1st Birthday

After those first long 3 months of the girls' lives in the NICU, we weren't sure what was ahead of us. Yet the following 9 months flew by and already we are celebrating the girls' first birthday on Friday May 1. I am so thankful and feel truly blessed that we have 2 beautiful healthy girls!

Of course, we made it quite the celebration. Aunt Brandy and Uncle Zach flew and drove from Arizona to spend this milestone event with us. They were joined by all the Grandparents, aunts, cousins, neighbors, cowokers, and friends for an open house barbeque. Thankfully, it stopped snowing and the sun shone for the first time this week so that everyone wasn't huddled in the house.

Maggie kicked off the celebration by cutting a tooth on Thursday (ah, no wonder she has been so whiny!) Friday afternoon we did lunch with the Grandparents, Aunt Brandy, Uncle Zach, and Great Aunt Gayle (GAGO) followed by present opening. The afternoon was filled with preparations and playing with babies. However, by the time the party was in full swing, little Maggie was so worn out that Laura lulled her to sleep and she slept amid the converstaions. Thus, the girls didn't get to eat cake until most of their guests had left. But, Great Grandma Evelyn kept the tradition and made each girls their own little angle food cake with caramel frosting. Of course, the rest of us enjoyed the full size version. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the birthday cakes - and as most kids do - licked the frosting off first! They did eat some of the cake too - and Evie only threw it on the floor twice (after the frosting was gone).

We had several great picture takers, so over the next few days, we'll hopefully get thos pictures posted.

We are so happy to be able to finally share our joy of our girls with our friends. Thanks to God for an amazing first year and looking forward to so many more to come.

The Fairness Post

I've been meaning to post for several weeks now, I just can't seem to sit down and do it. Or if I do sit down at the computer, I am trying to clean the 30 emails out of my inbox. But enough excuses...

I have to document that the girls have switched places as far as being the "easy child". Evie was more difficult for several months this year as she tended to cry more and needed a little more work to get to sleep. However, she has turned into quite a doll for the past 6 weeks or so. She is the happy child that loves to roll and commando crawl around the floor. She will entertain herself with her feet, or the dog crate, or the carpet, and be content. She has also been the best eater. She opens her mouth wide just like a baby bird to eat her cereal and veggies (yet screetches when you try to wash her face). She is so cute when she talks to her toys and grunts 'uh uh' when she sees something she wants and starts to scoot for it. Yet, she does tend to blow out her diapers and outfits more than her sister! But what an enjoyable child she has been.

Not to say that Maggie isn't enjoyable, as she will laugh at something or nothing and takes wonderfully long naps! But it needs to be documented, that she has turned into the whiner. It may have to do with Maggie not being quite as mobile as her sister. She can roll around the floor...but just has not gotten that forward motion. She lays there swimming her arms and expects to get somewhere. She just won't put her hands down and push. She loves to sit, and was much better at that than Evie for quite a while. She even quickly figured out that she could lean all the way over to pick up a toy and sit back up. Maggie also likes to stand (with help of course). Thus, her latest thing as of the last week in April is that she loves to walk. She really has that one foot after another thing working and even keeps her heals down. She will pull herself up holding on to your fingers and wants you to lead her around the house. But she wants constant attention - she whines and cries when her parents leave the room, and just isn't happy sitting by herself or playing in the exersaucer anymore. She also has new requirements for going to sleep at night. Laying on mommy or daddy's chest worked for a few nights, but then she figured that one out.

I must say though, that babies at 6 months + bring lots of fun to their parent's lives.

Saturday afternoon

I have to admit, a full time working mom (out of the house and in) with 7 month old twins, doesn't have a lot of spare time to blog or edit video files. Or if I do have a few spare moments between feeding, playing with, consoling, and cleaning up kids...or cleaning up after kids - I don't necessarily run straight to the computer. But, since I am slacking on cleaning the house this weekend, I thought I'd work on some digital media. So, there are some new pictures posted, and after the girls had baths and naps on Saturday afternoon, we took a nice little video. It is 3 minutes, and the middle might be a little slow, but it gives you a good idea of a Saturday afternoon in the Faulhaber household. Oh, and Dad was taking a nap upstairs.

Finally, new pictures

I'll try to type later, but I did add pictures for the past 3 months! Look at them here: http://www.b-n-z.com/gallery/v/Evie_Maggie/Home/

Another month gone by

Wow, it is December 8 already and the girls are 7 months old! Well, essentially they are 4 month olds, but still!

The house has been a revolving door of company for the month of November. Cousin Shari and Oma and Opa, and Great Grandma Evelyn came to visit and help out 2 weeks in a row because Dad had to go to Redmond. Then Gma and Gpa F came for Thanksgiving. But now we have a few quiet weeks before the Christmas celebrations start.

The girls have started being more fun everyday. Evie's latest thing is "Thhhpt" - she can do it and loves it when we do it back - makes her laugh even mid-cry. She is still the fussy one and wants to be toted around like a sack of potatoes (thus the nickname "spud"). She also goes by Evie bear (i.e. Halloween costume) and Evie Claus (red Christmas outfit).

Maggie has become the talker - she will talk to us or stuffed animals or the TV. She is also mellow most of the time and can hang out with her toys or watching TV (oops). She is the thumb sucker and likes to play with her hands. Her nicknames are Maggie Bug (Halloween costume) and Maggie Elf (green Christmas outfit).

The girls got another round of their RSV shots - not fun, much crying. But they weighed in at 13 and 11 pounds for Evie and Maggie, respectively. They've had a few stuffy noses, but thankfully staying fairly healthy - thanks to handwashing and the fact that the girls don't go anywhere in public.

Otherwise all are doing well and looking forward to the holidays!

Oh, check out the new pictures also.

10 shots

Thursday was vaccination day for the whole family. Mom & Dad got their flu shots and the girls got 4 shots each - Synagis (to prevent viral respiratory tract -RSV - infections), flu shot, and 2 of their 6 month vaccines. This is the first time the girls were really upset by their shots, but they handled them just fine afterward and only needed a little tylenol. Otherwise, it was an uneventful doctor visit. The girls are gaining weight appropriately and Evie has almost reached the 5th percentile line on the growth chart for her adjusted age. I updated their weights on the top of the page also.

On Tuesday this week, we went to have the girls' photographs done. We did family pictures and a few of the girls in a basket, but Maggie wouldn't smile at all. So, we rescheduled for the Monday before Thanksgiving. Hopefully we can practice getting the girls to lay on their tummies and lift their heads up. But Evie is not very fond of tummy time.

Evie and I played dress up today. I'll have to download the pictures after I recharge the batteries. Then she got a bath - with minimal crying this time! Maggie was a sleepy-head today - she did get her Saturday bath, but maybe we'll play dress up tomorrow.

6 months old!

It is amazing to realize that we have been at this for 6 months already - wow about the amount of time that I was pregnant! So, as we zip into November, I realized that there are so many things I should be documenting and sharing. I know, every parent thinks each little step is so amazing, although every child goes through it. But, for the sake of the girls' Aunts and Uncles who don't get to see them but once a quarter or less, I'll share!

First off, I am writing this at 5:30 am, after feeding the girls for the first time this morning. However, it is essentially 6:30 am because we came off of daylight savings time. So, the girls slept from 10pm to 5:30am, 7 1/2 hours! And I woke up before they did and decided I would feed one before the other one was crying. I guess I will handle Evie being awake all day if she sleeps all night!

Last Saturday, Oct. 24, Maggie took a bath without crying!

Evie is trying to grow out off all of her clothes. She is still in 3 month clothes, but some fit better than others. Little Maggie is right between the newborn and 3 month clothes and so they are either too tight or too big. We did have really cute Halloween costumes, thanks to Uncle Andy. They were a bit too big - mostly the head, but I put them in them anyhow. I can't really say we celebrated Halloween, because we sat at home and only had 2 trick-or-treaters. Of coure, those were our friends who brought their little princess, Rhianna, and dragon, Owen over - so cute! But, looking at our neighborhood, it is totally understandable no one trick-or-treats - we are too spread out for efficiency. So, we pretty much just dressed the girls up for pictures - the outfits are too warm to wear in the house for long. But my Evie Bear and Maggie Bug are very cute! I think I will continue to put them in those sleepers as long as they fit them even though Halloween has passed :)

The girls have distinctive cries these days. Evie is usually the crabby one who wants attention, and does the normal cry. She even gets the tears going if you try to lay her down. As I mentioned earlier, she is awake most of the day and will only take cat naps while being held. She fell asleep on my legs yesterday. And I typically come home at 4:40pm to her asleep on the nanny. And when Evie is crabby, she prefers to be carried around like a sack of potatoes - and thus Joe has nicknamed her "Spud".

Maggie, on the other hand, is a little bit more calm and will hang out in the swing (typically falling asleep) or on the floor/playmat and just hang out. However, when she cries it is the saddest thing ever, and sometimes she just wails when the situation is not that bad. But oh it just breaks your heart. She must just get her tongue curved just right to make it sound like that.

But overall, the girls are doing great. They both like to 'stand' on my lap and push up with their legs. Preemies apparently have high muscle tone in their legs, which is why these girls can do that. Yet, they are not pushing thier heads up when laying on the floor. We need to practice on this, but neither are very interested in practicing. Tummy time is not Evie's favorite thing these days - she fusses until she gets put on her back. They are also still keeping their heads turned to the left or right instead of just laying with their faces facing up. Maggie looks up a little bit more - and is interested in the mobile and other toys a little more than Evie.

Oh, and I guess I haven't written that we did hire a nanny 5 weeks ago. Her name is Megan and she grew up in the area and recently graduated from high school. She has had more experience with toddlers than babies - but is very attentive to the girls and things are working out well. She works 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, so I work from 7:30 am to 4:30pm and Joe works 8:30 am to 6pm or so.

(I started this post a week ago and finally finished it at 5 am on Saturday morning - what does that tell you??)