Monday, November 29, 2004

Twins Turn 10 Months This Week!


Twins
Originally uploaded by Allan & Cheryl

It's hard to believe that the twins are almost 10 months already. Time as flown by, yet at the same time, these have been the longest 10 months of my life!

Megan and Maribeth visited the Neonatologist on Friday for a follow-up appointment. Megan is 17 lbs 6 oz and is 3 cm taller than Maribeth. Her head circumference is actually 1 cm SMALLER than Maribeth's. Though I forgot both the numbers for length and heads. Maribeth is 14 lbs 10 oz (with a VERY full bladder/bowels). She blew out her diaper afterwards. So it is likely she is closer to the 14 lbs 4 oz she weighed in at last week at our family doctor. Maribeth is still right on the 3rd percentile for adjusted age & weight. That is down quite a bit from the last appointment at 6 months (where she was just under the 10th percentile line). Her curve overall has been just under/over/at the 3rd percentile since before birth. So doctor thinks she is doing just fine as she seems happy and healthy.

The girls have cereal 2x/day and usually either a pureed fruit and/or a veggie plus a few cheerios and some of whatever we are having at suppertime if they are awake. Maribeth has about 4oz formula in the evening, and breasfeeds other than that: probably about 4 times in the day and once in the middle of the night. Megan is about half formula/half EBM at this point in bottles except for being nursed once in the middle of the night. She still won't nurse when awake.

The doctor has stopped Zantac completely for Megan and dropped to bedtime only for Maribeth. He also recommended switching Megan to a follow-up formula instead of a starter formula as she is eating quite a lot of solid food. We need to keep up with the Vitamin D drops over winter. We can drop the iron drops for Megan entirely (as long as she is eating iron fortified cereal and drinking iron fortified formula), but will continue with Maribeth for now as she doesn't eat enough cereal a day to get her iron in.

Both girls are: picking things up with a pincher grip, crawling, getting themselves to a sitting position, pulling to standing, and Maribeth is cruising on furniture. They now have just barely enough hair in to put a little barrette into and one bottom tooth each!

The Dr. said that from looking at what they are doing - he expects BOTH girls to be walking within the next 6 weeks! ACK!!!! I'm NOT ready for that!

Both are babbling and have some words: Megan says: mama, dada, baba. Maribeth says: Mama, UP, Baba. We were told that developmentally they have caught up with their actual age - we can consider them normal 10 month olds!!!

We will need to bring the twins back in about 6 months for another follow up just to check on how they are doing with language, walking and also he wants to follow up on Maribeth's blood pressure. I forgot that number too - he said she was at risk for having problems with high blood pressure. Also she still has a heart murmur - but he said it was a harmless one. He does not plan on taking off her "tail" at the point as it doesn't seem to cause her pain at this time and when she's sitting it doesn't make contact with the surface.

Oh, and there will be no green Milupa spoon for our girls. The next batch of Milupa boxes have no free spoons. The quest for the green spoon has ended unsuccessfully.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Melissa Loves parties


Melissa loves parties
Originally uploaded by Allan & Cheryl.

You can tell from the grin. Maddy and Michael took a while to get into things - but soon were racing around with all the other screaming children. The take from night's bash includes 4 noisemakers, 3 party hats, 5 balloons (only 3 of which made it home), one paper bag of candy, 2 figurines, 3 whistles and a small top. Plus 5 hyper - sugared up children. It took until 10pm to get all five to sleep.

Children's Choir Practice at the party


Children's Choir
Originally uploaded by Allan & Cheryl.

It's been a weird weekend to say the least. The universe or at least my FIL and church members have conspired against us.

We now have 3 enthusastic members of the Filipino church children's choir. Practice after church, practice at Aunties Sat night and practice at baby Martins first birthday party on Sunday night. Between costumes, a real "show" to be in and a party invite to boot - how could the kids refuse?

We have been handed a CD of the program, sheets of paper with lyrics for the kids to learn and a daunting practice and performance schedule all over the GVRD over the next 4 weeks ending in the final performance for the Filipino church on Christmas Day.

Allan and I are both a bit blindsided - but hey - at least I got out of actually sewing the costumes myself. An "Auntie" measured the all three at the party tonight. Allan is sworn never to reveal that I actually can sew and do have a sewing machine.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Baby in the Basket



Megan
Originally uploaded by Allan & Cheryl.

I had to post this photo of Megan in the basket of clean laundry fresh (warm!) from the dryer.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Maddy wants "...'nilla please"

Tonight I took Maddy Roo grocery shopping. Just the two of us. This is a very rare occurence around here. Michael was sent to bed early due to a missed nap and the resulting very bad behaviour. Melissa was closeted in "Grandmommy's room" working on reading. Allan was feeding the fussy twins Milupa mixed cereal with fruits. This was not going well as the twins are creatures of habit and rice cereal with formula is the normal bedtime snack. Fruit is only for breakfast, don't you know? Strained veggies for lunch, finger food for supper, and rice cereal before bed. No other sequence will do.

So Maddy and I went off to the store to buy more rice cereal with infant formula. And before you ask, Milupa because I am attempting to "collect all" the Milupa baby spoons that come in the boxes. I'm now locked into an eternal quest for for the elusive green spoon. So far we have 3 yellow spoons, 2 red spoons, 2 blue spoons, but no green spoon.

To my absolute surprise - Maddy chattered a blue streak the entire ride.

"Look at the moon, in the sky, la luna, like la luna on my blanket that Auntie Bethie sewed and knitted for me .. It's dark out, no kids outside to play with in the dark .. there is 'nother car out there in the dark, look .." This was puctuated every so often by "We get 'nilla please? We going to 'nilla store?"

The chatter is amazing because until a couple of months ago she barely talked at all. I have been trying to work with her some daily, she has several sessions one-on-one with a person from UBC who is doing a study on language acquisition and then Grandmommy's visit here has meant some added attention.

However the "nilla" request puzzled me. I kept asking what "nilla" she wanted and from where and got only the puzzling answer of "nilla from the nilla store".

Madeleine


Urged on by Maddy's continual chatter and her requesting things by name - our trip for baby food turned into a $100 shopping expedition including 4 new sippy cups for Maddy, 2 cartons of ice-cream, a candy bar for Maddy, hot dogs, juice and other favourite Maddy Roo foods.

Still the "nilla" request continued. She agreed it was "vanilla" that she wanted but NOT vanilla cookies, vanilla ice-cream, or vanilla extract. While walking by the coolers of chilled pop - she started saying "want that 'nilla" again while appearing to point at bottled Starbucks Mocha Frappacinos.

"That's not vanilla - that's coffee," I said and pushed the shopping cart forward.

She was quickly distracted by the huge Christmas decoration displays already up ..

"Want that snowman .. Want that Santa .."

Now letting her pick food was one thing - but buying her Christmas decorations was just not going to happen and I told her so. She didn't fuss over it though - just gave me a "well at least I tried" kind of look.

We got in line, paid for the groceries and then I handed over the Aero bar which Maddy immediately started munching on - still chattering. I just had a harder time understanding her with her mouth full of chocolate.

As we drove home - a chocolate covered Maddy started pointing, grinning ear to ear and squealing, "Nilla store, dat de nilla store! Nill PLEASE."

The "Nilla store" was the drive through Starbucks! Maddy wanted a vanilla steamed milk!

The Season is Coming


So we went to Starbucks and got me a decaf mocha and her a vanilla steamed milk and "not too hot." It wasn't too hot this time and she downed over half of it before we got home - then generously split the rest with Melissa.

Friday, November 12, 2004

Maribeth in the Jolly Jumper

Maribeth spent some time in the jolly jumper this evening. The jolly jumper we have hangs in the doorway and not on a frame, so the lighting is a little difficult here because she's "between" rooms. I knew that using the flash wouldn't work well so I tried an old trick - putting a piece of white paper in front of the flash as a makeshift diffuser. I got some interesting results.

Twins at 9 Months


Teething Twins


Teething Twins
Originally uploaded by Allan & Cheryl.

You can't see it in the photo - but Maribeth cut her first tooth yesterday. It's obvious from the way they are chewing on everything - that more teeth should be popping up any day now!

Other notable milestones - both girls can get themselves from crawling, to sitting, and pull to standing and are starting to attempt climbing - their first climb - from the floor onto Maddy's mattress and from there they are working on climbing onto Melissa's bed.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Autumn Colours

Today was the last day we were to have sunshine for a while, so despite a rough night last night with the twins vomiting and Cheryl's stomach not feelling so good either, we decided to get out the door.

The kids really wanted to get out to Bear Creek park so that is where we went. The afternoon light made for some really great photos.

Bear Creek Playground



Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Ballerina

Grandmommy Jean got to go with Melissa to ballet class today and got a couple of snapshots of our budding ballerina.

Ballerina

Saturday, November 06, 2004

Tous Ensemble

Today we packed up kit and kaboodle and went to church. If you ever decide to have more than the stastical 1.8 children, I highly recommend having extended family available to help.

With my dad, step-mother, mother-in-law, Cheryl, and myself there to chase small people, this was one of those few times where the adult to child ratio was 1:1 or better!

Mothers and Daughters


All of Us


This coming year, I am planning to accompany my dad to the Philippines for a family reunion. He is very excited that I am going, but even more so that Michael will be coming along. My dad is very much looking forward to introducing his grandson to everyone as "Biray". Biray is the name of our "clan", my father's mother's people, and the Edwin family is only one of many.

I myself am getting more excited as this year winds down and long slide to next April begins. This will be a rare opportunity for me to connect with my history and heritage on a first-hand basis. I have met aunts, uncles, and cousins here in North America, but since my birth and emigration, I returned only once to the Republic of the Philippines, when I was 13, to visit.

These experiences are becoming more important to me as time passes for a number of reasons:

My dad is now approaching the age my grandfather was when he passed away. My grandfather died the year before I was born, so he never knew my dad to have any children. My dad has at least had the last few years to see my own children born and grow into young people with defined personalities. My children too have had a chance to know my dad and who he is as a person, though the memories will be buried deep because they are so young.

My Father's Father


My father is also one of my few links to my extended family and my heritage. Most of my dad's family are still in the Philippines and those who went abroad are scattered far and wide. (Those of you who are out there that we call family, one of the reaons Cheryl and I post here is with the hope you will respond.)

My Grandmother's Funeral


I grew up Canadian, speaking English (and a little French), and watching HNIC on tv. My parents speak different dialects, neither of which is Tagalog, and we were never taught any of them. My connection to Filipinos in general is diminished.

Of course this trip cannot possibily make up for 30 years of living here, but I am hoping that with my dad's help bridges can be built and that Michael and I can be a part of the family he had to leave behind so many years ago.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Autumn Leaves

I am going to be closeted into meetings all this week, so I really won't get to enjoy the end of autumn's glory like Cheryl and the kids did today.

Autumn Adventurers


I heard that they were having such a good time that Cheryl had to resort to a ruse to get them to leave the playground.

Cheryl: "It's time to go kids!"

Chorus: "Awwwwww! We're not ready to go yet."

Cheryl: "We have to go because we're going to be doing a leaf craft at home today."

Chorus: "A craft! Yay! With leaves!"

I am told that the children collected leaves with great enthusiasm and told everyone they met on the way back, "We're taking these leaves home to make a craft!"

I got to see their handiwork on the fridge this evening and it was very good indeed.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Rocking Horse

Cheryl tells me that I missed something this evening as I am working late, late into the night on my other writing.

She left Megan with Melissa and Michael in their room and when she came back they had put Megan on the rocking horse!

If it was me I would have had a heart attack, but Cheryl coolly and calmly took pictures of the obviously happy Megan.

Twins at 9 Months!