Halloween Costumes 2009 & updates

Evie and Maggie dressed up a couple of times for Halloween - but never to go trick-or-treating. Their parents just didn't have the energy. But, the girls did get to try out the official Hageman costumes!

And they had pink poodle outifits also!

In other news, Maggie FINALLY popped her 3rd tooth - top front right. She had her first 2 in May and 5 months later she finally gets her 3rd...I wonder if her teeth were waiting for her to reach 20 pounds (but she's not quite there yet either!). Evie, on the other hand has had 8 teeth since the end of August.

We had a great month of Doctor visits in October. The best news is that Maggie's heart defect seems to be resolving itself! A year ago the atrial septal defect was moderate in size. We visited the doctor 6 months ago and he just did a quick check-up noting that she seemed fine, still a murmur, but she was growing fine. So, this time he said it was a pretty normal check-up and on the echo cardiogram, it showed the defect was moderately small to small! If it continues this trend (of which we will check next year this time), it is likely we won't have to visit him again - and no surgery seems eminent at this point! Very exciting. Joe thinks his bribery worked and Maggie can either have a car or a pony (did I just document that for her to present later?).

Then we had the girls' eye exam (in Butte) and Maggie was a tiny bit farsighted (normal for toddlers) and Evie was a tiny bit nearsighted, but nothing to fix. So, we don't need to check eyes for another 2 years!

And the last exciting news is that the girls will be getting a baby brother in February! Let's all just pray this little guy isn't anxious like the girls and hangs out as long as possible :)

Joe and I are keeping busy as we started remodeling the upstairs bathrooms - master & girls' room. Well, I can't say we've done much but try to schedule it all. My cousin Tom has done the real work, and it is taking shape. The tile installer starts this week, but there are still some pieces I have to figure out how to get done (know any available sheet-rock tapers & texturers in Bozeman?)

Happy Halloween, the Holidays are just around the corner!

1 year adjusted "birthday"

What a great way to celebrate being released from the NICU, one year ago today, than to visit the NICU Nurses, Doctors, and other graduates at the NICU reunion. This is the first time we've driven back to Missoula since we left - but three hours is a bit of a hassle with babies. We had a very enjoyable time reuniting with the Nurses and folks we met in the NICU and the girls look "normal" for size when compared to other preemies. (Those big ugly well babies still knock our girls down in the charts for size - but we're catching up developmentally!) We also met up with Lou & Emy, our Ronald McDonald house friends who live in Darby - and had an extremely enjoyable evening with them catching up and talking about all kinds of random stuff (somehow, Joe and Lou ended up on fishing a lot!) Plus, we happened to head to Missoula on the same weekend Aunt Brandy & Uncle Zach flew up from Arizona for a wedding. So, they get big stars for making it to both the girls' birthdays this year - ha ha! Of course, did anyone take a picture - uh no. And it's not like we didn't have the media to do so!

Here's the baby update:

Maggie took her first unassisted steps on Saturday night, July 25. Evie was found climbing up the stairs for the first time hours earlier on the same day. Evie is making great strides with her assisted walking and cruising. They are working on their sign language. Today Maggie asked for "more" cheerios on the drive home this evening. They are also working on "milk". But their favorite thing is to "boop" your nose! So cute! Maggie just started to point at things also. Oh, and they are terrorizing just about anything they can get into! Evie isn't so keen on swimming pools or large amounts of water other than bathtubs, but Maggie is our little water baby - she loves it! And the best part is, they are sleeping until 6am! They've been great all week, Evie had a virus with a fever and rash the week before, so that was not a good week, but once she was over that, their parents have been getting some much needed sleep! So, speaking of, off to bed!

Maggie's Milestones - July 22, 2009

Maggie & Evie had a big day today. They went to the park and played on the slide and swings with Megan the nanny. For dinner they stripped down to their diapers and had spaghetti sauce & pasta - along with corn/peas/beans, cantalope, blueberries, dinner roll, Kix, etc. I wasn't sure if they were ever going to stop eating! Granted, bibs would have been a good idea, but I figured they needed a bath anyhow :)

After the bath, Maggie finally got enough courage to move from the 2nd stair, where she has been caught sitting numerous times over the last week, all the way to the top! She was quite pleased with herself that she kept crawling between the bedrooms and the top of the stairs. I kept asking her how she expected to get down, but she wasn't over her happy dance yet. So, I took her back downstairs, and she went right back up again. I found something to block it off and put her back in the living room. Uh oh, now we have 2 levels to search for her. But she wasn't done yet. Two minutes later, we find her inside the kitchen cart.

She really needs to figure out how to get down from places - but I suppose that's a bit much to ask :)


Next, we all went outside to pick the first harvest of peas (we are going to have a lot this year), and Maggie crawled across the grass, foot of rocks, concrete pad, up the 1 deck stair, and back into the house. She came back out to check out the dirty deck of course - so much for the bath! And thus, she passed out at 8:30, phew what a day!

I have been so poor at documenting things, that I figured I'd better write down her first trip up the stairs before I forgot. I've already missed her first real crawl (I think she started during our trip to Minneapolis June 12-15) and her first pull up (shortly after the crawling) and standing alone (she started practicing on her own about 2 weeks ago and can stand for 10 seconds now).

Evie still prefers her army crawl to real crawling, but is making progress as he sister can now beat her across the room. She is still "twinkle toes" when she does her assisted walk. Both girls love to 'raspberry' for minutes on end. I think we've been in a rasberry 'war' two nights in a row now. There's a lot of spit all over when that finally finishes :)

The most timely post I've done in a long time...but know off to bed as I've done my motherly documenting.

New pictures

I finally downloaded the pictures from my camera from the last 2 months. Although, I really should get pictures from other people, as they tend to take more pictures of my children than I do. But, you can find them on the picture website above. Aunt Brandy also posted 110 pictures from the Girls' First Birthday - there are some really great ones there too... same website, but try this link: http://www.b-n-z.com/gallery/v/Evie_Maggie/Home/First+Birthday/

I have some funny videos too, but that takes longer to upload and it is already past bedtime!

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.