Fire Station Tour

Yesterday I took the kids on a tour of the Fire Station in Arlington. We went with a group from MOPS. Trevor had a blast! The kids got to see and touch everything. The captain told the kids that if they broke something or moved it out of place that was okay because they could fix it after the kids left. Now that is Trevor's kind of place. They got to go on the ambulance and fire truck. Trevor loved playing in the work out area. Especially the treadmill, since mommy doesn't let him touch hers. :) Even though the captain said the kids could touch everything, I had to stop Trevor when he went to the giant exhaust hose hanging from the ceiling and put his face in it yelling "hello, anyone there?" It looked just like the ones at the Children's Museum. Why is it always my kid doing these silly things? Of course it makes good stories for blog land! At the end of the tour the kids watched the fire truck drive away, then come back with the lights and sirens on! Today I got a call from the fire dept. and they forgot to give the kids their fire hats and coloring books, so they came by in an ambulance to deliver the stuff to us. Trevor thought it was pretty cool for the ambulance to come to our house. Just like last time he said. Only this time it wasn't because Trevor was sick. He got to tour the ambulance again in front of our house. The girls hang out in their stroller the whole time. I tried to get them to nap, but of course there was too much excitement. They napped well when we got home though.

Reflections

Today Allie and Kara are 9 months 8 days old. This was the exact age of Trevor when he had his open heart surgery. It is hard to believe he was this young when we had to hand him over. We didn't know it would be 5 days before we would see him open his eyes again or be able to hold him. Or that I would be living at Children's Hospital for 2 weeks. They thought it would be a straight forward surgery and we would be out in 4-5 days. He had other plans. If you know Trevor he never does anything by the books. He likes to do it on his terms :) Looking at Allie and Kara I just can't imagine handing them over for such a huge surgery, but somehow we did with Trevor. Maybe it is because we knew from the time he was 4 hours old that he had a heart defect and surgery would soon follow.

Allie's Fall

Yesterday after the girls woke up from their nap I put them in the same crib. They were all smiles as they love this. They love to stand up and hold onto the rails. They can't get into a standing position yet, so I stand them up. We have done this many times, but yesterday it all went wrong. I had just stood Allie up and she was all smiles as I was standing her sister next to her. As I did this, the bar fell down I caught Kara but Allie tumbled out and bumped her head on the crib and scratched her face. She screamed for a couple minutes then snuggled in. I think it was more traumatic for Mommy than Allie. I called the Dr. and she told me things to watch for. So far she seems to be doing great. I had to wake her every 4 hours last night and make sure she could fully wake up. So at 4am she decided this was kinda fun and stayed up for a couple hours and played and giggled. I was so exhausted today as I could not get a nap in. With 3 kids those are far and few between. Talk about Mommy guilt. All day I have been checking the side rail to make sure it is securely in. I think I will be checking that for a very long time. We never experienced this with Trevor. Keep Allie in your prayers that she continues to do well. We have to observe her until Wednesday morning.

9 month checkup

Kara and Allie had their 9 month checkup today. They are growing like weeds! Allie is now 17 lbs 10 oz and Kara has surpassed her sister this month in weight and is up to 17lbs 14 oz! They are both 27" long. They are getting good at eating finger food. It won't be long before they are eating what we are! They both have tripled their weight already!

Fun in the sun

Never a dull moment

So I got the courage to take all 3 to water aerobics by myself. We got there and everything was going smoothly. Trevor was playing in the kiddie pool (There was a member of the staff watching him) and I had the girls in little boats as I worked out. Kara the little monkey was trying to climb out :) Allie was all smiles and splashing in the water. They had a lot of fun! At the end of class I took them out one by one so I could play with them in the water. I had Trevor helping clean up the toys so I could get Allie and Kara dressed. I had gotten Allie dressed just then a teacher comes in the locker room telling everyone to get into another room NOW! It was during school so I didn't think she was talking to us. About a minute later, Emily, the lifeguard at the school brings Trevor in and says there is a bomb threat we have to leave immediately. Of course everyone is soaking wet. I found a nice lady and asked if she could help us out to the car. The girls were not happy as they were nice and wet in there car seats. Trevor wanted his shoes, and I told him I didn't know if we had time to get them (he had left them in the pool area.) We were told we had 5 minutes to get out of there or they could make us come back. The teachers were not sure if they were going to lock down the school or not. Of course I had no food for the girls if they did decide to go into lock down mode. So needless to say I am practically running in the pool area with the girls in their stroller get Trevor's shoes. The nice lady held onto Trevor and I put the kids in the car and left as fast as I could. Once I got away from the school I made sure all the kids were safely in the car. One adventurous day after another :)

Kara's new tricks

Kara crawled for the first time today! I remember Trevor crawling around this same time so I looked into his baby book, and he crawled on the same day 3 years ago! How exciting is that!?! Later in the evening I put Kara in her crib sitting so she could play with her fish aquarium while I got Allie. To my surprise when we got to her room she was standing! So not only did she crawl today she got herself into a standing position! This girl is on a roll! Our life is going to get crazier when these girls are on the move. Kara also loves to babble and say "dada".

Allie is now starting to enjoy her tummy and can scoot all around on her tummy. She is very good at her fine motor skills. She can pick up almost anything and get it to her mouth. She is very fast and accurate! She was the first one to start babbling all the time. Although she has slowed down a bit as she is working towards crawling. Allie is also starting to bang objects together. She is always such a happy baby.

Trevor is doing great at using the potty. He still won't poo in the potty, but we will work on that later. I am just so happy that he is no longer in diapers and not wetting his pants anymore :) He loves to draw and play music. He has learned to spell his name and Dad. He still loves letters and numbers. He can count to 13. He has such an imagination it is awesome!

The last few weeks we have been very busy. We recently went on a field trip to the Pizza Factory and the kids got to learn to make pizzas. We have been going to the park and to the lake a lot as the weather has been hot. I love it! We have been having a lot of play dates. Now that the girls are starting to move around more there will be a lot of fun adventures to share. So be sure to stop by and see what the kids are up to.

Jackie

3 ring circus

Here is a glimpse of my morning with Trevor and the twins...

This morning when the girls got up I went to change them. When I got to Allie I changed her diaper, but it was completely dry! Now if this were Trevor I would have been ecstatic! But since it was my 8 month old, I knew something wasn't right. I called the Dr. and they wanted to see her. It was 7:50 am when I called. They asked to bring her in right away at 8:20. Of course we were not dressed nor had we eaten. The Dr. is about 20 minutes away. So we left in our pj's and I was going to change later at my moms house. We got to the Dr. right at 8:20 I was so proud of myself! We get into the exam room and of course Trevor must start playing with everything. He is not happy there are no children books in the room (This is a pediatric Dr.?) Well, I get Allie out and they weigh her, she is down a couple ounces from Monday. (Both girls have ear infections so we were just in two days ago!) Then as the Dr. is examining Allie, she finally decides to pee! Right on the Dr. So we clean Allie up get another diaper under her and she pees everywhere, a lot! Now if she could have done this last night, we wouldn't have to be here :) Anyways, Trevor decides at this time he wants to see what is in the hall, so he starts to leave. Luckily the nurse stopped him. A couple minutes later he announces he has to pee and starts walking out of the room. Luckily the nurse helps him to the bathroom. In the meantime, I forgot the girls' bottles since I was in a hurry. The Dr. Office had pre made 2oz samples, so I was using those. I was so scattered at this point from keeping Trevor away from everything and trying to listen to the Dr. that I didn't put the lid on right for Allie's bottle and I gave her a bath in formula! So we had to clean her again! Poor girl is not feeling well, and now she has had a pee and formula bath all in 10 minutes. Trevor in the meantime is now playing with the paper they put on the exam table. (the rolled up part behind the exam table) I am sure they were so glad to see us leave! I told the Dr. I understood if she told her staff what happened. I am sure someone needed a good laugh today. I was so stressed by the time I left. It was only 9:30am. The rest of the day was much better thankfully. We went to Kindermusik, the park and played in the water. We are loving this hot weather! Oh yeah, it ended up that Allie was getting dehydrated. So we are giving her extra water and pedialyte. She is doing much better today, and plenty of wet diapers. Just a little glimpse of life with twin babies and a 3 year old :)