Noah's Moment in the Spotlight

The last post was really a brag about Hannah being a smartie. Today I thought I'd tell everyone about our smart little boy Noah.

Noah has been really fascinated by his hands for a long time. He just sits and looks at his hands and fingers while he moves them around. Sometimes I wonder why we bother with toys because he likes his hands so much.

One day out of the blue he started clapping. We thought that was really neat and pretty advanced for his age. But that wasn't the half of it. A few days later my mom and her cousin Deb were over to see the babies. We were showing off Noah's new trick. He performed a couple of times and we were so proud of him. Then somebody (I can't remember if it was my mom or Deb) started singing "Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake"; as soon as she did Noah started clapping. We thought maybe it was just a coincidence, but he did it over and over again anytime we sang the song. I managed to capture it on video today, I've shared it with you below.

Hannah is doing good as well. She can crawl backwards now, and I really think she'll be crawling by the end of the week.

We're just so proud of our little smarties!

PS I also included a picture of our new house taken on Saturday, April 28th.

Hannah is a smartie!

Hi all. Hannah did the coolest thing yesterday and started saying "Da Da Da" when prompted. We managed to get a video of it, and I have put it here for your enjoyment. You can make your own judgement if she is really repeating me.

I've also included a slideshow of the first 10 pictures of our house being built (excluding the one that shows the lot with nothing on it -- more than 10 pictures and I have to pay). Enjoy!

5 Months Old

Wow, I can't believe it! We made it to five months already. Hannah and Noah are doing great. We haven't had any illnesses all winter (knock on wood), and they are growing great. They have both gotten very good with controlling their heads, and they are also really good at holding toys and bringing them to their mouths. They are only eating once every 4 hours during the day, and they go 12 hours at night. It is pretty rare for either of them to make a peep all night long. Elizabeth started them on solids a week or so ago. They are getting rice cereal mixed with formula every morning. They're doing great with that and seem to be having fun figuring out what to do with that stuff in their mouth.

I have put together a couple of videos. The first one documents the pregnancy, and the other documents the time since they were born. I have put lower-quality versions of them here for your enjoyment.





I hope this update satisfies all of you following the blog. Time is at a premium! Love you all.

Growing like weeds

Hi all! I checked out the hit counter and noticed that people are still checking the blog regularly, so I figured I'd better post something before I get in trouble again!

The babies are doing well, they're growing like weeds. Noah is getting especially chunky! He's got a couple of chins and nice big square cheeks. We have an appointment with the pediatrician on Monday. I keep warning Noah that they're going to tell us to stop feeding him if he keeps getting so fat! (Just kidding, obviously!) Hannah seemed to have a hard time breaking the ten pound mark, but she finally has and is starting to fill out a little more. They are both getting really good about holding their own heads, managing to get their hands in their mouths, and most excitingly (I think I just made up a word), smiling and laughing. They don't laugh very often, but we can see smiles every day now. They both have very big, joyful smiles. We think they are going to be really happy babies once all of the gas problems are completely over.

People keep asking me if they are sleeping through the night yet. All I can do is laugh! It has gotten a lot better recently. Normally we are only having to get up twice during the night and they are doing a good job of sleeping between the night feedings. Five and a half hours is about the longest they ever go between feedings at night. It is still always three hours between feedings during the day.

I mentioned above that they are going to the pediatrician on Monday. This will also be their first shots. I'm not really looking forward to that, but obviously it is for the best!

As I sit back and reflect I am amazed at how quickly the time has gone. It seems like only yesterday that we were bringing them home, yet at the same time it seems like forever ago, like we've always had them. I can already tell that raising them is going to be a whirlwind experience. I just pray that we'll be able to take a step back once in a while and enjoy our special time with them.

I've attached some picures below, enjoy!

This first picture is from the baby blessing which happened on December 3rd.

The long awaited update...it only took a month!

Apparently I am in a lot of trouble with various blog readers. I was informed by my wife that one of her friends has read the last post about the birth story so many times that she knows it better than we do! I apologize for the delay...time is scarce!

The babies are now almost six weeks old. Unbelievable! The are both weighing in at more than nine pounds. It's strange to think that some babies leave the hospital weighing that much, but I'd say it's pretty good considering Hannah and Noah weighed less than six pounds when they left the hospital.

Everyone is doing great! The babies had been pretty uncomfortable all along due to gas. We tried soy formula for a while without much improvement. We recently switched to the Nestle Good Starts with Comfort Proteins. The difference has been night and day. Previously, the babies seemed to fuss most of the time they were awake. They were either eating, sleeping, or fussing. Now, however, when they are awake they are just as content as can be. There is still the occassional gas, but I think that is to be expected. I'm just glad we finally found something to help them be more comfortable. It's so frustrating knowing that they are having a hard time and I can't do anything to help. I guess I'm going to have to get used to that.

We are going through about 16 bottles a day! We make up a day's worth in advance. Since there's so many we make the formula in bulk in a Pampered Chef pitcher (the one that mixes when you lift the handle up and down) and then we fill the bottles from there. We go through a can of formula powder in about two and a half days. The diapers are flowing too, but I haven't paid much attention to how many of those we are going through. I prefer to think about diapers as little as possible!

Tomorrow will be a historic day in the babies' lives. They will begin sleeping in separate cribs for the first time. They are finally getting to the point where they are starting to wake each other up with crying and flailing about. I will miss walking into the nursery and looking into the crib only to see four little arms waving frantically. It's quite a sight!

Hannah and Noah will be attending church for the first time this Sunday. My mom has been nice enough to agree to come to church with Elizabeth to help take care of the babies. This will be most helpful! Somebody will need to fend off the hordes. :) Just kidding, we know everyone is excited to see them.

Well, I can't think of much else to say right now. I will show you some pictures below. Enjoy!

This first picture is of Noah. He makes this face all the time. To make it even funnier, he normally shifts his eye back and forth from side-to-side while he's doing it.



The next two pictures were taken during our "photo shoot" we did with the babies. In the first picture they are wrapped in the blankets that my grandma made for them. The final picture is my favorite of all time. Aren't they precious?