Thomas has another tooth coming in on top, so that makes 5 altogether. He is really drooling up a storm and his cheeks are fiery red, I think a result of this fifth tooth. Nathan has a second tooth coming in on the bottom and that makes his grand total 2 teeth.

They are both pretty good at sliding around on their bellies. Nathan is able to inch forward now. I certainly wouldn't call it crawling, but he can get things that roll out of reach.

Thomas is working on the art of kissing. Currently, he grabs your face with both arms, and comes at you with an open mouth. It's pretty wet and sloppy, but I'll take what I can get!

That's it!

Love,

As you can tell from the pictures, Thomas loves to stand hanging on to anything. He is good about hanging on, not to say he hasn't taken a tumble or two.

We have been slack at taking pictures of late, but we do have some news over the last couple of days. Thomas is going from the sitting position into the crawling position--he puts both hands down next to him and turns his hips. Nathan on the other hand has learned to go from the crawl position to the sit positon. This may not seem much, but we watch for every little sign of growth and maturity! Nathan is not crawling forward yet, but he sure can get around!

Good night!

We've had a wonderful week! Such nice weather has allowed us to walk several days. I shouldn't act like every day is all rosy and wonderful but the majority of the time we do well. Tuesday was one of those days that I just felt thankful to get through. We even resorted to taking a walk around 4 PM, the roads were all wet and nasty but the temperature around 40....we met another neighbor who asked how we were and we said "just surviving today". I'm not sure if the day was tough because of the RSV shot the day before or from sore gums. Also, early intervention came on Tuesday morning. For some reason, the boys are usually discombobulated after that's over too. I don't know why as Julie does little more than light play with them. Just our schedule gets a little out of whack.

It was a good visit with EI. I'm so glad to have Julie come as she can be looking for skills or problems with the boys. I learned 4 signs to teach the boys: hungry, thirsty, more and that's enough. I try to use them but it'll be awhile yet before they figure them out. Julie did mention that she thinks Nathan keeps his hands in fists alot. I guess that is a preemie thing. What "they" want is for the child to keep his hand open and relaxed to feel and experience textures. She did recommend we give the boys a chance to experiment with food, hence the 2 pictures attached. Nathan is very good at taking or picking up food and getting it into his mouth, even with the mushy stuff. Thomas wasn't sure what to do with the pile of sweet potatoes. He played in it some, but I didn't notice him putting it in his mouth. Julie also recommended that we point to things in the story as we read as that will be an action they will soon mimic.

Wednesday we had terrific wind and rain. A little unnerving to get through living amongst several wimpy pine trees. The top half of a very large non-pine tree dislodged itself in the woods in front of the house...that was a lovely crack. Then we lost some large pine branches on the side of our house. I just have visions of limbs falling on the house and me crawling around over debris to find the babies. Isn't imagination awful and wonderful??

Thursday and Friday were lovely fun days where we enjoyed lots of sun and fresh air. Go figure...January! Crystal and Brady Cheyne came over today for lunch. We just learned that Brady's going to have a sibling come June! She loves being a mom as much as I do. We just enjoy each others company so much. My parents came over Thursday and headed back home this afternoon, so my mom had a chance to meet Crystal. Mom and Crystal talked on the phone several times!

We've had a little problem this week with bed times stretching later and later. My first rule of thumb now, is no naps can start after 3pm! Next, nobody should be sleeping after 4 pm! Nathan has been thoroughly enjoying playing with his Dad while I get Thomas to sleep. Matt's job is to tire the boy out! It seems to work but I sure hear lots of giggling coming from the living room! Nathan just loves his Dad. I come out take him and his face has a smile a mile wide!

Enjoy the pictures and have a great weekend.
love,

My sister, Laura, stayed with us through Saturday. We all enjoyed her so much and do hope she'll be back soon! Those sweatshirts, the boys are wearing, are from my other sister, Amy who is married to a Canadian and is living in Ontario. I made sure though the boys had on some blue.

Raise the flags, the F150 is sold and gone!

We went in again today for another RSV shot. The weights measured on the boys had to be wrong. I didn't say anything at the time as I didn't remember their last months weight. We measured them here at home tonight using delta math with our scale....Thomas is around 19.5 pounds and Nathan around 17.5 pounds. They actually have a 10 month checkup in February. Tomorrow, Early Intervention comes for their monthly visit.

The boys are interacting more and! more and we aren't just talking giggling at each other....hair pulling, sucking on each other, etc. Tonight, Thomas reached over and gave Nathan's hair a good yank. Nathan, not forgetting this unpleasant little encounter waited patiently until Thomas was on his belly....reached over and started to suck on his head. Remember these boys are getting teeth so I'm giving Nathan the benefit of the doubt that he was just sucking and not gnawing. I think I prefer giggling.

It's off to bed.
love,

When the going gets tough, the tough pull out the cheerios! At this point, very few of the cheerios make it into their mouth, but at least they have something to do while I am preparing their dinner.

No more bathroom sink! They have a blast in their new tub although Nathan took a little dive a few minutes before the picture was taken. He wasn't too thrilled about that.

My sister Laura is here overnight to see the boys. I hope we aren't "birth control"! Actually there is a very funny story behind this comment. Matt's parents came with us to the Boston science museum one rainy Saturday in October. We were on an elevator with a decent size family whose young children were hollering at the top of their lungs. Matt was saying under his breath to his father "birth control" and just as he said this, the kids were suddenly! quiet so the entire elevator heard Matt's comment. The mother looked at us and very politely said "it's really not all that bad". Matt wanted to crawl under the stroller at that point. I can understand the mother's comment because I love my boys so much that even when they are both hollering I would do it all over again in an instant! I love being a mother, I love caring for them and I love their little beings.

all for now,
Love,

The boys are certainly becoming more aware of their bodies. Yesterday, Thomas spent quite a bit of time looking at his hand and holding it up in the air so he could inspect it. He also found his ear. Sort of fun to watch the recognition on his face that his ear is part of him! Nathan is very fond of scrunching up his face, squinting his eyes, wrinkling up his nose or grinning while showing off all his gums. I definitely need to get the video camera out more but unfortunately as unobtrusively as I try to be, the camera distracts them from their shenanigans (a good Grandma Louise word!).

We were able to get out for a walk this afternoon. It had to be around 45 and sunny. So nice to get some fresh air.

Matt arrived home here around 8:30. We are glad he is here safe and sound.

I meant to write ! in my last DDOB that Nathan is becoming a daddy's boy. When my mother had him, she handed him off to Matt for a second and when she took him back he cried. I didn't think much of it until he did the same thing to me! Come on, the boy isn't even weaned yet! He's breaking heart. Maybe this is pay back for all the times Matt held the boys only to have them crane around to find out where I was.

The boys and I had to go to a viewing tonight. They cried when we first got there and people were sticking their faces in close. The boys do not like that at all! New surroundings, new faces, new voices...all too much! I wonder why people stick their faces so close into a babies? Do they think babies have a hard time seeing? I don't want to mollycoddle the boys and we have to go out but how do you ask someone to get back when they are just so excited to see 2 babies? We are a maj! or people magnet!

all for tonight,
Love,

On our way back from Ontario, we stopped in to see the Grapes in Williamsville. We wanted them to meet our boys. We just stayed an hour but enjoyed every minute of the visit.

Matt flew to Dallas this afternoon and will be returning Tuesday night. My first time alone with the boys at night! So far so good, but don't think I haven't had visions of the house burning down with me trying to haul them both out in my nightgown, etc....

I've noticed Thomas is cutting another tooth, this one is on top. He is biting down on the spoon when I am feeding him now.

Nathan is furiously trying to crawl. He is now rocking on his knees, pushing his butt way up in the air and scooting backwards.

Tonight, the boys entire supper was exactly what I was having! A first! I made a pot of chicken soup and toasted some bread. I ground up the soup (coarsely) and broke up the toast on their tray so they could work on the thumb and forefinger coordination. All along, I have been cooking up straight vegetables and plain meats and mixing these with their cereal. Tonight, I figured the soup was bland enough to let them enjoy it! I did sneak in a few peas and green beans...vegetables I have been unable to get them to eat out of the baby food jars!

I very often catch the boys giggling at each other. It's really very interesting because they don't stare at us and giggle, only when it is at each other.

Saturday we went over to the JCPenny's studio and had pictures taken. It really ended up not being that painful. I wish we had gone more often to get pictures of the boys but for some reason I was intimidated by the entire idea! Anyways, I plan to get another picture done around their birthday....a mere 3 months away...how can this be?

All for now,
love,

Sorry it has been so long since the last DDOB!

We traveled up to Ontario for New Year's with many stops along the way! We stayed 2 nights at my parents, 1 night at Matt's parents and then finally to Amy's house. On our way home, we just stayed one night at Matt's parents. By the time we got to Amy's, the boys were just about over their colds. My biggest worry about this trip was their sleeping at night and all those hours in the car. I really think they did exceptionally well sleeping at night. Nathan really enjoys being rocked to sleep while Thomas has been getting up around 6AM (it has been 12 hours after all) to eat and cuddle. I just really enjoy both of these snuggle sessions. Traveling in the car never exceeded 4 hours at a time. Our van is wonderful for me to move around and keep them entertained. We took lots of toys and books. They really show an interest in books, they like turning pages. It was in the car though that I noticed Thomas start saying da da da. It's a different noise and he moves his mouth around like he is smacking his lips.

While at Amy's, we were able to get Nathan to mimic clapping his hands. I did get it on video, but we have been unable to get him to clap since we've been home! Nathan is also having fun hanging his tongue out! He just does it when he is trying to be silly and he loves it if you do the same.

Tonight, we discovered both boys have lower center teeth coming in! Thomas has one little edge poked through and Nathan has a rough spot on the gum.

I must get to bed but their will be a few more pictures tomorrow night.

love to each,