1st Haicuts!

Both boys got haircuts today.  Let's just say that one enjoyed it more than the other.  See if you can figure it out from the photos :-)

2 in the Tub

Couldn't resist posting this photo of the boys in the tub.  This is the first time we bathed them at the same time.  With help from these bath rings from Grandma & Grandpa, we were able to manage 2 at a time!  And, the boys had a blast splashing each other and giggling at each other.  So fun to watch!

One year appointment

The boys had their one-year appointment on 3/4.  They both passed, but each had some 'homework' to accomplish.

Jeremy

Height:  28 5/8" (25%)

Weight:  20 lb, 9 oz (25%)

Head: 18" (35%)

Nathan

Height:  26 1/2" (<3%)

Weight:  15 lb, 14oz (<3%)

Head:  17 7/8 (25%)

At this point the doctor was expecting at least Jeremy to be eating table foods and transitioning over to whole milk.  Unfortunately, Jeremy is showing no interest in finger foods.  We've tried lots of different things, but he just plays with them or feeds them to Clementine.  We need to get him to eat more regular food before we can transition him from bottles to milk.  We're making an appointment with a feeding specialist to see if they can lend some advice.

Jeremy is big enough now to transition to the next size car seat.  He was getting awfully heavy in that infant car seat so we are pretty happy about this transition!

As for Nathan, of course he's still small, but the doctor wanted to better explore why this might be the case.  We were sent off to get x-rays of his hand so we can over-lay it with other kids in his age range to assess his growth rate.  The results show that Nathan's bone development and structure is that of a 9 month old so he is a few months behind.  When you line up his height and weight to a nine-month chart, he's actually on the chart!  10%, but it's on the chart at least.  The doctor was more relieved to get this information and chalks it up as a 'constitutional growth delay'.  We're keeping an eye on it, but bottom line... we are keeping him on formula for a little longer until we see more weight gain.

Could it be? 1 year already!?!

Our Babies are 1 Today!  Happy Birthday Jeremy Daniel and Nathan Louis

I can hardly believe it's been a year.  What a time of reflection, amazement and pure happiness!  This past year will certainly go down in history as a year of tiny amounts of sleep, tons of stress, a few tears (okay, more than a few), and love, love, and more LOVE.  Who knew that there was room in our hearts to fit this much emotion for our two amazing sons.

Mark and I have looked back with amazement these past few weeks acknowledging where we were a mere year ago and what parent pros we are now.  Many people advised us that we would survive and it's true... we have!  

We couldn't have made it without the tremendous amount of support we received from family and friends.  They say it takes a village to raise a family and we are certainly fortunate to have a fabulous village to rely upon.  We are so lucky that our parents have been able to visit so often from so many miles away.  I guess it pays to have children after your parents have retired :-)

We celebrated the commemorative year in style!  We are spending the week in Steamboat with lots of family... Greene Grandparents are here from LA, Chessler Grandparents are here from New Jersey and we have the Chessler Aunt, Uncle & Cousins here from New Jersey and even a short visit from the Chessler Aunt, Uncle & Cousins in Westminster.  

The party was Sunday night with delicious food, family, cupcakes and presents.  As you can see, fun was had by all:

The Countdown Begins

11 months old... counting down to the big #1

A few milestones to report and a few photos.

Nathan:

- 4 teeth now!  Nathan got his 2 top front teeth this month

- Pro army crawler!  Nathan drags his legs and torso around pretty darn well now!

- 15.11 ounces at last weigh in... still a very little guy!

Jeremy:

- 2 teeth still.  Nathan has him beat there!

- Crawler like a speed demon.  We have to keep a close eye on him... he's fast!

- He hasn't been weighed lately, but at his last weigh-in he was 20lbs 2 months ago

Here's some of the latest photos:

First Airplane Trip-Home for the Holidays

The boys earned their wings on Southwest... Literally, the flight attendants gave them wings. Those will be added to the baby books!

After tons of planning, shipping and worrying, we survived our first plane trip and it really wasn't too bad. The boys did great! Matter of fact, Jeremy slept the whole way both ways! I'm thinking that he's tricking us into traveling more :-)

We headed to LA at 6pm on Xmas eve. Turned out to be a good time to travel for the boys since they usually go to sleep around then anyway. We bought 3 seats to guarantee that we'd have a whole row and paid an extra $10 to guarantee early boarding. Both investments turned out to be a great idea since every seat on the plane was booked.

We landed in LA and Grandpa greeted us with the SUV and car seats already installed. We rented 2 car seats and had them delivered to PV so we'd have less to carry and check-in. Turned out to also be a great investment.

The next morning (Xmas), we headed over to Uncle Brian & Auntie Cara's house. Cousins Cameron and Hayden were losing their minds with all the gifts under the tree. We spent hours going through all the gifts and Jeremy even joined in with his older cousins and tried to play with the big boy toys. We had a fun and exhausting day and evening.


Brian, Cara, Mark and I managed to break away for a couple hours to check out the new Terranea hotel in PV. We had a drink and hung out for the sunset. Beautiful!


On Sunday, Mark and I managed to take a quick getaway to Santa Barbara. The grand parents graciously watched the boys OVER NIGHT, so we could get away. It was so nice having a little break and checking out the town. We even managed to sneak in a quick bite at In-and-Out.


Back in PV, we even managed to take the kids for a quick stroller ride in Hermosa Beach. First time seeing the ocean... not sure they were too impressed :-)

1st Hanukkah!

Well they can't spin the dreidel yet, but they seem to enjoy us lighting the Hanukkah candles!