Some recent pictures

The simlest things that make you smile

Both Brandon and Brianna are at the age (almost 16 months old) where they are really starting to pick things up and you see changes literally over night. This morning was no exception as Brianna did two different things that I just had to share.

First, Brandon had had a bad night and I was up with him at 4 a.m. with him tossing and turning and just not able to get comfortable. We usually don't wake them up until 5:45 a.m. so he was well off schedule. He finally got fussy enough that we gave him his morning bottle which made him happy and thus passing back out asleep. Guen put him on the floor in the living room passed out and we got Brianna up, fed, and dressed at the normal time. It was finally getting around 6:15 a.m. and we knew we had to wake Brandon up. Jokingly, I told Brianna to go wake Brandon up. To my surprise, she quickly walked over to him and patted his back saying "Brandon" the best she could. It was a cute moment.

Second, Brianna loves to go to school (daycare). When it's time to leave, I always just ask Brianna if she is ready and she quickly grabs her blanky and runs to the door. Well this time Brandon was sitting in the middle of the floor fussing like he is going to be left behind. Again, jokingly, I told Brianna we still have to get Brandon. When I said this she walked over to him, reached down, and grabbed his hand the same way I make her hold my hand when we are going into and out of school from the car. I got a good laugh out of that.

I have said many times before that I think Brianna would be happy if she was an only child. She usually wants all the attention and her favorite word is "me". None the less it's nice to see her understanding who Brandon is and that he matters just as much....even if she doesn't always like it.

A couple of funny videos

These are videos of something Brianna picked up all on her own. She just decided to start dancing to music. I guess you could call it dancing. I call he her Forest Gump danc. Still cracks me up when ever she gets in the mood although she seems to prefer old country and western music. Maybe I should get her some boots and teach her to 2-step.




She loves to play on her wooden horse. Got to love the Yee Haaa!

From crawling to cruising to walking

My how things have changed. We now have a full blown walker on our hands. Over this past weekend Brianna decided to completely give up crawling in favor of walking. She has been slowly working up to it feeling things out and getting her balance to where we are now. She still falls a good amount of the time, but just gets right back up to her feet and takes off again. As exciting as it is, this also creates a new headache for mommy and daddy as she is now all over the place like she is exploring new worlds. I (Daddy) decided this was the perfect time to take Brandon out of his carrying car seat and put him in a regular forward facing car seat. This means he now gets hand carried into and out of the daycare while I let Brianna walk and hold my hand. Yesterday was the first time we tried this and it was not without its excitement. I stood Brianna up next to me thinking she would stand there while I got Brandon out of the car...WRONG! As soon as I stood up and looked around, I realized she had taken off out into the middle of the parking lot checking things out. If I am not holding her hand, she just goes where ever she wants to without a care in the world. Hopefully she learns to listen to me soon (something she is good at not doing) and stays near. Especially considering our daycare shares a common parking lot with a gas station and is generally busy with traffic. I will get a pic or video up soon. Seems only yesterday she was just learning to crawl.

4th of July

This 4th of July was a pretty laid back one and we didn't really do much. It was difficult to keep Brandon and Brianna up to see some fireworks. Brianna didn't make it, but Brandon did and unfortunately didn't care for it. The loud sounds spooked him so he had to be taken in. We were still able to get a couple of good pictures early.





Brandon was blowing a kiss here.



Brandon and Brianna both got some kids lawn chairs for their b-day. Even though they are still a little to small for the chairs, Brandon wanted to try his out.



Brandon giving his best "GQ" pose.

Updated from dad

This is daddy with an update.

My how things have changed. The twins are now just over 13 months old. It's amazing the progression that is happening around our house. It was only a few months ago you could lay both Brandon and Brianna on the floor, give them a toy, and they would lay there and play. Mainly because they still couldn't move around much. Well, those days are long gone. We now have two kids always on the move and getting into anything and everything they can get their hands on. Since our house is fairly small, the living room has turned into the main play area. Especially since that is one of the few areas we can contain them with gates and is child proof for the most part. The speed at which they can turn a clean room into a messy room is amazing. Give them 30 minutes and it will look like a tornado came through leaving enough toys scattered around that it is hard just to walk. We are still trying to get used to the fact we can not leave our paperwork, cell phones, purse, etc. on the tables as Brianna makes it a point to find them....even if only to pull them off the table to through on the floor. For twins, these two can not be anymore different. Their personalities are like night and day.

Brianna..
She is my little pumpkin and can be such a handful at times. She is no doubt the more spoiled of the two. She can throw the biggest temper tantrum if she doesn't get her way. At the same time she can be so sweet if she wants to be. For such a loud always on the go baby, she is also the shy one of the two. It can take her a good while to warm up to people she doesn't know. That doesn't change her, though, from wanting to be the center of attention. Heaven forbid you hold or play with Brandon and not show Brianna attention. She will quickly remind you how you are in the wrong. She finally broke her 3rd tooth this past week and the first in the upper part of the mouth. You can also see three more about to break the skin. This should help her eat since she refused to eat baby food and wants people food instead. She has been a little crankier recently as a result of the teething though. Her vocabulary is also quickly expanding. She now says thank you, bubbles, Dada, Mama, and her favorite, uh oh (not really a word) when she drops something. Even though she usually drops it on purpose and expects me to hand it to her. A new one this past week really made me laugh. When I am changing her diaper and she has a poopy, I will wave my hand in front of my face and say stinky. She now imitates me with the wave and says stink.

Brandon...
He is my little man. He has a smile that can light up a room and will bring a smile to your face no matter what mood you are in. His personality is extremely out going and doesn't care who is holding him. Because of all the illnesses he has had to deal with in his short life time, he is not near as developed as his sister. Although, he can surprise me when I least expect it. He got me good just the other day while I was home keeping them out of daycare because they had both run a slight fever the day before (we now believe it was just from teething). I was in the kitchen preparing some bottles. When I cam back into the living room, I found his sitting up. I was shocked as he has never been able to do this from his belly. I figured out he pulled him self up on a big toy we have. He is now doing this all the time. Still blows my mind these kinds of progressions/changes can literally happen over night. Obviously he will continue to make advances if we can just keep him healthy. We have ECI coming by to evaluate him later today. We expect they will approve him for physical theropy and what not which should help.

Overall Brandon and Brianna have become a full time job. One that I would gladly accept. They have become my world and I don't know what I would do without them. It's not always easy, but I can think of nothing I would rather be doing then spending time with them.

Picture day

My sister, who has become quite the photographer, came by and snapped some pictures of the twins over the weekend. They came out really nice.

Pictures from their 1st Birthday

Some pictures of Brandon and Brianna and their cakes. Brianna loves CAKE and Brandon still does not want anything to do with it.

1st Birthday

It is hard to imagine that Brianna and Brandon came into our lives a year ago. Have things changed. No more sleeping in on weekends (especially for Daddy). I can not imagine my life without the two of them.
Brianna is now cruising around the house. She should be walking on her own pretty soon. She is into everything. If there is something on the coffee table you can bet that it will be pulled off by Brianna. She has not grasped the concept of putting things back from where they came from. She finally got two teeth just before her first birthday. At her one year check up she weighed 20 lbs 10 oz. and was 30 inches long. She is definitely growing especially since she was 5 lbs. 7 oz. 18 1/2 inches long.
Brandon is still practicing his military crawl for the future. I totally think he will the swimmer of the two (especially the breast stroke). He has learned to inch his way to your feet and tap them while looking up at you and vocalizing that he would like to be held. He still doesn't want anything to do with real people food whenever we try he starts to gag. I think he will be the pickier eater. He now has 6 teeth and has really started to show them off when he smiles. At his one year check up he weighed 18 lbs. 7oz. and was 28 1/2 inches long. Hard to believe he started off at 4 lbs. 10 oz. 17 1/4 inches.

A day in the flowers

We got lucky on Saturday and had decent weather so we decided to take the twins for a photo opp with some bluebonnets so we packed them up and headed up to Brenham. We found this HUGE field of flowers and couldn't pass it up even though it was someones property and they had a no tresspassing sign up. There were lots of people out there all who had just stopped on the side of the road with the same idea as us. I think the home owners know they had one of the nicer areas and didn't seem to mind the fact we were walking around in their field. Any way both kids cooperated for the most part and we got some pretty nice pictures.

Our first March of Dimes walk

It was a great day for a walk and even better since it was for a GREAT cause. The babies and I went to the walk at Montgomery County Lone Star College. We arrived about 8:45 am and participated in the pre warmup activities. Brianna and Brandon are both people watchers (just like their mommy). I walked with a wonderful team known as the Northwest Houston Moms of Multiples. They had a booth setup with games for the little ones to play. Hopefully next year B and B will be able to play the games. The walk was 3 miles long and there were a bunch of people and lots of multiples. After the walk Brianna and Brandon danced to the band while we ate our snacks.
I want to say thank you to all of you that donated to this great organization






.

March of Dimes

one day... all babies will be born healthy

today... too many moms and families know the heartbreak of having a baby born fighting to survive

Most of you know that Brandon and Brianna were born 5 weeks premature. Brianna required oxygen for about 10 minutes after birth and Brandon required a feeding tube. Both had to be hooked up to monitors to indicate when they were having episodes of apnea. Both were in the hospital for 19 days. Since they have been home Brandon has been sick off and on with Croup, Viral infections, Bronchitis, and hospitalized with Pneumonia. Brianna has been the healthier one however, she has got viral infecitons also.

I've have decided to walk in honor of my two wonderful blue eye darlings that have made my life complete.

I've joined March for Babies because the March of Dimes champions the needs of moms and babies in our community and across the nation. The money we raise for March for Babies will help:

- support all-important research offering preventions and solutions for babies born too soon or with birth defects
- educate women on things they can do to increase their chances of having a healthy baby
- provide comfort and information to families with a newborn in intensive care
- push for newborn screening and health insurance for all pregnant women and children

Please help by donating today!

It's easy, safe and secure - just click to make your donation


http://www.marchforbabies.org/K9700290

11 months old

Brandon and Brianna turned 11 months old yesterday and I thought I would mention how they are doing. Both are doing very well.

Brianna, even though she STILL doesn't have any teeth, is now eating just about any kind of adult food we give her. She has learned to chew (maybe we should call it gum) very well. People at daycare said she eats better and cleaner than some of the older kids they have. She also has a huge appetite. We have cut back from 4 meals a day to 3 regular meals a day with two snack periods and she seems to be adjusting very well to this. I must add it is nice to be able to hand her the bottle and let her feed her self. Makes bottle time sooo much easier. Especially if you are alone and taking care of both by yourself. Her last doctors visit showed her to be in the mid 19 lbs range so she should be ready for a forward facing car seat at the 1 year mark. She continues to be the great sleeper at night. Just as it has been since she hit the 3 month mark, we can put her to bed and just about forget about her. I can almost count on one hand the number of times she has woke up in the middle of the night. She is moving around very well and has learned how to sit up on her own. She has now started to pull her self up on things in an attempt to stand. This is somewhat scarry for me as she is standing in her crib. Not that that is a big deal, but daycare says she is showing signs of trying to climb out of the crib. Even though we have her home crib at the lowest setting, we are considering getting one of those crib tents just incase. It would be an awfully big fall if she did manage to climb out. If you hold her hands, she can step very well and we think she will pick up walking quickly. He favorite word (if you can call it that) is GE GE which is what she came up for doggie (Summer, our Lab). She absolutly loves to watch Summer run around, but hates it when she licks her face. She also has learned to say "Uh oh", but is still not sure when is the right time.

Brandon, even though he has 5 teeth and one more on the way, has yet to figure out how to chew. In fact he HATES solid food and wants nothing to do with it. For this reason we still have him on stage 2 baby food. His last doctors visit, he weighed in the lower 17 lbs range so he is making good progress. He is really starting to do well crawling. It's just like his sisters belly crawl, but he is atleast moving around the livingroom. We have managed to keep him mostly healthy for a good while now. He still sometimes gets the usual cold and congestion, but his cough has managed to stay away along with any fever. He has also been sleeping great through the night. He gets a little restless for the first hour or so of the night, but once he gets past that, he is usually out for the night.

The two together are really getting along great. With brandon now able to crawl, he doesn't let Brianna take his toys like she used to be able to. Even if she does, he will go back after it. It's funny to watch them play tug-of-war when both want the same toy.

Invitations are about to go out for their 1st b-day which will be here before you know it. I'm sure Brianna will dive head first in to her cake and make an absolute mess. Branon will probably be different. He probably won't know what to make of it and will end up slapping it with his hands and just playing with it.

Ok, maybe a few more

Random "around the house" pictures

Brandon actually fell asleep IN the jumper!







Yes, I can have a bad hair day.



Helloooooo there!