Milestones

Week 28.5

Kohlden – 16 lbs 3 oz
Madelyn – 15 lbs 6 oz

This week marked the arrival of Fall. Partly because the weather has turned slightly and it isn’t so awfully hot outside, but mostly because immediately after Halloween you begin to see Christmas decorations being displayed, especially in high people traffic areas like the malls and shopping centers. Crazy. So much for Thanksgiving…which is, unbelievably, just 3 weeks from today.

Last week was a very nice one; a little detour from the normal activities. We gave Lolo and Lala the weekend off, so we were on our own with the children. At least the best thing about this is that last Thursday and Friday evenings the twins…wait for it….SLEPT THROUGH THE ENTIRE NIGHT WITHOUT WAKING UP! Glory be! It was a welcomed event and one milestone I think Tangie and I had been hoping for since April. It was a positive reminder that yes, we can survive this!

At school they had a costume parade on Friday for which Braelyn’s advanced preschool classroom painted white shirts and went as 101 Dalmatians. Very cute.

Sabbath was a gorgeous day with absolutely beautiful weather. We did not want to miss out so we took advantage of this opportunity and decided to spend the day outside, hence an impromptu trip to the zoo. We took a detour and had a lovely breakfast outside, at Peach Valley restaurant in Lake Mary. They have the best apple fritters that you dip into a strawberry yogurt kissed with brown sugar and cinnamon. Yum! The people there gave us lots of smiles and attention as we tried balancing 3 children whilst trying to enjoy our breakfast.

The zoo was packed, as there was a family festival there for the weekend activities. Lots of children, and we saw a lot of families with twins. Funny how we are more aware of families with twins, now that we’ve had our own. Braelyn was able to paint a mini pumpkin, and the twins just enjoyed the bumpy ride on the stroller, watching all the people. Most of the animals stayed in their dens or were sleeping.




Saturday evening we were treated to dinner and had a chance to reconnect with our friends over at Karis and Amy Zbaraschuk’s home. The Grodacks and Johnsons attended as well. It was nice to finish off the day with some adult conversations, although most of it dealt with the children. Kent and Kelli had missed our PumpkinFEST celebration the previous weekend as they were going through the Panama Canal on their cruise, so they had a chance to share some pictures and stories of their vacation. It was a nice walk down memory lane, remembering all the cruises Tangie and I had in the past sans children. I can’t wait until our next one, although it will be a very different experience with 3 tots having fun as well!

The Z’s have 2 boys and it was neat to see the interaction of them with Braelyn and Calleigh. The difference between the two sexes is that when a boy gets pushed or roughed up, he will retaliate and push back. Girls, on the other hand, will scold vs. retaliate. Case in point, Zachary was pushing little brother Kaleb on one of those plastic car toys and bumped Calleigh, who was pushing Braelyn. Cal immediately got this look of annoyance and shock on her face and stomped right up to Zachary, and with her index finger in his face, stated matter of factly, “Zachary, BAD BEHAVIOR!” It was the most surprising and hilarious interaction between children I’ve seen in a while. Duncan looked on and shared that Calleigh must’ve picked that up from when her daddy would be reprimanded by her mommy. “Duncan, BAD BEHAVIOR!” It was so funny! I’m sure Corey would’ve been proud.

Sunday I had to work so Tangie had the kids all day. They ended up taking a trip to the park, with Brae having some fun climbing and spinning.

After trying to take a nap in the car, they got home just in time to start prepping the costume to go trick or treating. While Uncle Mike manned our door, off they went with the twins in the stroller to see how much candy they could get. Brae in her Dora Princess outfit – with Cinderella high heels that she could barely walk in. She decided to change back n forth between those and flippy floppies almost every house as she was sure the person answering the door wanted to see the entire costume. Somehow she got shy every time going to the door and wanted to hide behind mommy. It didn’t help that one of the twins was crying the entire time. After the bag was half full, they rushed home as the mosquitoes were out for revenge and the twins had a long day. I’m sure we had over a 100 trick or treaters come to our door. I came home as it was wrapping up. We ran out of our candy and Brae offered to share what was in her bag with the next people that came. When I said thanks, she replied "That's how we roll Daddy."
The week went fast. Tuesday while Tangie was getting the twins to bed, Brae went with me to vote. She was very curious about the whole process. While waiting our turn in line I was making conversation with her which everyone could hear. All of the sudden I hear a loud nose and a cute little voice saying real fast “I toot excuse me”. A few chuckles from others emerged. She was so proud of the sticker she received when we were done.
Either they are starting to sleep through the night, or maybe we are just too tired to hear them. We are skipping out on the midnight feeding now and trying to “drown” them in milk before we put them down. If they wake up before 4:30a, we are trying to get them to take the passy and go back down. After that, we’re feeding them. Last night they slept from 8:30p to 6:30a. but a few nights before Tangie was up at 4:30 with one, up at 5:30a with #2, shower at 6:00 and then getting Brae ready for school thereafter. Crazy.

The twins are sitting up so much better and are starting to make each other laugh more.

They still have their coughs that they are trying to work through. Big sister got a little bit of one too. Recycle time I guess. Yuck.
They love grabbing their feet and also being in the activity center. Maddy also lights up when Braelyn is paying attention to her…which is quite often. During bath tonight while getting all lotioned up, Brae decided to put Maddy’s left arm over her chest and in a high pitched voice imitating her speaking said the Pledge of Allegiance. It was too funny.

Have a good week