5 months!

I don't have "official pediatrician stats" for the boys because appointments are only every 2 months.  But I weigh them weekly at Mom's Club, so I thought I'd share their most current weights and a recent developments.

Beckett

Weight:  17 lbs 5 oz

 

Mr. Beckett is as mellow as always.  He's very content to just sit where I put him.  This may be part of the reason he isn't moving around much yet.  As his physical therapist says, he's a "thinker".  When he sees a toy, he has to study it, decide what it is and if he wants it, look at you for approval, then he'll grab it.  The only time he doesn't show much thoughtfulness and concentration is in the exersaucer.  Beckett LOVES to play in the exersaucer.  He rocks around like a wild man.  He is quite chubby and feels heavier than his little brother, even though he isn't anymore.  But he is getting a bit stronger and is working very hard to continue.  He's drooling like crazy and I can see little white lines on his gums, so he might be working on some teeth.  If he's anything like his big brother though, we'll still have to wait another 5 months for them to make an appearance!

Kiernan 

Weight:  17 lbs 12 oz

I started calling Kiernan my "little bird" when he was first born.  When he was hungry he'd open his mouth wide and shake his head back and forth like a baby bird.  That nickname is still proving to be true in his voice.  He squawks like a bird for a good part of the day.  But he has defied the nickname in that he's not so little anymore.  Kiernan has almost tripled his birthweight and is now bigger than his big brother.  He loves to eat and is incredibly strong.  He  has mastered rolling from his back to his belly and has gone from his belly to his back a few times.  He only rolls to the right though, so we're working on encouraging him to go to the left too.  He's actually starting to sit unsupported for a few seconds at a time.  

Can't believe my sweet, smiley boys are 5 months old already.  Time is flying!

January.

January was an interesting month.  It felt more like an early summer month for me.  Hot days, cool nights, lots of sunshine.  I tend to forget that everyone back in the midwest is freezing their bums off in the cold, even though it's been a mild winter there too.  My heart hurts a little when I see Brennan get excited and yell "Mom-mom, SNOW!!" when he sees a snowy scene on TV or in a book.  It's sad to think that he won't grow up playing in the white stuff.  But I remind myself that he'll get plenty of experience building snowmen and making snow angels when we travel back to Michigan.  And we won't have to deal with the mess of living with it!  Someday I'll get used to the weather down here.

This month was one of the firsts months that felt like a glimpse of "normal" life.  We didn't have any major plans, just started to settle into a routine as a family.  The twins have physical and speech therapy appointments, which are going well.  I take them to a Mom's Club, breastfeeding support group, on some Fridays while Brennan goes to friends' houses to play.  We've started walking the mile and a half to a little yogurt bar by our house on Sunday evenings for a little treat.  I must say, Brian and I make a pretty good team.  We are learning to function like a well-oiled machine.  

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary on the 27th.  Brian took the afternoon off and we were lucky enough to have some friends of ours come over in the evening to watch the boys.  We went to dinner at a little restaurant in downtown Melbourne that we went to last year for our anniversary.  It was nice to be able to spend a little time together without little people around us.  It's hard to believe all we've accomplished in the last 5 years - a house, 3 dogs, 3 kids, a move, a new career, and a masters degree (and a half).  There are probably a few things I'm forgetting too.  It's definitely been a wild ride, but a great one.  

Our Wedding Day with our sweet baby Cooper

Brennan is growing like a weed.  He is so much fun one minute and a complete terror the next. I'd expect nothing less from a 2 year old.  He's very patient though, and puts up with lack of attention very well.  His vocabulary grows by the minute and not a day goes by that he doesn't have me wondering "when did you learn that?"  He asks for his Daddy all day long.  All I hear during the day is "Daddy home?", "Call Daddy.", and "Daddy go?"  The second Brian walks in the door Brennan is ready to run and wrestle and play.  But at night time he wants his Mom-mom (yes, he calls me mom-mom.  it's ADORABLE.)  He has developed quite the bedtime routine and after he insists on being "tucked tight" and having a litter of stuffed animals piled on top of him, he wants "Mommy song".  It's the words to a goodnight book sung to a tune I made up and have been singing to him since he was little.  For some odd reason he loves it, even though my singing skills leave a lot to be desired.

February will be more of the same routine.  Aunt Jen and Uncle Brian will come to visit for a day and we have lots of appointments on the schedule.  Brian has decided to give up meat for Lent and I'm giving up pop.  The meat will make dinners interesting, but shake things up a bit. I'm planning a 75% meat free dinner menu.  The other nights he'll have to fend for himself ;)  And giving up Diet Coke will make for a cranky mommy, but it's terrible for me anyway, so I need to get rid of it.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Twin Weight Tuesdays. (Er, Wednesday ... again.)

Maybe I should just change it to Wednesday.  Hmmmm.

Anyways, I haven't lost any weight, this week, but I'm doing a bit better on the exercise front.  Brian and I are attempting to get up early and work out before the boys wake up, but their wake up schedule has been a little funky these days so that doesn't always work.  But most days I've been able to squeeze a bit of time during the day to jump on the treadmill for a mile or two.  Not enough, but it's a start.

On Saturday or Sunday evenings, we've been taking a trip to the yogurt bar near our house.  But we've been walking there as a family.  So we get good exercise in and then eat frozen yogurt.  Look people, it's better than ice cream.  It's a nice time for us to talk and just be together as a family.  Last weekend, we started walking and we were barely out of our neighborhood before my tennis shoes started to rub the skin on my Achilles tendons.  I contemplated going home to change socks, but didn't want to hold everyone up.  After walking just another short distance, we were barely a quarter mile into the mile and a half walk and I decided if I continued I would be in so much pain that I wouldn't be able to walk back.  So Brian managed both strollers and I ran back to the house.  Yes, ran.  All the way back to our house.  I put Bandaids on my already broken skin, changed into higher socks, and set out.  I told myself that no matter where my boys were, I was going to run to them.  (And I prayed that Brian had walked very slowly!)  It was tough til I turned the corner and saw them and just kept running. Over half of a mile. I felt like I was going to die, but Brian was so proud of me and I was proud of myself.  It's been a very long time since I ran that far without stopping.  It's a small accomplishment in the grand scheme of things, but it was a breakthrough for me.  I can keep running and I will keep running.

Now, it's time to focus more on food.  One of my close friends has a sweet little girl who is a month older than my boys.  She is struggling with weight loss too, as I think most postpartum mommies do.  She said that she focuses so much on healthy food for her kiddo, but doesn't do the same for herself.  I am so insanely guilty of this too.  So this week's focus will be to eat healthy.healthy.HEALTHY!!

Twin Weight Tuesdays. (er, Wednesday).

Yesterday was all kinds of busy so blogging got bumped.  As has exercise and healthy eating, actually.  If we're being completely honest here, and that IS the point of blogging about after all, I'm gaining weight.  So insanely frustrating.  But I'm not making exercise a priority, so why wouldn't I be gaining?  Brian and I have come up with a plan to get up together in the morning and workout, but that plan has been foiled by early-awakening babies a few days in a row.  It might take some time, but we'll get the kinks worked out.

Rafflecopter.

Do you enter as many giveaways on blogs as I do?  Because I enter as many as I can.  I love to win stuff, so why not?  And Rafflecopter makes it insanely easy to do so.  So I LOVE when bloggers use Rafflecopter for their giveaways.  And to celebrate 2012, they're giving away an iPad 2 and  Kindle Fire.  Sure there are already 75,000 other entries, but why not enter when they make it so easy?  Who knows, it could be your lucky day!  So head on over to http://www.rafflecopter.com/ to enter!

I love cute things.

You may not know this about me, but I love to read Mommy blogs.  One of my faves is The Southern Belle {and her boys}.  Jessica seems like a great girl who loves God, her firefighter hubby, and her sweet boys (a 2 year old and one on the way).  If you don't read her blog, you should.

She has a very cool giveaway going on over at her giveaway blog - The Southern Belle Baby Giveaways.  Up for grabs is a 5x5 custom pet portrait by Linny Fish Designs.  Check out some of her work:

(photo from The Southern Belle Baby Giveaways & Reviews)

(photo from The Southern Belle Baby Giveaways & Reviews)

And she painted these for Jessica's little man's nursery:

(photos from The Southern Belle Baby Giveaways & Reviews)

They are too cute for words and it would make the perfect gift for a certain man in my life who is head-over-heels in love with a certain dog of mine, so I'm telling everyone about it and racking up entries.  You should head over and enter too.  And if I don't win?  I'm definitely cashing in on the 20% off through the end of February with the coupon code SOUTHERNBELLEBABY.  I love it when blogs make gift-giving fun and easy.

Twin Weight Tuesdays.

I need some accountability.  Because when I'm home by myself all day juggling 2 infants, a toddler, and 3 dogs, I have NONE.  Random things fly into my mouth without a second (or even first) thought because I rarely have time to sit down and eat, let alone fix something.  So it's crackers, cookies ... junk.  And every day my weight creeps up just a tiny bit.  It's baaaaaad.  So every Tuesday I'm going to update that the 3 people that read my blog can see what I'm doing (or not doing) and that might make me feel like I need to have some accountability.  We'll see.

Good news is that I finally finished the Christmas 100 miles.  So now I'm on to the Birthday 250.  Just over 2 months left ... oh my!