Twins Rock!

We received these onesies when the girls were first born and now one year later they can finally wear them! I came home from work yesterday and Wes only had Lizzie in it. I told him you can't have one baby in it and the other one not. It was just too weird. So, I had to change Gracie's clothes before we went to dinner and Babies R Us (which is our second home).

Right now, we are trying to work toward sippy cups. Lizzie has it down, but Gracie is still fighting it. We keep buying new cups to try but she is wise to our tricks......

July 4th

This was the girls second July 4th. The first one they spent in the NICU. They were about three weeks old. I remember feeling guilty because we left them early to go watch fireworks.

This year was more fun. We went to Oklahoma and visited family. We took the girls to a parade and went swimming in a pool. They ended up going to bed and not watching fireworks. We decided that their sleep was more important and we will take them next year.

Below are some before and after pictures of the parade.

Before

After

Done.....

I think I am officially done nursing the girls. For the last week, I've been trying to transition them both to all bottles. Because of their prematurity, they won't go on whole milk until they are 14 months old (12 months adjusted). I stopped nursing Gracie a week ago because she kept getting frustrated and biting me. So, I just nursed Lizzie.

Nursing twins has been both good and exhausting. When the girls were first born, I had to pump and then it was fortified and fed to them through a tube. They didn't get a bottle until they were about three weeks old. While they were in the NICU, I tried a couple of times to actually nurse Lizzie (Gracie wasn't ready). It was really embarrassing because all that was between me and about 10 other people was a curtain. Not quite what I had envisioned. Wes and I decided that I would keep pumping and wait until the girls were home before we really tried to nurse.

The girls were finally home and I was able to feed each about once a day because they still needed the fortified milk. The doctor we were going to at the time was not a big proponent of breast feeding and when the girls weren't gaining weight like she wanted, she wanted them to go off breast milk completely and go back to all formula. We decided she was crazy and switched doctors. The new doctor said he saw no reason to not be completely on breast milk. So, I started tandem feeding the girls when I was home and pumping when at work. Feeding them at the same time saved so much time because they would take about 20-30 minutes to eat. We slowly got it down to 5 minutes.

All this to say that I only thought I would last 6 months at the most and I lasted a year.

P.S. I forgot to mention the 6 months that I couldn't have any dairy because of the girls milk protein allergy.

Bonkers

Today the girls and I went to a place called Going Bonkers. It's a huge indoor playland. We met some of our twin mommy friends and had fun.

Swimming

Today, the girls went swimming in their pool. They had a ton of fun. Both girls loved splashing around and knew it was very different from a bath. They love the pool they got from their Grandma. It has lots of things to play with.

Spaghetti

Tonight, the girls had spaghetti for the first time. They thought it was yummy and got it all over their faces! Lizzie was trying to take it out of her bib to make sure she got all of it.

Project Transformation

Tonight, Wes and I went with our Sunday school class to serve dinner to interns with Project Transformation. The interns are here for the summer and are college-aged. They create community oriented programs for children and youth living in low-income neighborhoods of North Texas. Each year our church hosts two dinners and two weeks of volunteers reading with kids.

For the past three summers, I have been organizing our church's activities. We served dinner to 100 college kids. We took the girls to their first ever mission project. They were a hit. The kids loved to see the girls and asked lots of questions. The girls had a good time too! The only problem was when Gracie knocked a plate off a table onto my toe. It still hurts three hours later!