Night #192

In just six nights of sleeping in a separate bedroom, our babies have gone from good sleepers to great sleepers. Last night was the best yet -- sound sleep from 7:30pm to 6:30am. Megan and I hardly knew what to do with all of that free time.

While we still strongly advocate the co-sleeper, in retrospect we could have / should have moved Lucie and Ryan into a second bedroom earlier. Probably when they were around 4 months and starting to sleep more consistently.

Moving Spectators

After failing to implement an "everyone has to pack and move their own stuff" rule, I enlisted my brother to help out plus some very timely help from my parents. And despite Greg and I managing to trap ourselves in an elevator (proper positioning is everything when trying to fit a queen-size mattress and box-spring into an elevator), we got from there to in two truck-loads with minimal breakage.

Lucie and Ryan enjoyed their sideline seats and watched all of the action unfold before them. They clearly sensed something was afoot -- from the photos, it is very easy to see that Ryan was excited about moving.

The Wonders of Separate Rooms

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last week -- the four of us are coming out of our sleep comas after two great nights in our new place. I woke up this morning (after only hearing the babies once during the night) and thought, so this is why babies sleep in nurseries! Don't get me wrong, we loved having them close by when they were younger, but the time had come for everyone to have their own space.

Ryan and Lucie are doing great and are busy checking out the new views out the windows. We're unpacking boxes between baby feedings, naps, and time spent wondering why we didn't move sooner...

Double the Bibs

On their six month birthday, Ryan and Lucie feted with rice cereal -- their first taste of "solid" foods. (When made for a baby's first meal, rice cereal looks more like grainy breast milk to me, and I'm sure doesn't taste much different either.)

Ryan took to it immediately, which wasn't a surprise because he's been eyeing our food for a few weeks now. Lucie did great too, though I think she had more fun pushing the cereal out with her tongue than actually swallowing. And so the adventures in spoon feeding begin...

Twin Fishermen (and women)

One of my favorite family traditions is our annual musseling party. Each year friends and family join us to harvest mussels and steam them on the beach for a delicious winter feast. It's a long standing custom from my dad's family that he remembers enjoying as a boy.

I was happy that Ryan and Lucie could join us this year. We bundled them up in more layers than they've ever experienced before, and had a great afternoon at the beach with only a few rainshowers (shown by the photo). As my dad said, Lucie and Ryan's great-grandfather was smiling down on them during their first (of many to come) musseling parties.

Pre-boarding

Having two kids under 6 months easily qualifies us for pre-boarding status on all flights -- yet another twins' card benefit. Of course, we earn those privileges simply by surviving the security check process. Even with Andrew's Sherpa Service handling the luggage, everything has to go on the conveyer belt: car seats, toys, blankets, and stroller. Now think about juggling a baby, taking off your shoes, holding the boarding pass and you get the idea.

Once aboard, Lucie and Ryan settled in for another smooth flight. Here, Andrew and Ryan get in a little light reading before take-off.

Note: We bought a new digital camera recently so you'll notice larger, better resolution photos. Ultra-fast shutter speed to better capture our active babies.

Baby Gear: The Crib

Everytime we travel with Lucie and Ryan, the blog goes unattended. You can imagine the backlog that awaits our return with a load of laundry being generated for every day we're gone. But we'll get everyone caught up on the all latest developments quickly.

Back to the business at hand, Lucie and Ryan are now enjoying long nights and naps in their brand-new Sorelle Lana Crib. After some false starts and flat tires, we bought the crib a few weeks ago at our local USA Baby store. After a mere four hours and several curses later (why or why must everything require a 2'' long Allen wrench?), I had the crib at home and assembled.

Crib selection is largely a function of individual taste, but we recommend buying one with a sliding drawer underneath. The drawer can be opened and closed with one foot and is remarkably convenient. For multiples, the ability to lower one side is effectively useless since it makes too much noise. Of course, being parents of twins, we bought two cribs but we'll get to that challenge in a later post.

Just Like Uncle AJ

For quite some time, Ryan has been looking for a fashion role model (or so I like to think). He admires the button-down shirts and slacks his Dad wears for work, but that look is a little too dressy for spit-up episodes or trips to the park.

Ryan may have found inspiration in college student, Uncle AJ. Casual and comfortable, striped polos are perfect for a 5 month old's busy lifestyle of eating, sleeping and playing (luckily no studying or homework required yet).

Here Ryan is fascinated by his uncle, who unfortunately was unable to hold his fashion prodigy due to a lingering cold...

Night #167

For 166 nights, Lucie and Ryan have been our alarm clocks. Well technically, it was IV machines the first four nights, and breast-pumps the next seven, but basically crying babies have kept us from getting more than 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep over the last six months. During the dark days of November, we were lucky to get 7 hours in two nights.

But not last night. Ryan slept solidly from 10:30pm to 7am with Lucie sacked out from 8pm until 5am. And for almost 7 hours in between Megan and I enjoyed the sustained peace and quiet that people without kids take for granted.

Of course, since Lucie recently decided she wants to sleep on her stomach, I did have to get up three times to make sure she was breathing...

Twenty Clean Toes

Lucie and Ryan are really starting to enjoy bath time. Both have discovered the joy of splashing and wiggling in water. Post-bath, Megan takes over with her weekly nail salon, baby lotion, hair combing, and massage service. While we still haven't managed to increase the frequency of baths beyond every Saturday, Lucie and Ryan don't seem to mind.

Here they show off their twenty fresh-from-the-bath toes.

Mr. Sleeper

Ta-Da! Presenting the little boy who slept through the night!

Last night Ryan snoozed from 8 pm to 5 am, an all-time record in our house. We usually follow the sanity-saving rule of parenting twins -- when one wakes to feed, we wake the other (if necessary) and feed them together. Though it doesn't always seem fair to the sleeping baby, it helps us all get some zzz's by reducing the number of nighttime feedings. And, most of the time when one wakes, the other will be up in a few minutes anyway. However, last night when Lucie woke at 2 am, Ryan was sleeping so soundly that we gambled and let him stay in dreamland. What a pay-off!