It has begun.

It has officially begun.  Levi wanted the toy William was playing with.  He rolled over to William and took it out of Williams hands and William began to cry.  Levi is now pounding the toy into the ground.  Happy Tuesday!

The boys are growing right before my eyes.  The other day I was looking at their toes and realized they were three times larger than when they were born.  Now when I hold them their heads will rest on my shoulder and their feet are touching my lap.  How does this growth happen so fast? sigh.

Well the boys are rolling a lot.  William finally rolled from back to his tummy on October 11 and I missed it.  He was on the floor laying on the activity pad and I was about to walk out of the room for a minute when he suddenly rolled to his side like he does often.  But he just seemed so close this time to rolling so I stopped to watch but he didn't.  He rolled to his back again and kept on playing.  I felt like he could have done it but he just needed to figure out to lift his head up and then he would just finish rolling the rest of the way.  So later in the evening he was laying on the floor and my mom and I were watching tv.  She looked down at William and exclaimed that he had rolled over.  I looked down and sure enough he was on his tummy.  He was right in front of me and I missed seeing it!  I was so disappointed and yet so excited.  But he has been rolling easily since then.

Levi is so quick about rolling from one end of the room to the other.  Although I have noticed that he rolls to his left the majority of the time.  He sure thinks he is hot stuff because he can get places.

William has a couple of tricks.  He likes to make himself cough.  I call him my little faker.  His other thing is to arch his back while he is laying face up.  He balances himself on the very back of his head and either his butt or sometimes his feet.  He looks like a bridge.  He can stay in that position for quite a while too.  He likes to spit or try whistling while he does this.  That child makes me laugh at his silly antics.  He really is quite a character.

A few weeks ago Levi was sitting on the potty and surprised me by pooping.  Yay.  But the celebration has been short lived.  He actually has regressed and will not go on the potty for me anymore.  He hasn't for at least a couple of weeks.  I have given up on him and have concentrated on William.  William will sometimes pee on the potty.  He still hasn't given any signs to say he needs to go but he definitely has signs to say that he is dirty and does not like it.  This is a good thing.  I see it as progress and when he figures out that he can avoid dirty pants all together I think it will be a fairly easy transition for him.  I hope.

I see the failure with Levi as my own fault.  My wrists are so weak that it is hard for me to consistent from day to day.  One day I can be on top of it but then the next day my wrists hurt and are so weak that I can barely hold onto them.  I end up taking two or three days off to let my wrists recover.  It doesn't help that they are so big and heavy now and Levi is so wiggly and strong that it makes it even more challenging for me to hold onto him with such weak wrists.  I guess he prefers peeing in his diaper for now.  I'm kicking myself for not starting them when they were only a few weeks old.  But it is what it is.

We have been adding foods to the diet the last few weeks and this week the boys have been doing very well with eating their pureed foods.  So far they have had oatmeal, apples, peas, carrots and sweet potatoes.  Levi loves peas and isn't so sure about the apples.  He scrunches up his nose and wiggles like he just got the chills.  William loves the apples and is not a fan of the peas.  Next week I think we will try adding barley and chicken to the menu.

There is a consequence to changing their diet however.  Yes, you guessed it.  The diaper changing experience has gotten a lot more interesting.  Stinkier and more colorful.  :-)  In spite of the dirty chores I still call this the best job I have ever had.

mommy issues

Yesterday evening the boys were laying on the floor near each other.  William was on his back and Levi on his tummy facing William.  Levi was fussy and would start to cry for a few seconds and then stop then start and stop.  William was watching his brothers face and eventually when Levi would start to cry the corners of Williams mouth would turn down, the lower lip would pucker out and his chin would start to quiver.  When Levi stopped so would William.  After a few times William actually started to cry with Levi.  So funny and so cute.  Mom and I were cracking up over it.

The boys love each other.  They get excited when the see each other.  They smile, laugh and hold hands or grab and pull at each others clothing.  I am just waiting for one of them to grab his brothers pacifier and stick it in his mouth.

Levi rolls over all the time now.  He rolls back to tummy so easily and knows when he wants to do it he can.  Rolling from tummy to back is still a little hard for him.  He can do it but it happens more by chance than anything.  He knows when he wants to roll that way but can't quite remember how.

William still hasn't rolled over completely.  But he sure knows how to get around anyway.  I guess I should say that he is rolling from back to tummy...mostly.  It is his shoulder that prevents him from going all the way.  But he sure whips that body back and forth and wiggles all over the floor.  I keep having to move him back to his starting position so that he doesn't disappear under a rocker or some other furniture.

William has been dealing with a cold this week.  I made a nest in my bed and he slept there for a couple of nights to keep his head elevated.  Worked great too.  This is my son who thinks naps are for sissies and I'm lucky if I get two twenty minute naps out of him in a day.  But for two days he slept a lot.  So much so that I worried about him getting dehydrated and I would have to wake him up to change his diaper and feed him.  He would lay on the changing station and sleep and then keep his eyes closed through feeding.  Perhaps this is mean to say but I really enjoyed my sick baby.  So when Levi went down for his naps I had a lot of time to get some things done around the house.  I even vacuumed.  It was awesome.  William still has stuffiness in his nose and he still hates when I have to clear it out but he is feeling like his old self again.  He's back to his twenty minute naps and I'm back to not getting much accomplished.  One advantage to his stuffed nose is that it makes it difficult for him to yell just to hear his voice for extended periods of time.  So for the time being there is peace in the house.  :)

As for the potty training.  It started out great and now not so much.  I know it is because there hasn't been a lot of consistency.  I admit there are times when I should put them on the potty but my wrists just don't have the strength in them to do it all day long.  It's discouraging for me.  I worry that I am sending them mixed messages.  I think that I am going to concentrate on one baby at a time.  If I start with Levi and get him used to it and figure out his signals for when he has to go then it will be less strain on my wrists and more consistency for him.  Then I can start with William and hopefully it will go a little easier because I'm sure I will learn some tricks while working with Levi.

Right now I am trying to figure out if Levi has any signals and to do this I have a large plastic pad on the floor that he can roll around naked or at least without his diaper.  Each time he pees I will see it right away and then hopefully I will see a behavioral pattern emerge from observing him.  So far I'm not seeing any cues but he at least loves to be naked.  Typical boy.

Right now Levi is going through the mommy attachment phase.  He always has to be looking for me and would prefer being in my arms or at least have me looking into his eyes.  I love it....for now.  I try to soak it up because I know all to soon he will be wanting to squirm out of my lap and run as far from me as possible.  But for now he loves nothing better than to be squirming around on my lap.  It's the mommy  jungle gym.  I lay him on his back with his legs going up my tummy and chest and his head laying on my knees.  It gives him a whole new view of his world.  Then he loves to push on my tummy and it makes him about shoot off my lap.  Then he lays there with his head hanging over my knees.  He loves it.  It puts him an a great position for tickling too.  He has the best giggle.

The last couple of evenings I have been having a difficult time getting him to go to bed on his own.  He wants me to hold him in a certain position so that he can snuggle me and fall asleep.  And it has to be mommy holding him; if it is someone else he will just squirm and fuss.  It's cute but not convenient.

Actually, I have been having trouble getting both of them to go to bed at a decent time.  They want to stay up until ten or eleven and I'm not okay with this.  I'm tired and I don't want to stay up.  I keep telling myself to enjoy the moments because all to soon they will be grown up and off doing their own thing.

Rolling Sniffles

Levi rolled from back to front today.  And then kept on doing it.   Way to go my little man!  I'm so excited that he gets it.  It will be fun to watch him when he realizes that he can keep on rolling to get where he wants to go.

When he rolled the first time today I almost missed it.  He was laying on the activity pad and I was about to walk into the other room for a minute and then I noticed he was on his side with his hips way over nearly flat to the ground.  So I stopped and waited and sure enough he pulled his shoulder out from under himself and he was tummy to the ground.  I was so happy that I cheered him and he turned his head toward me and gave me a big smile.

I forgot to mention in my last post that we have also started learning some sign language.  Hopefully it will help communicate their needs for food or the potty.  I am using American Sign Language so it can be useful for them even when they are older.  Hopefully we can keep up with it and we will become fluent enough to communicate with the deaf in needed. :)

William seems to be coming down with a cold or at the very least some congestion and a bit of a cough.  He HATES it when I have to clear his nose out.  Talk about screaming bloody murder.  I feel bad for him though.  Aside from those moments he has been such a good boy today.  Smiles and snuggles.  He's been the little boy that I have been missing for the last couple of weeks.  Love him so.  I have a nest in my bed made up with an incline so that hopefully it will help him with the nasal congestion and to get some good rest tonight.  I hope.

It's potty time!

So back when I was pregnant with Arawynn I went to a class called Pee Speak and it is about potty training your infant.  The woman started training her daughter at 3 weeks of age.  Incredible huh?  Anyway, my goal was to start potty training with her right away.  But we all know things didn't go the way we all expected it to and I never got the chance to try.  So when the boys arrived I decided to try it when they turned  three months.  If I wasn't having twins I would have made an earlier goal but realistically I just knew I would be to exhausted to start any earlier.  Unfortunately my life has been in chaos with trying to get moved out of my house and I have kept putting it off week after week.  I kept saying I would start once I finished moving out.  Well I'm still not done moving and I'm sick of delaying this process.

Early this week a friend of mine commented on how her grandson is five months and is doing well with potty training.  I guess it sparked a fire in me to stop waiting and just get started already.  So I did...that same day.  Levi peed on the potty three times and the next day William did it twice and Levi once.  It has been going well so far.  I admit I am going through more diapers right now just because I change them so frequently but in the long run it will save me lots of laundry.  So September 25 the boys officially started potty training and they are just shy of five months.  I hope I can have them fully trained before they turn one.  Can it be done?  We shall all see.  (p.s. thanks Roxanne!)

William using the potty.

Both boys have been starting to notice each other over the last two weeks and in the past week they have been smiling and staring at each other a lot.  I have even gotten them face to face and they try to eat each other, sorta.  Sometimes they get downright excited to see each other.  If I lay them down next to each other they grab each others hands, face, clothes or whatever they can manage to get a hold of.  I can't let them get to close if I lay them on my bed for a nap because then they just reach for each other instead of napping.

The other big excitement of the week is that Levi has discovered his feet and loves to grab his toes or pull his socks off.  Today Levi rolled from his tummy to his back four times!  This was his first time and he keeps on rolling.  I think Levi is really close to being able to roll from back to his tummy.  William still hasn't rolled over since the 14th.  Maybe he decided it was overrated.

The boys can now start eating some solids.  They had carrots earlier this week and I know that they swallowed some of it because I saw it come out the other end.  Then today they had sweet potatoes.  Levi did okay eating.  He pushed a lot of the food back out but he ate some of it.  He didn't get any funny expressions on his face but William sure did.  He lips and nose would curl up and you could tell he was thinking he didn't like it very well.  But he sure ended up eating quite a bit.  I bet Levi got down a teaspoon and William probably 1.5 teaspoons.  William also drank some apple cider with his meal.  They are both getting really good about drinking from a cup and they are really starting to get the sipping and swallowing idea down.  The boys certainly know what a cup is for and they are ready for it when it starts coming towards their mouths.

William eating carrots.

Levi eating his carrots.  Actually spitting it out.

On a mommy note, I could use some prayers about my wrists.  All of the repetitious movements of changing diapers, feeding, holding, burping, potty training and washing bottles has worn the ligaments in my wrists.  They have been so worn out from overuse that I have lost a lot of strength in them, especially my left one.  I have a lot of discomfort and some pain with them.  I have been trying to put as much use and weight onto my forearms when I can so that my wrists get a break but it only helps so much.  I guess I am concerned that this may lead to carpal tunnel and quite frankly I just don't want it.  I am of the stubborn opinion that I have been through enough stuff that I don't need to add that to my list of problems.  Unfortunately the pain and achiness makes it hard to ignore.   Is this what getting old is like?  It sucks.

lil' Levi

Just as the shirt suggests, "This is what handsome looks like"

William is sweetest when he is asleep.

"my walker is pretty cool"

my little pterodactyl

William has a characteristic that he has honed from cute and tolerable into loud and aggravating.

He has earned the name of Pterodactyl because he likes to make noises from deep in his throat.  I imagine that this is what a pterodactyl would sound like, hence the nickname.  Unfortunately, the volume and frequency has drastically been intensified today.  All afternoon and evening and yes even now at 10pm he is still going on.  I'm still laughing...kinda.  I admit it's annoying and I'm trying not to get angry with him.  I swear he is going to bother all of the neighbors and they may be knocking at our door any moment.

Adding to this annoyance is the fact that he has been pinching me really hard and pulling my hair.  It really flippin' hurts.  It's a good thing grandma just took him and is trying to rock him to sleep.  Although grandma is more tired than mommy because she has been caring for the boys these past two days while mommy suffers with the flu.  Ugh.  I couldn't have made it through these last two days without her.

Tuesday I went to the doctor to get a vaccination for tetanus and pertussis based on the recommendation of the pediatrician.  I was also to get the flu vaccine but my doctor office isn't doing them this year for some unknown reason.  After getting the shot the nurse said I would experience some muscle soreness for a few days.  No big deal right?

Wrong.  3:30 in the morning I awoke to not only muscle soreness but also severe chills, shakes and a headache.  It was awful.  I took the ibuprofen which didn't help.  Later in the morning I called the doctor office to ask what was the maximum ibuprofen to take.  I was feeling so bad I was crying on the phone and the woman said she would have a nurse call me.  At one point I found the thermometer and took my temperature, 101.3 and that was two hours after taking the ibuprofen.  That afternoon the nurse called and I explained what the effects of the vaccination was having on me and she said that it wasn't the vaccination but I had the flu.  So, I went to the doctor healthy and left there with the flu.  Really?!?

Anyway, I am feeling vastly better than I did this morning and yesterday.  I wanted to snuggle the boys so much but I knew that I couldn't so that I didn't pass it onto them.  So far they have not shown signs of the flu.  Let's keep it that way.  Levi has been all smiles when he looks at me and it makes my heart melt.  I think his smiles help me heal too.

Weights, Whinery and Wiley William

So it's been exciting here the last couple of days.  Monday the boys went in for their four month check.  Levi weighed in at 15 lbs and William at 14.  Levi may have William beat by a whole pound but William is still longer by a quarter inch (23.5 and 23.75 inches).  Doc said they were doing great and he gave mommy an A+.  He paid me a compliment too.  He said he can tell I was going to be a great mother because I was laid back, calm and didn't get worked up about little things.  I said that once you lose one child everything else seems trivial and he quite agreed.

So while we were waiting in the room waiting for the doctor to come in I had laid William on the table and Levi was sitting in his cars eat.  The second William touched the table his legs and arms started going like a tap dancer.  I think he loved the crinkly sound of the paper because he just went on and on dancing.  After a couple of minutes watching and laughing at him I looked over at Levi and that kid was trying to squirm, or should I say escape his way out of the car seat.  It just made me laugh even harder.  He was in his orange diaper and that chubby little tummy of his was wiggling all over the place.  He was so far down in the seat that his legs were sticking way out and kicking the other car seat that was setting opposite of him.  They have come a long ways from being newborns.

So the boys had a series of shots and Levi was not a happy camper about it.  He thought the world was ending.  I was expecting William to act the same but surprisingly he did much better.  He cried when he got poked but once the nurse picked him up and held him he was completely fine.  I was still trying to calm Levi down and he didn't settle until I put him the car.  It was not a pleasant evening.  Levi was very agitated and crabby all evening.  I finally gave him some tylenol when he felt warm and feverish and he finally went to bed about ten.  William was somewhat cranky too and he wouldn't go down until 10:30 and that was after a lot of coaxing.  I finally had to lay in my bed with him and hold onto him while he squirmed and completely wore himself out.  He was still whining as he drifted off.  I let him lay there until midnight and then moved him to his crib.  In the morning Levi was back to his old happy self but William was a super cranky baby all day long.  He was a constant barrage of whinery, and not the tasty kind.  Thankfully he crashed early last night and was in bed about 7:30.

So this morning Doug got Levi up and dressed him in a Michigan onesie.  So of course when I got William up and dressed I put him in the Michigan State onesie.  Doug did not approve.  Anyway, Doug fed Levi in the dinning room and I sat with William in the living room.  William was playing with the bottle and since he wasn't interested in food I laid him on his tummy on the floor.  He looked around for a minute or two and then, ploop, he rolled over with what seemed no effort.  I screamed just as Doug walked into the room with Levi.  He missed seeing it by 1 second.  I rolled William back onto his tummy and hoped he would do it again but he didn't.  Maybe later today.  It was a fabulous first anyway.  The irony in this is that I was imagining him rolling over and that I should go get my camera to record some video.  Who knows I might catch his first roll over on video....so much for that happening.  Now that William has beat Levi in the "who will roll over first" contest, will this be a prediction as to who is going to win the Michigan vs. Michigan State game?

And while William was rolling over I missed taking a call from my dad but I called him back right away.  Apparently two ducks had just flown through his front, two-paned picture window.  So I walked over there with my camera so he could take pictures for his insurance.  There was glass everywhere and he shooed them outside before he saw the blood on his couch.  So there is an injured duck out there somewhere.  I hope he ends up being okay.