While I Was Away...

I thought I would share with everyone some of the pictures that the grandparents sent me while I was in Germany. Just a look into what the boys were up to...

Oh I also wanted to share this book, Small Steps Forward: Using Games and Activities to Help Your Pre-School Child with Special Needs, that my friend Jen gave me while I was in Germany that I have been reading. She works with families with Special Needs for a living, a family advocate if you will. Some people may not see how it applies, but I feel that it has been helpful in coping with preemies and them being behind, Collin in particular. And if it happens that either of them do end up with disabilities, then I wont feel so unprepared. With all the therapists and developmental delays, this book has been very helpful in making my time with them more productive.

Cyrus and Collin learned how to open the drawer between the seats at Grandma & Grandpa's house. It quickly turned into a toy box.

Collin and Cyrus enjoying some quality time with Grandpa. They were more excited to see him when he came home from work than they were to see me the day I came back from Germany.

Daddy came by for a visit too, which of course the boys loved. Hi Daddy!

Everyone at my Dad's work has heard about the boys since I was pregnant. So needless to say they were a big hit when my mom brought them up to his office to meet his coworkers. Here Cyrus seems to have attached himself to a pretty lady, just like Cyrus...

Collin seems perplexed by his goatee. What is all that hair? Looks like something I have seen on Daddy before, I think...

Home Sweet Home

It has been over a week since I came back from Germany and only now have come to a point where I feel all caught up with my routine and life to get around to sitting at my computer again. Germany was awesome! I ate chocolate croussiants everyday and had German beer, visited multiple historical museums and locales... and slept at least 7 hours every night (until my last night, which we went out for a "night on the town" in Nürmberg, so I got less than two hours of sleep before getting up to make the two hour train trip to the airport). I loved it there but was happy to come home and was missing my family. I got really sick the day after coming home and spent three days feeling awful and my wonderful parents kept the boys an extra two nights because of this. What would I do without them?

It is nice to be home and back to a routine, and this weekend Craig celebrated his 31st birthday. We had some of his family and friends over to the house and his mom took us out to dinner for some great Mexican food. The servers made Craig stand up on his chair and swing a towel while they chanted a happy birthday to him. This however, the boys absolutely hated and Collin and Cyrus wailed and screamed through. We ended up having to take them out of the highchairs and cuddle them to calm them down. It was so cute and sad and funny all at once! The servers felt so bad they gave each of them a balloon and their own bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup on top.

Let's see so what are the boys up to these days? Well, Cyrus is walking with assistance consistently now while holding only one hand. He is so close to walking on his own, I bet he can taste it! He can cruise the furniture like a master and often mows over Collin in the process. And speaking of Collin, Cyrus has taken to beating on Collin with toys and pulling his hair. The other day I had them in the same crib for their afternoon nap and Cyrus bit him on the leg really badly. Poor Collin has a mouth and teeth shaped purple and blue bruise; it's a good thing Collin is a tough little guy to take all this punishment. (I swear I do my best to keep Cyrus at bay!!) Cyrus can also go fetch his blankie when told and point to his ears, eyes, feet, and sometimes his nose. He is saying all sorts of stuff now, but no actual words in context yet. But I am proud to hear him babble mama all the time. He can try to say things like ball and foot, using the first consonant for words. I think I have been saying too much to them at a time and now that I am simplifying my sentences to them he is catching on faster. He is still a pain in the rear to feed but will open his mouth for yogurt, guacamole, and some finger foods like peas, diced carrots, green beans and all sorts of cracker/cookie things. It just depends on his mood whether he takes baby food or not, so it is touch and go whether he is self-fed.

Both of them are taking a ton more Pediasure now, 4 or 5 ounces at naptime and then up to 16 ounces at night!! I give them a bottle at bedtime and then before I go to sleep I replace it with a new full bottle and they drink it themselves as they want without my assistance. Yes people, it is wonderful! Even if they aren't sleeping through the night, they aren't needing me anymore to be fed!! I will not say that they are sleeping through the night though-since it cursed me the last time I said it. :P

Collin is getting his speech therapy evaluation in May which I am looking forward to. He got his new glasses which are snazzy but need to be adjusted to sit right on his face already. He is wearing them well, and Cyrus is going after them less and less. Collin is starting to come up into sitting on his own, a really big step we have been waiting for. He can sit up on his knees by himself, but that is not using his trunk muscles nearly as much as sitting on his bottom. He is still commando crawling but will get up on all fours when it suits him to play or crawl just a few paces. He is being very vocal and making more consonant sounds but nothing consistently, yet. Oh yeah, he is finally learning to fall without bumping his head. His balance overall is getting better, and more and more he will go from standing to sitting without flailing about. He has no fear of falling however since he seems to keep on trying to do things. He can pull himself into standing and cruises the furniture some but when we try to walk him he is very awkward and does not like to bend his left leg while standing (otherwise he bends it just fine). He hates to get changed and is quite a wiggle worm getting dressed or have his diaper changed. Au naturale must be his preference! LOL

Whew! Another atrociously long post, and I do not even have pictures on here yet! You guys do not mind though, do you? :P

Jen and I drinking hot wine at a café in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It was a beautiful town that was almost completely closed for Good Friday. Don't you wish you worked in Germany too? They take days off for every holiday you can think of.

At lunch with Jen (center) and her friends/co-workers Barb (left) and Tamara (right) at a local place on base in Ansbach. They were very cool chicas! Wassup ladies!

Here I am standing on a bridge in the cold (wearing my highly talked about coat) in Nürmberg. We did some great shopping, visited the Nazi Documentation Museum, and I had some excellent treats and pastries.

Craig's 31st birthday with all his kiddos. It is hard to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time, much less have them all smiling.

Collin in his new glasses. They are the same shape as his old ones, but these are a brown/copper frame instead of blue. He gives them the thumbs up, kinda.

Collin is looking at something over his glasses like a little scholar. I thought it was cute. By his foot is a cool wooden caterpillar toy I got the boys while in Germany.

Cyrus loves guacamole! Could not get enough of it and would scream if I tried to take the spoon away from him. I just wanted to refill his spoon but I guess he could still taste the reminents...

This was just too cute. My niece Jayden is the "middle" child of our family being the only kid who does not have a cousin her own age. So while Gaia and Jené were off playing she spent most of her time visiting with Collin. They had so much fun!

Vacation Time

Well, tomorrow I will be staying two nights with my mother so she can get into the groove before I leave for Germany Monday morning. I am so excited, but as I was getting the boys ready for their evening routine it sort of hit me that this will be the longest I have ever been without them since they were born. I was all sad and ended up letting them stay up an hour past their bedtime (which by then Cyrus was super cranky and insisted that they go to bed!). But Craig and Gaia (who is here for her Spring Break) left out this morning for a camping trip with one of her friends from school for the weekend so it has just been me and the boys all day. Seems like forever since I was home by myself (myself being with the boys), but I liked it.

The boys have had a cold all week from getting back out into the world after being in hiding all winter. They have horribly runny noses and a cough and they do not want to eat (the bane of my existence!). But since they are sick I have let them live off of yogurt, crackers, wagon wheels, stars, and baby food fruit puree both to make them feel better and to keep my stress levels down. Of course they are still getting bottles three to four times a day, but I don't have to mess with that anymore since they hold their own bottles so I don't count it. :P Poor Grandma will be taking on sick little boys while I am away, but they are still very happy babies so that makes up for it too.

Oh yeah, and lately Collin's glasses have had one lens keep popping out because the screw was loose, and on Sunday we finally lost the lens completely while on an outing to Home Depot. Good news is we had an eye Dr. appointment on Wednesday and have new glasses on order (the old ones were too small anyways). Poor Collin's SUPER nearsighted eyes are now -12.00 and -8.00 (legally blind without his glasses). No wonder Collin loves books so much! And I thought I was blind with only a -6.50 and -6.75 (FYI: my prescription is too strong for those groovy no rimmed glasses because they break from their own weight or something, grrr)!! The Dr. has told us to put off on the eye patch for now, which is good that I do not have to mess with it, but probably means we will be planning a surgery if his new prescription does not correct his lazy eye before the year is out. Which reminds me, Hey Bobbie, what is Hallie's prescription? You probably said it before in your blog, but I cannot remember...

Oh oh, I cannot believe I almost forgot to mention it...Collin is getting his first molar! Finally Collin is doing something before Cyrus (aside from being born that is, LOL) Grandma noticed it after the eye Dr. Appointment the other day while he was laughing upside down. Yeah, they love to hang upside down...

So, since I am leaving and wont be posting until I get back into the states, here are a few pics to help pass the time. I will likely be looking at them myself from my friend's computer in Germany. Hey Grandparents- you better email me pictures of the boys everyday!


Cyrus loves to eat the soap, and so I gave him a handful of bubbles to enjoy. And he made an old Man Cyrus Goatee out of it!

Collin got his own soap bubbles too. So easily amused, my babies, just like their mother!

The boys are still small enough to fit in to the baby swings together so the Baby Paparazzi had to shoot it. We were on our very first park outing since coming out of hiding with Aunt Jillaine and the boys' three cousins.

And here is the other view of them enjoying their swing ride.

Collin was having a wonderful time swinging in the big kids swing with Aunt Jillaine's best friend Stacy.


And the Baby Paparazzi was feeling left out of all these pictures so snuck into one with Cyrus.

Here is cousin Jace, about a year younger than the boys. Woo Hoo, a perfect playmate for all family functions. Isn't he a cutie!?


Sometimes all you need to do is sing funny songs, make funny faces and sounds and wave objects in front of their faces and you get adorable results (and worn out Baby Paparazzi's!).

This little specimen is much easier to please...

Here Collin was wreaking all sorts of havoc on Daddy's work because he was just long enough to reach the mousepad on the lap top. But it was so cute to see him imitate his Daddy...

Wow, I am really going to miss my family...

"Garden Tub"

When we bought our house part of the appeal was the garden tub in the master bathroom (and between that, the master closet and the kitchen we were totally sold on the house!) where I had oh so naively planned to give birth at home in water like a good hippie chick should. And after the boys came it was all run run run, and stress stress stress that I kind of forgot about my precious tub. I finally got around to using it to relax, candles around the tub and all but found it to be far too short to stretch out in and so I only used it a couple of times. Well I have recently been putting my garden tub to some good use and I am proud of my accomplishment. What do you think?