Look What Daddy Bought Us!

We've been looking at buying some bouncy seats for Nate and Seth for awhile. Sitting with the boys in their Boppy's on the couch is comfy, but they really can't be left unattended, so finding a safe place for them to hang out in the living room was becoming more and more urgent – especially now that they are spending more of the daytime awake and alert. We considered a few options and yesterday M. picked up two Peg Perego Bouncers after work and set them up. I really wish I had been more on top of things with the camera at the time because the looks on their faces when we first sat them in their new seats were priceless – absolute awe would be an understatement.

The Peg Perego comes with some neat toys: a crinkly butterfly, a rattle with colored beads and a cow that moos when you grab his feet. The moo sound was a big hit with both of them!

See for yourself!

Seth enjoying the new environment:



Check out the expression when I made the cow "moo":



And then there's Nate:

Because there are times when you are just sitting there, relaxing with your pacifier...



... when something catches your eye and makes you forget what's in your mouth:



... and you just have to reach out and investigate (and blow a few bubbles too):



So cute! I really wish we'd bought these sooner.

- L.

Baby Report: Our Visit To The Pediatrician

Yesterday we had an appointment with the pediatrician for our monthly weigh-in and check up. Since the boys are just a few days shy of two months old, it was also time for their first shots (!), but I'll get to that in a bit.

We are so fortunate that our pediatrician's office is only about a 5 minute walk away and with the nice weather we decided to take Nate and Seth in the stroller. I was curious to see if I could manage to get the babies in the clinic door by myself (I can!) and that's good because it means M. doesn't have to leave work in the future to come with – unless he really wants to of course.

Here they are looking alert (and even cheerful) in the waiting room before the appointment:



Usually there is some fussing when we go for a checkup, but I think they were still in good spirits from the (albeit brief) walk over. A ride in the stroller (or car) is always a big hit!

They even made it through most of the appointment – at least all the usual stuff – without crying and no one peed on the scale either which was a first. The weigh-in went well: they are both approximately 9.5 lbs. (Nate is actually 4.25 kg while Seth is 4.22 kg). Nate is finally living up to his big brother status in weight at least.

They measured almost 23 inches each – actually Seth has a slight height advantage of half a centimeter so I guess he's a "big" brother too. : )

Their length is solidly in the 50th percentile, but their weight is still on the low side and more in the 5th-10th percentile (and here I thought they were getting chubby little tummies!). They are gaining solidly though and eating a good amount for their age so we just need to make sure that they continue to do so.

And now for the other part of the appointment... the shots. : (

Oh, it's hard to be a mommy sometimes but the babies did great all things considered. The shots were actually 2 shots per baby, one in each thigh. It was pretty hard to see them quiet and cheerful one minute and then watch as their little faces crumpled and they let out a loud wail – twice! I held onto Nate and M. held onto Seth while the shots were given and it's amazing how fast a cuddle and some kisses from mommy (or daddy!) can calm them down. Everybody was back in good spirits before we left the clinic and (mostly) stayed that way, but I think we're all glad we won't have to do that again for another 2 months.

*whew*

- L.

Maybe He's Born With It

Nate is sporting some serious eyelashes on those big eyes of his – I think all the girls are going to be jealous. Not sure if you can tell in the last picture or not, but his eye colour has changed already from blue to grey. It's very striking so I kind of hope he gets to keep it (although brown like his mama would be lovely too!).







Sorry about the pacifier in all the photos, but the alternative looked entirely like this:



I'm sure you understand.

– L.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

A cute pic of M. at 18 months wearing his little sailor suit. Say it with me – awhhh!



... and now you all know where Seth gets his good looks from.

Happy 39th B-day my love!

– L.

This Isn't What It Looks Like

We don't have the best lighting in the nursery, but the babies were having one of their rare moments where they seem aware of each other and no one is crying so I made a quick grab for the camera. Of course, by the time I turned it on things had already gone slightly awry.







No one got clobbered – honest! – but the pictures tell an amusing story anyway because if you didn't know better Nate looks by turns startled, menaced and a little scared while Seth looks innocent, menacing and innocent again. In reality, Seth was just waving his arms around a little and Nate was making big eyes at the lady with the camera.

- L.

Since You Asked... Zed

Zed is doing just fine. For a poor, neglected kitty she looks rather content actually.



– L.

Ready For Walkies

The weather is so unbelievably lovely here that yesterday I decided to take the babies for a walk by myself for the first time. I thought maneuvering the stroller out the door would be the hardest part, but getting two babies ready to go on my own was actually more strenuous. Totally worth it though – see how cute the babies look in their spring jackets and hats?





I just had to stop to take a few pictures before we left. If you're even a little bit patient it's pretty easy to get a reasonably good picture of one baby. Two on the other hand? Well... there's always something going on with at least one of them.



And sometimes there's just no cooperation. ; )



As always, Nate was busy, busy, busy with his hands in almost every picture, but he's clearly having a great time – even when half his face is obscured his eyes are still smiling at you.



I took the camera along for our walk since I thought we might get a nice picture at the park, but in March things are still pretty brown despite the nice weather.



It looks a lot more desolate than it actually was, but I'll be glad when there's some signs of green again.

- L.

The Nursery

I really should have posted the pictures I took of the nursery before the little ones arrived but I wasn't happy with them (the pictures, not the little ones. They are great of course!) and finding time for a re-do has been pretty elusive until now. It's been my new mission starting this week however to properly learn how to use my fancy new camera since that got a bit sidelined (for some reason) and I thought the nursery would be a great place to start, so without delay...



01. Wardrobe (this is where we keep all the cute outfits we've been receiving).

02. Changing table and cabinet. This is where we deal with the business of... the business (if you catch my not-so-subtlety). Actually I'm lazy and usually change them in their cribs, but M. uses it a lot. The baskets hold all the accessories: snappi fasteners, cloth wipes, and covers. There are also some disposable diapers in there for quick trips to the pediatrician, etc. but otherwise we are using cloth full-time now.

03. Diaper pail (with a nice tight lid to keep the stinkies in – it works wonderfully by the way).

04. Once Upon a Time and Elephant Shoe, I Love You prints by Robert Chaplin.



05. Bookshelf with red drawer inserts. There's still plenty of room in the drawers, but for now it's a great place to keep incidental items like wee socks and mitties!

06. Bounce-a-Bye Baby Bouncer

07. Our ever-growing library of books for the boys. They've got quite a collection already!

08. The closet where we keep clothes the babies have yet to grow into. It looks like there isn't any room for the door to open for some reason, but it's quite manageable in reality.



09. First Aid Kit (nice and handy and thankfully unused at this point).

10. Organic Cotton Rabbit Rattles. So far these haven't captured the babies attention, but I'm hoping they'll be a hit once little hands get better at grabbing. The cat on the other hand was very interested in them recently. It's unfortunate that a lot of baby toys and cat toys are more or less the same thing really (soft, chewable, makes noise, etc.). Of course, this should make for some interesting scenarios in the future. Ugh.

11. I was given this teddy when I was a baby. They were a popular style at the time and hold up remarkably well since they aren't very cuddly (rather scratchy actually). As a child I loved it nonetheless and I hope my babies do too.

12. Stuffed soccer ball from IKEA – we bought a second one in black and white too. I think these will be great fun when the boys are older.



13. I painted this storage box to match the nursery furniture when I was around 36 weeks pregnant. I kept thinking Murphy's Law would hasten the arrival of the boys since I would have hated to leave a project half-done, but no such luck. It was in the nursery in plenty of time.

14. We ended up having to purchase a chair since the one I had planned to use didn't fit up or down either staircase and so we couldn't get it into the nursery. Fortunately IKEA had a solution that fit our decor at a reasonable price.

15. The cribs. For those of you wondering how a bedskirt fits on a crib, now you know! The cat loves to hide under them and terrorize your ankles when you're changing a baby which can be quite alarming if you didn't see her trailing you into the nursery and making a dash under there.

16. True Blue Rag Rug (surprisingly soft on the feet).

And since I know at least one reader will be curious about how this all lays out, this is the floorplan I made when we were figuring out how to use the space:



As you can see in the picture with the crib we still need to add in mobiles since the overhead/wall space is pretty spartan right now. No worries though – we're working on it (you know, in all our spare time). Oh, and as with the previous post you can click on the nursery pics to embiggen if you'd like a better look. : )

- L.

Life Lessons With Nate & Seth: Mittens

Lesson 01: If you can still manage Exhibit A after a manicure...



... then it's MITTENS for you!



Remember how much Seth loves Sophie? Well, that is at least how much Nate loves his hands. They are always on his face somewhere, usually making a tasty snack in his mouth. Sometimes he gets a little carried away and yesterday he gave himself a scratch in the 5 minutes or so he had his mittens off. Of course, they were promptly reapplied.



And fortunately they don't affect the flavour one bit:



NOM!

Seth, on the other hand (pun intended?), prefers to remain scratch-and-mitten-free.



- L.

Peek-a-boo!

Seth sees...



YOU!

- L.

Cute Overload

Last weekend I went on my first solo outing since the boys were born – to pick up a few cute new things for my babies, of course! In 5 short weeks they've managed to outgrow most of their newborn outfits, so it was off to the mall to pick up some basics in larger sizes. I definitely had a "mommy moment" looking at all the little outfits and realizing that our boys are now too big to fit into the smallest sizes. When did this happen? It's all going by too fast.

*sniffle*

Remember the hats I couldn't stop looking at while I was still pregnant? Well, they never did fit even before we left the hospital so some new lightweight hats in a proper size were in order (I also found some cute coordinating sleepers). The striped outfits are courtesy of our neighbors downstairs. Personally I think we should have been buying them gifts to make amends for the crying at 2AM (and 4AM and 6AM), but they are clearly very sweet people (thanks again Brandon and Lori!).

Without further ado, the cuteness that is Nate:



... and Seth:



*Something I just realized today after meticulously cropping images to fit the dimensions of the blog – you can click on an image that's been saved at a larger size to view a larger version... so go ahead and click the pictures for the full experience! : )

- L.

The Great Outdoors

We decided to take advantage of the early spring weather and try out the stroller for the first time yesterday. We also got to try out these adorable hats (thanks to Erna), warm coats (thanks to great-grandma Vera), and cozy blankets (thanks to great-grandma Edna)!

See how cute? (Seth is on the left, Nate is on the right)



How about some close ups?

Seth:



Nate:



Awhhh! So sweet!

The Mountain Buggy Duo stroller is a super-smooth ride. The babies slept through the entire outing, but the fresh air must have exhausted them somehow anyway because they kept right on sleeping for another 3 hours after we brought them home. If it always works like that I think there will be a lot more walks in our future. : )

I realized after that I didn't take a very good picture of the stroller itself, so here is a product shot of the buggy we ended up buying for those who are curious about these sorts of things:



- L.

Tummy Time With Nate

A How-To Guide

Step 1: Start by tasting your environment



Step 2: Follow with a cute face



Step 3: Bust out your best breakdancing moves



Seriously though, our pediatrician recommended trying some tummy time with both boys since they are already rolling onto their sides. Apparently the scary time for rolling face down and not being able to roll back is 3-4 months so this is a good way to build up some upper-body strength for them in advance. They are already good at being able to roll their head from one side to the other when lying on their tummies and I was relieved to see that even when Nate temporarily got stuck halfway he could still push himself up enough to let out a sturdy bellow.

More random Nate cuteness from today:





- L.