The Shirts Say it All

Melissa is feeling much better and returned to work today. I am getting progressively more stressed about the upcoming Neonatalogy Board Exam on April 7th in Chicago. Sara and Julian do new and fun things everyday. They are definitely getting more needy and don't like it when mommy or daddy leave the room (unless Tela is standing there to keep them occupied).

A Fun-Filled Easter Sunday!!!!!

Sara and Julian's first Easter was not filled with Easter egg hunts and visits with the Easter bunny. We spent the day in the emergency room with mommy. Melissa started with a head cold early last week...the standard stuffy nose, fever, cough and sore throat. By the end of the week, all of her symptoms had resolved except for a severe left-sided sore throat. It worsened over the weekend and early Sunday morning she was unable to drink even a sip of water. So, off to the emergency room we went. She had a peritonsillar abscess (a rather classic presentation) and was admitted overnight for intravenous antibiotics, fluids and monitoring of her airway. Thankfully, she felt much better Monday and I brought her home. Although we couldn't spend Easter with grandma and grandpa (here from Virginia to see the babies) at least I had help getting them to sleep. Bedtime is probably the hardest time to manage twins by yourself, so I was grateful for an extra set of hands.

Here is what the house looked like after dad had S and J alone for an entire afternoon.
Sara is really enjoying the jumper on loan from Aunt Courtney. She gives it the thumbs up! She has been spotted perfecting such classic moves as the "running man" and the "roger rabbit."Julian really enjoys his exersaucer.


Well, except for one toy. There is this turtle on the exersaucer that is his arch nemesis. It is just out of his reach when he tries to put it in his mouth, and it elicits such an anxiety attack (if 5 1/2 month olds can have anxiety attacks) that we often have to distract him to another toy when he sees the dreaded turtle. Pictures don't really capture the full emotion of his interactions with the turtle, but here is a glimpse.
Julian enjoyed watching March Madness with daddy. Just like daddy, he can't believe that Davidson beat Georgetown.

A machine gun and a lion!!!

I thought we had twins, but we actually have machine gun and lion imitators. We woke up this morning to Julian's staccato vocalizations and Sara's growling. Actually, Sara's growling actually sounds more like some kind of possessed hissing noise straight out of The Exorcist.

We have been sleep training for the past week. After a lot of anxiety and apprehension, and armed with earplugs, we made a pact to let the babies cry themselves back to sleep at night. Now, there are a lot of methods, but we chose the "cry it out" technique. Basically, you let them cry until they go back to sleep, no matter how long it takes. If you go in after 1 hour, then they learn that all they have to do is cry for an hour until mom and dad come in. This was really aimed at Sara. Since she doesn't want anything to do with a pacifier, she has difficulty soothing herself back to sleep. The first night, she cried for 30 minutes before she went back to sleep. Several hours later, she cried for about 15 minutes before going back to sleep. She has now slept through the night for the past 4 nights.

Where are my clippers???

We finally have some hair growth. Sara has some spikey blonde locks, and there are 5 or 6 really long hairs growing out. Julian is still bald. Is it too early for a toupee?

Daddy's little hippes.

Smiling is fun. Sara and Julian are really becoming interested in their environment. They really like to play with toys. They also like to hit and scratch each other, as well as mommy, while tandem breastfeeding.

Tela really enjoys sleeping on the couch. Doesn't she look comfortable?

Feeding Expectations

As a pediatrician, I've counseled hundreds of parents on introducing solids to their infant. Why is it that when we started Sara and Julian on cereal, I expected them to be like "OK, mom and dad put it in my mouth and I swallow it, no mess, no fuss." Boy was I wrong. One thing is for sure, I have a very steep learning curve when it comes to the theoretical things I know about taking care of babies and putting them into practice. I think that having kids should be a requirement for becoming a pediatrician. In hindsight, I'm sure that some of the parents I've couseled in the past think I'm a nut.I am a bit bothered by the consistency of the Beachnut cereal flakes that we are using. They seem to be filled with static-electricity goodness and stick to everything. It reminds me of how those iron flakes would stick to magnets....you know, the ones we played with in science class. Or those faces that you can put the mustache on with a magnetic pen.Sara and Julian helped me root for Syracuse last weekend. Here is the evidence.

To keep Courtney happy, here a couple of extra pictures of S and J.

-Erik

Daddy's Little Disease Vectors

Sara and Julian are currently in the middle of viral crud #2. At least they had a few days where they were relatively back to normal. They actually don't mind being sick...they just keep smiling and laughing, with the occassional cough or sneeze mixed in. On the contrary, Melissa and I aren't dealing with it so well. Melissa lost her voice yesterday in the middle of seeing patients, and I'm battling a wicked sore throat today. Neither of us has been sick the past few years, since all of my patients are newborns who have never left the hosptial, and Melissa doesn't see acute sick visits as a developmental pediatrician. Our immune systems have been given a rude awakening this past month.Sara is now rolling from back to front consistently. She especially likes to do it in the middle of the night, and then scream hysterically because she can't get back over. Julian mostly chews on his fingers, and we think that it might be the start of teething. Julian is also turning into quite the little flirt and has all the ladies at daycare wrapped around his little finger (it doesn't help that he wears a onesie that says "Ladies Man" on it....thanks Aunt Holly).

Melissa and I had our first night out since the babies were born last Thursday (I know it was Valentine's Day, but we don't fuel the Hallmark machine by celebrating Valentine's Day). For Christmas, I bought Melissa tickets to see Martin Sexton here in Rochester, which was coincidentally on Valentine's Day. What I didn't realize was how hard it would be to find a babysitter on Valentine's Day, but we cashed in some baby shower gifts from coworkers and went to the concert. We had a great time. Martin is a phenomenal singer, with at least 4 octaves in his range. You know he's good when John Mayer says that Martin is who he listens to for songwriting inspiration. We had a few cocktails, and waitied around after the show to get a limited edition poster signed by Martin. He spelled my name right (with a K) but spelled Melissa with 2 L's. I mean really, who spells Melissa with 2 L's.

4 Months!!!

I can't believe that Sara and Julian are now 4 months old. In many ways, it seems like years have gone by since they were born. At other times, I feel like I just woke up and yesterday was 10/7/07, and now its 2/14/08 and I really don't remember what happened in between. They are growing and developing well, and Melissa and I are really enjoying interacting with them.

Its amazing how early their little personalities develop and how different they really are.
Sara currently has the honor as the heaviest baby (14 lbs, 5 1/2 oz), or "chubalub" as we like to call her (she'll hate us for that). Julian weighs in at 13 lbs, 9oz. They are both 25.5 inches tall. They are both rolling front to back, and Sara has successfully rolled back to front a few times now. Julian hasn't even shown an interest, so we'll be registering him in a remedial rolling class soon.

We took them to the Strong National Museum of Play last weekend. Its a really cool place, and it is a shame that we won't be in Rochester when they are old enough to enjoy it. I avoided Sesame Street....for those of you who have heard Dave Chapelle's take on Sesame Street, it's a scary place (google it...its hilarious...I'll never look at Snuffy the same way). The miniature Wegman's is unbelievable, although I was quite upset that they conveniently left out the beer section.

Tela has been great with the babies, and she is getting used to less attention and more independent play. Unfortuantely, caring for her hair has proven to be difficult. I dropped her off at the groomer a while back, and got a phone call shortly after I left her. Apparently, she has a lot more poodle hair and not a lot of lab hair. Tight and curly. Well, she was quite matted, and the groomer informed us that she needs to be brushed at least once, if not twice a day to prevent mats from forming. I have enough time to brush her about once a month. Maybe I can hire one of the neighbor kids to brush her. We'll just have to accept the fact that she'll never look like a bear cub anymore....

And she'll look more like a gangly baby deer. I really can't believe it is the same dog. When Melissa went to pick her up at the groomer, she was like "Where's Tela?" And the groomer lady was like "uh...she's the dog that licking your hand and jumping on you."