Thanksgiving & Mom G Visit

First, before I forget, here are the babies's 6 month check up stats:
Siena

• Height: 2 ft 2 in (49%)
• Weight: 14 lbs 11 oz (17%)
• Head: 16.5 in (26%)

Jaide

• Height: 2 ft 1.25 in (22%)
• Weight: 14 lbs 3 oz (10%)
• Head: 16.5 in (26%)

At their appointment the doctor told me I should teach a class for mom's of twins.  hahaha!  I should get an academy award for my performance as a "put together twin mom"!  The doctor also told me that she still has my baby announcement on her board and people stop all the time to comment on how much they like it! :-D

The babies are sleeping great!  8 hours most nights!  The first few nights they did that, I woke up before them and had to pump because I was so uncomfortable.  I am really thankful for my milk supply.  It is an answer to lots of prayers while prego with the twins.  I was really nervous about feeding two babies since it was so hard to feed Scarlett at first.  Tender mercy!

Anyways, for Thanksgiving Jake's mom flew out and spent 9 days at our house.  Jake's dad wasn't able to get enough time off of work to come out here so we just partied with Grandma Glauser.  It was AMAZING!  I haven't felt so well-rested in weeks!!!  Scarlett especially loved having Grandma here cause she would play with her in the toy room, read her stories, get her snacks - basically won her heart!

The first Friday (Nov 22) Grandma Glauser was here she noticed the babies had teeth.  WHAT!?!?  Their teeth must have poked through just hours before.  True to their identical nature they both got their bottom, front, left tooth.  Siena's other bottom tooth poked through 2 days later.  I can feel Jaide's getting close to coming through.

Grandma jumped right in and helped take care of everything!  Dishes, cleaning, bath time, diapers, etc.  (and yes, Scarlett now takes a bath WITH the babies!  Luckily we have a big tub)

One afternoon we decided to build a gingerbread house.  It didn't match the picture on the box - mostly cause the lead architect on the project was 2.5 years old - but we had a lot of tasty fun!

Thanksgiving has traditionally been one of my least favorite holidays - with family gatherings and mashed potatoes being the only redeeming qualities.  I think my deep rooted feelings stem from the fact that I've been sick on almost every Thanksgiving I can remember.  Starting at an early age when family member's cats forced me to dose myself with large quantities of Benadryl.  Even in recent years, bad luck has continued to make this an anti-climactic day for me.  This year was no exception.  Scarlett caught a nasty cold/cough that left her lethargic with a drippy nose for several days.  She would just lay on the couch all day.  She even told me "I need new batteries in my back."  Poor girl.  Well, as my luck would have it, I caught the cold next.  The cough was deep, raspy and acted up with any physical exertion.  Luckily my mother-in-law let me take several naps.  I think all the extra rest helped me get over it quickly without having major asthma/prednisone issues.  My mother-in-law caught it right when she was leaving.  So - sorry any of you Utahans who catch it next.  Just an early Christmas present from your Michigan loved ones!

The worst was when the babies caught it.  Within a day their cough turned into wheezing - scary!  It was a Sunday (of course) so we took them to Urgent Care to figure out if they had asthma.  Then the next day I had to go back to the pediatrician for more consultation.  Luckily it doesn't seem to be asthma related.  The cough turned into Bronchiolitis.  They are on antibiotics for ear infections and have to use albuterol nebulizer treatments to help with the wheezing.  So sad!  They are sleeping in their swings - cause being at a slight angle helps with breathing and draining the fluid down.  Plus we are cranking the humidifier in their room.  The doctor said it will just take time for them to overcome the virus and the cough will probably linger for a few weeks.  That night when we fed them dinner they took forever to eat just one container of baby food.  Normally we open one container (a veggie), add baby cereal to it, then feed it to them.  After they're done with that we do the same with a fruit.  Well they finally finished their peas.  I decided to try a fruit, just in case they were still a little hungry... they scarfed it down!!!  Their appetites were just fine - they just didn't like the peas!  (can you believe how tiny my nebulizer is?  So different from the 3lb device I had to carry in a duffle bag to elementary school every day!)

Back to Thanksgiving.............
We woke up that morning and noticed there was light blanket of snow on the ground.  Scarlett and Jake sure made the most of that 0.2 inches of snow!  It wore poor Jake out!  :-D

Grandma made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner - complete with Chocoroon pies!  The babies fell asleep just as dinner was ready - perfect!  We asked Scarlett what she was thankful for "animals, elephant and tigers, and, ummm, my spicy drink!"  (spicy drink meaning carbonation)

The babies wore their helmets all night in their crib - I was so nervous that they would just scream.  It wasn't an issue at all!  Not even a single protest or complaint!  YAY!!!

We LOVED having Grandma Glauser here!!!  It was a relaxing, enjoyable, and memorable week!  Scarlett cried and cried when we dropped her off at the airport.  We sure do love and miss you, Grandma!

PS - we were able to watch Gone With the Wind during her stay (over two days - 6 hours is a long movie!)  I have been curious to see it ever since we had Scarlett.  I've had MANY people ask me if we got her name from this movie.  I would respond "no, I've never even seen it" which was usually followed by "oh, I just love that movie.  Scarlett is so elegant.  You have to see it.  You'll love it." etc...  Well, now I've seen it.  My opinion?  Our Scarlett was NOT named after Scarlett O'Hara and I hope she doesn't turn out anything like that selfish, conniving, childish, vain, prideful, and jealous biotch who's only real redeeming quality is her unwavering stubbornness.  The movie was full of negative racial stereotypes, portrayed unhealthy marital relationships, tried to justify the KKK, and seemed to glorify the Southern plantation slavery lifestyle.  After watching it I googled "why do people like Gone With the Wind so much?" cause I just couldn't wrap my head around how this tragedy had become such a popular movie.  I will admit that there were many enjoyable parts - especially the first half of the film - and the actors really brought to live the characters.  But the movie just left a bad taste in my mouth.  I am really glad we watched it so that I finally know what people are talking about.  And I'm sorry if it's your favorite film of all time.  After a few days of stewing over it, I think I finally figured out what really bothered me about... that people would think I would name my daughter after Miss Scarlett O'Hara.  If anything I would want to name my child after Melanie Hamilton.  Luckily I don't think many people in my generation associate the name Scarlett with that character anymore.  If anything they associate it with Scarlett Johansson (don't get me started on that one!)  One thing's for sure, if you told me my copy of that movie had been accidentally destroyed I would say "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." ;-)