Celia's Firsts and Nicholas' Angry-face

Celia has her first tooth!!! Finally. Her lower left tooth came in on Saturday (we think). Her tooth on the right is just about through as well. She is also pulling to stand a lot! Today she would crawl up behind me and pull up holding on to my pants and she would pull to stand at the couch too. She is getting so big!

We also taught her to stand with us supporting her waist and we say "put your hands down" and she will put her hands down on the floor and tuck her head and we help her do a somersault. :) Nicholas can do it too, but he doesnt tuck his head so it is a bit more awkward looking. :)




Nicholas also has started making his angry-face. When he isnt happy he clenches his hands into fists and makes his mean face and gets all red. It is soooo funny. Sometimes he does it when he is in a good mood and he is being silly, but other times when you move him from someplace he wants to be or take something away from him he just clenches those fists and makes that face. I caught a mildly angry-face today. I just laugh every time I see it. Poor kid is trying to get across his feelings and Mommy is laughing.

Here comes angry face....



He looks so funny with the one tooth. It almost looks like it is dead-center in his mouth.



This weekend we took them in their little sleds again. We were at Grandma and Grandpa Velicer's again this weekend so we could visit Jason's sister Lori from Minnesota. Lori and Jeff have two children - Kaylee and Andrew. Andrew is in the pictures playing outside while the twins were sledding. There is a lot less snow where Jason's parents live than at our house so the sleds glided along easier than at our house. You can see the "Green Bay" of Lake Michigan in the background (the vast white sheet of ice and snow).

Its Kaput

It's snowing again!!!! Here is our bush outside our front window:





The washer is done (as in for life). It would be $450 or more to repair and not really worth it according to the service guy. So, we are in the market for a new washer. We are kind of liking the Whirlpool Cabrio Top-loader (which is also high-efficiency, just not a front loader). I like how front-loaders clean, but the moldy smell you get from them is frustrating. Top loaders don't have an area where the water can sit and get yucky smelling due to gravity.

I am also in the market for the Bissell Steam mop. I read great reviews on them. Just add water, heats to steam in less than a minute and you mop away. Just throw the pad in the washer and reuse. no chemicals or cleaning supplies. Cleans tile, laminate, vinyl....
I am constantly spot-cleaning and washing the floors from food, snowy feet, etc and this would be great! I am hoping Home Depot has one when we look at washers.

The babies slept better last night. Celia didnt wake up at all and Nicholas woke 1x. I gave him oragel and rocked him and he slept through. Then they woke up at 7am. By 9:15 they were taking their 2nd nap until 10:45. Then then took their 2nd nap at 1:30. They just need to catch up on sleep.
Nicholas' 2nd tooth is right there. It is either all the way through or there is a tiny bit of gums covering it. Celia is in a lot of discomfort today so her teeth must be close (hers are harder to check). I gave her Motrin during the day today (usually I give her tylenol during the day).
At lunch she was grabbing her mouth and whimpering so I knew it was the teeth. So I remembered I had frozen bagel pieces and they LOVED gumming the cold bagel on their teeth. It turns to mush so they can eat it too. It seemed to make her happy. They like that better than teething rings or teething biscuits. At least something helps.
And THANK you Mom for coming over and rubbing my back/shoulders. :) It is so appreciated!
Here are some long-awaited pictures:
Sledding pictures from about 2 weeks ago... Dont they look miserable! :)
One of their new toys from Christmas. It is a Discovery Toy. I must say they seem to like this. They play with it quite a bit. They dont know how to pound the balls through, but they like to set them up on the holes and push them to roll down the tube.
Silly Nicholas picture:

What a cutie!
I had the best picture of Celia taken this morning but I accidentally deleted it from my camera. :( booooooo!

A Bad Bad Day

Beware - Major whining below.....
Ugh! Today was a day where you just want every problem to go away so you can crawl into bed and read!
My Mom graciously watched the babies so Jason and I could head to Babies r us (45 min away) to look for some more safety items and also pick up some gifts from my sister's registry (her baby is due in a few weeks). So we headed to the store, spent a lot of time looking around. There were great sales and of course our cart filled up quickly: a gate for my parents' house, a shower gift, a mobile for my sister (she knows about it), clothes for the twins at 30% off, safety items, formula, cleaning supplies (had coupons).....
So the bill rang up higher than we wanted to see. :( Boo!
So as we are wrapping the shower gifts with their free gift wrap, we look over our bill to see why it was so much and notice some things rang up too much. It took about 45 min total to check out and return the mispriced items and then recheck out.
We were both "short" with each other (sorry Jason) because it has just been a stressful week.
Once we got home the babies woke from nap and they were both cranky all evening. Finally I bathe them and then we are getting bottles ready and we hear a loud awful noise from the basement (washer drum - its an HE washer- is hanging inside and broken).
So then we figure to just feed the babies and put them to bed so we can look at the washer. So Nicholas drinks 8oz and Celia drinks about 5 oz and I grab Celia's leftover bottle since Nicholas still is hungry. Right when he finishes he pukes it all over my lap, chair, floor, himself (just had a bath). So as I am changing him, then he pees on the carpet.
Finally we get them to bed and look at the washer and realize it is broke pretty bad??
Appliance repair has closed just less than an hour prior so we have to wait until tomorrow to even book an appointment.
so Jason and I wring all the clothes out by hand so they can be dried. However, since we use cloth diapers, we have a bin full of dirty diapers (luckily my parents let us run the diapers to wash at their house so they dont stink to high-heaven by the time the washer is fixed).
So finally at 9pm we eat dinner (first meal of the day for both of us).
The babies have been sleeping awful since the last weekend. They are both waking up a lot and crying. I am hoping both of their teeth come through soon. nicholas wants to sleep in our bed too. And my upper back, neck and shoulders are aching so much from lifting the babies that I havent been sleeping well.
Lets hope tomorrow gets better. :(

Guess who likes Rediwhip?

This morning I was making them scrambled eggs for breakfast and I grabbed the ingrediants out of the fridge and when it was closing Nicholas grabbed the Rediwhip out. I figured I would just keep an eye on them. Soon the cap was being passed back and forth between them and the next thing they figured out was if they suck on the nozzle some yummy whipped topping comes out!


Also we are somehow on straw-cups! I think they made this unusually easy on me transitioning them away from bottles. Someone mentioned these straw-cups on my twins board and so we tried them and they really like them. Maybe because it is a sucking action like a bottle? Anyway they have milk in their cups during meals and water in-between. They are given a bottle before bed, but they have only been taking a couple oz at that time.

Grandma and Grandpa Velicer's Christmas

The babies were great on the car ride up to G&G Velicer's. They pretty much slept the whole time. We left when it was about 15 min until their naptime so they would just dose off when they were sleepy...and it worked!
On Friday night the babies went in the hot tub (though we turn the temperature down for them). I think they had 1/2 the water on the floor (just kidding).
Look at Celia's expression!


Also they found Grandma's Organ and loved playing gently (they didnt hammer the keys) on the organ.
Grandma Velicer with Nicholas, Celia and Jason


On Saturday Aunt Julie, Cousin Heather and Uncle Dave, Aunt Brenda, and their boys (their cousins) Brian and Matthew also visited. Matthew and Heather entertained Nicholas and Celia by playing with them so nicely. :) They make a nice babysitting team!
Aunt Julie with Celia
Matthew, Heather and Nicholas
Celia was a big flirt with everyone too! She sure knows how and when to use that smile!
We left at about 9:00 Sunday morning to avoid the worst part of a winter storm that was hitting Wisconsin (Yes....ANOTHER winter storm- this is the winter of SNOW). It was slow-moving on for about 45 min due to high winds, blowing snow and black ice. But, after the first 45 min then the roads were better since we were out of the storm.



We had a nice time! And they napped great all the way home too!
The only problem was they cried and cried both nights! We even took out bottles thinking they were thirsty - but that really wasnt the problem. I think they were just so used to their own room that it was different waking up in a new place because the minute we would pick them up they were fine. And there wasnt enough room for them to sleep with us, so they had to sleep in their pack n play's. It was a rough couple nights indeed! Luckily this morning (Monday) they slept until 8am! What a nice gift to Mom and Dad!

on our way...

I didnt realize how behind I am this week with blogging! We've been so busy and today we are packing up to drive to Grandma and Grandpa Velicer's house. The last couple trips have included a lot of fussing and crying during the drive, so our fingers are crossed that this trip (and next weekend's) are better.

On a new note - they are both doing very well drinking from the cups with straws. They will not drink formula from the cups, but they will drink goats milk from it. Perhaps they associate the formula with a bottle? I tasted the goats milk - yuck. Tastes like a goat to me. However, I wouldnt drink a cup of breastmilk or formula, so this isnt any different than that I suppose. They will eventually drink regular cows milk I'm sure, but for now I guess we are giving this a go.

We will be leaving soon. Wish us luck. :) They LOVE going in the hot tub and Grandma and Grandpa Velicer's house - so that will be fun!

I am going to get replaced by a Goat

Well, I didnt get to my initial goal of 12 months pumping, but I made it to 11 months, which isnt too shabby. I gradually decreased pumping from my highest 7x a day, to 6x, 5x, 4x, 3x, 2x, and then a couple days of 1x a day. So it was a gentle decrease on my body which is easier physically and mentally (there are also hormones going on there too that you dont want to mess around with too drastically).
I am glad I was able to give them mother's milk for 10 full months without supplementing and then supplementing from 10-11 months. There are a few bags of frozen milk left that I still giving them, so they have a few more bottles left.
We are pricing and researching which type of milk to wean them onto now that they are nearing on the big first birthday. I am leaning towards Goats milk since it is the closest in nature to human milk. There are a lot of benefits to goats milk too. Babies who have a sensitivity or allergy to cows milk can benefit as well.

Here are a few links (sorry cut and paste)
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=131

http://www.abundalife.com/goats.asp

After they wake up from their WONDERFUL 2 hour and 10 min nap (I hear rustling in there) they will have lunch and then I think we will go to Sendicks (a really nice grocery store) to price and look at Goats Milk.

Crazy hair

Just a couple pictures of Nicholas' post-bath hair. I wish it would stay curly-ish like this for longer than 20 min . :) He is getting so much hair- he will need a trim soon enough to keep his bangs out of his eyes. I think that is all I will trim though - not a full haircut.

p.s. Celia napped from 1:45 - 4:30 today!! She had me worried. I kept going in her room and making sure she was breathing. She never sleeps this long! She woke up hungry and happy. :) She is teething and she has been pretty good. Nothing a little Tylenol and Orajel can't fix. It seems tylenol works really well for her , whereas Motrin seems to work better for Nicholas. Who knows - maybe its all in my head. lol

Jason is on his way to pick us up some juicy burgers for dinner. We had dinner planned -Salmon with green beans, but then we both had a craving for the burgers. Salmon will wait until tomorrow.

Christmas Lights

Jason worked hard to decorate our house with Christmas lights. :) AND we have soooo much snow! We are supposed to get more this weekend. It seems every Saturday we get more snow. :)

Yesterday Nicholas was tired because he took a short morning nap. So he tuckered out a little before his afternoon nap. I had Jason take a picture to show how big he is when I am holding him. But...he still feels like my little baby to me. ITs not until you hold a smaller baby that you realize how much your own have grown. He is walking holding on to things now. Today he was standing up holding on to the refridgerator. He really wants to walk!

Celia is just such a quick learner. She is already working on stacking blocks! Grandma Maus was playing with her and trying to help her stack - and she did a few by herself! I think she is a very smart little girl!

We will post pictures from our sledding fun soon. :)

The Excer-table and Nicholas long-legs

We changed the Excersaucer into the final stage - the Table. They were only spending maybe 10 min tops in it everyday (combined) and were pulling up on the outside of it, so this made sense.
They seem to really like it - but I think the best toys in the house are the kitchen chairs. lol



Also, while they were eating lunch today I just really can see how longggggg Nicholas' legs are. Taking after his tall Daddy, Uncle Matthew, Grandpas and other tall men on both sides of the family. He can fit into 18 mos clothing (a little baggy, but he can wear them) already. Our friend took her daughter to her 12 mos appt and the Dr said her daughter was in the 75% for height, and Nicholas is probably 2 or 3 inches taller than her daughter. I wonder how long he actually is??

Also, I steamed them beets for lunch and they LOVED them. Funny. But, atleast we have another meal they like!

Back off on the whole wheat noodles...

The last few days I have been feeding them whole wheat rotini noodles with pesto sauce. They really like it. Well, I think Nicholas' digestive system has had enough of them. I thought he was uncomfortable teething, but yesterday he was tooting a lot. i think he is uncomfortable with all the gas buildup from the whole wheat (that happened to me once too). It can really hurt.
So last night I gave him Colic Ease (helps with digestion too) and he slept wonderfully. Not a peep until 7am. No moaning or anything. He had woken up 3x from 7pm to 10pm and was tooting. But, I thought about the noodles and then remembered the colic ease before I went to bed and I gave it to him without him waking up and I think it helped a lot.
So, We are going to give him a break on the whole wheat.
Poor guy!

Double Teething

Yesterday they were both a little 'off'. I can tell they are uncomfortable with teeth on the way. Nicholas wakes up at night and moans and moans in his crib. So then I go to him and the last two nights he has ended up sleeping with us a couple hours. I ended up giving him tylenol in the middle of the night because I could tell when the motrin I gave them at bedtime wore off.

Celia has been sleeping decently, but when she wakes up at night she just needs some oragel and a nuk and she lays back down and goes to sleep.

They are both using their tongues to play with the incoming teeth too. So they look like little puppies crawling around playing with their tongues. :)

Neither of them like the cold teething rings. They will chew on a raw thick cold carrot (peeled and washed), cold wash clothes, etc. But, mostly like to chew on their fingers. :)

Don't babies get like 20 baby teeth or something?? So if Nicholas has 1 tooth, only 39 to go. :(

Cleaning and Snow

These two are so excited about any cleaning tool - vacuum, spot cleaner, broom, etc. :)
They squeal with excitement and crawl towards the cleaning item when I get it out and then cry when I put them away. :) The Bissell 'Little Green' steam cleaner is their favorite thing to crawl up to and hold on. Maybe I need to clean more often??? hmmmmm....




Today we got MORE snow. While Daddy was snowblowing they were crawling to the patio door. :) Jason was tossing snow at the door and they were having fun watching him. Celia has been a 'Daddy's girl' lately when he is home. She gives him LOTS of kisses. :)

I think he said his first word!

I THINK Nicholas said 'Ball' today like 3x in a row! I have thought in the past couple weeks that he has said it a few times and today I REALLY think he did. I was rolling balls to Celia and Nicholas and he said "Bah Bah Bah" (kind of a soft ball-like word). I tried to get him to say it again, but he didn't. This is the 2nd or 3rd time I have been pretty sure he has said 'Ball' and each time has been when he is playing with the balls. Funny thing is that was my first word when I was about his age too (according to my baby book). :)

Playing Soccer

Both of them were playing 'soccer' on sunday in the livingroom and kitchen. One would push the soccer ball and they would both crawl towards it and hit it again. :)






And! Nicholas is cruising a lot now. He can walk to his left around this leap frog table. But...as I am typing this he is crusing up and down the couch. :) Amazing that they just learned to crawl a few weeks ago and they are already starting to cruise. Celia is very cautious of falling (scares her) so she is happy to kneel at toys instead of stand. So for now, Nicholas is the cruiser.

He KISSED her!

This is soooo cute!
Celia was crying at my pant-leg (I was almost done with washing bottles and was singing to her to give me a minute to finish). Nicholas came over and was sitting there looking at her and clinging to my other leg (I was trapped).
He was holding some links that were linked together and he held them out to her. Then he opened his mouth and KISSED her on her cheek!!!! For REAL!!! He wasn't just trying to lick her head like he does sometimes. :)
IT was A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E .
I sat down and hugged them both it was just so sweet. Then he crawled away like nothing had happened.

She was fussy because her tooth was hurting her and she had pooped her pants. So I changed them both, popped in a 'Baby Einstein' movie, pulled the rocking chair up to in front of the TV, held them both and rocked them while they watched the movie. After 20 min they were both falling asleep so I put them in their cribs for nap and they've been napping almost an hour now.
My house was a mess but it was so nice to sit and rock them both for 20 minutes and snuggle.

The Sky Angel Cowboy

This was passed on through an email to me from my sister. I think it is so neat so I am passing it on to you. I had tears in my eyes about 15 seconds into it.

The Sky Angel Cowboy

Now.....I want to get ahold of this boys parents and get some parenting tips!

Celebrity Morphs for fun

So....Hayden or Julie??? lol







And I HAD to throw this in!!!


p.s. Thanks Peggy for the fun idea!

Candy Canes, Love and Ornaments

Yummy! They really liked a little lick of the candy cane. Celia kept grabbing my hand and putting the candy cane in her mouth and licking it. :) It was cute! Nicholas sucked on it like his bottle. Hmmmmm..... A number of months ago Jason and I said "our kids will never have sweets". Only once in a while, right?
Celia was cuddling with Daddy! She was seriously being cuddly. Can you tell Daddy lovesd it?
A couple pictures from my ATTEMPT to have them hold still long enough to possibly get a nice picture in their Christmas outfits. They are adorable in them!