Snooze

Ever wish baby monitors came with a snooze button? 

This morning around 4:30 am I reached over to hit the snooze button - only it wasn't my alarm. It was the boys' monitor. Boys - when you are reading this someday...4:30 is TOO EARLY! Moms don't get to take naps every day!

My "preemies" Prior and Mason. 

Curious what our 'secret' is to the weight gain? 

Eating every 3 hours in the middle of the night...

Belly Laughs

I feel very lucky to have such happy babies...

Belly Laughs - Prior from K Schultes on Vimeo.

Prior from K Schultes on Vimeo.

Maslow's Hierarchy

Remembers Maslow's hierarchy of needs? I don't recall all of the details other than it being about "needs".  

Today Mason reminded me of one of those needs...

The feeling of being "needed".

I know the boys need their mama, but to this point they haven't learned how to express it (unless you count crying at 2 and 5 am).

We were over at the neighbors for a birthday party. There were quite a few people and the neighbor was holding Mason. They were across the room and he was happy. They walked towards me. Mason saw me, recognized me, let out a few whimpers, reached both arms out and leaned towards me.

I swooped him up and at that very moment I fell even more in love with Mason...

and I thought that wasn't even possible. 

(*for the extra-observant - the picture above is of Prior. The post is about Mase so I thought a picture of Prior would be fair).

Sweet Potatoes

Up next on the menu: sweet potatoes. (Although by the looks of Mason's cheeks you may have guessed nuts).

The boys love them.

Happy Birthday Alli!

Happy 3rd Birthday cousin ALLI!

We wish we were there to celebrate with you.

Hugs and kisses, Love Prior & Mason

Beans and Bananas

Prior

Mason

We added a few new pieces of furniture to our great room area. Two highchairs. They are the Fisher Price 'Spacesaver' highchairs. But when you add them to a great room that already includes two exersaucers, two bumbo seats, two boppys, a rainforest play mat, and a jump-a-roo you don't necessarily feel like you're saving any "space".

Nonetheless it was a very exciting weekend for the boys (or at least for mom...) Prior and Mason had their very first real meal. First up on the menu: green beans and bananas. My first attempt at making the boys' baby food was a success - even though it would be hard to ruin green beans pureed in a blender. The boys even like the green beans better than cereal.

Top the green beans and bananas off with sippy cups and you've got yourself two grown up little boys and some green stinky diapers!

6 Month Check-Up

This afternoon the queen family truckster made its maiden family voyage to the doctor for the boys' 6 month check-up.

 

	Prior		Mason
Weight	16 lb 1 oz	25%	16 lb 0 oz	25%
Height	27 7/8”	90%	27 1/2”	90%
Head	44 cm	50%	43.6 cm	50%

What does this mean? The boys are longer than average, less chubby than average, and their heads are about average.

Prior beating out his brother by a measly 1.5 ounces.

 

Mason weighing in at an even 16 pounds. I checked Ben’s baby book and he weighed 20 pounds at 6 months. That’s another 4 pounds – that’s huge!

Four shots each today. That’s 8 total yellow tweety bird band-aids. Prior was the tough guy and didn't cry for his first two shots...until he heard his brother cry and then he started to cry as well.

The doctor said the boys should be having 2-3 meals a day of "solids".  Hopefully this will help them sleep longer during the night. My new hobby is going to be making their food so we are headed to the farmer's market in the morning. I'm excited! This will probably remind my mom of when I wanted to wash my own clothes using a wash-board or when I made my own fruit leather using a food dehydrator.

 

Based on this picture of Mason – how successful do you think we will be at introducing more solids?

The doctor also recommended we get the boys on more of a schedule. Right now they graze and take cat naps and it sounds like a schedule is better. Based on how much sleep we've been getting Ben and I are ready to try just about anything...

Mason showing off his four yellow band-aids on his legs (and everything else) outside on the deck tonight. It was hot and we stripped down after eating cereal and headed right into the bath.

The Queen Family Truckster

"You think you hate this car now - wait till you drive it"

Apparently a mid-size SUV is not meant for two rear facing car seats in the second row....unless the driver and passenger in the front seats are 4' 2" or less. In any event, Ben's MDX needed to go. So we considered the following:

- the mini van

- Suburban

- Tahoe

- the antarctic blue super sports wagon with the optional rally fun-pack

The minivan actually was never in the running - I just added it to the list here because of it's obvious practicality. Everyone with a big SUV will tell you that the Suburban is the right answer because there's just not enough storage space in the Tahoe with the 3rd row up. Right now we don't need the 3rd row and cars in general are such great investments why anticipate space needs before they happen? And then there's the super sports wagon. If one of those babies was still available we would be adding on to our garage so it would fit inside.

The winner: a gigantic black Tahoe.

I will tell you - there are quite a few places where taking twins is not convenient. Car shopping and test driving cars is definitely near the top of the list! I assume this is one of those things that holds true for kids in general.

 

I remember when we put a fence up in our backyard just for the dog and thought it was a lot of money to be spending - just for the dog. That was nothing! Selling our big car for an even bigger one takes the cake. And from what everyone tells me kids get more (not less) expensive the older they get!

Jump-a-roo

Tonight Mason was very excited to see me when I got home and I couldn't resist catching it on video.

I'm not sure who was smiling more...me or Mason.

Untitled from K Schultes on Vimeo.

Oh to be a kid again...

Poly Vi Sol

Because we live in a part of the country that is considered vitamin D deficient due to the excessive months of cold and darkness and because the boys aren't on formula, Prior and Mason have to take a vitamin supplement. And because Prior was anemic at birth both boys have to take iron as well. It's called "poly-vi-sol with iron".  It comes in liquid form and looks and smells awful. They have had this added to their bottle once per day since we came home from the hospital and I think it will continue until they are a year old.

As you can imagine, the extra iron makes pooping just a little harder to do. The nice part for us is that it means they only have a dirty diaper about once every 4-7 days but the bad part is that when it's dirty - look out.

Today I caught Prior working on a big poopie and had to take a picture. (I'll spare you the picture of the the diaper!)  He'll love this when he grows up!

6 Months Old

Mason/Prior

Everyone tells you how fast the time goes in the world of parenting but until you experience it first hand you don't fully comprehend how fast "fast" is. 

Six months already!? 

For as many hours as I've been awake over the last 6 months you would think it would have felt more like 6 years. Instead it feels like 6 weeks...

We are having a blast - here are some 6 month milestones:

• the boys have found their feet and think they are pretty cool. Mason even had his big toe in his mouth last night. Once again, Mason was a few days ahead of Prior and found his feet first.
• they have started laughing 
• they love it when you talk, sing, or read books to them. Their favorite book right now is Baby Elmo and their favorite toy is the leap frog rattle from Carson.
• the boys have started interacting more and more with each other - this includes rolling on top of each other (see below).
• I think they are really enjoying their bedroom. It's dark, quiet, and nice to have their own bed to sleep in.

Their official 6 month appointment is on the 14th and I am anxious to find out what their measurements are!

Mason

Prior/Mason

Mason 

Movin' On Up

Mason after his first nap in his own room. 

Happy Baby = Very Happy Mommy!!

It's official. Both cribs are upstairs in the boys' bedroom and today the boys took their very first nap in their very own room. I put a lot of time and effort into designing and decorating the room so it was fun to see them in their own space but on the other hand I was a little sad because it means they are growing up and I really like having them so close to me in my room. They slept great during their nap and as of press time we are currently 1.5 hours into the night and so far so good.

Because the boys always used to sleep in our bedroom it was a convenient excuse not to put clothes away or take care of any chores in the bedroom or bathroom. So today it felt good to get those things taken care of during the nap. On that topic - if anyone ever feels like they are not efficient with their time, just have a few kids that take up 99.999% of your time and it is amazing what you can get done during the remaining 0.001% of the time!