Baby entertainment

The boys wiggling around on the floor. Their blanket is almost not enough to contain them!

Zevon and Guthrie are practicing their new tricks! They are inching closer to rolling onto their tummies. Evie and I were cheering Guthrie on this afternoon because he was so close! Zevon is a little more content to lay around, but his kicking power almost launched him out of his baby bath one night a few weeks ago. Both are getting really good at grabbing toys and bringing them to their mouths. Guthrie almost transferred a rattle from one hand to the other tonight. Zevon loves bringing his burp cloth up to his face, punching it in his mouth and then wiggling around. This was a trick Evie did as a baby, and it cracks me up. Zevon reminds me a lot of Evie! Tonight, Zevon would laugh at everything Evie did for him. She would dance around him, he would laugh. She would laugh back at him and he would shriek with joy! Gus just watched with a grin. I really want to know what these little guys are going to be like as siblings. With as fast as everyone is growing, it will happen quicker than I can imagine.

Guthrie and his 3/4 roll

Zevon is contemplating his next move

5 months old!

Zevon, Will, and Guthrie, my three rock stars!

The boys turned five months old this week. We can't believe how big they are getting! Guthrie is starting to scoot himself off the blanket while he is wiggling on the floor. Both Zevon and Guthrie have found their hands very entertaining. They are now grabbing at things and cuddling with stuffed animals and blankets. They are able to bat at toys on the activity bar in their swing and chair. As Will says, they are no longer lumps of mashed potatoes. They are real, animated, little people! I've also noticed that they will smile at each other, as if to say, "hi there, bro!". Every time Evie is close, they will smile and 'talk' to her. She can get them to laugh every time.

Evie, Zevon and Guthrie, staying toasty by the fire.

Rock star babies

Guthrie and Zevon rocking out

I think it is Will's goal to make all of his children rock stars and he takes any opportunity he can get (we named the twins Zevon and Guthrie for starters). Kaitlin and Johny helped him out by giving the boys these adorable outfits. The boys have been channeling the rock star angst lately with midnight parties, exercising their vocal cords, and generally being moody. In their defense, they both battled colds last week and I believe teething is on its way. In fact, I can feel a little spot in Guthrie's gums that seems like a little tooth poking through. Also, they are learning to stay awake for longer stretches, which is more fun but leads to fussier babies. Needless to say, it has been a rough time in the Sappington house. But things are looking up. They have finally put themselves to sleep the past 2 nights, and right now they are taking a nap that has lasted longer than 20 minutes. Let's hope this continues, and then they'll be rock stars in my book.

Zevon flashing a grin to all his fans

Gus contemplating his next rock anthem

Gospel according to Evie

Ever since we set up the nativity scene, Evie has been relocating and rearranging it. It seems that Santa Claus and Snowman were there to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Thanksgiving

Good food, good people! What more could you ask for?

Snow storms couldn't keep Uncle Jody and Aunt Leanne from visiting their new nephews and wild niece. We were very happy to have them visit us over Thanksgiving this year. They got plenty of cuddles from Zevon and Guthrie, and lots of fun and laughs with Evie Lu.

Jody, holding Zevon, and Leanne, holding Gus

For the big meal, we also had Kaitlin and Johny over. Together, we cooked a turkey and all the sides (all homemade, I should add!). I was pretty impressed with our meal, but it wasn't without event. I exploded some melted butter in the microwave, and needed to call the Butterball hotline after some debate as to if the turkey was actually done (very helpful, and I am totally buying a butterball next year just to thank the company!).

We are in the full swing of the holiday season and that means lots of Christmas music and toy advertisements. Evie loves looking at the "kids newspaper" (Toys R Us circular) and points out all the things she wants. Nothing gets by this kid! She has her clock radio set to the station playing 24-7 Christmas music. A few days ago she told me we needed to go to Fred Meyer Jewelers today, and that we needed to buy gift cards for everyone. Anyone have a good way at limiting media influence on a preschooler?

The boys are busy now, staying awake for long periods and starting to grab at things with their hands. In fact, their hands are their favorite play things and they can stare at them for a long time. They are constantly chewing on their fingers, so we wonder if teeth are coming soon. They both have colds right now and that is making sleeping very difficult. But they are sweet most of the time. Guthrie still gets the giggles when you tickle his neck and chin, and Zevon is all smiles when you sing and talk to him. My favorite is seeing Evie talk to Zevon and Zevon "talks" back to her. So cute!

All ready for bed (Guthrie left, Zevon right). Just a few short months back, they shared this crib. Hard to believe now!

The boys are 4 months old

We're two handsome young men! (Guthrie on left, Zevon on right)

We can't tell you where the time has gone, but it has been over 4 months since Zevon and Guthrie made their appearance. Many parents of twins have told us that we won't remember the first year, and our doctor last week said after 6 months it gets much easier. Either way, we are reaching at least one of those milestones.

At their doctor's check up we learned the boys are doing very very well. Zevon continues to be the brute of the two. He is 17 lbs 4 oz (90 percentile) and 25 1/4" (50-75 percentile). His head continues on its massive curve at 17 " circumference (75 percentile). Guthrie isn't anything too tiny either. He weighs 15 lbs 8 oz (50-75 percentile) and is 25 in long. Guthrie's head is a little smaller (16 1/4 ", 25 percentile) which explains why all his hoodies keep falling over his eyes. Their doctor was very pleased with them (as are we!).

In other developments, the boys continue to delight us with their coos and squeals. Gus has a laugh that will bring us to our knees and Zevon continues to win us over with his smile. They have been champion sleepers, too, for the most part. In fact, they have teased us with nights of 8pm-5am without a peep! But as of late, they want to eat at 3-4am and will fight to stay up well past 9pm. Plus, they will only go to sleep if held and rocked to sleep. We love our boys and I would hold them all day long if I could. But, there are two of them and I can't hold them both all day. So, we are trying some sleep training to get them to calm themselves. So far, Will and I can only let them scream a few minutes before picking them up, so maybe it is more about training us!

Boys and their dad (Zevon on left, Gus on right)

Snow day!

The past week or so has been a stressful one for the family, so we are happy to say that we are enjoying the recent snow huddled up inside (or playing outside in it!). Last week, Will was out of town, so Kaitlin stayed with us to help out. With an over active 3 year old and 2 boys that decided to go through some sort of fussiness/growth spurt, I sure needed it! We did have some fun...here is a picture of Evie and her doll dressed up as twins and enjoying a tea party.

Evie and her doll Cup (short for Buttercup)

Will came home to much colder temperatures as the Seattle area was enjoying a cold snap with snow. I know our friends and family in Montana and Minnesota would laugh at us, but this area crawls to a halt every time it snows and this time is no exception. Right now, it is bright, cold, and sunny with a few inches of snow on the ground, but everything is closed down so it makes it easy to enjoy. Evie got out yesterday and today to run in the snow. She loves her new snow boots!

Good bye rain boots, hello snow boots!

While Evie and Will braved the cold outdoors, the boys and I have enjoyed the cozy indoors. Will was very excited Zevon and Guthrie fit into their Twins uniforms today. Anytime he can enjoy a little baseball is a good day. I was hoping this year, being the year of the twins for us that it would be the year of the Twins in baseball. No such luck. At least our boys are winners!

Zevon on left, Guthrie on right.

Tickle Time

The boys love to giggle and here Kaia was trying to get them to laugh on camera. Guthrie got the closest to a laugh, but Zevon just looks annoyed.

Halloween

Evie had a long list of things that she wanted to be for Halloween (tiger, fairy, and a mouse are among them), but she kept on coming back to being a princess. When she saw the Snow White costume, she knew that was the one for her. Evie had plenty of events to wear her costume to. She had her Halloween party at preschool, a party at a near-by church with her friend Quinn, and of course trick-or-treating on the big day. It was a sugar-fueled weekend, and I think we are still feeling the effects of a hyped up three year old. At least Evie had lots of fun!

Hi! I'm Snow White! Perhaps you've met my brothers, the two dwarfs.

Evie and her friend Quinn. Evie was extremely excited when she found out that they were both going to be princesses (Snow White and Cinderella).

Pumpkin carving with Dad

The finished product. Can you see the resemblance of a certain furry family member?

Evie's preschool class all dressed up

More great-grandma!

I finally have a chance to post more pictures from Great-grandma's visit.

Kaia (with Zevon), Great-grandma, Kaitlin, and Evie in front of Pike Place Market

Kaitlin, Great-grandma, and Evie where they throw the fish at the Market

Evie and Great-grandma pose by Rachel the pig

Evie and Great-grandma at the zoo

Great-grandma tries to pacify unhappy twins

Great-grandma and her Pacific NW great-grandchildren

Great-grandma!

Evie is at preschool, and the boys are taking an unexpected long nap in their swings, so I have a chance to do a little post. We have been extremely lucky to have my grandma here this past week. She rocked babies, played with Evie, and looked at wedding magazines with Kaitlin. She was here a whole week, and I wish she could have stayed a month more! I'll post more later about our adventures, but here are a few photos to start.

Great-grandma with Guthrie

Great-grandma with Zevon

2 peas in a pod?

In case you were wondering, the boys are not identical. If you need any proof, look at the picture below:

Zen Zevon on left, fussy Gus on right.

Clearly, these boys are fraternal twins. Even though they are both boys, share the same parents, and were womb-mates for almost 9 months, they are very different.

Busy busy family

Evie and her pumpkin

Two weekends ago, we made the most of a nice couple of days. On the first of the month, we took Guthrie and Zevon on their first hike at Tiger Mountain. We happen to get there at the same time as some kind of family pumpkin hunt, and Evie found her very own pumpkin. The boys seemed to love the fresh air and Evie loved running as fast as she could down the trail. They all took excellent naps that afternoon!

Zevon and Mom

Guthrie and Dad

After naps, we made an overdue appointment to get Evie's hair trimmed. Evie has never had her hair cut (besides an ill-fated trim to her baby mullet the day before her baptism). We love the curls, but it was getting hard to comb out after her bath. We took her to a kids haircut place, hoping that would make her more willing to sit still, and it did. She didn't get a lot cut off and you can hardly tell she had anything trimmed. But it was sad to see those little curls go. Evie now asks if she can have her hair trimmed just about every day.

Flying on to big girl hair!

The weekend was rounded out by a trip to Issaquah Salmon Days with the Barsness clan on Saturday and church on Sunday. Whew. No wonder it has taken me so long to post! It took us a week to recover.

Baby tattoos

Zevon showing his love for mom on his sleeve.

Guthrie wants everyone to know his dad is awesome

Before Evie was born, Will found a Fender onesie that he knew his first born needed to wear. Aunt Megan and Uncle Chris have followed Will in deciding our progeny needed to have rockin' onesies. These were sent before the boys were born and were chosen so that Baby A would keep mom at his right and Baby B would know his dad rocks. It is very fitting because Zevon was on my right side through the whole pregnancy and Guthrie and Will share the same middle name. Yesterday the boys did little other than scream at me, so I needed the ego boost. As you can see, they are in much better moods today. As a result, so am I!

Hello, my name is...

Guthrie in brown, Zevon in blue (duh).

The twins are very lucky to have received so many lovely gifts. (I have a huge backlog of thank yous to write, as a result!) One of the gifts they received recently was a set of onesies with their names embroidered on the front. There is no mixing them up now! I did think about playing a trick on Will and putting Zevon's shirt on Guthrie and vice versa just to mess with him, but I think he would have known quickly. We are pretty good at telling them apart without any question. Between differences in their faces, weights, and disposition, we have enough to help distinguish one from the other. And now we have shirts to help us through the day!

The 5 hour baby sweater

Here you see over 25 pounds of love!

In the last trimester of my pregnancy, I figured I had a limited amount of time to make baby sweaters for the boys. So, I looked up patterns on the web for a quick and easy pattern to knit. I found one titled "the 5 hour baby sweater". Ideal, right? It turned out to be the 5 hour...yeah right...baby sweater. Maybe it took so long because I modified the pattern as I went. Maybe it was my swollen wrists and fingers that slowed me up. In any case, these sweaters seemed to take forever (much like the last few weeks of my pregnancy!). I did finish them, and not a moment too soon. I put the buttons on just days before the boys were born.

This past week, the boys are finally fitting into their homemade sweaters. I'm pretty proud of them and how they turned out (the boys and the sweaters...the boys more so).

Zevon in blue and turtle buttons

Guthrie in green and elephant buttons

Smiles!

Gus and his sideways grin

Zevon and his charming smile

I started making breakfast for Will and I this morning when I became totally distracted by two very smiley boys. Zevon and Guthrie were in great moods after their breakfast and had nothing but smiles on their faces! Zevon has been grinning for a few weeks now, while Gus is relatively new to this social state. Zevon has also starting cooing, especially before falling asleep (as if to say "hold me just a little longer"). Guthrie has started what can only be described as laughing. So sweet! Diaper changes are so much more fun now!

Two months old!

Becoming more of a handful for Dad
(Zevon in brown, Gus in blue)

Zevon and Guthrie turned 2 months old on Wednesday. Where does the time go? Today was their 2 month check up at the doctor's, and they are doing great! Here are the stats:
Zevon is 12 lbs 15 oz (75-90%) and 23 1/4" long (50-75%). Guthrie is 12 lbs 1 oz (75%) and 23" long (50%). Both have head circumferences that put them in the 50th percentile. Big boys! Their doctor told me I deserved some ice cream and chocolate cake since they must be sucking the life out of me. (I do feel like that!)

In other good baby news, they are sleeping better at night. Last night they slept from just after 11pm to 4am. They ate and then right back to sleep until 8am. Excellent!

Unfortunately Evie is still waking up in the middle of the night. We never thought that we would have to worry about our oldest not sleeping through the night! But she was a champ at the doctor's office today and didn't cry getting her flu shot, so we'll forgive her.

First day of preschool!

Look ma, no hands!

Evie has her first day of preschool today! She left with Will this morning carrying a Thomas the Tank Engine backpack and a big smile. I'm aware that I'm the mom of a preschooler, but this morning it was still a little hard to believe. She gave me a big hug and I waved good bye (standing in the doorway in my bathrobe...so cliche!). She's growing up so fast!

Two days ago, we had a practice run at preschool where all the students and parents got together to meet the teachers and each other. It surprised me how shy Evie was and how much I had to push her to join the other kids. But after a while, she got the hang of it and was playing with her classmates. Let's hope she remembers how much fun she had on Tuesday and that today is as much fun.

Playing with her new friends in the play school house.

Showing off her scissor skills with some play dough.

And since we can't have a post without pictures of Zevon and Guthrie, here you go! They are changing so much. Zevon is an excellent charmer with his smiles and coos. Guthrie continues to amaze us with his head-holding ability and pushing up so well. Now that I have a functioning computer to work with, I'll be better at posting updated photos. (Zevon is on the left, Gus on the right.)

"Guthrie, this is so hard!"
"Oh, Zevon, you are such a complainer."
"You were the one complaining at 5 am, Gus."
"I wanted to catch the early morning news, big Z!"