I’m typing this blog post outside while handing out candy to all the neighborhood kids. I can’t believe next year at this time we’ll be taking the kids door to door trick or treating.

So are you ready for the cutest Halloween pictures ever? Yeah me too. Apparently our house has swallowed our camera. I know, what are the odds? When it’s found we’ll post some pictures.

We had our 6 month NICU follow up today. The babies fared pretty well. So get this, Paige has a 75% weight to height ratio. Ideally you want that ratio around 50%. Yeah, she gives new meaning to the term chunky monkey. We are going to start incorporating more baby food into her diet immediately and reduce her calories. Paige is just a few ounces shy of 19 pounds. You heard me right, 19 pounds!! However, I do think the scales at the clinic are on the high side as Cole weighed in at 14 pounds 14 ounces. If that’s right he’s gained almost 12 ounces since last week which seems a little fishy. Every scale is different.

All in all the doctor thought both babies are doing really well. They are ahead of the curve in some areas and behind in others. She gave us lots of homework to start doing with the babies. Between all our therapies and work with the babies I’m sure they will be only ahead of the curve one day. Wishful thinking never hurt anyone!

Oh so we received a couple comments today about the babies. The first one comes in the elevator when an older woman asked if they were twins. We said yes. She paused a few seconds and then followed up her question with the comment, “But he’s so much smaller than her”. Thanks lady! The next one came when a gentlemen asked if we had two boys. Viscouse, please feel some vindication as you are not alone in the world!

Happy Halloween!

Cole: “Muhahahaha…Daddy will never find his camera!”

Cole continues to eat like a super star. He was averaging around 300-500 ccs just a few weeks ago, now he’s almost at 700 cc/day (30 cc = 1 ounce). His eating is still a big concern, but it doesn’t take up every waking moment of every day. I think the babies both might be going through growth spurts. Paige has started eating like a mad woman. Okay, not sure if mad women eat a lot, but you get the idea. Cole started propping himself up on all fours. He’s definitely crawling, it just sucks all his energy up. We haven’t used Cole’s glasses yet. Long story short, they suck and we need a new pair because they don’t fit at all. Even if we had a pair that fit better, we are not sure how we are going to keep them on him. He’s a mad man, not sitting in one place for too long. Tobie took the babies grocery shopping for the first time today by herself. What a brave woman! We also got approved for occupational therapy. I believe we now have all the therapies lined up for the babies: physical, occupational, play, speech, and vision (do they have a smell therapy?). Saturday we celebrate our wedding anniversary at the Boulders Resort. We have a tradition of going there every year for our anniversary. It will be the first time since leaving the NICU we will be leaving the babies in the care of someone that is not Tobie. Wish us luck.

When we decided on the name Cole, it was just one of those names we went yeah, that just fits. We really didn’t know any kids named Cole at the time and it seemed like a pretty common yet unique name. How wrong we were. Since his birth, we have ran into so many people who have named their baby Cole. In fact even our quarterback has just named his kid Cole (what a wanna be). The same thing goes for Paige. We thought we were all sly coming up with not so common names. I guess this just shows us we don’t get out of the house very often and we don’t have a lot of friends!

Cole has been eating better and better each day. His daily intake is slowly rising to more respectable levels. We have a long way to go before we hit his target intake, but we are definitely moving in that direction. We’ve found we can get some good feeds in him when he is semi-awake, so that means less sleep at night for us. They are usually long feeds as his suck isn’t that vigorous and we have to be extra careful to make sure he doesn’t choke. As Hannibal from the A-Team was fond of saying “I love it when a plan comes together“. We think Paige is going through a growth spurt again. She recently just started taking huge bottles again. She had a 7 ounce feed today, which is huge considering how thick we have to make them.

Both babies personalities are starting to shine. Okay, that’s kind of a lie since Cole has been Mr. Personality from day 1 (I think the pictures say it all). We’ve had numerous people who had previously seen Paige a few months ago and then again just recently comment on how much personality she has. She loves to talk and smile all day long. Her favorite activity is lying in the play pen grabbing at hanging rings. Cole now loves to be on the floor on his belly. Even though he was kind of crawling last month, he has stopped going forward and only crawls backwards now. He’s mastered rolling on both sides as well. He’ll usually roll until some obstacle blocks his progress. If we leave the baby zone for less then a minute and come back, Cole is usually in a different spot in the room. Paige just recently started rolling on her side and belly. If we put her on her belly, she hates it, but if she does it, she loves it. Kids, go figure.

The babies have also picked out their favorite toys. Is it the woozit? The singing turtle? The musical snake? The fake keys? The lamb? The bunny? The monkey? The singing Ernie? Or any of the other 100 toys we have in the baby zone? Nope, they love daddy’s hands. Hands are the most fascinating toy to them. So I’m thinking about pitching a new toy to Babies R Us. It will be an exact replica of my hands (it will even have the scar from my pet rat, Ralph, biting me when I was young lad, but that is a story for another blog). The hands will be life like, hairy, and very flexible. What do you think? Am I on to a million dollar idea? Will pregnant mommies jump for joy when someone at their baby shower gets them “Man Hands (for infants 6 month to 1 year)”?

We had another OB appointment today. We are almost at 13 weeks. Even though I was at the appointment, I have a hard time believing we are pregnant again. It’s like that movie “Groundhog’s Day” where Bill Murray lives the same day over and over again. “What you’re pregnant?” The next day: “What you’re pregnant again?” The next next day: “What you are pregnant again? Weren’t you just pregnant? It’s like you have been pregnant for over a year.” The baby checked out fine on the ultrasound. Up till this point we thought we were having a boy. Today the baby was so chill on the ultrasound. Reminded us a lot of Paige. Maybe it’s a girl? Tobie says it’s a boy, I say it’s a girl. It’s the only way we can’t be wrong. We will find out the sex in about 5 weeks. Of course we are going to find out the sex, we aren’t one of those crazy parents that wait till the birth (and of course I mean crazy in the most flattering sense of the word)! Just kidding, but you know who you are.

Tobie here: We’re having a lazy Sunday here. Sometimes I just want to take a day off from being a parent and lounge around the house with the babies, no therapies, no laundry, no bottle washing. I’m sure I’ll be longing for days like that for the next 19 years. Luckily the babies are going along with our lazy day and seem to be pretty chill doing nothing as well. So I haven’t posted in a long time and normally my posts are hormone-driven rants on the brink of insanity so I thought I’d post a happy blog for a change.

First off, our weeks are becoming very enjoyable. Naps are pretty predictable and I’m getting into a routine of when to shower, when to do laundry, dishes, etc. The key is to never sit down. Exhausting, yes, but at least I know that at the end of the day I don’t have all those chores waiting for me and I can doze off at my new bedtime hour of 7:30-8pm. Yeah, you read that right. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be going to sleep at that hour I would have laughed. I am exhausted 24/7…but since I quit work…it’s not so bad. Hi to all at work! I miss you guys…though I don’t miss feeling like poop. The tiredness from the pregnancy seems to be waning a bit too. Or maybe I’m just optimistic. Speaking of the pregnancy…I am now in week 12. Wow! It’s weird that the trips were born at 24 weeks and I’m halfway to their birthdate. I was thinking back this morning to last year at Halloween (which is next week) and how I went trick-or-treating with my sister and we were only able to walk to the end of the street before I got really tired of lugging my enormous belly around. I am getting quite large, but I guess looking back I’m not even close to the weight I was last year.

So I have one or two gloomy thoughts (I know this was supposed to be a happy posting) then I’ll close with some happy thoughts. Cole’s weight. We all knew my breakdown regarding this was coming. Our GI appt is tomorrow morning and I’m already sick to my stomach thinking about the result of that appt. I’m torn on where to go with the lil guy’s situation…I hate being frustrated with his low intake every day…but if the other option is tubing him that makes me sick as well because he just finally has nothing on his gorgeous face after 9 months of continuous tubing and tape from the O2. But I can’t have him off the growth charts forever. I know it’s up to the doctors and I will be open-minded tomorrow. Still going to worry tonight though. Last thought that is negative…..who is the knucklehead that wanted a 2-story house? Oh right, me. I’m going to do a mini-study to see how many times I go up and down those darn stairs a day. I know I have to do 3 trips in the morning and again at night just getting the babies and their gear up and down. Not including my trips for laundry and getting myself dressed. Anyways as I get heavier and the babies get heavier…I’m in fear.

Okay to summarize this long post….the babies are adorable. I love waking up to their smiles every day even if it is an obscene hour of the morning. I love listening to them “talk” to each other in their cribs. I love blow-drying Paige’s hair. I love Cole’s giggles with Peek-a-boo. Love, love, love.

He’s almost 10 months old, but reading at an 11 month level!

Cole just informed me that Pluto isn’t a planet. Who knew? Reading is good.

This smiled only lasted a few seconds before he ripped off the glasses.

Basically he’s able to keep the glasses on for as long as it takes me to snap 4 pictures of him. Unfortunately these glasses really don’t fit him well at all. They have a nose guard on them that causes the glasses to stick too far away from his face. He’s already almost poked himself in the eye with that piece. We are going to go back to the store and see about getting him a different pair. His head is so small, it makes it difficult to find frames that would fit.