Fall is here!

Brrrrr! It's getting really cold here! But don't feel too bad for us, it's supposed to get back up to the 80's later this week :) We've also (finally) been getting a lot of rain lately. But Saturday was beautiful and the whole family went to the UT tailgate this weekend. We all got dressed up in our fall clothes and while the babies were snuggly warm in their blankets, I was freezing by the end of the night! Here is a picture of me with Knox is the Baby Bjorn and my friend Kori holding Piper.

We are 12 weeks old!!

Can you believe Piper and Knox are already three months old?!! Crazy how time flies! Check out the new outfits from my cousin Tom and his wife, Jen. They were in from Houston for the music festival this weekend and brought these. Yes, those are monkey ears on the hoods :) And although Knox looks bigger than Piper in this picture, they are really about the same size (for now!)

Interacting!

Piper and Knox continue to get more and more interactive every day! This week we've begun playing with their "activity gym" and they really enjoy looking at the toys hanging above them and they've even begun batting at them. It's so nice to have a way to "play" with them finally! Not to mention another activity to keep them busy (and awake).

We're also working on schedules this week - mostly just getting a real bedtime set (8pm) and still trying to get Piper to eat enough to sleep for at least four hours. Some nights we're more successful than others!

This weekend is the big Austin City Limits music festival here in Austin. It runs Fri - Sun and Chad and I have been planning to be there for at least some of the days. I had babysitters secured for Fri, Sat and Sun but on Tuesday one of them (who was supposed to sit on Fri and Sat) called to tell me that her son had the flu. Since we are already really paranoid about the H1N1 flu at our house (Dell Children's Hospital in Austin in seeing an average of 325 new cases each day), I told her thanks but no thanks for this week! Not an hour later Chad called to tell me that two people on his staff had it! So Chad has spent the last two days quarantined from the baby, although I did manage to find people to look after Piper and Knox this weekend (thanks Joanne!) So we will be at the music festival this weekend (looking like we'll be in the rain, but at least it's only supposed to be in the low eighties!)

Babies' first tailgate and Auntie Paula visits!

We had a great weekend here - Chad went out of town for a couple of days but luckily Auntie Paula came to fill in while he was gone! Check out the cute onesies she brought for them :)

The babies made it to their first tailgate. Sadly, no photos were taken (bad mommy and daddy!), but they got to make a lot of new friends and see the setup for our tailgates. Although it was much cooler than the game two weeks ago, we still had the fan going and Piper absolutely loved the air blowing on her. We think this bodes well for her future career as a supermodel. Knox didn't like the fan, so I guess he won't be modeling anytime soon! Luckily that game ended well and UT beat Texas Tech (although we were long gone by then).

Sadly, Knox got his first major disappointment when his beloved Steelers lost on Sunday. Here is a photo of the happy fans at the beginning of the game!

Links to photo albums

Ok, for those of you with time to kill, here are the links to the photos of Knox and Piper during Months 1 & 2!



Month One http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1160188012/a=100051087_100051087/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/



Month Two

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1157494012/a=100051087_100051087/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/



and these are the professional photos that were taken in the hospital

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1159993012/a=100051087_100051087/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/



Some of these have been posted in the blog, but of course, there are MANY more photos to document their first few weeks of life. Enjoy!

Two month checkup

Well, Piper and Knox went for their two month pedi appointment yesterday. I can hardly believe it - Piper weighs 10 lbs, 1 oz!!! And Knox has almost caught up - he is 9 lbs, 15 oz and only 1/2 inch shorter than Piper. It's crazy how fast they grow - that's 5 lbs that Knox has gained in 2 months - more than double his birth weight. So that's great news - the pedi is thrilled with their progress. They also got the dreaded first shots yesterday. We are doing an alternative vaccine schedule so they had their first two immunizations yesterday and will have 2 more in a month and so on. Basically, because they are so small, we are spacing these first ones out monthly vs every two months. Yesterday's vaccines were one shot and one liquid to drink. They cried out at the injection, but both quieted right down afterward like little troopers! And although they were a little uncomfortable that afternoon, a little (infant) Tylenol fixed them right up and last night they were totally back to normal. So we have passed a big right of passage!

I haven't posted on the blog for awhile, but I did spend a lot of time organizing our photos from these first two months and I've posted them all on snapfist (and ordered print copies for my "brag book"). I spent a half hour on Snapfish yesterday trying to figure out how to generate a link to the photos to post in the blog but I couldn't figure it out. I'll get a link posted ASAP, though!

We've had a great couple of weeks - we had a really fun visit with my sister-in-law, Mary, and Lindi and Austin. They were here for a long weekend over Labor Day. Knox and Piper were barely put down all weekend - we were afraid they were going to be totally spoiled after all of the attention! But they spent so much time cooing and smiling at them that Knox and Piper have become much more interactive and we've gotten some great smiles and funny faces over the last couple of weeks! Austin and Chad had a great time - they played golf and went to a rock concert and the UT game. So Chad had lots of fun "playing" for the weekend and everyone even got out on the boat one day. And I got a fantastic weekend of rest - Lindi and Mary played "night nanny" all weekend and let me sleep all night! Related to that - Knox has slept 6 hours straight at night twice now! Piper is still waking up much more often, but having one hungry baby at night is easier than two, so I'll take it!

Here are some photos to tide you over until I can get that link up! The opening UT game was Labor Day weekend so you can see the twins showing their spirit! With the Michigan win over Notre Dame last weekend, we might break out the maize and blue gear this weekend though!

The beard is gone

Well, nearly 7 weeks after the babies' birth, Chad finally shaved his beard off yesterday. He kept a mustache for one day - doesn't he look funny?

But now it's all off and it's back to preppy Chad.

The babies are great - they are changing all the time and definitely developing their personalities. Piper has become the "easy" one - she is mainly interested in eating and sleeping these days. She only eats a little at a time (dainty little girl), but that means she wants frequent snacks! On the other hand, Knox eats a lot at a time, and sleeps for longer during the night - but during the day, he fights to stay awake. And when he's awake, he wants to be held! Preferably on my shoulder. Yesterday we broke out the Baby Bjorn. They are supposed to be 8 lbs before they can use it and I don't think we're quite there yet. But since it keeps Knox upright better than the other sling, I decided we'd try using it around the house now. He wasn't quite sure about it at first, but now he seems to like it. As I expected, having twins in all about "containment," - you can't hold them both at once, so it's important to have things/places to keep them contained and occupied. That's where all of our gear comes in - swings, slings, bouncy seats, boppy cushions...nothing really entertains them for a long time, either, so it's good to have an assortment! Of course, nothing beats being held - so I'm always trying to figure out how to hold both of them at once :)