lying (asleep) in a pool of puke. Poor guy. Needless to say, Hunter did not make it to the dentist office today.
It's amazing how babies bounce back though. They are incredible. At one point Tyler was sitting in the exersaucer projectile vomiting everywhere over and over again and after expelling about a quart of puke he looks up at John with a big smile on his face and starts waving at him! John, wide-eyed with panic proceded to pick his jaw up off the floor before waving back.
Brody threw up his dinner again before going to bed. I'm turning in early because I'm not sure what the night has in store for me.

Tyler's big boy accomplishments

Tyler has added clapping to his repertoire of skills in the last few days so now he spends most of his day waving and then clapping, waving and then clapping, waving and you get the idea. The clapping is very quiet. It's mostly just putting his hands together very gently over and over again.

He stands very well when propped against the coffee table and has been doing this for weeks. I am there to spot him in case his legs give out but he doesn't need my support at all. His legs are very strong.

Yesterday we were at a friend's first birthday party and Tyler moved as if he were crawling (finally in a forward motion) but I'm not sure you can technically call it crawling just yet since he only moved about an inch. He did move one of his arms and one of his legs forward though. You make the call.

One Year

It was one year ago yesterday that I was admitted to the hospital on bedrest. I drove by the Pavilion yesterday on my way home from work thinking about what I was feeling at this time last year. I had so much anxiety and uneasiness over our situation. I was constantly worrying what would become of our little guys. I kissed them an extra 100 times so far today so thankful to have them in my life, healthy and strong! They are such a blessing and I am honored to be given the experience to be their mother.
It's coincidental that today I got a message on Facebook (that was sent yesterday) from one of the nurses who took care of me while I was in the hospital. I am sure I have mentioned her before in posts from a year or so ago. Her name is Tonia and she was Hunter's favorite nurse because she took the time to show him all of the equipment in the room and how everything worked. She was also the nurse who came in on her birthday (and day off) to take pictures for me and be there for the birth of the twins. I haven't seen or talked to her since the boys were in the NICU and out of the blue she found me on FB. She said that she thought of me a few weeks ago because they had another set of mono-mono twins born at the hospital. I hope to stay in touch with her. Hunter mentioned her by name a few weeks ago so I'm sure he'd love to see her again too! I was amazed at his memory but I guess that was a pretty big event in his life, even if he was only just three years old at the time (almost four).

Waving

Tyler started waving this week. I think he is pretty proud that he can do it because he does it ALL THE TIME. I don't know how his arm isn't getting super tired from all of that waving. It's not a open and close of the hand, it's giant movements of his whole arm up and down. Super cute! He knows how to get us to smile at him, that's for sure! Still no crawling but both boys are pulling up to a kneeling position, usually at the coffee table. They like chewing on the wood, yuck! I guess it's better than cat food but I try to stop it as much as possible anyway.