Hello, Poison Control?

Hi All,
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I made my first call to Poison Control this month.  We have a "stick" of sunscreen that we use on D & B's faces. Bree also happens to find it fun to carry the tube/stick around with her. I prefer she wouldn't do this, but in a weak moment I let her have it. She could not get the cap off, to my knowledge. And also, to my knowledge, she did not have the stick with her at nap time (so I thought). I thought wrong, because when I went to retrieve her from her nap, I also found the stick in the crib. A portion of it appeared to be missing. I wouldn't say I saw bite marks, but it was no longer worn down in a smooth fashion. I immediately checked her mouth for any evidence, but found none. I checked the entire crib and surrounding area and again found nothing. So, due to the uncertainty of the situation, I made the call. They took all the pertinent information (exact name and brand, etc.) and quickly informed me not to worry. If she ate any, it would dry out her mouth but not have other ill effects. So, they suggested I get her to drink some water. Oh, and before we hung up, the operator asked for my name and contact information. My first thought was, "Oh man, do I have to tell them who I am?!?" I have to remind myself that this stuff happens, otherwise the PCC line wouldn't even exist, right? The important thing is Bree is fine, and the call did give me peace of mind on short order. Thank you Poison Control! (Hopefully, I won't be reciting that too often.)

Sliding, Wrestling, and Houdini

Hi All,
Here are some recent videos for your viewing pleasure.

Here is Bree showing off her skills on the slide. By the way, she has further perfected her sliding technique since the filming of this video!

Here is a wrestling match. Drew declared himself the winner when he successfully pinned Bree and was able to steal a kiss.

And finally, here is Drew, a.k.a. Houdini, exhibiting his best escapee move. This was filmed the same day Cue came home from the hospital. We had to move his litter box upstairs, and the only somewhat logical spot was the laundry room. But it has a pocket door that Drew can easily open. We thought the gate placed just high enough for the cats to get under would do the trick, but it hardly even slowed him down! The gate was subsequently placed all the way to the floor, and the cats need to jump over. Sorry Cue!

Earning Our Keep

Hi All,

In the past week, it was Bree's turn to "work" and try out some food. Her tests were conducted at the facility. Luckily it's not too far from us, and it's even closer to Oma and Opa's house. So it's easy to drop off one kiddo for a visit while the other is testing.

After Bree's first day of work - a proud earner

Completing our testing

 "Let's go shopping! It's on us!"

16 Months

Hi All,
Here we are at 16 months! We are having fun and life is good!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Snuggling with Blanca

"Check out my new set of wheels!"

In our unofficial weigh in, Drew is 26 pounds and Bree is 22 pounds.

Popsicles

Hi All,
Drew and Bree got their first taste of popsicles while visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house. Bree was a big fan. Drew on the other hand, was quite skeptical.

"Mom, where have you been hiding these???"

"Tell me again why I should like this?"

Playtime with Auntie

"One of our famous chair shots!"

Fishing

Hi All,
Jim is enjoying the fishing on the lake this summer. He likes to fish from shore or the pontoon, or sometimes take the kayak out to fish his favorite spots. Drew and Bree are quite intrigued with his catches. And Drew especially likes to hold the fishing rod - future angler in the making!

"Not so sure I want to touch it."

"Let me get my hands on this thing!"

Drew at the ready with the net

"Hey Mom, we snagged another one!"

To the Barber

Hi All,
Drew went to the barber today. He is all wiggles when it comes to haircuts, so we thought we would try a specialty place that is designed for kids. We went to Snip-its. It was a very colorful place and Drew had a TV playing cartoons in front of his chair - lots of visual stimulation. But he may have been most interested in the comb we gave him to play with during the cut! All in all, he did great and looks like a big boy with his new haircut! I, on the other hand, made a colossal error in locking the doors and shutting the garage door when we left, leaving my dad and Bree stranded outside for the duration of the cut. Of course, Bree chose this time to mess her pants! So, instead of ice cream after the cut, we rushed home to their aid.

"Life is good with my comb in hand"

The finished product

Miracle in the Bedroom

Hi All,
I wanted to take a minute to post some great news. We have successfully had Drew and Bree both sleeping in the nursery for two weeks now! It's been so long, I'm sure everyone (except us) has forgotten that Drew started having sleep issues way back around Christmas time. He was waking up crying a few times every night. This sometimes led to him waking up Bree, which was twice as difficult to deal with. As a temporary fix, we moved Drew out of the nursery, in hopes keeping Bree asleep all night, even if Drew woke up. But, the problem with this arrangement was that we only have two bedrooms on our main level. Hence, Drew was sleeping in the pack n play in a variety of spots. He started in the living room, then to the kitchen area (which was the furthest spot we could put him from the nursery), and finally to our bedroom. He ended up in our bedroom because that seemed to be the most peaceful spot for him to get some uninterrupted sleep. You see, not only do we have just two bedrooms on the main level; the main level is basically one big room other than the bathrooms and bedrooms. So, it was pretty difficult to put Drew to bed (whether it be a nap or at night) in the main area and go about our business. Drew started doing better sleep-wise in our bedroom, but it wasn't foolproof AND he was waking up Jim and I! (Turns out, he can be quite the noisy little sleeper, with his tossing and turning.) Plus, we would have to tiptoe in and out of bed to not disturb Drew. I was pretty much at a loss as to what to do and was very close to concluding we needed to get Drew and Bree into their own separate bedrooms now vs. later. (I really thought they could share a room for years, not forever, being boy and girl, but much longer than the 10 months that they lasted thus far!) Separate bedrooms would mean one or both being on a different level in the house, and that is what I really dreaded.
I happened to mention our sleep dilemma one evening at my "twin moms" night out. Stephanie, a fellow twin mom, indicated she followed a method from the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" which worked wonderfully. I ordered the author's follow-up book, which was on the same topic but geared specifically to twins. It had a lot of sensible information about the right timing for putting kids to sleep, awake but "drowsy". This meant putting the kids to bed earlier could actually get them to sleep better and longer through the night. It also said twins should be able to be successfully "sleep trained" in the same room, although some parents would choose to separate twins during naps since it can be such a short duration of sleep that you do not want to chance a mishap, or one waking the other. With this, I had confidence again to try the twins back in the same room. We had nothing to lose.
The first night, Drew and Bree were absolutely thrilled with being back in the same room. They laughed back and forth for an hour and half before dropping off to sleep. The second and third nights were similar, but for shorter durations. And the best part was, they both slept all night. So, after more than five months of nightly sleep interruptions, this seems like a miracle!

Fathers Day

As written by Drew and Bree:

Hi All,
We enjoyed a nice relaxing Fathers Day at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Opa was fishing way up in the U.P., so we had to catch up with him another time. It was another pleasant summer day, so we spent most of it outside. If you look closely in the 4th picture below, you can see Grandpa enjoying his new anti-gravity chair.

"Take a nap? Yeah, right!"

"Stroller ride - this is more like it!"

Everyone

"Ladder-ball anyone?"

Daddy and daughter

Grandpa and bunch

Meijer Gardens

Hi All,

The kids made their first visit to Meijer Gardens today. I attended an art fair in the morning with my mother in law and sister in law. Jim and the kids met up with us for lunch at a nearby restaurant, and we enjoyed the deck overlooking the lake. Then we were on to the Gardens, where we met up with Jim's brother and the nephews. We strapped the kids into the stroller and off we went! It was a hot, sunny afternoon, so our nephews headed straight for the children's water "playground". The Gardens are featuring a Chihuly exhibit, so there are lots of interesting glass sculptures scattered around the grounds. And the size of some of them was pretty incredible. The kids are still developing their art appreciation. In the meantime, I think they at least enjoyed some time outside.

Lunch on the lake

Lunch Bunch

Art aficionados in training



Exhibits



And more exhibits

Cooling off indoors after lots of outdoor time

A successful trip to the Gardens!

Molar #3

Hi All,
Drew has his third molar popping through (lower left first molar). That's three in two weeks!

Working for a Living

Hi All,
Well, the time has come for the kiddos to start earning their keep! That's right, they are now contributing to the household income, sort of. We are now in a program where the kids taste test toddler foods, and in return, we receive gift cards for the local grocery store. Here's Drew with his first taste test; this one was a take home meal. It's a messy job, but someone's gotta do it! And you can see he was very happy to do so.

Splash Pad!

Hi All,
We received a splash pad from our dear friend Tracy and tried it out today. It's nice for me to set up in the yard and use when I don't have an extra hand to put the kids in the lake. After some investigation and adjustments, it seems to be a hit! I used the baby gate, a.k.a. baby jail, in conjunction with it to keep curious ones at bay. And, of course, this part of the deal is less popular.

"Keep looking. There's gotta be a way out!"

"Let's test this out."

A few adjustments by the inspection crew

And a few more adjustments

"Perfect!"

"Jump in - you first!"



Fun in the Sun

Hi All,
We enjoyed a day at "the beach", as in our beach! It was a beautiful, hot day, and I had a few extra sets of hands (my parents), so we all enjoyed some time on the beach.

Splishin' and a splashin'

Floating in style!

Time for some handiwork in the sand!

My left handed shoveler

And my right handed shoveler

"I could've sworn I left my sand castle right here!"

"Ahh, this is the life!"

Cue Update

Hi All,
It's been one week since we brought Cue home from the vet/hospital. He is now on a special diet, which incidentally he loves. The food he gets is formulated for cats with kidney disease. We started him on canned food only, as he had become a canned food snob ever since we started working on his dehydration. I didn't think there was any turning back, but we ended up buying a bag of dry food mid-week because the canned diet seemed a bit rich for him. Amazingly, he gobbles that up too. In fact, I had to check with the vet if it was okay to give him as much food as he will eat (which is about three times the standard recommendation for a cat his size). They gave us the green light for now. Issues we are facing with kidney disease are dehydration, weight loss and muscle wasting. So perhaps the additional food will help on these fronts. He is up a 1/2 pound from almost two weeks ago when he was diagnosed. (A half pound is good for a six pound cat!)
The other treatment we are administering is sub-q fluids, which will greatly help to address the dehydration that the disease causes. We give him 100 mL of fluid every other day, which is an interesting process to say the least. We have a bag of fluid attached to a needle which we inject into Cue and wait while he gets 1500 or so drips. (Thankfully, we don't have to count the drips!) I really wasn't sure we would be able to do this. But we have done it three times now, and each time has gotten better. I have to admit, even though I was the one who practiced sticking the needle in at the vet's last week, I couldn't do it at home! So, Jim stepped up to the plate and got it done. (Thank you Jim!)
Cue seems to have perked up since his darkest days. It's hard to know exactly how he is feeling, since he can't tell us. But he's no longer hiding behind the TV or howling. He has spent more time with the family as of late. And, he's in the kitchen trying to sneak some people food, one of his old tricks that used to be annoying and now is somewhat of a relief to see his interest (even though he can't have any). He spends a lot of time in the laundry room, where his food, water and litter box reside. (And, incidentally this makes less room for laundry. Maybe this is a good thing as is forces me to get it done quicker.) He sleeps on top of the counter. Except for today. I had just moved some stuff from the dryer to the living room and went back to the laundry room to find this....

Crazy cat! I didn't have the heart to move the poor boy. I don't consider a computer keyboard a prime napping spot. But Cue thinks it's the best thing in the world. And apparently, it doesn't get any better than this....

Molar #2

Drew has a molar poking through opposite of the other one coming in. That makes this one the upper left first molar. This makes tooth #10 for him, which means he's half way to having a full set of baby teeth!

Happy Birthday Cooper

Hi All,
Drew and Bree's cousin Cooper turned ten this year! We all got to help him celebrate. He had a fun party in the park. It was a nice, hot day with lots of family and friends in attendance. The hit of the party was an inflatable bounce structure that everyone took turns in, including Drew and Bree. The neat thing is Cooper and his brothers won the bounce party in a drawing contest. We also had lots of food and refreshments and cake, of course!

Indiana Jones cake

Drew playing with Opa

Keeping cool in the pavilion

The birthday boy at gift time