Grammy and Opa's Visit

We missed last week! I'm so sorry if you were looking for our post, I just didn't find the time to get it out. My Mom and Step-Father (aka Grammy and Opa) arrived last weekend for a week-long visit and we've been enjoying every moment with them.
The girls have been in their glory since their arrival. The visit came at a really great time in their development where they are such charm machines. No opportunity for a smile or giggle is wasted with these girls at the moment. They flirt, charm and are so very aware of the responses that their expressions evoke. The word clown doesn't even begin to describe them! They are just so funny.
We've gotten back track with their solid foods. They've added oatmeal and apple sauce to their repertoire, though they don't think much of my home-made applesauce. I made it with stewed and pureed apples thinned with formula, but alas it's still a bit tart for their taste. As you can see from the video, squash is the clear winner. Tonight I'll do up some peas and we'll try that by week's end. So far the only reaction or side effect of the food is in the product that comes out the other side. This has proved very shocking to me! I realize that I'm in for a long and poop-filled two years with these girls. (sigh). Thankfully their other attributes far outweigh their diaper frights!
There are no teeth yet, but a great deal of drool and chewing are probably good indications that they are on their way. They are just beginning to sit up on their own, but really only for a few seconds at a time. I'm looking forward to the day when I can sit them up with some toys and sit back for a break. They are also very aware of one another now, and interact quite often with smiles and touches to each other's head and arms. They really are such a pleasure to be around.
So we had a wonderful visit with Grammy and Opa, and hope that Mathilde and Alexis continue to enjoy the company of family and friends. Perhaps we'll get lucky and that shy stage that we hear about will allude us. I hope to have more next week, but for now, I'm signing off to go and rescue a Gully from her nap. Take care everyone!

Another Week with the Gullies

It's started! They're starting to sleep like normal people! Not all the time, and never two nights in a row, and with no predictablility, but I can safely say it's starting to happen. Since last week, we've had 3 nights where the girls have slept for up to 11 hours at a stretch and in doing so, allowed me to sleep as well. To be sure, I wake up every few hours and check the clock to see what's going on, but for the most part I feel pretty well rested! It's life changing, really. It tells me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that someday soon, I will be able to stay up past 8:30pm and still get a decent amount of sleep. We'll be able to have grown-up time together and do things like have a late dinner, or even a bubble bath! Basically, me time in chunks greater than 20 minutes. Sounds heavenly!
We've made a few changes to the girl's diets since our visit to the pediatrician last week. Mathilde weighs 14lbs and Alexis is around 13 1/2lbs. This puts them in the 50th and 25th percentile respectively. Both measured in the 50th for their height. Dr Tremblay certainly was not concerned, but I'd been thinking that maybe Alexis was a little thin, so we picked up her calorie intake by adding a bottle of formula right before bed. It has the added effect that it helps her sleep longer too, which doesn't hurt. We've been offering Tilly formula too, but she's not particular about taking a bottle, so some nights she'll take it and others she won't. No big deal either way.
I made squash puree yesterday and made the introduction to them. I made it too thick though and it nearly choked them. We'll wait a week and then thin it out with formula and see how that goes. I felt like a big heal, after supper last night. Between the near drowning at the hospital when I gave them their first bath and this new choking incident, I keep waiting for child services to show up. I suppose I shouldn't joke about that. First of all, they're pretty hardy little people, and second, there are children out there in real danger from their care givers. Still, I felt bad. Sorry Gullies, I'm sure it won't be the last time that I inadvertently put your lives in jeopardy though. Be grateful you have your Papa to keep you safe!
I don't have much time to keep up my blog. I'll do my best to get an entry out every week. As I write the girls are waking from their nap and I'll have to wrap this up. Ivan's spare time at home is spent getting to the chores that I can't do during the week. This weekend we're (he is) getting the arbri de solei up (sun shelter/gazebo?). Next weekend My Mom and Richard will be here to meet the girls.
Enjoy the long weekend everyone!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! As Ivan pointed out (because it is his way to do so), Mother's Day was (probably) invented to add another day to Hallmark's list of days for which to sell cards. Even so, I am able to write today because my loving husband seems to think that I deserve a break from my full-time job of mothering. I am, at 10:45 am, sitting in bed, after having had my breakfast of choice in my bed, with no children (that I'm aware of?). It is BLISS.
It is weird too. I spend probably 5 minutes in total of every day wishing for a few moments to myself before I scold myself for having such depraved thoughts. Now that I have those moments, I find myself looking for excuses to steal downstairs to kiss one of my girls. I haven't yet, because my husband has given me a gift. And I'm going to enjoy it. That and every 30 minutes a baby seems to appear looking for attention anyway. Like, right at this moment I'm in bed. But I'm no longer alone. River is at my feet, Ivan is beside me with Mathilde and Alexis is in the next room napping. I am learning that a big part of being a Mom is never being alone. I can find comfort in that.
It is both exhausting and wonderful to know that I am so fully needed. Every creature in the household is dependent on me for some facet of its existence. River-dog needs to be fed, walked and indeed even cuddled. The Gullies need me for absolutely everything, and even my husband relies on me for clean clothes, and the occasional kick in the butt out of bed in the morning to get him to work on time. Some days I scream inside my head "Oh, everyone leave me alone, just for a little bit!". But when it actually happens I think "Where is everyone, and why don't they need me?"
So what am I going to do with the rest of my alone time? I think I'll revisit my beloved hobby. I'm going to knit. I'm going to knit, and I'm going to nurse, and I'm going to cuddle visiting creatures and I'm going to think about how wonderful this day is, not only because I'm getting a break, but that I'm getting a break because of who I am. I am a Mom.

Alexis Sucks Her Thumb!

Greetings, as Mathilde would say if she could talk. I'm writing today with no particular direction in mind. I'm trying, as I write, to create a video montage of Alexis displaying her new found addiction; thumb sucking. I'm of no particular opinion about this, of course I think it's cute, everything she does is cute. It seems to give her great pleasure and instantly calms her down when she is distressed. I'm not about to mess with that. The only downfall of this new found distraction that I can see is that sometimes she calms herself down from being hungry. Mathilde gets ahead of her in terms of number of feedings. Last night, for example, Tilly was up twice as often as Alexis looking for something to eat. Normally I wake Lexi up and feed her anyway when this happens, but last night Tilly was hungrier than usual. It will be interesting to see what comes out in the wash on Monday when we see Dr Tremblay.
We're pretty fortunate to have such happy and easy-going girls. They smile easily and are starting to laugh more often. Generally, they wake up happy and go to sleep the same way. The occasional melt down happens when I've not paid attention to their sleepy cues. They are entertained by such things as hands, feet, each other and River when he chances to pass through the neighborhood. They do enjoy their toys (mostly rattles and the occasional plush). Mathilde loves to eat, and Alexis tolerates it.
We're walking quite often now and the girls stay awake for most of it. I try to go for an hour since I've got to go back to work with a decent level of fitness. I've started running again, but from guilt, I have to take River when I go and he's scared of, well, everything. He hates basketball, road hockey and city work vehicles (dump trucks, garbage trucks etc). Every kid here has a basketball net and kids are always out playing on our running route. It's sort of embarrassing when you're happily running along and your dog all of a sudden parks his butt nearly causing you to fall over. And he does NOT move. I've had to find alternate routes home on many occasions.
Well, I'm going to sign off. We changed our bedtime routine last night and I'm on call a bit more often. I was nursing them to sleep but we decided to stop this practice since their first teeth will be emerging soon and this can promote tooth decay. So tonight and last night they put themselves to sleep; a practice which I'm sure will pay off for all of us. Ivan still read them a story of course.
Have a tremendous weekend everyone!