First Christmas Montage

Christmas Morning Setup

We love our tricycles! Andrew, right; Patrick, left

Andrew

Patrick

Eating Blueberry Pancakes. Patrick, near; Andrew, far

Of course they got a Beatles shirt.

And a Grateful Dead one.

Opening presents

Yay! I got a Chica in my stocking! (Patrick, Andrew pushing his new truck in the back)

And now a video from Christmas morning. Kind of long, but we hope you enjoy!

First Christmas Thoughts

The holidays can be a very hard time on someone who has lost people close to them. I know in years past there have been many a tear shed over missing my mom and dad and wishing they could be here, especially as I've celebrated getting engaged, being married, getting pregnant with my amazing baby boys, and now, those baby boys' first Christmas.

I wouldn't feel right if I didn't address that because this year I definitely still miss them as always but it is different. In a few minutes I will be going to wake up my wonderful children and share with them a Christmas so very different from past years. They have brought happiness and meaning back to Christmas. Our family has been able to start new traditions and mix them with some of our old. This starting of new traditions is something so special it is hard to put into words how amazing it makes me feel. Sometimes it feels like I am living in a dreamworld because I thought it was just a fantasy that a life could be so full and complete. I am so incredibly grateful for the gift that my husband and boys give me every day by their mere presence in my life.

We took our inaugural trip to Freeport, ME and the LL Bean flagship store yesterday. Today, we will be watching "A Christmas Story" because shamefully, I have never actually watched the entire thing, and Dave has watched it almost every year. We still ate Chinese food for our Christmas Eve dinner, a must in my family growing up because cooking was a VERY rare occasion. I'm sure many more traditions will unfold!

More to come later, but MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Time to go show the boys the wonders of Christmas morning. :)

Typical Play Time

It's official, the boys can definitely walk! They absolutely love pushing around their little cars and are getting much better at steering them, even if they do push from the front of the car sometimes.

Tomorrow I am going to go more into depth on the amazing year it has been, but for now, enjoy this video taken this morning. Andrew is in the dark pants, and Patrick the light ones!

P.S. I got to skype with one of my closest friends, Morgan in Ethiopia this morning! Best start to the Christmas holiday :)

Brotherly Love

Patrick and Andrew both really really love their new push cars. They get very upset when they hit a road block and can't figure out how to keep it moving, so there is a lot of exercise involved for me too. Sprinting around trying to help keep them moving.

Here is a video of one of my favorite use of the cars from a couple of weeks ago. One twin pushing while the other takes a spin! In this case, Andrew pushing Patrick! 

Seriously Best Dog

Andrew in the black, and Patrick in the red cuddling with Sierra :)

A few days ago, I was trying to capture our boys new found love of trying to cuddle with one of our dogs, Sierra. I realized I would be better off taking a video of just how amazing Sierra is with our babies. Enjoy!

Also, I may have some future soccer players on my hands too (a soccer mom can dream). They both are starting to love trying to kick and move things with their feet. Here is Andrew trying to get to a ring.

Finally, Patrick is really starting to get the hang of walking. Andrew is too, but Patrick managed to walk across our entire living room yesterday without falling. I will try to get some video up within the next week. I can't believe my little boys are starting to become toddlers! How did that happen?!?!?!

Laughter is the Best Medicine

I know it has been awhile since I have posted, and to be honest it partially is because it has been an incredibly rewarding but also trying and exhausting last few weeks. Andrew and Patrick are beginning to figure out walking and they love trying to take more steps just as much as we love watching them, but they also have learned the art of the temper tantrum when I tell them no, as well as the fact that we still have meal time struggles. However, in light of the tragedy that occurred in Newtown, CT yesterday, it put my troubles as a mother in perspective.

I woke up this morning and my beautiful little boys are still here. I cannot even begin to imagine what that would feel like if that weren't the case. So today has become a hug my little men a little closer, strip them down to their diapers, feed them PB&J which necessitated a mid day bath for some huge laughs and big smiles kind of day.  A little bit of love and laughter from my children is the best medicine in light of everything that has happened.

Andrew, left; Patrick, right (clearly PB&J belongs on top of your head too)

Today my heart goes out to all of the families who lost their little blessed loved ones as well as those that lost the wonderful people who dedicate their lives to helping to raise and protect our children.

FIRST STEPS!!!!!

Today has been an incredibly crazy day. For a few days now, Patrick and Andrew have been fighting off their first cold. There is snot everywhere on everything and it's not exactly like they are enjoying not being able to breath as well so to say I'm exhausted right now may be a bit of an understatement.

Since the boys were around 6 weeks old, we have managed to get them on the same schedule. Eat at the same time, sleep at the same time, play at the same time, etc. to make our lives sane and give us an ability to do things like cook and clean and do laundry around the house. Today, as well as the past few days, however, due to the fact that they are feeling sick, there are times when one baby is napping while the other is awake.

In some ways, through all of the exhaustion, these have been some of the most rewarding days as a mom. It's the first time that I've really gotten to get down and play with my children one on one for more than a few minutes, and truly see how they interact and play without their brother by their side. It definitely is very different!

We recently got the boys some new toys. They were intended to be Christmas presents, but we realized that the little push car we bought would be better used now to help them with learning to walk since they really seem to be on the verge! Since we are still waiting on a second one to arrive in the mail, the only real time to be able to use it is when you are one on one with one of the boys.

With all of this said, this morning Andrew was awake while Patrick was sleeping. It took only a couple of tries of helping him toddle along while holding on to the back of the car before he started doing it himself.

Andrew with his push car!

Of course, after filming this, and giving Andrew another 5-10 minutes of practicing his walk with the push car, Dave and I decided to see what would happen if we stood him up in between us and let go. Sure enough, Andrew took his FIRST STEPS!!!!!!!! I cried, because I am definitely that mom that gets so emotional seeing my children grow up and change so rapidly. I just can't believe he took actual steps still. He's not really walking yet, but any day this is going to be a permanent change. He's going to actually choose to stand up and walk. I am still trying to process all of this!

Also of course, we didn't film it because we didn't realize that he would actually do it! We were so excited for Andrew to take a nap and have some one on one time with Patrick to practice, but that never ended up happening. Every time Patrick had a turn, Andrew came swooping in, so hopefully the second one shows up soon so we can get this walking party started! Stay tuned!