Grandma and Grandpa Panning are here!

Grandma and Grandpa Panning flew in Thursday night for a quick visit. Lily and Elsa are having a great time soaking in all sorts of grandparently attention. Lots of nice stroller rides, rocking and family meals. Grandma and Grandpa spent their 39th anniversary babysitting the girls so Mark and I could have another date. Seems ironic! Grandma says it was the warmest anniversary they've ever had. They got married on one of the coldest days on record. 29 degrees below zero! In a nice contrast they enjoyed yesterday in 60 degree weather with the sun shining. They took the girls on a long stroller ride and out to lunch at the bagel shop.


A nice portrait of the foursome. Lily is wearing a special shirt for Grandma P. We'd like to thank whoever sent the shirt. It arrived in the mail with no return address.


Kathy and Ron toasting their 39th at the pub. Tomorrow they are taking a romantic roadtrip down to Hearst Castle where they will be staying at a b&b on the ocean. They will be back on Weds.

Stay tuned for more pictures.

Bon Voyage

As you can see, Lily (lt) and Elsa (rt) were very sad to see our guests go home.


By the end of the trip, Grandpa had mastered the double twin hold. Not a beginner move, evidenced by Lily's backbend.


And I now have a freezer stocked with Grandma's special cooking.

A visit from Grandma and Grandpa's Angyus (Sr and Jr)

This weekend my Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Angyus came out to meet the girls. We've had a very nice weekend.


Great-Grandpa and Lily (demonstrating his magic baby hold).


Grandpa with Elsa and Wendy the Dog. My dad finally met his napping match. They had a couple long sleeps together.


Grandpa and Elsa in the car. They rented a minivan so we could all drive together.


Great Grandma and Grandpa take the girls for a walk on Solono. Today they watched the girls so Mark and I could have a date. We saw our first movie together in 4.5 months. They had everybody under control when we came home. Very impressive! Of course with 5 kids, 9 grandkids and 2 great-grandkids we left the girls with experts!


Great-Grandma and Lily. Tomorrow Grandma and I are going to make stuffed cabbage. I miss her good Polish cooking.


Grandpa feeds the girls rice cereal. Lily ate lots of cereal for grandpa. Elsa's still not so sure.

They weigh more than our cat.

That's what I told my mom about the girls' appointment yesterday.

Elsa weighed 10lbs 8.4oz. Lily weighed 10lbs 7.4oz. Their height is about 22 inches. My peanuts are still peanuts. But, the doctor thinks they are growing well and are very healthy. Although a good size for twins, they just happened to start off as small babies. They did drop a couple points on the growth chart this visit. So, the doctor wants to keep an eye on their weight. He's set a 12lb goal for six months, but thinks the girls will have no problem meeting it.

He wants us to continue on with our breastmilk and occasional formula feedings. But, he gave us the green light to try solids to get the girls used to textures. He said it might take a month or two before they actually become interested, but we are welcome to experiment.

So, we did.


Our test subjects. Lily left, Elsa right.


Lily wasn't sure what to think of the rice cereal, but she decided to be a good sport.


Most of it came right back out. But, she did gum a bit at the end.


Elsa seemed pretty excited at first.


But, then she realized there was something strange in her mouth and freaked out. I think she's waiting for something with more flavor because she always smacks her lips for the cherry flavored tylenol.


Eventually, she found something more to her liking. She is all about her thumb these days.

Oh well, we can try again in a week or two.

SuperDad.

I had a mini motherhood breakdown yesterday.

I got home from work around noon. Lily was taking a nap. Elsa was sitting in her chair as calm as could be. Mark said they had taken a nice long morning nap. He was able to feed them, washed a couple loads of laundry, loaded/unloaded the dishwasher, picked up the house, taken a shower and had time to relax on the computer. He accomplished all of this in five hours.

When it was time for my shift, the girls pretty much screamed the entire time. (except when I was holding them or taking them on a walk). Accomplishments: changed two blowout diapers and gave the girls a bath. I also failed at trying a new recipe for dinner. Parsnips are not my friend. This was in SEVEN hours. By the time, he got home from work. I was frustrated and nearly in tears. I was nearly ready to murder him for coming home 15 minutes later than usual.
Talk about feeling incompetent.

God Bless, my husband. This morning, he called me at work to listen to the girls both screaming in stereo. He says they've been like that for the past hour and had not stopped.

Solidarity.

I feel better now. Its not just me!

These long days take some getting used to.

In exciting baby news, Lily has officially rolled over. And Elsa made it back to front. They are getting big. They are finally retiring their 0-3 month sized outfits. About time, as they will be four months old on Friday.

As posted in my comments beneath the post below, the sleep battle is not yet won. Our big accomplishment is getting them down to one night feeding. They usually still wake up around midnight, but we're able to sooth them back to sleep. This week, just one trip in to sooth works. Progress. Why you may ask, do we not feed them at midnight. Because they are nearly guaranteed to wake up about 2-3 hours after their first night feeding. This is reliable. So unless, we want to feed them again at 3am, we hold them off. Ultimately, we are hoping to get them to go to 6am.

Doctor's appointment on Friday morning. Will post updates and hopefully new pictures.

High chairs and such.

Greetings from the land of perpetual rain.



This is the look Elsa shot us as Mark carted her off to bed on Thursday night. Little did she know that was the night we decided to wage war on their new sleeping habits. Anticipation was greater than the battle itself. When they started screaming at 1am, Mark went in to do his soothing routine. They cried it out for exactly 15 minutes. Mark gave them a binky and they fell asleep. Some battle. We should have done that about 10 days ago. I ended up having to wake them up at 5am because I was sore. (my body can't take going from feeding them 3 X per night, to not at all). Yesterday night, they slept similarly well. And since I just wrote about it, they might be up ALL night tonight.



Our other big news is that the girls now have high chairs. Lily is test piloting her new chair in the photo above. I am very excited. They will be 4 months old on Friday, thus beginning the 4-6 month old window for the introduction of solids. We'll see if we get the green light from the pediatrician at our appointment this week.


As you can see, the girls are still pretty little. Lily looks dwarfed by her chair. They are good sized for twins, but on the small size for singletons. The doc might want us to hold off on solids until they double their birth weight. By our best guess, they clock in around 11 lbs. Still need to do some more growing!



Just thought I throw in a random picture of Lily doing something silly with her eyes.


And here is Elsa wearing a silly hat. I tell the girls, it is my God given right as their mother to make them wear silly hats. (Until they get old enough to protest). As you can see, Elsa looks much more attractive than me at 6am on a Saturday morning.

Rolling over (and a guestbook)

Sorry in advance for not posting any pictures. I know that's what everyone wants to see, but I've got news.

Our girls are growing up. Lily's really using those vowel sounds constantly. She's moved on from a pretty monotonic 'ahhh' to some 'ooo' and 'ohh' sounds as well.

Elsa is apparently the athlete of the family, as she is now rolling over. She did it once yesterday, when I started her halfway, which I didn't count. Then she apparently did it yesterday afternoon when Emily was looking away. Finally this morning she did it again while I was watching them. Lily's getting about 3/4 over as well, but she arches her head back and can't quite get that to go the rest of the way over.

On a technical note, I added a guestbook to the website that people should be free to sign. I know you can comment on the entries if you want, but those slowly page away, and it seemed nice to have one page to go to to see who wanted to let us know that they had stopped by.

Septuplets

We no longer have the largest litter in the family. My Aunt Vicky and Uncle Red Tail in Montana now have septuplets. Their dog Leela gave birth to seven puppies on Christmas Eve night.


And I thought breastfeeding twins was a rough job!

I feel trite complaining about my week after the tragic events in Southeast Asia. Mainly I'm just happy to have such beautiful daughters and a loving husband. But, I will say that we're in the middle of a challenging stretch. My super sleepers have been up multiple times per night ever since Christmas. Hopefully, this marks the legendary 3-month growth spurt and not a new pattern. Plus, my nursing injury has come back, so I've been really sore trying to keep up with their increased appetite. Tomorrow, I start my new work schedule increasing from 8 hours per week to 20. I have to be at the office 4 days a week by 730AM, so I'm really worried about the sleeping issues. It will the start of much longer days, as Mark will go into work after I get home.

On the bright side, Lily and Elsa have really been developing their vocal skills. Lily especially has been discovering vowel sounds. Elsa is refining her giggle. Its hard to believe they will be talking in a few short months. I have a feeling they will have much to say.

My bathing beauties


Elsa getting a bath from dad. She was splashing away and having a great time. We brought out the duckies from their Auntie Meggan.


Lily's turn. You can see her little birthmark on her knee. Does anyone else see a bit of my dad around her eyes? I never noticed it until today.


Michael and Patrick came over this afternoon to meet the girls. Michael and Mark have been friends since 2nd grade. This was Michael's first time holding a baby. He did a great job.