5 Month Birthday

Happy 5 months girls! Only one more month to 6, which means we'll be able to swim and run and wear back carriers and oh my, so much fun stuff. We celebrated yesterday with tacos at Nana's and got to see Nana and Papa, Rita, Marie and Danny and Hennie, and Great Grandma and Grandpa Haag. And got to play euchre! It was a lovely day.

This last week was not as bad as I thought it would be: Kurt had to be gone for three days/two nights for work. Two things helped. First, lovely people assisting me with the nighttime routine. Emily, Kurt's co-worker, came over and showed off her experienced baby-feeding skills. And did a load of laundry for us at her apartment, so nice. The next night Nana and Papa came over and brought dinner and did dishes and just generally were the awesome people they are.

The other thing that helped: I decided to just not do any chores or work. Just none, for three days. It seemed radical to me but then it felt AMAZING. At a parent/baby group I went to during that time the leader brought up an article that said you would need three or four adults taking care of one baby to do it without stress. And I can totally see that. If ALL I had to do was take care of the babies, or do chores, or work, well, let's not even speculate because of course that's not how our culture works. Interesting, anyway :-)

Enough of that, picture time!

"Sharing" a ball

Signe attempting to pull some hair. A Freya smile - not as rare as these pictures make it seem, but I know there is a dearth of them on here.

Tummy time/Baby Einstein

Same tummy time minutes later - demonstration of Signe's rotation. So funny.

A little birthday nap with daddy. They did actually nap eventually. 

Holding both. Nearly 30 lbs now, where are you biceps?? 

Birthday dinner: yams! They love yams. Who doesn't?

Nap at Nana's with daddy. Once she actually gets to sleep, she's precious.

21 Weeks Old

This is the longest I've gone without updating the blog in awhile, I know I know. Things have been up, things have been down. Freya had some bad nights of sleep, and therefore I was a bit of a grump, but last night was better. Kurt and I got to go on our third date since the babies came thanks to Aunt Kris, Uncle John, and my dad. We went to the Old Fashioned where Kurt had a beer and I had a latte...lovely. I got walleye and eggs. Not previously aware of that as a dish. It did however satisfy my twin-nursing-mama hunger for both breakfast and lunch.

The girls and I went over yonder to visit Marie, Danny, and Hennie at the farm again yesterday. Goodness they are lovely hosts. They even sent two dozen farm fresh eggs home with me! We had another disaster walk unfortunately. The wind is really strong out there with the bluffs and wide open spaces, sez Danny and Marie. And I guess babies don't like wind?

Can't think of much else in news. Really looking forward to when it finally finally warms up again and we can have more outside adventures. We even have a lovely backyard with a fish pond and all kinds of neat stuff that we haven't been able to take advantage of.

Get ready for a barrage of photos!

Very unclear cell phone picture, but Signe is sitting up (after a fashion) by herself here, holding onto that ribbon on the playmat

Doesn't she look like a little toddler already??

Eating with Papa. Her hair kind of makes her look like, what are they called, those cool dudes from the 50s with cigarettes rolled in their shirt sleeves?

Eating with Nona

Playing rings on the kitchen floor

My lil scooter. Scooted from at least a foot away on the mat.

Proud that I used my tart pan again, for a yummy quiche. Sad to say, it's a crust from a box. Nothing compared to a homemade crust. But adequate for quiche-holding purposes.

"There there Freya, it can't be as bad as all that"

Blocks!

And this is why Bumbos are not an "occupy babies in other room" device (she is shiny and greasy because her eczema was flaring again)

SO MANY BLOCKS

Daddy cuddles. Signe just always appears smaller even though she's not. 

Oh my goodness the cuteness. Signe took such a nice long nap cuddled with Daddy (so did Daddy :-))

Love all the expressions going on here

Recognize someone?

Wow that beard is fun

Grandpa Jim

There's that old drunken face we love so much Freya

Signe has pretty much the exact same expression as in the last shot

Rooster hair

**Late-breaking blog update: Signe just rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time! 

4 Month Checkup, First Solids, Olbrich

It's been an eventful week here! First, we had our 4 month well-child visit. Which included another three shots, sad. Actually it wasn't as bad as the 2 month shots. And now they're all better and all protected, so of course it's worth it. As far as stats:

Freya
Length: 24.75 in (58%)
Weight: 13 lb 5 oz (31%)
Head circumference: 41 cm

Signe
Length: 24 in (29%)
Weight: 13 lb 14 oz (44%)
Head circumference: 40 cm

Many people guess that Freya is the bigger one, and we always tell them that it just seems that way because she has a bigger head. And now we have the cold hard evidence! Freya is our long skinny big-headed lady (q-tip) (kidding). Signe is our...let's just say our more "take after mommy" gal.  She really overtook Freya. We'll see if the solids help Freya catch up once again, since Signe is the better nurser.

And on that note: solids! We started with rice cereal on Friday. Pretty entertaining, and we hope will make our nights a little less fussy by stuffing them but good. Once they start eating instead of simply mouthing around then spitting out.

We also had a playdate with Bradley classmate Erinn and her lovely daughter Cora. And we made a trip to Olbrich Gardens. All in all a good week!

Kick kick kick all day long

Poor Signe had to have sock-hand after mama clipped her skin pretty good while doing her nails. Clipping nails is the most difficult baby handling skill, far and away.

Clean Freya

Clean Signe

Watching some Baby Einstein. Those American Academy of Pediatrics doctors can just stuff it with walnuts, no TV til 2 years old. You try doing laundry in the basement while alone in charge of twins.

Short Signe with tall Cora.

Signe's first solids!

And Freya

Lovely

At Olbrich Gardens

Playtime on the grass

So many new things to look at!

Easter, Bumbo, Moby, Teething

19 weeks, wow! It's getting to the point where I refer to them much more often as 4 months old rather than their age in weeks. Milestone!

My week was busy busy with work. The only way the dishes got done was thanks to Jack doing them TWICE. All the dishes. Twice. And he cleaned the cat box area, and he doesn't even really like cats. What a father in law, I tell you.

We had a lovely Easter. Thanks to my Aunt Kris for the cute outfits seen in the pictures below. We got to visit with Rebecca and her little gestating one, visited my family in Watertown, and then hung out with Nick and met his awesome girlfriend Brianna. Call me biased, but anyone who is immediately enamored of my lovely ladies is alright in my book :-)

Baby news: Signe is definitely teething. Kris gave me the great tip of soaking a corner of a diaper in cool water or putting it wet in the fridge/freezer and then letting her chow down on it. Really seems to help. Freya is on her way - no pain yet I don't think but droolier as Signe was/is.

In fun news, we got the Bumbo out yesterday! For those who don't know, it's a baby seat. And SO super cute. See below for illustrations. We could have gotten it out a long time ago probably, I realize now. Actually it was on my enormously huge mental list of "things to do" for at least a month. But Rebecca reminded me yesterday of it and I'm so happy she did. They just look like such big girls sitting in it and seem to have lots of fun. Also, the seat is already almost snug due to cloth-diaper butt.

And in another breakthrough baby-positioning discovery, I put Signe in the Moby facing forward last night and it was WONDERFUL. Again, was on my mental list for ages "figure out how to work Moby facing out." The thing is the manual/website doesn't tell you. There's some people online who seem to think it's bad. But with the amount of warnings and disclaimers on baby stuff, mostly I figure if it doesn't tell me not to it's probably fine. And I know my little ladies well enough now that I know if something isn't right. Anyway. Forward-facing. Yes. Moms online said "it overwhelmed my baby to face out, she wanted to face in and have the security of mom". HA. Overwhelmed, these babies, no. Underwhelmed when facing ol' mom is the problem.

So overall good if crazy week. Situation normal.

Photos! (BTW I've stopped trying to edit myself really...just too many cute ones)

Thanks Marie for the super cute dress!

Where ever did Signe get her bottom lip sad face from?

Happy baby pose!

Shoulder ride/eat some sweet mama hair time

Aw look at Kurt being all handsome

When the stars align I get to start my (late) morning with this. Ah love it!

Bumbo is the best

Truly a pirate baby

Rebecca and Freya! (so in awe that she can comfortably sit on the floor at 32 weeks pregnant)

Rebecca was nice enough to take a family Easter picture. She tried to get the girls to look at the camera. She took this picture and said "well Alli's excited anyway"

Freya sleeping like her mom

Stylin

Great-grandpa Welch

Easter lunch. She had to be a part of the family - no car seat on the floor for her, no sir

Great-grandma Welch