twin updates

It's been about 6 months since we last wrote on this blog. Whoops! It obviously didn't make it into our list of priorities. I figure that enough people might want the occasional update on how our newest additions are doing, so I'm bringing this place back to life.

Someday I'll come back and write a quick story of their quick birth, but here's the latest with our littlest:

William - he's currently at 4.0 liters per minute on the Vapotherm (to help him breathe), not under any UVB lights, very puffy because of all of the IV fluids, and taking about 5ml of breast milk with a feeding tube (all other nutrition comes from an IV concoction).

Irwin - he's had some set backs today. He's back on the Vapotherm. The level was at 3.0 liters per minute when I got to the hospital today, but while I was there it was increased to 5.0 because he was having a few too many apnea "episodes," meaning that he was forgetting to breathe. His blood sugar was apparently high, too. Because of these issues, they did a workup on him earlier in the day and drew blood to send to the lab to check for infection. The initial lab report came back okay, so they didn't start him on antibiotics, but the blood will be checked each day for 5 days. If something starts growing, they will start treating with antibiotics.

I wasn't able to hold Irwin today because he had such a stressful day for his tiny little self that they wanted to let him rest. So that makes two days of not holding my own newborn child. I did get some time with Will, though, which was so nice.

kid pics

flying the Medi-Vac helicopter at Big Rig Day!

working some controls in the back

Ha ha ha!! This'll probably go in his senior yearbook someday.

...and then there's this girl at Big Rig Day. Again, ha ha ha!!



sorry for blurry picture, but I wanted to show one of their favorite brother/sister activites: crawling up on our bed any chance they can
and hootin' and hollerin' out the window. I love it.





proudly displaying the hands of boyhood after playing with the ashes in our backyard fireplace (don't judge me! ha.)



and proudly displaying the hands of a future chocoholic. Sorry, buddy. It's Mommy's fault!

  

ugh, she just melts my heart.

Eliza is in LOVE with the vacuum cleaner. She can't even control herself when I bring it out!

Gannon's goodness

We took a family trip to Gannon's Isle tonight for ice cream and I (Stephanie) decided that I'm going to try each and every one of their homemade ice cream flavors this summer. Scott thought I should include a review of each, or a rating at the very least, so that's what I'm here to do. It'll be good to have a place to keep track of what I've already tried, too!

1. Sea Salt - this was actually my very first Gannon's experience this summer when they opened in early April. Unfortunately they didn't have soft serve available yet, so I couldn't get my standard chocolate vanilla twist with Krunch Kote. This was certainly no substitution. I have nothing good to say about this flavor. The salt content was insane. I hated my experience. I don't know if I've EVER said that about consuming ice cream...

2. Peppermint Patty - delicious. Pink mint ice cream with large chunks of dark chocolate and wonderfully crunchy, but kind of gooey red and green candies. Reminds me of an ice cream that comes out at Christmas time and I loved it. It was perfect. 

3. Seattle Sludge - I had no idea what this contained when I ordered it, and I can't seem to find a description on their website, so I'll have to ask for the official list of ingredients when I go next time. This wasn't amazing in my book. It seemed to be a chocolate/coffee-ish ice cream with walnut halves, chocolate cake or brownie pieces and some light colored peanut butter or cookie dough-type ingredient. I really liked all of the textures, but didn't love the combination as a whole or the very rich, dark chocolate taste.

4. Peanut Butter Perfection - eh. The peanut butter ice cream didn't seem peanut buttery enough and there were nowhere near enough chunks for my liking. I won't get that again.

5. Caramel Cashew - It's a vanilla ice cream with caramel swirl and cashew halves. The flavor was good, but again, not enough chunks for me. I guess I like chunks?

6. Charlie Brown - there was a Gannon's cart when we went to Big Rig Day at Burnet Park on Saturday and I couldn't resist the opportunity to check off at least one more flavor and this is what Alexander and I shared. Mmm mmm good! Chocolate ice cream with big chunks of peanut butter = delicious. I'd love to have some more!

just because it's been awhile...take 2.

Alexander is becoming a man! He's no longer afraid of the sounds of power tools and is even eager to help Gramps work on projects just about every weekend!

I have no good explanation...

Am I creative or what?! Ha. 

Eliza and Luke (my best friend Diane's son). She hasn't grasped the concept of modesty yet! 

Diane, teaching a great motion song to Alexander first thing in the morning. 

He's available to shoot weddings, newborns, family reunions, whatever your needs!

Eliza's journey over this table didn't end well for her. She had fun on the way up, though!

Our very first "on top of a fake animal" picture from zoo. Again, Alexander's becoming a man. He never used to let us put him up on these things. Maybe Eliza helps him feel courageous?

All this girl wants to do is stand up and explore! 

Why do all children love to do this?! 

awkward questions

We took a quick family trip to an unnamed very large grocery store in Dewitt today (ha!). I was swiping my card to pay and I hear Alexander ask Scott "Is he a man?" And Scott, who must have been distracted by something else, wasn't answering so Alexander kept asking. I turned to look and Alexander was pointing to the FEMALE cashier asking over and over again if "he was a man!" Oh my goodness. I did the clenched-jaw-whispering-while-laughing thing to Scott asking him to please engage in another conversation with his son to spare us (and certainly the poor woman) from this terribly uncomfortable situation. If you've ever met our 3 year old you'll know that he's persistent, genuinely wants to know everything and is so bummed out if someone dismisses his inquiry, and this was no exception. After what felt like 3 hours, but was really only about 15 seconds, the final word I heard was Scott whispering to him that "we just shouldn't ask questions like that about people." How in the world were we supposed to handle that (other than the massive amounts of laughter I couldn't control because that's what I do in awkward moments!) Especially in this instance where, as Scott said to me under his breath on the way out of the store, it was "valid question!" Oye...

Speaking of uncomfortable...Eliza Jean doesn't look too excited about this reading gig. Ha ha ha!

this weekend

Here are a few pictures of our weekend. It was beautiful!

a mini backyard picnic in one of the first beautifully sunny days of spring!

 

he REALLY wanted to get in the pack n play...

Mmm...I'm gonna like this fire place in our backyard. It equals easy access to roasted marshmallows!

hanging out in the mid-reno cupboard on a Saturday night, drumming with marshmallow skewers



He found an Easter egg!
(thanks for the egg stash, Granny!)



dividing up the findings

egg shakers!

A boy and his dad

It's been a sweet day at our house today...


Father/son breakfast by the fire

 



Father/son wagon ride around our little yard



Father/son nap this afternoon

 I love watching their awesome bond grow and grow every day!

definitions

Alexander: Mommy, what does "prevent" mean?
Mommy: It means to stop something from happening.
Alexander: So, if you run the vacuum, it would prevent me from sleeping.

Snuffleupagus

Check out the lashes on this little lady!

Just for the Record

more pictures, just because it's been a while...

the kids, bored and annoyed during a forced photo shoot for a birthday e-mail to Great Grandma Irwin
(sorry guys, but she LOVED the finished product!)



Eliza, you have egg on your face. No, seriously, you have egg...on your face...

just another day in paradise (or in a shop vac box)



so fresh and so clean!

Oh boy, she's cute.

Ha!

Is this inappropriate for me to post...?

He's destined to have glasses with the vision his parents have, so he might as well scope out styles now!

 

another option...



Oh, sweet Eliza. You have more food on your face!



Goodnight Moon. She absolutely loves books; she lights right up when she sees one!

My lego-headed husband at the Museum of Play (the guy on the right, in case you were confused)

My lego-bodied daughter at the same place

Father and son video game playing

All bundled up to brave the New York weather