Welcome, summer!

I just love this watermelon romper that Ellyson wore to welcome the beginning of summer.

Swim lessons

Carter is taking some swim lessons this summer. Another mom from his preschool class brought a private instructor into her neighborhood pool, and we're splitting the cost among five kids from school. So for three days this week and four days next week, Carter will be learning some swimming basics. I'm really just hoping he'll have a good swimming-safety base so he can be a little more independent in the pool. Only time will tell!

And from the second day (today) ... reviewing how to kick.

Learning how to float belly-up.

Gaining confidence with jumping.

E and I have been enjoying the pool time, too. Especially today, as it was really hot out. :)

Wordless Wednesday

This little piggie

On Sunday, Jack and I took E to Build-A-Bear. She's recently taken an interest in dolls and stuffed animals, so Jack wanted to make her one. We took advantage of Carter being with Nana and Papa Jack, so we only had to drag one child into the mall.

We helped her pick a pink pig to build, and Jack helped her through the process.

We opted not to buy clothes for it yet, since she's more likely to pull them off, than to care whether her pig has clothes. (Though we saw some awesome Avengers costumes for the stuffed animals, and are thinking about letting Carter get a new outfit for his dog, Rocky.)

She loves that pig and carries it around the house. Sorry for the blurry image. She just never stops moving.

Water Day

For the last day of school (last Wednesday), Carter's preschool held a "water day" for the kids who were finishing K-3 and higher. They had lots of fun on a water slide, bounce house, obstacle course and using the water guns/missiles from their teachers.

They were so fast coming down the slide, that I have five pictures of an empty slide in place of any picture of Carter coming down it. But I did happen to time one just right, to get Ashlyn mid-slide.

Carter was excited to eat chicken minis for lunch. He would eat them at any meal, but Chick-Fil-A only serves them at breakfast. Lucky for him, I picked up our lunch during breakfast hours and then kept it warm in a thermal tote - so he got his chicken minis for lunch.

Ashlyn Turns 4

Ashlyn's birthday was three weeks ago, but we just now loaded the photos from Jack's camera. Her party was at the gym where her dad is a member, and they had a lot of kid-themed activities set up. I spent most of my time entertaining Ellyson, since she was too little to really play with anything at the gym.

28 Weeks

Total Weight Change: +23.5

Exercise: Walking 25-30 minutes, every other day. I am officially on midwife's orders to take a daily afternoon nap.

Baby Update: I had a growth check ultrasound yesterday, in addition to my midwife appointment. The boys are tipping the scales at 2 lb, 12 oz each (their weights differ by a mere 3 grams). This puts them in the 61st and 63rd percentile for weight. The ultrasound images are a jumbled mess of body parts, though. We basically are able to see a torso here, a couple arms there ... Graham is still transverse, but Grant has rotated ... breech. Since Grant is on the bottom, he needs to be head-down to avoid a c-section. My midwife gave me a couple possible home remedies to try to get him to turn, though there's no scientific backing to any of it. It's kind of like trying to make yourself go into labor through exercise, spicy foods or eggplant parmesan: no harm in trying, but it's not likely to actually do anything.

Uterus Update: In other news, now that I'm carrying 5.5 pounds of baby (plus double placentas and amniotic fluid), my uterus essentially thinks it's carrying a full-term baby. So I have to be cautious of contractions, since my body might not see a need to stop them.

Notes: What else is there to say? I can literally feel my belly skin tearing as it stretches - unlike I've ever felt it before. I'm tired, find it difficult to relax/get comfortable, kind of cranky, experience a lot of heartburn and indigestion ... and still have as many as 10 weeks to go. But let's hope not. Let's hope the boys come on their own at the end of July. On the bright side, preschool is over, so now Carter's home all day. Hahaha. But I am still "all belly" - people find it impressive that I'm seven months pregnant with twins, and still don't look pregnant from behind. We'll see how long I can keep that going.

End of T-Ball

Carter's t-ball season wrapped up last Saturday. The coaches and team mom organized a pizza party for the kids after the last game, and they all got trophies and pennants. We really got lucky with a highly organized coaching team who really just wanted the kids to have fun.

Wordless Wednesday

New Words

Ellyson is becoming a little chatterbox. The last couple days, she'll sit in her high chair and run through the list of names she knows. (She skips Mama, maybe because she's talking to me.)

Dadda
Carter
Brother
Grandpa
Grandma
Nana
Uncle Brad

And I think she also says "Papa Jack". It's a stretch, but there's a definite "p" sound and she's very consistent with how she says it, and she repeats it among the list of other family members.

She also is saying "Minnie" (aka "m'nie") whenever she sees Minnie Mouse (and often when she sees Mickey as well).

Don't feel bad if you're a family member whose name didn't make the list. Most of these have come about in the last 1-2 weeks, and I think we might be hitting the exploding-vocabulary phase of toddlerhood.

Zacchaeus

Again, I apologize for the fact that the video is sideways. I need to remember to turn my phone the other way, or figure out how to rotate video.

Word of the Week: Grandpa

She started saying it last Friday, while we were at Katya's graduation. She also occasionally throws in a "grandma" - the difference is subtle, but it's present. I hope this video works - and I apologize that it's sideways. I couldn't figure out how to rotate it, and I'm not the expert video editor in this house.

Corn

The only vegetable she will eat willingly ...

Career Change

Well, as of today, my career change is really official. All the baby steps it took over the last two years ... but today I handed in my VPN access key, which allowed me to access the corporate network remotely. So I'm officially finished working (well, really I've been "finished" for more than a week, but I was on call and still had access, until today). So I guess that means I'm officially a stay-at-home mom now, instead of a work-at-home mom. Don't worry. I think keeping up with our soon-to-be many small children ("MSC") will keep me plenty busy. ;-) And in the meantime, I have lots of things I want to check off the "to-do" list around the house.

Katya's Graduation

Last Friday, we took a day-trip to my youngest sister's college graduation. She completed her BSN at a school about 2.5 hours from our house, so we loaded up the van right after breakfast and carried the kids back into the house long after their normal bedtime. But Carter was excited that he actually got to use the DVD player in the van. (My rule is only if we'll be in the van for more than an hour.)

During the morning nurses' pinning ceremony, Carter mostly played on the iPad. Ellyson ate 3/4 of a bag of yogurt melts and then I helped her walk laps around the auditorium. We stayed at Katya's house during her afternoon ceremony, so E could nap and Jack could sit it in two conference calls for work. But Jack and Dad helped Katya finish loading her Jeep, so that after a family dinner out, she left her house for good.

Sunday morning she left to move out west. She'll be in her new Colorado home later this week. But in the meantime, she's spending a couple days in Texas with her in-laws. (Her husband is deployed right now.)

On another note, let's play a game of guess-the-graduation. All of the photos below were taken at Katya's graduations, but only two were taken this year. Funny how I'm vastly pregnant at both ... But for the record, when she finishes her master's degree, she will need another sister to be pregnant. It won't be me.

2012 ... 26 weeks with Grant and Graham

2012 ... 26 weeks with Grant and Graham

2008 ... 38-1/2 weeks with Carter

Bottom of the Second

The final week of the second trimester. These boys are kicking my rear. Literally, in Grant's case. All the discomforts I felt during the final 4-6 weeks with Carter and Ellyson, have set up shop in my body. The achy muscles, the tailbone-splitting pressure and bladder urges from Grant and the shortness of breath from Graham ...

In other news, I did have my 24W (really 25W) checkup last Friday. And I was reminded why love my midwife so much. Some highlights of that appointment:

• I didn't have an ultrasound - for the first time this pregnancy. Ultrasounds will resume on my next visit, and continue every four weeks thereafter (though my visits will be every two weeks.)
• I had my glucose screening and was warned that with twins, even if I pass this time, I may have to be re-tested later.
• The boys are still transverse. She said she has another twin patient who is seeing a chiropractor who claims she can get the babies head-down before delivery. My midwife wasn't advocating that route (and I'm more than a little skeptical), but wanted me to be aware that the claims of being able to turn the babies through chiropractic care, exist.
• I was encouraged to try gaining a little more weight. She says I'm on the low end of healthy, and have gained enough for a single pregnancy, but that it wouldn't hurt for me to gain weight at a little faster pace. I had read that with twins, it's even more important to gain weight during the second trimester, because the stomach is so much more inhibited during the third.
• Apparently I'm having contractions. I felt like such a moron, considering I've delivered two babies already. But I didn't recognize them. While discussing how I've been feeling, I started saying that after I (over)exert myself, I feel ... and my midwife asked "contractions?" I said "no, it's just that my stomach gets really hard and I have to take a moment to let it pass ... huh, like it's contracting." So, yeah, apparently it's normal at this stage with twins. I just have to make sure they don't persist.

Wordless Wednesday

Potty Time

I thought Carter was an easy child to potty train. We dabbled in it beginning at 14 months, but I felt daycare was a huge hurdle. So by the time I was going into the office only two days a week - at 22 months - he was wearing underwear (as long as he was with me) all day long, five days a week. That was when we declared "potty trained": an all-day trip to the zoo in underwear, with no accidents. He did continue to wear Pull-Ups while I was at work, until about 27 months. He rarely had an accident, but he wasn't quite comfortable voicing his needs to use the potty. And the daycare where he was two days a week until his second birthday, didn't exactly encourage potty use before age 2.

So I said that I would put E on the potty as soon as she could walk. It actually became a joke that she understood me, and that's why she was reluctant to walk. But the week she began walking - at 13 months - she also began sitting (and peeing) on the potty. Nothing monumental: once or twice a day, I'd sit her on it. At least one day out of two, something would come out and we'd all get excited.

Then, within the last week, a strange thing has started to happen. Well, first I introduced M&Ms as a reward ... and after several failed attempts at eating one, she finally gave it a real effort and realized she LIKES them ... but then she started TRYING to use the potty. I'm talking, walking over to it, and climbing on it herself. And when I caught her doing this, I'd rip off her diaper as fast as I could and watch. And I could see on her face that she was trying to go. Sometimes only a few drops would come out, but I'd jump up and dance as if she'd broken the four-minute mile. I mean, she really seemed to be understanding what she needed to do.

So yesterday morning, I was in the kitchen getting everything ready for Carter to go to school. And in walks Ellyson, carrying her frog potty. She plops it down on the kitchen floor and tries to climb on. I took off her shorts and diaper in a hurry, and she got to it (photo at top). At first, only a few drops came out. But she got an M&M anyway because I think it's amazing she's making this connection at 14 months. While eating that M&M, she peed a lot more and demanded a second. Sure, I gave her one - I can live with this game for the time being. When she was finished, we went about our morning and I expected a wet diaper when we returned from running errands two hours after she'd pottied. But she was dry. And proceeded to pee in the bathroom (albeit on the tile floor, next to her potty - so close ...) once we were home.

Is it really possible she understands already? Even if all she understands is that pee in potty = M&M. I'm good with that. Could I really have her at least half-way potty trained by 17 months, when she gains two baby brothers?? Oh, I squeal in delight at that possibility!

Time to Call Nana

Below is a conversation that transpired between Carter and me, on the way home from church yesterday.

Carter: Where are we going now?
Me: Home, to eat lunch.
C: I don't want to eat lunch at home.
Me: Well we ate at a restaurant last Sunday, so we're going to eat at home today.
C: No, I want to eat at Nana and Papa Jack's house.
Me: Not today, honey. Maybe another day.
C: Where is Nana?
Me: Well, she's probably on her way home from her church.
C: Call her.
Me: No. I can't.
C: Why? Do you not have her phone number?
Me: No, I don't have my phone. It's in my purse.
C (looking at my purse on the floor beside him, then reaching down to pick it up and hand it to me): There. Now call her.
Jack: Look, Carter! Tractors!

Twins ...

Holy cow. This whole carrying twins thing is not for the faint of heart. I'm still a week away from my third trimester ... I understand why bed rest is so common.

New Pool

On Monday, it was so hot that I blew up the new pool, and Carter and I had pool time in lieu of quiet time (during E's afternoon nap). His old pool had a palm tree overhang that wouldn't keep its form enough to actually stay up, so it hung about six inches over the water line, rendering the pool virtually unusable. So we got a new, simpler one. I enjoyed cooling off in it, even if the maternity bathing suit I bought while pregnant with Carter, barely fits. Thankfully, I picked up the next-larger size a couple months ago, so hopefully that one will last into the summer.

Wordless Wednesday

Game Ball

Guess who got the game ball at his t-ball game last night??

This kid did. He also smacked a pretty good hit that ended up in the "outfield".