Six months old!

I simply can't believe the twins are halfway to one, but here we are.  (sniff, sniff...)  I've been wishing them bigger for months now and now they are like little people rather than babies.  It is kind of fun how major milestones with them fall on the season changes, they ushered in winter and now it is finally summer.

This morning before their shots got the best of them

We had their check-up today and Alistair is up to 16 lbs. and 15 (and a half!) ozs (let's just call it 17, shall we?).  He is 27 3/4" long and his head is 44.7 cm.  His weight is still in the 50th %ile, but his height is now in the 90th.

Where we've been:
Four months: 14 lbs.,  25", head:  42.2 cm.
Two months: 10 lbs. 2 ozs., 22 1/2", head: 39.5 cm
Three weeks: 6 lbs. 9 ozs.
Two weeks: 5 lbs. 15 ozs. (he surpasses her for the 1st time)
One week: 5 lbs. 6 ozs.
Four days/hospital release: 5 lbs. 2 ozs.
Birth @ 36w4d (breech): 5 lbs. 7 ozs. (5%), 18.25" (10%)

Marielle is up to 14 lbs. and 10 ozs.  She is 26 1/4" long and her head is 43 cm.  She is in the 50-75% range, except her weight is still 25%ile.

Four months: 12 lbs. 7 ozs., 24 1/2", head: 41.2 cm
Two months: 9 lbs. 9 ozs., 21 3/4", head: 38.7 cm
Three weeks: 6 lbs. 7 ozs. (finally surpasses BW)
Two weeks: 5 lbs. 12 ozs.
One week: 5 lbs. 7 ozs.
Four days/hospital release: 5 lbs. 3 ozs. (unexplained 14% weight loss, day one) (<5%)
Birth @ 36w4d: 6 lbs. 1 ozs., 19"

My how far they've come...

What else is new?

Alistair is teething.  His two lowers are just beginning to emerge, so he is not as happy as usual.  I feel so bad for him, poor little guy.

We all survived MIL returning to India and then DH traveling there and back in ten days for his brother's wedding.  It is not nearly as bad as I thought it might be on my own.  I was exhausted, but that is just SOP with multiples.

Thankfully we upgraded to convertible car seats before our road trips last week, after he shed too many tears on the previous two, and it solved the problem.  They sleep like angels in them, so clearly I should have moved them sooner even though their seats were rated to 30/30.  I didn't have any trouble selling our old ones and the DSNG, thank goodness.  We got Britax Boulevards which thankfully also fit next to each other in my car, while still leaving a little room for me when DH drives.

The kids are rolling fools, but really love to sit (and stand!), though they still need some help to stay upright.

They are out of all of their six months clothes and on to (and he through) nine, which is crazy...

They seem to enjoy most of what I try to feed them, though they had a hard time with mangoes.  Someone will need tell them at some point that they are half Indian and mangoes are not optional... ;)  We are just trying all the stage one organic foods from Ella's Kitchen, Happy Baby, and Plum to see what they like.  The Dr. told us we should start feeding them twice a day and can even have them try things like yogurt, cottage cheese and water now.

We have moved them each to their own rooms and have moved the extra bed out of his, so they are sleeping on their own and we are back in ours (w/our two monitors). :)

Their hair is growing like mad.  She is all curls, which I'm not sure what to do with, so I just let them loose.  She's has her whole life to tame them.  He still looks like he is vying for the Jim Carrey role in the sequel to Dumb and Dumber (one of my all time faves), though DH is always trying to brush it to the side.  Oh and he also has this noise down pat, so he's got it for sure...

We attempted to take some pics yesterday, with varying levels of success...  He rarely takes his hands out of his mouth and she is tough to get to smile for the camera.  They usually dish up the shot I wanted, the minute I put down my camera.

Giggle fits...

The Nuggets' nursery, part two - the story and pics

I started this post nearly a year ago before the bottom (literally) fell out of our twin pregnancy.  Even though the nursery quickly became a low priority back then, it was past time to get my act together and finally take and post pics of what came of the twins' nursery.  And now it is fortunately very "lived in" and we have already planned to dismantle it and officially separate them when DH returns from India next week.

This room, our "new" twins' nursery (vs. the original one across the hall which is to be Alistair's room), was created from our previous den nook via a new wall and door installed by DH and my dad the first weekend of my bed rest in late August. It ended up being 11' x 10' when finished, which is definitely on the smallish side for two babies and all their stuff, but is slightly larger than our other nursery, though that room already has a closet.  Fortunately this space had everything else it needed: a window, doorway, light switch, outlets, vent, etc. so it was a relatively easy build out via a simple insulated wall and pre-hung door.

We may eventually add/create a closet here, on the shelf wall, as the guest master on the other side of that wall has a 15' closet that could be divided and finished out, but more likely we'll just use an armoire here.  We knew the kids would likely not be sharing this room for very long (he's actually already been banished moved to sleeping in a PNP in the other nursery), so between the two rooms, one closet works fine for now.

DH ended up picking out the specific wall color, once we decided on green.  I wanted something fresh and happy and the color is near the lightest of the three greens in the crib skirt fabric.  Once we went with green (and I ended up on BR), I ended up bagging my idea of making new custom curtains from the Serena & Lily fabric I had and bought some ready made instead.  I'm still deciding whether to use that fabric (a tiny homage to DH's love of horses) for the other nursery or not, which is currently painted cream (specifically Lamb, by MSL for SW) and already has custom curtains (like the rest of the house) that we had made on our honeymoon in India.

Speaking of green, we tried to make the nursery as eco-friendly as feasible (as we have all our house renos), for the obviously reasons (better for babies and the planet), without spending a small fortune.  With non-VOC wall, ceiling and trim paint, bamboo floors and shade, cotton rug and curtains, organic bedding, and the MDF furniture that was from Ikea aired out for years.

I didn't have a theme in mind (or want one) or care for matchy matchy packaged sets, so I when I found the crib skirt fabric I kind of just built the decor around that, highlighting its fun colors and art that I loved.  There did end up, somewhat coincidentally, being a relatively coherent, if varied, color scheme and lot of pops of elephants and monkeys (common for American nurseries, but also very Indian), though I hope I was able to keep them in check to avoid becoming too themey.

I ended up with lots of art for one room, but instead of storing it until they were separated, I thought what the hell, let's hang it all... ;)

Please excuse the poor photography and lack of styling.

So without further ado...

View from the door, facing the new wall: Mari's to the left

I wanted the original art, by my aunt Michelle, to be the focal point of the room, which is one of the reasons why it is arranged this way.  When we picked it from her collection as one of our wedding gifts over five years ago, I knew it would eventually go in our future nursery.

 The room has eastern exposure, so it gets filled with the morning sunshine.  Our enormous windows also made furniture placement decisions for us.

We added breathable bumpers a few months ago, as I was tired of him flinging his now retired pacis out of the crib, but we've left them up since DH is worried the kids will get stuck in the slats, but I miss not being able to see them from across the room.

 The knitted blankets hung over their crib ends were made by their great grandma BB.

All their changing supplies get tucked away in the top drawers of the dresser, along with their most popular outfits, which I am constantly switching out.

The names in wallpaper...

We hung these prints based on their color scheme (elephant for her, monkey for him, lion is on hiatus), but it turned out they really fit their personalities.  She is an old soul and he is our little crazy busy guy.

I didn't think about it at the time, but hello Scottish name spelled out in Scotch plaid letters...

The Virtues... <3

I loved this boy and girl frog fairy sconce so much, I had to get a second one that we put in the other nursery.  Our house has the bizarre (if more flattering) feature of no overhead lighting in any of the bedrooms, but instead the wall switches are connected to an outlet, so we need a lamp/sconce/something to plug in for lighting. (echos of the light green curtain stripes, though again not planned)

These monogrammed onesies I ordered before the kids were born were an epic debacle (wrong size, wrong color, took months to come), but they ended up kind of matching and looking cute under these adorable sweaters my aunt knitted and sent us for the twins that they will grow into in no time.

Since I couldn't sit up to sew, my mom made the crib skirts.  They are simple fabric panels on each side (we skimped and only did four total) tied to the springs with bias tape, so that they can be adjusted to the correct height as we move down the kids' mattresses, as I wanted them to always hang just above the floor, hiding under crib storage.

The sleeping reading corner, though nearly all our books are out in the living and family rooms where we usually read to the kids.  Getting a high backed glider that reclines is honestly one of the best decisions we made for this room.

The future closet would be built along this wall.  Oh that clutter photographs well, no? ;)

 I've had this "S" for ages...

 My mom bought me this collection of Madeline stories when I was a teenager and when I was loading up the bookshelf I discovered it was just the right size to cover the ugly top of this end table.  The colors (greens, yellows, blues, pinks) are also what ended up filling the room.

Sources:
Walls/Windows:
Non-VOC paint: Tenderness by Olympic
Sconce light: Ikea
Curtains: Green ticking lined panels from The Land of Nod
Bamboo roman shade: O.co
Art:
Over dresser: "Flyer on a Hill"-wedding gift from my SoCal artist aunt and uncle,
Over chair: "Enchanted Tales" by Anna Howarth: Ikea,
Over shelf: Shaker Alphabet by Melissa Sweet: Land of Nod,
Wallpaper names and Bonjour Elephant: Land of Nod,
"The Virtues" from Sarah Jane Studio via Etsy,
Hindi Animal prints: My Little Pakora
Fabric S: Anthropologie
Print frames: Target

Furniture/Textiles:
Eames rocker: Hautelook.com
Cribs: Graco Lauren classic convertible cribs in natural
Crib Mattresses: Soy foam dual sided by L.A. Baby
Crib Bedding: custom skirts in Uzbek Jewel fabric,
organic sheets: Boppy (tan pinstripe and star dot white)
Dresser: Ikea Malm four drawer in cream (discontinued color)
Changer/topper: Land of Nod (color matched to dresser)
Changing pad/cover: Organic cocoon changing set by L.A. Baby
Cotton Rug: Staffordshire stripe from Dash and Albert
Glider/Recliner: Jayden by Dutailier/Newco in buckwheat velvet
Blanket: Taj by Rikshaw Design
Ottoman/pouf: John Robshaw
Side table: unfinished (Boston circa 1997), color matched to dresser
Pillow/Lamp/shade: Target
Stuffed Elephant: Melissa & Doug
Book display case: Home Goods

Shelves: Ikea Expedit in birch
Fan: Classic table fan by Hunter
Bali Baskets/peacock market sling: Serena & Lily
Mattelasse frame: Pottery Barn Kids

Oh, the plans we make...

I like to think of myself as a goal oriented person, as many people do, but I think I'm actually more of a planner. And I think of goals and plans as somewhat different things, though they are clearly related. I guess I think of goals as more tangible (things to be achieved/crossed off a list) and plans are experiential (how you want to live). I have a very clear picture of the latter, as that is more important, and build the former from that, which is what makes the plans come to life. Anywho...

We bought our current home six and a half years ago with the plan of moving on within seven, which of course seemed like an eternity back then. But then after the first year when we got engaged and married, our planned one year wait to TTC turned to two (those ducks we wanted to get in a row turned out to be ferrets :/ ), and then it took over three more until we brought live babies home, which I've chronicled ad nauseum here. I also left my job in the meantime, something I never thought I would do, which worked out for us given our situation.

Fortunately, we did plan for this to be our first family home. The location is great, close to everything and super safe, if rather suburban boring. There is enough room for everyone (us, guests, kids), we are three doors down from a good elementary school, there are several nice playgrounds and a pool in our subdivision, etc., etc. I am so thankful now that we weren't among the seeming majority who only after they get pregnant, suddenly realize they quickly need a bigger place to put the baby/ies, as it obviously would have been even more complicated and stressful given our last pregnancy. And likely it would have just added to the nightmare or just wouldn't have happened at all.

But I can't help but feel the itch now as this time comes and goes given our plans, even though obviously the original timing of our family didn't pan out and we now have two infants rather than a pre-schooler and a toddler (not that I'm complaining about that). We've met our initial goal of paying enough extra over time to have six figures down on the principle on our current home in order to have enough for the downpayment on the next one when we do sell (yay us). And it is definitely still a buyer's market, interest rates are insanely low and supposedly headed down even more, and home builders are about as hungry as ever.

But if we sit tight, we can continue to live comfortably on one salary and decide what to do next and where. We could pay off the house in ten years, though I know we'll be long gone by then. I've grown to hate moving (I've done more than my share in 17 yrs.) and I certainly don't feel like I want to right now. The real estate market for sellers is still not great, and we've put in a lot of significant improvements. I'd love to blow out the back of our house enlarging our kitchen and family room, but while there are dozens of McMansions in the newer developments behind our school, in our subdivision our model is the largest, so this doesn't really make sense unless this was our forever house. We hope to finish our remaining planned renovations in enough time to actually enjoy them for awhile before moving on.

So, long story short, our conclusion, for now anyway, is to watch this plan fade with our original family timing that went out the window and stay where we are for now. I will likely go back to work (because I think I want to), giving us more flexibility and direction on where we will end up. And let's be honest, I'm pretty sure I'll actually have more time to deal with this while working than while at home with the kids.

We also need to decide where we want the kids to go to school when the time comes, this will also be a big driver. We've talked about moving back to the city (which DH thinks he wants, since he grew up in a big city), but the cost of private school almost gave him a heart attack (hello $24K kindergarten for each kid- he attended less expensive Catholic schools, I went public) and the city magnet schools admission is by test and lottery (so no guarantee). Or we could join other friends who've made the North Shore home, where we could send the kids to public school.

It should be interesting to see what happens, stay tuned... :)

Changed the name

Of my blog back to the original, which was about the optimism we've always had that we would get here some day some way (if laced with a heavy dose of sarcasm).  It was not at all the journey we planned, but it would be dishonest if I said we don't now have the life we wanted and I always imagined, though I never thought I'd be a (albeit temporary) SAHM.  I'm working on a post on how plans change. 

How have your plans changed?

Happy June!

The Nuggets' nursery, part one - the elements

Yes, I am in fact the laziest blogger ever. Shockingly, the kids don't give me time off to blog and I do most everything on the IPad now, which is not very blog friendly. Though I've posted some of them here, I also put together a Pinterest board of the major elements of the twins' nursery (save the original art) in case you are interested. I tried to be eco minded and it ended up being a bit of sea and sand and heavy on the elephants. I promise that someday, though probably not soon, pics of how it all came together will actually get posted... Happy long weekend!

21 weeks old (almost 5 months!)

We had a great time up at Lake Geneva and the Grand Geneva for Mother's Day weekend.  We are so looking forward to continuing to take the kids up there when they are bigger and can get more out of it.

The kids are busy...

Mari decided to give us a quick roll (from belly to back) over the weekend, but neither seem very interested in doing this on a regular basis.  I think they are moving on to bigger things already.

She is quickly approaching 15 pounds and Alistair is nearly 16.

Both love to put anything and everything in their mouths.  She still likes a paci and her thumb, but he's given up his paci on his own and is more of a fist in the mouth kind of guy.

They both LOVE playing with their linking rings and she likes to push them up her arm like bangles.  You can't make this stuff up.

They love to sit up, though they still need to be supported.  He still runs his legs like he always did inside me (a mile a minute) and it will be really interesting to see if he ever just walks or if he just starts out in a quick run.

Neither seem to be showing any signs that they have contracted the chicken pox from my shingles, thank goodness, though there is still a very small chance that they still could come down with it, since we are still not three weeks out from my rash clearing up.  I credit the breastmilk for keeping them healthy, as its primary benefits are immunologic, as they were definitely exposed before I knew what we were dealing with.

They love to blow raspberries, Mari especially thinks this is hilarious.

They don't seem to be fans of the whole grain organic rice cereal I got them, but I can't really blame them.  I tried it and it's pretty awful tasting.  We are going to start some more tasty things at five months.

They laugh a lot now, especially when we change their clothes, which is a big change from their first few months when they would scream (one of several reasons why they just lived in their pjs).

They started noticing each other right around 4 months (she was first), but now it is so funny to watch them watch each other and interact.  They can move so much now that if you lay them next to each other but far enough away that they can't touch, she'll move to where she is kicking him in the head.  Or if we put them near each other, she'll have his ear or hand or whatever in hers in no time.

They are both in and quickly outgrowing their six month clothes and we are starting them in size three diapers.

They both sleep from ~7:30pm-6:30am, with a dream feed @ ~11pm.  I am not sure when we will try to drop this, as they both eat a lot at that feeding.    They used to take a long morning nap (his was usually shorter), but now they seem to have switched to the long nap in the afternoon, but they will still take two short naps in the morning.  Apparently our four month wakeful amounted to him getting up once three nights in a row and needing to be rocked back to sleep.  We'll see what happens when they start teething.

Speaking of teething, they both like their Sophie teethers.  Though we could have lived so far without the big Sophies, which is kind of just an overpriced squeeky dog toy if you ask me.  Thankfully we got ours as gifts.

Playing with my camera when no one's looking...

 Guess who outgrew his cute outfit already?

 Love this place...

My first Mom's Day :)

Yes, it feels like my hair will probably all fall out before we are done...

Tired after a long day...

Back @ home

Alistair has officially taken over his sister's pink chair since it's a little bigger than his purple one and he's a moose.

What Mari thinks of her mom sticking her new camera in her face instead of playing...

So what's new?

Well lots of things as we are almost 20 weeks old, which is unbelievable to me...

Some highlights:
We have hair!

Alistair's hair is growing in pretty quickly after having what looked like a buzz cut up until now.  Mari was born with and still has a ton of hair, which is very curly on top when wet, but brushes straight after her baths.  His seems straight so far, which is interesting since mine is, but DH's is wavy.

We are rolling!

Alistair can go from back to front, or should I say side (he only makes it about 60% of the way over and then plants his face flat on the ground for the full turn).  He's still working on it.  She is not quite there yet, but if everything else is a guide, she'll be a week or two behind him.

And sadly, I have shingles. :(  I started to get a rash on the back of my hand late last week, and then it didn't go away.  I went to the drop in clinic on Saturday morning and was diagnosed and put on antivirals, which thankfully seem to have contained the outbreak to my left hand and arm (which I have to keep covered up to help keep from spreading it, with a glove I look like a bad parody of MJ).  This wasn't even a little bit on my radar, of course.  How/why this happened now, I have no idea.  The kids sleep through the night.  I sleep through the night.  I am not anywhere near as run down as many other times in the last 27 years since I had the chicken pox (shingles is just a resurgence of the CP virus).  Thankfully, you can't catch shingles, but you can spread CP to those who haven't had it.  The kids are too young to get immunized against CP (it's a live vaccine) and we are just praying and waiting (it has an up to 21 day incubation) that they don't get sick.  Lord help us if they do...
And not to be overlooked, Mari is also doing great.  She is talking a lot more now, so much so that it is hard to determine which one of them is louder.  I just love their little voices, I can't wait until they start talking for real.  They really love playing with toys now.  What a difference a few weeks makes.

Snuggling with the nugget bunny that the Easter bunny brought her...

Her jammies say "Princess of Naps", and a more accurate description of her has never been written.

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Deer in the headlight look when my red eye reducer is on.

She has the most adorable smiles, which are really difficult to get pictures of, but I'm working on it...