Playing

Grace

Crawling Around!

Connor and Grace have discovered new superhuman abilities this week. (At least that is what they think) They are crawling and lovin' it. They are so proud of themselves and have been extemely busy exploring every crook and cranny they can find. Connor has especially loved crawling underneath the coffee table and exersaucer. Grace has been chasing the dogs. She loves her puppies.

Grace Playing in a Box

Connor carving pumpkins!

7 months

The babies are now 7 months and we just had their 6 month pictures taken. Boy have they grown fast. They are both sitting up and attempting crawling. Connor gets up on all four's and rocks back and forth but only ends up moving backwards. He also has 2 teeth coming in, yikes. We think Grace will pull up to standing before she starts crawling she loves to stand up. She is working on getting up on all four's but can't figure out how to get both knees underneath her. No teeth for her yet. They are also doing better at sleeping, Grace slept through the night three times this week, Connor none, but at least only one of us had to get up. We are not used to getting this much sleep, it seems to be making us more tired. I have been a bad blogger lately and will try to post more soon.

OH-IO

The babies enjoyed their first Ohio State football game, although, Connor slept through most of it. They were very excited about their OH-IO fan shirts. Thanks, Melissa for the awesome gift.

Food Faces!

We have a turd!!!!

That was the exclamation I heard through the baby monitor the other day while Tim was changing Connor's diaper. Of course, I had to run in and check it out and there was in fact a little turd in his diaper. Has he graduated from the soft runny poop stage??? For all of you wondering, I did not take a picture. It took a some restraint, but I decided a simple documentation in the baby book would suffice. And while we have a solid turd in one diaper, we are still getting runny poop in the other, in fact, princess Grace blew out of her diaper everyday this week. She came home from day care in a new change of clothes everyday and even came home in Connor's clothes one day because we forgot to put another outfit in the bag for her, as seen in the picture above. Who would have thought she would have that many blow outs.

Enough about my favorite subject! The babies are doing great and slept through the night last night :), Yeah, can we get another please? Grace made it to 4:30 and Connor made it to 6:30. Tim and I both woke up to our alarms at 6:00 and were shocked and a little scared that we hadn't heard from Connor yet. I went in right away to make sure he was still breathing, all was good.

New Cousins

A lot has happened since my last post, I apologize to all of those who keep checking back. The last of the nephews were born in the last 3 weeks. My sister Marcy, had Colin (7.15 lbs) and Carter (7.3 lbs) on July 29 and my other sister, Courtney had Parker (10.7 lbs) on August 17. All of the boys were big and healthy. Tim and I made our last road trip for the summer up to Ohio to see everyone, unfortunately, we did not get to meet Parker. He decided to say hi to the world the day after we got home, little stinker. Connor and Grace got to meet their cousins Rollie, Lane and Brooklyn, as well as their great-grandma and several other family members. Grace had a great trip, while Connor developed a stomach virus before we left and therefore puked the entire week. What happened to the vacations where you used to relax and catch up on sleep? Oh yeah, that was before kids. Tim and I struggled with lack of sleep and were at each other's throats most of the week. We lovingly joked that if our nights continued to be that sleepless we may need to find lawyers :) All is well now, we are home, I started back to work and the babies are doing good, still no sleeping through the night, anyone have any tricks?

First Baseball Game - Rangers vs Mariners

We took the babies to their first baseball game Saturday night! We only made it to the sixth inning, but we still had lots of fun. Grace smiled the entire night and Connor did his zoned out stare because of course he hadn't napped much that day!

Suuuppper Grace!

No longer hungry, Grace found a new way to wear her bib!

Play Time!

Somebody found her feet!

Connor loving the exersaucer!

The Clean Plater!

Yummy!

4 Month Updates

We are a little late with our 4 month updates due to our extended trip to Georgia. The babies went for their 4 month check up today and we are happy to say that they are both doing great. They are both in the 20th percentile for weight with Connor at 14.14 and Grace at 13.8, they are also both in the 70th percentile for height with Connor at 25.75 and Grace at 25.25. They also measured their head circumference and although it looks much bigger than Grace's, Connor's head is only a half inch bigger at 16.5 inches. I did ask about his flat head, the doctor said not to worry that it will round out on its own, but that we should limit his time on his back. That shouldn't be to much of a problem since he has recently decided that he preferes to sleep on his tummy. We got the go ahead to start cereal, although we went ahead and gave them a taste last night. Grace seemed to like it a lot more than Connor, but of course he didn't take any good naps yesterday so that could've had something to do with his grumpiness. I will get a video posted soon with them enjoying their new food!

Margaritaville!

What do you get at a mexican restaurant at 4:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday? Drunk grannies that love babies! Tim and I had an early dinner after our drive from Georgia and stopped in to Chuy's, the new mexican restaurant by our house, we were bombarded by grandparents grabbing Connor and Grace's feet and trying to get them to smile. Of course the "ham", Connor, was all smiles and loving the attention. What was supposed to be a quick dinner turned into a babling conversation between 80 year old grandparents and 4 month old babies!

Connor's New Trick

Welcome Lily and Brady

Connor and Grace got new cousins July 3! Lily and Brady are both doing great and we can't believe that our babies were once about that small.

WTF...!

Connor was shocked by the sound that came from his diaper!

He is getting to be such a big boy, today he rolled over from his back to his belly. If you recall from earlier posts he rolled from belly to back at 3 weeks of age.

First Play Date

Clair came over yesterday to play with Connor and Grace! They had fun watching her crawl around and play.

Crazy Hair!

Our kids have the craziest hair! Connor's is always crazy, but today Grace had an especially "cool" do. I took the babies on a stroller workout today with a group of other women and Grace got really sweaty, I ran my fingers through her hair and when it dried, she had a fun new do!

Grace talking with her mouth full!

Connor talking!

First Time Swimming

We took the babies swimming for the first time last week. They weren't sure about the water at first, but once they got used to it, they liked it. Connor has already figured out how to float. They both looked cute in their bathing suits. Thanks for sending the bikini grandma!

3 months

The babies and us have survived the first 3 months. We are all doing great, they are almost sleeping through the night. We are down to one nightime feeding and it usually occurs around 4:00, they should be sleeping through the night any day now. Grandpa came to visit Memorial day weekend and took lots of great pictures. We thought we would share a few...

New Family Car

We did it! We bought a new family car to fit the whole family, including the dogs.

Connor likes it too!

10 Weeks

Mystery Poo!

We have noticed that the house has started smelling like baby poo, not just the diaper champ anymore. At first Tim thought one of the dogs pooped in the house but upon further investigation he noticed it was in fact coming from the diaper champ. Note, don't put the diaper pail next to the air intake vent of the air conditioner.

2 month updates

The babies are now 9 weeks old, boy does time fly. They had their 2 month wellness check on Wednesday. Connor has surpased his sister, he currently weighs 10 lbs 4 oz and Grace is 10 lb 3 oz. They are both 22 3/4 inches and have a head circumference of 14 cm. We thought for sure Connor's head would measure bigger, it is just shaped different. (Like his grandpa's!)

They are both smiling back at us now and laughing. It is getting more and more fun to play with them. They started day care a week and a half ago, things seem to be going good. Everyone loves Connor of course because of his many facial expressions.

The Bumbo Chair

We introduced the bumbo chair today! Grace loved it and Connor was not so sure. It could have something to do with the fact that he stayed up until 1:00 a.m. again!

The Diaper Champ

For anyone with babies on the way or who has babies and needs a great way to dispose of diapers, I recommend the Diaper Champ over the Diaper Genie any day. You simply toss the used diaper into the hole at the top and then flip it, the diaper falls down into an air tight receptacle containing a kitchen trash bag. It is much easier than dealing with the diaper sausages that come out of the diaper genie. Only recently have a found a flaw in its design, and I am pretty sure it has to do with the user and not the piece of equipment. Recently the flipper has been getting stuck and I have struggled to get it to flip and when it does I have noticed streaks of poop in the diaper "catcher." At first I was getting frustrated with the diaper champ and then I discovered the real problem... Tim is terrified of getting poop on him and in an effort to dispose of poopy diapers as quickly as possible he is not correctly wrapping the diaper into the tight little poop containing package, he doesn't even want to touch the thing, so he quickly tosses and flips the diaper. Meanwhile the diaper is getting stuck in the shoot and smearing poop along the sides and I have to come along and clean the thing up. I threatened that he will change diapers in the future if this practice continues. Needless to say, Tim is not a Diaper Champ!

Aunt Marcy and Courtney Visit

Our last round of visitors have come and gone. Aunt Marcy and Aunt Courtney flew in for a long weekend to see Connor and Grace. I don't think I changed a diaper the entire time they were here. Marcy is already a pro at changing diapers and Courtney was getting lots of practice for her upcoming arrival of Parker in August. Grace gave her a big scare when she had explosive poop in her diaper. Courtney jumped so high she almost dropped her, it was funny. Speaking of poop, (like always) Connor made all of us laugh when he pooped and peed in Daddy's truck while we were changing him. He made mommy laugh so hard she almost peed in Daddy's truck too. The smell should be great this summer!

Along with all of the help and laughs, Aunt Marcy informed us that there are other types of pacifiers in this world. In previous posts, you will recall the trouble we have had getting Connor to sleep, a lot had to do with the fact that he could not keep a pacifier in his mouth to save his life. He reminded us of Maggie Simpson the way he handled that thing except that after about 3-5 sucks it would come flying out of his mouth. Tim and I would take turns at night holding it in his mouth. I recall holding it in there for over an hour one night before handing the reigns over to Tim. When Marcy arrived and witnessed his pacifier problems she asked if we had tried a different shaped pacifier. I was shocked and excited to find out that there were different types of pacifiers out there. We rushed to Target and bought him a new pacifier and life has been good since. Thank you Aunt Marcy, we will be forever grateful for the amount of sleep you have given back to us.

Happy Easter Visitors

The babies had their first Easter and they looked adorable in their little outfits, I can't say the same for the Easter bunny however. They didn't seem to mind though as Grace gazed at his big furry cheeks and Connor slept in his arms. Tim's dad "Grandpa" was in town, he acommpanied us to the country club to see Daddy and the Easter bunny on Easter sunday. He was our photographer for the event.

Granpa came in to visit over his spring break. He was a big help when he wasn't at the Harely dealership :)!! He helped me feed the babies, get them dressed in their Easter outfits, took pictures and rode the Harley to the grocery store when needed. Somehow he managed to escape the diaper changes. I don't blame him, I am sure he did his fair share back in the day. We had lots of fun!

We also had a huge surprise visit from Uncle Joe. He flew in friday morning with his Kroger bag and was standing in the kitchen when we got up that day. I got to be in on the secret, but Tim was shocked. He was thrilled to have his brother visit and see the babies. Uncle Joe bought the babies a swing which Connor and Mom and Dad love. Grace has not taken a liking to it yet, but we are thrilled that it helps put Connor to sleep.

Oh... the things we do for our kids!

The last two days have found Tim and I doing and not doing some rather unusual things. Yesterday, Connor decided to stay up ALL day, we knew he was going to need a nap before he had a major breakdown which in turn would cause Tim and I to have a breakdown. So in the hopes that he would fall asleep, we took a car adventure across town for dinner. We decided that we would drive until he fell asleep even if it meant we would go through a drive-through for dinner before heading back in time for the next feeding. Luckily, the car did the trick and we enjoyed a nice but quick dinner at an actual restaurant.

Tonight, you will find us sitting/laying on the floor in order not to disturb the little beast that has finally fallen alseep on the couch. How could such a little man take up the entire couch? Oh, the things we do for our kids!!!!

Good Twin - Bad Twin

Our patience is being tested this week! We have a good twin and a bad twin. Grace our little angel sleeps when she is supposed to and only gets fussy when she has to fart, on the other hand our little "devil" is trying our every nerve. Is it possible for a baby to loose his voice before he has even starting talking? He has decided that he is only happy in the arms of mom, dad or any other individual that will hold him. I thought babies were supposed to sleep a lot, I thought wrong, not All babies sleep alot. I might be finished taking advice from the baby books, they are giving me false expectations.

One month updates and visit from aunts and uncles!

The babies have passed the one month mark and we are still alive and somewhat functioning. They turn five weeks tomorrow and are already growing so fast. Connor now weighs 8lb 3oz and Grace is 8lb 10 oz. He is gaining on herfast. They each got a shot at the doctor today, I swear the needle was as long as their thighs were thick. The poor things had no idea what was coming until they felt that big old needle in their legs.



They just had a visit from their Aunts Heather and Carrie and Uncles Ben and Tim. It was great to have a break from changing diapers and feeding both babies at the same time. They were all impressed at the amount of poop two little babies could produce. I kindly reminded them that they are "Kotulas."