The Twinners and the ABCs

The twins are getting better and better at singing the ABCs. Sure, they skip letters (A, B, C, G, H, I, J, P, etc.), but it's super adorable anyway. (They can also count to five...and possibly even to ten, but I didn't catch that on camera.) Anyways, here are my somewhat successful attempts at getting them to sing the ABCs. I'm going to have to keep trying, because I know they can say almost the whole last few lines (Now I know my ABCs...), but it didn't make it on camera. This also documents more of Chana talking on not one but TWO phones (at the same time). It's super adorable. Enjoy!

Chana and her Cell Phone

The twins received a toy phone as a gift recently, and Chana LOVES it. She will take objects that aren't even meant to be a phone and pretend they are - talking into it and such. She does it even more with this since it's actually supposed to be a phone. I wasn't able to edit the video, but it's a short one. The beginning is her talking on the phone, then she's doing the buckles on her booster seat (another favorite pastime.) The "tick tock" type sound is Tzipora's swing, and you can see her swinging in and out of the picture. Enjoy!

New Skills!

Yesterday Dovid said his name (and Chana's name) for the first time!!! It was so exciting to hear him call himself by name. And then he called Chana by name, too. He was pointing to everyone in the room and saying their name. SO SUPER AWESOME!!! (Sorry Uncle Ron, yours is no longer the only name he says.) :-)

Edited to add: Chana just started singing along with her LeapFrog My Pal Violet. It's adorable!!! She doesn't really know the words so well, but she's trying and it's the cutest thing ever. And she even said her name while singing along.

Tzipora gave me her first "real" smile today. It was a short smile, but a smile nonetheless. And it wasn't gas, either. She was on the changing table and looking up at me. I smiled at her and she smiled back. Yay!!! She's a happy baby!

Holding the Baby

The twins each got to hold Tzipora for the first time tonight. Chana was standing by the baby swing (with Tzipora in it) and looked like she really wanted to hold her, so I asked her if she wanted to. Of course she says "yeah!" So I put Chana in our big, black swivel office chair and handed her the baby. We helped her a little bit with the head, of course. After a few minutes, Tzipora started crying because she was hungry, so I took her back from Chana. Well, Chana then threw a FIT! She wanted to keep holding the baby. (This is in great contrast to the first time my sister held me...) Anyway, I left to feed the baby. When I returned with the baby post-feed, Chana took one look at me and climbed right back into the office chair for another go. It was the cutest thing EVER! Luckily, I was ready for this and grabbed the camera. So here are some pics of Chana & Dovid holding Tzipora. (Please excuse Chana's dirty face...she still had lunch leftovers plastered all over)

Here Chana is saying "hi Doora" and waving at her.

Chana is showing Tzipora where her eyes are and saying "eyes"

Chana was upset because Dovid had been pulling on her feet.  That's why she doesn't look happy in this one and the next one.  It's not because she wasn't enjoying the baby.

Chana looks all pleased with herself.  Meanwhile, Dovid is poking out the babies eyes.  Oops!  (Really, Dovid wanted it to be his turn and was trying to pick her up.)

I just love the look that Dovid has on his face in these pics.  Pure love.

Dovid is rubbing her head in this one

And here Dovid is beeping her nose and saying "beep"

And with that, I wish you all a good night!

Quilts

One of my mom's good friends from grade school (yep, they go back that far) lives in my area and has become one of our good friends as well. She designs and sews quilts, and even made one for me when I was born. (I have it here somewhere and must find it...Mom, if you know where it is, I want to put it up on my wall.) Anyhoo, she made quilts for the twins when they were born which hung over their cribs in the nursery...until they got tall enough that they could pull them down. Now that the twins are in their own room upstairs, we wanted to move the quilts to their new room and put them up where there's no fear of someone pulling them down. Our friend (let's call her M for simplicity sake, since I'm not sure if she minds her full name being on my blog) came over last week to put up the quilts and also deliver a brand new one for the baby. She came up with a fantastic idea of hanging the twins' quilts from the slanted ceiling and successfully accomplished the task! It was rough going, but she's quite creative. Here's a picture of the final product:

Here you can see how she hung it on the wall.

And here is a picture of Tzipora's gorgeous new quilt (and how it's hung on her wall)!

In other news, I got my blood test back and I'm not particularly anemic! My hematocrit was 35.4%, and my hemoglobin was 11 g/dl. (Normal hematocrit for women is 36.1 - 44.3% and normal hemoglobin for women is 12-16 g/dl) So I'm juuuust below normal values, so as long as I eat foods high in iron I should be good to go. Yay!

Checkups for Everyone

The baby had her 1 month checkup earlier this week, and I had my 6 week checkup today. The baby weighed 8lbs 15oz and measured 20.75" at her checkup. She gained a little over 2 lbs in just under 4 weeks! That's perfect!!! The pediatrician said that she looks great and is developing right on target.

As for me, my favorite midwife was working tonight (you know, the one who delivered the baby). I was SOOOOO happy, because she doesn't work every Thursday evening, so it's the luck of the draw to come in on her night. Anyways, she told me that everything was healed and looking great. I'm in tip-top condition...except for the fact that I might be anemic. She took a CBC, so we'll find out tomorrow if that's the reason I'm super tired and dizzy. I should also start taking my placenta pills, but especially if I'm anemic.

I have my first test of the semester next Monday, and I'm feeling pretty good that I'll do well on it. I got 100% on my first lab quiz last week, and hopefully I'll do that again on tomorrow's quiz. I just have to study really hard for it. It's on the heart, so I need to make sure I keep my atria and ventricles straight...and all of the little valves and such.

And now, for something funny. I was at Costco the other day, and in one of their main displays they were selling bathing suits. I was like "Bathing suits in this weather? What are they thinking?? We're going to have snow on the ground until September!" LOL Silly Costco.

Getting So Old

No, I'm not getting old...my little baby is! Tzipora is already over a month old. Time has just flown by since she was born, and I can hardly believe that she's already 5 weeks old. Here are some finer points about my little one.

• She has slept 6+ hours at night several times already, and she sleeps best when she's swaddled completely.
• She eats every 2-3 hours during the day. (That's from the end of one feeding to the beginning of the next.)
• She doesn't mind taking her baby multivitamin liquid. In fact, I think she might even like the way it tastes!
• She doesn't mind tummy time and even went 15 minutes straight yesterday. (Although I think she was trying to nap during some of that time, but I kept poking her to wake her up.)
• She's awake more during the day (alert, not crying or eating).
• She REALLY likes to eat and is a fantastic nurser.
• She spits up a lot (especially on Daddy). It makes me sad to see all of that delicious, nutritious breast milk go to waste. *sigh*
• Her GI system seems to be slowing down a bit. (She doesn't have a poo in every single diaper, and this is completely normal and expected for her age.)
• She absolutely loves her swing and her vibrating bouncy seat, and she also loves to be held.
• She doesn't mind being ogled by her big sister and brother, provided they don't poke her eyes out or stop her swing from swinging.
• She has definitely gained weight and grown in length. I'm considering figuring out a way to plop her on my postage scale to see exactly how much she weighs.
• She has more chins than a Chinese phone book. hehe
• Her eyes are a dark blue, and I really hope they stay that way.
• Everyone says she looks like me, except she has my mom's nose. Sometimes she'll give me a look that reminds me of Chana as an infant.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try to take more pictures so that you can see how big she's getting and post more often than twice a month. :-)