Lia and Bru

Bruchi is often a royal pain. He opens the oven, swipes food, climbs in the dishwasher, and just plain gets in the way. Nonetheless, he has been pretty good with the girls so far. He typically listens and leaves most of their things alone, and he knows he is to keep his distance from them. The other night we invited him up on the bed when we were watching a movie and he snuggled up with Lia.

Zadie's faces

Any guesses of what Zadie's doing in these pictures? Yep, it's her 5-day ritual.

Smiles

It seems that the girls are finally starting to smile and interact with us. We have been waiting for this moment for a long time as we have felt that the girls view us as little more than 2 things that give food and change dialers. Because preemies tend to develop behind the typical full-term baby, we were concerned that we'd be waiting another 6 weeks before our girls would recognize us. Now...for 8 hours of sleep. So close!

2 Months

We had our 2 month doctor's appointment the other day. Both girls did great and are developing like typical babies. They are now both on the normal growth curve--not adjusted for their early arrival. Lia is a little porker at 10 lbs 9 oz. Zadie is steadily growing at 10 lbs. They have both grown about 4 inches as well. They were little troopers for their shots. The nurses did a great job of shooting 2 shots in one leg and one in the other leg quickly so that they were done injecting them by the time the girls started screaming. It was a pathetic sight, but the girls both calmed almost immediately after we held them close and cuddled. The best part of getting shots was having the girls sleep through he night--from 10-5:00.

Developmentally the girls are doing great, but a bit preemie-like in some respects. They still do not smile knowingly. We're supposed to wait up to 2 months after their due date before we get worried. They both started grabbing a lot this week--dad's chest hair, shirts, necklaces, you name it. Zadie pushes herself up really well, and Lia has very good head control--though still very wobbly.

Lia is still generally happy. She could sleep through the night most of the time if it weren't for her sister. She does not cry very often. This is likely because her cry is so horrific that we do our best to keep her from crying. She is a super sweet little girl.

Zadie is generally disgruntled, but still very good most of the time. Her expressions and body language are incredibly cute. She often looks put out about whatever we're doing. We have found she makes it into more pictures only because she has funny poses or expressions more often than her sister.

Both girls are growing and changing a lot every day. They started with the nanny this past week and seem to have no problems being cared for by someone else, but we sure are happy to see them at the end of each day. They're heartbreakers.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving this year at home with Papa and G-Ma Ann. Lia and Zadie spent a lot of time dreaming about future years when they will be able to enjoy smoked turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and all the other great Thanksgiving fixings--and watching football with Papa. For now, they both seem to be thankful for milk as they have become good little eaters. In fact you could set a clock by Zadie's hunger patterns--at about two and half hours she consistently begins to stir making sure we do not forget a meal. Both girls continue to grow like crazy and are awake and alert more each day, but they still will not flash intentional smiles no matter how goofy we make ourselves look--any day now. Their heads still wobble, but they are getting much stronger and more stable every day. Soon we will see sturdy little heads.

Earlier this week the girls visited Santa for the first time ever. We asked Santa for a full night of sleep, but I'm afraid the girls may have had different Christmas wishes. Soon enough. In the meantime we'll try to "cherish every moment" as everyone else seems to say--easy to say on a full night of sleep.

We are so thankful for these little girls. Even though its hard to imagine life without them, we think back to a year ago when we had not a clue what was in store for us and how much our lives would change in a short year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Burps

It seems that the happiness of our babies lies in our ability to help them get their burps out before they become painful. While we never imagined spending so much time on burping, we have found that it can make or break a few good hours of sleep at night. The amount of sound that can come out of these little bitty mouths when they are burping is truly amazing. Both girls tend to fight the burping process, arching their backs and groaning against the burps. Perhaps the funniest, though, is watching Zadie as she looks completely disgusted while she is being burped. Here's a video--I think we're missing the actual burp, but I'll try to catch one of those later.

Zadie

Aka ZZ, Dragon, ZaZu and Stinkbug. Zadie has had personality plus from day 1. She frequently has a skeptical look on her face as she surveys the scene. She likes to protest most everything--except for eating. She hates being swaddled, growls if you wake her up, growls when you lay her down for the night, growls when she's being burped, and the list goes on. Recently she has started fussing less often (or maybe Lia is just fussing more often), and has flashed us a couple smiles when the stars all align just right. She still does not sleep well at night and thinks its okay to be awake and fussing from 10-2. Today she rolled over from her front to her back. She is built very differently than her sister. Lia feels firm and much more sturdy. Zadie feels like a little pile of noodles. All in all ZZ brings us lots of laughs at her crazy faces. We love her like crazy.