Walking!

Both boys are walking! John more so, but Will's trying to catch up! They've been doing so for a while now. We just haven't had a chance to post a video. So here's one of John walking from daddy to mommy (with Will getting in on the action at the end, or at least trying to).

Happy Birthday!

We're one year old! Yay! Here's a few pictures of our fun day with mommy and daddy. We got to have a fun morning bath, breakfast, Chick-Fil-A with mom and dad, a trip to Lowe's, playtime at Furman, playtime at home with our baseball (and daddy's hat!), and watching cars drive past the house! Man... we're pooped! Growing up's hard work! (P.S. You can see what we looked like this time last year here.)

11 Months!

Wow. I can't believe that we will be celebrating the boys' 1st birthday in a month. While on the one hand it seems like yesterday that Ryan and I were driving to the hospital to have the boys, on the other hand, it seems like FOREVER ago. As each day goes by, I enjoy the boys more and more. And I also get more and more terrified of the fact that we're in charge of two little people. And I STILL have those "Wow. These are MY kids" moments. Wonder if those will ever go away?

Some of my twin friends have blogs, and every month they list the different things their kids are doing at that moment. I wish I had started that earlier, but here's what the boys are up to:

Will
- has 6 teeth! His middle two front teeth just broke through the surface within the past 2 days
- is a champion crawler
- can stand and pull up and cruise the furniture
- can say "mama," "bwah" (whatever that is), "ga," "dada"
- loves to screech at the top of his lungs
- is looking more like his Daddy

John
- has 5 teeth, though I know there are more coming soon, judging by the way he's drooling and chewing on everything
- crawls like he has a motor attached to his rear
- likes to stand on his own
- is walking!!!! He can take 4-5 steps at a time, though Daddy has yet to see it
- can say "mama," "dada," "puh," and other things that I can't remember right now
- loves to blow raspberries
- is looking more like his Mommy


I'm sure I'll remember other things, but these are the things that come to mind right now. We have such fun, fun little boys.

Fun with Em!

Em took this picture last Friday while taking care of the boys.

First Christmas!

Well, we've had our first Christmas with the boys. As you can see, they got new dinosaurs. As you can also see, they're not daunted by the t-rex. They'll eat him too!

Stone Wars Episode V: Houdini Strikes Back

Some of you loyal readers (Hello grandparents!) may remember that we often referred to John in the early days as our little Houdini because he was constantly getting out of his swaddle, no matter what.

This morning, I was woken up around 5:30 to a crying child. Nothing too big, no "I'm in pain" cries....just the normal fussiness of "I'm bored. I'm lonely. I'm hungry. Mommy, where are you?" In our home, we have a pretty strict schedule where the boys don't get up until it's time (be it in the mornings or nap time). So, I let him cry until it was 6:00 - wake-up time. Judging from where the cries were coming from, I determined that the crying child was John. When I went in to get him, I found him almost exactly as he came into this world - NAKED (except for his diaper, thankfully)!!!! Little booger had somehow wriggled out of his PJs, and who knows how long he had been naked. Oh, but it gets better...

I thought maybe somehow he figured out how to unzip his PJs (currently a fleece, long-sleeved sleep sack) and wasn't exactly sure what the zipper did. And I thought that maybe he was just overly curious - just like the Curious George he sleeps with (and with which his Daddy before him slept too). When I grabbed John's PJs out of the crib to dress him again, I discovered that they were perfectly zipped and snapped. This led me first to offer up numerous exclamatory statements and second, to scratch my head in incredulity as to how exactly my youngest, though larger, son managed to do this.

Here are some of my conclusions:
A) he somehow got a shoulder out, then an arm, and then in a fit of anger, the other arm and finally his entire little body (all 28.3" of it) and couldn't figure out then why he was so cold and mad
B) I slept walk and undressed him (highly unlikely)
C) he figured out how to unzip his sleep sack, got out, then cleverly zipped it back up and piled it in a heap in his crib...just to keep us all guessing.
D) none of the above...and he's secretly gloating that no one (except for him and maybe his big bro, who slept soundly through it all) knows the truth.

Sign me up for the Bad Mommy of the Month award for making my kid cry for 30 minutes, NAKED, in his crib.

Oh well...at least it was a nice balmy 60 degrees out this morning, as opposed to the normal 30 degree December mornings. Somehow that made me feel just a little bit better.

I think John has forgiven me. He was quite mad this morning, even when I was re-clothing him in order to make him more comfortable. I rocked him and shushed him and asked for his forgiveness and told him that I loved him. When he looked at me with wet eyes and his silly grin, I knew all was right with the world again.

First Christmas Tree!

We took the boys out tonight to buy their first ever Christmas tree! Now let's just hope that they don't get into trouble around said tree!

P.S. Anyone want to guess who's who in the picture?

9 month pictures!

100th post!! And a new tooth!

We officially have a vampire on our hands! I found this morning that John's other top eye tooth has broken the surface. Yesterday I had a feeling that he would pop another tooth soon, but I didn't think it'd be this soon.

Hopefully all two of our blog readers aren't bored with posts about teeth. :)

The boys had a fun day today playing with their Uncle John (our friend John) and their Auntie Em (proud god-mama), since Ms. Melinda was sick. While they hated to not get to play with Melinda, rumor has it that they had an amazingly fun day with John and Em. Apparently John spent lots of time talking to them and telling them how adorable they are. And Em somehow found the time to make dinner for us and some friends of ours who welcomed their baby boy, Benji, back in October, as well as fold my laundry. What amazing friends!! Fun times had by all!

Tooth count: Will - 2; John - 3.

Squared up...kinda

Mommy found another tooth in John's mouth yesterday!!

I was very surprised, especially because it's NOT where I thought his next tooth would come in. Most babies get their front bottom teeth followed by their front top teeth. John, apparently, has to be different than most babies because.... he has one of his top eye teeth (aka canine teeth). While he won't let me see it yet, I can definitely feel it.

Tooth count: Will - 2; John - 2

9 months!

It's hard to believe that the boys are 9 months old today. It's crazy to think that they've been here with us longer than I was pregnant. This time last year, we had recently found out that we were expecting boys, and I was actually looking pregnant. Now we have two little boogers to keep us amused.

Will's and John's personalities are getting stronger and stronger. Will is still laid-back, though he's starting to get into mischief. He and John love to crawl all over the place, and they especially love to try and pull Mommy's cookbooks off the shelf. John has turned into Mommy's little boy. He loves to cuddle and be held, but he also loves to go, go, go. They really are so much fun.

Nine-month pix to come!!

More apple pickin' pics

Check out these pictures from Kev and Em from apple pickin'. Particularly take note of the b&w photo of John. That's a daddy expression if we've ever seen one.

Alas for the Clemson sleepers. Every time the boys have worn them, the Tigers have lost. Haven't worn them since.

Leveling the playing field

Almost as soon as I posted last time, Will showed me that he could, indeed, crawl. It seems that he's still army-crawling because it gets him places faster. Can you blame him?? He enjoys switching back and forth and keeping us guessing.

And....John's 1st tooth is in! I checked his mouth yesterday morning, and lo and behold, there it was! It has just barely broken the surface, but it's definitely there!

Tooth count: Will - 2; John - 1

Crawling...

Somehow in the busy-ness of life, we missed being able to pinpoint the day that John started crawling (not army crawling, but crawling-crawling). He's scooting around like a champ! We're thinking he started sometime within the last few days....

Still no teeth for John, and Will is *this close* to crawling-crawling, too.

And I'm sure we'll miss many more "firsts". Such is life with twinfants!

2-0

Tooth count: Will - 2. John - 0.

That's right, folks. Will's 2nd tooth has just barely broken the surface, but it's there! I found it this morning when the boys got up.

Never hurts to encourage a little friendly competition, right? Ryan always reminds me that the boys are going to be competitive regardless of what I try to do. Not that "tooth growing" is necessarily controllable... :)

8 months old!

And as you can tell from the pictures, personalities are becoming stronger and stronger...

How incredibly naive we can be...

We've been looking back at previous posts and I read the following:

2nd day at home.... And we're still getting adjusted.

We've been home with the boys for 8 months now and we're STILL getting adjusted. And when we've had the boys at home for 8 years, we'll STILL be adjusting.


Signed,
Ryan, the poster of pictures and not much else.

Welcome, Lucy!

Will and John asked us to help announce the birth of their newest cousin, Elisabeth Lucille Rank. Lucy was born this morning at 7:17AM. Mom and Baby are both doing great!

8 Months Old!!!

Happy 8-month birthday, Will and John!!!

Latest Milestones

This morning, the boys got their first taste of Daddy's pancakes - YUMMY! Happily, they LOVED them! The boys wanted some syrup, but Mommy said no. Mean ol' Mommy!

Will is now consistently sitting up on his own - as in he will go from his tummy to sitting up all by himself! And that tooth is still sharp! :) Will loves to eat pieces of banana that Mommy and Daddy give him.

John is scooting all over the place. His latest fun thing to do is to pull up on the chair so that he's standing! Such a big, big boy. We think he's going to skip "real" crawling and go straight to walking. We'll see if he's like his Daddy in that respect. And John LOVES yogurt!

They are interacting more and more together, and it's so much fun. We have such happy boys!

Will's trump card

John has pretty much been the first to do everything (besides being born, of course) - roll, sit up, crawl, etc. But today, Will just said "Take that, Lil' Bro!" Because....


He has a tooth! :) Masie was the lucky one to find that his little tooth had finally poked through the surface. Yay Masie! Yay Will!

Apple pickin' with Kev and Em

Hey! Who are you?

Dapper little gents!

Feeling curious

Baptism

Here's our latest family picture, taken 8/17/08 after the boys were baptized. Mommy is holding John, and Daddy is holding Will. Happy boys!!

6 month pictures - FINALLY!

Sorry for the delay!!!!

Bye-Bye Chunky Butt and Small Fry

The boys had their 6-month appointment on Friday (can we really believe it's been 6 months????). Everything went really well. Doc is still pleased with how the boys are doing. They both should have teeth within the next couple of weeks. Doc seems to think that all 4 of John's teeth will come in around the same time. That might explain some of his recent fussiness!

AND, the boys are the same weight AGAIN! They haven't been the same weight since birth, so we were pretty amazed. We knew John had caught up with Will, but we weren't sure how much. They're both 15lbs9oz. Will is 26" long, and John is 26.25" long.

The boys were baptized last Sunday at church, and both sets of grandparents and aunts, uncles, and cousins were there. It was really special to have our families with us to celebrate the occasion. Auntie Em and Uncle Kev were with us too...as were all of our other friends from church. :)

We have 6-month pix...soon to be uploaded.

John's still kickin'...

Veggies!

Here's our first attempt at veggies with the boys. Not the most successful thing we've done, but I think they got some vegetables in their stomachs!

Cereal!

Tricksy parents

We recently played a bit of a trick on our families. We sent them the following 4 pictures and played "Let's guess who!"

What we didn't tell them is that the 3rd picture is actually Ryan's niece! Hehe.