Special Thanksgiving visits

Brave Uncle Seth, the protector of little baby toes! 

Taking a little nap in Mimi's baby carriage. 

While in Madison for Thanksgiving, the boys got to meet my two oldest friends, Katie and Becky. Here is Jax, SO comfy in Becky's arms.

Katie seemed to have the magic touch with Dex! He set a new record for holding the nuk in his mouth all by himself! (Now, if I could just get him to repeat it here at home!!) 

Jax loves his mimi. 

A little sleep would be nice!

We have two little insomniacs on our hands and their names are Dexter and Jaxon! Okay, it's not so much that they don't sleep, but that they seem to do it in 1-2 hour intervals (and that's at night!). The past few days have been a bit exhausting as they just don't want to nap during the day and they can't seem to sleep at night, either! We have done quite a bit of traveling in the past two weeks and Dex is getting over a very nasty cold, complete with long coughing spells... so there are plenty of reasons why they might be having trouble snoozing. That being said, their mother and father would be exceptionally grateful to get more than 90 minutes of sleep at a time. Yes, that would be nice.

Baptism Sunday

The boys were baptized on the 13th of November. It was such a special day! My dad was able to baptize the boys, which made me so happy. Both boys made it through the entire service (and most of the lunch afterwards) without so much as a tear! To top it all off, they slept a 7-hour stretch the night before. Unbelievable!! Of course, we have yet to experience such a delightful night's sleep a second time. (In fact, they've been waking every 1-3 hours during the night... but that's another story!) D.R.'s mom, Mary, made their cute little sweaters. 

Four generations

I love this photo! Four generations... from Dex & Jax to my mom and Grandpa. If only my Dad's side of the family didn't live so far away... we could have done a second 4-generation shot, as well! 

Godparents

We asked Jon (D.R.'s brother) & Stacie and Sarah (my sis) & Christopher to be sponsors at the boys' baptism. Here's the group of us together. 

Big smiles for Grandpa

Already happy in Sarah's arms... Dex was thrilled to play smiling games with Grandpa! 

Hey... what's going on here?

 

Where do our tongues go?

Hee hee! This is so typical!! I can't help but laugh when I look at this! 

Three-Month Photo

We tried and TRIED to get a photo with both boys smiling for their three-month birthday. After taking 20-some photos... I had to laugh. The boys LOVE keeping their tongues out of their mouths... why try to capture them with big grins when this picture is SO them. Here's little Dex on the left and little Jax on the right, not quite sure if he's okay with this whole photo-shoot thing. 

Oh, that lower lip!

Both boys have gotten quite good at sticking out that little lower lip. Even though it usually signals iminent tears, we can't help but smile when they do it! It's so adorable! We were able to catch Jax in the act... 

The Valley House

D.R. and I were able to spend a few days with his parents last week, which was really great. They have a beautiful view over a little valley, so D.R. and I took the double stroller off-roading down the hill, a bit. Okay... so we only made it about 200 feet before we turned around... 

Coffee break!

The boys and I got to enjoy some down time at a local coffee shop... and I got to enjoy sipping my coffee with two hands!! Aah, the joys of having a Seth and a Sarah with me to help out! 

The Songs We Sing

D.R. and I have been singing to the babies since they were born, but the fun thing about the age they're at now, is that they clearly respond more to some songs than to others. It's been so interesting for me to reflect back to the songs that were sung to me by my Mom and Dad and remember my personal favorites. I have found myself subconsciously singing these tunes to my boys... and interestingly enough, they seem to be the songs the boys prefer, as well.

A few of their favorites:

If I need a song to calm the boys down, I usually go with "Oh Shenandoah," which works wonders with little Dex, or "Hush Little Baby," which Jax seems to really respond to. It must be the repetition in each of them, as they are quickly lulled to sleep by both songs. I remember Dad singing "Oh Shenandoah" to us as children... and remember both Mom and Dad singing "Hush Little Baby."

There are also the changing table songs.... fun songs with happy melodies that make the boys smile. "You are my Sunshine" and "I'm a Little Teapot" are two favorites... though we've made up our own set of lyrics to the teapot song. :) It's fun for me to remember my Grandma Grimstad singing "You are my Sunshine" to us as little children.

A fun song that I have no recollection of my parents singing to us, but that we stumbled upon in one of our attempts to distract the boys and make them laugh was "Rock Around the Clock." They love it. Strange, but true. They especially like it if we pat their backs and dance with them while we sing it. So funny.

We play a lot of music in our household, as well. It's been especially fun for us to see which albums the boys seem to respond to. There's a multitude of soothing CDs we listen to... everything from Lullabies and classical to Enya. However, the boys absolutely love listening to Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows, Billy Joel, Howie Day, Keane, Ben Folds, Jack Johnson and Sarah MacLachlan. These are fun experiments for me... interesting that they happen to love some of my all-time favorites. :) Ultimately, I think we're raising two little music fans, which is going to be especially fun.

A visit from Uncle Seth

The babes and I had so much fun a few weeks ago when my brother came for a visit. I had the enjoyment of watching him cuddle with the babies. The next day he called me and told me he could still feel them in his arms... like when you were a kid and had roller-skated all day and went to sleep with the sensation of skates still on you feet. I loved that comparison!

Little Dex

Some of you may know that we've been concerned about Dex's left ear since he was born. We spoke to the pediatrician at the hospital shortly after he was born and were told that it would be fine. Two weeks later, at the boys' first clinic visit, his ear had still not grown back the way it was supposed to. Again, the pediatrician dismissed out concerns, telling us it would be fine. At the two month appointment, she blew us off a third time, insisting that by 3 or 4 months of age, his ear would have grow to look like his right ear.

After failing his first three hearing tests, Dex saw an audiologist a little over a month ago, and was re-tested and passed. It was at this appointment, however, that the audiologist took one peak at his left ear and suggested we see a pediatric ENT. So, after several months of being told everything was fine with him, we took him in to see a specialist. At this appointment, we learned that he has a lop ear and will need surgery before the age of 5. It's nothing serious and we'll try to get it taken care of before he's old enough to feel self-conscious about it. What drives me CRAZY is the fact that the ENT said we could have fixed it ourselves if we had started taping his ear back after he was born. Earlier on, I had asked our pediatrician if taping would help and she said no, that it would just grow in on its own. AAGH! I get SO INCREDIBLY frustrated with preventable situations like this! I left our first few appointments feeling like an over-reacting mother and come to find out, my instincts were right. There as something wrong with his little ear, and it COULD have been fixed early one! Now the only solution is surgery.

Anyway, for the time being, we have a cute little boy with a cute little ear... and a tell-tale way to tell the boys a part. (Though, it's getting easier and easier every day!)

Shocking Before and After

 
This is Jaxon at nearly two weeks of age. 

 
This is Jaxon about two months later!! Who says nursing twins doesn't work? :) 

My Little Monkeys

 
Yes, we dressed the babes up as little monkeys for our little Halloween open house. As it turned out, the second the outifts were put on, the little monkeys fell asleep... so this is the best photo we could get!!