HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Happy New Year everyone.  The year 2008 was quite a ride.  I was pregnant, had twins, quit a job, started a new one, had to leave it, moved to Miami...and that doesn't even count the other events like sick babies, finding a house in FL, packing up the house in TX, etc. etc.  Whoo...I'm tired just thinking about it.  In theory, I would like to say, I hope 2009 is a little more mellow, but knowing that I will soon have two toddlers in tow, I will not dream of such a thing.  I hope your 2008 was a little more toned down than ours but equally as exciting.  

If you are out partying tonight, drink one for us.  Babies went to bed at 7:30pm, and my plan is to be under those covers by 9:30...woohoo!

 

Daddy is happy to be at home

Lily and Zane are taking advantage of Daddy's two weeks off from work to lounge around and have someone elses face to look at rather than mommy's.  I know I'd get sick of seeing the same person every single day :)

When girls eat, they tend to stay more clean
Boys on the other hand prefer to wear as much food as possible
They love their dining chairs that their Aunt Nana bought them.  FYI these are so much better than a high chair.  They will sit onto your regular dining room chairs, they are all plastic (WASHABLE!) and the trays will even go into the dishwasher.  Highchairs take up way too much space, normally have cloth on them (why!) and are not very portable.  These break down and can be taken out to restaurants or ...the beach!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.  This year was the babies first Christmas (obviously) and they received lots of fun toys from Santa Claus and their family.  Of course, they loved the toys, but they really loved the wrapping paper and boxes. Lots of crinkly noises and shiny foil had their attention for hours.  Now that all the mess has been cleaned up, they are loving their new found goodies. We hope all of you had a wonderful Holiday season and wish you a happy and healthy 2009.

By the way, if you have Skype, please look me up, we'd love to say hello!  

Lily loves her new stacking rings

Zane with one of his many "huh?" faces

In Christmas PJs with hand in mouth (typical these days)

Lily in her Christmas PJs, holding her toes (also typical)

Santa also brought mommy and daddy a new hammock for their beautiful backyard. Lily enjoys snuggling with daddy and swinging in the breeze.

Zane's musical mouth

Mr. Zane has discovered that much fun can be had with one's mouth. Here's a short video clip of all his fun new noises.

PROOF!

For the past 2 months, Zane has decided that it is fun to roll over in the middle of the night and scream his head off (he sleeps on his stomach and rolls to his back). Zane hates to be on his back. So about 5 to 6 times a night, Jason or I have to get up out of bed, walk over to his crib and flip him back over to his stomach. He then instantly falls back asleep. It's getting very old, especially because he KNOWS how to roll over from his back to his stomach, he just prefers us to do it for him. The other night we just said, enough! he can do it himself, so we waited it out. He whined for over an hour. We finally gave up and flipped him back, to which he fell asleep right away.
This video is proof that he can do it himself, he just chooses not to, oh, what a fun phase...this better end quickly, we all need better night sleep!

Lily and Zane hit South Beach

This morning we took a trip to South Beach.  At first, they were a bit confused because our trip occurred during their naptime, but once they figured out I wasn't going to make them sleep, they got very excited.  Zane instantly loved the ocean and waves, but Lily was a bit hesitant.  It took her a while to warm up to it all but she enjoyed herself thoroughly.  The weather was great and it wasn't too crowded, we'll be making many more trips like this, seeing how it's only about 10 minutes from our house. :)  nee ner nee ner nee ner

HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Zane and Lily are 6 months old today!  I just can't believe it.

As much as Lily loves the bouncer...Zane love love loves his walky-car.  Here's a quick video of him sprinting about the area.  He is sort of like a pinball at this stage and just bounces off of whatever he runs into.  I have to stay close by to pull him out of corners and back off of walls.

Babies make many faces

Good Morning!

I...can't...poop

Big Lily Style

ok, as most of you know I am a huge believer in exposing my kids to as many languages and genres of music as possible. Each day we listen to all sorts of music from classic rock, to salsa. Well this day happened to be ghetto rap day...old school in fact. I was going to get a video of Zane in his car cruising to a little Dr. Dre, when I noticed Lily in the background. If you didn't believe me that she truly pays attention to the music and bounces accordingly, this video will convince you. She looks quite laid back and chilled in her Lily style.

Almost 6 months!

The babies are 26.5 weeks old. Can you believe it? We are finally getting back into solids after a break due to illness and moving adventures. They seem to like them just fine. Both of them love squash and pears. Below is a video of us trying peaches tonight. Poor Lily was expecting her favorite squash and was surprised by the new taste. Zane wants to be in control of the bottle and doesn't really like it when I hold it. He's a control freak, just like his mama :)
Baby playtime is getting more independant. I'm trying to wean them from using me as their sole source of entertainment. With Lily its easy...just give her the bouncer and she's good. Zane on the other hand prefers constant stimulation so I try to give him some floor time each day without me hanging toys above his head. He's learning how to amuse himself a little more each day.

Necessity is the mother of invention

Why didn't I come up with this earlier?

Dancing Lily

For those of you who have had the pleasure of meeting Miss Lily, you know she loves to kick and dance.  Here's a quick video of her dancing away in her new bouncer that her Nana bought her and her brother for Christmas.  She even dances to the beat.  I was shocked today when no matter what song I put on, she would jump to the beat.  Musical talent must be genetic :)

MIAMI!

We're not in Texas anymore?!?!?

Sleeveless in December...gotta love Miami!

Holy crap... we made it folks.  The Hawthorne family has moved to Miami, babies, cat and all.  The airport and airplane were not as bad as I had thought.  It went pretty smoothly and the babies were angels on the plane.  As we got on the flight, I could hear all of the "you've got to be kidding me....why do I always get the flight with babies..." comments under people's breath.  Yet as we were de-boarding we received many "oh my God what wonderful babies...you guys have such good babies...etc."  Yes we do and we were very lucky.  Funnily enough, out of everyone, Bailey cried the most.  Luckily the plane noise is so loud that it drown out her constant meow, meow, meow, meow that just went on and on and on.  Zane almost lost it on the way up but he kept his composure as I shoved a bottle in his mouth to help relieve the ear pressure.  OH, did I mention both babies have double ear infections?!?  yes. yes they do.  I hope this doesn't mean tubes are in our future.  These little ones seem to get infected each time they get a little sniffly.  

The house looks great, the weather is great, the traffic is awful, but we're alive and the kids seem to be liking it here.  I hope all of you that have said you are going to come visit us do.  We're expecting you!

Zane says whats up!

Lily says HI!

Turkey day is approaching

I apologize for the lack of recent posts. Jason is setting up our new home in Coral Gables FL and has been there since Nov 1. Meanwhile, we had the hospital ordeal, movers and packers in our home, real estate showings etc. I've also moved out to Jason's mom's house to get some much needed help with our babies. Needless to say, life has been quite a whirl wind. Babies are doing well, either their RSV symptoms just keep lingering our they have gotten new colds because they are both quite stuffy (and so is mom). They have been running low grade temps here and there but are in over all good spirits. Zane has decided that he would like to start talking. He went down for a nap in the afternoon saying ah-goooo ah-geeee and he woke up from his nap saying ahbooodeedaahh naadeee awwahhh. Very strange (but cute) developmental leap out of no where. Lily is still kicking up a storm and unfortunately, since she is sleeping right next to me in her pack and play, she has trained me to insert a pacifier into her mouth on an hourly basis at night. Now, I'm aware that I should ignore these requests but when you're as tired as I am, its easier to roll over and pop it in rather than listen to her cry and complain for an hour. We'll deal with night training later when its a 2 on 2 approach.
Below are some pictures we've taken around the house while we enjoy the nice fall weather and clear skies.

Great Aunt Leslie came into town yesterday and the twins are showing their love

"Why is everyone laughing at me?" Zane woke up from his nap like this, he had rolled over his pacifier and it decided to form a suction and adhere to his face

Lucky girl didn't get my eyelashes, she got her daddy's

Huh?!?

Twin love

Mr Zane has put the weight back on (chunkers)

Lily LOVES animals, Gus is her guardian and her best friend, she's also quite fond of grabbing Baileys fur and laughing her head off.

Babies are cute

Infirmary Update

Things are getting much better around the house.  Zane is bouncing back and eating like I've never seen a baby eat before.  He is hungry all the time and probably trying to make up all that weight he lost.  I would guess he lost about 2-3lbs while in the hospital, so he's packing it back on and quickly.  Today however, we noticed that two of his lymph nodes in his neck were swollen so I hope it's not another infection brewing.

He loves the ceiling lights

Ready for bed with his bunny bear

mmm paper towels

Lily seems to be through the worst of the RSV and is now starting in the upswing of things.  She's been quite fussy but I think it's due to teething as well as her congestion.  She can't keep her hand out of her mouth and now has a canker sore to show for it.  Thank God for Baby Oragel.

What is there something on my face?

If you're teething and you know it open wide

Getting dinner from Grandma

Times are hard round here

Halloween night (Friday).  Zane has been sick all week and two trips to the pedi's office showed that he had bronchiolitis and pneumonia.  We were sent home with well wishes and breathing treatments.  Friday after we got home, I gave Zane his breathing treatment and he went to bed.  Over the monitor I could hear him whining and softly crying.  It was breaking my heart but I knew he needed sleep.  Then the whining stopped, so I went down to check on him.  He was lying face up in his crib with his eyes fixed straight ahead.  I picked him up and he didn't take a breath for 20 seconds. So I slapped him on his back as hard as I could and he coughed and took a deep raspy breath.  I ran upstairs and told Jason to hold him as I grabbed my keys and a quick bag of stuff because I was going to the ER. Jason and I both tried to get his attention but he was just staring off into space and not responding he was also pretty limp.  I rushed to the ER where they triaged him immediately.  His pulse-ox had dropped to 86 so they gave him breathing treatments with oxygen.  They deep suctioned his nose (awful) and put in an IV line to start fluids (he hadn't eaten much in the past 3 days and was dehydrated).  The attending decided to admit him and we got to his room at 2:30am.  The new xrays showed a bad case of pneumonia in his left lung and part of his right lung had collapsed.  Additionally, his lungs were just full of mucus.  A nasal test showed that he had RSV that had probably caused the bronchiolitis and pneumonia.  He was in bad shape.  He and I stayed in the hospital for a week.  The whole time the poor thing had breathing treatments every 3-4 hours, deep suctioning (they put a tube up your nose and down your throat to suck out the mucus and phlegm), IV antibiotics and a whole lot of torturous things done to him.  Jason left for Miami Saturday morning.  Sadly, Lily has started to show symptoms of RSV as well.  She's coughing, not wanting to eat and has lots of snot pouring out her nose.  We can just all hope that she doesn't get as bad as Zane b/c she doesn't have the fat reserve to withstand what Zane did.

We're glad to be home and I can't wait until this virus runs it's course.  It's a nasty nasty beast.  I hate daycare.

Feeling better ... but much skinnier than before.

Still working on that cereal

4 month solids!

We had our 4 month check up, and shots :-( this week.  Zane is huge at 17lbs 3oz and is the 95% for weight and height.  Lily is more petite at 13lbs even and is in the 50% for height and 25% for weight, so she's a long one.  Babies are semi-healthy, they may have picked up yet another cold at daycare from "Wyatt"...his mom wrote that he was congested and that kids was rolling around on the floor coughing all over everyone.   yay.   Lily's a bit congested now too but doesn't seem to be in a lot of distress from it all.   

The doc said it's time to start trying solids so we began last night.  It's not so much about actually taking in the food as it is letting them know what a spoon is a what a solid texture feels like.  We made up some baby rice cereal and took video.  It was pretty funny.   They had no clue what they were supposed to do with this slop in their mouths.  I don't think they actually ingested any of it because they were wearing most of it.  Oh well, we'll keep trying :)

Roll Bounce

Lily and Zane are both getting so strong.  I can't believe only a little while ago they could barely lift their heads off the ground.  Here's a quick video clip of them rolling over and playing in their bounce seat.

We're goin' to Miami...Bienvenido a Miami

That's right folks, the rumors are true.  The Hawthorne family is up and moving to Miami, well, Coral Gables to be exact.  Jason and I flew there this past weekend to find a house (which we did, and it is ALL ONE STORY!!!).  Miami is beautiful, always a tropical breeze, sunny weather, just those pesky hurricanes to worry about.  Jason starts his new position November 3rd and well, I don't quite know yet when the babies and I will be joining him.  Logistics are complicated with a set of two in tow.

Had to travel on A1A beach front avenue!  Although, Vanilla Ice wasn't all truthful.  Girls were not that hot, but they were wearing less than bikinis...and I saw no Lamborghinis. 

Traffic is AWFUL in Miami.  Way worse than Houston.

In other news, babies are 17 weeks old this week....awww.....

Motor skills are definitely improving, both can grasp items with ease and focus for quite a while on objects.  Zane can push himself completely up and could probably crawl if I scooted his legs under him.  For now he just pushes up and drags himself.  I'm not going to show him this new trick of getting on the knees because mama can't handle a baby on the move just yet.  Lily has become much more vocal thanks to her Great Aunt Leslie who showed her how to have lots of great baby conversations.

Miss Lily

and Chocolate (her pet Moose)

Zane trying to figure out why these things don't come apart

Growing up so fast......