New Years Resolution

My New Years Resolution is to not have any babies in 2011. Not even one.

And also maybe to start an Etsy shop at some point.

Trevor's is to quit smoking. It should be pretty easy, since he doesn't smoke.

Atticus's is to stop using his pacifier and his bottle, even though he doesn't know it yet.

Jane's Resolution is stop peeing on us every time we change her diaper.

Elizabeth's is to get everything into her mouth.

What's yours?

Atticus

My son

Loves

Peanut butter.

When he eats it, he is obsessed with the texture, taste, and color. In other words, he is completely absorbed in the moment.

But when he's done, he's done. He moves on to the next moment. And he completely absorbs himself in that one too.

A lesson I need to learn from him.

Jane

Jane is technically our middle child, and Elizabeth's older sister (by five minutes).

She is inquisitive and curious.

...and sometimes a little concerned by what Mom is doing.

And she is also our smallest baby, with the smallest feet.

And she is turning into a ravenous finger sucker. When I lay her down for a nap, the first thing she does is knock out her pacifier and start working on her fingers instead.

And she loves to kick up her heels.

And I am starting to realize that she has a cow lick in the form of a very small mohawk.

And we love her more than we could possibly tell you.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is our baby.

Lizzie loves to sit up in her bumbo

And she loves tummy time, even if it wears her out a little bit.

Eliza is a pretty happy little girl.

With the brightest eyes and longest eyelashes.

And a sister with whom she loves to smile and make faces.

Sometimes she's serious and contemplative.

But it's never long before she's to smiling and chatting with you.

And she is certainly the most loved Lizzie, Eliza, Liz, or Elizabeth that I've ever known.

Christmastime Comes Once a Year, Now it's Here, Now it's Here

We had a GREAT Christmas! We all got up at 7 and opened stockings on our bed, as per Hall family tradition. Atticus was so excited for his toys and the first thing he did was ask for some chocolate.

Evidence of the chocolate can still be seen on his chin. Do you see that camera lens cap he's holding? It belongs to my BRAND NEW DSLR camera! Given to me for Christmas by my fantastic, wonderful, selfless husband! I love the camera, almost as much as I love him.

There isn't really any difference between the pictures yet because I still haven't figured out how to really make the best of it, but I'm so excited for it! Here, Trevor is opening one of his gifts from me, "A Muppet Family Christmas" and "John Denver and the Muppets: A Rocky Mountain Holiday" on DVD.

Jane received some very generous gifts too! Thank you all so much, the clothes and dolls are going to be well loved!

"MERRY CHRISTMAS."

Mom holding a grumpy Jane

Atticus has all the tools a little boy could ever need! So far he has "fixed" the TV, the baby bouncers, and our closet door.

The aftermath of Christmas morning

Atticus holding Jane and showing us where her nose is.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! We love you!

Yes, They Are My Twins

Today at church I met two other moms who had twins. I love talking to other mothers of twins; it's really good to see that they haven't been driven completely crazy and that they get to have hygiene now. One of the moms even had identical twin girls when her boy was 21 months old, so she REALLY understood.

You know who doesn't understand? Almost everyone else. They don't even seem to understand basic concepts of what's appropriate in conversation or how childbirth and parenting works. As proof, I offer you a list of things that have been said to me in my short 5 months of having twins.


Mr. Suspicious: Are those twins?
Me: Yep!
Mr. Suspicious: Are you sure?
Me:... pretty darn.

Mrs. Nitpick: Twin girls, oh how sweet! Are they identical?
Me: Yes, they are!
Mr. Nitpick: No they aren't, this one is a little bigger.
Me: Okay.

Ms. Notamom: Are those your twins?
Me: Uh-huh.
Ms. Notamom: Which one is the good one?
Me: They're both pretty good.
Ms. Notamom: Oh, come on, there's always a good twin and a bad twin. Which one is your favorite?
(By the way, this different versions of this conversation happen all the time. I'm usually not asked outright "which one is your favorite?" but a lot of people assume that there is a good baby and a bad baby)

Mrs. Expert: So how are your twins doing?
Me: Great! They're gaining weight slowly, but they don't have any developmental delays!
Mrs. Expert: Oh, you won't see any developmental delays now, that won't come until they're older.
Me: Oh, did you have a preemie?
Mrs. Expert: No.
Me:...
Mrs. Expert: Atticus doesn't do very well without you, does he?

Mrs. Mom: Oh, are those your twins?
Me: (Only if you're not going to say something dumb) Yes.
Mrs. Mom: Oh, well I have a three year old and two year old, so it's just like having twins too! In fact, I bet it's harder.
Me: Okay.

Gingerbread Houses and Cute Kids Being Cute

We've done some stuff lately. Here's some pictures of it. I'm really tired. Can you tell?

We built graham cracker "gingerbread" houses with Peter and Leigh-Ann. It was really fun and everyone but Leigh-Ann ate a bunch of candy. Apparently she has this thing called "self-control". I wonder how that works?

Leigh-Ann's house

Peter's church tower. I don't know if that's what it actually is, but that's what it looks like to me.

My house with the Trident roofing shingles.

Then we had a weekend up in West Yellowstone where Trevor and I went snowmobiling and forgot to take pictures. But we brought home Nana with us for a few days, and the kids were pretty happy about it.

Lizzie

Jane

Atticus. These pictures are horrible because our camera is about dead. But I know what Santa is bringing me for Christmas, and our photographic blog offerings are about to get MUCH better...

It's a little hard to get out of the bumbo once you reach a certain size.

Jane (in the purple legwarmers) and Elizabeth ( in legwarmers with hearts) love standing now! We just have to hold onto their hands and they'll be happy as a clam.

Christmas Youtube

My Dad sent me this first video and it is HI-LAR-I-OUS. It's worth a watch or five!




Also, I thought I would post Trevor's favorite Christmas song. Really. Starting in November he walks around the house singing it all the time

"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

You Have All the Tender Sweetness of a Seasick Crocodile

It's Jane and Elizabeth picture time!

These adorable baby bows that we always get compliments on are from Aunt Pam! I love them. If you think her bows are as cute as I do, her Etsy shop is here.

Jane being contemplative.

Elizabeth being surprised.

The girls have discovered just how delicious their hands are.

We also just took them to the pediatrician today, who says they don't seem like preemies at all! They are now measuring them on the full term growth chart instead of the preemie one. Jane is 11 pounds 1 ounce and 23.5 inches long, which puts her in the 5% for weight and 20% for height. Elizabeth is 11 pounds 4 ounces and 23.8 inches long, which puts her in the 8% for weight and 28% for height. They've almost tripled their birth weight!

Developmentally they are coming along just fine. They love jabbering away at us, and recently have loved standing on our laps. They smile a lot too, it's just hard to get it on camera! Hand eye coordination is coming slowly but surely. We head back to the preemie ophthalmologist in March to make sure they don't have any other major eye problems associated with prematurity.

We also got the okay from the pediatrician to start them on some rice cereal, which I am CELEBRATING WITH JOY. They have been nursing every 2 hours during the day (this is even with the 2 bottles of high calorie formula that they get at night), which means that on a normal day I am nursing 14 times, and on a crazy day like Sunday, I am nursing one billions times.

Mac & Cheese Addiction: It's Hereditary

When I was a kid, I loved macaroni and cheese. Just ask my parents. My mom and dad have all kinds of stories about it. I'm not sure if I'm remembering this correctly, but I think one time when I was a toddler, I asked my mom for mac and cheese right after breakfast. I threw such a fit that she ended up making it for me at 10:00, and I would have eaten the whole box if she would have let me. Is that right mom?

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Atticus got into the pantry yesterday and walked around during the afternoon doing this:






Yes, we did have Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. And yes, there were cut up hot dogs in it.