Museum, Marta and Midtown Festival of the Arts

We decided to take the boys to the High Museum this Saturday (along with hundreds of others who got free tickets) and because of the close proximity of the shut down section of Peachtree for the Midtown Festival of the Arts, we took Marta. We went early to avoid traffic and crowds and got to the College Park station around 10:30. Eden got freaked out a little this past Wednesday on the elevator at the Pulmonologist's office for Isac's appointment, though he never had in the past, and did again to get to the platform at the station. This was succeeded by more anxiety after we got on the train and it started moving, so I ended up holding him for the duration of the ride. After another elevator ride up to the street level and the short walk from the Arts Center station we finally arrived at the High around 11.

There were already a good bit of people there, but there wasn't a line to in the doors. We were processed quickly and went directly to the Dali exhibit. Joey strolled the boys around a little while I tried to take peaks of the art in between those in line with their audio tours rolling. The boys started to get extremely overwhelmed and irritated because they would usually be down for a nap around this time so after about 20 minutes we headed out the children's section. They enjoyed the easels and markers and Eden became obsessed for the rest of the day with the green mark on his fingers from when he tried to grab and eat the marker. They played with the blocks a little and loved the horse puppet, then we headed out to some of the permanent collection to see if we could get them to sleep. This only sent Eden into a deeper fuss-state so after repeated failed attempts to calm him down, we went to the cafe and got them some food. We went back up to the Dali exhibit again to try where we each carried one, and after about 10 minutes, Eden finally fell asleep while I carried him around and Isaac fell asleep on Joey. We browsed some more and after my back started to hurt, I was able to successfully lay Eden down in the stroller and we headed back to Marta. On the way out, I congratulated us on being able to get up there early because the line just the get into the High was now strung out of the doors, down the walkway, and almost out to the street with even more people flooding in. Oh, and it was a beautiful, sunny day, but there was mysteriously zero breeze in between the buildings which made the wait in line for them rather muggy and I can only imagine pretty unbearable for the boys had we procrastinated.

Eden didn't wake up for about 30 minutes at which point we were in the elevator on the way down to the platform. I took him out of the stroller so he wouldn't wake Isaac and didn't realize how soaked he was until the train arrived. Poor Joey held him in his lap the entire way and was equally soaked by the time we got back to the College Park station. A little Asian lady sat next to Joey and Eden for part of the ride and gave Eden a THX toy to play with and keep, which Joey promptly claimed as his own once we got off the train. Thankfully Eden wasn't fussy about the motion of the train anymore and Isaac woke up about 10 minutes into the ride refreshed and full of energy. The entire experience was definitely a learning one, and hopefully I'll get back to the High again (sans kids) to check it out before it's gone in January. What we were able to see was pretty fantastic. Just the attention to detail alone was mesmerizing and the man was obviously a skilled artist but the ideas that he came up with were so mind-boggling, you'd have to be insane or a savant of some kind.

Today we decided to go up to the festival but waited until after the boys had their morning nap. Of course after they woke up, the bottom fell out and we got all the rain we've been needing for the past month. After Rachel B. arrived, we decided to forgo the Marta experience again and take our chances to find parking close by. We were successful at that and met up with Adam at Utrecht's when we got there. We stopped in at Starbuck's and got a drink as well as to see Lori but I was told she wasn't there yet and might not be until tomorrow. We perused what vendors hadn't packed up yet while it still rained (finally used the strolled cover though - awesome!) and when Eden became fussy and inconsolable - again - we headed back to the car to go home.

They have reached a point where they get frustrated pretty easily but the volume of their speech has increased as well. I can tell they are trying to converse with us, especially after listening to all the words Tilly could say and we understood at the beach, they're just having a hard time getting it all in the right places. The same goes for their new traveling attempts. They will stand and basically try to run on their tippy-toes while holding our hands but lack the balance to stand on their own yet. I put the coffee table back in the living room to help them get around more and keep their books on top of it to get them used to standing more often. I'm hoping it also promotes more of them turning around while standing and reaching or stepping out to get to what they want instead of sitting, crawling over, and then pulling back up. They both crawl up the stairs with no issues though and Eden has quickly figured out how to back down them, just can't remember it every time. He will stop going up after a certain point, either he's afraid of how high up it seems or just gets tired quicker, but Isaac will go all the way up, though he's shaking by the end of it.

I've been looking back at the older pictures of them lately and trying to remember what life was like around this time last year. Isaac was still on oxygen and his monitors but starting to fight the nasal cannula and Joey's mom was about to come visit. There was still a good bit of various doctor appointments and they were also about to start their Synagis shots. It seems like a lifetime ago and looking at them now I am starting to realize they're not babies anymore. They are turning into little boys more and more everyday and though the laundry gets piled up, the floors don't get swept very often, and Delila just now got a long overdue bath, I have really enjoyed watching their personalities flourish, Joey teach them new things and become so proud that it was he that taught them, and revel in the fact that these are our kids, how much they show me that they love me, and we get to keep them :)



*I'm not sure what happen to the sound, but I caught the tail end of Isaac's first journey up the stairs.*

Our First Beach Vacation

We left out for Kure Beach, NC this past Sunday at around 4 am. The boys were very confused why were waking them up to be changed and left in their pj's to only get into the car. We had packed the car and roof rack the night before in an attempt to get on the road as soon as possible and get them back to sleep. They did pretty well on the way up. We stopped over in Fayetteville, NC to visit with Grandpa Rhodes for a little while and finally got to the beach house at 3 PM.



The boys and Tillie played so hard every day and took long naps without much fuss - even though they weren't used to the pack'n'plays. We went out to the beach the first morning to get some pictures and introduce the boys to sand and the ocean. They were not really thrilled at first, Eden got into it a little quicker than Isaac. But by the end of our stay, both were super excited to get into the pool and at least sit on the beach and play with the water when it came up to us.



Monday was spent around the beach house and I cooked frittatas for dinner for everyone, Tuesday we went to Southport and dinner at Jack Mackerel's, Wednesday we all went to the Aquarium, Joey went out on Dustin's sailboat that afternoon and a small reunion made dinner that night, and we were going to leave earlier Thursday but decided to stay, took the boys to the pier for ice cream, had Logan's delicious Shepherd's pie for dinner and then packed the car after the boys got in pj's again and got on the road home around 9 pm.



It was a little bit of a rough start but after a couple hours, the boys finally passed out. We finally made it home around 4 am and then got into bed around 5. The boys were awesome and slept until 10, had a nap around 12 and woke up from their second nap close to 6. Hopefully they'll be good for my parents tomorrow when Joey and I are at Michael and Karen's wedding.



Here is a link to all the pictures from our trip.

NICU Reunion

Today was the NICU Reunion at Southern Regional. We got to see a lot of the nurses that took care of the boys for the month they were there and they were all blown away by how big they had gotten. We akso got to see the beloved Dr. Velez and take a picture with him and the boys. It was good to see everyone, especially on such a happy occasion, we saw a lot of other NICU twins as well some up to 14 years old! It was pretty hot outside though so after about an hour, we decided to go home. There were a few more nurses we would have liked to see as well as Dr. Aday, but we had to go since the boys were due for a nap anyways.

Baby Talk

Nom nom - ribs!

The boys and I have started attending Baby Talk at Headquarters Library on Battlecreek Thursdays from 10 - 11 am. It was nice to find something to get us out on a regular basis that was free and introduce them to more playtime with other kids (and other moms for me). We had free playtime, bubbles, songs and dance, story time and then free book time. They did pretty well until close to the end when they normally would have gone down for their morning naps. We made some new friends - even a grandmother with her twin grandsons, and though we won't be able to go next week since we'll be in NC, we look forward to going back again. I think it will help teach them how to better play instead of just stealing toys from each other :) It was interesting to see who they gravitated towards and how their desire to walk is really peaking. They've both surprised us on a couple occassions where they get close enough to something else to stableize them standing and rather than sit and then pull up on it, they just kinda lunge or reach out and go for it. I can wait to watch those first wobbly steps - it's going to be so cute!!!


Chillin' on the couch :)

09.04.2010

We decided to sit the boys out in the front yard to take some pictures while the light was nice. At first thy were none too thrilled with the way the grass felt on their feet, Eden even refused to put his right foot down until we put shoes on him.





They started enjoying it much more after them and I was able to get some good pictures. It took almost 150 sorted down to these 15 :)






I don't know why, but they're even cuter in shoes :)