Zevon and Guthrie's first birthday party

We had a small party and lots of cake to celebrate the boys' birthday. I decided on a baseball theme for the cake and I'm pretty proud of my design.

Obviously, it isn't to scale. But it was delicious!

Cupcakes for the boys

After singing them happy birthday (which brings a problem with twin birthdays: do you sing 'Happy Birthday' twice or do you sing, somewhat awkwardly, 'Happy birthday, Zevon and Guthrie'?) we gave each boy a cupcake to try out. Despite some last minute efforts on my part to get them to blow out their own candle, they didn't even attempt making a wish. Will and Evie had to help them out. These guys have had very little for sweets in their short lives. So a whole cupcake to themselves was rather humorous to watch. Zevon did not enjoy the frosting and it made him shudder. But Guthrie would only eat the frosting and smoosh the cake. Not identical, indeed. Looking back on these pictures, I see that the boys look less than enthused for the festivities. I think they must have celebrated the day with an early morning and no nap. I'm sure the no sleep mixed well with the sugar by 7pm that evening.

Excitement for cake? Fear of fire? Either way, this appears to be a big thing for Z.

Zevon tries the bottoms first approach.

Evie helps Guthrie blow out his candle

Gus licked the cupcake clean. His hands and face, not so much.

One whole year!

Will and his two big one-year-olds on their birthday

Actually, one whole year times two! On the day the boys turned one, I could hardly believe we had survived a whole year with twins. We went from two tiny babes who we struggled just to get eating and who slept all the time (if only that continued!) to two big little boys who have no trouble eating but sleep still is a struggle.

Oh, how peaceful they seemed! (Guthrie in print onesie, Zevon in blue)

They were individuals from the start and it amazes me how their personalities have stayed roughly the same. Zevon continues to be more laid back, but he has added a sensitive, dramatic side to his personality. He is still the more verbal of the two and he has won us over with his smile.

Zevon

Guthrie was, and will always be, the more fussy of the two. I am already starting to see signs of temper-tantrums. He is still the more active of the two as well. In the words of my mom, "He is just so busy!"

Guthrie

Guthrie tries and experiments. Zevon observes and studies. In the mind of this science nerd mom, I think I have some excellent scientists on my hands. At a year, both were crawling all over and making movements towards walking. Both are saying dadaa, mamama, and will call to each other in the next room ('aaaaaaa-aaaaaaa!' Translation: 'Bro! I'm over here!').

Along with seeing the obvious growth in my boys, I am also seeing a more mature big sister. I was so worried about Evie and how she would handle two new brothers. She has amazed me with her loving manner toward them and how she has adapted to the new situation. Yes, we still have our fights and her brothers still get into her stuff. But she has become the best big sister I could ever imagine for Zevon and Guthrie.

Evie

There are more wrinkles on my face and more gray hairs on Will's head, and our ideal day still revolves around sleep. We wondered how we would manage it all, and most days I still wonder how we do it. But somehow the kids are growing, perhaps even thriving, and I am still the lucky woman to be married to the most handsome guy and best dad ever. A huge thank you is sent to our wonderful family, neighbors, church members, and friends who have helped us in the last year. Your prayers, hot meals, loving arms, hard work, and long telephone chats have been our saving grace.

The next question is, can we make it to year two? Two terrible twos? I shudder to think...

More Minnesota fun

After the wedding, we stayed at the farm to spend more time with family. It was not nearly long enough, but we did get a lot of Grandma, Grandpa, and Great-grandma time. Activities included: swimming time at a county park, playing with sparklers, watching the fireworks with Grandma and Grandpa, lots of cuddles and reading, and plenty of smiles.

Evie getting a sparkler from her dad.

Evie dancing with her sparkler (as for the Flavor-flave-style necklace, it is her own design)

Gus sharing his goofy smile with Great-grandma

Zevon practicing walking with Great-grandma

Evie reading with Great-Grandma

Evie driving the tractor (yes, she is steering) with Grandpa Wayne

"The wheel is bigger than me!"

Evie's souvenir from the field: a sugar beet

Evie making sand castles with her Mom

Aunt Kaitlin gets married!

Apologies for the absence of posts. Our little family has been doing some big things lately, so it will take us a few days to get caught up.

In June, we traveled to Minnesota to see Kaitlin and Johny get married. Will and I helped set up, celebrate, take down, and relax after a busy wedding celebration. The kids mostly ran around, looked cute, and caused a ruckus. Kaitlin and Johny (and the rest of us) lucked out and had a gorgeous day for a wedding. Kaitlin, of course, was beautiful. I think Evie was vying for 2nd most beautiful in her flower girl dress.

Posing so pretty for the camera

The boys looked very handsome, too. But we were in a pattern of little sleep and lots of crying. Zevon and Guthrie had no patience for all this hoopla and didn't want to take part in the celebration. Thankfully, we had a 2 helpful babysitters that allowed Will and I to enjoy the day. We did get one family shot in before things took a turn for the worse.

We almost look like we have it all together! (You should have seen the other shots...)

The reception was at the American Legion, which brought back memories for Will and me and our wedding. The yummy cupcakes were the highlight of the meal, I believe. After the wedding and reception, my parents hosted everyone at the farm for more food, lawn games, visiting, and a bit of sparkler fun. What a blast! Thank you to Kaitlin and Johny for giving us a great reason to get together on such a beautiful day!

More pictures from the wedding:

Getting Kaitlin into her dress and keeping her smiling

Evie, Uncle Chris, and Buttercup take a spin

Guthrie, on the morning of the wedding, woke up much too early and fell asleep at the breakfast table.

From the rehearsal and dinner:

Evie (showing her dress spin) with her new friend, Bridget

Zevon with Kaitlin's college roommate Kelly (who I secretly wish was my 3rd sister!)

Grandma Bev and Guthrie share a bite

Zevon and Aunt Megan share a cuddle, and perhaps tips on being the middle child

What you've missed...

Here's what we've been up to lately:

Mother-daughter outing to the Seattle Symphony and lunch at Pike Place

Zevon and Guthrie turned 11 months old

Story time!

Dress up and ukulele songs

Aunt Kaitlin getting married and being a flower girl

Oh, yeah. And the Gentlemen celebrated their 1st year! Time flies when you aren't blogging. We'll try to post on a few (and more!) events as we have time. Stay tuned!

Where Have We Been?

There are two things that I cannot believe. I cannot believe our boys are a year old now and I cannot believe we haven't updated the blog in over a month. I promise we have great photos coming from Kaitlin's wedding, the boy's birthday party, and general Evie Lu awesomeness. For now I thought I would give my brief reflections on the first year of being the dad of twins.

July 15, 2010 - A great day to meet two gentlemen

Every parent of twins I spoke to prior to the boys birth told me how difficult the first year was going to be. They were right, and it was much harder than what they predicted. There were great joys and blessings, don't get me wrong, but the daily logistics of having two babies at the same time was sometimes more than Kaia and I knew how to deal with day by day. (When people tell me now, "Oh I always wished I had twins." I can confidently say, "No, no you don't.")

The trials have been sleeping, figuring out what two different little people want, stopping Guthrie from biting his brother, sleeping, discerning why Z is crying, sleeping, feeding two babies at the same time, sleeping, coordinating transporting three kids in a Honda Civic, sleeping, wiping two snotty noses, sleeping and sleeping. Having Guthrie at Children's Hospital for three days was terrifying and getting him home was an amazing gift.

The joys have been getting smiles from our boys, watching them crawl and cruise around, hearing them laugh at each other, cracking up at their tricks (they both fold their hands to pray now at the table), and watching how they love Evie and how Evie loves them is beyond description.

I wouldn't wish twins on anyone, but I wouldn't trade mine for anything. I cannot believe it has been a year. On to year two!

July 15, 2011 - How we've grown

And We're Crawling . . . Sort Of

We have a winner in the race to mobility. Guthrie is now a crawling fool. Zevon has shown signs of making the move to crawling, but as you see in the video he mostly likes to grin and have people bring him things.

Bath time for twins

The water is great! Jump in!

Up to this point, bath time for the boys has been a solo affair. Handling just one slippery, wiggly baby is stressful enough. But now that the boys are sitting up with no problem and like the water so much, I decided to give them a bath together. It was a success in that they both got clean and there were lots of giggles. It did not make the bath go faster. Zevon loves to pour water on his face, resulting in sputter and choking, and Guthrie loves to 'bob' for rubber duckies, meaning he dunks his face in the water with more sputtering and choking. Super cute. But hard on my nerves. I think I need to sprout an extra set of arms before I try this again any time soon.

Zevon sporting the shampoo mohawk

Guthrie's curly hair gives him more of a Bozo the clown hairdo

10 months old!

Handsome men

I have a backlog of posts, starting with marking the boys 10 month mark. As you can see, they are becoming two of the silliest and least identical twins out there. Zevon continues to be sweet yet demanding, and sensitive yet throws his weight around. Guthrie is goofy yet smart, fearless yet loves a good cuddle. They continue to keep us on our toes.

So big!

Their favorite games are 'so big' which Zevon can do with flair (see the video from a few weeks ago). Guthrie has joined in, but he only raises one arm as if to say, "I'm so big, but not as big as Zevon". Gus continues to be the smaller twin, but is small only in comparison to our big lug Z. They can stand with support and will pull themselves up to standing when you hold their hands. Lately they are trying to pull up on furniture and can get to their knees. Zevon is mostly content to sit and stretch to reach what he wants. This includes the back of his brother's shirt, pulling them both to the ground. Guthrie hops on his butt, rolls, scoots from belly to sitting, and does just about everything except move like a normal baby. They are turning me into an anxious mother who is worried about their delay in crawling, much less walking. I'm trying to remain calm and tell myself they are hitting every other milestone (babbling, feeding themselves, making eye contact, laughing at goofy faces, playing peek-a-boo). I'll be chasing after them soon enough.

A Year of Preschool

Yes, I know I have a giant head.


Evangeline just finished her first year of preschool and Kaia and I are amazed that we have a four year old who has learned so much. In this last year she has matured so much that there are times I'm not certain whether we have a little girl or a young woman who is going to be asking for the car keys next week.
Evie Lu's teachers told us they saw a big difference between the three year old who started in September and our girl now. She still isn't the most comfortable in big group settings, Evie definitely has her mom's introvert tendencies, but she made some great friends. One of her best friends was a little boy who didn't speak much English. (Leave it to my daughter to find a friend where she can dominate the conversation.) I am excited to see how our big girl continues to grow and find out who she is as a person.
This morning Kaia and Evie headed out to a concert at the local symphony and it amazed me to see the love of my life and my first born dressed up going out on the town. Where did the time go?

Do The Guthrie!

Guthrie is our goofy boy. He is fussier than Zevon, but he also cracks us up with random looks and actions. Why is he doing this? I have no idea.

So Big

It seems everyone else's children are crawling or walking by ten months, but our boys are content to stay mostly in one place and entertain us. (Maybe they are afraid we won't follow them if they crawl away.) Zevon is such a ham. We love our big guy.

We May Skip Crawling

The day when our boys are mobile is coming sooner than we might like. Although in typical Zevon and Guthrie fashion, they are going about it in non-traditional ways. Here's how Gus is getting around.

Tiptoe through the tulips...and mud

Flowers and mud. Evie couldn't be happier!

Despite rain in the forecast, our family decided to travel north to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival on Easter Monday. The fields didn't disappoint, though the weather did. The tulips and daffodils were beautiful. Fields and fields of color filled the countryside. Unfortunately, mud filled our boots and shoes. It was a scene perfect for our princess tomboy Evie. This is the girl who will be digging in the dirt with the boys one moment at preschool and dancing in a tutu and tiara the next. So it was no surprise that she loved the mud. In fact, she made up a song titled "I love mud". She ended up running too fast down the lane and the mud sucked her boots while she kept on going. Thankfully I had brought her a second pair of socks and pants for her. I was hoping that I could take a super cute picture of all my children sitting among the tulips, but I'm afraid the mud puddles would have drown the boys. I can't imagine what this trip will be like next year when the boys will not be in front pack carriers. I'll need to follow the lead from another large family we saw at the fields: the mom led all her children up to the van, and one by one they removed their boots and she put all the boots in a bag and put the bag in the trunk. That's thinking. I think Will and I will also invest in our own rain boots. How we have lived in the Pacific NW for this long without owning rain boots is beyond me.

Tulips, tulips, and more tulips

Needless to say, the boys were not happy in the rain.

Easter

My little Easter bunnies

The night before Easter, I was nervous about how I was going to: a. dress 3 kids in cute Easter outfits that would survive through church, b. get to church with enough time to find a parking spot and a good place to park my brood in the sanctuary, c. keep the peace among my children without my usual help of Kaitlin and Laura (both busy at the Easter breakfast), d. get to the Easter breakfast and enjoy cinnamon rolls while feeding 2 hungry boys. Oh, and celebrate the risen Lord, of course. I am happy to say that I was able to accomplish it all! It was an Easter miracle.

Guthrie looking very dapper

Zevon in his Sunday best

Nine months old

Can you handle the cuteness?

Our boys are eating solid foods, sleeping through the night (for real!), taking decent naps (sometimes), and are making motions toward crawling. They laugh, shriek, babble, and are getting closer to saying mommy and daddy each day (at least we can hope). Every day they wear us out, but they also make us laugh until we cry. There is giggly goofy Gus who has discovered he can shake his head no and rock back and forth to the music and has become a cheerio eating machine. There is also zany Zevon who could can pull himself up to standing (and probably to a chin up) and can launch himself out of his jumper. A few days ago, a guy saw us on a walk and he told me, "Looks like double trouble!" Once they get their act together, get their legs coordinated and voices in sync, we will really be in double trouble. But for now, they are sweet happy boys who are content to bang blocks together and scoot on floor.

At their 9 month check up, the doctor had not much to say. They are healthy growing boys. Zevon is 24 lbs 9 oz (95%) and his length is 29 in (75%). His head is huge (19 1/4", 95+%) and it is still a little bit of a concern. A while back he had an ultrasound to check out his giant head and it came back normal, so we are guessing he just has a big head. Guthrie is a perfectly average 9 month old and in the 50% for all measurements: 20 lbs 4 oz, 28 1/2" long, and 18" head. Yep, they are not identical.

My two little cubs

All bundled up and ready to go!

Last Wednesday we experienced some weird weather. It was nice enough and sunny, so I wanted to get the boys out for some much needed outdoors time. But, there was a little chill in the air, so I thought their cute winter hats were not a bad idea.

The boys kept on trying to take off their brother's hat. Perhaps they thought they looked ridiculous (ridiculously cute, that is!).

Later, when we had returned home, there was thunder, lightening, and much later, snow! I usually think of weather around here as pretty mild. April snow and thunder are not mild events.

Zevon and his toothy smile

You can see from the above photo that Zevon has 2 lower teeth. Thankfully, he has kept them mostly to himself. Guthrie has 2 teeth as well, but he has tried them out on just about everything (toys, brother's hand, nurse's gloved fingers in the hospital, my fingers, bottle nipples). Thankfully, they have not turned into little vampires during nursing sessions, so breastfeeding continues. Zevon has become quite the flirt. When he is feeling sweet, he'll smile and tilt his head to the side and sigh or squeal. It melts your heart!

Guthrie giving a grin to his sister off camera.

Guthrie's latest trick is eating with his fingers. He went on a bit of a solid food strike after coming home from the hospital and would only nurse (much to my dismay). But, when provided cheerios or the like, he would carefully pick them up and pop them in his mouth and eat them! This is the only time that Guthrie has mastered an eating skill before Zevon. Zevon looks at the smooshed pea in front of him, looks at me, looks at the pea, and seems to expect the pea to jump in his mouth so he can eat it. He does have the pincer grasp, but would much rather scoot the food off the table. Gus has finally gone back to solids and now would like to hold the spoon himself. That is one trick I'll let him master a bit later. I get a little tired damp mopping the floor every night...don't want to start mopping the walls as well!

Let's not do this again

We have been experiencing the usual late winter/early spring crud. The joy of having 3 kids is that you get to experience it three times over. A fever runs into a cold, combines with teething for the boys, and melts into another respiratory illness. It has been made extra special by me getting whatever the children are experiencing (minus the teething, of course). But this last round of illness hit us exceptionally hard. The boys were extra snotty and crabby last week and no one was sleeping well. But, while Zevon started to get better, Guthrie got worse. By Thursday night his cough turned to wheezing and he didn't sleep unless held by Will or I. We got him a doctor's appointment that morning.

The doctors (yes, plural, because they kept on calling in another collegue for a second opinion) were concerned that he was working so hard to breathe. But his oxygen saturation was still 100%, so they told us to keep an eye on him and bring him in again later that afternoon for another listen. He was no better, and perhaps a little worse. We were sent to the ER at Children's in Seattle. One of the worst drives I've ever made was stuck on I-5 at 4pm on Thursday with a sick kid in the back. The worst part was that he was silent the whole way, meaning I never knew if he was breathing or not. Ick. We got to the ER and they treated him with a few rounds of nebulizer treatments and tested him for a variety of viruses. Because the treatments helped only marginally, and because his saturation levels were going down, he was admitted to the hospital late Friday night.

Our poor little Gus Gus still finding a smile despite a tough couple days

By the next day, we learned that he had RSV and the treatments for asthma could stop. Instead, he was put on oxygen and suction as needed. We simply needed to watch and wait and hope he got better. RSV is a common virus and it hits different kids different ways. Usually it causes problems for kids that were preemies or those that have lung or immune issues. Guthrie has none of those, so he is one of the lucky few healthy kids that still need hospitalization. Zevon, who probably had it as well, was one of the usual cases who get a bad cold and cough and then get better.

I had milk stored in the freezer at home, so it made sense for me to stay with Guthrie. Will became a single dad of 2 kids at home and I camped out at the hospital. Both of us wished we could be in 2 places at once the whole hospital stay. There were some scary moments that I hope I never have to experience again. Parenting has been a lesson of learning when to be patient and let things happen (waiting for a virus to run its course, for example) and knowing when to take action (hauling a kid into the ER). The really tough parts are when you have to make a decision of which route is the correct one.

Thankfully, Guthrie improved enough he could go home on Monday. We are very happy to have our goofy little guy back. It was interesting to spend time with the twins separated. Will found that Zevon sleeps a lot better and eats more without his brother around making a ruckus. I learned that Guthrie is super active and delightful when he gets a lot of one-on-one attention. The nurses kept on commenting on how chubby and big and 'robust' Guthrie was and all I could say was, "you should see his brother!" I found it was hard to talk about Guthrie without mentioning that he was a twin. In fact, one night I woke up in the middle of the hospital room looking for Zevon. Sleep deprivation has led to sleep walking, I guess.

All better and ready to play with his brother and sister

We aren't completely out of the woods with Gus, yet. He still has a lot of noise in his lungs and continues to wheeze. The hospital stay has messed with his sleep cycle and eating habits, and 3 days later we continue to fight with those habits. It seems like everything gets in the way of sleep training these boys! At least they keep us on our toes.