Double the Love: It's just too much!

When I was in the hospital after the boys were born I was told by a nurse, with twins herself, to write everything down because the first 3 months will go by in a blur. Well, she was pretty much right! I wasn't immediately able to start "writing everything down" because...well, life was a little crazy! But, when the boys were about 6 weeks old I sat down and wrote about everything up until that point. How much they were eating, sleeping, their schedule, my pumping, what they were doing, etc. After this I kept up this journal each week documenting everything from that week. The boys also each have two baby books. One is just a traditional Carter's baby book and the second is a special book specifically for twins. I love keeping up with these, but found them to be lacking in a lot of areas that were important to me. It is so nice knowing that I have all this information for me and for the boys in the years to come to look back on. The only problem with my journal and the baby books is that we are the only ones who see them! So, when the boys were about six months old I started this blog so that we could also share with all our friends and family the updates and pictures of the boys. All this documentation takes a lot of my precious time. I don't regret any of it and feel that it is worth every minute. But, there really are other things I want to get done! So, I am "planning" to start using this blog as my journal and not doing so much of my handwritten journaling. I generally only do post about big things, but you may start seeing more little posts about something new or silly the boys did that day/week. Some of you could probably care less...but that's okay. This is more for my convenience since I print these blogs out for the boys. I am just a little bit obsessed with documenting their first year...ummm scratch that. I thought I would not be so obsessed after the first year but I shoulda' known! I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. So, the blogs will keep on comin'!

I have been terrible about updating lately, but here are few things we have done recently.

A couple weeks ago we bought the boys their "big boy car seats"! They were just shy of 30 inches (the limit for their infant carrier car seats) at their 12 month appointment so we started shopping around for a convertible car seat. This was such a hard decision for me. There are sooo many factors that go into this decision! We had a lot of problems getting them installed to my satisfaction. Because of the boy's size and for safety, we are doing extended rear facing. This can be a little trickier to do for some convertible seats. So I took them in the back of the SUV to a certification site and they installed them for us for free with no problems.

(Only pictures from when we fitted them in the house. I'll have to get car pics later!)

A couple weekends ago we had a garage sale. Well, better stated, I sat up for a garage sale. Our neighborhood was having a garage sale, and with babies there always seems to be something outgrown or no longer in use. Unfortunately, since we live in BFE, there was not much traffic. I think it took me longer to tear down from the sale than it did to set it up!

Last weekend Daddy went to Conclave in MO. GG came to stay with us for a few days and we went to Aunt Bea's funeral. I am so glad Aunt Bea was able to see the boys a couple times before she passed away. It was nice to spend some quiet time with just GG too.

I took the boys to the audiologist. This was just a regular check up and everything seems fine. Ayden was just happy to be sitting in Mommy's lap with no interruptions and was not too interested in paying close attention to some of the sounds. Ashton was more interested in getting off my lap to check everything out. She had to be quick on the trigger between sounds or he was making a run for it!

We have been getting out more and enjoying the nice weather we have been having! I took the boys to the neighborhood park and let them play on the equipment a little bit for the first time. I am usually too freaked out by the dirtiness of it and the germs! I know at some point it is going to happen so I just have to let go! This playground is really more appropriate for older kids also. There are several steps and Ashton took off all the way to the top like he did it everyday. Truth be told, he has never had the opportunity to climb more than one step! I have been putting them out on the grass more and they are finally getting use to the feeling of grass under them. They are very interested in eating the grass and mulch right now!

Ayden and Caleb playing across the street.

Ashton figuring out how the wagon works.

The boys are laughing and using their "outside voices" a lot lately! They love to play peek-a-boo and hiding/chasing games. Ashton has learned how to yell from Ayden and they now like to compete in yelling matches - sometimes Mommy joins in too! The neighbors probably think something is wrong! They are also very interested in how things work and using toys for the intended purposes. The can both play the xylophone, put balls in at the top of the ball ramp and push all the buttons on their different toys. They are also going through a phase where every toy is cooler upside down! The music table, the rocker, the walking toy all get turned upside down. And now they have found out that if they empty all the board books (probably 25 or more) from the wooden toy box they are in, they can then turn the box upside down and drum on it! Needless to say we are now working on cleaning up after ourselves! Ayden is also interested in "compartments" recently. He found a flap that lifts up on their push car and there is a tiny storage area there. He likes to open it and put a ball in and then take it out again. Tonight he found Daddy's pocket and pulled it open to look in, then he put a small car in it!

Ashton and Ayden continue to be great eaters and don't really refuse anything - especially if it's a carb! We are working to identify some foods that are possibly causing rash issues though.