Almost 2

The babies are fast approaching 2 years old, I can't believe it. Perrin would like to show you, despite a concern that preemies have issues with all their teeth coming in correctly due to all the intubations that occur when they had been in the NICU... we have no such concerns and all our teeth are coming in nicely.

This picture of Perrin is typical of how we find him in the morning as you saw from the last post. He has learned how to take his shirt off, and for the most part put it back on on his own... Sarah has mastered her socks, and somewhat her slip on slippers. Ryan's head is too big for him to get his shirt off on his own, and though he's "tried" to get his socks on, most of the time he just gets frustrated with it.

I've tried to capture a few of the things the babies are doing these days.

The boys have been into reading a whole lot lately. Perrin and Ryan have their colors down, and most of their basic shapes. They are working on talking more now, but are still slightly behind. We should be getting a speech therapist out on Thursday, after being waitlisted for the last 6 months. Sarah, is too busy to sit and learn her colors. She has organizing to do, as you can see from the wipees she delicately hung up on the baby gate here. This picture was taken after Perrin had come by and destroyed most of her handiwork, but she is always organizing her stuffed animals and bringing you things she finds on the floor and saying, "Uch-ee". She reminds me of my mother with all this.

Sarah is very much into girly things, despite frequently being dressed in football themed outfits, she LOVES to have her hair done. This particular day, we put in all the barretes we had. She was voguging all day long.




The babies have mastered Ryan's favorite thing in the world.... NA NA NAAS! When Ryan is sitting and "reading" one of his picture books, he says, "na na naa" every time he turns the page, and when he really finds a picture of one, he gets very excited about it and says it so loudly while giggling. Here is how they get their snack of na na nas on the leather couch so if they get in to messy mode, it's an easy clean up.

One of their other favorite things to do is to drag all the pillows and blankets to the end of the hall for a fake nap fest. Sarah usually starts this by the organizing of the blanket and pillows, as you can see her doing here, and the boys join in. Of course, Perrin has taken his shirt off as its pretend nap time. Ryan is modeling how well they've done with their teething with the drool on his shirt.



We recently bought some basic puzzles for the kids. They all love them. After they played with them for about a week, learning their colors and their shapes and how to manipulate them, they figured out another really cool thing you can do with puzzles. Use the handles to put them in your mouth and walk around like that for hours. It is a huge thing with Ryan and Perrin to do this. They think it is hilarious.

The other toy items they have very much been into are the characters of Sesame Street. Everyone loves, "Melmo". But surprisingly, the character they love even more, is Ernie. Sesame Street is very much like you may have remembered it, with a strong focus on letters and counting and basic social skills. What is new is a focus on eating smart. In fact there is a song with cookie monster that, "Cookies are a sometimes food." not to mention the broccoli that raps.

Disappearing Babies

Although it's happening right before our eyes, I want to deny that the kids aren't babies anymore. I suppose they haven't been babies for months now, but it doesn't mean that I am ready to acknowledge they are really toddlers and not the tiny little things that Meva and I brought home from the hospital almost two years ago.

I plan on giving a more detailed update later this week--- lots of words, me rambling on, just like normal---- but for now I'm just going to show you the results of an experiment I've done with Perrin. I call this, What Does That Boy Do In Bed??? Keep in mind whenever we put him down for a nap or for bed he is always clothed properly and completely dressed like his brother and sister.....

Ryan was nice enough to pose for you so you could see an example of how the kids are dressed when they are put in their cribs.

It's not just the boys, are wild haired little girl also is dressed accordingly. And yet when I open the door and turn on the lights......

Sometimes Perrin's shirt has been turned around.

Sometimes he takes off half the shirt.

As you can see, overalls do not impede this ritual!

Of course there is the ever popular "Skins" look too!

Sometimes we can't quite get the shirt all the way off, so we stuff our pillow against the wall!

I'm not sure how this happened, but the other morning he had somehow found another shirt and put it on UNDER the one he was wearing the night before!!

There is of course quite a bit of activity prior to falling asleep. It includes banging, slamming, singling, and yelling along with the usual crying and laughing. Sometimes I think he is fighting some imaginary, mythical monster inside his crib because it looks like a war zone in the morning.

The outside floor of the crib. Blankets, pillows, and even his companion duck have all been ejected in some type of violent upheaval.

He also likes to play a game with me called, "Can Daddy find my shirt?" I often have to pull the crib from the wall and pick it up off the floor.


To prove that I wasn't joking or exaggerating, here if what prompted Meva and I to start this experiment. At some point in the night he managed to dismantle the spindle and he's holding it in his hand for me. I particularly like the Tarzan look of his shirt.

The funniest part of this for Meva and I is that he's doing all of this in the dark. Some how he not only takes the shirt off, but he finds it and then puts it back on, albeit with varying degrees of success! The other night we learned a valuable lesson with Perrin when Meva put him to bed wearing a shirt that had a hood on it. He had been in his bed for almost two hours when he began screaming urgently. By the sound of his crying I knew something was wrong, so I went to get him. When I pulled him out of his crib, his face was completely covered by the hood! He had taken the shirt and put it on backwards, covered his face with the hood and then couldn't get it off in the dark! He was very scared, but I couldn't help laughing at the predicament he had created for himself!

If you want to see larger images of the pictures, please click on them for enlargements.