4th Generation

Lucie and Ryan are lucky to have 4 living great-grandparents. While Megan's three grandparents live relatively close, Lucie and Ryan hadn't met the fourth until last week when my grandmother May traveled to meet them and see Uncle Greg's graduation. Fortunately for Lucie and Ryan, Uncle Greg graduated with honors giving them the opportunity to enjoy his honor cord.

As you can imagine, names became a little confusing with four generations under one roof. Three different people could respond to 'mom', two to 'grandma' -- you get the idea. As a solution, Grandma May elected to switch to the more distinct 'Grandma Great' which simplified things significantly.

Swing Buddies

Lucie, Ryan and I have been eyeing the swing at our neighborhood park for some time. I've only seen bigger babies enjoying it and thought we'd have quite a wait to try it out. But then I saw a photo through our Mothers of Twins Club of twins back-to-back in a playground swing. What a great idea!

Ever since we tried it with L & R on spring break, the babies have been hooked. (As you can see, it's something uncles and grandmas enjoy a lot too!)

Ryan Fever

Other than a brief bout with the sniffles in January, Lucie and Ryan have been remarkably healthy. Whether that is due to breastfeeding, no day-care, luck, or all of the above, we feel pretty fortunate.

However, we noticed Ryan felt warm to the touch yesterday evening. When the thermomerter hit 100 degrees, we ran for the Infant Tylenol. When it hit 102 a few hours later, we ran to the phone. Perfect example of why parents need to keep important numbers next to the phone -- you don't want to be searching for the pediatrician and medical record numbers while wondering if you really should be rushing to the emergency room.

The after-hours nurse allayed our fears (102 is considered a 'low-grade' fever and helps to ward off more serious illness). Maybe it was related to teething (though Ryan still doesn't have any). In any case, everyone's temperature is back to normal this morning.

Beach Babies

Any college student would agree that Lucie and Ryan's latest trip contained all the elements of a successful spring break. They enjoyed sunbathing on the beach (under an umbrella, hats, and baby SPF of course), exotic foods (their first taste of avocado and carrots), exciting adventures (sharing a playground swing -- more on that later) and most importantly, lots of fun people to hang out with (two uncles, Aunt Rach, both sets of grandparents, and even great grandparents).

After all their hard work lately growing, teething, and attempting crawling, these little babies deserved a relaxing get-away to kick off their booties and contemplate the sand.

Time for Dinner?

Forget Atkins, South Beach, low-cal, or high protein diets -- Ryan and Lucie are devoted followers of the "P" diet. Babies everywhere agree that peaches, pears, prunes, potatoes (sweet), and peas keep those baby fat rolls in optimum condition. It's quite a yummy (and messy) lifestyle.

Here R & L relax after dinner in their brand-new booster seats (thanks Gigi!). They love banging their spoons on the plastic trays as if to say, "More peas, please!"

Young TiVo Lover

I'm a sucker for baby toys and their over the top sales claims. "Enhances baby's creativity!" "Covers all developmental milestones!" "Stimulates the senses and builds new skills!" How can a parent resist?

I should know better though. Much more "sensory stimulation" and "motor skill development" goes on from simple household objects than all of Ryan and Lucie's toys combined. A piece of newspaper, their dad's t-shirt, plastic cups - these are all perfect toys to bang and chew on. A sure way to put a smile on Ryan's face is to give him the TV remote. As he demonstrates here, sometimes it's more fun to cuddle than a stuffed animal.

Crib Sharing

We plan to setup the second crib later this month -- Lucie and Ryan are simply getting too big and too mobile to fit into a single crib. Everyone will be sad to see them separated, but such is progress.


Like most babies I assume, Lucie and Ryan can be very active at night. Every night, we put them down in pretty much the same position: Ryan angled inward on the left, Lucie angled inward on the right (see top photo).


Their positions in the morning are another story. We have found them on opposite ends of the crib, lying with feet on top of one another, side-by-side, etc. Over the last week, we took photos of them first thing in the morning.


You can clearly see two things: we're greeted with smiles almost every morning and L & R are active sleepers.

First Ballgame

Seven months was long enough for Lucie and Ryan to wait before seeing their namesake team in person. So we took advantage of the warm weather and headed down to the ballpark.

In true Los Angeles fashion, we didn't arrive until the top of the fifth inning. Still plenty of time for L & R to have their first smell of hotdogs, peanuts, and cut grass. Other than some minor panic when the crowd cheered, they did just fine.

Baby Gear: The ExerSaucer

Lucie and Ryan are starting to show their individual preferences in toys. Case in point -- the ExerSaucer. Uncle Greg assembled our Evenflo ExerSaucer during a recent visit and it has quickly become Ryan's favorite activity. He (Ryan, not Greg) loves the swivel seat and rocking motion. And when he manages to grab two of the vertical appendages at the same time, the whole scene takes on the hilarious appearance of a drunkard attempting to operate heavy machinery or fly the space shuttle. So much so that Uncle Andrew has dubbed it the "command center".

Lucie, on the other hand, sees the exersaucer as a pleasant way to satisfy her teething and rest up from all of her rolling.