Ohhh, we're halfway there...

ohhh, livin' on a prayer...

Yep. Mr Smith slept through the night last night. Now, its just one night. And he was HORRIBLY upset all day at the world and all who dwell in it. But he went to sleep quickly after his final feeding and I had to WAKE HIM UP this morning. (Granted, he woke up first around 6:30, which actually prompted me out of bed. But he fell back asleep and I waited until 7 to wake he and sister and begin feeding).

Tonight will tell the tale, to see if it was a fluke or a new behavior. Regardless, I'm thrilled. And as happy as I am, I STILL had to get up at 4:30 to feed Ms. Addison. While I think most experiences wiht twins are pretty much par for the course for those with a single baby, this is an experience that really so few folks have. Normally, you're children either sleep through the night, or they don't!

They'll be two months Wednesday, so expect the requisite pictures. We've also go their two month checkup that day, so we'll have lots of official sounding statistics and percentiles to throw your way.

Dad is VERY happy. Mom had yesterday off to, of all things, go to a football game with the girls. (This is not a lie. Its amazing the stories the ladies will concoct to leave the kids with the fellas.) Smith, Addison, and I went to Scott and Carter's to watch the game on PPV. Smith proceeded to act the fool AGAIN (as he did a few weeks ago when scott and carter came over to watch football at our house).

Lets hope we get a sleep through the night night tonight (wow, that looks like I just wanted to repeat the word night 3 times, but it actually does make sense) without the day-craziness of yesterday.

Welcome Baby Georgia

Congratulations to Julie and Russell on you precious little girl Georgia born this morning at 7:56AM. She weighs 7 pounds 3 ounces and measures 19.5 inches long. Smith and Addison can't wait to meet their new friend.

Just some pictures

We've been really bad bloggers lately, especialyl with the pictures. Honestly, we just haven't taken as many pictures in the past few weeks, partly because I think when we HAVE some time that we actually could do so, we're ready to just sit down and relax.

But, just to keep everyone updated, here are some pictures from the past few weeks.



Mom had a little photo shoot. This is post feeding, so they must be happy.

Mom and the Daybies, and Amber and Carter ventured out one day last week. This required some maneuring by Amber to get Carter's carseat in Krissee's car. They sure do look snug. (I love this picture, taken in the mirror on the headrest.)

Finally, we went to visit Krissee's family to celebrate a number of birthdays. Pictured here is our nephew Rollings, who picked out his own outfit that day, holding Addison. Rollings is 4 is a little man. He's going to make such a good big cousin and I can't wait to see him playing with Smith and Addison. He's got one heck of an imagination too, and I hope that family trait is passed onto our little ones.

Our Nightly Routine

With the twins almost seven weeks old, we're approaching the time when they should be able to sleep for an eight hour chunk each night without waking. According to "On Becoming Babywise," which we've modeled our feeding schedule after, most babies master this by 8 weeks, and those that don't by then do by 12 weeks. (If you hate that philosophy, shut up. We're feeding and loving our babies.)

Any way you look at it, we're on the downhill slope. Pretty much from the night we got home, we've only been getting up once a night with them, so its not been as bad as we've heard from other parents. But still - we'd both love a full night of sleep. We're alternating who gets up each night so that at least one of us gets an uninterrupted night of sleep each night.

So, in our efforts to coax our children into night sleeping, we've instituted the following nighttime routine.

• The "final" feeding is at 7 PM.
• After this feeding, we bathe them.
• They then get "spa time," in which they are massaged with some night time baby lotion (I am not making this up. I made fun of Krissee at first, but it really does help them to calm down.)
• They're swaddled and placed in the crib
• Dad reads them a story.
• The lights are turned off, the mobile is turned on for 5 minutes, and the door is shut.

This has been working great. For the most part, they're asleep (or at least settled down) by the time the mobile finishes its 5 minute cycle.

We awaken them around 10-11 for their final feeding of the day, which is kept quiet and strictly business - feeding and a diaper change. No playing.

After that, we go to bed.

And each night, even if its the other's night, we truly hope that tonight is the night.

When its not your night, you can't wait to wake in the morning and ask the other "How did it go?" and "When did they wake up?"

We'll get it. Its still crazy early. But rest assured, once we're getting full nights of sleep? That is going to be like an extra cherry on top of a bowlful of cherries that tops the most decadent chocolate and ice cream concoction known to man.

Yep - THAT good.

Getting Current

So one of Dad's favorite things to do is to comment on Aunt Heather's blog whenever she's gone a week or more without posting. The comment usually consists of the three simple words "nice current blog." Its usually enough motivation to get her to post within the next few days.

If you can dish it out, you've got to be willing to take it, so thanks Heather, for "Nice current blog"-ing me.:)

Who knew that once we left the children for one night, it'd go so much easier? We haven't spent more than a few waking hours at home as we've decided to resume our rock star lifestyles. Parties every night, dinners out. Babysitters do complicate the equation somewhat, but we're managing.

PSYCHE. Honestly, mom's been sick. Dad is sick. Dad was out of town for a few days. Mom had Cookie come stay and help. Babies are growing and they are six weeks old today.

Had a big visit from Ellie and Turner (and their mom Carissa and friend Ashley) on Saturday. Ellie and Turner are 6 1/2 months older than Smith and Addison, so there wasn't a whole lot of interaction going on. If anything, it reinforced the fact that we need to cuddle and hold our sweet babies as long as possible. Its been a very neat experience to watch them grow up. Carissa gave birth the week we discovered we were having twins. She's been a great resource all along the way and more than anything, she's reminded us that they'll be ok no matter what we do, so its best to be able to laugh along the way.

That is our big updates. NO new milestones, other than the six week mark. I think we'll all be close to 100% this weekend.

Mom and Dad's Crazy Night Out

Last night, Krissee and I talked our friends Heath and Jessa into babysitting the daybies and we headed out for date night, Sept. 2008 edition!

During the pregnancy, we discussed many times how important we thought it would be for us to be able to have some time that didn't involve the kids. We decided that we'd try to plan a once a month date night, so that we'd be able to have conversations that didn't necerssarily revolve around how many ounces they drank or who had what diaper when.We've had many people tell us about how hard it would be to leave them.

Well, I hate to say it like this, but it wasn't that hard. Maybe they knew it was coming, so from 4 until about 6:00, Smith and Addison screamed and cried. It was FIERCE. At six, we fed 'em, and they promptly fell asleep. Heath and Jessa arrived at 6:30 and we were off.

We got home just in time to see kickoff for the Gamecock game at 8:30. All in all, it was a successful evening out. We had a few beverages, ate some food, and chatted. Some chatter was regarding teh children, but we also talked about other stuff. In fact, it was just as we received our appetizer that we remarked "We haven't talked about the kids yet."

When we got home...the babies were cuddled up and it was obvious they had been in good hands. Thanks Heath and Jessa!

Unfortunately, all this occurred without a single photo being snapped. Maybe for the October edition!

Busy Weekend

We had a busy Labor Day weekend, lots of visits and visitors!

Some of our closest friends, Adam and Haley, and our godson Jack stopped by to visit. They were some of our first visitors in the hospital, and we're all super glad that they're headed back to Columbia!

Now, being the overprotective father that I already am, especially in all manners concerning my daughter's dating future, I'm wary of any male child spending too much time around her. But Jack is a special kid, and you can already tell he's going to be super sweet, just like his godfather Daniel. I know some other friends think that Jack is betrothed to their daughter Emmie, but I checked with the family and they indicated that there was no dowery, so all bets were off.

Jack checking out Ms. Addison.

This wasn't perfect camera speed, but their first kiss was right around this time!

On Monday, we headed for our first big day trip with the babies, to Nanny and Papas. It was a combination Labor Day/Nanny Birthday visit, so we knew we'd have fun.

The cooler packing is a little different these days, but the essentials for all are still there!

My sister hosted an exchange student from Germany many years ago, Barbara. She and her boyfriend Johannes are spending the week with my parents this week. Here they are checking out Smith and Addison.

Super Sweet One Month

The twins turned one month old yesterday! Its hard to believe that its already been a month, but in the same way, it seems that they've been with us forever too!

Our friends Ellie and Turner/Carissa and Craig have been doing this tradition of taking pictures each month with a sign in the background. We're shamelessly stealing that idea!

One of our neighbors made the stuffed animals that you see in the pictures. We figured it would be a good way to measure their size alone the way too!

Life with babies

Dad avoided a potential devastating start to his day just a few moments ago.

We've moved on to making bottles on demand (expect some great advice on that later this week). As such, the canister of formula sits on our kitchen counter. Right next to the coffee maker.

I'm making another cup this morning, and without thinking, instead of picking up the cream, I pick up the formula canister.

I quickly realized the error I was getting ready to make and put the formula down and picked up the cream. Luckily this was my 3rd cup instead of my first. I have a feeling that at some point in the future, I'll be having formulafee. (thats my name for the formula/coffee mixture).

Smith and Addison just told me to tell everyone Happy Labor Day.

Its also their one month birthday today! We're heading out to Nanny's and Papa's for a Labor Day cookout/Nanny birthday feast, so its a very big day up in our house. We'll be doing the one month photo shoot tonight when we get home, so expect a great week of entries!