Were we've been...

I finally realized why I haven't updated the blog in over two months....First, I was just too busy (explanation below) and secondly, I have just gotten too far behind and it is overwhelming to think of updating on all the new things going on with us!  But I want to get back to blogging, so I am going to do a quick update to update post!  So sorry for the lack of details, but I need to get back at this and this is the easiest way to do so.

You must be wondering what we have been up to these last two months.  Well, here goes nothing...

I quit my job and am now a stay at home mom!  It was quite a difficult decision to make and I hemmed and hawed about it for days/weeks/months. But finally, Jim and I decided (though he didn't really decide, just offered support with what I wanted to do) that it is in the best interest of our family for me to stay home with Abby and Jimmy.  Truthfully, I do feel over-my-head sometimes and I have no idea what I am doing, but I remember that I felt that way when I started my old job in 2004.  Everything is a learning experience and I am now learning and growing with this new adventure. It has been fun so far!  Watching Abby and Jimmy grow and learn new things over these last two months has been amazingly rewarding.  More on the latest with Abby and Jimmy below...

Secondly, I haven't been faithfully updating here because: WE MOVED!  Not only did we move houses, but we moved STATES!  We are no longer Michigan residents and are instead living in the great state of Texas.   It is quite the change, mostly noted in the slightly warmer (ha!) weather, but even having a bigger house has been crazy!  It is so nice to have more space for us all, but it is also up, down and all around, all the time!   I am now sporting some new calf muscles thanks to the up/down to get to/from Abby and Jimmy's rooms.  We are learning so much about home maintenance and care, and of course, how to keep the bugs away!  Jim and I both hate bugs, so we are all over making sure we don't have too many unwanted visitors (namely spiders and roaches) here.  So, here it is, our new house!

And now on to the fun part!  Abby and Jimmy are growing so fast.  They are constantly on the move now and are doing all sorts of new things.  Here are some of the fun new things they have learned over the last couple months:

• Waving
• High-fives (thanks to Grandpa!)
• Crawling everywhere (can't even get any pictures anymore!)
• Pulling up (and getting back down from standing)
• Climbing up the stairs
• Kisses (Abby has given kisses for a while, Jimmy has just started)
• Cuddling/hugging
• Saying "Mama, Dada" by both Abby and Jimmy
• Abby says "Hi," "Kitty," and "Daddy"
• Jimmy says "Book"
• Jimmy is almost walking. He stands for some time without support (and even waves his hands around like crazy without holding on)
• Imitating mom/dad at times
• Jimmy shakes head "no" - not sure if it's a dance move or he actually is saying "no"
• Jimmy has EIGHT (8) teeth (OMG!) - four on the top and four on the bottom - they all came through within a month!
• Abby has two teeth on the bottom (and has for a while now) and her top two teeth finally popped through within the last couple days! 
• Both are eating tons of regular food now, with favorites of: goldfish, yogurt, soft-serve yogurt (Grandma's treat!) and bread (ha!  plain old boring bread).  They still love their pear juice too!

And now to mention the not so fun new things that Abby and Jimmy do (that help me work on my patience every day!):

• Abby throws little temper tantrums.  When something is taken away that she wants, or she is put in her car seat or stroller when she doesn't want to be, she will arch her back and stiffen her legs so we won't be able to put her down until she stops.  I called it months ago... I predict(ed) that Abby will be our store tantrum thrower.  I hope I am wrong, but she is quite "spirited" as I like to call it!
• Still not sleeping through the night.  And I don't have anything else to say to about that. Easy to understand that we are all so tired here still!
• Both Abby and Jimmy will bat away the food when they are done with it.  Which causes a huge mess. 
• Into the cabinets in the kitchen all.the.time.  Jim just started installing the cabinet locks tonight - and boy are they a pain to screw in

So that's it - the latest news from the last two months.  I hope to update more regularly now, so that our friends and family back in Michigan (and everywhere) can still keep up to date on the latest news in Fryland.  I hope you won't hold this quick, non-detailed post against me and will continue to check back. I promise to update more.  Especially since next month (OMG) the babies will be turning ONE!  OMG again.

 

The picture above is the 10 month old picture taken on June 24th while at our family reunion!  (See below for what most of my pictures of Abby and Jimmy together look like these days....)

More later!

Half a Year

Abby and Jimmy are 6 months old today.  OMG, what?! How did this happen?  I know everyone always says the time flies by, and I always nod my head and agree and then think to myself, it doesn't seem to be going that fast.  Until now.  And I look back and I am amazed at how fast the last six months have passed.

Jim and I were talking the other day about the first couple weeks the babies were home and we agreed it is all one big blur now.  We will randomly remember something about the first couple weeks/months, and say, "Oh yeah, can you believe that we did that," and "I forgot about that."  I am glad I am keeping up on this blog, because really, it is a great memory book.  And to tell you the truth, this is the only thing I have been writing updates on (other than the random facebook posting) - the babies' baby books aren' t in the least bit updated (oops).  So the blog is where you find the latest info - hopefully I can keep it going.

Today is Abby and Jimmy's six month birthday.  So you know what that means.... PHOTO SHOOT!  Here they are, smiling away on their half a year birthday:

The normal photoshoot "pose" is Jimmy and Abs laying down next to each other, but they are turning into sitters, so we had to try some sitting poses too:

Here's the start of the "sitting" pictures:

 Oops, Abs is starting to fall... Jimmy is starting to take interest in Abby's feet...

Nope, now it's all about Jimmy's feet.  Look at that flexibility. Ha!

So the best bet to show off their skills, was to take them alone - sitting next to each other proves to be too much of a distraction! 

TADA - we SIT!

So today was their six month doctor's appointment.  They are growing like weeks (see the stats page for an update on weights and heights) and are reaching milestones as appropriate.  The doctor wasn't concerned at all about their colds and said they look good for having been sick for the last 5-6 weeks!  Ha!  The both got 3 shots and one oral vaccine - and surprisingly they handled them fairly well.  The crying only lasted a minute or so for each.  Next up, their 9 month appointment.  Hopefully, they will get over these colds soon and we won't have to head back to the doctor until the end of May (9 months). 

What else is new... Hmmm... A lot.  Because I haven't been updating the blog very often, there are many new things that I unfortunately will be smushing into this one post, because otherwise, the newer things that happen, let's say, tomorrow, will take over and I will forgot to make note of the new things of today!

Abby and Jimmy are eating "solids" now.  Yes, solids is in quotes because it's not exactly solid at all.  More like mush.  Nasty smelling, (original form and after processed through the body), clothes staining mush.  And they LOVE it.  So far Abby and Jimmy have had: rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, bananas, apples, carrots and peas (celebrated their birthday with peas!).   So, do they like it all?

Well, Jimmy doesn't really care much for the cereals. He will tolerate the oatmeal, but not so much the rice cereal.  And he really only eats the oatmeal if there is a nice big heap of bananas with it.  He likes to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas (sing along) and carrots.  He is very impatient!  If Jim and I aren't feeding them together, Jimmy gets very cranky waiting his turn while Abby is getting her bite!  And then he is super cranky when the food is gone.  But his friend, the paci, tends to calm him down after.  Bad, bad Kristine for continuing to support his horrible addiction!

Abby loves all things food.  That is the deciding factor.  She loved the rice cereal, the oatmeal, the bananas, and the carrots - the jury's still out on the peas.  She did give us a little shock when she turned away from the apples and made a sour face when first trying them.  But we figured it was just a texture issue and we were right, she was loving them the next day!  Abby is patient and has no problem waiting for her turn.  She actually is fairly distracted by the bib - a fun new plastic type bib - no cloth bibs for solids!  She loves to play with it and chew on it.  But she definitely doesn't miss her turn - she sometimes will sit patiently in the high chair with her mouth open, waiting for the next bite!  It is quite adorable! 

Here's where it all happens!  Look at those patient babies waiting so nicely for their meal: 

And here's a quick peek at Jimmy's many faces during a meal!

  

And here's the Abster, enjoying her food:

  

Hmmmm... what else?  

Abby is rolling all over the place.  She rolls back to front, then front to back, then back to front, and so on.  She rolls herself all over the living room.  Jimmy too - but not as crazy as Abby.  He rolls front to back and back to front, but not as often.  Both Abs and Jimster are pushing up off the ground without an issue.  They both occasionally appear to be trying to pull their legs up under then, but haven't gotten there yet.   It seems like there are thisclose to army crawling or even regular crawler, but I know we still have some time before that happens.... though I know it will be here before we know it.

And a little picture that shows their smiling faces (and kinda shows how high they (Abby in this picture) are now pushing off the ground.  Their "pushup" is way better than mine these days!)

Oh, and the toys now are starting to be fair game.  Now that they are rolling all over, they are reaching out to grab the toys that the other one was playing with... and sometimes it ends up looking like this: 

I guess that's it for now!  Hopefully, I will get back on the blogging wagon and will have another post soon!

Bye for now!

Happy Five Months!

 Where is the time going?  Happy 5 month birthday Abs and Jim! 

We love you!

Merry Christmas Eve - and Happy 4 Months!

Jimmy and Abby turned 4 months old today and are also celebrating their first Christmas Eve!  We are off enjoying the festivies so a picture will have to suffice for today!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy 3 Month Birthday!

Happy 3 Month Birthday Abby and Jimmy. Here is my favorite shots from the 3 month photo shoot. And I love this one - Jim was doing all kinds of stuff to get the babies to smile and laugh. And boy did they ever - but catching it on camera was another story.

Anyways... what's new with the babies? Not too much. Except remember how the last couple posts, I have been talking about how easy-going the babies are. Well, I take that back. Okay, okay, I don't really, since overall they are pretty easy-going. But, wow, if they miss their nap, or don't sleep long enough, they are SUPER cranky!

I have been reading up on different techniques to test out here to get the babies to learn to self soothe and thus then eventually they will sleep longer. I am reading all kinds of books to look for different techniques to employ. Ok, I admit, I am not really reading them, as I don't have a ton of time, but instead I shall call is skimming for the parts that apply to me/us.

I am trying to follow the EASY schedule - which is Eat, Activity, Sleep and You (time for me). It is going fairly well, and it makes sense. The babies get up, have a bottle (pretty much drinking 5.5oz now) and then we play together. Sometime they play on the play mat, sometimes we do tummy time and practice rolling on the ground, and sometime they hang out with their favorite friends hanging from the bouncer. Pretty much an hour after they first wake up, they start to show signs of being tired. So, then I start the nap time routine - which is usually a quick book while in the bouncer, then they are swaddled and I cuddle them while singing My Favorite Things from Sound of Music. At that point they look pretty sleepy (or are just pretending to get me to stop singing) and I put them in their cribs. Usually the start of the nap is successful. However, almost always, they both will wake up after 40-50 minutes and will start fussing/crying. I am trying not to rush in there to comfort them and instead see if they will self-soothe back to sleep. Abby is a pro at putting herself back to sleep. Jimmy - well, not so much. So I usually will have go in to give Jimmy his pacifier, rub his belly while shhhhh-ing. It sometimes work, sometimes doesn't.

Nighttime sleep is going great with Abby. She pretty much has been sleeping between eight and nine hours without waking. Most of the time though, I will wake her up when Jimmy wakes to eat, just so they stay on close to the same schedule. Jimmy does not sleep well at all. When we put him to bed between eight and nine, he sleeps great for the first couple hours. But then by 2 or 3am, he is up every 20-40 minutes or so, crying out. And from there, he pretty much fusses every 30-60 minutes until I get up with him in the morning. I have tried feeding him, giving him his paci, rocking him and anything else you can think of - to no avail. So I have no idea what is going on with him and how to get him to sleep better at night.

And now - a cute video to end the post with. Even though Jimmy is a troubled sleeper, he definitely makes up for it with his cuteness during the day! What a cute little guy!

Two Months Old (and a couple days)

I am going to have to say it again... WOW -it is amazing how fast the time passes! Abby and Jimmy turned 2 months old on Sunday, October 24. You know what that means?!? 2 month photo shoot!
Here are the favorites:



And this is what they look like after the photo shoot.


So what are the babies like at 2 months old? Well, they are continuing their easy-going attitudes and are very pleasant. They barely ever cry, unless they are hungry. And usually it is if they are VERY hungry and we pushed the feeding schedule too much! They are still eating every 3 hours, pretty much around the clock. Their pediatrician said that we don't have to wake them anymore during the nighttime to feed them and to instead let them wake on their own. Well, Jimmy pretty much still wakes up to eat every 3 hours. UGH! Abby can go a bit longer, usually she can make it to the four hour mark, but we wake her to eat around the same time as Jimmy so that we don't get too crazy with their schedules (and we get some sleep).

They both absolutely LOVE their Winnie the Pooh crib mobiles. The love to lay there and watch them and we even catch them smiling and laughing (is that even possible this early) when they are watching them spin around. I only wish the mobile's music would last a little longer and the characters wouldn't get stuck while spinning around. Proof is in the pudding...see below!


They also LOVE this toy. They will stare at it for quite some time. I try to have them practice their grip on it, but so far, they haven't been super successful with holding anything.

Another favorite is their play mat. They will lay on the play mat for 20 minutes or so and stare at all the toys. They love to look at the lights and listen to the music! They are adorable!

When the babies aren't playing on the play mat or watching the mobile, they are cuddling with their mom and dad! I tend to try to cuddle them both at once, but it is quite difficult! Check it out... we are quite silly!


Both Abby and Jimmy are overall very happy babies! They barely ever fuss and are pretty easy to entertain. They are smiling more and more, especially in the morning right after they get up. The love when their mommy sings the bear song. Maybe I will take a video of it next time and post it here. Ha - it is quite embarrassing.

More updates and pictures to come later...I'm off to snuggles some adorable babies!

The First Eight Weeks

I haven't had much time to log on here and post - as you can probably guess why! So I thought I would do a general "the first eight weeks" post to let you know how the past (almost) two months have gone. I was in the hospital from August 23 - August 28 (Saturday), so our first night home was Saturday night. My parents were in town for the babies' birth, but unfortunately, they were only here until that Saturday morning. So when we arrived home, it was just us four. It was great to be home. But it was also a bit scary to think that they let us leave with the babies. Ha! What were they thinking, we don't know anything about taking care of babies!

The first day/night was great. It was so nice to be in our own home with just us, a new family of four. Jim and I were excited to test out some of the babies stuff (swing, bouncer, pack and play) and we soon realized that most of the stuff won't be used for a while - the babies were just two small for it all! The babies were eating every 3 hours on the dot, so we pretty much spent the first hour of the three hour schedule changing, feeding and burping them. Then, was the fun part - snuggling them and watching them sleep in our arms. They are so beautiful and precious - and we love them so much! Here are a couple pictures from our first couple days at home! Look how tiny they are in the pack and play (where they slept the first couple days): OMG - so small - cuddled up on the couch: Jim and Abby cuddling - how adorable! To be completely honest, the first 3 weeks were really tough for me. I was experiencing the "baby blues" and would cry at random times for unknown reasons. I know for sure that exhaustion played a big part in my "blues" and the overwhelmed feeling of being a first time mom played a factor as well. I would cry though out the day for short periods, mostly for reasons unknown. But luckily, the blues passed after about 3 weeks. It is completely understandable why I (and any mom) would get them - things change so dramatically, practically overnight, and you are barely getting any sleep and are exhausted. I also felt overwhelmed when Jim had to go back to work and my parents left, which played into it as well. But I am happy to report that now (8 weeks later) I am doing great and am generally feeling really happy! I still have moments of stress, anxiety and sadness (mostly about how fast they are growing), but overall I am doing great!

Enough about me... let's hear about how Abby and Jimmy are doing! Abby and Jimmy have the greatest temperaments. They both are very easy-going (we can thank Jim for passing that down to them) and barely ever cry or get fussy unless they are hungry. Jimmy has struggled (and is still having problems) with gas issues, and would cry out off and on for about 20 minutes about one hour after eating. It is such torture for me to watch him be in a lot of pain and not be able to do anything about it. We eventually switched formula (from Enfamil Premium to Enfamil Gentlease - yep, that's right, I am not breastfeeding) which helped slightly, but the gas pains are still present (even to this day). We give them both the gentlease formula and mylicon gas drops before every feeding. And to help combat the constipation that is present due to the formula change, we give both Abby and Jimmy .5oz of pear juice mixed with .5oz of water. They LOVE the juice. 1oz is not nearly enough in their eyes and they are both so sad (read: fussy) when the juice is gone!

So what are the nitty-gritty details of a twin lifestyle look like here in the Frybarger household...

No sleep. Exhaustion. Felt by all those involved. See below for the proof. Bottles, bottles and more bottles. Washing, drying, filling and feeding...And then all over again. Sometimes we repeat that cycle twice a day since we only have 8 bottles. Formula galore. OMG- the cost of formula is insane and we go through ALOT of it. Yikes! When anyone is home alone with the babies, whether it is me, Jim or a family member, it is quite difficult to feed the babies at the same time. So what we end up doing is propping the babies up in their boppy's to feed them both at the same time. It does get a little hairy when it's time to stop and burp. Quickly, we pop a pacifier in one of their mouths to cause a distraction while we burp the other. But soon enough the one with the pacifier realizes that it's not the bottle and starts to get fussy... so we put down the burping baby, pop the pacifier in that baby and try to burp the other. By the end of the cycle, the babies and the mommy/daddy/grandma/grandpa are all cranky and the bottle goes back in. And then we repeat until the bottle is gone! Whew - it's quite the process.... see for yourself. It's amazing how quickly the time is passing! Before we knew it the babies turned one month old. Where did the time go. Every month on their "month" birthday, I dress them in plain white onesies and add a sticker to it showing off their age. It's actually a ton of fun to do and the babies so far have been very cooperative and tend to enjoy this little photo shoot. Here are my favorites from their One Month Birthday! The next 4-8 weeks flew by too! We a lot of visitors visiting with us and the babies and helping with feedings, changes and other household chores. Thanks to everyone who has been helping - your help has been very much appreciated by Jim and I and the babies love to see you! Both Abby and Jimmy were very close to smiling. I was even able to catch a smile from Abby on tape (Ha- I still call it tape and not video).

Well, that's the first 8 weeks in a nutshell. Having a new baby is such a learning experience and having two, well it's just that much more fun. Things were chaotic at times, and stressful, but also a ton of fun and I wouldn't ask for anything more. I am so in love with our new family!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the first 8 weeks!