Leah, Emma and Claire (and Jen and John)

The package arrived just before 1 on Saturday afternoon. Inside were two pretty elaborate Viking costumes. John immediately announced that he wasn't going (Halloween has never really been our thing) but I urged him to try it on and I really think he enjoys being a Viking! After all my speculation about the costumes being politically correct, mine came with fake bra armor - glad they weren't my co-workers! I posted some pictures rather than describing the whole get up.

John's parents arrived mid afternoon and we were all ready to go when Security called up to say that our driver had arrived. Thankfully no one got in the elevator with us! The limo dropped us off at Liberty Grand and we were both a bit relieved to see John's co-workers looking similarly ridiculous. There were about 40 people and nobody had the same outfit. I quickly noted that I wasn't the only one with the chest armor!

The evening was a lot of fun. They served appetizers and drinks in the lobby and there was tight security on the door to the main room. When the doors finally opened, you could tell that a lot of hard work had been put into making it special. The room was enormous. There was dry ice all over the floor and candles everywhere. At the end of the room there were two long tables complete with ice sculptures and candles. The tables reminded me of Harry Potter.

Dinner was buffet style and I don't think I have ever seen so many types of meat/fish/poultry in one room - John was in heaven. There was beef, ham, lamb, duck, chicken, salmon, oysters and a seafood risotto. The food was delicious and thanks once again to my breastfeeding excuse I thoroughly enjoyed it!

After dinner they opened up the dance floor. The bar was pretty much on the dance floor so everyone was up either dancing or drinking. The limos were on call all evening so nobody had to drive home.

After John and I got engaged, we suffered through one (and only one) wedding show. Coby and Carrie came with us and the whole day was a disaster - until the boys saw the chocolate fountain. I don't think in John's wildest dreams had it occurred to him that such a thing existed. We all stood in line for our chance to dip some under ripe piece of melon in the chocolate. He still remembers that the thing cost $500! So back to Saturday, you can imagine the joy on his face when out came the chocolate fountain! I can't say that I wasn't pretty excited to see it as well - especially knowing that odds are it had been done right. And it was. It was delicious.

All in all it was a good night. Everyone was asking me about the babies and you can tell that John is a proud dad at work. The girls behaved for Nana and Papa. We showed John's mom how to use our camera and by the time we got home the battery was dead! She got some good pics though.

Yesterday we took John's parents to the house site and I think we can safely say that we don't have a green box. Afterwards, we went to the design centre to show them what we had picked. We're done - no more going back until our appointment on Dec 22. I made my Auntie Margaret's famous ribs for dinner then John's parents left for Oshawa. It was a very busy weekend and we were both quite happy to get to bed.

Please help us!

There are no words for this picture

Blue eyed Emma

Curious Leah

Emma's big smile

Secret handshake - Version 1.0

The girls are starting to interact - let the fun begin!

For the past little bit they have been looking at each other all the time. When one is lying down we'll take her sister and lay her on top. They love it! They try and grab each others faces and laugh and smile. It's pretty cute. They also like to grab the same toy - sharing starts early with twins. Every once in awhile one will inadvertently (we think!) whack her sister. It's easy to separate them now but once they start moving it's going to be tough. I can definitely see how we're going to have to watch that they don't hurt each other.

Tomorrow night John's work is having a mystery party to reward the team that has been working so hard at CIBC for the past year. The details of the evening have been cryptic at best and we really don't know what to expect. They have asked for everyone's measurements so my guess is that there is a costume involved. Last week, John received a bottle with a scroll in it and was told that his name was now Blaine. If nothing else, calling John Blaine for the past week has kept me amused. All we know is that a package will be delivered to our place at 3 pm and someone will pick us up at 6 pm. The festivities are expected to last well into the evening. We were told to arrange child care so John's parents are coming to watch the girls.

Tonight John's is off to play Poker with his friends - he's not home yet so hopefully he'll be coming home with some diaper money! Alicia was over keeping the rest of the family company. She got these neat maternity overalls in the States. The neatest thing I got to wear when I was pregnant were Old Navy XXL t-shirts…

The girls are 4 months old corrected today. This morning we got them fed, dressed and headed to North York for their NICU 4 month corrected follow up appointment.

The girls were each examined by an occupational therapist, a nurse and a doctor (Dr. Doctor was her name!). They had lots of questions for us about their eating/sleeping habits and their overall health. They were both weighed and measured and they are both on track. The scale wasn't as accurate as the one in the doctor's office so I'm not going to add to the growth chart - I'll wait for their pediatrician appt in a couple of weeks.

After they had been examined, we stripped them down to their diapers and put them on a big mat with different toys. One by one the therapist scored their development. She looked for things like the ability to grasp objects with both hands and how they did with tummy time. Emma showed off and rolled over - the therapist was pretty excited!

They were all extremely pleased with their progress - they are doing everything that a four month old should be doing. They were particularly impressed with how they both love tummy time. There was no crying and they both were smiling and cooing at everyone.

Emma is way too young to be standing (and here I was worried about Leah!). For any of you that have held her, you know that she is very sturdy and keeps her body very rigid. She has what they call high muscle tone and while there isn't any reason to be concerned, they have told us to not use any toys that encourage standing. Yes - that includes the Jumperoo. We were pretty disappointed since she loves it so much but if she continues to stiffen her body she will have problems when it comes to sitting, crawling etc.

Leah has the opposite problem - she has low muscle tone. Again for anyone that has held Leah, you know that she is much floppier than her sister. Again it is nothing to be concerned with but again they have told us no Jumperoo. They want her body to strengthen equally - not just her lower half. They are still not 100% happy with Leah's feet so we have to start doing her exercises again.

So the Jumperoo has to go. The aggravating part is that we threw the box out just the other day so now we can't return it. It was also something the girls really enjoyed which was fun for everyone. We are finding they need to be entertained more and more these days and every little thing helps!

We have 4 more follow up appointments - at 8, 12, 18 and 24 months corrected. Although it wasn't fun having premature babies it is very reassuring to have their progress monitored so closely - especially since I thought Leah's legs were the concern!