Two for TWO!

 

It has been a full year since we have blogged about our nuggets and it seems that with the arrival of their 2nd birthday-the blog will be an annual event (We've failed as bloggers....). We just read the post from last year and it is remarkable how much can change in a year. Here are some overall highlights:

 

*Both CJ and Keagan graduated from physical and occupational therapy in the fall. That means that they "caught up" to their  actual age and the therapists felt they would continue to do well on their own-and they are! They love to climb-up and down stairs, on couches, up slides at the gym. Pretty typical toddler stuff which is awesome! I think they look super funny when they run-they basically pump their arms quickly and power walk but they think they are super fast :)

 

*We also "graduated" from having to do follow-ups with our neurosurgeon! We had our final appointment with her in the fall. I believe her words were, "I would love to still see you as patients, selfishly, but there is no longer a medical concern" (She seemed pretty in awe of how well both kids were doing given their history, especially CJ). Keagan also saw her cardiologist in the fall and her PDA in her heart has closed on its own! That means the ONLY medical issue we have lingering out there is that she still has a very small hole in her heart (called an ASD) but it isn't having an adverse impact on her heart function. We will continue to have a yearly check-up with that doctor and if/when it becomes necessary to fix-it will be a fairly routine procedure.  

 

I (Kendra) have been extremely fortunate to get to stay home with the kids since last summer. I just recently had an "ah-ha" moment when I realized why every parent/grandparent wants to brag about their kid and thinks that their child is sooo smart. I think it is because there seems to be something new happening almost everyday in terms of their development. I know that every other toddler learns their ABC's but to hear Keagan sing it one morning when only the day before she wasn't-is just crazy. Or when CJ turns around in the shopping cart and points to the big letter M on the Marianos sign and says "M" and I didn't have any CLUE that he identify letters on his own. So I'm bragging (there will be more-sorry) but you get to see a little person change so much in such a short amount of time! As adults, most of us are settled in what we already know. 

 

Here is a quick update on what is new in the life of:

 

CJ
He continues to be a "big kid" and weighs over 30 lbs. He still has a lot of the same personality traits that he had a year ago-pretty laid back and sweet. He definitely has hit "toddler status" in the past couple of months as he is very quick to throw things when he is not getting his way. It seems to be getting better as he adds more words to his vocabulary to tell us what is frustrating him (he is in speech therapy once a week but we have a suspicion that he will be graduating from that soon).
He is very into shapes right now. He even knows what a trapezoid looks like! (Be honest, how many of you know what a trapezoid is...?!!) He is extremely observant, spotting letters and shapes everywhere.  He's the second best dancer in the family (Dad is #1 by a long shot); LOVES to snuggle; and has yet to meet a 'chippy' (potato chip) that he doesn't like. 

 

Keagan
She is still more of a peanut compared to her brother but floats right around the 50th percentile in weight and height. Her feet are small though-she only wears a toddler size 5 shoe...weird because Kendra's feet are quite large :) Very much like CJ-Keagan still has many of the same personality traits that she had a year ago. She is now very verbal - she repeats almost everything we say (from what I've heard-a pretty typical girl). One of her favorite activities right now is singing. It is one of the few things that can calm her down quickly if she is upset or just make her happier if she is already in a good mood! She sings along to most of the songs she knows and in the past couple of weeks, we've heard her trying to sing alone as she plays-it is really adorable. She also LOVES to read and can read along with her favorite books-she has a pretty awesome memory. Her newest "trick" this week is that she is counting by herself and today she said the ABCs all by herself.  It makes the teacher in Kendra happy 



 

Twin snuggling!!

 

 

They know all of their basketball terms: shoot, dunk, pass, dribble, and we're working on rebound. 

 

 

How can you not be happy if you're a Tide fan??!! 

 

"First we'll make snow angels for a two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle."  Or, just skip to the snuggling....

 

 

Admittedly, we have been terrible bloggers.  At this point, it would be offensive to all bloggers for us to even call ourselves bloggers, but we're trying to raise these to rascals... 

 

We are fortunate to have family and friends that love and support us.  For everyone out there who has sent us thoughts, prayers, love etc., who we might not see or talk to on a regular basis, we are equally thankful and just simply want to end with a THANK YOU!  We love you all, be good.

Happy Birthday CJ and Keagan!!!

The end of a great birthday today but we are TIRED
(this is a 12 month onesie on both of them!).

As always-not wanting to disappoint his fans-the big boy weighs in at over 25 pounds - he continues to amaze us with how healthy and sturdy he is (aka CHUBBY)! 

On the attack-Keagan Helen is closing in on 20 pounds!

Our favorite event of our birthday-we went to the park for a ride on the swings...pictures say it all. 

The babies 1st birthday has been a point of conversation for a few weeks now and we just couldn't quite wrap our minds around the fact that the day was coming. It is absolutely crazy how long ago it seems that the babies were in the NICU and we were going through the craziness of this day a year ago and yet the time has gone so fast (quite cliche-we know).


It has been a LONG time since we updated the blog (we're sorry), but here are some highlights of the past 3 months:

• The kids started their physical therapy sessions a couple of months ago and have made good progress. 
• Keagan is now regularly on all fours or rolling around to get what she wants. In the past couple of weeks we've seen a huge change in her temperament. She is a baby that wants everything around her and now she can get to it on her own! It makes her much happier, which makes us much happier...now we don't have to listen to her scream for an adult to get her the toy she wants :) The crawling is coming soon and we think we are going to have to figure out this "baby-proofing" thing pretty quickly.  Maybe we should just tether her to her brother...good luck moving 26 pounds kid!!
• CJ's actions match his personality....relaxed and smooth.  CJ reaches for everything, bangs toys together and happily watches his sister do all the moving.  But, he has started to put weight (and he has quite a bit of it!!!) on his legs and is quite pleased with himself when he stands with our help and can play with a toy. We think he is getting a little bored and hope that motivates him to start going after some toys...
• Occupational therapy will start in April and the kids will be working more on their sensory play development as well as gross and fine motor skills-should be fun! Our PT tells us there is a lot of overlap between OT and PT at this age so basically we'll just be getting more help which is always welcomed. 
• CJ had his MRI in January and the initial report was good!  We haven't had our neurosurgery follow-up yet, but our doctor said that we could wait to come in to see her until after Keagan's MRI so we could talk about both babies at once. Of course, Keagan's now isn't going to be as easy as we'd like because she has to get general anesthesia due to her heart holes-ugh! That appt. is scheduled for April 19th. 
• Everything CJ and Keagan do (for the most part) is still right on track with our adjusted age of 8 and a half months. The one thing they seem to be be advanced at is EATING! They are both very good eaters and have started to munch on most big people food that we eat. Last night they enjoyed some quesadillas for dinner and this morning they ate biscuits and gravy with Mommy and Daddy :) It is fun. They also have made the FANTASTIC transition (that every parent loves) from formula to milk-woo hoo!!  

Picture time: we've picked out some of the top ones from the past 3 months-sorry there are so many :) 

Birthday party 3/18
Clayton and Clayton being Clayton-y :)

I'm so good at this unwrapping thing.

Mamaw and Keagan can now vacuum together!

OOH-cupcake GOOD!

Face + cupcake = FIRST BIRTHDAY party

The tide are national champions-roll tide!

Big kids like to eat rice and beans with Mom and Dad at Chili's. 

 

11 months-working on tummy time

Dynamic duo

Mom told you I was a good eater :) Stickers, food, whatever...

There is a happy boy!

Christmas morning at home-SANTA came to visit!

17 months (8+9 months in one fabulous blog)

It has been 2 months since we've blogged and I do apologize to those of you who are still checking this site and have been anxiously waiting an 8 month post. Here it is! A month late BUT the 9 month post is right on time-pretty good, right?!? I need to have a day off school every time CJ and Keagan hit a month milestone.

I just had to look back at our 7 month blog so I could remember what it was that we were doing two months ago and it is AMAZING how things have changed in such a short time.

• CJ and Keagan are now eating three meals a day! Once we tried cereal again (2 months ago) it went much better and it quickly progressed to adding fruits and veggies. We are making our own baby food (with the help of Grammie and Mamaw)! So far we have tried and enjoyed: sweet potatoes, squash, avocados, broccoli, bananas, apples, peaches, and prunes. We also eat green beans and carrots but we have to be a little sneaky and combine these with other foods. The doctor told us that we can start adding in protein (yogurt, turkey, chicken) but we (Mom and Dad) aren't quite ready yet-this is all happening so fast...so, we'll fill you in with how that goes in the next post.
• We were evaluated again by our early intervention team and both kids have now qualified to receive physical and occupational therapy. When they were first evaluated 5 months ago, they didn't need any interventions but they now both a little help for totally different reasons....
• Keagan: She is stiff as a board-if you look at her laying on the ground, most of the time it looks like she is in "plank" position (legs stiff-feet lifted a few inches off the ground). The same thing goes for when you pick her up-she is always super rigid. Also, she still has some reflexes of a much younger baby (about 3 months old).
• CJ: I call him my "love lump." He is just totally happy laying down or snuggling. He doesn't have much interest in putting weight on his legs or reaching for things. He IS rolling over from tummy to back (but I think he only figured it out because it gets him out of tummy time which he does NOT like). The good news is that the therapists that evaluated him said that he isn't doing a bunch, but what he is doing, he does very well! Apparently, Clayton Eric was a very lazy baby so we are hoping it is more genetic than anything else...only time will tell.
• We haven't had any sessions yet with the therapists so it will be interesting to see what they do to help with these issues. We do know that both babies need to get stronger so I keep envisioning them lifting weights :) 
• We saw a neurosurgeon from Children's Memorial last week to follow-up on our NICU stay. It went well and she said that from the physical exam both kids are pretty much doing what she would want to see them doing at this age-yay! We will be getting an MRI for each baby next month to get a really clear look at their brains. We knew this was coming but it still will be a bit tough...they will do it downtown at Children's and CJ and Keagan will have to be sedated. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers that things go smoothly. 

I haven't had to write this much is long time! That isn't everything but I'm ready to start the pictures now so anything I haven't included will be in captions. I'll do the 8 months pics first then do some more updates with the pics from today!

8 months old

FORMER WOMBMATES (say it out loud)
I found these when shortly after I found out we were having twins and was super excited that they finally fit! 

Moo cows-1st Halloween! 

And now the 9 month pics:...a day in the life of Keagan and CJ

(pink sticker=Keagan  blue sticker=CJ)

I'm getting so big-over 16 lbs. and finally on the the 8 month growth chart in the 5th%!

I'm still big :) I weigh about 21 lbs. now and am in the the 75th% for 8 month olds! I am a preemie phenomena-seriously.

I sit on my own for a few seconds at a time!
I stand too!!

I can also sit up but need a little more help from the boppy pillow still. 

We EAT-it seems like ALL the time...

We like to put everything in our mouths-including each others limbs.

We PLAY!!

We continue to laugh and entertain everyone who hangs out with us!
We hope that you all have fantastic holiday with your family and friends.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

SMILE big

Big smiley babies...
CJ is about 18 pounds and Keagan is about 14 lbs! 

Another month down-seriously...where is the time going?!? CJ and Keagan were 7 months old on Thursday, October 20th! They are continuing to do well and are quite the happy babies! They seem to be hitting the milestones almost exactly on pace with their "adjusted age" (the age based on when they SHOULD have been born). So that means that developmentally, they are 4 months old at the end of the month. Here are some of the fun baby things that we've done this month:

My brother and I tried eating cereal for the first time! After eating it once a day for about 2 weeks and still thinking it was a game and not really "getting it," Mom and Dad have decided to take a break for a bit longer until we really seem interested in actually EATING!

I'm (Keagan) rolling over now! Mom and Dad still haven't captured it on film yet but be looking for a video post next month. I currently only go front to back but am pretty close to getting over the other way too.

I (CJ) rolled once a couple of weeks ago but have yet to do it again. This head weighs a lot...leave me alone :)  

Mom and Dad's favorite part of our 6th month is that we now LAUGH.   This is a pretty great picture of me doing it...don't you think? We included a video below if you would like to see us in action.

Halfway to ONE (3 days ago :))!!!

Six months old-holy smokes!! It is hard to believe. CJ and Keagan have only been HOME for just over 3 months so to realize that they have already been alive for half a year is unbelievable. The past month has been a good one and it seems that with everyday the kids are growing and changing. They have become super alert and will follow us around the room wherever we are. They love to hear us talk and read. And they absolutely think playtime is the best-it is when they are laying on their blanket or playmat on the floor with us that we get the most smiles!

Keagan is done seeing the retinal doctor because her eyes are fully mature! CJ has one more appointment just to make sure that his eyes have reached maturity and then he will be done too.  Keagan will be following up with her cardiologist at Children's Memorial next week to check on her open PDA. We're hoping that they will continue to want to wait until she is bigger so they can do the less invasive surgery.

The fantastic news is that she has been on reflux medicine for the past few weeks and it has made a HUGE difference in her eating so gaining weight is no longer a concern.

She has been eating 3.5-4 ounces every few hours and then sleeping 6 hours at night!! We are so thankful for that :) CJ eats 6-7 ounces every few hours and continues to sleep for 6 hours (he should be able to go 8 or more with how much he eats) -I think this might explain why is so much bigger than her...We don't have official 6 month weights until next week but our scale has CJ at almost 16 lbs. and Keagan around 12!! 

I'm ready for my close up...

These shirts should be changed to "Best Babies"

Bumbo fun. 

It sort of looks like Keagan is playing an "air saxophone" and CJ is busting a move.  It's the start of our family band.

Bottle + Mom = SLEEP

Dad snuggle time.

Seriously, how cute am I?

"This Bunny keeps following me"

Happy Boy!!!  Yes, I have love handles...

"Seriously, we can't get away from these bunnies."