Merry Christmas!!

Welcome to everyone who just got our Christmas card! To those of you with crooked address labels or stamps or possible unlicked envelopes, we’re sorry. Please understand that the card project was completed with a baby on a shoulder or lap (or both) while trying to protect the stacks from Joseph! Feel free to scroll down and browse all of the pictures, including the archives. If you thought the Christmas card picture wasn’t the best, you can see our other choices in the “Not really love at first sight” post. Leave a comment if you would like. We will try to post Christmas pictures soon. Have a very Merry Christmas!
Love,
The Growing Family

Scott, Suzanne, Joseph, Patrick and Luke

Spotlight on the twins

Patrick: I'm going to eat your hand, Luke!

Patrick and Luke, both awake and not crying.

Is that a smile on Luke's face?

Is that the same picture as before? (yes, I can't figure out how to delete it without deleting the whole post)

First time under the play gym (Luke on left)

Aww! They were holding hands (quite by accident, I'm sure)

Luke discovers his hand

.

In case any of you wanted to know, here are some differences we have observed in their personalities so far:
Patrick: Once he’s crying, we have to comfort him, no exceptions
Luke: Will comfort himself occasionally when he’s fussy
P: Looks intently at faces, not really at toys
L: Looks intently at toys, not really faces yet
P: Has smiled several times, but no cooing
L: Has cooed, but only smiled once or twice
P: Laid back with all of the excitement Joe brings
L: Doesn’t like loud noises and while whine when he is disrupted
L: If there’s a necklace around, he’ll grab it
P: Not so much interested in the necklaces, but he did grab and hold on to my shirt while getting his bath yesterday

Doh!

The answer to the question "Joe, what's your name?" "Doh!" That "j" sound is tough!

.

For those of you that have been praying for us to just make it through each day: your prayers are being answered. I went to a new church on Sunday which I liked very much. I got a funny feeling that I really wanted to join the parish as soon as I walked in. As I was walking around the vestibule, I noticed a small brochure about "Elizabeth Ministries." It actually gave me goosebumps. It was all about a group of women at the parish dedicated to Mary's ministry to her cousin Elizabeth - everything related to pregnancy, childbearing and infant crisis situations, especially for families who are away from their extended families. This was exactly what we needed!!! I gave them a call, and within an hour, received a phone call back from a woman who has organized several other women to drop by the house for a few hours a week to help out. Did I need meals, she wondered. How about someone to help out with laundry or babysitting or trips to the doctor. Yes, yes, yes! God is so good. Today, a wonderful woman named Sharon came by and cleaned my kitchen and played with Joe (he loved her) and held a fussy baby so I could go through our mounds of paperwork and medical bills. She is a retired nurse and has 5 kids and 8 grandkids - with a set of twins! Perfect. It's hard to ask for help, but I'm so glad I did. Just knowing she was coming made my day go so much more smoothly. There is hope!

Pity Party

St. Nick came the other day! I guess we were all good boys and girls – even the babies.

Thanks for the prayers – my dad got through surgery fine. He is still in a little pain, and the doctors will know if the cancer has spread sometime in a few days.
.
Day four without Scott, and we are still doing okay. This job is made a lot tougher when two little babies whine and fuss all night. At least Tuesday evening I got to go to a twin mom’s meeting. They’re a great group of ladies – lots of humor and stories to go around. One poor woman even had two sets of identical twins (what are the odds??) that are less than two years apart. Going to those meetings is a big help to me. It lets me know that I can get through it seeing a whole room of women that already have, and it lets me know that others have had it much worse (see the mom mentioned above.) I only got to stay for part of the meeting, as I received a frantic phone call from Scott with three screaming kids in the background. Maybe getting out in the evenings during their un-Happy Hour isn’t going to be very feasible for a few more months. A friend of mine from another mom’s group brought over dinner the other night. Besides being super yummy, it was so nice to not have to worry about food. I don’t always get to eat during the day, if you’re not counting several handfuls of goldfish and the apple slices Joe doesn’t finish from lunch. Scott brought home a package of Oreo’s yesterday, and I ate almost the entire thing. Not because I love Oreo’s so much, which I do, but more because they were so easy to grab.
.
Joe’s new word: “Yes.” He can’t quite make the "s" sound with the front of his mouth. He does it near his back teeth and it sounds more like how a pre-teen talking through a retainer would say it.
.
We had a really rough couple of nights, and I kind of had a small breakdown yesterday morning. Joe was being a little naughty, (just a little, though. You know Joe!) and I totally hollered at him. I felt bad and started to cry afterward. Joe came up to me and put both hands on my face very gently. Just as I expected something profound to come out of his mouth, he poked at my tears and said “Wa! Wa!” (his word for water) That made me feel much better, and I got over my pity party pretty quickly. Children really are a blessing!

.

Here's a shot of the twins in their bouncy seat together. They're getting a little to big for this now!

Prayers Please

To anyone who might be reading this, please say a few prayers for my dad who is undergoing surgery this morning to remove his prostate. We hope and pray that they remove all of the cancer and that they will see that it has not spread to anywhere else.

Flying Solo

So today is my first day alone with the boys and I’m happy to report that everyone is still alive – so far. Four poopy diapers in less than 10 minutes this morning has to be a record (one that I’m not anxious to break). I can actually have a moment to myself (so to speak) as long as I don’t mind Joe muting and unmuting his Baby Beethoven video over and over again. God bless the creators of Baby Einstein. Grammie and Granddad left Saturday morning and we had that same feeling of aloneness/facing the world just the two of us that we did when we first drove Joe home from the hospital. A bit overwhelming. We were so grateful for everyone that came up to help us. What a blessing to have such a great family!!

.

I love my Grammie!

Granddad is so funny!

.
Side note: We took the boys to the doctor a few days ago and Patrick weighs 7 lbs 1 oz and Luke is 7 lbs 5 ozs. In less than a month, they gained over two pounds. Way to go boys!
.
Before Grammie and Granddad left, we had them get family pictures of us for our Christmas card. What a trip. It was like getting a box of puppies to be still and all look at the camera at the same time. Here are a few shots that obviously will not make the cut:

Hope you have all been good little boys and girls this year! St. Nick is coming tonight! Time to go: Joe is trying to eat the "Christmas Cookie" scented candle. Can you blame him?

Not really love at first sight

Today we went to Breakfast with Santa. We had been preparing for a few days, showing him pictures and teaching him what Santa says. He gets the cutest face saying “ho ho ho” During breakfast, Santa walked around, and Joe was okay with that. He eyed Santa and waved at him, but when it came to sitting on Santa’s lap, Joe kind of flaked out. Here’s the picture:

Classic.

Joe has learned tons of new words lately, including “yeah.” (again, thanks to Granddad) Previously, Joe only knew “no,” which he used for pretty much everything. As he began to understand what it meant, he would just not answer when he really wanted to say yes. Now he can respond to questions like “do you want a cookie?” and “do you love mommy (daddy, your brothers, etc…)?” It’s very affirming. Another big development is the two word response: yesterday he said “bye bye, da!” We were very proud.