6 months old

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

My boys were 6 months old yesterday…that’s half of a year! In some ways the time has flown by but in other ways it seems like it’s been a full year. They have grown so much in the last month, not only physically but developmentally too. It has been so fun to watch them grow and develop new skills and abilities.

The boys have started eating solid food and Ian really likes it, Hayden not as much…he’d rather drink his food. They have eaten green beans, squash, carrots (neither of them like carrots) and sweet potatoes. We’re waiting to introduce any sweet foods like bananas, apples, etc for as long as we can because if they are like their momma, they’ll develop a serious sweet tooth! 😉

The older the boys get, the more they notice one another and its funny to watch them interact. Hayden likes to touch Ian and be close to him. He will just put his hand on Ian’s back or arm or whatever, as long as he is touching him he’s ok.

Hayden and Ian

Although now Hayden is being a little more annoying than sweet when he tries to be close to Ian. He likes to try to pull on Ian’s Doc Band and the other day, he actually grabbed Ian’s pacifier out of his mouth and attempted to put it into his mouth – haha. But, being the #1 mom that I am, I didn’t really try to stop him once I saw his hand go towards Ian because I wanted to see what he would do. Hehe and he did just as I thought he would!

They are both sitting up really well these days. Ian has been sitting up about a week or two longer than Hayden and its amazing how much difference you’ll see in their strength in just a weeks time. It is so nice to be able to set them on the floor on a blanket with some toys and you can just sit their with them instead of having to hold them. It’s pretty difficult to sit their with two babies and hold both of them.

Hayden 6 months old

Hayden is such an explorer, he loves to see how things work. He can sit there and play with the knob on a drawer or the texture on the walls for 20 minutes and be completely content. He is doing really well at sitting up and loves to sit and play with some toys…as long as you are sitting there with him. He does not like being alone. It’s a good thing he has a built in roommate and playmate! He is coming out of his shell a little and will smile and laugh a lot more now. Hayden rolled over onto his stomach from his back a few weeks ago and sine then there is no keeping him off his stomach to sleep. He rolls all over the crib and absolutely loves to sleep on his tummy. This made Jonathan and I pretty nervous at first, but once they learn to roll over, there really isn’t anything we can do to stop. We were also given a little assurance from the pediatrician who said it was ok for him to sleep on stomach since he is rolling over on his own now. Within 10 seconds of putting him on his back, he rolls over. Hayden also loves to be outside. When he is fussy all we have to do is take him outside and let him sit in the grass or sit in your lap on the porch. Hayden has recently started to “talk” himself to sleep. He will kind of moan, groan, talk, etc when he is sleeping and dozing off. We can always tell when he is about to fall asleep just by listening to him.

Ian 6 months old

Ian is still our comic relief. The other day he entertained us for about 10 minutes when he was laughing at the dog just chewing her rawhide. Not sure what was so funny, but watching him was making us laugh. He get so excited about things, you can hold him and his legs will just kick and jump all over the place. Ian is a big flirt and will smile at you the second you smile at him. Ian loves looking out the car window, when we are in the car, we think he is asleep because he is so quiet, but he’s really wide awake just looking out the window at the world passing by. Ian has become our morning lark and is ready for bed about 6:00 PM, while Hayden is ready to play after his 8:00 PM bottle. Ian’s reflux is still doing great, but the spitting up has definitely showed its ugly face with a vengance. He will spit up, look at us and laugh. Not sure if he laughs because he feels better or if he is laughing at our reaction, but either way, he thinks its pretty funny! It’s not unusual for me and Jonathan to go through 2 or 3 outfits per day each. He absolutely loves the johnny jump up and his little car walker. He can sit in either of those for an hour and be content. He likes to walk all around our kitchen and hallway in the walker.

I still can’t believe they are all mine and that God trusted us to care for and love these two little boys! I cherish every minute I have had with them (yes, even the times I’m up at 3 AM) and can’t wait for another 6 months when we celebrate their 1st birthday.

Doc Bands

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

As I have mentioned before, the boys needed to get Doc Bands to help reshape their heads. Both boys have what’s called Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly. This effects a large portion of twins due to limited space in the womb and a lot end up needing the bands . I knew Hayden would need one the first second I saw him, he was positioned very low in utero and didn’t move positions at all throughout the entire pregnancy. Ian on the other hand wasn’t nearly as bad but still needed one.

The boys got their Doc Bands a week ago and are quickly adjusting to life with a band attached to their head. They are supposed to wear the bands 23 hours a day with only 1 hour off for bath and to clean the band. So far we haven’t had a full 23 hours in the band. At first you are supposed to check them every 3-4 hours and if there is any redness leave the band off until it goes away. Well we’ve had some issues of getting really red and some skin breaking. But we have had each issue addressed by cranial tech, who we are using.

The boys weren’t too sure about the bands at first, but were great and didn’t pull on them or try to take them off or anything.

Ian in his Doc Band

They are sleeping in the bands and honestly, we expected them not to sleep well the first night or two. I don’t think it even phased them! They slept fine with the bands on.

The boys sure don’t let the bands keep them from playing. They love to play in their jumperoo and walker and won’t let that band stop them.

Ian

Hayden

The bands are just a white plastic and very medical like. So to make them a little more friendly and pleasant looking, we added a sticker to the back of each band and their names on the front so we can know which band belongs to each boy. The sticker says “Monkey See” on one and the other says “Monkey Do”…

back of the bands

There is a company in our area that does car wraps called 360 Wraps and they have started doing wraps on Doc Bands and other medical prosthetics for kids. They started out doing a few and it got so big they decided to start doing a once a month party where families can come and get their bands wrapped for free. We missed the April part because we got the band the same day as the party, so we are going to go to the May party and get their bands wrapped. I’ll post pictures once we get them done.

Like I mentioned earlier, there have been some issues with skin readness, rubbing and even skin breaking from the bands. Usually its not that bad and typically clears up in a short period of time. Well, I got Hayden up this morning and took his band off and this is what I saw…

This is what happens when you have a stomach sleeper and his face is pressed against the band all night. It has cleared up throughout the day and looks much better but we are leaving it off until it completely fades away.

We went for our weekly adjustment and there has already been some improvement in both of their head shapes. Both of their heads have grown a good amount so we had to have the bands adjusted so the growth will be redirected in the right ways. We will go back weekly for the duration of treatment and hope to continue to see improvements like we did today.

2 peas in a pod

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

It was around this time last year (I think April 5, 2010) that we found we were not only have one one baby but having two…our 2 little peas in a pod! Its amazing that a year ago we were looking at a sonogram of two little blobs with heartbeats and now I have two live, happy, healthy baby boys that I can snuggle and kiss on anytime I want to!!

One of my moms sweet friends, Nancy, had some onsies made for the boys and they are absolutely adorable. They have two peas in a pod on the front and on the back of each of the onsies has the first initial of their names.

Since yesterday was such a warm day we put the boys in their onsies and took some pictures of them.

Hayden & Ian

Hayden

Ian

Springtime & Bluebonnets

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

Ian & Hayden

Here in Texas, spring is all about the Bluebonnets. Any given Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the spring you can catch 5-6 cars on the side of the highway or other street taking pictures in the bluebonnets.

Well we decided to join the fellow bluebonnet picture takers this year. But not on the side of the highway….not with 2 infants! We found a spot close by our house with a TON of bluebonnets, perfect for picture taking.

We went with high hopes of getting some really good shots of the boys, but lets remember, they are infants. Infants that don’t sit up real well by themselves. Ian is really sitting up well these days by himself so that wasn’t a big issue with him, but both were more interested in the bluebonnets than they were looking at the camera!

I got some decent pictures but none really of their faces. Poor Hayden doesn’t really have any good ones of his face because he wouldn’t look up for anything! The only decent picture we got of the boys, my eyes were shut, but because its good of the boys I could care less what I looked like in it.

Me and my boys

Hayden looking at the bluebonnets

Hayden grabbing and trying to eat the bluebonnets

Ian sitting in the bluebonnets

Ian about to eat the bluebonnets

I’m sure next year we will have a whole new set of challenges while trying to get some good pictures in the bluebonnets but I’ll take what I can get!

Weekend fun with mom & dad (as told by Hayden & Ian)

Posted on March 27, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

Hayden: Hi this is Hayden…well, Ian is here too but he is too busy laughing at a rock right now to talk. We wanted to tell you all about our great weekend we had with mom and dad.

It started on Thursday when mom came home from work early and was able to play with us. Ian was fussy all day and driving dad crazy, and of course I, Hayden, was the angel all day.

Ian: Hold up… this is Ian, and he was not the angel all day like he wants you to believe. By the way… have you seen this rock?! Look at it! I can’t stop laughing!

Hayden: Whatever Ian… since you’re too busy laughing, I’ll keep telling the story. So for dinner on Thursday night mom wanted us to try some new bottles, I guess you can call them bottles, I don’t know what they were. We liked them though because we could hold onto it and pull it out of our mouths when we wanted and then put it back in when we were hungry again.

Ian & Hayden drinking from their Podee bottles

Ian: Hey don’t forget to tell them about that loud woooo and dance dad was doing during the day! That was crazy!

Hayden: Oh yeah… (chuckle). It was pretty crazy!

So, let’s see, where was I? After dinner we went outside and played in the grass in the backyard. We can’t wait for another year or two when we will be able to run all around the yard chasing Presley or kicking a ball, that will be so much fun. But for now, all we can do is sit in the grass with mom and dad. But that’s just as fun for us because we had never seen this grass stuff before. It’s kind of itchy and feels weird on our feet. Mom took some pictures of us so we can remember our first time in the grass.

Ian - 5 months old

Hayden - 5 months old

Hayden & Ian

Friday was a fun day too. We went and got a lot of pictures taken of our heads for our DOC Bands we are about to get. Mom and dad said they had to take our pictures so we can get a molding done of our heads so the bands will fit correctly and not wobble around or make our heads even more misshaped, we sure don’t want that. The nice lady put this stocking thing over our head to flatten our hair down, because you know Ian’s chia-pet hair is everywhere.

My hair is so short it wasn’t that bad but I still had to wear the stocking , just you wait though, one day I’ll have luscious locks just like my brothers! The stocking didn’t bother either of us, we were big boys and didn’t fuss or cry or anything. Mom and dad said we were champs! Of course mom took pictures – we can’t do anything without having a picture taken, she keeps telling us that one day we’ll be glad she took so many pictures – we’ll have to see about that.

Hayden gets his DSI images for the DOC Band

Ian gets his DSI images for the DOC Band

Ian: After our pictures the physical therapist had to look at them and make sure we got good ones before we were able to leave, so mom and dad had to keep us entertained for a little while. That’s always fun. Nobody entertains us quite like they do. And I think dad wanted to do his loud woo again but I think he was afraid to make too much noise.

Daddy was making some funny faces at us

Hayden getting some tummy time in

Ian's tummy time

Hayden: Friday was a busy day for us and we didn’t take a good nap so we were kind of fussy that afternoon. Mom tried to keep us entertained and put her glasses on us…we looked pretty funny.

Ian wearing mommy's glasses

Hayden wearing mommy's glasses

That night Gramma and Grandpa came over to give us our bath and put us to bed while mommy and daddy went out to eat. Like I said, we were pretty fussy that day so I’m sure Mom and Dad were thankful for a little break.

Saturday morning we woke up and mom and dad brought us into their room and let us lay on their bed for a while before we are breakfast. That was a treat because we don’t get to sleep in their room, they say we need to learn to sleep in our own beds in our own room. After our snuggle time and breakfast in bed we got dressed and went to our cousin, Jake’s soccer game. Then we went to eat with Grammy and Pappa before going to check out our Uncle Brad’s new gymnastics facility. That was fun! We got to watch him and our cousin, Brooklyn, jump on the trampoline and pappa even let us play on a mat with him.

Pappa and Hayden

Ian: Because we were on some really soft mats mommy let us practice our sitting up, we’re getting pretty good at it!

Hayden

Ian

Hayden & Ian

Hayden, Brooklyn & Ian

We were so worn out we slept the entire way home, I think mom even fell asleep too. We had such a fun and busy day that when mom put down to sleep we were out like a light.

This morning we ate our breakfast and then mom gave us some new food to try. We were eating rice cereal before but we got to try some squash today. At first we didn’t know what to think of this new food, it tasted weird and the texture was different. But after a few bites we ended up liking it and ate quite a bit. She said that we will get to try another new food next week, wonder what it will be this time?!

Hayden eating squash

Ian eating squash

Later after we had our morning nap we played on our playmat and Hayden found his feet. I found mine a few weeks ago and love to play with them but Hayden just found his and I think he has a new found love for them as well.

Our cousins Jake and Brooklyn came by to play with us for a little while before our nap on Sunday and we were so hyped up from all the fun with them we didn’t want to take a nap. Eventually we did fall asleep though.

So that was our fun weekend with mom and dad, we don’t want it to end… but tomorrow we’ll get to play with Gramma and then on Tuesday with Grammy.

5 months old

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

Hayden and Ian

Today my boys turn 5 months old and in the last month, they sure have started acting like little people instead of just baby blobs. I can’t believe how much they are growing and learning. Within the last month we have started a few different things with the boys, two of the biggest are sleep training, which includes scheduled naps in their bed and eating cereal. I’ll have a whole blog post later on sleep training, how we went about doing it, how successful it was, etc. In short, they boys are doing great with their sleeping but there is still some work to be done at nap time.

We started cereal a few weeks ago with Hayden and he just wasn’t ready for it, he kept sticking his tongue out an blocking his mouth as to say “I do not want that, you are not going to put it in my mouth!” So we waited and tried again this past week. We purposely waited until now to start feeding Ian cereal because the pediatrician was she wanted us to wait a little while longer with him due to his reflux and feeding issues. This weekend, both boys actually started eating it and were doing really well. They only eat a little bit at a time, but that’s enough for me. I’m sure they will start to eat more and more as time goes by. If they continue to do well with cereal this week, we may start squash or something else different next week, the possibilities are endless 😉

Hayden

My Hayden is growing like crazy, it’s hard to believe he was once 4 lbs. He is eating 8 ounces at every feeding and you can tell he likes his food! He is our little one that needs his sleep and will let us know when he hasn’t had enough of it but will fight it to the end until he finally gives in. He has been known to sleep for 2 1/2 hours at nap time.

He has started to grab at things and anytime Presley comes around he reaches out for her. Neither him or Ian are afraid of her and actually love to be around her. He is definitely our tactile one, he loves to touch things and feel their texture. Not only that, but he loves to have human contact. He would sit in your lap or next to you all day long if you let him, he just loves to be with someone else and hates to be alone. Good thing he has a brother and playmate to share a room with 😉

Hayden is doing great at sitting up, with assistance of course – but only minimal assistance now days. He as learned to roll over from his tummy to his back (he was the first one to do this) but hasn’t yet learned how to go from his back to his tummy, although he wants to soooo bad. He is talking and babbling a lot as well as making a lot of new sounds. He has learned how to make bubbles (although I’m not sure he knows what he’s doing) and loves to do that while making some of his new found sounds. Most of the pictures you see of Hayden show his serious side, and he is more serious than Ian, but he is also a very happy baby and loves to laugh and smile.

His hair is finally growing! He’s got quite a bit of it but it is lighter than Ian’s so you can’t see it as well. It is also very coarse where Ian’s is very fine.

Ian

Our little Ian is one of the happiest babies I know. He always has a smile on his face or laughing at something. He doesn’t need as much sleep as his brother and usually only naps 45 mins -1 hour, although he has taken a 2 hour nap a few times. He will be happy, talking and laughing one minute and then start fussing the next, and that’s when you know he’s tired. You can sit down with him and 1 minute later he’s out. He usually only fusses for two reasons, he’s hungry or tired. Hayden has always been the snuggle bug but Ian has definitely earned that title as well now. I can’t tell you how many times he has sat in the chair with me just snuggling.

He is doing great at sitting up with assistance as well, and loves to stand up. He has rolled over from his tummy to his back and from his back to his tummy (he was first to do this). He doesn’t roll over a whole lot but will when he wants to. Ian loves to play with his toys and will fall asleep playing in his frog exersaucer (Hayden does this too).

Ian loves to talk, babble, laugh, and makes all kinds of sounds. He’ll just sit there making noises for 10 minutes straight. It never gets old listening to him.

He has found his feet and loves to lay on his back and grab them. He even tries to grab them sitting up! I’m just waiting for him to grab them and try to put them in his mouth. I’m sure once he figures out he can, he will.

He is doing great with his reflux. He remains on Prevacid and Zantac, although we have almost weaned him off the Zantac! We tried this once before and it didn’t work, so we gave it a few months and tried again, so far so good – I hope I didn’t just jinx it!!

I say this every month, but the boys are such a blessing and I thank God every day for them. I think back to this time a year ago when we had just found out we were pregnant, but didn’t know there were two. I recently saw a friend say they prayed for their daughter and their son was a blessing. Well, we prayed for one and were blessed with two! Can’t wait to see what this month brings!

4 months old

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

Our once preemie sized, 4 pound babies are now 4 months old…and NOT 4lbs anymore!! They have definitely gown up and filled out. They had a check up last Friday and are doing great. I believe the doctors words for Hayden were “he is perfect”. Hayden weighed in at 16.5 pounds and 23.6 inches and Ian weighed 13.5 pounds and was 23.2 inches long. We are adjusting both of their medications for reflux. We are going to switch Hayden from Zantac to Prevacid and we are keeping Ian on Zantac and Prevacid. The GI doc wanted us to wean him off the Zantac and we did wean him off the morning dose, but he wasn’t doing as well so the pedi said we can put keep him on both meds, just decrease the Zantac dose a little. She said we can start solid food now if we want to but she would probably prefer to wait a little while longer, especially with Ian. Hayden just downed 10 ounces last night before bed so I’m guessing he is going to be ready to start them pretty soon. They got some more shots and this time they definitely protested to let us know they did not appreciate getting poked.

We are still in the process of getting the DocBands for both boys. We are trying to get everything set with our insurance company so we get some of it covered….they are pretty expensive, and we have 2 to pay for. Hopefully in the next month we’ll be able to get them.

Developmentally the boys have started doing so much and are learning new skills daily, it seems. They are becoming a lot more social and they love to laugh and smile! They both absolutely love bath time and splashing around in the water.

Ian

They are pretty much used to their bedtime routine now and have been going to bed a whole lot easier within the last month. They are sleeping through the night now…well, they aren’t eating in the middle of the night anymore. They still wake up sometimes, but all we have to do is generally give them their pacifier and they go back to sleep. They eat their last bottle about 8:00 PM and then don’t eat again until 5:00 AM. I’d say we are extremely lucky to have both boys sleeping through the night! Now we just need to work on their nap time.

My little chunky monkey, Hayden is still our snuggle bug. He loves to be held and take a nap in your arms. I am all fine and dandy with that because I love to snuggle with him, but remember the whole thing about him being 16.5 pounds, ya that’s kinda heavy when you’re carrying him around all day!! He also loves to smile and laugh. When this boy smiles, his whole face smiles…his eyes light up and all. Hayden also loves to talk but he doesn’t do it as much as Ian. He will sit and listen to Ian talk most of the time, but once he starts he gets on a roll and will talk your ear off too. While Ian thinks its funny to get his clothes taken off, Hayden simply loves having his clothes off. He loves to be in nothing but a diaper. He is our hot natured boy! If he is fussy and we don’t know why, we just start taking his clothes off and usually he’s happy after that, but not always. Hayden actually rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time about a week ago. He rolled over and had this big grin on his face…priceless!

My little Ian Bian loves to talk and will talk your ear off. I can’t get enough of it and love to hear all his little noises and sounds he’s learning to make. Ooohhh that hair…he has a natural mohawk, It just stands straight up. There is really nothing we can do with it except give in and make it a stylish mohawk instead of just standing straight up. Ian loves it when you take his clothes off, he just thinks its the funniest thing. He is doing great at sitting up (with assistance of course), but his balance isn’t quite there yet. He wants to roll over so bad, he has started to roll onto his shoulder some but hasn’t quite made it all the way over yet. This boy loves to stand up and look all around. We laugh because he is so curious and constantly looks around and watches what everyone does. Take a look at the clip below from the movie UP. Ian kind of reminds us of the dog “dug” in the movie when he meets the boy and old man. He is talking and all of a sudden, mid thought, he gets distracted and yells, “SQUIRREL” and then goes right back to what he was saying. I have a feeling he will keep us on our toes as he gets older and will definitely be our comic relief.

The boys have been such a blessing to us and everytime I look at them I still can’t believe they are mine!

Our big boys

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

Our boys are days away from being 4 months old, that’s crazy. They are getting so big and growing up so fast. It is so much fun to see what all they are learning to do in such a short amount of time. We have changed a lot lately because the boys are becoming more active and their needs have changed.

Lets start with the changes to their beds. Jonathan went in one morning and found Hayden had scooted all the way over to the side of the crib with his face right up against the crib bumpers. So that was a sure sign the bumpers were needing to be taken off! Just by taking off the crib bumpers, the whole environment, from their perspective changes. The lighting changes, the amount of air or draft they feel is different and they see more through the crib slats, where as before they just say the bumpers. So everything they knew had been changed.

Both boys have been sleeping in their miracle blankets and they absolutely love them! Well they have started moving so much that they are wiggling out of their blankets are we were afraid that they would get all tangled up in them.

all snuggled in their miracle blankets

So we are no longer putting them in the miracle blankets and they are now in their sleep sacks, or as we like to call them, their happy sacks. The sleep sacks are like a long vest that zips up and covers their legs without the worry of a blanket covering their face during the night. We weren’t sure they would like the new sleep sacks because they love being wrapped up and when they aren’t wrapped up they don’t know what to do with their arms. The first night wasn’t great, Hayden did ok, he just woke up several times because, Iike I said earlier, he didn’t know what to do with his arms not being wrapped up. Ian on the other hand, he didn’t do so well. He screamed for 30 minutes straight (of course we would go in and check on him periodically) and after that I decided he wasn’t ready to make the switch yet. So I wrapped him up, rocked him for about 5 minutes, and he was asleep. We tried to change way to much on him in one night, so we let him get used to not having the bumpers around the crib for a few nights and tried again. This time he did great and has slept in the sleep sack ever since.

Hayden in his happy sack

Ian is a mover and shaker at night. When we go in during the night or in the morning, we never know where he is going to be laying or in what position he will be in. Hayden, on the other hand, pretty much stays put throughout the night.

both boys have learned to sit and stand up, with our help of course, and love it. In fact, it is what they want to do all day long! They don’t like being in their bouncy seats or swings as much because they can’t sit up. So I decided to find a big boy toy for them. I wanted to get an exersaucer type toy that they could sit it and eventually jump in, but not take up the entire living room (because we will need to get two). I found an awesome one online at Amazon that they would love so I ordered one and if they liked it I would order another one. Well, while I was at a resale shop the other day selling some clothes I found the exact Fisher-Price SpaceSaver Bounce ‘n Spin Froggy
(man that’s a long title) that I ordered from Amazon…and, it was $30 cheaper. This one was in really good shape, hardly looked used, so I brought it home and they loved it. Hayden was the first one to try it because Ian was asleep when I came home.

Hayden enjoying his new toy

Ian sleeping through all the fun

Ian got to try it out the next day and loved it just as much.

Ian enjoying the new toy

We have really enjoyed having two of the toys because we set them nose to nose while the boys play and they can watch one another. Sometimes they play so much they both end up falling asleep while sitting in it.

Hdiddy & Ididdy playing

Hayden has never been one to like tummy time, and Ian does when he is in the mood. They have both learned to like it a little bit better and Hayden even rolled over from his stomach to his back the other day by himself. They also like to lay on their play mat and look at the mirror and toys above them. Ian will lay under there for an hour sometimes just playing away.

Ian doing tummy time while waiting on his turn for a bath

Not only are the boys more active now and wanting to move more, they are a lot more vocal. They both love to talk and tell us everything that’s going on. Ian has been “talking” for a few weeks now but Hayden just recently started really “talking”, and when he gets on a roll, he will talk your ear off.

This is difficult age because they are at an inbetween stage. They want to sit up and do more, but are not able to do it by themselves and we can’t sit there all day long and hold them so they get fussy more now than they have in the past. But, needles to say we are loving watching the boys grow up and learn new things. I love watching their faces when they do something they didn’t realize they could do before. Watching Hayden roll over for the first time was priceless, his just got this huge grin on his face. They have grown up so much in the last 4 months, it will be amazing to see how much more they learn in the next 4 months!

My 3 Valentines

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

As you all know, this past Monday was Valentine’s Day. In all honesty, I don’t think you need just one day to show the one you love that you love them…it should be all the other 364 days as well. But anyway, this year I got to spend it with 3 of my loves!

My #1 Love: My hubs…Jonathan.

Valentine's Day '11

Went out for a dinner date on Friday night and my parents watched the boys for us. It was nice to get out and it just be the two of us, we could take our time eating, not have to stop mid conversation and calm a fussy baby or put a pacifier back in a mouth. It was great! On Monday, actual Valentine’s Day, we just came home from work, ate and then spent the evening with our boys. Ooooh and we did spend a small stent of our day in the ER, but it wouldn’t be a Valentine’s day without something like that happening. The first V-Day we ever spent together was at a funeral home, last year we were at Target buying diapers, and this year we were in the ER for a little while. Oh how romantic our valentine’s days are! But no matter where we are and what we are doing, I’m with Jonathan so it doesn’t matter.

My # 2 and #3 Loves: My boys…(in no particular order) Hdiddy and Ididdy

Hdiddy & Ididdy

The boys don’t know it yet, but I will be their only valentine until they are like 25! I mean I’m the only woman they will ever love, right? Ha, okay probably not! But I will be their very first valentine.

Hdiddy

Ididdy

Things I love about being a mom

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Laurie Blundell

There were many things I looked forward to about becoming a mother. Watching them grow up, teaching them new things, doing things together as a family, etc. But there are so many little things that remind me everyday why I love being a mom. As Jonathan says, “it’s the little things that get you” and it’s so true…for example, I just got my old (I’m talking 6-7 years old) toaster oven back from my brother who got a new one for his wedding, and I have never been happier. Thanks Brian!

Anyway, Here are the top things that make me love being a mom:

I love love love all their little noises, especially the sound of them sucking on their pacifiers, it’s soo cute. I love seeing their smiles (and they looove to smile) and hearing them laugh – I’ll do anything to get them to laugh. Its funny to watch them laugh in their sleep…what does an infant dream about to make them laugh?! I love getting them up in the morning and watching them stretch, Hayden especially loves to stretch. I love watching them get all fidgety and fiesty when its time to eat. I love watching them try to suck on their fingers (they still jerk them out of their mouth too much to actually suck on them). I love Hayden’s little “goat” noise and Ian’s noise he does when he’s hungry. I love giving them baths because they love bath time. I love watching them watch Presley and now each other. I love to snuggle with them, but I think they love it even more. There are so many things I love, I could go on and on but I won’t. I’ll leave you with a video I put together of the boys laughing.