Another example

To show you just how entertained these girls are....here is yet another "toy" that they have recently started to play in everyday! A huge thanks to little Walt and cousin Cooper for letting us borrow them. I can't imagine what we would do if we had to buy 2 of everything, and they're growing so fast that paying so much for things that they outgrow in no time at all is NOT something we're that interested in right now!!! Once again, this video is NOT stellar. It's just to give you a feel for some of the ways that we spend our time. The girls typically chit chat back and forth and smile and laugh when sitting in these things. Until, it seems, I turn on a video camera and then they just spit and cry. Oh well!!!!!

A new toy

Since we have twins, it means that we have 2 of just about everything. Which also means that our house sort of looks like a circus most days. Two bouncy seats, two swings, two exersaucers and now....two jumpy things (I'm sure they have a real name for them). The doorways in our house are HUGE. The only ones that work with these swingy things are the one in Matt's office and the one on the door to the laundry room. We also have to stick the ottoman underneath them so that the girls have something to push off of. Not optimal, but they are LOVING them so far and it means that we can leave the helmet off of Riley and it helps them improve the muscles in their legs. Here are a couple of videos of the girls moving around in them...it always seems that when the video comes on the girls stop their normal behavior, so you aren't seeing how adorable they really can be in these things, but you'll get the idea!

Pretty in pink

Well...the helmet is officially here! Matt has been out of town all week and I was fortunate enough to have Aunt Conni and Uncle Ron come and stay with me and the girls this week to help out. They were amazing per usual. We got the call last night that the helmet had arrived! Con and I went this morning with Riley to get her fitted for her helmet (Ron babysat Reagan for me and there were no disasters! He did a great job!). This helmet is a positioning helmet. The intent is to keep her off of her left side and to keep her looking towards the right. You can't tell all that well from my pictures but attached to the left side of the helmet is an ENORMOUS piece of foam. It keeps her head tilted to the right whenever she's laying down. The good news so far....
1. She doesn't need to wear it when in a stroller or in her car seat (unless it's a long car trip).
2. She doesn't need to wear it whenever she's not laying down
3. She seems to be tolerating it pretty well so far. Only a few tears when she woke up from a brief nap and I think it was because she was terrified that something was on her head and she couldn't turn to see Mommy.
4. We go back to the doctor in 6 short weeks (please GOD make those weeks go quickly) and they will scan her head again to see how it's progressing.
The bad news so far....
1. It's hot. She woke up from her nap and I took it off to hold her since Reagan was still snoozing and her head was totally sweaty. I can only imagine how fragrant this thing is going to be pretty soon.
2. The straps are a new play toy for Reagan when they're on the mat together. It's kind of funny to watch actually...but probably not the safest thing in the world. I don't have them fastened in the picture which the dr said is fine. He actually said I could cut them off if I want to...we'll see.
3. I'm going to want to hold her all of the time so she doesn't have to wear it. And we all know that's just not a possibility so....
Other than that....while I really wish she didn't have to go through this, we have to do it and we're doing it because it's what she needs. She's so little and she's a lot tougher than she looks so she's going to be just fine. I think it's going to be a lot tougher on me than her!
And I'm praying you can read the letter that she got from "Coach Tressel" (aka my amazing friend Irene). She has her first buckeye stickers for her helmet!!! I'll start searching for pretty ones now but if you happen to see any really girly looking stickers (or anything that you think she absolutely must have for her helmet!) please send them our way!
Matt gets home tonight and is so excited to see his little girls. This update doesn't have too much info about Reagan...I'll post a lot more about both of them and some more pics/videos asap but she continues to be quite the ham. She had Ron, Conni and I laughing for hours...she's hilarious.
Have a great weekend and wish us luck tonight on the sleeping front...who knows how that's going to go!?! I'll let you know!

We're 4 months old

The girls turned 4 months old yesterday! It's shocking to me that time is going by so quickly. They have their 4 month well check up tomorrow and get their shots :( which I'm not looking forward to...but I'm anxious to go and see what the dr has to say! Getting a picture of the two of them where they are both looking at the camera is near impossible. We tried getting one with both girls smiling but after about 75 takes we gave up. You can tell that we were making Riley mad in the one picture because she flipped me the bird! Ha!
Updates on the girls at this point:
Reagan is just growing up so fast!!!!!! She has really, really mellowed out and is turning out to be the happiest little girl. She entertains herself for hours at times. She still loves playing on the activity mat and now grabs things and pulls them and has recently discovered her feet. She plays with them all of the time now. It's so funny! She has lost almost all of her hair at this point...there's still some hanging on in the back (which makes it look pretty funny) but the top is growing back in very blond! She is off all of her medications at this point and while the acid reflux still makes feeding time not so fun (and extremely messy!), she really doesn't seem bothered by it at all! She'll spit up (which is just a really nice way of saying puke everywhere) and then want to go back to eating right away! She's definitely over 14 pounds by now (we'll find out tomorrow for sure). She's sleeping really well (not consistently but getting there) from about 8:30 at night til about 4 am. We're SOOOOOO happy with that! She has her nights where she'll wake up at 11, 12, 2, 3, 4 (you get the point) but she's a baby and that's what they do sometimes I guess. We're hoping that as we start introducing more solid foods (we've started rice cereal) maybe that will help?! To sum Reagan up....she's an absolute JOY. Her smile is enormous and she makes my day when I pick her up from her crib in the morning. She is curious and loving (especially loves her Daddy) and just makes my heart so happy every day.
Riley is still just a little love. She's SO close to 10 pounds. We had a doctor's appointment for her on Friday and they weighed her at 9 pounds 13 ounces. Maybe tomorrow she'll be 10?!? She is still a little peanut but is finally out of newborn clothes! Yay! She is very alert all of the time. She always seems to be studying things (faces, toys etc...). She's smiling so much more now and it makes us laugh so hard. She has this shy little smile and it's almost like she's flirting with you when she smiles. It's so cute! She talks a lot and HATES to be alone. If I put her in her bouncy seat so that I can get something done she will fuss until I come back. It's not really crying...more like just letting me know that she's there and wants to hang out! She is raising up SO much on her arms when she's on her tummy. We're waiting for her to roll over...think it's going to be any day now. She is an AWESOME sleeper!!!! Almost every night she sleeps from 8:30 til 4. Half of the time I think she'd go longer but Reagan wakes her up! Riley's big news is that she's getting fitted for her helmet this week. I haven't talked much about it on the blog, but the doctor's have been a little concerned with the shape of her head. As a result of the way she was positioned in my tummy and with her Torticollis, the shape of her head isn't the way it should be. You really can't tell unless you look at her from certain angles. Of course in my opinion her head is perfect! The good news is that x-rays have shown that everything is perfect INSIDE of her head and that her brain is growing the way it should so there won't be any delays or issues. It's basically a cosmetic thing but one that needs to be addressed so that her head can be symmetrical again! It's pretty common in multiples that at least one of the babies has this issue. SO...she'll wear a positioning helmet for about 3 months. She only has to wear it whenever she's laying down or sleeping or on her back (which, let's face it is most of the time). Matt says he's going to decorate it like an Ohio State football helmet. I'm winning this one and we're going to find the prettiest princess, butterfly, flower stickers that we can and decorate it to be the most beautiful helmet any one has ever seen! The helmet will also help her Torticollis so while I wish she didn't have to go through this...we know it's what she needs and it's only for a short time! I can't even imagine how cute she's going to look in a little baby helmet!
SO...that's the 4 month update. The girls are just the best things that have ever happened to us. We look back to where we were a year ago at this time and there is no way that we could have ever imagined having these two miracles in our lives. Thank you GOD! We are so happy...and while it's the hardest thing in the world, it's also the best thing in the world. We are so blessed! I can't even imagine how much we're going to have to update in the next month!

We miss them already

Our very best friends, Molly and Walt, came to visit us on Friday with their son little Walt! I've been looking forward to their visit since I said goodbye to them in Cleveland. It was the best weekend and they left this morning...I miss Molly so much already (and the Walt's too of course). I can't wait to see them again.
BUT...we had the BEST time. We had fun Friday night just hanging out at the house with the kids. Little Walt is getting so big and is so much fun. He made us laugh the whole weekend! He did make Matt and I a little nervous about how in the world we're going to handle our two when they're his age. A 13 month old is VERY active!!!!!!!! Saturday we went out for breakfast and then headed into downtown Charleston. We went to the aquarium which was so cool. We didn't make it to every exhibit but we saw some really neat things and even if the kids didn't get much out of it, the grown ups really liked it! After that we went downtown and walked down King Street and headed into a restaurant/bar to cool off for a bit. It was perfect. The kids were great and the grownups got to catch up, have some grown up drinks and Molly and I even went shopping (well, we only made it to 1 store and didn't buy anything....but it was still nice!). We had plans of taking little Walt swimming once we got back home, but it started to rain. We went out to dinner instead back on Daniel Island.
All in all, it was just an amazing weekend with friends. We are so blessed to have them in our lives and love them so much...thank you Molly and Walt for coming to see us and PLEASE come back soon!!!!!!

One down, one to go

We've been working like crazy around here on tummy time in order to build up the girl's strength and to get them to at least sort of show an interest in rolling over! Reagan is obviously a lot bigger and stronger at this point than Riley is (although Riley is catching up and getting stronger every day!). Reagan decided that today was her day! Out of the blue she rolled over on her own and hasn't stopped since. We're so happy! (Check out Reagan's hair...hilarious! She's losing it all and it's growing in blond. We think she looks like a balding professor right now!)
Riley isn't ready just yet but she's lifting up a bit higher each day when she's put on her tummy. They're getting so big...can't believe they'll be 4 months old on Saturday. They have their shots and well check on Monday so we'll keep you posted!

GG and GG Zellar come for a visit

We had such an amazing day today!!!! My grandparents (my mom's parents) came to meet their Great Granddaughters for the first time! We had so much fun and the girls were so well behaved! GG and GG brought the girls some adorable outfits and some sun hats too (Riley is modeling the hat in one of the pictures!). Great Grandma even fed Reagan for me! It was such a special day for me and I am so thankful that they were here. We got some great pictures and even some funny video! We are so blessed to have them so close and we are looking forward to our next visit with them...hopefully sometime soon!