Author Archives: Laurie Blundell

9 Months Old

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My babies are 9 months old! That means in 3 short months they will be a YEAR.  I can’t believe how fast the time is going.  They have learned so much in 9 short months.

photo

They are now both crawling around the house like they own it and are on their way to walking.  They have a new found freedom now that they are crawling and love to get into things.

They had their 9 month well check yesterday with the pediatrician and everything was great! They are growing and developing like they should but the best part was they didn’t get shots this month.  The only issues we have had with the boys are with teething.  Hayden is having a lot of ear pain (well, we guess its ear pain since he can’t tell us) so he will grab his ear and start crying and he’s been a little fussy lately.  Ian has been running a low grade fever off and but he doesn’t get fussy or anything with it so she said there should be nothing to worry about unless it gets to be a high fever.

I can’t say enough how good these boys are! They love to sit and play with their toys or sit on our lap while we read a book. Hayden really likes the books with textures on it so he can feel them.  They both like books, but aren’t quite at the stage to really enjoy them. Ian sat on Jonathan’s lap the other day for like 10 minutes watching an interactive book on my iPad.  They have so many neat things like that for kids on the iPad so I’m sure MY iPad will be taken over in a few years.

playing with their toys

They are both drinking from sippee cups and eating more table food.  Hayden prefers to drink from a cup with a straw while Ian hasn’t quite got the hang of it yet, but he sure tries.

drinking from their sippee cups

They are really starting to get their little personalities and its fun to see the similarities and differences between the two of them.  We thought that Hayden was going to be the sensitive one, and he may be sensitive, but Ian is our ubber sensitive guy.  He kind of reminds me of his cousin, Jake, when he was little.  He was super sensitive too, still is to this day.

Hayden

Ian

Thy have both started “talking” more and will say things like dada, mama, baba and Hayden will say lala and Ian will say something that sounds like owe.  He’ll just sit their saying “owe, owe”.  Nothing makes sense to us, but they do like to talk to each other.  In the mornings before we go into their room, they will be standing up in their cribs talking to each other.

Hayden has started trying to wave, he pretty much just puts his hand in the air and moves it around.  Ian has just started clapping his hands, I say clapping, he really just bangs his hands together.  Ian has also started doing this gesture with his arm where he puts it up in the air like he’s saying “now what?”.

They are now starting to like things like Peekaboo, patty cake, and still looove to watch Presley.  They also like to sit by the back door and look out the window at the world, or at least our backyard.

Ian has become the pacifier monster.  Anytime he sees another pacifier, he will switch it out with the one he has, even if it is in Hayden’s mouth at the time.  He has been known to have one in his mouth and one in his hand….I do believe he got that from his mama.  My parents have a lot of pictures of me that look very similar to this one.

Pacifier Monster

Happy 9 months boys, its been so much fun and I can’t wait for another 9 months!

Exploring

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Our boys have become quite the explorers lately.   Since they are crawling everywhere we have to just shut the doors of rooms we don’t want them in.  Baby proofing is in full force these days.

The boys have found new and fun things to get into and do, its kinda fun to watch them and see what all they will do with a new discovery. Some of the favorite things to do are explore the master bathroom, watch presley in the backyard through the window on back door and play under the table with the chairs.   Here are some pictures of some of the boys new favorite activities.

Ian playing under the table

Hayden watching Presley

Waiting for Presley to come to the window

Hayden

Ian

Exploring the closet and bathroom

They are everywhere now and definitely keep us busy! We have retired many of their baby things like the swing and bringing in new toys and such for them to play with.  But sometimes they just prefer to play with the DVD’s, pots and pans, remotes and everything else.  They still sit and watch their Baby Einstein video and we pretty much just put that on when we need to get something done like dinner or laundry.  Other than those times, we just let them crawl everywhere and have “free” roam of certain areas.

They still love their walkers and we have a perfect house for them since we have a very long hallway with tile that extends from our front entry to the back dining area.  The only downfall to these walkers is they are beating up our baseboards so once they outgrow them we are going to have to repaint all the baseboards in the hallway and kitchen.  But it is totally worth it because they love them so much.

A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

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This picture does my heart good! Its a simple picture of a simple gesture. I was out with the boys shopping one day and when I looked down, this is what I saw:

Ian had grabbed hold of Hayden’s hand and they both just sat there like that for probably 5 minutes. It was really sweet and made my heart melt! Each of the boys have such a sweet and loving nature about them and I know they are only 8 months old so its still early to tell how they are going to act towards each other, but lately they have given me hope that they will be loving towards one another. Not only with this incident, but last week Hayden was a sweet big brother to Ian. Ian had bumped his head on something and started to cry a little and Hayden was sitting behind him and as Ian started to cry, Hayden reached up and started to pat him on the back as to say “there there, its ok” and Ian stopped crying. I’m sure this was merely a coincidence, but I’m going to take it as a sign that my boys really do love each other. The other day Jonathan told me that while I was out earlier that day Hayden started to cry and when Ian saw him crying he picked up Hayden’s pacifier and handed it to him. Haha, but like 2 minutes later proceeded to try and take it out of his mouth…o’well, you take what you can get I guess!

Summer Fun

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It’s July 4 weekend, that means summer has begun! Its already turning out to be a good one and we have had all kinds of fun in the last few weeks. The boys went swimming for the first time in our pool, and I think they liked it, but its kind of hard to tell if an 8 month old liked something. They weren’t crying so thats a plus. They love splashing in the water during bath time so we figured they would just think the pool is a ginormous bathtub and splash away.

swimming

Since we didn’t want to have to go to the pool every time we wanted to take the boys swimming, we got a little pool for the boys to play in in our backyard. It’s pretty cute and the boys love it!

Summer Fun

A few weeks ago I took some pictures of our friends kiddos at the park and while we were there we decided to snap a few pics of our boys as well.

Ian in all his crazy hair glory


Hayden laughing at dad

I wish we were able to go to the pool with the boys more but we have only made it there twice. Since I don’t work on Fridays and Jonathan doesn’t like going to the pool and baking in the sun, Friday’s would be the optimal time to take the boys to the pool for a little while, but I can’t exactly go to the pool by myself with two infants. So instead we have to wait for the weekend and then we are usually too busy or just don’t want to be there with 500 other people.

This weekend we are planning on going to go to the farmers market for some fresh fruit and veggies. I think we may try to start making some of our own baby food so if anyone has any recommendations for a good food processor for making baby food, please let me know.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun fourth!

First Haircut

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The boys have been in desperate need of a haircut for a while. Their hair was growing over their ears and Ian had a rat tail on his left side, it was pretty funny. I had enough of the rat tail so I ended up cutting it off myself but Vicki got to give them their first real haircut this past weekend. They didn’t know what to think about it but did a good job and didn’t squirm too much. Of course we took pictures of this momentous occasion, but most of hte pictures ended up blurry or focused totally on something else. I didn’t realize this until I looked at the camera menu and saw that somehow my autofocus had been changed. That explains A WHOOOLE LOT the last few times I have taken pictures. I thought I was just becoming a bad photrapher, or my eye sight was really bad! Anyway, here are a few of the photos that I took.

First up, Hayden

Hayden not too sure what to think


Hayden


Hayden and Vicki

and in the end he looked like a big boy:

Big Boy Haircut

Now its Ian’s turn

Ian before


Ian

And in the end, he looked like a big boy too

Ian's Big Boy Haircut

They both look so much older with their hair cut. Ian’s hair is actually getting a red tint to it and for some reason, you can tell more with his hair shorter.

Big Boys

8 months old

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My boys are 8 months old today! I am amazed at how much they have changed in 1 month. During the last month they both have started crawling, they both have 2 teeth and are both pulling themselves up to a standing position all by themselves.

I can officially say they are set into a daily routine. They wake up in the morning anywhere from 7:00 – 7:45 and they get their prevacid. We have to wait around 30 minutes after their medicine to eat then they have their bottle and usually an entire jar of baby food. They will play for a little while and then around 10:00 AM they will take a nap. They will sleep anywhere from 45 mins to 2 hours in the morning. If we have some errands to run we usually do them in between waking up from their nap and next feeding time, which is typically 12:00-1:00. They will play a little while and then take another nap around 2:00, where they will hopefully sleep 1-2 hours. They will eat again about 4-5:00 and then have play time while we get home from work, fix dinner and eat. Around 7:00 we give them their Prevacid again and start bath time. They absolutely LOVE bath time! After bath we’ll get them dressed in their PJ’s and have their last bottle of the day, then bed time! They are so used to their schedule they know if its different, and you will know they know!

Hayden playing with Jonathan's old tractor

Hayden has started showing us he is going to be our strong willed little one! I guess he gets it from his dad because I was a perfect little kid! Just ask my mom. 😉

Hayden was the first one to crawl and once he figured out how to get all the movements coordinated, he was off. He also learned how to pull himself up to a standing position all by himself. Needless to say both their crib mattresses were lowered!

He is still our serious one, but when he finds something funny, he laughs with all he has. I love listening to his laugh and seeing his smile, its priceless! Hayden is roughly 22 pounds and definitely feels it.

Hayden has found a new favorite game…it’s called see how many DVD’s he can pull off the shelf before we catch him. He also loves to go to the entertainment center and push all the buttons, so we have to keep the door shut on the front of it. But, then he learned how to open the door, Doh!

Mr. Ian is still our little guy who is always on the go. He started crawling about a week after Hayden did. He does a great job at crawling but he would much rather walk. He has also started to pull himself up to a standing position all by himself and will walk along the couch while holding on.

Ian playing with Jonathan's old tractor

He finally got a tooth this month and about a week later he got his 2nd tooth. He loooves to eat “real” food and does so good at meal times, well, at least the times he isn’t trying to roll out of his chair. Ian is about 18 pounds and you can really tell that 4 pound difference between him and Hayden.

Both boys have also tried a number of different foods and it’s so much fun to watch them taste and discover new flavors and textures.

Besides their regular formula and baby food (carrots, apples, blueberries, rice, etc.) they’ve also enjoyed some Chick-fil-A waffle fries, and tortillas, as well as rice and beans from Chipotle.

Ian seems to really enjoy flavored rice but Hayden still struggles with keeping the rice grains in his mouth. Shortly after he takes the rice in his mouth, we catch him rolling his tongue around his chin trying to pull the rice back into his mouth.

Both of the boys are such happy babies and are some of the best babies I have ever met. They sleep great at night and take 2 naps during the day. Their faces light up when we come home from work and it is such a good feeling to see that and hear their voices when we walk in the door. I am completely in love!

Trying to get the photo of them together was a challenge this month, and I have a feeling its just going to get harder. So I have a number of funny outtakes that I’ll post later.

i spy

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Swapping pacifiers

A while back we got a video monitor for the boys’ room but in all honesty, Its been more of an entertainment camera than a monitor. It has come in handy when they are in their cribs awake playing and we are in the kitchen getting bottles ready, etc. And, when the boys are a little older we will mount the cameras on the wall so we an get the entire room on the screen and not just their cribs.

Its funny because its in he dark so the pics are black and white, except anything that is turned on, it shows up in color. The boys have a glow worm they sleep with and the belly lights up so you can see that in the picture.
I have about 30 photos on the camera memory card but here are some of my favorites, and I’m sure as they get older we will have many, many more photos of these crazy boys!

Ian - look at those beaty eyes

Hayden trying to roll over

waiting on mom to get ready

Playing

Hayden playing quietly

Ian - He spotted the camera, DOH!

Hayden hugging his taggie

Ian - our tummy sleeper

MOM-cation

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At the pool with these 2 crazy boys
Lets see if I can finish this before the boys wake up from their nap…

There’s the vacation and the staycation, but there now needs to be a momcation! With a vacatiion you relax and just get away from the everyday life that surrounds you. With a staycation you get away from the main stresses in life (aka work) and can relax while at home for a few days or a week. A momcation would be a mini version of these. I’m not talking about some elaborate get away or even a whole day away, I’m just talking about little breaks from being a mom (as if you can ever truly take a break from being a mom!)

Some of my of my favorite things to do for a little momcation are going to get a mani/pedi, catching a bite to eat with my best friend and getting a chance to go out with the hubs. Being a mom of an infant, or two infants rather, you are pulled in different directions all day long….literally. Now that they are mobile one boy will roll or scoot over to one end of the room and the other to the other side of the room.

Because raising twin boys isn’t enough of a full time job, I have another “real” full time job 4 days a week and recently picked up a new job working 1-2 days extra a month. Between all of those, it’s exhausting so needless to say a mom cation is required every once in a while to keep some sanity. But I have to say, Jonathan is a HUGE help and does a lot with the boys and around the house. I honestly couldn’t do it without him!

I have a lot of friends who have babies and reading some of their blogs is interesting. I read one recently where she was talking about how great it was when her husband was around so he can take over and she can get a break and not be “on” 24 hours a day. Hmm, what’s that like?! A break for me is having one baby! Unfortunately, with twins, you don’t get that luxury. Its hard to take both of them by yourself, but we do when we have to. The hardest part is when they both want to be held or be with you and your only one person, I can’t hold both of them that long, especially with a bad back.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about any of this, it’s just a different perspective from someone with one baby. I love my two babies and am soooo glad they are apart of our lives! I’m just saying its nice to get a break every once in a while and have a momcation!

Doc Band Graduation

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Graduation Day


A few days ago we went for our last visit at Cranial Technologies and the boys had their exit pictures done. They officially graduated from their Doc Bands and are free of them! The physical therapists there were surprised at how fast the boys heads reshaped and corrected with the bands. Apparently we caught them right in the middle of a growth spurt so that helped tremendously.

We got the before and after images sent to us today and we are amazed at the differences. Since they are a digital copy, of course I am going to share them on here. So without further ado, here are the before and after images:

Here’s Hayden

Hayden


Hayden


Hayden

And Ian

Ian


Ian


Ian

Big difference, huh? When you look at them, you can tell they look different, but until you see the actual before and after photos to compare them, you can’t fully appreciate the difference the bands made.

7 months old

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Hayden & Ian

My boys…you are 7 months old now, you’re growing up too fast! In the last month you have really grown up, in your abilities and looks. You are really starting to look like little boys instead of a babies. You got your Doc Bands off a few days ago and now have wonderfully round noggins…and easily accessible heads to kiss! It is soo much easier to snuggle with you guys now that you don’t have the bands on and a lot less hassle over all. But we are very glad we put you in the bands and corrected your head shape because it made a huge difference. Hayden you don’t even look like the same baby. You two absolutely love Presley, anytime she comes around you start cracking up and could just sit and watch her forever. You started waking up earlier this past month and are now waking up anywhere from 600 – 715 AM. I kinda liked the 800-830 wake up time but I know you are getting older and that means earlier mornings! You boys are now sitting in high chairs and are about out of your infant carriers. We have two big boy car seats in the car now and I think you guys like them because you have more room to move around 😉

Hayden

Hayden, you are soooo close to crawling. You get up on your hands and knees and just rock back and forth like you are about to take off. You do scoot backwards some but not really crawling, and to get where you want to go, you roll all over the place. You are still just as sweet as ever and are smiling and laughing a whole lot more. You now have 2 teeth and they really didn’t bother you when they came in. You hear all these horror stories of babies teething and you didn’t seem to mind it much, of course you were fussy a little bit but not bad at all. You absolutely love your jumperoo and will jump like crazy in it! You are eating all kinds of baby food now but would still rather just drink your formula. In the morning you will lay in your bed and “talk” for a while before we get you up and when we go in you have a BIG grin on your face. You are finally getting some hair that people can see, wahoo! It’s also getting darker so you notice it more.

Ian

Ian, as you can see your hair is still crazy. It is getting longer but still likes to stand straight up on the side and in the back. If you can’t change it, accentuate it…so we give you a mohawk. You are still just a happy go lucky little guy and active as all get out. But lately we have noticed more and more that you will just sit and play calmly with your toys and you have become more observant. You will get up on your hands and knees too but don’t really try to crawl…you would much rather stand up! You like to grab us, try to stand up and climb up us. It’s pretty funny to watch. You love to “walk” around in your walker and will end up down the hall if we turn our back for a minute. You don’t have any teeth yet but I think they may be trying to break through. The only time you are fussy because you are teething is when you eat. The pressure of sucking from the bottle causes your gums to hurt so we give you some orajel and your good to go. You love your baby food and eat a lot of different things now. You will talk a lot too while waiting for us to come in your room in the morning, but lately you have started “singing.” You talk as if you are singing and it is hilarious! I think you may be our little songbird.

This is such a fun age and I really enjoy watching you both learn all these new things and hearing your laughs and all the new sounds you make. I can’t wait to see what you learn this month!