All is well here at Baby-Central, Spring has taken a break, it will be 90 the next few days and I absolutely LOVE IT! News on the front is quite scary, Nia is now standing and walking SLOWLY around the edges of the playard and her crib. She's taken a few mini tumbles, no blood shed ;p) and is pretty happy just standing around looking at the new view. We are not sure of her eye color at this point, gray, blue, green? hazel? From what I have read, their eye color can change for years to come, so hopefully by the time she gets her drivers license they will have resolved the color change, LOL, uhhh, that scares me already.

Sam has ALMOST mastered rolling but enjoys the exersaucer the best and will stay in it for hours if we let him; his eyes are definitely brown and his hair is really coming in, I knew if I brushed it daily it would grow, at least 100 times right? His voice is starting to change when he laughs and does the baby gibberish, it's deeper, not so babyish and he still smiles when he sees Gracie, he just loves her and since we are so animal oriented it's makes my heart ache with joy.

Both are eating lots of diff. foods, latest is asparagus with baby red potato's and avocado is the staple food, goes great in my salads as well. What a perfect food. Pangea is just starting out with daily training besides the usual handling and is quite the teenager, lots of sass but a good heart under it all. Her first show is coming up in May, how exciting, I won't be showing her this time but this summer I'll be out there with my girl!

Oh yes, I forgot to post Easter pix, so here are a few ;p) and it also happened to be on daddy's B-day. Dennis had a great time with the kids and family; we gave him a custom belt from Pinnell's it had a silver handmade buckle, the date, his name and our names on the inside and he also got some Anthony Bourdain books and some yummy chocolates, wow ~ a dual blessed day! I thank the good lord every day for blessing me with such a loving & wonderful family.

SPRING IS HERE!!

Yesterday was our first grass cutting of 2009, it smelled so good and the daffodils and crocus flowers looked so colorful, ahhh Spring really is here ;p)) So nice to have daylight savings time, we get to spend more time outside and bedtime is a bit later but no big deal. We've never been too strict about it (or much else at this point) usually by 8 they are pretty much done for the day. Nia is still crawling but now pulling up or pulling down what she can reach; and the past few days she has started babbling long sentences instead of the single bahhh repeating; Sam is almost rolling, loves his piano and will sit for an hour if we let him. He's also started this very shrill squeal and my eardums have been achy for days. Del is great (gained 10lbs since last Oct.) and stands at about 54lbs, he sneaks the twins toys, sock, bibs or whatever he can find on the floor to the back of the house; he has finally found his match(s) and lays in the same room with them now, before he would run down the hallway, stop and look them and then bolt back to his bed. He's a curious guy but he really is such a baby like them and with the kindest heart ;p)

Pangea is GROWING UP SO FAST!

Quick drive by here with new pix of Pangea, she is 9m old today, sassy but really sweet, typical filly and the twinks turned 9m on the 17th, wow that fast. The kids pix were taken at Uncle Craig's B-day party on March 12th.

New teeth, Gracie is better and MRSI has left the building~

Nia has sprouted another top tooth, making 3 on top and 2 on bottom. Sam's top teeth(2) are coming in also /has 2 on bottom/ but he hasn't fussed like his sister, only starting to drool a bit more. Who knew that teeth could be so interesting to talk about, sorry to all of you non-kid buddies, but these little teeth will of course drop out and new "4-ever" teeth will appear and the discussion of teeth will never resurface UNTIL a new mommy brings the subject to light.

Sammy our cat has been on temporary release from her cabin for 10 days then we re-test and see if MRSI hit the road; Gracie is improving from her bout of Lyme disease but still has joint issues from the bacterium. Hopefully in 2 weeks her gait will be much improved and at the same time Sammy will get her good news as well.

Sam is now sitting, new world for him and Nia loves the upright company. She crawls, drags herself or finds some method to get to the big box of toys turns it over, ignores all of the fun toys and proceeds to eat the corners of the box. Yes, it's a mess but apparently some books say it's ok to have lots of mess around them and I agree, I would enjoy falling asleep in the middle of all my favorite things, how dreamy, but how do you fit a horse in there?

They will be 9m next week, I know I've said this before but it's all going too fast, I wish it would slow down.

Cabin 10 requesting maid service

As promised, a pix of our new screen door IN our house. Poor Sammy has been inside for weeks, hopefully tomorrow we'll get some results on her release. I must say that it's been neat at night w/her nightlight on, like being at summer camp as a child, what FUN memories! Pretty swank for a cat, she has heated tile set at 90 and a radio to keep her body, mind and soul busy ;p))

CRIKEYS! We finally named our dog ;p)

Yes, as the title implies, we named our dog after 3 months. His name is Del and that happened to be one of our "boy" names until "Sam" came along. He is still a shy pup and I can just see such an excitable and crazy puppy ready to reveal himself. He plays with toys late at night when the house is quiet (twins are asleep) and I cannot find the words for him, he is so kindhearted it actually breaks my heart to think someone could be mean to him or any anmal in general.

The other pix are of Sam on our way out the door, Nia in her ladybug tights; since she has become a "Bindi the Jungle Girl" fan I found it quite appropriate to buy her some zebra, ladybug and giraffe tights, and the other 2 are of the kids and our needy cat "lit'l Bit". She takes Nia's hand squeezes with no qualms and rubs against Sam hoping he will pet her ;p))

All is well except one of our cats is sick and confined to a bathroom, so we decided to take off the door and put a screen door on so she can "interact" with the other 6 furry housemates. It feels like summer time with the porch door in the house; Will post the pix, quite funny because it's on bathroom door.


Next post I'll put lots of pix in a "slideshow" so they won't take up too much space. Until then Nia is sitting and rolling all over, Sam is rolling and soon he'll be sitting as well and this afternoon we're heading to The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Museum, gotta get some culture this weekend and show the kids "Bindi" art.

Another Milestone, 2 fast 4 me!

Now Nia is sitting, I've posted a pix of her and one of Sam, who has now become the biggest fan of the exersaucer and can stand in it for LONG periods of time. All else is great; keeping busy w/our new family and introducing new foods slowly, how fun is that ;p))

UPDATE~ Double Duty Tooth Fairy!

OK, they are finally here, all of the grunting, eating our exersaucer toys and drooling has paid off! 2 teeth (bottom center) came in 2d ago for Nia, amazing to see, and now she is making funny faces with her lower lip! Sam is doing great, playing alot with his toes & working on rolling over. Nia is working on sitting and still loves standing. Both are eating avocado and sweet potato and Nia can hold her bottle and eat now, so independent (much like her mommy ;p))

Happy New Year!

Well I can't seem to think of anything to be more blessed than last years big arrival of the twins, Pangea, and our new hound; so this year I will just say many prayers for all of God's creatures and ask that e/o extend good vibrations and powerful prayers to help our loyal 4 legged buddies. We have so much to be thankful for and one person can make a difference. Kids are growing super fast, Nia is scooting backwards and Sam is sleeping better (still up 2x night). Hopefully he will make it back to the nursery by February, well that's our goal; oh and another new thing, our cat "Lit'l Bit" has always tapped the hanging chime on the door to go out and now the new dog comes running when she does that! Hysterical!

Merry Xmas!

Quickie post: Our 1st Xmas w/the kids and new doggie was great, we had plenty of friends and family stop by the house all week ;p), we truly are blessed is all I can say; sometimes my heart aches w/happiness b/c it all seems so wonderful with 2 easy babies, JOY is all I can say.

Life cycles

We hear the saying "life cycles" many times and it's cycling pretty fast here at home. Breeze's EPM came back with full force and made her life unbearable so we made the toughest decision you could make and laid her to rest November 20th. Such a beautiful horse and her baby was 2d shy of her 5m b-day. Pangea is doing well and we're building our relationship even more so now that her mom is gone. Our new hound is doing wonderful, I cannot believe there is any kinder or gentler animal on earth than this hound. We focus on the goodness of his entering our lives and not the past and are blessed to have him. No we don't have a name yet, still working on that but he will definitely have one by Xmas. The twins are good, Sam is catching up to Nia in height, almost the same, and both love the exersaucer. Ok, better run and get some laundry done, that machine runs 3 cycles every day! It's either buy more clothes or launder the few we have? My theory - they grow so fast so buy less clothes and more detergent.

mini-post

Pix of Halloween w/the kids in full onesie costumes thanks to Dennis' sister ;p)))Nia is rolling over and over and Sam is babbling away. I'll post more this week and start doing more mini-posts b/c I seem to forget all the new things they are doing, it is so much fun being a mom, I am so thankful my path is so wonderful. Oh and we have a new dog too! Stray hound, long story but he has 3 legs now, but very happy and healthy.

Tooth fairy is on her way!

Where did September go? and the summer? I find myself saying this question quite often these days because I can't believe it's fall already. I started this blog in the fall last year and I remember the cool mornings and smell of moist earth with leaves slowly decaying..oh memories! Well we have new ones to add on and the big one is a tooth for Nia, she has a white dot on her lower gum and fussed for a few days. I noticed it 9/30 when she was screaming in pain, poor thing, well, the worst is over for that little tooth, for now. Hope they get all of their teeth soon, how exciting!
Sam is growing, almost 9lbs and Nia is 13.5, both eat and sleep as they should ;p)and Sam gave us his first giggle tonite, it was right after I made a spooky Halloween noise. Maybe Halloween will be his favorite holiday?

New Pangea pix!

Mini post w/new pix of little Pangea at 9 weeks old, she's a beauty and very feminine w/long lashes, I'll post a close up this week of the family.

Life's little surprises and the Tazmanian Devil

Where has the time gone? I can't believe they are now 10 weeks old! Pix above is of Nia Sam and their cousin Theo, he's a month and a half older and cute as a button! Nia has outgrown most of her NB clothes and Sam fits perfectly in his NB! They received so many wonderful gifts at their baby shower in PA and gifts here in VA that they have PLENTY of clothes to grow into. Now the shots, their first vaccines(2) went great for them, no side effects, but me, well I'm pretty tough but to see them put this huge neeedle into their sweet innocent perfect skin made me shudder, I know each month we will do the same (spreading out the vaccines) but as this is our first time we had no expectation. They each got a Tasmanian Devil band aid to cover their 2 new red dots, how appropriate for surpassing their first challenge.

A few days ago Nia started to push up on her feet to stand, I was shocked, could this be happening already? It's the beginning stages of child proofing to me, well, emotional child proofing b/c it will be many months before we get there. Sam is rolling over and has the strength in his hands and legs to get out of any swaddle (even the kidopotommus!). Pangea is doing great, just as pretty and sweet as any 9w old filly. Learning the basics of walking quietly beside mom, halting, and picking up her feet. Breeze is gaining back her weight lost from delivery and her eyes are much brighter. Arionna will be leaving the farm next Monday, and hopefully Breeze will be joining her in December. I've started riding again, been on a handful of times and it's been wonderful & refreshing to get out and return to "my hobby", oh and starting to paint again too, how soothing as well.

Dennis is great, such a "hands on" dad. I can't wait til they start eating "blended big people food", he was a chef and I'm sure these kids will have a worldly palate by the time they are 2! Sleep, well, he does the night shift, bless his heart, 11-6and I do the day 6-1, we share the afternoon duties and try to get the bills paid and errands done before dinner. They're sleeping between 3-6h at a time but nothing consistent yet, so until then we'll cont. our schedule for 2 more weeks then hopefully by then they will be solid 4h sleepers ;p)))

The cats and pups are good, Poncho is getting around well for a 15y old pug, eats fabulously and Gracie still runs around at the barn every day. The cats seems to love hanging around the front porch at night. Most evenings we'll sit outside before dinner and they'll gaze up at us w/sleepy eyes as the cool breeze of fall drifts by & creates waves through their summer coats. 2 days ago I opened the back door in the early morning to let Gracie outside and a huge poplar leaf, brown and dried, startled and greeted us as we welcomed in the morning air. What a nice surprise, fall is here.

Swaddling, movies & rising singers!

I can't believe it's the end of July, seems like the twins just got here and I was pregnant for only a blink of an eye! They are now in their 6th week and growing, yes, like weeds. Nia is 8.3lbs and Sam is 5.5lbs and both have developed fabulous vocal chords that will enable them to sing in any musical genre; Nia also has the stance of a tyical drummer, arms open and feet constantly on the go. Our local firetruck, and cat begging for dinner have no competetion w/these 2. Honestly I must say they are very good babies, they never cry unless they are hungry or have a soiled diaper. Bless them!!
I saw them smile 2d ago (not sleep induced smiles) but real smiles! How sweet is that, and both can be Houdini w/my swaddling. Dennis is the king of swaddling, he spent many conversations w/the nurses getting secret tips on mastering his technique. I just thought he was visiting the babies while I was recovering!! Both of our children see his hands coming and know they will be soothed in seconds by his newly acquired skills, mom, well, I'll just pick them up and delay their sleep, but I'm working my arm muscle's so I see some benefit in both of our needs.
We videotaped our first segment for the kids Saturday, it was of their dad playing guitar w/his old band "Johnny Sportcoat and the Casuals". The all day festival was in promotion of a movie "Live From The Hook" that Dennis is in dating the 70's and 80's local music scene in Cville. In the pix above, he was up for 3d and had baby duty at night, no guitar practice, and was able to play; it does come from the heart but sleep is key, bless him for playing for me. Dennis is so enormously talented but very modest, hope our kids will be the same, can't wait to see what instrument they choose to play when they get older ;p))) or what horse/pony they will be riding ;p)))

Pangea is here!

Finally I went out to see Breeze's new baby; She was born 6/22/08 at 10:40PM, bay w/a blaze. A little bold filly who leads in front of mom, LOL! She's very light on her feet, looked like a ballerina dancing across the field! The other 2 kids are great, eating and sleeping and have been to Dr. twice in 2 weeks.