Twins are 11 months

Summertime and the living is easy.....not really!

Laundry Dutch pile

We have had quite the jammed pack beginning of summer! As I mentioned last month our calendar is full every weekend until August 15th. Those weekends have been mostly filled with travelling back home to visit with family. This month we will be visiting in-state friends. The two most exciting occasions this past month were the fourth of July and then when my cousin Chip and his family were home from Colorado.

Keller twins together for the first time

During the fourth weekend, the babies had their very first trip to Chaska Beach. They did awesome and loved lounging and playing as much as big brother Austin. We had plenty of help as my parents went along with us and my brother Ryan and his girlfriend LeAnn. The babies of course taste tested the sand but we found out quickly that if we let them have their pacifiers less sand made its way in! We also spent some time swimming at grammy Barb's pool. These two babies are little fish, especially Kelsey. She has taken up dunking her face and leaning toward me off the pool edge as to jump in! Both babies are able to hang on the pool edge and really enjoy floating around the pool. This year we got Austin some water wings known as the "puddle jumper" that has an extra flotation across the chest. He is able to float and swim on his own in the pool which makes things much less stressful and manageable with 3 kids to attend to!

Poppin' bottles on the beach

Fun at the Crocker Park Splashpad

At grammy's pool in June

Last weekend was one of the weekends I was looking forward to most this summer, the arrival of Chip and family. Last year when they were in town, I had just delivered the twins and was unable to meet and visit with them. I was so surprised to see how much larger their twins were compared to ours. They are only 4 months apart but developmentally more like 6 months due to our twins premature age. I cannot believe in a few short months our twins will be catching up and doing the same activities. It was really great seeing all of them and catching up after 2 years apart. I really wish we all lived closer or at least where we could drive and not fly. I have made some excellent friends in Cleveland but wish I had my closer friends and family right next door!

Bubbles with Cousins

The twins are moving right along with development and we are not seeing any delays with their skills. Both are now "real" crawling and pulling up to stand. Logan is now cruising and Kelsey has definitely been giving it a try too. Logan has 3 teeth but Kelsey is still toothless. They are moving onto table foods and really love to feed themselves. I am using up my stockpile of pureed food and adding in more and more pickup foods. We introduced lots of new foods this month, those being, kiwi, spinach, cantaloupe, grapes, broccoli, potato, chick peas, quinoa, salmon and watermelon. I have also started the process of introducing cows milk into their diet with a gradual process of adding small amounts to their formula bottles and gradually increasing the milk and decreasing the formula. Once we are onto milk it is a lot easier to drop the bottles and move to all sippy cups.

Carrots for dinner

The kiddos finally seem to be on a nap schedule. They have a short morning nap 30-40 minutes after breakfast then a longer nap around 2 hours after their yogurt lunch. They do tend to get off kilter when we are not at home but we don't mind and aren't very strict about occasional changes in schedule. Kelsey has also finally begun her Hemangeol. This medication is oral and administered twice daily. We had to attend 3 Dr. appointments while they gradually increased her dosage. We hung out in the office for two hours each time to make sure she managed her blood pressure with the upping in dose. This medication is actually a Blood Pressure medication that happens to shrink the blood vessels in the Hemangioma. I am planning on taking a picture of her tumor once a month to see the progression. It will likely be gone in 6 month to a year.

Start of medicine

Climbers like looking outside

Hanging out at the Dr.office

We started the potty training process with Austin this month. A couple of moms in my mommies group have used a specific book, "Toilet Training without Tantrums." I gave it a read and it gave me the confidence I needed to jump right in with the cold turkey no pants approach. It only took him 3 days to be accident free if naked. It has been a bit trickier introducing underwear but just today things finally clicked and 2 weeks in, we are on our way to being fully day trained. He has had only one accident during his rare nap time and he has been 50/50 for nighttime. I am not focusing on night training just yet. He will be heading to school later next month so just getting him used to using the potty and wearing clothes is all I am concerned about. I have been so pleased with his progress. Before reading the book my idea was to wait until he was ready after reading the book and discovering that children are always ready but need parental guidance and consistency, I have decided to train the twins next summer when they are 22 months before their birthday. The book suggests that the best window to train is from 18-24 months and it's a learning process just like using a cup or fork. You don't wait until they are ready instead you introduce and teach when it's age appropriate! I love love love this book and philosophy. I have passed on my copy to two friends who are currently training on the N75 program. N for naked and $75 for cleaning your carpets or upholstery when complete hahaha!

I have also found a job and have already started work. A couple weeks ago I applied for a part time job posting on care.com. They liked my application and set up an interview. When they arrived, I knew I had met them somewhere and even stated so when they walked through the door. Once we got talking we discovered that we had mutual friends and that we both had attended a Halloween party hosted my those mutual friends. The rest is history. I am watching baby Leo (6 weeks old) this month on Tuesday and Thursday 12-3 while his mom studies for her Pharmacy Boards and then next month when she returns to work at the hospital I will mostly have him M,W,F part time. She may go full time later this year but definitely next summer when she plans to do her Residency. I am so happy to be earning some money again and so far things have been great! I am glad I held out and waited for the right family and hours I wanted. Things always seem to fall into place if I don't get too worked up over them!

Austin at 9 months

Logan in the same jammies at 11 months

Paul on the weather channel last month

Kelsey and Austin snuggles

Kelsey and Logan snuggles at Grandma and Grandpas

At the zoo with Malia and our 6 kids and super strollers!

Irish dancing in her sleep

Standing for the first time

So cute when they sleep this way

 Next month is a HUGE month for us with the Twins first birthday and checkup! Until then :)

Twins are 10 months old!

Scooting and crawling and standing......oh my!

Crawling all over the place

Wow, another month has wizzed by! Not only has it been fast but it has been action packed, complex and challenging to say the least. I really don't get much down time. I joke to my friends that I don't sit down or eat but it's not much of a joke to be honest! I rest only when I sleep at night which thank goodness is usually a solid 11-8. My lack of energy is due to the fact that Logan has mastered the "real" crawl AND within a week from doing so he also learned how to pull himself up to standing. Luckily for now, he's not cruising. I am sure that's just around the corner! The day Logan learned to crawl, Kelsey started the army crawl/scoot. Twin Fun Fact: Kelsey scoots with her right arm dominate and Logan did with his left arm. Will we have a lefty and a righty twin? Only time will tell!

Standing...so proud!

We can both self feed now!

Mr. Logan has also cut his first bottom two teeth.Teething in this house is not accompanied by a fever but rather a runny nose and acidic poos. Poor Logan has such terrible poo, he ended up with a yeast infection diaper rash. As for a schedule we have had a real routine for a couple months but the babies are still not consistent with napping. My goal is to keep them up until after breakfast then put them down for nap but half the time, one of them crashes beforehand setting them up for opposite nap schedules for the whole day! They are sleep trained and sleep in their cribs so at least its easy getting them down for naps and bed. Nap duration is also still inconsistent, lasting 30 minutes to 2 hours, I never know what I am going to get or if they will both participate.

Both sleeping in cribs for nap

Bedtime Shenanigans

Chloe the babysitter

We are still introducing new foods and this month they have had cauliflower, papaya, cottage cheese, asparagus, cinnamon, pumpkin, wheat germ and eggplant. I have started making their puree a little more chucky and they had their first melt-in-your mouth puff snacks! We are going to start giving soft foods in chunks as they seem to enjoy picking up their food and learning to chew it! If anything, it certainly makes meal time more calm because they have something to concentrate on instead of screaming while the other twin gets a turn being spoon-fed!

                                                      Diaper playtime on a hot day

Shopping with all 3!

Silly Sleeper!

                                                       Closest Willis gets to the kids


 To go along with our extremely active twins, we have an extremely active Daddy! Each year Paul has a "spring break". He is the only non-broker in his office and they all attend and annual conference in Las Vegas. For the past several years, we have used his handful of days off to work on a project in our house. A couple years ago was the foundation of our mudroom, last year was the front porch composite and this year was our new dining room floor. The remodel consisted of tearing up the old heart pine floor, marrying new beams to the existing (to level the floor), laying a new sub-floor and finally laying the new engineered bamboo floor. Because its engineered, it snaps in place like a laminate floor but has a real wood veneer! He cranked it out in 4 days. We still need to sand, prime and paint all of the trim to finish off the room but we can do that whenever we have time (hahaha, which is never). We also hired (what? yes, we are sad we couldn't do it ourselves) a construction company to dig out our old driveway, pour a new pad and back section of drive, build a garage and side it. Paul and my dad will be installing the electric and Paul will be hanging the drywall on his own.

New Bamboo floor

Framed up

Driveway Demo

                                                           

So, about our busy household. Let's add another person, ME! I have officially launched my photography business and webpage. I am up and running and accepting appointments and getting great results. You may check out my company at Newarrivalsphotography.com. I have had many sessions in the last month, learned photoshop for editing and my wonderful and always surprising husband bought me a touch screen laptop so that I am able to work in the living room. Prior to the new computer I had to wait for everyone to cooperate and work on our desktop on the 3rd office. The computer has been more of a learning curve than anything else. You can switch between keyboard and mouse or touchscreen keyboard and navigation. Luckily, I had a tablet and smartphone prior so the mobile aspect I already had a hang of.

My new travel bag for Hospital shoots

We have one last busy bee in this house or course, Austin! He had his last home speech appointment last week. Now that school is out he will not receive services until he starts preschool in the Fall. We will get our paperwork and teacher assignment in July. He will however continue to attend OT every other week as of now. Austin continues to show improvement with speech especially if there is an action or sign associated with it. His new words are Me, dump, Wa-wa (water) please and he attempts to say thank you. He has been displaying signs that he is ready to be potty trained but I honestly have no idea how I am going to pull it off with how demanding the twin are. I really need a full week with someone here to help me in order to train him effectively. My hope is that I can arrange something in July. He does not need to be trained for school but I really want him to trained by then anyway but again, I just have to see!

Kelsey and Clara matching on Memorial Day

Three crazy kids

Random fever= random sleeping 

Logan fell asleep in the bouncer for the first time!

We have a VERY busy summer ahead of us.Our calendar is booked every weekend until August 15th! My week days are much more laid back and I will get to pick and choose events to attend with the Mommies group and playdates with our others friends in town. The twins first birthday party will most likely be the highlight with a backyard BarB-Q bash at my parents in Sandusky! My post will be late next month so that I am able to include pictures of cousin Chips twins when they are here to visit the sccond week of July!!! We are so excited to see them!

Twins are 9 months old!

Busy Bees!

9 months old

Well with how slow last month went this month flew by! I truly cannot believe our little shrimps are getting so old! Once again lots has happened!

Wild ones!

First off, I have officially started my infant photography business. I decided on the name of New Arrivals Photography. Luckily the domain name was available so we went for it! Starting a business in the computer era is pretty fast and easy. First you need to buy (yes pay for) the rights to a domain name. Then you build a website, you can go the long, slow, code building route or do what I did and sign up for free build your own click and paste site! We are in the process of finalizing my site before I publish it and pay (yes pay again)a site to host it! Along with that, we are designing a logo and watermark. I went public with an easy Facebook page to get the word out until I am officially up and running. I have a handful of photo shoots in May, two friends I am shooting for free to build my portfolio and two customers on the books!! I will be concentrating on newborn photos at the hospital, home births and studio shots at my house for ages birth to age 1. Although that is the area I plan to hone in on, I am open to other ages of kids but I just won't be advertising for those (probably more for my close friends and family)! I have been buying my basic supplies to get started (backdrops and lighting) and collecting props as I find them, believe it or not the Target $1 bin has been more useful than I expected! I have also created some custom items. I broke out my wood carving tools from college and carved some gumbo wood letter cubes for my upcoming shoots(like the ones cousin Kate got our twins as a gift). I decided to get the ball rolling with my business because I am not having much luck on the childcare job hunt and I am hoping this can take some of the financial responsibility! I still hope to find someone part time to watch and I have some Fridays this summer with my best buddies Drake and Ellee!

Carved I block

The babies had their 9 month checkup and are doing super! Kelsey is 16 pounds and 27 inches. (17 percentile overall) Logan is 19 pounds and 27.5 inches. (66 percentile overall) We have introduced more foods (mostly grains) this month, new foods include cauliflower, apricot, brown rice, spelt, barley flour and meats(chicken and turkey). Logan is working on crawling still, he is getting quicker at his army crawl and Kelsey still hasn't really cared to do anything but roll around. She is getting better at sitting up on her own. I had to buy her a bib with sleeves because she is crazy messy especially when eating yogurt! I have two friends in my mommies group that I have been borrowing all kinds of things from and we now have matching jumperoos! These kids are a riot, they bounce and bounce and bounce until miss Kelsey bounces herself to sleep! It's darn cute but has scared the crap out of me a couple of times to come around the corner to find her limp just to realize she fell asleep in the seat again!!! Because Logan is pretty much mobile the BIG playroom transformation has occurred. The babies are now gated in the foyer with their age appropriate toys and Austin has graduated to mostly free rein of the house with his small parts toys out of the reach of little shrimp hands :)

Matching bouncers

At the Pediatrician

New baby playroom, notice Logan's acrobatics!

A bib with sleeves for Ms. Messy

The babies have a regular eating schedule now but napping is still all over the place. They seem to be awake more now but still only take 30 minute cat naps. I sometimes get lucky and one will sleep for an hour but the other two are still up so no break for me! Austin continues to nap rarely and has been going to bed about 8:00p.m. and sleeping until 8:00a.m. The twins schedule is this, they wake at about 8:00 and have a bottle, 10:30 Breakfast which is a fruit and cereal. Bottle at noon, fruit with yogurt and cereal at 2:00. Bottle at 3:30. Vegetable, protein dinner at 5:30. Bottle at 7 and bottle at 9 then bed about 10:00 p.m. Because we have somewhat of a system, I have been venturing out of the house with all 3 at least once a week to a function my mommies group is having.

Lined up for dinner

Austin's new attachment, triple stroller!

I had two little photo shoots with some of my new tools so I could practice how to use them properly. I did some indoor shots then some outdoor pictures because they require different settings on my camera that I need to master. I think I have a pretty good hang of things! One of the shoots happen to fall on my birthday! It was a perfect sunny 75 degree day. My mom and grandma came up to visit and I was able to even take a 4 generation picture! The night before Grammy Barb came to watch the kids and we went to dinner with my brothers and our friends (table of 9) at our favorite restaurant, Salmon Daves! I took my very first Uber rides(taxi service of the future) we had a crappy Dodge Caravan on the way to dinner but lucked out and came home in an Cadillac Escalade! All in all, it was probably one of my favorite birthdays EVER!!! Thanks to everyone who made it so special :)

Rolled himself up!

Asleep on the floor

Logan's preemie outfit is laid on top

Reading to Kelsey

Bedtime snuggles

4 generations of Ladies on my birthday!

Gigi and the twinies

House renovations will be in next months blog!