Leah, Emma and Claire (and Jen and John)

Yesterday my friend Rachelle and her husband Greg came to visit. Rachelle and Greg were married back in July in Alberta and unfortunately John and I couldn’t make it with the girls. It was the first time we really spent any time with Greg and surprisingly he has alot in common with John. Apparently we Waterloo girls have good taste! Rachelle has a pretty severe case of baby fever but they both say they’re going to wait a bit to have kids - we’ll see…

Tonight I had book club. I’m sure most of you remember that awful picture from the last book club I attended. John stayed with the girls while I went over to Julia’s for dinner and the hot tub. I appreciate book club now that I am a mom - all the girls are so much fun and it’s always a good laugh. Lucky for me Julia did some research and found out that breastfeeding moms can only have two cycles in the hot tub - who knew! Lately I’ve been thinking alot about diet pepsi…its been nearly a year now since I gave it up. I am really looking forward to drinking diet pepsi again!

I took these pictures this afternoon. The girls love their mobile. We have two - one for bedtime that plays a lullaby and then a bright, busy one that plays classical music and really catches their attention. I had them in their crib this afternoon and they were watching the mobile and then when they saw mom I got a big smile…make that two big smiles!

We sure are busy lately. I sometimes wonder what we used to do with our time before we got married, had kids and bought a house!

Saturday was the much anticipated open house at Great Grandpa Holmes house in Oshawa. A ton of work went into making the day special. Great Grandpa cut all his hedges, dusted, scrubbed the kitchen floors. Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Van made squares and painted the garage. Aunt Bonnie and Tom made 2 cakes and picked up all the food (I have to get a picture of the cakes!) and John’s parents organized the whole thing. It was a really nice day and we all enjoyed watching Great Grandpa show off “his girls” to his friends, family and neighbours. The girls were little angels - they lay in their dome and smiled and cooed at everyone.

Yesterday we had a family sleep in! The girls have slept 9 hours twice in the past week which is very exciting. Yesterday afternoon we took John’s parents to the design center and had another go at picking tiles/countertops etc. We then headed over to the construction site and walked through some houses. We managed to find an open one with tiles/cabinets etc and it gave us some more ideas about things we might want to change.

Another busy day - I am very tired. Nana arrived last night and noticed a big change in the girls in three short weeks. They are both starting to get some baby fat which looks good on them considering there wasn’t much fat on them when they were born.

Today Nana looked after the girls while we went to our appointment with the builder. When we got back they were all dressed up complete with sunglasses. It was pretty cute and they both seem to like having them on.

Tonight we took the girls out for supper for the very first time. It was interesting how many places we ruled out because we knew they wouldn’t be able to accomodate two carriers - we finally decided on East Side Marios. It was delicious and the girls were well behaved.

Here are some pics from the past week…

We seem to be very busy lately. We have our first appointment with the builder on Wednesday and we have been researching all the structural upgrades. They have so many options and we want to make an informed decision. We are mainly focusing on things we can't do later - like 9ft celings.

The girls are doing well. They had a busy weekend. On Saturday their Uncle Drew came over and brought them another Baby Bjorn carrier. We took them out for a walk tonight and they are both comfortable now. Saturday night John was out for a bachelor party and Carrie came over to visit me. Sunday we were at the model houses looking at upgrades and then we went to Jeff's parents Denise and John's for dinner. Jeff, Alicia and their families love to cook and it is always a treat to be invited over.

Both Emma and Leah are doing well. Emma has decided to join her sister and be a happy baby which is so nice. They were both so good today. They are following their eat/play/sleep routine really well and they consistently sleep 7 hours now with the occasional 8. Just in case anyone is wondering how the poop situation is going they now go every 2-3 days. Today we had 3 dirty diapers - 2 from Emma and then Leah saved hers for when her dad got home from work…good girl!

John's mom is coming for a visit tomorrow. Great Grandpa Holmes is hosting an open house for the girls in Oshawa on Saturday so Nana decided to come early and spend the week. I am looking forward to having some help. Although I couldn't ask for better babies, being a mom is a 24 hour job and I haven't had a full night sleep since I was about 6 months pregnant…March! The frustrating part is that even with the girls sleep 8 hours I have to get up and pump - mother nature is cruel!

I haven't taken any pictures lately. I'll try and remember to take some tomorrow.

We seem to be very busy lately. We have our first appointment with the builder on Wednesday and we have been researching all the structural upgrades. They have so many options and we want to make an informed decision. We are mainly focusing on things we can’t do later - like 9ft celings.

The girls are doing well. They had a busy weekend. On Saturday their Uncle Drew came over and brought them another Baby Bjorn carrier. We took them out for a walk tonight and they are both comfortable now. Saturday night John was out for a bachelor party and Carrie came over to visit me. Sunday we were at the model houses looking at upgrades and then we went to Jeff’s parents Denise and John’s for dinner. Jeff, Alicia and their families love to cook and it is always a treat to be invited over.

Both Emma and Leah are doing well. Emma has decided to join her sister and be a happy baby which is so nice. They were both so good today. They are following their eat/play/sleep routine really well and they consistently sleep 7 hours now with the occasional 8. Just in case anyone is wondering how the poop situation is going they now go every 2-3 days. Today we had 3 dirty diapers - 2 from Emma and then Leah saved hers for when her dad got home from work…good girl!

John’s mom is coming for a visit tomorrow. Great Grandpa Holmes is hosting an open house for the girls in Oshawa on Saturday so Nana decided to come early and spend the week. I am looking forward to having some help. Although I couldn’t ask for better babies, being a mom is a 24 hour job and I haven’t had a full night sleep since I was about 6 months pregnant…March! The frustrating part is that even with the girls sleep 8 hours I have to get up and pump - mother nature is cruel!

I haven’t taken any pictures lately. I’ll try and remember to take some tomorrow.

Nothing much new to report on the baby front. Leah is still happy…Emma is a bit fussy but still a good girl. I took them to the grocery store today. Now that all the kids are back at school, my shopping days are spent with retired people and other moms. Two parts of the population that are particularly interested in babies! I get lots of pity looks from other moms and the retired bunch love to stop and chat. Today an older woman asked me if I was their mom…I guess it never occurred to me that people might think I was their nanny. I started to think how nice it would be to have someone do my groceries and look after my kids…then it occurred to me it would mean I wouldn't be with my girls…no thanks! Being a mom is much more challenging than I ever thought but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

So John and I have started to think about putting the condo up for sale. This whole moving thing is bittersweet…we are very excited about the house but we are really sad to leave the condo. We have talked to two real estate agents so far and we are coming up with a plan. We have time on our side so hopefully we can get a good price for it.

Yesterday I took the girls over to the mall because I needed some new clothes - I’ve still got 10 pounds to lose and I’m fed up wearing my early maternity pants. I have read alot about exercising while breastfeeding and the common consensus among twin moms seems to be that it can compromise your milk supply. After all my hard work and perseverance that’s not something I’m willing to accept at this point so I am going to be chubby mommy til we’re done with breastfeeding. The girls behaved very well - both of them wide awake while I tried on clothes and looked around. On the walk home I was thinking to myself how lucky I was to have two little angels…then we got home and the meltdown began. I have never seen the two of them scream quite like this - I am so happy I have a sense of humour about it! Turns out they were just starving to death and once fed they settled down and had a nice long nap. Maybe they don’t like shopping…John and I can only hope!

While I was pregnant we spent alot of time wondering how our cat Jackson would react to the girls. You hear (and read) all sorts of things about pets with babies and I started to worry that we would have to send Jackson to Windsor for a few months when we brought the girls home. She’s always been such a good cat and she has been incredible with the babies. For the most part she ignores them- the most they get is a sniff when they’re on the floor and she happens to be passing by. She loves to sleep under their crib and on the change table. The only change we’ve noticed is she’s a bit more sucky…but we’re happy to oblige!

We had a pretty relaxing weekend. Yesterday we went to Sears to get the girls some socks and then went grocery shopping. We spent the afternoon cleaning up and relaxing before Jeff and Alicia came over with Swiss Chalet. Since they have told everyone now, it’s safe for me to say that Alicia is pregnant (due in April). John and I are thrilled for them both and very excited for the girls to have a little friend (yes they’ve had an ultrasound and there’s only one - big sigh of relief from both Jeff and Alicia!). Our friends Liv and Scott are also expecting their second baby at the end of March. I have a feeling our university friend get togethers are going to be very different than back in the old days!

Today John had some work to do so I played with the girls. Our power was out for about an hour. It went off right at 1pm…kickoff time for the first NFL Sunday. I made John call his mom to see if it was off in Windsor - power outages have a whole new meaning since the blackout last year. I had visions of hours without power and I was very thankful the girls are still breastfeeding. Tonight was nice and warm and we decided to take a walk just as it was getting dark. Rather than take the stroller, we each took a baby in a carrier. Those baby carriers are great and if I only had one I think I would use it all the time.

The girls are doing really well. Leah has been in a great mood for a week now. She is such a happy baby. She’s content to look around and coo at the world and smile away. Emma is pretty content too but when she gets hungry watch out! Within 10 seconds she’ll go from totally fine to screaming her head off.

For the past little bit John has nicknamed the computer my third baby since that's where I spend most of my 'free' time. I have been teasing him about his obsession with the tv show One Tree Hill - he's been downloading all the episodes he didn't see and watching them on his laptop on the way to work.

So tonight, while downloading One Tree Hill episodes, the computer crashed. Not very funny for either of us. I happened to be in the room at the time and I watched John try to restart it…nothing. Let me tell you it didn't take long for me to think of the last time I backed up all our pictures - and it was over a month ago. I was on the verge of tears with John trying to assured me that we could get it back. Having been through this sort of thing many times with my job, I was skeptical to say the least. I must have turned it on and off about 20 times and nothing. I got John's laptop and started looking at prices for a new tower…not really in our budget at the moment but the computer is what keeps me sane (and just think without a computer this website would be no more!). Demoralized, I decided to go read my book and on my way out gave the tower a good whack and started it up again…and since you're reading this you probably figured out that IT WORKED! I did a little dance and promptly backed up all our pictures. I was so relieved.

So while I was backing up the pictures, I looked through all the pictures we took while the girls were in the NICU. It seems so long ago but the pictures bring it all back. Some of the pictures make me so sad and I am so thankful that everything turned out the way it did and that the girls are healthy and strong. I have been following a website similar to mine about a baby with Leukemia. A couple of days ago the parents had to make the tough decision to stop any further medical intervention. It is so heartbreaking to read since for awhile it really did look like little Allie was going to pull through.

On a happier note, the girls are smiling like crazy now. They seem to be in the best mood in the morning so John hasn't seen it yet. Hopefully tomorrow one of us can make them smile and the other can get a picture.

Well I've had enough of my third baby for the night…I'm going to go spend some time with my other two!

For the past little bit John has nicknamed the computer my third baby since that’s where I spend most of my ‘free’ time. I have been teasing him about his obsession with the tv show One Tree Hill - he’s been downloading all the episodes he didn’t see and watching them on his laptop on the way to work.

So tonight, while downloading One Tree Hill episodes, the computer crashed. Not very funny for either of us. I happened to be in the room at the time and I watched John try to restart it…nothing. Let me tell you it didn’t take long for me to think of the last time I backed up all our pictures - and it was over a month ago. I was on the verge of tears with John trying to assured me that we could get it back. Having been through this sort of thing many times with my job, I was skeptical to say the least. I must have turned it on and off about 20 times and nothing. I got John’s laptop and started looking at prices for a new tower…not really in our budget at the moment but the computer is what keeps me sane (and just think without a computer this website would be no more!). Demoralized, I decided to go read my book and on my way out gave the tower a good whack and started it up again…and since you’re reading this you probably figured out that IT WORKED! I did a little dance and promptly backed up all our pictures. I was so relieved.

So while I was backing up the pictures, I looked through all the pictures we took while the girls were in the NICU. It seems so long ago but the pictures bring it all back. Some of the pictures make me so sad and I am so thankful that everything turned out the way it did and that the girls are healthy and strong. I have been following a website similar to mine about a baby with Leukemia. A couple of days ago the parents had to make the tough decision to stop any further medical intervention. It is so heartbreaking to read since for awhile it really did look like little Allie was going to pull through.

On a happier note, the girls are smiling like crazy now. They seem to be in the best mood in the morning so John hasn’t seen it yet. Hopefully tomorrow one of us can make them smile and the other can get a picture.

Well I’ve had enough of my third baby for the night…I’m going to go spend some time with my other two!