Family Update

I figured I have not given an update recently so here goes....

Me: I am good, not much to report really. Still home with the boys. I am going to start an at-home nursery school program with the boys in the next few weeks and I have also started looking for recipes to make for the boys. Last night Ben and I made turkey meatballs with a red pepper sauce. We also have the ingredients and plan to make chicken & potato balls and a tuna & broccoli dish. All of these recipes you can cook and then freeze for later use which is nice. We will stock up on food for them so that they aren't eating the same thing over and over again. I joined the local Mothers Of Multiples club last week so I plan to do some events with them. They have toddler playgroups as well as other parties and activities.

Ben: He is still working at Dogwood Acres, but is in search of a new job.

Zak: He is a crazy man, always on the go. He is SO close to walking on his own. We have gotten him to take 1 or 2 steps on his own after lots of practice. Any day now he will be running all over the house I am sure. He has mastered crawling up the stairs, but still wants to go down them head first. He now has 3 teeth and is working on his 4th. He is still the bully and enjoys hitting and throwing things all the time! Today he has started to clap on his own and loves doing patty cake. He also now initiates playing peek-a-boo by covering his face with something (usually a toy mirror or blanket) and then taking it off and laughing like crazy. He has started to enjoy "reading" books, but also likes for us to read to him. Zak has also started to say his first word (other than mama and dada)...he likes to say "dog dog".

Ryder: He is definitely the cuddly and sensitive one right now. He loves to be held and he clings to you and won't let go once you pick him up. He has now mastered crawling and is into everything. He is now learning the meaning of the word "no" but chooses not to listen most of the time (typical 13 month old). He is also now playing while being up on his knees which is new for him. The physical therapist is still coming weekly (Thursday mornings) and is now working on getting him to pull to a standing position along with trying to start getting him to walk. Ryder now has 2 teeth, but he has been cranky so another might be working its way in (he doesn't let us get a good look in his mouth so its hard to tell). Poor Ryder is still being bullied by Zak, but has started to fight back a little more when Zak tries to take his toys away. The other night Ryder started doing something very comical and it all started with Ben. When Ryder was laying on his tummy the other night Ben said "beached whale". Well after that whenever anybody says beached whale Ryder will flop to the ground on his tummy and lay there. It is really funny to watch him crawling across the floor and then all of a sudden somebody says beached whale and he flops to the ground! Ryder also likes to read books and play with his shape sorter.

Our upcoming plans include a trip to the Renaissance Festival on Saturday as long as the weather is nice and not rainy. Ben has never been before and I love going so we thought it would be fun to take the boys. If it ends up raining we still plan to go, but on a different day. We are also planning to take a trip to a local pumpkin patch so we can get pumpkins to carve as well as take the boys to the cornfield maze and on a hayride.

In November my sister is having her baby girl so my mom and Piper will be flying in for about 10 days. She is scheduled to have her c-section on November 14 so my mom will be here for Thanksgiving this year. Ben and I had talked and decided to stay home and do dinner at the house so my mom, Piper, Chelley, John & baby Maddie will also be here for dinner. It will be nice since we have not had Thanksgiving dinner with my mom for a few years now. I will be watching baby Maddie once Chelley goes back to work so the boys and I will be busy with her. In January we will be flying to FL to visit my mom and everybody down there for about 10 days.

Outdoor Fun

Today we took advantage of the nice weather by taking a walk this morning and playing on the swing across the street. This afternoon when Ben got home from work we took the boys in the front yard to play. They love playing in the grass and watching people and cars go by. We also took their Kawasaki (Jamison gave them for their birthday) out with us and they loved it. Ryder is too short for both feet to touch the ground and Zak seems to be able to push himself a little bit, but Ben helped them out. Here are videos of them each getting a turn....

Tomorrow is the annual yard sale histed by the Annapolis Mothers Of Multiples club at a church in Severna Park so I am going to go to that. Last year the yard sale was the very first time I went out with the boys alone (just after they came home from the NICU). I am now a member of the MOM club so the boys and I will hopefully start going to a play group with other twins their age.

Cranky Boys!

We have had 2 very cranky boys for the last few days. They have just been so upset and fighting with each other all day long. We know that Zak has his 2 top front teeth coming in and Ryder has a bottom front tooth coming in so being cranky is understandable. But the fighting has got to stop between them. Today I finally had to separate them and leave Ryder in the playpen area with toys and take Zak on the outside of the play area where he just ran around and crawled up the stairs. They are so exhausting now!

I have talked to some friends online who have kids close to 2 years old and they are starting a home preschool program which I thought was a good idea. So I looked into it and have decided to start the 1-year old program with the boys. The program is really just an outline of 24 lessons (each lesson takes 2 weeks) that include certain books/nursery rhymes/poems to read, indoor and outdoor activities, sign language, art, songs, music, nature activities, and other various things. A lot of things we already do, but this lays things out all in one place with great ideas.

1 Year Pictures

We finally got the chance to have the boys' 1-year pictures done today. Zak was not very happy when ever the camera was involved so we had a hard time getting really good pictures of him. Not much you can do to convince a 13 month old to sit in 1 place and smile. Ryder was such a ham! We did end up getting some cute pictures of the boys together and separate. Here are a few of the ones we managed to get....

Home from the Beach

Today we are back into our normal routine at home. Ben had to work this morning which is why we came home last night. We had a great time in Ocean City and we hope to be able to take the boys there yearly just like I did as a kid. They loved watching all of the people and the water from the balcony. They also had fun playing many different games at the arcades; just like their daddy! I posted earlier we no longer have the use of our digital camera so the last few days we used a disposable one. I will get that developed soon and possibly get a CD so I can put some of those pictures online. For now here are some of the pictures we did get before the digital camera lost its battle....

The boys looking off the balcony

Zak on the balcony

Ryder playing a game

Zak playing a game

Ryder & Mommy in the ocean

Zak & Daddy in the ocean

Today we are going to meet Ben at work when he gets off so that we can all go and visit with Grandma Mary who is in town from FL. She has not seen the boys since they were 6 months old so she is very excited. Tonight I might be going to have sushi with Colleen, Josephine, and Kay for a girl's night out. On Saturday we might be going to Rich & Laura's house for crabs, but it all depends on how the weather is. Ben and I are hoping for good weather because we would LOVE to eat some crabs before the season is over!

Battle with the Ocean

Today was supposed to have storms this afternoon, but once the boys woke up from their nap it was still nice out so we decided to take a quick trip to play with our new sand toys by the water. We packed up the toys, a beach towel, and camera then headed down there. Once we got there we took turns holding the boys with their feet in the water and taking some cute pictures. Then we put the blanket out and went to sit down and play with toys when IT happened! Ben had gone a few steps away to get our shoes to hold the beach towel down when a giant wave came and washed out our towel, the toys, the boys, and the camera. He came running back and helped me grab the boys, towel, blanket, camera, and a few of the toys that had not already gone to sea! We had set up the beach towel a few feet away from the highest water line yet this giant wave decided to come just as Ben walked away and I was left to fend by myself. Needless to say we lost the battle with the ocean badly!

Started with: 2 happy boys, digital camera, beach towel, bucket of toys

Walked away with: 2 screaming boys, soaked beach towel, 3 toys, non-functional digital camera

So we will not be able to upload any of our cute ocean pictures until we get home and can put the memory card in an older camera. This also means we will not be able to take any more digital pictures this beach trip so we will be going out to buy some disposable cameras!

Here are a few pictures I took on my cell phone though....

Zak

Ryder

Nathan's B-Day Party

Today was Nathan's 1st b-day party (he turned 1 on August 25). The party was at a community beach with a playground and some pavilions. The boys had a ton of fun crawling around in the grass and playing with Nathan. I took a ton of pictures so here are some of the better ones....

Zak the football player

Ryder, Nathan, Zak

Ryder

Nathan with his cake

Zak's Newest walk-crawl

(ignore the talking in the background, forgot we were recording!)

Tropical Storm Hanna

Hanna was nothing compared to what the forecasts were calling for, thank goodness! We did have rain just about all day and the wind picked up in the afternoon, but we did not have any major flooding or damage like they were calling for.

We are starting the process to pack for Ocean City which is much more difficult with kids involved. We have to think ahead more, pack a ton more stuff, and bring food as well. We are really looking forward to the trip though.

Over the past few days I have been going through all of the clothes that the boys have outgrown deciding what to keep for a future kid, what to give to Chelley, what to keep for special sentimental reasons, and what to donate. They had a TON of clothes! We have decided to keep about 3 BIG bags of clothes of varying sizes and a few sentimental things. We also have 2 bags of things for Chelley and a TON of bags to donate. I also have 2 littler bags to go to the NICU along with several stuffed animals.

Tomorrow the boys and I are going to Nathan's 1st b-day party at Round Bay beach which will be fun. I will probably get some pictures to post afterwards.

You know I always like to post pictures of the boys so here are a few newer ones....

Helping with the laundry

Going through stuffed animals

Vaccines & Farmers' Market

This morning we went to the pediatrician for Ryder to get his 1 yr vaccines. We decided not to get his when Zak did (August 6) because we didn't want him to have any side effects that might compromise his surgery on August 25 so he had his today. He did well, as always. Afterwards we went to the Farmers' Market in Glen Burnie because WIC gave us coupons to use there. We got some cucumbers, peaches, green beans, corn, and rolls (honey wheat, cheese).

Today Ben and Dave are going to empty our storage unit and bring everything to the house. Not that we have any where to put the stuff, but for now we will stuff it in the unfinished area until we find places to put it all. While they are doing that and the boys are napping I need to go through all of the boys outgrown clothes to decide what we will keep, what to donate, and what can go to some friends/family.

Labor Day

This weekend we had 2 picnics since the weather was so nice. On Sunday we had a cook-out at my grandmother's house in Annapolis. Then we walked down to the playground for a little while. Of course while we were downtown we had to go to Ben & Jerry's for ice cream. :-) The boys got to play with their cousin who is about 3 weeks younger than them, but he is much bigger than they are!

Tonight we went to Lake Waterford and had pizza with Tim & Peg (they were visiting from NH). We also went to the playground at the park which the boys loved. They went on the swings, went down the slides, climbed the stairs, and went through the tunnels. We took lots of pictures and here are a bunch of the better ones...

Zak (me in the background)

Zak

Ryder

Zak (look at those eyes)


Ryder (look at those eyes)

Zak


Zak & Tracy

Ryder & Tracy