Holiday deliciousness

This holiday the girls are encountering a lot of foods they haven't had before (or only rarely). Exhibit A: Ice cream

Couldn't get a good picture of Ellie, she was too engrossed with drinking the remainder of hers. Exhibit B: Apple cider

The face of a child who's never had bubbly drinks before:

Ellie is perhaps a bit of an apple cider lush - after finishing her two glasses she tried to lick the cup clean.

More updates

We're seeing the Drs every week now and when I walked in yesterday my OB said jokingly, "Aren't you overdue by now?" He wasn't expecting us to get to 36 weeks, and here we are at 36+1 day!

Everyone continues to be active and healthy. No weight updates this week but they're almost certainly over 6 lbs now. 36 is the magic number for twins - if they were to arrive today they'd almost certainly be in the room with me instead of the NICU. Delivery is scheduled for December 6th; 1.5 more weeks!

Further updates

There's just too much excitement not to share :) Dr's appointments yesterday and today have given us really good news: the boy is clocking in at 5lbs, 13 oz and the girl at 5lbs, 10 oz. Almost to 6 lbs each! They've also passed the 35 week mark - we're now at 35 weeks, 1 day, and counting. Beat the girls!

The OB today looked me over and said it looked like they're staying put until 38 weeks. My comment: "Yay! Maybe we'll hit 8 lbs each!" Him (with a wry grin): "Pretty sure you'll want to evict them before that." What's 16 lbs of baby though, really? ;)

We're doing well, and excited as we count down the days :)

Doggy!

We've had some wonderful nannies here this past week (thank you to all of them, the girls have been so happy!) but our current one wins for bringing her doggy (discussed beforehand with me, of course). I'm pretty sure the girls did nothing else but pet/chase/play with the pup for two days.

Unfortunately I missed the kisses Avy got all over her face :(

I love Ellie's nonchalant petting of the dog during story time here.

A long while back when we were first introing the girls to dogs, I told them to hold your hand out so the dog can sniff you and get to know you before petting. You can see Avy retained this lesson in the pictures - she's always offering her hand to sniff before petting. Good girl!

"Wuv, twue wuv...."

I feel like this right here is proof I should pay the nanny more:

I asked what Ellie was doing in this picture. "Bowing."

They understand each other, clearly.

We've got enough puppies in the mix right now, but I foresee a four-legged one in our near future :)

Probably final update for a while

What a sad title. The truth of the matter is that with babies so big (close to 6 lbs now!) we've decided to hire a nanny from now until my parents arrive for Thanksgiving. I'm sure there will be holiday pictures/videos and I'll upload them as they come, but my plan largely (har har) now is to do a whole lot of sitting and telling the babies they have to stay in place for another month.

I still get my morning time with the girls tho, and it's precious to me. Before we start our day we cuddle on the couch and I ask how their night was, and tell them the plan for the day. Ellie likes to cover my tummy up to keep "babies warm" and Avy always hugs and kisses my belly on each side, one per baby. They're going to be good big sisters.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and much love from all of us!

Dictionaries are still useful!

Painting

I'm having to come up with lower key (ie: less movement for Momma) activities, and since drawing has been so successful in the past I thought I'd give painting a try. There are some great videos of the progression in self-expression, but here are some pics of Avy in the thrall of her muse:

Luckily I'd anticipated this and had everything ready for a bath:

Have to call out kudos where due: Avy walked to the top of the stairs, looked at her hands, and said "Momma help?" She's very aware not to put dirty hands on the walls or stairs, even though I've never said as much to her that I'm aware of. Thank you Avy for not making my house a technicolor marvel!

Getting there...

We're starting to strain the ability of my maternity clothes - I pretty much just have one pair now that fit. One more month to go!

This picture is from a week ago. Since then the babies have dropped, which is both exciting and uncomfortable - it feels like holding a beach ball between my legs whenever I sit down! A very heavy beach ball, mind you. Still we're plenty mobile, and our Dr's appointment today shows everyone healthy and staying put (they're still predicting 2-4 more weeks). It'll be the fastest weight loss in history...

Halloween costumes

We spent a little while trying on costumes but ultimately I couldn't get the girls to keep any on for longer than a few seconds. It turned out not to matter - it poured rain all Halloween evening/night - but we got some fun pictures in nonetheless!

This suited Ellie for everyday life, I think ;)

Avy really liked the suspenders.

Then she wanted to try putting them on herself.

Suspenders - now for holding up your feet, not just your pants!

No trick-or-treating for us, so we had some ice cream instead.

Yes that's ice cream on her nose. No I didn't prompt her to drink the drippings.

They really got into it.