Candids

Wanted to also post some quick candids Krissee snapped the other day. I believe the two individual ones really capture the spirit of the twins - Smith in the middle of having the time of his life, and Addison just a chillin', drinkin' her drink.

6 Months Old

Everyone is growing, growing, growing!

We weren't super successful with the smiles this time - getting smiles and taking pictures is a two person job and these were taken solo!

No Peas Please

I (Daniel) hate peas. Seriously. I hate the way they smell. I hate the way they taste. I hate 'em. I hate 'em. I hate'em. I will not eat peas in a bowl, I think those who do, do not have a soul.

Now that Smith and Addison are eating fruits and veggies, they rarely leave the dinner table without some vestige of their dinner on their precious little faces.

After the peas lunch yesterday (who's smell was troubling to get through for me), I cleaned Addison's face of the peas she'd just enjoyed. I picked her up and walked her back into the family room. While doing so, I gave her a big ole kiss on her cheek...

...and then I tasted it.

It was the unmistakable flavor of peas. All over my lips. Everytime I closed my mouth, I got that repugnant flavor all over again.

I instantly head for the bowl of starlight mints in an effor to remove the taste. Only the wife had moved them. So, without closing my mouth or moving my tongue, I begin asking "Where are the mints?"

Only it came out more "ere are a anns?" And I kept asking and asking and getting louder and louder...

Krissee got so darn tickled at me that she couldn't even talk. I'm laughing, but scared to close my mouth for fear of getting the flavor sensation all over again. I'm still holding my daughter and frantically searching for the bowl of mints.

I finally found 'em, and successfully removed that "yummy" flavor from my mouth.

Public Service Announcement

As many of you may know, Dad is somewhat of a Science Fiction geek. So its no surprise that he likes Battlestar Galactica.

What may surprise you is that MOM is also a big fan. See, she knows good television when she sees it. If you're searching for something to add to your Netflix queue, add the BSG miniseries - it'd be a single disc - 4 hours - if you hate it, ok, fine. But I'm willing to bet that you won't.

The final ten episodes of BSG start on Friday, and we couldn't let the opportunity go by without commemerating it with our precious children.

Hopefully they won't hate me too much later in life for this.

(Onesies ordered from Cafepress.com - yes, this actually cost us money and took some planning).

Happy Birthday Mom

(the following was typed by Dad, but was dictated by Smith and Addison):

Dear Mom,
We hope you have a great day. You only turn 3? (not a typo...dad ain't stupid) once. We'll do our best today to eat our veggies and bottles without any fuss. We'll even let Cookie keep up tonight so that you and Dad can go celebrate.

Thank you for being the best mom. You take such good care of us. No wonder we're such happy babies. We love you.

Smith and Addison

Sandy Claws

On Christmas Eve, we braved the local mall to get Santa pictures. We figured that no other parents would have that great idea. WRONG. After an hour and half or so in line, we finally made it to see old St. Nick - and he was as enamored with the daybies as anyone else.

Smith seem to have the unfortunate habit of confusing smiling for the camera and yelling with your mouth wide open for the camera. Buddy - your dad has the exact same problem and there are 30+ years of pictures of him yelling at the camera. At least he'll have a partner in crime now.

Our poor, sweet, sensitive Addison. Over the holidays, she really grew quite attached to Mom and Dad. Its not enough to be in sight of them - she wants one of us to be holding her at all times. Imagine her surprise to realize that this big old man in a red suit was holding her.

Dad was lucky enough to be able to take from 12/24-1/5 off to be at home with his babies. It was a great time to be off and really get to spend time with them and play. He really, really did miss them when he went back to work today.

We're 5 months!

Dad couldn't decide which of these two pictures of us that he liked the best, so he decided to post both of 'em!

Happy New Year everyone.

Christmas Morning

Santa came and visited the Daybies this year! They got a wagon to share, a toy each, and some clothing!

Ms Addison instantly took to the wagon and showed us how she could use it to hold herself up.

Smith, meanwhile, spent the morning in his mom's arms.

They both enjoyed being pulled around the house in the wagon!

Still no hippopotamus

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. We already had a great holiday with Krissee's family and are staying home for Christmas Eve and morning and then headed to Daniel's family on Christmas day afternoon.

Hope your holiday is as blessed and happy as our's is.

Bath-time is fun time

Last week, we spent the week in Pawleys Island for Daniel's job. When mom and the babies get to travel wtih Dad, we all stay at our company's corporate townhouse. Its not a bad gig, the place is absolutely beautiful, and Dad gets to work AND be with the family.

One day, Mom decided to try bath time in the sink at the townhouse - and got some GREAT pictures:

This past Saturday, we had the big Rollings family Christmas. This is the day that all of Krissee's cousins and aunts and uncles and everyone gets together to celebrate the holidays.

Here is that side's 4 generation picture - Krissee, her dad, her grandmother, and the babies.

While there, Smith and Addison got lots of loving - especially from Aunt Denise!!

Big bang babies

The big fun 4 months doctor's appointment went well.

Babies are growing and getting bigger every day. Smith is talking up a storm (not talking like "Mom, can I have some more formula" but more along the lines of "ah ah ah ah ah ah ah.")

As of December 2nd:


We've successfully moved to the 4 hour schedule. We feed them at 7 AM, they go down for a nap at 9, wake at 11 for feeding, sleep at 1 for a nap, wake up and feed at 3, nap at 5, feed at 7, down for the night for 8.

Its AWESOME. Having the two hour chunk of time lets us get so much stuff done. Its awesome. And the babies seem to be doing as well, if not better on the schedule.

We started fruit on Tuesday. So far, Addison seems to not really care for Bananas, but is a big applesauce fan. Smith, as expected, likes everything. Although, just this morning, they both seemed to be unsure of the peaches. I don't really blame them, cause the peaches smelled kinda funny and unnaturally sweet.

That's us this past week. We're headed out this coming week for Daniel's work - company christmas party and meetings. Super duper fun!

4 months old

Its that time again!

The daybies are really becoming two unique personalities. Addison is quite the flirt and loves the mens. Smith is super observant and takes it all in. They both are happy and healthy, and that really is all we can ask for.

Pediatricians appointment tomorrow, so we'll have lots of info to share!

November Catsup

Yes, we've been very bad bloggers lately. It happens.

So what have we been up to? In relatively chronological order:

We went to visit Daniel's Grandmother (Smith and Addison's Great Granny). Here is a photo of all 4 generations together. (I think someone may have just told my grandmother a very, very dirty joke based on her facial expression here!)



The following weekend, Krissee took the daybies to her parents for the weekend, and Dad got a few nights alone with the dogs. He sure did miss his little ones, but looks like Addison had a good time with Poppy. (Poppy was just back from the beauty palor.)

For the past few weeks, we've been adding a little rice cereal to their bottles. Last week, they graduated to their high chairs and are eating like big boys and girls!

Lastly, on the way home from Thanksgiving, we stopped by a Christmas tree farm and picked out the Day family tree 2008. Here we are taking a hay ride and looking at all the offerings!

Thar she blows - the chosen one in the wild. This year we went with the White Pine. Never had one before. Its very pretty, but we're pretty sure its going to litter the den with droppings before the end of the season.

Both babies have been sleeping through the night like champs for the past week or so. Yesterday we tried them on a 3 1/2 hour schedule between feedings and it seemed to work pretty well. Today we're trying the 4 hour schedule, which means that, if successful, we'll be cutting out a feeding each day. That may not seem like much, but when your day is spent in a constant cycle of feed/play/sleep, extending those play/sleep periods is golden, especially the sleep ones so that other items can get accomplished!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates, but we'll get back to it as soon as we finish up eating all the turkey.

We did it!

Ms Addison finally has joined her brother in the sleep through the night club.

We knew it was going to happen soon. And its been two nights in a row. This means no screaming, no pacifier, nothing. We put her down around 8:00.....she sleeps until 7 AM.

We both feel like we've won the lottery! (Which we kind of did - the baby lottery!)

We're going to give it a few more days to really take hold - and then next week we start lengthening the time between feedings with the eventual aim to cut out one of them!

Our babies are all grows up....

Outside TIme!

Mom and babies went outside today to enjoy the great day, and mom managed to get some great smiling photos!

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Q&A the second

Its Q&A time!

Q : Jenn in Anderson asks "Forgive my ignorance of all things baby, but are they old enough to sit up, or are they just propped up on each other and a pumpkin? (regarding the photo of them in the pumpkin patch)

A: Funny enough - the answer to this is actually a little bit of both. They dont' sit up by themselves, but when placed in a seated position, they normally can maintain it. Of course, while we were at the pumpkin patch we did have a baby blow-out and there was some toppling. Of course this occurred just as some other folks walked right by and we looked like parents of the year.


Q:Ali in DC writes "Do the babies take turns with their demands (crying, soiling diapers, being hungry, desiring bounce/cuddle, etc.) or do they do this in synch? Is there any pattern?"

A: Hrmmm..most of the time, they will take turns with their demands. There have been just a few moments in the past 3 months where both children needed 100% of your attention. Most of the time, these have been cases where we've both been available to assist. When it happens and we're NOT able to focus on a single baby, you improvise and do the best you can.

As for the feeding - they do this in synch, by design. We decided pre-birth that if we didn't feed them in tandem we'd spend most of our time feeding babies.

Most of the time, we'll get one down and quiet, and the other one will "lose their mind." Its great fun on those days. Which normally are Saturdays. Don't know why, but my kids hate Saturdays.

Q: Schmitty from Furman, living out west asks "are their personalities starting to shine?"

A: Oh yes. Smith is his father and Addison is her mother.

Smith is pretty darn happy most of the time, but when he is not...woo-boy, you'd better watch it. (Sound like anyone else you know?) His smile is going to be a heartbreaker some day. He's a little more independent and can entertain himself pretty well.

Addison is incredibly sweet. So much so, that her little feelings get hurt when she's not getting the love and attention she thinks she deserves (Sound like anyone else you know?). Her little heartbreaking cry when you lay her down is comical if it weren't so sad sounding. She's definitely more of a people person loves to be touched and loved on.

Q: Anonymous emailed:"When I got married, I had a" WOW!! I am married and I feel like I am in a little over my head” moment. It didn’t last long and it wasn’t a bad moment, but it happened. I just wonder if it is worse with babies, especially twins. Did you get home and freak out? Like maybe I am in a little over my head, and then you just dive into being parents?

I can only speak for myself, but YES. There are still those moments. I think we'll probably have 'em forever. There are moments that 1) I have no idea what the hell I'm doing and 2) I'm convinced I'm doing something that will scar their lives forever.

But normally in the heat of the moment, you don't have time to freak out. Its only in those quiet reflective moments that you really can ponder on the "OH CRAP" feelings. And luckily(?), parents of twins don't get TOO many of those moments. So, you really hit the nail on the head, you have those moments, and then you just dive into being parents out of necessity. I think that's pretty normal.

Q: Anonymous also emailed:"I noticed when we visited you just handed the babies over and said here you go. I so loved that, some people don’t do that especially with their first children.how do you let people hold them and not be crazy on the inside that they won’t support their head enough or they won’t do something right"

Honestly, this was something that we've noticed as well with other who have had babies. I certainly understand other's beliefs and will respect their wishes, but visitors want to see and hold the babies. So, we decided to just be okay with it and when people walk in the door, we hand the babies off.

As for not being crazy on the inside - well, occasionally you ARE crazy on the inside regarding it. But really, you'd have to be pretty nonchalant about holding a baby in order to really hurt 'em, and no one is going to do that with the parents sitting right there. Also, I know that I've inadvertently hurt them in their lifetime (nicking their little fingers when clipping their nails comes to mind), but they're pretty resilient and I think you'd have to work on hurting them, so its just not something to worry about.

3 Months

The babies continue to grow and grow and grow.

There will probably be a day in the future that Addison hates me for this picture, as its not a great angle and she looks a little chubbier than she actually is. No addison, that outfit does NOT make you look fat.

I am a big boy!!

We look like little people!

Just for comparison purposes, I've put together the following collage to chart their growth. Its nothing fancy or worthy of framing, but its kinda cool to look at. (You can click on the photo to open it in a new tab/window)

Happy Halloween

We had a busy Halloween. We all came back from our first trip out of town as a family (down to Pawleys Island for Dad's work). Smith and Addison had a nice trip, mom got to relax a little bit, and Dad got to work!

We got home around 4:00 PM and after feeding some screaming babies, we dressed 'em up!

Ms Addison flirts with the camera.

Mr. Smith REALLY flirts with the camera!

Finally, it was the year of the pumpkins. From left to right, Sienna, Addison,Carter, a VERY happy Smith, and Macy. (look at Macy trying to comfort Smith - she was patting his little leg. Later on she sang to him. Very sweet.)

Finally, our friends Carissa and Craig get extra points for their costumes for their twins Ellie and Turner. You must check it out. You two have certainly set the bar high for next year, but we can beat it. I know we can (we've got at least one more year where WE can pick out the costumes, so we're planning on making the most of it!)

Today is Smith and Addison's 3 month birthday, so pictures of that will be forthcoming. As will the next Q&A. Sorry its taken me so long, but I've gotten some really good and juicy questions (some off the record by anonymous senders - its okay if you want to ask that way too!), so I'll need to set aside some time to really answer those.