Brayden at Two!

Tonight I got the chance to spend an evening alone with Brayden.  Just running a few errands, but it was a lovely reminder of how much I adore this little guy.  He is a total joy...

Height and Weight: 35 inches tall and 29 lbs

Wearing: 18M-2T

Favorite Food: Cheese

Loves to...: Play with trains, run outside, pour water between cups and go "bye bye."  Brayden has graduated from his past obsession carrying measuring little people - to carrying Little People figures everywhere.  He'd carry a dozen at a time if he could figure out how to hold on to them all!  Woody and Buzz are his favorites of course.  He loves to make animal noises and growl, serve play food from his kitchen, and is very nurturing to his baby dolls.  Brayden has recently discovered tickling, and believes that he can even tickle himself with enough of a chuckle.  Brayden is a great musician and can march and clap to a beat, strum his (or mommy's) ukulele, and sing along with Christmas carols.  He's awesome at the Falalalalas and Par-um-pum-pum-pums.

Favorite Toys: Trains, Little People (and pez), Dinosaurs, Cars, Pillow Racers, Bouncy House, the Thomas Roller Coaster.

Favorite Show: Octonauts, Sophia the First, Toy Story, Chuggington

Word List: Uh-Oh, No, Choo-Choo, Da, Ma-ma, Up, "git," Pap, pop, yum, bye-bye, peese (please), ank you (thank you), more, go "zzz" for "Buzz" and lots of animal sounds.  Brayden definitely has a ways to go with his words and we do our very best to keep the binky out of his mouth and encourage him to use his words whenever possible.

Biggest Accomplishments: Brayden's doing awesome with his physical abilities - jumping, marching and climbing up and down stairs with ease.  His compassionate side has been growing with his ability to share and take turns (although we still work on these things daily).  We love watching Brayden explore his love of music.  It really is a cool thing to see your child discover something you yourself are so passionate about.

Brayden is such a sweet and exciting boy.  We have an absolute joy being his parents!

Julie at Two!

The babies have just had their second birthday this December and  thought  it would be the perfect time for an update.  Since Julie celebrated one short minute before her brother she is (as always) up first.

Isn't she just gorgeous?  She's always on the move, so sometimes a smiling portrait is tough - but I just love this picture of here.  Here she is - Julie at Two!

Height and Weight: 36 inches tall and 31.5 lbs

Wearing: 2T-3T

Favorite Food: Blueberries, Cheese, Noodles

Loves to...: Snuggle, sleep, watch Disney movies, ride on Mom's shoulders, get tickled, help in the kitchen, paint, draw, color, play with stickers, climb on everything!  She likes to play with Mommy's hair - especially using her new play brushes and hair dryer.  She adores stacking blocks (and anything else possible).  She's not really into baby dolls yet, but loves taking baths and playing with all of her bath toys. She loves to label everyone's "eyes, nose, hair, ears, and tongue" and is a bit of a dare devil.  Julie loves to get reactions from people - and will chase us with dinosaurs and sharks so that we squeal with fear. 

Favorite Toys: Little People, hair accessory set, nesting dolls, pop up boxes, easel, doctor's set

Favorite Show: Bubble Guppies, Doc McStuffins, Sophia the First, Toy Story

Word List: Mama, Dada, Ga, Pap, Nana (banana), hi, oh-no, boy/"bway" (for Brayden), more, car, please, bye, choo-choo, eyes, nose, hair, ear, "git", kitty, pig, cow, duck, dog, "jewy" (Julie), me (interchangeable for mine), thank you, Mickey, Woody, Buzz, one, two, three, four, five, red, green, blue, up, cookie, cheese - and probably many more I can't think of at the moment!

Biggest Accomplishments: Julie is making GREAT developmental strides!  We love seeing all the fantastic eye contact that has been a challenge for her in the past.  She is learning to communicate so beautifully and really able to express her desires.  We recently made the switch to a "big girl" toddler bed and after many nights of 4 a.m. escape, we're finally finding some consistency sleeping through the night again.  She's a wonderful little artist and enjoys using all sorts of art supplies to make little creations.  And while this is a strange accomplishment 

What an awesome kid!  We absolutely adore this little sweetheart.

A Quick Family Update

Just a quick post to update on what we've been up to lately as I haven't been able to post as often as I'd like to lately!  Here's what's been going on with us lately:

GiggleBuzz is in overdrive, and I've been super busy bow making and running around to craft shows lately.  I unfortunately find that I can't really "create" more time, and so, as business picks up there, things slow down a bit here.  Good news is, in just a few short weeks - I'll be shutting down until after the holidays and will be able to snuggle in to more active blogging!

Brayden and Julie are doing so very well.  I can't believe that they'll be two in just about a month!  We're planning on a small family party for family on the day of or day before their birthday, and then a party for our playdate friends the next month.  I guess I need to start browsing Pinterst for some ideas!

They've both been making great progress working on speech with Early Intervention.  Our new words list includes the following:

Brayden - All animal sounds (including dogs, cats, dinosaurs, bees and pirates), Up, Dada, Mama, Blue ("bwew"), duck, Pap, Yum, "ahhh" (after drinking), Thank You, Uh-Oh, Bye and can sign "all done" and "more"

Julie - Dada, Mama, Square, Dog, Pap, Nana, Up, Car, Uh-Oh, Oh-No, Bye, Please, Cheese, some attempts at Hello (which really sound like "How"), Why, something that sounds like Bubble, Hair, Eyes, Nose, Ear, Cold.  She's doing super really...

We've been doing a little traveling - to Baltimore to see my gorgeous little niece, and Dan and I will be heading to Puerto Rico next week for a friend's wedding.  It's a bittersweet trip - thrilling to have a tropical vacation despite the Pittsburgh snow, but sad to leave the kids for a special holiday.

I have yet to begin holiday shopping, so this is really going to be the time to hussle up with three family birthday's and Chistmas in the same month!  So thankful for online shopping because I'd speculate 90% of our gifts will be purchased this way!

Also, just a quick note of thanks for your patience and understanding for the more frequent occurrence of sponsored posts lately.  I love that I'm able so be a stay at home mom, and DO love blogging just to record our everyday experiences.  It is so nice though to occasionally partner with a brand (that I do truly love and respect) and earn a few dollars for the time I spend writing, photographing and promoting their post and giveaway.  I know you don't come here for a commercial, but hope you occasionally do learn of a new product you love from my reviews!

I think that's the "quick and dirty" hello - I'm looking forward to posting some new and interesting holiday content very soon!

Julie and Brayden Update: 5 Months

A little late on our five month update, but better late than never! 

Feedings:  Bottle feeding hasn’t changed much in the past month, except that we were instructed by our doctor to try putting 3 T rice cereal in each of Brayden’s bottles to reduce his reflux.  We think it may have helped a bit, but not enough difference to justify all of the rice he was taking in.  We may be discontinuing the rice in the near future.  Hopefully, pushing forward towards solids will give them more of what they need that it’s okay if we loose a few drops here or there.  We’re still doing 1T  of rice in the overnight bottles.  Solid foods are going well – so far, we’ve tried Rice Cereal by spoon, banana, applesauce, peaches, and oatmeal.  If we do cereal, babies are eating about ½ a container each, but could take a whole container if I’d let them.  I’m looking forward to starting to make my own food soon – just have to find the time to buy the equipment.

Daytime: The babes are up most of the day with a few quick naps in the middle.  We try to spend lots of time on our tummy to help Brayden’s Torticollis as well as to encourage Julie to roll over.  Brayden is a rollin’ fool and it hasn’t dawned on Julianna that it’s something she should consider attempting.  I’m not worried that she’s not strong enough, because when she arches her back, she could likely get herself out of her bumbo seat if I’d let her. Feedings are 6am (B) 9am (J and sometimes B), Noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, 11pm  

                    

Nighttime:  We still have the best sleepers in town.  Both are going to sleep around 11, and then sleeping all through the morning.  Brayden does get a bottle with Dan when he leaves, but usually we don’t have babies to play with until around 10 am.  One of my favorite things in the world is Julie’s sleepy pose – with her hands behind her head like a little pinup girl.  Brayen rolls constantly and will no longer sleep on his back.  Of course this makes me a nervous wreck, but I keep trusting what everyone says – that if he can get onto his tummy, he can make sure his airway is safe.  Just thankful to have full nights of sleep (although it still never seems like enough)!

Schedule:  My thoughts that we had a schedule?  The babies were just kidding.  And my plans of waking up at 6:30 each morning to clean?  I was just kidding about that one too. J

6:30 a.m. – 4 oz bottle for Brayden, then back to sleep.

10 a.m. – Julie wakes up for a 5 oz bottle and stays up

11 a.m. – Bubble Guppies and Mike the Knight

Noon – 4 oz/ 5oz bottle and maybe another nap

3 p.m. – 4 oz/ 5oz bottle

4 p.m. – Fussy time for both babies.  We occupy them by being active on the floor, singing songs and playing with puppets.

6 p.m. – 4 oz/ 5oz bottle, plus cereal and some sort of fruit or veg

9 p.m. – 4 oz/ 5oz (Julie typically crashes in her swing at this point)

11:00 p.m. – Bottle and Bedtime

11:15 p.m. – SLEEP

Outings and Events:  I feel like we’re constantly running somewhere these days!  We're always on our way to visit Great-Nanny, head to a doctor's appointment, or to Physical Therapy.  Good thing the babies are good in the car!  We took two big trips this month, to Baltimore for the Preakness race.  We learned the lesson of a lifetime about communication when we realized that the babies suitcase, overpacked full of clothes for every occasion and surprise, had been left in the nursery – four hours away.  After some serious contemplation, I hit the stores and bought enough sleepers and clothing to outfit the babes for the weekend.  The hardest part was finding seersucker (Dan’s fashion requirement for the event) but I luckily was able to find a cute green seersucker dress for Julie and blue seersucker shorts and solid polo for Brayden at Gymboree.  Mamma got a workout jogging through the mall 20 minute before it closed!

We also ventured to Massachusetts for Dan’s cousin Eileen’s wedding.  We had a great time, and the babies were SO well behaved.  We hardly had a peep out of them for the ceremony, and with the exception of a few pterodactyl calls from Julie, all was calm throughout the beautiful event.  The babies met so many of Dan’s cousins, aunt’s and even their Great Great Aunt Jean (who I absolutely love).  It was so nice to spend time with the family, and get away for the weekend.  The long car ride to Albany (where we spent our nights at Dan’s parents) was pretty tolerable, although did have many diaper-change pit stops.  We learned that we’re more flexible than we knew climbing into the backseat between their carseats to feed while the car was still moving, and that we’ll be investing in travel video monitors before our trip to the beach in September.

Milestones:  Brayden is our little “Rolie Polie Olie” and rolls every which way.  Julie still hasn’t showed any interest in rolling, but trying to not worry about her too much.  She is SUCH a verbal child!  She babbles and squeals and smiles all the time.  I can’t believe how different they are!  Brayden has become a little quieter lately, but will occasionally give us a holler, especially when Julianna isn’t around.  Both are doing really great with the baby foods, opening their mouth when the spoon comes their way, and actually getting most of the food in their tummies.  Julie’s a major bubble blower and makes raspberry sounds constantly.  Brayden still giggles all the time.  A few of his favorite things to giggle about are: “Achoo,” “Chopped,” and “beep beep” said in a  low voice.  Julie’s only given a few giggles – usually when hair brushes against her face.  Maybe she’ll be my serious one? 

We’ve started really playing with the exersaucers and the babies love it.  Brayden adores the one we have with a piano under his feet.  He’s totally realized that he can control the sounds and I love watching his face light up with excitement.

I am the luckiest girl in the whole entire world.

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Julie and Brayden Update: 4 Months

Feedings:  Brayden is drinking about 4 ounces of milk, about every three hours during the day and goes about 8 hours without milk overnight.  Julie’s taking 5 ounces every three hours, and goes about 10 hour overnight.  We still do one formula bottle every night and I am back to pumping around every 4 hours.  We’re still doing 1T in the overnight bottles and may be increasing Brayden’s bottle rice intake at the doctor’s direction to help with his reflux.  We’ve also introduced rice cereal by spoon regularly, with each eating about 2 T of rice mixed with milk.  We’ve also introduced baby banana and they share ½ a container when we offer it.  They still have quite a bit of the tongue thrust reflex, but like to lean towards the spoon and get in about half of what we offer. 

Daytime: Babes are spending even more awake time.   They like to get cozy, and sit on our tummies when we’re laying flat, with their back’s on our theighs.  The babies got their first puppets for Easter (a Duck and a Bunny) which they love.  With the bunny we sing Little Bunny FooFoo and the one about a Rabbit in the Wood.   With the Duck, we sing Five Little Ducks (the one “with a feather on his back” and the one that “went out to play over the hill and far away).  Favorite toys include the mesh balls, the Blue Elephant/Yellow Giraffe sensory toys, the Play Gym (now reaching for toys and putting in mouth), and have gotten super active on the bouncy seats.   Feedings are 6am (B) 9am (J and sometimes B), Noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm, 11pm  

                    

Nighttime:  I do realize how lucky I am here – I swear!  I have the best sleeper babies ever…  Nowadays, both babies are going to bed at 11pm, with Brayden waking up around 6am to eat with Dan (sometimes 8ish when not woken)  and Julie sleeping until 9.  Maybe she’ll be a “prompt” person throughout her life, because she ALWAYS wakes up at 9am on the dot!

Schedule:  I think I would say, we officially have a schedule!  Celebrate good times!

6:30 a.m. – 4 oz bottle for Brayden, then back to sleep (Mamma stays up and cleans)

9 a.m. – Julie wakes up for a 5 oz bottle then goes back to sleep.  Sometimes Brayden would like milk too – sometimes not.

11 a.m. – Wakeup for Bubble Guppies and Mike the Knight

Noon – 4 oz/ 5oz bottle and maybe another nap

3 p.m. – 4 oz/ 5oz bottle

4 p.m. – Fussy time for both babies.  We occupy them by being active on the floor, singing songs and playing with puppets.

6 p.m. – 4 oz/ 5oz bottle and Rice Cereal (maybe a little “nanners” too)

9 p.m. – 4 oz/ 5oz (Julie typically crashes in her swing at this point)

11:00 p.m. – Bottle and Bedtime

11:15 p.m. – SLEEP

Outings and Events:  Our babies are still really really good when we go out.  Big trips this month included the babies first “out of state” experience to attend Aunt Megan’s bridal shower in Buffalo, New York.  Both spent the afternoon with Dad and Grandpa Coleman and behaved beautifully.  We also celebrated Easter in all of our Sunday best. 

Milestones:  Both babies are grabbing at things, and are doing much better at strengthening their necks with Tummy Time and sitting up in their Bumbo Seats.  Brayden is wearing some 3-6 month clothes, and Julie is in all 3-6 month clothes.  Brayden has begun rolling over – both from Back to Front and Front to Back.  Way to go little boy!!!  Brayden also likes to giggle when we blow raspberries on his tummy.  Julie loves to play Patty Cake and squeals with happiness.  We joke that the babies sound like “pterodactyls” because of the loud noises they tend to make from time to time.  Julie is an extremely happy baby when she wakes up and very rarely cries. Their eyes are still both blue, so fingers crossed they’ll be staying that way!

Each day with them is truly a joy…

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Julie and Brayden Update: 3 Months

Feedings:  Babies are still drinking about 4 ounces of milk, about every three hours during the day and go about 5-7 hours without milk overnight.  We do one formula bottle every night and I am pumping around every 6 hours.  The midnight bottle still gets about 1 T of rice cereal.  In general, not much has changed with their feeding in the past month, except that Julie occasionally seems to forget how to drink.  She has seemed to stopped with the projectile split-up, which is super.

Daytime: Babes are spending more and more time awake during the day.  This is good for babies, but tough for Mamma.  They’re both pretty pleasant and seem to finally have realized that there’s a second baby in their midst.  Brayden has liked to be held quite a bit lately, and we’re getting better at pacifying them both.  Both babies have discovered their hands, and are able to gnaw on their fingers for a little self soothing.  Favorite toys include the Swing, the Play Gym, the crib animation toy, the Winkle and the Glow Seahorses.  Babies also just got Bumbo seats, have been introduced to their Sophie the Giraffes, and Wubbanubs.   We typically feed around Midnight, 6:00 am, 9 am, noon, 3, 6, and 9.  

Nighttime:  This is the biggest change to report!  Both babies are sleeping in their cribs almost full time.  They are able to be put down while awake, and put themselves to sleep after eating.  The babes rarely wake up in the middle of the night, and are even able to share a crib without disturbing each other.  What HUGE strides we have made this month!

Schedule:  While there’s still not a whole lot of a schedule, we’re getting a little more regular with patterns.  Here’s where we currently stand:

6:30 a.m. – 4 oz bottle, then back to sleep

9 a.m. – 2-3 oz of milk, then back to sleep (Mamma stays up and cleans)

Noon – 4 oz bottle and start the day

3 p.m. – 4 oz bottle and a nap

6 p.m. – 4 oz bottle

9 p.m. – 4 oz bottle (Julie typically crashes in her swing at this point)

11:30 p.m. – Bottle and Bedtime

12:15 a.m. – SLEEP

Outings and Events:  Leaving the house has been made easier with my extension in times between pumping.  I feel like we can leave for more than a three hour stretch!  We have gone to the museum, multiple trips to the grocery store, Grammy’s House, multiple consignment sales and Grove City.  Apparently my babies love to shop because they typically sleep through the entire experience without a peep.  I am one lucky mamma!

Milestones:  Babies are much better at “self soothing” during the night and can put themselves to sleep.  They’ve both discovered their hands and use it instead of a pacifier frequently.  Both seem to have more purposeful smiling, when you enter the room and talk to them.  We’ve begun to outgrow our 0-3 months clothes and fit nicely into 3-6 month outfits.  Brayden’s hair has grown back almost completely!  Julie loves to play in the bathtub and kicks like crazy to splash her mommy.  We’ll often leave her legs uncovered which she loves to give her kicks.  We’re finally getting past the “colic” stage and hopefully by next month will be done with nightly crying sessions completely.   

Julie and Brayden Update: 2 Months

I am stealing this idea from another twin mom blogger, Mandy at The Fabulous Baby Striblings - tracking certain things each month in an update to see how my little ones are progressing.  One of my biggest regrets in mommyhood so far is not taking an official "One Month" picture (although we did take tons of pictures) so we're a little behind.  We'll catch up for sure though. :-)

Feedings:  Babies are drinking about 4 ounces of milk, about every three hours (with the exception of our recent overnight improvements).  We do one formula bottle every night as well, and mamma is still exclusively pumping every four hours.  We've just started adding one tablespoon of rice cereal to our midnight bottle which seems to be helping extend the midnight hour just a bit.  We've given up on overcoming the frequent spitups and don't really bother with the Zantac since it didn't seem to help, nor do the babies seem to be in pain.  The doctor's perspective is that the breast milk is probably worth it to hang in there and keep our "spitty babies."

Daytime: The babies still spend most of the day snoozing away, but will sit contently in the swing, or in the bunny chair on the kitchen table for stretches of time.  Brayden especially loves the "play gym" on the floor where he can look in the mirror and kick the whale hanging by his feet.  Julie enjoys tummy time, although we need to work at finding more time for this.  A favorite game we play is "buzzy bee" where I pretend the bee is buzzing and lands on them.  Julie loves to follow my fingers!  Favorite toys include the Swing, the Play Gym, the crib animation toy, the Winkle and the Glow Seahorses.  We typically feed around Midnight, 5 am, 9 am, noon, 3, 6, and 9.  As the picture shows, Julie still sleeps a LOT.  Probably around 15+ hours a day?  It's great to catch her when she's awake though. :-)

Nighttime:  We're finally getting a good stretch overnight where we get five+ solid hours of sleep.  The babies don't like to sleep in their cribs - at all - and so we're co-sleeping with one sleeping with Grammy in the guest room, and one in our bed.  Hopefully we'll be making some improvements here soon.  Our biggest problem is that because the babies won't sleep in their cribs, we can't put them to bed until we're in bed -which means midnight (especially since I have to pump as well).  If we'd move their bedtime back to, say - 10:00, we'd be back to feeding at 3 am.  It may not be the best plan of action, but this is "working" for the time being.

Schedule:  There really is no schedule.  This is rough and certainly not a recommendation to any other parents out there...  Yes, I realize to some, this looks like a wild mess - but, for us, it's the best choice for the moment.
5-6 a.m.: Bottle then back to sleep(Dan feeds whoever is in our bed, Grammy feeds whoever is in her bed, Heather pumps)
9ish am: Bottle then back to sleep
11ish am: Wake Up, change, and start the day.  Typically the babies spend some awake time here until their next bottle.
Noonish: Bottle
3ish: Bottle then typically some more sleep
6ish: Bottle
9ish: Bottle - then colicky crying time
11:30: Get ready for bed, then bottle
12:30 a.m.: Feed and Sleep

Outings and Events:  So far we have ventured out on numerous occasions to the doctors office, multiple trips to Target, a visit to TJ Maxx, the scrapbooking store and the craft stores (Grammy's favorite).  Brayden has had two "lunch dates," once with my former co-workers at Buffalo Wild Wings, and once with Grammy and her friend Charlene.  We've also all gone out to visit Great-Pap at Aunt Kim's House and Great-Nanny at the Assisted Living facility.  One of our most memorable experiences was Julie's diaper explosion at the Scrapbook store that left us on the ground with a blanket, and ended in her spending the rest of the afternoon pantsless.  What an adventure!
 We do try to make frequent outings out of the house (for our sanity and mom's practice), but those are pretty difficult maneuvers.  Typically, I pump, we dress the babies, then feed the babies, and by now - an hour and a half has gone by and it'll quickly be time to pump again.  I'll try to pump again right before we leave to extend the time we're able to be away.  This typically works, except when babies spit all over their outfits and need changed again before we leave, and have empty tummies that need re-fed.  There have been days, we just give up and stay home.

Milestones:  The babies are both right on track for their milestones according to the doctor.  Julie has an exceptionally strong neck, and can turn from side to side while on her tummy.  Both are pretty strong overall!  Brayden's great at following things with his eyes.  Both babies have begun smiling a lot the past few weeks and are generally very pleasant during the day.  They've also begun "talking" to things like the birds hanging above their bunny seat and swing, the crib animation, themselves in the mirror and family.

We're so enjoying this special time!