Once upon a time I was waiting....

A year ago today I was admitted to the hospital awaiting an early morning induction. I did not get much sleep that night and I honestly had no idea what was about to happen...

On the move...

Well, the boys are getting closer and closer to their first birthday and they are also getting more and more mobile. Zachary is really crawling now and Nicolas is cruising along side the furniture. It seems like Zachary is spending more of his time trying to talk while Nicolas is getting ready to walk instead. It's pretty amazing to see just how different they are.

Zachary crawling:


Nicolas cruising:


Zachary and Nicolas together:

Meeting my future daughter-in-law???

My best friend Brenda had her daughter at 3:43pm yesterday. Everyone is doing so well and Natalia is just beautiful. We are so happy that their family is growing and it is so special to see them this happy! It brings back a lot of memories since it was almost 1 year ago that I was the one sitting in the hospital bed and they were coming to meet our little men.

It is amazing how quickly we fall in love with these precious little angels that enter our lives and we are forever changed. Welcome to the world Natalia Anne!

They crashed!

The boys slept well last night but still got up for their feed at 1:00 am. I think it might take a few days of adjusting to the new schedule before I can expect to see some real changes. The good thing is that they slept until 8:00 this morning. They woke up in a fantastic mood.

We put them down for their nap at almost 1:00 this afternoon. They both played for a while and when I went in to check on them I found that they crashed... This is what I saw when I went into their room:

Zachary:



Nicolas:

A change in Schedule

The boys' sleeping habits were changing again and I knew it was becoming more and more necessary to make an adjustment to our existing schedule. The old routine (sleep and feeding) went something like this:

7:00 - 7:30 ---They would wake up and within a 30 minutes they would have breakfast
10:00- 10:30 ---Morning nap time (they would have a small snack before their nap)
12:00 - 12:30 --- They would wake up and within a 30 minutes they would have lunch
3:30 - 4:00 --- Afternoon nap (they would have a small snack before their nap)
5:00 - 5:30 --- They would wake up and within a 30 minutes they would have dinner
8:00 - 8:30 --- Bath time (individual) followed by their bottle and then bed time
12:30 - 1:00 --- Wake for a bottle and then they would sleep until morning

This schedule was working great! It gave me some time to do things during the day and they seemed to be getting all the sleep and play time they needed. But then things started to change... They began waking up later in the morning and going down slightly later for their morning nap. This meant they were waking up later and therefore eating later. This then started to really affect their afternoon nap since they were only starting to get tired after 4+ hours and not 3. They were at the point that they were only falling asleep around 5:00 and I was forcing them to wake up at 6:00! This was barely affecting their bed time though. So, we came to the realization that we need to make a few changes and probably drop the morning nap and move up the afternoon one.

That is what we did today. Our schedule for today looked like this:

7:15 --- Awake and ready to start the day (withing 30 minutes they had breakfast)
12:15 --- After having lunch, they went down for their nap.
3:10 --- They both woke from their nap (each of them only stirred once) and had a snack
5:15 --- They had dinner
8:00 --- We started the bath/bottle/bed routine.
They were both asleep by 8:30 after having had a great bottle!

Now I will be anxious to see what tonight brings. They should be good and tired since this is the longest they are awake (in a stretch) prior to going to bed. I would think that this will allow them to sleep right through until morning. I guess only time will tell...

Despite the crazy changes in their schedule, the boys did very well. They are such wonderful little men and I am so proud of them!

Waking up...

Zachary and Nicolas are usually in such a great mood when they wake up. They love to hang out and play in their cribs. Especially now that they can pull themselves up and can cruise around the crib. Here is what I walked in on today after their afternoon nap...



I love to hear them laugh and playing together. It is the best part of having twins. All I can hope is that they continue to be friends as they get older...

A picture and the need to plan...

Here is just a quick picture of the boys standing at the chairs that are blocking their way out of their play area...



I also need to get busy planning their 1st birthday party. It is creeping up on me and it will be here before I know it... just a little over a week!!! I don't know what I have planned exactly so I guess I should start with figuring that out. I also need to go buy them some sort of birthday present... I feel very disorganized!! I plan to have a plan by the end of the weekend.

First Outing in the Wagon

It is such a beautiful day out that we decided to take a walk as a family. What better day than this to take the wagon out for the very first time? So, that's just what we did.

The boys loved it! Once we got moving Zachary started to laugh. Nicolas just loved to look around. He spent most of the time hanging off to the side so he could get a better view. The wagon itself is amazing and so easy to push around. It's going to become our very favorite way to get around this summer...

Here are a few pictures:

Swinging at the park

We went for a walk this afternoon and since I like having a destination, we decided to go to one of the parks near our house to see if the swings are up. As we arrived, I was extremely excited to see that the swings at this park were already up. The ones at the park closest to our house has yet to acknowledge that spring has arrived, so the swings are still not up.

There were two of the baby swings side by side. This would be the boys' first attempt on the swings but I was certain they would love it. Boy was I right! they had a blast!! Zachary spent most of the time laughing while Nicolas kept trying to make himself swing while occasionally taking a break to laugh with his brother. It was adorable and so much fun!!

Here are some pictures I took... yes I brought my camera...

Zachary:




Nicolas:

Here is a short video of the fun time they were having...

Night #1!

Both Zachary and Nicolas decided that last night was going to be full night number 1. They slept from 9:00 until 7:30 this morning without their usual midnight bottle! They both stirred a few times (Nicolas' stirring was not even enough to get me out of bed!) but they did not need for me to pick them up and give them their bottle. Zachary woke twice having lost his pacifier and not being able to find it. Once I gave it back to him, he was off to dream land again!

I just hope that this is their new sleeping pattern and not just a fluke. I knew they would give up their night feed when they are ready. Maybe this is an early Mother's Day present from my little men...

Play time in their crib!

Zachary and Nicolas love to play in their cribs after they wake up from their naps. Sometimes just for fun I put them in the same crib to play and cute pictures like this one happens...

Nicolas pulled himself up to a stand yesterday. We were all very proud but not more than he was!!

Peek-a-boo

This is just a cute of video of Zachary playing peek-a-boo...

Finger Foods...

I really want the boys to start eating a lot more finger foods. So I decided to give the Gerber Little Graduates a try. They boys loved them! So far they have tried the ravioli and the macaroni and cheese. They have been quite the hit! Even the veggies! It is so much fun to watch them exploring the foods and getting all messy! Here are some pics taken from ravioli night...

Zachary:

Nicolas:

Standing up...

Zachary and Nicolas are enjoying the freedom of standing up and are wanting to do it all the time. Zachary has figured out how to get himself from either a sitting position or a crawling one to a stand. Nicolas still needs help getting up, but it won't be long before he learns to do it himself.

So, now I am finding them standing everywhere they can. Zachary especially loves looking into Nicolas' crib while standing at the end of his. This is so cute! Nicolas wants to stand to look at his brother but since he still needs our help, it's not as spontaneous.

Here is a video I took of the boys this morning. They are standing by the chairs that are closing in their play room. We have not put up a gate yet but it is coming...

Nicolas thinks it's funny (for some weird unknown reason) to make this hyperventilating noise which you see him doing in the video. I have no idea where it came from...

Here is just one of them "talking" to one another...

Fun in the tub!!

Zachary and Nicolas were given these great Fisher Price bath toys by their Auntie Mel. They absolutely love them! Bath time has never been a struggle and now the only struggle we have is getting them out of the tub! They enjoy being in the water and playing with all the toys. I just hope that they will enjoy the pool as much this summer.

Zachary:

Nicolas:

Showing off our teeth while being cute!

These are just some random pictures I took yesterday that showed off both teeth on Zachary and Nicolas. They are also just two very cute pictures...(keep in mind that I am completely impartial!)


Zachary:



Nicolas:

The Chaos....

We built the boys a play area in our basement which is right next to our living space (ie. where we watch TV). We made sure that everything in the room was theirs and could be played with and /or climbed on. It is a pretty big area and will definitely grow with them.


It makes me laugh how they are always playing in a small little corner of the room together. They have all this open space and yet they choose to be confined to a small corner where they are constantly getting in each other's way. The picture only shows 3/4 of the room but you can see them playing in between the exersaucer and the toy shelving units. The buckets are constantly being pulled out and dumped and the level that can be reached keeps getting higher since Zachary can now pull himself up to a stand...

11 months old!

Zachary and Nicolas are 11 months old today. In one month my babies will be a year old! Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday that I was pregnant with these little angels that we had yet to meet, and now they are on the verge of celebrating their first birthday!

They have grown a lot in the last 11 months and they are thriving! They learn something new every day and I am sure that walking is going to be one of those new things in the not so distant future. Zachary constantly wants to stand up and is trying to pull himself up... with more or less success. Nicolas seems much less interested but that was also the case with crawling and he ended up doing it first. I think he is letting Zachary do all of the legwork and he will just observe. Once he has it figured out, then he will just do it.

I had the boys weighed today. Here is where we stand at 11 months:

Zachary:

He now weighs 21 pounds 15 ounces (up from 21 pounds 14 ounces on March 3rd, 2009)

Nicolas:

He now weighs 19 pounds 15 oz (up from 19 pounds 8 ounces on March 3rd, 2009)

There is 2 pound difference between the two boys and I think Nicolas is going to now start to catch up to Zachary. It is quite obvious that hey have become mobile since their last weigh in. They have been eating so much more and have put on very little weight...

Out of the house....

We (I am using the royal we...) are refinishing the kitchen. So, the boys and I have been kicked out of the house so that Steve and his brother Dan can do the work. I spent the first few days with my parents and I am now with my in-laws. We are hoping to be able to return tomorrow.

The boys have enjoyed their time with their grandparents but they miss their beds and their Daddy... so do I!

All tied up!

Zachary cut his second tooth a few days ago. So both of the boys now have two teeth. My days of gummy smiles are officially gone...